Tips,Tricks & Tweaks about PC

Things you can do when Windows XP didn't Boot up.

2009-01-26T21:23:00.006+08:00

Hello there, today i would like to share some useful information about windows XP boot up. Although Vista is the main Os in many computer nowadays. But for me I prefer XP because in Xp have a lot of advantage that was hidden by Microsoft.

Let's back to the main topic. What you gonna do when you XP wouldn't boot after turn on your pc? For those who have experienced before or have some knowledge with them probably know what to do with this situation occur. But what about those who didn't know anything about this? I'm quite sure that you will panic and probably will hold the button to restart back their pc. What if the same problem occur eventhough you have press the "on" button many time?

When your pc appears to power up okay, but the operating system (OS) won't boot properly, you have tostart a troubleshooting expedition that includes getting into the OS, determine the problem and then try to fix it. To help you get started, here things you can do when Windows XP won't boot.

Use a Windows startup disk:

This is the first things you should do when troubleshoot the Windows XP boot problem. This floppy disk can come in handy if the problem is caused when either the startup record for the active partition or files that operating system uses to start Windows have corrupted.

To create a Windows startup disk, insert a floppy disk into the drive of a similarly, working Window XP system, launch My Computer, right-click the floppy disk icon and select the Fprmat command from the context menu. When you see the Format dialog box, leave all the default settings as they are and then click the Start button. When the format operation is complete, close the Format dialog box to return to My Computer. After that, double click the drive C icon to access the root directory and copy the following three files to the floppy disk:

Boot.ini
NLTDR
Ntdetect.com

Then when u have create the Windows startup disk, insert it into the floppy drive on the afflicated system and press [Ctrl + Alt + Delete] to reboot back the pc. When you boot from Windows startup disk, the pc will bypass the active partition and boots files on the hard disk and attemp to start Windows XP normally.

Last Known Good Configuration :

You can also try to bot the OS with the Last Known Good Cofiguration feature. This feature will allow you to undo any changes that caused problens in current control set registry key, which defines hardware and driver settings. This features will replaces the contents of the current control set registry key with a backup copy that was last use to successfully start up the OS.

How to use the Last Known Good Configuration feature? To use this features, firstly, restart the computer by pressing [Ctrl][Alt][Delete]. When you see the message Please select the operating system to start or hear the single beep, press [F8] to display the Windows Advanced Options menu. Select the Last Known Good Configuration item from the menu and press [Enter].

Always remember that you get only one shot with the Last Known Good Configuration feature. In other words, if it fails to revive your Windows XP on the first attempt, the backup copy is also corrupt.

System Restore

Another tool that might be helpful when Windows XP won't boot is System Restore. System Restore runs in the background as a service and continually monitors system-critical components for changes. When it detects an impending change, System Restore immediately makes backup copies, called restore points, of these critical components before the change occurs. In addition, System Restore is configured by default to create restore points every 24 hours.

To use System Restore, first restart the computer by pressing [Ctrl][Alt][Delete]. When you see the message Please select the operating system to start or hear the single beep, press [F8] to display the Windows Advanced Options menu. Now, select the Safe Mode item from the menu and press [Enter].

Once Windows XP boots into Safe mode, click the Start button, access the All Programs | Accessories | System Tools menu, and select System Restore. Because you're running in Safe mode, the only option on the opening screen of the System Restore wizard is Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time, and it's selected by default, so just click Next. Then, follow along with the wizard to select a restore point and begin the restoration procedure.

Disable automatic restart

When Windows XP encounters a fatal error, the default setting for handling such an error is to automatically reboot the system. If the error occurs while Windows XP is booting, the operating system will become stuck in a reboot cycle—rebooting over and over instead of starting up normally. In that case, you'll need to disable the option for automatically restarting on system failure.

When Windows XP begins to boot up and you see the message Please select the operating system to start or hear the single beep, press [F8] to display the Windows Advanced Options Menu. Then, select the Disable The Automatic Restart On System Failure item and press [Enter]. Now, Windows XP will hang up when it encounters the error and with any luck, it will display a stop message you can use to diagnose the problem.
Restore from a backup :

If you can't seem to repair a Windows XP system that won't boot and you have a recent backup, you can restore the system from the backup media. The method you use to restore the system will depend on what backup utility you used, so you'll need to follow the utility's instructions on how to perform a restore operation.
Perform an in-place upgrade :

If you can't repair a Windows XP system that won't boot and you don't have a recent backup, you can perform an in-place upgrade. Doing so reinstalls the operating system into the same folder, just as if you were upgrading from one version of Windows to another. An in-place upgrade will usually solve most, if not all, Windows boot problems.

Performing a Windows XP in-place upgrade is pretty straightforward. To begin, insert the Windows XP CD into the drive, restart your system, and boot from the CD. Once the initial preparation is complete, you’ll see the Windows XP Setup screen (shown earlier in Figure A). Press [Enter] to launch the Windows XP Setup procedure. In a moment, you’ll see the License Agreement page and will need to press [F8] to acknowledge that you agree. Setup will then search the hard disk looking for a previous installation of Windows XP. When it finds the previous installation, you’ll see a second Windows XP Setup screen

This screen will prompt you to press R to repair the selected installation or to press [Esc] to install a fresh copy of Windows XP. In this case, initiating a repair operation is synonymous with performing an in-place upgrade, so you’ll need to press R. When you do so, Setup will examine the disk drives in the system. It will then begin performing the in-place upgrade.

