Kok Choon Kow wrote:


One of the most frequent asked question about Windows is “Why and How” to speed up the Internet connection. What I am going to show you is applicable to Windows Vista and XP.

Step #1 - Optimize Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) and TCP Receive Windows (RWIN) with SpeedGuide TCP Optimizer

TCP Optimizer is free, and you can download it at SpeedGuide web site, just types “SG TCP Optimizer” into Google or any major search engine, you should be able to find it. It will help you to detect and configure the proper registry settings for your TCP network connection, automatic set the proper value for MTU and RWIN into registry. Remember to restart Windows after this setting.

Step #2 - Turn off TCP Auto tuning

In order for previous settings to activate, you need to turn off TCP auto tuning in Vista:

i) Press Windows key and type ” cmd. exe”, then CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to run as Administrator. In the command Window, type ” netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disable”, then enter.

ii) If you want to reactivate auto tuning, type ” netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=normal”.

If you find your Internet connection drop or slower after turning off TCP auto tuning, just reactivate it again.

Step #3 - Use OpenDNS

Your ISP DNS server will affect your Internet connection response, you can try a better and faster DNS server, and OPENDNS is a fast and free DNS server. Unfortunately, some country’s connection is too slow to use this service.

Step# 4 - Use Google Web Accelerator (GWA)

Every major web browser will support proxy server, this technology extends by Google web accelerator will establish a tunneling connection between your low bandwidth computer to Google high bandwidth server, and Google will compress the data before sending it over to your web browser, so overall performance increased!

The formula is simple: Google web accelerator downloads the destination page faster with high speed connection, then compressed it with the super fast server processing power before sending it over to your computer, and your low bandwidth connection will be faster because smaller data is sending across, then Google web accelerator on your computer will unpack and send the data to web browser.

Step #5 - Use faster web browser

Try to install a faster web browser from Mozilla Firefox or Apple Safari, they use less resources and generally far more faster than Internet Explorer. You ought to keep Internet Explorer for special web sites, but you can enjoy a faster browsing speed with Firefox and Safari.

This concludes your Windows Internet connection speed problems, if this 5 steps does not help, you need to re-install Windows or contact your ISP!

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Free Engineering Guide wrote:


You can share a folder with advanced permissions. You use these permissions to decide who has access to the folder and what those users can do with the folder. You can also apply advanced permissions to entire security groups rather than individual users. For example, if you apply permissions to the Administrators group, those permissions automatically apply to each member of that group.

Before continuing, make sure you have a user account set up for each person who will access the share. Follow these steps to share a folder with advanced permissions:

1. Select Start, and then click your username to open your user profile folder.

2. Click the folder you want to share. If you want to share a subfolder or file, instead, open its folder and then click the subfolder or file.

3. Click the Share button in the task pane. Windows Vista displays the object’s Properties sheet with the Sharing tab selected.

4. Click Advanced Sharing. The User Account Control dialog box appears.

5. Enter your UAC credentials to continue. The Advanced Sharing dialog box appears.

6. Activate the Share This Folder check box.

7. By default, Vista uses the folder name as the share name. If you prefer to use a different name, edit the Share Name text box.

8. In a small network, it’s unlikely you’ll need to restrict the number of users who can access this resource, so you’re probably safe to leave the Limit the Number of Simultaneous Users To spin box value at 10.

9. Click Permissions to display the Permissions for Share dialog box, where Share is the share name you specified in step 7.

10. Select the Everyone group in the Group or User Names list, and then click Remove.

For Complete Story please visit:        http://techanand.com/?p=18

Nick Dodson wrote:


This article is not supposed to be another bashing of the latest Microsoft OS product. I just want to mention a few specifics here to help out my friends in the animation world.

Like a number of folks I have been disappointed and, at times, even frustrated by Windows Vista. Compatibility issues, hardware and software anomalies and the never ending struggle between good and evil I have termed THE CODEC WARS have cost me hours of productivity that could have spent actually creating the things that fulfilled the purpose of my most recent technology purchase. That said, being a person who has worked with, trained others on and repaired/reclaimed technology for the past 13 years, I understand that the more and better the technology, the more and more complex the problems that come with it. So, whatever.

I use a program named CreaToon, version 3.0 , to create simple Flash type animations. It is a very compact and intuitive program. I am thinking of teaching my 4 year old to use it. It’s that simple. Bringing that program to Vista was problematic for one major reason that I recall-the preview window was always black. I am not sure if it was a Microsoft mismanagement of resources or an actual video problem, but after a series of codec updates that accomplished nothing but wasting bandwidth, I solved this problem through the video control panel itself.

I have an NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE adapter on board an HP Pavilion Slimline, dual Athlon 64. When you right click on the desktop, you can select the NVIDIA Control Panel option. This brings up numerous options to control how video elements are represented, 3d and otherwise, on you compy. For CreaToons, I added a program profile and disabled hardware acceleration. This made a smile appear as my preview window showed the little man waving instead of a black void.

