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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2001-10-25

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) XP Speed Issues

In "Here Comes XP" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-10-22.htm#2 ) we discussed some preliminary test results and user feedback that suggested that XP can be significantly slower than 2K or 9x. Many readers responded--- some affirmatively, others not. As is usual with most discussions of speed, individual  test results are hugely dependent on the specifics of how each system is set up, and exactly what's being tested.

The official Microsoft screed on Windows XP Performance is at:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/evaluate/xpperf.asp . Naturally, it stresses the positives.

A more independent source, Dave Methvin (one of the authors of the PC Pitstop test suite http://www.pcpitstop.com ), points to a very non-mysterious explanation for some of the negative speed measurements:

Hey Fred, I saw the item about someone who visited PC Pitstop and was wondering about their disk performance under XP. The cause is NTFS. XP/2000 is better at disk cache management than 9x/Me, which generally translates to good scores on application benchmarks (on either FAT32 or NTFS) since apps do a lot more reading than writing. However, NTFS is definitely slower on creating and writing files. I've converted to XP with FAT32 on my primary system and the performance is comparable with 9x.

Here's a second source:
http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,14926,00.asp

"But Windows 2000 doesn't always outrun Windows 98. Sometimes the OSs' differing file systems affect the results. We tested each operating system using its default native file system--FAT32 for Windows 98, and NTFS for Windows 2000. Previous PC World tests have indicated that NTFS is far slower than FAT32, due to additional file security and logging overhead. The Search and Replace test in Word corroborated this result Both Windows 2000 and NT 4.0 (which by default also uses NTFS) took a dramatically longer time than Windows 98 SE to complete the task."

Thanks, Dave!

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2) XP Speed Tweaks

Speaking of XP's speed: I'm sure we'll be seeing more and more of these as time goes on and as people begin to dig into the new OS. Here's a sampling of the first round of tweaking info:

Had an adventure with the preinstall for XP...I found that it seemed slower than Windows 2000 pro. (Am using the XP Pro, consider the XP home a crippled OS). Anyway it appeared to be slower than acceptable. Since the Motherboard was an Intel, with a Pentium 4, and XP was designed for this CPU, I figured it should be quick, at least quicker than 2K. So I again did the research. Well I figured it out and when properly setup for this configuration, the comparison between XP and W2K is on the same hardware is as dramatic as running windows 98 on a 386 compared to running windows 98 on a PIII 1G, mind you on the same hardware. On the machine related to the comments contained in this news letter, If it has an Intel chip set, go to the Intel sight download the latest chipset drivers for XP, and the ATA IDE drives for XP. Uninstall the video drivers, uninstall any ide drivers installed on the machine. Reboot, install if INF (chipset drivers) reboot, install the IDE drivers, reboot, Reinstall the video drivers, and if [the vendor] did not cripple the capabilities of the hardware, you have a machine the is so much faster that you will not believe it's the same hardware.--- Randy

Hello Fred, I was reading your newsletter dated 2001-10-22. While reading article #12, I clicked on the link that was provided, http://www.southbaypc.com/PromptExplore  and shortly after downloaded the file called Prompt Explore. When installation was almost completed, I had clicked on the website button and it brought me to this site http://www.firase.com/ , and lo and behold at the bottom of this page was one possible answer to article #2 of the same newsletter concerning Windows XP.

Speed up Windows 2000 & XP

Here's a tip for speeding up Internet and LAN browsing on Windows 2000 and XP machines.

Open regedit.exe from Start->Run

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current
Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace
[note: line break inserted so line will fit]

Under that branch, select the key {D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

Delete it

This key instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks on remote computers. Unless you use this feature, which most people don't (for remote machines), it is safe to delete the key.

--- Tom

Thanks, Randy and Tom!

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3) Free "Domain Analyzer"

From Belgium, reader Niko writes to tell us about a free service he's involved with:

Thanks, Niko. Some of the information the Domain Doctor generates may or may not be germane to your particular web site, but it's interesting to see the results. If you have a website/domain, give it a test drive and see what it tells you!

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4) More Boolean Searches (Some FREE)!

No doubt about it, Boole is cool: It's extremely helpful to be able to search your hard drive contents using the same kind of "and," "not" and "or" syntax found on the major search engines. I listed two commercial tools that let you do just that in the last issue ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-10-22.htm#4 ) .

As usual, the collective experience of the LangaList readers then picked up where I left off:

WanyWord even allows use of the boolean "near" command, so you can find words in proximity to each other without having to specify an exact phrase. That affords wonderful flexibility in searching. But if that's not enough for you:

Thanks, Daniel and Ed!

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5) Is "Net Detective" Snake-Oil?

