Windows and Software Tips and Tricks - Page 3 |
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| CONTENTS This is Page 3 of four pages of Tips and Tricks. Page 1 contains the latest additions, which appear at the top of the list. Click here! to go to Page 2 Click here! to go to Page 4 |
Scroll down the list of links below, and click an article's heading to go to that information. - Use your browser's Back button to return here.
1. - Troubleshooting system lockup problems
3. - Connect a notebook computer and a mobile phone to the Internet
4. - A fast computer, so why such slow document handling?
5. - Dial-up modem drivers for Linux
6. - How to use all of the options available with the Registry Checker in Windows 98/Me
7. - How to change or restore previous file associations in Windows 95/98/Me/XP
8. - You have auto-updated Windows XP and the system just keeps rebooting
9. - "Low system resources" messages with Windows 95/98/Me systems
10. - How to use two or more computers with one keyboard, monitor, and mouse
11. - Disabling the Windows XP zip-file support
12. - When a Windows XP device driver fails to install
13. - How to make sure that Windows XP is activated
14. - Problems with the Windows XP Search feature?
15. - The wonder that is the Google search engine - and other search information
16. - Power management options disabled in the BIOS have made Windows XP fail to install?
17. - How to keep your system secure for free
18. - How to recover data files from a corrupt hard disk drive
19. - How to rectify mangled Outlook XP messages
20. - Making web links function as they should in Outlook Express
| This is Page 3 of four pages of Tips and Tricks. Page 1 contains the latest additions, which appear at the top of the list. Click here! to go to Page 2 Click here! to go to Page 4 |
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The vast majority of complete system lock-ups are hardware related, but may also be caused by software problems.
The main causes of hardware-related lock-ups are heating problems and faulty power supply units.
To troubleshoot complete lock-ups, start by opening the case, removing devices - the heatsink and fan unit and processor, RAM modules, adapter cards, etc. - and re-seating them. This often solves problems caused by the expansion of interfaces when the system warms up. The cool device doesn't make proper contact with its interface.
Cases are opened in various ways. The most common are by removing screws at the back of the case and sliding the cover backwards and off, or by holding the bottom of the front of the case and pulling the whole front fitting off, and then removing one or more screws in order to slide off the side panels.
Many too many computers are assembled using cheap or badly made components - motherboards that don't carry their manufacturer's name - cheap power supply units - and RAM modules marked with the names of unknown manufacturers. Because the process of manufacture involves very expensive equipment, the RAM chips used to construct RAM modules are produced by only a few companies, and they all mark their chips. Thus, when chips with unknown trade marks are encountered, they must have been remarked. Why? - Probably because they are inferior chips that were intended for non-computer use. RAM has to provide 100 percent error-free performance, otherwise it will be a source of all sorts of system problems.
A good way to discover the well-known RAM chip manufacturers would be to enter the term "RAM manufacturers" in the Google search box at the top of this page. If the name on the chips on your RAM modules doesn't appear in the list of links, try entering it within double quotation marks and see what links are provided. Otherwise make enquiries in newsgroups such as alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt.
If you have remarked RAM modules, buy replacements from a manufacturer such as Crucial.
You can also test RAM modules with diagnostic programs. Here are two free programs that work from floppy disks by using DOS. -
Free RAM Diagnostic Software -
Memtest-86 3.0 - This is the best all-round memory testing utility I have come across - http://www.memtest86.com./
MemTest v1.2 [9k] W9x/2k/XP - free - http://www.mywebattack.com/gnomeapp.php?id=105570 and
http://www.simmtester.com/page/products/doc/download.asp
Due to the very high frequencies they operate at, most Intel and AMD motherboards now have temperature-monitoring capabilities.
If the motherboard doesn't come supplied with monitoring software, look in the BIOS setup program. There is usually a Hardware Monitor page that reports the processor's (CPU's) temperature, voltages, and fan speeds, etc. These are not always 100% accurate. For instance, when you reflash the BIOS file, it is not uncommon to notice a large difference in the reported temperatures. All the same, they are accurate enough to show if the temperature is getting too hot. Most processors can operate properly running at around 60 degrees Celsius, but any higher temperatures should be investigated. In any case, you will be able to find out what the operating temperature range is for a particular processor from Intel's or AMD's websites. If the BIOS is capable of showing temperatures, then the motherboard will usually be able to support temperature-monitoring software such as the Motherboard Monitor (MBM), which runs under Windows. - Use the Google search box at the top of this page to locate download sites.
You should be careful when adding extra fans to the system, because some systems have been found to be overheating because of the arrangement of fans blow air in opposite directions, thereby leaving hot spots. Most power supply units extract hot air from the back of the case, so, to function properly - to draw cool air into the system and pass it over the components - a case fan would have to be positioned at ventilation holes in the bottom area in the front of the case. If another case fan were installed at the back of the case that sucked air out, it would usually be situated in the middle of the back of the case, and the cool air drawn into the case would be sucked out before it could pass over the processor. Consequently, hot air will build up, thereby rendering the fan over the processor ineffective, and result in an overheated processor that may then cause the system to reboot unexpectedly, or lock-up.
A first-class processor cooling unit is essential.
