Guide on Formatting a Windows Based PC
well i suppose most of you will be knowing but still just thought ill write one for newbies who dont know or ppl who need help
ok here is the way! njoy happy formatting
Formatting a computer with Windows 98:
Req. Items : Windows 98 Startup Disk or Win 98 Setup CD(recommended)
Windows 98 will work on both FAT and FAT32 partitions.. but never on a NTFS so here are the steps..
:arrow: STEP 1
Change Bios Boot Sequence. you can do this by Hitting the DEL or sumtimes F1 key when u switch on the computer.Once in the BIOS Change the boot sequence by entering the Advanced Bios Features or similar phrase. Make the First Boot device to CD-ROM. Now save the settings and Exit the BIOS
:arrow: STEP 2
now that your Boot Sequence is changed you will land up on a screen asking two options
1)Boot From Hard Disk
2)Boot From CD-ROM
Select the Second option and boot from the CD ROM
now you will be taken in to the option below..
1)Setup Windows 98 from CD
2)Start Computer with CD-ROM support
3)Start Computer without CD-ROM support
Select the Second option upon which you will be taken to the screen with
A:\>
now type
A:\>fdisk (then press enter)
:arrow: STEP 3
The first screen as soon as you type fdisk and press enter comes with an option in the bottom of the screen select Y (this is to make sure u are installing a FAT32 type partition)
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incase u want it in FAT16 key in N and press enter
Now the FDISK options will be like this
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remember ull have the 5th option only if u have two Hard Drives installed.
Now Select the 3rd option if u already have existing partitions..
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Here delete the Partition in this order First the Logical Drives then the
Extended Drives and finally the Primary you cant do it anyother way.
Now that you have no partitions we can proceesd on how to create them
Now select the first option Create a Dos Partition
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here select the first option again
now you will be prompted with the option of taking the whole drive for primary Partition
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Please Select N If you want more than one partition
now you will get the option of selecting the disk space fot that partition
Please Select N If you want more than one partition
now you will get the option of selecting the disk space fot that partition
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after selecting press enter
now it will automatically create the partition and after it finishes press the ESC key to return to the main BIOS menu. There you will find a Warning message saying the Partition is not set active and unless you set it active it cannot be used
so now select the 2 option and it will prompt u to select the partition to be set active press 1 and press enter key
now that the partition is active you can either create more partitions or leave it there.In case u need more select the 1st option and then select the 2nd option of Creating an Extended partition.
now when it asks you for the amount of space to be taken jus give the whole remaining space it will automatically say that no logical drives are defined and it will create logical now say you have 2 GB left make sure each partition is above 512 MB as 512 MB will be made into FAT16 partition so say you are selecting
1024 MB i.e 1 GB it will create the partition and come back to the same screen now u have 1 GB left jus select it and press enter now you will have one more partition.
Now your computer has 3 partitions
C:\ (primary)
D:\ (Extended Logical)
E:\ (Logical)
now get out of the Fdisk by pressing ESC key until u reach A:\> now press ctrl+alt+del and restart the system again follow the steps i.e boot from cdrom and start comp with cd rom support. now befor you land up A:\> ull get a message above saying F:\> is the Media drive so Type F: and press enter
Now you will be taken in to the F:\> drive i.e the CD-Rom drive
default the win98 directory is this way
F:\>cd win98
F:\Win98>_
now type Format C: and press enter you will get a warning that all data will be lost press Y and press enter now the formatting will start
After a few mins the formatting of the C: is over now it will ask you for the Disk label say u can keep any thing.. like hello or wat any darn thing
similarly type Format D: and E: seperatly and format them and assign them Driver Label if you want
incase you dont want drive label just press enter without typing anything
thats it your done.You have successfully learnt to create,edit and format partitons based on FDISK(fat16,fat32) now ull be in the path
F:\Win98>_
Type Setup and press enter and you will be guided thro the setup process of Installing the Win 98
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thats it for now will edit when i find time to write the procedure of NTFS partitions using WIN2K and XP
P.S incase you notice mistakes(there cld be sum) pls tell it
Make Your Own System Security Suite!!!!
A System Security Suite is one which bundles all the required tools for complete System Protection, like AntiVirus, Firewall, AntiSpyware, File cleaners, Registry Cleaners etc. For example Norton Internet Security, System Mechanic etc.
