If you wish to connect two PCs to each other, they both need to have network cards installed. You’ll also need what is called a crossover cable. Now, first make sure File and Printer Sharing is enabled: open Network Connections in the Control Panel, right-click on Local Area Connection, and select Properties. In the General tab, look for “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks” and make sure the checkbox next to it is selected. (If it isn’t in the list, go to Install > Services > Add and choose this service to add it.) Now return to the General tab, select “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” and click on Properties. Enter an IP address such as “192.168.1.10” and a Subnet Mask of 255.255.255.0 for one computer, and the IP address “192.168.1.11” and the same Subnet Mask for the other. Now, for a particular folder that is to be shared, right-click on it and click on “Sharing and Security”. Enter the share name of the folder and click OK. Connect the two computers using the crossover cable. You should now be able to access the contents of the shared folders on one computer from the other.
First Things First
Ubuntu Linux dual-boots with XP on my computer. By default, the computer boots into Ubuntu. What do I need to do so that it boots into XP by default?
Mohnish Negi
Ubuntu uses the Grub bootloader to manage the boot sequence. This can be configured from within Ubuntu. Boot into Ubuntu; you’ll need to install a tool known as Startup Manager. First install imagemagick:
sudo apt-get install imagemagick
Download the Startup Manager (SUM.tar.gz) from www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=295524. Extract the file using
sudo tar xzvf SUM.tar.gz
You’ll now have a directory called SUM. Use
cd SUM
. /install.sh
Once the installation is done, go to System > Administration > Start-Up Manager. This will open the window that can be used to select various boot options such as default boot entry, timeout, resolution, and more. Select “Windows” from here and click Close.
Here To Stay?
I installed Microsoft Office 2007 Professional Pre-release Beta 2, which was distributed on your DVD. I’ve had enough of it and wish to revert to Office 2003, which was installed earlier. But I can neither uninstall nor reinstall Office 2007. If I select “Change”, I get the message:
“This product installation has been corrupted. Run setup again from CD, DVD, or other original source.”
On choosing Remove, the setup screen shows up for a second and then disappears without a message. Please help.
Zahid Irani
This is a known issue with the installation of MS Office 2007 Pro Pre-release Beta 2-a bug with the installer which cannot correctly read the Microsoft Windows Installer information from an earlier Office installation in the Registry. To fix the issue, download and install Windows Installer Cleanup utility, msicuu2.exe, from
http://tinyurl.com/42ul9 (http://download/.
Scan, Select, Save
I inadvertently deleted an extended partition on my Seagate 40 GB PATA drive. Can I recover the lost data?
Arvind Kumar Sharma
www.pcinspector.de/file_ recovery/UK/welcome.htm. Install and launch the program. Click on Lost Drive on the left and wait for PC Inspector to scan your hard drives and determine the available partitions. Select your drive in the Logical Drives tab and click on Preview to verify the drive’s contents. Click on the tick-mark to start the scan. After the scan is complete, you will be able to view the recoverable contents of the drive. You can select all or any of the files to recover. Right-click on them and select “Save to”. Choose a drive or folder to save the recovered files to.
Mode Madness
My computer has become very slow, and copying files from one drive to another has become a frustrating affair. I checked the DMA settings in the device manager and found that my hard drive is operating in PIO mode, even though the “DMA if available” option is selected.
Nav S
One K = One Thousand?
My 80 GB hard disk shows up as 76 GB in Windows Explorer. Where is the remaining 4 GB of space? Have I been cheated? I’d also like to ask you: while capturing from my Sony handycam (mini DV) to the PC using the bundled Picture package software, it captures in parts; these segments are of 10 minutes length. So when I capture a 60-minute video, I get six segments.
Shashishil Kshatriya
Most software capture the digital video content from a DV camera by default in multiple segments. This is known as Scene Detection, where the software tries to recognise major changes in scene. When it encounters such a change, it stops capturing to the current file and continues into the next file. This is to facilitate creating chapters on DVD. It increases file manageability. You will need to explore the options in your capture software to be able to disable this option and capture the video as a single file.
Amnesia
Is it possible to recover Excel passwords?
Prabhu Karthikeyan
There are many tools available to recover passwords for Excel files. Some of these are AOPR 3.11 from www.elcomsoft.com/aopr.html (€49-Rs 3,000-for the Home Edition), Excel Key from www.lostpassword.com/excel.htm ($45; Rs 2,000), and Excel Password from http://lastbit/. com/excel/ ($39; Rs 1,750).
Fantelligence!
I have an Intel Pentium 4 2.6 GHz on an Intel 915GAV motherboard. Whenever I run two or three applications or when I run a game, the CPU fan runs very fast and makes a lot of noise.
Sagar Ranjankar
This is normal. Your BIOS supports variable fan-speed control. The fan spins slow when the CPU is idle or under little load. It spins the fastest when the CPU is stressed, such as when running a game, editing video, or anything else that is CPU-intensive. Automatic fan control ensures better balance between cooling and the noise generated by the fan.
The Need For Speed
I use Windows Server 2003. My printer prints very slowly-at a speed much lower than advertised. What could be the problem?
Ritesh Patil
Printers always print at speeds lower than what the manufacturers advertise. However, there are many factors that affect the speed of a printer. Go to Start > Settings > Printers and right-click the default printer. Choose Properties > Advanced tab, and select the option “Print directly to the printer” rather than “Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster”. You can also check the printer spool settings to see if that is the cause of your problem: go to Start > Settings > Printers, right-click on your printer, then choose Properties > Details > Spool Settings. Change the spool data format from RAW to EMF, or vice-versa. (The location of this option, too, depends on the type of printer.) The other most obvious determinant of print speed is the printer settings. Choosing a lower print resolution, for instance, or printing in black and white rather than in colour, can increase the speeds.
You could also try opting for the printer’s “high-speed” or “fast” printing mode. Almost all printer drivers have such a mode, optimised for day-to-day printing needs. If you need more speed, consider setting the printer to print multiple smaller pages per single sheet of paper. Consult the printer user’s manual for detailed instructions about how to activate the fast printing mode and adjust the pages-per-sheet setting.
Another important factor in determining print speeds is the health of the system. A system with lots of system memory, a neatly-organised hard drive with at least 100 MB of free space, and a powerful processor will be much more efficient in feeding data to the printer than a system that is lacking in these key areas. Install enough memory on your computer to take care of your needs. Run Disk Defragmenter periodically.
Dusty, Dirty, Defunct
My LG USB drive was working fine for the past one year. Now, when I connect it to my computer, it does show up as a removable disk in Windows Explorer, but the computer hangs when I click on the icon. Another problem is, when I use the “Safely Remove Hardware” from the System Tray, the notification message “Your USB storage device can now be safely removed” message pops up, but after a few seconds, the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon disappears.
This only happens on my home PC-the drive works fine on my office computer.
Kaushik Dey
This problem usually occurs if your USB port has become dirty due to accumulation of dust, or if it has become loose because of wear and tear caused by plugging and unplugging of the drive. Clean it using a paintbrush and try to see if the problem goes away. Try using a different free USB port, or adding a port if you don’t have one. As far as your second query is concerned, it is normal for the “Your USB storage device can now be safely removed” message to go away after a few seconds.
I have an Intel Pentium 4, 2.66 GHz, 256 MB RAM, and a 64 MB graphics card. Dungeon Siege 2 Demo didn’t run on my PC-I got the message “D3D initialization Failed.” I thought it was because I didn’t have DirectX 9.0c, but when I try installing it, setup runs and completes in just one second. Why?
Sahil Sharma
You haven’t mentioned your graphics card chipset, and your issue is linked to dated graphics card drivers. Please update to the latest drivers from your graphics chipset’s manufacturer’s Web site-www.nvidia.com or http://www.ati.com/, as the case may be. Also, run DXDIAG and see if DirectDraw and Direct3D acceleration is enabled. If it isn’t, enable it.
DirectX 9.0c setup completes very quickly because you already have that version installed.
Any information entered in a Microsoft Word 2003 Wizard (such as the Resume Wizard) gets stored in the Registry, so when you call up the Wizard again, you can view the old information. We have many users working at the same computer, and the nature of our work is such that we do not want such information to persist after a session is done. What can I do?
Rohit Bhatt
The data is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftware MicrosoftOffice11.0WordWizards You can clear all the Wizard information each time the computer starts. Open Notepad and type in these two lines:
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoft Office11.0WordWizards]
Now click on Start > All Programs, and find the Startup menu in the list. Right-click on it and choose Open All Users. Windows Explorer will open, displaying the shortcuts that define the menu items under the Startup folder. Right-click in an empty area and choose New > Shortcut. Enter “REGEDIT -S C:Pathwizfix.reg” in the “Type the location of the item” dialog box, and click Next (assuming you saved the file to C:Path). Give the item a name of your choice, such as “Delete Wizard data” and click Finish. The registry entries will be removed every time you start up.