Thursday, April 23, 2009

File Extension Unknown

Do you have problems with file extension unknown? Maybe you get file from your friend and then you try to open that file in your PC but your PC can't open that file. You confuse with that file because the file extension is unknown? Maybe your computer doesn't have appopriate program to open file extension unknown. Or there something wrong with your PC, such as registry problems with your OS.

I'll tell you the best choice to solve your problem. Visit www.ifileextensionunknown.com and your problem will be gone in few minutes. You can learn about the best way to solve problems on your computer here. Everything you need available on this site. You can learn step by step how to check your PC, what's problems that your PC has.

I think its the easiest and smart way that you can do to get answer to your PC problems. Hurry up. You will get answer about your file extension unknown. It's so simple.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Web Hosting Choice

Do you need web hosting with high quality and the best service? Confuse to make a choice to your web hosting? I can understand about it. There are many web hosting that claims theirself is the best web hosting, give you a good promotion, and its make you confuse to choose one of them. Be carefull. But don't worry. I'll give you easy way to get the best choice for your web hosting. Just visit http://www.webhostingchoice.com/.

In this site, you can see and learn everything about web hosting. You can see a lot of web hosting on hosting directory, include all their service such as price per year, bandwidth for the customers and another service that their will give to the customer like you. So you can choose one of them to make it your web hosting choice by look at the web hosting or visit the web hosting website to make you sure about your choice.

In this website you can learn about everything related to website such as domains, cheap-hosting, bandwidth, and another topic that you need to know. And for all best service for you there is no need money to buy. All is free. So, what are you waiting for? Make your choice easier by visit to Web Hosting Choice and get all your need about web hosting here.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Windows XP Backup Tool - Is It Any Good?

Author: Alexander Golishev

Considering the increased amounts of data that you save to your computer each day, more and more users embark on a quest for the most effective and reliable backup solution. However, very few know that Windows XP has its own backup utility.

Considering the increased amounts of data that you save to your computer each day, more and more users embark on a quest for the most effective and reliable backup solution. However, very few know that Windows XP has its own backup utility.You may sigh with relief because this means you don't have to buy special backup software, though you should know that such software gives you a number of important advantages above those that the operating system offers.

In this article we will compare a standard functionality backup program with the Windows XP backup tool (WXBT).The WXBT allows backing up all user files in just one task. If you select the option of the My Documents backup, it will copy the entire contents of the Documents and Settings folder including MS Outlook/Outlook Express messages and settings as well as your profile settings.However, in most situations full backup is not necessary. In all likelihood the My Documents folder of your computer will be large in size and contain a lot of irrelevant information. If this is the case, WXBT suggests that you manually specify files that you want to include or exclude from the backup set.

A standard backup program has the option of file filtering so you don't have to manually specify each file, but rather specify file extensions of the needed files. For example, if you want to back up only the MS Word documents, you only have to specify the doc. file extension and the program will automatically find and copy all Word files.Besides, it allows doing target backup of data from specific applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Windows Media Player, ICQ etc. This means that you only have to specify the program whose data you are going to back up.When you do a backup, it is extremely important where you keep the resulting files. It is recommended to keep such files as far as possible from the local computer.The farthest location WXBT suggests is a network drive or an external drive. By default, it will even offer you to back up to a floppy drive, and that's the only removable storage it has in store for you. Now think how many floppy diskettes it will require to back up 30GB of critical information!

A standard program allows backing up your data to virtually any known type of removable media including CD, DVD, HD-DVD, Blu-ray, USB flash and external drives, as well as remote locations such as LAN, FTP, SFTP, remote online server.WXBT offers five types of backup: normal, copy, daily, differential, and incremental. To be honest, this abundance of backup types causes nothing, but confusion especially if this is your first time backup.Most backup programs offer two most common types of backup: full and incremental.

