All PC Tips

It is very essential that you always have a booting disk (Startup disk or emergency disk) ready. If for some reasons you cannot boot your computer then this startup disk will come in handy.

It is very easy to create a booting disk. All that is required is a blank floppy disk and then give the right command.

If you have Norton utility or similar software product then it is very easy to create a booting disk.

If you do not have such utilities do not worry. You can use the ‘Add/Remove Programs’ option in your control panel to create the booting disk.

Steps to create a startup / emergency / booting disk

1. Insert a floppy disk into your computer’s floppy drive.
2. Open My Computer, and then click the floppy disk drive to select it.
3. On the File menu, point to the name of the floppy drive, and then click Format.
4. Under Format options, click Create an MS-DOS startup disk.
5. Click Start.

Important

Creating an MS-DOS startup disk erases all information on the floppy disk.

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

How to use the startup disk?

1. Insert the startup disk into the floppy drive and start the computer.
2. After the Power On Selft Test (POST) finishes, click the ‘delete’ button and enter into BIOS settings. In BIOS click on ‘Advanced’ and change the ‘booting sequence’. Change the booting sequence to A: as the first option.
3. In a while you will get a black MS DOS window with the A:> prompt.
4. Now give the C: command and change the current drive to C drive.
5. Now the prompt will change from A:> to C:>
6. Now give the scandisk c: command and scan your hard disk for errors.
7. If you cannot find the problem, then stop the computer and remove the start up disk from the floppy.
8. Insert a bootable Anti Virus CD into the CD Drive and start the computer, so that the Antivirus software can rectify the problem.
9. If you still have a problem then contact your support engineer for help

Sometimes when you see your files from your windows explorer, you may not see the file extension of the files. You may want to see the file names together with the file extensions. For example you may have a Word document file and another rich text format file both with the same file name. So if you do not see the file extension then you may not know which file is which extension. Then how to see the the file extensions in windows explorer.

1. Open your windows Explorer
2. In the Windows Explorer window, select ‘Tools->Folder Options’.
3. In the new dialog box click the ‘View’ tab.
4. In the view tab, under the ‘Advanced settings’ section scroll down and see the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ option. If it is checked, then uncheck it and click ‘Ok’ button.

Now your windows explorer will show the full file name together with the file extension of each file.

After using computer when you shutdown windows, you may sometimes wonder whether you can make the shut down faster. Even those who play games for 3 or 4 hours at a stretch will be impatient to wait while waiting for shutting down. Some may complain, ‘my computer takes very long time to shut down’. There is way to make your shutting down time shorter.
Follow these steps to make shut down time to 5 seconds.

1. In a blank space in your desktop, right click and select ‘New / Shortcut’.
2. In the ‘Create shortcut’ window in the ‘Type the location of the item’ box type shutdown and then leave a blank space and type the command as shown below.
3. If you use Windows 95/98 or ME then type c:\windows\rundll.exe\user.exe exitwindows
4. If you use Windows XP then type c:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe -s -t -05
5. The system will alert you that the system will shutdown in 5 minutes. If you want to make it longer then change the seconds as you want.
6. Now click ‘Next’ and type a name for your shortcut
7. Now click ‘Finish’.

What you have done is, to create a shortcut for the program ‘Shutdown.exe‘ and to execute it with your own preferences. This file is usually available at %systemroot%system32 folder.

When you bought the computer the engineers may have given these advise to you. Or when there was some problem in the computer and you went for repair the support engineer may have cautioned you about these tips. You may even have tried these once and then forgot about it. It becomes a MUST to keep your harddisk healthy and clean for your computer to function properly at all times. Therefore I advice you to print these tips and paste it in your computer room so that you always remember to follow these advice.

