Psst…

Don’t anyone tell Jim West, but every time he opines on the necessity of biblical languages for proper biblical study, I always think, “Why does the New Testament quote the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, then?”

I also wonder how he reconciles this with the history of Baptists in America, whose early ministers tended to be non- university -trained types who farmed and raised cattle like the members of their congregations. Which I gather raised more than a few eyebrows among the other denominations that stressed education for ministers, to say nothing of what the Roman Catholic clergy must have thought!

Tweaking Windows Untuk Mempercepat Computer

Pada kali ini ESC-creation akan membahas bagaimana mempercepat kinerja komputer yang kita miliki sehingga performance lebih baik dengan sedikit Tweaking dan Modifikasi pada setting Windows computer kita. Hal ini sangat membantu untuk mempercepat Kinerja computer kita yang mungkin anda rasa masih lamban seperti bila kita masih menggunakan PC setara pentium III atau Pentium 4.

Dengan menerapkan Modifikasi, optimiser, Tweaking seeting Registry pada Windows maka hal ini akan mengoptimalkan kerja dari Computer agar bekerja lebih cepat dari sebelumnya.

Berikut langkah Optimalisasi Windows untuk mempercepat kinerja Komputer :

A. Matikan beberapa fitur Start Up.

Hal ini akan mempercepat loading Windows pada waktu Booting atau pertama kali kita menghidupkan Komputer.

• Masuk menu RUN >>> Ketikan MSCONFIG >> OK >> Pilih menu Start Up >> Hilangkan semua cawang pada Start up kecuali Program Anti virus
• Klik Menu service >> Hilangkan cawang pada Automatic Updates
• Setelah itu >>> Aplly >>> Ok

Hal ini memerlukan Restart Windows, Setelah itu ada Message Windows dan pilih dont show this message again. Kemudian lanjutkan ke Optimasi pada Registry Windows di bawah ini.

B. Optimasi Pada Registry

Rubah Registry Windows pada bagian berikut ini.

• MASUK RUN >> Ketik REGEDIT >> >> OK
• MY COMPUTER >>> HKEY_CURRENT_USER >> CONTROL PANEL >> DESKTOP >>
• Cari MENU SHOW DELAY >> Doble Klik dan rubah value data menjadi 10
• Cari HUNG-UP TIME OUT >> Doble Klik rubah value dataya menjadi 5
• MY COMPUTER >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >> SYSTEM >> CONTROLSET001 >> CONTROL >> WAIT TO KILL SERVICE >> Rubah Valuenya menjadi 500
• MY COMPUTER >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >> SYSTEM >> CONTROL SET002 >> CONTROL >> WAIT TO KILL SERVICE >> Rubah Valuenya menjadi 500
• MY COMPUTER >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE >> SYSTEM >> CURRENT CONTROL Set> COntrol >> SESION MANAGER >> MEMORY MANAGEMENT >> DISABLE PAGING EXCecutive >> Rubah Value data menjadi 1

C. Optimalkan Virtual Memory

• Masuk Control Panel >> System >> Advanced >> Performance Setting >>> Pilih Custom >> Cawang pada : “Use Drop Shadow For Icon labels on the dekstop” dan “Use Visual styles on windows and buttons” dan kemudian aplly.

• Pada menu advanced >>> Virtual memory >> Change >> Klik pada drive c:Windows >> Pilih Custom Size >> Rubah Value pada initial size dan maximum Size 2 kali lipat dari value sebelumnya misal 256 rubah ke 512 , 512 rubah 1000) atau anda bisa merubah sesuai keinginan anda asal lebih besar dari value sebelumnya, Kemudian klik Ok.

Tweaking dan Modifikasi diatas bertujuan untuk mengoptimalkan dan mempercepat proses kerja suatu program atau software. Dan untuk mencegah peringatan / warning Virtual memory too low pada saat menjalankan program yag berat seperti Adobe Photoshob, Corel Draw, Adobe Premiere, Pinacle dan program berat lain yang memerlukan Virtual memory yang besar. Dan juga hal ini untuk mendukung Memory Ram yang kecil sehingga masih bisa digunakan untuk menjalankan progam berat tersebut.

