FreeDOS

FreeDOS

by: Stephen Bucaro

Before September 1995, Microsoft Windows was an MSDOS program. DOS was an easy to use command line operating system that provided you with complete ability to control and troubleshoot your computer. Microsoftกs goal was to eliminate DOS, possibly to prevent you from having complete control of your own computer.
The last standalone version of MSDOS was version 6. Unfortunately, that version is not Y2K compliant. Windows 95 and later came with MSDOS version 7. Unfortunately, that version is too integrated with the operating system. It will not work without access to your hard disk.
FreeDOS is a PC compatible Y2K compliant DOS that you can download from www.freedos.org. FreeDOS fits on a single floppy disk and can be used to boot your computer. Download and unzip the file odin7bin.zip (756KB). Unziping will create the files diskcopy.exe and fdodin07.144. Put a blank formatted floppy disk in the drive. In the Start | Run dialog box, or at a command prompt type กdiskcopy fdodin07.144 a:ก to create a bootable FreeDOS floppy disk.
Why would you want to boot your computer with DOS? Maybe you want to use Windows XP without product activation.
First make sure that the BIOS boot sequence on your computer is configured with the floppy drive as the first boot device (or at least before the C: drive). To get to the BIOS configuration screen, press the กDeleteก or กF2ก key (depending upon your BIOS) while your computer is starting.
Insert the FreeDOS floppy disk in the floppy drive and start the computer. At the A:\>_ prompt type DATE. FreeDOS will return your computerกs current date, along with a prompt to enter a new date. Enter the date that you installed Windows XP (or at least a date before the 30 day expiration date). Remove the FreeDOS floppy disk and restart your computer.
Note: This will only work if Windows XP has never been started after the 30 day expiration date. The first time Windows XP is started after the 30 day expiration date will be the last time it starts.
Every time you start your computer, start it first with FreeDOS and reset the computerกs date to the date that you installed Windows XP. Windows XP will think time has come to a standstill.
Note: Of course, Your file creation and last modified dates will not be correct, so this is not really a way for a serious user to bypass Windows XP product activation. However for certain purposes, like learning the Windows XP operating system, this can be a way to use Windows XP without product activation.
Microsoft should have made the expiration period much longer than 30 days. Maybe they want you to activate Windows XP before it crashes.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

Copyright(C)2004 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to [email protected]

This article was posted on July 12, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

by: Stephen Bucaro

Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays the tasks or processes currently running on your computer. To open Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Applcations tab lists the applications currently running on your computer. A single application may actually consist of several running processes, and many programs that run in the background are not listed (you can see icons for some of these programs in the System Tray).

Note: With Windows 98 and Windows Me, Ctrl+Alt+Del will open Program Manager, which allows you only to close aplications. However, you can download one of the many Task Manager utilities from the Web.

The Processes tab displays a comprehensive list of all the processes currently running on your computer. This can be very useful for monitoring your system. The process tab displays information about the processor useage and memory usage of each process. The problem is, how to identify a process. Below is a list of some processes you may see in Task Managers Processes list.

กSystem Idle Processก

กSystemก The Windows System Process

กSMSS.EXEก Session Manager Subsystem

กCSRSS.EXEก Client Server Runtime Subsystem

กWinLOGON.EXEก The Windows Logon process

กSERVICES.EXEก Services Control Manager

กLSASS.EXEก Local Security Authentication Server Service

กsvchost.exeก Service Host

กspoolsv.exeก The print spooler service

กexplorer.exeก Windows Explorer

‘tASKMGR.EXEก The Task Manager

‘regsvc.exeก Remote Registry Service

กSystem Idle Processก is basically another name for the time when Windows is doing nothing. There are hundreds of thousands of processes that run on a computer, so you will definitely find names of many other processess that are not listed above. For a list of well known processes, visit www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm. You can also learn about almost any task by using itกs name as a search term in google.

Task Manager can also be used to tweak your system if itกs running slow. The [Performance] tab displays running graphs of your computers CPU and memory usage. If the CPU usage seems to be running over 80 percent most of the time, or if the memory usage seems to be running higher than the total physical memory, you may want to shut down some applications or processes.

On the Process tab, you can identify processes that are consuming a lot of processor time. Click twice on the CPU column heading to sort the CPU column so the processes hogging the most CPU time on top. You can sort the กMem Usageก column the same way.

On the Application tab, if you right click on the name of an application and, in the popup menu that appears, choose กGo To Processก, Task Manager will open the Processes tab and highlight the process that runs the application. On the Processes tab, if you rightclick on the name of a process, you can choose กSetPriorityก and promote the priority of the process you need (or demote the priority of a different process to free up some resources).

If you go to the Application tab and shut down an application, you will shut down any processes related to that application. Or, you might choose to shut down a background process that you can identify. To shut down an application or process, click on itกs name in the list to highlight it, then click on the [End Task] button.

On the Processes tab, if you right click on the name of a process, you can choose กEnd Process Treeก to kill the process and any subprocesses started by the process.

Task Manager can also be used for troubleshooting. If an application freezes up, you can open Task Manager and shut down the application. If the entire system freezes up, you can use Task Manager to shut down a process that is hogging all the CPU time or memory.

If you spend some time monitoring your computer with task Manager, eventually you will become familiar with the processes that commonly run. Then, when you see an unfamiliar process, you can do a little investigation to make sure itกs not a virus. For example, if you see msblast.exe in the process list, your computer is infected with the Blaster virus. You might be able to detect and eliminate a new virus before an antivirus update is available.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to [email protected]

This article was posted on August 16, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

Virus & Spyware Fixกs

Virus & Spyware Fixกs

by: Daniel J Nethersole

We all get the odd virus now and then, but sometimes that one virus could cause so many problems. In this article I shall be going though just some of the problems that these virus software programs can do, and how to fix them.

One of the worst type of virus is one that effects the Boot Config, if this happens you will notice an error such as กInvalid boot sectorก or กunaccessable boot deviceก, there are many other errors for the same problem, if you don’t get even a windows loading screen then your issue may be the Boot Config, sounds like a hard problem to fix don’t it, infact its pretty easy. For this we shall need a Windows XP install CD, if your computer never come with one then please go down to where you paid for your PC and ask for one, insert the CD and then turn on your PC, you will get a text messege saying ‘to boot from CD press any keyก, so press anykey!, now wait for a few mintues untill it says the terms and conditions, read though them and then follow the onscreen instructions untill it warns of another operating system already installed. It will give you a option to go into the recovery console by pressing R, this is what we want to go into. Wait, and a Dos like screen will show itself, type the following ก/fixmbrก and then ก/exitก, and then load up your PC and windows should load up. Now I would advice for you to do a virus scan using what ever software you use!

