Tips_XP 10-20-09 Use NotePad, Word Pad or Word to view this file Tips_XP.txt Use this collective Tips file to search for the subject of interest. Menu/Edit/Find, or Cntrl+F Do not print it out, use Search to find key words. This file was born out of my seeing neat, helpful things to remember in experience, newsletters, and newsgroups and I figured that there were so many of them that it would be best if I wrote them down. Then I thought that it would be helpful to family and friends to also share this with them. FIND HELP FAST I often look back at past individual Tips sheets and found that it would be easier if i just collected them all in one place so i could do a menu/Edit/Find search process on all of them to find specific refs. It was originally compiled to keep track of interesting facts so that I didn't have to trust my failing memory. While new items are added at the top of the list below, updates are made to all items throughout the file. ******* DVD+-R A DVD-R and DVD+R share similarities in that they are both write-once formats, they both have single-sided capacities of 4.7GB, they both need finalization after recording for broad playback, and both can be used for either data storage or video applications. The major difference is that they are not interchangeable when it comes to recording. Because each format writes information to its corresponding disc differently, DVD+R discs must be recorded by a +R drive or video recorder, and DVD-R discs must be recorded by a -R drive or video recorder. Once recorded, they share similar playback compatibility. DVD-R/RW was developed by Pioneer. Based on CD-RW technology, it uses a similar pitch of the helix, mark length of the 'burn' for data, and rotation control. DVD-R/RW is supported by the DVD Forum, an industry-wide group of hardware and software developers, and computer peripheral manufacturers. The DVD-R format has been standardized in ECMA-279 by the Forum, but this is a private standard, not an 'industry' ISO standard like the CD-R/RW Red Book or Orange Book standard. DVD+R/RW is also based on CD-RW technology. DVD+R/RW is supported by Sony, Philips, HP, Dell, Ricoh, Yamaha, and others, and has recently been endorsed by Microsoft. DVD+R/RW is not supported by the DVD Forum, but the Forum has no power to set industry standards, so it becomes a market-driven issue. OFFICE UPDATES All of them up to 2007, including OfficeXP http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/downloads/default.aspx Clik on Office 2000 tab, note the many parts to Office for updates For Office 2000, Install SR-1a first http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Family ID=AF6C8D03-7633-45B4-AB96-795EE656F2A2&displaylang=en Then install SP 2 and 3 and after that install the individual updates and add-ins for Excel, FP, Word, etc. OPEN OFFICE Free. http://download.openoffice.org/ OpenOffice lacks a PIM analogous to Outlook. This is a hole you can fill with one of the many alternatives I reviewed in my July 31, 2008, and Aug. 14, 2008, Best Software columns. Another alternative is to use OpenOffice with Yahoo's free Zimbra Desktop service in place of Outlook. OpenOffice's Base database program is not a replacement for Access. Base can't read and save Access files the way Writer does with Word files, Calc does with Excel files, and Impress does with PowerPoint files. CLOUD the Internet cloud — where you can reach your files any time from any Internet-connected PC MALWARE Don't use Internet Explorer. All versions of IE are vulnerable to Gumblar and similar Web threats, but especially IE 6 is an infection waiting to happen. If a site or application requires Internet Explorer, update to IE 8 if you can. If you can't, download IE 7 as a bare minimum (although it's by no means a remedy). You can download IE 7 from Microsoft's Download Center and IE 8 from the browser's page on Microsoft's site. Use Firefox, Chrome, and other non-IE browsers. Once a PC is running this class of malware, the hacker code tries to trick the user into opening infected PDF and Flash files. If the PC has an unpatched version of Adobe Reader, Acrobat, or Flash, opening an infected file can install a keylogger or other malware. Try SuperAntiSpyWare for free, $10 Pro ver. It is supposed to be a Keylogger Detector as well as find all the AV stuff. http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html For an added measure of protection, configure your PC to use the OpenDNS service, which lets you block categories of sites that you don't visit. You'll find complete instructions for making the required changes to your router on the OpenDNS tutorial page. To make OpenDNS your DNS server, you can run your router's advanced settings program and