These two types should be enough to meet all your requirements and cause no user confusion as the definition of the two types is very clearly stated in the program.WXBT allows backing up the System state data that include Registry, Boot files, COM + Class Registration database. However, you cannot include or exclude specific components.A professional backup program allows creating a hard drive image including the operating system and all system settings. It also has the option of copying Windows Registry and even allows backing up specific Registry components such as user keys, configuration keys etc.

Conclusions

Having considered the pros and cons of Windows XP backup tool, as compared to a standard backup program, we can say that WXBT is a viable solution for home computers, however the major fault with it is that it cannot back up to optical disks and allows recording your data only to a floppy disk which is outdated and does not meet today storage requirements.

The main advantage of a professional backup program is that it can record your data to any type of optical disk, even the new generation disks such as Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Besides that such a program offers flexible file filters to simplify the process of data files selection.

For more information on a standard functionality backup program, refer to http://www.handybackup.net/backup.shtml

About Author
Alexander Golishev is a copywriter for Novosoft LLC, software developer, with a great deal of expertise in data backup and recovery matters.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com

Browser battle: Which browser suits you best?

Author: Amarpreet97

After the launch of IE8, the battle among the top four browsers becomes fierce again. now, compare on different parameters and choose your browser.

A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily access information provided on many Web pages at many Web sites by traversing these links.

Leading Web Browsers:

Windows Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is the latest web browser developed by Microsoft in the long running Internet Explorer browser series. The browser was released on March 19, 2009 for Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and is the default browser for the upcoming Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems.

Mozilla Firefox is a web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Firefox had 22.05% of the recorded usage share of web browsers as of March 2009, making it the second most popular browser in terms of current use worldwide, after Internet Explorer.

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google and based on the WebKit layout engine and application framework. In March 2009, Chrome became the world's fourth most widely-used browser, with 1.23% usage.

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. The current stable release of the browser is 3.2.1 (Macintosh) and 3.2.2 (Windows), but the Apple website more prominently displays the Safari 4 Beta, a pre-release version, for users to download. A public beta of Safari 4 was released on February 24, 2009. Safari has an 8.23% market share as of March 2009.

From Microsoft IE to Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome to Apple Safari, all have upgraded their browser adding a variety of new elements, security updates and a host of next-gen navigational features. Now which is the best browser among the four, lets’ check on different parameters:

Speed
IE8 by Microsoft is faster in almost every respect. It loads faster, switches pages faster, and renders complex graphics and videos faster than previous versions. Firefox 3 claims that improvements to the javascript engine as well as profile guided optimization have enhanced the performance of Firefox 3.0. Safari 4 by Apple claims it to be the world's fastest Web browser which may makes it up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, and Google Chrome. Updated version of Chrome by Google aimed at the general public since Google entered the browser business six months ago.

Security
IE8 provides protection against malware and known phishing scam sites and also protect against threat, "cross-site scripting," in which hackers insert code into legitimate Web pages that compromise peoples' computers without them knowing it. New version of Firefox 3 has enhanced malware protection which warns users when they enter a site which can install viruses, spyware, Trojans or other malware. Updated version of Safari 4 includes phishing and malware protection, anti-virus integration, cookie blocking, parental controls and option to customize offline database storage size. Chrome regularly keeps on downloading a list of harmful sites. This is the Internet search giant's attempt to fight malware and phishing attacks.

Navigation
IE8 by Microsoft browser introduces Tab Groups, in which, when one tab is opened from another, the new tab is placed next to the originating tab and color coded, so that users can quickly see which tabs have related content. New version Firefox 3 makes it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks. Safari 4 has new preview for favorite websites and new tabs. Called Top Sites, the new feature lets users preview a listing of favorite websites without navigating to a new screen. Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar. The browser has an address bar `omnibox' with auto-completion features. It offers search suggestions, top pages that a user visited and pages he didn’t visit but are popular.

