M.A.S. Electronics' Blog

If you manage shared, standalone, or workgroup computers — such as those in schools, Internet cafes, libraries, or even your home — you’ll want to investigate a new tool from Microsoft called Windows SteadyState. This free download, specifically designed for Windows XP, is the successor to the Shared Computer Toolkit. You can lock down any computer with various levels of access and protect the hard disk from any changes, including software installations, viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Windows SteadyState…

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By default, at three o’clock every morning Windows XP’s Automatic Updates tool contacts the Windows Update site and automatically downloads and installs updates for your system. However, that cannot happen if other people who use the computer shut it down at the end of the day. Fortunately, you can prevent anyone from shutting down Windows XP with a little registry tweak. Here’s how: Launch the Registry Editor (Regedit.exe). Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Right-click the Explorer subkey and select New |…

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A simple way to speed up a defrag operation in Windows XP is to restart the system before you launch Defrag. This allows the operating system to clear out the swap/paging file and reset it to the default size. This lets Defrag focus strictly on the necessary data on the hard disk, without having to stop and manage a huge swap file loaded with unneeded data. Another approach to speeding up a defrag operation in Windows XP is to configure…

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IP addresses and subnets Although IP stands for Internet Protocol, it’s a communications protocol used from the smallest private network to the massive global Internet. An IP address is a unique identifier given to a single device on an IP network. The IP address consists of a 32-bit number that ranges from 0 to 4294967295. This means that theoretically, the Internet can contain approximately 4.3 billion unique objects. But to make such a large address block easier to handle, it…

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Most seasoned administrators are familiar with the fact that New Technology File System (NTFS) permissions are available on every file, folder, registry key, printer, and Active Directory object. First introduced with Windows NT to replace the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system, NTFS has gone through several changes over the years. Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP use the current incarnation, NTFS v5. When it comes to the old NTFS (from Windows NT) and the current NTFS, there…

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The grouping feature on Windows XP’s taskbar is designed to reduce the button overcrowding problem that you may experience when you have a lot of applications open. The feature keeps tabs on the amount of space being occupied on the taskbar and groups similar windows under a single button once the amount of space on the taskbar starts to dwindle. For example, if you have nine windows open and three of them contain text documents, the three text document taskbar…

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Have you backed up your files lately? Put the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to use, and preserve valuable information on your Windows XP machine. You can migrate your files and settings from one computer to another using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in Windows XP. Did you know that you can also use the same utility to back up files? Using the Wizard, along with an external hard drive connected via a USB or Firewire connection, you can….

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If you create files on your hard disk on a daily basis, consider using date-based folder names to help you keep your data organized. While manually creating folders with the current date as the name really isn’t much of a hassle, wouldn’t it be cool if you could automate the procedure? Well you can by changing the short date format and adding a special command to Windows XP’s context menu. Here’s how to change the date format: Open the Control…

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Windows Firewall debuted with the release of Windows XP, and Windows XP Service Pack 2 enabled this feature by default. This host-based stateful firewall replaced Windows’ Internet Connection Firewall. This feature’s default configuration rejects incoming IP traffic unless you’ve specifically allowed it. To configure or adjust the Windows Firewall settings, go to Start | Control Panel, and double-click the Windows Firewall applet. Let’s take a closer look at the various settings. Know your options On the General tab, you can…

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If you’re using MSN Messenger as your chat and videoconferencing tool, you may never use Windows Messenger anymore and have removed it from the startup group to keep it out of your way. However, you may have seen it pop up on occasion and had to struggle with closing it down. The reason that Windows Messenger makes these impromptu appearances is that Outlook, Outlook Express and even some Microsoft Web pages can still make it load automatically. Fortunately, you can…

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