Fixboot [drive]

Where [drive] is the letter of the drive to which you want to write a new partition boot sector.
Fix a corrupt master boot record :

The master boot record occupies the first sector on the hard disk and is responsible for initiating the Windows boot procedure. The master boot record contains the partition table for the disk as well as a small program called the master boot code, which is responsible for locating the active, or bootable, partition, in the partition table. Once this occurs, the partition boot sector takes over and begins loading Windows. If the master boot record is corrupt, the partition boot sector can't do its job and Windows won't boot.

If you suspect Windows XP won't boot because the master boot record has been corrupted, you can use the Recovery Console tool Fixmbr to fix it. First, boot the system with the Windows XP CD and access the Recovery Console as described in #4.

To use the Fixmbr tool, from the Recovery Console command prompt, type

Fixmbr [device_name]

Where [device_name] is the device pathname of the drive to which you want to write a new master boot record. For example, the device pathname format for a standard bootable drive C configuration would look like this:

\Device\HardDisk0

** After you perform an in-place upgrade or repair installation, you must reinstall all updates to Windows.

Late Post

2009-01-26T00:51:00.004+08:00

To all my readers, so sorry because long time not update anything in my blog. However, starting tommorow i'll start back. So sorry..

Hide Your Partition If You Want...

2008-10-21T01:28:00.005+08:00

My friend might need to use my computer to check his emails and also doing his work. I rarely allow people to use my computer or laptop because all my personal files and information is in there. Although he assured me that he won’t touch my stuff, but it’s always better to be safe than sorry. I don’t want him to be “accidentally” snooping around my files.

I partition my drive where the system drive (C:) is where I install Windows and my E drive is where I save all my files, documents and etc. All I need to do is to hide my E: drive from My Computer and that should do it because I know that my friend is not a computer geek. So here is how I easily hide E drive letter parttion from appearing in My Computer.

I found a few ways to do it. I’ll list them all out for your convenience.

Via Computer Management

1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > and run Computer Management.

2. Expand Computer Management (Local) > Storage > Disk Management.

3. Right click the E: drive partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths..

4. Select E: drive, click Remove button and click OK.

To add back the drive letter, follow the above step 1 to 3, and click Add button. Make sure Assign the following drive letter is select and click OK.

Via Tweak UI

1. Download and install Tweak UI.

2. Run Tweak UI, go to My Computer > Drives.

3. Uncheck the drive that I want to hide. Click OK.

To restore the drive letter, simply run Tweak UI, go to My Computer > Drives and check the hidden drive letter.

Via EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition

1. Download and install EASEUS Partition Manager Home Edition.

2. Right click the drive letter or partition, select Advanced > Hide. There’s a warning saying hiding this partition may cause drive letter to change. Click OK button.

3. Click Apply button at the bottom left and click Yes to apply the changes.

To show the drive letter, right click the drive letter or partition, select Advanced > Unhide. Click Apply at the bottom left.

The above method is not perfect but it can surely prevent the drive letter from appearing in My Computer while you can can rest easy knowing that the files on that drive or partition are less accessible to other users. If you see run Windows Disk Management, you’re able to see that there is a partition but without a drive letter. If you’re looking for a fool proof way, TrueCrypt might be the best solution.

Which AntiVirus is the Lightest memory usage

2008-10-12T13:45:00.004+08:00

Few days ago I got an email from one of my friend asking me which would be the best free antivirus program to use on an old pc which won’t slow down the computer. There are easily 10 types of free antivirus and I couldn’t really tell which one is the lightest on memory usage because I’ve never really compared all of them. I know for sure the latest AVG FREE 8.0 is bloated and it takes up a lot of memory and I could only guess “maybe” Avira Antivir Personal is the lightest. Let’s not guess and put those antivirus to the memory test. Actually this question has been on my mind for quite some time now and I’d be glad to know the answer.

Today I found 27 types of antivirus programs for their memory usage from website that can be trusted.The website put the list of anti-virus which have loghtest memory usage. So check it out, I am sure you’ll be surprised by the results!

Here is the list of anti-virus that are arranged from the lowest memory usage while idle to the most memory usage.

1. PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition 4.0.0.26 (freeware) pctools antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 5680K
Total memory usage during scanning: 23948K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.pctools.com/free-antivirus/

2. Kaspersky Antivirus 2009 v8.0.0.357 (shareware) Kaspersky

Total memory usage during idle: 6565K
Total memory usage during scanning: 50892K
Detects private trojan through heuristic method, not through virus definition
Link: http://www.kaspersky.com/kaspersky_anti-virus

3. Spyware Terminator v2.2.3.444 (freeware) Spyware Terminator

Total memory usage during idle: 7624K
Total memory usage during scanning: 64292K
Unable to detect virus with the built-in antivirus. However when tried to run the trojan, HIPS picks it up as a threat
Uses ClamAV for antivirus protection
Link: http://www.spywareterminator.com/

