2008 February

Dell Laptop BIOS Password Removal

I recently purchased a used Dell laptop from PropertyRoom.com, an online auction site. I knew when I bid on it that the laptop was missing some parts, including a hard drive and power cord, and that it was password locked. At this point it was just a very inexpensive doorstop, but I wanted to see if I could get it working with little additional expense.

Perhaps you have encountered a similar situation, where you lost or forgot a password, or you acquired a used laptop which is password protected. This is what I learned and what worked for me.

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Background:

Most Dell laptops can have three layers of password protection which can be enabled. Each layer can have a unique password, but usually they will be the same.

1. The first layer of protection is a BIOS password.
2. If/when you get past that, there may be "a password authentication system". "You cannot access the data on this computer without the correct password. Please type in the primary or administrator password and press <Enter>." This is what many refer to as the "administrative password".
3. Finally, there may be a "hard drive password". See HARD DISK LOCKS info below from PWCrack.com, who also sells a replacement security chip.

HARD DISK LOCKS
Some laptops provide a utility to lock a hard disk with a password. These passwords are not the same as BIOS passwords. Moving a locked hard disk to another machine will not unlock it, since the hard disk password is stored in the hard disk firmware and moves with the hard disk. Also, adding a new (unlocked) hard disk to a locked machine may cause the new hard disk to become locked. Also, note that hard disk lock passwords cannot be removed by reformatting the disk, fdisk or any other software procedure (since the disk will not allow and reads or writes to the disk, it cannot be reformatted.) Usually, the BIOS password and hard disk lock passwords are set the same by a user and we can recover the BIOS password directly from the laptop security chip (after it is removed from the system board.) However, it is possible that the BIOS password and hard disk lock passwords may be set different. In this case the BIOS password will not unlock the hard disk. You can test to determine if your hard disk is locked by attempting to access it in another laptop. Password Crackers, Inc. offers a service that can unlock most models of laptop hard disks. Detail are available on our hard disk page.

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What worked for me:

After purchasing a power cord, I found, as the auction site had said, that the system was password protected, but I was able to bypass the passwords (yes, there were 2) fairly easily.

1. My Dell had a BIOS password, which I was able to get past by removing the battery pack, then with the power cord plugged in, press and hold the power button for 5 minutes. This reset the BIOS password to none.
2. I then encountered the administrator password! The "Latitude_MasterPW.exe" program (but not the original Latitude.exe mentioned below) was able to give me the correct administrator password, even though my laptop is not a Latitude, but an Inspiron. After this I was able to access and edit the BIOS setup, where I verified both the BIOS & Admin passwords were now set to none.
3. My laptop came with no hard drive, so had no HD password, and this is not set in the BIOS anyway.

Now I just need to dig in my spare parts box to find an old notebook hard drive, and I should be able to make this old laptop functional.

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Below are some other ideas which may or may not work for you:
(WARNING!!! I cannot verify that these will work, nor that they will not damage your system or any files you may have saved. Use at your own risk! )

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Try the backdoor password Dell.

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Dell Inspiron BIOS Password Recovery

Each Dell Inspiron has a master password which will clear the BIOS password. You can get this number by calling Dell Technical Support at (800) 624-9896. Do a transfer of ownership on the support web site first and when the info has changed to your name, then you can call Dell and have them give you a master password. Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Inspiron. If you were not the original owner of the Inspiron, Dell will transfer registration of the used Inspiron from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop. To transfer the registration of a used Dell Inspiron, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

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Dell Latitude BIOS Password Recovery (NOT for Inspiron models, but it may work)

Christophe Grenier has written a program that will calculate the master BIOS password for Dell Latitudes from the Service Tag number. That program is available at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~skynet/zips/latitude.exe.

If you cannot boot your Latitude to run this program, you can get the master password for your Dell by calling Dell Technical Support at (800) 624-9896. Dell Technical Support will request the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the bottom of your Latitude. If you were not the original owner of the Latitude, Dell will transfer registration of the used Latitude from the original owner with only the Service Tag and Express Service Code from the tag on the laptop. To transfer the registration of a used Dell Latitude, fill out the Transfer of Ownership form on Dell's web site.

Usage:

• From a command-prompt (DOS), enter:
• latitude 5-digit_service_code
• At bootup, on the password prompt screen, enter the generated password.
• If you hit <Enter> it will bypass (but probably not disable) both the BIOS and Administrator Passwords at once, which also enables the BIOS configuration, at least for that session, but...
• If you hold <Ctrl> and hit <Enter> TWICE it should disable (rather than bypass) the BIOS and Administrator Passwords, AND the HD password, if a HD password was enabled!

Note: "Latitude.exe" only works with the D-35B models, with 5-character service tags. If your service tag has more than 5 characters, you will have to use the "Latitude_MasterPW.exe" version. Latitude_MasterPW is a bit more user-friendly than the original, and works without having to use a Command Line or DOS window. The download is a zip file containing another zip file which has no extension, so you will need to rename it with the .zip extension. Inside that second zip are several files, including both "Latitude.exe" and "Latitude_MasterPW.exe". If your service tag number ends in D-35B, be sure to type in all the characters that are displayed on the "enter password" screen exactly as you see them, but without the # character. For example, "FAZNG73-D35B" or "FAZNG**-D35B", as the first screen for the BIOS password may show asterisks. If so, when you get past it, then you may get to the next screen, where the admin password prompt will show all the characters, and you will need to generate another password from that tag.

