Computer Technical

How to Fix Windows Installer Errors

2009-08-21T03:01:00.000-07:00

For Windows XP, 2000, & NT

1. Click Start

2. Click Run

3. Enter the following command (as illustrated) and then click OK.

msiexec /regserver

If the command above produces a path not found error, enter one of the following commands:

(WinXP) C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /regserver

(Win2000 & Winnt) C:\Winnt\system32\msiexec.exe /regserver

For Windows 95 & 98

1. Click Start

2. Click Run

3. Enter the following command (as illustrated) and then click OK.

msiexec /regsrv32

If the command above produces a path not found error, enter the following command:

(WinXP) C:\Windows\system\msiexec.exe /regsrv32

Shutdown is very slow - Windows XP

2009-08-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

When you shutdown your Windows XP computer, it may take more time to complete the shutdown process. Slow shutdowns are caused by a number of factors. One of the common cause is the Clear Pagefile at Shutdown option enabled.

Virtual memory support uses a system pagefile to swap pages of memory to disk when they are not used. On a running system, this pagefile is opened exclusively by the operating system, and it is well protected. However, systems that are configured to allow booting to other operating systems might have to make sure that the system pagefile is wiped clean when this system shuts down. This ensures that sensitive information from process memory that might go into the pagefile is not available to an unauthorized user who manages to directly access the pagefile.

When this option is enabled, it causes the system pagefile to be cleared upon clean shutdown. This takes considerable time of the Operating System to flush-out the pagefile, thus causing the slow shutdown. You may disable ClearPageFileAtShutdown option to improve shutdown times. But the pagefile.sys will be intact and accessible via other Operating System, in case or dual or multi-boot.

Some points to improve the shutdown times

Start Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]

Set ClearPageFileAtShutdown value to 0

Or, using Group Policy Editor [for Windows XP Professional]

Click Start, Run and type Secpol.msc
Click Local Policies | Security Options
In the right-pane, set Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile to Disabled

Remove the .NET Credentials (Stored User names and Passwords)

2009-08-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

To remove the Stored User Names and Passwords from your system, try this:

Click Start, Run and type Control keymgr.dll
Remove the entries from the list.

The other ways to access this dialog are:

Type Control Userpasswords2 in RUN box, click Advanced, Manage Passwords

-or-

From Control Panel, select your User Account, click Manage your network passwords

Repair Windows Firewall

2009-08-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Symptoms

Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service not listed in Services.msc Console.
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service is listed in Services Console, but you may not be able to start the service.
The following error occurs when accessing the firewall settings (firewall.cpl)

Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot display Windows Firewall settings.

Cause

This happens due to missing or corrupt SharedAccess registry key, which represents the Windows Firewall Service. This usually occurs if your system is infested with Virus or other Malware, or in the aftermath of Virus removal. In conjunction with the solution provided in the article, it's advisable to run a thorough cleanup of the system.

Solution :

Download sharedaccess.reg (only for Windows XP systems with Service Pack 2 or Service Pack 3 applied) and save to Desktop. Then double-click the file to merge the contents to the registry. The Services entry will be created. Restart Windows (mandatory step, otherwise the following NETSH command might display an error).

After restarting Windows, execute the following command via Start, Run dialog:

CMD /K NETSH FIREWALL RESET

Launch firewall applet from Control Panel, and see if you're able to configure the Windows Firewall settings.

If the above steps do not help, as a last resort solution (before attempting to reinstall the Service Pack), give the following commands a try:

Click Start, Run and type:

rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection Ndi-Steelhead 132 %windir%\inf\netrass.inf

The above command repaired most of the Windows Firewall settings when I tested. After running the above command, restart Windows and then run the following:

CMD /K NETSH FIREWALL RESET

Attempt to start Firewall applet. Start the Windows Firewall service when prompted.

Repair Computer Browser if not start in Services Console

2009-08-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

Computer Browser service
http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/se [...] er_Browser

The Computer Browser service depends on the Server service and the
Workstation service. These two services have to be running before the
Computer Browser service can start.

Open Services...
Start | Run | type: services.msc | Click OK |
Scroll down to and double click Server |
Set Startup type to Automatic | Click Apply |
Click the Start button | When the Server service starts,
Click OK | Scroll down to and double click Workstation |
Set Startup type to Automatic | Click Apply |
Click the Start button | When the Workstation service starts,
Click OK | Close Services

If the Workstation service is not listed in Services...

The Client for Microsoft Networks component is actually the Workstation
service.

Network Connections | Right click: Your Connection | Properties | General
tab | Install button | Highlight: Client | Add button | Highlight: Client
for Microsoft Networks | OK | Close

Removing Client for Microsoft Networks Removes Other Services
http://support.microsoft.com/defau [...] -us;322267

If the Server service is not listed in Services...

This will restore the Server service (lanmanserver).

Start | Run | Type: ncpa.cpl | OK |
Right click Your Connection | Properties |General tab |
Install button | Highlight: Service | Add button |
Highlight: File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks | OK |
Close

Server
[[Used for file and print sharing from your computer or Message Queuing. For
security purposes, you may disable this service if you do not require local
printers and files shared across your network. Connectivity, however, still
exists even on incoming shared network drives. Workstation needs to be
running to connect to another computer that has the files you are looking
for. Note: If you disable File and Print sharing, the Server Service may
disappear from the Services listing. Just enable File and Print sharing
again and the Server Service will return.]]
http://web.archive.org/web/2004101 [...] ice411.htm

Hack Network Passwords in 13 Steps

2009-08-12T08:43:00.001-07:00

Does the title attracts your attention? It certainly attracts mine. Came across this in Digg which then further leads me to a forum. The following tutorials teaches you how to sniff a password file from a windows network. This is only for educational purposes, your wild imagination is not my responsibility.

Download, install and run Cain & Abel at http://www.oxid.it/cain.html
Click “Configure” in the top bar.
In the “Sniffer” tab, click the adapter which is connected to the network to be sniffed, then click “Apply”, then “OK”.
Click the “Sniffer” tab in the main window.
Click the network card in the top bar (2nd icon from the left).
Click the “+” button in the top bar.
Select “All hosts in my subnet”, click “OK”. Entries should appear in the main window under the “IP address”, “MAC address” and “OUI fingerprint” headings.
From the “Sniffer” tab, click “APR” in the bottom tab.
Click the top right pane in the main window. Click the “+” button in the top bar.
Click on the router in the left pane. The router is generally the entry which has the lowest final IP value (xxx.xxx.xxx.*). Highlight the IP addresses to sniff in the right pane. Click “OK”.
Click the ARP icon in the top bar (3rd icon from the left). Wait until other users have logged into websites on other computers. Depending on the size of the network and the traffic which this network receives, this can range from minutes to hours.
After some time has passed, click “Passwords” in the bottom tab.
In the left pane, select the bolded entries. The right pane should show the time, server, username, password (in plaintext) and site accessed.

Hacking DeepFreeze

2009-08-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it is allowed to post tutorials here, put i feel like i have to share my personal experience when it comes to this nice app.

To start of the tutorial i have to say, that recently I'm busy playing the role of a network admin, and since the network needed some work, and the computers have deep-freeze on them i had to find a way to bypass it, because nobody knew the password(yeah...what a Nice job i have).
So this tutorial is not meant to be used to hack the system at your school, library or any other place which uses this software to protect the PC's.

So let's start.

Step I:
Setup the PC so that it boots from the CD, i think i don't have to say how that can be done

Step II:
Download Admin Pack from Winternals.com, you need a payed email address, they wont send you the link if you provide a free email address like @yahoo.com,@gmail.com and so on.

Step III:
Burn yourself a copy of ERD Commander 2005, you can use the wizard.

Step IV:
Boot from the CD and wait until ERD starts. Once started use regedit and navigate to:
HKLM\System\ControlSet001\Services\DepFrzLo
make a backup copy of that key, and then proceed to deleting everything except the "installpath" key
Once that is done, reboot the computer and start normally, now it will take abit more than usually but once Windows starts you will be happy to see that there is no deep-freeze started, and everything you do will remain there Unfortunately this method can't be used to uninstall Deep-Freeze, but it's good if you want to make a quick change and don't know the password

Step V:
If you want to restore deep-freeze, boot from the CD and use your backup You did make a backup didn't you?

I hope this helps someone, this method can't be found searching with google(trust me i searched allot for a way to bypass the password) so i think it's an asset

The lines above are provided "AS IS", i am not responsible if you kill and/or damage your or anybody elses computer with these instructions.
I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO WITH THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS ENTRY.

Fast up you internet connection!

2009-08-12T08:04:00.000-07:00

I found this trick while messing up with group policy editor.

That ...Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their
own purposes like Windows Updates and interrogating your PC etc. same
issue is with all Microsoft OS by default.

You can get it back:
Click Start then Run and type "gpedit.msc" without quotes.
This opens the group policy editor.
Then go to: Local Computer Policy then Computer Configuration then
Administrative Templates
Then Network then QOS Packet Scheduler
And then to Limit Reservable Bandwidth.
Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth.
It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain'
tab i.e." By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20
percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting
to override the default.
"So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, and then set it to
ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the
default 20%.
It works on Win 2000 as well. How did you like it? Please comment.

Note: This trick works only for windows xp sp2 professional and
windows 2000 professional. It does not work on windows xp sp2 home
edition As there is no way to edit group policy editor.....

Remove W32/Sality.AE

2009-08-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

Sality is an computer virus which will infected any files with extension .exe .com and .scr , sality will using your default share folder to spreading in your network area beside that sality using old autorun.inf technique also to spreading. Your application will become a little bigger in size around 60kb-80kb after sality infected it.

No need to hide this virus was created in China /Taiwan it have some website list to update himself with new varian some of them pedmeo222nb.info, pzrk.ru, technican.w.interia.pl, www.kjwre9fqwieluoi.info and many more. Blocking this site list using hosts file might help you in short condition but after it updated you might in trouble again. like almost smart virus in the past sality have protection to keep him alive in their computer target. Sality will kill any application/website with some string list such as, avast! Antivirus, F-Secure Gatekeeper Handler Starter, NOD32krn and many more. Sality will blocking your firewall, security notification, and also your computer safe mode.

The easiest way to know if you’re infected by this virus is you can’t boot your computer in safe mode or some application will not run when you open it. When this happen follow this step…..

Remove W32/Sality.AE

1. Disconnected your computer from the network.

2. Turn off “System Restore” when in cleaning process.

3. Turn off “Autorun” and “Default Share” download this file right click on it then choose install.

4. Kill active process in your computer backround and checking your startup file you can use hijackthis.

5. Scan with Norman Malware Cleaner please note because this virus will infected files with extesion .exe com and .scr you have to rename Norman_Malware_Cleaner.exe with new extension example Norman_Malware_Cleaner.cmd

please make sure you downloaded fresh new cleaner from norman official website and don’t run it before you change the extension or this cleaner will got infected first before he can eliminate sality.

6. For repair your computer to booting in safe mode please download this file and merge only one that same with your windows version.

7. Repair your registry using this file right click on it then choose install.

8. Reboot your computer and scan again with norman malware cleaner, after that reboot again to make sure your system clean.

As more and more of us load up our systems with lots and lots of RAM, this question surfaces more and more. You put 4GB in your computer. The motherbo

2009-08-12T07:35:00.000-07:00

As more and more of us load up our systems with lots and lots of RAM, this question surfaces more and more. You put 4GB in your computer. The motherboard supports 4GB, Windows XP and Vista support 4GB, so everything is fine.

But when you open the System applet in Control Panel, the system tells you that there is 3.5GB, or maybe 3 GB even. Where did the rest go?

It turns out that these systems have a 4GB address space, which must be used to address physical RAM, as well as other things. This is addressed in the Microsoft document Memory Management: What Every Driver Writer Needs To Know. In particular, the fourth full paragraph on page 10 says:

The physical address space is used to address more than just RAM. It is also used to address all of the memory and some of the registers presented by devices. Consequently, if a machine is configured with the maximum amount of physical memory, some of that memory will be unusable because some of the physical address space is mapped for other uses.

So the machine must use that 4GB address space for other things besides your RAM. But what other things?

I recently had a new Dell Optiplex computer put on my desk at work. Being curious, I went to the Dell web site and found the manual for this computer. In that document, it says this:

This computer supports a maximum of 4 GB of memory when you use four 1-GB DIMMs or two 2-GB DIMMs. Current operating systems, such as Microsoft® Windows® XP, can only use a maximum of 4 GB of address space; however, the amount of memory available to the operating system is less than 4 GB. Certain components within the computer require address space in the 4-GB range. Any address space reserved for these components cannot be used by computer memory.

The following components require memory address space:

System ROM
APIC(s)
Integrated PCI devices, such as network connectors and SCSI controllers
PCI cards
Graphics card
PCI Express cards (if applicable)

At start-up, the BIOS identifies the components that require address space. The BIOS dynamically calculates the amount of reserved address space required. The BIOS then subtracts the reserved address space from 4 GB to determine the amount of usable space.

If the total installed computer memory is less than the usable space, all installed computer memory is available for use only by the operating system.

