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I frequently recommend a Linux Live CD for WINDOWS system problems. If you do not have one, you would be well served to download one and burn for when the day arrives for you that you have a FURAR'ed Windows problem and you need to save your data before a reformat, or try to regain control of your system.

I recommend SLAX, but there are other great ones too. They are all FREE and just may save your *censored*. Google for the ones you want, then burn the file as an ISO with Nero or some other burning priogram and store it away, after you play with it for a little bit.

A Linux LiveCD will write no files to your hard drive, so there is no danger. Itruns slower than Windows, because it runs totally from the CDROM and some (like Knoppix) have a LOT of compressed files that have to be decompressed "on the fly". This is an option that will not HAPPEN with Windows, by the way. Each contains basic software - wordprocessor, CD burning software, etc. and some, like Knoppix contain everything but the kitchen sink.

These will run on computers that do not even have a hard drive installed. More RAM is a little quicker, but 256 is comfortable on SLAX. Linspire is the most Windows like experience for a total newbie, but they are all pretty self explanatory. You will be able to reat and write FAT32, and read NTFS file systems.

If you like Linux and want to try, most are quite happy with conventional hardware but don't think it is Windows. It's not and there will be some learning CURVE. You had one with Windows, but don't remember it usually. Don't EXPECT to run Windows games on it. Although there are some emulators and some games do run, I find it better to recommend keeping a Windows partition for gaming, and Linux for everything else.

If you have a spare hard drive, or want to create room on your existing one, Linux is a great alternative to Windows. You do not need a ton of antivirus, spyware prevention, etc. programs. There is no Windows Genuine anything snafus, it's FREE, and comes with all applications a normal human would need on the installation CD(s) including a Microsoft compatible office suite, graphics programs for Photoshop like manipulation, etc. You can also download thousands of other applications, usually free also. There are hundreds of flavors, so one will be more APPEALING to your brain than others, so give several a try. Modems are sometimes difficult due to the prevalence of so many cheap WinModems in computers. If you have a REAL hardware modem or a serial modem there is no problem if your ISP can support it. Cable and DSL is a piece of cake.

LINKS:

SLAX
http://www.slax.org/

KNOPPIX
http://iso.linuxquestions.org/distro.php?distro=5

LINSPIRE
http://iso.linuxquestions.org/version.php?version=146

There are 3-4 (MINIMUM) a week QUESTIONS about this. Here are some LINKS to help you GET it resolved.

HTTP://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314503

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q294/4/27.asp

http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;q314503

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q162/0/31.asp

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_b.htm

http://www.sysopt.com/articles/troubleshoot/index.html
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It's probably more safe and easier to use the build-in CrapCleaner startup editor?

Thinking of posting an FAQ, so.......

Question:
How do I change the file association so I can choose to open it with a certain program?


Answer:
For this FAQ, I will be USING Windows XP, but should work on Vista and other Windows Operating Systems.
As an example, I will use a Text File and make it open with Notepad++ INSTEAD of Windows Notepad.

1. Right click on the file, go to Open With and click Choose Program.

2. Once you click Choose Program, another window should pop up.
Select the program you want to open the file with, check the TICK box and press OK.



Now whenever you click Text Files (.txt), it will open with Notepad++.

These steps can be adapted to change any file association. For example this can be used to make Windows Media Player files (.wma, .wmv...) play with VLC Media Player or to open Pictures (.BMP, .jpg...) with MSPaint automatically.
Very nice...

Just to add,

Sometimes the program you wish to open a file with isn't listed. You can use the "Browse" button to LOCATE the program .exe This is usually located in it's Program Files folder.

Ever wonder what that Disk Defragmenter does? You probably hear people talking about it every once in a while. WELL, I won't go very deep into this article, but in a nutshell, Disk Defragmenter moves FILES in your computer which have been misplaced. I'm not talking about word documents either. I'm talking about old/uninstalled application files, etc. The Disk Defragmenter also works to fix corrupted/fragmented files. For most people, using the Disk Defragmenter might help their computer run more quickly, and possibly free-up space. This is all due to you allowing Disk Defragmenter to restore order to your system. Here's an example of what Disk Defragmenter can do before, and after the scan is run.