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Offline NT Password & Registry Editor freeware

• Download the iso and burn it to a CD using your favorite program.
• Insert the CD into the drive and boot your computer. You will then be brought to a screen in which you will be asked to download the drivers, select your partition, select your username, and change the password. THIS WILL ONLY ALLOW YOU TO CHANGE IT!

Note: The Windows administrative password has a 120 day freezing period. If you don't use it for that amount of time IT WILL LOCK YOU OUT.

This program will allow you to disable the password lock so make sure you select this option.

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CmosPwd - Password recovery freeware decrypts password stored in CMOS used to access BIOS SETUP. With CmosPwd, you can also backup, restore and erase/kill CMOS (probably won't work with most laptops, including Dell).

Works with the following BIOSes:

• ACER/IBM BIOS
• AMI BIOS
• AMI WinBIOS 2.5
• Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0
• Compaq (1992)
• Compaq (New version)
• IBM (PS/2, Activa, Thinkpad)
• Packard Bell
• Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0 (1994), a486 1.03, 1.04, 1.10 A03, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107
• Phoenix 4 release 6 (User)
• Gateway Solo - Phoenix 4.0 release 6
• Toshiba
• Zenith AMI

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Try removing the CMOS battery for a day or so; let the charge dissipate completely. This used to work on older bioses! Since the CMOS stores all the settings, removing/replacing the battery will reset the BIOS password.

Laptop computers use far more stringent methods of securing themselves than old desktops used to.

Removing the CMOS battery will NOT remove the passwords on a typical laptop. The passwords are stored in a NVRAM area, usually in the same chip that the BIOS is stored in. Simply removing power to this chip will NOT erase it.

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All BIOS passwords can be removed easily:

1. Create a DOS system disk.
2. Copy "debug" (this is a DOS command found in the "windows\command" directory) onto the system disk you created.
3. Boot the machine with this disk.
4. At the DOS prompt type: debug then hit <Enter>, and you will see a blinking dash.
5. Type: o 70 2e then hit <Enter> (also seen: o 70 18).
6. Type: o 71 ff then hit <Enter>.
7. Type: q then hit <Enter>.
8. Remove the floppy and reboot! Power the system off and on by unplugging and replugging the system into the power outlet.

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Most Laptops if you pull the system battery out, unplug it and hold the power down for about 5 minutes, the boot security will be overridden and you can boot the system. Popping the CMOS battery will do the same in many laptops. How do you think the fix your laptop when you send it for repairs? The ones with added security just had an IC with a jumper in a hard to see location (normally well hidden by something) or a reset button that is often RED or YELLOW.

Go get a static wrist strap, use it and crack that laptop open after removing the system battery. Pop the CMOS battery and hold the power down. If that does not work then start looking for jumpers and follow what I posted yesterday:

• unplug your system.
• pop the CMOS battery and pull a jumper pin (any jumper pin).
• turn the system on with it unplugged and hold the power button in for about 1 min or more.
• put both the CMOS battery and the jumper pin back and reboot.
• if this did not work repeat with a different jumper pin.

If you just hit <Enter> long enough, some Dells will let you in.

The other thing you can do is get a bootable DOS disk with the newest BIOS version on it, flash the BIOS and poof -- no more password.

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Info Sources:

• Google search for my model
• General password removal at Tech-FAQ (lots of info on other models, including desktops and laptops)
• Dell password removal at Tech-FAQ
• Dell password removal forum at TechSpot - 25 pages!
• Dell password removal forum at TechSpot - 47 pages!
• General laptop password removal (lots of info on other laptop models)
• Dell laptop password removal

Open Outlook Messages With Your Browser

In my last article, Save Outlook Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format, I told about a method of saving embedded files, such as animated gifs in their default format, which Outlook amazingly will not do. But what if you want to save the entire message as an html file with all the attachments, or even to properly view certain html-formatted emails that do not render correctly in Outlook, which by default uses the rendering engine from Microsoft Word?

Well, the same website, HowTo-Outlook.com, that produced the save embedded files trick has another trick up it's sleeve. Open Message in Internet Browser (or you can set it up for your preferred browser, such as Firefox) will, as the title says, open an Outlook email message in your browser. The site's author, Robert Sparnaaij, has written a short Visual Basic macro to display any Outlook message in your preferred browser by clicking a button. It is very easy to follow the instructions, as you basically just need to copy a few lines of code from the web page.

Once you have your new macro setup, you can directly open any message in your browser with gif and flash animations, advanced css formatting and HTML accessibility support not offered by the default Word rendering. And, of course, once your message is displayed in your browser, you can save the entire message as html with all embedded images, or just save selected images to save in their original format. In both cases, your animated gifs will actually be animated!

Now why didn't Microsoft think of that?

