System Restore in XP

To turn off Windows XP System Restore

1. Click Start
2. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
3. On the System Restore tab, check Turn off System Restore or Turn off System Restore on all drives.

   If you do not see the System Restore tab, you are not logged on to Windows as an Administrator.

4. Click Apply.
5. When you see the confirmation message, click Yes.
6. Click OK.

To turn on Windows XP System Restore

1. Click Start.
2. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
3. On the System Restore tab, uncheck Turn off System Restore or Turn off System Restore on all drives.

   If you do not see the System Restore tab, you are not logged on to Windows as an Administrator.

4. Click Apply.
5. When you see the confirmation message, click Yes.
6. Click OK.

UBCD = Ultimate Boot CD

“UBCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem. Our goal is to be the most complete and easy to use free computer diagnostic tool. Almost all software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. Some of the tools inlcuded are “free for personal use” copies so users need to respect these licenses. A few of the tools included in UBCD4Win are paid for and licensed software owned by UBCD4win.”

“

UBCD for Windows® is completely freeware, and can be downloaded from this site for free. However to help people that are unable to download the project, I offer as a service the project files on CD. This project is copyrighted and is not distributable through any means except from this site!! There are many “con artists” selling illegal copies of this project, they will have their accounts removed when I find them and report their activities to eBay! Lawsuits can and will be filed against severe abuse.

The project CD that I ship includes:

• The UBCD4Win files
• The project “video’s”
• Our UBCD4Win PE Builder
• SP2 (for slipstreaming or system updating)
• AutoStreamer -slipstreaming software
• CDBurner XP Pro -CD burning software”

Use at your own risk, but this might help you out of computer trouble with Windows.

XP Service Pack 3 on AMD computers

Some Windows computers use an Intel CPU chip, and others may use one from AMD.

AMD computers have been having troubles with the SP3 upgrade to Windows XP, however.

Instructions on handling this come from Jesper’s blog.  He offers a free tool that will check to see if you have the problem configuration, and offer to fix it.

Use at your own risk, or consider the alternative methods of handling this listed.

Vista settings improved

ZDNet has some instructions on improvements you can make in Vista:

Hidden Vista tricks and More hidden Windows Vista tricks

Check, check, and check again

From TechRepublic comes this Vista tip on selecting files in Windows Explorer:

“When you want to select multiple files in Windows Explorer, you can hold down the [Ctrl] key as you click on each file. If the files are in consecutive order, you can select the first file, hold down the [Shift] key and select the last file…

To enable this feature, launch Windows Explorer, press the [Alt] key to toggle the Menu Bar on, pull down the Tools menu, and select Folder Options. When you see the Folder Options dialog box, select the View tab. Then, under the Advanced Settings scroll down to the bottom of the list and select the Use Check Boxes To Select Items check box. Click OK to complete the operation.

Now, when you hover your mouse pointer over the files in Windows Explorer, a check box will momentarily appear next each file as you move past it. If you select the check box, it will remain next to the file and the file will be selected… there is [also] a check box in the Name column header. If you select that particular check box, all the files in that folder will be selected.”

Nice.

Fixing Windows Vista advice from Ed Bott

[updated June 23, 2008]

Ed Bott at ZDNet believes that Vista with SP1 is now a good operating system once it’s configured correctly.

He has a series of articles on how he did just that:

Fixing Windows Vista, one machine at a time

Fixing Windows Vista, part 2: taming UAC

Fixing Windows Vista, part 3: top troubleshooting tools

Fixing Windows Vista, part 4: Get smart about services

Fixing Windows Vista, part 5: Faster, smarter search

Infected? Me?

Gizmo’s Tech Support Alert newsletter has an editorial on what to do if you think your computer might be infected with a virus, a trojan, or some other kind of malware that’s making it act up.

Good advice and good links to help.

Switch Users icon

First, if you’re using XP, you’ll need to enable Fast User Switching, using these instructions from Microsoft (Vista has it already turned on by default):

Enable or Disable Fast User Switching in XP

Note: To enable Fast User Switching, you must also enable the Use the Welcome screen option. This feature cannot be used if your computer is a member of a domain. To enable Fast User Switching:

1. Log on to the computer as an administrator.
2. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click User Accounts.
3. Click Change the way users log on or off.
4. If it is not already selected, click to select the Use the Welcome screen check box.

NOTE: The Use Fast User Switching check box is unavailable until you click to select the Use the Welcome screen check box.

5. Click to select the Use Fast User Switching check box, and then click Apply Options. Quit the User Accounts tool.

Internet Fixes has instructions for creating an icon to Switch Users in XP.

For Vista, you don’t need an icon:

1. Click the Start button
2. Click the right-facing arrow to the right of the Lock icon
3. Click the Switch User option or the Log Off option.

Send To menu for XP and Vista

Ever wish the right-click “Send To” menu options had a few more options, customized for you?  Do it yourself.

Internet Fixes has the instructions for XP.

About.com has the instructions for Vista.

Vista has parental controls

Windows Vista has parental controls, if you have kids logging on.

1. Go to Control Panel
2. Click on User Accounts and Family Safety
3. Click on Set up parental controls for any user

You can block web sites, limit the time used for games or instant messaging, and create limits on surfing the Web.  You can also print out an activity report for your child.

Remember: be sure YOU are the first one to use the computer — if the child gets on first, s/he may be saavy enough to set up ways to get past anything you do — or even lock you out of the system!

