On my previous blog i had mentioned some feature present in the system and how to use them to utilise your system more effectively. This time i ll concentrate on additional tools which might be of use for you
1. Ava Find
This is basically a search tool but is many times faster than the ordinary Windows search because it maintains a database of the files in the system and the scout bot checks for any file changes. The link for ava find is
http://www.think-less-do-more.com/avafind/update/?update=1&ver=1.5.218
2. Tuneup Utilities
Though there are a lot of tools for windows tweaking i believe this one gives a complete package for managing the system and change styles of the system. The one click maintenance usually cleans the system for any malfunctioning and in addition it has options for changing boot screens, welcome screens and system icons. It also has options for file undelete i.e recovering deleted files.
http://www.tune-up.com/download/tu2007/
3. Partition magic
Having many drives in the system usually helps for proper classification of data. But many preinstalled systems come with only the system drive. In order to create new partitions and delete existing partitions or merging partitions with our losing any data, this utility can be useful.The link for partition magic is
http://www.soft32.com/Download/free-trial/Partition_Magic/4-151-1.html
4. Notepad++
For people who think notepad is too monotonous or very plain to use, Notepad++ may entertain more. It has features for indentation for writing scripts. It highlights the keywords and attribute names for helping in coding easily by syntax highlighting etc. It supports html, javascript, etc. Its a freeware and is available from
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
5. Powertoys for XP
PowerToys add fun and functionality to the Windows experience. They are tweaking tools provided by microsoft but donot come with Windows. Some of them are
Color Control Panel Applet
SyncToy
RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer
ClearType Tuner
HTML Slide Show Wizard
Open Command Window Here
Alt-Tab Replacement
Tweak UI
Power Calculator
Image Resizer
CD Slide Show Generator
Virtual Desktop Manager
Taskbar Magnifier
Webcam Timershot
These are available from
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
6. 7-zip
This is a freely available open source compression decompression archiever. It can decompress rar and zip files and the compression ratio compared to the others is higher. Can be used as substitute for winrar and winzip. It is available from
http://www.7-zip.org/
7. Magic ISO
MagicISO is a powerful CD/DVD image file creating/editing/extracting tool. It can open / create / edit /extract CD/DVD image files, and it can convert bin to iso and back. as well as make ISO file from DVD/CD-ROM or hard disk, and handle bootable information at meanwhile.Available from
http://www.magiciso.com/download.htm
8. Foxit Reader
The Adobe Reader has been to bulky and uses lots of resources when opened. Instead we can use this light weight alternative which is freely available for download. Some extra features are also available like creating a pdf merging pdfs which must be downloaded seperately. The advantage is it is only 2.13MB compared to 20.8MB of Adobe Reader and also has options for making notes in a pdf.Available from
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/
9. Picasa Web Albums
This is a tool for organising all pictures in the system. It has all the pictures listed in folders and years taken. It also gives options to make modifications to pictures. And for uploading them in the web.It comes as a part of google apps. It can also be seperately downloaded from
http://picasa.google.com/download/thanks.html
10. Download Accelerator plus
The name itself should explain its purpose. It speeds up the download process by downloading all parts simultaneously. It also has option for pausing the download and resuming them so that we dont have to download everything from beginning. The video accelerator speeds back the streaming video from youtube.etc. It is available at
http://beta.speedbit.com/
11. K-Lite codec pack
Also called as Media player classic,t his is a movie player having the older WMP look but supports nearly all video and audio codecs available presently. It replaces the need for real and quicktime players too. It is available from
http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Codec_Pack_download.htm
12. Vista like look
People who like to have a different look of their systems can use this software to transform their XP to look like Vista. It has all the style features of Vista like Object Dock, Aero Theme, etc. It is available from
http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.130.htm
Thats all for now. Next time i ll discuss some sites which can be useful for online purposes and also some online tools. Bye for now
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Few trips for using a system with XP
1. Changing boot sequence
This is usually used when installing the OS from a cd or using a Live cd for Linux. When the system is booting press del (F2 also works in some systems). In the BIOS settings select the boot sequence and choose the first boot device as cd/dvd drive and restart the system. From the next time the system will boot from the cd/dvd drive.
