Raymond.CC Blog

Category: Computer

  • Tweak Prefetch and Superfetch to Increase System Performance

    Recently I got to know about a software called TweakPrefetch which is able to do exactly what the name of the software and that is tweaking Windows Prefetch and also Superfetch. Honestly, I’ve heard of it and briefly know that it has something to do with caching to speed things up in Windows computer but never really bothered to research further on it. After reading the article about Prefetch and Superfetch in TweakPrefetch’s official website, I found that it is quite important to know what is it all about especially if you have a SSD drive.

    Basically Prefetch is available in Windows XP, Vista and 7 while Superfetch only available in Vista and Windows 7. These two functions aim to reduce applications startup time as well as the operating system boot time by preloading it in memory. The author of TweakPrefetch claims that prefetching in Windows XP is better left at its default value and the same goes to superfetch on Windows Vista and 7. However if you are a gamer, have a solid state drive (SSD) or the system has less than 2GB of RAM, then you might want to consider tweaking prefetch and superfetch to improve the overall performance for your system.


    Solid state drive is already fast enough and prefetching doesn’t help a bit in increasing performance. Hence, disabling prefetch and superfetch can extend the lifespan of the unit. As for gamers, some may noticed random in-game framerate drops which can be possibly caused by the caching process and disabling prefetch can prevent that from happening. As for systems with less than 2GB of RAM, you are able to reduce memory usage by disabling prefetch since it uses a considerable amount of system memory for this function.

    TweakPrefetch makes it all easy to configure prefetch and superfetch. The simple user interface displays the options clearly on how you would like to tweak the prefetch and superfetch for your Windows system. You can either enable the fetching for applications only, boot only or the default applications & boot only. Do note that disabling of Prefetch, Superfetch and its service can only done when Advanced Controls is selected from the Options menubar.

    TweakPrefetch

    If you are not sure on which option to choose or dare not take the risk, click on the Tools from the menubar and select Configuration Wizard. This is a helpful wizard which will help less experienced users to find the optimal Prefetch and Superfetch settings for their system and needs. All you need to do is select what kind of hard of hard drive is on your computer and then select the main computer usage. Click the Detect button and it will show you the recommended settings.

    Fetch configuration wizard

    If you feel that your computer is sluggish after tweaking the prefetch, you can always revert it back to the default “Application & Boot” from the program. TweakPrefetch is free and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or newer to run.

    Download TweakPrefetch

  • Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0328

    The first version of Messenger 8 Beta branded as Windows Live Messenger 8 has been spotted on the internet. Version 8.0.0328 features a lot of graphical improvements, from display picture borders to replacing toast boxes. Noticeable updates in this version:
    Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0328

  • Video button in the conversation window
  • Send and Search buttons replaced
  • Send button color adapts to window colors
  • A sign up window
  • Everything branded with Windows Live
  • All functions are working in this update

    • >> Download Windows Live Messenger 8.0.328*
    >> Download MSNP13 to MSNP12 down grader**

    *) NOTE: This download is NOT a final version, let alone a BETA version (it hasn’t been released yet), so there are still bugs present in it and no features in it are definite for a final version.
    **) NOTE: The Adverts supplied in this patch are not affiliated with microsoft.

  • MSN Messenger Error 80048820

    For no reason, I was unable to connect to MSN Messenger today.
    I got the error message as below.
    MSN Messenger Error 80048820

    Fix this error / possible solution

  • This error can be caused by problems on the MSN servers, look at the status page to see if there are problems reported. If there are, the best thing to do is probably to wait until they are over.
  • A frequent cause is that the time on your computer is not correct.
    To correct the time on your computer, double-click the clock in the bottom right of your screen, in the window that appears you should check both the time and date.
    If you use Windows XP, you can automatically correct the time by clicking the “Internet Time” tab, next click the “Update Now” button.

    • I checked the date of my Windows and found out it was back dated to year 2004. Once I set it back to 2005, I was able to connect back to MSN Messenger. Yea! 😀

    Credits to MSN-Problems for this content.

    Update 19 December 2005: A new full install MSN Messenger v7.5.0322 is out. Please download from this link. It should fix the MSN Messenger Error 80048820.

