IE 7 Vs Firefox 2

Interface

1. Unlike IE 7, which has reorganized its toolbar, Firefox 2 changes only the look and feel of its buttons.
2. The new shiny-glass look [firefox] is much more sophisticated, as are the rounded tabs and the hairline borders around the address bar and the search engine box.
3. IE 7's new streamlined look resembles Vista's.
4. You can't miss the new user interface, with tabbed browsing, integrated searching, and newsfeed support...
5. The overall interface of IE has also been cleaned up and simplified...
   The tabs don't get their own row, however, so they can start to appear somewhat squished if you have many open at once. -No victory in the Hot or Not competition.
   

Tabbed Browsing

1. Perhaps the biggest change within IE 7, aside from the overall interface redesign, is tabbed browsing.
2. The tabs, which can be reordered, can also be previewed on a page with clickable thumbnail displays of each open tab.
3. .Microsoft's implementation is OK, but is curiously inconsistent.
4. The page preview available within IE 7, called Quick Tabs, requires an extra mouse click, which is an annoyance for the ergonomically minded.
   
5. ...lets you view, on one page, thumbnails of all the pages you have open in tabs.
6. It's very nice, but reminiscent of an Apple feature called Expos .
7. .while Mozilla is touting a revamped tabs interface, it doesn't seem much improved to me.
8. New in Firefox 2 is session restore; if Windows crashes and you have several tabs open in Firefox at the time, you can now relaunch Firefox with all the tabs intact...
9. Firefox 2's tab updates are generally a step ahead of IE's. For example, you can configure Firefox to always save your last session for future use; with IE 7 you have to click a box every time.- Sorry guys, tabs are tabs.
   

RSS

1. RSS isn't treated lightly within IE7; in fact, Microsoft built an entire RSS reader and bundled it in with the browser.
2. However, you have no way to quickly preview the feed's contents without opening the feed's rendered page in IE, which somewhat defeats the purpose.
3. Firefox 2 makes the raw [RSS] feed understandable, and offers a range of new subscription options.
4. Possibly the coolest new feature is Live Titles, formerly Microsummaries, which allows Web sites to stream updated data to your bookmarks.
   
5. Think of Live Titles as RSS-like feeds for your otherwise static bookmarks.
6. Web sites must be specifically enabled for this feature for Firefox 2.0, so it's not widely useful yet.- Still a good idea.
   

Add-ons

1. Unfortunately extensions designed for Firefox 1.5 will probably break within Firefox 2.
2. About 80% of the extensions I use are supported.
3. In my Firefox setup, Firefox 2.0 obviated the need for five extensions and another two customizations that I apply to all Firefox 1.x installations.
4. Another area where IE7 has serious shortcomings is with add-ons that give extra features to the browser.
5. .most of the add-ons you'll find aren't free.
6. You can enable, disable, and delete add-ons in IE's manager, but it's not very user-friendly...
7. ...many of these so-called add-ons are not designed to work directly inside IE and integrate with the browser...- Microsoft will never let people develop for IE as freely as they can Firefox.
   

Security

1. Security enhancements within Firefox 2 continue. New is a dialog box informing you of cross-domain scripting, a tactic used by criminal hackers to link nonrelated sites to sites you think may be legit.
2. Firefox's default protection stops at comparing sites against a known blacklist of phishing sites, while IE 7 includes site analysis that will try to warn you about a suspicious site even if it's not yet on a blacklist.
3. ...we found that IE 7 consistently failed to catch phishing sites less than 1 hour old, although IE 7 caught all phishing sites known for at least 1 hour or more...
4. You also get a new "Fix Settings for Me" feature that warns you if you reset security settings to something Microsoft deems unsafe.
5. Overall, the new IE has many more security fixes than the revised Firefox. But such fixes were necessary to address IE 6's many holes...
6. With IE7, the default security level has been raised from medium, which is the IE6 default, to medium-high. Not only that, but there are now no lower security levels than medium...
7. But the most important new security feature in IE 7 -- something called Protected Mode, which stops Web sites from changing your computer's important files or settings -- will work only in the new Vista version of Windows.- Tacky.
   

Performance

1. IE 7 still uses essentially the IE 4 Web engine. So in terms of page performance, Mozilla Firefox, which updated its Web engine with Firefox 1.5, remains the much faster browser.
2. In my informal tests immediately after installing and launching IE 7, the browser with three open tabs used 80MB of memory; under similar conditions and with the same three tabs, Firefox used 58MB. Otherwise, the performance of the two browsers appeared similar.

Random Tidbits

1. Firefox 2 also gives you the ability to correct your spelling mistakes online, just like using a word processor.Once you have access to inline spell-checking, you won't want to surf the Web without it.
2. Speaking of accessibility features, IE 7 includes zoom technology and the new Clear-type page technology, which Microsoft claims renders page fonts as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.
3. Even if you zoom to the maximum level, 400 percent, we found that the Clear-text technology within IE 7 remains quite clear with fonts.- Zoom feature is a nice innovation from Microsoft.
   

Conclusion

1. The new Internet Explorer is a solid upgrade, but it's disappointing that after five years, the best Microsoft could do was to mostly catch up to smaller competitors.
2. Of the two rivals, Firefox remains the better application.

FASTER SHUTDOWN IN WINDOWS

ALL THE TRICKS RELATED TO FASTER SHUTDOWN IN WINDOWS XP AND OTHER WINDOWS ARE HERE.

• Don't have paging file cleared by XP while shutdown

Xp clears the paging file (associated with virtual memory) every time before shutdown for security purpose.If we stop this thing then xp will shutdown faster.To do this (stop clearing paging file) open registry editor by typing regedit in run command in start menu and visit the entry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" and see/double click the entry ClearPageFileAtShutdown and setr the value to 0. Exit registry editor and restart to see effects.

• Turn off unnecessary services

Start->Run type services.msc which will open Services Computer Management Console showing services running in windows xp. Some services start manually and some automatically at start-up but they run in hidden mode in background. You can choose un-necessary services not to run on start-up and set it to run if started manually by user. To do that right click on the service (the service you want to run manually rather than automatically at startup) and click properties option, then a window will open.There under the label "startup type" select Manual (here service will run if user starts it manually) (there's an option to disable but don't do that if u mess with some thing-it'll go out of order).Press ok and at next boot it'll have effect. Again if you want to stop that services at the same instant rightclick on it and click stop. Services start at startup but take time to close during shutdown.

• Wait to kill running applications with out user interaction

When during shutdown u regularly are given an error dialog "closing xyz application" endnow or cancel and many other options then to remove it run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Look for the String value WaitToKillAppTimeout. Edit the value by entering the amount of time you want XP to wait before displaying the dialog box, in milliseconds. The default is 20000, or 20 seconds. If you want XP to wait 25 seconds, enter the value of 25000. Exit the Registry and reboot.

BOOST YOUR HARD DISK SPEED

To speed up your hard disk speed we need to configure a special buffer in the computer's memory in order to enable it to better deal with interrupts made from the disk.This tip is only recommended if you have 256MB RAM or higher.Run SYSEDIT.EXE from the Run command.Expand the system.ini file window.Scroll down almost to the end of the file till you find a line called [386enh].Press Enter to make one blank line, and in that line typeIrq14=4096(Note: IT'SCASE SENSITIVE).Click on the File menu, then choose Save.Close SYSEDIT and reboot your computer.
Speed improvement will be noticed after the computer reboots.Find the improvent yourselves,it'll not harm system and works well for IDE and SCSI drives.This is only for windows not for other os.It will look loke this
; for 16-bit app support
[drivers]
wave=mmdrv.dll
timer=timer.drv
[mci]
[driver32]
[386enh]
Irq14=4096
IRQ21
woafont=dosapp.FON
EGA80WOA.FON=EGA80WOA.FON
EGA40WOA.FON=EGA40WOA.FON
CGA80WOA.FON=CGA80WOA.FON
CGA40WOA.FON=CGA40WOA.FON

REMOVE SHARED DOCUMENTS FROM MY COMPUTER

THIS TIP WILL REMOVE SHARED DOCUMENTS FROM MY COMPUTER IN WINDOWS XP AND OTHER WINDOWS OS.
Open registry editor by going to Start then Run and entering regedit. Navigate to key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders].You must see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this key, you have effectively removed the my shared documents folder.

