The LangaList

Free Cache/Swapfile Tools!

What a treasure-trove of information over in the discussion area attached to the column at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/fred/1999/0913.htm ! Many, many readers just like yourself (in fact, maybe you were one of them!) posted tons and tons of great advice, tips, and specific problem-solving information on adjusting these parameters to make Windows run better. The discussion began with swapfiles, but then moved on to other areas such as the cache, the commercial "WinAlign" tool, and the freeware WMalign tool (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/sept-20-99.htm#wmalign ). 

By the way, WMalign is "WM Align," with the WM standing for "Windows Magazine." It's not "W Malign," as some wags had it. <g>

In case you missed them, two other freeware items got mentioned a lot last week:

CACHEMAN is a nifty freeware applet I wrote about a long time ago in the LangaList; it simplifies adjusting your cache settings two ways: First, it puts a nicely graphical front end on the process (which sure beats editing the system.ini file in Notepad!); and more significantly, it automatically suggests the settings you should use, based on how you use your PC.

Cacheman is a run-once application: It's active only when you're actually choosing parameters; it then makes its adjustments to your system and never has to run again (unless you want to try different parameters). In normal use, except for the brief time when you're actively setting the parameters, Cacheman uses zero RAM and zero CPU cycles. Nice!

The original Cacheman was designed for Win95; I stopped using it when I switched to Win98 because Win98's memory management is somewhat different from (and better than) Win95's. But a new version of Cacheman released about eight weeks ago correctly works with either Win95 or Win98.

I've been using the new version for a while, and like it a lot. You can read more about it at http://www.outertech.com/ or jump straight to the download site at http://www.outertech.com/en/down/dl_cacheman.html .

RAMBOOST, another freeware app, attempts to improve Windows' performance in a different, but related way. It lets the cache grow as large as it wants to, but when the cache gets beyond a certain size (you can set the parameters), Ramboost can "free up" some or even most of the RAM the cache had taken over. It can do this automatically, or on demand.

It sounds cool, but it's actually a bit of a kludge. Ramboost isn't really a large app, but it appears to work by pretending to be an application that needs a lot of RAM. When Ramboost runs, it fools Windows into thinking a huge application is on the way; Windows then makes room for it in RAM: It writes lots of the contents of the cache to disk. But Ramboost doesn't actually use the freed-up RAM, so the newly cleared "hole" in your RAM is then available for whatever else you want to run.

This process frees up RAM that otherwise was taken over by the cache. Sounds great, right? But ironically, if Ramboost causes parts of running programs get moved out of RAM and onto the swapfile, your system will be slower, not faster. Plus, once these live applications become reactivated, Windows will simply re-enlarge the cache and read them back in. In this sense, Ramboost's benefits are at best temporary, and at worst may be illusory. 

What's more, it's a reactive, after-the-fact band-aid fix for memory inefficiencies. In contrast, Cacheman proactively prevents memory problems by making permanent adjustments (permanent until you want to change them) to Windows' internal parameters so that it doesn't grab too much memory for the cache in the first place.

Plus, Ramboost is a run-always app. It has to be constantly and permanently active and running in order for it to monitor your memory usage. It doesn't take a lot of RAM space or CPU cycles, but still---do you really need another task running in the background on your PC?

If you want to try Ramboost, it's at http://www.sci.fi/~borg/rambooster/index.htm. But despite accolades from some readers, I don't think its worthwhile. Instead, try Cacheman. It accomplishes essentially the same results far more elegantly.

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Shhhhh! (Windows 2000 Secrets Here)

In a recent issue ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/sep-13-99.htm#millenium ), a beta tester of the new version of Windows 9x (code named "Millennium," or "Milly," for short) shared some deep, dark insider information with us. That prompted a beta tester for Windows 2000 (the follow-on to NT) to send in some additional comments:

Win 2k supports plug and play and Microsoft has learned their lesson from Milly and Dolphin [dolphin replaces milly next year] as they are trying to make this one all inclusive or allow it to recognize new hardware/installed hardware from as far back as 1994.

Win 2k has had the dos code returned as a lot of beta testers demanded it and some of the games require a dos interface to even play as well as some scsi's.

I have an RC1 release of Win 2k and I am amazed at the speed this lil bugger gives me. I run a P2 450mhz chip and I am benchmarked as fast as a P3 500! The chip has less strain and runs cooler so it will last longer...the scan disk just flies by, the defrag has been benchmarked as doing a 9.2 gig HD in less then 2 hours and I had it fragmented to 4% and this did not stop it. My HP CD-R is reading as fast as the 7100i and my seek time for my HD's has been cut to less then 0.03 All in all, amazing piece of work here.