In this image above, this is what one of my computers looked like before running a DEFRAG.


In this image above, this is what the same computer looked like after I ran the defragmenter.

Because many of you probably don't understand the color coding system, here's the key below:


As you can see, there is a dramatic difference between the two images! If you run the defragmenter, depending on your system SPEED, etc., this might TAKE a while to run. The best time to do this is when you have spare time when you will not be using the computer. I hope this article has helped you somewhat!

Flame

Images re-hosted and added.
- Carbon DudeoxideA quick note on how often to defrag

It is good computer hygene to run Defrag on a schedule. Frequent computer users, once a week, basic computer users (Word and similar programs only/mostly) only need to defrag about once a month. These are two extremes, and most users fall in-between. Pick a schedule that works for you and isn't over-excessive. You can't hurt anything by defragging once per hour, but hey, that's a waste of time and a pain.

You should also defrag after major file movements, like 500 MB or more. Moving files like this is never clear-cut for a PC; if it was, there would be no need to defrag. Actually, doing anything will slightly frag the computer (theoretically, running Defrag frags the system a tiny bit!), but it's big things like that you'll notice on the defrag screen.Needless to say, the time needed to defragment a drive or partition in inversely related to the frequency of defragmenting. In other words, the more often a drive is defragmented, the less time it will have between defragmentations to become fragmented, and so the next defragmentation will take less time.

My hard drive is partitioned. Today, I defragmented the partition on which Windows XP is installed and it only took between 5 and 6 minutes.

Indeed, I would argue that a positive point for deciding to devide a hard drive into partitions vs. having the whole drive in one partition is more efficiency, i.e. less time required overall, in keeping the drive defragmented.

Many people POST the inability to access their files after reinstalling Windows XP. These may be files on a separate partition of the hard drive, or on a secondary drive.


To resolve this issue, you must turn off Simple File Sharing, and then take ownership of the folder:

Turn off Simple File Sharing:

a. Click START, and then click My Computer.
b. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options, and then click the View tab.
c. Under Advanced Settings, click to clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box, and then click OK.

Take Ownership of Files

1. Right-click the folder that you want to take ownership of, and then click Properties.

2. Click the Security tab, and then click OK on the Security message, if one appears.

3. Click Advanced, and then click the Owner tab.

4. In the Name list, click your user name, Administrator if you are logged in as Administrator, or click the Administrators group.

If you want to take ownership of the contents of that folder, click to select the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects check box.

5. Click OK.

You may receive the following error message, where Folder is the name of the folder that you want to take ownership of:

You do not have PERMISSION to READ the contents of directory Folder. Do you want to replace the directory permissions with permissions granting you Full Control? All permissions will be replaced if you PRESS Yes.

7. Click Yes.

8. Click OK, and then reapply the permissions and security settings that you want for the folder and the folder contents.

Thats it. You have now reclaimed ownership of your files and folders.

A brief guide CREATED by unlovedwarrior and myself awhile back (he wrote the majority of it; I mostly did editing). I know this isn't the first SPEED-up guide on here, but this currently isn't hosted online anymore and I want it around for my own reference/satisfaction.

Please note: This guide has been prepared as a general how-to which will aid the Windows computer user in tweaking and improving the overall performance of their computer. Use this guide at your own risk.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction
II. Beginner
III. AdvancedI. Introduction
If you are reading this, then you are interested in making your computer run a bit smoother and faster. This tutorial is broken down into three parts: I. Introduction - which you are reading right now; II. Beginner - the instructions in this part are really simple and should be easy for anyone to follow; III. Advanced - where we start talking about ways to gain more space. The steps in this section might be a little harder to understand. Only perform the steps in this section if you know what you're doing. Some steps in this section might harm your computer if you're not careful. Well...now that we've got the Introduction out of the way, let's move on to the meat of this tutorial.II. Beginner
1. Download CCleaner and run it. This program will scan for problems you may have with your registry...cleaning up unused files, browsing history and other areas of your computer...improving performance. Note: You may not want to install the Yahoo! Toolbar that comes with this download (be sure to check out the different builds). Also, make sure you just use the default settings of CCleaner...not the Advanced Settings...unless you know what you are doing or are directed to by one of our Malware Removal Specialists. For more information about CCleaner, click here.