Another type of virus is one that cuts you of the network or internet often, these can be hard to fix as they most of the time merge with the system files. First of all check that you can’t just fix it by using MSCONFIG (Start Run Msconfig Startup Disable all), if you can then do so and then run a virus checking peice of software, if this fails then read on. Load up in Windows safe mode (Press F6 before the windows loading screen and then select safe mode) and now wait for safemade to load, once loaded use your virus checking software to rid yourself of the virus that is creating this problem, almost all viruses can be removed from Safemode. If this fails then seek professional help or reinstall Windows.

Yet another type of virus is not really a virus its spyware and adware, this is the type of problem most people get and it is the most common caluse for computers to slow down over time, you may ask where you could get spyware from and the most common places are p2p software such as Kazaa or websites offering Illegal content or even porn sites, but you may also get it from any other type of site. Spyware and Adware are big issues for slowing down your PC so I am sure you want to get rid of them, to do so you will wish to download AntiSpyware software and I reccomend Spysweeper by WebRoot, others may wish to try Adaware, download the antispyware tool you want and then UPDATE the softrware, now do a full system scan and go make a drink, when you get back the scan should be done and it will list all of the spyware and adware, right click and click remove all and then wait again for it to remove the software. When done it may ask you to reset, do so as surgested, but now you will want to get another peice of software called Spybot S&D, this is free and can be downloaded from http://www.security.kolla.de, download and update that then run scan, it will find more spyware and adware so don’t be shocked by thinking the other software did not work, in turn they work together to make a better peice of antispyware, Spybot also gives you the chance to immunize from some spyware, click that and now your system won’t get the same spyware again. I reccomend doing a spyware check every 1 week.

http://www.walls.dimensionet.com

About The Author

Daniel Nethersole produces sites for DimensioNetworks including http://www.lostse.com and http://www.walls.dimensionet.com

This article was posted on August 06

by Daniel J Nethersole

Effective or Irritating: The Use of Pop Windows in

Effective or Irritating: The Use of Pop Windows in Internet Marketing

by: Nial Robbins

A few years ago, popup windows were all the rage in Internet marketing. It seemed that every time one opened a web page they would be bombarded with offers for this or that. It had gotten to the point where surfing the Internet was almost like playing a video game; when the ads would popup one would try and close them out before another one came. This is precisely why we have seen the decline in the use of popup windows on the Internet today; surfers simply do not even look at the popups anymore. They close the windows out before even reading the ad. Very often, a surfer will even leave your site if there are too many popup ads. They simply do not want the hassle of closing those windows while trying to obtain the information that your site has to offer. This information, while valuable, is not as valuable as the surfers time. Studies have shown however, that even with these set backs, popup windows are still an effective method of Internet marketing.

Is there some way that popup windows can be less irritating and still be effective? Yes! What if the pop ad were seen upon exiting your site instead of entering? This would allow the surfer to obtain the information that they need from your site, feeling that they were able to come and go quickly without being hassled by other ads and offers all the while making the surfer happy. You have left the surfer with a positive attitude and therefore are more likely to respond to the pop advertisement. This is being accomplished more and more by using what is being called popunder windows. When the surfer comes to your site, the ad is opened discretely behind the your web page. Then, upon leaving your site, after obtaining all the information that they need , will see the ad and therefore be more likely to respond. Since the surfer has the information, he has achieved his objective and is now open to do other things; ideally respond to the pop under advertisement.

Not all popwindows are created equally. There are some things that you can do to make your popwindows, whether popup or popunder more effective. The popwindow should be easy to ขescapeข from. If the surfer does not want to see the add, but has a hard time closing it out, they will likely become frustrated and could leave your site all together. You should either use a button to that will allow the surfer to close the window or be sure that the ขxข is easily visible. Another good idea is to use a script that utilizes cookies. Cookie will prevent popwindows from overloading the surfer since you can decide the frequency of the popwindows, rather than each time a page is opened. Also be sure that there is no more than one popwindow per page.

When creating a popwindow, you will be asked to fill out a short information form, select the length of cookies, and choose the layout of the popwindow. When choosing the design of the popwindow, you can increase the effectiveness by creating a large headline that includes benefits that will be most appealing to the customer. You should also consider using incentives and lastly do not ask the customer to read a long and drawn out advertisement. Keep the message simple yet powerful and your popads will be sure to generate profits for your site.

About The Author

Nial Robbins can help YOU start your own profitable business on the Internet within the next 24 hours… To learn more, visit: http://www.NDRHomeBiz.com/pips.html.

This article was posted on September 08

by Nial Robbins

How to Backup a PC

How to Backup a PC

by: Marisa Pellegrino

Everyone thinks, ‘it won’t happen to me’. But what if it does? All your files, pictures and documents gone, in an instant. Sure, you can reach for the disks that came with your computer to reinstall the applications but what about the most important component, your data? Data backup is something too many computer owners ignore.

There are a number of things that can bring down your computer, some of which include a power surge, hard drive crash, careless mistakes, viruses, a fire or theft.

If your system did not come with a recovery disc, you should consider making a backup disc as soon as possible. This is important should you ever need to rebuild your system to its ขas boughtข condition.

How often you back up your data varies from person to person. It depends on the volume of data input, frequency of change, and the nature of your data. A general rule of thumb would be to back up anything that would be difficult and timeconsuming to recreate.

How to backup data:

If you have Windows XP, it includes backup software; however, if you’re running on Home Edition, it isn’t installed by default. Once the software is installed, go to the Start menu and choose ขaccessoriesข, then ขsystem toolsข, then ขbackupข in order to run the backup wizard. On the final screen, you can press the ขadvancedข button which will allow you to automatically schedule recurring backups. The wizard also allows you to create a system recovery disc which will enable you to boot and rescue your data should Windows get damaged. At the end of this article, you will find a list of programs and software that can do the data backup for you.

You may think you’d like to back up everything you have in your computer. However, there is no need to back up software and applications since these can be reinstalled with the original discs. Most Windows programs now have a default for storing data within your user profile.

Backup programs:

There are a number of programs that perform data backup for you, some of which are described here. Ghost 9.0 creates full drive images, IBackup copies files to remote databases, and Dantz’s Retrospect Professional 6.5 is a traditional backup tool. There is also free software available for data backup. For instance, Backup4 protects your data and features an easy backup wizard that allows you to schedule backups whenever you like. Disk Tools Image Maker is an easytouse disk imaging tool which allows you to create exact images of your entire drive. It works directly from within Windows so there is no need to boot from a floppy. Handy Backup is another software which makes an automatic backup of critical data to any type of storage medium.

Backup Tips:

Here are a few tips to keep in mind regarding data backup:

Don’t procrastinate. Most people decide to back up their data only after they’ve experienced a loss!

Try to find a backup software that can hold twice as much as your hard disk so that you’re able to schedule backups when you’re not there.

Back up only what is necessary. However, if you’re not sure, back it up … better safe than sorry!

