I’ve just been called in today by one of my client because he complained that the computer sometime hangs when he opens up any folder or application. I tried duplicating the problem and I did saw how it happened. The computer doesn’t hang completely. The desktop shortcuts work as I am still able to launch programs from the shortcuts. It’s only the taskbar, start button and explorer that freezes. If I wait for few minutes(sometimes can be up to 10 minutes) for the folder/application to run, I would then be able to access the taskbar and start button.

I launched Task Manager to see which program might be causing the full load of the CPU and resulting it to hang but nothing. Everything was normal as the System Idle Process is at 80-90%. It’s easy if Task Manager shows a process is taking up all the CPU usage as I can just kill the process and it’d go back to normal. It’s quite hard to troubleshoot what’s causing this weird behavior because it’s intermittent. Sometimes opening My Documents folder would hang and sometimes don’t. There’s no 100% way to duplicate this problem.

After much searching for an answer and hours of troubleshooting, I think I might have found the answer to this problem.


Here are a list of suggestions I found that “could” solve the problem. Some might work for you and some don’t because it depends on which services or programs that causing the taskbar and explorer to hang problem. Only try the suggestions below if there are no 100% CPU usage on your Task Manager when the taskbar freezes.

1. Disable “Automatically search for network folders and printers”
– Go to Control Panel and run Folder Options. Click the View tab and uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers”

2. Delete any unused network Printers.
– Go to Control Panel and run Printers and Faxes. Delete any unused network Printers by using your mouse to right click and select Delete.

3. Delete automatically found network shared folders.
– Go to My Network Places and delete the found shared folders.

4. Delete mapped drives.
– Go to My Computer and delete any mapped drives.

5. Hide icons for networked UPnP devices.
– Go to My Network Places and on the left pane, click “HIDE icons for network UPnP devices“. If it says “SHOW icons for networked UPnP devices”, then it’s currently hidden. You can skip this suggested step.

6. Disable “Background Intelligent Transfer Service“.
– Go to Start -> Run and type msconfig. Click on Services tab and uncheck Background Intelligent Transfer Service to disable it.

7. Disable “SSDP Discovery Service“.
– Go to Start -> Run and type msconfig. Click on Services tab and uncheck Background Intelligent Transfer Service to disable it.

If all the 7 suggestions above still doesn’t solve your problem, use Task Manager to “End Process” any third party programs that’s running. I’ve tried all 7 steps above and none worked for me. But when I terminated a process called “Watch3.exe”, immediately the taskbar and explorer starts to respond.

You can also try disabling Startup items from “msconfig” and see which is the culprit that is causing this problem.

As you can see, there are no one solution to fix this problem as all computers are different. Different in the sense of having different software installed and configured differently. That’s why some method will work for you and some don’t.

Two of the best ways to login to Windows if you’ve forgotten the password is by reseting the password or replacing sfcfiles.dll with a cracked one to allow login with any password. However, a lot of anti-virus detects the cracked sfcfiles.dll as a hacktool and it prevents the DLL file from loading making it unusable.

The best and highly successful way to login to Windows if you’ve forgotten the password is by resetting the password. All you need to do is put in a BootCD, boot up with it and follow the simple instructions to reset any user’s password. No bruteforce cracking, modifying of cracked DLL files….

Today I found a software that’s better and more powerful than Windows Key included in Passware Kit Enterprise.


Active@ Password Changer is designed for resetting local administrator and user passwords on Windows XP / VISTA / 2003 / 2000 / NT systems in case an Administrator’s password is forgotten or lost. You do not need to re-install and re-configure the operating system.

Forgotten password recovery software has a simple user interface, supports multiple hard disk drives, detects several SAM databases (if multiple OS were installed on one volume) and provides the opportunity to pick the right SAM before starting the password recovery process. It displays a list of all local users. The software user simply chooses the local user from the list to reset the password.

This is the part which makes Active@ Password Changer better than Windows Key. Other Windows login security restrictions like ‘Account is disabled‘, ‘Password never expires‘, ‘Account is locked out‘, ‘User Must Change Password at Next Logon‘ and ‘Logon Hours‘ can be changed or reset.

You’ll be surprised that this feature is included in the DOS version!

Windows Key only works in DOS but Active@ Password Changer has program for Windows and DOS. Surprisingly, Active@ Password Changer only cost USD59.99 while Windows Key cost US195.00 for the Professional version and USD295.00 for the enterprise version. Obviously you’ll purchase Active@ Password Changer if given a choice as it’s cheaper and better.

