Computers
Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts

Turn your PC into Wifi hotspot

September 01, 2013 Add Comment

Turn your PC into Wifi hotspot


Internet has become one of the vital part of our life. Laptops and personal computers are used to connect to the web. Various technologies and the latest configuration in hardware enable us to connect more easily. WiFi is definitely one of such technologies where you need a WiFi Router and a WiFi enabled 

device or a laptop to easily connect to the Internet. But, what if you have multiple wireless-enabled PCs or devices, a wired internet connection, but still no wireless router to connect to Internet. In such scenarios, one of the way is to use one of the utility available over the web which can be used to create a virtual router in your laptop. Although, earlier also we have discussed some of such utilities which can be used to create WiFi hotpot and virtual router in your system, but today the utility which we are going to discuss today has several distinct features which makes it different form other utilities of its kind.

Virtual WiFi Router is a small, useful, easy to use and a completely free utility which can be used to serve the above mentioned purpose. This utility is remarkable in the sense that setting up your wireless hotspot becomes simple through it. For setting up that wireless hotspot, all you need is to run this program, by providing a name and password for your network, and that is all. Rest all will be managed by this utility and your wi-fi hotspot will be up and running within minutes which can be thus used to connect different PCs and laptops to web.

As, you might know that Windows 7 have new ’Virtual Wifi’ and ’Wireless Hosted Network’ features which allows the user to configure the PC in order to set up a wi-fi hotspot, provided, of course, that the wifi device and its driver support this feature as well, which is very essential and important. Saying this, it automatically means that this software will have to run on Windows 7 to work but will not run on XP or Vista as they don’t have this feature.

So, if you want to use this utility then you may download it from the link given below and it can be easily installed on your system. After this you may see that some of its features really makes it different from other utilities of its kind. Its ease of use, as previously mentioned, allows the user to get a wifi connection running almost instantly after install, and only had to set a password to do so. For security purpose it has WPA2 encryption by default, which helps in establishing a secured network. You may observe that its performance is excellent and the wifi connection established is fast and responsive.

Maintenance Tips for your Computer

November 04, 2012 Add Comment

Maintenance Tips for your Computer


The computer is one of the most important inventions to have taken place in the 20th century, which has grown over several decades contributing to the growth and changes in human learning and behavior. Today the computer is an essential part of human life without which they cannot do their day-to-day tasks. 

This amazing machine has made life easier for most people and contributed to their overall growth. Today almost all household have at least one computer but the most important question that arises here is, if the owner is concerned about the proper maintenance of the machine or not. 

Most people either fail or forget to properly maintain their computer from both internal and external threats that can seriously jeopardize the functioning of the machine. However, with just a few important tips you can effectively maintain your computer and can keep its functioning as good as ever. 

Here are a few essential maintenance tips to keep your computer stable and in a perfect condition: 

1. Perform a disk clean up for maintaining the speed of your computer. Running regular disk clean up can clean your system of unnecessary data. This step can be done manually or by running the disk cleanup utility in Windows. 

2. Running a registry cleaning software can relieve your system from obsolete and corrupt entries in the registry file. A clogged registry can severely hamper the performance of your system and can even cause it to crash. So, it is important to clean your Windows registry at regular intervals. 

3. By using an Anti-Spyware program you can clean your system from malicious programs that intend to steal your data and cause your system to clog. 

4. Viruses are one of the most common and serious threat to computers and using a good updated Anti-virus program will help your computer to rid itself from harmful viruses. 

5. Lastly, you need to clear all un-important software installed on your computer as they cause a lot of trouble during the Windows start up process and make the process a rather clumsy one. 

By following these simple steps you can effectively shield your computer from all internal and external threats.

How to increase Computer Performance?

May 20, 2012 Add Comment

How to increase Computer Performance?



Do you find that your computer is suddenly running very slow, and you wished you knew the reason why?
There are some reasons through which your computer can suddenly slow some are given below:


Reason #1:Errors In The Computer Registry Files:

It is found that almost every computer will run into speed problems if the computer registry is not cleaned regularly. The registry contains files that carry instructions for your computer to run correctly. If these files are not maintained, it is almost certain that there will be errors in them if the computer is used regularly.

How To Clean The Registry Files from your computer?

To keep your computer running optimally, it is important that you maintain your registry regularly. To do that, you should download cleaner software. This was what I did to restore my computer back to its original speed again

Reason#2: Virus Infection in your computer

Your computer might be infected with a virus, causing it to run slowly. In this case, you will need to scan your entire hard disk with an anti-virus software, especially targeting the files that you have downloaded from the internet. These files can include your email attachments as well.

 Reason#3: Spyware & Adware Infection 

Spyware and adware infections are common on computers, but it will take a lot of spyware to actually slow down your computer. Spyware are programs that track what you do online, and report back to the sites that they came from. Users whose computers are infected by spyware have no idea that they are being watched.
To clean out your computer's spyware, you can download a spyware cleaner, like Spybot Search And Destroy, from the internet, and run the software.

Tablets, iPads Able to Replace Personal Computers?

