MagpieRSS is a very popular script that provides an XML-based (expat) RSS parser in PHP. However, it doesn’t support attribute access by default. The good news is that the developers at MagpieRSS have been working on a patch release to support uniform access to attributes. In fact MagpieRSS 0.8 was released briefly as a DEV build. However, I am unable to find any working link to download the build.

MagpieRSS works well for existing RSS feeds. However, when dealing with Podcast feeds, it’s unable to look up attribute values in the enclosure tag.

<enclosure url="http://www.myfavdeals.com/images/Product.jpg" length="325" type="jpg" />

Thanks to Jude Venn and Mike Krus, they have provided a patch to access the attribute values. Here is how:

1. Download the patched version of rss_parse.inc.
2. Replace the current rss_parse.inc with the downloaded patch. (the file is located in magpierss directory)
3. Access attributes in your script as follows

echo $item[’enclosure’][0][’url’]; echo $item[’enclosure’][0][’length’]; echo $item[’enclosure’][0][’type’];

Posted in Blogging, PHP | 2 Comments | 2 Comments »

A hard disk drive also known as hard drive or hard disk is a non-volatile storage device, which has the facility to stock up digitally encoded data on rapidly rotating platters and magnetic surfaces. Its design consists of a spindle which can hold one or more flat circular disks known as platters, onto which the data is recorded. It has the ability to store data more than floppy disk drives and can also access and transmit data at faster pace.

Today, the boost in disk space and access speeds of hard disk drive have further facilitated the marketable viability of clients products that need great storage capacities, like digital audio players and video recorders. However, the main problem that we are coming across is erasing data or files from hard disk permanently. Most of us think that erasing files and emptying the Recycle Bin will help in permanently get rid of those files. In fact, in most of the cases Recycle Bin tells that emptying the Recycle Bin will permanently remove items. But this statement is totally incorrect.

You have to understand even after emptying the Recycle Bin, the files can be easily recovered by data recovery programs. Making the best use of delete key on actually removes the shortcuts to the files and makes them undetectable to users. Deleted files still reside on the hard drive and a rapid Google search will automatically show options for system recovery software will further allow to restore that data. Apart from erasing the files or data from hard drive, many people also consider that the effective way to erase hard drive data is by formatting the hard drive.

Though formatting the hard drive is somewhat secure than just erasing the files, but you should also note that formatting a disk does erase only the address tables. It makes it much more difficult to recover the files. However a computer specialist would be able to recover most or all the data that was on the disk before the reformat. Disk Wiping is the next new technique that is gaining its popularity these days. Disk wiping is a new secure method and ensure that data, including individually licensed softwares on your computer and storage devices is irrecoverably deleted before recycling.

Disk wiping is better method in comparison to erasing files or formatting the hard drive, because this method basically overwrites your entire hard drive with data, several times and once you format your hard drive, you may find it impossible to get back the data which was present on the drive before the overwrite. Though disk wiping algorithms vary from product to product, they usually write the entire disk with a number (zero or one) and then a reformat is required.

Today, there are many products available in the market that you can purchase or download to perform secure disk wipes. Moreover, the three free programs that are gaining recognition for erasing data from your hard drive are:

(1) Darik’s Boot and Nuke: This is an application that you can install on a bootable floppy or CD Rom. Boot and Nuke uses several methods to wipe the data on your drive to an unrecoverable state. With the facility to delete the contents of any hard disk that it detects, makes this application a suitable utility for urgent situation data destruction.

(2) Eraser: This is next famous software and does a great work of cleaning your hard drive by removing all magnetic and solid state memory. It is an advanced security tool, which further allows you to entirely remove sensitive data by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns.

(3) KillDisk Free Edition: This software supports a variety of wipping options using advanced algorythms that pass NSA standards. There are both windows and dos versions available.

Now once one of these procedures is completed the drive is ready to be given away without fear of privacy invasion or fraud. These tools provide full confidence about your deleted sensitive personal information that is unrecoverable. In addition to this it also provide easy to comprehend and secure and affable graphical user interface GUI for permanent data removal.

Finally if you are still uncertain or want to ensure that deleted files are permanently gone, employ a file deletion management system. Today there are many file deletion programs designed to spot and permanently purge your computer of previously deleted files. These solutions initially scan a computer, find traces of previously erased data and finally remove discarded data including e-mail messages.

Posted in Computer Maintenance, Windows | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Today i am going to show you how to customize your memory stick.

 

OK, so you want a nice background in your folder or USB memory stick? first of all you need to do the following:

Go to the folder you want to have the background on and create a file called “desktop.ini”. Open desktop.ini and paste the following text:

[ExtShellFolderViews]

{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]

Attributes=1

iconarea_image=”bg.jpg”

iconarea_text=”0x00FFFFFF”

You then need to change “bg.jpg” to the path of your image. iconarea_text changes the color of the text in your folder. You can change FFFFFF to any HTML color code you want to use.

Then you need to make desktop.ini and your image file hiden, to do this, right click the file, hit proporties and set the attribute hidden as ticked.

Now right click inside the root folder of your memory stick and click refresh. You will now see the changes you have made.

 

Now, if you want to do the same for subfolders, this is a little more difficult. Do the same for the subfolder as you did for the root folder. You will notice that the changes do not work. You need to set the folder with the system attribute.

To do this, open a command window and type the following:

Do this for each folder you want the changes to work on.

I use this to add an image to my memory stick with a number to call in case it is found by someone.

 

Now, if you want an icon you need to create a new file in your root folder called ‘autorun.inf’ and inside it put:

[AUTORUN]
icon=’icon.ico’ 

Replace ‘icon.ico’ with your icon image.

 

You have successfully customized your memory stick If you have any questions, just leave me a comment and i will try to help you.

Posted in Windows | 2 Comments | 2 Comments »

This is well written explanation about bandwidth, very useful info.

BandWidth Explained

Most hosting companies offer a variety of bandwidth options in their plans. So exactly what is bandwidth as it relates to web hosting? Put simply, bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to occur between your web site and the rest of the internet. The amount of bandwidth a hosting company can provide is determined by their network connections, both internal to their data center and external to the public internet.

Network Connectivity

The internet, in the most simplest of terms, is a group of millions of computers connected by networks. These connections within the internet can be large or small depending upon the cabling and equipment that is used at a particular internet location. It is the size of each network connection that determines how much bandwidth is available. For example, if you use a DSL connection to connect to the internet, you have 1.54 Mega bits (Mb) of bandwidth. Bandwidth therefore is measured in bits (a single 0 or 1). Bits are grouped in bytes which form words, text, and other information that is transferred between your computer and the internet.