Key feature additions
IE8 packs a new feature called Accelerators which allows users to highlight text on a website and choose from a variety of functions, including search engines, language translation or map displays and Web Slices, which is designed to allow you to subscribe to frequently-updated portions, or "slices," of certain websites. Firefox 3 promises secured data protection. Safari 4 debuts a new feature called "Cover Flow" which provides easy reviewing of site history and bookmarked websites, which presents previews on what the pages looked like when a user visited them. Chrome offers a Seed Dial feature, which gives users a view of their most visited Web pages in 9 screenshot thumbnails. It will also prevent the whole browser from crashing.

Bookmarking
IE8 can save Favorites, RSS Feeds, and Web Slices to the Favorites bar that appears across the top of the browser, quickly navigating to the sites and content they want. Firefox 3.0 can add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click. Through Smart Bookmarks Folder users can access recently-bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as most-frequently visited pages. Places Organizer will help users view, organize and search through all bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store frequent searches. Safari 4 has Auto-Click bookmarks feature that lets users automatically open the bookmarks inside a bookmark folder, each in a separate tab. Chrome has a bookmark manager (Ctrl+Shift+B) to better organize bookmarks and folders.Private browsingIE8 includes a mode for Web browsing that does not remember what sites were visited nor stores small data files called cookies. Chrome’s Incognito mode lets users create an "incognito" window where "nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged onto your computer." Firefox 3 clears private date from the Edit - Preferences - Privacy dialogue box. Safari 4 can protect your personal information. Safari doesn’t save or cache any personal information you enter or pages you visit.

About Author: content writer.

Article Source: http://www.1888articles.com/author-amarpreet97-12539.html

Saturday, April 4, 2009

10 Steps To Higher Search Engine Positioning

There is perhaps no more level playing field in business than the Internet. It is this fact that has created millionaires from paupers. The amount of money that can be made depends of course on your industry and your products and/or services but to be sure, if it can be sold at all, it can be sold online.
While there are many methods out there for building a profitable website, from banner ads to email campaigns, by far the most cost effective over time has proven repeatedly to be search engine positioning. That major advantage search engine positioning has over other methods of producing revenue online is that once high rankings are attained and provided that the tactics used were ethical and that continued efforts are made to keep them, they can essentially hold and provide targeted traffic indefinitely. Your site will rise and your site may sometimes fall in the rankings but a solid and complete optimization of your site will insure that through algorithm changes you may fluctuate but you will not disappear.
I have been ranking websites highly on the Internet for quite a few years now and there are some essential rules that, if followed, will insure that over time your website does well and holds solid and profitable positions on the major search engines.
Here are the 10 steps to higher search engine positioning:

Step One - Choosing Keywords

You first must choose your keywords. This is perhaps the most important step of the process as incorrectly targeting phrases can result in traffic that is not interested in your product. There are three tools that I use virtually every day to help pick the most appropriate keywords:
Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/)
WordTracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/)

A Brain
The last in the list is the most important. Look through the potential keyword phrases and think, "Who would be searching using that phrase?" If the answer is, "a student looking for information" then chances are it won't result in a sale. If the answer is "Someone who is looking specifically for a product I offer," then obviously this is a prime candidate as a targeted keyword phrase.

Step Two - Site Content

Even before I optimize websites I like to get a good deal of new content down in order to insure that I know exactly where I'm going and exactly what I need to do to get there. Creating some of the new content before starting the optimization process can be doubly helpful in that it can reveal potential additions to your website that you may not have considered (a forum or blog for example). If you already have a site, perhaps simply sit on your back deck, sip on a coffee and image what you would do if your whole site was lost and you had to start again (other than launch into a very colorful discussion with your hosting company).

Step Three - Site Structure

A solid site structure is very important. Creating a site that is easily spidered by the search engines yet attractive to visitors can be a daunting and yet entirely rewarding endeavor. To adequately structure your website you must "think like a spider" which is not as difficult as it may sound. A search engine spider reads your web page like you would read a book. It starts at the top left, reads across, and then moves down.
Priority must be given then, to what you place near the top of your page.