FASTER STARTMENU IN WINDOWS XP

The start menu in windows xp applies a lot of animation techniques like delays and all other that makes startmenu to show-up slowly.To speed up the Start Menu we do a registry editing to see a speedier startmenu.
1. Start the Registry editor program by typing regedit in Startmenu->Run and pressing ok there.2. Navigate to the registry entry [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}]4. Right Click on the right panel.5. Click NEW -> String Value.6. Name it MenuShowDelay, all one word (case sensitive).7. Select a value from 1-10, 1 being the fastest(delay is minimised TO 1).8. Exit REGISTRY EDITOR.9. Restart Windows.(perhaps not required-as in my case)

RENAMING ALL FILES-FOLDERS IN A DIRECORY AT A TIME

Without using any software it's easy to rename all files in a folder and get them in a sequence. Following trick helps
Select all the files in a folder (by selecting a file and pressing Ctrl+A), then right click on any file and select Rename. And rename the file (the file on which u did right click) by pressing Alt+255. then press enter. All other files-folder selected will be automatically renamed to (2), (3), ..and so on. But u'll see that the file which u selected for rename has no visible name-rename it to 1 we also get an extra set of parenthesis in this case not exactly (2) instead of 2 as new name. Also if instead of Alt+255 we rename to satya (any name) all files will be named like satya,satya(1),satya(2)...so on.Alt+255 is a way to rename a folder to no name.select a folder and press F2 to rename, then press backspace to clear old name and then press Alt+255 (holding one Alt key press 2 then 5 then 5) then press enter to have that folder with blank name.THIS TRICK WILL BE HELPFULL IF U NEED TO INDEX YOUR FILES OR FOLDER IN A DIRECTORY TO UPLOAD TO WEB OR FOR BETTER SEARCH INDEXING.

Introduction to How can a Windows virus end up on an iPod?

It seems that iPod has run into a bit of a snag regarding its Windows support, considered by many in the industry to be crucial to the iPod's near-complete dominance in the portable media player market. One might think that because iPods are Apple devices, they're not susceptible to the viruses that plague Microsoft's Windows operating system. Apparently, not so. If you bought an iPod video between September 12, 2006 and October 18, 2006, there is, according to Apple, a 1 percent chance it contains a worm called RavMonE.exe. The worm is of the sort that opens a "back door" on a PC so that a remote user can start controlling the infected computer. The iPod shuffles and iPod nanos shipped after September 12 are not infected with the malware; the worm does nothing to harm the iPod device itself; and people who only connect the iPod video to a Mac running Mac OS X will never activate the worm. The malware is in the Windows-support programs that live on the iPod.
The worm jumps into action when you connect an infected iPod video to a machine running Windows that is set to automatically run iPod applications when it detects a connected iPod. So the easiest way to make sure your PC doesn't get infected is simply to disable the autorun/autoplay capabilities in your iTunes interface. That way, you'll be prompted to approve each application the iPod software wants to run. If your computer asks you to run something called RavMonE.exe, also known as Win32.RJump.a, Troj/Bdoor-DIJ, WORM_SIWEOL.B, Backdoor.Rajump and numerous other names, just say no. In fact, it's probably best to put e-mail rules into effect and just say no to running anything that looks unfamiliar.
So how does this type of thing happen? Apple Vice President Greg Joswiak explains in a CIO Tech Informer article:
As you’re probably aware, the majority of iPod sales are made to Windows users, so we have some Windows terminals on our production line. We discovered that one of these computers was propagating this virus. The machine that was doing the infecting was apparently the last Windows machine on that particular production line -- the quality-control computer. If you do end up connecting an infected iPod to your PC, your anti-virus software should be able to detect it, so hopefully you won't get infected. If you do get infected, running a standard virus-detection-and-removal program should be able to clean your machine. Splotlighting News recommends that all Windows users who have connected a potentially infected iPod to their machine run one of these:
Microsoft Live OneCare Safety Scanner Microsoft Live OneCare McAfee Symantec Norton Anti-Virus Apple says that all iPods shipped as of October 18, 2006, are free of malware.

Introduction to How Spyware Works

Has your computer ever become so slow that you can fix yourself a snack in the time it takes your word processor to open? Spyware may be to blame.
Spyware has been known to masquerade as a prize-notification pop-up window.

Spyware is a category of computer programs that attach themselves to your operating system in nefarious ways. They can suck the life out of your computer's processing power. They are designed to track your Internet habits, nag you with unwanted sales offers or generate traffic for their host Web site. According to recent estimates, more than two-thirds of all personal computers are infected with some kind of spyware [ref]. But before you chuck your computer out the window and move to a desert island, you might want to read on. In this article we'll explain how spyware gets on your computer, what it does there and how to get rid of it.

Other "Ware"
Malware - a general term for any program that makes changes (does malicious or "bad" things) without your express permission
Adware - programs designed specifically to deliver unrequested advertising
Stealware - specific spyware designed to capture clicks or Web-site referral credits
Browser hijacker - a malicious program that becomes deeply embedded in your browser's code and core functionality.

Some people mistake spyware for a computer virus. A computer virus is a piece of code designed to replicate itself as many times as possible, spreading from one host computer to any other computers connected to it. It usually has a payload that may damage your personal files or even your operating system.
Spyware, on the other hand, is generally not designed to damage your computer. Spyware is broadly defined as any program that gets into your computer without permission and hides in the background while it makes unwanted changes to your user experience. The damage it does is more a by-product of its main mission, which is to serve you targeted advertisements or make your browser display certain sites or search results.
At present, most spyware targets only the Windows operating system. Some of the more notorious spyware companies include Gator, Bonzi Buddy, 180 Solutions, DirectRevenue, Cydoor, CoolWebSearch, Xupiter, XXXDial and Euniverse.
Spyware usually gets onto your machine because of something you do, like clicking a button on a pop-up window, installing a software package or agreeing to add functionality to your Web browser. These applications often use trickery to get you to install them, from fake system alert messages to buttons that say "cancel" when they really do the opposite.
Here are some of the general ways in which Spyware finds its way into your computer:

Piggybacked software installation - Some applications -- particularly peer-to-peer file-sharing clients -- will install spyware as a part of their standard install. If you don't read the installation list closely, you might not notice that you're getting more than the file-sharing application you want. This is especially true of the "free" versions that are advertised as an alternative to software you have to buy. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

While it officially claims otherwise, Kazaa has been known to include spyware in its download package.

Drive-by download - This is when a Web site or pop-up window automatically tries to download and install spyware on your machine. The only warning you might get would be your browser's standard message telling you the name of the software and asking if it's okay to install it.

Internet Explorer security warning

If your security settings are set low enough, you won't even get the warning.
Browser add-ons - These are pieces of software that add enhancements to your Web browser, like a toolbar, animated pal or additional search box. Sometimes, these really do what they say they do but also include elements of spyware as part of the deal. Or sometimes they are nothing more than thinly veiled spyware themselves. Particularly nasty add-ons are considered browser hijackers -- these embed themselves deeply in your machine and take quite a bit of work to get rid of.

