Any user can add, modify, or remove a user
environment variable. These variables are established by Windows XP Setup, by
some programs, and by users. The changes are written to the registry, and are
usually effective immediately. However, after a change to user environment variables
is made, any open software programs should be restarted to force them to read
the new registry values. The common reason to add variables is to provide data
that is required for variables that you want to use in scripts.
| 4. |
Click one the following options, for either a user or a system
variable:
| • |
Click New to add a new variable name and value. |
| • |
Click an existing variable, and then click Edit
to change its name or value. |
| • |
Click an existing variable, and then click Delete
to remove it. |
I personally found Filezilla useful in case you need to download
a lot of files or a huge file to your ISP and connection is not stable.
It has option to restart on error. 7-zip is a competitor to Rar.
FileZillaFTP lives! This file transfer protocol
may seem old-fashioned and ancient, but the truth is, it's often
the simplest way to transfer files between PCs, or between a PC
and a server.
It's especially useful for transferring large files, because
ISPs often block e-mail attachments over a certain size. And it's
great for transferring groups of files. FileZilla has just about
every FTP feature you need. It's a breeze to set up and edit new
FTP connections.
The interface is particularly easy to use, so that you can easily
navigate external FTP servers and your local hard drive, and transfer
files between then. You can also use multiple simultaneous connections
to speed up file transfers. Windows includes a built-in archiving
utility that can compress and decompress files in the .Zip format,
but it's nobody's idea of particularly useful.
7-Zip
If you need to do more than the most basic of archiving tasks
with the Windows zip tool, you're out of luck. 7-Zip comes to the
rescue. It offers you considerable power over compressed archive
creation and extraction, including several different archive formats
and compression methods and levels, and lets you create encrypted,
password-created archives.
The interface is quite configurable, and can even create a two-pane
view, which is rare in archiving programs.
RogueScanner
Think your home or small office wireless network is safe? Do
you have any idea whether any intruders are on it? This free program
is a great way to find out.
Run it on a PC attached to your network via Ethernet. (The program
won't work in Windows Vista, so you'll need Windows XP.) When you
run it, it immediately does a network scan, finding the wireless
and wired devices attached to it. For each device, it lists the
unique MAC address (a kind of serial number), the IP address, the
manufacturer if it can figure it out, and model number if it can
find that. It also tells you what kind of device it is, such as
a router, printer, PC, and so on. And it will also flag any suspect
devices it finds.
Just compare the information it finds to what you know of your
network. If there are any wireless devices connected that you don't
know about, you may have an intruder.
This is a simple remedy for the erratic movement of cursor. On most
laptops you can also disable the touchpad from the BIOS setup [press
F2 or del when the computer starts to enter BIOS settings].
- Go to control panel and click on Mouse properties icon.
This appears directly only in classic view of control panel.
- If you are having categorical view,click on printers and
other hardware and then click on mouse properties icon
- Now click the device Select tab and check "Disable
Touch Pad when USB Pointing Device is present.".
- Now the cursor won't move from touchpad.
- Alternatively, you can disable the touchpad of your laptop
by clicking the "Disable Device" in the Touch Pad setting. You
can even disable the touchpad from the BIOS setup [press F2
or del when the computer starts to enter BIOS settings].
There are no keyboard shortcuts available for this setting. Moreover
some laptops coming now are having a button for locking the touchpad
when needed. That might be much helpful as you cant go to control
panel every time you type. You can create a shortcut of mouse properties
somewhere in your quick launch or start menu for doing the above
procedure in a faster way.
Readme for Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel v2.0.1.1THIS TOOL IS
UNSUPPORT BY MICROSOFT PRODUCT SUPPORT SERVICES
System Requirements
===================
- Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional
Installation instructions
=========================
1. Copy VCdRom.sys to your %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder.
2. Execute VCdControlTool.exe
3. Click "Driver control"
4. If the "Install Driver" button is available, click it. Navigate
to the %systemroot%\system32\drivers folder, select VCdRom.sys,
and click Open.
5. Click "Start"
6. Click OK
7. Click "Add Drive" to add a drive to the drive list. Ensure that
the drive added is not a local drive. If it is, continue to click
"Add Drive" until an unused drive letter is available.
8. Select an unused drive letter from the drive list and click "Mount".
9. Navigate to the image file, select it, and click "OK". UNC naming
conventions should not be used, however mapped network drives should
be OK.
You may now use the drive letter as if it were a local CD-ROM
device. When you are finished you may unmount, stop, and remove
the driver from memory using the driver control.
