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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2006-10-16

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

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1) XP, NTFS, FAT, Drive Letter Juggling, And More!

Fred: This lady finally up graded to Windows XP from Win 98 2nd E.
 
I have been going through your articles at Information Week on the tweaks of XP and I came across where you say you have the OS XP on NTFS and the rest of your  partitions as Fat 32 because it does not takes as much space and is faster.

 I have two hard drives, one is 80G ( divided into two partitions ) and the other hard drive is 250G divided into 3 partitions.  XP on C (12 G ) and if I understand what you are saying then I should make the other partitions as fat 32 and to put my swap file which I have set at 3070 min & max on the fat 32 partition ?
 
Another question which I cannot find the answer..... How in the world do I get the partitions to be D, E, F, etc... with DVD and CD below the hard drives instead of the  middle? Thank You, Bekki Bouvet

On any drive or partition larger than 8GB, NTFS is actually quite a bit more space-efficient that Fat32. On your 80Gb drive, for example, NTFS will chop the drive into usable chunks--- "clusters"--- of 4K each. On the same drive, FAT32 would break the drive into clusters of 32K each. Let's say you save a 1K file on each system. The NTFS system will put the 1K file in a 4K cluster, wasting 3K. (The wasted space is called "slack.") The FAT32 system will put the 1K file in a 32K cluster, wasting 31K. So, NTFS is much more space-efficient--- it generates much less slack--- on large drives.

As for speed, the differences are most notable in database-like activities, where the file system has to serve up information dug from within a larger file or files. This includes swapfile/pagefile operations, so it is possible to get a marginal speed improvement by placing the swapfile/pagefile in a FAT32 partition.

In other operations, the speed difference is smaller and may shrink to meaninglessness, especially on current-generation hardware. (Example: gaming. See http://tinyurl.com/ot38f ) And even in the database-type operations, you're not talking about saving enough time to knock off early for the day. <g> Rather, it's a marginal improvement that high-order geeks (I plead guilty!) might seek in a quest to make everything work as well as it can when the system's being pushed to the max. But in ordinary use, you might not even notice any difference at all.

So, if you push your system hard and want or need to wring out every last iota of performance, then putting the swapfile/pagefile on FAT32 might be worth doing. But otherwise, for simplicity, and for the other benefits it offers, NTFS is probably the better choice, especially on larger drives or partitions.

Lots more: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/100108/en-us

As for juggling drive letters into whatever order you want, the (free!) Windows Disk Management Tool is exactly what you're looking for: http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=180207718

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did once, unintentionally. You are THE best source for up-to-date info &
all-around content, plus so much more. Gotta have my Fred fix in my Inbox
to keep me apprised ;-) Many thanks for ALL you do for us subscribers, Jolie"

Thanks, Jolie! <g>

The LangaList Plus! Edition is ad-free, spam-proof,
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2) How Do You Restore A Restore Point?

Fred, I have a problem that's been with me for a couple of months: I cannot enter or use a restore point in XP Home. I get an error dialog box as follows: "rsturi.exe - Entry Point Not Found The procedure entry point RemoteAssistancePrepare SystemRestore could not be located in the dynamic link library WINSTA.dll"

I have a file WINSTA.dll located in folder "C:\Documents and Settings\LeRoy Laycock\My Documents\driverback"

I have another copy in folder "C:\Windows\System32" and another in folder "C:\Windows\System32\dllcache"--- all the same date and size. Can you help get my Restore Point back before I have real need of it?

System Restore is actually very limited in what it can do, and a wide variety of circumstances can throw it off its game. Tracking down what caused your problem will require some troubleshooting. First, check your event logs for errors (Start/Run/enter eventvwr.msc, click on "System" in the left pane. Click on the "Source" column heading, then find the items called "srservice"). These may provide clues that help you track down the culprit.

Leading suspects are hard disk space (if it falls below 50 MB on the partition, System Restore will get rid of all restore points); user deletion of files (Restore Points rely on and refer to previous Restore Points--- if you delete old ones, new ones won't work); improper shutdown; and related file changes made to a system file outside the OS, such as from the "other" OS in a dual-boot configuration; and more.

