Nick Computer Services

Google Chrome 8.0.552.215

2010-12-14T02:56:00.001-08:00

TeamViewer 6.0.9947

2010-12-14T02:43:00.000-08:00

DivX Plus 8.1.2 Build 1.3.0.51

2010-12-14T02:41:00.002-08:00

The next generation of DivX video! Download DivX Plus™ Software to play DivX®, AVI, MKV, MOV and MP4 video with our media player. Or watch these videos in other popular media players like Windows Media Player or Media Player classic. Purchase DivX Pro to create your own HD DivX videos.

DivX® is a digital video format that offers a high-quality viewing experience on any device or platform — from your PC to your phone to your living room TV. Over 100 million devices that support DivX video have shipped worldwide from major manufactures, including DVD players, gaming consoles, mobile phones and more. DivX® gives you the power to watch, create and share high-quality videos on your Windows or Mac computer. DivX technology enables highly compressed video without compromising visual quality — so you can enjoy a cinematic experience on your computer, in your living room or wherever you go.

H.264 is a new standard that is poised to power the high definition video revolution by offering incredible visual quality, performance and efficiency. DivX 8 gives you all the tools you need to take full advantage of H.264 for a truly cinematic video experience.

• Convert your video, including HD files, to DivX video using DivX Converter, or create video compilations with DVD features using DivX Author
• Post a DivX video to your site using DivX Web Player
• Watch your videos, even HD videos (H.264/AAC) from the Internet, with DivX Player
DivX® technology lets you take your high-quality videos from your computer and play them in full-screen glory on your living room TV. Use one of the millions of DivX Certified® devices, such as a Blu-ray DVD player, gaming console or DivX Connected device, to watch your videos directly on your TV.
• Stream your videos, photos, music and Internet video (e.g. YouTube) to your TV with DivX Connected™
• Burn a video to disc for playback in a DivX Certified DVD player
• Copy a video to a USB drive or a SD card and watch it on a DivX Certified TV
You don't stay in one place and neither should your media. With a DivX Certified® mobile device, you can watch your high-quality DivX® videos, and even record new ones, wherever you go.
• Watch your videos anywhere your phone goes
• Shoot your own video with a DivX Certified digital camera or mobile phone
• Travel in style with video playback on any DivX Certified portable media player or in-car media player

Download : DivX Plus 8.1.2 Build 1.3.0.51

FlashFXP 4.0.0 Build 1510 Final

2010-12-14T02:41:00.001-08:00

FlashFXP is a powerful and popular FTP & FXP Client loaded with features for the power user. FlashFXP has an intuitive and full featured user interface, allowing you to do all the common tasks with just a few clicks. It also support full drag & drop, so you can transfer files, synchronize folders, find files and schedule tasks with just one click. Using the FTP protocol, you can transfer files from remote servers to your computer, or even to another remote server. It makes it easy to update your Web site, download files from the company server, or even download files from the internet that always seem to fail using your Web browser. It allows you to transfer files between two sites (FXP), resume incomplete downloads, synchronize directories, schedule multiple tasks, and more. Available in over 20 languages. FlashFXP offer security, performance, and reliability that you can always count on to get your job done quickly and efficiently.

Use FlashFXP to publish and maintain your website, Upload and download documents, photos, videos, music and more, Share your files with your friends and co-workers, or even use it to download other shareware!

Download : FlashFXP 4.0.0 Build 1510 Final

System Mechanic 10.1.1.1 Standard / Professional

2010-12-14T02:39:00.002-08:00

System Mechanic® keeps your PC running faster, cleaner and error-free. Its powerful arsenal of 40+ award-winning precision tools fixes stubborn errors, cleans out clutter, optimizes internet and download speeds, ensures personal security and maintains maximum computer performance automatically.

Over 98% of PC problems are caused by clutter and faulty settings that are the result of everyday PC use. System Mechanic automatically repairs errors and fragmentation, cleans out clutter, and tunes up your PC - so that it runs smoothly, reliably, and up to 300% faster! Don't waste money on expensive "experts" to fix your PC when System Mechanic will repair, tune, and maintain it for you! Enjoy that new PC feeling again. Clear out clutter and errors for improved speed and reliability. Optimize your PC to play the latest high-performance games at maximum speeds. Accelerate download and web surfing speeds up to 300%.

System Mechanic® 10 - Boost your computer's performance and stability with advanced PC tune-up. System Mechanic gives you over 40 automatic tools to clean hard drive clutter, repair your registry, defragment drives and memory, and optimize system and internet settings.

System Mechanic Professional® 10 - includes five award-winning products to give you the essential combination of internet security and PC optimization in one package: everything you need to keep your PC safe, fast, and error-free. Fix problems, boost performance, eliminate crashes, defend against spyware, viruses, and hacker threats, and much more. Use one centralized system dashboard to automatically perform all vital PC maintenance.

Download : System Mechanic 10.1.1.1 Standard

Download : System Mechanic 10.1.1.1 Professional

Windows Live Messenger 2011 15.4.3508.1109

2010-12-14T02:39:00.001-08:00

Windows Live Messenger is the next-generation MSN Messenger. It has everything you already love about Messenger - your contact list, emoticons, and instant access to your friends via text, voice, and video - plus new ways to connect and share photos and documents effortlessly. It's faster than e-mail and is a great choice for conversations and the perfect alternative when you can't be there in person. As always, it's free to download Messenger and use most of its features.
Windows Live Messenger (WLM), still commonly referred to by the previous name of MSN Messenger (MSN for short), is an instant messaging client for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Mobile, first released on December 13, 2005 by Microsoft. It is part of Microsoft's Windows Live set of online services.

Download : Windows Live Messenger 2011 15.4.3508.1109

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13 Final

2010-12-14T02:35:00.000-08:00

Download: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.13 Final

AnyDVD & AnyDVD HD 6.7.1.2 Beta

2010-10-28T08:29:00.001-07:00

AnyDVD is a driver, which descrambles DVD-Movies automatically in the background. This DVD appears unprotected and region code free for all applications and the Windows operating system as well. With AnyDVD's help copy tools like CloneDVD, Pinnacle Instant Copy, InterVideo DVD-Copy, etc. are able to copy CSS protected Movies. You can remove the RPC region code, thereby making the movie region free and viewable on any DVD player and with any DVD player software. With the help of AnyDVD you can watch movies with non matching region codes with every DVD Player Software you like!
AnyDVD is capable of removing unwanted movie features, including subtitles and prohibition messages such as copyright and FBI warnings. It also allows you to launch an external application whenever you insert or remove a disc, or prevent 'PC-friendly'software from automatically launching when you insert a video DVD.

AnyDVD decrypts not just DVDs: AnyDVD allows you also to play, copy and rip protected Audio CDs! Decryption is not all that AnyDVD offers. You can control the drive speed of your DVD drive, allowing you to reduce the noise level when watching movies on your PC. You can even adjust the display frequency of your monitor for both NTSC and PAL displays.

Download : AnyDVD & AnyDVD HD 6.7.1.2 Beta

Winamp 5.59 Build 3033 Public Beta

2010-10-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

Download : AnyDVD & AnyDVD HD 6.7.1.2 Beta

ATI Catalyst 10.10 WHQL Display Driver

2010-10-28T08:23:00.000-07:00

AMD’s award-winning ATI Catalyst graphics and HD video configuration software delivers unprecedented control of performance and visual quality with ATI Radeon™ graphics processors. Certified by Microsoft® Windows® Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL), ATI Catalyst drivers for Windows 7®, Vista® and Windows® XP operating systems deliver stable performance and push the limits of innovation with advanced user-oriented features.

This is the latest AMD’s industry leading software suite, Catalyst™. This particular software suite updates both the AMD Display Driver, and the Catalyst™ Control Center. This unified driver has been further enhanced to provide the highest level of power, performance, and reliability. The AMD Catalyst™ software suite is the ultimate in performance and stability.

Precision controls for power users. Tweaks for gamers and video enthusiasts. Simple wizard-assisted setup, easy multi-monitor configuration, and ultra reliable operation for working professionals. New user or seasoned expert, ATI Catalyst puts you in charge of The Ultimate Visual Experience™.

Link : ATI Catalyst 10.10 WHQL Display Driver

Internet Download Manager 6.03 Beta 2

2010-10-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Internet Download Manager has a smart download logic accelerator that features intelligent dynamic file segmentation and safe multipart downloading technology to accelerate your downloads. Unlike other download accelerators and managers that segment files before downloading starts, Internet Download Manager segments downloaded files dynamically during download process. Internet Download Manager reuses available connections without additional connect and login stages to achieve better acceleration performance.
Internet Download Manager supports proxy servers, ftp and http protocols, firewalls, redirects, cookies, authorization, MP3 audio and MPEG video content processing. IDM integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, MSN Explorer, AOL, Opera, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firebird, Avant Browser, MyIE2, and all other popular browsers to automatically handle your downloads.

You can also drag and drop files, or use Internet Download Manager from command line. Internet Download Manager can dial your modem at the set time, download the files you want, then hang up or even shut down your computer when it's done.
Other features include multilingual support, zip preview, download categories, scheduler pro, sounds on different events, HTTPS support, queue processor, html help and tutorial, enhanced virus protection on download completion, progressive downloading with quotas (useful for connections that use some kind of fair access policy or FAP like Direcway, Direct PC, Hughes, etc.), built-in download accelerator, and many others.

Download : Internet Download Manager 6.03 Beta 2

Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1 RC x86 /x64 Official

2010-10-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has released Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Release Candidate build.

Wave0: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish

FILE: windows6.1-KB976932-x86-INTL.exe
SIZE: 353,458,408 byte
SHA-1: 8752FC227921995170E1AA6556C476EFDCD8A7D6
MD5: 5BF2AA8D339A036659ABF530932D9F52
CRC: 7808E98B

Download : Windows 7 SP1 RC x86
Download : Windows 7 SP1 RC x64

http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/A/F/0AFB5316-3062-494A-AB78-7FB0D4461357/7601.17105.100929-1730-3_Update_Sp_Wave1-RC1SP1.1_DVD.iso

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.11 / 3.5.14 Final

2010-10-28T07:37:00.001-07:00

Mozilla Firefox - faster, more secure, easier to use and sporting a new look, this latest Firefox release sets a new standard for web browser innovation. Mozilla Firefox project (formerly Firebird, which was formerly Phoenix) is a redesign of Mozilla's browser component, written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be cross-platform. It is small, fast and easy to use, and offers many advantages over other web browsers, such as the tabbed browsing and the ability to block pop-up windows. Firefox has the most ways to customize your online experience specifically for the way you use the web.

There are more than 6,000 Add-ons (little extras that augment Firefox to meet your unique needs) just waiting out there to help you do more, have more fun and be more creative online. Firefox keeps your personal info personal and your online interests away from the bad guys. Simply put, your security is our top priority.

Download : Mozilla Firefox 3.6.11 Final

Download : Mozilla Firefox 3.5.14 Final

K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.5.0

2010-10-28T07:36:00.001-07:00

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs, DirectShow filters and tools. Codecs and DirectShow filters are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video formats. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play all the popular audio and video formats and even some rare formats.

K-Lite Codec Pack always very up-to-date with the newest (and/or best) versions of the components. The installation is fully customizable, meaning that you are able install exactly those components that you really want. Uninstallation removes all files and registry entries created by the pack. It is extremely easy to make a fully customized unattended installation. It tries to avoid potential problems with existing codecs and even fixes some problems.
The pack is able to detect broken codecs and filters on your system, and remove them for you.
It is a very complete package, containing everything you need to play your movies. Suitable for both novice and expert users. The K-Lite Codec Pack is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and Seven.

Download : K-Lite Mega Codec Pack 6.5.0

Nero Multimedia Suite 10.5.10500

2010-10-28T07:35:00.000-07:00

Nero Multimedia Suite 10 excels your multimedia power with a collection of three products bundled into one powerful suite - Nero Vision Xtra, Nero BackItUp & Burn and Nero Burning ROM. It’s loaded with easy-to-advanced video editing features, media organizer and player, superior burning software, reliable backup technology, and special multimedia tools to enhance your music, photos and videos.

Burn to Disc or Share to Social Communities, Slideshows and Movies with Unique Premium Menus. Add menus to your slideshow projects and burn to DVD, AVCHD or Blu-ray Disc. Or choose the Advanced Authoring option to send your project straight to Nero Vision for advanced editing and authoring.

Quick, Easy, and Secure Disc Burning. Drag and drop to burn to CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, hard drives, networks, and USB devices, and burn oversized files onto multiple discs. SecurDisc technology ensures data readability and offers password protection, encryptions and more.

Multi-track Video Editing with Complete Keyframe Handling Option. Use multiple video graphics and audio tracks for true multi-track editing. Apply Picture-in-picture effects, animate video, audio and overlay effects, and correct values dynamically by setting Keyframe properties.

Arrange Photos and Videos for High Quality Slideshows and Movies. Easily arrange and edit photos and videos in the storyboard, and personalize with Movie Themes.

Edit and Enhance Photos with Just One Click. Easily modify photos to achieve superb picture quality for your personal slideshow or movie projects.

Fully Controllable, Effective Backup in a Few Easy Steps. Fully customize your backup method, whether it’s easy one-click Autobackup, incremental, differential, full or update backup, then back up select files, entire systems or to multiple devices at once.

Download : Nero Multimedia Suite 10.5.10500

Nero Burning ROM 10.5.10300

2010-10-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Award-Winning Nero Burning ROM is the Only Burning Software You’ll Need! Nero Burning ROM offers you the most advanced disc burning solution. Nero Burning ROM - Leading CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc burning and copying technology. When it comes to burning, accept nothing less than the industry’s best. Award-winning Nero Burning ROM is known for reliable, high-quality CD, DVD and Blu-ray Disc burning and copying. Loaded with advanced features that go beyond just burning, it also features SecurDisc technology for the ultimate in data readability and protection. It’s the only program you’ll need to save and share your files.

Nero Burning ROM gives you full, customized control of your burning projects. You can - among other things - define the file system, the length of the file name and the character set; you can also change the disc label. And of course, you can also customize the Nero Burning ROM toolbar and change the keyboard shortcuts.

Highlights:
• High quality disc burning and copying for superior quality playback
• Easy drag-and-drop burning to CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs
• Split oversized files to burn onto multiple discs at one time
• Ensure data readability regardless of scratches, age or deterioration
• Enhance security levels with personal passwords and encryption

Despite its wide range of features, Nero Burning ROM has remained an easy-to-use burning program that creates discs in just a few steps. You select the disc type to be burned (CD/DVD/Blu-ray), define the project type, add the required data and then start burning.

Using Nero Burning ROM you can save audio files from an Audio CD to the hard drive. In the process, the files are encoded, i.e. converted into a format that the computer can read. The Audio CD can be automatically identified with Gracenote. So called metadata such as title, genre, and track title are accessed by the Gracenote Media Database and associated to the tracks. That way you have audio files that are accurately and fully named after the encoding process.

Download : Nero Burning ROM 10.5.10300

DirectX End-User Runtimes Redistributable 9.0c June 2010

2010-10-28T07:21:00.000-07:00

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX APIs.

At the core of DirectX are its application programming interfaces, or APIs. The APIs act as a kind of bridge for the hardware and the software to "talk" to each other. The DirectX APIs give multimedia applications access to the advanced features of high-performance hardware such as three-dimensional (3-D) graphics acceleration chips and sound cards. They control low-level functions, including two-dimensional (2-D) graphics acceleration; support for input devices such as joysticks, keyboards, and mice; and control of sound mixing and sound output. Because of DirectX, what you experience with your computer is better 3-D graphics and immersive music and audio effects.

Download : DirectX End-User Runtimes Redistributable 9.0c June 2010

Hiren's BootCD 11.1

2010-10-28T07:20:00.001-07:00

Hiren's BootCD (HBCD) is a completely free bootable CD that contains a load of useful tools you can make use of in a variety of situations like analyzing, recovering and fixing your computer even if the primary operating system can not be booted.

It is a great resource for anyone with computer problems who is having trouble accessing the internet to download programs in an attempt to fix it. It has a multitude of tools divided into a number of categories like partitioning tools, backup, recovery and BIOS/CMOS tools to name a few.
With some simple knowledge about what is contained on the CD, you can use it to repair many problems computer like hard drive failure, virus infections, partitioning, password recovery and data recovery.
We may call it as an emergency cd which every computer technician or home user must have.

Partition Tools
If you need to make changes to the partitions on your computer, there are several applications that provides various levels of functionality for accomplishing this goal. You can both create and delete partitions from your computer, even while there are other partitions on the hard drive you are modifying. You can also resize partitions if needed, to change how much space is allocated to them.

Backup and Recovery
There are several backup and recovery tools on Hiren's BootCD. Backup tools like GetDataBack, HDD Scan, Partition Find and Mount, PhotoRec, Recuva, Undelete... let you copy data off of your hard drive and schedule automatic backups to ensure your data is saved to another location. You can also recover deleted data, whether that data was deleted intentionally or accidentally. There are also a few tools that will help you recover data from damaged or corrupted portions of your hard drive if you are unable to recover them through other methods.

Testing Tools
Hiren's BootCD provides a variety of tools for testing different aspects of your computer. If you suspect that your RAM is corrupted or that a piece of hardware on your machine is not functioning properly, there are several applications you can run to determine the problems. You can also perform hard drive tests to see whether your hard drive is physically damaged, and get a report on how much longer your hard drive is expected to work.

Password Tools
Password recovery and modification tools are also provided on Hiren's BootCD. You can change the administrator password on Windows machines, and there are utilities for saving passwords for your online accounts in an encrypted format. You can also encrypt your entire hard drive with Hiren's BootCD so that a password is required to read or write any data from or to your hard drive.

Mini Windows XP
To clear a virus and use a large collection of HBCD tools, choose the Mini Windows XP option. A simple version of Windows XP will load on the computer. It might take a few minutes to load everything because it processes files directly from the CD. Once it has loaded, wait for the Hiren's Boot disk menu to pop up. Select the "Menu" option and scroll through the programs. The disk features Windows password hackers, registry cleaners and a large collection of antivirus software.

Changes from Hiren's BootCD 11.0 to 11.1:

Updated softwares:

7-Zip 9.16b, BellaVista 1.1.0.54,
BlueScreenView 1.28, CCleaner 2.35.1223,
ComboFix (24-10-2010), CurrPorts 1.83,
Dr.Web CureIt! Antivirus (24-10-2010), EasyUHA 1.1,
FastCopy 2.03, GPU-Z 0.4.6,
grub4dos 2010-09-22, HBCDCustomizer 1.4,
InfraRecorder 0.51, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.46 (24-10-2010),
MemTest86+ 4.15b, MessenPass 1.35,
Navratil Software System Information 0.60.45, Network Password Recovery 1.30,
Partition Saving 3.90, Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.2,
PasswordFox 1.25, PC Wizard 2010.1.95,
PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (24-10-2010), PCI and AGP info Tool (24-10-2010),
Process Monitor 2.92, ProduKey 1.45,
Program Launcher 1.8, Remove Fake Antivirus 1.68,
SearchMyFiles 1.55, Silent Runners Revision 63,
SmartSniff 1.71,
SniffPass 1.12,
Speccy 1.05.183,
Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2 (24-10-2010),
SpywareBlaster 4.4 (24-10-2010),
SuperAntispyware 4.43.1000 (24-10-2010),
TeamViewer 5.1.9192,
TrueCrypt 7.0a,
UnknownDevices 1.4.20 (24-10-2010),
Unstoppable Copier 5.2,
Update Checker 1.038,
USBDeview 1.77,
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 1.22 (Windows).

New added softwares:

+ Ammyy Admin 2.13: For remote computer access, desktop sharing, file transfer, voiceconnect remote computer. TeamViewer 5.1.9192: Access any remote computer via Internet just like sitting in front of it, even through firewalls (Windows Freeware).
+ DiskGenius 3.2: Restore deleted partition, Rebuild MBR, Rebuild partition table, Recover files, Restore formatted partition, Backup files by partition, Disk clone, Backup partition table, Create/Delete/Format Partitions etc. (Windows Shareware).
+ IsoBuster 2.8: CD/DVD/Blu-ray and Disk Image File data recovery tool that can read and extract files, tracks and sessions from CD-i, VCD, SVCD, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, DVD, DVCD BD and HD DVD and other media as well as a wide variety of disk image formats, it also has retry-mechanisms for damaged CD/DVD (Windows Shareware).
+ Seagate DiscWizard 11.8326: Backup drive/partition to an image file, for Seagate owners (Powered by Acronis TrueImage).
+ WinMerge 2.12.4.0: Differencing and merging tool which can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle (Windows Freeware).
+ WinNTSetup 1.5.0.3: Install Windows 2k/XP/2003 x86/x64 from USB/CD under PE/LiveXp, allows you to apply tweaks and choose driveletter for the new Windows installation (Windows Freeware).

Download: Hiren's BootCD 11.1

Download: Hiren's BootCD 11.1 (torrent)

Hiren's BootCD 11.0

2010-10-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

All in One Bootable CD which has all these utilities

Antivirus Tools

ComboFix (07-08-2010)
Designed to cleanup malware infections and restore settings modified by malware.

CWShredder 2.19
Popular CoolWebSearch Trojan Remover tool.

Dr.Web CureIt! Antivirus (07-08-2010)
a free standalone anti-virus and anti-spyware on-demand scanner.

GMER 1.0.15
Hidden services, hidden registry, hidden file scanner, Rootkit Detector and Remover.

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware 1.46 (07-08-2010)
anti-malware application that can thoroughly remove even the most advanced malware.

Remove Fake Antivirus 1.66
a tool to remove virus/malwares which disguises itself to be an antivirus and produces fake alert/warnings and urge you to purchase a useless copy of the fake antivirus.

RootkitRevealer 1.7.1
Rootkit Revealer is an advanced patent-pending root kit detection utility.

SmitFraudFix 2.424
This removes Some of the popular Desktop Hijack malware.

Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2 (07-08-2010)
Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software.

SpywareBlaster 4.3 (07-08-2010)
Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software.

SuperAntispyware 4.41.1000 (07-08-2010)
Remove Malware, Rootkits, Spyware, Adware, Worms, Parasites (a must have tool).

Archivers

7-Zip 9.15b
File archiver with a high compression ratio Supports 7z, ARJ, BZIP2, CAB, CHM, CPIO, DEB, DMG, FAT, GZ, GZIP, HFS, IMA, IMG, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, TAR, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR, XZ, ZIP and Z formats.

EasyUHA 1.0
GUI Tool to create and extract UHA Archives.

Backup Tools

CopyWipe 1.14
Copy old hard drive to a new hard drive by copying the entire contents of one drive to another, CopyWipe can also help prevent confidential or private data from being recovered, by securely wiping the contents of a drive.

COPYR.DMA Build013
A Tool for making copies of hard disks with bad sectors.

Double Driver 3.0
Driver Backup and Restore tool.

DriveImage XML 2.14
backup any drive/partition to an image file, even if the drive is currently in use, a very good freeware alternative to Ghost / Acronis

DriverBackup! 1.0.3
Another handy tool to backup drivers.

Drive SnapShot 1.40
creates an exact Disk Image of your system into a file while windows is running.

FastCopy 2.01
The Fastest Copy/Delete Software on Windows.

G4L Ghost 4 Linux 0.34a
a hard disk and partition imaging and cloning tool similar to Norton Ghost.

GImageX 2.0.17
ImageX is used to backup/restore WIM images for Windows XP/Vista and Windows 7.

InfraRecorder 0.50
An Open source CD/DVD burning software, also create/burn .iso images.

Partition Image - PartImage 0.6.9
supported filesystem includes Ext2, Ext3, Reiserfs, HFS, HPFS, JFS, Xfs, UFS, Fat16, Fat32 and NTFS.

Partition Saving 3.80
A tool to backup/restore partitions (SavePart.exe).

RegBak 1.0
a light-weight and simple utility to create backups of Windows registry files.

Raw Copy 1.2
Useful tool to transfer the data directly from a faulty drive to another drive, built in data recovery function which will also attempt to recover data from bad sectors.

ShadowCopy 1.00
Copy all your files and entire system - even if they are locked by Windows.

SelfImage 1.2.1.92
to create image files of any mounted or unmounted hard disk partition.

Smart Driver Backup 2.12
Easy backup of your Windows device drivers (also works from PE).

WhitSoft File Splitter 4.5a
a Small File Split / Join Tool.

XXClone 0.58.0
The simple way to clone a Windows disk to another disk, it makes a self-bootable clone of Windows system disk.

BIOS / CMOS Tools

Award DMI Configuration Utility 2.43
DMI Configuration utility for modifying/viewing the MIDF contents.

!BIOS 3.20
a powerfull utility for bios and cmos.

BIOS Cracker 5.0
BIOS password remover (cmospwd).

BIOS Utility 1.35.0
BIOS Informations, password, beep codes and more.

CMOS 0.93
CMOS Save / Restore Tool.

DISKMAN4
a powerful all in one utility.

Kill CMOS
a tiny utility to wipe cmos.

UniFlash 1.40
bios flash utility.

Browsers / File Managers

7-Zip File Manager
7-Zip is a popular open source file archiver designed for Microsoft Windows.

Dos Command Center 5.1
Classic dos-based file manager.

Dos Navigator 6.4.0
Dos File Manager, Norton Commander clone but has much more features.

Explore2fs 1.08b
GUI explorer tool for accessing linux ext2 and ext3 filesystems under windows.

File Maven 3.5
an advanced Dos file manager with high speed PC-to-PC file transfers via serial or parallel cable.

File Wizard 1.35
a file manager - colored files, drag and drop copy, move, delete etc.

FastLynx 2.0
Dos file manager with Pc to Pc file transfer capability.

