{SS}Dkadar - Website Builder/Gamer

How to Add “Open File Location” Right-Click Option in Windows XP

2011-06-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

Windows Vista and Windows 7 include the Open file location context menu item for Shortcuts, which help you quickly open the target folder of a shortcut. In Windows XP, it takes four mouse clicks to accomplish the task. To open the target folder of a shortcut in Windows XP, you need to right-click on the shortcut file, click Properties and click the Find Target button to open the parent folder of the target file or folder. And an additional mouse click is needed to close the Shortcut Properties dialog.

You can add the Open file location feature in Windows XP (similar to what you have in Windows Vista) using one of the two methods. Method 1 uses a .REG file, and Method 2 uses a VBScript that I wrote. No additional shell extensions are needed!

Note: The only drawback of Method 1 is that the Open file location command will be seen in the context menu of every file and folder, not only for shortcuts. If you need the Open file location command shown only for shortcuts (.lnk files), then you may use my VBScript which is discussed in Method 2 below.

Method 1

Download findtarget.reg and save to Desktop. Right-click on the file and choose Merge. TheOpen file location command is added to the context menu for all files.

(Credits to Tweak of PlanetAMD64 forums for this .REG file tip.)

To remove the option, use the findtarget-undo.reg file.

Method 2

Here is a VBScript that I wrote which adds a Open file location functionality in the context menu of shortcuts (.lnk files)

1. Download opentargetdir.vbs and save it to your Windows folder. To open the Windows folder in your system, type %systemroot% in Start, Run dialog and press {ENTER}.

2. Double-click the file opentargetdir.vbs to run it. When you see the following prompt, simply press {ENTER}.

The Open file location command is now added to the context menu for shortcuts.

Uninstallation

As the dialog says, type UNINSTALL and press ENTER if you want to remove the Open file location command from the context menu. Then delete the file opentargetdir.vbs from your Windows directory.

Taken From WinHelpOnline

Joining Files With 7-Zip

2011-06-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

The free program 7-Zip is better than WinRAR in joining 001 files.
Download 7-Zip
After installing 7-Zip, right click on the first file (name.001) in the Windows Explorer and choose 'Extract here' in the 7-Zip submenu of the context menu. 7-Zip will extract the archive and place the extract files into the same directory as where the source files are located. You could also choose 'Open archive' to view the archive in 7-Zip or extract the file to another directory by choosing 'Extract files'. Easy!

Taken From Binaries4all

Splitting Files With 7-Zip

2011-06-06T12:57:00.000-07:00

Do you want to upload a large file to free file hosting? You will not be permitted to upload a 1 GB file. You have to split the file into several parts so you can upload the file. And, to split file into several parts, the file should be compressed first.

You can use 7-Zip to compress the file, it’s free and light. Compress your files using the format .7z.

1. Open “Windows Explorer“, right click on your file or folder, then choose “7-Zip” – “Add to archive”

2. Setup the split file option.

3. Click “OK” to start the compression, your file will be automatically splitted into several parts.

Taken From SocialBlogr

Get the Vista sidebar in XP

2011-06-05T18:03:00.000-07:00

While Vista has now been available for a few years now, there are a lot of people that are happily sticking with XP, myself included. And while there aren't enough flashy features to tempt me to switch to Vista, one that I do like the look of is the Vista sidebar. Happily, deviantart user joshoon has posted a package that allows you to install the real Vista sidebar on your Windows XP computer.

Installing the sidebar consists of installing three packages: Alky for Applications, Windows Sidebar Installer, and Gadget Extractor. Alky for Applications is where the magic happens allowing Vista-specific software to run under XP. An interesting side-effect of installing the Windows Sidebar Installer is that the Vista-specific fonts are added to your XP installation.

Because this is an XP-compatible version of the actual Vista sidebar rather than a copy, all of the widgets that you could install in Vista will work on XP.

How to Install Windows Sidebar

--------------------------------------

Download This: Windows Sidebar for Windows XP

1. Extract the .rar file using 7-zip or winrar

2. Install Alky For Applications.

3. Install Windows_Sidebar_Installer.exe

4. Install Gadget Extractor

5. Enjoy installing apps

Info about the softwares

--------------------------------------

Alky For Applications: Alky makes it possible to open software

That is created for Windows Vista.

Just like the Sidebar.

Windows_Sidebar_Installer: This is the Windows Sidebar installer.

Gadget Extractor: Gadget Extractor makes it possible to add new gadgets

to your Sidebar, Just open Gadget files with Gadget Extractor.

And Gadget Extractor adds the gadget to your Sidebar Gadget List.

Taken From DOWNLOADSQUAD

How to Start Google Chrome in Incognito Mode by Default

2011-05-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

Incognito mode gives us a way to stealthily and sneakily wade through the web. For those who have come in late, this is what Google says about the incognito mode…

Webpage’s that you open and files downloaded while you are incognito won’t be logged in your browsing and download histories; all new cookies are deleted after you close the incognito window. You can browse normally and in incognito mode at the same time by using separate windows.

In spite of its cool quotient, what is missing for a lot of us is a way to launch the browser in incognito mode by default. The solution is not too far to seek as Google provides a command line switch which we can use.

So, how to start Google Chrome in Incognito Mode

1. Place a Google Chrome shortcut on the desktop (or any other desired location).

2. Rename the shortcut to any convenient name like ““ Private Chrome.

3. Right click on the shortcut and select “˜Properties’.

4. On the “˜Target’ field add an –incognito to the end of program path. (Note: Make sure there is a space between the last apostrophe and the dash)

5. Your incognito browser is now ready for launch. If you select “˜New Window’ from settings, you will get a normal non-incognito chrome window.

The incognito mode has its uses in public browsing where we don’t want to leave behind a trace of our activities. Among its other off hand uses is that it allows us to open different account sessions for the same website. For instance I can open two different talk sessions of Gmail Chat, one through the normal browser window and the other through the incognito one. This possibility extends to other web services too where one has two different accounts.

Add Custom Game Support To Xfire

2011-05-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Xfire Patcher

Xfire Patcher patches Xfire game definitions with definitions files, which allows you to quickly apply patches just after an update. It includes definitions for non-steam games.
Automatic Setup:
Extract zip then run Install XFP 4-2(.cmd) and follow the instructions
Manual Setup:
Extract into C:\ProgramData\Xfire on Windows Vista and Xfire folder (C:\Program Files\Xfire) on previous versions of Windows
Send XfirePatcher.exe to the desktop as shown in the image to make it easier to patch after an update

Download Xfire Patcher 4.2 – If you don’t want to use the installer, open \res\xfp42.7z with 7-zip
Download Xfire Patcher 4 Source Code

Requires .NET Framework 2.x
Released under the GNU Lesser General Public License v3

Gain Administrative Control of Mac OS X

2011-05-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

Warning: The information in this article may not be compatible with the latest releases of Mac OS X.Following the instructions contained in this article may damage your system. Please use caution as MSKB cannot be held responsible for any damage caused.

Introduction

This page describes methods which allow you to (re)gain admin control of a computer. This information is useful for those who have forgotten their admin password, bought a computer with a current admin user on the hard disk, etc. Follow these instructions at your own risk.
Type everything as specified. In Single User Mode you are root. There are no confirmations and there is no "Undo" button. Be responsible.

Using the Install Disk

The easiest way to regain your administrator password is to reset it from the Install Disk that came with your computer. Insert the Install Disk, and restart your computer, holding down the "C" key down on the keyboard until the Apple logo appears. Depending on your Mac OS X version the "Reset Password" tool will be under the "Installer" or "Utilities" menu.

Using Single User Mode

Notes:

The acronym SUM will now be used for Single User Mode.
This method does not work if your computer has an Open Firmware password with SUM disabled.
Changing the amount of working RAM inside a Mac, followed by a reboot and resetting ("zapping") the PRAM, re-sets Open Firmware and deletes the Open Firmware password.
Mac OS X 10.2 (or less) users do not have to use SUM to create a new admin user, as doing so does not require admin access within Mac OS X it's self.
Running the "fsck -y" command is considered optional. (And pointlessly absurd on 10.3+ which would require fsck -yf to actually repair anything.)

Restart your computer while holding down the Command (aka CMD aka Apple aka Place of Interest) key and the "S" key at the same time. Your computer should boot to a black screen with white text. Wait until a prompt that says:

root#

appears.

Reset Admin Account

At the prompt, type the following, exactly as shown and press enter after each command listed. (case-sensitive)

fsck -y

mount -uaw /

rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

This removes the file the computer checks for on boot (.AppleSetupDone) to see if your computer has been setup yet. If it doesn't exist, your computer will go through the usual steps of setup (the multiple languages saying "Welcome", etc).
Next, type:

reboot

And after hitting Enter, your computer will reboot. You can follow setup, and create a new admin user. After doing so, you can delete the old admin user if you purchased the computer used. (not recommended if it's not your computer)

Changing Admin Password

An alternate way is to change the Administrative password from SUM. Once you are booted into SUM, and are staring at the prompt, type in the following commands (in order), and hit enter after each one. Wait until the prompt re-appears before typing in the next command.

fsck -y

mount -uaw /

sh /etc/rc

Note: the last command will take time. Be patient.
Now, to change the Admin password do:

passwd username

Where "username" is the administrative account's username. You will be prompted to enter, and then confirm, a new password. As you type the password and confirmation, no characters will appear on the screen -- not even asteriks. This is fine, ignore it and keep typing.

