Saturday, December 30, 2006

How to create and send newsletters online

LetterPop will allows you to create and send newsletters online. Also you can print the newsletter that you've created. LetterPop owns a real powerful builder that help you do it quickly, easily, and with style. More >>>

How to Remove Watermarks from PDF Files

Though it is very much possible to get rid of those annoying watermarks in PDF documents, the quality of the final output would largely depend on what software you have to process PDF files.

Is there a way to delete the watermarks that appear in some of the Adobe PDF files.
Though it is very much possible to get rid of those annoying watermarks in PDF documents, the quality of the final output would largely depend on what software you have to process PDF files.

Let's look at some of the options here:

Option A [Best] - If you have access to the original Word documents or Excel Spreadsheets that were used for creating the Watermarked PDF, create a new PDF file minus the watermark using any of these free PDF tools or Google Docs.

Option B [Might Work] - Assuming that your PDF files are not password protected, download and install a trial copy of Adobe Acrobat 8. Open the PDF document in Acrobat, choose the option "Remove Watermark" and re-save the document.

Remove PDF WatermarksOption C [The real hack] - We'll reverse engineer the document in this approach - Use Zamzar to convert the PDF document to a Microsoft Word file. Now either open this Word document in a locally installed copy of Microsoft Word or export it to Google Docs / Zoho Writer.

You might see that the watermark text now appears on a overlapping layer in the converted document. Manually delete the text and save the doc file as PDF again. There won't be any watermarks in the new PDF file.

Option D [for small PDFs] - If you have print a 1 or 2 page PDF without the bookmark, convert the PDF to an image using either Zamzar or any screen capture program.

Open these images in either Photoshop or Gimp and use the Magic Wand or Touchup tool to delete the watermarks - In majority of the cases, watermarks are of the same color and can be easily selected using wand tools.

Friday, December 29, 2006

1080p and 1080i High Definition Resolution explained

1080p and 1080i ...

While high definition has become a reality for many consumers, the technical jargon associated with this exiting new technology is causing much confusion. Just as we were beginning to understand the differences between Blu-ray and HD DVD along comes a new high-definition format, 1080p. Full Story >>>

Phormer : a PHP-Based PhotoGallery Manager application

Phormer, unlike most of the other gallery mangers tools that require MySQL or any other high-level Databases, uses its own XML database.


Phormer is a PHP-Based PhotoGallery Manager application, that helps you to store, categorize and trim your photos on the web with various helpful features!



Mac OS X start up sound volume control

StartupSound.prefPane is the software which controls the volume of the startup sound of your Macintosh computer. StartupSound.prefPane mutes the startup sound without changing the output volume setting. And StartupSound.prefPane limits the startup volume so that it may not become loud even if you make the output volume louder.

Mac OS X start up sound control

To set up the startup volume, you select the “Startup Sound” pane added to the “System Preferences.”

Download StartupSound.prefPane 1.0 (PPC) or StartupSound.prefPane 1.1 beta (Intel) from Arcana Research website


Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Blockbuster service really giving Netflix a run for its money

Yesterday they announced that the monthly coupon for a free rental can be used for movies OR video games. Also, Blockbuster Movies received by mail can be returned directly at any Blockbuster store, you get a free rental on the spot, and Blockbuster still sends out the next movie in your queue Full Story >>>

Friday, December 15, 2006

Is that old hard drive really clean?

Is that old hard drive really clean? Use Swipe or an equivalent type of program to make sure.

How Deleting Really Works

All files are indexed by an important system called the File Allocation Table (FAT). When you delete a file, Windows simply removes the file's reference from the FAT, allowing other programs to use the space. But the file's data still remains on your hard drive, perfectly readable to snoops, forensics and other pests.

Using common tools available on the Internet, even a novice user can easily recover confidential data from your hard drive. Selling Your Computer?

When you sell, give away or dispose of your computer, have you thought about what is on your hard drive?

Confidential documents, memos, customer lists, financial data and personal information can be recovered at the touch of a button. Even formatting a drive does not destroy information on your drive. And with damages from data theft reaching a staggering $59 billion per year, can you afford to let your data fall into the wrong hands?

Swipe Features:

#1
Extremely Secure Deletion Swipe uses 5 secure deletion methods. Two of the methods used by Swipe are based on standards set by the US Defence Department and the Australian Defence Department.

#2
Fast, Small & Attractive When designing this product, they focused on creating a powerful, fast and easy to use application, appealing to both home users and tech savvy enterprise administrators.

#3
Drive Cleaning Feature In addition to targeted secure file deletion, Swipe also includes a drive cleaning feature. This feature allows you to securely remove any files that have been previously deleted by less secure programs.

Getting rid of spyware, adware, malware, etc.



We'd strongly recommend 'SpyBot' 'SpySweeper' and 'AdAware', which as of this writing, are free as well, although 'AdAware' and 'SpySweeper' also have 'upgraded' paid versions.

Highly recommended SpyBot, as it is absolutely free and does the job .

All are very good programs for eliminating what is known as 'spyware', and should be used together.

Spyware is generally used to gather surfing habits and in some cases even used to extract your e-mail address(es). It is also used used to send marketing information directly to spammers, from which these spammers spam you.

I.E., if you visit a website for a particular item, and have spyware installed, you may all of the sudden notice an increase in spam that you receive for that type of good.

It makes good sense to keep these type of programs up to date with the latest definitions.

Use Mailwasher to stop unwanted spam email

Open Explorer to a directory of your own choice.



1. Right click on the Explorer icon

2. View the properties

3. Click on the Shortcut tab

4. Where it says Taget type the following examples to see how it works

5. Copy and paste the following examples into the "Start" "Run"

6. Click OK to save the setting when you are satisfied with your choice of directory.

%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /n, /e, "C:"

%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /n, /e, "C:\windows"

%SYSTEMROOT%\explorer.exe /n, /e, "C:\program files

Useful Google

Use the following tips to find information using the Google search engine. http://www.google.com

Method 1

Put this string in google search:

"parent directory " /appz/ -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " DVDRip -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory "Xvid -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " Gamez -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " Name of Singer or album -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

Notice that i am only changing the word after the parent directory,
change it to what you want and you will get a lot of stuff. Voila!

Method 2

Put this string in google search:

?intitle:index.of? mp3 You only need add the name of the song/artist/singer.

Example: ?intitle:index.of? mp3 jackson

Get Rid of the Logon Screen

Get Rid of the Logon Screen: Intended For Windows XP Windows 2000 Windows Me Windows 98 Windows 95

Whether or not you're on a local area network, odds are you don't really need the little logon (login) screen asking for your username and password that comes up when starting Windows.

To remove this prompt, follow the following directions:

Windows XP - solution 1: Select Run from the Start Menu, type control userpasswords2, and click Ok. Turn off the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer option, and click Ok. Windows XP - solution 2: If you have one user account and no password configured, Windows XP will log you in automatically. Otherwise, you'll have to do the following: Obtain and install the Windows XP version of TweakUI. Open TweakUI (it's in Start -> Programs -> Powertoys for Windows XP). Expand the Logon branch, and click Autologon. Turn on the Log on automatically at system startup option, type your username and password, and click Ok.

Windows 2000 - solution 1: Double-click the Users icon in Control Panel, and choose the Users tab. Turn off the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer option, and click Ok. Windows 2000 - solution 2: Double-click the System icon in Control Panel, and choose the Network Identification tab. Click Network ID and follow the instructions on screen.

Windows 95/98/Me (If you don't have multiple users configured): Open Control Panel, and double-click on the Network icon. From the list entitled Primary Network Logon:, choose Windows Logon, and press OK. Note: If this doesn't work, make sure you didn't initially configure a password for yourself. If you did, Windows 98 will always require it. Double-click on the Passwords icon in Control Panel to choose nothing (leave it blank) for your password.

Windows 95/98/Me (If you do have multiple users configured): Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE). Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ Network\ Logon. Double-click on the Process Logon Script value, and change the data from 00 00 00 00 to 00 00 00 01 Windows 95/98/Me

If nothing else works: Install Tweak UI, and double-click the Tweak UI icon in Control Panel. Choose the Network tab, and check the Log on automatically at system startup option. Type your username (shown after Log Off in your Start Menu) and your password (leave it blank if you don't have one), and click Ok when you're done.