  • Share Invites and Get Invited

    Find it hard to get invites for Joost, Demonoid, Torrent Leech, Oink, and many more sites? Invite Share is where you can share the invites you have and the more people you invite, the higher priority you get on invitations. Currently you can request for invitations for 44 web sites. Some of the popular ones are Oink, Demonoid and Joost. Invite Share has 15906 users and 17083 invitations has been sent out. So grab yours quick before the invitation runs short!
    Oink Invite Demonoid Invite


    The 44 websites supported are listed below.

  • 1. pownce.com
  • 2. joost.com
  • 3. torrentleech.org
  • 4. 8apps.com
  • 5. demonoid.com
  • 6. moola.com
  • 7. myskitch.com
  • 8. oink.cd
  • 9. gleamd.com
  • 10. bitmetv.org
  • 11. grono.net
  • 12. orgoo.com
  • 13. babelgum.com
  • 14. streamy.com
  • 15. mint.com
  • 16. grandcentral.com
  • 17. lovinlounge.com
  • 18. iminlikewithyou.com
  • 19. iscrybe.com
  • 20. hdbits.org
  • 21. asmallworld.net
  • 22. feedthe.net
  • 23. fairtilizer.com
  • 24. spotify.com
  • 25. dopplr.com
  • 26. yayhooray.com
  • 27. natuba.com
  • 28. grooveshark.com
  • 29. supertorrents.org
  • 30. bubbletop.com
  • 31. openpeople.us
  • 32. weewar.com
  • 33. yumondo.com
  • 34. wallop.com
  • 35. liverail.com
  • 36. iwantsandy.com
  • 37. boomloop.com
  • 38. jooce.com
  • 39. livestation.com
  • 40. brightkite.com
  • 41. stixy.com
  • 42. vibeagent.com
  • 43. ooma.com
  • 44. spock.com

    • Please don’t think you can immediately get invites on all 44 web sites above. You have to queue for some of the popular web sites and some of the queues can go up to thousands. If you’re able to share invites that you have, you get higher priority in getting invites for sites that you want.

    Good thing about this website is at least you can easily get invites on some sites such as Joost and Pownce. At least it works! So don’t complain that it’s not working because you requested an invite for Oink.cd. I’ve been wanting an Oink.cd invite for ages! Before requesting for invites, you need to register an account with them which is free.

    Great concept which is similar to BugMeNot and RetailMeNot.

    [ Visit InviteShare ]

  • Install Java Runtime (JRE) Portable in USB Flash Drive

    The good thing about Java is the applet can be ran on different operating system such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS. One good example is the famous JDownloader that simplifies downloading files from One-Click-Hosters such as Rapidshare.com, Megaupload.com and hundreds of other similar websites. There are also free Java games that you can play online, scoreboards that uses Java to display the score live and many other online applications. Although installing Java is nearly a must nowadays, I do know a few people that doesn’t have Java Runtime installed on their computer.
    Download Java Runtime Portable
    They claim that Java slows down their computer and if you check in your task manager, there is a Java Quick Starter process jqs.exe that loads every time Windows is booted up. It is meant to improve initial startup time for most Java applets and applications. Other than that, people who have Java installed was affected by the Java Drive-By exploit which auto installs virus/spyware/trojan on the user’s computer if the user clicks the Yes button when visiting the website created by the hacker. If you’re using the latest version of Java, you will not be affected by this exploit. Having a good antivirus installed increases the chance of detecting the hidden installation of virus.

    It is still possible to run Java applets and applications without installing Java by installing the portable version to your USB flash drive. Here’s a guide on how to do that.


    1. First insert a USB flash drive to your computer. Let us say that the drive letter for that USB flash drive is G: drive.

    2. Download Java Portable. Once finished downloading, run the downloaded executable file and click Next button twice until you are asked to choose an install location. By default the destination folder shows \CommonFiles\Java, add G: at the front so that it becomes G:\CommonFiles\Java and click the Install button. The installer will then download a 15MB Java.

    Install Java Portable

    3. When finished installing Java Portable, download Java Portable Launcher and take note of the destination folder again. Add G: infront so that the destination folder becomes G:\JavaPortableLauncher and click the Install button.

    4. To run Java applet or application, open my computer and go to G:\JavaPortableLauncher and run JavaPortableLauncher.exe which will open a window asking you to select a JAR file. If you are getting the error “Java Portable Launcher cannot be started. You may wish to re-install to fix this issue. (ERROR: Java Portable [PortableApps.com/JavaPortable] could not be found)“, it means that you install Java Portable at the wrong location in step 2. Make sure that it is Java Portable is installed in G:\CommonFiles\Java (replace G: with the drive of your USB flash drive)

    Download Java Portable

    Java portable is mostly useful for you to run a Java applet or application on public computers such as library that doesn’t have Java installed. If you open a website that requires Java, then it will not work and the web browser such as Internet Explorer will tell you that “The page you are viewing uses Java. More information on Java support is available from the Microsoft website”. You will need to go to Java.com to download and install Java on that computer.