Making an Existing User Admin

Yet another alternate way is to make an existing account an administrator. After booting into SUM, at the prompt, type in the following commands (in order), and hit enter after each one. Wait until the prompt re-appears before typing in the next command.

fsck -y

mount -uaw /

If on Mac OS X 10.4 or greater you will have to enter this command, if not, you may skip it and continue:

sh /etc/rc

Be patient, the this command may take a while.
Replace your_account_name with the shortname of your account.

nicl . -append /groups/admin users your_account_name

nicl . -append /groups/wheel users your_account_name

Type:

reboot

and press Enter (Return).

System Setup Re-Run Administrator

If you don't have enough time or simply want to create an easy, visible admin account, use the following steps. This has been known to work on all versions of Mac OS X.
The initial System Setup wizard that runs when your Macintosh has had a fresh install creates an Administrator account by default. Since that is all that this utility does, we can force the utility to run again and create a brand new account.
1. Enter single user mode (see above). Once in single user mode, check the filesystem and mount the hard drive.

fsck -y

mount -uaw /

Note: if the user database is corrupt, the system setup stops responding after entering personal information and does not continue to create the Administrator account. Only if the steps below do not work out, go back to single user mode follow step 1 above then type (this renames the database, effectively clearing it):

mv /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb.bad

2. All we need to do now is remove a flag file from the system

rm -rf /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

3. Now reboot

reboot

Upon reboot, your machine will run through the system setup wizard. Note that if you are trying to be inconspicuous, you may want to turn down the volume or plug in headphones.

Hidden Admin Users

The following information is gathered from various sources. Should you not want to perform the following tasks, Subterraneus has written a set of shell scripts that can Add and Remove Hidden Admin Users on 10.4 and greater only and remove logs on (as far as we know) any OSX. He has also graciously donated them to be available for download on this site. Thanks, man. View its Project page: Subterraneus' HAUS

Creating a Hidden Admin User

Information gathered from hackenslacker's website and Subterraneus
Use the method described in the above section to enter SUM. Enter the following commands assuming you want the hidden user to be "server" and the password to be "servpass". After each command (after each line) hit Enter (aka Return). Feel free to print these out.
All Users:

fsck -y
mount -uaw /

Pre-10.4 Users:

nicl . -create /users/server
nicl . -create /users/server passwd "servpass"

nicl . -create /users/server uid 401
nicl . -create /users/server gid 20

nicl . -create /users/server home "/private/var/server"
nicl . -append /groups/admin users server
mkdir /private/var/serverchown -R server:staff /private/var/server

10.4 or greater Users:Note: The first command may take a while, so be patient.

sh /etc/rc
 nicl . -create /users/"server" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" uid 0 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" gid 20 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" home "/dev/null" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" shell "/bin/bash" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" passwd "servpass" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" _writers_passwd "server" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" expire 0 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" name "server" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" realname "" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" change 0 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" class "" 
 nicl . -append /groups/admin users "server" 
 nicl . -append /groups/wheel users "server" 
 nicl . -create /users/"server" naprivs -2147483394 
 defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add "server"

Please note the spaces and period after nicl, they're important.
Type:

reboot

and then press Enter when finished.
At the list of users, hit any arrow key on your keyboard to select a user. Then press Option (aka Alt) and Enter to bring up a name and password prompt. Enter the name and password you used when you created the hidden user.

Removing a Hidden Admin User

Should you later decide you want to remove this hidden user, boot into SUM as described earlier and use the following commands, assuming that your user is named "server":
All Users:

fsck -y

mount -uaw /

Pre-10.4 Users:

nicl . -delete /users/server
nicl . -delete /groups/admin users server

rm -rf /private/var/server

10.4 or greater Users:Note: The first command may take a while, so be patient.

sh /etc/rc
defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList
nicl . -delete /users/server
nicl . -delete /groups/admin users server

rm -rf /users/server

Type:

reboot

and then press Enter when finished.
Please remember log files will remain unless you remove them, and therefore proof of the user remains.
That being said, once again, here is a link to Subterraneus' HAUS.

Frozen sh /etc/rc

A lot of people have complained that running "sh /etc/rc" never ends.
If running the command appears to freeze on this:

<computer hostname> mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.

Example with my computer's hostname being "reikon":

reikon mDNSResponder: Adding browse domain local.

Wait a few seconds (10-20) or until after you hear the computer stop "processing" and press the Enter (Return) key. This should bring the root prompt back up.

Fixed AACGC Xbox Stats Plugin For E107

2011-05-05T05:34:00.000-07:00

AACGC has released my plugin I modded and fixed a few of the security issues it had at one point. You can find the official download of the plugin located HERE.

The AACGC Xbox Stats plugin allows users to enter their Xbox Gamecard username in their profile and has their Xbox Gamecard displayed on your website. Includes a page that lists all users Gamecards as well as scrolling menu. Adds user's Gamecard to profiles and forum posts, Includes Xbox avatars beside Gamecards if enabled.

IMPORTANT:
Uses an e107 Exteneded user field called user_xboxname that you must create in the extended user fields area of your e107 admin cpanel. The extended user field is what allows users to enter their Xbox Gamecard username in their profiles, without it this plugin will not work.

NOTES:
Profile Gamecard may not work if you have a custom theme with an altered user_template or if you use an alternate profiles plugin.
Forum Gamecard may not work if you have a custom theme with an altered forum_viewtopic_template.
Supports Gold Orbs Plugin from Father Barry for usernames

How to change Filename Extensions in Windows XP

2011-04-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

If you are a Windows XP user and if you are required to change the extension of a file, then your chances of succeding are very low unless you have some tech knowledge

Extension is the 3 letter term used after the dot in a filename like .exe for executable files .txt for text files .doc for office documents .xls for spread sheets, it may sometimes be just two letters long like .pl for Perl language files. By default windows doesnot show you the extension of a file, only those files which it are not yet associated with any program are shown along with their extensions. Rest of the common file types dont have extensions displayed, when you try to change a file’s extension when its extension is not displayed you will just end up adding the new extension to the filename and not to the extension part of it, like you have a spreadsheet named accounts which is actually accounts.xls and you want to change it to a text file called accounts.txt when you just rename it you will end up renaming it to accounts.txt.xls where accounts.txt is the filename part and .xls is the extension part. So the solution for this is to make windows display the extensions of all files, to do this open Windows Explorer or commonly known as the My Computer and go to the Tools Menu (Alt + t) and then click Folder Options, in the dialog box change to the View tab and look for Hide extensions for known files and uncheck it and click OK.

Now all your files have extensions displayed along with filenames so when you want to change a file extension you can just change the 3 letter part after the . (dot) in the filename. One thing you should take note of is when you want to just change the filename make sure you dont alter the part after the . in the filename. You have to change only the part before the . to change the filename.

If you feel strange having all the files with those 3 letter extensions you can change it back to normal by checking the Hide extensions for known files option in the Folder Options dialog box.

Taken From: Anything, but not Everything

Portable Minecraft (Minecraft on your USB key)

2011-04-20T06:38:00.000-07:00

Note that: This trick is only valid if you purchased the original Minecraft game. Do not pirate this game: It's cheap, DRM-free and its author deserves to be paid.

Here's how to have a portable version of Minecraft. This will allow you to carry your game on a USB key. You can play without an internet connection.

Note that: Java must still be installed on the host computers for you to play your game.

You must have at least play the game online once,for Minecraft to download its files.

Create the following directories:

minecraft
minecraft\bin
minecraft\data

Copy Minecraft.exe in minecraft\bin
Copy your .minecraft directory in minecraft\data

Your .minecraft directory contains the worlds and is located in your user profile (c:\Users\yourlogin\AppData\Roaming\ under Vista, or C:\Documents and Settings\yourlogin\Application Data\ under Windows XP).

Then create portable_minecraft.bat file, containing the following instructions:

set APPDATA=%CD%\data     
bin\minecraft.exe

Then simply double-click portable_minecraft.bat to play the game!

Note:

Altering the APPDATA environment variable does not touch the system APPDATA. This change will only affect programs launched from the bat file. This will not change your system settings.
Minecraft makes a lot of disk writes, which may be slow on USB keys. The game may freeze from time to time. A better solution would be to unzip to HD, play on HD, then zip back to USB. Performances will be better.
It may be possible to use PortableJava, but it as not been tested.

Taken From Kioskea

AACGC Xbox Stats Plugin For E107

2011-04-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Just thought i share with your guys something i modded a few days back. Now some of you might know that currently AACGC has discontinued their plugin for xbox stats well today i have something for your guys. here is a download link to the modded version i made of their plugin that now allows it to work 8D CLICK HERE
all you need to do is unzip the contents of the folder and then overwrite your old ones and wazam it works ^_^ ENJOY!!!