How do I change Window's default install directory?

Not promising this won't have unwanted side effects...it might be better to just designate your install locations manually.

But here goes...

Go to Start

Go to Run

Type: regedit

Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

On the right side, find the string called ProgramFilesDir and modify it to the desired path.

Disabling unnecessary and potentially dangerous services


Windows XP comes with Terminal Services, IIS, and RAS that can open holes into your operating system. It's often convenient to enable Terminal Services to allow remote control functions for the help desk or administering servers, but you have to make sure it's configured correctly. There are also several malicious programs that can run quietly as services without anyone knowing. Be aware of all the services that all run on your servers and audit them periodically.

Below is a list of the common services found on Windows XP, though don't be surprised if the vast majority are not present on your system. This is an almost complete list from Microsoft. Please read this and keep the running services to only those that you need. A useful tip is that instead of disabling something you are unsure of, set it to manual. When you restart your machine if that service has started then it is probably required by one of your components or software products. If it is still OFF then consider disabling it for greater protection.

Here are a list of the services that you "may" see when in the Windows XP services control panel, along with our recommendation for use in a home environment - please note, that we do specify a HOME environment. These settings may not be appropriate for work-based workstations, though in all likelihood the majority of the recommendations apply there too.

Alerter - notifies selected users and computers of administrative alerts. If this service is turned off, applications that use the NetAlertRaise or NetAlertRaiseEx APIs will be unable to notify a user or computer (by a Message Box from the Messenger service) that the administrative alert took place.
Recommendation: Disabled.

Application Layer Gateway Service - Provides support for 3rd party plug-ins for Internet Connection Sharing/Internet Connection Firewall. Required if using Internet Connection Sharing/Internet Connection Firewall to connect to the internet.
Recommendation: Automatic if using ICS, Disabled if not.

Application Management - Used for Assign, Publish and Remove software services. If you can not modify your software installation of certain applications, put this service in to Automatic or Manual.
Recommendation: Disabled

Automatic Updates - Used to check up to see if there is any critical or otherwise updates available for download. It is very important that if you decide to disable this service, you check the Windows Update site often to ensure the latest patches are installed. Manual (and Automatic) update via Windows Update web site Requires Cryptographic Services to be running.
Recommends: Automatic if you do not wish to use Windows Update manually.

Background Intelligent Transfer Service - Used to transfer asynchronous data via http1.1 servers. According to Microsoft's site, Windows Update uses this "feature." It "continues" a download if you log off or shutdown the system (that is, when you log back in.) Manual update via Windows Update web site Requires Cryptographic Services to be running.
Recommendation: Disabled

ClipBook - enables the Clipbook Viewer to create and share "pages" of data to be viewed by remote computers.
Recommendation: Disabled

COM+ Event System - provides automatic distribution of events to subscribing (Component Object Model) COM components.
Recommendation: Disabled

COM+ System Application - as above
Recommendation: Disabled

Computer Browser - maintains an up-to-date list of computers on your network, and supplies the list to programs that request it. The Computer Browser service is used by Windows-based computers that need to view network domains and resources. Not required unless you attach to a network of Windows computers.
Recommendation: Disabled

Cryptographic Services - Confirms signatures of Windows files. You may always get a dialog box complaining about uncertified drivers if this is disabled. Required for Windows Update to function in manual and automatic mode. Windows Media Player may also require this service to function.
Recommendation: Automatic

DHCP Client - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client manages network configuration by registering and updating IP addresses and Domain Name Server (DNS) names. If you are only dialling up to ISP via modem, cable, etc. If you have a network card in your PC and attach out via a router or sharing device then this may be required. Set to manual if unsure then check on reboot if it has started. If not then disable.
Recommendation : Automatic if required. Disabled if not.

Distributed Link Tracking Client - maintains links between the NTFS file system files within a computer or across computers in a network domain.
Recommendation: Disabled

Distributed Transaction Coordinator - coordinates transactions that are distributed across multiple computer systems and/or resource managers, such as databases, message queues, file systems, or other transaction-protected resource managers.
Recommendation: Disabled

DNS Client - resolves and caches (Domain Name Server) DNS names. The DNS client service must be running on every computer that will perform DNS name resolution.
Recommendation: Disabled

Error Reporting Service - Calls home to Microsoft when errors occur. Spyware?
Recommendation: Disabled

Event Log -logs event messages issued by programs and Windows. Event Log reports contain information that can be useful in diagnosing problems.
Recommends: Automatic

Fax Service - enables you to send and receive faxes. Disabling this service will render the computer unable to send or receive faxes. Not used by most people.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Telephony - provides Telephony API (TAPI) support for programs that control telephony devices and IP-based voice connections on the local computer and through the LAN on servers that are also running the service. If you never use a dial-up modem on a PC but connect via a router then disable.
Recommendation: Automatic (if using Dial-Up Networking/Faxing/ or PC Phone Services) Disabled otherwise

FTP Publishing Service -Not available on Windows XP Home. Not installed by default on Windows XP Pro,provides (file transfer protocol) FTP connectivity and administration through the Internet Information Service (IIS) snap-in. Big security risk!
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Help and Support - Required for Microsofts online help documents.
Recommendation: Disabled.

Human Interface Device Access - If all your devices function then disable it. Seems new with no devices for it as yet.
Recommendation: Disabled.

IIS Admin - Not available on Windows XP Home. Not installed by default on Windows XP Proallows administration of Internet Information Services (IIS). If this service is not running, you will not be able to run Web, FTP, NNTP, or SMTP sites, or configure IIS. See also World Wide Web Publishing Service. Not usually required unless you are running a local web server. If you are then make sure that if no external access is required that you firewall protect port 80 to only local traffic! Do not even consider running a public web server unless you are 100% sure of the implications - use an ISP server.
Recommendations: Leave not installed or Disabled unless you understand the implications.

IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service - Used for the "drag and drop" CD burn capability. You will need this service to burn CD's.If you still can not burn a CD with it on Manual, switch to Automatic and feel safe that it will only be used when "needed."
Recommendation : Disabled if you do not burn CD's otherwise set to Manual or Automatic.

Indexing Service - indexes contents and properties of files on local and remote computers and provides rapid access to files through a flexible querying language.
Recommendation: Disabled

Internet Connection Firewall and Internet Connection Sharing - provides network address translation (NAT), addressing and name resolution services for all computers on your home or small-office network through a dial-up or broadband connection. Not required unless you are sharing a dial-up connection with other PC's on your network - not recommended! Far better to use a router or gateway firewall software for this purpose. Consider using a higher specification firewall like Kerio Winroute if sharing your connection.
Recommendation: Automatic if sharing connection, Disabled if not required.

IPSEC Services -
manages IP security (IPsec) policy, starts the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and coordinates IPsec policy settings with the IP security driver. Only leave on if you are using IPSec. Opens Port 500.
Recommendation: Disabled

Logical Disk Manager - watches Plug and Play events for new drives to be detected and passes volume and/or disk information to the Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service to be configured. If disabled, the Disk Management snap-in display will not change when disks are added or removed. Turn it on only if you add additional disks and then disable again.
Recommendation: Disabled

Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service - as above
Recommendation: Disabled

Message Queuing - A messaging infrastructure and development tool for creating distributed messaging applications for Windows. Not available on Windows XP Home. Not installed by default on Windows XP Pro. Most home users will never need this service.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Message Queuing Triggers - Not available on Windows XP Home. Not installed by default on Windows XP Pro. Required only if you use Message Queuing service.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Messenger - sends and receives messages to or from users and computers, or those transmitted by administrators or by the Alerter service. Nothing to do with MSN Messenger
Recommendation: Disabled

MS Software Shadow Copy Provider - Used in conjunction with the Volume Shadow Copy Service. Microsoft Backup uses these services so you will need it if you use that. You will receive Event Log entry complaining about not having this service running if Disabled.
Recommendation: Disabled

NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing - allows authorized users to remotely access your Windows desktop from another PC over a corporate intranet by using Microsoft NetMeeting®. Very dangerous - allows remote access to your PC. Only use if absolutely essential and if running effective firewall.
Recommendation: Disabled

Network Connections -manages objects in the Network and Dial-Up Connections folder, in which you can view both network and remote connections.
Recommendation: Automatic.

