Welcome
Welcome, its time for issue 8, season 2. Happy New
Year to all and welcome to 2005. This year we have many new plans for
this newsletter and the websites that we control, watch out here for news.
With the major disaster that happened in Asia on
boxing day, we ask everyone to try and give something to aid those
worse of than ourselves. Below is a few links to organizations who
handle disaster relief.
American
Red Cross (US)
Disaster
Emergency Committee (UK)
Anyway that's enough for now, see you all next
issue.
Mark
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1 Software
Review - Wintasks
| Increase the Security and Performance
of your PC |
| Every day,
the Internet spawns new attacks on your privacy, data, and
computer speed. And your standard security software might not
even know about the newest threats — until your computer is
already infected. A firewall and anti-virus software are not
enough to completely protect your computer from malware, spyware,
adware, and other problems. |
 |
Based on years
of research, the award-winning WinTasks is now one of
the most popular tools in the war against malicious
software — and the perfect complement to your firewall
and anti-virus software. Whether you are new to Windows,
a business professional, or a systems administrator, you
can rely on WinTasks to quickly improve your computer's
security and speed. |
WinTasks can remove and prevent
hidden spyware and other processes that your firewall or
anti-virus software do not know about. Here's how:
-The new process blocking feature
of WinTasks 5 Professional gives you immediate protection and
complete control. This feature functions like a spywall — a
software firewall, blocking threats in real-time. When a program
tries to start, WinTasks either blocks or runs the program,
while quickly learning which programs you consider safe.
WinTasks also checks an extensive database to automatically
permit safe ( Process Library Certified ) programs.
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-WinTasks 5 Professional gives
you detailed information, activity logs, and other features
which describe every process running on your computer. Its
easy-to-use tools allow you to control, block, or terminate any
process.
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!
|
2 Game Review - BoardBOSS
|
Turn Play Time into Learning Time with BoardBOSS
5th Tradition Software, Inc. has released BoardBOSS, an
easy-to-use Windows application that lets non-programmers create
and distribute educational computer board games. Instead of
quizzing students about subjects that don't interest them, you can
tantalize them with stunning, engaging board games that turn
learning into fun.
Players interact with your game by answering questions, and moving
their pieces around the game board. Create any number of game-card
questions, divided into any number of card decks. Each card can
contain a true/false question, or a multiple-choice question with
up to four possible answers.
No programming experience is needed to design a game with unique
game play. Start with one of the sample game boards that come with
BoardBOSS, or turn your own artwork into a custom game board.
Choose dice or slots to determine how players move around the
board.
One of twelve actions can be assigned to each space on the board,
allowing you to do things like gain or lose points, move forward
or backward along the board, and gain or lose turns. You can
design a custom splash screen, select the font that you'll use for
the game, choose a default character set for the players' pieces,
choose the type of music to include in your game, and include a
custom help file.
In addition to playing games at home and in the classroom, you can
distribute your games, with no royalty payments. BoardBOSS comes
with free player software that lets your game run on just about
any Windows computer.
Whether you're an educator who wants to find innovative and
challenging ways to keep your students engaged in the learning
experience, a parent who wants to transform your kids' computer
game-playing time into learning time, or a home user who wants to
create cool games that you can share with friends and family,
BoardBOSS has the tools that you need.
BoardBOSS runs under Windows 98SE/ME/NT4/2000/XP, requires
Internet Explorer 5.5 (with Service Pack 2) or newer, costs
$29.95(US), and may be purchased securely online at http://www.boardboss.biz/.
You can download a free, 30-day trial version from the same web
site. For more information, contact 5th Tradition Software, Inc.,
15149 E Princeton Pl, #B, Aurora, CO 80014 USA. Internet: http://www.boardboss.biz/
Email: info@boardboss.biz
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3 Registry - Disable recent
files in media player (All versions of Windows)
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_CURRENT_USER" , "Software",
"Microsoft", "MediaPlayer", then
"Preferences" Next search for
"AddToMRU" in the right hand panel. If it is not present
then simply create it by doing the following:
Right click on "Explorer" select
"NEW" then left click on "BINARY VALUE". Name the
new string value in right hand panel as "AddToMRU".
