July 2006 – Page 3

Microsoft acquires Winternals and Sysinternals

Slashdot is reporting that Winternals and Sysinternals are acquired by Microsoft.

Congratulations mark and his team!!!

I hope we will see more exacting stuff from them or Windows power utilities. From markâ€™s blog “I’m very pleased to announce that Microsoft has acquired Winternals Software and Sysinternals. Bryce Cogswell and I founded both Winternals and Sysinternals (originally NTInternals) back in 1996 with the goal of developing advanced technologies for Windows. Weâ€™ve had an incredible amount of fun over the last ten years working on a wide range of diverse products such as Winternals Administratorâ€™s Pak, Protection Manager, Defrag Manager, and Recovery Manager, and the dozens of Sysinternals tools, including Filemon, Regmon and Process Explorer, that millions of people use every day for systems troubleshooting and management.”

Read more at Markâ€™s blog and Slashdot story

Find out my CPU speed and type in Windows or Linux system

There are many ways to detect which CPU you are using (AMD or Intel), speed and other stuff such as cache memory etc.

With following commands/tools, you will be able get following information:
=> Detect CPU cache
=> CPU speed and type (processor speed)
=> CPU Manufacturer (AMD, Intel etc)

Detect CPU speed and make Using Windows XP/2000/2003

Goto Desktop
Right-click the My Computer icon
Select Properties

You will see CPU information at the bottom of dialog box.

Detect CPU speed and make Using Linux

Type the following command:

less /proc/cpuinfo

Detect CPU speed and make Using Third party utilities for Windows system

There are third party utilities which can be used to detect the CPU. Please note that not all programs are free some of them are free or shareware. These programs also provides the system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for CPU, FPU, disk and memory etc. Some program may include additional stuff such as hardware monitoring and diagnostics capabilities. Following are two my favorite programs:

Other free program:

CHKCPU

Over the hedge animated movie review

This is true fun animated movie (better than other one I saw ) for both kids and adults like me.

It is really fun to see RJ (bruce wills) the smart raccoon and his friends. RJ takes vincen food and now he has only 2 weeks to repay a debt of food (LOL).

Cast:

Voice : Bruce Willis (RJ), Garry Shandling (Verne), William Shatner (Ozzie) and others
I give 4/5 for this movie.

Golmaal movie review

This is story of four college students. They are doing all sort of things which makes them infamous.

So the college dean throws them out of hostel and they have no place to stay. So they come with plan to enter into bunglow.

Overall, it is a good comedy movie, IMHO.

As usual, Ajay and Praesh Rawal at best. I didn’t like music much. You can only watch it once.

Cast

Ajay Degan, Arshad Warsi, Tusshar Kappor, Sharman Joshi, Rimmi Sen, Praesh Rawal etc
Direction: Rohit shetty
My ratting: 3/5

Don’t forget to add your own review below.

Understanding Windows Vista Explorer File management

This article talks about File management with Vista Explorer. Vista Explorer features some significant changes in both layout and functionality. Take a tour of the new Explorer’s redesigned interface.

FTA “One of the most significant changes to Vista’s interface is the new look of the Windows Explorer file management tool. Explorer has undergone much more than just cosmetic changes. It’s now more intuitive and easier to use in many ways–although it may take a little getting used to for those who have become set in the ways of its Windows 2000/XP predecessors. In this article, we’ll take a look at the new Explorer and how you can use it to make everyday tasks easier.”

Indian-born scientist developing coated DVD’s that can make hard disks obsolete

An Indian born scientist in the US is working on developing DVD’s which can be coated with a light -sensitive protein and can store up to 50 terabytes (about 50,000 gigabytes) of data.

Professor V Renugopalakrishnan of the Harvard Medical School in Boston has claimed to have developed a layer of protein made from tiny genetically altered microbe proteins which could store enough data to make computer hard disks almost obsolete.

Repair the master boot record (MBR) on Windows NTFS partition

Windows NT /2000/XP or Windows server comes with NTFS partition. However some time you are not able to boot from Windows XP/2003 NTFS boot partition due to some reasons such as corrupted MBR or Linux installation problem.

You need to use FIXMBR to fix the master boot record (MBR) on Windows NTFS partition. However, the fixmbr command is only available when you are using the Recovery Console.

Procedure

a) Set BIOS to boot from CD/DVD

b) Inset your Windows setup CD

c) When prompted select Recovery Console option

d) Now go to C:\WINNT or C:\WINDOWS

e) Next type following command:

fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

f) But how did I obtained the device \Device\HardDisk0 name? The device (drive) on which you want to write a new master boot record can be obtained from the output of the map command. Type following command:

map
fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0

g) Type exit to restart system

exit

h) Remove CD and boot from hard disk.

References

Fixmbr documentation

Mumbai rocks once again because of blast on commuter train

Blast rocks commuter train in Mumbai. This is the hard time. More than 130 people have died so far.

This is clearly a terrorist attack on us. As usual government failed to provide emergency services in the city. Mumbai’s local trains are the lifeline of the city and more than 5 million people travel everyday.

May God help all of us in such terrible time.

You can also call on the following helpline:
Lilavati Hospital – 022-64338281
Hinduja Hospital – 022-24451515
JJ Hospital – 022-23735555
KEM Hospital – 022-24136051
Western Railways – 022-22005388
CST Railway Police – 022-22620176
State Police Control – 022-22026566
Mumbai Police Control – 100
More @ The Times of India blog

More news coverage

Windows XP: How do I hide folders or files using encrypting file system feature?

If you are using Windows XP Professional edition, it comes with nifty feature called EFS (encrypting file system). Please note that, EFS is Windows XP Professional edition feature only i.e. EFS is not part of Windows XP Home edition.

Using EFS it is possible to encrypt and hide both files and folder.

How do I use EFS?
Make sure you are using NTFS partition.
Now select file or folder you would like to encrypt
Right click a file/folder > Select Properties

Click on Advanced

Click the box that read as â€œEncrypt contents to secure data.â€ > Click Ok > Click Ok

Now if other users try to open your file or folder they will get access denied error message.

This way you can protect all the sensitive information on your PC from unwanted users. Now no one can read your files :) Encryption is really nifty feature of Windows XP Professional’s system.

How do I allow someone to view my encrypted files?
Windows XP allows you to add your co-worker or friend to view files. You need to provide them access over local or networked based computer.
Select file
Right Click > Select properties
Click Details
Click Add
Select the user you want to provides access to your encrypted files, and click OK

How do I decrypting files or folders?
Select encrypted file/folder
Click on File/Folder
Click on Advanced
Remove the check mark from the box next “Encrypt contents to secure data,”
Click OK twice.