September 10, 2011 Add Comment

Tablets, iPads Able to Replace Personal Computers?




Perhaps you've heard the fireworks and acclaim for iPads, along with the claims that they will quickly replace Personal Computers.  Is this true?


The answer is a little difficult, because all "Tablet" systems -- including the iPad -- are Personal Computers.  They all have the same basic components.  Only the shape is different -- and they run a different type of Operating System.  But Tablets are just as much a PC as your current Laptop or Desktop PC.

Your PC Tech's Short Answer:  No, they will not completely replace Laptop and Desktop computers. However, tablets will be a major part of future computing.  They have significant advantages for light, basic computing needs, but cannot completely replace Laptops and Desktops for "heavy-duty" applications.  (...For the near-future.)

Your PC Tech's Prediction:  Roughly half of all current PC users will buy tablet PCs within the next three years.  Roughly half of those will eventually give up their laptop or desktop PCs, and only use their Tablet PC.  The other half will continue to use both a Tablet PC and a Desktop or Laptop PC.

In addition to this, a large number of people who have never owned a PC at all  (because they were "too complicated") will buy a Tablet PC, and be very happy with it.

Summary:  Tablets may eventually dominate the market.  But for the near future, the physical, technical, and software limitations of Tablets will prevent them from completely replacing Laptop and Desktop PCs.

How to Determine the Quality of Software / Web Applications

April 25, 2011 Add Comment
It is not easy to determine the quality of a software or desktop and web applications. Techniques how to determine the quality of software continues to grow in accordance with the development of technology today.


If we look for bugs in the software, we actually will not know exactly how many bugs are contained in it.

Constraints in How to Determine Software Quality


Here are some points that become the reason why determining the quality of software is not easy.
If a programmer tests the program for his own work, the tendency to assume that the program he created is really good could happen. This does not mean that programmers should not test. Testing is limited to unit testing only.

Testing a software takes a long time. So, if the programmer also perform testing then the main task, that is making a program, should be postponed first.

When a programmer tests generally he tends not to record the errors found. If it is done it can happen that bugs that have been found are not fixed.

If we examine further, to get a good software quality, separate program tester is required. However, even if there is a tester, testing can not guarantee the quality of good software.

This depends on several things like good test case design, which can cover almost all possible program errors that occur.

Improper test case design will cause escape test. Escape test can occur because A low fidelity test system, testing the system that includes almost all the features but the very important feature is not tested.

Usually this happens because of poor engineering. The second possibility is the occurrence of a regression test gap, ie the test case does not include where the bug was found. Generally this happens because of limited time or resources.

To manage your software development properly, visit the " How To Manage Application Software Development " tutorial .

Conclusion How to Determine Software Quality


To get a good software quality needs a special division for software testing.

The design of the test case plays a role in determining the quality of the software, when the design of the  test does not cover all the important features, so it can happen low fidelity test or regression test gap. Both of these cause the bug to pass the test.

The purpose of the testing division is to not only look for bugs. The scope of this test includes the performance of the software viewed from the response time when the amount of data and its users a lot, reliability reliability of a software, security, efficiency, and maintainability.

How to Create a System with Object Oriented

March 10, 2010 Add Comment
What is Object Oriented Programming? And how to Create System with Object Oriented? If you have been or are still engaged in a job related to programming, of course you have heard the term "component".

What is OOP, Function and Subroutine?




For some people, especially those who are lay about the programming, maybe the term is not too well known. What exactly is the "component" and how to make it?

Thinking of component making begins when the program is created. Often several routine jobs that have the same function used repeatedly, so that made what is called a subroutine. Maybe this time the subroutine is not so popular anymore, and what we often hear today is "function".

Conceptually the two are not much different, i.e. create a sequence of programs that can do the same job, so that when you want the job you just call just that function.

However, the problem is that this function only consists of commands only, so functionality can usually only be used within the same application program. To be used on other applications there needs to be a bit of adjustment.

With object-based programming (Object Oriented Programming) making components that can be used in one application and the other can be done.

In object-based programming (OOP) known terms encapsulation and information hiding. Therefore OOP uses the concept of class, then in one class, data and operation are made into one. 
Since each class has its own data and operations, the inter-Class dependency becomes very low. Unlike the case with functions, where data and programs are not in a closed package, the dependency of the function on the data will be very large.

From this encapsulation information hiding occurs, meaning that when a class is given a command to perform an operation, the class will process it within the class itself, and will bring the results of its operation.

Therefore, in determining a class the class name, attribute, and operation must exist. Not all programming languages ​​can be called OOP. OOP programming languages ​​are VB.net, Java, C #, C ++, Simula, PHP, while VB 6.0 is not included in the OOP category.

Learn more about recognizing object-based programming, please visit the " How to Object-Based Programming Tutorial" tutorial .

How to make components?


Basically the component consists of one or more classes by designing the system using the same approach with the programming of OO (usually called OOAD).

The development of OOAD adopts many of the ER diagrams, and some ways in the way of structured design.

Quite a lot of the originators of this OOAD. Each of these initiators has a different way of depiction. This is often the main reason for the difficulty of studying OOAD.

