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Brian's Buzz on Windows has changed its name to the Windows
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March 11, 2004 - Issue 25
A bonus download for paid subscribers
At least once every calendar quarter, I license some special content.
I release this content as a bonus download to my readers who've made a
financial contribution to receive the paid version of Brian's Buzz. This
quarter, the download is "Everyday Security and Registry Tricks," an
e-book by noted Windows developer Dan Appleman.
This 16-page PDF e-book is a summary from Appleman's forthcoming printed book,
"Always Use Protection" (Apress). This work is aimed at young computer users
to provide them with basic knowledge on how to protect themselves from
Internet security threats. The $17.99 book won't go on sale until May 3,
but my paid subscribers will be entitled to freely download the e-book,
starting on March 18.
"Everyday Security and Registry Tricks" has two sections. Protecting Your
Computer is a simple overview of antivirus programs, firewalls,
and the like for novices. Registry Tricks explains
simple Registry editing techniques, which can be used to (for example)
follow antivirus companies' advice on removing certain viruses manually.
Most computer professionals will already know a lot of this information.
I chose this download as this quarter's bonus because you'll find it
useful as a gift to your children, your parents, or any newbie
who's always bugging you for technical support.
Upgrade to the paid version of Brian's Buzz by 11:59 p.m.
Eastern Time on March 17, and you'll automatically be sent a short
e-mail message on March 18 with a code that enables you to download
the e-book. Of course, you'll also receive four other quarterly bonuses,
access to all past paid content, and 24 issues of the paid version of the
newsletter during the coming year.
The upgrade to the paid version is a voluntary contribution —
you choose the amount you wish to contribute.
To upgrade, see the "Here's a Tip" section, below, or simply use this link: Upgrade now
Thanks for your support! —Brian Livingston
TOP STORY - info you need to make Windows work
My readers have been busy lately uncovering Windows gotchas and problems
— to which there are some actual solutions. The lead section of
this issue of Brian's Buzz, therefore, is devoted to their findings:
XP Service Pack 1 clogs USB ports
Microsoft has acknowledged that installing Service Pack 1 on
Windows XP can make USB ports so slow that they almost seem to have frozen.
This occurs because the "lazy write" cache gets confused about what
information has been written to disk, with the result that the same
bits are sent many times over.
Reader Dan Landiss of St. Louis, Mo., describes how he discovered this
and what he's done about it so far:
-
Has Microsoft broken USB?
"Specifically, writing a large number of small files to a USB Flash RAM
under WinXP takes over twenty times as long as under Win2000. Writing to
the Flash RAM is actually slower than to a ZIP disk! The actual write speed
worked out to about 4 Kbps, roughly the same as a decent V.90 modem, and
about 0.05% (1/2000) of the rated speed (8000 Kbps) of the USB2 Flash RAM.
"A possible cause is discussed in MS KB
828012.
After a few messages back and forth, I got MS to authenticate me to download
the patch mentioned therein (it is not public), but it does not solve the
problem.
"When I contacted MS, the first support rep that responded did not even
understand the problem. He insisted that the slowdown I was seeing was
'normal.' I eventually got him to escalate the issue to a higher level, a
'Microsoft Windows Escalation Support Professional.'
"The next guy admitted the problem exists, said 'this problem also occurs on
my side,' and had me disable some Windows services to see if they were
related. He and I also tested on several WinXP and W2K machines to ensure
that the problem was repeatable and specific to XP.
"Since no tests he asked me to run showed any improvement, he turned the
problem over to 'the developers.' That was on 1 February, and I have heard
nothing yet."
The Knowledge Base article Landiss refers to offers a hotfix for this
problem, but obtaining it requires contacting Product Support Services
via a link in the article, and there may be a charge. Fortunately, the
difficulty seems to be localized enough in the write-behind disk cache
that simply turning the feature off may be better than installing the
software fix. (Write-behind caching is supposed to make a PC seem faster
by postponing disk writes for a few seconds. I find this is never
worth the hassles it can create.)
According to Microsoft's KB article, the bug and the simple workaround
are as follows:
-
"When you write data to an external storage device such as a Universal
Serial Bus (USB) flash card reader or a Magneto-Optical (MO) drive,
it may take a very long time for all the data to be written to the device.
If you examine a bus trace of that device, you notice that there are
many duplicate write operations (where the same data is written to the
same destination). ...
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"To work around this problem, turn off write caching for the storage device.
For a USB or removable storage device, configure the caching policy to use
the Optimize for quick removal option in Device Manager. To do so, follow
these steps:
- Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
- Click the Hardware tab, and then click Device Manager.
- Expand Disk Drives, right-click your storage device, and then click
Properties.
