ItsGeekToMe.co

Q: I use Hotmail and would like to know how I can save messages to my hard-drive without doing Copy/Paste individually. Is there a site that can show me how to do this? Hotmail, itself, is not very helpful. Or at least the search function is not bringing up what I need.

– Crystal G.
Baker, Florida

A: I get this question a lot from users of web-based e-mail services.  It’s really something of a non-problem in my opinion.  The reason that Hotmail may not be of much help in performing this task because the whole point of webmail is so your e-mail is NOT located on one computer’s local hard drive.  It is stored “in the cloud” and thus can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer or compatible device.  Removing messages from the safety of the e-mail server to local storage has little benefit, but introduces several potential problems.  First of all, you can bet that your e-mail server is routinely backed up by the administrator, so your chances of losing something are slim.  Can you say the same of your local hard drive?  Then there’s the format in which you plan on saving the e-mail.  What will you use to store them, your word processor or Notepad?  These apps are not designed for holding e-mail.  Once downloaded, will the e-mails be searchable, like they are through your webmail provider?  Can they be sorted by sender, subject, and date, like they can online?  I’m betting the answer to all these is “no”, and I’m hoping you’re starting to see the true value of having e-mail online.  If your desire to download is strictly an issue of trying to stay organized, look into creating folders in your webmail account, and design a system that works for you.

All that having been said, even though it’s not the best idea, it is possible to store e-mail offline.   Unless you want to do the whole copy-every-email thing, about the only way to do this is to use e-mail client software, such as Outlook, Windows Live Mail, or Thunderbird.  These programs interact directly with the e-mail server, speak the same language, and can be configured to download your mail and either leave a copy on the server or not, as you choose.  Better still, they can be configured to synchronize with the messages on the server, which maintains your ability to view the messages from other devices, such as smart phones or tablet computers, without having to delete duplicate copies on every device.  If you delete the e-mail from one place, it’s automatically deleted everywhere.  These e-mail clients also provide offline versions of all the search and sort options I mentioned above.

Q: I was going through folders on a computer at work, and in several directories I noticed that the number of files shown in the directory listing was less than the number of files shown when I looked at the properties for the directory.  My system is configured to display hidden files, so they’re not hidden.  I think that some files got deleted.  Does Windows include deleted files in the count?

– John S.
Niceville, Florida

A: No, John, even though deleted files aren’t really deleted (see I.G.T.M. Issue #172, Nov 7, 2010) Windows does not include them in any file counts.  I suspect that even though you’re displaying hidden files, you’re still not displaying all files.  Windows also offers the ability to hide “System” files, which most people think of as files located in the Windows directory, but that’s not true in all cases.  For example, under certain circumstances Windows creates a custom folder image for directories, along with a file named desktop.ini, which is marked as a System file.  To test this on your computer, bring up Windows Explorer, and navigate to one of the directories in question.  Click the “Organize” menu, and select “Folder and search options”.  On the “View” tab, locate “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” and turn it OFF, then click “OK”.  If any System files are present, you’ll now see them with everything else, and hopefully your file counts will match.  By the way, viewing these files doesn’t really serve any purpose for most users, so you should turn the option to hide them back on when you’re done looking.