I have just found a nice new tool on my Windows XP.

If you know me, you know that like to download, edit and share music using Noteworthy Composer. Noteworthy uses MIDI to process and play music.

After a fierce battle to get Noteworthy to play sounds using XP, everthing was going swimmingly. Then I visited two sites and tried to listen to music. The sites were the Wilders' site and eFolkmusic. Right after that, Noteworthy MIDI stopped making sounds. I did the usual stuff - restarted, shut down completely, checked cables. Nothing worked. I checked my records, and none of the settings recommended by Noteworthy had changed.

I am convinced that the webmaster for one of those sites had written code that went into my computer and changed something, something that I could not find. In desperation I went into Windows Help, and under "Pick a Task" it offers to "undo changes to your computer with System Restore." I read what they had to say and decided to try it. I told it to restore my computer to what it was on April 24th, when Noteworthy was working. Windows XP went off and did it, and lo! when the computer restarted, Noteworthy was working again.

Thank goodness, because I'm trying to get music ready for my nephew's wedding, only two weeks away.

I'm never going to try an mp3 again; I don't care how sincere and folkmusicky a site seems to be.

Magic words: System Restore.