From djbbrown at charter.net Tue Sep 2 21:10:20 2008 From: djbbrown at charter.net (DJ Brown]) Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 21:10:20 -0500 Subject: [Windows SIG] Map Your Thumb Drives Consistently in Windows Message-ID: Hello All: Some months ago, I was asked if there was a way to make a removeable drive come up consistently as the same drive letter in WinXP. for the life of me, I can't remember who asked, but I found an answer at Woody's Office Watch. -----Article 659; 2008-07-28----- Make a consistent drive letter or path to a removable drive Here's how to make consistent paths from Microsoft Office to documents on removable media. * http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?articleid=659&zoneid=12&pagi nate=false ----- ----- The fix uses an older Windows-level service that's not often used to link a "named" device to a folder ypu create on an existing NTFS partition. The bad news is that your removeable drive DOES NOT get its own drive letter. The good news is that it DOES get a consistent place, an assigned folder, in an existing NTFS drive (e.g.: C:\ExternalDrive\MyMemoryStick...). Loyd will have my shirt for recommending the use of an NTFS drive but this is one time when it's OK. In fact, it's one of the advantages of using the NTFS drive format and it works even if your thumb drive is formatted as FAT32. What happens is that Windows treats the thumb drive as an extension of the NTFS partition to which it's "assigned" or mapped. DJ Brown ___________________________________________ Code & Data: Computer Service & Support Consulting . Training . Excel Development (512) 458-3079 (Voice/Fax) DJBBrown at GMail.com P.O. Box 302287 Austin, Texas 78703-2287 ___________________________________________ From djbbrown at charter.net Sat Sep 13 18:52:20 2008 From: djbbrown at charter.net (DJ Brown) Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:52:20 -0500 Subject: [Windows SIG] What's With this Prefetch Feature? Message-ID: <1221349940.7709.45.camel@Patru> I just got asked a really interesting question: <> My answer? There's no need to change anything with Prefetch. This feature is already optimized to improve performance. WinXP *already* uses the optimal setting (3) as its default, so there's no reason to change it in the registry. What's it do? Prefetch logs all the files that get loaded at bootup and during the first minute after boot. Then it records the filenames in the Prefetch folder. Since Windows XP controls the process and limits the list to the 128 most frequently loaded files, there's never a reason to delete the contents of the prefetch folder. Why does it work? Using Prefetch, WinXP will load these "most often used at startup" files into the hard drive (HD) cache as the computer starts up. Since the files are preloaded in the HD cache, they will be loaded onto RAM that much faster during the boot process. This allows it to (1) boot faster and (2) start the applications you most often start within that first minute of operation. After that first minute of operation, Prefetch has NO EFFECT on your system operation. I've listed several web pages that address Prefetch from different points of view. There is also a really good article that debunks a number of Windows XP myths. I reviewed it in detail and agree with all of it. (And I was surprised to find that Comcast maintains it. The company has earned itself a pretty bad rep lately so it's good to see something like this) References: http://www.internetfixes.com/readers_questions/IF01933.htm http://www.askstudent.com/tips/how-to-make-windows-xp-boot-faster/ http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2495.html http://home.comcast.net/~SupportCD/XPMyths.html Search Reference: Google: "windows XP" prefetch parameters Hope this helps, DJ Brown From POBox-LWD-Austin at pobox.com Thu Sep 18 15:34:58 2008 From: POBox-LWD-Austin at pobox.com (Loyd W. Dreher) Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:34:58 -0500 Subject: [Windows SIG] Windows SIG Message-ID: <20080918203517.USQK1820.hrndva-omta02.mail.rr.com@SYSTEMAX-64.pobox.com> To: Windows SIG List Contrary to what the Windows SIG web page indicates,the Windows SIG will meet at the Old Quarry library for the remainder of 2008. All SIGs have had their reservations extended to the end of the year. Windows SIG When: 3rd Thursday, 6:30PM Where: Old Quarry Library (map) 7051 Village Center Dr. Austin, TX 78731 (Adjacent to HEB off Far West Blvd) SIG Leader: Loyd Dreher, 512-342-2305, Assistant SIG leader: DJ Brown, 512-458-3079 Les Carlton is available via telephone (512-345-8691) to answer questions about Vista. The SIGs purpose is to assist you on how to use Windows. The SIG leader can cover topics including the many Microsoft windowed operating systems. Win 95, Win 98, Win 2000, Win XP, Win Vista, and X11 windows systems, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, and MAC OS-10. Bring your questions with you for answers at the meeting. Also, make lists of topics you would like to be covered and and give them to me so I can organize future topics. This is your SIG and I want to respond to your needs. Loyd W. Dreher -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: multipart/alternative Size: 0 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.theccwizards.com/pipermail/windows/attachments/20080918/d23f8052/attachment.bin -------------- next part -------------- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.169 / Virus Database: 270.6.21/1676 - Release Date: 9/17/2008 9:33 AM