Grady Booch, James Rum Baugh, and Ivar Jacobson are three people who have long been in the field OOAD. They each have a way of designing with OO. They also initiated the so-called UML (Unified Modeling Language).

Thus, whatever method they do to design OO, its depiction is the same as UML. UML is now accepted by many organizations and its use is increasingly widespread. Even now VISIO has also implemented this UML facility.

Hopefully this article from Mr. Indra can help the reader in understanding what is Object Oriented Programming (OOP), making it easier for how to create a system with object oriented.

HOW TO FIND COMPUTER FORENSIC CLASSES

March 09, 2010 Add Comment

HOW TO FIND COMPUTER FORENSIC CLASSES



If you are like a lot of people, you will want to find the best career to get started in and all this is very good idea for you to seriously take the time to consider what may be the best for you. When it comes to getting the best career to suit all your needs, you will want to take the time to look into what may be the highest in demand. There are a lot of careers that may be over populated and you will want to stay away from those and focus on the areas that fewer people are involved in.

One of these areas includes computer forensics and can really be a good career to consider getting into if you want to get into a career where it is not as crowded as a lot of others. This is an area where you may be able to excel due to the demand of this vocation and the lack of people. If you are looking to get hired, you will certainly want to take the time to get educated where you have the opportunity to do so.

You can easily find computer forensic classes at many locations, but one of the best ways is to do a search on this and you are certain to find where some computer forensic classes may be offered. There are many colleges that will offer these classes and if you are serious about getting involved in this, you will certainly want to take the time to find the best class with the best education for you to get.

When it comes to forensics, you can count on this being a very detailed class and you will certainly want to be certain you can and will make the time for if you intend to get involved in this area.

Printer Troubleshooting Tips

December 21, 2008 Add Comment

Printer Troubleshooting Tips


Ever have blinking lights on your inkjet or laser printer that just will not go away? Ever install a new ink cartridge in your printer and it still thinks the old one is there? Well, instead of just getting angry at the printer or hunting around for your manual, you can try one simple thing: unplug it.

This technique has a few names that all mean the same thing: cycling the printer, resetting the printer or clearing the printer’s memory. Now unplugging your printer may seem like a low-tech solution to complex problems, and in reality it is. But, for problems like blinking error lights it is the only solution and also, it is typically the first one that will be recommended to you by a technician working for HP, Lexmark, Epson etc. They will recommend it right away if you install a new cartridge and it is registering as empty. If your printer isn’t registering it full, then that means it still thinks the old cartridge is in there and the memory needs to be cleared by unplugging it.

The first thing to remember about this solution is that unplugging the printer is not the same as turning the printer off. If you have error messages or cartridge communication problems, then turning off the printer is not going to do anything. It has to be physically unplugged from the wall or the back of the printer itself (you don’t have to unplug the printer from the computer). The second and most important thing is that the printer must be unplugged for at least one minute. It takes at least one minute for all the electricity to be cut off from the printer to allow it to completely reset and clear its memory. If you just unplug it for a few seconds, when it comes back on it is going to pick up right where it left off.

While this technique will not fix every problem, it is still a very quick and easy solution to a lot of annoying printer problems and it is always the best place to start when one of those problems arises.

Future Computer Technology

August 04, 2008 Add Comment
Future Computer Technology



What can we expect in terms of future computer technology?

Computers have clearly been getting a lot better--faster, lighter, more portable--for a long time. In fact, they have been getting better at an accelerating rate.

In 1965, Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, established what's known as "Moore's Law." It says that the number of transistors on a computer chip will roughly double every two years. Moore's Law has held true for over forty years. Many people now use Moore's Law as a general rule of thumb to express the acceleration of computer technology in general; in other words, the computational capability of computers has been approximately doubling every two years.

That is a fantastic rate of increase: an exponential or geometric progression. To get an idea of what that might mean for future computer technology, lets imagine you start with a penny (one cent) in 1975. That's the year the first real PCs (like the Apple II) began to appear.

So, in 1975 you have 1 cent. Two years later in 1977, you have 4 cents. 1979: 8 cents, and so on.

Here's how it would go:

45 cents in 1985.

$3.60 in 1992.

$82 in 2001.

and $1,300 in 2009.
So we have $1,300 after starting with only a penny, and that demonstrates the difference between a machine like the Apple II and the most advanced computers available today.

Future Computer Technology - A Look Ahead

What's more interesting is if we take a look into the future:

$10,500 in 2015.

$84,000 in 2021.

$336,000 in 2025.

$2.6 million in 2031.

So, if Moore's Law continues to hold, we are going to see a fantastic increase in the power of computer technology by 2031. It's possible that the acceleration will slow down before then because, at some point, chip fabrication technologies will hit a fundamental limit. However, there may well be new technologies like quantum or optical computing by then, or the focus may simply shift to parallel processing so that thousands of cheap processors are linked together.

Of course, there is also a problem with creating software to take advantage of this power. Historically, software has advanced much more slowly than hardware, so it's really software that is the bottleneck.

