How To | TECHRENA dot Net

Speed Up Windows Boot Up and Startup Using gpedit and DPS

May 7, 2010 by dennis

In Windows PC, slow boot up and slow startup is one of the major problem we face. During the starting of Windows, it may take a lot of time to come to the logon screen and then to the desktop. This kind of problem is common in PCs which are older and a lot of programs are running.

One method we have already posted to speed up your Windows PC is by using MSCONFIG. Here, we will be solving the slow boot up problem using Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics of Diagnostic Policy Service(DPS).

Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) will detect Windows Boot Performance problems and attempt to determine their root causes. These root causes will be detected and corrective actions will be taken to solve the problems.

Follow the steps below to enable Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics.

1. Open Local Group Policy Editor

Press Start + R and Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. Incase of

2. Go to Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics

In the Left Pane of Local Group Policy Editor go to the location:

Computer Configuration—>Administrative Templates—>System—>Troubleshooting and Diagnostics—>Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics

3. Open Configure Scenario Execution Level of Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics

Now in the right pane Double Click on Configure Scenario Execution Level.

4. Enable Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics

Now Click on Enable and Select Scenario Execution Level as Detection, Troubleshooting and Resolution. Click OK

If you select Detection and Troubleshooting only then the root causes will be logged to the event log when detected, but no corrective action will be taken.

Now Windows Will Diagnose your Startup problems and try to fix them for a faster boot and startup.

Important Notes:

Note 1: Windows Boot Performance Diagnostics is a part of the Diagnostic Policy Service(DPS). So DPS should be running in your computer in order to successfully diagnose the problems. To check whether the service is running or not, Press Start + R and Type services.msc. Check out for Diagnostic Policy Service.

Incase if it is not started, you have to start it using MSCONFIG. To do that, Press Start + R and Type msconfig. Go to Services tab and Check Diagnostic Policy Service. Press OK.Note 1:

Note 2: This service is available only in Windows Vista and Windows 7. And Local Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) may be available only with versions like Professional or higher.

You can subscribe to our RSS feed via email for more tutorials under Windows.

[How to] Pin or Unpin The Contents Of a Folder in Windows 7 Taskbar

April 29, 2010 by dennis

Have you ever thought of adding a shortcut of your favorite folder in the taskbar. Well you can do it in Windows 7. Here we will show how to pin a folder in the Windows 7 taskbar.

Any folder can be pinned to the task bar as a New Toolbar in the Task bar of Windows 7 with a small or large icon and with or without text of the folder name.

Point to be noted:

When we pin a folder, we can see only the only the contents of the folder in the task bar. It is like the folder is already opened and displayed in the taskbar. So it is not that the folder’s shortcut is pinned to the task bar, but its just that the shortcut of the contents of the folder is created in the taskbar.

Now just follow the simple steps below to pin the contents of a folder to the task bar.

Pin a folder to the taskbar.

Add a new toolbar in the task bar:

Right Click on the taskbar, go to Toolbars and select New toolbar.

It will ask to select the folder. Select the parent folder which you want to add so that the contents of the folder is shown in the taskbar.

Now you can see the folder name in the taskbar with its content.

Unlock the Taskbar to modify the positions and settings if its locked

Right Click on the taskbar and select lock taskbar to uncheck it.

Changing the settings of the toolbar:

If you don’t want to name of the folder to be displayed but only the contents, then right click on the folder name in the taskbar and uncheck Show Title.

If you want to move the toolbar to the left side, yo have to drag the divider to extreme left to the Start menu.

If you want to move it back, drag it back to right.

Now, if you want to show bigger icons of the content in the toolbar, Right click on the toolbar, go to view and select Large Icons.

Now after doing all the changes you can lock the taskbar again if you wan to.

Unpin the folder from taskbar:

Now to unpin the folder, right click on the taskbar and go to Toolbars and unselect the folder name. You can also right click on the toolbar and select close Toolbar.

Now you have successfully learnt how to pin and unpin a folder to the taskbar in Windows 7.

Delete Hiberfil.sys from Windows 7, Vista & XP By Disabling Hiberation

April 26, 2010 by dennis

Running out of space in C Drive?