The best manufacturers are CoolerMaster, Thermaltake, and GlobalWin. You should beware of being offered fake units. Buy from a well-known vendor, or better still, purchase a retail boxed processor that will come with an approved cooling unit and instructions on how to install both, which an OEM version will be lacking. [OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer - the vendor is deemed as being the original manufacturer instead of the real manufacturer, and is therefore responsible for supporting the merchandise, not the real manufacturer.]
Power supply units also vary widely in quality. A cheap brand with a 350W capacity can easily have a lower reliable output than a unit with a 250W capacity made by a famous brand name. Therefore, only power supply units that have been approved by the processor's manufacturer should be used - unless you have good reasons to use a non-approved unit.
A fancy mouse can be the cause of system lock-ups. Usually it is something like a USB optical mouse. For some reason, USB mice cause far more problems of this kind than PS/2 mice. If you are using such a mouse, try using a bog standard PS/2 mouse instead, or try using different drivers for the fancy mouse, such as the Microsoft Intellimouse 4 drivers, which have an excellent reputation. Moreover, USB mice usually come with PS/2 conversion plugs, so try using the mouse in PS/2 mode.
Microsoft tests all of its drivers thoroughly in its labs on all sorts of systems, so they are often better than the drivers provided by the manufacturers of the hardware.
While experimenting with mouse drivers, as a precaution, you should enable the feature under Accessibility in Control Panel => Windows Setup that allows the numeric keyboard to be used to make the mouse cursor work.
The best way to determine if software is to blame for complete system lock-ups is to reinstall Windows in a different folder than its default Windows folder. You do this by creating a new folder using Start => Programs => Windows Explorer. Depending on the version of Windows, name the folder something like Win98, WinXP, etc. Then place the Windows CD in in the CD-ROM drive, and reinstall Windows to that folder. When you have the completely new installation of Windows up and running, you will soon find out if the lock-ups are still happening. If they are, then the problem is almost certainly hardware-related, because the new installation of Windows has no extra software to manage. If the lock-ups stop occurring, then it is almost certainly a software problem, and you can press the F8 key at start-up until the boot menu shows, choose the Command prompt only option, and delete the Win98 folder with the command del c:\Win98. Windows will then revert to booting from the Windows folder of the previous installation, which will still be there.
The following information has to do with the software causes of the problem.
If you have a GeForce video card that uses an nVidia chipset, but was manufactured by another company, download the Detonator drivers directly from nVidia's website rather than use the drivers supplied by the card's manufacturer. nVidia provides its chips to many manufacturers of video cards. The nVidia drivers tend to offer much better performance and reliability.
An don't forget to install the latest version of DirectX whenever you update the video card's drivers.
MS DirectX download page - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.asp
There may also be new IDE busmaster drivers and/or software patches that fix specific problems made available from the motherboard's website, or from the motherboard-chipset manufacturer's website. For instance the motherboard might have been made by Asus and the chipset on the motherboard made by VIA. If adding a .com in front of the manufacturer's name (e.g., asus.com) to access the website fails to work, look up the website by entering the name (within double quotation marks if it contains more than one word) in the Google search box at the top of this page.
Although hardware issues are responsible for the majority of complete system lock-ups, start-up programs that load with Windows, and that run in the background, are sometimes responsible.
You can use the Windows 98 System Configuration Utility (enter msconfig in the Start => Run box => and click the Startup tab) to troubleshoot these by disabling them all at once, and then re-enabling them one at a time to reveal the culprit, or you can disable them one at a time to do likewise, or you can use third-party utilities such the Startup Control Panel to research/disable each start-up program.
Press the F8 or Control key at start-up to bring up the boot menu, and choose to boot with logging. This produces a bootlog.txt file that you can locate with Find.
Using bootlog.txt as the search term in the Google search box at the top of this page should lead you to articles on it and free utilities that can analyse the file.
If you have investigated every possible hardware and software cause of system lock-ups without success, then, as a last resort, try reflashing the BIOS setup program with the latest BIOS file, downloaded from the motherboard's website. This can render the computer unusable if it goes wrong, so make sure that you follow the instructions that are provided precisely.
If after having installed some gaming software your system crashes, and then will only boot in Safe mode, the chances are that you installed the latest version of the gaming software driver DirectX, and it is incompatible with your video card's drivers. Installing the latest version of DirectX will probably have been required, and hence will have been provided along with the game.
To rectify the situation, you will have to find out the make and model of video card that is installed in order to download the latest drivers for it from its card manufacturer's website, or from the chipset manufacturer's website.
The problem will probably have been compounded, because Windows installs its standard VGA drivers in order to boot in Safe mode, and you will probably not be able to identify the video card in the Windows Device Manager by right clicking My Computer, and clicking Properties, because of the conflict between its drivers and DirectX.
If the video chipset is built into the motherboard, you will be able to identify it in the motherboard's manual. If you don't have a manual, you should be able to download a manual from its manufacturer's website - using another computer connected to the Internet, since the problematic one is out of action.
To identify a video card for which you have no documentation, and which is installed in either a PCI or AGP slot on the motherboard, sometimes you can find out its make and model from a printed label on the card itself, or you might be able to read that information from the boot message that usually flashes by too quickly to read, and you can't freeze the screen since the Pause key will not pause the installation at that point of the start-up.
However there is still a way to identify the card by using the Debug program that is built into Windows.
Go Start => Run, type in Debug and press the Enter key. A DOS window appears with a hyphen as a prompt. Type in dc000:0,ff (four zeros, not capital Os), and press the Enter key.
