Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

The Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 is out now.

It is basically a virtual machine or a virtual pc running inside Windows 7, just like how you can run Linux or whatnot inside Windows.


It is available for anyone who owns Windows 7 Professional and above.

Runs pretty smoothly, but accessing things off the Windows 7 HDD can be a bit slow and lagging, for example running a song off Windows 7 in Windows XP mode feels like running a song on a weak wireless network, very choppy and lagging.

Yet to install any software on it to run or use a printer etc. with Windows XP. Maybe more RAM can solve the lagging problem, but Windows Xp Mode is much better than most Virtual machines OS you can install because it maps all your Windows 7 HDDs as network drives (BY DEFAULT, not set up required) so you are not stuck with running the local Windows XP virtual HDD only.



The download link is:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

Windows Vista skips Windows XP

Windows XP is no longer showing up as an option in the boot menu after you installed Vista?
Vista boots right up without asking to boot into Windows XP?
Vista looks like it has replaced Windows XP?
Can't select to boot into windows XP after installing windows Vista?


Well then, you'll need to install this software in Vista. EDIT: NO LONGER FREE :(

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

What you have to do is:

1. Install the software
2. Make a backup of your boot manager (using the software)
   
3. Now create a new entry for a OS, give it a name and most importantly select the drive letter that you have install Windows XP on (open up My computer in Vista to see the drive letter)
   
4. Save or apply the entry and re-boot and try

Should be pretty simple, if not post a comment and I guess I'll make a proper tutorial lol.

Pretty much what has happened is Windows Vista runs a newer boot manager than Windows XP and if the drive letters are screwed up, you might not have windows XP in the boot menu and hence vista will boot by default.

So by making a new entry you are creating a option in the boot manager to check the drive letter X for example, and then boot from there when selected.

Am I 32 or 64

Start > Control Panel > System

Under "System" heading it should say:

"XX-bit Operating System" where XX = 32 or 64
Chances are if you don't know what 64 is, your running on 32. :D

Malwarebytes Review (Anti-Adware,spyware etc.)

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Its a very small sized program for a security program. The installation was fast and easy although i got some errors about missing dlls but it seemed to install OK.

Did a quick scan and it seemed to do the job, found a couple of Trojans sitting there, it was very quick for a scanning process, faster than any other reputable software out there and it picked up everything in the quick scan, i did a detailed scan and it returned nothing so it seems the quick scan is very effective, usually i never run the quick scans in my other software because it would usually leave something behind for the deep scans to pick up.

Did a scan in safe mode Windows Vista, seemed to find two reg entries and deleted them but then they came back, ran the program in normal Windows and it found some other entries that belonged to the same nasty. So i ran a scan twice and now the third time in normal Widnows and it seemed to have stopped it from coming back.


Overall:

Simple (< 4 minutes scan on my rig),
Faster (Than anyhting I've seen including SpyBot SD,
Small file (Good for downloading when your already in trouble),
Fair update file sizes (Not the smallest but hey other program install files are worth 15 updates),
Low memory and RAM usage


EFFECTIVE (ONLY SCANNER THAT PICKED UP ON THE NASTY I WAS HAVING)PROBLEMS WITH,


Am so curious to see if the Pro version will be super duper awesom and if its feasible to replace my other scanncer,s will comapre their results later on, i guess more scanners installed the more fine the comb will be but if it can find everything the others can, it will be such a simplistic security plan for me home network.

** Sounds like something you can run weekly without wasting time, energy or wearing computer too much.

Stuck Files

How can i delete a file, Stuck file can't be deleted, Can not delete this file, File comes back after deleting it, Can't move or delete a file, Stubborn files, Problems deleting a file.

Sometimes you get files that just simply won't delete, is always busy or it comes back after you delete it. I've had that problem more than once before and I am here today to try and help you solve such stress.

If the files are always busy and you can't move them, rename them or delete them or edit in any way:

Try to use Unlocker (search my blog for my post on Unlocker) to try and stop the program that may be locking up that file. Files that belong to torrents, part-downloaded files, ISO virtual drive files and files that are used by applications are common types of files that are locked by programs and you may not know about the application using it because it may not be in the program files folder, e.g. downloading files are not in the FireFox folder so you have no idea FireFox is using it and adding data to it which is preventing you from editing or deleting it.


