and
Some Interesting Links.
Hello, I am sure the majority of Windows Millennium users will, by now, be aware that support for our operating system will end on June 30th. 2006. Microsoft has, in part, this to say:
"
Effective June 30, 2006, Windows Me (and its related components) will transition to a non-supported status. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates. Microsoft is not offering a custom support agreement for this product." (n.b. Edited for this thread).
This is not a cause for alarm since those existing updates, from the very first to the date mentioned will still be available from the catalog - here:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.co...en/default.asp
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I was very pleased to find this website today:
http://www.kayodeok.btinternet.co.uk...kbasewinme.htm
Searching for 'stuff' on WinMe is inevitably rewarding. One's tech. folder is packed with articles and links garnered over five years. I have made a resolution than each time my ISP goes down I will attempt to bring some order to mine.
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Here is an interesting "rant" about the limitations of our preferred O/S.
http://www.apptools.com/rants/resources.php
I think it well written and can have no quarrel with it. My resources after a couple of surfing/music-converting/etc hours on-line show the figures as per the attached gif. A reboot would change those figures but I detect no actual slow-down in performance since they are still relatively high. I read 'somewhere' (sorry
) that this is an interesting thing to do; open the same window to a website and watch those figure sneak down. I opened ten instances of the above link at which point the resource meter showed 63/70/63. After closing them all the meter showed 80/80/82 which is close to what the meter gif shows.
Where is the Resource Meter? Start>Settings>Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs>Windows Setup tab>System Tools - highlight this and click on Details. I find this so interesting I have in my Startup folder - and so it sits by the clock. Double click the icon and up it pops, or hover the mouse pointer over the icon and get the read-outs that way.
HiJackThis has to be a tool we are all, or nearly all, aware of - available here:
http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/ scroll well down the page, current version 1.99 or properly 1.99.0.1
It gives a lot of information about our systems. So much so that I wish folk would post it automatically if they have problems with slow computers and other mysterious goings-on. The log-file HijackThis produces shows Running processes and a whole string of other items. I attach mine.
If you are interested in the items listed, copy the the log and paste it here:
http://www.hijackthis.de/
and careful reading of what the analysis says may well prompt you to seek further clarification of precisely what those assorted items mean.
See my log attached.
These are the significances associated with the "R0", R"1" etc.
R0, R1, R2, R3 - Internet Explorer Start/Search pages URLs
F0, F1 - Autoloading programs
N1, N2, N3, N4 - Netscape/Mozilla Start/Search pages URLs
O1 - Hosts file redirection
O2 - Browser Helper Objects
O3 - Internet Explorer toolbars
O4 - Autoloading programs from Registry
O5 - IE Options icon not visible in Control Panel
O6 - IE Options access restricted by Administrator
O7 - Regedit access restricted by Administrator
O8 - Extra items in IE right-click menu
O9 - Extra buttons on main IE button toolbar, or extra items in IE 'Tools' menu
O10 - Winsock hijacker
O11 - Extra group in IE 'Advanced Options' window
O12 - IE plugins
O13 - IE DefaultPrefix hijack
O14 - 'Reset Web Settings' hijack
O15 - Unwanted site in Trusted Zone
O16 - ActiveX Objects (aka Downloaded Program Files)
O17 - Lop.com domain hijackers
O18 - Extra protocols and protocol hijackers
O19 - User style sheet hijack
for more info:
http://aumha.org/a/hjttutor.php http://www.malwarehelp.org/understan...ting-hjt1.html http://www.pchell.com/support/hijackthistutorial.shtml http://www.castlecops.com/HijackThis.html
or do a search here in TSG.
If you have a concern about your computers current performance count the number of items you have under the R04 heading - do you really need all of them? Post your log in the appropriate forum for your operating system and ask for a check of it.
Warning:
The careless (uninformed) use of HijackThis can have serious consequences for your computer.
Here is a good example of a thread in TSG dealing with 'overburden':
http://forums.techguy.org/3281116-post1.html (from 12th.Jan.'06)
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In my post, #29 above, I wrote of
Spider as being a great viewing tool for index.dat files. Well here is a tool for taking a quick look at the burden of all the other files on your computer:
http://www.vb2java.com/cleanie.html
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And finally!!!!!!!!
Do you like acronyms? Really? Well they are a useful short-write, I guess. A good site here:
http://www.acronymfinder.com/
Cheers.