If you have a DSL connection to the internet, you have dedicated bandwidth between your computer and your internet provider. But your internet provider may have thousands of DSL connections to their location. All of these connection aggregate at your internet provider who then has their own dedicated connection to the internet (or multiple connections) which is much larger than your single connection. They must have enough bandwidth to serve your computing needs as well as all of their other customers. So while you have a 1.54Mb connection to your internet provider, your internet provider may have a 255Mb connection to the internet so it can accommodate your needs and up to 166 other users (255/1.54).

Traffic

A very simple analogy to use to understand bandwidth and traffic is to think of highways and cars. Bandwidth is the number of lanes on the highway and traffic is the number of cars on the highway. If you are the only car on a highway, you can travel very quickly. If you are stuck in the middle of rush hour, you may travel very slowly since all of the lanes are being used up.

Traffic is simply the number of bits that are transferred on network connections. It is easiest to understand traffic using examples. One Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes. One gigabyte is equal to 1,024 megabytes. To put this in perspective, it takes one byte to store one character. Imagine 100 file cabinets in a building, each of these cabinets holds 1000 folders. Each folder has 100 papers. Each paper contains 100 characters – A GB is all the characters in the building. An MP3 song is about 4MB, the same song in wav format is about 40MB, a full length movie can be 800MB to 1000MB (1000MB = 1GB).

If you were to transfer this MP3 song from a web site to your computer, you would create 4MB of traffic between the web site you are downloading from and your computer. Depending upon the network connection between the web site and the internet, the transfer may occur very quickly, or it could take time if other people are also downloading files at the same time. If, for example, the web site you download from has a 10MB connection to the internet, and you are the only person accessing that web site to download your MP3, your 4MB file will be the only traffic on that web site. However, if three people are all downloading that same MP at the same time, 12MB (3 x 4MB) of traffic has been created. Because in this example, the host only has 10MB of bandwidth, someone will have to wait. The network equipment at the hosting company will cycle through each person downloading the file and transfer a small portion at a time so each person’s file transfer can take place, but the transfer for everyone downloading the file will be slower. If 100 people all came to the site and downloaded the MP3 at the same time, the transfers would be extremely slow. If the host wanted to decrease the time it took to download files simultaneously, it could increase the bandwidth of their internet connection (at a cost due to upgrading equipment).

Hosting Bandwidth

In the example above, we discussed traffic in terms of downloading an MP3 file. However, each time you visit a web site, you are creating traffic, because in order to view that web page on your computer, the web page is first downloaded to your computer (between the web site and you) which is then displayed using your browser software (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) . The page itself is simply a file that creates traffic just like the MP3 file in the example above (however, a web page is usually much smaller than a music file).

A web page may be very small or large depending upon the amount of text and the number and quality of images integrated within the web page. For example, the home page for CNN.com is about 200KB (200 Kilobytes = 200,000 bytes = 1,600,000 bits). This is typically large for a web page. In comparison, Yahoo’s home page is about 70KB.

How Much Bandwidth Is Enough?

It depends (don’t you hate that answer). But in truth, it does. Since bandwidth is a significant determinant of hosting plan prices, you should take time to determine just how much is right for you. Almost all hosting plans have bandwidth requirements measured in months, so you need to estimate the amount of bandwidth that will be required by your site on a monthly basis

If you do not intend to provide file download capability from your site, the formula for calculating bandwidth is fairly straightforward:

Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size x 31 x Fudge Factor

If you intend to allow people to download files from your site, your bandwidth calculation should be:

[(Average Daily Visitors x Average Page Views x Average Page Size) +
(Average Daily File Downloads x Average File Size)] x 31 x Fudge Factor

Let us examine each item in the formula:

Average Daily Visitors – The number of people you expect to visit your site, on average, each day. Depending upon how you market your site, this number could be from 1 to 1,000,000.

Average Page Views – On average, the number of web pages you expect a person to view. If you have 50 web pages in your web site, an average person may only view 5 of those pages each time they visit.

Average Page Size – The average size of your web pages, in Kilobytes (KB). If you have already designed your site, you can calculate this directly.

Average Daily File Downloads – The number of downloads you expect to occur on your site. This is a function of the numbers of visitors and how many times a visitor downloads a file, on average, each day.

Average File Size – Average file size of files that are downloadable from your site. Similar to your web pages, if you already know which files can be downloaded, you can calculate this directly.

Fudge Factor – A number greater than 1. Using 1.5 would be safe, which assumes that your estimate is off by 50%. However, if you were very unsure, you could use 2 or 3 to ensure that your bandwidth requirements are more than met.

Usually, hosting plans offer bandwidth in terms of Gigabytes (GB) per month. This is why our formula takes daily averages and multiplies them by 31.

Summary

Most personal or small business sites will not need more than 1GB of bandwidth per month. If you have a web site that is composed of static web pages and you expect little traffic to your site on a daily basis, go with a low bandwidth plan. If you go over the amount of bandwidth allocated in your plan, your hosting company could charge you over usage fees, so if you think the traffic to your site will be significant, you may want to go through the calculations above to estimate the amount of bandwidth required in a hosting plan.

Posted in Web Hosting | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

A Web Standards Checklist, How to make a proper website

A web standards checklist

The term web standards can mean different things to different people. For some, it is ‘table-free sites’, for others it is ‘using valid code’. However, web standards are much broader than that. A site built to web standards should adhere to standards (HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, XSLT, DOM, MathML, SVG etc) and pursue best practices (valid code, accessible code, semantically correct code, user-friendly URLs etc).

In other words, a site built to web standards should ideally be lean, clean, CSS-based, accessible, usable and search engine friendly.

About the checklist

This is not an uber-checklist. There are probably many items that could be added. More importantly, it should not be seen as a list of items that must be addressed on every site that you develop. It is simply a guide that can be used:

* to show the breadth of web standards
* as a handy tool for developers during the production phase of websites
* as an aid for developers who are interested in moving towards web standards

The checklist

1.Quality of code
1. Does the site use a correct Doctype?
2. Does the site use a Character set?
3. Does the site use Valid (X)HTML?
4. Does the site use Valid CSS?
5. Does the site use any CSS hacks?
6. Does the site use unnecessary classes or ids?
7. Is the code well structured?
8. Does the site have any broken links?
9. How does the site perform in terms of speed/page size?
10. Does the site have JavaScript errors?

2. Degree of separation between content and presentation
1. Does the site use CSS for all presentation aspects (fonts, colour, padding, borders etc)?
2. Are all decorative images in the CSS, or do they appear in the (X)HTML?

3. Accessibility for users
1. Are “alt” attributes used for all descriptive images?
2. Does the site use relative units rather than absolute units for text size?
3. Do any aspects of the layout break if font size is increased?
4. Does the site use visible skip menus?
5. Does the site use accessible forms?
6. Does the site use accessible tables?
7. Is there sufficient colour brightness/contrasts?
8. Is colour alone used for critical information?
9. Is there delayed responsiveness for dropdown menus (for users with reduced motor skills)?
10. Are all links descriptive (for blind users)?