About The Author

Marisa Pellegrino is a freelance writer from Montreal and is the head researcher and content manager for RAID RECOVERY (www.raidrecoveryguide.com) and other sites.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 22

by Marisa Pellegrino

The Hard Disk

The Hard Disk

by: Pawan Bangar

The Hard Disk Guide ;

From throwing our unnecessary files, to defragmenting, from partitions to formatslearn how to keep your hard disk in top shape

The hard disk is the place where all your programs and data are stored. If the hard disk Stops working you could end up losing all your data. What we’ll do here is take you on. A quick tour of the different things you need to know about it, so you can keep it working smoothly.

What is the hard disk?

The hard disk is a magnetic mass storage device installed in special bays within the system unit. The hard disk could do compared to a large cupboard having several shelves

With different items being neatly arranged and stored on each self. The hard disk stored all the data you need to store on your PCthe operating system (for example, Windows),

Software program (for example an office suit), business or household applications and data, games, email message, address books and so on.

A hard disk off the assembly line is just a mass of magnetic media. The magnetic surface of the hard disk has to be structured into specific areas where data can be stored properly, a process known as formatting. When you buy a new computer, the system comes with a formatted hard disk.

A hard disk needs to be divided into partitions before it can be used. The hard disk on a newly purchased computer comes configured with a single large partitions, the primary partition (C: in My Computer) and an extended partition, which may be further subdivided into logical partitions (D: E: and so on in My Computer) if required. Partitioning makes the storage of data more efficient and reduces the access time to retrieve data.

The storage capacity of hard disk has increased by leaps and bounds since IBM XT’s first 10 MB hard disk. Nowadays, 10GB is the entry level and 17 GB is common. The hard disk communicates with a PC’s motherboard through an expansion card or a disk interface card.

How does it wok?

The disk is formatted to divide its magnetic surface into concentric circular paths called tracks (these are like the grooves on a phonograph record) and wedgeshaped slices called sectors. Data is stored in the form of a file or groups of disk sector called clusters. A disk drive locates data by moving its magnetic readwrite head to specific track within a specific sector.

When a new file is created in a freshly formatted hard disk, it is assigned cluster numbers in a sequential order. If the file is expanded, then the first available clusters are assigned. When file is deleted, their cluster numbers are simply marked as available. Over course of time, when files grow in size to require additional cluster or are deleted, the perfectly ordered sequence of clusters gets disturbed, a process known as fragmentation.

Partitioning the hard disk

Partitioning divides a large hard disk into smaller virtualnot physicalhard disk or partitions, leading to an efficient utilization of space and boosting your PC’s performance. Partitioning could be very useful in following circumstances:

1One PC, several usersIf several persons have to work on the same PC, partitions could be assigned for each of them so that each person has his or her own ขworking space.ข This could be useful in home setting too, where you could have separate partitions for your spouse, children’s games, business applications and data and so on.

2Work on multiple operating systemsYou may want to work on more than one operating system on your PC, for example Win98, Linux and Windows95. (Maybe you have applications that work perfectly in Win95 but suddenly crashed in Win98). You can keep these various operating systems safely on the same hard disk by installing them in separate partitions.

Partitioning Tools There’re several partitioning tools available for your hard drive. Two of the most popular ones are:

1PartitionMagic Version 4.o for Windows95 and 98Partition Magic, from Power Quest is a useful and powerful partitioning program. It effortlessly creates, moves, converts and resizes partitions on your hard disk without the necessity of reformatting the disk of erasing valuable data.

2FDISK is a freely available partitioning utility that runs in the DOS environment. Its greatest UPS is that it is available for free. It is cumbersome to use and also requires formatting of the hard disk (perhaps its biggest drawback).

Formatting a hard disk

As with most mechanical devices, prolonged use of the hard disk results in inevitable wear and tear and malfunction. Repeated adding and deleting of files takes its toll on the hard disk and you may get disk error, including the notorious ขfatal errorข of Windows. This is an indication that you may need to reformat your hard disk to have it working properly again.

However, before deciding to reformat the disk it may be worthwhile to try out other alternative

1Run Disk Defragmenter

2Use a cleanup shareware programs such asregclean.exe, available for download.

However, if after trying out these alternatives, you continue to get fatal error message, then you probably need to format your hard disk.

The procedure of formatting is simple enough but has to be done carefully. When you format the hard disk, all the data on the disk is lostWindows operating system, software programs, business applications data, games, emails messages. In short everything.

How to do the formatting

Windows 95

1 Doubleclick on My Computer icon. Then click the icon for the drive you want to format. (e. g. C:)

2 On the File menu, click Format and follow the instructions.

Remember that you can not format a disk if there are files open on that disk. If the disk has been compressed, use Drivespace or other compression to format the disk.

Windows 98

1 Click Start, click Shutdown, click Restart, and then click on OK.

2 Press and hold the CTRL key until the Microsoft Windows 98 Startup Menu appears.

3 Select Command prompt only and press Enter.

4 At the C:\prompt, type format C: and press ENTER.

5 Follow the instruction on the screen.

After formatting you’re left with a blank hard disk with more space then before. The next step is to restore the programs you need on your disk.

1 First reinstall Windows and then application programs you use.

2 Restore your backups into appropriate files. If you use a Zip drive or a CDwriter, these need to be installed first.

3 Reinstall all drivers for the printer, modem or other peripherals.

Do the defrag

A file on your disk may not be stored all in one place or cluster. For example, if you create a Word document and make changes to it at a later date, the change may get saved in a different cluster from the original file. The more often you make changes to a file, the more disorganized the cluster becomes, and the disk becomes fragmented. This makes the magnetic head that reads and writes data to and from the disk, works harder to retrieve the entire file. Fragmentation of hard drive reduces the storage efficiency and then access time for retrieving information.

The process of defragging helps to rearrange the files and unused space on your hard disk so that programs run faster.

Before Defragging, it may be a good idea to check how much of your hard drive is fragmented. You can do this by running ScanDisk. Empty the temp folders and Recycle Bin before defragging.

Windows 95 and Windows 98: Open the Start Menu, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on Disk Defragmenter.

You defragging schedule will depend on how much you use the PC. A good rule of the thumb is to defrag every two weeks.

Make sure all your files are closed and then you have turned of the screensaver also.

Spring Cleaning

No more hard disk space left? Getting disk error or illegal operations? It may be time to clean up your hard disk. A few spring cleaning pointers to help you out.

1 Toss out unwanted applications: check out all the software applications you have loaded on the PC. Delete the old applications if you have installed newer versions. Go to the Control Panel’s Add/Remove program option and uninstall those applications you don’t need.

2 Run ScanDisk: the ScanDisk option in Windows is very useful application which fixes problem like lost clusters, invalid directory entries and physical disk errors. Run ScanDisk once a month.

Go to start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, and choose System Tools and click on ScanDisk. Click the drive that contains the folders and files you want to check.

