Fuss Free Computing

I hear a lot of stories regarding the state of Windows users find themselves.
However you can be certain that 90% of the time it is the users' fault.
I have another article on how to maintain the longevity of the hardware but this post specifically aims to teach you how to maintain the state of your operating system.
It is tried and tested on my system therefore I don't see how it is not applicable to anyone else.
Ok here goes

Rule 1: Don't install any software you don't know

I know it is difficult since they let you download for FREE right? No.
Only download reputable software from reputable sources.
Do not install software that forces you to download and run it to access certain resources.
A lot of freeware advertised in banners are either spyware or malware in their own rights.
Good software spreads by the word of mouth. Ask your IT-Savy friends for advice on Freeware.

Rule 2: Do Not Download & Run Files not expected from friends

Do not assume that mail coming from friends are safe. Some Malware do spread from contact list so unless you are expecting the mail and or attachments from friends just trash the mail. You can tell whether the mail is genuine from the way the text is phrase as well.

Rule 3: Less is more

Contrary to freebies in computing more software = less performance.

If we take a logical approach, more software = more code/data to be executed.
Assuming processing is constant,  performance drops. Logical?

So install what you actually will use and software that brings real benefits to your computing experience, avoid programs that tries runs itself on startup because it brings delay to boot time execution.

Rule 4: Only Optimization is Windows Optimization

Out of the so many Windows optimization the only real optimization is the Windows built in ones.(You can find the optimization below documented in documents published in WHDC (Windows Hardware Developer Central).
Open Command Prompt with Elevated Rights & type the following:

C:\Windows\System32)Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks

You will see harddisk lights light up as Windows started optimizing itself.
It is safe to assume that it is completed once Harddisk Activity lights ceases.
Next run Windows Defragmenter 
Open Command Prompt with Elevated Rights & type the following:

C:\Windows\System32)Defrag C:\ /v /u

The /v /u flags will inform you about the status of completion.

Finally Open Command Prompt with Elevated Rights & type the following:

C:\Windows\System32)Defrag C:\ /v /u /b

The /b flag will tell Windows to perform an optimization known as boot optimization to reduce boot time.

Some other Optimization does the same optimization as documented by Microsoft so installing them is like doubling the work so you actually do not need to install any third party software optimizer.

However Windows Defragmenter is a necessary evil inherent because of the way NTFS, Microsoft File System allocates Disk space, defragmentation is the only solution to defragment non-contiguous files especially after a lot of reinstalls and uninstalls.

Rule 5: Delete the "Setup.exe" after installing

Whenever you download and install a software like Firefox you get a installer called Setup.exe. If I were to use an analogy it is like the packaging whenever you buy a product after you take out the product you can throw the box away. Over time these EXEs built up when you install software wasting unnessary space on the harddisk. Just like your real house do some house keeping on your harddisk.

Rule 6: Do Not Install Toolbars

This is a fair new occurrence you see many software publishers offering toolbars for Web Browsers some come bundled with "freeware". In any case Do Not install them.

Why? Because the Web Browsers Authors do not specifically test the toolbars to work properly alongside the browsers. There is no guarantee it will not affect your browser in any negative manner.

Rule 7: Disable AutoRun & AutoPlay

 Even though Microsoft beefed up Windows Security with UAC and malware that auto launches itself from the thumbdrive can still cause some unnecessary damage. If you need to launch an executable just launch it manually and save yourself the unnecessary risk of a malware attack. To disable it just access Control Panel click on AutoPlay and disable it for all devices. If autoplay is disable NO MALWARE can attempt to launch itself into your system unless you launch it manually.

Lastly to get a free and good anti-virus look no further than Microsoft Security Essentials.

Why do I recommend this software because it is free for every Genuine Windows, and updates are tested before release.

I believe you heard horror stories of 3rd party Anti-Virus killing your Operating Systems.

1)I believe that Microsoft test their definition files and patches before release.

2)A good anti-virus isn't overly suspicious. Microsoft Security Essentials have good detection rate but at the same time it isn't overly zealous like a suspicious policeman thinking every citizen is a potential criminal like some other 3rd party OS.