If the doesn't work try this:

Use a program called Delete Doctor (do a Google search if link no longer works) this program has given me a 90% + success rate. Try the normal functions and if the file still can not be deleted try the function where deleting the file will occur during start up and requires a reboot, that one usually gives me the Best success rate at deleting a file.


If your files are re-born after deletion:

I have bad news for you, in my experience when this happens you got some sort of a virus, spyware, malware etc. it may not always be entirely true but in my experience that is the biggest chance of why the files are re-born, a virus somewhere is creating that file everytime you delete it, the file your deleting may not actually be the virus and that's why you need to get rid of the mother of the file (virus) to entirely stop the files from being re-born.
My solution is to run anti-virus scans in full scan mode, run spybot and whatever you have and even get some other scanners (well known ones, sometimes those so called anti-XXXXX software are the actual cause of viruses, my suggestion, use anti-XXXXX software recommended by my blog! ;)
Do a scan and if your anti-virus can delete it or fix it, do that. If not find out what virus you have and go to Symantec.com and paste the name in the website and search for a solution for that virus, sometimes Symantec will give you an .exe patch to run to get rid of the virus and sometimes it will tell you how to fix it but using registry edits (not recommended for basic users with little technical knowledge)


The file that keeps of being re-born is My XXXX:

When you find a fix for this tell me! LOL using Windows XP and MS products will sometimes create My Sharing folder, My Music folders etc. after you delete them, everytime you run Windows Media Player the My Music folder is re-created if you deleted it. This isn't a virus, just an annoyance from MS. There are ways around this but I don't want to talk about this headache right now, I thought i found a solution before for the "My Music folder" by adjusting a setting in WMP and it worked for a while and is now back so yeah .....

Some may say use Apple!, I'd say only use that as a solution if your never planning to use Windows again because Apple creates files for each folder that describes how the folder should be displayed in Mac OS and these files won't be invisible in Windows OS, so if you annoyed by one My Music folder then hehehehe

Changing Windows XP Vista icon size

How do I change the size of icons?
How do I make my desktop icons bigger or larger?
Changing Windows XP Vista icon size

I like to have my screen in a higher resolution because it looks better and desktop wallpapers are usually a better fit.

A problem is I am usually use to having medium sized desktop icons which are now very small in a high resolution. To prevent me having to learn to be more precise with my mouse clicking I will have to adjust the icon size to be larger but how?

Here is how:

Vista:
Right click on an empty space on the desktop

Click “Windows Colour and Appearance

Click on “Open classic appearance properties for more colour options”

Click on [Advanced Button]

Select “Icon” under Item: dropdown

Change the “Size:” field to a large number that suits you

You can always set the Size: to a smaller value to make icons smaller too if you ever have that need.

Windows XP:
Right click on an empty space on the desktop

Properties > Appearance > Advanced

Select “Icon” under Item: dropdown

Change the “Size:” field to a large number that suits you

You can always set the Size: to a smaller value to make icons smaller too if you ever have that need.

Service Pack Update

Service Packs are now avaliable for:

Below are links to .exe versions of the service packs, for back up and easy restore reasons i download these files to prevent having to use windows update to get the service packs installed again. If anything ever goes bad and you need to re-install Windows then a .exe version of the SP will come in handy. I always try to ownload the .exe version to save downloads in the future and also to easily install SP on multiple PCs.

Before downloading you may want to make sure your Windows Auto-Update hasn't already downloaded and installed the SP by:

• Right-clicking My Computer and clicking properties (In Vista), should be the same in XP

It should say something like Windows XP with SP2 or SP3 etc. Evn if you already have it installed you may still want to download this .exe file for the reasons mentioned above and also to get things that only run with these SP working as soon a recovery starts ;)

Windows XP : Service Pack 3 (SP3)

Windows Vista : Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Blury graphics and text

On my desktop, I've been having troubles running games, my gfx card would just turn idle and the screen would turn off. I then for some reason started to experience blurry text and out of focus graphics. When i used the auto focus button on my LCD screen, the whole screen would be displaced to the left by a couple of CMs.