Bonzi Buddy is an "add-on" application that includes spyware in its package.

Masquerading as anti-spyware - This is one of the cruelest tricks in the book. This type of software convinces you that it's a tool to detect and remove spyware.

When you run the tool, it tells you your computer is clean while it installs additional spyware of its own.

Snitches and Sneaks There are computer programs that truly "spy" on you. There are applications designed to silently sit on your desktop and intercept personal information like usernames and passwords. These programs include Bugdrop, Back Orifice and VX2. These are more like viruses or hacker tools than spyware.

Spyware can do any number of things once it is installed on your computer.
At a minimum, most spyware runs as an application in the background as soon as you start your computer up, hogging RAM and processor power. It can generate endless pop-up ads that make your Web browser so slow it becomes unusable. It can reset your browser's home page to display an ad every time you open it. Some spyware redirects your Web searches, controlling the results you see and making your search engine practically useless. It can also modify the DLLs (dynamically linked libraries) your computer uses to connect to the Internet, causing connectivity failures that are hard to diagnose.
Certain types of spyware can modify your Internet settings so that if you connect through dial-up service, your modem dials out to expensive, pay telephone numbers. Like a bad guest, some spyware changes your firewall settings, inviting in more unwanted pieces of software. There are even some forms that are smart enough to know when you try to remove them in the Windows registry and intercept your attempts to do so.
The point of all this from the spyware makers' perspective is not always clear. One reason it's used is to pad advertisers' Web traffic statistics. If they can force your computer to show you tons of pop-up ads and fake search results, they can claim credit for displaying that ad to you over and over again. And each time you click the ad by accident, they can count that as someone expressing interest in the advertised product.
Another use of spyware is to steal affiliate credits. Major shopping sites like Amazon.com and Ebay.com offer credit to a Web site that successfully directs traffic to their item pages. Certain spyware applications capture your requests to view sites like Amazon and Ebay and then take the credit for sending you there.
Use a pop-up blocker.Many of the current browsers, including Internet Explorer 6.0 and Mozilla Firefox 1.0, have the ability to block all Web sites from serving you pop-up windows. This function can be configured to be on all of the time or to alert you each time a site wants to pop up a new window. It can also tell you where the pop-up is coming from and selectively allow windows from trusted sources.
Disable Active-X.Most browsers have security settings in their preferences which allow you to specify which actions Web sites are allowed to take on your machine. Since many spyware applications take advantage of a special code in Windows called Active-X, it's not a bad idea to simply disable Active-X on your browser. Note that if you do this, you will also disallow the legitimate uses for Active-X, which may interfere with the functionality of some Web sites.
Be suspicious of installing new software.In general, it pays to be suspicious when a site asks to install something new on your computer. If it's not a plug-in you recognize, like Flash, QuickTime or the latest Java engine, the safest plan of action is to reject the installation of new components unless you have some specific reason to trust them. Today's Web sites are sophisticated enough that the vast majority of functionality happens inside your browser, requiring only a bare minimum of standard plug-ins. Besides, it never hurts to reject the installation first and see if you can get on without it. A trustworthy site will always give you the opportunity to go back and download a needed component later.
Use the "X" to close pop-up windows.Get to know what your computer's system messages look like so that you can spot a fake. It's usually pretty easy to tell the difference once you get to know the standard look of your system alerts. Stay away from the "No thanks" buttons if you can help it, and instead close the window with the default "X" at the corner of the toolbar. For an even more reliable option, use the keystroke combination for "close window" built into your software. You can look in your browser's "File" menu to find it.

mini printer

Check out this little picture printer from Fujifilm. The Fujifilm Pivi MP-300 is a palm-sized printer that can print out out playing-card-sized pictures in less than two minutes. Pictures get to the printer using a PictBridge that connects via USB or infrared. It weighs about half a pound and sells for about $127.

concept phone for NOKIA

Check out this concept phone from Nokia called the Aeon. Digital Tech News has a few other pics of the Aeon on their site. This phone apparently comes with a full surface LCD screen that is really cool! It looks perfect for photo and video viewing, although who knows how durable it would be. No word on if and when this will come to market but it's an interesting peak into the future of cell phones.