If the total installed computer memory is equal to or greater than the usable address space, a small portion of installed memory is unavailable for use by the operating system.

The first thing that I see on this list is “Graphics card”. Video cards nowadays commonly have one or two hundred MB of RAM on them. That video RAM takes up part of the 4GB address space, which then is not available for your physical RAM.

With all of that understood, I’m still hard pressed to fugure out where an entire GB of address space goes.

Another very good discussion of this topic is HP's RAM Allocation with Microsoft Windows XP Professional (32 & 64-bit).

The ultimate solution to this is 64-bit computing. A 64-bit computer running a 64-bit operating system will have an enormous address space. The Microsoft document referenced above says that 32-bit Windows XP allows 128GB of RAM. That's 37 bits of address space. (a full 64-bit address space would be something like 18 quintillion (18x10¹⁵) bytes. I don't think any hardware or software manufacturer is to that point yet.) That system would have no problem accessing every bit of your 4GB of RAM.

What about the /3GB switch?

It doesn't apply.

The /3GB switch in the boot.ini file affects the way Windows XP allocates the 32-bit virtual address space that each process gets. By default, that address space is split evenly between the operating system and the program. The /3GB switch forces the OS to allocate 3GB to the program and only 1GB to the system. This can result in the OS being squeezed and not working efficiently. It's necessary for only a very few, extremely RAM-hungry programs. It will not make your missing physical RAM reappear.

USB Ubuntu Edgy install tutorial for Linux Users

2009-08-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

USB Ubuntu install from Linux This tutorial enables you to install, boot and run Ubuntu Linux from USB. When booting Ubuntu in persistent mode, it uses a "casper-rw" partition to save your changes back to the drive, restoring them on each boot. The tutorial is similar to the USB Ubuntu installation tutorial for Windows users with the exception that it was written with a Linux user in mind. If your already working from a Ubuntu Linux desktop environment and do not have access to or prefer not to use a Windows computer, this tutorial is for you.

Ubuntu® is a product of Canonical ltd.

Screenshot of Ubuntu Edgy 6.10 running from USB:

Requirements:

Ubuntu.ISO (tutorial is done from the Live CD)
CD Burner/Recorder
1GB or larger USB flash drive

USB Ubuntu installation tutorial:

Download the Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy ISO and burn it to a CD
Reboot your computer into Ubuntu from the Live CD
Insert a 1GB or larger USB flash drive
Open a terminal window and type sudo su
Type fdisk -l to list available drives/partitions. Note which device is your flash drive (example: /dev/sda) Throughout this tutorial, replace x with your flash drive letter. For example, if your flash drive is sdb, replace x with b.
Type umount /dev/sdx1
Type fdisk /dev/sdx
- type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
- type p again to show any remaining partitions (if partitions exist, repeat the previous step)
- type n to make a new partition
- type p for primary partition
- type 1 to make this the first partition
- hit enter to use the default 1st cylinder
- type +700M to set the partition size
- type a to make this partition active
- type 1 to select partition 1
- type t to change the partition filesystem
- type 6 to select the fat16 file system
- type n to make another new partition
- type p for primary partition
- type 2 to make this the second partition
- hit enter to use the default cylinder
- hit enter again to use the default last cylinder
- type w to write the new partition table
Type umount /dev/sdx1 to ensure the 1st partition is unmounted
Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n usb /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
Type umount /dev/sdx2 to ensure the 2nd partition is unmounted
Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L casper-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
Remove and Re-insert your flash drive
Back at the terminal, type sudo apt-get install syslinux mtools
Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
Download this custom usyslinux.tar file using the archive manager and extract the syslinux.cfg file to your "USB" stick
Type cd /cdrom
Type cp -rf casper disctree dists install pics pool preseed .disk isolinux/* md5sum.txt README.diskdefines ubuntu.ico casper/vmlinuz casper/initrd.gz install/mt86plus /media/usb/
Reboot your computer and set your system BIOS to boot from USB-HDD or USB-ZIP. Also set the boot priority if necessary.

If everything has gone as it should, you should now be able to boot Ubuntu from the USB flash device and it should save your changes, restoring them on boot.

Notes: If your having trouble getting Ubuntu to boot, your memory stick may have a corrupted mbr. To repair the mbr of your USB device, at the terminal type sudo apt-get install lilo then type lilo -M /dev/sdx (replacing x with the letter of your flash device)

BOOT BARTPE FROM A FAT32 FORMATTED DRIVE (Great for 8+ gigabyte drives)

2009-08-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

Tools Required

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool - http://downloads.pcw...als/SP27608.exe
GoCoding.com's PEtoUSB.exe - http://gocoding.com/...USB_3.0.0.7.zip
Windows 98SE Bootable Floppy Disk - http://files.frashii...ey/boot98se.exe
GRUB4DOS 0.4.3 - http://superb-east.d...b4dos-0.4.3.zip

Steps

Insert your USB key and your Windows 98 floppy
Open the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
- Select your USB key
- Set the file system to FAT32
- Check "Create a DOS startup disk"
- Tell it to use the DOS system files located at A:
- Click "Start" and let it go.
Open PEtoUSB.exe
- Check "Enable File Copy" and select Overwrite Always from the drop-down
- Click "Start" and wait for the file copy to finish
Select all the files for GRUB4DOS and copy them to the root of the USB key.
- Allow it to overwrite config.sys
- Open config.sys and edit the second line to read:
  
  CODE
  device=grub.exe --config-file="color black/cyan yellow/cyan;timeout 0;default 0;title find and load NTLDR of Windows NT/2K/XP;find --set-root /ntldr;chainloader /ntldr"
  
  This will allow it to go straight to the NTLDR process.
Boot your USB key.

Interesting side effect - When you boot off of the USB key, you will see the Windows 98 splash screen, followed by the Windows XP boot process and splash screen.

This is confirmed working on an 8gb SanDisk Cruzer Micro. After trying various different things, I stumbled upon success with these steps. Hopefully my steps will help others out there trying to accomplish the same thing.

Install Windows XP on the Asus Eee PC

2009-08-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

Installing Windows XP on the Asus EEE pc using a single USB flash drive.

Please note this tutorial works on all computers not just the Asus EEE PC.
To complete this tutorial you need a 32bit version of Windows XP or Windows Vista installed on your home PC.

What you'll need:
USB_PREP8 (alternative download)
PeToUSB (alternative download)
Bootsect.exe (alternative download)
Special Note: If you use the program Nlite be sure to keep the manual installation files as the USB_prep8 script relies on these files.

Extract the files in Bootsect.zip
The next step is to extract USB_prep8 and PeToUSB.
Next copy the PeToUSB executable into the USB_prep8 folder.
Inside of the USB_prep8 folder double click the executable named usb_prep8.cmd.

The window that opens will look like this:

Press any key to continue

You next window will look like this:
These settings are preconfigured for you all you need to do now is click start.
Once the format is complete DO NOT close the window just leave everything as it is and open a command prompt from your start menu (type cmd in the search bar or run box depending on your version of windows.).

Inside of the command windows go to the directory you have bootsect.exe saved.
(use the cd directoryname command to switch folders)

Now type "bootsect.exe /nt52 R:" NOTE R: is the drive letter for my USB stick if yours is different you need to change it accordingly. What this part does is write the correct boot sector to your USB stick, this allows your PC to boot from the USB stick without it nothing works.
Please note: When running the bootsect.exe command you cannot have any windows open displaying the content of your USB stick, if you have a window open bootsect.exe will be unable to lock the drive and write the bootsector correctly.

If all went well you should see "Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes."

Now you can close this command prompt (don't close the usbprep8 one by mistake) and the petousb window.

You window you see now should look like this:

If it doesn't try pressing enter.

Now you need to enter the correct information for numbers 1-3.
Press 1 and then enter. A folder browse window will open for you to browse to the location of you XP setup files (aka your cdrom drive with xp cd in)
Press 2 and enter a letter not currently assigned to a drive on your PC
Press 3 and enter the drive letter of your USB stick
Press 4 to start the process.

The script will ask you if its ok to format drive T:. This is just a temp drive the program creates to cache the windows installation files. Press Y then enter.

Once it's done formating press enter to continue again, you can now see the program copying files to the temp drive it created. Once this is done press enter to continue again.

Next you will see a box pop up asking you to copy the files to USB drive yes/no you want to click yes.

Once the script has completed copy files a popup window asking if you would like to USB drive to be preferred boot drive U: select YES on this window.

Now select yes to unmount the virtual drive.

Ok we are done the hard part, close the usbprep8 window.

Now make sure your EEE pc is configured with USB as the primary boot device.
Insert your USB drive and boot up the EEE.

On the startup menu you have two options, select option number 2 for text mode setup.

From this point on it is just like any other windows XP installation delete/recreate the primary partition on your EEE pc and format it using NTFS. Make sure you delete ALL partitions and recreate a single partition or you will get the hal.dll error message.

Once the text mode portion of setup is complete it will boot into the GUI mode (you can press enter after the reboot if your too excited to wait the 30 seconds)

Once the GUI portion of setup is complete you will again have to boot into GUI mode this will complete the XP installation and you will end up at you XP desktop. It is very important that you DO NOT REMOVE THE USB STICK before this point. Once you can see your start menu it is safe to remove the usb stick and reboot your pc to make sure everything worked.

This method has advantages over all current no cdrom methods of installing XP to the EEE. You do not have to copy setup files in DOS to the SSD and install from there. It gives you access to the recovery console by booting into text mode setup, and it gives you the ability to run repair installations of XP if you have problems later on.

Installing Win XP Pro via UFD (Universal Flash Device)

2009-08-12T06:37:00.000-07:00

This small tutorial is designed to help those in need of installing Microsoft Windows XP on any PC that is capable of booting from a UFD (USB Flash Device). Hopefully, you will find this as easy and problem free as I have.

I must send out thanks to the people at EEEguides.com, as that is where I learned how to perform this installation technique. Please, visit their site and instruction guide at:

http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/11/installing-windows-xp-from-usb-thumb.html

The site includes hundreds of posts with problems and answers, as well as some technical details that I have left out.

For my experiment, I used the following:

· PNY 4 gig UFD

· Kingston 1 gig UFD

· Frankenstein home PC – running legit copy of Win XP Pro

· Win XP Pro – store bought (this makes sense if you understand the technical problems with copied discs as described on the EEEguides.com site)

· Compaq TC1000 Tablet PC – as the first installed to system

· Sony Vaio PCG-FRV37

I hope you have fun with this! I did.

Scardog

————————————————————————————-

Prior to starting your work you will need to gather the following files/hardware:

usb_prep8
petousb_3007
bootsect
A properly functioning windows PC
1g UFD (USB Flash Device)
A Windows OS CD or image

1. Insert UFD to any open USB port

2. Create a workspace folder

a. I created a folder on my desktop called – USB OS Load Workspace

3. Extract the following files to your workspace folder

a. Bootsect.zip

b. PeToUSB_x.x.x.x.zip (I used v3.0.0.7 for my install)

c. Usb_prep8.zip

4. Copy the PeToUSB executable file into the USB_prep8 folder

5. Within the USB_prep8 folder run the usb_prep8.cmd file by double clicking

a. Running the file will give a window that looks like this:

6. As instructed press any key to continue resulting in the following window:

7. Click “Start”

8. Click “Yes” to continue popup

9. Click “Yes” to format warning popup

10. Click “OK” to successful completion popup

11. After format is complete DO NOT close the window for PeToUSB

NOTE: When format is complete it will open a window displaying the contents of your flash disk. Close this window. An open window will prevent bootsect.exe from locking the drive and writing the bootsector correctly

12. Click on Start menu and click run – type cmd and press enter

13. Navigate via “CD” to folder where bootsect is stored (see step 2 and 3)

14. Once in your folder where the bootsect files are stored enter the following command

a. Bootsect.exe/nt52 J:

i. NOTE: in line of code above substitute the J: for the drive letter of your UFD that you want to copy OS setup files to

15. Press Enter

16. Ensure that “Successfully updated FAT filesystem bootcode.” message appears

17. Type Exit and press Enter to close cmd window

18. Click Close on the PeToUSB window

19. Within the usb_prep8.cmd window enter 1 and press enter

20. Within the Browse For Folder window navigate to drive where Win XP CD or .iso is located and click OK

21. Within the usb_prep8.cmd window enter 2 and press enter

22. Enter any UNUSED drive letter to create a Virtual Temp Drive

23. Within the usb_prep8.cmd window enter 3 and press enter

24. Enter the drive letter of your chosen UFD – pay attention to enter same drive letter as you entered in Step 14 – and press Enter

25. Within the usb_prep8.cmd window enter 4 and press enter

26. Enter “Y” at command line to proceed with format and press enter

27. Ensure that you get message that formatting you Temp Drive was successful – Steps 21 and 22

28. Press any key to continue operation

29. Select “Yes” to Copy to USB Drive popup window

30. After setup files have copied to drive click on “Yes” for Change Migrate.inf popup window

31. Click on “Yes” to unmount virtual drive

32. Within the usb_prep8.cmd window press any key to continue

33. Within the usb_prep8.cmd window press any key to exit

34. Now take the newly formatted UFD and set target PC to boot from UFD and install

35. At first boot select Option 1 (the second option oddly enough) for text mode setup

36. From here it’s the same as a normal Win XP setup – when the text mode setup portion completes and system reboots select Option 2 (the first option) for GUI setup

37. DO NOT REMOVE THE UFD FROM USB PORT UNTIL YOU SEE THE WINDOWS START MENU

Make Your Windows XP Fast

2009-08-12T04:13:00.000-07:00

DISABLE INDEXING SERVICES

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don’t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next

OPTIMISE DISPLAY SETTINGS

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:

1.Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. Leave only the following ticked:
- Show shadows under menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons

DISABLE PERFORMANCE COUNTERS

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

To disable:

1. download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List
2.Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom.button below.

