Simple tweaks to speed up Windows XP

If you’re running Windows XP, chances are your computer has gotten gradually slower over the time period you’ve been using it. So here i am providing some simple tweaks through which one can speed up the overall performance of Windows XP.

1. Uninstall And Remove Unnecessary Programs And Files

There’s no need to keep all of those games you’ve beat, demo’s you’ve downloaded, trial programs you’ve neglected, or even programs you use to use. It doesn’t matter if you have a 1 TB hard drive, clean it up.

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs. Removing old programs is easy. You can safely remove programs like games, demos, and other software you no longer use. If you are not sure what a program is... don't delete it just yet. You can do an internet search to find out more about any mystery programs installed on your PC to decide to delete them or not.


2. Delete TEMP & Cache Files and Directories

Temporary files aren’t something you can do without, but they’re definitely something you need to keep an eye on. These can take up a decent amount of hard drive space and slowdown Windows XP’s access to your hard drive.

Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Cleanup. Check on "Temperory Files" then click OK. Another method is to type "temp" in Run command and then delete everything that appears there.


3. Defragment All Hard Drives

When you install/uninstall or add/delete programs and files onto your hard drive, sometimes fragmented files can be left behind. This clutters your hard drive, making it more difficult for Windows XP to access it quickly along with taking up unnecessary space.

Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Disk Defragmentor. Select the drives and run it.


4. Disable File Indexing

This indexing service gets info from files on the hard drive and creates a "searchable keyword index." If you don't use the XP search feature often to look for documents, you can turn this feature off, and the difference you'll notice is a slight increase in the time it takes for your computer to find a file, but an overall increase in general speed for everything else.

Go to My Computer -> right-click on the C: Drive -> Properties. Uncheck "Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching" and then click OK. Now select "Apply changes to C:\, sub folders and files" and click OK.

5. Disable Windows Animations / Visual Effects

It’s safe to assume that by now you’re no longer excited by the beautiful minimize animations or any of the other fading and sliding effects that Windows XP offers. Your operating system may not look as shiny as it use to, but you’re interested in performance, not a butterfly mouse cursor.

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced tab. In the "Performance" section select "Settings". Then select "Adjust for best performance". Personally, I only have 3 items checked in through custom settings: "smooth edges of screen fonts", "use common tasks in folders", and "use visual styles on windows and buttons". You can uncheck all of them if you like. But, just getting rid of all the animated features will help the responsiveness of your PC.


6. Remove unused Fonts

Having too many fonts can really slow down how fast programs start up. Some people have more than 500 fonts installed on WinXP, but I personally try to keep the number of fonts below 200. The less you have the faster your programs that use them (office software, graphic programs etc..) will load.

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Fonts. You can delete the fonts you don't use here. Remember to keep the basic fonts like Verdana, Arial, Times, Trebuchet, Courier, serif, sans-serif, Georgia, etc... along with any fonts you like or related to your business.


7. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly, remove this task.

Go to My Computer -> Tools menu -> Folder Options -> View tab. In that uncheck the "Automatically search for network folders and printers" check-box. Click OK then Reboot your computer.

8. Detect and Repair Disk Errors

Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.

Go to Start -> My Computer. In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties -> Tools tab -> Check Now. Select the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" check-box. Click Start.

9. Optimize Your Pagefile

You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.

Right click on My Computer and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab. Under Performance choose the Settings button. Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change. Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

10. Perform a Boot Defragment

There’s a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently.

To make sure that boot defragment is enabled: Run the Registry Editor. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction. Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry. Then Reboot.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hakia - First Meaning-based Search Engine

Hakia, which is a "meaning-based" search engine startup getting a bit of buzz in my mind. It is a venture-backed, multi-national team company headquartered in New York - and curiously has former US senator Bill Bradley as a board member. It has also launched its beta version and already ranks around 20k on Alexa - which is impressive.

My Hakia experiments (along with Google)

The user interface is similar to Google, but the engine prompts you to enter not just keywords - but a question, a phrase, or a sentence. My first question was: What is the population of China?

As you can see the results were spot on. I ran the same query on Google and got very similar results, but sans flag. Looking carefully over the results in Hakia, I noticed the message: "Your query produced the Hakia gallery for China. What else do you want to know about China?"

