Who Is Connected To Wireless Network?

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Who Is Connected To Wireless Network?



When you have wireless router to connect wireless then you must know how many people are connected and using your wireless network as I do keep tab on all the users who are connected with


Lets see how many people are connected with my wireless network...


Step#1: Go to the Internet Browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari or any other browser) and in the address bar type the address of your router that must be written at the back of router then it will ask User Name and the Password It is also written on the router
Step#2: When this box appears then scroll down and you will find Attached Devices, in this box you can see how many users are connected and who else is connected, you can refresh to see current login

​

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

[h=3]How To Fix Validating Identity?[/h]

Are you not able to go online because you are receiving endless "Validating Identity" because your computer is unable to validate, Validating identity means a state where the computer is trying to establish connection with your wireless network and find difficulty to establish connection, this happens only in Windows XP. Well we don't have to worry we have solution with us just follow a few steps.

[h=2]FIX VALIDATING IDENTITY[/h]Step#1: Click on Start and go to Control Panel





















Step#2: Click on Network and Internet Connections

Step#3: Go to Network Connection


Step#4: Right Click on Wireless Network Connection and Click on Properties














Step#5: Click on Wireless Networks tab and put a tick in the box of Use Windows to configure my wireless network settings and click on OK












































Step#6: Remove the tick from the box of Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network and click on OK

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

[h=3]How To Fix Limited Or No Connectivity?[/h]


Sometimes when I turn on my computer I occasionally find limited or no connectivity in my Task bar showing that I have no connection with my LAN or Wireless connection and gradually I found out many troubleshooting steps and that I am going to share with youHow We Can Fix Limited or No Connectivity.

Step#1: The first step is to check with your Internet provider if there is any problem with the line or the services may have been taken off due to several reasons


Step#2: If there is no problem from ISP then we can move further to troubleshoot the problem the very basic troubleshooting is to switch of your modem, router and computer and start your devices one after another, switch on your modem first wait for 20 seconds let the light come up on the modem then switch on your router after 20 seconds start your computer at last. In most of the cases this step helps

Step#3: If not then we can check if you have assign some IP address in the setting
Go to Control Panel

>>Click on Network and Internet

>>Then Network and Sharing Center



>>Click on Change Adapter Settings




>>Then right click on Local Area Connection/Wireless Network Connection and click on Properties



>>After Properties make single click on Internet Protocol Version 4 and then click on Properties

>>Make sure there should be No IP address given in the boxes if IP is there then click on Obtain an IP address automatically in the next box also and click on OK and then check your internet connection


Step#4: You can try to release IP address and check if it helps
Step#5: Update drivers of the adapters
If nothing helps then you must take your system to PC vendors to get it check

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

How Can I Find Network Security Key Of Wireless Network?



Today we are going to learn how we can find the network security key when we are connected to wireless network in Windows 7 and Vista

I am not connected to any wireless network

Before we proceed you must check at the back of the wireless router you may find network security key but if you do not find then follow these steps

Step#1:Click on Start then Control Panel






Step#2: Click on Network and Internet

Step#3: Click on Network and Sharing Center

Step#4: Click on Manage Wireless Networks


Step#5: Right Click on your network and click on Properties

Step#6: Go to Security Tab and put a tick mark in Show characters

 

[Skillseeker]

shukrani sana mkuu...sema ninaswali moja nje ya mada..katika kucapture hizi picha siumetumia snipping tool?..je katika kuchora hii mistari umetumia nini..najua ukishacapture kuna kapeni unaweza chora mistari lakini hii yako iko straight sana..it looks like ulikuwa unadrag a rectangle..
naomba muongozo hapo..

 

[sky_haf]

How Can I Find Network Security Key Of Wireless Network?



Today we are going to learn how we can find the network security key when we are connected to wireless network in Windows 7 and Vista

I am not connected to any wireless network

Before we proceed you must check at the back of the wireless router you may find network security key but if you do not find then follow these steps

Step#1:Click on Start then Control Panel






Step#2: Click on Network and Internet

Step#3: Click on Network and Sharing Center

Step#4: Click on Manage Wireless Networks


Step#5: Right Click on your network and click on Properties

Step#6: Go to Security Tab and put a tick mark in Show characters

Kuna uwezekano wa kupata key ya wireless ambayo imefungwa, kama kuna wireless kwa jirani lakini huna key zake na huwez kumuomba, vp unaweza ukazipata ukatumia internet?

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Kuna uwezekano wa kupata key ya wireless ambayo imefungwa, kama kuna wireless kwa jirani lakini huna key zake na huwez kumuomba, vp unaweza ukazipata ukatumia internet?

Mkuu sky_haf unataka kumuibia jirani yako wewe?waulize wezi wa Wireless Hacker watakujibu hapa hapa.

