Computer Truths (Tips & Tricks)

All kind of restrictions for windows XP and 2003

In this tutorial, I'll tell u some interesting restrictions, which can be made in XP/2003. Like u can restrict Display properties, taskbar properties, folder options, etc.

Though many of u may know all of them or a few of them already, but I think it would be good to share them with u.

All tricks are based on Registry editing.
So I'll tell the keyname and the value, that u hv to create for the restriction! If the key is not present, then simply create it.

So here we go:

1.) Restrict Display Properties:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System

create DWORD value NoDispCPL and set its value to 1


2.) Restrict Taskbar Properties:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoSetTaskbar and set its value to 1


3.) Restrict Folder Options:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoFolderOptions and set its value to 1


4.) Restrict Locking/Unlocking the taskbar:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value LockTaskbar and set its value to 1


5.) Restrict Active Desktop:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoActiveDesktop and set its value to 1


6.) Restrict adding/deleting items from Toolbars:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoToolbarCustomize and set its value to 1


7.) Restrict adding/deleting toolbars:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoBandCustomize and set its value to 1


8.) Restrict right-click in Start Menu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoChangeStartMenu and set its value to 1


9.) Restrict Desktop Cleanup Wizard:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoDesktopCleanupWizard and set its value to 1


10.) Restrict notification at low disk space:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoLowDiskSpaceChecks and set its value to 1


11.) Restrict Taskbar Context Menu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

create DWORD value NoTrayContextMenu and set its value to 1


12.) Restrict Programs to run:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun

create String value with any name, like 1 and set its value to the program's EXE file.

e.g., If u want to restrict msconfig, then create a String value 1 and set its value to msconfig.exe. If u want to restrict more programs, then simply create more String values with names 2, 3 and so on and set their values to the program's exe.


13.) Restrict Registry Editor:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System

create DWORD value DisableRegistryTools and set its value to 1


14.) Restrict Task Manager:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System

create DWORD value DisableTaskMgr and set its value to 1


15.) Restrict Drives in My Computer:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

In right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoViewOnDrive and change its value as following:

3 : To Restrict A and B drives only.
4 : To Restrict C drive only.
7 : To Restrict A, B, and C drives only.
8 : To Restrict D drive only.
F : To Restrict A, B, C, and D drives only.
03FFFFFF : To Restrict all drives.

And if you want more specific restrictions, like you want to restrict a combination of other drives, then you can use decimal no. instead of hexadecimal no. Following is a list for all drives decimal no.:

A: 1
B: 2
C: 4
D: 8
E: 16
F: 32
G: 64
H: 128
I: 256
J: 512
K: 1024
L: 2048
M: 4096
N: 8192
O: 16384
P: 32768
Q: 65536
R: 131072
S: 262144
T: 524288
U: 1048576
V: 2097152
W: 4194304
X: 8388608
Y: 16777216
Z: 33554432
ALL: 67108863

So if you want to disable a combination of drives, just sum their numbers and give the same value to NoViewOnDrive. e.g., for restricting CDEF drives, give the value: 4+8+16+32 = 60

NOTE: You can also hide the drives using NoDrives DWORD value. The location and its value remain same as the above trick.


16.) Restrict New option in context menu:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shellex\Con textMenuHandlers\New

And delete the value of Default, e.g., empty it.


17.) Restrict Send To in context menu:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\Con textMenuHandlers\Send To

And delete the value of Default, e.g., empty it.


18.) Restrict Balloon Tips:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create DWORD value EnableBalloonTips and set its value to 0


19.) Restrict Users to enable New XP StartMenu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create DWORD value NoSimpleStartMenu and set its value to 1


20.) Restrict Command Prompt:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Wind ows\System

Create DWORD value DisableCMD and set its value to 2


21.) Restrict Writing to USB Drives:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contro l\StorageDevicePolicies

Create DWORD value WriteProtect and set its value to 1


22.) Restrict RUN in New XP StartMenu:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create DWORD value NoRun and set its value to 1

1 comments | Posted in » Windows XP  

Recover Root Password

A common problem faced by new users ( and sometimes even experienced users ) is not knowing what to do when they lose their password. Even worse, when they lose the password for 'root'. Luckily, there are several solutions to help you recover access to your system.

Root Password - Easy Method:

The simplest way to recover from a lost password is to boot into single user mode.

