Computers and Technology Articles

An effective registry repair software will make your computer run better and eliminate crashes and instances where your computer bogs down. When you defragment your registry, it should also optimize the way Windows stores information necessary to the operation of the computer.

Beware though, registry repair software that wasn’t designed well could cause more problems in the long run. The best registry cleaners look for all potential problems, but sometimes, the registry cleaner that finds the most errors is actually doing the poorest job, since it might be showing errors when there really aren’t any.

You need registry repair software that is easy to use. Fortunately, most registry cleaners allow you to test their product for free to see which one you like best. Be sure to find a registry repair program with a user-friendly and nice-looking graphical interface.

Make sure the registry repair software you choose has a comprehensive help file that is updated on a regular basis. Also, look for outstanding customer support. You’d prefer a product that gives you 24 hour customer service, and it’s ideal if you can actually talk to a human being over the phone.

Look for a registry repair software program that’s been around for a while. If you search online for a product that doesn’t have many reviews, it’s probably one you want to stay away from. Also, look at the company that makes the product you’re looking to buy. If they have other products many consider junk, chances are their registry cleaner will be the same.

When my team had an IT project to do during our college days, we used a very important document to help us get started during the initial stages of the project. We used a document called Project Development Plan (PDP) as guide. It is adapted from the IEEE standards for Software Project Management Plans. This document is very useful because all succeeding documents (i.e. Test Plan) follow the initial guidelines stated in the PDP document and the general details and strategies for testing and quality assurance are also stated in this document.

Apart from minor (but pertinent) details, the PDP is divided into four major parts, namely: Project Organization, Managerial Process Plans, Technical Process Plans, and Supporting Process Plans. The Project Organization part of the PDP document describes and illustrates the organizational hierarchy of the developing team. The Managerial Process Plan section of the PDP describes how the developing should start and how it will close. Apart from which, this section also tackles the general and specific details of managing resources, budget, staff and schedule. The Technical Process Plan part of the PDP is where the process, methods, tools and techniques in building the system, as well as maintenance and release, are stated. And, the Supporting Process Plan section of the PDP provides general details about configuration management, testing, standards and quality assurance, reviews, issue management, subcontract management and improvement plan. This part is essential because many documents particularly the Test Plan and the Quality Assurance documents base its initial plans, standards and processes.

The first part of the Project Development Plan document details the purpose, scope and objectives of the project. Of course, the developers of the system must know what they are building, and the limitations and extent of the finished product. The initial section of the PDP also enumerates the list of deliverables of the project like documents and the finished system itself.

The first major part of the PDP document is the Project Organization. This is where the internal and external organizations are identified, together with their roles and responsibilities. Improper or poorly defined position in the organization causes confusion amongst the members of the developing team regarding each one’s roles and responsibilities; causes some members of the team to slacken around and do nothing, while some have more than enough in their hands; and some members tend to assume the responsibility supposed to be assigned to another team member. Thus, poor staffing or poor Human Resources management might contribute heavily to the project’s total failure.

The second major part of the PDP document is the Managerial Process Plans. This is where the specific and general management process for the project appears. While doing this part of the PDP before, I find the contents of this section repetitive especially in the areas of schedule, budget, staffing and resources management. There are certain developers who don’t have to worry about estimating schedule, budget, staffing and resources because the company where they are employed provides them with all the things that they need. However, there are developers who must do all the estimating and budgeting. Thus, the Start-up Plan (under the Managerial Process Plans) is where all the initial plans of the developers are found. Usually, this plan came about during the pre-Requirements stage. The opposite of the Start-up plan is the Close-out Plan that discusses how the project should end. Work Plan section (under the Managerial Process Plans) is where the specific details of budget, schedule, staffing and resources are found. Also, we can have an early glimpse of the Work Breakdown Structure and the specific work activities. Risk Management Plan (under the Managerial Process Plans) describes the mechanisms used to identify, analyze, build mitigation and contingency plans; and manages the risks possibly found in the project.

The Technical Process Plans describe the processes used for developing the product or IT services. The activities in the Work Breakdown Structure follow a guideline in the form of a Software Development Life Cycle Model (i.e. Waterfall Method). If a Life Cycle Model is not determined, sometimes it is difficult to prioritize the activities in the project.

