Set your preferences for the year to come

By Brian Livingston

The New Year is a good time to check your preferences and make sure you continue to receive the Windows Secrets Newsletter.

It will only take a minute — just follow the easy steps shown below.

1. Check your preferences page

Your preferences page allows you to select the version of the newsletter you receive, specify your locale (which we used to send Fred Langa on free Housecalls a few months ago), and more.

Use this link to set your preferences

Make sure your delivery e-mail address is correct, and that you enter an alternate address, which we use only to notify you when some problem is blocking your primary address.

2. Update your address book and 'safe senders'

Put our "From" address into your e-mail program's address book and any "safe senders" list it may use. We always contact you using the address shown in the following image:

Placing this in your address book and "safe senders" list is the best way we've found to ensure that our newsletters get to you with the least interference from mail filters.

3. Whitelist our Internet Protocol addresses

Ask your company's e-mail administrator to accept or "whitelist" the IP addresses of our publishing server, our Web server, and our in-house mail server:

    72.9.103.50 and 72.9.103.51
    216.182.80.209
    64.81.169.38

These IP addresses are controlled by our e-mail service provider, Action Message, and WindowsSecrets.com, neither of which tolerate spammers. Your mail admin can be confident that whitelisting our IP addresses will get you only good mail.

If you don't have an e-mail manager to talk to, don't worry about this step. But if you do, this is another way to ensure you'll get the e-mail messages you want.

4. Make a contribution to get the paid version

We're working hard to bring you the secrets of Windows and help you keep your PC safe from hackers. This costs money, but we don't charge a fixed fee for anyone to get the better, paid version of our findings. We want as many people as possible to have this knowledge, so we accept any financial contribution of any amount, whatever it's worth to you.

Use this link for more information

Use the above link today. With one easy contribution — by credit card, PayPal, or a check or money order via postal mail — you'll immediately receive our latest paid newsletter, and you'll get access to all of our best information for the next 12 months.

Today's 'news update' has breaking patch info

We're sending out this short "news update" today so that all of our subscribers can read Susan Bradley's extra column on important patches that were just released for Internet Explorer, Apple QuickTime, and other programs.

Susan's coverage of problems with major Windows patches usually appears twice a month in the paid version of our newsletter. Our news updates, however, are the same for both our free and our paying subscribers. There's no paid section today, so everyone can read Susan's latest report.

Next regular issue: Jan. 3, 2008

As you know, we don't normally publish during the last two weeks of December. You'll see the next regular issue of the Windows Secrets Newsletter on the first Thursday of next month: Jan. 3, 2008.

Until then, use our contact page to send us your Windows tips, and thanks for your support!

Brian Livingston is editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com and the co-author of Windows Vista Secrets and 10 other books.