VISTA gr8 but needs too much

Windows Vista will have a major impact on the personal computing experience of millions of users worldwide during the coming years, but that doesn't mean Microsoft's latest operating system is a killer product, nor something you necessarily need or want.
Wired News recently obtained a copy of the final RTM, or Release to Manufacturing, build of Windows Vista Ultimate from Microsoft. This edition of the operating system is the most powerful and advanced of the four editions Microsoft will make widely available Jan. 30, 2007.
Other editions of Windows Vista are made for home users (Windows Vista Home Basic, $200, $100 upgrade), users who want a better entertainment experience (Windows Vista Home Premium, $240, $160 upgrade) and business users (Windows Vista Business $300, $200 upgrade). Windows Vista Ultimate ($400, $260 upgrade) is made for the hard-core gamer, the media collector and anyone wishing to squeeze the best performance out of drool-worthy high-end machines.
Visual splendor is Vista Ultimate's greatest selling point -- the new operating system does offer a graphically intensive interface that differs greatly from that of Windows XP. Also, Vista dumbs everything down for you, streamlining the Wild West of complex OS software into a useful product. This makes tasks ranging from networking to setting parental controls a lot easier.
However, I encountered several bumps in the road during testing that show Vista is not ready for everyday use by millions of people just yet -- no matter how pretty it looks.
Installing Vista
Vista developers managed to adhere to Microsoft's tradition of making the operating system much easier to set up than the previous generation of Windows. Two decades ago, installing DOS was a delicate and risky process that often required professional help.
Incremental improvements were made over the years, and Windows XP was about as easy to install as a video game. I found that Vista coddles you even more than Windows XP did during installation.
For our tests, I used two different machines: an HP Compaq nc8430 laptop and an Advanced Micro Devices Athlon 64 PC I had built. I installed 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista Ultimate on two separate hard drive partitions on the Athlon desktop, and the 32-bit version on the laptop. Every installation took less than an hour to complete.
System Performance Rating ToolVista scans your computer when you install it and applies a performance rating to your hardware. Microsoft calls this rating the Windows Experience Index. The software then adjusts its settings to best match your hardware's score.
I was humbled to learn that my AMD Athlon 64 3500+ PC with an Nvidia 6800 Ultra graphics card -- albeit with the minimum 512 MB of DRAM required just to run Vista -- merited only a 2.9 rating out of a possible 5.9. Why Microsoft chose 5.9 for the high end we may never know, but the index will be adjusted to include higher numbers (6, 7 and upward) as newer and faster hardware becomes available.
In most cases, a stand-alone graphics card is required in almost all PCs to load what Microsoft calls the "Windows Aero" visual experience, replete with Vista's enhanced translucent folders and 3-D images (However, PCs equipped with Intel's 965G Express chipset can run in Aero mode without a discrete graphics processor). Assessed by itself, the Nvidia 6800 Ultra graphics card, which can sufficiently run high-powered games like Oblivion, rated a 5.3.1
The system performance rating is designed to give you a high-level indication of how well Vista will perform on your current hardware. This may explain in part why vendors are so excited about the new operating system. Users who want to have what Microsoft calls the "ultimate Vista experience" will have to spend a lot of money upgrading to high-end hardware components.
At the same time, whether or not you have the most beautiful graphics interface does not have much bearing on your applications. Whether your Windows Experience is rated at 3.1 or 5.1, you will probably notice little if any difference in performance while drafting a spreadsheet, using a word processor, browsing the web or even watching a DVD.
How Different Is It?The first thing you notice about Vista when you load it up is its pretty graphics, which are still not any more beautiful than those of my equally robust (and much less expensive) SuSE Linux operating system.
However, other than the new graphics, Vista's overall look and feel are not drastically different compared to XP.
Vista has media, networking and other features that XP does not, but I have yet to find a single feature not already available with Linux distributions or freeware.
The e-mail software, called Windows Mail, is fundamentally the same compared to Outlook Express. Navigating the "Start" and "All Programs" menus is essentially the same.
Adding PeripheralsWhen I tried to plug in my peripherals, my troubles with Vista began. Since I was missing a 5.1 sound driver for my speakers, an audio device error screen appeared when I connected speakers to the PC. I had to plug in a set of headphones in place of my speakers to get the sound to work.
Also, Vista didn't recognize my Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 5150 printer when it ran the initial peripheral-compatibility check. When I tried to load the printer driver software anyway, it would not install. A Google search did not reveal any readily available drivers, so I gave up. I ran into the same problem when I tried to install my Logitech webcam -- the driver wouldn't load.
While the Vista version I tested is exactly what consumers will receive in January 2007, compatible drivers for peripherals might become more plentiful as the launch date approaches.
Watching a DVDWindows Vista Ultimate comes bundled with Windows Media Center, a package that allows you to watch and record TV (provided you have the required TV tuner hardware), burn and watch DVDs, and play video or music files. Nevertheless, many commercial software packages -- as well as freeware -- that do the same have long been available for Windows XP.
I was able to immediately watch DVDs on the Athlon machine using Vista's preloaded Windows Media Center. However, when I downloaded and installed codecs and decoders from HP's website to watch DVDs on the test laptop, my installation of InterVideo WinDVD software did not work.
Security and PrivilegesSecurity has been one of Microsoft's key talking points when hyping Vista. Given the vulnerabilities that constantly emerge within Windows XP, who can blame the company? Wired News did not seek to exploit or discover any Vista security flaws. However, Vista does make some simple security features available that you would previously have had to install separately under Windows XP.
After setting up a user with administrator privileges, you can configure Vista to require the administrator to key in a password when new software is installed. This comes in handy when someone is logged in as another user and is not permitted to download potentially damaging software without your permission (such as the smiley faces that my 11-year-old daughter once installed to pop up in every outgoing e-mail message in Windows XP's Outlook Express).
Having to key in your admin password to install software might represent an aggravation for some, but given how quickly a Windows XP machine can amass 50 or more programs -- often mixed with malware that constantly runs in the background while you are caught unaware -- I welcomed this feature.
Parental ControlsI turned on Vista's parental controls and selected them for my daughter's account. Access to certain websites -- as well as games with a mature rating -- could be blocked. When I tested this feature using my daughter's account, I found that English-language porn sites could not be accessed.
One flaw I found is that the website-blocking feature is not worth much in a multilingual home or office setting. Good ol' American porn sites were blocked, but I had carte blanche access to the raunchiest of raunchy French and Spanish sites. I was also able to use Google to search for vulgarities in those languages.
I found this particularly aggravating since I live and work in France. Microsoft is able to detect my France-based IP address, and I know this because it imposes French-language web pages on me when I try to access its help sites. If Microsoft can figure out how to switch over to a French site based on my IP address, why can't it make its website-blocking feature multilingual?
Admin privileges also allow you to track the websites your kids visit and e-mails they send, among other user activities. Whether you choose to do this or not is up to you.
File SharingEnabling file sharing between PCs under Vista is a lot easier when compared to the often painstaking process under XP. Still, file sharing remains quirky in Vista.
For example, Vista blocks you from accessing the "Set Up File Sharing" option in the "Network and Sharing Center" menu unless you are first connected to a LAN. Only after connecting the two Vista test PCs to my LAN's router was I able to enable what Microsoft calls "Sharing and Discovery." Next, I was prompted to toggle File Sharing, Public Folder sharing and other choices on or off. After inadvertently switching all of the choices to "on" -- enabling "Password Protect Sharing" in the process -- I was blocked from accessing a shared folder from my other Vista PC when my login name was not recognized.
Sharing folders and files between a PC running Windows Vista and one running Windows XP was a royal pain. After finagling with the shared folder settings and the internet protocol, or TCP/IP, settings to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP through Local Area Connection properties, then disabling the Windows firewall, I managed to allow a Windows XP computer to access the Vista PC's shared file folders. However, when I tried to browse shared folders on the XP machine from the Vista machine, my user name and password were rejected even after I enabled file sharing on the XP machine.
Power ConsumptionVista has garnered some initial criticism because of the ample amount of computing power it devotes to its graphics interface. At least in theory, more computing power requires more energy, which in turn eats up a notebook's battery life.
Surprisingly, the nc8430 laptop's battery lasted longer with Vista running than it did with XP running. And that was without tweaking Vista's power settings to extend the battery life.
During my test, I ran the laptop at full load -- complete with a sample picture menu, 10 Internet Explorer windows open and a DVD of Endless Summer playing. The battery lasted 3 hours and 5 minutes with Vista, compared to just 2 hours and 35 minutes with Windows XP. Both XP and Vista became glitchy under the load with only 512 MB of memory, but the applications managed to run.
The VerdictVista's power consumption superlatives aside, I would not recommend going out and buying Vista off the shelf or pre-installed on a PC when it becomes available. Users will likely suffer many headaches with missing peripheral drivers and a lack of backward compatibility with legacy software, and those headaches will not make Vista worth its hefty price tag.
If possible, wait a year or more after Vista's launch to invest in the operating system. At least by then, numerous updates, hardware drivers and service packs will likely have been released.
One potential treat I hope to review in the near future is how game developers will take advantage of Microsoft's DirectX 10 API, which Vista offers. Unfortunately, DirectX 10 games and capable graphics cards were not yet available when we ran our tests.

Apple to Launch iPhone in 2007 - Report

Apple will launch iPhone first half of 2007 and will sell for $599 and $649 according to a report by Morgan Stanley analyst Rebecca Runkle. Runkle wrote in an invesor report that Apple will launch its iPhone in the first half of 2007.
With all of the rumors floating around about the iPhone this report is perhaps the most significant confirmation of an iPhone to date. Runkle's report also states the iPhone will cost $599 for a 4GB model and $649 for a 8GB model. She describes the handset as wider than the iPod Nano and narrowerthan the 5GB iPod. It will also have a large 3.5-inch display and come in several colors.

