I’m certain that we have all seen them, software programs that promise to have your PC “Running just Like New”. I’ve seen many people use them and most have to admit that the programs did little or nothing to speed up their computer. In some cases these programs have even crashed their computers.

What these programs typically do is remove orphaned or invalid registry entries. This will usually shrink the registry by 150-800 entries. Sounds good right? Well when you consider that the registry is made up of many thousands of entries, removing a few hundred really isn’t that impressive. After they remove the orphaned entries, they may compress or compact the registry, moving entries to make the file size smaller.

Will these processes speed up your computer? Yes, a little. What these programs all fail to take into consideration is how many programs are running on startup. The more programs you have running at once, the less processing power and memory your computer can give to the more important programs and processes.

Lets look at a computer as if it were a person… If you are trying to write a research paper, you need to put all of your attention into writing the paper, right? Well, lets add into the mix a stereo playing distracting music, a dog barking, a cluttered desk and your neighbor’s baby screaming. None of them are really requiring your attention but your mind has to bounce around a bit more than it should to work on your research paper. Just think about how much more you could accomplish if you removed the screaming baby, barking dog, cleaned up your desk and put on more soothing music. This is what you really need to do in order to speed up your computer. “So how do I speed up my slow Computer?” I’m glad you asked, here are a few simple steps!

• Make sure your computer has enough RAM (memory)
• For Windows 2000 and XP, you should have a minimum of 512MB.
• For Windows Vista and Windows 7 I recommend having a minimum of 2 GB.
• Remember, more is always better!

** Warning: Editing the registry can be dangerous and Biden PC does not warrant any changes that you make.**

**If you  do not feel comfortable doing this, Biden PC can do it for you for the small fee of $15.00**

• Download Autoruns from Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx
• Unzip the file and run autoruns.exe.
• Look at the bottom left corner of the window. Don’t do anything until is says “Ready”.
• Once it says “Ready”, click on the “Logon” tab. That is all we are going to concern ourselves with.
• Find the line below “Explorer.exe” and start unchecking boxes. DO NOT UNCHECK “Explorer.exe” OR ANYTHING ABOVE IT.
• Most things here can be disabled. Things like iTunes, QuickTime, Adobe, Google Update… These can all be disabled.
• Do not disable your Antivirus (Norton/Symantec, McAfee, Avira, AVG, CA…)
• Do not disable “cftmon.exe”

Once you have disabled what you feel comfortable disabling from the system startup, reboot your computer and enjoy how much faster it is. Feel free to share this information or like with your friends.

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Are you running Quickbooks on Windows PCs while a Linux domain and file server holds the data files? Do you get an error code -6190 -82? Let me tell you how I fixed this problem on a client’s server. I fully admit that I am no Linux expert but I am learning.

The users that were logged in to the server had admin access but only the user that owned the file was able to access it. All others were given the -6190 -82 error code. I tried everything my non-Linux mind could think of. I had them run QuickBooks from a batch file that removed the “Read Only” attribute. I did this, I did that.

What I finally did to fix the issue was going into the server and see what user group the necessary users belonged to. I then changed the owner setting of the QB Data files to that group.

**ADDITION** I had to go back and I saw that the .TLG file permissions had changed on the server. This sent me searching for why they would change and how to stop it… After testing, changing, testing, changing and retesting, I believe I have the complete solution to the problem.

1. Put all users who need QuickBooks access in 1 user group.
2. Make that group the owner of your .QBW and .TLG file with “Read & Write” permissions.
3. On each users desktop (at least the ones who backup the QuickBooks file), set the program NOT to verify the backup data.
4. Viola. The problem has been solved.

So what is the reason for this??? You can set the permissions on the .TLG file but if you verify the backup data in QuickBooks it creates a new .TLG file with the same name. That causes the permissions to be reset. So backing up without verifying saves the permissions and allows everyone to use the files. **END ADDITION**

Intuit says they don’t support Linux unless you pay for their $3000.00 Enterprise Solutions package. Well, this trick might just save you $3000.00. Feel free to send me a check if you find this useful… Just kidding.

Tim Biden

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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I never knew this capability existed. Now we can easily add holidays to the Outlook calendar and it works for both Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. There are simple instructions available here: Add Holidays to the Outlook Calendar. I just did it and it worked great!

Happy Computing,

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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If you can’t connect to the Internet or your computer network, your network router may be the culprit. A router is nothing magical. It is a small box with processing chips and software that tells it how to give IP addresses and send data to the correct recipient (this is a very basic description of a router). This kind of makes it a computer with no monitor or keyboard. And, in many ways, routers can act like computers.

A router has software and software is written by people. And we all know that people aren’t perfect which means that the router software isn’t perfect. So what do you do if your computer isn’t working? You reboot it. And that is exactly what you should do with your router. At least I hope you reboot before the hammer comes out to play…  =)

So the router is the device that gives each of your networked computers their IP Addresses. So if you don’t have a valid IP Address such as 10.1.1.65 or 192.168.1.101 (Anything that starts with 169. is NOT valid), your router probably isn’t doing it job. Thus you should reboot it. Now this isn’t a cure-all, but it will certainly cure a lot of router and network based issues.

The easiest way to reboot a router is this: Unplug the power cable. I would recommend leaving it out for about 15 seconds then plug it back in. This should fix the network problem. If it doesn’t, go to your command prompt and type “ipconfig /release” then when it is finished, type “ipconfig /renew”. Type them WITHOUT the ” ” quotation marks.

I hope this has been helpful.