Network DDE - Useless service unless you use remote ClipBook.
Recommendation: Disabled

Network DDE DSDM - as above
Recommendation: Disabled

Network Location Awareness (NLA) - Required for use with the Internet Connection Sharing Service (server only.)
Recommendation: Disabled unless running ICS/ICF, not required for using an ICS sharer.

NT LM Security Support Provider - enables users to log on to the network using the NTLM authentication protocol. If this service is stopped, users will be unable to log on to the domain and access services. NTLM is used mostly by Windows versions prior to Windows 2000.
Recommendation: Disabled

Performance Logs and Alerts - configures performance logs and alerts.
Recommendation: Disabled

Plug and Play - enables a computer to recognize and adapt to hardware changes with little or no user input.
Recommendation: Automatic

Portable Media Serial Number - Retrieves serial numbers from portable music players connected to your computer.
Recommendation: Disabled

Print Spooler - queues and manages print jobs locally and remotely. If you don't have a printer attached then disable.
Recommendation: Automatic if needed, Disabled otherwise.

Protected Storage - provides protected storage for sensitive data, such as private keys, to prevent access by unauthorized services processes or users.
Recommendation: Disabled

QoS RSVP - provides network signalling and local, traffic-control, set-up functionality for (Quality of Service) QoS-aware programs and control applets.
Recommendation: Disabled

Remote Access Auto Connection Manager - creates a connection to a remote network whenever a program references a remote DNS or NetBIOS name or address. Disabling the service has no effect on the rest of the operating system. You will have to set up connections to remote computers manually. Whilst this process is convenient, unauthorised applications (such as Trojans) could bring up your network connection without your explicit request. Far better to manually dial.
Recommendation: Disabled.

Remote Access Connection Manager - creates a network connection.
Recommendation: Automatic if using Dial-Up Networking, Disabled otherwise.


Remote Desktop Help Session Manager - Manages and controls Remote Assistance. Could create a MAJOR security hole so disable it unless absolutely necessaty.
Recommendation: Disabled

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - provides the endpoint mapper and other miscellaneous RPC services. Absolutely essential.
Recommendation: Automatic.

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator - Manages the RPC name service database. Useless service
Recommendation: Disabled

Remote Registry Service - Not available on Windows XP Home. allows remote registry manipulation. This service lets users connect to a remote registry and read and/or write keys to it-providing they have the required permissions. Hacker could use this to attack other PC's.
Recommendation: Disabled

Removable Storage - manages removable media drives and libraries. This service maintains a catalogue of identifying information for removable media used by a system, including tapes, CDs, and so on.
Recommendation: Disabled

RIP Listener - Not installed by default.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Routing and Remote Access - offers routing services in local area and wide area network environments. Shouldn't be required on a home PC.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Secondary Logon - allows you to run specific tools and programs with different permissions than your current logon provides.
Recommendation: Disabled

Security Accounts Manager -start-up of this service signals other services that the Security Accounts Manager subsystem is ready to accept requests.
Recommendation: Disabled unless needed.

Server - provides RPC support and file print and named pipe sharing over the network. The Server service allows the sharing of your local resources (such as disks and printers) so that other users on the network can access them. You should carefully consider the full implications of enabling this!
Recommendation: Disabled unless absolutely needed. Better still REMOVED.

Shell Hardware Detection - Used for the auto play of devices like memory cards, some CD drives, etc. Set to Automatic if you are experiencing problems with laptop docking stations.
Recommendation: Disabled unless required.

Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) - Not available on Windows XP Home. Not installed by default on Windows XP Pro. Transports e-mail across the network.
If you are using the built-in mail server for receiving mail then leave on automatic. If not, as would be usual in a home environment, then disable.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Simple TCP/IP Services - Not installed by default, implements support for a number of IP protocols.
Recommendation : Leave not installed or Disabled

Smart Card - manages and controls access to a smart card inserted into a smart card reader attached to the computer. If not using a smart card reader then disable.
Recommendation: Disabled

Smart Card Helper - provides support for earlier smart card readers attached to the computer. As above.
Recommendation: Disabled

SNMP Service - allows incoming (Simple Network Management Protocol) SNMP requests to be serviced by the local computer.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

SNMP Trap Service - receives trap messages generated by local or remote SNMP agents and forwards the messages to SNMP management programs running on the computer.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

SSDP Discovery Service - Used to locate UPnP devices on your home network. Used in conjunction with Universal Plug and Play Device Host, it detects and configures UPnP devices on your home network. For security reasons Disable this service. Please read the section in the guide on UPnP. Please note that even the FBI recommends disabling and preferably deinstalling this!!
Recommendation: Disabled for security reasons, better still removed totally as per the Steve Gibson instructions in the UPnP section.

System Event Notification - tracks system events such as Windows logon network and power events. Notifies COM+ Event System subscribers of these events. SENS is an AutoStarted service that depends on COM+ EventSystem service.
Recommendation: Disabled

System Restore Service - Creates system snap shots or restore points for returning to at a later time. Big resource overhead! Forget about it!
Recommendation: Disabled

Task Scheduler - enables a program to run at a designated time. Can be very dangerous. If you must run scheduled tasks then consider disabling all users other than administrator from running tasks. Can create major security problems and allow a hacker to comprimise your system by scheduling trojans to run.
Recommends: Disabled unless absolutely required

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service - enables support for NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NetBT) service and NetBIOS name resolution. Only required if you need to share files with others.
Recommendation: Disabled

TCP/IP Printer Server - Not installed by default, but if needed, you may install it later off of the WinXP CD. Used for setting up a local UNIX print server. If you do not need this function, leave it uninstalled.
Recommendation: Leave not installed or Disabled

Telephony - provides Telephony API (TAPI) support for programs that control telephony devices and IP-based voice connections on the local computer and through the LAN on servers that are also running the service. If you never use a dial-up modem on a PC but connect via a router then disable.
Recommendation: Automatic (if using Dial-Up Networking/Faxing/ or PC Phone Services) Disabled otherwise

Telnet - Not available on Windows XP Home and for good reason!! allows a remote user to log on to the system and run console programs by using the command line. Very dangerous. .
Recommendation: Disabled, preferably deinstall

Terminal Services - provides a multisession environment that allows client devices to access a virtual Windows 2000 Professional desktop session and Windows-based programs running on the server. Big security risk!
Recommendation: Disabled, preferably deinstall

Themes - Used to display all those new XP themes and colors on your desktop. Lots of space needed.
Recommendation: Disabled

Uninterruptible Power Supply - manages communications with a UPS connected to the computer by a serial port.
Recommendation: Disabled

Universal Plug and Play Device Host - Used in conjunction with SSDP Discovery Service, it detects and configures UPnP devices on your home network. For security reasons Disable this service immediately.Please read the section in the guide on UPnP. Please note that even the FBI recommends disabling and preferably deinstalling this!!
Recommendation: Disabled for security reasons, better still removed totally as per the Steve Gibson instructions in the UPnP section.

Upload Manager - As with BITS, this service manages file transfers between clients and servers on the network. This service is NOT required for basic File and Print sharing.
Recommendation: Disabled

Volume Shadow Copy - Used in conjunction with the MS Software Shadow Copy Provider Service. Microsoft Backup uses these services.
Recommendation: Disabled

WebClient - Disable this for security reasons.
Recommendation: Disabled

Windows Audio - This service is Required if you wish to hear any audio at all. If your computer does not have a sound card, Disable this service.
Recommendation: Automatic unless you do not have a sound card, then set it to Disabled.

