Installing Windows xP after Windows Vista / 7

Requirements before proceeding:-
1) Installtion CD (and CD key/ serial number) of Windows xP.
2) Installtion DVD (and DVD key / serial number) of Winows vista.
3) Make sure that AC power supply is continuously available during the process.
4) Print the instructions if you feel it necessary.

Step 1:- Create a back-up of your all data (e.g. documents,pictures,software installers (installers not installed files!!!), etc.) whatever you don't want to loose in case of a problem. You can do it by just copy and paste operation to any external hard-disk or you can even burn them into DVDs or CDs.

Step 2:-Install xp as usual (preferably install it in the drive-partition other than that with vista or 7. For knowing how to create drive partitions, refer to Help and Support in Control panel. I hope there you should get enough information.)

Step 3:- When you will reboot the system after finishing the xP installation, you will see only xP and no trace of Vista. You don't need to worry at all if this occurs. Actually, this occurs because the boot-loader of xP does not recognise Vista (as it is a new Operating system which is a succesor to xP.). But Vista's boot-loader can recognize xP and we will make use of this fact in our process.

Step 4:- Insert the vista DVD and reboot. When asked for pressing any key to boot from CD or DVD... do it. In the window where it asks for installing vista, in the same window in lower side there is an option of correcting/reapiring the problems. When ypu find it , click to access it. It will automatically find your vista installation. Select you vista partition and continue. In the next window you will see an option of Reapairing start-up problems automatically. Select it and reboot after the process finishes when it asks so (In the log window you should see some repair has taken place).

Step 5:- When you reboot your vista should boot normally and this time you will see no trace of xP.

Step 6:- Editing boot.ini.
In Vista, the boot.ini is not editable directly, as the file itself is hard to locate, so we will be modifying it through "Boot Configuration Data Store Editor" bcdedit.exe:
a) first open a command prompt with administrative privilages (right-click and choose "run as administrator")

*Note:- the following 2 answers from bcdedit for each item are acceptable:
"The Operation Completed Successfully"
"The Specified Entry Already Exists"

b) Be sure to type each line carefully (replace C in the first line with the drive containing your Vista installation) (Just as an explanation, the loader type for XP is an NT Loader, hence the use of ntldr) :
bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=C:
bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast
bcdedit -set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"

c) This will correctly add XP to your boot sequence, and even name it properly instead of "Earlier Version of Windows".

d) the displayorder line also allows the entry to be visible under the advanced settings of your computer properties.

e) Vista is the default boot, if you wish to change this to XP it can be done by setting {current} to addlast, or under the computer
-> properties -> advanced settings.

f) If all done properly, XP and Vista will dual boot properly!

enjoy!!!

Note:-The above process is tested well with vista and should also work for Windows 7.You have to just read Vista as 7 in above explanation.

Top 6 ways to beat computer viruses

Computer viruses

They’ve been around for years, and they aren’t going away. And they continue to proliferate and cause major damage, with the “Gumblar” or “Geno” virus as the latest high-profile virus to infect computers.

This virus is a particularly insidious one, with a multi-phased attack. After infecting a machine, Gumblar installs a series of malware programs, including a small application capable of stealing FTP credentials. It can gain control of an entire website and freely operate it.

Gumblar also monitors the infected user’s online activity, and waits for the user to conduct Google searches. The malware hijacks the search results, replacing them with any link of its choice and further infecting the computer with malware. The virus also installs a fake antivirus program known as System Security 2009, and disables any legitimate security software.

So what can you do to avoid becoming a victim of this and other viruses? Here are the top strategies to follow:

1. Be sure to install updates for Microsoft® products
Using Microsoft Update with automatic updating is a strong – and simple to implement – first line of defence against security threats. The Microsoft Update site scans your computer and gives you a list of updates that are relevant to your computer and its configuration.

 2. Install the latest versions of Adobe Reader and Flash Player
The Gumblar virus takes advantage of common Adobe Reader, Adobe Acrobat, and Adobe Shockwave Flash Player vulnerabilities, which lead to the download of additional malicious files. Keeping these programs up-to-date can help ensure you’ve got the latest and most secure versions available.

3. Create and maintain strong passwords
Keeping and using strong passwords, and changing them regularly, is a very important step in keeping your online accounts, computer files and personal information secure.  Ideally, passwords should be long and use the entire keyboard, not just the letters and characters you use or see most often.

4. Invest in quality antivirus and antispyware protection
While it isn’t a 100% guarantee of security, your risk of virus infection is significantly lower when you use a comprehensive antivirus protection program. Without some sort of protection, you are virtually guaranteed to become a victim of viruses, spyware and spam.

5. Don’t click on unknown links or attachments
Never click on any unfamiliar links embedded in an e-mail, or open attachments from unknown senders. And check for anything unusual even in links you do recognise; slightly altered domain names could indicate that a site has been hijacked.

6.  Download files only from trusted sites
You should only download files from known, well-established sources. Never download anything if you’re not certain what it is. When in doubt, don't download the file to your computer at all: download it onto an external drive or USB stick, and then check the files with antivirus scanning software.

Lock Your Drives and Folders Using Registry Tweaks

Lock Your Drives and Folders Using Registry Tweaks

There are plenty of software which locks drives and folder to protect your confidential data. Why waste money on such tools when you can do it with a simple registry tweak? Here’s how:

Caution: Before you attempt these tweaks, please make sure that you have a backup of your registry, just incase something goes wrong in the middle.

Locking Folders:

Consider you want to lock a folder named XXXX in your E:\, whose path is E:\XXXX.
Now open the Notepad and type the following

ren xxxx xxxx.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Where xxxx is your folder name. Save the text file as loc.bat in the same drive.
Open another new notepad text file and type the following

ren xxxx.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} xxxx

Save the text file as key.bat in the same drive.

Steps to lock the folder:
To lock the xxxx folder, simply click the loc.bat and it will transform into control panel icon which is inaccessible.

To unlock the folder click the key.bat file. Thus the folder will be unlocked and the contents are accessible.

Locking Drives:

We don’t usually prefer to lock our drives, but sometimes it becomes nesscary. Say for instance you might have stored your office documents in D:\ and you don’t want your kids to access it, in such case this technique can be useful for you. Please don’t try this tweak with your root drive (usually C:\ is the root drive) since root drives are not intended to be locked because they are mandatory for the system and application programs.

Start & Run and type Regedit to open Registry editor.

Browse HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWORD value NoViewOnDrive and set its value as 2^ (Alpha Number of Drive Letter-1) where Alpha number are simple counting of alphabets from A to Z as 1 - 26

For example: to lock C:\, Alpha number of C is 3 so 2^ (3-1) = 4 (decimal value)

To lock more drives, calculate the value of each drive and then set sum of those numbers as value.

To unlock your drive just delete the key from the registry.