They have jazzed up the interface of the Win 2k OS look, but it still has the ease of the regular 98 look. This is slightly disappointing as even Netscape has upgraded their look. GDI is to be in the new 2k release, or a small portion of it to get the people use to it when all OS's will be in this format...and for this I cant wait

2k supports all forms of DVD and the new digital tape will be included in future upgrades of Windows starting in 2001. All win's will have the DVD decoder code installed as a recognized install, so all you have to do is install-drop in the win cd and BAM! There be the drivers for it

Win 2k is suppose to have 64 bit performance...though for the life of me I cannot seem to locate it or see a major difference in the video aspect, except when using graphics heavy programs and games, and then the difference actually jumps out of the screen at you! Far brighter colors and sharper details and even a subtle shading effect for the 3D graphics that make it look like some have shadows. Very heavy security codes in triplicate making it extremely hard to break, and the mysterious back door has been removed from the 2k version os. 

All in all, a pretty fair piece of software and worth the price as long as it is below 150. If it is above it I recommend that you just get the newest OPERA browser or Netscape as Microsoft will be releasing some software upgrades to make the 98 equal to the 2k.

Thanks for the info, my anonymous friend!

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Security Problem On Shared Internet Connections

If you or your business is NOT using a Windows 9x or NT box to share an internet connection, you can safely skip this item---you're not affected.

But if you're using any version of Windows 9x or NT to share an internet connection (including if you use Win98SE's built-in "ICS/Internet Connection Sharing" service) then an obscure bug may open your systems to "denial of service" attacks or worse. In fact, hackers can use this bug to find out far more about your systems or network then they should be able to.

The bug involves something called a "Spoofed Route Pointer," and it's complicated. You can get all the gory details at http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/ms99-038faq.asp

So far, Microsoft has only developed a patch for Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Server and Enterprise Edition. It's at

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt40/Hotfixes-PostSP5/Spoof-fix  

Patches for Windows 95, 98, 98SE and the NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition will be "released shortly." Sigh.

If you're sharing an internet connection among several machines---as I am--- keep your eyes peeled for the patch! (Or: keep reading the LangaList---I'll let you know when the patch becomes available.)

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Now TWO Ways To Win!

Thanks! Due in large part to word-of-mouth recommendations from you and other LangaList readers, the LangaList grew by 1,948 new subscribers last week! There are now over 70,000 readers of the LangaList, in over 100 countries worldwide!

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use one of the following links to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win a prize:

Win a Palm III organizer (full details also available via this link):

http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1

Or, win a Copy of "Poor Richard's E-Mail Publishing: Creating Newsletters, Bulletins, Discussion Groups and Other Powerful Communications Tools." This book has been described as "An excellent, straightforward manual on email publishing, banner ads, driving traffic and especially ethics." (Full details also available via this link):

http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

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Book o' The Week

Reader "Bobbie Jo" saw the books I'd  mentioned in recent newsletters and wrote:

Fred, I thought these would interest you or some of your readers. I purchased both of these books, and I have to tell you that they come in very handy. Especially when there's modem problems and you can't get on the net to find the info. Love your newsletter! Keep up the excellent work! Bobbie Jo

The books she refers to are "Microsoft Help Desk for Microsoft Windows 98"and "Windows98 Annoyances." I already covered the latter (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/sept-16-99.htm#books ), but I hadn't seen the former. Indeed, it looks good (thanks, Bobbie Jo!): "Microsoft Help Desk for Microsoft Windows 98"provides nearly 1,200 solutions to Windows 98 problems. Divided into 15 areas that include all the major parts of a typical computer system, these problem-solution descriptions range from specific software problems to general network problems."

For more info and ordering info (including a 20% discount) see http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735606323/langacom . And for info on several other books I've found to be either helpful, interesting, or both, see http://www.langa.com/books.htm .

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Just For Grins

Reader Barbara Goss sent this along:

Whilst browsing through some dust-covered archival material in the recesses of the Roman section of the British Museum, a researcher recently came across a tattered bit of parchment. After some effort he translated it and found it was a letter from a man called Plutonius with the title of "magister factorium" or keeper of the calendar, to one Cassius. It was dated, strangely enough, 1 BC, August XIV - exactly 2,000 years ago. The text of the message was as follows:

Dear Cassius

Are you still working on the Y zero K problem? The change from BC to AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven't much time left. I don't know how people will cope with working the wrong way around. Having been happily working downwards forever, we now have to start thinking upwards. You would think that someone would have thought of it earlier and not left it to us to sort it all out at the last minute. I spoke to Augustus the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn't done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called in some consulting astrologers but they simply said that continuing to work downwards using minus BC wouldn't work.

As usual the consultants charged us a fortune for doing nothing useful. As for myself, I cannot see the sand in the hour-glass flowing upwards. We have heard that there are three wise men in the East who have been working on the problem, but unfortunately they won't arrive until it is all over. Some say the world will simply cease to exist at the moment of transition.

We are continuing to work on the Y zero K problem and I'll send you a parchment if anything develops.

Best regards

Plutonius

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