If you are running out of space in C drive and if you don’t want to delete or move any data from it, you can probably try these two things:

1. Disable System restore or delete the restore points.

2. Delete hiberfil.sys file from your hard disk.

HIBERFIL.SYS is a Windows system file managed by Windows for the purpose of Hibernating the system. Hibernation mode of Windows allows you to completely save the current process and power off your computer where the system will not require any power. During Hibernation the system will write the complete status and process of your computer and save it in the hard disk which is the hiberfil.sys.

While you start your computer, the system loads the status from the hard disk which was written in hiberfil.sys file.

HIBERFIL.SYS reserves around 2.5 GB in Windows 7 and Vista. And it takes 512 MB in Windows XP.

Important Note: You can delete hiberfil.sys only if you do not want to use the hibernation feature. Even if you delete the file you can still use the sleep mode. If you want to see the hiberfil.sys file in your C drive then you need to show system hidden files.

How to delete HIBERFIl.SYS file from the your drive?

As hiberfile.sys is a system file we cannot delete it directly. So in order to delete it we need to disable the Hibernate feature in Windows.

Disable hibernation mode in Windows 7 and Vista:

Open Command Prompt. Press Start + R. Type CMD and press Enter.

Type the following commands and Press Enter after each command:

cd/
cd Windows
cd System32
powercfg -h off

It will look like:

To turn on the Hibernate feature Type:

powercfg –h on

Disable hibernation mode in Windows XP:

In Windows XP it is easy. Follow the instruction below:

Open Start menu, Go to Control Panel. In control Panel, go to Performance and maintenance. Then Click Power Options

In power options windows, go to Hibernate Tab. Uncheck Enable hibernation and press OK.

If you want to re enable hibernation, then check the check box and press OK.

Now after performing the steps, if you check your C drive, you will find that the hiberfil.sys file is gone.

Hope you have got some free space at least for now 🙂

MyWebSearch Adware: Instruction to Completely Remove My Web Search Toolbar

April 25, 2010April 25, 2010 by dennis

my_web_search_uninstaller

MyWay Searchbar commonly known as MyWay Speedbar, MyWay Search Assistant, MyWebSearch, and MyWeb Searchbar is toolbar allows us to query Google, Ask.com, and Yahoo! search engines. The program were classed as adware by some websites and anti-malware applications, although they claimed not to have the adware function. The MyWay Searchbar is currently described by Sunbelt Labs as a Potentially Unwanted Program. [Source: wikipedia.org]

MyWebSearch installed on my system without permission:

How I got MyWebSearch installed on my computer without actually installing it? This happened when I was chatting with a friend in Gtalk. I received a chat as:

You just received a smiley! Go to http://buddies.smileycentral.com/ to see it!

I was curious and clicked it. Then I later found out that it had installed MyWebSearch without my consent. This is only one way of getting infected. There are lots of others also.

Why MyWebSearch is potentially unwanted?

My Web Search installs its own programs without any permit.
It is difficult to completely remove this program.
Even if it is removed from the Add/Remove program, the registry values still remain and tries to run.

How to find out MyWebSearch installed or not?

Add ons appear in Browsers like Mozilla/Internet explorer
Add ons can also be found in Messengers like Gtalk
Unwanted pop ups may come up during internet usage.

How to Remove MyWebSearch Completely from your Computer?

Step 1: Remove the program from Add/Remove programs:

Go to Start Menu –> Control Panel –> Add/remove Programs or Uninstall a program

Search for MyWebSearch and uninstall all the programs shown.

After removing the program, restart the your system.

Step 2: Use HiJackThis to remove the unwanted registry entries and running programs of My Web Search:

HiJackThis is a freeware which can scan your registry for unwanted entries. It is a stand alone program and doesn’t require installation.

Download HiJackThis v 2.0 : http://www.techrena.net/downloads/HiJackThis_v2.exe

Size: 1.2 MB

Scan your System with the program. Remove the following entries if present:

Click Here to Open The text file containing the entries.

See the image below to see hot to remove the entries: (Click to Enlarge)

Step 3: Remove the My Web Search registry Entries present in the windows registry:

Download the BAT file from the link below:

http://www.techrena.net/downloads/remove_my_web_search.bat

Double click on remove_my_web_search.bat. It will open Command Prompt. While running the commands the command prompt will ask for confirmation to delete the entries. Press Y and enter every time it asks.

Ignore if it tells cannot find the value in the path. It is because the values are already been removed.

Now you have successfully completed removing My Web Search bar components from your system.

