Q. My wife gets her email in Outlook Express. When she last checked, she had more than 6,000 messages. Is there some way to delete them at one time instead of deleting them one at a time? I enjoy your weekly newsletter. Thanks, Mr. M.

A. To select (and delete) multiple messages, hold down the SHIFT key and click to select the first message, then scroll down to the last one and click again. That will highlight all the messages in between. Note: If the messages you want to delete are non-contiguous, meaning that they're not located immediately next to each other, use the CTRL key instead of the SHIFT key, and select just the messages you want to delete. When you have the messages selected, right-click and select DELETE or press the DELete key.

Q. How can I clear the entries stored in the Address Bar of Internet Explorer? When I click Tools > Internet Options > Clear History, it doesn’t do it. There are still entries there that pop up when I start entering a Web site address and I would like to remove those.

A. The addresses you’re referring to aren’t part of Internet Explorer’s history, but rather are part of its AutoComplete feature. When you type the first few characters of an address, IE attempts to anticipate what you’re going to type. It displays addresses that you previously entered, assuming you might want to return to one of those sites. To remove those entries, click Tools > Internet Options > Content > AutoComplete, then press the Clear Forms button to clear out all previous addresses. IE 7 users, click Tools > Internet Options > General tab > Delete button > Delete forms.

Q. A friend told me that she received email from me that her software said contained a virus. The strange thing is that I didn’t send anything to her. Does this mean my computer has a virus or is that coming from somebody else?

A. If you’re keeping your anti-virus software current and updated, chances are your computer is free of any viruses. The emails your friend is receiving are probably coming from a third party, but to her, it looks like they’re coming from you.

Many viruses (Trojan horse worms) will hijack somebody’s address book and send emails to everybody in the address book. If your email address is in an infected computer’s address book, your address may appear in the From: field of messages being sent that also contain viruses. To recipients of that email, it will appear to have come from you, but of course you would have no knowledge of it. In that situation, your email address just happened to be in the address book of the infected system. Lucky you.

It’s the hope of the virus perpetrators that the recipient will recognize the name of the purported sender, open the email and get the virus. That’s why it’s so important to never open an attachment, no matter who sends it, without checking it for viruses first. Even nice people send viruses, though in this instance the sender isn’t really the sender, so the message with the virus-laden attachment is going out without his or her knowledge.

Mr. Modem's Sites of the Week:

Crossword Puzzle Help
If you're having trouble thinking of a word when working on a crossword puzzle, this site is just what the person who heals (six letters) ordered. In addition to pattern dictionary searches, it can analyze clues. OneAcross lets you enter either the length of the answer or an answer pattern in which you would use a question mark for unknown le??ers.
www.oneacross.com

Time-Warp
Take a tour through the decades and learn about technology that evolved during each time period. Use your mouse to select the decade, then scroll over the pictures of then-new technologies like Princess phones, reel-to-reel tape recorders, record players, manual typewriters, desktop calculators, and color television. This site works best with Internet Explorer.
www.time-warp.org

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