In the last post of the series, I provided you with some advanced tweaks for your system.The tweaks that I am going to present in this part are a bit easier than the previous ones. It's not compulsory for you to perform previous tweaks,to perform these.You can start right away with these.

Optimizing Startup Programs [msconfig]
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MsConfig is a hidden application in Windows XP which allows the user to fine tune the applications that are launched at startup. To disable some of the applications launched at startup perform the following steps.

1. Go to Start->Run and enter msconfig.exe and press Ok.
2. The MsConfig window opens.In this go to the Startup tab.
3. In the startup tab, un-tick the checkbox next to the startup items which you don't want to load at startup and keep the ones you want to load at startup as it is
4. While unchecking, keep in mind not to uncheck any entry of which you are not aware of.
5. After this, press Exit and restart.
   

The nice part of MsConfig is that it does not delete any of the settings.It simply disables them.So you can go back and restart a startup application if you find that you need it.

Bootvis Application
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This program was designed by Microsoft to enable Windows XP to cold boot in 30 seconds, return from hibernation in 20 seconds, and return from standby in 10 seconds. Bootvis has two extremely useful features. First, it can be used to optimize the boot process on your computer automatically. Second, it can be used to analyze the boot process for specific subsystems that are having difficulty loading. The first process specifically targets the prefetching subsystem (discussed in the part I), as well as the layout of boot files on the disk. When both of these systems are optimized, it can result in a significant reduction in the time it takes for the computer to boot

To use the software to optimize your system startup, first start with a full analysis of a fresh boot. Start Bootvis, go to the Tools menu, and select next boot. Set the Trace Repetition Settings to 2 repetitions, Start at 1, and Reboot automatically. Then set the trace into motion. The system will fully reboot twice, and then reopen bootvis and open the second trace file (should have _2 in the name). Analyze the graphs and make any changes that you think are necessary (this is a great tool for determining which startup programs you want to kill using msconfig). Once you have made your optimizations go to the Trace menu, and select the Optimize System item. This will cause the system to reboot and will then make some changes to the file structure on the hard drive (this includes a defragmentation of boot files and a shifting of their location to the fastest portion of the hard disk, as well as some other optimizations). After this is done, once again run a Trace analysis as above, except change the starting number to 3. Once the system has rebooted both times, compare the charts from the second trace to the charts for the fourth trace to show you the time improvement of the system's boot up.

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It was quite some time since I did not post in this blog.To revive the blog, I am going to make
series of posts to tweak your Windows XP box.Follow this tweaks to improve your windows's functionality.These posts require a bit of time, but once done you will see the change to be awesome.

For each of the following tips,you have to know about Registry Editor.To perform any of these tweaks, first go to Start->Run and type regedit and press ENTER key.Then a window opens as shown in the below picture.


In the Left pane is the tree view.You have to use this to navigate to the key mentioned. Then follow as said.

To start with, in this Part 1, I will discuss the tweaks related to the startup of windows XP.

Windows Prefetcher
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Go to this key and there will be a setting called EnablePrefetcher in the right pane.The default setting of it will be 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times during startup. Depending on the number of startup processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from using settings up to 9. However, I do not have any data on settings above 9.So I cannot verify the benefits of settings above 9.So enter anything above 3 till 9 and test which suits best for your system. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.


Master File Table(MFT) Zone Reservation
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem]

If you navigate to this key, there you will see a setting called NtfsMftZoneReservation in the right pane.Its default value is 1. The range of this value is from 1 to 4. The default setting reserves one-eighth of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 2 reserves one-quarter of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 3 for NtfsMftZoneReservation reserves three-eighths of the volume for the MFT and setting it to 4 reserves half of the volume for the MFT. Most users will never exceed one-quarter of the volume. I recommend a setting of 2 for most users. This allows for a "moderate number of files" commensurate with the number of small files included in most computer games and applications. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Optimize Boot Files
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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter. This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition. Reboot after applying this tweak.

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It's always sweet to have a process simplified in number of steps.Whenever you shut down your computer,you have to always go to Start->Turn off Computer->Shutdown.But there is a simple methgod to do all this in a single click.The following tip explains it.

1.Create a shortcut on your desktop by Right Click->New-> Shortcut. This shows the Create Shortcut Wizard.
2.Type "shutdown" where it asks for the location of shortcut.Name it as you like.
3. After you have created the shortcut, double-clicking on it will shut down your computer.

You can do many more things with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several options to add extra functionality, like this:

In the location for shortcut, instead of "shutdown",type this
shutdown -r -t 31 -c "Rebooting your PC"
Double-clicking on that shortcut will restart your computer after a delay of 31 displaying the message "Rebooting your PC". You can put anytime you like to schedule your shutdown process.

You could append the following switches to "shutdown" with their functionality a mentioned.
-s Shuts down the PC.

-l Logs off the current user.

-t nn waits for 'nn' seconds before performing the action.

-c "messagetext" Displays 'messagetext' in the System Shutdown window with amaximum of 127 character.Don't forget to enclose the message text in quotation marks.

-f Forces any running applications to shut down.

