If XP is installed in the Clinic, I usually suggest that the activation of XP be delayed by about two weeks to allow the "settling-in" of the install and to allow for a reload if things go poorly.
In the case of Vista, there is a 30-day feature that Microsoft calls a hack, that will induce an initial 30-day delay. That delay can be induced for up to 360 days. Read on about how this is accomplished by utilizing SkipRearm.
From a Livingston letter:
SkipRearm - and run Windows Vista without activation for at least a year (or until Microsoft pulls the plug on the feature).
It seems that Microsoft has been sloppy again and built a way into Windows Vista that allows activation to be postponed for at least a year.
By changing the SkipRearm key's value from the default "0" to "1," said consumer advocate Brian Livingston, the earlier-revealed "slmgr -rearm" command can be used over and over.
Brian Livingston calls this a documented feature, but Microsoft calls it a hack.
It's also only present in Ultimate, Business and Enterprise:
In tests with several editions of Vista purchased at different times, Livingston found that copies of Vista Ultimate and Vista Home Premium obtained at the end of January would accept the SkipRearm change only eight times. Together with the three postponements made possible with slmgr -rearm and the opening 30-day grace period, that would give users nearly a year (360 days) of activation-free use. A copy of Vista Home Basic bought March 14, however, ignored the SkipRearm registry change.
"Microsoft has slipstreamed something into Home Basic and Home Premium," Livingston said. "But from my reading of the support documents, Microsoft needs to keep this feature in its business editions, Vista Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. It seems that Microsoft is sympathetic to enterprises' difficulty in rolling out Vista within the activation deadlines."
Bottom line is that it doesn't matter. Microsoft holds the upper-hand. It's trivial to push a WGA update along the Windows Update pipe that spots systems that make use of this and, well, slam on the brakes.
In the meantime, here's how to use this hack:
1. First off, use the slmgr -rearm method. When you have a day or so left to activate, click on the Start button and type cmd in the Search bar. Make sure to hit Ctrl + Alt + Enter to start Command Prompt with Administrative privileges.
2. Then type slmgr -rearm and hit Enter. After a few seconds you will be prompted to restart your computer. After doing this you have reset the activation timer to 30 days. This will only work three times, giving you 120 days.
Here's how to make use of this new hack.
1. Open the registry editor by clicking the Start button and typing regedit in the Search bar.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL
3. Right click SkipRearm and select Modify and change the value to 1. Click OK and close Registry Editor.
4. Click on the Start button again and type cmd in the Search bar to access the command Prompt. Again make sure to hit Ctrl + Alt + Enter to start Command Prompt with Administrative privileges.
5. Once in Command Prompt, type slmgr -rearm. Now you can use this eight more times, giving you a total of 360 days of free Vista usage.
[Editor's Note: For more info about delaying registration of Microsoft Vista, see Brian Livingston's article at http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070315/#story1. For other articles by Brian Livingston, go to /. - jb]
Jim Porter gave a very interesting history of the hard drive, starting with his experience with the first commercial hard drive, up to his prognistication for the future of the hard drive and storage.
Dear Computer Club Member:
There are a number or recent perfectly-good legitimate patches that also have some side-effects you need to watch out for:
I read this as Microsoft taking a more pro active stance over its software and the failure of lots of users to do even any updating at all. Microsoft does have a problem with the under-educated, non-computer club members essentially doing nothing to protect and control their computers and environment - thus the zombies all over the place.
So be advised, check and act accordingly to set things back to your needs and liking.
What is especially irritating to me is that a perfectly healthy, working computer may have part of its networking clobbered or some other such thing, making just that much more work to find and clean up. The end result is necessary and better, it is just a continuous hassle.
I would like to record some KGO radio programs. They archive their programs for 24 hours so I would usually record from the archive rather than when the program is live. They do not have an easy way for listeners to do this yet. Is there some way I can record this and then make a CD of it? I want to be able to listen to the CD in my car.
Take a look at "radioSHARK2" www.griffintechnology.com/products/radioshark2/, $50 at this website. I have an earlier version of "radioSHARK", not version 2. Mine was purchased at Radio Shack several years ago. It was a gift to me.
It is like Tivo for radio. It is a radio, without speakers or tuning knobs, that plugs into a USB port. Mine takes the signal off the air only, not off the Internet. "radioShark2" can take the signal off the Internet also. You tune FM or AM stations by software and listen through your computer speakers. It records as you listen so that you can pause and restart like Tivo. You can schedule it to record future programs. The program is stored in a .WMA file. I assume this file can be burned to a CD, but I have never done it.
I like to listen to Prairie Home Companion on Saturday night. Often we are out. So I record it with my "radioSHARK" and listen later.
I saw Bill Young's reply about RadioShark2. I have previously heard good things about it and it is available at discount from Amazon.com It's a good solution if want to listen and record live, or set it up like a DVR (i.e. Digital Video Recorder, like Tivo) to record in the future when you are not around.