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) - Used for some scanners and cameras. If, after Disabling this service, your scanner or camera fails to function properly, enable this service.
Recommendation: Disabled

Windows Installer - installs, repairs, or removes software according to instructions contained in .MSI files provided with the applications
Recommendation: Manual

Windows Management Instrumentation - provides system management information. WMI is an infrastructure for building management applications and instrumentation shipped as an integral part of the current generation of Microsoft operating systems.
Recommendation: Automatic

Windows Management Instrumentation Driver Extension - Not available on Windows XP Home. Tracks of all of the drivers that have registered WMI information to publish.
Recommendation: Manual

Windows Time - sets the computer clock. W32Time maintains date and time synchronization on all computers running on a Microsoft Windows network. NTP can be dangerous. Not worth the risk.
Recommendation: Disabled

Wireless Zero Configuration - Automatic configuration for wireless network devices. If you do not have any wireless network devices in use, Disable this service.
Recommendation: Disabled

WMI Performance Adapter - ??
Recommendation: Disabled

Workstation - provides network connections and communications. If this service is turned off, no network connections can be made to remote computers using Microsoft Networks. Use if you require drive-mapping connections to other Windows PC's.
Recommendation : Disabled, Automatic if required

World Wide Web Publishing Service - Not available on Windows XP Home. Provides HTTP services for applications on the Windows platform. Required if you are running a web server, but consider firewalling such a local web server so it is not visible to the world. Use an ISP web server for greatest security. Most commeon entry point for hackers!
Recommendation : Leave not installed or Disabled

As you can see from the above, not very much is actually needed to keep your Windows XP installation functioning in a home environment. All the enabled services just pose an enormous security risk, bring little or no benefit, consume resources and can be safely turned off.


Is my computer infected?

Is my computer infected?
There's a 98.7 % your computers infected with Spyware or Adware, if you are surfing the internet. Adware/Spyware comes bundled with many types of freeware products (greeting cards, Consumer Identity at Risk screensavers, etc) and collect vast amounts of information about you.

Here are the warning signs.
Have you noticed any of the following on your PC?
Excessive Popup's
Slow PC Performance
Hard drive is constantly scanning
Browser Home Page has changed

Why is this a problem, Who is behind this?
Thankfully Spam email is finally being addressed and eliminated. However, businesses that depend on email communication to sell products and services are now losing profits.

Their solution? Offer the consumer Free downloads, laced with Spyware and Adware to generate (annoying) popup's and capture information about "your" online habits.

Advertising companies are creating these programs and charging companies $10,000 just to start sending you their advertising (annoying popup's) via Adware or Spyware! It will not go away.

By the way guess who the #1 purchaser of popup advertising is? Pornographers!

The other danger is quickly surfacing. Criminals and Hackers are now using this same "business model" to steal credit card data and other personal information right off your PC.

Perhaps you innocently send an online greeting card to a loved one. You may be sending them a program laced with Adware or Spyware. Spyware can and will record everything you type on your PC.

Before you start doubting if this is a real problem, download a scanner and see for yourself.

lets see if your PC is infected with Spyware/Adware

Firstly, lets see if your PC is infected with Spyware/Adware

9 out 10 computers are infected by pests like Spyware, Adware, malicious Trojans and hacker tools making it the most prevalent privacy and security risk in the marketplace. Meaning that your chances of not getting infected by these pests are very low. First things first... click here to download TheSpywareKiller and find out if you are infected. Okay,

So what if I am infected?
Spyware have the potential to extract passwords, credit card numbers and other personal details They can monitor each and every thing you do online from the key strokes you make, the sites you visits, the purchases you make online, and even log your bank account login details with ease. And then the hacker does his job.

As of Adware... they do a pretty simple job.
They keep popping up ads on your screen without your permission. Since these irritating programs are a little intelligent they will pop up ads that are related to the content sites you are visiting. Now there is a chance that you may love this. But they are still programs and are not 100% perfect. So you will be shown a few adult only ads as they are very profitable to the Adware owners. You surely don't want your kids to see those "Adults Only" ads that could be popped up anytime on your PC without your permission.... do you?

But I have an anti-virus and firewall.
Your anti-virus software cannot detect them and they very easily get past your firewall and infect your PC because they came into your PC as a genuine download. Wondering How? Okay, how many times did you download music or share files with your friends? Now this was a voluntary act. Isn't it. And if your friends computer is infected there is a 99.99% chance that your PC is now infected with spyware as you got those files from him. That is exactly how these things work. These programs hide behind genuine looking files and stab you from behind.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Increase your Bandwidth by 20%

This is a great step to increase your download speed by up to 20% with one simple setting:

Did you know Microsoft reserves 20% of your maximum bandwidth for their own use? Such as Windows Update and of course interrogating your PC. Well as you can imagine this takes a huge chunk of bandwidth that you could be using to download other things. Note: The Microsoft Operating Systems that I know this works on are as follows; Windows XP Professional SP2, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows Media Center Edition, and Windows Server 2003.

Well now you know Microsoft limits your bandwidth, what are you going to do about it? Well I hope that you’ll read the following text:

Click Start>RunType “gpedit.msc” (no quotes)
Click Local Computer Policy>Computer Configuration>Administrative Templates>Network>QoS Packet Scheduler>Limit Reservable Bandwidth

It will say that it is not configured, this however is a lie! The truth you seek is under the ‘Explain’ tab:“If you disable this setting or do not configure it, the system uses the default value of 20 percent of the connection.”Now click back over to the ‘Setting’ tab and enable it, then set the value to 0.
And there you have it, your connection should go a lot faster.

You also may have to restart your PC for the changes to take affect, not sure though

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

How to reset iPod

Learn how to reset or restart iPod following a freeze. Tip: Check out this helpful movie too.

If you have an iPod shuffle, click here for reset steps.

Important: If your iPod is frozen or won't turn on, it may be because iPod is paused or the Hold switch is in the locked position. If so, a lock symbol appears on the screen. Slide the Hold switch to the unlocked position and check the screen.

If you are using your iPod as a hard drive (disk mode), it is normal for "do not disconnect" to remain on the screen until you are ready to eject the iPod in iTunes or from the Mac OS. To avoid having the iPod freeze learn how to eject and disconnect iPod from your computer.

If your iPod is frozen or won't turn on, the steps to reset it vary by model. You can easily tell which iPod model you have if you're not sure.

To reset an iPod with a Click Wheel, including:

  • Fifth Generation iPod (also known as iPod with video)
  • iPod nano (Second Generation)
  • iPod nano
  • iPod with color display (iPod photo)
  • iPod (Click Wheel)
  • iPod mini
  • iPod mini (Second Generation)

  1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
  2. Press and hold the Menu and Center (Select) buttons until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.

Tip: If you are having difficulty resetting your iPod, set it on a flat surface. Make sure the finger pressing the Select button is not touching any part of the click wheel. Also make sure that you are pressing the Menu button toward the outside of the click wheel, and not near the center.

If the above steps did not work, try connecting iPod to a power adapter and plug the power adapter into an electrical outlet, or connect iPod to your computer. Make sure the computer is turned on and isn't set to go to sleep.

To reset iPod, iPod (scroll wheel), iPod (touch wheel), and iPod (dock connector)

  1. Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
  2. Press and hold the Play/Pause and Menu buttons until the Apple/iPod logo appears, about 6 to 10 seconds. You may need to repeat this step.

If the above steps did not work, try connecting iPod to a power adapter and plug the power adapter into an electrical outlet, or connect iPod to your computer. Make sure the computer is turned on and isn't set to go to sleep.

If you are still unable to reset your iPod, use only one finger from one hand to press the Center (Select) button, and one finger from the other hand to press the Menu button.

When you reset iPod all your music and files are saved, but some customized settings may be lost. Date and time is preserved (unless the iPod reset itself because it had no power and then was reconnected to power). Other customized settings, such as Bookmarks, On-The-Go Playlists, Shuffle, Backlight timer, and so forth are preserved from the last time the hard drive turned on.

iPod not responding

If your iPod does not respond to these steps, see additional steps in the "iPod troubleshooting basics and service FAQ".

