Backup Hardware Driver | Windows Tips

Hello thecybergal readers, how are you today? Almost a week thecybergal has no any idea to be posted. After the last post, which told you how to find the correct hardware driver, I think it’s relevant to give you simple tips to Backup Your Hardware Driver. To backup hardware driver, thecybergal uses WinDriver Ghost 3.0.

We can use WinDriver Ghost to backup our hardware driver well. One thing you must focus is you have installed the current drivers correctly, because these drivers will affect to success or bad the result of "ghost" we did ^_-.

WinDriver Ghost run well on Windows XP, but about other version I’ve never tried it :D. To download just click WinDriver Ghost here. After you fill the username and password, then you will see a display like this.

To make some backup, follow the instructions bellow:

1. Run WinDriver Ghost, click on Fast Collect. This process will collects drivers installed on your computer.
2. When it finished, click Make All. The new window appears ask you to define location where you will put the backup. I suggest you to save your backup outside of System Drive (usually C:\).
3. After you deal with the location, just click the OK button in the next window. Do not press any key on WinDriver Ghost during the process runs.
4. If you carefully look at the picture above, some of the steps to backup your hardware driver already exist there.
5. Finish.

Make sure the location where you save the backup is safe. That’s all about backup hardware driver, hope you get something useful here. If you want to check the complete listing of downloadable tools, just click the Download Tools page. Cheer!

Windows Tip: How to Find the Correct Driver

At this post, thecybergal will try to discuss how to find the correct driver from the device in our Windows OS computer. Driver is a high level programming language used to communicate with hardware devices.

When there is a device that did not have the correct drivers installed, the device will not be able to work maximum, even can’t work at all. To determine whether the device from our Windows computers has the proper drivers installed, you can open the Device Management by typing "devmgmt.msc" in the Run box from our Windows OS.

If there is a device that did not have the correct drivers installed, you will see an exclamation sign in front of the device name. To find the correct drivers, you can perform the following steps:

1. Highlight the device that has no correct driver installed. Double click on the device so you will see the Properties box.
2. Go to Details tab. In the drop down menu that appears select "Device Instance Id" (This is the default option).
3. Copy (Ctrl + C) the information in the box under "Device Instance Id".
   
   
4. Go to http://www.devid.info/en/.
5. Paste (Ctrl + V) the copied information.
6. Download the driver in accordance with Windows OS on your computer.

That’s all the Windows tips from thecybergal. Hopefully the above Windows tips can be useful for you. Thecybergal also says thank to devid.info which had provide a bank of hardware driver: D. The method to find the correct driver mentioned above work on Windows XP, Windows Vista, also Windows 7. See you in the next post.

Windows Tips; How To Hide Your Local Drives

Hello thecybergal readers, on this post thecybergal wanna share you simply Windows tips to hide your local drive. Although this tips quite simple, but I thought it would help you to at least secure your data in the selected drive from unauthorized user (just from newbie user of course :D).

Ok, let’s get it done by following these steps:

1. Open Registry (Start > Run > type "regedit" > [press the enter button]).
2. Before you make any changes to your Windows registry, make sure you have back it up. (File > Export) and give any names.
3. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
4. Modify or make new DWORD Value named "NoDrives".
5. For the Value, use method bellow (2^n):
   n = 0 : Drive A = 2^0 => 1
   n = 1 : Drive B = 2^1 => 2
   n = 2 : Drive C = 2^2 => 4
   n = 3 : Drive D = 2^3 => 8
   

If you want to hide drive C, then the value of NoDrives = 4. If you want to hide drive D, then the value of NoDrives = 8. But if you want to hide drive C and D, then the value of NoDrives should 4 + 8 = 12. Hope you understood ^_^.

That’s all Windows tips today, hope you can get a bit of Windows science. See you in the next thecybergal's Windows tips.

Yups, this is the screen shoot:

Hidden computer drive pic

Excel Password Remover | Ms. Office Tips

In this post thecybergal will discuss how to open the protected sheet or workbook on Microsoft Excel. If you intend to finish your excel job, but a warning message appears tell you that the cell or table where you will write your job is protected I think this post is suitable for you, IMHO

Actually open the protected sheet in Microsoft Excel can be done in various ways. One of them is Advanced Password Recovery Office. But if you don’t want to install any new programs on your computer, then this trick will probably be the right option. I am using Excel Password Remover program from straxx.com. Just click > Excel Password Remover to download and use it for free.

For the complete download list, go to Download Tools.

