PCTips Box

There are hundreds if not thousands of software programs that are available to block unwanted sites on your PC. some straightforward commands and a text editing program like notepad ( on every windows PC since windows3.1) and you not simply stop someone one(kids, husbands, brother in-laws) from visiting sites that might put computer at risk, or expose them to thing you don’t want them to know about.

1. Know the list of sites you want to block make sure your computer has an internet connection.

2. Standard look of DOS Window Open a command window (DOS), and type in nslookup (more…)

Ever have the need to open more than one program or application at the same time?

Say it’s the beginning of the month and time to pay those dreaded bills. You know you need Excel, Windows calculator and Firefox or Internet Explorer open. Instead of opening them up one by one, you can easily create a batch file that will open all three programs at once.

And while your at it, why not have Excel open the spreadsheet file you use for tracking your budget and the browser open to your Bank’s home page. Here’s how to do it…

First let’s take a look at a batch file I created that will just open Excel, Calculator and Firefox: (more…)

We have been receiving many mails from our readers these days with a problem that when ever they start up windows they see the error messages like as follows:

* Windows cannot find ‘C:\windows\svchost.exe.’
* Could not load or run ‘C:\windows\svchost.exe.’ specified in the registry
* Windows cannot find ‘C:\Windows\System32\amvo.exe’
* “Windows cannot find ‘copy.exe’

These type of messages appear at windows startup, when windows tries to load the virus files like amvo.exe, copy.exe etc. These error messages appear, because these files were removed by your anti-virus programs but still the registry entries for them exist.

Different types of viruses create some files which got executed at the windows startup so that they can come in action as windows load itself. In order to run the primary virus files required, they create run entries in windows registry. (more…)

We have been receiving mails from several readers that they are not able to login to Windows. As soon as they login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your settings and logs off automatically without logging in. This situation is really very troublesome and gets onto the nerves of a person who needs his computer badly for some important work.

The main reasons behind this problem is a corruption in the registry key which holds the value of the files which are executed while login to windows. This registry key can get either replaced with some incorrect value or it might get corrupt due to some virus / trojan activity. Lets see how to fix this issue.

We need to remotely access the infected computer from another computer on same network. Then we need to correct the registry key for userinit under winlogon. (more…)

Windows Vista introduces a new tool on top of what its predecessor Windows XP had to offer in terms of dealing with licensing resources, from the product key to information related to the activation status of a machine. The Windows Software Licensing Management Tool can be accessed via the “slmg.vbs” command and will offer users the possibility to activate, rearm and display the activation status of Vista, but also to install and uninstall product keys. In this context, the “slmgr.vbs –upk” command, designed to uninstall a Windows Vista product key, may result on the Business and Enterprise SKUs of the operating system into the scraping of all the licensing information, synonymous with a lost activation status, and the transition of the platform into reduced functionality mode.

“After you run the slmgr.vbs –upk command on a Windows Vista-based computer, you cannot see the licensing information as expected. Additionally, the Windows Vista activation status is lost. (more…)

This tip will show you how to create an unattended disk cleanup which will also empty your prefetch folder. This tip assumes you have Windows XP installed in c:\windows.

Step 1.
Create a new text file and place the following contents inside:

c:\windows\system32\cleanmgr.exe /dc /sageset: 1
c:
cd \
cd c:\windows\prefetch
del *.* /q
(more…)

Now this particular problem arises when you have installed Microsoft Windows Vista Beta\RC1 on your existing Windows system in dual-boot mode, while installing windows vista overwrites the system MBR (Master Boot Record) to let you make choice between Windows Vista and Windows XP Or any other operating system. But when you uninstall windows vista these settings just remain as it is and hence the dual-boot menu is visible even after uninstallation of windows vista.

Solution 1
The Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store contains boot configuration parameters and controls how the operating system is started in Microsoft Windows Vista and (more…)

The new Network and Sharing Center in Windows Vista is great for the average Windows user but can be a huge headache for advanced users. When I need to make a change to my network settings I don’t want to be forced to go through the networking interface for the average non-technical users. I want to go right to the settings screen and make the change.

I am a big fan of the old Windows XP network approach where I could modify all of the network settings and connect to wireless network from the Network Connections screen. In Windows Vista, the Network Connections screen still exists, (more…)