Here is a guide to refurbish a Windows XP Laptop system; in other words, re-installing Windows from scratch. In this case, the Laptop was a Toshiba Satellite 1800-514 which has a Celeron 1 GHz processor and 384 Mb RAM (128MB + 256MB) installed and a 15Gb internal hard drive. It is a ‘legacy’ system with limited resources, indeed. However, with some tweaking, it will still perform well for common applications. After customization, the system was able to run iTunes 9, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Office 2003 suite.

1)      Backup all data.
Make sure you are logged on with administrator privileges. Change the folder options to include hidden files and system folders.
Search the system for data files. Not all files may reside under ‘My Documents’, in particular also scan the Shared folders on the system.
An easy way to perform the backup is to use the ‘Sysback’ tool.

2)      Backup user profile specific files.
Custom desktop wallpaper files are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Local Settings\Microsoft\
Custom account picture files are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\

3)      Backup user mailboxes.
In case of Microsoft Outlook Express, it wise to follow my Microsoft Outlook Express housekeeping steps.

4)      Backup or get a copy of specific drivers for video, sound, modem and network support. In particular, keep a copy of the video drivers; download the most up to date copy from the manufacturer’s site (e.g. NVIDIA or ATI), if necessary. Check if any other specific files or settings have to be saved. Check the equipment model and version in the Device Manager (Control Panel, System, Hardware). The auto detection of some of the devices may not work for older systems, so write them down.

5)      Save your Wireless Network Connection settings, in particular, ensure you note the network name (SSID) and security key.

6)      Set the CD-ROM as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system with the Windows XP installation CD. Remove all external drives! If not, windows may install them as system drives.

7)      Before starting the windows installation process, check the available partitions. Ideally, you should create a partition to install windows on (with at least 30 Gb) and a partition for the user data files (any remaining space). If the drive is too small (50 Gb or less), just use one partition. More information about partitioning is available in my ‘dedicated data partition‘ post. In this case the system has only 15 Gb, which means that you should remain with only one partition.

8)      Once Windows has been installed, proceed with the custom driver installation. The first to update is the video driver. Then check the Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager: for any device with a (yellow) question mark, you will need to install or update the driver. Use the files from step 4, install from the manufacturer CD (if available) or download from the internet. This step is only successful if no question marks occur in the Device Manager list. You may need to reboot the system after installation of some device drivers.

9)      Start the customization of your windows environment:
Regional and Language Options (in the Control Panel) are a minimum to verify, in particular the keyboard settings (in the Languages tab, Details) need to match the attached keyboard lay-out.
Name and Company Information can be changed in the Registry. Follow the Microsoft instructions.
Apply the items of my ‘Windows XP optimization‘ post.
In this particular case, I applied additional tweaks to improve the performance:

1. Verification if some services can be disabled (refer to my ‘disable services’ post).
2. Prefetch setting was set to value 1-App launch (instead of 3-Both):
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher].
3. Last Access Timestamp was disabled
   [run: FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1]
4.  DOS 8.3 filename creation was disabled
   [run: FSUTIL behavior set disable8dot3 1]
5. Performance counters were disabled
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib]
   (run regedit and create DWORD ‘DisablePerformanceCounters’)
   Set the value of DisablePerformanceCounters to 1
6. Disable ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’ in the Control Panel, Folder Options, View tab.
7. Process idle tasks in the background (this operation may be periodically repeated).
   (run ‘Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks’)

10)   Set the Hard Drive as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system. Make sure the system is connected to the internet (a wired connection, not Wi-Fi), to allow windows updates to occur. The system may need to be rebooted upon request. In this particular case, only a Wi-Fi adaptor was available.

11)   Install all applications (respect the copyrights) and printers. This may be a good opportunity to upgrade the system with the latest version of the applications. Check on the software developer’s site if any new versions are available. In this case, Firefox 3.5.5 was installed instead of Internet Explorer 8.  Firefox performed better when I checked the performance of the browser, using the Network Tools on my ADSL page.

