Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
Name: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 181
hex 0x0b5
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Softpanorama |
May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
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(Fighting configuration bloat and bloatware)
| News | Recommended Books | Recommended Links | Recommended Tools | Unixification | Norton Ghost | |
| Spyware | Adobe Acrobat Bloatware | Executable files compressors | Windows Process Viewers | Tips | Humor | Etc |
According to Microsoft, Windows XP was designed to boot up within about 30 seconds. Add several additional services and that can become a minute. You can slush it but not much. It depends on how much additional functionally you want to be included. If you need multiple services enabled you might need probably up to two minutes.
Slow start and shutdown can be a symptom of Spyware infection or bloated configuration or both.
Generally Windows XP is not running that good on 256M PC and Windows 2000 here has an edge. Windows XP is definitely more resource hungry and on 256K PC feels slower.
As Spyware problems are addresses on the other set of pages here we will concentrate on the problem of bloat. To access the level of bloat on a particular PC the list of services running after booting (before you open any other program) as well as list of start-up programs should be printed, saved into a file (see for suitable command line tools to do this) and carefully analyzed.
Then you can trim unnecessary start-up programs file using msconfig from the Run menu and unnessary services from Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services
Even if you do not find some rogue services installed, the results of analysis usually get you better understanding of what is used by the computer and several services Microsoft and third party services can usually be disabled.
Actually many third party services are just a nuisance and should be disabled. Symantec, Adobe, and ATI are especially bad in this area. They also put unnecessary program into system tray (can be called recidivist system tray abusers ;-)
If you have just 256M of RAM Windows XP often looks sluggish (Windows 2000 is much faster on the same configuration) and large add-ons like Windows Defender are overkill: they slow down the system considerably. It might be beneficial to eliminated them.
Generally with 256K you need cut your services and resident programs to bones in order to cut swapping of pages from disk. Watch the activity of your swap file.
Detail on load processes after boot-up are visible any process viewer. But just viewing it is not enough. You need to write this snapshot into file and analyze and annotate it line by line (most non-standard free Windows Process Viewers has this capability). Many antispyware programs like Windows Defender also have such tools.
Turn off automatic updates. You can do them manually once a week (you
really need to be diligent with this as current generally or worms and
spyware is not a joke). Even
notifications are pretty taxing and involve scanning for automatic updates on
startup with 3-5 minutes of almost 100% CPU usage when you PC or laptop became
sluggish and almost impossible to work with. If you do not mind drinking
a cup of coffee before starting work it might be a perfect opportunity.
Windows Protector is a resource hog and is slows down 256K PCs. Here you
need to wait you need to spyware protection and you need for quick and responsive
PC. Windows Protector is a good security tool from the point of view of
catching spyware, the problem is that it is designed for PCs with at least 512M
of RAM and CPUs faster then 1.2GHz.
Periodically, once a week or once a month defragment your C drive and
other drives that you are using frequently. See
Maintaining Windows 2000 Through Defragmentation for details.
The best strategy that I have found is to start defragmentor each day when you
are going for lunch.
Sometimes very slow startup means that you have remote drives for
which server is currently unavailable mapped permanently for your desktop. The
simplest solution is to delete all such mappings.
Opera is not a bad browser that
might fit your needs (Firebox and Netscape both are resource pigs too: not
a big improvement over IE). It has the initial memory footprint of approximately
16M. But you might suffer from using non-mainstream browser.
- The quickest way to speed up boot times is to use the free Microsoft utility BootVis.exe. Although it's intended primarily for developers, anyone can use it to analyze their boot times and see where there are slowdowns. More important, the tool will also automatically make system changes to speed up your boot time, so you don't need to go into a lengthy analysis of where your slowdowns are and how to solve them
- Depending on your system and how it's set up, you may see only a moderately faster startup time, or you may speed up boot time dramatically. I've seen reports of improvements ranging from a little over 3 seconds to more than 35 seconds. The improvements I found on my systems were moderate-7 seconds faster on one, and 10 seconds faster on another. Think of all the things you could accomplish with another 10 seconds in the day!
- The BootVis utility traces boot time metrics and then displays the results in a variety of graphs showing total boot time, CPU usage, disk I/O, driver delays, and disk utilization.
- Download it from www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/default.mspx and extract it into its own folder.
- Go to the folder and double-click on BootVis.exe.
- To analyze how your system boots, choose Trace → Next Boot. (Choose Trace → Next Boot + Driver Delays if you want to trace delays caused by drivers as well as your normal boot sequences.)