Lastly, the Supporting Process Plans of the PDP discusses the supporting processes of the project, namely: configuration management, testing, documentation, quality assurance, reviews, issue management (which I find somewhat similar with Risk Management), subcontract management and improvement plan. Configuration management has something to do with the configuration items identified in the project. These configuration items are already named as early as pre-Requirements stage but they are visible for every phase-end or if an item is already declared original and final version. Samples of configuration items are documents. Once changes are made in these items (which normally happens during project-end), a control board analyzes changes prior to acceptance or rejection. The analysis of the control board is one of several activities under Configuration Management. The general guidelines for the Test Plan and the Quality Assurance Plan documents are first planned and described in the Supporting Process Plans of the PDP. Without the initial guidelines, there is a huge possibility that testing and quality assurance activities are taken for granted.

The Project Development Plan document is very important and essential especially if you’re into software development. Without this document as guide, an IT developer might experience “groping in the dark” in the middle of the project, NO FORMAL GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS established, and there is poor management in areas of budget, staffing, schedule and resources.

If you are unsure of what to do in order to clean you computer from spyware, spybots of other programs alike, use a simple but effective removal tool. I’m talking about using Spybot Search and Destroy or AVG. Both programs are free and downloadable from any site that provides such services.

AVG in comparison to SSD offers a wide variety of services, from firewall and antivirus to spyware and spybot detection and removal tool. You have to admit that for a single free software this a one of a kind deal. I hope I’ve made you realize that even freeware software can provide you with more than you need in order to defend yourself from incoming attack.

To clean you computer from spyware you don’t need expensive software, a little well targeted free software will more than sufficient. Free spybot removal tools seem to develop every day and it is because of this that you have a wide variety of choices. Basically they work the same, only the visual interface is different from on to the other.

Spybot Search and Destroy has an outstanding reputation when it comes to remove spyware or spybots therefore it is a common choice among numerous users that are looking for a professional and effective removal tool. If you ask me, this is a piece of software that needs to be in every computers control panel for the sole purpose that you must use it every day. If you don’t, I’m sorry to announce you, but you might be infected.

Enterprise resource planning systems are management information systems that integrate and automate business practices associated with the operations, production and distribution aspects of a company engaged in manufacturing products or services.

Some of the well-known vendors of ERP systems are SAP AG, Oracle Applications, Microsoft Dynamics, SSA Global Technologies, QAD and Exact Software.

Founded in 1972, SAP AG is the largest European software enterprise, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany. SAP is an acronym for Systems, Applications And Products in Data Processing. It is the largest ERP solution software provider in terms of revenue. SAP products focus on ERP systems. Its main product is SAP R/3. R stands for real-time data processing, and the number 3 relates to the three-tier application architecture of its database, application server and client. There are over 91,500 SAP installations at more than 28,000 companies. Over 12 million people in more than 120 countries use SAP products.

Oracle Corporation was founded in 1977. It is one of the major companies involved in the development of database management systems, tools for database development, and enterprise resource planning software. The Oracle e-Business Suite includes software that perform financial, manufacturing and Human Resource Management Systems related functions. User access to these facilities is provided through a browser interface over the Internet or corporate intranet.

QAD produces Enterprise Resource Planning software for six main industries — Automotive, Consumer Products, Electronics, Food and Beverage, Industrial Products and Life Sciences. QAD product, MFG/PRO is an ERP software containing multiple optional modules and add on products like AIM Warehousing and Trade Management.

Exact Software was founded in 1984. It is involved in developing software for logistics, Human Resource Management, Customer Relationship Management, e-business and Enterprise Resource Planning.

Every company needs a core transactional system that records the information from its most important business processes. Prior to choosing a vendor for an enterprise, it is important to plan the budget since it is extremely difficult to upgrade already installed ERP software.

What’s the difference between data recovery, computer forensics and e-discovery?

All three fields deal with data, and specifically digital data. It’s all about electrons in the form of zeroes and ones. And it’s all about taking information that may be hard to find and presenting it in a readable fashion. But even though there is overlap, the skill sets require different tools, different specializations, different work environments, and different ways of looking at things.

Data recovery generally involves things that are broken - whether hardware or software. When a computer crashes and won’t start back up, when an external hard disk, thumb drive, or memory card becomes unreadable, then data recovery may be required. Frequently, a digital device that needs its data recovered will have electronic damage, physical damage, or a combination of the two. If such is the case, hardware repair will be a big part of the data recovery process. This may involve repairing the drive’s electronics, or even replacing the stack of read / write heads inside the sealed portion of the disk drive.

If the hardware is intact, the file or partition structure is likely to be damaged. Some data recovery tools will attempt to repair partition or file structure, while others look into the damaged file structure and attempt to pull files out. Partitions and directories may be rebuilt manually with a hex editor as well, but given the size of modern disk drives and the amount of data on them, this tends to be impractical.