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Fix "Windows was unable to find a certificate to log you on to the network"




I recently bought a new Linksys wireless router and after setting it up with basic WEP security, I tried to logon from my laptop and was successful! Not very exciting, eh?
So then I tried to connect from my desktop computer that has a wireless USB adapter attached to it and I ended up getting this error message:

Windows was unable to find a certificate to log you on to the network
​

Fabulous! What certificate! I checked my settings on the wireless router to make sure I didn't accidentally setup certificate security, but found no such thing. Also, since I was able to connect from my laptop with no problem, it led me to believe it was something wrong with my desktop.
After about 30 minutes of fiddling around with various settings, I was able to figure out what the problem was. Here's how to connect to your wireless router if you are getting this message.
First, click on the wireless icon in your taskbar and under Related Tasks, choose Change advanced settings.

Now click on the Wireless Networks tab and select the network in the list at the bottom. Click onProperties once you select the wireless network that is having problems.

Click on the Authentication tab and now uncheck the Enable IEEE 802.1x authentication for this network box. If the box was checked, then that was why you were getting the "unable to find a certificate to log you on to the network" message because Windows is looking for one, but your wireless router is not setup for certificate security.

And that's it! Once I unchecked that box and tried to reconnect to the wireless network, everything worked fine! Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

5 Ways to Make Sure No One is Monitoring Your Computer


A friend recently was over and asked me if there was a way to tell if someone was monitoring their computer or not. She had a feeling that her computer-savvy boyfriend installed something on her computer to monitor what she was doing.

Several years ago, I wrote an article about detecting computer and email monitoring by checking open ports in the firewall and by seeing if everything is being routed through a proxy server. However, that’s a pretty old article and there are so

many programs that are really impossible to detect nowadays. Not only that, a lot of times you don’t even have to install software to monitor someone’s computer.

For example, if a person can access your wireless router, then they can monitor your activity without having to touch the computer. Read my previous post on how you can block websites from your router to understand the principle. So if I relative or family member or significant other has access to your router, they can monitor you.

Also, Windows has a feature called Group Policy or Local Policy that basically lets administrators change settings across the computer and because it’s a built-in feature of Windows, it won’t ever be caught by virus scanners or show up anywhere else on the system.

In this article, I’m going to tell you a couple of things that you can do to make sure no one is monitoring your computer without trying to teach you how to find it on your computer or network. Sometimes it’s just not going to be possible, but since you have control over the hardware, you can still stop it. Here’s how.
Method 1 – Virus and Malware Scan

If something has been installed and even if it’s very hidden in the system, scanning your computer with multiple virus and anti-malware programs could possibly find it. Check out my previous post on different ways to find and remove viruses. Also, read my post on the top 10 best anti-virus programs out there and use them to scan your computer.

If the program installed is really sneaky, it may even have certain ways to add itself to the exception list in your anti-virus

program. A better way to scan is to perform an offline scan of Windows. This basically means you scan for viruses before Windows even loads up. Check out my post on performing an offline virus scan.
If you find absolutely nothing performing all these scans, then your next step is to really ensure Windows has not been comprised in other ways.

Method 2 – Clean/Repair Install Windows

As I mentioned above, there are ways to monitor a computer without necessarily installing a program that is considered a virus. In these types of cases, unless you are really technically-savvy, you won’t be able to figure out if you’re being monitoring or not.

However, you can still do something about it. In Windows, you can perform a clean install or a repair install. Clean install will wipe the operating system and all data and start you from scratch. A repair install is another option that basically resets Windows, but maintains all your data and programs.

I recommend doing a clean install if you really think someone is monitoring you. Everything is gone and therefore your system will be absolutely clean with no chance of being monitoring from the computer itself. There are lots of guides online on performing a clean install, which might not be a bad idea anyway if you have never done it before.

Check out my posts on clean installing Windows 7 and clean installing Windows 8. This is by far the most guaranteed way to ensure no one is monitoring your computer.

Method 3 – Reset and Secure Wireless Router

The other weak point when it comes to being monitored is the wireless router. Most people don’t worry about that too much, but it’s one of the easiest things to hack into and a lot of times someone can gain access to it without even needing to perform a hack.

For example, a lot of people secure their wireless networks and think that the network is highly secure. Yes, it’s true that the network cannot be instantly accessed by anyone trying to connect, but did you remember to set a password on your

router web admin page? If you didn’t set a password for the admin web page for your router, anyone could just plugin their computer directly to the router and change all the settings to what they desire.
I’ve also learned that the people most likely to monitor you are the people who are fairly close and have access to things like your computer or your router. So what can you do? Go ahead and reset the wireless router completely. Usually there is a reset button on the back of the router that you can hold for 10 to 15 seconds that will reset it. Any configured settings will be lost and everything will be back to the factory default. So if someone managed to change the DNS server or something else, it’ll all be gone.