Monday, December 11, 2006

Restore DC from tape

This is what we did on our DR drill:
1. Install the OS on the server.
2. Install remote agents for backup software.
3. Make sure that the OS is on the same SP level as the copy being restored.
4. Reboot the DC into Active Directory Restore Mode.
5. Restore only the C: drive and the system state to the original location. Make sure that the backup software is set to overwrite any existing files.
6. Reboot.
7. Work out any kinks that you may have here, which may include doing a repair install from the CD if the server hardware has changed any.
8. Restore the D: drive (presumably this is where Exchange is installed in your case).
9. Go into Exchange System Manager and on the Properties --> Database tab for each storage group check the box to allow database to be overwritten.
10. Resotre all Exchange stores and databases via yuor Exchange backup agent. Select to replay restored logs files only (this may be specific to Veritas).
11. Go back into ESM and uncheck the box to alow databases to be overwritten.
12. Mount databases and test.

If the hardware has changed significantly then there are additional steps. You can find them in KB263532 and KB321290 on Technet. All of the above assumes that this will be a non-authoritative restore onto the DC (i.e., you are restoring old AD data and other servers will replicate over the more current data once the server is restored). If you need to do an authoritative restore (i.e., you have no other AD data other than what's on the backup tape and this DC will overwrite other DCs) then you will need to follow the steps in KB241594 on Technet.

If you run into further problems (especially with different hardware) then post here and I've got a list of a bunch of registry keys that you can delete that will help.

Is Core 2 Duo that much better than Pentium D?

First, I recommend you read this article which will put a lot in perspective for you:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/

Dual-core CPU's are able to handle larger workloads without sacrificing as much speed as a single-core processor. In other situations involving light workloads, the advantage isn't all that much. So between the Pentium D and the Pentium 4, it just depends.

The Core 2 Duo, on the other hand, isn't just another dual-core CPU. Unlike the P4 and PD, the Duo is redesigned from the ground up (partially modeled after the Pentium III and Pentium M). A 1.6GHz Duo for example can outperform a 2.8GHz P4 or PD with ease. Because of its lower clock speed, it's also able to run a lot cooler. Pentium D's are notorious for running very hot, even the newer models that were reduced from 130 Watts to 95 Watts.

There quite a few articles you can sift through here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/index.html


If you don't plan on turning your PC into a movie editing studio or intense gaming rig, then I'd say go for a cheap P4 (or better yet an Athlon 64) unless you can afford the Duo. Stay away from the Pentium D at this point.

COMPUTER FREEZES or wont boot up

Common causes:

1.) Bad Powersupply or failing...

2.) underpowered Powersupply...

3.) Buldging or leaking Capacitors... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

4.) corrosion, ie. the contacts of the RAM or GFX Card... Reseat RAM and GFX Card after cleaning the contact points with a Nr.02 pencil erasor...

is it dual core or is it not......

A dual core, non-HT CPU will show two processors in task manager.

A single core, HT CPU will show two processors in task manager.

A dual core, HT CPU (Extreme Edition and Xeon chips) will show 4 CPUs in task manager - if the OS supports multi-core and HT CPUs.

You can try to use WCPUID to determine the number of cores and the status of HT:
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html

Or, other programs such as SiSoft Sandra may be able to do it. Lastly, you can try to watch and read the POST screen to see what it says as the computer boots.

I also recommend going to CPUID.com and using the free utility out there. It will give you the exact model number.

Then, I like to keep these CPU charts bookmarked:

(INTEL)
http://images.tomshardware.com/images/tables/cpu_table_intel_big.gif

(AMD)
http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/the_mother_of_all_cpu_charts_2005/cpu_table_amd_big.gif

Set As Background

A really simple way to display whatever jpg's or bmp's you like as wallpaper is with Phyle's Wallpaper switcher. It's a free program with no adware/malware of any kind.
http://philippebedard.net/category/4.aspx
You can create a folder wherever you please,put your pics in it and browse to it with 'setup' option in Phyllwall. You can set it to change to another pic(at random)in the folder from every minute to every six hours with a simple slider. It will change to another pic when you reboot and/or you can change pics by clicking on the icon in the task bar whenever you please.
I've used it since Win9x and it works very well with XP and doesn't hog resources at all..

Sunday, December 10, 2006

3000+ Unix/Linux Programming Texts and Tutorials

All free, of course. Includes the typical roundup of Linux/Unix languages, also includes things like cron, openGL, networking, GTK, Gimp, iptables, regex, Grub/LILO, booting between multiple kernels and a plethora of others. More…

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Using Windows XP's Restore Points For PC Recovery

Have you ever done something to make an improvement and later regretted it?It would be awesome to be able to go back in time and undo the the thing that were supposed to make an improvement.

While life in general will not allow us to return to an earlier time to make changes, we computer users do have such an option should we experience problems with our Windows XP operating systems.

If you update or install the wrong device driver for your video card, and you delete accidentally delete a critical Windows file, so what.

You can simply use Windows XP's Restore Point feature and, Tada, you're back on track and recovered that deleted file.

Restore Points are snapshots of the state your operating system was in during that time.Windows XP automatically creates a restore point when it senses a major change in your operating system.And Restore Points are created every 24 hours as a safety measure.But you can create a Restore Point manually any time you feel there is a need.

If you have a change of some sort that causes problems with the operating system, you can tell Windows XP to revert to any Restore Point established before the problem occured.After the rollback, every change in the operating system that happened after that Restore Point is eliminated.

Restore Points are generally used when you experience such pc problems as extremely slow performance of the system. Your computer responds far more slowly that it did before you installed or updated something.

Other times to run Restore Point is when your system stops responding after an update or installation. Be sure to create a Restore Point before making any significant change to your computer's software or configuration.

To set a Restore Point, click on Start, point to All Programs, click on Accessories, System Tools, and then click on System Restore.When the System Restore windows appears, click on the button labeled "Create A Restore Point" and click Next.

Enter a description of the restore point, something like "Before scanner device driver install" and click the Create button.A notification will inform you that a Restore Point was made.Now click the Close button and you're all set.

Reverting to a Restore Point is as easy as create one.Click on Start, point to All Programs, click Accessories, System Tools, and System Restore.When the System Restore window appears, click on the "Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time" and then click on the Next button.

Choose the date on which you set the Restore Point and click the Next button.Review the information presented and save any open files.Shut down any other programs that may be running.

Click on the Next button and now your computer will restart. As it restarts, it will present a message informing you of the restore point. Click OK and you're done.

After reading all about setting and reverting to restore points, you should make a known restore point if you have not done so already.Whatever you do after reading this article, don't say I'll get to it soon.Familarize yourself with this feature and create a restore point one.

You should try Restore Point and see how it works before you need it.Create a Restore Point now and update something.You can update Windows Media Player for example.

After the update or the installation of a program,wait a day or so and go back to Restore Point.Revert to the Restore Point you created and see if the old version of Windows Media Player comes back.Or see if that old device driver is present.

Doing a simple task like this can and will boost your computer skills and give you much more confidence in yourself and the Windows XP operating system. More >>>

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Set Up Ubuntu-Server 6.06 LTS As A Firewall/Gateway For Your Small Business Environment

Needs very little maintenance and is extendable beyond your wildest imagination. All depending on the hardware used, of course.

This is just a COPY&PASTE howto. For more info use the net. I did... However, contributions and suggestions are allways welcome! I know this can be done better, so feel free. Full Story >>>

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Which Vista Edition is Right for You?




Article Includes Table of Versions Features. --- There are six main editions of Windows Vista. We're not going to go into the Starter Edition in this article, because there simply isn't that much to say. There is no pricing announced, and you won't find it on store shelves or as an option from major OEMs More >>>

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Why Bittorrent Works

Bittorrent is often referred to as the best filesharing protocol for sharing large files. But why? What makes bittorrent so unique?

Well, lets take a sneak peek under the hood of your Bittorrent client, and list a couple of features that make bittorrent as fast, stable, and robust as it is.

Starting

Bittorrent starts with chopping a file into small pieces, the one who starts sharing the file (initial seed) sends those small pieces to available peers. The Bittorrent protocol makes sure that the seed sends a unique piece to everyone, so they can share this with each other.

Thus, the great advantage is that everyone starts sharing pieces of the file right away.

Fair trading

bittorrent swarmOnce you have a little piece of the file, your bittorrent client starts to look for other people who might be interested in the pieces you have. The bittorrent protocol works as a tit-for-tat game, you only upload pieces to people who offer something to you. The more you upload to others, the more you receive.

