23 Ways To Speed WinXP, Not only Defrag

Since defragging the disk won't do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of your customers' PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system's boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software -- the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine -- and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you're not sure, here's how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it's important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index." As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.

The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP's built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.

Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you're a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.

Here's how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching." Next, apply changes to "C: subfolders and files," and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as "Access is denied"), click the Ignore All button.

5.) Update the PC's video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site.

6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can "prefetch" portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That's fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here's how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button -- it's just to the right of the Capacity pie graph -- and delete all temporary files.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to "DMA if available" for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support "cable select," the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here's how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don't want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here's how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer -- only its responsiveness.

14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

15.) Visit Microsoft's Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

16.) Update the customer's anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts -- that is, anything over 500 -- will noticeably tax the system.

18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP's NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called "D drive." You'll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won't be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won't need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

19.) Check the system's RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC's memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer's Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you'll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it's free.

21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

22.) If you're sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to "Launch folder windows in a separate process," and enable this option. You'll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

23.) At least once a year, open the computer's cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you're in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.


Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers' computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.i hope this blog is useful for you.

User's guide to avoiding virus infections

User's guide to avoiding virus infections

 User's guide to avoiding virus infections

Keeping an eye out for viruses

Computer viruses are everywhere! This guide will show you how to stay alert and how to avoid getting infections on your computer. Having an updated virus scanner is only a small part of this, there are many ways that you can prevent having viruses other than a virus scanner, as it will not always save you.

Types of viruses

There are many type of viruses. Typical viruses are simply programs or scripts that will do various damage to your computer, such as corrupting files, copying itself into files, slowly deleting all your hard drive etc. This depends on the virus. Most viruses also mail themselves to other people in the address book. This way they spread really fast and appear at others' inboxes as too many people still fall for these. Most viruses will try to convince you to open the attachment, but I have never got one that tricked me. In fact, I found myself emailing people just to make sure they really did send me something. It does not hurt to be safe.

Worms

Worms are different type of viruses, but the same idea, but they are usually designed to copy themselves a lot over a network and usually try to eat up as much bandwidth as possible by sending commands to servers to try to get in. The code red worm is a good example of this. This worm breaks in a security hole in Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) in which is a badly coded http server that, despite the security risks, a lot of people use it. When the worm successfully gets in, it will try to go into other servers from there. When IceTeks was run on a dedicated server at my house, there was about 10 or so attempts per day, but because we ran Apache, the attempts did not do anything but waste bandwidth and not much as I had it fixed a special way. Some worms such as the SQL slammer will simply send themselves over and over so many times that they will clog up networks, and sometimes all of the internet. Worms usually affect servers more than home users, but again, this depends on what worm it is. It is suspected that most worms are efforts from the RIAA to try to stop piracy, so they try to clog up networks that could contain files. Unfortunately, the RIAA have the authority to do these damages and even if caught, nothing can be done.

Trojans

Trojans are another type of virus. They are simply like a server in which enables hackers to get into and control the computer. A trojan such as Subseven can enable a hacker to do various things such as control the mouse, eject the cd-rom drive, delete/download/upload files and much more.

MBR virues

Boot sector viruses are another type, they are similar to file viruses, but instead they go in the boot sector and can cause serious damage when the computer is booted, some can easily format your drive simply by booting your computer. These are hard to remove.

Most viruses have various characteristics. For example, a worm can also be a trojan and also infect the boot sector. It all depends on how the virus is written and what it is designed to do. That's why there are not really strong structured categories, as they can easily mix one in the other.

Know the potentially dangerous files

Like any other files, viruses must be opened in order to do something. Most viruses come through e-mail as an attachment. Some will make it look like it's someone you know, and it will try to convince you to open an attachment. Never open attachments at any cost! Some viruses will infect files in programs, so opening a program will actually open the virus, maybe the same one, or another part of it.

All files have what is called an extension; This is the 3 last letters after the last period. For example, setup.exe has a file extension of .exe.