3)I have tried MSE and it plays nice on Windows Vista and  above Operating System without being a resource hog. Some people believe that a Security Software should protect us against all know threats even drive by sites but I believe an Anti-Virus software is the last line of defense against malware, users safe surfing and computer usage habits is the FIRST defence. Just following the few simple rules should guarantee a fuss free computing even on Windows. Paying more for Macs isn't the solution, sure using a less common OS might reduce the chance of encountering malware since the malware programmers tend to target the majority but ultimately it is the usage habits that matters.

Weaning off Windows Xp

This article is dedicated to "Techies" who think they can get better performance by "upgrading" from Windows 7 to Windows Xp on their new laptops.
In fact they are downgrading from Windows 7 to Windows Xp.
Personally I think it is not a smart idea there are many reasons.

1)Windows 7 support ACPI 3.0 which is what programmed in many EFI of new laptops. Windows Xp doesn't support ACPI 3.0 so it will revert to older ACPI versions when installed so you lose some advance power optimization with Windows Xp.

2)Driver support you have to spend time hunting down obselete drivers for Windows Xp and Microsoft no longer provides updates to Windows Xp (Except Security Holes).

3)Legacy Functionality in Xp compared to Native Support in Windows 7.
When Xp was out WiFi was still not mainstream, Microsoft enabled WiFi by including a Client in 1 of their Service Packs. It is a hack to emulate Wireless Device as a Ethernet Device so WiFi can be used.
Windows 7 has WiFi Client built in so it is more of a part of OS than a dirty hack. Besides WiFi many features in Windows 7 is native while an add on in Windows Xp.

4)Security, UAC love it or hate it UAC provides better configuration of policy and security settings compared to Windows Xp.

5)For those new processors Windows 7 include NUMA support. You realise Intel and AMD removed the legacy Front Side Bus (FSB) and introduced their high bandwidth bus (Intel-QPI Quick Path Interconnect, AMD-HT HyperTransport) because FSB limits CPU scalability performance improvement.

It is a known fact x86 CPUs get better performance and power saving by increasing the number of processing cores rather than increasing the frequency so by reverting to Window Xp you are removing NUMA optimization from your laptop.

6)Windows 7 utilises the GPU to render Desktop so CPU can be left idle for more responsiveness. While Windows Xp driver architecture doesn't allow this so you are still using CPU to render the desktop.

7)Windows 7 has a finer grained power control policy than Windows Xp so you can save more power in Windows 7 than Xp it is a proven fact just google for some benchmark. In other words Windows 7 has better power efficiency.

Lastly the amount of changes from Windows Xp to Windows Vista to Windows 7 is so great that my blog can't cover everything.

If you still insist by installing Window Xp you get better performance let me ask you this: What is most important in an OS?
Pure Performance? If so you must as well install Windows NT on your Hardware it will practically fly along but why not?

Because a good OS is one that balance performance as well as functionality. Sure Windows Xp performs in someways because it has less services, less executable code but compare this to Window 7 where you get both performance and feature if you do a clean install, which is better?

How to upgrade Win7 From 32bit to 64bit using your original license key

The reason I am doing this post is because some OEM Vendors still install Windows 7 32bit on Retail Systems, however you can get more performance on your system if you used a 64bit OS instead, it is unfair to users to bear the system limitations.

What this guide is good for?

• You want a bloatware free Windows 7 Install at the same time you don't want to purchase another Windows 7 License.
• You want to upgrade your original 32bit Windows 7 to 64bit Windows 7
• You lost the original recovery partition and do not have the recovery cd and yet you don't want to buy the recovery cd or a new Windows 7 License.

NOTE: This will only work for Laptops or OEM Desktops preloaded with OEM Windows 7 as these Systems has a special SLIC 2.1 BIOS which enables OEM Activation.

Do not message me HERE on how to make this work on Systems that do not have OEM Windows 7 preloaded with it.

Lets take for example the Acer Aspire 4530 Laptop (Tested).

Special Treat for Acer Aspire 4530 owners only update to my custom BIOS containing SLIC2.1 here to get the upgrade at no cost.

For laptops preloaded with Windows 7 you don't need to do any of the above.

On a Windows 7 Client 32bit OS it can only utilise up to 2.8GB of RAM regardless of the Total RAM available.