Step Four - Optimization

Once you have your keyword targets, your content created and your site structure established you must now move on to the most obvious step, the optimization of your content.
As noted above, a spider places importance on what it reads highest on the page and so beginning with a sentence that includes your targeted phrase only makes sense. That said, stuffing in keywords in hopes that it will add weight to your page generally doesn't work. The term "keyword density" refers to the percentage of your content that is made up of your targeted keywords. There are optimum densities according to many reputable SEO's though exactly what they are is debata ble. Estimates seem to range anywhere from 4 or 5% to 10 to 12% (quite a gap isn't it).
Personally, when it comes to keyword density I prescribe to one rule: put your keywords in the content as much as you can while keeping it comfortably readable to a human visitor.
Some do it first, I do it last, regardless of when you do it you must choose your heading. At the beginning of your content you have the opportunity to use the tag to specify the heading of your content. This tag is given extra weight and is also an indicator to the search engine of where your actual content starts. Make sure to use your keywords in the heading but don't shy away from also adding additional words (though not too many).

Step Five - Internal Linking

To insure that your website gets fully indexed you have to make sure that the spiders have an easy path through your website. Text links make the best choice as the anchor text (the actual words used to link to a specific page) add relevancy to that page for the words used to link to it. For example, if I ran a website on acne and had a treatments page I could link to it with an image, with text reading "Click for more information on how to treat this skin condition" or simply "Acne Treatments". When a search engine spider hits an image it has no idea what the image is and, while it will follow the link, it will not give any weight to the page it hits. If you use text that does not contain the keywords you are targeting you are essentially supplying the engine with the same lack of relevancy as with an image, but if you use the phrase "Acne Treatments" to link to your acne treatments page you are attaching relevancy to that page for those keywords.
There are two main ways to insure that your site gets well spidered AND that the relevancy is added. The first is to place text links on the bottom of your homepage to your main internal pages (not EVERY page, that just looks odd). The second is to create a sitemap to all your internal pages and link to it from your homepage. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages but that's a whole article unto itself.

Step Six - Human Testing

So now you have your site, it's optimized and you have your navigation in place. The next step is to put it past someone who has never seen your site (and preferably who won't know how much work you've put in and tell you it's great even if it's not).
Ask them to find specific information and see how long it takes. Ask someone else to just surf your site and watch which links they click and ask them why they chose those ones.
Most importantly, find out how the content reads to them. You've spent hours working through the content at this point and are probably not the least biased on its readers. Find out how it reads to someone who has no invested interest in the site and correct any issues they may bring up.

Step Seven - Submissions

I take a different philosophy than most when it cones to search engine submissions. I submit to directories (both general and topic-specific) and to a few topical search engines but for the most part I've found submitting to Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other major engines has proven to be a bit of a waste of time. The major search engines are spidering search engines which means they will follow links to wherever they go. Simply having sites that are spidered by the major search engines linking to you will get your site found.
When I have spent time submitting my sites I have found they get picked up in about a week. When I have simply skipped this step and sought out reputable directories and other sites to get links from I have found that at least the homepage of the site gets indexed in as little as two days.
Neither will hurt your rankings but simply to make the best use of your time, seek our directories and other websites to get links from and leave the spiders to find you on their own.

Step Eight - Link Building

All of the major search engines give credit to sites that have quality links pointing to them. How many is enough depends on your industry and targeted phrases. Running a search on Google the reads "link:www.yourcompetition.com" will reveal approximately how many links a competitor has.
The first place to seek links is with general and topic-specific directories. After that you may want to move into reciprocal link building. Reciprocal link building is the exchange of links between two websites. Some webmasters will simply link to any website that links back to them. I highly recommend being more particular than that.
Find websites that you believe your site visitors would genuinely be interested in and you've probably found a good link partner. You want to find links from sites that are related to yours.
There are obviously many more methods to building links than directories and reciprocal link building. Again though, this is a whole article (or more) in itself.