Computer Information sites

As I mentioned in my article on computer newsletters, there are a multitude of sites available with information on every aspect of computing, whether your interest is programming, repairs, building your own, tweaking, or anything else. The following is only a sample of what is available. Hopefully, you will find something interesting here.

• AXCEL216's MAX Speeed WinDOwS ©Tricks + Secrets - This site is huge... 100+ pages with 1000+ ©tricks and counting. The main goal of these pages is to transform your PC into the ultimate, extremely tweaked, mean machine you have always dreamed of, even if you don't have the fastest hardware available under the sun. Nonetheless, if you do own a fast rig, this will squeeze the last atom of performance it is capable of, making it soar at MAX Speeed. MOTTO: "Do U Feeel The Neeed 4 Speeed?"
• Bits and PCs, Betty Champagne Guthrie's site - Columns and Articles, "Free Stuff" and more. There are good articles and information on the old site as well.
• Black Viper's Web Site - With over 780 pages scattered throughout the domain, something is bound to catch your attention.
• CNET.com - It's huge! 'nuff said.
• Computer Hope - Free Computer Help, Drivers, Hardware, Software, Questions / Answers, Chat, forums and more.
• Experts Exchange - Experts Exchange is the most powerful Community Support resource in the world. Access instant solutions for your most demanding Community Support problems. Our vast IT library puts more IT information at your finger tips. You are moments away from finding your solution.
• G4TechTV - The new home of TechTV.
• The Hardware Book - the Internet's largest free collection of connector pinouts and cable descriptions.
• Leo Laporte's Leoville website specializing in technology coverage on radio, TV, and the Internet. This site is home to my blog and contains information about everything I publish, but I also have several other web sites you might be interested in.
• Mike's Hardware - We bring high-tech down to earth! Who are we? A small computer consulting firm/repair shop located in Burlingame California. We are seasoned computer professionals with a wide range of skills and talents rescuing and helping Burlingame and surrounding cities in the bay area for many years. How tos, reports, alerts, downloads, reviews, laptop, PocketPC and Apple sections, news, recommendations and more. UPDATE: Mike Chukov, the founder of this site, and it's prolific source of ideas, humor, and insight, died in a motorcycle accident on November 18, 2004. The future of this site is uncertain, and it has apparently not been updated in a long time, but still has some good articles.
• The PC Guide - The Internet's premier site for detailed PC reference information, including the free online The TCP/IP Guide, How to Build Your Own PC, Troubleshooting and Repair Guide, and more.
• PC Mechanic's "Build your own..." Guides - In the "Build your own..." Guides, we strive to offer the reader the best opportunity to save money and stress by helping you put together and make your own computers, and other computer related things, including your own Computer, Server, and Home Network.
• PC Pitstop - Our free automated tests will get your PC running faster, make it more stable, and identify security problems. The diagnostic tests don't change any settings on your system. The results will show you the details of your PC's operating status, and the advice will help both experts and novices to find and fix system problems.
• The PC Tune-Up Super Guide - Older but still good article.
• Pete’s Guide - Some information and links to a variety of topics.
• POST Codes at Ultra-X and Chipset Chart.
• Systweak's Technical Guides
• TechWeb, and formerly Windows Magazine (WinMag):
  • TechWeb Newsletters
  • WinMag: Although WinMag is no longer published, you can still supposedly find hundreds of its useful Windows articles with this fast and easy search tool. In my experience, however, it found very few of the articles which I searched for, and which I know had previously been there.
• WebTechGeek - Lots of information, plus links to other sites for even more.
• Windows Xp Fix Zone
• WhatIs.com - Look up definitions of computer terms. whatis.com® is a knowledge exploration and self-education tool about information technology, especially about the Internet and computers. It contains over 4,500 individual encyclopedic definition/topics, a number of "Fast Reference" pages and learning tools. The topics contain about 12,000 hyperlinked cross-references between definition-topics and to other sites for further information. The site is constantly updated.
• WUGNET (Windows User Group Network) Tips - Every day we feature a graphically illustrated Computing Tip featuring either Windows XP, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, or PC Hardware! These are the topics you've most requested and we appreciate all your feedback that has made our Computing Tips so popular. Additionally, we have archived the many years of tips we have produced for Windows 9x, Windows 2000 & Windows NT.
• The Elder Geek - Useful information about Windows XP including tweaks, guides, installation tips, registry edits, pagefile sizing, updates, and an XP Forum.
• TweakXP.com - Tweaking tools, tips, advice, news, and more.
• DSL Reports - News, Tips, Reviews, Tools, Tweaks, Speed Tests and more

Be sure to come back for updates and new articles, including a list of online computer radio shows.

Save Outlook Embedded Pictures in Their Original Format

Like many of you, I use Microsoft Outlook as my email program, and have a love/hate relationship with it. It has many wonderful features, but unfortunately some aggravations as well. Fortunately, there are ways to improve on many of the shortcomings.

One of my pet peeves was that I often get html-formatted emails with cute pictures and photos embedded within the message that I may want to save. By default, Outlook will not allow you to save these pictures in their default format. This can apply to other embedded file types as well.