At this point, you want to do two things: first, secure the wireless network using WPA2 with AES or TKIP and then set a password for your router. All routers come with default usernames and passwords, which should be changed immediately.

Method 4 – Use a Different Network

A lot of times when someone is monitoring your computer, it usually is dependent on the network you are connected too. For example, someone may have installed a key logger program that uploads data to another computer on the same network. Or their may be a program running on another computer that listens and waits for data to be sent to it from the monitored computer.
In these types of cases, you can try using a different network. For example, if you’re using the wireless network at your home, maybe you can try connecting your laptop or computer to the Internet using a tethered phone connection. I know at my office, they had a corporate network spying tool and I used to bypass it by disconnecting my computer from the corporate network and then using my smartphone, connecting it to my computer via USB and accessing the Internet that way.
This won’t ensure you are not being monitored in all cases, but it does help prevent some types of monitoring depending on how the person set it up.
Method 5 – Unplug or Disconnect

Lastly, you can always just unplug your computer or disconnect your machine from the network. Not the ideal solution obviously, but it will ensure that no one is monitoring you. Basically, it’s good to unplug and then follow the other methods mentioned above. In case someone has a program where they can see your desktop or computer remotely, then disconnecting will obviously prevent them from seeing what’s going on.
Overall, I have learned that trying to figure out the source of monitoring is too hard unless you really are a computer geek. The best thing to do if you feel you’re being monitored is just to reset all your current systems. The computer and wireless network are the main avenues to access your computer, so if you reset those, you can be pretty happy knowing you’re not being monitored anymore.
What are your thoughts? Do you feel you are being monitored? Are you having trouble performing any of the steps mentioned above? Feel free to post your comments and I’ll help out. Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Fix Detected DNS Cache Poisoning Attack Message

I have ESET Smart Security installed on one of my PCs and I recently got an alert message saying the following:

Detected DNS Cache Poisoning Attack is detected by the ESET personal firewall
​

Whoops! That definitely didn’t sound too good. A DNS cache poisoning attack is basically the same thing as DNS spoofing, which basically means the DNS name server cache has been compromised and when requesting a webpage, instead of getting the real server, the request is redirected to a malicious computer that can download spyware or viruses to the computer.
I decided to perform a full anti-virus scan and also downloaded Malwarebytes and did a scan for malware too. Neither scan came up with anything, so then I started doing a little bit more research. If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see that the ‘remote’ IP address is actually a local IP address (192.168.1.1). That IP address actually happens to be my router IP address! So my router is poisoning my DNS cache?
Not really! According to ESET, it can sometimes accidentally detect internal IP traffic from a router or other device as a possible threat. This was definitely the case for me because the IP address was a local IP. If you get the message and your IP address falls in an of these ranges below, then it’s just internal traffic and there is no need to worry:

192.168.x.x
10.x.x.x
172.16.x.x to 172.31.x.xIf it’s not a local IP address, scroll down for further instructions. First, I’ll show you what to do if it’s a local IP. Go ahead and open up the ESET Smart Security program and go to the Advanced Settings dialog. Expand Network, then Personal Firewall and click on Rules and zones.

Click on the Setup button under Zone and rule editor and click on the Zones tab. Now click onAddress excluded from active protection (IDS) and click Edit.

Next a Zone setup dialog will appear and here you want to click on Add IPv4 address.

Now go ahead and type in the IP address that it listed when ESET detected the threat.

Click OK a couple of times to go all the way back to the main program. You should no longer get any threat messages about DNS poisoning attacks coming from that local IP address. If it’s not a local IP address, that means you might actually be a victim of DNS spoofing! In that case, you need to reset your Windows Hosts file and clear the DNS cache on your system.
The folks at ESET created an EXE file that you can just download and run to restore the original Hosts file and flush the DNS cache.
http://kb.eset.com/library/ESET/KB Team Only/Malware/DNS-Flush.exe
If you don’t want to use their EXE file for whatever reason, you can also use the following Fix It download Microsoft to restore the Hosts file:
How can I reset the Hosts file back to the default?
To manually clear the DNS cache on a Windows PC, open the command prompt and type in the following line:

ipconfig /flushdnsNormally most people will never be victims of DNS spoofing and it may be a good idea to disable the ESET firewall and just use the Windows firewall. I personally have found that it brings up too many false positives and ends up scaring people more than actually protecting them. Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Fix “Windows cannot access the specified device path or file” Error

Cryptic Windows errors are about as common as fish in the sea. I’ve previously written about many strange Windows errors, such as:
Unsupported wireless network device detected. System Halted
Instruction at referenced memory could not be read
“No more system PTEs” error (stop code 0X0000003F)

Etc, etc! In this post, I will talk about the different ways you can try to fix the following error:

Windows cannot access the specified device path or file. You may not have appropriate permissions.
​

What’s annoying about this message is that sometimes it has nothing to do with permissions at all! Here’s a couple of possible ways to fix it, depending on your system.
Note: First, restart your computer in Safe Mode (only XP and Vista) and see if you can open the file or programs in question. If so, it’s not a “real” permission issue, it’s a program or process on your computer that is giving the error.