Let Your Car Park Itself

How often have you wondered, "Can my car fit into that parking space?" The answer usually depends upon your ability to estimate the size of the prospective space in relation to the length of the vehicle—as well as your skill at parallel parking. But now, Lexus owners have another option. They can push a button on the navigation screen and let the car park itself.
The Lexus LS 460 L's Intuitive Parking Assist/ Advanced Parking Guidance System (APGS) option package not only represents a milestone in design but also in the evolution of automated cars. Developed jointly by Lexus' parent Toyota Motor Corp. and Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd., the APGS combines ultrasonic sensors developed by Denso Corporation with Aisin's camera-based image recognition technology .Toyota first launched the Intelligent Parking Assist system in 2003 on Prius hybrid models in Japan. That system relied on video images from a rear-mounted camera. Two years later, according to Aisin, the system was enhanced to recognize parking space lines based on color contrast. The current system, targeting the North American market, adds ultrasonic sensors—six in the front and four in the rear—to detect the position of parked vehicles.
Drivers who want to parallel park position the vehicle parallel to and ahead of the desired space. Then, they put the car in reverse to activate the backup camera and select the parallel park icon on the navigation screen. The system measures the physical dimensions of the empty parking space and locks in on its target. The space must be at least six feet longer than the vehicle for the assisted parking feature to work. Drivers press "okay," depress the brake pedal, and take their hands off the steering wheel.
Employing the backup camera, ultrasonic sensors, and electric motors in the vehicle's power steering system, the APGS maneuvers the car into the space automatically. Drivers can stop the automatic maneuver by stepping on the brake or gas pedal or by grasping the wheel. According to Lexus, the APGS is equally adept at backing into vacant parking spaces.
WHAT'S NEXT Automatic parking will likely become a common feature, at least on high-end vehicles. Honda recently announced a park assist system for the Life, a multipurpose vehicle (MPV) marketed in Japan. Honda has no current plans to bring the system to the U.S., though. BMW is testing a system in Europe that is similar to the APGS. And, Paris-based Valeo said its ultrasonic Park4U system will debut next year on the Volkswagen Touran, a compact MPV marketed in Europe.
Valeo says its technology "automatically parks a car in 15 seconds" after scanning both sides of the street for potential parking spots based on the car's length. Valeo engineers designed both the electronic control unit and the 51.2-kHz ultrasonic sensors in the Park4U system, which includes four sensors in the rear bumper, four in the front bumper, and two in the front wings.
The sensors are fifth-generation devices with a 3-mm elongated membrane and a thicker decoupling ring than in earlier versions. They have a 3-dB beam angle with a 70° horizontal/40° vertical view and a 104-dB sound pressure level.
Semiconductor vendors are targeting park assist applications. Freescale Semiconductor's HC9S08D line of microcontrollers is based on a 25-µm 8-bit core, and they operate at up to 20 MHz. Texas Instruments counts parking (rear park assist cameras in particular) as a potential application for its 32-bit TMS470 MCU. Xilinx offers its Spartan-3 and Virtex-4 FX-12 FPGAs for park/reverse assist.
Furthermore, Delphi holds a 2003 patent (#6925370) on an automotive backup aid with parking assist. But this system aids drivers who park the old-fashioned way, helping them avoid the "bang into the car behind" and "bump the car in front" method of determining whether or not the space is sufficient.

Use Your PlayStation 3 To Cure Alzheimer's Disease

That PlayStation 3 you may find under the tree this holiday season is more than the hottest gaming console around; it's also a powerful tool in fighting protein-based diseases. Using distributed computing technology, Sony has teamed up with Stanford University's Folding@home project to take a quantum leap forward in simulation processing power.
Proteins, the building blocks of the human body, must take shape or "fold" before they can carry out their functions. When they don't fold correctly, scientists believe, they can lead to disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, and certain forms of cancer. But a single computer would need 30 years to simulate a single fold.
Founded in October 2000, the Folding@home project links about 1.8 million CPUs around the world to run these simulations. So far, it has unlocked the processes behind several small, fast-folding proteins. The Cell processor in the PlayStation 3 will help the cause immensely, as researchers expect performance akin to 100 GFLOPS per computer.
If 10,000 PlayStation 3 consoles join the program, the researchers say, the program will be able to achieve performance on the petaflop scale. Considering the console's popularity, this shouldn't be a difficult figure to achieve. Owners simply install and enable the Cure@PLAYSTATION3 client, which connects to the Folding@home network when the console is on but not being used.
In addition to its processing power, the PlayStation 3 offers another advantage. Its advanced user interface uses the console's RSX graphics engine to visualize the simulation process.
Sony and Stanford are now testing and further optimizing the Cure@PLAYSTATION3 client. Meanwhile, researchers believe the processes behind protein folding could be applied to the design of protein-sized nanomachines with their own biomedical applications, including finding a cure for these diseases.

Wifi Enabled LCD Frame

The new eStarling special edition frame with a stylish look and 7" screen displays photos emailed to it in a slideshow format. The eStarling frame is a standalone Wi-Fi LCD photo frame that connects to a wireless network for its content. You can specify an RSS photo feed from Flickr based on your own keywords, or simply email some photos to your eStarling frame. If you're feeling really geeky you can email photos from your mobile phone and pop them up on the eStarling for display.
Specifications :
7" color TFT LCD Display
Wi-Fi 802.11b with Support for WEP encryption
MMC /SD card slot
On-board Storage for Approximately 30 photos
Views JPEG & BMP files
External 120V/240V AC Adapter

New iSound Cap for iPod

iSoundCap Inc., announces their latest cap for runners. This new cap is made with a breathable, lightweight mesh fabric and places the iPod in protective neoprene. Not only are there no wires hanging below the head when running, but the iPod remains secure and is sweat resistant.
The latest running caps also complement the colors of the second generation iPod Nano: pink, silver, green, black, red and blue. The newest iSoundCap for the avid runner is also compatible with the Nike+iPod Sport Kit, the latest in high-tech runner's aid. The kit consists of a gadget the size of a quarter that drops into your shoe and connects with the wireless receiver attached to the Nano. The Nike+iPod Kit is used in conjunction with the iPod and allows the runner to upload their distance, time and caloric data. In most cases there is an armband or belt clip that goes with the Nike+iPod Kit that leaves wires hanging and in the way. The iSoundCap for runners allows them to place their iPod in the cap where the wires are neatly tucked away inside the cap making their running experience virtually wire-free.

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.
You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".

Error - ''boot_unmountable_drive'' when installing XP

For those who are getting this error when you try to install WinXP on a motherboard that has UDMA 100 Promise Controllers you need to do the following in order to get XP to install correctly if your hard drives are connected to the UDMA 100 controller.
Now there are two ways to get XP installed, the first one I am going to mention is the easiest way and the second is a bit more complicated but will work never the less.
#1 - Easiest Way
I have an Asus A7V motherboard and I have run into this more than once. What you need to do (this is the easiest way to do it that I have found) is to move your hard drives cable off the UDMA 100 controller (normally color coded blue) over to the UDMA 66 master controller on the motherboard. Once you have done that make sure your PC still boots into your current OS correctly. If it does then start your XP install or upgrade. Everything should be fine. Now, once XP is up on My Computer and choose Manage. Look under Device manager and you will see an error with a yellow exclamation point on it. Right click on it and install the Promise Drivers. You can download them directly from here - ftp://ftp.promise.com/Controllers/IDE/Ultra66/UltraFamily/U100d160b32.zip
Once you have the drivers installed re-boot the system and make sure the yellow exclamation points are gone and the promise drivers are listed under SCSI devices, if they are then turn off your system, move the HD's back to the UDMA 100 controller and boot it up. That should fix it.
#2 - Fresh Install
If you plan on installing XP to a freshly formatted hard drive the easiest way I have found to do this is to use the above method but for those with only one UDMA 66 controller on there motherboard you may need to do the following:
- First use the URL above and download the Promise drivers from the Promise website.
- Second you need to extract the drivers to a floppy or to the partition on your hard drive that XP can see (FAT32 works great for this) but there is a trick to this in order to make XP see the drivers. Once you extract the drivers the promise drivers automatically make folders for each individual OS (see screen shot), what you need to do is move the files from under the Win2K directory to the of the Promise Folder. So you take the three files under the Win2K folder and copy them, don't move them but copy them to the root of the main folder where you extracted the Promise drivers to (if you don't see three files go to Tools/Folder Options/View and check "show hidden files"). The three files you need to copy to the area are:
- Ultra.cat- Ultra.inf- Ultra.sys
Now that you have all the files in the copy them to a floppy, reboot (if needed) and start your install of XP.
Now pay attention here - at the bottom of the very first blue setup screen you will see a prompt to hit F6 to install third party SCSI or RAID drivers. HIT F6 A FEW TIMES NOW!!! Now it might take a couple of seconds but you should be prompted to insert your drivers into your floppy drive. Do so and choose the Promise ATA100 controller. Keep this disk handy as you will be prompted for it one more time during the install.
Once XP has the drivers and loads them successfully XP should install just fine, well at least as far as the controller goes.