Note:

1. In order to perform all these actions and commands you need to have Administrator privilege.

2. If your registry editor is disabled, you cannot perform theses actions. You can refer: How to enable Registry Editor (REGEDIT) to enable it.

Install Portable Antivirus on a USB Flash Drive or an iPod

April 19, 2010 by dennis

clamwin_portable

What will happen if your System is infected with viruses and the Antivirus you had installed failed to protect? In several cases, the virus may also disable any anti virus programs that you may try to run to disinfect.

Can we use a portable anti virus program which is installed in a USB Flash drive to scan our computer? The answer is a definite Yes! This is an easy way to disinfect an infected computer using a USB disk or your iPod.

ClamWin has come up with such an anti virus application. ClamWin Portable is a popular ClamWin antivirus packaged as a portable app, so you can take your antivirus with you to scan files on the go. You can place it on your USB flash drive, iPod, portable hard drive or a CD and use it on any computer, without leaving any personal information behind.

See the details below to install the free anti-virus in your portable USB device.

Requirements:

Windows XP, Vista or 7 Operating System

USB Flash Drive, Disk with Minimum 30MB free space

Step 1: Download ClamWin Portable from the link below:

Size: 6MB

Link: Click here to Download ClamWin Portable 0.95.3

Step 2: Connect your USB device. Then go to the downloaded file. Double click on the exe file.

Step 3: Start the installation process. Select the correct location where the application is to be installed. Then click on Install.

Step 4: Now after successfully installing the application, go to the location where you have installed it. Double click on ClamWinPortable.exe to start the application.

Step 5: On first startup it will ask you to download the Virus Definition database. Click on yes.

Step 6: Now it will download the update. It may take a few minutes. Note that without downloading the database update the anti-virus is useless.

Step 7: Now you can select the drive to scan.

Now you can easily disinfect any computer. But make sure that the virus definition database is up to date.

How to Create a Password Reset USB Disk in Windows 7 And Vista

April 18, 2010 by dennis

Have you ever faced a problem of forgotten password in your Windows PC? If yes better have a backup plan now itself. Here we are going to tell you, how you can reset your Windows password using a reset password disk. This feature is available in Windows 7 and Vista only.

You can backup your user identity in a USB disk and use the disk for resetting your Windows user password in the future in case you have forgotten it. For this purpose you need not use a high capacity USB drive. You can either use your old USB which are considered obsolete or too small in size like 128MB or buy a small capacity one at lower cost. This is because the reset file if very small and you need to store the USB device in your locker or any other safer place.

Requirements:

A USB Flash Drive(Any size)

Windows 7 or Vista Operating System

Important: Once a password reset disk has been created, no matter how many times the password has been changed after that, you can reset the password using the Disk any number of times. In order to avoid misuse of the device, keep it in a safe place.

Password Forgotten Before Creating the Password Reset Disk?

Follow this link: Reset Windows XP, Vista, 7 Password Using USB Drive or CD

Follow the steps to create a Password Reset disk using Windows Forgotten Password Wizard:

Step 1: Connect the USB Flash Drive to your PC.

Step 2: Open Start Menu, click on Control Panel. In Control Panel go to:

Control Panel—>User Accounts and Family Safety—>User Accounts

Step 3: In the left pane of User Accounts, click on Create a password reset disk.

Step 4: Now in the Forgotten Password Wizard, read the Important notes and warnings and Click on next.

Step 5: It will ask you for the USB drive letter in which you want to store the password reset file. Select the correct drive and click on Next.

Step 6: Now it will ask for the current password. Enter the correct password and click next.

Step 7: Once it completes the creation process, click on finish.

What you have to do when you have forgotten your password?

Now if you have forgotten the password, you can use the Reset disk. When Windows asks you for the login password, plug in your Password Reset Disk and wait for a while. Try entering any wrong password. Now below the password field, a link as Reset Password… will come up. Click on it and enter a new password.

Note: If you do not have a Password Reset Disk, you can try: Reset Windows XP, Vista, 7 Password Using USB Drive or CD

Speed Up Your PC Using a USB flash Drive in Windows 7 and Vista With ReadyBoost

April 18, 2010 by dennis

If you have a low memory in your Windows 7 PC, your system may be slow and the performance may not be satisfactory. Microsoft Windows has introduces a new component known as ReadyBoost, to help when your PC’s memory is running low.

