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Windows XP reserves 20% of the available bandwidth (i.e. 20% of your Internet available speed) to itself and that is one of the reasons that you will never reach your full download speed under this operating system. In this short tutorial we will teach you how to fix this and improve your Internet speed. Please notice that this tip only works on Windows XP Professional. Also some people claim that this trick is pure myth. So I leave it here for you guys to test and see if it really increases your Internet performance or not.

In order to fix this just follow these easy steps:

1. Click on Start, Run, gpedit.msc, .

2. On the window that will show up, click on Administrative Templates, Network, QoS Packet Scheduler.
3. On the right side pane, double click Limit reservable bandwidth. Change this configuration from “not configured” to “Enabled” and the reduce Bandwidth limit (%) from 20% to zero
4. Click on Ok and restart your computer.

It seems that Windows XP reserves 20% of the available bandwidth even if this option is not configured and even if you don’t use QoS (Quality of Service) feature (which is disabled by default).

1. Go to
http://www.google.com

2. Click "images"
3. Fill in "bikes, flowers, cars" or any other word.
4. You will get a page with a lot of images thumbnailed.
5. Now delete the URL on the address bar
6. Copy the script down here, and paste it in your address bar!

javascript:R= 0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI= document.images ; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i

IE7 features built-in phishing filter, tabbed browsing, QuickTabs, shrink-to-fit printing, easily customizable search box, CSS improvements, expendable via add-ons, and is the only browser with native support Extended Validation SSL Certificates that help prevent online fraud. Since its release, several changes and enhancements have also been made on IE7 for Windows XP:
The menu bar is now visible by default.
The Internet Explorer 7 online tour has updated how-to’s. Also, the “first-run” experience includes a new overview.
Included a new MSI installer that simplifies deployment for IT administrators in enterprises.
Download Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP and 2003 from Get It Now page. .

Chances are over the cause of time you have used many email addresses to communicate with friends, such as those given by your school, college or company, or even some age-old e-mail addresses that you no longer used as you prefer new e-mail address as preference changes. It’s also highly likely you only want to register one Facebook account with your main email address so that you can connect with all your friends, ex or current coursemates, colleagues and family members from one place.So now what if you receive an invitation from somebody to add you as a friend on Facebook, however, the invitation request is sent to your other email address, which is not the email used to register Facebook. The cases like this is not unexpected, as your old or alternative email addressees different from the one in Facebook may reside in friends’ address books or contact list as Facebook retrieves the email to automatically send you invitation to join.
Hearing from friends especially some long lost or no contact friends is always a happy news. Problem is that when click on invitation to accept the add as friend request, you have to register a new Facebook account with that email in order to add the request sender as friend. Attempting to login to existing Facebook account to check for any new invitation will result in nil invite, and the invitation page loaded by link in email when logged in is lost or failed, and simply got redirect back to Facebook homepage without error mesage.
So how to transfer the invite sent to other mail address to the one registered in Facebook, and add the sender whose invite addressed to wrong email as friend? Facebook does not have a feature to allow users to add, define or associate alternative email address other than the main registered email, so that when somebody send invites to these addresses, it will automatically match to your profile. So Facebook has no mean to know that the another email is your alternative email, which also belongs to you and should link to your Facebook profile. So the workaround is to search for your friend who sent the invite to wrong address and request to add him or her to your Facebook profile instead.
The easy way is to search for friend’s first name, last name, or email address (this is another annoying part in invite received, as it won’t show the actual email address of the sender, so you have to dig your own address book) in Facebook. If you friend has common name such as David, Michael, James, John, Robert, Mary, Linda, Patricia, Smith, Johnson, Wilson, Jackson, Thomas, White, Moore, Davis, Martin and etc., the search results probably run into hundreds if not thousands of profiles in Facebook. If it’s impossible to find your friend by searching due to factor above, or another reason been your peer doesn’t put his or her real name in the profile, here’s another hack to easily locate his or her profile in Facebook.
The Facebook invitation URL sent to you in the email has the format similar to the following:
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=XXXXXXXXX&k=YYYYYYYYYY&r&v=2
The XXXXXXXXX after the i variable is actually the Facebook user profile ID. With this information, you can visit straight away to the your friend’s profile by attaching the ID number (XXXXXXXXX) to the following URL of Facebook user profile location:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=XXXXXXXXX
Of course, XXXXXXXXX is just a mask and you should get the correct profile ID from the invitation email you received. Once the profile page is loaded, click on the Add as Friend button. Wait for your friend to accept you as his or her friend, and simply discard the invitation email you received.

Sometimes you may accidentally hit the delete button and forget that there is an extremely important document inside the deleted folder. You may panic and worry. Anyway, now with Recuva, you can recover your deleted file.
Recuva (pronounced “recover”) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!Recuva is available for free download now in beta version. The recovery process is easy: Firstly you choose a drive to scan for the deleted files. The scanning result will be shown in a list. You will select the files to be recovered and proceed with the recovery action.

Friendster sucks? As with MySpace, Friendster account users especially young children and innocent girls who upload some sexy yet pretty photos to Friendster and grant the whole world to view the pictures, also expose to the risks of low piracy, sex predators, sex maniacs. If you want to make yourself more secure, and feel that maintaining Friendster account is complete waste of time, here’s the guide on how you can delete or cancel your Friendster account (related: Delete MySpace profile).
Login to your Friendster account. Click on “Settings” located on the top right corner of web page. Scroll down to the bottom of the “Settings” page, and then click on “Cancel Account” link. A new page will load. Scroll down to the middle of the page. At “Cancellation Form:” section, fill in the following fields details: Email address: Enter the email address you use to login to Friendster. Password: Enter the password you use to login to Friendster. Optional: Check and select or state the reason why you want to leave Friendster from the selection and options or text field given. Check (tick) on the check box “Yes, I want to cancel my Friendster account” verification. Click on “proceed” button and your Friendster account will be deleted. Note that the deletion or cancellation of Friendster profile or account is permanent and irreversible. You won’t be able to revert or retrieve back the account as the data is permanently deleted, so impossible for Friendster to reactivate or reinstate the profile.
If you screen still show you’re logged in after deletion, simply refresh the web page.

You have some porno photos that downloaded to your office PC. You have deleted them after viewing. But you forgot to clean your recycle bin and your boss found them?.
Ever want to totally remove a file from your computer? When you delete a file by pressing the ?Delete? key, a copy of the file is moved to the recycle bin. Anyone who opens the Recycle Bin can easily find your files. So to prevent files from being deleted to the Recycle Bin, select the file you wish to delete, hold down the Shift Key, and then press ?Delete?. The file will be deleted permanently without going to Recycle Bin. You will not be able to retrieve the file from the Recycle Bin anymore.

If you think that tabbed browsing feature in Internet Explorer 7 or IE7 sucks, or don’t like to browse the web in tabs and prefer windows instead, or feel that opening too many tabs will drain the system resources, you can actually disable the tabbed browsing support in IE7.
To disable the tabs within IE7 window:
Launch IE7. Click on Tools, then select Internet Options. Click on General tab. Locate the Tabs section and then click on Settings button. Uncheck “Enable Tabbed Browsing”. Click OK till exit. If you want to enable tabbed browsing in IE7 after disable it, simply repeat the above procedures and check the “Enable Tabbed Browsing” to re-enable tabs in IE7.
But mind you, tabbed browsing is one major feature of IE7 other than security, and without it, it may be wiser to uninstall the resource hungry IE7 and use back the faster and speedier IE6 (Internet Explorer 6).