SPEEDUP FOLDER BROWSING

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:

1. Open My Computer
2. Click on Tools menu
3. Click on Folder Options
4. Click on the View tab.
5. Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
6. Click Apply
7. Click Ok
8. Reboot your computer

IMPROVE MEMORY USAGE

Cacheman Improves the performance of your computer by optimizing the disk cache, memory and a number of other settings.

Once Installed:

1.Go to Show Wizard and select All
2.Run all the wizards by selecting Next or Finished until you are back to the main menu. Use the defaults unless you know exactly what you are doing.
3.Exit and Save Cacheman
4.Restart Windows

OPTIMISE YOUR INTERNET CONNECTION

There are lots of ways to do this but by far the easiest is to run TCP/IP Optimizer.

1. Download and install
2. Click the General Settings tab and select your Connection Speed (Kbps)
3. Click Network Adapter and choose the interface you use to connect to the Internet
4. Check Optimal Settings then Apply
5. Reboot

OPTIMISE YOUR PAGEFILE

If you give your pagefile a fixed size it saves the operating system from needing to resize the page file.

1. Right click on My Computer and select Properties
2. Select the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance choose the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change
5. Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

RUN BOOTVIS – IMPROVE BOOT TIMES

BootVis will significantly improve boot times

1. Download and Run
2. Select Trace
3. Select Next Boot and Driver Trace
4. A Trace Repetitions screen will appear, select Ok and Reboot
5. Upon reboot, BootVis will automatically start, analyze and log your system’s boot process. When it’s done, in the menu go to Trace and select Optimize System
6. Reboot.
7. When your machine has rebooted wait until you see the Optimizing System box appear. Be patient and wait for the process to complete

REMOVE THE DESKTOP PICTURE

Your desktop background consumes a fair amount of memory and can slow the loading time of your system. Removing it will improve performance.

1. Right click on Desktop and select Properties
2. Select the Desktop tab
3. In the Background window select None
4. Click Ok

REMOVE FONTS FOR SPEED

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

1. Open Control Panel
2. Open Fonts folder
3. Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

DISABLE UNNECESSARY SERVICES

Because Windows XP has to be all things to all people it has many services running that take up system resources that you will never need. Below is a list of services that can be disabled on most machines:

Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Fast User Switching
Help and Support – (If you use Windows Help and Support leave this enabled)
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service
IPSEC Services
Messenger
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Portable Media Serial Number
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Remote Registry Service
Secondary Logon
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server

SSDP Discovery Service – (Unplug n’ Pray will disable this)
Telnet
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Upload Manager
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use a wireless network)
Workstation
To disable these services:

Go to Start and then Run and type “services.msc”
Doubleclick on the service you want to change
Change the startup type to ‘Disable”

TURN OFF SYSTEM RESTORE

System Restore can be a useful if your computer is having problems, however storing all the restore points can literally take up Gigabytes of space on your hard drive. To turn off System Restore:

Open Control Panel
Click on Performance and Maintenance
Click on System
Click on the System Restore tab
Tick ‘Turn off System Restore on All Drives’
Click ‘Ok’

DEFRAGMENT YOUR PAGEFILE

Keeping your pagefile defragmented can provide a major performance boost. One of the best ways of doing this is to creat a separate partition on your hard drive just for your page file, so that it doesn’t get impacted by normal disk usage. Another way of keeping your pagefile defragmented is to run PageDefrag. This cool little app can be used to defrag your pagefile, and can also be set to defrag the pagefile everytime your PC starts. To install:

Download and Run PageDefrag
Tick “Defrag at next Reboot”,
Click “Ok”
Reboot

SPEEDUP FOLDER ACCESS – DISABLE LAST ACCESS UPDATE

If you have a lot of folders and subdirectories on your computer, when you access a directory XP wastes a lot of time updating the time stamp showing the last access time for that directory and for ALL sub directories. To stop XP doing this you need to edit the registry. If you are uncomfortable doing this then please do not attempt.

Go to Start and then Run and type “regedit”
Click through the file system until you get to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlFileSystem”
Right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and select ‘DWORD Value’
Create a new DWORD Value called ‘NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate’
Then Right click on the new value and select ‘Modify’
Change the Value Data to ‘1′
Click ‘OK’

DISABLE SYSTEM SOUNDS

Surprisingly, the beeps that your computer makes for various system sounds can slow it down, particularly at startup and shut-down. To fix this turn off the system sounds:

Open Control Panel
Click Sounds and Audio Devices
Check Place volume icon in taskbar
Click Sounds Tab
Choose “No Sounds” for the Sound Scheme
Click “No”
Click “Apply”
Click “OK”

IMPROVE BOOT TIMES
IMPROVE BOOT TIMES

A great new feature in Microsoft Wind 1ws XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option in enables but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.

Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in “Regedit” then click ok
Find “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftDfrgBootOpt imizeFunction”
Select “Enable” from the list on the right
Right on it and select “Modify”
Change the value to “Y to enable”
Reboot

IMPROVE SWAPFILE PERFORMANCE

If you have more than 256MB of RAM this tweak will considerably improve your performance. It basically makes sure that your PC uses every last drop of memory (faster than swap file) before it starts using the swap file.

Go to Start then Run
Type “msconfig.exe” then ok
Click on the System.ini tab
Expand the 386enh tab by clicking on the plus sign
Click on new then in the blank box type”ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1″
Click OK
Restart PC

MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER

This is one of my favourite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will ‘feel’. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.

Go to Start then Run
Type ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’
Find “HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop”
Select “MenuShowDelay”
Right click and select “Modify’
Reduce the number to around “100″
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to “0″ but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them – well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood

MAKE PROGRAMS LOAD FASTER

This little tweak tends to work for most programs. If your program doesn’t load properly just undo the change. For any program:

Right-click on the icon/shortcut you use to launch the program
Select properties
In the ‘target’ box, add ‘ /prefetch:1′ at the end of the line.
Click “Ok”
Voila – your programs will now load faster.

IMPROVE XP SHUTDOWN SPEED

This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.

Go to Start then select Run
Type ‘Regedit’ and click ok
Find ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop\’
Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now select ‘HungAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now find ‘HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop’
Select ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’
Now find ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControl\’
Select ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’
Right click and select ‘Modify’
Change the value to ‘1000′
Click ‘OK’

SPEED UP BOOT TIMES I

This tweak works by creating a batch file to clear the temp and history folders everytime you shutdown so that your PC doesn’t waste time checking these folders the next time it boots. It’s quite simple to implement:

1. Open Notepad and create a new file with the following entries:

RD /S /q “C:Documents and Settings”UserName without quotes”Local SettingsHistory”
RD /S /q “C:Documents and SettingsDefault UserLocal SettingsHistory”
RD /S /q “D:Temp” <–”Deletes temp folder, type in the location of your temp folder”

2. Save the new as anything you like but it has to be a ‘.bat’ file e.g. fastboot.bat or deltemp.bat

3. Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’

4. Type in ‘gpedit.msc’ and hit ‘ok’

5. Click on ‘Computer Configuration’ then ‘Windows Settings’

6. Double-click on ‘Scripts’ and then on ‘Shutdown’

7. Click ‘Add’ and find the batch file that you created and then press ‘Ok’

SPEED UP BOOT TIMES II

When your PC starts it usually looks for any bootable media in any floppy or cd-rom drives you have installed before it gets around to loading the Operating System from the HDD. This can waste valuable time. To fix this we need to make some changes to the Bios.

1. To enter the bios you usually press ‘F2′ or ‘delete’ when your PC starts

2. Navigate to the ‘Boot’ menu

3. Select ‘Boot Sequence’

4. Then either move your Hard drive to the top position or set it as the ‘First Device’

5. Press the ‘Escape’ key to leave the bios. Don’t forget to save your settings before exiting

Note: Once this change has been made, you won’t be able to boot from a floppy disc or a CD-rom. If for some strange reason you need to do this in the future, just go back into your bios, repeat the steps above and put your floppy or CD-rom back as the ‘First Device’

SPEED UP BOOT TIMES III

When your computer boots up it usually has to check with the network to see what IP addresses are free and then it grabs one of these. By configuring a manually assigned IP address your boot time will improve. To do this do the following:

1. Click on ‘Start’ and then ”Connect To/Show All Connections’

2. Right-click your network adapter card and click ‘Properties’.

3. On the ‘General’ tab, select ‘TCP/IP’ in the list of services and click ‘Properties’

4.I n the TCP/IP properties, click ‘Use the following address’ and enter an IP address for your PC. If you are using a router this is usually 192.168.0.xx or 192.168.1.xx. If you are not sure what address you could check with your ISP or go to ‘Start/run’ and type ‘cmd’ and then ‘ipconfig/all’. This will show your current IP settings which you will need to copy.

5. Enter the correct details for ‘Subnet mask’, ‘Default gateway’ and ‘DNS Server’. Again if you are not sure what figures to enter use ‘ipconfig/all’ as in stage 4.

FREE UP MEMORY

I found this useful app via FixMyXP. ClearMem Is an Excellent Tool for speeding up your XP Computer (especially if your system has been on for awhile and you have a lot of applications open). What it does, is it Forces pages out of physical memory and reduces the size of running processes if working sets to a minimum. When you run this tool, the system pauses because of excessive high-priority activity associated with trimming the working sets. To run this tool, your paging file must be at least as large as physical memory. To Check your Paging File:

1. Go to your control panel, then click on ‘System’, then go to the ‘Advanced’ Tab, and Under ‘Performance’ click ‘Settings’ then the ‘Advanced’ Tab

2. On the Bottom you should see ‘Virtual Memory’ and a value. This is the value that must be at least as large as how much memory is in your system.

3. If the Virtual Memory Value is smaller than your system memory, click Change and change the Min Virtual Memory to a number that is greater than your total system memory, then click ‘Set’ and Reboot.

4. Once you have rebooted install ClearMem

ENSURE XP IS USING DMA MODE

XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer – a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA:

1. Open ‘Device Manager’

2. Double-click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers’

3. Right-click ‘Primary Channel’ and select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’

4. In the ‘Current Transfer Mode’ drop-down box, select ‘DMA if Available’ if the current setting is ‘PIO Only’

ADD CORRECT NETWORK CARD SETTINGS

Some machines suffer from jerky graphics or high CPU usage even when a machine is idle. A possible solution for this, which, can also can help network performance is to:

1. RightClick ‘My Computer’

2. Select ‘Manage’

3. Click on ‘Device Manager’

4. DoubleClick your network adaptor under ‘Network Adapters’

5. In the new window, select the ‘Advanced’ tab

6. Select ‘Connection Type’ and select the correct type for your card and then Reboot

REMOVE ANNOYING DELETE CONFIRMATION MESSAGES

Although not strictly a performance tweak I love this fix as it makes my machine ‘feel’ faster. I hate the annoying ‘are you sure?’ messages that XP displays, especially if I have to use a laptop touchpad to close them. To remove these messages:

1. Right-click on the ‘Recycle Bin’ on the desktop and then click ‘Properties’

2. Clear the ‘Display Delete Confirmation Dialog’ check box and click ‘Ok’

If you do accidently delete a file don’t worry as all is not lost. Just go to your Recycle Bin and ‘Restore’ the file.

DISABLE PREFETCH ON LOW MEMORY SYSTEMS

Prefetch is designed to speed up program launching by preloading programs into memory – not a good idea is memory is in short supply, as it can make programs hang. To disable prefetch:

1. Click ‘Start’ then ‘Run’

2. Type in ‘Regedit’ then click ‘Ok’

3. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlSession ManagerMemory ManagementPrefetchParameters\’

4. Right-click on “EnablePrefetcher” and set the value to ‘0′

5. Reboot.

How to set, view, change, or remove special permissions for files and folders in Windows XP

2009-08-12T04:05:00.000-07:00

Set, view, change, or remove special permissions for files and folders

To set, view, change, or remove special permissions for files and folders:

Click Start, click My Computer, and then locate the file or folder where you want to set special permissions.
Right-click the file or folder, click Properties, and then click the Security tab.
Click Advanced, and then use one of the following steps:
- To set special permissions for an additional group or user, click Add, and then in Name box, type the name of the user or group, and then click OK.
- To view or change special permissions for an existing group or user, click the name of the group or user, and then click Edit.
- To remove an existing group or user and the special permissions, click the name of the group or user, and then click Remove. If the Remove button is unavailable, click to clear the Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here check box, click Remove, and then skip steps 4 and 5.
In the Permissions box, click to select or click to clear the appropriate Allow or Deny check box.
In the Apply onto box, click the folders or subfolders where you want these permissions applied.
To configure security so that the subfolders and files do not inherit these permissions, click to clear the Apply these permissions to objects and/or containers within this container only check box.
Click OK two times, and then click OK in the Advanced Security Settings for FolderName box, where FolderName is the folder name.