3 Defrag often, once in two weeks.

4 Empty Recycle Bin: Rightclick on Recycle Bin icon on the Desktop and choose Empty Recycle Bin from the dropdown menu.

5 Clean out your folders: do you really need all those download you had undertaken for a past research project or those games you seldom plays? Delete those folders that are not required.

6 Delete .tmp files and create more space on hard disk.

Close all programs. Go to Windows Explorer. Press the key to open find dialog box. Enter *.tmp in the box. Make sure that C: Drive is listed in the Lookin box. Include subfolders by checking them. When .tmp files appear, delete them.

7 Delete temporary Net files to create more space.

Go to the temp Internet Files folder in Windows Explorer. Delete all present files.

8 There are several Windows components on your hard disk that you could do without. You could remove these individual components from the Add/Remove Windows setup option and create more space on your disk

Some windows components that are not necessary are accessories such as Desktop Wallpapers (a saving of 700kB) and games (a saving of 600kB

Before you format…..

1 Enter the hard drive’s technical specifications (number of cylinders, tracks, sectors etc.) into the PC’s BIOS setup table so that it is available for the machine’s Startup program.

2 Backup all your important data onto another hard disk, recordable CDs, Zip Drive, magnetic tapes or floppies. If you have a sort of backup space or are in hurry, copy only important folders. Backup your email and address books too. After taking the backups, check them out to make sure that they are okay.

3 Backup any folders that you share with others over a network.

4 Keep handy the installation disks or CDs of the application software you use, such as Windows or an office suite. These will have to be reinstalled after formatting.

5 Keep handy the driver disks for your printer, sound card, CD ROM driver, modem or other devices. These will have to be reinstalled after formatting.

FAT Facts

When a hard disk is formatted, a File Allocation Table (FAT) is created on the disk. FAT keeps a record of the locations of all the files on the disk FAT 16 is the file allocation system used in DOS and Windows 95. FAT 32 file system is used in Windows 98 or Win 95 OSR 2. FAT 32 is considered to be more efficient as it saves more space on the disk.

The performance of hard disk largely affects the overall performance of a PC. Hard disk performance factors include storage capacity, data access time (the time it takes for the read write heads to find a required position on the magnetic surface), data transfer time (measure how many million bit per second can be transferred from disk to RAM) and reliability.

TIP

Keep your hard disk in tiptop condition and optimize its performance.

1 Create separate folders for each business application, data or for each family member. This will keep your disk clean and organized.

2 Avoid the compression

Though file compression increases the amount of storage space, it also considerably slowdown system performance.

3 Keep 10% free. Always keep at least 10% of your hard disk freefilling it beyond 90% of its capacity will lead to system slowdown and potential loss of information.

4 Run the Maintenance Wizard utility of Windows 95 and 98. This utility make your programs run faster, checks your hard disk for problems and free hard disk space. You can schedule it to0 run on a regular basis at a specific time, for example once a week or other interval of your choice.

Start maintenance Wizard by clicking on Start, choose Programs, choose Accessories, choose system tools and click on Maintenance Wizard.

5 Use software package that help to optimize your hard disk’s performance, e.g. Symantec’s Norton Utilities.

About The Author

Pawan Bangar,

Technical Director,

Birbals,

(Hbirbals,Seobirbals,Ebirbals,Ibirbals)

Cell:911753150734

Cell:+919815352253

email: [email protected]

Yahoo Messenger:[email protected]

MSN messenger:[email protected]

This article was posted on November 09, 2003

by Pawan Bangar

The Importance Of Email Backup

The Importance Of Email Backup

by: Alexandru Marias

Viruses, software failures, power failures, human errors, hard drive failures are only a few examples of what could destroy the data on a hard drive, including all documents, pictures, emails and other files!
Most home computer users don’t need an expensive backup solution; as they only need to burn the folders with important documents and pictures to a CDRW from time to time; this ensuring that in case of a disaster they can easily get them back.
Togeder with documents and pictures, itกs a critical operation to save the emails, attachments, address book and other important data from within the email client; otherwise in case of a computer problem the user will find himself in the impossibility to get them back, and this can be a really unwanted situation especially for webmasters or people who rely on their emails. Unfortunately many people actually start to do backup copies only after they lose data.
This article will explain how one can create a Outlook Express Backup copy ( as Outlook Express lacks a backup function ) This email program is usually installed with the Windows operating system and is probably among the most commonly used email programs today. While using Outlook Express is fairly easy, finding and backing up the emails can be a little more complicated. Since there are a large number of files and folders on a computer running Windows, the first problem is to find the files containing the emails. Outlook Express stores emails in .dbx files and there might be several different dbx files depending on how many email folders you have created in Outlook Express. If you are using Windows 98, you can probably locate your emails somewhere in the Windows directory. In Windows 2000 and XP, emails are usually stored somewhere in the user data or application data folder.
The easiest way to find out exactly where your emails are stored is to start Outlook Express, go to the Tools menu, and open the Options dialog box. In the Options dialog box, select the Maintenance page and click the Store Folder button. Here you can find the path to the folder containing your emails. To open the folder, copy the path and paste in the address field of the Windows File Manager. You should see a number of .dbx files and possibly some other files, too.
After locating the email folder, you can simply select all the files and press CtrlC. Then open the folder where you want to keep the backup copies (on another hard disk, a DVD or a network drive, for example) in Windows Explorer, and press CtrlV.
To backup the Address Book, you can follow these steps:

Select Tools | Address Book… from the menu in Outlook Express.
Choose File | Export | Other Address Book… from the address bookกs menu.
Select Text File (Comma Separated Values) as the export format.
Click Export.
Select the location you want to export your address book to using the Browse… button.
Give your backup copy a meaningful name.
Click Next.
Select the fields you want to include in your backup.
Finally, select Finish.
Click OK.
Click Close to end the process (successfully, I hope).

Additionally, there are several email backup utilities which can make the backup operation much easier. Outlook Express Backup Genie is one piece of software that can offer peace of mind by creating compact backup copies of emails, attachments, address book, signatures, blocked list, mail rules and settings periodically. The difference between using a automatic email backup utility and manual backups, is that the first can be scheduled to create backups quiet in the background at specified time intervals, and that it will include all email information ( signatures, blocked list, etc ) which otherwise would be more difficult to save. Also if ever the backup is needed, the application will ensure that the restore process is made smoothly. And, it works with top 9 popular email clients. The downside of using a automatic email backup utility is that it costs money, usually about 2030 USD as one time payment, while the manual backups are ofcourse, free.
The conclusion is that either manual or automatic, backing up emails is a critical operation for every computer user that would regret losing them.
A trial copy of Outlook Express Backup Genie can be found at: http://www.amicutilities.com/outlookexpressbackup/

About The Author

Alexandru Marias

http://www.amicutilities.com

This article was posted on May 23, 2004

by Alexandru Marias

Freezing Time To Warm Up Your PC

Freezing Time To Warm Up Your PC

by: Deborah Anderson

Freezing is also known as crashing or hanging. Itกs frustrating. The computer locks up and the mouse and keyboard do not respond. You may lose data and you certainly lose time and patience. Typically, you need to press Ctrl+Alt+Del to see the programs that are running and to try to close the program that is not responding, or you need to force a restart. So why does your computer freeze up?