automatically generate thumbnail preview for images, pictures, photos, videos, HTML pages and other media clips with format supported by the operating system. The image or media preview is shown in the Details pane on the left of Windows Explorer, or when the files are viewed in Thumbnails view.However, some users may not want or prefer the automatic preview and thumbnail generation when browsing files list. The preview hide the icon of the files, and doesn’t allow users to instant know the format or extension of the files, such as whether a video is of .avi, .wmv or .mpg format. Beside, the process to show the thumbnail preview may slow down the file listing process when opening folder with video files. Beside, the preview on no codec or corrupted movie or video clip (i.e. no index from a partial download) may cause system problems such as Windows XP stops responding or freezing with 100% CPU utilization, and prevent users from deleting, renaming or moving the file until the file is completely loaded. The error happens because Windows needs a proper codec in order to correctly and validly create a thumbnail for video media. Without codec, or codec is broken or buggy will have problem.
To turn off, remove or disable video and media thumbnail preview in Windows XP, and fix above issues relating to video (AVI) problems, simply issue the following command in a Command Prompt window. To open Command Prompt window, type “Cmd” in Start -> Run box.
regsvr32 /u shmedia.dll
It’s important to note that once the command above is run, the thumbnail preview will be disabled and will not be shown or displayed for all video, movie and other media files. And, users also lose the ability to see the summary properties in the tooltip and file properties dialog for AVI, WMA, WMV, ASF and WAV files.
To re-enable, or turn off the media preview again, use the following command:
regsvr32 shmedia.dll

Sometimes due to our carelessness, we might accidentally delete some important digital photos. That might be the only copy of your important and memorable photos such as your wedding or graduation photos, travel snapshots, naked photos of your boyfriend when he was three, etc. Is there any way to recover your digital photos or are there any recovery tools to rectify your carelessness and get back the deleted photos? There are various ways to recover your invaluable possessions. Amongst them, one of the recovery methods is via Thumbs.db file.Thumbs.db file is a database file that stores a cache for Windows Explorer’s thumbnail view. Windows keeps thumbnails of miniature graphics files in the Thumbs.db file in each directory that contains pictures or photo in various formats such as PDF, GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIF and HTM. The thumbnail cache improves significantly the speed of displaying thumbnails as new thumbnails need not be created every time the folder is viewed; most importantly, this file can help you to recover your deleted photos.
Thumbs.db is a hidden file and you can only see it when you have enabled “show hidden files and folders”. Go to Windows Explorer, Tools -> Folder Options > View Tab and enable “Show hidden files and folders”. From the View Tab, you also need to make sure that you have turned on the thumbnail caching. Be sure that you don’t check the box next to “Do not cache thumbnails”. By doing the aforesaid, when you use Windows Explorer to view the contents of a folder in “Thumbnail” or “Filmstrip”, Thumbs.db file will be generated and you can use this Thumbs.db file to recover your deleted photos. This is because deleting images from a folder does not remove or erase the thumbnail from the Thumbs.db database cache.
To recover your deleted photos from Thumbs.db, you need to seek assistance from some Thumbnail database viewer programs. These programs will allow you to view thumbnail cache in Thumbs.db files. One of these programs is Thumbs.DB Viewer. Thumbs DB Viewer allows you to open Thumbs.db file and get back the photo or image from the database. Having done that, since Thumbs.db only keep miniature images, the quality of the images recovered from Thumbs.db tends to have lower resolution. You might need to use some photo editor tools to touch up your photo. Thumbs.DB Viewer Version 1.2 is available for free trial. Download Link.
Screenshot of THUMBS.DB VIEWER 1.2
The software allows displaying Thumbs.db database records as well as the miniature graphics generated. You can view images in full size or as the best fit for program’s window; rotate images right or left by 90 degrees; using a heuristic algorithm, the program can also search swap and hibernation files for a JPG graphic file.

There are many possible way to turn off or turn on User Access Control (UAC) in Windows Vista, which frequently pop up a confirmation dialog window to asking for permissions to continue a task which requires elevated administrator rights. Normally UAC cannot be enabled or disabled by using GUI-based Control Panel. For programmers or developers, it may be useful to be able to enable or disable UAC by using CLI (command line interface) commands, which can be used to automate tasks in batch script.The ability to enable or disable UAC from command prompt is actually using a trick to turn off or on UAC by using registry key. Simply open command prompt window and run the following command:

To Disable UAC
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

To Enable UAC
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k %windir%\System32\reg.exe ADD HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System /v EnableLUA /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
After the command, computer needs to be restarted to the change to be effective.

Ability to hibernate is enabled by default on every Windows Vista installation. If you have disable and turn off hibernation feature, accidentally delete hiberfil.sys using Hibernation File Cleaner of Disk Cleanup tool, or you just simply cannot and unable to find the Hibernate button to put the computer into hibernation state, you can re-enable or try to enable and turn on the hibernation functionality in Vista again with the following command. In Windows Vista, users no longer able to enable or disable hibernation via desktop graphical user interface.
How to Enable and Turn On Hibernation Feature in VistaClick Start button, then type Cmd in the Start Search box. In the search results list, right click on “Cmd” and click on Run as Administrator item on contextual menu. In the command prompt window, type the following command: powercfg -h on

To upload Video Clips To Multiple Sites You can use any of the following methods :

Hey!Spread

At Hey!Spread You only have to upload the video once and HeySpread will automatically distribute the video clip to the rest of video sharing networks - Sevenload, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Google Videos, Yahoo Videos, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Photobucket, Metacafe, Revver, Veoh, Vsocial, Vimeo and Putfile.

If your favourite video sharing network is not currently supported by HeySpread (such as FLURL), beg them to support it as soon as possible!

You don’t have to open an account with HeySpread, but you need to provide them the login credentials of your respective video sharing accounts. The video clip can be either uploaded from hard disk or a hyperlink of the video at any HeySpread supported networks.

Having says that, HeySpread could on the fly propagate all video clips from one network to another. As such, there is no need to download the video and upload again to HeySpread!

TubeMogul

TubeMogul allows you to follow the trend of your online videos.The cross-network tracking tools means that you can accumulate data from various sources for comparative purposes. There are six default networks available with TubeMogul, including YouTube, Revver, MetaCafe, MySpace, Yahoo and AOL. You can track individual videos or video publishers as well as other metrics like comments, average rating, and a list of top videos. You can create entire groups of content to track, and this works for both videos and publishers as well. This data is presented to you in charts that track online performance over time, and provides aggregated analytics for your research purposes. There is also the option of emailing your data or exporting it to Excel.

And it works just like Hey!Spread. You upload the video to TubeMogul, then enter the Title plus Description and finally pick video sites where you want to deploy your videos.

Links:

Hey!Spread

TubeMogul

To add a graphic to your email signature in Yahoo! Mail: 1. Access Yahoo! Mail wit Windows Internet Explorer. 2. Select Mail Options from the navigation bar. 3. Follow the Signature link. 4. If the HTML toolbar is not yet visible, click Color and Graphics. 5. Make sure View HTML Source is checked. 6. Insert the image using the HTML tag. To place an image at the left of your signature, insert
'
');
//-->
7. Make sure the image is accessible on a web server and reasonably small in proportions (not higher than about 75 pixels). 8. Uncheck View HTML Source to test your signature. 9.Click Save.

Did you know that you can directly access your Yahoo! by creating a shortcut on your desktop?1. Right click on your desktop and create a new shortcut.2. Enter a link that you like below and replace "MYUSERNAME" with your username and "MYPASSWORD" with your password. Click Next.3. Type a name for the shortcut (Yahoo Mail, for example). Click Finish.As simple as that!What is this for? It eliminates your having to retype your password everytime you access links to your Yahoo!CODEMy Yahoo!http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...//my.yahoo.comYahoo! Mail:http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...mail.yahoo.comCompose Yahoo! Mail:http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...mail.yahoo.comYahoo! Address:http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...hoo.com/yab/usYahoo! Notepad:http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...epad.yahoo.comYahoo! Briefcase:http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...case.yahoo.comYahoo! Groupshttp://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...oups.yahoo.comYahoo! Calendar:http://login.yahoo.com/config/login?...ndar.yahoo.com