By and large, data recovery is a kind of “macro” process. The end result tends to be a large population of data saved without as much attention to the individual files. Data recovery jobs are often individual disk drives or other digital media that have damaged hardware or software. There are no particular industry-wide accepted standards in data recovery.

Electronic discovery usually deals with hardware and software that is intact. Challenges in e-discovery include “de-duping.” A search may be conducted through a very large volume of existing or backed-up emails and documents.

Due to the nature of computers and of email, there are likely to be very many identical duplicates (”dupes”) of various documents and emails. E-discovery tools are designed to winnow down what might otherwise be an unmanageable torrent of data to a manageable size by indexing and removal of duplicates, also known as de-duping.

E-discovery often deals with large quantities of data from undamaged hardware, and procedures fall under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (”FRCP”).

Computer forensics has aspects of both e-discovery and data recovery.

In computer forensics, the forensic examiner (CFE) searches for and through both existing and previously existing, or deleted data. Doing this kind of e-discovery, a forensics expert sometimes deals with damaged hardware, although this is relatively uncommon. Data recovery procedures may be brought into play to recover deleted files intact. But frequently the CFE must deal with purposeful attempts to hide or destroy data that require skills outside those found in the data recovery industry.

When dealing with email, the CFE is often searching unallocated space for ambient data - data that no longer exists as a file readable to the user. This can include searching for specific words or phrases (”keyword searches”) or email addresses in unallocated space. This can include hacking Outlook files to find deleted email. This can include looking into cache or log files, or even into Internet history files for remnants of data. And of course, it often includes a search through active files for the same data.

Practices are similar when looking for specific documents supportive of a case or charge. Keyword searches are performed both on active or visible documents, and on ambient data. Keyword searches must be designed carefully. In one such case, The Schlinger Foundation v Blair Smith, et al the author, computer forensics expert Steve Burgess uncovered more than one million keyword “hits” on two disk drives.

Finally, the computer forensics expert is also often called upon to testify as an expert witness in deposition or in court. As a result, the CFE’s methods and procedures may be put under a microscope and the expert may be called upon to explain and defend his or her results and actions. A CFE who is also an expert witness may have to defend things said in court or in writings published elsewhere.

Most often, data recovery deals with one disk drive, or the data from one system. The data recovery house will have its own standards and procedures and works on reputation, not certification. Electronic discovery frequently deals with data from large numbers of systems, or from servers with that may contain many user accounts. E-discovery methods are based on proven software and hardware combinations and are best planned for far in advance (although lack of pre-planning is very common). Computer forensics may deal with one or many systems or devices, may be fairly fluid in the scope of demands and requests made, often deals with missing data, and must be defensible - and defended - in court.

EZ

SolarWinds Orion network tools can make network administrators feel like they’re sitting in the command seat of the Enterprise with a host of network tools and applications at their fingertips. Unfortunately, you may not know how to use half of them. This means that you could be doing your job inefficiently, or worse, not making use of SolarWinds Orion network tools that could safeguard your network.

You and your knowledge of SolarWinds Orion network tools could be the only things standing between your company and vicious computer attacks that can cripple your system and ability to do business.

You can use your SolarWinds Orion network tools to take care of a variety of problems, from isolating an infected computer to thwarting DOS attacks. Orion NetFlow Traffic Analyzer helps you easily identify both outgoing and incoming traffic. This capability becomes ever more important as corporate networks are exposed to increasingly malicious DOS attacks.

Consider the following scenario:

1) The Problem Arises

You receive a page from Orion NPM. Your router is having trouble linking out to the Internet and maintaining a stable connection. Considering the amount of business your company does online, this is troublesome.

2) Finding the Problem

You open the Orion NPM Web Console and start investigating the possible issues. All your connections are currently up and bandwidth utilization looks good, so those aren’t causing the problem. Then you notice your CPU utilization on the firewall. It’s holding steady between 99 percent and 100 percent, which is more than twice the normal utilization. This is illogical.

You open the firewall node and begin to drill into the interfaces. On the NetFlow Traffic Analyzer tab, you take a quick look at the top 50 endpoints. The top six computers attempting to access your network are from overseas. You realize your network is being portscanned and your firewall is interactively blocking these attacks. The shields are holding… for now.

3) Resolving the Issue

You push a new configuration to your firewall using Cirrus Configuration Manager that blocks all traffic over the IP range that is attempting to access your network. In minutes, your CPU utilization drops back to its optimal range. Systems are returning to normal.

With SolarWinds Orion network tools, managing your network doesn’t have to require a degree in nuclear physics. Your network tools may even have features you don’t know about. Regular training is necessary to ensure that you can do your job quickly, efficiently, and with as few headaches as possible.

