In case of user password boot the pc in safemode by pressing the F8 key and then selecting the Safe Mode option. You can now logon as an administrator and XP won’t prompt for the password.

Incase of an administrator account try rebooting the pc in DOS. access C:\Windows\system32\config\sam . Rename SAM as SAM.mj Now XP won’t ask for password next time You Login.

Also Go to the cmd prompt .
Type net user *.
It will list all the users.
Again type net user “administrator” or the name of the administrator “name” *.
e.g.: net user aaaaaa *(where aaaaaa is the name).
It will ask for the password.
Type the password and there you are done.

Logging In As Administrator:
Hold the Ctrl-Alt key and press Del twice. This will bring up the normal login and you can log on as Administrator

1. Clean out your registry

Ok, you’ve heard this one before, and think that this would be one of those articles, don’t worry, things will get much better. The only one thing that I want you to do differently, is keep this step for last, I just mentioned it to get it out of the way.

There’s only one program that I will let near my PC’s registry, and that is Crap Cleaner.  Remember that this should be the last step!

Disable unused fonts

Sounds funny? Not really. Windows loads all the fonts on your system into it’s memory at runtime, resulting in your ever growing font collection laying idle in it’s memory, forcing everything else onto the swapfile. This means that the “fast” ram memory is used to hold the unused fonts,  while the slow “swapfile” holds your current programs.

So what we need is a way to disable and enable fonts on the fly. My weapon of choice here is Fontfrenzy. This program is a supercol font management tool that will disable and reinstall fonts on your system with the utmost of ease.

3. Clean up your startup manager.

Here again, we are trying to force extra space available in your ram. As you instal programs, a lot of them force themselves to load at start time, or to load update managers at startup. Microsoft office and Adobe is also two programs that loads a pre-loader into the startup menu, enabling it to launch quickly when needed. This all takes up ram, which in turn will slow down your memory.

Start-up manager will assist you in cleaning out your start-up function. A small word of warning here, is to make sure that you do not disable nessecary items. Luckily, there is an  forum and wiki on the startup manager’s site, where you’ll get assistance with your questions.

4. Disable Indexing services

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don’t search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Double-click Add/Remove Programs
• Click the Add/Remove Window Components
• Uncheck the Indexing services
• Click Next

5. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open my computer to browse folders that there is a slight delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing significantly:

• Open My Computer
• Click on Tools menu
• Click on Folder Options
• Click on the View tab.
• Uncheck the Automatically search for network folders and printers check box
• Click Apply
• Click Ok
• Reboot your computer

6. Optimise Display Settings

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimise:

• Go to Start
• Click Settings
• Click Control Panel
• Click System
• Click Advanced tab
• In the Performance tab click Settings
• Leave only the following ticked:

• Show shadows under menus
• Show shadows under mouse pointer
• Show translucent selection rectangle
• Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons

1. Sync Blackberry without need for email client

Blackberry Italia developed an app that can help out. Here is what they say (translated):

A lot of our forum subscribers asked about the possibility to manage the address book on BlackBerry from their PC without need of third party email clients such as MS Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc.

So, we developed a simple tool in order to edit BlackBerry address book within a backup file in IPD format generated by the BlackBerry Desktop Software.

What can I do with this tool?

1) Create address book entries from scratch without need of an email client application. Saving the address book in IPD format and import it on the BlackBerry using the BlackBerry Desktop Software. Note: you can
also add pictures to your contacts.

2) Open an existing Desktop Manager backup file *.ipd, modify contacts, save and import it back to the BlackBerry using Desktop Manager.

3) Export your address book in XML format.

Download (registration required you might have to use an translations manager to translate the language)

Send a mail to mutliple recipients, but keep there emails hidden

Sometimes you want to send a mail to multiple parties, but do not want the mail addresses discloded. Here si what you do:

Preparation

1. Click the down arrow of the New button.
2. Select Contact.
3. Type “Undisclosed recipients” under Full Name….
4. Type your email address under E-mail….
5. Click Save and Close.

Sending the mails

1. Start with a new email message in Outlook.
2. Click the To… button.
3. Highlight Undisclosed recipients.
4. Click To ->.
5. Highlight all people in your address book to whom you want to send the message.
6. Click Bcc ->.
7. Click OK.
8. Add any additional recipients’ email addresses to the Bcc: field.
9. Compose your message and eventually click Send.

Setting up an autoresponder

Set up a template

In Outlook 2003:

1. Make sure Word is not enabled as the email editor in Outlook.
2. Start a new message.
3. Type the Subject and message of your auto-reply.

In Outlook 2007:

1. Click the Office button.
2. Select Save As

In Outlook 2003

Select File | Save As… from the menu.

1. Make sure Outlook Template is selected under Save as type:
2. Optionally, choose a File name: different from the subject.
3. Click Save.