(Maximium usable RAM is 3GB in all 32bit Windows 7 Editions)

However on a Windows 7 Client 64bit OS it can support up to 3.8GB of RAM

(Assuming you have the maximum 4GB installed)

The performance difference is significant 1.0GB difference.(the missing 0.2 is due to 9100MG Integrated Graphics).

Start Here for Windows 7 Preloaded Laptop

Backup All Your Important Data Before Proceding !

1. Firstly google and prepare all the 64bit Windows 7 Drivers you need.
2. Next take any retail copy of Windows 7 (or download an uncracked version from Bittorrent. There is no need to get a retail CD-Key as we will be using OEM CD-Key) and install the type you own.

Example if you have a Windows 7 Home Premium License Sticker, install the Windows 7 Home Premium Version.

• Uncheck Automatically Activate When Online, and Do Not type in any Product Key.

After installing and setting up the OS, download the Acer 2.1 OEM Certificate and put it inside :

C:\Windows\system32\OEM

If you don't have the folder, create it.

Then open up a Command Windows with Windows 7 Administrative Permission and Enter the Commands below(Make sure the filename of the xrm-ms is correct).

slmgr.vbs -ilc C:\Windows\System32\OEM\Acer.xrm-ms

Next, choose one of the Acer OEM Keys shown below the version you have installed in your system:

Note the OEM Keys are NOT UNIQUE meaning EVERY Acer Laptop which has Windows 7 Preloaded is using one of the following CD-Keys, depending on the version of Windows 7.

Then Activate

Then install the 64bit drivers (Very Important, No computer is usable without the correct drivers!).

You are done.

Note: The Activation is done offline, you do not need any internet connection to do this.

Use this keyfinder to check your current OEM License Key and match it to the appropriate OEM Certificate, for Acer you will find that it is one of the keys I listed above.

Some Laptop Recommendations

The info below is outdated will "refresh" when i have the time.

If you guys want to buy laptops but don't know anything, don't care about anything. I happen to have a list of "Not so Bad" recommendation (Someone asked me what laptops do I recommend).
Note they are all cheap or rather value for money systems because personally I don't recommend paying a lot for a laptop since they are all powerful enough to perform daily task.
I consider 15" a bit large for a laptop so I will only list 14" at most.

Disclaimer: When I meant Virtualisation in this article I meant Hardware Virtualisation


Dell:

Dell Vostro V13

Why it is great:
Looks good, long battery life, Light and highly portable Alumium Casing like Macbooks (Although I see no point, personally I prefer magnesium casing like HP Probook)

Why it is not so great:
Lousy Intel Graphics.
1 RAM slot only limited expansion
If you need to game look somewhere else otherwise this laptop is actually quite good.

Tips:
Try to look for Dual Core(SU7300) version as Core Solo is slightly underpowered, however this increase the price point so weight your pros and cons.
Only the SU3500 and SU7300 supports Virtualisation.


HP:

HP Probook 4415S

Why it is great:
Look awesome (Design very similar to Macbooks but Black is cooler)
It has a nice rubbery plastic palm rest very ergonomic.
Has decent entry level graphics for gaming Radeon 4200HD.
Decent Mobility.
Virtualisation support.

Why it isn't so great:
AMD Turion II Processor may not be up to par to Intel Low Voltage Processors in terms of batterylife but rather decent processing power.
Uses BroadCom Wireless which isn't so good compared to Atheros

Tips:
Try and get the M5XX Processor +35 dollars but it is Turion instead of Athlon which is more power optimized.

HP Pavilion dv4-2140us

Why it is great:
It is actually the HP equivalent of the Acer Aspire 4540 (No G)
If you hate Acer for whatever reason you can consider this

Why it isn't so great:
It is slightly more expensive than Acer for the same specification.

Acer Aspire 4540G

Why it is great:
Like all Acers this is cheap
Great Graphics Radeon 4570HD the slightly lower end version(4540) comes with Radeon 4200HD.
Looks decent but more like a entertainment laptop instead of a serious look like the Probook.
Support Virtualisation.

Why it isn't so great:
AMD Turion II Processor may not be up to par to Intel Low Voltage Processors in terms of batterylife but rather decent processing power.

Tips:
Try and get the M5XX/M6XX Processor but it is Turion instead of Athlon which is more power optimized.

