How to maximize your Netbook's performance

The advent of netbooks has recently taken the PC market by storm. Unfortunately, these mini-notebooks are a little slower than their full PC cousins, but with the right tweaks, you can squeeze the last bit of speed and functionality out of these small machines. This post shows you the best ways to optimize your netbook.

7 great tips and tricks to optimize your netbook :

1. Use a lightweight Media Player and codec pack to play all your favorite videos and music (e.g. Cole2k Codec Pack and Media Player Classic HC 1.2).

2. Uninstall programs you no longer use, especially trial software, as these can clutter up the drive. TuneUp Uninstall Manager of our TuneUp Utilities 2009 helps you immensely with that, because it tells you which programs you regularly use and which you don't.

3. Defrag the hard drive to better manage your data and keep your computer running fast. We recommend using TuneUp Utilities 2009 to safely and consistently do this on a regular basis.

4. Reduce the user interface of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other Web browsers to better utilize the smaller “real estate” on your netbook. Right-click on the upper menu bar of your browser and uncheck unnecessary menu items.

5. Go back to the classic Windows look and feel. Animations can hinder the system's performance. To do that, right-click on your desktop and go to “Properties” (XP) or “Personalize” (Vista). Under the “Design” entry, select the classic design and hit “OK.”

6. Disable unnecessary devices, such as Bluetooth, FireWire, and Wi-Fi, to save battery power.

7. Don't run too many applications at the same time. Multitasking is better suited for a laptop, whereas netbooks are designed for basic use such as word processing and simple Web browsing.

Windows XP Hidden Applications

Go to Start > Run and type the executable name (eg: charmap) to run these applications.

1) Character Map = charmap.exe

2) Disk Cleanup = cleanmgr.exe

3) Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd.exe

4) Dr Watson = drwtsn32.exe

5) DirectX diagnosis = dxdiag.exe

6) Private character editor = eudcedit.exe

7) IExpress Wizard = iexpress.exe

8) Microsoft Synchronization Manager = mobsync.exe

9) Windows Media Player 5.1 = mplay32.exe

10) ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbcad32.exe

11) Object Packager = packager.exe

12) System Monitor = perfmon.exe

13) Program Manager = progman.exe

14) Remote Access phone book = rasphone.exe

15) Registry Editor = regedt32.exe [also regedit.exe] .

16) Network shared folder wizard = shrpubw.exe

17) File siganture verification tool = sigverif.exe

18) Volume Contro = sndvol32.exe

19) System Configuration Editor = sysedit.exe

20) Syskey = syskey.exe

21) Microsoft Telnet Client = telnet.exe

22) Driver Verifier Manager = verifier.exe

23) Windows for Workgroups Chat = winchat.exe

24) System configuration = msconfig.exe

25) gpedit.msc used to manage group policies, and permissions

Create A Special Folder In Windows Explorer

We can create a folder like My Documents one that will appear as a system folder in XP by doing the following steps...

1.In the Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID. Create a new1 key with a Globally Unique Identifier(GUID). The GUID is a 128-bit identifier that is usually generated by Windows. This can be a random number that is used touniquely identify COM objects. Create a key using this random GUID:{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

2.Set the value of the “(Default)” setting for this key to the name of the folder, say “My Personal Data”. Create a new sub-key under the main key and call it “DefaultIcon”. That is, create a key called:HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCFABCD1DE12345}\

DefaultIcon

Set the value of “(DefaultIcon)”to the filename and path of the icon file you want to use for the folder, for example,“C:\Topsec.ico”, without the quotes. If you don’t specify a path to an iconfile, Windows will use its default folder icon instead.

3 .Create another sub-key under the main key called “InprocServer32”, that is, create the

key called HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\

InprocServer32

Set the“(default)” setting here to“shell32.dll”.Create another string value called ThreadingModel and set its value to “Apartment”. There’s one more: create another sub-key called

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\Shell\

Open MyFolder\Command

Set the “(Default)” value here to the command that should be executed when the folder is clicked. In this case, it would be “explorer /root,c:\My Personal Data”.