Method 1 – Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services

Firstly, if you’re running into this issue on a Windows Server box running Terminal Services, your problem can be narrowed down to one or two things.
The best solution that has worked for most people is to simply uninstall Internet Explorer enhanced security configuration.

If that doesn’t work, another thing you can do is to add the server name to the list of Trusted Intranet Sites in IE.

//servername
​

Make sure to log off and back on in order for it to take effect. If you’re not running a server, read on.

Method 2 – Turn off anti-virus or firewall

If you are having this issue in Windows XP or Windows Vista, then your problem is probably related to an actual permission issue.
Norton Internet 200X, Bitdefender, AVG anti-virus, Trend Micro 200X can all cause this problem. If you have any of these programs installed, make sure to disable them and test it you can run programs, open files, etc.
If so, then you’ll have to either use a different program or find something on the Internet about to how to configure your software to not interact badly with Windows.
The same thing can also happen with an overly aggressive firewall. If you are running Comodo firewall or something similar (other than the basic Windows Firewall), then disable that also.

Method 3 – Unblock the file

If neither of those two methods worked, the file may be blocked by Windows. Note that this is only for Windows Server 2003 and higher.
When you copy an EXE file from another computer to a Windows Server 2003 box, there is what is called a blocked property set on the file. This is due to the increased security on servers.
Right-click on the file and choose Properties. You’ll see a button called Unblock at the bottom.


Method 4 – Real permissions issue

Finally, you may actually have a permissions issue. In this case, make sure you are an Administrator or you are part of the Domain Admins group if you are in a domain.
Also, you can try right-clicking on the file and choose Run As. Then type in the Administrator credentials and try to run the file. If you are able to run it, that means you account is not setup properly or is not in the right user group.
That’s about it! If you still get the “Windows cannot access the specified device path or file”, then post a comment here with details and I’ll try to help! Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Windows 7 Devices and Printers Hangs or Won't Open?


I ran into an annoying problem on my Windows 7 virtual machine the other day when I tried to openDevices and Printers from the Start Menu.

Instead of normally load up with a list of Devices and Printers and Faxes, it kept hanging and nothing would load. It was just a blank screen like shown below:

Grrrr. It was working fine a few days earlier, so I could not figure out what had changed. Whenever something like this happens, I always think of a few things. Did I install any new Windows updates? Those are notorious for screwing things up all the time!
That wasn't the case, so then I checked if I had installed any new drivers or updated any existing drivers on my PC, but that wasn't the case either. I hadn't installed any new hardware and didn't update anything. I was running out of options at this point.
Then I remembered something! I had turned off Bluetooth on my computer a few days back because I didn't think I needed it. After doing some Googling, I realized that was the problem! For some strange reason, you have to turn on the Bluetooth service and/or the Bluetooth Support service. To do this, you need to go to Start, type in services and click on Services.

For some reason my service was set to Manual and was not even started. I started it and then set it to Automatic.

To change it to Automatic, right-click on the service and choose Properties. Then under Startup Typechoose Automatic.

That's it! Now if you go back to Devices and Printers, it should look something like this:

If you're Devices and Printers window is still not loading or is hanging, post a comment here and we'll try to help! Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Share a Printer from XP to Windows 7

One common problem I have run into with clients is trying to share a printer connected to a Windows XP machine with Windows 7. There are lots of people out there that have USB connected printers attached to one computer, usually a Windows XP machine.
If you get a new laptop running Windows 7, it makes sense to share that printer so that any computer can print to it. Unfortunately, trying to print to an shared printer on XP from Windows 7 is not as simple as it should be!
In this article I will walk you through the steps for XP to Windows 7 printer sharing. I am assuming your printer is directly attached to a Windows XP machine and you want to print from a Windows 7 machine.
Step 1: First make sure that the printer on the XP machine is shared. You can do this by right-clicking on the printer and choosing Sharing.

Click the Share this printer radio button and give your printer a share name. Make sure is less than 8 characters and does not contain any symbols.

Step 2: Make sure you can see the printer share from the network browsing area in Windows 7. You can do this by going to Control Panel and clicking on Network and Internet.

Then click on View network computers and devices under Network and Sharing Center.

At this point, you should see the name of your XP computer in the list of computers. Mine XP machine is called Aseem.