CAUTION: You can click to select the Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here check box. Therefore,all subfolders and files have all their permission entries reset to the same permissions as the parent object.If you do this, after you click Apply or OK, you cannot undo this operation if you click to clear the check boxes.

Important: If you are not joined to a domain and you want to view the Security tab:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Click Appearance and Themes, and then click Folder Options.
Click the View tab, and then click to clear the Use simple file sharing [Recommended] check box in the Advanced settings box.

Notes:

The Everyone group does not include the Anonymous Logon permission in Windows XP.
If you click to select the Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here check box, the file or folder inherits permission entries from the parent object.
You can set permissions only on drives that are formatted to use NTFS .
If the check boxes in the Permissions box are not available, the permissions are inherited from the parent folder.
To change permissions, you must be the owner or have permission to change permissions by the owner.
Groups or users who have Full Control permissions for a folder can delete the files and the subfolders in that folder, regardless of the permissions that protect the files and the subfolders.

How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first)

2009-08-12T03:31:00.000-07:00

How to dual-boot Windows XP and Linux. (Now updated for XP SP 3 and Ubuntu 8.04.)

Page 1 - Intro

Updated 5 June 2008 - now uses Ubuntu 8.04 as the Linux distribution.

Scenario: You want to install XP on your machine alongside your existing Linux installation on the same physical drive which already has Ubuntu 8.04 installed.

Tutorial Summary: We'll create space on the Linux partition to install Windows XP. XP bootloader is fairly clumsy when it comes to dualbooting and will overwrite GRUB completely. We'll reinstall GRUB to the MBR and configure it to dualboot both Ubuntu and XP.
Page 2 - Back up the GRUB boot menu

Regardless of which bootloader you end up using, it's a very good move to first back up the GRUB bootloader. It's easy to lose it and unless you know how to re-write it from scratch then you're generally facing a full reinstallation of Ubuntu.

Firstly, boot into Ubuntu and go to Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal. Then, type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst.

This text file contains all the information GRUB uses to configure various boot options. Scroll down and the entries between "## ## End Default Options ##" and "### END DEBIAN AUTOMATIC KERNELS LIST" are the Linux boot options.

Make a backup of the file by going to File, Save As and selecting a different location. Or take a full copy of the contents and place it into a new text file. If you can, create the backup on a removable disk or networked location.
Page 3 - Make space for XP

Now we need to create space on the hard drive for XP, so this will involve resizing the main Ubuntu partition. Restart the system using the Ubuntu Live CD as this gives you access to GNOME Partition Editor. When the CD loads, select "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".

Once the CD loads, go to System, Administration, Partition Editor.

Right-click on the main data partition which has been formatted with ext3 - it should be /dev/sda1 - and select "Resize/Move"

Move the slider from the right to shrink the ext3 partition and create free space on the hard drive, which will take the NTFS XP partition. Make sure that the free space is sufficient to hold XP (at least 2GB - preferably 5GB). Then click "Resize/Move" to confirm the selection, and "Apply" back in the main screen to carry out the pending change.
Page 4 - Install Windows XP

Restart the system with the Windows XP CD and boot into the install program.

Unfortunately XP isn't so adaptive at handling existing partitions during installation. It detects the two Ubuntu partitions and marks then C: and E: accordingly. The remaining unpartitioned space which is available for XP will be marked as F:.

For the operating system and the vast majority of Windows applications which have properly-coded installation scripts, this is not a problem. Some older applications will assume that C: is the system partition and may bring up errors. There are ways of changing the drive letter assignation of the system partition, but in this scenario it's strongly discouraged.

To insult to injury, XP detects the Linux partition as an active system partition and won't install unless it marks this partition as inactive.
Page 5 - Restore the GRUB boot loader

Once XP has been installed, it will boot happily into XP but there's no sign of Ubuntu. To reinstate GRUB as the system bootloader it needs to be reinstalled into the MBR.

Boot the system from the Ubuntu Live CD and select "Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer".

Open a Terminal session - Applications, Accessories, Terminal

To enter the GRUB configuration mode, type in "sudo grub" and press Enter. Then type in the following commands in sequence:
- root (hd0,0)
- setup (hd0)
- quit
- exit

Reboot the system. You'll get the GRUB bootloader but Vista won't be an option - we need to add this to the boot options.

Boot into Ubuntu and open up another Terminal session. Then, type in sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Scroll down to the bottom of the file and type in the following text strings:

title Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Save the file and reboot. When the GRUB loader launches hit ESC for the boot menu. Windows XP is the last option - select it and XP will load.

If you want to make the GRUB menu always available, boot back into Ubuntu and edit the MENU.LST file. Find the hiddenmenu text string and change it to #hiddenmenu.

To increase the menu timeout, change the default timeout 3 to something more appropriate.

How to dual boot Windows XP and Linux (XP installed first)

2009-08-12T03:22:00.000-07:00

How to dual-boot Windows XP and Linux, on a system where you have already installed XP. Easy step-by-step tutorial that doesn't assume prior knowledge of Linux.

Page 1 - Intro

Updated 5 June 2008 to use Ubuntu 8.04 and Windows XP SP3

Scenario: You want the simplest way to dual-boot XP and Linux. You've already installed Windows XP and now want to dual-boot it with Ubuntu 8.04

Summary of tutorial: This is an updated tutorial (we previously used Ubuntu 7.04 and GPartEd (GNOME Partition Editor), but in this tutorial, we'll use Ubuntu 8.04 to make space on the XP partition and then use the GRUB bootloader to dualboot XP and Ubuntu.
Page 2 - Boot Ubuntu from the Live CD

As we're assuming that XP has already been installed (either via an OEM or self-installation) I won't run through the XP installation process. We'll further assume that XP has been installed to a single NTFS partition which takes up the whole disk.

One interesting thing to note though - Ubuntu is happy to read NTFS partitions, so one potential configuration option is to either create a 2nd NTFS partition which will house data for access by both operating systems, or simply a 2nd hard drive, again formatted with NTFS.

Install Ubuntu

You'll need the latest desktop ISO of Ubuntu (8.04). You can choose a list of download mirrors from the Ubuntu website, or use this link from Planetmirror. Download the ISO and burn it to CD to create bootable Ubuntu CD.

Boot the XP machine from the CD and select "Install Ubuntu" from the boot menu.

Once the Live CD has loaded, on the Welcome screen choose your language and select Forward.

On the "Where are you" (timezone) page, select your location and then Forward.

On the next screen, choose the appropriate keyboard layout and then Forward.
Page 3 - Make room on the disk for Ubuntu

Ubuntu will then load the disk partitioner to determine where it's going to be installed. The default option is that Ubuntu will resize the Windows XP NTFS partition to make space for the Ubuntu install. You can drag the dividing line left or right to increase or decrease the amount of space to be freed up.

Once you're happy with the selection, click Forward.

Ubuntu then prompts you to commit the changes (despite what the warning, it won't take very long). Click Continue - the screen disappears and then click Forward again.
Page 4 - Set up Ubuntu

On the "Who are you?" screen, enter your username and password details, then click Forward.

On the Migrate Documents and Settings screen, if Ubuntu finds any user accounts to migrateit will happily import user settings from XP to Ubuntu. If it doesn't find any, obviously this isn't an option. Select as much or as little as you wish and click Forward.

On the "Ready to install" screen, you'll see that Ubuntu now has enough information to commence the installation. In the summary under Migrate Assistant, it should say "Windows XP Professional" along with any user account details you selected in the previous step

This means that regardless of whether Ubuntu found any user account to migrate, it certainly knows that Windows XP is installed on the other partition Click Install.

See the install through and then let it boot into Ubuntu.

When the install is complete the system will reboot. When the GRUB boot menu is displayed, have a look at the last entry in the list.

After the Ubuntu boot options, there will be an entry "Other operating systems" and beneath that "Microsoft Windows XP Professional". By default Ubuntu will load itself after 10 seconds, but you can select the XP option and the OS will boot normally.

The GRUB bootloader is decidedly better than XP's and XP doesn't handle dualbooting non-Microsoft operating systems very well, so there's little point trying to restore the XP bootloader. Be happy with GRUB!

How To Recover CHK Files Created by CHKDSK and SCANDISK

2009-08-12T02:48:00.000-07:00

Recently I received an email asking me how to get back .chk files created by chkdsk or scandisk? Whenever you don’t shutdown your computer properly, before Windows is booted up, you’ll be presented by a blue colored screen that will scan your disk for errors. You have a few seconds to press any key to abort the chkdsk.

Since Windows 98, I’ve been installing many types of software on my computer to test them out. We all know that Windows 98 is very unstable because whenever an application is not responding, ending the task will mostly make the Windows unstable which I can’t even reboot properly. Seems like cold reboot is the only way to restart the computer. After a cold reboot, SCANDISK will appear. Of course I let it scan thinking it can detect and fix problems after an improper reboot but I was wrong. It turned many of my important files into CHK files.

Since that incident, I NEVER allow Windows to ever again perform CHKDSK or SCANDISK to detect and fix hard drive problems by itself. If I am advised to run CHKDISK or SCANDISK, I’d make sure I have proper backup of my important files first. I never understood why Microsoft created CHKDISK or SCANDISK to fix corrupted files and then place them at the root of your drives with the name FileXXXXX.CHK? What’s the point of saving the file there when there is no built-in tool to recover back the .CHK files?

Fortunately there are third party tools that is able to help you recover .CHK files created by CHKDSK and SCANDISK.

You can simply rename all your CHK files to the desired extension and see what works. For example, if you have a Word document file went missing after scandisk, maybe renaming the .chk to .doc might be able to let you open the Word document. It’s tough to identify because there can be many Filexxxx.CHK files at the root of your drive and you don’t know which is which.

The easiest way is to use third party tools to help you check the headers of the CHK file and identify what is the original extension, then renaming it to the correct extension. All 3 free tools below does nearly the same thing and no harm using all of them to recover CHK files.

1. UnCHK by Eric Phelps

UnCHK is a free tool that is able to help you restore CHK files to the original extension. UnCHK can identify the following file types: JPG PSP PSD GIF ZIP CAB EXE DLL OCX WRI BMP DOC PPT XLS PDF RTF HTM WAV MID AVI RAR TIF MP3 WPD FPX EPS CLP. You can add more file types yourself so it can support more extensions. Just drag a good file, drop it on the program and it will read and recognize the header.

[ Download FileCHK by Martin Kratz ]

2. FileCHK by Martin Kratz

That’s right. There is no interface or options for this free tool. FileCHK will check for files named FILE????.CHK in it’s directory and rename those CHK files to the correct extension. FileCHK can identify the following file types: 3DS TIF EXE BMP SWF PSD AI GIF PST CAB RAR CHM MID PDF ZIP HLP MP3 DWG MPG LNK URL HTM JPG TTF MDB MOV QT DOC XLS RMI WAV AVI CDR TXT ASF

[ Download UnCHK by Eric Phelps ]

Note: There is a thorough comparison made by Eric between UnCHK and FileCHK.

3. CHK-Mate

CHK-Mate will examine the contents of the CHK files and determine if the contents are known filetypes, such as MS-Word files or GIF files. When contents are recognized (for example, as a Word document), the CHK files are copied to a new file with the correct file extension (Filexxxx.CHK -> Filexxxx.DOC). The new file extension allows you to easily open the file using the associated program.

If the contents of a CHK file can not be linked to a known filetype, you have the option to extract all the readable text from the CHK file. Use this option to recover information from a CHK file that is perhaps not intact enough to be recovered completely as a known filetype.

[ Download CHK-Mate ]

How to Fix SVCHOST.EXE Application Error 0x745f2780

2009-08-12T00:25:00.000-07:00

The instruction at "Ox745f2780" referenced memory at "0x00000000".
The memory could not be "read"

I came across this error the other day at a customer's house. They have Windows XP Professional with a password set for the main administrator account.

When they turned their computer on and it came up to the user login screen. They were presented with this SVCHOST.EXE error message. The only options the error message allows are to click OK to terminate the program or click Cancel to debug the program. After asking them several questions about what they did before turning the computer off, it became apparent that Windows Update had run before the computer was shut down.

Interestingly enough, even starting the computer in Safe Mode produced the same error. While the event log in Windows XP indicates the faulting application is truly svchost.exe.

How to Repair this SVCHOST.EXE error

After some investigating into the 0X745f2780 SVCHOST error, it became apparent the problem is a corrupted Windows Update in Windows XP. Follow the steps below to fix this error.

