Installing XP from DOS the easy way!

Have you ever tried installing windows Xp from Dos, but couldn’t figure out. :hypnotised: Then the guide below will surely help.

1, download the win98SE boot floppy from here if you don’t already have one

2, format a floppy with a normal format

3, run the program you just downloaded to create the floppy

4, start your computer with the win98 startup floppy without cd support.

5, type “fdisk /mbr” (without the inverted commas)

6, type “fdisk” (without the inverted commas) and use the screen that comes up to delete all partitions (unless you have a partition you want to keep).

7, reboot if and when requested. Next step is to create a partition

8, format the partition in FAT32

9, Use the 98 boot floppy to boot the computer with CD support.

10, Insert the win XP cd, and copy the I386 folder from it to your hard drive. Do this by typing each command in order (below) and pressing enter after each one…

11, Change directory to the I386 folder on your harddrive, and run winnt.exe. Do this by entering the following commands, as you just did above…

WinXP should start installing.

spoolsv.exe at 99% CPU usage

My friend called me few days back and he told that his PC is acting very slowly. To me, first it looked like a case of my newbie friend not regularly cleaning his PC with spy or virus removal tools.I checked his PC with Spybot S&D with latest spy definitions , and also check for any virus’s with Norton Anti virus. But still the Pc was lagging. Then I ran the Windows Task Manager and checked which program was using up all the Cpu resource. Fascinatingly a executable named spoolsv.exe was using up 99% of all the resources and wasn’t eager to go down. I even tried to kill the spoolsv.exe process manually, but after a few seconds it again automatically ran in the background and started hogging the CPU.

First look at the exe name, says it has something to do with the printer spool. I looked up at the internet about spoolsv.exe and it’s not a virus anyways, spoolsv.exe is the spooler service responsible for managing spooled print/fax jobs. After a while, I manage to find a way to solve the spoolsv.exe from shooting up to 99% cpu usage problem.

It is advised to turn on the Print Spooler service first. You can do it from Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Look for Print Spooler and stop it.

If it is already stopped, just follow the next step.
Delete ALL files in C:\WINDOWS\system32\spool\PRINTERS. It should have files something like 00020.SHD, 00020.SPL and etc…
Now spoolsv.exe should run but it’s at 0% CPU usage. Nice fix discovered.

Is Vista slower ?

Nah, certainly not, its fast if you have the hardware. A dual or quad core processor, about 2GB of RAM, a decent graphics card with atleast 128MB of dedicated memory are the ingredients that you’d need for your Vista yummy dish!! Well, the PCWorld review does seem to highlight to this fact that “Vista is fast if you got the hardware”. It works well with multiple core processors, thats one of the highlights. The new candy-bar interface doesn’t appeal to me personally, so I’d overlook that. So besides that, I don’t find anything in this that I might find good enough to upgrade, not to say that there might be several other issues with Vista as well which might cause disappointment/fury in those who come across them and might keep some from upgrading.

Reset Or Change Administrator Password On Windows XP

Here’s a quick and easy way to change your administrator password on Windows XP.

1. Place your Windows XP CD in your cd-rom and start your computer (it’s assumed here that your XP CD is bootable - as it should be - and that you have your bios set to boot from CD).
2. Keep your eye on the screen messages for booting to your CD typically, it will be “Press any key to boot from CD”.
   
3. Once you get in, the first screen will indicate that Setup is inspecting your system and loading files. When you get to the Welcome to Setup screen, press ENTER to Setup Windows now.
4. The Licensing Agreement comes next - Press F8 to accept it.
5. The next screen is the Setup screen which gives you the option to do a Repair. It should read something like “If one of the following Windows XP installations is damaged, Setup can try to repair it”. Use the up and down arrow keys to select your XP installation (if you only have one, it should already be selected) and press R to begin the Repair process.
6. Let the Repair run. Setup will now check your disks and then start copying files which can take several minutes.
7. Shortly after the Copying Files stage, you will be required to reboot (this will happen automatically - you will see a progress bar stating “Your computer will reboot in XX seconds”).
8. During the reboot, do not make the mistake of “pressing any key” to boot from the CD again! Setup will resume automatically with the standard billboard screens and you will notice Installing Windows is highlighted.
9. Keep your eye on the lower left hand side of the screen and when you see the Installing Devices progress bar, press SHIFT + F10. A command console will now open up giving you the potential for wide access to your system.
10. At the prompt, type NUSRMGR.CPL and press Enter. Voila! You have just gained graphical access to your User Accounts in the Control Panel.
11. Now simply pick the account you need to change and remove or change your password as you prefer. If you want to log on without having to enter your new password, you can type control userpasswords2 at the prompt and choose to log on without being asked for password. After you’ve made your changes close the windows, exit the command box and continue on with the Repair (have your Product key handy).
12. Once the Repair is done, you will be able to log on with your new password (or without a password if you chose not to use one or if you chose not to be asked for a password). Your programs and personalized settings should remain intact.