If you are using LILO, at the LILO boot prompt (graphical LILO users can press Ctrl-x to exit the graphical screen and go to the boot: prompt), enter:

Code:

linux single

This will make you the "root" user without asking for a password. Once the system has booted, you can change the root password using the password command:

Code:

passwd
The instructions for GRUB users are similar. Press 'e' at the GRUB prompt to select boot parameters. Select the line for the kernel you want to boot, and go to the end of it. Add "single" as a separate word, and then press ENTER to exit the edit mode. Once back at the GRUB screen, press "b" to boot into single user mode.

If for whatever reason, the above solution doesn't work for you, there is another option. Boot using a so called "Live CD" Linux distribution, such as Knoppix. For the purposes of this example, it will be assumed that the user is using Knoppix.
After booting up from the Knoppix CD, go to a terminal and su to root (no password is required). After your priviledges have been escalated, issue the following commands (be sure to replace each /hda1 with your own root ('/') partition):

Code:

mount -o dev,rw /mnt/hda1 cd /mnt/hda1/etc

Once you are into your system /etc directory, you can use a text-editor (such as vim, nano, pico, etc.) to edit the /etc/shadow file where the password is stored. Various information about root and user accounts is kept in this plain-text file, but we are only concerned with the password portion.

For example, the /etc/shadow entry for the "root" account may look something like this:

Code:

root:$1$aB7mx0Licb$CTbs2RQrfPHkz5Vna0.fnz8H68tB.:/
10852:0:99999:7:::
(The '/' indicates a line continuation)


Now, using your favorite editor (I'll use vim) delete the password hash (the green text).

Code:

vim shadow

After you've edited this field, it should look like this:

Code:

root::10852:0:99999:7:::

Now save the file and change back to the root directory and unmount the system root partition (don't forget to change the /hda1) as follows:

Code:

cd / umount /mnt/hda1

Now reboot the computer.

Once the computer has booted and you're at the login prompt, type "root" and when asked for the password just press ENTER (entering no password). After a successful login, you need to set the new password for root using the following command:

Code:

passwd

No Comment | Posted in » Linux  

Setting up RAID 0+1 (Great Tutorial)

You're sold. You want a RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks/drives). Maybe you've witnessed the phenomenal speed of a RAID 0, or perhaps you want the safety net of immediate data backup that a RAID 1 offers. In any case, you're ready to take the plunge. (See other "How To Install" articles for more details on RAIDs 0
and 1.)

But hang on. What about the risks of a naked RAID 0? And isn't a RAID 1 no faster than a single hard drive? Moreover, you'd rather spend your money on bigger hard drives than on an add-in RAID controller card, so you want a RAID with support built into a motherboard. The answer might be RAID 0+1.

You need at least four hard drives to make a RAID 0+1, which is why few people do it. ( NOTE: Intel's Matrix Storage Technology, built into its 915G, 915P Express, and 925X Express chipsets, provides RAID 0+1's primary benefits in a different manner. Using only two drives, MST divides part of the array into a RAID 0 for speedy app loading and the remaining part into a RAID 1 for personal data safety.) RAID 0+1 is out of most enthusiasts' price range, yet it's not efficient, scalable, or fault-tolerant enough for critical business uses. Out of those four drives, RAID 0+1 loses half the storage space to backup data. Furthermore, it also necessitates a computer case that can hold four drives and keep them cool, not to mention a power supply with enough oomph to run them all.

Don't confuse RAID 0+1 with RAID 10, by the way. A RAID 10 has a striped pair of drives like RAID 0+1, but it backs these up to a pair of mirrored hard drives for a total of three copies of all data. RAID 10 is very reliable, but it loses a lot of capacity keeping all that backup data. For most desktop users, it makes more sense to use more of their drives' space in a different type of RAID and make regular backups to DVD or tape.

Here's how we almost succeeded in making a RAID 0+1 PC for less than $1,000. A few component shuffles from out-of-stock or defective parts put us over that mark, but we've included tips on bringing the price down.

Background

Four 160GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) hard drives seemed perfect for this ambitious RAID0+1 system. Fortified with 7,200rpm spindle speeds and ample 8MB caches (found in model 6Y160M0), these zippy hard drives cost us $105 each.

