How to use a computer according to Isamu

"Too many features"

2011-02-15T13:33:00Z

As a techy, minute details astound me even though everyone else is just after the big picture. After giving it much thought, I have decided to reformat the way I blog about technology, also while packaging thoughts into a more naturally understood way.

How to keep track of your machine’s temperature on Windows 7

2010-09-05T06:13:25Z

As a mobile gamer, I always make sure that my laptop’s running temperature is always in check. Windows doesn’t have built-in monitors so I use a free app called Speedfan. In this post I’ll be showing you how you can configure Speedfan to start automatically minimized in the Windows system tray for convenient monitoring. We’ll be using Task Manager, a Windows feature which allows you to create and manage automated ruled based tasks.

Get Speedfan here: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

Configuring Speedfan

Speedfan is a nifty little tool which does a good job at measuring temperature and setting machine fans accordingly as the heat goes up. Note that your machine should support programmatic control of fans to use that particular feature.

To configure Speedfan to start minimized in the system tray whenever launched:

1. Run Speedfan as an Administrator (Right-click on the Speedfan shortcut) – Speedfan needs elevated privileges to run on Windows 7.

2. Click on Configure, it should take you to the Temperatures tab. Set your Desired and Warning temperatures so Speedfan may adjust fan control favoring these values. As you may only have one temperature value displayed in the system tray, I chose to show my GPU’s temperature as I’ve noticed it’s always the highest in the list.

3. In the Options tab you may set the appearance of the tray icon. I’ve set it to a transparent background with a large white text. Make sure to check start minimized and Minimize on close.

4. Click Ok to save changes. Whenever you close Speedfan now it should minimize to the system tray.

Using Task Scheduler rules to automatically run Speedfan on startup

You might be wondering why you couldn’t just run Speedfan automatically by copying its shortcut to the Startup folder in the Start Menu. This usually works with other programs but since Speedfan needs elevated rights to run properly, we have to make use of Task Scheduler rules as an alternative.

1. You can access the Task Scheduler through these methods:

a. Control Panel –> Administrative Tools –> Task Scheduler

b. Start Menu –> type in Task Scheduler

c. Start Menu –> type in taskschd.msc

2. Click on Create Basic Task. A Basic Task is simply a task created with the help of a wizard.

3. In the Name textbox, type in a distinguishable name for this task. You may leave the description blank. Click Next.

3. Tick When I log on. You may choose to run it in a “service” like mode by setting it to run when the computer starts. Not much use in doing so in most cases. Click Next.

4. Tick Start a program and click next.

5. Click Browse and specify the location of speedfan.exe. By default it is installed in Program Files/Speedfan (Program Files (x86) if you’re running a 64-bit version of Windows).

6. Verify the information in the summary. It should look similar to this:

7. Make sure to check Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish. Click Finish.

8. In the General tab, click on Run with highest privileges. This sets the task to always run with elevated rights. Click on the Conditions tab.

9. Under the Power category, uncheck Start the task only if the computer is on AC power. This ensures that Speedfan isn’t closed whenever a laptop computer is unplugged or a desktop switches to UPS power. As Speedfan isn’t resource intensive, it should be alright to leave it on. Click the Settings tab.

10. Check Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed. Uncheck Stop the task if it runs longer than:. I tend to leave some of my computers on for really long and its important that Speedfan is running even then.

Speedfan should now run at every logon minimized in your system tray.

Notes

If your GPU doesn’t show up in the Temperatures tab of Speedfan, your installed drivers may not support software monitoring. Try updating to the latest manufacturer drivers.
It’s a good idea to arrange the Speedfan system tray icon to display last or first for convenient glancing.
To close Speedfan in the system tray, right-click and select Exit. If you occasionally do and need to run it on demand, set the Speedfan shortcut to automatically run on Administrator by going into Properties –> Compatibility –> check Run this program as an administrator.

Discussion: How conscious are you about security?