4.There’s more keys to be created:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\ShellEx\

PropertySheetHandlers\{FD4DF9EO-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345} and

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}\

ShellFolder. Under this key, create a new binary value called“Attributes” with the value

“00 00 00 00”.

5.To place the folder in My Computer, add the original key to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\

MyComputer\Namespace\

So the key value will be

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\

MyComputer\Namespace\{FD4DF9E0-E3DE-11CE-BFCF-ABCD1DE12345}

Now go to My Computer, and you’ll see a new custom folder!

How to recover deleted files?

How files are deleted ?

When a file is deleted from your computer it is not really deleted. It is simply removed from the directory of files in the folder. Even though you can no longer see the file in the folder, its contents still exist 100% intact at this point.

If you're using Windows and you deleted the file using Windows Explorer, the file will have been moved to the Recycle Bin. If you're a Mac user, it's moved to the Trash. If you use Linux KDE, it's the Wastebin. Whatever the bucket shaped object is called, as long as a file remains there it can easily be restored in its entirety, with no problem at all. So the first thing to do when you want to recover a deleted file is look in the Recycle Bin / Trash / Wastebin.

If you emptied the bin, used Shift Delete to get rid of the file, deleted it from within an application or used some other method of removing it that bypassed the bin, then it is still almost certainly recoverable. When you empty the Recycle Bin or delete a file using another method, the file is still not really deleted. The file no longer exists as far as the operating system is concerned and the space it occupied becomes available for re-use by other files. But the disk space does not get re-used straight away, so the data contained in the deleted file will stay on your hard drive for some time to come.

Chances of recovery

Because the operating system doesn't immediately re-use space from deleted files, a file can be recovered or undeleted right after it has gone, and for a considerable time afterwards. But the chances of a perfect undelete decrease the longer you leave it, because eventually some or all of that space will be re-used.

The chances of recovery also depend on how full your computer's hard drive is. Windows tries to avoid re-using disk space that has recently been freed, to give deleted file recovery software a better chance of working. But the fuller a drive is, the sooner the free space is going to be used by other files.

If you have defragmented the hard drive since the file was deleted, then this will severely harm the chances of a successful recovery. Current files will have been moved into the free space left by deleted files in order to reduce fragmentation, making it much less likely that undelete software will be able to find anything useful.

Recovering deleted files

Tools that can help you undelete files are not provided as standard in any operating system. So you will need to use undelete software from a third party.

Undelete software understands the internals of the system used to store files on a disk (the file system) and uses this knowledge to locate the disk space that was occupied by a deleted file. Because another file may have used some or all of this disk space, there is no guarantee that a deleted file can be recovered. But because the space isn't re-used straight away, there is a very good chance that you will succeed. In fact, users of our recommended Windows undelete software Uneraser have often been amazed to find that it recovers files that were deleted months or even years ago. The best undelete programs give you an indication of the chances of recovering a file intact, and even provide file viewers so you can check the contents before recovery.

Undelete software for Windows

If you're running Microsoft Windows then Uneraser is the best undelete software you can buy. It is developed by a company that specializes solely in data recovery products. Uneraser uses the deepest search methods and the most sophisticated recovery algorithms to give you the best possible chance of recovering your files. It also has powerful tools to help you find the files you want from among the thousands on the average hard disk.

Uneraser has the widest range of built-in viewers to let you examine the files it finds before recovery. You can try it with no risk. A free trial version lets you see for yourself whether it can recover the files you lost. If a file looks perfect in the viewer then recovery is 100% guaranteed.

See a tutorial showing how to recover deleted files using Uneraser

Download a free trial of Uneraser

See more information about Uneraser

Another reliable and effective Windows undelete software is Data Recovery Wizard. It is a full data recovery product that can even restore files from lost or corrupted partitions. Just like Uneraser you can try before you buy.