Set up the auto responder

1. Select Tools | Rules and Alerts… from the menu in the main Outlook window.
2. Click New Rule….
3. Click Start from a blank rule.
4. Make sure Check messages when they arrive is selected.
5. Click Next >.
6. Check Where my name is in the To box under Select condition(s), alternatively, you can leave all boxes unchecked to make the auto-responder reply to all incoming mail.
7. Click Next >.
8. Check reply using a specific template under Select action(s).
9. Click on a specific template under Edit the rule description.
10. Select User Templates in File System under Look In:.
11. Highlight the template created before.
12. Click Open.
13. Click Next >.
14. Check Except if it is an Out of Office message under Select exception(s).
15. Click Next >.
16. Type the desired name for your auto-responding filter under Specify a name for this rule.
17. Optionally, check Create this rule on all accounts.
18. Click Finish.
19. Click OK.

What Doctype is.

Doctype is a way to tell your browser which version of css and html you’re using and must appear at the very top of every web page.DOCTYPES are also essential to the proper rendering and functioning of web documents in compliant browsers like Mozilla, IE5/Mac, and IE6/Win.

Why doctypes is important

If you are using the proper doctype, then you tell your browser that the technologies aka, xhtml, css and dom are all updated, and your browser will then have no problem in rendering your site properly.

The incorrect doctype will let your browser assume that the site was written in outdated technology, and it will go into “quircks” mode trying to render your site correctly.

In Quirks mode, the browser will attempt to parse your page in backward–compatible fashion, rendering your CSS as it might have looked in IE4, and reverting to a proprietary, browser–specific DOM. (IE reverts to the IE DOM; Mozilla and Netscape 6 revert to who knows what.)

A big problem with doctypes is that it is mostly copied from other sites, and wrong and improper doctypes is spread like a virus. I know quite a lot of developers that when starting a project will google any search term, take the frist website that looks right to them, and copy the doctype. Faster they say, but who can assure them that they are using the right doctype?

What doctype should one be using?

HTML 4.01 Strict, Transitional, Frameset

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/frameset.dtd">

XHTML 1.0 Strict, Transitional, Frameset

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Frameset//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-frameset.dtd">

XHTML 1.1 DTD

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">

I hope that this article asnwered some quiestions. If you have any further queries, leave a comment and I will assist.

What is Grub?

Grub is simply put, a boot loader, assisting in loading bootable partitions and presenting a menu to choose from. In other words, it detects all the operating systems available and will assist you in selecting one. Sometimes a problem errupts and Grub fails to load the operating systems resulting in this error.

Most probable reason for the error 17

The most probable reason for getting this error is that you have  a usb stick, camera, cellphone, external hard drive or Ipod still fixed to your computer and booted without unplugging it. Grub detects this new  “impostor” which it knows nothing of at boot time, and stops. Simply unplug the said device and remove it from the usb port. Now reboot and the problem should be solved.

Grub error 17 following updates to your computer

The second most probable reason for you to get the error is that you had some updates to your computer (sometimes unknowingly) and the /boot/grub/menu.lst file got overwritten.

Try the following:

1. Get a live linux cd. Do not have one anymore? The best bet is to get DSL Linux here because it is only 50mb to download.  Burn it to a cd, which will allow you a live linux distribution, and will assist you in getting to your terminal.

Let’s first talk about burning the live cd. When on the DSL Linux page, go to the part on the page that says “Where to from here”. and look for the download link. Now download the distro from your nearest site.

Burn the file on the cd.

Next thing to do is to make sure that your computer will try and boot from the cd first.

reboot, and immediately after rebooting press F2 until the bios setup screen comes up. I’ve posted a screen shot of a typical bios setup menu here.

Look everywhere in your bios setup until you find the place where you can change the boot order of your computer, and select to make the computer boot from the cd-rom first. Now save and exit setup.

2. Reboot your computer. The innitial screen of the DSL Linux should look something like this. You should see the shortcut to the terminal in the upper lefmost corner. open the terminal.

3. type in fdisk -1 or if this do not work try sudo fdisk -1 the output should look something like this:

root@ubuntu:~# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc852d2ea

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        5222    41945683+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            5223        7833    20972857+  93  Amoeba
/dev/sda3            7834       10444    20971520   83  Linux
/dev/sda4           10444       14594    33329152    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           10444       14594    33328128    b  W95 FAT32

The line claiming to be “amoeba” is the offender.

Type in the command fdisk /dev/drive, where drive is the one claiming to be amoeba. Do not enter the number. In the above example I would type in fdisk /dev/sda. You can also try sudo fdisk /dev/sda.

type in t to tell the computer you want to change the type of a hard drive. It will ask you for a drive number. The example above would use number 2.

Fdisk will now ask you for a hex code, type in 83 to claim the disk as a linux partition.

You will now be returned to the command prompt. type in w to write the changes to disk.