This is what i did, it solved the problem but which attempt solved it? no idea

• Turn the resoultion down and then back up in Windows XP
• Turned off tower and monitor for a while
• Disconnected monitor cable from gfx card
• Used a paint brush and clean dust off card
• Re-connected cable and gfx card to tower
• Powered back on, all fine again :D

My ideas are maybe lose cable, and after cleaning i put it back on tighter or turning off the tower cleared something maybe? OR last explanation would be faires or nothing, just time fixed it {shrugs}

Password Protected Screensaver

If you leave your computer and use the screen saver to lock your screen up you will most likely find out that making shortcuts to the screen saver will not get your computer password protected and it will only be protected when the screen saver is run after idle time of X minutes.

solution1 . To over come this you can actually use the lock computer function (Windows Key + L)

solution2 . Using the shortcut keys suck. Make a shortcut the the shortcut that can be treated like the screen saver shortcuts.

• Right click an empty area of your desktop, choose New/Shortcut and enter this line as the command line:

• rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

• Click Next. Name the shortcut whatever you prefer and click Finish. That's it.

• If you'd like to change the icon, just right click the shortcut and go to Properties/Shortcut/Change Icon. If you want open up c:\windows\system32 and find the keys icon to go with your locking shortcut. As it is now a icon shortcut you can make a shortcut on your desktop and quick launch.

Additional . If you have the welcome screen on you can turn it off to make password entering easier and more corporate when you return to your computer. To do this change the setting back to classic login prompt.

Start > Control Panel > UserAccounts > Change the way users log on and off
> [Uncheck] Use Welcome Screen




some of the instructions was taken from :
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=70

From now on I will post the web site of tutorial places to save me having to reword simple tutorial steps.

24 Hour time in Windows XP

If you think 24 hour time is cooler, more useful, want to save space on the Windows system tray or for whatever reason had AM and PM time as default and want to change to 24 hours, follow these instructions:

Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language options

(Next to English) click "Customise"

click the "Time" tab

Change the value for "Time format" and change whatever foramt you are using from 'h" to 'H"

Apply and your done!

Unlock PSD files

Cannot delete ????.psd: It is being used by another person or program.
I can't move my psd files. They are always busy or being used by some program.
My psd files are always busy.

Sound familiar? When i have thumbnails for psd enabled my psd files get locked up and i can't move them and sometimes its so bad the changes i make to my images can't be saved unless i save as and make a new file and delete the old one.

My solution is to download this wounderful program called Unlocker, it not only unlocks your files for you but tells you what programs are actually locking up access to your files and works great with this psd scenario, at least for me.

The program is call unlocker and is from Cedrick Collomb @ ccollomb.free.fr
The program is small, fast, free and has the benefits of paracetamol.

BTW in my case it was windows explorer locking my files, something to do with generating the preview thumbnails from the psd files i would imagine.

Novabench Benchmark

This is a great software to easily compare computers to others as it measures the computers performance and gives you a score for it, the higher the score the more efficient processing the computer has. This allows you to compare computers without having to compare RAM and CPU clock speeds etc. etc. which is sometimes hard as Intel and AMD have different clock speeds and some Intel processors have slower clocks speeds but faster (I am yet still to understand what they are, maybe its a marketing technique, who knows)

I installed but couldn't successfully run on Windows 98se but Win Xp is fine.
www.novabench.com

On a different note, after running Novabench once and recording the score i did a defrag with Auslogic defrag, in Auslogic it says after the defrag there was an increase of 3% to system performance, according to Novabench I got an extra 4 points so defrag does make a good difference in performance, you can check the creditability of other software this way "Make your computer run like if it was brand new" kind of marking tactic tests.

Almost instant boot up time

If you want your desktop to be ready to use in almost an instant (compared to usual full boot time) you can use the hibernate feature, which is a form of stand by (like seen in Win98) but Hibernation fully powers off and all data is saved on the hard drive like data and do not get cleared when there is no power to the computer. This allows you to do a full power off. With stand by there is still power that runs RAM etc to store your data.

Some believe that doing so doesn't allow your computer to get refreshed and boot settings from scratch. In my experience I have used hibernation with not much problems but i do believe that if you over rely on hibernation you can get sluggish performance.