See a tutorial showing how to recover deleted files using Data Recovery Wizard

Download a free trial of Data Recovery Wizard

See more information about Data Recovery Wizard

Undelete software for Mac OS

For Apple Mac users we recommend Data Rescue II. This is a powerful, professional data recovery software that can be relied upon to restore your deleted files if at all possible.

Download a free trial of Data Rescue II

See more information about Data Rescue II

An alternative, easy to use uneraser for Mac users is File Recovery for Mac. This will recover your files in no time.

See a tutorial showing how to recover deleted files using File Recovery for Mac

Download a free trial of File Recovery for Mac

See more information about File Recovery for Mac

If you are able to connect your Mac disk drive to a Windows PC then you could also use the Windows based Uneraser to perform data recovery on it. The new Uneraser 4.0 can recover deleted files from Mac HPFS+ and Linux ext2/ext3 file systems, as well as FAT and NTFS.

Saving the recovered data

One of the cardinal rules of data recovery is that you must never write to the disk that contains the files you want to recover. This is because anything that gets written to the drive could potentially be written to the space that was holding the data you hope to recover. You should save the files that have been recovered to a different drive to the one they were recovered from. This could be an external drive or a network share, even a USB memory stick.

All of the undelete software products that Tech-Pro.net recommend will prompt you to save recovered data to a different location, but Uneraser has the greatest number of options. It has the ability to burn files direct to writeable CD or DVD without creating any temporary files on the hard drive. You can even save the files recovered to an FTP server.

Tips to restore your computer...

Back Up First

Back up your computer before you run any system tools or do any troubleshooting. This is not just an over-cautious warning. Some of the steps I recommend in this column can cause pre-existing but hidden problems to surface, which may keep your computer from starting. Windows XP includes Backup, a tool that helps you protect your data.To open the Backup or Restore Wizard

1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.

Before I make any changes, I'm going to time my computer to see how long it takes to restart. That way I know which of the changes helps the most. My computer took about three minutes to shut down, restart, and then open my e-mail client and browser. Of course, I hope to improve the computer's overall performance, but the time it takes to restart is easiest to measure.

Clear Out Forgotten Programs

The first step in tuning up your computer's performance is to remove any unnecessary programs. I install new programs all the time. Sometimes I'm thrilled with the new program and I continue to use it. Other times, it doesn't do what I hoped, and the program sits on my computer consuming resources and hurting performance.

Follow these steps to remove unneeded programs:

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

2. Click Add or Remove Programs.

3. Scroll through the list and examine each program. Windows XP lists how often you use a program and what day you last started it. You shouldn't remove anything labeled as an Update or Hotfix, however, because they improve the security of your computer.

4. Click each program you no longer need, click the Remove button, and then follow the prompts to uninstall it.

You may have to restart your computer after removing a program. After your computer restarts, repeat the steps above to remove more programs.

Free Up Wasted Space

Removing unused programs is a great way to free up disk space, which will speed up your computer. Another way to find wasted disk space is to use the Disk Cleanup tool by following these steps:

1. Open My Computer, right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties.

2. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. Disk Cleanup will spend a few minutes examining your disk.

3. The Disk Cleanup dialog box opens. It found almost three gigs of space on my computer that it could free up!

4. Select the desired check boxes in the Files to Delete list, and then click OK. Disk Cleanup will spend several minutes clearing space.

5. If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk listed in My Computer.

You can save yourself some time by automating the disk cleanup process. For more information, read the Microsoft Knowledge Basic article, How to Automate the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP.

Defragment Your Computer

I hate newspaper articles that start on the front page but continue somewhere in the middle of the newspaper. I could get through the article much faster if it was printed on consecutive pages like a magazine article. Files on your computer can either be fragmented like a newspaper, or unfragmented like a magazine. Over time, more and more files become fragmented. When a file is fragmented, it takes longer for the computer to read it because it has to skip to different sections of the hard disk—just like it takes me a few seconds to find a page in the middle of a newspaper.

