A Windows profile can at times become corrupted, not load, and give this failed logon error.
Here is the simplest solution from Microsoft that has worked every time I've encountered the problem:
software tutorials
Showing posts with label System. Show all posts
Showing posts with label System. Show all posts
Monday, November 12, 2012
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Surf Anonymously For Free (Sort of)
When we read articles as such: http://techland.time.com/2011/08/01/house-approves-data-mongering-isp-snooping-bill-and-what-that-means-for-you/ we feel the need to secure our information we decide to let loose out in the Internet. Anything from e-mails to simple browsing habits, the United States government wants to see it. So... how do we prevent that?
Well there isn't really anything we can do about the information our ISPs already have on us, but if we want to ensure our future data isn't available to them, we should implement VPNs and proxies into our network connections.
Here's what I do...
Well there isn't really anything we can do about the information our ISPs already have on us, but if we want to ensure our future data isn't available to them, we should implement VPNs and proxies into our network connections.
Here's what I do...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Steps To A Cleaner, Faster System
There is nothing more annoying then a slow, unresponsive computer. Fortunately, there are many different methods to getting the most out of your computer when it comes to virus' and clutter. Listed below are some tasks that can be done to achieve this.
1.) Empty the Recycle Bin
Files aren't actually deleted from your system when you press the delete key. They are simply sent to the recycle bin. Empty this on a regular basis to free up space.
Alternatively, choose to delete files permanently, thus bypassing the Recycle Bin entirely, when files/folders are deleted:
2.) Remove temporary files
1.) Empty the Recycle Bin
Files aren't actually deleted from your system when you press the delete key. They are simply sent to the recycle bin. Empty this on a regular basis to free up space.Alternatively, choose to delete files permanently, thus bypassing the Recycle Bin entirely, when files/folders are deleted:
 |
| Right-click 'Recycle Bin' > Properties |
 |
| Uncheck 'Display delete confirmation dialog' |
2.) Remove temporary files
Monday, February 28, 2011
Windows 7 Sp1 Update Now Asking You For Product Key?
The first service pack for Windows 7 was recently released and people online have been informed that their previously 'genuine' copy of Windows is now counting down the 30 days to enter a product key.
If you used the WAT Remover tool to activate your windows previous to the service pack update, simply restore WAT using the same program, reboot, and then enable the WAT remover again. This program will work on this service pack as well as no service packs.
(I will not link to this program, the WAT Remover, because the link will get taken down.)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
How To Destroy Windows XP Through Command-Line
Command-line commands can be very powerful. They can dig real deep into the system and perform actions many people who aren't skilled with a system wouldn't expect.
Today I did something simple. I ran a very easy command that removed many (important) files from my system. Of course, the command to delete (del) can be done in the most un-malicious way possible. Deleting a virus, for example, can be done using the command prompt. But when you decide to delete everything instead of one thing, you can cause major havoc.
Here is a similar command that can be used to yield a similar result as this video: del /f /q /s "C:\*.*"
del = delete
/f = force (will shut down open files if needed)
/q = quietly (will not prompt you with a confirmation of yes or no for deletion)
/s = subfolders (will delete all files in all subdirectories and not just the current one)
(View in full screen 720p)
(View in full screen 720p)
Friday, October 1, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
How To Extract File(s) From A Compressed Folder Using 7-Zip
One of my favorite programs to achieve this is 7-Zip. Once downloaded and installed, the compressed file should have a black and white '7z' for the icon. This means the program 7-Zip has associated itself with the file extension of the compressed file.
DOWNLOAD
1)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Use HashTab To Calculate File Hashes
"HashTab provides OS extensions to calculate file hashes. HashTab supports many hash algorithms such as MD5, SHA1, SHA2, RipeMD, HAVAL and Whirlpool. Hashtab is supported as a Windows shell extension and a Mac Finder plugin. HashTab provides an easy way to verify file integrity and authenticity." ...from beeblebrox.org.
Monday, November 16, 2009
What Does 'Disk Defragmenter' Do?
There is an option in Windows XP, Vista, and even the newest Windows 7 OS that allows you to defrag your hard drive. We are told to do so every month (that is what's recommended) but we may not actually know what this system tool does.
Disk Defragmenter does exactly as it seems - defrags your disk. Your disk being your hard disk drive.
When you uninstall a program, spaces (fragments) are left where the program was originally. These spaces are then left there to be overwritten by new data or simply left to stay (until you defrag).