Step Nine - Monitoring

Whether you use WebPosition Gold (http://www.webposition.com/) or just run searches manually by hand you will have to monitor the major search engines for your targeted phrases. Also, you will need to review your stats to see where your traffic is coming from and what search terms are being used to find you.
If a month passes and you don't see any changes then more work needs to be done. I'm certainly not stating that you should take a month off, a solid search engine positioning strategy involves constantly adding content, building links, and insuring that your visitors are getting the information they want to have and finding it as easily as possible.

Step Ten - Reward Yourself

So you've done it. It's taken many many hours of work but you're rankings are doing well. What you've created is a solid position that will stand the tests of time provided that you continually revisit the above noted steps and insure that your website is always one step ahead of your competition (who have noticed you climbing and succeeding as you would notice others climbing up around your ranking).
Now it's time to turn off your computer, take your partner out (you haven't had much time for them lately) and have a great week(end). You've got a lot of work to do to maintain and build on these rankings but the hardest part is over. Congratulations!

Submitted by:
Dave Davies

Dave Davies is the owner of Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning (http://www.beanstalk-inc.com/). He has been optimizing and ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may have about your website and how to get it into the top positions on the major search engines.info@beanstalk-inc.com

10 Smart Ways to Protect Your Computer against Viruses

Virus infection on your computer may cause a very serious damage and even loss on your business. You can just imagine it may wreck your system registry or your entire computer (with all your receivables data on it!) or all your HTML programs! It will come to total black out screen, it will not boot at all. But that is actually the worse scenario that may happen. Are you going to wait for this worse scenario in your life to happen? I guess NOT, right? Here are the 10 smart ways that I personally do to protect my computers against viruses, malicious dialers and spywares.
(1)If you are using Windows XP, always turn on the firewall.
(2)Always run all necessary latest updates & service packs (all windows! including all your programs & software!---keep them updated)
(3)Run your anti-virus program everyday (some do it every week) There are many virus programs that you can get for free scanning.
(4)Run your anti-spyware/adaware once a week (I run Spybot Search & Destroy & Lavasoft Adware Personal --- they are shareware, meaning it’s free!). What I do is that, I run the Lavasoft Adware first, then run the Spybot Search and Destroy (I also run it with “immunize” tool). These two tools are always on top of my desktop for easy access.
(5)Turn on the pop-up blocker – this feature is available on Windows XP (you can see this under tools>Internet Options >Privacy>click Block Pop Ups. In addition to this, I also download another pop up blocker, the Google Toolbar. I find their pop up blocker the most effective in blocking pop ups.
(6)Never open mails that are suspicious to you or not known to you. If they are in your bulk mail, send it back to your provider as “spam”! I never enable my bulk mail. I automatically delete emails from my bulk mail.
(7)When using messenger (IM) services, be very careful with files being sent through instant messenger. Rather choose to have it emailed it to you. Most of email services now has virus check and clears it if the file has virus or not.
(8)Be very careful when downloading files or any programs from the internet, pay attention on the instructions while downloading it. Downloading may sometimes cause error on the system registry or the entire computer system (one example, my nephew got his computer badly infected with viruses because of heavy downloading of games and music! – I guess!)
(9)Be careful with files that come from a floppy disk or any other external storage when you open it in your CD ROM of floppy drive. You should know its source, or better yet, when you insert it, have it scanned with your anti-virus program before you open the files.
(10)Run defragmentation, disk clean up, registry scanner at least once a week. You can find defragmentation by simply pointing your mouse on drive C: (which is usually the hard disk main logical drive)> right click the mouse>click on properties>click on tools>click on defragment now! There are so many shareware on the internet that you can get for free! (that is the reason it is a shareware!). Keeping your computer healthy can make you more productive (if you have a business!) or it will make you enjoy more surfing and browsing the internet!

Submitted by:
Pinky Mcbanon

Ms. Mcbanon is an experienced Medical Biller and Coder based in New York. A graduate of Bachelor Science in Computer Engineering. A Medical Practice Billing Consultant. Read more about the author as she share her knowledge and expertise in her field by visiting her personal website at http://www.justmypassion.com. She shares her expertise and knowledge with http://www.medclaimsplus.com She has extensive knowledge and skill in the area of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Anesthesiology, Surgery, Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Mental & Behavioral Health, Pediatrics & Internal Medicine.