Google does Domains!!

Well, Google had been an ICANN approved domain registrar for quite long but hasn’t been into providing domain registration services….. till yet! Many(including myself) believed that maybe Google got this so that they have access to domain registries & have an insight on the domain names & their information, maybe something to do with improving their search service.

But now Google will provide domain registration services as well. However they won’t be registering the domains themselves as they’ve partnered with GoDaddy and eNom to provide these services. This service will be an addon in their Google Apps for your domain package where they offer web applications like email, chat, calendar etc. for people wanting them on their own domains. Now you can register for a domain for these services as well at an yearly fee of $10.

There are however no fees for the Google Apps which are still free & in beta but a premium Google Apps for your domain service will also be offered from next year for a fee.

Source: c|net

Speed up your Series 60 phone upto 80%

With few tricks you can speed up your phone upto 80% in few cases. Just follow these tricks?

In your phone first go to To-do List. Make a note and input as follows:
- Subject: Speed
- Due Date: 29-01-2005(dd-mm-yy)
- Priority: set to High
then press done.

Go to option again and make a second note and input as follows:
- Subject: Qoukie
- Due Date: 29-01-2005(dd-mm-yy)
- Priority: set to Low
then press done.

Do not exit yet. Highlight the Speed note, select Options and Mark as done. Then highlight the Qoukie note, select Options and Mark as done. Now, reboot your mobile.

It may seem like crazy bull****, April fool blah blah but it isn’t. This tip is great for symbian phones, especially for Nokia 3230 which the slowest phone among symbian OS.

You may now ask what this tip did. Dude this tips will increase your phone speed including fast start up and browser, improve speed on camera and video cam app, 3d Gaming, MP3 player and other applications. On easy word, it will make your phone much faster then earlier. Try benchmarking before and after you use this tip using SPmark or other application. And post your opinion here. Even without a benchmark app you still will see the difference. Believe me. :hypnotised:

For the Nokia 3230 user, this is what all of you waiting for…. Speed. Some of you may have experienced lack of speed especially menu to menu browsing, loading programs, uninstall java app.,opening gallery and app. manager especially if you have big memory (mine 512mb). So this is a solution. No need to upgrade your firmware for speed anymore.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you have Symantec Mobile Security installed, disable auto-protect or uninstall the whole thing if you feel safe enough without it because Symantec can’t recognize this trick and refuse to start. The better way is, change your Antivirus app to other. E.g. F-Secure, Simswork av etc.

NOTE:
This trick is not a virus or other related.

For better performance, try these tips also:

1. First, go to menu and select LOG and then press. Then press option, go to setting. On log duration set the log to 1 day. The more days its set, the slower it seems to be.
2. Use a Default theme. (For Nokia 3230 owner, no.2 default theme is pretty nice). If you install 3rd party theme, it will be slower especially if you installed it on MMC (the more your MMC memory, the more your phone will be slow).

Dudes just reply if the phone is getting faster.

Formatting or Reseting Nokia series 60 phones

It may happens that a program corrupts the C: drive of your phone. In such case, some data can be lost of course but, more annoying, some applications may not work or work only partially,…:cry:

On a Series 60 based phone, two key sequences will allow to restore your phone to a cleaner state:

Normal Reset (*#7780#): Restores ini files from Rom but preserves user data (photos, 3rd party apps etc)

Deep Reset (*#7370#): This reformats completely the C: drive. All applications and files stored on this drive will be lost and clean default files will be rewritten.

In both case, the phone will ask you a confirmation and you will have to enter a security code (12345 by default).

Files and applications stored on E: drive are not be affected by these sequences.

Useful helps: Full phone formatting a 6600! Here to let everybody how to perform a Full phone formatting on a 6600!
If you encounter situation like below on your 6600,

1. Blank screen phone unable to reboot.

2. Phone only able to boot-up to “Nokia” word screen.

3. Install some program but not able to uninstall it after that.

4. Unable to delete unwanted files on C drive.

Do a Full phone formatting on your 6600! As steps below,

1. Make sure you have at least 3/4 charge of battery power left.

2. Backup your contacts list and personal files to MMC memory card.

3. Switch-off your 6600 phone.

4. Press and hold 3 keys; Green dial key, * Star key, no. 3 key on keypad and then press the power on/off to switch on the 6600 phone. Remember, do not let go the 3 press and hold keys until you see a formatting word screen show!

5. After a few minutes when the Full phone formatting completed, your 6600 will back to original system and factory setting

Now you got a phone as good as new.:bingo:

Get your Windows back!!

