Make tech rebates work for you, not against you

Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 226 • 2010-01-07 • Circulation: over 400,000

Table of contents

Introduction: Post your tips in the Windows Secrets Lounge
Top Story: Make tech rebates work for you, not against you
Wacky Web Week: Stuck between a rock and a … couch?
LangaList Plus: Windows, solid-state disks, and ‘trim’
Best Software: Highly efficient mouse tricks and ‘gestures’
Woody's Windows: Install Windows 7 many times from one USB drive
Patch Watch: Microsoft licensing portal offline for weeks

Post your tips in the Windows Secrets Lounge

By Brian Livingston

Beginning this week, all articles appearing in Windows Secrets have their own threads in the WS Lounge, where you can submit any additional information you have.

You’re not restricted to commenting on columns, though — we have a whole lotta other forums where you can post anything you discover about Microsoft Windows.

Commenting has tripled in the discussion board

Last month, I e-mailed all 400,000 WS subscribers an announcement that the Lounge was open as a place to post helpful Windows tips.

I explained that the discussion board had been started in 1995 by Woody Leonhard (who’s now a WS senior editor). Unfortunately, the resource — originally known as Woody’s Lounge — was underutilized.

Posts of new information in the discussion board declined by more than half from 2003 to 2009. This drop in Lounge activity occurred despite the fact that Internet usage almost tripled, according to figures from Internet World Stats.

Worst of all, the Lounge was hosted on one underpowered server after another, each with the bad habit of going down for hours or days at a time. Over the years, the Lounge was configured to block search engines and minimize traffic. This made the board’s 700,000 posts — many of them extremely valuable — unfindable and unavailable to Windows users worldwide.

We’ve changed that by upgrading to a vastly more powerful server cluster (as I explained in a recent post). We opened the site to Google and other search engines. And we e-mailed between Dec. 3 and 16 a gradual stream of announcements to all WS subscribers. This has resulted in approximately tripling the amount of new information that’s being submitted every week. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. Posts per week in the Windows Secrets Lounge. We began notifying subscribers on Dec. 3, 2009, after which weekly activity exploded.

Lounge posts per week

This tripling of new posts doesn’t yet reflect that fact that every WS article now links to a Lounge comment thread, starting today (more on that in a minute). If you have additional info, please reply to any column within its thread.

But this is far from the only fun you can have. The Lounge supports almost three dozen specialized forums where you can share your knowledge with the global Windows user community.

Which subjects are attracting the most activity?

Prior to 2009, the old Woody’s Lounge largely generated new posts about Microsoft Office components: Excel, Access, Word, and so forth. This was partly due to the emphasis placed on these applications by Woody’s 1990s-vintage newsletter called Woody’s Office Watch.

Working with Woody and other Loungers, we’ve expanded the board’s focus by adding new forums and renaming old ones. In the past few weeks, users have shown how excited they are about many apps, not just Microsoft’s. Loungers also have a lot to say about the latest operating systems, open-source browsers, and everything else under the sun.

The software platform underlying the Lounge, IP.Board 3.0, doesn’t make it easy to chart the number of new posts per forum. But it does display the number of page views for each forum. This allows a rough approximation of our users’ interests. (See Table 1.)

Table 1. Our 20 most-popular forums in December 2009, sorted by page views. Click any forum name to see the newest posts on that subject.

Forum	Views	Graph (■ ≈ 2,000)
Windows 7	30,307	■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
Read This First	20,782	■■■■■■■■■■
Scuttlebutt	12,137	■■■■■■
Feedback to Admins	11,362	■■■■■■
Windows XP	9,229	■■■■■
Spreadsheets	8,587	■■■■
Security & Backups	6,596	■■■
Test Area	6,281	■■■
Databases	6,013	■■■
Word Processing	5,648	■■■
Other Applications	5,226	■■■
General Windows	3,965	■■
Non-Outlook E-mail	3,802	■■
Networking	3,527	■■
Hardware	3,366	■
Microsoft Outlook	3,240	■
Windows Vista	3,229	■
Third-Party Browsers	2,629	■
Internet Explorer	2,213	■
Puzzles	2,105	■

The bottom line on all of the above numbers:

Windows 7 rocks. Interest in Microsoft’s newest operating system has made Win7 our most popular subject by far. Three times more people visited the Windows 7 forum than checked out good ol’ Windows XP. The forum for the unloved Vista OS attracted barely one-tenth as many visitors as Win7.
Microsoft apps no longer rule the roost. Our three most-visited application forums are Spreadsheets, Databases, and Word Processing (in that order). Those generic titles, of course, represent applications by all vendors. In other cases, we’ve created separate MS and non-MS forums. The numbers reveal that Loungers are venturing far beyond Redmond software. For example, many people viewed the Microsoft Outlook area, but even more visited the Non-Outlook E-mail forum. Internet Explorer was a popular area, too, but Third-Party Browsers enjoyed a slight edge.
The board is hardly “all work and no play.” Just as newsletter subscribers rave about our humorous Wacky Web Week column, our third-most-visited Lounge forum is Scuttlebutt — a work-safe collection of jokes and time-wasters. Other popular but none-too-serious areas are Puzzles, Read This First, and the Test Area (where you can try posting for the first time).