manually set its DNS options to 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. LIVEMARKS Livemark, commonly known as "Live Bookmark", was first introduced by Mozilla Firefox. The term "Live Bookmark" has since been adopted by both Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari and is made up of a combination of an RSS web feed and a special bookmark. Using Firefox, when a user navigates to a page that has placed a piece of HTML code into the section of a page the user will see the icon at the end of the address bar. Clicking on this icon brings up Firefox's normal Bookmark dialog which allows the user to store the link as a bookmark. In the Bookmarks menu the entry will have the icon and an arrow next to it. A mouseover of the bookmark will present a secondary menu. The secondary menu is the links found in the RSS Feed. Firefox has essentially built into the bookmarks a mini Feed reader. ANON http://www.torproject.org/index.html.en Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis. Tor protects you by bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location. Tor works with many of your existing applications, including web browsers, instant messaging clients, remote login, and other applications based on the TCP protocol. AUTORUN To disable Autorun capabilities, you must install the following updates: * Update for Windows XP (KB967715) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx? FamilyID=c7dbcde3-7814-47c5-849e-e64ecfb35d74 EXPLORER When downloading files, you need to have one instance of Explr in the \Dwnld folder and another instance of it in Search in order to see if you have that file before dwnld. Open it. Start/Programs/Accessories/WinExplr. Create a shortcut to it on the Desktop. In Explorer, Click on Search icon in Toolbar. Left panel, scroll down, clik on Search Companion icon in Toolbar. Now, you have two forms present. Clik on the first one and Clik on Folder icon, not Search. You have one form of Explr in Search and one in Folders. You need both present. I am upset that one can no longer mnu/View, list as FileType. P2P http://www.limewire.com/download/download.php?version=win TIME dble clik on the clock at the right side of the Taskbar. Clik on Internet Time tab. Make sure the Auto box is chkd, clik on UpdateNow btn RECOVERY CONSOLE You must be an administrator to use the Recovery Console. XP allows an Administrator to set up automatic logon when the Recovery Console is used. Anyone with a Windows 2000 CD can boot up a Windows XP box and start the Windows 2000 Recovery Console, a troubleshooting program. Windows XP then allows the visitor to operate as Administrator without a password, even if the Administrator account has a strong password. There are two ways to start the Recovery Console: -If you are unable to start your computer, you can run the Recovery Console from your Setup CD. -As an alternative, you can install the Recovery Console on your computer to make it available in case you are unable to restart Windows. You can then select the Recovery Console option from the list of available operating systems on startup. To install the Recovery Console as a startup option With Windows running, insert the Setup CD into your CD-ROM drive. CLick Start and select Run. Type the following where D: is the CD-ROM drive letter: D:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons Follow the instructions on the screen. BROWSER http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox /3.0.6/releasenotes/ FireFox, FF, is a safer browser than IE, this is the latest. UPDATES MSoft Open IE and clik on mnu/Tools/Update for the 2nd Tues update. MALICIOUS The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found. When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed. Microsoft releases an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month, and as needed to respond to security incidents. The tool is available from Microsoft Update, Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. LINUX UBUNTU http://www.ubuntu.com/ Ubuntu is a community developed, Linux-based operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. It contains all the applications you need - a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software, instant messaging and much more. GNOME http://library.