After you download Excel Password Remover, then extract the file and you will find a file called password.xla. What you should to do is copy the file (password.xla) into C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\add-ins. Open your excel file (the protected excel) > Click on the Tools > Unprotect Sheet (if you want to open protected sheet) or Unprotect Workbook (if you want to open a protected workbook)

If the first method above didn’t worked, then you can try the second method. Let’s say it as Plan B :D

1. Open Microsoft Excel > Tools > Add Ins
2. Click on Browse > Find the location where the recent downloaded add ins located (password.xla) and click OK
3. Open the protected excel file.
4. Select Unprotect Sheet or Unprotect Workbook (Depends on what will you like to open).

This trick doesn't work to Microsoft Excel 2007 but it works fine on Excel 5.0 and above (including Excel 2000, XP and 2003). If you need to Unprotect Microsoft Excel 2007 Sheet or Workbook, please give your feedback to thecybergal. I will try to looking for some answers :D

Make USB Windows Installer with WinSetupFromUSB | Windows OS Tips.

Hello thecybergal readers. Making the Windows installer with USB stick media not as difficult as what we thought. This process is quite challenging, and in the end when you successfully about that, then the sense of satisfaction will be found. In this article, I recommend you using WinSetupFromUSB to make Installer Windows OS from USB stick.

WinSetupFromUSB is quite simple with a good success rate. OK, without a lot of speaking, if you want to create a Windows Installer from USB stick, please click WinSetupFromUSB to download the software. To get complete downloadable softwares, click download tools here. After the software downloaded, then follow these instructions bellow:

1. Install WinSetupFromUSB into your Windows OS. (XP, Vista, 7).
2. Prepare your USB stick as the Windows installation media. Make sure you've made backups of the contents of your USB stick, because this process will format your USB stick.
3. Create a folder to store the Windows Installer file (e. g. D:\WinXP). Copy all files from the Installation Disk into the folder (D:\WinXP).
4. Run WinSetupFromUSB while your USB stick mounted.
5. Select the Installation Source (D:\WinXP).
6. Format your USB stick by pressing RMPrepUSB button. To the better performance, select FAT16 if your USB Disk is less than or equal to 2 GB, and select FAT32 if your USB Disk is more than or equal to 4GB.
7. Checkmark on Boot as HDD (2PTNS), and under Boot Options adjust to the which Windows loader will be installed. If you want to make a Bootable USB XP Installer, select XP Bootable (NTLDR).
8. After all configurations finished, click on Prepare Drive.
   
   
9. Copy all files from folder we created (D:\WinXP) by pressing Go button, if you see License Agreement window, just go ahead and click Agree.
10. Change your Boot Sequence to USB stick. This installation steps have two parts. You have to select First Part until the computer restarted, and again boot from your USB stick and select the Second Part when the initial setup screen appear.

NB. When you think to install Windows XP on Built Up PC or Netbook like HP Mini 110-1100 Tord you must slipstream the SATA driver to prevent from BSoD during installation process. Again, why I use WinSetupFromUSB because when I used other method I always get the Error Message which tell me about "INF file txtsetup.sif is missing or corrupt, status 18". Since I found WinSetupFromUSB this problem can be healed successfully.

Ok, that's all Windows OS tips today. I hope you can get some advantages from my short passage and you'll be right back here (to looking for pretty tips of course)... See you in the next thecybergal tutorial...

Win XP as A Simple Router | Network Computer Tips

Hello blogger holic, after I told you a security tips about securing your computer from offline viruses using USB Disk Security, now thecybergal will tell you a method to make your Windows XP as a simple router. As we known, router used us to make some connections among two or more different network.

We usually use Pure Router "to bridging" different network connections. There is a wide variety of Pure Router which we can use as a router in our network like MikroTik, IPCop, PfSense, Ubuntu Server and so on. But in this passage, we will discuss about XP Router.

So, does Windows XP can work like a Pure Router? Yes, of course it can although there are many features that can be handled by XP Router. Let’s get it done.

xp router topology | thecybergal.blogspot.com

From the picture above, the Internet network (Red) has the IP segment 192.168.1.X, HotSpot Network (Blue) has the IP segment 192.168.20.X and LAN (Green) has IP segment 10.10.10.X. With topology as above, then XP Router requires at least three NICs, namely for the network of Red, Green, and Blue.

The following are IP settings for the third NIC on the "PC XP Router":
NIC for Green connection:

• IP: 10.10.10.1
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway (GW): [left it blank]

NIC for Blue connection:

• IP: 192.168.20.1
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway (GW): [left it blank]

NIC for Red connection >> IP settings depends on the ISP where we rented bandwidth (static or dynamic). We assume that we use static IP address:

• IP: 192.168.1.5
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway (GW): 192.168.1.1 (IP from our ADSL Modem)

All of three different networks above must have different IP segments/should not be the same between Red, Green, and Blue.

