Recently I got a new 'Sony VAIO W series' laptop as a gift from my Dad. It was looking very cute, just 10 inch screen. I was not happy only with two things. First - It don't have DVD Drive and Second - Still it is coming with Windows XP second edition (No Vista or Windows 7).
Anyway, lets come on to the topic. After 3-4 days, one virus attacked on my lappy and suddenly it stopped showing all the hidden files. Now what to do? I know that almost all the anti-virus program can remove this virus, but I don't have net connection and I am unable to update my antivirus program. Now whatever I have to do, I have to do it without antivirus program.
Solution I -
The first solution came in my mind was, restore my laptop with some days back.
Step(s) : Start -> My Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore. And restore on the your selected date.
Solution II -
Since I knew that it is the perfect solution, so I was started some other solution for those people who don't know the exact date when their machine got virus affected. So I started playing with windows registry and got one new solution for this problem.
Step(s) :
Warning !!
You should take a back up of your current settings. You can make a restore point in system restore, or just open the registry and export the whole thing, or export some selected keys.
How to take back up of all registry entries : Start -> Run -> (type) regedit -> (rightclick on the little my computer icon, and export the whole thing.)
Go to Start -> Run -> regedit and Find this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. Go to the rightside of the window, where the values are. Find the value "Hidden" . Rightclick it and modify it to 1(if it is 0 means you can see hidden files, it is 1 means you are hidding your hidden files and if it is any other number means it is affetced by Virus).
This next text is from my own registry. Copy it to notepad, then rename the notepad file, so it have the extension .reg ,and then doubleclick it.:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden]
"Text"="@shell32.dll,-30499"
"Type"="group"
"Bitmap"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\
00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,53,00,\
48,00,45,00,4c,00,4c,00,33,00,32,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,2c,00,34,00,00,\
00
"HelpID"="shell.hlp#51131"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\NOHIDDEN]
"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced"
"Text"="@shell32.dll,-30501"
"Type"="radio"
"CheckedValue"=dword:00000002
"ValueName"="Hidden"
"DefaultValue"=dword:00000002
"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001
"HelpID"="shell.hlp#51104"
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL]
"RegPath"="Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced"
"Text"="@shell32.dll,-30500"
"Type"="radio"
"CheckedValue"=dword:00000001
"ValueName"="Hidden"
"DefaultValue"=dword:00000002
"HKeyRoot"=dword:80000001
"HelpID"="shell.hlp#51105"
That's all Folks!!! :)
DEADBEEF is a hexadecimal value that was used in debugging back in the mainframe/assembly days because it was easy to see when marking and finding specific memory in pages of hex dumps. Most computer science graduates have seen this at least in their assembly language classes in college and that's why interviewers expect software engineers to know it.
From Wikipedia : "0xDEADBEEF ("dead beef") is used by IBM RS/6000 systems, Mac OS on 32-bit PowerPC processors and the Commodore Amiga as a magic debug value. On Sun Microsystems' Solaris, it marks freed kernel memory. On OpenVMS running on Alpha processors, DEAD_BEEF can be seen by pressing CTRL-T.[3]"
A BAD BABE is also a Hexadecimal Number(ABADBABE) which is used by Apple as the "Boot Zero Block" magic number.
Please check this wiki link also.
How to ride my own mind? A do and die situation for both of us at times. A never ending WAR between the Devil mind Vatsal and the Angel heart Vatsal. I am on an eternal spree of this illusion hunt, People call it my 'fool's paradise', i call them DREAMS. Dreams i see with open eyes, Dreams i hope against the hopen will become the bottomline of my character one fine day. And then this war will have its culmination and a part of me will become a legend, a hero and another a never to be forgotten martyr. Finally i will have my reason to LIVE, not to be mere ALIVE.
Windows 7 officially ships on Thursday, which means end users and administrators running Windows XP (and to a lesser extent, Windows Vista) have some interesting decisions to make.
Test of Windows 7
To help you make those tough choices, here are 10 things you need to know, based on our hands-on testing of Windows 7.
1. Windows 7 is faster.
Win 7 performance is better than Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP2, but only if you run 64-bit Win 7. One potential gotcha: Much of the performance gains are reliant on having up-to-date 64-bit hardware drivers and components. That may mean buying new hardware, as older hardware may not have the necessary components and updated drivers.