1. Virus Scan: At least every fortnightly you should scan your computer for viruses. Or atleast configure your Anti-virus software to auto scan at preset intervals. Almost all the Anti-virus software comes with this scheduled scanning feature. This is called AutoProtect. Set this feature ON. Likewise if there is a virus then what to do, do you want to delete it, if not possible to delete then quarantine it etc. You can set these options in your Anti virus software. Also remember to update the virus definition files of your Antivirus software often. Or select the ‘Live Update’ option so that the Antivirus software is always upto date.
2. Another essential software you should have is ‘Adware / Spyware’ removal program. Though this is not as important as the Anti virus software it is better to have a Adware Spyware removal software. Only then you will be notified of malicious spy programs that spy on your private information. ZoneAlarm is a free software that detects Adware and Spyware in your computer. So download and install this free software.
3. Some unwanted files occupy your harddisk space. Your computer will detect these unwanted files and delete them to free your harddisk space. For this you have to do ‘Disk cleanup‘. In your windows explorer select ‘C’ drive and right click and choose ‘properties’. In the new window that opens, you will see a small pie chart which shows how much of your hard disk is currently occupied and how much is free. In this window you will see the ‘Disk cleanup’ button. If you click on this the Disk cleaning process will start. It will show you how much space can be freed. If you are doing this first time, you will be surprised that the unwanted files occupy so much space.
4. Due to curiosity you may have installed many programs and applications in your computer. Some of the applications you may have used once or twice and may have forgotten about the application. It is a good practice therefore to remove these unwanted applications from your computer every now and then. To do this, goto Start,Control Panel and click on ‘Add/Remove Programs‘. In the ‘Add/Remove programs’ window you will see a list of all the programs installed in your computer. It will also show you when was the last time you used each program. Here you can select the unwanted application and uninstall.
5. You can also manually look in to your ‘My Documents‘ folder or any other folder that you frequently use to store your files and see if there is any unwanted file and delete it.
6. If you use ‘Outlook’ to view your emails then all your emails get stored in your inbox and trash folder. You can clear unwanted emails from outlook to save a lot of space.
7. Similarly you can also clear history from your internet explorer. Your browser keeps in history some files from each website you visit. So if you have not cleared history files from internet explorer for quite some time then it may occupy a lot of space in your harddisk. Therefore it is best to goto ‘Tools,Internet options’ and then ‘Delete Temporary internet files’ and clear history from there. You may also ‘Delete cookies‘ and ‘Delete Files’.
8. You may have kept shortcuts to many programs and applications in your desktop. It is a good practice to keep your desktop clean by deleting unwanted icons from desktop. Remember that deleting shortcuts does not delete the application. You should uninstall the application from ‘control panel->Add remove programs’.
9. Also remember that just deleting files DOES NOT free space. Because windows will store all the deleted files into ‘Recycle Bin‘. So you have to ‘Empty the recycle bin’ in order to delete the files permanently and free space in your hard disk.

In Windows 3.1 and Windows 3.11 versions of windows which are now obsolete there were many INI files used by the Operating System. These INI files containted details of different hardware and applications installed in the computer.

But in Windows 95, Microsoft introduced the concept of ‘Registry‘. In these registries, windows stored details and settings of all the hardware and applications.

All the windows versions starting from Windows 95 followed this Registry style. Windows 98, ME, NT, 2000 and XP use these registries.

In today’s Windows Operating System, Registries play an important role. If due to some reason these registries get corrupted then the whole computer becomes unusable and cannot even boot the system. If you had the backup of registries then you can restore these registries and make your computer function again.

You never know when these registries get corrupted. Therefore it is a good practice to backup your registries every now and then, so that when required you can use this backup to restore your registry settings.

Registry in Windows 95/98/ME

In Windows 95 and 98, System.dat and User.dat are two important files. The reason is these two files are the registries. In Windows ME a third file namely Classes.dat was included as part of the registry.

These three files are usually located in the ‘Windows’ folder. So if you use Windows explorer, goto ‘Windows’ folder and copy these three files to another folder then the backup of registry is done.

