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Computer Tips Windows Vista command-line cleanup tool (compcln.exe) you can run to remove older system files and restore points, thus freeing up hard disk space.To mess with disk partions in Windows XP and Vista, type diskmgmt.msc in the dos box . For detailed tips and more go to Ehow.com WebAttack.com: Bad name, excellent source of Internet utilities. Includes helpful tips and tricks, plus visual demonstrations of software. Muzzle Your Modem Lots of people--and dogs!--are being slowly driven crazy by the nerve-jangling mating call of analog modems. Fortunately, there's an easy way to silence most of them. Many modems let you set the volume level. In Windows 98 and Windows Me, open Control Panel and double-click the Modem icon. Click the Properties button and select the General tab. You may see a sliding bar that adjusts your modem's volume. If you use Windows XP, open Control Panel's Classic View, click or double-click Phone and Modem Options (depending on your system), choose the Modem tab, make sure your modem is selected, and click Properties. If your modem properties lack volume controls, set Windows to enter the AT command string that silences your modem automatically each time it connects. (The AT command set is the de facto standard for controlling modems.) To do so in Windows 98 and Me, open your modem properties as described above and choose the Connection tab. Now select the Advanced button, and in the 'Extra settings' text box, type atm0 (that's a zero, not the letter 'O'). In Windows XP, click the Advanced tab in your modem properties and type atm0 in the text box under 'Extra initialization commands'. Speed up Windows Xp start up A great tip on how to speed up your Windows XP start up times. Just clean out your prefetch folder. Windows XP keeps track of your frequently used programs and sets them up so that they start up faster. However, sometimes a lot of junk gets into the prefetch folder and can slow things down. Try this: Open the Windows Explorer and go to c:\WINDOWS\Prefetch folder. Click the View menu and then click the Select All command. This should highlight all the files in the folder. Once all the files in the Prefetch folder are selected, press the DELETE key on the keyboard to delete these files. Click Yes to send the files to the Recycle Bin. Restart your computer. You should find that Windows XP starts a lot faster! Do this once a week and your Windows XP startups will always be snappy. Find Missing DLL Files Have you upgraded your computer to Windows XP, or perhaps upgraded a program installed on Windows XP, and run into this error: "Blah couldn't find xxxx.dll blah"? You try to reinstall the programs or Windows XP, but that .dll file just won't come back. What can you do? What we always try first is a visit to www.dll-files.com. They have the most commonly missing .dll files there and they just might have the one you need. It doesn't cost anything and might save you the cost of a support call! How to stop Messenger pop-up spam To turn off the messaging software in XP so that you do not get the pop-up spam: Go into the Control Panel, then open Administrative Tools. Open the Services applet, and then open the Messenger Service in the Services console. Set the start up type to Manual and click Stop to stop the service. Computer Management Tools and get them all in the same window One of my favorite windows administration tools is the Computer Management console (right click on "My Computer" and select "Manage") because you can access "Disk Defragmenter" (defrags your harddrive), "Disk Management" (gives you information on all your drives{harddrives, cd/dvd drives, floppy drives, etc} and enables you to do things like change the letter or format, etc., also tells you the health status of your drives), "Services" (which lets you turn on or off services you don't need). Track Your System's Speed Start - All Programs - Administrative Tools - Performance . The program's "counters" measure and analyze specific activities. They can tell you why your computer has slowed down. DOS COMMAND TO SEND DIRECTORY LISTING TO *.TXT FILE Suppose you want to print a directory listing for drive C. First, create a text file, such as C:\My Documents\DirListing.txt, from this listing. Select Start, Programs, MS-DOS Prompt (or select Start, Run, and type: command ), and type the following command line: dir C:\ /S > C:\MYDOCU~1\DirListing.txt (Note: The /S switch searches all folders and subfolders. Also, since the Windows name of the My Documents directory exceeds the DOS eight-character limit, we used the directory's DOS name, "MYDOCU~1.") . Type dir /? to see what other commands are available for the dir command and add some of those to the command above. Enjoy Now print the listing. Close the MS-DOS Prompt window and use your word processor to open the TXT file you just created. (Don't use Notepad--it can't handle large files.) Print the file as you would any other document. The nice part is, you have access to all of that program's commands, such as page breaks. WARNING: Printing your directory can waste up to and at least 800 pages, especially for Windows XP Windows program that pings websites and tells you how many servers in between: "Start" menu > Programs > Accessories> command prompt > (type in) tracert www.cnet.com (www.cnet.com is an example). Windows program that pings a website and tells you how long it takes to ping the website: "Start" menu > Programs > Accessories> command prompt > (type in) ping www.cnet.com (www.cnet.com is an example). The above programs also work in the Linux console. Create a Program to Show Your IP Address OK, it's not technically a program; it's a batch file or script, but it runs instructions automatically. Try this out (it's completely safe): Right click on the desktop, point to New and click on Text Document. Open the New Text Document you created and type the following line into it: cmd /k ipconfig /all Press [ENTER] on your keyboard. Click the File menu and click the Save As command. In the File name text box, type in the name: "IPAddress.bat" Make sure you include the quotes, because it won't work if you don't use the right file extension (the quotes insure that the file extension is saved as you've typed it). Click Save. Close Notepad. Double click on the icon. A command prompt window will open that shows you the complete details of your IP addressing configuration. Get rid of Temp files Raise your hand if you haven't deleted the files in your Temporary folder (also known as the temp folder) in a long time. The more .tmp files that're stashed in that folder, the longer it takes for your machine to boot, print, and load some programs. That's because some activities automatically check the temp files before taking any other action. (One of my consultant friends said he's seen--and this is the record so far--7000 .tmp files.) To get rid of temp files, go to the Desktop and open My Computer, right-click your C: drive, select Properties, and click the Disk Cleanup button. When you see the Disk Cleanup dialog box, make sure the only boxes checked are Temporary Files and Recycle Bin, then click OK. While you're deleting things, clean up Internet Explorer's cache and history. From the Start Menu, go to Settings, Control Panel, Internet Options, and click the Delete Files button in the area titled "Temporary Internet Files." In the same dialog box, you'll see Clear History--just click the button. For a short time your browser will respond sluggishly because it has to save the pages you visit often, but in a few days things will speed up because it won't need to cull through outdated files. |