Software companies like Microsoft will have to come up with compelling applications to make use of all that power. I think there is a good chance that artificial intelligence is going to be one of the biggest uses of the computer technology of the future.

If that's the case, job automation technology is likely to leap forward dramatically, and computers will be capable of doing many of the routine jobs in the economy--even those held by people with college degrees. That is going to create some serious issues for the job market and for the economy as a whole. That's the main focus of my new book

Firewall Role in Computers

May 04, 2008 Add Comment

Firewall Role in Computers


There have not been any moments in time in the account of the computer system that anti-virus software and firewalls have been in demand and more necessary. In the present day, personal computer protection is not just endangered by worms and viruses, but in addition by spy-ware – those terribly irritating programs which are unlawfully downloaded into your PC from the Internet. Firewalls, have been a predominant factor in the commercial world for a long time for defending huge, costly internal intranets or else other networks, has nowadays come onto its own like a means for computer system owners too. Your personal computer is at the same time as vulnerable – if not further so – to online harassment, hence why is it not supposed to be protected?

What’s a firewall, in any case?

For those of the people who might not be that much familiar with the personal computer security language like a few, we present here a rather easy explanation. A firewall is an assortment of security software that acts to obstruct users who are not permitted, from getting an access to a certain PC network (or a solo PC). A large number of firewalls in addition comprehensively monitors and reports the data transmits within the set of connections and the outer Internet environment. As a result, they are fairly successful in maintaining your PC or network protected, permitting you to make use of the Internet with no high security threat.

Personal Firewalls by Sygate

There are a small number of greatly acclaimed firewall suppliers out there, and Sygate is undoubtedly one amongst them. Here we go through a few of the aspects of Sygate line firewalls, with the intention that you might select the most excellent firewall for your server or computer.

Sygate at present provides 2 chief personal firewalls: SPF - the Sygate Personal Firewall and SPFP - the Sygate Personal Firewall Plus. The main differentiation between the 2 is the highly developed features that you will just come across in the SPFP. In the Plus adaptation you will obtain VPN support, IDS - intrusion detection system, anti mac, and, active response anti IP spoofing. Both adaptations of the program are available with the items, which every personal computer user ought to actually make certain that they have: the chief "application" firewall, security policy customization, attacker tracing system, and intrusion alarm system. Bearing in mind that the SPF can basically be downloaded free of charge, and comprises of the items you actually require, this is the program we suggest for home personal computer users.

Personal Firewalls by Norton

Sygate ’s nearest contention in the field of personal firewalls is Norton. Anti virus programs by Norton are a lot famous, and have mainly carried the trade name over the previous decade. A few of the efficient aspects of this software consist of the Norton Privacy Control (it prevents info from being transmitted without your awareness through MS Office attachment, instant messages, email, and different forms on the Internet, for instance those you fill the credit card numbers in), and intrusion prevention system, which automatically obstructs doubtful inward bound traffic (from intruders, and the like).

Security tips for Windows XP

April 05, 2008 Add Comment

Security tips for Windows XP



Here are a couple of tips to speed up your Windows XP computer and help keep you protected and secure online. First you need to control which programs load on startup: Many of the programs you install on your computer automatically configure themselves to launch at startup, usually invisibly. The truly essential ones, such as anti-virus and firewall products, generally run as services and run fine in the background. Other less important software like media players don't need to be running continually.

These extra programs slow the boot process and then severely suck up resources like memory and CPU cycles. It is pretty easy to control which applications launch on startup. The System Configuration Utility lists all these applications in one place:

1) To get there: Click the ‘Start' button then choose the ‘Run' command.

2) In the text box type "msconfig". - Across the top of the dialog box select the ‘Startup' tab.

3) The Startup Tab lists all the programs that launch at start-up. To disable any of these simply un-check the box on the left. Only non-essential programs are listed here it should be safe to un-check pretty much anything. If it turns out you needed it just go back and re-check it.

4) Once you are done re-boot the machine.

5) When the Desktop returns you will be presented with a window that says you have chosen Selective Startup. Just Check "Do not show this window again" and click OK.


To keep your computer secure, turn on automatic updates. Seems like every virus writer has nothing better to do then attack Windows operating systems. Keeping the system patches and security fixes is critical. During the setup of XP Service Pack 2 with a new computer or an up-grade you are asked whether or not to turn on automatic updates, if you made the mistake of checking no you can find this option in the Windows Security Center (Start / Control Panel) and change it back. Even with all its faults, XP is a powerful operating system that has many good security features.

Here are some more tips to help you get the most out of your operating system. Remove Windows components not found in ADD / REMOVE. Many Windows components, things like Network Services or Solitaire are easy to remove through the Add or Remove programs configuration window (Start / ControlPanel / Add and Remove Programs / Windows Components). Simply un-check them, but … some things are deliberately hidden.

A good example would be MSN Messenger. To remove this from startup follow these steps:

1) In Windows Explorer (right click Start / Explore), navigate to C:WindowsInf and make a copy of Sysoc.inf.

2) Double click on Sysoc.inf and it will open in Notepad.