Double-click on the computer name and you should see your shared printer in the list. Here you can try to add the printer by right-clicking on it and choosing Connect.

If everything goes perfectly, Windows 7 should automatically add the printer to your set of printers. However, if you get a message like "Cannot connect to printer", follow the next steps.
Step 3: Click on Start and then click on Devices and Printers. At the top, click on the Add a printerlink.

Step 4: Next choose Add a local printer. Yes, that sounds counter-intuitive, but this is what you have to do!

Step 5: Next, click Create a new port and choose Local port from the list of options.

Step 6: Click Next and in the Port name box, type in the path to the shared printer. It should be something like \\Aseem\HPXP, where Aseem is the name of your XP machine and HPXP is the shared name of the printer.

Step 7: Now choose the printer driver from the list or download the latest driver for the printer and choose Have Disk. Note that if you printer is a little older, it's a good idea to download the Windows 7 driver for the printer and click Have Disk.

That's it! Windows 7 will load the driver and you'll be able to print to the XP machine from Windows 7! The main things to remember are sharing the XP printer and downloading the latest driver for the printer on the Windows 7 machine.
If you have any problems sharing your printer on XP and printing from Windows 7, post a comment here and I will try to help! Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Fix Base System Device Not Found in Device Manager

I recently did a clean install of Windows 7 on my PC and downloaded all the drivers from the manufacture's website and thought everything was good to go. I happened to go into Device Manager and noticed that there was a problem with Base System Device.
Actually, there were several Base System Device driver errors, all with question marks. I was surprised because I thought I had downloaded the important drivers for the system such as the graphics card, touchpad, network adapter etc.

Unfortunately, I didn't seem to have downloaded all of the drivers. I eventually figured out what the problem was and didn't get the error in Device Manager anymore. In this article, I'll show you how to fix the driver issue in Windows.
Even though I installed most drivers, there were a couple that I didn't install thinking that they were not necessary. The Base System Device is usually related to one of three pieces of hardware: the chipset, bluetooth or the SD card reader.

Go to the manufacturer website and find the drivers for your specific model. Make sure to download the chipset drivers and install the latest version. Also, find the the drivers for bluetooth and SD card reader, if you have those on your system.
Also, you can figure out what driver is needed by finding the hardware IDs for any device that shows up as unknown or with a question mark in Device Manager. To do this, double-click on the Base System Device and choose Details. Then click on Hardware IDs from the drop down.

It should look something like this:

PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0405&SUBSYS_040515AD&REV_00PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0405&SUBSYS_040515ADPCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0405&CC_030000PCI\VEN_15AD&DEV_0405&CC_0300Now you can go to a site like PCIDatabase and type in the vendor ID and device ID. Where are those numbers? The part after VEN_ is the Vendor ID. In the first line above, it's 15AD. The device ID is the part after DEV_, which is 0405 in the above case.

Now if I type those IDs into the respective Vendor search and Device search boxes on the PCIDatabase website, I'll get the following results:

As you can see above, it's a NVIDIA graphics card running under VMware. Since I have installed Windows 7 in a virtual machine, VMware is the the vendor. The device is the graphics card installed on my host PC. Pretty neat huh? The next time you see a big question mark or Unknown Device in Device Manager, you can now figure out exactly what piece of hardware is missing a driver.
Now just go through all the Base System Device listed there and figure out exactly which driver you need to download. If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment. Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Fix Missing System Restore Points in Windows Vista and 7

If you have no restore points on your Windows Vista or 7 computer, then Windows may not be creating the restore points automatically. There are a number of different problems that can cause this.
One cause is a lack of sufficient free space on your hard drive to save the System Restore files. To remedy this problem, make sure you have at least 300 MB of free space on your hard drive (50 MB if your hard drive is smaller than 300 MB and you're running Windows 7).
Another cause of missing restore points is a problem with the task scheduler. Before you start troubleshooting this issue, click the Start button, then type Services.msc in the Start Search box. Check to make sure that Volume Shadow Services is running.

Run Task Scheduler. Click the Start button, then type Task Scheduler and press Enter. Expand theTask Scheduler Library, then select Microsoft, Windows and SystemRestore. In the top pane click the entry named SR. In the bottom pane, click the History tab to see any System Restore tasks, warnings and errors that have been recorded.

Right click the SR file, select Properties and then click the Triggers tab. Click a trigger, then click Edit. Change the trigger so that it creates a restore point automatically when you want it to be created. For example, you could edit the trigger set for 12:00 am daily to another time of day when the computer will be running.

Click the Conditions tab. Uncheck the check box beside Start the task only if the computer is idle for. Also uncheck the box beside Start the task only if the computer is on AC power.