For many, a better alternative would be to stop using System Restore altogether. It tends to be misunderstood by many users, some of whom believe it to function like a backup utility, which it does not. System Restore can gobble up a lot of disk space, occasionally grab processor time and is an incomplete method of backup compared with drive imaging--- or "regular" full system backups.

We've covered System Restore extensively here and at InformationWeek:
http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-03-13.htm#2
http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-05-23.htm#9
http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-03-17.htm#3
http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-01-27.htm
http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-07-15.htm#2
http://langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-11-03.htm#3
http://langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-07-22.htm#2
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020711S0009
 

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3) X1 Search Utility Phones Home

Hi, Fred. I just received your most recent LangaList Plus issue and read with some interest your recommendation of the X1 search engine. I went to the site you mentioned and downloaded the software. I then poked around for some time trying to find out what it costs. I could find NOTHING about how to buy it or what it costs, though I have the distinct feeling it isn't free.

I then went to install the software on my computer, thinking that perhaps I could find out that way what it will cost. Since it said I was agreeing to their Privacy Policy, I clicked on that and found that they may well collect all kinds of personal information about me--name, address, phone number, credit card number, etc.--all of which they may share with their "partners." They also plan to keep a record of what searches I do, what sites I visit, etc. Perhaps they should rename the software Big Brother!

After reading about all the information I'm agreeing that they can gather and share, I decided to stay with Copernic Desktop Search, which is amazingly good at what it does and is free. There are things Copernic won't index, which is why I was interested in X1, but their not being forthcoming about what the software costs, coupled with an absurd amount of information they plan to gather about me, I decided I didn't need X1. I'm a little surprised that you said nothing about any of this in your description.
I love LangaList Plus. This was one of the few times I've been disappointed, and "disappointed" is perhaps too strong a word. "Puzzled," perhaps. Best wishes, ---Joan Korenman

You're right. Somehow the presentation of X1 Enterprise Client on the X1.com Web site ( http://x1.com/ ) doesn't *feel* free, but X1 is, in fact, a totally free utility. The company used to charge $74.95 for it, but started giving it away in June. X1 makes its money mainly by charging for a range of server-level enterprise solutions, plug-ins and professional services.

You're also right about the privacy policy, which is packed with language about aggressive "phone-home" functionality (features that gather user and usage data, then transmit it back to the company).

You're given the option both during and after installation, however, to turn all this off. If X1 is already installed, choose Options from the Tools menu, choose Basic Options in the left pane, then deselect three items: "Check for new version at startup," "Upload daily usage statistics" and "Upload application failures."

Just to be sure, I contacted X1 Product Marketing Manager Joe Longtin, who assured me that by deselecting the items above, all "phone home" functionality is, in fact, disabled.

X1 really is a nice utility. It searches a whopping 370 file formats and supports quite a few e-mail applications, including Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Netscape Mail and Lotus Notes. You can even search attachments -while they're still attached.

Not everyone has heard of X1, but many are familiar with Yahoo Desktop Search ( http://desktop.yahoo.com/ ), which is actually based on X1.

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4) Another Great Search Utility Found

Hey, Fred - A good search utility can be downloaded here: http://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/. Keep up the good work. George Salley

Thanks, George. Agent Ransack is one of the better non-indexed search utilities. (We first covered it here: http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-11-01.htm#3 ) Agent Ransack, the free, "lite" version of the $24.95 FileLocator Pro, is a nice alternative to the Search utility that comes with Windows XP.

Agent Ransack does have limitations. You can't use it to search inside ZIP, RAR and CAB compressed files, for example. It will find Word and PDF documents, but won't display their contents in the right pane. It also doesn't support Boolean searches. FileLocator Pro does do all this.

Indexed and non-indexed utilities each has advantages and disadvantages. Indexed tools--- Google Search, Yahoo Desktop, X1 and others--- find files very fast, but the indexing process consumes processor time, memory and hard disk space--- sometimes enormous amounts of space. Non-indexing tools are slower during actual searches, but don't bog your system down with indexing. Plus, they can search nearly all file types (unlike indexed search tools, which typically can search only a smaller number of file types).

