10 Windows Tweaking Myths Debunked Windows is big, complicated, and misunderstood. You’ll still stumble across bad advice from time to time when browsing the web. These Windows tweaking, performance, and system maintenance tips are mostly just useless, but some are actively harmful. Luckily, most of these myths have been stomped out on mainstream sites and forums. However, if you start searching the web, you’ll still find websites that recommend you do these things. Erase Cache Files Regularly to Speed Things Up You can free up disk space by running an application like CCleaner, another temporary-file-cleaning utility, or even the Windows Disk Cleanup tool. However, running CCleaner or similar utilities every day to erase your browser’s cache won’t actually speed things up. Enable ReadyBoost to Speed Up Modern PCs Windows still prompts you to enable ReadyBoost when you insert a USB stick or memory card. Open the Disk Defragmenter and Manually Defragment Disable Your Pagefile to Increase Performance
Free Script Programs Free VBScript and PowerShell script programs that demonstrate techniques useful in the administration of Active Directory and client computers. All of the programs have been renamed as text files with the extension ".txt", to prevent interference by virus detection programs. You should rename the VBScript examples to have a ".vbs" extension and the PowerShell scripts to have a ".ps1" extension. Programs demonstrating various functions to test for group membership. Sample logon scripts, with group membership tests and drive and printer mapping. Programs to document and administer groups. Programs to document and administer users. Programs demonstrating advanced techniques. Programs to document and deal with various attributes of objects in Active Directory. Programs to search Active Directory for objects meeting your criteria. Programs to deploy security fixes and scan for viruses. Programs to generate pseudo random numbers.
Learn Best Practices for Optimizing the Virtual Memory Configuration In a default installation, Windows creates the page file in the root folder on the same drive that holds the Windows system files. The size of the page file is determined by the amount of RAM in your system. By default, the minimum size on a 32-bit (x86) system is 1.5 times the amount of physical RAM if physical RAM is less than 1 GB, and equal to the amount of physical RAM plus 300 MB if 1 GB or more is installed. The default maximum size is three times the amount of RAM, regardless of how much physical RAM is installed. On a PC with a processor that supports Physical Address Extension (PAE)—which is to say, on any PC that is capable of running Windows 7—the maximum size of the page file is 16 TB. Follow Our Daily Tips Tell Us Your Tips To see the current configuration of your system’s virtual memory, open the System dialog box in Control Panel and click the Advanced tab. Should you get involved in managing the page file?
Homepage • Helge Klein How to determine the appropriate page file size for 64-bit versions of Windows System committed memory The system commit limit is the sum of physical memory and all page files combined. It represents the maximum system-committed memory (known as the “system commit charge”) that the system can back. The system commit charge is the total committed or “promised” memory of all committed virtual memory in the system. If the system commit charge reaches the system commit limit, the system and processes might not obtain committed memory. The system commit charge and system commit limit can be measured on the Performance tab in Task Manager or by using "\Memory\Committed Bytes" and "\Memory\Commit Limit" performance counters. Note System-managed page files automatically grow up to three times physical memory or 4 GB (whichever is larger) when the system commit charge reaches 90 percent of the system commit limit. System crash dumps A system crash (also known as a “bug check” or a "Stop error") occurs when the system cannot run correctly. Automatic memory dump
Proxy Server CCProxy - Proxy Server Software for Windows 7/2008/Vista/XP CCProxy is easy-to-use and powerful proxy server. CCProxy can support broadband, DSL, dial-up, optical fiber, satellite, ISDN and DDN connections, it helps you build your own proxy server and share Internet connection within the LAN efficiently and easily. CC Proxy Server can act as an HTTP, mail, FTP, SOCKS, news, telnet and HTTPS proxy server. It features powerful account management functions, including Internet access control, bandwidth control, Internet web filtering, content filtering and time control. It also provides web caching, online access monitoring, access logging and bandwidth usage statistics functions. As a Window proxy server, CCProxy is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Vista. The first version of CC Proxy Server was developed in August 2000. It was initially designed to modem sharing within a LAN. CCProxy provides powerful management functions including several ways to control the Internet access on the LAN.