12)   Create a system ‘restore point’ (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore).

13)   Restore the data from step 1, 2 and 3. Check the user privileges and access rights of the restored data (try to copy a file to an USB key, to check the file access rights).

14)   Perform the five essential steps in XP Maintenance.

Microsoft Outlook Express (OE) is end-of-life and replaced by Windows Mail Live (WML). Moreover, Outlook Express version 6 was bundled with Internet Explorer and could not be (re-)installed as a standalone application. Hence, the need to say goodbye to this Mail Client and welcome the new version, renamed to Windows Live Mail. This freeware Mail Client can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.

Migration of your messages, address book and mail accounts from OE to WML should work fine, if you upgrade on the same computer with the same Windows version installed. However, moving these data from one computer to another may be challenging. Here are some steps that you can follow to make the transition successful:

1 backup all your Outlook Express data

Follow the steps explained in my ‘Microsoft Outlook Express – Housekeeping’ post.

2 install Windows Live Mail on the source system

Indeed, install Windows Live Mail first on your ‘old’ system to migrate the messages. Once Windows Live Mail is installed, you can import the OE folders and export them into a WML format. The conversion of these data is worthwhile, since WML will create a single file for each message.

3 install Windows Live Mail on the target system

Install Windows Live Mail on your ‘new’ system.
Import the Outlook Express internet account files (‘.aif’ file) and address book (‘.wab’ file).
Import the WML formatted messages from your ‘old’ system. After the import process, you will find your folders and messages under ‘Storage Folders’, ‘Imported Folder’, ‘Local Folders’

Now you’re done and your new system uses the new Microsoft Mail Client, with your mail account(s) and access to your (old) messages and address book.

Here is a list of items that I apply to optimize a Windows XP system.

1)      Review the System Properties
Adjust the Performance Options in the Advanced Tab:

1. Visual Effects:
   Adjust for best performance.
   In case you want to keep the look and feel of XP, then tag:
   visual styles, common tasks in folders, show window contents while dragging, smooth edges of screen fonts, smooth-scroll list boxes.
   
   Additionally, you may disable the Start Menu delay in the registry:
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\]
   set MenuShowDelay to 0
2. Virtual Memory (Advanced Tab):
   Adjust the pagefile size used for Virtual Memory (a.k.a. swap file). The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of physical installed memory (RAM) on your system.
   In case you have a (fast) secondary or subsequent physical internal drive installed in your system (not an external drive), you may opt to move the paging file to one of these drives.
   
3. Disable Error Reporting (Advanced Tab)
   
4. Adjust Environment Variables (Advanced Tab)
   Match the location for the ‘Temp’ directory in the ‘User variables’ and in ‘System variables’
   
5. Adjust the Automatic Updates selection to Notify only.
   
6. Review the Device Manager IDE controllers (Hardware Tab)
    Enable DMA on primary IDE channel
   

2)      Disable indexing services
In Control Panel, choose Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service.
By default, indexing is disabled on my System Hard Disk partition. Other drive partitions should also be considered, if the Search function is not or seldom used.

3)      Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile
The Virtual Memory Pagefile (a.k.a. swap file) may become fragmented.
I use two options to keep this file ‘tidy’:
option 1: Regularly perform a pagefile defrag (see ‘Five essential steps in XP Maintenance‘).
option 2: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile at shutdown
This option is also used for security purposes. It ensures that no traces are left on the system and prevents other operating systems to ’sneak’ into this file.
The backdraw is a slower shut down.
Enable this policy in the registry to clear the system Pagefile upon shutdown.[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
Set ClearPageFileAtShutdown value to 0

4)      Move the Temporary Internet Files (TIF) folder from the default location.
In ‘Internet Options’, select the ‘General’ tab, Temporary Internet Files box, Settings button, Move Folder button. Move the folder to the root location of any of the permanent drive partitions (like D:\). Note that this is a hidden folder and therefore may not be visible by default.

