Archive for the ‘System Basics’ Category

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

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

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

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

First you need to boot the system into Safe Mode.

1.Restart your system.

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

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

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

5.The system should boot to Safe Mode.

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

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

for the administrators account.

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

For PRO you can do this in normal mode

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

1.Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools.

2.Click Computer Management.

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

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

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

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

7.Click OK, and OK again.

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

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

The following companies provide these applications at a cost.

iOpus® Password Recovery XP here.

Asterisk Password Recovery XP v1.89 here.

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

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

Follow the following steps

1. Open notepad.exe, type “del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q” (without the quotes) & save as “ntosboot.bat” in c:\

2. From the Start menu, select “Run…” & type “gpedit.msc”.

3. Double click “Windows Settings” under “Computer Configuration” and double click again on “Shutdown” in the right window.

4. In the new window, click “add”, “Browse”, locate your “ntosboot.bat” file & click “Open”.

5. Click “OK”, “Apply” & “OK” once again to exit.

6. From the Start menu, select “Run…” & type “devmgmt.msc”.

7. Double click on “IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers”

8. Right click on “Primary IDE Channel” and select “Properties”.

9. Select the “Advanced Settings” tab then on the device or 1 that doesn’t have ‘device type’ greyed out select ‘none’ instead of ‘autodetect’ & click “OK”.

10. Right click on “Secondary IDE channel”, select “Properties” and repeat step 9.

11. Reboot your computer.

P2P file sharing is one of the widely used applications now days. The Torrent search engine is the utility which is

excessively used in this context. As the young generation says “impatience is the new world”, means the generation can’t afford anything too slow, same is the case with torrent download. But there are some tips which can really help to improve your download speed. Let’s have a quick glance at these tips.

1. Choose your ISP wisely: The basic rule is that the maximum Torrent download speed that you can get can’t cross the upper limit of the bandwidth

provided by your ISP. Usually ISP’s specify the upload and download maximum for the connections. So it is always better to have an ISP who provides better Download and Upload limits for an affordable price.

2. Choose the right BitTorrent client: Always choose the latest versions among the available BitTorrent clients. mTorrent, Vuze etc are some of these latest versions available now. The latest versions are equipped with provisions for obtaining the highest download speed and an overall smooth downloading experience.

3. Check the seeds and peers:

A peer is a computer which participates in the P2P sharing either for downloading or uploading. A seed is a computer who has got a complete copy of the file and is sharing that file in the network. A leech is a computer who doesn’t have a complete copy of the file, and is downloading the file at the moment. A leech becomes a seed when it completes the download and shares it over the network. It is always advisable to choose the files with more number of seeds and less no of leeches. That means the file with the highest seed to leech ratio.

4. Altering the firewall configuration: By default the firewalls block all the BitTorrent connections coming through. This can adversely affect the downloading speed. So you must make sure that your firewall is configured in such a way that it allows the BitTorrent connections through it. This can be done by checking the box ‘Add Windows Firewall Exception” in the firewall settings following the path

options/preferences/connection. For ease some users may disable the firewall, but it is strongly advised that you shouldn’t disable your firewall that it will open your computer to serious threats.

5. Limiting your upload rate: A peer to peer sharing is all about simultaneous upload and download. So every BitTorrent clients must upload some data at the same they are downloading some other data through torrent. For obtaining a high download speed you should vary your

upload speed accordingly. Usually the upload maximum by the ISP is very much less than the download maximum. It is only 50Kbps for a 2Mbps connection. For fast downloading you can set your uploading speed to 80% of your maximum uploading speed. You must vary the speed as the download progresses for an efficient downloading. Keep the uploading limit maximum in the beginning and then slightly decrease it as the download progresses. In mTorrent the upload limit can be set from the option Global Upload Rate.