Defragmenting Files (Windows) When a file is written to a disk, sometimes the file cannot be written in contiguous clusters. Noncontiguous clusters slow down the process of reading and writing a file. The further apart on a disk the noncontiguous clusters are, the worse the issue, because of the time it takes to move the read/write head of a hard disk drive. Defragmentation is the process of moving portions of files around on a disk to defragment files, that is, the process of moving file clusters on a disk to make them contiguous. Defragmenting a file In a simple single-tasking operating system, the defragmentation software is the only task, and there are no other processes to read from or write to the disk. To allow defragmentation without requiring detailed knowledge of a file system disk structure, a set of three control codes is provided. Enable applications to locate empty clustersDetermine the disk location of file clustersMove clusters on a disk To defragment a file Stream types supported for any directory.
Script Powershell Add Local Users Verified on the following platforms This script is tested on these platforms by the author. It is likely to work on other platforms as well. If you try it and find that it works on another platform, please add a note to the script discussion to let others know. Online peer support For online peer support, join The Official Scripting Guys Forum! Disclaimer The sample scripts are not supported under any Microsoft standard support program or service. 12 Tips to Speed up Windows 7 - Slide 5 5 of 12 5. Defrag Defragment your hard drive.Your disk stores data in chunks wherever there's space on disk, regardless of whether the space is contiguous for one file. Move Files from Mac to Android Without Android File Transfer Advertisement Moving files between a Mac and an Android device has always been a real pain. Android uses MTP (media transfer protocol) to connect and share files with a desktop, and while this is supported natively in Windows, it isn’t on OS X (or the forthcoming macOS). As a result, Mac users need the Android File Transfer program installed, a mediocre piece of software that gives you the absolute basics of copy and paste, and not much else. Fortunately, there are ways to move files from Mac to Android without using Android File Transfer. Let’s take a closer look at both options. HandShaker, the Android File Transfer Alternative HandShaker is a free app available to download from the Mac App Store. Set Up HandShaker First, it’s a good idea to uninstall Android File Transfer. Next, on your Android phone, you have to enable USB Debugging. Here, scroll down and activate USB debugging, and click through the dialog box that asks for confirmation. Moving Files With HandShaker How Do You Do It?
Defrag from the Command-Line for More Complete Control For more complete control of defragmentation in Windows 7, you can use the command-line defrag¬mentation tool, Defrag.exe, from an elevated command prompt. Defrag.exe has the following syntax (which is different than the syntax used for defrag in Windows Vista): Defrag <volume> | /C | /E <volumes> [/A | /X | /T] [/H] [/M] [/U] [/V]The options for Defrag.exe are: <volume> The drive letter or mount point of the volume to defragment./C Defragment all local volumes on the computer./E Defragment all local volumes on the computer except those specified./A Display a fragmentation analysis report for the specified volume without defrag¬menting it. From the Microsoft Press book The Windows 7 Resource Kit by Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team at Microsoft.
Free tools for Windows Server admins There are endless software tools and utilities out there to help you in managing your network. Here are some of the best free ones. They can help you with deploying, maintaining, troubleshooting, and upgrading Window Servers, your domain, and aid with other miscellaneous network tasks. Best Practices Analyzer Microsoft provides the Best Practices Analyzer tool right inside Windows Server, starting with Windows Server 2008 R2, available on each role’s home page in the Server Manager console. It scans for a variety of rules, including those relating to predeployment, security, performance, and configuration. Core Configurator Starting with Windows Server 2008, there’s a Server Core installation option. + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD 12 free Microsoft Exchange tools every IT admin will love + Core Configurator 2.0 supports Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 and Corefig is for Windows Server 2012 Core and Hyper-V Server 2012. Exchange Server Deployment Assistant Role-based Access Control (RBAC) Manager
10+ Useful System Tools Hidden in Windows Whether you’re using Windows 7, Windows 8, or an older version of Windows, Windows contains a variety of system utilities that are well-hidden. Some are buried deep in the Start menu, while others can only be accessed via a command. Most of these tools can be easily launched if you know their names — just open your Start menu or Start screen, search for the name of the program, and press Enter. On Windows 8, you may have to select the Settings category on the search screen first. Windows Memory Diagnostic Windows includes a Memory Diagnostic tool that can restart your computer and test your memory for defects, like the popular MemTest86 application. Resource Monitor The Resource Monitor application offers a detailed look at your computer’s resource usage. This means that you can see which processes are using your disk or network heavily, view which processes are communicating with which Internet addresses, and more. Performance Monitor Computer Management and Administrative Tools MSConfig