Posts Tagged ‘XP’

How to make an XP PC default to the correct Wi-Fi connection

May 26th, 2011

HELPROOM ANSWER When your computer enters Hibernate mode it switches off the wireless card; on wake up it seeks out the networks it regards as the most accessible. Windows XP isn’t the most wireless-friendly operating system, and it has problems correctly starting up hardware when waking from Hibernate.

These issues have been fixed in Vista and Windows 7. As XP is no longer supported, you should consider upgrading the operating system (assuming your hardware is up to the task). You can get a copy of Vista Home Premium for just £45 at amazon.co.uk.

In the meantime, change your settings to make your own wireless network the default, with no other networks available for connection. Open the wireless connection settings, right-click those you don’t want to use and select Disable.

Next, open the Control Panel and go to Network Connections. Right-click your wireless card and select the Wireless Networks tab. In the box marked ‘Preferred networks’, ensure your home access point appears at the top by highlighting it and clicking the ‘Move up’ button as necessary. This will force Windows to look only to the preferred connection, ignoring the wireless connections you’ve disabled.

Source:http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/network-wifi/3282334/how-to-make-an-xp-pc-default-to-the-correct-wi-fi-connection/

Guest Columnist: Replace Windows XP

April 26th, 2011

Windows XP is the most commonly used PC operating system in the world today. This is despite the fact that Windows XP was first released in 2001, which was eons ago for technology.

The bad news is that anyone with a computer running Windows XP needs to plan, now — not later — to replace XP with a newer operating system. Let’s explore why that is the case, and why there is some good news to be found in the process.

Tech support being phased out

In April 2009 (yes, two years ago), Microsoft moved Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) from “Mainstream Support” to “Extended Support.” This means that Microsoft will continue to provide regular security updates, but technical support, warranty claims and design changes are no longer being offered. Also note that versions older than XP SP3, such as XP SP2, have reached “end of life” and are no longer supported.

More significantly, in April 2014, Windows XP SP3 will reach “end of life.” That means there won’t be any more fixes, technical support, and, most importantly, security patches. You cannot safely maintain a PC without security patches. Also, the applications that are essential to run your business will be ending support for Windows XP versions. Most anti-virus software vendors will no longer offer signatures for new viruses for Windows XP.

Don’t wait until end of 2012

The Gartner Group and other IT industry experts recommend that you plan to be off Windows XP by the end of 2012. But, in my mind, there is a risk to waiting even that long. In the first half of 2010, Windows XP SP3 computers were infected at a rate almost five times higher than Windows 7 computers. XP is simply too antiquated to combat modern-day hackers and virus writers. And if you have been reading my columns, you will remember that the viruses that you should be concerned about are those that you do not know you have. They are stealing your sensitive data, and they make your computer run more slowly by using your computer as a spam relay, or to disseminate pornography or other illicit materials.

Two upgrade choices

There are two primary paths to upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7. Upgrade your current PCs to Windows 7, or purchase new computers with Windows 7 pre-installed. Upgrading your PC makes sense if your computer is one or two years old. Many older PCs are simply not powerful enough to run Windows 7, and, even if they are, the investment to upgrade may exceed the value of the computer. After five years, the hardware is much more likely to experience a mechanical failure. Certainly, for computers that are at least four years old, it is more cost-effective to replace them with new computers that have Windows 7 pre-installed.

The good news is that Windows 7 comes with many great new features. In my next column, I will describe some of the more popular new features that can make your computing life easier and/or more efficient.

Source:http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110426/BIZ/104260321

Seagate launches 3tb hard drives, xp compatible

March 4th, 2011

Hard drive manufacturer Seagate has launched a 3 terabyte (TB) internal hard drive. It’s the first drive of its kind (and size) that can work smoothly with Windows XP. For the record, 3 TB is equivalent to 3,000 GB (gigabytes), which is an awful lot of information.
2.1 TB Size Limitation Imposed in the 1980s

By default, Windows XP and earlier systems have an internal limitation that can only read hard drives that are smaller than 2.1TB. That’s because of a decision in the early 1980s to place a limit on what’s known as the logical block address, which is the system that decides where to physically arrange and place data on a drive.

