Windows XP related Posts

7-Zip File Archiver

Steve — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 01:36:24 -0500

There are some utility programs that are necessary to have on your computer. A file archiver is one of such programs. It is necessary to have around not so much for archiving/compressing your own files but more for unarchiving/decompressing files that other people may send to you. What is a file archiver anyway? It is a program that compresses/decompresses and stores (archives) one or more files into a single file, for one or both of the following reasons - to make it a smaller size file for faster transmission, eg over the Internet, and/or to 'archive' a number of files together in one file for better organization, especially useful for keeping a bunch of files together when transmitting a group of files to someone else.

A Faster PDF Reader

Steve — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:31:50 -0500

PDF (Portable Document Format) file has pretty much become the de facto standard for printable documents. It is highly likely that at some point you would have installed a PDF reader because of the fact that more and more people and businesses are sharing documents using PDF files.

PDF standard was created by Adobe Systems. And they offer a free download for a PDF reader called the Adobe Reader. At the same time, there are other free third party PDF reader that one can use. Most websites provide a link to the Adobe Reader download whenever they make available PDF documents. The Adobe Reader works fine for most people. But for the impatients, like myself, I just don't quite like the fact how slow it takes to load up Adobe Reader whenever you want to read a PDF file. That is because Adobe Reader takes a longer time to start, being a bigger program.

A nifty little Mail Notifier

Steve — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:06:27 -0500

A few years ago I discovered a nifty little mail notifier program called PopTray. And I have been using it every since. What does the PopTray mail notifier do? Basically it checks your pop mailbox for new mail and notifies you when there are new ones received. More than that, it is a full featured and customizable program . Let's look at some of its main features:

Unlimited number of Accounts
Show number of messages directly on the TrayIcon (rotating by account)
Quickly preview a message
Delete messages from the server without downloading them
Rules that identify a message according to your criteria, then does one of these actions:
* Play different notification sound
* Delete from the server
* Run any EXE file
read more

Access Your Computer Remotely from Anywhere for Free.

Steve — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 04:18:28 -0500

Remote Access software has certainly come quite a way compared to a few years ago. I still remember using remote access software like PCAnywhere, and thought it was neat even then to be able to control another computer remotely as if you are there. One drawback of most of these software was that you had to install software on both ends. The problem with such approach is that often the computer you are using to access the remote computer does not even belong to you sometimes. You borrow it for a quick access to your remote computer. And this limitation of needing to install the client version of the software in order to access the remote host computer, makes it an inconvenient way to access your computer remotely.

Add a new SATA disk drive to your PC.

Steve — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 03:37:06 -0500

Unless your profession is being a system administrator, it isn't very often that one would add new hard drives to one's PC. Even for a computer professional ike myself, I may upgrade to a new drive once a year at the most. And quite often I can't remember how to add or upgrade to a new hard drive. That was exactly what happened to me recently when I tried to add a new hard drive. This Christmas I received a new WD 1TB (WD10EACS-32ZJB0) drive. And I was pretty excited about getting this drive, that is almost 7 times larger than the one that I currently have (150GB). As I got down to installing the new drive, I came to the conclusion that I need to document the steps involved, so that in future when it is time again to upgrade or add a new drive, I have something to refer back to. I hope you too may find this useful.

Alternative to Windows Media Player

Steve — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:48:43 -0500

If you are a regular user of Windows Media Player, and are satisfied with it for your needs, then stick with it. The important thing is that you are happy using what you have. But if Windows Media Player doesn't quite meet your needs, for example, couldn't play many of the unusual media formats you threw at it, then I would suggest that you check out the VLC Media Player.

Change/remove buttons gone missing in add/remove programs panel

Steve — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:35:59 -0400

This past week has been a challenging week for me when it comes to using my computer. Last weekend my desktop got infected with a Trojan called VirtuMonde (read about it here ) and it took me almost the whole weekend to finally get rid of it. And then today I discovered how my laptop's Windows XP registry got messed up for some unknown reason. That took me another hour or so to get it fixed. And it was only made possible by a stroke of luck. I'll explain as we go along.

Create a PDF file using free software.

Steve — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:33:50 -0400

Adobe PDF file has become a common type of file used to send a document to someone else. Usually a document that is read-only, meaning that the reader is not able to change the content (unless of course, you give them the option to do that). Why use PDF file anyway in the first place? For a few reasons:

They can be viewed and printed with freely available software called Adobe Acrobat Reader.
A PDF document is a "read only" document that cannot be altered without leaving an electronic footprint.
They are compressed into much smaller size that the original document would be.
PDF Files can be used across different platforms. Hence makes it convenient to share documents between say Windows PC and a Apple Mac or a Linux computer.

