Make Vista more like XP

Never thought you would call Windows XP good, and old would you? How many bars of soap would your mother have made you eat for all the bad words you uttered towards XP, and the headaches you had installing it and learning it.

Guess what … it’s “start me up” – all over again, if you’ve been bit by the Vista bug.

Microsoft has changed some of the rules in upgrading to Vista from your previous version of Windows. The first problem is upgrading from XP. It also seems that Vista makes the decision whether it will let you upgrade or not.

Generally, it looks as if upgrading any Windows version always has some surprises in store. Forget the fact that the upgrade just might not work. It would be better to allow the user to make the decisions about partitioning, formatting, and where to install the version, but sometimes we just want fast and simple. So Windows makes those assumptions and decisions.

Nevertheless, there are some tools and options in the setup of Vista, but you have to really dig – and heaven forbid – read the documentation.

The first Vista annoyance – Vista renames and moves many folders, including:

• your existing Windows Installation folder
• your profiles folder (C:\Documents and Settings)
• your Program Files folder
• Your My Documents folder

It doesn’t delete them. It only manipulates and buries them.

Get that shovel out again, and be ready to dig! After you have installed Vista, browse your C: drive, you will notice a folder called Windows.old. Open that folder and you will find all your previous data. You will also see a C:\Users folder. Microsoft did away with Documents and Settings naming conventions and changed to the obvious – Users isn’t that where the user folders SHOULD be?

If you have come to love the look and settings of Windows XP, and Windows 2000 for that matter, there is some saving grace to get some familiarity of Windows of old back. You can easily change your Start Menu to the one you have been forced to love.

Right-click on your start button\circle\bubble? Select Properties, then left-click that to get Start Menu and Taskbar Properties. Under the Start Menu tab, select Classic Start Menu. This will bring back some Windows XP/2000 familiarity and have you screaming through Vista in no time.

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Windows XP password hacks? oh My!

Forgot your windows password?

If you have ever forgotten your windows XP password, you are in a mess. A few years ago, yes, but not now. There are ways to recover your administrator password with little or no money down!

Typically, you could have created a password reset floppy disk, however I don’t think I’ve ever made one of those personally. OK, Next option -  Load your windows xp recovery cd, and boot the computer from that cd. Then upon accessing the startup menu, you have the option to repair the windows XP installation. This effectively replaces your windows directory and reloads your windows files. You have the option to setup windows again and put in a new password. It does not easily allow you to recovery a password. Sort of like making a mountain out of a mowhill.

You run the risk of losing your my documents folder and other windows related settings, however it does not format the hard drive. This is the safest way to recover your password, but obviously not the best.

Recently, independent software developers and computer enthusiasts have developed their own methods of recovering Windows XP passwords. For the most part, this was born out of hacking into Windows XP, and for other malicious purposes, however nowadays, it is used for less harmful purposes – to help you and I gain access to our computers without having to reload them.

There are several methods to recovery your password, starting with software that you can purchase. There are hacks or workarounds also that you may wish to try, however nothing is as simple as it seems. These may end up causing you more grief in the end. You will have to know something about file copying, editing registry files, and lots of dos based commands. The final alternative – saving the best for last is a simple Windows XP password recovery cd. This CD is linux based, and is free. Prior to using this cd, you have to burn the image to a cd. This means that you have to download it, extract the ISO image to your hard drive, then use your favorite cd burning software (one that supports ISO images) and make a copy of the cd.  I know – what if you don’t have another computer to download and make this cd? You’re in a bit of a jam then, unless you can drop by a friend’s house and borrow their computer, or visit the local internet café.

To use the password reset cd, you simply boot the computer with the cd (you may have to access your computer BIOS and change the boot sequence) to allow you to boot from cd first. Once you have booted from the cd, you will be prompted with dos like text with questions. Most of the questions are straightforward and have been designed to allow the default answers to be used. Ultimately, you will be asked to reset the administrator’s account.

Be warned – you do run the risk of losing some data, especially encrypted files and passwords in other programs – that are linked to your administrator’s account.

The next time you boot the pc, your administrator password should be blanked out, and you simply hit the enter key to regain access. Don’t forget to change your password, and make a reset disk this time!

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Losing your bearings?

If your computer makes strange noises (I don’t mean through the speakers) and not what your friends may be listening to on the computer. I mean whining, or grinding, or general poor health sounding noises. Maybe you’re losing your bearings!

Computers have many parts and only a few of them move, thus only a few of them can make any noise, so this makes it much easier to source out and troubleshoot the noise.