Show what you know in our comment threads

As I said above, each WS column now ends with a link to its very own comment thread. If you have inside information to add, please post a comment. But do read and follow the Lounge rules. Use only work-safe language, don’t flame other Lounge members, and refrain from self-linking or advertising in a post. (You can link to your blog as much as like in your profile. When signed in, click Settings, Profile, About Me.)

We’re looking for quality, not quantity, so avoid posting short chaff, whether it’s a rave (“You’re right!”) or a rant (“You stink!”). Show what you know. If you truly have new details to share, we want your input.

Make sure you’re registered. To get all the benefits of the Lounge — including the ability to post, receive notifications of replies, customize browser views, and exchange private messages — take a moment to register for free:

Register as a Lounge user for free

My thanks to the Lounge’s 20,000 original members and the 31,000 WS subscribers who’ve newly registered, whether you’ve made dozens of posts or you’ve just observed from the sidelines so far. Get involved. The best is yet to come. See ya there!

Have more info on this subject? Post your tip in the WS Columns forum.

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

Top Story

Make tech rebates work for you, not against you

By Scott Dunn

Rebate scams can make getting a promised discount on products much more difficult — and much less reliable — than it might seem at first glance.

But if you do your homework and take a few precautions, you can minimize the risk and maximize the discounts.

In my Dec. 3 Insider Tricks column (paid content), I identified rebate rip-offs as a top offender in tech vendors’ bags of dirty tricks. These scams are designed to squeeze more money out of customers without giving them anything in return.

Not all rebate offers are scams, of course. There are good, money-saving deals out there, and it’s unrealistic and unfair to condemn all rebates based on the shady practices of some vendors.

But there’s always at least some risk when you choose a product based on the promise of a future rebate. Here are some tips for ensuring that you come out a winner in the rebate game.

Do research before making your purchase

Before you let a rebate offer lure you into buying that shiny, new whatever-it-is, make sure the deal is truly as good as it appears:

Is there a cheaper, no-rebate alternative?

Rebates aren’t the only way to get discounts on products. Sales, coupons, and other strategies save money as well. For example, Symantec’s holiday gift page features steep discounts on popular Norton products. Some require the typical mail-in rebate hassle, but others are no-muss, no-fuss money-savers.

For security products in particular, add up the total cost of ownership before you buy. It may be cheaper to purchase a new, on-sale security product every year rather than buy it once and pay full annual charges for product and virus-definition updates.

What’s the company’s rebate track record?

There’s no infallible way to track vendor rebate performance, but some Web sites can help with anecdotal evidence. For example, Rebate Report Card scores companies on their rebate-redemption record, based on voluntary reports from consumers. For a quick glance at the most-recent corporate grades, check out the site’s best and worst page.

A similar site is RipoffReport, where you can search for complaints lodged against specific companies.

You also can search the Web for negative comments about a company and product. If there have been a large number of customer complaints, chances are good they’ll pop up in search results.

Determine whether the company’s site offers a way to track your rebate claim. For example, when I searched for rebates on Staples.com, I was taken to the Staples Rebate Center, which includes links for tracking rebates and checking your rebate-card balance.

Have you followed the rebate rules exactly?

If you decide a rebate is worth the risk and hassle, make sure your approach is letter-perfect:

Step 1. Read all instructions and fine print. Note especially any language that limits your rights or the company’s liability.
Step 2. Complete all the steps of the rebate-redemption process exactly as directed.
Step 3. Keep copies of everything you mail to the company.
Step 4. Send the required redemption documents by certified mail and request a return receipt.

If your rebate doesn’t arrive in a reasonable amount of time or within the time frame promised in the rebate offer’s fine print, you may need to resubmit copies of the required information to force a response from the company.

Prepare to go 15 rounds to collect your rebate

Don’t count on the rebate-redemption center you’re dealing with to make things simple — or quick.

Are you in it for the long haul?

