Windows Defender automatically transmits data to Microsoft. But exactly what data? And can this be prevented or restricted?

Microsoft SpyNet is good for data transmission. This is a user association that gives tips to deal with suspicious activities based on collective experience. If Windows Defender detects unknown software, it sends a report to Microsoft. Apart from filename, size, date and manufacturer, this also includes collected URLs for the origin of the file, computer data such as its IP address, operating system, browser version as well as personal information such as search terms entered or form data. Normally, Windows Defender automatically registers you as a normal user on SpyNet during the installation. However, you can decide whether you want to actively participate and allow data transmission to Microsoft.In order to check and change your SpyNet status, open Windows Defender and click on “History” in the program. The line highlighted in blue shows the current status. Click the “Change settings” link. If you don’t want your data collected, select the “Do not join Microsoft SpyNet now” option and click on “Save”. In this mode, the program does not transmit any data. On the other hand, if you “Join as a premium member”, Defender also raises an alarm in the event of suspicious activities by programs that have not yet been analyzed. However, even more data is transmitted to Microsoft in this mode.

Delete Windows History | Delete History File | Remove Permanently

Deactivating monitoring of user activities immediately

Windows continuously monitors the programs that you run and also the files you use. This data is then used for managing the document history and to provide personally adapted menus.

If you want to forego the advantages of background monitoring, you can turn it off in a single step. Start the Registry Editor from ‘Start | Run | regedit’ and click ‘OK’. Navigate to the ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer’ key. Create an entry called ’NoInstrumentation‘ with ’Edit | New | DWORD value‘ and open it with a double click. Assign the value ‘1’ here and click on ‘OK’. If you want the setting to be valid for all users, create this DWORD value in the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\policies\Explorer” key too. If you want the setting to be applicable to only certain users, log in as that user and then carry out the step previously described. After you close the registry, restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

WINDOWS EXPLORER ERROR |WINDOWS EXPLORER TROUBLESHOOTING

Windows explorer crashes suddenly when right-clicking on a file.

Windows Explorer crashes with the message ’Explorer.exe must be closed‘ whenever a file is right clicked. The desktop restarts and all folder windows that were open earlier are closed. The error started occurring irregularly after the installation of an application that included shell integration.

A new installation always brings about some changes to the system registry. If the installation involved creationof a command in the context menu, first uninstall the software. Reboot and check if the command is till exists in the context menu. If this is the case, then some registry entries were probably left during the uninstallation. Create a complete system backup and secure the registry as well, for example using the ERUNT freeware, available on www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/. Now delete all objects in Explorer that have any relevance to the application. Next, search for the program and manufacturer name in the manual mode of the 'RegCool' registry editor.Delete entries you fnd here—and not anything else! Finally, check whether there is yet another entry of the software hidden under ’HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\Context MenuHandlers‘. If yes—then delete it.

SUITABLE OS: WINDOWS XP

USB STICK FORMATTING | PENDRIVE FORMATTING | USING NTFS FILE SYSTEM | TROUBLESHOOTING

Formatting a uSB stick easily using the ntFS file system

All versions of Windows since 2000 use the efficient NTFS file system. One of the most obvious advantages of NTFS is that it can, for instance, save files larger than 2 GB in size. However, it is unable to format a USB flash drive with NTFS.

In order to ensure that Windows offers ‘NTFS’ (New Technology File System) as a formatting option,first open the fash drive in ‘Optimize for performance’ mode. Right click on the drive in the Windows Explorer and select the‘Properties’ context command. Change the tab to ‘Hardware’. Select the desired USB stick once again and then click on‘Properties’. Switch to the ‘Policies’ tab in the following dialog box. Now activate the ‘Optimize for performance’ option and then click on ‘OK’. This change can be implemented only after restarting the computer.

Remember##
Once you have made this setting, make sure that the USB stick is always deactivated before unplugging it; otherwise your data might get corrupted.