At first this seems like a value add. However, after some thinking about it - I am not sure. What seems to have happened is that instead of performing the search, Hakia classified my question and pulled the results out of a particular cluster - i.e. China. To verify this hypothesis, I ran another query: What is the capital of china?. The results again suggested a gallery for China, but did not produce the right answer. Now to Hakia's credit, it recovered nicely when I typed in:

My next query was more pragmatic: Where is the Apple store in Soho? (another example from Hakia). The answer was perfect. I then performed the same search on Google and got a perfect result there too.

Then I searched for Why did Enron collapse?. Again Hakia did well, but not noticeably better than Google. However, I did see one very impressive thing in Hakia. In its results was this statement: Enron's collapse was not caused by overstated resource reserves, but by another kind of overstatement. This is pretty witty.... but I am still not convinced that it is doing semantic analysis. Here is why: that reply is not constructed out of words because Hakia understands the semantics of the question. Instead, it pulled this sentence out of one of the documents which had a high rank, that matches the Why did Enron collapse? query.

In my final experiment, Hakia beat Google hands down. I asked Why did Martha Stewart go to jail? - which is not one of Hakia's homebrewed examples, but it is fairly similar to their Enron example. Hakia produced perfect results for the Martha question:

Hakia is impressive, but does it really understand meaning?

I have to say that Hakia leaves me intrigued. Despite the fact that it could not answer What does Hakia mean? and despite the fact that there isn't sufficient evidence yet that it really understands meaning.

It's intriguing to think about the old idea of being able to type a question into a computer and always getting a meaningful answer (a la the Turing test). But right now I am mainly interested in Hakia's method for picking the top answer. That seems to be Hakia's secret sauce at this point, which is unique and works quite well for them. Whatever heuristic they are using, it gives back meaningful results based on analysis of strings - and it is impressive, at least at first.

Hakia and Google

Perhaps the more important question is: Will Hakia beat Google? Hakia itself has no answer, but my answer at this point is no. This current version is not exciting enough and the resulting search set is not obviously better. So it's a long shot that they'll beat Google in search. I think if Hakia presented one single answer for each query, with the ability to drill down, it might catch more attention. But again, this is a long shot.

The final question is: Is semantical search fundamentally better than text search?. This is a complex question and requires deep theoretical expertise to answer it definitively. Here are a few hints....

Google's string algorithm is very powerful - this is an undeniable fact. A narrow focused vertical search engine, that makes a lot of assumptions about the underlying search domain (e.g. Retrevo) does a great job in finding relevant stuff. So the difficulty that Hakia has to overcome is to quickly determine the domain and then to do a great job searching inside the domain. This is an old and difficult problem related to the understanding of natural language and AI. We know it's hard, but we also know that it is possible.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Windows Run Commands

Wanted to Browse fast in windows. Remember these commands. This will really save a lot of time of your. There are many commands which you might have never seen or never knew. To invoke the Run box, hold down the Windows key and hit R (or from the Start Menu, choose "Run.") From there type any one of the keywords listed to launch an app: like calc for Calculator or clpbrd for the Clipboard Viewer or freecell for the card game.There are certain properties of windows which you hardly know exist in windows. Here is a list of 1o8 run commands that i know.

Windows Run Commands :