I saw many posts asking which Security Suite is better, which is lighter, Which is the best free AV and some thing like that. One of the common replies was that Security suites were highly resource hungry and some of the best AVs are Bloatwares! And all of them are Commercial softwares and they cost a bomb!
How about making or rather assembling your own Security Suite, which consists all the required tools? These tools in the assembled Suite are very efficient and powerful. Moreover your Security Suite is completely FREE!
Read on.............
:arrow: AntiVirus:-
Well, Viruses need no introduction, do they? To battle them you need an AntiVirus!
AVG 7 Free AntiVirus, AntiVir and Avast are some of the few full fledged free AnitViruses. Full fledged AV means that, it should at least have Real Time scanner, On Demand scanner, Mail scanner, Automatic Updates.
AVG, Avast and AntiVir satisfy all the above conditions and have good Virus detection, Features, and Quick updates and is also very light on resources. You don't have to worry about any Viruses, Worms or Trojans sneaking into your PC!
:arrow:AntiSpyware:-
Spywares, Adwares and Hijackers (collectively called as Malwares, short for Malicious Softwares) can do major damages to the system. Notorious malwares like CoolWebSearch, VX2 etc are very hard to remove and are not detected/completely removed by the AntiVirues. This calls in for a special dedicated tool, AntiSpyware!
AdAware and SpyBot SnD are very good AntiSpywares which have frequently updated large database of Malwares.
SpyBot SnD has one cool tool built into it called as TeaTimer, this TeaTimer monitors the System continuously and protects the System files and Registry from Malwares.
SpyBot SnD also adds a BHO to the Internet Explorer, by using this SpyBot blocks the bad downloads(like installation of ActiveX components, BHOs by Spywares without the knowledge of the user) automatically. These two softwares are a must have in every computer.
Windows XP users can also install MS AntiSpyware, which uses Giant's database, and has a pretty good detection rate.
:arrow: Anti Trojan:-
Not all Trojan Horses are detected by AntiVirues and AntiSpyware. So you should have softwares which specialize in the removal of Trojans. So called BackDoor Trojans open your PC from the inside to attackers, which enables the person/website who sent the Trojan to monitor your PC. Even worse variant is so called RATware, short for Remote Administration Tool, which enables a hacker to control your PC!
a2 Free is the best free Anti Trojan (and Anti Malware) software available. Currently a2 Free has a database of some 94,000 Trojans, Dialers, Worms and Spywares. And this will grow since it has frequent updates to database.
Antoher good AntiTrojan available for Free is Ewido Security Suite, this comes as 14 day trial after which special features are disabled and free, basic version can be used. It's better to have both the scanners.
:arrow: Immunize!:-
Above softwares detect and remove Virues and Malwares present in the PC, but they can not prevent them from sneaking into your system (except Real Time scanner of the AntiVirus to an extent).
SpywareBlaster prevents the installation of Malwares into system. SpywareBlaster need not be running in the background, but it's a run once tool.
It's working principle can be described as follows, many Spywares, Hijackers which come through ActiveX components, make certain Registry entries called as CLSIDs. SpywareBlaster has a database of these bad CLSIDs. When we run SpywareBlaster once, it sets the Kill Bit of the bad CLSID as 1, this means, the corresponding ActiveX component are never called by Internet Explorer, thus preventing it's execution. So this prevents the execution of these Spywares even though they are in the PC. This is something like Immunization!
:arrow: Firewall
There will be many virtual Ports in a computer. These ports are either open or closed. When the PC is connected to Internet, many Worms, Hackers scan for the open ports of PC connected, if they find an open port, they try to sneak in the System without the user's knowledge. Popular attack of this type is SQL Slammer worm attack, known as HellKern. You would never know what's happening in the background.
To prevent these port scanning and other malicious attacks, Firewalls should be installed.
Firewalls act as barrier between PC and Net, and filter the data that is being transmitted and received. Also, Firewalls block all the open ports so that port scanning will be unsuccessful.
A popular Free Firewall is ZoneAlarm, this is one critically acclaimed Firewall. ZoneAlarm is very light on System resources and it blocks each and every baddies without failure!
Other good free Firewalls worth a try is Kerio Personal, Sygate Personal and OutPost Personal.
:arrow: Clean that junk!
After some time of PC usage, junk/temp files start to accumulate. This eats up space, and also functions as favorite hide out for viruses and malwares. So it's necessary to clean up the junk regularly. CleanUp! and CCleaner are very good Free cleaners available. They clean the every bit of junk in the system. Just run them before shutting down your PC or after disconnected from Internet to remove the junk.
