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General Tech Tips
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Submitted by Sharkull on Sat, 2007-06-16 19:05
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A new theme thread for sharing your favorite technical tips. 
To start things off:
I was struggling with an issue today where I couldn't get the downloaded Java documentation (in html format) to run properly on Vista. :wacko: IE7 kept thinking it was in the Internet Zone, all images were missing and the links to other local html files simply didn't work. After searching in all kinds of settings, and looking for information on the 'net, I stumbled into the solution (looking at the file properties...). It turns out that the downloaded files were tagged as being having been downloaded (an obscure NTFS flag), and IE7 treated them differently because of that.
Here's a link to the information that helped explain the problem, and the linked Streams tool works great!
Of course, if I could get accustomed to using Firefox (which ignores the blocking flag) instead of IE then I wouldn't have had the problem, but I'm just not there (yet?). |
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Not really a "tip", but certainly some nifty information... if you've ever wondered exactly what AA & AF actually do (other than give your video card more work to do
).
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2136956,00.asp
Nice one Sharkull..
- it's really important to tune your rig to it's optimum..
- great to have the clear facts
- thanks!
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..never mind the weather, just as long as we're together!
I found this basic guide - which is very useful indeed..
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10163_7-5912625-1.html?tag=nav
and also this one, which explains the pitch and phase controls..
http://www.techmind.org/lcd/index.html#phasing
- anything that improves DS's gameplay has to be worth looking into, I say!!
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..never mind the weather, just as long as we're together!
WinXP + ZoneAlarm users beware... a new Windows Update may screw up your Internet access.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20759839-MS-update-KB951748-and-ZoneAlarm-PROBLEM
I just uninstalled the update (KB951748) for now.
thanks for the hedz-up, your Sharkness..
- I just switched off my HD indexing service in Windows XP
- my rig runs a lot quicker as a result, and I recouped about 2G of HD space
- I don't use the search function that much, so it's no great loss..
- hoping to get one of these soon..
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/02/14/agp-nth-coming
- it's the last throw of the dice for this rig..
- currently WindowsXP on P4 Dual-Core 3GHz, 2G RAM - with AGP 7600GT(256)gfx
- the big leap forward will hopefully happen for me, next year..
This fixes a critical DNS problem (affecting all OS's - not just windows) and needs to be on. You're at less risk if you disable ZA for now.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/09/dns_fix_alliance/
Zone Alarm should have had their corresponding solution ready to match up, but didn't. That's probably due to MS considerering them a competitor and withholding information.
There are fixes to BIND for *nix as well, so Linux users should get a DNS fix soon, if they haven't already. I'm not sure how Mac's get updated (if at all?) And I believe our IBM mainframe got a critical fix too!
Wrong only from a certain perspective. I know the update is important, and what it fixes, but will hold off on installing it for now (possibly until ZA catches up). I don't use this computer for things (eg. online shopping / banking) that a DNS spoof would really hurt me. I'm more concerned with a trojan / spyware program, which is (IMO) far more likely to happen. Outbound firewall protection is a must, and I haven't checked out XP SP3's new firewall to see if it offers good enough two-way protection (to replace ZA as my SW firewall).
New update to Zone Alarm..
http://www.filehippo.com/download_zonealarm_free/changelog/
^^
I just installed it, and was about to post something about the update being available... seems you beat me to the punch by a couple minutes. I noticed that on the Firewall - Zones tab there are a couple new entries for my DNS Servers (as "Trusted"). I wonder if that's all there was to the update.
Edit: I reinstalled the offending Windows Update too (before updating ZA).
I've decided to go the last throw of the dice with this old PC set-up
- I'll post up a general review on how it handles my fave games
BTW Silverfall looks pretty good on a high-end set-up..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQk5ZJYtwkM
- I'm planning on getting a completely new system next year sometime..
Some interesting things here...
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2331278,00.asp
Thanks for the link
. I made the icons smaller and got rid of everything but the navigation toolbar. 
I'd already done some customizing (like having the tabs bar always visible)... and I use the Bookmarks Toolbar instead of the menu for frequently used links (like SiegeTheDay!). I might get into the advanced tweaking later, 'cause I'm still getting used to FF right now (having only switched recently).
One more reason to switch to FF (at least temporarily):
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/12/exploit_for_unpatched_internet.html
and:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2008/12/microsoft_big_security_hole_in.html?nav=rss_blog
Try giving one of the other major browsers (Safari or Opera) a spin just to try something new, or why not Flock?
Try Chrome - it appears to be simple and fast, even if Google are as evil a bunch of megalomaniacs as Microsoft.
I haven't had any problems, yet
MS have just issued a new IE7 security update
- fingers crossed! :woot:
I'm having a go at dual-booting using the Windows7 Beta
should be interesting - never tried anything like this before..
when MS says that I should make an ISO copy of the download on DVD
does that mean I can use my usual burning software, or it that a special format..??
hope I don't mess things up..!!
That depends on if your usual burning software has the right features for working with iso files (which is a special format)... the wiki has some basic info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso_file
I'm surprised that you can't run the installation straight from the .iso file. As long as you're not formatting the partition it's recorded in, it's just a case of a different driver for the logical media. That suggests you couldn't copy it to a thumb drive and install from that, without a bit of cheating.
I have a number of server machines that have no built-in optical drives, and installations that require one are a major obstacle. Network or USB options should be available, even for a desktop OS.
..must say that Windows7 looks brilliant! :woot:
- the Beta downloaded in 7 hours at a very steady trickle, but the conversion to DVD was
- absolutely painless.. The only problem I had with the W7Beta was that it wouldn't
- recognise any of my hardware..!! I managed to get the Sapphire HD3850(AGP) up and running
- by using the original installation CD for the drivers - unfortunately I couldn't get W7
- to recognise the Audigy4 soundcard.. Even using the original driver disc didn't have
- any effect, though it appeared to load OK: the hardware refused to appear in the
- Devices Manager.. With no modem either, it meant that I couldn't get the necessary fixes
- and/or updates from MS, to complete the full installation.. But the gfx card performed
- exceptionally well - the OS looks amazing.. it loads very quickly at boot-up, and is very
- responsive.. I'll definitely be getting this when it goes on commercial release, it
- looks like MS have finally got Vista to behave, at last - W7 is what Vista
- should have been, IMO - fast and stylish..!!
-are you still running WindowsXP..?
I found this very useful:
http://www.optimizingpc.com/optimize/windowsservices.html
- makes quite a difference to the overall speed of XP..
A good tip... I've been doing that type of thing for years. Everyone interested in system performance should consider turning off unneeded services.
I would advise that everyone should use extreme caution when working in the registry though. You can seriously damage your system in there.
Firefox 3.5 is out... downloading now (doesn't update automatically for some reason).
http://enews.pcmag.com/u.d?EYGpQdHN-2yrT785Cl18P=531
I've always liked the PDF format, thinking it was a safe standard... but now I'll be more wary. Perhaps I'll see if I can downgrade my version of Adobe Reader to an older one with less vulnerabilities... err... a less enhanced feature set. Maybe even finding a stripped down 3rd party PDF reader.
The latest problem is inherent in the format and even affects Foxit reader, so it's not just a vulnerability in the reader software itself.
I must say I disagree about PDF being a good idea for anything you're not intending to print out onto paper of exactly the same size the author uses. The most annoying thing about it is the way that a lot of web sites assume that Adobe's reader is the only one, and attempt to launch that by name, instead of Foxit or whatever you use via the registry linkage. And a lot of those things would have been more conveniently displayed as HTML anyway.
But apart from those issues, I'd recommend Foxit. Launches much faster, and normally less to worry about.