LS_Dragons

When you get the windows update site open - even if it says your security settings are too high etc. Click on PERSONALIZE... (will be in the left side-bar) and then click on SHOW WINDOWS UPDATE CATALOG. This should then show you ALL XP Updates ever released. You can select the ones you want to download and install. Good Luck........ LS

Xtremely coooooool!!!! But we have to wait a whole year. :beer LS

**** - just when the withdrawal shakes were about gone, this thing is back. It is about time! Glad to see the board back in action LS

If you just want to change the color of the font - just use the method already stated - Desktop - Properties - Appearance - Advanced. When you select ITEMS that include fonts - you can change the color with the selector (right above the Cancel button) LS

Due to my work - I received access to the new express version a couple of months ago. VERY SWEET! Nero has been one of the best for a while - but the new UI makes it the BEST for new users and experienced users as well. LS

Overdrive - don't be afraid to go the source of your pain - Micro$oft. The knowledge base actually will usually show solutions to many of your problems. This link is to the search unmountable boot volume... http://search.support.microsoft.com/search...=&maxResults=25 here is another --- http://support.microsoft.com/search/previe...b;en-us;Q297185 hope these help.... LS Active links are now ok ..---Drew[/color:6eba83112a]

Get VirtualDub - very cool and FREE http://www.virtualdub.org/index LS

all of the time-limits, activation, etc ONLY apply to the RETAIL product. Corp. customers and OEMs are provided with different bits that eliminate the need. LS

Yeah - maybe we will all be here. Technology may keep us all around for a hundred or so years. In 2112 I will be a 'young' 150 or so. LS:D

.... in about 100 years. Guess we won't be around to see it, but won't 9:12 PM on the 21st day of December in the year 2112 do it: 21:12 21.12.2112 hehehehe LS

The problem could be with the 'BINDER'. Microsoft - in their infinite wisdom - decided to remove the 'binder' feature from XP. You can still use it - but you have to install it from a previous version in order to use it with XP. If you upgraded from Office 2000 it should work --- but a clean install requires you to do a custom install from your Office 2000 CD (select custom install and deselect everything except binder). LS

[b:e2291a1918]you dont write December 25th 2002, so why do 12/25/02 [/b:e2291a1918] But of course that is how you write it. Today is: Feb. 20, 2002 .... so why wouldn't I write that in short hand.. 2....20..2002 ----> or 2/20/2002 --->2/20/02 You Brits kill me...... :D LS

...look for the best deal you can find on GOOD (Crucial) memory. Look through the boards here and you will find more issues caused by crappy RAM than most other HW. LS

When you refer to 'admins' reinstalling at 2:00 am --- sounds like a company situation. In that case - you will probably have the 'Corporate' version of .NET If that is like the coporate version of XP - you will not have to activate it. LS

LS:mad: :mad:

[b:2b581977ab]Keygen routine producing valid WinXP product keys?[/b:2b581977ab] Here is an interesting bit of news from The Register... Check it out at: http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/24065.html Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........ LS

[b:4decf590c3]barnettrp[/b:4decf590c3] Try this link. I followed these instructions to get 98 on a Win2000 system but they should work for XP as well. http://content.techweb.com/winmag/windows/...oot/default.htm hope it help.... LS LS Dragons, read the announcements, we recently allowed active linking - AaronXP - Admin[/color:4decf590c3]

[b:654e64817e]itzbinnice[/b:654e64817e] - one thing you might want to think about. If you format the XP drive NTFS - you will not be able to see it or access the files o it with Win98. So if you need to use the file on the XP drive when you are in Win98 - you need to use XP's Fat32. LS

Gotta show my age here - but back in the day ( DOS ) you could find all kinds of autoexec.bat pranks - naked pictures - unauthorized access - a big blank screen that looks like a dead puter etc. We used to pull the same tricks over and over on this guy and he never seemed to figure it out. What fun! LS

Yeah - I always do a clean install too. Actually, I have been reading his newsletter for several years - he used to write for Windows Magazine - before they went kaput. He generally has some pretty interesting stuff in the newsletter. LS

