How to Disable Auto Update for Adobe Application

For you Adobe users, when you are connected to the internet, for some period of time you will notice a white icon in the Windows taskbar with percentage progress is performing download. It is Adobe auto update activity, one of the most disturbing features in Adobe applications (Photoshop, Premier, Illustrator, etc.). It might slow down your internet connection and works similar to bot. You can disable this feature.

If your computer is currently connected to the internet:

1. Open your Windows Explorer, and browse X:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater 5. X represents your main drive.
2. Search and run AdobeUpdater.exe files.
3. The update screen will appear. Search the Preferences button. Click on it.
4. Search Automatically Check for updates checkbox and uncheck it.
5. Click OK.

If your computer is currently not connected to the internet:

1. Open your Windows Explorer.
2. Browse to X:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Local Settings\Application Data\Adobe\Updater5 for Windows XP user or X:\[username]\AppData\Local\Adobe\Updater5 for Vista user. X represents your main drive.
3. Search and open AdobeUpdaterPrefs.dat using Notepad.
4. Search and find 1 in the file and change the value from 1 to 0.
5. If the file does not exist, add the line 0 anywhere between the tags.
6. Save and close the file.
   

How to Repair Missing or Corrupted Ntfs.sys in Windows XP

When you decided to convert your hard disk from FAT32 to NTFS, sometimes after restart the Windows XP you may experienced an error message like this: “Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: System32\Drivers\Ntfs.sys.”

The main cause for this problem is the Ntfs.sys file is missing or corrupted when you convert your hard disk. The other causes might be virus attack, hardware or software problems, etc. Here is the method to repair it.

Insert your Windows XP CD or startup disks and restart your computer.

1. Wait the reboot and when the welcome screen appears, press R button to select To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R option. The Recovery Console will appear.
2. Enter the number of Windows installation you are repairing.
3. If there is administrator password in your installation, you need to enter the password first.
4. You will lead to command prompt. Rename your previous Ntfs.sys (if it just corrupted and not missing) by typing the following command: cd \windows\system32\drivers. Press Enter. If the Ntfs.sys is missing then go to the next step.
5. Type ren ntfs.sys ntfs.old. Press Enter.
6. Type copy X:\i386\ntfs.sys Y:\windows\system32\drivers and press Enter. X represents your CD-ROM drive letter and Y represents the drive where your Windows XP is installed.
7. Type quit and press Enter to quit the Recovery Console. Remove your CD or disks.
8. Restart your computer.

How to Fix External Drive Connection Problem in Windows Vista

In default mode, Windows Vista only permits NTLMv2 authentication on a network due to security reason. Certain external drives are incompatible with this authentication type. To fix this problem, LM and NTLM authentications need to be enabled. Here is the method:

1. Click Start button.
2. Select command/search field, type secpol.msc. The Local Security Policy utility will open.
3. Examine the left menu and select Local Policies \ Security Options.
4. Examine the right pane, scroll down to find Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level. Double click on it.
5. Examine the Local Security Setting tab and there will be a drop down menu with several options. Select “Send LM & NTLM – use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated.”
6. Some dialogs will appear. Accept it all.
7. The computer will restart.

How to make Multiple Instances of Google Talk

If you want to run multiple account of Google in Google Talk aka GTalk, you have to run Multiple Instances of Google Talk before you finally can use your several Google account to login in Gtalk at the same time at the same computer. To run Google Talk Multiple Instant just read the steps below:

How to make Multiple Instances of Google Talk (Gtalk Multi ID)

On you computer desktop right click on it.

Then select New and select shortcut, on the text boxt copy paste the shortcut address “c:\program files\google\google talk\googletalk.exe” /nomutex

Click next and name it to GTalk1, GTalk2 or whatever you want.

Click OK few times and then your Multiple Instances of Google talk has done.

How to free up RAM to make Windows run faster

How to free up RAM to make Windows run faster

Here is a method you might like to use to free up RAM

to make Windows run faster.

When programs run in Windows XP, they frequently use

what are called DLLs (Dynamic-Link Libraries).