Acer Timeline

There is a lot of Timeline offering different specification options.
Travelmate Timeline: TravelMate 8X71 (X is the inch of the screen 13(3), 14(4), 15(5))
Aspire Timeline: Aspire X810 (X is the inch of the screen 13(3), 14(4), 15(5))
For Aspire Timeline there is TZ, TG, TZG
G means there is better graphics Radeon 4330HD with switchable Intel 4500MHD graphics.

Why they are great:
Cheap as usual, Light Portable and great batterylife
The TG version has entry level graphics for a bit of gaming.

Why they are not so great:
The TG is slightly costly.

Tips:
Pick the one that fits your needs.

ASUS:

ASUS UL80

Why it is great:
Low Voltage Intel Processor with Nvidia Graphics (You seldom see this combination for a low Price).
It is said to switch graphics automatically according to your needs in Windows conserving more power. How bug-free is this implementation I seriously don't know.

Why it isn't so great:
Some people said the keyboard and casing isn't exactly good(Solid) enough.
Slightly more expensive than Timeline if you are not fond of ATi Graphics you can consider this.

Other Laptops
These are the following laptop with a Generic Intel Processor and Entry Level Nvidia Graphics (G105M/9300M GS/Radeon 4330 HD/Radeon 4200) (Not too special not too bad either)
-Compaq Presario CQ35 (Nvidia)
--Compaq Presario CQ45 (Nvidia)
-Acer Aspire 4736G (Nvidia)
-Dell Inspiron 1440 (ATi)
-Dell Inspiron 1470 (With Low Voltage Processor SU7300)(ATi)
-Toshiba M300 (Nvidia)
-Lenovo IdeaPad Y450 (Above Average Nvidia Graphics solution G130M quite a powerhouse)

The rest of the laptop are
1)Too expensive
2)Has Generic set up Intel graphics + Normal Intel SKU Processor (T6600) (Not good enough for me) normal sized not as portable.
The rest of the value segment is probably:
Intel Mainstream Processor (T6600)
And Intel Graphics 4500MHD
Nothing especially interesting.

If you want to ask my opinion on certain models post below.
I will pick out the pro and cons of the specific model for you to have a better understanding.

Windows 7 Compatibility with Aspire 4530

I have tried to use Windows 7 on Acer Aspire 4530.
There are no compatibility issues.
Everything works including Launch Manager just remember to put to Vista SP2 Compatibility Mode when installing.
List of stuff that works (that required tweaking):

Launch Manager (Install in Vista SP2 Compatibility Mode)
Custom ShortCut button tweak continued to work.
Chipset Driver (from Nvidia) Note : No Coprocessor Driver required

List of Stuff that don't work:
Paragon Defragmenter (Hell you don't even need to defrag the OS since it is superbly responsive)
The Modded Synaptic Driver don't work had to use the latest Official Synaptic Drivers (No ChiralScroll)
AMD Dual-Core Optimizer

Unseen Changes in Windows 7
Better multitasking abilities (Developers did improve the CPU scheduling algorithm to make better use of multicpu this was mentioned in a Windows 7 interview)
Improved Network Performance (Better Network Stack)

The new Windows Experience Index for Acer Aspire 4530 (Remember to update DirectX otherwise the score will be 3.9)

If you used 64bit Windows 7 the score willbe even higher...Below was done using 32bit Windows 7.

Gaming Temperatures on Windows 7 in Acer Aspire 4530


Remember to set Restore Point after you finish setting up all the software:
Go to Control Panel >> System >> Advance System Settings >> System Protection >>
Create Restore Point
Any issues regarding Windows 7 and Aspire 4530 post below.
Those who want Windows 7 activated on Acer laptops go here.

Updated:
Please note Acer failed to include the Realtek USB Card Driver in their download page.
Please download it here
The driver will enable better power management control in Windows 7 when it is not in use.

Full Optimization for Aspire 4530 here
Get Windows 7 for Aspire 4530 here

Windows 7 ISO CD Creator

Windows 7 ISO CD Creator
Using this utility you can create Windows 7 ISO CDs and Bootable Thumbdrive.
Download it here.