The $420 hard drive bill forced us to look for less expensive hardware with great features. We bought an Athlon XP 2000+ (a 2500+ cost just $22 more). We also bought a motherboard that ostensibly supported RAID 0+1, although it was a mystery just what type of RAID we'd created until we installed Windows and a RAID monitoring utility. The DFI NFII Ultra Infinity motherboard's box and docs all claimed RAID 0+1 support from its Silicon Image 3114 controller chip, but the preboot SiI RAID utility said that it offered RAID 10 instead.

The final necessity was an Antec True430W power supply, which would offer enough amperage on its 12V rail (26A) to be able to start the computer with all those hard drives. The remainder of our PC parts reflects the bare minimum hardware available at low prices.

Two changes could make this system ring up for less than $1,000, which was our original intention. One is to use 120GB drives, which would have saved us about $52 as of this writing. The other is to use a lighter graphics card, such as the $43 Radeon 9200 SE we originally purchased but had to return. Together, these two modifications will net you a $982 RAID 0+1 PC, not including tax or shipping.

The Build

Our RaidMax case came with a 350W power supply with 10A on the 12V rail, which we knew wouldn't be strong enough to fire up all the hardware we'd bought. We unscrewed it and pulled it from the case. However, we didn't install the new Antec power supply just yet, as we'd learned from working with similar systems that we'd need the room when we installed the CPU's heatsink.

Next, we placed the case on its side. We installed standoffs in the case's motherboard panel using our DFI NFII's silver-lined mounting holes as our guide. After fitting the included chromed I/O (input/output) shield, or port plate, to the hole in the back of the case, we screwed the mainboard into place in the RaidMax case.

RAID 0+1

LEFT: A RAID 0+1 stripes
partial data to a pair of hard drives for speed, like a RAID 0. It also mirrors that same data to another striped RAID 0 for redundancy, like a RAID 1.

Capacity: Half of
A + B + C + D

RIGHT: A PC moves data to/from one unRAIDed hard drive at a time. Data isn't backed up, but one drive's failure won't affect the others and no capacity is lost.

Capacity: A + B + C + D

We lifted the CPU socket lever to 90 degrees, dropped the Athlon XP 2000+ into place (it will only fit facing one direction), and snapped the lever back down parallel to the socket. Next, we unwrapped the retail CPU's heatsink/fan combo, making sure not to smudge its preapplied thermal putty. The bottom of the heatsink had a recess meant to face the high part of the CPU socket, so like the processor, the heatsink could only face one way. Holding the sink at a slight angle, we snapped one end of its metal clip over the socket's tabs. Next, we set the sink on the Athlon chip and cautiously used a well-fitting, flat screwdriver to press the other end of the metal clip down over that side's tabs, locking the sink down. Finally, we connected the fan cable to the CPU FAN header on the motherboard.

Power to the PC. Now we could install the Antec power supply. This particular Antec came with its main harness neatly sleeved in black mesh, plus a large intake fan that fortuitously ended up right above our CPU. We snapped its 20-pin and 4-pin power leads into the motherboard, turning the connectors until they fit. The Antec also came with a couple of SATA power connectors. A few SATA hard drives require this type of power coupling; more often, they accept either SATA or typical 4-pin Molex connectors. If this describes your hard drive, use one or the other power lead type (never both).

Our matching DIMMs (dual in-line memory modules) of DDR400 (double-data-rate 400) SDRAM (synchronous dynamic random-access memory) from MemoryPRO went in next. The RAM could only go in one way, so we pushed them into the DIMM slots with moderate finger pressure on their top edges. We made sure the white end retainers pivoted up to fit in each stick's notches.

Next, we installed our Radeon 9200 graphics card, screwing its bracket down and flipping up the retention lever on its AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) slot. We attached our monitor's video cable to the rear of the Radeon card and then followed the DFI users manual to connect the front-panel LEDs (light-emitting diodes)and switches to the mainboard. These can be tricky, so use a flashlight, mirror, or magnifying glass if you need to.

Finally, we ran power cords to the PC and monitor and turned the system on. We knew it wouldn't get far without an OS or boot diskette, but at least we found out that the hardware worked. We pressed DEL to enter its BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) Setup program, which you should always check when you're using a new motherboard. We set the clock and date; rearranged the boot devices to Floppy, CD-ROM, and SCSI (BIOSes often consider SATA drives as SCSI [Small Computer System Interface] devices for system configuration purposes), in that order; and set the Init Display First field to AGP instead of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect). We saved our changes, exited, and shut down the PC.