4. Norton AntiVirus 2008 (shareware) Norton Antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 8424K
Total memory usage during scanning: 78008K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.symantec.com/norton/antivirus

5. BitDefender 10 Free Edition (freeware) Bitdefender

Total memory usage during idle: 9668K
Total memory usage during scanning: 42492K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://download.bitdefender.com/windows/desktop/free/final/en/bitdefender_free_v10.exe

6. Avira AntiVir Personal 8 (freeware) Avira

Total memory usage during idle: 10072K
Total memory usage during scanning: 70072K
Detects private trojan through heuristic method, not through virus definition
Link: http://www.free-av.com/

7. Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 v8.0.0.3578 (shareware) KIS 2009

Total memory usage during idle: 16180K
Total memory usage during scanning: 44216K
Detects private trojan through heuristic method, not through virus definition
Link: http://www.kaspersky.com/kaspersky_internet_security

8. Rising Antivirus 20.44 (freeware) Rising Antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 16252K
Total memory usage during scanning: 59704K
Cannot detect private trojan through virus definition but blocks it from executing
Link: http://www.freerav.com/

9. DriveSentry 3.1 (freeware) Drivesentry

Total memory usage during idle: 16992K
Total memory usage during scanning: 18504K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.drivesentry.com/

10. avast! 4 Home Edition (freeware) Avast Home Edition

Total memory usage during idle: 23100K
Total memory usage during scanning: 63416K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html

11. CA Anti-Virus 2008 (shareware) CA Antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 37756K
Total memory usage during scanning: 47556K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://shop.ca.com/virus/antivirus.aspx

12. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0.138 (freeware) AVG

Total memory usage during idle: 38244K
Total memory usage during scanning: 88244K
Detects private trojan through virus definition. Maybe they got a sample of the private trojan and added the detection to its virus definition
Link: http://free.avg.com/

13. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 3.0.669 (shareware) eset nod32

Total memory usage during idle: 40364K
Total memory usage during scanning: 46012K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.eset.com/products/nod32.php

14. ESET Smart Security 3.0.669 (shareware) eset smart security

Total memory usage during idle: 42640K
Total memory usage during scanning: 39284K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.eset.com/smartsecurity/

15. Trend Micro AntiVirus plus AntiSpyware 2008 (shareware) Trend Micro

Total memory usage during idle: 42608K
Total memory usage during scanning: 63704K
Able to detect private trojan as suspicious activity and blocked it from executing
Link: http://apac.trendmicro.com/apac/products/personal/antivirus-plus-anti-spyware/

16. ZoneAlarm Antivirus 7.0.483 (shareware) Zonealarm antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 52772K
Total memory usage during scanning: 97200K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/zonealarm_antivirus.jsp

17. BitDefender Antivirus 2008 v11 (shareware) Bitdefender

Total memory usage during idle: 56440K
Total memory usage during scanning: 73720K
Able to detect private trojan as threat
The free version uses BitDefender v10 and the shareware version uses the latest v11. So I had to make a comparison on both BitDefender products.
Link: http://www.bitdefender.com/PRODUCT-2194-en–BitDefender-Antivirus-2008.html

18. Comodo AntiVirus 2.0.17.58 (freeware) Comodo antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 56668K
Total memory usage during scanning: 76668K
Unable to detect virus through its virus definition. However when tried to run the trojan, HIPS picks it up as a threat.
Link: http://antivirus.comodo.com/

19. F-Secure Anti-Virus 2008 (shareware) F-Secure

Total memory usage during idle: 61972K
Total memory usage during scanning: 178824K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.f-secure.com/home_user/products_a-z/fsav2008.html

20. Moon Secure Antivirus 2.2.2.163 (freeware) Moon Secure Antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 71528K
Total memory usage during scanning: 71528K
Cannot detect private trojan
No changes in memory usage during idle and scanning
Uses Clam Antivirus engine and definition
Link: http://www.moonsecure.com/

21. Panda Antivirus 2008 (shareware) Panda Antivirus 2008

Total memory usage during idle: 76344K
Total memory usage during scanning: 101416K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.pandasecurity.com/malaysia/homeusers/solutions/antivirus/

22. McAfee VirusScan Plus 2008 (shareware) Mcafee VirusScan plus

Total memory usage during idle: 87632K
Total memory usage during scanning: 140484K
Detects private trojan as backdoor program
Link: http://us.mcafee.com/root/package.asp?pkgid=276

23. Norman Antivirus & Antispyware (shareware) norman security suite

Total memory usage during idle: 99856K
Total memory usage during scanning: 201660K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.norman.com/Product/Home_Home_office/NVC/49922/

24. Windows One LiveCare 2.5 (shareware) Windows One LiveCare

Total memory usage during idle: 102868K
Total memory usage during scanning: 107868K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

25. eEye Blink 4.04 Personal Edition (shareware) eEye Blink

Total memory usage during idle: 117972K
Total memory usage during scanning: 131412K
Cannot detect private trojan
Free 1 year license for US/Canada residents
Link: http://www.blinkfree.com/

26. G DATA AntiVirus 2008 (shareware) G-data antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 130544K
Total memory usage during scanning: 175176K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.gdata.de/trade/US/productview/819/16/

27. Quick Heal AntiVirus Plus 2008 v9.50 (shareware) quickheal antivirus

Total memory usage during idle: 151660K
Total memory usage during scanning: 201660K
Cannot detect private trojan
Link: http://www.quickheal.co.in/small-desktop-edition-win.asp

There you have it. Now you know which antivirus to recommend to your friend if they ask you which one doesn’t slow the computer down. For me, I think that the best for shareware would be Kaspersky Antivirus 2009 and as for freeware, Avira Antivir. Both is light on memory usage and has very good heuristic detection to detect unknown threats that is not on the virus definition. As for NOD32, it takes up 40MB memory usage on idle and 46MB during scanning. Even the latest major update version 3 couldn’t detect the private trojan.

