Is there an easy way to take my Favorites with me?

QUESTION:
I use the web a lot and I have many Favorites marked in IE so I don't have to type the URLs every time. I love that but I sometimes travel and use other computers, like at my daughter's house. Is there a good way to carry my Favorites with me to use on those other computers?

ANSWER:
One answer is to copy them to a flash memory card or USB thumb drive, but that's not the most convenient way to do it. What if you forget or lose the small device? The easiest solution is to use a tool such as Bookmark Sync that will copy them to a central server hosted by SyncIt. Then you can view them from any Internet-connected computer or even share them with other users if you want. It works with just about any Windows operating system and best of all, it's free. You can download it at
http://www.wxpnews.com/LL10M5/081209-BookmarkSync

The Windows install service could not be accessed.

It sounds as if something happened that damaged or corrupted the installer service files. The installer service is used, as its name implies, to install programs. Try re-registering the service. Here's how:

1. Be sure you're logged on with an administrative account.
2. Click Start Run.
3. In the Open box, type cmd. Click OK.
4. In the command window, at the prompt, type msiexec.exe /unregister and press ENTER.
5. Type msiexec /regserver and press ENTER. Next, you need to give the SYSTEM account full control permissions to the registry hive HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Back up the registry first.
6. Open your registry editor and navigate to the following key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
7. Click Edit Permissions
8. In the Group Or User Names list, check to see whether SYSTEM is listed. If not, click Add.
9. Ensure that the "From this location" box shows the local computer name.
10. Type system in the "Enter the object names to select" field, click "Check Names," then click OK.
11. In the "Group or User Names" list, click SYSTEM.
12. Check the Full Control check box under Allow.
13. Click Apply, then OK.
14. Close the registry editor and restart the computer.

How to change IE Security Zone settings in IE 7

To protect against an IE 7 Zero-Day attack, you can set the security zone settings for Internet and Local Intranet to "high." To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click Tools and select Internet Options.
2. Click the Security tab, and click Internet in the zones box at the top.
3. Move the slider to the "high" position.
4. Click the Apply button
5. Click Local Intranet in the zones box at the top.
6. Move the slider to the "high" position.
7. Click Apply and OK.

How to Disable Active Scripting in IE 7

Another way to protect your computer from attack through IE is to disable Active Scripting. Here's how:

1. Click Tools and select Internet Options.
2. Click the Security tab, and again, click Internet in the zones box.
3. Click the Custom Level button.
4. In the dialog box, scroll down to the Scripting section. Under Active Scripting, click the Disable option button.
5. Click OK.

How to create a shortcut to manage network connections

Vista's "bread crumb" address bar in Explorer allows you to create shortcuts that are otherwise difficult to create. For example, let's say you want to make a shortcut that opens the "Network Connections" window (which normally takes several clicks to get to). Here's how:

Click Start | Control Panel, open the Network and Sharing Center.
In the left pane, click "Manage network connections."
Now in the address bar that shows the path, right click and select Copy Address.
Right click on the desktop (or in the folder where you want to make the shortcut) and choose Paste Shortcut.

Now you have a one-click way to open up your network connections to manage them. You can do this with any window that displays a path address in the "bread crumb" bar.