Setelah selesai Restart komputer anda maka Kinerja dan Performance Computer anda akan lebih cepat dari sebelumnya. Selamat Mencoba.

sumber : http://www.esc-creation.com

artikel saya dapat dari sini

windws seven

SetteMaxer adalah sebuah tool gratis yang dapat kita gunakan untuk optimalkan Windows 7. Pada Tool ini terdapat 12 buah tweak registry untuk Windows 7. Dengan memanfaatkan SetteMaxer kita bisa dengan praktis melakukan tweaking pada Windows 7 tanpa perlu membuka Registry Editor dan melakukannya secara manual. Ketika menjalankannya lebih baik dengan pilihan : “Run As Administrator”

Features of SetteMaxer :

• Optimizes the menu show delay : Sets nilai delay menus ke 0 agar OS memiliki navigasi lebih cepat.
• Optimizes Wait to Kill Services Timeout : Sets its value to 1000 untuk mempersingkat shutdown dan lamanya restart.
• Optimizes Wait to Kill Applications Timeout : Sets its value to 1000 untuk mempersingkat shutdown dan lamanya restart
• Optimize Application Response Timeout : Mempersingkat Aplikasi timeout ketika sebuah aplikasi tidak respon, apakah akan diulangi atau dibatalkan.
• Optimize Low Level Hooks Timeout : Shorten Low Level Hooks Timeout
• Enable Auto End Tasks : Dengan cepat dapat menutup Aplikasi yang mesih berjalan ketika perintah shutdown/logoff/restart dijalankan
• Enable Desktop Composition : Mengaktifkan Tampilan Windows Aero ketika Windows Experience Index tidak dapat dimulai/selesai atau tidak memungkinkan untuk dijalankan.
• Disable AutoReboot on Crash
• Disable Task Scheduler
• Disable Remote Registry Access : Ini dapat berguna untuk melindungi regristasi yang dapat diakses dari jauh.
• Disable User Access Control
• tidak ingin menggunakannya
• Enable Sidebar When UAC Disabled : Mengaktifkan Sidebar walaupun UAC dalam keadaan disabled

Untuk download SetteMaxer ada pada link download dibawah ini :

Download : SetteMaxer v1.0

While Windows Vista may be Microsoft Corp’s most secure operating system ever, it’s far from completely secure. In its fresh-from-the-box configuration, Vista still leaves a chance for your personal data to leak out to the Web through Windows Firewall or for some wicked bot to tweak your browser settings without your knowledge.

But by making a few judicious changes using the security tools within Windows Vista — and in some cases by adding a few pieces of free software –you can lock down your operating system like a pro.

1. Use Windows Security Centre as a starting point

For a quick overview of your security settings, the Windows Security Center is where you’ll find the status of your system firewall, auto update, malware protection and other security settings. Click Start, Control Panel, SecurityCenter, or you can simply click the shield icon in the task tray. If you see any red or yellow, you are not fully protected.

For example, if you have not yet installed an antivirus product on your machine, or if your current antivirus product is out of date, the malware section of the Security Center should be yellow. Windows does not offer a built-in antivirus utility, so you’ll want to install your own. For free antivirus,

I recommend Avast 4.8 Home Edition.

2. Use Windows Defender as a diagnostic tool

The malware section of Windows Vista also protects against spyware using Windows Defender. The antispyware protection in your antivirus program usually trumps the protection Microsoft provides, but there are several good reasons to keep Windows Defender enabled. One is that every antispyware program uses a different definition of what is and is not spyware, so redundant protection can actually offer some benefit.

Another reason to keep Windows Defender enabled: diagnostics. Click Tools, and choose Software Explorer from the resulting pane. You can display lists of applications from several categories such as Currently Running Programs, Network Connected Programs and Winsock Service Providers, but Start-u

p Programs is perhaps the most useful. Click on any name in the left window, and full details will appear in the right pane. By highlighting, you can remove, disable or enable any of the programs listed.

3. Disable the start-up menu

Windows Vista keeps track of all the documents and programs you launch in the start-up menu. This can be convenient for some users, but it can also compromise your privacy if you share a computer within an office or household. Fortunately, Windows Vista provides an easy way to tweak this setting

. To protect your privacy, follow these steps:

* Right-click on the task bar and select “Properties.”

* Click on the Start Menu tab.

* Uncheck “Store and display a list of recently opened files.”

* Uncheck “Store and display a list of recently opened programs.”

* Click “OK.”

4. Get two-way firewall protection

No desktop should be without a personal firewall, but even if the Security Center says you’re protected, you may not be. The Windows Firewall within Vista blocks all incoming traffic that might be malicious or suspicious — and that’s good. But outbound protection is not enabled by default. That’s a dangerous situation if some new malicious software finds its way onto your PC.

Microsoft did include the tools for Windows Vista to have a true two-way firewall, but finding the setting is a little complicated. (Hint: Don’t go looking the Windows Firewall settings dialog box.

To get two-way firewall protection in Windows Vista, do the following:

* Click on the Start button; in the search space, type “wf.msc” and press Enter.