Mini Windows 98
Can run from Ram Drive, with ntfs support, 7-Zip, Disk Defragmenter, Notepad / RichText Editor, Image Viewer, .avi .mpg .divx .xvid Movie Player, etc...

Mini Windows Xp
Portable Windows Xp that runs from CD/USB/Ram Drive, with Network and SATA support.

Opera Web Browser 9.27
One of the fastest, smallest and smartest full-featured web browser.

Total Commander 7.55a
A file manager similar to the Windows Explorer features side-by-side file-browsing panes, built-in FTP, archive management, file search/compare/synchronize and more.

Volkov Commander 4.99
Dos File Manager with LongFileName/ntfs support (Similar to Norton Commander).

Cleaners

CCleaner 2.34.1200
Crap Cleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool.

CleanUp! 4.5.2
Removes junk files from all user profiles that accumulate over time and litter your hard drive.

Data Shredder 1.0
A tool to Erase disk and files (also wipe free space) securely.

Delete Doctor 2.2
Delete Files that are hard to delete, Option to delete on reboot or via UNC Name.

MyUninstaller 1.66
Alternative to the standard add / remove control panel module.

SpaceMonger 1.4
keeping track of the free space on your computer.

WinDirStat 1.1.2.80
a disk usage statistics viewer and cleanup tool for Windows.

Editors / Viewers

HxD 1.7.7.0
Hex Editor provides tools to inspect and edit files, main memory, disks/disk images.

IrfanView 4.27
A free Image Viewer/Editor/Converter and Optimizer.

Picture Viewer 1.94
Picture viewer for dos, supports more then 40 filetypes.

QuickView Pro 2.58
movie viewer for dos, supports many format including divx.

SumatraPDF 1.1
a free, open source, lightweight PDF Reader for Microsoft Windows.

FileSystems Tools

AlternateStreamView 1.15
View/Copy/Delete hidden NTFS Alternate Data Streams.

EditBINI 1.01
to Edit boot.ini on NTFS Partition.

FileDisk Mount Tool 25
to mount ISO/BIN/NRG/MDF/IMA/IMG images on windows.

NewSID 4.10
utility that changes the security ID (SID) for Windows NT, 2000 and XP.

NTFS Access 2.1
Set NTFS permissions recursively and full access rights to a folder/file owner.

NTFS Dos 3.02
to read-only access ntfs partitions from Dos.

NTFS4Dos 1.9
to read and write ntfs partitions from Dos.

Virtual Floppy Drive 2.1
enables you to create and mount a virtual floppy drive on your NT/2000/XP/Vista.

Hard Disk Tools

Active Kill Disk 4.1.2393
Securely overwrites and destroys all data on physical drive.

Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) 1.0.7
Completely deletes the contents of any hard disk it can detect.

DiskView 2.4
to view graphical map of your disk, allowing you to check where a file is located or, by clicking on a cluster, seeing which file occupies it.

ExcelStor's ESTest 4.50
ExcelStor hard disk diagnostic utility.

Fujitsu HDD Diagnostic Tool 7.00
to check IDE drives for possible defects/problems.

Fujitsu IDE Low Level Format 1.0
Low Level Format Tool for Fujitsu Drives.

Gateway GwScan 5.12
Gateway hard drive diagnostic utility.

Hard Disk Sentinel 1.00.5
Hard Disk health, performance and temperature monitoring tool.

HDAT2 4.53
the main function is testing and repair (regenerates) bad sectors for detected devices. A freeware alternative of HDD Regenerator.

HDD Erase 4.0
Secure erase using a special feature built into most newer hard drives.

IBM Hitachi Drive Fitness Test 4.16
quickly and reliably tests SCSI, IDE and SATA drives.

IBM Hitachi Feature Tool 2.15
allows you to control some of the features of the the HDD.

Maxtor amset utility 4.0
Utility for changing Acoustic Management on the hard drives.

Maxtor Low Level Formatter 1.1
Maxtor's Low Level Format Utility works on any harddrive.

Maxtor PowerMax 4.23
designed to perform diagnostic read/write verifications on Maxtor/Quantum hard drives.

MHDD 4.6
Precise diagnostic of the mechanical part of a drive, perform Low-level format, Bad Sector Sepair, access raw sectors, manage S.M.A.R.T. (SMART) and other drive parameters such as acoustic management, security, Host Protected Area, etc.

Samsung Disk Diagnose (SHDIAG) 1.28
to diagnose the disk when suspected to have failures.

Samsung ESTOOL 3.00g
Drive Diagnostic, Automatic Acoustic Management, Enable/Disable SMART etc.

Samsung HDD Utility(HUTIL) 2.10
The Drive Diagnostic Utility.

SeaTools for Dos
GUI 2.21 Text 1.10 versions to test Seagate or Maxtor Parallel ATA (PATA and IDE) and Serial ATA (SATA) interface disc drives.

SmartUDM 2.00
Hard Disk Drive S.M.A.R.T. Viewer.

Toshiba Hard Disk Diagnostic 2.00b
Toshiba hard drive diagnostic utility.

Victoria 3.33e and 3.52rus
a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics.

Victoria 4.46
Universal program for testing storage devices

ViVard 1.0
HDD low-level diagnostics, Surface test with remap, SMART-attributes etc.

WDClear 1.30
Restore/Erases the drive back to a factory condition.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 11.2
for the installation of Western Digital EIDE Hard Drives.

Western Digital Diagnostics (DLGDIAG) 5.04f
to quickly and efficiently verify the status of the drive.

Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools 1.21
to perform drive identification, diagnostics, and repairs on most WD drives

MBR (Master Boot Record) Tools

BellaVista 1.1.0.47
Formerly BCD Editor with lots of options to configure Windows for a developer.

BootSect 6.0.6
Boot Sector Manipulation Tool, This tool replaces FixFAT.exe and FixNTFS.exe.

BootICE 0.78
a boot sector manipulation utility.

DiskMan 4.2
all in one tool for cmos, bios, bootrecord and more.

Grub4Dos installer 1.1
an universal boot loader GRUB for DOS installer.

grub4dos 2010-08-04
an universal boot loader based on GNU GRUB, can boot off DOS/LINUX or via Windows boot manager/syslinux/lilo or from MBR/CD, builtin BIOS disk emulation.

HDHacker 1.4
Load/Save/View MBR and BootSector from a physical/logical drive.

isolinux 4.02
a boot loader for Linux/i386 that operates off ISO 9660/El Torito CD-ROMs in 'no emulation' mode.

MBRWizard 3.0.65
Directly update and modify the Master Boot Record.

MbrFix 1.3
to backup, restore, fix the boot code in the MBR.

MBR Utility 1.05
to manipulate a drive's master boot record (MBR) via the command line.

MemDisk 4.02
to allow booting legacy operating systems, floppy images, hard disk images and some ISO images.

PLoP Boot Manager 5.0.10
a small program to boot different operating systems harddisk, floppy, CD/DVD or from USB, it can boot from an USB/CD/DVD even without BIOS support.

BootFix Utility
Run this utility if you get 'Invalid system disk' message.

Boot Partition 2.60
add Partition in the Windows NT/2000/XP Multi-boot loader.

MBRWork 1.08
a utility to perform some common and uncommon MBR functions.

MBRTool 2.3.200
backup, verify, restore, edit, refresh, remove, display, re-write and more.

MBR SAVE / RESTORE 2.1
BootSave and BootRest tools to save / restore MBR.

Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1
a multi boot manager.

Ms Dos Tools

1394 Firewire Support
1394 Firewire Drivers for Dos.

ASUSTeK USB Driver 3
ASUS USB CD-ROM Device Driver Version 1.00.

Dos tools
Collection of dos utilities extract.exe pkzip.exe pkunzip.exe lha.exe gzip.exe uharcd.exe imgExtrc.exe xcopy.exe diskcopy.com mouse.com undelete.com edit.com fdisk.exe fdisk2.exe fdisk3.exe lf.exe delpart.exe wipe.com zap.com format.com deltree.exe more.com find.exe hex.exe debug.exe split.exe mem.exe attrib.com sys.com smartdrv.exe xmsdsk.exe killer.exe share.exe scandisk.exe guest.exe doskey.exe duse.exe move.exe setver.exe intersvr.exe interlnk.exe loadlin.exe lfndos.exe doslfn.com and more.

Interlnk support at COM1/LPT1
to access another computer from COM/LPT port.

SCSI Support
SCSI Drivers for Dos.

SATA Support
SATA Driver (gcdrom.sys) and JMicron JMB361 (xcdrom.sys) for Dos.

Universal USB Driver 2
Panasonic v2.20 ASPI Manager for USB mass storage.

USB CD-Rom Driver 1
Standard usb_cd.sys driver for cd drive.

Network Tools

Angry IP Scanner 2.21
Scan IP addresses in any range as well as any their ports.

CurrPorts 1.82
displays the list of all currently opened TCP and UDP ports on your computer.

Network Password Recovery 1.24
Recover Windows XP/Vista network passwords / Credentials file.

PuTTY 0.60
a free and open source terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the SSH and Telnet.

SmartSniff 1.63
Network monitoring utility that allows you to capture TCP/IP packets that pass through your network adapter.

TCPView 3.02
Lists TCP and UDP endpoints, including the Local/Remote addresses of TCP connections.

XP TCP/IP Repair 1.0
Repair your Windows XP Winsock and TCP/IP registry errors.

Optimizers

Defraggler 1.21.209
to defrag your entire hard drive or individual files.

JkDefrag 3.36
Free disk defragment and optimize utility for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista/Windows 7.

NT Registry Optimizer 1.1j
Registry Optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista.

PageDfrg 2.32
System file Defragmenter For NT/2k/XP.

Other Tools

Bulk Rename Utility 2.7.1.2
Rename multiple files, change timestamps and rename using EXIF data with the click of a button.

Fix NTLDR is missing
Fix 'NTLDR is missing, Press any key to restart' for Windows Xp.

HBCD Customizer 1.3
HBCDCustomizer.exe is a GUI tool to create custom iso images of Hiren's BootCD.

Mini Linux
Recovery is Possible Linux (RIPLinux 10.7) kernel 2.6.34 contains afftools, aria2, beaver, cdrtools, clamav, curl, ddrescue, dump/restore, emelfm2, encfs, epdfview, extundelete, fsarchiver, grub2, hdparm, isomaster, lftp, lynx, lzip, mtpaint, ntfs-3g, openssh, partclone, partimage, pccmoscleaner, pcdiskeraser, pcmanfm, pcloginnow, pcregedit, pidgin, qemu, reiserfsck, rdup, safecopy, smbclient, sylpheed, syslinux, truecrypt, tar, tmux, wiper, xfburn, xfprot, xterm and more.

SearchMyFiles 1.50
Alternative to 'Search For Files And Folders' module of Windows + Duplicates Search.

Universal TCP/IP Network 6.5
MSDOS Network Client to connect via TCP/IP to a Microsoft based network. The network can either be a peer-to-peer or a server based network, it contains 98 different network card drivers.

Partition Tools

eXtended Fdisk 0.9.3
XFDISK allows easy partition creation and edition.

Fat32 Formatter GUI 1.01
Windows XP cannot format a volume bigger than 32GB with FAT32.

GParted Partition Editor 0.6.2
to create, copy, paste, delete, hide, resize or move partitions without losing data, a good freeware alternative to
Partition Magic.

Partition Table Editor 8.0
Partition Table and Boot Record Editor.

Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.0
Free Partition Magic Alternative, Partition Resize/Move/Copy/Create/Delete/Format/Convert, Explore, etc.

Ranish Partition Manager 2.44
a boot manager and hard disk partitioner.

Smart Fdisk 2.05
a simple harddisk partition manager.

SPecial Fdisk 2000.03v
SPFDISK is a partition tool.

Super Fdisk 1.0
Create, delete, format partitions drives without destroying data.

The Partition Resizer 1.3.4
move and resize your partitions in one step.

USB Format Tool
Format/make bootable any USB flash drive to FAT, FAT32, or NTFS partition.

Password Tools

Asterisk Logger 1.04
Reveal passwords hidden behind asterisk characters.

ATAPWD 1.2
Hard Disk Password Utility.

Autologon 3.0
Enables you to easily configure Windows' built-in autologon mechanism, so you don't have to wait on the login screen.

Content Advisor Password Remover 1.01
It Removes Content Advisor Password from Internet Explorer.

IE PassView 1.20
It allows you to view username and passwords saved by Internet Explorer.

Kon-Boot 1.1
to bypass Login Password of Windows (32bit, any password) and Linux login as kon-usr.

LicenseCrawler 0.0.42
find the license keys and serial numbers of your programs.

Mail PassView 1.65
Recovers mail passwords of Outlook Express, MS Outlook, IncrediMail, Eudora, etc.

MessenPass 1.30
A password recovery tool that reveals the passwords of several instant messangers.

NTPWD
utility to reset windows nt/2000/xp administrator/user password.

Offline NT Password Changer 2010-06-27
utility to reset/unlock windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 administrator/user password.

Password Renew 1.1
Utility to set/reset windows passwords.

PasswordFox 1.20
Allows you to view the user names and passwords stored by Mozilla Firefox Web browser.

ProduKey 1.42
Recovers lost the product key of your Windows/Office.

PST (Outlook) Password Recovery 1.12
Small utility that recovers lost password of Outlook .PST (Personal Folders) file.

SniffPass 1.11
A password monitoring tool that listens to your network, capture the passwords that pass through your network adapter, it works on POP3, IMAP4, SMTP, FTP, and HTTP protocols and recovers lost Web/FTP/Email passwords.

WindowsGate 1.1
Enables/Disables Windows logon password validation.

WinKeyFinder 1.73
Allows you to View and Change Windows XP/2003 Product Keys, backup and restore activation related files, backup
Microsoft Office 97, 2000 SP2, XP/2003 keys etc.

WirelessKeyView 1.34
Recovers all wireless network keys (WEP/WPA) stored in your computer by WZC Wireless Zero Configuration.

XP Key Reader 2.7
Can decode the XP-key on Local or Remote systems.

Process Tools

Dependency Walker 2.2
Checks for missing/invalid DLL/modules/functions for any exe/dll/ocx/sys.

IB Process Manager 1.04
a little process manager for 9x/2k, shows dll info etc.

OpenedFilesView 1.46
View opened/locked files in your system, sharing violation issues.

Pocket KillBox 2.0.0.978
can be used to get rid of files that stubbornly refuse to allow you to delete them.

Process Explorer 12.04
shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

Process Monitor 2.91
to monitor real-time file system, Registry and process/thread activity, This tool replaces Filemon and Regmon.

ProcessActivityView 1.11
Detailed process access information read/write/opened files etc.

Unlocker 1.9.0
This tool can delete file/folder when you get this message - Cannot delete file: Access is denied, The file is in use by another program etc.

Recovery Tools

DiskDigger 0.8.3.176
Undelete and recover lost photos, videos, music, documents and other formats from your hard drive, memory cards and USB flash drives.

Partition Find and Mount 2.31
Partition Find and Mount software is designed to find lost or deleted partitions.

PartitionRecovery 1.0
A freeware tool to recover accidentally deleted partitions.

PhotoRec 6.12b
Tool to Recover File and pictures from Dos/Windows/Linux.

Recuva 1.38.504
Restore deleted files from Hard Drive, Digital Camera Memory Card, usb mp3 player etc.

Restoration 3.2.13
a tool to recover deleted files.

Smart Partition Recovery 3.3
Find Lost NTFS partitions and restore them back.

SoftPerfect File Recovery 1.2
to restore accidentally deleted files from hard drive, USB flash drives, CF and SD memory cards.

TestDisk 6.12b
Tool to check and undelete partition from Dos/Windows/Linux.

Unstoppable Copier 4.4
Allows you to copy files from disks with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data.

Registry Tools

ERUNT 1.1j
The Emergency Recovery Utility NT Registry Backup and Restore for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP.

Fix HDC
Fix the Hard Drive Controller when replacing your motherboard on an XP system.

Glary Registry Repair 3.3.0.852
an advanced registry cleaner that allows you to safely scan, clean, and repair registry problems.

RegFromApp 1.21
Monitors/exports the Registry changes made by the selected application.

Registry Editor PE 0.9c
Easy editing of remote registry hives and user profiles.

Registry Restore Wizard 1.0.4
Restores a corrupted system registry from Xp System Restore.

RegScanner 1.82
Tool to find/search in the Registry of Windows.

RegShot 1.8.2
a registry compare utility that allows you to quickly take a snapshot of your registry and then compare it with a second one - done after doing system changes or installing a new software product.

Registry Viewer 4.2
Registry Viewer/Editor for Win9x/Me/NT/2K/XP.

Remote Control Tools

TeamViewer 5.0.8703
Access any remote computer via Internet just like sitting in front of it, even through firewalls.

TightVNC 2.0.2
Cross-platform Remote Desktop Software to view/control remote pc with mouse and keyboard.

Security / Encryption Tools

DiskCryptor 0.9
High speed disk encryption tool to encrypt all disk/partitions, including the system partition encryption support.

TrueCrypt 7.0
On-the-fly Linux/Windows disk encryption tool, can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk, can also encrypt an entire HDD/Partition/USB Drive.

Startup Tools

Autoruns 10.02
Displays All the entries from startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys, Explorer shell extensions,toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock, LSA Providers, Remove Drivers and much more which helps to remove nasty spyware/adware and viruses.

HijackThis 2.0.4
a general homepage hijackers detector and remover and more.

Silent Runners Revision 61
A free script that helps detect spyware, malware and adware in the startup process.

Startup Control Panel 2.8
a tool to edit startup programs.

Startup Monitor 1.02
it notifies you when any program registers itself to run at system startup.

System Information Tools

Astra 5.46
Advanced System info Tool and Reporting Assistant.

BlueScreenView 1.27
Scans minidump files for BSOD (blue screen of death) crash information.

CPU Identification utility 1.18
CHKCPU.EXE Detailed information on CPU.

CPU-Z 1.55
It gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.

CTIA CPU Information 2.7
another CPU information tool.

Drive Temperature 1.0
Hard Disk Drive temperature meter.

GPU-Z 0.4.4
A lightweight utility designed to give you all information about your video card and GPU.

HDTune 2.55
Hard disk benchmarking and information tool.

HWiNFO 5.5.0
a powerful system information utility.

Navratil Software System Information 0.60.38
High-end professional system information tool.

PCI and AGP info Tool (07-08-2010)
The PCI System information and Exploration tool.

PC Wizard 2010.1.94
Powerful system information/benchmark utility designed especially for detection of hardware.

PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (07-08-2010)
device information tool which is similar to unknown devices.

SIW 2010.7.14
Gathers detailed information about your system properties and settings.

Speccy 1.03.162
an advanced System Information tool for your PC.

System Analyser 5.3w
View extensive information about your hardware.

SysChk 2.46
Find out exactly what is under the hood of your PC.

UnknownDevices 1.4.20 (07-08-2010)
helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are.

Update Checker 1.037
scans your computer for installed software and checks for newer releases on FileHippo.

USBDeview 1.75
View/Uninstall all installed/connected USB devices on your system.

Testing Tools

Bart's Stuff Test 5.1.4
Long term heavy stress testing storage devices.

CPU/Video/Disk Performance Test 5.7
a tool to test cpu, video, and disk.

Disk Speed 1.0
Hard Disk Drive Speed Testing Tool.

H2testw 1.4
Check your USB Flash memory cards, internal/external hard drives and network drives for errors with this tool.

HDD Scan 3.3
HDDScan is a Low-level HDD diagnostic tool, it scans surface find bad sectors etc.

IsMyLcdOK (Monitor Test) 1.02
Allows you to test CRT/LCD/TFT screens for dead pixels and diffective screens.

Memtest86+ 4.10
PC Memory Test.

MemTest 1.0
a Memory Testing Tool.

S&M Stress Test 1.9.1
cpu/hdd/memory benchmarking and information tool, including temperatures/fan speeds/voltages.

System Speed Test 4.78
it tests CPU, harddrive, ect.

Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0
a tool to test Hard Disk Drive.

Video Memory Stress Test 1.7.116
a tool to thoroughly test your video RAM for errors and faults.

Windows Memory Diagnostic
a RAM Test tool.

Tweakers

Dial a Fix 0.60.0.24
Fix errors and problems with COM/ActiveX object errors and missing registry entries, Automatic Updates, SSL, HTTPS, and Cryptography service (signing/verification) issues, Reinstall internet explorer etc. comes with the policy scanner.

Disable Autorun
A small tweak which disables processing of autorun.inf to protect your PC from usb autorun viruses.

Disable Compress Old Files
This registry tweak is useful when Disk Cleanup Tool Stops Responding While Compressing Old Files.

EzPcFix 1.0.0.16
Helpful tool when trying to remove viruses, spyware, and malware.

InstalledCodec 1.15
Disable/Enable Installed Codec drivers and DirectShow filters.

KeyTweak 2.3.0
a program to Remap Keyboard Layout, you can even customize a broken key to an unused key.

Protect a Drive from Autorun Virus
Protect your pen drive from being infected when you plug it in an infected PC.

RemoveWGA 1.2
Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Removal tool.

RRT - Remove Restrictions Tool 3.0
to Re-enable Ctrl+Alt+Del, Folder Options and Registry tools etc.

Shell Extensions Manager (ShellExView) 1.47
An excellent tool to View and Manage all installed Context-menu/Shell extensions.

ShellMenuNew 1.01
View/Change the list of all menu items in the 'New' submenu of Windows Explorer.

Show Hidden Devices
Device Manager hides nonpresent devices that are not physically present in the system, but still have configuration information in the Registry.

TweakUI 2.10
This PowerToy gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in Windows Xp.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker 2.1
A TweakUI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista.

Write Protect USB Devices
Tweak your PC to make USB Pen Drive, Memory Card or Thumb Drive as Read Only.

Xp-AntiSpy 3.97.9
it tweaks some Windows XP functions, and disables some unneeded Windows services quickly.

Hiren's Bootcd 11.0 (261MB)

Download: File1 | File2 | File3 | File4 | File5 | File6 | File7 | File8 | File9 | File10 | File11 | File12 | File13 | File14

Mirror: File1 | File2 | File3 | File4 | File5 | File6 | File7 | File8 | File9 | File10 | File11 | File12 | File13 | File14

Hiren's BootCD 10.6

2010-10-28T07:12:00.000-07:00

- Partition Magic, - Drive Image 2002, - Easy Recovery
Opera Web Browser 9.27, SuperAntispyware 4.39.1002 (2606), SpywareBlaster 4.3 (2606), Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.46 (2606), Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2 (2606), DriveImageXML 2.14, 7-Zip 9.15b, Total Commander 7.55, CCleaner 2.33.1184, MBRWizard 3.0.48, CurrPorts 1.81, Network Password Recovery 1.24, Defraggler 1.20.201, Bulk Rename Utility 2.7.1.2, RIPLinux 9.8, GParted Partition Editor 0.6.0b2, ProduKey 1.41, Process Explorer 12.04, DiskCryptor 0.9, Autoruns 10.01, PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (2606), SIW 2010.0428, UnknownDevices 1.4.20 (2606), Astra 5.46, HWiNFO 5.5.0, PCI and AGP info Tool (2606), ComboFix (2606), Dr.Web CureIt! Antivirus (2606)

Download : Hiren's BootCD 10.6

Hiren's BootCD 10.5

2010-10-28T03:52:00.000-07:00

Hiren's BootCD (HBCD) is a completely free bootable CD that contains a load of useful tools you can make use of in a variety of situations like analyzing, recovering and fixing your computer even if the primary operating system can not be booted.

It is a great resource for anyone with computer problems who is having trouble accessing the internet to download programs in an attempt to fix it. It has a multitude of tools divided into a number of categories like partitioning tools, backup, recovery and BIOS/CMOS tools to name a few.

With some simple knowledge about what is contained on the CD, you can use it to repair many problems computer like hard drive failure, virus infections, partitioning, password recovery and data recovery.

We may call it as an emergency cd which every computer technician or home user must have.

We thank and appreciate Hiren for his great BootCD. This site is just a download place for Hiren's BootCD and is not related with Hiren. For developer's homepage please visit Hiren's Homepage under the links.

Partition Tools

If you need to make changes to the partitions on your computer, there are several applications that provides various levels of functionality for accomplishing this goal. You can both create and delete partitions from your computer, even while there are other partitions on the hard drive you are modifying. You can also resize partitions if needed, to change how much space is allocated to them.

Backup and Recovery

There are several backup and recovery tools on Hiren's BootCD. Backup tools like GetDataBack, HDD Scan, Partition Find and Mount, PhotoRec, Recuva, Undelete... let you copy data off of your hard drive and schedule automatic backups to ensure your data is saved to another location. You can also recover deleted data, whether that data was deleted intentionally or accidentally. There are also a few tools that will help you recover data from damaged or corrupted portions of your hard drive if you are unable to recover them through other methods.

Testing Tools

Hiren's BootCD provides a variety of tools for testing different aspects of your computer. If you suspect that your RAM is corrupted or that a piece of hardware on your machine is not functioning properly, there are several applications you can run to determine the problems. You can also perform hard drive tests to see whether your hard drive is physically damaged, and get a report on how much longer your hard drive is expected to work.

Password Tools

Password recovery and modification tools are also provided on Hiren's BootCD. You can change the administrator password on Windows machines, and there are utilities for saving passwords for your online accounts in an encrypted format. You can also encrypt your entire hard drive with Hiren's BootCD so that a password is required to read or write any data from or to your hard drive.

