• PC World
• »Storage

How should I archive files--on CDs, DVDs, floppies, flash drives, or a hard drive? Gerhard Staufenberg, Gold Canyon, Arizona

I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but no one knows how long specific media will last. You need confidence that hardware and software that can read your archive files will be around, too. I'd stick with popular, nonproprietary file formats, such as .bmp, .jpg, .mp3, .htm, .txt, and .pdf. And make sure any computer you buy can read your archives before you bag the old system.

Both CDs and DVDs are excellent choices for archival storage. See "Will My CD-R and DVD+R Discs Still Run in 10 Years?" for details.

Floppy disks, though, caught a train to Obsolescentville several years ago.

Flash drives and SD Cards have withstood teething puppies and trips through the wash, but no one expects them to last for more than about ten years. They support a limited number of writes and connections, depending on the type of memory they use. One of the new ruggedized flash drives, however, could be a good--albeit somewhat expensive--archiving option for both photos and documents; a package of 100 4.7GB DVD-Rs costs less than a single 4GB flash drive.

Your hard drive can be a convenient and reliable data repository, though you could accidentally overwrite a vital file.

Set Your Default E-mail

I don't use Outlook Express, but when I click an e-mail link on a Web page, Outlook Express opens. How do I change that? Ben Petkus, Newnan, Georgia

Your default e-mail setting affects not only e-mail links on Web pages but also such mail-aware applications as Microsoft Word and WinZip. To change your default e-mail program in Windows XP, open Internet Explorer 7, select Tools, Internet Options, and click the Programs tab; then choose your preferred program from the 'E-mail' drop-down menu, and click OK (see Figure 1). In Vista, click Start, Default Programs, Set your default programs, Windows Mail, select the program that you want to serve as the default for e-mail, choose Set this program as default, and click OK. Alternatively, you can specify which links and files the program should open by default. To do this, click Choose defaults for this program, make your selection, click Save, OK, and close the Default Programs applet. Under this arrangement, you could, for example, set Thunderbird as the default for mailto: links in Web pages, and Windows Mail as the default for .eml files.

Will your preferred client be among the selections? Any e-mail program installed on your computer should appear in the 'E-mail' list. But Web-based e-mail services may not be, and you have no way to set your default e-mail to a URL. Here are workarounds for Yahoo and Gmail.

Yahoo: Download and install Yahoo Instant Messenger, and then follow the instructions above. (If you're performing a custom installation, don't deselect 'Yahoo Browser Services'--this is what makes the tip work.) You'll find that 'Yahoo' now appears on the list.

Gmail: Download and install Gmail Notifier. Once the program is loaded, right-click the Notifier icon in your system tray (the area near your clock on the desktop) and select Options. Check Use Gmail for internet mailto: links, select your browser, and click OK. Issuing this set of instructions won't change your applications' default e-mail client, but it will redirect the browser mailto: links you click to open a new message in your Gmail account.

Send questions to answer@pcworld.com. Answer Line pays $50 for published items. Visit for additional Answer Line columns. You'll find Contributing Editor Lincoln Spector's humorous and other writings at www.thelinkinspector.com.