- Click the Policies tab, click Optimize for quick removal, and then
click OK. ...
"This problem only affects Windows XP with SP1 installed or integrated.
It does not affect Windows XP without SP1 installed, Microsoft Windows 2000,
or Microsoft Windows Server 2003."
If you're having this problem, do turn off write-caching to see if it
corrects things. If not, you can easily change the configuration back.
Outlook Service Pack 2 interferes with e-mail
A different service pack for a different product created a
pack of grief for reader John Moorhead:
-
"I recently had a problem with my personal system running Outlook on W2K,
where it would fail to send any large messages or messages with
attachments. The failure code was clearly stated, so I plugged it into
a search engine and got immediately to Microsoft's Hotfix page that
referenced that error. It, in turn, referred me to another hotfix, and
when I followed the trail, that second one referred me back to the
first one. Circular argument with no exit loop!
"Fortunately, I work for a very large computer company, which has internal
tech resources. I described my dilemma to my local tech, and he followed
the same trail as I had initially, with no success. He then called
Microsoft and gained access to a special technical support line for
registered support personel. In short order he was refered to the KB
829343
hotfix and we downloaded it; this indeed solved my problem. An
aside to this is that the Microsoft site indicated this service cost
$1,200 for non-supported users. (Of course, for a large corporation such
as ours, the yearly blanket support fee covers this type of problem.)
There was also a disclaimer that said the hotfix was 'untested' and
therefore may not work properly.
"What irks me about this is that as a regular consumer I did not have
any recourse — I was just lucky enough to be able to tap into some
available local technical support that was able to push the right
buttons. In addition, if I had worked for a smaller company, that $1,200
fee would have been a big hit in the IT budget, considering that
Microsoft charged for the fix to their own bug. And they have the gall
to charge for something they admit 'may not work properly in all
situations.'
"This just justifies in my mind why I've focused my career on Unix
flavors for the last 17 years."
If you're having the problems described by Moorhead, and you don't have an
annual support contract and don't wish to pay for Microsoft support on this
issue, you may be abe to get relief from a comprehensive new service
pack.
Microsoft released
Office
XP Service Pack 3 only two days ago. Since Outlook 2002 is often
distributed as a part of Office XP, SP3 may not only clear up the problem
described above, but several other unrelated bugs. Since this is a new
update that's quite sizeable, however, I urge you to test it in your
environment before installing it to very many people.
To send me more information about these topics, or to send me a tip on
any other subject, visit
WindowsSecrets.com/contact. You'll receive a gift certificate for a book,
CD, or DVD of your choice if you send me a comment that I print.
RECOMMENDED READING - my book reviews of tech topics
The Extreme Searcher's Internet Handbook: A Guide for the Serious
Searcher
I was somewhat critical in my
Feb. 17 eWeek
column and the
Feb. 26 issue of Brian's Buzz
of the apparent slide in the relevance of search results from the most
popular search engine, Google.com. So I suppose it's cosmic that this new
book on "extreme search" techniques has just come out, as if on cue.
You may have heard about the "invisible Web,"
the vast databases of information that are not accessible in ordinary
search engine queries. Co-author Randolph Hock teaches seminars on data
mining and has been in management roles with the DIALOG and Knight-Ridder
information services. With Gary Price, a former research librarian at
George Washington University, Hock guides you in this book to some
little-known but powerful tools to find what you need on the Internet.
More info
Search Engine Advertising: Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase
Sales
If getting better search results doesn't ring your chimes, perhaps you're
more interested in the other side of the coin. That's advertising in
search engines to reach exactly the kind of potential customer that you
and your business want to attract. The author of this new book on
the subject is Catherine Seda, owner of the Seda Communications
online marketing firm and a regular contributor to SearchDay and other
search-engine newsletters. Her experience helps you cut through the
jillions of possible ads you could be running in order to
concentrate on those you should be running.
More info
How To Be Invisible, Revised Edition: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your
Personal Privacy, Your Assets, and Your Life
This isn't, strictly speaking, a computer book. But with our whereabouts
increasingly being tracked by computers — not to mention our cell phones,
with their new geopositioning capabilities — you might find that
How To Be Invisible is just the technical book you need. It may
seem a bit paranoid to try to protect your privacy to the extent recommended
by author J.J. Luna, a security consultant who once worked underground
in Franco's Spain, but these are paranoid times.
More info
FORWARDING INSTRUCTIONS - news gains value when it's shared
Please share this information with your colleagues
You're encouraged to refer your friends and colleagues to this free
newsletter. Because most e-mail programs don't correctly display a formatted
message that's been forwarded, simply call people's attention to
the permanent Web address of this issue:
BriansBuzz.com/w/040311.
