The Laptop: Why-n-What about buying

I’ve being constantly receiving Emails from the visitors of my website and also received a few PMs from a some of the forum members querying about the LAPTOP’s and what and hows about buying and upgrading, so I decided to write an article on this.
This Article deals with the basics of buying and/or upgrading a Laptop according to your need and interest.

The WHO, WHAT and WHY?
The most difficult thing which people find while deciding to buy a Laptop is what actually there needs are? Here we will briefly discuss the requirements and/or configuration of the Laptop against the necessities of the buyers.
There are basically 5 types of buyers:
·Home or Light users
·Students and Learners
·Travelers and On-The-Way users
·Business and Power user
·Designers and Gamers (Multimedia)

Home or Light users: The people, who are just enthusiastic about a Laptop and/or want mobility from Power, Room and that old bulky Box, then this is the place for them. If you just need a Laptop for basic works like Surfing Internet, checking your E-mails, Basic Multimedia experience and normal Office work like Word Processing etc, then check for this configuration:

üProcessor: AMD Turion 64, AMD Turion 64 X2
üMemory/Ram: 512MB to 1 GB at 667Mhz
üHard Disk Drive: Atleast 80 GB
üLCD Screen: Atleast 14.1-inch or 35.814 cm
üCD/DVD Drive: A Combo Drive with 8X
üNetworking: Wired and wireless networking
üGraphics: OnBoard Graphics will do fine
üOperating System: Linux (free), Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic or Premium (paid) or Apple Mac OS X (paid)
Recommended Laptops: Lenovo ThinkPad X300, Toshiba Portege R500-S5001X, ASUS U6S-A1

Read More…

TechFreakiez – The Ultimate Technology Portal

Hi guys,

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TechFreakiez is your one stop technology portal which provides you with:

1) Gadgets News & Reviews: Daily update with the latest and update gadgets

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4) Downloads: Get the best free software’s and tools

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Have a visit.

Comments and Compliments are welcomed 🙂

Windows Vista- the customization guide

Windows Vista
-the customization guide

The GUI interface of Windows Vista is one of the most popular interface in the Operating System market today.
But what if you wish to customize your Windows Vista according to your own wish?
In this tutorial you will learn how to edit the Vista Visual Style according to your wish…
Requirements:
Ø Resource Hacker
Ø Replacer
Ø TakeControl
Ø VistaGlazz
Ø LogonStudio Vista

Vista System files Editing:

Basics:
In Windows Vista (all versions), the files which hold the normal GUI data have been replaced from .dll to .dll.mui. If you try to open a specific .dll of any application, you will only be able to edit the BITMAP section only. So if you wish to edit the GUI of any application, you will have to search for a .dll.mui file mostly.

Opening explorer.exe file

Opening explorer.exe file

Ø Open Resource Hacker and navigate to “%windir%\System32\en-US\” or “%windir%\en-US\”.
Ø Change the Files of type: to All Files (*.*) .
Ø Now you will be able to see lots of *.dll.mui files. These are the files which you need to open and edit in your resource hacker.
Note:The important files which can be edited are:
Ø Sysdm.cpl.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(System Properties dialog box)
Ø Shell32.dll.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(Changing basic things like run dialog box, menu items etc.)
Ø Authui.dll.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(Shutdown dialog box and more)
Ø Explorer.exe.mui – “%windir%\en-US\”
(Windows Explorer menu and style)
Ø Netshell.dll.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(Internet connection icon and style appearing in system tray)
Ø Stobject.dll.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(System tray icons and style)
Ø Comdlg32.dll.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(Basic dialog box such as color change, open\save etc.)
Ø Winlogon.exe.mui – “%windir%\System32\en-US\”
(Text and style of basic logon screen)
But you can always try editing other files which are not mentioned here as they might be also useful for you.
→While trying to save your file you will be prompted with an error.

To read the full,

DOWNLOAD PDF: click here

Remove Funny UST Scandal.avi

Remove Funny UST Scandal.avi.exe (Vista and XP)

  

I came across many people (including me) who got infected by the Funny UST Scandal.avi virus. This tutorial guides you through the manual process of removing this Virus from Windows Vista and Windows XP systems.

Details:

1)      This will block your Task Manager, Registry Editor and Command Prompt.