Click on the picture to view larger. (It is obviously too small.)
You can see the little spaces in the picture above. This drive had disk defragmenter recently run, so there aren't too many fragmented files.
When you defrag your system, you are moving these spaces to the end of the "file" ("files" being where the old data once was) and moving the data currently on the drive together to create a continuous cluster of files.
These files are then read faster when you want to access them because there are no spaces on the drive taking up useless room.
[You should actually look at your own drive's fragmented files (you can access it by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter) so you can tell what I'm talking about. There are numerous amounts of spaces (blocks) that represent certain characteristics of the drive. There is a little color map denoting colored boxes to their corresponding information.]
Disk Defragmenter does exactly as it seems - defrags your disk. Your disk being your hard disk drive.
When you uninstall a program, spaces (fragments) are left where the program was originally. These spaces are then left there to be overwritten by new data or simply left to stay (until you defrag).
Click on the picture to view larger. (It is obviously too small.)
You can see the little spaces in the picture above. This drive had disk defragmenter recently run, so there aren't too many fragmented files.
When you defrag your system, you are moving these spaces to the end of the "file" ("files" being where the old data once was) and moving the data currently on the drive together to create a continuous cluster of files.
These files are then read faster when you want to access them because there are no spaces on the drive taking up useless room.
[You should actually look at your own drive's fragmented files (you can access it by going to Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter) so you can tell what I'm talking about. There are numerous amounts of spaces (blocks) that represent certain characteristics of the drive. There is a little color map denoting colored boxes to their corresponding information.]
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Restrict Website Access
Here is how you can block access to any website you want. This is useful if you have children and want to make sure they aren't doing anything bad on the internet. ;)
Windows has a file called "hosts" in this location:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Once you are in the folder "etc", copy the file "hosts" into two separate folders. (I chose my desktop and my documents folder)
Now open the hosts file in one of the folders by double-clicking it and choosing to open in notepad. (The other file will be used as a backup in case you totally mess this up [which would be quite hard to do since it's really simple!])
This is what mine looks like:
(Click the picture for a larger view)
As you can see, I added "twitter.com" to the bottom.
Find where this would be on yours (it should be under "localhost", probably at the bottom, but some are different), and add a site like I did.
First put "127.0.0.1", then tab over and put what sites you want to block. Every site will have their own line with their own "127.0.0.1" to the left.
Now when you are done, just copy this new file (make sure its called "hosts" [no quotes]) into the location it should be in:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Confirm that you want to replace the file.
Now try and go to that site you blocked. It should return a connection error. You did it right.
What this does is severs the connection to twitter.com and your internet connection doesn't know how to connect to the website. The hosts file is telling the browser that twitter.com is 127.0.0.1 (the local system) and not the actual IP address of the site.
Windows has a file called "hosts" in this location:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Once you are in the folder "etc", copy the file "hosts" into two separate folders. (I chose my desktop and my documents folder)
Now open the hosts file in one of the folders by double-clicking it and choosing to open in notepad. (The other file will be used as a backup in case you totally mess this up [which would be quite hard to do since it's really simple!])
This is what mine looks like:
(Click the picture for a larger view)
As you can see, I added "twitter.com" to the bottom.
Find where this would be on yours (it should be under "localhost", probably at the bottom, but some are different), and add a site like I did.
First put "127.0.0.1", then tab over and put what sites you want to block. Every site will have their own line with their own "127.0.0.1" to the left.
Now when you are done, just copy this new file (make sure its called "hosts" [no quotes]) into the location it should be in:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
Confirm that you want to replace the file.
Now try and go to that site you blocked. It should return a connection error. You did it right.
What this does is severs the connection to twitter.com and your internet connection doesn't know how to connect to the website. The hosts file is telling the browser that twitter.com is 127.0.0.1 (the local system) and not the actual IP address of the site.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Windows XP Registry Tweaks
Listed below are several tweaks you can perform on your computer to enhance speed and make navigating a bit easier. Enjoy!
Automatically expanding folder trees
The folder view on the left in Windows Explorer automatically expands if you click on a folder containing sub-folders. You can disable this function with a registry tweak: change the DWORD-value FriendlyTree to 0 (instead of 1) in the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Automatically expanding folders will be disabled, expanding a folder is now done by double clicking the folder.