Some people run the Analyze feature of the Cleaner scan first to see what is going to be removed; it's your choice. Before you actually run the Cleaner, you might want to take a look at the Cleaner Settings to make sure you won't be removing anything you may want to keep. Temporary Internet Files are typically removed, but you may want to keep your COOKIES, History, Recently Typed URL's, or Autocomplete Form History. If you wish to keep any of these items, simply uncheck them. Keep in mind that CCleaner is set to empty the Recycle Bin, so...if there are any files in there you might want, you should uncheck it. The entire Advanced section should be unchecked if you're not fully confident in your knowledge of those items. Removing something such as Old Prefetch data can actually impede performance and the speed of applications, and you may want to keep many of the things included in the Advanced section, such as Hotfix uninstallers, which you will need in the case of having to remove a PROBLEMATIC hotfix. Advanced users may want to read this thread (taken from the official forum) to learn about adding more programs to be cleaned.

Run the Registry scan on the left-side menu, right under Cleaner. Save a copy of the registry entires when it asks you to, and make sure you save it somewhere safe, so you can find it later if you need to. This way, if CCleaner removes anything you wanted to keep, your registry will be backed up. It's suggested that you run the Issues scan a couple of times to properly clean up the registry. If you're familiar with the various programs installed on your computer, you can use the Tools feature to remove old programs, such as outdated versions of Java or expired trial software. Make note of any programs you don't recognize, so you can either research them yourself, or ask others for advice. By following all of these steps, you will free up some extra space and speed up your computer's performance a bit.

2. The next step is to clean up your Desktop. Create a new folder and put all of your pictures and documents in it. Also, make one for .exe files you might have, or for the icons you rarely...or never use. Organization is your friend!

3. Next, use the Windows Defragmenter to defragment your hard drive. To find it, just go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. Click on the disk you want to defrag (for this tutorial, we will assume it's drive C) and click Defragment. You can click Analyze and it will scan your drive and let you know whether you need to defrag or not. For this tutorial, I recommend that you do. Go here to learn how defragmenters work.

4. Go to Start > Run and when the Run window opens, type in msconfig and click OK. Go over to the Startup tab on the far right. Uncheck everything that doesn't need to start up when you load Windows. Examples are QuickTime, MSN Messenger, and RealPlayer. Just make sure you don't uncheck your security software! Click on Apply, then Close, and restart your computer.III. Advanced
1. Okay, you got a taste of msconfig in the Beginner section. Now, we will go a little deeper into it. Follow Step 4 in the Beginner section to open msconfig. When it first opens, you'll notice you're in the General section, which lets you choose from three different startup modes. The first one you see is the Normal Startup, which loads everything from all of the other sections under their default settings whenever you boot up your computer. The next one is the Diagnostic Startup, which only loads the most basic devices and services that are required for your computer to work properly. This option is only recommended for figuring out a problematic program and is not recommend to be selected if you don't know what you are doing, or if you are going to surf the web because all of your protection programs will not load and you won't be protected. The last option is Selective Startup, which lets you fully customize which devices and services from the other sections will be allowed to load at startup. This option is also not recommended if you don't know what you are doing.

Clicking on the next tab takes you to the SYSTEM.INI section, which contains your system settings for your computer, like your keyboard and fonts. It's not recommended to make any changes here, unless you know exactly what you are doing and feel comfortable and are willing to take the responsibility for what may happen to your computer's stability if you choose to make changes in this section.