2)      It hacks in your Yahoo Messenger and sends stupid and senseless messages to them and even a copy of itself. (ask gigacore if you don’t believe me!!!:P)

3)      It will log your all key strokes and send them to an unknown email address through IM.

4)      It slows down your system badly and reinstalling the OS will do no good.

5)      It will disable the search and viewing of hidden files.

 It’s built using AutoIt V3 virus programming software.–(source= some blog)Windows XP:

 This virus was made mainly to infect XP and Windows NT systems. In XP and NT systems, it makes the following files:

       a) Killer.exe (4084 kb) in c:\windows\
      b) lsass.exe (3920kb) in c:\documents and settings\all users\start             menu\programs\startup
      c) xmss.exe (4088kb) in all partitioned drives and in c:\windows
      d) autorun.inf (1kb) in all partitioned drives with a script.e) Funny UST Scandal.avi.exe in all partitions and Funny UST Scandal.exe in c:\Windows. 

 This Virus makes the following registry entries:

a)      HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon      shell(killer.exe or xmss.exe)
b) HKCU\Software\Microsoft\windows\Currentversion\Run      Runonce(c:\windows\xmss.exe) 

If the virus has completely installed itself, then you can find all these files in your system.

To remove this virus:

a)      In order to removes the files, you’ll first have to stop the execution of this virus. To do so, download this file and run it.

b)      Now open cmd.exe and…

 

TO READ MORE DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLE 

The HTA Applications

The HTA Applications

  

Introduction: HTA applications are one of the most dangerous (atleast I think so) part of Web Designing. HTA’s are basically a cross between the Web-Pages and Executable files. With the help of HTA, it is now possible to make a complex application to work on the web without making an .exe of it!

 

Security: HTA’s are no doubt useful but it also has a darker side. The HTA applications are big threat to system security as they provide full access to the system resources without any warning or checking any security settings of the browser. IN SHORT, IT WORKS AS A TRUSTED APPLICATION.

The Good part of HTA is that it does not open as a Webpage on the web but asks the user to either RUN or SAVE it.

 

Few Programs: (only ie4 and above support HTA)

 

Making folder:

<html><head><HTA:APPLICATION ID=”htapp”></head><body><object id=wsh classid=clsid:F935DC22-1CF0-11D0-ADB9-00C04FD58A0B></object><script language=vbscript>set wshshell=createobject (“wscript.shell”)a=wshshell.run(“cmd.exe /c md abhishek”,0)</script>Folder made!</body></html> 

When you save the above code as name.hta and execute it, a window will open with FOLDER MADE! written on it and a new folder will be created at the same location where the HTA file is kept.

 

Now remove <HTA:APPLICATION ID=”htapp”> from the above code and save it as name.html and now run it. Now you will be able to see the difference between HTA and HTML Applications.

 

Web Browser:

<html><head><title>Abhi Internet Browser</title><HTA:APPLICATION APPLICATIONNAME=”Abhi Internet Browser” Windowstate=”normal” sysmenu=”yes”></head><body><span id=abar style=”overflow none”><span id=AText><b>URL:</b></span><input type=text value=”” id=URL width=”60″ style=”width:expression(document.body.clientWidth-AText.offsetWidth – AGo.offsetWidth -85)”><input type=button value=”Go” id=AGo onclick=”navigate()”><br><span><br><iframe src=”techabhi.wordpress.com” id=data style=”width:100%;height:85%”></iframe><script language=jscript>function navigate() {document.all.data.src=URL.value;}function clickshortcut(){if (window.event.keycode==13){ navigate() }}URL.onkeypress=clickshortcut;</script></body></html> Now save this code as name.hta and run it. You can see a small web browser has been made and it can even access you HDD when you type x:\ and press GO button.Now save this file as name.html and run it. You can still see the address bar and the GO button but you will not be able to surf the web nor access your HDD until you allow the scripts and active-X to run through your browser. This means that you can very well view the non-scripted part of the HTA on web browsers but not the scripted part. Conclusion: I request everyone, who have read this article, not to misuse the above provided code as I have tried to explain my point with these code and they are meant only for educational purpose.

