Welcome
Welcome, its time for issue 10, season 2. A
big thanks this month goes out to Kevin J. Vella of
Uniblue Systems who supplied 3 articles for this months newsletter. If
you have an article you wish us to cover, then feel free to send it us
for possible inclusion in future issues.
Anyway that's enough for now, see you all next
issue.
Mark
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1 Software
Review - Wintasks
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Why
is WinTasks better than the Task Manager that comes with Windows
or other task managers?
The Windows
Task Manager provides some information about some processes. And
that's all. With this limited information, you can stop those
processes . . . maybe . . . some of the time. And not
automatically. With the Windows Task Manager, you must guess
which process you want to stop and click a button, every time
you want to stop it.
WinTasks
stops any process you want every time—quickly and
automatically. WinTasks gives you complete control over each
individual process running on your computer and allows you to
prioritize those processes. You can set up each process to
automatically run on system start-up too.
Check
out the following comparison chart.
With
WinTasks, you can do so much more. Other task managers
can't match the power of our software or the tools:
- You
can instantly terminate any process. WinTasks stops
and removes Trojans, spyware, and any other unwanted
programs that you specify, quickly removing any
potential security threats.
- WinTasks
increases your computer speed by blocking spyware,
stopping all unnecessary processes, and running
time-consuming jobs in the background. This allows
your most important programs to use all available
resources.
- Block
and allow lists provide maximum security. Choose
which processes can run on your system and which
processes are never allowed.
- Automatic
updates give up-to-the-minute protection. Spyware,
malware, and adware change every day.
- The
WinTasks update feature ensures that you have all
the latest process definitions and
information—automatically.
- Our
process library helps you quickly investigate
suspicious software. Quickly identify the processes
that you don't want. You can easily search our
process library, which is continuously updated, for
any process by name or executable.
- Detailed
information helps stop infections already on your
computer. WinTasks provides detailed information
right at your fingertips—both in real-time and as
activity logs. Our software lists all running
processes, including invisible background processes,
CPU and memory usage for each process, CPU and
memory graphs for up to 24 hours, and more.
- Startup
viewer ensures maximum speed. WinTasks ensures that
your computer starts faster by removing programs you
don't want from the auto start lists. WinTasks
displays simple explanations for all auto start
programs so that you can easily determine which
programs you want.
- Real-time
information and logs track every running process. To
increase computer stability, WinTasks helps you
easily identify the processes that you don't want.
Our software lists all running processes, including
invisible processes, CPU and memory usage for each
process, detailed logs, and more.
- Process
descriptions help identify items you don't want.
WinTasks ensures the best computer performance by
helping you identify the processes you don't want or
need. After searching our comprehensive, but
easy-to-use library, you can then decide which
processes to remove.
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We have
negotiated for you a 10% discount on this very useful
software. Now you can get WinTasks 5 Professional for only
$44.95 instead of $49.95!
 |
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2 Game Review - Star
Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees
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LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment Inc. (SOE)
are thrilled to announce Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of
the Wookiees as the next addition to the popular online Star Wars
gaming experience. Episode III Rage of the Wookiees, available to
current players two full weeks before the movie launches as a
digital download, adds a whole slew of content taken directly from
the highly anticipated Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
movie, including the adventure planet of Kashyyyk, home to the
Wookiees.
On Kashyyyk, players will choose to defend the freedom of the
Wookiees or to fight for their Imperial-backed Trandoshan
enslavers in over 100 story-driven adventures. Players will also
explore multiple locations of Star Wars interest, including
Wookiee-controlled tree cities, Trandoshan slave camps and the
safari lands of the affluent Rodians. New starcraft like a new
Jedi Starfighter model flown by Anakin, along with creatures and
mounts taken directly from Revenge of the Sith, will also debut
in-game with the Episode III Rage of the Wookiees expansion.
Episode III Rage of the Wookiees also introduces a new type of
game play: The lucrative but daring space mining adventures allow
players to mine asteroids throughout space (including the new
Kashyyyk space sector), collecting valuable raw materials for sale
to ground-based crafters. Any starcraft can be modified for space
mining, but dedicated miners will earn a sophisticated high-end
ship, allowing them to traverse space while mining and fighting
with up to 19 friends as shipmates!
