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Disable Finder Auto-Opening of Mounted External Drives

I recently made a DMG of OSX 10.5.6 off of the original Apple Install DVD via Disk Utility. I then restored it to a partition on my PCI ExpressCard to act as an installer and boot from it when needed.

The problem I am having is that when I rebook, Finder opens as if I had inserted the actual optical disc. To solve this problem, you need to open Terminal and execute:

sudo bless -folder /Volumes/X

Where X is the drive name.

LifeTime of a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD)

Solid State Hard Drives (SSD) are incredibly fast. Nowadays, you don't replace your laptop, you replace your hard drive. However, there are a couple of things you need to know about SSDs. For example, their limited lifetime. Let's take for example Intel X25-M 80GB SSD.

Intel aimed to make it last AT LEAST 5 years under NORMAL USAGE CONDITIONS, the 5 year estimate is based on a ludicrously high amount of writes per day.

Only Intel guarantees that their SSDs will lasts 5 years at least. If you manage to somehow use it up before that they will replace it under warranty. However, it is totally unrealistic even on a heavy server load.

80GB x 100,000 life-time writes * (1 data unit /1.1 write amplification overhead) = 7.27 million GB lifetime writes of data. Write speed 70 MB/s = 0.07 GB/s

7.27 million GB lifetime writes of data / 0.07 GB/s = 103.8 million seconds lifetime writes of data
103.8 x 1,000,000/1 million x minute/60 seconds x hour / 60 minutes x day / 24 hours x year / 365 days = 3.29 year lifetime writes of data. (double it for the 160GB version)

So if you max out the sequential writes at a nice flat 70MB/s which is the drive's max, and it has a write amplification of 1.1, and you do that 24/7/365 non stop, it will last 3.29 years.

of course, to put this in perspective:
0.07 GB/s x 60 seconds / minute x 60 minutes / hour x 24 hours / day = 6048 GB a day written to an 80GB drive. every day, 24/7/365 non stop writing.

Windows Live Messenger Configurations

I always wanted to start Windows Live Messenger in the background but I don't want it to automatically start when I log on to windows. In the Tools->Options, under Sign In, if you uncheck "Automatically run windows live messenger when I log on to windows" you can not un-check "Open Windows Live Messenger main window when Windows Live Messenger starts". To hack this, you need to modify your registry settings or paste the below to notepad and save it as MSN.REG then double-click on it.

---

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger]
"AppSettings"=hex:42,00,01,00
"AlwaysOnTop"=hex:00,00,00,00

---

Another settings I use is to disable the tabs, and the annoying MSN Today window, logging, and enable showing messenger in the task bar. NOTE: open your registry and change XXXXX according to your specific number.

---

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\PerPassportSettings\XXXXX] "DisableTabs"=dword:00000001 "DisableMSNToday"=hex:01,00,00,00 "MessageLoggingEnabled"=dword:00000000 "ShowTaskbar"=hex:01,00,00,00

Remove AcroRd32Info.exe

When PDF files are selected in Windows Explorer, a hook to pdfshell.dll calls on AcroRd32Info.exe to load the selected PDF file, extract the required information, and then pass it back to the shell for display. The shell integration is also what allows for the PDF tab in the file properties. If you like to stop this behavior:

• Click on Start->Run
• Type:
  • regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Acrobat\ActiveX\pdfshell.dll" /u
• Click Ok

PeerGuardian 2 and history.db

If you don't know what PeerGuardian 2, the possibilities of your PC making an unwanted connections to P-2-P or other sites on the last 24 hours is close to 99.99%!

PeerGuardian 2 is premier IP blocker for Windows that protects your privacy and make tracking you back specially when you're using P-2-P difficult if not impossible.

File	Description	Size
pg2-9x.exe	PeerGuardian 2 for Windows 98/ME	0.82MiB
pg2-nt.exe	PeerGuardian 2 for Windows 2000/XP/2003	0.84MiB
pg2-x64.exe	PeerGuardian 2 for Windows XP/2003 x64 Edition	1.07MiB
pg2-src.zip	PeerGuardian 2 source code (for programmers)	1.33MiB

The only drawbacks of PeerGuardian 2 is, it keeps log of your blocked connections and the problem is even worse if you are logging the allowed connections. What that means is, with time your history.db size could take up some Gigabytes of your hard drive.

