NTLDR is Missing. 0 comments

Issue:

NTLDR is Missing.

Related errors:

Below are the full error messages that may be seen when the computer is booting.

NTLDR is Missing
Press any key to restart

Boot: Couldn't find NTLDR
Please insert another disk

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart
Cause:

1. Computer is booting from a non-bootable source.
2. Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS.
3. Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file.
4. Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file.
5. Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32.
6. New hard disk drive being added.
7. Corrupt boot sector / master boot record.
8. Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
9. Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable.

Solutions:

Computer is booting from a non-bootable source

Many times this error is caused when the computer is attempting to boot from a non-bootable floppy disk or CD-ROM. First verify that no floppy diskette is in the computer, unless you are attempting to boot from a diskette.

If you are attempting to boot from a floppy diskette and are receiving this error message it is likely that the diskette does not have all the necessary files and/or is corrupt.

If you are attempting to install Windows XP or Windows 2000 and are receiving this error message as the computer is booting verify that your computer BIOS has the proper boot settings. For example, if you are attempting to run the install from the CD-ROM make sure the CD-ROM is the first boot device, and not the hard disk drive.

Second, when the computer is booting you should receive the below prompt.

Press any key to boot from the CD

Important: When you see this message press any key such as the Enter key immediately, otherwise it will try booting from the hard drive and likely get the NTLDR error again.

Note: If you are not receiving the above message and your BIOS boot options are set properly it's also possible that your CD-ROM drive may not be booting from the CD-ROM properly. Verify the jumpers are set properly on the CD-ROM drive. Additional information about checking the CD-ROM drive connections can be found on document CH000213.

Additional information: This error has also been known to occur when a memory stick is in a card reader and the computer is attempting to boot from it. If you have any type of card reader or flash reader make sure that no memory stick is inside the computer.

Computer hard disk drive is not properly setup in BIOS

Verify that your computer hard disk drive is properly setup in the BIOS / CMOS setup. Improper settings can cause this error. Additional information on how to enter the BIOS / CMOS setup can be found in document CH000192.

Corrupt NTLDR and/or NTDETECT.COM file

Windows 2000 users
Windows XP users

Windows 2000 users

If your computer is using Microsoft Windows 2000 and you are encountering the NTLDR error. Create the below boot.ini file on the floppy diskette drive.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect

Copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from another computer using the same operating system. Both of these files are located in the root directory of the primary hard disk drive. For example, C:\NTLDR and C:\NTDETECT.COM should be the locations of these files on many computers.

*

Please keep in mind that these files are hidden system files, if you need additional help with viewing hidden files in Windows please see document CH000516.

Once these files have been copied to a floppy diskette reboot the computer and copy the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files to the root directory of the primary hard disk drive. Below is an example of what commonly should be performed from the A:\> drive.

copy ntldr c:
copy ntdetect.com c:

After the above two files have been copied, remove the floppy diskette and reboot the computer.

Windows XP users

1. Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.
2. When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3. Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4. Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
5. You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
6. Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter, which in this case is "e." This letter may be different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

7. Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the computer and reboot.

Misconfiguration with the boot.ini file

Edit the boot.ini on the root directory of the hard disk drive and verify that it is pointing to the correct location of your Windows operating system and that the partitions are properly defined. Additional information about the boot.ini can be found on document CH000492.

Attempting to upgrade from a Windows 95, 98, or ME computer that is using FAT32

If you are getting this error message while you are attempting to upgrade to Windows 2000 or Windows XP from Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows ME running FAT32 please try the below recommendations.

1. Boot the computer with a Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME bootable diskette.

2. At the A:\> prompt type:

sys c:

3. After pressing enter you should receive the "System Transferred" message. Once this has been completed remove the floppy diskette and reboot the computer.

New hard disk drive being added

If you are attempting to add a new hard disk drive to the computer make sure that drive is a blank drive. Adding a new hard disk drive to a computer that already has Windows installed on it may cause the NTLDR error to occur.

If you are unsure if the new drive is blank or not try booting from a bootable diskette and format the new hard disk drive.

Corrupt boot sector / master boot record

It's possible your computer's hard disk drive may have a corrupt boot sector and/or master boot record. These can be repaired through the Microsoft Windows Recovery console by running the fixboot and fixmbr commands.

Additional information and help in getting into the Microsoft Windows Recovery console can be found on document CH000627.

Seriously corrupted version of Windows 2000 or Windows XP

If you have tried each of the above recommendations that apply to your situation and you continue to experience this issue it is possible you may have a seriously corrupted version of Microsoft Windows. Therefore we would recommend you reinstall Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

If you are encountering this issue during your setup you may wish to completely erase your computer hard disk drive and all of its existing data and then install Microsoft Windows 2000 / Windows XP. Additional information about erasing the computer and starting over can be found on document CH000186.

Loose or Faulty IDE/EIDE hard disk drive cable

This issue has been known to be caused by a loose or fault IDE/EIDE cable. If the above recommendation does not resolve your issue and your computer hard disk drive is using an IDE or EIDE interface. Verify the computer hard disk drive cable is firmly connected by disconnected and reconnecting the cable.

