breadandbubbles

alright, so far, the advice ive received in these forums has been fantastic. ive learned so much from the posts here, its unbelieveable. i have an immense amount of respect for the knowledge shared here. but i cant imagine. how anyone could help me with this. i have been having some strange problems in Windows XP Pro. just a huge build up of registry errors and spyware and....well. we all have to go through that learning phase. right? so i decide to reformat. i have a 250gb hard drive, so i put 80gb aside, neatly organized all my files, and put them on the partition. in this partition I also put all my installers. i keep every installer i download that i use. every single one. i even keep disc images of my driver disc, microsoft office disc, etc. so i format my C: partition. The one with windows on it, naturally. i boot up for the first time and i am extremely pleased with having a clean install on windows, and its only a matter of bringing all ym files back and going through relatively painless and sometimes educational experience of updating my software. i like doing it. i have no interest in integrating these apps into my windows install. no nlite. no unattended. i like it the old fashioned way. anyway, heres where my problem came in: i had installed a number of applications, Office, Microsoft Student, WinRAR, Alcohol 120%, etc. whatever. when suddenly my PC rebooted. and i dont mean shut down properly. i just mean...rebooted. as if i hit the button. alright fine. maybe i kicked the reset button. no problem. but then..and i couldnt believe it..... once my desktop had come back, my icons and taskbar had about 2 seconds to settle in before my pc rebooted again. i noticed as windows loaded the second time, that when that startup windows happens where it says..i cant really remember..."windows is initializing" or something liekt hat? whatever message appears before the logon screen, which i had turned off so it just said "welcome"......well...it took like....30 seconds. and when the desktop appeared, i quickly hit "ctrl+alt+delete". i dont know why. its all i could think of. but i didnt have time! my pc rebooted again! this time i tried hitting F1 as it was booting, trying to get it to boot in safe mode or something. it wont respond! it just booted up, and reboooted. again! on and on. i walked away for a phone call for about 20 minutes, came back, and it was still int his continuous cycle! so....i quick formatted the partition. reinstalled windows. and tried again. this time, i decided, that maybe it was one particular application. so after every installation, no matter how trivial, i would restart, to see if it was the culprit. one by one, i instaleld. finally, after...i had lost count of how many, but finally, it went into that cycle again. same thing. so this time i did a FULL format. the long version. waited an hour or whatever. blah blah blah, the last app i installed was Alcohol 120%, and it didnt even have time for me to finish looking at the message saying "you need to reboot for the settings to take efft..." before...it rebooted. all on its own. now i KNOW acohol isnt the culprit because the time before that i installed it as like..my third installation! and actually set it up! and it worked fine! . this time it was WORSE though. NOW, it doesnt even make it to the desktop. NOW, that "windows is initializing thing" comes up for a full two/two-and-a-half minutes, before rebooting. i neevr see the desktop. and i cant reboot in safe mode! the worst thing about this is that CLEARLY, reformatting it does nothing. nothing at all. the problem keeps coming back. so what do i do? throw away my reently built-by-myself PC? im pretty much literally sititng here waiting for an answer from you fine kind merciful folks. end my torment. please. what can i posibley do?! * Title edited * Please, use [TAGS] in your topic's title. Follow new rules --Sonic

alright, i am an Alcohol 120% user. it works GREAT, and its extremely uncomplicated. i dnt know why anyone would want to use anything else. but then i tried playing a disc image on Black and White. it didnt work, because i was using a virtual cd drive (actually, if anyone knows how to help me out with that, please do. is there a way to save my game to my hard drive so i dont have to use the discs?) so i thought id tr Daemon. see if that would work. and ....MAN. i couldnt believe it. first, after i rebooted, i had probblems. my screen went black. so i rebooted again and it gave me the option to boot with my last known good configuration. after i finally got back into windows, i finished the installation, and alarms started ringing. antivirus programs, spywar programs, firewalls. just....red windows popping up everywhere. apparently, theres adware in Daemon. why would i want that? so now i just use alcohol again. i jsut wanted to take this chance to say that i was incredibely disappointed with Daemon considering everything ive heard. im hoping someone can enlighten me, maybe help me use alcohol to play black and white, or show me a way to play the game off my harddrive. otherwise, tell me why i should like daemon. really, why?