Just choose which one is more comfortable to your computer. =)

How To Reinstall or Repair Windows XP

2008-09-23T05:01:00.009+08:00

What does reinstall Windows really mean? What about reformat computer? Some people also say fresh or clean Windows installation. To me, I think that reinstall Windows means reinstall Windows over the existing Windows without formatting the hard drive. As for reformat computer, it means wipe off everything on the partition or hard drive and install a fresh Windows. As for fresh or clean Windows installation, it might mean installing Windows on ANOTHER partition without affecting the current installed Windows.

I rather use the term "reinstall windows" because some people might think that they have to reformat their hard drive and reinstall Windows. The better term that I always use is "Repair Windows". Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information or settings. It just repairs the operating system.

Windows XP repair feature is a great feature but I ONLY use it when the operating system files are way too corrupted to fix. In another words, this is my last resort before reformatting the hard drive and doing a fresh windows installation. Here is how to reinstall or repair Windows XP.

Before you start repairing your Windows XP, please be informed that it will remove any updates you have previously installed and drivers will be reverted back to the original XP versions. Some Windows XP settings might be also be reset to their defaults. So make sure you have your drivers ready and also run Windows Update once it has completed repairing Windows XP. And don't forget to backup your important files because you might never know what will go wrong during the process.

Now i'll show the step to repait the windows XP. Just follow the step below :

1. First step is to boot up the computer with the Windows XP CD. You can configure that in BIOS.

2. You will get a message "Press any key to boot from CD" on your screen. Simply hit any key on your keyboard to boot from Windows XP CD.

3. A blue screen will appear and begin loading Windows XP Setup from the CD.

4. When completed loading files, you will be presented with the following "Windows Setup" screen. You will want to select "To set up Windows XP now, press Enter." option. Just press the ENTER key to continue. Remember, do NOT press the "R" key because that option will bring you to recovery console.

5. Next screen is to agree with Windows XP licensing agreement. Press F8 key to agree and continue.

6. Windows setup will now look for existing Windows XP installations. If it finds any, you will be asked to repair an existing XP installation, or install a fresh copy of Windows XP. Press the "R" key to start repairing Windows XP.

Now you just have to wait for it to reinstall Windows XP over the existing Windows XP. Get your Windows XP product key ready because you will need key it in again. Remember to run Windows Update once the repair has completed!

For branded computers such as HP, there are 2 CDs. One is the Recovery CD and the other is the Operating System CD. To repair Windows, you need to boot up the Operating System CD first, then it will ask you to put in the Recovery CD for verification. Once you've loaded the Recovery CD and verified, you will need to put back the Operating System CD. Now it will start the Windows XP repair process...

There are people that encountered problems in using Automatic Updates after repairing Windows. To solve this problem, you need to manually visit Windows Update or Microsoft Update site, download and install at least one security update or Service Pack, and it will solve the problem. If you don't want to waste anymore time in downloading and installing hundreds of megabytes of windows updates, you can use Offline Windows Update.

Find out what is INFO2 File HIDDEN in Recycled or Recycler Folder?

2008-09-20T05:35:00.009+08:00

Hello guys, I've 2 questions for today.

1)What's the difference between Recycled and Recycler folder? If you're using Windows, you will have have either folder at the root of your drive.

2)What determines whether you have Recycled or Recycler is the filesystem of your drive?
If it is FAT32, you will get Recycled and if you have NTFS, you'll have Recycler. Some people might have both of the folders because they converted their drive from FAT32 to NTFS.

Just keep in mind the questions above. Today i'll explain a little bit about hidden file name "INFO2" in Recycled or Recycler Folder.

INFO2 file in Recycle BinOK, when you delete a file in Windows Explorer or My Computer, the file immediately appears in the Recycle Bin. This is what you see but actually there is something going on in background. The complete path and file name is stored in a hidden file called INFO2 in the Recycled or Recycler folder. What I learn during my research is the INFO2 file is VERY important because once it is corrupted or removed while you still have files in Recycle Bin, your files filename is all gone!

Let's do a test here so you'll understand better.

I'll delete a file called "test delete.exe" and let it stay in Recycle Bin. Once deleted, I can see that my recycle bin icon now has trash. This is what WE see with our eyes. My partition is NTFS file system, so I have RECYCLER folder at the root of my C: drive. Inside the Recycler folder I have a recycle bin icon. Inside the recycle bin, the file that I just deleted (test delete.exe) is there. I can restore and also delete the file there. Everything is normal up till now.

Let's see what happens if I use command prompt to check what's in the RECYCLER directory.