4. Accessibility for devices
1. Does the site work acceptably across modern and older browsers?
2. Is the content accessible with CSS switched off or not supported?
3. Is the content accessible with images switched off or not supported?
4. Does the site work in text browsers such as Lynx?
5. Does the site work well when printed?
6. Does the site work well in Hand Held devices?
7. Does the site include detailed metadata?
8. Does the site work well in a range of browser window sizes?

5. Basic Usability
1. Is there a clear visual hierarchy?
2. Are heading levels easy to distinguish?
3. Does the site have easy to understand navigation?
4. Does the site use consistent navigation?
5. Are links underlined?
6. Does the site use consistent and appropriate language?
7. Do you have a sitemap page and contact page? Are they easy to find?
8. For large sites, is there a search tool?
9. Is there a link to the home page on every page in the site?
10. Are visited links clearly defined with a unique colour?

6. Site management
1. Does the site have a meaningful and helpful 404 error page that works from any depth in the site?
2. Does the site use friendly URLs?
3. Do your URLs work without “www”?
4. Does the site have a favicon?

1. Quality of code

1.1 Does the site use a correct Doctype?
A doctype (short for ‘document type declaration’) informs the validator which version of (X)HTML you’re using, and must appear at the very top of every web page. Doctypes are a key component of compliant web pages: your markup and CSS won’t validate without them.
CODE

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/doctype/

More:
CODE

http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/04/valid-dtd-list.html

CODE

http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/about-boxmodel.htm

CODE

http://gutfeldt.ch/matthias/articles/doctypeswitch.html

1.2 Does the site use a Character set?
If a user agent (eg. a browser) is unable to detect the character encoding used in a Web document, the user may be presented with unreadable text. This information is particularly important for those maintaining and extending a multilingual site, but declaring the character encoding of the document is important for anyone producing XHTML/HTML or CSS.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/tutorial-char-enc/

More:
CODE

http://www.w3.org/International/O-charset.html

1.3 Does the site use Valid (X)HTML?
Valid code will render faster than code with errors. Valid code will render better than invalid code. Browsers are becoming more standards compliant, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to write valid and standards compliant HTML.
CODE

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/sit2003/06.htm

More:
CODE

http://validator.w3.org/

1.4 Does the site use Valid CSS?
You need to make sure that there aren’t any errors in either your HTML or your CSS, since mistakes in either place can result in botched document appearance.
CODE

http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/articles/webrev/199904.html

More:
CODE

http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

1.5 Does the site use any CSS hacks?
Basically, hacks come down to personal choice, the amount of knowledge you have of workarounds, the specific design you are trying to achieve.
CODE

http://www.mail-archive.com/wsg@webstandardsgroup.org/msg05823.html

More:
CODE

http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=CssHack

CODE

http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=ToHackOrNotToHack

CODE

http://centricle.com/ref/css/filters/

1.6 Does the site use unnecessary classes or ids?
I’ve noticed that developers learning new skills often end up with good CSS but poor XHTML. Specifically, the HTML code tends to be full of unnecessary divs and ids. This results in fairly meaningless HTML and bloated style sheets.
CODE

http://www.clagnut.com/blog/228/

1.7 Is the code well structured?
Semantically correct markup uses html elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML has semantic meaning for a wide range of user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)
CODE

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/benefits/index04.htm

More:
CODE

http://www.w3.org/2003/12/semantic-extractor.html

1.8 Does the site have any broken links?
Broken links can frustrate users and potentially drive customers away. Broken links can also keep search engines from properly indexing your site.

More:
CODE

http://validator.w3.org/checklink

1.9 How does the site perform in terms of speed/page size?
Don’t make me wait… That’s the message users give us in survey after survey. Even broadband users can suffer the slow-loading blues.
CODE

http://www.websiteoptimization.com/speed/

1.10 Does the site have JavaScript errors?
Internet Explore for Windows allows you to turn on a debugger that will pop up a new window and let you know there are javascript errors on your site. This is available under ‘Internet Options’ on the Advanced tab. Uncheck ‘Disable script debugging’.

2. Degree of separation between content and presentation

2.1 Does the site use CSS for all presentation aspects (fonts, colour, padding, borders etc)?
Use style sheets to control layout and presentation.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-style-sheets

2.2 Are all decorative images in the CSS, or do they appear in the (X)HTML?
The aim for web developers is to remove all presentation from the html code, leaving it clean and semantically correct.
CODE

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/benefits/index07.htm

3. Accessibility for users

3.1 Are “alt” attributes used for all descriptive images?
Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-text-equivalent

3.2 Does the site use relative units rather than absolute units for text size?
Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values’.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-relative-units

More:
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-relative-units

CODE

http://www.clagnut.com/blog/348/

3.3 Do any aspects of the layout break if font size is increased?
Try this simple test. Look at your website in a browser that supports easy incrementation of font size. Now increase your browser’s font size. And again. And again… Look at your site. Does the page layout still hold together? It is dangerous for developers to assume that everyone browses using default font sizes.
3.4 Does the site use visible skip menus?

A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
CODE

http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=12

Group related links, identify the group (for user agents), and, until user agents do so, provide a way to bypass the group.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/#tech-group-links

…blind visitors are not the only ones inconvenienced by too many links in a navigation area. Recall that a mobility-impaired person with poor adaptive technology might be stuck tabbing through that morass.
CODE

http://joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/Chapter08.html#h4-2020

More:
CODE

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/websmith/508/o.htm

3.5 Does the site use accessible forms?
Forms aren’t the easiest of things to use for people with disabilities. Navigating around a page with written content is one thing, hopping between form fields and inputting information is another.
CODE

http://www.htmldog.com/guides/htmladvanced/forms/

More:
CODE

http://www.webstandards.org/learn/tutorials/accessible-forms/01-accessible-forms.html

CODE

http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessible-form-builder.asp

CODE

http://accessify.com/tutorials/better-accessible-forms.asp

3.6 Does the site use accessible tables?
For data tables, identify row and column headers… For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-table-headers

More:
CODE

http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/webpublishing/ada/resources/tables.asp

CODE

http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-wizards/accessible-table-builder_step1.asp

CODE

http://www.webaim.org/techniques/tables/

3.7 Is there sufficient colour brightness/contrasts?
Ensure that foreground and background colour combinations provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-colour-contrast

More:
CODE

http://www.juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.asp

3.8 Is colour alone used for critical information?
Ensure that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour, for example from context or markup.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-colour-convey

There are basically three types of colour deficiency; Deuteranope (a form of red/green colour deficit), Protanope (another form of red/green colour deficit) and Tritanope (a blue/yellow deficit- very rare).

