The Weekly Geek » Uncategorized

Veterans Day

Kent — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:31:24 +0000

Thank you, Doug and David Myers (Father and son), Scott Perkins, John and Mark Meade (Brothers), George and Graham Allen (Father and son), Tony McGinnis, Bob and Chris Hanson and Stephanie Hanson – Koontz (Father, son and daughter), Rocket and Tyler (Father and son) Anderson, David Askew.

Changing the Registered User information in XP and Vista

Kent — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:30:15 +0000

Now that Windows XP and Vista machines are being replaced at work with new Windows 7 machines you might have a chance to take one home or buy a used PC from any of several places. When you begin to use the computer you won’t want the previous owners information showing up under the System resources or part of the fields automatically filled in by some software programs.

To see the current registered owner and organization, right-click on “My Computer”, select “properties” from the bottom of the list. In Windows XP you will see the information in the “General” tab area. This is not the Computer Name or network but simply who the computer was registered to when Windows was first run / installed.

Changing this information is easy. However, it involves editing the registry and that my friends can be tricky. So go back through my past articles and learn how to backup the registry, if you don’t sure enough, the Evil Villian “Total My PC” (TMPC for short) will eat your system.

Alright, now that you have backed up your registry, let’s begin.

Both the registered owner and register organization values are stored in the same part of the Registry. To change the values (in Windows XP and Vista) open the Registry Editor and navigate the left colum to the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Once there, look on the right hand window and you will find the ”RegisteredOwner” and “RegisterOrganization” entries.

To edit the value for each entry simply double click on the entry name ( ”RegisteredOwner” and / or “RegisterOrganization”).

When the new window appears change the information as necessary and click on “OK” to finish.

Once you have made your desired changes close the registry editor and reboot, now you should see your correct information.

Until we meet again, have a virus free week.

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!