BCC Option Keeps E-Mail Addresses Private
Q: I use the e-mail program Netscape Messenger. I want to send an e-mail to everyone in one of my address books, but I don’t want everyone to be listed on the e-mail. The list is extremely long, and I don’t want it to seem too impersonal. Is there a way to do this, other than to send individual e-mails?
A: Well, the friendly geeks here at Q&A; labs are always eager to provide service that seems quite personalized. There’s an easy way to do what you want, and a fairly practical reason for doing so as well: Many people get pretty steamed if you distribute their e-mail addresses to a bunch of strangers.
Standard e-mail software offers three addressing options: “To:” for the main addressee; “CC:” for carbon copies to others; and “BCC:.” That last option lets you send copies of the e-mail to people without their addresses showing up; it stands for blind carbon copy.
Q: I am getting a long list of Favorites in Internet Explorer. I would like to sort them in alphabetical order, but I am unable to do so. I right-clicked on several items, expecting to get a Sort command, but it was not there. Where do I go from here?
A: Ick. There are so many possibilities here, we don’t know where to start. For instance, on some versions of Internet Explorer, if you have more than about 200 items, any attempt to sort will be unsuccessful. The solution here is to split up your items into subfolders, the contents of which can be sorted alphabetically.
Other possibilities: Make sure your software is current. Download the latest version of Internet Explorer, which is free. In addition, older versions of the Windows operating system don’t offer the sort-by-name option. If you’re not using Windows 98 Second Edition, you should upgrade.
You can also store your bookmarks--er, favorites--on one of the many online services that specialize in this. Not only will this make them accessible from any Web browser you’re using, anywhere, they’ll also probably be stored in alphabetical order. Check out https://www.favoritesanywhere.com to see how this sort of thing works.
Last and most certainly least, you can address this problem by editing the system registry. Do not do it. You will destroy yourself and your loved ones, place the space-time continuum in danger and encourage Sylvester Stallone to make more comedies. If none of this is important to you, aim for the following: <<
Q: At some point my PC ended up with a C: and D: partition that are exactly alike. Every folder I have on the C: drive is on the D: drive. Do I actually have two copies or is this just some kind of mapping anomaly? How can I fix it?
A: It’s difficult to be certain without examining the system, but our guess is you’ve either installed or activated a program designed to make backups. And not just any backups. Your system is apparently “mirroring” the entire C: drive onto the D: drive, which is a super way of making backups. This is grade A, No. 1 stuff. If your C: drive went bye-bye, you could just transfer the D: drive information and be back in business.
The problem is that this technique is effective only if you’re mirroring to a separate drive. If both C: and D: are on the same physical drive, a catastrophic failure on one probably means the other drive is hosed as well.
You could ignore the mirroring unless you need the drive space. But it does consume some system resources, so making it stop should make your system perform with a bit more pizazz. Check out your antiviral or backup software to see if you’ve got the backup setting toggled on.
Making automated backups is still a great idea. You might want to consider buying another hard drive and setting things up so your new drive mirrors your C: drive. Backups are the vaccines that allow us to survive in the hostile environment that is cyberspace.
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Dave Wilson is The Times’ personal technology columnist. Submit questions to Tech Q&A; at techtimes@latimes.com.
