Wade's Pc Help Blog

Is it Internet explorer not displaying web pages correctly? Have you already tried to change the fonts and reset everything back to default? Does every web page have a white background?
Does your Internet Explorer look all jumbled up and incorrect like the picture below?



If so then your problem lies with windows accessibility options and is easy to fix. Start by clicking on "Start" and then clicking on "Control Panel", once the Control Panel opens up click on "Accessibility options" and the accessibility options dialog box will open up and we want to click on the tab "display" and uncheck the box that is labeled "Use High Contrast" like the picture below.

From here click on "Apply" and then "OK" to close out the dialog box and Internet Explorer should return to its normal state as in the picture below.

Vista4experts is a small utility to that was designed to make it easier to change some of vistas settings all in one place. With Vista4experts you can disable the uac (user account control) , the security center notifications and even disable the sidebar from loading every time that vista starts up.
This is a very impressive piece of software and puts many vista options at your fingertips but the best option is that all the options are reversible and can be changed back to the original options with just a mouse click.
With an easy to use interface and the ability to disable all the nagging permission screens this program has something for everybody as long as you run vista.

Warning: Disabling the uac (user account control) will open up security vulnerabilities in vista.

Vista4experts can be downloaded Here.

Changing the Visual Effects in windows XP is easy and can be used to help speedup the overall performance in Windows XP. The less Visual Effects that you have enabled will help to speedup Windows and free up system resources.
To change the Visual Effects in Windows Xp , click on the "Start" button and then click on the "Control Panel" icon. When the control panel opens up click on the icon that is labeled "System" and the system dialog box should open up and you want to look for and click the tab that is labeled "Advanced".


After clicking on "Advanced" , under "Performance " click "Settings".


From here click "Custom" and you can now enable or disable different Visual Effects to suit your needs.


After you are finished selecting the perfect Visual Effects for your pc , all that is left is to click "Apply" and wait for windows to readjust the Visual Effects per your settings. Then click "OK" to close the dialog box.

Converting from FAT32 to NTFS filesystem is easy to do using convert.exe already built into windows xp. But why choose NTFS? The NTFS filesystem offers better security with file encryption and the use of file permissions. NTFS also is more reliable and less susceptible to disk errors and also supports dynamic cluster remapping for bad sectors and prevent them from being used in the future.

Now that we have decided to convert our Fat32 filesystem to NTFS lets get started by opening a command prompt by going to Start button and then hitting run. you should end up with a screen that looks like this:
Type in "cmd" without the quotation marks and press ok. this will bring up the command prompt. From the command prompt type in "convert c: /fs:ntfs" and press enter.

You will then be prompted to type the volume label, which is the name of the hard drive and in this case the volume label is ACER.

Press The enter key. You will then be prompted with a message that asks if you want to force a dismount on this volume.

Press y and press enter. Since volume c will be in use you will be prompted to convert when your computer reboots.

Now reboot and upon reboot windows will take over and convert the filesystem from FAT32 to Ntfs.


Tip: Most Acer computers with windows xp installed still come from the factory with the Fat32 filesystem

There are many anti-spyware programs to choose from, some are free and some are not. This is a list of my favorite anti-spyware programs that you can download for free and provide the best overall spyware protection.

1. Superantispyware

Superantispyware is the best overall spyware protection with the greatest success at removing some of the nastiest spyware programs. One of the greatest benefits of using superantispyware is the built in repair features that allow you to repair xp from spyware damage.
With great spyware protection and consistent updates, Superantispyware outperforms most paid software and best of all its free.
Super antispyware can be downloaded Here.

2. Spybot Search and Destroy

Another great spyware removal is Spybot Search and Destroy. Spybot does not have all the features that superantispyware provide, but does provide excellent protection and sometimes catches spyware that Superantispyware misses.
Spybot can be downloadedHere.

3. Lavasoft Ad-aware 2007

Ad-Aware is another free spyware scanner that provides basic protection with constant updates and an easy to use interface. Although Ad-aware provides descent protection, it does not provide the level of protection that you can get from Superantispyware or Spybot Search and Destroy.
Ad-Aware can be downloaded Here.