Changes:

* Fixed issue with clicking on gamer avatar (not the gamercard) in profile and/or xbox gamecard webpage and getting a url error when trying to view profile on xbox.com.

*Changed plugin Version to 1.5

NOTE: there are a few bugs with this plugin. For example it does not work with the alternate user profile plugin.

WinToFlash

2011-03-10T11:48:00.000-08:00

What is WinToFlash

There may come a day that optical drives are as hard to find as 5.25 floppy drives are today.
WinToFlash starts a wizard that will help pull over the contents of a windows installation CD or DVD and prep the USB drive to become a bootable replacement for the optical drive. It can also do this with your LiveCD. You don't have to worry about scratches on the disc or misplacing your original media discs once you transfer their contents to the flash drive. The optical drive is quickly becoming a thing of the past, especially in office environments, as media is shifted to the cloud. WinToFlash is likely to make a big difference to the way you work. It will make life a lot easier for you. Quickly and simply install the programme you needs and in no time at all you will find yourself writing essays on Windows and using your USB. The WinToFlash makes the job hassle free for you. WinToFlash is a software for transfer your Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7 setup from CD or DVD to USB in some mouse clicks. This is about you can install your Windows from flash drive, USB pen, HDD, etc to your computer or netbook. And this is not all it can do. WinToFlash can transfer your live CD or DVD to USB card, for example, BartPE. After all you can erase your USB media and format it with Windows for every day use.

Functions list

Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 to a USB drive transfer
WinPE (BartPE based on Windows XP/2003, WinPE based on Windows Vists/2008/7 and so on) to a USB drive transfer
USB media erasing full or quick
Create a USB drive with emergency bootloader for Windows XP/2003
MS-DOS to a USB drive transfer
Create a USB drive with Windows XP/2003 Recovery Console

System requirements

To use Novicorp WinToFlash, your computer has to meet certain hardware requirements. Actual requirements vary, depending on the system configuration and the programs and features that you choose.

Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster
At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM
At least 20 megabytes (MB) of available space on the hard disk
Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution
Windows XP/2003/Vista/2008/7

Download Link

Click Here to be linked to the WinToFlash Hompage.

Avg Internet Security 2011 Serial Number license key free + Antivirus

2011-03-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

Avg Avg Internet Security,Network SBS Edition Avg Antivirus,AVG Anti Virus Plus Firewall,Enail Server, SBS edition Serial Number or license key is listed here below:

Image: Avg Internet Security, Anti virus 2011 Serial Number

Note: Using serial without buying is illegal. it is also illegal to put avg internet security serial in this blog. please buy avg internet security/antivirus, if you have a enough money. Buy Avg In:http://www.avg.com/us-en/store . And Download Avg Internet Security From http://free.avg.com/us-en/download-avg-internet-security

AVG Internet Security 2011 serial Number license key free :

8MEH-R6BFE-HWUHF-DPNDA-VFUWX-2EMBR-ACED

AVG Internet Security Network Edition

8MEH-RCB97-4YZT9-P4RRR-RV79O-2EMBR-ACED

AVG Internet Security SBS Edition Serial Lincense Key free:

8MEH-RAJC2-O3H77-KRRQA-HO7OJ-REMBR-ACED

AVG Anti-Virus 2011 Serial number license Key:

8MEH-RF22Z-AN7HS-QDWMR-2EEBP-BEMBR-ACED

AVG Anti-Virus SBS Edition Serial:

8MEH-RB32G-UPY8U-TRLQR-BTN8P-CEMBR-ACED

AVG Anti-Virus Network Edition Serial

8MEH-RK82S-PFW82-C33BA-QF8FA-GEMBR-ACED

AVG Anti-Virus Plus Firewall Serial Number:

8MEH-RF22Z-A6FGS-QDWMR-2NRWJ-BEMBR-ACED

AVG Enail Server Edition 2011 serial

8MEH-RE6B8-SA83Z-A489R-9OOUP-EEMBR-ACED

AVG File Server Edition

8MEH-R9Q3V-ZYWZT-92KCR-ALLMV-YEMBR-ACED

Creating a Mask in Adobe Fireworks

2011-02-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

Using Masking for your images

Open the photo to be masked.
Select a drawing tool (brush, pencil, rectangle, or other shape).
Draw a masking region on the photo.
Choose Edit > Cut to move the bitmap mask to the clipboard.
Select the black arrow tool on the Toolbar.
With the black arrow tool selected, click the photo to select it and then choose Edit > Paste as Mask.
Click the image thumbnail in the Layers panel. (Window, Layers to open Layers panel.)
Use the blue handle on the image to adjust the position of the image within the mask. (In the image below the blue handle is located in the center of the flowers and is difficult to see. On your image, look for a blue diamond.)
Drag the image center point to rearrange the position of the image under the mask.
Save and export image.

Feather and Add Filters to Masks

Select the bitmap mask in the Layers panel.
In the Fill section of the Properties Inspector, change the Fill to Solid. Then select Feather from the Edge menu and increase the amount of Feather.
To add a Glow, select the image thumbnail (not the mask) on the Layers panel. (See #7 above for image thumbnail screen shot.)
On the Properties Inpector, click Filter (+) button and choose Shadow and Glow > Inner Glow.
Increase the Offset and Width of the glow until you can see it in the masked image.
Adjust the Softness, Opacity, and Color until you achieve the desired effect.
When finished, click outside the window or press Enter to close it.
Save and Export.

Creating a Text Mask

Open photo to be masked.
Create text to become the mask for the Image.
Adjust the size and font of text.
Choose Edit > Cut to move the text to the clipboard.
Select the black arrow tool on the Toolbar.
With the black arrow tool selected, click the photo to select it and then choose Edit > Paste as Mask.
Click the image thumbnail in the Layers panel.
Use the blue handle to rearrange the position of the image under the mask.
Save and Export.

How to change the drive letter in Windows XP for an external USB stick or hard drive

2011-01-10T08:51:00.000-08:00

This is a guide on how to change a drive letter in Windows XP for an external device. Here’s a common problem that I have seen: Plug a USB flash drive into your computer and it’s says ready to use, but for some reason nothing shows up in the list of drives. Take it out, plug it back in and still nothing shows up!!! What the heck is the problem? Well, it could be several things, but the most common issue is that the drive letter Windows is trying to assign to your device is already taken by some other drive or maybe mapped to a network drive.

Sadly, Windows XP does not figure this out itself (which is should) and your drive is basically lost in la-la land somewhere. In order to fix it, we need to go to Computer Management and change the drive letter there manually. There are two ways to get to the Computer Management dialog in Windows, one through Control Panel and the second by right-clicking My Computer and choosing Manage.

Right-click My Computer

Computer Management in Administrative Tools

Click on Disk Management under the Storage section and the right side will show you all of the current drives and partitions on your drive. If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry, just find the drive you are looking for in the graphs at the bottom. They are usually named Disk 0, Disk 1, CD-ROM, CD-ROM1, etc. If you’re looking for a USB flash drive, you’ll see the word “Removable” underneath Disk X.

As you can see from my computer, I plugged in a USB flash drive and it’s currently assigned drive letter is F. If you want to change this, right-click in the white space to the right of the drive letter and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Click the Change button in the dialog box and then pick a new letter from the drop-down list. Just for your info, the Mount in the following NTFS folder option is used if you had right clicked on an external hard drive and instead of giving it a drive letter, you wanted to just have it show up as a folder on your current hard drive. That means you could create a folder in My Documents called pictures that actually points to another hard drive instead of one where all of your My Documents are currently stored.

Click Ok twice and your drive should now have the new letter assigned. Usually, if you USB stick was not showing up before, once you change the letter, it will automatically pop up and ask you what you want to do. And that’s about it! You can also use Disk Management to format disks, determine the type of File System, and see the amount of free space available.

Taken From: Online Tech Tips

Optimize Your Computer For Peak Performance

2010-12-23T19:09:00.000-08:00

The following tips can help improve your computer's performance. These examples are for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP. However, you'll find that these tips work for all versions of the Windows operating system.
By the way, it is not possible for you to blow up your computer or your files with any of these procedures. These tasks use utilities provided within the Windows operating system to help you to achieve the best system performance. This article does not address tinkering with the registry files.

Clean up disk errors

Run once a week

Whenever a program crashes or you experience some power outage, your computer may create errors on its hard disk. Over time, the errors can slow your computer. Luckily, the Windows operating system includes a Disk Check program to check and clean any errors on your computer and to help keep it running smoothly.

To run Disk Check:

Windows 7 and Windows Vista users:

Click the Start button, and then click Computer.
Right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and then click Properties.
Click the Tools tab, and then, under Error-checking, click Check now.
To automatically repair problems with files and folders that the scan detects, select Automatically fix file system errors. Otherwise, the disk check will simply report problems but not fix them.
To perform a thorough disk check, select Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. This scan attempts to find and repair physical errors on the hard disk itself, and it can take much longer to complete.
To check for both file errors and physical errors, select both Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.
Click Start.

Depending upon the size of your hard disk, this may take several minutes. For best results, don't use your computer for any other tasks while it's checking for errors.
Note: If you select Automatically fix file system errors for a disk that is in use, you'll be prompted to reschedule the disk check for the next time you restart your computer.