HERE'S A TIP - you'll get a better newsletter if you choose the paid version
You're reading the free version of Brian's Buzz on Windows
Subscribers to the paid version receive (1) a longer, better version of the
newsletter, containing the most important information I can find on patches,
fixes, and useful free software; (2) instant access to all past paid
content, including a search tool; and (3) a bonus download at least once every
calendar quarter.
Some of the extras you'll receive if you upgrade now are:
- Everyday Security and Registry Tricks: a new e-book.
Dan Appleman's PDF e-book, described at the top of this issue, is
a primer for anyone who needs the facts about protecting
oneself from Internet dangers.
- Outlook has a new security flaw. Learn how to fix it with
a new update from Microsoft.
- Windows 2000 Server is vulnerable when it's streaming media.
You can either install another patch, or use the workaround that
I describe.
- MSN Messenger users can read your disk files. Stop unauthorized
eyes from seeing the contents of your hard disk by upgrading Messenger
6.0 or 6.1 to block this unbelievable threat.
- Free software notifies you of server or database problems.
This five-star award-winner is now out in a major new version.
- Installing W2K's SP4 can hose your system if one setting is off.
Some applications quietly change the setting — which can be catastrophic
if you don't know how to avoid the problem.
- Discouraging your users from always running as "administrator."
It's tricky, but it's do-able and may be worth your effort.
You choose your own contribution amount when you upgrade from
the free version to the paid version of the newsletter.
If you make a contribution before March 24, 2004,
you'll immediately be sent the full, paid version of this week's newsletter.
To upgrade, please visit
WindowsSecrets.com/upgrade.
Thanks in advance.
BRIAN'S BOOKSHELF - new e-books from the author
Spam-Proof Your E-Mail Address
This 27-page e-book in PDF format gives you step-by-step instructions
that can eliminate 97% of the spam that would otherwise clog your e-mail
account. You could call it "Brian Livingston's Spam Secrets." The book
is the result of months of experiments and tests I conducted, and I now
receive little or no spam to the addresses I used as guinea pigs. These tests
show that you can actually reduce your volume of spam to practically nothing,
not just battle an unstoppable and ever-growing flood. The methods I describe
work with Windows, Apple, and Linux and don't require any filters or block
lists - but you can use those in addition to the book's techniques, if you wish.
More info
WACKY WEB WEEK - playing for you the Internet's greatest bits
Woman kills boyfriend with iPod, authorities say
Police in Memphis, Tennessee, arrested a 23-year-old woman on Mar. 5
after she allegedly bludgeoned her boyfriend to death with an Apple iPod,
a popular music player known for its hard, metal case, according to Headlined
News (photo, left).
The woman reportedly told police that she killed her boyfriend "only after he
accused her of illegally downloading music and erased about 2,000 of her MP3s.
[She]complained that it took 3 months to build her music collection."
Wait a minute — what's "Headlined News"? The ever-vigilant
Macworld
investigated the article and called it "a seemingly hoax news report."
The story, the Mac addicts pointed out, was posted with a familiar design to
make it resemble a CNN Web site, although it has nothing to do with CNN.
In fact, the "death by iPod" page is the creation of
LiquidGeneration.com,
a satirical site (warning: requires Flash) powered by a group of Chicago
Web developers. They've given us a number of hilarious and/or sophomoric
animations and games over the years, including the "Fat Kid Dance-a-Thon"
— featuring a cartoon character to whom you feed pizza and pie to give
him energy — and a fake "ESPN Celebrity All-Star Competition." Some of
this stuff is seemingly funny.
Read the story
CLOSING REMARKS - the best is yet to come
In this section, I provide links to columns I've published recently that
you might find useful.
Datamation: Are you wasting backup time?
If your company has a computing policy that's at all responsible, you backup
your data on a regular basis. But a little-know feature of Microsoft's Group
Policy Objects (GPOs) may be making it harder for you to have a sensible backup
program.
More info
eWeek: I want my USB key
Viruses. Worms. Spam. Identity theft. The people behind these crimes are able
to go undetected because the Internet allows people to spew out malware
incognito. We can say, "Enough." Technology has advanced to the point that
every Internet user could carry a small, inexpensive device that positively
identifies them.
More info
Datamation: Let your visitors PDF your pages
An Adobe PDF file is easy to read, but it's a pain in the adobe to create.
That's because the free, downloadable Adobe Reader utility makes it simple for
almost anyone to open and view a file in PDF. But the program that Adobe Systems
Inc. promotes for making PDFs sells for a pricey $200 and is tricky to configure.
Now there's a new product called Highwire that gives visitors to your Web site
the ability to create a PDF file of any page on which you place a "Save As PDF"
button.
More info
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