If you save the email as an html file, it does not save the attachments, as it would if you saved a web page from your browser. If you right-click on a picture and select "Save picture as", the only choice is to save it as "untitled.bmp" (you can give it a different name, but not a different extension). If you save that bmp, you can always convert it to a gif or jpg with something like IrfanView. If the original graphic was an animated gif, however, then it will no longer be animated!

In the past, I have tried two workarounds but neither has been satisfactory. The first method is to forward the email to myself, but NOT allow Outlook to download it from the Internet. To do this, you need to set up Outlook to NOT automatically receive messages (I have mine set to automatically send new messages, when I hit the "Send" button, but to receive, I have to hit the "Send/Receive" button). Then, while the message is still on my ISP's server, I use my ISP's webmail feature to open the message in my browser, where I can save it correctly. This works well, but is awkward and time-consuming.

The second method is to move or copy the message to a special "Export" folder that I set up in Outlook, then use "Outlook Express" (not Outlook) to import messages from Outlook's "Export" folder. Once the message has been imported in Express, you can (usually) save the graphics in their default and correct format. This method is also awkward, and does not even work on every email message. I (and many other people) have often thought it very strange that Outlook Express can do this properly, but the bigger (and in most ways better) Outlook could not! Anyway, I finally found a solution that works pretty well, at http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/saveembeddedpictures.htm. The parent site, HowTo-Outlook.com, also has a lot of other good information and downloads for Outlook. The site's author, Robert Sparnaaij, has written a short Visual Basic macro to save those attachments (actually ALL the email's attachments) as their original file type: jpg, gif, avi, mid, etc. This sounds intimidating, but it is really easy to follow the instructions, and you just copy the few lines of code from the web page. The code has been tested with Outlook 2003 on Windows XP and Outlook 2007 on Windows Vista but should work on previous versions as well. I tested it with Outlook 2000, and it works great. To use your new macro, simply open a message that contains embedded pictures. You have to actually open the message, NOT just view it in a "Preview" pane. When you click on the newly created "Save Attachments" button, it will prompt you for a location to save the attachments (except blocked ones) with a date and time stamp, but after saving you can rename them to something more descriptive, like CajunFiddler.gif, if desired. If the original graphic was an animated gif, then it will still be animated!

NOTE: this macro does not save the actual message, just the attachments and embedded files, so if you want to save the message itself, you still need to do that as well.

This is so much better than other methods that I have used, but still not perfect. I wish there was a way to save the entire message as html, WITH the attachments in a folder like you can do from your browser (with the attachments in a "filename_files" folder, corresponding to "filename.htm"). To do that, either use the first method above, or manually create the folder, move the attachments into the folder, and edit all the img tags in the html file to point to the files in their new folder. This is really not hard, but it can be time-consuming, and there should be an easier way!

Well, it may be that there is a better way, from the HowTo-Outlook.com site, and I will cover that in another article.

Free computer newsletters

There are a number of free computer information newsletters to which you can subscribe, to stay informed about the latest computer developments, learn troubleshooting tips and techniques, find software recommendations, including excellent freeware, and much more. These are a few of the newsletters that are available. Most are also excellent sites for information beyond that published in the newsletter. Here are a few, in no particular order. Maybe you'll find one (or more) that is just right for you.