- Tell the program how many times to reboot and run the test (the more times it runs, the more accurate the results, although the longer the test takes to run). Click OK, and your system will reboot.
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Too little, too much (Score:5, Insightful)
by Monoman (8745) on Saturday March 01, @10:27AM (#22609882) Homepage The thread on this subject the other day had an good comment from a former MS employee. Vista works well if you do the following
1. Turn of Aero
2. Switch to Classic mode/view whatever it is called (makes it look like Windows 2000)
3. Go into System properties and set to optimize for best performance.
A friend tried it on two systems (one is a new quad-core) and is much happier now. So where does that get you? Basically, system that looks like Windows 2000, performs like XP, and has the underneath the cover features of Vista like "enhanced" security, searching, etc.
I haven't tried Vista yet because of the lackluster performance and no compelling reasons to run it. Knowing it can be setup to run faster is nice but I still can't see anyone spending money on Vista just to turn off all of the eye candy.
I'll stick with XP at work and Ubuntu & XP at home for now.
To disable the CD autoplay feature, use the following Windows XP registry hack:Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Key: SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
Name: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
Type: REG_DWORD
Value: 181 hex 0x0b5
Disable CD autoplay in Windows XP Pro
It is safest to disable CD autoplay in XP using either local group policy or, for an enterprise, an Active Directory group policy. The local group policy editor method:The default is the Not configured . Set it to Enabled.
- Click Start
- Click Run
- Enter GPEDIT.MSC
Group Policy mmc will popup. On left panel:- Double-click Computer Configuration to open submenu
- Double-click Administrative Templates to open submenu
- Double-click System to open submenu
- Double-click Turn autoplay off option which will be near the bottom of the list in the right panel.
Relate tips:
How do I really disable auto-play in Windows XP - Ask Leo!
TweakUI, one of what Microsoft calls "Power Toys for Windows XP". It's more than a toy. It allows you to adjust (or 'tweak') several settings that aren't exposed directly by the Windows tools.Once you've installed TweakUI you'll find a lot of options in it. For our current problem, in TweakUI expand My Computer, and then AutoPlay. Click on Drives and uncheck the drive letter that you no longer want to AutoPlay. Click on Apply and that's it. No more "what would you like me to do" dialogs.
TweakUI has a number of other settings, I encourage you to install it and browse around in it. It's something I install on every computer I run. (The PowerToys page has a number of nifty tools as well, have a look while you're there).
Opera 9 is packaged with a torrent plugin, so BitTorrent downloads can be handled just like regular HTTP/FTP downloads.
It is notable in the face of criticisms of rendering accuracy, that Opera 9.0 passes the Acid2 rendering test by the Web Standards Project, which is designed to test compliance with the latest HTML, CSS and other web standards.[26] Browsers such as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 do not pass this test.
Clean temp 1.5 software by Emil Simunovic Softes and others
Zappit System Cleaner - FREEWARE to Clean Up and Speed Up your Computer!
Safe easy way to clean Windows, Internet Tracks, free up hard-disk space and optimize your system. A clean computer runs better and faster and Zappit makes it easy to clean temporary and unused files in just a few seconds with no need to worry about deleting the "wrong" files. Includes a Start-Up Manager and a Favorites & Start Menu Manager. Safe Mode Option for new users and Advanced option for power users.
You have the Cloudeight Promise of NO Adware, Spyware, Badware or Adware!
Zappit Cleans all the following:
Windows Tracks: Recycle Bins, Clipboard Data, Temporary and log files, Recent Documents, Explorer Registry Streams, and Search, Run, and Wallpaper History, and more!
Program Files: Cleans files left over and no longer needed after using Media Player, Paint, Wordpad, Adobe Reader and others.
Internet Explorer: Temporary files, Address Bar and URL History, AutoComplete Form Data, Cookies, File and Folder Hisotry
Opera: History, Download History, Cookies and Temp files
Fire Fox and Mozilla/Netscape Navigator: History, Temp files, Cookies and Saved Passes and Log in Names
The latest version of CleanUp!, version 4.5.2 is a minor update over version 4.0.Note that if you are going to run CleanUp! 4.5.2 without first making a backup of your system, then it is strongly recommended that you first run it in the new demo mode and verify the files that would be deleted before you first run it for real.
File size: 339,257 bytes (332K).
