-- Reviewer Serdar Yegulalp discovered an odd behavior in Internet Explorer 3.0. Some people, receiving an error message upon submitting a form, use the browser's Back arrow to go back to the form, and then press the browser Refresh button to resubmit. But sometimes, IE then enters the URL sans CGI parameters, giving you a blank screen. If this happens, return to the form and resubmit, using the form's Submit button.

-- Last month, we told you how to use NTFSDOS and a parallel cable to retrieve files from a dead NT system. We've since found a different way to grab your files: The two hackers who developed NTFSDOS have written NTRecover V1.0, which allows you to manipulate files on a dead x86 NT system via a serial cable. You can get a free read-only version for copying files off a system and a paid version for read/write files at http://www.ntinternals.com/recover.htm. This method is slower than our parallel-cable idea, but it has the advantage of leaving the long filenames intact.

-- We recently provided a tip for using an Iomega Jaz drive to back up a whole Windows 95 installation (Notes from the Lab, March). That procedure required Iomega's Copy Machine utility (bundled with recent versions of the Jaz drive). As it turns out, you don't need the utility-or even a Jaz drive! Lab testing coordinator John J. Yacono found that you can use PartitionMagic's Partition Copy feature as a substitute for Copy Machine, freeing you to use any removable hard drive you want.

-- Do you have NT 4.0 but still need NT 3.51 on a couple of machines? If you add Service Pack 5SP5 to your NT 3.51 systems, you might find that every application starts complaining about a missing entry point in IMAGEHLP.DLL. The solution: Copy the IMAGEHLP.DLL file from one of your NT 4.0 systems to the SYSTEM32 subdirectory on the afflicted machine. (Note to the hacker's handbook: This solution appears to work with numerous NT DLLs.)

Windows Magazine, May 1997, page 94.