Another way to fix problems with missing System Restore Points is by using the System File Checker. Click the Start button, then type cmd in the start search box. Right-click cmd.exe and click Run as Administrator. Type sfc/scannow at the command prompt. Allow the System File Checker to complete the scan and repair process.

You may receive a message that Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. If this occurs, type findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt at the command prompt and press Enter.
Navigate to your windows/system32 folder and open sfcdetails.txt in Notepad. Click Edit and Find, then type cannot repair member file to see the problems that the System File Checker was unable to repair.

You can also fix this problem by turning System Restore off, then turning it back on again. Learn how to disable and enable System Restore in Windows Vista and in Windows 7.

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

Windows 7 File Search Indexing Options

The built-in search feature in Windows 7 is significantly better than the horrible search options in Windows XP. Instead of installing a third-party program like Google Desktop to search for files on inside files on your computer, you can now do it with easily from Windows 7.
For example, let's say your a programmer or web developer and you want to be able to search your code files like .aspx, .html, .java, .php, etc. With Windows 7, you can configure the search indexer to not only index any file you want, but also to index the file contents.
By default, the Search Indexer in Windows 7 indexes the most common locations where your files would be stored, i.e. all libraries, everything in your User folder, and e-mail. If this is not enough, you can add or remove index location really easily.
That means you can tell Windows 7 to index and return results from files and folder on network drives or external hard drives. To get started , click on Start, then type in search into the search box.

This will bring up the Indexing Options dialog. At the top, you'll see the total number of items that have currently been indexed on your computer. Below that, you will see a list of all the locations that have been included for indexing.

To add a new location to the index, click on the Modify button. Any network drive or external hard drive will show up in the list of possible locations. You can check off any drive or folder that you would like to include in the index.

Depending on how many files and folders are in a location, it could take some time for search indexer to index everything. If you have noticed that certain files are not being indexed by search indexer even though they are included in the search locations, you may have to add the file type.
You can do this by clicking on the Advanced button on the main Indexing Options screen. Then click on the File Types tab.

If the file extension is not in the list, go ahead and add it at the bottom. Then select it and choose whether you want to index just the properties or the properties and the file contents. If you know the file contains only text, make sure to select the second radio button.
You can also click on Index Settings to modify some of the settings for the Search Indexer.

Here you can choose to index encrypted files and other options like treating similar words with diacritics as different words. If you are having problems with Windows search or something has become corrupted, you can rebuild the index by clicking the Rebuild button.
Lastly, you can completely move the search index to another disk or partition. If you have a faster hard drive that the OS is not running on, it might be a good idea to move it so that it performs faster.
Overall, the new search features in Windows 7 are greatly enhanced and let you customize most of the search options. Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

[h=2]Prevent Access to the Command Prompt in Windows 7[/h]
The Windows 7 Command Prompt is a robust solution for administrators to quickly and easily keep a system up and running smoothly. It's rare that the average user has a use for the Command Prompt.
Rather than invite temptation, many administrators prevent access to the Command Prompt to discourage users from troubleshooting computer errors and poking around where they can compromise the integrity of a system.
[h=4]The Windows 7 Command Prompt[/h]The Windows Command Prompt (sometimes called the DOS prompt) is a tool that allows administrators to create batch functions, troubleshoot computer errors, and invoke system-wide commands to make administration easier and more efficient. The average user has little use for this tool.
The Web is filled with advice on how to fix errors on a Windows 7-based PC. Some users take it upon themselves to troubleshoot and fix their own errors rather than waiting for a professional.
Some administrators make it easy on themselves and prevent user access to the Command Prompt instead of disallowing certain functions on a function-by-function basis. Preventing access to the Command Prompt is a quick way to ensure that users don't go poking around in areas they shouldn't be poking around in.
[h=4]Preventing Access to the Windows 7 Command Prompt[/h]Log in to Windows 7 using an account that has administrative privileges. Click on Start>Run to open theRun dialogue box. If you don't see the Run command on your Start menu, hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press the R key. In the Run box, type in gpedit.msc and click the OK button.

In the Local Group Policy Editor window's left pane, open the folder located at User Configuration>Administrative Templates>System. Make sure to click on the System folder rather than expanding it.

In the right hand pane, locate and double click on an entry labeled Prevent Access to the Command Prompt.

You should now be looking at the Prevent Access to the Command Prompt window. Like most installations of Windows 7, this setting should be set to the Not Configured option. Click on the Enabledoption and click the OK button.
Close all other open windows and you are done. You do not have to restart your computer for the setting to take effect. All users of the PC are now denied access to the Command Prompt.