You need administrator privileges to defragment a drive or volume. Although fragmentation is complicated, it's easy to defragment your computer by following these steps:

1. Open My Computer, right-click Local Disk, and then click Properties.

2. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now. The Disk Defragmenter opens.

3. Click your first hard disk, and then click Defragment. As shown in Figure 4, Disk Defragmenter will work for at least several minutes, though it may take several hours.

4. If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk listed starting at Step 3.

My laptop's files were not terribly fragmented, so defragmenting them didn't speed it up much. However, after defragmenting the hard drive on my desktop computer, Windows and other programs started about 20% faster!

Disconnect Unused Network Connections

If you've ever had a network with more than one computer, you probably found it useful to share files between the computers by mapping a network drive. Network drives allow one computer to read and write files to another computer's hard disk as if it were directly connected. I use network drives all the time, and for me, they were the most significant source of slowness.

The problem with network drives is that Windows XP will attempt to connect to the network drives when Windows starts. If the remote computers don't respond immediately, Windows will wait patiently. Additionally, some programs will attempt to connect to the network drives when you browse for files and folders. If you've ever tried to open a file and had to wait several seconds (or minutes!), it's probably because the program was trying to establish a network connection—even if the file you are opening is on your local computer.

I am not as patient as Windows, and I'd rather not wait for unused network connections to respond. To reduce this problem, disconnect any unused drives by following these steps:

1. Open My Computer.

2. On the Tools menu, click Disconnect Network Drive.

3. Select the network drives that you no longer need, and then click OK.

After I disconnected the network drives on my computer, my computer was able to restart in 1 minute, 45 seconds—about 40% faster!

Remove Autostart Programs

The next step in restoring your computer's performance is to identify any unnecessary programs that start automatically. Often, programs configure themselves to run in the background so that they appear to start quickly when needed. Some of these programs show an icon on your taskbar to let you know that they're running, while others are completely hidden. These autostart programs probably won't noticeably slow down your computer as it starts up, but they will steal away trace amounts of memory and processing time as your computer runs.

Windows XP comes with the System Configurationtool (Msconfig.exe), an excellent way to manage the startup process. To start it:

1. Click Start, click Run, type Msconfig, and then press Enter.

2. On the Startup tab, you'll see a list of all the programs and processes that are set to run when Windows XP loads.

3. Speed up your overall start time by clearing the check box next to any item you think you don't need.

4. Click Apply, and then restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

My favorite way to examine autostart programs is to use the Autoruns freeware tool from Sysinternals. Autoruns lists every program that will automatically start and allows you to quickly delete the link to the program. Many autostart entries are important parts of Windows XP, including Userinit.exe and Explorer.exe. So you should not simply delete everything that you don't recognize. Instead, you should look up each entry at Paul Collins' Startup Applications List to determine whether you want it to start automatically.

I also found a file named Wzqkpick.exe. After reading the description at The Startup Applications List, I decided I don't need to load that file automatically. I deleted the link using Autoruns by right-clicking it and then clicking Delete. This procedure works best for advanced users of Windows XP. If you aren't sure a program is unneeded—leave it!

The Startup Applications List may provide instructions for removing the startup program. If available, you should follow those instructions instead of deleting the link by using Autoruns.

How to Fix Bigger Problems

Many of the Windows XP Performance and Maintenance newsgroup users are experiencing serious, sudden performance problems. One day, their computer was fine and the next it was painfully slow. This type of problem is often caused by a computer virus or failing computer hardware. The suggestions in this article probably won't fix those types of problems. Instead, perform a virus scan on your computer. If that's not the issue, you should contact your computer vendor's technical support team for additional assistance. The troubleshooting process for this type of problem requires the knowledge to examine the computer's performance on a process-by-process basis, and usually includes a "process of elimination" phase where drivers, services, and hardware are removed/replaced one-by-one until the problem disappears. There's a very good chance that the computer won't start at all at some point in this process, so it's best to have support during the process.