If you still cannot connect to your network or the internet, Biden PC is available to repair your computer network within many areas of Southern California. Please see our Service Area list on our business website.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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This is great news!!! Microsoft and Washington State Sue Scareware Creators. Everyone has seen these things either on our own computers or a friend’s computer. They say things like “Your Computer is Infected” and then tell you to purchase their software to fix the problem. I call this ExtortionWare because they are extorting money from you by telling you that they will fix the problem that they caused. I am glad to see that there is finally a movement against these criminals!

They are suing the company that makes Registry Cleaner XP as well as suing to discover the names of the companies that create Antivirus 2009, Malwarecore, WinDefender, WinSpywareProtect and XPDefender. I can add a few more to the list that they should be suing but no one has asked for my input.

Tim Biden is currently conducting a test of different freeware and commercial spyware blockers. Go see how the tests are coming out!

For more information, see Brian Krebs’ Security Fix blog.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Biden PC has just become a reseller for Avira Anti Virus Protection Software. They make the Antivir line of products including the popular free version that is available at www.free-av.com.

Why did we choose Avira over the more well-known security vendors such as Norton (Symantec) and McAfee? If you check out the results of the latest Anti Virus Software Shootout, you will see that Avira has a greater catch and remove rating than either Norton (Symantec) or McAfee. They also have good built-in spyware blockers. Not only has Avira done well in this test but also for all of the recent tests (almost 2 years), they have consistently placed in the superior range in fighting viruses.

I can say with all honesty that I trust Avira Antivir because I have used it on my own computers for about a year with great results. And when computers with Norton (Symantec) or McAfee on them get viruses, I scan them with Avira Antivir and it removes the viruses.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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This problem is obviously still happening. If you can afford to be without your computer for a week or 2, I would be glad to work on it free of charge. If you are local to Los Angeles, I will pick up the PC and give you a receipt for proof that I have your PC. I will work on this issue until I have fixed it and post the answers here for everyone else. I will then drive back to you to drop off the PC. All of this will be free of charge. If you are not local to Los Angeles, all you will have to do is pay the FedEx shipping 1 way. I will fix your PC free of charge and return it to you via FedEx. Feel free to call me (Tim Biden) at 909-992-2031 or 877-243-3601.

I have posted two different solutions to this problem at Vista Mouse Cant Click – Fixed! Please look there if these symptoms affect you.

I have now seen 2 computers that have very similar problems. Both have Windows Vista Home Premium (It may affect other versions as well) and both have problems where the computers don’t seem to freeze, you can still move the mouse but can’t click on anything. You also can’t click and drag. Also the mouse looks like a standard pointer, not the spinning blue circle.

I have noticed that it does not happen in Safe Mode and it also doesn’t happen if you go into MSConfig and click on “Diagnostic Startup” then reboot.

After much troubleshooting, I have determined that the issue is at least partly with the Plug and play service. When I disabled that service, I noticed the problem went away. I then disabled everything and re-enabled the Plug And Play service and went through the process of finding which services is conflicting with the Plug and play service.

Apparently it is a few services working in conjunction that make the Plug and Play Service go haywire. I can’t seem to put my finger on it but I know for certain that disabling the Plug and Play Service makes the problem go away. So disable it if you need a quick fix but don’t forget that, unfortunately, it also makes USB devices unable to work. =(

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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As I wrote before, Small Business Server 2008 has been released to hardware manufacturers. And I just saw that in October it will be released to computer network consulting companies who subscribe to Microsoft’s Action Pack. Though we have the latest Release Candidate, there will be differences between that and the full release version and I am excited to see it. I have already posted there are some significant changes to Windows Small Business Server 2008 as opposed to Windows Small Business Server 2003.

There is also the Essential Business Server that is for medium sized companies. For the time being, Biden PC is focusing on the Small Business Server and small business market instead of the Essential Business Server and the medium sized business market but in time, that will change.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Today I had a client who desperately needed our computer services. She said that her computer had a virus or something. What she had was a version of AntiVirus 2009 but she waited until the problem got so bad that the computer wouldn’t boot.

If your car is having problems, you take it to the mechanic before the problems get worse and more expensive, right? Why wouldn’t you do the same with a computer?

Well, to add to the issues the computer was so bad that it also wouldn’t boot up in Safe Mode so I attempted using a Boot CD that I often use to fix computers like hers but the problem had even grown beyond that. The internal hard drive wasn’t even recognized by the boot CD. I attempted fixing the MBR (Master Boot Record) to see if I could get the drive to be recognized but to no avail.

This computer is so infected that it needs to be formatted and have Windows XP reinstalled. Next time I go back, I will try another boot CD to see if I can get her files backed up because I want to do my best for her. I really want to save her pictures and data files but since she didn’t back them up, I can can only do so much to help.

So what are the lessons here? Call for computer services before the problem is beyond a simple fix. And back up your data files often. CDs are cheap.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

I have an appointment to install RAM (also called memory) in a client’s computer. It has Windows Vista Home Basic with only 512 MB of RAM and he wonders why it is so slow. I don’t care if it is ONLY Windows Vista Home Basic. it still needs 1 gig (1 gigabyte) or RAM. And any other version of Windows Vista needs 2 gigs because it is just too hardware intensive to run well on anything less, no matter what Microsoft says.

So if you have Windows Vista and you keep thinking “Why is my computer so slow” don’t hesitate to put more RAM in it. Your computer will thank you.

And if you are not comfortable installing the RAM, Biden PC is your local computer technician and we’re here to help.

Happy Computing,

Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.