Windows' built-in Search tool seems to suffer some of the problems of both indexed and non-indexed search tools. It can be used in either indexed or non-indexed modes (indexed by default). In indexed mode, it consumes processor cycles and hard disk space, but is actually slow like a non-indexed tool. Add to those problems the non-intuitive interface, and you've got a bundled utility crying out for replacement.

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5) Just the Fax, Ma'am

Howdy Fred, I look forward to discovering new information that fills your newsletters. I'm hoping you can help me with this problem.

I work in an industry that is still dependent on Faxes, and both my office and home recently switched over to combined phone and Internet service through our local cable company. However my US Robotics internal modem no longer works properly connecting through the new Arris cable modem. The USR modem can dial out and make connections, but it will only send and receive for very short periods before locking up, then disconnecting.

My cable company does not seem to have a clue, only saying that my dial-up modem should work normally. Shaw Communications in Canada has a FAQ page on their site that says, "Shaw Digital Phone service works just like traditional phone service, and therefore allows you to send and receive faxes. . . If your fax software works with traditional telephone service, it will work with Shaw Digital Phone as well." US Robotics says flatly that their analog modems will not work with digital phone services and that trying to do so has caused some units to burn out. That bit about burning kinda scares me.

Is there a way to Fax directly from Fax software (Black Ice) using a digital phone service, or is there a way to get an analog modem to work properly with a digital phone modem? Relatedly, is there a way to connect to a dial-up network through a digital phone service? As many hotels now have digital phone systems but not wireless, trying to connect a laptop through their phone lines brings up the same problem.

In searching through your archives I did find item 7) Fax Fix, in issue 2005-11-03, in which you said, "you may be able to plug a fax modem into [a DSL phone] socket, and dial out normally." That sounded hopeful. Thanks for your help, ---Tony Chariott

Before hotels offered broadband and wireless connections to guests, some business travelers needing Internet connectivity traveled with a "kit" that would enable the establishment of an analog-modem dial-up connection through a hotel's digital phone system. One of the tools in that kit was an analog-to-digital converter. You can still buy them from Konexx ( http://www.konexx.com/mobile_konnector.htm ). This may not solve your problem, but is one avenue to consider.

Another approach might be to abandon dial-up altogether. A very large number of services have emerged in recent years that let you send and receive faxes via e-mail or from a Web site. This is a great way to go for most people because faxes don't hog the phone line and are much quicker to send. Some are designed for small businesses and small fax jobs, while others are optimized for mass-faxing and other heavy duty faxing needs.

Many of these offer additional phone services, such as sending your voice-mail as e-mail and instant routing of calls to the phone of your choice (for example, from your cell phone to your landline phone). Some don't require any software installation.

If you choose e-mail- or online-based faxing, you'll have to find the service that fits your needs and budget. Here's a starter list to get you going on your search:

eFax - http://www.efax.com
Faxaway - http://www.faxaway.com/
MaxEmail - http://maxemail.com/
MyFax - http://www.myfax.com/
RapidFax - http://rapidfax.com
Google Search: http://www.google.com/search?&q=web+fax+online

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6) PR Budget = $0.00

Long-time readers know this newsletter is not part of some publishing empire's stable of publications. There's no budget, staff or facility to handle outreach and promotions: The newsletter depends on word of mouth to grow. And that's where you come in: Each issue, I try to offer you useful, interesting and amusing factoids to help you with your hardware software, and time online. Can you take just a minute to help me out in return?

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information and you just may win one of three FREE ONE-YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Plus! Edition that I award each month. Full info and "Recommend" form: http://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thank you for helping to spread the word about the LangaList!

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7) SpamCop's Auto-Complaint Feature

You had a reader that said he was 'Doing Something About Spam' and using a whois tool to figure out who to complain to. Try pasting an email (with it's headers) into Spamcop's reporting service (entirely free) and you can get a *VERY* detailed breakdown of places to complain to, specific to the computers the email traveled through and products advertised. I liked the service so much, I went and paid for a Spamcop email address. But that's just me. J Visit http://www.spamcop.net/ but be careful as http://www.spamcop.com is a similar, but not free, commercial product. ---Neal

SpamCop has appeared many times in LangaList, mostly in the context of its well-intentioned but clumsy e-mail blacklisting practices. But the site's online utility for complaining about spam is among the best services SpamCop provides. The site not only specifies who to complain to, but makes it a one-click process. Simply click on the "Send Spam Report(s) Now" button, and off go all the complaints to the right parties. You can also choose to add a single comment to all recipients, or individual comments to each.