* Click on the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security icon. This management interface displays the inbound and outbound rules.

* Click on Windows Firewalls Properties. You should now see a dialog box with several tabs.

* For each profile — Domain, Private and Public — change the setting to

Block, and then click OK.

Even if you do this tweak, I recommend adding a more robust third-party firewall. I suggest either Comodo Firewall Pro or ZoneAlarm, both of which are free and fare very well in independent firewall testing.

5. Lock out unwanted guests

If you share your computer with others — and even if you don’t – Windows Vista includes a neat way to keep unwanted guests from guessing your systems administrator password. When you set up users and declare one user as administrator with full privileges, Windows Vista allows an outsider unlimited guesses at the password you chose. Here’s how to limit the guesses.

* Click Start, then type “Local Security Policy.”

* Click Account Lockout Policy.

* Choose Account Lockout Threshold.

* At the prompt, enter the number of invalid log-ins you’ll accept (say, three).

* Click OK and close.

6. Now audit your attackers

With the Account Lockout policy in place, you can now enable auditing to see any account attacks. To turn on auditing for failed log-on events, do the following:

* Click the Start button, type “secpol.msc,” and click the secpol icon.

* Click on Local Policies and then Audit Policy.

* Right-click on “Audit account log-on events policy,” and select Properties.

* Check the Failure box, and click OK.

* Right-click on “Audit log-on events policy” and select Properties.

* Check the Failure box and click OK.

* Close the Local Security Policy window.

You can then use the Event Viewer (by running eventvwr.msc) to view the logs under Windows Logs and Security.

7. Secure your Internet Explorer settings

The Windows Security Center will also report whether your Internet Explorer 7(or IE security settings are at their recommended levels. If the screen shows this section as red, you can adjust the settings within the browser itself.

* Within Internet Explorer, click Tools in the menu bar.

* From the drop-down menu, click Internet Options.

* Choose the Security tab.

* Within the Security tab, click Custom Level.

Here you’ll see a window with all the security options for the browser. If any are below the recommended level (if, say, some malware reconfigured your browser settings), these options will be highlighted in red.

To change an individual setting, click the appropriate radio button. To reset them all, use the button near the bottom of the tab. You can also change the overall security setting for Internet Explorer from the default Medium-High setting to the recommended High or Medium, if you wish. Click OK to save and close.

8. Use OpenDNS Domain Name System (DNS) servers act as a phone book. When you type “pcworld.com” in the address bar, for instance, your browser sends that common

-name request to your Internet service provider’s DNS servers to be converted into a series of numbers, or an IP address.

Lately, DNS servers have come under attack, with criminals seeking to redirect common DNS preferences to servers that they control. One way to stop such abuse is to use OpenDNS.

Go to Start, Control Panel, Network and Internet, and then click Network and Sharing Center. Under the tasks listed on the left, click Manage Network Connections. In the Manage Network Connections window, do the following:

* Right-click on the icon representing your network card.

* Click Properties.

* Click Internet Protocol Version 4.

* Click the Properties button.

* Select the Use the following DNS server addresses radio button.

* Type in a primary address of 208.67.222.222.

* Type in a secondary address of 208.67.220.220.

* Click OK.

9. Live with User Account Control

One area where some people might want to see the Windows Security Center turn red is User Account Control (UAC), perhaps the most controversial security feature within Windows Vista. Designed to keep rogue remote software from automatically installing (among other things), UAC has a tendency to thwart legitimate software installations by interrupting the process several times with useless messages.

In Windows 7, you’ll be able to set UAC to the level you want. Until then, you do have some options. One is to disable UAC. I would caution against that, since UAC is meant to warn you of potential danger.

Instead, install TweakUAC, a free utility that enables you to turn UAC on or off as well as provides an intermediate “quiet” mode that keeps UAC on but suppresses administration-elevation prompts. With TweakUAC in quiet mode, UAC will appear to be off to those running as administrator accounts, while people with standard user accounts will still be prompted.

10. Check your work

Now that you’ve tweaked Windows Vista, you can keep tabs on your system’s security with the System Health Report. This diagnostic tool takes input from the Performance and Reliability Monitor and turns it into an information-packed report that can spotlight potential security problems.

* Open Control Panel.

* Click System.

* In the Tasks list, click Performance (near the bottom).

* In the resulting Tasks list, click Advanced tools (near the top).

* Click the last item on the resulting list — “Generate a system health report.”

The report will list any missing drivers that might be causing error codes, tell you whether your antivirus protection is installed and declare whether UAC is turned on. You may want to run this report once a month just to make sure everything is still good.

The weekend is upon us, and I’m looking forward to it. Granted, this week wasn’t very productive over all, but it did have its moments.