If the issue continues it is also a possibility that the computer has a faulty cable, try replacing the hard disk drive cable with another cable and/or a new cable.

CHANGING RESOURCES 0 comments

Within Windows 95 and Windows 98, most PnP (Plug N Play) cards can be manually adjusted through Device Manager. If your device is encountering conflicts with another device within Device Manager, double-click the device within the device category. Such as double-clicking a 3COM NIC icon under Network Adapters. Within the properties of the device click the Resource tab. In Resources uncheck the box which says 'Use automatic settings'; once unchecked you will then be able to change the Basic Configuration. As you change the Basic configuration, each of the resource settings will change. If you only have one option for resource settings, it's a good possibility that the device may be a Legacy device or may only work with one configuration mode.

Step by step instructions for changing the resources for a device under Windows 9x can be found at CH000197.

ALL IRQs ARE USED, NOW WHAT?

If your computer is utilizing all IRQs, unfortunately there are only a few ways around this, which can be very complicated. The first and easiest way would be to attempt to remove devices from the computer to allow IRQs to become free and or substitute for external devices. The other option would be to attempt to assign the IRQ settings to IRQ settings that may already be used by another device. However, when doing this, it is recommended that you choose a device that is not going to be frequently used. Windows may report that there is a device conflicting; however, in some instances the devices can work on the same IRQ the devices but will not be able to work at the same time.

CAN I ADD AN IRQ?

No, unfortunately with PCs they are limited to 00-15. The latest and greatest PCs will also have this limitation. However, you can add devices such as a SCSI card to the computer, daisy chain a hard drive / CD-ROM drive and other hardware devices, and because the SCSI card uses ID addresses, when the hardware devices are hooked up to the SCSI card, they will not be taking an IRQ. Therefore, you will be able to utilize up to 7 devices on one IRQ. Another recommended connection to PC computers would be the USB port which allows up to 127 devices to be connected at once using only one IRQ.

IRQs NOT RECOMMENDED

When connecting devices it is recommended that you stay away from IRQ 9 which is a cascade port with IRQ 2. However, generally it is a good idea to assign devices that you wish to move and do not plan to use to IRQ 9 to allow extra IRQs for a device you may plan to use. A good example of this recommendation is moving the MPU-401 device, which is a midi device used for musical keyboards.

What is MS-DOS 0 comments

Microsoft DOS is a command line user interface first introduced in 1981 for IBM computers and was last updated in 1994 when MS-DOS 6.22 was released. Although MS-DOS is not commonly used today, the command shell used through Microsoft Windows is. This page contains complete information about MS-DOS and the Windows command line.

DATABASES AND MAINTAINING THEIR UPTIME: 0 comments

Databases provide a convenient means of storing vast amounts of information, allowing the information to be sorted, searched, viewed, and manipulated according to the business needs and goals. A computer database relies upon software to organize the storage of data. The software models the database structure in what are known as database models. The model in most common use today is the relational model. Other models such as the hierarchical model and the network model use a more explicit representation of relationships (see below for explanation of the various database models).

The first database management systems were developed in the 1960s. A pioneer in the field was Charles Bachman. Bachman's early papers show that his aim was to make more effective use of the new direct access storage devices becoming available: until then, data processing had been based on punched cards and magnetic tape, so that serial processing was the dominant activity.

While storing data is a great feature of databases, for many database users the most important feature is quick and simple retrieval of information. In a relational database, it is extremely easy to pull up information regarding an employee, but relational databases also add the power of running queries. Queries are requests to pull specific types of information and either show them in their natural state or create a report using the data. For instance, if you had a database of employees and it included tables such as salary and job description, you can easily run a query of which jobs pay over a certain amount. No matter what kind of information you store on your database, queries can be created using SQL to help answer important questions.

Databases can be very small (less than 1 MB) or extremely large and complicated (terabytes as in many government databases). However, all databases are usually stored and located on hard disk or other types of storage devices and are accessed via computer. Large databases may require separate servers and locations, but many small databases can fit easily as files located on your computer's hard drive.

Obviously, many databases store confidential and important information that should not be easily accessed by just anyone. Many databases require passwords and other security features in order to access the information. While some databases can be accessed via the internet through a network, other databases are closed systems and can only be accessed on site.

The need for database maintenance is unavoidable, so enterprise data availability software solutions have been created to help businesses reduce downtime from hours or days to mere minutes or even seconds. Effective database management applications can reduce or eliminate downtime that renders a database unavailable, giving business owners and developers a flexible and powerful tool to protect the performance of their valuable business operations.

Companies which provide enterprise data availability software and services help businesses manage their databases by offering services such as backup and recovery, automation of maintenance tasks, and fine tuning performance efficiency, among others. With an assessment of current database maintenance practices, enterprise data availability companies can recommend the appropriate system to implement that can solve the database management shortfalls of most organizations, playing a valuable role in the protection and longevity of their clients.