My routine is usually 2-3 boots before i do a proper shut down, if i just go on the net I can hibernate, if i install a program or do something major i will do a proper shut down just so everything works out (some actions such as installing new software or updates require actions to be taken during your first start up after installation)

If you find you get problems then don't use the method, i know sometimes my graphics card doesn't get woken up for some reason and i have to reboot.

By default hibernation is hidden behind the face of Stand By so to choose hibernation,
Click Start > Turn Off Computer > Hold Shift and click where Stand By is which should now be Hibernate when you press Shift.

If hibernation is disabled then contact your admin of the comouter, if your the admin account then you can enable it by:
Control Panel > Power Options Properties > Hibernate > Check enable Hibernation (provided your control panel is set out in classic view and not category view.

System Snapshot

This is a great tool if you tweak or edit your system's vital parts (registry etc) or even if you install dodgy software for what ever reason you would do that.

This software allows you to make a system snapshot (with Windows XPs own system restore) at your will with a quick click of the system tray icon. I set mine up to make a snapshot at every start up instead of when Windows decides that something critical is going to be performed. This helps me prevent dodgy installs of game demos etc. saved me last time from Sonys SonicStage which screwed up the computer good. Some installers don't cause Windows to do a sys restore point.

Win XP only

You'll have to Google this one, i forgot where it is from and i can't find a site with screenshots. The program i used was a hand holding a blue video recorder. There are a few different programs with the same name by the looks it.

Long Live Windows

Windows has a higher death rate than uncoordinated and clumsy arsonist with a tank of petrol and too many matches, right?

Maybe so, I health diet for Windows is usually seen as:

* Defrag
* Scan Disk
* Back Up
* Disk Cleanup

This may be shaped from the fact that under the properties on each hard drive these are the main utilities to run for your hard drive and Windows and is usually advertised as being able to boost performance and speed. I am not denying the advantages of running each.

Some believe that excessive running of these utilities will wear out the disk, what doesn't get worn by use? some think that it may reduce the life of their hardware by years. My view is that most well known brand name hardware manufacturers design their products to last longer than than their obsolete period (i.e. should last long enough to see the day when they are out-dated technology) of course excessive use and the way you use it can make the statement above not so true to you. So i run defrag (only) when i suffer from high loading times and disk access times.

The recommended amount is once a month.

Some people believe that the messy state of the hard rive can wear them out more than the process of reorganising the data on the disk and some software companies even make defrag software that are designed to run constantly to give you a defraged hard drive 24/7

Running all these utilities can take a long time especially scan disk and defrag and especially if you have a large hard drive or have use a large portion of your hard drive.

To save time you can run:

* Defrag -> Auslogic, is faster than Win XP defrag and free too

* Scan Disk -> Only when you suspect that hard disk has an error, data curruption, constant crashes, never ending loading times.

* Back Up -> Use a back up software that compares and synchronises your data to save time because it only has to write data that has been changed. {}

* Disk Cleanup -> Run only once a month or even two months if you don't save much space on each run.

{} For personal use and general purposes of backup which don't involve life changing data, I would recommend using compare and sync backup software as it is much quicker and provides a good enough data backup if done right. If your corporate (which i highly doubt, as you should have your own IT support department to take care of backup) then you may want to use Full and partial back ups for safer measures but if the amount of data that is changes is low then compare and sync will do fine. E.g. if you have 6 Gb of data changed and or created then of course you should use more professional backup measure but if you only need to back up 8MB of changed data and maybe 30Mb of new mp3 song and 40Mb of new digital photos then why bother with difficult back up? just compare for changes, make changes and add the new files to backup disk easy. your done!

My diet is a bit different as i go further than the hard disk utilities:

* Defrag
* Backup
* Reg defrag
* Swap defrag
* Reg repair
* AV and spyware scan
* Security software updates
* Physical clean and layout adjustments

My method can corrupt data or Windows if done incorrectly so i won't entice anyone to try it by explaining how and what to do.

TweakUI

This allows you to tweak some options that you can't do in windows unless you know how to program in the registry.