Common causes of freezing:

Low memory

Low disk space

Fragmented disk

Too many programs open simultaneously

Low CPU speed

Corrupt files

Software bugs

Overheating random lockups that start several minutes after you start up the PC are often the result of the processor cooling fan not working properly

Some nonstandard applications are suspect with freezing problems

Memory chip problems

Virus infection

Steps you can take to minimize freezing:

There are many things that you can do to help your computer do what you want without testing your patience…

Do a disk cleanup (cache, temp files, old or unused files, recycle bin) .. click here for instructions.

Do not run any more applications at one time than you need to.

If the freezing happens consistently with one application, uninstall and reinstall it files associated with the application may have become corrupted. Always use Control Panel/ Add Remove programs, or the uninstall program belonging to the program to uninstall a program.

If the freezing has been occurring since you installed a new program, uninstall it.

Uninstall any programs that you may have downloaded and installed in the past, but no longer use.

Get the latest Windows update at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com

Get any available patches for your software go to the manufacturerกs websites to check for patches or updates to your programs.

Free up resources click on Run and type กmsconfigก in the dialog box. Next, click on the กStartupก tab. All the programs listed here with check marks are running in the system memory. To free resources Windows 98 users may uncheck everything except กSystem Trayก . Windows ME users can uncheck everything except ScanRegistry, PCHealth, *StateMgr and System Tray. Leave your antivirus software in the startup as well. You must restart the computer for these changes to take effect.

Run ScanDisk (or Check Disk in Windows XP)

Defragment your disk. Click here for instructions.

If you have an older computer and are trying to run multiple applications, you may need to upgrade your computer… check the system specifications recommended for the applications you are running to see if your system is capable of doing what you are asking.

Obtain the latest drivers for your hardware go to the web sites of the hardware manufacturers and get the latest drivers for your video card, sound card etc

Redetect your devices remove the components from the Control Panel, System, Device Management screen. Reboot the system and let Windows redetect and add only those devices which are actually on your system.

Make sure that you have antivirus software installed. Set it to automatically update virus definitions, to scan all incoming files, and to do a full system check at regular intervals.

Disk Cleanup :

For Windows 98 & 2000

You have probably been downloading programs, creating and deleting files, and installing new software without thinking about the effect this has on your disk space. Itกs probably time to have a cleanup. Windows 98 and 2000 have a feature that cleans up your disks for you. It removes temporary files, the recycle bin and other files giving you the option to delete or not to delete. It is simple to run.

Do this cleanup as follows:

Start: Programs: Accessories: System Tools: Disk Clean Up

When it opens up, select the C: Drive and start it. It will pop up and show you about four types of files, each with a check box. Check the boxes for files you would like deleted and proceed. It should run through pretty quickly and then you will have more space on your computer.

For Win 95

Windows Temporary Files

Firstly, get rid of your Windows Temporary files.

Go to Start> Find> Files & Folders. Then search for ก*.tmpก (minus the quotes). The * allows you to look for any file that has a temporary file type. If you have done it right, only files that have a .tmp after them should appear in the search results. Now just click on the first one, hold shift, use the scroll bar to go all the way to the bottom, then click on the last one, and press delete.

Secondly, get rid of your Temporary Internet files

Go to the Temporary Internet Files folder in the Windows directory. It should be next to the Temp folder. There shouldn’t be anything in here that can’t be deleted, so you can go ahead and delete the files in this folder.

Thirdly, empty your recycle bin. Right click on the Recycle Bin icon, select Empty Recycle Bin. Many people have hundreds of files they กdeletedก but they are still taking up space in the Recycle Bin.

Run the Disk Defragmenter

Editing and deleting files as you work leaves gaps on data storage media. Instead of each file being stored in one continuous block, it ends up in several locations, resulting in inefficient retrieval of your data. As you add more data to your hard drive, the gaps left by previous deletions are filled. Your file becomes split, or fragmented. This will slow down your system – when you try to retrieve a file, the process is slower than if it was stored in one block. To make your disk storage more efficient, a process called กdefragmentingก is used.

Windows has a built in defragmenter, which is located at:

Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

It is a good idea to run this program once a month. When you run the defragmenter, close all programs including your screensaver. If programs are running it can cause data on your hard drive to be changed which makes the defragmenter start from the beginning… and never finish!

The more frequently you use defrag, the faster it will become.

About The Author

Deborah Anderson is a computer consultant who offers free email based computer troubleshooting through her website at http://www.itsolve.com. To benefit from information, advice and tips on using your computer, get a free subscription to SolveITกs newsletter today. To subscribe, send a blank email to [email protected].

SolveIT Solving Your Computer Problems

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 17, 2002

by Deborah Anderson

Choose the Right Format for Your Ebooks

Choose the Right Format for Your Ebooks

by: Tim Coulter

Choosing the right file format for your ebook is an essential step on the road to electronic selfpublishing. This article looks at the factors affecting your choice and offers tips to help you make the most of your ebook, whatever format you choose.
The format of an ebook determines the nature of the digital package in which it is distributed. During the short history of the ebook, various new formats have been developed and others may evolve in the future. But, as with any maturing technology, a point will probably be reached where one or two formats dominate, to the exclusion of all others. Fortunately, it is becoming increasingly easy to repackage existing content in alternative formats, so there is now less risk associated with making an early commitment to a particular format, even if it ultimately fails the test of time.
The important considerations when choosing an ebook format are:

Compatibility with the platform used by the target audience
Ease of installation and use by your readers
The ability to support any special features required by the intended content