  • Block Pornographic Pictures by Pixelating Images

    Previously I’ve shown you how you can use DNS to block pornographic websites for free. It is quite powerful but there are loopholes on the IP addresses. However, if a person tries to use proxy/anonymizer sites to try bypass OpenDNS and view the porn sites, the proxy sites can also be blocked.

    It is not totally flawless but it is free and considered a very good way to block porn websites. There are still ways to get porn pictures into the computer. An example is a friend can email porn pictures to your Gmail which you can open without restrictions. You can also use proxy tunneling softwares to bypass the block and access any porn websites. If you’re using OpenDNS and still worried about adult pictures being displayed to your children, you can harden the protection by installing a free software which is able to identify and block pornographic images from displaying in any e-mail client or web browser.


    PicBlock is able to protect yourself and others from accidental or intentional exposure to pornographic images on the Internet. Unlike traditional porn blocking tools that limit your choice of image search engine or rely on constantly outdated URL blacklists, PicBlock blocks porn by detecting the amount of flesh tones in images. To supplement objectionable image detection, PicBlock also analyzes page content for sexually explicit keywords in multiple languages, resulting in a powerful, two-pronged approach to filtering out pornographic content.

    Block adult pictures

    PicBlock features include:

  • Detects objectionable images in web pages, e-mail messages, iTunes album art – any HTTP-based content
  • Supplemental filtering for objectionable words in dozens of languages including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and many others.
  • Facial recognition helps reduce false positives by identifying whether a questionable image is actually a person’s face.
  • Customizable filtering sensitivity levels
  • Administrator password to limit access to PicBlock’s configuration
  • Lets authorized users unblock images incorrectly blocked
  • Maintains a list of safe sites as a result of an unblock action
  • Keeps a protected log of all block/unblock activity
  • Is tamper resistant, even for computer savvy individuals
  • Enterprise installation options for mass distribution
  • Silent Mode for stealth filtering
  • Is easy to install, configure and operate
  • Best of all, it’s absolutely FREE for personal use!

    • PicBlock is not really fool proof as well because simply killing picblock.exe from Windows Task Manager will disable it. To beat this, you’ll need to enable “Disallow Internet access if PicBlock isn’t running” from Settings. I recommend you to run PicBlock in silent mode, meaning it will be hidden and the only way to launch PicBlock settings again is by pressing the configured shortcut key (by default Ctrl + F1). Make sure you’ve set the PicBlock administrator password and check at the necessary options at the Security tab.

    PicBlock settings

    Combining both free PicBlock software and OpenDNS service, it will highly prevent kids online from accidentally being exposed to porn.

    [ Download PicBlock ]

  • RansomHelper Moves Fixed Objects on Screen

    Before you start reading this article, please be informed that this tool is only for advanced users and there are already a couple of detections (8/43) on VirusTotal flagging this tool as suspicious or generic. I can vouch that it is a false detection and not a virus. RansomHelper is a tiny tool coded by Xylitol, who is an expert in reversing and analyzing malware, to help him save time when analyzing ransomware. A ransomware is another kind of malware where upon running, it locks up your computer and asking the user to pay in order to obtain an unlock code. The ransomware automatically runs whenever Windows is booted up and even in Safe Mode, making it difficult to remove the malware. Since a ransomware kills the explorer.exe process and then locks up the screen showing only a page with instructions on how to pay, it could be troublesome to analyze the malware.

    WindowsSecurity Ransomware

    The beautiful thing about RansomHelper is when it is running, pressing the X and Y key a couple of times will put it on top of any top most window. For example, a ransomware is at the top most window where no program can be over it. RansomHelper can easily bypass this restriction and allows you to easily open explorer, regedit, task manager or any programs that you select from there. It can even kill processes and enable disabled regedit, task manager and command prompt. Those features are quite common on some malware removal tools and here is actually what I really want to show you.


    If you look at RansomHelper user interface, there is a text box that shows Lock (CTRL+F). Positioning the mouse cursor to any other window will automatically update the handle ID and title.

