Disabling Automatic Startup Programs in Vista

Disabling Automatic Startup Programs

If you don't want certain programs or applications to run automatically on startup, there's an easy way to disable them. Click Start Type msconfig in the search box Click Continue in the User Account Control to continue Click on the Startup Tab Uncheck any boxes in the "Startup Items" that you wish to disable or click the Disable All button (not recommended) Click OK If you need to re-enable any of the programs, go through the same process and check the boxes of programs you wish to run automatically on startup.

Navigation Without a Mouse

Navigation without a mouse
SHIFT + F10	Same as right clicking a file
TAB	Navigate menu elements forward
SHIFT + TAB	Navigate menu elements backward
ALT + F4	Close the current application
ALT + SPACEBAR	Display application system menu
ALT + Underlined letter in menu	Open that menu
SPACEBAR	If a checkbox or radio box is selected, activates this. If a button is selected, clicks it
ENTER	Click the default button (usually OK)
ESC	Equivalent to clicking the CANCEL button

Vista can send you emails!

The Computer Management tool can still be accessed by right-clicking “Computer” and selecting “Manage” from the menu. However, now you can attach a task to any event. Try navigating through System Tools / Event Viewer / Windows Logs / Application. Now, go ahead and select an event - then look to the rightmost pane and click “Attach Task to This Event.” Name it whatever, describe it however, click through the next step, then in the Action step, you’ll see the “Send an e-mail” option.

How to backup emails and contacts in Outlook

Unless you use an HTTP-based account, such as Yahoo, or a Microsoft Exchange Server email account, all of your data for MSOutlook is stored in a file called thePersonal Folders File, a file with the .pst extension.

This file is responsible for storing messages and other essential items on your PC. Many use the .pst file as the default location for the delivery of their emails. You can also use it to organize data or backup items for safekeeping. Even if you have a Yahoo orMicrosoft Exchange Server account, you can still backup data to the .pst file on your local drive rather than the one stored on the mail server. I will let you know how to backup Outlook pst files.

How to Backup Your Outlook .pst File

To backup the .pst file in its entirety, follow the steps below:

First close any running messaging applications such as Microsoft Outlook, Exchange or Windows Messaging.

- Open the “Start” menu and click “Run”.
- Next, type “Control Panel” in the Open box.
- When the Control Panel opens, click on the Classic view from left and double-click the “Mail” icon .
- Click “Show Profiles”.
- Select the appropriate profile and click “Properties”.
- From there, click on “Data Files”.
- Under “Name”, select the Personal Folders Service to back up.

Though it could be named something else, the default name for this service is Personal Folders. Keep in mind that if your profile has more than one Personal Folders Service, you will have to backup each set of .pst files individually.

Take note that if you do not find any entries called Personal Folders, or if you have not stored any items such as messages, appointments or contacts in Outlook, there is a great chance that your .pst file has yet to be created.

If there is no Personal Folders Services in your profile but you can store items like messages, appointments and contacts in Outlook, this data is probably being stored somewhere else, such as the mail box on the Yahoo or Exchange Server.

To continue with the Outlook pst backup, click on “Settings” and note the path and file name that is displayed. Since the .pst file typically contains all the data the Outlook client uses, this file tends to be very large. To reduce the Outlook pst file size, select “Settings” and click “Compact Now”.

To finish up, close down all the “Properties” windows.

You can use either My Computer or the Windows Explorer utility to copy the file path you noted above. The .pst file can then be copied to another location on your local hard drive or any form of removable storage media such as a floppy disk, compact disc or a portable hard drive.

Conclusion

Performing an Outlook .pst backup is a relatively easy task. The key is to know how to locate the file and thankfully there are many ways to go about this task. If you do not feel comfortable manually backing up your .pst file, rest assured that there are a variety of software tools that will automate the process and make it much easier.

Disable Error Reporting

Disable Error Reporting

You can get rid of the Windows XP error report messages if you don't want to send

another one in.

· Click Start, and then click Run.

· Type msconfig to open the System Configuration Utility.

· Click the Services tab.

· Clear the Error Reporting Service check box, and then click OK.

· Hit Restart to reboot your system.

Your computer will now start without loading the error reporting service.

