Three years ago, my niece bought me a laptop computer that runs Windows XP. It also has software such as Outlook Express and Norton installed. I have stored my e-mail messages in various folders inside Outlook Express. I am able to transfer an e-mail from Outlook to 'My Documents' on the hard disk but I cannot transfer an entire folder. Can you help? JFS Batson, Wan Chai DQ: It may sound like Alcoholics Anonymous but I have found a 12-step solution to your problem, spelled out with images, at this site: www.webdevelopersnotes.com/tips/internet/creating_backup_email_messages… . The above link will help you find each directory and let you copy it to another place - a CD- or DVD-Rom, for example. Each directory is a file with a name ending in .dbx. If you want to read the e-mail messages again, you will need to restore the .dbx file. That process is also explained. As I described on April 8, there is another way to drag the files from Outlook Express directories into any new directory of your choice. Although it was intended to answer the question of how to move the messages to another computer, it would suit your purposes too. Trend Micro's PC-cillin Internet Security 2007 is pre-installed on my computer. I have noticed recently it takes about 11/2 hours to scan. Can I do something to make this go quicker? Also, while scanning, can I perform other tasks such as sending e-mail or surfing the Web? William Lo, Quarry Bay DQ: There are many possible reasons for that problem. One of the first things you may want to do is look into hard disk defragging software. As I am sure you know, the longer you use a computer, the more fragmented the use of the disk becomes. If the computer has to jump around a lot to read a file, things will slow down. If you search for 'defrag software' you will find lots of solutions online, a good deal of which are free. I can't tell you if Trend Micro is doing a good job or not. A very simple way to know what kind of protection you are getting is to determine how often the software updates your machine. The more frequently your machine is updated, the safer you should be. As for using other software, most modern operating systems allow for multitasking for nearly everything, however, some low-level versions may want to have total control of your machine. Considering it offers security software, it seems highly unlikely Trend Micro would want this level of control. I don't think you need to be concerned about running other applications while Trend is running. If, however, it is still taking 90 minutes to check your personal computer and you have defragged the hard disk, you may want to look at having your machine checked.