Extensions to watch out for are .exe .com .bat .scr .pif .vbs and others, but these are the most seen. .exe .com .bat .pif and .scr are valid extensions for executables. A virus writer will simply rename it to one of these and it will work the same way. .pif is a shortcut to an ms-dos program and will have the ms dos icon, but will still execute whatever code is in it, so an .exe can be renamed to .pif and be run the same way. .bat is a batch file, which can contain instructions to do various file activities, but again, a .exe can be renamed to .bat and it will execute it! .vbs is a visual basic script. For some reason, Microsoft provides this scripting language along with the scripting host to make it more convenient to design and write viruses quickly and easily, I've never seen another use for this scripting language other than for writing viruses. There are programs that are written with that language, but it is compiled into an exe. Exe is the usual extension for programs, you would not have a software CD install a bunch of vbs files all over!

Bottom line is, if you don't know what a file is just don't open it. Some viruses will sometimes be named a way as to mask the real file extension to make it look like a harmless file such as a image file. This is easily noticed, but can still be missed. Simply don't open unexpected files.

If you get something that appears like something legit, just ask the person it came from if they sent it. Most viruses use a friend's address to make it look like it comes from them. The virus does this by using the person's address when sending itself to the address book contacts.

Downloads

Email is not the only way to get viruses; P2P (file sharing programs such as kazaa, winmx, direct connect etc) is also another way to get viruses.

When downloading programs, the main thing to watch out for is the file size. If you are downloading a program that you expect to be rather large such as a game, don't grab a file that is 10KB, since it's most likely a virus. However, I've been caught with a virus even with large files, so file size is not the only thing to watch, as an exe is still valid even if junk is added at the end, so a 64KB virus will still function even if it is turned into 650MB.

Icons are something to look for too, fortunately, virus writers don't take time to put icons. If your download should be a setup file, you should see the icon of a setup file. If it's just the blank icon that typical plain or corrupted exes have, don't open it.

Another thing to do, which should be obvious, is to scan the file for viruses using updated virus definitions. But don't rely on only your virus scanner, as they are not perfect, and if the virus has not been reported to them yet, they won't know to create a definition for it!

Changing settings to stay safe

If you do open a virus, you want to avoid it going to all your friends. The simplest thing to do is to NOT use the windows address book. It is easy for viruses to get through and Microsoft is not doing anything about it. Just don't use it. Put them in spreadsheet or even better write them down somewhere. Don't use the address book.

Another "feature" to avoid is the auto preview. Some viruses can attempt to open themselves just by opening the email. There are security holes in Microsoft mail programs that allow this. In Microsoft Outlook, click on the view menu and remove auto preview. You need to do this for every folder, but the inbox is most important. In Outlook Express, click on the view menu and go to layout. In the dialog box, you will see a check box for show preview pane. Uncheck it and click ok.

Another thing you should change, especially if you download a lot, is the option that allows you to view the file extension. In Win98, go in any folder, click on view then folder options and choose the view tab and where it says hide file extension for known types, uncheck it. In win2k, it is the same process, but instead, go in the control panel and open the folder options icon.

Avoiding server worms

Some viruses, mostly worms, can exploit through servers and affect other servers from servers that have been infected. A good example is the SQL slammer. This was a worm that affected SQL servers run by Microsoft IIS and Microsoft SQL Server. Once the worm gets in, that particular server starts trying to find more exploitable driving internet connections to a halt in the process. Servers running Apache were unaffected by that, except for the many hits to try to get in. IceTeks received about 100 hits per day when it was run on a dedicated home server. Most hits came from major ISPs and other big websites that had no clue they were still affected.

The simple solution to avoid these types of viruses is to NOT use Microsoft based server software for your server, especially if it is a public server. The operating system is also crucial, but the actual server software is much more. Apache, which is free, is much more secure than Microsoft based server programs such as IIS. IIS may be easier to understand and administer, but it saves a lot of hassle to learn how to use Apache. IIS has a large number of vulnerabilities, such as the ability to gain access to cmd.exe and basically delete the whole drive by doing a ../ request in the address bar. These don't require viruses, but simply commands, but there are worms written to automatically make these commands. The code red does this.

Removing a virus

The best way to do this is to do a clean install. However, depending on how bad the virus is, a simple clean install won't remove it. So to be extra sure, you'll want to do a low level format. This is especially true of you got a boot sector virus, as even repartitioning and formatting won't quite remove it, but sometimes you can get away with an fdisk /mbr, but not all the time. here are various removal tools for viruses, it is good to use them and see if they work, but proceeding with the clean install is recommended. You never know if the virus is completely removed by deleting files you suspect are infected. Some viruses such as the Bugbear will close anti virus programs and other programs to make it hard and annoying to figure out what to do. A clean install is the best way to ensure that it's gone for good.