6. Selecting a different port: The default port for the BitTorrent file sharing is one between 6881 and 6999. As BitTorrent sharing involves high bandwidth  usage the ISP’s usually throttle traffic on these ports. So you can increase the downloading speed by selecting some port above 10000. Usually mTorrent randomly assign the port as the application starts. So set a specific port with a number above  10000, by disabling the Randomize port checkbox.

7. Increasing the number of Maximum Half Open TCP Connections: Usually the maximum no of half open TCP connections in Windows XP with SP2 is set as 10 for blocking the virus multiplication. But torrent needs more. To facilitate this a patch TCPIP.sys is available. Through this patch you can set the  maximum no of open TCP connections. Set it to any number between 50 and 100.

8. Protocol encryption: Some ISP’s constrict the bandwidth for P2P sharing. Protocol encryption can be used to override this restriction. Check the Allow incoming legacy connections box and make the outgoing Encryption as Disabled for getting maximum speed on Torrent downloads. Between non-encryption is not advisable as it may lead to some encrypted client to be left as undiscovered.

9. Connections and bandwidth: The BitTorrent client you are using will allow you to enter values for Global maximum no of connections: It is the maximum no of connections BitTorrent client can make for any P2P sharing. Setting

this no to a very high value will take up useless bandwidth, and to a very low value will miss out some peers. For a 256kbps connection you can set this number to 130.

Maximum no of connected peers per torrent: Set this no to one which is closer to the no of available peers for the file.

No of upload slots per torrent: It gives the maximum no of peers to which the BitTorrent client uploads at a time. Since a low settings may affect the download set it to a moderate low value.

10. Miscellaneous: Disable the individual files for download along with a particular file, if we don’t want them at the beginning of download.  Be familiar with your BitTorrent client settings from the users manual or web.

Windows XP comes both IPv4 and IPv6 support.

To enable IPv6, you can install the

protocols needed with the command “ipv6 install” in the command-prompt.

Then type ipv6 /? to see the options.

The installation will not remove the IPv4 protocols so your

current configuration will still work.

IP spoofing, also known as IP address forgery or a host file hijack, is a hijacking technique in which a cracker masquerades as a trusted host to conceal his identity, spoof a Web site, hijack browsers, or gain access to a network. Here’s how it works: The hijacker obtains the IP address of a legitimate host and alters packet headers so that the legitimate host appears to be the source.

When IP spoofing is used to hijack a browser, a visitor who types in the URL(Uniform Resource Locator) of a legitimate site is taken to a fraudulent Web page created by the hijacker. For example, if the hijacker spoofed the Library of Congress Web site, then any Internet user who typed in the URL http://www.loc.gov would see spoofed content created by the hijacker.

If a user interacts with dynamic content on a spoofed page, the highjacker can gain access to sensitive information or computer or network resources. He could steal or alter sensitive data, such as a credit card number or password, or install malware . The hijacker would also be able to take control of a compromised computer to use it as part of a zombie army in order to send out spam.

Web site administrators can minimize the danger that their IP addresses will be spoofed by implementing hierarchical or one-time passwords and dataencryption/decryption techniques. Users and administrators can protect themselves and their networks by installating and implementating firewalls that block outgoing packets with source addresses that differ from the IP address of the user’s computer or internal network.

Vista Side Bar

Posted: August 21, 2009 in System Basics, System Information, Vista

Windows Sidebar is actually not displayed by default on all PCs. If the resolution of

your PC’s screen is 1024×768 or less, for example, Windows Sidebar will not display

by default. To enable Windows Sidebar on such a system, follow the instructions

in “Launching Windows Sidebar,” below. Then, right-click the Sidebar and choose

Properties. In the Windows Sidebar Properties dialog that appears, check the box

titled Start Sidebar when Windows starts if you’d like it enabled by default.

For others, however, Sidebar might not be a desirable feature. To disable Windows

Sidebar, right-click the Sidebar tray icon and choose Exit. (Do not right-click the Sidebar

itself and choose Close; that simply hides the Sidebar.) Then, uncheck the option box

asking whether you’d like to run Sidebar automatically when the system reboots.