Advantage of Laptops: 0 comments

Laptop has the advantage in battery technology and the advent of functional, large-screen, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), the first truly portable computers, referred to as laptops, were produced in the late 1980s. These units featured integrated AT-compatible computer boards, including I/O (input/output) and video controller functions. Laptops, as mentioned, usually feature a folding LCD display and a built-in keyboard and pointing device. They also use an external power supply and a removable, rechargeable battery. Today's laptops have fairly large (2 GB or more) hard drives, a CD-ROM drive (or DVD drive), and a floppy disk drive (often the latter two are interchangeable plug-ins).

The laptops are originally appeared on the market, they were the smallest portable computers made. Today, they are high-end machines that offer features and performance comparable to a desktop system. These are all the Advantage of laptops.

Types of Portables: 0 comments

The Types of portables computers are as described below and it main features of it also described below it is useful for many peoples from all over the world and it also the important and easy thing to do. Portable computers are classified according to size and function. Today there are three basic types of portable computers: laptops, notebooks, and subnotebooks.

The first "portable" computers were often called "luggables." The size of a portable sewing machine, they tipped the scales at 30 pounds. Equipped with a small CRT (cathode-ray tube) display, they were actually a traditional PC in a slightly smaller case.

This are the main types of portables computers that were daily used routinely by the peoples all over the world. The real change in portable computers came with the advent of the flat-panel display, allowing the portable to take on the now-familiar slim design. Laptop is the term used for the heavier version, usually offering most of the features of a full-fledged PC but with a folding flat-panel display and integrated keyboard. Notebooks are slender devices that often lack the full range of storage as part of the normal configuration. PDAs, a special group of products offering a subset of features including e-mail, schedule tracking, contact records, and limited note taking and Web browsing, are beyond the scope of this chapter and it are all the main feature of portables that wre in daily usage purposes.

A Quick Way to the C: 0 comments

A Quick Way to the C:

OK, I know there are several ways to view the contents of your hard drive (normally drive "C" ), but here's one I stumbled upon the other day that I thought was kinda cool.

If you have Windows 95/98/ME...

1. First hit your Windows Key and the letter " R ." (The windows key is located between the ALT & CTRL keys - if you don't have a "windows" keyboard, you won't have this key and you'll need to click the Start button, Run to try this.)

2. You should now have the "Run" dialog box sitting in front of you. Now, type in a back slash ( / ):



3. Hit Enter and you should get a window with a list of all the stuff on your C: drive.



Again, there are other ways of getting to your C: drive quickly (like sticking a shortcut on your desktop by dragging the C: drive to it), but this was kinda neat so I thought I would pass it along.

For Windows XP...

1. Hit the Windows key and the letter R .

2. Type " C: " (without the quotation marks) instead of the backslash as stated above.



3. Hit Enter and voila! You should see the contents of your C: drive.

Sure, there are lots of other ways to see what's on your C: drive, but can you think of one that makes you look as cool? That what I thought :-)

Maximize Dial-up Modem Settings 0 comments

Maximize Dial-up Modem Settings

Did you know that by changing a few settings you can make your dial-up modem run better? That's right—you might have a fast modem and a good connection, but you're not getting the best performance. With a few adjustments, you can get faster connection speeds.

NOTE: Since every PC configuration is different, these adjustments might not work for everyone.

With Windows 95, 98 & ME you'll need to open your Control Panel ( Start / Control Panel ). Click "System" then choose "Device Manager". Open up "Ports", highlight your modem port (should be COM2), and choose "Properties" near the bottom. When you click "Port Settings", you will see the modem speed listed under "Bits per second".



With Win XP , just hold down the Alt key and double-click "My Computer" to bring up System Properties. Click the "Hardware" tab, then choose the "Device Manager" button. Scroll down to "Modems" and click the little (—) to show your modem, then double click it.

Selecting the "Modem" tab will allow you to adjust the port speed.



Usually, the Maximum Port Speed is on the highest setting (115,000 bps), but sometimes you will find it on a slower default of 9600 bps. If you have a 56k modem, you can crank it up to the maximum setting without any trouble (in most cases). If you live in a cave and have a 28k modem, then the fastest you can do is 57,600 bps.

Win 9x users should also adjust the "Flow Control" near the bottom. The default for this is usually Xon/Xoff which is the software control—change this to "Hardware" if you want to get the most from your modem. Next, click the "Advanced" button to adjust the Receiver Buffer to its highest setting (all the way to the right). If you run into any problems, just turn this one back to the 2/3 setting.

To check/adjust the Receive-Transmit buffers in XP, click the "Advanced" tab of your modem properties then choose the "Advanced Port Settings" button. Make sure that both are set to their highest settings.



There are many more tweaks that can be done in the registry, but the potential for disaster is too high for the average user. Some folks install dial-up accelerators, which basically tweak these registry settings for you and perform other routines to optimize performance.

Just by changing these few settings, though, you should see better performance.

Keep Files Anonymous 0 comments

Did you know that your name and other personal information may be included in files that you send to others? That's right. Word processors especially put in the author's name and more automatically. If you plan on sending a file to someone else, then you should remove this info.

Right click a file and choose "Properties" (or Alt+double click). If there is a "Summary" tab then click it. Clear your name from the "Author" box.