Drive time. We stood the computer on its feet again. Then, from top to bottom, we installed our drives in the front bays of the case. We had to pop out two plastic panels in the case's fascia for our CD-RW drive and floppy drive and then secured the drives in their bays with four screws each. If you use fewer screws, especially on optical and hard drives, you run the risk of letting uneven vibrations affect the drives' error rates, transfer speeds, and possibly lifespan.

Moving down to our four hard drives, we handled them gently as we slipped them into the lower 3.5-inch bays and bolted them in place. We had already installed an 80mm case fan in front of the drive cage, first flattening a raised section in the middle of the panel with a bolt, nut, and some washers. With so many hard drives and a hot motherboard chipset like our NFII Ultra Infinity's Nforce2, we knew we had to add at least one more fan to the RaidMax case's side fan (which we flipped to blow inward instead of outward).

Once our drives were snug, we connected data and power cables to them. The CD-RW used an ATA/133 cable included with the mainboard to attach to an IDE header on the board, as well as a smaller audio cable to reach the board's distant CD audio input header. The floppy drive took a smaller power connector from our Antec supply. Its data cable, also supplied by DFI, had a twist that went toward the drive and a red stripe that faced Pin 1 on the drive, which is marked with a triangle. Use the end connectors of a floppy drive cable; the middle one is for a second diskette drive (B.

Finally, we added either SATA or 4-pin Molex power leads to each hard drive (never both). Being careful not to break any fragile SATA ports, we then ran SATA data cables from the drives to the four ports on the DFI motherboard. We were now ready to create our RAID, install Windows, and test the monster we'd just built.

RAID creation. We started the PC. At the prompt a few seconds later, we pressed CTRL-S to start Silicon Image's RAID utility. We chose Create RAID Set and then RAID 10. (This eventually proved to be a typo for RAID 0+1, although we didn't find that out until later.) Note that if your particular motherboard doesn't recognize your USB (Universal Serial Bus) keyboard or mouse in the utilities that load before Windows, such as this one, fit the device with a USB-PS/2 (Personal System/2) adapter and restart the system. You might also have to press NUM LOCK before you can type numerals on the right-hand keypad.

At this point, instead of choosing Auto Configuration, we selected Manual Configuration to get a better understanding of the process. We decided on a 16KB chunk size. Chunk is another term for allocation unit or cluster, which defines the smallest unit of storage the hard drives will use to store data. A 16KB size would make the drive speedier than would 4KB or 8KB chunks, yet less wasteful of storage space than would 64KB or 128KB clusters. As an example of that waste, if you saved a 5KB file on a drive with 128KB clusters, it would still take 128KB of space to save it, wasting 123KB.

Here's how we flattened an area in front of our hard drive bays to accept an 80mm case fan. We also had good results prying on the bolt with the box end of the wrench.

Next, we pressed ENTER to select the first, second, third, and fourth drives of the RAID set. We simply chose our drives in the order they were listed. None of our hard drives had Windows or any other data on them yet, so we selected Create Without Data Copy. Choose the Create With Data Copy option if you're converting an existing system to a RAID 0+1 and you don't want to reinstall your OS and apps. We continued and found ourselves back at the main menu, the proud owners of . . . an SiI RAID 0+1 array.

Still, with no way of knowing if we actually had a RAID 10 or 0+1 on our hands, we slipped the Windows XP CD into the drive and pressed CTRL-E to exit the RAID utility. The system rebooted into Windows Setup. A few seconds later, we had to press F6 to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver (if you miss your chance, reboot and try again). When Setup asked us, we inserted DFI's SATA RAID driver diskette and directed Setup to the driver for WinXP.

Later, when Setup showed us the space available on our RAID, it was 312GB, or roughly half of the 640GB we would have had without RAIDing our four 160GB drives. This supported the RAID 0+1 theory, we thought. We set up two 10GB partitions for Windows and our apps and then a third with 292GB for our data. Next, we installed WinXP on the first partition, choosing the NTFS file system. We had to eject the RAID driver diskette as WinXP Setup restarted the computer, and we also had to tell Setup twice to use those drivers without Microsoft certification.