This fair trading principle prevents free-riders from stealing your precious bandwidth.

Once you’re trading files, the Bittorrent client keeps a close eye on your peer, as soon as the other side stops sending you data it will stop sending as well (choke). In the meanwhile your client keeps searching for other peers, it randomly sends data to peers who are interested (optimistic unchoke), to see if that peer is a potential trading partner.

Selecting pieces

So what pieces does your client sent first? Well, Bittorrent works with a “rarest piece first” scheme. Your bittorrent client generally looks for the rarest piece that’s available among the peers in the swarm. This makes sure that the most common pieces are still available at the end, and may prevent people from getting stuck at 99%.

Seeders & New Peers

Seeders don’t stop sending out pieces of course, but the rules change a bit. As a downloader the client determines the best peer by the upload/download ratio. A seeder however is only interested in peers with a high upload speed, so these fast uploaders can send the pieces to other peers, and speed up the overall speed of the swarm (seeds + peers).

New peers (without pieces) are more likely to receive a piece of the file at random. Besides this, new peers are not bound to the rarest piece first restriction. This makes sure that a new peer receives a “piece” as quick as possible, so he can share it with others.

PS3 Vs. Wii Vs. 360 Entertainment Weekly reviews all

Entertainment Weekly gives their review of all 3 systems and the grades are as follows Xbox 360 A- Nintendo Wii B+ Playstation 3 B Full Story >>>

Sunday, November 19, 2006

How to Configure an $80 File Server in 45 Minutes

I use a modded Xbox and Xbox Media Center for playing media files across the network on my television and sound system. I also download large files, such as Linux ISOs, via BitTorrent. However, leaving my primary computer on all the time seemed like a waste of energy. I wanted a cheap, small headless machine that I could use as a Samba server and BitTorrent client so I could leave my workstation off when I wasn't using it.

I was in luck; HCDI Trading had a great "Fall Extravaganza" deal - a Dell OptiPlex GX150 Desktop for $47.91 (around $30 s/h). The specs:

  • Desktop Form Factor (it fits on a shelf in a media center)
  • Intel Celeron 700 MHz
  • 128MB RAM
  • 10GB HD
  • CD-Rom

Not cutting edge, but perfect for what I needed and priced very reasonably. Instead of using X11 and remote clients, I felt that web interfaces would be optimal out of simplicity. If I configured the server as a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP), then I could use web GUIs for configuration, administration, and file transfers.

Out of the popular Linux distributions, I'm most familiar with Gentoo and Ubuntu. Gentoo didn't seem appropriate; it would take hours and hours to get everything set up, configured and updated (even from a Stage 3 install), and any performance gain from the optimization would be negligible. Ubuntu has a history of reliability and ease of set up, so I used the Edgy Eft release as the basis my server.

The Applications

  • Remote Console - OpenSSH
    • The free version of the SSH connectivity tools. Use it for secure access to the console.
  • Web Server - Apache
    • It's free, fast, well supported and documented
  • Network Fileshare - Samba
    • Creates file shares that can be easily accessed from Windows. Notoriously obnoxious to configure by hand, the Samba Web Administration Tool (SWAT) simplifies the process immensely.
  • Database - MySQL
    • The popular free database server. While I can use a command line to administrate MySQL, I prefer using phpMyAdmin.
  • P2P Client - BitTorrent

Directions

  1. Download and burn the Ubuntu Server 6.10 i386 install CD.
  2. Install Ubuntu Server
    1. When asked about Software Installation, choose LAMP.
    2. When the installation is finished, take out the CD (I flip it over and leave it in the drive for the next time I need it) and reboot.
  3. Logon as the regular user that you created during setup.
  4. Give root a password.
    $ sudo su
    # passwd
  5. We're going to modify the file sources list to allow us access to all the required files. Uncomment the edgy universe, edgy-security main restricted, edgy-security universe, edgy multiverse, edgy-backports main restricted universe multiverse, and edgy-commercial main. In addition, Ubuntu leaves the install CD as one of the file sources after installation, so you'll need to remove the CD from the source list. Comment out the CD from the list and save.
    nano -w /etc/apt/sources.list
  6. Update aptitude to use the new sources.
    sudo aptitude update
  7. Install OpenSSH server
    apt-get install openssh-server
  8. Turn off the computer.
    shutdown -h now
  9. Disconnect the monitor, keyboard, and set the computer wherever it's going to lurk for the next couple years.
  10. Turn on the computer and wait about a minute for it to boot.
  11. Using your preferred SSH client, connect to the machine. I prefer PuTTY for Windows.
  12. Install Samba and SWAT.
    sudo apt-get install samba smbfs swat xinetd
  13. Create a Samba user.
    sudo smbpasswd -a username
  14. Add SWAT to the xinet configuration and save.
    sudo nano -w /etc/xinet.d/swat
    # description: SAMBA SWAT
    service swat {
    disable = no
    socket_type = stream
    protocol = tcp
    #should use a more limited user here
    user = root
    wait = no
    server = /usr/sbin/swat
    }
  15. Reload Xinetd with the new configuration.
    sudo dpkg-reconfigure xinetd
  16. Verify that SWAT is up and running. If you don't get any response, start Googling.
    sudo netstat -tap | grep swat
  17. Make the shared directory for TorrentFlux.
    sudo mkdir /share
    sudo mkdir /share/incoming
    sudo chmod 777 /share/incoming/
  18. Create the Samba share. Using a web browser, go to http://hostname:901/shares
    1. path /share/incoming
    2. valid users - username
    3. read only - no
    4. Commit Changes
  19. Install phpMyAdmin
    sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
  20. Connect to phpMyadmin using a web browser - http://hostname/phpmyadmin
    1. Secure MySQL / phpMyAdmin
      1. login: root (no pass)
      2. Privileges
        1. Add a password to both root accounts
      1. Create a database for TorrentFlux
        1. Databases - Create New - torrentflux
  21. Install TorrentFlux
    sudo apt-get install torrentflux
    1. Ignore the libphp-adodb message.
    2. Configure database for torrentflux with dbconfig-common? - yes
    3. Password - blank (generates random)
    4. Restart Apache? - Yes
  22. Configure TorrentFlux using a web browser - http://hostname/torrentflux/
    1. Username / Password - root / root
    2. Configuration
      1. Path - /share/incoming/
      2. Save
    3. Click My Profile
      1. Update your password
    4. Create a user account
      1. Admin - New User
  23. Remove the Apache default documents from web root.
    sudo rm -Rf /var/www/apache2-default/
  24. Create a basic web launchpad for easy access your services.
  25. sudo nano -w /var/www/index.php



Overall, the installation and configuration took me about 45 minutes to go from zero to a fully functional system. The Xbox can see the share, and I've got a new playground for web development. I would suggest cleaning up and securing that home page a bit; research .htaccess files to lock it down.

I put my file server in my media center underneath my router, and it takes up about the same space as a VCR. For $80, I feel that I've made an excellent investment.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Widgetbox

Widgetbox is an online directory of web widgets for blogs and other web pages. Our widgets work with TypePad, WordPress, Blogger, MySpace as well as most other blogs, sidebars or websites. No plug-ins are needed, and they're free!

ROBOCOPY

version XP010 adds the following:

                /B : copy files in Backup mode.
/ZB : use restartable mode; if access denied use Backup mode.

/COPY:copyflag[s] : what to COPY (default is /COPY:DAT).
(copyflags : D=Data, A=Attributes, T=Timestamps).
(S=Security=NTFS ACLs, O=Owner info, U=aUditing info).


/COPYALL : COPY ALL file info (equivalent to /COPY:DATSOU).
/NOCOPY : COPY NO file info (useful with /PURGE).
/FFT : assume FAT File Times (2-second granularity).
/256 : turn off very long path (> 256 characters) support.

/MON:n : MONitor source; run again when more than n changes seen.
/MOT:m : MOnitor source; run again in m minutes Time, if changed.

/RH:hhmm-hhmm : Run Hours - times when new copies may be started.
/PF : check run hours on a Per File (not per pass) basis.

/IPG:n : Inter-Packet Gap (ms), to free bandwidth on slow lines.