Anther good junk cleaner is GLock Temp Cleaner, this along with cleaning junk files, has one extra feature that is it lists all the archives present in the System, and later we can delete the unwanted archives.
:arrow: Registry Cleaner:-
If any Softwares are installed in a PC, it makes a Registry entry. Registry entries are also created by softwares to remember the user's preferences like "Recently opened files" etc. These entries should be theoretically removed when the specific software or file is removed. But, many a times this does not happen. This leads to the accumulation of large number of junk in the registry. This degrades the System performance. This is where Registry Cleaners come into picture.
RegCleaner is one of the best free Registry cleaners available. Apart from cleaning, it has plenty of other features like Startup information, File type Editing etc.
:arrow: Miscellaneous Tools:-
This is a list of free tools which perform some specialized tasks. SpywareGuard is small real time bad download protection tool, which works in a similar manner of SpywareBlaster. This actively monitors Internet Explorer and blocks any malicious ActiveX Components, BHOs and Tracking Cookies.
MRUBlaster is a small tool from the house Javacoolsoftware which makes SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard. This nifty utility scans the computer for MRU lists (Most Recently Used lists are the history kept by the applications or Windows itself like recently opened documents, search items, files opened etc). MRUBlaster can scan and remove up to 30000 different MRU entries.
McAfee Stinger is an On demand virus remover which can detect and remove some 55 (and growing) common and dangerous Viruses , Trojans and their variants.
If you get all the above softwares, and use them regularly, then you are safe, well almost! All these softwares are completely free offering as much protection as their Commercial counterparts provide.
Finally our own Security Suite consists of:-
:arrow: AntiVirus ---------- AVG or Avast or AntiVir
:arrow: Firewall------------- ZoneAlarm or Kerio or OutPost or Sygate
:arrow: AntiSpyware------- SpyBot SnD, AdAware and MS AntiSpyware
:arrow: AntiTrojan---------- a2 Free and Ewido
:arrow: Immunization------ SpywareBlaster
:arrow: Junk Cleaners------ CleanUp! and CCleaner
:arrow: Registry Cleaner--- RegCleaner
:arrow: Misc. Tools---------- SpywareGuard, MRUBlaster, McAfee Stinger
:arrow: Alternate Browsers:-
Since Internet Explorer has many vulnerabilities, it's easy for malicious Websites to drop baddies into the System. Main target areas are Plugins for IE, BHOs, ActiveX components, Toolbars for IE. Spywares/Trojans masquerade as above these Add-ons for IE, and can do their job effectively!
So, it's safer to switch to alternate browsers like FireFox and Opera. These browsers, by design do not support the above listed AddOns (Two reasons for that! One is they are MS Technologies and the second one is of course, Security!).
These browsers also offer many user friendly features like Tabbed Browsing, Inbuilt Downloader with Resume support, faster page loading etc.[/code]
MAKE WINXP STARTUP/SHUTDOWN FASTER !
How to reduce WinXP StartUp/Shutdown times ?
over the last 6 m since i started using a pc, i used to get really **** off sitting & twidling my thumbs, till my WinXP/SP1, started/shutdown.
So i looked around to see how i could reduce these times. here are my observations. if you can add to them or correct me, pls do so.
1. restrict the no. of start-ups. i have only igfxTray.exe. hkcmd.exe, ctfmon.exe as my start-ups; and my pc works just fine.
2. disable services which one may not require. if one does not connect to the internet or if your pc is a stand-alone one, there may b sevral services which u can disable or switch over to manual mode. auto-starting of services and closing down of services takes time & resources. these can be saved.
3. enable boot defragmentation, so that files used during start-up are clubbed together.
4. reducing visual effects (winxp eye candy) can also help save it.
5. disable : "clear page file on shutdown" option. cleaning the page-file on every shut down means overwriting the data by zeros, and it takes time.
6. fine tune your registry regularly.
there are also some BIOS hacks like enabling Quick Post, disabling Boot-Up Floppy Seek, diabling Boot Daly. but i dont know how to do it and its presently out of my league. ive alraedy had to reformat by pc 6 times in the last 6 mnths since i bot it, trying these and all other types of stunts !