The plot thickens. Once we made it through typing in the product key and selecting a few network and clock settings, we reached WinXP's Desktop. We immediately clicked Start, Control Panel, Switch To Classic View, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and Disk Management to verify our RAID type and format our partitions. The RAID showed up as one drive, Disk 0, with about half of our drives' total capacity, 305GB. We right-clicked Disk 0 and selected Properties, which told us that Windows considered it a RAID 0+1. However, Disk Management didn't consider any of the drives fault tolerant, which was confusing. We right-clicked the E: and F: partitions in turn, formatted them with NTFS, and then exited Disk Management.

There was one more thing to check. We put the DFI motherboard's installation CD in the optical drive, clicked Tools when the GUI popped up, and chose SIL3114 RAID Utility. This installed Silicon Image's SATARaid utility, which, when launched, put a blue icon in the System Tray by the clock. We double-clicked this to open SATARaid's GUI (graphical user interface) and then clicked Set 0. SATARaid told us that we had built a RAID 0+1 after
all. We clicked the Members tab, and
it showed us that indeed we had a mirrored set of striped pairs. Case closed: RAID 0+1.

As always, refer to other "How To Install"RAID articles for further details on the components we used and how we put them together. Together these articles will give you a fairly thorough overview of multidrive PC building.

Testing

This PC's results don't compare directly to those of the RAID 0 and 1 PCs we built for other articles in our "How ToInstall" area, as those two systems had Athlon 64s and another motherboard.

One surprise on this system, though, was how fast the IOmeter scores were compared to the other PCs'. Silicon Image's 3112 was the fastest SATA controller at its introduction, so perhaps the 3114 on our DFI board holds a similar speed advantage over the VIA 8237 southbridge on our RAID 0 and 1 systems—despite the VIA's faster non-PCI pipe to a speedier CPU.

Finally, we disconnected two drives to make a RAID 0 for comparison, as reported in our "Benchmark Scores" chart. RAID 0+1 was just a hair slower than the RAID 0 champ, yet vastly safer.

Final Remarks

Despite using so many hard drives, RAID 0+1 is actually cheaper than some more efficient types of RAID because it often doesn't need a special RAID controller card, depending on the motherboard. With a good power supply and a roomy case, you could enjoy high speed without sacrificing data safety. That's having your cake and eating it, too.

No Comment | Posted in » Hardware  

Windows XP easter egg

No Comment | Posted in » Windows XP  

23 ways to speed up windows XP

Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.

1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.

The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.

Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you're a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.

Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is denied"), click the Ignore All button.

5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site.

6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch" portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support "cable select," the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer -- only its responsiveness.

14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will noticeably tax the system.

18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won't be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free.

21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.


Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.

No Comment | Posted in » Windows XP  

Ccleaner configuration for getting best results

Open CCleaner

Click Options/Advanced
In the Advanced window , tick the following:
Show prompt to backup registry issues.
Show detailed log of Internet Explorer temporary file.

Click Settings
Ensure that Automatically check for updates to cleaner is ticked.
If you wish to use the default ( fastest ) setting , ensure that the
Normal file deletion is ticked.
If you wish a more secure file deletion , mark …….
Secure file deletion and then from the box below……
Select either Simple ( 1 pass ) , DOD (3 passes) or NSA (7passes)

Now you are ready to use CCleaner…. Click…the Cleaner ( brush ) icon
Located in the upper left corner. A new window will open .

Under cleaner settings , click the Windows tab and ensure that :
Internet Explorer is ticked and all its sub entries ,with the exception of
Auto complete form history. ( If you tick this , any of your saved passwords will be lost )
Windows Explorer is ticked as well as all its sub entries.
System is ticked as well as all its sub entries.

Now ….. if you look over into the main window it will be blank with 2 buttons at the bottom , one called Analyze ( pressing it will display all the files that will be deleted ) and it is safe to delete them all.
To Delete them ….. click the Run cleaner button and you will be prompted if you wish to permanently delete these files …… click yes . You will see activity on the progress bar and the indication that the files have been deleted.