• Windows Secrets Newsletter merged on Nov. 16, 2006 with the award-winning LangaList by Fred Langa. Langalist was my favorite newsletter, and I am happy to say that Fred Langa is editor-at-large of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. The Windows Secrets Newsletter brings you essential tricks of running Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Windows Update, and more — weekly, free.
• HelpOnTheNet: Tech Support Guy - free help for Microsoft Windows. The free way to find the answer to your question or answer those of others.
• The WinRag Computer Newsletter is free, and full of hints and tips, on everything to do with the internet and your computer, with many subjects covered including, Windows XP, Windows 98, Internet Explorer, Reinstalls, Online Gaming, plus much much more. Signup, its FREE, you can cancel at anytime. Other Help covers everything including Boot Disks, Building a Computer, CD-Rom Support, Drivers, Forums, Free Software, How to Backup, MSDOS Commands, Preinstall Checklist, Save Settings, Tips & Tricks, and Troubleshooting (member only).
• Computer Knowledge newsletter - although the newsletter is no longer being published you might find the Computer Knowledge Archived Newsletters (1997 - 2002) and other articles and news on the home page useful.
• Edupage Newsletter is a digest of abstracts and links to news of interest to the higher education IT community, was started by Educom in 1993 and continued by EDUCAUSE after it formed in 1998. A publishing hiatus began in December 2006 in order to assess options for better service to subscribers. As RSS technology and other news-aggregator services outpaced the weekly distillation of IT news, the association decided to explore new content delivery options that better match audience needs with available resources. Also see other newsletters from EDUCAUSE.
• Free Computer Education and Training Newsletters - Our monthly newsletter features and describes the best new Free IT and Computer Education and Training sites which we have discovered and researched during the previous month. Every month we also find many good free training sites that cannot be included in the newsletter due to size limits - these are posted in our Newly Found Free Training section available to newsletter subscribers and web site members.
• ComputerHope.com - Computer Hope is a collection of free services that allows any user to access its database of extensive free computer related information. With these resources available Computer Hope has become a popular destination for end-users as well as computer support facilities for answering computer related questions.
  Some of the services that Computer Hope is able to offer include free technical support, computer product information, computer product buying tips, third party computer company information, computer dictionary, weekly computer newsletter, daily computer news, and much more. Each of these services help make Computer Hope the number one free computer services on the Internet.
  The Computer Hope Newsletter, issued weekly, includes the following: a new computer term; computer-related news items; virus alerts; "What's New at Computer Hope;" "hot" computer issues, and an All Talk section. We hope you will find the Newsletter informative, useful, and perhaps even, at times, entertaining.
• MalekTips -The MalekTips mailing list offers you free notices of new computer help and tips that you can get before the general public! MalekTips is a diverse site, and tips may include the following: Adobe Reader, Electronic Mail, Scanners, Anti-Spyware and Anti-Adware, HTML, WinAmp, AntiVirus Software, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Digital Audio Players, Microsoft Word, Windows XP and 2000, DOS and Batch Files, Printers, and more.
• Computer Tips & Techniques Newsletter -Are you looking for a better, smarter way to run your Windows PC? Don't you hate it when it takes forever to do something that you know should be easier? Well, this is the newsletter for you.
  Computer Tips & Techniques will give you practical advice, great tips, a few tricks, and a cool web site every weekday. Computer Tips & Techniques will give you practical advice, great tips, a few tricks, and a cool web site every weekday. This newsletter is sent out every Monday through Friday and is designed for those who love "eye candy." You'll get screenshots, easy to read content, humor, and so much more!
  In addition to the "regular" advice and tips, each issue has a Computers 101 section that helps folks who are new to computing to understand and learn the basics. This newsletter is designed so that no matter what your current skill level, beginner or advanced, you'll get something useful out of every issue.
• The Dux Computer Newsletter was written for information technology and business professionals, computer resellers and technicians, computer hobbyists, and anyone else who has an interest in computers and networking. The news letter ceased publication in 2001 due to a lack of advertising revenue to support it. Back issues are maintained for reference purposes. Even though the newsletter has died, the main site http://www.duxcw.com has lots of good information and forums, so check it out.
• TNPC (The Naked PC) Newsletter -The world's BEST computer newsletter... FREE!
• Kim Komando's 100% FREE Weekly Newsletter, Tip of the Day or Daily Cool Site! The Kim Komando Show Electronic Newsletter is your best source of news about the Internet, your computer, new software and new Web sites. Plus, you'll find computer tips that will make using your machine and the Internet easier and more fun! Best of all, it's FREE!
  Every weekend, your FREE electronic newsletter from "America's Digital Goddess" is delivered directly to your e-mail Inbox. Over 500,000 subscribers are already receiving The Kim Komando Show Electronic Newsletter! You should be, too!
• Scot Finnie's excellent Scot’s Newsletter Blog covers Windows, broadband, do-it-yourself networking, Microsoft, and the Internet. You'll get insights, analysis, hardware and software reviews, explanations, tips, and straight-shooting advice about desktop computing issues today, and tomorrow. It's information about Windows and broadband you can really use.
• Karen Kenworthy's web site - Karen is the author of the popular Power Tools, free programs that make life with Windows a lot easier. Karen also writes a free e-mail newsletter, Karen's Power Tools newsletter. In it she discusses her new programs, answers reader questions, and explains technical details in a way that anyone can understand.
• ABC ~ All 'Bout Computers - The Online Web-azine for Computer Enthusiasts -You will only get ONE short email per month which simply tells you that the next issue is available online here. No SPAM and no obligation. ABC is currently on hiatus, for an undetermined amount of time. Feel free to use the links on the website to read the archives or search for what you need. There's a lot here!
• TechTrax Ezine - TechTrax Ezine is a free, online technical support magazine, brought to you by MouseTrax.com and our highly skilled, volunteer tech authors—many are Microsoft MVPs and certified users. Let these experts teach you how to get technology under control...for FREE!
• Lockergnome - Discover new information, read the latest news, and get it delivered it directly to you every day of the week for FREE. Subscribe today, and you'll start saving time and money with our help!
• Neat Net Tricks - Since early in 1996, Neat Net Tricks has provided a few chuckles along with some down-to-earth ways to enhance everyone's computer and Internet experience. This feature is a light-hearted approach, believing that computers and the Net need not be a terrifying and intimidating experience. You should find something here for you, whether you are a novice or first-class computer guru.
• MikesWhatsNews - MikesWhatsNews E-zine will try to include the latest updates, patches, and drivers from the various manufacturers. I will also be posting Antivirus info, provided by HackFix, and the recommended updates. There will be links to software which I discover, or subscribers send to me, which I will try to provide some variety. I will also seek out the unusual sites, and programs that will appeal to all interest groups, but not necessarily at the same time. I'm in hopes that the list will evolve with your input. This E-zine will be a family newsletter.
• Registry Answers - Free registry tips. Registry Secrets Revealed, Windows 95 to XP. Each issue consists of a select registry tip or trick, in question and answer format. Sent out every few weeks.
• Wintips&Tricks - Everyone welcome from beginners to advanced. Covering Windows 95 to XP, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Ms-Dos, and more. Each issue will focus on one select tip or subject. Many of the tips will be cleaned up tips from the archives of our support group (see Notes below) starting from November 2000.
• AnyFrontPage (formerly AnyBackPage Bytes) is your FrontPage Community Interactive Ezine: bringing you Expert FrontPage Articles, breaking FrontPage News, FrontPage Tips & FrontPage Tutorials that you can't find elsewhere. AnyBackPage strives to bring you the best, the newest, the most interesting FrontPage experience you have ever imagined for any version of Microsoft FrontPage. Have fun learning from the FrontPage Community - we will enjoy learning from you.
• The Editorium publishes a free weekly email newsletter, Editorium Update, which provides tips about editing, writing, and typesetting in Microsoft Word.
• Indezine - Indezine is a platform for PowerPoint presentations, presentation software, image editing, Photoshop info, and clip media. There's so much happening in the world of PowerPoint and you'll stay informed about everything because you read this ezine.
• Woody's Watch - Advice, tips and news from author, guru, curmudgeon, and Microsoft software victim Woody Leonhard, and friends. SIX GREAT PUBLICATIONS - FREE. It's about time somebody told the truth about Microsoft Windows, Office, Access, Project and Office 2003 doncha think? If you want the latest up-to-the-nanosecond news -- or if you're going crazy trying to figure out how to use Office or Windows -- you're in the right place. Join our 510,000 subscribers for a FREE, unbiased, jolt of cold, hard reality, tailor-made to help you get the most out of Microsoft's products, delivered straight to your email inbox. If you want old, warmed-over tips, or the Microsoft Party Line, look somewhere else. My newsletters feature original articles from internationally known, award-winning experts who have descended into the belly of the beast, and survived to tell the tale. No Microsoft marketing drivel. No bull.
• Focus on PC Support at About - FREE Newsletter, info and more.
• Developer.com - Info on programming, security, certification and more, including several free tech newsletters.