Western Digital 320GB BEKT vs 320GB BEVT

Western Digital Scorpio WD3200BEVT

• Unfortunately my drive has failed so no direct comparison will be available. However I will run pretty commonly available tools (No Downloads required), to get the benchmark score so you can compare it to the BEVT in your laptop.

• 5400 RPM
• SATA 3 Gb/sec
• 12 millisecond seek time
• 8-megabyte buffer

Western Digital Scorpio WD3200BEKT

• 7200 RPM
• SATA 3 Gb/sec
• 12 millisecond seek time
• 16-megabyte buffer

First lets look at the built in test results for the Nvidia harddisk controller

Go Device Manager, under IDE controller you should see a Nvidia NForce SATA controller if you didn't then you did not install the SATA driver.
Go Nvidia website to download and install their Storage Controller Driver.

Test 1

Test 2

You can roughly gauge the performance by looking at the scores.

Next we run the WinSAT Detailed Test for more information how to run it see this post.

Note that I am running on Windows 7

> CPU LZW Compression 100.80 MB/s
> CPU AES256 Encryption 41.59 MB/s
> CPU Vista Compression 297.90 MB/s
> CPU SHA1 Hash 459.58 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU LZW Compression 49.88 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU AES256 Encryption 20.91 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU Vista Compression 148.67 MB/s
> Uniproc CPU SHA1 Hash 230.29 MB/s
> Memory Performance 5024.46 MB/s
> Direct3D Batch Performance 53.83 F/s
> Direct3D Alpha Blend Performance 48.67 F/s
> Direct3D ALU Performance 31.23 F/s
> Direct3D Texture Load Performance 25.06 F/s
> Direct3D Batch Performance 54.56 F/s
> Direct3D Alpha Blend Performance 56.36 F/s
> Direct3D ALU Performance 31.81 F/s
> Direct3D Texture Load Performance 22.06 F/s
> Direct3D Geometry Performance 41.83 F/s
> Direct3D Geometry Performance 19.16 F/s
> Direct3D Constant Buffer Performance 19.80 F/s
> Video Memory Throughput 2831.65 MB/s
> Dshow Video Encode Time 8.18464 s
> Media Foundation Decode Time 1.24666 s
> Disk Sequential 64.0 Read 67.82 MB/s 5.9
> Disk Random 16.0 Read 1.58 MB/s 4.0
> Responsiveness: Average IO Rate 3.65 ms/IO 5.9
> Responsiveness: Grouped IOs 10.44 units 7.1
> Responsiveness: Long IOs 15.29 units 6.9
> Responsiveness: Overall 159.52 units 6.6
> Responsiveness: PenaltyFactor 0.0

The values in red is what we are interested in.
So do the same on your machine to compare the results.

Windows 7 Boot Optimization Error

I am not sure if you guys know you can manually invoke Windows 7 defragmentation Tool to do boot optimization by using the /b flag.

When you run defrag.exe, you get the following

Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.

The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Description:

Locates and consolidates fragmented files on local volumes to
improve system performance.

Syntax:

defrag | /C | /E [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag | /C | /E /A [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag | /C | /E /X [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag /T [/H] [/U] [/V]

Parameters:

Value Description

/A Perform analysis on the specified volumes.

/C Perform the operation on all volumes.

/E Perform the operation on all volumes except those specified.

/H Run the operation at normal priority (default is low).

/M Run the operation on each volume in parallel in the background.

/T Track an operation already in progress on the specified volume.

/U Print the progress of the operation on the screen.

/V Print verbose output containing the fragmentation statistics.

/X Perform free space consolidation on the specified volumes.

Examples:

defrag C: /U /V
defrag C: D: /M
defrag C:\mountpoint /A /U
defrag /C /H /V

Notice there is no /B flag but it is there.
However on a fresh Windows 7 installation when you try to do this with Administrative Permission in a Command Prompt Window.

C:\Windows\system32>defrag C: /B

You get some message saying it cannot be done like the following:

Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking boot optimization on (C:)...

Analysis: 100% complete.

Some registry entries were missing from the boot optimization section of the reg
istry. (0x89000017)

How to resolve this?
The issue is the idle tasks Windows is scheduled to run hasn't run once yet hence it cannot initialize boot optimization.
So to resolve simply open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission again and run the following commands to invoke the idle task.

