Steve Liddle's Tech Pages

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Last edited: 18th February 2018

I used to rely on some nice sites for tech info and then find that they have been wiped and / or under construction again and the information sort of lost :(, so the information here will be added to every now and then.

Google Chrome

Initially used firefox all the time, but then found various stability issues several years ago and switched to chrome, using some extensions like:
Adblock Plus
Privacy Badger
Ghostery

Even though this page is hidden from the world by the use of wordpress install, someone found it and offered some warnings on the previous version of this page with bitcoin links, so wiped the link

A site showing free vpns is well worth a look, along with a list of most paid for vpns and their logging policy

The vpn I use is listed and since it seems to be working ok, will carry on using it, but good to have the option

Optimize your PC:

Win XP Remember to do a system restore first, XP needs at least 256 MB of Ram, but 512 MB should be minimum otherwise you can have performance issues.

Error Reporting does nothing useful and is a Microsoft feedback program, so disable it:
Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > System > Advanced > Error Reporting > Disable Error Reporting > OK > OK .

Before playing a big game or application, remove idle tasks by typing in the Run box: 'rundll32.exe advapi32.dll, ProcessIdleTasks' (leave out the speech marks).
This frees up processor time for the game. You will only have to type this once, use the down arrow to reselect the command next time.

Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Add/Remove Window Components > uncheck 'Indexing services' > next. This is a huge resource drain and only needed on networked machines sharing hundreds of files. XP runs scores of 'services', most of which are not needed as above. Start > Run > type 'services.msc' > OK and set the services in the table below to 'manual', not 'automatic' (double click the service name) (windows will now start the service if it really IS needed when a program YOU launch asks for it, and NOT run it at start up just in case...)

Alerter Application Management Background Intelligent Transfer Service ClipBook
COM+ System Application Distributed Link Tracking Client Distributed Transaction Coordinator Error Reporting Service
Fast User Switching Compatibility IPSEC Services Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service MS Software Shadow Copy Provider
Portable Media Serial Number QoS RSVP Remote Desktop Help Session Manager Removable Storage
Smart Card Helper SDP Discovery Service Secondary Logon Smart Card
Task Scheduler Themes Volume Shadow Copy Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Time Wireless Zero Configuration



Background Programs: The windows firewall and can be enabled / disabled as per:-

To configure Internet Connection Firewall manually in Windows XP or Windows XP SP1:
Click Start, click Run, type control.exe netconnections, and then click OK.
Right-click the connection on which you would like to enable ICF, and then click Properties.
On the Advanced tab, click the box to select the option to Protect my computer or network.
If you want to enable the use of some applications and services through the firewall, you must enable them.
To do this, click Settings, and then click to select the programs, protocols, and services that you want to enable for the ICF configuration.

Have tried a few anti virus and now use Eset's Nod32 on the main pc, some free AV on the backup pc and the other boxes are linux mint

Regular scans of at least monthly with an adware and malware detector can clean the hard drive of "added value" programs that some people seem to find installed on their PC from surfing mostly adult sites, again it is free and called Lavasoft Ad-Aware.

Common Ports and what they are used for can be found here.

Some sections taken from the long departed Black Viper, who seems to have saved and uploaded his page and others from Brother Gedeon

Bare in mind this was written when I had XP and now do not even own any XP install media :)

Edited with NVU