2. Buy Microsoft's Desktop Option Pack.
It's only $10 a seat, and well worth it. MDOP contains important components, such as Microsoft's Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT), which helps users and support personnel deal with catastrophic machine failures. There's also Advanced Group Policy Management, which allows for active and "pushed" policies to users and groups. This feature can prevent damage from zero-day failures and fine-tunes policies for system admins. And there's Asset Inventory Service, which tallies software inventories for both compliance and provisioning purposes. Other MDOP components address application and desktop virtualization.
3. Win 7 offers a clean start
There's a school of thought that says, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." In other words, why not stick with good old XP? Our answer is that where Windows on the desktop is needed, Win 7 is the way to go. Win 7 has the inherent architectural changes that secured XP, but it also doesn't have the estimated 1,300 patches (including Microsoft Office patches) that XP SP3 has. The user interface has improved dramatically with Win 7, we found that it's Microsoft's best behaving operating system since Windows 2000, and migrating to a fresh environment rids machines of the clutter that has built up over the years.
4. Upgrading from XP on the same hardware will be tricky
If you're considering upgrading from XP to Win 7 on the same machine, Microsoft doesn't directly support this, and recommends that a fresh installation be made on new hardware. Any attempt to upgrade will move the directory structure known as Documents and Settings into the new, Unix-like 'user' directory structure, and registry settings for Win 7 will break many applications.
Many applications will need post-Win 7 upgrade adjustments, or even re-installation. Win 7 also needs at least 5GB of extra space to perform an in-place upgrade from XP temporarily.
Of course, it is possible to upgrade. We tried it and found that upgrading a single machine from XP could take up to two hours.
5. Consider Windows Upgrade Advisor
Microsoft is offering a beta free download of an upgrade tester called the Windows Upgrade Advisor. It's good but not infallible, we found, especially when upgrading from XP 64-bit editions. Because it's beta, some of its foibles may be fixed by the time it's offered as a production app.
It's installed, examines a machine, and annotates a list of what will and won't work in an upgrade from XP and Vista editions. (However, Microsoft makes clear on its Web site that Upgrade Advisor is recommended only for Vista users and that XP users should buy new hardware.)
6. Another option: Third-party upgrade tools
Third-party tools like Laplink Software's PC-Mover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant allow you to upgrade from XP to Win 7 on the same hardware. But, of course, the Laplink software isn't free, so that's an additional expense and an additional complication that you would be adding to the equation.
7. Check for hardware compatibility
Fresh Win 7 installations on new hardware will likely be successful if the hardware has Vista support, as most Vista drivers can be used successfully in lieu of Win 7 drivers, and drivers are the biggest portion of compatibility -- unless running XP is desired.
Remember that a 64-bit installation is what we recommend, and the drivers need to be 64-bit to gain best performance.
A trip to a hardware vendor's Web site to explore it for specific machine drivers is worth the effort. Some vendors, such as HP, have Win 7-specific information on compatibility, while others have promised Win 7-specific drivers — especially for 64-bit kernel use.
8. User Access Controls are much improved
Underneath the surface of Win 7 is a reformed kernel that's similar to Vista's in construction. Userspace is now separate from kernel space in strong ways, a policy that shocked and rocked the world at the advent of Windows XP SP2, and was then manically manifested in Vista's User Access Controls (UAC).
The UAC was designed to isolate bad behavior from viruses/malware from the basic components of the system and apps running above userspace. This isolation alone stopped many forms of badware. This same protection can be found in Win 7, but it won't drive you as ballistic as the constant nervous messaging to the user found in Windows Vista. By comparison, it's calm and its UAC messaging can be largely disabled.
9. Virtualization allows XP on Win 7
If you buy Windows 7 64-bit Professional version and higher, then XP can be run on Win 7 in a virtual machine. That's if you have a V/VT-compatible CPU in your machine and you remember to add additional memory (a gigabyte will often do) for running an XP session. XP must still be secured separately in this configuration as though it were 'stand-alone'.
10. Go for 64-bit
We can find no reason to recommend running Win 7 on existing 32-bit hardware as the 32-bit version of Win 7 has little performance advantage over Vista or XP in our comparative tests. The 64-bit version, however, can be much faster. Inspired by www.networkworld.com