Microsoft has provided an utility for backing up registries called ERD. In your Windows CD this utility is there.

Moreover, Windows 95,98 and ME backs up the registry on startup.

Registry in Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Those Windows Os that are based on the NT Kernel such as Windows NT/2000/XP do not backup registry on its own. Therefore you have to backup manually if you are using one of these windows versions.

It is not an easy task to backup registry in Windows NT/2000/XP. There are many files such as Default, Sam, Security, Software and System that constitute registries. They are found in the System32/Config folder. Since these files are used by the OS, you cannot copy these files.

In Windows NT you can use Regback utility to backup registry and Regrest utility to restore back the registry. In Windows 2000 you can use the NTBACKUP utility to backup and restore registries.

In Windows XP you can use System Restore utility to backup and restore utilities.

In Windows NT/2000/XP chances of registry getting corrupted is very less. Maybe that is the reason why Microsoft does not provide easier methods to backup and restore registries in these versions of Windows.

http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt is a free software that you can download and use to backup and restore registries in Windows NT/2000/XP.

Tweak Ui is a short form for Tweak User Interface. Microsoft windows operating system comes in different versions. The default user interface of the Windows operating system can be modified in other words tweaked to suit our personal look and feel. Some just put up with some irritating features, thinking that it comes with windows and therefore cannot be changed.

The Tweak Ui is an useful windows utility (tool) that can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com . Take care to choose the right version for your windows operating system. Once you download and install this application you can then locate this application under ‘control panel’ of your computer with the name ‘Tweak UI’.

Out of curiosity we install many programs. But we never use them. We don’t even worry about removing or uninstalling them. Those who want to uninstall sometimes are unaware of the right methods of uninstalling. If you are one of those then you can follow these steps to remove the programs in windows.

1. From ‘Start’ goto ‘Programs’ or ‘All programs’ and then place your mouse over the application that you want to uninstall. In that program group, there will be an icon for ‘Uninstall’. Click on this ‘Uninstall’ icon to which will run automatically and remove all the related files from your computer.
2. From ‘Start’ goto ‘Settings’ and click on ‘Control Panel’. In the ‘control panel’ look for the icon named ‘Add/Remove programs’ to open the add/remove programs window. In this window, there will be a list of all the applications that can be uninstalled. From this list select the program that you want to uninstall and then click on the ‘Uninstall’ button at the bottom.
3. Some applications may not have the above two options and therefore cannot be uninstalled or removed using the above two options. For such programs, open the ‘Windows explorer’ and look for the folder that contains the program you want to uninstall, then ‘Delete’ the whole folder. But remember, deleting the folder maynot remove the application fully as some of the related files maybe in some other system folders.
4. Another method is to use third party utility such as ‘Spring cleaning’. Such utilities are mainly used to remove unused applications.

Note: While uninstalling applications, there maybe a popup window saying that some of the files are shared by other application and asking you to confirm whether you want to delete them. Such files are usually (.DLL) files and if you are not sure then it is safe to leave these dll files.

Image resizer is a power toy tool that can be downloaded from microsoft website.www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/
xppowertoys.mspx

As the name suggests, ‘Image resizer’ is used to resize the image files in our computer. These images can be a JPG, BMP or other image format files. Once you download this power toy tool from the above webpage and install it in your computer,

1. you can open the windows explorer and select a few image files and right click to see a menu.
2. From this menu select ‘Resize pictures’
3. Then select the preferred size that you want for these selected pictures
4. Then click ‘Ok’ to save all these files with the size you selected.

Though this tool is very easy to use, you may still have to make some settings to tune this tool. You can only resize the pictures into four different sizes. In this, the first three sizes can be used to resize the photos or pictures in landscape format. The fourth option, ‘Handheld PC’ can be used only with Pocket PCs.