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/2.24/ GNOME offers an easy to understand desktop for your GNU/Linux or UNIX computer. Learn more about GNOME as a whole, get our latest release. GNOME's focus is ease of use, stability, and first class internationalisation and accessibility support. GNOME is Free and Open Source Software and provides all of the common tools computer users expect of a modern computing environment, such as e- mail, groupware, web browsing, file management, multimedia and games. Furthermore, GNOME provides a flexible and powerful platform for software developers, both on the desktop and in mobile applications. Even though it's extremely user- friendly, GNOME is a large and complex system, and thus, requires some learning to use to the fullest. To make that easier, we've provided some very useful documentation. BOTNET Malicious software called Bots can secretly take control of computers and make them participate in networks called “Botnets.” These networks can harness massive computing power and Internet bandwidth to relay spam, attack web servers, infect more computers, and perform other illicit activities. -Get a free diagnosis. Some security products are intended specifically to combat the botnet plague. For example: RUBotted is a free utility from Trend Micro that sits quietly in your system tray and monitors suspicious activity. If the program spots an infection, it alerts you to take action. The program is currently a beta, but it worked fine for me. http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en- US/tools/security_tools/rubotted Clik on free HouseCall Scan btn According to a post by security blogger Feinberg, RUBotted encourages you to scan your system with Trend Micro's free HouseCall online virus-scanning service, which detects and removes many malware infections. Note that on my system, RUBotted uses 8MB of RAM. By Scott Dunn http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en- US/tools/security_tools/housecall/ -By carefully monitoring your Internet connection, you'll reduce your risk of infection by botnet malware. By default, the firewalls built into Windows XP and Vista monitor only incoming connections. ZoneAlarm. FIREWALL To open Windows Firewall, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Windows Firewall. Windows Firewall is turned on by default for all Internet and network connections. However, some computer manufacturers and network administrators might turn it off. Windows Firewall is turned on by default, so you cannot use some features of some types of programs, unless the program is listed on the Exceptions tab in Windows Firewall. See free ZoneAlarm. A handful of readers took the time to comment on their choices for best software firewall. The most popular — Comodo Internet Security — is free and includes the company's antivirus engine as well. The free ZoneAlarm Firewall was also lauded by one reader, but two others told us of their problems with the program. Windows Vista and XP SP2 and later come with a basic firewall that's better than no firewall at all, but not much. (I don't consider earlier versions of the Windows Firewall workable because of these versions' terrible interfaces.) WS YOUR IP ADDR http://www.dslreports.com/tools and many other handy utils, like your conn Speed. Run: 2009-01-05 Download: 6252 (Kbps) Upload: 718 (Kbps) MKV File type. Video container format similar to .AVI and .MOV that supports several types of video compression and video codecs; can play back SRT, SSA and USF text subtitles, as well as VobSub subtitles from DVDs. The Matroska video, .mkv, format has become popular in the anime fan-subbing community (where users create subtitles) since it supports multiple audio and subtitle tracks in the same container. Use VLC Player. OGG Ogg is a free, open standard container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The Ogg format is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia. The name ‘Ogg’ refers to the file format which can multiplex a number of separate independent free and open source codecs for audio, video, text (such as subtitles), and metadata. In the Ogg multimedia framework, Theora provides a lossy video layer, while the music-oriented Vorbis codec most commonly acts as the audio layer. The human speech compression codec Speex, lossless audio compression codec FLAC, and OggPCM may also act as audio layers. The term ‘Ogg’ is commonly used to refer to audio file format Ogg Vorbis, that is, Vorbis-encoded audio in the Ogg container. Previously, the .ogg file extension was used for any content distributed within Ogg, but as of 2007, the Xiph.Org Foundation requests that .ogg be used only for Vorbis. RAM 32-bit version of Windows Vista provides users with "only 3GB of memory, a limitation that the 64-bit edition doesn't have." Other 32-bit operating systems have similar memory constraints, but Stuart pointed out that 64-bit versions of Vista can address 8GB to 128GB of RAM, depending on the edition (Home Basic, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate). Several subscribers commented that the total amount of addressable RAM on 32-bit