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[quote user="Gemini_man"]Does anybody actually still use Internet Explorer?[/quote]

Yep, according to the visitor logs to our software web site in August:

#HitsUser Agent
11135916.39%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1
2872112.58%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET
364899.36%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
438235.51%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; SLCC1; .NE
535465.12%Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) G
624743.57%Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.6) G
721043.04%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2
814842.14%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; InfoPath.1
913781.99%msnbot/1.0 (+http://search.msn.com/msnbot.htm)
1011791.70%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
1111111.60%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; YPC 3.2.0;
1210451.51%Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.co
139511.37%Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.6) G
148241.19%Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Yahoo! Slurp; http://help.yahoo.com/
157021.01%Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1

I know that Firefox can be made to look like IE, but in my experience the only people who use Firefox are the anti M$ brigade.

 

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[quote user="Onion van man"]Anyone looking for a full featured firewall for free should give Comodo a try.

[/quote]

Yes and if you have any doubt about that suggestion see here:

http://www.matousec.com/projects/windows-personal-firewall-analysis/leak-tests-results.php#vendors-responses

However we are today waiting for the third beta of the next generation of the Comodo firewall, also free, which will make the existing one obsolete when the final is released in maybe a month from now.

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[quote user="jamesg"]And the people interested in internet security.[/quote]

I've never really understood comments like that, if there was a real or widespread problem with IE (or any other program) I can assure you there would be widespread media comment.

I've also never understood why the Unix/Firefox community keep trying to get the rest of the world to change, if either became as popular is Windows/IE their venerabilities (& they are there) would be exploited.

 

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[quote user="jamesg"]And the people interested in internet security.[/quote]

I've never really understood comments like that, if there was a real or widespread problem with IE (or any other program) I can assure you there would be widespread media comment.

I've also never understood why the Unix/Firefox community keep trying to get the rest of the world to change, if either became as popular is Windows/IE their venerabilities (& they are there) would be exploited.

 

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It's just that with IE I think that my scanners would find a load of tracking cookies etc. and I don't know how to prevent them without blocking the cookies that many sites like banks need to use for whatever reason.

It's more the addons than the basic firefox which makes it safer, like noscript.   But maybe IE can do the same these days.   It is a long tome since I used it.

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[quote user="jamesg"]It's just that with IE I think that my scanners would find a load of tracking cookies etc. and I don't know how to prevent them without blocking the cookies that many sites like banks need to use for whatever reason.[/quote]

Cookies are pretty benign, although they do make interesting reading when mending friends computers. 

[quote]It's more the addons than the basic firefox which makes it safer, like noscript.   But maybe IE can do the same these days.   It is a long tome since I used it.[/quote]

It can.

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[quote user="Breton Networks"]

[quote user="jamesg"]And the people interested in internet security.[/quote]

I've never really understood comments like that, if there was a real or widespread problem with IE (or any other program) I can assure you there would be widespread media comment.

I've also never understood why the Unix/Firefox community keep trying to get the rest of the world to change, if either became as popular is Windows/IE their venerabilities (& they are there) would be exploited.

 

[/quote]Good point however I'm not sure I'd refer to IE as "popular".

For IE to be popular it would imply some sort of concious informed choice of it over another competing product but with it being the Windows default built in browser I'd hazard a guess that well over half of Windows user simply have no idea whatsoever that there are alternatives much less why they might be better off using one of them or inclined to try one out which is why, however hard the Firefox evangelists beat their drums, the usage statistics quoted earlier are not about to alter significantly for a long time to come.

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[quote user="ErnieY"]I'm not sure I'd refer to IE as "popular".[/quote]

From dictionary.com

suited to or intended for the general masses of people:

[quote]I'd hazard a guess that well over half of Windows user simply have no idea whatsoever that there are alternatives much less why they might be better off using one of them or inclined to try one out[/quote]

I would guess well over 90% rather than half.

It might be difficult for a computer enthusiast to accept, but now the vast majority of people who sit down in front of a computer couldn't care less what OS/browser/word processor/whatever, they are using, providing it does the (very limited) job they bought it for.

[quote]the usage statistics quoted earlier are not about to alter significantly for a long time to come.[/quote]

That I do agree with :-)

 

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I use Firefox, IE and Opera in that order generally.