Batch File: the coding

Batch File-the coding

 

Batch files are really important when it comes to execute a set of DOS commands everytime. Basically batch file programming is nothing but the Windows version of Unix Shell Programming. In the article we’ll try to learn the basics of the batch file coding.

 

The Basic:

Batch file is basically a executable file which executes the definite set of commands in one go. It is important not to name a batch file after the name of any DOS command as if done so, the batch file will not execute.

 

The First Batch Code:

To create a batch file you do not need any separate kind of editor, Notepad will do just fine but if you wish to code a batch file in DOS mode then type EDIT on command prompt. This will open a blue screen very similar to the Notepad.

Now, open Notepad and type:

 

Echo This is my first batch file

 

And save this as name.bat . Remember to name the file as .bat as this marks the file as batch file.

When we execute this file the DOS prompt will open up and close immediately.

Well the file executed just fine but the DOS prompt will not wait for you to view the output.

Now let’s move into different batch file commands which are really useful:

 

ECHO: This is the printing command of DOS. The basic function of this command is to give some printed output on the screen. The main use of the echo command comes in use when we do not wish to view any output. When we execute a Batch file, it displays all the commands which are being executed preceding the path of the directory where they are being executed but if we wish we can add is little command to avoid the display of the path of the directory:

Echo off

Let’s see one more example of a simple batch file:

 

Cd abhishek

Del *.txt

When we execute this batch file, the output comes like this:

 

C:\Windows\cd abhishek

C:\Windows\abhishek\del*.txt

Files deleted

 

Now if we add the ECHO OFF command:

 

Echo off

Cd abhishek

Del *.txt

The output of this code will be:

C:\Windows\Echo off

Files deleted

 

This code will remove all the commands being executed and just show the errors and notification but still show the initial ECHO OFF command on the top. If you wish to hide this ECHO OFF command from showing then add @ECHO OFF. When you add this command, it will not even show the ECHO OFF command on the DOS prompt.

 

If you have used the ECHO OFF command in the beginning of the code the all the other echo commands after ECHO OFF will not work and you will get a message:

ECHO is off

You can turn on ECHO by typing ECHO ON. This will give you a message:

ECHO is on

 

PAUSE: This is one of the most important command when it comes to interact with the user and stop the DOS screen to view the output. Let’s see a code:

 

ECHO hello

Pause

 

When you execute this code, the result would be like this:

 

C:\windows\ECHO hello

Hello

Press any key to continue…

 

Now you must have clearly understood the use this command and how this halts the DOS screen. Now as you can see that the code is asking you to continue or not and if you do not wish to continue, press Ctrl+C or Ctrl+break. Pressing this key will give you a message:

Terminate batch job (Y/N) _

If you enter Y then the code terminates and if you enter N, the code proceeds to the next command.

 

IF command: The IF conditioning command is also available in batch file coding. The batch file programming gets a bit complicated here as at this stage we start using the parameters but as we are not familiar with the parameters at the moment, we will only check a few examples of IF conditioning:

 

a) File existence: This is my favourite as it lets you check whether a file exists or not and take appropriate action for the state. SYNTAX: IF EXIST path command & IF NOT EXIST path command. It is also possible to check the existence of more than one file by using the IF statement again in the same line like IF EXIST path IF EXIST path command. In order to check the existence of a Directory by the following Syntax: IF [NOT] EXIST path\nul (example C:\abhi\nul) command. To check the existence of a Drive we use the following syntax: IF [NOT] EXIST drivename\io.sys command , this syntax is a bit old and I have only checked it on a Windows 2000 server but not on XP or Vista.

b) Compare strings: I’ll not be explaining this syntax as we need to understand the parameter before we understand this syntax. SYNTAX: IF [NOT]stringX==stringy command.

Note:

Its really sometimes get very time taking and annoying to always migrate to the directory where you have saved your batch file and then execute it. So, inorder to avoid this migration you can create a separate directory where you can save all your batch files and add this directory in the PATH statement of the AUTOEXEC.bat file which is present in the root directory of your system. Just open the AUTOEXEC.bat in notepad and look for a line which starts with PATH and then add the path of the folder in that statement. This way you can execute the batch file from any directory by typing in the name of the batch file.