Another program that has been around a while is Stop Motion Animator. Obviously this program is used for capturing frames of stop motion animation. It’s superb for onion skinning the frames as you capture them from you camera. The problem here was again not being able to see the preview in SMA of what was appearing on the camera LCD. After a number of failed attempts, the solution, believe or not, actually came from a Windows, um, feature? In Vista you can right click on a program and select the "Properties" option. This gives you a tabbed dialogue. One of the tabs in Vista is "Compatibility". Checking the "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" box gives you access to a list of OS options you can select. I selected XP Service Pack 2 and, just for good measure, chose to run the program as adminstrator. And, voila!! It worked. No hunt for a mystery codec needed. Incidently, running programs as administrator has resolved a number of issues, with Motorola Phone Tools for example. May not be the best way, but it has worked for me.

So there is a sample of my personal, problem-solving experiences with Vista. There are others. Adobe Premiere and After Effects, for example. I do not guarantee that these suggestions will work for you on your particular computer, but who knows? Certainly not tech support. Give it a try. Don’t be afraid of Vista. It’s just and operating system, after all.

Kok Choon Kow wrote:


I was frequently facing corrupted or “dirty” Windows problems every 1 or 2 months, and every re-installation takes me about 1 hour! Therefore, I decided to make a backup plan or something to speed up the process. Then I came across some hard disk imaging software, and indeed it helps a lot!

I plan my pre-installation and separate O.S. (Operating System) from my regular data, organize them into 2 logical drives, C: the O.S. Drive and D: the data drive. I use drive imaging software to backup my O.S. drive into d: the data drive, and I tried to backup entire O.S. drive every time I need to install some software or do a major tweak to my Windows.

If anything will go wrong, I just re-install my Windows in 10 minutes. There are 2 software around that meets this criterion very well:

1. Paragon Drive Backup (Inexpensive solution, I am using it!)

2. Acronis TrueImage (Although my favorite, but a bit pricey.)

I know since Windows XP, you can use restore point to do some backup and restore, but sorry to inform you that this is not guaranteed to recover your O.S. completely, it just saved your registry and some Windows settings, if you ever did caught into trouble, restore point will help you recover some settings but not totally. So restore point is useless to me and constantly taking my Windows valuable resources!

What Windows did is constantly monitoring for any settings changes, and save duplicates of files and data into the reserve area, this not just delay my Windows but also creates waste on my hard disk because ineffective to recover !

Disk imaging software is like taking a snapshot on the hard drive, every setting and programs are saved, you can be absolutely sure everything will be restored to the time you backup!

In Windows Vista, I would recommend you to move your documents to a totally separate drive, let’s say E: for example. You would store your normal email and other database data on D, so every time a restore needed, you won’t have to manually backup them and restore again. When you store your documents on E, keep restore point service on and allow Vista to create multiple versions of your documents (New features in Vista) every time you save the documents.

Configuration in this way will ensure your email and database access with no delay, but allow versioning on your precious documents, and at the same time speed up your C: drive O.S. You can restore your O.S. in 10 minutes without the needs to perform a manual backup on your documents, data and emails.

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Kok Choon Kow wrote:


If you already own a printer since Windows XP, there are chances they won’t work on Vista. To find a Vista compatible hardware, you need to be aware of 3 things. In this article I will show you the 3 principles to get Vista compatible hardware.

Principle #1 - Find the “Certified for Windows Vista” logo.

You need to find the logo on your hardware’s packing box, this logo indicates the hardware is design for Vista, and you can expect the best out of it when working with Vista, the logo might be embedded on your hardware itself.

Principle #2 - Find the “Works with Windows Vista” logo.

This logo indicates compatible with Windows Vista, but might not support some advanced features in Vista. If you are selecting normal black and white printer, there will be no difference between “Certified for” or “Works with” Windows Vista. However, hardware like sound card and 3D video card will have significant differences, because Vista advanced API will enhance both types of hardware’s experience!

Principle #3 - Checks compatible online.

You may visit your vendor’s hardware website for more information, or go to Microsoft Windows Quality Online Service website for lists of compatible hardware.

Using Vista inevitably requires you, and will encourage you to spend more money for better experience! Which is why gamer likes Vista a lot! (Hate them as well, when comes to compatibility!) Many users will migrate to Vista for better experience, and when the hardware is fast enough, no one will go back to XP anymore!

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Kok Choon Kow wrote:


Frankly, optimization tools work but not to your expectation. Many companies - the creator of these great optimization tools during the day of XP, simply just failed to deliver much performance on Vista. I am not saying they are not good anymore, but rather compliments to Microsoft doing a great Job! I know there are many complaints on Windows Vista, but hey, this is a complicated mission, who gets it done beside Bill Gates? NONE!