C:\Windows\system32>Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
After that the error message will be gone and you can run boot optimization manually.

Why doesn't this happen sometimes?
Because RunIdle task is scheduled to run eventually after sometime of idle usage
if you do boot defrag immmediately after installation,
RunIdle task hasn't got a chance to run at all so you have to invoke it manually
if you want to start the operation immediately.

Secure Your Windows CD-Key (For Vista and 7)

As you know everytime you activate a Windows Installation your Product Key can be retrieved via Software means.
Don't believe me?
Download this and retrieve your Product Key in Clear Text.
So is there an alternative solution so people will not steal your Product Key from your computer when you are not looking?
Yes there is.
Open Command Prompt with Administrative Permission and Run the following commands.

slmgr /cpky

If you try to retrieve your Product Key again with the same software, you will get this.

The Registry Entry Containing the Product Key has been cleared and Windows remains activated!

nForce Drivers For Windows 7

New nForce Drivers 15.45 for Windows 7 is out

Download it here

Includes

• Ethernet Driver (v73.10) WHQL
• Network Management Tools (v73.13) "Sedona"
• SATAIDE Driver (v11.1.0.30) WHQL
• SATARAID Driver (v11.1.0.30) WHQL
• RAIDTOOL Application (v11.1.0.30)
• SMBUS Driver (v4.69) WHQL
• SMU Driver (v1.71) WHQL
• GPU Driver (v186.34) WHQL
• PhysX (v9.09.0428)
• Away Mode Driver (v6.0.6000.111) WHQL
• Installer (v7.53)

Only SMU Driver, SM BUS Driver and Away Mode Driver installs for Aspire 4530 as SATA Drivers have to force installed via Device Manager.

Checking Battery Capacity in Windows 7

A new feature in Windows 7 is the ability to check battery capacity.
Take a look at the following:

Open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission
Enter:
powercfg /Energy

It will create a report in
C:\Windows\system32\energy-report.html

There is one line like this

Battery:Battery Information

Battery ID	11121SANYOAS07A31
Manufacturer	SANYO
Serial Number	11121
Chemistry	LION
Long Term	1
Design Capacity	48840
Last Full Charge	41214

The amount of battery life left can be calculated by

41214/48840*100

Which equates to 84.38% meaning my laptop battery has only 84.38% of charge left (because I didn't take good care of it. There was a few times when the battery was almost fully drain)

So make sure you switch off the laptop or connect it to an AC outlet when battery life reaches 10% and do not expose it to high temperatures.

Alternatively you can download the new HWMonitor as it reports the charge capacity directly.

Things To Do in Windows 7

Firstly set Control Panel to "View By Small Icons" as more options will show up.

1) Set System Restore Space
Location:
Control Panel >> Advance System Settings >> System Protection >>Configure
Set the System Restore to use less Disk Space so it will not "eat up" additional Harddisk Space as time passes.
You can also use this to set/delete restore points.


2) Set Performance Visual Options
Location:
Control Panel >> Advance System Settings >> Advance >> Performance Options
Uncheck the Options as shown below while leaving the rest untouched:

3)Uninstall Unused Features
Location:
Control Panel >> Program & Features >> Turn Windows Features On or Off
Uncheck unused Programs like "Tablet PC Components" and "Windows Media Centre"


4)Disable Unused Devices
Location:
Device Manager
Right Click and Disable rarely used Devices to reduce System Device Polling and conserve power.


5)Set Advance Power Options
Location:
Control Panel >> Power Options >> Edit Plan Settings
Customise Power Plan settings according to your preference


6)Defragment and Disk Clean Up

Reformating & Disk Erasure of Harddisk

For some of you who seldom perform OS re installation you might not know the differences clearly.

First, reformatting is usually done when the operating system is corrupted beyond repair.

Usually when your machine is bogged down a lot of malware, reformatting solves the issue faster than finding fixes for each malware.

Personally, I prefer reformatting because certain types of malware corrupts System Files beyond repair.

What reformatting does is that it destroys the partition tables and recreate them.

In Windows it would be C:\ partition.