Next, click the "Advanced" tab and look through any information there and see if you want to delete any of it. If so, click to highlight and delete the information.

If you want to avoid doing this every time you create a Word document you can go to Tools/Options and click the "User Information" tab. The first two fields require an entry. You can use a symbol or a letter, or use the invisible character (Alt+0160)—see the tip on this...



Now you have a bit more anonymity in your documents.

P.S. If the document/file is business related, make sure that this info is not required by your employer.

LG Electronics BD300 Blu-ray Disc Player To Receive High-Definition Streaming 1 comments

LG Electronics confirmed today that the popular LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will offer the Netflix High-Definition (HD) Instant Streaming capability. This upgrade will be free-of-charge to consumers via an automatic firmware update in early December.

The LG BD300, the world’s first Blu-ray Disc Player to offer built-in instant streaming of Netflix titles, will be further enhanced by this upgrade, according to Allan Jason, vice president, Digital Media, LG Electronics USA.

“LG is proud to offer Netflix HD Instant Streaming for the BD300. As the first manufacturer to offer instant streaming on a Blu-ray player, LG continues to expand entertainment options for consumers as high-definition streaming and other online video content grow in the months and years ahead.”

For more information on LG’s BD300, please visit www.LGusa.com/bluray. Specifications subject to change without notice.

Two BlackBerry Storm Updates Imminent, Handset Unlocked For Use T-Mobile 0 comments

Here on Thanksgiving Eve, we've got two juicy Storm tidbits sure to make your Turkey Day that much more interesting. For starters, one fellow over on HoFo has purportedly unlocked his touchscreen BlackBerry for use on T-Mobile's GSM network. Hot, right? The process involved sourcing a SIM unlock code from VZW, then updating the phone with software intended for the Bold. If you're not confused yet, you'll also need a dash of Elvish magic and a bit of luck, but you should know that you can't tap into T-Mob's 2G voice network and Verizon's 3G data network at the same time. Next up, the Boy Genius has it on authority that two firmware updates are but weeks away, both of which will target some of the many issues that early adopters have been harping on since launch day. Hit the links below for more details on everything.

Samsung Kicks Out New Touchscreen LCDs For Public Smudging 0 comments

Samsung announced in Korea 5 New large LCD’s for business usage and presentation with touchscreen technology. These LCD’s will be brander under the TS series with the 320TSn (32”), 400TSn (40”), 460TSn (46”), 700TSn (70”) and the 820TSn (82”).

Made to be used as POS or Information LCDs, these new panels receives the MagicInfo technology, giving you the possibility manage several screen at the same time in order to display a large video.

Related Links: Samsung

Troubleshooting Video Problems 0 comments

Does your display flicker? Are your animations not working correctly? Have you been notified that you have “display problems. This program can’t continue”? This tip will help you solve those video problems.

Hold down the Alt key and double click on the My Computer icon, then select the Device Manager tab (XP Users: it’s the Hardware tab). Double click Display Adapters.



Next, double click your video card. The Device Status window will list any problems with your video card. If a problem is listed here it is usually a conflict between two devices. Click on the Resources tab. If there are any conflicts listed in the Conflicting Device List, make sure the Use Automatic Settings is checked and reboot your computer. You can also try running through the steps under the Troubleshooting button in the General tab of the Properties window.



If either of these solutions doesn’t solve your problem, reload your video driver by repeating the above steps up to double clicking on your video card. From there click on the Driver tab, then Update Driver and follow the on-screen instructions. Have your video card driver disk or cd ready when you reinstall the driver.

Hardware Refresh 0 comments

Here's a cool way to save yourself some time. If you have any kind of external (non USB) device (like a scanner, tape backup, external zip drive, etc), they probably need to be powered on before you boot up your computer. If not, the computer doesn't recognize them and you need to turn them on and re-boot. Or do you?

For example, let's say you forgot to turn on your scanner. Now, normally you would have to turn it on and re-boot the computer. Wait - here's how to get around it.

1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties from the resulting menu.

2. Click the Device Manager tab and then the Computer item at the top. Towards the bottom of that screen, you'll see a "refresh" button. Click that.



Windows will now "refresh" it's hardware profile! Once it's done (it shouldn't take too long at all) you'll find your scanner is now part of the hardware profile and you can now use it, no re-booting required!

This will (should) work for any device that's attached to your computer and you forgot to turn on. It seems like I need to hit the refresh button twice on some computers to get this to work. Go figure.

Please note - if you forgot to attach a device to your computer, it's best to attach devices to the computer ONLY when it's off (Unless is a USB device).

Music CD Tricks 0 comments

Do you play CDs in your computer? If so, don't you hate it when you're trying to listen to your CD and the computer is "beeping" in on top of it (you know, for error messages and such)? Here's how to fix the problem:

1. Right-click the little yellow speaker in your system tray (the system tray is located opposite your start button). Select Open Volume Controls. (XP Users: click Start, Control Panel, Sounds/Speech/Audio Devices, then select Sounds and Audio Devices. On the Volume tab, click the Advanced button.)