Verify Windows Update Service Settings

Click on Start, Run and type the following command in the open box and click OK

services.msc
Find the Automatic Updates service and double-click on it.
Click on the Log On Tab and make sure the "Local System Account" is selected as the logon account and the box for "allow service to interact with desktop" is UNCHECKED.
Under the Hardware Profile section in the Log On Tab, make sure the service is enabled.
On the General Tab, the Startup Type should be Automatic, if not, drop the box down and select Automatic.
Under "Service Status" on the General tab, the service should be Started, click the Start button enable it.
Repeat the steps above for the service "Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)"

Re-Register Windows Update DLLs

Click on Start, Run, and type CMD and click ok
In the black command window type the following command and press Enter

REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL
Wait until you receive the "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded" message and click OK
Repeat the last two steps above for each of the following commands:

REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL

Remove Corrupted Windows Update Files

At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter

net stop WuAuServ
Still at the command prompt,

type cd %windir% and press Enter
In the opened folder, type the following command and press Enter to rename the SoftwareDistribution Folder

ren SoftwareDistribution SD_OLD
Restart the Windows Update Service by typing the following at the command prompt

net start WuAuServ
type Exit and Press Enter to close the command prompt

Reboot Windows

click on Start, Shut Down, and Restart to reboot Windows XP

Although this method may not solve all of the issues with a SVCHOST.EXE Application error, I have found it fixed the problem with the 0x745f2780 reference error.

Other Issues with SVCHOST.EXE

I've encountered other issues with SVCHOST taking up 100% of the CPU Cycles. These issues are usually experienced with Windows Update in some form or another. To fix this frustrating problem, following these steps:

1) Download and install Update for Windows XP (KB927891)
2) Download and install an update for Windows Update Agent WSUS 3.0
3) Restart your computer and your computer should run better with slowing to a crawl because of SVCHOST.EXE

How to dual-boot Vista with XP (with XP installed first)

2009-08-11T20:18:00.000-07:00

Want to install Vista on your PC but don't want to get rid of XP just yet? Here's how to install it so you can dual-boot between them, in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide.

Page 1 - Intro

Scenario: You want to install Vista on your PC alongside your XP installation, on the same drive. You have already installed XP. (If you installed Vista first, see our other tutorial on How to dual-boot Vista and XP - with Vista installed first.)

Tutorial Summary: We're going to shrink the Windows XP partition on the hard disk and create enough space for an installation of Vista. There are two easy methods of doing this - using the GPartEd Live CD and the DISKPART utility on the Vista DVD. On some systems, depending on the primary storage controller, We'll then install Vista and use the EasyBCD utility to modify Vista's bootloader to get XP loading properly.

Updated September 2008: This is an updated tutorial,based on our first Windows XP/Vista dual-booting workshop. The main differences are that we are now using Windows Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 and the latest version of EasyBCD.

This tutorial was tested on a VMWare Workstation 6 virtual machine.

Page 2 - Get Started - Using GParted

We assume that before you start this tutorial, you have backed up the drive (partitions and data) that will host the two operating systems.

Your first step will be to modify the Windows XP system partition to make space for Vista using GParted

The GParted Live CD ISO is available here – burn it to CD and boot the system from the disc. The version we used was 0.3.7-7.

When you boot from the GParted LiveCD, depending on your system, you should just need to select the auto-configuration boot option.

During boot, press Enter twice when prompted to select the keymap and language settings.

When the main GUI loads, right-click on the main Windows XP NTFS partition (depending on your setup, probably /dev/hda1) and select Resize/Move.

Use the slider to reduce the partition size and free up enough room to install Vista (at least 10GB) and click Resize/Move.

The changes haven’t actually been made, they’ve just been scheduled to run. To commit the changes and resize the partition, click Apply. GParted will ask to confirm the changes – hit OK and away you go.

Page 3 - Get Started - Using DISKPART

Boot the machine from the Vista DVD. Select the appropriate language and then "Install Now".

On the product key page, press SHIFT + F10 to launch a Windows PE 2.0 command window. Then type in DISKPART and press enter to get into the DISKPART utility.

Now type in LIST VOLUME - this gives you a readout of the volumes available on the system. Select the main Windows XP volume by typing in SELECT VOLUME 0 (in most cases it will be Volume 0 - in our lab in was Volume 1).

Now type in SHRINK. Vista will reduce the size the selected Volume by around 50%.

Page 4 - Now Install Vista

If you used the GParted LiveCD to shrink the XP partition, you'll need to reboot the system from the Vista install DVD. If you've used DISKPART then you just need to continue the installation. Once the install gets to the install location, there should be at least two options: a partition marked as Primary and unallocated space. Select the unallocated space and click Next. The install will then commence.

The Vista boot manager will take over the system completely, and Windows XP effectively loads via Vista. It’s all pretty seamless though, and you shouldn’t encounter any technical problems.

Page 5 - Modify Vista's Bootloader

Once Vista is installed and the system reboots, you’ll be presented with a boot menu with two options: “Microsoft Windows Vista” and "Earlier Version of Windows”.

This is perhaps a little bit bland, so you’ll probably want to change it. Here’s where one of the new features of Vista comes in, and it’s not so terrific. In Windows XP if you want to modify the bootloader, just right-click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Advanced Tab, and click Settings under Startup and Recovery, then click Edit. This opens a local file – boot.ini. It’s just a standard text file and you can change pretty much anything. Unfortunately it’s not that easy in Vista – you can still navigate to the Startup and Recovery settings, but all you can do is select which operating system is the default and modify the timeout settings.

To edit Vista’s boot manager you have to use the command line BCDEDIT utility. To access BCDEDIT, run the Command Window as an administrator and type in BCDEDIT.

Unfortunately BCDEDIT isn’t an easy tool to come to terms with, especially as it’s purely command line-driven. So, a great tool to use here is EasyBCD by NeoSmart Technologies. EasyBCD offers a GUI frontend to BCDEDIT, and makes life much easier.

Once Vista is installed, call up the browser and navigate to the EasyBCD download page - download the latest version (1.7.2 at the time of writing), install and launch the application.

To configure the bootloader go to “Change Settings”. Here you can change the default OS if you prefer to boot into XP first. Under "Entry-Based Settings" you'll see the field which refers to the the XP partition. Overwrite "Earlier Version of Windows" with "Windows XP" and click "Save Settings".

Reboot the system and the changes are visible. You have a dual-booting Vista and XP system. That's all there is to it.

Open up Windows Explorer and there’s two hard drives – the primary disk running Vista and the secondary disk with XP installed. Restart the system and load up Windows XP, and the XP disk is now the primary, with the Vista partition running on the secondary D: drive

If you decide that dual-booting Vista and XP is not for you, EasyBCD lets you wind back the clock.

All you have to do is remove Vista’s boot manager – go to “Manage Bootloader”, select “Uninstall the Vista Bootloader” and then “Write MBR”. Restart the machine and that’s it – the XP boot loader is the only one left on the system and XP loads. You can then delete the Vista partition and use GParted to re-extend the partition to take up the entire disk, or the Extend command in Vista DISKPART.

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first)

2009-08-11T20:11:00.000-07:00

UPDATED | Got a Vista PC and want to install XP so you can dual-boot between them? Here's how to do it, in an easy, step-by-step format.

Page 1 - Intro

Scenario: You want to install Vista on your PC alongside your XP installation, on the same drive. You have installed Vista already. (If you have XP installed first, check out our earlier tutorial on how to dual boot Vista and XP with XP installed first.)

Tutorial Summary: We need to shrink the Vista partition on the hard disk and create enough space for an installation of XP. This can be done in three ways - using the GPartEd Live CD, the DISKPART utility on the Vista DVD or the Vista Disk Management GUI - and we'll cover all three. We'll then install XP and install EasyBCD to reinstate the Vista bootloader which will be overwritten during the XP installation, and then use EasyBCD to configure Vista's bootloader to boot the XP partition.

Updated September 2008: This is an updated tutorial, based on our first Windows Vista/XP dual-booting workshop. The main differences are that we are now using Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. EasyBCD has also been updated and this makes some of the steps in our first tutorial redundant - the whole process is now easier.
Page 2 - Create Free Space for Windows XP

We assume that before you start this tutorial, you have backed up the drive (partitions and data) that will host the two operating systems.

Your first step will be to modify the Windows Vista system partition to make space for XP using GParted

The GParted Live CD ISO is available here – burn it to CD and boot the system from the disc. The version we used was 0.3.7-7.

When you boot from the GParted LiveCD, depending on your system, you should just need to select the auto-configuration boot option.

Option 1 - Using GPartEd

During boot, press Enter twice when prompted to select the keymap and language settings.

When the main GUI loads, right-click on the main Windows XP NTFS partition (depending on your setup, probably /dev/hda1) and select Resize/Move.

Use the slider to reduce the partition size and free up enough room to install XP (at least 5GB) and click Resize/Move.

Option 2 - Using DISKPART

Boot the machine from the Vista DVD. Select the appropriate language and then "Install Now".

On the product key page, press SHIFT + F10 to launch a Windows PE 2.0 command window. Then type in DISKPART and press enter to get into the DISKPART utility.

Now type in SHRINK. Vista will reduce the size the selected Volume by around 50%.

Option 3 - Using Disk Management

Using the Disk Management GUI is really no different to using DISKPART (it's the GUI frontend to the DISKPART utility), but using the GUI does mean that you can make the changes within Vista before rebooting to install XP, without needing to use the Vista DVD.

Right-click on Computer and select Manage. In Computer Management, expand Storage and select Disk Management.

Right-click the primary partition (the one you need to make space on) and select Shrink Volume

The default values which Vista provides represent a fairly aggressive shrink - as long as the values will give you enough space to install XP, accept the defaults and select Shrink.

Vista will churn away for a moment, and then you'll see the newly-created free space on the primary disk. Now you can reboot and install XP.
Page 3 - Now Install Windows XP

When the Windows XP setup reaches the point where you’re prompted where it is to be installed, you’ll see that while XP can see the space we created earlier, it can also see the partition with Vista on it.

You should be able to see the space you reclaimed on the disk earlier which has become "unallocated space".

Create a second partition using the Windows XP installer screen above by selecting the free space on the drive and pressing "C" to create a partition (if prompted, choose NTFS as the file system.)

Irritatingly, XP assigns a drive letter to this partition (C:) which means that it will use the next available drive letter after all the other physical drives have been taken into account.

This means that the system drive of the XP installation won’t be C:.

From XP’s perspective this isn’t really a problem – it’s smart enough to figure out where everything should go – but some applications make assumptions about where they should install to, and can’t cope with a non-standard Windows configuration.

This was also the case with our tutorial on dualbooting Ubuntu and XP, where Ubuntu had been installed first. However in that scenario, even though the XP system drive had a non-standard drive letter, it couldn’t read the Linux partitions so there was no danger of the two systems overlapping. This is not the case with Vista/XP.

Nonetheless, install XP as normal – there’s no need to do anything differently.

IMPORTANT NOTE – after the initial file copy, Windows XP reboots and loads up the GUI-based component of the install. You may get the following error: “A disk read error occurred – press Ctrl-Alt-Del to continue”. This is caused by a corrupt bootloader – click here to see how to fix this problem.

When the system reboots it won’t bring up a boot menu. Although XP recognises the Vista partition it doesn’t recognise Vista itself. This is because the Windows XP bootloader gets installed to the MBR, thus overwriting the Vista bootloader and so Vista can no longer boot - the XP bootloader can't be made to recognise Vista.

When XP loads, open up Windows Explorer and you’ll see something interesting – a C: and (in this case) an E: drive.

The C: drive contains Windows Vista, and as Windows XP can read NTFS partitions, it can browse and modify Vista’s file structure.

More importantly, applications which have installation paths hard-coded into their install scripts rather than using Windows system parameter variables could easily dump files into C: when they should be installing to E:. This isn’t such a great situation - really the optimal XP/Vista dualboot scenario is to install Vista on a pre-existing XP system.
Page 4 - Restore Vista Bootloader and Enable Dualbooting

We need to restore the Vista bootloader in order to restore Vista functionality and configure Vista/XP dualbooting. In the previous version of this tutorial, we used the Vista DVD to restore the bootloader, and EasyBCD to set up dualbooting.

Since that tutorial was written, EasyBCD has been updated and can now restore the Vista bootloader from within the application. Also, it can be installed on Windows XP, so this means that there's no need for any more reboots or playing with recovery DVDs.

Once the XP system is up and running, download and install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, and then download and install EasyBCD (version 1.7.2 at the time of writing).

Launch the application. EasyBCD isn't looking at the XP bootloader - it has found the bootloader on the Vista partition, so this is what you're directly editing.

Go to the "Add/Remove Entries" tab. You'll see that there's only one option available in the Vista bootloader at the moment. In the "Add an Entry" section, change the Drive in the dropdown menu from C:\ to E:\. Change Type to "Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3", and the Name to "Microsoft Windows XP". Then click "Add Entry" and "Save".

Then go to the "Manage Bootloader" tab. Make sure that "Reinstall the Vista Bootloader" is selected and then click "Write MBR" and restart the system.

On reboot, the Vista bootloader is now active and you'll see two boot options.
Page 5 - Removing Windows XP

If you eventually decide that dualbooting XP as the second OS isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, it’s pretty easy to undo the changes made.

Use EasyBCD to remove the Windows XP boot entry, and then go into Computer Management (right-click on Computer, Manage) and go to Disk Management.