2. Some ways to speed up booting process
Usually whenever a new program is installed it is associated with the startup so that it starts quicker when we open it. But it slows the startup time significatly. In order to avoid it goto Run. Type msconfig and press enter. In the Startup tab deselect the applications which you donot want to startup automatically. From the next time those will not start. Also keep your desktop free of clutter. If there are lot of icons in the desktop save them in a single folder.
3. Avoiding matlab and oracle to eat up memory
This option should be handled carefully because it may cause these applications not to start at all. Goto Administrative Tools in the control panel and select services. It contains a list of all the services present in the system. All oracle services start with the name ora. Mark all of them as manual startup. Similarly do the same for matlab and matlab server. These services usually take a lot of the system memory and hence this should speed up the system a lot.
4. Seeing system folders
Many operating system files and folders are by default hidden by windows. They are not visible even if the hidden files are made visible. To make them visible goto Tools->Folder options. Select the view tab and deselect the Hide Protected Operating system files. Now we can see all the folders and files in the system. This option doesnot have any use by itself but this is just for information.
5. Unknown File types
Windows usually hides the file types of most of the files. If we want to know their extensions as above select folder options and in view tab deselect Hide extensions of known file types. Now all the files appear with their extensions.
6. Autorun problem
For those who use the pen drives often they come across any of these problems.
a. When double clicked the device doesnot open.
b. Many folders go missing.
It is usually not a good habit to double click a pen drive. Its better to right click and go to explore it. This is to avoid the first problem. The problem is usually caused by an autorun.inf file which is capable of changing the default option of open into autoplay. Now how to remove this. Usually the inf file comes along with an exe file which is mostly a virus. To remove that follow the procedure given above to show oprating system files and we can see the autorun file. Open the file and check the file for any exes or scripts mentioned in it. Delete this file and the files mentioned from the pen drive.
Folders going missing and an exe created in their place is the most frustating problem. At the first sight we think they have been deleted but actually they are hidden as operating system files. First we have to delete the exe files. They are Trojans and can usually be detected by an antivirus scan. To retrieve the hidden files follow the procedure
In command prompt,
attrib -s -h -r foldername
Do this for all folders. You wil get your files.
7. Changing my documents location
Usually the C drive is always overloaded because the registry entries are saved in the C drive and also the temporary files. We can avoid overloading it by movint the location of My documents to another folder in the system. To do this, right click my documents from the start menu and select properties. There change the target to the folder you want as My documents.
8. Visual and performance settings
If your system has limited RAM and your visual settings are configured to be best then you are losing the system memory unnecessarily. To avoid it or to tweak those settings goto My Computer's properties and in Advanced Tab select Performance settings. There select Let windows choose what is best for my computer.
9. Ending unresponsive program
If a program stops responding and could not be closed, goto task manager by pressing Ctl+Alt+Del and select the unresponsive program and right click it. Select goto process. It will point to the corresponding process. Right click it and select end process tree.
10. Messengers
If you think yahoo and gtalk are taking a lot of system space, try the alternate means like signing into the mail. The new version of yahoomail supports IM and gmail also has the option. Further use sites like http://www.meebo.com and http://koolim.com/
11. Yahoo messenger
We can save all our chats in yahoo messenger to our system as dat files. If these are copied to another system in same location they can be read there also. To do this, goto preferences and in archive, select Save all of my messages.
12. Gtalk
Gtalk by default saves all the chats in gmail itself. To see them goto gmail and click the chats link below the inbox link.
13. Open a password protected Word file
To open a password protected text only MS-Word file, open it with Wordpad. The file will open.