2. A screen will pop up with lots of volume controls on it (surprise), find the one for "Wave" and check the little Mute box. On my computer, the Wave volume control was the 2nd one



That's it. No more interruptions while listing to your CD. Make sure you turn them back on after you're done with your CD though :-)

An alternative to this would be just to turn your Wave sounds down a little. Follow the procedure above, but slide the volume control for Wave files down rather than checking the Mute box.

How to convert any printable file into PDF 0 comments

PDF is a great portable format. With a free software from www.primopdf.com called PrimoPDF, the task of converting any file to PDF format has never been easier. The installer from the download section is about 10.8MB as of this writing. After you installed it you can see it as one of the existing printers available on your list of printers:



This means any document, text, file or picture is printable to PrimoPDF. It will not print a hard copy of your chosen document but rather a soft PDF version. Once you try to print to this “printer” it will prompt with you with this window:



The PrimoPDF window acts like a “Save As” screen where you can specify the file name of the PDF file. Click “Create PDF” after you put the right file name. After you press the Create PDF button it will open your default PDF reader program with the PDF file you just created.

The PrimoPDF has some choices as options that you can choose from located on the upper part of the window:



The Screen mode produces a PDF optimized for screen viewing. This configuration creates small PDF files and reduces image resolution to 72 dpi. If your original document has a higher resolution then this may reduce print quality. This is useful when you want to convert a large document into a compact sized PDF. This is probably suitable for users who use a small screen as users with bigger monitors might be turned of by a document with a low resolution .

The Print mode produces a PDF optimized for printing to most home and office printers. Use this if you plan to release a hardcopy but not the softcopy.

Probably the most versatile format for any screen is the eBook option. It produces a PDF optimized for eBook usage. This configuration creates average-sized PDF files and compresses all images, optimizing the file for downloading and viewing on a variety of screens.

If you need more quality of resolution and font portability then choose Prepress. It is suitable for printing to commercial-quality printers. This mode creates large PDF files and will automatically embed all fonts and high resolution images for best results when printed.

The Custom mode allows you to use your own settings. Use this if the other modes does not match your needed result.

Overall, PrimoPDF does its job well. It has configurable modes that you can use for a variety of PDF needs. It is easy to pickup since it acts like a printer the way it was setup.

How to get customer feedback on your product or service 0 comments

Do you have a company blog or webpage about your product or service and you want to start getting feedback from your customers/users/readers? I was very excited when Dell started their IdeaStorm website meant to get direct customer feedback from customers.

That’s one of the main reasons they released a new line of consumer Linux PCs and Linux servers. So if you are looking a way to get feedback on your products, services, or even your blog, then check out UserVoice.

UserVoice is a free service for service for small businesses, startups, non-profits, bloggers, or anyone who wants to get feedback from other people about something on their website or blog.



With UserVoice, you can create your own UserVoice webpage where users can offer new ideas or vote up existing ideas using a professional quality feedback system. Basically the way it works is that users vote, a consensus builds, you can respond or discuss officially, and finally you can implement the requests.




This is a great tool for small businesses that don’t have the resources to set up complicated web feedback services. With UserVoice, you don’t have to worry about hosting, about setting up a website, worrying about user emails, support tickets, forums, etc.

Here’s what a UserVoice feedback webpage for a made-up company looks like:




This is also a great way for teams to work together, suggest ideas for a project, and let other team members vote on which ideas are the best. For me, it would be great for our software team to help decide which features we want to include in a product, etc.

After development, it would be great to let software users suggest and vote on new features or problems. Overall, it’s a great product and one that the company uses itself! Apparently the top item is to support multiple languages!

Currently you can only use UserVoice off their domain name like mycompany.uservoice.com, but eventually they will support embedding the feedback system into your own website. Also, it’s currently free, but they do offer an Enterprise edition which apparently will have more features for a certain price. Enjoy!

Send secure and encrypted text via email online 0 comments

LockBin basically worked by encrypting the text message using some kind of hash function like MD5 or SHA1. If you really want to send an encrypted email, why not just encrypt the text yourself! You can setup Outlook for encryption, but it’s very technical and requires lots of other services in order to work correctly.

A simple way to encrypt a text message is to use a free online tool like the Encrypt/Decrypt tool provided by WebMax.



The tool is pretty straightforward, just type in your text and choose the hash function you want to use to encode or encrypt it in. So type in your secret message and click MD5 Encrypt or SHA1 Encrypt for the strongest encryption possible.

Now just email the encrypted text in a normal email to someone and call them and tell them to go to the same site, paste the text and click the appropriate decrypt button at the right! Of course you should never EMAIL the person telling them how to do this because if the email is intercepted, it would be pretty easy for a hacker to decrypt the message.



Once the other person knows, you can rest assured that any text you send will not be readable by anyone unless they know to go to this website. Go to the website and paste in the following SHA1 encrypted text and click SHA1 Decrypt and see my “secret” message:

d8f5588440aba29feee577e9a306e0ab52cf1201

Pretty nifty eh? Very useful if you want to quickly send something very confidential or sensitive to someone via email or instant message, etc. Just make sure that no one else gets to know about the website other than the people you want to share private information with.