There's a file called Dc17.exe and also INFO2. I am 100% sure that Dc17.exe is the "test delete.exe" file that I just deleted because I used to the COPY command to copy Dc13.exe to desktop. Command prompt doesn't process the INFO2 file, therefore it is not showing the "test delete.exe" file name.

If you try deleting INFO2 from command prompt, it will say that "Could Not Find INFO2" because it has HIDDEN attribute. Just use the command "attrib -h INFO2" to unhide INFO2. Now I am able to delete INFO2 file. Weirdly immediately after deleting the INFO2 file, I can't see any files in desktop's Recycle Bin but the icon still showing as if there is trash. I tried to empty recycle bin and it ask me "Are you sure you want to delete 'windows'?

I took the risk and clicked the Yes button. I checked my Windows folder and thank God it's still there! I went back to command prompt to list the files in recycler folder and Dc17.exe file is no longer there.

I was unable to find any ways to edit or how to add entries to the INFO2 file but I found a free tool called "rifiuti2" that is used to analyze INFO2 file during windows computer forensics. As its name indicates, rifiuti2 is a rewrite of rifiuti, a great tool from Foundstone folks for analyzing Windows Recycle Bin INFO2 file. The meaning of rifiuti in Italian means "trash".

The difference between rifiuti and rifiuti2 is:
* Supports Windows in any other languages
* Supports Vista and 2008 (no more uses INFO2 file)
* Enables localization (that is, translatable) by using glib
* More rigorous error checking
* Supports output in XML format

To use rifiuti2 to analyze INFO2 file, you need to copy INFO2 to rifiuti folder and run the command "rifiuti INFO2". Remember to use the attrib command first otherwise you won't be able to copy INFO2 file to other location. An example is shown at the image below.

[ Download rifiuti2 ]

Who's using your wireless? Find out

2008-09-18T19:40:00.005+08:00

Hello there, nowadays many of us have our own broadband at home. Some of us use Local Area Network(LAN) and others use Wi-Fi.All depend on what we want. What I want to highlight here is about Wireless Connection (Wi-Fi).

Everyday we use this Wi-Fi, but how we know that our wireless is safe from any outsiders? Today topic is about find out who's using our wireless connection.

How to know whether your neighbors or others are using your wireless network is rather complicated. If your neighbors are experienced Wi-Fi hackers, you might not be able to tell at all. If they’re just stealing your Internet connection, you may be able to tell from the logs on your router. You could look for logs such as current LAN clients, connection or status log, or connected MAC addresses.

Check MAC ID addresses

To find out who’s on your wireless network, you’ll need to start by taking inventory of all the devices that are meant to be connected. Find out their MAC IDs and their IP addresses (if they’re static).

To find out the MAC ID/IP address on a PC, click the Start menu and choose Run. Type cmd and click OK. In the screen that opens, type “ipconfig /all” (without the quotes) and hit Enter. The MAC address will be shown as the “physical address.”
Once you know the MAC addresses of each of the PCs on your network, you will recognize any addresses that don’t belong under the screen that shows the MAC addresses of current connections.

Check IP addresses

Likewise you may be able to see how many IP addresses have been dished out by the DHCP server. If you check the IP addresses of each of your PCs, you can see if other IP addresses have been served.

To find out your IP address from the Start menu, click Run. Then type in cmd and click OK. In the screen that comes up, type ipconfig which will display the IP address for that computer. (Bear in mind, however, that if the PC is set to auto detect settings, then the PC’s IP address will change the next time the computer is rebooted or switched on. Sometimes previously served numbers have not yet expired, so you may think someone is connected when they are not.)

Dealing with intruders

If you do find someone using your connection, they may well not be doing so maliciously or even knowingly. Sometimes people can’t tell which is their own connection and they may honestly believe that they are using their Wi-Fi router rather than yours. The best way to deal with this is to set up your own security and maybe you can help them find their own router!

The optimal solution is to set up a strong password using WPA and change it regularly. Once your network is functioning, you can switch off the SSID broadcast (which prevents it from advertising the name of your network) so it would effectively disappear as far as your neighbors are concerned, and the first you might hear of it is when someone complains that their Web connection has disappeared.

Try to Find Out What Files and Folders are Taking Up Hard Drives Space

2008-09-18T00:18:00.005+08:00

Sometimes my friends tell me that they’re running out of hard drive spaces. I would tell them to run Disk Cleaner to delete temporary files, uninstall programs that they don’t use it anymore and backup videos or pictures to CD or DVD media discs. They told me that they’ve done all that but they’re still left with 10% free space out of his 100GB hard drive! 10% of 100GB is not much because we’re constantly downloading stuff when we have broadband. What I did that time was go to Windows Explorer, right click and select Properties on every folder to find out which folder has files that is taking up the most space. I wasted quite a lot of time doing that and it doesn’t show my friend that I can do better than that. When I got home, I found a solution how to find out what files and folders that are taking up hard drive spaces easily and professionally.

I found two freeware that is able to help me find out where all my hard drive space went. This type of software is called “Disk Space Management” software.