Free Demo version allows you to detect the correct Windows SAM database, view the user list and specific user attributes. Professional version allows the user to actually reset passwords and attributes.

P/S: The retail version of Active@ Password Changer Pro v3.5 build 0067 has already been leaked out. But very sorry, I am unable to provide the links. Please do NOT ask or request for it here. Use your friendly Google 😉

[ Download Active@ Password Changer Demo ]

Windows power meter doesn’t provide so much details about your laptop battery. If you are not charging it, you will see a battery on your traybar. Double clicking it will bring up Power Meter and will display the current power source, total battery power remaining and total time remaining.

To see detailed information about the battery such as name, unique ID, power state, chemistry, and manufacturer of the battery, you can click on the battery in Power Meter.

I found a FREE software that provides much more information about your notebook battery.


Notebook BatteryInfo is able to display the internal values of the Notebook battery. It is easy to find out the battery wear or the maximum usable capacity of the battery. It can even provide a more thorough battery information compared to Windows Power Meter.

I prefer Notebook BatteryInfo over the default Windows Battery Meter because the symbol in the traybar shows only the rough estimate of the remaining battery capacity. If more exact information are needed the mouse must hovered over the battery symbol to show a tooltip with the exact remaining capacity. As for Notebook BatteryInfo, the current battery values will always be displayed on the taskbar, making it much easier for you to know the exact remaining capacity.

[ Download Notebook BatteryInfo ]

There are times when Windows or a software doesn’t allow us to click a button. It could be a shareware that only after registering the button would be enabled or a feature that doesn’t make any sense if it was enabled. For example, if you run Windows Task Manager, go to the Users tab and click on the user that you are currently logged on as, the Send Message button is disabled. This sending message feature is useful if there are a few users logged on and you can send a message to another user but there is no logic in sending the message to yourself. That explains why the Send Message is disabled for currently logged on user.

Jack ONeill, the owner of EvilFingers has created a simple free tool called Enabler that can enable any disabled or grayed out buttons in Windows. There is no requirement or need for privilege escalation because this will enable any button on the user’s windows and there is no requirement to be a root or super user for enabling the buttons.


Here is a simple proof of concept on how Enabler works. Right click on Windows Taskbar and select Task Manager. Click on the Users tab and then select the current logged on user. The disconnect and Logoff button is enabled but the Send Message button is not accessible. Keep Windows Task Manager open and do not close it.

Now run Enabler and click the Enable button.

Click OK when you get a confirmation window saying that it’s Done.

Go to the Windows Task Manager again and you should see that the Send Message button can be used. Try clicking the Send Message button, type any message and click OK. A new message window should appear with the message that you’ve written.

It is important to make sure that the user is in focus/selected after enabling the button. Once you click on other areas and then you go back to the user again, the button will be disabled and you have to use Enabler to bring it back. If Enabler doesn’t work for you, then perhaps you can try DM2 or TurnItOn.

[ Download Enabler ]

After many many months of beta testing Service Pack 3, the official stable Windows XP SP3 is finally here! Many tech websites announced the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to manufacturers (RTM) yesterday. I never post about beta updates or patches on operating systems because I wouldn’t advice you to install something that is not stable for your system. This time I am confident that the final version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 is here, and I am sharing this news with you.

Although the XP SP3 final version has been released to manufacturers, we, the end users can only download via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center on 29th April. If you can’t wait until the 29th of April, here’s how to be one of the first end users to install and use the final stable version of XP SP3.


A very well known and reputable cracking group Zero Waiting Time (ZWT) managed to obtain the XP SP3 RTM and released it to the “scene” with the name MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.XP.SERVICE.PACK.3.v5.1.2600.5512.RTM.ENGLISH-WZT
. The XP SP3 RTM final version first surfaced at ThePirateBay about 12 hours ago and was uploaded by a person named bgreen.

Here are some information on the Windows XP Service Pack 3 setup file:

Filename: WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe

Language: English Only

Size: 331,805,736 bytes in 1 file

SFV: C411A9DA

MD5: BB25707C919DD835A9D9706B5725AF58

SHA1: C81472F7EEEA2ECA421E116CD4C03E2300EBFDE4

After spending about 30 minutes to install XP Service Pack 3, I didn’t notice anything new after logging in except that it asked me whether to turn on the Automatic Updates. Well, Microsoft did state that SP3 is mostly a security, performance and stability update. So don’t expect any funky features in this release.