These contain shared programming instructions and other

files like icons, graphics, sounds, etc. that different

applications use in order to run. DLLs are stored in RAM

whenever the applications load them; when you quit a program,

XP is supposed to release the DLL from memory. But some

DLLs can get stuck.

Here is the method to mend this up.

Step 1: You can force Windows XP to release DLLs by adding a Registry key.

Step 2: Select Start > Run >Enter regedit >Hit Ok

Step 3: This will open the Registry Editor and navigate to

My Computer -> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> Microsoft -> Windows ->

CurrentVersion -> Explorer.

Step 4: Right click on EXPLORER in the Left Pane, Select New > Key.

Step 5: Name it as AlwaysUnloadDLL and set the default value to 1.

Step 6: Restart Windows to activate the change.

Avoid Win XP Re-activation

Avoid Win XP Re-activation

The time may come that you'll need to reinstall your Windows XP. It could happen. Maybe you'll add a new motherboard or hard drive. Maybe you'll get constant errors and problems that just won't go away. Or perhaps you're a neat freak who wants to rid yourself of clutter and start fresh with a clean operating system. If you do reinstall Windows XP, then you'll need to re-activate it too—that is, unless you keep this tip handy ;-)

See, the first time you activated XP it created a file called "wpa.dbl" that lives in the WINDOWS\system32 folder. By creating a backup of this file on disk, you can simply put it back into the folder after reinstalling XP and avoid the whole re-activation hassle. Here's how...

Go to My Computer then select your Hard Drive (usually drive C). Go to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and scroll way down until you find the wpa.dbl file.

Right-click and choose "Send To" then either Floppy Drive (make sure you have a disk in) or CD-R/RW.

Now, when you reinstall Windows XP you'll come to the activation screen—decline to activate and let the install finish.

Restart your computer in Safe Mode (keep hitting F8 at start-up then when the Advanced Boot Options menu appears arrow down to Safe Mode).

Find your way back to the WINDOWS\system32 folder. It's a good idea to rename the wpa.dbl file you're replacing just in case you run into problems, so call it something like "wpa.nothing".

Get the backup disk and copy the old wpa.dbl file back to the WINDOWS\system32 folder and reboot.

There you go—XP is up and running again.

P.S. Your wpa.dbl file might NOT work on another computer.

How to Access Data of a Password Protected User in Windows XP in Case the PC Fails to Boot

How to Access Data of a Password Protected User in Windows XP in Case the PC Fails to Boot

You may come across a situation in which your windows XP PC fails to reboot, and the most accepted solution to that problem is to re-format the Hard Disk. Before formatting, you should backup your files. If your computer is password protected, you won't be able to access them from outside, so here is a method for getting around this.

1. Boot the machine from Windows XP bootable CD.

2. At the setup screen, select R to repair using Recovery Console.

3. Now the console program will prompt you to select the Windows folder (eg. C:\WINDOWS) where the Windows is installed (you need to enter a number from the list of folders shown to you).

4. Type 'HELP' (without single quotes) and press enter for available commands. This is like a DOS program, but some features are not available.

5. Change the current directory to the user's directory where you want to backup.

6. Type 'CD "C:\Documents and Settings\X"' (without single quotes) and press enter. Where X is the username.

7. Now the current directory will change to "C:\Documents and Settings\X".

8. Now change the directory to Desktop by entering 'CD Desktop' (without single quotes) and press enter to go to the desktop folder.

9. Type 'DIR' (Without single quotes) and press enter, you will be listed all the available files in Desktop.

10. Type 'COPY a.doc D:\BACKUP' (without quotes) and press enter, where a.doc is a file available in Desktop and the folder D:\BACKUP available to copy the files.

11. As in step 7,8,9,10 you can backup other folders like "My Documents", "My Music", etc.

12. Note that you cannot use wildcards for COPY. I.e, you cannot copy all the files in a folder at once. You must copy one file by one.

TIPS

• Before doing this, try changing the password to blank so that you can access the data from another machine to easily drag and drop to copy your data.

• Any data not backed up will be permanently deleted when you re-format the hard drive, so make sure you back up any thing you want to keep.

• You will need Windows XP CD