On the left of the window several lines of figures will appear, and the video card's chipset and manufacturer will appear within the figures to the right of them.
Here is an example. -
ATI MACH64 C000:0090 53 44 52 41 4D 20 42 49-4F 53 20 33 2E 30 38 35 SDRAM BIOS 3.085 C000:00A0 0D 0A 00 28 43 29 20 31-39 38 38 2D 39 37 2C 20 ...(C) 1988-97, C000:00B0 41 54 49 20 54 65 63 68-6E 6F 6C 6F 67 69 65 73 ATI Technologies.
This means that the video card is made by ATI and it uses an ATI Mache 64 chipset. In this case, both the chipset and the card itself are made by ATI, so you would be able to use another computer to download an AGP or PCI Mache 64 driver, depending on which kind of slot the card is installed in.
If you download the latest video card drivers and DirectX8.1 using another computer and it doesn't have a CD-R or CD-RW drive, you can save them to floppy disks for transfer to the afflicted computer by using Winzip, because it has the ability to span floppy disks. It can also compress the files to the maximum.
For example, you have a Nokia 7110 mobile phone, and you want to connect it to the Internet via your laptop computer. You have a PCMCIA modem card, but you don't know how to go about making the connection, because you don't know what kind of cable to use to connect the phone to the computer.
Well, you can use an RS-232 serial port adapter cable to make the connection, but it would be better to use the infrared ports on both devices to make the connection.
You do not have to use the laptop's PCMCIA modem, because this mobile phone has an inbuilt modem.
Note that you will only be able to connect at 9600 baud (bps - bits per second), so it would be better to make use of an Internet cafe if you need to download large files when away from home. You will, of course, be able to send and receive files, and download e-mail from anywhere in the world that allows your mobile phone to make a connection. Although always remember that it is an expensive business - and it is very slow.
If your laptop has an infrared port, and it isn't running Windows 2000, all you have to do is enable the infrared ports on the computer and on the mobile phone.
On the laptop, you set the infrared option to enabled in the Windows Control Panel.
Next, you have to set up the modem on the laptop, which will then make use of its infrared port to communicate with and run the phone's modem. The easiest way to do that is to download the required setup files from Nokia's site - http://www.nokia.com/.
Moreover, in Windows 98, you will also be able to set up a standard 9600 bps modem on the virtual infrared COM port, because Windows 98 is accomplished at recognising infrared devices.
To make a connection, all you have to do now is enable the infrared port on the mobile phone. You can find out how to do that in the phone's user manual.
With the modem driver installed on the laptop, and the infrared ports enabled on both devices, dial up from the laptop as if you were using an ordinary phone line. Just make sure that you have selected the infrared modem in Dial-Up Networking, the icon for which should be on the Windows Desktop. If it isn't there, you probably haven't go it installed. If that is the case, use Windows Setup feature in Add/Remove Programs to install it.
Windows 2000 does not handle infrared connections well. It cannot normally set up the virtual serial COM port that an infrared modem uses, so you will have to download an updated version of the infrared IRCOMM from this Microsoft Support site page.
For Windows NT, you will need to use a data cable to connect the a serial port on the laptop to the serial port on the phone, because NT does not support infrared ports. Such a cable will have come with the phone, or can be obtained from a Nokia dealer. You will find details for an RS-232 serial port adapter cable at http://www.nokia.com/.
The websites will differ, but the process is the same to connect any make and model of mobile phone with a built-in modem to a laptop computer via infrared ports.
When working with your document folders within the My Documents folder, even though you have a powerful processor and plenty of RAM, the more files you have in a folder, and the more folders you have open at a time the longer it takes to access any one of them.
A 950MHz AMD Athlon processor and 256MB of RAM should be more than enough processing power to bring up a file immediately, but with only 15 different folders open, the process of accessing them can become so slow that you have to shut the system down and reboot - even after you have archived as many files as possible to CD-R disks.
This doesn't make much sense when you have a processor and enough RAM to run the most demanding of games acceptably fast and without any problems.
The possible reasons for the slowdown are as follows.
1. - Determine how many programs are being loaded by Windows at start-up. Plenty of unnecessary programs running in the background hog system resources, and make Windows swap data in an out of its virtual memory swap file (win386.swp in Windows 9.x systems) on the hard disk drive. For that reason, if you have at least 250MB of RAM, you should set Windows to use RAM before making use of the comparatively slow swap file. You can do that by adding a specific command to the system.ini file, but the easiest way to do this is to enable the appropriate setting via the free Cacheman utility.
To test if the number of start-up programs running in the background are slowing the system down, click Start => Run, and enter the term msconfig in the dialog box. Find the start-up programs under the Startup tab, disable all of them temporarily, and reboot. If the system speeds up, only re-enable the programs that you have to use, such as the System Tray itself, and programs such as a software firewall (usually ZoneAlarm) that has to be loaded to protect the system while you are on-line.
I personally don't have an antivirus program scanning my dial-up Internet connection. I have the most security-sensitive options under the Internet Properties' Security tab set to Promp, and the security level set to Medium.