systems is 4GB, not 3GB. Reader K. Boriskin explains it this way: "The various versions [of Windows] reported 3GB because that's all that was available to the user. The rest is used internally for housekeeping, which certainly makes it supported. WS Windows XP and Vista impose a memory limit of 4GB. Your system may allow you to install more than this amount of RAM, but with few exceptions, the extra memory won't do Windows or your applications any good. Moreover, even if you have 4GB of memory installed in your PC, you may not be able to use it all. For example, if your video card comes with 1MB of memory and you have 4GB of RAM, your system actually has 5GB of memory physically installed. But Windows will use only 4GB of that total, regardless. It gets worse: according to a comment posted to the MSDN article, Windows itself is getting only 3GB because the video card gets 1GB. This happens because the memory aperture — a portion of system memory — is used to work with the video system. Step 1. Choose Start, Run. Step 2. Type sysdm.cpl and press Enter. Step 3. Click the Advanced tab. In the Performance box, click Settings and choose the Data Execution Prevention tab. Step 4. Look for a status message at the bottom of the dialog box. If it indicates that your hardware does not support DEP, chances are PAE is not enabled. Step 1. Choose Start, Run. Step 2. Type notepad c:\boot.ini and press Enter. Step 3. Under the [operating systems] heading, look for a line that contains the /noexecute switch, which turns software DEP. For example, it may be /noexecute=optin, /noexecute=optout, or /noexecute=always on. Place the cursor directly after that switch and type a space followed by /pae. Save the file and reboot. Scott Dunn SCRN SAVER Right clik on Desktop/Properties/ScrnSaver tab. Select ScrnSvr. These are scr files and are located in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 subdir. You can make a scr file out of your images and place the new scr file here. free from Google things you like including the scrn save creator http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?brand=CP MA&utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us- synsearch&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=screen%20saver POWER To adj power time ON, Right clik on Desktop, Select Properties, ScreenSaver tab, Power btn. FILE SHARING http://www.download.com/windows/p2p-file-sharing- software/3150-2196_4-0-1.html?tag=mncol;pop http://www.frostwire.com/ free FILE TYPES It turns out that VLC v.8.6 is better than Win Media Player 11 for playing video files. Leave WMV files to WMP and change AVI and MPG files to be viewed in VLC. Never dwnld MOV type files. XP makes it a lot easier to do this than previous Win versions. This is called File Associations. In Explorer, clik on mnu/Tools/FolderOptions/FileType tab. Clik on AVI or MPG and if it is not already set for VLC, then clik on Change btn. Clik on VLC in the list presented and OK. This assumes that VLC is already installed. See previous Tip for VLC. Video Housekeeping: Start/Documents/for list of files run in VLC, but not WMP, to be deleted while holding down the Cntrl key. For Recent files in WMP, use RegEdit to find: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Rece ntFileList. Clik on file#, clik on mnu/Edit/Modify, DEL key, OK btn; repeat as necessary to delete list of files played in WMP. Look also in, HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-329068152-1454471165- 839522115- 1004\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ComD lg32\OpenSaveMRU\avi and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\ComDlg32\OpenSaveMRU\mpg, and other file types like *, AVI, etc. in the same subfolder. RSS from Wikipedia RSS "RDF Site Summary" "Rich Site Summary" "Really Simple Syndication" Filename extension .rss, .xml Internet media type application/rss+xml Extended from XML RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video – in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed",[3] or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content quickly and automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop- based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI (often referred to non-technically as a URL) into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds. RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999,[4] the RSS icon first gained widespread use in 2005–2006. Commonly the term RSS is used to refer to Web feed, without taking into account if the format of that Web feed is RSS or not. Web feed refers to the means of web syndication, while RSS refers to the format of that web feed. Originally the only format of web feed was RSS, so both