Viruses are out there, don't be one of the many infected ones! Stay alert and stay safe! Don't open unexpected files, regularly update your virus definitions and scan downloaded files!

I hope this blog was useful for you! 

Power failure Across India, Hit by Malware Attack

India’s Northern power grid crashed on Monday morning wreaking havoc at airports, railway and metro stations, hospitals and across traffic congested roads, its worst power outage in a decade.

Indian power infrastructure under attack: India losing out millions in just hours same snag developed within just 24 hours of recovery reports say the system is infected by sophisticated malware.
Malware is spreading; today more than 67 crore people are without power. Cyber analysts suspect "PAK"- CHINA nexus behind this attack.

 Hundreds of millions of people have been left without electricity in northern and eastern India after a massive power breakdown.

There are some analyst saying that it is cyber Attack by a Malware but no Indian Authorities confirmed it yet. Authorities are restoring the service suggest the whole thing is out of their skills, meanwhile mainstream media has been barred from reporting as this could bring disgrace to security services of India.

Since the first power trip up on Monday, there have been discussions within the security establishment about the possibility of entities trying to carry out a sophisticated cyber-attack to cripple the grids.

Officials who carried out an audit of critical information infrastructure admit it is "theoretically possible" to cripple India's power grids through a cyber-attack.

Despite such a possibility, the shutdown did not seem to have led to a crisis management procedure that aimed at ruling out or confirming a cyber-attack.

"Given the fact that our grids are vulnerable to a cyber-attack, those responsible for managing grids should have a proactive policy to rule out cyber-attack as part of their crisis management procedures," a senior official said. "But none of it was visible," he added.

Sources aware of contacts among power ministry, power grid authorities and those in both CERT-IN ( Computer Emergency Response Team-India) and NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation) say there was no proactive effort by those responsible for power grids.

However, both CERT-IN and NTRO are believed to have established their own procedures to ensure the shutdowns were not a cyber-attack, having been brought on by massive over-the-limit withdrawals by states to supply electricity for pumps tapping groundwater in the absence of rainfall during this monsoon.

Officials said the government is now discussing possible ways to speed up the setting up of National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIPC), which would act as the command and control centre for monitoring the critical information infrastructure of the country. NCIPC was recently approved by the National Security Council headed by the Prime Minster.

Sources said the government is also planning to hold a national consultation of all stakeholders involved in critical information infrastructure.

The government is already setting up dedicated CERT-INs for various critical sectors such as power and civil aviation.

Officials point out to breaches reported from power grids in the US, cyber intrusion into the Iranian nuclear network and other such incidents around the world to warn that India needs to have a more robust crisis management procedure that includes proactive ruling out of cyber-attacks.

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16 Arrested for hacking Globe Telecom system

MANILA, Philippines – Sixteen people, including several South Korean nationals, have been arrested by police for allegedly hacking into the Globe Telecom’s system to make unbilled international calls.

Director Samuel Pagdilao, Chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said in a statement Tuesday that nine Koreans and several Filipino suspects have been apprehended through successive raids in Pasig, Manila, and Mandaluyong cities.

He said they belong to a cybercrime group that has been placed under police surveillance for several weeks.

The Koreans were identified as Eun Young Bae, Kwang Ming Song, 27, Junggyn Yang, 30, Kim Tae Hyung alias Martin Kim, Sehun Park, a certain Choi, Jong-Seok alias Edward Choi, Jung Dongchan alias Kevin Jeong, Jinwan Kim alias Liam Jin.

The other suspects were identified as Marcela Dela Paz, Chachin La Evidia Bornales, Christine Joy Gicale Carondoy alias Joya, 18, Joan Gicale Turno alias Queennie, 19, Jazzy Romero de la Cruz, 20, Jessa Grande Llaguno, 18, and Michelle Cambe Nacional, 26.

The suspects will be charged with violation of Republic Act No. 8484 or “Access Devices Regulation Act of 1998,” Pagdilao said.

Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa, CIDG’s Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division (AFCCD) Chief, said that Globe had complained about the alleged hacking being done by the suspects through International Simple Resale (ISR) of international calls.

“ISR is an illegal act in the country because it deprives government of unrealized revenues and to the prejudice of Globe Telecom, where unbilled international calls were being charged and rerouted as mere local calls,” Sosa said.

Authorities confiscated computers, network hubs, GSM Modems, and bundles of unused SIM cards of Globe and Touch Mobile that were used to hack into Globe’s networks.

Two vehicles—a black Hyundai Tucson and silver Toyota Camry have also been confiscated by authorities in the raids.

The separate raids were conducted in Tower A, Renaissance 3000 building, Meralco Avenue, Ortigas, Pasig City, Pearl of the Orient Tower, Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila, North Tower, Lee Garden Condominium, Laurel St. Mandaluyong City, and Royal Plaza, Twin Towers, Malate, Manila

Pagdilao said that “the arrests of Korean and Filipino suspects demonstrate the need for a tougher law to deal with new challenges in the fight against cybercrime.”

Last week, CIDG anti-fraud operatives have arrested Hak Mo Kim in Mandaluyong City for hacking into SMART Communications networks.

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European Cyber Security at the Mercy of Chinese Hackers

Europe is “Under the watchful eye of Chinese pirates”, writes Libération,which picks up on a Bloomberg feature report on computer security breaches. The American press agency reveals that a group of Chinese cyberspies – which has been tracked by an American collective (that includes academics, companies that have been targeted by Chinese espionage and computer security experts) – succeeded in infiltrating a large number of institutions and companies last year.

The group  linked to the Chinese military, which has been named “Byzantine Candor” by American secret services, notably managed to infiltrate European institutions, reports the French daily –

    At a critical moment in the euro crisis in July, a group of Chinese spies remotely infiltrated the computers of the European Council, not once but five times. Launching their attacks from China, the hackers stole data including email correspondence with Herman Van Rompuy [...] Along with the European Council, the networks of at least 20 European businesses have fallen victim to Byzantine Candor [...] According to Bloomberg, most of the breached corporate networks were characterised by the fact that they contained information on innovation that could be economically advantageous to Chinese firms.

Libération adds that a decade ago –

    … the usual targets for these kinds of attacks were American arms manufacturers [...] However, no one is safe today.

As a result, the drive to combat cyber-espionage is now a critical priority for Europe: notably in Spain, which, according to El País –

    … is one of the countries that has been worst affected by hacking attacks, with tens of thousands of incidents every year.

The Madrid daily explains that a new national cybersecurity centre of excellence, financed by the European Commission and headquartered at the Autonomous University of Madrid, will be inaugurated in September. In the wake of the establishment of similar centres in Montpellier (France) and Dublin (Ireland), it will be the third of its kind in the EU.

However, the daily regrets that one of the companies tasked with the creation of the centre, CFLabs, is directed by Matías Bevilacqua –

    … an IT expert who was arrested and charged in connection with purchase and sale of confidential data [...] and in particular sensitive information sourced from virtually all of the institutions of the Spanish state.

In conclusion El País wonders about the wisdom of appointing “a hacker to play a key role in such a sensitive project”.

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NullCrew Breaches Yale DataBases

A hacker group known as NullCrew claims it obtained the personal information of 1,200 Yale students and staff members from University databases.

University spokeswoman Elizabeth Stauderman ’83 LAW ’04 confirmed that hackers obtained files containing personal information from participants in the Yale Initiative to Strengthen Teaching in Public Schools on July 17, but she said only 450 accounts were affected. NullCrew claims it gained access to social security numbers, names, addresses and phone numbers, though only usernames, passwords and email addresses were published by the collective, which claims its only intention was to prove the security faults in institutional databases.

“In fact, the governmental and educational sites are the least secure in the experience we’ve had with .edu and .gov websites,” the hackers said in a message alongside the published data.

Stauderman said Yale has taken immediate action to secure the breached computer and is in the process of notifying the authorities and the affected participants. She added that the University will offer identity protection services to those affected.

The NullCrew breach was the largest known breach of Yale databases since late 2010, when the names and Social Security numbers of 43,000 people affiliated with the University were hacked and then made searchable online. The University announced that breach 10 months later, in August 2011.

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