If you currently use some other method to send secure encrypted emails or messages across the Internet, let us know in the comments! Enjoy! Source:

MakeUseOf

Fighting Beselo, the SymbianOS Worm 0 comments

Through MMS, it is sweeping the world under disguises such as Beauty.jpg, Sex.mp3, or Love.rm. Once it gets into your mobile phone, which runs through SymbianOS, you are presented an installation dialogue upon clicking on the malicious attachment. As you are deceived by its guises, you will then install it. And when it gets installed, the worm collect all your contact, then targeting them, and finally sending to them an MMS file carrying its packed SIS (or Symbian Installation Source) version. Apart from that, this worm can also send its copies via generated mobile phone numbers. Yes, it is Beselo, the fearful SymbianOS Worm.

But the fun days are over for Beselo, for Secure Mobile Systems (or SMobile Systems) has developed a software that can fight the horrible worm. SMobile Systems has created a mobile anti-virus update and cleaning tool, and introduced it to their Security Shield platform for mobile phones. With that, the mobile phones are protected from any Beselo worm, and, if already infected, are disinfected by the cleaning tool.



According to a press release, George Tuvell, chief technology officer of SMobile, said that SMobile has been at the forefront of monitoring and protecting mobile phone companies and their users and subscribers against malware attacks such as Beselo. “Sadly, this worm proves that mobile viruses are no longer ‘theoretical’ in nature,” Tuvell added.

Beselo had been attacking mobile phones using Symbian S60, some of which are Nokia’s 6630, 7610, 6680, and N70. “This is a particularly insidious virus that is smarter in design, and ultimately more dangerous to consumers, corporate smart phone users and to the carriers who provide service to mobile customers, than nearly any previous attack that has gotten into the wild,” Tuvell said.

It is, by far, safe to say that Beselo is just a part of the past. Relatively, mobile phone attacks by malicious software are still considered rare nowadays that there really isn’t much commotion created from malware attack reports. However, mobile companies worry that modifications of this Beselo worm can easily frighten the mobile market yet again, before new measures against the new worm are developed. Loki

How to conserve your laptop’s battery power 0 comments

If your laptop is a power hog like mine and you can’t get it to last longer than an hour, there are some things you can do to make the battery last longer. These tips are especially useful if you need to use the computer for an extended period of time and StandBy mode and all the settings under the Power Schemes dialog (such as turning off the hard disk or turning off the monitor) really won’t help you since everything needs to be on!

Here are the major components that take up most of the power in a laptop:

1. Hard Disk
2. Laptop Dislplay
3. CD/DVD drive
4. Network Card
5. Modem
6. Floppy drive

These tips will be the most effective if you are planning on using your computer to do something where you don’t need to connect to the Internet or use your CD/DVD drive. If you’re just writing a paper or creating a PowerPoint presentation, then you can extend your battery power the most. Since all of these devices use up power, the best way to conserve power is to simply turn them off!

Let’s first start with the display. If you’re running on battery, you need to make sure your display is running at the lowest brightness. Unless you can’t stand it, reducing the brightness on the screen will help a lot to extend the battery life. Almost all laptops have a set of buttons, usually across the function keys (F1-F12) that look like little suns with an up and down arrow next to the sun. You press the Fn key located at the bottom left corner of the key pad and hold it down and then press the down arrow to reduce the brightness.

What the button should look like

The next thing to do is to disable all the components that are not needed. You can disable components by going into the Control Panel Device Manager and doing it there. However, if you do it this way, you’re going to end up having to keep going back and forth to re-enable parts when you need them. A better way is to create what is called a Hardware Profile in which one profile will have all your components enabled when you turn on your computer and the other profile will have some of the components disabled, hence saving power when the laptop is on.

Once you create a second hardware profile, you restart your computer and choose the new profile, go to Control Panel and disable everything that is not needed and shut down the computer. Now when you turn on your computer, you’ll be given the option to choose which profile you want to load, so when you’re on the go with battery power, choose your power conserving profile and when you’re in the office or home, choose the default profile.

How to create a new hardware profile on Windows XP

1. Go to Start, Control Panel, and click on System. If you don’t see System, click on Switch to Classic View at the top left of the Control Panel screen. Click on the Hardware tab and then click Hardware Profiles.



On the next dialog, you’ll see the list of available hardware profiles, which should only contain one item called Profile 1 (Current). This is the default profile that is loaded by default every time you start Windows. Once you add a second profile, the next time you restart windows, you’ll be presented with the option to choose a profile.



In order to create a new hardware profile, go ahead and click Copy. This will copy the default profile, which we’ll be able to modify later on. Next give your profile a name, something like Power Conservation
so you know what it is.



Click Ok. You have to option of changing how Windows will ask you about the profiles when you start up your computer, either by waiting until you pick one, or just choosing the default one after 30 seconds. It’s better to choose the second option otherwise your computer will just sit there waiting for you if you don’t pick anything for some reason.

Now you’ll see the new profile in the list of available hardware profiles. Now click on the new profile and click Properties. Choose “This is a portable computer” and choose whether or not it is docked. Also, make sure to check “Always include this profile as an option when Windows starts“.

