Raymond.CC Blog

Author: raymond

  • 10 Free Software to Monitor Windows Startup Locations

    Software can be easily added to Windows startup so that it automatically runs when your computer is booted up. It is necessary for some software such as an antivirus to run at startup so it automatically starts protecting Windows once it has been loaded. However, there are many other software applications that come with an option to start with Windows and if you don’t need them running all the time consuming unnecessary system resources that can potentially slow down the computer, it is better to just disable the option.

    Other than just legitimate programs adding themselves to Windows startup, any kind of malicious software such as viruses, trojans, rogueware, keyloggers, ransomware etc also quietly sneak into Windows startup locations without your knowledge to keep them active on the computer as long as possible until they are detected and cleaned. HIPS (Host Intrusion Prevention System) can effectively detect and prevent both legitimate and and malicious software from adding itself to startup but they are very sensitive and protect many other areas other than startup locations.

    If you are looking for a smaller and easy to use tool to just monitor Windows startup locations, here we have 10 software tools.
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  • Change or Remove Button Missing at Control Panel Add or Remove Programs

    The correct and safest way to uninstall or remove an installed software or driver on a Windows computer is from Add or Remove Programs which can be found in Control Panel. When you run the uninstaller, it will simply refers back to the list of files that is extracted to the program’s folder during installation and deletes them. Sometimes you will notice that even after uninstalling a program, the program’s folder and some files will still be there. Those files are the ones that is created by the software, not extracted by the installer. There are some uninstaller that is smart enough to ask you if you’d like to delete the remaining files.

    Normally when you open Add or Remove Programs shortcut from Control Panel, you will see a list of installed software which you can change or remove. The change option is usually used to repair the software. It actually meant reinstall the program with exactly the same components that were installed first time. As for remove option, it uninstalls the software from your system.

    There are times that you need to remove or uninstall a software or driver from your computer but the Change/Remove button in Add or Remove Programs is missing!

    Add/Remove button Missing

    Here is a method to make Windows show the Remove, Change (or the Change/Remove button together) buttons in the listing.
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  • Move Windows XP Hard Drive or Change Motherboard Without Getting a Blue Screen STOP 7B Error

    One feature that was useful in Windows versions prior to XP was you could simply take out a hard drive that has Windows installed and connect it up to another computer. When it boots it up, it’ll start to detect and install all device drivers again. When you change the motherboard or move your hard drive that has Windows XP installed to another computer, be prepared to get endless looping reboots or the famous blue screen of death (BSOD). The error will usually be a STOP 7B error which is related to a problem with the hard drive controller.

    This problem is often simply due to the fact that the storage controller used by Windows XP requires a different driver depending on what type of hard drive controller is on the motherboard. If the old controller uses one driver and the new controller requires a different driver, XP is trying to boot with the old driver and throws up the blue screen because the wrong driver is trying to load. The recovery console or even Safe Mode isn’t usable because Windows can’t boot anything without the correct software for the controller. The only real hope you have of this problem not occurring is to use a motherboard with exactly the same chipset for the hard drive controller.

    Windows Stop 7B Error

    After all these years since the release of Windows XP, it’s still not a straightforward task to move a Windows XP hard drive and partition to another computer without getting a blue screen. There are some easier ways to do it although they cost a fair amount of money. Amazingly, a large proportion of websites on the internet (including Microsoft) will tell you the only solution is to perform a Repair Install or even completely wipe your XP install with a format and re-install.
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  • Safest Method to Replace Notepad with Notepad++ in Windows

    The Notepad that comes in Windows is a very basic editing tool to view and edit text files. It can open file extensions such as TXT, INI, LOG, BAT and etc as long as it is a text format. I find Notepad useful when I need to quickly take short notes and also to remove any rich text format especially when the text are copied from websites. One of the biggest problem with Notepad is it does not recognize line breaks from text files created in UNIX or Mac OS operating systems which is the reason why sometimes you see a few very long sentence on a readme file. Other than that, Notepad also doesn’t support tabs, regular expressions, bookmarks and many more functions that can make a text editor really powerful and useful.

    There are quite a number of free third party text editor which is better than Notepad and our favorite one is definitely Notepad++ which we’ve been using it for several years already. Notepad++ has helped us solved many of our text manipulation needs such as generating sequential number, removing duplicate lines, delete lines that doesn’t contain specific words, monitoring log or text file changes in real time, and many more!

    Since Notepad++ is so much better than Notepad, it is a no brainer to replace the built-in Notepad in Windows with Notepad++. Here we suggest the safest method to do it that will still be effective even after a service pack installation without replacing the Notepad.exe in Windows.
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  • How To Troubleshoot Windows Startup, LogOff, Login and Shutdown Problems

    The fastest time to boot up or shut down your computer is obviously when you first got your computer or after installing a fresh copy of Windows. As time goes by after going through multiple installations and uninstalling third party software, the accumulation of temporary files, the increasing size of the registry, disk fragmentation, accidental infection of malicious software with improper cleanup, all these will eventually lead to causing Windows to take longer than usual to startup or be unable to completely shut down the computer.

