Freeware discussion
Question: Windows XP won't load on my computer
Answer:
If Windows XP refuses to start, press <F8> soon after you turn on your PC but before the Windows log-on appears (it may take a few attempts to get the timing right). At the resulting menu, select "Last Known Good Configuration" to restore your Registry to an earlier date.
If this doesn't get your PC working, reboot and press <F8> again, but this time select "Safe Mode", and then choose Start-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore. Follow the wizard's instructions and select an appropriate restore point from the display, (i.e., last date/time computer was functioning properly).
If that approach doesn't work either, or if you can't even get to this menu, use your emergency boot floppy. If your hard drive's boot sector or Windows' basic boot files have been corrupted, this disk will circumvent the problem and boot you into Windows. If you don't have an emergency boot floppy, you may be able to use one created on another PC running Windows XP, but there's no guarantee that it will boot your machine. Make one while your machine is still in good running order!
To make one, insert a blank floppy disk into drive A:, select Start-All Programs-Accessories-Command Prompt, type format a:, and press <Enter>. When asked if you want to format another disk, type n and press <Enter>. Type the following commands, pressing <Enter> after each one. Take careful note of spaces!
xcopy c:\boot.ini a: /h
xcopy c:\ntdetect.com a: /h
xcopy c:\ntldr a: /h
Now type exit and press <Enter> to close the window. Remove the floppy disk and label it "Windows XP boot floppy". Put this emergency disk in the floppy drive of your inoperable machine and boot up. Windows should run with no problems. If this fixed the problem, the three files on the floppy should be transferred to the root directory on C: drive, thus:
Launch the command prompt as described above,
type "xcopy a:*.* c:\/h", and press <Enter>.
(This floppy disk will appear blank under normal circumstances. Its contents are protected operating system files, and are hidden to prevent careless erasure or alteration. Those with a need to know will already know how to reveal them. Ed.)
If the emergency boot floppy doesn't work, you can try the Recovery Console, a Windows utility that provides a DOS-like command line from which you can run some repair programs. It's tricky to use if you're not accustomed to command lines, and you can damage your data, so be careful.
If you have a Microsoft Windows CD-ROM, you can get to the Recovery Console by booting from that CD and pressing any key when you're told to "Press any key to boot from CD". At the 'Welcome to Setup' screen, press "r" for Repair.If you take the option (presented by the CD-ROM) to reload the complete windows system you can do so without losing your application data or previously installed programs - but there are a lot of upgrades to do. This is why you should consider creating a "streamed" CD (with autostreamer.exe) to replace the original System Disk. Google it!
If Windows XP came with your computer and you don't have a Microsoft Windows CD-ROM, the Recovery Console might be on one of the CDs the vendor bundled with your PC. But, it might not. Fortunately, the Recovery Console is hidden in a free Microsoft program called "Setup Disks for Floppy Boot Install".Visit: http://www.find.pcworld.com/37967 to download the setup-disk file that works with XP Professional, and go to: http://.www.find.pcworld.com/37316 to grab the XP Home version, which will also work for Me and 98.
When you run the download, it puts the XP installation program, including the Recovery Console, onto a set of six floppy disks. To get to the Recovery Console, boot from the first floppy, and then swap disks as prompted until you reach the 'Welcome to Setup' screen. Press "r" to open the Recovery Console.
"Help" lists the Recovery Console commands.
If you get into Windows, don't forget "system restore".
I think that's far enough.
Baillie McKenny
PC Auditing
The Belarc Advisor is a PC auditor that builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. It runs on all Windows versions from 95 to XP, and browsers including IE, Firefox, Mozilla and Opera. The download is a single EXE file and it installs simply.
Belarc Advisor produces a 38KB HTML file in XP Home (78KB in XP Pro) listing details of my operating system and hardware devices, and a complete listing of Microsoft Hotfixes. It also lists the software licences for all my installed Microsoft products, and the name and version number of every item of software I have installed. Prominent comments appear concerning the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Benchmark Score (XP Pro)*; Virus Protection Status; and missing Microsoft Security Updates. On first running it I was advised that I was missing one security update. Sure enough; I downloaded a Virtual Machine update that fixed the problem.
The HTML file is a handy reference tool at any time, but especially valuable for restoration information after a major system crash.
* The CIS is an open association consisting of industry, government and academic members. The Benchmarks are developed by CIS members and staff and are consensus based, best-practice security configurations for computers connected to the Internet. The U.S. National Security Agency has found that configuring computers with proper security settings blocks 90% of the existing threats.Sandra Lite
Sandra is a System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant that includes benchmarking, testing and listing modules.
It runs on a wide range of Windows operating systems including NT4, 98, 2000, and XP; and gives information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, ODBC Connections, USB2, Firewire etc.