Some people accuse team ZWT of releasing keygenerators and cracks with trojans but they do not do that. These groups have reputations which they are not going to tarnish it by embedding some lame trojans in their releases. Usually those files are tampered by other people who.

I am sorry because I cannot provide the download link to Windows XP Service Pack 3 RTM final because Microsoft will definitely shut down this website. You can do a simple search on some of the “important” keywords that I’ve mentioned in this article. It is already available at torrent and rapidshare. Remember to check the HASH so you won’t download a modified one. Here’s how to check the HASH if you don’t know how. Download VisualHash, extract and run VisualHash.exe. Make sure you’re at the Hash Files tab, right click, select Add File… and locate WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe. Click the Compute Hashes button and wait for a few seconds. Refer the MD5 and SHA-1 values with the above. If it matches, then the file hasn’t been tampered.

Good luck and enjoy the new Windows XP Service Pack 3!

Hopefully I don’t bore you too much with Windows Live Messenger 2011 tips but I just recently discovered this. Whenever I finished installing Windows Live Messenger, the first thing I would do is to remove the advertisement that is embedded to the interface. Microsoft founder Bill Gates is consistently ranked among the world’s wealthiest people and removing an ad or two from WLM won’t hurt their wallet at all. Anyway, one of a very good tool that I recommend to remove ads from Windows Live Messenger 2011 is A-Patch. A-Patch has been around since MSN Messenger 6 and kept up to date until today. What I like about A-Patch is its free, portable (don’t require installation), clean (no installation of toolbar or any spyware), easy to use and it works.

There are two Remove Advertisement checkboxes on A-Patch and the difference is the first one removes the advertisement banner from the bottom of the contact list, and the second one is to remove the text advertisement from the bottom of your message window. Everything should look much cleaner after removing the ads from Windows Live Messenger 2011 but I noticed that the chat / conversation window still has a small advertisement at the bottom.

A-Patch doesn’t seem to remove that advertisement and every time I had to click on the X button to close the ad. Fortunately it is possible to hide the ad at the Windows Live Messenger 2011 chat window from the Options.


From Windows Live Messenger 2011, press Alt+T which will show the Tools menubar. Select Options. Click on Messages at the left navigation bar, uncheck “Show expanded footer in conversation windows” and click the OK button.

You will notice that the ads are no longer shown at the bottom of the conversation window. Now Windows Live Messenger 2011 is perfectly clean without advertisement even while chatting. Took me a while to discover what is that “expanded footer” option for because the description is not very clear and doesn’t say anything about advertisement.

Michael Y from forum has reminded me about booting computer using USB flash drive. I’ve heard about that long ago and I know it’s possible but then I’ve never tried it myself. That’s because so far I’ve been fixing computers that has a working CD/DVD-Rom. Even IF there is a non functional CD/DVD-ROM, I can dismantle a working CD/DVD-ROM from another computer. However, I figured that it’s good to learn and know how to make your USB flash drive bootable. You can boot up Hiren’s BootCD from USB flash drive, install Windows using USB flash drive and even resetting Windows account password using Windows Key. See how useful it is to know how to make your USB flash drive bootable?

We all know that we can use floppy drive and CD/DVD to boot up your computer. There are also ISO files that contains boot image that when you burn it with Nero, the media disc will be bootable.

Here are some question that I ask myself before starting to do research on how to make a USB flash drive bootable.
1. Is it possible to copy floppy boot image to USB flash drive?
2. Is it possible to copy CD/DVD boot image to USB flash drive?
3. Is it possible to extract boot image from ISO files and write it to USB flash drive?
4. How to configure BIOS to boot with USB flash drive?
5. Can all USB flash drive be made bootable?

I am glad to have found all the answers to the question above.


1. Is it possible to copy floppy boot image to USB flash drive?
It is possible possible to copy floppy boot image to a USB flash drive by using BootDisk2BootStick. Just select the source (floppy) and destination (USB flash drive) and click the Start button.

2. Is it possible to copy CD/DVD boot image to USB flash drive?
It is possible but not with BootDisk2BootStick because it doesn’t support CD/DVD. You need to extract the boot image from the CD/DVD first, and then write the boot image that you’ve extracted to the USB flash drive.