Create Your Own Restore Points

Create Your Own Restore Points

Windows XP makes it easy for you to take a snapshot of critical system files before

you make any major changes, such as installing new software, adding hardware devices, or

changing the registry. (Windows XP automatically creates system restore points, called

system checkpoints, but you can create your own to make it even easier to recover your

system in case of a failure.) Note that using restore points doesn't affect your

personal files, such as the My Documents or Favorites folders.

· Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and

then click System Restore.

· In the System Restore dialog box, click Create a restore point, and then click

Next.

· Type a description for your restore point, such as "Before Office XP", then click

Create.

· If your system fails, press F8 in the boot menu, and then click Last known good

configuration. Windows XP restores your system to the most recent restore point.

Disable the Shut Down Button on the Welcome Screen

Disable the Shut Down Button on the Welcome Screen

Do you have little ones that like to click all over the screen when you're not

looking? Afraid of someone shutting down the computer without logging on?

· Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click

Administrative Tools.

· Double-click Local Security Policy.

· Expand Security Settings, then expand Local Policies, and then click Security

Options.

· In the right pane, double-click the Shutdown: Allow system to be shut down without

having to log on policy, click the Disabled radio button, and then click OK.

No more shutting down without logging on!

Change Drive Letters in Windows

Change Drive Letters in Windows

When you add drives to your computer, such as an extra hard drive, a CD drive, or a

storage device that corresponds to a drive, Windows automatically assigns letters to the

drives. However, this assignment might not suit your system; for example, you might have

mapped a network drive to the same letter that Windows assigns to a new drive.

· Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.

· Under Computer Management, click Disk Management. In the right pane, you'll see your

drives listed. CD-ROM drives are listed at the bottom of the pane.

· Right-click the drive or device you want to change, and then click Change Drive

Letter and Paths.

· Click Change, click Assign the following drive letter, click the drive letter you

want to assign, and then click OK.

You will not be able to change the boot or system drive letter in this manner. Many

MS-DOS-based and Windows-based programs make references to a specific drive letter (for

example, environment variables). If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not

function correctly.

Activate NetMeeting

Activate NetMeeting

Using NetMeeting, you can participate in virtual meetings, work in shared

applications, and share data over the Internet or your company intranet. NetMeeting is

actually already installed after you perform a full install of Windows XP, but it won't

appear on the Start menu until it's activated.

· Click Start, then Run, and enter Conf.

· Click OK.

· In the NetMeeting Wizard, supply the necessary information, and then select the Put

a shortcut to NetMeeting on my desktop (or on my Quick Launch bar) check box.

NetMeeting should start and is now listed in the most frequently used programs list on

the Start menu.

Synchronize Your Computer Clock with an Internet Time Server

Synchronize Your Computer Clock with an Internet Time Server

Does your computer have the right time? If your computer is not part of a domain, you

can synchronize your computer clock with an Internet time server.

· Double-click the time on your task bar.

· Click the Internet Time tab.

· Select the time server you want to use and make sure to select the Automatically

synchronize with an Internet time server check box.

· Make sure that you have set the correct date before you attempt to synchronize your

clock, because the Internet time server won't update the time if the date is wrong.

· If you have a personal or network firewall, you may have to tweak the settings to

unblock time synchronization.

What is XML?

Q: What is XML?

A: XML--the eXtensible Markup Language--is a self-descriptive, data definition

language. It's similar to HTML, the language of the Web, but it's far more powerful

because it's not limited to a static list of language constructs ("tags") that the

language's authors supply. Instead, XML is extensible and dynamic: Programmers can

define new types of data using XML and then describe that data so that others will know

how to use it.

