When you have more USB devices running, using the Safely Remove Hardware applet that comes with Windows will become very slow and troublesome. Not to mention finding and locating that small icon in the system tray…

Now, all that is going to change with USB Disk Ejector, a nifty little freeware that lets you quickly remove USB devices which include thumdrives, flash drives, scanners, external hard drives, printers, and etc, by either the drive letter or name, or from the name of the program the USB device is using.

The USB Disk Ejector’s GUI is very functional and user friendly.

You simply have to launch it and then double-click on the USB device you would like to eject. Fast and easy!

Other than that, you can also use this free utility from the command line. It will work silently, so there won’t be any popups to deal with. You can pass in the /? parameter to the utility to show a quick help dialog.

See, it’s really easy. For example, to eject the USB device that is mounted as my F: drive, I would simply use the following command line:

usb_disk_eject /removeletter F

This might be a problem if you have a lot of USB devices and the drive letters change a lot. But, luckily this free utility offers partial name matching by utilizing asterisk to the beginning of the device name. For example, I can eject the same device above by using the full name:

usb_disk_eject /removename “Memorex TRAVELDRIVE 005B”

Or simply using the partial name:

usb_disk_eject /removename “*Memorex”

Nice? Let me tell you that you can make it nicer… or quicker in fact by creating a shortcut to this eject command. That will make the eject process much fun, isn’t it?

USB Disk Ejector is a tiny but useful freeware which has been tested on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Go download it today, I am sure you won’t regret it!

While I was setting the sharing folder up, I took screenshots because I guess it will make a good entry on this blog.

The whole process is pretty straight forward. Firstly, create a folder on one of the computer which acts like a file server. Then, right click on the newly created folder, select Properties, and check the option “Share this folder on the network”. So far so good, the folder is now shared on the network and should be accessible from other computers.

Now, to make the folder slightly more secure we want to set a password for the Guest account, which of course must be enabled. Microsoft makes it hard for newbies to do this because by default there is no option to set a password for the Guest account!

To set a password to the Guest account on Windows XP, you need to do this:

Click Start > Run > Enter cmd and click OK.

In the DOS window type the following and press Enter.

Net user guest password

Go to Control Panel > User Accounts. Click on the Guest account and now you can change the password!

Alternatively, you can set the password straight away in the DOS window by entering the following command:

Net user guest *

and press the Enter key. After that, enter your password two times for confirmation.

Now, you can access the shared folder from another computer through the local network, the system will prompt for you to login. Simply enter “Guest” as the ID, and then supply the password you have just set.

Happy!

Haha… anyway, as some Flickr commenters pointed out Steve Ballmer didn’t actually use the MacBook for his presentation. The picture was real and authentic, and that was also his presentation slide which was most likely driven by another computer. That MacBook in the picture was left behind by some other people, perhaps the conference organizers or a previous presenter.

Too bad, I actually hoped that was his MacBook!

On another thought, even if he was using a MacBook for his presentation, there is nothing too surprising, right? Macs run Windows just like any other laptops, and also PowerPoint for Mac OS X. So, as long as he’s still using Microsoft Windows, there isn’t anything to shout about.

Let’s start the Windows Vista Disk Defragmenter and have a look. Looks like it’s scheduled to run once every week, by default.

You can force the defragmentation to start immediately by clicking on the “Defragment now” button of course. But compare to Windows XP, there is no progress bar now. This is because the defragmentation process in Vista is non-linear unlike Windows XP’s, so there is no way to estimate accurately how much time a defrag would possibly take. Instead of trying to show estimates of how much time the defragmentation will take, the defrag team came up with a better solution: reducing the impact of defragmentation on your computer by making it use low-priority I/O and low priority CPU, so you can still use it and do what ever it is you do while the defrag is on. That’s why the whole process is scheduled to run in the background! So smart can die…

Now, many do not know you can also invoke the defrag tool from the command prompt. Check out a screen shot below.

Go to elevated command prompt by running it as an administrator. Then issue the command “defrag -c -v”. The system will defragment all the volumes on the computer in verbose mode. After the defragmentation completes, it will show detailed analysis output.

Like it or not, those are what you get on Windows Vista, Basic, Home, Business or Ultimate editions. There’s no progress bar, no indication of elapsed time, or remaining time. There’s no information on what files are fragmented, and how fragmented the hard disk is.