Now restart your computer and choose the new Power Conservation profile. This will be considered the “current” profile since you chose that one to start up Windows. Once you login, you go to Start, Control Panel, System and click on the Hardware Tab again. This time click on Device Manager.

You’ll see a list of Devices that are currently installed on your computer. You’re going to want to go through and disable anything you don’t need. Now you need to be careful here and not disable something important or else your computer may not work!

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You can be safe with disabling Bluetooth devices, DVD/CD ROM Drives, Modems, Network adapters, and Universal Serial Bus controllers. Don’t mess with anything else such as Disk Drives, SCSI and RAID controllers, Processors, System Devices, Displays, or Computers. In order to remove these devices from the “current” hardware profile (the new one you just created on logged on with), right click on a device and go to Properties. Do not choose Disable from this menu! This will disable the item altogether, regardless of hardware profile.



At the bottom, you’ll see a drop down menu under the heading Device usage. This is where you can tell Windows whether or not you want this device to be enabled for a particular hardware profile. Choose Do not use this device in the current hardware profile (disable). Now your device is disabled just for this particular profile. Go ahead and do that for the rest of the devices. If you plan on using something like your USB stick or CD ROM drive, then leave those enabled.

Now simply restart your computer and pick the profile you would like to start with. The devices that are disabled will not use any power or system resources and will increase the life of your battery!

Reduce computer energy use via XP power management options 0 comments

Let me try to help you cut that power bill that might be bloated by inefficient power usage from your computers. I am a heavy computer user at home. I have two desktops and two laptops. With a total of four computers at home, they have the biggest share of consumption on my electric bill. This lead me to find ways on how to effectively and efficiently use my computers to reduce my bill!

To begin the setup, go to the Control Panel (click START then Control Panel) and then open Power Options under the Control Panel:



You will see the Power Options Properties window wherein you should see your current Power Scheme which is a predefined customizable setup:



I plotted a brief description of the parts of this window below:



If you have a desktop PC then the plugged in panel is where you should set the turn off timers. If you choose Turn Off Monitor After 20 minutes then it will automatically turn off monitor after 20 minutes of being idle (no keyboard or mouse entry from user).

Think of it as a screen saver but instead of showing screen displays it turns off your monitor. This is ideal to use for monitors that need a lot of power to run like old cathode ray tube monitors and DLP projectors. It will save you a lot of electricity and hardware replacement cost especially if you tend to leave the hardware turned on for a long period of time.

DLP bulbs could easily get burned and CRTs lifetime will easily be chopped if left on unused. The same idea works for the hard disk. Make sure to apply your changes after you decide on your own power saving scheme.

Another important feature that you need to master is Hibernate. With Hibernate you can set the computer to turn off but before turning off it saves all of your current memory to the hard disk so it remembers what you are doing before you hibernate.

If you wake-up from hibernate, this saved memory will be loaded and you will be back to the state before you hibernate. This means if you have applications running before hibernate, when you wake-up after hibernate these applications will still be open so you don’t have to open them again.

To enable hibernate, go to the Hibernate tab and then check the enable hibernate box:




With Hibernate you don’t have to worry about losing your current state if you need to turn off the power. Not only will you able to save power, you also increase your overall productivity since you don’t have to reopen everything that you want to go back to the pre-hibernate state.

If used properly, the power saving options described here could benefit you a lot. The chosen options need to match your computing habits to be effective. For example, it might not work if you chose turn off monitor after 5 minutes if you use that monitor for presentations or watching movies. The idea is to set the right options to maximize energy conservation that will benefit you.

If you want to implement this in your office with many computers, you might want to create different Power Schemes for different types of users. You don’t need to have a common power saving scheme if the usage of computers varies on different users

Combine multiple commands and executables into a single exe 0 comments

What if you have multiple executable files that you want to distribute using a single executable file? Traditionally you will need to create a .bat file but that will mean you know how to program a .bat file and you know your way to the intricacies of manually packing executable files.

There is a free program called Wrapper that will help you complete that task of wrapping executables in no time. With it’s straightforward interface, all you have to is add executable files and press the Make button to generate a single executable file.

To get Wrapper you can download it from Download.com or go straight to it’s website: http://salarsoft.somee.com/.

The website is in Arabic but the software itself is in English. Unzip the package and double click Wrapper.exe to start making your executable projects:



Click Add File to begin adding executable files:



The add file window will appear. Enter the location of the executable file and make sure to check or uncheck the “Extract” box depending on your chosen file. If your file is a self extracting file (i.e. installers), make sure to enter the “extract directory” location. Press OK to add the file. In this case I entered “putty.exe” and since it is not a zipped file I unchecked the “Extract” box:



Another thing that you can add are typed-in commands like “firefox” that will open up a new firefox window or “notepad” to open a new notepad process. To start adding commands click the “Add Cmd” button:



Choose the lower option labeled “Run command” and then enter the command name and parameters of the command. In the example below I entered “firefox” and then entered “www.google.com” as parameter. Click OK to add the command to the list:



You should see all of your added commands and executable files on the list of items. You may change the order of execution by using the “Up” and “Down” arrows to the left:



After you are done adding executable files and commands you can generate the wrapped exe by entering the filename of the exe file you want. In the example below I entered “test.exe” as the output file.