4. Windows Defender

Windows defender is my least favorite spyware scanner and does not support windows 2000 but still worthy with its basic protection.
Windows defender can be downloaded Here.

When it comes to anti-virus protection there are many choices , and with so many free anti-virus programs out there i have compiled a list of my favorite free anti-virus programs.


1.AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5

Avg is a complete anti virus solution that offers regular free updates , offers "real time protection" and even includes an e-mail scanner. The only drawback is that avg anti-virus has a somewhat tricky interface to navigate through.
Avg was also recently awarded PC Pro's Software of the Year award 2007 and is my top pick for free anti virus protection.
Avg can be downloaded HERE.

2.PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition™ 4.0

Pc Tools is slowly becoming my favorite anti-virus protection, offering "real-time" protection , an e-mail scanner , regular automatic updates and a user friendly interface.

Pc Tools can be downloaded HERE

3.Avast! 4.7 Home Edition

Another great anti-virus scanner is Avast and is also a great anti-virus solution.Avast offers "real-time" protection and e-mail scanner. The only complaint is that avast requires you to register and then e-mails you a free license.

Avast can be downloaded HERE

4.BitDefender 10 Free Edition

Bitdefender is also a great free anti virus software. It is an "on-demand" virus scanner that doesn't offer "real-time" protection in their free edition and lacks features that you would find in other free anti virus programs. What bitdefender lacks in features it makes up in being a fast and reliable anti-virus scanner and is well worth the download if no other virus scanner can completely clean your pc.
Bitdefender can be downloaded HERE

5.Dr.Web CureIt!

Dr. Web is another "on-demand" virus scanner that doesn't offer "real-time" protection or an e-mail scanner. The major drawback with Dr. Web is that it is not a permanent solution, when it is time to update you will have to download the whole program again to receive the latest updates.
Despite all the features missing in their free release Dr. Web is portable and can be run from a flash drive and is very good at detecting and cleaning the latest virus threats.

Dr. Web can be downloaded HERE

Ccleaner is an excellent freeware application to remove unused files on your pc, clean your registry and clean your traces of online activity. Ccleaner can be downloaded for free at www.ccleaner.com .


The first step is to launch ccleaner:





Then you want to click on analyze and let it run (this may take awhile). When this step is finished you should have something that looks like this:




The last step is to click on run cleaner and you will be presented with a prompt:



Just click ok and let it remove all of your unused files.

But ccleaner does not stop there it also has a built in registry cleaner. Start by clicking on the registry tab on the left hand side and you should have something that looks like this :




Click on scan for issues and let it run until it reaches 100% and you end up with a screen with a list of all the problems that ccleaner has found:


Click on fix selected issues and let it run it will then ask you whether you want to back up the registry.


Click on yes or no whether you would like to backup the registry and then you end up with a screen that looks like this :

Then click on Fix All selected Issues, this will clean all the issues that it has found and will leave your operating system free of unused files and registry problems.

The Compaq Presario SR5110nx is my newest downgrade attempt.

Specs:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.4 GHz)
RAM : 512 MB DDR II SDRAM
Hard drive: 120 GB Standard
OS installed: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic

As you can see this is a budget machine with just enough memory to turn it on. Installing XP was an easy installation and gave no problems whatsoever. If you are unsure how to install xp you can go here .



The biggest issue with any downgrade is being able to find all of the driver. I first went to the compaq website to find out that Compaq does not support xp on this machine. This left me with the option to search for the drivers on google and after about an hour of searching i found what i was looking for:



Chipset & Ethernet Drivers:

nForce 430/410/405/400 - Windows XP/2000 32-Bit http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_nf4_winxp32_8.26_11.09.html

Video Drivers:
Nvidia GEFORCE6150SE
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

Modem Drivers
Conexant RD01-D850
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=737724

After everything was finished this Compaq Presario turned out to be a great XP machine