Changes from Hiren's BootCD 10.4 to 10.5:

+ GParted Partition Editor 0.5.2, + G4L Ghost 4 Linux 0.33a, + Partition Image - PartImage 0.6.9, + SoftPerfect File Recovery 1.2, + Defraggler 1.19, + IrfanView 4.27, + Smart Boot Manager 3.7.1, + LicenseCrawler 0.0.42, + ViVard 1.0, + CleanUp! 4.5.2, + Fix NTLDR is missing, + PartitionRecovery 1.0, + Recovery is Possible (RIP) Linux 9.4, + ERUNT 1.1j, + SelfImage 1.2.1.92, - Winsock 2 Fix for Windows 95/98/Me, - Active Uneraser, - Registry Reanimator, - Defragger, - The Troubleshooter 2002, - Partition Commander 2004, - Pointsec filter driver (issues with Disk Management)
Partition Wizard Home Edition 5.0, Hard Disk Sentinel 1.00.5, HDAT2 4.53 Re-compiled, 7-Zip 9.13b, MBRWiz 3.0.46, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.46 (0306), SpywareBlaster 4.3 (0306), SuperAntispyware 4.38.1004 (0306), Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.6.2 (0306), FastCopy 2.01, Drive SnapShot 1.40, CCleaner 2.32.1165, SeaTools for Dos - GUI 2.20, Universal TCP/IP Network 6.5, WirelessKeyView 1.34, Process Explorer 12.03, Process Monitor 2.91, ProcessActivityView 1.11, Memtest86+ 4.10, TestDisk 6.12b, PhotoRec 6.12b, Recuva 1.37.488, RegFromApp 1.21, RegScanner 1.82, HijackThis 2.0.4, Silent Runners Revision 61, BlueScreenView 1.26, GPU-Z 0.4.3, PC Wizard 2010.1.94, USBDeview 1.70, ShellExView 1.47, SIW 2010-05-12, UnknownDevices 1.4.20 (0306), PCI 32 Sniffer 1.4 (0306), PCI and AGP info Tool (0306), ComboFix (0306), Dr.Web CureIt! Antivirus (0306)

Download : Hiren's BootCD 10.5

How to ByPass Downloading ShareCash.org

2010-10-28T03:37:00.000-07:00

How to ByPass Downloading ShareCash.org

**CURRENTLY WORKING** This will definitely help you bypass the ShareCash.org

Download: ShareCash Downloader

Quickly bookmark a web page

2009-08-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

Bookmark any web page form field and quickly access it from the browser address bar. Below is an example of how you could bookmark the Computer Hope search and quickly search for help anytime .

1. Right-click on the search box in the top left portion of this window.
2. Click "Add a keyword for this search".
3. In the Add bookmark window, type any name or leave it blank and for the keyword make it something simple and easy to remember. For example, "CH" for "Computer Hope" and click Ok.

Now in your address bar you can type: "CH " and then anything you need help with. For example typing: "CH motherbaord" would open the search results for motherboard.

Hide / Tweak the Firefox download window

2009-08-23T21:14:00.000-07:00

Remove that pesky download window that appears after downloading a file by adding the Firefox Download Statusbar Add-on to your browser. Alternatively editing the about:config settings as shown below can also disable this window from being displayed.

1. Open a new tab in Firefox.

2. In the address bar type: about:config

3. Locate browser.download.manager.showWhenStarting by copying and pasting the bold text into the Filter box.

4. Double-click the name or value to change the value from True to False. Once done close the tab.

If you've hidden your download Window it can still viewed by clicking Tools and then Downloads or pressing Ctrl + J.

Quickly find icon and/or file

2009-08-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Quickly find an icon in a group of icons or a specific item in an alphabetic list of items by highlighting one of the icons or list items and pressing the beginning letter of the item you're looking for. Below are some examples of how this could be used.

Windows desktop icons - If you have a lot of icons on your desktop or in another folder highlight one of the icons and press the first letter. For example if you were looking for an icon named "test" highlight any icon and then press the "t" key. Note: you can also press the "t" key multiple times to individually highlight each icon that starts with "t".

Internet drop down list - Instead of scrolling through a list of options in an Internet drop down list press the first letter of the option you're looking for. For example, if you were looking through a list of states and you wanted "Utah" press U to automatically scroll down to it.

Create a send to shortcut

2009-08-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

Send to is a feature that enables users to send programs to an alternate location or a location where you store all your files. An example of the send to feature is right-clicking a file and clicking send to and then the floppy disk drive. Users can create their own send to destinations by following the below steps.

Microsoft Windows 95 / 98 / ME users

Create a shortcut in the windows\sendto directory

Other Windows users

Create a shortcut in the documents and settings\\sendto directory.

Note: is the name of the user logging into the computer. In addition it is possible that the sendto directory is hidden.

Windows explorer multiple renames

2009-08-23T20:56:00.000-07:00

Quickly and easily rename multiple files in Microsoft Windows XP Explorer by following the below steps.

1. Open Explorer.
2. In Explorer select all the files you wish to rename.
3. Once the files have been selected press F2 and type the new name for the files. For example, typing "test" will rename the files to test, test(1), test(2), test(3) etc. If you have file extensions shown make sure to also type the name of the file extension you're renaming

Windows XP mouse Snap To

2009-08-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

Enable the Microsoft Window XP mouse Snap To feature to automatically focus on dialog box buttons. Enabling this feature will automatically move your mouse cursor to the default button on any dialog box that appears on Windows. This is a great way to save a little time and not have to move you mouse cursor to the "Ok" button each time a dialog box appears. To enable this feature follow the below steps.

1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel.

2. Double-click the Mouse icon

3. In the Mouse Properties window click the Pointer Options tab and check the "Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialog box" option.

Speed up Windows Explorer

2009-08-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Speed up the display load time of Microsoft Windows Explorer by disabling the feature to search for network printers and folders. By default each time Windows Explorer is opened it'll attempt to locate any network printer or folder on your computer network. If your computer is not on a network and/or you have no network printers, folders, or shares disable this option by following the below steps.

1. Open Windows Explorer

2. Click the Tools drop down menu and then Folder Options

3. Within the Folder Options tab click the View tab

4. Uncheck "Automatically search for network folders and printers"

Microsoft Windows XP and Vista boot time

2009-08-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

If you're running Windows XP or Vista with a computer that has a multiple core processor such as the Intel Core 2 duo you can increase how fast your computer boots up by having it use multiple processors for its boot sequence. Following the below steps to have Windows do this for you.

1. Click Start and Run (for XP) and type: msconfig and press enter.

2. Click the BOOT.INI or BOOT tab.

3. XP users highlight the line beginning with "multi" if not already selected and click the Advanced Options button.

In the Advanced Options Window for /NUMPROC= or Number of

4. Processors change it to 2.

5. Reboot the computer.

Create a shortcut key for Internet Web pages

2009-08-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

Create a PC shortcut key to a favorite web page by creating a shortcut to the web page or URL. Users using Internet Explorer can quickly do this by right-clicking on an empty spot of a web page and click 'Create Shortcut'.

Once the shortcut has been created locate the shortcut and right-click or view the properties of that shortcut.

In the shortcut properties assign a new shortcut key and click OK. Now when the shortcut key is pressed the web page will be automatically loaded.

Sending a web page to a friend

2009-08-23T19:48:00.000-07:00

Internet Explorer users
Send a friend the web page you are viewing by clicking File, Send, and "Page by E-mail".

Netscape users
Send a friend the web page you are viewing by clicking File, and "Send Page".

Google tips

2009-08-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

Below are some basic tips as well as some secrets that can be used on Google to help improve your search results and find things you may have never thought of.

1. Group your search query to find better results. For example, if you're searching for computer help, you'll find better results if you search for an exact phrase by surrounding it in quotes: "computer help".

2. If a lot of your results have keywords you're not search for use a minus sign. For example, if you're looking for computer help but don't want pages containing Windows type: "computer help" -windows

3. Google supports number ranges, for example, if you're searching for computer help between the year 2000 to 2005 you can type: "Computer help" 2000..2005

4. See the Google operators page, which lists dozens of the available operators Google allows. For example, the below search would search for URL that contains the word computer: allinurl: computer

5. Visit the Google Features page, which lists hundreds of different examples of the type of things you can find through Google and how to find them.

6. See our Google dictionary definition for a listing of dozens of other Google services.

Below are some more advance searches people are commonly looking for and what they do.

intitle:index.of + mp3 -asp -html -htm -php -pls -txt

In the above example, when entered into Google this search result looks for any index of MP3 files that does not contain the standard web pages like HTML, PHP, etc. or any other non-related pages. In the above example you can replace mp3 with avi or other file extension to search for these types of files.

intitle:index.of + mp3 "" -asp -html -htm -php -pls -txt

In the above example you could replace "" with the artists name, track, group, or name of the MP3 you're looking for. Keep in mind when downloading MP3 that you should own the track or song you're downloading otherwise it's considered illegal.

inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="

In the above simple example, Google will return results of insecure live web cams and with some of the services even allow you to control the cameras over the Internet.

The above three examples are just a few more advanced searches used to help illustrate how many different things can be found through Google.

Tabbed browsing

2009-08-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

With the introduction of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 all major browsers now support tabbed browsing. Below are various tips to improve your browsing using tabs.

1. Clicking on any link with your middle mouse button or wheel will open that link in a new tab. Alternatively you can hold down your CTRL key in IE and Firefox and click a link to open that link in a new tab.

2. Clicking on an open tab with your middle mouse button will close that tab.

3. Mozilla Firefox users can middle-click the back button to open a previous page in a new tab.

4. Pressing CTRL + T will open a new tab in IE, Firefox, and Opera.

5. Firefox and IE users can hold down CTRL and press 1 through 0 on their keyboard to open that respected tab.

6. Right-clicking the active tab will give you an option to close all other non-active tabs.

Move back quickly

2009-08-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

The most commonly used feature in Internet browsers is the back button. However, all browsers also have a small black down arrow to the right of the back button. This button allows you to easily see the history of the last 5-10 pages you've visited and quickly get back to them. This feature is especially helpful for those pesky pages that forward you back to a page each time you press the back button or for when you wish to move back several pages but don't want to have to press the back button several times.

Create short Internet addresses

2009-08-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

Create easy to read and type Internet addresses from long convoluted addresses often found on popular sites such as Amazon, eBay, MapQuest, etc. by using online services that shrink the address. For example, the URL: http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/cmos.htm would become: http://tinyurl.com/ynkjhp. Below are examples of sites that allow you to copy and paste any URL into them to make them smaller.

http://tinyurl.com/
http://snipurl.com/
http://tubeurl.com/
http://cuturl.com/

Google 10 tips

2009-08-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of our top ten Google tricks many users don't know about.

1. Definitions - Pull up the definition of the word by typing define followed by the word you want the definition for. For example, typing: define bravura would display the definition of that word.

2. Local search - Visit Google Local enter the area you want to search and the keyword of the place you want to find. For example, typing: restaurant at the above link would display local restaurants.

3. Phone number lookup - Enter a full phone number with area code to display the name and address associated with that phone number.

4. Find weather - Type weather followed by a zip code or city and state to display current weather conditions and forecasts for upcoming days.

5. Track airline flight - Enter the airline and flight number to display the status of an airline flight and it's arrival time. For example, type: delta 123 to display this flight information if available.

6. Track packages - Enter a UPS, FedEx or USPS tracking number to get a direct link to track your packages.

7. Pages linked to you - See what other web pages are linking to your website or blog by typing link: followed by your URL. For example, typing link:http://www.computerhope.com displays all pages linking to Computer Hope.

8. Find PDF results only - Add filetype: to your search to display results that only match a certain file type. For example, if you wanted to display PDF results only type: "dell xps" filetype:pdf -- this is a great way to find online manuals.

9. Calculator - Use the Google Search engine as a calculator by typing a math problem in the search. For example, typing: 100 + 200 would display results as 300.

10. Stocks - Quickly get to a stock quote price, chart, and related links by typing the stock symbol in Google. For example, typing: msft will display the stock information for Microsoft.

Only browse safe web pages

2009-08-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

Concerned about the safety of web pages you or others are visiting on your computer? Consider installing the free browser add-on WOT (Web of Trust), when installed this free add-on will display a large warning across the window of any web page that has been poorly rated, contains adware, been known to fraudulently charge visitors, contains malware, and/or is otherwise unsafe. This add-on can be downloaded from their web page.

How to enable the Windows Task Manager and Regedit Editor?

2009-08-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Today tip will help you to unlock the windows Regedit Editor and Task Manager. Normally the reason of this message is that your computer has been infected by virus, trojan, or piece of spyware and message look like" Registry editor has been disabled by your administrator" or "Task Manager has been disabled by your administrator". By default Windows Task Manager and registry editor status is enabled, but a user can also disable or enable it manually. Some time a registry hack applies on both editors to disable it. Before proceeding further, first scan your system with up-to-date antivirus, and then follow the given steps to enable it.

To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.

First go to the link of registry tools to access the useful script file and download it to your computer hard disk.

Now double click on this file to run this .vbs file and then a small message will appear on screen.

Here click on Open button to execute this file and you will get a confirmation message on screen.

Click on Ok button to finish the process and now you can run the both windows editors.

Tips On Desktop Computer Rentals

2009-03-09T22:16:00.002-07:00

Special projects, temporary staff increases and internal training are made much easier when you consider desktop computer rentals. Just think of the problems you can avoid when you rent:

- No scrambling to find enough machines to set up a training room or office for temporary staff
- No costly purchases of equipment that will become surplus once the project is complete
- No need to sell or dispose of used equipment

Desktop computer rentals offer other benefits:

- A full-service computer rentals firm will offer setup and takedown services
- You can get the latest equipment for your project without the high costs of acquiring new equipment
- The computer rentals firm can help you by pre-loading the software you need on each machine
- Your desktop computer rentals will be fully supported by the rental firm

Who Uses Desktop Computer Rentals?

Many organizations depend on desktop computer rentals for a variety of reasons. Here are just a few:

- Contractors and Temporary Staff ? Organizations with short-term special projects often hire people on contract. To avoid large expenditures on new equipment, they turn to desktop computer rentals. Industries that rely on computer rentals in this kind of situation include software development companies, income tax services, and non-profits that need to enter large volumes of donations during fundraising campaigns.

- Testing ? Many businesses need to test new hardware and software before rolling it out to a broad base of users. With desktop computer rentals they can obtain the hardware they need, tailored to their exact specifications, to create a testing network that is identical to their real work environment.

- In-house Workshops and Training ? Whether it is training in the use of new software or workshops designed to enhance job skills, many organizations conduct courses for their employees. Desktop computer rentals enable them to set up a temporary classroom that can be easily dismantled when training is complete.

Get Your Desktop Computer Rentals from a Full-Service Provider

The computer rentals company you select should offer you a wide range of services and products. Be sure to find out what is included in the service they provide. You can ask about:

- Product Selection ? Can they provide hardware that matches your specifications? Can they source machines that they don?t currently have in stock?

- Support ? What happens if your rented hardware malfunctions? Does the company offer phone or on-site technical support?

- Changes ? What penalties are charged if you change the timeline of your rental agreement? How does the company deal with early or late returns?

- Setup and Removal ? Does the company offer full setup of its desktop computer rentals? Data security is crucial ? be sure you know how the company removes data from rented machines.

If your company is anticipating temporary staff increases or special projects, make sure to include desktop computer rentals in your planning. Do your homework and research competitive companies online before you agree to a log-term or short-term agreement and make sure it is flexible.

Make sure the company provides 24/7 phone technical support or a rent-a-tech program and start a relationship with a sales representative you can trust!

5 Tips To Deal With Slow Computer Performance

2009-03-09T22:16:00.001-07:00

All computer users encounter slow performance or a sudden computer breakdown at one time or another. Quite often, registry problems are behind this gradual deterioration in your computers performance.

When you install or uninstall applications, your system is infected by a virus, the system crashes, or many such activities occur on your system, several unwanted, invalid, and malicious entries get added to the registry that unnecessarily cause it to grow to a very large size. A large registry slows down, and as a result slows down your computer. In more severe conditions, registry problems may also cause various computer-related errors, which can eventually crash your system.

This can be completely avoided if you perform certain actions on regular basis to speed up the performance of your computer.

1) Perform regular virus checks

If you are a regular net surfer, and don?t care to systematically scan your system for viruses or malware, you are actually inviting trouble. Do you know that you can unintentionally download viruses and malware in your system just by visiting a website? The chances of infecting your system rise if you continue downloading software programs, music, and video clips on your system. Therefore, you must scan your PC for virus infections by using effective anti-virus software.

2) Use your System Tools

Before you invest too heavily on various types of PC maintenance software, you should use the System Tools, which are offered for free with your operating system. For example, you can use the Windows Disk Defragmenter tool to reorganize your files and check the hard drive for errors. The Disk Cleanup tool, on the other hand, helps you remove unnecessary files from your system.

3) Think twice about free downloads

Though you may find it an attractive option to download ?free stuff? from the Internet, but there exist many websites that actually install spyware onto your computer and trace every activity on your computer and display unwanted popup ads. Many other programs secretly add programs to your browser or registry, which can affect system performance and crash your PC sooner or later. So, practice cautions before you click the ?Free Download? button next time.

4) Troubleshooting errors when they appear

Do you know that more than 90 percent of computers contain corrupt and significantly harmful files with more than 200 errors? If you ever witness an error message on your screen, you should immediately take action to resolve it. This is because it may gradually start affecting the performance of your system and causing you to reboot, among other things. For example, if you notice a Regsvr32.exe error on your system, you should logon to the Microsoft technical support page and enter the name of the error. This would display a step-by-step process, which you can follow to resolve your problem.

5) Using a registry cleaner

Using an effective registry cleaner tool is probably one of the most simple and non-technical methods to tackle the slow performance of your computer. You can opt for an advanced registry cleaner or scan your system?s registry. This would also allow you to deal with multiple errors at the same time while enhancing the speed of your PC.

Useful Tips To Build The Best Gaming Computer

2009-03-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Every gamer will want their computer to be the best gaming computer among their peers. Sometimes, with a little knowledge and tips and tricks, it is possible to build the best gaming computer and show it off to your peers. This article will show you how:

1) You can't get the best gaming computer from computer retailers

If you want to get the best gaming computer, you have to build your own. Different gamers have different requirement for their gaming machine. Unless you are willing to pay a high price, you will not be able to buy a commercial computer that fulfils all your gaming needs. The only option you have is to build your own gaming computer.

2) You don't have to be rich to build the best gaming computer

It is not necessary to burn a hole in your pocket to build the best gaming computer. With some due diligence, do some market research and compare prices around the marketplace. Merchant such as TigerDirect and NewEgg give regular discount to their products and you could save a lot of money if you catch them during their promotional period.

3) Most expensive parts do not have to be the best part

Sometime, the latest model or the most expensive model does not have to be the best part for your computer. It requires various components to work together to form the best computer system. When choosing a computer part, what matters is how well it can integrate with the rest of the components. Compatibility is more important than individual performance. What use is there if you spend lot of money on the latest quad-core processor and find that your motherboard doesn?t support it?

4) You don't need to change the whole PC to own the best gaming computer

It is a misconception that you have to change the whole gaming machine to build the best gaming computer. If you already have a good barebone system, what you need to do is to upgrade the necessary parts and your gaming computer can roar back to life instantly.

5) Brand is important

Unless you want to see your computer system malfunction every few days, it is important that you purchase the parts from branded manufacturers with strict quality control. Motherboard brand such as Gigabyte, ABIT, ASUS are some quality brands that you can consider

If you follow diligently to the tips stated above. You will be on your way to build the best gaming computer. While price can be an issue, it is better not to scrimp on important computer parts such as motherboard, CPU, RAM and graphics card as it will cost you more to upgrade in the future.

Ten Tips For Building Your Own Media Center Computer

2009-03-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

With new faster processers, bigger hard drives and new larger LCD televisions building a media center computer has become more and more practical. A media center computer can record multiple television shows at one time, can organize all your music and pictures and can also be used as a normal computer. They are definitely very cool. However, before you decide to build your own media center here are ten quick tips...

1. Consider building a machine with a dual core or quad core processor. The multiple processing threads will be very useful when recording multiple programs and watching a program at the same time. A fast multi core processor is a must if you plan on watching and recording hi definition TV.

2. Don't skimp on the RAM. A good media center will have at least 2GB of ram and should probably have up to 4GB. The ram will help keep things moving quickly while you are recording programs.

3. You can never have enough hard drive space. With high definition TV becoming more of a standard you are going to want to consider having large amounts of hard drive space on your machine. I wouldn't build a machine that had less than a terabyte of hard drive space.

4. To increase performance considering using a raid configuration for your hard drives. Using raid zero along with high speed SATA hard drives can help you improve video performance and can prevent recording errors.

5. Get good TV tuner cards with built in hardware encoding. Tuner cards with MPEG hardware encoding will take a load off your processor when they record tv shows, this will help ensure that you won't get any skipping or problems in your recorded output. I use Hauppauge cards in my machine and they work great.

6. Invest in a good decoding program. The software decoder software offered by Nvidia does a good job on my media center. However, I tested four or five different ones before I found one that operated the way I wanted with my hardware configuration. Be prepared to test some different options before you settle on the one that will work best for you.

7. Don't forget to order the remote control. A media center without a remote control is a travesty. These computers are designed to operated while you sit back on your couch. The remotes don't cost that much and they work great.

8. Buy the best video card that you can afford. The better the video card that you have the less chances you have that you will have problems with playback. Before you buy your video card also make sure to check the list of Media Center approved cards. If the card isn't on there you might want to avoid it. Also make sure that you buy a video card that has a high definition output that matches your TV (either DVI or HDMI are the best).

9. Get a good audio card that is capable of feeding source audio to your receiver or your speakers. If you plan on outputting 5.1 or 7.1 data from DVD's you are going to want to make sure that the sound card that you pick has an optical or digital coax output. You might also consider buying a card that will convert all the sounds used on your computer into a 5.1 or 7.1 digital audio feed.

10. Be prepared to play with your configuration and build. Unfortunately, building a media center is not an exact science and there is usually quite a bit of tinkering involved in getting a stable fully functional system. If you aren't comfortable playing with the settings and the drivers to get things to work you might consider buying a prebuilt media center and have someone else do the testing and configuring for you.

I have been running windows XP media center edition for quite a while now and I love it. I have built two different media centers and they have both been a blast. Try it for yourself and see.

Safe Password Tips for Better Computer Security

2009-03-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

With so many online accounts to manage, most people tend to use the same password for everything. Many also tend to use a very ?easy to guess? password. These are two common ?password mistakes? that cyber-thieves are looking for. One of the most important things you can do to stay safe online is to ensure your passwords remain private.

Passwords are designed to offer protection, used as the ?key? to a door that provides access to some very sensitive personal information. If this information got into the wrong hands, financial loss or identity theft could easily occur. Password theft and identity theft is more common today than ever - due to spyware, Trojans and phishing scams. Once a password has been compromised, an insurmountable amount of personal damage can occur in a matter of minutes. The more accounts your password works with, the greater the damage. For the best security, online account passwords should be different as well as difficult.

Safe Password Tips

Use passwords that are at least eight characters long.
Use a combination of upper and lower case letters, and include at least one number or special character. A ?special character? is something like *, &, or -.
Never use your email password for anything other than your email account. Make sure all bank and credit card account passwords are different from each other.
Never use your name, birth date or social security number in a password. Change your passwords from time to time, especially bank account passwords. Never store passwords in a common document file (Excel, Word, Notepad, etc?) that is not protected by encryption.

Password Management

Most people tend not to use difficult and/or varied passwords, because password management can be a tedious and time consuming task. When we?re paying bills or shopping online, we want easy and instant access to our account so we can complete our tasks. It?s frustrating to get ?bad password? error messages, and it?s a hassle to answer challenge questions in order to request a password reset. Because it?s nearly impossible to follow safe password practices without writing down all our passwords, the only way to securely manage passwords is to use some type of password management software.

There are two good options here, and both are easy and inexpensive. The easiest thing to do is to utilize file encryption software to protect the document that has the passwords stored on it. For this, I recommend something like Absolute Password Protector by Last Bit Software. They have a free trial version you can download to see how you like it. This software uses strong 128 bit encryption to securely encrypt any file you have stored on your computer ? making it easy for you to access but very difficult for a thief to utilize. With this software, you can store all your passwords in a Word, Excel or text file and then encrypt that file to keep it secure.

Another good way to manage passwords is to use an encrypted database to store all of your password information. I use Passwords Plus by DataViz. This is designed to be used on a PDA, but I use it on my computer. Passwords Plus is easy and convenient, but the downside is you have to set up the database by keying in all your accounts and passwords. Both of these methods of password management cost around $29, and it is well worth it. Unlike a lot of software that requires a subscription to keep it functioning, password management software is a ?one time? purchase.

Practicing Good Computer Security Habits Will Help Keep You Safe Online

Maintaining "difficult to guess" passwords is just one very important thing you can do to keep yourself safe online. There are many more things you can (and should) do to protect your computer and your data from cyber-thieves and malicious software. A few things to keep in mind are to use a good antivirus and anti-spyware software product, avoid downloading and installing "free" software (it usually contains spyware and/or adware) and never click links in emails that appear to come from a financial institution.

Tips to Reduce Computer Eye Strain

2009-02-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

Bye-Bye Computer Headaches
Nine out of ten computer users experience eye problems such as blurred vision, tired eyes, itchy eyes, or headaches. Whether a mild annoyance or a persistent on the job problem, most of us learn to live with it.

Must you, however, trade your comfort for technology?

The answer is no. There are specific steps you can take to minimize computer eye strain.