The next tab contains the WIN.INI section, where you can let certain things load, such as your WALLPAPER and other various settings. As with the other sections, you shouldn't make any changes unless you know what you're doing. The fourth section, called BOOT.INI, lets you modify not what will boot up, but how your computer will boot up. As usual, don't make any changes unless you absolutely know what you're doing.

The Services section lets you pick which services your computer will load when it boots. These include, but aren't limited to, the indexing service, computer browser, and other various services. Once again, you shouldn't make any changes unless you know what you're doing. Startup, the final section, is the one you will likely be using most often. In this section, you will determine which programs are allowed to startup with your operating system. Remember not to uncheck important programs like your anti-virus and firewall. Only uncheck things you know you can do without, safely. After you modify the msconfig to your liking, click on Apply and then Close. You will be prompted to restart. It is recommended that you do so...that way, the changes you made will take effect. Once your computer reboots, a window will pop up; read it, then check the box that says "Don't show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts." You are now done and ready to move on to the next step.

2. Now you can run the Check Disk program that is built into Windows. This program checks the information on your computer and deletes dead index files, which will help speed your computer up somewhat. To run this program, go to Start > Run and enter chkdsk /f (note the space between the chkdsk and the /f) and click OK. A black command prompt window will open and ask if you want this to run on your next restart. Type Y to answer "yes", then hit the Enter key. Restart and let the program run. Once it's done, Windows will start normally.

Now you are done with this tune-up tutorial. I recommend doing this at least monthly to keep your computer running smoothly. If you have followed all of these steps and are still experiencing significant speed problems, then you should make a post somewhere in the forum, as it could be a hardware issue or a problem with conflicting software. One of our helpers here will be happy to help get to the root of the problem.

This chore, which was easy in earlier Windows versions, is difficult and poorly documented in XP Professional and theoretically impossible in XP Home. But there's a workaround: When someone accesses your computer over a local network, XP provides access through the Guest account, EVEN if that account is turned off. So if you PASSWORD-protect the Guest account, you effectively password-protect network access to your PC.

On your XP system (which I'll call the "host"), select Start, RUN, and type net user guest password, REPLACING password with something less obvious. Press Enter and reboot your system.

From now on, visitors trying to log on to the host from another PC will run into a dialog box asking for the password. Without it, they can't log on. There are a couple of caveats, however.

First, visitors must first access your PC through Windows (rather than through an application), which opens a password dialog box automatically. They won't be able to access the folder on the host through another program until they've done so with Windows Explorer, the desktop, or another Windows resource.

Second, the host's Guest account must be turned off--that's the default setting. If it's on, select Start, Control Panel, User Accounts, Guest, Turn off the guest account.

Here's a little problem and solution I experienced today, that I would like to spread around the internet so other people with this issue can easily fix it.

First, a little background:

The reason you're seeing this error is because window is trying to find an executable, which it can't. Windows will, by default, look in the C:\WINDOWS\system32\ folder for executables. Well, why is it looking for this specific program? You may be asking yourself. The reason is, you may have asked Diskeeper to do a Boot-Time De-fragmentation.

Ahh! Is it a virus? Is it bad!?

No, this particular program, along with Diskeeper, is perfectly safe. However, viruses may hijack it. If KNOW you did not specifically ASK diskeeper to do a boot time de-fragmentation, then please look in the appropriate virus forum section for cleaning your computer.

Ok, I want to do a boot time defragmentation. How can I proceed?

Open up your C: drive, then NAVIGATE to Program Files -> Diskeeper Corporation -> Diskeeper. Right click on the file named AutoNTFS.exe, and select copy. Now navigate back to your C drive, then browse as follows: WINDOWS -> system32. Once in the system32 folder, right click in an empty area and click paste.
You may now reboot your computer, and the boot time defragmentation will begin.

I did not ask diskeeper to do this for me, or I do not have Diskeeper.

This procedure will require that you are fairly comfortable with the Windows registry. If you are not, please ask someone who is to do this for you.