– Extract boot image from CD/DVD using BBIE by Bart Lagerweij
Command to extract CD/DVD boot image using BBIE is “bbie D:” without the quotes and assuming D: is your CD/DVD drive.

[ Download BBIE ]

– Write the extracted boot image from CD/DVD to USB flash drive using MKBT by Bart Lagerweij
Command to write boot image file to USB flash drive is “MKBT -x image1.bin e:” without the quotes. image1.bin is the filename of the boot image and e: is the drive letter of your USB flash drive.

[ Download MKBT ]

3. Is it possible to extract boot image from ISO files and write it to USB flash drive?
Yes it is possible. The steps to extract boot image from ISO file is very similar to the answer on question number 2.
Use BBIE to extract boot image from ISO with the command “bbie filename.iso“. Then write the boot image to USB flash drive using MKBT with the command “mkbt -x image1.bin e:”

4. How to configure BIOS to boot with USB flash drive?
Different BIOS has different way to setting your USB flash drive as a boot device. If your system can’t support it, try checking for BIOS update. Also, not all computers can get in to BIOS by pressing the “Del” key. Some are F2 and some are F10. If you’re unsure, it will be displayed on the screen during the initial boot of a computer. If it’s too fast, you can hit the Pause/Break key.

For computer that uses AMI BIOS.
Option 1;
Go to “Feature Setup” and enable these options: “USB Function Support”, “USB Function For DOS” and “ThumbDrive for DOS”.
Go to “Advanced Setup” and set the “1st Boot Device” to “USB RMD-FDD”.
Reboot the PC and it now should boot from the USB flash drive.

Option 2;
Go to “USB Mass Storage Device Configuration”, select “Emulation Type” and set it to “Harddisk”.
Go to the “Boot Menu” and set the “1st boot device” to “USB-Stick”.
No you can exit the BIOS, saving the changes. If this does not seem to work, then you can try (it sometimes seems to work) setting the “Emulation Type” value to “Floppy” or “Forced FDD”.

For computer that uses PHOENIX/AWARD BIOS.
Go to “Advanced BIOS Features”, then to the “1st Boot device” and set it to “USB-ZIP”.

Some newer motherboard supports Boot Order by pressing the F8 (keys might vary). I have a MSI 945P Platinum board and it is using Phoenix BIOS, Revision 6. At first I wasn’t able to boot up my USB flash drive but later I found out that I need to go to the Boot Order screen and select “Hard Disk” and hit enter. It will then give me a list of Hard Drives. My Kingston USB flash drive is listed as USB-HDD0.

For computer that uses Generic BIOS.
If your BIOS is not in the list above, or the settings do not seem to work with your PC, then you can try this:
– Go into the BIOS
– Go to the page that determines the boot order (usually called “Advanced Setup”, “Boot options”, or “Feature Setup”)
– Try all USB drive variants. Start with “USB ZIP”, then “USB FDD”, “USB HDD “, etc.

5. Can all USB flash drive be made bootable?
I don’t have a 100% sure answer for this question but I’ve tested it on 3 different types of USB flash drives and all can be made bootable. The brands are Kingston, PenDrive and Corsair. In my opinion, you should be more concern about whether your motherboard supports booting from USB flash drive rather than having a USB flash drive that can boot.

You can test your USB flash drive whether it is bootable or not by using a memory testing tool called USBTest created by PenDriveLinux. Just download, extract the files to your USB flash drive and run makeboot.bat. Configure your BIOS to boot up with the USB flash drive. If you see a white background with a USB connector picture and some text that says “The installed program can be used to check your system memory for problems…”, that means your USB flash drive is bootable and your system is capable of booting from a USB flash drive.

This concludes my research on making USB flash drive bootable. Michael Y’s question was he wanted to reset Windows password using DreamPack_PL but his CD/DVD drive is not working. I’ve tried to extract DreamPack_PL boot image and write it to my USB flash drive but it couldn’t be booted up while I have no problems with other ISO. There might be something wrong or different with DreamPack_PL’s boot image that is causing BBIE not to extract the boot image properly. A better tool to reset Windows user account password is Windows Key. You can also load additional drivers to unlock SCSI/RAID/SATA hard drive which DreamPack_PL can’t do.

Windows Key Enterprise cost US$295 and I wonder who actually buys them? But Team ARN has already released a retail version and serial number (LostPassword.Passware.Kit.Enterprise.v8.1.2670.Retail-ARN) for Passware Kit which contains Windows Key Enterprise.