Different BIOS Entry Passwords

Posted: August 21, 2009 in Bios, System Basics
Tags:

Acer – CTL ALT ESC

AMI BIOS – DEL, F1 or F2

AST, Advantage, Award, Tandon – CTL ALT ESC

Award BIOS – DEL or CTL ALT ESC

Compaq – F10

DELL – F1 or DEL or CTL ALT ENTER

DTK BIOS – Esc

Gateway 2000 – F1

Hewlett Packard – F1

IBM
Older Models – In order to get into the configuration of the IBM setup screen CMOS screen you need to hold down both mouse buttons during bootup.

Aptiva – F1

PS/2 – CTL ALT INS after CTL ALT DEL

PS/2 with reference partition – INS

NEC – F2

Olivetti PC Pro – SHIFT CTL ALT Numpad DEL

Packard Bell – F1 or F2

Phoenix BIOS F1 or F2, or CTL ALT ESC or CTL ALT S or CTL S or CTL ALT INS

Sharp Laptop 9020 – F2

Sony – F3 at switchon, then F2 or F1

Tandon – CTL SHIFT ESC

Toshiba – ESC at switchon

Zenith – CTL ALT INS

Miscellaneous – CTL ESC or CTL ALT +


As the size of hardrives increase, more people are using partitions to seperate and store groups of files.

XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive and/ or directory by using a Registry hack.

Run the Registry Editor (regedit)and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

Computer Acronyms

Posted: August 20, 2009 in System Basics, System Information


ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

AGP – Accelerated Graphics Port

ALI – Acer Labs, Incorporated

ALU – Arithmetic Logic Unit

AMD – Advanced Micro Devices

APC – American Power Conversion

ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASIC – Application Specific Integrated Circuit

ASPI – Advanced SCSI Programming Interface

AT – Advanced Technology

ATI – ATI Technologies Inc.

ATX – Advanced Technology Extended

— B —

BFG – BFG Technologies

BIOS – Basic Input Output System

BNC – Barrel Nut Connector

— C —

CAS – Column Address Signal

CD – Compact Disk

CDR – Compact Disk Recorder

CDRW – Compact Disk Re-Writer

CD-ROM – Compact Disk – Read Only Memory

CFM – Cubic Feet per Minute (ft�/min)

CMOS – Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor

CPU – Central Processing Unit

CTX – CTX Technology Corporation (Commited to Excellence)

— D —

DDR – Double Data Rate

DDR-SDRAM – Double Data Rate – Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory

DFI – DFI Inc. (Design for Innovation)