Although the Command Prompt is a useful administrative tool, few casual users of Windows 7 have use for it. Rather than deny access to features of the operating system on a function-by-function basis, many administrators prefer to prevent access to the Command Prompt by using the Local Group Policy Editor.
Re-enabling access to the Command Prompt for all users is as simple as following the steps outlined above and this time disabling the feature. Note that enabling the feature means that users do not have access to the Command Prompt while disabling the feature restores access. This concept can be a bit confusing if you are not used to working with Windows 7′s Group Policy Editor.

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

99 Ways to Make Your Computer Blazingly Fast

Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, and Help Desk professional, I've written and learned about many ways to increase the performance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 98 to Windows Vista.
In this article, I hope to compile a complete list of all the different methods and tricks that I've used to get the last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest in hardware, you can still use some of these to make your PC run faster.
Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written about many performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I've throw in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order, just written in the order that I could think of them.
There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I've missed here, so feel free to chime in with comments! Enjoy!
1. Defragment your computer hard disk using free tools like SmartDefrag.
2. You should also defragment your Windows pagefile and registry.
3. Clean up hard drive disk space being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation and more. You can also use a tool like TreeSize to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive.
4. Load up Windows faster by using Startup Delayer, a free program that will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs.
5. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. Use the MSCONFIG utility to disable startup programs.
6. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause defragmentation. Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition. Read here on the rules for best paging file performance.
7. In Windows XP and Vista, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives.Turning off indexing is a simple way to increase performance.
8. If you don't care about all the fancy visual effects in Windows, you can turn them off by going to Performance Options.
9. You can optimize the Windows boot time using a free program called Bootvis from Microsoft.
10. Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the 10 best and free registry cleaners.
11. One of the main reasons why PC's are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs to remove spyware including Ad-Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.
12. If you have a deeper spyware infection that is very hard to remove, you can use HijackThis to remove spyware.
13. Remove unwanted pre-installed software (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier.
14. Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer.
15. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings using free programs
16. Disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista
17. Tweak your mouse settings so that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly while browsing and more. Read here to learn how to tweak your mouse.
18. Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry.
19. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space.
20. Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance.
21. Disable the XP boot logo to speed up Windows boot time.
22. Reduce the number of fonts that your computer has to load up on startup.
23. Force Windows to unload DLLs from memory to free up RAM.
24. Run DOS programs in separate memory spaces for better performance.
25. Turn off system restore only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third party software.
26. Move or change the location of your My Documents folder so that it is on a separate partition or hard drive.
27. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance.
28. Speed up boot time by disabling unused ports on your Windows machine.
29. Use Process Lasso to speed up your computer by allowing it to make sure that no one process can completely overtake the CPU.
30. Make icons appear faster while browsing in My Computer by disabling search for network files and printers.
31. Speed up browsing of pictures and videos in Windows Vista by disabling the Vista thumbnails cache.
32. Edit the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista and remove unnecessary items to increase display speed.
33. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.
34. Speed up your Internet browsing by using an external DNS server such as OpenDNS.
35. Improve Vista performance by using ReadyBoost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism.
36. If you have a slow Internet connection, you can browse web pages faster using a service called Finch, which converts it into simple text.
37. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely.
38. Also, check out my list of web accelerators, which are programs that try to prefetch and cache the sites you are going to visit.
39. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by tweaking the configuration settings and by installing an add-on called FasterFox.
40. Learn how to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware.
41. Use a program called TeraCopy to speed up file copying in Windows XP and Vista.
42. Disable automatic Last Access Timestamp to speed up Windows XP.
43. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the MenuShowDelay key in the registry.
44. Increase the FileSystem memory cache in Vista to utilize a system with a large amount of RAM.
45. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 512 MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.
46. Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications.
47. Make sure that you have selected "Adjust for best performance" on the Performance tab in System Properties.
48. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance.
49. Use Altiris software virtualization to install all of your programs into a virtual layer that does not affect the registry or system files.
50. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtual machines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openxVM.
51. Do not clear your paging file during shutdown unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing the paging file slows down shutdown.
52. If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you convert your FAT disk to the NTFS file system.
53. Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions.
54. Every once in a while run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup utility.
55. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.
56. Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel.
57. Use a program click memtest86 or Prime95 to check for bad memory on your PC.
58. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to update your BIOS.
59. Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup.
60. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.
61. Changing from Master/Slave to Cable Select on your hard drive configuration can significantly decrease your boot time.
62. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don't want to install virus protection, use some of the free online virus scanners.
63. Remove extra toolbars from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser.
64. Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you're not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.
65. If you have a SATA drive and you're running Windows Vista, you can speed up your PC by enabling the advanced write caching features.
66. Learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, or create your own keyboard shortcuts.
67. Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance.
68. If you are technically savvy and don't mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock your processor.
69. Speed up the Send To menu in Explorer by typing "sendto" in the Run dialog box and deleting unnecessary items.
70. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they "normally" help your computer work better.
71. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the ScanDisk orchkdsk utility.
72. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i.e. floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USB ports, IR ports, Firewire, etc, then go into your BIOS and disable them so that they do not use any power and do not have to be loaded during boot up.
73. If you have never used the Recent Documents feature in Windows, then disable it completely as a long list can affect PC performance.
74. One basic tweak that can help in performance is to disable error reporting in Windows XP
75. If you don't care about a pretty interface, you should use the Windows Classic theme under Display Properties.
76. Disable short filenames if you are using NTFS by running the following command: fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1. It will speed up the file creation process.
77. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It's best to create multiple folders and spread out the files between the folders.
78. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size on NTFS to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.
79. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging file to the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS.
80. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lots more.
81. Install a free or commercial anti-virus program to help protect against viruses, etc. Make sure to use an anti-virus program that does not hog up all of your computer resources.
82. Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid of remnants left behind by normal uninstalls.
83. If you know what you are doing, you can install several hard drives into your machine and set them up in RAID 0, RAID 5, or other RAID configurations.
84. If you are using USB 1.0 ports, upgrade to 2.0. If you have a Firewire port, try to use that instead of a USB port since Firewire is faster than USB right now.
85. Remove the drivers for all old devices that may be hidden in Device Manager that you no longer use.
86. A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista to be slow, go with Windows XP. Switching to Mac or Linux is also an option.
87. One of the easiest ways to speed up your PC is to simply reformat it. Of course, you want to backup your data, but it is the best way to get your computer back to peak performance.
88. Speed up Internet browsing in IE by increasing the number of max connections per server in the registry.
89. If you use uTorrent to download torrents, you can increase the download speeds by tweaking the settings.
90. If you have a desktop background, make sure it's a small and simple bitmap image rather than a fancy picture off the Internet. The best is to find a really small texture and to tile it.
91. For the Virtual Memory setting in Windows (right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory), make sure the MIN and MAX are both the same number.
92. If you search on Google a lot or Wikipedia, you can do it much faster on Vista by adding them to theVista Start Menu Instant Search box.
93. If you have a custom built computer or a PC that was previously used, make sure to check the BIOS for optimal settings such as enabled CPU caches, correctly set IDE/SATA data transfer modes, memory timings, etc. You can also enable Fast/Quick boot if you have that option.
94. If you have a SCSI drive, make sure the write cache is enabled. You can do so by opening the properties of the SCSI drive in Windows.
95. If you have a machine with an older network card, make sure to enable the onboard processor for the network card, which will offload tasks from the CPU.
96. If you are using Windows Vista, you can disable the Welcome Center splash screen that always pops up.
97. If you already have anti-spyware software installed, turn off Windows Defender protection.
98. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows and have 4GB of RAM or more, you can force Windows to see and use all of the RAM by enabling PAE.
99. Buy a new computer!!! Pretty easy eh?
I'm sure I have missed out on lots of performance tweaks, tips, hacks, etc, so feel free to post comments to add to the list! Enjoy!