1. Accessibility Controls------- access.cpl
2. Add Hardware Wizard------- hdwwiz.cpl
3. Add/Remove Programs------- appwiz.cpl
4. Administrative Tools------- control admintools
5. Automatic Updates------- wuaucpl.cpl
6. Bluetooth Transfer Wizard------- fsquirt
7. Calculator------- calc
8. Certificate Manager------- certmgr.msc
9. Character Map------- charmap
10. Check Disk Utility------- chkdsk
11. Clipboard Viewer------- clipbrd
12. Command Prompt------- cmd
13. Component Services------- dcomcnfg
14. Computer Management------- compmgmt.msc
15. timedate.cpl------- ddeshare
16. Device Manager------- devmgmt.msc
17. Direct X Control Panel (If Installed)*------- directx.cpl
18. Direct X Troubleshooter------- dxdiag
19. Disk Cleanup Utility------- cleanmgr
20. Disk Defragment------- dfrg.msc
21. Disk Management------- diskmgmt.msc
22. Disk Partition Manager------- diskpart
23. Display Properties------- control desktop
24. Display Properties------- desk.cpl
25. Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected)------- control color
26. Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility------- drwtsn32
27. Driver Verifier Utility------- verifier
28. Event Viewer------- eventvwr.msc
29. File Signature Verification Tool------- sigverif
30. Findfast------- findfast.cpl
31. Folders Properties------- control folders
32. Fonts------- control fonts
33. Fonts Folder------- fonts
34. Free Cell Card Game------- freecell
35. Game Controllers------- joy.cpl
36. Group Policy Editor (XP Prof)------- gpedit.msc
37. Hearts Card Game------- mshearts
38. Iexpress Wizard------- iexpress
39. Indexing Service------- ciadv.msc
40. Internet Properties------- inetcpl.cpl
41. IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration)------- ipconfig /all
42. IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents)------- ipconfig /displaydns
43. IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents)------- ipconfig /flushdns
44. IP Configuration (Release All Connections)------- ipconfig /release
45. IP Configuration (Renew All Connections)------- ipconfig /renew
46. IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS)------- ipconfig /registerdns
47. IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID)------- ipconfig /showclassid
48. IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID)------- ipconfig /setclassid
49. Java Control Panel (If Installed) jpicpl32.cpl
50. Java Control Panel (If Installed)------- javaws
51. Keyboard Properties------- control keyboard
52. Local Security Settings------- secpol.msc
53. Local Users and Groups------- lusrmgr.msc
54. Logs You Out Of Windows------- logoff
55. Microsoft Chat------- winchat
56. Minesweeper Game------- winmine
57. Mouse Properties------- control mouse
58. Mouse Properties------- main.cpl
59. Network Connections------- control netconnections
60. Network Connections------- ncpa.cpl
61. Network Setup Wizard------- netsetup.cpl
62. Notepad------- notepad
63. Nview Desktop Manager (If Installed)------- nvtuicpl.cpl
64. Object Packager------- packager
65. ODBC Data Source Administrator------- odbccp32.cpl
66. On Screen Keyboard------- osk
67. Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed)------- ac3filter.cpl
68. Password Properties------- password.cpl
69. Performance Monitor------ perfmon.msc
70. Performance Monitor------- perfmon
71. Phone and Modem Options------- telephon.cpl
72. Power Configuration------- powercfg.cpl
73. Printers and Faxes------- control printers
74. Printers Folder------- printers
75. Private Character Editor------- eudcedit
76. Quicktime (If Installed)------- QuickTime.cpl
77. Regional Settings------- intl.cpl
78. Registry Editor------- regedit
79. Registry Editor------- regedit32
80. Remote Desktop------- mstsc
81. Removable Storage------- ntmsmgr.msc
82. Removable Storage Operator Requests------- ntmsoprq.msc
83. Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof)------- rsop.msc
84. Scanners and Cameras------- sticpl.cpl
85. Scheduled Tasks------- control schedtasks
86. Security Center------- wscui.cpl
87. Services------- services.msc
88. Shared Folders------- fsmgmt.msc
89. Shuts Down Windows------- shutdown
90. Sounds and Audio------- mmsys.cpl
91. Spider Solitare Card Game------- spider
92. SQL Client Configuration------- cliconfg
93. System Configuration Editor------- sysedit
94. System Configuration Utility------- msconfig
95. System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately)------- sfc /scannow
96. System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At Next Boot)------- sfc /scanonce
97. System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot)------- sfc /scanboot
98. System File Checker Utility (Return to Default Setting)------- sfc /revert
99. System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache)------- sfc /purgecache
100. System File Checker Utility (Set Cache Size to size x)------- sfc /cachesize=x
101. System Properties------- sysdm.cpl
102. Task Manager------- taskmgr
103. Telnet Client------- telnet
104. User Account Management------- nusrmgr.cpl
105. Utility Manager------- utilman
106. Windows Firewall------- firewall.cpl
107. Windows Magnifier------- magnify
108. Windows Management Infrastructure------- wmimgmt.msc

Also provide me with other commands than these that you know in your comments. That will add to my knowledge and it will really help me a lot, since i believe in using direct commands rather than browsing.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Browse Flickr photos through TAG GALAXY

While exploring internet today (my usual timepass when i got no work), i came across this amazing site Tag Galaxy. Tag Galaxy is an application to explore Flickr photos via virtual planetary systems. You enter a tag, and the related galaxy appears on screen.