This is not a trick; but its a useful information that i founded, and like it to share with you all.
Google started in January, 1996 as a research project at Stanford University, by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 years old and 23 years old respectively. The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. In fact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life. Google is a mathematical term 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasne. Gmail was used internally for nearly 2 ears prior to launch to the public. They discovered there was approximately 6 types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these 6. It consisted of over 450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data centers around the world. The Google search engine receives about a billion search requests per day. Google's index of web pages is the largest in the world, comprising of eight billions(2005) of web pages. Google searches this immense collection of web pages often in less than half a second. Google has a tradition of creating April Fool's Day jokes - such as Google MentalPlex, which allegedly featured the use of mental power to search the web. Some thought the announcement of Gmail in 2004 around April Fool's Day was a joke. Google receives daily search requests from all over the world, including Antarctica. Users can restrict their searches for content in 35 non-English languages. To date, no requests have been received from beyond the earth's orbit, but Google has a Klingon interface just in case. Google has a world-class staff of 9,378 full-time employees known as Googlers. The company headquarters is called the Googleplex located at Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway. Google translates billions of HTML web pages into a display format for WAP and i-mode phones and wireless handheld devices. "I feel lucky" is nearly never used. It was a comfort button which actually takes to the first web page returned by the search results. Google use the unique 20%/5% rules. That is ,if at least 20% of people use a feature, then it will be included. At least 5% of people need to use a particular search preference before it will make it into the 'Advanced Preferences'. Employees in Google are encouraged to use 20% of their time working on their own projects. That's why we have GMail,Google News and Orkut now. Google Groups comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world's largest collection of messages or the equivalent of more than a terabyte of human conversation. The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank™, and assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that's not why it's called PageRank. It's actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page. Googlers are multifaceted. One operations manager, who keeps the Google network in good health is a former neurosurgeon. One software engineer is a former rocket scientist. And the company's chef formerly prepared meals for members of The Grateful Dead and funkmeister George Clinton. Google’s Orkut is very popular in Brazil and India. It was the brainchild of a Google engineer who was given free reign to run with it. In a 2006 report of the world's richest people, Forbes reported that Sergey Brin was #26 with a net worth of $12.9 billion, and Larry Page was #27 with a net worth of $12.8 billion

Do you know that if your gmail a/c is maststuff@gmail.com then mast.stuff@gmail.com is same as MaSt.StUfF@gmail.com is same as m.a.s.t.s.t.u.f.f@gmail.com
Actually gmail server doesn't recognize DOT(.) characterAnd another name of ur mail account wd kaps.cool@googlemail.com
And this googlemail.com can also be used to open gmail.com at places where gmail is banned.Note: This only works when you are sending mails, Not for logging into your account.

Now Friends the very first Trick Of Gmail that I Love the most.So, it goes like this, say you have a email id maststuff@gmail.com
If Your Friends wants to send you a mail then they will send it at this email address.
Now, Let there be three friends of yours, there may be many, just talk about three at present.RamShyamGhanshyam
If you want to give your friends a unique email id For Ram It could be "maststuff+Ram@gmail.com"
For Shyam It could be "maststuff+Shyam@gmail.com"
For Ghanshyam It could be "maststuff+ghanshyam@gmail.com"
So, its simple you could add anything after the initial mail by adding a "+" sign.
As all these Email Addresses maststuff+Ram@gmail.com, maststuff+Shyam@gmail.com, & maststuff+ghanshyam@gmail.com are the same as mastitrain@gmail.com
If you have a girlfriend then impress her that how much you love her by showing her name mail id.
Note: This only works when you are sending mails, Not for logging into your account.
Enjoy.....

Code: +("index of") +("/ebooks""/book") +(chmpdfziprar) +Topic of the book To Find a particular eBook file Try this query: Code: allinurl: +(rarchmzippdftgz) TheTitle of the book

WARNING: I hold no responsibility for what you do via the information supplied here...this is for educational purpose only , use at your own Red you have been warned. Even though the hard part is removed, Only fun portion is left here...
Copy & paste this in your GOOGLE ADDRESS BAR, hit enter, To get pages of rapidshare links... For applications:http://www.google.com/search?q=+.rar...&start=30&sa=NFor movies:http://www.google.com/search?q=+.wmv...&start=10&sa=NFor music:http://www.google.com/search?q=+.mp3...start=250&sa=N
For Mp3
After "mp3" give a space an' type the artist, album, or whatever

To disable the stupid feature in Win XP which tries to send a report to Microsoft every time a program crashes you will have to do this: 1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click on System.
4. Then click on the Advanced tab
5. Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
6. Select Disable error reporting.
7. Click OK

Lots of web sites have disabled the right click function of the mouse button... it's really, really annoying. This is done so that you don't steal (via right-click->save picture) their photos or images or any other goodies. Unfortunately, it disables ALL right-click functionality: copy, paste, open in new window. It's easy to change, assuming your using IE 6: Click "Tools"->"Internet Options" Click the "Security" tab Click "Custom Level" Scroll down to the "Scripting" section Set "Active Scripting" to "disable" Click "Ok" a couple of times. You'll probably want to turn this back to "enable" when your done... 'cause generally the javascript enhances a website.

1. Gather your image and the files you wish to lodge into it. Here I have a fun.txt which I will hide inside my maststuff.jpg. 2. Add the files you want to hide into a new RAR archive. (so fun.txt.rar created newly) 3. Open Command Prompt and go to the folder where your files are located, e.g., 'C:\hidden'. 5. At command prompt type 'copy /b maststuff.jpg + fun.txt.rar mast.jpg' (without quotes). (maststuff.jpg is the picture I want to show, fun.txt.rar is the file to be hidden, and mast.jpg is the file which contains both. 6. Now test the mast.jpg by double clicking it, and verifying it still opens. 7. Now try opening that same mast.jpg file from
menu:file->open of WinRar.
It will show the original hidden file fun.txt. Done !!!!! Now mast.jpg is a simple JPEG for others, but it contains a secret file fun.txt for you !!!!!!!!!

To remove the shutdown button from the logon screen in WinXP and 2K, use regedit and navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\policies\system change the value of the dword 'shutdownwithoutlogon' to '0'. exit regedit. that's it!

This will remove Microsoft Instant Messenger (MSN). This worked in WinXP Pro, but may work on others....

So, go to START-->RUN copy and paste the following:
QUOTE
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove


Clink ok. No more msn process

Keep Folders Hidden

first create a new folder somewhere on your hard drive
when you name it hold down "Alt" and press "0160" this will create and invisible space so it will appear as if it has no name.
then right click in and select "Properties" select the tab "customize" and select "change icon" scroll along and you should a few blank spaces click on any one and click ok when you have saved the settings the folder will be invisible to hide all your personal files.

Keep Files Private

If you want to encrypt the contents of an individual file or directory, Windows XP Pro will do the trick, provided you enable NTFS on your hard drive. To encrypt a file, right-click on it to bring up the Properties window. Click on the Advanced button, then in the Advanced Attributes dialog box click on Encrypt contents to secure data. This will encrypt the file (using either DES, which employs a 56-bit key on each 64-bit block of data, or 3DES, which uses a 56-bit key three times on each 64-bit block of data), and it will provide a certificate just for you. This certificate is key; if you reinstall Windows or otherwise lose your user account, your access to the encrypted files will be gone, too. You need to export your certificates to back them up: For detailed instructions, search on export certificate in Windows Help.

Windows XP does not require you to enter your password when you open the encrypted file. Once you log on to a session, encrypted files are available for you—and anyone who walks up to your system—to view.

Windows XP Home doesn't support this method. Both XP Home and XP Pro, however, let you create password-protected compressed files. To do this, right-click on the desired file and choose Send To | Compressed (zipped) Folder. Open the resulting folder and select Add a Password from the File menu; delete the original file. Note that this encryption is relatively weak. It should dissuade casual users but won't put up much of a fight against someone determined to hack it apart.

How To Set Up Proxies In Your Browser

This is a small Tutor - try it out!