FREE and simple tip for those using Microsoft XP operating system-Given you already have an LCD screen, increasing the contrast can help the reading material stand out on the page. Here is a great tip for XP users:

Left click on desktop

Appearance Tab

Effects Button

After "use the following methods to smooth edges...", select ClearType

LCD Monitor-One reason for eye strain during computer use is the flickering, or shimmy, of the monitor. Your eyes are constantly trying to find a focal point where there is none, thus making the eye muscles tired. A moderately priced LCD screen will fix the problem for there is little to no flicker. A couple of hundred dollars is well worth the investment, and a great resource for finding the right one for you follows: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=31&threadid=1745344

Melanin tinted computer glasses- Melanin is a molecule that is in our skin for the purpose of absorbing light so that it doesn't damage underlying tissues. The melanin in computer lenses also absorbs light. Specifically, it reduces the blue and violet light from computers and fluorescent lighting that can damage your eyes. They are available in non-prescription, as well as with reading magnification at many local opticians, or online from many ready-to-wear reading glass retailers. Computer glasses run from $10 to upwards of $100. You don't need a prescription for the plano or straight forward reading magnifications, though you should have your eyes checked by an eye doctor in the case of visual discomfort and/or strain.
http://www.debspecs.com/Computer_EyeGlasses_C57.cfm

Remove any back light behind your computer- Many people experience photophobia. You may not be familiar with the word, but very well may know what it means; literally, fear of light, but used mostly to mean "sensitivity to light". If this is the case, you are double dosing yourself if you have a lamp behind your computer (or in front of it for that matter) that's pointing in the general direction of your face.

I hope these tips were useful for you today! They have worked wonders for me, increasing productivity and the amount of time I can spend on the computer.

Food & Fitness Tips for Computer Users

2009-02-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

Working at a computer can take a toll on the body with lack of exercise and healthy eating habits. So take charge and turn your habits around with these helpful tips.

1. Journal and keep a daily diary about what you eat and how much activity you get each day. Make sure to get at least 10 minutes of activity daily away form your computer with healthy exercise; walking, jogging, biking, stationary-biking, something?

2. Keep healthy snacks and foods on hand like:

? Tuna

? White cheeses and low-fat crackers

? Celery and low-fat peanut butter

? Carrot and Celery sticks

? Salad (bagged and prepared is fine) and low-fat dressing

? Cucumber slices

? Snow peas

? Broccoli and cauliflower

? Wheat bread

? Veggie egg rolls

? Fresh Fruits / Fruit Bowl

? Frozen grapes

? Wheat Toast and jelly

? Bagels and jelly or lite cream cheese.

? Freezer treats (lite ice milks, low fat yogurts, flavored ices, etc.)

? Jello (with or without fruit and/or lite whipped topping)

? Pudding with low-fat milk

? Healthy beverages: teas, coffees, bottled flavored waters

3. Take the batteries out of any remote control units you have at home and get up and walk over to change channels.

4. Take your dog for a walk every evening. If you don?t have one, take your elderly neighbor?s dog for a walk.

5. Do exercises while watching television. No need to wait for commercials, for jump in there and hit the floor.

6. Pick up healthy cookbooks at the local library, bookstore and online. And find favorites to use, changing your bland, some-old same-olds.

7. Add healthy no-sugar cereals to your day, sweetening them with fresh berries (or some brands now have the fried fruits packaged right in the cereals.) You can eat cereal as a snack, too.

8. Oatmeal is healthy and good for you. Experiment by adding raisins, nuts, a little brown sugar and other goodies to make it a nice, warm meal.

9. Stock up on soups: vegetable, tomato, vegetable beef, chicken, bean, chicken and stars, chicken and rice, chicken and noodle. And stock up on a variety of crackers to go with them: oyster crackers, saltines, Ritz, Sociable Crackers, etc. Eat your heavier meal for lunch and leave the lighter ?soup? meal for dinner.

10. Invite a friends or friends over to eat. Stop hiding out and socialize. Share recipes and healthy food ideas. Plan a round where someone brings the main course, someone else brings the side dishes, another brings dessert.

Dietary Tips for Computer Users

2009-02-26T20:41:00.000-08:00

A sedentary keyboarding lifestyle leaves your bottom half pretty well-rounded and growing if you don?t use caution with your diet. To help get and keep better fit, try these diet tips during your day.

1) Drink plenty of water and healthy beverages throughout the day. Skip the sodas and other sugary drinks. You can get flavored waters, teas, coffees and other healthier beverages, but do skip the sugar in all of them when possible or at least opt for much less sugar or diet drinks and shakes.

2) Look at your local stores for diet snacks and drinks. You can often find healthy power bars and other snack bars, protein shakes and trail mix. If your store doesn?t have much of a selection, check on Amazon.com and eBay.com, especially for special rates and discounted bulk packages.

3) Opt for fresh fruits when you can, over fruit juice or water down your juice, like half-and-half. These means less unhealthy sugar.

4) Check with your healthcare provider and see about adding vitamins and other supplements to your daily diet.

5) Brush your teeth after each snack and meal. This will cut down on your desire to snack more, because you won?t want to keep cleaning your teeth over and over.

6) No need to totally cut out fat. Just cut down, though, and trim fats, eat white meats, nuts and fish more.

7) Make healthy substitutions when you can like apple sauce for oil in recipes, and no fat non-stick spray for grease in pans.

8) Don?t keep jumping around to different fad diets. Either develop a plan following the approval of your doctor, or get professional help choosing and following the right one for you.

9) Go long! When you take a snack break, get up and away form your computer. Do NOT eat there in front of it or around it even. When possible go outside for some fresh air. But get up off your rear and hunt down your food. Don?t make snacking so easy. Stash your goodies in your car and park far away, for example.

10)Keep plenty of healthy foods: fruits and vegetables around, plus dips and anything else you like to go with them. You know where your chocolate is, but how anbout healthy stuff? Set out a fruit basket!

11)While you?re eating - -STAND. While you?re doing other things on your break ? - STAND. In other words, stop sitting so much.

Three Tips To Protecting Your Computer Data

2009-02-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

Imagine for a second, your computer system just crashed and you may have just lost all of your precious data. Do you feel the emptiness in your stomach or the lump in your throat? Have you put off doing a backup of your PC for the last time or will you procrastinate again? You never know when disaster might strike and you will need to perform a system restore.

While you sit their reading this you should become aware of where you are backing up your data. Once you realize that your data is precious you should decide to protect it. Next, you might ask, "How?" and "Where do I backup my files?".

Knowing where to backup your data is an important factor in this process. You will have so many choices but we will whittle them down. Below are just a few options you will encounter:

USB connected storage

Firewire connected storage

Network connected storage

You will come across storage sizes ranging from 20 GB to 750 GB.

The point is you need to identify what YOU need. Don't let anyone sell you anything you don't need. Plan this out before you begin, it will save you some time and money in the long run.

What do you need to know for you to plan this out?

How much data will you backup?

Will you be backing up your mp3's, pictures, videos, or just work data?

What ever data you have decided to backup the size of it will matter. How many MB (mega bytes) does it take up on your hard drive?

You may be wondering how you can find out how much space all of your data is taking up. Well, for one, most people keep some type of folder structure.

All you have to do is right click the folder of choice and click on properties. That gives you an idea of how much space the entire folder is taking up. You can keep a tally of all of your folders and it will give you an approximate amount of drive space you will need to backup your data.

Ok, this is pretty simple but you don't want to go out and purchase a drive that is at the same size as your data you have just calculated. The reason for this is because more than likely your data is going to grow over time.

The amount of growth is going to be determined by how often and how much you add to your collection of data. This growth will be different for every person depending on how they use their computer. The industry standard is about thirty percent growth per year for data in many businesses. That figure is just to give you an approximation to start looking at how much data storage you will need.

Getting a plan to start is one of the first things you need to do before you start backing up your data. You have to know what you want to back up and where you will put it before you start.

You should test your backups regularly because you never know when you will need to perform a system restore or a desktop restore. You can go to any electronics store and find a large variety of Hard Drive storage. Don't be afraid to ask questions. This is your data we are talking about.

Now that you have begun to get a foundation on backing up your data you will eventually need to learn how to perform backups and system restores. You will feel better now knowing that you have learned some of the steps necessary to protect yourself and your data from catastrophe. Take some action and start backing up your PC today.

3 Tips On How To Clean Up Your Computer

2009-02-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

Is your computer running slow? Is it locking up, or freezing, or even giving you a blue screen? We have all gone through this, and know the pain and agony. Luckily, there are things you can do to fix this. I will give you 3 tips on cleaning up your computer.

The first thing you should check is for viruses. Find top quality anti-virus scan software, and install it on your computer. Then run the software and let it search for viruses. If it happens to find any, let the software fix the problems. Now you will have a verified virus free computer. Set the virus scan to run all the time. It will search your computer, and scan all of your emails and attachments or downloads. This is a must for anyone who surfs the internet and receives email.

The second thing you need to do is get rid of all the spyware or adware on your computer. And believe me, you have this stuff on your computer if you surf the internet. Basically, websites will drop of small programs into your computer. You will have no idea this has happened. What these programs do will vary, but the main focus of spyware is to do exactly what it says: SPY. The software will track your surfing patterns, of your keyboard strokes, and then feed this information back to the original website. This website can then put together information all about you, and you have no idea about it. And, it is these programs running in the background, which will slow down your computer. These little guys need to be cleaned up. There are plenty of quality spyware removal programs out there. Just download one, run it, and let it remove all of the spyware for you. Two down, one more to go.

Lastly, you need to keep your registry cleaned up. Registry files contain the data on how the software and hardware on your computer is supposed to run. If any of these files get messed up, then the software or hardware will not run, and this can cause the computer to lock up. Once again, there are quality programs out there which can fix your registry. Download this software, and it will scan your registry for errors. If it finds any, it will fix them for you. Now your registry will run with no problems.

Those are the 3 tips to keep your computer clean. Install an antivirus, spyware removal, and registry fix program on your computer, and run these weekly. These 3 items will keep your computer running with no errors, and keep you surfing the internet.

Easy Tips To Make Your Computer Run Faster And More Efficiently

2009-02-26T20:08:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed that your computer does not run as fast as it did when it was new?

A slow PC is one of the primary complaints of most computer owners who currently run Windows XP. Memory gulping start-up programs, greedy anti-virus applications and a hard drive that has not been defragged since...who knows when. All these issues contribute to degrading your computer's performance.

Are you ready to get back up to speed? If so, the first and most basic task is to run defrag on your hard drive. Few people do this anymore because they think Windows XP does it automatically - it does not. So let's get started.

Task #1

Click "Start", then "All Programs", then "Accessories". Now go to the "System Tools" folder and select "Disk Defragmenter". When it opens, select your primary "C:" drive, then click "Defragment".

If you have multiple drives you can defragment them after you have done your primary "C:" drive.

Task #2

Visit the Startup Inspector website.
You will find an excellent tool that allows even novice users to manage Windows startup applications.
Here's the link: http://www.windowsstartup.com/

This helpful utility allows you to:

scan all programs that are in the Windows Startup Folder and
Registry and provides you with background information about the program.
remove harmful programs like spyware, virus, and dialers, thus making your system healthier.
remove unnecessary programs like reminders and monitors. This helps improve your systems performance.

The Startup Inspector is freeware and costs nothing to download. Download it to your desktop, double-click on it and select "Run".

The best thing about this handy little utility is the Startup Programs Knowledge Base. This is the database source for Startup Inspector. If you see an unidentified process on your computer you may find some information about it here. There are currently over 6500 entries in the database, but it grows daily as users add new entries.

When using Startup Inspector always use extreme care when removing and disabling startup processes.

Task #3 Power Tips

Your next task is to enable DMA if it's not currently enabled.

DMA is a mode that allows your hard drive to bypass the CPU and access memory directly from RAM (random access memory). When DMA is enabled your CPU does less work - so it works faster when handling other processes.

To enable go to "Control Panel", open the "System" folder, select "Hardware" and then "Device Manager". Look for the "IDE ATA Controllers" section, click the plus sign (+), then double-click "Primary IDE Channel, select "Advanced Settings" and make sure the DMA option is selected for both Transfer modes. Click "OK" and repeat for the "Secondary IDE Channel".

While you are still in "Device Manager" go to the "Ports" section and disable "COM" and "LPT".

DO NOT disable "COM" if you are using standard dial-up to access the Internet.

DO NOT disable "LPT" if you are using a parallel printer.

Lastly, if your drive is still configured to FAT (File Allocation Table); you will want to convert it to the faster more efficient NTFS (New Technology File System).

Just go to "Start", then "Run" and type in "cmd". When you get to the prompt, type "convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs" without the quotes. Press enter.

Some WARNINGS about converting to NTFS (if you're in doubt about any of these points - hold off until you get any issues resolved):

Some DOS and older Windows apps can't read NTFS drives, although there are utilities to help overcome this limitation.
Once converted to NTFS, you cannot convert the drive back to FAT.

The conversion process takes some time, so take a break and slow down while your computer system speeds up.

Tips to Keep Your Computer Cool and Running Good

2009-02-26T20:06:00.000-08:00

Keep that computer running cool and efficient. Here are some simple steps.

1. Shut it down. Switch it off. Pull the plugs. Take the cover off. And give it a good
blow out to get all the dust out of it so it can breathe.

2. If there is somewhere to put a fan, 80mm is most common, put one in.
It'll increase air flow. Most come with male/female molex plugs for
easy installation with no extra wires required.

3. Replace those flat ribbon cables with round ones. It'll increase air flow.
They make them for CDROMS, hard drives, and floppy drives.

Then if you want to get real serious.

4. Put new heat sink compund on your heat sinks. Like the processor
heat sink. Heat sink compound dries up after a while and becomes
less efficient.

5. Replace your computer case with one that offers more fan placements.

6. Purchase a hard drive cooler and put it in to keep your hard drive to keep it
cooler so it won't wear out so fast.

7. Memory card heat sinks will also help keep your memory cooler and help
prevent crashes for the memory cards getting overheated.

8. Copper heat sinks have a faster heat transfer than aluminum which will also
help keep your high dollar processor cooler.

9. Shutting a unit off after use also lengthens the life of your computer.

10. Sometimes the north and south bridge chip sets get too hot and slow your unit.
Little fans with heat sinks can be purchased for these. And most usually has adhesive
heat sink compound already applied. Just peel and apply with firm pressure. With a
plug that will plug into your mother board near by.

Following these simple steps can help any computer. And you can do it yourself
and not have to pay a shop to do it for you. All you need is a philips screwdriver.

Safety Tips to Building a Computer

2009-02-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

There are some important precautions you should take into account when building a computer to ensure the safety of you and your computer parts. This article gives you some helpful tips on building your computer in the safest way possible.

Stay Safe With Electricity

Electricity is an important issue to consider with dangerous implications for those who ignore it. When building your computer, be 100% sure that the power supply is disconnected from the mains. Also make sure that all network cables and telephone lines are disconnected from the computer.

Another electricity safety tip is to only turn the power on to your computer when the case cover is on. Don't ever work on the inside of your computer with the power plugged in and turned on.

Be Aware of Static Electricity

Static electricity is a real hazard than can cause significant damage to your computer components. To prevent this from happening, follow these simple tips:

- Always wear an antistatic wrist band when building your computer.

- Keep sensitive components in the antistatic bags that they came with, and only remove them from the bag when you are ready to install that component.

- Try to handle your computer components by their edges only.

- Avoid building your computer in areas of high static such as carpeted areas. If you can, try to avoid wearing clothing such as those made of synthetics as they may create static.

Use the Right Tools for the Job

These days, building a computer doesn't require many tools at all. But if you're going to be using a tool, make sure you use the right one for the job. Some tools that you may need for assembly are:

- Phillips screwdriver

- Flat nose screwdriver

- Pliers

- Antistatic wrist band (highly recommended)

- Nut driver (optional)

Conclusion

After reading this article you should now be aware of the main safety issues you need to consider when building a computer. Follow this advice and you will greatly reduce the risk of damaging your computer, or yourself.

Tips For Going Wireless With Your Own Notebook Computer

2009-02-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

In this article we are going to look at the basics of a wireless router. How they work and what you can do to make sure it stays that way. If you have a recent model notebook computer you probably have wireless technology built into it. If not you can get a wireless card to install into your notebook to work in conjunction with your wireless router.

Once you are wireless you will know the joy of picking up your computer and walking anywhere around your house with it. Depending on your signal strength you may even be able to hang out on your patio.

Newer notebooks are Wi-Fi ready. It already has the wireless hardware and software built into your computer. Several people in your family may be wireless as well. It is a beautiful thing to see everyone hang out in the family room with their notebooks all able to work or play online at the same time.

You will always be able to connect using the Wi-Fi network at work or steal bandwidth from someone else. There are hotspots everywhere you go including your own neighborhood. You are better off setting up your system in a secure way to avoid your neighbor's doing this to you and then you do not do it to them either.

If you are not wireless yet you will need a few things to convert your home network into a wireless network.

1. You need a Broadband connection using a Cable or DSL modem. You can not have a wireless network if you are on Dial-Up connection

2. A router to broadcast the wireless signal

3. A wireless computer

To set up your wireless network turn off the power to your computers and your Broadband modem. Your computer will communicate with your router automatically when you start it up enabling you to get on the network without any confusion. The router and your notebook should not need any further configuration. The default settings should work.

Your Internet connection should be present. The Modem will have two connections. One for the Cable or DSL modem and one for your computer.

Take the Ethernet cable that is connecting your computer to the Modem. Reconnect it to your wireless router in the WAN connector. If all the cables are correctly placed, you should now be able to get on the Internet from your existing computers and your wireless computers.

A wireless router allows you to communicate to the Internet. A wireless computer communicates to the router. When the two are working in harmony you have a great system that allows you flexibility to enjoy your notebook whenever and wherever you want.

4 Tips to Fix Your Crashing Computer

2009-02-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

Have you asked the question lately, ?How do I fix my pc because it keeps crashing?? Does your computer run so slow that it?s giving you a headache? Are you constantly being harassed with those annoying pop-ups? Well you are in luck because these 4 tips will help you fix your crashing computer.

1. Run a Diagnostic Scan to determine your PC problem.

a. A diagnostic scan will tell you exactly what is going on with your pc and the source of your problems. The best thing would be to purchase a Registry Cleaner Software because it will scan you computer and automatically fix any of the issues you are having.

2. Check your memory because it may be time to add more memory.

a. To check your memory go to go to the Start menu, click Settings, and then click Control Panel. Click System and then select the General tab. At the bottom of the page you should see the amount of RAM.

b. The amount of memory you need will depend on your operating system. For Windows 98, 128 MB to 256 MB is more than enough. For Windows XP, if you're just surfing the Internet and writing letters, you need 256 MB to 512 MB. If you play a lot of games or use a lot of applications at the same time then you will need to go from 512 MB to 1 GB RAM. RAM modules can be purchased in 128 MB, 256 MB, and 512 MB sizes.

3. Run a virus scan to check for adware and spyware.

a. Spyware and Adware is software made by publishers that allow them to snoop on your browsing activity, invade your privacy, and flood you with those horrible popups.

4. Delete unnecessary files that may be saved on your hard drive.

If your pc keeps crashing implementing these tips can improve your pc?s performance and protect your personal information. These 4 tips will help you fix your computer so it won?t crash.

Network Errors Solutions

2009-02-26T17:40:00.000-08:00

... is not accessible

Message: "....is not accessible. You may not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. Network path was not found."

Resolutions:
1) make sure no any firewall blocks the LAN traffic.

2) make sure you have created the same workgroup, and the same username on w2k/xp for logging on a remote computer.

3) check user's rights.

4) you may want to enable guest account on w2k/xp.

5) if you are using simple file sharing, you may try to disable it and re-share the drive manually.

6) if it is mixed OS (win98, NT, ME and W2K/XP) network, enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

7) make sure the Computer Browser service is started if all computers are w2k/xp.

8) stop Computer Browser service on win9x, ME and NT if this is a mixed OS network.

9) cache credential by using net use \\computername\share /user:username command (it is better to have the username logon shared computer).

10) if you have tried enabling netbios over tcp/ip but doesn't work, you may try to load netbeui (loading netbeui may slow your network).

11) Make sure the server service is running.

12) If you can see the share in Network Neighborhood but not access it, this issue may be resolved by verifying that both the share permissions and the NTFS partition permissions are correctly configured for individual user or group access.

"... not accessible. Logon failure: account current disabled.

Symptom: When browsing a network drive in Windows Explorer, you may receive above error message.

Resolutions: this is cache credentials issue. To fix this problem and cache the credentials, use net use \\computername /user:username command.

"... not accessible. Access Denied "

SYMPTOMS: When you attempt to connect to a network share, you may receive the following error message: \\Servername\share is not accessible. Access Denied. If you are accessing a share in another domain, this message may appear even though you have verified that the trust is configured correctly. Also, the share may be visible in Network Neighborhood.

RESOLUTION: This issue may be resolved by verifying that both the share permissions and the NTFS partition permissions are correctly configured for individual user or group access.

"...not available. The server is not configured for transactions"

Symptom: when trying to browse My Network Places, you may receive this message "...not available. Server is not configured for transactions".

Resolution:
1. Use "net share" command on the shared computer to check share status. If there is not a share named "IPC$" in the share list, use "net share ipc$" command to create it.

2. Check your the network administrator if he/she may choose to not share the server's resource.

3. Case Study - Server is not configured for transactions - it may be a virus

"A domain controller for your domain could not be contacted. You have been logged on using cached account information. Changes made to your profile since you last logged on may not be available"

Resolutions:
1. Check the DNS settings and make sure the client points to correct DNS.

2. Make the computer have correct TCP/IP settings and can ping the domain controller.

"Access is denied"

Symptoms:
1. When attempting to create a folder or copy a folder on a network drive, you may receive "Cannot create or replace xxxxx: Access is denied. Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use".

2. When attempting to save a file on a network drive, you may receive "Cannot save or create xxxxx: Access is denied. Make sure the disk you want to save the file on is not full or write-protected or damaged".

Resolutions:
1. go to the properties of the drive>Sharing, add the the user and give Change permission.

2. Make sure everyone has Change permission.

"Access Denied" Message When Opening from or Saving to a Network Folder

Symptom: When opening a network folder in Windows Explorer and then try to open a file from or save a file to that folder, the associated program may report a sharing violation, return an "access denied" message, or open the document as read-only. Typically, this problem occurs when you open a network folder and then double-click to open a Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel file. The document opens as read-only.

Resolution: To fix this problem, go to Windows Explorer, open the network folder that contains the file that you are trying to open or save. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options. Click Use Windows classic folders, and then click OK.

"An extended error has occurred" or "Access Denied"

Symptoms: When mapping a network drive using net use or using the net view command to view a different computer in the domain, you may receive: "An extended error has occurred" or "Access Denied" error messages.

Resolutions:
1) This issue may occur if the workstation doesn't synchronize the time with the server. After verifying that basic network connectivity exists, you can force time synchronization on the client computer manually. To do this, run net time /domain /set command.

2) Make sure you have granted enough licenses for clients accessing.
" computername is not accessible. No permission to access the resources"

If both win2000/XP and win9x can see the workgroup but only win2000/XP can access a win 2000/XP computer, and win9x gets the above error, check the group name. If they are the same name,

Check these:
1) are you sure the logon user has permission to the shared folder?
2) have you tried to logon using the same user name and password of the accessed win2k/XP computer?
3) the last and risky one, if you enable guest account in the accessed win2000/XP computer, can you access now?

Logon unsuccessful: The user name you typed is the same as the user name you logged in with

Cause: it could be the name resolution issue, especially DNS issue.

Logon Message: You do not have access to logon to this session
Symptom: When attempting to logon using the Terminal Services client, you may receive the following error message: "Logon Message: You do not have access to logon to this session".
Resolution: By default, TS connection security setting allows only administrators to log on. To set custom TS connection permissions, go to Terminal Services Configuration>Connections folder. Right-click the connection (RDP-TCP)>Properties>Permissions, add the users or/and groups that needs access to this connection.

More Connections Can Be Made At This Time

Symptoms: When attempting access a shared folder on a remote computer, you may receive this message “No more connections can be made at this remote computer at this time because there are already as many connections as the computer can accept” or “This request is not accepted by the network. Try again later”.

Causes:
1) The share that is configured to allows a specific number of connections, and that number of connections has been reached.
2) The 10 user connection limit has been reached if the remote computer is w2k/XP.
3. If you have Per Server licensing, the license limit has been reached

"Multiple connections to the server or shared resource are not allowed"

Symptom: when attempting to join a domain, you may receive "Multiple connections to the server or shared resource are not allowed. Please disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again."

Resolution: try using net use /d from a command to clear all your mapped connections before joining the domain. You can also disconnect the mapped drive in Windows Explorer by right-click the mapped drive and select disconnection.

"Network path not found" in a domain network 1

SYMPTOMS: When trying to join a W2K/XP to a Windows 2000 domain by using he NetBIOS domain name, you are successful but not the FQDN and you may receive one of the following
error messages:
1) The following error occurred attempting to join domain "example.com": The network location cannot be reached. For information about network troubleshooting, see Windows Help.
2) Network path not found.

RESOLUTION: This issue may occur if the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service is not running on the client computer. To start the TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service, go to MMS>Services, double-click TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service.

"Network path not found" in a domain network 2

Symptom: some w2k/xp can't join the domain randomly. The DNS server is multihomed server..

Resolution: You can find some computer browser errors on the DNS server. Disable one of two NICs will work. More resolutions can be found in browser Issue page.

"Network path not found" in a workgroup network - error 53

RESOLUTIONS:
1) Make sure that File and Printer Sharing is enabled on on the shared computer.
2) Make sure that shared machine has something shared.
3) Make sure that you have created the same workgroup and logon the same username if you try to access w2k/xp network.
4) Make sure that you have enabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP if this is a mixed OS network.

"Not accessible. You may not have permission to use this network resource"

Symptom: Your WinXP, in a peer-to-peer network, may receive the following error when you double-click My Network Places/Computers Near Me: is not accessible. You may not have permission to use this network resource.