All DOS commands

All DOS commands

There are some hidden dos commands which u can't recognise by typing help in cmd

Here they are with description
COMMANDS:--
ANSI.SYS
Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys.
APPEND
Causes MS-DOS to look in other directories when editing a file or running a command.
ARP
Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices.
ASSIGN
Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter.
ASSOC
View the file associations.
AT
Schedule a time to execute commands or programs.
ATMADM
Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM call manager.
ATTRIB
Display and change file attributes.
BATCH
Recovery console command that executes a series of commands in a file.
BOOTCFG
Recovery console command that allows a user to view, modify, and rebuild the boot.ini
BREAK
Enable / disable CTRL + C feature.
CACLS
View and modify file ACL's.
CALL
Calls a batch file from another batch file.
CD
Changes directories.
CHCP
Supplement the International keyboard and character set information.
CHDIR
Changes directories.
CHKDSK
Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors.
CHKNTFS
Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors.
CHOICE
Specify a listing of multiple options within a batch file.
CLS
Clears the screen.
CMD
Opens the command interpreter.
COLOR
Easily change the foreground and background color of the MS-DOS window.
COMMAND
Opens the command interpreter.
COMP
Compares files.
COMPACT
Compresses and uncompress files.
CONTROL
Open Control Panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt.
CONVERT
Convert FAT to NTFS.
COPY
Copy one or more files to an alternate location.
CTTY
Change the computers input/output devices.
DATE
View or change the systems date.
DEBUG
Debug utility to create assembly programs to modify hardware settings.
DEFRAG
Re-arrange the hard disk drive to help with loading programs.
DEL
Deletes one or more files.
DELETE
Recovery console command that deletes a file.
DELTREE
Deletes one or more files and/or directories.
DIR
List the contents of one or more directory.
DISABLE
Recovery console command that disables Windows system services or drivers.
DISKCOMP
Compare a disk with another disk.
DISKCOPY
Copy the contents of one disk and place them on another disk.
DOSKEY
Command to view and execute commands that have been run in the past.
DOSSHELL
A GUI to help with early MS-DOS users.
DRIVPARM
Enables overwrite of original device drivers.
ECHO
Displays messages and enables and disables echo.
EDIT
View and edit files.
EDLIN
View and edit files.
EMM386
Load extended Memory Manager.
ENABLE
Recovery console command to enable a disable service or driver.
ENDLOCAL
Stops the localization of the environment changes enabled by the setlocal command.
ERASE
Erase files from computer.
EXIT
Exit from the command interpreter.
EXPAND
Expand a Microsoft Windows file back to it's original format.
EXTRACT
Extract files from the Microsoft Windows cabinets.
FASTHELP
Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them.
FC
Compare files.
FDISK
Utility used to create partitions on the hard disk drive.
FIND
Search for text within a file.
FINDSTR
Searches for a string of text within a file.
FIXBOOT
Writes a new boot sector.
FIXMBR
Writes a new boot record to a disk drive.
FOR
Boolean used in batch files.
FORMAT
Command to erase and prepare a disk drive.
FTP
Command to connect and operate on a FTP server.
FTYPE
Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.
GOTO
Moves a batch file to a specific label or location.
GRAFTABL
Show extended characters in graphics mode.
HELP
Display a listing of commands and brief explanation.
IF
Allows for batch files to perform conditional processing.
IFSHLP.SYS
32-bit file manager.
IPCONFIG
Network command to view network adapter settings and assigned values.
KEYB
Change layout of keyboard.
LABEL
Change the label of a disk drive.
LH
Load a device driver in to high memory.
LISTSVC
Recovery console command that displays the services and drivers.
LOADFIX
Load a program above the first 64k.
LOADHIGH
Load a device driver in to high memory.
LOCK
Lock the hard disk drive.
LOGON
Recovery console command to list installations and enable administrator login.
MAP
Displays the device name of a drive.
MD
Command to create a new directory.
MEM
Display memory on system.
MKDIR
Command to create a new directory.
MODE
Modify the port or display settings.
MORE
Display one page at a time.
MOVE
Move one or more files from one directory to another directory.
MSAV
Early Microsoft Virus scanner.
MSD
Diagnostics utility.
MSCDEX
Utility used to load and provide access to the CD-ROM.
NBTSTAT
Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
NET
Update, fix, or view the network or network settings
NETSH
Configure dynamic and static network information from MS-DOS.
NETSTAT
Display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information.
NLSFUNC
Load country specific information.
NSLOOKUP
Look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network.
PATH
View and modify the computers path location.
PATHPING
View and locate locations of network latency.
PAUSE
Command used in batch files to stop the processing of a command.
PING
Test / send information to another network computer or network device.
POPD
Changes to the directory or network path stored by the pushd command.
POWER
Conserve power with computer portables.
PRINT
Prints data to a printer port.
PROMPT
View and change the MS-DOS prompt.
PUSHD
Stores a directory or network path in memory so it can be returned to at any time.
QBASIC
Open the QBasic.
RD
Removes an empty directory.
REN
Renames a file or directory.
RENAME
Renames a file or directory.
RMDIR
Removes an empty directory.
ROUTE
View and configure windows network route tables.
RUNAS
Enables a user to execute a program on another computer.
SCANDISK
Run the scandisk utility.
SCANREG
Scan registry and recover registry from errors.
SET
Change one variable or string to another.
SETLOCAL
Enables local environments to be changed without affecting anything else.
SETVER
Change MS-DOS version to trick older MS-DOS programs.
SHARE
Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities.
SHIFT
Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program.
SHUTDOWN
Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt.
SMARTDRV
Create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory.
SORT
Sorts the input and displays the output to the screen.
START
Start a separate window in Windows from the MS-DOS prompt.
SUBST
Substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter.
SWITCHES
Remove add functions from MS-DOS.
SYS
Transfer system files to disk drive.
TELNET
Telnet to another computer / device from the prompt.
TIME
View or modify the system time.
TITLE
Change the title of their MS-DOS window.
TRACERT
Visually view a network packets route across a network.
TREE
View a visual tree of the hard disk drive.
TYPE
Display the contents of a file.
UNDELETE
Undelete a file that has been deleted.
UNFORMAT
Unformat a hard disk drive.
UNLOCK
Unlock a disk drive.
VER
Display the version information.
VERIFY
Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been written properly.
VOL
Displays the volume information about the designated drive.
XCOPY
Copy multiple files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another.