I had a dual boot machine with Windows and Ubuntu installed on different partitions, but my 80GB hard-disk was just about full and I needed some more space. But I wasn’t ready to plug in my 160GB HDD for that, nah better keep it as a USB drive. So the only option for me was to say goodbye to Ubuntu for a while & recover about 10GB of disk space from it.

But there was another problem. There’s not a simple way of un-installing an operating system as you can do with a software installed on an operating system. The only way to do it was to login to windows & delete the partition having Ubuntu. But then the problem was that GRUB bootloader would also have been deleted & I wouldn’t have been able to boot into windows as Ubuntu re-wrote the MBR(Master Boot Record) when it was installed.

I searched the internet for a solution, & I got many solutions as well, but they were different in approaches. Some sounded absurd straightaway even to me since I’m not so proficient in these matters. Some even suggested re-installing windows! Finally I came across a solution on Microsoft’s website, but then that required me to have FDISK utility, b’coz then I’d just have to boot via the disk having that & then after logging in to windows, open the command prompt & issue the undocumented command:

But alas, I didn’t have that utility. I searched the internet again, didn’t find a download of the Microsoft version but found another version here. And I wasn’t sure if this would work, since it might damage my windows installation than doing any good!!

But it was my good day nevertheless, I came across another solution that required WindowsXP installation CD. So I decided to take on the risk(it was risk as I was doing it first time & if it went wrong then that would’ve meant 1 full day gone in installing windows & all my software and configuring them again). First I deleted the Ubuntu partition from the Windows Disk-Manager & then restarted the machine. After inserting the WinXP CD, I booted from it & at the first screen, when given the choice, chose recovery console. It asked me to log into windows using administrator which I did & then when I got the prompt, I entered the following command:

Just this command, nothing else. It then asked me whether I want to proceed & that my partition tables might get damaged. I chose to proceed & it fixed(rewrote) the MBR. Then I exited the recovery console which rebooted the PC. This time I chose to boot from HDD as normal and voila, my windows bootloader came up!!

What I was thinking would be quite tricky proved to be just a piece of cake that tasted quite good!! So this is for all those who want to remove linux from their machines but are wondering how to get windows back after that!! :tup:

PS3 officially launched

Playstation 3 had been buzzing for quite a while now. But on 11th of this month it was finally released in Japan. Yet still it looks like a long wait for the American gamers as it will be officially released on 17th, but surely anticipation is really on the high.

Since only 80,000 pieces of PS3 got the green flag, chances of getting a PS3 were real slim, yet huge crowds gathered up. According to GameSpot, the Yodabashi Camera store in Akihabara cleared the street clutter by moving over 1,500 waiting customers into an underground parking garage at a still-early 1:30 am. But we in india won’t get a chance to get our hands on this console for a while.

The console is rather cheap as the 20GB PS3 was sold for approx. $424 and the 60GB PS3, which carried no official MSRP, sold for approx. $533, considering the amount of horsepower under the hood of the PS3. Now for Sony its just about getting some good bunch of games, just they did with the PS2.

Microsoft’s killer app for Xbox 360

Well Xbox 360’s killer app may have just arrived. After much hype and speculations Gears of War was officially released on 7th November. Till now i have only managed to see some movies of gameplay and graphics. But one thing is sure this game surely has mind numbing graphics, can’t wait to hack that chainsaw gun on few unfortunates.

You can’t tell anything until you have personally played a game. Well reviews have been coming from all over the net and they all agree this is Microsoft’s bet for coming early into the next gen console war. Sony might just have to bring some real awesome games to become the king of consoles. Microsoft can just relax now and hope that Halo 3 release goes according to plan, no delays whatsoever.
Check out some official scores from various sites.
IGN: 9.4/10
GameSpot: 9.6/10
1up: 100/100
TeamXbox: 9.6/10
DailyGame: 90/100
GameInformer: 95/100

Here’s what 1up had to say about the game and why they gave a perfect score:

Each stage is memorable. Even as I write this a week after beating the campaign, I can recall dozens of “oh wow” moments, like the first time I encountered the shrieking wretches (that horrible noise they make will haunt you for days). Or when the blind, hulking berserker was stalking me by sound and smell alone. Or the part where I was defending my old home from a Locust onslaught (it felt like a smaller scale, more domesticated version of Lord of the Rings’ Battle of Helm’s Deep). Or when I looked at the face of an apartment complex, and dozens of drones were firing at me through the windows, their muzzle flashes strobe-lighting the darkness like we were on a CNN newscast, live from some war-torn third-world country. Or the parts where I have to blow up propane tanks because staying in the light will keep the flesh-tearing Kryll at bay…. They all combine for an unforgettable adventure through 36 hectic, desperate hours of a group of soldiers’ lives.

If I had some money I would surely get a Xbox 360 and a copy of Gears of war. This game is simply stunning. Definitly this game was worth the wait.