3) Press Ctrl H (opens Find and Replace) and replace the string ,hide, with ,, then save and replace the file. Now all the hidden components will appear.

4) Then follow the steps above for removing programs from the startup menu.


To restore a corrupted system file: If a necessary system file should become missing or corrupted by a virus you can replace it from your Windows CD.

1) Go to Start / Search and type in the file name replacing the last letter with an underscore (ex. Filename.ex_).

2) If the file is found, open a command prompt (Start / Run, type CMD in the textbox).

3) At the prompt type expand followed by the full pathname of the file and destination (expand D:Windowsfilename.ex_ C:Windowsfilename.exe) where D: is the letter of your disc drive. If either pathname contains spaces surround the entire pathname with double quotes. If the file isn't found search again using the un-modified file name, it is probably in a CAB file, Windows treats these as folders, simply drag the new folder to the destination while holding down the right mouse button then select Copy Here.

Tips for Laptop - read before buy

March 20, 2008 Add Comment

Tips for Laptop - read before buy


Why notebook became so popular? It has been estimated that notebook sales has increased an average of 20% per year in the United States alone. Among the many advantages it offers, portability is one of the main reason people end up making a purchase of it. However before any purchase is made, other features should be considered as well.

Notebook was first made available in the early eighties. Although much heavier and bulkier than today's notebooks, it had the unique portability feature that put this innovative product in a class by itself. Although not much of a commercial success then, it gave the computer industry a goal to pursue in manufacturing this item with better weight, size and performance ratio and making one of today's most wanted computer hardware.

Notebook size has got much smaller, however big enough to make one feel very comfortable in handling and operating computer related tasks. One can find it in sizes best categorized as: 1 - Tablet Pc has the size of paper tablet and weighs no more than 4 pounds; 2 - Ultra Portable is a little bigger than Tablet Pc and weighs around 4 pounds, no internal CD or DVD drive, display of 12 inches or smaller; 3 - Thin and Light is a mid-size notebook, 10-14" x 10", 1 to 1.5 thick, and weighs around 7 pounds, wireless network capability, 14-inch displays, combo CD-RW/DVD; 4 - Desktop replacement is the largest category of notebooks, more than 12 x 10" and weighs more than 7 pounds, 15-17 inches displays or larger, wireless network capability, combo CD-RW/DV.

Also an important feature one should look for is performance. Notebooks provide very close performance in comparison with traditional desktop computers, and should handle all computer related tasks with great ease. Whenever purchasing a notebook, make sure it has the latest cpu model, large ram memory and hard disk space. Notebook performance is directly related with cpu clock, ram memory and hard disk space. For these items, big is never enough.

Another feature one should look for is the dvd player. It can come in handy for entertainment purposes, enabling one to watch movies while traveling. Wireless connection is also a feature to look for in a notebook. Some notebooks feature an infrared port, which can be used to connect a mobile phone. Also there are other wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, which allows mobile phone, printers and PDA to be connected at certified public and private network. The ability to have a mobile connection is definitely a plus in today's connected world.

Expansion capability for notebooks can be done thru the use of plug-in pc cards. Although there is a new standard called ExpressCard, which is smaller and faster plug-in card that provides more features for multimedia tasks.

Notebooks have certainly become an item required for one's mobile computer related tasks, whether it is used for public, private, personal or professional purposes. Its portability and small size make an attractive all around computer hardware item. For those looking for mobile computer hardware, notebooks can certainly become a good solution at affordable prices.

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

Recover data from failed hard disk

March 20, 2008 Add Comment

Recover data from failed hard disk


Hard Disk: An Introduction

Hard Disks are used to store information. All information on computers are stored in files. Hard disks store the majority of information on today's modern computer. Hard disk drives (HDDs) can be critically damaged by static electricity, shock, and other factors, often resulting in failure or the loss of valuable data. In many cases it may become necessary to recover information from your hard drive. Such retrieval is quite possible.

Hard Disk Failure

*Physical Failures

Physical failure occurs from sudden switch off, power failure, sliding them off desks and cheap components. As for data loss, data is only magnetic impulses on the surface of a hard disk. And ridiculously small bits of magnetism at that! When the magnetic impulse fades, or changes position, trouble starts.

Drive Alignment Drift is another cause of problems. Mechanical devices are subject to wear and tear, heat and cold, loosening tolerances etc.

The small changes in the read/write heads wouldn't matter usually, as data still gets written in the same place as it will be read later. However, there is some data that hardly ever gets re-written, and that is the Sector ID Headers.

*Logical Failures

Master Boot Record Failure

Technically, when the Master Boot Record is working correctly, the master boot code scans the partition table for the active partition, finds the starting sector, loads a copy of the boot sector from the active partition into memory and then transfers control to the executable code in the boot sector. If the master boot code cannot complete these functions, the system displays a message similar to the MBR error.

*Boot Sector Failure

The boot sector is a region of a hard disk, floppy disk, and other similar data storage device. It is loaded to memory and executed as a part of the bootstrap sequence. The boot sector contains a small computer program that is loaded on the operating system into memory and transfers the control.

