Customise and configure your PC with Windows Tweaker 5.0

♠ Posted by Unknown in Computer Hardware

Windows is a highly configurable operating system, with hundreds of settings and options available. But taking full advantage of this can be a challenge, as many settings are buried deep in the Registry, while others are scattered around a host of programs and applets.

Windows Tweaker aims to help by giving easy access to 100+ system tweaks (on Windows Vista and later) from a single interface. It’s portable, open source and entirely free of adware and other annoyances, so we downloaded the latest version 5.0 to take a look.

The program has a surprisingly sparse interface. While most tweaking tools try to impress you by displaying just as many options on one screen as they can, here everything is spread across 11 categories and 50+ subcategories. This does give it a clean, uncluttered, modern look, though, and a search tool means it’s easy enough to find tweaks: just type a keyword – “desktop”, say – and any related options are listed.

The interface is cleaner, simpler, less intimidating than some of the competition

The tweaks aren’t always as impressive. Plenty are already easy to find from Windows (folder display options, default power button action, Windows update settings), while others are based around very familiar tips (God Mode folder).

We also suspect there are a few bogus tips which do precisely nothing at all, such as “unload unused DLLs after an application is closed”. These won’t do any harm, either, but what they suggest is the developer has assembled his tweaks by just copying everything he’s seen on other tip sites, which doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Despite that, there are also plenty of useful options. A “Right-Click” section, for example, can extend your file/ folder context menus with options like “Copy to…”, “Move to…”, “Encrypt”, “Decrypt”, “Open with Notepad”, and more.

Maybe you’d like to limit the harm a non-technical user can do to their system? The “Restrictions” menu can disable the Registry Editor, Task Manager, Control Panel, even the right-click option in Explorer.

There are several other tweaks which normally require Registry access. You can have your system show a message before a user logs on, for example. There’s an option to set the number of icons displayed when Alt+Tabbing. Interface tweaks include adding Recycle Bin to My Computer, and extending Control Panel with a link to Registry Editor.

We have a few minor issues with the program. In particular, it occasionally tells us that a particular tweak is only available in this or that version of Windows. Well, great, but why not simply hide that tweak if it’s not available on the current system?

Windows Tweaker has one or two problems, then, but there are also some helpful and time-saving tweaks here, and the search tool makes them easy to find. Give it a try.

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Troubleshoot Windows 7/ 8 service triggers with Service Trigger Editor

♠ Posted by Unknown in Computer Hardware

If you’ve ever spent time troubleshooting low-level PC problems then you’ll know that understanding Windows services can be very helpful. The standard Services applet (Win+R > services.msc) tells you a lot about what’s happening on your system – but there is one important exception.

Windows 7 and 8 support service “triggers”, a mechanism which allows Windows services to start when a particular event occurs (a device is plugged in to the computer, say). The Services applet highlights these by listing their Startup Type as “Manual (Trigger Start)” or “Automatic (Trigger Start)”, but double-click a triggered service and it won’t tell you anything more.

You can view and control triggers via the SC command line tool (try sc query “NcbService”), but that’s hardly convenient. And so if you’re troubleshooting a PC and trying to find out why a service starts (or doesn’t), Service Trigger Editor is a free tool which can tell you more.

Just select a service and its triggers are displayed in the lower pane

The program is portable, conveniently: just download it and run. It immediately displays a basic view of your services: Name, Description, Status (Running/ Stopped) and “# Triggers”. And you can use it just as a simple service admin tool, where you can start or stop a particular service (right-click it, choose an option).

Life gets more interesting if you select a service with a number of triggers, as a lower pane then tells you what these triggers are. If we click “Network Connectivity Assistant”, say, we can see this will start when our computer leaves or joins a domain. Or selecting “Sensor Monitoring Service” tells us this will start when three specific devices are connected, with the GUID of each device.

This is all very low-level technical information, aimed very much at experts and system admins, so don’t be surprised if you’ve absolutely no idea what any of it means (in most cases we didn’t, either). But it could still be useful. If a service is working on one PC, say, not on another, you could at least compare the triggers and see if they’re the same.

But if you’re confident in what you’re doing, Service Trigger Editor also allows you to edit or remove an existing trigger, or add new triggers of your own – just double-click the Add, Edit/ View or Remove buttons. And so you’re able to start or stop a service when your computer joins or leaves a domain, opens or closes a (Windows) firewall port, an IP address becomes available or unavailable, a certain device is connected, a packet arrives on a network protocol, and more.

While Service Trigger Editor is easy enough to use, it should also be treated with respect. Change something important and you’ll cause far more problems than you solve. But if you’re already happy diagnosing Windows service issues via the standard Services applet, the program will help you better understand how your PC is set up, and we’d recommend keeping a copy around for emergencies.