===================================
How to set up proxies in your browser, (!!!!be anonymous and make the passes last longer...!!!!!!
===================================
In Internet Explorer
===================================
Click "Tools", then "Internet Options", the in the "connections" Tab, click the "LAN Setup" Button in the bottom. There is a "Proxy Servers", tick the "Use a proxy....." and then enter the proxy in the bigger textbox and the port (the part that comes after the ":") in the smaller textbox. Hit okay, and then go to

www.whatismyip.com
to see if the proxy is now your IP.
===================================
In OPERA
===================================
Click "Files", then "Preferences", then "Network", then click the button "Proxy Servers", tick "HTTP", fill in with the proxy:port, click okay and that's it! Don't forget to check with

www.whatismyip.com
In Firefox
===================================
Tools -> Options
Then click the General Icon
Then the "Connection Settings..." button
Then click the "manually configure proxies" radio button, and enter the proxy address and port in the HTTP Proxy area.
Don't forget to check with

www.whatismyip.com

www.proxy4free.com
www.safeproxy.org
www.megaproxy.com
www.guardster.com
www.silenter.com
www.anonymizer.com

Happy Anonymous surfing!


To be clear: if I give you 255.255.255.255:8080, that means 255.255.255.255 is the proxy and 8080 is the port
To Optain Fresh and new proxies,u can alvays check Google...

at command prompt just type
dir /ah
if the list is too long u can use
dir /ah/p/w

how to search google for RAPIDSHARE links


If you wanna find some apps, files etc on rapidshare.de via google, do the following.

Paste this into the google search window (not the adress bar):

site:rapidshare.de -filetype:zip OR rar daterange:2453402-2453412

* this searches the site rapidshare.de for any file that is rar or zip, and
has been indexed between 1-11 February.

dvd site:rapidshare.de -filetype:zip OR rar daterange:2453402-2453412

* this is the same search but it specifically searches for "dvd" with the same
search criteria, so any app posted with the word dvd in it will be found.

There are mainly three criteria to keep in mind when doing this search.

1. site: your site of choice to search

2. filetype: filetypes you wanna search,if you put a "OR" after the first
filetype you can add more.

When Good Discs Go Bad

Ever wonder what makes a disc bad? Here's why they vary in quality, and why you should worry about the discs you've entrusted with your data.

Burning CDs and DVDs is the easy part.

Knowing your data will be there when you go back to it days, months, or even years later--well, that's a bit harder. Not all discs are created equal, as Fred Byers, information technology specialist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, can attest.

Byers is part of a team heading up an independent study of DVD media quality. Based on the first wave of testing results, the situation is murky at best.

"We've found the quality varies, depending upon the type of dye used to make the write-once discs and [on the] the manufacturer," reports Byers. Even discs from the same manufacturer, with the same brand, can test differently, Byers adds. "But there was more of a significant difference when you compared discs between manufacturers," he explains.

DVD Media Quality: The First Tests

In the first phase of testing, completed late last year, NIST focused on the most popular media: write-once, single-layer DVD-R and +R discs. Rewritable discs will be tested in the second phase, slated to start this fall. An interesting footnote to the study's methodology: NIST uses media purchased off store shelves and via Web sites; and while researchers are tracking the media by brand, they are not tracking the specific factory source of the media tested. For example, a given manufacturer's discs could originate from different production lines, which could account for a variation in disc quality by the same manufacturer.

Hearing that there's a difference between the generic, unbranded 100-spindle value-pack of media purchased online and the branded offerings you might find on a Best Buy store shelf is not surprising. After all, as David Bunzel, president of the Optical Storage Technology Association, points out: "With a generic product, there's no consumer recourse. It's buyer beware."

If a disc isn't properly manufactured, the consequences can be dire. At best, the disc will fail immediately during the burn process; this is a best-case scenario because then you know from the start that the disc is faulty. At worst, you may get an abundance of errors during the burn process. These errors won't interrupt the burning process, and since write-once and rewritable DVD media have built-in error correction to compensate for scratches and other abnormalities on the disc (as do their CD cousins), any errors will be virtually invisible to you. You'll only know they're there if you use a disc diagnostics program, such as those offered by Ahead Software or Plextor. Nor will these errors affect the playback of the disc--initially.

Down the road, however, such invisible-to-the-eye errors can reduce the effectiveness of a DVD's built-in error correction so that if some other issue develops on your disc, such as a scratch, you could end up with an unreadable disc when you go back to it months or years later.

But what would cause such a wide disparity in media quality between branded discs from the same vendor?

"We don't know why it's different--it could be a different dye, it could be a different manufacturing process," notes Byers. "Manufacturers are constantly trying to improve their dye formulas--in theory improving the disc."

Nonetheless, at the same time, competitive forces are driving manufacturers to find ways to economize on production costs. And cost-cutting measures can result in discs that don't perform as well as those generated during an earlier production run, either in terms of failing outright or not burning at the maximum possible speed on a given DVD drive. "It varies over time, as the output changes," Byers says.

Brand Disparity

As for the disparity between brands that NIST found, the distinguishing factors come down to quality control and the dyes used in disc production. Declining to name names, Byers points out that "some manufacturers make their own discs, and some purchase them from someplace else--which opens you to variations in the manufacturing plant, or changes in the source [of that media]."

Vendors like Maxell and Verbatim manufacture discs on their own production lines, as do Asian manufacturers CMC Magnetics, RiData, Taiyo Yuden, and others; other name brands contract with a third-party manufacturer to produce discs to their own specs; and still others just buy third-party-produced media wholesale, without imposing their own set of quality controls on the media production.

The intricacies of disc production and quality control aren't the only variables that seem to affect media. More surprising is the number of discs that seem to have a propensity for specific hardware.

"One thing we've found in compatibility testing [of DVD-R and +R media] is that it's a relationship between a specific brand of media and the manufacturer of the hardware," observes Byers. "There was no one drive that played every single type of compatible media, and there was no one media brand that played perfectly in every drive."

And, he adds, sounding as frustrated as any consumer might, "You can't say there's a clear, delineated set of reasons as to why."

A Grading System?

One of the most common questions I hear is, "What's a good brand of media to buy?" DVD and CD media are so commonplace nowadays that it's easy to forget the complexities that go into producing them. And if anything in that production process is off, it could, in time, affect the integrity of the data you've burned to a disc.

"It's very tough to answer that kind of question, because there are so many variables," says Byers. "You don't get 100 percent yield when you manufacture these discs. We can talk about the materials that produce a good disc, but it also has to do with the manufacturing process. So, just to say the materials to look for doesn't necessarily relate to it being a better disc." The same is true vice versa.

So how can you know that the media you're using will last you for the duration, so those archived photos will still be there when you go back to a disc 20 years from now--or more?

For the moment, you can't. All DVD and CD vendors make vague claims about disc life expectancy being somewhere between 60 and 100 years--when the discs are treated with care and stored properly.

But NIST's Byers is seeking to change that. At an OSTA meeting in San Francisco this week, Byers is proposing an industry-wide grading system to indicate disc quality.

Byers is motivated by the desire to see a uniform mechanism in place to guide institutions and individuals who'll be storing data, music, videos, and images for long periods of time. "They need to be confident in their purchasing, so they can plan for their strategies in storing their information," Byers says. "Long-term storage has different meanings: For some, 30 years might be enough. For others, 50 or 75 years might be archive, or long-term, quality."

Longevity

Under Byers's proposal, a series of tests would be developed to determine whether a DVD would last for a given number of years. "If you were to purchase a disc in a store with a grade that indicates it has passed a test to last X number of years, it removes a lot of uncertainty for the consumer, and it can save some expense in premature migration [to a new storage technology], or loss of data because they waited too long [and the disc was no longer playable]," he says.

Although some archivists--both individual and professional--are concerned about whether today's digital storage mediums will be readable 50 or 100 years from now, Byers believes the bigger concern for users will be when to migrate their data to the next technology, "before the existing technology is obsolete."

The Disc Rot Myth

Media obsolescence isn't the only thing people fear after committing a personal library's worth of data to CDs and DVDs. But some worries--namely, fear of disc rot--are not fully warranted.

Like a bad seed, the myth of disc rot self-perpetuates, cropping up every now and again as a sudden and mortal threat to your copious collection of prerecorded and self-created discs.