terms were used interchangeably. However, currently the Atom format is another popular format of web feed. Not every web feed is RSS anymore, some are Atom. Some web pages offer a web feed in Atom format and erroneously they point to it as RSS. Several BitTorrent-based peer-to-peer applications also support RSS. Such feeds (also known as Torrent/RSS-es or Torrentcasts) allow client applications to download files automatically from the moment the RSS reader detects them (also known as Broadcatching). In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader, news reader or simply aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. http://www.rssreader.com/ What is RssReader? RssReader is a program to read RSS and Atom news feeds. RssReader collect news in the background at user configurable intervals and warn with a little popup in the system tray that there is a new message arrived. You can click the news headline to see a short description of the news and click or open the original news web page in an RssReader browser or default browser window. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for syndicating news. Many news and web log sites support RSS by adding these pictograms as XML or RSS to their web pages. RssReader support RSS versions 0.9x, 1.0 and 2.0 and Atom 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3. Running under Windows 98/NT/Me/2000/XP/2003. RssReader is FREEWARE, which means that you can freely copy the original installation package without any modifications and give it away to all of your friends. We don't take any responsibility for any damage to your computer caused by installing or inappropriate use of this program. TIME http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp get JAVA http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b2.html Time change, Clik on Pages http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java Accurate time MOVE OE MSGS edit Tired of losing your addr book and msgs when your C: drive crashes? OE mnu/Tools/Maint tab/StoreFolder btn. Clik on Change btn. Select the new folder you have previously created in Explorer, such as D:\OE_MsgsXP . Clik on OK btn, clik OK again at msg to reopen OE. ROXIO v10 http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/Creator/000086CR MSINFO a. Click Start b. Click Run... c. Type: msinfo32 d. Make sure "System Summary" is selected in the tree on the left. e. Click File, Export ... Save the file as (x).txt to your desktop. f. Exit msinfo32 produces a detailed examination of your computer. Also, try typing in msconfig at Run to view/change your Startup items. JAVA Enable Java in FireFox 3, mnu/Tools/Options/Content tab NOTIFY When a homepage changes, like Lotto, notify user by email. R. clik on Desktop, Properties/Desktop tab/Web tab/Dwnld tab "When this page..." chk box VIDEO AVS Video Converter lets you crop to adjust aspect ratio. MediaCoder takes the feature prize by including that effect plus controls for brightness, contrast, volume, hue, saturation, denoising, and other functions. With Digital Media Converter, you can adjust only your file's brightness, contrast, and volume. AVS Video Converter is sold as part of the U.S. $40 AVS Video Tools collection. http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ 13.4mb BIOS During bootup, the method to get into BIOS will be displayed on the screen. Usually, it is DEL key, but other mfgrs change this. To stop the bootup screen hit the Break key (top right of keyboard) to stop the fast moving data on the screen. To resume the boot process hit the Enter key. Repeat as necessary. Hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot the machine, wait for the beep, and then simply try pressing the most common BIOS access keys until you find one that works: DEL, F1, F2, F8, F11, ESC, CTRL-ALT-ESC, CTRL-ALT-ENTER. If none of these most-common access keys works, visit your PC vendor's site for the correct access method for your PC. http://www.sysopt.com/bios4.htm BIOS AMI BIOS Delete key during the POST (power on self test) Award BIOS Ctrl+Alt+Esc, or Delete key during the POST DTK BIOS Esc key during the POST IBM PS/2 BIOS Ctrl+Alt+Insert after Ctrl+Alt+Delete Phoenix BIOS Ctrl+Alt+Esc or Ctrl+Alt+S or F1 FORMAT if you have a working Windows ver on a C: drive and wish to format another HD in a non-C: or non-boot position, unzip dlgsetup11_win.zip to a folder. Use WDs DataLifeguard.exe to format HD in a non-C: position to NT format. Windows running: dlgsetup11_win.zip you cannot format the C: that you are using. unless you go the DOS boot route below. While your HD may not be WD mfgr, you can still use this OnTrack based util to format it. http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=501&sid =53&lang=en there are 2 or 3 files needed: Win, DOS, & Diag. Windows not running or you wish to change OS on C: drive use DOS: dlgsetup11_dos.exe to create a DOS floppy. if you have only one HD and that is running with an OS that you want to replace then use the dlgsetup11_dos.exe to create a DOS floppy. Boot up. Change BIOS to change the boot order to Floppy first. boot up on this floppy. Format the C: to NT, reboot change BIOS boot order to CD drive first and boot from XP CD. INSTALL Use WDs Lifeguard to format HD in a non-C: position to NT. Windows running: dlgsetup11_win.zip Windows not running: use DOS: dlgsetup11_dos.exe to create DOS floppy. Place XP Home CD in drive boot up, get into BIOS, change boot order to CD drive first Save & Exit BIOS cont bootup answer prompts to Install, be prepared to show proof of Windows have a Win 2000, Win 98SE, Win Me CD ready to place in drive as proof. continue Install. Install SP 2, SP 3 is still thought to be iffy but can be installed. reset BIOS boot order. 9-2008 ACTIVATE You have 30 days to do so. This can be changed. See Windows Secrets newsletter Archive search for XP Activation. http://www.windowssecrets.com/ 'past issues' PROBLEMS 1. run all AV utils you have daily 2. reboot 3. defrag 4. backup data 5. replug pwr & signal cables to HDs in question 6. chkdsk 7. plug in your extra HD with another OS on it 8. update your OS, or replace it. 9. keep reading below DEFRAG Start/Settings/CntrlPnl/dble clik on Admin Tools icon right clik on and drag CompMgmt icon to Desktop, Sel Shortcut. Dble clik on this Desktop icon to get to Dev Mgr, Defrag, & Disk Management. You can defrag an USB Flash Mem stick, but it is slow. Defrag C: once a week even if you didn't do any heavy lifting. With XP, i defrag daily. Defrag your Dwnld HD often. Disk Management is also avail here, used to changed HD letters among other things. As is Device Manager. As Admin, you can right clik on a HD in Explorer and Rename a HD. Defragment your hard disk. You can start Windows' built-in disk defragmenter from the drive's Properties dialog box by choosing the Tools tab and clicking Defragment Now. However, a third-party tool such as J.C. Kessels' free MyDefrag (formerly JKDefrag) is faster and more thorough. You'll find a download link for the program on the MyDefrag site. 1.5mb. http://www.mydefrag.com/Manual-DownloadAndInstall.html WS Once in a while, you'll run into a program that just can't be pried loose from your Windows installation by using Windows' own tools. WS editor-at-large Fred Langa presents his favorite uninstall tools, including Microsoft's free Windows Installer CleanUp Utility and jv16 PowerTools WS CHK DSK If you have screwed up a HD and XP Defrag or WD LifeGuard doesn't clear it up, perform the old DOS ChkDsk that we used so much in Win 3 and 95, 98. It is hidden. Open Disk Management, see above, Select Drive, note Status, Right clik on a HD, Select Properties, and clik on Tools tab. Clik on Error-chking ChkNow btn. Select both chk boxes to fix HD, Clik on OK/Start btn. Step 5 of 5 HD freespace)takes a while. Since you are doing this in Windows, you might be scheduling this last DOS action to take place the next time you boot up. This involves the Logical Disk Manager Service and it might not be available if you just did a chkdsk, so reboot and try again. -Running Windows' built-in disk-checking utility couldn't be easier: click Start, Run (in XP) or just Start (in Vista), At the command prompt, type the following: chkdsk x: /r Enter The x represents the letter of the drive you want to check, and the /r switch instructs the utility to Repair errors, find bad sectors, and recover whatever data it's able to. The C: drive chkdsk will have to be scheduled for the next bootup as it is in use now. Microsoft's Help and Support site provides complete instructions for using the Chkdsk utility in article 315265 (the article specifies XP, but the information applies to Vista as well). STARTUP View and change what is installed as Startup: Start/Run type in msconfig sel Startup tab unchk any not wanted. One to add is: OE Clik on Search icon /Folders/Files Clik on C:\ProgFiles\OE folder, Rclik & drag msimn.exe to C:\Docs&Sett\yourUsername\StartMenu\Programs\Startup subdir Sel Shortcut, reboot. Email will auto start on bootup. BCC in email. Open new msg, clik on mnu/View/SelectAllHeaders EXPLORER, IE There's no doubt that Internet Explorer is the target of more malware than any other piece of software. In fact, using IE is like painting a bull's-eye on your forehead and walking into a war zone. Use FireFox 3. it is not attacked as much by hackers. Switch to Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or another contender and configure it to be your default browser. Use IE only to visit sites that require Microsoft-specific technology — probably because they rely on ActiveX to function. (For example, you need to use IE to download patches at the Windows Update site.) I recommend Firefox because of the numerous add-ons available for that browser. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722 http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms08- 078.mspx Mark Joseph Edwards AV Install AVG free, AdAware free, PC Tools Spyware Doctor free - replaces Karen's Cookie Viewer, McAfee's Stinger 1546 free and First & MOST important ZoneAlarm free. http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/?ref=google_spy_ware http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/download/ http://pack.google.com/intl/en/pack_installer.html?hl=en&gl =us&utm_source=en-com-pc_tools_learn_more&utm_medium= com&utm_campaign=en There is a conflict between Spyware and ZoneAlarm the best fit for XP that i have found is to install ZoneAlarm first: zlsSetup_70_483_000_en.exe then Spyware: sdsetup.exe 8.23 mb v4.0 these are not the latest updates, but they work together in XP. You can search for each file to dwnld in Google. Get rid of anything to do with Spywarebot. Avoid utils like Plaxo that ask for your contact list. Try SuperAntiSpyWare for free, $10 Pro ver. It is supposed to be a Keylogger Detector as well as find all the AV stuff. http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ free chk at site. Anti-keylogging software — even if it were effective in its stated mission — wouldn't prevent your password from being intercepted by a hardware keylogger. The sad fact is, if a keylogger is deployed effectively, you can't detect whether a public or unsecured computer has a hardware or software keylogger — or any keylogger at all, for that matter. To establish a master password in Firefox, pull down the Tools menu, click Options, select the Security tab, and turn on Use a master password. After doing this, you must enter your master password once per browser session. Number one on the list of components readers care about is antivirus software. I received recommendations for 13 different AV products. The most popular was ESET's NOD32, the second-most popular was Comodo AntiVirus, and tied for third were PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition and AVG Anti- Virus Free Edition. All four programs have free versions except NOD32, which has a 30-day free trial. microsoft.com has a download page where you can Save malicious s/w removal tool. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/default.aspx The free Comodo Internet Security combines a firewall and antivirus app; more information and a download link are on the vendor's site http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/. An alternative is Agnitum's Outpost Firewall Free; Agnitum's site provides more information about the product http://free.agnitum.com/. One of the highest-rated free antivirus programs — by PC users and software reviewers alike — is Malwarebyte.org's AntiMalware, available for download from the company's site http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php. WS ERASER Ver 5.86.1 is avail for free at: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015 Eraser really deletes files and it also cleans up non-data areas on your HD. 1. Eraser beats Delete. Delete just changes the first letter in a file name so that it is no longer addressable, but the data is still on your HD until it is overwritten. Deleted files can be resurrected with Undelete if not written over, and can be looked at, even if partially written over, with HexEditor. Eraser erases all of the info/data in the file, not just the name of the info saved on a HD. It erases by writing over the data many times with random 1s and 0s. It can erase files, dirs, and HDs; the real,saved data is untouched. Right clik on a file and select Erase rather than Delete from the popup menu for sensitive files. It can erase data left in a Move cmd by selecting 'Move with Erase' cmd from the popup menu. 2. Eraser also cleans up your HD by erasing old data in non-Saved data areas. It erases Cluster Tips as well as Unused space. Say your OS saves files in 4KB groups; A 9 KB file would then be saved as 4KB + 4KB + 1KB leaving 3KB in the last 4KB group unaffected; this is a cluster tip. The Tip will contain all of the last data left in it untouched which could be vital, private data that can easily be looked at with a Hex Editor. While Eraser is running do not do anything else on your computer. After Installing, clik on Mnu/Edit/Pref/General and Erase. I use an Edited 3 pass erase for Tips and Unused. ***** end Tips XP