Thingamablog

I have been hacking about on my personal webpage off and on for several years, mostly using just a plain text editor, such as my favorite PSPad. I'll admit that I am no expert on html or web design, but the little I do know is entirely self-taught, and fiddling around in plain text is both the best way to learn, as well as (usually) resulting in the most compact code. I have enjoyed trying out different snippets of code on that site, and I am constantly tweaking it - sometimes even totally messing it up.

When I decided to post a site for Mr. Fix-It Computer Services, however, I knew that I needed something more stable, more professional, and both faster and easier to use, but that would still result in fairly compact code. I toyed with the idea of trying a CMS (Content Management System), such as Joomla!, which is used on the SWLAPCUG website, but all the programs I looked at seemed to be way more than I really need at this time. I had never even considered a "blog" (weB LOG) solution, but after accidentally stumbling upon Thingamablog, a freeware blogger, I realized this may be just what I was looking for. I thought about what content I would be posting to this site, and realized that it would mostly be a repository for various articles that I have written, both for myself and our club, and that a blogger could actually be a good fit. Next, I compared features with WordPress, the more well-known open-source blog solution, and decided that Thingamablog would do quite nicely, at least for now.

From the Thingamablog (TAMB) website: "Thingamablog is a cross-platform, standalone blogging application that makes authoring and publishing your weblogs almost effortless. Unlike most blogging solutions, Thingamablog does NOT require a third-party blogging host, a cgi/php enabled web host, or a MySQL database. In fact, all you need to setup, and manage, a blog with Thingamablog is FTP, SFTP, or network access to a web server."

Thingamablog allows you to:

• Set up a blog in minutes via an intuitive wizard
• Maintain multiple blogs
• Effortlessly manage thousands of entries
• Dynamically update blog content
• Write entries offline (Dialup users)
• Publish your blog with a single click
• Publish remotely to your blog via email
• Read news with an integrated feed reader
• Make posts from your favorite feeds
• Create a unique layout with customizable templates
• Import entries from RSS/Atom feeds
• Set up flexible archiving options
• Organize your entries by category or date
• Save entries as drafts
• Define your own custom template tags
• Syndicate your blog via an RSS or Atom feed
• Ping services like weblogs.com, BlogRolling, and Blo.gs
• And much more...

OK, enough of the canned hype. How well does it work for me? Fantastic!!! It is easy (easy to install, setup, run, make entries, and edit existing entries), does all the updating and linking automatically, doesn't require php, MySQL, Apache, or any other services other that Java on your computer and ftp access to your site, outputs fairly small pages of code, comes with several templates (skins), and more freely available, the templates are easily modified, and Thingamablog is FREE! What more could you ask?

Glad you asked. As great as this program is, in my short time using it I have come across a few limitations that may or may not be relevant to your needs. First, although not a limitation, when you first set up your blog, you need to tell it "The Base Path" and "The Base URL". That may sound a little tricky, and you do need to get this right, but there is excellent help available both within the program and on the website. The first real hitch is that Thingamablog is not set up to allow feedback, such as you would find at most blog sites. This was not a problem for me, because at this point I did not want that feature anyway. If I decide to enable that feature later, there are add-ins available that are supposed to bring this and other functions into TAMB.