Searching for "Windows XP Performance" on the Internet turns up a large number of performance tweaks. Some of these are useful, but most should not be attempted unless you understand exactly what you are doing. In particular, many of the tweaks that claim to improve your performance may only help under very specific circumstances. For example, in our own Windows XP Performance and Maintenance newsgroup, one user recommended disabling Internet Connection Firewall to solve a performance problem. Even if this did improve performance, it would leave the computer vulnerable to attacks from the Internet. I'd rather have a slightly slower computer than a hacked computer!

How To Increase Computer Speed And Performance? - Great Tips & Tricks

Many computer users are worried about their computer's performance. After spending lot of bucks, still they cannot have that charm of using PC as they had expected. Here I am going to explain some major tricks which are used by many computer users which help them to take efficient use of their CPU.

These tips could be of little importance for people who are already using processors with speed more than 2400 MHz but people using computer with less speed and little older mother boards and processors will enjoy these tips. They will realize significant increase in their computer's performance.

Here are these tips:

1. Operating system choice:

You will be amazed to know that your choice of choosing right windows or operating system could play a significant role on your CPU's performance. For example if you are given 5 bricks to carry them to next apartment and then 10 bricks to do same. Think how would be your performance if compared with both situations. Obviously you would perform well when carrying only 5 bricks.

Same is the case with Microsoft windows. The lighter the windows you have, higher the performance will be shown. Now this does not mean that you should install Windows 95. Here is the order of Windows weight: Windows XP (any addition) > Windows 2000 > Windows Me > Windows 98 (the lightest one). So if you have Pentium 4 with good ram then I would recommend you to use Microsoft Windows XP. People using Pentium 3 computers could use windows 2000 or if they have ram more than 256 MB then they can use windows XP too. All other lower speed users should use windows ME or 98.

You would have to compromise between speed and quality. You can decide now which operating system you should use now.

2. Partitions:

Before starting this topic I would like to give you a simple example. Suppose in one case if 100 items are placed in a house having only 2 rooms and you are required to find item no. 89, from second room. You will have to scroll through 50 items in room two to find item 89. In other case if same 100 items are placed in house having 4 rooms and you are required to find item 89 from room 2 then you would have to scroll through only 25 items present in that room and you would spend less time.

Same is the case here for partitions. If you are having more number of partitions, it would help your windows more to find required data easily from your hard disk, when you run any file or program. I would advice you to have more partitions each having at least 5 GB memory and maximum 20 GB.

You should be very careful while partitioning your hard drive and believe me many people make mistakes when they partition hard disk and lose all of their important data. Here is a free resource Windows Setup Guide that can help you to learn about partitioning, formatting hard disks and installing windows.

3. Defragment Your Hard disks:

Your partitions become more fragmented when you create or delete folders, save new files, delete or move them and they become scattered on you hard drive and as time passes, windows become slower and slower due to time needed by the system to find required file on hard disk. You can learn more about why volumes become fragmented by using "Disk Defragmenter" Help.

My main point is that your computer becomes lazy with time. I am sure many of you have observed that after installing windows, computer become slower gradually with time. So I would strongly recommend you that you use Disk Defragmenter regularly, at least a week. I know it is quite boring process but while taking bath, lunch start it. Believe me you will feel the difference later.

4. Frequency of Changing Windows:

I would like you to compare the difference between speeds of your computer when you freshly installed windows and now. I know your answer! Obviously now you will be feeling your PC lazier than before.

This is all due to many factors such as file fragmentation; increasing of windows registry size, increase in number of files and folders in your primary partition and also because of some viruses and spy wares.

I would strongly suggest you that you should reinstall windows after formatting your primary partition at least every 3 months. That will keep your computer always efficient. Many people think that formatting hard drive is not good. That is almost a wrong illusion. Formatting your partition every 3 months and installing fresh copy of windows will considerably increase your computer's performance. Same website Windows Setup Guide could help you regarding this matter.