    No one likes to use a computer that takes 5-10 minutes to boot into the desktop or a Windows that doesn’t do a proper shut down where you are forced to press and hold the power button until it turns off. A forced shut down can cause data corruption when the files are opened or even hard drive failure. Troubleshooting the cause of Windows startup and shutdown problems may not be that easy because a lot of factors can contribute to this problem.
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  • 7 Online Multi-Engine Antivirus Scanners to Scan Suspicious Files

    How do you know if the attachment file you received by email or downloaded from an unknown website is safe to run and not infected by virus? You would probably rely on the antivirus installed on your computer to tell you if it’s safe or not but the fact is, antivirus software is never perfect in detecting and preventing all viruses which is why a bootable rescue disk is made available to clean up the mess when malware takes over the computer. Since every antivirus technology is different, logically scanning a suspicious file that you’ve just downloaded from an unknown site with multiple antivirus would offer a higher detection rate. However, you cannot normally install multiple antivirus software on your computer or else there would be conflicts causing your computer to crawl. A solution to this problem is to use a web based online multi antivirus engine scanner.

    Basically an online multi-engine antivirus scanner is an online service that anyone can upload files to and have them scanned with many different types of antivirus software. All you need to do is visit the website, browse the file that you want to scan, click a button to start uploading and wait for the scan to run. Within seconds or minutes depending on the server load and speed, the detection results are then displayed on your web browser for you to decide if it is infected or not.

    Here are 5 public + 2 private online services that allows you to scan suspicious files with multiple antivirus engines for free.
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  • 6 Tools to Forcefully Enable Grayed Out Disabled Buttons

    You may have noticed that there are times when certain buttons, checkboxes or windows in a software or Microsoft Windows operating system itself gets disabled or grayed out and clicking on them will have no effect. This limitation is there on purpose and for reasons like restricting the functionality until the software is activated or as a safety measure that requires to complete a step before allowing you to proceed to the next. It could also be a restriction set by the administrator to prevent other people from tampering the system and changing the configurations.

    Logically most of the time the buttons are disabled for a good reason but there are times when you really need them enabled. For example, unlike fully functional trial software, some software demo has their main functionality crippled and you don’t get to test them out until you pay for a valid license to activate the software. Or perhaps the LiveUpdate button on Symantec Endpoint Protection client has been disabled and you urgently need to pull the latest signature from the server to detect the latest threats.

    If you have a similar situation where you need to forcefully enable a disabled button, you can try any of the 6 tools listed below which we have successfully tested on Windows 7.
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  • How To Fix Unable to Install Scanner or Imaging Devices Due to Registry Incomplete or Damage Code 19

    The Device Manager (devmgmt.msc) in Windows is the best place to check if a device such as printer, scanner, mouse, keyboard, DVD-ROM, network adapters and etc is installed and working properly. A device that is not working will show a yellow exclamation mark on the icon itself with the tree automatically expanded. You can find more information on the error by double clicking on the device to bring up the properties window. Here is an example of a common error message “Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19)“.

    Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information in the registry is incomplete or damaged code 19

    If you are getting the same code 19 error for your imaging devices such as scanner or even a multifunctional all-in-one printer, the good news is the device is not faulty and can be easily fixed by following the simple instructions below.
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  • Top 5 Online Services to Check if a Website Is Down or Up

    Surfing the Internet seems easy by first connecting to the Internet through your ISP, running your favorite web browser software, typing in the URL to the address bar and hitting the Enter key to start loading the website. It is very straight forward and user friendly if everything goes well but could be frustrating if one of your favorite websites that you visit a few times a day suddenly does not load while other sites are working fine.

    Other than instantly ruling out that the website is temporarily inaccessible, there are many other reasons that can be causing this which is your Internet Service Provider is blocking the website, your DNS server is not resolving to the updated IP address, or even your computer is quietly blocking it through HOSTS file. The first step is to make sure that the website is completely inaccessible by everyone and not you alone. A logical way to confirm it is by asking your friends or relatives if they are experiencing the same problem but that wouldn’t be appropriate if it’s in the middle of the night and can get annoying if you’re doing that too often.

    Here are 5 online services that you can use to check and confirm if the website is down for everyone or just you alone without bothering other people.
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  • 5 Ways To Quickly and Easily Print from Firefox

    Just like any web browser, Firefox allows you to print the webpage that you’re currently on for offline reading or storage. There are a couple of ways how you can quickly and easily print from Firefox, either using your keyboard by pressing a combination of shortcut keys, or by using your mouse. Fortunately all major web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Opera all use the same hot key to activate the print dialog box which is CTRL+P.

    print hotkey

    For Firefox, there are other places where you can activate the print dialog if you’re not comfortable in using the default hotkey. We’ll also show you how to configure Firefox to print silently without the confirmation dialog box and also how to print/save as PDF which is not found in Firefox but available in Chrome by default.