2. - An antivirus program set to scan files that are opened, closed, downloaded, etc., can slow the system down significantly. I personally have my antivirus program's file-scanning options disabled, preferring to have the security settings set high, and have ZoneAlarm scanning an active Internet connection. Moreover, Outlook Express 6.0 now has antivirus settings under its Tools => Options settings, and the free version of ZoneAlarm also has e-mail protection that can be enabled. However, if you prefer to have your antivirus program active, most of them can be set to scan only new or modified files.
3. - The following point is not generally know, but if you have too many files in a particular folder, this will slow down access to them significantly. The Windows FAT32 file system was originally designed for use on floppy disks, and consequently it doesn't handle large folders well. A Windows 98 system slows down significantly if the information required to set up a folder - a folders's own directory structure - exceeds 32KB of disk space. The greater the number of files in a folder, the larger the folder's file directory has to be. A situation that will be worsened if the hard disk drive becomes fragmented so that a folder's file directory is scattered across different parts of the hard disk drive, and Windows has to work hard to assemble the information it requires to make access possible. For that reason, run the Windows Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, Windows does not make it easy to find out if the space occupied by a folder's file directory is excessively large. Normally, each file in a folder requires 32 bytes for its directory entry, but long file names occupy one or more directory entries, because a long file name can occupy up to 27 characters. A rule of thumb in this regard is not to exceed 200 files per folder.
A good way to avoid this kind of congestion is to move files into new folders. Note that you have to replace the overloaded folder entirely, because Windows does not shrink the file directory of a folder when files are removed from it.
4. Displaying windows as web pages, and having Windows set to display thumbnail images of files slows down file access quite a bit, so it is best to have both of these options disabled.
You don't need to use a Linux driver for a hardware modem (a modem that has its own signal processor), because Linux is already programmed to run any hardware modem, but finding a driver for a winmodem (a software-driven modem designed for use with Windows) used to be a problem. However, the situation is much improved now. To find a driver for a winmodem, visit this site. - http://www.linmodems.org
No version of Windows 95 has a Registry Checker.
For Windows 98, to find out the command-line options that can be used with the Registry Checker, open an MS DOS Prompt window from within Windows Start => Programs, and enter scanreg /? at the C:\WINDOWS> prompt. Information about the command-line switches that scanreg supports is provided.
The BACKUP and RESTORE switches are used to create backups of the Registry and restore them respectively. The FIX switch is used to run the program's Repair function. When this is run, the Registry is rebuilt to make it as small as possible. Remember that the smaller the Registry is, the faster Windows runs. To run a particular switch just enter scanreg at the C:\WINDOWS> prompt, followed by a forward slash and the switch.
A forward slash tells DOS to run the switch.
For example, click Start => Shutdown => Restart in MS DOS mode, and enter scanreg /opt to optimise the Registry, scanreg /fix to run the Repair function, and scanreg /restore to be presented with a choice of Registry backups (stored in CAB files) to restore..
Windows Me and Windows XP have Registry Checkers, but Me has reduced DOS functionality, and XP does not have DOS at all, so, for these versions of Windows, find out from the Windows Help files how to make full use of this very useful program.
Note that if you are running a FAT 32 version of Windows 95, you can use the Find feature to locate the scanreg and msconfig files on a system running Windows 98, and transfer them to the same locations in Windows 95 to have them work in the same way.
When applications are installed, they associate themselves with the types of files they need to use. For example, if you install the XnView picture viewer, it will associate itself in Windows with the most common picture file types such as .gif, .jpg, .mpg, etc. But if you were to install another picture viewer, it would take over these file associations so that when you clicked on an image of a particular file type, only it would open and display the picture.
However, you might not like the new picture viewer and want XnView to be returned as the default viewer.
Here is a simple method of restoring file associations that can be used with Windows 95/98/Me (Windows 9.x), 2000, and Windows XP.
1.- Right click on the document. (For Windows 9.x systems you have to hold down the Shift key ( the one above the Ctrl key, or under the Enter key) for the Open with... option to become visible.
2. - Select Open with... You can choose the application that Windows uses by default, or a program of your choice.
3. - For Windows 2000 systems, click Choose Program. For Windows 9.x systems, scroll down the list of programs, and select the program that you want to make the default viewer, and click to place a check mark in the box beside the "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file." option.
4. - It is even easier to do this in Windows XP via the Properties dialog box. Just right- click on a file, choose Properties, and the Change option is available.
You could use this method to test a webpage on several browsers. If you had Internet Explorer (iexplore), Netscape Navigator, and Opera installed, you would click on the webpage you want to test (say, Test.htm), and then choose iexplore, netscape, or Opera to open it.
However, many applications, such as an office suite, appropriate far too many file types to make it a practical proposition to change them all manually. To recapture them for a particular application just reinstall it. Or find out if it has a repair feature on its CD/DVD that can restore features such as file associations.
You can, of course, also make a back-up of your system (using a back-up program) before making any changes to the system, and burn it to a recordable CD/DVD disk. Then, you have the option to revert the system back to its original condition by restoring the back-up.
You can also use any of those lengthy methods with small programs, such as picture viewers, but it is usually quicker just to select a file of a particular type, and then using the Open with... feature makes the program you choose the default program for that type of file.
This problem illustrates several issues with Windows XP.
The Problems
After auto-updating Windows XP using Microsoft Update, the updates install themselves, and the system attempts to reboot. But instead of booting all the way into Windows, the system just keeps rebooting. To make matters worse, to solve the problem, you have reformatted the boot drive and reinstalled Windows, but the boot drive has been given the letter H instead of C.
