Hints, Tips & Advice

Just Another Reason For Switching To Linux

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:21:41 +0000

So I'm finally getting down to recording my podcast and I want to see if I can record Ventrilo with Audacity well I figured out how all fine and dandy, but then out of the blue I decide to turn up my volume and I notice the volume icon in my task bar is missing. So I go to investigate and what do I find? The drivers for my audio devices are missing, now somehow it uninstalled the right audio drivers. But somehow my audio is working just fine. I just can do stereo mixer or control the volume of anything. I'm running Microsoft updates now but I have one more problem... I don't want to restart my computer once the updates are done because I don't want to lose my download of the Linux OS.

Now before I go blaming this all on Microsoft, I did try to uninstall Microsoft components but none of them were sound card drivers they were just Windows Media Player and Outlook Express... from what I've read on other forums this seems to be a common problem when you go and uninstall programs on your Windows computer.

Ugh! I Googled it multiple times under different titles and still haven't found any detailed results that solve my problem. You guys got any solutions? Anything would help and be greatly appreciated.

Alright enough griping, I'm switching to Linux.

This will definitely be the last problem I have with Windows,
Connor

EDIT: I got it working again. Somehow it just decide to work and I have it all up and running. I've even found out how to export vent files as .wav files which can be opened by Audacity!

Internet Explorer 9 - New look!!

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 07:36:28 +0000

We now have a pretty good idea of what Internet Explorer 9 will look like, compliments of a slip from Microsoft's Russian subsidiary.

Judging by the screenshot it is apparent that IE9 will be offering a minimalistic user interface which leaves as much room as possible for web sites. It appears the new browser will allow people to pin chosen sites to the desktop and open them in their own windows without any obvious indication they are using IE at all. There will be certain sites that are 'recognized' or 'protected' and can be pinned to the taskbar and launched from their own icons.

Details on the Russian site also revealed that IE9 will borrow features from Windows 7, including the ability to 'tear off' browser tabs and have them "snap" to a particular part of the screen; in a similar way that documents and applications already do in Win7.

There is also to be a unified search and address bar, something already included in Google's Chrome. However, mindful of the criticism which has been leveled at Google; it's a fair bet that Microsoft will allow users to choose whether or not to turn on a 'suggested sites' feature via an option in the settings/preferences.

Microsoft plans to release a beta of their latest browser on September 15th.

Credits: Screenshot and details from CNet.com.

No CD drive in your netbook? Let Koala take care of it!

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 06:38:14 +0000

On more than one occasion I've had friends with netbook's ask if it's possible to reinstall the operating system, and because most of these small devices don't come equipped with a CD or DVD drive I often pass up the chance to help them out simply because it can be a time consuming and painful experience trying to get an operating system to work from a USB drive. However, the guys at Freemodding have come up with a handy little tool that takes the pain out of it all.

Koala takes an operating system on disc, like Vista or Windows 7, and transforms it onto a USB drive so its bootable and operable!. There are only 5 steps involved in the entire process and you should then have a working copy of your operating system on your USB storage device.

It goes without saying that your USB key should be big enough to hold the contents of your operating system, and 4Gb is the recommended size.

Here's the recommendations:

A Computer equipped with one of the following Windows Operating Systems: 2000 Professional or Server, XP, Vista, 7, Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2
.Net Framework 2.0 Runtime
An installation DVD of one of the following Windows Operating Systems: Vista, 7, Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2 (if you are a Technet, MSDN or MSDN-AA subscriber and you have the ISO file, you'll just need an ISO mounting software like SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive)
A USB thumb drive with a total capacity equal or greater than 4GB

Read more, and download Koala HERE.

PS - thanks to Jim for the tip-off

Undelete � Retrieve accidentally deleted data/files.

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:38:04 +0000

What happens when we delete data from the hard drive, accidentally or otherwise? Contrary to popular belief, the data is not deleted at all; when a user deletes a file (or empties the recycle bin) the contents of the file are not physically wiped from the disk, but rather the file is merely flagged as deleted. More accurately, the space it occupies is simply marked available for writing to. The original data remains intact until such times as the space it occupies is overwritten.

So, when it comes to recovering deleted data, timing is everything; the sooner (after the event) you attempt recovery the higher the chances of success. Rule number one after accidental deletion is: do not use the computer for anything until you have run your data recovery software.

Now I know we all generally regard this type of software as only necessary when it is actually needed, but it is far better to already have your data recovery software pre-installed. If the file you need to retrieve is on the main (‘C’) drive, installing one of these programs to that drive may well obliterate the very file you were attempting to recover in the first place. Remember, these types of recovery tools cannot undelete files that have already been overwritten.

File recovery software also works best when the deleted files are recovered to a different drive, which can be; a second internal hard disk, a separate hard disk partition, an external USB hard drive/flash drive, or a networked machine.

There are quite a few freeware data recovery options, but based on ease of use, user recommendations and reputation I suggest Recuva, available from Piriform (the makers of CCleaner), would be the best choice for most.

Recuva is available in installer and portable versions, and can also help recover data from digital cameras, MP3 players, and USB drives.