On Screen Keyboard

Want to use an on screen keyboard? Well it is this simple - Click on the start button and select run. Then type in osk in the box and click OK.

Slow Shutdown

Some people have noticed that they are experiencing a really slow shutdown after installing Windows XP Home or Professional. Although this can be caused a number of ways, the most clear cut one so far is happening on systems with an NVidia card installed with the latest set of drivers. A service called NVIDIA Driver Helper Service is loading up on start up and for whatever reason doesn't shut itself down properly. The service isn't needed and can also increase the amount of memory available to your system. Here is how to disable it.
1: Go into your Control Panel

2: Select Administrative Tools and then click on Services

3: Right click on the file "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service" and then select STOP.

4: To stop this loading up every time you boot up your PC Right click it again and select properties - then where the option "Startup Type" is shown - make sure it is set at Manual like we have shown in the image below.

19 things you didn't know about Windows XP

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

How to Convert a FAT Partition to NTFS

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.
Click Start,
click Programs,
and then click Command Prompt.
In Windows XP, click Start,
and then click Run.
At the command prompt,
type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.
Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

Boost your internet speed

copy these lines and paste them in any text editor...now save this file as a .reg file and run it..*********start copying*********
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]"SackOpts"=dword:00000001"TcpWindowSize"=dword:0005ae4c"Tcp1323Opts"=dword:00000003"DefaultTTL"=dword:00000040"EnablePMTUBHDetect"=dword:00000000"EnablePMTUDiscovery"=dword:00000001"GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize"=dword:0005ae4c
***************end copying*************
· for LAN connectionswell buddies for those who are using T1/LAN connections, here are the steps for speeding up LAN Browsing without further to do.....
1: Open the registry editor.
2: Navigate to the location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace and DELETE the key {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
3: Close the registry editor and restart Windows...
Broadband/DSL connection optimization, you people can do something like this...follow the steps..
1: Open regedit and navigate to the following location..
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
2: Create the following DWORD values, as most of these values will not already exist you guys will need to create them by clicking on 'Edit -> New -> DWORD Value' and then set the value as shown below...
a: DefaultTTL = "80" hex (or 128 decimal)it specifies the default time to live (TTL) for TCP/IP packets..the default is 32..
b: EnablePMTUBHDetect = "0"it specifies whether the stack will attempt to detect Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) routers that do not send back ICMP fragmentation-needed messages..the default in this case is 0..
c: EnablePMTUDiscovery = "1"specifies whether the TCP/IP stack will attempt to perform path MTU discovery as specified in RFC 1191..the default in this case is 1..
d: GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)specifies the system maximum receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack...
e: TcpMaxDupAcks = "2"determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast retransmit" is triggered..
f: SackOpts = "1"enables support for selective acknowledgements as documented by Request for Comment (RFC) 2018..default in this case is once again 0.
g: Tcp1323Opts = "1"controls RFC 1323 time stamps and window scaling options..possible values are: "0" = disable RFC 1323 options, "1" = window scale enabled only, "2" = time stamps enabled only and "3" = both options enabled.
h: TcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)specifies the receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack..if you guys have a latent network you can try increasing the value to 93440,186880 or 372300.
now close the registry and restart the computer..

Net Speed Detect it is it connecting at 256K or 52 K or 32 K is enough while u cant browse faster.

check ur real internet connection speed
test ur nternet speedhttp://www.internetfrog.com/mypc/speedtest/ Increase it copy these lines and paste them in any text editor...now save this file as a .reg file and run it..*********start copying*********REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters]"SackOpts"=dword:00000001"TcpWindowSize"=dword:0005ae4c"Tcp1323Opts"=dword:00000003"DefaultTTL"=dword:00000040"EnablePMTUBHDetect"=dword:00000000"EnablePMTUDiscovery"=dword:00000001"GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize"=dword:0005ae4c***************end copying*************

Speed up browsing by DNS cache

Each time u browse a web site on the internet,
the actual site name u type is resolved to an ip address.
This translation is effected through what is called the
DNS (Domain Name System).
This DNS information is stored in ur computer so that each time u type a web address ,
a record of its IP address is stored so that it can be recalled later without having to retrieve it again.
1 way to speed up ur browsing experience is to increase this DNS cache in windows XP.
u will need to modify registry for this.
Start notepad & enter the following text into it:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic esDnscache\Parameters] "CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001 "CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180"MaxCacheEntryTtILimit"=dword:0000fa00 "MaxSOACacheEntryTtILimit"=dword:0000012d Save this file, naming it dnscache.reg
Double click on the file in windows explorer & merge it into ur registry.

Changing the Internet Explorer Title

Start RegeditGo to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Window TitleEnter what you want appear in the title bar
Make Your I.E As Fast As Firefox #The Best Trick EVER
1. click start > run
2. type regedit > enter
3. browse folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\m*cro$oft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\InternetSettings
4. right click @ windows right > New > DWORD
5. type MaxConnectionsPerServer > u can set value (the more higher the no, the more good speed u get, eg : 99)
6. create another DWORD >type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
7. then put a high value as mentioned above
8. then restart I.E ...
You're finished.

Change your IP in less than 20 secs

The following is a guide on how to change your IP in 30 seconds or less. This can be used if your IP has been banned from a game server, or on gunbound if your IP get's blocked. I've tried this on both Windows XP and Windows 2000, and it has worked:
1. Click on "Start" in the bottom left hand corner of screen 2. Click on "Run" 3. Type in "command" and hit okay
You should now be at an MSDOS prompt screen.
4. Type "ipconfig /release" just like that, and hit "enter" 5. Type "exit" and leave the prompt 6. Right-click on "Network Places" or "My Network Places" on your desktop. 7. Click on "properties"
You should now be on a screen with something titled "Local Area Connection", or something close to that, and, if you have a network hooked up, all of your other networks.
8. Right click on "Local Area Connection" and click "properties" 9. Double-click on the "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" from the list under the "General" tab 10. Click on "Use the following IP address" under the "General" tab 11. Create an IP address (It doesn't matter what it is. I just type 1 and 2 until i fill the area up). 12. Press "Tab" and it should automatically fill in the "Subnet Mask" section with default numbers. 13. Hit the "okay" button here 14. Hit the "okay" button again
You should now be back to the "Local Area Connection" screen.
15. Right-click back on "Local Area Connection" and go to properties again. 16. Go back to the "TCP/IP" settings 17. This time, select "Obtain an IP address automatically" 18. Hit "okay" 19. Hit "okay" again 20. You now have a new IP address
With a little practice, you can easily get this process down to 15 seconds.
*Note* This only changes your dynamic IP address, not your ISP/IP address. If you plan on hacking a website with this trick be extremely careful, because if they try a little, they can trace it back.

Automatically defrag drives with a new context menu item!

Create a new Registry import file named context_defrag.inf in Notepad (be sure to save with it with the Save as type set to All Files and not Text Documents) and place the following text inside:
; context_defrag.INF
; Adds Defrag to the right click context menu in Windows XP
[version]signature=¡±$CHICAGO$¡±
[DefaultInstall]AddReg=AddMe
[AddMe]
HKCR,¡±Drive\Shell\Defrag\command¡±,,,¡±DEFRAG.EXE %1¡å
Then, right-click and choose Install. This will add a context menu to XP that allows you to automatically defrag drives, using the command line version of the built-in defragmentation utility. To use it, navigate to a drive in My Computer, right-click, and choose Defrag. A command line window will appear, and that drive will be defragged. When it¡¯s complete, the window just disappears.
UPDATE: To remove this functionality, Open regedit.exe and navigate to the following location:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\
Then delete the Defrag folder and close Regedit.