I’ve got a comment from a user asking me how to remove Brontok virus. Brontok virus is from Indonesia and I’ve seen this virus infected on a computer before and it prevents you from running Registry Editor. Most obvious way to know that you’ve been infected by Brontok virus is when your computer starts up, you’ll get an error messsage saying that it is unable to locate the file “Kesenjangan Sosial.exe“.

Here’s how to remove Brontok virus.


Found a lot of free removal tools you can use to easily remove Brontok virus.
1. CompactbyteAV

2. GData Anti…Worm

3. Sophos BRONTGUI

4. Kaspersky Brontok Removal Tool

5. BitDefender Brontok Removal Tool

6. Brontok Washer(Most Effective against Brontok Virus)

7. OgAV

Choose to run either one to clean Brontok virus from your system. If you have the time, you can run all of them but not at the same time. Do it one by one just to be 100% sure that Brontok virus is completely removed.

September 19, 2007 Update: Brontok Washer link has been updated. It is one of the most effective Brontok virus cleaner. However, Symantec will flag Brontok Washer as “brontok virus” itself. There is also one Brontok virus variant that will automatically stop Brontok Washer from being run in Windows normal mode. Make sure you run Brontok Washer in Windows Safe Mode.

ComputerActive has given away the commercial version of Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5, a full anti-spyware utility worth £30 last year from 27th December 2007 to 17th January 2008. I did not post about this because you can find this news on nearly every blog site. I didn’t want to bore you with what you might have just read on other sites. Perhaps that is what makes Raymond.CC special eh? 😉

Although the offer went on for 3 weeks, there are some people that didn’t manage to get the free commercial license for the latest version of Webroot Spy Sweeper. The original offer link page http://www.webroot.com/activate has expired and no longer available. So here’s a second round of free subscription offer for FREE Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5. Get it quick before this offer expires again!


Spy Sweeper detects and removes spyware on personal computers that run Microsoft Windows. It scans a computer for spyware by examining files on the computer’s hard disk drive, as well as objects in memory, the Windows registry and cookies, and quarantines any suspicious objects it finds. Spy Sweeper runs continuously while the computer is in operation, monitoring to warn the user of programs being set to start automatically, suspicious programs running and to block cookies.

Webroot Spy Sweeper key features:

Most comprehensive antispyware solution available – 360 degrees of protection

Continuous monitoring stops spyware before it can attack

Advanced detection and removal capabilities for stubborn spyware

Automatic defense updates keep you protected from the latest threats

FREE customer support

The steps to get your free Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.5 license is exactly the same as the first round.

1. Go to this URL http://www.webroot.com/start, enter your email and click Register button.

2. Check the email address that you’ve entered at step 1. Open the email from Webroot Sales ([email protected]) with the subject “Your Download Instructions for Invoice F0000XXXXXXXX”. Note down the personalized license code.

3. Download latest Spyware Sweeper sspsetup1_1.exe and install.

4. During installation, you’ll be prompted to enter the keycode. Simply copy and paste the code into the box.

Spyware Sweeper is nearly as good as Ad-Aware but not as popular because it doesn’t offer free version of its software. It is also lighter in resource usage when compared to Ad-Aware 2008. This free license is only valid for 6 months but not 1 year like the previous offer. I think there’s a reason why they are only providing free license up to this year. Here are some information I managed to gather.

August 2006 = version 5.0.7
October 2006 = version 5.2
June 2007 = version 5.5

Looking at the cycle of Spyware Sweeper versions above, I have a feeling that a newer version of Spy Sweeper is going to be released sometime around end of the year or early next year. Perhaps that is the reason why they don’t mind giving out free licenses for Spy Sweeper v5.5 the second time but with the condition that it will only last until end of 2008. Enjoy.

Sending 100% Free SMS Worldwide through CallWave using Yahoo Widget seems to be limited now. When I first discovered this service, I was able to send unlimited SMS. I guess when it became popular, they had to have some kind of restrictions to prevent abuse. Just like what happened to ICQ SMS service many years ago.

My brother recommended me a website which is able to send unlimited FREE SMS, ANYTIME, ANYWHERE. The only catch is that you and the person you want to send SMS to(recipient) must be a member of the website. A simple 3 minute signup is all it takes to start sending free SMS.


mobiK, the website that allows you to send free SMS from either an Internet Browser or a mobile phone to most world destinations. You need Adobe Flash player in order to load the mobiK’s SMS sender interface on your browser.

mobiK is able to provide free SMS because they’ve partnered with selected sponsors in a number of world regions. Each message you send is appended with an “ad tag” from their sponsors.