If you have problems getting your rebate, be ready to spend the time required to redeem your claim. That includes contacting the vendor’s customer service department and resubmitting copies of your rebate application. Rebate scammers often depend on their ability to outlast their victims, who simply grow weary of the process and give up.

Are you willing to report any suspected wrongdoing?

There are a number of ways to lodge a complaint against a recalcitrant rebate-redemption service. One dissatisfied customer — who identifies himself as TheDealMaker — has posted an extensive list of links and resources where you can do just that. Check out his May 16, 2004 post on FatWallet.com.

Getting companies to deliver on their rebate offers can sometimes be difficult, but by wielding this arsenal of resources and techniques, you can substantially improve your chances of getting the money you’ve been promised.

Have more info on this subject? Post your tip in the WS Columns forum.

Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and occasionally writes for the Here’s How section of that magazine.

Wacky Web Week

Stuck between a rock and a … couch?

By Stephanie Small

Remember getting into sticky situations as a child? Back then, you thought you could do anything, until the inevitable happened and you were left in a pickle. No doubt your parents chuckled at your self-induced predicament as you begged them for help.

Watch as this adorable, hilarious child gets stuck while looking for his toys. Laughs and “awwws” will ensue as you witness his attempts to free himself. This video may bring back some fond memories of your own childhood antics! Play the video

LangaList Plus

Windows, solid-state disks, and ‘trim’

By Fred Langa

It’s a little-known fact that all solid-state disks — all of them — suffer inevitable performance declines over time.

It’s also little known that Windows 7 and Server 2008 are currently the world’s only operating systems to fully implement the new trim command that helps forestall this speed decline.

The Achilles’ heel of all solid-state drives

Reader Peter Jackson is frustrated by the diminishing performance of his solid-state disk drive (SSD):

“I have a 64GB solid-state hard drive, but no way to restore it to factory-new condition. It has to do with getting the ‘pages’ to read as empty and not just overwritten. It’s important to all SSD users, as the performance degradation is something [all SSDs] eventually suffer from.

“The few solutions I’ve found are very complex; so far, I haven’t been able to get any of them to work. My SSD seek times degrading from .1 [millisecond] to .4 or .5 may sound silly, but it’s not.”

Performance degradation over time is a known issue with all SSDs, Peter. There are a number of contributing factors — I’ll come back to this in a moment — but some of the worst culprits are standard disk operating commands that were originally designed for use on magnetic, spinning-platter hard drives. SSDs operate differently, and that leads to problems — especially when attempting to reuse previously accessed data blocks, such as the former location of deleted files.

To correct this problem, most current SSDs support a new command called trim. This SSD-specific command does just what you want — it automatically clears out old, overwritten data.

The trim command specification is being made a computing standard by the International Committee for Information Technology Standards, so all OSes will eventually support trim. But for now, only Windows 7 and Server 2008 fully support the trim command. While Linux 2.6.28 is SSD-aware, its partial implementation of trim falls short of Windows’ full support.

That’s worth repeating: Right now, Win7 and Server 2008 are the only OSes that offer full, native support for trim. They’re the only OSes that let you get the most out of an SSD right out of the box!

Absent a trim-aware OS, you either have to rely on the workaround routines built into some SSD firmware or use add-on trim-ming tools. For example, G. Skill’s Wiper software is designed specifically for its Falcon Series SSDs; you can download and read about the utility on the G. Skill site. “Hdparm,” a Linux-based tool for modifying hard drive parameters, includes experimental trim scripts in version 9.17 and higher. More information is available in an LWN.net article, and Hdparm itself is downloadable from a SourceForge page.

However, one look at the extensive cautions and warnings on those pages, and you’ll see why having trim baked into your OS is obviously the best way to go.

SSD performance is a complex topic. WindowsITPro’s article 101947 by John Savill explains why all SSDs suffer gradual performance slowdowns. Article 101966 by the same author explains how a trim-aware OS can help.

A longer Computerworld analysis of SSD performance by Lucas Mearian delves more deeply into why SSD slowdowns are inevitable. All three of these articles include links to more information on the subject.

But Peter — and anyone else using an SSD — the bottom line is this: Upgrade to Win7 or Server 2008, pronto!

Dealing with undeletable Registry keys

In my Dec. 3 and Dec. 17 columns, I discussed undeletable files and shortcuts. But Cecil Britton has encountered undeletable XP Registry keys:

“My Dell laptop, running XP Professional, had ZoneAlarm Security Suite 9 on it until a few weeks ago, when ZoneAlarm began acting up and wouldn’t run at all. I ran the Windows application-removal applet in Control Panel to remove ZoneAlarm and then tried to reinstall it.