Right-click E: drive (the Windows XP partition) and select Delete Volume.

Right-click the newly-created partition and select Delete Partition.

Then right-click the C: drive (the Vista system partition) and click Extend Volume – this opens up the Extend Volume Wizard.

The wizard gives you a readout on how much space is actually available to extend the partition – enter in how much you want to use and press Next. Vista will extend the system partition to reclaim the disk and Windows is well and truly gone.
Page 6 - Fixing the Corrupt Bootloader

If the Windows XP bootloader corrupts during the install, performing a reinstall won’t fix it, nor will going into the XP Recovery Mode and attempting to repair the MBR.

Luckily, the install was up to the stage where all you need to do is be able to boot from the Windows XP partition, and the install will pick up from where it left off.

To do this you will need to restore the Vista bootloader so that you can then boot into Vista, install EasyBCD and create a boot entry for Windows XP. Once this has been done you can boot into the XP partition and the installation will continue.

Boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you’re prompted to “Install now”, select “Repair your computer”.

The next screen searches for local Vista installations – there should only be one, so click Next.

This loads the System Recovery Options screen. Select the first option – Startup Repair. This looks for problems which would prevent Vista from loading (like a missing bootloader) and automatically fixes them.

If you click on “Click here for diagnostic and repair details” and scroll to the bottom of the list, it shows that the problem detected and repaired was a corrupt boot sector (according to Vista, anyway).

Click Close and then Finish, and the system will restart and boot into Vista. Now you need to download and install EasyBCD, and follow the steps on Page 4 to add a boot entry for Windows XP.

Recovery Console in Windows XP

2009-08-11T20:08:00.001-07:00

This section describes the functionality and limitations of the Windows Recovery Console. The Windows Recovery Console is designed to help you recover when your Windows-based computer does not start properly or does not start at all.

When you use the Windows Recovery Console, you can obtain limited access to NTFS, FAT, and FAT32 volumes without starting the Windows graphical interface. In the Windows Recovery Console you can:

Use, copy, rename or replace operating system files and folders, Enable or disable services or devices from starting when you next start your computer, Repair the file system boot sector or the Master Boot Record (MBR), Create and format partitions on drives.

Note that only an administrator can obtain access to the Windows Recovery Console so that unauthorized users cannot use any NTFS volume. More Information.

To install the Recovery Console as a Startup Option

With Windows running, insert the Setup CD into your CD-ROM drive. Start/Run/X:i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons. Follow the instructions on the screen.

Notes:

To run the Recovery Console, restart your computer and select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems.

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure.

To see the commands available on the Recovery Console, type help at the at the console prompt.

To start the computer and use the Recovery Console

From the Setup CD-ROM

Insert the Setup compact disc (CD) and restart the computer. If prompted, select any options required to boot from the CD.
When the text-based part of Setup begins, follow the prompts; choose the repair or recover option by pressing R. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console. When prompted, type the Administrator password. At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command.

To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

If you have already installed the Recovery Console

During Startup, select Recovery Console from the startup options menu. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console. When prompted, type the Administrator password. At the system prompt, type Recovery Console commands; type help for a list of commands, or help commandname for help on a specific command. To exit the Recovery Console and restart the computer, type exit.

Important Note: Because the Recovery Console is quite powerful, it is recommended for use only by advanced users or administrators.

To Delete the Recovery Console

Open My Computer.
Double-click the hard drive on which you installed the Recovery Console.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
Click the View tab.
Click Show hidden files and folders, clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, and then click OK.
At the root directory, delete the \Cmdcons folder.
At the root directory, delete the file Cmldr.
At the root directory, right-click the Boot.ini file and then click Properties.
Clear the Read-only check box, and then click OK.
Open Boot.ini in Notepad, and remove the entry for the Recovery Console. It will look similar to this:
C:\cmdcons\bootsect.dat="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

Save the file and close it.

Modifying the Boot.ini file incorrectly may prevent your computer from restarting. Be sure to delete only the entry for the Recovery Console. Notes:

To open My Computer, double-click the My Computer icon on the desktop.
It is recommended that you change the attribute for the Boot.ini file back to read-only after you complete this procedure. You may also want to hide your system files again.

The commands available when using the Recovery Console are:
Attrib CD Chdir
Chkdsk Cls Copy
Del Delete Dir
Disable Diskpart Enable
Exit Expand Fixboot
Fixmbr Format Help
Listsvc Logon Map
MD Mkdir More
Rd Ren Rename
Rmdir Type Systemroot

Attrib: Changes the attributes of a file or directory.
Batch: Executes the commands specified in the text file.
ChDir (Cd): Displays the name of the current directory or changes the current directory.
Chkdsk: Checks a disk and displays a status report.
Cls: Clears the screen.
Copy: Copies a single file to another location.
Delete (Del): Deletes one or more files.
Dir: Displays a list of files and subdirectories in a directory.
Disable: Disables a system service or a device driver.
Diskpart: Manages partitions on your hard drives.
Enable: Starts or enables a system service or a device driver.
Exit: Exits the Recovery Console and restarts your computer.
Expand: Extracts a file from a compressed file.
Fixboot: Writes a new partition boot sector onto the system partition.
Fixmbr: Repairs the master boot record of the partition boot sector.
Format: Formats a disk.
Help: Displays a list of the commands you can use in the Recovery Console.
Listsvc: Lists the services and drivers available on the computer.
Logon: Logs on to a Windows 2000 installation.
Map: Displays the drive letter mappings.
Mkdir (Md): Creates a directory.
More: Displays a text file.
Rename (Ren): Renames a single file.
Rmdir (Rd): Deletes a directory.
Set: Displays and sets environment variables.
Systemroot: Sets the current directory to the systemroot directory of the system you are currently logged on to.
Type: Displays a text file.

This list can be obtained in the Console by typing "help" without the quotes.

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses

The bootcfg command is a Microsoft Windows XP Recovery Console command that manipulates the Boot.ini file. This command has a function that can scan your hard disks for Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Windows XP installations, and then add them to an existing Boot.ini file or rebuild a new Boot.ini file, if one does not exist. The bootcfg command enables additional Boot.ini file parameters to be added to existing or new entries.

To use the bootcfg command, start the Recovery Console with the Windows XP CD-ROM, and then click Recovery Console. Or, install the Recovery Console locally, and then select the command from the Boot menu. More Information.

How to Boot Windows Preinstall Environment from a Hard Disk

This section describes how to configure the Windows Preinstall Environment (WinPE) to boot from a hard disk.

NOTE: More than likely the supported methods to boot WinPE (by means of a CD-ROM or from a Remote Installation Services (RIS) server) are the most commonly used methods. The method that is described in this article is provided for
informational purposes. More Information.

Access Floppy Drive from Recovery Console

To enable write access to floppies from within the R.C., click Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Local Security Policy. Under Local Policy, Security Options, double-click "Recovery Console: Allow floppy copy and access to all drives and all folders." Select Enabled, then click OK.

Note: The following steps may also be necessary:

"After you enable the security policy, it must be applied (possibly across the domain) before becoming the effective policy on the local computer. This is necessary before the set command is truly enabled and available for use during a Recovery Console session. You can run the following command to force a refresh of the local computer's policy after performing the policy change listed above: secedit /refreshpolicy machine_policy

After the local policy is refreshed and the enabled Recovery Console security policy is in effect, you should be able to start Recovery Console and use the set command to enable any of the four environment options."

In the Recovery Console, you must then type: set AllowRemovableMedia = TRUE

Accessing Other Folders in Recovery Console

This security policy will also access to files and folders other than the defaults (normally access is restricted to \winnt and \cmdcons). To enable access to other folders, simply boot to the Recovery Console command prompt and type: set AllowAllPaths = true

You will then be able to access other files and folders on your computer. Please keep in mind that this is a potential security problem, and that you should be careful to restrict physical access to computers that are configured in this way.

Fixing Windows XP Search Companion User Interface

2009-08-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Have you come across a situation where the Windows XP Search Companion window is completely blank, except for the search dog showing up at the bottom of the search pane? You can fix this problem by registering a couple of system DLLs.

If the Search Companion registration is broken, the Search window may be completely blank. In some cases it may default to Windows Classic search (which may work fine) even though the Search Companion is enabled.

Tip: To switch to Classic Search in Explorer, read this article from PCTools Website. Alternately, you can use the Tweak UI PowerToy to switch from Search Companion to Classic Search, and vice versa.

Fixing Windows XP Search Companion User Interface

1. Login as Administrator or equivalent.

2. Click Start, Run. Execute the following commands:

regsvr32 /i %windir%\srchasst\srchui.dll

regsvr32 %windir%\system32\jscript.dll

You should see the message DllRegisterServer in succeeded. for each DLL registered.

Logoff and login back (just in case the changes don’t take effect) and check if the Search Companion User Interface is displayed correctly. If it doesn’t, repair the search assistant components using Srchasst.inf.

Reinstalling the Search Companion using Srchasst.inf

Click Start, Run. Type %systemroot%\inf, and then click OK

Locate the file named SRCHASST.INF, right-click and choose Install. Note that the file extension (.INF) is not shown in Windows Explorer unless the Hide extensions for known file types setting is disabled in Control Panel / Folder Options / View tab.

In the next step, you’ll be asked for the Windows XP CD (to extract msgr3en.dll and other files). Insert your Windows XP CD and point to the i386 folder in the CD. The i386 folder is usually located at the root of the drive (e.g. E:\I386). However, if you’ve installed SP1/SP2 or SP3 separately after installing Windows XP, you need to point to the "%windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386" folder when prompted.

Search Companion is reinstalled now. Note that the above fixes don’t help resolve search index related issues.

How to fix: NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart

2009-08-11T19:20:00.000-07:00

f you got this on Windows Vista

Windows Vista does not boot like previous versions, you can keep reading my page to boot into an existing installation of 98/NT/2000/XP, but if you have just a single Vista install and nothing else, "NeoSmart.net" has a fantastic article on "Recovering the Windows Vista Bootloader from the DVD" and an awesome program called EasyBCD. It looks like they are doing great things over there for getting the problem resolved on Vista.

If you got this on Windows XP (or Windows 2000, or NT4, or Windows 98)

Keep Reading.

What happened? (How NTLDR works and why your PC can't find it)

When your computer starts, the BIOS attempts to find the primary hard drive's active partition to read the first sector for the MBR (Master Boot Record), it uses that info to load the rest of the OS. For Windows NT4/2k/XP the MBR is pointed to the NTLDR (New Technology Loader) and it takes it from there. If you get the "NTLDR is missing, press any key to restart" what's most likely going on is the BIOS either didn't look for the right drive, didn't find the right partition, it wasn't active, didn't find the MBR, or the MBR didn't list NTLDR in the right place, the location of NTLDR changed, or you are looking at a hardware failure situation (memory/cables/drive/motherboard/etc).

The first thing to do is try to change back whatever hardware or software change you just made (this could be as simple as leaving a floppy disk in the drive or you need to reseat the cables). If the contents of the drive are especially important and you have no backups, I would recommend removing the hard drive, placing in an enclosure, and backing up the data first, in fact, backup all of your computers. (What if I made new changes that I want to keep?).

Make a NTLDR boot disk to get back into Windows.

The quick test to make sure your OS installation is still good is to create an MBR and NTLDR on a floppy disk and check if you can just boot back up into your system, this disk will check many of the partitions for a working windows installation. Here are the instructions to do this:

1. Get a blank floppy/cd-r/usb (whatever is on it will be erased), and put it into a working computer.

2. If you have a working Windows machine download my fix: Floppy fixntldr.exe | CD-R fixntldriso.zip | USB ntldrusb.zip onto a working computer (Backup copies of these files available at http://ntldrismissing.com )
(What if I don't want to download a file from a website I don't trust?). (64 bit WinXP Floppy 64ntflop.exe | CD-R 64ntiso.zip | Files 64ntfile.zip)
Do you remember if the broken computers had the Windows installation in "Windows"? If you can't remember just keep going (What if it was not named Windows but WINNT like in NT4 or 2000?) .
(If your backup system is NT4 or Windows 2000: What if my backup system is Mac / Linux or another alt OS?).

3. Make the new boot disk:
*Floppy: Don't put the fixntldr.exe on your floppy drive, but the file on your desktop or anywhere on your C:\ drive. Run the fixntldr.exe file by double clicking it. Click OK to overwrite the blank floppy disc in the working computer, you should see some screens about writing a new floppy disk. (If you don't like running an exe from me, you can run fixntldr_RawRite.zip and just replace the RawRite.exe file inside with one you trust) (now go to step 4)
*CD-R: This is not a normal file you burn to a CD, it is an "ISO" file, you must first extract the fixntldriso.zip file by right clicking it and choosing "Extract All" then Next>Next>Finish then download a program called "ISO Recorder" from here http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm (Windows 2000 users use Active ISO Burner IsoBurner-Setup.exe) and install it. Once it's installed, right click the fixntldr.iso file and choose to "Copy image to CD" or "Burn ISO file" and let it burn the cd (now go to step 4)
*USB: Right click the ntldrusb.zip file and choose "Extract All" Next>Next>Finish
Then Insert your USB Stick into the working computer (remove any other USB sticks, and be sure there isn't anything on the USB stick that you want since we are about to erase it);
Double-click HPUSBFW.EXE in the ntldrusb folder;
Check "Create a DOS startup disk" and "using DOS system files located at" then press the grey button with the "...";
A box will come up asking you which folder to select, point it to the "dos system files" folder;
Press OK; Press Start; Press Yes; Let it run for just a few minutes till a new box comes up; Press OK; Press Close;
Open the "putonusb" folder, copy all the files, paste them onto the usb stick (just in the root of the drive, like E:\);
Eject the USB Stick; Remove it from your computer;
Place it into the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" issue, reboot it.
You will see the Windows 98 screen pop up for a second, then you will see a black screen with white letters prompting you to "replace boot sector of the drive C: (y/n)", press the y key;
It will go to a C:\ prompt, reboot the computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del; (now go to step 4)

4. Put the new floppy/cd-r/usb you have just created into the computer that gets the NTLDR is missing error message, turn the broken computer off.