I like Firefox and have it how I want it. However, some websites are not displayed properly or are not compatible with Firefox in which case I use IE.  When I'm out and about I use Portable Firefox on a USB pendrive.

Windows, Linux and Unix are all very good OS's. People should not compare them to one another because they all fill a different market. I do think Microsoft products were over priced but, Now days the price structure is better because you can choose a cheaper version i.e. XP home.

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Presumably I am not the only one to have the Orange browser installed on my computer together with other start-up items I never asked for when I installed Orange Internet.   Has anyone actually used this one and if so is it any good?

The common term for this sort of stuff is foistware, which describes it rather well I think.

I would also be interested to know what the following do:

C:\PROGRA~1\Wanadoo\Toaster.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\Wanadoo\Inactivity.exe

C:\PROGRA~1\Wanadoo\PollingModule.exe

C:\WINDOWS\System32\ALERTM~1\ALERTM~1.EXE

C:\Program Files\Wanadoo\ComComp.exe

C:\Program Files\Wanadoo\Watch.exe

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Did have it - took it off. I did use the disc when I first went ADSL last year because the modem supplied was USB and I needed the drivers. I didn't bother to look for the drivers separately because it was just a matter of time before I nipped out and bought this Netgear router/modem I'm using now. It was then I removed the so called 'foistware' (like it!!)

I suppose the only thing I would say (very slightly) in it's favour was the message box that popped up when you got an e-mail, but I even began to find that annoying after a while, so I'm happy I've got rid of it.

Tim

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All I did after the first time that I installed the complete wanadoo CD was to go to Add/Remove Progs in Control Panel and remove the wanadoo programme. Since then, when I have upgraded and had to reload the PC I have done an install up to the point where it tells you to load the wanadoo c r a p and finished the load without it. No problems at all and no wanadoo rubbish either!

If you like the stuff, then just do the complete load. Not my taste, but???

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  • 3 weeks later...

Slow Booting [I]

If like me you've long lamented the lack of a proper Boot Logger for XP then this tip might be for you.

For those who don't know what a Boot Logger is, or why they might need one, a Boot Logger monitors and keeps a log of the Windows startup procedure which you can later view to help discover what might be causing a machine to take a long time to complete it's boot up.

Microsoft themselves published a programme called Bootvis which went some way towards it but it was clunky and not very friendly and in fact was eventually withdrawn.

Having developed a booting delay on my own laptop I went in search of a bootlogger and found this http://greatis.com/utilities/bootlogxp/ which I think is both brilliant and simple.

It's free to try for 30 days so that should give you plenty of time to investigate a problem. Fixing it might be an entirely different matter of course !

Mine incidentally turned out to be a WiFi problem and appears to have been the legacy of trying to log on to a free public access point (which I never did manage to access anyway !) and with a bit of judicitious pruning I reduced my boot time from a mind numbing 3.5 minutes to about 1m 20secs which those of you who appreciate these niceties will know is not too shabby for a 3 year old laptop which hasn't had a reformat and fresh install for at least 2 years [geek]

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

 I reduced my boot time from a mind numbing 3.5 minutes

[/quote]

Thats still quicker than Vista ! [;-)]

I use Simpli softwares Start-up manager to disabled anything that I don't want to launch at boot up, Its Free and easy to use. Also, if you use Diskeeper to defrag it arranges the hard drive for faster boot up.

The best software I have found so far for registry problems is Reg Mechanic.

I'm going to download that boot logger and try it.

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Having never even laid hands on Vista PC (and have no intention of doing so any time soon) I couldn't comment although I have heard it is so [;-)]

I don't know the programme you refer to nor does it appear to be available on the Simpli site however there is no finer startup analyser than Autoruns http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/AutoRuns.mspx which was written by Mark Russinovich who is recognised as the top guru on the internal (infernal) workings of XP and in fact MS bought his company Sysinternals.

Whilst routine defragging is useful, and indeed advisable, it's advantages can be overstated and disk fragmentation itself is seldom responsible for the huge delays frequently experienced with XP. Depending on the other hardware the difference in boot times between a heavily fragmented disk and a freshly defragmented one might perhaps be 10 or 20 seconds and although that's a worthwhile gain it's not huge when you're maybe looking in the order of minutes.