All common ebook formats now support flexible text formatting and page layout, embedded graphics, hyperlinks and convenient navigation.
The two formats most commonly used by independent ebook authors are PDF and HTML (also known as EXE format). They are favored for their ease of creation and widespread acceptance by the ebook community. Although other formats exist (MS Reader, Adobe ebook and Palm Doc etc), they typically entail more complex compilation procedures and include features more applicable to mass publishing.
The PDF format, developed by Adobe Systems Inc, can be viewed on Windows and Unix systems, as well Macs and even handheld computers. An ebook in PDF format is viewed using the free, downloadable Adobe Reader software.
Although a specific version of the Adobe Reader application is required by each target platform, a single common PDF file format is applicable to all users, regardless of their platform. This crossplatform compatibility is probably the single most important factor in the huge popularity of PDF as a publishing format. Over 500 million computer users are currently equipped to read PDF documents.
A PDF ebook can contain thousands of pages and the inbuilt hierarchical navigation system (known as bookmarks) makes it as easy to find a particular chapter or page as in a printed book. For this and other reasons, the PDF format is generally the professionalกs choice.
HTML ebooks are created by combining a set of HTML pages (i.e. web pages) into a single file. The resultant ebook can only be viewed on Windows computers, but since the majority of buyers fall in this group, most marketers do not consider this a major limitation. Unlike PDF (and other formats), HTML ebooks do not require any additional preinstalled software to read them. Most variants are dependent on Internet Explorer, but since this is installed automatically with Windows, the issue is of no consequence to most users.
A common feature of many HTML ebooks is the ability to customize certain predefined aspects of their content, even after creation and distribution. This is known as rebranding. It is very popular among online marketers, particular those producing promotional ebooks, because it enables the ebook medium to be used as a viral affiliate marketing tool.
On the downside, the need for multiple content files means that HTML ebooks are more cumbersome to create, making the format less wellsuited to large authoring projects. Also, since HTML ebooks are directly executable by Windows, they are a potential source of computer viruses. Although there have been few incidents of virus problems originating from the ebook industry, the everpresent threat means that some prospective readers are wary of downloading ebooks in this format.

About The Author

Copyright © Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of กClickBank The Definitive Guideก The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.

http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/

This article was posted on June 29, 2004

by Tim Coulter

MCSE 70290 Certification Primer

MCSE 70290 Certification Primer

by: Geetu Ahuja

Microsoft Certifications are one of the most widely acclaimed, pursued, and achieved technical certifications in the IT industry. The demand for Microsoft Certified Professionals in the job market is increasing every year.

Microsoft offers a number of certification levels depending on specific areas of proficiency and nature of job. Some of the certifications pertaining to networking are

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)

Microsoft Certified System Administrator (MCSA)

Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE)

Each certification level has certain exams associated with it. You can decide the appropriate certification exam based on your experience, skills, and interests.

Benefits of Microsoft Certifications

Microsoft Certifications provide a standard method for testing employee skills. The certifications provide employers a valid benchmark for evaluating the employeeกs abilities. This will provide you the recognition and reward as per your expertise.

Microsoft Certifications offer prospective employers a baseline to judge your knowledge, skill, and expertise in the field. Certifications can provide added advantage if you are at the same level of experience as another person without certifications.

Certifications are a valuable tool if you have no or very little experience. The certifications that you hold can prove and reassure your employers and consultants about your knowledge in the field. This will help you secure good job as well as negotiate a good salary.

PreRequisite Experience (Recommended) for Microsoft Certifications

To pursue this certification you should have at least 1 year of experience in:

Implementing and administering a network operating system in environments with 50 to 26,000 supported users, in approximately 3 to 150 physical locations.

Implementing network services and applications such as file and print services, database services, messaging services, proxy server or firewall services, dialin server services, and Web hosting.

Implementing and administering a desktop operating system.

Designing a network infrastructure with 3 or more domain controllers.

Significance of Microsoft Certifications for Microsoft Windows Server 2003

Microsoft has developed independent certification requirements for Microsoft Windows Server 2003. An aspirant can certify directly for MCSE/MCSA in Windows 2003 if they are new to certification process. If the aspirant is already a certified MCSE /MCSA in Windows 2000, then they can follow the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows 2000 to secure Windows 2003 Certifications. If the aspirant certifies in MCSE for Windows NT4.0, they can earn MCSE in Windows 2003 by following the upgrade path for MCSEs in Windows NT4.0.

The exams are slightly more challenging than their Windows 2000 counterparts, but they will actually test your handson knowledge since that is the most important part of ensuring that a certification is credible.

Exam 70290: Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment

Exam 70290 is the first in the series of the core exams for MCSE certifications.

When you pass the Managing and Maintaining a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Environment (MCSE 70290) exam, you achieve Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) status. You also earn credit toward the following certifications:

Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator (MCSA) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

Core credit towards Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 certification

MCSE 70290 exam objectives are

Objective 1: Managing and Maintaining Physical and Logical Devices

In this objective you will need to demonstrate expertise in managing and maintaining physical and logical devices. As an administrator, you should understand Basic and Dynamic disks, RAID configuration and troubleshooting, driver signing, and the use of tools, such as Device Manager and Hardware Troubleshooting Wizard. Familiarize yourself with Device Manager and the warning and disabled icons found when problems are present on installed devices.

Objective 2: Managing Users, Computers, and Groups

This objective includes many topics, so you should be prepared to face many questions that fall into this category. Have a healthy introduction to profile management, user and group accounts, permissions, and troubleshooting. Practice a lot on GPOs and perform a variety of administrative tasks, including configuration of desktop settings, control of security settings, assignment of scripts, redirection of folders, and software distribution. Also, get a clear understanding on inheritance and filtering.

Objective 3: Managing and Maintaining Access to Resources

Knowing how to configure, monitor, audit and troubleshoot NTFS permissions based issues are one of those most important areas that you need to know this concept thoroughly and also be sure to brush up on your share permissions and share/NTFS permissions interaction. Do not forget to brush up on how folder and file permissions can change or stay the same when copying or moving within a drive or between drives.

Objective 4: Managing and Maintaining a Server Environment

In this objective youกll find questions from topics, such as Event Viewer, System Monitor, software updates (including the functionality of Microsoftกs Software Update Service or SUS), Remote Assistance, disk quotas, print queues, performance objects and IIS 6.0. Spend time understanding IIS topics around Web sites, Virtual and physical directories, files and host and cname records in DNS. New to Windows Server 2003 is SUS. Understand clearly how SUS is used for deploying and managing client and server critical updates.

Objective 5: Managing and Implementing Disaster Recovery

In this objective youกll find questions on ASR, VSS, backing up files and system state data, configuring security for backup operators, verifying backup jobs, managing media, restoring and scheduling backups and recovering from server hardware failures. You should take some extra time to get familiar with the various types of backups that Windows Server 2003 supports, as well as the various configuration options that are available to you. Practice making backups of different types and then practice restoring them.

MCSE 70290 Exam Model

Most of the questions in the MCSE 70290 exam are multiple choice type. The questions require the กbestก answer from several close responses. Other questions may present an implementation scenario, requirements, and a proposed solution and then ask if the solution meets all of the requirements or combinations of the primary and secondary requirements. Microsoft has introduced some testing innovations for the certification exams. These question types present a more realistic visual representation of the tasks a MCSE would do in future. These are

Hot Area Questions

This type of question requires indicating the correct answer by selecting one or more elements within a graphic.

Active Screen Questions This type of question asks you to configure a dialog box by changing one or more elements.

Drag and Drop Questions This type of question asks you to drag source objects to appropriate targets within a work area.

Build List and Reorder Questions This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by building an answer list. In a Build List and Reorder question, you need to build a list by dragging the appropriate source objects to the answer list and then placing them in the correct order based on criteria defined in the question.