More:
CODE

http://colourfilter.wickline.org/

CODE

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colourblind/Ishihara.html

CODE

http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

3.9 Is there delayed responsiveness for dropdown menus?
Users with reduced motor skills may find dropdown menus hard to use if responsiveness is set too fast.

3.10 Are all links descriptive?
Link text should be meaningful enough to make sense when read out of context – either on its own or as part of a sequence of links. Link text should also be terse.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-meaningful-links

4. Accessibility for devices.

4.1 Does the site work acceptably across modern and older browsers?

Before starting to build a CSS-based layout, you should decide which browsers to support and to what level you intend to support them.
CODE

http://www.maxdesign.com.au/presentation/process/index_step01.cfm

4.2 Is the content accessible with CSS switched off or not supported?
Some people may visit your site with either a browser that does not support CSS or a browser with CSS switched off. In content is structured well, this will not be an issue.

4.3 Is the content accessible with images switched off or not supported?
Some people browse websites with images switched off – especially people on very slow connections. Content should still be accessible for these people.

4.4 Does the site work in text browsers such as Lynx?
This is like a combination of images and CSS switched off. A text-based browser will rely on well structured content to provide meaning.

More:
CODE

http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview

4.5 Does the site work well when printed?
You can take any (X)HTML document and simply style it for print, without having to touch the markup.
CODE

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/goingtoprint/

More:
CODE

http://www.d.umn.edu/itss/support/Training/Online/webdesign/css.html#print

4.6 Does the site work well in Hand Held devices?
This is a hard one to deal with until hand held devices consistently support their correct media type. However, some layouts work better in current hand-held devices. The importance of supporting hand held devices will depend on target audiences.

4.7 Does the site include detailed metadata?
Metadata is machine understandable information for the web
CODE

http://www.w3.org/Metadata/

Metadata is structured information that is created specifically to describe another resource. In other words, metadata is ‘data about data’.

4.8 Does the site work well in a range of browser window sizes?
It is a common assumption amongst developers that average screen sizes are increasing. Some developers assume that the average screen size is now 1024px wide. But what about users with smaller screens and users with hand held devices? Are they part of your target audience and are they being disadvantaged?

5. Basic Usability
5.1 Is there a clear visual hierarchy?
Organise and prioritise the contents of a page by using size, prominence and content relationships.
CODE

http://www.great-web-design-tips.com/web-site-design/165.html

5.2 Are heading levels easy to distinguish?
Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification.
CODE

http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-logical-headings

5.3 Is the site’s navigation easy to understand?
Your navigation system should give your visitor a clue as to what page of the site they are currently on and where they can go next.
CODE

http://www.1stsitefree.com/design_nav.htm

5.4 Is the site’s navigation consistent?
If each page on your site has a consistent style of presentation, visitors will find it easier to navigate between pages and find information
CODE

http://www.juicystudio.com/tutorial/accessibility/navigation.asp

5.5 Does the site use consistent and appropriate language?
The use of clear and simple language promotes effective communication. Trying to come across as articulate can be as difficult to read as poorly written grammar, especially if the language used isn’t the visitor’s primary language.
CODE

http://www.juicystudio.com/tutorial/accessibility/clear.asp

5.6 Does the site have a sitemap page and contact page? Are they easy to find?
Most site maps fail to convey multiple levels of the site’s information architecture. In usability tests, users often overlook site maps or can’t find them. Complexity is also a problem: a map should be a map, not a navigational challenge of its own.
CODE

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020106.html

5.7 For large sites, is there a search tool?
While search tools are not needed on smaller sites, and some people will not ever use them, site-specific search tools allow users a choice of navigation options.

5.8 Is there a link to the home page on every page in the site?
Some users like to go back to a site’s home page after navigating to content within a site. The home page becomes a base camp for these users, allowing them to regroup before exploring new content.

5.9 Are links underlined?
To maximise the perceived affordance of clickability, colour and underline the link text. Users shouldn’t have to guess or scrub the page to find out where they can click.
CODE

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040510.html

5.10 Are visited links clearly defined?
Most important, knowing which pages they’ve already visited frees users from unintentionally revisiting the same pages over and over again.
CODE

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20040503.html

6. Site management

6.1 Does the site have a meaningful and helpful 404 error page that works from any depth in the site?
You’ve requested a page – either by typing a URL directly into the address bar or clicking on an out-of-date link and you’ve found yourself in the middle of cyberspace nowhere. A user-friendly website will give you a helping hand while many others will simply do nothing, relying on the browser’s built-in ability to explain what the problem is.
CODE

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/perfect404/

6.2 Does the site use friendly URLs?
Most search engines (with a few exceptions – namely Google) will not index any pages that have a question mark or other character (like an ampersand or equals sign) in the URL… what good is a site if no one can find it?
CODE

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/search-engine-friendly-urls

One of the worst elements of the web from a user interface standpoint is the URL. However, if they’re short, logical, and self-correcting, URLs can be acceptably usable
CODE

http://www.merges.net/theory/20010305.html

More:
CODE

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/search-engine-friendly-urls

CODE

http://www.websitegoodies.com/article/32

CODE

http://www.merges.net/theory/20010305.html

6.3 Does the site’s URL work without “www”?
While this is not critical, and in some cases is not even possible, it is always good to give people the choice of both options. If a user types your domain name without the www and gets no site, this could disadvantage both the user and you.
6.4 Does the site have a favicon?

A Favicon is a multi-resolution image included on nearly all professionally developed sites. The Favicon allows the webmaster to further promote their site, and to create a more customized appearance within a visitor’s browser.
CODE

http://www.favicon.com/

Favicons are definitely not critical. However, if they are not present, they can cause 404 errors in your logs (site statistics). Browsers like IE will request them from the server when a site is bookmarked. If a favicon isn’t available, a 404 error may be generated. Therefore, having a favicon could cut down on favicon specific 404 errors. The same is true of a ‘robots.txt’ file.

Posted in Web Design | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »

Since defragging the disk won’t do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance the performance and reliability of your customers’ PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothing.
1.) To decrease a system’s boot time and increase system performance, use the money you save by not buying defragmentation software — the built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine — and instead equip the computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizing the NTFS file system. If you’re not sure, here’s how to check: First, double-click the My Computer icon, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Next, examine the File System type; if it says FAT32, then back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press the Enter key. This process may take a while; it’s important that the computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by the bootable drive will be either FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

4.) Disable file indexing. The indexing service extracts information from documents and other files on the hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxing on any system.

The idea is that the user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should they have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know the file name of the document they want. Windows XP’s built-in search functionality can still perform these kinds of searches without the Indexing service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at the time of the request to help find what the user is looking for.

Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you’re a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disabling it.

