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Q&A / Patrick Marshall
Energy-saving features allow PC snooze, but you won't lose

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— Bob Borrell, Seattle

A. Fortunately, most computer systems these days not only come with hibernate and standby supported but also enabled.

The two are features of the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface, or ACPI. This power-management scheme allows the operating system to exercise control over power consumption of your computer and connected peripherals.

In Windows XP, if your computer goes into hibernate mode, the operating system saves an image of your desktop — including recording which applications and data files are open — then powers down your computer. When you power up again, your desktop is restored just as you left it.

With standby, the computer is not shut down entirely. Instead, only those devices you aren't using are powered down, whether it's your monitor, hard drive or other devices. Power is maintained to your computer memory so that no work is lost.

You can set your computer to automatically go into hibernate or standby mode after a specified period of time. If you have a laptop, you can set it to go into hibernate mode when your battery gets low to prevent data loss.

To access controls over hibernation and standby, go to the Control Panel and select Power Options.

Q. Can you tell me how might be the best way to hook up my Hewlett-Packard with XP to an old 386 with Windows 98? I use my 386 as a backup for my business information and programs on my HP and I would like to share files, accesses and save information from both.

— Elhoyt@comcast.net
 

A. I'm not sure what you mean by sharing "accesses." But if you simply want to connect the two computers so that you can share files, you can establish a simple peer-to-peer network workgroup. Connect the two computers with an Ethernet cable, first installing Ethernet network adapters if either computer is lacking one.

On the Windows 98 computer, go to your desktop and right-click on Network Neighborhood. Next, click on Properties. Then follow directions for joining a workgroup.

On the Windows XP computer, go to the Control Panel and select the System utility. Next, click on the Computer Name tab, then on the button marked "Network ID." Then follow directions for joining a workgroup.

Once you've completed this process you should be able to access shared directories by going to My Network Places in Windows Explorer.

By the way, you can quickly share a directory by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer and then selecting "Sharing and Security."

Bear in mind that if you keep your data backup in the same location as your primary data, you are susceptible to losing everything if, say, there is a fire or flood. You may want to adopt a different backup strategy that allows you to save a copy of your data in a remote location.

Q. We have a Gateway computer with Windows 98. We would like to know how to delete the Web addresses that appear in the Address bar. There are several we no longer have any use for.

— Rod Marriott

A . To clear the listing of Web addresses that appear in the Address bar in Internet Explorer, simply clear your History. There are several ways to do so. First, click on the History icon in the toolbar. When the History panel appears, you can right-click on any entry and select Delete.

Alternatively, click on the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Then click on the Clear History button if you want to clear all entries in the History. You can also specify the number of days you want Internet Explorer to keep Web sites in your History.

Questions for Patrick Marshall may be sent by e-mail to pmarshall@seattletimes.com or pgmarshall@pgmarshall.net, or by mail at Q&A/Technology, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.

More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists