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index, stats root-main intro rules1 principles1 -- principles2 tweaks hints1 -- hints2 articles software1 -- software2 -- cmdline -- security links1 -- links2 sub-other config1 -- config2 glossary projects -- certs diverse -- screens events12 -- y-2007 -- y-2006 -- y-2005 about -- website -- rants sitemap	I am mainly running the Windows XP Professional SP2 operating system (Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation), but I use also Windows 98 Second Edition occasionally, mainly because of the "bundled" indispensable "Disk Operating System" a.k.a MS-DOS dinosaur (mostly for recovery reasons), and also because of a few "legacy" programs that refuse to work in Windows XP (yeah, I've tried the "Compatibility Mode"), and because of its much faster scandisk; beside few other things that appears to be faster and more reliable compare to the NT-kernel based operating systems. Though it is true, NTs are generally considered and actually are much more advanced operating systems. Then on Windows XP, I also use Cygwin in a command prompt, which is a emulator of the Unix environment and contains the most crucial Linux's programs for Windows (merely can be said, it is a "real" OS), and I use it mainly to practice Linux commands as often as I can. I also have always one installation of "pure" Linux somewhere on hard-disk, particularly the Slackware (Zipslack) distribution, which is a very basic Linux system, i.e. there are no XWindow and KDE desktop environments in the default configuration (though one could add them if one would want to), and therefore one needs to know how to work in Linux OS only with its shell command-prompt (it's bash in Zipslack of course), and you need to know the basic commands, the general sintax etc. And note that all the mentioned OSs are on single home "one-user" machine. So yeah, I have the most experiences with the said three operating systems. But it is true that although I am an "advocate" of open-source software in general, I do prefer Win32-based systems, because more games are written for them, they have more users (and therefire bugs are quickly discovered etc.), but above all, they are much more user-friendly, at least in my opinion. Then there is a short list in no particular order (well, some might be sorted by date of creation, but mostly they're unsorted) with a few threads' titles/links that contain my "theoretical questions" and which I opened on "Ars Technica" forums so far, but please note that these are not all the threads that I've opened/created on "Ars Technica" forum with theoretical types of questions; I've included here only those threads that have this particular phrase (i.e. "theoretical question") in their titles. As first there is the thread titled  A theoretical question on screen colours/contrast,  A XML related confusion; a theoretical question once again ..., next  Registry naming-related theoretical question, then  Theoretical question about updating things (drivers) to solve the problem, then the following is  A "theoretical" question - how to handle/set non-setup apps' directories ?/fixed, then  Another theoretical question from me; in regard to the so-called "Start Path", then there are also  Theoretical question regarding DC-projects and 100% CPU usage,  A theoretical question about web-browsers' "previous page" function, next is  Theoretical question about disk fragmentation (future writes), then follows  Log and config files locations - another theoretical question from my side, and finally  Theoretical question about the variable location information.	label, license meta-stuff ---- ---- ---- legal-other ---- ---- ----

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DEFRAGMENTING/MOVING THE XP'S PAGEFILE

The fact is that the pagefile really can't get fragmented enough to cause noticable performance issues, except maybe in "pathological" cases. You see, the thing is that the pagefile is accessed randomly, no more than 64 KB at a time, and the chances that the next access will be to a region adjacent to the previous access are just about nil. Therefore the next access will need a head movement anyway. If you're paging to the pagefile a lot, chances are you are paging in from code files and paging for the file cache as well; these I/O will be interleaved with pagefile accesses as well. So it really doesn't matter much if the pagefile is fragmented or not. You're going to be moving the heads around a lot for successive pagefile accesses anyway.

Pagefile fragmentation simply doesn't affect the system's performance since typically what's being read and written are individual memory pages (4 KB, i.e. the same as the cluster size on most NTFS formatted drives) It's not like the whole thing's getting contiguously read. There is no "constant resizing." If you set to "system managed size," what you get is default size of 1.5x RAM (or 1x if RAM > 512 MB), maximum size of twice the default. There is no more "constant resizing" than if you set the parameters to these values. Well yeah, if the initial or default allocation turns out to be too small, it will extend the pagefile. That's a good thing; it's preferable to having apps crash for "out of virtual memory" errors. The file will return to its original size (and fragmentation state) upon the next reboot at the latest. sooner if nobody is using the extended area. Neither the addition or the deletion of extra space takes significant time. So if the OS has to extend the pagefile, the new piece will be discontiguous with the old. This is not a problem except in pathological cases, for reasons I described above. Even if it were a problem it would be preferable to app simply failing.

Thus if you are paging enough for pagefile performance to matter, you are also very likely paging to many other files: .exes, .dlls, other pageable code files, and all the mapped files that are being handled by the file cache. Moving one single file to a hard-disk of its own just won't make a big difference at all. Oh and yes, please rather check out the various related posts by user/member with nick DriverGuru: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/personal?x_myspace_page=profile&u=3880942621 on "Ars OpenForum"; he explained all this numerous times in lenghty forum-posts and did it much better than me.

COMPUTER-IDENTIFICATION ON THE NET

The Internet uses a protocol called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) developed in the 1970s by network engineers at Stanford University and others. Basically, it breaks down large files into small packets of about 1500 bytes, each carrying the address of the sender and the recipient. The sending computer transmits a packet, waits for a signal from the recipient that acknowledges its safe arrival, and then sends the next packet. If no receipt comes back, the sender transmits the same packet at half the speed of the previous one, and repeats the process, getting slower each time, until it succeeds; this means that even minor glitches on the line can make a connection sluggish.

Further, billions of computers are connected to the Internet and the web information is located on the Internet, stored as sites/pages, each with a unique name called a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) When you enter a Web address in the browser address bar or click a link in your Web browser to move to a new Web site, you are giving your browser the URL of the page that you want to view. For example, www.symantec.com is a typical URL. Each URL maps to the IP address of the computer that stores the Web page. URLs are used because they are easier to remember and type than IP addresses. Before your browser requests a page, it asks a DNS server for the IP address of the Web site. IP addresses are 32-bit numbers expressed as four decimal numbers, each ranging from 0 to 255 and separated by periods, for instance: 110.202.255.255. Every computer on the Internet has a unique IP address. So-called "Subnet masks" are always used in conjunction with a base IP address. Like for example: Base IP address: 10.0.0.1, Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0.

When you are trying to identify computers, it is easier to work with groups of computers rather than having to identify each one individually. Subnet masks provide a way to identify a group of related computers, such as those on your local network. A typical subnet mask looks like this: 255.255.255.0. At its simplest, each 255 indicates parts of the IP address that are the same for all computers within the subnet, while the 0s indicate parts of the IP address that are different. There is one particular URL that identifies your computer to itself, and that is localhost. The IP address that corresponds to localhost is 127.0.0.1 (also known as "home IP" or "loopback" or simply "this computer"), so for example if you have a Web server on your computer, you can type http://localhost; compare to 0.0.0.0 IP address which means "no IP" (or unknown/any host or simply "anywhere and everywhere"), and therefore you can see your web-page, of course, if it exist at all.

Further, every device connected to the internet must have a unique IP; however, there're two types of them: "static" and "dynamic". But there is also an option that lets multiple computers share a single IP address called a router. Static IP addresses are exactly what their name implies, i.e. they are static or unchanging. They are assigned by network administrators or ISPs, and one has to configure the computer or other internet device manually to respond to that specific address. But mostly this is not needed because using the "DHCP" or "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol" (which is the default for Windows TCP/IP connections), the computer broadcasts a special request for an IP address to the network. Another device, commonly belonging to an ISP, responds with an IP address that the computer then configures to use. Routers are devices that allow multiple computers to "share" a single IP address; the device that is connected to the internet is the router and it has a unique IP address.

STRATEGIES ON COPING WITH A BSOD

Stop Errors or STOP Messages, also referred to as BSODs (Blue Screen Of Death, i.e. called BSOD by its blue background) occur when Windows XP Professional stops responding. Stop error messages can be caused by hardware (a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware) or faulty software, i.e. malfunctions, incompatibility and/or conflicts. But what is a driver anyway? Well, a driver is a sort of a program, that controls a device. Every device, whether it be a printer, disk drive, or keyboard, must have a driver program. Many drivers, such as the keyboard driver, come with the operating system. For other devices, you may need to load a new driver when you connect the device to your computer. In DOS systems, drivers are files with a ".sys" extension, while in Windows environments, drivers often have a ".drv" extension. A driver acts like a translator between the device and programs that use the device. Each device has its own set of specialized commands that only its driver knows. In contrast, most programs access devices by using generic commands. The driver, therefore, accepts generic commands from a program and then translates them into specialized commands for the device.

Troubleshooting RAM-related stop errors

If the error occurred immediately after RAM was added to the computer, the paging file might be corrupted or the new RAM might be either faulty or incompatible. In this case, delete the Pagefile.sys file, and return the system to the original RAM configuration. Additionally run hardware diagnostics supplied by the hardware manufacturer, especially the memory checks.

Troubleshooting file system stop errors

If you’re using a small computer system interface (SCSI) adapter, obtain the latest Windows XP Professional driver from the hardware vendor, disable the sync negotiation for the SCSI device, verify that the SCSI chain is correctly terminated, and check the SCSI IDs of the devices. If you’re unsure how to do any of these steps, refer to the instructions for the device. If you’re using integrated device electronics (IDE) devices, define the on-board IDE port as Primary only. Check the Master/Slave/Only settings for the IDE devices. Remove all IDE devices except the hard disk. If you’re unsure how to do any of these steps, refer to the instructions for your hardware. Run Chkdsk /f to determine if the file system is corrupt. If Windows XP Professional can’t run Chkdsk, move the drive to another computer running Windows XP Professional, and run the Chkdsk command on the drive from that computer.

Troubleshooting device driver stop errors

Check that the devices on your computer have drivers that are signed and certified by Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). If you’ve installed new drivers just before the problem appeared, try rolling them back to the older ones. Open the box and make sure all hardware is correctly installed, well seated, and solidly connected. Check the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to verify and confirm that all of your hardware is on the Hardware Compatibility List and therefore compatible with Windows XP Professional, if some of it isn’t, then examine this non-HCL hardware. Check the devices on your computer (especially the one that appears in the stop message) if they have drivers that are driver signed, certified and identified by Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). Run Sigverif.exe to check for unsigned drivers. If you have a video driver not supplied with Windows XP Professional, try switching to the standard VGA driver or to a compatible driver supplied with Windows XP. Uninstall any software that uses filter drivers for example, antivirus, disk defragmentation, remote control, firewall, or backup programs.

General advice if you can start Windows XP

First off restart your computer (if it wasn't restarted automatically), and if you are able to start Windows normally, then first check the System Log in Event Viewer for additional error messages that might help identify the device or driver causing the problem. To view the System Log launch EventVwr.msc from a Run box or from Start Menu -- Administrative Tools, i.e. click Start and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, and then click Administrative Tools. Double–click Event Viewer to open it and then System Log to view. Especially examine the "System" and "Application" logs in Event Viewer for recent errors that might give you further clues. To do this, launch EventVwr.msc from a Run box; or open "Administrative Tools" in the Control Panel then launch Event Viewer. If you’ve recently added new hardware, remove it and retest. Uninstall any non–critical hardware and software to help isolate the item that may be causing the problem. Using a current version of your antivirus software, check your hard-disk for viruses and trojans. If the test finds a virus, perform the steps required to eliminate it from your computer. Verify that your computer has the latest Service Pack installed. For a list of service packs and instructions for downloading them, go to the Windows Update Web site. Search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for "Windows XP Professional" and the number associated with the stop error you received. For example, if the message "Stop: 0x0000000A" appears, search for "0x0000000A", for more information on this, go to Help and Support Center and type "Safe Mode Options" in the Search box. If you have access to the Internet, visit the Microsoft Support site.

General advice if you can't start Windows XP

Same as above, restart your computer, and if you are unable to log on again, press F8 when the list of available operating systems appears, on the Advanced Options screen select Last Known Good Configuration and press ENTER. Unplug each new hardware device, one at a time, to see if this resolves the error. Run Recovery Console, and allow the system to repair any errors that it detects. Try to start your computer in safe mode, and then investigate your hardware-related software (drivers etc.), and make sure any newly installed/added hardware or software is properly installed (RAM, adapters, hard-disks, modems, drivers, programs and so on), and then remove or at least disable it/them. To start your computer in safe mode, restart your computer and same as above, when you see the list of available operating systems press F8 and on the "Advanced Options" screen select Safe Mode, and press ENTER. Verify that your hardware device drivers up-to-date and your system BIOS is the latest available version. Check and try disabling advanced BIOS memory options such as caching or Video BIOS Shadowing. Run Recovery Console, and allow the system to repair any errors that it detects.

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