Using the boot disk in the computer with the "NTLDR is missing" error.

Start back up the broken computer with the floppy/cd-r/usb inside it/plugged into it. Once your computer gets past the BIOS screen your computer should try to access the boot disk and you should see a black screen with white letters (What if I don't see this screen?). that says:

1ST TRY THIS seleccione esto primero
2ND TRY THIS essayez ceci en deuzieme
3RD TRY THIS wahlen Sie diesen Third
4TH TRY THIS selezioni questo fourth
5TH TRY THIS selecione este fifth
6TH TRY THIS seleccione este sexto
7TH TRY THIS essayez ceci en septieme
8TH TRY THIS wahlen Sie dieses achte
9TH TRY THIS selezioni questo nono
10TH TRY THIS selecione este decimo

(I threw in some Spanish / French / German / Italian / Portuguese for international flavor.)

This file is set up to automatically select the "1ST TRY THIS" choice after 30 seconds. Try it first, if it was the wrong selection, you will likely get one of these four errors:

1. Windows could not start because file "\system32\hal.dll was missing or corrupt

2. Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.

3. I/O Error accessing boot sector file multi(0)disk(0)fdisk(0)\BOOTSECT.DOS

4. Immediate reboot

If you get the immediate reboot or some other weird error, try pressing F8 at the "1st Try This" selection screen, it will give you a prompt where you can select Safe Mode, and then try the "1st Try This" option again. Safe Mode is a special "minimal" version of Windows that doesn't load certain parts of the operating system that might have caused the problem.

One of the choices should eventually boot you back into Windows. (What if none of the options worked?) .

Use windows to fix the boot files on the hard drive. Please Donate :-)

If you got back into Windows, stop whatever you are doing and backup your most important information from this computer.

Now that you are done backing up the most important info, try to change back whatever you were last doing and boot normally, it that doesn't work, put the floppy back into the broken computer and double click the fixntldr.bat file on the floppy drive, if it asks you to overwrite a file, just type in y for yes (the file copies boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com from the floppy to the C:\ drive and removes the read only attributes). That process take a few minutes, then remove the floppy and reboot.

If you are using the cd or usb solution, copy the boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com files to My Computer > Local Disk C:\ > and overwite whatever files might be there, then right click each file, choose properties, uncheck the Read Only attribute, and click OK.

If you get back into Windows again, you can change that "1st Try This" menu by going into Start > Control Panel > PerformanceAndMaintenance/System > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery section, Settings button > System Startup; then change the "Default Operating System:" to the selection that worked for you, and change the box that says "Time to display list of operating systems" to however many seconds you want (usually 1 second). Click OK twice. (screenshots)

If you copy the file over and boot up and get a "NTLDR is compressed" error message, be sure to uncheck "compress contents to save space" on the hard drive.

(What if the bootdisk worked, but I can't get into Windows without it?) .

(What if I want to do further research?) . (Can I read other peoples questions and your answers? Sure: http://m-ntldrismissing.blogspot.com/ )

Conficker Worm: Help Protect Windows from Conficker

2009-08-11T19:07:00.000-07:00

This page is designed to provide IT Pro customers the information they need to help protect their systems from the Conficker Worm, or to recover systems that have been infected.

If you are a consumer, please visit Protect Yourself from the Conficker Computer Worm.

About Conficker

On October 23, 2008, Microsoft released a critical security update, MS08-067, to resolve a vulnerability in the Server service of Windows that, at the time of release, was facing targeted, limited attack. The vulnerability could allow an anonymous attacker to successfully take full control of a vulnerable system through a network-based attack, the sort of vectors typically associated with network "worms." Since the release of MS08-067, the Microsoft Malware Protection Center (MMPC) has identified the following variants of Win32/Conficker:

Worm:Win32/Conficker.A: identified by the MMPC on November 21, 2008
Worm:Win32/Conficker.B: identified by the MMPC on December 29, 2008
Worm:Win32/Conficker.C: identified by the MMPC on February 20, 2009*
Worm:Win32/Conficker.D: identified by the MMPC on March 4, 2009**
Worm:Win32/Conficker.E: identified by the MMPC on April 8, 2009

	*Also known as Conficker B++
	**Also known as Conficker.C and Downadup.C

Protecting PCs from Conficker

Apply the security update associated with MS08-067. View the security bulletin for more information about the vulnerability, affected software, detection and deployment tools and guidance, and security update deployment information.
Make sure you are running up-to-date antivirus software from a trusted vendor, such as Microsoft's Forefront Client Security or Windows Live OneCare. Antivirus software may also be obtained from trusted third parties such as the members of the Virus Information Alliance.
Check for updated protections for security software or devices, such as antivirus, network-based intrusion detection systems, or host-based intrusion prevention systems. The Microsoft Active Protection Program (MAPP) provides partners with early access to Microsoft vulnerability information. For a list of partners and links to their active protections, please visit the MAPP Partners page.
Isolate legacy systems using the methods outlined in the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98 Threat Mitigation Guide.
Implement strong passwords as outlined in the Creating a Strong Password Policy whitepaper.
Disable the AutoPlay feature through the registry or using Group Policies as discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 967715. Microsoft released Security Advisory 967940 to notify users that the updates to allow users to disable AutoPlay/AutoRun capabilities have been deployed via automatic updating channels.
NOTE: Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 customers must deploy the update associated with Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 967715 to be able to successfully disable the AutoRun feature. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 customers must deploy the security update associated with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-038 to be able to successfully disable the AutoRun feature.

Cleaning Systems of Conficker

Manually download the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) onto uninfected PCs and deploy to infected PCs to clean infected systems.

Conficker Timeline

On November 21, 2008, the MMPC identified Worm:Win32/Conficker.A. This worm seeks to propagate itself by exploiting the vulnerability addressed in MS08-067 through network-based attacks. The MMPC added signatures and detection to Microsoft Forefront, Microsoft OneCare, and the Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner on the same day.
On November 25, 2008, the MMPC communicated information about Worm:Win32/Conficker.A through their weblog.
On December 29, 2008, the MMPC identified the second variant, Worm:Win32/Conficker.B, and added signatures and detection to Microsoft Forefront, Microsoft OneCare, and the Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner on the same day.
NOTE: Worm:Win32/Conficker.B can be successful against systems that have applied the security update associated with MS08-067.
On December 31, 2008, the MMPC communicated information about Worm:Win32/Conficker.B through their weblog.
On January 13, 2009, the MMPC included the ability to remove both Worm:Win32/Conficker.A and Worm:Win32/Conficker.B in the January 2009 release of the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool and communicated information about this through their weblog.
On January 22, 2009, the MMPC provided consolidated technical information about Worm:Win32/Conficker.B on their weblog.
On February 12, 2009, the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) released information about domains that Conficker-infected systems try to connect to. Microsoft also announced information on a partnership with technology industry and academic leaders designed to disable domains targeted by Conficker.
On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced a U.S. $250,000 reward for information that results in the arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally launching the Conficker malicious code on the Internet. Microsoft's reward offer stems from the company's recognition that the Conficker worm is a criminal attack. Microsoft wants to help the authorities catch the criminals responsible for it. Residents of any country are eligible for the reward, in accordance with the laws of that country, because Internet viruses affect the Internet community worldwide.
On February 20, 2009, the MMPC provided technical information about Worm:Win32/Conficker.C on their weblog.
On March 27, 2009, the MMPC provided more details about the new P2P functionality in Worm:Win32/Conficker.D on their weblog.

Linux change ip address

2009-08-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

Q. How do I change ip address in Linux?

A. There are different ways to change IP address in Linux
(a) Command Line tools

(b) Modify configuration files

Task: Display current IP address and setting for network interface called eth0

Use ifconfig command:
# ifconfig eth0
Output:

eth0
Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:30:48:5A:BF:46
inet addr:10.5.123.2  Bcast:10.5.123.63  Mask:255.255.255.192
inet6 addr: fe80::230:48ff:fe5a:bf46/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
RX packets:728204 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1097451 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:62774749 (59.8 MiB)  TX bytes:1584343634 (1.4 GiB)
Interrupt:177

Task: Change IP address

You can change ip address using ifconfig command itself. To set IP address 192.168.1.5, enter command:
# ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.5 netmask 255.255.255.0 up # ifconfig eth0

To make permanent changes to IP address you need to edit configuration file according to your Linux distribution.

Is your PC running slow...?