OK, I am not going into argument with comparing other operating systems, Vista is the kind of its own, and may be XP is similar to compare!

Back to the topic, I found that doing some manual tuning helped more than commercial optimization software, and some free tools that automate the registry tuning is helpful as well.

You can find all kinds of tuning tips around, try them first before you use any optimization software, because you can spend money anytime, but not necessary get the result for very penny you spend. Therefore, try the free tips first, then consider the tools later.

May be after more tips and tricks developed in the near future, some good software will be appeared to automate those tricks. For now, rather than spend any money on tuning tools, I prefer to spend more money on hardware for greater performance.

For majority people who do not want to spend more, I would still recommend manual tuning over software tuning, certainly you can use some free or paid tools to assist your tuning work, but you can’t 100% rely on them.

I have tried few optimization tools on Internet connection tuning, and almost each of them tuned rather differently…The parameters of MTU and RWIN is different between each software! Which to follow? You better stay with one tool at a time to find out the result.

My conclusion: Vista optimization tools are not a SCAM, but does not perform well at the time of this article, you can expect better result in the near future, may be 1 year hence forward? Meanwhile, optimize your Vista manually!

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Kok Choon Kow wrote:


Many people are screaming to downgrade Vista and use XP instead, how about getting them both at the same time? You can do the diet for Vista, stripping off every advanced feature!

Vista default installation is about 7 GB, you can strip away most of the features, and save yourself more hard disk space, more memory and processing power. All this can be done with a nice and small program called vLite! Locate “vLite” in any major search engine and download now.

This software will not strip your existing Windows Vista, but requires you to copy your Vista installer into a directory, and rebuild the installer base on your settings. You will need to reinstall Vista with the new installer.

Some tips for you before using it:

Tip #1 - Keeps only the drivers for your hardware, lose others

You only need what you have; In most cases, if you are getting new hardware with drivers’ disk, you can lose them all and install them from the separate disk.

Tip #2 - Keeps the core

Anything highlighted red should be kept, unless you know what you are doing.

Tip #3 - Integrate Vista hotfixes (not required)

Download up to date hotfixes and integrate into the installer before rebuilding it.

Tip #4 - Automate product key entry and tweak settings

You can do preset the product key and tweak settings into the installer, so that new installer will not prompt for the key and further settings.

After all proper setups, click to apply settings; vLite will start to strip all unwanted features and prepare the installer for your. When installer prepared, you can start creating installation CDs or DVD.

Using vLite not only strip away unwanted features, automate the installation process, it also allows you to speed up Vista significantly ! You can now have both Vista and XP together, in one package!

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Sandra Prior wrote:


Windows XP comes in two versions: Home and Professional. Both versions use the same system code, and Professional adds features such as better power management for mobile users and file encryption, for protecting confidential data.

After installation, you have to use the controversial Product Activation system. This requires you to register online or by phone to unlock Windows. Activation is a breeze but rather annoying.

XP boots more quickly than previous versions of Windows, but takes longer to shut down. It’s much easier on the eye than previous versions of Windows. XP can be skinned. ClearType technology uses anti-aliasing to smooth the appearance of fonts if you’re using a LCD monitor, and you can customize almost anything. It’s a big improvement over previous versions. The overall look is much friendlier than before.

Many of the enhancements are designed to make Windows easier to use. When you click on a file in My Computer, a panel in the left of the window gives you options such as printing the file, copying it to CD and so on. The CD copying uses technology from Roxio and enables you to use CD-R and CD-RW discs as if they were giant floppy disks. The system also supports DVD-RAM drives.

Windows XP also includes a new version of Media Player, which will play DVD movies if you buy the additional Decoder Pack, and the useless Windows Movie Maker returns with a slightly better interface.

Performance and Stability

Every time Microsoft updates Windows it promises better performance, but with Windows XP they are actually telling the truth. The system is based on the rock-solid code of Windows 2000 rather than the unreliable Windows 9x, crashes are rare – and if one program does pack up, it won’t take your entire system down with it.

If you switch off all the annoying special effects – XP chugs along at a reasonable speed. For everyday tasks it isn’t faster than either 2000 or Millennium, but demanding tasks such as audio or video rendering are quicker.

To address any problems, Microsoft has included three new features, two of which will be familiar to Windows Millennium users: System Restore, System File Protection and Device Driver Rollback. System Restore enables you to take a snapshot of your hard disk – if things go wrong, you can simply restore your system from the snapshot.

File Protection prevents the accidental deletion of important system files, and Device Driver Rollback is designed to help you deal with device driver problems by giving you the option to return to an older driver if an updated one causes problems. However, XP also includes a feature called Driver Blocking that may prevent you from using older software such as firewalls or anti-virus software that isn’t designed for XP.