Here’s how: First, double-click the My Computer icon. Next, right-click on the C: Drive, then select Properties. Uncheck “Allow Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching.” Next, apply changes to “C: subfolders and files,” and click OK. If a warning or error message appears (such as “Access is denied”), click the Ignore All button.

5.) Update the PC’s video and motherboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure the BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on my site.

6.) Empty the Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by the user. That’s fine. But over time, the prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wasting time, and slowing system performance, by pre-loading them. Nothing critical is in this folder, and the entire contents are safe to delete.

7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here’s how: Double-click the My Computer icon. Then right-click on the C: drive and select Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button — it’s just to the right of the Capacity pie graph — and delete all temporary files.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to the Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clicking on Primary IDE Channel. Then click the Advanced Settings tab. Ensure the Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with the Secondary IDE Channel.

9.) Upgrade the cabling. As hard-drive technology improves, the cabling requirements to achieve these performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with the connectors properly assigned to the matching Master/Slave/Motherboard sockets. A single device must be at the end of the cable; connecting a single drive to the middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signaling problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, these signaling problems will prevent the drive from performing at its maximum potential. Also, because these cables inherently support “cable select,” the location of each drive on the cable is important. For these reasons, the cable is designed so drive positioning is explicitly clear.

10.) Remove all spyware from the computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once these programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before starting your search. Anything either program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once the spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants the program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removing Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine using the MSCONFIG utility. Here’s how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click the StartUp tab, then uncheck any items you don’t want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit the WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searching for the filenames using Google or another Web search engine.

12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from the Add/Remove Programs section of the Control Panel.

13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settings in this area. Here’s how to do it: First click on the System icon in the Control Panel. Next, click on the Advanced tab. Select the Settings button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with the options offered here, as nothing you can change will alter the reliability of the computer — only its responsiveness.

14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editing their registry, try some of the performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

15.) Visit Microsoft’s Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

16.) Update the customer’s anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure they have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixing anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

17.) Make sure the customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on their computer. The more fonts they have, the slower the system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did the previous versions of Windows, too many fonts — that is, anything over 500 — will noticeably tax the system.

18.) Do not partition the hard drive. Windows XP’s NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operating system. The same excuses people offer for using partitions apply to using a folder instead. For example, instead of putting all your data on the D: drive, put it in a folder called “D drive.” You’ll achieve the same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without the degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won’t be limited by the size of the partition; instead, it will be limited by the size of the entire hard drive. This means you won’t need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consuming and also can result in lost data.

19.) Check the system’s RAM to ensure it is operating properly. I recommend using a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on the PC’s memory automatically after you boot to the disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of the 10 tests are completed. If the program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug the computer, remove a stick of memory (assuming you have more than one), and run the test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

20.) If the PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check the drive manufacturer’s Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you’ll be able to upgrade the recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it’s free.

21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit the Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

22.) If you’re sick of a single Windows Explorer window crashing and then taking the rest of your OS down with it, then follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, then Folder Options. Now click on the View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

23.) At least once a year, open the computer’s cases and blow out all the dust and debris. While you’re in there, check that all the fans are turning properly. Also inspect the motherboard capacitors for bulging or leaks. For more information on this leaking-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.

Following any of these suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to the performance and reliability of your customers’ computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that the main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in the event of a crashed drive.

Posted in Windows | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Recently, my laptop was infected with the W32/Mabezat worm after using a infected Flash memory Drive. I had shut down my AntiVirus software(was using nod32) to liberate some memory and forgot to restart it.

Anywayz, this worm was really bad and started replicating itself everywhere. So here’s the steps i took to remove it

1. Temporarily Disable System Restore (Windows Me/XP)
2. Update the virus definitions.
3. Reboot computer in SafeMode
4. Run a full system scan and clean/delete all infected file(s)5. Delete/Modify any values added to the registry.
Navigate to and restore the following registry entries to their
original values, if required:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
\”ShowSuperHidden” = “0?

 

Note: If the registry editor fails to open the threat may have modified the registry to prevent access to the registry editor. Download this file(UnHookExec.inf) from Symantec. Right-click the file and click install.
6. Exit registry editor.7. Find and delete the following files:
- %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\tazebama.dl_
- %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\hook.dl_
- %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\zPharoh.exe
- %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\tazebama.dll
- [DRIVE]:\zPharaoh.exe
- [DRIVE]:\autorun

8. In order to make sure that threat is completely eliminated from your computer, carry out a full scan of your computer using AntiVirus and Antispyware Software. Another way to delete the virus using various Antivirus Program without the need to install can be done with Online Virus Scanner.

Posted in Security | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

0-9

1337 (written in ASCII) – From the word Leet, derived from the word elite
2 – too, or to
4 – For

A

AFAICR/S/T – As far as I can recall / remember / see / tel
AFAIK – As far as I know
AFK – Away from keyboard
ANFSCD – And Now For Something Completely Different. Used to change the subject of conversation.
ASAP – As soon as possible
ASL – Age / sex / location
ATEOTD – At The End of the Day
ATM – At the moment
AWOL – Absent Without (Official) Leave
AYBABTU (also abbreviated as AYB) – All your base are belong to us (from the video game Zero Wing)

B

B2B – Business to Business
B& and/or B7- Banned
BBIAB – Be back in a bit
BBL/S – Be back later / shortly / soon
BCNU – Be seein’ you
Blog – Also known as web log or an online journal
BOFH – ~censored~ operator from hell
Bot – Any type of automated software in chatrooms and web-cataloging software
BRB – Be right back
BSOD – Blue Screen of Death
BTDT – Been there done that
BTW – By the way
Bump – Increment (For example, C’s ++ operator.)or a backronym for “Bring Up My Post”

C

Crawl – To retrieve a web page along with the hyperlinks that reference it
Crapplet – A poorly written computer application
CU – See you (later)
CYA – See ya OR Cover Your Ass
Cyber (prefix) – A term used to connect the subsequent word loosely to the world of computers or the Internet or sex over a computer
Cyberspace – Virtual reality, the Internet, the World Wide Web, and other kinds of computer systems. Science fiction author William Gibson popularized the term in his novel Neuromancer. Gibson used the word to describe a virtual world of computer networks that his cyberpunk heroes ‘jacked into’

D

DFTT – Don’t feed the trolls
DGAF – Don’t Give A ~censored~
DIAF – Die in a fire
DILLIGAF/D/S – Does it look like I give a flip / ~censored~ / damn / ~love~
DND – Do not disturb
DOA – Dead on arrival. Refers to hardware that is broken on delivery.