The Solutions
Windows XP is based on the network operating systems, Windows NT, and its successor Windows 2000, so it is behaving in the way that these network operating systems would.
Because Windows 2000 and XP keep the operating system files separated from the user Documents and Settings, most problems of this sort can be rectified by reinstalling either of them without reformatting the boot drive. There should be no need to reformat the boot drive.
In this case, it is because even the Home edition of XP works as if it is running as part of a network that the continous rebooting occurs. Consequently, it comes with some default options that are more appropriate for an NT or 2000 network server than a home computer.
After a system update fails for whatever reason, XP follows a set of rules designed to overcome system failure. These rules can be seen by clicking Start, using the right mouse button to click My Computer => Properties => Advanced => Startup => Recovery => Settings. Under System Failure are the following default selections -
Write an event to the system log
Send an Administative Alert
Automatically restart
Write debug information [small memory dump]
Automatically restart is the selection that is causing the problem. The computer reboots before the operator has a chance to find out what the problem is, therefore it goes wrong again, reboots, and then keeps rebooting.
Apart from Write an event to the system log, the other selections are of no use to a home user. In fact, a system Administrator with an expert knowledge of XP probably wouldn't know how to make use of them. A home user should therefore turn the three bottom selections off.
If a computer keeps rebooting in this way, you should attempt to boot into Safe mode. As XP starts to boot, the message "Please select the operating system to start" should appear. By pressing the F8 key, the advanced startup options appear. By choosing the Safe mode option, hopefully the system will boot without loading the device driver or application that is causing the system to crash and reboot.
If you cannot bring up the advanced startup option menu - probably because someone has turned it off - you will have to boot from the XP CD.
Once in Safe mode, the Event Viewer can be used to find out what the source of the problem is. This is done by following this path - Control Panel => Administrative Tools => Event Viewer.
If the problem is being caused by an application, enter the term msconfig in the Run dialog box. The MSConfig window appears. By deselecting it here, the offending application can be prevented from loading at startup.
If a driver or hardware device is failing, use the Add-Remove Hardware utility in the Control Panel to remove it. You can then allow XP to reinstall it, or do so yourself. Alternatively, you can run msconfig and then launch the System Restore utility, which, with a bit of luck, should remove the most recent changes to the system.
Finally, if the boot drive letter has been changed during an attempt to solve the problem by reformatting it (the boot drive has been given the letter H in this case), it is safe to leave it as it is, although some applications will default to install themselves on the C drive. If that is the case, most applications allow you to browse to the folder or drive of your choice to set it as the place of installation. Otherwise, you will have to boot from the XP CD, make use of the option to change the drive letters, and then reinstall XP.
If your Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows Me system (collectively called Windows 9.x) produces a message saying that because the system resources are too low or used up you should close applications or shut down and reboot, the "system resources" refer to three reserved memory blocks of 64KB each within the Conventional Memory, which is the first 1024KB of RAM reserved for use by MS DOS and to keep track of the state of the programs being used.
Windows 98 and Me increased those reserved memory blocks, but not by much. They are fixed in size no matter how much RAM is installed in your system. Consequently, with many programs open in any of the Windows 9.x versions, the resources run out when all of the very limited memory in those reserved areas is in use. Moreover, if a program is badly written and uses some of this system resource memory but then fails to relinquish it when it is closed down, these memory blocks can be fully employed with only a very few programs running.
The users who don't know about any of this mistakenly think that "low system resources" refer to a low amount of system RAM. The problem usually baffles them if they know that the system has plenty of RAM installed. If the system doesn't have much RAM, many users will mistakenly buy and install more.
You have to avoid creating the conditions that result in this condition, because there is no way to increase the size of the system resources.
Windows 2000 and Windows XP have a different system architecture that is not built on MS DOS, as is the case with Windows 9.x systems. With Windows 2000 and XP, the available amount of RAM and the virtual memory swap file, located on the hard disk drive, should be the only resources that limit the number of programs being run at any particular time.
Here are two pages that deal with system resources in Windows 9.x systems. -
System Resources FAQ - http://www.aumha.org/a/resource.htm
System Resource Issues - http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/14.htm
There is a little-known device called a KVM switch that allows the operation of two or more computers from one set of keyboard - monitor - and mouse. The letters KVM stand for keyboard video and mouse, I suppose because KVM sounds better than KMM. Some of these switches can allow thousands of computers to be accessed in this way, and some of them even allow the use of one sound card and one set of speakers. The computers and the one set of keyboard, monitor and mouse are linked to the KVM switch, and key toggles are used to switch from one computer to another. All of the computers are tricked into thinking that they have sole use of the keyboard, monitor, and mouse. This is an invaluable aid if you need to use more than one computer but you don't need to have them networked.
You can purchase KVM switches from all of the larger online electronics and computer businesses. A four-computer model is typically priced from £36/$60 to £75/ $125, and a two-computer unit is about half that price. Note that the more expensive units usually have superior cables and shielding from electronic interference than the less expensive units.
Windows XP supports the ability to uncompress compressed .zip files, but if you install WinZip, or some other more feature-rich third-party alternative, the two programs will probably conflict.