Don’t rely on trial and error to help you figure out the best way to use your network tools. The security of your network could be at stake. For more information about using your Solarwinds Orion network tools, visit Corona Technical Services online at http://www.coronaservices.net.

One of the primary concerns of people that purchase computers is computer speed. A better understanding of the factors that influence the speed that your computer can attain can help you make the best choice for your needs.

A typical computer system performs many activities and in all areas speed is a consideration but there are different kinds of speed. Some of the areas that should be considered are;

1. General computation and management of data
2. Video image presentation and frame rate (Frequency in which video frames are displayed on a monitor, typically described in frames-per-second (fps). Higher frame rates improve the appearance of video motion. Broadcast TV (full motion video) is 30 frames-per-second.)
3. Internet communication (upload and download), sending and getting data
4. Peripheral speed such as printer, scanner or other attached devices

This article will focus on the heart of all computer operations; general computation and management of data.

The architecture of this area of the computer can be described in this oversimplified diagram;

CPU <-Front Side Bus-> RAM Memory <- computer initiated connection to larger memory -> Disk Drive

The brain of the computer is the CPU or Central Processing Unit. This component does all the manipulation, assessment and calculations of data. It does all the math, logical comparisons and arrangement of information. However, it is very limited in that it can only deal with a very small amount of information at a time.

Unlike the human brain, the memory or actual data being manipulated, for the most part, resides in a different part of the computer than the thinking part. The memory area is known as the RAM or Random Access Memory. The CPU has to talk to the memory all the time to get more data and write changed data. Getting data to and from the RAM takes time. Each RAM component has a manufactured speed at which it can be accessed.

Additionally, RAM has a limited size. In order to deal with larger volumes of data the RAM may not be big enough and the hard disk has to be accessed. Hard disk access is orders of magnitude slower than talking to RAM memory. This really slows things down a lot.

To complicate matters, for various electrical engineering reasons, the CPU can’t talk directly to the memory. It has to communicate through a communications channel known as the front side bus. It’s as if your brain would have to phone your memory any time it needed to remember anything.

Each of the parts has a speed limit associated with it. The CPU has a certain speed per data manipulation, the Front Side Bus has a speed at which it can talk to the memory, the memory has a speed at which it can be accessed and so does the hard drive. All of them add together to determine the time it takes to get things done.

Time needed for the computer to get data and work on it (in simplified terms) = CPU logic time + time to “travel” on the front side bus + RAM access time + time to talk to the hard drive (if necessary).

What counts the most

The factor that makes the most difference is RAM memory size. If it is big enough, the system will have to go the hard disk less often. This has the most dramatic impact on a computer’s performance. It never pays to stint on the amount of memory that you purchase for your computer.

The minimum size that should be purchased for modern computers is rapidly approaching 2 Gigabytes.

CPU speed is next in importance. The speed of most CPUs provided in modern systems is enough for most everyday types of operations. Unless you are doing very intensive mathematical calculation, complex database lookups, encryption or intensive graphics such as computer aided design or modeling, you won’t need the highest speed computer.

Bus speed is next. This will depend on the type of motherboard (main system board) that your computer manufacturer provides and basically can’t be changed after the fact for the average user.

Disk speed is the last factor but it should be considered if you are doing intensive database operations.

In short, get lots of ram, buy a dual core CPU at a minimum and check the front side bus speed to get the speed you need.

Perhaps one of the most appealing to computer users these days is the concept of having their own picture posted in their computer screens. To customize desktop wallpapers is considered an easy task and would only entail few clicks of the mouse to bring out the kind of mood you want to project. Computer users’ preference varies from one person to another thus, creating your own desktop interface and image develops your sense of creativity without putting much of an effort.

Imagine a computer without any desktop background and anything that will give you a certain feeling of relief when stress surfaces, lightens up when the day seems tough and sheer happiness each time you look at your screen. Hence, there are a lot of reasons why customizing your desktop wallpaper is gleaned as one of the well-liked hobby that has been a home for millions of photos uploaded everyday. Since photography and a mere shots from your digital camera would provide you with the chance of uploading it in your database, this idea has been embraced by a lot of people benefiting from the modern technology brought by computers.

As the song hymns, a picture is worth a thousand words with many stories to tell, having it in your database makes the web a hub for moving and inspiring photography. Another reason behind the significance of setting up desktop wallpaper is the verity that prior to accessing and using a computer is getting a view of the desktop. Having a good desktop image might not be a big deal to some yet, few people know that a desktop image can set up a person’s mood or it can even provide proper mind conditioning. According to research, using wallpapers dominated by one color can affect a person’s overall aura and impression on things around him. Desktop wallpaper with a dominating color of blue can give a user good concentration, color red gives out energy; green brightens up the day and a lot of colors that will give out positive influence to a user.