At the time it seemed inconceivable that such huge drives would ever exist. Obviously, that’s changed, which is why Vista and Windows 7 were both designed to handle larger hard drives.
Hardware Tweaks Necessary for Drives > 2.1 TB

Until now, there was no simple way around the 2.1TB limit. The best solution was to divide the drive into smaller partitions, but this also required hardware changes such as adding a special mass storage card inside the computer or even replacing the PC’s main board.

Without these changes, a computer wouldn’t recognize all of the available space, which also meant that any hard drive greater than 2.1TB wouldn’t be bootable. While there are ways around the issue, but it’s a fairly large inconvenience and certainly a big problem for small form factor PCs (SFF) that only have room for a single hard drive.

Seagate was the first company to release a 3TB drive, but that was a model only suitable for use as an external (portable) drive. Western Digital and Hitachi both went on to release 3TB drives for use inside a PC, but with major limitations for older computers.
Virtual Solution Now Available for 3 TB Drives, and Larger

Seagate has now released an internal 3 TB hard drive that comes with special software to solve the 2.1 TB limitation.

It’s a virtual device driver which simulates a piece of hardware; in this case the hard drive. When Windows wants to communicate with the hard drive it actually communicates with the virtual device driver, which then passes the information on to the real drive in a manner that overcomes the 2.1TB limit.

To put things into context, 3TB (which is 3,000 GB) is enough to store the same data that would fill 640 single layer DVD recordable discs (at 4.7GB each). It’s also enough space, at the common MP3 quality of 128 Kbits per second, to store just short of six years of continuous music.

Source:http://www.infopackets.com/news/hardware/2011/20110303_seagate_launches_3tb_hard_drives_xp_compatible.htm

Will Windows XP Really Die On Cue?

March 2nd, 2011

I’ve been happily using Windows 7 as my primary operating system ever since its release in 2009; it’s a great step up from Vista — especially Vista — or XP. A recent experience, however, makes me wonder if Microsoft can really drop support for Windows XP in August 2014 as it says it will.

A friend was starting a work-at-home contract job for a large organization. The company doesn’t provide PCs, but for security reasons has strict rules about the kind of software that can be used on the PC that the contractor provides. For example, no peer-communication software such as IRC or Skype can be installed and the company’s monitoring package will not allow it to be present. As a result, she needed a completely different PC that she could use for doing this work that was totally separate from her main computer.

Over the past six or seven years I have collected quite a few computers and parts, some of them from PCs retired as I’ve upgraded systems for family members. With all that hardware hanging around, it seemed that I could do her a favor and put together a PC that she could use. How hard could it be? Well, darned near impossible as it turns out. In the end, the computer I gave her was the best PC that 2005 had to offer.

The first thing I thought about doing was using one of the old PCs with Windows 7. After all, why not give a friend the latest and greatest that Microsoft has to offer? So I took one of the relatively recent PCs and installed Windows 7. It almost kinda sorta worked, but there was a problem with the video card that caused it to generate all kinds of video artifacts whenever the system went to sleep. I tried different video driver versions but no matter what it would not work.

No problem, though, I had several different video cards. However, none of them were good enough for Windows 7, which requires DirectX 9.0 support. So I tried a few different circa-2006 motherboards that had built-in video. Nope, they weren’t up to snuff either. And by the way, this is easier to say than it was to do. With a pile of parts there’s no easy way to know if they are good enough to run Windows 7 or not. It may take a couple of hours to set up the hardware, try an install, and find out that it’s not going to work.

Perhaps this kind of Windows 7 upgrade pain wouldn’t be so much of a problem in companies that keep a good inventory of the hardware they are running, or run a large number of similarly-configured PCs. Just having a working PC in the first place would have made it possible to run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to find out whether the PC was up to snuff. Yet based on this experience, I suspect that there are plenty of PCs in companies still running XP that don’t have the ability to upgrade to Windows 7.