The myth was once rooted in fact. It is true that back in the 1980s, with the first generation of prerecorded audio CDs, the edges of the discs were not always sealed properly, which allowed moisture to get into the disc. Replicated, prerecorded discs use aluminum for the reflective layer; when moisture came into contact with the aluminum on prerecorded discs, explains Byers, it in turn oxidized, causing the aluminum to become dull. "That's where the term 'rot' started," he says.

But that problem was quickly identified and overcome. "The manufacturers learned what was going on, so now the edges of discs are sealed with a lacquer," according to Byers. Though the problem is typically associated with CDs, Byers notes that the potential for interaction with oxygen is the same with both CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs.

The so-called rot issue does not apply to recordable discs. For one thing, recordable optical media do not use aluminum; instead, they use silver, and very rarely gold, or a silver-gold alloy, for the reflective layer. "If the silver comes into contact with sulfates [i.e., pollution, or high humidity], it could affect the silver, but the likelihood of that is less than the likelihood of moisture coming into contact with the aluminum on prerecorded discs," says Byers.

Enduring Myth

The term rot has persisted, however inaccurately, as a means of identifying a plethora of problems with optical discs. "If you get a faulty disc and see a problem that you can visually see, you call it rot, but it could be the way the disc was manufactured," says Byers. "Or if it was subjected to extreme moisture and that moisture came into contact with the aluminum, it could be that the reflectivity has changed. It's not really rot, it's oxidation of aluminum. It should be a rare event on a disc, unless it's defective."

Beyond the realm of defective discs, improper handling can cause otherwise good discs to go bad. Since there's little protection between the label side of a CD and the data layer itself, "scratches on the label side can scratch the metal, and that will ruin the data," says Byers. It's not an issue for DVDs, though, since the dye layer is sandwiched between two plastic layers.

Byers observed a similar problem occurring with press-on labels: "For long-term storage, we recommend not using press-on labels on CDs; when these start to dry up, they can peel the metal right up, damaging data."

Change the CHKDSK countdown time
When you schedule CHKDSK to run at the next boot, the system will prompt you to press a key to cancel the operation while CHKDSK is running. The system will display a countdown during that cancel period. The default value is 10 seconds. To Change this open up Regedit and locate:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\AutoChkTimeOut
You can change the value to anything from zero to 259,200 seconds (3 days). With a timeout of zero, there is no countdown and you cannot cancel the operation

--ACRONYMS--
DOS = Disk Operating System, or MS-DOS
MSIE = Microsoft Internet Explorer
TIF = Temporary Internet Files (folder)
HD = Hard Drive
OS = Operating System
FYI = For Your Information

1)SEEING IS BELIEVING
No. Enabling Windows Explorer to "show all files" does not show the files in mention. No. DOS does not
list the files after receiving a proper directory listing from root. And yes. Microsoft intentionally
disabled the "Find" utility from searching through one of the folders.

Oh, but that's not all.

To see for yourself simply do as you would normally do to clear your browsing history. Go to Internet
Options under your Control Panel. Click on the [Clear History] and [Delete Files] buttons. (Make sure
to include all offline content.)

So, has your browsing history been cleared? One would think so.

These are the names and locations of the "really hidden files":

c:\windows\history\history.ie5\index.dat
c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\index.dat
If you have upgraded MSIE several times, they might have alternative names of mm256.dat and
mm2048.dat, and may also be located here:

c:\windows\tempor~1\
c:\windows\history\
Not to mention the other alternative locations under:

c:\windows\profiles\%user%\...
c:\windows\application data\...
c:\windows\local settings\...
c:\windows\temp\...
c:\temp\...
(or as defined in your autoexec.bat.)

FYI, there are a couple other index.dat files that get hidden as well, but they are seemingly not very
important. See if you can find them.

2)IF YOU HAVE EVER USED MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER
1) Shut your computer down, and turn it back on.
2) While your computer is booting keep pressing the [F8] key until you are given an option screen.
3) Choose "Command Prompt Only" (This will take you to true DOS mode.) Windows ME users must use a boot
disk to get into real DOS mode.
4) When your computer is done booting, you will have a C:\> followed by a blinking cursor.
Type this in, hitting enter after each line. (Obviously, don't type the comments in parentheses.)

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV (Loads smartdrive to speed things up.)
CD\
DELTREE/Y TEMP (This line removes temporary files.)
CD WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y COOKIES (This line removes cookies.)
DELTREE/Y TEMP (This removes temporary files.)
DELTREE/Y HISTORY (This line removes your browsing history.)
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1 (This line removes your internet cache.)

(If that last line doesn't work, then type this

CD\WINDOWS\APPLIC~1
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1

(If that didn't work, then type this

CD\WINDOWS\LOCALS~1
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1
If you have profiles turned on, then it is likely located under \windows\profiles\%user%\, while older
versions of MSIE keep them under \windows\content\.)

FYI, Windows re-creates the index.dat files automatically when you reboot your machine, so don't be
surprised when you see them again. They should at least be cleared of your browsing history.

3)CLEARING YOUR REGISTRY
It was once believed that the registry is the central database of Windows that stores and maintains the
OS configuration information. Well, this is wrong. Apparently, it also maintains a bunch of other
information that has absolutely nothing to do with the configuration. I won't get into the other
stuff, but for one, your typed URLs are stored in the registry.

HKEY_USERS/Default/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/TypedURLs/
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/TypedURLs/
These "Typed URLs" come from MSIE's autocomplete feature. It records all URLs that you've typed in manually
in order to save you some time filling out the address field.

4)SLACK FILES
As you may already know, deleting files only deletes the references to them. They are in fact still sitting
there on your HD and can still be recovered by a very motivated person.
Use window washer to delete slack files. /http://www.webroot.com/download/0506/reg3ww.exe

5)STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE THROUGH YOUR HIDDEN FILES
The most important files to be paying attention to are your "index.dat" files. These are database files
that reference your history, cache and cookies. The first thing you should know is that the index.dat files
is that they don't exist in less you know they do. They second thing you should know about them is that
some will *not* get cleared after deleting your history and cache.

To view these files, follow these steps:

In MSIE 5.x, you can skip this first step by opening MSIE and going to Tools > Internet Options > [Settings] > [View Files].
Now write down the names of your alphanumeric folders on a piece of paper. If you can't see any alphanumeric
folders then start with step 1 here:

1) First, drop to a DOS box and type this at prompt (in all lower-case). It will bring up Windows Explorer
under the correct directory.

c:\windows\explorer /e,c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\
You see all those alphanumeric names listed under "content.ie5?" (left-hand side.) That's Microsoft's
idea of making this project as hard as possible. Actually, these are your alphanumeric folders that was
created to keep your cache. Write these names down on a piece of paper. (They should look something like
this: 6YQ2GSWF, QRM7KL3F, U7YHQKI4, 7YMZ516U, etc.) If you click on any of the alphanumeric folders then
nothing will be displayed. Not because there aren't any files here, but because Windows Explorer has lied
to you. If you want to view the contents of these alphanumeric folders you will have to do so in DOS.

2) Then you must restart in MS-DOS mode. (Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS mode. ME users use a
bootdisk.)

Note that you must restart to DOS because windows has locked down some of the files and they can only be
accessed in real DOS mode.

3) Type this in at prompt:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5
CD %alphanumeric%
(replace the "%alphanumeric%" with the first name that you just wrote down.)

DIR/P
The cache files you are now looking at are directly responsible for the mysterious erosion of HD space
you may have been noticing.

5) Type this in:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT
You will be brought to a blue screen with a bunch of binary.

6) Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLs. These are all the sites
that you've ever visited as well as a brief description of each. You'll notice it records everything
ou've searched for in a search engine in plain text, in addition to the URL.

7) When you get done searching around you can go to File > Exit. If you don't have mouse support in DOS
then use the [ALT] and arrow keys.

Next you'll probably want to erase these files by typing this:

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV
CD\WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1
(replace "cd\windows" with the location of your TIF folder if different.)

9) Then check out the contents of your History folder by typing this:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT
You will be brought to a blue screen with more binary.

10) Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLS again.