    RansomHelper

    This unique feature allows you to move any unmovable windows by moving the mouse cursor to the window to get the handle ID and then press CTRL+F. You can now move the windows by dragging the mouse. When you’ve moved the window to the location that you want, simply press CTRL+F to unlock the window. During testing, I found that you can even move the Desktop! I don’t know about you but I personally has never seen any software that can do this. Here is a video presentation on RansomHelper which is able to help you understand better on the purpose of this tool.

    Download RansomHelper

  • One Click to Easily Access Often Used Windows Vista Utilities

    We all know that Windows Vista is currently the latest operating system. Most of the tools and commands in Windows Vista is nearly the same if compared with Windows XP but there are some new tools and commands introduced in the new Windows Vista. I’ve been using Windows XP for many years since 2001 and I can say that I’ve pretty much explored a lot of areas in XP and very familiar on the configurations.

    When I first installed Windows Vista, I had a little trouble finding the tools which I wanted to use because the location and name of some tools has changed. If you are a Vista newbie and is experiencing the same problem as me, here is a tool called Vista Utilities which might be able to help you access those often used Vista Utilities in 1 click.


    Vista Utilities is all-in-one application which provides you with a direct and easy access to almost Windows Vista programs, tools and even games. Those utilities helps you to manage your system configurations, security and performance.

    Windows Vista Utilities

    Apart from just helping you accessing all utilities at one place, it provides you with a ready-made MS Dos commands like NTFS Converter, Cab Files Maker and many more which enables you to perform difficult tasks with simple clicks.

    Vista Utilities itself can be accessed through the system tray and can be hidden instantly using the Hide to Tray button, just right click on Vista Utilities icon in the system tray near the system clock and a complete context menu will appear that enable you to access all Vista features form any where from your computer. All Windows Vista tools and utilities are categorized into relevant categories and sub-categories which makes finding what do you need even more easy and fast.

    The latest version of Vista Utilities includes the following changes:

  • Added shutdown, restart and log off utilities
  • Added Mozilla Firefox, Network Projector and Welcome Center utilities
  • Added option “Launch Vista Utilities on Windows startup”
  • Add option “Start Vista Utilities hidden to the system tray”
  • Add option “Enable search the web for utilities information”
  • Add option “Automatically check for Vista Utilities updates”
  • Web Update are now able to download Vista Utilities updates directly
  • Fixed bug in About dialog box
  • Fixed bug in Web Update module
  • Fixed bug in launching Downloads folder
  • Windows XP OS is no longer supported
  • Improved user interface
  • Improved application performance
  • Updated Vista Utilities documentation

    • Vista Utilities is pretty useful except I don’t like that it requires the 10MB Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 to be installed first in order to install and run Vista Utilities.

    [ Download Vista Utilities ]

  • Easily Untethered Jailbreak iOS 4.3.3 from JailbreakMe.com

    Again I would start off by saying that I am not a fan of Apple products but my wife has an iPhone 4 and an iPad 1 which I bought it for her. I heard about Jailbreak but never done it because don’t think there is a need to do that since most of the apps sold in the Apps Store are very cheap costing $0.99 each for Angry Birds Seasons, Rio, Fruit Ninja, $4.99 for iSWiFTER and etc… In fact I didn’t know much about Jailbreak such as what do you get after jailbreaking, term of Tethered or Untethered jailbreak, tools and risks.

    After doing a little bit of reading on Jailbreaking, I found out that Jailbreak is totally legal and it only add more features. It also doesn’t void your warranty because you can always restore in iTunes at anytime to get back to a factory state. Gone are the days when the non tech savvy users are afraid of jailbreaking their own iOS device because anyone can do it from JailbreakMe.com.


    JailbreakMe.com offers untethered jailbreak. Below is the explanation of the difference between a Tethered and Untethered Jailbreak.

    What is Tethered Jailbreak?
    Tethered jailbreaks are frustrating because they require a computer connection to boot a jailbroken iOS device. The concept of a tethered jailbreak has been around a long time, but essentially it means this: every time your iPhone or iPod touch reboots or the battery dies, you have to connect (tether) your iOS device back to your computer so that the hardware can boot with the aid of the jailbreak application.

    What is Untethered jailbreak?
    Untethered jailbreak is the preferred jailbreak because it requires no connection to your computer except for the initial jailbreaking process. You can reboot your iPhone or iPod touch as much as you want without having to tether it to your computer to boot. If the battery dies on a device that has an untethered jailbreak, it’s no big deal you just charge it again and it will boot as usual.

