Recent Posts

51

General Software Discussion / Re: XPPro SP3

« Last post by biox on May 02, 2008, 06:12 AM »

Before you install it run MSCONFIG and stop all startup items and non-MS services from loading at boot. Then restart you machine. This will make sure you haven't got anything MS can complain about running during the update. Once everything is finished, rebooted etc. and settled go back to MSCONFIG and select 'Normal Startup' on the first tab and reboot.

Good luck.

-Carol Haynes (May 02, 2008, 05:11 AM)

Thanks
I'll have to wait for my notebook though. The PC I'm typing this from is most probably 'overpatched'. The other machine wouldn't know what to do with SP3 (Linux). I thought of installing it on some of the computers at my uni (State). They're all registered to Mr/Ms iLLusion. Hope they crash beyond recovery.
I'm very well aware of where I live and what Thailand is famous for. I can even understand if a private individual installs fake software as many people would have to save a year to buy the real stuff. But the government? End of rant. Sorry, very sorry for being off topic.

52

General Software Discussion / Re: XPPro SP3

« Last post by biox on May 02, 2008, 04:54 AM »

It did kick in when I modded TCPIP.SYS ???

-Carol Haynes (May 02, 2008, 04:36 AM)

When you say so I'll try it again. I have two long weekends coming up but not enough computers to fool around with. My notebook is still at HP cos I live in a country where replacing a battery and a charger, still under guaranty, takes two weeks.

53

General Software Discussion / Re: XPPro SP3

« Last post by biox on May 02, 2008, 04:32 AM »

SP3 installed smoothly .... got wiped of the drive smoothly as well.

Not that I had any serious problems. I'm just a bit conservative and take the abbreviation 'PC' literally. That means in my case that I have to replace, overwrite and patch a few system files. That usually would have M$'s file protection kick in. Nothing kicked in after SP3 but my changes wouldn't stick either. I'll have to wait if others have the same problem as I installed it on just one machine and don't want to generalize.

54

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for April 23rd - Codename "Summer Feathers"

« Last post by biox on April 24, 2008, 06:26 AM »

For some reason I don't get the newsletter by email any more. Never mind, the feed's much nicer ..... but will have to wait until the weekend. Couldn't stand myself any more after 3 month holiday and took a part-time job on plus the monsoon season is upon us which means frequent computer shut-downs.

55

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by biox on August 19, 2007, 08:44 AM »

Thanks to everybody. Even I understand that.

56

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox

« Last post by biox on August 19, 2007, 08:40 AM »

Opera doesn't count as this time waster (in every regard) is only for people that like playing around.

-biox (August 18, 2007, 08:54 PM)

thought that was Firefox with all its extensions   

-tomos (August 19, 2007, 05:00 AM)

Nice come back. Only I had taken Opera out of my calculation already. So what's the 5th???

57

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by biox on August 18, 2007, 11:42 PM »

Doing what you state isnt really a solution to his issue. He isnt looking to dual boot, merely setup an "OS" partition and a "Data" partition. This is something that is very common and very easy to do. What he is trying to figure out now is how to get XP's boot drive (SYSTEM Partition) to be renamed from E to C. Installing linux really isnt even a needed option in this case, from my point of view.

-Josh (August 18, 2007, 09:28 PM)

I got that I even realised that he didn't want a dual boot. It was just a suggestion as IMHO a data partition may make you feel safe but is actually suicidal. HDDs don't crash selectively and it would in this case (maybe) render the Linux partition useless as well. 'Maybe' because you don't boot from the HDD but from the CD and might be able to recover something.

Why a data partition anyway. Surely a virus or spy ware would find it. So what's the point? I know it's very common but nobody ever has been able to explain to me what the advantage is.
If you can, I'm listening. No, I'm not teasing you, I'm dead serious. The only use I can see is if the com is on a network.

Why not just simply an automated and scanned external data backup? I've been doing this on all my machines for centuries, be it pure Win or Win/Linux or pure Linux. The latter is a bit paranoid I must admit.  

58

General Software Discussion / Re: changing label from E: to C: in the primary boot partition (windows XP). How?

« Last post by biox on August 18, 2007, 09:25 PM »

I have a working installation of win XP on my new laptop (ex vista).

-urlwolf (August 18, 2007, 11:27 AM)

Congratulations! Wise move

I like to have an OS partition, and a data partition.

-urlwolf (August 18, 2007, 11:27 AM)

Pardon my ignorance but what's the idea behind this? Is system crash your fear? Wouldn't it be easier and much safer to just install Win XP on C: and then install Linux on a partition. The installer takes care of everything and there is no way to mess Linux up that you can't 'resurrect' it with the live CD. From there you can access all your Win data and back them up if necessary. then format C: and re-install Win. You might have to put the live CD of Linux in one more time after that to get the Grub loader going again, but that's already it.

Any constructive comments are most welcome as most of you are much younger than me and definitely know more about computers. When I did my MSc. Industrial Engineering we had to use real paper and real pencils to design something.

59

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox

« Last post by biox on August 18, 2007, 08:54 PM »

Personally, I have 5 browsers that I use for various purposes. Not 1 of them can be my browser that does everything. No matter what suggestions anyone makes, that isn't going to change.

-app103 (May 19, 2007, 06:14 PM)

5 browsers What have you got that I haven't? More importantly, would it be worthwhile a look?
I've got IE7 (hardly ever used because of the lack of screen space, similar to M$ Office), FF (and I know it inside out), for things that FF for some sinister (Apple related) reason can't do, Safari (certainly the fastest and ugliest browser on the market).
Now which one did I miss?  Opera doesn't count as this time waster (in every regard) is only for people that like playing around.