Source:http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229219500

Windows XP get the latest drivers is easier than you think!

November 15th, 2010

If you are a PC user, then you should recognize that it is very important for you to update the drivers for your operating system at regular intervals. The fact remains that while operating systems are fully operational at the time of their launch, but they require strict plucking occasionally to stay current. As the technology that surrounds us going all the time, the operating system of our electronic computer must meet our needs maturating. There are common drivers Windows XP update that is published on a daily basis to reflect the new hardware. The hardware market sees the launch of new hardware from time to time. The drivers that are using the computer to understand what conduct themselves with some of the equipment installed. They interface with electronic devices and your computer so that each piece of the device (mouse, TV card, keyboard, sound card, screen printing machine, modem, etc.) works perfectly. Today we also recognize that Microsoft is still raising their products, but this does not mean you support to prevent the release of actual purchase. What you can do however is to produce an updated device driver for Windows XP for your devices. It can be very confusing to find the driver you need, then here’s where you want automatic software update driver. It will manage all the updates for all drivers of all your devices in the blink of an eye.

Windows XP was founded quite a few days ago when he did not suffer some of the material today, but gradually the drivers Windows XP update have been revealed and it has begun bearing such hardware as well. Imagine you just bought the last card game in the market, you have almost certainly enough to keep the appropriate Windows XP drivers are updated to use the full potential of your Having Updates Windows XP device driver is more effort Than You remember! CPU. Unmanned particular hardware goes futile. Try updating your drivers as often as feasible, such as new device drivers are built to provide greater compatibility. If you have a hardware manufacturer to ensure that property then see if your device is supported before downloading the Windows XP drivers updated. Make sure you keep the Automatic Updates feature on, which will allow your PC to download drivers when he needs them. These quick fixes and patches available on a daily basis, so stay informed. Times have changed and today you can easily save you hundreds of dollars because you can manage yourself! You do not even need to be an ace, you just need a software wizard, or at least a big one. Currently, there are some software product, you can count Robot Driver. This software will look on your computer to control what you put in place and provide updates for you mechanically. I found Driver Robot to be a little more pervasive, because it has a large database of device drivers.

If you are a PC user, then you should recognize that it is very important for you to update the drivers for your operating system at regular intervals. The fact remains that while operating systems are fully operational at the time of their launch, but they require strict plucking occasionally to stay current. As the technology that surrounds us going all the time, the operating system of our electronic computer must meet our needs maturating. There are common drivers Windows XP update that is published on a daily basis to reflect the new hardware. The hardware market sees the launch of new hardware from time to time.

Drivers are what

using the computer to understand what conduct themselves with some of the equipment installed. They interface with electronic devices and your computer so that each piece of the device (mouse, TV card, keyboard, sound card, screen printing machine, modem, etc.) works perfectly.

Today, we also recognize that Microsoft is still raising their products, but this does not mean you support to prevent the release of actual purchase. What you can do however is to produce an updated device driver for Windows XP for your devices.

It can be very confusing to find the driver you need, then here’s where you want automatic software update driver. It will manage all the updates for all drivers of all your devices in the blink of an eye.

Windows XP was founded quite a few days ago when he did not suffer some of the material today, but gradually the drivers Windows XP update have been revealed and it has begun bearing such hardware as well.

Imagine you just bought the last card game in the market, you have almost certainly enough to keep the appropriate Windows XP drivers are updated to use the full potential of your

Having Windows XP update device drivers is more effort Than you remember!

CPU. Unmanned particular hardware goes futile. Try updating your drivers as often as feasible, such as new device drivers are built to provide greater compatibility. If you have a hardware manufacturer to ensure that property then see if your device is supported before downloading the Windows XP drivers updated. Make sure you keep the Automatic Updates feature on, which will allow your PC to download drivers when he needs them. These quick fixes and patches available on a daily basis, so stay informed.