TagGalaxy offers up a novel concept concerning Flickr and tags. The set up, as you can probably guess, is influenced by space. Essentially, Flickr tags are visualized as an arrangement of planets. The greater number of pictures within a tag category, the larger the planet will be. To start off, you simply have to enter a search term or tag into the search bar; you could enter a color, objects, a city name, etc. After you click go, you’re taken off to space, following large glowing orbs and planets. The initial effect is quite visually arresting; and it gets better. From there, click on any planet to zoom in and your planet will fill up with Flickr photos. Also, you can scroll the mouse for zooming in the planet filled with Flickr images. Click on any of these to get a larger view. To view even more photos, hit the arrows at the top and your planet will be tiled with more photos. There’s also a full screen mode, so you can enjoy the spectacle even more. To start a new search, hit ‘new tag’. You’ll be able to enter in a new term and zoom in on more galaxies.

Honestly, you can search on Flickr just as easily, but there is something insidiously addictive (which might sound bad, but it’s really, really good) about this method. I simply could not get enough clicking - clicking on planets, spinning them, rotating them on their axis, and finally playing with the pictures contained inside. The only negative thing I found to the whole experience is that it does appear to slow down some after a lot of play.

So now, discover a new way of searching images on the internet with Tag Galaxy. Enter your favorite tag or keyword and see what images and other tags are related in this stunning visualisation. This is what i tried with a tag of my name "Yogesh". And see how many images it shown related to this tag! (No pics of mine though !!!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Powerpoint to video converter

So the topic is related to converting powerpoint presentations to video formats. But then the question arises "Why would one need this". Well what i have observerd is that usually people face technology handicaps to shoot and share a video. However, making a powerpoint presentation is quite easy. There are already 500mn powerpoint users. People can make a video out of their powerpoint presentation and can upload the same on youtube or ipod or put it in blog or on a website. The biggest advantage is that you can burn the video on to a DVD and watch the presentations on a large TV screen.

There are a number of softwares that converts PPT to various video formats. Personally i prefer videos in AVI format as they are smaller in size comparatively. So i will be giving here methods to convert PPT into a AVI video file.

PowerPoint presentation to AVI format

• The first method is to play slideshow on your screen and to record it at the same time with screen recording application like Wondershare DemoCreator. But I want to suggest one thing regarding screen recorder that while conversion you will not be able to do any other job and you need to open PowerPoint each time. Also there are chances of loosing animation, audio tracks etc. One more disadvantage is that you cannot convert all PowerPoint pieces at same time.

• The Second method is using software available on various website. You can find lots of software application for PowerPoint conversion to AVI and also promising of providing best quality output. But you need to find the best one, so our suggestion is to take free trail prior to purchase.

Although there are a number of softwares for PPT-Video conversion, very few of them are for FREE. The E.M. PowerPoint Video Converter is what i prefer for free conversion tool.

E.M. PowerPoint Video Converter

E.M. Free PowerPoint Video Converter is FREE and all-in-one PowerPoint to video converter. It can convert PowerPoint presentations to AVI, MPG, WMV, BMP images and MP3 audio.

Main Functions:

• Two output mode(Auto/Interactive), Two compression mode(two compressions/a compression), Two run mode(slide/build), you can high-quality, simple, rapid convert PowerPoint file.

• Support the output video formats: AVI, MPEG, WMV.

• Extract and Convert PowerPoint file audio to MP3 audio.

• Convert PowerPoint presentations to BMP mage sequences.

Key Features:

• Support PowerPoint 2000 / 2002 / 2003 / 2007.

• It could provide the best capability to convert PowerPoint files to other video formats.

• Batch conversion.

• Support attach other audio track (MP3/WMA/WAV).

• Customizable video crop and pad for exported video.

• Customizable trim.

• Easy to use.

Other Features:

• Integrate a powerful media player - Total Video Player.

File Formats Supported:

Video Formats:

• PowerPoint (ppt) to WMV (.wmv)
• PowerPoint (ppt) to Ms Mpeg4 AVI (.avi)
• PowerPoint (ppt) to MPEG1 (.mpg)

Audio Formats:

• PowerPoint (ppt) to MPEG audio(.mp3)

Image Formats:

• PowerPoint (ppt) to BMP (.bmp)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Migrate to MS Exchange from Lotus Notes

According to a recent Gartner report, Microsoft continues to gain a-mail market share, and will hold approximately 70 percent of the worldwide commercial e-mail market by late 2009. Many businesses are considering moving to Microsoft platforms such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 from their current platforms, including Lotus Notes.

