"REAL" Software Creates "REAL" Headaches for Rhonda
Windows 98/ME/NT/XP/Vista
Rhonda Gets Angry With Us and
Might Cancel!
Ever since I started receiving Information Avenue, I am driven nearly nuts
when it appears in my email box and until I have time to sit and peruse it, each
time I read another email and delete those, etc., and IO becomes the highlighted
one again, Real Download pops up all its windows just to download the PNGs for
me over and over and over! It is maddening.
Once in a while (last week issue is a perfect example) it does NOT do this, but
the majority of the time, like this issue, it does. Is there ANYTHING I can do
to stop this, or anything you can do to send each issue out like last week's,
where it does not do it? PLEASE advise! It is enough to make me want to cancel
although I love IO and get a lot of useful info from it.
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks. (Rhonda's Browser Tags: HTTP_USER_AGENT:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909
Firefox/1.5.0.7)
Our Answer
Wow, we don't want you to cancel. Let's get a couple things straightened out.
Number one: why do you have a program like "Real Download" installed? Number
two: Why do you have "Real Download" associated with image files like PNG?
If our newsletter continues to remain
highlighted (unread) even after it's read simply because you're deleting the
messages before or after it, this is a problem with your Outlook Express and not
with our newsletter. Our newsletter is a standard HTML file - a web page, if you
like. It has nothing contained within it (no scripts, etc.) that would make it
"highlight itself". The only thing, other than a problem with your Outlook
Express that we can think of, that may cause this, is a memory cache that is
overflowing with junk.
When is the last time you cleared your temp files and
temporary Internet files? If you can't remember- a good cleaning may be long
overdue. There are several free programs that will clean the temp, junk,
garbage, and temporary Internet files from your computer. You're welcome to
download our freeware program "Zappit" from
http://www.zappit.net/ - and run it. Then reboot your computer and see if
Outlook Express runs more normally. In any case, we can guarantee you one thing.
There is nothing in our newsletter that would cause it to highlight itself. It's
definitely an Outlook Express problem - or a problem with your computer and now
with our newsletter.
Another "real problem" (no pun
intended) is that "Real Download" has no business being associated with any image
file types at all. RealOne (and any of the "Real" products we've ever tried) have
always taken over the computer on which it is installed and tried to associate with every image and sound
file on our computers. We don't and wouldn't have anything made by "Real"
on our computers, and that's the "real" truth. We certainly don't recommend any
products made by this company.
Most people download "Real" software to play (or download)
"Real Audio" and/or "Real Video" files. If "Real" software
did what they're supposed to and only what they're supposed to, it would be fine.
But every "Real" product we've ever tried attempts to associate itself with every image and audio file on your computer.
That always creates problems somewhere down the line. And we think it's causing
you a lot of unnecessary headaches too. There is absolutely no reason in the
world why a simple and popular image file type like PNG should open in anything
made by "Real".
Our advice is to ditch "Real Download"
or at the very least re-associate your major image file types with a normal
image program and not with "Real Download". We suggest you download Irfanview
from
www.irfanview.com and install it.
During the installation you will be asked which image files you would like to
have associated with Irfanview. We suggest the following image file types (at
least):
BMP
GIF
JPEG
PNG
TIF
This will keep Real Download from
trying to open PNG files (and other common graphic files) which it has no
business doing anyway.
You're going to be better off without
any "Real" software on your computer. Every single time we've ever had or tried
any "Real" software we've had nothing but problems. It's invasive and takes over
various functions of your computer (as you're seeing right now) that have
nothing to do with the reasons why you downloaded the "Real" software in the
first place (which we imagine was to play "Real" audio and video files).
We certainly hope that you don't
continue to blame our newsletter for causing these problems on your computer. We
guarantee you that our newsletter is not the cause. We're 99.9% sure that Real
Download is causing the PNG problem. Your Outlook Express problem is a bit more
intriguing and mysterious. Perhaps clearing out the junk, garbage and temp files
on your computer and rebooting will help. If it does not, it may be a more
serious problem with your installation of Outlook Express. So, don't cancel your
subscription! We're innocent! Well, innocent as far as the problems you're
finding on your computer. Actually, EB is far from innocent, but TC is a perfect
angel :)
A little note about PNG format
PNG format is finally being recognized
by all browsers and email clients. PNG allows us to make cleaner more viewable
graphics - in smaller file sizes than is possible with JPG format. JPG needs to
be compressed quite a bit to make them acceptable for use on the Web. Sometimes
compressing them too much ruins the image quality. GIF format is fine for
graphics with few colors (animated gifs, drawings, charts, etc.) but not for
graphics with millions of colors (like paintings, some screen shots, fine art,
etc.). PNG gives us the small file size and clarity we need and works well on
the Web. There's nothing "secret" or "strange" about PNG format. It's not new,
it's been around for years, but it's only been in the last two years that all
browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, and Opera, have
included support for it.