Times have changed and today you can easily save you hundreds of dollars because you can manage yourself! You do not even need to be an ace, you just need a software wizard, or at least a big one.

Currently, there are some software product, you can count Robot Driver. This software will look on your computer to control what you put in place and provide updates for you mechanically. I found Driver Robot to be a little more pervasive, because it has a large database of device drivers.

Source:http://i486.net/2010/11/15/windows-xp-get-the-latest-drivers-is-easier-than-you-think/

How to Boot Into Safe Mode: Windows 7, Vista & XP Guide

November 14th, 2010

If you are running Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista or 7 you may at some point need to boot into Safe Mode, this is a great diagnostic mode for Windows-based PCs and can often help you rectify problems.

In this post we will show you how to boot into Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt, if your computer fails to boot into Safe Mode it usually means that there is a more serious problem, such as a hardware fault or a corruption of important system files.

The first thing you must do is completely shut down your computer, once off you should turn it back on, wait roughly 5 seconds and then repeatedly press F8, if all goes to plan you should see a screen which says advanced boot options or something similar (see image below).

You can then use the up and down keys on your keyboard to choose different boot modes, when you have the correct one highlighted press enter and your PC will then boot into that mode.

In Safe Mode your computer only starts up a minimal amount of processes and services, this is for diagnostic purposes, however this does limit your computer’s functionality, one thing which you may notice is that there is no internet connectivity.

If your computer connects to the internet via a network/router you can instead choose Safe Mode with Networking, this should allow you to browse the internet, which can be very useful for virus removal etc.

Another option allows you to choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt, to be honest with you if you are confident enough to use command prompt you probably already know how to use Safe Mode.

Sometime pressing F8 too early upon boot up brings up the boot selection menu, if your computer shows this instead of the screen which shows the safe mode option the easiest thing to do is turn your PC off and upon boot up press F8 a little later than last time.

I hope this guide helps you to boot into safe mode, if you have any problems with the guide let me know in comments section below and I will do my best to help you.

Source:http://www.product-reviews.net/2010/11/14/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-windows-7-vista-xp-guide/

Xp computer,make Xp faster, how to increase your computer speed easily?

October 28th, 2010

How to make XP faster? Nowadays almost everyone has a computer but not everyone knows how to make XP faster and maintenance it. Most of the computer users may think that computer running slow is mainly caused by virus infection. Actually there are other factors that cause the problems. Below are the main causes of slow PC problem as well as the solutions to make XP faster.

First step to make XP faster—Defragment

Defragment the computer hard disk regularly is a good way to make XP faster. This will help you rearranging the file data into continuous space thus make the computer respond quicker. You can access to the defragment tools in accessories -> system tools. Once you start the defragment, do not run other programs otherwise the process will be slowed down.

Second step to make XP faster—Search for duplicate files.

You may have kept some older versions of your work for back up purposes. By now, the purpose of these versions would have been served. Speed up Windows 7 by deleting these versions and free up space.

Third step to Make XP faster—Virus scan

Virus is another reason for a slow computer as we talk about. You computer can easily got infected by virus or spyware if you surf the internet a lot. Virus will definitely slow down you computer, it can also steal your personal information in the computer. Make sure to install a good antivirus program on your computer and run it regularly to keep your computer virus-free.

Fourth step to Make XP faster—Clean out registry

Nearly 90% of the computer problems include computer slow down can be attributed to Windows registry. Registry is the database that stores settings and information of all the computer programs and hardware, if you want to keep your computer running properly, you’d better make sure the registry is clean and errors-free.

The best solution to fix registry errors and make XP faster is to run a free registry scan. If you never scan and clean the registry before, it is no surprise that it will scan out hundreds of errors and obsolete entries. You just need one click of your mouse, all the errors and entries can be fixed and removed instantly. By doing so, it will definitely increase your computer speed.

Source:http://onlinenichemarket.com/computers/computer-tips/xp-computer-make-xp-faster-%E2%80%93-how-to-increase-your-computer-speed-easily/

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