E

EOF – End Of File
EOM – End of Message
EOL – End of Life. Device or hardware that is at the end of its product life cycle.
EQ – EverQuest
ETA – Estimated time of arrival

F

FAQ – Frequently Asked Question(s)
FFS – For ~censored~’s sake
Flamer – Someone who makes inflammatory, abusive or directly offensive comments. Similar to, but not quite the same as an Internet troll[3]
FMCDH – From My Cold Dead Hands
FOAD – ~censored~ off and die
FOAF – Friend of a friend
FTL – For the loss
FTW – For the win
FU – ~censored~ you
FUBAR – ~censored~ up beyond all recognition / repair (from military slang; pronounced “foo-bar”)
FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (the purposeful spread of misinformation)
FWIW – For what it’s worth
FYI – For your information

G

GBTW – Get back to work
GF – Great/good fight/girlfriend
GFU – Good for you
GFY – Go ~censored~ yourself
GG – Good game, used at or near the conclusion of a gaming match
GJ – Good job, often used in online gaming when a teammate performs an act benefitting his team, such as killing an opponent or enabling that kill
GMTA – Great minds think alike
Godwin’s Law – Dictates that the longer a thread, the more likely someone will post a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler
Gratz – Congratulations
GTFO – Get the ~censored~ out
GTG or G2G – ‘Got to go’ or ‘Good to go’
GR -Good Race
GR8 – Great

H

HAND – Have A Nice Day
Handle – Name used in online chat, (AKA nick(name), alias, screen/user name)
HF – Have fun
Haxor or H4x0r (1337) – Hacker
Hit – A request made to the web server, (noun) the results of an internet search, (verb) loading a Web page. Hits are not equivalent to visitors of a webpage.
Home page – The website’s introduction page, starting point, and guide. The technical term is “index”
Hot list – A collection of publicly available URLs (World Wide Web site addresses), sometimes available as text files.
HTH – Hope this / that helps
H8 – Hate

I

IANAL – I am not a lawyer
IBTL – In before the lock
IDC – I don’t care
IDK – I don’t know
IIRC – If I recall / remember correctly
IIUC – If I understand correctly
IMO/IMHO/IMNSHO/IMAO – In my (humble / honest / not so humble / arrogant) opinion
Information superhighway – The Internet (AKA: I-way, infobahn)
IONO – I don’t know
IOW – In other words
IRC – Internet Relay Chat
IRL – In real life
ITYM – I Think You Mean
IWSN – I want sex now
IYKWIM – If you know what I mean

J

Jaggy – Aliased computer graphics
JK or j/k – Just kidding, or joke
JFGI – Just ~censored~/Freaking Google It

K

k or kk – OK
KISS – Keep it simple stupid.
KS(ing) – Kill-Steal(ing)
KOS – Kill on sight
KTHX – OK, thanks
KTHXBAI or KTHXBYE – OK, thanks, goodbye, used either to cut short a conversation or to express displeasure with being cut short

L

L2P – Learn to play; an admonishment to MMORPG players who are incompetent and/or whine
L8R – Later, L8R also sometimes abbreviated as L8ER is commonly used in chat rooms and other text based communications as a way of saying good bye.
Lag – Slang term for slow Internet speeds or high Internet latency; Lag is sometimes due to a server problem, but more frequently due to the connection between client and server. A slow or intermittent connection may often be referred to as laggy
Lamer – A know-nothing, one who is lame.
Leet – Often spelled as l33t or 1337 in ASCII form. It originally meant elite
LFG – Looking for group
LFM – Looking for more
LM(F)AO – Laughing my (frigging) ass off
LMIRL – Let’s meet in real life.
LMK – Let me know
LOL – Laughing out loud, laugh out loud
LTNS – Long time no see
Lurker – Someone who frequents a Usenet group without participating in discussions

M

MMORPG, MMO – Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game
MMOFPS – Massive Multi-player Online First Person Shooter
MOTD – Message of the day
MS – MapleStory, an MMORPG
MTFBWY – May The Force be with you
MUD – Multi-User Dungeon
MUSH – Multi-User Shared Hallucination
MYOB – Mind your own business
M8 – Mate

N

NE1 – “Anyone”
NFI – “No ~censored~ Idea”
Newbie, noob, or n00b – An inexperienced user of a system or game,or an annoying person.
NIFOC – Naked In Front Of Computer
NM – (Sometimes written N/M) Not much, Never mind or no message, used on message boards or in e-mails to indicate that everything is already said in the subject line.
NP – No problem
NSFW – Not safe for work. Warning about content that may get the viewer in trouble with his employer or co-workers.
NVM, NVMD, or nm – Nevermind, not much

O

O RLY – Oh really?
OIC – Oh, I see
OFN – Old ~censored~ news
OMG – Oh my god
OMFG – Oh my ~censored~ god
OMW – On my way or Oh my word
OP – Original poster / Operator / Outpost
OS – Operating system
OT – Off topic
OTOH – On the other hand
OTP – On the phone or One true pairing

P

P2P – Peer to peer, or pay to play
PAW – Parents are watching
PEBKAC/PEBCAK – Problem exists between keyboard and chair
Ping – From the popular network monitoring tool, used as a greeting similar to “Are you there?”.
PITA – Pain in the arse / ass
PLMK – Please let me know
PMSL – Pissing myself laughing
POS – Piece of ~love~, or parent over shoulder.
POTS – Plain old telephone service
POV – Point of view
PPL – People
PTKFGS – Punch the Keys For God’s Sake
pr0n – Intentional misspelling of porn
PW – Persistent World (gaming)
pwned – Intentional misspelling of owned

Q

QFT – Quoted for truth. Used on internet message boards to show agreement from a previous message

R

Rehi (or merely re) – Hello again
RL – Real Life[3]
RO(T)FL – Rolling on (the) floor laughing
RO(T)FLMAO – Rolling on (the) floor laughing my ass off
RO(T)FLOL – Rolling on (the) floor laughing out loud
RSN – Real soon now (used sarcastically)
RTFB – Read the ~censored~ binary (or book)
RTFS – Read the ~censored~ source
RTFM/RTM – Read the (~censored~) manual

S

SCNR – Sorry, could not resist
sk8/sk8r – skate/skater
Smiley – Another name for emoticons
SMH – Shaking my head
SNAFU – Situation normal: all (~censored~/[3]fouled) up
Snail mail – Normal paper mail service
SOHF – Sense of humor failure
Spider – The program behind a search engine
STFU – Shut the ~censored~ up
STFW – Search the ~censored~ web

T

TANSTAAFL – There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch
TBF – Time between failures
TBH – To be honest
TG – That’s great
TGIF – Thank god it’s Friday
TH(N)X, TNX or TX – Thanks
TIA – Thanks in advance
TINC – There Is No Cabal, a term discouraging conspiracy theories
TMI – Too much information
TOS – Terms of service
TTBOMK – To the best of my knowledge
TTFN – Ta ta for now
TTT – To the top, used in forums to bump a thread
TTYL – Talk to you later (also spelled TTUL, T2UL or T2YL)
TTYTT – To Tell You The Truth
Tweedler – One who has deep love for all computer related technology and gadgets
TWIMC – To Whom It May Concern
TY – Thank you
TYT – Take your time
TYVM – Thank you very much