One very useful feature on mobiK is that you can add your friend’s cellphone number into Contact. To send message to multiple recipients, simply drag or double click the contacts that you’ve saved, type your message and click on the Send button. In just a few seconds, all your friends will receive your message.

Sometimes when you send an SMS message you will get the response “Blocked. No ad sponsor“. mobiK will only deliver SMS to the regions supported by their advertising sponsors. If there is not a sponsor in the region where you are sending your SMS, the message cannot be delivered.

If you go through mobiK FAQ’s page, it is quite outdated. mobiK has updated their website to version 2 and a lot has changed. When I use mobiK about 2 months ago, I can only send SMS. Now, I can even collect “K” points to redeem free stuff by inviting friends to join mobiK, completing surveys or enter competitions. One of the prize is invite 50 friends and get a $50 iTunes gift certificate!

Before the update, when you use mobiK to send a text message to your friend, your friend wouldn’t know that it’s coming from you. You’ll have to make sure that you identify yourself in the message. Now mobiK has updated their system and it shows your cellphone number instead of the word “Mobik”. There is no need to guess which of your friend sent this SMS to you anymore! Moreover, having your number displayed allows your friend to easily reply your message without keying in your number.

[ Sign Up mobiK and send FREE SMS ]

Few days ago I was looking for an update on HiJackThis tool. HijackThis is a free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer. HiJackThis makes no separation between safe and unsafe settings in its scan results giving you the ability to selectively remove items from your machine. In addition to this scan and remove capability HijackThis comes with several tools useful in manually removing malware from a computer.

Merijn Bellekom is the author of this fantastic tool. While browsing at Merjin’s website for an update, I read the news that Merjin has sold HiJackThis to TrendMicro. TrendMicro has acquired CWShredder before from Merjin and now HiJackThis. I guess sooner or later they are going to acquire everything that Merjin has develop.


After Merjin sold HijackThis to Trend Micro, a newer version of HiJackThis has been made available. It is in Beta and that is the only version you can download. I wonder why don’t they provide download of the stable old version since Beta is for testing?

What’s new in HijackThis v2:
* AnalyzeThis added for log file statistics
* Recognizes Windows Vista and IE7
* Fixed a few bugs in the O23 method
* Fixed a bug in the O22 method (SharedTaskScheduler)
* Did a few tweaks on the log format
* Fixed and improved ADS Spy
* Improved Itty Bitty Procman (processes are frozen before they are killed)
* Added listing of O4 autoruns from other users
* Added listing of the Policies Run items in O4 method, used by SmitFraud trojan
* Added /silentautolog parameter for system admins
* Added /deleteonreboot [file] parameter for system admins
* Added O24 – ActiveX Desktop Components enumeration
* Added Enhanced Security Configuration (ESC) Zones to O15 Trusted Sites check

TrendMicro does not officially support HijackThis yet, but I expect they will once it goes final. HiJackThis is not any simple tool for beginners. It requires you to know what files is dangerous and what’s not. So if you’re unsure, you can always ask in SpywareInfo forum. Simply run HiJackThis and generate a log file. Submit the log file to the forum and within hours you’ll have people helping you.

It’s a very simple yet powerful tool! I would like to stress out that IF you’re unsure what to fix after running the scan, please request for help from SpywareInfo. Simply removing any startup programs would result in an unbootable Windows.

[ Download Trend Micro HiJackThis v2 Beta ]

The time I spend on my computer daily is probably more than any other activity and I have come to realized the importance of ergonomics. Having a combination of good computer chair, a proper computer table with keyboard tray, and of course an ergonomic keyboard and mouse is very important. I have been using the wired Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 for many years and it allows me to rest my wrists against the plush palm rest in a relaxed, natural angle with this keyboard’s curved key bed, ergonomic arc, and reversed slope. As for the mouse, I use a simple USB Microsoft optical wheel mouse that is also wired.