Hard drive recovery with Unstoppable Copier

Steve — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:30:19 -0500

Though not often (thankfully), there are times when you may encounter errors reading your hard drive due to physical damage like bad sectors. Is it possible to recover the file that you are having problem reading? There is a free tool called Unstoppable Copier which attempts to recover every readable piece of that file and put the pieces together. It does this by ignoring all the error messages that one would have otherwise encountered while using standard ways and tools to retrieve data from damaged disks. Using this method most types of files can be made useable even if some parts were not recoverable in the end.

How to Back Up Files and Folders in Windows XP Home Edition

Steve — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 03:40:12 -0500

Usually we do not see the importance of doing backups until something happened to our data. By then it may be too late. To help you protect your data if your hard disk fails or if you accidentally delete files, you can use the Windows XP Backup Utility to backup your data. Although the Backup Utility is included in the Windows XP Home Edition CD, it is not installed by default. Which means that the Backup icon is not present on the Start menu in Windows XP Home Edition. To use Backup, you must install the utility manually from the Windows XP Home Edition CD.

How to Disable Startup Programs using Msconfig

Steve — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:32:04 -0500

When you switch on the computer, it goes through a bootup process where it loads up Windows XP and then the startup programs, before you can begin to use it. Quite often when you install a new program on your computer, it will be configured to automatically load itself and runs in the background, during your computer boot up. Some of these programs are necessary to be loaded as such (example anti-virus programs) while others are not required. If you have installed a number of software over a period of time, there will be an accumulated number of startup programs set to be loaded at startup. This causes two problems. Firstly it makes the bootup process slow and painful. Just imagine yourself staring at the screen waiting for the control to return to you. (during this time, typically you may not be able to do anything until everything has been loaded). The second problem is when too many programs are loaded to run in the background, they eat up your computer memory. Computer memory are limited. and hence if you have too many programs running in nthe background, that means less memory for your CPU to work with. And the result is your Windows operating system becomes painfully slow in operation.

How to do a System Restore in Windows XP?

Steve — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 23:06:09 -0500

At one time or another you may find yourself in a situation whereby you have just installed a new software on your computer and the next thing you know your Windows starts to act funny or not working at all. "It was working fine yesterday and today it has gone crazy". Sounds familiar? The first thing is to try and remember what changes you have made to your Windows recently. It is possible that the new software or the new driver you installed the day before is not quite compatible with your hardware. The good case scenario might be that whenever you start the new software, it gives you an error message and refuse to continue. The worse case scenario would be that you cannot even start up your Windows anymore and instead you get a "Blue Screen death".

How to pin commonly used programs to the Start menu

Steve — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 02:01:48 -0500

If you are like me, you will have many applications installed on your computer. And that means in your Start Menu under All Programs, you will have every imaginable programs listed. If you have a hard time finding applications in your All Programs menu, you can "pin" your favorite applications to the Start menu. By doing that, those application will appear in the Start menu when you click the Start button. No more opening the All Programs menu to to sieve through the whole list to find your often used program.

IE7 slow in connecting

Steve — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 17:42:08 -0500

Just this last couple of days, I noticed something that I haven't noted before when I started my Internet Explorer 7 (IE7). After IE was loaded, it just sits there blank, with the word connecting... while trying to load my homepage (which was www.yahoo.com). Eventually the homepage loaded but sure took a long time. Once the page is loaded, clicking any links within the page will load ok just like normal. The same thing happened when I open another tab window. I timed the whole process and it took around 90 seconds before the first page eventually gets loaded.

Instant Messaging with Trillian

Steve — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:26:51 -0500

It is not uncommon to have and be using more than one instant messenger service, to keep in touch with your friends. Rather than having to start a series of Instant Messenger programs like the Yahoo Messenger, MSN, ICQ, AIM and IRC at the same time, combining all these in one program would be a better way to go. A program that logs into all your messenger identities and allow you to communicate to all your contacts over different messenger services. Such a program is Trillian by Cerulean Studios. With Trillian, you create a separate identity for each Messenger services and all these can be connected at the same time. You can then chat with different connection at the same time. For example, you can chat with someone on the Yahoo messenger service at the same time you are chatting with someone else on the MSN service.

Keep your favorite web-sites one click away with Bubbles

Steve — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 04:28:18 -0500

For those of you who uses GMail or Yahoo Mail, you probably wish there is an easier way to check your mail numerous times a day without having to open a browser each time to do that. It would be nice if you can just click once and you are in the favorite web-based email program. Well, there is a solution for you. Bubbles to the rescue.

Need a fast and compact image viewer/converter?