Disabling the Windows XP support for ZIP files is simple, requiring no more than the deregistration of the appropriate .DLL This is done as follows. Enter the following command in the Run dialogue box -
regsvr32 /u %windir%\system32\zipfldr.dll
The /u switch signifies an unregistration of the .DLL. If you want to re-enable the support, run the same command, but without the /u switch. -
http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=24720
If you install an adapter card (sound, video, SCSI controller, network card, etc.) with another operating system installed (Windows 98, etc.), and then install Windows XP, you don’t usually have a problem with the installation of the driver. But installing the card after Windows XP has been installed can result in the following problem.
When you try to install the driver for the device under Windows XP, you see an error message stating that the data is invalid.
This error appears to be due to a protection problem in the Windows XP Registry, and it can occur with a variety of drivers.
Remember to make a restorable back-up of the Registry before you make any changes to it. If necessary, look in the Windows Help files for the information on how to export the Registry to a folder or back-up medium.
To fix this problem, go to Start => Run and enter regedit in the dialogue box to run the Registry Editor. Navigate to -
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ENUM\PCI
You will see a number of keys of the form VEN_xxxx, where xxxx are strings like 1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00011103&REV_04.
Under each of these folders will be another folder with a long numerical name. Open each folder and look for the DeviceDesc that matches the hardware you are trying to install.
Use the right mouse button to click on the VEN_xxxx for that device and select Permissions, and then tick Allow for Full Control. Close the Registry Editor, and then continue with the installation of your device. With a bit of luck, it should proceed without any further problems.
If Windows XP doesn't nag you to activate it with Microsoft over the Internet or by telephone, it is already activated.
Many pre-installed versions of XP would already have been activated when the software was installed by the computer's manufacturer (OEM). XP in such computers checks the BIOS to make sure that it is running on the same motherboard that was in the computer when it was installed.
But if you are worried about exceeding the 30-day time limit that XP allows for activation to take place before it shuts down, you can check this by clicking Start => All Programs => Accessories => System Tools, and the choosing Activate. This will tell you if XP has been activated.
If you don't have this link in the Start menu, entering the following command in Start => Run will provide you with the information -
c:\windows\system32\oobe\msoobe.exe /a
When you use the Windows XP Search feature does it start the process, seem to pause for a while, and then resumes the search? Do searches seem to take for ever, and while it is pausing, do all of the processor's cycles seem to go be involved in the search, and does Windows XP seems to be locked up temporarily? - If so, you will probably be able to cure the problem by disabling Windows XP's built-in ZIP file management.
How is this feature turned off? - On the Start => Run command line enter - 'regsvr32 %windir%\ system32\ zipfldr.dll /u' - without the quote marks, or spaces between the backslashes. To enable the functionality, repeat the process without the '/u' switch.
Probably the best search engine in existence. General Internet search engines are invaluable, and http://www.google.com is in a class by itself for searching speed, power, and scope. Usenet newsgroups are a mine of useful information, but you will probably have to sift through tons of silt to find the occasional nugget. If you don't have the time to wade through newsgroup posts, use the little known Google Group Search Engine at http://www.groups.google.com. It's a wonderful time saver, and will often get you results when every other method fails.
A new search engine at http://www.teoma.com/ that has been set up to produce even more relevant results than Google, although, at the moment, the database is smaller than Google's. But it is definitely a good second source when nothing shows up on Google
Meta search engines offer another backup and you should try the very fast http://vivisimo.com. It easily surpasses the very popular meta search engine http://www.dogpile.com.
And if you are looking for suppliers, try the advertiser-driven search engine at http://www.overture.com. It's often the quickest way to find the main players.
You may have turned off the power management options in the BIOS because they were problematic, or you were advised to because they are not necessary on a desktop PC, but Windows XP requires them to be enabled or it will lock up during the installation process. The system will keep locking up at the Windows Setup screen. Just the blue screen will show - there will be no error messages, or any other kind of feedback. So, if you are having an installation problem of this kind, change the BIOS settings for ACPI Aware OS to Yes, and Power Management to "Enabled". Moreover, if you are having problems shutting down Windows XP, or if it suspends indefinitely without turning off, use the right mouse button to click your Desktop, select Properties, click the Screen Saver tab, click the Power button, select the APM tab (if it's available). Check the box to enable APM and hopefully that will sort the problem out.
Furthermore, before you install Windows XP for the first time, don't forget to visit an XP compatibility site to make sure that your hardware is XP compliant.
The following sites test your system for XP readiness. If software or device driver fails the test, research negative results at the particular manufacturer's website. Microsoft also provides a readiness test page.
Windows XP Software Compatibility Sites (Many pages of XP compatibility reports from users):
http://www.pcpitstop.com/xpready/
And it is advisable to use an application such as Drive Image to create a back-up of the system before you upgrade to XP, just in case something irrecoverable occurs during the process. You could also use it to make regular system back-ups that you can transfer to a CD recording medium, such as CD-R or CD-RW disks.
Every time you want to install a new program, or edit the Registry, run the batch file that creates the back-ups of the Windows 9.x system files.
1. - Download and install the free version of ZoneAlarm from http://www.zonelabs.com/. Set it to load at start-up. Read its Help files, and, if necessary, put questions to the support forum on that runs from its website. You can also use the Google search box at the top of this page to search for information on the program.