Next ……click on the ISSUES icon ( located on the left side , below the cleaner icon.
You will notice that under Issue scanning settings ……everything is checked …..leave it that way.
Now click on the Scan for Issues button located down at the bottom
Again , you will see activity on the progress bar and when it reachs 100% if you have no issues , it will display……. No issues were found ……. Or if it found issues ,
They will be displayed below. Now click on Fix selected issues and you will be asked to back up . Follow the advice and save the backup. ( You can now safely fix these issues by clicking on the Fix Selected Issues button. )
If you run into any programs which you are unable to remove by the "Normal method" ……. Going into the control panel and using the add/Remove programs feature ….. give CCleaner a try , by opening CCleaner and clicking on the Tools icon . The uninstall window will appear with a list of all the programs that are currently installed on your machine …….. scroll down and select the one you wish to remove and then click on Run uninstaller

If you wish to change any program that are set-up to run each time you restart your machine ……. Click on the Start-up button . Again , scroll to the app you wish to remove from the start-up and click …. Delete entry.

No Comment | Posted in » Windows XP  

Modifying your CD-ROM to watch DVD movies

There are two types of CD-ROM drives we can mod:
24x to 40x
40x or higher
Drives slower than 24x are too old to be modded.
24x to 40x CD ROMs
Laser Head Adjustments:
The track pitch of CDs is 1.6 microns, and the track pitch of DVDs is only 0.8 microns. The minimum length of track pits of CDs is 0.843mm, and the minimum length of track pits of DVDs is 0.293mm. That's why DVD discs can store much more data in the size of a CD.
Pinpointing this situation, we need to adjust the laser head so it can read discs with smaller track pitchs and shorter track pits. Open up the CD-ROM drive, do you see a lens on the rail? That's the laser head. On the side of the laser head, there's a screw you can adjust.
This is the key of this mod.
This screw can adjust the size of the laser beam that lands on the disc. Referring to the above, after adjusting, the laser beam should be less than 0.293mm, to suit the needs of DVD discs. So turn that screw 2-3 times. I got this number through trial and error. Mark with a pencil, in case you forget how many times you turned that screw.
Speed adjustments:
DVD-ROM drives can play DVD movies smoothly at 4x speed. If we're modding a 32x CD-ROM drive, the rotation speed is obviously too high, increasing heat, and shortening the life of the drive.
So we need to decrease the speed of it.
Most people know that power supplies can provide 5V (red wire) and 12V (yellow wire) electricity output for Molex connectors. Find the Molex connector you'll plug into the modded CD-ROM drive, cut the yellow wire or insulate it with tape, so only 5V of electricity is transferred to the CD-ROM drive. The speed of the drive is now 32 * 5/17 = 9.41x and can now fulfill our requirements.

40x or higher CD ROMs
When 40x CD-ROM drives are released, most manufacturers are already producing DVD-ROM drives. To lower cost, they use the same core as DVD-ROM drives with DVD functions disabled. What we need to do here is to re-enable the DVD function.
Open up the CD-ROM, behind the circuit board, look for a jumper that says DVD JUMP. Find a jumper to connect this jumper. Thin metal wire also works fine.
OK, so the DVD function is unlocked, but we still need to decrease the speed. Use the instructions above on how to decrase the speed of the drive.
Notes:
Modded drives cannot be detected in POST, that means you cannot use it in DOS. But once you get into Windows, the drive works fine.
Modded drives have no region code problems.
Modded drives MIGHT NOT read DVD9 discs, that's why I said you can watch most retail DVDs in the beginning

2 comments | Posted in » Windows XP  

"REAL" Formatting

What exactly is formatting and why is it necessary?

Formatting is the method of whipping your hard drive clean of previously installed / stored data. Do not think that the data is completely removed when formatting, because in fact its not. But, we do not need to cover this. When you format, you do lose everything that was previously installed, so if you have important documents, back them up!.

There are various reasons that formatting is necessary. Some may be because your computer is lagging horribly and sound and such just start failing, you have to run all sorts of tools to tweak it and ran diagnostics, but it's just not cutting it. You want it back to stock performance and everything to work correctly, so you just say screw it and reformat it. Various viruses and worms can wreak havoc and are not able to be rid of unless you format your pc. Sometimes it's necessary to completely delete the partition and re-create it, then format. As stated previously, there are methods that the more advanced users may do to dig up past data, usually just file names, but that is more then enough to tell what was previously on your hard drive disk.