Most boot sector failure occurs by the defection of boot sector virus. Boot sector viruses are usually spread by infected floppy disks. In the past, these were usually bootable disks, but this is no longer the case. A floppy disk does not need to be bootable to transmit a boot virus. Any disk can cause infection if it is in the drive when the computer boots up or shuts down.

*Accidentally Deleted Data

Some time some how you may delete a file thinking we don?t need it any more, but in a week or or two you may realize that it is a needed one. It happens to the best of us, but fortunately there are ways to get these lost files back.

When it comes to data on your computer, it is almost impossible to accidentally remove it beyond recoverability. Even if you are intentionally trying to completely wipe a file from your hard drive it is exceedingly difficult.

*Cross Linked Files

A file system error that corrupts the contents of an existing file by writing data from another file into the same cluster. Running Scandisk or a similar program cleans up the problem, but one of the files is no longer usable.

*Bad Sectors

It is a portion of the Hard disk that cannot be used any more. If a part of the disk get bad sector which contains data then those data is to be recovered before use. When you format a disk, the OS will mark all the unusable sector as bad sector, however, this does not affect the overall performance of the disk as the damaged space is considered unusable.

Hard Disk Data Recovery

*Replace the (Circuit Board) PCB

Upon a Hard Drive circuit board failure, it is possible to get back the data by carefully replacing the PCB of the hard drive.

*Replace the Firmware

Hard disk firmware is the information that is used by the computer that allows it to correctly interact with the hard disk. It may be replaced or updated by the matching firmware.

*Replace the Head Stack

There are common situation that may be due to head failures. There is a small chip located in the head stack that is called PREAMPLIFIER. Working with preamplifiers always includes some difficulties, because, practically, they can not withstand static discharges. If re-soldering is needed, one should follow a number of rules to protect a preamplifier from static damage caused by careless finger touching. Although this task is very risky and it should be done in a high secured lab specially created for this task.

*Move the disk to another Drive

In some cases complete functionality of the Hard drive may be disabled while only the internal disk plate is without any damages or errors. In those situations, it is possible to move the disk to another drive.

*Spin-Stand Testers

Hard drive manufactures and their head media; preamplifier and read channel suppliers do have very accurate, very expensive "magic machines" called Spin-Stands. These are used for testing and experimenting with heads and disks. They are used mostly by researcher and development departments.

*Magnetic Force Microscopes (MFM)

Magnetic force microscopy is a powerful tool for high-resolution magnetic imaging of most data storage media. As the density of magnetic media is higher, the bit becomes smaller than the wavelength of light, so optical techniques can not resolve it. General MFM is capable of imaging the magnetic domain of several tens of nanometers. Also, MFM is almost simultaneous with measuring the surface characteristics of topography and roughness of the same area with sub-angstrom vertical resolution.

Recovery Softwares

*SpinRite 6.0

SpinRite is a stand-alone DOS program designed to refurbish hard drives, floppy disks and recover data from marginally or completely unreadable hard drives and floppy disks and from partitions and folders which have become unreadable.

*Ontrack data recovery software

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*Recover My Files

Recover My Files data recovery software will easily recover deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, virus or Trojan infection, and unexpected system shutdown or software failure.

Computer's Heat Sink Change Procedure

March 16, 2008 Add Comment

Computer's Heat Sink Change Procedure

Heat Sink on Motherboard

Everyone really want a fast hot computer when we want to do some business computing and when we want to play those high speed games.But we don't want a fast and Hot computer in the literal sense.

Heat will destroy any computer component if not removed in time.And the CPU Chip is one of the main components of your system that produces heat.

The heat sink has the all important task of keeping the CPU Chip cool so it does not overheat.And there may be times when the heat sink will fail to perform its job and must be changed.

Changing the heat sink on your central processing unit or CPU chip is a simple job.And the best part is that you only need a small screwdriver,cotton swabs,and some rubbing alcohol.

To change the heat sink remember to think safety first.This means that you want to be sure you have clean hands,a clean work place,and removing all static charge from your body by touching a door knob or any other metal object.

Once you have a suitable work area and clean hands you should now have a clean suitable mind as well. Allow this task to be both educational and fun.To change the heat sink perform the following.

Foot 1.Unplug the computer and remove the cover from the System Unit case.

Foot 2. Find the CPU Chip and the heat sink will be on top.Find the wires that go to the motherboard and very carefully unplug them.

Foot 3. Remove the old heat sink and cooling fan assembly.Most Pentium based computers will have two levers that lock the heat sink in place.

On older Pentium computers,the AMD Athlon and the Duron processor,look for a ZIF or Zero Insertion Force socket where the processor is mounted.

Gently release the clips by sliding a very small screwdriver blade underneath it and lift the heat sink off the CPU.Take great care here do you don't damage the cpu chip in any way.

Foot 4. Once the old heat sink has been removed, clean away the old thermal paste using cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol.Allow time for the CPU to dry.

Foot 5. Grab some thermal paste and squeeze a little onto the top of the CPU.Only place enough to have a thin layer between the CPU and Heat Sink.