BUT if all you want is something from KGO played in the last 24 hours, you don't need it.
I went to the Archives section of KGO. They have two versions of their archive files available for each hour of the last 24, Windows Media Player (.ASX) and Real Player (.RAM).
RIGHT click on the archive time slot you want under one of the 2 formats and chose "Save Link As...". This will allow you to save the archive file to your computer. I think the Windows Media (.ASX) file is the preferable one.If you open the file with Notepad or any other text editor, you will see that it is just a link to a website. e.g.
<asx version = "3.0">
<entry>
<ref href="http://abcrad.vo.llnwd.net/o1/kgo/kgo-01.mp3"/>
</entry>
</asx>
That's the whole .ASX file. It's a "playlist" for Windows Media Player which will then go back up to the internet and download and play the streaming .MP3 file.
The .ASX file can't be played on a CD player and the actual .MP3 audio file will be replaced in the next 24 hour cycle. It's the .MP3 file you want to burn to a CD so you can play it on your regular audio CD player, or for that matter, on an iPod. Unfortunately, Windows Media Player does not give you any way to save the streaming file to disk or burn it to CD. I found three ways to do this, and I think Method C is the best.
Method A.
Method B
I did a search for an audio file converter for .ASX to .MP3. Unfortunately, Audacity, which is on the SPAUG CD and is a good FREE program, does not handle this format. I found a little program called ASX to MP3 Converter. It is a 30 day evaluation and will not convert more than 30 minutes at a time. But you can still test it before you decide to buy it. If you google ASX to MP3 Converter download you'll get lots of hits.
Method C.
Here is what I think is a much better answer. A FREE program called Screamer Radio. Much easier to use and it can record both archives and live radio once you find the proper internet links. I have proposed that the Club CD include the new beta version 0.3.9. I had a problem with the last stable version, but this one seems to work just fine.
You don't even have to install it. Just unzip the file to a folder on your hard drive, open the folder and double click on the screamer.exe icon. Let it download the presets, which will give you a whole list of radio stations around the world to listen to.
To listen to a KGO archive,
To listen to KGO live,
Ron writes, I am inquiring about the usage of GRC's Spinrite program effectiveness in retrieving data from a crashed hard drive before I recommend the sad PC owner to purchase it ($90 is kinda steep). Rumors and the website propaganda claim Spinrite can retrieve data at a lower level than WIN XP can. The crashed HD did have data on it, OF COURSE NOT BACKED UP. During the Microsoft update process, the HD locked up...rebooting showed the Hard Drive, but NO data. Copying some boot up files onto the Hard Drive read those newly copied files but none others. Someone along the way suggested that Spinrite would be able to reconstruct/read the file structure or retrieve the data or something...so, anyone have experience using it?
Of course the real data retrieval can be done by a professional data retrieval house - like DriveSavers Data Recovery at a cost of some serious money.
Bruce Benz replies, Spinrite 6.0 ( I bought a copy of it myself ) is more of a hardware-oriented program. It is designed to diagnose and check out the hardware aspects of a hard drive.
That is, it can relocate data off of a marginal block and lock out the marginal block, and thoroughly test all *HARDWARE* aspects of a hard drive, but it is not designed to rebuild the file data structures.
From your description, it sounds like the update has destroyed the file table data structures. The following assumes you had NTFS file systems on your suspect hard drive:
My plan of action would be:
0. Power down and pull the power plug.
1. Pull out and set the damaged hard drive aside for now.
2. put in a temporary Hard drive. (Power up the system.)
3. Format and install minimal XP system on this new hard drive. (Shut down and power off the machine.)
4. Set the old hard drive to *SLAVE* (patch jumper settings -- see manual for your particular hard drive.)
5. Install the old hard drive as a *SECONDARY* hard drive.
6. Boot the hard drive into the new XP system.
7. Run chkdsk X: /f from the Start -> Run box (where X stands for where the secondary hard drive is located in your temporary system )
8. The system may ask you to reboot to run. That's OK and probably best.
9. After it finishes (assuming chkdsk ran from reboot), it will reboot and then come up in the temporary OS once again.
10. You can then use explorer to search your old hard drive and copy off the recovered data files -- do not copy anything from the X:\Windows directory or the X:\Program files directory.
11. You will then have to rebuild by installing all your applications onto the new hard drive. That will be a 4-8 hour job. No way around that.
12. Note: YMMV (Your mileage may vary on the success of this process).
This is the best you can hope for. I hope it helps you.