 

Avoiding Batch file Viruses: When you double click on a batch file, it automatically executes and this can be very dangerous sometimes. To avoid this do the following:

Open the Registry and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\batfile. Open the EditFlags binary value and change its value to 00 00 00 00. Now open Explorer and open folder option from the view menu and select File Types Tab, scroll down to the ‘MS-DOS Batch File’ item, highlight it and click Edit.

Now when you double click on any batch file, it will open it on the default text editor and hence you are safe from the batch file viruses.

Windows Registry: the editing

Windows Registry: Editing

 

 

You must have read my article on Windows Registry which provides beginners details on the Windows Registry. Now I am going to briefly describe how to edit the registry through the Registry files and DOS.

 

Editing and .reg files

 Windows Registry can be edited easily by the registry explorer provided by the Microsoft but the best way to edit registry is by making the registry files or .reg files as they are very helpful when you need to edit registry on some remote system.

 

 SYNTAX:

                          RegistryEditorVersion (version 6 in Vista and 5 in XP sp2)

                        

                          [Path of the registry root\key]

                         

                         “Name of the key (data holder)”=DATATYPE: VALUE

                         

 

The Header of the file is the Windows Registry Editor version. This is a very important part of a .reg files as it defines the executable limits related to the various Windows version. For example if you have written RegistryEditorVersion6 , then the registry file will not run on Windows XP and other earlier versions of Windows whereas if you write RegistryEditorVersion5 , then the registry file will run smoothly of all the versions of Windows except Windows 95 & 98.

 

The second line is to specify the path of the root\key. It’s very important to keep in mind that the registry path of different versions of Windows differ from each other and hence you should keep in mind the registry path structure while making the registry file.

 

The third line holds the name of the key or the data holder inside the “” and the DATAVALUE (binary, string, Dword etc.) followed by the value which is to be assigned to the key. When you are assigning a string value, then it’s not important to specify the data type and directly writing the value inside the “” will do the job. Put a “-“or hyphen after the = to delete the key.

 

Using the above syntax you can easily create a .reg file. I would suggest you to start playing with them as it would help you to understand editing of registry through registry files and you might learn something new!!!!

 

 

 

 

Editing and the Command Prompt:

 All the windows versions are provided with Command Prompt. Windows Vista and Windows XP, both are provided with 2 command prompts, CMD.EXE and COMMAND.COM. Both are a little bit different from each other (especially version) but both can edit the Windows Registry smoothly.

The best way to learn editing registry through Command prompt is through HELP command.

Open Command Prompt and type:

 Reg/?

And you will be presented with the following:

 REG Operation [Parameter List]

 

   Operation    [ QUERY  | ADD  | Delete  | Copy |

                          SAVE    | LAOD | UNLOAD| RESTORE|

                          COMPARE | EXPORT | IMPORT  | FLAGS  ]

 

Return Code: (Except for REG COMPARE)

 

     0 – Successful

     1 – Failed

For help on a specific operation type:

  

    REG OPERATION /?

Examples:

REG ADD
REG COMPARE
REG COPY
REG DELETE
REG EXPORT
REG IMPORT
REG LOAD
REG QUERY
REG RESTORE
REG SAVE
REG UNLOAD

RED FLAGS

 

While using Command Prompt, you can even edit the registry of a remote system. In this case you will have to include the computer name before the path of the root\key.

 

SYNTAX:  REG QUERY \\computername\pathtosubkey

 

Editing Registry through Command prompt is a lot difficult and complex and editing through .reg files. The only benefit is that you can use it for troubleshooting your registry or when you have no other means of editing the registry.

 

According to MICROSOFT, the above registry editing techniques apply to the following windows version:

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 64-Bit Datacenter Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 64-Bit Enterprise Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86)

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition

Microsoft Windows XP Professional for Itanium-based systems

Microsoft Windows XP Professional for Itanium-based systems

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

Microsoft Windows XP Professional

Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002

Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition

Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition

Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition

Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Standard Edition

Microsoft Windows Vista all version’s

Windows XP: birth

SOURCE: A friend e-mailed me a document containing the following information. I thought to share it with you guys.

WINDOWS XP- birth

Windows XP comes in a number of versions, including a Home version and a Professional version. Windows

XP Home is configured for home users. Windows XP Professional, which is configured to work as a

workstation client, is a somewhat more powerful configuration for business users. Throughout this book,

I’ll point out any differences in usage between the Home and Professional versions.

