For emergencies, the Windows XP System Restore function is a dependable way to regain
from a software crisis. In that sense, System Restore sends out your computer back in
time to a day when it was acting the right way. If Microsoft Windows appears like it is experiencing
a everlasting meltdown, test restoring it back to a healthy state, as follows:

1. Click the Start button .
2. Click All Programs.
3. Pick out Accessories.
4. Click System Tools.
5. Select System Restore.
6. The System Restore application opens. Select the Restore My Computer

7. 

8. Select the Next button,
9. A calendar emerges. In it, Select on a day when your computer was acting in good order, then Select the Next button .
10. To affirm your choice, Select Next.
11. The window Restore process starts. Minutes later, your computer
12. automatically resumes itself. When it starts up, follow the on-screen directions.
13. To make it simpler to get at System Restore in the future,
14. You can “stick” it to your Start menu ( only if your Start menu is XP mode rather than classic mode), like this:

1. Redo Steps 1 through 4 in the above procedure to access the SystemTools folder.
2. Right-click System Restore and click the Pin to StartMenu option.
3. A shortcut to System Restore is placed on your Start menu.
4. In the future, if you require to repair your PC toan earlier time, just Select the Start button and then Select System Restore.

Here is a quick way to add space to your disk that is being occupied by redundant and useless information.

Every time you download an update from Windows Update service, the windows system backs up necessary system files and registry entries and saves it as a restore point. This is useful if your system gets hosed by an update and you wish to reverse the clock and go back to your original settings. However, with time all these restore points start taking up valuable disk space on your PC. If your updated computer in the current state has been running without any problems, chances are that you will never have to use the old system restore points.

In such a case, you can delete the old system restore points by following these instructions:

1. On windows XP and ME, right click on your C: drive and select properties.
2. Click on the Disk Cleanup button
3. After windows calculates the space saving calculations, click on  More Options tab and select Clean Up button from System Restore section as shown in the following screenshot:

You can reclaim huge amount of disk space by following these steps.

How many times have you seen this window?

Waaaaay more than you wanted to. Right?

Well, here is the quick fix to eliminate the confirm delete popup.

1. Right click on the trash can icon on your desktop
2. Click on the Properties  from the menu
3. Uncheck Display Delete Confirmation Dialog

You are all set now. But be very careful before you hit the delete button. You can certainly restore small files from the trash can but large files cannot be restored.

If you are like me, you may be annoyed with the menus that appear and disappear slowly with fading effects. Surely, this eye-candy feature looked nice when you first started using the windows. But you did not buy your multi-core Pentium rig with boatload of RAM to slow you down from doing routine chores on your PC, right?

So, how do you get the menus to be snappy and fast?

For Windows 98, ME and 2000

1. Right click on an empty area of your desktop
2. Choose Properties from the popup menu
3. Select Effects tab
4. Uncheck Animate Windows, Menus, and Lists (Windows 98)
5. Uncheck Use Transition Effects for Menus and Tooltips  (Windows Me, 2000)

For Windows XP

1. Right click on an empty area of your desktop
2. Choose Properties from the popup menu
3. Select Appearance tab
4. Click on Effects button
5. Uncheck Use the following transition effect for menus and tooltips

Here is the screenshot:

Is it faster now?

How many times you have been let down by the online and context sensitive help system?

You are obviously not alone. Since the advent of Windows XP, the online help system has improved significantly. In our opinion it is one of the most useful and niftiest features of the windows system.

If you ever encounter any problems with your windows system, your first step should be to click on the Help & Support icon on the windows start menu. The opening page allows you to browse through various topics. However, when you start typing words in the search box, it starts narrowing down the results. The results you obtain are arranged in 3 different categories:

1. Suggested Topics (Articles that are likely to fix your pc problem)
2. Full text match (It matches your search phrase or keyword(s) in the entire library)
3. Knowledge-Base (Relevant articles from the Microsoft’s online knowledge-base)

In addition, the help system has various wizards and access to diagnostic scans to fix problems in a given category. For example, Networking & Web section has a network diagnostic scan system that delivers a huge amount of useful information that can be utilized in troubleshooting and fixing your pc networking problems. This is a screenshot of the scan:

So, next time you have a pc problem don’t completely give up on the online help system. It may actually help you to troubleshoot and fix your pc problem. Also, remember that the help system for older versions of Windows such as Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, and Windows 95 is significantly inferior and not nearly as useful as that found in Windows XP and higher.