ReadyBoost is a component of Microsoft Windows, first introduced with Microsoft’s Windows Vista in 2006 and bundled with Windows 7 in 2009. It works by using flash memory, a USB flash drive, SD card, CompactFlash, external hard drive or any kind of portable flash mass storage system as a drive for disk cache.
ReadyBoost is also used to facilitate SuperFetch, which allows it to perform analysis of boot-time disk usage patterns and creates a cache which is used in subsequent system boots. SuperFetch is a technology that pre-loads commonly used applications into memory to reduce their load times, in a similar fashion to the preload in Linux.

Using ReadyBoost-capable flash memory (NAND memory devices) for caching allows Windows 7 and Vista to service random disk reads with performance that is typically 80-100 times faster than random reads from traditional hard drives.

Using ReadyBoost in Windows 7 and Vista:

First plug in your USB flash drive. Open My Computer. You can see the Removable Disk. Right Click on it and Select Properties.

Now in the Properties window, go to ReadyBoost Tab. You can either select Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost or Use this device and set the amount of space you want to use for the process.

Now Windows will use the free space available in your flash drive for speeding up your computer.

Note that this process will not delete any data from your flash drive. It will only use the available free space in the removable disk.

Moreover if you want to speed up your boot up and startup, you need to use MSConfig.

How To Install or Upgrade Your Laptop’s RAM (Physical Memory)

April 11, 2010 by dennis

techrena logo

With the increasing technology day by day, our computers, laptops and every equipments are becoming obsolete. I bought my Laptop with 1GB RAM and 100 GB Hard Disk at a price with which I can buy a fully featured Tablet PC now.

So to deal with the developing technology, we need to upgrade our PCs and laptops to fit and to support the currently available software and operating system. I felt its high time that Techrena dot Net give you a tutorial to upgrade the most basic and most needed hardware upgrade –your Laptop’s Physical Memory or RAM (Random Access Memory).

What You Need to Upgrade your RAM?

Find out the type of RAM your Laptop PC Supports ( DDR1, DDR2, DDR3, SD, etc.)
Find out the Maximum amount of memory size your Laptop Supports( 2GB, 4GB, 8 GB, etc.)
Buy a suitable RAM for you Laptop PC
A suitable screwdriver (Mostly Philips Type)

How a Laptop RAM Looks Like?

Laptop RAMs are smaller in size as compared to Desktop RAMs. A HYNIX made 512MB DDR2 RAM is shown below. As you can see it has a connector for the RAM slot in your laptop and it has a divider. This divider is to indicate the correct side while connecting it.

Click on the images to enlarge

Opening your Laptop Ram Container:

Shutdown your computer and disconnect all the cables and wirings. Turn your Laptop over, be careful and keep a protection under the laptop.

Now Remove your Laptop battery. To remove release the lock and pull the battery out.

Now see which section contains the RAM in your laptop. Do not confuse with the other device containers. With a suitable screwdriver, start unscrewing the screws in the section which contains the memory devices. See the image below:

Removing the old RAM (not required if empty slot is available):

After opening the cover of the RAM container section, you need to remove the old RAM which needs to be replaced. Note that many laptops have more than one RAM slot. Which means that if you have an empty slot you can put the new one in the empty one. This will add your new RAM size to your old one.

First pull out the RAM holder as shown, the Device will come out automatically. Take it out smoothly.

Installing a New RAM:

Before inserting the new one, find out the correct side to which you need to connect to. Slide in the Device smoothly to the slot. Most RAM slots need to insert the device in 45 degrees and push it vertically down after it has been inserted fully into the slot. Refer the image below:

Now place the covers and screw it back. Place the battery back to the battery slot. Power it up and start the computer.

Installation of RAM has been successfully completed and you can check the Physical Memory at:

Right Click on My Computer—> Properties—> Memory or

Task Manager –> Performance—> Total Physical Memory

Important:

Do not try any forceful methods to remove the screws or devices. If anything is not getting removed, do contact a professional.
Be careful while installing the new device. Make sure you insert it correctly and firmly.
The above tutorial is based on HP DV1502 TU Model. It may be different in your case.

Disclaimer: This tutorial is for your information only. Techrena dot Net is not responsible for any damage in property or lives resulting from the use of the information given here. You are responsible for all the actions you take.