    Secondly, JailbreakMe.com only works on iOS 4.3.3. If you have 4.3.4 or 4.3.5, you can downgrade it to 4.3.3 then jailbreak it with Jailbreakme.com. Although the general rule is to always install the latest updates and patches but the version history (changelog) says that there are no new features except patching the exploit and closing the Jailbreak.

    I was curious so I went ahead and Jailbreak my wife’s iPad 1. Before that, I made a backup on iTunes so that I can restore it back if I decide to reverse the changes. All I need to do is run Safari from iPad and visit the website http://www.JailbreakMe.com/. Clicking on the “FREE” button changes to “INSTALL” and clicking that button would start to install Cydia.

    Jailbreakme

    Once that is done, I notice that there is an icon called Cydia where you can install more apps that are not available in iTunes Apps Store. It is that easy and you don’t need to do connect your iOS device to your computer and use any risky third party tools. By default those pirated cracked Apps are not available in Cydia because you need to manually add Hackulo.us in Sources, install Installous 4 app from Hackulo.us, and then you can search for the cracked apps from Installous. You should also install PDF Patcher 2 from Cydia after Jailbreak to patch a very important exploit. Just run Cydia, go to Search and type PDF Patcher 2, then install and reboot your device.

  • Easily Backup Files to GMail with a click

    Very long ago, I found GMail Drive shell extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Gmail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.
    Today I found a way where you can easily send any files to your GMail with a click. It doesn’t create any virtual filesystem where you can manage the files that you uploaded to GMail. This can only send.

    Send To GMail, is a freeware that can do that. Just right click and send any file to GMail. Of course you’ll need a GMail account in order to use this freeware.
    Backup with GMail


    So far this freeware only has 1 limitations that is it uses port 465 (GMail SMTP) to send emails, so in case it’s not open in your firewall it should be open (will be updated in future to use port 25). Port 465 is not a standard SMTP port. So if you couldn’t send any files to your GMail, perhaps your company’s firewall is blocking port 465.

    [ Download Send To GMail | Official Website ]

  • Fix Blank White Icons at Home Screen or SpringBoard on iOS

    After easily jailbreaking my wife’s iPad running iOS 4.3.3 from JailBreakMe website, I’ve never updated to any new version of iOS because there wasn’t any untethered jailbreaks after that. Recently I found out that pod2g has created an untethered 5.0.1 jailbreak for non-A5 devices which means my wife’s iPad is supported. So I upgraded the iPad to iOS 5.0.1 from iTunes, ran the latest redsn0w 0.9.10b3 for Windows and followed the simple instructions. At first I got stuck at exploiting with limera1n window then I found out I did not correctly enter into DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade) mode. I tried again and this time the whole jailbreaking iOS 5.0.1 process went without a hitch.

    After rebooting the iPad for the first time after jailbreaking, I noticed that some of the icons such as Contacts, Notes, Maps, Game Center and Mail at the Springboard or Home Screen became white in color. I am still able to launch the application without any problems though.


    Blank White Icons iPad iPhone

    I tried rebooting by powering off and then turn it on again but the icons are still in white color. Then I read about Respring and gave it a try. All I needed to do is install an app called Respring from Cydia and then open the application which will automatically respring the iPad to the lock screen. After unlocking the screen, I noticed that all the white icons are restored to the default icons. Basically respring means killing the Springboard.app application that handles the user interface on top of the iOS.

  • Measure DirectX 11 Performance with Unigine Heaven Benchmark

    The antivirus benchmark report has been stagnant for a while because I am planning to migrate the current flash based FusionCharts to an attractive Javascript plotting for jQuery called flot. Currently FusionCharts data is on a static XML file and that makes the chart static as well. I wanted to utilize the MySQL database so that we have more flexibility on what we want to see in the chart. For example, instead of listing ALL antivirus in one chart, I can select whether to display only 2011 products, sort in alphabetical order or the highest/lowest numbers and etc.

    On the last antivirus benchmark 18, I used Heaven Benchmark to test the 3D graphics performance when an antivirus is active on a Windows system. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine. Currently there are over 70 clients that uses the Unigine engine and one of the upcoming game is Oil Rush, a naval strategy game developed by Unigine Corp.