5. My last tip:

Finally do not save junk, programs, movies, games and almost anything you can on your windows partition that is usually C: and believe me your computer would show optimal performance for longer time and provide fewer errors.

It is better you make your "My Documents" folder in other drive than C: as well as make also Program Files folder so install everything like Microsoft office e.t.c there not in windows installation drive. Do it and feel the difference.

Always check for your programs which automatically run at startup and use your computer's significant resources. Try to disable them carefully and feel the change in performance. Here is a way to check which programs and processes start automatically when windows starts.

Go to START->Run then type "MSCONFIG" then you can see which your memory consuming programs are.

If you do not want to do anything above and want shorter way with shorter improvements then create new user account and delete previous one. You will observer a slighter change and this also removes many errors if present in windows.

If you cannot even do this then why you wasted your time by reading this article and do something else ;)

I have tried my best to show all possible ways that could help you all to improve your computer performance.

How To Catch A Hacker

Some one wrote this great Post at orkut about Catching Hackers

I don't know who exactly the writer of this great post is...

Here is what he had to write :

"just wrote this guide to give you some tips of which you may not have heard yet. Hopefully, it won't come to a hacker getting in, but if it does...

Tip 1: Hackers cover their tracks. Experienced hackers cover them more thorougly, but amateur hackers sometimes leave things behind. Don't expect them to leave any really big evidence behind; expect more of little things here and there you might find surprising. For example, if you're writing a term paper and a black hat hacker accidently saved it when he took a paragraph out- that's suspicious. Where did that paragraph go? Well, for one thing, now you know he was in that area. Check the folders surrounding the file- you might find something.

Tip 2: Decipher between the type of hackers that are attacking you. Experienced hackers will have a more in depth look around when they penetrate your system. They won't touch much because they know that that won't add too much to their knowledge. But if you know a hacker's been in, and some files are messed with, and you have a log of someone guessing passwords to a file or something of that sort, its probably some newbie who's just starting out. These are the easiest hackers to catch. They usually get so caught up in thoughts like "I'm in!" that they forget the basics, such as work behind a proxy.

Tip to protect yourself

My friend was setting up a webserver once. His first time too, and he wasn't to anxious to set up some good software to protect against hackers and viruses. He didn't put up one IDS, and before you know it, the obvious happened. But this time, a newbie had struck. The nice log files showed, bluntly across the screen, multiple instances of a foreign IP address that stood out. Some stupid newbie had tried to login as "uucp" on my friend's XP computer, with a password of "uucp." Well, that's great, but he also had tried the same user/pass combination three times, enough to get himself logged nicely. Even a semi-brainless user with some form of neurological system knows that uucp isn't a default XP account. Again, excitement toiled this hacker's brain, and maybe if he hadn't done that, along with a few other stupid things, he wouldn't have gotten caught. What other things did he do? Well, lets see. He openned 35 instances of MS-DOS. He tried to clean the printer's heads, and he edited a .gif in notepad. Then he uninstalled a few programs and installed some html editor, and replaced four files with the words "14P." he might as well have posted his phone number. In a few days, we had tracked him down to a

suburban town in Ohio. We let him go, not pressing any charges, because he had done nothing really damaging and had provided me with an example of a moron for this guide.

Tip 3: Don't go crazy if you lose data. Chances are, if it was that important, you would have backed it up anyway. Most hackers nowadays wish they were back in 1989 when they could use a Black Box and having a Rainbow Book actually meant something. Most hackers aren't blackhat, they are whitehat, and some even greyhat. But in the end, most hackers that are in systems aren't satisfied by looking around. From past experiences, I have concluded that many hackers like to remember where've they been. So, what do they do? They either press delete here and there, or copy some files onto their systems. Stupid hackers (yes, there are plenty of stupid hackers) send files to e-mail addresses. Some free email companies will give you the IP of a certain e-mail address's user if you can prove that user has been notoriously hacking you. But most of the time, by the time you get the e-mail addy it's been unused for weeks if not months or years, and services like hotmail have already deleted it.