“The reinstall failed: I got an error message stating that I needed to run the install program with administrator privileges. I knew something was wrong because I already was [signed in] to an administrator account.

“I contacted Zone Labs support and they suggested that I download and run their cleanup utility. So I did just that. Still following their instructions, I next downloaded the latest version of ZoneAlarm Security Suite and attempted to install it.

“I got the identical result, so I did some research and came across the location of the Registry keys that control the permissions for the ZoneAlarm installer:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Zone Labs

“There are three subkeys under Zone Labs. When I attempt to delete or open them, I get the message ‘Cannot open keyname: Error while opening key.’ The only conclusion I can reach is that the Zone Labs key and/or the three subkeys have become corrupted, but I can find no way to remove the key from my Registry.

“I can, of course, install an old Registry backup copy, and I guess that should fix the one problem while introducing new ones. My question is, do you know of any tool or method of removing corrupt Registry keys?”

Nice detective work, Cecil! You did exactly the right things in the right order to try to resolve the problem. But no, you’re not out of options yet. (In Windows, never say die!)

First, I suggest you run chkdsk.exe to make sure your disk is healthy and that a mangled file isn’t making the keys undeletable. The item in my Dec. 17 column “Why can’t I delete my desktop shortcuts?” details the use of chkdsk to cure this type of problem.

Next, search your hard drive for any folders with ZoneAlarm or Zone Labs files, and delete any such files or folders you find.

Now start your PC in Safe Mode. (Need instructions? See Microsoft’s XP documentation, “To start the computer in safe mode.”) While in Safe Mode and signed in to an admin account, click Start, Run; type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor. Chances are, you’ll then be able to whack the corrupt keys.

If the keys still won’t let go, a good Registry-cleaning utility may do the trick. The better ones, such as CCleaner (available from the Piriform site) or the U.S. $29.95 jv16 PowerTools (trial version downloadable from the Macecraft site), often correct even the messiest of Registry problems. Note that Macecraft also offers the free jv16 PowerTools Lite from this page.

I can’t imagine how any errant key could survive after all that!

‘Ghost’ serial ports clutter a Windows XP setup

Bruce Sobut ended up with over 20 bogus com ports in his setup:

“I have ghost serial ports on XP. I’ve tested many different USB-serial converters for some legacy products I support, and each one — sometimes the same one plugged into a different USB port — installs as a new com port.

“I was up over 20 at one point. I could easily delete the com port with the USB-serial plugged in, but I don’t have all the old cables. I tried ‘unhiding’ unused ports — I found out how in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 315539 — and then deleted those.

“But I still have several com ports (3-9, 12, 14) that show as ‘in use’ when I view the available com port numbers under ‘Communications Port (COMx) Properties, Advanced Settings.’ Any tricks?”

Sure, Bruce! A ModemSite article, “COM port in use,” shows you how to use XP’s Device Manager to reclaim com ports erroneously flagged as in use. It’s a step-by-step, one-port-at-a-time procedure that can take a while if you have lots of bogus ports to kill, but the process is easy and gets the job done.

A second option is Microsoft’s free COMDisable tool for XP. It’s much faster and more direct than the simple-but-laborious point-and-click, click, click of the ModemSite’s procedure, but it’s a little geekier and harder to use. MS KB article 819036 offers a download link and a complete description of COMDisable.

Powerful, free alternative to Device Manager

Robert Gough ran into the same problem with a nonresponsive USB port that I covered in my Oct. 15 column, “USB ports take temporary, unexpected furloughs.” But Robert found a different, very interesting solution:

“I had this same problem on my work PC and my home PC. Sometimes it seems to occur for any device I plug in, and other times it seems to be a device-specific issue. Regardless, the following fix works for me every time.

“I downloaded devcon.exe from Microsoft. After I plug in a device that gets ignored by my system, I execute this program. The ‘rescan’ option causes the system to rescan the USB ports and — so far — this has always resulted in my USB device being acknowledged and usable.”

Nice, Robert! Somehow, I’d never heard of DevCon. Microsoft says:

“The DevCon utility is a command-line utility that acts as an alternative to Device Manager. Using DevCon, you can enable, disable, restart, update, remove, and query individual devices or groups of devices. DevCon also provides information that is … not available in Device Manager.”

Complete info and a download link are available in KB article 311272, “The DevCon command-line utility functions as an alternative to Device Manager.”

Very cool — and free!

Have more info on this subject? Post your tip in the WS Columns forum.

Reader Robert Gough will receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of his choice for sending a tip we printed. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets contact page.