Dynamic Link Library Files or DLL files are executable files that may be shared between one or more applications. These files allow the software developers to share a piece of code amongst many applications thereby reducing the redundancy and improving the efficiency of the system. DLL files are used by almost all the Windows applications, device drivers, and Windows Operating System itself. As you can imagine, there is a large collection of DLL files on your system. These files usually reside in your c:\windows\system and c:\windows\system32 folders.

Some of the mosts common causes of DLL files are listed below

• The most common cause is the invalid or missing registry entries. Regcure registry cleaner and optimizer will fix invalid registry entries with one convenient scan of your system.
• One or more required DLL files are missing or obsolete. In this case, you will have to download and reinstall the missing DLL files. There is a link on our Resources page which allows you to download missing DLL files for free
• There are multiple versions of the DLL file causing system conflicts. Regcure can also help you to fix and repair sytem conflicts
• Virus and spyware infections

So, in a nutshell, if you see DLL errors on your system try using our Registry Cleaner and Optimizer and you will most likely fix the errors in no time. In rare instances, you may need download replacement copies of DLL files or use other utilities.

Rootkit is a special kind of Trojans that gives itself administrator access while keeping its presence obscured from the anti-virus softwares and other security tools. A Rootkit also hides itself from process monitoring programs such as taskmanager in Windows. Therefore, detection of a rootkit becomes extremely difficult using standard tools.

A successfully installed Rootkit will give Administrator access to other users who can use the compromised system to initiate a number of malicious activities. These include installation of programs such as keyloogers and sniffers that can be used to steal sensitive and confidential information such as login names and passwords from the rootkitted system. A rootokitted system can be also used to stage further attacks to other computer systems (such as denial of service attack) so that it appears that the attacker is the rootkitted system.

Detection of Rootkit

Detection and Removal of Rootkit is not an easy process. Most of the common anti-virus program and security softwares are not designed to detect rootkits. However, sometimes it is possible to detect them by using a signature or heuristic based anti-virus programs. An alternative method is to boot the rootiktted system from an alternative media such as a CDROM or USB drive and running system checking software to identify their presence. If this is not possible then a complete format and re-installation of Windows becomes necessary.

Protecting Yourself from Rootkits

There are no off-the-shelf rootkit protecting softwares currently available in the market. However you can easily prevent your system from rootkit infection by following these rules:

1. Keep your system updated with latest security patches from Microsoft
2. Do not download files from suspicious sites
3. Do not download files using filesharing and p2p networks
4. Make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date and constantly running in the background
5. Do not open email attachments from unknown sender
6. Always scan the email attachments using virus scanner before opening them
7. Do not install browser plugins and ActiveX controls from Shady sites

These common sense set of rules will keep your computer safe not only from Rootkits but also from other malicious softwares.

Contrary to common perception, Windows Registry is not composed of a single file on your system. However, it is derived from multiple files and/or locations. To be more specific:

• In Windows 95, 98, and ME
  • The Registry is contained within two hidden files in c:\windows folder. The names of these two files are system.dat and user.dat
• In Windows 2000, XP, and Vista
  • The Registry comprises of a set of files called hives. These are commonly found in c:\windows\system32\config and c:\Documents and Settings\{username} folders.

Windows allows you to see the entire registry in an integrated fashion using the built-in registry editor called regedit (more about that later). This gives user an illusion that Registry is one single file or entity. The fact, as we learned today, is that the Registry is spread across several system files and is also tailored for each individual user on your pc. So, the Registry Structure and Content for say user A on your PC is going to be vastly different than that for user B. You must, therefore, make sure that when you run Regcure Registry Cleaner and Optimizer on your system it needs to be run separately for each individual user to fully optimize the system and gain most out of it.

As mentioned earlier, all versions of Windows provide you with a registry editor called regedit which allows you to see the structure and content of your Registry. In order to do that, press windows-logo+R key on your keyboard. You will be presented with the following dialog box. Type in the word regcure and click OK button.

You will now see the regedit window, as shown below:

WARNING

Don’t Try to Manually Edit anything in Regedit. Ever. This program is extremely unforgiving and any changes made to your Registry settings can make your system unbootable and completely corrupt. You can lose all your information and important files.

We are hoping that you read the above Warning. If not, please read it again.
Now back to the topic. As you can see the Registry is divided into five different hives

• Hkey_Classes_Root
• Hkey_Current_User
• Hkey_Local_Machine
• Hkey_Users
• Hkey_Current_Config

You may click on individual hives and see their substructure (Don’t Edit Anything…Don’t Press Delete Key). This gives you an idea on the enormity and complexity of the Windows Registry structure. Close the regcure window immediately after you are done browsing.