Because both XP Home and Professional use the same system code, the same hardware drivers will work on both systems. The included Internet Explorer 6.0 is prettier than on non-XP systems and can be upgraded to Version 7 when installing updates. An integrated Media Bar enables you to use Windows Media Player without leaving the browser windows.

XP includes a firewall that can protect your computer from online threats and two new features – Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop – make it easier for tech support to access your machine over a network. Multiple computers can share an Internet connection.

Other changes are more subtle, and beyond the scope of this article. Windows XP is the best Windows yet and out performs its successor, Windows Vista.

Kok Choon Kow wrote:


Windows Vista default its’ settings for hardware 5 years in the future and not optimize for today’s hardware. If you need Vista to finish your work faster and run your software smoother, you must optimize Vista! In this article, I will show you 5 powerful tweaks to speed up your computer!

Without further delay, let’s get started now!

1. Use ReadyBoost - ReadyBoost improves from virtual memory system, although it does not replace the system, but it does greatly enhance a limited RAM (1 GB or less) computer overall performance. You can speed up your Vista overall performance up to 50% by using a memory stick. You may also unplug and use the memory stick to transfer data between computers, when you re-plug the memory stick back to your computer, Vista will resume ReadyBoost and the restore the performance again!

2. Reduce and reschedule start up programs and services - You need to reduce the start up programs and background services to its’ minimum, disabled anything you do not need. If some how you need those programs during startup, you can reschedule it with a lower priority and attach it to 1 of the multi processes.

The command is something like this: C:Windows System32 cmd. exe /c start “title” /MIN {/LOW|/BELOWNORMAL|/NORMAL|/ABOVENORMAL|/HIGH|/ REALTIME} /AFFINITY {1,2,4,8 or Add Up} “directoryprogram. exe” program_parameters.

3. Turn off Remote Differential Compression and TCP Auto Tuning - Vista uses them to enhance the gigabyte network, but these features introduced too much overheads for normal networking. You can restore networking speed up to 30% faster by disabled it.

4. Defrag hard disk and boot up files - You should disable schedule defrag and do it manually. Try to download and install a faster third party disk defragmenter.

To defrag your boot up files (page file, hibernate file), you should acquire something like PerfectDisk or Diskeeper. Howerver, the cheapest solution is to download the FREE TuneXP, and use only the “Ultra fast booting” function. TuneXp is not fully compatible, but this feature still works very well.

5. Disable the system restore - System restore was first introduced in Windows XP, and Vista enhance it further with document versioning! As good as its’ sound, this does not come free!

To best utilize the resources, you do not want duplicates on your computer, unless the resources is too much to you! Then forget about optimize Vista.

If you already applied these tweaks, your Vista should be 50% faster than before.

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.

Kok Choon Kow wrote:


Sluggish file transfer causes major problems in Windows Vista as compare to Windows XP, simply because Vista is design for consistent high speed and low speed connection, but almost unsuitable for home office environment with moderate speed connection!

Don’t get me wrong here, Vista performs very fast on advanced networking environment, but introduced too much overhead in normal home office environment, you just need to disable some settings to reduce the overhead, all is done in 2 simple steps.

Unless you equipped with advanced PC and networking devices, your can expect performance dropped by 20~50% during files transfer as compare to XP, so lets’ find the reasons and solve the problems now:

1. Remote Differential Compression - This protocol calculates, compress and only transfer files with updated version, hence files synchronization works extremely well on lower bandwidth networking, but slows down normal networking with extra overheads in compression. Using a faster processor can improve Remote Differential Compression as Vista trade processing power over networking bandwidth by compressing the data before transferring it. You should always disable this features on older and slower computer, because you have more bandwidth than processing power!

2. TCP Auto Tuning Features - This feature maximize your gigabit networking by automatic and constantly adjusting itself to adapt to the maximum bandwidth available by your hardware; It performs very well on high bandwidth environment, but not very good on low bandwidth networking due to extra overheads of detection, and also went bad when using unsupported hardware such as firewall or routers.

You can disable these features to speed up Vista for another 20% to 30% faster, just remember to enable them if you upgraded your computer or networking in the future.

To disable Remote Differential Compression, go to Control Panel -> Programs -> Turn Windows Features On or Off, uncheck Remote Differential Compression and then press OK button.

To disable TCP Auto tuning, press Windows key and type “CMD. exe” then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run as Administrator, then type ” netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled”, now type “exit” to return to Windows.

If you decided to turn on this feature after upgraded your hardware, do the same but type ” netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=normal” to turn on the TCP auto tuning feature.

You can try to send some files now, you should notice more improvement on your file transmission, your file is send across network or disk much faster!

(C) Copyright 2008 Kok Choon - Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety as long as all links and author resources box in place.