Here is a guide to refurbish a Windows XP desktop system; in other words, re-installing Windows from scratch. In this case, the desktop was a Dell Dimension 4550 on which three user profiles were defined.

1)      Backup all data for each user profile.
Make sure you are logged on with administrator privileges. Change the folder options to include hidden files and system folders.
Search the system for data files. Not all files may reside under ‘My Documents’, in particular also scan the Shared folders on the system.
An easy way to perform the backup is to use the ‘Syncback’ tool.

2)      Backup user profile specific files.
Custom desktop wallpaper files are stored in c:\Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Local Settings\Microsoft\
Custom account picture files are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\

3)      Backup user mailboxes.
In case of Microsoft Outlook Express, it wise to follow my Microsoft Outlook Express housekeeping steps.

4)      Backup or get a copy of specific drivers for video, sound, modem and network support. In particular, keep a copy of the video drivers; download the most up to date copy from the manufacturer’s site (e.g. NVIDIA or ATI), if necessary. Check if any other specific files or settings have to be saved.

5)      Set the CD-ROM as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system with the Windows XP installation CD. Remove all external drives! If not, windows may install them as system drives.

6)      Before starting the windows installation process, check the available partitions. Ideally, you should create a partition to install windows on (with at least 30 Gb) and a partition for the user data files (any remaining space). If the drive is too small (50 Gb or less), just use one partition. More information about partitioning is available in my ‘dedicated data partition‘ post.

7)      Once Windows has been installed, proceed with the custom driver installation. The first to update is the video driver. Then check the Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager: for any device with a (yellow) question mark, you will need to install or update the driver. Use the files from step 4, install from the manufacturer CD (if available) or download from the internet. This step is only successful if no question marks occur in the Device Manager list. You may need to reboot the system after installation of some device drivers.

8)      Start the customization of your windows environment:
Regional and Language Options (in the Control Panel) are a minimum to verify, in particular the keyboard settings (in the Languages tab, Details) need to match the attached keyboard lay-out.
Name and Company Information can be changed in the Registry. Follow the Microsoft instructions.
Apply the items of my ‘Windows XP optimization‘ post.

9)      Set the Hard Drive as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system. Make sure the system is connected to the internet (wired connection, not Wi-Fi), to allow windows updates to occur. The system may need to be rebooted upon request.

10)   Install all applications (respect the copyrights) and printers. This may be a good opportunity to uprade the system with the latest version of the applications. Check on the software developer’s site if any new versions are available.

11)   Create a system ‘restore point’ (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore).

12)   Create the user profiles and restore the data from step 1, 2 and 3. Check each user profile, in particular the user privileges and access rights of the restored data (try to copy a file to an external drive, to check the file access rights).
Visual Effects may need to be reviewed for each user profile.

13)   Perform the Five essential steps in XP Maintenance.

Follow the Microsoft instructions:

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

To change the company name, do the following:

In the right pane, double-click RegisteredOrganization. Under Value data, type the name that you want, and then click OK.

To change the name of the registered owner, do the following:

In the right pane, double-click RegisteredOwner. Under Value data, type the name that you want, and then click OK.

Click Exit on the File menu to quit Registry Editor.

source: Microsoft Support Website

FileZilla Server for windows removable drive support

To support several drives, including removable drives, you need to create an alias for every resource other than your homedirectory.

Here is how you can add directory aliases to Filezilla server:

1) Start the Filezilla server interface

click the user/group button on the menu bar, create a user/group if you don’t have one already.

2) Select Shared folders from the left panel, and select a user/group from the right panel

3) Right click one of the directories other than the home directory (denoted by a leading H) and choose Edit Aliases from the popup menu (see picture above – shared drive L:).

4) Enter the alias for the directory with a leading slash “/”. For example, /LaCie (for an USB attached drive)

5) Click OK to close Enter Directory Alias dialog and click OK on Users/Groups dialog to make the changes take effect.

Now shared drive ‘L:\ will be available as /LaCie for your ftp clients.