File Selection Options

/IT : Include Tweaked files.
/XJ : eXclude Junction points. (normally included by default).
/MAXLAD:n : MAXimum Last Access Date - exclude files unused since n.
/MINLAD:n : MINimum Last Access Date - exclude files used since n.
(If n < 1900 then n = n days, else n = YYYYMMDD date).

Logging Options
/TS : include source file Time Stamps in the output.
/FP : include Full Pathname of files in the output.
/NS : No Size - don't log file sizes.
/NC : No Class - don't log file classes.
/NFL : No File List - don't log file names.
/NDL : No Directory List - don't log directory names.
/TEE : output to console window, as well as the log file.
/NJH : No Job Header.
/NJS : No Job Summary.

Job Options
/JOB:jobname : take parameters from the named JOB file.
/SAVE:jobname : SAVE parameters to the named job file
/QUIT : QUIT after processing command line (to view parameters).
/NOSD : NO Source Directory is specified.
/NODD : NO Destination Directory is specified.


/IF : Include the following Files.

Robocopy 'Jobs' and the 'MOnitor source' option provide an alternative to setting up a Scheduled Task to run a batchfile with a RoboCopy command.

ROBOCOPY will accept UNC pathnames.
Robocopy does not run on Windows 95, or NT 3.5. (RoboCopy is a Unicode application).

Example:

The script below copies data from FileServ1 to FileServ2, the destination holds a full mirror (all files), but when run repeatedly will only copy changed files. (Changed meaning different time stamps or different sizes)

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL

SET _source=\\FileServ1\e$\users\

SET _dest=\\FileServ2\e$\BackupUsers\

SET _what=/COPYALL /B /SEC /MIR
:: /COPYALL :: COPY ALL file info
:: /B :: copy files in Backup mode.
:: /SEC :: copy files with SECurity
:: /MIR :: MIRror a directory tree

SET _options=/R:0 /W:0 /LOG:MyLogfile.txt /NFL /NDL
:: /R:n :: number of Retries
:: /W:n :: Wait time between retries
:: /LOG :: Output log file
:: /NFL :: No file logging
:: /NDL :: No dir logging

ROBOCOPY %_source% %_dest% %_what% %_options%

"And bring me a hard copy of the Internet so I can do some serious surfing" - Dilbert, June 1999

Related Commands:

COPY - Copy one or more files to another location
SCOPY - Copy complete with NTFS Security Permissions
XCOPY - Copy files and folders
Fcopy - File Copy for MMQ (copy changed files & compress. (Win 2K ResKit)
Permcopy - Copy share & file ACLs from one share to another. (Win 2K ResKit)
The Directory Replicator Service - but this requires exclusive access to Netlogon and REPL$.

Equivalent Linux BASH commands:

rsync - Synchronize file trees
remsync - Synchronize remote files
cp - Copy one or more files to another location

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Setting Up Microsoft Outlook with Your Email Account at Godaddy

Godaddy Outlook Setup:

  1. In Microsoft Outlook, select Tools > E-mail Accounts.
  2. On the E-mail Accounts wizard window, select Add a new e-mail account and click Next.
  3. On the Server Type window, select POP3 and click Next.
  4. On the Internet E-mail Settings (POP3) window, in the Your Name field, type your first and last name.
  5. In the E-mail Address field, type your email address.
  6. In the User Name and Password fields, type your user name (your full email address) and password, and then specify whether you want Outlook to remember your password.
  7. In the Incoming mail server (POP3) field, type the name of your incoming server pop.secureserver.net.
  8. In the Outgoing mail server (SMTP) field, type smtpout.secureserver.net.
  9. Click More Settings.
  10. On the Internet E-mail Setting window, click Outgoing Server.
  11. Select My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.
  12. Select Log on using, and then, in the User Name and Password fields, type the user name and password you set up in the SMTP relay section of your Manage Email Accounts page.
  13. Specify whether Outlook should remember your password.
  14. Click the Advanced tab.
  15. In the Outgoing server (SMTP) field, change the port to 80 or 3535.
  16. Click OK.
  17. On the Internet E-mail Settings (POP3) window, click Next.
  18. Click Finish.

Talkshoe


This is the user interface. You can listen to the show and chat with other listeners live from the Talkshoe site. The stream and resulting recording on the Talkshoe site will be telephone quality.

Vox Blog

Sunday, November 12, 2006

CSS-Based Forms, Modern Solutions

Good examples of beautiful functional Web 2.0 forms. I know I'll be including some variation of these in my next website. More…

Speed Test, Speak Easy

Take the Speakeasy Speed Test and test your connection speed! By measuring the download and upload rate from the following locations you are able to accurately judge your current line throughput or internet connection speed. To take the speed test, choose the server nearest you.

Adsense relevant ad's

Adsense has become the main source for revenue among many bloggers.However,making money using adsense is not as easy as many believe it to be.

Many components have to be combined skillfully to even hope for a considerable amount of profit.One of the most important aspects of making money with adsense is your ability to serve your audience with the most relevant advertisements. Full Story >>>

Speed up torrents

Many people out there suffer from slow downloads through the torrent network.Often times they do not realize that there are ways to improve those slow speeds.Simple tweaks can be done to optimize your current speeds.

If you are on a dialup line wishing to download using Bittorrents,then you’re simply out of luck.Here I will provide some of the many tricks out there to optimize your download speed.

»Cap your Upload Speed

Although Bittorrent protocal is designed to perform efficiently when all users upload to their maxium output,while they are downloading.The truth is that you should not upload to your maxiumum bandwidth because it effects your download speed significantly.You should set your upload to be somewhat of 75-80 percent of your actual maximum upload speed.

Inorder to do that, you should find out your upload speed by using one of the million speed test sites out there.Personally I prefer using Speakeasy Speed Test because I live in the U.S.

»Remove the TCP connection Limit

You might have realized that your Torrent speeds have diminished marginally after you upgraded to windows xp service pack 2.What you fail to realize is that with the update to SP2,microsoft has limited the amount of tcp connections required by torrent programs.Currently the connection limit is capped at a maximum of 10 in service pack 2.

This was implemented by microsoft inorder to limit the spread of worms,trojans and other security threats.The whole idea behind service pack 2 was to secure your computer by all means possible.The most effective way to override the limit on you tcp connections is by using the Event ID4226 patch.Basically what the patch does is override the connection limit imposed by SP2 to any number.I do not recommend setting the connection limit too high,due to security reasons mentioned.An effective number would be anywhere between 50-100 connections.

[More info on the Author of the patch] [Direct link to download EvID4226Patch]

»Unblock Ports in your Router

Most of the time,slow torrent speeds are due to this problem.Usually beginners to torrents do not realize the effect routers have on Bittorent applications.It is important to realize that torrents commonly use ports ranging from 6881~6889 for high speed downloading.

If you do not know how to port forward those ports I mentioned above then visiting this site would be best.The author gives a detailed look into how its done.

If you want to specific on which ports to forward for the your exact application.You should begin by finding out the manufacturer of your router and the specific model.Then you should head over to Portforward.com and begin by choosing the the model of your router.The rest should be very simple.

»Disable Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall was designed to limit traffic in and out of your computer for security purposes.However that is not beneficial for torrent users who need all the extra bandwidth they can get.The best thing to do is simply disable windows firewall and get a more torrent friendly one such as zone alarm.

If you insist on keeping windows firewall on but want to use your internet connection to its maximum,then follow this:

note:Opening ports within windows xp’s built in firewall can be time consuming, because you can not add port ranges. Only single ports, so you will need to do this about 16 or so times, for each port between 6881 ~ 6889…

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections and then click Network Connections.
2. If you have a cable modem or digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, under LAN or High-Speed Internet, click the connection you use for the Internet.
3. Under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.
4. On the Advanced tab, make sure that the check box Protect my computer and network by limiting or preventing access to this computer from the Internet is selected.
5. Click Settings.
6. On the Services tab, click Add.
7. In Description of service, type a name so that you can identify the port you want to open. For example: Torrent. Type a name that will help you remember the service and the port. You can use any name that you want. The name does not have any effect on the functionality but is only to help you remember.
8. In Name or IP address of the computer hosting this service on your network, type your ip address
9. In External Port number for this service and Internal Port number for this service, type the port number (the same number in both boxes).
10. Click either TCP or UDP, and then click OK.
11. Repeat this process for each port that needs to be opened. That means you need to repeat every step, adding both TCP and UDP ports for each number from 6881 ~ 6889. When your done, you should have 16 services added in there.It is best to name them something like Torrent1_tcp, Torrent1_udp, Torrent2_tcp, Torrent2_udp and so on.