[How-To] Find Suspicious Activity In Your Gmail Account

March 28, 2010 by bharath

Gmail is the popular mail service that is being used by huge number of users worldwide.Google (Gmail) always warns users about keeping a stronger password for their Google account, since if the hijacker manages to get your Gmail password, he can virtually access all the Google services associated to that account.

The point to make note here is that the mail services are the most hugely attacked services by the Hijackers/ hackers around the internet.So it is all our responsibility to ensure more safety to it by setting up a stronger password and not revealing this password anywhere else and to anyone else.

But sometimes, your account gets hijacked even without your notice and all your private data gets exposed.Well, they always say “Prevention is better than cure” which aptly sits here.

If your account gets hacked, there won’t be much details available so as to find who the real culprit is.However, Gmail team has come up with an option to display though which agent your account has been accessed (ex: browser), along with the country from where it was accessed (IP address with country name).

To see from where your Gmail account has been accessed in the recent few days, go to bottom of your Gmail inbox, where you can find “Last account activity” section.Click on the “Details” link to see IP addresses of the computers from where your account has been accessed.

gmail last access details

If Gmail finds any unusual/suspicious activity in your account (meaning that somebody is illegally accessing your account possibly accessing from a country where you have never been !!) it warns you change your password immediately (see the screenshots below).

gmail suspicious activity warning

So if you are at anytime concerned over your Gmail account being hijacked by someone, probably this is the first thing you should do : Open the recent activity details accessible from the bottom of your Gmail page and check out for any suspicious access of your account.

How many of you have seen “Suspicious activity” alerts in your Gmail ? Let us know through comments..

How To Turn On or Off System Restore In Windows PC

March 26, 2010 by dennis

Windows logo

System Restore is a feature of Windows Operating Systems namely Windows 7, Vista and XP. This feature in Windows enables you to restore or rollback your system to a position in an earlier time. Windows automatically creates restore points to back up the program files, registry and system data whenever you install a new software, driver or make any changes in the system settings. You can restore the system to the restore points saved earlier if anything goes wrong in future. You can also create the restore points manually.

The only problem in System Restore is that it occupies a lot of disk space, as it has to save a lot of restore information in your system. This system restore information is stored in System Volume Information. You may be confused that all the data in your drive is showing lesser usage then the actual amount of disk usage. This is due to the System Restore Files present in the inaccessible folder System Volume Information. You can open this folder by taking Ownership in windows 7 or Vista.

Now, if you feel that System Restore is not necessary or if you want to free up disk space by deleting the earlier Restore points then refer the details below.

Open System Properties:

Open Start Menu, Right click on My Computer (in XP) or Computer (In Windows 7) and Select Properties

Open System Restore or System Protection:

If you are using Windows XP, then Go to System Restore Tab.

If you are Using Windows 7, Click on System protection in the left pane.

Turn off or delete system restore points in Windows XP:

You can see the System Restore Options. Here you can change the amount of Disk space to be used for System Restore.

If you want to delete the System Restore Data then, check Turn off System Restore and click Apply. It will delete all the related data and turn off your System Restore. Now the disk space has been freed up.

Note: If you only want to delete the system restore data but don’t want to turn off System restore then, don’t forget to turn it back on by unchecking the checkbox and applying again.

Turn off or delete system restore points in Windows 7:

In the System Protection tab, click on Configure.

It will open System Protection for your disk. You can change Maximum Disk space Usage for System Restore. You can delete the system restore points to free up the disk. Or you can turn off the System Protection feature completely in your Windows 7 PC.

If you Click on delete it will ask for confirmation as follows. Then it will delete the restore points. Deleting the System Restore points will not Turn off System Restore in Windows 7.

If you select Turn off System protection and click on apply, it will ask for the confirmation given below and Turn off your restore. This will also delete all your current restore points.

You can turn On the system Restore anytime by Selecting Restore system settings and previous version of files and clicking Apply.

In Windows 7 there is an option for restoring the previous version fo files or deleted files in a folder. To know more, refer the post: How to Restore Previous Versions of Files in Windows 7 Using System Restore.

Important:

1. The given procedure will also work for Windows Vista.

2. It is not recommended to Turn off or Disable System Restore in your Windows PC.

3. If you are deleting all the System Restore Points, then you will not be able to restore the system to any earlier point of time.