The Weekly Geek » Uncategorized

Memorial Day

Kent — Thu, 27 May 2010 16:17:42 +0000

May this Memorial Day not be about burgers, hotdogs, skiing and picnics, may we instead stop, remember, cry, share, resolve, help, share and regain strength through sadness, courage through heartbreak and resolve through patriotism. III

Customizing Windows 7 System Restore

Kent — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:25:24 +0000

This artilcle was taken from Lockergnome. I felt it covered and important topic and wanted to pass it along. Here is the link to the origional article. http://www.lockergnome.com/it/2010/04/14/customize-system-restore-in-windows-7/

Many of us have, at one point or another, installed a program or made some change that was harmful to our computers. For such times, you can use Windows 7’s System Restore to restore your computer to a previous point in time without having to reinstall the operating system.

Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 provides a few options for configuring the System Restore option. For example, you can prevent System Restore from backing up your Registry, which means the restore points won’t consume as much disk space.

To access the configuration options:

Click the Start button.
Right click the Computer and click Properties.
Click System Protection.
Click Configure.

The configuration options available are summarized below:

The Restore Settings let you configure what you want to restore. The three options available include: Restore system settings and previous versions of files, Only restore previous versions of files, and Turn off system protection.

The Disk Space Usage setting lets you adjust the maximum amount of disk space used for system protection. A larger value allows more restore points, while a smaller value saves disk space.

Finally, you can delete all the restore points by selecting the Delete button.

Wireless N Standard

Kent — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:04:48 +0000

Over the last month I have been working on an article about Wireless N. My last article on this subject was in October 2007.

My problem is that I start getting too geeky, even for me so I stop and come back to it later only to trash it and start over and then get too geeky again.

Here is my brief synopsis. You can now buy Wireless N, but please stick with same brand products (and same “series” if at all possible).

If your laptop has built in “N” then don’t worry about same brand product there.
If you have previous “N” products they may or may not work. Draft 2.0″ is supposed to be 100% compatible, it is not in my experience however it still might work.

If you can, make everything “N”, the speed is much better than if shared with “B” and “G” devices. If you have “B” devices they need to be replaced anyway.

Configure the router, don’t know how? Check out the forums for the brand you bought or hire a professional company, it will make a difference. Contact IFix Computers at 417-337-7184.

I use SonicWall devices and they even speed up “G” devices. My laptop claims 80 to 120mbps when connected to either SonicWall device I have in use, even though the “G” standard is 54. Hmmm truthful on the part of the device or SonicWall, I don’t know, just reporting the results.

“B” Devices = 11 mbps, “G” and “A” devices = 54 mbps, “N” devices = 270 mbps these are under “perfect” conditions which really never happens. Think of mbps as miles per hour.

MIMO = Multiple in – Multiple out so MIMO “G” could be 104 mbps and “N” could be 540 mbps (or higher with 3 or 4 connections between devices.

Wireless still sucks in Branson because there are so many competing devices such as microphones, cameras, lights, cell phones, microwaves (big and small), mirrors, steel construction … you get the idea.

Well, there you have it, take it and run or my preference, run cable, still the most reliable for networking.

Have a virus free week!

Preventing Windows Update from Rebooting your computer Part 1

Kent — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:30:13 +0000

In my previous post about 64 bit computers I mentioned a time when Microsoft Automatic Updates ran and rebooted a computer of mine while compiling a video. Since then another person I know told me of the same issue and I have received many calls over the last year about “lost” data that occurred when office computers were left on and files such as Excel and Word were left open and unsaved and the system rebooted.

Fortunately most people were using Office 2003 or 2007 so a saved copy was there, however a couple of clients still use Office 2000 and that was a little more difficult.

Today let’s go over how to prevent Windows XP Home, Vista Home and Window 7 Home versions from rebooting automatically after a Windows Automatic Update.

We will need to make the necessary changes to the Windows Registry, as described below. However, before we continue I need to remind you about the dangers ahead.

Dangerous path ahead! Even though the Caretaker brought Voyager into the Delta quadrant unharmed, if you go there without a proper registry backup and without following this star chart exactly you will end up too close to the black hole in galaxy RXJ1242-11, and trust me that wouldn’t be a pretty sight!

Please read my very short article on how to backup the registry if you don’t know how to. On with the show, or article in this case.

Use Task Manager to stop all instances of Windows Update Auto Update Client (wuauclt.exe) by selecting the and keys on your keyboard at the same time, and then choose “Start Task Manager” or the equivalent.

When the “Task Manager” window appears select the “Processes” tab across the top.

I would suggest you select the words “Image Name” for the column; this will put the list alphabetically. By clicking on it a 2nd time, it will be reverse order and thus putting wuault.exe towards the top of the list. Do not be surprised if you have two listings for wuault.exe.

Click on wuault.exe thus highlighting it and then click on the “End Process” button in the lower right of the window.

A warning will appear, don’t fret, select the “Yes” button to terminate the process.

Repeat if necessary.

Close the Windows Task Manager window.

Open the Registry Editor by going to the “Start” button and then clicking on the “Run” button in XP and typing “regedit” in the text box.
If you have Vista or Window 7 just skip the “Run” button part and type in “regedit” in the text box and select “OK” to open the registry.

You will need to Navigate to the following registry key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Microsoft\ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ WindowsUpdate \ Auto Update” by clicking on the plus keys along the left side of the window.

In the right hand window, right-click on a blank area and select “New” and then “DWORD” or “DWORD (32-bit) value” depending on what is available.

A new entry appears, change the name to “NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers” sans quotes and then click on a blank spot.

Double-click on the name NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and in the new window, set the value data to “1”.

Click on “OK” to finish and then exit the Registry.

Now, you should not receive any of those annoying reminders to reboot your machine nor will Windows Update automatically reboot your machine.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week!