The new “V” series started this week, and to be honest, it’s too early to make a judgment on it just yet. Give it a few episodes then I’ll have an opinion formed for better or worst. SyFy (that name just icks me out now) played a marathon on the original over the weekend and early part of the week, which I enjoyed. The “new” is missing two things the original had: Marc Singer and Michael Ironside. ‘Nuff said.

Anyone catch last night’s Supernatural? The parodies were so funny and a few were spot on. It was kind of fun trying to figure out who and what they were making fun of in each skit. Then again, I’m the type who likes to watch those parody films (you know, the Not Another Teen Movie and its ilk) just to figure out what they are making fun of, not for the film itself. Is it sad that I knew the majority of them?

Tonight is Ghost Whisperer and Medium. I’m so not digging the whole jump five years into the future thing they’ve got going on with GW. In fact, I’ve just about decided to stop watching it altogether. As it is, I end up watching it several days later thanks to TiVo, because it’s just not worth watching on time anymore. I mean, from a creative stand point, I understand why they made the jump, but as a fan, it aggravates the hell out of me. Medium on the other hand is a fave. Never know what’s going to happen next in that crazy household.

Well, tomorrow is A day. Six years and counting. Hubby is still trying to figure out what else to get me, though I keep telling him, “I NEED a mouse for Red.” This one mouse shared between two computers is so not working for me. Add in a ricky ticky touch pad on Red, and I’m ready to scream, especially if it randomly deletes anymore of my WIP on me.

Something unusual happened last night. I curled up with Sir Sony and read a bit. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’ve not wanted to read lately, because I have. There’s just been a lot going on so reading takes a back seat. Add in the sheer exhaustion I’ve felt lately, and reading has been pretty much doomed since I tend to nod off while attempting to read. I only managed about three chapters (reading slow has its sucky moments) but that’s three chapters more than I have been reading, so that’s a plus at least.

I did manage to write on DB some yesterday. Not nearly enough, but another word on the page is one word closer to the end. The new segment is fitting into what’s already done quite nicely. A few sex scenes and a couple odd scenes and I’m done. The end is so close (and yes, I realize I’ve been saying that for months) that it’s frustrating not to be able to just sit down and knock it right out. I’m doing the best I can, all things considered. I will be so glad when this project is finished and no longer hanging over my head. Let’s hope that day arrives soon.

And now it’s time to take my rambling self and find something else to do rather than rattle your eyeballs off (reading not hearing lol). Off to work I go, I hope. My concentration hasn’t been what it should be lately.

Great website.  Click here to read more.

First off, let me begin by bragging about the 2500 words I managed to bang out on Dagger’s Blade yesterday. That made me VERY happy. I finished off the last half of one chapter and moved on to the next, so I’m now that much closer to the end. It’ll be party time when this baby is finally finished. I did have to cut roughly 1300, because with changes they no longer fit, which kind of rained on my parade, but the 2500 added sure made me feel pretty darned good. Sadly, that’s just how rewrites work. You add some, you take some, you tweak some. It’s still going to be a much better book for it in the end.

‘Tis a cold wet day here in Arkansas this morning. The street in front of the house had just dried out, too. Maybe it won’t rain much and the street will stay a street this time rather than turning into a river, like it normally does in heavy rains. The kiddo is getting too big for mom to carry over the raging waters. I’ve had to take a pain pill this morning (haven’t taken many since upping the fibro meds) because the cold and rainy weather aren’t helping me much today. My poor left arm is so sore it makes typing a bit tricky.

Is Halloween over yet? I swear, every day when the kiddo comes home, the first words out of his mouth are “is it Halloween yet?” Every. Day. I’m so tired of hearing those words and trying to explain to him that Halloween isn’t until the 31st. All I can do is hope that one of these days it finally sinks in. Until then, pity me for the broken record I’m having to deal with. His Halloween play is next Thursday, the 29th, and he’s playing the part of a pirate. Naturally, I think he’ll be the cutest damned pirate up there. He also brought his school pictures home yesterday and I must say, he is absolutely gorgeous in them, not that I expect any different. He seems to take very good pictures.

Yesterday, a big misunderstanding took place on twitter. Yes, unfortunately I was involved. In my defense, I did read the article in question and with the way it was worded, it did appear that something was not on the up and up. I RT’ed a friend’s post on Twitter regarding this  and the shit storm ensued. Telling me to read the facts before RT’ing something doesn’t help, because as I just stated, I did read the article in question. Apparently, with the wording of the article, I took away something from it that others didn’t see. Perception is what it is.