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Motherboard

♠ Posted by Unknown in Computer Hardware

The motherboard is the main circuit board in a PC. It contains all the circuits and components that run the PC.

Major Components found on the motherboard are: 

• CPU - the Central Processing Unit is often an Intel Pentium or Celeron processor. It is the heart of every PC. All scheduling, computation and control occurs here.
• BIOS - Basic Input Output System is a non-volatile memory that contains configuration information about the PC. It contains all the code required for the CPU to communicate with the keyboard, mouse video display, disk drives and communications devices.
  
  When a PC is powered on it uses the BIOS 'boot code' to set up many required functions that bring the PC to a point where it is ready to work.
• RTC - the Real Time Clock chip keeps date, day and time in a 24 hour format just like your watch. The PC uses this clock to 'time stamp' files as they are created and modified. When you print a file it time stamps the pages as they are printed.
• Chip Set - these are large chip(s) that integrate many functions that used to be found in separate smaller chips on the motherboard. They save space and cost.
  
  The functions performed by these chip sets often broken into two devices with one providing an interface from the CPU to the memory and the other providing controllers for IDE, ISA, PCI and USB devices (see below).

Primary Connectors found on the motherboard are: 

• Power - A 20 pin connector accepts a plug from the power supply. This plug carry DC power to all the circuits on the motherboard.
• Keyboard - A Mini-din 6-pin (round) connector found at the back of the motherboard is where the keyboard plugs in.
• Mouse - A Mini-din 6-pin connector found next to the keyboard connector is where the where the mouse plugs in.
• Display - This connector is not integrated into the motherboard but is included in this list since its function is absolutely necessary. It is a 15-pin, D-shell type connector found on a video card that plugs into the AGP connector of the motherboard (see below).
• IDE - stands for Integrated Drive Electronics. These are 40 pin connectors that provide a place to connect the ribbon cables from the drives (hard and CD/DVD). All data between the motherboard and the drives is carried in these cables. They are not accessible unless the PC cover is removed.
• FDD connector - it is similar in function to the IDE connector. It is a 34 pin ribbon connector that carries data between the motherboard and any floppy drive installed in the PC. Not accessible with PC cover on.
• DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory connectors for SIMM and DIMM type memory modules. Not accessible with chassis cover on.
• Serial Connectors
  
  
  • Standard Serial Connector - This connector has been around in PCs since they first appeared. It was originally located on ISA expansion type cards (see below). Today it is an integral part of newer motherboards. It is a 9- pin, D-shell connector that allows you to connect external devices with serial ports to your PC. The maximum data rate is 115 KB/s.
  • USB - Universal Serial Bus This is a relatively new serial bus. Originally specified as low speed, 1.2 Mb/s, it was enhanced to full speed, 12Mb/s. The latest version 2.0 is specified as high speed, 400 MB/s.
    
    Someday USB will completely replace the standard serial connector that has been the workhorse serial port in earlier PCs. USB is now a standard connector on all new motherboards.
    
    Unlike serial and parallel ports, the USB port is designed to power devices connected to it. The devices must be low power devices and must be able to reduce their current draw to less than 0.5uAmps when commanded to do so by the PC.
• Parallel Connectors
  
  
  • Centronix or Standard Parallel - This connector has been around in PCs since they first appeared. It has 37-pins and is now integrated on new motherboards. It is usually used to connect your printer to the PC and moves data at about 1MB/s.
  • SCSI - Small Computer System Interface moves data at a maximum of up to 80Mb/s. It not integrated into most PC motherboards. It can be added to a PC as an Expansion card (see below). Some printers and hard disk drives use SCSI interfaces.
• Expansion Card Connectors - The CPU connects to expansion card connectors through one of the chip set ICs mentioned above. They are located on the motherboard near the rear of the PC. These connectors allow special function cards to plug into and work with the PC.
  
  Before motherboards integrated the serial and centronix connectors they were found on expansion boards that plugged into ISA slots.
  
  Most PCs have the following expansion connector types:
  
  
  • ISA - Industry Standard Architecture connectors have been around since 1980 and first appeared in the IBM XT PC. This type of slot still appears on some newer motherboards so that older expansion boards can still be used. However, many motherboards no longer have ISA connectors on them.
  • PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect is a newer and faster interface that accepts all expansion cards that have a PCI interface.
  • AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port is a connector that is designed to work with video cards. Your video display plugs into and is controlled by one of these video cards. Many modern video cards offer enhanced 3D-graphics and fast, full motion video.

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