In my situation, I'm pretty comfortable with the connections I make and I don't want any history logging. The best way to solve this is

1. Disable PeerGuardian 2
2. Go to C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\
3. Delete the history.db
4. Enable PeerGuardian 2

CHM Viewers For Apple Mac

If you're like me reading a lot of eBooks, Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft CHM engine are great tool if you are working under windows. However, under Apple Mac, For PDF, we have (Preview) which I think is even better than Adobe Acrobat as well as we have Adobe Acrobat for Macs.

The challenge is what about those Microsoft compiled HTML files or CHM? Well, we have a couple of choices:

• Chmox - No Search function
• xCHM - Slow and bad rendering of HTML
• Chimp - Discontinued & It's the best

luckily, Chimp 1.1 can be downloaded from here: Chimp 1.1

War Of The Launchers

1. Slickrun <- Small, light, and powerful.
2. SmartStartMenu <- Powerful and I recommend it since it does auto-indexing of your start menu.
3. slimKEYS <- Not Free. AppRocket is better choice.
4. Colibri <- Failed to launch some of my applications.
5. Launchy <- Terrible, word completion is not working properly.
6. AppRocket <- Not Free. Looks good and works well but uses .NET Technology.
7. ActiveWords <- Don't even look at it.
8. Dave’s Quick Search Bar <- See the above
9. Google Desktop <- Google, the name says it all! Too big on system resources.
10. Find and Run Robot <-Failed to launch some of my applications.

Literally, I have tried all of these applications. Non of them come close to QuickSilver except one that is not mentioned above here. The reason is you have to spend some extra $$$ to get it. It is called Dash Command and you can download it from here. (Download). Dash is the latest attempt for the Microsoft Windows platforms to emulate the power, flexibility, and usefulness of QuickSilver. Dash Command seems to be a great step in the right direction unlike many of the above listed applications. It’s elegant, and very light of system resources, and the functionality is even fairly fluid.

You can try use it for free and it will do everything from launching your applications on the start menu, except you can't define your own actions nor launch system commands. You have to buy a license for that, but if launching applications on the tip of your finger is all what you're seeking, Dash Command is your friend!

Read the full review here Replacing Start Run - The Quest Continues.

How To Enable Root Account on Mac OSX

Some of us need to have the root account enabled, in my case I need it to run Dynamips for labs.

1. Login using the Admin account
2. Open up a the Terminal application by selecting -
• Macintosh HD
• Applications
• Utilities
• Terminal
3. Type this command
1. sudo passwd root
2. You will then get the following prompts.
1. Enter Password:
• The password of the admin account for verification
2. New password:
• Enter your new password for root
3. Verify password:
• Verify the password from step2
4. The root account is now enabled, with your chosen password

Tweak Leopard's Hidden Features with Secrets

There are a lot of web sites that carries Mac secrets and code to improve your OS X. The truth is, non of them come close to this web site:
secrets.textdriven.com

Here is what you need to do:

• Download and install Secrets
• Un-zip it and double click on (Secrets.prefPane)
• Run System Preferences
• On the bottom under (Other) section, you should see secrets icon. Click it
• If you are connected to the internet, secrets should automatically download secrets file
• Tweak Leopard to your liking!

For more reading about this: lifehacker.com

Clone Your Hard Drive

BartPE is a great program, but the truth is you only need SysLinux with some free cloning program. So how do you clone your hard drive for future recovery?

The hard part is done for you! Download and Burn on CD

Speed Up FireFox!