For a more completed tutorial (including how to make an ISO from a CD)
click
here. The article explains making an ISO using Nero - however, I
prefer
BurnAtOnce which is
donationware.
To Disable CD autoplay, completely, in Windows XP Pro
- Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
- Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates,
System.
- Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify
it as you desire.
How to Disable the Feature That Allows CD-ROMs and
Audio CDs to Run Automatically
To disable the feature that allows CD-ROMs and audio CDs to run automatically:
Windows AutoPlay is pretty annoying feature which allows for a program
contained on a CD to be run when it is placed into the drive and read
by Windows.
To disable the CD autoplay feature, use
the following Windows XP registry hack:
Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
Name: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 181
hex 0x0b5
[Jul 11, 2007] Disabling Autoplay in XP Home editions
It is safest to disable CD autoplay
in XP using either local group policy
or, for an enterprise, an Active Directory
group policy. The local group policy
editor method:
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter GPEDIT.MSC
Group Policy mmc will popup. On
left panel:
- Double-click
Computer Configuration
to open submenu
- Double-click
Administrative
Templates to open submenu
- Double-click
System
to open submenu
- Double-click
Turn autoplay
off option which will be
near the bottom of the list in the
right panel.
The default is the
Not configured
. Set it to
Enabled.
Relate tips:
How do I really disable auto-play in Windows XP - Ask Leo!
TweakUI,
one of what Microsoft calls "Power Toys for Windows XP". It's
more than a toy. It allows you to adjust (or 'tweak') several
settings that aren't exposed directly by the Windows tools.
Once you've installed TweakUI you'll find a lot of options
in it. For our current problem, in TweakUI
expand My Computer, and then
AutoPlay. Click on
Drives and uncheck the drive letter
that you no longer want to AutoPlay. Click on
Apply and that's it. No more "what
would you like me to do" dialogs.
TweakUI
has a number of other settings, I encourage you to install it
and browse around in it. It's something I install on every computer
I run. (The PowerToys page has a number of useful tools, have
a look while you're there).
Windows XP - Solution 1
- Right-click on the drive icon for your CD drive, CD recorder,
or DVD drive, and select Properties.
- Choose the AutoPlay tab, and choose the desired action
for each type of CD. For example, choose Music CD, then
click Select an action to perform, then select Take
no action.
Windows XP - Solution 2
- Obtain and install
TweakUI (part of the PowerToys for Windows XP package),
and then start TweakUI.
- Expand the My Computer branch, then the AutoPlay
branch, and then select Drives.
- Turn off the checkbox next to each drive letter for which
you want AutoPlay disabled.
you can map an ftp or webdav server as a network drive in XP without having
to use any such tool - it's built into the OS! from My Computer, find "Map Network
Drive" in the Tools menu. A window will pop up asking for a drive letter and
a folder, and at the bottom is a link reading "Sign up for online storage or
connect to a network server." click that link, select "Choose another network
location" from the Add Network Place Wizard, and follow the wizard's prompts
to add the location and login information. Simple.
This is better than using "My Network Places" for ftp because you can edit files
in place on the remote site. Has to make your favorite ftp client obsolete.
A free implementation that lets you map your FTP server just like a local drive.
This is great application that permit you to manage you FTP site as if it
is a local drive. It does not need Novell client to be available: this is a standalone
application. Licensing restrictions keep Novell from distributing
netdrive.exe on their web site so you will need
to find it using Google or other search engine. It used to available from
several university sites, but as program grow older the number of such sites disappeared.
Here is one link that was active at the time or last correction of the page (Google
is your friend and with search string "Netdrive 4.1" you can do wonders :-)
Download the program from
HERE.
Double click and follow the instructions to install the program. Once the program
is installed, open the program (Start->Programs->NetDrive->NetDrive) and click
new site.
Opera also has IRC chat client.
Opera 9 is packaged with a torrent plugin, so
BitTorrent
downloads can be handled just like regular
HTTP/FTP
downloads.
It is notable in the face of criticisms of rendering accuracy, that Opera
9.0 passes the Acid2
rendering test by the
Web Standards Project, which is designed to test compliance with the latest
HTML,
CSS and other web standards.[26]
Browsers such as
Internet Explorer 7 and
Firefox 2
do not pass this test.
The history of the Windows PowerToys
During the development of Windows 95, as with the development of any project,
the people working on the project write side programs to test the features they
are adding or to prototype a feature. After Windows 95 shipped, some of those
programs were collected into the first edition of the
Windows 95 Power Toys.
As I recall, the first edition contained the following toys:
- CabView
- This was a handy internal tool which also served as a test of the shell
folder design.