Recuva’s full feature set can be viewed HERE.

Download installer version HERE - Slim Version (no toolbar) HERE - Portable version HERE.

Slow Computer Problems

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 22:14:50 +0000

Can anyone suggest a program that can help speed up my computer? In the past few months its taking longer and longer to start up and I can barely open internet explorer in less than a couple of minutes - looking for anyones suggestions
ta
Tim

Can different DNS servers make your internet faster?

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:42:05 +0000

Having suffered my fair share of internet problems recently, I stumbled upon a few topics which spoke about DNS servers, the importance of such and how using different DNS servers could potentially speed up your internet and make it more reliable. Now for anyone who doesn't know what DNS is, simply put it is the system which translates IP addresses into domain names. Each domain name (or website) on the internet has an IP address, this could be something like 20.10.60.44, although if you wanted to reach that website it would be difficult to remember all those numbers. So, instead, the DNS (Domain Name System) allows you to type in the domain name (such as freewarebb.com) and it will find which IP address is associated with that domain name.

All this is done in the background and extremely quickly, or at least it should!. And this is where the argument for many starts, how fast can a DNS server process this info?. Well, some have argued that the fastest DNS servers are those closest to you, whereas others have argued that you're better using foreign DNS servers if you browse foreign websites most often. The problem is, how do you find the best DNS servers to use?

Well, I stumbled upon a nifty little program called namebench which claims to find the fastest DNS servers for your connection, so I decided to give it a whirl. The program takes a few minutes to make it's tests so do be patient while it runs and my results were as follows ...

206% faster is a pretty steep claim, so I dived into my broadband router configuration and changed the DNS settings as recommended, gave it a few minutes and started browsing as normal. Hmm, does seem faster, but is it noticeably faster?. Well, the answer has to be yes, browsing FreewareBB (located in the US) on my internet connection from the UK would actually appear to be a lot quicker!. I decided to head over the www.speedtest.net and check their results - previously I remember getting somewhere between 4Mb-5Mb connection between the UK and Dallas where our server is located, this time though we had a connection of nearly 7MB! Check the image below ...

It has to be said that there is obviously more to consider here than just DNS servers, your own ISP will ultimately dictate what speeds you get from the web but it most certainly can't do any harm to change your DNS settings based on the recommendations of 'namebench', if it means you have a faster connection 50% of the time then as far as I'm concerned that's got to be a winner!

New Ad-Aware Free - now with comprehensive malware protection!

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:09:16 +0000

Ad- Aware Free now includes comprehensive malware protection: Lavasoft�s latest Ad-Aware Free (v8.3) now comes complete with an anti-virus component:

Quote

We have taken the security product millions of people know and trust one step further to give all users the power to protect themselves online. By combining Lavasoft's pioneer anti-spyware technology with traditional anti-virus protection, Ad-Aware Free now features complete malware protection, that won't slow your computer down!
Ad-Aware Free Internet Security features real-time protection, advanced genotype detection technology, rootkit protection, automatic updates, and much more � to ensure that you have the power to protect yourself online.
New!
� Comprehensive Malware Protection
� Ad-Watch Live! Basic Real-time Protection
� Genotype Detection Technology
� Behavior-Based Heuristics Detection
� Rootkit Removal System
� The Neutralizer Malware Removal Tool
� Download Guard for Internet Explorer
� The Scheduler
� Easy to Install & Use
� Automatic Updates

Supports: Windows 7, Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit), Windows XP (32-bit), Windows 2000 Pro

Just a minor word of warning; Lavasoft are saying they have now included �traditional anti-virus protection� and that means this new version may well conflict with other traditional anti-virus products such as Avast, AntiVir and AVG. If anyone has any further information/advice on that matter, it would be appreciated if you could post the details here.

Windows 7 on HP

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:46:51 +0000

I recently brought a friends Win7 on HP back to pristine shape in order to make a backup DVD.

It took about 6 hours or more + 6 DVD's!
Is this normal for HP on Windows 7?
About 300G hard disk.

Did the same on another friend's Vista on Lenovo and it only took an hour with 2 DVD's.

Online Armor acquired by Emsisoft.

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:45:56 +0000

Online Armor has been acquired by Emsisoft, the authors of prominent anti-malware software.

The acquisition took place on 1st July but an email from the Online Armor developers assures users that Emsisoft will continue all normal support for the software:

Quote

Emsisoft are taking over the normal operations of Online Armor. If you have a support request, Emsisoft will answer it. If you have a licence key that needs to be reset - Emsisoft will arrange it. Time on your licences - will be honoured by Emsisoft. Licences that have not yet been activated today will still work in future.

The message, which was apparently distributed to all Online Armor users, also includes assurances that the free version will remain available and free. Hmmm….call me a cynic but, for me anyway, that is a wait and see situation. I would hate to see the free version disappear, it is an extremely good firewall....arguably the best around.

Video Tutorial - Using the new search on FreewareBB

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 16:33:53 +0000

We've had a few enquiries recently regarding the new search facility on FreewareBB, so for those people and everyone else here's a quick-start guide to using it