Second, there is no way to change the URLs or Permalinks of the article entry pages, and no easy way to find and reference those Permalinks from other articles. The individual posts or article pages generated by Thingamablog have URLs like "/archives/2007/10/entry_0.html", "/archives/2007/10/entry_1.html", and so on, and there is no way to change this so that you get a URL like "/category-name/post-title.html". To find the Permalinks, you need to go to the website, find the entry you are looking for, scroll to the bottom of the entry, then the "Posted by ... at" and a time, which is the actual Permalink. There is no provision to be able to do this from within the program itself. There is a "Wikilink extension" which does add this feature to the program, but it is apparently for Thingamablog version 1.0.6, and TAMB is now up to version 1.1 beta 6, so I was reluctant to test it yet. If you would like to read more about Wikilink, I suggest Felix Atagong's Unfinished Projects page.

Third, there is no search facility built-in to the templates to search your site or the web. This is fairly easy to add in yourself, however, and I will be adding a custom Google search to the site soon.

Fourth, there is no facility to add other types of pages than blog entries. Well, DUH! It's a blogging program! I wanted to have a "Welcome" page on the site, and this would actually have been fairly easy to do, as the default page for TAMB is "blog.html". All I would have to do is create a welcome page (outside of TAMB) and name it "index.htm", with a link to the blog. But I really wanted to do this in TAMB, so my workaround was to create a "Welcome" category, a "Welcome" entry, and a link at the top of the home page to the Permalink for the "Welcome" entry. Likewise, I wanted a page listing some of my services, and I created a category, entry and links for that as well, and I am happy with the results. Want a calendar function or other types of content? TAMB won't help, but you could still those outside the program and link to them.

Fifth, you can publish to your local computer, or to the Internet, but you can't do both from the same blog. Therefore, there is no way to preview the pages locally before posting them. There are 2 workarounds that I have tried, but both have their faults. First you can create a second local blog, using the same template, and creating the same categories. Go to your original blog and "Export Weblog to Feed". Then go to your new local blog and "Import Entries From Feed". Then publish the site locally. The problems with this is that if you have already imported the entries, and later do it again, you will have duplicates, and even worse, the "Permalinks" of the new entries are almost certainly going to be different from those posted to the web, effectively breaking any internal links you have established. Plus the process is cumbersome. Another option, if you just want a local copy, is to actually post to the web, then download the post with your ftp program, such as Filezilla. Again, this is NOT a "preview", and requires several steps, including actually posting to your site.

Sixth, there is no list of archives by title or post name, nor the ability to automatically list by title the last few posts on the main page - say the last 10 posted titles. This should be fairly easy to implement manually, but it seems like it should be incorporated within the program.

Last, it would be good to incorporate an automatic backup of the weblog database to a location of your choice. Although it is not automatic, it is easy to backup, as it puts the entire blog in one Database folder. Just periodically copy the folder to your preferred backup location and append the date to the folder name, such as "Database 2008-02-02". You can probably even automate this with a simple batch file and Windows built-in Task Scheduler, but that didn't seem necessary to me.

Verdict: In spite of the things mentioned above, I love this program, am recommending it to others, and will be using it myself for a very long time. As the author releases new versions, I hope that most of the points above will be addressed, but even if they are not, it is already fantastic.

Create Your Own Shortcuts to End Processes and Programs

Do you have an often used program that frequently freezes, requiring that you kill it? Or do you have persistent applications that start-up on their own, even if you have disabled them from the various startup locations in the registry (QuickTime is a good example). If so, you may want to have a quick method for killing these specific tasks without resorting to using the proverbial Windows 3-finger salute -- Ctrl+Alt+Del -- to bring up the Windows Task manager, then wade through the entries to find the correct entry, ending the process, then ending Task manager.

Well, you may not know that you can create quick-kill shortcuts for specific applications using either the built-in Windows command line tool "taskkill", or a third-party command line tool called "taskill" (notice one less 'k'). With the default taskkill, just create a shortcut such as the following example:

taskkill /f /im firefox.exe

Where firefox.exe is replaced by the the application you want to force to quit.

If you are using it to shut down Firefox, however, there is one possible flaw with this solution . Sometimes it is handy to forcefully close Firefox even when it’s not frozen. Forcefully closing Firefox is equivalent to a crash, and Firefox has a built-in option to recover from a crash with your tabs and windows restored. When you use taskkill, however, if the program being killed was NOT frozen it will "gracefully", rather than forcefully close it. That might be great in most cases, but when you use taskkill with Firefox, the next time you start the browser you may not get the option to restore your session. This too is easily overcome if you use a Firefox extension to save your sessions. As far as I have been able to determine the extensions here will all recover your session whether it was gracefully or forcefully closed: Tab Mix Plus and Session Manager. Session Saver, a similar extension, is no longer actively maintained, and it is recommended to use one of the other 2 mentioned.

The taskkill.exe (built-in) is available in many versions of Windows, including Win XP Pro and Vista, but possibly not XP Home. It is usually located in your "Windows/System32" folder.