I have to admit that I didn’t like all the wires going around my table because it looks messy and untidy. So I searched for alternative and found that Microsoft has another model called Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 which features the same keyboard as the 4000 without the wires and it comes together with a Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 which is very similar to the Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 sold individually. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone selling the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 in Malaysia, so I searched in eBay. Found a seller from UK, paid for it but after 2 months I was refunded because they wasn’t able to send it to Malaysia. Then this time I ordered from US and I just received it after waited for nearly 2 weeks. For your information, there is no custom import tax when you buy computer parts from overseas.


There is no problem with the keyboard because it is the same as the old which I am very comfortable because of the ergonomic design that encourages natural wrist and arm alignment so I can work without discomfort.

As for the mouse, it is something very new to me. Instead of putting your whole hand on top of the mouse, the mouse included in the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000 fits my hand as naturally as a handshake. While it is logical but there is one small problem and that is the mouse being too big/high and I find it hard to accurately move the mouse cursor to where I want to. I guess this is the reason why it is not sold in Malaysia as we Asians have smaller hands.

Another con is it uses 2 double A batteries to power up the mouse and keyboard. I could use rechargeable batteries but it is a hassle to take out, recharge and put it back again. I am sure there will be times when I forget to charge the batteries after using it the whole day. I can’t give away the mouse because I am using the receiver for the keyboard and Microsoft don’t sell the receiver separately.

My verdict on Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Desktop 7000: Love the keyboard but hate the mouse. I wished Microsoft sold the wireless version of Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 separately.

P/S: I am still in the hunt for a good and ergonomic mouse. Modern mouse such as Razer Mamba are far more advanced as it uses rechargeable lithion-ion battery, has dual mode (Wired & Wireless) and more responsive but the price is twice more expensive. Do you think the Razer Mamba is worth buying?

Is it possible to accelerate your hard disk drive to speed up file transfer? At first I didn’t know it was possible because thinking that Microsoft might have utilize the best code to have the fastest speed in file copying.

Ponder on this statement:

Is it possible to download files better than with non-resumable Internet Explorer? Or defragment a hard-drive faster and more optimal than with Windows’ defrag utility? Is it possible to edit images better than with Windows’ Paint? Or edit text documents better than with Notepad? What about repartitioning hard-drives? Is Windows’ fdisk always up to the task?

Windows has been designed to be a heavily third-party improvable operating system. While this may sound absurd to some, it is true in every respect. Let’s ponder on this affirmation for a second or two. What would Microsoft have to gain from making Windows the perfect operating system? Sure, they could hire a few more thousand programmers to write every gadget and application you could ever desire, but would it be worth it? It would primarily stiffle application development on their platform and bring about antitrust lawsuits. Not a desirable state indeed. Therefore it should not be too big of a surprise that things which you consider normal and efficient, eventually turn out to be heavily improvable.

Now I’d say YES, it is possible to accelerate your hard disk drive to speed up file transfer. It has been tested and proven to save you 15-25 seconds in copying a 700 megabyte file on the same physical hard-drive compared to normal Windows file copy method.

Here’s what you need to speed up file copying.


BurstCopy is the hard-drive accelerator that significantly increases file transfer speed. By taking full advantage of the DMA support provided by your hard-drive, and using dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times, BurstCopy will significantly reduce the time you spend waiting for files to transfer.

Other than speeding up file transfer speed, it has extra features that Windows should have long ago. If you met any errors during copying files in Windows, the transfer will be terminated. If you’re copying thousands of small files, you know which has been copied and which haven’t. With BurstCopy, any errors that you may typically encounter will not terminate your transfer. A friendly window will inform you of the error, and allow you to choose the appropriate action (skip, retry, abort).

You can also use BurstCopy to pause file transfer process and resume when you’re ready to. It is a known fact that file transfers can slow down other applications that try to use the hard-drive. Using BurstCopy’s pause and resume functions, you can temporarily suspend transfers, while your other programs get exclusive access to the hard-drive. This will for example be useful when you have a long transfer under way, and you need to start a large program. You could just pause the transfer while the program starts, and then resume it.

Another incredible feature that BurstCopy claims to have is it is able to reduce hard disk noise during file transfer. If your hard-drive is typically noisy during file transfers, you will be happy to find out that there is a great reduction in generated noise during BurstCopy transfers. This is a direct result of the methods used to increase the transfer speed and comes at no performance expense. I have no idea how they did it but they have the technology.

BurstCopy is truly a gem! I wouldn’t depend on Windows file copying method from now on. We all know how important a hard drive is because we’d loose all our important files if the hard drive fails. Taking care of your hard drive is important!

[ Download BurstCopy ]