- CDAutoPlay, DeskMenu, FlexiCD, QuickRes
- These were side toys originally written by shell developers for their
own personal use.
- Command Prompt Here, Explore From Here
- These were proof-of-concept toys which tested the shell command extension
design.
- Round Clock
- This was a program to test regional windows.
- Shortcut Target Menu
- This was a feature idea that didn't quite make it.
I wasn't around when the decision was made to package these toys up and ship
them, so I don't know what the rule was for deciding what was PowerToy-worthy
and what wasn't. Nor do I know where the name PowerToy came from. (Probably
somebody just made it up because it sounded neat.)
Upon the enormous success of the PowerToys, a second edition was developed.
This time, people knew that they were writing a PowerToy, as opposed to the
first edition of the PowerToys which was merely cobbled together from stuff
lying around. The second edition of the Windows 95 PowerToys added FindX, Send
To X, the Telephony Locator Selector, XMouse, and Tweak UI.
Later, the kernel team released their own set of toys, known as the
Windows 95 Kernel Toys. Alas, the original blurb text is not on the Microsoft
downloads site, but
here's an archived copy. (In reality, it was I who wrote all of the Kernel
Toys, except for the Time Zone Editor, which came from the Windows NT Resource
Kit. I also wrote the somewhat whimsical original blurb.)
This was all back in the day when it was easy to put up something for download.
No digital signatures, no virus checking, no paperwork. Just throw it up there
and watch what happens. Today, things are very different. Putting something
up for download is a complicated process with forms to fill out in triplicate
and dark rooms with card readers. I wouldn't be surprised if an abandoned salt
mine in Montana were somehow involved.
Nowadays, every team at Microsoft seems to have their own PowerToys, trading
on the good name of the Windows shell team who invented the whole PowerToys
idea. (As far as I can tell, we don't get any royalties from other divisions
calling their toys "PowerToys".) A quick check reveals the
following PowerToys available for download from Microsoft; I may have missed
some.
(Plus, of course, the
Windows XP PowerToys, which does come from the shell team. The Internet
Explorer team originally called their stuff PowerToys, but they later changed
the name to
Web Accessories, perhaps to avoid the very confusion I'm discussing here.)
What's frustrating is that since they are all called "PowerToys", questions
about them tend to go to the shell team, since we are the ones who invented
PowerToys. We frequently have to reply, "Oh, no, you're having a problem with
the XYZ PowerToys, not the classic Windows PowerToys. We're the folks who do
the classic Windows PowerToys."
Even the blog name
"PowerToys" has been co-opted by the Visual Studio team to promote their
Powertoys for Visual
Studio 2003.
Some
people claim that Tweak UI was written because Microsoft got tired of responding
to customer complaints. I don't know where they got that from. Tweak UI was
written because I felt like writing it.
That page also says that sometimes PowerToys vanish without warning. That's
true. A few years ago, all the Windows XP PowerToys were taken down so they
could be given a security review. Some of them didn't survive and didn't come
back. Other times, a PowerToy will be pulled because a serious bug was found.
Since PowerToys are spare-time projects, it can take a very long time for a
bug to get fixed, tested, and re-published. For example, the HTML Slide Show
Wizard was pulled after a (somewhat obscure) data-loss bug was found. Fixing
the bug itself took just a few days, but testing and filling out all the associated
paperwork took six months.
There's no moral to this story. Just a quick history lesson.
SyncToyWith new sources of files coming from every direction (such as digital cameras,
e-mail, cell phones, portable media players, camcorders, PDAs, and laptops),
SyncToy can help you copy, move, and synchronize different directories.
Download or learn more.
Tip #1: Use your system as little as possible until
you recover all of your lost files. The more activity taking place on your hard
disk, the greater the chance that some of your lost data might be written over.
- Don’t copy any files to the disk containing your lost data;
- Avoid browsing the web, because your web browser saves cache files on the
disk;
- Don’t launch any unnecessary programs, because they can also use your disk;
- Don’t restart your computer.
Tip #2: Before you go further,
take steps to free up some space on the disk containing your lost files. The
more free space your system has, the less chance of overwriting any lost files
with new ones. You can do one or more of the following things.
- Delete old files that you don’t need anymore (you can also move them to
another source, like a USB flash drive, instead of deleting);
- Empty your Recycle Bin - making sure that you haven’t put any important files
in there by mistake;
- Empty your browser cache. For Internet Explorer, click on the “Tools” menu,
then select “Internet Options”. Then, on the “General” tab, click the “Delete
Files…” button.