Click “Make” to generate the output file:



You should be able to see the final output using Windows Explorer:



Running this file will execute the executables and files that we wrapped above. The size of the generated exe file will depend on the size of the exe files you add. The typed-in commands like “firefox” will not eat so much space since it only is a command to call Firefox (i.e. it will not contain the executable file itself).

Wrapper is a great tool for generating your own package of executables. Instead of sending separate executables and then instructing end users to execute separate commands, wrapped executables and commands will handle them all in one executable.

There are other features of Wrapper that you can use like adding a new registry entries, killing processes and deleting process files. With these features, we can tell that this is one powerful tool so be careful when using it.

Convert text to audio using iSpeech 0 comments

Earlier I wrote an article on Pediaphon, a free software that you can use to convert Wikipedia articles into MP3s. Though it has it’s problems, it’s a decent for anyone who really doesn’t have the time to read an article.

However, Pediaphon only works for Wikipedia articles, which kind of limits it’s use. If you are looking for a free tool to convert any text to MP3 audio, such as Word documents, RSS feeds, text files, any website, etc, then you should check out iSpeech.

iSpeech will convert any website, ebook, or RSS feed into audio instantly. The cool thing is that you can even test it out on some sample text to see how well it works for you. I was actually pretty impressed with text to speech I tried. The voice was clear and everything was pronounced accurately.

Check out this listing of hosting questions that I converted to audio using iSpeech. I was very impressed that it managed to say PHP, MySQL and Apache correctly!

Pretty sweet eh? This is probably one of the best text to audio converters out there. As you can see from above, you can also embed your audio text into your website or blog using the embed code. You can also download the audio in MP3 format or download it as a podcast.




The best thing about iSpeech though is that you can use it to convert any document into audio, whether it be a PDF, Word doc, Rich Text Format, PowerPoint presentation, Excel file, HTML page, or TXT file.



This is great for people on the go who are constantly getting large documents to read or review. Instead of sitting on the plane with nothing to do, you can convert a long Word document into audio format and then sync it onto your MP3 player and listen to it privately.

It’s also an awesome tool for bloggers because you can embed their free widget on your site so that your readers can listen to your posts rather than read them. They can also download your articles as an MP3 download or as a podcast which they can then listen to on their iPods, etc.



It works with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Windows Live, and other blogging platforms. According to the site, this can significantly enhance user retention rates on your site. If you want to make money, you can also charge users for podcasts or downloads.



Overall, it’s a great tool that can be used for many different purposes. It’s completely free and works exceptionally fast. Converting several paragraphs of text into audio took less than a minute. Definitely worth bookmarking this site. Enjoy!

Source: MakeUseOf

How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software 0 comments

As an IT Pro, I routinely monitor employee’s computers and emails. It’s essential in a work environment
for administrative purposes as well as for security. Monitoring email, for example, allows you to block attachments that could contain a virus or spyware. The only time I have to connect to a user’s computer and do work on directly their computer is to fix a problem.

However, if you feel that you are being monitored when you shouldn’t be, there are a few little tricks you can use to determine if you’re right. First off, to monitor someone’s computer means that they someone can watch everything that you are doing on your computer in real time. Blocking porn sites, removing attachments or blocking spam before it gets to your Inbox, etc is not really monitoring, it’s more like filtering.

Computer Monitoring

So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here’s what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP2 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you’re logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you’re reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected.

So why is that useful? It’s useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it’s a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows.

So now we’re looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won’t know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service.

That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.



Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you’ve not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It’s usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there.

However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you’re not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right?

So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start, Control Panel, and Windows Firewall.



Click on the Exceptions tab and you’ll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are “open” and the unchecked or unlisted ones are “closed”. Go through the list and see if there is a program you’re not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!



The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to the Processes tab, you’ll see a column titled User Name.



Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!

Email & Web Site Monitoring

To check whether your email is being monitored is quite simple. Always, when you send an email from Outlook or some email client on your computer, it has to connect to the email server. Now it can either connect directly or it can connect through what is called a proxy server, which takes a request, alters or checks it, and forwards it on to another server.

If you’re going through a proxy server for email or web browsing, than the web sites you access or the emails you write can be saved and viewed later on. You can check for both and here’s how. For IE, go to Tools, then Internet Options. Click on the Connections tab and choose LAN Settings.



If the Proxy Server box is checked and it has a local IP address with a port number, then that means you’re going through a local server first before it reaches the web server. This means that any web site you visit first goes through another server running some kind of software that either blocks the address or simply logs it.

For your email, you’re checking for the same thing, a local IP address for the POP and SMTP mail servers. To check in Outlook, go to Tools, Email Accounts, and click Change or Properties, and find the values for POP and SMTP server.



If you’re working in a big corporate environment, it’s more than likely that the Internet and email are being monitored. You should always be careful in writing emails or browsing web sites while at the office. Trying to break through the security also might get you in trouble if they find out you bypassed their systems! IT people don’t like that, I can tell you from experience!