Quest Software, Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT) has a set of tools designed to migrate mailboxes and applications off of Notes, and to help manage and rebuild applications in the new environment. Quest’s comprehensive set of solutions migrate and manage the data of organizations wishing to transition off Lotus Notes to a Microsoft platform.

• Notes Migrator for Exchange allows migrations of multiple users from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 simultaneously. It also automates manual tasks, including mailbox creation and mail routing to simplify administration.

• Notes Migrator for SharePoint provides direct migrations from Lotus Notes, QuickPlace and Domino.doc to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. It migrates all Notes data, including images, file attachments, OLE objects and rich text, ensuring all critical business data is preserved. New features include analysis capabilities for helping organizations discover and classify their Notes applications, as well as components for managing large migration projects and provisioning large volumes of SharePoint sites.

• Development Studio for SharePoint helps organizations quickly rebuild Notes applications in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 without custom coding. This suite of web parts assists in reconstructing Notes applications with a consistent look and feel as well as rich functionality, data integrity and security.

Quest Software and Avanade, Inc., a global IT consultancy, are working together to migrate organizations’ mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and applications to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Quest’s Notes migration products, coupled with Avanade’s ACA® Messaging Migration Engine, help customers successfully plan, design, migrate and implement an Exchange and SharePoint solution. Following a migration, customers can leverage Quest and Avanade’s collective expertise to develop a comprehensive deployment plan for their organization. Avanade will be among the first of Quest’s partners given access to the upcoming Notes Migrator for SharePoint 5.0 beta release, which will be announced during Microsoft Tech·Ed.

Quest Software will host a booth in the SharePoint Partner Zone at Microsoft Tech·Ed, June 10 – 13. Quest’s Notes Migration Center will be located at booth #1446 and will feature tools to migrate customers from Notes to either SharePoint or Exchange.

Pricing and Availability

Notes Migrator for Exchange is $10 per mailbox, North American pricing. North American pricing for Notes Migrator for SharePoint starts at $12,500 with reseller, quantity discounts and various options available. Development Studio for SharePoint starts at $3,000, North American pricing. All products are available.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shortcuts for Microsoft Word

Here’s a list of Microsoft Word keyboard shortcuts that are being used by experts for years. Word is amazing powerful and if you become well-versed in using the shortcuts, you can really save yourself a lot of time having to move your hand to your mouse in order to right-click or highlight text.

Now, the really easy shortcuts like copy and paste are not given here assuming you have used Word many times before reading this post!

• CTRL + S

You might say “Well that’s one of those stupid ones!”, but it’s actually not! Many people do not save their documents quickly and easily using this shortcut! It would have saved many people's lots of crying or frustration! Don’t go to File and then click Save, it’s a waste of time! It is particularly helpful when computer shuts down or turn-off accidently (due to whatever reason).

• CTRL + A

Will select all of the text in the document. This is very useful when you have to change the font type or size for the entire document. You can use this one in combination with the others, such as CTRL + D to bring up the Font Format menu.

• CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT ARROW

This one allows you to select the last word you typed. This is useful if you messed up the last word and want to quickly re-type it without having to press backspace. You can keep pressing the arrow to select more words to the left.

• ALT + CTRL + F

Adds a footnote at the current position of the cursor. Very useful when writing papers and having to cite your sources. At the end of the line, type the shortcut and the superscript will be created and you’ll be moved down to the bottom section where you can write your source info.

• F7

Starts up the proofing engine, which checks your spelling and grammar. No need to keep right-clicking on each red line! Then engine will go through all of the mistakes in the current document.

• CTRL + 1, 5, or 2

Pressing CTRL and then one of these numbers will automatically space the paragraph to either single (1), 1.5 (5) or double-space (2). You can use this one in conjunction with CTRL + A to double-space your entire doc.

• CTRL + =, CTRL + SHIFT + =

Quick and easy way to go into subscript and superscript mode, respectively. Otherwise, you have to go through the Font dialog box, etc and that’s a real pain!

• SHIFT + F7

You can’t live without that thesaurus these days! You can use this one with CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT ARROW to highlight the word you just wrote and then bring up the thesaurus on the selected word!