    On 2007, Unigine released Sanctuary Benchmark to support DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and OpenGL. Then on 2008, Tropics Benchmark was released to support of DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL. A year later on 2009, Unigine introduced Heaven DX11 Benchmark which was the first DirectX 11 benchmark in the world.

    There are 2 versions of Heaven Benchmark, the free and professional version. The Heaven DX11 Benchmark Pro cost a whopping $495 and has additional features such as command line support, reporting, benchmark looping, technical support and licensed for commercial use. The free version is good enough for any home user to benchmark DirectX 11 on their computers.

    Heaven Benchmark is easy to configure and use. All you need to do is download the Windows/Linux setup at 228MB in size, install and run it. You will be presented with a front-end user interface to select the options that you want to test. For example, at the API drop down menu you are able to select DirectX 9, 10, 11 or OpenGL. Another important option is the Tessellation where a scalable technology aimed to automatically subdivide polygons into smaller and finer pieces, which brings drastically more detailed and elaborated look to games. If you have monster gaming machine, you should try the Extreme Mode. Finally click the Run button and the Unigine engine will start to load.

    Heaven Benchmark

    Once the Unigine engine has been loaded, click on the Benchmark button or hit F9 on your keyboard will start the 26 stages benchmark process that takes nearly 5 minutes to complete. It will then show a report on the average, minimum and maximum FPS, score, your computer’s hardware and settings used on Heaven Benchmark.

    Heaven Benchmark Results

    OK don’t laugh at the crappy FPS 10.8 that I got on my computer with the Heaven Benchmark. It’s not even a gaming machine 😛

    [ Download Heaven DX11 Benchmark ]

  • Analyze Windows 7 Performance with Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit

    The 20 winners of WinBootInfo has been chosen. Please refer to the screenshot below for the list of winners. WinBootInfo license is attached to a computer based on hardware ID, so you will have to install WinBootInfo first, run it and select “Click here to enter the key you already purchased…”. A new window will open that shows your hardware fingerprint. Note it down and wait for WinBootInfo management to contact you first. Then only send them the hardware fingerprint when asked to so that they can generate your unique key.

    winbootinfo key winners

    Thanks to MagicAndre1981, I found out that Windows 7 has a tool called Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit which is included in Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 3.5 SP1. Windows Performance Tools are designed for analysis of a wide range of performance problems including application start times, boot issues, deferred procedure calls and interrupt activity, system responsiveness issues, application resource usage and interrupt storms. This is something similar to WinBootInfo but basic computer users will find that it not as easy to use and understand.


    To get the free Microsoft Windows Performance Toolkit, you will have to download Windows 7 SDK which is quite big. You can download the web setup, select custom during installation and only select the “Win32 Development Tools” from the list of programs to install. After installation, go to X:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0\bin and look for the 3 following files:

    wpt_ia64.msi – To be used in Itanium Windows
    wpt_x64.msi – To be used in 64Bit Windows Vista/7/Server 2008 (R2)
    wpt_x86.msi – To be used in 32Bit Vista/7/Server 2008

    So if you’re running a 32bit of Windows 7, just run wpt_x86.msi to install the Windows Performance Toolkit. For your convenience, I’ve uploaded the 32 and 64 bit version of WPT to RapidShare to you can directly test them out without downloading the Windows 7 SDK.

    Download wpt_x86.msi for Windows 7 32 bit
    Download wpt_x64.msi for Windows 7 64 bit

    After installing Windows Performance Tookit, open a command prompt with administrative rights. To do that, go to Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.

    To trace Windows bootup, type the following command in the command prompt.
    xbootmgr -trace boot -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP

    For shutdown tracing:
    xbootmgr -trace shutdown -noPrepReboot -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP

    For Standby+Resume:
    xbootmgr -trace standby -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP

    For Hibernate+Resume:
    xbootmgr -trace hibernate -traceFlags BASE+CSWITCH+DRIVERS+POWER -resultPath C:\TEMP

    You can replace the C:\TEMP with any directory of your choice in your computer. This is where the toolkit will save and store the output (.cab .etl and .log) files. When the trace is done, it the Windows Performance Analyzer will automatic run and show you the trace results.

    Windows Performance Analyzer

    You can always re-open your trace results by going to the output folder which is at C:\TEMP if you didn’t change the command line, and run the .etl file which is normally over 100MB in size.