I do not own a Kindle, so I have no idea how it works or what Amazon’s take on things are, but I am equipped with more knowledge where that is concerned today than I was yesterday. I will apologize to the reader for making an assumption, but based on the information I had at the time, I went with how it looked to me. I’m human and as such, mistakes are made. The true villain in this story is the article writer, not the authors or the reader from the article. If the journalist’s goal was to create problems, then she/he did so in spades and should be ashamed for creating so much undo stress.

For the record, as I stated yesterday on Twitter to a fellow author, I am not anti-sharing of ebooks, though I do believe it has to be done in moderation, with limitations on them. The world of books is changing. We’ve gone from print only and being able to do whatever we wanted with the printed copy, to digital copies and being told you cannot share or resale under ANY circumstances, to new technology allowing for limited numbers of sharing. It’s hard to keep up with, and as soon as you get used to one way of thinking, the whole pot is stirred and you’re left floundering as you try to adjust to the new rules and regulations. This only further adds to the number of mistakes people will be making where all of this is concerned. A learning curve should be allowed for and mistakes shouldn’t mean life or death. Yes, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the consequences do seem rather dire at times.

Anyhow, with that all out of the way, today’s goals are simple. Stay warm and dry. Work on Dagger’s Blade. Try to control pain levels. And avoid anymore twitter upheavals. I can definitely manage that last one as well as the first one, but not so sure about the others. I plan to give it my best, though. The colder is gets, the worse the overall pain, but I will do my best to move forward and not let it get me down. I have stories to write, and though I may be slower, any words on the page are better than none.

Saya menggunakan Sistem Operasi Windows XP home edition dengan prosesor AMD Athlon 2000+, RAM DDR256, hardisk 40 GB 5400 rpm, VGA 64M. benar-benar sebuah paket yang pas-pasan untuk bermain web dan grafis, apalagi kena bottleneck di hardisk 5400 rpmnya (kenapa dulu aku ngga beli yang 7200 rpm yah ,… ). Mau ngga mau aku harus menyetting komputerku pada kondisi teroptimal supaya bisa memenuhi kabutuhanku. Nah beberapa yang saya lakukan,

Perhatian: tweaking ini tentu saja hanya beraku untuk Sistem Operasi windows xp.
1. Hardisk dengan kapasitas 40 GB aku buat 3 partisi dengan kapasitas masing-masing sebagai berikut: C=10 GB, D=29 GB, E=1 GB. Kenapa saya menambahkan 1 partisi sebesar 1 GB? Yaa untuk tempat virtual memorynya. Nanti akan saya terangkan ketika kita udah masuk ke tweaking windownya.
2. Saya matikan apa yang mereka sebut dengan “System Restore” sebuah fasilitas dari windows untuk “menormalkan” kembali windows apabila terjadi kerusakan dengan jalan mengembalikan semua settingan window ke kondisi yang tersimpan oleh fasilitas ini. Dari fungsinya tentu saja akan membuat windows bekerja lebih “giat” untuk menyimpan kondisi2 tertentu supaya nantinya bisa digunakan untuk patokan pengembalian settingannya. Silahkan buka control panel anda kemudian pilih system maka jendela system akan keluar. Pada jendela system anda lihat beberapa tab, pilih yang System Restore. Sekarang anda bisa mematikan system restore dengan mengklik checkbox dengan keterangan Turn off system restore on all drive. Trus silahkan di Apply, atau nanti juga boleh…
3. Automatic Update?? NO WAY !!! Silahkan klik tab “automatic Update” dan kemudian ikuti instruksi di tab itu untuk mematikannya. Automatic update merupakan fasilitas yang berguna untuk mengautomatisasikan proses pembaruan website anda dengan mengkoneksikan computer kita dengan servernya Microsoft untuk kemudian secara otomatis mendownload dan mengaplikasikan file2 untuk mengupdate. Ow,… saya tak memerlukan fasilitas ini. Biarlah otak computer saya tak terlalu terbebani dangan hal-hal semacam itu,… kasihan 
4. Anda suka dengan tampilan default window? Saya sudah bosan dengan animasi dan grafis semacam itu. Saya tidak perlu mempunyai operating system yang penuh dengan kerlap-kerlip. Maka dari itu, masih di dalam jendela system, saya klik tab performance kemudian memilih tombol setting pada frame performance (frame paling atas). Setelah itu akan muncul jendela baru, silahkan pilih “adjust for best performance”. Eit,… jangan keburu diOK dulu, di jendela itu klik tab advanced kemudian klik tombol change pada frame virtual memory. Nah disitu akan tertampil 3 partisi yang kita buat. Silahkan mematikan paging file dari drive C dan D dengan mengklik terlebih dahulu pada list kemudian klik radiobutton “no paging file” kemudian klik set. Lakukan ini untuk drive C dan D, kemudian untuk E yang berkapasitas 1 giga kita buat sebagai tempat paging file kita. Klik pada list (bagian drive E) kemudian klik pada “system managed size”, kemudian klik tombol set. Setelah itu klik OK-OK terus sampai ada pesan untuk direstart. Dan sebaiknya jangan direstart dahulu karena ada sedikit perubahan registri yang akan kita lakukan.
Windows akan menggunakan kapasitas dari hardisk untuk mendukung memory fisik, jadi dengan membuat drive sendiri untuk tempat virtual memory,… pasti akan lebih mempercepat kinerjanya.
5. Ketika anda mengklik start menu akan terasa ada semacam delay ketika kita berpindah antar menunya. Nah akan terasa sangat menjengkelkan bukan untuk menunggu sub menu muncul. Kita lakukan sedikit modifikasi pada registrinya. klik run kemudian ketik regedit. Klik OK. Akan muncul jendela registry. klik HKEY_CURRENT_USER > control panel > Desktop. Kemudian cari MenuShowDelay dan ubah propertinya menjadi 0. Tutup jendela registry anda kemudian restart