-r Restarts the computer.

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If you want to remove ads which waste lot of your time and bandwidth from webpages, then here is a technique for you.I hope it will help you a lot.
Whenever you go to a webpage the ads it generates are from some specific sites on the internet.Now the site has been given a domain name like googlesyndication.com .If somehow you could make your computer to go to some other site instead of googlesyndication,then you could escape google ads.Similar is the case with others. The most common way to do this is by using a file called "hosts file". The hosts file contains a list of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses, which our windows OS looks at every time we go to a site. If it finds entry for the domain name, it sets the IP address for that domain name to be whatever is in the hosts file.

127.0.0.1 is a special IP address which always means that the computer itself. Any time a machine sends a request to 127.0.0.1, it is talking to itself. This is very useful in our present case, because all we have to do is specify the IP address of any ad server to be 127.0.0.1. And for that, we have to edit the hosts file.

So for doing it first find out your "Hosts file".See your hosts file according to here.

*Windows 98/Me:C:\Windows/hosts
* Windows NT: C:\WinNT\hosts
* Windows NT/2000/XP Pro: C:\WinNT\system32\drivers\etc\
* Windows XP Home,Vista: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
* FreeBSD / Linux / Mac OS X / Unixish operating systems: /etc/hosts

The format of the hosts file is very simple - IP address, whitespace, then a list of hostnames .
The following file contains all the mappings required.All you have to do is this:

Find your hosts file from above and add the contents of this text file in a new line in the same pattern.

That's all you have to do and your comp is rid of all those nasty ads.If you want any ads just remove the line corresponding to it.I prefer you remove google's entry i.e., 127.0.0.1 googlesyndication.com because I use google ads to sponsor myself and also google ads are very simple that they don't waste your bandwidth.But anyway it's your wish in the end :)

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Many a times when you are shutting down your computer you might have seen some alerts of programs blocking the shutdown process by alerting with a message.You have to manually click end program to proceed with the shutdown process.The following tip overcomes this problem.
The following registry file automatically ends tasks and timeouts that prevent programs from shutting down.It also clears the Paging File(the file which acts like a virtual RAM disk on your computer) on Exit.

1.Firstly, copy and paste the following code into notepad.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]
"WaitToKillServiceTimeout"="1000"


2. Now save the file as yourfilename.reg.
3.Right click the file and select merge to get it added to registry.You may get a warning ignore it.

That's it and now your computer shutsdown clean and fast

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Many people who use windows are affected with problems like viruses,worms,trojan,spyware and malware etc.So they resort to spend a lot of money on antivirus,anti spyware etc tools.But before you spend money for security, you could always try these simple free tips.

1. Update your windows and office regularly .Have your Office CD ready. Windows Me, 2000, and XP users can configure automatic updates. Click on the Automatic Updates tab in the System control panel and choose the appropriate options.

2. Install a personal firewall. Both SyGate and ZoneAlarm free versions.

3. Install spyware blocker. SpyBot is paranoid and ruthless in hunting out tracking cookies and spyware.

4. Block balloon messages in Windows NT, 2000, or XP by disabling the Windows Messenger service (it's no way related to MSN messenger). Open Control Panel-> Administrative Tools -> Services and you'll see Messenger. Right-click ->Properties. Set Start-up Type to Disabled and press the Stop button. That's it the balloon popups are gone! Any good firewall will also stop them.

5. Use strong passwords and change them periodically. Passwords should be at least eight characters; use letters and numbers and have at least one symbol. This will make it much harder for anyone to gain unauthorized access to your accounts.

6. Use always the latest versions of mail clients like MS Outlook and Outlook Messenger.

7. Use a good antivirus software and always keep it up to date. If you're not willing to pay, try Grisoft AVG Free Edition. And doublecheck your antivirus with the free, online scanners like Panda Software and Trendmicro.

8. If you have a wireless network, turn on the security features: Use MAC filtering, turn off SSID broadcast, and use WEP with the biggest key you can get.

9. Join a good security forum, preferably those of antivirus software company sites , so that you learn about emerging and new threats quickly and can take proper precautions.

10. Don't believe anything blindly on the Internet. Don't assume that the if the From: address is from a known person, it is actually from that person until you have further reason to believe it. Don't believe any attachments. Don't give out your password to anyone, even if that person says he's going to help you.

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The Windows logo key, located in the bottom row of keyboards is a little-used treasure. Don''t ignore it. It is the shortcut anchor for the following commands:

Windows: Display the Start menu
Windows + D: Show Desktop(Minimize or restore all windows)
Windows + E: Display My Documents(Windows Explorer )
Windows + F: Display Search for files
Windows + Ctrl + F: Display Search for computer
Windows + F1: Display Help and Support Center
Windows + R: Display Run dialog box (Start->Run)
Windows + break: Display System Properties dialog box
Windows + shift + M: Undo minimize all windows
Windows + L: Lock the workstation
Windows + U: Open Utility Manager
Windows + Q: Quick switching of users (Powertoys only)
Windows + Q: Hold Windows Key, then tap Q to scroll thru the different users on your pc

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