    5 Ways to Print from Firefox

    1. Firefox Menu
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  • 5 Ways to Check if a File in Website Has Been Updated without Downloading

    Using the latest version of software is very important as it contains new features and bug fixes. Some software comes with an update checker where it is capable of notifying the user if they are running the latest version or an older version that requires an update. If the software doesn’t come with an update checking feature, you can visit the official website or software download portals such as CNET Download.com or Softpedia where the version number or date of release is stated on the website so you’ll know if you need to update it.

    However, there are some coders that creates really great software but don’t care about publicity at all. Hence they don’t have a website that contains all the information to show when it was last updated nor the file is submitted to download portal websites. It seems like the only way to know if the software has been updated or not is by manually downloading it to your computer and check the version number of the software.

    Here we have 5 ways for you to check whether a file in a website has been updated or not without downloading it to your computer to save your time and Internet bandwidth.
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  • 10 Ad-Free Programs to Share Wireless Internet Connection in Windows

    There are times when you have a few Internet capable devices such as your laptop and smartphone that needs to connect to the Internet. However some places such as hotels only provides wired Internet connection via Ethernet and only your laptop can get connected but not your smartphone. Unless you have a Wi-Fi base station such as the AirPort Express by Apple which can convert the wired Internet connection to wireless access point, one way to share the Internet connection for free is through the unused wireless adapter found on your laptop. Do take note that a virtual Wireless Access Point is much easier to create and configure compared to creating a public hotspot where you are normally greeted with a webpage on your default web browser either to sign up or agree to the terms to use the hotspot service.

    Basically your laptop gets the Internet connection from the wired Ethernet adapter and then the wireless adapter will be configured to act like a wireless router to share the Internet connection. Although it may sound difficult, the setup process is actually quite simple that only involves a few mouse clicks by using any of the 10 free programs listed below. Each program has its own advantages and limitations, so choose the one that is suitable for you.
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  • How To Hide or Disable Annoying Software Startup Splash Screens

    A splash screen is a popup window with a logo or image that normally appears at the center of the screen when you run a program. Not all software has splash screens as they only show up if the developer of the software decides to add it in.

    Most of the time splash screens are implemented just to add some eye candy to the software to attract the user but very few really require it. Heavy software such as Adobe Photoshop or AutoCAD that takes quite a while to load might find having a splash screen useful to show the current status of the startup for troubleshooting purposes.

    As for other splash screens, they are there without a purpose and users are normally annoyed by them because the splash screen stays always on-top causing the user unable to see or access anything behind the splash popup window. Some users also feel that the program loads slower if a splash screen is shown.

    If you are one those that find splash screens unnecessary or useless, here we’ll guide you on how to disable the splash screen for some of the most popular applications.
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  • Gmail Marks Legitimate Emails as SPAM! How To Correct This?

    Everyone seems to love Google’s Gmail and it has been hailed as one of the best free web-mail services by many tech people. It can considered as one of the most secure email service that is free which allows you to enable 2-step verification to prevent from your Gmail account from being hacked. I personally love to use Gmail because it supports POP3 and IMAP for free and the email space available has grown up to a huge 10GB!

    I’ve configured my email client The Bat to download Gmail inbox emails ever since I registered for a Gmail account. Many times I signed up in forums, social networking sites etc but never received any welcome emails to active my account. One day, just out of curiosity, I logged in to Gmail.com to check my emails and saw a huge amount of spams in the Spam folder.

    I was quite surprised to find so many legitimate emails being identified as spam which were automatically moved straight into spam folder. The problem with using regular or portable email clients to download POP3 emails from Gmail is they don’t download emails from the spam folder. I logged in to Gmail again and tried to look for any spam settings but couldn’t find any. It looks like Gmail doesn’t allow us to configure the sensitivity of their spam filter.

    After many months of testing, my Gmail spam filter is now perfect because it is possible to train Gmail spam filter.
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  • 5 Freeware To Fix Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device Error

    There are 2 drive removal policies in Windows which are quick removal for convenience or better performance for speed. By default the “Quick Removal” policy is selected to disable the write caching on the device so that you can conveniently unplug the USB flash drive without the need to eject the drive from Safely Remove Hardware. Even though the quick removal policy is enabled, you should always try to use the safely remove hardware icon whenever you can because there is always a risk of data corruption.

    USB removal policy

    An example is when you copy a file to or from the USB flash drive, you will see that the LED is blinking which means there is an activity going on and you shouldn’t unplug the drive or else the file that is being copied will get corrupted. There are times when the drive doesn’t appear to be in use, a file can be locked to the drive in the background which is when Windows will report that “This device is currently in use. Close any programs or windows that might be using the device and then try again.”

    problem ejecting usb mass storage device

    If you’ve closed all visible programs that are attached to the USB flash drive but you’re still unable to safely eject, here we have 5 tools that are able to show the hidden locked files on the USB mass storage device and give you the options to unlock, delete or move the file.
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