If you need to fine tune this tool, do not use the ‘default size’ option. Instead select ‘Advanced’ and select the ‘custom option’. For both ‘portrait and landscape’ type of pictures select the maximum size of pixels (resolution). In both boxes use the resolution that you selected. This is the maximum size therefore do not worry that all files will be resized to this. Usually 600×800 size is suitable for sending emails and storing in websites. However if you need to print it out then select higher resolutions.

Your high resolution original pictures will be renamed and retained by Image Resizer, therefore do not worry that resizing will delete the original files.

If you get the error: “Error Number: OX80070725 / Description: Incompatible version of the RPC setup. Setup will terminate” while trying to install a game into my windows PC then the reason for this is that OLEAut 32.dll, OLDPRO32.DLL, ASYCFILT.DLL or such files are corrupt or incompatible.

To solve this problem, goto the Windows site at

http://download.microsoft.com/download/msninvestor/patch/1.0/win98/en-us/mcrepair.exe and download the .EXE file and install. While installing, you maybe prompted whether you want to replace the old files with the new files confirm ‘Yes’. After that install the game and enjoy.

If you want to read more about this error from Microsoft, you can do so at this page:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;321915

There are three types of users in Windows XP. They are

1. Administrator
2. Limited user
3. Guest

Administrator has the complete rights in the computer. The administrator can perform any action and has full control of the computer. The ‘limited user’ has limited rights. For instance a ‘limited user’ cannot install new hardware or software to the computer but he can use the existing software and hardware.

Both Administrator and limited users have passwords of their own. There is another type of user called ‘Guest’ who doesn’t need a password to login to the computer. As the name suggests, a guest is a guest and has very limited control over the computer. By default, windows XP disables this type of user as it allows anyone to login to the computer. However, the Administrator can enable this type of user if there is a need.

Which Windows XP user account to use?

It is best to use the ‘Administrator’ user account since it has the complete control. However there are many security threats. Whoever knows the administrator password for  your computer can easily harm your computer. When you are connected to the internet, hackers and crackers may also harm your computer.

For the above cited reasons, it is better to use the ‘limited user’ type of account. Most computer engineers agree that even an administrator should create a limited user account for himself for daily use. Only when there is a need to perform administrative tasks such as installing a new hardware then the ‘administrator’ account should be used.

Permissions and limitations of a ‘limited user’

Though the limited users can use the hardware and software installed in the computer they can perform certain tasks.

Some programs may not function properly if you are logged in as a limited user. For a list of programs that may not function properly for limited user accounts visit the page http://support.microsoft.com /default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307091 This page lists most of the programs that do not function properly if you are logged in as limited user. Additionally a limited user cannot create files on the root folder or the WINDOWS folder. If some programs requires the use of these folders then the limited user cannot use these programs.

It is also difficult for a limited user to edit the windows registry. Therefore if a program uses the windows registry then the limited user cannot run these programs too. For example if you are using Word 97 in a windows XP computer then the ‘Spelling & grammer checking’ feature of word 97 cannot be used in windows XP.

To read about the problems related to limited user account and Windows registry goto the following pagehttp://support.microsoft.com /default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us ;257643 .

Update of Anti-virus or firewall applications cannot be done by a limited user. Only an administrator can perform these tasks.

How can a limited user enter into an ‘Administrator’ account

Consider this scenario. You are the administrator of the computer and you also have a ‘limited user’ account. As a best practice you always use your limited user account to login daily. While you are logged in as the limited user and there is a need for you to perform an admin task such as installing a new software then how to switch to the ‘Administrator’ account.

1. You can logoff as the limited user and login using your Administrator account. But for this method you will have to abandon whatever you had been doing when you were logged in as the limited user
2. There is a way to switch to Administrator without logging off as limited user. Open your ‘windows explorer’. choose any program icon and then right click on the icon, then select the ‘Administrator’ from the menu and type the password of the Administrator and you will get the administrator rights.
3. Or use the fast user switching feature in windows XP. Click on ‘Switch user’ and login as the administrator.