How to Backup the Registry.

Before you edit the registry, export the keys in the registry that you plan to edit, or back up the whole registry. If a problem occurs, you can then follow the steps how-to restore the registry to its previous state.

How to Export Registry Keys

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

On the File menu, click Export.

In the Save in box, select the boxs at the bottom the bottom according to weather you want to export all or only selected branches of the registry.

Next select a location in which to save the backup .reg file. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

How to Restore the Registry

To restore registry keys that you exported, double-click the .reg file that you saved.

Change the Default Location for Installing Applications

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.

Beep Code Manual

Beep Code Manual

BIOS Beep Codes

When a computer is first turned on, or rebooted, its BIOS performs a power-on self test (POST) to test the system's hardware, checking to make sure that all of the system's hardware components are working properly. Under normal circumstances, the POST will display an error message; however, if the BIOS detects an error before it can access the video card, or if there is a problem with the video card, it will produce a series of beeps, and the pattern of the beeps indicates what kind of problem the BIOS has detected.

Because there are many brands of BIOS, there are no standard beep codes for every BIOS.

The two most-used brands are AMI (American Megatrends International) and Phoenix.

AMI Beep Codes

Beep Code Meaning

1 beep DRAM refresh failure. There is a problem in the system memory or the motherboard.

2 beeps Memory parity error. The parity circuit is not working properly.

3 beeps Base 64K RAM failure. There is a problem with the first 64K of system memory.

4 beeps System timer not operational. There is problem with the timer(s) that control functions on the motherboard.

5 beeps Processor failure. The system CPU has failed.

6 beeps Gate A20/keyboard controller failure. The keyboard IC controller has failed, preventing gate A20 from switching the processor to protect mode.

7 beeps Virtual mode exception error.

8 beeps Video memory error. The BIOS cannot write to the frame buffer memory on the video card.

9 beeps ROM checksum error. The BIOS ROM chip on the motherboard is likely faulty.

10 beeps CMOS checksum error. Something on the motherboard is causing an error when trying to interact with the CMOS.

11 beeps Bad cache memory. An error in the level 2 cache memory.

1 long beep, 2 short Failure in the video system.

1 long beep, 3 short A failure has been detected in memory above 64K.

1 long beep, 8 short Display test failure.

Continuous beeping A problem with the memory or video.

Everything About Bandwidth.

This is explanation about bandwidth.