Tip #3: To install any software
after data damage increases the risk of your data being overwritten, so if
you haven’t had any data problems yet, consider installing a data recovery program
just in case. Prevention is always better than cure, and a recovery program
is good insurance for your data. However, if you don’t yet have a recovery program,
find one and - if possible - avoid installing it to the disk where your lost
files are located.
Most recovery programs work fairly similarly. You need to select the disk
where the lost files are located, let the program analyze the content of the
disk - this can take a while - and then select the file you want to recover.
Then, provide a location where you want to save that file. You should try to
avoid recovering files to the same disk. You could use another hard drive, a
network or removable media like a floppy disk or USB flash drive.
Overview: Windows Powertools is a collection of powerful and easy
to use tools for your Windows PC which can be used to speed up your PC and help
you stay in control of it. Features: Clear your cache and make your PC faster.
Compress your disk drives (New) .Ping your Internet connection and prevent your
ISP from disconnecting you. Define startup programs
and prevent unwanted application on startup. Edit your registry.
Clear boot sector and do drive cleanup, and make your computer faster. Defragment
drives and make your PC 2 to 3x faster. Monitor running tasks and kill unwanted
tasks. Convert FAT32 volumes to NTFS within 5 minutes. Version 1.3 may include
unspecified improvements, enhancements, and bug fixes.
Remote Desktop in Windows XP Professional provides remote access to the desktop
of your computer running Windows XP Professional, from a computer at another
location. Using Remote Desktop you can, for example, connect to your office
computer from home and access all your applications, files, and network resources
as though you were in front of your computer at the office. |
In my experience with early versions of IE7 is that it is not stable. Moreover
it is bloated slow and buggy. Sometimes it is unable even to load a webpage -- IE7
reports DNS error instead. Refresh helps but this is a very annoying problem...
February 08, 2007
(IDG News Service) -- Microsoft
Corp. has quietly released a patch aimed at improving the performance of Internet
Explorer 7's phishing filter ahead of the company's regular patching schedule,
which occurs on the second Tuesday of every month.
The update was made available last week on on Microsoft's Web site, according
to a blog entry on IEBlog,
which is written by the IE team at Microsoft.
This update addresses an issue some users experience when navigating
to a page with multiple frames, or where frames are being navigated
simultaneously, according to the post by IE Program Manager Steve Reynolds.
This kind of navigation occurs when the IE phishing filter, which attempts to
block access to sites that may try to defraud Web users, evaluates a Web page
when a user navigates to it. The result is multiple simultaneous evaluations
for the same page, Reynolds wrote in his post.
In addition to being available on Microsoft's Web site now, the patch will
also be released later this month for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Phishing filter performance is not the only complaint
IE7 users have had since the final version was released in October. Frequent
crashes and other performance problems such as excessive memory consumption
that results in slow page loads have been reported.
December 15, 2006 Internet Explorer 7 browser in which Google, not
Windows Live Search, is the default search engine.
The customized version of IE7 can be downloaded from
Google.
In addition to using Google as the default search engine, Google's customized
version of IE7 provides users with the Google Toolbar and a Google home page
they can personalize.
According to a posting on Microsoft's IEBlog by Tony Chor, Microsoft's group
program manager, Google and other companies, including Yahoo Inc. and USAToday.com,
were able to build customized versions of IE7 by using the Internet Explorer
Administration Kit.
Microsoft released the tool kit so developers could customize IE, as well
as to provide companies with help to configure and deploy the browser through
the corporation, Chor wrote
in his posting.
Microsoft released IE7 for Windows XP on Oct. 18. IE7 is also included in
Windows Vista, which is currently available in full release only to business
users. Windows Vista will be available to consumers on Jan. 30.
From Av point of view this is a very positive development.
January 10, 2007 (IDG
News Service) -- The U.S. agency best known for eavesdropping on telephone
calls had a hand in the development of Microsoft Corp.'s Vista operating system,
the software vendor confirmed yesterday.
The National Security Agency stepped in to help Microsoft develop a configuration
of its next-generation operating system that would meet U.S. Department of Defense
requirements, said NSA spokesman Ken White.
This is not the first time the secretive agency has been brought in by private
industry to consult on operating system security, White said, but it is the
first time the NSA has worked with a vendor prior to the release of an operating
system.
By getting involved early in the process, the NSA helped Microsoft ensure
that it was delivering a product that was both secure and compatible with government
software, he said.
"This allows us to ensure that the off-the-shelf security configuration that
the DOD customer receives is at a level that meets our standards," White said.