1.Tree Free Size

Tree Size Free tells you where precious space has gone to. Tree Size Free can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders. You can expand this folder in Explorer-like style and you will see the size of every subfolder. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can already see results while Tree Size Free is working. The space, which is wasted by the file system, can be displayed and the results can be printed in a report. Tree Size Free is freeware for Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista.
What I like about Tree Size is its only 700kb in size and it’s portable. I can copy it in my USB flash drive and bring it around with me. No configuration is needed. Just run Tree Size executable, select the directory to scan (you can select the root of the drive) and within minutes, depending on the space being used, it’ll show you the size of the folders.

[ Download TreeSize Free ]

2. JDiskReport

JDiskReport enables you to understand how much space the files and directories consume on your disk drives, and it helps you find obsolete files and folders. The tool analyzes your disk drives and collects several statistics which you can view as overview charts and details tables.

What I really like about JDiskReport is, it has a pie chart beside the navigation and also the Top 50 tab which shows you the top 50 biggest files in your computer. The con about JDiskReport is it runs on Java. If you do not have Java installed on your computer, you can’t run it. However, if you want to redistribute JDiskReport on your web site or on a CD, you may contact them to get a JDiskReport Windows edition that includes Java (10 MB).

[ Download JDiskReport ]

In my opinion, TreeSize wins in terms of simplicity and portability. As for JDiskReport, it has more functions than TreeSize. Since both of this freeware is small in size, no harm carries them with me on my USB flash drive.

Additional Information :

I’ve seen people simply deleting files that’s taking up hard drive space without confirming that it’s safe to delete. When they reboot, they got all sorts of error messages and resulting in their computer being unstable. Unless you’re very sure that the file or folder is junk, then you can delete it. Otherwise, you can copy the file to another location, reboot and use your computer for a day or two. If there’s no problem, then you can delete it off.

Long Time No Updated this blog

2008-09-17T03:49:00.007+08:00

I truly apologize for not updating this blog more often. It took the latest/first comment I’ve ever received on my blog to kick me into gear again. So thanks for popping my blog cherry. It’s been a long time since I last wrote, well almost 6 month! It has been a very busy months for multiple reasons (it’s better not to mention about it). Anyways from tomorrow I’ll start back again as usual to post some tips and trick about computer. Nite guys.

Improve PC performance by clean your drive

2008-03-29T14:20:00.002+08:00

This time i will show you how to clean up the data on your hard drive to make accessing files faster.

Hard disks run faster and more consistently when not completely filled. Having a large block of unused disk space is essential for both speed and stability. So it’s useful to look through your hard disk and remove files that you no longer need (and you’ll probably be surprised how many there are!).

Before you begin, check how much space you currently have on your hard drive. To do this, open up My Computer, right-click on your hard disk’s icon, choose Properties, and then make a note of how many gigabytes or megabytes of free space you have.

Now go through your My Documents folder. Delete what you don’t need, or if there’s stuff you want “just in case,” consider storing it on a CD, DVD, or second hard drive so your main drive doesn’t have to wade through it.

Eliminate extra software

That done, continue your cleanup by getting rid of any software you don’t use. Go to your Control Panel and select “Add or Remove Programs.”

A list of your installed software will appear. Scroll through it and remove anything you don’t use anymore. (Some programs might have been preinstalled on your computer when you bought it.)

Next, click the big button on the left labeled “Add/Remove Windows Components.” This lists XP components that were automatically installed with Windows. Remove whatever components you don’t need.

Eliminate fonts

If you’re feeling up to it, clean out your fonts. Create a folder (maybe within My Documents) called “Unused Fonts.” Then use Windows Explorer to go to your C:\WINDOWS\FONTS folder, and drag any fonts you never use into that Unused Fonts folder. (You can double-click a font to see what it looks like.) Just moving those fonts will speed up some applications.

Clean your disk

Finally, let Windows find some more unused gunk.

From My Computer, right-click on your hard drive.
Choose Properties.
Click “Disk Cleanup.”

It will take a few moments to scan your disk for files you can delete. When it’s done, click OK and then Yes (you do want to perform those actions).

Even though you may have uninstalled some programs, many of them leave “residue” in the Windows Registry, which Windows uses to store just about everything about your system. We’ll work with that in a future lesson.

Clean the Registry

For now, let’s just clean out anything that doesn’t belong. There are a lot of Registry cleaners out there, and my favorite--because it’s (a) easy to use and (b) free--is EasyCleaner.

Download and install it. When you start the program, you’ll get a grid of 16 things from which to choose.
Click the Registry button.
Click the Find button on the bottom. EasyCleaner will search your Registry for the leftovers of old programs and other detritus. This could take several minutes.
When it’s done, click the Delete All button. (You can’t click it till it’s finished.)
Click Yes to confirm you really want to delete the bad entries.

That’s it! Click Close and let’s move on.

Time to defrag

With all that cleaned out, it’s time to defragment your hard drive.

When your computer stores files on your drive, it puts files in whatever empty space is available. The result is that over time individual files are actually split up and stored in several places on the drive. (Imagine a library where the different chapters of a book are on different shelves.)

Defragmenting--often referred to as simply “defragging”--puts those pieces together so your computer spends less time accessing files.

The procedure is simple:

First, shut down any running programs. Then disable your screen saver through your Control Panel by choosing Display (you may have to click Appearance and Themes first).
That done, go to My Computer and right-click on your hard drive.
Choose Properties, then click the Tools tab.