USB HARD DRIVE ON NETWORKS | ACCESSING EXTERNAL DRIVE THROUGH NETWORK | USB NETWORK SETUP

Accessing uSB hard drives safely via a network

If multiple USB hard drives are attached to one computer, the Windows server service SRV frequently refuses access to shared folders and fles with the message “Access to resources not possible. Suffcient server memory not available”. Insuffcient memory set through a parameter called “IRPStackSize” in the “lanmanserver” system service responsible for the sharing is at fault. Simply set a larger value using the registry.For this, frst start the Registry Editor and navigate to the key “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters”. If this is not available, create the “IRPStackSize” entry through “Edit | New | DWORD value”. Double-click the new entry and enter the hexadecimal value “32” in the following dialog—it corresponds to the decimal number 50. You can thus increase the reserve for additional network shares. The original value of “0x4” is—depending on the hardware confguration of the
computer—possibly not high enough, so that the SRV service cannot properly manage the shared directories on some of the physical drives

SCREEN SAVER AS A DESKTOP BACKGROUND | DESKTOP SCREEN SAVER

You want to set the “Ribbons” screensaver as a background to pep up your Windows desktop during a presentation. Windows however doesn't allow this at all. Can it still work?

It works! And it's quite simple to do: Open “Start | All programs | Accessories | Command Prompt”. Using the “cd“ (change directory) command, change to the "system32" folder within the Windows installation directory. Type the command ribbons.scr /p65552 and confrm it with [Enter].The screen saver appears immediately as an eye-catching desktop background. All icons however disappear and the right mouse key is rendered ineffective with Vista. This is the price you pay for a peppy background. On the other hand, this has an advantage since nobody can see the icons that you have stored on your desktop—especially interesting for presentations or training programs. You can use most of the Windows screensavers as desktop backgrounds thanks to the “/p65552” parameter.To terminate the animated desktop, open the Task Manager with [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] and click on the process with the same name. Select the relevant entry, “ribbon” in our example, in the “Applications” tab and click “End task”. A restart also stops the screensaver.You can also start the animated background by using a batch fle—this is particularly helpful if it is to be used frequently and saves you from working with the archaic command prompt.

Customize Vista Icons | Icon Customizing tricks

You may have noticed that only the icons of Windows Vista can be resized to the maximum size, while other older application’s icons remain unchanged even when enlarged. Now, make your own resizable icons with pictures of your choice, using the software Icon Cool Studio. Download the 30 day trial pack version 5.28 from it's site www.iconcool.com, install and run it. And now, follow the simple steps shown below.

Step 1: Click ‘File | Import’ and choose an image fle from its location. You can select fle types such as BMP, DIB, EMF, GIF, ICB, ICO, ICL, JPG, JPEG, PBM, PCD, PCX, PGM, PNG, PPM, PSD, PSP, RLESGI, TGA, TIF, TIFF, VDA, VST, WBMP
and WMF. Choose a color depth and the resolution size of the icon that you would like to create and click on ‘Import.

Step 2: Once imported, play around with the icon styles, and add effects and flters of your choice. It takes a little time to learn all the features of the program to get a proper icon. You could choose to skip this step if you just require a basic icon without any image editing done.

Step 3: Click ‘File | Save as’, name and save the icon to a location of your choice. Your icon is ready for use with Windows Vista. Create multiple icons for different uses while the 30-day trial period last. For example, create photo icons for personal folders, comic or video icons for entertainment folders, and so on.

Step 4: Select the folder or shortcut you want to use this icon with, by right clicking the folder or shortcut and click ‘Properties’ for the shortcut, select ‘Change Icon’ but for folders, select ‘Customize’ and click ‘Change Icon’. Now your icons can be resized like other vista icons. There are other software that can be used to
create resizable icons for Windows Vista. Some are free while others are trial ware. Alternatively, use Axialis IconWorkshop.www.axialis.com/iconworkshop

Get News on Desktop | Desktop RSS Feed

Get the latest News from the Internet on your Desktop at all times.