Star Wars Galaxies: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees will be
available for pre-order early April 2005 and available on May 5,
2005 via digital download. For more information, visit www.starwarsgalaxies.com!
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3 True Story - The Need for
Backup Part 2
By
Kevin J. Vella
Public Relations Manager
Uniblue Systems
http://www.uniblue.com
So you’ve decided to backup your data but what is the next step?
You must have a backup strategy irrespective of whether you are a home
user or a business user. The depth of the strategy is the only variant
between these two types of users.
As time goes by people and businesses are facing massive and
ever-increasing amounts of data that are difficult to manage and that
remain unprotected. In this light, the need for a backup strategy
becomes critical. Let me just take email as an example: the 12/2004
issue of Smart Computing reports that 88% of adult PC users send and
receive emails. The International Data Corporation reports that 16.8
trillion emails were transmitted in 2004 with this figure climbing to
19.7 trillion this year. According to Smart Computing, American
businesses send about 9 billion emails a day. On average, home-users
transmit around 435kb in email attachments every day. One other
research firm estimates that typical corporations with 5000 employees
accumulate 4 terabytes of emails every year. The size of my Outlook
PST file for 2004 at work rested at 1.4Gb; at home it was 650Mb! And
finally, Dataquest estimates that the total number of hard disk drives
shipped in 2002 rests at 212.5m units representing around 8.5m
terabytes of storage space.
Home-user data includes documents, audio and video files, scanned
images, and digital photos. Businesses have marketing collateral
developed and stored electronically, customer information stacked in
databases, financial records posted in accounting packages, budgets
and business plans recorded on network storage devices. As this list
grows, the need for a backup strategy becomes even more obvious!
We usually advise customers to look at 5 key elements of any backup
strategy:
1. Invest in good Backup Software: Read the
reviews, visit the websites and look out for features and assurances
that the product you are buying is reliable, fast and easy to use.
Spend time reading the websites of the various suppliers. Some
products cost no more than $40 but your data costs much more. Losing
your data because the software you have bought is not effective means
that you have thrown away an extra $40!
2. Plan Your Backups: Most software packages on
the market have schedulers. Use these schedulers. It doesn’t take
much time to set up a timetable for backups. Depending on how many
times you use your PC you can schedule your periodical backups: at
work, I backup every day at 9 a.m.. At home, I backup once a week.
3. Check the Integrity of your Restore: Even
though you have backed up, what guarantee do you have that your data
can be restored when disaster hits? The best way to ensure full
“restorability” of your data is to buy a backup product that has
bit-level verification (like WinBackup 2.0). Such a feature makes sure
that while the product is performing your backup it checks all the
data down to the level of bits and bytes. In essence, the software
first backs up the data and then automatically performs a test restore
to make sure that every single bit has been copied.
4. Check the Integrity of your Backup Medium: You
can have the best software in the world and back your data every hour,
however, if you do not have a good medium to store your archives, you
are doomed. The second best way to ensure the restorability of your
data is to choose good mediums and to do regular test restores from
them.
5. Check your hard drives regularly and make sure
you have good anti-spyware and anti-virus
software. There is no harm in checking hard drives for errors
and bad sectors as these drives do fail over time.
4 Computing
- A Six Point Guide to Buying Backup Software, PART 1
By
Kevin J. Vella
Public Relations Manager
Uniblue Systems
http://www.uniblue.com
Many people and businesses lose their data because the product
they've bought doesn't live up to its initial promise. With hundreds of
backup software vendors on the market, people usually perform searches
on such generic keywords as "backup software" to find
themselves with millions of documents to sift through before making an
"informed" decision. With so many pages people would typically
look at the first ten or twenty entries and either buy the first thing
that comes near their budget, or give up or end up buying software that
is too expensive for their needs.
Before buying backup software, you must first look at your real needs
and make a list of product attributes and related features that will
satisfy these needs. Second, look at the software vendors who are
reviewed by computer magazines and compare their products across your
needs list. Third, look at whether the vendors have been in the business
for several years and whether they have a reputation for great customer
support and product innovation.
The most difficult of these stages is building the attribute and
features list. The Six Point Guide to Buying Backup Software should give
you thorough knowledge of what attributes and features you should look
for in any backup software. Due to constraints of space, I have split
this guide in two parts. In Part One I will briefly describe each of the
attributes while in Part Two, explain each attribute and detail all the
related features.
