S/W & H/W Tips & Tricks!

[c4ramesh]

Hi hubbers,
yesterday one of our hubbers, jben, had a problem with his laptop admin password. I did help him out (though the probs still presists). It then struck me it could be gr8 if we had a topic under which we can post tips & tricks for S/Ws ( any s/w, for ex: OS, utility S/W, application S/W) and H/Ws.
I will start it off.

[great]

Ramesh, there is a similar thread like this !!!

[c4ramesh]

# TIP 1: Getting Rid Of Win Xp's Error Reporting



If error reporting in XP is bugging you then turn it off.

When a system error occurs in XP, a little dialog box appears asking if you want to report the error to Microsoft. Click the message box to make it disappear. You don't have to report the error if you don't want to. But most of us find it really bugging and we want to get rid of it don't we? and on today's "S/W & H/W tips & Tricks (http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?t=6778)" I will show you how to turn off the feature if you find it distracting.

To disable error reporting, follow these directions:

1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties.

2. Click the Advanced tab on your System Properties dialog box.

3. Click the Error Reporting button on the Advanced tab.

4. Place a checkmark next to "Disable error reporting."

5. Leave the other radio button unchecked next to the text labeled, "But notify me when critical errors occur."

6. Click OK.

thats it! that bugging problem is gone! untill u get a critical error or if you have choosen to turn it back on. :D

[c4ramesh]

Ramesh, there is a similar thread like this !!!

which one mate?

[great]

i have seen a thread , will check it out :o

[c4ramesh]

i have seen a thread , will check it out :o

which one Technology today or IT prof. but I think both are a little different. IT prof. is for IT professionals, its about prog. lang. isn't it? and technology today is also a bit different, its about current technology and not any tips and tricks.... tell me if you find any. we could make this as a continuation of that!

[great]

no continue your "thondu" :thumbsup:

[c4ramesh]

no continue your "thondu" :thumbsup:

thanx!

[villan007]

ramesh , gud thread .. :D

[svasu_ani]

[quote="c4ramesh"]# TIP 1: Getting Rid Of Win Xp's Error Reporting


I used to get this error reporting stuff often..and now i hve disabled it...Thanks for the tip..

Anitha

[villan007]

Optimize your bandwidth


Increase your Bandwidth by 20%

Windows uses 20% of your bandwidth! Get it back

A nice little tweak for XP. Microsoft reserves 20% of your available bandwidth for their own purposes (suspect for updates and some kinda piracy check :? .)

Here's how to get it back:

Click Start-->Run-->type "gpedit.msc" without the "

This opens the group policy editor. Then go to:

Local Computer Policy-->Computer Configuration-->Administrative Templates-->Network-->QOS Packet Scheduler-->Limit Reservable Bandwidth

Double click on Limit Reservable bandwidth. It will say it is not configured, but the truth is under the 'Explain' tab :

"By default, the Packet Scheduler limits the system to 20 percent of the bandwidth of a connection, but you can use this setting to override the default."

So the trick is to ENABLE reservable bandwidth, then set it to ZERO. This will allow the system to reserve nothing, rather than the default 20%.
works on XP Pro, and 2000
not tested in other OS es :D

[Ghlli]

computer expert namma senthil anna

[c4ramesh]

# TIP 2: Disable Balloon Tips


Get rid of those condescending 'helping hints' forever.


Yesterday I told how to get rid of the Report error dialog. today's "S/W and H/W tips & tricks (http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/viewtopic.php?t=6778)" is about removing another irritating (for some) and helpful (for some) stuff!

Microsoft XP has been called the Fisher Price operating system for
more than just its bright colors and rounded edges. This is an OS for everyone, clear and easy to use. If you are ever lost, balloon tips appear to tell you where a new program is hiding, among other "helpful" messages.

While these tips can be convenient for mom and pop, they are far from necessary for the power user. Some of these tips, like the balloon urging you to sign up for a Passport account, give up after a while and stop coming out to play. Others, like the balloon reminding you to download and install the latest and greatest from Windows Update, never leave you.

You can get rid of them all in one fell swoop, Just be careful to check Windows Update often, because your friendly animated reminder will not pop up to help you out. Another thing you will miss is Windows' reminder that hard-drive space has run low. You will still get a little picture of a hard drive in your task bar, but you won't be accosted by a big yellow balloon that won't go away.

There are two ways to do this little operation. One, you can go here (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp)
and download Microsoft's PowerToys. This is a set of essential applications offered free from Microsoft. They are unsupported, but the ever-popular Tweak UI has never caused us any undue problems. XP PowerToys is easier to install than previous versions and resides in the program menu, rather than the control panel.