Iomega ScreenPlay Pro Features:

The ScreenPlay Pro supports the following video codecs: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (HL/ML), .MPEG-4 (part 2), ASP, DivX (3.11, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, HD), Xvid, MP4.

AVI, MOV, MKV, VOB, and ISO are container formats. Specifically, AVI, MOV and MKV contain file playback information as well as the formats used for audio and video streams.

Issues with H.264

Because the H.264 codec is not natively supported. It is required to use the included transcoding server software to stream the video into a format that the ScreenPlay Pro HD can natively play back.

It is however, recommended, in this situation, to re-encode the video stream of the file into a format that is natively supported by the ScreenPlay Pro HD. This will make sure that the file can be played directly from the device without needing to be connected to a netwok.

Issues with Windows 7

Windows 7 has new security policies put in place that forbid incoming connections that do not utilize a new CIFS/SMB (Samba) standard that has been implemented in Windows 7.

Because of this, the problem can be fixed by changing the policies regarding CIFS/SMB connections. I am required to say that you can perform these policy updates at your own risk. This may or may not make your system less secure to other devices on your network, but we will not be held liable for anything that may occur when these default policies have been changed.

There is a guide out there that can be found by doing a Google Search with the term “Windows 7 network file sharing policy fix”. It will guide you, step by step, through adjusting your policy to allow your ScreenPlay Pro HD to connect to Windows 7 public shares.

source: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822186146

The difference between a backup and an archive is the retention. A backup will serve for short term recovery or system restore after a failed installation. Typically, you make a backup before installing software that alters data and or system files. An archive serves to store copies of information for a long time. Keeping a copy of your data on an extra drive will safeguard it from disk crashes or any other loss of systems.

The success of a good backup and archiving policy depends on your data organization. The more pc’s you have, the bigger the challenge to keep track of all your data. Here are some basic rules to keep control of your electronic information storage.

1) Keep your original data in centralized folders. Categorize your data (music, pictures, videos, invoices, contracts, letters, etc.) and use separate folders (as suggested by windows). Some folders change more frequently than others and some files are more important than others.

2) Use a simple backup and restore tool to perform the backup and archive jobs. Do not use software that creates proprietary files, because this creates a dependency on the software and the operating system to restore information. Use a tool that stores the files without compression and that maintains the directory structure (e.g. Sysback for windows). This way you can access your copied data directly, without the use of any tool.

3) Use external drives to copy your data to (usb or firewire attached). Select reliable products for your archive drives and avoid systems that require proprietary drivers. You may opt to use a (different) drive for each of the category of data: music, pictures, etc.

4) Make at least once a month a full backup of your data. In case proprietary file formats are used, keep a copy of the software that is needed to read those files on a future safe medium (cd-rom or hard drive – try to avoid zip drives or floppy drives).

5) In case of an archive, keep the copies of your data in a remote place. Holding archives under the same roof will not help in case of a fire or a burglary. These days, small format external drives can easily be stored in a (locked) office desk or a bank safe.

Check the disk space for a successful defragmentation. If the system disk has less than 10% free space then install the tools in the next steps on another partition. If no other partition is available, then uninstall unused software first.

1) Cleanup the XP hotfixes and reclaim disk space (see related post)

2) Cleanup the temporary and unused files and the registry (use a cleanup tool like ‘ccleaner‘)

3) Defragment the system disk (use a tool like MyDefrag)

4) Defragment the registry (use a tool like Auslogics registry defrag)

5) Defragment the Pagefile (use a tool like Windows Sysinternals PageDefrag)

Read the posts on the HP forum about this issue:

HP dv2000/6000/8000/9000/tx1000 Video Problems

DV9000 Video Chip Failure; LCD not working & system will not boot

HP Pavilion dv9000 (and others) Overheating Damage/ Motherboard Failure

This system was running Vista Home Premium SP2 and suffered since the beginning of poor nvidia driver support.

Warning to all laptop users:

HP Laptops suck ! Don’t buy them.