To run Disk Check: Windows XP users:

In the Start menu, click My Computer.
In the My Computer dialog box, right-click the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us, this is the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and then click Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab. In the Error-Checking section, click the Check now… button. A Check Disk dialog box displays, as seen here.
The Check Disk dialog box
In the Check Disk dialog box, select all the check boxes. Click Start.
You will see a message box that says you can schedule the disk check to start the next time you restart your computer. Click Yes. The next time you restart your computer, it will automatically run through a disk check before displaying your login screen. After the disk check finishes, Windows will automatically bring you to your login screen.
Note: Check Disk can take more than an hour to check and clean errors on your computer.

Remove temporary files

Run once a week

Your computer can pick up and store temporary files when you're looking at webpages and even when you're working on files in programs, such as Microsoft Word. Over time, these files will slow your computer's performance. You can use the Windows Disk Cleanup screen to rid your computer of these deadbeat files.

To run Disk Cleanup:

Windows 7 users:

In the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. Disk Cleanup will automatically begin to scan your disk for files you can delete.
Note: If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.
Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.
When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then, to confirm the operation, click Delete files. Disk Cleanup then removes all unnecessary files from your computer.

The More Options tab is available when you choose to clean files from all users on the computer.

Windows Vista users:

In the Start menu, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box, choose whether you want to clean up your own files only or all of the files on the computer.
If the Disk Cleanup: Drive Selection dialog box appears, select the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.
Click the Disk Cleanup tab, and then select the check boxes for the files you want to delete.
When you finish selecting the files you want to delete, click OK, and then, to confirm the operation, click Delete files. Disk Cleanup then removes all unnecessary files from your computer. This may take awhile.

The More Options tab is available when you choose to clean files from all users on the computer.

Windows XP users:

In the Start menu, click My Computer.
In the My Computer dialog box, right-click the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us, this is the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and then click Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click Disk Cleanup.

The Disk Cleanup button in the Local Disk Properties dialog box
Disk Cleanup will calculate how much space you can free up on your hard drive. After its scan, the Disk Cleanup dialog box reports a list of files that you can remove from your computer, as shown. This scan can take a while depending on how many files you have lying around on your computer.

Choose files to delete in Disk Cleanup
After the scan is complete, in the Disk Cleanup dialog box, click View Files to see what Disk Cleanup will discard (if you accept the suggestions). You can select and deselect check boxes to define what you wish to keep or discard. When you're ready, click OK.
You can also select the More Options tab within the Disk Cleanup screen to look for software programs you don't use much anymore. You then have the choice to remove these unused programs.

Rearrange your data

Run once a month

Don't be shocked, but your computer can get sloppy. It often breaks files side by side to increase the speed of access and retrieval. However, as files are updated, your computer saves these updates on the largest space available on the hard drive, often found far away from the other adjacent sectors of the file.
The result: a fragmented file. Fragmented files cause slower performance. This is because your computer must now search for all of the file's parts. In other words, your computer knows where all the pieces are, but putting them back together in the correct order—when you need them—can slow your computer down.
Windows includes a Disk Defragmenter program to piece all your files back together again (if only Humpty Dumpty had been so lucky) and make them available to open more quickly.

To run the Disk Defragmenter:

In the Start menu, click My Computer.
In the My Computer dialog box, right-click the drive you wish to check for errors (for most of us this is the C: drive, unless you have multiple drives on your computer), and then click Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab, and then in the Defragmentation section, click Defragment Now….
The Defragment Now button in the Tools tab
In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, select the Volume (most likely your Local Disk C:) at the top of the screen, and then click Analyze (disk).
After analyzing your computer, the Disk Defragmenter displays a message stating whether you should defragment your computer. Press Defragment (disk) to clean up your computer if necessary. The Disk Defragmenter will reorganize files by placing them together and sorting them by program and size, as shown here.

Disk defragmentation in progress

Make Internet Explorer run faster

The web is a sparkling achievement of modern society. It's everywhere—from the home to the classroom. We use it to communicate, to work, to play—even to waste time, when there's not a lot to do.
Yet there's nothing more frustrating than having this technical marvel at our fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, only to wait as our computers access the Internet at a crawling pace. Thankfully, Windows Internet Explorer provides some useful options for quicker web surfing. Let's look at these options now.
Reduce the size of your webpage history
Internet Explorer stores visited webpages to your computer, organizing them within a page history by day. Although it's useful to keep a couple days of web history within your computer, there's no need to store more than a week's worth. Any more than that and you're collecting webpages that will slow down your computer's performance.

To reduce your webpage history:

In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
In the General tab, under Browsing history, click Settings.
Under History, find the Days to keep pages in history: box. In the box, type 1. Click OK.
Reduce the number of days to keep pages in history.

Days to keep pages in browser history.

Don't save encrypted webpages
Encrypted webpages ask for usernames and passwords. These pages scramble information to prevent the reading of this sensitive information. You can define Internet Explorer to not save these types of pages. You'll free up space by saving fewer files to your computer, in addition to keeping secure information off of your computer.

To not save encrypted webpages:

In Internet Explorer, on the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
In the Internet Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
In the Settings section, scroll down to the Security section. Select the Do not save encrypted pages to disk option, check box, as shown here. Click OK.
The selected Do not save encrypted pages check box

Automate Windows Update

Configure once

Microsoft works constantly to release updates to Windows and other Microsoft products, including Microsoft Office. With Windows Update, you can find and install all these updates—not just the critical ones. Often, these updates can improve your computer's performance.
You can make life easier by automating Windows Update so that your computer downloads and installs all the updates without you having to worry about them.

To automate Windows Update:

Windows 7 users:

Click the Start button, click All Programs, and then click Windows Update.
In the left pane, click Change settings.
Under Important Updates, choose Install Updates automatically (recommended).
Under Recommended updates, select the Give me updates the same way I receive important updates check box, and then click OK
The Windows Update Change settings window in Windows 7

Windows Vista users:

Click the Start button , click All Programs, and then click Windows Update.
In the left pane, click Change settings.
Click Install Updates automatically.
Under Recommended updates, select the Include recommended updates when downloading, installing, or notifying me about updates check box, and then click OK.
The Windows Update Change settings window in Windows Vista

Windows XP users:

In the Start menu, click Control Panel.
In the Automatic Updates dialog box, select the Automatic (Recommended) check box. You can define the time of day that your computer should check for updates. If the computer finds any updates, it will download and install them automatically for you.
Click OK.

The Automatic Updates dialog box
Taken From Microsoft

How To Use HTML Meta Tags

2010-11-30T09:05:00.000-08:00

Want to get a top ranking in search engines? No problem! All you need to do is add a few magical "meta tags" to your web pages, and you'll skyrocket to the top of the listings.
If only it were so easy. Let's make it clear:

Meta tags are not a magic solution.
Meta tags are not a magic solution.
Meta tags are not a magic solution.

Meta tags have never been a guaranteed way to gain a top ranking on crawler-based search engines. Today, the most valuable feature they offer the web site owner is the ability to control to some degree how their web pages are described by some search engines. They also offer the ability to prevent pages from being indexed at all. This page explores these and other meta tag-related features in more depth.

Meta Tag Overview

What are meta tags? They are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages. Other than the title tag (explained below), information in the head area of your web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
Let's see two common types of meta tags, then we'll discuss exactly how they are used in more depth:

In the example above, you can see the beginning of the page's "head" area as noted by the <HEAD> tag -- it ends at the portion shown as </HEAD>.
Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. Shown in the example is a TITLE tag, then a META DESCRIPTION tag, then a META KEYWORDS tag. Let's talk about what these do.

The Title Tag

The HTML title tag isn't really a meta tag, but it's worth discussing in relation to them. Whatever text you place in the title tag (between the <TITLE> and </TITLE> portions as shown in the example) will appear in the reverse bar of someone's browser when they view the web page. For instance, within the title tag of this page that you are reading is this text:

How To Use HTML Meta Tags

If you look at the reverse bar in your browser, then you should see that text being used, similar to this:

Some browsers also supplement whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as you can see Microsoft's Internet Explorer doing in the picture above.

The title tag is also used as the words to describe your page when someone adds it to their "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" lists. For instance, if you added this page to your Favorites in Internet Explorer, it would show up like this:
How did that little Search Engine Watch logo also show up? Everyone always asks. The article below provides more help:

Creating Your Own Favicon.ico Icon For IE5
Web Developer's Journal, March 7, 2000
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/favicon.html

But what about search engines! The title tag is crucial for them. The text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page (see the Search Engine Placement Tips section for more details). In addition, all major crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.
For example, this is how Teoma lists the page you are reading:

You can see that the text "How To Use HTML Meta Tags" is used as the hyperlinked title of this page's listed in Teoma's results.
In review, think about the key terms you'd like your page to be found for in crawler-based search engines, then incorporate those terms into your title tag in a short, descriptive fashion. That text will then be used as your title in crawler-based search engines, as well as the title in bookmarks and in browser reverse bars.