Windows search optimization
Within Windows XP you are able to search your computer for files (Start, Search), but takes some clicking to get what you want! To optimize the search function, you have to make some registry changes. To make changes, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
where you will find some important DWORD-values. Change these values to optimize your Windows search:
SearchSystemDirs=1
SearchHidden=1
IncludeSubFolders=1
CaseSensitive=0
SearchSlowFiles=1 (if you have a tape drive, else: 0)
Continued:
Automatically expanding folder trees
The folder view on the left in Windows Explorer automatically expands if you click on a folder containing sub-folders. You can disable this function with a registry tweak: change the DWORD-value FriendlyTree to 0 (instead of 1) in the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Automatically expanding folders will be disabled, expanding a folder is now done by double clicking the folder.
Windows search optimization
Within Windows XP you are able to search your computer for files (Start, Search), but takes some clicking to get what you want! To optimize the search function, you have to make some registry changes. To make changes, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
where you will find some important DWORD-values. Change these values to optimize your Windows search:
SearchSystemDirs=1
SearchHidden=1
IncludeSubFolders=1
CaseSensitive=0
SearchSlowFiles=1 (if you have a tape drive, else: 0)
Continued:
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Changing Windows XP Sounds
You may, as do I, get a little bored with the old sounds that Windows XP has. You hear them all the time and maybe you would like to spice things up a little. Well, it is not very hard at all. It is as simple as finding the sound and making sure it is in .wav format to use in the system settings.
1. Find a song or short sound that you would like to use.
2. Convert it to .wav format. (I recommend this Video/Song Converter: Total Video Converter.)
3. Navigate to Start>Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices>Sounds.
4. Under "Program Events" choose the sound you want to change and browse for your .wav sound file you created in step 2.
You can play the sound before you change it to make sure it is the one you really want to change. Just click the little play button next to the file name.
*Do not delete the original sound file. You may want it back sometime.
1. Find a song or short sound that you would like to use.
2. Convert it to .wav format. (I recommend this Video/Song Converter: Total Video Converter.)
3. Navigate to Start>Control Panel>Sounds and Audio Devices>Sounds.
4. Under "Program Events" choose the sound you want to change and browse for your .wav sound file you created in step 2.
You can play the sound before you change it to make sure it is the one you really want to change. Just click the little play button next to the file name.
*Do not delete the original sound file. You may want it back sometime.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Rundll32 Shortcuts
Rundll32 Shortcuts
I have tried these shortcuts on WindowsXP Professional only, I assume that most work on other version of Windows. There should be no harm in trying them, but proceed at your own risk.
Add or Remove Programs
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL appwiz.cpl
Date and Time Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL timeDate.cpl
Delete Network Drive
rundll32.exe shell32, SHHelpShortcuts_RunDLL Disconnect
Device Manager
rundll32.exe devmgr.dll DeviceManager_Execute
Display Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL desk.cpl
Internet Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL inetcpl.cpl
Keyboard Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL main.cpl @1
Lock Workstation
rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Map Network Drive
rundll32.exe shell32, SHHelpShortcuts_RunDLL Connect
Mouse Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL main.cpl
Shared Directories
rundll32.exe ntlanui.dll,ShareManage
Sound and Audio Device Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl
System Properties
rundll32.exe shell32,Control_RunDLL sysdm.cpl
All of these are used if you want to enter them in a text document as use them as a batch file or if you want to use them in Start>Run. These are just the full commands of a couple of these.
I have tried these shortcuts on WindowsXP Professional only, I assume that most work on other version of Windows. There should be no harm in trying them, but proceed at your own risk.
Add or Remove Programs
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL appwiz.cpl
Date and Time Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL timeDate.cpl
Delete Network Drive
rundll32.exe shell32, SHHelpShortcuts_RunDLL Disconnect
Device Manager
rundll32.exe devmgr.dll DeviceManager_Execute
Display Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL desk.cpl
Internet Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL inetcpl.cpl
Keyboard Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL main.cpl @1
Lock Workstation
rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation
Map Network Drive
rundll32.exe shell32, SHHelpShortcuts_RunDLL Connect
Mouse Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL main.cpl
Shared Directories
rundll32.exe ntlanui.dll,ShareManage
Sound and Audio Device Properties
rundll32.exe Shell32.dll, Control_RunDLL mmsys.cpl
System Properties
rundll32.exe shell32,Control_RunDLL sysdm.cpl
All of these are used if you want to enter them in a text document as use them as a batch file or if you want to use them in Start>Run. These are just the full commands of a couple of these.
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