To open the Windows Registry Editor, go to Start -> Run, and type in regedit. Click Ok, then in the new window, browse the Folder structure as follows: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> Session Manager. At this point, you can probably tell that we are in a very important part of the computer. It's best to back up the registry now. In the folder browser on your left, right click the folder you just clicked on, Session Manager. Click Export, then save it to My Documents as regbackup. Now back in the Registry Editor, double click on the value BootExecute. In the window that just came up, delete everything in it, and copy+paste in the following:
Quote

autocheck autochk *

Thanks for sharing.

Example of partitioning an 80Gb drive: (Maxtor Diamondmax 7,200 rev/min with an 8MB drive-cache.)

What you do is up to you of course and if you have two physical drives Master & Slave, then so much the better.

80GB (Decimal size) = 80,000,000,000 Bytes , divide by 1024 three times to give the Binary sizing:

78125000 KB
76293·95 MB
74·51 GB

(10·0GB = 10,000,000,000 Bytes (÷ 1024) = 9765625 KB (÷ 1024) = 9536·74 MB (÷ 1024) = 9·313 GB)

Drive C: 10240 MB (10·0GB) Operating System & Programming. (Drive Image Backup to CDRs or Data DVDs)

Drive D: 10240 MB (10·0GB) (My) Documents & Email Folders.
(Copy Backups to CDRs or Data DVDs)

Drive E: 20480 MB (20·0GB) Music only.
(Drive Image Backup, otherwise original Audio CDs)

Drive F: Remaining Drive Space. Archive, Video, etc.
(Archive Copy Backup to CDRs and/or Data DVDs)

IMAGE FOR WINDOWS

All drives are partitioned & FULL formatted, directly from the Windows XP CD, to NTFS.

The installation uses Diskeeper 10 Professional, with Frag-Shield, to defragment the paging file and Master File Tables and to pad the Master File Tables when necessary.

If you have a Recovery CD from your computer manufacturer, the Recovery CD will install the Windows installation files to a folder, normally to C:\I386 or C:\Winnt\I386 or C:\Windows\I386 . Open the Windows Explorer and look for them. Make sure you have the file Winnt.exe, Winnt32.exe and EULA.txt. Each version of Windows has a different number of files and almost all the files will be compressed so they will have an underscore at the end of the file extension like "Shell32.dl_"

You can do a search for the folder I386. You will need to copy the entire folder to your CD burner. Do not change the name of the folder and do not make it a sub folder as in E:\Windows\I386 , it must be E:\I386. This folder will contain about 1000 or more files, in some cases nearly 1500 files.

The I386 Folder can be found by unhiding files and folders. (Explorer, Tools, Options, View.)

Now comes the easy part, getting the Windows CD Key. The NT platform does not store the CD Key in the Registry in plain text as on the Windows 9x platform. It stores only the Product ID, which is different each time you reinstall windows. So you will need to check your computer for it. My coputer has a Windows CD Key pasted to the bottom of it. Your Recovery CD may have it on its label, or your paper work has it written somewhere.

If you have proprietary hardware or if you are not sure if you do, you should copy all your drivers to the CD as well. Most of the manufacturers use some proprietary hardware to cut costs in manufacturing. When Windows installs the hardware many times it sees that it needs a standard Windows driver like Serial.vxd. But the manufacturer's hardware may need a different driver. So they either rewrite the standard Serial.vxd or replace it with their own version of the driver once Windows installs it.

To determine which ones they are use the Device Manager. Right Click the My Computer Icon on your desktop, select Properties, click the Device Manager tab, now click on the plus sign, next to the CDROM icon. The first one should be CD-ROM. Click on the CD-ROM device(s). Now select the properties button and then the Drivers Tab. Now select Driver File Details. If the button is grayed out then there are no required drivers that you will need to copy. If not copy all the files in the window that appears after you click on the Driver File Details button. Many of these files may not be needed. But better safe than sorry.