The Meta Description Tag

The meta description tag allows you to influence the description of your page in the crawlers that support the tag (these are listed on the Search Engine Features page).
Look back at the example of a meta tag. See the first meta tag shown, the one that says "name=description"? That's the meta description tag. The text you want to be shown as your description goes between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag (generally, 200 to 250 characters may be indexed, though only a smaller portion of this amount may be displayed).
For this page you are reading, I would like it described in a search engine's listings like this:

This tutorial explains how to use HTML meta tags, with links
to meta tag generators and builders. From SearchEngineWatch.com,
a guide to search engine submission and registration.

Will this happen? Not with every search engine. For example, Google ignores the meta description tag and instead will automatically generate its own description for this page. Others may support it partially. For instance, let's see again how this page is listed in Teoma:

You can see that the first portion of the page's description comes from the meta description tag, then there's an ellipse (.), and the remaining portion is drawn from the body copy of the page itself.
In review, it is worthwhile to use the meta description tag for your pages, because it gives you some degree of control with various crawlers. An easy way to do this often is to take the first sentence or two of body copy from your web page and use that for the meta description content.

The Meta Keywords Tag

The meta keywords tag allows you to provide additional text for crawler-based search engines to index along with your body copy. How does this help you? Well, for most major crawlers, it doesn't. That's because most crawlers now ignore the tag. The few supporting it can be found on the Search Engine Features page).
The meta keywords tag is sometimes useful as a way to reinforce the terms you think a page is important for ON THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT. For instance, if you had a page about stamp collecting -- AND you say the words stamp collecting at various places in your body copy -- then mentioning the words "stamp collecting" in the meta keywords tag MIGHT help boost your page a bit higher for those words.
Remember, if you don't use the words "stamp collecting" on the page at all, then just adding them to the meta keywords tag is extremely unlikely to help the page do well for the term. The text in the meta keywords tag, FOR THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT, works in conjunction with the text in your body copy.
The meta keyword tag is also sometimes useful as a way to help your page come up for synonyms or unusual words that don't appear on the page itself. For instance, let's say you had a page all about the "Penny Black" stamp. You never actually say the word "collecting" on this page. By having the word in your meta keywords tag, then you may help increase the odds of coming up if someone searched for "penny black stamp collecting." Of course you would greater increase the odds if you just used the word "collecting" in the body copy of the page itself.
Here's another example. Let's say you have a page about horseback riding, and you've written your page using "horseback" as a single word. You realize that some people may instead search for "horse back riding," with "horse back" in their searches being two separate words. If you listed these words separately in your meta keywords tag, THEN MAYBE FOR THE FEW CRAWLERS THAT SUPPORT IT, your page might rank better for "horse back" riding. Sadly, the best way to ensure this would be to write your pages using both "horseback riding" and "horse back riding" in the text -- or perhaps on some of your pages, use the single word version and on others, the two word version.
I'm using all these capital letters on purpose. Far too many people new to search engine optimization obsess with the meta keywords tag. FEW crawlers support it. For those that do, it MIGHT! MAYBE! PERHAPS! POSSIBLY! BUT WITH NO GUARANTEE! help improve the ranking of your page. It also may very well do nothing for your page at all. In fact, repeat a particular word too often in a meta keywords tag and you could actually harm your page's chances of ranking well. Because of this, I strongly suggest that those new to search engine optimization not even worry about the tag at all.
Even those who are experienced in search engine optimization may decide it is no longer worth using the tags. Search Engine Watch doesn't. Any meta keywords tags you find in the site were written in the past, when the keywords tag was more important. There's no harm in leaving up existing tags you may have written, but going forward, writing new tags probably isn't worth the trouble. The articles below explore this in more detail:

Death Of A Meta Tag
The Search Engine Report, Oct. 1, 2002
Meta Tags Revisited
The Search Engine Report, Dec. 5, 2002

Still want to use the meta keywords tag? OK. Look back at the opening example. See the second meta tag shown, the one that says "name=keywords"? That's the meta keywords tag. The keywords you want associated with your page go between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag.
Inktomi says that you should include up to 25 words or phrases, with each word or phrase separated by commas. More advice from Inktomi can be found on its Content Policy FAQ.
FYI, in the past, when the tag was supported by other search engines, they generally indexed up to 1,000 characters of text and commas were not required.

Meta Robots Tag

One other meta tag worth mentioning is the robots tag. This lets you specify that a particular page should NOT be indexed by a search engine. To keep spiders out, simply add this text between your head tags on each page you don't want indexed. The format is shown below (click on the picture if you want to copy and past the HTML for your own use):

You do NOT need to use variations of the meta robots tag to help your pages get indexed. They are unnecessary. By default, a crawler will try to index all your web pages and will try to follow links from one page to another.
Most major search engines support the meta robots tag. However, the robots.txt convention of blocking indexing is more efficient, as you don't need to add tags to each and every page. See the Search Engines Features page for more about the robots.txt file. If you use do a robots.txt file to block indexing, there is no need to also use meta robots tags.
The meta robots tag also has some extensions offered by particular search engines to prevent indexing of multimedia content. The article below talks about this in more depth and provides some links to help files. Search Engine Watch members should follow the link from the article to the members-only edition for extended help on the subject.

Image Search Faces Renewed Legal Challenge
The Search Engine Report, August 22, 2001

Other Meta Tags

There are many other meta tags that exist beyond those explored in this article. For example, if you were to view the source code of this web page, you would find "author," "channel" and "date" meta tags. These mean nothing to web-wide crawlers such as Google. They are specifically for an internal search engine used by Search Engine Watch to index its own content.
There are also "Dublin Core" meta tags. The intent is that these can be used for both "internal" search engines and web-wide ones. However, no major web-wide search engine supports these tags. More about them can be found below:

Dublin Core Metadata Initiative

Dublin Core - Tagging the Web for better search and retrieval
WebReference.com, Nov. 5, 2000

How about the meta revisit tag? This tag is not recognized by the major search engines as a method of telling them how often to automatically return. They have never supported it.

In Conclusion

Overall, just remember this. Of all the meta tags you may see out there:

Meta Robots: This tag enjoys full support, but you only need it if you DO NOT want your pages indexed.
Meta Description: This tag enjoys much support, and it is well worth using.
Meta Keywords: This tag is only supported by some major crawlers and probably isn't worth the time to implement.
Meta Everything Else: Any other meta tag you see is ignored by the major crawlers, though they may be used by specialized search engines.

More Resources

At the bottom of this page are more resources about meta tags, including tutorials and meta tag building applications. But first.
If you've been following the "Next" buttons to read the numbered sections of the Search Engine Submission Tips guide in order, you've now reached the last page. Congratulations!
There's still more information you might find helpful, however. Please review the rest of the articles on the SEM Basics section for additional assistance with search engine marketing issues.
In addition, do consider becoming a Search Engine Watch member, for access to even more information on search engine marketing issues.
Now, here are those additional meta tag resources and articles.

Meta Tag Generators, Builders and Evaluators

SiteUp's Meta-Tag Generator
This is a software-based package for Windows that creates meta tags. It is a freeware package -- no registration fee required.
Meta Tag Builder
This form allows you to create very complicated meta tags using much more than the keywords and description tags, if you wish. Note that it will place a commented credit line into the tag. This can easily be removed, if you wish.

Taken From SearchEngineWatch

Data Storage Units

2010-10-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

The basic unit used in computer data storage is called a bit (binary digit). Computers use these little bits, which are composed of ones and zeros, to do things and talk to other computers. All your files, for instance, are kept in the computer as binary files and translated into words and pictures by the software (which is also ones and zeros). This two number system, is called a "binary number system" since it has only two numbers in it. The decimal number system in contrast has ten unique digits, zero through nine.

But although computer data and file size is normally measured in binary code using the binary number system (counted by factors of two 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc), the prefixes for the multiples are based on the metric system! The nearest binary number to 1,000 is 2^10 or 1,024; thus 1,024 bytes was named a Kilobyte. So, although a metric "kilo" equals 1,000 (e.g. one kilogram = 1,000 grams), a binary "Kilo" equals 1,024 (e.g. one Kilobyte = 1,024 bytes). Not surprisingly, this has led to a great deal of confusion.

In December 1998, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) approved a new IEC International Standard. Instead of using the metric prefixes for multiples in binary code, the new IEC standard invented specific prefixes for binary multiples made up of only the first two letters of the metric prefixes and adding the first two letters of the word "binary". Thus, for instance, instead of Kilobyte (KB) or Gigabyte (GB), the new terms would be kibibyte (KiB) or gibibyte (GiB). The new IEC International Standards, which are not commonly used yet, are included below.

Here's a few more details to consider:

Although data storage capacity is generally expressed in binary code, many hard drive manufacturers (and some newer BIOSs) use a decimal system to express capacity.
- For example, a 30 gigabyte drive is usually 30,000,000,000 bytes (decimal) not the 32,212,254,720 binary bytes you would expect.
Another trivial point is that in the metric system the "k" or "kilo" prefix is always lowercase (i.e. kilogram = kg not Kg) but since these binary uses for data storage capacity are not properly metric, it has become standard to use an uppercase "K" for the binary form.
When used to describe Data Transfer Rate, bits/bytes are calculated as in the metric system
- Kilobits per second is usually shortened to kbps or Kbps. Although technically speaking, the term kilobit should have a lowercase initial letter, it has become common to capitalize it in abbreviation (e.g. "56 Kbps" or "56K"). The simple "K" might seem ambiguous but, in the context of data transfer, it can be assumed that the measurement is in bits rather than bytes unless indicated otherwise.