If your system does not include taskkill, there are other similar tools including tools for Macs, and Linux, special purpose task-killers, such as several tools designed to kill Microsoft ActiveSync, and general purpose task viewers with the ability to kill tasks, such as Process Viewer, Sysinternal's Process Explorer, Task Killer, @KILL, or DTaskManager. Below are a few of the options available for Windows. If you need solutions for another OS, please refer to the articles in the Credits section at the bottom, or Google for windows task kill.

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XP's PROCESS command also has a -k switch which allows you to kill a process by name, such as the following example:

process -k notepad.exe

Also of note, if your process is not actually hung (ie: not responding) but is chewing up CPU cycles, and you want to let it finish eventually but need to interrupt it temporarily, you can use the -s and -r switches to suspend (-s) and resume (-r) a process.

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Taskill from DS Software is very small (just under 6.5 KB), free, and will take less than a minute to setup. It is similar to the built-in taskkill, but will work on systems that do not have taskkill, and will forecefully kill any program, even if it is not frozen, making it perhaps more suitable for killing Firefox. Taskill is both a process viewer and killer. It works in GUI or CLI mode and can kill multiple instances of the same task in one go.

Set it up in a location where you’ll easily know the path to it, such as at the root of the “C:\� drive, and create a new shortcut, such as this example:

"C:\taskill.exe" firefox.exe

Where the part in quotes is the location of taskill.exe, and then immediately after that you put the name of the executable program you want to close with the shortcut.

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PsKill is a kill utility that not only does what the Windows NT or Win2K Resource Kit's 'kill' version does, but can also kill processes on remote systems. You don't even have to install a client on the target computer to use PsKill to terminate a remote process. PsKill supports Windows NT 4.0 and later.

Example: pskill -t firefox

For more info, see:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/ArticleID/43569/43569.html?Ad=1

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Launchy fans can use the Killy plugin instead of the Task Manager. If you are not familiar with Launchy, it is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, your desktop icons, and your file manager. Launchy indexes and launches your applications, documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes! More info on Launchy can be found at http://www.launchy.net/.

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App Killer from Shenandoah Software is a powerful, easy-to-use add-on for Windows. It allows you to selectively kill programs and processes. The App Killer log will let you know which programs terminated cleanly, which ones won't close willingly, and can force these programs to close after a user-specified waiting period. App Killer is "User Profile" aware. Ideal for creating a custom list of several programs to close at once with a single click!

Notice: Shenandoah Software is closing down... All of our software is now free to use. If you need a license for App Killer, use the following:

License Name: Valid User

License Number: 2443762-2910643

Download from WinSite

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App Killer from Palmersoft, freeware that will check your system every 30 seconds for programs on your block list. If it finds any open then it will close them immediately.

I think this is a great idea, but you cannot add your own items to monitor or close. You can only select items from a pre-programmed menu, which is periodically updated, often in response to user's requests.

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Credits

Most of the information above came from the following articles and my own experience:

• Lifehacker: Create Quick-Kill Shortcuts for Runaway Applications
• CyberNotes: Shortcuts to End Processes and Programs

Corrupt Windows Icons

Sometimes your icons become corrupt, and may display an incorrect icon for a file or file type. Listed below are a few tricks to fix this problem.

Try any or all of these 4 suggestions:

1. Icons etc can become corrupt when the 'shelliconcache' file in the windows directory becomes corrupt. Deleting the file while in safe mode (and viewing all files) will solve the problem. Windows will re-build the file upon restarting and your icons will return to normal.

To do this, open the Windows Explorer, click Tools, Folder Options, View, and Select Show hidden files and folders (ShellIconCache is a hidden file) and find the ShellIconCache file. Shutdown Windows, restart your computer, hold the Ctrl key (or press the F8 key just before the Windows starts firing-up) as the computer boots, Select Start in Safe Mode from the resulting menu, and boot into Windows in Safe Mode. Next, in the Windows Explorer, click on the plus sign next to the C: drive (or whichever drive contains your Windows operating system) to expand it if isn't expanded, click on the Windows folder, scroll down the right Explorer window pane, find the ShellIconCache file, click on it to highlight it, press the Delete key, and click Yes when Windows asks if you want to send the file to the Recycle Bin. Shutdown Windows, and restart your computer (in the normal mode).

Using Search, you may find the iconcache.db file in the "\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Application Data" directory instead of Windows. No matter where you find it, delete it as per above.

2. Start-> RUN -> CMD -> sfc /scannow (you will probably need your origional XP CD in your drive to do this), and in about 15 minutes your icons should be back to normal.

3. Create a new user account. Check that the icons in this account aren't corrupt. If they are good, export your preferences and settings and documents from your old user account and your problem should be solved.

4. You can resolve this dilemma by downloading and installing Tweak UI, a very useful free utility from Microsoft; type Tweak UI in the search field and click the Go button). Once you have downloaded and saved Tweak UI to a temporary folder, look for the Tweakui.inf file. Right-click it and select Install.

After you install Tweak UI, click Start, select Settings, Control Panel, and double-click Tweak UI. Select the Repair tab in the Tweak UI dialog box. The default option is Rebuild Icons. Click the Repair Now button and Tweak UI will try to rebuild corrupt icons on your Desktop, Start menu, Taskbar, and in folders.