The old data is still present but it is no longer readable by normal methods as all the references to the old data is overwritten (It is like the content page is destroyed hence the book appears as new because all indexes are gone, the old data is still present but there is no link to access them properly) but this is a "as good as new" for end users who want a new OS installation.

Disk Erasure Tools is usually used by organizations with highly sensitive information.

Tools such as DBAN or Secure Erase removes all traces of data by overwriting the whole hard disk with other data.

Differences between DBAN and Secure Erase

• DBAN writes by Sector therefore when bad sectors are redirected data erasure maybe incomplete. However Secure Erase writes by Cylinders so complete data erasure is guaranteed.
• DBAN takes a longer time compared to Secure Erase.

Why is this so?

Secure Erase is the standard included by hard disk manufacturers to clear sensitive data as a feature requested by governmental organizations.

Quoted from the Data Sanitisation Tutorial

Complete eradication of user data off drives can be accomplished by running data Secure Erasure utilities such as the freeware “HDDerase” downloadable here. It executes the Federally-approved (NIST 800-88) Secure Erase command in the ATA ANSI standard, which is implemented in all recent ATA drives greater than 15-20 GB. A similar command in the SCSI ANSI standard is optional and not yet implemented in drives tested. Normal Secure Erase takes 30-60 minutes to complete. Some ATA drives also implement the standard Enhanced Secure Erase command that takes only milliseconds to complete.

It uses a standard ATA set hard disk native instruction set to wipe the entire drive quickly.

You might have heard that 1 or 2 pass of overwriting might not be enough to clean the hard drive however this is not true as nowadays hard disk comes in high density capacity.

For a similar sized hard disk 5-10 years ago it can only contain like 30 or less GBs.

Hence when you overwrite such high capacity hard disk it is impossible to recreate the original data.

An analogy I can think of would be you have 2 trays of coloured arranged sand, one fine, one coarse.

If you imagine each particle to be data, if I substitute half with sand particles of another colour randomly, the tray with the fine sand will look more messed up then the tray with coarse particles.

Sdelete is like a DBAN inside Windows.

What it does using the -c (clean command) is it takes all the unused hard disk space and overwrites them.

You can also use it to overwrite the data region for a particular file.

Usually when you delete something in Windows it only remove the reference to the file and marks the region from occupied to unused.

When you use sdelete, it will remove the reference to the file and overwrites the region with random data before marking it from occupied to unused.

I hope you understand more about hard disk from this simple introduction.

Windows 7 Feature Check

Here is a software to check the capabilities of your System with Windows 7 

From http://www.grc.com/

The name is Securable

The first section shows you what Operating System bit you can run on you computer.

• If you have 64bit appearing you can run both 64bit and 32bit Windows 7
  
• If you have 32bit appearing you can only run 32bit Windows 7

The second section check if the processor support Hardware DEP.

• It checks if your Processor support hardware data flagging function to prevent buffer overrun to prevent malware exploits.

The third section checks if it can support the hardware virtualisation mode in Windos 7

• VT support check if your Processor can support Windows Xp Virtualisation in Windows 7
  

I Hate Windows 7 RC

When Windows 7 RC was released I decided to give it a try to see if it was really living up to the numerous thumbs up it was given.

I downloaded Windows 7 RC 32bit because it was much smaller than the 64bit evalution version.

First there are quite a number of improvements over Windows 6 (aka Vista).

Responsiveness:

The time taken to load folders and preview is a vast improvement over Windows Vista.
It makes Vista seem like a silly snail.
I daresay say the speed either is as good as or even better than Windows Xp!
The entire OS work seemlessly to produce no unnessary delay for User Experience

Appearance:

The appearance is really well designed especially the themes.

I remember there was a PC vs Mac vs Linux parody on Appearance.
Well the Linux among most of you know that it is totally customizable short of tearing out the GUI and replacing it with the terminal which is also possible.
So it was depicted the "Linux" could change "jackets" and image while OS X and Windows couldn't.

In Windows 7 the approach to this was unique.
While you are not able customize the taskbar to the extend of Linux, it was the translucent color scheme and the high quality wallpaper that gives you a totally different feeling when using a different theme, hence I feel it was able to achieve the desired "theme" effect.