Name	Symbol	Binary Measurement	Decimal Measurement	Number of Bytes	Equal to
kilobyte	KB	2^10	10^3	1,024	1,024 bytes
megabyte	MB	2^20	10^6	1,048,576	1,024KB
gigabyte	GB	2^30	10^9	1,073,741,824	1,024MB
terabyte	TB	2^40	10^12	1,099,511,627,776	1,024GB
petabyte	PB	2^50	10^15	1,125,899,906,842,624	1,024TB
exabyte	EB	2^60	10^18	1,152,921,504,606,846,976	1,024PB
zettabyte	ZB	2^70	10^21	1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424	1,024EB
yottabyte	YB	2^80	10^24	1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176	1,024ZB

How to Ghost a Hard Drive

2010-08-19T04:53:00.000-07:00

There are times when you may want to duplicate your hard disk as an emergency measure, say, in the event a virus strikes and your hard disk is destroyed. In such cases, you could get your software and other things back---if these were licensed---but you would not get your data back. In other cases, you might get your data back but lose all the special arrangements you had in your hard drive, and you would have to ride the learning curve again to get familiar with the new drive. These are the most popular reasons why people want to clone their hard disks.

Making a ghost of your hard drive will keep your computer protected, not by making it immune to viruses but by providing you with a stored mirror image that can be installed with the click of the mouse. When disaster strikes and your computer collapses for any reason, you can be as cool as a cucumber, knowing that all you have to do is ghost your drive back and your computer is as good as new.

There are many ways to do this, as many software programs have come out especially designed for this task. However, the most popular and the most often used remains Norton Ghost. This is more or less proven by the fact that cloning a drive is also known as "ghosting" a drive after the software Ghost.

You Can Reed More About This Here:: How to Ghost a Hard Drive | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4450506_ghost-hard-drive.html#ixzz0x3GZ4hDR

Things You'll Need:

Ghost 2003 (software)

Get the latest version of Ghost and start the wizard. Always use the wizard, as this will take you through the task with no hiccups.
You will get a "clone" indication; click on the "clone" and you will get a new window. Here, click on the disk you want to use as a source for the cloning. In other words, this is the disk you want to be ghosted. You do this by clicking on a partition (C:, D:, E:, F: or whatever disk drive you want ghosted).
Click on a destination where you will ghost the selected source drive. Click "Next."
There will be a warning sign on the screen saying that you need to check the procedure, as it will overwrite the chosen partition with the ghost installation. Accept by clicking "Next." There will be a Ghost Disk Identification dialogue box. Here, type a name that you will remember.
Another window will appear to with "Run Now" indication. Click on it to start the ghost process.

You Can Reed More About This Here: How to Ghost a Hard Drive | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4450506_ghost-hard-drive.html#ixzz0x3GmQ5wN

Taken From eHow

The Difference Between RAM And Virtual Memory

2010-08-19T04:44:00.000-07:00

RAM and virtual memory are two different things. Virtual memory, or like others i know like to call it Virtual RAM, allows you to use a portion of your hard drive as though it were RAM. However, your hard drive is up to 100 times slower than normal RAM, so virtual memory is much slower than RAM. When you upgrade your RAM, you can reduce or eliminate the use of virtual memory. Upgrading RAM makes memory available to complete tasks previously handled by virtual memory. Making everything better and run more smoothly.

WindowsDualBoot - Ubuntu And Windows Operating Systems

2010-06-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

Introduction

This page describes how to set up your computer in order to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows.

Back Up Your Data

Although this may seem obvious, it is important to backup your data files to an external backup medium before attempting a dual-boot install (or any other hard drive manipulation), in case your hard drive becomes corrupted during the process. External hard drives, USB flash drives, and multiple DVDs or CDs are useful as external backup media.

Have a Windows recovery CD/DVD available

Many computer manufacturers that pre-install Windows provide a Windows recovery/re-installation CD or DVD with the computer. However, many companies no longer ship a physical disk but instead create a hidden partition on the hard drive in which the recovery-disk information is stored. A utility is then usually provided which allows the user to burn a recovery/re-installation CD or DVD from it. If you are buying a new computer and intent on dual-booting, make sure you have (or can make) a physical Windows recovery/re-installation CD or DVD. If neither a CD/DVD nor a recovery partition/burning utility is provided by your computer manufacturer, you may need to telephone your vendor and ask for a CD or DVD (to which you are normally entitled under the Windows EULA).

It is very important to have such a physical recovery/re-installation CD/DVD prior to changing your hard drive, in case your hard drive becomes corrupted in the process (and the recovery partition thereby becomes unavailable for use).

Once you have created a physical backup disk from a restore-image partition on the hard-drive, the restore-image partition can either be removed or left in place. Ubuntu can be installed with it intact without problems.

Getting Recovery Media

You may need to request a physical recovery/re-installation CD or DVD directly from your computer manufacturer. Here are some resources:

Install Ubuntu after Windows

In general, a Windows OS should be installed first, because its bootloader is very particular and because Windows installers tend to overwrite the entire hard drive (potentially wiping out any other data stored on it). If Windows isn't already installed, install it first. If you are able to partition the drive prior to installing Windows, leave space for Ubuntu during the initial partitioning process. Then you won't have to resize your NTFS partition to make room for Ubuntu later (saving a bit of time).

When a Windows installation already occupies the entire hard drive, its partition needs to be shrunk, creating free space for the Ubuntu partition. See How to Resize Windows Partitions to learn how to do this.

This can be done through Control Panel -> Administrative tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management. You can then use the partition manager to shrink the partitions. As a side note, you can only create free space to the right of a partition.

If you have resized the windows 7 /vista partitions and cannot boot up windows, you can use the instructions from WindowsRecovery to fix it. Once free space has been created on the hard drive, it is easy to install Ubuntu as the second operating system (and it is done automatically) from the Ubuntu LiveCD. Allow the Ubuntu LiveCD to install to "largest available free space" (if you have left unallocated free space), or manually into a partition that you have already created for Ubuntu.

Install Ubuntu

Download an Ubuntu LiveCD image (.iso) from Ubuntu Downloads and burn an Ubuntu LiveCD (see BurningIsoHowto).
Insert the LiveCD into your CD-ROM drive and reboot your PC.
If the computer does not boot from the CD (eg. Windows starts again instead), check your BIOS settings and adjust them so that booting from the CD is allowed.
Proceed with installation until you are asked this question: "How do you want to partition the disk ?".

Resizing Partitions Using the Ubuntu Installer

Automatic partition resizing

Choose the First Option (It should be something like: "Resize IDE1 master, partition #1 (hda1) and use freed space").
Specify the size of the new partition as a percentage of your entire hard disk.
Click on "Forward".
Continue to Finishing Ubuntu Installation

Manual partitioning

Choose "Manually edit partition table"
Listed will be your current partitions
Select the partition you want to resize and press Enter.
Select "Size:", press Enter.
Select Yes, press Enter.
Type in a new size in Gigabytes for your partition, it's recommended you free up AT LEAST 10 GB of free space for your Ubuntu install. Press Enter when happy with your changes. It may take some time to apply the changes.
Create a swap partition of at least your amount of RAM (if you don't know, 2000 MB is a good value).
Create a partition for your Ubuntu installation, at least 10 GB.
Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk".

Master Boot Record and Boot Manager

GNU/GRUB2 is the boot manager installed in Ubuntu by default. If you use the Alternate CD you can choose Lilo instead. GRUB2, GRUB and Lilo are good Open Source boot managers so the main parts of the boot loaders are installed inside Ubuntu. This means Ubuntu is independent and avoids any need for writing to other operating systems. To accomplish this, the only thing in your computer outside of Ubuntu that needs to be changed is a small code in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of the first hard disk. The MBR code is changed to point to the boot loader in Ubuntu. You will be presented with a list of operating systems and you can choose one to boot. If you do nothing Ubuntu will boot after a ten second countdown. If you select Windows then GRUB or Lilo will chain-load Windows for you at the Windows boot sector, which is the first sector of the Windows partition.

If you have a problem with changing the MBR code, you might prefer to just install the code for pointing to GRUB to the first sector of your Ubuntu partition instead. If you do that during the Ubuntu installation process, then Ubuntu won't boot until you configure some other boot manager to point to Ubuntu's boot sector. Windows Vista no longer utilizes boot.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr when booting. Instead, Vista stores all data for its new boot manager in a boot folder. Windows Vista ships with an command line utility called bcdedit.exe, which requires administrator credentials to use. You may want to read http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=112156 about it.

Using a command line utility always has its learning curve, so a more productive and better job can be done with a free utility called EasyBCD, developed and mastered in during the times of Vista Beta already. EasyBCD is user friendly and many Vista users highly recommend EasyBCD.