  • Changing Default Web Browser Without Affecting Other User Accounts

    If you’re sharing computer with your family or friends, most likely you’ll have a conflict of favorite default web browser problem. Let’s say you like to use Firefox and you’ve set it as your default browser. When your brother logs in to his user account and runs Internet Explorer, he’ll get a prompt that says “Internet Explorer is not currently your default browser. Would you like to make it your default browser?”

    Internet Explorer is not currently your default browser. Would you like to make it your default browser?

    Hitting the enter key or selecting Yes will change the default web browser to Internet Explorer and this effects all other users in the same computer. This is a never ending battle of setting the default web browser. Windows XP’s user interface does not provide you an option to set a per-user default web browser. One setting affects all users, machine-wide. Here’s a solution to this annoying default web browser problem.


    DefaultBrowser allows you set the default web browser for your user profile in Windows XP, without affecting the other users. The list of browsers you see in the Presets are tested and working flawlessly as user defaults. Note that the user interface in Windows XP does not provide an option for setting the default browser for each user.

    Changing Default Web Browser

    Apart from the Presets list, there is an option at the bottom which allows you choose the Web Browser program file and set it as the default. You may use this section if your favorite browser is not listed under Presets. As you read in the dialog, this method does not work with all the browsers. If the results are not satisfactory using this method, you can undo the configuration by clicking the Reset button.

    Currently DefaultBrowser supports Avant Browser, Deepnet Explorer, Maxthon, SlimBrowser, CrazyBrowser, GreenBrowser, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firefox Portable Edition and Opera.

    This tool requires Administrator or Limited User account and it does not work under Guest account. To successfully apply the per-user setting, choose No when your Web browser prompts to make itself the default, as it might affect all the user profiles. I’d also advice you to disable checking of default web browser on startup so you won’t get the prompt everything you launch the browser. This tool is a freeware and designed to use for Windows XP system only.

    Now everyone can use their favorite web browser as default without making any changes on other user accounts.

    [ Download DefaultBrowser ]

  • Auto Download Multiple Parts from RapidShare using Firefox While You Are Sleeping

    Manually downloading from RapidShare as a free user is a pain. Click this, wait, and click that, wait. When finished downloading the first part, go back to the clicking and waiting game. Fortunately there are many ways to automate downloading from RapidShare. You can either use a download manager that is meant to download from one-click hosters such as jDownloader, CryptLoad, or if you have a website with a lot of bandwidth, you can install RapidLeech script to make your server get the file from RapidShare and you can download from your server. I used jDownloader a lot in the past but have stopped using it because I always get very slow download speed even with my premium account. So now I am using RapidLeech to make my server hosted locally in Malaysia the middle man to grab all the files from RapidShare at a very fast speed. Then I can download from my server at full speed.

    Today I will be covering another method on how to automate downloading from RapidShare as a free user using Firefox web browser! All you need to do is to open all rapidshare links in the Firefox tabs and go do something else. If you don’t like using jDownloader because it needs Java, Cryptload because it needs .NET framework, or you don’t have a website, then give this a try.


    First method is to use an add-on called SkipScreen. It is a free Firefox add-on that lets you skip all the clicking and waiting on sites like RapidShare, Zshare, MegaUpload, and Sharebee. Your downloads start instantly. All you need to do is to install the add-on, and open all the rapidshare links on a new tab. You will notice that SkipScreen tries to download all of the links but only 1 will get through and the rest will say that you are already downloading a file. Once the first file has finished downloading, SkipScreen will automatically starts to download the other parts…
    SkipScreen

    Second method is to use a Greasemonkey script called RapidShare AutoWait. This script only works on RapidShare and it even hides the advertisements in RapidShare. First make sure you have Greasemonkey add-on installed, then click here to install the RapidShare AutoWait script.
    RapidShare AutoWait

    Both methods above will still need to wait all those timeouts and countdowns, but you won’t have to sit in front of your computer to do that. During testing, I found that RapidShare AutoWait works better than SkipScreen. When I canceled the first download, RapidShare AutoWait is able to automatically download the second part from RapidShare. It continues until all the rapidshare links has been downloaded. As for SkipScreen, when I canceled the first download, it doesn’t download the second part. I’ve tested three times and it failed all.

    If you did not set Firefox to auto save the downloaded files, you will get full of download windows asking you where you’d like to save your files. Do take note that the files has finished downloading, so all you need to do is to just save it. If you don’t want all that annoying windows, just set the default location where Firefox should save your downloaded files.