I just ran across this article in the Scott Finnie Newsletter (highly recommended: h*tp://www.scotfinnie.com). I know there have been arguments/threads regarding the performance of NTFS on the board - so read and get your system performance back up to snuff. I will be interested to see some benchmark data ........ [b:ddd8da7fd1]LS_Dragons[/b:ddd8da7fd1] NTFS PART III: HOW TO MAKE NTFS GO FASTER ------------------------------------------------------------------- In the last two issues of this newsletter I've run one of my inadvertent series -- this one on Windows XP's NTFS file system. I had no idea I was about to touch off an avalanche of questions and reveal a large problem for Windows XP users. Or even better, that I was about to publish an NTFS performance solution. I explained about cluster sizes in NTFS in the first in the series: h*tp://www.scotfinnie.com/newsletter/19.htm#filesys In short, Windows XP's NTFS file system is even more storage efficient than Win98's FAT32. And it can be at least as fast as FAT32. It's also more reliable. But there is one very big problem. When you install Windows XP as an upgrade of a previous version of Windows running FAT16 or FAT32 and convert to NTFS as part of setup or after the fact, in most cases you end up with tiny 512-byte cluster sizes. This occurs because of the way the data is aligned on the disk and the NTFS conversion process as carried out by Microsoft's Convert utility. PowerQuest's PartitionMagic 7.0 uses the Microsoft utility, so it has the same issues. The surprising truth is that some new PCs also arrive with 512-byte cluster sizes. So if you've got a new Windows XP box that runs slow, you should definitely check out what I'm about to explain. In the last issue, I alluded to a possible solution: h*tp://www.scotfinnie.com/newsletter/20.htm#filesys A little-known program called Paragon Partition Manager, created by a group of Russian programmers working for Paragon Software, has in its latest version, 5.0, added the ability to dynamically adjust cluster sizes. Paragon Partition Manager 5.0: h*tp://www.partition-manager.com/n_pm_main.htm Paragon Partition Manager 5.0 Features Details: h*tp://www.partition-manager.com/n_pm_requir.htm Paragon Partition Manager isn't generally marketed in the U.S., although you can purchase it on the Internet, where it sells for about $40: Where To Buy Paragon Partition Manager: h*tp://www.partition-manager.com/n_pm_buy.htm None of the popular disk utilities marketed in the U.S. is capable of pulling off this feat yet. But Partition Manager does it, and does it well. To prove the point, I acquired a copy of Paragon Partition Manager 5.0 from the company and configured a test system. I had an existing drive containing a clean Windows 98 Second Edition installation on my trusty Compaq Armada 700 (the best Compaq product I've ever worked with) notebook PC. I ran a standard Windows XP upgrade installation, which took a while, but completed just fine. I also converted to NTFS. When all the files were copied and the changes made, it was immediately apparent to me that my performance eroded markedly. It took Windows forever to load, and disk-intensive tasks ran like molasses in January. In fact, I was surprised by how slow the machine became. I had been led to believe that 512-byte clusters slowed the machine down incrementally, but the reality was much worse. Next I used Windows' Disk Defragmenter to check the cluster size on my hard disk. To do that, you open Disk Defragmenter from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Right-click the appropriate drive and choose Analyze. When the analysis is complete, click the View Report button. There you see a line that reads Cluster Size = XX KB. In my case, it showed 512- bytes, the smallest, slowest cluster size NTFS allows. The optimum size is 4K clusters. I was ready to try Paragon Partition Manager. I'll tell you upfront that there are two problems with this product. The first is the user interface, which needs help. But it's usable. The second is that before you make the cluster size change, block out several hours of time for your PC. Overnight might be a good idea. You may save yourself some time by running a defrag before you run the cluster- size conversion, but you'll find that Disk Defragmenter also runs very slowly when your cluster sizes are 512-bytes. The time factor thing is variable. While it took me four hours to convert the cluster size on a 12GB notebook drive, it took one SFNL reader only a few minutes and another one over six hours. I asked the Paragon people about that and they wouldn't commit to even a range of time you can expect this process to take. Reading between the lines, this large difference from PC to PC in the time it takes to run the conversion is normal. The user interface issue comes into play when you do the cluster conversion because nothing says "Convert to 4K Cluster Size." But I can save you that pain. Once you have Paragon Partition Manager running, select the NTFS drive whose clusters you want to convert. From the program menu, choose Partition > Modify > Change cluster size. Dial the "Sectors/Cluster" spinner up to the number 8. Press OK. (If you select 4 in this scroll box, you'll get 2K clusters -- not the desired outcome.) The conversion process requires that Windows XP reboot. Maybe you'll be lucky and have the fast-track conversion. If not, I can promise you this, it'll be worth the wait. As soon as the conversion completed for me my performance was back to FAT32 levels. All that was left to do was run Disk Defrag again, both to check the cluster size and also to defrag the disk. Do both things. A couple final notes on NTFS this week. First, I've received a ton of email about NTFS that I haven't had time to get to. Many offer interesting info or questions deserving response. I will continue to cover NTFS in future issues. The other point is that Microsoft is continuing to investigate issues people have had with slow NTFS performance on new Windows XP PCs. The company is working with some of SFNL's readers on that point. I hope to get some sort of report back from Microsoft -- and if so, I'll publish it in a future issue. My take though? The steps in this issue will probably fix your problem, assuming you're willing to shell out for the Paragon product. I'd like to thank SFNL readers Jerry Bass, Tom Synder, Tom Duda, and literally scores of others who volunteered excellent information, donated hours of their time, and asked smart questions. Many of the best things in this newsletter come not from me, but from its readers. And for that I'm eternally grateful.

Try getting TweakUI - it has an option for renaming and deleting the recycle bin. Maybe it will let you put it back. OR Try using regedit and navigate to this key: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTCLSID{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}ShellFolder If the key exists, then the recycle bin is still there. Double click on Attributes in the right pane and enter the following value: 70010020 Good luck... LS

Here is one I have just noticed in the last few days. I play streaming radio (broadcast.com) quite often. Sometimes (don't know why) the streaming IE window will 'generate an error'. I get the option to send error report to Microsoft, etc. If I send the error report, all IE windows then close. If I just let the Send Error Report option sit there - IE just keeps on working. If the **** thing caused an error that requires reporting to MS - why is it still working???? Pretty funny huh? LS

... sometimes, the most obvious and easiest solutions are the hardest to find. Open Explorer and go to C drive. Find Recycle Bin in the file and folder list. Right Click on it and then select Send To Desktop (Create Shortcut). That should do it...... LS_Dragons

.... in another thread? By double posting, you are going to get the same series of questions and answers you already got. It is either your hardware router, firewall, or your administrator priveleges. In order to send files - messenger (or any other client) needs to be able to broadcast it's IP address. A router is translating that IP address into a local address. Try studying up on how routers and NAT etc work and you will have your answer........ LS