Hi, Fred,  I thought I would use it to warn your readers about Net Detective.. Easy to download, Easy to uninstall, but, it tells you that you can find out anything about anyone, true, if you pay each site for the information, then it gives you a 90 day money back plan, and a 800 number to call, you have to print out, 5 pages to fill out and mail in to them to get your money back.....If you used a credit card, they make sure that they collect right away and they will not credit your account, but they tell you to go to the control panel and uninstall it.....and you still have to mail in the 5 page form to get your money back....The program, gives you sites that you can find on the net, by yourself, and you are out the money.....so don't waste your time on Net Detective...Just surf, your pocket will be $29.00 richer and you will be the smart one.....Thanks Fred for letting this senior sound off....G. Chesson

Thanks for the heads up. I have no first-hand experience with Net Detective, except that I receive many spam emails about it and programs like it ("Find out the TRUTH about ANYONE!" or some such). To me, that's always a clue: Maybe Net Detective is a wonderful product--- I honestly don't know--- but to me any product offered via spam mail is instantly suspect.

Plus, product pitches like that always seem to reek of snake oil to me: Any time a product suggests it can work miracles--- digging up information no one else can find, fixing problems with Windows no one else can fix, making your system or your net connection enormously faster than anyone else can, eliminating darkly mysterious secret databases that no one knows about but that somehow track your every move on the Internet--- my BS detectors go off and I usually stop reading.

My rule of thumb is: "The higher the level of hype, the lower the likely value of the product."

The plain fact is there are few such secrets and miracle cures about computing. Most of the time, snake-oil programs merely slap a front end on tools and techniques you could find and use yourself, for free. Yes, it might take a little digging to find exactly the right info on your own, but if you do so, you'll be far more empowered than if you relied on someone else's front end; you'll avoid rewarding snake oil artists; and you'll save yourself some money.

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6) Last Week To Enter October's FREE Book Drawing

On October 31st, I'll choose another monthly winner of a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... To have a shot at winning, just use the following link 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 $30 shopping spree! (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

The more times you make a recommendation, the greater your chances are of winning!

Or, if you'd like to try to win $10,000(!), try this link (full details also available here):
http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

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7) A List Of Lists

Wow! What a ton of info there! In some ways, it reminds me of the very, very early Yahoo, before it became the unwieldy behemoth it is today.

Just poking around in a couple categories--- ones in which I thought I was pretty well up to speed--- showed me stuff I'd never seen or heard of before. I think I'm gonna be spending a lot of time on these links. 8-)

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8) They Loaded The Code

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://www.langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

Long Island Voice Automation
http://pages.zdnet.com/feckbird/liautomatedhomes/index.html

Windows Tips
http://users.ezwv.com/~jdaniels/

Joe's Home Business Page
http://msnhomepages.talkcity.com/WindowsWay/mrpalmlll/Index.html

De familie Kuiken-Ostermann (NL)
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/Evert.Kuiken/

FrontPage help site
http://www.at-frontpage.com/

WebSite Performance Evaluation and Tuning
http://www.btinternet.com/~glynn.w/Index.html

2 Camels--- World Festivals and Events
http://www.2camels.com/links.php3

Webmaster articles, website awards, webmaster resources...
http://www.ground-z.org/

Nightowl's Page
http://www.nightowl.nyka.dk/index.html

TinyApps--- Small Is Beautiful
http://www.tinyapps.org/

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9) IE6 Install Gotcha?

Reader Claire writes:

Of late, you have been writing about Internet Explorer 6, so I thought you might be interested to know about a vulnerability in Internet Explorer in general, and a corresponding problem for IE users running Windows 95, 98, 98Se or ME, who download and install IE6.

I quote "(.....) if you are running Windows 95, 98, 98Se or ME, you should be aware that you will need to install IE 6 in a certain way. Specifically, you will need to choose either the Full Install or Typical Install option. (The default installation type is Typical Install). If you choose Minimal Install or Custom Install, the files containing the vulnerability might not be upgraded, and your system could remain vulnerable." For more details, see Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-020 on this topic at http//www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS01-020.asp

Interesting, Claire. Thanks!

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10) Just For Grins

From England, reader John Cletheroe picked up on a recent "Grins" item about Internet-inspired TV shows, and produced a long list of new show possibilities. Here's a sampling:

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including:

• Free Antivirus Tools

• More Windows Explorer Replacement

• LangaList Archive Update En Route

Keeping your PC virus-safe--- whether in the office, at home, or on the road with a laptop--- involves just three steps, and the right tools. We cover it all in a mini-feature available exclusively to Plus! edition subscribers. Today's Plus! issue also contains reader-recommended replacements for Windows Explorer--- tools that add more functionality, speed, or other benefits beyond what Windows already provides; and information on a new update for the LangaList Archives--- a copy of all the LangaLists ever published (1997 through 2001-10-12) that Plus! subscribers can download are store (compactly) on their local hard drive so they'll have years and years of info right at their fingertips--- searchable without having to go online!.

Plus! Edition info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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See you next issue!

Best,

Fred
(fred@langa.com)

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

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