To customize desktop wallpaper entails few easy steps that are easy to follow. First thing to do is have all windows and running programs closed to provide a smooth flow in customizing your wallpaper. Right-click on the desktop and click on properties and display properties then click on the desktop tab. Any uploaded file on your database can be used as a desktop background thus, you need to click on the “browse” button and choose an image of choice. Once done choose the appropriate setting and ensure that the image fits right on the screen and click “Ok”.

There are many things that you can do on your computer and customizing your desktop is just one of those. Added to that is the idea of changing even the desktop theme, event sounds, customizing toolbar, display properties, folder options and screensavers which allow images to run when the computer is inactive. All these can be done and organized through the use of modern technology and a user’s creativity.

The concept of spreadsheeting has been around for hundreds of years. The process can be described as the ability to arrange numbers, characters and other objects into rows and columns. It is most common that spreadsheets only contain numbers and text.

The software version of spreadsheeting basically takes the manual processes described above and puts them into an electronic format. Whilst the accounting industry which most commonly uses spreadsheets they can be used in any situation.

The types of industries that use spreadsheets include the science industry, financial services industry, aviation industry, civil and mechanical engineering industry, education, research, science, bio-sciences, marine biology, the list is endless.

Essentially any industry that requires the ability to plan, analyse and model data.

Data is defined in terms of spreadsheets as text, numbers or mathematical formulas. The data is what is used to create the electronic model and the model is then shown on the screen. A model in essence is an electronic version of a real life situation. For example you could model your businesses profitability and then run scenarios based on what money you spent, what money came in and when. You could even investigate whether a cash flow crisis was likely with a particular scenario.

The key advantage of electronic spreadsheets is their ability to have their data modified quickly and the result be provided almost instantaneously. Calculations undertaken using the manual method could have taken hours, months or even years.

Once the data is entered into a spreadsheet it can be used to produce Graphs for documents, reports or even presentations. For example you could enter your data in Microsoft Excel and then create a graph. You could then copy and paste the graph into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

Key Advantages of Excel Spreasheeting

Spreadsheet software has a range of key advantages over traditional manual methods. Listed below is a small list of those advantages:

1. the ability to reuse the data as many times as required

2. the ability to automatically recalculate the spreadsheet

3. the ability to share the data from one application to another

4. the ability to be able to apply different types of font and cell formatting to your spreadsheet

5. the ability to be able to include drawing objects such as photos, lines, Excel art, cartoons, moving text and even video

6. the ability to spell check the whole spreadsheet in one go

7. the ability to add up and apply different formulas to your spreadsheet

8. the ability to carry out What If scenarios in real time

What is Microsoft Excel?

Microsoft Excel is an advanced spreadsheeting software application developed by the Microsoft Corporation in the United States of America.

The first version of the application was originally written for the Apple Macintosh in 1985 but the first PC version wasn’t released until 1987. There are many versions of Microsoft Excel available for the Windows Operating system such as Excel 4.0, 5.0, 95, 2000, XP and 2003. There are also versions available for other operating systems such as the Macintosh operating system and OS2.

Late in 1999 Microsoft released its next version of Microsoft Excel as part of the Office 2000 Suite. In 2002, a new generation version was released called Microsoft Excel XP (also known as Microsoft Excel 2002). Microsoft Excel XP was the first truly Internet enabled application and was specifically designed to work on the Microsoft Windows XP platform and included voice recording functionality.

Finally Microsoft has released its next generation Office Software application called Microsoft Excel 2003 and in 2007, Microsoft built the new generation of interface with Microsoft Excel 2007.

Do you have numerous programs starting when you startup your PC? Do you want to learn how to find what is starting and how to stop them from starting?

The instructions below must be followed exactly as we will be going in to the registry which can be dangerous, so please be careful. Only please continue if you feel comfortable using the registry

I advise to practice using the registry but not deleting anything until you are familar on how it works etc.

The best way to enter the registry is to click `StartÂ’ >> `RunÂ’ >> type `RegeditÂ’ >> Press .

Once the Registry is loaded, click on the `+Â’ next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMICROSOFTWINDOWSCURRENTVERSION. Now click on `RUNÂ’ and you should notice the yellow folder icon should display the folder is open, on the right side of the page you will now see the programs which are started when the PC loads up.

To delete a program from starting.

Please only delete a program from starting up if you are certain you dont need the program from starting

On the right side of the page click on the program entry you want to delete so that it is highlighted and then right-click your mouse and click `deleteÂ’