The Doctor is Recovering! Podcast #26
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I did the podcast on Saturday, then got sicker and sicker… and finally went to bed… so… here’s the info on Saturday’s Podcast:
Dr. Bill Podcast – 26 – (03/04/06)
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I had SO many problems on the Podcast this week… first it didn’t record, AND, my voice was rough, AND, then the speed of the recording made it playback “chipmunky”… sigh! So, I tried “fixing” the recording speed… but I finally gave up and I am making it available via my server’s streaming audio server.
CHKDSK – Built-in Windows file system repair utility.
Instructions – Go to “Start”, “My Computer”, right-click on the “C:” drive, left-click “Properties”, select the “Tools” tab, click “Check Now…”, check “Automatically Fix File System Errors”, then click “Start”, “Yes” and Reboot. Repeat this for any other hard drive partitions in your system. Only the drive partition with Windows installed will require a reboot.
Use Defragmenter regularly…
PageDefrag
https://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html
Defragment the Page File and the Registry. “One of the limitations of the Windows 2000/XP defragmentation interface is that it is not possible to defragment files that are open for exclusive access. Thus, standard defragmentation programs can neither show you how fragmented your paging files or Registry hives are, nor defragment them. Paging and Registry file fragmentation can be one of the leading causes of performance degradation related to file fragmentation in a system.”
Instructions – Download, Run, Look at the “Fragments” column if any of the items is in more then one fragment select “Defrag at next Reboot”, then “Ok” and Reboot.
Notes: If you readjust the Page File size, rerun PageDefrag, otherwise this only needs to be run once. On badly fragmented hard drives with a lot of files, PageDefrag may take a long time to run, be patient and let it finish.
XP-AntiSpy
https://www.xp-antispy.org/
Disables all the known ‘Suspicious’ Functions in Windows XP.
Instructions – Install and run. Go to “Profiles”, select “Neutral”, then check most of the boxes and select “Apply”. Leave the following unchecked:
[MediaPlayer Functions]
_ Do not acquire licenses automatically – This prevents Windows Media Player from downloading any necessary licenses.
_ No automatic updates – This prevents Windows Media Player from automatically updating.
_ Disable automatic codec downloads – This prevents Windows Media Player from downloading required codecs.
_ Don’t get meta data from the internet – This prevents Windows Media Player from getting CD/DVD information.
[Miscellaneous Settings]
_ Clear pagefile at shutdown – This will cause Windows XP to take much longer to shutdown but increases security for the paranoid.
_ Disable integrated Firewall – This will disable the Windows XP firewall.
_ Hide Computer in Network – This prevents your Computer from showing up in Network Neighborhood.
_ Deny starting regedit.exe – This prevents future use of the very useful regedit tool.
_ Deactivate Scripting Host – This will cause features to stop working in web browsers and e-mail.
_ Always show *.lnk suffixes – This adds .lnk to desktop shortcuts.
_ Always show *.url suffixes – This adds .url to web browser bookmarks.
_ Don’t autostart CD’s – This prevents CD’s from running automatically when put in the CD/DVD drive.
[Internet Explorer 6]
_ Disable automatic updates – This prevents Windows Update from checking for and downloading updates. (PLEASE NOTE: Do NOT turn off auto-updates unless you plan to review every one and “approve” it as you learn of any issues. The software allows you to turn it off and do in “by hand” but this is usually NOT a good idea! (Unless you plan that careful review of each patch “by hand.”)
_ Disable scheduled updates – This prevents Windows Update from installing updates.
_ Disable Javascript – This will cause some web pages to lose their menus or functionality completely.
_ Disable ActiveX Controls – This will cause some web pages to lose their menus or functionality completely.
_ Clean website cache on shutdown – This will cause Windows XP to take longer to shutdown but is a good idea for security.
[Services]
_ Disable auto-updates service – This prevents Windows Update from running Automatically.
_ Disable task-scheduler service – The Windows Prefetcher, BootVis and Norton AV require this service to be running.
_ Disable firewall/connection sharing service – This will disable the Windows XP firewall.
_ Disable Security Center – This prevents necessary security warnings.
[Microsoft Messenger]
_ Uninstall completely – If you use or plan on using Microsoft’s Instant Messenger leave this unchecked.
[Regsrv32 dll’s]
_ licdll.dll – Only select this if Windows is already activated.
_ Disable ZIP Functionality – Only select if you have another .Zip program installed such as WinZip.
Notes – It is highly recommended to leave the profile on “Neutral” and adjust the values manually. The presets included such as the “Suggested” profile will disable important Windows features such as Windows Updates, the Security Center and Internet Explorer settings like Javascript and ActiveX. This will break common web page features such as menus and forms and prevent critical security patches from being applied. The color coding of check boxes can be further explained in the Help file under “Signs and Symbols”.
Steve Gibson Utilities
https://grc.com/stm/ShootTheMessenger.htm
https://grc.com/unpnp/unpnp.htm
Download and run them!
TCP/IP Optimizer
https://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
Download, run, follow instructions… optimize.