New PC – Getting rid of Bloatware

Bloatware is all those programs that come preinstalled on many major brand PCs (HP, Compaq, Dell, etc). Although some of the programs are useful, for many people they are a nuisance that people put up with and never bother uninstalling. Here’s a little free program that supposedly uninstalls these programs before they even have a chance to run. I don’t have any systems to test this out on but I could see where this program could prove useful. Such a case might be if family or an aquaintance purchases a new system and they call upon you, the resident tech, to help with their situation. The program is called the PC Decrapifier and can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/download

If any of you have a new system to test it on or have used it, I’d like to hear how useful you found the program and your opinion on how well it works.

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Software to Back Up Drivers on a PC

Ever come across the odd system where it seems no matter how hard you try, you can’t find the drivers for the system? Sometimes, it’s due to the fact the hardware is too old or sometimes the company that manufactured the item is no longer in business. Although websites like driverguide.com are extremely helpful sometimes it can be a pain to find the correct driver. A good piece of free software that can help you save time is DriverMax by Innovative Solutions. Although billed as ‘new tool that allows you to download the latest driver updates for your computer’, in my opinion, the best feature of this program is that you can backup drivers currently in a system. Note that this software only backs up drivers currently on a system and does not help search out drivers.

Click the link below to download DriverMax:

http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/

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Internet Explorer Doesn’t Work Properly After Running an XP Repair Option

I had a system that the OS had become corrupted due to failing RAM and was locking on the desktop. As the customer had important data that they did not want to lose but could not tell me the exact location of these files, I chose to run a XP repair option from the XP CD. After running a repair of XP, Internet Explorer stopped working other than for the homepage. Attempting to open any other page resulted in another instance of Internet Explorer opening up and the page taking several minutes to load and crashing in some cases.

The fact that another instance of IE opened up was puzzling at first, but after running the standalone Firefox browser in my trusty USB memory stick with Portableapps (www.portableapps.com) installed, I was able to determine that the issue was due to the browser and not the internet connection itself. After a couple choice expletives targeted towards the Windows OS, I figured that the issue was most likely due to the fact that Internet Explorer had been updated to IE7. I downloaded IE7 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx) from a different machine and installed it on the system and, sure enough, the problem was gone.

Up to now the XP repair option has been pretty good at resolving issues, even when the CD used for the repair was that of an older Service Pack. Unfortunately, it seems that when IE7 installs itself, it does so in a manner that it doesn’t allow IE6 to run correctly even after a XP repair. 

Alternatively, follow the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article below to resolve this issue:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917964

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Windows XP Requests Immediate Activation after the Reboot of a Clean Reinstall

So you’ve gone and reinstalled Windows XP on your system but after completing the installation and rebooting the computer, it’s asking that it be activated immediately. You’re unable to enter Safe Mode as it hangs before the desktop. You begrudgingly reinstall XP again hoping it will fix your problem but you still encounter the same problem. You contact Microsoft and they tell you that the product key is correct and they have no clue as to why Windows is asking for immediate activation. The Microsoft rep tells you to contact the distributor of the software as they can’t help you at this point. The distributor may turn around and tell you that all product keys are good and suggest, in not so many words, that you need to get glasses. Well, this issue is most likely due to the Windows XP CD you used to do the installation.

Some of you are probably thinking at this point, I know the differences between retail and an OEM CD and the different versions of XP that are available and that you wouldn’t be foolish enough to make that mistake. Well you’re right. You wouldn’t be able to get past the point where you need to enter the product key with the incorrect version. The problem lies with the fact that Microsoft has gone ahead and changed something in the media. I’ve seen it first hand with OEM versions of XP. OEM XP labels have gone through several changes in shapes and colors but the most recent incarnations comes with different media. Here is a picture of the most recent label:

You’ve probably installed XP using a CD from a different machine and assumed that you could just use that one thinking that they’re all the same. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case and the only resolution that I’ve come up with so far is completely reinstalling the OS using the correct CD.

If any of you have come up with another way to resolve this issue feel free to leave a comment and share the information.

Copy and Move Files Faster and Smarter in Windows

Have you ever been frustrated copying or moving files in Windows? It seems to take forever and seems to slow the system down to a crawl. Sometimes you want to pause the copying or moving of files but in Windows your only option is to cancel the copy and the result is only a partial copy of the files and without taking the time to look through the files or folder, there’s no simple way of determining how far the copy got. Or maybe you’re copying off a dying drive and the system consistently fails on multiple files while copying.  Well there’s a simple program that overcomes the limitations of the Windows default file copy/move. The program is called TeraCopy by Code Sector. The link to the program is below.

http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

Just download and install the program. There’s one option that you should be aware of during the installation. You will be prompted if you would like to “Use TeraCopy as the default copy handler”. If you would still like to keep the Windows copy / move feature, I would suggest against selecting this option. This is especially so to make sure that there is no incompatibilities with other programs you may have installed in your system.