2. - Download and install the StartUp Monitor, and the StartUp Control Panel from http://www.mlin.net/. The first utility tells you when any program wants to register itself as a start-up program (many viruses and Trojans do this), and the second utility shows you all of the programs already registered as start-up programs that will load when Windows loads. You can use it to disable or remove the start-up shortcuts.
Every time the StartUp Monitor informs you that a program wants to load itself in the StartUp menu, look closely to see if it is a legitimate program that has good reason to be asking to set itself up as a start-up program. Any such requests that happen out of the blue should be treated with the utmost caution. You can have this program functioning while installing programs, because it will not interfere with the process as it informs you if any files want to register with Windows as start-up programs.
Note that if a program asks the StartUp Monitor to allow one of its files to become a start-up program during an uninstallation, this is a sure sign that you have installed a rogue program. Needless to say, always refuse this. Such a rogue program is really a Trojan that had built-in protection from being uninstalled.
4. - Find, download, and install the version of TweakUI that will work on your system. This utility can restore the system's file associations (under its Repair tab) that might have been hijacked by a virus or Trojan. For instance, a virus or Trojan might replace a system file that is responsible for governing the way that Windows functions so that it controls the system instead of Windows. Using TweakUI to restore the file associations to their default state will break any hold on the system that a virus or Trojan has established.
5. - Download and install the free version of the AVG Antivirus program from - http://www.grisoft.com/.
This program allows you to enable or disable all of its components. You are advised to have all of the e-mail protection enabled, but you can disable the Resident Shield so that it doesn't slow the system down during ordinary operations. It will examine every file that loads or shuts down for viruses with the Resident Shield enabled. Better to enable it only when you want to go on-line. Use the program to create its own Rescue Disk, and run it from time to time, or schedule it to run. Download a new virus file update whenever the program allows it. The free version only allows limited updates.
Visit the Security pages on this site for more links to free security programs.
6. - If you use Microsoft's free Outlook Express (OE) to handle your e-mail, or as a newsreader, you should enable the protection it gives to prevent e-mail or newsgroup attachments from running. If you want to open an attachment that OE forbids you from opening, just disable the protection and open it, or save it to a folder on your hard disk drive.
You enable the virus protection by opening OE and clicking Tools => Options => Security => Virus Protection. You should enable the first, third and fourth options.
In any case, never open an attachment in an e-mail message from someone you don't know - no matter how alluring the title of the message is. All sorts of file types can run automatically when you click them, not just .EXE (program) and .SCR (screensaver) files. Always assume that any file attachment is a malicious piece of software, not a file.
7. - Use the free XXCopy utility to make a restorable clone of your boot drive. The http://www.xxcopy.com/ site provides all of the information you need to do that.
8. - Remember to install updates one at a time so that you know which one is responsible for any problems. Often updates and patches can cause more trouble than they solve, or screw the system up, even though they might block a security hole.
Visit these Microsoft pages to make sure that you have the latest patches and updates installed.
Microsoft Update - http://update.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Office Product Updates - http://office.microsoft.com/productupdates
If you want to download the updates for Windows 98 in executable-file form from a single page, visit -
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp.
9. - E-mail is the easiest way to sneak a malicious (virus) or invasive program (Trojan or spyware) into your computer. According to the Kaspersky Lab, the creator of Kaspersky antivirus software, over 90% of viruses are delivered via e-mail. So, if you haven't got your e-mail program (usually Outlook Express), your browser (usually Internet Explorer), Windows, and a software firewall (usually ZoneAlarm), set up not to open e-mail attachments, or run ActiveX and JavaScript components, etc., and you receive an unexpected or strange e-mail message, just delete it. Or use a program, such as MailWasher.
MailWasher - shareware - excellent e-mail processor - register and pay and receive extra benefits - can be used without paying and registering. Delete, bounce, and blacklist e-mail. Accesses your e-mail account to delete spam before it is downloaded. You can view message headings before processing it - http://www.mailwasher.net/.
If you haven't set up your system not to open attachments or run potentially hazardous software, avoid using the "preview" function of your chosen e-mail program, because you don't want a malicious e-mail to launch its viral payload just because you highlighted a message. For example, Outlook Express previews messages that are selected. If possible, switch to a non-Microsoft e-mail program such as Mozilla Thunderbird from -
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/.
You're much safer using a non-Microsoft e-mail program, because the majority of virus writers and other malicious endeavours are targeted at Microsoft software. Also, ask your ISP about spam and virus filtering options, and, if possible, get it to help you configure your e-mail client to do these things. If you don't have it configured correctly, a web browser such as Microsoft's (already heavily patched) Internet Explorer can run malicious applications on your computer without you being aware of it. The easiest way to secure yourself online in one easy step is to switch from using Internet Explorer to using the Mozilla Firefox browser from http://www.mozilla.com/.
Internet Explorer has an horrendous security track record, and, unless you have configured it to do otherwise, often makes it far too easy for attackers by allowing potentially malicious content (ActiveX, Java, scripting, etc.) to run on your computer without you being aware of it. Using Mozilla Firefox avoids the majority of these issues altogether while maintaining, and very often improving, the quality of an online experience.
Update the following free spyware-removal programs regularly and run them on a regular basis to make sure that your computer is not littered with spyware and malware, which are small applications designed by companies to gather information about you for marketing purposes.