Comment on the content. If you have any more doubts comment them i ll try to cover them also in next blogs
This is usually used when installing the OS from a cd or using a Live cd for Linux. When the system is booting press del (F2 also works in some systems). In the BIOS settings select the boot sequence and choose the first boot device as cd/dvd drive and restart the system. From the next time the system will boot from the cd/dvd drive.
2. Some ways to speed up booting process
Usually whenever a new program is installed it is associated with the startup so that it starts quicker when we open it. But it slows the startup time significatly. In order to avoid it goto Run. Type msconfig and press enter. In the Startup tab deselect the applications which you donot want to startup automatically. From the next time those will not start. Also keep your desktop free of clutter. If there are lot of icons in the desktop save them in a single folder.
3. Avoiding matlab and oracle to eat up memory
This option should be handled carefully because it may cause these applications not to start at all. Goto Administrative Tools in the control panel and select services. It contains a list of all the services present in the system. All oracle services start with the name ora. Mark all of them as manual startup. Similarly do the same for matlab and matlab server. These services usually take a lot of the system memory and hence this should speed up the system a lot.
4. Seeing system folders
Many operating system files and folders are by default hidden by windows. They are not visible even if the hidden files are made visible. To make them visible goto Tools->Folder options. Select the view tab and deselect the Hide Protected Operating system files. Now we can see all the folders and files in the system. This option doesnot have any use by itself but this is just for information.
5. Unknown File types
Windows usually hides the file types of most of the files. If we want to know their extensions as above select folder options and in view tab deselect Hide extensions of known file types. Now all the files appear with their extensions.
6. Autorun problem
For those who use the pen drives often they come across any of these problems.
a. When double clicked the device doesnot open.
b. Many folders go missing.
It is usually not a good habit to double click a pen drive. Its better to right click and go to explore it. This is to avoid the first problem. The problem is usually caused by an autorun.inf file which is capable of changing the default option of open into autoplay. Now how to remove this. Usually the inf file comes along with an exe file which is mostly a virus. To remove that follow the procedure given above to show oprating system files and we can see the autorun file. Open the file and check the file for any exes or scripts mentioned in it. Delete this file and the files mentioned from the pen drive.
Folders going missing and an exe created in their place is the most frustating problem. At the first sight we think they have been deleted but actually they are hidden as operating system files. First we have to delete the exe files. They are Trojans and can usually be detected by an antivirus scan. To retrieve the hidden files follow the procedure
In command prompt,
attrib -s -h -r foldername
Do this for all folders. You wil get your files.
7. Changing my documents location
Usually the C drive is always overloaded because the registry entries are saved in the C drive and also the temporary files. We can avoid overloading it by movint the location of My documents to another folder in the system. To do this, right click my documents from the start menu and select properties. There change the target to the folder you want as My documents.
8. Visual and performance settings
If your system has limited RAM and your visual settings are configured to be best then you are losing the system memory unnecessarily. To avoid it or to tweak those settings goto My Computer's properties and in Advanced Tab select Performance settings. There select Let windows choose what is best for my computer.
9. Ending unresponsive program
If a program stops responding and could not be closed, goto task manager by pressing Ctl+Alt+Del and select the unresponsive program and right click it. Select goto process. It will point to the corresponding process. Right click it and select end process tree.
10. Messengers
If you think yahoo and gtalk are taking a lot of system space, try the alternate means like signing into the mail. The new version of yahoomail supports IM and gmail also has the option. Further use sites like http://www.meebo.com and http://koolim.com/
11. Yahoo messenger
We can save all our chats in yahoo messenger to our system as dat files. If these are copied to another system in same location they can be read there also. To do this, goto preferences and in archive, select Save all of my messages.
12. Gtalk
Gtalk by default saves all the chats in gmail itself. To see them goto gmail and click the chats link below the inbox link.
13. Open a password protected Word file
To open a password protected text only MS-Word file, open it with Wordpad. The file will open.
Comment on the content. If you have any more doubts comment them i ll try to cover them also in next blogs
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