The Lite version is an 8 MByte free download that suffers some restrictions. It supports only 52 out of the total 75 local modules and does not have full PDA support. Nor does it support Remote System Analysis or Networking. This should not be a problem for the majority of readers, but it is frustrating to meet these obstacles - installed software is one of them - when browsing your PC. But, for a free program we cannot complain.
Everest
Lavalys says of its recently updated everesthome200.exe:
EVEREST Home Edition is a freeware hardware diagnostics and memory benchmarking solution for home PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. It offers the world's most accurate hardware information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information.
Similar to Si-Soft Sandra it provides minute detail about:
· Low-level hardware information: (40 pages)
· DirectX information including Direct3D acceleration features
· Diagnostics module that simplifies troubleshooting
· Memory benchmarking
These intimate details reveal the current state of the operating system and devices down to the memory in use and CPU percentage. Reports can be produced on System, Hardware or Benchmark pages; or pages of your choice for comparison or recovery purposes. As with Sandra Lite, Everest offers no information on installed software, but it is only a 3 MB download.
While the majority of users will probably not be able to see any direct use for Sandra or Everest, don't be afraid to use them for casual inspection of your PC's activity. It's all part of computer awareness and you cannot do it any harm by just looking.
My choice is for a combination of Everest and Belarc Advisor. I have taken Sandra off my system.
TerryB
Puppy Linux
For the past couple of years I have wanted to know more about Linux and have made sporadic attempts to learn by installing various versions like Mandrake, Xandros, Ubuntu and of course, Knoppix. I downloaded Agustin's Linux manual and tried to recall those DOS days with their command lines. What I got for my time was frustration.
But then, lots of people have the same experience with Windows.
I was recently introduced to Barry Kauler's development of Puppy Linux version 1.0.2, released in May 2005, and my problems began to come to an end, and I expect to become addicted.
Puppy is a specialized distribution of Linux that occupies about 60 megabytes on a bootable live-CD or a bootable USB thumb drive, and runs entirely in RAM (256MB recommended). I simply boot this CD on my Windows system and have instant access to all my data in the form of documents in various guises, excel spreadsheets, images in all forms, and email. No MS Works database access but therin lies a challenge.
When the live-CD boots, the Linux kernel loads into RAM, followed by a file system which loads into a "ramdisk".
It is not merely an operating system, but includes features like the Mozilla Suite, AbiWord and PlanMaker among its 70-odd built-in applications.
The Mozilla Suite features a browser, integrated calendar, web page composer, and Mozilla's email client. AbiWord is a virtual clone of Microsoft Word and is able to read and write Word files. PlanMaker is reputedly 100 percent compatible with Microsoft Excel, but this free version offers only a limited number of rows and columns, probably enough for most users.
All of the files created using Puppy Linux are compatible with the Microsoft Windows system. Files created by AbiWord or PlanMaker are accessible on both a Windows and a Linux system. Other applications range from CD/DVD burners, through a personal wiki with server, to premier desktop publishing. Wizards automate activities from network connections to changing video resolution.
If this list is not sufficient, Puppy has two package managers offering access to a range of compatible applications that you can download and install with just a few clicks of the mouse.
Whereas other distributions of Linux boot from a CD and run all of their applications from the CD, Puppy Linux loads everything into a RAM disk. This means it is possible to use Puppy Linux to play CDs and DVDs, even on a computer with a single DVD ROM.
The boot time from the CD-ROM is about one minute on my 2.4 gigahertz laptop and, once Puppy Linux loads, everything happens at lightning speeds.
Similar to other distributions of Linux, the normal live-CD version of Puppy does not save personal data and settings back to the CD but saves it to the hard disk. But, since Puppy is only about 60MB, there is about 600MB free space on the CD, which allows Puppy to save your data on the CD-ROM version of itself.
To do this it has to be burned as a live-CD to a multi-session CD when it is unpacked from the ISO file in which it is delivered, which is quite straight forward and is explained in the documentation. The multi-session live-CD does not require that the computer even have a hard disk. Updated files are saved at the end of each session and these sessions are stored as folders in subsequent tracks to Puppy, up to a maximum of 99 tracks (or 650-700MB, whichever comes first). When the CD fills up, Puppy will automatically ask you to insert a new blank CD and will place a fully working bootable Puppy on it. Using its package manager you can even rebuild the live-CD with the precise selection of packages that you want.
There is a comprehensive help file in clear and concise language that provides a good introduction to the system, and extensive documentation of all its utilities.
Hardware support is well behind that provided by Windows, and I could not install any of five available dial-up modems including that in my laptop only 18 months old. But I easily installed an ADSL connection with a Netcomm NB1300 Modem Router.
Puppy is available from http://www.goosee.com/puppy
TerryB
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