This is another database of the sites you've visited.

11) And if you're still with me, type this:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY
12) If you see any mmXXXX.dat files here then check them out (and delete them.) Then:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5
CD MSHIST~1
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT
More URLs from your internet history. Note, there are probably other mshist~x folders here so you can
repeat these steps for every occurence if you please.

13) By now, you'll probably want to type in this:

CD\WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y HISTORY

6)HOW MICROSOFT DOES IT
How does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to DOS?

The only thing Microsoft had to do to make the folders/files invisible to a directory listing is to
set them +s[ystem]. That's it.

So how does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to Windows Explorer?

The "desktop.ini" is a standard text file that can be added to any folder to customize certain aspects of
the folder's behavior. In these cases, Microsoft utilized the desktop.ini file to make these files
invisible. Invisible to Windows Explorer and even to the "Find: Files or Folders" utility. All that
Microsoft had to do was create a desktop.ini file with certain CLSID tags and the folders would disappear
like magic.

To show you exactly what's going on:

Found in the c:\windows\temporary internet files\desktop.ini and
the c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:

[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
Found in the c:\windows\history\desktop.ini and the c:\windows\history\history.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:

[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
CLSID={FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}
The UICLSID line cloaks the folder in Windows Explorer. The CLSID line disables the "Find" utility
from searching through the folder.

To see for yourself, you can simply erase the desktop.ini files. You'll see that it will instantly give
Windows Explorer proper viewing functionality again, and the "Find" utility proper searching capabilities
again. Problem solved right? Actually, no. As it turns out, the desktop.ini files get reconstructed every
single time you restart your computer. Nice one, Slick.

Luckily there is a loophole which will keep Windows from hiding these folders. You can manually edit the
desktop.ini's and remove everything except for the "[.ShellClassInfo]" line. This will trick windows into
thinking they have still covered their tracks, and wininet won't think to reconstruct them.

WinXP Bootable CD

How to create a bootable Windows XP SP1 CD (Nero):

Step 1

Create 3 folders - C:\WINXPSP1, C:\SP1106 and C:\XPBOOT

Step 2

Copy the entire Windows XP CD into folder C:\WINXPSP1

Step 3

You will have to download the SP1 Update, which is 133MB.
Rename the Service Pack file to XP-SP1.EXE
Extract the Service Pack from the Run Dialog using the command:
C:\XP-SP1.EXE -U -X:C:\SP1106

Step 4

Open Start/Run... and type the command:
C:\SP1106\update\update.exe -s:C:\WINXPSP1

Click OK

Folder C:\WINXPSP1 contains: Windows XP SP1



How to Create a Windows XP SP1 CD Bootable

Step 1

Download xpboot.zip
Code:
Code:
http://thro.port5.com/xpboot.zip

( no download manager !! )

Extract xpboot.zip file (xpboot.bin) in to the folder C:\XPBOOT

Step 2

Start Nero - Burning Rom.
Select File > New... from the menu.
1.) Select CD-ROM (Boot)
2.) Select Image file from Source of boot image data
3.) Set Kind of emulation: to No Emulation
4.) Set Load segment of sectors (hex!): to 07C0
5.) Set Number of loaded sectors: to 4
6.) Press the Browse... button



Step 3

Select All Files (*.*) from File of type:
Locate boot.bin in the folder C:\XPBOOT

Step 4

Click ISO tab
Set File-/Directory length to ISO Level 1 (Max. of 11 = 8 + 3 chars)
Set Format to Mode 1
Set Character Set to ISO 9660
Check all Relax ISO Restrictions




Step 5

Click Label Tab
Select ISO9660 from the drop down box.
Enter the Volume Label as WB2PFRE_EN
Enter the System Identifier as WB2PFRE_EN
Enter the Volume Set as WB2PFRE_EN
Enter the Publisher as MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Enter the Data Preparer as MICROSOFT CORPORATION
Enter the Application as WB2PFRE_EN

* For Windows XP Professional OEM substitute WB2PFRE_EN with WXPOEM_EN
* For Windows XP Home OEM substitute WB2PFRE_EN with WXHOEM_EN

Step 6

Click Burn tab
Check Write
Check Finalize CD (No further writing possible!)
Set Write Method to Disk-At-Once

Press New button

Step 7

Locate the folder C:\WINXPSP1
Select everything in the folder and drag it to the ISO compilation panel.
Click the Write CD Dialog button.

Press Write

You're done.

XP REPAIR INSTALL

1. Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the
boot order in the system BIOS. Check your system documentation
for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.


2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the
options below This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.




3. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the
Recovery Console, press R", (you do not want to load Recovery
Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP
installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing
Windows installations.

5. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and
press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options,
read this Warning!!

6. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot.
Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears.
Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your
applications and settings will remain intact.

STARTUP
-----------


Windows Prefetcher
******************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Under this key there is a setting called EnablePrefetcher, the default setting of which is 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times. Depending on the number of boot processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from settings up to 9. However, I do not have any substantive research data on settings above 5 so I cannot verify the benefits of a higher setting. This setting also may effect the loading times of your most frequently launched applications. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.


Master File Table Zone Reservation
**********************************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem]

Under this key there is a setting called NtfsMftZoneReservation, the default setting of which is 1. The range of this value is from 1 to 4. The default setting reserves one-eighth of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 2 reserves one-quarter of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 3 for NtfsMftZoneReservation reserves three-eighths of the volume for the MFT and setting it to 4 reserves half of the volume for the MFT. Most users will never exceed one-quarter of the volume. I recommend a setting of 2 for most users. This allows for a "moderate number of files" commensurate with the number of small files included in most computer games and applications. Reboot after applying this tweak.


Optimize Boot Files
*******************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter. This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition, but that last statement is unverified. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Optimizing Startup Programs [msconfig]
**************************************

MSConfig, similar to the application included in Win9x of the same name, allows the user to fine tune the applications that are launched at startup without forcing the user to delve deep into the registry. To disable some of the applications launched, load msconfig.exe from the run command line, and go to the Startup tab. From there, un-ticking the checkbox next to a startup item will stop it from launching. There are a few application that you will never want to disable (ctfmon comes to mind), but for the most part the best settings vary greatly from system to system.

As a good rule of thumb, though, it is unlikely that you will want to disable anything in the Windows directory (unless it's a third-party program that was incorrectly installed into the Windows directory), nor will you want to disable anything directly relating to your system hardware. The only exception to this is when you are dealing with software, which does not give you any added benefits (some OEM dealers load your system up with software you do not need). The nice part of msconfig is that it does not delete any of the settings, it simply disables them, and so you can go back and restart a startup application if you find that you need it. This optimization won't take effect until after a reboot.

Bootvis Application
*******************
The program was designed by Microsoft to enable Windows XP to cold boot in 30 seconds, return from hibernation in 20 seconds, and return from standby in 10 seconds. Bootvis has two extremely useful features. First, it can be used to optimize the boot process on your computer automatically. Second, it can be used to analyze the boot process for specific subsystems that are having difficulty loading. The first process specifically targets the prefetching subsystem, as well as the layout of boot files on the disk. When both of these systems are optimized, it can result in a significant reduction in the time it takes for the computer to boot.

Before attempting to use Bootvis to analyze or optimize the boot performance of your system, make sure that the task scheduler service has been enabled – the program requires the service to run properly. Also, close all open programs as well – using the software requires a reboot.

To use the software to optimize your system startup, first start with a full analysis of a fresh boot. Start Bootvis, go to the Tools menu, and select next boot. Set the Trace Repetition Settings to 2 repetitions, Start at 1, and Reboot automatically. Then set the trace into motion. The system will fully reboot twice, and then reopen bootvis and open the second trace file (should have _2 in the name). Analyze the graphs and make any changes that you think are necessary (this is a great tool for determining which startup programs you want to kill using msconfig). Once you have made your optimizations go to the Trace menu, and select the Optimize System item. This will cause the system to reboot and will then make some changes to the file structure on the hard drive (this includes a defragmentation of boot files and a shifting of their location to the fastest portion of the hard disk, as well as some other optimizations). After this is done, once again run a Trace analysis as above, except change the starting number to 3. Once the system has rebooted both times, compare the charts from the second trace to the charts for the fourth trace to show you the time improvement of the system's boot up.