Backward Compatibility:

I have to give 5 stars for this all the device work out of box even while using Vista Drivers.
There was no silly messages saying "This driver is not for Windows 7 ..." etc.
Vista or Windows 7 drivers, both works.
It is due to Microsoft deciding not to change the driver framework further to make installation living hell for us users.
Hence you can expect almost all Vista Compatible Device to be Windows 7 compatible as well.

Usability:

Windows 7 is very fast and responsive as I mentioned above.
It was so speedy even though tweaks still exist, I find it redundant to tweak the System.
It is able to keep up with user behaviour any better you have to tweak the user to be faster instead.

File operations (copy,paste,cut) are fast. They have finally return to the Xp speed era.
No matter how fast I tweaked Vista, file operations performance was something that never changed until the advent of Windows 7.

Also Web Browser Windows are integrated into the taskbar to prevent cluttering. This might need some getting use to as you might be surprise when you don't see the taskbar box of the Web Browser minimised.

UAC no longer pop up as frequently. If you did not install any programs you wonder if UAC even existed in Windows 7.

Some basic programs that underwent a makeover:

• Paint now feels and look more professional.
• Windows Media Player looks fundamentally similar but has some visible upgrades.
• The Control Panel UI has under went some interface changes you might get lost occasionally but you will be able to find your way eventually.

Improvements to be made:

• IE 8 still lack a spell check
• Integrated Zip Utility leaves much to be desired

All in all it is obvious Windows 7 seems like a major improvement over Vista AND Xp.
Whoever says Windows 7 sucks or something either haven't tried it before or is a Mac zealot.
You can see effort put into the UI, design and usability of the OS.


Now you may start wondering why is the title of this blog entry critical of Windows 7 when I found Windows 7 to be so great.

It is because it is still in evaluation period.
However great it is I still have to wait for the release to be able to use it as a proper OS.
It is like tying a carrot to a stick and hanging it over your head.
You can smell it, see it but can't eat it.
Until then I am stuck with a lousier Vista OS for my production system.


Windows 7 has become one reason you don't need a expensive Macbook.
Any guesses what the next Mac Ad might be ?

Aspire 4530 WEI

The new paint toolbar

Microsoft attempts to address the 4GB addresses issues (pardon the pun)

Recently I tried the Xp emulator mode which works only if your system support hardware virtualisation.

AMD Processor users rejoice. All recent AMD Processor supports HyperVisor except the Sempron Series.

While Intel tried to be funny. They enabled Hypervisor only on certain chips as "high end" capability.

While trying out Xp mode in Windows 7 it hung when I tried to do intensive stuff.

Anyway it is still beta and I should have done it on Windows 7 64bit instead.

Windows 7 Wallpapers (Include Latest RC)

Here is the Updated Windows 7 wallpaper Collection

The latest release it up to RC (Release Candidate)

I have place the Original Windows 7 Wallpapers + RC Wallpapers + Windows 7 Beta Wallpapers into one zip file.

I have also rename & tag some of them to avoid file clashing with the original Vista Wallpaper.

After you download you can safely extract them to
C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper
They will not overwrite your original Vista Wallpapers.

Download them here

If you are using Windows Xp and would like to download Vista Wallpapers,click here

You can simply extract them to your Wallpaper Folder they will not overwrite your original Wallpapers or the Windows Vista Wallpapers as well.
Enjoy

Windows Vista Wallpapers

For Windows Xp/Windows 7 users who wish to have the Vista Wallpapers Collection, I have uploaded them here 

If you are interested in Windows 7 Wallpaper, click here

If you are using Windows 7 please rename the files before extracting to your Windows 7 Wallpaper Collections.

Check PC Performance In Depth Details with WinSAT in Vista & Windows 7

Open up a Command Prompt with Adminstrative Permission

To do that follow this step:

Go to

Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Command Prompt

Right Click, Choose Run as Administrator while selection Command Prompt

Next in the Command Prompt Windows,

Type in

cd C:\Users\**User Name\Desktop

** Replace User Name with your User Account Name in Vista

Press Enter,

You should see the Command Prompt as:

C:\Users\**User Name\Desktop>

Then type the following:

winsat formal -v >> winsat_result.txt

Wait for Windows System Assessment to finish

You should see a new text file called winsat_result.txt in Desktop.

Open it using wordpad to see the full System Assessment Details