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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2004-09-02

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) SP2 On CD, For Free

A number of readers who use dial-up connections are concerned about the size of XP SP2, which can range from something around 70-ish MB to well over 200MB, depending on what you needs and/or choose.

To its credit, Microsoft is offering a free CD--- MS even pays shipping and handling. There also are no license restrictions on the CD: You may freely copy it, share it, borrow it from someone else, whatever.

Here's one reader who found and ordered the CD:

In case you do not yet know about it, the SP2 CD can be ordered from Microsoft. http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=914701 I have not yet loaded SP2 on your advice.  I have ordered the CD and will install when I am ready.  Auto Updates are off. --- Terence Lee

Getting the patch on CD actually can be handy for everyone: If you ever need to reinstall your OS from scratch, loading from CD is fast, convenient, and doesn't require that you have any network connection at all. It's worth having, if only as a "just in case" tool.

We'll have a lot more on SP2 soon. Stay tuned!

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2) TugZip

Frequent contributor Bronson C. Elliott writes:

Fred: I wanted to tell the LangaList readers about a new freeware compression utility I found called TugZip ( http://www.tugzip.com/ ). From the website:

----------
TUGZip is an advanced archiving utility with an easy-to-use interface. It supports a wide rage of file formats. You can create 7-ZIP, BZ2, CAB, LHA (LZH), SQX, TAR, TGZ, YZ1 and ZIP archives. It has built-in support for reading/extracting ZIP, 7-ZIP, A, ACE, ARJ, BZ2, CAB, CPIO, DEB, GCA, GZ, IMP, LHA (LZH), LIB, RAR, RPM, SQX, TAR, TGZ, TBZ, TAZ, YZ1 and ZOO archives.

Support for the new Zip64 algorithm enables you to create archives at a total size of 4GB. Included in the package is also a SFX-tool and a scripting tool which simplifies secure and automated backups. You can encrypt/decrypt files using six different algorithms, Blowfish (128-bit), DES (56-bit), Triple DES (168-bit) and Rijndael (128-bit, 192-bit and 256-bit). You can even convert them to SFX-archives.
----------

... I've been using TugZip for a few weeks now and it has become my everyday compression utility of choice.  I encourage anyone looking for a new compression utility to give this program a try.  I think they will like it.  The price is definitely right - free!

--
Bronson

Later, he added:

TUGZip 3 has just been released and offers many new features and improvements.  I'm a member of the beta testing team for TUGZip and I've been watching the development of this program over the past few weeks. I find it to be very solid and can handle most of the popular compression types available today.

Looks good Bronson, thanks!

The TugZip server was *very* slow when I tried it, so I'm a little wary of what will happen when hordes of LangaList readers come knocking on their door at the same time. <g> If you run into problems with a slow or unresponsive connection, please remember that this is a free download, and cut the owners some slack---  just wait a while and try again later. 8-)

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3) Accidental Torture Tests Of Pen Drives

Hi Fred, Re: "Non-Obvious USB Drive Differences" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-06-24.htm#1 ) Great article about the USB disks and the things to look out for when buying one.  I have to say though, that you missed one very important quality: machine-wash-ability.  Used as an adjective, it is defined as a USB disk's ability to survive a washing cycle.  Allow me to elaborate. As your average college student is wont to do, a few weeks ago I forgot to check my pants pockets before tossing them into the laundry.  A little while later, I went searching for my pendrive, and suddenly realized my mistake!  I rushed to the machine (by this time, the cycle had been finished for a few hours ... another college student phenomenon) and found my squeaky clean USB disk, thoroughly waterlogged.  It had gone through all the washing and spinning cycles.  Going for broke, I let it air dry for a few hours and then tried using it.  To my amazement, it still worked!  For the record, I used (and still use) a 128MB Cruzer Mini.  Since then, performance has not deteriorated at all.  I suppose that is one way to clean up a disk. Ashish, Yale 2005