The standard defragmenter included with Windows XP will not undo the boot optimizations performed by this application.



-----------------------------------
General Performance Tweaks
-----------------------------------


IRQ Priority Tweak
******************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

You will need to create a new DWORD: IRQ#Priority (where # is the number of the IRQ you want to prioritize) and give it a setting of 1. This setting gives the requisite IRQ channel priority over the other IRQs on a software level. This can be extremely important for functions and hardware subsystems that need real-time access to other parts of the system. There are several different subsystems that might benefit from this tweak. Generally, I recommend giving either the System CMOS or the video card priority. The System CMOS generally has an IRQ setting of 8, and giving it priority enhances the I/O performance of the system. Giving priority to the video card can increase frame rates and make AGP more effective.

You can give several IRQs priority, but I am not entirely certain how the system interacts when several IRQs are given priority – it may cause random instabilities in the system, although it is more likely that there's a parsing system built into Windows XP to handle such an occurrence. Either way, I would not recommend it.

QoS tweak
*********
QoS (Quality of Service) is a networking subsystem which is supposed to insure that the network runs properly. The problem with the system is that it eats up 20% of the total bandwidth of any networking service on the computer (including your internet connection). If you are running XP Professional, you can disable the bandwidth quota reserved for the system using the Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc].

You can run the group policy editor from the Run command line. To find the setting, expand "Local Computer Policy" and go to "Administrative Templates" under "Computer Configuration." Then find the "Network" branch and select "QoS Packet Scheduler." In the right hand box, double click on the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth." From within the Settings tab, enable the setting and then go into the "Bandwidth Limit %" and set it to 0%. The reason for this is that if you disable this setting, the computer defaults to 20%. This is true even when you aren't using QoS.

Free Idle Tasks Tweak
*********************

This tweak will free up processing time from any idle processes and allow it to be used by the foreground application. It is useful particularly if you are running a game or other 3D application. Create a new shortcut to "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks" and place it on your desktop. Double-click on it anytime you need all of your processing power, before opening the application.

Windows Indexing Services
Windows Indexing Services creates a searchable database that makes system searches for words and files progress much faster – however, it takes an enormous amount of hard drive space as well as a significant amount of extra CPU cycles to maintain the system. Most users will want to disable this service to release the resources for use by the system. To turn off indexing, open My Computer and right click on the drive on which you wish to disable the Indexing Service. Enter the drive's properties and under the general tab, untick the box for "Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching."

Priority Tweak
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

This setting effectively runs each instance of an application in its own process for significantly faster application performance and greater stability. This is extremely useful for users with stability problems, as it can isolate specific instances of a program so as not to bring down the entire application. And, it is particularly useful for users of Internet Explorer, for if a rogue web page crashes your browser window, it does not bring the other browser windows down with it. It has a similar effect on any software package where multiple instances might be running at once, such as Microsoft Word. The only problem is that this takes up significantly more memory, because such instances of a program cannot share information that is in active memory (many DLLs and such will have to be loaded into memory multiple times). Because of this, it is not recommended for anyone with less than 512 MB of RAM, unless they are running beta software (or have some other reason for needing the added stability).

There are two parts to this tweak. First is to optimize XP's priority control for the processes. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl and set the "Win32PrioritySeparation" DWORD to 38. Next, go into My Computer and under Tools, open the Folder Options menu. Select the View tab and check the "Launch folder windows in separate process" box. This setting actually forces each window into its own memory tread and gives it a separate process priority.

Powertweak application
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xxx.powertweak.com

Powertweak is an application, which acts much like a driver for our chipsets. It optimizes the communication between the chipset and the CPU, and unlocks several "hidden" features of the chipset that can increase the speed of the system. Specifically, it tweaks the internal registers of the chipset and processor that the BIOS does not for better communication performance between subsystems. Supported CPUs and chipsets can see a significant increase in I/O bandwidth, increasing the speed of the entire system. Currently the application supports most popular CPUs and chipsets, although you will need to check the website for your specific processor/chipset combo – the programmer is working on integrating even more chipsets and CPUs into the software.

Offload Network Task Processing onto the Network Card
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters]

Many newer network cards have the ability of taking some of the network processing load off of the processor and performing it right on the card (much like Hardware T&L on most new video cards). This can significantly lower the CPU processes needed to maintain a network connection, freeing up that processor time for other tasks. This does not work on all cards, and it can cause network connectivity problems on systems where the service is enabled but unsupported, so please check with your NIC manufacturer prior to enabling this tweak. Find the DWORD "DisableTaskOffload" and set the value to 0 (the default value is 1). If the key is not already available, create it.

Force XP to Unload DLLs
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer]
"AlwaysUnloadDLL"=dword:00000001

XP has a bad habit of keeping dynamic link libraries that are no longer in use resident in memory. Not only do the DLLs use up precious memory space, but they also tend to cause stability problems in some systems. To force XP to unload any DLLs in memory when the application that called them is no longer in memory, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer and find the DWORD "AlwaysUnloadDLL". You may need to create this key. Set the value to 1 to force the operating system to unload DLLs.

Give 16-bit apps their own separate processes
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WOW]
"DefaultSeparateVDM"="Yes"

By default, Windows XP will only open one 16-bit process and cram all 16-bit apps running on the system at a given time into that process. This simulates how MS-DOS based systems viewed systems and is necessary for some older applications that run together and share resources. However, most 16-bit applications work perfectly well by themselves and would benefit from the added performance and stability of their own dedicated resources. To force Windows XP to give each 16-bit application it's own resources, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WOW and find the String "DefaultSeparateVDM". If it is not there, you may need to create it. Set the value of this to Yes to give each 16-bit application its own process, and No to have the 16-bit application all run in the same memory space.

Disable User Tracking
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[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer]
"NoInstrumentation"=dword:00000001

The user tracking system built into Windows XP is useless to 99% of users (there are very few uses for the information collected other than for a very nosy system admin), and it uses up precious resources to boot, so it makes sense to disable this "feature" of Windows XP. To do so, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer and find the DWORD "NoInstrumentation". You may need to create this key if it is not there. The default setting is 0, but setting it to 1 will disable most of the user tracking features of the system.

Thumbnail Cache
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[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced]
"DisableThumbnailCache"=dword:00000001

Windows XP has a neat feature for graphic and video files that creates a "thumbnail" of the image or first frame of the video and makes it into an oversized icon for the file. There are two ways that Explorer can do this, it can create them fresh each time you access the folder or it can load them from a thumbnail cache. The thumbnail caches on systems with a large number of image and video files can become staggeringly large. To disable the Thumbnail Cache, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced and find the DWORD "DisableThumbnailCache". You may need to create this key. A setting of 1 is recommended for systems where the number of graphic and video files is large, and a setting of 0 is recommended for systems not concerned about hard drive space, as loading the files from the cache is significantly quicker than creating them from scratch each time a folder is accessed.

Your Own Home Server - Introduction

An Introduction

In this tutorial you will learn how to step up your own server. This server will be comprised of Apache 1.3.5, PHP 4.2.0, and MySQL 3.23.49. This tutorial will address the basic setup of a server on your own computer. This means the removal of hassles of dealing with the company that is running a remote web server. It will be easy to modify. You can add any thing you want to it, be it CGI/Perl, Zope, Roxen, etc, all by your self. You will have unlimited disk space, well at least as big as your hard drive is =) Now that you know the advantages, it is time that I tell you what i used, and what you will need.