Remove the Shared Documents folders from My Computer

One of the most annoying things about the new Windows XP user interface is that Microsoft saw fit to provide links to all of the Shared Documents folders on your system, right at the top of the My Computer window. I can¡¯t imagine why this would be the default, even in a shared PC environment at home, but what¡¯s even more annoying is that you cannot change this behavior through the shell: Those icons are stuck there and you have to live with it.
Until now, that is.
Simply fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ My Computer \ NameSpace \ DelegateFolders
You¡¯ll see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}. If you delete this, all of the Shared Documents folders (which are normally under the group called ¡°Other Files Stored on This Computer¡±) will be gone.
You do not need to reboot your system to see the change.
Before: A cluttered mess with icons no one will ever use (especially that orpaned one). After: Simplicity itself, and the way it should be by default.

Intel - Core 2 Duo E6700 review

In June 2003 Intel released the 3.2GHz Northwood Pentium 4 and after that it entered a black period with the Prescott core which failed miserably to produce decent clock speeds despite a move to a 90nm fabrication process.
To add to Intel's woes, Prescott consumed huge amounts of power and therefore shed enormous amounts of heat. In short, Prescott wasn't a good processor so Intel took the bold step of scrapping the NetBurst architecture, including Prescott's 65nm Tejas successor, and instead returned to the drawing board.
This gave AMD two years of grace, in which time its Athlon 64 and Opteron processors have ruled the roost. But now Intel is back and it means business. The new desktop processor that launches this month is Core 2 Duo. This is the second version of Intel's notebook Core processor, while the 'Duo' means it is dual core, so in time we shall doubtless see Core 3 Trio and then Core 4 Quadro, or perhaps that should be Core 4 Quattro.
Core 2 Duo takes Intel's desktop processors in a new direction by putting the emphasis on efficiency rather than clock speed, so the new processors run on a Quad-pumped 266MHz Front Side Bus which is the equivalent of 1,066MHz.
However, the actual clock speeds are relatively low. The E6300 runs at 1.86GHz and costs £153, the E6400 is 2.13GHz and costs £182, the E6600 gives you 2.40GHz for £253 and the top-of-the-line E6700 has a clock speed of 2.67GHz and is on sale at £411.
In truth there's one more member of the family as the X6800 will be released about a month after the E series processors, but as this 2.93GHz Extreme processor will cost about £800 it's safe to say that sales will be low, even if its clock multiplier is unlocked and thus offers the prospect of some serious overclocking.
Intel Core 2 Duo has a much shorter pipeline length than the NetBurst Pentium 4 processors and it also uses the L2 cache as a shared pool, instead of dividing it into two even chunks with half reserved for each core. E6300 and E6400 have 2MB of L2 while the faster processors have 4MB of cache.
We can waffle on all day about the technical features but what counts is how the new processor performs. Recently this reviewer ran a group test of AM2 motherboards and in each case the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 processor encoded a 350MB DivX movie file to DVD format in about 13 minutes. This test almost ignores the motherboard, chipset, memory and hard drive and puts the emphasis on the processor. The fastest AM2 board managed it in 13 minutes dead while the slowest came in at 13 minutes 22 seconds. In the bad old days before dual core processors, an Athlon 64 3800+ would take about half an hour.
By contrast the Core 2 Duo E6700 took 9 minutes 52 seconds and it is worth noting that the E6700 runs at 2.67GHz while the FX-62 has a clock speed of 2.8GHz, so the Core 2 Duo is much more powerful even at a nominally slower clock speed. And throughout the test the processor heatsink remained cool to the touch.
We also ran PCMark05 and the Core 2 Duo scored very well in every section of the benchmark, so make no mistake about it: Core2 Duo is a fabulous processor. But of course you need more than a bare chip inside your PC and this is where things get a bit confusing.
Intel supports Core 2 Duo with the current i975X chipset which it launched in December 2005 and, as Core 2 Duo uses the same LGA775 socket as the later models of Pentium 4, you might hope that this provides a direct upgrade path.
Think again.
Intel's Press kit includes a new revision of its D975XBX motherboard, however our year-old version of the same board wouldn't boot with Core 2 Duo installed even though we had upgraded the BIOS to the latest version. We understand that the new D975XBX board has significant revisions to the power regulation hardware, so if you want a Core 2 Duo you'll need a new motherboard in which case you may as well opt for the latest 965P chipset which launches alongside Core 2 Duo.
This chipset supports the fastest DDR2 memory and 1,066MHz FSB and is paired with the new ICH8 Southbridge which supports six SATA ports and HD audio. Unfortunately it doesn't support IDE, so most motherboards will have an add-in controller to allow you to connect your optical drive.
The ominous thing is that you can't connect a pair of Nvidia graphics cards in SLI on an Intel chipset motherboard as the graphics drivers require a suitable Nvidia chipset, so for the moment you are limited to a single graphics card or a pair of ATi cards in CrossFire. Gamers will, therefore, probably want to avoid the Intel chipsets.
Happily, Nvidia is a launch partner with the new Intel processor and it will unveil versions of the Nforce 500 chipsets that we saw with the AMD AM2 platform, and very good they are too. We'll reserve judgement until we've seen the new silicon but the Intel versions of Nforce4 ran incredibly hot which was probably related to the additional memory controller that Nvidia had to integrate in the Northbridge. AMD, of course, includes the memory controller in the CPU core while an Intel processor leaves the job to the chipset.
Nforce 500 is superb on the AMD platform and provided Nvidia's done the job correctly we expect that gamers will migrate to the Nforce 590 SLI in their droves. Still, gamers are only part of the market, so what about the rest of us?
We tested our E6700 on an Asus P5B Deluxe with P965 and ICH8R chipset, 2GB of Corsair XMS 8500 memory and a WD Raptor 150GB hard drive. The motherboard employs passive cooling throughout and during our performance testing we ran a noisy Sapphire X1900 XTX graphics card to generate some impressive results.
Once we were done we swapped the Sapphire for a passively cooled Asus EN7600GS graphics card and plugged in a fan controller on the CPU heatsink. We turned the controller down to barely audible levels and measured the heatsink temperature at 35 degrees while the graphics card touched 51 degrees during testing. Performance was adequate for all but the most demanding gaming and the noise level of the PC was very close to silent.

make internet faster..

follow these steps to make your net speed faster.
1.start->run
2.write "gpedit.msc" and hit enter.
3.in the left side expand "computer configuration" then "administrative templates"then "network" then "QoS packet scheduler".
4.right click on "limit reservable bandwidth" then select "properties" click enable and reduce the bandwith limit% to 0% and apply...
some computers may feel the effect but some may feel after restarting the PC...
enjoy....

verizon

The new enV phone from LG Electronics for Verizon gets the big picture — at least in one respect. It is the first LG phone to have a two-megapixel camera built in.
The enV (yes, it’s pronounced “envy”) is large by current mobile phone standards, at roughly 4½ by 2 by ¾ inches. It flips open to reveal a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio that is designed for showing photos and video, along with stereo speakers for music and a QWERTY keypad for text messages. Of course, there is also the phone function. The enV is currently $150 after rebate with a two-year Verizon contract.
The camera offers a number of settings, like a range of image sizes, a timer, flash, four levels of white balance for different indoor or outdoor lighting and shutter sounds that include a childlike voice urging, “Say cheese.”
As advanced as the camera is — it even has a built-in lens cap — it will not entirely replace your point-and-shoot.
For one thing, the lengthy shutter lag means a wait of more than a full second for the photo to snap after the button is pressed. Perhaps the shutter sound could be changed to “Saaaay cheeeeeeeese.”

