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Answer Line: Share Programs the Easy Way on a Multiuser PC

Give multiple users of a single PC access to any program; resume interrupted downloads at the point of failure; confirm that a used PC isn't stolen property; delete items from the Startup tab of Win 98's Msconfig; convert .gif files into .ico files.

Lincoln Spector

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Download, Interrupted

When something interrupts a file download in Internet Explorer, the second try always starts again from zero rather than from where the first attempt left off. Is there any way I can make IE resume interrupted downloads at the point where the first try failed?

Mohammed Osman, Toronto

Internet Explorer doesn't support resumed downloads, but plenty of download-management utilities do. These programs may provide this feature only when the site you're downloading from supports it--but luckily, most major download sites offer such support.

My favorite resume-capable download manager (taking price into consideration, of course), is the free, ad-supported version of SpeedBit's Download Accelerator Plus (the Premium version costs a steep $30). Once installed, DAP comes up whenever you click a download link in IE, Netscape, or Opera, and thereafter it controls the entire download (see FIGURE 1). SpeedBit says that the program can also improve download performance, though I didn't notice a change. You can download DAP from

DAP will resume downloads interrupted by anything other than a system crash. SpeedBit also offers a for-cost subscription feature--Always Resume--that continues downloads interrupted from any site, even ones that don't support resume.

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