While not the focus of this book, Windows XP also comes in a number of server versions named Windows

XP .NET. Microsoft has planned several server product offerings, including Windows XP .NET Server

and Windows XP .NET Advanced Server. We don’t expect that there will be major changes in .NET’s use of

the registry.

The registry is a tree-based hierarchical system that offers quick access to data stored in almost

any format. Actually, the registry is a rather flexible database. Registry information comes from a

number of sources:

◆ From installing Windows XP

◆ From booting Windows XP

◆ From applications, systems, and user interaction

Every component ofWindows XP uses the registry, without exception. A set of APIs allows both

Windows XP and other applications to access registry information easily and quickly.

Windows XP starts to use the registry at the very beginning stages of system bootup. The Windows

XP boot process is based on which file format is installed, though the important parts are

identical in either case. The unimportant parts are the loading of the specific drivers to read the

NTFS file system.

Note Throughout this book, I’m referring to Windows XP installed on an Intel x86 platform. There are differences in

the boot process on RISC-based systems (such as the Digital Alpha system), though these differences are not terribly significant,

considering how the registry is used. However, it seems that non-Intel systems are becoming very unusual, and they

probably will receive little or no support from Microsoft in the future.

The Windows XP boot process consists of the following steps:

1. The system is powered up, the video is initialized, and the hardware self-tests are performed.

The BIOS performs these tests, which are called POSTs (power-on self-tests). Usually, the

memory test is the most visible one; its progress is shown on most computer screens.

2. After running POST, the system initializes each adapter. If the adapter has its own built-in

BIOS, the adapter’s BIOS is called to perform its own initialization. For IDE adapters (most

computers have either two or four IDE adapters), each connected drive (there may be up to

two drives for each IDE adapter, allowing for a total maximum of eight IDE type drives) is

queried for its specifications and access method.

Some adapters, such as Adaptec’s SCSI adapters, display messages and allow the user to interact.

Some adapters that don’t have a BIOS aren’t initialized until Windows XP loads their

drivers much later in the boot-up process.

3. After all the adapters that have a BIOS have been initialized, the system boot loader reads in

the sector located at the very beginning of the first bootable disk drive and passes commands

to this code. This sector is called the boot sector, or the MBR (Master Boot Record), and it is

written by the operating system when the operating system is installed.

4. The code in the MBR then loads the NTLDR file. (This file has no extension, though it is

an executable file.) Once loaded, the MBR passes control to the code in NTLDR.

5. NTLDR then switches into 32-bit mode. (Remember, an Intel x86 processor always boots

into 16-bit real mode.) It then loads a special copy of the necessary file system I/O files and

reads in the file boot.ini.

6. The file boot.ini has information about each operating system that can be loaded. Remember,

Windows XP supports multiboot configurations. It is trivial to create a Windows XP

installation that can boot Windows NT, Windows XP, and Windows 95 or Windows 98. The

boot loader can even boot two different copies ofWindows XP with either the same or different

version numbers. NTLDR then processes boot.ini, displaying boot information that

allows the user to select which operating system will be loaded. At this point, let’s assume that

Windows XP will be loaded.

7. When you select Windows XP to be loaded, NTLDR loads the file ntdetect.com. This program

then collects information about the currently installed hardware and saves this information

for the registry. Most of this information is stored in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hive.

8. Once NTDETECT has detected the hardware, control is passed back to NTLDR, and the

boot process continues. At this point, the registry has been substantially updated with the current

hardware configuration, which is stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Hardware.

9. The prompt to select the configuration is then presented. This prompt, “Press spacebar now

to invoke Hardware Profile/Last Known Good menu,” allows you to force Windows XP to

use a specific configuration as stored in the registry hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

10. Following the detection of NTDETECT, NTLDR loads and initializes the Windows NT

kernel, loads the services, and then starts Windows.

11. When the kernel is loaded, the HAL is also loaded. (The HAL—Hardware Abstraction Layer—

is used to manage hardware services.) Next, the registry system subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\

System is loaded into memory. Windows XP scans the registry for all drivers with a start value of

zero. This includes those drivers that should be loaded and initialized at boot time.