 

[Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu]

How to Use Diskpart Utility in Windows

DiskPart is essentially the command-line equivalent to the Disk Management tool, and can be useful in certain situations (such as when Windows won't start). Be warned though, Diskpart is a powerful tool and unlike the Disk Management tool, it enables explicit control of partitions and volumes.
You'll need to run DiskPart in administrator mode; one way to do this is to open your Start menu, type diskpart in the Search box, and then when diskpart.exe appears in the search results, right-click it and select Run as administrator.
Once it's running, type help at any time to see a list of commands. To get started, here's how to extend a volume using DiskPart.
1. At the DISKPART> prompt, type: list disk to display all the drives on your computer. Each drive will have a disk number, starting with 0 (zero).

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The result above tells us that I have two physical disks installed.
2. Unless you have only one drive, you'll have to tell DiskPart which drive to use, like this: select disk nwhere n represents the number of the disk to modify.

3. Next, at the DISKPART> prompt, type: list volume to display all the volumes on the selected disk. Likewise, each volume has a volume number, starting with 0 (zero).

4. Regardless of the number of volumes on the drive, you'll have to tell DiskPart which one to use, like this: select volume 3
5. Now that you've selected the partition to expand, go ahead and issue this command: extend to extend the volume. The extend command takes no options and displays no warning message or confirmation. The process begins immediately after you press the Enter key, and should take only a few seconds. The extend command will cause the current in-focus volume to be extended into contiguous unallocated space.

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6. When it's done, type exit to quit the DiskPart utility.
DiskPart is a great command line utility for administrators and techies. You can format, resize, extend and manage your drives and volumes using this powerful tool.

Ben Carigtan shows you how it's done!
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[Nyasiro]

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