DIMM – Dual Inline Memory Module

DRAM – Dynamic Random Access Memory

DPI – Dots Per Inch

DSL – See ASDL

DVD – Digital Versatile Disc

DVD-RAM – Digital Versatile Disk – Random Access Memory

— E —

ECC – Error Correction Code

ECS – Elitegroup Computer Systems

EDO – Extended Data Out

EEPROM – Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

EPROM – Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory

EVGA – EVGA Corporation

— F —

FC-PGA – Flip Chip Pin Grid Array

FDC – Floppy Disk Controller

FDD – Floppy Disk Drive

FPS – Frame Per Second

FPU – Floating Point Unit

FSAA – Full Screen Anti-Aliasing

FS – For Sale

FSB – Front Side Bus

— G —

GB – Gigabytes

GBps – Gigabytes per second or Gigabits per second

GDI – Graphical Device Interface

GHz – GigaHertz

— H —

HDD – Hard Disk Drive

HIS – Hightech Information System Limited

HP – Hewlett-Packard Development Company

HSF – Heatsink-Fan

— I —

IBM – International Business Machines Corporation

IC – Integrated Circuit

IDE – Integrated Drive Electronics

IFS- Item for Sale

IRQ – Interrupt Request

ISA – Industry Standard Architecture

ISO – International Standards Organization

— J —

JBL – JBL (Jame B. Lansing) Speakers

JVC – JVC Company of America

– K —

Kbps – Kilobits Per Second

KBps – KiloBytes per second

— L —

LG – LG Electronics

LAN – Local Are Network

LCD – Liquid Crystal Display

LDT – Lightning Data Transport

LED – Light Emitting Diode

— M —

MAC – Media Access Control

MB � MotherBoard or Megabyte

MBps – Megabytes Per Second

Mbps – Megabits Per Second or Megabits Per Second

MHz – MegaHertz

MIPS – Million Instructions Per Second

MMX – Multi-Media Extensions

MSI – Micro Star International

— N —

NAS – Network Attached Storage

NAT – Network Address Translation

NEC – NEC Corporation

NIC – Network Interface Card

— O —

OC – Overclock (Over Clock)

OCZ – OCZ Technology

OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer

— P —

PC – Personal Computer

PCB – Printed Circuit Board

PCI – Peripheral Component Interconnect

PDA – Personal Digital Assistant

PCMCIA – Peripheral Component Microchannel Interconnect Architecture

PGA – Professional Graphics Array

PLD – Programmable Logic Device

PM – Private Message / Private Messaging

PnP – Plug ‘n Play

PNY – PNY Technology

POST – Power On Self Test

PPPoA – Point-to-Point Protocol over ATM

PPPoE – Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet

PQI – PQI Corporation

PSU – Power Supply Unit

— R —

RAID – Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

RAM – Random Access Memory

RAMDAC – Random Access Memory Digital Analog Convertor

RDRAM – Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory

ROM – Read Only Memory

RPM – Revolutions Per Minute

— S —

SASID – Self-scanned Amorphous Silicon Integrated Display

SCA – SCSI Configured Automatically

SCSI – Small Computer System Interface

SDRAM – Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory

SECC – Single Edge Contact Connector

SODIMM – Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module

SPARC – Scalable Processor ArChitecture

SOHO – Small Office Home Office

SRAM – Static Random Access Memory

SSE – Streaming SIMD Extensions

SVGA – Super Video Graphics Array

S/PDIF – Sony/Philips Digital Interface

— T —

TB – Terabytes

TBps – Terabytes per second

Tbps – Terabits per second

TDK – TDK Electronics

TEC – Thermoelectric Cooler

TPC – TipidPC

TWAIN – Technology Without An Important Name

— U —

UART – Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter

USB – Universal Serial Bus

UTP – Unshieled Twisted Pair

— V —

VCD – Video CD

VPN – Virtual Private Network

— W —

WAN – Wide Area Network

WTB – Want to Buy

WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get

— X —

XGA – Extended Graphics Array

XFX – XFX Graphics, a Division of Pine

XMS – Extended Memory Specification

XT – Extended Technology


Create One-Click Shutdown and Reboot Shortcuts:

First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking on the desktop, choosing New, and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, double-clicking on it will shut down your PC.

But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:

shutdown -r -t 01 -c “Rebooting your PC”

Double-clicking on that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and display the message “Rebooting your PC.” The shutdown command includes a variety of switches you can use to customize it. Table 1-3 lists all of them and describes their use.

I use this technique to create two shutdown shortcuts on my desktop—one for turning off my PC, and one for rebooting. Here are the ones I use:

shutdown -s -t 03 -c “Bye Bye m8!”

shutdown -r -t 03 -c “Ill be back m8 ;)!”

Switch

What it does

-s

Shuts down the PC.

-l

Logs off the current user.

-t nn

Indicates the duration of delay, in seconds, before performing the action.

-c “messagetext”

Displays a message in the System Shutdown window. A maximum of 127 characters can be used. The message must be enclosed in quotation marks.

-f

Forces any running applications to shut down.

-r

Reboots the PC.