Foot 6. Before installing the new heat sink, clean the bottom off with some warm, soapy water. Check to be sure the Heat Sink is dry before installing it.

Foot 7. Carefully line it up over the ZIF socket and processor if so equipped.If the computer have the newer Pentium or Athlon based chip,lock the two clips holding the assembly.

Foot 8. With the CPU and heat sink firmly in place, now its time to re-connect the fan wires for the cooling fan.Plug the assembly into the motherboard.

Foot 9. Check,double check,and after that,check some more to be sure all connections are in place.See if the heat sink assembly is well secured in its socket.

Foot 10. Now replace the system unit cover,plug any peripherals you disconnected.Start the PC and the computer should now realize it has a new device in its system.

Once the computer has been booted up,check to be sure the Operating System is working.If possible, look at rear of the computer to see if the fan is operating as it should.

The Central Processing Unit is not the only heat producing component in your computer.But since its the brains of any computer,you want to be sure the heat sink performs at its best.

Take the time to learn this procedure in detail by removing the case and looking at the heat sink in your own computer.Knowing how to perform this task can save you money should you need to change your heat sink in the future.

How Does Shortcut work on Windows

February 04, 2008 Add Comment

How Does Shortcut work on Windows



A shortcut may be a link that you have created somewhere, usually on the desktop, or may be a combination of keys to launch a program. Shortcuts will all be registered in the registry and clutter it up as and when you keep on adding the shortcuts to the computer. The registry thus needs to be cleaned up regularly with a registry cleaner.

There are two types of shortcuts in windows operating system environment. On shortcut is a link created and placed anywhere. This is mainly placed where one can see it such as on the desktop. Right clicking on the desktop and selecting -New - Shortcut can create a shortcut link on the desktop. Then browsing through the next window to get to the file or program that you want to create a shortcut link on the desktop to.

Once you have selected the object for the shortcut you click finish and a link is created on the desktop. Clicking on this link will open the file. Another way is to navigate or browse to the file or program on the PC and right click and select 'create shortcut'. The system will warn you that the short cut will be placed on the desktop for the particular object. Clicking 'ok' will accomplish the task. Now that you know what a shortcut is and how it works, you should also know the impact it may have on the registry of the system and why the registry has to be cleaned with a registry cleaner from time to time.

Some shortcuts can be created with the help of the windows keyboard. Presetting a set of control Alt (Key) will start up a program without you having to navigate to where the program is stored to get it up and running. However these shortcuts will all be registered in the registry and clutter it up as and when you keep on adding the shortcuts to the computer.

The registry is a central database of all the activity on the system and needs to be cleaned up regularly with a registry cleaner because as the registry grows older and is used more often it slows. When a shortcut key is pressed the shortcut keys refer to the registry for information on where to locate the program or file to launch. The registry in turn goes through its entire database in the section to locate the data being queried. So, if the registry is large with useless shortcuts, it will take a very long time to locate the shortcut that is being sought. This is the reason that the registry must be cleaned with a windows registry cleaner on a regular basis.

There are many free windows registry cleaners on the Internet. So go on and make your choice. It can only be of help to speeding up the system and making the operating system run error free and more efficiently with as few headaches as possible.

Connect mobile Bluetooth with Home computer

September 24, 2007 Add Comment

Connect mobile Bluetooth with Home computer



In this article , i will teach you that how can you install bluetooth mobile phones on PC.If your bluetooth mobile phone can also communicate with your computer over a Bluetooth wireless network to perform tasks such as contact synchronization or file transfer, then use Bluetooth Devices in Control Panel to install your mobile phone.

1. Attach or turn on the Bluetooth radio adapter for your Windows XP computer.
2. Set up your mobile phone so that Windows XP can find it. Setting up your phone includes:

• Turning it on
• Making it discoverable (or visible)
• Giving it a name (optional)

If you are not sure how to set up your phone to make it discoverable, read the documentation for the phone.

3. Open Bluetooth Devices in Control Panel.
4. On the Devices tab, click Add
5. Follow the steps in the Add Bluetooth Device Wizard.

Notes:
To open Bluetooth Devices, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Bluetooth Devices.

The passkey and encryption features help to secure your data. However, these and other security measures can be compromised or fail, and, if that happens, your data could be visible to or accessible by other devices or computers within range. Therefore, Bluetooth wireless technology should not be considered completely secure.
To install your Bluetooth device, refer to the instructions that came with the device.

Microsoft Word Helpful tips

December 05, 2006 Add Comment

Microsoft Word Helpful tips




Evidently the chap who said there are no shortcuts to any place worth going was not a practical sort of fellow. Quite unlike us who dote on the shortest route to success with application like MS Word.

Our series on making you an expert at Microsoft Word continues with more tips and tricks for the world’s most ubiquitous word processing application.

Formatting Killer

Want to kill all formatting in Word doc? Select the whole document by pressing Ctrl+A, or select just a portion of the document that you want to remove formatting from, And simply press Ctrl+Shift+N.