- "Ease of Use": Ask, how easy is it to install the backup
software? How easy is it to set up the first backup? How easy is it
to use the backup software regularly and to create backup schedules?
How easy is it to restore data?
- "Value for Money": this is rather subjective and does
depend on your budget. However, don't just look at the price of the
product. Think of how long does it would take to use the product.
How long does it take to make backups and restores? As a home user,
this may not be that important but as a business user, you wouldn't
want to spend half an hour just to run your daily backups.
- "Reliability": Many backup companies focus only on the
backup side of things rather on the restore. Just think, what is
most important in backup is the ability to restore data without
losing anything. Therefore, ask, can I install the product, set up a
schedule and then rest assured that my data is being backed up with
100% accuracy?? What levels and types of data validation does the
product have to guarantee restores?
- "Performance": Of course, you must have a product that
is fast and that does not sacrifice reliability, value for money and
ease of use for sheer raw power. Who would want to have a 100%
accurate restore product that takes one hour to backup a few hundred
megs of data!
- "Depth of Feature Set": What features does the product
have? How does the product compare to other vendors? Many times you
would have to draw up these comparison sheets unless the vendor has
done it for you.
- "Breadth of Backup and Media Coverage": Finally, make
sure that the product backs up your PC (or notebook) and supports a
strong list of backup storage media including CD, Pen Drives, Zip
Drives, etc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally!!!
WinBackup 2.0 Standard has been released!
This week, in close partnership with Uniblue we are proud to give you
one of the best offers of the year and help you secure your data in
minutes!
You can now get
WinBackup 2.0 Standard
for only $49.95!
Buy
it Now
Learn
More
5 Passwords - Password
Workaround for Windows XP
Why write an article like this ? Well there is two
reasons, firstly there is nothing more frustrating than trying to fix a
computer where someone has forgotten their password or set an admin
password that they can't remember and the normal login does not work, but
secondly and most importantly is to show you that your computer is not
safe, and not to store important information on it in the belief that it
will be 100% secure.
Method 1 - This is the easiest way to access someone's
computer, boot into safe mode (Tap F8 on boot, before the Windows XP
loading screen, select safe mode from boot menu), and select
Administrator, surprisingly 90% of home computers will not have a password
enabled here. From the Administrator login you can remove the user/s
password, and then login into their account.
Method 2 - From the login screen on normal boot press
"CTRL, ALT & DELETE", change the user to name to
Administrator, surprisingly 90% of home computers will not have a password
enabled here. From the Administrator login you can remove the user/s
password, and then login into their account.
Method 3 - Download a file from here, http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html.
Before using please read all info 100%, scary how easy it can be.
Method 4 - For all those who have a bit more knowledge
on using Microsoft's Recovery console and commands and have access to
a Windows 2000 CD will be glad to hear that they can simply boot of
the 2000 CD, access the recovery console and login to Windows XP
without the need for a boot disk.
This list is by no means complete and there are some
more complicated ways around the passwords, so remember if your
computer is in a public place, or even at home be aware that people
can get access to your information, so try keeping important
information like bank login details, or account details safely secured
somewhere else.
6 Internet - Magical
Websites
Check the sites below that will read your mind and
give you the answer to their questions, without you telling them.
First The Mystical Golf Ball - http://www.mysticalgolfball.com/
. Read the instructions to play, and be amazed when the website tells
you the answer.
Here is also a group of tricks which are great fun, I
especially like the "Right Brain / Left Brain Conflict - 2"
one, try it, it's very funny. http://www.richferguson.com/watch.html
7 Registry -
By default media player will show all recent played files.
You can disable this as sometimes you do not wish other people to know
what you have been viewing or listening to.
First, before editing your registry remember to
always back it up first, just incase you do something wrong. The registry
when modified is an instant change and cannot be undone.
BACK UP REGISTRY: So to open the registry editor click on
"START", "RUN", then type "REGEDIT" (No
speech marks). The registry editor will now open, click on
"FILE" then "EXPORT". From the save window that appear
type in a file name (ie regback.reg), now click on "SAVE". Your
registry has now been backed up.