Tip 4: Save information! Any information that you get from a log file (proxy server IP, things like "14P", e-mail addresses that things were sent to, etc.) should be saved to a floppy disk (they're not floppy anymore, I wish I could get out of the habit of calling them that) incase there's a next time. If you get another attack, from the same proxy, or with similar e-mail addresses (e.g: one says Blackjack 123@something.whatever and the other says Black_jack_45@something.znn.com) you can make an assumption that these hackers are the same people. In that case, it would probably be worth the effort to resolve the IP using the proxy and do a traceroute. Pressing charges is recommended if this is a repeat offender.

Tip 5: Don't be stupid. If you've been hacked, take security to the next level. Hackers do talk about people they've hacked and they do post IPs and e-mail addresses. Proof? Take a look at Defcon Conventions. I've never gone to one, but I've seen the photos. The "Wall of Shame"-type of boards I've seen have IPs and e-mail addresses written all over them in fat red, dry-erase ink. Don't be the one to go searching the Defcon website and find your e-mail address posted on the Wall of Shame board!

Tip 6: Don't rely on luck. Chances are, sometime or another, you're going to be targeted for an attack. Here you can rely on luck. Maybe they'll forget? Maybe they don't know how to do it? If you think this way, a surprise is going to hit your face very hard. Another way you could stupidly rely on luck is by saying this: It's probably just a whitehat. On the contrary, my friend, it's probably just a blackhat. A blackhat with knowledge stored in his head, ready to be used as an ax. It's your data. You take the chance.

FDISK - A DOS Command

The Basics of Fdisk:

Primary partitions are the only one that are bootable. They're always the C: drive when active. Normally you can only have one (more with some special tricks etc.) Extended partitions are needed when you want more than one partition. You can only have ONE Extended partition. Logical Drives come into the Extended partition. They are handy since you know that you can only have one Primary and one Extended so you can get more than only two partitions. They would be your D:, E:, etc. drives.

First you need to reboot your system with the Boot Disk inserted.

1.At the A: prompt start "FDISK."

2.If asked to use Large Disc support say Yes.

3.The first screen looks like this:

Create Dos Partition or Logical Drive

Set Active Partition

Delete Partitions or Logical DOS Drives

Display Partition Information

Change current fixed drive. (In case you have two or more Hard Drivess)

So, to prepare you hopefully did a backup from your data. You did, didn't you ?!

4.Next we need to remove the existing partitions. So go to 3.

5.Next screen like this:

Delete Primary DOS

Delete Extended DOS

Delete Logical Drives

Delete Non-DOS

Delete always in the following order

Logical (All) > Extended > Primary (Last)

6.Go back to first screen after all partitions have been removed.

7.Now we need to setup our new partitions. Go to 1.

This screen looks like this:

Create Primary DOS

Create Extended DOS

Create Logical DOS Drives

Here we create in the following order

Primary > Extended > Logical Drives.

8.First create the Primary. If asked to use all space say No and enter the amount you wish for the C: drive. It should be set automatically to be the (only) Active partition. If not it may ask you or you have to select "2. Set active partition" from the main menu.

9.Next create the Extended Partition. Use all space left.

It probably advances automatically to the next step, creating the Logical DOS Drives.

10.Enter the amount you wish for the D: partition and than the rest for the third partition.

Think first about the size for the partitions.

OK now we're finished with FDISK so just exit it. Next you need to reboot with the disc still inserted and Format all partitions (the C: partition might need to be formatted with "format c: /s", check the Win95 tip). Another reboot and you can go ahead and install Windows.

When your system supports booting from CD just insert the Windows CD and reboot. The setup will start.