2009-08-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

Or at least, slower than normal? Don’t quite know what’s wrong?OK, let’s see if we can help. Most people immediately think “Malware” at this point. But that’s not always the case. Yes, some malware does indeed slow down your system and use up precious resources. But there are other possible causes as well, so let’s explore some of these, and look at some ideas to help.Is your PC clean?And by that I mean – is it free from dust and dirt? Dust and dirt builds up inside a computer and this can affect your cooling fans, reducing the amount of airflow. Reduced airflow can cause your processor to overheat resulting in slow operation or even unexpected shutdowns. Many of today’s processors have the ability to “throttle back” (slow down) if the core temperature reaches a certain threshold. Cleaning the inside of your system is relatively easy – you just need to take some sensible precautions. A useful guide to PC cleaning can be found here.Clear out your Temp files. Why? Well temp files can build up over time and eat into your precious disk space. When you install programmes, the installer uses temp (temporary) files as part of the set up process. Some programmes also use temp files when in use. These temp files should be removed when the installer or programme is finished, but this does not always happen. And, of course, your browser will collect temp files as well. A build up of temp files could leave Windows struggling to find room for its swap file (see below) – so everything slows down.How do you clean out temp files? There are two easy ways – manually or by using a proprietary cleaning programme. Note that the cleaning programmes will often offer the option to clear out Temporary files created by your browser.Manually (XP & Vista) – Firstly, exit all programmes, including browsers and AVs. Go to Start > Run and type %Temp% in the Run box and click OK. A folder will appear – it will contain temp files and temp folders. If you want to delete everything, press Ctrl+A (to select all) and then press the delete key. If you want to keep any files then hold down the Ctrl key and left click the file or folder. Then press the delete key. Click OK to confirm deletion. Once done, remember to go to your Recycle Bin and empty the bin.Cleaning Programmes – there are various such programmes available for free. Among the best areATF Cleaner CCleaner Cleanup!Don’t forget XP does have it’s own utility for cleaning – it can be found via Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup.Any old programmes?Do you still have some old programmes installed? When did you last use them? Remember that ‘trial’ software you installed? Has the trial period expired? Could you perhaps uninstall it (assuming you have the original installation disks)? Uninstalling such programmes will help free vital disk space. Oh, always re-boot after uninstalling – it helps to clear away the final remnants of an uninstalled programme.Are you using unnecessary programmes? By this I mean some of the numerous “enhancement” programmes available, that, while they may make your desktop look terribly exciting, are actually eating up precious resources. Things like third party screensavers and fancy wallpapers, Windows Taskbar replacements, WindowBlinds, Actual Transparent Window, XP Visual Styles, Stardock Theme Manager and so on. Nothing wrong with using them – they are all respected legitimate applications – but they may be contributing towards the slow down of your system.Reduce the number of programmes loading at start upMany applications insist on starting either the complete programme or a component of the programme whenever Windows starts. Many of these start ups are unnecessary and can be stopped. A good way to review the number of start up programmes is by using a start up manager utility, such as Spybot Search & Destroy, StartUpLite or Autoruns. In Spybot, you’ll need to click Mode > Advanced to ensure you have access to the Tools section, then select System Startup in the left pane. A list of programmes that start when you boot up will be displayed in the right pane. You simply uncheck the ones you don’t need. StartUpLite is very easy – just download the small file and double click StartUpLite.exe. A box appears showing programmes that don’t need to startup at boot. Choose whichever options you prefer and click Continue.Autoruns gives you similar information, although presented in a slightly different way, and with more detail. Again, you simply uncheck a box beside the entry you wish to disable.Remember to research a start up if you are not sure what it is – some of the entries that may appear and which can safely be disabled are things like Update Schedule entries for Adobe Acrobat, Sun Java, QuickTime and so on. If in doubt, post in our Forums, choosing the Forum that’s relevant to your Operating System. Alternatively, you can check Startup items here.Note: You should NOT use MSConfig to permanently disable programmes from automatically starting at boot up. This utility is meant as a trouble-shooter – not a long term solution. If you uninstall a programme that has already been disabled using MSConfig, then it’s likely there will be orphaned Registry entries left behind. These could cause potential problems when trying to start your system. Use one of the start up managers mentioned above.Do you have enough RAM? Lack of memory can be a real issue, especially with today’s high performance machines and Operating Systems (OS). If you’re using Windows (and let’s face it, most of us are) then you need to ensure you have the appropriate amount of RAM for your system. Microsoft list “minimum requirements” with each OS – but they are in the business of selling software. That’s why their “minimum requirements” are always at the lower end of the scale. There are numerous sites around that will advise you need “x” amount for XP and “y” amount for Vista. As a general rule, Vista works well with 2GB and XP with 1GB. You can use more, of course, but as a minimum these figures are accurate.If you don’t have very much RAM, what happens? Well, Windows loads programmes into memory to allow fast access. When it has no more memory left, it will start using your hard disk. This is much slower than using RAM, so your programmes will appear to run more slowly. The part of the hard disk used by Windows is called a swap file. So, a lack of RAM can also eat into your hard disk space as well.RAM is not terribly expensive at the moment, so it makes sense to upgrade. You can find out what type of RAM you need by downloading PCWizard – a system analyser (it’s free!) or going to one of the manufacturer’s sites such as Crucial and using their memory advisor tool. Once you know the type of RAM you need, there are plenty of online stores to choose from.See here for a guide to installing your RAM.Defrag your hard diskOver a period of time, data written to your hard disk becomes fragmented or scattered all over the disk. This makes it harder for the system to find the data it needs. By defragging your disk, or putting the data in a more logical sequence, your system performance will improve. NOTE: Windows will not let you defrag a drive if there is less than 15% free space available. Keep an eye on your free space!You could use a defragging utility such as Sysinternals PageDefrag – this is free and easy to use.For a guide to defragging seehere for XP here for VistaWhat about my swap file?You can change the settings on your swap file to allow Windows to have more disk space to play with. This disk space is also known as Virtual Memory. For a 32 bit Operating System (which most users will have) set any amount up to a maximum of 4Gb. Try and at least match the amount of RAM in your system. Of course, you will need to have enough free disk space for this swap file.Useful step-by-step guides can be found here for Win98 and XP here for VistaSomething else to consider is that the swap file should not be fragmented in order to obtain the best results. This can be done by selecting ‘No swap file’, rebooting (you have to do this, to apply the changes), defragging the drive and then resetting the swap file to a size of your choosing. The swap file will now be an area of the maximum contiguous (uninterrupted) free space – and therefore optimum performance.Note: When choosing a value it is often suggested to set a static size swap file – set the Initial and Maximum amounts to the same value. This saves Windows from using resources to manage a dynamic swap file. Does your hard disk contain errors? A hard disk will not last forever. Even a new hard disk can have problems. However, many problems can be fixed, simply by running a Windows utility called ChkDsk. This will scan your hard disk and repair any file system errors while verifying the integrity of the drive. Guides from Microsoft on using ChkDsk can be foundhere for XP here for VistaDo your System Files contain errors? Sometimes critical system files may become damaged or corrupt. This will obviously affect your computer’s performance. However, Windows has the ability to replace any damaged files on its own – this facility is called Windows File Protection. It can be started manually by typing a simple command into the Run box - sfc /scannow. This command immediately starts the Windows File Protection utility and it then checks and scans all system files to ensure their integrity.For users with a pre-installed version of XP, sfc may ask you for your Windows CD in order to copy the relevant files. If you don’t have a Windows CD or if sfc cannot find the files it needs, please refer to Marc Liron’s article below.For users who installed Service Pack 2 for XP by downloading from the internet, sfc may ask you for an XP SP2 CD – which you won’t have. You may need to create a slipstreamed CD to ensure sfc works correctly. Slipstreaming is simply a way of incorporating SP2 into your Windows installation – you create a new disk with Windows and SP2 all in one. Guides to slipstreaming can be found here and here, and a useful programme called Autostreamer, which does most of the work for you, can be downloaded here.A detailed guide to using Windows File Protection with XP can be found here – it’s written by Microsoft MVP Marc Liron.Note that Windows File Protection in Vista is now called Windows Resource Protection which, as well as protecting critical files, also protects the Registry. However, the basic principles are the same. To run the sfc command in Vista, you must be logged in as an Administrator.A guide to using WRP in Vista can be found here.Stopping unnecessary servicesWindows generally comes with a raft of running services, many of which are not really required. You can safely stop some of these services and improve the boot time and speed of your system. Many installed programmes make themselves start up as soon as you boot the PC. They just run in the background, even although you don’t actually use them. Usually these programmes can be stopped from automatically loading – if you need to start them, you can do this manually.One service that often causes a system to slow down is the Indexing Service – this can be turned off – see here for a guide.For services guides seehere for Windows 2000 here for XP SP2 here for VistaDriver/Device ConflictsAre all your hardware drivers up to date? Using an out of date driver could cause hardware conflicts and crash your system. Have a look at Microsoft’s suggestions on troubleshooting driver/device conflicts here.Internet ExplorerIE 7 includes a phishing filter – very useful indeed. But it can slow down your browsing as the filter checks each web page. Have a look at Microsoft’s suggestions on this here.Anti Virus ProgrammesNever use more than one Anti Virus. Although it might sound like a great idea to run two or more, in reality it’s not. AVs usually have a ‘real time’ monitor that helps protect your system. This monitor will want to have a look at any file that changes or has been added to the system. If you have 2 AVs then every time one looks at a file, the other AV will think that file has changed so it will want to take a look as well. Now the second AV thinks that file has changed so it wants another look. So, of course, the first AV thinks that file has changed….you get the idea. You could end up with an unstable system, a really slow system or unexplained crashes.And finally…Having done all your tweaks and clean ups, create a new System Restore point – this gives you a ‘fall back’ position with all your new changes.A guide to manually creating a System Restore point in XP can be found here and one for Vista can be found here.No more problems? Excellent – be sure to revisit this article to help keep your system running smoothly.Still having problems? Well, it could indeed be malware – please start here and follow the instructions to receive assistance.

BEST WAY TO LEGALLLY OWN A FREE RAPIDSHARE 1 year PREMIUM ACCOUNT.

2009-08-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

Follow these steps:
1. Create a paypal PREMIUM Account at this address. It is free;

http://www.paypal.com

When asked for credit card details simply say cancel. You do not need to fill it.

2.Then go to the following link;
http://www.AWSurveys.com/HomeMain.cfm?RefID=anepat
Join this site. It is also free. You get paid for completing surveys over there 6$ to 4$ dollars per survey and 1.25$ per referral thats a lot u will get a
premium account of 1 year in weeks time ......i myself have a 1 year premium account and now i am collecting some exta cash .

3.Another thing you can also use paypal money to buy stuff on ebay and other shopping sites.

4.Thats is it. So Simple and I swear it works.

Hacking XP Vista Server2008 Admin Password

2009-08-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

hey u can also crack admin windows password with this software named "Trinity Rescue Kit"
It is simple to use and works 100%.
U can download it from the following link:
http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?pid=1&wpid=5&p_node=1&edit_pid=5&front_id=12
this is linux based software.

Microsoft Security Update Alert

2009-08-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Microsoft became aware of attacks on some customers involving a security
vulnerability in the Windows Meta File (WMF) code area in the Windows
platform. Windows Meta Files are image files used by popular applications
such as Microsoft Word.

Exploits have typically been used to install spyware and adware, although
the threat of virus and worm exploits exists. Users can be infected simply
by visiting a web site with an image file containing the WMF exploit.

Microsoft is urging customers to be cautious when opening e-mail and links
in e-mail from untrusted sources. They further encouraged customers to keep
anti-virus software up-to-date.

1/5/06
Microsoft has released a patch for the Windows WMF flaw today in response to consumer inquiries. Earlier reports suggest Microsoft was not releasing this patch until the 10th.

Windows Meta File (WMF) vulnerability patch for Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2

These following software updates can be found HERE for the following O.S

Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2

Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based Systems and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with SP1 for Itanium-based Systems

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

What you should know before installing Windows XP SP3

2009-08-03T11:28:00.000-07:00

After a week-long delay to take care of a last-minute compatibility bug, Microsoft Tuesday gave the green light to Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3).

The service pack, undoubtedly the last for the aged operating system, was released Tuesday to Windows Update as an optional upgrade, and standalone executables were added to Microsoft's download servers.

To paraphrase -- and, at the same time, contradict -- Winston Churchill, although this isn't the end of Windows XP, it's certainly the beginning of the end. But we come not to bury XP, but to praise it -- and to answer a few last-minute questions now that it's really, truly, yes-indeed available to anyone who wants it.

Can I really get Windows XP SP3 now? Yes. You can grab it from Windows Update (WU) or download a standalone installer from Microsoft's Web site.

Will Windows Update automatically download and install XP SP3? Not yet. Instead, you must choose "Windows Update" from the Start Menu, then click on either "Express" or "Custom." In both cases, WU will offer XP SP3. In fact, it will offer SP3 before any other update or patch.

To start the 30-minute process, click the "Install Updates" button.

Microsoft has said it will flip the switch for automatic download and install -- the setting that most users have ticked in WU -- sometime this summer. Others have speculated that the push date has already been slated for June 10.

Where's the standalone installer? As is its policy, Microsoft has also posted a much larger installation file that doesn't require WU. The XP SP3 standalone installer, which weighs in a 316MB, can be found here .

Anything I should know before starting the update? You could just jump into the fray, but Microsoft has a whole list of steps it recommends prior to installing XP SP3. The list talks about prerequisites and hard disk requirements, mentions (but doesn't recommend) disabling anti-virus protection and suggests several other moves, including making a full backup before you begin.

That document is also a good resource, or at least a good starting point, for troubleshooting a balky XP SP3 update; it includes information on a host of potential error messages.

You also need to uninstall any now-obsolete release candidate or beta of SP3 that you've stuck on the system. We covered that in an earlier FAQ under the section "Do I need to prep my PC for the final version of SP3 if I've installed one of the early versions?"

Anything else? Yes. Microsoft has warned users of Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that they won't be able to easily revert to the older IE6 once they've upgraded to XP SP3. And in other browser news, the company's also told users who have installed IE8 Beta 1 that they won't be seeing SP3 on Windows Update.

To do otherwise, according to a long post to the IE development team blog, would invite stability problems.

Microsoft recommends that users who want to retain the ability to downgrade from IE7 to IE6 should uninstall the former before upgrading to XP SP3. Once Windows XP has been updated to SP3, users can then install IE7 and if necessary, later restore IE6. IE8 Beta 1 users should also uninstall the preview before upgrading, Microsoft says.

Why did Microsoft delay rolling out XP SP3 for a week? The company said it had only recently discovered a compatibility bug in the retail point-of-sale software it sells to businesses that cropped up in XP SP3 (and also the newest version of Windows Vista , SP1). As a result, it postponed the expected April 29 release date.

According to a message posted to the support forum for Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS) on April 24, the company had identified problems, including data loss and corruption, when the software was run in Vista SP1. Only after it announced XP SP3's delay, however, did Microsoft confirm that the same bug affected RMS when it was installed on a PC running XP SP3.

Once Microsoft had created and deployed filters to WU so that machines running RMS would not be offered the XP SP3 update, it cranked up delivery.

What's new in XP SP3? As we've said before, not much. It does include a few new features, however, which are spelled out in this overview. The biggest change, at least in terms of the number of users it will impact, is the modification to product activation. New installations of Windows XP SP3 will give users the same 30-day grace period currently offered to Vista customers before they're required to enter a product activation key.

The change is only for new installations and doesn't come into play if you upgrade from SP2 or an even earlier edition of XP. If you're just updating, you shouldn't be asked for a product key.

What's been fixed in XP SP3? Lots, according to the official list that Microsoft published. The list, which you can view here is long. By our count, the service pack contains 1,174 individual patches and hotfixes, essentially every one that Microsoft's issued since it rolled out XP SP2 in 2004.

And the list is remarkably up-to-date. For example, the most recent security patch that applies to Windows XP -- MS08-025, a fix for a flaw in the kernel that was issued April 8 -- is included.

What if I have problems upgrading to SP3? Normally, Microsoft refers users who obtained XP as part of a new PC to the computer manufacturer or reseller when problems pop up, or charges $59 per support request to answer questions. But as is its practice with service packs, Microsoft will provide free support for any XP SP3 installation or compatibility issue. You can reach support free-of-charge by telephone, e-mail or real-time chat.

The place to start is this XP SP3-specific page on Microsoft's Help and Support site.

Will XP SP3 be available at retail? Nope. Microsoft confirmed today that XP SP3 will not be shrink-wrapped for store shelves. "Windows XP SP3 is available to OEMs as an option for some of their product lines [and] for Volume License customers to simplify maintenance of their Windows XP machines," a company spokeswoman said after noting that others won't see SP3 as a separate product.

That means you'll have to do an after-the-fact update to SP3 on any newly-purchased-and-installed copy of Windows XP.

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