U

U – You
UTFSE – Use the ~censored~ search engine

V

W

w00t, w00T or WOOT – First two express exuberance, the latter is a backronym for the term “We Own the Other Team”.
W/ or W/O – With or without
WB – Welcome back
W/E – Whatever
WRT – With respect / regard to
WTB – Want to buy
WTF – What the ~censored~
WTG – Way to go
WTH – What the hell
WTS – Want to sell
WTT – Want to trade
WUG – What you got?
WoW – World of Warcraft (game)
WUBU2 – What (have) you been up to?
WUU2 – What (are) you up to?
WYSIWYG – What you see is what you get
W8 – Wait

Y

YARLY – Yeah Really
YHBT – You have been trolled
YKW – You know what?
YMMV – Your mileage may vary.
YTMND – You’re The Man Now, Dog
YW – You’re welcome.
YOYO- You’re On Your Own.

Z
ZOMG – An intentional misspelling of the acronym shorthand for “Oh My God/Gawd” and pronounced “Zoh My God/Gawd” This version is mainly used in jest or to ridicule people who use abbreviations like OMG and OMFG

Posted in Internet | 2 Comments | 2 Comments »

Want to check if your antivirus is working? Think your antivirus has been compromised?

Follow this simple guide to test your antivirus

Create a new text file, in the text file enter:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Now save the file as anything.COM (the com extension is important as this is an executable)

Any decent antivirus will have detected a threat as soon as you saved the file, if yours hasn’t then try executing the file (this file will NOT harm your pc) or manually scanning the file.

If your AV detects something then it’s working fine, if it doesn’t, i would recommend looking for a new AV.

This file will not harm your pc in any way, it is a string created by the antivirus industry to test the integrity of antivirus’s.

Posted in Security | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

Run Commands
———————————————————–
compmgmt.msc - Computer management
devmgmt.msc - Device manager
diskmgmt.msc - Disk management
dfrg.msc - Disk defrag
eventvwr.msc - Event viewer
fsmgmt.msc - Shared folders
gpedit.msc - Group policies
lusrmgr.msc - Local users and groups
perfmon.msc - Performance monitor
rsop.msc - Resultant set of policies
secpol.msc - Local security settings
services.msc - Various Services
msconfig - System Configuration Utility
regedit - Registry Editor
msinfo32 _ System Information
sysedit _ System Edit
win.ini _ windows loading information(also system.ini)
winver _ Shows current version of windows
mailto: _ Opens default email client
command _ Opens command prompt

Run Commands to access the control panel
——————————————————————-
Add/Remove Programs control appwiz.cpl
Date/Time Properties control timedate.cpl
Display Properties control desk.cpl
FindFast control findfast.cpl
Fonts Folder control fonts
Internet Properties control inetcpl.cpl
Keyboard Properties control main.cpl keyboard
Mouse Properties control main.cpl
Multimedia Properties control mmsys.cpl
Network Properties control netcpl.cpl
Password Properties control password.cpl
Printers Folder control printers
Sound Properties control mmsys.cpl sounds
System Properties control sysdm.cpl

Command Prompt
————————————————————–
ANSI.SYS Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys.
APPEND Causes MS-DOS to look in other directories when editing a file or running a command.
ARP Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices.
ASSIGN Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter.
ASSOC View the file associations.
AT Schedule a time to execute commands or programs.
ATMADM Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM call manager.
ATTRIB Display and change file attributes.
BATCH Recovery console command that executes a series of commands in a file.
BOOTCFG Recovery console command that allows a user to view, modify, and rebuild the boot.ini
BREAK Enable / disable CTRL + C feature.
CACLS View and modify file ACL’s.
CALL Calls a batch file from another batch file.
CD Changes directories.
CHCP Supplement the International keyboard and character set information.
CHDIR Changes directories.
CHKDSK Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors.
CHKNTFS Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors.
CHOICE Specify a listing of multiple options within a batch file.
CLS Clears the screen.
CMD Opens the command interpreter.
COLOR Easily change the foreground and background color of the MS-DOS window.
COMP Compares files.
COMPACT Compresses and uncompress files.
CONTROL Open control panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt.
CONVERT Convert FAT to NTFS.
COPY Copy one or more files to an alternate location.
CTTY Change the computers input/output devices.
DATE View or change the systems date.
DEBUG Debug utility to create assembly programs to modify hardware settings.
DEFRAG Re-arrange the hard disk drive to help with loading programs.
DEL Deletes one or more files.
DELETE Recovery console command that deletes a file.
DELTREE Deletes one or more files and/or directories.
DIR List the contents of one or more directory.
DISABLE Recovery console command that disables Windows system services or drivers.
DISKCOMP Compare a disk with another disk.
DISKCOPY Copy the contents of one disk and place them on another disk.
DOSKEY Command to view and execute commands that have been run in the past.
DOSSHELL A GUI to help with early MS-DOS users.
DRIVPARM Enables overwrite of original device drivers.
ECHO Displays messages and enables and disables echo.
EDIT View and edit files.
EDLIN View and edit files.
EMM386 Load extended Memory Manager.
ENABLE Recovery console command to enable a disable service or driver.
ENDLOCAL Stops the localization of the environment changes enabled by the setlocal command.
ERASE Erase files from computer.
EXIT Exit from the command interpreter.
EXPAND Expand a Microsoft Windows file back to it’s original format.
EXTRACT Extract files from the Microsoft Windows cabinets.
FASTHELP Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them.
FC Compare files.
FDISK Utility used to create partitions on the hard disk drive.
FIND Search for text within a file.
FINDSTR Searches for a string of text within a file.
FIXBOOT Writes a new boot sector.
FIXMBR Writes a new boot record to a disk drive.
FOR Boolean used in batch files.
FORMAT Command to erase and prepare a disk drive.
FTP Command to connect and operate on a FTP server.
FTYPE Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.
GOTO Moves a batch file to a specific label or location.
GRAFTABL Show extended characters in graphics mode.
HELP Display a listing of commands and brief explanation.
IF Allows for batch files to perform conditional processing.
IFSHLP.SYS 32-bit file manager.
IPCONFIG Network command to view network adapter settings and assigned values.
KEYB Change layout of keyboard.
LABEL Change the label of a disk drive.
LH Load a device driver in to high memory.
LISTSVC Recovery console command that displays the services and drivers.
LOADFIX Load a program above the first 64k.
LOADHIGH Load a device driver in to high memory.
LOCK Lock the hard disk drive.
LOGON Recovery console command to list installations and enable administrator login.
MAP Displays the device name of a drive.
MD Command to create a new directory.
MEM Display memory on system.
MKDIR Command to create a new directory.
MODE Modify the port or display settings.
MORE Display one page at a time.
MOVE Move one or more files from one directory to another directory.
MSAV Early Microsoft Virus scanner.
MSD Diagnostics utility.
MSCDEX Utility used to load and provide access to the CD-ROM.
NBTSTAT Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
NET Update, fix, or view the network or network settings
NETSH Configure dynamic and static network information from MS-DOS.
NETSTAT Display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information.
NLSFUNC Load country specific information.
NSLOOKUP Look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network.
PATH View and modify the computers path location.
PATHPING View and locate locations of network latency.
PAUSE Command used in batch files to stop the processing of a command.
PING Test / send information to another network computer or network device.
POPD Changes to the directory or network path stored by the pushd command.
POWER Conserve power with computer portables.
PRINT Prints data to a printer port.
PROMPT View and change the MS-DOS prompt.
PUSHD Stores a directory or network path in memory so it can be returned to at any time.
QBASIC Open the QBasic.
RD Removes an empty directory.
REN Renames a file or directory.
RENAME Renames a file or directory.
RMDIR Removes an empty directory.
ROUTE View and configure windows network route tables.
RUNAS Enables a user to execute a program on another computer.
SCANDISK Run the scandisk utility.
SCANREG Scan registry and recover registry from errors.
SET Change one variable or string to another.
SETLOCAL Enables local environments to be changed without affecting anything else.
SETVER Change MS-DOS version to trick older MS-DOS programs.
SHARE Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities.
SHIFT Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program.
SHUTDOWN Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt.
SMARTDRV Create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory.
SORT Sorts the input and displays the output to the screen.
START Start a separate window in Windows from the MS-DOS prompt.
SUBST Substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter.
SWITCHES Remove add functions from MS-DOS.
SYS Transfer system files to disk drive.
TELNET Telnet to another computer / device from the prompt.
TIME View or modify the system time.
TITLE Change the title of their MS-DOS window.
TRACERT Visually view a network packets route across a network.
TREE View a visual tree of the hard disk drive.
TYPE Display the contents of a file.
UNDELETE Undelete a file that has been deleted.
UNFORMAT Unformat a hard disk drive.
UNLOCK Unlock a disk drive.
VER Display the version information.
VERIFY Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been written properly.
VOL Displays the volume information about the designated drive.
XCOPY Copy multiple files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another.
TRUENAME When placed before a file, will display the whole directory in which it exists
TASKKILL It allows you to kill those unneeded or locked up applications

