Switch E-mail Addresses

What's the best way to notify people of a change in my primary e-mail address?

Joe Smith, Coos Bay, Oregon

Once the new address is active, send a notice from that mailbox to everyone you regularly communicate with via e-mail. While making the new address your primary one, keep the old address for a month or two. Check both regularly, but send mail exclusively from the new account. If any people send you mail at the old address, be sure to alert them to the change, but send that message from your new address.

Once you've gone a week or two without getting a new, pertinent message at the old account, cancel it.

Record Directly from a DVD Without Added Equipment

In the October issue's Answer Line, I recommended using a cable to record sound from a commercial DVD (go to "Synchronize Files Easily With Windows' Briefcase" and scroll down to find the tip)--this makes a legitimate backup. Girish Modi of Montgomery, Alabama, wrote to tell me that he can record sound off a DVD with Roxio Easy Media Creator's Sound Editor program. Some PCs allow you to directly record whatever is currently playing through their sound system. (Other sound cards intentionally disable this feature to protect copyrights.) To see if your system can do this, launch your recording software and look for a recording-source option named Default Mapping Device, Master, Stereo Mix, or something similar. Then see if it works with protected content, such as a commercial DVD.

Send questions to answer@pcworld.com. You'll find Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector's humorous and other writings at www.thelinkinspector.com .