Hi, Fred. Noticed your reference to the durability/fragility issues of true pen drives compared to other types of media. Last week I discovered that I had left my 128M Cruiser mini in my pants pocket. It went through the washing machine and the dryer both. Still works. Coincidence? ---Roger Sherman

It's amazing what well-encased solid-state electronics can endure: It's impressive when they survive a long soaking, but coming through a full dryer cycle, with all the static, high heat, and tumbling that involves, is a near miracle. Roger, I think you used up a *lot* of electronic luck that time! <g>

And note: Another reader sent in an email detailing an unfortunate encounter between his pen drive and a powerful magnet: His data was erased, and the pen drive rendered unusable.

So, yes: pen drives are rugged, especially compared to normal hard drives, but they're not indestructible! They still should be handled with reasonable care. 8-)

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4) Free Tools Solve Access Problem

This specific problem was with Quicken, but the solution has much wider application:

Fred, I was installing Quicken 2004 on my PC and had to run the installer from my Administrator account (WinXP Pro SP1). After installing it, I could run it from the Administrator account, but not from other users' accounts.

Intuit's site didn't provide pertinent help, nor did a newsgroups search. I figured the problem had to be that Quicken was trying to access a registry key or a file in such a way that access was being denied, and that was causing the failure in non-Administrator accounts. So I downloaded NTRegMon and NTFileMon from http://www.sysinternals.com and ran them while I attempted to open Quicken from a normal user's account. I found that Quicken was getting an ACCESS DENIED error on two files (qw.cfg and qw.rmd) when opening them for write access. I gave the Users group Modify and Write privileges on those two files, and Quicken works fine now.

While this post may have some value for a few Quicken users, the more important principle is this means of troubleshooting an application which works under an Administrator account but not under other accounts--a possible reason is file or registry key permissions, and these tools make it a cinch to sniff those out. (Be sure to take advantage of their filtering capabilities, or the output will be overwhelming and tedious to examine.)

Changing file permissions is as easy as opening up the file's properties in explorer (logged in as Administrator). Changing registry key permissions requires running regedt32 (not regedit), right-clicking on a key, and selecting "Permissions..." from the context menu. Regards, Lance

Nice troubleshooting, Lance! Lots of other good tools available at Sysinternals, too--- well worth a look!
 

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5) BootVis: Less Useful Than It Seems

Hi Fred, I'm a bit of a computer hacker...er.. with a hammer if you know what I mean... running winXP Home and finding computers an ongoing challenge. There's just so much to know!!
 
I stumbled across an interesting little self contained easy-to-use tool from Microsoft that doesn't appear in your archives, it may make an interesting article for you. Keep up the good work with your newsletter.
 
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/platform/performance/fastboot/default.asp
 
I don't fully understand what BootVis does, but it seems to lay out the initial boot programs to allow for faster bootup. My machine (Athlon1600+;256mb ram; 40gb) went from 51 seconds boot to logon screen to 49 seconds. According to the documentation, 30 seconds should be achievable. It hasn't appeared to helped with slow loading programs after logon however I'm still trying to sort that out.
 
Once BootVis has logged a full startup, you need to run 'optimise system' from the trace menu. This is where the work is done apparently. Any advice you have to offer regarding this program would be great, since it contains a lot of information. Regards, Andrew Schram

Bootvis is mainly a tool for system vendors that helps them (or you) to understand where your system is spending its time during bootup. But it's NOT all that useful for making changes. Microsoft says:

Bootvis.exe is a performance tracing and visualization tool that Microsoft designed to help PC system designers and software developers identify performance issues for boot/resume timing while developing new PC products or supporting software.

Please note that Bootvis.exe is not a tool that will improve boot/resume performance for end users. Contrary to some published reports, Bootvis.exe cannot reduce or alter a system's boot or resume performance. The boot optimization routines invoked by Bootvis.exe are built into Windows XP. These routines run automatically at pre-determined times as part of the normal operation of the operating system.