Windows XP Shortcuts
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ALT+- (ALT+hyphen) Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window’s System menu
ALT+ENTER View properties for the selected item
ALT+ESC Cycle through items in the order they were opened
ALT+F4 Close the active item, or quit the active program
ALT+SPACEBAR Display the System menu for the active window
ALT+TAB Switch between open items
ALT+Underlined letter Display the corresponding menu
BACKSPACE View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer
CTRL+A Select all
CTRL+B Bold
CTRL+C Copy
CTRL+I Italics
CTRL+O Open an item
CTRL+U Underline
CTRL+V Paste
CTRL+X Cut
CTRL+Z Undo
CTRL+F4 Close the active document
CTRL while dragging Copy selected item
CTRL+SHIFT while dragging Create shortcut to selected iteM
CTRL+RIGHT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word
CTRL+LEFT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word
CTRL+DOWN ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph
CTRL+UP ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph
SHIFT+DELETE Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin
ESC Cancel the current task
F1 Displays Help
F2 Rename selected item
F3 Search for a file or folder
F4 Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer
F5 Refresh the active window
F6 Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop
F10 Activate the menu bar in the active program
SHIFT+F10 Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
CTRL+ESC Display the Start menu
SHIFT+CTRL+ESC Launches Task Manager
SHIFT when you insert a CD Prevent the CD from automatically playing
WIN Display or hide the Start menu
WIN+BREAK Display the System Properties dialog box
WIN+D Minimizes all Windows and shows the Desktop
WIN+E Open Windows Explorer
WIN+F Search for a file or folder
WIN+F+CTRL Search for computers
WIN+L Locks the desktop
WIN+M Minimize or restore all windows
WIN+R Open the Run dialog box
WIN+TAB Switch between open items

Windows Explorer Shortcuts
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ALT+SPACEBAR - Display the current window’s system menu
SHIFT+F10 - Display the item’s context menu
CTRL+ESC - Display the Start menu
ALT+TAB - Switch to the window you last used
ALT+F4 - Close the current window or quit
CTRL+A - Select all items
CTRL+X - Cut selected item(s)
CTRL+C - Copy selected item(s)
CTRL+V - Paste item(s)
CTRL+Z - Undo last action
CTRL+(+) - Automatically resize the columns in the right hand pane
TAB - Move forward through options
ALT+RIGHT ARROW – Move forward to a previous view
ALT+LEFT ARROW - Move backward to a previous view
SHIFT+DELETE - Delete an item immediately
BACKSPACE - View the folder one level up
ALT+ENTER - View an item’s properties
F10 - Activate the menu bar in programs
F6 - Switch between left and right panes
F5 - Refresh window contents
F3 - Display Find application
F2 - Rename selected item

Internet Explorer Shortcuts
————————————————————–
CTRL+A - Select all items on the current page
CTRL+D - Add the current page to your Favorites
CTRL+E - Open the Search bar
CTRL+F - Find on this page
CTRL+H - Open the History bar
CTRL+I - Open the Favorites bar
CTRL+N - Open a new window
CTRL+O - Go to a new location
CTRL+P - Print the current page or active frame
CTRL+S - Save the current page
CTRL+W - Close current browser window
CTRL+ENTER - Adds the http://www. (url) .com
SHIFT+CLICK - Open link in new window
BACKSPACE - Go to the previous page
ALT+HOME - Go to your Home page
HOME - Move to the beginning of a document
TAB - Move forward through items on a page
END - Move to the end of a document
ESC - Stop downloading a page
F11 - Toggle full-screen view
F5 - Refresh the current page
F4 - Display list of typed addresses
F6 - Change Address bar and page focus
ALT+RIGHT ARROW – Go to the next page
SHIFT+CTRL+TAB - Move back between frames
SHIFT+F10 - Display a shortcut menu for a link
SHIFT+TAB - Move back through the items on a page
CTRL+TAB - Move forward between frames
CTRL+C - Copy selected items to the clipboard
CTRL+V - Insert contents of the clipboard
ENTER - Activate a selected link
HOME - Move to the beginning of a document
END - Move to the end of a document
F1 - Display Internet Explorer Help

Hope you find them useful

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