Resolution:
1) Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP on one or more computers in the workgroup. To do that, go to properties of Local Area Connection>properties of Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)>General> Advanced>WINS, check Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP (If you have a DHCP-assigned IP address, select Use NetBIOS setting from the DHCP server ).
2) Make sure the Computer Browser service is started.

"Not enough server storage is available to process this command." error.

SYMPTOMS: When accessing shares on a server from a client, you may receive "Not enough server storage is available to process this command." error. You may receive this message and Event ID: 2011 after you install Norton Antivirus for Windows.

Resolution:
1) The registry value IRPstackSize may be not explicitly present. To increase the value of the parameter, go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ LanmanServer\Parameters. If the key is not present, choose Add Value in the Registry Editor. The Value Name should be IRPStackSize and the Data Type is REG_DWORD.

2) Remove any unnecessary entries from this value in the registry, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters\NullSessionPipes.
3) If the machine has a non-zero PagedPoolSize in the Registry, you need to re-set it by going to HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management and double-click on PagedPoolSize and set to 0.

4) Disable Norton antivirus to see if that will fix the problem.

For consultants, refer to Not enough server storage is available page.

"Not Enough Storage to Complete Operation"

SYMPTOMS: When you try to open the Printers folder, you may receive the following error message "There is not enough storage to complete this operation". This is because the size of the registry has exceeded the maximum size set in the virtual memory settings.

RESOLUTION: Increase the maximum registry size. To do that, go to Start>Control Panel>System>Performance> Change (In Windows 2000, click the Advanced tab, click Performance Options, and then Change). Type a larger value in the Maximum Registry Size box.

"No logon server available"

Symptoms: you can ping the server by ip and name but can't map the shared drive by using net use \\ip or \\servername. If you try, you may receive the "No logon server available".

Resolutions: This sounds like cache credential issue. 1) make sure the computers in the same network, the same workgroup/domain and have created the same username. 2) use net to cache the credential. 3) The user profiles may been damaged.

"No domain server was available to validate your password"

Symptoms: when trying to logon a domain from win9x, you may receive a message "The following error occurred while loading protocol number 0. Error 38: The computer name you specified is already in use..." and then "No domain server was available to validate your password".

Resolution:
1) make no two host name in the network.
2) check WINS and make sure no one host uses two IPs. If it does, delete all of them and reboot the computer.

"No domain server was available..." while the dialup connection is active

Symptom: you have windows 2000 domain controller with DNS, DHCP, WINS and Dialup connection. Whenever the dialup connection is active, none client can't logon and gets a message "No domain server was available to to validate your password. You may not be able to gain access to some network resources"

Resolution: Make sure you don't have "Register this connection's addresses in DNS" checked under TCP/IP Advanced DNS settings. To check this, go to the Properties of the connection> the Properties of the TCP/IP>Advanced>DNS, uncheck "Register this connection's addresses in DNS"

Resource: \\computername\IPC$ - An extended error has occurred

Symptoms: When you attempt to connect to w2k/xp computer over the network, you may receive one of the following error messages: "You must supply a password to make this connection: Resource: \\computername\IPC$" -or- "computername An extended error has occurred"

Resolutions:
1. make sure netlogon service is running.
2. Make sure you have created logon ID and password for remote computer logon.
3. Or enable guest account.

Remote Procedure call terminated unexpectedly - ...NT authority must shut down your computer in 30 seconds."

Symptoms:
1. Your computer reboots every few minutes without user input.
2. The computer become unresponsive.
3. You may receive "Remote Procedure Call terminated unexpectedly" and ...NT authority must shut down your computer in 30 seconds."
4. There is msblasr.exe running on Task Manager

Cause: "W32.Blaster.Worm" or "MSBlast."

RPC Server is Unavailable

Symptoms: When running Replication, Winlogon, Terminal Server, User authentication, enabling trusted relationships, Connecting to domain controllers and trusted domains, you may receive the above error.

Causes:
1. The RPC service may not be started.
2. You are unable to resolve a DNS or NetBIOS name.
3. An RPC channel cannot be established.
4. This issue occurs because the DNS service cannot locate server resources on the domain with which you are trying to establish the trust.

Resolution: Run the Netdiag /debug command on the server in question to check any errors. Also check these articles - .RPC Server is Unavailable

"Spooler Subsystem Application Needs to Close" - "Operation Could Not Be Completed" Error Messages

Causes:
1. Bad printer driver.
2. New MS update conflicts with the printer driver.
3. ICF conflicts with the printer driver.

The system cannot log you on to this domain because the system's computer account in its primary domain is missing or the password on that account is incorrect.

Causes:
1. incorrect password.
2. This behavior may occur if the password for the computer account and the local security authority (LSA) secret are not synchronized.
3. Computer names conflict.

This account is the same as the one logged on to the system and that this account was tried before to logon
There is no domain controller available to validate this account.
There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request.
Event ID 5719

Symptoms:
1. In client, you may receive Event ID 5719: "No Windows NT or Windows 2000 Domain Controller is available for domain Domain. The following error occurred: There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request."

2. In DC, you may receive Event ID 5719: "No Windows NT or Windows 2000 Domain Controller is available for domain chicagotech.net. The following error occurred: There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request.

3. You logon domain user in a domain network, the mapping logon script displays this message: "There is no domain controller available to validate this account."

4. You use a office laptop to connect the office VPN, when you map a network drive using this command line: net use \\chicagotech\shared /u:chicagotech.net/blin, you may receive this message: "This account is the same as the one logged on to the system and that this account was tried before to logon. There is no domain controller available to validate this account"

Causes:
1. The DC is down.
2. Can't access the DC.
3. The DNS issue.
4. Run out of buffer space in the NetBT datagram buffer.

'TCP/IP transport not installed

Causes:
1. TCP/IP is not enabled.
2. Installed too many TCP/IP protocols.
3. Old NIC driver.
4. Winsock issue.

"The computer account already exists"

Symptoms: When joining w2k/xp into a domain, you may receive "The computer account already exists". You may be able to ping the computer account, for example ABC, but ping -a ip address (the same ip of ABC) shows different computer name like XYZ.

Resolution: Go to the DNS ad WINS to find and delete the ABC account and wait for while to re-join the domain.

The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password

Symptom: If you use the Map Network Drive Wizard to connect to a network share by using different user credentials and you use the browse functionality to locate the network share, you may receive the following error message: The network folder specified is currently mapped using a different user name and password. To connect using a different user name and password, first disconnect any existing mappings to this network share.

Resolutions:
1. Disconnect the existing mapped drive.
2. Apply latest SP.

"The password is incorrect. Try again"

Symptom: While trying to access a win2000/XP computer and type administrator password on Enter Network Password screen in the same peer-to-peer workgroup, you may get Error: The password is incorrect. Try again.

Resolution:
1) You need to setup every user that needs access to the shared folder on every computer they have to connect to. Then give the proper user proper permission to the shared folder.
2) logon the same user and password.
3) as always, you can try to enable a guest account on the accessed machine.

"There are no entries on the list"

Symptom: when using net view \\remotecomputer command, you may receive "There are no entries on the list". And you may have a problem to access the remote computer.

Resolution:
1) If there are no file or print shares on the computer, the net view command displays a "There are no entries in the list" message. So, make sure there are file or print shares on the computer. Or to use net share command to check sharing status.
2) Make sure no firewall running because the firewall may block sharing.
3) Make sure client for ms network is enabled.

"There is not enough memory available to print your document"

If you receive all following message, you may have firewall running on the LAN connection and you should disable it. "computer is not accessible...", "There was an error writing to \\XP computer for printer..." and "There is not enough memory available to print your document. Quit one or more programs and try again. ..."

Transmit failed, error code 65 or 10050

Symptom: When attempting to verify network connectivity with a remote computer by using the Ping.exe command, you may receive a command-line error message similar to the following: Ping: transmit failed, error code 65 or 10050.

Resolutions: This behavior can occur if the following conditions are true: 1) ICS is enabled; 2) a firewall software is running on the computer; 3) The ZoneLabs program is not correctly configured for ICS. To fix the problem: 1) re-configure ZoneAlarm for ICS. 2) Remove the Zone Labs firewall software from the computer.

"Unable to access Computers Near Me" or "Workgroup is not accessible" errors

Symptom: When several Win2000/XP computers are configured as members of a workgroup in a peer-to-peer network environment and you click on Computers Near Me in My Network Places or workgroup name Entire Network, the following error message may appear: "Cannot Access 'Computers Near Me' " or "Workgroup is not accessible" errors.

Resolution:
1) NetBIOS over TCP/IP. To do that, go to the properties of TCP/IP>Advanced>WINS. If you are using a static Internet Protocol (IP) address, click Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. If you have a DHCP-assigned IP address, click Use NetBIOS setting from the DHCP server.
2) No Master Browser or too many browsers may cause this issue. Check Browser issue.

"Unable to Browse Network"

Symptom: When you attempt to browse your network by opening Entire Network in My Network Places/Network Neighborhood, you may receive the following error message: "Unable to Browse Network."

Check Lists:
1) have you loaded the NIC or is it working?
2) have you loaded common protocol, TCP/IP?
3) does the Computer browser work?
4) have you enable file and printer sharing in the accessed computer?
5) is the workstation service running?

"You may not have permission to use this network resource"

Refer to ... is not accessible

and "Resource: \\\ipc$"

"You must provide a password to make this connection." and "Resource: \\\ipc$"

Whenever you receive "Enter network password. You must provide a password to make this connection." and "Resource: \\\ipc$", it is permission and workgroup issues.

This behavior can occur for any of the following reasons:
1) The Windows 9x computer is not a client of a domain environment but the Log On To Windows Domain option is enabled.

2) The user name and password you are using to log in to the Windows 9x are not contained in the local user accounts database of the Windows NT/2000/XP computer you are attempting to browse.

3) The Windows 9x host is configured with user-level authentication to a domain.

Resolutions: To resolve this issue, use the appropriate method:
1) Disable the Log On To Windows Domain Option.

2) Log on to the Windows 9x with the local user accounts database of the Windows NT/2000/XP computer you are attempting to browse.

3) Disable User-level Authentication on the Windows 9x.
Windows needs your current credentials to ensure network connectivity

"Windows needs your current credentials to ensure network connectivity. Please lock this computer,
then unlock it using your most recent password or smart card. To lock your computer, press CTRL+ALT+DELETE,
and then press Enter."

Cause: you are logging on mutiple computer using the same logon ID and password while changing the password.

Tip: Best Practices for File Sharing in a Workgroup Environment

2009-02-17T02:33:00.000-08:00

In a home office or other workgroup environment, best practices for sharing files on Windows Vista computers include the following:

-Enable sharing on your Public folder to share files with other users on the network when all users should have the same level of access to these files. Then drag your files and folders into Public to share them easily.

-Share files from within your user profile when you want to have greater control over who can see and access shared files on the network. Windows Vista’s Access-Based Enumeration technology means that users can see only the shared files for which they have a minimum of Read permission—if they don’t have Read permission, they won’t even know the file is shared.

-If you share files from within your user profile, share them from the appropriate folder: Share documents from within your Documents folder, share music from within your Music folder, and so on.

-If you share a file or folder, e-mail or otherwise communicate the UNC path to your share to network users whom you want to be able to access the share. Otherwise, users will have to browse the network using Windows Explorer to find any new shares present on the network.

-Make sure Network Discovery is turned on for all Windows Vista computers on your network. Network Discovery makes browsing for shared resources faster and more reliable.

-Make sure if you are setting up a work workgroup or a home network that your network type is a private network. This will allow you to enable things such as discovery and sharing on this network, but when you pick up your laptop and take it to a wireless hotspot, the computer will be less exposed, because your network type will switch to the public profile, which won’t have services such as discovery and sharing turned on. Additionally, the Windows Firewall exceptions will apply only to your private network, blocking incoming requests when connected to public networks.

Note:If you don’t want your user profile folder visible from the network, don’t share any files from within your profile. Sharing a file from within your profile automatically causes the %SystemDrive%\Users folder to be shared on the computer, and this means that other users on the network will be able to see your user profile folder on the computer. Of course, they won’t be able to look inside your profile folder unless they somehow have administrator credentials on the computer. But simply knowing the names of profile folders on the computer can give malicious users knowledge that can help them footprint your network, because these folder names correspond to logon names for users either on the computer or on the network.

Tip: Best Practices for File Sharing in a Domain Environment

2009-02-17T02:21:00.000-08:00

In an Active Directory environment, best practices for sharing files on Windows Vista computers include the following:

-Turn off Network Discovery in a domain environment, as it can generate excessive network traffic that can interfere with normal network activities.

-Publish shared folders in Active Directory so that users can search for them in the directory and access them instead of having to browse the network to find them.

-Use Group Policy to prevent users on Windows Vista computers from sharing files on their computers from their user profiles unless they are local administrators on their computers. For more information, see the section titled “Managing File Sharing Using Group Policy” earlier in this chapter.

-Allow only advanced users the ability to share folders on their computers by giving them administrative rights on their computers.

Note: Do not make users local administrators on their computers unless you understand the consequences of doing so. One consequence is that they will be able to share folders and open firewall exceptions on their computers. Sharing folders from desktop computers in a domain environment may mean that important documents are being stored on computers instead of on network file servers, and since desktop computers are not normally backed up, this can mean lost work. Educate users to store files instead within shared folders on network file servers where their work can be centrally backed up regularly.

Tip: Track and Analyze System Stability and Reliability with RACAgent

2009-02-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

Reliability Monitor gathers and processes data with the Reliability Analysis Component (RAC). The RACAgent is a hidden scheduled task that is automatically configured during system installation. This task is responsible for gathering the reliability data and displaying it in the chart view. The RACAgent task typically runs once every hour and will not wake the computer if it is sleeping. If the computer is a laptop on battery power, RACAgent.exe will immediately exit if the battery capacity is at less than 33 percent.

To view the RACAgent task in Task Scheduler, select RAC within the Task Scheduler library and then right-click and select View – Show Hidden Tasks in the MMC action pane.

If you do not want to track system stability, you can disable the RACAgent task by selecting the Disable option, which is accessible in any of the following ways when the RACAgent task is highlighted in the main MMC pane:

-Via the action menu
-Via the action pane
-Via the shortcut menu for the task

Tip: Troubleshoot Group Policy with GPLogView

2009-02-17T02:15:00.000-08:00

GPLogView.exe is a command-line troubleshooting tool that you can use to dump Group Policy–related events logged in the System Event Log channel and the Group Policy Operational Event Log channel. GPLogView.exe works only on Windows Vista; it is not included with Windows Vista but GPLogView.exe is available as a free download. The command-line options for this tool are:

-? Shows this usage message.
-o [output file name] Output filename required for text, xml, or html; not valid if -m is specified.
-n Do not output the activity ID.
-p Dump the process ID and thread ID associated with each event.
-a [activity id guid] Shows only events matching the given activity ID.
-m Runs the tool in monitor mode displaying events in real time.
-x Dumps the event in XML; the only other options allowed with this option are –m and -a but not both together.
-h Dumps the events in HTML format; -m or -x option not allowed, and -a and -n are allowed, but not both together. Also must specify -o option.
-q [Query file name] Uses the query specified by query file.
-l [Publisher name] If -q is specified, the publisher name must be specified.

The following examples illustrate the use of this tool:

GPLogView.exe -o GPEvents.txt
GPLogView.exe -n -o GPEvents.txt
GPLogView.exe -a ea276341-d646-43e0-866c-e7cc35aecc0a -o GPEvents.txt
GPLogView.exe -p -o GPEvents.txt
GPLogView.exe -x -o GPEvents.xml
GPLogView.exe -x -m
GPLogView.exe -x -a ea276341-d646-43e0-866c-e7cc35aecc0a -o GPEvents.xml
GPLogView.exe -h -o GPEvents.html
GPLogView.exe -h -a ea276341-d646-43e0-866c-e7cc35aecc0a -o GPEvents.html
GPLogView.exe -h -q somequeryFile.txt -l Microsoft-Windows-GroupPolicy -oGPEvents.html

Tip: Manage Volume Shadow Copy Service from the Vssadmin Command-Line

2009-02-16T03:55:00.001-08:00

You can manage the Volume Shadow Copy service using the Vssadmin command-line tool from an elevated command prompt. You can use this tool to run the following commands:
Vssadmin List Providers Lists registered Volume Shadow Copy providers. Windows Vista includes Software Shadow Copy Provider 1.0.

Vssadmin List Shadows Lists existing volume shadow copies, the time the shadow copy was created, and its location.

Vssadmin List ShadowStorage Lists the volume shadow storage space currently in use, the space that is reserved for future use (labeled as allocated), and the maximum space that might be dedicated. This space is used to store changes while a shadow copy is active. The following sample output was generated using a computer that currently had about 3GB of files stored in a shadow copy, but that might allocate as much as 6.4GB.

Vssadmin List Volumes Lists volumes that are eligible for shadow copies.
Vssadmin List Writers Lists shadow copy writers, which support communicating with the Volume Shadow Copy service to ensure that files are captured in a consistent state. By default, subscribed writers include an operating system writer, a registry writer, a WMI writer, and a search service writer, among others. SQL Server also provides a Volume Shadow Copy writer.

Vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage Resizes Volume Shadow Copy storage. You can use this command to increase the maximum space that might be used by Volume Shadow Copy. Typically, this is unnecessary. However, if you discover that backups are failing on a computer because of an extremely high volume of changes during a backup, and Vssadmin List ShadowStorage reveals that the used Shadow Copy Storage space is at the maximum, you might be able to resolve the problem by manually increasing the maximum size.

Tip: Remove Unwanted Toolbars and Fix Settings in Internet Explorer

2009-02-16T03:51:00.000-08:00

Remove Unwanted Toolbars

Internet Explorer and Windows Vista include several layers of defense to prevent unwanted software from modifying the Internet Explorer configuration. If an unwanted toolbar does appear in Internet Explorer, you can disable it using the Add-on Manager. Sometimes, however, the problem may be more persistent. If the problem persists, start Internet Explorer in No Add-ons mode and then use the Add-on Manager to disable all add-ons that you have not intentionally installed.

In Internet Explorer 7, No Add-ons mode allows Internet Explorer to temporarily run without any toolbars, ActiveX controls, or other add-ons. It is very useful when troubleshooting a problem that might be related to an add-on. To enable Add-ons Disabled mode, follow these steps:

-Open the Start menu and point to All Programs.
-Point to Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Internet Explorer (No Add-ons).
-Note the Information bar display in your browser that indicates add-ons are disabled.

Running Internet Explorer from the standard Start menu shortcut will return the functionality to its prior state.

Fix Unwanted Changes to Settings

If the home page or other settings have changed, you can reset all browser settings except for Favorites, Feed, Internet Connection Settings, Group Policy Settings, and Content Advisor Settings by following these steps:

-Close all windows except for one Internet Explorer window.
-Click Tools and then click Internet Options.
-In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
-Click Reset.
-In the warning box that appears, click Reset.
-Click Close and then click OK twice. Restart Internet Explorer.

To prevent unwanted changes in the future, ensure that you have all Microsoft Security Updates installed and are using anti-malware software, such as Microsoft Forefront or Windows Defender.

Tip: Prevent Users from Deleting Browsing History and Clearing Cookies

2009-02-16T03:44:00.002-08:00

Browsers store many traces of the sites users visit, including cached copies of pages and images, passwords, and cookies. To simplify removing these traces, Internet Explorer 7 provides a Delete Browsing History option that allows users to initiate cleanup with one button, easily and instantly erasing personal data.
To delete browsing history, follow these steps:

-In your browser, click Tools and then click Internet Options.

-In the Internet Options dialog box on the General tab, click Delete in the Browsing History group.

-In the Delete Browsing History dialog box, shown in Figure 21-15, delete only the objects you need to remove. Alternatively, you can click Delete All.

You probably knew that already. But did you know you can disable these options?
If you don’t want users to be able to delete their browsing history, form data, or passwords, you can enable the following group policy settings located in both Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\ and User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Internet Explorer\:

Turn off “Delete Browsing History” Functionality
Turn off “Delete Forms” Functionality
Turn off “Delete Passwords” Functionality

Tip: Manage Scheduled Tasks with the SchTasks.exe Command

2009-02-16T03:44:00.001-08:00

An administrator can use the SchTasks.exe command-line utility to create, delete, query, change, run, and end scheduled tasks on a local or remote system through the command shell. The SchTasks.exe command interface uses the following syntax:
schtasks /{parameter} [arguments]

The Command Parameters Are:
/Create Creates a new scheduled task
/DeleteDeletes the scheduled task(s)
/Query Displays all scheduled tasks
/Change Changes the properties of scheduled task
/Run Runs the scheduled task immediately
/End Stops the currently running scheduled task
/? Displays this help message

Tip: Know the Network Troubleshooting Tools in Windows Vista

2009-02-16T03:43:00.001-08:00

Windows Vista contains an assortment of utilities you can use to diagnose, monitor, and repair network connections. Here’s an overview of the key tools you’ll find in Windows Vista and what they’re used for.

Get MAC Address (Getmac.exe)
Discovers the Media Access Control (MAC) address, and lists associated network protocols for all network cards in a computer, either locally or across a network.

Hostname (Hostname.exe)
Displays the host name of the current computer.

IP Configuration Utility (Ipconfig.exe)
Displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values, and refreshes DHCP and DNS settings.

Name Server Lookup (Nslookup.exe)
Displays information about Domain Name System records for specific IP addresses and/or host names so that you can troubleshoot DNS problems.

Net services commands (Net.exe)
Performs a broad range of network tasks; type net with no parameters to see a full list of available command-line options.

Netstat (Netstat.exe)
Displays active TCP connections, ports on which the computer is listening, Ethernet statistics, the IP routing table, and IPv4/IPv6 statistics.

Network Command Shell (Netsh.exe)
Displays or modifies the network configuration of a local or remote computer that is currently running; this command-line scripting utility has a huge number of options, which are fully detailed in Help.

PathPing (Pathping.exe)
Combines functions of Traceroute and Ping to identify problems at a router or network link.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Information (Nbtstat.exe)
Displays statistics for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) protocol, NetBIOS name tables for both the local computer and remote computers, and the NetBIOS name cache.

TCP/IP Ping (Ping.exe)
Verifies IP-level connectivity to another internet address by sending ICMP packets and measuring response time in milliseconds.

TCP/IP Route (Route.exe)
Displays and modifies entries in the local IP routing table.

TCP/IP Traceroute (Tracert.exe)
Determines the path to an internet address and lists the time required to reach each hop; useful for troubleshooting connectivity problems on specific network segments.

Tip: Query and Manage Event Logs with the Windows Events Command Line Utility

2009-02-16T03:35:00.002-08:00

The Windows Events Command Line Utility (Wevtutil.exe) lets you retrieve information about event logs and publishers; install and uninstall event manifests; run queries; and export, archive, and clear logs from an elevated command prompt. (The usage for this command is described later in this sidebar.) Note that you can use either the short (ep /uni) or long (enum-publishers /unicode) version of the command and option names, and all commands, options, and option values are case insensitive.

The general syntax for Wevtutil.exe is as follows:
wevtutil command [argument [argument] ...] [/option:value [/option:value] ...]

Here command can be any of the following:
al (archive-log) Archives an exported log.
cl (clear-log) Clears a log.
el (enum-logs) Lists log names.
ep (enum-publishers) Lists event publishers.
epl (export-log) Exports a log.
gl (get-log) Gets log configuration information.
gli (get-log-info) Gets log status information.
gp (get-publisher) Gets publisher configuration information.
im (install-manifest) Installs event publishers and logs from manifest.
qe (query-events) Queries events from a log or log file.
sl (set-log) Modifies configuration of a log.
um (uninstall-manifest) Uninstalls event publishers and logs from manifest.

Common options are as follows:
/r:value (remote) If specified, runs the command on a remote computer named value. Note that im (install-manifest) and um (uninstall-manifest) do not support remote operation.
/u:value (username) Specifies a different user to log on to remote computer. Here value is a user name in the form domain\user or user. This option is only applicable when option /r (remote) is specified.
/p:value (password) Specifies a password for the specified user. If not specified or value is "*", the user will be prompted to enter a password. This option is only applicable when /u (username) option is specified.
/a:value (authentication) Specifies an authentication type for connecting to a remote computer. Value can be Default, Negotiate, Kerberos, or NTLM. The default is Negotiate.
/uni:value (unicode) Displays output in Unicode. Value can be true or false (if true, output is in Unicode).

To learn more about a specific command, type wevtutil command /? at an elevated command prompt.

Tip: Use the Snipping Tool to Capture Screen Shots

2009-02-16T03:35:00.001-08:00

You can use Snipping Tool (%SystemRoot%\system32\SnippingTool.exe) to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen, and then annotate, save, or share the image. Simply use your mouse (or tablet pen) to capture any of the following types of snips:
Free-form Snip. Draw an irregular line, such as a circle or a triangle, around an object.
Rectangular Snip. Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

Window Snip. Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture.

Full-screen Snip. Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.

After you capture a snip, it's automatically copied to the mark-up window, where you can annotate, save, or share the snip.

When Snipping Tool is open, a white overlay appears on your screen until you capture a snip. To turn off the overlay, open Snipping Tool, and then click Options. In the Snipping Tool Options dialog box, clear the Show screen overlay when Snipping Tool is active check box, and then click OK.

Tip: Enable Auditing for Security Events on Windows Vista Systems

2009-02-16T03:34:00.001-08:00

Windows Vista provides the ability to audit security events by recording attempts to access system resources. No events are written to the Security log until you enable auditing, which you do via Local Security Policy. Even if you set up auditing for files, folders, or printers, those events aren’t recorded unless you also enable auditing in Local Security Policy.
To enable auditing, follow these steps:

1. In the Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy. Alternatively, you can type secpol.msc at a command prompt, or simply begin typing local security in the Start menu Search box. Give your consent to the User Account Control (UAC) prompt that appears.