From Windows Secrets Newsletter . Issue 101 . 2007-03-22 by Fred Langa, he links to a series of four articles he wrote that go through a whole range of proven techniques for resurrecting a dead hard drive:
• Dead Drive Fix
• Hard Drive Repair Options (Part One)
• Hard Drive Repair Options (Part Two)
• More Dead Drive Fixes
Finally, he links to a gem: 200 ways to revive a hard drive. It's from TechRepublic, and you have to register (free) to download it. But between that and the four items mentioned above, you'll be well-equipped to handle just about any hard-drive problem you may encounter!"
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to the Windows Secrets Newsletter by visiting their
free signup page
On February 7, 2007, Acronis, Inc. announced that it will "fully support Microsoft's latest operating system, Vista, with its products for desktop operating systems". This statement of intent has already been accomplished for two of their most popular products for home users — Acronis True Image 10.0 Home and Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. This article will show you how to obtain these Vista supporting utilities.
Acronis True Image 10.0 Home: This is the top rated backup utility on the market today. It helps you backup your important data files as well as your entire computer — operating system, application programs, and all. Used regularly it will protect your important files from hard drive crashes and other system problems. Acronis True Image 10.0 Home edition was released three months prior to the release of Vista, with full support of Vista included in the product. Earlier this month, Acronis made available build 4942 of True Image to correct any problems with their new release. You should install this new build to give you the latest True Image software.
Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0: This is an outstanding partitioning utility to help you organize and manage your computer's hard drive. Using this utility, you can have both Windows XP and Vista running on the same computer. This is a much safer way to start to use Vista rather than instantly replacing your stable XP system with Vista. Earlier this month, Acronis made available build 2160 of Disk Director Suite to provide full support of Vista in this excellent partitioning utility.
So, how does this announcement affect you? There are three options to consider as follows:
Not a User of Acronis Utilities: If you do not already use one or both of these excellent Acronis products, now is the perfect time to get them. We are offering both of these products that normally list for $50 each at our user group discount price of just $29 each. That price includes a special tutorial with each product to help you start to use them quickly and safely. To order either or both of these Acronis products, go to www.usergroupstore.com and place your order using our secure online ordering system. The order code for this special price is UGNL0307.
Use Older Acronis Utilities: If you already have one or both of these Acronis products, but are still using an older version (prior to version 10.0), you should get the latest release (version 10.0) to be ready for Windows Vista in the future. Our user group discount prices for these products is lower than the upgrade price from Acronis, so order a new license of the product from us at a great discount price and get the tutorials as a bonus. To do this, follow the ordering instructions in the prior paragraph.
Use Version 10 Acronis Utilities: If you already use version 10 of these Acronis products, then it is important that you download the new builds for these products to get the full benefits of your software. The process to download these new builds is quick and easy to accomplish. There is no charge for these updates as long as you are a current owner of version 10 of these products. For those that we promised a free update of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 with Vista support, this is what you need to do. Follow the instructions below to download these new builds and install them on your computer.
Downloading New Builds from Acronis: To download the new builds from Acronis is quick and easy to do. There are three steps to accomplish this. First, you must set up an account on the Acronis web site. Next, you must register the Acronis products you use in your account. Finally, you can download the latest builds of your registered products from your Acronis account. I describe these three steps in detail at www.ugr.com/questions.html. Print out these instructions and follow them carefully and you will have your new builds installed quickly.
I hope this information helps you take advantage of the Vista support in Acronis True Image 10.0 Home and Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0. Download and install these new builds and your Acronis software will be ready for Windows Vista when you are.
Gene Barlow, User Group Relations
PO Box 911600
St George, UT 84791-1600
This is one of a series of monthly technical articles that I distribute to those that have subscribed to this newsletter. You can subscribe at www.ugr.com/newsletters.html. Watch for them and learn more about your computer and its hard drive. User group newsletter editors may print this article in their monthly newsletter as long as the article is printed in its entirety and not cut or edited. Please send me a copy of the newsletter containing the article so that I can see what groups are running the articles.
I had some computer problems the other day related to a program (Irfanview) I installed. I had volunteered to test programs for the club CD, and this was one of them. The program interfered with Google Desktop software and was causing some errors. During removal of Google Desktop software, the computer crashed and when I rebooted, Windows only came up to a blank Desktop (with background image) but no icons, start button or tool bar. I tried different things first to get machine started, but to no avail. I then used Acronis to restore from a 3 month old backup made right before Christmas on a Western Digital 500 GB Hard Drive I got for Christmas. All the data was fine and on the second hard drive in the machine and on an External Hard Drive. I originally had two hard drives installed when I got computer 4 years ago. In under 2 hours, I was back in business, and all I had to do after that was install subsequent Windows and Virus updates and various little things. I then made new backup as well, and I can see why Jim Dinkey bugs us to create a backup. I can't be without Acronis now, after this, and realizing I would not want to spend hours reinstalling everything from scratch, if a backup restoration only takes a couple of hours or less. It is amazing how many consumers think it won't happen to them, and then realize they should have made a backup only when it's too late.