It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the Windows XP feature called "Set Program Access and Defaults." Originally, this feature arrived as a result of the settlement between Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice, which (among other things) required Microsoft to make it easier for users to select alternative programs to those [...]
Adding a Large SATA Drive to an Older Computer
A couple weeks ago, I bought a 1 TB SATA II hard drive to add to my home theater PC. I already had one SATA II drive (3.0 Gigabits/second) installed in the computer, on which I had the drive’s jumper set to SATA I (1.5 Gigabits/second). I "knew" the new drive wouldn’t be a problem [...]
Adding a Computer to an Existing Home Network
OK, you have a new computer and you’ve made the decision to keep your old computer, and you want your spouse and children to be able to do email and surf the web without demanding your computer. Let’s assume you already have an existing home computer network — if you don’t, the first article in [...]
ActiveSync Installation Problems
I had a severe problem installing the ActiveSync conduit on the PC. ActiveSync is the program that recognizes the Smartphone and synchronizes its contacts and emails with Outlook. Other programs also link into ActiveSync to handle synchronization, if they have a PC counterpart to their Smartphone program. When I tried to install ActiveSync — when [...]
Accessing The Computer’s BIOS Setup
Sometimes, we need to get into the BIOS Setup Utility that’s built into our computers. The BIOS, the Basic Input-Output System, is the chip that controls how your computer talks to many peripheral devices, like keyboards. It controls which drive attempts to boot first, second, and so forth. It even enables some users to do [...]
A Better, and Free, Way to See What’s Running
Program: Process Explorer Author: Mark Russinovich, SysInternals Website: www.SysInternals.com A good thing came out of Mark Russinovich’s discovery of the Sony BMG music CD rootkits. I found his SysInternals.com web site and his free program Process Explorer. In my article svchost.exe – What is it and why are so many copies running?, I discussed viewing [...]
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