If you still very much fancy the good old Windows XP Disk Defragmenter, or at least shows more information, such as a progress bar, then you should use Auslogics Disk Defrag.

This is what CNET Reviews has to say about Auslogics Disk Defrag.

We found the program fast, even on older XP systems. A handy HTML report is prepared after each defrag session. … Fantastic utility far superior to Windows Disk Defragmenter.

This FREE program shows you a detailed disk fragmentation map while the defragmentation is running. The map shows you disk clusters, each cluster being red (still fragmented), blue or green (already optimized), gray (free space) or yellow for clusters occupied by the Master File Table. Isn’t this more intuitive compared to Windows Vista’s Disk Defragmenter?

After the disk defragmentation is complete you get a summary of the process. What are you waiting, go download this disk defragmenter now while it’s still free.

So, there you are. I have shown you three tools to defrag your Windows Vista. Depending on your mood, you can use whichever one you like and they will certainly make your computer’s file system cleaner and more organized. Happy defragmenting!

I bet that picture caught your interest. Who doesn’t want to get a free Windows yeah?

Now, before you go and search Microsoft’s website for a free edition of their their ‘over the top expensive and fairly new’ Operating System, you might just want to finish reading this article first. You just might change your mind about switching to Vista.

Have you ever wondered why every initial release of a Windows is never the best in quality and is always full of bugs? Now you can see what Windows Vista is clearly made of.

Some of you might have seen this lingering around the Internet, but I am pretty sure there are some who have yet to see this.

I saw this yesterday night and thought I’d share it with you guys.

Some people didn’t think that this was funny, but I not only thought it was a ‘bull’s eye’, it was a work of a genius.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Disclaimer : Just in case, this is a joke.

This problem occurs because a program or service that you have earlier restricted to start using the User Account Control (UAC) restrictions tries to start during the Windows Vista startup process. Although your Windows Vista now may run slightly faster, but the annoying message keeps popping up every now and then. Luckily it is pretty easy to stop this message from appearing again. Let me show you the easiest way to do it.

Right-click on the annoying icon in the system tray, select “Run blocked program” and then “System Configuration Utility”.

The usual UAC prompt will pop up. Click on “Continue” to proceed. Then you will see the following pop up window. Check on the box “Don’t show this message or start System Configuration when Windows starts”.

There you are. You will never see that annoying pop up message again.

There is in fact an article on this problem at Microsoft Support’s knowledgebase site. The page details a few methods which you can use to get rid of that message, namely:

• Method 1: Run the blocked program or the blocked service
• Method 2: Disable the blocked program or the blocked service
• Method 3: Remove the blocked program or the blocked service from the startup process

For details, go to Error message when you start a Windows Vista-based computer: “Windows has blocked some startup programs”.

• De-fragment your hard disk
• Apply windows updates
• Uninstall unnecessary software
• Do a through scan and remove viruses and trojans
• Clean up the Windows Registry
• Optimize the RAM and virtual memory settings
• Disable and reduce unnecessary startup programs

Of course you could also add more RAM and stuff like that, but this is a little more costly. Out of the above checklist, I believe the easiest way to make Windows Vista run faster is to defrag the hard disk, and to disable and reduce unnecessary startup programs. These days, seems like every program I install wants to start automatically when Windows Vista starts. Most of these programs unnecessarily insert themselves into the Windows startup process so that they can have their very own system tray icons from whence they can spam us with annoying messages. Each of these startup applications wastes memory and slows down Windows Vista’s startup process.

To configure or disable startup programs in Windows Vista, we need to use access the System Configuration tool. Follow the following steps to do that.

Click on Start > Run…

Enter “msconfig” in the Open text box. Click on OK.

You’ll need to give permission for the program to start unless you’ve disabled UAC, and then you’ll see the System Configuration utility.

Click on the Startup tab as that’s where all the applications, programs and software that are set to run at startup, regardless of whether they are set in the registry, the user profile, or simply the startup folder in the Programs entry of the start menu. You can disable any of them simply by un-checking the checkboxes next to them. Don’t worry, they will still be listed in the Startup tab so that you can switch them on again if you need to in the future.

For myself, I have disabled a handful of startup programs, these include HP Wireless Assistant, QuickTime, Java Platform, Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center, and Adobe Gamma Loader. I believe I don’t need these programs to run at startup.