What is required for formatting?
I will show you some of the tools that you should have when reformatting. This may vary, depending on what file system you have and what operating systems been previously installed.

- Win9X Boot Disk
This is used to boot up your PC into DOS for various formatting operations. The situations call for different measures. Sometimes a boot disk is a must.

- Restore CD
A restore cd comes with your new computers. They have the factory settings, drivers, OS and everything you need for your PC to be put to its factory settings. Some users may have lost this or never got one, so I will cover some optional solutions.

- Windows Operating System ( OS )
You may have bought or even burnt a copy of a windows operating system. This does not mean that your computer will install 100% complete without any problems, this is simply the basic foundation for a newly installed OS. You may be required to supply drivers and such. Read later on about this.

What if I do not have a restore or windows operating system cd?
If you are lacking everything that you need, please do not try to reformat. With that being said, let me tell you what should be done if you are supplied with efficient tools necessary for a reinstall. If you do not have a restore cd, but you have a copy of the Windows OS, then there are various steps you should take for a successful install. First, determine your PC brand, which could be Hewlett Packard, Gateway, E-Machine etc. Once you have figured this out, simply determine the model. I know that Compaq and HP have an auto-detection system to determine the settings for you, if you have this type of machine, others might too just make sure to check there official web site and look for Downloads or Support. With a manufactured pc you should be able to give them a call and request a new restore cd, depending on how old the computer is.

If you can not figure out your model and make try using the msinfo32 (start --> run --> msinfo32) or a utility called Sisoft Sandra Pro to detect your model and make for you. This is also handy if you have a custom built pc which has no restore cds created for it. Use Sisoft to determine all of your hardware settings and the type that's installed, and then use it on www.google.com to search for the drivers you need. You must search for drivers that are designed for the exact operating system you are installing or they will be incompatible! Mainly, with an older computer, if you are installing Windows 95/98/ME then you SHOULD download all drivers ahead of time. If you have Windows XP and are installing it on an older system then the Plug and Play should pickup most of the settings for you, so needing drivers downloaded ahead of time would not be needed. If the drivers are something like video driver then you should download updated ones from the default manufacturer because MS only supplies you with the lowest quality drivers possible.

I have everything I need, what next?
Now, you must determine the operating system that is currently installed. If it is Windows XP then there are more steps that must be taken in order to format successfully from DOS. If you are on Windows 95/98/ME then the steps are a lot less struggling. If you wish to remove the partition completely and reformat it and previously had Win9X then do so, just follow the steps that are required for reformatting an XP system from DOS.

FIRST STEP FOR BOTH XP & 9X:
Determine if your copy of the restore/windows cd is bootable, or your computer is setup to boot from CD at startup. Simply place the CD in the CD-Rom, reboot your computer and see if it tries to read the cd before starting windows. If, instead it reads something like the A: drive first, then you must change the boot-up sequence to CD-Rom first. This method varies by the type of motherboard you have. To enter your BIOS to change the settings use either F1 or Del. These are the two mostly used ways of entering, if that's not doing it, it should say what key to press to enter bios setup. Look for the option Boot, they should be presented like Floppy Disk; Removable Devices, CD-Rom, Hard Drive etc. If its an older motherboard, they are identified totally different, you will have to look up the sequences online. Once you have changed these and place CD-Rom at the top by usually using the + and - keys on the number pad to your right, save the settings and reboot. If it does not pickup the CD-Rom and ask you for various operations, then the CD is not bootable, which is where a boot disk comes in. If the CD is not bootable, make sure to set the boot first priority to Removable Devices or Floppy Disk.

Any asterisk that is provided means the steps are used in conjunction with each other.

Restore CD's
1) Place the Restore CD into the CD-Rom once you have determined that its bootable
2) You will be given a list of various options for restoring. Make sure you choose something like Clean Restore, they should provide descriptions of each.
3) Just follow the required steps for installation, its all self-explanatory with a restore CD.
4) If the Restore CD does not provide any means of a clean install, just a over ride of the current windows install, follow the below methods up to format it.

Booting From a Floppy **
1) Grab yourself a bootable floppy disk at www.bootdisk.com designed for Win9X. Any will work just as long as it provides access to DOS and CD-Rom activity.
2) Provide a 1.44MB floppy disk that is not needed and install the boot disk files to it.
3) Place the floppy disk in the floppy drive and restart.
4) Once its reading the floppy a menu will come up and ask if you wish to boot with CD-Rom support, choose the option to boot into this mode.