2. Expand Local Policies and then click Audit Policy to display the list of activities you can audit.

3. Double-click each policy for which you want to enable auditing, and then select Success, Failure, or both.

Some activities, such as account management and policy change, can provide an audit trail for administrative changes. Others, such as logon events and object access, can help you discover how to better secure your system. Still others, including system events and process tracking, can assist you in locating problems with your system.

Tip: Use the Netsh Command to Manage the Windows Vista Firewall

2009-02-16T03:28:00.000-08:00

If you need to make firewall settings repeatedly—on a single computer as conditions change or, perhaps, on a fleet of computers—you’ll find working with Windows Firewall (the Control Panel application) or Windows Firewall With Advanced Security to be a bit cumbersome. The Netsh command, using its Firewall or Advfirewall context, provides an alternative way to view or modify all manner of Windows Firewall settings. For example, you can enable Windows Firewall with this command:

netsh firewall set opmode enable

The Netsh Firewall context can be considered the basic context, where you can find current firewall settings at a high level. It’s roughly comparable to the Windows Firewall application in Control Panel. From the command prompt, you can see the basic configuration by typing:

netsh firewall show config

To see more details about the configuration, use the Advfirewall context—the command-line counterpart to Windows Firewall With Advanced Security. The Advfirewall context contains three subcontexts: Firewall, Consec, and Monitor. The Firewall subcontext can be used to show the rule details for specific (or all) rules or set new values for existing rules. You can also add rules on the fly using this subcontext. The Consec subcontext is used to work with connection security rules on the computer. The Monitor subcontext is used to view and set security associations.

To view all of the rules within Windows Firewall from the command line (be prepared for a lot of output), type:

netsh advfirewall firewall show rule name=all

With dozens of keywords and options, the Netsh Firewall and Netsh Advfirewall commands are quite complex. The best way to learn about the various possibilities is through the help available from the command line. You’ll need to do it in several steps, appending another keyword each time. For example, start by entering netsh firewall ? at a command prompt. This returns a list of each of the keywords that you can put after firewall—Add, Delete, Dump, Help, Reset, Set, and Show—along with a brief description of each. Next you might type netsh firewall set ? to learn about each of the Set options. Then you’d type netsh firewall set opmode ? and so on, until you reach a screen that shows the command syntax and explains all the parameters for the command you’ve entered.

Tip: Enhance Windows Search with the Free Microsoft Filter Pack

2009-02-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

The Windows Search service can be enhanced by installing the Microsoft Filter Pack, which provides additional IFilters to support critical search scenarios across multiple Microsoft Search products. The Filter Pack includes the following IFilters:

-Metro (.docx, .docm, .pptx, .pptm, .xlsx, .xlsm, .xlsb)
-Visio (.vdx, .vsd, .vss, .vst, .vdx, .vsx, .vtx)
-OneNote (.one)
-Zip (.zip)

These IFilters are designed to provide enhanced search functionality for the following products: SPS2003, MOSS2007, Search Server 2008, Search Server 2008 Express, WSSv3, Exchange 2007, SQL 2005, SQL 2008, and Windows Desktop Search 3.01.
When you install the Filter Pack (which you can download for free), the IFilters in the preceding list are installed and registered with the Windows Search service. The Filter Pack is available for x86 and x64 versions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

Tip: Windows XP Recovery Console Equivalents in Windows Vista

2009-02-16T02:47:00.000-08:00

The Recovery Console has been deprecated in Windows Vista, so what happened to all those wonderful commands that were available in recovery console? Well, we were kind of hoping that you wouldn’t need them anymore. But if you do, you’ll be glad to know that most of them are available via the command line in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). The recovery console commands listed in the following table are different or unavailable in WinRE.

Recovery Console Command: BootCfg
WinRE Equivalent: BootRec /ScanOS; BootRec /RebuildBcd; bcdedit

Recovery Console Command: FixBoot
WinRE Equivalent: BootRec /FixBoot

Recovery Console Command: FixMBR
WinRE Equivalent: BootRec /FixMbr

Recovery Console Command: Map
WinRE Equivalent: DiskPart

Recovery Console Command: Logon
WinRE Equivalent: Not needed

Recovery Console Command: LISTSVC; ENABLE; DISABLE; SYSTEMROOT
WinRE Equivalent: Not available

All the remaining commands have the same name in WinRE. You can work around the unavailable services-related commands (listsvc, enable, and disable) by using regedit to manually load the registry hive.

Tip: Burn a Disc Image from an ISO or IMG file in Windows 7

2009-02-16T02:44:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 beta 1 introduces a built-in ability to burn discs directly from ISO and IMG files (this used to require a third-party tool). To burn a disc using an ISO or IMG file, simply do the following:

1. Place a blank unformatted CD or DVD into your CD/DVD drive.

2. Right click on the ISO or IMG file you want to use to burn a disc.

3. Click Burn disc image.

4. Next to Disc burner, click on the drop down arrow and select the CD/DVD drive with the blank disc you want to burn to.

5. Check the Verify disc after burning option if you want Windows to verify the disc image after burning the disc. Leave this option unchecked if you want to skip the verification. Note that you should skip verification if you are in a hurry, as this process requires additional time.

When it finishes burning the disc image to disc, click the Close button.

The DVD (or CD) is now ready to be used without your ever having to find, install, and use a third-party tool.

Tip: Pin Files, Folders, and Favorites to the Taskbar in Windows 7 beta 1

2009-02-16T02:39:00.001-08:00

If you often open particular files, Web pages, or folder locations, you can give yourself easier access to these commonly used resources by “pinning” them to the Taskbar. Applications can be pinned to the Taskbar, similar to how you could place your favorite applications on the Quick Launch toolbar.

With Windows 7 beta 1, when you drag a file onto the Taskbar, you are given the option to pin the file to its associated application. So if you drag a Word document onto the Taskbar, you get the option to “Pin to Word”. If the application is already pinned to your Taskbar, the file is pinned to it and will appear in the app’s right-click menu. And no worries if the application isn’t already pinned to the Taskbar, that step is done automatically and the file pinned to the app.
You can also drag folders to the Taskbar to pin them to Windows Explorer, as well as Web pages to be pinned to Internet Explorer.

On the topic of the Taskbar, applications that are pinned to the Taskbar automatically have shortcut key combinations assigned to them. To launch the first application located on the left of your Taskbar, simply press Win+1 (where “Win” is the Windows key). Win+2 will activate the second app, Win+3 the third, and so on. (These shortcuts also work in Windows Vista for icons on the Quick Launch toolbar, but it’s worth mentioning here since this is a very convenient trick but not widely known.)

Tip: Shake Windows off Your Desktop

2009-02-16T02:38:00.000-08:00

This is a simple, but cool new feature. If you have too much clutter on your desktop and want to minimize everything but the application you’re working in, you can “shake” all the other Windows off your desktop. Shake simply minimizes all the windows leaving only the top window available.

To clear the desktop:

1. Left click and hold on the Title Bar of the window you only want to show on the desktop.
2. Shake the window a bit by quickly dragging it left and right.
3. When the desktop clears, drop.

To restore the desktop:

1. Left click and hold on the Title Bar of the same window.
2. Shake the window a bit by quickly dragging it left and right.
3. When the minimized windows return to the desktop, drop (release the left click) the window.

Tip: Shrink and Simplify OS Images with Dynamic Driver Provisioning

2009-02-16T02:27:00.002-08:00

With Dynamic Driver Provisioning in Windows 7, IT professionals can reduce the size of their images and reduce the number of images they maintain. And IT pros don’t need to update images when they introduce new hardware into their environment. By storing drivers centrally on deployment servers, separate from images, IT professional can install drivers dynamically or assign sets of drivers based on information contained in the BIOS.

If they choose to install drivers dynamically, Windows 7 enumerates Plug and Play devices during installation. Then, it chooses drivers based on the Plug and Play IDs of the actual devices on the PC.

Reducing the number of drivers on individual PCs reduces the number of potential driver conflicts. This ultimately streamlines installation and setup times, as well as improves the reliability of the PC.

For more of Dynamic Driver Provisioning, check out the Deployment Image Servicing and Management screencast available on the TechNet Springboard Series site.

Tip: Easier Troubleshooting Support with Problem Step Recorder

2009-02-16T02:27:00.001-08:00

Troubleshooting errors for a remote user can be very difficult since you can’t actually see what’s happening on the remote system. Often it comes down to a user saying he didn’t click a button, open a program, close a program, or so on. The new Problem Steps Recorder (PSR.exe) allows you to see exactly what’s going on, documenting every action that takes place on the system experiencing problems.

The Problem Steps Recorder tool is a simple screen capture utility that grabs screenshots whenever a mouse move or click is made and documents all the data into a zipped MHTML report page that can be sent off directly to the help desk. Every step of the user’s actions is logged complete with a screenshot with the item highlighted, and it even allows the user to provide commentary on specific details.

To launch the Problem Steps Recorder, just go to START and type PSR.exe and your off and running.

Tip: New User State Migration Toolkit (USMT) Features for Windows 7

2009-02-16T02:23:00.000-08:00

Hard-Link Migration Store: The new hard-link migration store is for use in computer-refresh scenarios only. Hard-link migration stores are stored locally on the computer that is being refreshed and can migrate user accounts, files, and settings in less time using megabytes of disk space instead of gigabytes.

Running ScanState on Offline Windows Images: You can run the ScanState command in Microsoft Windows PE. In addition, USMT now supports migration from previous installations of Windows contained in Windows.old directories. The offline directory can be a Windows directory when you run the ScanState command in Windows PE or Windows.old when you run the ScanState command in Windows .

Volume Shadow Copy Support: With the /vsc command line option, the ScanState command can now use the volume shadow copy service to capture files that are locked for editing by other applications.

New AES Encryption Options: USMT now provides support for stronger encryption algorithms in several key size options, based on support in the source computer’s operating system.

Configurable File Errors: You can use the new section in the Config.xml file to configure which file or registry read/write errors can be safely ignored by the /c command-line option and which ones might cause the migration to fail. In addition, the /genconfig option now generates a sample section that is enabled by specifying error codes and desired behaviors in the Config.xml file.

New Helper Functions: The ScanState command has two new helper functions that enable new migration scenarios:

-MigXmlHelper.FileProperties can be used to control which files are migrated, based on properties that you specify. For example, date created, date modified, date accessed, and file size.

-MigXmlHelper.GenerateDocPatterns can be used to find user documents on a computer automatically without your having to author extensive custom migration .xml files.

Improved Space Estimation: The ScanState command now more accurately estimates the size of the migration store as well as the additional temporary disk space required to create the migration store. This results in a reduction of migration failures due to low disk space. The ScanState command now also estimates the size of the compressed migration store.

List of Files Being Migrated: You can use the /listfiles command-line option for the ScanState command to generate a text file list of all files included in the migration.

Usmtutils.exe: This is a new tool that supplements the functionality provided by Scanstate.exe and Loadstate.exe.

Local Group Migration: You can use the new section in the Config.xml file to configure local group membership of users during the migration. For instance, you could use this to change users from being members of the local administrators group to being members of the local users group during a migration.

Tip: Work Faster with New Hotkey Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 7 beta 1

2009-02-16T02:22:00.001-08:00

Windows 7 beta 1 includes some handy new shortcut key combinations that allow you to navigate and manage the Windows workspace more efficiently. Here are 10 new Windows 7 shortcuts that will help you speed up your workflow (“Win” means the Windows Key):
Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the active window or restore the window if it's maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the active window to each side of the monitor
Win+Shift+Left/Right arrows: If you've got dual monitors, this will move the active window to the adjacent monitor
Win+T: Shift focus to and scroll through items on the taskbar
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that particular application

Tip provided by Stephen Rose, the Senior Community Manager for the TechNet Springboard Series. Stephen supports Windows Client IT Pros (for Windows Vista and Windows 7) worldwide. He is an MCSE, MCT, and two time MVP in Setup and Deployment.

5 Tips To Avoid Eye Strain Caused By Computers

2009-02-12T22:47:00.000-08:00

Do you suffer from headaches, blurred vision, and dry, burning eyes at the end of the day? If so, you are probably suffering from eyestrain. Spending the workday looking at a video terminal or laptop computer has turned eyestrain into a national epidemic.

Eye muscles, like any other muscle, needs to be used on a regular basis to perform at optimum levels. When you only focus on close objects, like a computer screen, the muscles that are used to focus on medium and far objects tend to get lazy. Once the workday is over, and we want to see what is happening beyond the computer screen, these muscles are slow to respond. This results in blurry vision, headaches, and a variety of other vision problems.

Here are five tips you can start using right now to prevent eyestrain caused by your computer screen.

1. Make sure your workspace is well lit. Don't have bright lights glaring from surfaces in your office, and be sure you have enough light to let you see clearly.

2. Try to arrange your workspace so that you can periodically look beyond the computer screen to the opposite side of the room.

3. Make sure that your office lights don't glare directly onto the computer screen. You shouldn't have to wear sunglasses to see the screen.

4. Studies have shown that when people are working on the computer, they blink less often, and tend to keep their eyes open a bit wider that usual. This promotes dry eyes, and results in gritty sensations in the eye. Try to remember to blink often to keep your eyes well hydrated.

5. Every half an hour, give your eyes a break, and exercise them. There are many great eye exercises available to help you avoid computer eyestrain, and protect and strengthen your vision. Here is one you can try, although maybe not at the office. Get a softball or soccer ball, and write letters and numbers of various sizes on it. Hang it from the ceiling on a string, making sure that the surrounding area is clear. Give the ball a push in any direction. As it swings, call out the letters and numbers that you see. This exercise lets you use all of your eye muscles, and helps them to work together in a coordinated way.

6 Tips For Saving Money On Your Next Computer Purchase

2009-02-12T22:46:00.000-08:00

Buying a Computer does not need to be a budget breaker. A Computer purchase often includes additional components and software that are not needed and can be avoided...if you are well prepared with the correct information.

To help, the following tips can be used to save money on your next Computer purchase:

Tip #1 - Take a look at your Computer case. If it is not a name brand Computer more than likely the case is expandable and can be reused. Cases can cost anywhere from $25 to $100. If you have a mid tower case, check how many bays are available for CD/DVD drives, and other peripherals, Are the USB and audio ports in the front?

Cases are often an over-looked item that usually can be used over and over again.

Tip #2 - Monitor Keyboard and Mouse - Just because you are purchasing a new Computer does not mean the keyboard and mouse need to be replaced. An Optical mouse last longer than the ball style mouse. The same principal applies to keyboards, unless you are a heavy Computer user and the keys are worn and do not respond, you probably don't need a new keyboard.

Monitors may need to be replayed if want to upgrade to a larger screen size. If you are happy with your monitor and are having no problems with it, you are better of keeping it a little longer until you can afford a new Monitor.

Tip #3 - Software License - Many people forget when purchasing a new Computer the cost of the Operating System license is included in the price. If the new Computer has the same OS installed, don't pay for another license.

The same applies for other software such as Microsoft Office. Unless you want to upgrade to another OS or Office version, save your money. Significant savings can be realized by not purchasing un-needed software license costs.

Tip #4 - Consider No Name Brand - While Dell, Hp and Sony are some of the big names with Computers, the reality is that most Computers originate from the same area in Asia, specifically laptops. Consider shopping for lesser name brands, or visiting your local Computer repair store.

Unknown brand names such as Acer, are usually cheaper, yet inside the case or laptop, the parts are the same. Computer repair stores allows for customization, so you can tailor to your need, not by what is on the shelf allowing for more savings.

Tip #5 - Warranty - With Technology advancing, what seems like the speed of sound, the life span of Computers tend to run about three to five years. Its not that the hardware starts to fail, but advancements in Software requires more processing power and increased memory requirements.

Consider the length and type of warranty at time of purchase. Also consider the warranty that comes with the Computer. It may be possible that purchasing an extended warranty may not be needed for a desktop, but may be needed for laptops.

Tip #6 - Labor costs - Adding or upgrading involves labor which amounts to additional costs. If you are somewhat technical or handy, consider installing any additional components yourself. There are lots of how - to tutorials on the Internet, with video that detail many types of installations.

As always with making a big purchase, research and shop around for prices. Understanding what your price range is will keep you from overspending, while becoming knowledgeable about what you are buying, will keep the salesman commissions from emptying your wallet!

Fix Up That Slow Computer - 5 Useful Tips for Speeding Up that Slow Computer!

2009-02-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

Everybody knows the feeling of a computer on its last legs. Everything runs painfully slow, and with every click you pray that it won't crash. Popups riddle your computer, and you wish all of the troubles would just go away. With this short guide, I will give you 5 super-useful tips that will definitely speed up your computer, and make you believe that it is brand new.

1.Zap your spyware! Statistics show that almost all computers are infected with various forms of adware and spyware. There are programs out there, some free and some paid, that will scan and remove all traces of spy/adware that it can find. There are two free ones that I recommend, Adaware and Spybot. If you run these two and delete everything, you will definitely notice a difference, but they will not get everything. Personally, I run Adaware, Spybot, and XoftSpySE. It is very affordable, and I find when I use all three, each one finds stuff that the others do not, so its a great combination. The $30 certainly beats having to buy a new computer! Each of these programs are pretty self-explanatory, simply run each an delete everything that it finds, and you'll find your computer running a lot smoother.

2.Install anti-virus software and a firewall, run them, and keep them up-to-date! Its amazing the number of people who do not do this, and it really puts their computer in jeopardy. I remember a statistic that a Windows PC connected to the internet without a firewall usually becomes infected within 20 minutes. Don't be a statistic, its very easy to do, just keep your anti-virus and firewall software up-to-date. For anti-virus and firewall software, I use McAfee. If you are a Comcast high speed internet subscriber, you should be able to get these for free from Comcast.net. Otherwise, you could go to a local computer store or go to McAfee.com. Other popular anti-virus/firewall suites include Norton, and Trend Micro Internet Security. Personally, I used to use Trend Micro and had no complaints, but switched to McAfee through Comcast and have no complaints about them either. Steer clear of shady so-called anti-virus programs, however, as you don't want to find a virus-infested "anti-virus" program.

3.Defrag your hard drive! Everytime you use your hard drive (basically whenever you're using your computer!) files are getting all scattered about on your hard drive, which slows down the time it takes a file to open because it takes longer for your computer to find it. Windows has a built-in utility to do this, which can be found by going to My Computer, right clicking on the icon for your hard drive, going to Properties, clicking on the Tools tab, and then clicking on Defragment. This process will clean up your hard drive, by rearranging file storage and allowing files to be found more quickly. This can take a few hours, so you should run it overnight or before you leave for work, and it is suggested that you run it once per month.

4.Clean and optimize your registry! The registry is a very important part of a Windows computer, where essential system information is stored. Whenever you install a program, information is most likely added to the registry. When you uninstall a program, all of the information isn't usually removed. Spyware, adware, and other unwanted programs can also infect your registry. This is the main cause of error messages, blue screen errors, overall slowness, and even crashes. There is a very neat program called Registry Fix, which scans your registry for errors and repairs them. They offer a free trial that will just scan it for you and tell you what the problems are, and then for $37 you can purchase it and actually fix the errors. It it finds any errors, which is most cases will be in the hundreds, I would definitely recommend purchasing it, as the effect will definitely be visible. This is a awesome little program.

5.Restrict what starts on startup! Does your computer start up very slowly? That is because you have lots of programs that start up whenever your computer starts up, most of which you probably don't want to, possibly even spyware and adware. Click on Start, then Run, and type "msconfig" (without the quotes" into the box, and press enter. Now, click on the startup tab. The only absolutely essential programs are: ScanRegistry, TaskMonitor, SystemTray, LoadPowerProfile, and your anti-virus and firewall software. There are other programs that you may want, so if there is anything that you aren't sure about, then type its name into Google. There are many websites that have a database of almost every task imaginable, and they will tell you what the program is, and whether you need it or not. After this, you will notice a very visible improvement next time you startup your PC. On a slightly related note, go to your Control Panel, click Add/Remove Programs, and uninstall anything that you need. You'd be amazed at how many programs you have that you never use, or could easily do without, that will free up disk space and improve computer performance.

Those are the 5 tips that are essential to maintaining a healthy, speedy computer. None of the things are things that you should only do once, you should repeat them on a continual basis. Create some sort of schedule, maybe setting aside an afternoon every month to go through everything, and I guarantee that your computer will benefit. Maintaining a healthy computer sure beats the hell out of having to buy a new one!

Top Tips For Computer Accessories

2009-02-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

If you have a desktop computer, you need a lot of things to get the most of your experience. There are a lot of desktop computer accessories that you need in order to hear, see, and do all of the things that computers are now designed to do. In some cases, you may get most of these items with your computer, but if you don't, you need to know what to get and where to get it. You also have to make sure you know what you are buying is going to work with the computer you have.

When you buy a new computer, make sure you ask what desktop computer accessories will come with your new toy. At the very least, you should get speakers and a printer with it, and if you want to add extras, they may charge you for it. For the most part, however, they want to make a sale, and may throw things in just to get you to buy from them, though this is not always the case. Make sure they tell you all about the desktop computer accessories that they are sending to you, and make sure you ask if they are the most up to date ones you can get.

If you find that you need to buy some desktop computer accessories on your own, you can go through the manufacturer of your computer to make sure the ones you are buying will be compatible. This may also allow you to get a better price than by going through the retail stores. You can also find desktop computer accessories by looking online, but make sure you know what you are looking at as your browse. Some manufacturers make accessories that will only go with their own product lines while other try to make universal items that will go with any computer.

Remember to be careful when you install your desktop computer accessories. Most of them come with software that you need to install in order for the item to work with your computer and it's software. When you plug something new into your computer, the computer should find and install any software it needs. If it does not, you may have a problem on your hands, and you may have to call the manufacturer of the desktop computer accessories you purchased to ask them for help. If they cannot help you, you may have to call your computer maker's technical help line.

5 Super Tips To Improve Your Computer Performance

2009-02-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Sometimes your computer is running slow. Actually this is happening because of several reasons. Below are some of the reasons and tips on how to improve your computer performance.

1. Spyware, Malware and Adware

This is one of the reasons why your computer is running slow. When you install suspicious software, these things will also install in the background without you knowing it. Some of these things can be removed when you removed the software that comes with it.

However, there are softwares that remove spywares. Such as Spybot Search and Destroy. You can get this software for free.

Using only one type of spyware removal is not very effective. If you want your computer to be secure and free from spyware,use two software or more.

Windows defender is a good option too. Use windows explorer to monitor your currently running programs.

2. Registry

Another reason why you computer is slow is because your computer registry is not stable and need to be clean. To do that, you need a registry cleaner software. There are many registry cleaner available for free. I recommend you guys to use RegSeeker

3. Uninstall The Softwares That You Do Not Need

You can improve your computer performance by uninstalling the software that you do not need.

Free software can be found anywhere in the internet. However,some of these free software also come with some string attached like spyware and adware. So, be careful when installing FREE softwares.

4. Get Rid of Your Temporary Files

You can delete all your temporary files from your computer by running the disk cleanup tool. Or you can delete all the files in your 'temp' folder. Do not delete the folder. If you cannot find it, you can go to My Computer->Local disk(where you stored your windows OS)->Documents and settings->your username->Local Settings. Sometimes, this folder is hidden, adjust your folder setting so you can see this file.

5. Adjust for Best Performance

You can adjust your computer so it can run for best performance. However,the appearance will not be very good. If you are running windows XP, you can do this by going to control panel->system-> advanced->performance setting->adjust for best performance.

Windows XP Tips for Computer Security

2009-02-12T22:38:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of tips to speed up your Windows XP computer and help keep you protected and secure online. First you need to control which programs load on startup: Many of the programs you install on your computer automatically configure themselves to launch at startup, usually invisibly. The truly essential ones, such as anti-virus and firewall products, generally run as services and run fine in the background. Other less important software like media players don't need to be running continually.

These extra programs slow the boot process and then severely suck up resources like memory and CPU cycles. It is pretty easy to control which applications launch on startup. The System Configuration Utility lists all these applications in one place:

1) To get there: Click the ?Start' button then choose the ?Run' command.

2) In the text box type "msconfig". - Across the top of the dialog box select the ?Startup' tab.

3) The Startup Tab lists all the programs that launch at start-up. To disable any of these simply un-check the box on the left. Only non-essential programs are listed here it should be safe to un-check pretty much anything. If it turns out you needed it just go back and re-check it.

4) Once you are done re-boot the machine. 5) When the Desktop returns you will be presented with a window that says you have chosen Selective Startup. Just Check "Do not show this window again" and click OK.

To keep your computer secure, turn on automatic updates. Seems like every virus writer has nothing better to do then attack Windows operating systems. Keeping the system patches and security fixes is critical. During the setup of XP Service Pack 2 with a new computer or an up-grade you are asked whether or not to turn on automatic updates, if you made the mistake of checking no you can find this option in the Windows Security Center (Start / Control Panel) and change it back. Even with all its faults, XP is a powerful operating system that has many good security features.

Here are some more tips to help you get the most out of your operating system. Remove Windows components not found in ADD / REMOVE. Many Windows components, things like Network Services or Solitaire are easy to remove through the Add or Remove programs configuration window (Start / ControlPanel / Add and Remove Programs / Windows Components). Simply un-check them, but ? some things are deliberately hidden.

A good example would be MSN Messenger. To remove this from startup follow these steps:

1) In Windows Explorer (right click Start / Explore), navigate to C:WindowsInf and make a copy of Sysoc.inf.

2) Double click on Sysoc.inf and it will open in Notepad.