If you have a hard time deciding what to run and what to drop, maybe this Startup Info page can help you.

Fear not. Svchost.exe is actually a system process belonging to the Microsoft Windows Operating System which handles processes executed from DLLs. Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files for the sake of better re-usability. However, this created a little problem as a .dll file cannot be executed directly. Thus, the svchost.exe process was born to facilitate running those .dll files.

Exert from Microsoft knowledgebase, a description of Svchost.exe in Windows XP Professional Edition.

The Svchost.exe file is located in the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder. At startup, Svchost.exe checks the services part of the registry to construct a list of services that it must load. Multiple instances of Svchost.exe can run at the same time. Each Svchost.exe session can contain a grouping of services. Therefore, separate services can run, depending on how and where Svchost.exe is started. This grouping of services allows for better control and easier debugging.

So, svchost.exe is not a virus nor a trojan. You may then ask why there are so many instances of them? Let’s take a look in my Windows XP system.

Right click on an empty area on the task bar and select “Task Manager”. Select the Processes tab. Click on the Image Name header to sort it in either ascending or descending order. Now, you should be able to see a list of svchost.exe running.

If you are checking this on a Windows Vista machine, you may not see svchost.exe by default. You need to click on the option “Show processes from all users” located at the bottom of the Processes screen. Enable this option.

You can right click on one of the processes and select “Go to Service(s)”. This will switch over to the Services tab, where the relevant services running under that particular instance of svchost.exe process will be highlighted. See a screen shot below.

Great. Now we can see a slightly more meaning full name of the service it’s running and then you can decide whether it’s safe for you to disable or kill the process.

Of course it’s always good to play safe. If your computer behaves normally, you don’t hand itchy and kill those processes.

Nevertheless, Telnet is still useful if you just want to use it to troubleshoot some simple functions quickly, such as on your web server or email server. To install Telnet client on Windows Vista, you simply need to follow the following steps.

1. Go to “Control Panel”
2. Select “Programs and Features”
3. In the left column, click on “Turn Windows features on or off”.
4. Check the box next to “Telnet client” and click on OK.

That’s it. The Telnet client will be installed in a short while. Sometimes it will take a couple of moments while Vista performs checks and etc I guess.

In a future post, I might show you how to use Telnet to send a quick email. Yupe, without using Outlook Express.

You may have also grabbed a few new @live or @live.com.my IDs and would like to use them on Windows Live Messenger (previously known as MSN). Now, with all these new accounts, how can you run multiple instances of Windows Live Messenger and use the different accounts simultaneously? Ask Kitkat!

OK. Since we are here, we might as well upgrade Windows Live Messenger to the latest 8.5 version. Among other things, the latest version’s improvement on the interface is worth the upgrade. Now it looks more like Vista. Check my MSN avatar above, make you horny or not? Hahaha…

Download and upgrade Windows Live Messenger here.

The download should be fast because it only contains the code to kick start the setup. You need to stay connected to the Internet to complete the upgrade…

Basically, you select what components you want/need. I don’t need all those Writer, toolbar, photo gallery, and family safety… so my upgrading was quite fast.

Well, you are done if you don’t want to use multiple messenger at the same time. But if you do want to use multiple MSN accounts at the same time and you do not want to use third party instant messengers such as Trillian and Pidgin, then you get Messenger Plus! - the ultimate Windows Live Messenger extension.

Trust me, Messenger Plus! Live is one essential add-on for Windows Live Messenger. I have personally tested and is currently using it. I am sure you will like it as much as I do. Some of the features include:

• Tabbed Chats - Just like the beauty of tabbed web browsing.
• Quick Texts - Automatic and customizable messages that can be sent with a simple shortcut or typed command.
• Custom Sounds - Allow you to send your own custom sounds during a conversation.
• Colors, formatting and commands - Choose any color you want for front and background, and add formatting, such as bold, italic, underlined and stoke-out.
• Contacts on Desktop - Show the status of any desired contact on your desktop in the form of small floating windows.

And many more brilliant features which further add to the fun and excitement of using Windows Live Messenger. But the best is of course this:-

Yeah! It gives you the option to connect to several MSN accounts simultaneously! Now you can make use of your new @live.com.my IDs and chat with each other when you are too bored! Hahaha…