Exit, remove the cd-rom and reboot. Remember to change the boot sequence in your bios to hard disk first.

Actually it is fairly easy to get hold of mp3’s by searching in site directories. this search with a little modification will also help locate pdf’s photo’s spreadsheets and more.

Let’s start with a easy search. Type into Google the following:

?intitle:index.of? mp3 [artist] [title]

Replace [artist] with the artist/singer/band you’re looking for and [title] with the song title. Just one of them also fine.

As if by magic, a list of mp3’s with your search terms will appear. You can download the file by right clicking on it and then select save as.

As an alternative, you can also use the following query to search MP3 on the web:

“parent directory ” MP3 -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums [artist] [title]

Same as above, just replace [artist] and [title] with the artist/singer/band name and the song title.

A third search term is as follow:

?inurl:multiply.com/music? [artist] [title]

And a last one that will also work just fine:

-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(.mp3|.wma) [artist] [title]

Happy hunting

Names have not been taken into account, as it seems that most Twitter users have their own way of typing a town’s name. One must also bear in mind that there is a whole chatroom and sms generation that is using Twitter now, and they bring with them a whole “dialect” of acronyms.

Use Skype as a home security system

Open two new Skype accounts.
On the first account, add the second account as your only contact.
Re-log into account number one and set it as as follow:
Go to tools–>options–>advanced–>(tick) automatically answer Incoming calls–>
Then go to Tools–>options–>Video–>(tick) start video automatically and Only People in My contacts–>save.
Leave this account on-line.
Log in as account 2 from another PC.

Account number one should be on your computer that you wish to use for monitoring.
Calling account 1 from account 2 completes the process.
Account 1 will answer automatically and start the web cam and you can start monitoring from wherever you are.

This trick is very easy to set up, and implement in a variety of ways.

Getting the Latest version of Skype.

The latest version for skype is avaiable on all major platforms including Windows, Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Open SUSE etc.) and Mac.

Skype is also available for the following: Wifi Phones, Windows Mobile, cordless phones, various Skype phones, Nokia N800, PSP, and I Phone.

As an added benefit, Skype will autodetect the applications on your system, and assist you in installing the right application

The page to the downloads section can be found here.

Dragging and dropping

Drag-and-drop works well in Skype chat. You can drag and drop people between your contact list and chats, or between chats. Want to add someone from your contact list to a chat? Just drag him/her from the contact list to an existing chat. Want to move people between chats? Drag them over to the other chat. The user objects in the chat participants list are large and easy to grab.

If you have an ongoing team chat and want to distribute a file to several people at the same time, there’s no need to do separate File Transfers to everyone — just drag and drop a file onto the chat window and it’s sent to everyone in the chat (they have to accept it, of course).

Disabling Pop-ups

Preferences differ. If you’re not the busy type, you surely enjoy a window popping up every time someone wants to say hi. But if you’re busy and engage in conversations with tens of people during the day, which is often the case if you use Skype at work, there’s nothing more annoying than all those windows and notifications popping up. So do yourself a favour, go study the Options where you can turn things on and off as you like.

If you go to the “Advanced” section in Options and uncheck “Pop up chat window”, all of those chat windows popping up suddenly disappear. When a new chat message is received, it is placed in the Events panel that provides an extremely handy overview of things wanting your attention, but lets you do your own choices as to which chats needs your attention in which order. Chat topics are useful, but if a chat doesn’t have a topic, Skype automatically uses the first few words from the chat as the topic in the Events area. So the Events area becomes an inbox of sorts.

See also the “Notifications” section that lets you enable or disable various types of event notifications — those small windows appearing and disappearing when someone comes online, starts a chat/call with you or does any of the other things you can do in Skype.

Editing skype sounds

The default sounds in skype is easily editable, here’s what to do:

• press alt+T for the Tools menu
• Press P for options
• Move your cursor down to the sounds menu
• You can now edit the various sounds by going through the tabs.

Try experimenting with the various settings available. There is even an option to download more neat custom tones.
After you have made all changes you want, press tab until you reach the save button and press it by pushing the space bar.

Clear Your Skype History

Press control + 4 to access your history tab.
Press control + a to select all
Press the delete key.
Go back to your list of contacts and press control + 1

Call Forwarding

People can still phone you even when you’re not at your desk. With the  Call Forwarding option you can have any incoming calls transferred up to 3 phones of your choice (your caller will be charged at the standard SkypeOut rate).  All the phones that is set up will ring simultaneously until one is answered. To turn this feature on go to Tools, Call Forwarding.

Send text messages

You can use Skype to send SMS texts to any mobile phone. Go to Tools, Send SMS Message. Add a contact’s mobile number, then type and send the message. Texts aren’t free and your caller will receive them from a truncated version of your Skype name, meaning they won’t be able to reply. However, you can change this by entering and verifying your mobile number. Do this under Tools, Options, SMS Messages.