10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Your Windows XP

1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Access to Data One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.
* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter
* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze
* Click Defragment

2. 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.
* Follow Start > My Computer
* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties
* Click the Tools tab
* Click Check Now
* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box
* Click Start

3. Disable Indexing Services Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.
* Go to Start
* Click Settings
* Click Control Panel
* Double-click Add/Remove Programs
* Click the Add/Remove Window Components
* Uncheck the Indexing services
* Click Next

4. Optimize Display Settings Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:
* Show shadows under menus
* Show shadows under mouse pointer
* Show translucent selection rectangle
* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
* Use visual styles on windows and buttons

5. Speedup Folder Browsing You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little 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 speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers” option.

6. Disable Performance Counters Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.
* Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst-o.asp)
* Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below

7. 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. Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

8. Remove Fonts for Speed Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.
* Open Control Panel
* Open Fonts folder
* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

9. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com). eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance. The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops.

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
* Reboot

Hope you find these 10 tips useful. Have a nice day!

Submitted by:
Andrew Zarudnev

Andrew Zarudnev is the CMO at eBoostr, the software tool to boost your Windows XP performance http://www.eboostr.com

10 Secrets To A Healthy Computer And A Happier You

There comes a time in a person’s life where no matter how much you fight it time takes its toll and we begin to slow down in how we perform our daily activities. However, in order to extend our youthful glow and energy levels it is important to eat right, exercise, and keep a positive outlook on life.
Now you may ask what has any of that got to do with “Secrets To A Healthy Computer?”
Well, in a way we’re all just like a computer. If you neglect to take care of yourself you soon will cease to function properly and the many tasks that once were easy to do now take twice as long to accomplish and often require you to rest or “reboot” after a malfunction.
I can’t tell you what foods to eat or what exercises to perform because I am not a nutritionist. Although, with my experiences in the personal computer field I can share with you some tips of how to keep that rectangle box of circuitry that sits within sights range functioning at maximum performance as long as time will allow.
Some important steps to follow are…
*Make certain that your computer is located in a well ventilated area and that all air vents are unobstructed to prevent overheating and premature failure to any internal components.
*Clean out the dust build-up at least every 6 months from the inside of the computer case including case vents, power supply vents, and all visible circuitry with a few cans of compressed air that can be purchased from any major computer store or electronics outlet. This will help reduce the chances of overheating and circuitry damage.
Before cleaning just be certain to always unplug the computer from the wall outlet and never physically contact the circuitry inside the computer case to prevent damage.
*Be prepared for an unsuspected failure by always making backups of any important data that you do not and can not afford to lose.
I personally keep updated backups of my website and even store the disks at a remote location away from my every day use computers just in case a disaster were to occur and my main computers were destroyed resulting in the need for those lost files.
*Purchase and install a well known anti-virus program that can be regularly updated with the latest virus definitions and ran during boot-up to help protect your computer from being the victim of an unwanted infestation.
*Every few months or so run your computer’s “Scandisk” program followed by the “Defragmenter” program to maximize the efficiency of your hard drive.
If you are not certain of how to use these utilities and being that the steps to execute these programs varies slightly from one operating system to the other it would be easiest to simply use the “Help” option that can be found by clicking on the START button found on your computers desktop.
The START menu will open up a drop-down-box that should display the “Help” option. By going here you can enter the keywords that deal with the answers to the subject you are searching for.
*Run your computers “Disk Cleanup” utility every other week or so. If set the “Disk Cleanup” utility will automatically empty the recycling bin and recover some wasted disk space by removing the internet temporary files that seem to always accumulate.
Again, use the “Help” option if you are uncertain of how to perform this task.
*Never smoke near a computer because the cooling fans will pull the smoke into the case where it can coat the inside parts of the computer with a residue which in turn can damage sensitive components.
*Place the computer case in an area where it will not be accidentally kicked or bumped to prevent the loosening of cables and damage to internal parts.
*Invest in a high quality surge protector to provide your computer and monitor against voltage spikes or “surges” that can dramatically shorten the life of your system. Just like most items in a store, “You get what you pay for”. So don’t skimp out on this important device!
Its also not a bad idea to invest in a surge protector that includes what is called a “Data Line Protector” which allows you to connect your telephone lines to and serves the same purpose for the telephone line to your modem just like the surge protector does for the electrical household current lines.
*Finally, if you plan on being away from home for more that a few days at a time or if there is a thunderstorm brewing in your area it is a very wise decision to always unplug all electrical lines and modem telephone lines from your system. Even with a surge protector installed it is possible that such a large voltage spike such as one caused by a lightening strike could prove fatal to any computer system.