There you’ll see “Defragment Now.” Click on it and then let the computer complete the process without any disturbance. This can take anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on the size of your drive and the level of fragmentation.

When you’re all done, check to see how much free space your drive now has (go to My Computer, right-click on the drive, and choose Properties). Hopefully you’ll see a difference.

How To Remove Bha.dll.vbs?

2008-03-22T16:53:00.004+08:00

What is Bha.dll.vbs? Actually it is a kind of worm that in the form of script(My Own Definition)

There are a lot of way to remove it and in my blog i will share with you others method about how to remove this kind of "worm".

Before you read through the entire blog, feel free to click all the link that i've been put because it might help you to get more information about this topic:

http://www.sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/win.script.hosting.html

How to disable (or re-enable) the Windows Scripting Host:The program, Noscript.exe, will disable the Windows Scripting Host; this will prevent viruses from executing automated scripts.Note: Disabling the WSH will prevent all the scripts from running on the system.

1. Download Noscript.exe from symantec to a folder on the hard disk.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/noscript.exe

2. Double-click the Noscript.exe icon. The Norton Script Disabler/Enabler appears.

* If the WSH is currently enabled on the system, you will be prompted as to whether you want to disable it. To do so, click Disable, and then click OK.

then do an online scan Get a free PC safety scanWindows Live OneCare safety scanner is a free service designed to help ensure the health of your PC.

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm

Check for and remove virusesor Trend Micro - Free online virus Scan (takes a long time but more comprehensive.Install all the updates the scanner tell you to install)

http://housecall65.trendmicro.com/

Repair Broken .EXE / .LNK Caused By Virus

2008-03-18T17:03:00.008+08:00

This time i will show how to repair the broken link on your pc that have caused by virus.

If you see after Windows being booted up is a lot of popup windows with the error message “Windows cannot open this file: Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher.lnk.

To open this file, Windows needs to know what program created it. Windows can go online to look it up automatically, or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer.”

This error means that Windows couldn’t find the program where the shortcut is pointing to. Either the program has been deleted or there is something wrong with the association. I check Program Files and all programs are still there.

Immediately I know that the LNK file association is broken and the place to confirm this problem is the Registry. I go to Start, Run and type regedit, again I got the error popup window saying Windows cannot open this file: regedit.exe. I even tried to run regedit.exe directly from C:\Windows and also got the same error message.

Looks like .EXE association is broken too! Finally I found out that almost all file association can’t work. I can’t run anything from her laptop. So how do you fix a computer with broken association when you can’t run anything?

In short, all EXE files including CMD, Regedit, MSCONFIG are inoperative. LNK shortcuts also doesn’t work, which means desktop icons, quick launch icons, start menus all don’t work. Those nice icon images are no longer being displayed as you only get the standard unrecognized file type icon that look like the image below.

There are registry files that is able to fix .COM .LNK .EXE and other extension associations but the problem is if .REG association is also broken, you won’t be able to import the reg file to Windows registry.

The most important extension to fix is of course the .EXE extension. Once you have the .EXE extension fixed, you are able to run registry editor and other tools to start fixing other broken extensions. Here’s how to fix .EXE extension.

1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC simultaneously and it will bring up Windows Task Manager

2. Click File menu and move the mouse cursor over to New Task (Run…)

3. Press and hold the CTRL button and click at the New Task (Run…)

4. Command prompt will appear.

5. Type assoc.exe=exefile and hit enter.

That would fix the EXE extension. You can now run any executable file.
Here is a list of other file extensions that you might want to restore.

After fixing the broken file association, the next thing I did was installed the FREE version of AVG anti-virus to scan and remove any existing virus. One thing you should know is Anti-Virus programs only good at removing virus from computer but it can’t restore the damage done by Virus.

Doug Knox’s Windows XP File Association Fixes page helped me a lot when I was trying to fix the broken association.

How to Change IE Tittle Bar

2008-01-22T07:04:00.000+08:00

Baru-baru ini salah seorang daripada kawan saya memberitahu saya bahawa komputernya diserang virus. Apabila saya bertanya apakah tanda-tanda komputernya dijangkiti virus, lalu dia menjawab terdapat text yang mengatakan “Hacked by pokemon”.Saya hampir tergelak kerana ianya lucu. Iyelah bayangkan dalam banyak-banyak nickname dalam dunia ini,kenapa hacker ini memilih perkataan “pokemon”! Walau bagaimanapun, saya ingin mengetahui apakah jenis kerosakan yang boleh dilakukan oleh virus ini. Adakah ia sekuat Brontok? Ataupun adakah terlalu lemah sehinggakan tidak memerlukan sebarang jenis anti-virus untuk membuangnya?

Apabila saya sampai dirumah kawan saya itu, dia membuka Internat Explorer, dan di ruangan tajuk yang terdapat di tetingkap web terdapat perkatan yang bertulis “Hacked by pokemon”.

Selepas itu saya cari maklumat berkenaan virus ini di dalam google malahan saya mencari di dalam web Symentec tetapi malangnya saya langsung tidak menemui sebarang maklumat mengenai virus ini. Mungkin kerana virus ini tidak begitu popular.
Jadi saya memohon maaf kerana tidak dapat memberikan sebarang maklumat tentang virus ini. Dan apa yang saya lihat virus ini telah dibuang oleh AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition.