TO DISABLE RECENT FILES: Now on the left hand panel click
on "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" , "Software",
"Microsoft", then "Outlook Express" Next
search for "Hide Messenger" in the right hand panel. If it is
not present then simply create it by doing the following:
Right click on "Outlook Express" select
"NEW" then left click on "DWORD". Name the new string
value in right hand panel as "Outlook Express".
Now to set the value, double click on the string value and
set it's value to "2" for remove messenger.
Disclaimer: This information is provided as is and we
cannot guarantee that editing the registry will not cause serious damage.
You use this information at your own risk.
8 Computing
- A Six Point Guide to Buying Backup Software, PART 2
By
Kevin J. Vella
Public Relations Manager
Uniblue Systems
http://www.uniblue.com
In Part
One, I mentioned the six attributes that the backup industry uses to
classify the various features of their products. In this second part, I
will explain each attribute in greater detail so as to give you a thorough
knowledge of what to look for in backup software.
Ease of Use: You need to ask a set of questions in relation to how
easy it is to install and configure the software, to use the product to
back your data and to use the product to restore your data. For example:
Is the install interface clear and unequivocal? Are the steps written in
plain English and do not leave any place for choosing the wrong options?
Is the product easy to use and user friendly? Is the user interface built
in a Windows-familiar environment? Are the user-interface and the commands
intuitive? Does the product allow step-by-step backup and restore? Does
the product allow non-technical users to make use of this product? How
easily can the user browse around the various options to set up backups
and restores? How easily can the user browse around the documents and
application settings to set up backups? Are there any shortcuts to this
data and settings? How easily can the user browse the backup archive to
find and restore multiple or single files?
Value for Money: Money is always an issue, otherwise, we would all
be living the life of the rich and famous! However, this may not always be
the case with backup software. We usually advise people not to look at the
price tag on its own but to make calculations as to the relationship
between price and functionality and price and time spent on backup and
restore. For example, does the vendor offer limited functionality with the
"bare-bones" product and more functionality pricey
"add-ons" that only together will the product provide the
required protection? Does the product sacrifice performance and
reliability for price? Are upgrades and patches available at a charge? In
relation to the time factor, buyers must beware. Beware, some brands may
be more costly than others to administer. If, for example, the compression
technology of the particular product is not strong, it takes longer to
perform backups the data backed up is spread over a larger number of media
(taking up more storage space). Therefore, although a product may be less
pricey, it may be more expensive to run in the long term.
Reliability: The issues of reliability are three-fold - (a) does
the product deliver consistently a 100% accurate restore of the set of
data that was backed up? This includes such aspects as reliable schedules,
accurate reporting and fault logging features (whether you are alerted
when and if things go wrong), and validation of data integrity. Data
validation or verification is extremely important because there are
certain technologies (e.g., bit level validation) that guarantee that your
data restores are 100% accurate. (b) Does the product secure your data
from prying eyes? Although, at face value, this may not be important to
the user, think about whether you would like somebody else to steal your
backup files and looking at (or distributing) your personal data.
Therefore, ask whether the product has password protection and supports
the best levels of encryption. (c) Is the vendor reliable? Does the vendor
provide technical and customer support? Is the vendor slow to answer?
Performance: The product must be fast and it must not sacrifice
sheer power for reliability, value for money, and ease of use. You must be
able to backup your data securely and accurately in a few minutes and not
spend a fortune on such basic functions.
"Depth of Feature Set": What features does the product
have? How does the product compare to other vendors? The features that you
should have are - compression, encryption, scheduling and reporting,
popular media support, high data volume support (as few products have
actually overcome the problem of memory leakage), validation or
verification of data integrity, full and incremental backup feature,
restore multiple or single files to original and to any location, and
strong fault-logging.
"Breadth of Backup and Media Coverage": Finally, make
sure that the product backs up your PC (or notebook) and supports a strong
list of backup storage media including CD, Pen Drives, and Zip Drives.
One final tip: it is important to read the independent reviews on
the various products published by magazines (e.g., PC World, Computer
Shopper) and on technical and similar websites.
Conclusion
Well that's it for this month, I hope you all enjoyed
this issue, and we look forward to seeing you next month,
Best Regards
Mark
webmaster@windowsreinstall.com
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