BandWidth Explained

Most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth options in their plans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. The amount of bandwidth a hosting company can provide is determined by their network connections, both internal to their data center and external to the public internet.

Network Connectivity

The internet, in the most simplest of terms, is a group of millions of computers connected by networks. These connections within the internet can be large or small depending upon the cabling and equipment that is used at a particular internet location. It is the size of each network connection that determines how much bandwidth is available. For example, if you use a DSL connection to connect to the internet, you have 1.54 Mega bits (Mb) of bandwidth. Bandwidth therefore is measured in bits (a single 0 or 1). Bits are grouped in bytes which form words, text, and other information that is transferred between your computer and the internet.

If you have a DSL connection to the internet, you have dedicated bandwidth between your computer and your internet provider. But your internet provider may have thousands of DSL connections to their location. All of these connection aggregate at your internet provider who then has their own dedicated connection to the internet (or multiple connections) which is much larger than your single connection. They must have enough bandwidth to serve your computing needs as well as all of their other customers. So while you have a 1.54Mb connection to your internet provider, your internet provider may have a 255Mb connection to the internet so it can accommodate your needs and up to 166 other users (255/1.54).

Traffic

A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic is to think of highways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway and traffic is the number of cars on the highway. If you are the only car on a highway, you can travel very quickly. If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.

Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples. One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters - A GB is all the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 800MB to 1000MB (1000MB = 1GB).

If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer, you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly, or it could take time if other people are also downloading files at the same time. If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10MB connection to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created. Because in this example, the host only has 10MB of bandwidth, someone will have to wait. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person's file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).

Hosting Bandwidth

In the example above, we discussed traffic in terms of downloading an MP3 file. However, each time you visit a web site, you are creating traffic, because in order to view that web page on your computer, the web page is first downloaded to your computer (between the web site and you) which is then displayed using your browser software (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) . The page itself is simply a file that creates traffic just like the MP3 file in the example above (however, a web page is usually much smaller than a music file).

A web page may be very small or large depending upon the amount of text and the number and quality of images integrated within the web page. For example, the home page for CNN.com is about 200KB (200 Kilobytes = 200,000 bytes = 1,600,000 bits). This is typically large for a web page. In comparison, Yahoo's home page is about 70KB.

How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?

It depends (don't you hate that answer). But in truth, it does. Since bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, you should take time to determine just how much is right for you. Almost all hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months, so you need to estimate the amount of bandwidth that will be required by your site on a monthly basis

If you do not intend to provide file download capability from your site, the formula for calculating bandwidth is fairly straightforward:

Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size x 31 x Fudge Factor

If you intend to allow people to download files from your site, your bandwidth calculation should be:

[(Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size) +

(Average Daily File Downloads x Average File Size)] x 31 x Fudge Factor

Let us examine each item in the formula:

Average Daily Visitors - The number of people you expect to visit your site, on average, each day. Depending upon how you market your site, this number could be from 1 to 1,000,000.

Average Page Views - On average, the number of web pages you expect a person to view. If you have 50 web pages in your web site, an average person may only view 5 of those pages each time they visit.

Average Page Size - The average size of your web pages, in Kilobytes (KB). If you have already designed your site, you can calculate this directly.

Average Daily File Downloads - The number of downloads you expect to occur on your site. This is a function of the numbers of visitors and how many times a visitor downloads a file, on average, each day.

Average File Size - Average file size of files that are downloadable from your site. Similar to your web pages, if you already know which files can be downloaded, you can calculate this directly.

Fudge Factor - A number greater than 1. Using 1.5 would be safe, which assumes that your estimate is off by 50%. However, if you were very unsure, you could use 2 or 3 to ensure that your bandwidth requirements are more than met.

Usually, hosting plans offer bandwidth in terms of Gigabytes (GB) per month. This is why our formula takes daily averages and multiplies them by 31.

Summary

Most personal or small business sites will not need more than 1GB of bandwidth per month. If you have a web site that is composed of static web pages and you expect little traffic to your site on a daily basis, go with a low bandwidth plan. If you go over the amount of bandwidth allocated in your plan, your hosting company could charge you over usage fees, so if you think the traffic to your site will be significant, you may want to go through the calculations above to estimate the amount of bandwidth required in a hosting plan.