Password Protection

To prevent all and sundry from opening sensitive Word document, open the file you want to protect. Select Tools > Option and click on the Security tab. Against the “Password to open” box, type in your password and click on the OK. In the “Reenter password to open” box, key in the password again. Click on the OK. If you want a more than 15-character password, hit the ‘Advanced’ button and select RC4 encryption. Remember, these passwords are case-sensitive. And just ensure that you never forget the password…

Professor Calculus Here!

If you need to do a lot of calculation in Word, do not flap your arms around looking for a calculator, or sit around sighting with pencil and paper. Use Word’s calculator. First add the Tools Calculate button to your Word toolbar. Click on the Tools in the Word menu. Or right-click on the toolbar. Then click on Customize. In the Commands tab, find Tools in the left pane (Categories) and click on it. Next, in the right pane (Commands), scroll down the tool calculate, click on it and drag it to your Word menu, placing it between the existing icons. Releasing the mouse button creates the toolbar button. Close to the Customize dialog box. Now for calculations in your Word doc, select the numbers you want to add/subtract/multiply etc. and click the Tools Calculate button. You will see the total in the status bar below.

Where's that file?

Want Word to remember more than just five of your recent documents that appear that the bottom of the file drop down menu? Select Tools > Options, and click on the General tab. Next to the text “Recently used file list”, key in 9. Click on OK.

Need for Speed

If you have a slow PC, navigating and editing complex Word docs can be a real drag. To speed up the display, you can choose view your document in a draft font. This really speeds up screen rendering by hiding all complex screen formatting while retaining all the content intact.
For this, go to Tools > Option and select the view tab. Here, check the “Draft Font” box to enable it and click on OK. Then in the Word menu, click on View >Normal. Now you entire document will appears in a draft font with basic formatting like bold, italic, or underlined text. The change is only in the onscreen appearance of the document; the original formatting of the document is retained.

Table Magic

You can easily create a table in Word 2003 without clicking and editing data in each and every cell. To do this you need to key in you table data in a ‘comma-delimited format’. And that means something as simple as this:
Antenorio, 101
Tina Hancock, 95
Tara, 94
Smith , 76
John, 89

Highlight this text. In the Word menu go to Table > Insert >Table. That’s it. You can also work on its appearance via the Table > Table Auto format command to apply various style, or edit the table’s display properties manually.

System Tray Icon Missing from System Tray in Windows XP

December 02, 2005 Add Comment

System Tray Icon Missing from System Tray in Windows XP


Symptoms

After the computer started, not all icons that should be present in the system tray (nowadays also called notification area) of the task bar is showing. Often, one or more icons are missing and disappearing from the task bar notification area.

This is known problem, or a bug of Windows XP. It has nothing to do with Hide Inactive Icons that tidy up your notification area.

Cause

The exact cause for the problem is unknown. According to Microsoft, the problem can be caused by the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) which discovers Universal Plug and Play devices on your network.

However, Microsoft Knowledge Base may not exactly the same symptom with notification area icons do not appearing issue, as it also has other symptoms:

The pointer changes to an hour glass when you move it over the taskbar.
Some icons do not appear in the notification area.
When you click Start, nothing happens.
The Start button does not work for several minutes, and then it starts to work.
When you restart the computer, the icons in the notification area are missing. If you log off and log on with the same user account, the icons appear.
When you click any icon in the Quick Launch bar immediately after starting the computer, the pointer changes to an hourglass.
Solutions

Possible solutions are many, although none confirmed to be working perfectly. If you have the symptoms as mentioned by Microsoft above, you can try out resolution suggested by Microsoft to resolve this behavior. Note that Microsoft’s solution will disable the SSDP Discovery Service, which caused new devices on the network cannot be found automatically.

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
2. Click Services and Applications.
3. Double-click Services.
4. In the Services list, right-click SSDP Discovery Service, and then click Properties.
5. On the General tab, in the Startup type drop-down list, click Disabled.
6. Click OK.

If it doesn’t work, the alternative would be disable both SSDP Discovery Service and Universal Plug and Play Device Host. Repeat the above steps for both services.

You may try to choose Automatic at step 5 instead of Disabled, as it’s reported some people has success with this.

If you need Universal Plug and Play services and wouldn’t want to disable it, Francesco Ostuni suggested Ostuni Workaround which does not disable the uPNP service. The steps as below (only applicable on Windows XP with Service Pack 2):

1. Open My Network Places.
2. Click Hide Icons for Networked uPnP Devices at the Tasks panel.
3. For Windows Classic theme users, click Tools and the Folder Options in Windows Explorer, and then select Show Common Tasks in Folders to see the option specified in step 2.

Or,

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Click Add or Remove Programs.
3. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
4. Select Networking Services.
5. Click Details button.
6. Uncheck (remove) the UPnP User Interface.
7. Click OK.

The most reliable way to solve the problem is to logout and then login again to Windows XP.

If you don’t want to logout and login Windows XP after starting the PC, Disable Automatic Logon is a possible way to solve the issue by the following steps:

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type “control userpasswords2″.
4. Click OK.
5. Check (Select) Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.
6. Click OK.
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