Nah coba anda rasakan perbedaanya, mungkin akan sangat sulit merasakan perbedaannya jika computer anda sangat cepat, tapi inilah beberapa cara yang saya gunakan untuk meningkatkan kecepatan windows saya. 

WINDOWS XP HIDDEN APPS

To run any of these apps go to Start > Run and type the executable name (ie charmap).

=========================================

1) Character Map = charmap.exe (very useful for finding unusual characters)

2) Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe

3) Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe (views contents of Windows clipboard)

4) Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe (Troubleshooting tool)

5) DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe (Diagnose & test DirectX, video & sound cards)

6) Private character editor = eudcedit.exe (allows creation or modification of characters)

7) IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe (Create self-extracting / self-installing package)

Microsoft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe (appears to allow synchronization of files on the network for when working offline. Apparently undocumented).

9) Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe (Retro version of Media Player, very basic).

10) ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe (something to do with databases)

11) Object Packager = packager.exe (to do with packaging objects for insertion in files, appears to have comprehensive help files).

12) System Monitor = perfmon.exe (very useful, highly configurable tool, tells you everything you ever wanted to know about any aspect of PC performance, for uber-geeks only )

13) Program Manager = progman.exe (Legacy Windows 3.x desktop shell).

14) Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe (documentation is virtually non-existant).

15) Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] (for hacking the Windows Registry).

16) Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe (creates shared folders on network).

17) File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe

18) Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe (I’ve included this for those people that lose it from the System Notification area).

19) System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe (modify System.ini & Win.ini just like in Win98! ).

20) Syskey = syskey.exe (Secures XP Account database – use with care, it’s virtually undocumented but it appears to encrypt all passwords, I’m not sure of the full implications).

21) Microsoft Telnet Client = telnet.exe

22) Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe (seems to be a utility for monitoring the actions of drivers, might be useful for people having driver problems. Undocumented).

23) Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe (appears to be an old NT utility to allow chat sessions over a LAN, help files available).

24) System configuration = msconfig.exe (can use to control starup programs)

25) gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions

Why Doesn’t Windows Remember My Folder View Settings?

If you’ve changed the view settings for a folder, but Windows “forgets” the settings when you open the folder again, or if Windows doesn’t seem to remember the size or position of your folder window when you reopen it, this could be caused by the default limitation on storing view settings data in the registry; by default Windows only remembers settings for a total of 200 local folders and 200 network folders.

To work around this problem, create a BagMRU Size DWORD value in both of the following registry keys, and then set the value data for both values to the number of folders that you want Windows to remember the settings for. For example, for Windows to remember the settings for 5000 local folders and 5000 network folders, set both values to 5000.

Here is how:

Follow these steps, and then quit Registry Editor:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell

3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

4. Type BagMRU Size, and then press ENTER.

5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

6. Type 5000, and then click OK.

AND:

1. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam

2. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

3. Type BagMRU Size, and then press ENTER.

4. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

5. Type 5000, and then click OK.

Note:

When you use roaming user profiles, registry information is copied to a server when you log off and copied to your local computer when you log on. Therefore, you may have performance issues if you increase the BagMRU Size values for roaming user profiles.