Satu-satunya masalah yang wujud selepas virus ini dibuang ialah Anti-Virus tidak mengembalikan Internet Explorer tittle bar.Jadi di sini saya akan menunjukkan cara bagaimana anda boleh mengubah Internet Explorer window tittle bar.Sebenarnya menambah text dalam Internet Explorer window bukanlah sesuatu yang baru. Ia sudah lama wujud semenjak Internet Explorer 3 digunnakan lagi.
Jadi sila ikut beberapa langkah bagaimana mengubah text Internet Explorer window tittle bar .

1.Pergi ke Start -> Run

2.Taip regedit dan klik OK.

3. Masuk ke dalam:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

4. Klik kanan, New dan pilih String Value.

5. Taip di string value sebagai Window Title6. Klik dua kali pada Window Title dan taip ttajuk yang anda mahu di dalam value data.

Untuk membuang semula text yang telah di tambah di Internet Explorer tittle bar, anda hanya perlu delete sahaja Window Tittle string value.

** Harap ini dapat membatu anda **

Speed Up Shutdown Time...

2008-01-19T07:26:00.000+08:00

hello there,today i will teach you about how to faster your shutdown time on your computer...

It's not only start-up that you'd like to speed up; you can also make sure that your system shuts down faster. If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:

Don't have XP clear your paging file at shutdown. For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file.

Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn't a high priority, you might not want to clear it.

To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor (click Start > Run, then type regedit in the Run box) and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry, and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging file won't be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.

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

Note: Please be careful when editing the Registry; you can do a lot of damage here. Don't change or delete anything unless you know exactly what it is.

Make Windows XP Start 60% Tutorial

2008-01-03T20:23:00.000+08:00

Whenever you start your computer, you are faced with a few moments of thumb twiddling while Windows XP boots and prompts you to log on. Although you should expect to wait for a few moments, sometimes Windows XP seems to boot rather slowly. In fact, you may notice that over a period of time the PC that used to roar to life seems a bit sluggish instead. Fortunately, you can perform several techniques that help Windows XP get the bootup speed you want. This tutorial explores how to put these techniques to work.

· Stopping Unneeded Startup Services
· Manual IP Addressing on Small Office/Home Networks
· Disabling Recent Documents History
· Disabling the Boot Logo
· Removing Unwanted Fonts
· Stopping Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing
· Speeding Up the Dual-Boot Timeout
· Speeding Up Your PPPoE Connection
· Reducing the Wait Time
· Automatically Killing Tasks on Shutdown

[ Download Making Windows XP Start 60% Faster Tutorial ]

How To Stop Virus From Running Automically When Open Files

2007-12-28T09:02:00.000+08:00

Many worms and trojans make changes to the registry to so that it can automatically start whenever you boot up your computer and also to avoid easy detection by disabling Windows Task Manager, Registry Editor and etc...
I just recently found out that a virus can actually make some changes on your registry so that the virus will run automatically whenever you execute a file. Imagine, the virus will be loaded each time you run an executable (EXE) or a batch (BAT) file. Just last week I was cleaning a computer that was infected by Brontok. After finished scanning, cleaning the virus and restoring the changes made by virus, the Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition still pops up notification stating that Brontok virus is found and automatically deleted. This happens EVERY TIME I run an executable file.
Now I found out how it works and also how to disable the virus from running automatically whenever I run any file.This happens when a virus change one or more of the shell\open\command keys. If these keys are changed, the worm or Trojan will run each time that you run certain files.
For example, if the \exefile\shell\open\command key is changed, the threat will run each time that you run any .exe file. This may also stop you from running the Registry Editor to try to fix this. They may also change a registry value so that you cannot run the Registry Editor at all.I've done a test by adding Notepad.exe path in \exefile\shell\open\command key. Then I tried running any EXE file, it will launch the EXE file with notepad! For Brontok virus, it loads a backdoor file called "shell.exe". You won't even notice anything abnormal when you run an EXE file.

Thanks to Symantec Security Response for creating a script that is able to easily reset these registry values to their default settings.
What is inside the script:

[Version]
Signature="$Chicago$"
Provider=Symantec

[DefaultInstall]
AddReg=UnhookRegKey

[UnhookRegKey]
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\batfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\comfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\exefile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\piffile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\regfile\shell\open\command,,,"regedit.exe ""%1"""
HKLM, Software\CLASSES\scrfile\shell\open\command,,,"""%1"" %*"
HKCU, Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System,DisableRegistryTools,0x00000020,0

Of all the shell\open\command keys, the exefile key is being used most frequently. When your computer starts, it loads a lot of EXE files. When you start a program, it also loads EXE file. The rest are seldom used unless you're a power user. To be on the safe side, it's better for Symantec to restore all of the shell\open\keys to default values.

Instructions to install the script:

1. Download the script at the end of this post by right-clicking on the link and save it to your desktop.

2. Right-click on the file and select "install"

*A great tool to carry around with me all the time to combat against nasty virus such as Brontok.

[ Download Symantec Reset Shell Open Command Script ]

*** Hope this can help you to solve your problem ***