Create a Tree Questions This type of question asks you to create a tree structure. You indicate the correct answer by dragging source nodes to the correct locations in the answer tree. Nodes consist of text and a small icon.

Windows Simulation Questions This type of question asks you to indicate the correct answer by performing specific tasks such as configuring and installing network adapters or drivers, configuring and controlling access to files, and managing hardware devices. Many of the tasks that systems administrators and systems engineers perform can be presented more accurately in simulations than in most traditional exam question types.

You can get handson experience on new set of questions that are available in Whizlabs MCSE 70290 Exam Simulator. This will help you plan your study regime to ensure success.

Passing Score

Microsoft has normalized scoring for all MCP exams, so the same passing score applies to all exams. 700 is now the minimum passing score for all MCP exams. However, the maximum score (which used to top out at 1000) varies per exam, depending on the complexity of the skills measured.

Time Limit

The exam duration is 175 minutes with 45 questions. You will have plenty of time to answer the exam questions, so there is no need to rush. If you have spare time available, you can double check the questions and ensure that you have read them correctly and actually answered the question as intended.

Exam Result

Instead of reporting results based on major categories for exam objectives as it used to, Microsoft is now providing numerical scores and bar graphs for กskills clustersก. Visually, the bars in the exam report show you how well you fare in each skills cluster. If bars that represent cluster scores are close to one end of the graph, they indicate stronger skills; bars near the other end indicate weaker skills. Please store your exam results in both paper and electronic format for later reference.

Sample Questions

Question 1

You are a systems administrator for TicTacToe Toy Manufacturers. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. The companyกs Active Directory infrastructure consists of a single domain hosted on two domain controllers named Tic1 and Tic2.

Tic2 experienced a hard disk failure, and hence has been taken offline. Tic2 remained offline for some days while all Active Directory updates were made to Tic1. You proceed to restore the data from backup while ensuring that the latest Active Directory changes are replicated to Tic2.

How should you restore the lost data from backup?

Choices:

Perform authoritative restore on Tic1.

Perform normal restore on Tic2.

Perform primary restore on Tic2.

Perform authoritative restore onTic2.

Correct Choice: B

Explanation:

Choice B is the correct answer.

During a normal restore operation; Backup operates in nonauthoritative restore mode. That is, any data that you restore, including Active Directory objects, will have their original update sequence number. The Active Directory replication system uses this number to detect and propagate Active Directory changes among the servers in your organization. Because of this, any data that is restored nonauthoritatively will appear to the Active Directory replication system as though it is old, which means the data will never be replicated to your other servers. Instead, if newer data is available from your other domain controllers, the Active Directory replication will update the restored data. Hence, choices A, C, and D are incorrect.

Question 2

You are a systems administrator for Blueberry Packaging Industries. All servers in the company run on Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

You create a folder named Custom Package on the companyกs file server to contain the companyกs files. You share this folder as Custom Package. The folder is configured with default NTFS permissions and default share permissions. The file server is located in a secure room.

Within the shared folder, Managers should be able to add and change files and subfolders. Employees in the Sales and Packers department should be able to change and delete files and subfolders. All other employees should only be able to view the files.

All Sales employees are members of the Sales domain local security group. All Managers are members of the Managers domain local security group. The Packers are members of the Packers global security group.

How should you modify share level permissions on the Custom Package folder so that the appropriate users have the minimum required privileges? (Choose all that apply)

Choices:

Grant Change share permissions to Managers.

Deny Full Control share permissions to Managers.

Grant Change share permissions to Sales.

Grant Full Control share permissions to Sales.

Grant Change share permissions to Packers.

Grant Full Control share permissions to Packers.

Deny Full Control share permissions to Everyone.

Remove Everyone from the share permissions list.

Correct Choices: A, C, and E

Explanation:

Choices A, C, and E are the correct answers.

Change permissions allow the users to create, delete, and change any files and folders in the shared folder, provided the users have appropriate NTFS permissions on the files and folders. The default NTFS permission in Windows Server 2003 is Read for Everyone and the default share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone. You should not remove Everyone from the share permission list. By default, share level permissions grant Read access to Everyone.

How to Prepare for Microsoft Certification?

Following are the steps to prepare for Microsoft certification.

MCSE exams are not easy, as advertised on many websites. The MCSE Certifications are tough, so plan to put in a lot of time and effort getting ready for your certification exams. Get all information you can about the certification exams and then start working towards your goal.

Get hands on experience. The first step in the preparation for any Microsoft Certification is hands on experience with the related product. For MCSE, the aspirant needs to have at least a year of working experience and for MCSA, the minimum recommended time of experience is 6 months. If you are not working anywhere, it will help, if you can volunteer your IT skill services to gain valuable experience.

You can set up a small network at home to practice. Setting up the home network will give a great opportunity to learn. You can practice the lab exercises in the home network as and when you study. This will give you a better understanding of the theories than just studying the exam guides.

Get trained in the related product. If possible, try to get training in the related product in a Microsoft Authorized Training Center. You can use training resources to supplement your skills and experience. You can also use the Microsoft Official Curriculum for the related exam as well as Microsoft Press books that are available for the exam.

For Exam 70290, the main areas that you need to concentrate are

Automated System Recovery (ASR)

Diskpart utility

Diskraid utility

Emergency Management Services (EMS)

File Replication Service (FRS)

Group Policy Management Console (GPMC)

Open File Backup

Password Backup and Restore Wizard

Remote Assistance

Remote Desktop

Shadow copying of shared folders

Software Update Services (SUS)

Virtual disk service

Permissions Share and NTFS

Users, Computers, and Groups

Use the preparation guide of the exam that you want to take and read it thoroughly. You should know all the exam objectives of MCSE 70290 covered in the exam preparation guide.

Use practice test software packages. Whizlabs MCSE 70290 Exam Simulator is an example.

Do NOT use Braindumps. Braindumps might help you get the certification, but you will lack important practical knowledge about the product. Hence, your prospects of landing a good IT job will be less. Some brain dumps deliberately mislead you. So BEWARE!

You can participate in any online discussion forum, where you can participate in an ongoing dialogue and even ask doubts if you have any. You are sure to get the right guidance.

Youกve learned the details about the MCSE 70290 Exam, its pattern, objectives etc. Download the MCSE Exam Preparation Guide to learn how Whizlabs can help you achieve the MCSE credential.

Resources

Exam simulators

Whizlabs MCSE 70290 Exam Simulator

Besides identifying your weak areas and giving you a feel of the exam environment, Whizlabs Exam Simulator nurtures your potential to acquire domain expertise so that you not only succeed in your certification exam but succeed in your career too.