]]> http://ignitedsoul.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/thumbnail-cache-win-xp-tweak/ Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:25:59 +0000 ignitedsoul http://ignitedsoul.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/thumbnail-cache-win-xp-tweak/

Thumbnail Cache

***************

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced]

“DisableThumbnailCache”=dword:00000001

Windows XP has a neat feature for graphic and video files that creates a “thumbnail” of the image or first frame of the video and makes it into an oversized icon for the file. There are two ways that Explorer can do this, it can create them fresh each time you access the folder or it can load them from a thumbnail cache. The thumbnail caches on systems with a large number of image and video files can become staggeringly large. To disable the Thumbnail Cache, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced and find the DWORD “DisableThumbnailCache”. You may need to create this key. A setting of 1 is recommended for systems where the number of graphic and video files is large, and a setting of 0 is recommended for systems not concerned about hard drive space, as loading the files from the cache is significantly quicker than creating them from scratch each time a folder is accessed.

Powertweak application

**********************

xxx.powertweak.com

Powertweak is an application, which acts much like a driver for our chipsets. It optimizes the communication between the chipset and the CPU, and unlocks several “hidden” features of the chipset that can increase the speed of the system. Specifically, it tweaks the internal registers of the chipset and processor that the BIOS does not for better communication performance between subsystems. Supported CPUs and chipsets can see a significant increase in I/O bandwidth, increasing the speed of the entire system. Currently the application supports most popular CPUs and chipsets, although you will need to check the website for your specific processor/chipset combo – the programmer is working on integrating even more chipsets and CPUs into the software.

Priority Tweak

**************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

This setting effectively runs each instance of an application in its own process for significantly faster application performance and greater stability. This is extremely useful for users with stability problems, as it can isolate specific instances of a program so as not to bring down the entire application. And, it is particularly useful for users of Internet Explorer, for if a rogue web page crashes your browser window, it does not bring the other browser windows down with it. It has a similar effect on any software package where multiple instances might be running at once, such as Microsoft Word. The only problem is that this takes up significantly more memory, because such instances of a program cannot share information that is in active memory (many DLLs and such will have to be loaded into memory multiple times). Because of this, it is not recommended for anyone with less than 512 MB of RAM, unless they are running beta software (or have some other reason for needing the added stability).

There are two parts to this tweak. First is to optimize XP’s priority control for the processes. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl and set the “Win32PrioritySeparation” DWORD to 38. Next, go into My Computer and under Tools, open the Folder Options menu. Select the View tab and check the “Launch folder windows in separate process” box. This setting actually forces each window into its own memory tread and gives it a separate process priority.

QoS tweak

*********

QoS (Quality of Service) is a networking subsystem which is supposed to insure that the network runs properly. The problem with the system is that it eats up 20% of the total bandwidth of any networking service on the computer (including your internet connection). If you are running XP Professional, you can disable the bandwidth quota reserved for the system using the Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc].

You can run the group policy editor from the Run command line. To find the setting, expand “Local Computer Policy” and go to “Administrative Templates” under “Computer Configuration.” Then find the “Network” branch and select “QoS Packet Scheduler.” In the right hand box, double click on the “Limit Reservable Bandwidth.” From within the Settings tab, enable the setting and then go into the “Bandwidth Limit %” and set it to 0%. The reason for this is that if you disable this setting, the computer defaults to 20%. This is true even when you aren’t using QoS.

IRQ Priority Tweak

******************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

You will need to create a new DWORD: IRQ#Priority (where # is the number of the IRQ you want to prioritize) and give it a setting of 1. This setting gives the requisite IRQ channel priority over the other IRQs on a software level. This can be extremely important for functions and hardware subsystems that need real-time access to other parts of the system. There are several different subsystems that might benefit from this tweak. Generally, I recommend giving either the System CMOS or the video card priority. The System CMOS generally has an IRQ setting of 8, and giving it priority enhances the I/O performance of the system. Giving priority to the video card can increase frame rates and make AGP more effective.

You can give several IRQs priority, but I am not entirely certain how the system interacts when several IRQs are given priority – it may cause random instabilities in the system, although it is more likely that there’s a parsing system built into Windows XP to handle such an occurrence. Either way, I would not recommend it.

Bootvis Application

*******************

The program was designed by Microsoft to enable Windows XP to cold boot in 30 seconds, return from hibernation in 20 seconds, and return from standby in 10 seconds. Bootvis has two extremely useful features. First, it can be used to optimize the boot process on your computer automatically. Second, it can be used to analyze the boot process for specific subsystems that are having difficulty loading. The first process specifically targets the prefetching subsystem, as well as the layout of boot files on the disk. When both of these systems are optimized, it can result in a significant reduction in the time it takes for the computer to boot.

