Category: XP

Bandwidth Tools For Monitoring your bandwidth

Paul

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So I’ve done some looking around for bandwidth programs.  So here’s what I found so far.  The programs I’ve got listed are not test and are therefore your responsible for any and all use of the programs.

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  • FreeMeter Bandwidth Monitor For Windows – Monitor network bandwidth (C#.NET 2k/XP+). Desktop and Systray graph. Configurable connection speed, update interval, color, transparency. Monitor any or all network interfaces. Ping/Trace/UPnP utilities. Email notifier (POP/IMAP). Requires .NET 2.0.

  • Pipelog – Windows Bandwidth Meter — Pipelog is a Windows bandwidth meter that gives live statistics of accumulated bandwidth usage. It is written in C# and runs on the .NET Framework.

  • Windows Service Monitor — Monitor and automatically restart Windows Services with this small Win32 command line utility. Windows Service Monitor (WinSMon) can monitor several services, restart services that stop/fail and limit the number of restart times.

  • iptotal — iptotal is an IP traffic monitor. It listens to a network interface in non-promiscuous mode, and measures IP bandwidth usage. After the specified number of seconds, the average throughput is printed at total, input and output usage.

  • Bandwidth Vista 1.0.0.8 — Bandwidth Vista is modern, informative and intuitive to use. Whether you are looking for network problems or simply want to check the speed of your Internet connection Bandwidth Vista is for you. Bandwidth Vista monitors all your connected interfaces at once and holds a history of transfers, which can be viewed down to the minute. This dynamic application also indicates the countries of remote computers con.

  • Bandwidth Monitor 2 — An ideal tool for the bandwidth conscious, Bandwidth Monitor enables you to keep a close eye on the amount of bandwidth accumulated over the current hour, day, week, month, or even year! Advanced logging tools make it easy to view your bandwidth usage and make alterations to bandwidth logs. Clean up old data at the touch of a button, and import your bandwidth data from our predecessor Bandwidth Monitor 1.0. Version 2 adds Vista compatibility.

  • Axence NetTools 3.2 — NetWatch – network monitoring with e-mail alerting, real-time & historical charts of response time & packet lost. WinTools lists exhaustive system information from Windows computers: running processes & services, registry, event log, disk, memory & CPU information. Port scanner checks for all open ports and running services.

  • BitMeter 3.5.7 — BitMeter 2 is a bandwidth meter, it allows you to visually monitor your Internet connection by displaying a scrolling graph that shows your upload and download speed over time. Features include: Graphical and numerical displays of historical data, Web interface, alerts, stopwatch, calculator, transparent/float/click-through modes, 36-page help file, audio notifications, configurable color-schemes and many other options. Version 3.5.7 offers minor fixes and feature enhancements.

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These are just a few that I could find to better keep track of your bandwidth.  These haven’t been tested but should get your started in the right directions.  If you have any good suggestions by all means let me know!!

Cleaning out the Prefetch Directory!

Paul

From time to time you will need to clean out the Prefetch directory in Vista and XP.  Here is how you do it in Vista.  You first would need to boot into safe mode in Vista then you will log into Vista and go to:

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[C:\Windows\Prefetch Directory]

Having been using XP and Vista for the past few years, I’ve found that deleting all of the files in prefetch directory and letting them rebuild actually speeds up the system.  I got a feeling it has something to do with file corruptions.  After you go into the Prefetch directory and delete all the files.  You would then go into your Readyboost Directory if you are using Readyboost then there will be a Readyboost directory inside the Prefetch directory.  Deleting all the files in the Readyboost directory also will greatly improve performance of your system.  Don’t delete the Prefetch Directory or the Readyboost Directory, Vista won’t let you delete the Prefetch but will with Readyboost.  Deleting the Readyboost directory will prevent  Vista from using Readyboost and then you would have to restart the process of using Readyboost.

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If you can come up with more ways to speed up Vista then by all means let me know!!

Running old programs on Vista (tips and tricks)

Paul

So We’ve talked about how to get Vista to shut down better.  So I thought we talk about getting Windows XP programs to run on Vista and be more stable.  You can do this with Windows XP, ME, 2000, NT,. and 95 programs.

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  • Run the program in compatibility mode — This is something Vista comes with now for running old programs in Vista. To do this you will have to do some minor things.  Go to where the program is and right click on the program.  Select properties>compatibility.  Select “Run this program in compatibility  mode for:” Select  windows Operating System that you think would work with the program.

  • Run the program as Administrator —  This is a really good tip and trick to sometimes get programs to run with vista.  It goes hand in hand with the last one.  Right click on the program and select “Run as Administrator”.  I find some old programs don’t know about the kernel protection in Vista and you need to give them permission to use the kernel for the program to work.