Now to set the value, double click on the string value
and set it's value to "01" for enabled or "00" for
disabled.
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.
4 Registry
- Clear recent play list in
media player (All
versions of Windows)
By default media player will show all recent played
file, url histtory and playlists. 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 DELETE RECENT FILES: Now on the left hand panel
click on "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" , "Software",
"Microsoft", "MediaPlayer", then "Player".
Next search in the left hand panel for :
RecentURLList - This shows website streams, delete
contents as
necessary.
RecentFileList - This shows recent list of files,
delete contents as necessary.
TO DELETE ENTRIES FROM TOOLBAR: Now on the left hand
panel click on "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" , "Software",
"Microsoft", "MediaPlayer", "Player"
then "MediaLibrarySettings" (or MRUList). Delete contents as
necessary.
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.
5 Tweaking - Your graphics card
Can't afford a new graphics card ? but want more speed
from it then why not try tweaking it. Tweaking is a speed boast, usually
done by software to enhance the performance of hardware, but be warned the
faster it goes the more heat the piece of hardware will generate, go to
high and you will burn it out. You have been warned, so only do the
following at your risk.
If you have a NVIDIA GeForce or an ATI Radeon based
videocard then Rivatuner is the software for you. This will allow you
to tweak these graphics card.
This file can be accessed from here http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=163,
but remember you do so at your own risk, and sometimes all you should
really do is update the drivers, updating your graphics driver is one
of the best system enhancements possible, some driver updates can give
a 40% performance boast. So try that out first.
Disclaimer: This information is provided as is and we
cannot guarantee that tweaking your computer or its components will not
cause serious damage. You use this information at your own risk.
6 Advise - Protect
your computer & files during a power outage Part 1
The first thing you will need is a UPS (Uninterruptible
Power Supply), which are not too expensive at the moment and are
widely available. When buying one of these , make sure it has
automatic voltage regulation, or a surge protector. This makes sure
your computer is not destroyed or damaged with power surges.
Usually the amount of time the UPS will supply power for
is only 40mins to an hour, but it will stop your computer from suddenly
switching off, unsaved data from being lost or hardware damage, (When
the power goes it instantly kicks in.)
So what else can you plug into a UPS? A good
example would be lamps, portable phones or cash registers. The items are
limitless, of course remember the ore you plug in the less time it will
last. Best thing to do is have all the items you wish to run on it and
unplug the UPS from the wall. This will give you your expected power
time.
What else should you look out for when buying? Well there's
a feature called line interactive that some UPS's have. This gives you
improved performance by supplying power monitoring and switching.
7 Advise - Protect
your computer & files during a power outage Part 2
So you are worried if you leave your computer on with
unsaved work or that a power out may damage your computer, even when its
plugged into a UPS (Uninterruptible
Power Supply), as this lasts only a short period of time. What you
can do is configure your computer to go into hibernation. (Note some
older systems will not have this feature)
First you need to enable Hibernation mode, click on
or
If your computer supports hibernation then
"HIBERNATE" will be listed here. Click on it and put a tick
into the "ENABLE HIBERNATION" box. Click "OK" to
exit.
Next go to:
or
Now click on "SCREEN SAVER", and at the very
bottom of that page select "POWER"
Now under "POWER SCHEMES" change "SYSTEM
HIBERNATES" from never to your preferred time, I have mine set to
20 minutes, (See picture above). One thing to note is that the above
image is taken from a laptop, so the runing on batteries section listed
may not be on your computer.
So what happens now after following Parts 1&2, well
its simple. You leave your computer on with an unsaved document you just
updated. A power outage happens, the UPS kicks in and powers your
computer.
As you are not home the computer will eventually switch
off, when the UPS has run out off battery power, but luckily you have
hibernation set for 20 minutes. The computer saves everything open and
your exact state when you left it, and closes itself down. Nothing lost
nothing damaged.
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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