you have tried just going to control panel and, under networks or whatever, clicked "create a workgroup"? it gives you the option to create a network setup disk after you set up the network on any one PC. or, the easiest way. create the workgroup on each PC. just make sure each has the same workgroup name. youll get to a part where you have to name the workgroup. its defaul "MSHOME" i think. anyway, mine "LEMONPIE". i tried making it distinguishable so id know it when i saw it. if you just do that with all of your PCS, they should autodetect each other. its like...tuning walkie-talkies to the same frequency. just name the frequency!

i knew id get suggestions to use winamp man, i lvoe windows media player. all it needs and some codecs, and it rocks. i love its library format. easy to use. but if it uses so much in resources, i guess i have no choice. i figured i had enough resources to give though. 3.2 Ghz is a lot. ah well. ill have to try winamp... its rerally interesting to hear you say that though LLXX. ive been wanting to overclock for a while, just to squeeze out another few hundred Mhz, but my temp. is so **** HIGH. i think youre veryy right about underclcking, but if i could get my CPU temp down, could i actually overclock it?

alright, i had a huge problem placing this one. it seems that windows media player is the problem but im definately eyeing my system in general, also windows media player 10 is, i thought anyway, exlusive to Windows XP. so if anyone wants to move this thats fine, and im sorry. but im certain im having a problem with Windows. alright, to get started. when i play music via Windows Media Player 10 on my Windows XP Pro PC, it stutters. freezes up. i have a 1GB (two 512 sticks of OCZ DDR2 800mhz ram), and a 3.2 ghz pentium (i know, i KNOW, i shouldve gone with AMD). anyway in my system processes it says im using up about 55 - 65 percent of my CPU. man. it DOES NOT take that much CPU to play a song! it also says "system" is using about 25 percent. now, i have noticed my PC is running hottish. i mean i know its a prescott, but its running on idle at about 60 degrees celcius. i posted last year about a freezing system and asked if it was heat and when that was confirmed, i got some ARCTIC SILVER and brought my CPU temp down like 15 degrees on idle. \ very nice. but its STILL freezes up easily. do i need to invest in some serious heat sink? or is it something to do with XP? because windows media player certainly doesnt use that much CPU. oh i should clarify that ive always had this problem. is there any more information i need to post that might help anyone reading this? just let me know (and let me know how to find it). thanks all.

thanks guys!

this is probabaly a straightforward thing, but i cant find a way, anywhere, to have default folder settings. for instance, in My Documents i, like most people, have a My Music folder. in that folder i have folders by artists, subfoldering the artists albums. in each album, whever i go there, i have to go to view -> details. and then i have to choose which details to display, because the default istn to my liking. for example, i like to see the bitrates, but the default has no bit rates, so i have to right click the top bar and choose bitrates. with EVERY FOLDER. is there a way to apply a default setting or something? anyone?

i know that to play certain audio/video files you need the codec, and this problem i have sort of makes me think of that. in Audiograbber, as well as Nero 7's Audio Encoding program, you have the ability to rip music from cd's and i believe even convert audio files to different formats. but in both cases you are limitied to a very low bitrate. unless you pay. nero sells keys that when you enter them will enable you to convert audio files with higher bit rates and so, higher quality. theres a 30 song trial of this MP3Pro encoder, but i was wondering if theres a free version of such a thing. when you download a codec it becomes enabled in most of your video players, and i was thinking that if someone could tell me about an encoder, it would work in Nero as well as Audiograbber?

