Zxian

Yup... that's what I do. Plain and simple. The file can't automatically be launched, and the person shouldn't be renaming it and running it if they don't trust you anyways.

The ua.ini file is in the profile directory. By default, this is placed in C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Opera\Opera\profile. An easy way to get to this is to: ->Start ->Run ->type %appdata%, press enter Then browse into the folders from there. You'll want to check in opera:about to double check the location of your profile (Help->About Opera). There should be some entries in there already. Simply copy the format and add your own websites to the list. Look here for more info. As for the IE code, you don't have to do that... web designers do. When you visit a website, some will ask your browser to identify itself. Based on the reply that they get, the website will send you different code that may work better in your browser. Some websites (I don't know why) will send Opera bad HTML code to screw up the rendering of the page. By editing the ua.ini file, you trick these sites into sending you the same code that you'd recieve if you were using IE or Firefox.

Yes, Knoppix is a special distro of Linux that is meant to be run from a CD. You'll want to download the Knoppix Live CD. It should be an ISO file probably 600-700MB in size (I can't remember). When you're done downloading it, burn the image onto a CD using something like Nero or DeepBurner (burn image, not the data file). Put the CD into your computer and reboot. You'll need to set the boot order in BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive first.

You're welcome. My guess is that with corrupted/improper drivers, Windows is trying to figure out what to do with your hardware. Since it sort of knows what it is, Windows may get "confused" and stall on startup.

Any particular reason why you don't like Nero? It's got pretty much everything you could ask for in a burning program. I'm sorry, I don't know of any other programs that will do what you ask. I'm more curious as to why you don't use Nero.

The command line is your friend... You can easily generate a text file that will display the contents of all the folders. Navigate to the selected folder in the command line and type in: dir /b /s > C:\list.txt You'll get a file in the C:\ directory with a listing of all the files. It might be a bit lengthy since that will also list the full path to the files. For example... here's the My Documents folder from my work: You can use a mass renaming/text editing tool to remove the inital path (C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Desktop\) after that though, or I'm sure that someone would be able to write up a batch file for you.

Hard to find, eh chilifrei64? Google: BootVis Hehe...

The problem is that he's not running ATI Catalyst 5.8... he doesn't even have an ATI card. ATI makes much better video cards than Intel, and their driver support is also better. As for the list all modes, it's actually not recommended. Windows will automatically display a list of all supported modes by default. Selecting a display mode that isn't supported will end up in even worse display settings than he's already got. Here's the display properties from my laptop Under the Display drop-down list, your TV should be listed there. The second monitor is greyed out because I don't have a second monitor connected to my laptop. What are the options available when you move the "Screen Resolution" slider back and forth? Are there any that are not in a 4:3 ratio? If so, then that's the one that you'll want to select. Oh... and one last thing, if your screen goes blank while you're changing any of the display settings - do not touch anything!!! Windows will automatically revert back to the old settings after 15 seconds if nothing is touched or clicked. If you accidentially click Yes when things aren't working, then you'll have even more of a headache getting things to work again.

Did you try what I said about Knoppix?

@ripken204 - Unless his computer detects that the display supports widescreen (or you install special drivers), he'll never have an option to select a widescreen capable resolution. (i.e. 1280x768 or whatever the TV dimensions are) Hakeem5454 - Right-click on the desktop. Go to the "Settings" tab. You should have something that looks like this (from my Win2K workstation): The slider to the right (It's on the left in XP) will set your resolution. Most resolutions have a 4:3 ratio, which means that if you take the larger number and divide by the smaller, you'll get 4/3 (or 1.3333). Widescreen displays are either 16:9 (1.77777) or 16:10 (1.6), depending on the model you have. Check the HP website to see if they have any driver updates for your video card. There may be some extra drivers/settings that didn't come installed on your system when you bought it. (sorry... noticed you said HP above, edited)

Sounds like a driver problem to me. Make sure that you've got the updated drivers for all your components. You can download BootVis from Microsoft to monitor the boot of your computer. It will give you a breakdown of what's going on as your computer starts up.

Not bad... The Turion is much better for heat production. If AMD can get it's power consumption down a bit more, they'd have something that could really compete with the Pentium-M. That laptop seems alright. The only downside to it would be the video card. It would be comparable to the Radeon 9200 in terms of actual on-screen performance... maybe a little more, but not much.