12. You can see the beginning of the next stage, kernel initialization. The screen switches to a blue

background, and you see a message about the Windows XP build number and the number of

system processors. Again, the system scans the registry and finds all drivers that must be

started at the kernel initialization stage.

13. From this point, Windows XP starts various components and systems. Each component and

system reads the registry and performs various tasks and functions. In the final stage, the program

that manages the user logon, WinLogon, starts. WinLogon allows the user to log on and

use Windows XP.

Once Windows XP is booted, both the operating system and applications use the registry. The

registry is dynamic, but usage of the registry may be dynamic or static. That is, some registry items

are read one time and never reread until the system is restarted. Other items are read every time they are

referenced. There is no fixed rule as to what is read each time it is needed and what is not, but to be

on the safe side, follow these guidelines:

◆ Application-related data is probably read when the application starts. If you change application-

based data, restart the application. In fact, the best path to follow is this: do not change

application-based data while the application is running.

◆ User-interface data is sometimes dynamic, sometimes static. With user-interface data, the way

to go is to change the data and wait to see the results of the change. If the change doesn’t

appear, try logging on again.

◆ System data is usually either static or otherwise buffered. Many system-related registry changes

won’t become effective until the system is restarted. Some system data is rewritten, or created, at

startup time, precluding changes by users. Many of the items in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE may be

reset at system boot time, especially those items that are hardware related.

Windows XP: the lockup

Windows XP has millions of feature but the main problem is that people don’t even know this. When I stated using Windows XP, at that time I too didn’t knew much about the feature which it provided but once, while just chatting to my EX-Computer Teacher I came to know that he owned a whole BOOK about Windows XP, a shock to me that why would an Operating system have a whole book of its own?

 

 People who use Windows XP on there system mostly do not care much about it and the one who care, do not sometime have a idea of the right path to begin with, so I thought to write down my own newbie guide on :

                                                                    WINDOWS XP: THE LOCKUP

Whaz Running: With Windows XP it’s very easy to track down each and every program running on your system. To start with:

 

1)      Always keep an eye on the system tray of your Task Bar.

2)      Move your Cursor over any of these programs and you should get Pop-up giving details about that program. Right click on the icon to get the menu and terminate if the program is not required.

3)      If you find a gap between any two programs then open the Task Manager (ctrl+alt+del) and look at both Application and Processes tab for any suspicious program running and if found, terminate it.

4)      You might even sometimes find a few File sharing programs running automatically. Terminate them if not required.

 

The Termination: It’s a good habit to regularly keep an eye on the ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAM option provided in the Control Panel.

 Have a look at all the programs installed with all their details such as file size, Usage information, installed location etc. and if any suspicious program is found, uninstall it.

REMEMBER: Try to get as much information about the program you are about to uninstall so as to avoid any kind of misunderstanding.

 

The Users: All the accounts on your XP machine should have a good and strong password. By good and strong password I mean:

a)      Alphanumeric

b)      Atleast 6 characters long.

c)      Contain both upper and lower case letters.

 

The Firewall: A good firewall is really important. I would suggest you to use Armor2net firewall as it’s really good. But what if you can’t buy yourself a good firewall software or you don’t want to use a third party firewall, then you can easily configure the default firewall provided by Windows XP. To configure:

1)      Click on START menu and open control panel and then open Internet and Network connection. Right Click on the Internet adapter and select properties from the drop down menu.

2)      Click on the Advance tab to find an option “Internet connection firewall”. Check this box if it’s unchecked. This enables Firewall on that adapter.

3)      For more Advance setting, click the Settings button placed right at the bottom to open another dialog box. The services tab there allows you to select which service to allow through the firewall. Configure as per you requirement.

4)      The Security Logging tab allows a lot of logging options. Select “Log Dropped packets” or “Log successful connection” or both to enable logging. By logging the packet you can find information about packet type, date of sending and receiving and most important, the IP address of sender and receiver.

5)      The ICMP tab blocks the ICMP (the protocol which handles PING) message by default. It can be sometimes used by hackers to gather information about your system and hence I recommend you to keep them unchecked.

