From WinMag Central
Bugs Out, Bugs In
-- compiled by Dave Methvin 


Microsoft had a bit of a rough time releasing a version of 
Office 97 Service Release 2 (SR2) that people could actually 
install. A new-and-improved SR2 is available for download at 
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com. If you have a version of 
Office 97 with a white product code sticker on the back of the 
CD case, you can save the download time and obtain a CD. Call 
800-370-9272 and ask for the SR2 Office 97 Replacement CD.

Be warned, however, that while the installation problems might 
be gone, Office 97 SR2 is not exactly bug-free. With SR2 
applied, you can't use the Replace option in Office to remove 
text if your search string includes font formatting. So, if you 
want to simply delete all struck-out characters without 
entering new text, you can't do it. The workaround is to use 
two Replace operations.

Find the struck-out characters in the document and replace them 
with a unique string. Then find that unique string and replace 
it with nothing. Make sure your unique string doesn't appear 
elsewhere in the document.

Disconnect The Dots
Microsoft has issued a security patch for the Dotless IP 
Address bug that affects users of Windows 98 or Windows 95 with 
Internet Explorer 4.0. This bug mistakenly treats any host 
address without dots as a local (intranet) address. Since IE 
can assign a lower security level to intranet addresses, it 
would theoretically be possible for a malicious Web page author 
to obtain more access to your intranet than he should rightly 
have. Details of the problem as well as the fix can be found at 
http://www.microsoft.com/ie/security/dotless.htm. Win98 users 
can visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.

But I Don't Want To Dial!
Is your PC mysteriously trying to establish a dial-up 
connection to the Internet every time you start it up? It could 
be due to the RealNetworks RealPlayer G2. By default, the 
player tries to contact RealNetworks to update its content 
whenever you start it. If you have selected the SmartStart 
option that puts an icon on the system tray when Windows starts 
(this is the default), then the G2 player will try to establish 
an Internet connection.

To stop undesired connections, start RealPlayer and select 
Options/Preferences/ Content from the menu. Clear the check box 
labeled "Enable automatic headline updating." You may also want 
to disable the SmartStart feature that displays the tray icon, 
because it adds to system boot time. To do this, select 
Options/Preferences/ General and clear the SmartStart check box.

If you're not using RealPlayer but still get unwanted dial-up 
connection prompts that seem to come from nowhere, it's 
probably some other Internet application. Check your StartUp 
folder or your Task Scheduler to see if any Internet apps 
reside there. Internet Explorer can also initiate connections 
if you've subscribed to sites; go to Favorites/Manage 
Subscriptions in IE 4.0 to see if you have any subscription 
checks that might be activating.


 1998 Windows Magazine, February 1999, Page 207. 