Firefox is fast but can be faster! Depending on your situation, do the following:

1. If FireFox is running, you need to close it. Copy the instructions into WordPad then close FireFox
2. Run Notepad
3. Click File->Open and change the (Files of type) to (All files)
4. Navigate to:
   C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR USER NAME\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\SPECIAL NUMBER.default
5. Select the file prefs.js
6. Click Save As, and Save it as prefs.js_Backup
7. Re-open prefs.js
8. Paste the following code at the end of the file:
   • IF YOU HAVE FAST COMPUTER AND FAST INTERNET CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
     8. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
     9. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
     10. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     11. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
     12. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
     13. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
     15. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
     16. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
     17. user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
   • IF YOU HAVE FAST COMPUTER, SLOWER CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 2250000);
     8. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
     9. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     10. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
     11. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
     12. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
     13. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
     15. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
     16. user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
   • IF YOU HAVE FAST COMPUTER, SLOW CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("browser.xul.error_pages.enabled", true);
     8. user_pref("content.interrupt.parsing", true);
     9. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
     10. user_pref("content.maxtextrun" 8191);
     11. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 750000);
     12. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     13. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 750000);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 32);
     15. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 8);
     16. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 8);
     17. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 4);
     18. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 0);
     19. user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 65536);
   • IF YOU HAVE SLOW COMPUTER, FAST CONNECTION:
     1. user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
     2. user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
     3. user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
     4. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     5. user_pref("plugin.expose_full_path", true);
     6. user_pref("ui.submenuDelay", 0);
     7. user_pref("content.max.tokenizing.time", 3000000);
     8. user_pref("content.notify.backoffcount", 5);
     9. user_pref("content.notify.interval", 1000000);
     10. user_pref("content.notify.ontimer", true);
     11. user_pref("content.switch.threshold", 1000000);
     12. user_pref("content.maxtextrun", 4095);
     13. user_pref("nglayout.initialpaint.delay", 1000);
     14. user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 48);
     15. user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
     16. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
     17. user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 8);
     18. user_pref("dom.disable_window_status_change", true);

Microsoft Windows Luna/Zune/Royale Themes

The original Microsoft Windows Luna/Zune/Royale themes.
Download

Windows Live (Mail/Messenger/Writer/Photo) Installers

When you want to install one of the following:

1. Windows Live Messenger
2. Windows Live Mail
3. Windows Live Writer
4. Windows Live Photo

You have to download a small online installation file (WLinstaller.exe), but where are the standalone installers?
Download and save the below original installation files, next time you want to install any of the above on another machine or reinstall them, you don't need to be under the mercy of Microsoft Online Installer (WLinstaller.exe).

Download The Standalone Installers - Originals from download.microsoft.com:

1. Windows Live Messenger - 8.5.1302.1018 (Download)
2. Windows Live Mail - (Download)
3. Windows Live Writer - (Download)
4. Windows Live Sign-in Assistant - (Download)
5. Windows Live Photo Gallery - (Download)

Check Hotmail using Outlook Without Subscription

For people who have Microsoft Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007, Microsoft has released a free utility for Microsoft Outlook called "Microsoft Office Outlook Connector" that allows you to Read/Write emails from your Windows Live Hotmail account using Microsoft Office Outlook WITHOUT Live Hotmail Plus subscription
Download Outlook Connector
OR
Click Here
Microsoft Office Outlook Connector only works with Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007. Earlier version of Microsoft Outlook and also Outlook Express won't work.

Configuring:

Install soft Office Outlook Connector


After soft Office Outlook Connector has been installed, a menu option (Outlook Connector) is added in Outlook:


Click on Outlook Connector menu option , choose "Add a new Account..." and just fill up the email information - user name and password.

Speed Up Microsoft Windows

There are a lot of software that claim to speed up Microsoft Windows, some stand up to that claim, but wisdom says (If you don't know how to drive, don't buy a car!) <--My wisdom! So, let's see how we can speed up Windows!

First of all, you need a clean install. Don't do upgrade at all. Also, this is very important and I have personally tested it: Slipstreaming Windows Service Packs is better than updating windows. I can't really explain why, but I have tested two machines with the same hardware specs and found out the slipstreamed one outperformed the other updated one. Is it a lot of work! Well NO! Thanks to nLite.