Reg Mechanic is quite good but there are dozens of side-by-side reviews of registry cleaners each of which comes to a completely different conclusion so yer pays yer money and takes yer choice [;-)]

 

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[quote user="ErnieY"]I don't know the programme you refer to nor does it appear to be available on the Simpli site [/quote]

I downloaded it a long time back, Your right. I just looked it seems they no longer offer it!

[quote user="ErnieY"]however there is no finer startup analyser than Autoruns http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/Utilities/AutoRuns.mspx which was written by Mark Russinovich who is recognised as the top guru on the internal (infernal) workings of XP and in fact MS bought his company Sysinternals. [/quote]

I will download and try it, I'm always happy to try suggested software.

[quote user="ErnieY"]Whilst routine defragging is useful, and indeed advisable, it's advantages can be overstated and disk fragmentation itself is seldom responsible for the huge delays frequently experienced with XP. Depending on the other hardware the difference in boot times between a heavily fragmented disk and a freshly defragmented one might perhaps be 10 or 20 seconds and although that's a worthwhile gain it's not huge when you're maybe looking in the order of minutes.[/quote]

You could always 'try' diskeeper, It arranges the OS files in such a way that it speeds the boot time up.

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  • 1 year later...

I'd sort of forgotten that I'd started this thread off over 2 years ago now, where on earth has that time gone, scary [:-))]

Anyway I came across something yesterday (which I did know but had similarly forgotten) and thought it might be a good opportunity to revive the topic so here goes.

[I] For those of an orderly mind who like to keep track of what they do during the day, and when, there is answer which is included in every version of Windows, namely the humble Notepad. Crude little text editor it might be but it has a trick or two up its sleeve.

Open up Notepad then type in    .LOG    don't miss that .

Now save to your desktop then open it again, voila - a ready made time & date stamp for you to make a note against. But it gets even easier.

Open a new instance of Notepad and press F5, same result. So now you can have it open on the screen all day long if you like and any time you feel the need make an entry just press F5.

Handy little aide memoire for the retentively challenged perhaps, almost like your own little Twitter [:)]

 

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

Slow Booting [I]

... and with a bit of judicitious pruning I reduced my boot time from a mind numbing 3.5 minutes to about 1m 20secs which those of you who appreciate these niceties will know is not too shabby for a 3 year old laptop which hasn't had a reformat and fresh install for at least 2 years [/quote]

I would love to shave some start-up time off my 3 year old XP laptop but am terrified of chucking out or disabling something which I really do need but don't realise I do. My laptop works well [:)]  and is all my own work [:$] in that I bought it when we came here and have battled through from day one in getting it how I want it, never having set-up a new machine before - and not only that but in French too [:-))].

So, if you have any simple, easily assimilated advice for someone who is keen but not geeky, then I'd be delighted to hear it.

Sue

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[quote user="suein56"]I would love to shave some start-up time off my 3 year old XP laptop but am terrified of chucking out or disabling something which I really do need but don't realise I do.[/quote]

I have found these tips useful: 559 to 563.

(The author is Rick Maybury, who writes a weekly technology blog for the Telegraph)

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[quote user="Clair"]

I have found these tips useful: 559 to 563.

(The author is Rick Maybury, who writes a weekly technology blog for the Telegraph) [/quote]

Excellent, thank you Clair. I had forgotten about him; which is plain daft as I referred your recommendation re his Vista tips to my cousin.

[quote user="ErnieY"]The advice regarding Autoruns is still valid.

If you confine yourself to the Logon tab then you are unlikely to go

far wrong but for safety's sake create a System Restore point before

hand anyway. [/quote]

I will approach this area with great caution; I have great fear of being asked a question when I don't know the answer ie do you really want to remove/alter /do this?

Thanks again.

Sue

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[quote user="Clair"]I have found these tips useful: 559 to 563.[/quote]Are you sure about those numbers Clair as according to what I found these are they and not much to do with boot times ?

559 Wi-Fi Range boost, 32 or 64 bit?

560 ID3 Tag editor, RAW flash memory

561 OE to Vista, system HHCTRL.OCX error

562 Office French Spelling, Folder Views

563 OpenOffice Envelopes, MP3 player files

 

 

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