Available from:
- Primary download site (setup program): CleanUp452.exe
It would be great to download drivers that sped up your hard-disk access by 10's of percent wouldn't it? Well perhaps you can, Intel has made their Application Accelerator (IAA) available since last September. It reduces storage sub-system bottlenecks apparently. If you have a compatible Intel chipset (810 to 860) and a Pentium Celeron, III , 4 or Xeon chip then get on down to :Read through everything before you start downloading and installing. You may need to pre-install the Intel Chipset Software Installation Utility if you have XP running on a 830 or 845 chipset. Intel also provide a chipset identification utility if your unsure of what you have - it's linked from the same page.
Intel claim very significant increases in boot times and application speed. On a personal note, on my P4 2GHz, applications do start a lot faster. I suggest you do some benchmarking first (a stopwatch is an easy way to measure boot time). I would be interested in results people have had. This also works for 98SE,ME,NT4 and 2000.NOTE: IAA works well for most, but not all. Judge for yourself. It's easy enough to uninstall if you don't like it.
Posted 7/6/2005Microsoft created the Shared Computer Toolkit to help make shared computers more reliable and less time-consuming to maintain. Unlike personal computers, shared computers are:
- Used by many different people who generally don't know or trust each other
- Used in public places where personal privacy and security are big concerns
- Subjected to greater wear and tear due to their frequent use and public availability
The Shared Computer Toolkit is ideal for computers in schools, public libraries, community technology centers, and Internet cafés. It allows those who manage shared computers in these environments to easily:
Constantly running in the background of XP are services--processes that help the operating system run or that provide support to applications. Many of these services launch automatically at start-up. While you need many of them, some are not required, and they can slow down your system when they run in the background.
You can disable services at start-up by using the system configuration utility, similar to the way that you halt programs from running at start-up, except that you use the Services tab instead of the Startup tab. But the system configuration utility doesn't necessarily list every service that launches on start-up. A bigger problem is that disabling services is more of shot in the dark than disabling programs. When you disable a program, you can get a sense of what the program does. But when you disable a service through the system configuration utility, there's often no way to know what it does.
Here is a list of some common services you might want to stop from running at start-up.
- A better way of disabling services at start-up is via the Services computer-management console. Run it by typing services.msc at the command prompt. The Services computer-management console includes a description of all services so that you can know ahead of time whether a particular service is one you want to turn off. It also lets you pause the service so that you can test your machine and see whether that service is needed.
- After you run the console, click the Extended tab. This view will show you a description of each service in the left pane when you highlight the service. The Startup Type column shows you which services launch on start-up--any with Automatic in that field. Click that column to sort together all the services that automatically launch on start-up. Then highlight each of those services and read the descriptions.
- When you find a service you want to disable, right-click it and choose Properties. In the Properties dialog box that appears, choose Manual from the Startup Type drop-down list. The service won't start automatically from now on, but you can start it manually via the console. If you want the service disabled so that it can't be run, choose Disabled. To test the results, turn off any services that you don't want to run by clicking Stop The Service in the left pane, or by right-clicking the service and choosing Stop.
Service What it does Portable Media Serial Number Retrieves the serial number of a portable music player attached to your PC. Task Scheduler Schedules unattended tasks to be run. If you don't schedule any unattended tasks, turn it off. Uninterruptible Power Supply Manages an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) connected to your PC. Automatic Updates Automatically checks for Windows updates. (You can check manually by going to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/.) Telnet (service available on XP Pro only) Allows a remote user to log in to your computer and run programs. (This will not be found on all versions of XP Pro.) Wireless Zero Configuration Service Automatically configures a Wi-Fi (802.11) network card. Disable this only if you're not using a Wi-Fi network card.
Try a clean-boot troubleshooting. Clean-boot troubleshooting is designed to isolate a performance problem. To perform clean-boot troubleshooting, you must take a number of actions, and then restart the computer after each action (to test whether the action resolved the problem). These two articles will help you isolate the problem.
- How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
- How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
- How to manage Windows Startup?
Fig: Disabling the third-party Services using MSCONFIG
Check the Event Logs for any errors and track-down the software/driver causing the problem. View the error messages registered in Event Log
You may be having profile unload problems if you experience slow logoff (with Saving Settings for most of the time while logging off). UPHClean is a service that once and for all gets rid of problems with user profile not unloading. See User Profile Hive Cleanup tool's Readme.txt before installing it.
For more troubleshooting on shutdown issues, I recommend you visit MS-MVP James Eshelman's Shutdown troubleshooter page here: SHUTDOWN WORKS, BUT IT'S REAL SLOW.
One of the most common causes of Windows shut down problems is a bug in RoxioТs Easy CD Creator (particularly version 5).
