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Tag Archives: Windows
SnowBird File Explorer
Windows Explorer is the default file explorer in Windows and often does a pretty good job. It lets you look over the entire file system, see files and details about the files, and for some types even gives you a preview of what's inside. It is, however, not very fast, and can also have stability issues.
SnowBird is a free, lightweight, portable program that will allow you to quickly browse the files on your system. It doesn't have all the features of Windows Explorer, but it has all the basics and does them very quickly. Even network drives and Internet drives are quickly explored with this program. Also, since it's independant of Windows, unlike Explorer, if it crashes (which I have yet to see), it won't take down your desktop with it. You can also run it from a flash drive so you can use it on machines where you may not have access to run Windows Explorer, or where a virus or spyware has prevented explorer from running.
Overall, a VERY useful and fast little program.
SnowBird
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Easy Linux Install From Windows
Today I used WUBI to install the Ubuntu Linux onto my work machine. WUBI runs from INSIDE Windows itself, and easily installs the OS and includes a boot-menu that allows you to choose which OS you want to use. If you decide you don't like it, uninstall it like you would with any other Windows Program.
I decided to install it for the better performance, virus immunity (at least from Windows based viruses, which are 99% of them), and ability to more easily recover data from dying hard drives.
I also installed WINE which allows me to run some Windows programs from within Linux, so that I can have those must-have programs.
All-in-all so far, working very well.
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How to Re-enable DMA Mode In Windows XP
Sometimes under Windows XP there can be data problems with the computer. These can be caused by shutting down the computer improperly, spyware/viruses, power issues, faulty hardware, etc. When this happens repeatedly Windows XP will sometimes set your hard drive into a MUCH SLOWER data transfer mode called PIO Mode.
In order to verify that your drive works in DMA mode, or to change it to DMA mode, follow these steps.
Open the hardware setting dialog of Windows. To do this, right-click on 'My computer' and select Properties.
Then, choose the 'Hardware' tab and click on 'Device Manager'.
Each drive is controlled by an IDE ATA/ATAPI controller. There are probably two controllers in your computer, each with two devices.
The drive letter of each burner determines the controller and device responsible for it. The table below can be used to determine the correct controller for your drive. NOTE: Machines may vary from the table.
| Drive letter | IDE ATA/ATAPI controller | Device |
| C: | Primary | 0 |
| D: | Primary | 1 |
| E: | Secondary | 0 |
| F: | Secondary | 1 |
Look for the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI' controllers icon and expand it by clicking on the (+) sign next to it. Select either the Primary or secondary IDE channel, which controls your burner drive, right click on it and select Properties.
Go to the 'Advanced settings' tab, and the device that you want to set (Device 0 or Device 1). The example below shows that drive D: works in PIO only mode. You should modify this to 'DMA if available' mode, to let Windows select DMA mode if it is supported by your burner (it usually is).
If the transfer Mode says DMA if Available, but the current transfer mode still says PIO Only, then you have the problem.
To force Windows to re-detect the transfer mode and hopefully reset it to DMA :
Run REGEDIT. Go to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
It has subkeys like 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Normally 0001 is the primary IDE channel, 0002 the secondary, but other numbers can occur under certain circumstances. You have to go through these subkeys and check the DriverDesc value until you find the proper IDE channel.
Delete MasterIdDataChecksum or SlaveIdDataChecksum, depending on whether the device in question is attached as master or slave, but it can't actually hurt to delete both. Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected.
Open Device Manager again and check whether the device is now actually using DMA mode. If so, congratulations, you've made it (at least until the next time Windows disables DMA).
If not, refollow the previous step, but also remove:
MasterDeviceTimingMode
MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
UserMasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed
or
SlaveDeviceTimingMode
SlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed
UserSlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed
depending on which device is needed.
Reboot. The drive DMA capabilities will be redetected.Open Device Manager again and check whether the device is now actually using DMA mode.
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Scan For and Remove Viruses From Your Comptuer Outside of Windows
Viruses and Spyware can become a pain on many computers. Many viruses are difficult to remove while actually inside of Windows using your normal Anti-Virus.
In steps the Dr Web LiveCD. It's a linux BootCD that will boot and run an antivirus program off a CD without loading Windows.
Simply download the CD Image from http://www.freedrweb.com/livecd
Then use the burn image function of your CD burning software or (preferred method) by using IMGBurn
Once the CD is created, simply boot your computer off the CD and click Start on the scanner.
This is a VERY effective anti-virus and requires very little computer knowledge.
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