Articles on Windows 2003

Microsoftกs Windows 2003 Server Home Page

Whatกs New in Active Directory

Windows Server 2003 Demos

Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition

Microsoft Online Resources

TechNet : Designed for IT professionals, this resource includes Howtoกs, best practices, downloads, technical chats, and much more.

MSDN : The Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) is a reference for developers, featuring code samples, technical articles, newsgroups, chats, and more.

Training & Certification Newsgroups : A newsgroup exists for every Microsoft certification. By participating in the ongoing dialogue, you take advantage of a unique opportunity to exchange ideas with and ask questions of others, including more than 750 Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) worldwide.

About The Author

Whizlabs (http://www.whizlabs.com), an ISO 9001:2000 certified company, is a leading provider of IT skill assessment and certification exam preparation tools. Whizlabsก suite of offerings include กIT Certification Exam simulators and Instructorled, Online Trainingsก for various exams by Sun, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, PMI, BEA, Cisco, and other leading IT vendors. Whizlabs also offers กIT Skill Assessment Management Solutionก for Corporations, Training Institutes, and Universities.

Whizlabs provides ข24×7 customer supportข to be able to assist its clients at all times. The customer care team at Whizlabs is dedicatedly working towards achieving ‘total customer satisfaction’. The clients can get in touch with this team through phone, email ([email protected]), and online chat (LIVE CHAT feature provided at www.whizlabs.com). This would help the clients get a real time solution to their queries.

In its first three years of inception, Whizlabs has helped over 380,000 software professionals in realizing their dream of acquiring IT Certifications of their interest.

Whizlabs offerings have fuelled the career growth of IT professionals working in 321 Fortune 500 companies spread in 118 countries across the globe.

This article was posted on October 08, 2004

by Geetu Ahuja

Battling Tough Spyware Applications on Your Comput

Battling Tough Spyware Applications on Your Computer

by: Mitch Johnson

Due to the extensive craftiness of spyware intruders, new methods have allowed spyware applications to load even while the computer is in safe mode. This stubborn quality of spyware makes the program even harder to remove because it cannot be eliminated while it is running.

As a result of these new intruding methods users have found that when switching to safe mode to remove a spyware application some are overbearing and run even in safe mode, where they should not, because the spy programs installed themselves as critical objects.

The CoolWebSearch bar, Huntbar and VX2 spyware programs developed this technique, leaving users at a loss of how to remove them. For Windows 98 and Windows ME computers you can boot to DOS and run a command line scanner that will search your hard drive and you can eliminate the files. For Windows XP users you cannot read the file from DOS but you can us Barts PE.

Barts PE is described as a stripped version of XP and it runs from a CD. The user interface of Barts PE has graphics with options to scan the entire computer with the security that the stubborn spyware is not running.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.1stinspyware.com/ , a site that focuses exclusively on spyware removal software, as well as tips on how to prevent spyware from popping up on your computer. This site articles on has spyware guard, http://www.easyspywarekiller.info/ as well as spyware scanner, http://www.easyremovespyware.info/.

This article was posted on September 14

by Mitch Johnson

What To Do When Windows Won’t Boot

What To Do When Windows Won’t Boot

by: otis f cooper

When Windows fails to boot it is normally caused by you installing a program or device and it has caused a conflict with one or more other programs.

This will no doubt give you plenty of heartaches if you’re not certain which program caused Windows to not boot up.

If you recently installed a program or application and know where it was installed,you may be in much better shape as for as correcting the error.

Here are common ways to correct the problem of your computer not completely booting up or not booting up at all.

If your computer will not bootup at all,hopefully you have made a good emergency boot disk. You can always make a windows startup disk by creating one from another computer running Windows 98 or Me.Perform the following if your computer won’t BootUp At All.

FIRST……Put your boot floppy disk in the floppy drive and turn on the PC.On some computers, you may have to access the bios and select the Boot priority to your A: drive.

Save any changes and select กStart Computer without CDROM supportก and press Enter.Once you are at the A prompt,type dir c: and press enter.

If your programs and other files are present,try restoring your system Registry by following the steps below.This may repair Windows,the Config. Sys and autoexec.bat files to where the PC may boot up normally.When the files are present,its a good indication of a good hard drive.

SECOND……To correct the problem of your computer not booting up,type in กfdisk /mbrก and press Enter to restore your master boot record.Type กScandisk C:ก to check the hard drive for errors that have occurred. You can also type กSys C:ก to hopefully restore files needed to boot up your computer.

THIRD……If the above procedures fail to repair your computer,you can repeat the first part of step one above and select กStart Computer With CDROM Supportก reinstall Windows.

Making A Windows XP Bootable Floppy

Windows XP users should create a boot disk now by placing a formatted blank diskette in the A: drive, open Windows Explorer to the C:,select Tools,Folder Options ,show Hidden files and and folders,then View Tab.

Now you uncheck กHide Protected Operating System Files (recommended).You will see a warning and click Yes and click OK.Copy the files ntldr,ntdetect.com and boot.ini onto the disk.Remove the disk and label it the Windows XP Boot Disk.

After making your boot disk,recheck กHide protected operating system files and folders (recommended)ก in the Folder Options dialog box.

To use the disk when Windows XP won’t boot,place the disk in the drive,and then reboot,the computer, Windows simply bypass the basic boot files on the hard drive and continue to boot up.

If The PC Won’t Boot Pass Windows

FIRST……If your Operating System is Windows Millennium,turn on the computer and immediately press and hold down the CTRL key.Once the startup options appear,release the CTRL key. Select Safe Mode and press Enter.You are now in Windows limited version.If you know what caused your computer not to boot,you can now either change or delete that program.

SECOND….Repair your Registry by selecting Start,Run and typing กscanregw /fixก and press enter.This will fix any damage done to the Registry. You can also restore your registry which replaces your current registry with an earlier copy that was backed up by your computer.Click on Start,Run and type กscanregw /restore and press Enter.

To repair your Windows 98 Registry,hold down the CTRL key as you start the PC and select กCommand Prompt Onlyก.Type กscanreg /fixก and press Enter and กscanreg/restoreก to restore a previousely saved copy of the Registry.

If you have Windows XP,press F8 after rebooting the PC should Windows freeze while booting up. You can select กLast Known Good Configurationก after rebooting to allow the computer to boot the last backed up files.And you can choose กSafe Modeก to remove any files you know caused the operating system to hang up.

Be prepared when your operating system fail. It would be a great idea to go over this article a few times and print it.Make yourself s notebook and place this and all related articles there.

If your computer fails to boot or begins to become unstable,you can refer to these articles to make corrections that are needed.Learn these steps from your television set with the PC Super Pack at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

Be sure to note any changes you make to your Registry and if you’re not sure,its best to find a friend thatกs pc savvy first.Above all,be certain you back up your registry before making any changes and know how to restore as well.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user that is serious about knowing computers.Use his informative articles and videos to understand every aspect about the PC. Read more about his formula for pc training at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 22, 2004

by otis f cooper