I mainly only use this program to hide and show certain items in Windows and really is an advanced user program as changes made can affect the users productivity and may be hard to recover if you don't know what you did.
Some of my posts describe how to use this software to perform certain tasks, so if your not an advanced user you can still download this software and only use it following my posts. TweakUI has a proper graphical interface so it is easy to use if you know what your changing.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx > Scroll down half way and on your right hand side you should see a link "TweakUI.exe"

Windows XP only, i think

Impulse to kill files?

Interesting title, i know.
Do you ever suffer from searching your computer and going "crap, crap, carp, rubbish, useless, space waster etc. etc.", finding random files you really don't want and sending them to the recycle bin, then to find no, i need that file, dam it, and then trying to spend hours on the net finding a recovery software?

Well, you could try this freeware, not!, why don't you just prevent this impulse!

I actually suffer from this too, i was obsessed to empty the recycle bin as soon as the icon changed from empty to having something in it.

A. I moved the recycle bin to under my documents instead of the bottom right corner which was its default position. This increased the view of it, so if you did that too, place it back in the corner.


B. Use a a recycle bin instead of a trash bin (what I am trying to say is set your bin so it just holds the files until you empty it instead of deleting it as soon as click delete) this will also prevent accidental deletions. To do this:

*Open up the recycle bin > Right click > Properties > Make sure "Do not move files to Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted" is unchecked. This should be the default i think, if you can see files you deleted in the recycle bin then this is obviously off.


C. Use of "Pre-Delete" folder, make a folder on the desktop and call it what ever you like, then when ever you have an urge to delete something throw it in there instead and if you decide that you really don't need it you can send it to the recycle bin. This is especially useful when deleting program or system files because moving it to a different location will show you if the program can run properly without that file.


D. Only have the recycle bin in the quick launch bar, less vision and smaller icon will make you only empty the bin when you need more space or when your not busy and have time to realise that there are a lot of files in your bin. To do so:

* Go the desktop > Drag recycle bin into taskbar until you see a black line divider and then drop. This will place the recycle bin in your taskbar, i think it might already be in there in some default set outs by Windows. If it is already there precede to the next step.

* This step removes the recycle bin from the desktop. There should be other ways to do it but i did it the easy way and downloaded TweakUI (read next post for download info) and then went to the desktop item and unchecked recycle bin.

Busy Ext. Hard Drives?

I use my ext. hard drive mainly for backing up my data disk so i only need it plugged in once a week to catch up on updated data on my computer. An annoyance that happens a lot is that some program (probably not the back up software as it was long closed) is holding the ext hard drive from being unplugged (software wise) I could always look at the light on my hard drive and say well it's not blinking therefore it is not reading or writing to disk so it could be safe enough to unplug (physically) but there has always been the myth that doing so before Windows says "it is now safe to unplug the device" will damage the device or lose data. I have done this before but i don't want to make a habit of it.

The other day, something, i don't know what, made me do an anti-virus scan (Avast AV) on the ext- hard drive (i actually started it for a few files and then stopped it rather than doing a complete scan) believing that the AV scanner would release the files from what ever program is using it and it worked! only tried it once but why not try that next time you get locked up? My theory is that the AV stops all other applications from accessing the disk or files so it can prevent viruses or bugs from sending data or spreading if it needed to remove it. My theory about the lock up is that Windows is access it, maybe system restore or something but like you might have noticed i used the word theory, i barely know how AV or Windows software works.

By the way i use Avast AV in my ext. hard drive scenario so i don't know if it will work with others.

WMP on the taskbar

You can place WMP on the taskbar (i.e next to your quick launch short-cuts or next to your system clock))

This tip is handy for my last post (WMP - Random Playlist) as it places WMP away in a neater place and also allows you to have access to the next song button, which is really useful if you don't got that button on your keyboard. Not to mention it allows you to pause the music to hear others talk to you if you've got your music on too loud.

1. Right click on an empty part of the taskbar

2. Toolbars > Windows Media Player (make it ticked)

3. Open WMP > Minimise the window and it should automatically be placed into the taskbar

Process Explorer

Allows you to pause, prioritise, kill, restart and monitor processes on Windows XP (also works on most Windows 98 up).

www.systeminternals.com > Process Utilities > Process Explorer > Download Process Explorer