Sad... but true. Most of the sites that are designed for IE 6.0 aren't properly coded in the first place. To make a fully compliant page, writers will code with standard XHTML/HTML, and then add in hacks to make it work in IE. I've tried Firefox when I first heard about it (and ever since then with each new build). It's alright... but doesn't suit my tastes. It's a bit sluggish, takes too long to configure, and the memory leaks are just annoying. I switched to Opera a few months ago, and I don't think I'll ever switch back. Unbeatable security, smooth operation, fully customizable interface (FULLY customizable - Firefox doesn't even come close), the wand - what more could you want? Not to mention the fastest rendering engine on the planet. @techniquefreak - For those pages that don't work properly in Opera, it's probably that the site is sending Opera bad code. If it's a site that you regularly visit, you can add it into the ua.ini file so that Opera identifies itself as either IE or Mozilla based when visiting that website. And for those people complaining that it's not free... was your computer free? Is your OS free (for ~95% of the population)? $39 USD is not that big of a deal for a program you'll probably use every day. As for the original problem... I'd try doing a complete reinstall. Uninstall Opera. Delete the program files directory. Delete the directory under Application Data. Start from scratch. If you need more info on how to do this, check at the Opera forums. I've seen Opera use ~70MB of RAM, but never 200+ (I've got 1GB btw...). On machines with only 256MB of RAM, it usually doesn't go above 40MB.

Deep Freeze is not from Acronis ? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nope... Deep Freeze is from Faronics. My friend is working for them right now. He gave me a copy of the program to try out... really really cool! I think the administrative version has the ability to control it via NAT. With Deep Freeze, you don't need anything else. Set it to reboot every 24 hours and your computers will never go bad. If you're using XP Professional, you can set Group Policies to restrict the executables that can be run. Have a look through the group policy editor (start->Run->gpedit.msc) for these settings.

I've got a couple more to add... a bit naughty on one...

I would not recommend a Sempron for a laptop. They generate a lot of heat...

Well... where would you download them from? And your computer never comes with the latest driver. It may be the latest driver at the time, but chances are that there have been updates since then.

Thumbnails or links!!! Horizontal scrolling sucks... Other than that... nice desktop and choice of apps!

Well... I'm gonna bump this and say that it's solved. Enabling the NLA service did the trick. Thanks for the help everyone!

I'm wondering about the fact that "they refused to let me contact them". I've contacted them several times about many different topics, and they've never refused to talk to me. 1) Windows Media Player (either version 9 or 10) should show the tracks on the CD in the playlist to the right of the window. I'd check to see if this playlist is hidden. 2) The CMD window is not a DOS-prompt like you have in Win98. Windows XP does not have any DOS capabilities. There are some DOS-emulators that you might be able to find that will allow you to use basic DOS-based applications, but in general, you're out of luck. 3) Can you select the "No Sounds" profile? Does it give you an error message, or simply revert back to the old settings?

I'm sorry!!! I couldn't get to him in time!!! It was also his other friend who told him to go with Intel and ATI, just because the friend "liked them more"... *shakes head* I would have told him to get an Athlon64 3200+ (or the like) and the Geforce6800 (or variant) instead of his current setup... but then again, he's somewhat of a n00b when it comes to the insides of a computer... he told me "anything outside of Windows is hardcore"

Well.. you can, it'll just be either streched or end up with bars on both sides... which isn't what he's getting. @hakeem5454 - Where are you downloading your drivers from?

Well... applying thermal paste is actually much easier than it seems. I upgraded my CPU a while back and put on a new heatsink without any problems whatsoever. It's a piece of cake. Just be careful and you'll be alright. As for the cables... you can only plug them in one way. It's already dummy-proofed for you and me. As for the laptop... it's alright. Intel's new Celeron-M is a big improvement over the old Celerons. They're based off the Pentium-M (the standard celerons are based off P4's), and have some speed-stepping capabilities. I don't know how much you'll be able to game on that computer though... the Intel graphics card isn't much to write home about. It'll be fine for a work computer, but I wouldn't expect much 3D performance out of it.

You say you're connecting it with a VGA cable? What does it say under the type of monitor? Plug-n-Play Monitor?

Geez... all tech support sucks. Compaq complained to me for two weeks when my hard drive was a dud because they kept on telling me that it was "normal" for a computer to take 30-40 seconds to wake up from hibernation. Dell wasn't much better when I had my system from them. Although, I think I've found a new worst company... www.flycomputers.com They built my friend's computer with the following specs: 3.2GHz P4 Prescott 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 RAM (dunno what brand) 256MB ATI X800XL video card (some other stuff...) And to top it all off.... NO CASE FANS!!! The only fan that was blowing air out of the case was the power supply fans. I told him to get at least a 120mm fan to blow air out, and told him to get a better heat sink (he had the stock Intel on there). The guys at the store said that the Zalman 7700Cu or 7700AlCu wouldn't do any better than his stock HS... geez...