3) Press Ctrl H (opens Find and Replace) and replace the string ,hide, with ,, then save and replace the file. Now all the hidden components will appear.

4) Then follow the steps above for removing programs from the startup menu.

To restore a corrupted system file: If a necessary system file should become missing or corrupted by a virus you can replace it from your Windows CD.

1) Go to Start / Search and type in the file name replacing the last letter with an underscore (ex. Filename.ex_).

2) If the file is found, open a command prompt (Start / Run, type CMD in the textbox).

3) At the prompt type expand followed by the full pathname of the file and destination (expand D:Windowsfilename.ex_ C:Windowsfilename.exe) where D: is the letter of your disc drive. If either pathname contains spaces surround the entire pathname with double quotes. If the file isn't found search again using the un-modified file name, it is probably in a CAB file, Windows treats these as folders, simply drag the new folder to the destination while holding down the right mouse button then select Copy Here.

A Guide to Time Synchronisation with Windows Vista

2009-02-12T22:32:00.000-08:00

How Windows Vista can be set up to use time from an atomic clock to synchronise a network.

All computers have clocks of course although the real time chips (RTC) that inhabit most PC?s are not the most accurate of timepieces and are prone to drift

This may not matter much to the average home user although when it comes to time sensitive applications this inaccuracy can be at best annoying (an email arriving before its been sent) or at worst leaving your machine open to security threats.

A universal time (UTC) does exist and allows the global industry to communicate and trade even across time zones. UTC was developed to ensure that everybody used the same time reference, preventing problems with time sensitive transactions such as on the stock exchange.

Windows Vista has an inbuilt time synchronisation facility already installed called Windows Time and it is pretty easy to setup and to synchronise a machine with UTC over the Internet. This will ensure that the clock on your computer is accurate to UTC time and is constantly updated to ensure the time does not drift.

To synchronise your Windows Vista machine to an Internet UTC source simply follow these instructions:

1. Right click the clock in the system tray.

2. Click adjust time and date.

3. Click the Internet time tab.

4. Click change settings.

5. If you are prompted for a password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.

6. Select the server you want to use (such as windows.time)

7. Click the Update now button.

8. Click Ok twice.

If problems occur then another method of synchronising your computer is possible via the
command prompt by running w32tm / resync. This should activate the windows time service.

Note:
Microsoft and other operating system manufacturers recommend that an external hardware source should be used to synchronise a computers clock as Internet time servers can not be authenticated leaving systems vulnerable to security threats.

There are specialist time servers that connect to a UTC source using either the GPS network or a specialist radio transmission. These servers use NTP (Network Time Protocol) to synchronise machines on a network to one UTC source and are easily installed and relatively inexpensive.

Window Vista also has a facility to add extra clocks to the system tray. This allows different times from different time zones to be displayed on the computer. If the clock has been synchronised with a UTC source then all these clock will present UTC time converted to whatever time zone is required.

To add additional clocks simply follow these instructions:

Choose change date and time settings.

1. Left click the clock and click Additional Clocks tab.

2. Put a check mark in Show this Clock.

3. Select the time zone.

4. Enter a name for your new clock.

5. Click apply, then when you click on the Clock icon you?ll see your new clocks.

Itunes For Windows XP: How To Use Itunes And Your Ipod On Windows XP and Vista

2009-02-12T21:16:00.000-08:00

When iTunes is mentioned it can refer to the software or the music store. For Mac users, iTunes is like what PC users have, the Windows Media Player. However, when the iTunes music store was launched Apple started offering iTunes for Windows XP. This was, of course, logical since Apple knew how small of the market share Mac users are. By offering iTunes to everyone including PC users, the market of iTunes have of course broadened as well.

iTunes for Windows XP Enhances iPod Use

If you are a PC user and you have an iPod, you can easily sync your iTunes playlist to your iPod as often as you want. You can buy individual songs and albums from the iTunes music store. The more songs you have on iTunes the more enjoyable.

Well, using iTunes is easy because it?s easy to navigate and its interface is very straightforward. And yet it still comes stylish and easy to the eyes. There are actually three parts of it. On the left side, you?ll see your music library and playlist tools; then the main part of it in the middle is the list of the songs you have in your PC. And on the top, you have your playback and search tools. You will truly appreciate the ease especially when you have hundreds or thousands of songs on your playlist.

Buying Music through iTunes Means Buying Better Music Quality

On the other hand, what?s good about the iTunes music store is that you can listen to a 30-second sample of a song first before you actually buy it. This is quite a very useful tool so you can ascertain for yourself if you will really like the song. While some would argue that hearing the complete song first is needed, the 30-second sample is highly appreciated by most. Another thing you have to really like is that songs bought from iTunes can shared up to 3 computers in your local network. You can also copy the song to and fro your computer and your iPod as many times as you like. Not only that you can burn them into CDs up to 10 times.

When you buy songs from iTunes, they come in good sound quality because they come in Advanced Audio Codec (AAC). It comes clearer than MP3s. Still MP3 can be included on your iTunes playlist. And aside from AAC and MP3, iTunes also has Apple Lossless which is said to be even better than WAV. What is not supported though is the WMA (Windows Media Audio). But PC users shouldn?t be discouraged because you can always convert WMA files to AAC. You will still be able to listen to these songs and you can still load it to your iPod.

So what iTunes for Windows XP really offers is being able to play, to shop and to enjoy music with ease and control. Even if you are not a Mac user, you can still take advantage of the quality of music experience iTunes can bring. And with your iPod, iTunes really then gives you portability.

Windows XP - Will Vista Kill Support?

2009-02-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

Like all new operating systems, Windows Vista ushered in a new era of incompatibility for existing Windows users. In spite of this, Microsoft plans to start retiring Windows XP on June 30th, 2008. Some users, however, want to keep XP alive for years to come so that they can continue to work reliably and efficiently.

If Microsoft has its way, you won't be able to buy XP after June 30th, 2008. According to some sources, the public wishes otherwise.

Like all new operating systems, Windows Vista ushered in a new era of incompatibility for existing Windows users. In spite of this, Microsoft plans to start retiring Windows XP on June 30th. Some users, however, want to keep XP alive for years to come so that they can continue to work reliably and efficiently.

According to a Popular Science report, there's a grassroots effort to force Microsoft to keep selling XP to customers in shrink-wrapped packages and to OEMs. What's behind this movement? Just to clarify, it's not really a "grassroots" movement. It's actually being orchestrated by InfoWorld, an online news publication.

That said, with 71,386 people signed up as of noon Jan. 30th, 2008 to the Save Windows XP petition, clearly the movement is tapping into a well spring of resentment opposing Vista operating system upgrades.

That's bad news for Vista but it's not in any way surprising. Windows XP works well enough for me and millions of other people all over the world. Why should we give up all the great applications we've relied upon for years only to find out they're either crippled or refuse to run at all on Vista?

There really is not a compelling reason to switch to Vista for most people. If you want the cool 3D Vista task switcher that previews your apps, you can just buy TopDesk for $20 and XP will do the same thing. Nothing special there.

If XP's not fast enough and you need more speed, then buy more RAM, a faster hard drive or clean up your PC and install anti-spyware software. These methods will work and It'll be much cheaper and less frustrating than trying to deal with the plethora of driver issues that many XP users are reporting when they make the switch to Vista.

What Microsoft doesn't want us to realize and accept is that there's nothing wrong with us wanting to stay with a tried and true operating system or program. Windows 2000 and 98, for example, still have their business users, even though neither operating system has been supported by Microsoft for several years now. The difference this time around is how little success Microsoft has had in getting users to switch to Vista.

It's such a bad operating system that web sites are turning up that show people how to DOWNGRADE their Vista systems to XP. And the Apple folks are having a field day showing their Vista vs Apple guys commercials. Vista is spawning a slew of Apple converts! Talk about shooting yourself in the foot with a marketing program gone wrong.

I'm not saying there's no room for improvement in Windows XP. Dual processor support is a much needed feature but you're going to have to do a lot better at convincing me to change. Some fancy whiz-bang interface features or some less-than-practical security features are not going to do it for me. There's just not enough benefit to make me want to change.

Clearly, Microsoft has dropped the ball with Windows Vista.

Anyway, I won't be hopping on the Vista band wagon anytime soon. If you have Vista and like it, that's great. But I need the reliability and ease of use that for now, belongs to Windows XP.

Obviously, Vista or perhaps the upcoming Vista replacement Windows 7, will eventually replace most XP systems. Change is good but not if that change creates problems that never existed in the first place. So let's hope that Microsoft delays killing XP support at least until it can make Vista a worthy choice for upgraders.

Why Is Windows Vista Slower Than Windows XP?

2009-02-12T20:57:00.000-08:00

Many people are taking the leap and upgrading their pc operating system from Windows XP to Windows Vista, only to be very disappointed by the distinct slow-down in performance.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Windows Vista requires twice the computing power and resources to operate at a performance level similar to that of Windows XP. So what can you do to improve this?

Firstly, it may be worth considering if you need to have all of the Vista bells-and-whistles that are turned on by default. The Aero interface in particular, although it looks pretty, requires considerable resources and it's worthwhile turning it off to see how much general performance improves. In addition many computers from manufacturers such as IBM come with a whole suite of ancillary support programs which you may not really need, such as firewall programs, antivirus programs, performance monitor programs, etcetra. Third party firewall programs in particular can use up a lot of resources. If you've been happy with the built-in Windows Firewall, then consider turning off any third party ones.

The other two areas where a significant improvement can be made is by upgrading the amount of system ram or memory, and utilising a ReadyBoost compatible flash drive or flash card.

Upgrading system memory is very straight forward. Manufacturers like Kingston make third party ram to the specifications of the big OEM's like IBM, HP, Dell, Acer, Apple and others so it's not necessary to pay hefty prices to obtain a 100% compatible ram upgrade. Kingston also guarantee their memory for life so even if the reseller you purchased it from closes up ship you can go back to Kingston for any warranty-related issues.

Upgrading system memory as high as your budget will allow is recommended, although anything higher than 4GB with the 32-bit version of Windows Vista is pointless, as it will generally only recognise around 3.5GB of the installed memory. The 64-bit version of Vista, however, can recognise over 8GB of memory, although most computers don't yet support this.

To take advantage of ReadyBoost, simply plug in a compatible USB drive or flash card into your computer, then follow the steps to configure it using the built-in wizard. Once configured, ReadyBoost serves as an additional memory cache which can significantly improve performance by reserving part of the flash drive/card for memory management.

If you are not certain about whether your pc can be upgraded with more system memory, there are many websites which make this task relatively simple to figure out. Using your favourite search engine, type in your computer brand and model followed by the words "memory upgrade" and this should give you somewhere to start. Alternatively, if you still have your user manual this should contain specifications about how many memory slots you have, the maximum memory capacity your pc can handle, and the type of memory that is compatible.

To check your currently installed memory for Windows: Right mouse-click on the "My Computer" icon and select "Properties." The total memory is calculated and displayed under the "General" tab in the system properties window. For Mac: Click "About This Mac" or "About This Computer" from the Apple menu. (Far top left of the screen). This will provide information about your Mac's total memory (built-in memory plus DIMMs installed).

Searching Your Hard Drive Using Windows Vista

2009-02-12T20:55:00.000-08:00

A Computer's Hard Drive contains everything that you store in it. From your music to pictures and Word documents, as long as you saved it and have not yet deleted it, you have it in your Hard Drive. Finding files in a computer's Hard Drive is one of the most basic procedures performed when you have a computer. There will always be those time when you need to look up a file that you may have used some time ago. If you still manage to remember the title of the document, folder, music or photo that you are looking for then combing your hard drive for it will be much faster and easier.

If you are unfortunate and cannot remember what the title is, then you might have to go through more steps in order to retrieve your file. For some people, finding files on their Hard Drives may be an easy procedure, especially if they are using the older versions of Microsoft Windows like XP or older. The case with the new Microsoft Vista is that the procedures remain essentially the same, but the people at Microsoft managed to tweak the program a little bit in an attempt to make it more User friendly.

Depending on how your Windows Vista is set up, the location of the search prompt may be located differently. Some Setups have a search window at the bottom of the fly-out START menu. This way, it is easier to search because you do not have to go any further. All you need to do is to enter the name of the file that you are looking for, click 'SEARCH' or press 'ENTER' on your keyboard and then the search begins.

For those of who are not able to locate such a search window, do not despair. Follow these steps. Click on the 'START' menu. When the fly-out window opens look for the 'SEARCH' icon, this is usually the one with the magnifying glass beside it. Click on the icon. Another fly-out window will appear with the options: For Files and Folders, In Microsoft Outlook and For People. Click on an icon depending on what you would like to search. A search window will appear on your screen. You will find that it is blank, with only the words 'To Begin, type in the Search Box'. If you are unable to see a search box anywhere, don't panic. Look at the upper right hand corner of the window and you will find a text box that has the word 'SEARCH' italicized and in a gray color. Click on this text box and enter the file name that you are looking for.

Click the magnifying glass icon on the side or press 'ENTER' on your keyboard to start the search. If you need a more specific search click the 'Advanced Search' icon just below the search box. To be more successful in finding files that you have forgotten the name to, try and search in smaller locations first and be more specific on the keyword that you enter.

A Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget Essay

2009-02-12T20:54:00.000-08:00

Microsoft had released Windows Vista, a new user-friendly graphical operating system, to start the year 2007. Looking at the many new features Microsoft has developed for their new operating system, one cannot fail to notice their nifty gadget sidebar. The majority of new laptops and computers have already been preloaded with Windows Vista. Furthermore, a new school year would be starting in a few months, causing many high school and college kids to purchase a laptop to aid in their studies. Usually, when a new Windows Operating System is released, it doesn't take long for the hundreds of millions of users to install and run their new operating system.

Considering the psychology of teenagers and young adults, they would definitely be attracted to the gadget sidebar in Windows Vista. Therefore, causing them to go and find gadgets that they deem to be cool, helpful or nifty to use. Adults, on the other hand, would want gadgets that serve a more professional use to them. Adults would be attracted to gadgets that display stock information, latest industry news and such. Either way, gadgets are useful to people of all ages.

There are a good amount of websites that publish new content frequently. This can range from weblogs to forums. Now any webmaster would know that it would be extremely beneficial to them if they could give their members something that would keep them constantly updated on new content published on your website. This would keep your members coming back to your website, and would help you build up a stronger user base.

Now if you don't run a website that publishes new content, but you would still like a constant stream of visitors to your website, there is still hope. This can be done by offering a gadget related to your website's industry. For example, if you own a website that offers stock information, you could publish a gadget that offers stock prices, but you could include a link to your website on the gadget!

A problem that most programmers realize when launching a new program, is that it is fairly difficult to get people to find and download their programs. However, programming and launching a gadget is guaranteed to find users to download your gadget. This is made easy by Microsoft's gallery of gadgets that helps users find millions of gadgets with various different features.

When you think about it, a gadget can be created for any type of industry, and can send a great amount of targeted traffic to your website. Since the amount of vista gadgets on the web are fairly low, it would beneficially offer a greater amount of downloads if gadgets were published now.

GadgetSpark.com noticed a demand in the industry and supplies a quality service. We have the most skilled XML programmers to develop numerous gadgets with a wide amount of functionality and features. The price to buy our service is only a minor payment when compared to the traffic you will generate from your gadget.

At Home With Windows Vista

2009-02-12T20:53:00.001-08:00

FIRST things first: unlike some bloggers in the United States, I did not get a free, high-powered notebook computer from Microsoft so I could try out and write about Windows Vista. At my request and before the brouhaha over the freebies, they did lend me a notebook so I could get a preview of their new operating system ahead of its release to consumers at the end of January.

The notebook, a Compaq Presario V3000, used an Intel Core 2 processor running at 1.66 gigahertz (GHz). To make sure Vista had the room it needed to run well, Microsoft boosted on-board memory to 1 gigabyte (GB). The version of the operating system installed is called Windows Vista Ultimate, which has all the features you?ll need for home and office use.

To get an idea of what Vista is like, I used the notebook as I normally would in both environments.

Compared to Windows XP, Vista is pleasant to look at, thanks to its Windows Aero interface. Every window has a glassy, translucent frame and casts a soft shadow on the desktop. Images behind the glass are blurred, giving windows a frosted look. Buttons glow when the mouse pointer passes over them and progress bars fill up with a green gel reminiscent of the blue gel bars on the Mac.

The task switcher presents small preview screens of all programs running in a 3D stack that you can cycle through. The task bar, too, gives you a small preview of programs that have been minimized.

Vista?s cool visual effects require a minimum of 128 megabytes of video memory on your graphics card, 1 GB of system memory and a processor running at 1 GHz. On a less powerful system, Vista will revert to a plain vanilla look called Windows Vista Basic that throws out most of the bells and whistles.

Sometimes, an incompatible program will kick you out of Aero into Vista Basic, too. Among the programs that did this during my tests were the file-sharing program LimeWire and the instant messaging application Trillian. Vista takes you back to Aero once the offending program is closed, however.

Although Microsoft says it has done a lot of testing, expect to run into compatibility problems from time to time. I had no problems installing and running a bunch of non-Microsoft applications, including Firefox, WinAmp, ObjectDock and uTorrent. But I ran into trouble when my daughters tried to run the game Sims 2.

Launching Sims 2 from the desktop shortcut led to this warning: ?This program has known compatibility issues.? Vista offered three choices: check for solutions online, run the program or cancel it. I ran it and Sims 2 quit with an unhelpful error message: ?Unspecified error.? All I could do was hit the OK button. I checked solutions online. After a minute or two, another message: ?No solutions found for The Sims 2.? OK.

Quite by accident, my 12-year-old discovered an awkward workaround. To get Sims 2 to run, she found, you need to insert the play disc and run the setup program when prompted. Then the program will run. Later, I found another way: right-click on the shortcut icon, open up its properties and choose to run it in XP compatibility mode and as an administrator.

Of course, to do any of this, my daughter needed an administrator?me?to type in a password, thanks to the improved security on Vista. On a computer shared by many people, those with standard accounts may not install programs or gain access to certain directories without administrator approval?a good safeguard against viruses and spyware being accidentally introduced into a system.

This feature is helpful at home, where parents may wish to set up standard accounts for their children. Parental controls?new in Vista--also allow you to easily set limits on what days and time the computer may be used and block certain Web sites. This worked fine for Internet Explorer, but blocked even unspecified sites when I tried using Firefox.

Out of the box, Vista is more multimedia-friendly than XP. Pop in an audio CD and one of the options in Windows Explorer is to rip the tracks into MP3 files. Windows Media Player will play?ahem, ?budget? DVDs?without demanding you commit the drive to any particular DVD region, at least on the test machine I used. It still won?t play most downloaded AVI files or automatically fetch the DivX codec you need, so you?ll still need to set that up on your own.

A curious problem I encountered reminded me that it will take some time before all the kinks are worked out, even on Vista-capable machines.

After using the HP Presario V3000 notebook for a few days, the built-in Altec Lansing speakers suddenly and mysteriously fell silent. No amount of fiddling with the speaker controls and the mixer would bring it back.

A number of online forums traced the problem to the computer?s high-definition audio speakers, for which no Vista driver was yet available. Microsoft suggested I use the XP drivers, but when this failed to revive the speakers, they simply sent me a replacement notebook that worked?alas, also a loaner.

Windows Vista Repair

2009-02-12T20:52:00.000-08:00

Now that just about everyone knows how to use the XP Recovery Console Microsoft?s newest OS does not contain one. Not to worry we have a detailed article that will walk you through how to use these great new features in Vista.

The Purpose of this article is to teach you how to make vista repairs if you are having startup issues or you can?t seem to use the vista system restore option. There are two ways to use these options and they depend on if you have a Windows Vista install disk or if Vista was pre-installed on your OS you will have a ghost image on your hard drive.

If you have the windows vista repair disk: (This should be your backup copy of Vista if you made one)
PLEASE NOTE: This Vista install CD can be run from within Vista. Just insert the CD once Vista has loaded up and go to install, go > Install Now > Upgrade.

1. Boot up with the Vista install disc

2. You should see a screen that says ?Windows is loading files?

3. After a few minutes you will get a language option. Select your language and hit next.

4. On the install screen select ?Repair your computer?

5. Windows will find your copy of Vista on the machine

6. Select your copy of Vista and click next

7. You will now see the following options.

* Startup repair - This automatically fixes problems that are preventing Windows from starting

* System Restore - This will Restore Windows to an earlier point in time

* Windows Complete PC Restore - This will completely restore your entire PC - programs, system settings and files - from a back up that you have previously created (Available in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate editions only)

* Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool - This checks your computer's memory hardware for errors

* Command Prompt

8. Assuming you are using this option because you were unable to boot to Windows Vista select the system Restore option and then select the date you would like to go back to. If your OS is fine you can always use the startup repair option.

Pre-Installed and OEM versions: (please check with your manufacturer fist. They may have replaced these tools with their own.

1. Turn your computer on and start pressing the F8 key. If you see the Windows Vista Logo you have gone too far and need to reboot and try again

2. You will get an advanced options screen. Select the ?Repair your computer option? and hit enter.

3. Select your language and hit next.

4. Enter your user name and password and then next.

5. The recovery options should now appear.

6. In most cases just using the system restore to set your computer back will solve your issue. If this is not the case try the Startup repair option.

Top Ten New Features in Windows Vista

2009-02-12T20:51:00.000-08:00

Windows Vista, scheduled for release on January 30th, 2007 has something for everyone, from tight security and stunning new graphics to some new bundled applications. In fact, there is much that this new operating system has to offer, that it will be a real test for the hardware configuration of your PC. With its sleek new look and eye-catching interface, actually it's what's under the hood that impresses the most. Microsoft's done a great job of improving security across the board as this was their priority when they were developing Vista in the first place. Features like Windows and spyware library updates are streamlined, and I definitely appreciate the more robust Backup software.

Internet Explorer is the new web browser that comes with Windows Vista, but as we all know you can download it for XP as well, so this article won't focus on it. Windows Media Player 11 can also be installed to the XP system. A really intriguing stuff is the Windows Sidebar, which puts real-time weather info, stock quotes, system status, RSS feeds, and other information on the display.

This article puts the focus on the top new features in Window Vista, things that can?t find in the XP. Apart from this article, another really great site about Windows Vista full of information about the new features is vista-hq.com.

1. New User Experience, including Windows Aero

Windows Vista features four different levels of user experience?Basic, Windows Classic, Standard, and Windows Aero?. All controls are totally redesigned in Windows Vista and look even better now. The Aero user interface is the top of the line and takes advantage of the latest advances in computer hardware. On computers equipped with graphics hardware that supports the new Windows Driver Display Model (WDDM), the Aero provides more stability and smoother window handling. The main element of this interface is the transparent glass design, with subtle effects such as dynamic reflections and smooth animations. To checkout some screenshots, go to vista-hq.com/interface.html.

2. Windows Sidebar

The Windows Sidebar can be positioned on the right or on the left side of your screen and its associated with mini-applications called gadgets, that provide specific information. Like for example, the gadgets can give you info on the weather, show you the calendar, games, a calculator or all types of other tools. The Sidebar fits perfectly especially on widescreen monitors. It can be easily customized and you can add different types of gadgets. Gadgets are a new concept introduced in Windows Vista. They can connect to web services to deliver business data, weather information, news updates, traffic maps, Internet radio streams, and even slide shows of online photo albums. By default, the OS comes with a set number of gadgets to get you started, but you can always download more from an online gadget gallery.

3. The Instant Desktop Search

The Instant Search is a new feature that will help you find whatever you're looking for. It is available almost everywhere in Windows Vista, in the Explorer Dialogs, in the Start Menu, pretty much in every system window. Using it, you can type a filename, a property, or even text contained within a file, and it returns pinpointed results. Besides that, the Instant Search also arranges the results depending on your current activity, whether it?s searching for music files in Media Player, or looking over all your files and applications on the Start Menu. You can check out some screenshots of that at vista-hq.com/interface.html.

On the Start Menu, the Instant Search box is located at the lower left corner, and instead of going through all the programs installed in order to find the one you are looking for, you can just type its name in the box and as you type, Windows Vista instantly searches file and application names, metadata, and the full text of all files, and it displays the search results. It searches through everything - Applications; Favorites/Internet History; Files, including documents and media; and Communications, including email, events, tasks, and contacts.

4. Windows Defender

Windows Defender is a features that protects your computer from pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware. It works by monitoring key system locations for changes that signal the presence of spyware. The autoupdate option will make sure that the Defender has all the latest spyware definitions from Microsoft. The interface is simple and easy to use, making daily tasks like as scanning, blocking, and removing unwanted software easier than ever. It has a built in Software Explorer that determines which software and services are running on your computer and stops or disables ?rogue? software.

It works in co-operation with Internet Explorer with the "Scan on execute" feature. This feature provides an added layer of protection, by scanning all downloaded files before they are saved and executed, thus reducing the chance that spyware might be installed by accident. If you want to learn something more about the Windows Defender visit vista-hq.com/security.html.

5. Performance Center

The Performance Center is a brand new tool that gives information on the PC?s performance characteristics and can manage and troubleshoot performance issues. The very interesting thing here is the WinSPR, or Windows System Performance Rating. This rating is from 1 to 5, and depending on your rating, you can determine if a given application can run on your machine. For example, if you have some of the latest hardware, your rating can reach 4.2 and it that case, any software with 4.2 or lower WinSPR will run smoothly on your computer. To find out more about it, go to vista-hq.com/performance.html.

6. Backup and Restore

This new functionality makes it possible for you to keep your information safe from user error, hardware failure, and other issues that can result in data loss. There are several layers of protection to ensure maximum effectiveness. From the Backup and Restore control panel, you can enable the auto feature which automatically caches previous versions of your files to an image-based backup of your entire computer. Later, you can browse and search for files to restore from a backup.