Submitted by:
Dan Preston

Dan Preston is the webmaster of a neat site called InfoHeaven Digital Books and The Online Book Store where you can find useful and Fr'ee information along with many how-to digital books that cover a large variety of interesting topics. http://infoheaven-digital-books.com and http://online-book-store.net.

10 Best Hidden Windows Features/ XP Secrets/ XP Little Know Features

Windows XP is an operating system par excellence. Easy to use it comes with some amazing features.
1. The computer management screen allows control of the operating system from a single interface.
2. The event viewer permits viewing of logs maintained by XP as default. Program and system errors are maintained in the systems logs for ready reference when recurring problems occur. Important is to enable this auditing system which is inactive by default.
3. The shared folders file lists all folders that can be shared by remote users. The Sessions List displays all remote users connected to the computer. And, the Open Files List indicates all files being accessed by remote users. An invaluable system this helps in security. The system is such that files in drive C: are shared by default. To prevent this, a password must protect all user accounts. One can however remove remote users from the system.
4. An interface permits management of users, passwords, and groups (XP professional). The ‘groups’ option allows restricting as well as assigning rights as privileges to multiple users. The default users group cannot use systems applications to install software. Only the administrators group has unlimited access to the system. The Microsoft web server software creates IUSR-xxx accounts that permit access to web pages created by you to remote users. To protect the files disable the guest account, which is a security lapse. Further, password protect all administrator and user accounts. Caution! XP home and professional by default make users created during installation process a part of the administrators group.
5. Win2K creates a database when one or more drives become dynamic. The dynamic disk database contains detailed information of the system. This permits resizing of space in a disk as the dynamic volume need not be continuous. Dynamic volume can be resized to include free space on other disks, termed as spanning. Dynamic disk groups can also be transferred between supporting computers by physical removal and importing them into the disk manager.
6. A system restore feature takes snapshots of the computers configuration at set intervals. This is a working backup of windows registry and contains all information needed to restore the computer’s functionality. The default reserve of a drive is 12% and restore points are stored in this space. If it runs out of space, a system restore will begin overwriting restore points automatically.
7. A local securities policy controls XP security options like auditing. The local policies section has auditing options which allows one to know who has accessed audited resources. Auditing is disabled by default; enable only one or two options that are necessary.
8. Accessibility options includes tools that make using Windows easier for people with visual impairments or disabilities of other kinds. One can change: text size, scroll bar size, icon size, color scheme, use visual indicators instead of sound effects. Of the many facilities such as use of single keys instead of simultaneous use of two or more keys is an on screen keyboard for those who are unable to use a physical key board.
9. A built in backup system enables data backup to a tape or hard drive. Users of XP Home can add backup utility from a CD.
10. Files and settings transfer wizard allows transfer of documents from other computers automatically. All it needs is a net work connection.
Understand the operating system and you will discover many delights.

Submitted by:
Paul wilson

Paul Wilson is the content manager for www.1888SoftwareDownloads.com, the premier website to find Free Software Downloads including free anti-virus software, free spyware detection software, free toolbars, free chat software and more. He also manages content for http://www.1888FreeOnlineGames.com.