Vista’s built-in diagnostic reporting

Windows Vista has a feature that will generate a system health report for you.

1. Go to the Control Panel
2. Click System and Maintenance | Performance Information and Tools
   
3. In the Tasks list on the left, click Advanced tools
4. Click Generate a system health report

Recommended by PC Magazine, June 2008.

Three finger salute and one step beyond

The “three finger salute” is CTRL-ALT-DEL all pressed together, to bring up the Windows Task Manager.

And what is it used most often for?  When something hangs up your computer and you have to find it and shut it down.

And what do you do if even THAT technique won’t work?  Anti-Freeze.

No, don’t pour it over your computer — use the freeware program Anti-Freeze.

“AntiFreeze offers a last recourse when you find your computer in a hung state. Because programs consume too much CPU or too much memory or too many programs have been started, your computer has become unresponsive. The mouse still moves but no programs are responding, you cannot switch to other programs or even close them. You have even tried to start the Windows Task Manager even that won’t work because it does not get enough attention from the scheduler to respond to your mouse clicks and keyboard presses. You are ready to press the reset button, instead you can press the hotkey of AntiFreeze. It will put to sleep all running programs except the most critical ones, giving you the opportunity to close down the programs which are causing problems. You may even be able to save or recover your work.”

As always, use at your own risk, and remember that it does take up a little bit of working memory to have this available.

Windows updates - do they really need 20%?

Daily Cup of Tech has a video stating that Windows uses up 20% of your bandwidth for its own updates.  How do you reduce this?

Use at your own risk, but might help speed up your Internet.

“According to this video, Windows reserves 20% of your bandwidth for Windows Updates. This is how to reclaim that bandwidth by modifying the local computer policy. This might be something worth looking at implementing via a group policy on your Windows corporate domain.”

How to record streaming media

Gizmo Richards’ TechSupport Alert newsletter has an article on how to record streaming media.

Note that while this may be possible under fair use for students in a one-time use for a paper or presentation, it is not appropriate for more than one use if the material is copyrighted.  A better way is to embed a link in your presentation that will download and play the media at the right time.

What dot? file extensions demystified

Gizmo Richards’ TechSupport Alert Newsletter recommends dotwhat.net to find out exactly what that file is doing, by the file extension (the part of the file name after the dot, like “.com” or “.pdf”.

“What Extension is That?
You know the story; someone sends you a file with a strange extension like .MOD and you can’t open it. At this free site they will tell you what kind of file it is and, hopefully, what program you need to open it. There are several sites like this, including some that are more comprehensive in their coverage, but what I liked about this one is that it covers files from Mac and Linux as well as Windows, and has provision for user comments, some of which are more informative than the site information itself.
http://www.dotwhat.net

By the way, Gizmo’s newsletter is free (with an extended version for a small fee) and a great source of info.

SATA drives with Windows XP - a driving need

People adding SATA type hard drives to Windows XP systems, or putting XP as a new or second operating system on a PC with SATA drives, may find they have a problem, especially on a newer system without a 3.5″ floppy drive as XP expects.

Softpedia has instructions on how to set up your SATA drive system without an XP floppy disk, by getting the SATA driver software in advance.

NetLingo speaks geek and text

NetLingo is the Internet dictionary site that not only covers all the terms, organizations, jargon and such that abound in the computer world, but also covers a list of text messaging abbreviations (SMS) so you can translate that text message you just got on your cell phone screen…..

Unprinting a bad print job in XP

Internet Fixes has instructions on how to get rid of that print job that won’t let anything else print.  (This is also a great site for all sorts of help on problems.)

If the printer was not turned on, or it jammed, or one of a number of other problems cropped up, Windows XP may just keep insisting on trying to print that one bad job, and not allow anything else to go through. Sometimes web pages may have a stray code that fools the printer and causes it to flake out.

You can see the print job in the queue by going to Start | Printers And Faxes and double-clicking the appropriate printer. While the queue lists Printing as the status, the job never prints, and other print jobs begin to stack up behind it.

If you cancel the jammed print job, the Status column indicates that you’ve deleted it. However, it never completes the delete operation, and the jammed print job remains right where it is. Frustrating, right?

When you encounter a jammed print job, your first instinct may be to reboot the system, which may flush the jammed print job from the queue, or at least give you a chance to delete it when it boots up again. But there’s an easier way.

Follow these steps:

1. Open Control Panel, and double-click Administrative Tools.
2. Double-click Services.
3. Scroll through the list of running services, and select the Print Spooler service.
4. Click the Stop Service button on the toolbar.
5. 5. After waiting a moment, click the Start button on the toolbar.
6. 6. Close Services, and close Administrative Tools.

When you return to the print queue, the jammed print job should no longer be there. If it is, you should now be able to delete it normally. Keep in mind that you may have to manually update the queue by selecting Refresh from the View menu.

Driver hunting goes overseas

A tip from a reader of Windows Secrets, who found that sometimes you can find drivers on the non-United States sites of manufacturers.

When you reach the web site of the manufacturer, if the U.S. site doesn’t have the driver for your older hardware, go around again and try another country, such as English-speaking Great Britain.

Saving space with temp files

Windows Secrets has an article on saving space with your temp files.  It’s just below the section on saving space with the pagefile.

If you have more than one operating system (say, XP and Vista), you normally have a section of drive space taken up with temp files for each one.  Combine these, and you save space.  Instructions are given.