Installing Windows After Ubuntu

Normally when Windows is installed after Ubuntu the "Master Boot Record", MBR, will be overwritten. You can bootup off a LiveCD and repair the MBR. However, there are 2 different approaches:

Recovering GRUB after reinstalling Windows

There are also these help guides

Which should help with any install of Ubuntu now. For some simple cases the advice below might help

Ubuntu 10.04 or 9.10

Sorry, definitely use this guide

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

Ubuntu 9.10 & earlier

The older Grub, sometimes called Grub-legacy or perhaps Grub1 was used up until Ubuntu 9.10. The default for 9.10 was initially Grub1 but installs would drift over to Grub2 without users really being aware of the change. With any current Ubuntu install it is wise to install, or re-install Grub2 as shown in the link above.

If you run an older Ubuntu or had any trouble with Grub2 then Grub1 & Lilo are still available. To fix the MBR with an older LiveCD to access a Grub command-line:

Boot into a LiveCD
Open a terminal
Open the GRUB Command-line utility by typing

sudo grub

Find where Grub is. If this gives a few different answers then you will need to find the correct one, perhaps by trial-and-error.

find /boot/grub/stage1

Tell GRUB which partition to tell the MBR your Grub is on by entering

root (hdA,B)

The coordinates A,B are where 'A' is the hard-drive number, starting at 0, and 'B' is the partition number, starting at 0. For example, if Ubuntu was installed on the second partition of the first hard-drive, the command should be

root (hd0,1)

Tell GRUB which drive's MBR to fix

setup (hd0)

Replace 0 only in the extremely unlikely event that your bios does not use the first hard-drive as the boot device. Typically Ubuntu might be on any drive but the bios will almost always go to the first drive's MBR to find out where to find the boot-loader.

Leave the GRUB Command line

quit

and reboot.

Master Boot Record backup and re-replacement

Back-up the existing MBR, install Windows, replace your backup overwriting the Windows boot code:

Create an NTFS partition for windows (using fdisk, GPartEd or whatever tool you are familiar with)
Backup the MBR e.g. dd if=/dev/sda of=/mbr.bin bs=446 count=1
Install windows
Boot into a LiveCD
Mount your root partition in the LiveCD
Restore the MBR e.g. dd if=/media/sda/mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1
Restart and Ubuntu will boot
Setup grub to boot windows

Issues with Windows XP and NTFS

The Ubuntu installer has included support for resizing NTFS partitions since Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger) was released way back in 2005. Very few problems have been reported relative to the huge number of times that the installer has been used. If you tried the above procedure and have had no luck, it might be that there is a pre-existing problem either in the file system, in the partition table or the hard disk.

First you should try running CHKDSK before trying again to resize the partition, and if you are using the Alternate CD, defragging might help. It is recommended that you run CHKDSK once again after resizing your NTFS partition.

Also, try the following alternative methods:

Using QtParted from the System Rescue CD

Boot into Windows and backup any valuable documents/photos etc onto removable media such as CD-R/DVD-R.
Run the Windows disk check tool (Error-checking) on C: a couple of times (the results can be seen in the Administrative Tools > Event Viewer > Application under a "Winlogon" entry).
Run the Windows defragmentation tool on C:
Download the System Rescue CD ISO image (100 MB; has several very useful software tools).
Burn the ISO image to a CD.
Boot from the CD and hit Enter when you see the message "Boot:".
When you get a command prompt, enter:

run_qtparted

Select your disk on the graphical screen (most likely /dev/hda).
Select your NTFS partition to be resized (most likely /dev/hda1).
Right click with the mouse and choose Resize.
Set the new partition size.
Commit your changes in the File -> Commit menu. If your keyboard and mouse stop responding during resizing then please just be patient.
Once your changes are saved, remove the System Rescue CD and insert your Ubuntu installation CD.
Reboot and install Ubuntu into the free space.

Using GParted from UNetbootin-PartedMagic

Another approach to resizing partitions, which does not require a CD, is to load PartedMagic from Windows via the UNetbootin PartedMagic Loader:

Download and install the Windows (.exe) file, then reboot.
Select the UNetbootin-partedmagic entry after rebooting, and wait as PartedMagic boots up.
Start the partition manager by clicking the GParted icon on the the panel.
Select your disk (probably /dev/sda) via the drop-down menu on the top-right corner of the interface.
Right-click the NTFS partition to be resized (probably /dev/sda1), and select the "resize" option.
Drag the slider to specify the new size the NTFS partition should be resized to, then press OK.
Press the "Apply" button to resize the disk, then reboot once done.
Upon the next Windows boot, click OK when prompted to remove UNetbootin-partedmagic to remove its boot menu entry.

Also see

MultiOSBoot - How to boot more than two operating systems from a single hard drive.
Virtualization Category

External Links

Portable Knoppix - Install Knoppix v6.2 to a Flash Drive in Windows

2010-06-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

This tutorial covers how to create a Knoppix 5.1.1 Flash Drive using Windows and our custom script. The user can then boot and run Knoppix Linux from a USB Flash Drive. Knoppix is based on Debian GNU/Linux and includes many useful applications such as Abiword, OpenOffice, Gimp, Konqueror, Mozilla, Apache, PHP, MySQL along with hundreds of other Open Source applications. Keep reading and we will show you how to make your own Portable Knoppix that you can then boot from any PC that supports USB boot.

Knoppix 6.5 Screenshot:

Distribution Home Page: Knoppix.org
Minimum Flash Drive Capacity: 1GB
Persistent Feature: Yes
You’ll need the following to create a Portable Knoppix:

1GB or Larger USB Flash Pen Drive (fat32 formatted)
Windows PC to perform the conversion (XP or Vista)
Knoppix Linux ISO
Universal USB Installer

Installing Knoppix v6.2 to a Flash Drive:

Download and run Universal USB Installer and follow the onscreen instructions.
Simply choose a Live Linux Distribution (aka Knoppix v6.2), the ISO file, your Flash Drive and, Click Install. Other features include; Persistence (if available), and the ability to format the flash drive (recommended) to ensure a clean install. Upon completion, you should have a ready to run bootable USB Flash Drive with your select Linux version installed.

Use the Universal USB Installer to download the Knoppix Linux ISO

Universal USB Installer Screenshot
Reboot your PC and set your system BIOS or Boot Menu to boot from the USB device, save your changes and reboot

Upon reboot, you should have a successful launch of Knoppix Linux from your USB memory stick.

How To Fix Firefox From Using Google In The URL Bar And Not Google

2010-05-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

If your firefox url location bar suddenly gives results from Bing instead of Google and you want Google back again, here is how you can switch it back:

1. First Type into the url bar --> about:config

2. Next click I’ll be careful, I promise! in the notification box that is shown below.

3. Then type into the filter bar --> keyword

4. After that right click on the text that says keyword.URL

5. Click Modify and then paste the link shown below:

http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=navclient&gfns=1&q=

Custimize Your Windows Vista Logon Screen

2010-05-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

For those of us looking to customize the Windows Vista UI experience, there’s nothing more annoying than seeing the default logon screen every time you start up your computer, or when you lock your workstation. Thankfully the nice folks at Stardock have created a free utility to replace the logon screen with any wallpaper you choose.

All you have to do is download and install the utility, and click the apply button to immediately see the changes. (It will lock your computer to show you, so you’ll have to use your password to unlock it)

The utility is remarkably easy to use, just click on an entry in the list, and use the Apply button to select it. The download button will take you to the directory of logon screens on WinCustomize.

You can also click the Create button and choose any image you want. For instance, if you wanted to have the logon screen match your desktop wallpaper, just choose the wallpaper using the browse button.

You can then save the wallpaper as a logon screen file and even share it with other people on WinCustomize.
Download LogonStudio from Stardock (Free)

Make Your Windows XP Logon Screen Look Like Windows Vista

2010-05-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how to change the default Windows XP logon screen? Today I got the crazy idea to figure out how to make it look like Windows Vista instead, so I’m writing that up for you.
You’ll have to download and install the free LogonStudio application and make sure that it is set as the default logon handler, which is easy since it will prompt you when you first open it. (Note that this is the same application you can use to customize Windows Vista’s logon screen.)
The three default welcome screens aren’t very impressive, but there’s a ton of great ones on the wincustomize site, including the Vista one you see here.

Next, download and open the Windows Vista Ultimate Logon screen for XP, and select it in LogonStudio as shown above. Once you hit the Apply button, you’ll see your Vista-style logon screen for XP:

Note that this will not work if you are logging into a domain, or if you use the classic style logon with Ctrl+Alt+Del. There’s a way to customize that background image, which I’ll cover in another article.
Download LogonStudio for XP from stardock.com
Download Windows Vista Ultimate Logon Screen for XP

Disabling Nagle Algorithm - Deals With Game Lag

2010-04-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

When a file is sent over the network the file is chopped up in small packets, which are then sent to the destination. The TCPIP protocol is a secure protocol and demands that each packet is acknowledged, so the receiver has to respond with a matching ACK packet. It is important for the sender not to flood the receiver and for the receiver not to flood the sender.