 

 

 STAY AWAKE: Most of the people think that installing the latest security software or software package will do their work for the rest of their life but that’s completely wrong. It is really very important to have an Updated security bundle or atleast updated antivirus software. Its is also very important to download and install the Windows Update as they help to patch the bugs and hole in the operating system.

To configure update:

 

1)      Right click the My Computer icon and select Properties from the drop down menu.

2)      Click on the “Automatic Update” tab

3)      Check the “Keep my computer up to date…”

 

All the other Microsoft software installed (such as MS office bundle) do not update themselves on their own and hence to will have to manually turn on the updates or download the updates from the Microsoft website.

 

REMEMBER: Never follow update download received via E-mail or PM.

 

Recommended setting to avoid malicious codes:

a)      Automatically scan E-mails if you are using Outlook etc.

b)      Scan your computer once a week.

c)      Automatically scan Downloads.

d)      Automatically update the virus definition.

e)      Do not click on any link send via e-mail rather manually type the address.

f)       Disable JavaScript for checking e-mails as JavaScript in e-mails might be dangerous.

g)      Try to download all you mail and check them offline.

 

 

The Browser: The browsers which are available these days are really very good but I would still recommend you to take a security test at:

 http://bcheck.scanit.be/bcheck/

 
Conclusion: The above mentioned stuffs will help you to either avoid or completely stop the attack of virus etc and will make your Windows XP secure.

Windows XP: the security holes

Microsoft Windows XP has been the most successful of the Windows Range of Operating Systems by Microsoft.

When I got my very first Computer assemble I had no knowledge about operating system, so the computer shopee guy installed Windows XP sp-2 on to my machine.

Since then this little piece of clicks and tricks has fascinated me a lot.

 

When I got internet connection on my system 3 years back, XP turned out to be a nightmare. I always had an updated AVG but still due  to all my downloads I had enough virus’s  which forced me to Reinstall the whole OS once in 2 weeks and that was when I started looking on the security features Provided by Windows XP.

Moving inside the box:

There are 2 security holes I found in Windows XP sp-2:

1)      REPARING: When repairing the Windows XP, if we press Ctrl+F10 then the DOS prompt is popped up and you have the access (not administrator privilege) to the box.

2)      RECOVERY CONSOLE: I’ve used a lot of third party software to protect my system but the best way I found was to physically block access to my PC…lol…

I started googling around for getting administrator access to XP box without a third party program but it turned out to be either very time consuming or not working for sp-2 and so I started looking for the answer on my own, when I ended up with a Windows 2000 bootable cd from a friend.

The game:

Most of you might have used the recovery console of Windows XP which asks the Administrators Password before letting you use itself, but what if we boot a XP sp-2 machine with Windows 2000 cd and start the recovery console present in it???

VOLA!!!! THE PASSWORD IS NOT REQUIRED

This is the most irritating fact the the machine with with XP’s latest service pack can easily be fooled.

The Steps:

a)      Restart the system and pop in Windows 2000 bootable CD. (Check if the CD\DVD drive is set to primary boot over HDD in the bios system)

b)      On the blue screen press R or F10 (f 9 worked fine on my lappy…) and the Press C to enter the recovery console.

c)      Select the XP parathion from the menu and that’s it!

The access and stuff possible:

a)      File and Folder: The XP recovery console does not allows even the Administrator to access all the drives but when using Windows 2000 recovery console the access is made easy and to all the drives.

b)      Copy-ing: The XP recovery console does not allows coping of files and folders to a removal media (only floppy at this instance) but by editing the registry it is possible but when using Windows 2000 recovery console, coping files and folders is not a big task, its simple and no “Access Denied” error is given. This feature also allows you to make new file and folder and change its attribute also.

c)      The Net User: The XP recovery console does not provides the “net user username password” command but when using Windows 2000 recovery console this command worked successful for me on a friends FAT-32 XP partition

 

Conclusion:

I tested this security hole (recovery console) on my brothers HP Laptop provide by the reliance company for his office work which has a lot of security features but in that case also I could get access to 60% of the resource and even had the power to format a parathion.

The method i described above is using Windows 2000 recovery console but using any Linux Distro will also allow you to have access to a lot of Resources. I would recommend Geexbox Distro for the same purpose.

After this finding of mine I strongly conclude that Windows XP is not a very secure operating system.