If not, follow these steps:

Win98: insert Boot Disk and CD, reboot, choose "2. boot with CDROM support" and once you're at the prompt change to your CD-drive letter (depends on your partition setup) and enter "setup".

Win95: You must format the C: partition with "Format C: /s"!. Next install your CDROM driver, reboot, insert the Win95 CD, change to the CD-driveletter, enter "setup".

I hope I made no mistakes.

To Convert a FAT partition into NTFS

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS:

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.

In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.

Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).

How to Lock a Folder Using Notepad

How to Lock a Folder Using Notepad

1) Consider you want to lock a folder named caclub in your f:\, whose path is f:\caclub

2) Now open the Notepad and type the following

ren caclub caclub.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30 309D}

3) Where caclub is your folder name. Save the text file as loc.bat in the same drive.

4) Open another new notepad text file and type the following

ren caclub.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30 309D} caclub

5) Save the text file as unloc.bat in the same drive.

Usage:

6) To lock the caclub folder, simply click the loc.bat and it will transform into control panel icon which is inaccessible.

7) To unlock the folder click the unloc.bat file. Thus the folder will be unlocked and the contents are accessible.

Lock Your Folder and secure you data!!!

NTFS vs. FAT

To NTFS or not to NTFS—that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.

FAT16

The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

FAT32

The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

The Advantages of NTFS

The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32

If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer (see Dual booting in Guides), you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

Make your Folders Private

If you are using a shared computer, this infomation may help you to protect your data from other users

Follow The instruction given below :-

1. Open My Computer

2. Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).

3. If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.

4. Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.

5. Double-click your user folder.

6. Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.

7. On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.

Note

1. To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.

2. This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.

3. When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.

4. You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS For information about converting your drive to NTFS. Click Here

Safe You Data !!! Do it now.

Hard Drive Optimization

The Fastest Windows of all the time in just 5 minutes!!!

Normally, Windows and applications write directly to the hard drive, which can quickly lead to a bottleneck. Because whenever a lot of data is written simultaneously, the hard drive quickly reaches its limits, which slows down your PCs performance. However in Windows Vista™ and XP™ it is possible to switch on the cache. The data to be written is first saved “virtually,” which considerably accelerates the write access. Later, when the computer is no longer working at capacity, the data is written from the cache to the hard drive. In this way you work significantly more efficiently and quickly!

How to activate the cache:

1. Search for the “Device Manager.” To do this press the “R” key while holding down the “WINDOWS” key. Enter the command “devmgmt.msc” in the “Run” dialog box that appears and confirm with “OK.”

2. Now double click on “Disk drives” and then on the hard drive of your computer. (Note: USB drives, card readers, etc. are also shown under “Disk drives”)

3. In the next window click on “Policies” and on “Optimize for performance.” Then select “Enable write caching on the disk” and, if available, also “Enable advanced performance” (only Windows Vista™). Finish by clicking on “OK” and then restart the system.

Congratulations!

Now your computer's hard drive access will speed up noticeably. In our tests, for example, copying a 2GB file was accelerated by 25% by using this tip.

There is, however, a small residual risk: Since the cache is a virtual memory, in the rare case of a power failure your data is not saved.

With laptops this is not a problem since the battery prevents a sudden loss of power. This is why TuneUp recommends: switch the cache on!

There is a slight risk for desktop PCs. However a loss of data would occur only if a power failure coincided with a cache that has not yet been written to the hard drive. In this case decide for yourself whether increased security upon power failure or long-term improvement of your PC's performance is more important.

Conclusion:

With the cache switched on the hard drive works more efficiently than ever – and the speed of your data increases considerably. However, carry out regular maintenance of your hard drive in order to benefit from improved access times in the long run. You can do this with TuneUp Drive Defrag, which is included in TuneUp Utilities 2009.

Try out the effective defragmentation now and test the 30-day trial version of TuneUp Utilities 2009 free of charge. Apart from TuneUp Drive Defrag there are numerous other functions with which you can speed up and improve your Windows.