• CTRL + K

Will either take your highlighted text and make it into a hyperlink or will allow you to create your own hyperlink from scratch.

• ALT + CTRL + M

Adds an annotation to your current text position. Great if you’re adding comments or notes to a document, then you don’t have to use the toolbar.

• CTRL + M

Indents the paragraph by half an inch. Good for quotes or hierarchical outlines.

• CTRL + P, F2

Brings up the print dialog box. F2 will bring up the Print Preview.

• CTRL + L, E, or R

Aligns the line of selected text to the left, center, or right of the screen.

• F4

Repeats the last action performed. Very very useful when you have to change the same thing in multiple locations. Do it once and then press F4.

• Alt + F4

Close the Word program. Will prompt if you have not saved the file.

So start using some of the shortcuts and you’ll find things work a lot faster! It takes some time to get used to, but it’s worth it. The best way is to disconnect your mouse and force yourself to use keyboard shortcuts. Enjoy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boost the voltage of Intel Core 2 Duo

What is overclocking?

Overclocking is pushing your CPU to run at a faster clock speed than the manufacturer has it set at.

Lets Get started!

The first step is to enter your BIOS. To do this, boot up your computer and while it begins to post hit the Delete key.

There are two main ways people go about overclocking. The first way is by increasing your FSB by 10mhz at a time and running Orthos and monitory temps, and increasing voltage when needed.

So you've decided to overclock that Core 2 Duo processor you have. Issue is, even with all the proper overclocking software and the right heat prevention gear for your components, your processor still can't output the necessary voltage to get this thing started. Instead of simply throwing away your motherboard and buying a new one, through using a variation on the "pin-mod" overclocking technique, you can easily alter the voltage with just some electrical tape and conductive ink.

The Core 2 Duos bring the joy back for the Intel Overclockers with their easy to handle heat and ample of overclock head-room. However, the overclocking capacity depends as much on the motherboards paired with them. Some of the enthusiasts on a tight budget are stuck with a limiting motherboard , particularly in the voltage department. Well now here's a way out for you!

Until recently, your only option would have been to buy a new motherboard due to limits set on the voltage output. Now, through using a variation of the tried and true “pin-mod” technique, you’ll be able to bump your voltage up from using just two tools: electrical tape and conductive ink. This mod will work on nearly all of the Core 2 Duo CPU’s by connecting a few points with the conductive ink. In the past, these points where actually “pins” that you would simply bridge within the motherboard seating to achieve a similar overclock in voltage, but without them there, the process of overclocking becomes a lot easier.

You can basically over-ride the default voltage of 1.35v inherent on many of the Intel Core 2 Duo, E6300 to X6800, with a simple "pin-mod". Well yes, there are no longer pins on these LGA packaged precessors... in fact that makes them easier to modify! All you need is some electrical insulation tape and some conductive ink!

**As some CPUs come with a different default voltages such as 1.2875v, etc, using these mods will get you different results so I will be updating with more info for CPUs with different default voltages. For now, this is for 1.35v default.**

• Overclock to 1.4v: You will need to connect the two pins together at row three, column’s six and seven.

(To get a slight bump to 1.4v, simply connect the 'pins' shown above with conductive ink. This is a direct representation of your Processor and not your motherboard socket, do take note!)

• Overclock to 1.45v: You will need to connect two pins together, along with covering a third pin. Connect the pins together at row’s two and three, column four. Place a pin sized piece of tape over the pin at row four, column four.

• Overclock to 1.5v: You will need to connect two sets of pins together, along with covering a fifth pin. The first set of pins are row’s two and three, column four. The second set of pins are row three, column’s six and seven. Place a pin sized piece of tape over the pin at row four, column four.

• Overclock to 1.55v: You will need to connect the two pins together at row’s two and three, column four.
  

• Overclock to 1.6v: You will need to connect two sets of pins together, the first at row’s two and three, column four. Then connect the second set at row three, column’s six and seven.

To facilitate precision, tape over the surrounding 'pins' except the ones you are trying to connect. For example, as shown below for overclocking to 1.4v

*NOTE* This tutorial/tweak is only the first draft. I'm sure it has plenty of errors. Please point them out in your comments as you see them, and I will make changes. Thanks !

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speed-Up loading of Adobe Acrobat Reader

Don’t you often get irritated when your acrobat reader takes 5/10 seconds to load when you want to open a pdf document?