Before attempting to use Bootvis to analyze or optimize the boot performance of your system, make sure that the task scheduler service has been enabled – the program requires the service to run properly. Also, close all open programs as well – using the software requires a reboot.

To use the software to optimize your system startup, first start with a full analysis of a fresh boot. Start Bootvis, go to the Tools menu, and select next boot. Set the Trace Repetition Settings to 2 repetitions, Start at 1, and Reboot automatically. Then set the trace into motion. The system will fully reboot twice, and then reopen bootvis and open the second trace file (should have _2 in the name). Analyze the graphs and make any changes that you think are necessary (this is a great tool for determining which startup programs you want to kill using msconfig). Once you have made your optimizations go to the Trace menu, and select the Optimize System item. This will cause the system to reboot and will then make some changes to the file structure on the hard drive (this includes a defragmentation of boot files and a shifting of their location to the fastest portion of the hard disk, as well as some other optimizations). After this is done, once again run a Trace analysis as above, except change the starting number to 3. Once the system has rebooted both times, compare the charts from the second trace to the charts for the fourth trace to show you the time improvement of the system’s boot up.

The standard defragmenter included with Windows XP will not undo the boot optimizations performed by this application.

Optimizing Startup Programs [msconfig]

**************************************

MSConfig, similar to the application included in Win9x of the same name, allows the user to fine tune the applications that are launched at startup without forcing the user to delve deep into the registry. To disable some of the applications launched, load msconfig.exe from the run command line, and go to the Startup tab. From there, un-ticking the checkbox next to a startup item will stop it from launching. There are a few application that you will never want to disable (ctfmon comes to mind), but for the most part the best settings vary greatly from system to system.

As a good rule of thumb, though, it is unlikely that you will want to disable anything in the Windows directory (unless it’s a third-party program that was incorrectly installed into the Windows directory), nor will you want to disable anything directly relating to your system hardware. The only exception to this is when you are dealing with software, which does not give you any added benefits (some OEM dealers load your system up with software you do not need). The nice part of msconfig is that it does not delete any of the settings, it simply disables them, and so you can go back and restart a startup application if you find that you need it. This optimization won’t take effect until after a reboot.

Optimize Boot Files

*******************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter. This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition, but that last statement is unverified. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Master File Table Zone Reservation

**********************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem]

Under this key there is a setting called NtfsMftZoneReservation, the default setting of which is 1. The range of this value is from 1 to 4. The default setting reserves one-eighth of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 2 reserves one-quarter of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 3 for NtfsMftZoneReservation reserves three-eighths of the volume for the MFT and setting it to 4 reserves half of the volume for the MFT. Most users will never exceed one-quarter of the volume. I recommend a setting of 2 for most users. This allows for a “moderate number of files” commensurate with the number of small files included in most computer games and applications. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Windows Prefetcher

*************************

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Under this key there is a setting called EnablePrefetcher, the default setting of which is 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times. Depending on the number of boot processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from settings up to 9. However, I do not have any substantive research data on settings above 5 so I cannot verify the benefits of a higher setting. This setting also may effect the loading times of your most frequently launched applications. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.

Because of the security features built into Windows XP, it is virtually impossible to get back into the system without the password.

You have several options to try and get around this problem.

If you have access to another user account with administrator rights, you can use that account to change the password

of the account that is locked out. You can also use the default Administrator account that is built into Windows XP.

First you need to boot the system into Safe Mode.

1.Restart your system.

2.When you see the blue Dell globe or screen, press the ( F8 ) key about 3 times a second.

3.You should get the Windows startup menu. Use the (Up or Down) arrow keys to highlight (SafeMode)

4.Press (Enter) on (Safe Mode), then press (Enter) on (Windows XP).

5.The system should boot to Safe Mode.

Once you are at the Account Log on Screen, click on the icon

for the user account with administrator rights, or click on the icon

for the administrators account.

Note: For Home the Administrator account isn’t normally shown & in Safe Mode you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys twice to show.

For PRO you can do this in normal mode

When the system has booted to the desktop, use the following steps to change the accounts password.

1.Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools.

2.Click Computer Management.

3.Double click Local Users and Groups, double click the folder Users.

4.Right click on the account name that is locked out, and click on Set Password.

5.You may get a warning message about changing the password, simply click proceed.

6.Leave the New Password box blank, also leave the Confirm Password box blank.

7.Click OK, and OK again.

8.Then close all Windows, reboot the system and try to log in.

There are also applications that can recover the password for you.

The following companies provide these applications at a cost.

iOpus® Password Recovery XP here.

Asterisk Password Recovery XP v1.89 here.

If the above information does not help in recovering the password, the only option left is to

format the hard drive then reinstall Windows and the system software.