TECh TIPS

Tips

Useful tidbits from PCMag editorial staff, Labs analysts, and readers

vANIsHING EMAIL If you think your e-mail messages are disappearing, they may just be hidden.

E-MAIL Disappearing E-mail

If you’re finding e-mails from your Windows Mail or Outlook Express inbox go missing right after you’ve read them, closed the program, then reopened it, don’t panic. Most likely, the messages are perfectly safe, and you just managed to accidentally change a setting in Windows Mail that hides messages once you’ve read them. It’s easy enough to fix. From the menu, select View | Current View; you’ll see that Hide Read Messages is checked. Click Show All Messages and the problem is solved.

Both OE and Windows Mail can optionally display a toolbar whose sole purpose is to manage hiding or showing already-read messages, but that seems a bit unnecessary for a setting that’s rarely changed. —Neil J. Rubenking

IPHONE Find Wi-Fi Networks on your iPhone

If you have an iPhone, you don’t need a separate dongle to find an open wireless connection for your laptop. Simply take out your iPhone, tap Settings, select WiFi, then open Choose a network to see which WiFi networks are available wherever you are. This trick is perfect for checking to see if it’s worth hauling out and booting up your laptop in your local library or coffee shop, or for checking whether your home network is visible from that corner of the garage or basement where you’re considering moving your desktop.

Want to find the nearest wireless access point wherever you are? Try searching for “wifi” in the Maps application. Google will plot the nearest hot spots around your location based on the GPS (or cell-phone tower location).—Logan Kugler

vIsTA speed up File Deletion in vista

When you drag a file to the Recycle Bin, does it sometimes take 30 to 45 seconds to complete the process? A feature in Vista has been causing this problem for some, even though it shouldn’t. Remote Differential Compression attempts to moderate bandwidth when copying files across the network. It looks to see if the file is already present in the target location and, if that’s the case, analyzes whether it can get away with just transmitting the changes without copying the whole file again. Apparently this feature is not implemented very well and can slow file transfers rather than speed them. Of course the Recycle Bin is not a network destination, but it can be affected regardless.

Simply turn off Remote Differential Compression. Launch Programs and Features from Control Panel and select Turn Windows features on or off. Find Remote Differential Compression in the list, uncheck its check box, and click OK. You may need to reboot for changes to take effect.—NJR

Laptops. MP3 Players. Digitized Baseball Bats. There’s a Tech Gift for Everyone.

Holiday Gift Guide 2009