So, if you let XP do its thing--- if you run Cleanup, Defrag, and so on--- the system will do what it can, on its own, to improve boot performance. Running BootVis, per se, won't really help.

If that's not enough, there's plenty more help available:
http://www.google.com/search?q=slow+boot

It would be great if BootVis were a standalone "startup accelerator," but alas, it's not.  It duplicates what XP already has.

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6) New Month, New Chances

It's a new month, and right now your chances are the best they'll ever be!

To have a shot at winning one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the LangaList Plus! edition I give away each month, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

Check out the details at http://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) USB/BIOS Tips

Simply putting the USB device as a boot-up option in BIOS may not be enough.  I am using an MSI KT3V board and I found that USB Legacy Support in Integrated Peripherals had to be enabled.  Drove me crazy until I solved that one. Regards, Jim Sladek

Indeed, Jim, the number of possible permutations between BIOS versions and features, boot options, and USB types can be very high. Finding the right combination for a particular PC can take some digging. It can be a good idea to step through *every page* of the BIOS settings to view all the options before you dive in.

I also use a trick: I use my digital camera to snap a photo of each BIOS screen so I have a permanent record of what all the settings were before I started tweaking. It only takes a minute, and the cost is negligible--- a little disk space and a few pennies worth of battery power. Having the photos means you always can restore all the BIOS settings to their exact original condition, and that can be a real bacon-saver.

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8) More Reader Sites!

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://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://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 From Among All Listed
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

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

PluggedInns
http://www.pluggedinns.com/

Meryl Net
http://www.meryl.net/blog/index.php

Racing Dictionary
http://www.racingdictionary.com/

Memories Now Digital
http://www.memoriesnowdigital.com/

FRS and GMRS 2-way radio reviews
http://www.frszone.com/

Benjamin M. Sparano
http://longview.pitas.com/

Maggie's Beanie World
http://hometown.aol.com/mscookiegal/home.html

Childrens' Stories
http://www.babybirdproductions.com/index.html

Hosting Reseller
http://www.jollyhansenenterprises.com/

The Pear Tree
http://www.thepeartree.net/

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--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) ---

 $12 Saves $150!

"Hi Fred, I just wanted to tell you that I love the Plus! site and the help.
It's well worth the price. More to the point, I figure that this year alone
you have saved me about $150 in tech support calls and solved problems.
I WILL be Renewing my Plus! subscription! Thanks, Jay Koenig"

Thank *you,* Jay. <g>

The LangaList Plus! Edition--- just $1 per month--- is ad-free, spam-proof,
and contains even more tips, tricks, advice, and downloads
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9) Tons of Software

Hi Fred! I came across an interesting website with hundreds of links: http://www.dma.org/~millersg/CoolSoftware.html  ---Regards, Ton Molendijk

It's a keeper for sure, Ton. Thanks!

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10) Just For Grins

OK, now this is a spooky coincidence!

In your item "New RAM, New Troubles?", you finished your article with the comment "If *that* doesn't work, maybe it's time for an exorcism!"  I found that be be rather funny because, as I read it, my WinAmp playlist switched to Tubular Bells (Part 1) by Mike Oldfield, which was used as the theme for "The Exorcist" :)

---David S. Rubin

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Same Specs, Different Results!
     sometimes. "identical" parts aren't!
• Missing "YGXA" And Other Odd Errors
     it can be surprisingly easy to find solutions!
• Getting Up To Speed With Older Commands
     help is at your fingertips!

For just $1 per month---- pennies per issue--- you get access to over 100,000 additional words in special features, extra content and private links, all on a private web site-- - plus 30% more content in every issue! And there's a MONEY- BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you go wrong?

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

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

See you next issue! Due to the US National Labor Day Holiday,
Next Issue: 2004-09-09, and then we'll (finally!) be back to a normal schedule!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

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