So here’s a quick guide on how to copy/ move files. In this example, I will be moving a 1.79GB folder to a completely different hard drive. The process is the same for copying files

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Why Defrag Your Hard Drive?

Over time, your computer’s hard drive becomes fragmented from actions such as adding and deleting files and programs. As it becomes fragmented, the computer becomes slower accessing files and programs and it results in a slower computer.

Think of your computer’s hard drive as a bookcase full of books. At first, all the books are neatly placed in order either by category or alphabetically.  As you take books out to read them, add new books, and throw some out, inevitably some books get placed back in the wrong place and gaps appear where books have been thrown out. As this occurs finding a book becomes more difficult and takes more time to find. The same thing occurs to the hard drive on your PC. To make it easier and faster to find the books, it’s important to reorganize the books on your bookshelf once in a while. On a computer, this process is known as defragmenting or ‘defragging’ for short.

All recent versions of Windows have come with their own built in defragmenting utility but they can be very slow and sometimes not as intuitive. It’s still good to run the Windows version if you are willing to leave the system on for a while but it tends to feel like a chore to get it to run. As such, I’d like to introduce a freeware alternative to use on a more frequent basis. The program is called ‘Disk Defrag’ and is by a company called Auslogics. The program is very simple to use, works quite quickly, and best of all, free. So let me show you just how simple it is to use the program. You’ll need to first download the program from the link below:

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/download

If you need help installing the program, just click back on the link above and read on further down the page.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the program, click on the program icon to get it running. You should be presented with the screen below:

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DIY – Windows XP Facelift for Free – Part 2

A few weeks back, I wrote up an article on how to change the look of your Windows XP desktop by changing the theme. At the time I promised I would introduce a couple more programs that would refresh the look of XP. Well, it took a bit longer than expected to get back to the topic, but here it is. Enjoy!

As you’re probably already aware, one of the new features in Windows Vista called ‘Aero Glass’ This feature adds a level of transparency to the Windows taskbar. We’ll use a freeware program that adds does an admirable job of mimicking the feature. It’s called ‘True Transparency’ and it can be downloaded from the link below:

http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/en.id.5139-truetransparency-lefreut-explorer-tools.htm

Once you’ve downloaded the file, it’s just a matter of extracting the file and running the ‘TrueTransparency’ application in the folder. There’s nothing to install.

In the ‘System Tray’ you’ll see a ‘T’ with an upside down ‘T’. Click it with the right mouse button and you’ll see the options as shown in the above screenshot. Here you can select the skin you wish to use, the language to use for the program, and finally to choose to have the program to run when the computer starts. You can also find additional skins for True Transparency on the internet. Just use your favorite search engine to look for them. One word of warning is that some themes (msstyles) that you may have installed may be ‘broken’ after installing this program.

Here’s a screenshot sample of the ‘transparency’ applied. Notice how the title bars of the applications are now transparent and you can see the picture underneath them. I’ve changed the desktop background so it’s easier to tell.

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Finding and Ridding Your System of Duplicate Files in Windows

With hard drives being as cheap as they are, some of you have become lazy and have duplicate files all over your PC wasting up space. Sometimes it’s good to do a little housekeeping on your PC but the thought of taking the time to look for these files can be time consuming. A freeware program called DupKiller can make looking for these duplicate files easy.

Click on the program logo to open up the website for DupKiller

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Preventative Maintenance for your PC (Windows) – Software

In a previous article we dealt with maintaining the hardware side of your PC. Now we’re going to deal with the software side; in particular, Windows. I could write a multi-page article on how to get your system running smoothly, but if you’re like me, you like simple and easy methods. There are a lot of programs out there that profess to optimize your PC but one I’ve been a fan of for a while now is CCleaner. It‘s easy to use and most importantly, it’s free!

So let’s get down to business. First off, you’ll want to download and install the program. Click the friendly link button below to do so:

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EULA – Too lazy to read the fine print?

EULA, stands for End User Licensing Agreement. It’s the fine print that a lot of people skip over when they go to install a program. You’ve probably done it yourself, clicked ‘I Agree’ without reading over the licensing agreement. This is fine for well known products but with freeware and trialware that you download from the internet, you need to be careful. Within the license agreement can be a little clause which states that you agree to the install a bundled component that tracks your web surfing habits, pops up annoying advertisements, or other such nefarious little additions. You can use notable spyware prevention programs such as Ad-Aware and Spybot Search and Destroy but sometimes the best thing is to read the fine print before you go to install. Unfortunately, some of the language used is intentionally confusing and can make it frustrating to try and comprehend. This is where programs like the one I introduce below can help you out.

EULAlyzer by Javacool Software (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/eulalyzer.html) helps search though the EULA for common terms and words that can be found in these programs that require your attention. It’s a mere 2.46 MB, installed, and if you like to download and try programs, it’s well worth it. Let’s take a look at the program in action:

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