Chances are that one of the internal cooling fans is the culprit. There can be several cooling fans in your pc, and laptop. If they stop working, you’ll know it in a hurry. When the processor gets too hot, it has built in thermal protection to shut it off. However there may be cases where the cpu fan is working and keeping the cpu within its operating limits however other components are boiling up.

PC Cooling Requirements:

-          CPU has its own fan

-          Hard drive needs to be cooled, as it has NO internal fan.

-          The video card – if newer – most likely has its own fan.

-          The power supply has a fan

-          The pc case itself will have at least one cooling fan, and maybe even another for airflow direction. It’s not uncommon for there to be three fans!

Laptops

-          1 internal CPU fan

-          Possibly 1 or 2 airflow fans inside the chassis

Computers have many parts inside from motherboards, mainboards, systemboards to modems and mice. The inside of a computer – although appears ominious and confusing, it’s pretty basic stuff. A case, a motherboard to accept all the physical connections such as memory, processors, cables, peripheral cards and ports.

Navigating inside your pc to locate the noisy fan should be broken down into specific areas to investigate.

In the case of a PC, the power supply itself is where the AC power cord plugs in. You will find a large fan there. If the noise is coming from the power supply, try gently tapping the pc case just above the power supply fan. The noise should intermittently stop and go. you can either replace the entire power supply for about $25 – 50, or have the fan itself serviced. The power supply is not intended to be serviced however, and not many PC repair shops will bother. If they do, they labour alone may be more than just buying a new power supply. Replacing a power supply should be done by an experienced technician. It is one of the most time consuming and difficult tasks.

If  the case fan itself is making the noise, these are easily replaced for about $10. They usually have a few chassis screws, or plastic connectors. The power plug is also modular, and can be easily disconnected. These fans can be bought just about anywhere. Bring the old one with you though!

If the CPU fan is the source, you have another semi delicate task, and may consider having a service technician handle the task. CPU fans are either screwed to the cpu heatsink, or in the case of newer processors, are actually part of the cpu heatsink. Replacing them may not be so easy. If your CPU fan has 4 screws, most like it can be replaced. The heatsink holds the fan, and may have to be removed to gain access to the fan. Careful not to disturb the cpu, and the thermal compound on the cpu. If you can remove the fan, take it to a repair shop to find a suitable replacement. There Are different types.

Fan’s are also a source of fashion for computers. They have LED’s and frikkin laser beams these days and can light up your entire case!

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Send large files easily!

If any of you have come to know ZIP files, these are files that have ZIP as the last 3 characters of the file name. You use a program called WinZip, or one of many similar zip utilities to open the file. A RAR file is essentially a condensed collection of files. Sometimes they are referred to as a library, or a cabinet of files. These files use a compression technique to shrink the files and combine them into one handy file. They then can be sent through the internet or email in parts which can be reassembled on the recipient’s computer.

Winrar is the utility used to open RAR files. Now, let’s explain a practical example. Your friend has a training video, that he wants to send you. You both have high speed internet, but don’t want to send it through the mail. What can you do?

The files in their native format are too big and difficult to organize. You would have a very hard time putting this all together again on your computer while maintaining the file and directory structure of the video. With Winrar, you collect the files and create a set of archives to be sent via email, or on a website download link. You can also create archives on your computer to save disk space. Every file on your computer can be condensed by a certain amount. Movies and Videos cannot be condensed as much as text files can be. Simply because of the type of data contained in them. Txt files are easier to compress, because they have unused space within them (called whitespace). The space between the letters can be compressed and removed, whereas movie and music files have little whitespace, and cannot be easily compressed.

Let’s suppose that the files to be sent are 700 Mb in total. You can use winrar to create a set archive files that will create a sequential set of files for emailing. Typically, you can customize winrar to shrink the files according to speed, or level of compression. A high compression means that your computer will work harder to decompress those files at the receiving end. A faster compression means that your computer will create the archives for a quicker decompression. You may also specify the size of the archive files to output.

For example, 700 MB would create approximately 70 files of 10Mb each, with no compression. Once you have the files on your computer, locate the file with the RAR extension or the file with the lowest numbered extension (R01, R02 etc.) and open it to view the contents. Winrar will sequentially number all the pieces, with RAR being the first of the set.
To unpack, simply drag the contents of the Winrar window to your desired location. It will take some time, and you will see a progress bar. Also remember that you now have just used twice the disk space, as the extracted files are completely separate from the original RAR files you were originally sent.

If you are still seeking a solution to send large files, you may also look at sites such As www.pando.com, and www.sendbigfiles.com to name a few.

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Take My Documents Back!

Are “My Documents” really yours? Are you really in control of them?

Windows 2000, and XP started using a common folder to store your music, movies, downloads and photos. The My Documents folder is a great way to manage all your personal data, and facilitates an easy back for all your data. Provided that you use My documents as your default save locations. This is unfortunately welcomed by many, and cursed by many more. How many times do you go through the motions of clicking the save option to have My Documents appear as the first in the list of choices? Or how about this – how many times do you import data, such as your entire digital camera archive, and the Windows scanner and camera wizard appears magically to automatically upload, and name the files, then save them in my documents\my pictures. As you can see, it’s a 50/50 task. Sometimes it works like a charm, and sometimes it’s a pain in the southern end.

The My Documents component of Windows is tricky, if you prefer to have family members share your my documents folder, you have to implicitly share it, by dragging the items into My Shared Folders. If you ever need access to your my docs folder and you haven’t shared it beforehand, you’ll not be able to get what you need, unless you log off and log on as the user that owns or has created that folder.

My documents is stored by default on your system drive, typically C: drive. If your system ever had a hard drive problem, or had to be reinstalled, you would lose this folder and all your precious data. Why not safeguard it? It’s pretty simple to do, provided you have a backup hard drive – preferably a D or E partition with enough space to hold your my Docs and all its sub folders. Windows 2000 and XP have a nice feature that allows you to actually change the location of the folder. Not only to change the location, but it also will relocate everything to the newly specified location as well. Much better than a manual copy and paste!

To change the default location of my documents;
- right click on my documents, and select properties.
- Open the Target tab, click the Move Button
- Select the new location of your my Documents folder. Click apply, and wait for the actions to complete. It may take a while if you have a lot of items stored there, but it’s worth it!

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Windows XP Updates – All in one!

How many times have you reloaded windows XP on a pc or laptop only to spend half a day applying updates? Actually, updating and patching takes more time that installing the operating system itself. It’s an unavoidable fact, so live with it. There are however, some great time saving options available.

Windows XP commonly comes with Service Pack 2 nowadays, so really the updates you need will not be as large as SP2. Updates all depend on what is installed in the system as well. If you have Windows XP installed with every accessory and option, then each of those will have their own updates as well. Outlook Express and MSN messenger alone, will require at least a half dozen updates.

The good news is your Windows XP Installation files can be updated and patched to include these updates, and then can be re-burned to cdrw. This is a process called Slip-streaming. There are several programs on the market to assist with this process. One such program is called nLite. This program allows you to take the Original Windows XP installation cd, integrate it with service pack 2, and all the updates you can stomach into one handy current Windows XP installation cd. You can also further customize the Windows XP installation to include updated drivers for your special hardware, upgrade Media player to version 10 and more. The process is quite well explained on many websites, however using google to search the term – slipstreaming windows xp with updates – should be your first option. The process is a little involved and is not for everyone, but if you ever need to reinstall Windows XP, this will easily save you a couple of hours.

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When is enough (CPU power) enough?

When is enough (power) enough?

The most common computer misconception is that you have to have the latest and greatest computer technology to get your work done. For the average computer user, we read email, visit websites and maybe run a few office applications. For those that work in corporations, maybe it is ok to use MSN. There isn’t much going on with your pc that requires all that power.

If you are administering databases, or running SQL queries, then sure you need processing power and lots of memory. If you think about it though, who actually told you that you needed more power, and that you had to have the best? Can’t remember exactly? Maybe the salesman at the computer store, or was it a friend? – a non-computer-expert- type friend, or the I-fixed-a-computer-problem-so-I-know-about-computers friend?

Chances are that you got some poor advice. The computer manufacturers will disagree, and are probably cringing right now. The bottom line is the computer industry is built on self perpetuation. Industry and consumers are led to believe that a new computer is more or less outdated within 18 months. In a world where we purchase cars and expect them to last 15+ years – and scream to the high hills to the consumer group watchdogs when they don’t – we have this computer industry nonchalantly releasing marginally updated technologies every few months. We are to blame. No one else. Why else did Intel release the 286 CPU – when they had already designed the 386 first? They claim it was because technology wasn’t available, however I believe it was because they knew full well they could sell the 286, then the 386 to the same buyers 2 years later. Perfect marketing sense, and the only logical way to do business – when you’re in business for profit. 

So then, why all the power? Unless you’re running the latest and greatest games, editing digital audio and video, or crunching databases, you don’t need the power.

Sure, your computer may require some optimization, or maybe even a memory upgrade, but unless it’s a 286, there are many free or inexpensive ways to improve its performance. Don’t fall for the salesman’s advice and don’t buy a new PC because someone told you to do so. If you can afford it, and haven’t purchased a new pc in a few years, then you may want to consider it. – At least if you are running Windows 98 or older versions of Windows, you should.

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