Once you have it installed, go to Taskbar and uncheck "Enable Balloon Tips." This is the easy way to do it, but you're looking at about a 1MB download. If your Internet connection is really slow, your time is limited, or you just hate downloading things, I bring you a second, more risky way as a public service.

You can perform a registry tweak to the same end. If you aren't familiar with hacking your registry, on opening your registry, backing it up, and restoring certain keys something goes wrong, so please follow the first method in such a case.:wink: . Registry hacks take place immediately and can cause damage to your system.

The Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create a new DWORD value, name it EnableBalloonTips, and set it equal to 0. If EnableBalloonTips is already there and equal to 1, set it equal to 0. Quit the registry editor, log off, and log back on. Voila! Your computer will stop talking down to you. :D

[c4ramesh]

# TIP 3: Make Xp Safer & Faster.

Do This For a Safer, faster XP; Close Unwanted Services:

Disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the "Services" Admin Tool (Control Panel ----> Administrative Tools -----> Services). If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you can disable the following items, with no ill effect.

*Alerter
*Clipbook
*Computer Browser
*Fast User Switching
*Human Interface Access Devices
*Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
*Messenger
*Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
*Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
*Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
*Remote Procedure Call Locator
*Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
*Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
*Server
*SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless "Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
*TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
*Telnet (disabled for extra security)
*Universal Plug and Play Device Host
*Upload Manager
*Windows Time
*Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
*Workstation

this makes Xp faster and safer for a single user. 8-)

[narayanan]

What is Windows Time service? Is is the one that syncs system time with some network time? If thats the case, why would it slow the system.

And one more question, what is this Upload Manager service?

[c4ramesh]

What is Windows Time service? Is is the one that syncs system time with some network time? If thats the case, why would it slow the system.

And one more question, what is this Upload Manager service?

yeah! good guess...

Windows time service:

Maintains date and time synchronization on all clients and servers in the network. If this service is stopped, date and time synchronization will be unavailable. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

If you like to synchronize your clock to a time server this is the way to go.


and

Upload Manager service:

Manages synchronous and asynchronous file transfers between clients and servers on the network. If this service is stopped, synchronous and asynchronous file transfers between clients and servers on the network will not occur. If this service is disabled, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to start.

any more queries?

[narayanan]

So the upload manager is just for transfer within the workgroup/domain (something like that) and not really over the internet ?

[c4ramesh]

So the upload manager is just for transfer within the workgroup/domain (something like that) and not really over the internet ?

Yeah!

[johntony]

dear friends,
have u any idea about how to save a music file that any media player plays online?

[ramky]

dear friends,
have u any idea about how to save a music file that any media player plays online?

Yes there are some FREE audio recording softwares which can record any "streaming" audio ( any online music / sound ) playing online at some websites.
AUDACITY is good one for this purpose. Click here to download it. (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) ( Alternate download link ). (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/latest/audacity-win-zip.php/audacity-win.zip) Filesize : 3.13 MB.

You must download only version 1.2.3 ( not any higher version as there are some unresolved bugs in it ), but DONT install it right now. One has to install some .dll files to work with Audacity & a brief procedure to install Audacity - I will post the full details asap ( including how to record online music and how to convert it to MP3 )

[johntony]

dear friends,
have u any idea about how to save a music file that any media player plays online?

Yes there are some FREE audio recording softwares which can record any "streaming" audio ( any online music / sound ) playing online at some websites.
AUDACITY is good one for this purpose. Click here to download it. (http://audacity.sourceforge.net) ( Alternate download link ). (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/latest/audacity-win-zip.php/audacity-win.zip) Filesize : 3.13 MB.

You must download only version 1.2.3 ( not any higher version as there are some unresolved bugs in it ), but DONT install it right now. One has to install some .dll files to work with Audacity & a brief procedure to install Audacity - I will post the full details asap ( including how to record online music and how to convert it to MP3 )

Thanks Ramky
to reply me
have a nice day

[ramky]

You are welcome johntony ! Reg Audacity, the .DLL files to be downloaded are : lame_enc.dll & qasf.dll You can find these .DLL files as free downloads by doing a Google search. Now you can install Audacity - preferably in any drive other than C: drive. For eg you can create a folder called "Audacity Installation Folder" ( in D: / E: / F: ) and install Audacity into this. Then you must copy the above two .DLL files into this folder where Audacity has been installed. Only after doing this, you will be able to use Audacity to convert files to .MP3 formats. The Help facitily will guide you reg how to record Steaming audio from the net. Try it and if there's any problem, post it here and I will then look into it.