Thanks for sending this, Neal!

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8) Code Load Success Story

After his site was listed in a "Load The Code" section, code-loader Corey Thompson wrote:

Fred, Thanks for publishing a link to my site ( http://coreythompson.com ) in the Sept 21 LangaList this year. What a nice surprise on my birthday! I had hundreds of new readers because of the link.

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 thousands 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
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

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

Drawing On the Web
http://www.drawingontheweb.com/

Computer Help for Seniors
http://barkerrd.googlepages.com/home

QuickSellAuctions
http://tinyurl.com/y4ngc8

Real Website Traffic
http://wealthsmith.com/real-visitor-traffic.htm

Rollerover's Journey
http://rollerovers.blogspot.com/

Walter Shirley Custom Computers (CA)
http://www.wshirley.ca/Home.htm

Active Electric (Ohio)
http://www.active-electric.com/

Tech Support (Mass)
http://www.gazettetech.com/

Jon's Web Worx
http://www.jonswebworx.com/

Kiwi Planet
http://www.kiwiplanet.co.nz/

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9) Flog the Blog!

OK, you know what "Load the Code" is all about (see above). Now, if you have a blog of your own, you can participate in a similar service: "Flog The Blog." <g>

Here's how it works: Because specialty blog search engines like Technorati or Google Blog Search, and conventional search engines like Google, rank blogs higher if they have more inbound links, let's help each other build those links. You link to us, and we'll link to you!

Place a link to the Langa Blog in your blogroll, add a link to the Langa Blog in a blog entry, or link to the Langa Blog from your non-blog Web site, and we'll link back to your site from a special blog entry. Please see http://langa.com/blogflog.htm for full details!

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10) Patching Up Windows After Patch Breaks It

Fred, I got exactly the same thing in the last few days just as Jim did ("Can Swap Files Cause Blue Screens Of Death?" http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-09-21.htm#3 ), and I figured out what caused it--- this week's Microsoft Windows Security Updates!

I loaded them all at once, as a batch, and on my next (and each subsequent) boot attempt, got EXACTLY the same BSOD that Jim got. I use Goback, fortunately, and was able to roll back to prior to downloading the updates, and everything was fine again. Just as an experiment, I tried downloading the updates again, and got the BSOD again...rolled back, and no BSOD. Clearly update-related.

I then tried downloading the updates ONE BY ONE, instead of as a batch, and all went fine. Now, I have several PC's, and this only happened on one of them, so I'm not going to sit here and say "Don't download the updates!" For most people, they'll probably work just fine. But if you happen to get any more inquiries on this THIS WEEK, you might want to suggest to people that they try rolling back (if they can) to a time prior to downloading the updates, to see if that helps. -Ari

Thanks, Ari. As you demonstrated, being prepared to "roll back" updates if they cause problems is a great idea.

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11, 12, 13, 14, 15) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains about 40% more content including:

• Do I REALLY Need Bart?
    (pros and cons of various recovery CD options)
• Making Room For MFT
    (the slow safe way, or the faster uber-geek shortcut)
• The Drive To Improve Storage
    (then, and now)
• Toolbar Add-On Adds *Delay*
    (tips for those who rely on toolbar use)
• Optional Links
    (just for Plus! subscribers)

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

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16) Just For Grins

Is Rubik's Cube too hard to solve? One solution is to build a robot to solve it for you. The RuBot, built by Pete Redmond of Ireland, picks up the cube, studies it for a moment, then can usually solve the puzzle in less than a minute in fewer than 20 moves. http://tinyurl.com/kzvpy

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

Most months, the LangaList is is published about 6 times. See you next issue, 2006-10-19!

Best,

Fred & Mike
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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

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