Windows 9X Non-Bootable CD(**)
1) You will be given a command line interface, depending on what your default drive letter is, it would look something like C:>, if its A:> simply type in C: and hit enter.
2) Simply issue the command format C: where C: would be the default letter of the drive. It will ask you for confirmation, just type Y.
3) The formatting phase will start, it could take a while depending on the size of the hard drive.
4) Once finished, it will prompt you for a volume name, which simply is what the hard drives label will be, its not necessary but you may enter something if you wish.
5) Now, you will be dropped back into a C:> prompt. Enter in the Win9X CD to the CD-Rom.
6) You must now drop into the CD-Rom drive to issue commands from it. To do this simply type in D: or whatever drive letter has been assigned to the CD-Rom
7) Once it shows up as D:> type in Setup and the setup phase will initialize, just follow the simple steps and you will make it.

Windows 9X Bootable CD
If the CD is bootable, then you will be given similar options that a floppy boot disk would provide. Make sure to startup into DOS with CD-Rom support. Do not startup from hard drive or this will just load your current OS. Just use the above methods once you have chose to startup into DOS. Then follow the required steps provided when you are in the command prompt.

NOTE: Be sure that you have the correct drivers for your machines specifications or you will come across a lot of driver problems.

Windows 2K/XP Non-Bootable CD w/ Win9X Boot Disk (**)
1) Once you have got the DOS prompt in front of you issue the fdisk command
2) You will be asked "Do you wish to enable large disk support?" type in Y. This simply allocated all the possible space for large sized hard drives.
3) We must determine the type of file system you have. Choose the option "Display partition information"
4) Look under the tab labeled "Type" if it is FAT32 then it will be a DOS partition, if its NTFS then its a Non-DOS partition.
5) Hit Esc to go back to the first options
- If it was NTFS choose the option "Delete Non- DOS Partition" which is option 3.
- If it was FAT32 choose "Delete Primary DOS Partition" which is option 1
5) Next you will be asked to enter the number of the partition, which is will probably be 1, unless you have two hdd installed. If you are not sure which one is which, the default selected partition will be the one your windows is installed on, so choose that one.
6) It will ask you for the volume label, if there is even one entered, them type it in as it should be typed.
7) Now, it will ask you if you are sure you want to delete this partition, type Yes.
It will now tell you that the partition has been deleted, hit Esc to continue.
9) You have the list of options at your view again. Choose "Create DOS Partition or Logical Drive".
10) Now choose "Create Primary Dos Partition"
11) It will now ask you if you wish to enable the full size of the HDD for that partition and make it active, choose Yes.
12) It will create the partition, it might take a little while, but not long. Once this is done, it will ask you to restart your computer.
13) Restart with the boot disk inserted, get back into DOS Prompt and now type in format C:
14) Once its done formatting and you have optionally entered a volume name, enter the Win2k/XP CD into the CD-Rom.
15) Browse to the assigned CD-Rom drive letter by simply typing D: where D would be the drive letter
16) Now type in the following: "cd i386" and it should drop you into something like D:/I386
17) Now type in "winnt" and the setup phase should startup, just follow the required steps.

Windows 2K/XP Bootable CD
1) When you startup with the CD entered, it should say "Press any key to boot from cd" or similar.
2) It will load all the necessary files to give you a graphical users interface for the setup, instead of a DOS based environment.
3) It will ask you if you wish to install Windows XP to press Enter, so do so.
4) Now comes the license agreement, simply press F8 to move on.
5) You will see your partitions, choose the one you wish to install 2K/XP to then press Enter
NOTE: If you wish to delete the current partition and recreate it, then simply press D, Enter, then L to the next given screens then choose this as the partition you wish to format and install.
6) Now you will get a list of options to to format the file system. Choose "Format the partition using the NTFS file system"
7) Now it will format and copy the required files to startup the setup once you reboot. A warning will popup telling you its about to reboot.
Let it reboot and do not press any keys and wait for it to reboot, the Windows XP logo will show up and then initiate the rest of the setup


You should print this out so you may refer to it when needed.

1 comments | Posted in » Tricks