Another great new feature allows you to access previous versions of files without even having a backup. This is possible through the Volume Shadow Copy technology. If you want to do that manually, then you will have to use the File Back Wizard in which you select the types of files you want to backup, specify a storage folder and start the process at any point you want. There is also an automatic scheduling function.

The system restore feature can reverse system changes, but still preserving your data in its current state.

7. Network Map

The Network Map is a new feature inside the Network Center that displays graphically your connectivity to the network and to the Internet. If a computer on the network loses Internet connectivity, you can graphically see which connection is down and then use Network Diagnostics to help determine the cause of the problem and find possible solutions.

This is especially useful if you have a network of wired and wireless PCs and devices. With the Network Map you can increase the performance of the network and easily spot problems.

8. Windows ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost is a brand new technology that comes with Windows Vista. It's a whole new concept that will change they way people add memory to a system. With ReadyBoost, you can use USD flash as RAM to extend system memory and improve performance. So instead of buying RAM and opening your computer, you can just plug the Flash. Plus, most motherboards have just two RAM slots, which will be taken anyway.

Utilizing this technology is simple. Just plug the Flash in the USB slot and Windows Vista will check to determine if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If that's the case, then you?ll be asked if you want to use this device to speed up system performance. ReadyBoost is reliable as well as secure. You won't loose any data, and the system will restore to its original level of performance when the Flash is removed. There is no wearing on the USB drive, because of the specifically optimized algorithms used.

9. Windows ReadyDrive

Windows ReadyDrive takes advantage of the latest hybrid hard drives to provide faster boot-up, hibernate, and resume. It works by writing data to the flash memory on the hybrid hard disk, which lessens the amount of spinning for the mechanical hard drive, thus saving battery power. And also increases the life of your hard drive. With a hybrid drive, Windows Vista can resume more quickly from Sleep because data can be restored from flash memory faster than from the spinning mechanical hard drive.

10. Windows Media Center

For a large number of users, the PC has become mostly a source of entertainment, that you can enjoy by sitting back with a remote control in hand. That's not something strange considering the enormous amount of media files that you can download online. The Windows Media Center enables you to enjoy live and recorded TV, music, photos, videos, and online entertainment on a single device. It can also be connected to Xbox 360 allowing you to transfer this experience in other rooms of your home.

It's integrated in the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and also offers built-in support for archiving TV shows to DVD. It takes advantage of the very latest technologies including a support for widescreen and high-definition (HD) displays. There are three separate sections - music, digital photos, TV and movies. In the Music section, you can quickly browse your music by artist, song, or album title, as well as by genre, composer, or year. Regarding the photos, Windows Media Center can turn your simple photo collection into a cinematic slide show that can be shared on the television in the living room. On top of that, WMC provides seamless experience when watching your favorite television shows and movies.

Windows Vista Upgrade - What to Watch Out For

2009-02-12T20:48:00.000-08:00

With the with the final release of Windows Vista on January 30, 2007, you may be wondering if your computer is "Vista Ready".
This article is designed to point out a few potential pitfalls.

Much of the WOW factor surrounding Vista is the new graphics capabilities called Aero with glass like effects and themes.
Aero also supercharges your task switching with Flip33D. This all sounds cool and looks great, but can your existing computer
hardware support it? Find out by running Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

Upgrade Advisor

You can download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft web site and run it on your existing computer to produce
a comprehensive report of how well Vista will be supported. This is actually a very nice tool that does an excellent job
of scanning, reporting and helping you to choose which edition of Vista (flavor) is right for you and your computer. This should be your
first step if you are considering an upgrade to Vista on your existing computer. However, here is the first pitfall. If you
currently run Windows 2000 or anything older, the Upgrade Advisor is not supported.

No upgrade path from Windows 2000

Here is my first gripe with Vista. If you are currently running Windows 2000, there is no upgrade offered to Vista. You must
purchase the full version of Vista. As mentioned above, you can not even run the Upgrade Advisor to find out if your hardware
will support Vista. This to me is an outrage and, in my humble opinion, a big mistake of the Microsoft marketing department.
You would think that they would allow you to run the Upgrade Advisor tool and have it let you know that you would need to purchase
the full version, then still report on your hardware support for Vista. So, what are your options? Well, option one is to
upgrade your Windows 2000 computer to XP, run Upgrade Advisor, evaluate your options and choose your Vista upgrade.
Option 2 is to manually analyze your current computer hardware based on the requirements from Microsoft, decide on a
flavor of Vista, purchase the full version and go for it.Either way, Microsoft has made this difficult and costly.

Flavors of Vista - Picking the right edition.

There are a total of six flavors of Vista to choose from... yes six. The top two are for enterprise customers and require
volume license agreements. For home and small business, there are four flavors to choose from. They are Starter, Home Basic,
Home Premium, and Business. I will not go into detail of each flavor so please look up a comparison chart to choose the one
that is right for you. I will however, let you know that only the Home Premium, Business and Enterprise editions contain
the Aero Glass graphics support. If you are able to run the Upgrade Advisor tool, it is the best method to choose the correct
edition because it will match each edition to your hardware capabilities and guide you on upgrades that may be needed.

WDDM drivers and graphic cards for the Aero interface

Here is one of the biggest gotchas! With most of the Vista hype surrounding the awesome graphics capabilities, this is the
area to pay close attention to when considering an upgrade. In order to run the Aero Graphics, your computer must support
a graphics card that will use a WDDM (Windows Vista Display Driver Model) which is a new technology that has never been required
in previous operating systems. This is how they archive the new dazzling graphics. None of my current computers have WDDM graphics
driver support and therefore would not support Aero. All of my computers are fairly high end Dell machines purchased within
the last three years. So, if the Aero support is important to you, check this out carefully!

Multiple Monitors

Another Aero Interface pitfall. If your currently run multiple monitors with multiple video cards, watch out! Aero is even more
picky about the hardware and drivers for multiple cards. Even Microsoft warns about this configuration because under Vista Aero
it is so problem prone. The recommended configuration is a single video card with multiple output, that is of course WDDM capable
and supports the minimum requirements... see below.

Other hardware considerations

The the basic flavors of Vista, the hardware required is fairly low:

* A modern processor of at lease 800mhz

* 512mb or system memory (RAM)

* A graphics card that is DirectX 9 capable.

This is not a problem for most any computer purchased in the last four or five years.

The Vista Premium Ready computer requires the following:

* 1ghz 32bit or 64bit processor

* 1gb or system memory (RAM)

* A graphics card capable of DirectX 9 with a WDDM driver, 128mb graphics memory (minimum), pixel shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.

These requirements are not so hard to meet with the exception of the graphics card. Most of your basic home desktop computers
will not meet these requirements, so please do your homework and make sure you have the proper hardware support before paying
the premium price for the premium flavors of Vista!

If purchasing a new computer to run Vista, you can look for a "Windows Vista Capable PC" branded computer, but this does not
mean that is capable of the Premium features of Aero graphics. It simply means that it will be capable to provide the
"core experiences" of Vista. Again, do your homework.

You can buy a new computer that says it qualifies for an "Express Upgrade to Windows Vista". This is a good option if you are in
the market for a new computer. Just find out what flavor of Vista that you will end up with after the upgrade. Be aware that
this is mostly a free upgrade, but there may be some fees involved so check with your PC supplier.

Windows Vista and Picture Metadata - Watch out!

2009-02-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

Microsoft wants to make it easy to label photos with metadata - information such as where the picture was taken and who's in it - but you better be careful before you use the company's software for doing so.

Windows Vista and the Microsoft Photo Info tool can cause problems with metadata or the image itself.

According to one Microsoft Knowledge Base article, "When you edit the properties of a photo to add metadata to that photo in Windows Vista, the software for the digital camera may no longer recognize the metadata that is automatically added to the photo by the digital camera."

Tagging the raw files through Windows Vista or the Microsoft Photo Info tool after the codec is installed appears to cause these files to become unreadable in other applications, such as Adobe Photoshop," Microsoft has said in a a frequently asked-questions list for the Photo Info software.

Microsoft is letting camera manufacturers supply processing software that Vista can employ when users want to open or print raw files. Nikon released its raw-image support in January, and Sony and Olympus followed suit on Wednesday.

Another alert regards using Photo Info to change metadata on NEF images - the "raw" photos directly from the cameras' image sensors. "Microsoft has received reports of compatibility issues with Nikon NEF files after installing version 1.0 of Nikon's raw codec posted in January.

Vista users can find the raw image software through the operating systems "check for updates" feature built into the Photo Gallery software.

Windows Vista Top 10 Tips and Tricks

2009-02-12T20:45:00.002-08:00

1. Power button default action

The default action for the Power button on the start menu in Windows Vista is Sleep, which isn?t necessarily useful for everybody. You can configure this setting easily by using the advanced power settings panel, which is a little tricky to get to normally, but we?ll take the shortcut. Open a command prompt (type cmd into the start menu search bar), and then type in the following: powercfg.cpl,1. You could also take the long route (Control Panel Power Options Change Plan Settings Change Advanced Power Settings) Once you get to this dialog, browse down as shown to ?Power buttons and lid?

From here, you can change the options:

Power button action - Changes the hardware power button action
Start menu power button - Changes the power button on the Start Menu

You can change the power button to either Sleep, Hibernate or Shut Down, or even nothing for the hardware power button.

2. Hide Desktop Icon Text on Windows Vista

Some icons are just obvious enough that nobody should need text below them to tell them what the icon is for. A good example of this is the icon for Internet Explorer. We?re all really used to it by now, and the text just makes it ugly. Just right-click on the shortcut, and choose Rename. Now hold down the Alt key and type in 255 on the keypad to the right of the keyboard. You can?t use the number keys right above the keyboard, they won?t work. If you have a laptop, you can turn on numlock and then use the little number keys next to the regular letters. (You know you always wondered what they were for)

For the first shortcut on the desktop, a simple Alt+255 will do. For the next shortcut, you?ll have to enter the combination twice (Alt+255, Alt+255). For the third, 3 times? you get the idea. The way this works is that the Alt+255 character is blank, so the shortcut filename is actually just named with a character that is completely blank. Since you can?t have two shortcuts or files named the exact same thing, the second shortcut will have to be named with two blank characters.

Now we have a sweet looking icon on the desktop, with no bothersome text beneath it. If you use this tip to rename a folder, you will not be able to rename the folder back using the right-click rename. I?m not sure why this is. What you?ll have to do is open a command prompt and change directory into the containing folder (For instance, the desktop folder), and run this command: ren ?Alt+255? ?NewFolderName? You will need to actually type the Alt+255 characters where illustrated in the command. It will appear as a space. Note that the Recycle Bin icon won?t work this way.

3. Enable Hidden BootScreen in Windows Vista

The Windows Vista BootScreen is pointless, but Microsoft decided to hide a more visually appealing boot screen that can easily be enabled with very little trouble. I?m not sure why they didn?t make the boot screen better.

1) Press Win+R, type msconfig and press Enter.

2) If User Account Control prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.

3) In the "System Configuration" window, click on the Boot tab.

4) Select your Windows Vista installation and under "Boot options", check "No GUI boot". Press OK.

5) In the dialog that appears, check "Don?t show this message again", and then click on Restart.

6) Your computer will now reboot, and you will see the Aurora boot screen with text that says "Starting Windows Vista".

Note: You may get a Windows Defender error on the next startup. You can enable the system config utility using the tray icon and this error will go away.

4. Fix for COM Surrogate Has Stopped Working Error in Vista

If you?ve been getting the error COM Surrogate has stopped working whenever you browse folders containing Divx avi files, it looks like the latest Divx update to codec version 6.5 fixes the issue, but it also seems to remove the thumbnails. If you want to upgrade, just use the divx update checker to grab the new version. Looks like it?s finally fixed, at least the error message is now gone, although I really wish they would have just gotten the thumbnails working instead.

If you are using Nero, you will need to update to version 7.7.5.1 to fix the problem. I think this is the source of the error for most people.
If you?ve upgraded Nero and Divx and still have the problem, you can try renaming the file C:Program FilesCommon FilesAheadDSFilterNeVideo.ax to NeVideo.ax.bak This will break Nero Showtime, however.

5. Stop an Application from Running at Startup in Windows Vista

Back in the old days, there were a lot of places an application could hook itself to run at startup. You had to check the registry in more than one place, as well as your start menu. With Windows Vista, there?s a built-in panel that handles all that for you. To quickly get to this panel, you can open Control Panel, and then type ?startup? into the search box. The link for ?Stop a program from running at startup? shows up immediately. You could have also opened Windows Defender and fooled around with the menus until you find the right spot, but this seems quicker to me. Now you can see the Windows Defender screen that lets you manage the startup programs. You can choose to Remove or just Disable any startup item using this panel, as well as lots of other useful information so that you can see what each item is.

6. Emptying Windows Vista Temp Files Directory

Windows Vista Disk Cleanup wizard is really not all that bad, but I did find a small problem with it? It doesn?t fully empty your temp folder. It only allows you to delete temporary files that haven?t been modified in a week. If you?ve recently done a lot of editing or something that generates large temporary files, you may want to manually clean up. Just type in %TEMP% into the start menu search box, and hit enter. You?ll immediate be taken to the temporary files folder, where you can delete whatever you feel like.

7. Disable User Account Control(UAC) For Administrators Only

If you can?t stand the User Account Control prompts, but you?d still like to retain a little bit of security, you can disable it for Administrator accounts only. What we?ll be doing is actually changing Windows Vista to automatically elevate the privilege level for administrators without prompting. The nice thing about doing it this way is that regular users as well as Internet Explorer still run as regular users, and would still use the normal security mechanisms. To configure this setting on Windows Vista Business and Ultimate, you can use the Local Security Policy configuration.

Just type in secpol.msc into the Start menu search box and hit enter.
Now browse down to Local Policies Security Options
Find the following in the list: ?User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode? and double-click on it.
Change the setting to ?Elevate without prompting?. You should be all done.

This is an easier method that you can use to do the same thing from the GUI interface.

Open up Control Panel, and type in user account into the search box.
You?ll see the link for ?Turn User Account Control (UAC) on or off?. Click it.
Uncheck the box, and reboot your computer. You should be done with obnoxious prompts!

8. Using Windows Vista System Restore

Windows Vista has a feature called System Restore that automatically backs up registry and system files whenever you install new software or drivers. This feature is useful when you install evil software that makes your computer run really slow. But don?t worry, System Restore won?t remove Windows Vista.

Using System Restore in Windows Vista

There are two places that you can use the system restore feature from. From within Windows, you can just type restore into the Start menu search box, and you?ll immediately see System Restore at the top of the start menu, or you can type rstrui into the search box and hit enter. Your choice. You will immediate see a screen where you can choose to roll back the system to the last restore point. You can select ?Recommended restore?, and just click next, or you can choose a different restore point. If you do choose a different restore point, you will see a list of restore points that you can choose from. Click one of them, and you will have to confirm and then restart your computer to roll the system back. If your system won?t boot If you can?t even get into windows, you can boot off the installation dvd, and choose the ?Repair your computer? option on the lower left hand side. Click next on the next screen. Now choose System Restore from the System Recovery dialog. It will take a few seconds to come up, and you will see the same screen that you would see in Windows. Click next, and on the next screen select the drive that your copy of Windows Vista is installed on. Click Finish, and Vista will roll back to the previous restore point. Really pretty simple stuff. I absolutely recommend keeping the system restore feature on in Vista !

9. Verify the Integrity of Windows Vista System Files Windows Vista includes a utility that will scan your system for corrupt, changed or missing system files. Running this from the command prompt is much easier than booting off the dvd into repair mode. To run this utility, you will need to open a command prompt in administrator mode. You can do that by right clicking the Command Prompt in the list and choose "Run as Administrator" Once you have an administrator command prompt open, you can run the utility by using the following syntax: SFC [/SCANNOW] [/VERIFYONLY] [/SCANFILE=] [/VERIFYFILE=] [/OFFWINDIR= /OFFBOOTDIR=] The most useful command is just to scan immediately, which will scan and attempt to repair any files that are changed or corrupted. You can run that command with this command: sfc /scannow

10. Disable Hibernation & delete the Hibernation file

Windows places a file on your hard drive that it uses when your computer goes into hibernation mode. If you do not use hibernation mode, or your computer does not properly support it, you may want to disable hibernation and clear the file off your hard drive to free up some space (the file will use as much space as you have in physical memory, so if you have 1GB of RAM, it?s going to use 1GB of your hard drive space).

Disable Hibernation:

1. Click Start, All Programs, and then right click on "Command Prompt".

2. From the context menu click on "Run as administrator".

3. If User Account Control prompts you to allow the action, click on Continue.

4. In the command prompt window, type "powercfg ?h off" (without the quotes).

5. Close the Command Prompt window.

Delete the Hibernation File:

1. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and then click "Disk Cleanup".

2. If prompted to choose a drive, select the drive in which Windows Vista is installed on to and press OK.

3. Disk Cleanup will scan the hard drive and present you with a list of options.

4. Check "Hibernation File Cleaner", and then click OK.

5. When asked "Are you sure you want to permanently delete these files?" click on the Delete Files button .

3 Things You Need To Know Before Installing Windows Vista

2009-02-12T20:45:00.001-08:00

The new generation of Microsoft Windows known as Vista was released earlier this year. Most new computers bought since the end of January will come preloaded with Windows Vista, but there are many people with older computers that will want to upgrade from Windows XP. Before attempting to upgrade, there are several things you need to know.

First, make sure your computer is able to run Vista. Microsoft has a program that will scan your computer and give you a report about anything that is not compatible or not fast enough to run the new version of Windows.

This upgrade checking tool comes with Windows Vista upgrade packages, but you can also download it from the internet so you can check your computer before spending any money on Vista.

You can get more information about the Vista upgrade tool at www.microsoft.com/vista.

Second, check the report you get from Microsoft's upgrade tool closely. There are some features of Vista that won't run on all computers, even if they are able to run it.

You should pay close attention to the video card report in particular. Older video cards may not support the new "Aero" interface in Vista, which is one of the major new features.

If your video card doesn't work with Aero, you can still run Vista (in fact, the Basic version doesn't include Aero) but you'll be missing out on a lot of the new capabilities.

If your video card isn't up to the task but the rest of your computer is Vista ready, you can upgrade to a newer card that will support it without having to buy a whole new computer.

Lastly, if you're planning to install the upgrade version of Vista, keep in mind that you can't do a clean install with it.

What is a clean install, you ask? This is when you format your hard drive, wiping everything clean that's on there now and installing Windows from scratch.

With past versions of Windows, the upgrade version would allow you to do a clean install as long as you had an original disk from the previous version. It would ask you to insert the disk during the installation for verification.

This ability is no longer an option and if you start with a clean hard drive, you'll either need a full version of Vista or you'll have to install an older version of Windows first so you can upgrade.

Safe Way To Disable User Account Control In Windows Vista

2009-02-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

User Account Control (UAC) is a feature in Windows Vista that can help prevent unauthorized changes to your computer. UAC does this by asking you for permission or an administrator password before performing actions that could potentially affect your computer's operation or that change settings that affect other users. When you see a UAC message, read it carefully, and then make sure the name of the action or program that's about to start is one that you intended to start. By verifying these actions before they start, UAC can help prevent malicious software (malware) and spyware from installing or making changes to your computer without permission.

In Windows Vista, UAC and its Admin Approval Mode are enabled by default. When UAC is enabled, local administrator accounts run as standard user accounts. This means that when a member of the local Administrators group logs on, they run with their administrative privileges disabled. This is the case until they attempt to run an application or task that has an administrative token. When a member of the local Administrators group attempts to start such an application or task, they are prompted to consent to running the application as elevated.

The following procedures step you through the tasks of disabling Admin Approval Mode, disabling UAC from prompting for credentials to install applications, and changing the elevation prompt behavior.

Disable Admin Approval Mode
(Use the following procedure to disable Admin Approval Mode.)

To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.

To disable Admin Approval Mode

1. Click Start orb, click All Programs, click Accessories, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.

2. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then click Security Options.

3. Scroll down and double-click User Account Control: Run all users, including administrators, as standard users.

4. From the User Account Control: Run all users, including administrators, as standard users Properties settings box, click Disabled.

Disable User Account Control from prompting for credentials to install applications
(Use the following procedure to disable UAC from prompting for credentials to install applications.)

To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.

To disable UAC from prompting for credentials to install applications

1. Click Start orb, click All Programs, click Accessories, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.

2. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then Security Options.

3. Scroll down and double-click User Account Control: Elevate on application installs.

4. From the User Account Control: Elevate on application installs Properties settings box, click Disabled.

Change the elevation prompt behavior
(Use the following procedure to change the elevation prompt behavior for UAC.)

To perform the following procedure, you must be logged into a client computer as a local administrator.

To change the elevation prompt behavior

1. Click Start orb, click Accessories, click Run, type secpol.msc in the Open text box, and then click OK.

2. From the Local Security Settings console tree, click Local Policies, and then Security Options.

3. Scroll down to and double-click User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators or User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users.

4. From the drop-down menu, select one of the following settings:

-No prompt

-Prompt for credentials (this setting requires user name and password input before an application or task will run as elevated)

-Prompt for consent (this is the default setting for administrators only)

Software That Will Best Run On My Windows Vista Computer

2009-02-06T01:20:00.000-08:00

This is a very difficult question to answer as Windows Vista, being recently launched, still is in the testing stage as far as the end users are concerned. There are a lot of reports on incompatibilities with hardware as well as software are concerned. A recurring problem with all operating system upgrades is that when changes are made in the core architecture of the new operating system programs that rely on the earlier design of the operating system are bound to complain if they decide to work at all.

One class of software that will always conflict with a new operating system is the disk utilities, anti virus programs and hardware drivers. These programs come with deep hooks in the operating system. When you upgrade, just resign yourself to the fact that you'll need to replace them. Almost all of the other programs such as MS. Office will work just fine with Vista and if they decide to go ballistic then there is nothing to worry about Windows Vista does have some tricks up it?s sleeve to make errant programs work. So if you have a program that is playing up, go to the Compatibility box that lets you try running older applications in old-school Windows environments.

There are some downloads available on the Internet for Vista . These include iPod software that can capture music and video over the net and transfer it to your iPod. The popular shareware for DVD to iPod is the Alicesoft DVD to iPod PSP 3GP PPC MP4 Platinum software. Other third party shareware programs include the Batch it ultra. This is imaging software with multiple functions for your multimedia software for Vista . Apart from this there are lists of software that work well with Windows Vista and can be found on sites such as iexbeta the list is unending and contains software information from anti virus to CD writing. Many people are still waiting it out before upgrading to Vista ? they will rather stick with the tried and tested XP for now.

Windows Vista - Which Version Of Vista Best Suited For My Needs

2009-02-06T01:03:00.000-08:00

Windows Vista has been designed for the use of people ranging from the student or housewife who need an Operating system that enables them to just browse the Internet and send and receive mails to people who are in highly technical professions. There are four different versions of Windows Vista to choose from. This does bring with it as dilemma of which version one should invest in. Each of the six versions has different functionality and this raises the risk of buying the wrong version of Windows Vista. Buy too low a version and you will not have the functionality you might require a while down the line.

Even though Vista has been hard pushed to the shelves by Microsoft there seems to be a lot of apprehension in the market among people when it comes to upgrading to Windows Vista. Vista is still in it?s infant stages and might take a while, like XP, to catch on. However, if you are deciding on which of the four versions to buy then you will do good to go for the Premium version for home use. This version has a lot of multimedia features that are present in XP but are revamped to the limit. The four versions available are:

Home Basic
Home Premium
Business
Ultimate

Now it is anybody?s guess that the first three versions of Vista will lack some of the features that the ultimate version of Windows Vista will have. In fact, the ultimate version will have all the combined features of the first three versions and will naturally cost more. So if you just want an operating system that is fire walled and offers some protection from virus attacks over the net then go for the home basic version. If you want to make DVD? and movies then get the premium version. The business version ironically leaves out the features such as DVD maker, Data protection and photos and entertainment. However, these features are easily available in third party packs. So if you are hell bent on upgrading to Vista if for nothing else but a change of looks, then go for the Ultimate version - Just to be safe.

Windows Vista - Hardware Compatibility Issues

2009-02-06T01:02:00.002-08:00

Early up-graders to Windows Vista are reporting annoyance by the loads of software and hardware incompatibilities coming to the fore as they use Windows Vista. For the record the Redmond, Wash., software giant launched Vista and a companion update called Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update to the market on Jan 30. Seems like they expected a lot of issues with the system because they made sure that Vista patches were available on the net even before the Compact disks of the operating system left the factory.

That update, KB929427, makes good some of the more challenging application incompatibilities, but the nightmare is far from over, for the early bird upgraders. There is nothing new about compatibility issues when a new operating system is launched, however, Vista is not only has a number of incompatibilities with existing applications but also lacks many drivers for critical hardware components and hardware peripherals. Support for Vista hardware is compounded by the fact that most vendors have not created drivers of their hardware that is compatible for Vista making support more of a headache. This is understood when it comes to peripherals such as printers and scanners but so far as critical hardware components such as hard drives, chipset controllers and video cards are concerned the lack of compatibility will crash the system. The manufacturers of primary components of the computer hardware system are just not ready with their wares to support Vista.

Early adopters of Vista have the following problems to contend with:

They will face a drastic lack of available drivers vendors leading to conflicts in applications.
New peripheral hardware components will lack compatible Vista drivers and the old components drivers will simply refuse to work in most cases.
New security feature often flags existing applications as suspicious and interrupts service
The OS automatically recommends which Vista versions is best for each PC's configuration. This will cause small businesses to download different versions of Vista.

SO in the ultimate analysis, Vista may seem attractive in it?s packaging but it still has far to go.