»Choose your Torrents Wisely

Choose torrents that have a good seed to peer ratio.Most of the time,torrent users fail to realize the demand for certain files are very high and those serving it are low.You want to download torrent files that have seeds more than or almost equal to the peers.For example a file having 100 seeds and 100 peers is much better than having 100 seeds and 200 peers

Top ten things you may not have known about the Wii

If you've been paying attention to every bit of Wii news and trivia over the past months, you might know all of the following facts about Nintendo's newest system. For those of you not so in the know, here are some factoids we picked up on while tinkering this weekend.

  1. It doesn't play CDs, but it plays AVIs off your digital camera's SD card.
  2. The flaps that protect the Gamecube controllers and memory card slots are removable.
  3. Wii Sports includes training and workout modes.
  4. You can let one remote control all four players in Wii Sports: Tennis.
  5. It takes five pieces of heart to make a heart container in Zelda: Twilight Princess
  6. The box includes two clear plastic holders: one for the sensor bar and another that acts as a stabilizer for the thick, gray console stand
  7. When used as a pointer, the Wii detects how far the remote is from the sensor bar.
  8. The system keeps track of your cumulative play time for all games, and logs it on your Wii's daily message board.
  9. The standard A/V cables that have worked on every Nintendo system since the SNES do not work on the Wii (the system-side input is different)
  10. The system doubles as a great whiteboard.

Friday, November 10, 2006

The war is over and Linux won

IBM sponsored study shows: At least in the server world, Linux has won. Web servers and database servers remain the dominant applications, but development environments are now among the most popular systems in production, meaning the trend toward Linux and open source applications should accelerate. Full Story >>>

Thursday, November 09, 2006

4 Reasons Why Windows Vista Is Just Not Worth It


As you all may have heard, Microsoft has released Windows Vista to manufacturing yesterday. A momentous event? Well that just depends on who you ask, and if the person is myself then you are going to get the following four reasons why I personally would not even bother with Windows Vista. Full Story >>>

Dream PC: Intel Quad Core + XFX 8800 GTX SLI + nForce 680i Benchmarked




What's the best PC money can buy? For those that have $4,000 they can build a custom water cooled Intel quad-core machine with the just released XFX GeForce 8800 GTX SLI graphics cards and the latest and greatest harware to boot. Read on to see how this system performed and see NVIDIA take the crown from ATI when it comes to gaming performance. Read more >>>

It was inevitable...we can now purchase Macs with Windows XP Pre-Installed

MacMall has announced that it will offer buyers the option to install 'doze XP on the full line of Macs it resells. “MacMall is the only large Mac direct marketing reseller we’re aware of marketing bundles of Apple’s new systems which come with pre-loaded software to work in both the Windows and Macintosh worlds as soon as they unpack their system.
Giving consumers a choice is never a bad thing. Apple makes the hardware, sells more hardware because of the option, it's a win. The convergence of operating systems is the interesting thing here, although this is dual boot, the future is Vmware on the Mac. That means Windows and the Apple GUI at the same time. Windows games, NP. Isn't that why you would have Windows on your Mac really? The games. Full Story >>>

PeerGuardian

What does PeerGuardian actually do?

PeerGuardian does two things to help P2P users. The first is the obvious one, it closes connections on certain IP addresses. The second is that it optionally logs all connections made to your computer. The reason for this is so that if you do use PeerGuardian but still get sent a legal threat, you can cross-reference the date/time of the alleged infringement with the log. This gives us a list of IPs, one of which will be the IP that's doing the busting. It's basically to help us identify which IPs are doing the busting and weren't known to PeerGuardian before. - Hope that makes sense.

Is PeerGuardian 100% Protection?

CERTAINLY NOT!!! - PeerGuardian relies on users sharing information to stay up to date. It IS contributory to protection and (I'm not trying to blow my own trumpet here!!) it seems to be the most up-to-date and open database of this nature on the internet (as far as I know). The more people who are using full-logging and report the relevant IPs when they get a C&D threat (see above paragraph), the more people we can save. ANONYMOUS P2P is the way ahead IMHO, PeerGuardian isn't 100% effective.. I've NEVER claimed that and never will and I look forward to the day that PG (not just the app, more.. the database and communication between p2p'ers on blocking IPs) becomes totally redundant. I'm just trying to help supply the next-best thing until we get to that stage.

I use PeerGuardian and have still been sent a legal threat.

What do I do?

First of all, stop sharing the file you got busted with. If you're worried, try sharing older/rarer files. If you share Bourne Identity, Terminator 3 and a load of Busta Rhymes mp3s after being busted, you'll be asking for trouble. Second thing to do, check the "full connection log" in PeerGuardian. (you did have it enabled didn't you?) - Work out the difference in timezones on the infringement warning and cross-reference it with the log. From this you should be able to identify a handful of IPs. Either post that list to the PG forums for one of our admins/moderators/members to investigate or investigate it yourself and post the p2p enemy IP to the on-line database. - There are plans to automate this whole process in the future.

CODE
http://www.peerguardian.net/

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Make XP go Faster

Services You Can Disable

There are quite a few services you can disable from starting automatically.
This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources.
They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read the description of each one when you run Services
and that you turn them off one at a time.

Some possibilities are:
Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast UserSwitching
Human Interface Devices
Indexing Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeeting
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routing & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client


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Cleaning the Prefetch Directory

WindowsXP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs.
However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.

To clean this periodically go to:

Star / Run / Prefetch
Press Ctrl-A to highlight all the shorcuts
Delete them

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Not Displaying Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages

To turn these off:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system
If it is not already there, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
Give it a value of 1

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Clearing the Page File on Shutdown

Click on the Start button
Go to the Control Panel
Administrative Tools
Local Security Policy
Local Policies
Click on Security Options
Right hand menu - right click on "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"
Select "Enable"
Reboot

For regedit users.....
If you want to clear the page file on each shutdown:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown
Set the value to 1

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No GUI Boot

If you don't need to see the XP boot logo,

Run MSCONFIG
Click on the BOOT.INI tab
Check the box for /NOGUIBOOT

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Speeding the Startup of Some CD Burner Programs

If you use program other than the native WindowsXP CD Burner software,
you might be able to increase the speed that it loads.

Go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services
Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service
For the Startup Type, select Disabled
Click on the OK button and then close the Services window
If you dont You should notice

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Getting Rid of Unread Email Messages

To remove the Unread Email message by user's login names:

Start Regedit
For a single user: Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
For all users: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail
Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
Give it a value of 0

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Decreasing Boot Time

Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease the time it takes to boot to WindowsXP
The program is called BootVis

Uncompress the file.
Run BOOTVIS.EXE
For a starting point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
After the reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on the red vertical line)
Then run Trace / Optimize System
Re-Run the Next Boot + Drive Delays
Note how much the time has decreased
Mine went from approximately 33 to 25 seconds.

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Increasing Graphics Performance

By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items.
Most simply slow down their display.

To turn these off selectively:

Right click on the My Computer icon
Select Properties
Click on the Advanced tab
Under Performance, click on the Settings button
To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while dragging

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Increasing System Performance

If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance
by having the core system kept in memory.

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive
Set the value to be 1
Reboot the computer

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Increasing File System Caching

To increase the amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Edit the key IoPageLockLimit

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Resolving Inability to Add or Remove Programs

If a particular user cannot add or remove programs, there might be a simple registry edit neeed.

Go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Uninstall
Change the DWORD NoAddRemovePrograms to 0 disable it

4096 - 32megs of memory or less
8192 - 32+ megs of memory
16384 - 64+ megs of memory
32768 - 128+ megs of memory
65536 - 256+ megs of memory

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