Roxio does have a patch available at http://www.roxio.com/en/support/ecdc/software_updatesv5_2.jhtml Keep in mind though that the patch has been known to disable RoxioТs Take Two backup software that came with Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum. You should also keep in mind that version 5 is an old version that Roxio no longer supports. The current version is Easy Media Creator 7. If you suspect that Easy CD Creator may be causing your problem, then I recommend upgrading to a newer version rather than patching an old version.
... ... ...
The quickest way to speed up boot times is to use the free Microsoft utility BootVis.exe. Although it's intended primarily for developers, anyone can use it to analyze their boot times and see where there are slowdowns. More important, the tool will also automatically make system changes to speed up your boot time, so you don't need to go into a lengthy analysis of where your slowdowns are and how to solve them Depending on your system and how it's set up, you may see only a moderately faster startup time, or you may speed up boot time dramatically. I've seen reports of improvements ranging from a little over 3 seconds to more than 35 seconds. The improvements I found on my systems were moderate-7 seconds faster on one, and 10 seconds faster on another. Think of all the things you could accomplish with another 10 seconds in the day! The BootVis utility traces boot time metrics and then displays the results in a variety of graphs showing total boot time, CPU usage, disk I/O, driver delays, and disk utilization. Download it from www.microsoft.com/whdc/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/default.mspx and extract it into its own folder. Go to the folder and double-click on BootVis.exe. To analyze how your system boots, choose Trace → Next Boot. (Choose Trace → Next Boot + Driver Delays if you want to trace delays caused by drivers as well as your normal boot sequences.) Tell the program how many times to reboot and run the test (the more times it runs, the more accurate the results, although the longer the test takes to run). Click OK, and your system will reboot.
Version: 1.6d Date Published: 2/13/2006 Language: English Download Size: 24 KB - 353 *Download size depends on selected download components.
Administering Windows platforms using scripts can be a big productivity booster or a headache. Mitch Tulloch, author of Windows Server Hacks, sits down with Don Jones, a Microsoft MVP and the creator of ScriptingAnswers.com, for a no-holds barred interview about the future of scripting.
Removed from client, but will survive on the server: "On the operating system side of things, Monad is then expected to be included in Windows Server Longhorn, expected in 2007"
Just one day after the first public reports of viruses being written for an upcoming feature of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system (see "First Windows Vista viruses unleashed"), the company said it will not include the feature in the first generally available release of Microsoft Vista, due out in the second half of 2006.The feature, called the Monad Shell, provides a way for users to access the operating system using text-based commands rather than the traditional Windows graphical user interface. In the past, Microsoft has said that Monad will be part of Longhorn, the code name for both the next client and server versions of Windows.
In an interview Friday, Microsoft director of product management Eric Berg said Monad will not be included in the first commercial version of Windows Vista when it is released.
But the product is expected to be included in Windows over the next "three to five years," he said. "Our intention is to synchronize it with both client and server operating systems."
Security experts had worried that if Monad were included in a widely used client, it might become an attractive target for hackers -- especially if the shell were enabled by default.
Whether it will be enabled by default is unclear. "There are multiple ways that we could introduce this technology to the client stream," Berg said.
The first Microsoft product to use Monad will be the next release of Microsoft's Exchange messaging server, code-named Exchange 12, which is also due in 2006, Berg said.
On the operating system side of things, Monad is then expected to be included in Windows Server Longhorn, expected in 2007, and could be available in a future Windows Vista release, said Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft Inc. "Presumably, as time goes on, all of Microsoft's products will have Monad scripting interfaces," he said.
Black Viper (amongst others) runs a Windows tweaks page offers many changes and customizations that users can make to MS Windows in the name of greater performance. BV recommends that many active-by-default Windows services be set to manual activation or disabled altogether, to save on memory useage and CPU cycles.
I have taken three systems with clean installs of Windows XP and reviewed these tweaks. Well, the third isn't really a clean install, it has a bunch of software running which any typical user would run e.g. firewall, antivirus, speedfan, etc. The first two are lower-end systems that should theoretically benefit most from this treatment, neither has the prefix “giga” in either its CPU speed or RAM capacity. The last one is a modern system (at the time of writing, anyway).
Display a description of the computer in Network Neighborhood (Windows 2000)
This tweak allows you to add a description of the computer for display in Network Neighborhood.This tweak can be easily applied using WinGuides Tweak Manager.
Open your registry and find or create the key below.
Download a free trial now!Create a new String value, or modify the existing value, called "srvcomment" and set it according to the value data below.
Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the change to take effect.