60

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone actually use windows system restore if so,does it work.

« Last post by biox on August 18, 2007, 06:48 PM »

It's the best feature of XP.

-anrika411 (August 18, 2007, 10:39 AM)

Care to expand on this a bit?

61

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by biox on August 12, 2007, 09:01 AM »

Biox, the first dress on your businesses homepage is stunning! Your wife is very talented.

-Darwin (August 12, 2007, 07:55 AM)

Yeah she is. I would like to put a few more pix up but would have to get the permission from the customers first. I don't like those headless pix and there will be a little description under the pix in the future. But that isn't the most important thing at the moment. The wife's been sleeping in the shop for the last 4 month cos of too much work and I need to learn more about all this stuff cos the wife can't speak English but most of our customers are westerners.

You know, the old dog new tricks thing.

62

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone actually use windows system restore if so,does it work.

« Last post by biox on August 12, 2007, 04:58 AM »

I've given up on system restore and disabled it (XP).
Like others I've tried a few registry cleaners and some of them messed things up quite nicely. However, system restore didn't bring anything, or much, back. I've since used the "R" install and it works like a charm. Takes much longer but isn't like the old re-install that put another million user accounts plus settings on the disk.

63

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by biox on August 12, 2007, 04:32 AM »

Kerio-now-Sunbelt is just $10 at the moment. I've been using it for a while (with my luck, pre-discount of course) and it seems to do a great job. Application control-yes but back tracing-no. Didn't even let me upload my avatar w/o being told to allow it.
http://www.sunbelt-software.com/

64

Living Room / Re: OK - lets get to know each other... who are you, what do you do, where from?

« Last post by biox on August 12, 2007, 03:52 AM »

Hi there
I've just found this one. Should have been my first post.

I'm a very old Brit, got a MSc. Industrial Engineering and have been living in Thailand for 20 or so years but travel a lot (mostly Australia). I'm still in love with her

and my computers.

Almost forgot, have been married too for quite a while and actually own the business my lousy website refers to. The wife's the chief designer of the dresses so nothing can go wrong. 

65

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is The Bat! e-mail app better than Mozilla Thunderbird (or other e-mail

« Last post by biox on August 12, 2007, 02:43 AM »

Thanks for the Alt+... tricks. I didn't have a clue. Probably because I didn't need it.

But a serious question now. Before I start, I've contacted The Bat! and Bitdefender, both couldn't be a***d to reply.

How do I get BD (AV scan only, newest version, paid for) to scan incoming and outgoing mail in The Bat? It scans everything else, even that childish 'reach a mail' that I use on the thumb drive out of space reasons (Thunder 20 MB, reach...2.5MB). In a weak moment of insanity I even tried it with OE....and fruiting h**l it scanned the mail.

I've tried the so called plug ins that I could find on the internet (most are very old and consist of a dll) but nothing worked, of course. 

Oh forgot: Win XP SP2, all updates, real too

66

General Software Discussion / Re: For those that need a System Information Tool and haven't heard of SIW

« Last post by biox on March 13, 2007, 06:10 PM »

I just noticed that there is a newer version and promptly 'installed' and regretted it.

I used v. 1.65 and when closing it says 'It's shut down time...'.  The new version says 'Cancel...please wait'.
I think we've got enough 'OKs' and 'Cancels' and 'Please waits' in Windows already. I found the 'It's shut down time' a refreshing difference and proof of the programmers attention to detail.

But then again, I also need a 10k exhaust system on my 12k bike just because it looks better.    

67

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by biox on March 12, 2007, 07:18 AM »

I tried out BlackIce briefly, but it bogged down my system and caused a couple of BSODs, so I removed it again. Dunno if it conflicted with NOD32 (or did I run Kaspersky at that time?), but I wasn't impressed 

-f0dder (March 12, 2007, 06:50 AM)

Didn't do this to me. I ran it together with McAfee and Ewido v.?old.

68

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by biox on March 12, 2007, 07:14 AM »

I've been using Blackice defender

-biox (March 11, 2007, 10:56 PM)

Link to BlackIce 

Welcome at DC, biox 

-Curt (March 12, 2007, 02:36 AM)

Thanks for both, the link and the welcome. I've been reading this board for centuries but never posted.

Anyone else finding that the latest build of ZoneAlarm Pro takes about five minutes (or more) to start up?

-darwin

Yeah, I think it's a bit slower but 5 minutes???

I work a lot at night (GMT+8) and get roughly every 4-5 sec a hacking attempt or at least a port scan, most of them can be back traced to my service provider. I was thinking about using Blackice on the other one too but then again I got the whole ZA security suite on that one. Would be quite a waste of money.

ZA's spy scan is pretty weak so I use AVG spy. ZA gave me an incompatibility warning when I upgraded. Had to un-install AVG, let ZA finish and re-install AVG. Seems to work now.

69

General Software Discussion / Re: Firewalls - please, i can't be bothered.

« Last post by biox on March 11, 2007, 10:56 PM »

As I'm certainly the one who knows the least here please allow me an innocent question.

I've been using Blackice defender for quite a while but haven't seen any comments about it from others. So, what do you think?

70

Older Newsletters / Re: --> Newsletter for March 9th, 2007 - Codename "Argus?"

« Last post by biox on March 11, 2007, 10:35 PM »

Most of my emails I leave for laaaaaater.

But the newsletter is a 'must instandly read'.