make ring tone from mp3

Making your own ring tones isn’t too difficult if you have a mobile phone that supports MP3 ring tones and a way to transfer files onto the phone from your computer. If you’re not sure about either, check your phone’s manual or wireless carrier’s Web site for the technical specifications for your phone model.
One of the simpler ways to make and install your own ring tones is to use software dedicated to the task. Programs like ToneThis (free at www.tonethis.com) for Windows or Xingtone Ringtone Maker for Windows and Mac OS X (xingtone.com; $20 to buy, free trial available) are options.
These types of programs let you edit the sound clip of your choice to the appropriate length and send it to your phone as a file download that you can assign as a ring tone. Most ring tone software makers list phone models and carriers on their Web sites so you can make sure your handset is compatible.
You may also be able to convert and edit a CD track or MP3 file with free or inexpensive audio programs available around the Web if your computer doesn’t have any sound-editing software already installed. Audio Shareware sites like HitSquad (www.hitsquad.com) and Audio Utilities (www.audioutilities.com) are two such sites. The open-source program Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) is a free audio editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems, but you need to download the program’s optional LAME MP3 encoder to export edited MP3 files.
Once you have edited your new ring tone with your audio program, you can transfer it to your phone as you do other files — U.S.B. cable, Bluetooth connection and e-mail download are some methods available. Check your phone’s manual for instructions on transferring audio files to the proper place for use as ring tones.

VISTA IS READY. R U???

WINDOWS VISTA, the latest iteration of Microsoft’s operating system, is finally here. It was officially released to corporate users last week and will be available to consumers on Jan. 30. But now that Vista is ready, will your computer be? And what will be involved in an upgrade?
Microsoft says Vista offers increased security, along with an improved search function, an excellent calendar program, improved networking and a sidebar with quick access to mini-programs called gadgets. With the right display adapter, some editions of Vista will also offer a new interface called Aero that lets you preview what is inside a running program by placing your cursor over its thumbnail in the task bar.
It will be possible for many PC users to spend $99 to $259 to purchase a Vista DVD to upgrade their existing Windows XP machines. But before you do that, you need to take a good look at your PC as well as your peripherals and software. If your system isn’t quite compatible, it might be possible to make it ready for Vista with some additional memory or perhaps a new video card.
Even if your PC is Vista-ready, that doesn’t mean you should buy the upgrade kit. For most users, especially those whose hardware isn’t quite up to speed, it might make sense to wait until it’s time for a new PC.
The easiest way to get Vista is to buy a new PC after Jan. 30. If you want a new PC sooner, make sure the hardware is Vista-ready and see if the vendor is offering a coupon for a free or low-cost upgrade when Vista comes out. It is essential to compare the cost of buying a new system against purchasing Vista and upgrading your current PC. By the time you add up the cost of Vista plus any required hardware, it might be make more sense to get a new machine.
One variable for those thinking of upgrading is Vista’s system requirements, which vary by edition. Microsoft will offer a $99 Home Basic Edition that provides limited functionality but runs on more basic equipment. Unlike the higher-end versions, Home Basic won’t support the new Aero interface.
The minimum configuration to run the Home Basic Edition of Vista is a PC with 512 megabytes of memory, at least an 800-megahertz processor and a graphics card that is DirectX9-compatible; this includes most graphics adapters sold in the last few years. In other words, a vast majority of PCs that have been purchased in recent years are able to run this stripped-down version of Vista — but just because they’re able doesn’t necessarily mean it’s worth the cost, effort and potential compatibility problems with existing software and peripherals.
Most consumers will find the $159 Home Premium edition more suitable. It includes the Aero interface along with Windows Media Center (to manage audio and video resources) and other features. The minimum hardware for the Premium edition is a gigabyte of memory and a one-gigahertz processor. You’ll also need DirectX 9 graphics with a Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver and at least 128 megabytes of graphics memory and pixel shader 2.0. Pixel shader refers to the ability of your graphics processor to render the surface properties of an image including lighting, shadows and other visual qualities.
Your machine must also have at least a 40-gigabyte hard drive with 15 gigabytes of free space as well as a DVD-ROM drive and audio output. While you can never have too much memory, Microsoft’s Vista group product manager, Greg Sullivan, said that one gigabyte was plenty. I’ve been running Vista on a 1.5-gigabyte machine and haven’t had any memory-related problems.
If your machine has Windows XP, an easy way to find out if it’s Vista-ready is to download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft’s Vista Web site (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready). The program, which is available now, will scan your PC to determine which edition of Vista, if any, can run on your machine.
Be sure to plug in all your external peripherals, like printers, scanners and external hard drives, as they, too, need to be evaluated by the upgrade tool. When the upgrade adviser scan is finished it will tell which edition it recommends. You don’t necessarily have to buy the recommended edition. Don’t panic if the upgrade adviser finds that some of your device drivers aren’t Vista-compatible. Chances are there are new drivers available to fix the problem. Microsoft has included many drivers within the operating system so, if all goes well, it will take care of making sure that your display adapter, sound card, printer, Ethernet card and other devices have the software they need to operate correctly.
But the list of included drivers is not exhaustive. Very old, very new and relatively obscure hardware might not be included, so to be safe, before you install Vista, visit the Web site for each of your hardware vendors to download the latest Vista drivers. The upgrade adviser looks for minimal, not optimal requirements.
For the Aero interface, the video card or Graphics Processing Unit (G.P.U.) is the most important component. The chips on that card (or on your PC’s system board) do the heavy lifting when it comes to displaying images on your monitor. Vista’s Aero interface, according to Rob Csongor, vice president of Nvidia, a leading maker of chips for computer graphics, is especially taxing on video processors because of the way it renders windows.
The use of Vista’s Flip 3-D window changer, for example, requires the video card to render a 3-D image of all of your open windows every time you press Alt Tab. The Windows desktop, according to a Microsoft Web site, “will be dynamically composed many times a second from the contents of each window.”
Even if your graphics card is Aero-compatible, you may still want to upgrade for faster performance. In my tests, a three-year-old Aero-compatible card from ATI (now part of Advanced Micro Devices) was noticeably slower than newer, moderately priced (about $130) cards from both ATI and Nvidia. I noticed it and so did the Windows Experience performance scanning program that comes with Vista.
If you have a desktop PC with a graphics card that’s not up to the task, you can replace the card with one that is Vista Aero-ready, and if your PC system board has an embedded graphics system, it may still be possible to add an external card. If you have a notebook PC whose graphics processor isn’t Vista-ready, you’re pretty much out of luck because, other than adding additional memory, it’s generally not possible to upgrade internal components of a laptop.
Another way to improve performance is to use a U.S.B. thumb drive or SD card to take advantage of Vista’s ReadyBoost feature. Vista uses that memory to store some of your program code so that programs load much faster than if it had to load from the hard drive.
Whether or not your machine is compatible, upgrading an operating system can be challenging despite Microsoft’s efforts to make it as smooth as possible. You should definitely back up your data files before starting. You have the choice of doing an “in place” upgrade, which retains your applications and data files, or a “full install,” which requires you to reinstall your programs.
A full install by default will not delete your data, though it may make the data more difficult to find. It often results in a faster and more reliable system because it cleans up the Windows registry and deletes any spyware and possibly problematic software on your machine.
And if you’re reluctant to upgrade, don’t fret. If Windows XP works for you now, it will continue to work long after Jan. 30. Besides, Vista isn’t going away anytime soon. Whether you want to or not, you’ll probably be using it on your next PC.