You can integrate any website onto the desktop if you have Windows XP. For this, open Internet Explorer and load the website you want to integrate. This could also be an RSS feed—if this is the case then, click the arrow beside “Display feeds from this website” and select the desired entry in the toolbar. Select the address of the site in the address bar, right-click the selection and copy this onto the clipboard with the “Copy” context command.Close Internet Explorer and right-click on a free space in the desktop. Click on “Properties” in the context menu and then click the “Customize Desktop” in the “Desktop” tab. Select the “Web” tab in the “Desktop Items” window and then click on “New”.In the following window “New Desktop Item”, right-click in the “Location” field and click on “Paste” to copy the internet address from the clipboard to the field. Confirm with “OK”. Likewise, acknowledge the following note with
“OK”. Make sure that the check box next to the entry which has been added is checked in the “Desktop Items” window and click “OK”.You will now see an area on the desktop with the specified website. You can move it around the desktop by hovering over the box and so that the frame appears and you can drag and place this box by holding left-click on the frame. You can also scale the area as a window at its borders with the mouse.To remove a website integrated in the desktop, open the “Desktop Items” window. Unchecked the box for the corresponding entry and confirm with “OK”. However the address does not get deleted and so this enables quicker activation of this website at a later date. To remove it completely from the list, select the entry and click on “Delete”.

Deactivating Hibernation Feature in xp|vista | Hibernation Tips and Tricks

If you do not require the hibernation mode, you can save your system resources, particularly hard drive space. You only need to deactivate the hibernation function. However, the procedure is very different between Windows XP and Vista. The two are similar in only one respect—they both require administrator rights.WInDoWS XP: Log in with an administrator account and right click anywhere on the desktop. Select ‘Properties’ from the menu. Open ‘Power options’ under the ‘Screen Saver’ tab. In the next dialog box deactivate the ‘Enable Hibernation’ option under the ‘Hibernate’ tab. Confrm this with ‘OK’. The operating system deletes the ‘hiberfl.sys’ fle automatically. WInDoWS VISta: Log in with an administrator account and go to ‘Start | All programs | Accessories | Command Prompt’. Enter the command ‘powercfg. exe -h off’ at the prompt and hit [Enter]. This is one way to deactivate hibernation. Alternatively, you can also tweak the function of the power button in the Start menu. To do this, open ’Start | Control Panel | System and maintenance | Power options‘ and then click on ’Change power saving mode‘ as well as on ’Change advanced power settings‘ to the left. Now select the ‘Shut down’ entry under the ’Power buttons and Lid | Start menu power button' option and press ‘OK’. If you want to use hibernation in the future, log in with an administrator account, open a command prompt, enter the command ‘powercfg.exe -h on’ at the prompt and hit the [Enter] key. Under Windows XP,simply follow the steps described earlier and activate the ’Enable Hibernation‘ option again.

Browsing a website without a webbrowser

Start any Windows Accessory program such as Paint or Calculator and open the program's Help dialog by pressing [F1] or the menu item ‘Help | Help Topics’. Right click on the title bar in the help window and select the context command ‘Jump to URL’. Enter the complete Web address in the subsequent dialog as ‘http://www.website.com’ and click ‘OK’. This should bring up the desired website in the right window pane. You can now navigate through it using the context
commands, accessible by right clicking on the website pane.

Point To Remember##
Calling up websites via the Windows Explorer uses Internet Explorer in the background and is thus not a way to access restricted websites.

REPAIR WINDOWS XP | VISTA

Microsoft windows XP and Vista is the most preferred user friendly full featured Operating System, used both in desktop level as well as networking level. Both the operating system has different advantages. XP delivers incredible flexibility and fast performance. It accupies less space as well as system requirements as compare to Windows Vista. Windows Vista offers high graphical appearance and more secure deskop level operating by Microsoft Ever before.

Windows XP | Vista is a great operating system and offers many features, shotcuts, tricks and troubleshootings but it is not possible that everybody is familier with each and every tweaks of Windows. But this blog reveals all the information related to XP and Vista makes you understand your operating system and increase your work speed and troubleshooting skills.