Here is The way to speed up the loading.

1. Go to the installation folder of acrobat reader
Most of the times its C:\program files\adobe\acrobat\reader\... whatever

2. Move all the files and folders from the “plug_ins” directory to the “Optional” directory.
(Just… cut and paste the files NOT copy & paste).

• Make sure that acrobat reader is not open else it will lock the files and not allow you to move the files.

Now run your acrobat reader, the adobe installer will run once to apply the changes you made and then your acrobat reader will load very fast and almost as fast as notepad.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ASUS Motherboards with Ultimate Safety and Data Security

ASUS Motherboards Offer 360° Dimensional Protection through ESD, Overcurrent Protection, Data Security-TPM and Drive Xpert.

In order to cater to the safety and security of consumers, ASUS, leading producer of motherboards worldwide, has announced key motherboard innovations to provide users with the ultimate in safety and data security. Available on the P5Q series and other top-notch motherboards, these innovations include ESD and Overcurrent Protection for safeguarding users against electrostatic discharges and overcurrent; as well as the ASUS Data Guardian (TPM) and Drive Xpert for data security and backup. With these features, users will be able to enjoy a full range of protection during everyday computing.

Electrostatic Discharge Protection (ESD)

When users walk on carpets and rugs, leave their cars, or remove some types of plastic packaging, there may be a buildup of electric static charge – sometimes as high as a few kilovolts. When contact is made to electronic devices at this time (especially computers), the accumulated electrical charge can then “jump” into the system through the fingers – creating either a system crash or other errors, or worse still – electrical damage to internal components. As depicted with the image below, the IC’s damage was caused by electric static discharge.
The European Union (EU) was the first to require testing for static discharge tolerance, and created a set of standards of protection through strict guidelines and rules (contact discharge of 4 kilovolts and air discharge of 8 kilovolts). In line with the commitment to provide the best possible customer satisfaction, ASUS has designed motherboards that surpasses the EU’s strict static electricity standards; and provide users with protection against such static discharge in the most commonly used scenarios – for example the front USB ports. Each USB port on the motherboard is protected against static electricity discharge – something which no other motherboard maker is yet to achieve. This highlights ASUS’ true commitment towards consumers – not just in terms of performance, but also to help protect users against static electricity.

Overcurrent Protection for Safe Computing
An overcurrent is a current that exceeds the amperage rating of the external device (flash memory, hard disks and etc.) or other active components in a circuit (e.g. ICs). When you connect an external device (e.g. external HDD) with a flawed circuit into your PC system, it might cause an overcurrent. Without adequate protection, an overcurrent can seriously damage components on the motherboard (e.g. ICs) or even the external device itself. ASUS’ motherboards are designed with an installed circuit that acts like fuses and circuit breakers to detect an overcurrent condition when the current reaches a value that will cause an excessive or dangerous temperature rise in conductors – and in doing so, protecting your external devices, ICs and the safety of the users themselves.

ASUS Data Guardian (TPM) for Total Data Security

Increasingly, cyber crime and ID theft are becoming more prevalent, and PC users and business client may face risks to their sensitive data and personal data through unauthorized usage, hackers, stolen hard disk drives, and even loss of critical data through the Internet and emails. The ASUS Data Guardian (TPM support) provides ultimate data security protection for the user’s personal data by creating a virtual folder that is protected by an encryption key, and then stored on a USB portable drive – allowing users to store their most valued and secret data safely against unauthorized access. With the ASUS Data Guardian, users will be able to enjoy a secure and protected working environment.

Drive Xpert – The Easy and Safe Way for Data Management

Users usually store their precious photos and favorite music in their computer hard disks. Due to the complexity in traditional backup solutions, and the long amount of time taken for backups, it is seldom convenient or easy to manage these backups; even traditional RAID options – which solve these problems, suffer from hard and complex setup processes. Thus most users do without any form of backup, and run the risk of losing their precious data in the event of crashes or accidental data loss. Without any need for drivers or complex setups, the ASUS exclusive Drive Xpert solves all these dilemmas, and is ideal for anyone who needs to secure their data on their hard drives or enhance hard drive performances without the hassles of complicated configurations. With Drive Xpert´s exclusive user-friendly graphical user interface, users can easily arrange hard drive backups or enhance their hard drive transfer rates - making sure that data is looked after every moment, every day.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------