"It just makes a lot more sense to be involved upfront, than it does to have
the tail wag the dog."
The NSA's involvement in Vista was first reported yesterday by
The Washington Post.
The NSA has provided
guidance on how best to secure Microsoft's
Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems in the past. The agency is also
credited with reviewing the
Vista Security Guide published on Microsoft's
Web site.
Microsoft declined to allow its executives to be interviewed for this story.
But in a statement, the company said that it asked a number of entities and
government agencies to review Vista, including the NSA, the NATO and the National
Institute of Standards and Technology.
Still, the NSA's involvement in Vista raises red flags for some. "There could
be some good reason for concern," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of
the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). "Some bells are going to go
off when the government's spy agency is working with the private sector's top
developer of operating systems."
Part of this concern may stem from the NSA's reported historical interest
in gaining back-door access to encrypted data produced by products from U.S.
computer companies.
In 1999, then-Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said that "high level deal-making
on access to encrypted data had taken place between the NSA and IBM and Microsoft,"
according to EPIC's Web site.
With Vista expected to eventually power the majority of the world's personal
computers, it would be tempting for the government agency to push for a way
to gain access to data on these systems, privacy advocates say.
The NSA provided guidance on Vista's security configuration, but it did not
open any back doors to Windows, White said. "This is not the development of
code here. This is the assisting in the development of a security configuration,"
he said.
While the NSA is best known for its surveillance activities, the work with
Microsoft is being done in accordance with the NSA's second mandate: to protect
the nation's information system, White said. "This is the other half of the
NSA mission that you never hear much about," he said. "All you ever hear about
is foreign signal intelligence. The other half is information assurance."
Re:wishfull thinking
Win32 subsystem is TOO much tied to NT kernel and closely coupled
to achieve the performance it has today. That is why NT 3.51/3.53 was
more robust than NT 4,0 which moved major parts of the UI code to kernel
mode.Please actually read Inside Windows NT 3.51 by Helen Custer
and THEN read Inside Windows NT 4.0 to know the difference.
Sorry, hun, read both and even had this discussion with a key kernel
developer at Microsoft a few years ago. (1997 in fact, as we were starting
to work with Beta 1 of Windows 2000)
NT 4.0 ONLY moved video to a lower ring. It had NOTHING to do with
moving the Win32 subsystem INTO NT - that did not happen.
That is why Windows NT Embedded exists, and also why even the WinCE
is a version of the NT kernel with NO Win32 ties.
Microsoft can STILL produce NT without any Win32, and just throw
a *nix subsystem on it if they wanted to, but yet have the robustness
of NT. Win32 is the just the default interface because of the common
API and success of Windows applications.
I think you are confusing Ring dropping of the video driver with
something completely different.
NT is a client/server kernel... Go look up what that means, please
for the love of God.
Win32 is a subsystem, plain and simple. Yes it is a subsystem that
has tools to control the NT kernel under it, but that is just because
that is the default subsystem interface. You could build these control
tools in any subsystem you want to stack on NT. PERIOD.
Just one day after the first public reports of viruses
being written for an upcoming feature of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating
system (see
"First Windows Vista viruses unleashed"), the company said it will not include
the feature in the first generally available release of Microsoft Vista, due
out in the second half of 2006.
The feature, called the Monad Shell, provides
a way for users to access the operating system using text-based commands rather
than the traditional Windows graphical user interface. In the past, Microsoft
has said that Monad will be part of Longhorn, the code name for both the next
client and server versions of Windows.
In an interview Friday, Microsoft director of
product management Eric Berg said Monad will not be included in the first commercial
version of Windows Vista when it is released. But the product is expected to
be included in Windows over the next "three to five years," he said. "Our intention
is to synchronize it with both client and server operating systems."
Security experts had worried that if Monad were
included in a widely used client, it might become an attractive target for hackers
-- especially if the shell were enabled by default.
Whether it will be enabled by default is unclear.
"There are multiple ways that we could introduce this technology to the client
stream," Berg said.
The first Microsoft product to use Monad will
be the next release of Microsoft's Exchange messaging server, code-named Exchange
12, which is also due in 2006, Berg said.
On the operating system side of things,
Monad is then expected to be included in Windows Server Longhorn, expected in
2007, and could be available in a future Windows Vista release, said
Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft Inc. "Presumably,
as time goes on, all of Microsoft's products will have Monad scripting interfaces,"
he said.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Your list has convinced me to stay with Windows. Most Windows apps you’ve mentioned been matured over the years, and there are fewer vendors to deal with for support.
At least the Open Source community is keeping the vendor community on their toes.