Speed up when you open my computer

When you open my computer or Windows Explorer, you notice sometimes it take more time than normally it would.

There could be many reasons behind. But one of the reasons includes Windows search for Network folders and printers. By making Windows not to search for Network folders and printers, you can speed up your computer a bit. Note this tip apply only to Windows XP not Vista.

For me, I am using my laptop at work and at my home with different network folders. Each time I opened Windows Explorer, it would search for the unavailable network folders and printers. Searching the unavailable folders and printers take more time than available one. As Windows don’t have any idea of whether I’m at home or at work, I disable at Folder options.

If I need to open my Network folders or to use network printers, I manually connect it again.

Windows XP ClearType tuner

Do you know that you can fine tune ClearType by using Microsoft ClearType Tuner. Note that the tuner can only be used with Windows XP.

If you don’t know what is ClearType, let me give you a brief explanation.

Some of the fonts may look ugly, jagged edges. Who wants to look at that all day long? Through the use of a Windows feature called ClearType, you can take advantage of smooth fonts. These fonts have smooth edges that blend into the background, creating much more readable characters.

Those of you with LCD monitors can also adjust your settings with the ClearType tuner.

Windows XP SP3 RC1 available

Windows XP User can start download Windows XP Services Pack 3 first release candidate straight from Microsoft. Thanks to Steven28 from winmatrix.com forum, all Windows XP can enjoy his direct download link of XP SP3 from Microsoft.

I’m not sure how long this link would last. So that if you’re one of those who want to try new product earlier than others, grab it while you can.

Many people reported that XP SP3 speed up their computer and provide more stability and security.

Here are the facts I know about XP SP3.

• File size of SP3 is about 336 MB.
• Installation process could take around 15 to 30 minutes.
• SP3 is cumulative, so users can install SP3 on top of Windows XP SP1 or SP2.
• SP3 is able to update any version of XP, including XP Media Center.
• SP3 will not upgrade Internet Explorer to version 7. The Service Pack does include updates for both versions of Internet Explorer, but the main version of IE that you’re running will remain untouched.

Windows services you can disable to improve startup speed and security

Windows services run in the background when you start the computer no matter who’s logged in.

I’ll tell you the services which I think can be harmful for a system especially if your computer is over a network such as Internet/ University/ Office as bad boys can be anywhere.

To start the services management console, Go to Start Menu –>> Run and then type services.msc

After that disable any of the following services.

• 1. Stopping Windows Messenger Spam

Have you ever see a popup with a “Messenger Service” in the title bar while you’re surfing the net. If you did, that means someone is using the Messenger for sending adware to your system.

To stop it, disable the “Messenger” service from the Service Manager.

• 2. Disable NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

It allows for someone to remotely access to your computer through NetMeeting. Unless, you’re regularly NetMeeting often, you should disable this.

Disable the “NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing” service from the Service Manager.

• 3. Disable Protected Storage

This service stores the passwords and the auto complete function with Internet Explorer. Unless, you want to use it, I recommend you disable it.

Disable “Protected Storage” service from the Service Manager.

• 4. Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

This service provides supports for Remote Assistance. If you use this service rarely or not at all, it is recommended to be disabled.

Disable “Remote Desktop Help Session Manager” service from the Service Manager.

• 5. Remote Registry Service

This service allows for your system registry to be accessible remotely. If you don’t require the assistance of someone to remotely have access to editing your registry settings, then disable this service.

Disable “Remote Registry” service from the Service Manager.

There you have it, 5 simple services which you can disable to improve not only security but also startup speed for your system.

How to lock computers when idle by using GPO

What I wanted to do is that, after my computer has been idle for 3 minutes, it should lock itself. How to achieve this is one of the trouble for me for almost two days. I have been digging around the net, but no answer. I tried to find myself in GPO (Group Policy Editor), but I don’t find the option directly.

But many articles I read on the net pointed me that I can changed four options in GPO. But that is for screensaver. I tweak a bit to achieve what I want. Remember I have told you guys about how to create shortcut to lock computer. Well, I used that tweak.

Here are the steps that I took:

• First go to Start –>> gpedit.msc
• Go to User Configuration –>> Administrative Templates –>> Control Panel –>> Display

There are many options there, but you just need to change four of them as follow.

• For screen saver option, just choose Enabled.
• For screen saver executable, choose Enabled and then type “rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation“
• For password protect the screen saver, choose Enabled.
• For screen saver timeout, choose Enabled and then type the amount of time you want to lock your computer in seconds. (For example, if you want to lock your computer after three minutes of idle time, type 180)

That’s it. Next time if you’re away, you don’t have to worry about some other would invade your computer.

