Moving Favorites, e-mail to a new computer

Q. My computer passed away. Rather than bury it, I use it as a slave for my Epson Stylus 3000 printer, while I work on my new machine. I have them networked, but I want to get all my old e-mails and Favorites from the old machine and install them into the correct place on the new. How is this done?

A. First, congratulations on being creative in using your old equipment. There are several ways to accomplish what you want to do. I always pick the easiest and most straight-forward way. On the old PC (the one that contains the Favorites you wish to copy), run Internet Explorer. On the menu bar, click File, then Import and Export. This will bring up the Import/Export Wizard along with its welcoming message. (Wizards are very courteous.) Click the Next button and select Export Favorites. This will display your Favorites structure, starting at the top. If you want them all, just select the top level, which would be Favorites. Otherwise, just select the folders you wish to copy. Click Next and select the location where you want to save it.

Since your PCs are networked, you'll be able to put it somewhere that is accessible to the new PC. For situations where the PCs are not networked, the exported Favorites file is small enough to fit on a floppy disk. You can follow this same sequence to copy your cookies.

Next, on the target PC -- the new PC in your case -- run the Import/Export Wizard from the browser. This time select Import. Click Next and select the location of the Favorites file you saved in the previous step. Repeat for the cookies file.

For your e-mails, I've found that the simplest way is to drag the individual e-mails to a file location. You can do this by creating a folder on the desktop (create subfolders as needed) and then drag and drop the individual e-mails from Outlook Express to the folder you created. An easy method to select all e-mails in a folder is just to click once on the first e-mail, then from Outlook Express' menu bar click Edit, then Select All. When done, repeat the process on the new PC, this time selecting the e-mails you sent to disk and dragging them to the appropriate folder in Outlook Express.

A balkly Carmen Sandiego

Q. I can no longer play the Carmen Sandiego Great Chase Through Time game on my Compaq computer. I receive the error message: "Cannot find picture resource file CSPIC.MMP." Tech support could not help me.

A. I could find nothing regarding this particular error. An MMP file is a graphics-related file, and this particular one is provided by the game, so I am surprised that its support (www.riverdeep.com) could not help you. If you haven't already, uninstall the program (Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs), then reinstall it for a fresh start.

Troubles with Me

Q. A friend installed Microsoft Me on my computer. Since that time, my computer keeps crashing. The message I get is: "MMTask has caused an error in CWD Audio Drv. MMTask will not close." I then have to hit Ctrl-Alt-Delete to reboot. When I do this, my desktop reappears in all white with another message that says: "Active Desktop Recovery. Microsoft Windows has experienced an unexpected error. Your active desktop has been turned off. Click on restore Active Desktop if you wish to continue." This is happening so frequently that I am not enjoying using the computer for even short periods.

A. First, check to see if you have the correct installed Windows Me version of MMTASK by running the System File Checker (Click Start, then Run, and, in the Open box, type: sfc. Then click OK). Follow the options for checking the system files.

Next, check to see if your sound card is using the latest drivers. To identify your sound card, go to Control Panel, Sounds and Multimedia. Click the Hardware tab, select your sound card, click Properties, then the Drivers tab. Go to that vendor's Web site and check the Support area for the latest drivers for your sound card version.

Note to readers

I inadvertently left out a step to do a ScanDisk check in last week's column. Here is the proper procedure: Go to My Computer, right-click the C drive, click Properties, choose the Tools tab, then click the Error Checking button.

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