Stop Un-necessary Services, some of them you will not find on your PC, don't panic! It just mean "My PC is better than yours ... My PC is better than yours!" - Just kidding.
Click Start->Run->Type (services.msc) without the parentheses
Find the below services and stop them (Double Click on them, change startup type to Disabled)

1. .NET Runtime Optimization Service v2.0.50727_X86 (or similar version)
2. Alerter
3. Automatic Updates (Run it manually when needed)
4. ClipBook
5. Computer Browser
6. Error Reporting Service (Yeah, just close the program if error happens)
7. Fast User Switching Compatibility (If you have only one user using the PC)
8. Help and Support (For dummies)
9. Indexing Service (Slowing my PC as hell!)
10. Messenger (Should be disabled since SP1-security reasons)
11. Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service
12. Network DDE
13. Network DDE DSDM
14. Remote Registry (Hackers love this one when it's running)
15. Routing and Remote Access
16. Secondary Logon (If you have only one user using the PC, plus for security reasons)
17. Server
18. SSDP Discovery Service
19. System Event Notification
20. Task Scheduler
21. TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
22. Telnet
23. Visual Studio 2008 Remote Debugger
24. Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)

It's always good practice to see your CPU utalization. So keep TaskManager running on the try and allow it to start automatically when you log on to windows. Download this

Modify the registry values:
Either download and run this TweakRegistry or Do it manually!

Run Notepad, copy and save all what's between the lines as tweaks.REG - Make sure you change the (save as type) to all. Double click the file when you copied the below lines and click ok.
--------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
"ClearPageFileAtShutdown"=dword:00000001
"DisablePagingExecutive"=dword:00000001
"LargeSystemCache"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AlwaysUnloadDLL]
@="1"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OptimalLayout]
"EnableAutoLayout"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
"Disable Script Debugger"="yes"
"Show_FullURL"="yes"
"Start Page"="about:blank"
"Page_Transitions"=dword:00000000
"FullScreen"="no"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
"HungAppTimeout"="500"
"MenuShowDelay"="0"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="500"
[HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop]
"AutoEndTasks"="1"
"HungAppTimeout"="500"
"MenuShowDelay"="0"
"WaitToKillAppTimeout"="500"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:00000080
"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:00000080
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile]
"IsShortcut"=-
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoResolveTrack"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters]
"EnablePrefetcher"=dword:00000003
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}]
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stisvc]
"Start"=dword:00000004
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"NoNetCrawling"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoRemoteRecursiveEvents"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\InstantMessaging]
"ForceDisableIM"=dword:00000001
--------------------

Cut down on the visual effects people! This is a PC not a freaking XBOX! Right Click on (My Computer) and choose (Properties), Select (Advanced) Tab and Click (Settings) under Performance, Select (Adjust for best performance) then select (Custom). Enable only:

1. Smooth Edges of screen fonts
2. use drop shadows for icons and labels on the desktop
3. use visual styles on windows and buttons

Click OK.

Use a free tool CCleaner and add the following folders to it's custom cleaning after clicking (Options)->(Include):

1. C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Acrobat\8.0\Updater\
2. C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\History\
4. C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Temp\
5. C:\Documents and Settings\\Cookies\
6. C:\WINDOWS\Temp\
7. C:\WINDOWS\Internet Logs\
8. C:\WINDOWS\assembly\temp\
9. C:\Documents and Settings\\Local Settings\Application Data\ApplicationHistory\
10. C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\InstallTemp\
11. C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Installations\
12. C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Logs\
13. C:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\Temp\
14. C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\
15. C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\Logs\
16. C:\Program Files\Common Files\WindowsLiveInstaller\Temp\

Stop Windows Live Messenger Ads

There are a lot of patches and such to stop and remove ads from Windows Live Messenger. I even tried some (without naming), at the cost of stability of the program (Video/Audio chat stopped working), also these patches don't actually stop pulling the ads from Microsoft Ad Server! They just remove the banner ad at the bottom of Windows Live Messenger!
So, what's the easiest most effective way to stop Windows Live Messenger from pulling the Ads from Microsoft servers while you know what's going on? Well, the old plain loopback trick!

• Click Start->Run
• Type: cmd and hit OK
• Type and Hit enter after each line:
  • echo 127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com >> c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
  • echo 127.0.0.1 rad.live.com >> c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

That's it! No more ads from Micro$oft!