We hope that this brief article gave you some understanding on the complex nature of windows registry and its enormous size. The impact of the windows registry on the performance of your Windows system is huge, as you will learn later on. You, therefore, need a third-party Registry Cleaner such as Regcure to efficiently manage your system, maintain its performance and most importantly, keep it free of errors

Our dependence on computers and PC is evergrowing right from personal use to business or personal entertainment. It is, therefore, absolutely essential that the data protection system on all your computers is well established to protect against hackers, virus, trojans and other worms.

Many of the PC virsuses designed today are created to obtain your personal information for illegal use mostly to benifit the creator of the virus in financial way. While some viruses are written to completely destroy your system by either wiping or renaming vital system files. Although, we must say that most of the virus protection systems designed today provide you with a very good protection against the latter.

Obtaining and establishing the right type of computer protection system can put your mind at ease and free yourself of the worry related to data theft and security breaches on your computer.

You can easily protect all your personal data on the computer by using the following techniques:

1. Obtain Appropriate PC Security Programs

This is, by far, the best defense against protecting yourself from the online dangers. A little research online can find you a number of good PC security programs designed specifically to protect you from aforementioned problems. Specifically you will need an anti-virus program, anti-spyware program, and a PC error fixing utility.

An anti-virus program will prevent any known malware from loading on to your system and protect the vital system file from being erased. Always rememeber that your anti-virus program is as good as the frequency of the virus signature database updates. If you don’t have the signatures of the latest viruses installed on your system, you are as vulnerable as the sytem with no anti-virsus program. Usually you want to set the virus database update to automatic mode so every time you boot the computer your database will be updated and you get the best protection.

The anti-spyware programs can sweep your hard-drive from all the trojans, adwares, and spywares. Some anti-spyware programs also have online monitoring tools that prevent you from downloading or using such malwares and protect against browser hijacking.

2. Maintain Regular Backups of Your Important File

This is your next line of defense, should something bad happen to your computer. This is a must because believe it or not you will face a situation where all your data is at peril despite taking all the appropriate counter measures. Backup external USB hard drives are now cheaper than ever. It is a breeze to connect them to your PC. They usually come with some kind of basic backup software that can regulary create and maintain the backup of your system. If you have enough space, you must backup the entire C: drive or the primary drive that has windows system installed on it. This will essentially recreate your entire system should you have to format the drive. At the very least, you must backup all your important documents, pictures, and family videos (usually my document folder).

3. Routinely Update and Upgrade Your System

Last but not the least, routinely update your system especially Windows OS. Microsoft release patches to fix security holes as and when they are discovered. These will prevent all the malicious attacks on your computer while you are surfing online. Also upgrade the aforementioned security software on a routine basis to get the best protection.

Taking the above proactive measures, as highlighted in the above articles, will go a long way in making your computer safe.

In order to keep your computer in good working condition and avoid premature failure of critical components, it is very important to keep your computer physically clean. If you open your PC, you will be amazed to see how much dust can gather on some of the vital components such as CPU Fan, GPU Fan, Exhaust/Inlet Ports etc. Here is an example of a dirty case fan.

So, why does a computer act like a dust magnet? Well, the reason is same as why the other stuff in your household collects dust. Yes, you guessed it right. It is static electricity that is responsible for dust buildup in a PC. The static electricity generation in the PC is much worse than other stuff in your house mainly because of the electro-magnetic fields that are generated inside your PC when it is operational.

One of the key impacts of dust buildup on your PC is that it reduces the radiative heat transfer from some of the most critical components such as the CPU and Graphic Processing Unit (GPU). This can cause your components to run a lot hotter than manufacturer’s specified limits and result in a premature failure. In addition, you will also have problems with mechanical parts such as fans which might get clogged and eventually fail.

Here is the list of items that you should have handy before cleaning the PC

1. Anti-static wrist guard
2. lint free cloth
3. Compressed air can (available in most electronic store)
4. Q-tips
5. Philips Head Screwdriver
6. Tweezers

Always wear anti-static wrist guard to protect your hardware. Make sure that your PC is completely disconnected from AC power source. Never use any liquid cleaning agent.

• Open your PC case using Philips head screwdriver
• Inspect all the connection and make sure that all the connections are secure and the insulation is in good shape.
• Aim the compressed air nozzle at everything that shows dust buildup. Pay special attention to heatsinks, fans and add-on cards.
• Use Q-tips in areas which are difficult to reach
• Use either vacuum or a lint-free cloth to remove all the loose dust from the case.
• Close the case
• Voila. You are ready to go.

Make sure that you follow this cleaning procedure 3-4 times in a year to keep your computer in good shape.