BtoN’s Tips : I have tested this on Vista and should work on Windows XP too. For screen saver timeout, if I set value less than 60, it won’t work.

Cnet did it again

I don’t trust Cnet anyway. I have always doubted about their product reviews and ratings. I’m sure all of these reviews are clearly biased based on how well someone paid them.

You know what? Cnet just named Vista as top ten terrible technology of the year. Come on, I confessed that Vista has been out for almost a year and has got many resistance than XP introduction was. But this is because XP has been out for 5 years and as strong as a rock. When the time XP was introduced, everybody was sick with Windows 9x Blue Screen of Death.

I’m sure Cnet must be paid by Apple marketing guys behind the door. Just look at their pathetic sentence such as:

Windows Vista conforms to all of the above. Its incompatibility with hardware, its obsessive requirement of human interaction to clear security dialogue box warnings and its abusive use of hated DRM, not to mention its general pointlessness as an upgrade

Isn’t this funny?

How to get rid of Thumbs.db file

If you’re a Windows XP user, you might have seen Thumbs.db file in some folders. It is a hidden file.

What is Thumbs.db file?

Thumbs.db is a file used by versions of Microsoft Windows that stores a cache for Windows Explorer’s thumbnail view. Thumbs.db is saved in each directory that contains pictures or photos.

In which Windows versions you can find it?

You can find it in Windows XP Pro and Home. I’m not sure about Windows 9x (Who would’ve used it anyway nowadays?)

In Windows Vista, Microsoft replaced thumbs.db files with a centralized thumbnail database thumbcache_xxxx.db located in Users[user name]AppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsExplorer.

How much space could it take?

You may not believe it, but it could take a few hundred MBs.

How can you get rid of it?

• Go to Start –>> Control Panel –>> Folder Options
• Go to the View tab
• Remove the check box from Do not cache thumbnails
• Click the Ok

What is the advantages and disadvantages of removing it?

• Advantages are that you can save a few hundreds of your hard disk space and you’ll never see those annoying little hidden file here and there.
• Disadvantage is that if you browse a folder that contains many image files with moderate file size, it will take a long time for that folder to load because the thumbnail images have not been cached in Thumbs.db.

So next time if you see one of your friends is wondering about thumbs.db file, you can easily bossy him/her with enough confident.

Source : Wikipedia

How to open docx files without Office 2007

Microsoft has introduced a new file format called the Microsoft Open Office XML Format (.docx) with their latest office suite, Office 2007.

But most people are still using Office 2003. The big problem is that this new format is incompatible with older Microsoft Office versions or any other Office alternatives such as Open Office or Lotus, StarOffice, NeoOffice. Before anyone blame Microsoft, they have already created a program called Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats. After you’ve downloaded this program, you can easily convert new Office format such as .docx to old Office format .doc and vice versa.

Or if you don’t want to install any program, you can try .docx online converter. Hope this advice help your incompatibility headache.

How to find MAC addresses for your wireless card

One of my friend ask me how to find MAC address for his notebook wireless card. I asked him why he want to do that and he told me it’s just a new policy at his office.

Having never think of that before, I just go to command prompt and fire a series of command what I think would be relevant. After a few tries, I’ve found out that ipconfig /all would solve this question. It is quite amazing that how ipconfig could show all the related infos about your all networking adapters.

Well, this is just a small and quick tip. But this would come very handy when you need it.

How to create physical IDE disk in VMware

Yesterday, I’ve tried to install Windows XP in VMware 6.0. I’ve tried to use physical hard disk in VMware. But every time I create, VMware won’t let me choose the option of IDE or SCSI. Instead, it only let me select in SCSI whether I want Bus logic or LSI logic.

So I googled around and found out that I’ve to edit VMware hard disk configuration file manually as follows.

ddb.adapterType = “ide”
ddb.geometry.sectors = “63″
ddb.geometry.heads = “16″
ddb.geometry.cylinders = “16383″

And I delete these lines in VMware config file .vmx.

scsi0.present = “TRUE”
scsi0.virtualDev = “lsilogic”
scsi0:1.present = “TRUE”
scsi0:1.fileName = “disk-2.vmdk”
scsi0:1.deviceType = “rawDisk”

Your config file might not look exactly as mine. But you know what to look and how to change. Any question? You can contact me via contact form or leave a comment.

Reference : VMware forum