Windows Defender:
Microsoft AntiSpyware has been renamed Windows Defender and been given a new user interface. It is essentially the same spyware monitor and removal tool, but it has been improved and streamlined. A download link and the details can be found here:
http://microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/about/overview.mspx
Spybot S&D - http://www.safer-networking.org/
Ad-aware - the home page at http://www.lavasoftusa.com/ has all of the download links for the various versions.
With all of those options installed and maintained properly, you will be well protected from invasion by rogue programs.
Visit the Security pages on this site for more links to free and paid-for spyware scanners.
1. If you are using SCSI drives, adapt this information accordingly. If you have a second good IDE hard disk drive, remove the corrupt drive, and install the spare drive on the primary IDE channel as the master drive. Otherwise buy another hard disk drive from a retail shop, or an auction site such as eBay, a link to which is in the top left hand corner of this page. If the working drive does not have an operating system on it, install Windows on it. Install the faulty drive on the secondary IDE channel as the master drive, or on the primary IDE channel as the slave device. If necessary, visit the Build page on this site, consult your motherboard's manual, or use the Google search box at the top of this page to search for articles by entering a phrase, as is, such as "install a hard disk drive".
2. Run Scandisk on the faulty drive on Windows 95/98/Me systems, or CHKDSK on Windows 2000/NT/XP systems. Allow the utility to fix any faults that it detects.
3. If all is well, install an antivirus program, and scan the faulty drive for viruses, using a virus scanner loaded with up-to-date virus definitions.
4. Copy the critical data files over to the temporary master drive. Remember never to attempt to write anything to a faulty drive. This could make the drive permanently useless. Only copy files or run utilities such as Scandisk and antivirus programs on it from the working drive. The working drive will be the C: drive, and the faulty one will probably be the D: drive, with the CD drive as E:. Just select D: as the target drive when you run Scandisk, or the antivirus application. Your critical data files are the ones that you cannot recover by reinstalling Windows and your applications, such as the files in the My Documents folder, the e-mail files in the Windows \ Application Data folder, the Internet Explorer Favorites, etc.
5. Shut down and boot the system from a clean (virus-checked) start-up floppy disk that you can create by using the utility under Start => Settings => Control Panel => Add/Remove Programs => Windows Setup on Windows 9.x systems. If necessary, visit Bootdisk.com for a boot disk for your system. Use the FDISK utility by typing fdisk in at the A:/> prompt. If you have a modern ATA hard disk drive, enter Yes to the question asking if you want to enable large disk support. You can then check to see if the partition information is correct by selecting the option to display the drive's partition information. FDISK automatically checks the drive for surface errors as it prepares the drive to be formatted. If the faulty drive was made that way by a hardware failure such as one or more bad sectors on one or more of its platters, FDISK would probably report it as it scans the drive. If the FDISK operation was unable to complete, another hardware failure was probably responsible, such as a faulty hard disk drive controller on the motherboard, a faulty hard disk drive cable, or anything related to the drive's input, output, read, and write functions. The only way you will be able to test for a component failure is to run a software diagnostic utility, or swap the components for alternatives that are known to function - one at a time - so that the correct culprit can be isolated and replaced.
6. If all is well, shut the system down and reboot from the start-up floppy disk, and format the faulty drive (D:) by entering the format d: /s command at the A:/> prompt.
7. Reinstall Windows on the formatted drive.
8. Copy all of the critical data files back to the recovered drive by selecting them in Windows Explorer of the C: drive, and then copying them to the same folders on the recovered drive. If you install the unsupported Windows PowerToys for the version of Windows being used, you will be able to select the files you want on the C: drive, use the right mouse button to click the selection, and then click the Send To => Any Folder options to browse for the relevant send-to folder on the recovered drive.
9. You can then remove the temporary drive and install the recovered drive on the master drive on the motherboard's primary IDE connection. You should keep the temporary drive just in case the recovered drive has another failure. Indeed, if your BIOS allows it, you will be able to have the temporary drive installed as a slave to the boot drive, or as a master drive on the secondary IDE channel, and if the boot drive fails, you can enter the BIOS at start-up and make the temporary drive the boot drive. If it fails to boot to Windows, start the system up with the start-up floppy disk, and enter sys d: at the A:\> prompt. Doing this transfers the system files that allow the primary partition on a hard disk drive, or start-up floppy disk to boot the system. If that fails just remove the failed drive and install the temporary drive on the primary IDE channel on the motherboard, repeating the above process if the system fails to boot.
If you use Outlook XP, have you been frustrated by how it mangles the layout of many plain text messages?
The cause - XP has a feature that is enabled by defualt that removes blank lines from messages. Luckily, you can turn this feature off so that messages appear just as the author intended. Select Tools => Options => Preferences => Email Options, and deselect the option called "Remove extra line breaks in plain text messages".
If the web links in Outlook Express are not working as they should - you can't click them, or they don't save as Favorites, or perhaps every time you open a link in a new window through your mail client, Internet Explorer only opens a back a blank page - there is a simple solution that doesn't require a reinstallation. Click on Start => Run and enter - "REGSVR32 URLMON.DLL", without the quote marks. A dialog should inform you that the procedure was completed. Next, start Internet Explorer, and click Tools => Internet Options => Programs, then click the Reset Web Settings button. Now, you can run a test to find out if the web links in e-mails work as they should.
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