Generally people also recommend emptying the Prefetch directory every
week. But i believe Window uses this directory to speed up launching
applications. It analyzes the files you use during startup and the applications you launch, and it creates an index to where those files and applications are located on your hard disk. By using this index, XP can launch files and applications faster. So, by emptying the directory, are we not, most likely slowing down launching applications; even during start-up ?
Utilities like WinPatrol or Tune-Up can help you in all of the above.
U can also try using ZOOM by dacshundsoftware.the same company that makes Hare
Hiding user account in win xp
Hopefully someone will find this useful. Ive done this on my machine as well.
To a hide an account to display on the welcome screen of xp here is a nifty way:
1. Open regedit
2. Browse to
Hkey_local_machine> software>microsoft>windows nt>winlogon>special Accounts>Userlist
Here you will see a list of all accounts on XP which are hidden and dont display on welcome screen. Yes XP does create useless accounts as you see there.
3. Go on the right pane, right click, create a new dword value with its name as the exact username you want to hide and its value as "0" without the quotes.
Now if you have only one account on XP and you want to hide it, DO NOT DO THE ABOVE! READ BELOW AND FOLLOW A NEW PROCEDURE
If you do this accidently, it will make an infinite restart loop in your computer. If you accidently do it, then just login in safe mode and remove the value you just set in the regedit.
If you only have one account and want to do this, you will have to disable welcome screen & fast user switching in USERS in control panel.
What I did was: create a dummy limited account for people who want to access my machine sometimes. And I hided my own account using the proceedure mentioned.
To access this hidden account from the welcome screen press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice and you can enter your username and password.
Note: Might I add a disclaimer that I take no responsibility if someone manages to mess up their computer using the procedure above. Backup your registry thats all I want to suggest.
disabling the f8 key for bootup
Find the file msdos.sys which can be find at c\msdos.sys. Since this is a hidden system file, you will have to make it writeable by changing it’s attributes by going to the DOS Prompt and typing the following
go to the root directory
C\Windows>cd\
Then make msdos.sys writeable and unhide it by typing
C\>attrib msdos.sys –h –w
3)Open msdos.sys in WordPad
4) You will see something that looks like this
;FORMAT
[Paths]
WinDir=C\WINDOWS
WinBootDir=C\WINDOWS
HostWinBootDrv=C
[Options]
BootMenu=0 (default)
BootMulti=1
BootGUI=1
DoubleBuffer=1
AutoScan=1
WinVer=4.10.1998
;
;The following lines are required for compatibility with other programs.
;Do not remove them (MSDOS.SYS needs to be >1024 bytes).
;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxa
To disable the function keys during bootup, directly below [Options] you insert the following piece of code
"BootKeys=0."
(Without the quotes of course.)
Now instead of inserting the BootKeys command you can also insert the following command
"BootDelay=0."
Not many people know about the BootDelay=0 command so that along with the BootKeys command does make your machine safer. Then save msdos.sys.
5) Since msdos.sys is an important system file you should change it’s attributes back to read only and hidden by typing
c>attrib msdos.sys +h +r
Windows XP Services that can be Safely set to MANUAL!!!
When we install windows XP, there r many services running in background. Among them many services r useless and can be set manual to make our windows faster.
In this tutorial I'm telling the services which can be safely set to MANUAL.
How to do it?
1.) Right-click on My Computer icon on desktop and select Manage, it'll open a window, in which goto: Services & Application -> Services. To disable or Set it to MANUAL, double-click on service and select What u want in Startup list box.
2.) U can also open the same by going to Administrative Tools and open Computer Management.
NOTE:- Always set the service to MANUAL, never disable it. So that whenever windows needs to start a service it can easily start and use it. If u set ne service DISABLE, then windows can not enable it and will give ERROR...
Some service may be system dependent, like setting some services MANUAL can work on many systems but can make some systems not working if they required that service to run. Thats why always check the services one by one, and in case windows gives ERROR, u can re-enable that service by starting the system in SAFE MODE.
So here is the list of services that can be safely set to MANUAL (Many of them may be disabled automatically on some systems):
Alerter
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client (If u hv NTFS partition, then don't disable it)
Fast User Switching Capability (removes Switch Users option)
Indexing service
Internet Connection Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing
Messenger
Remote Registry (Always disable it for Security purposes)
Secondary Logon
Server
System Restore (If u don't use System Restore)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Upload Manager
Wireless Zero Configuration
U may find more services according to ur requirements!