....well I liked your post....

alright so iv seen programs that when you open them, you get a neat menu type thing and then you can choose a program to install. my friend did it with the entire adobe collection once. it was neat! how do i do it? i got to thinking about this because that guy asked about a multi iso dvd iso. i was thinking itd be neat to have a dvd autorun a menu that you just pick a program from that you want to install. any suggestions?

god i would Love something like that!

hmm...the best advice i can give is not to use the disc-at-once feature. turn that off before burning next time. otherwise...it looks like its burning fine, its just not closing the session properly. you might have to just close the session on disc. i cant remember what menu its on. but up at the top there. recorder? extras? one of those.

i really need to recover some files on a windows 2000 system, possibley on a limited account but i doubt it. help me out please? ridiculously urgent.

as a kid i always dreamed that when i was older they would finally start releasing music on a media big enough to actually layer each sound, instead of meshing them together in one song. wouldnt that eb BRILLIANT?! you just..hit the guitar button and all you hear is guitar. or the voice? they could do it too. it would be so easy to do... hey, wheres that guy who wants to write software for free?

okay. EVERYONE. FOR NOW ON, can you PLEASE try saying what the idea you posted is instead of just "i posted yay!" obviously no list is going to happen, so how bout we put some effort in to make one as go along?

man ive ALWAYS wanted something like that, but i dont know if it even exists.

man, it always made me sort of happy that they never kept going with starcraft. i mena its been like 8 years and its still for sale in futurehsop or bestbuy or wherever. i mean that game is GOOD. the BEST. i dunno, when they pump sequels out year after year, it subtracts, ya know? from the experience. feels too corporate. but i think eight years is long enough. i want starcraft ghost NOW.

whats "patched notepad"?

i really dont see any room for debate...the xbox is far better than playstation. the online capabilities, the harddrive, the 9 ft. long controller cords on their first xbox. they want their customers to be happy! this new system of theirs has everything, while still maintaining the classification of "gaming console", not pc. there is nothing about the ps2 thats better than the xbox. of course i dont mean graphics. naturally, the latest system will often have the best graphics. PS3 will look better than xbox360, and xbox 3 will look better than PS3. of course, thats why xbox looks better on screen than PS2... but ps2 didnt even TRY to offer good services. i HATE memory cards! i love putting my music on the harddrive and listening to custom tracks as i play. some of you out there might be saying "but the PS2 GAMEs are better than xbox!" well my friends, that is becoming less and less of an issue. if any of you have looked, these new xbox360 games are pretty much the same price as the xbox games from the first system. most systems have to maintain a low price to be competitive. not to MENTION the incredible rise in hacking and modding lately. so how is it that game developers can still charge the same prices, with the cost of developing increasing due to the complexity and graphics, of the games, but without experienceing a serious increase in sales? porting! thats right my friends, it will be very far and few between that you will find a game exclusive for only one system. sure, every system has their own line. mario, for instance. PS2 has a number, so does xbox. but more and more you are seeing that virtually all decent games are becoming available for more than one system. its basically coming down to the system now, not the games (more and more, i mean. not yet though). and xbox is a far better system in general, putting aside all graphic capabilities which improve with eack system anyway.

thanks guys! what does this BIOS password do? is there already a thread about it?

is it just another name for version 9.0? is there a Photoshop 9.0 without the "CS2"?

???

encryption is only as good as my password, from what i understand. i had Zonealarm recently. it was very...noisy? and i noticed it did not catch everything. ill check out Tiny. is Kerio any good?

thanks Cluberti, that shared user toolkit is basically what im looking for to solve most of my problems, but theres still that accessibility issue to my account. Ghostrider, is there honestly nothing i can do? i understand what Cluberti said about "reducing your attack surface", but other than that, i was hoping for someway to block against attempts to my account. i guess its impossible to block against everything though eh? i guess ill just have to settle for the simple solutions microsoft gives me. and a decent firewall. SPEAKING OF WHICH. i have sygate, and the GUI is just AWFUL. it works great, but im starting to think it just isnt worth the terrible gui. does anyone have a reasonable recomendation of a good GUI that still works effectively?

****! anything i can do to prevent it? CMON man! there has to be SOME way to keep my PC safe!