Steve — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:50:53 -0500

If you are looking for a good image viewer program, then you should check out one called Irfanview, simple enough for beginners and powerful enough for professionals. IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative freeware (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. Let's look at what Irfanview can do. The program lets you edit images of multiple media formats. You can do the usual editing such as cut and crop images, add, sharpen, or blur effects, create panoramas, and change color modes easily. Here are a list of its main features :

View images of different file formats
Convert between file formats
Optimized your image file
Scan and print images
Create slideshows
Batch processing
Play movies and sounds
Multiple language support
Screen Capture feature

Personal Firewall

Steve — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 02:45:29 -0500

With the increase of intrusion and attacks coming from the Internet, a personal firewall is no longer just an option but a much needed addition to your computer system. Even though Windows XP comes with a firewall feature that you can enabled from your Control Panel, this firewall provides limited protection, since it isn't a full featured firewall. Normal firewalls allow you to specifically control each TCP and UDP port. Windows XP’s firewall doesn’t provide you with this capability. Instead it allows you to enable or disable a few common ports. And its logging capabilities are also minimal. Windows XP firewall does a great job blocking inbound traffic, but makes no attempts to filter outbound traffic. Filtering outbound traffic is an important and necessary part of an adequate firewall.

Pictures recovery from Flash Memory card.

Steve — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:45:08 -0500

Do you use a digital camera? It would be highly unlikely that you don't, especially with the rapid dropping prices of a digital camera. I remember buying my first digital camera in 2001, for a 3MB digital camera it cost me around US$700!! I just saw one listed this week for about $130 with 7MB. You can even get a cheap one for around $50 (on special). So digital cameras are here to replace the traditional ones.

Now if you do use the digital camera, you may or may not encounter the problem of corrupted data on your memory card for one reason or another. If you have never encountered this, good for you but read on anyhow, for who knows when you might be need this one day.

Protect yourself against spyware with Spybot Search & Destroy

Steve — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:33:56 -0500

If you had the time to read my article on Spyware-Adware, you might recall how spyware has become a common threat nowadays to your privacy and computing security. Having a program that will detect and clean spyware is a must.

Spybot - Search & Destroy is one such program that detects and removes spyware that silently tracks your surfing behaviour to create a marketing profile of you which is then transmitted without your knowledge to the creator of that program and sold to advertising companies. For more information on Spyware, please read this article.

Real Basics for Beginners in Windows XP

Steve — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:03:49 -0500

There will always be people who are learning computer for the first time. The young ones learn by jumping right into it, learning the basics on the play. (My three and a half year old son did just that without much coaching from me. He just watched me while I was on the computer and he just imitates my action). And for the not so young ones who may be intimidated by this Windows thing, hopefully the following basics will help get you on the way.

Let's begin with the frequently used terms or jargons that computer users use everyday relating to computing. Mastering these will not get you a degree or anything but at least you won't be staring at the other party with a blank face that says "What on earth are you talking about?"

Smart way to do FTP - SmartFTP

Steve — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 23:17:32 -0500

There are many FTP clients out there, whether commercial package or free. And each person has his own preference and hence favorites. As for me I have been using SmartFTP for a number of years, and have found it to be likeable , easy to use and meet all my basic needs. If you know how to drag and drop, then you might find this to your liking.

For the novice: FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is the way two parties (a client and a server) communicate to transfer files between the two.

Want a free CD/DVD image Burner?

Steve — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 04:33:49 -0500

Are you looking for a program that burns disc image to a CD/DVD that doesn't cost much or anything at all? If so, you might want to check out ImgBurn , a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit.

In brief, ImgBurn is able to do the following tasks:

Read - Read a disc to an image file
Build - Create an image file from files on your computer or network - or you can write the files directly to a disc
Write - Write an image file to a disc
Verify - Check a disc is 100% readable. Optionally, you can also have ImgBurn compare it against a given image file to ensure the actual data is correct
Discovery - Put your drive / media to the test! Used in combination with DVDInfoPro, you can check the quality of the burns your drive is producing

Windows XP goes blank screen on user log off

Steve — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:45:26 -0500

If you use Windows XP and have multiple user profile on the same computer, you may experience an issue whereby when a user logs off and the screen will go blank for a long time before it goes back to the welcome screen where you choose the user profile. During that time, there seems to be nothing you can do but stare at the blank screen. The usual Alt-Ctrl-Del combination does not respond either. If you are patient enough you can wait, for several minutes before it will finally return to the welcome screen.

Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts

Steve — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:22:47 -0500

Windows XP being a graphical Operating System, the mouse typically is the main control point of getting something going. Without a doubt that beats the typing of commands in the DOS command prompt. But using the mouse has its downside, sort of. Your hand must leave the key board for the mouse to execute a command. Not a big deal for most of us, but for the people who really type a lot, it could be a little inconvenient. That's where keyboard shortcuts come to the rescue.

On a Windows compatible keyboard, there is a key with the Windows logo. Most of us are probably already aware that this special key is a shortcut for displaying the Start Menu. But when combined with another key, it becomes different shortcuts for various action. Here is a summary of what these available key combinations are and what they will do for you: