bench3: Windows Tips

Showing posts with label Windows Tips. Show all posts

Saturday, June 9, 2012

How To Use CMD When Its Blocked

CMD, which developed from the original command.com is the command interpreter for MS-DOS and is required for the majority of Microsoft's operating systems. Without command.com the computer running a Microsoft operating system would be unable to boot.

When running Windows NT, 2000, XP, or future operating systems there are two versions of the command interpreter, command.com and cmd.exe. Cmd offers additional environment variables than command.com; however, it is recommend if you are attempting to run a MS-DOS utility that you utilize the command.com. To use command.com, click Start, Run, and type command

You can use this trick to enable the command prompt "cmd.exe" when the same is blocked on your PC due to a virus attack or by some privilege. Do you know, cmd is blocked at school /library/Office or just need to nav faster it very easy to use

Method 1(if you want to do something with the CMD, do it here):

1. Open a notepad
2. do what ever command you want to put into CMD
3. Save it as a .bat file
4. launch it!
Method 2:

Or if you want open CMD, follow these steps

1.open notepad, and type cmd.exe
2.save it as anyname here .bat
3. click that bat file you have CMD.

Done now you cam play with CMD when it is blocked on Computer

How To Use Windows Safe Mode

By 21:49 No comments:

Safe mode is the best option when someone has called saying that their new PC is not booting properly, as it lets a technician determine roughly whether there's a problem with the hardware or a problem with software that's been installed since the PC left the store.

Unfortunately, in our experience many users have little more than a vague awareness of the existence of 'safe-mode' in Windows, and no idea how to get into it or why they would want to.

Here is something you need to understand Windows Safe mode and when and how to use the Safe Mode.

When to Use Safe Mode in Windows:

Windows hangs, restarts by itself, or crashes with a blue screen error, or your video display is garbled and you cannot get control of the display resolution.

The Solution For The Above, and How To Use Windows Safe Mode:

Restart your PC and press the F8 key at the end of the BIOS to access Windows' start menu.
Select the Safe Mode option and let Windows start up.
Log onto Windows if prompted.
Click OK or Yes to acknowledge the "running in safe mode" dialog.
Use Safe Mode to reset any recent configuration changes, uninstall recently installed hardware, or run System Restore to return the system to a working state.

If you don't know what you are doing, and if you are in doubt, call your hardware vendor for support.

Safe Mode uses only basic files and drivers (mouse, except serial mice; monitor; keyboard; mass storage; base video; default minimal system services; and no network connections).

In Safe Mode, your desktop display is limited to 640 480 resolution, allowing you to select another resolution to be used after restart—helpful if you have video driver or resolution selection problems. Many 32-bit device drivers are not loaded, limiting the number and types of programs you can use—for instance a Pinnacle PCTV tuner card cannot be used in Safe Mode.

As well, entries in Windows Registry Run and Run Once keys are bypassed in Safe Mode, an essential feature for removing spyware and unwanted programs that will not go away in Normal Mode. If your computer does not start successfully using safe mode, you might need to use the Recovery Console feature to repair your system.

Additional Safe Mode options exist—Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Safe Mode with Networking adds basic networking components to the Spartan mix of few device drivers and features so you can access LAN and web-based resources as needed. Safe Mode with Command Prompt presents the command-line interface instead of the Windows GUI, most useful if you are having trouble with and need to repair displaying Windows' graphics.

Why Windows Vista Takes So Long to Copy Files

By 10:11 No comments:

Most people first realize that something is wrong with Vista when they try to copy or move files, and they see the little green progress window shown in Figure below. It’d be understandable to see this window on screen for a minute or two if you’re copying a lot of data, but should it really take three full minutes to move one small file, or eight minutes to delete another?

I guess you might have seen the below (screen shot) window a lot lately? This tiny “Green Ribbon of Death” is one of the signs that not all is right in the world of Vista.

This is one of two “Green Ribbons of Death” in Windows Vista, the other being the larger progress bar—the one dissected in my other post that appears at the top of the Windows Explorer window in the address bar/path box. So, what’s going on?

It turns out that several things can cause Windows Explorer to take a long time copying, moving, or deleting files, and some of them are actually legitimate. First, Windows Explorer takes time to examine the files and folders you’re copying, moving, etc., and checks—ahead of time—to see whether there are any conflicts, such as existing files in the destination folder or security issues that need your attention. That’s why you’ll see Vista’s nifty confirmation window (Figure) just once for many conflicts, rather than (many) individual confirmations you’d have to endure in earlier versions of Windows.

Figure: This handy new confirmation window lets you deal with all the conflicts at once, rather than having to click through a bunch of windows, but it ends up causing other problems (Please notice "do this for all conflicts")

The confirmation window in the above figure is actually quite nice because of all the choices you get. If you’re copying media files (e.g., photos, videos, PDF documents), you’ll see thumbnail previews to aid your decision; you can even right click the thumbnails directly in this window if you want to work with the files without interrupting the file operation. What’s more, you can choose to copy or move the file without replacing the original, renaming it instead to avoid the conflict.

The downside is that Explorer must delay your file operation while it prepares the confirmation window; depending on what it encounters along the way, this can take forever. One of the main reasons for the delay is a side effect of User Account Control, the same security “feature” that turns the screen black for an moment before asking your permission to make a change to your system.

Naturally, Vista has to examine each file you’re copying to make sure you have permission to copy it, and then examine the destination to make sure you have permission to put the file there. See “Control User Account Control,” for some ways to ease up the restrictions. Likewise, if you’re copying files over a network, Windows has to do some security reconnaissance, and depending on the speed of your network connection, this can take even longer.

But security checks alone aren’t responsible for Vista’s abysmal performance in this area; there’s also the matter of thumbnails. As described in “Green Ribbon of Death” , there are a few common problems that can cause Windows Explorer to hang or even crash, and if one of these things hobbles the instance of Explorer you’re using, the progress dialog (shown in First Figure) can just sit there for what seems like an eternity.

Once you’ve fixed the problems outlined in Green Ribbon of Death, the copying, moving, or deleting should go much faster.

Microsoft Security Essentials Pros and Cons

By 14:36 No comments:

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) has become the world's second most popular security package in less than two years since its 2009 launch.

MSE is one of the simplest and easiest to use anti-malware tools around. It's quick, unobtrusive and works without slowing your PC down.

Malware is caught quickly, and the default actions work well for most users. It's a small download, and keeps itself up-to-date. And above all, it's free – with no need to register or re-register.

If you're not running anti-virus software, you really have no excuse. MSE is free, simple to use and has been tested by independent anti-malware certification bodies. With Microsoft regularly updating MSE there's really no excuse to not run anti-malware tools, when they're as good as this – and especially when they're free.

Available for Windows XP (Service Pack 2 and higher), Windows Vista and Windows 7, and in both 32- and 64-bit form, Microsoft Security Essentials is part of the Genuine Windows programme, and can only be used on consumer PCs.

Small businesses do have an exemption, and can run it on up to 10 machines; any more than that and you need to use Microsoft's Forefront Endpoint Protection tools. It's a small download, the latest beta version is 9MB for 32-bit machines, and 11MB for 64-bit.

There's no obvious slowdown when it runs, and all you see is a tiny task bar icon that shows whether your PC is protected or not. Right-click to launch a settings tool and to run scans – with a choice of quick, full or custom.

Installation is quick and easy. Once installed, a small icon in the task bar is the only sign that MSE is installed and running, and it changes colour depending on the risk to your PC.

Green is, of course, good and yellow means that it's time to run a scan. And if it is Red, it is critical…

MSE will automatically run a quick scan once a week, although we'd recommend changing the default 2am on Sunday to a time when your PC is likely to be turned on.

You can limit the amount of CPU that MSE will use for a scan (the default is 50%), and you can also make sure it won't scan if you're using your PC. We'd recommend leaving real-time protection on - it won't use too much power or add significant latency to downloads, and will reduce the risk of downloading malware inadvertently.

Other tools built into MSE let you tune it to exclude specific files and locations from scanning, as well as specific file types and even specific processes. You're better off not changing these settings, since it's impossible to predict how malware may disguise itself or what zero-day attacks they might use. A custom scan will check specific files, folders, or drives, while a full scan will check everything on your PC. We'd suggest sticking with quick scans for everyday operation, which look for common malware and check system files.

The advanced options in MSE's Settings tab enable you to include removable drives in scans, to protect flash drives as well as your system disks. You can turn off archive scanning (although we'd recommend leaving it on, since it's able to detect malware wrapped in several layers of zip compression). Other options enable you to set system restore points automatically before making system changes, including deleting, running or quarantining detected malware.

You're also able to set how long MSE will keep quarantined files before automatically deleting them. Use the History tab to see and remove quarantined malware, with links to online information about the malware so you can decide whether to delete a file or not.

Why Microsoft Security Essentials is Free?

So how can Microsoft give a tool like this away for free? While it doesn't advertise it, MSE is part of Microsoft's Forefront suite of security tools, based on the Forefront Endpoint Protection client used on enterprise desktops. When MSE detects malware it reports back to Microsoft, giving the company a wider view of the security landscape than it would get from just its enterprise security software. With millions of free copies of MSE, Microsoft's paying customers get a more responsive and more secure set of tools, and we all get better security.

The reporting system Microsoft uses is its Active Protection Service (previously known as SpyNet). You can choose whether to be part of it, but if you don't, you won't get full protection from MSE, since it won't detect and alert you if unknown software has been download or is being run.

Basic membership gives you additional protection in return for sending Microsoft details of downloaded and detected software, while Advanced membership sends more details, including how the software runs, what filenames it uses and where it installs.

The process should be anonymous, but there is a slim possibility that personal information could accidentally be sent back as part of reporting malware behavior – something to consider when signing up for the Active Protection Service.

Finally, MSE may not have all the features of other security suites out there, but that's really not that important – especially when widespread use of MSE should help make it a safer internet for everyone.

How To Share Files Between Windows and Linux

By 19:31 No comments:

If your Windows PC is set to dual-boot with Ubuntu Linux, and you’ve explored Linux enough to know that you want to live inside it for a while. But the problem is, all your files are on an NTFS partition on the Windows half of your machine, and Ubuntu can’t see that partition, no matter what you do.

That’s because Microsoft considers the workings of the NTFS fi le system a highly confidential trade secret (unlike the workings of FAT32, for example). What to do? There’s the old standby of e-mailing the fi les to yourself, or uploading them to an FTP site or a Yahoo! Briefcase or some such storage location. It works. But come on—it’s 2008, already. For regular work you need something more direct, and Linux’s development community has come up with multiple ways to work around Microsoft’s roadblocks and help this happen.

Three quick and easy solutions present themselves: NTFS-3G, Samba, and NTFS for Linux. NTFS-3G is a driver that gives Linux users full access to NTFS drives installed on the same PC. Ubuntu’s new Gutsy Gibbon distro includes the driver in the Synaptic Package Manager. Samba (also found through Synaptic) is designed to provide fi le and print services to all SMB clients, including Microsoft Windows. It functions primarily as a network utility, in effect mounting your NTFS drives onto your Linux network. NTFS for Linux is a powerful tool for IT managers, but the personal version gets you simple read/write access.—Neil Randall

1 USE THE FILE BROWSER

After installing either Samba or NTFS-3G, use Ubuntu’s File Browser to locate the NTFS partition you want to work with and double-click to open it.

2 CHECK THE VOLUME’S PROPERTIES
The Volume Properties dialog box in Ubuntu shows that this folder has indeed been formatted as NTFS.

3 GO PRO WITH NTFS FOR LINUX
Well-known Windows utility maker Paragon Software distributes NTFS for Linux, as either an IT-targeted tool ($149.95), a full-featured package ($29.95), or a free download. The free version gives access to your Linux partitions but is read-only.

ON THE WINDOWS SIDE: LINUX READER AND EX2 IFS
Two programs provide access to your Linux drives from within Windows. The Linux Reader from DiskInternals (pictured) gives you read-only access and makes you use its included viewer, while Ex2 IFS provides both read and write access from Windows Explorer. But before installing Ex2 IFS, read the site’s troubleshooting page, which lists some issues you might experience (although I had no trouble with either program). Both give access even to protected Linux partitions, ignoring Linux security, so be aware of this before installing.

Sleep Mode Is Better Than Hibernate And Standby In Windows

By 21:13 No comments:

In the olden days, Windows offered a command called Standby. This special state of PC consciousness reduced the amount of electricity the computer used, putting it in suspended animation until you used the mouse or keyboard to begin working again. Whatever programs or documents you were working on remained in memory.

When using a laptop on battery power, Standby was a real boon. When the flight attendant handed over your microwaved chicken teriyaki, you could take a break without closing all your programs or shutting down the computer.

Unfortunately, there were two big problems with Standby, especially for laptops.

First, the PC still drew a trickle of power this way. If you didn’t use your laptop for a few days, the battery would silently go dead—and everything you had open and unsaved would be lost forever.
Second, drivers or programs sometimes interfered with Standby, so your laptop remained on even though it was closed inside your carrying case. Your plane would land on the opposite coast, you’d pull out the laptop for the big meeting, and you’d discover that (a) the thing was roasting hot, and (b) the battery was dead.

The command is now called Sleep, and it doesn’t present those problems anymore.

First, drivers and applications are no longer allowed to interrupt the Sleep process. No more Hot Laptop Syndrome.
Second, the instant you put the computer to sleep, Windows quietly transfers a copy of everything in memory into an invisible file on the hard drive. But it still keeps everything alive in memory—the battery provides a tiny trickle of power—in case you return to the laptop (or desktop) and want to dive back into work.

If you do return soon, the next startup is lightning-fast. Everything reappears on the screen faster than you can say, “Redmond, Washington.”

If you don’t return shortly, then Windows eventually cuts power, abandoning what it had memorized in RAM. (You control when this happens using the advanced power plan settings) Now your computer is using no power at all; it’s in hibernate mode.

Fortunately, Windows still has the hard drive copy of your work environment. So now when you tap a key to wake the computer, you may have to wait 30 seconds or so—not as fast as 2 seconds, but certainly better than the 5 minutes it would take to start up, reopen all your programs, reposition your document windows, and so on.

The bottom line: When you’re done working for the moment—or for the day—put your computer to Sleep instead of shutting it down. You save power, you save time, and you risk no data loss.

You can send a laptop to Sleep just by closing the lid. On any kind of computer, you can trigger Sleep by choosing Start->Sleep or by pushing the PC’s power button, if you’ve set it up that way.

How To Use Last Known Good Configuration In Windows

By 17:04 No comments:

Each time you successfully start your computer, Windows saves any system-related settings to the Windows Registry. Some of the information that is written to the Registry is in regards to device drivers and services that are used by Windows.

The Last Known Good Configuration boot option uses Registry information and drivers saved at the last proper shutdown. Any system changes since the last proper shutdown are lost. Missing drivers or files necessary for operation of new devices will have to be replaced with proper versions. This is the next best thing to restoring the system to a prior system Restore Point and does not affect installed applications unless they involve device drivers.

Windows will not boot or function properly due to recent changes in hardware or system configuration.

Solution:

Using Windows startup menu
Restart your PC and press the F8 key at the end of the BIOS to access Windows' start menu.
Select the Last Known Good Configuration option and let Windows start up.
Log onto Windows if prompted.
Reset any recent configuration changes, uninstall recently installed hardware or run System Restore to return the system to a working state.

When you choose to use the Last Known Good Configuration mode all of the settings contained within the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet Registry key will be restored to the last state when you’re computer booted up successfully. This will not modify any files, but it will be able to point the system back to older drivers, assuming that they are still accessible on the machine.

Importance of System Information | Save Your System Information Periodically

By 18:38 No comments:

For the most exhaustive inventory of system configuration details in a no-frills text format, Windows offers two tools with similar names, Systeminfo and System Information.

System Information—often called by the name of its executable, Msinfo32.exe—is a techie’s paradise. It provides all manner of information about your system’s hardware and software in a no-frills window that includes search capabilities. The following sections discuss System Information in greater detail.

Thus, System Information displays a wealth of configuration information in a clear display, as shown in Figure below. You can search for specific information, save information, view information about other computers, and even view a list of changes to your system.

Figure: System Information is for viewing configuration information only; you can’t use it to actually configure settings.

To start System Information, use any of the following methods:

In the Run dialog box, type msinfo32.
In a Command Prompt window, type start msinfo32.
Click Start and choose All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information.
Click Start and type System Information, and choose from the list that is displayed.

You navigate through System Information much as you would through Windows Explorer or an MMC console: Click a category in the left pane to view its contents in the right pane.

Because the tool is extensible, which means that other programs can provide information about themselves in a format that can be displayed in System Information, you might see additional categories and additional information on your system.

To search for specific information, use the Find What box at the bottom of the System Information window. (If the Find bar is not visible, choose Edit, Hide Find.) The Find feature is basic but effective.

A couple of things you should know:

Whenever you type in the Find What box to start a new search, Find begins its search at the top of the search range (the entire namespace unless you select Search Selected Category Only)—not at the current highlight.
Selecting Search Category Names Only causes the Find feature to look only in the left pane. When this check box is cleared, all text in both panes is searched.

Exporting System Information

You can preserve your configuration information—always helpful when reconstructing a system—in several ways:

Save the information as an .nfo file. You can subsequently open the file (on the same computer or on a different computer with System Information) to view your saved information. To save information in this format, choose File, Save. Saving this way always saves the entire collection of information.

Save all or part of the information as a plain text fi le. To save information as a text fi le, select the category of interest and choose File, Export. To save all the information as a text fi le, select System Summary before you save.

You can print all or part of the information. Select the category of interest, choose File, Print, and be sure that Selection is selected under Page Range. To print everything, select All under Page Range—and be sure to have lots of paper on hand. Depending on your system configuration and the number of installed applications, your report could top 100 pages.

Regardless of how you save your information, System Information refreshes (updates) the information immediately before processing the command.

Save your system information periodically

Saving system configuration information when your computer is working properly can turn out to be very useful when you have problems Comparing your computer’s current configuration with a known, good baseline configuration can help you spot possible problem areas You can open multiple instances of System Information, so that you could have the current configuration displayed in one window and a baseline configuration displayed in another.

Plan Your Windows Recovery before Failure Occurs | Proactive Measures

By 10:05 No comments:

Data recovery is one of the most important aspects for business continuity and disaster recovery strategy, along with IT systems and business processes recovery.

In today's technology-dependent businesses, even small disruptions can render highly sophisticated machinery and information technology systems ineffective.

Without a disaster-recovery plan, disruption-tolerant solutions, and data backups, there isn't much that an organization can do when disaster strikes.

One of the worst events you will experience is a computer that won ’ t boot. An even worse experience is discovering that there is no recent backup for that computer.

The first step in preparing for disaster recovery is to expect that a disaster will happen at some point and take proactive measures to plan your recovery before the failure occurs.

In fact, Two out of five enterprises that experience a physical disaster go out of business within five years, regardless of their size.

Here are some of the preparations you can make:

Keep your computer up - to - date with Windows Update
Perform regular system backups.
Use current software to scan for malware (such as viruses, spyware, and adware) and make sure you have the most recent updates.
Perform regular administrative functions, such as monitoring the logs in the Event Viewer utility.

If you can ’ t start Windows 7, there are several options and utilities that can be used to identify and resolve Windows errors. The following is a broad list of troubleshooting options:

If you have recently made a change to your computer ’ s configuration by installing a new device driver or application and Windows 7 will not load properly, you can use the Last Known Good Configuration, roll back the driver, or use System Restore to restore a previous system configuration.
If you can boot your computer to Safe mode, and you suspect that you have a system conflict, you can temporarily disable an application or processes, troubleshoot services, or uninstall software.
If your computer will not boot to Safe mode, you can use the Startup Repair tool to replace corrupted system files.
If necessary, you can use the Backup and Restore Center utility to restore personal files from backup media and to restore a complete image of your computer.
You can also use Driver Rollback. If you install a driver that causes issues on your system, you can use the Driver Rollback utility to return the driver to its previous version.

Windows 7 has a full backup and restore application to enable you to maintain a backup copy of any of the Windows 7 component files and data files that are considered critical to the operation of your day - to - day business. You can use the backup of the files to restore them if they become unusable (corrupt, deleted, or even modified and you want to go back to the original).

In case if you have failed to take proactive measures, and in such situation, you have the following recovery techniques, we will see that in details

■ Advanced Boot Options menu, including Safe mode

■ Startup Repair tool

■ Backup and Restore Center

■ System Protection

Note: We recommend that you use the Recovery Console only after Safe mode and other startup options do not work. The Recovery Console is recommended only if you are an advanced user who can use basic commands to identify and locate problem drivers and files. Additionally, you must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console.

IE8 Not Starting In Maximized Mode

By 19:03 No comments:

No matter what I do IE8 insists on opening with a small window which I then have to maximize. So annoying!! It started to do this about a month ago on this Lenovo notebook and my Asus desktop both running Win7 RC1. IE8 is always shut down in maximized mode. I have tried clicking alt, file, exit when in max mode. I have opened properties; run, maximized, apply, ok, but nothing I do works it just opens in the small window next time. Does not happen with Firefox or Chrome.

It is suggested to perform the following troubleshooting suggestions to check the issue. You need to check the results after performing each suggestion.

Suggestion 1: Reset Internet Explorer 8

The following steps will remove all of installed add-ons and reset IE to default settings. We need to reinstall the add-ons after resetting.

Click "Start", type "inetcpl.cpl" (without quotation marks) into “Search” bar and press "Enter" to open the “Internet Options” window.
Switch to the "Advanced" tab.
Click "Reset…" to reset Internet Explorer settings.
Check "Delete personal settings" box and click "Reset" to confirm the operation.
Click "Close" when the resetting process is complete.
Click “Restore advanced settings” button and click “OK”.
Close the Internet Explorer window and restart IE to check the issue.

Suggestion 2: Click Start, All Programs, right click on Internet Explorer and click “Run as administrator”.

Suggestion 3: Test the issue in Clean Boot.

What’s the result?

If the issue persists, try to re install Internet Explorer 8. If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista. You can also try Internet Explorer 9.

How To Create A New Workgroup On Windows

By 14:02 No comments:

Computers running Windows on a network must be part of a workgroup or a domain (Computers running Windows on home networks can also be part of a home group, but it's not required).

If you are planning to connect two or more computers on a workgroup. You must have an account on that computer (if you have a same user name and password on both computer, things will be much better).

Please note that, by default, windows XP machine will be a part of a workgroup “Workgroup” or “MSHOME”

Follow these steps to configure a different Workgroup name and if you are going to connect two or more PCs using a work group.

Open the System icon in the Control Panel. (Or) Choose Start→Control Panel→System. The System Properties dialog box appears. You can also right click on My Computer and choose properties, and there drop down to Computer Name, Domain and Workgroup settings and choose “Change Settings”.

Click the Change Settings link located in the Computer Name, Domain and Workgroup Settings area.

Click the Continue button if you’re prompted with a User Account Control security warning.

Click the Change button.

The Computer Name/Domain Changes dialog box appears.

In the Member Of area, select the option labelled Workgroup and type the name of the workgroup.

Either enter the name of an existing workgroup or create a new name for your workgroup here. The workgroup name should be short, with no spaces.

Click OK three times to close windows.

You want to close the Computer Name Changes dialog box, the welcome message, and the restart message.

Click the Close button to dismiss the System Properties dialog box. You can also close the Control Panel window, if you want.

Restart Windows.

To view all computers belonging to the workgroup, open the Network window.

Domains, workgroups, and homegroups represent different methods for organizing computers in networks. The main difference among them is how the computers and other resources on the networks are managed.

Why Is It Important To Display Filename Extensions

By 13:59 No comments:

Every file has a name. Almost every file has a name that looks more or less like this: Some Name or Another.ext.

The part to the left of the period — Some Name or Another, in this example — generally tells you something about the file, although it can be quite nonsensical or utterly inscrutable, depending on who named the file.

The part to the right of the period — ext, in this case — is a filename extension, the subject of my diatribe.

If you’re looking at the Documents on your computer and you can’t see the period and three-letter suffixes of the filenames (such as .doc or .docx or .xls or xlsx and .jpg etc.,) that are visible in the below screen shot, don’t panic! You need to tell Windows to show them.

In my opinion, every single Windows 7 user should force Windows to show full filenames, including the (usually three-letter) extension at the end of the name.

Warning! Filename extensions were considered dangerous: too complicated for the typical user, a bit of technical arcana that novices shouldn’t have to sweat. If you want to play around on Filename Extensions, possible risks were there that you could even damage the Operating System Files

Filename extensions have been around since the first PC emerged from the primordial ooze. They were a part of the PC’s legacy before anybody ever talked about “legacy.” Somebody, somewhere decided that Windows wouldn’t show filename extensions any more.

I really hate it when Windows hides filename extensions, for four big reasons:

✦ If you can see the filename extension, you can usually figure out which kind of file you have at hand and which program will open it. People who use Word 2003, for example, may be perplexed to see a .docx filename extension — which is generated by Word 2007 and can’t be opened by Word 2003 unless you use Microsoft Compatibility Pack.

✦ It’s almost impossible to get Windows to change filename extensions if you can’t see them. Try it.

✦ Microsoft Outlook forbids you from sending or receiving specific kinds of files, based solely on their filename extensions. You can find a list of 88 dangerous filename extensions, blocked by Outlook 2003, at office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011402971033.aspx.

✦ You bump into filename extensions anyway. No matter how hard Microsoft wants to hide filename extensions, they show up everywhere — from the Readme.txt files mentioned repeatedly in the official Microsoft documentation to discussions of .jpg file sizes on Microsoft Web pages and a gazillion places in between.

If you want to know how you can make Windows to show Filename Extensions. Follow this link For the Step-by-Step Instructions To Make Windows Show Filename Extensions.

Step-by-Step Instructions To Make Windows Show Filename Extensions

By 14:07 No comments:

The fact is that nearly all files have names like Letter to Mom.doc, Financial Projections.xls, or ILOVEYOU.vbs. But Windows, with rare exception, shows you only the first part of the filename. It cuts off the filename extension.

So you see Letter to Mom, without the .doc (which brands the file as a Word document), Financial Projections without the .xls (a dead giveaway for an Excel spreadsheet), and ILOVEYOU without the .vbs (which is the filename extension for Visual Basic programs).

To make Windows show you filename extensions the easy way, follow these steps:

1. Open Windows Explorer by choosing Start ➪ Documents.

2. Press Alt to show the menu; then choose Tools➪Folder Options and click the View tab. You see the Folder View’s Advanced Settings box, shown in screen shot below.

Screen shot to Make Windows show you filename extensions.

3. Deselect the Hide Extensions for Known File Types check box.

While you’re here, you may want to change two other settings if you can avoid the temptation to delete or rename files that you don’t understand.

Select the Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives option button if you want Windows to show you all files on your computer. Also consider deselecting the Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended) check box — showing Protected files tends to clutter the screen, so use your own discretion. Sometimes you need to see all your files, even if Windows wants to hide them from you.

4. Click the OK button.

Take a look at your unveiled filename extensions.

Reverse Left And Right Mouse Buttons With One Click

By 13:33 No comments:

If you’re left-handed, you can interchange the actions of the left and right mouse buttons — that is, you can tell Windows 7 that it should treat the left mouse button as though it were the right button and treat the right button as though it were the left. The swap comes in handy for some left-handers, but most southpaws I know (including my son) prefer to keep the buttons as is because it’s easier to use other computers if your fingers are trained for the standard setting.

The Windows ClickLock feature can come in handy if you have trouble holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse at the same time — a common problem for notebook users who have fewer than three hands. When Windows uses ClickLock, you hold down the mouse button for a while (you can tell Windows exactly how long) and Windows locks the mouse button so that you can concentrate on moving the mouse without having to hold down the button.

Screenshot On How To Reverse the left and right mouse buttons with one click.

To switch left and right mouse buttons or turn on ClickLock, follow these steps:

Click Start. Immediately type mouse and press Enter. Then Windows opens the Mouse Properties dialog box, as shown in the above screen shot.
If you want to switch the functions of the left and right mouse buttons, select the Switch Primary and Secondary Buttons check box.
If you want to turn on ClickLock, check the Turn On ClickLock box and immediately click the Settings button. You can then adjust the length of time you need to hold down the mouse button for ClickLock to kick in.
Click OK.

Note that, the changes take place immediately.

Dual Boot Windows With Mac Using Boot Camp | Step-by-Step Instructions

By 16:54 1 comment:

No longer were PCs and Macs incompatible at a very low level. When Apple switched its desirable Macintosh computers from the aging Power PC architecture to Intel’s PC-compatible x86 platform in 2006, the computing landscape was changed forever.

Indeed, Macs are now simply PCs running a different operating system. This fascinating change opened up the possibility of Mac users running Windows software natively on their machines, either in a dual-boot scenario or, perhaps, in a virtualized environment that would offer much better performance than the Power PC–based virtualized environments of the past.

These dreams quickly became reality. Apple created software called Boot Camp that now enables Mac users to dual-boot between Mac OS X (Leopard or higher) and Windows XP, Vista, or 7.

Be aware of a limitation: You need to purchase a copy of Windows 7, as no Mac ships with Microsoft’s operating system. This is a not-so-fine point that Apple never seems to mention in their advertising.

Dual Boot with Mac: Using Boot Camp

Boot Camp is a feature of Mac OS X and is configured via that system’s Boot Camp Assistant. As shown in Figure 2-49, Boot Camp Assistant is available from the Mac OS X Utilities folder (Applications ➪ Utilities) and provides a wizard-based configuration experience.

Boot Camp is available only in Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” or newer, and it supports only 32-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

Figure: Boot Camp helps you configure a dual boot between Windows and Mac OS X.

The key to this wizard is the Create a Second Partition phase, where you can graphically resize the partition layout on the hard disk between Mac OS X and Windows, as shown in Figure below. (Macs with multiple hard drives can be configured such that Mac OS X and Windows occupy different physical disks, if desired.)

Figure: Drag the slider to resize the Mac and Windows partitions.

After that, Boot Camp prompts you to insert the Windows 7 Setup DVD and proceed with setup. From a Windows user’s perspective, setup proceeds normally and Windows looks and acts as it should once installed. Be sure to keep your Mac OS X Setup DVD handy, however. It includes the necessary drivers that Windows needs to be compatible with the Mac’s specific hardware.

Once you have Windows 7 up and running on the Mac, there are just a few Mac-specific issues you should be aware of:

Configuring Boot Camp: When you install Windows 7 on a Mac using Boot Camp, Apple installs a Boot Camp Control Panel application, which you can access by selecting Start Menu Search and typing boot camp. This application helps you configure important functionality such as the default system to load at boot time (Mac or Windows).

There’s also a system notification tray applet that enables you to access the Boot Camp Control Panel and Boot Camp Help and choose to reboot into Mac OS X.

Switching between operating systems at boot time: While you can choose the default operating system at boot time via the Boot Camp Control Panel application, or choose to boot into Mac OS X from within Windows by using the Boot Camp tray applet, you can also choose an OS on-the-fly when you boot up the Mac. To do so, restart the Mac and then hold down the Option key until you see a screen with icons for both Mac OS X and Windows. Then, use the arrow keys on the keyboard to choose the system you want and press Enter to boot.
Understanding Mac keyboard and mouse differences: While Macs are really just glorified PCs now, Apple continues to use unique keyboard layouts and, frequently, one-button mice. As a result, you may have to make some adjustments when running Windows on a Mac. Table below lists some commonly used keyboard commands and explains how to trigger equivalent actions on a Mac.

Table: Windows Keyboard Shortcuts on the Mac

Windows Keyboard Shortcut	Apple External Keyboard	Built-In Mac Keyboard
Ctrl+Alt+Delete	Ctrl+Option+Fwd Delete	Ctrl+Option+Delete
Alt	Option	Option
Backspace	Delete	Delete
Delete	Fwd Delete	Fn+Delete
Enter	Return	Return
Enter	Enter on numeric	keypad Enter
Insert	Help	Fn+Enter
Num Lock	Clear	F6
Pause/Break	F16	Fn+Esc
Print Screen	F14	F11
Print active window	Option+F14	Option+F11
Scroll/Lock	F15	F12
Windows	Command	Command

Windows can also be installed on virtual environment. With a virtualized environment running under Mac OS X, you have the advantage of running Mac OS X and Windows applications side by side, but with a performance penalty. In this situation, Mac OS X is considered the host OS, and Windows is a guest OS running on top of Mac OS X. (This works much like Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode.) We will discuss How Windows can be installed on MAC using virtualized environment in the coming days.

Restore Windows Explorer Session After Clean Reboot Or Shutdown

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If you ever used Sticky Notes, you might have noticed that Sticky Notes is able to restore a previous session (content) after a clean reboot or shutdown.

Mozilla Firefox can also able to restore its previous session even after a system restart or after a shutdown. The question now is, Is Windows Explorer able to do the same? If yes, how to enable.

Windows Explorer is a file manager application that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system. It is also the component of the operating system that presents many user interface items on the monitor such as the taskbar and desktop.

Solution on how to Restore Windows Explorer Session After Clean Reboot Or Shutdown:

For the record, the "restoring previous Windows Explorer session" function can be enabled in this way:

1. Go to Windows Explorer's Organize menu > select Folder and search options

2. Go to View tab

3. Enable Restore previous folder windows at logon

Actually, this function existed ever since Windows XP came.

Note: Firefox will automatically restore your session after an automatic update, or when using the restart button from the Add-Ons Manager. Firefox will offer to restore your session after a crash or other unexpected close.

11 Effective Ways To Increase Your PC Performance

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Here are the ten simple steps that will help improve the speed and performance of your Personal Computer.

There’s so much information out there in bench3 about PC performance (especially on Windows machines), it’s difficult to be sure what’s right and what’s not so helpful. Here are 10 proven performance enhancements you can make to your computer, many of which are free.

Stay Away From Malware:

New machines shouldn’t have malware on them. But one of the most common causes of slow PC complaint is actually the presence of malware.

Malware can sneak onto a computer in a zillion different ways and quite often it sits in the background slowing your machine to as it sends out spam emails, searches for other computers to infect, works on cracking cryptography, or any number of the other nefarious tasks that hackers like to use their botnet slaves for.

There’s a good chance that the malware brought even more friends with it (that’s often how you see computers with thousands of viruses on them not long after the initial infection), and the infection may be bad enough to justify a wipe and reload. My first step in investigating a slow system is usually a virus scan.

Keep Your Windows Drivers Up-to-Date:

Do you know that all your hardware has a supporting driver, and the hardware manufacturer often release a better driver for the hardware. And the best way to make your hardware work good is to support it with the most recent and updated drivers for them.

Upgrade to a better video card

For typical business productivity tasks, a video card probably isn’t an upgrade that will have a lot of value. But for gamers and other similar uses, a video card is a slam dunk upgrade. If your current card and motherboard support SLI or CrossFireX, adding a second card and bridging them will be a good option as well. In some scenarios, better video cards can be a huge benefit even without heavy onscreen video work, because certain applications can leverage the GPUs for calculations.

Get a faster drive

Many times, the real performance issue is the speed of disks. Look at numbers like the RPMs, cache size, seek speed, and transfer rate to buy a faster drive. Often, a good drive will seem slow because the computer’s power settings are allowing it to spin down. You may want to consider changing these settings to make sure that the disk is more likely to be ready to work when you need it to. While the SSD vs. hard disk debate is still continuing, SSDs usually seem to feel faster to users. Boot times are usually cut for sure. But something about an SSD makes a system feel more responsive or “snappy” to use, and for day-to-day work, that’s a great feeling.

Address hardware and driver issues

All too often, system slowness is actually a sign of hardware problems. For example, if your CPU isn’t being properly cooled, it will often have its speed reduced in an effort to keep it from overheating. Recoverable errors with disk access can kill your throughput while not showing up as a dead drive. And bad hardware drivers can often make the whole system slow, especially video drivers. Using utilities to check your CPU speed and various temperatures, scanning for hard drive errors, and updating your drivers is a good start to investigating performance problems. Often, problems caused by hardware or drivers are not just poor speeds, but system flakiness too.

Use a RAID

Using a RAID can dramatically lower the read and write speeds of your disks, depending upon the RAID level you choose. You will want to do some research to see what RAID level fits your needs the best. Personally, I am a fan of RAID 1, 6, and 10 because I feel that they offer appropriate levels of data protection along with a good measure of speed improvements.

Try a different browser

It’s no secret: Different browsers perform differently, and most people spend a lot of time in their Web browser. Benchmarks really muddy the browser speed conversation. Some browsers perform well on some but do badly on others, even when they are supposed to test the same thing. The problem with the benchmarks is that what they usually test is not real work performance! While JavaScript is an important part of the modern Web, few Web applications beat on the JavaScript engine hard enough to produce a noticeable impact on performance. That said, it’s been my experience that the Chrome browser is the fastest for actual work. If you want to have your Web browser feel more responsive and lively, consider a switch to Chrome.

Remove junk

It’s easy to have a computer get loaded up with junk that slows it down. The worst part is, we invite this garbage into our lives by installing “helpful” utilities, toolbars, and other add-ons. I could easily write a list of 10 kinds of computer-stalling junk. Here are some of the things you’ll want to seek out and remove for best performance:

Automatic update systems for various applications (but be careful: some apps, like Flash, Acrobat, QuickTime, and Web browsers are prime malware targets and you will want to keep these up-to-date)
Things that run on startup
Windows services you don’t really need
Crapware from the PC maker
Toolbars
Browser plug-ins (the Skype browser plug-in is an especially bad offender, I’ve found)
P2P applications
Web servers and database servers that were installed by since-removed applications, but left behind

Add a faster DNS lookup server

Most ISPs love to brag about how much bandwidth they are giving you. But they don’t mind letting the rest of their infrastructure slowly get overwhelmed or deteriorate. Among the biggest offenders are the DNS servers our ISPs use. If you want to know why things seem to take forever to start loading, slow DNS servers are often the cause. Consider adding a fast DNS server as your primary DNS server in your TCP/IP settings. Google’s Public DNS server is a great option.

Defrag

Defragging your hard drives is a great way to get some more performance. While modern Windows systems automatically defrag on a regular basis, I’ve found that the Windows defragging is fairly unaggressive. So, we recommend that you make your PC to perform defragmentation at regular interval.

Check network connectivity

Time and time again, “system slowness” actually is caused by networking issues. Our computers do so much on the Internet that slowness there can affect just about everything you do on a regular basis. While there isn’t enough space to write an exhausting troubleshooting list here, some of the things you should try (or investigate) are:

Replacing the network cables, switches, routers, WiFi access points, etc.
Calling the ISP and checking the distance from the CO (for DSL) or the local segment’s current load (for cable); the ISP may need to rewire or rework its connectivity. Satellite customers will want to double-check their dish installation and ensure that it is tightly locked down and pointed in the right direction.
Malware scanning on all PCs to see if malware is burdening the network
Inspecting the wiring of the phone lines (for DSL) or coax (cable customers) to look for loose connections, corrosion, or flaky wires
Cable customers will want to find out how many splitters are between the line from the pole and their modem. If it is more than one (and preferably only a two-way splitter), they should rewire so that they have only a single two-way splitter between the pole and the modem to ensure the cleanest signal possible.

Control Two Computers With a Single Keyboard and Mouse

By 10:26 No comments:

Let’s say you have two computers on your desk and, in an effort to save space, you want to operate them all using a single pair of keyboard and mouse.

There are two solutions here. If the computers are connected to the same network, you can use software programs like Input Director or Synergy to operate them with a common keyboard and mouse. In the other scenario where the machines aren’t connected, you can get a KVM switch to share one keyboard and mouse between them.

One of the better alternative is to go for Mouse without Borders. My work setup is quite similar to what you see in the illustration above and I have been using the Input Director software all this while to control the two Windows PCs with one keyboard and mouse. Input Director is reliable and (mostly) works without problems though it does require some understanding of the Master and Slave concept.

And alternatively, Mouse without Borders will see things even better and easy than the previous solutions.

The best part about Mouse without Borders is how easy it is to set up. You install the utility on all your Windows computers, enter the security code provided by the software and your computers will get linked. This is almost as simple as pairing a set of Bluetooth devices.

Step by Step Instructions On Installing and Configuring Mouse without Borders:

Step 1 of Installing Mouse without Borders:

Step 2 Installing Mouse without Borders:

Step 3 Installing Mouse without Borders:

Step 4 Installing Mouse without Borders:

Once installed, you can not only use the same keyboard and mouse across your computers in a seamless manner but you can also drag and drop files between them. This is so convenient. Earlier, I had to create shared network folders or had to use Dropbox to transfer files but now I can simple drag them from desktop A to desktop B as if they were on the same computer.

With the Mouse without Borders utility installed, you can also send screen capture of one desktop to another by pressing a hotkey or from the system tray menu. After having used the tool for about a week, I never experienced a crash though I did have problems sharing clipboard especially when the copy operation was done inside a Flash application.

Mouse without Borders can only be used to control Windows based computers. If your work environment involves a mix of Windows, Linux or Mac computers, Synergy could still be the only good choice for you.

Displaying Two Word Documents Side By Side On Word 2010

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Displaying Multiple Program Windows:You can open multiple documents in independent windows, and you can open multiple windows that display the same document.

You can display two windows side by side so that you can see the contents of both simultaneously. When you display windows side by side, Word automatically turns on synchronous scrolling, so that scrolling one window also scrolls the other. You can also stack two or more windows on top of each other. When more than two windows are stacked, the ribbon is hidden automatically.

When only two windows are stacked, you can manually minimize the ribbon to display only the tab names and occupy less screen space.

How to open a second instance of a document in a separate window,

On the View tab, in the Window group, click the New Window button.

How to stack multiple program windows:

In the Window group, click the Arrange All button.

How to restore stacked program windows

Maximize each program window.

How to display two program windows side by side

In the Window group, click the View Side by Side button.
If more than two documents are open, in the Compare Side by Side dialog box, click the document you want to display side by side with the current document.

How to turn synchronous scrolling on or off

Display two program windows by using the View Side by Side command.
In the Window group, click the Synchronous Scrolling button.

How to restore side-by-side program windows to their original size

In the Window group, click the View Side by Side button.

How to switch between multiple program windows

If the window is visible on the screen, click anywhere in the window.
Click the Windows Taskbar button representing the window you want to make active.
In the Window group, click the Switch Windows button, and then click the window you want to make active.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Windows hangs, restarts by itself, or crashes with a blue screen error, or your video display is garbled and you cannot get control of the display resolution.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Friday, May 18, 2012

Why Microsoft Security Essentials is Free?

Monday, May 14, 2012

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Monday, January 16, 2012

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Monday, December 5, 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

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Thursday, November 17, 2011

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