Softpanorama Norton Ghost Page
UPX (the Ultimate Packer for eXecutables) is a free, portable, extendable, high-performance executable packer for several different executable formats. It achieves an excellent compression ratio and offers very fast decompression. Your executables suffer no memory overhead or other drawbacks because of in-place decompression.
Petite is a Win32 (Windows 95/98/2000/NT/XP) executable (EXE/DLL/etc...) compressor. The compressed executables decompress themselves at run time, and can be used just like the original uncompressed versions. Petite also adds virus detection to the compressed executables - they will check themselves for infection every time they are executed.
Changing Windows XP settings should be done very carefully. Tweaking windows is probably more about getting right set of application and scripts and avoiding overloading the system with too many "greedy" applications then about Registry changes. Run disk defragmenter, disk cleanup and registry cleanup. Do not install unnecessary of "bloated" software. Delete applications that you do not need.
OS & Software tweaking - TechSpot
Beginners Guides 101 Tips and Tweaks for Windows - PCStats.com
Doug's Windows 95-98-Me-XP Tweaks and Tips
Posted 9/1/2005 by Steve Sinchak
Windows Vista will include a new technology known as Freeze Dry designed to maintain application states and unsaved documents even when patches are automatically applied and PCs are rebooted.
Speaking at the Australian Tech Ed conference on the Gold Coast in Queensland this week, senior product manager Amy Stephan offered a preview of the Freeze Dry technology.
Many IT managers plan to automatically install patches and updates on machines during periods when they are inactive, such as overnight or on weekends. However, as some patches require machines to reboot, users who leave documents open and unsaved run the risk of losing that data if the machine is automatically updated.
Freeze Dry eliminates that problem by automatically saving application state and documents and then restoring them once the system restarts, Stephan said.
Read Full Story at ZDNet
The Windows Restrictions tool is best suited for workgroup environments in which users share accounts and passwords, and where Active Directory is not present.
| • | Restrict access to Windows system utilities |
| • | Prohibit access to important data |
| • | Prevent users from running unauthorized software |
| • | Simplify the Start menu |
Because certain changes, such as critical updates and antivirus signatures, need to be permanently saved, Windows Disk Protection allows you to schedule such changes to occur automatically at whatever time you choose.
| • | Helps protect operating system files |
| • | Clears changes when the computer restarts |
| • | Automates critical and antivirus updates |
| • | Lets you choose to save changes to disk |
The toolkit also helps to protect user privacy by refreshing the desktop, user settings, and user data each time a new user logs on. Plus, it consolidates several accessibility features into one user interface, so users can more easily access the features they regularly use. For users who are new to computers, the toolkit also provides a variety of suitable online learning resources.
| • | View and control all accessibility features from one place |
| • | Easily enable or disable wanted accessibility features |
Click Here to download the beta toolkit.
TweakXP.com - New Powertoy SyncToy
Now there is an easier way. SyncToy is a free PowerToy for
Microsoft Windows XP that provides an easy to use, highly customizable program
to help copy, move, and synchronize different directories. Most common operations
can be performed with just a few clicks of the mouse, and additional customization
is available without adding complexity. SyncToy can manage multiple sets of directories
at the same time; it can combine files from two folders in one case, and mimic renames
and deletes in another. Unlike other applications, SyncToy keeps track of renames
to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder.
Click Here to Download
This is designed to be used in order to allow logon access one a day-by-day basis.
Script (.pl) |
Description |
| NSPReporter.pl | Parses the logs from Netscape Proxy Server and creates a comma-delimited report file. It handles nslookups, non-HTTP protocol handling and translates requests from unknown users into true users. Finally, it sends the report with BLAT (this runs natively on NT). |
| tripwire.pl | The Perl script that parses the Tripwire report. See the Tripwire suite above. |
| Dictionary Editor | Adds and remove words to your local dictionary. For use with pine and
spell. Set the following environment variable:
SPELL=spell +/home/uid/.dictionary
dict.pl -a word To delete a word: dict.pl -d word |
| ListGroupMembers.pl | Searches for an LDAP group and creates an LDIF file that lists the attributes for each uniquemember of the group. |
|
CreateOldAccessLogs.pl CreateOldErrorsLogs.pl |
Parse through Netscape Proxy Server logs and create new daily access and errors log files. |
Script (.sh) |
Description |
| AddCron.sh | Adds a script to your crontab. I use this to run jobs via cron only when I am logged in. I execute this script from within my .profile. |
| RemoveCron.sh | Removes a script to your crontab. I use this remove the job I added with AddCron when I logout. I execute this script from within my .profile. |
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Last modified: March 15, 2008