2010-09-01T02:53:00Z

I've noticed that consumer-centric security topics are trending lately among discussion boards:

Running serveral anti-viruses:

This seems like a logical step-up in preventing virus risks if put in analogy that two security guards patrolling are better than one. In reality though, anti-virus protection doesn't marginally improve by the quantity but rather the quality of the service running, therefore citing the law of diminishing values in this practice. You're really better off with one; while running two scanners may give you a little more protection, one has to consider that it also may be eating more resources than its worth. Good anti-viruses have frequent virus definition updates which counts more than the actual scanner; how else is it to enforce prevention when it doesn't know what the latest threats are?

Windows Firewall does not support outbound filtering:

Yes, yes it does. Before I go into that, firewalls filter data two ways: inbound data is any foreign data coming into your computer and outbound is then the outward flow of data. By default, the Windows Firewall is set to prompt the user to allow program access to the internet although other programs may still access the internet left unprompted. Therefore you can say that it's semi-on by default, if you require a total lockdown of your computer: you may completely turn outbound filtering on by invoking wf.msc from the Start Menu and going to Action -> Properties and setting Outbound connections to Block. This actually increases security by several notches as some viruses and trojans tend to 'call home' further compromising you as private information might be sent out. It also brings about a hassle that from now you will not be prompted whenever a program needs to access the internet in which case you need to create separate firewall rules for each application.

Some third-party firewalls have outbound filter on by default and prompting for access but I'm content using Windows Firewall... in fact, ever since Service Pack 2 of Windows XP came out with the improved firewall, I never used any other firewall since.

Windows Defender is not enough:

I can partly agree with this, I personally use another free on-demand spyware scanner Spybot - Search & Destroy to complement Windows Defender. I won't get into a comparison on which of the two is better, but I particularly like the feature of Spybot called Immunization. Immunization blocks you from accessing a populated list of computers/hosts that Spybot maintains through updates. In these list are known phishing websites and reported compromised hosts with malicious intent. While in the years of use I've never stumbled into any of these sites myself (there are thousands) but its nice to know that I never will. Spybot also includes a small program called TeaTimer that monitors changes made to the Windows Registry. I don't understand who TeaTimer caters to though, considering that well off techies would often know what changes should be committed to the registry and wouldn't need intervention and non-techies might end up making wrong approvals and rejections causing more havoc. I don't use it myself.

How paranoid are you about computer security?

Two free apps that you should be using by now

2010-08-24T02:09:00Z

Here are two free apps that are incredibly useful:

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a itsy bitsy program that does big things. It clears out unnecessary junk that eventually piles up in your Windows installation whether it's application cache/history or stuff Windows leaves behind

A neat feature is that it rids you of unused registry entries, not like it's going to change much, but useful if you want to entirely purge application leftovers for clean reinstalls.

Tidbit 'tool' features include:

Startup information, giving you a list of programs that run automatically of which you can disable.
Windows XP users should take a look at the uninstall utility of CCleaner as it's a lot faster than the built-in Add/Remove Programs control panel item which takes forever to populate as you install more and more applications.
The system resotre utility allows you to remove specific restore points; saving you a lot of diskspace as you remove irrelevant points. I recommend that you delete restore points wherein you had a virus at the time. This is to prevent you from restoring data along with the virus.

Oh yes, lastly, you don't need it in your startmenu once installed i.e. just run it from the Recycle Bin.

Get CCleaner at http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner.

TeraCopy will make copying files a breeze. It just will. I don't even need to write about it, here's an excerpt from its site:

Copy files faster. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.

Pause and resume file transfers. Pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.

Error recovery. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skip the file, not terminating the entire transfer.

Interactive file list. TeraCopy shows failed file transfers and lets you fix the problem and recopy only problem files.

Shell integration. TeraCopy can completely replace Explorer copy and move functions, allowing you work with files as usual.

Full Unicode support.

Windows 7 x64 support.

Teracopy integrates and replaces the built-in Windows copy/cut/paste utility. It shows you detailed read-write speed which is handy for making media benchmarks. Queueing is particularly useful as the default Windows utility will start new transfer regardless if an operation is currently running which just slows everything down.

Get it now at http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php. There's TeraCopy Pro which gives some more features but you won't really need it not unless you're always moving around tons of specific files.