HOWTO: Screw up your PC

Here's one of the better correction notices I've read recently.

Money line: If you follow the original instructions in the newsletter, you could end up deleting all the files in your C drive.

Oops.

I hope anyone who tried to follow the directions in the newsletter had a recent backup.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION to December 10 edition of WXPnews: Don't try to delete those files!

A small slip of the fingers can make all the difference in the world, and in the last edition of WXPnews, I slipped up bigtime. The instructions for deleting the contents of your spam folder (or any other folder with a large number of files) in the XP Question Corner section (titled "How can I fix Windows Explorer Lockup Problem?") contain a potentially disastrous typo in line four, where "CD" was omitted from the line you should type.

If you follow the original instructions in the newsletter, you could end up deleting all the files in your C drive. The correct instructions are:

1. Click Start and then click Run
2. In the Run dialog box, enter cmd and press ENTER
3. In the command prompt window, type cd \ and press ENTER
4. In the command prompt window, type CD C:\SPAM and press ENTER
5. In the command prompt window, type del *.* and press ENTER
6. You will be asked if you're sure you want to delete all the files in the folder, type "y" (without the quotes) and press ENTER.

Be absolutely sure that the command line shows you're in the right folder (for example, SPAM). The command window should say something like: C:\>SPAM (or whatever the name of the folder is). If it just says C:\>, do not type the DEL command.

We apologize profusely for this error and hope it hasn't caused problems for anyone. When I saw the incorrect instructions, you can bet that I was completely mortified.

'Til next week,
Deb Shinder, Editor feedback@wxpnews.com