  • Give the program special access —  Yes this one takes a little skill but should fix some of the problems with vista and old programs.  Right click on program and select properties.  Select security, and then select the group you want to associate with it.  I always suggest putting it in the administrator group because of the problems with Vista and the kernel.

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These few tips and tricks will greatly increease the likely hood of a old program to run in Vista.  Now remember if you have a Vist x64 Version you might need to do the Run as Administrator more than not.  I am not sure why I just know it is sometimes required.  Let me know what other tips and tricks you use with Vista and I’ll be sure to pass them along!!

Spore Creature Creation — Unleashed

Paul

I’ve been playing around with Spore Creature Creation a couple days.  I must say for the so called Demonstration game is not bad.  It actually works quite well at making basic creatures.  I made some basic creatures myself. Some of the creatures I’ve made should be able to survive when Spore goes online.  One of my favorite ones is Natsela, although the generic name generator is kind of lame.  I like the way you can upload little videos up to YouTube.  The Creature creation is really nice to make the creatures. The videos that I uploaded to YouTube can be seen HERE.

My Dinosaurs:

As you can see, I’ve made some other types of dinosaurs and this one is one of the ones, you won’t want to meet in person.  Although, the sophistication of this creature isn’t as much as others have created in the full version, I think I could start off with this one and actually be quite happy with him.  When the game goes live I’d evolve him into a fearsome dinosaur, and would be able to fight of others without much trouble.

My stalking Dinosaur

I also have some theories as to why they released the Creature Creator early.  I know some people have thought about this themselves and know that it’s all just speculation and theories but I wouldn’t mind seeing the game when it comes out.  Are they, also going to release a demonstration or a Trail version of the full game.  I would say they are because they did the demo version of the Creature Creation.

Now what about these theories I have.  Here are some of them, and I am sure you will like them.  The reason they released Creature creation early is so they have a base line of creatures to use when the game go live.  This means that if you start playing with this creature when you start they have other creatures to draw from to help populate the game and make the game play even more enjoyable.  Now that comes with a price.  You will probably have limits when you first begin because you did not start off as a single celled organism.  Essentially making the game play fair and making sure there is not any cheaters trying to create a powerful creature and swooping down killing other peoples creatures.  I say the more complex the creatures are going to be the more chance of you having to fight off attacks of the AI, they probably made an +2 attribute for head monsters that will be retrieved from the sporepedia and then it will add the attributes to it to make it even more powerful.  So I was thinking starting off from the beginning to get used to how the game reacts and all.  Then once you get used to it to load up your creature and try it out.

Now on a nicer note, I love to see the creatures everyone else is making to just seeing the creativity of the community.  I also like the animated Avatars you can make with them.  Like these two:

Now if you like the avatars and want to create your own all you need to do is look for it.  I love the avatar selections, If you have an avatar you want to show off use the comments and show yours off.  If you dare.

Vista pleas for Acceptance!!

Paul

I’ve heard people talking about Windows Vista and how bad it is. I’ve decided to write a post about my experiences with Vista to better show you that Vista is not as bad as people say.

“I hate the User Account Control(UAC for Short)” — I’ve hear people talking about how the UAC is so annoying, always popping up when you least expect it. It can be fixed in several ways:

  1. Disabling UAC — You can do this by clicking Start and typing in MSCONFIG and going to the tools tab. Hitting the Disable UAC click Launch button!!

  2. Tweak-UAC — This little program is supposed to change UAC to be less annoying, or if you like to disable UAC for good. This program is good for Turning on AUC, Making UAC less annoying or Disabling it!!

  3. Live with it — This one is self understanding.

  4. Buy XP before it’s too late! — Yes that is right just go out and buy as many copies of XP before it’s too late!!

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“The Aero Glass effect takes up to much of the system resources!” — I have a thought on this one. I’ve been using Aero Glass effects since I’ve had it but I’ve had to change some of the settings to better help my system handle it.

  1. Setting Aero Glass for best performance — Right click desktop, click Personalize

  3. Click  on “Open classic Appearance properties for more color options”

  5. Select one of the other propers like classic or If you want to use some of the other features of Vista put it on the Vista basic!!!

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Now with these steps you too can have a pleasurable experience with Vista.  You can always go back and change them with little effort.  I am hoping with this little blog to help people understand that “Vista is your Friend”.  Also in the news,

Vista’s big problem: 92 percent of developers ignoring it

So that means not a lot of programs are going to even work with Vista.  Does that seem fair, I say not!!  Shouldn’t they start worrying about Vista since XP is going off the market?  You know they seem to think XP is going to live forever!!  I think we need to start telling these people to develop for Vista so we can get more programs working with Vista.  Vista wouldn’t be so misunderstood if they’d have compatible programs for Vista.  Just some thoughts!!