What I used
* Windows 2000 - NOTE that if you are using 2k you WILL NEED Administrative Privileges. If you don't then get them somehow =) If you are on 95, 98, NT, XP, ME, I
* Apache 1.3.6 - I tried to use 2.0 but I could not get it work. I also feel that 1.3.6 is tried and true, so why mess with greatness.
* Mysql 3.23.49 - The newest version of MySQL when I set up my server. MySQL also the is the best PHP supported Database, and well love PHP don't we.
* PHP 4.2.1 - The latest and greatest PHP release. -nt

What you will need
* Apache 2 - Link: h**p://www.apache.org/dist/
* Mysql 3.23.49 - Link: h**p://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html
* PHP 4.2.0 - Link: h**p://www.php.net/downloads.php
* Windows - This tutorial is ONLY written for new versions of Windows.

Once you have downloaded all the programs you are ready to continue.

1. Installing Apache

Installing Apache

The first step is to download Apache for Windows. Before you install it make sure that any other server software is removed. Remove it all via the control panel.On

Once you have clicked on the executable, a screen should com up that looks like this. Go ahead and click on next

user posted image

Of course you plan to abide be the license agreement, so click on I accept.... and click on next.

user posted image

You really don't need to read this, but if you want you can. Read it if you want feel informed. When you are ready click on next.

user posted image

Here is where the actual setup of Apache begins. For Network Domain put in localhost as for Server Name You want these both to be localhost because the server is running locally, on your computer. It doesn't matter what is in email field, just put in yours. No one will no it because it's just you.

user posted image

For the sake of this tutorial it is better to just leave it as it is because, later in the tutorial I will show you how to start the server with one click of the mouse, and for the sake of ease, it will be easier for you to follow along. You can change it if you want, but you will have to realize where to substitute it. For me the root drive is E: but for you will probably be C:

user posted image

Once you have all the jazz set up, it is time to install the server. If you are on w2k or XP be sure that you have Administrative permissions or you will get an error about half way through the install saving cannot access msvrt32.dll or something. If you get that error run it again when you have admin privileges. Once you are ready click on install.

user posted image

If all went well you just see a screen similar to this. Now it is time to test the install of apache. Click on Start > Program Files > Apache HTTP Server and look for start Start Apache in Console. Click it. Once it says Apache XXXXX running, press Windows Key + R and type -http://localhost/. If the install works you should see a page saying that it works. If all is set and done, continue to the next step.

user posted image
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2. Installing PHP
Once you have clicked on the executable, a screen should come up that looks like this. Go ahead and click on next.

user posted image

Of course you plan to abide be the license agreement, so click on I accept.... and click on next.

user posted image

For this information, we will want the simple standard install. Chances are you if you are reading this tutorial, you will probably not even want to talk about advanced =)

user posted image

This is the mail setup, just enter localhost, and me@localhost.com. These are not important, because you, the admin, are the only person that will use the server, and you will be the one handling errors.

user posted image

We are going to want this install to work is Apache, so click on Apache, and move on.

user posted image

Once you have all the jazz set up, it is time to install the server. If you are on w2k or XP be sure that you have Administrative permission or you will get an error about half way through the install saving cannot access msvrt32.dll or something. If you get that error run it again when you have admin privileges. Once you are ready click on install.

user posted image

After the install is done you should get something that says you will have to manually configure apache to use php. Assuming you have a working Apache server installed, make sure that it is not running. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\ open the httpd.conf file. Note that you can also get to the http.conf from the start menu. Start > Program File > Apache HTTP Server > Configure Apache Server > Edit the Apache httpd.conf Configuration File and the window will open up in notepad. Now hit Ctrl + End if you see something like what follows, you can skip this step. If you do not see that code, copy it. This code will only work if you used the default install folder when you installed php. If you did, copy that code and paste it into the end of the file. Select the code to right, and hit crtl + c , then go into the httpd.conf file and hit ctrl + v and save the file.

ScriptAlias /php/ "c:/php/"

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml

Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php.exe"

Now that we have php installed, it is time to test it. Open up notepad and type the code to the right. Save it as phpinfo.php. Remember to set it as all files in the drop down menu, or the file will be a text file. Save in the Directory: C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\htdocs. htdocs is the directory where all the files go. You can create endless dir's and browse them. For Example E:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\htdocs\mydir\myfile.php could be accessed as http://localhost/mydir/myfile.php. Once you have that file saved. You will need to start the Server. Click: Start > Program File > Apache HTTP Server >; and look for something like Start Apache in Console. After you have found it, launch it. You should get a window saying that Apache is running. Now go to Start > Run > and type in -http://localhost/phpinfo.php. If you don't see anything, php is not installed correctly. If php is installed correctly, you will see a few large tables, displaying php's configuration. Now Your are 1/2 done!
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3. Installing MySQL
Once you have clicked on the executable, a screen should com up that looks like this. Go ahead and click on next.

user posted image

Of course you plan to abide be the license agreement, so click on I accept.... and click on next.

Just like before you should leave the default dir alone, so you will be able to follow along with me when I show you how to start and stop all the aspects of the server.

Stay with the typical installation. Just like before, if you don't have admin privileges, the install will be faulty. After you click next, the install will begin. After the install has finished, move on to the next step.

Now you have to set up the root account. The root account is the absolute admin of the system, the highest possible. Click on Start > Run and type cmd to open up the command prompt. You are going to have to navigate to where MySQL is installed. Type C: > Enter > cd mysql > Enter > cd bin > Enter. Now you have to tell setup the root settings. Type mysqladmin -uroot password InsertYourPasswordHere then hit enter.

To see an image of the screen, -h**p://www.webmasterstop.com/tutorials/images/doscreen1.gif

What is the point of having a database if you can't easily administer it! That is where phpMyAdmin comes into play. phpMyAdmin is a free piece of software written in php that makes the administration of a mysql or many other types of databases easy. You will want to download (h**p://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-2.2.6-php.zip?downloadrelease_id=85832)the latest version. Save it in the htdocs folder. Once it is done downloading it, right click on it and select Extract > To Here. When it is done you should end up with a directory in the htdocs folder called phpMyAdmin-2.2.6 To make it easier to access, rename it to phpMyAdmin. After you have renamed it, click on it and look for a file called config.inc Open it. This is where you set the configuration of phpMyAdmin. When you open it up, it should look similar to the image to your side. On yours there should be a few things missing. The $cfgPmaAbsoulteUrl and $cfgservers[$i]['password']. You will need to fill those in between the quotes. for the $cfgPmaAbsoulteUrl enter -http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/ if you followed my instructions to the letter. If you did not rename it or extracted to a different directory, put that in there. For the $cfgservers[$i]['password'] enter the password you entered when you were setting MySQL in the set above. You can refer to the image for help. After you have put the right things in save the file.

To see an image of the screen, -h**p://www.webmasterstop.com/tutorials/images/phpmyadminscreen1.gif

Now we want to test the install of mysql, php, phpmyadmin, and apache all at once. Start apache in console like we did before. Now, you are going to need to start mysql. For myself I made a file that would start mysql for me. Open notepad and type: start c:\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe --standalone and save that as Start MySQL.bat. Once you have saved it, click it. A window should open and then close. Mysql is now running on your computer. After mysql and apache are started go to run again and type -http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/index.php and if everything is installed correctly phpmyadmin should so up. You are almost done! Now we have the easy part =)

4. Finishing it all up

Wow! We mad it through the whole process. Now we want to simplify the whole process of controlling the server. I made a toolbar with all the things I needed. I made a new folder on my desktop and called it Server Folder and put all the stuff there. I made a new shortcut and gave it a value of -http://localhost/ made a shortcut to the PHP Documentation page. Another shortcut to my php editor, which is now unavailable. The phpMyAdmin shortcut is set to -http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/index.php. I made another shortcut htdocs. I moved the Start Apache in Console program that was in the start menu folder and moved it to the server folder. You can take the Start Mysql file you made in the last page and move it to the new folder. After you have put all the desired things into that folder, right click on a blank space in stat menu task bar (where the program boxes lie) and select Toolbars > New Toolbar and navigate to the folder. Voila!

Now all you have to do is click Start Apache in Console , Start Mysql, and Lauch browser biggrin.gif

Here You Are Guys

10 reasons why PCs crash U must Know

Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?

1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2 Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3 BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).

4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6 Viruses

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).

7 Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9 Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems

With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.