The Nagle algorithm (by John Nagle) is a method for congestion control (RFC 896), so the sender won't flood the receiver with data. When the sender sends a packet to the receiver, then the sender will wait for an ACK from the receiver before sending the following packets.

The delayed ACK algorithm is also a method for congestion control (RFC 2581), so the receiver won't flood the network with ACK packets. When the receiver has to sent an ACK in response to a packet, then it waits a little (200 ms or until it has 2 outstanding ACKs) to see if more packets should arrive that it can acknowledge with that single ACK.

The delayed ACK algorithm can slow down the network, if the sender doesn't send the next packet before receiving the ACK of the previous packet (200 ms delay).The delayed ACK algorithm can get even worse when combined with the Nagle algorithm, if the sender sends two packets and waits for ACK, as nagling will hold back the second packet until receiving the delayed ACK for the first packet (400 ms delay).

The solution to such slow downs is to disable or lower the delayed ACK timeout.

Click Here to watch a youtube video to getting rid of this problem. I have tried this myself and thankfully it worked out great.

Note: I am not responsible for any harm you do to your computer.

Use Your EyeToy As A Webcam

2010-04-08T13:41:00.000-07:00

It’s easy to install the EyeToy as a webcam for Windows, and it’s actually worth doing - the picture quality is excellent, and equals many of the more expensive webcams made specifically for computers
. The EyeToy will work for video messaging, making movies, MSN, and also for PC webcam games such as Camgoo. We’ve used the EyeToy as a webcam on lots of desktop and laptop computers without any problems - but of course, installation is entirely at your own risk!

If you know what you’re doing, then you won’t need to read the instructions below, just plug in your EyeToy, get the appropriate driver and install it however you want.
Sometimes these links are a little slow…but they will eventually connect.Please be patient!

(NOTE: Mac Users look here: Clicky Clicky)

Installation instructions
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 1: Identify your EyeToy and get the correct drivers

Open Device Manager by going to Start Menu > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Plug your EyeToy into your computer’s USB port - if Windows gives you a “Welcome to the Found New Hardware Wizard” popup, cancel it and continue installing via Device Manager. You EyeToy should appear in the Device Manager list under “Imaging devices” and should have a big yellow exclamation alert next to it. It will also tell you which model EyeToy you have - either Namtai or Logitech.

Use your EyeToy as a webcam

Download and extract the appropriate drivers for your EyeToy:

• Download the Logitech EyeToy drivers

• Download the Namtai EyeToy drivers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 2

Still in Device Manager, right click on your EyeToy and select “Update Driver”.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 3

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 4

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 5

Browse to the folder where you extracted the drivers.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 6

You can safely click ‘Continue anyway’ here. This warning just means that Microsoft doesn’t recognize the drivers and have not given them the “Microsoft Stamp Of Approval”.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 7

Just click OK.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 8

Read the prompt, have a look around and see where you are, then click Yes or No.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 9

Done!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 10 - Use it!

Test it out!To easily test your EyeToy as a webcam, you can use VIDCAP32.exe, which is included with the drivers. This is a webcam preview application that tests if Windows has successfully been able to install your EyeToy as a webcam - just open it and click on ‘preview’.

Taken From iPlayStation

Xfire Portable

2010-04-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today I will show you how to transfer Xfire to your USB memory stick or similar device and to actually make it save all the personal settings in there instead of trying to store the data on the local computer.

This trick needs some extra tools since the user registry needs to be edited temporarily when starting up Xfire to make it use the USB stick as user profile instead of the local computer it normally does. I programmed these tools with C language and made them free for you to download from http://cc.joensuu.fi/~lehtolah/code/ (source code for all programs available there). You should know already to never trust a thing you download from Internet, so check the files with an updated anti-virus program. Even if the files come from me, it's still a good practice to run a scan on them.

So here is what you need to do:

On your USB drive create a new folder named USBXfire (you can name it anything else, but this folder name is used here).
Create a folder called user inside USBXfire (can also be named something else, but you need to edit usbxfire.cmd then).
Download the latest Xfire version from http://www.xfire.com/download/ to somewhere on your hard drive.
Using the installer you just downloaded, install Xfire to your USB drive to the USBXfire folder.
If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 copy all the folders from %PROGRAMDATA%\Xfire to USBXfire (see this post for instructions on how to access ProgramData).
Download echonl.exe, iniset.exe, regshx.exe, sleep.exe and usbxfire.cmd to your USBXfire folder.
If you plan on using your USB Xfire on Windows Vista or Windows 7 computers that do not have Xfire normally installed on them, you also need to download Junction tool which is used to make a link from the machine's ProgramData folder to your USB Drive. Extract junction.exe to USBXfire folder too.
Now it's ready! Just remember that when you start Xfire from your USB drive, start it using the usbxfire.cmd file, not directly Xfire.exe.

You could make a shortcut to usbxfire.cmd using the icon of Xfire.exe and place the shortcut to the root of your USB drive, so you don't accidentally open Xfire.exe as you already have a shortcut with fewer clicks that opens the correct one.

Note that if you put Junction to the USBXfire folder for Vista/Win7 compatibility, it will leave a mark to the computer that you have used Xfire on it. If you want to get rid of it, you can also download dejunction.cmd and place it to your USBXfire folder. After you have finished using Xfire, double click on dejunction.cmd and it will remove the link from ProgramData, making it seem like there never was anything.

And now for the people interested in what technically happens there and what my little helper programs have to do with it.

First the problems with having portable Xfire:

Xfire stores user settings to AppData folder, which is part of your Windows user account, therefore stored in the computer you use Xfire in. If you plan to use Xfire on your USB drive from multiple computers, then your settings are not retained.
On Windows Vista and Windows 7 many Xfire's files are saved in ProgramData folder which is also machine specific.

To overcome these problems, the script with the tools find out what the current path to your USB drive is and temporarily edit your user registry to cheat Xfire to save your user specific settings to the USB drive instead of the computer's hard drive. The sleep.exe is used to make the script wait for 5 seconds before restoring the previous information, this is to allow Xfire to start properly and read the modified data.

For the ProgramData problem which exist on Windows Vista and Windows 7 the external Junction tool is used to make a link from ProgramData folder to your USB drive, so when Xfire tries to find its files from ProgramData, it actually looks the USB drive for them. But since the link must exist there all the time, the script cannot automatically remove it; so you need to use the other script to remove the link after you stop using Xfire, if you don't want to leave it there.

I hope you found this useful!

Taken From Xfire

Welcome To My Blog

2010-04-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome, in my blog I hope to post about many things. I will be posting many of the walk-throughs for things I come across and/or made myself during my search across the web for various problems and stuff. I hope my database of various subjects is to your needs. If I don't have something u need send me an email and let me know. I'll be happy to look into your problem and hopefully find a remedy to fix your issue.

{SS}Dkadar - Website Builder/Gamer

How to Add “Open File Location” Right-Click Option in Windows XP

Joining Files With 7-Zip

Splitting Files With 7-Zip

Get the Vista sidebar in XP

How to Start Google Chrome in Incognito Mode by Default

Add Custom Game Support To Xfire

Xfire Patcher

Gain Administrative Control of Mac OS X

Introduction

Using the Install Disk

Using Single User Mode

Reset Admin Account

Changing Admin Password

Making an Existing User Admin

System Setup Re-Run Administrator

Hidden Admin Users

Creating a Hidden Admin User

Removing a Hidden Admin User

Frozen sh /etc/rc

Fixed AACGC Xbox Stats Plugin For E107

How to change Filename Extensions in Windows XP

Portable Minecraft (Minecraft on your USB key)

AACGC Xbox Stats Plugin For E107

WinToFlash

What is WinToFlash

Functions list

System requirements

Download Link

Avg Internet Security 2011 Serial Number license key free + Antivirus

Creating a Mask in Adobe Fireworks

How to change the drive letter in Windows XP for an external USB stick or hard drive

Optimize Your Computer For Peak Performance

Clean up disk errors

Run once a week

To run Disk Check:

Windows 7 and Windows Vista users:

To run Disk Check: Windows XP users:

Remove temporary files

Run once a week

To run Disk Cleanup:

Windows 7 users:

Windows Vista users:

Windows XP users:

Rearrange your data

Run once a month

To run the Disk Defragmenter:

Make Internet Explorer run faster

To reduce your webpage history:

To not save encrypted webpages:

Automate Windows Update

Configure once

To automate Windows Update:

Windows 7 users:

Windows Vista users:

Windows XP users:

How To Use HTML Meta Tags

Meta Tag Overview

The Title Tag

The Meta Description Tag

The Meta Keywords Tag

Meta Robots Tag

Other Meta Tags

In Conclusion

More Resources

Meta Tag Generators, Builders and Evaluators

Data Storage Units

How to Ghost a Hard Drive

Things You'll Need:

Instructions

The Difference Between RAM And Virtual Memory

WindowsDualBoot - Ubuntu And Windows Operating Systems

Introduction

Back Up Your Data

Have a Windows recovery CD/DVD available

Getting Recovery Media

Install Ubuntu after Windows

Install Ubuntu

Resizing Partitions Using the Ubuntu Installer

Automatic partition resizing