Fred Langa is senior editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was formerly editor of Byte Magazine (1987–91), editorial director of CMP Media (1991–97), and editor of the LangaList e-mail newsletter from its origin in 1997 until its merger with Windows Secrets in November 2006.

Best Software

Highly efficient mouse tricks and ‘gestures’

By Ian “Gizmo” Richards

In my Dec. 3 Best Software column, I showed you how to work more effectively by using keyboard shortcuts.

Now I’ll tell you about some operations you can perform with your mouse that can help you work faster with less effort.

Let your mouse get in on the shortcut act

Keyboard shortcuts are great time savers when you’re typing or otherwise have your hands on the keyboard. But if your hand is primarily on the mouse — such as when you’re browsing the Web — keyboard shortcut keys don’t do very much for you.

That’s when mouse shortcuts can help. This might sound like a strange idea, but there are actually many useful mouse tricks you can use in Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Chrome, and Safari.

Mouse shortcuts are like keyboard shortcuts except they use one or more mouse buttons. There are no truly universal, standardized mouse shortcuts guaranteed to work with all browsers, but there are three shortcuts that work with most of them.

Perhaps the most useful of these is to press the Ctrl key while rolling the mouse scroll wheel up or down to zoom the page in or out. You also can close any tab — even an inactive, backgrounded tab — simply by clicking the scroll button while hovering over the tab.

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Woody's Windows

Install Windows 7 many times from one USB drive

By Woody Leonhard

If you’ll be setting up Windows 7 on more than a couple of computers — or if you need to add Win7 to a PC without a working DVD drive — save yourself time and bother by converting a USB drive into a Windows setup “disc.”

With a couple of free utilities, a 4GB or larger USB drive, any Windows 7 setup DVD, and a little time, you can build your own Win7 universal USB installer.

When USB installation beckons for Windows 7

If you intend to install Windows 7 on only one or two machines — each of which has a functioning DVD drive — then the setup DVD is all you need. There’s no reason to futz around with a USB drive.

However, if you’re going to load Win7 onto several machines, installing the OS from a USB drive is much faster than doing so from a DVD. And you don’t have to worry about greasy thumb prints or the family cat scratching the working side of that pricey setup disc.

A USB-based installation’s speed and durability are nice, but there are situations where it’s essentially your only good option. The USB installation method actually originated as a means for owners of netbooks (which often ship with no optical drive at all) to install Windows 7.

In fact, a USB install may be the best way to install Win7 if either of the following two situations applies:

Your PC is running Windows, but you don’t have or can’t easily attach a DVD drive to it. For example, you don’t want to buy an external DVD drive for your netbook, or your desktop has a CD drive but no DVD drive. Maybe you want to install Win7, but the machine’s DVD drive suddenly turns belly-up, which is what happened to me recently.

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Patch Watch

Microsoft licensing portal offline for weeks

By Susan Bradley

A troubled December upgrade of Microsoft’s cloud-based licensing service is causing serious headaches for organizations that rely on the site to manage software licenses.

After more than a month and counting, the Volume Licensing Service Center remains inaccessible to many Microsoft customers.

No silver lining for Microsoft’s cloudburst

On Dec. 6, Microsoft began an upgrade of its Volume Licensing Service Center online licensing portal. The service is used by organizations of all sizes to track software licenses. When the upgrade hit a few snags, Microsoft took the site down, planning to have it back online by Dec. 16, according to Sarah Arnold’s MSDN blog.

The service was reactivated on Dec. 18, as announced on the Microsoft SMB Community Blog. However, problems continued for many people attempting to access the service.

When I tried to sign on to the site on Dec. 18, for example, I found myself locked out after entering the wrong business e-mail address. (Accessing the site now requires that you provide a business e-mail address in addition to your license agreement.)

Normally, I’d simply call the service’s help number for assistance in resolving the problem. Unfortunately, the huge volume of customers affected by the outage prior to the holidays caused extremely long wait times — approximately one hour, in my case.

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The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Windows Secrets is a continuation of four merged publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch in 2004, the LangaList in 2006, and the Support Alert Newsletter in 2008.

Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com, 1218 Third Ave., Suite 1515, Seattle, WA 98101 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine).

Editor in chief: Tracey Capen. Senior editors: Fred Langa, Woody Leonhard. Copyeditor: Roberta Scholz. Program director: Tony Johnston. Contributing editors: Yardena Arar, Susan Bradley, Scott Dunn, Michael Lasky, Scott Mace, Ryan Russell, Lincoln Spector, Robert Vamosi, Becky Waring. Product manager: Andy Boyd. Advertising director: Eric Gilley.

Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, Support Alert, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

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