IP configuration of each computer (under XP Router).
Green

• IP: 10.10.10.2-224
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway (GW): 10.10.10.1 (This gateway leads to the Green NIC XP Router)

Blue

• IP: 168.20.2-254
• Netmask: 255.255.255.0
• Gateway (GW): 192.168.20.1 (This gateway leads to the Green NIC XP Router)

When you finished, let’s play with your XP Router.

1. Go to Regedit.
2. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
   Change the value of IPEnableRouter Right-click > Modify > Value Data change the value to be 1.
3. Close the Registry Editor, and restart your XP Router. Now, all of your Network PC can be connected to the Internet. Pay attention to restart your XP Router before it can be worked properly.

OK guys that are all XP Router for you. I hope it can be useful when you have no any Pure PC Router as an alternative method for you to stay connected. See you on the next thecybergal tips.

Adapted from: http://www.home-network-help.com/

Windows Security; USB Disk Security, Protect from Offline Virus

Hello guys, I wanna share to you about security tool. This is quite simple but strong tool. USB Disk Security, the tool called. It has publicized by Zbshareware Lab to protect the spread of the flash disk viruses.

It has 7 main windows. Unlike antivirus programs which generally takes a lot of memory, USB Disk Security just uses about 2,152 K of your RAM.

If there is an autorun file in flash disk, "USB Disk Security" gives you a warning and you can decide what steps you would take on the autorun file. Again, it’s very different from some antivirus programs which frequently encountered where some of them simply delete autorun file.

We knew that not all autorun programs were bad. Here’s a bit screenshot of the USB Disk Security when it found an autorun file from a flash disk.

Actually, this post is enchantment from this post USB FlashDisk Security.
Just click here to download and enjoy it.

For the complete download page, go to Download Tools Page here.
See you in the next Windows security tips.

Windows Tips; What cndrive.exe Is?

Hello everybody, very long times thecybergal has no ideas to post something useful for you. Now, I will try to give some information about something like Trojan which called cndrive.exe. The name of cndrive.exe is given by SmadAv antivirus. It did bad things like cutting your internet connection. Here’s the simple descriptions about cndrive.exe:

1. Category: backdoor Trojan, network aware worm.
2. Process name: cndrive32.exe.
3. File location: %systemroot%\cndrive32.exe.
4. Size: 339,968 bytes.
5. Registry Activity:
*[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\Run] > Microsoft Driver Setup = "%Windir%\cndrive32.exe". *[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run] > Microsoft Driver Setup = "%Windir%\cndrive32.exe".

That’s all brief descriptions about cndrive32.exe. If your AntiVirus program can easily remove the Trojan, I think you got some good protection. But if you felt disturbed about this Trojan and your AntiVirus seems not good, you may manually block this Trojan process. Do these steps:

1. Run, and type "gpedit.msc". Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System and double click Don’t run specified Windows applications.
2. Set to Enabled, click Show button next to List of disallowed applications. Click Add button and enter the name (cndrive32.exe).
   
   
   
   cndrive32.exe by thecybergal
   
3. If there are other programs that you suspect, just enter the name of the program such as the steps above.

Ok, buddy. That’s all a bit of Windows tips today. I hope you get something useful by reading thecybergal. See you on the next Windows tips. Not only cndrive32.exe of course.

Adapted from the letter of:

1. Ahmad Syahruddin (asm2000@yahoo.com)
2. Motta Gare (mottagare@yahoo.com)

Computer Tricks; How To Make Portable Application

Hello everybody, how interest your weekend are? I hope everything is going OK. This Sunday, thecybergal will tell you a Windows trick to make some portable applications. Some advantages of using portable applications like; you can run your application smoothly without any installation on your Windows computer and although when you had no an Administration user you will not probably thinking something about Administrator cracker programs.

We will talk 2 programs now. The first is Thinstall and the other is Virtual PC. Thinstall is used to make the portable application and Virtual PC is used to install the program we made. Why should you use Virtual PC? Of course, if you had other clean PC you didn’t need Virtual PC anymore and I was sure that you had not.

First time you have to do is installing Virtual PC into your real PC. I used Windows XP as OS in my Virtual PC and install the Thinstall into the real PC. Make sure you activated the Undo Disk feature on your VPC settings which it will keep your VPC is absolutely clean when you close (not Shut Down) your VPC. I mean anything job you done would be discarded if you activated Undo Disk feature.

Give your VPC an IP address, e.g. 192.168.0.2 and real PC (will be called as RPC) 192.168.0.1. Start your Thinstall (in the RPC) from your VPC by accessing the appropriate Thinstall folder. You must share your Thinstall folder first and give the Full Control to the other computer (your VPC machine). For an example, you can Run and type \\192.168.0.1 (without quotes) in your VPC. This makes a way to access your Thinstall.exe program.

Once you accessed your Thinstall.exe you just have to press Start button (Thinstall’s button) and select the proper Registry hives. Click on Pre-Install Scan and you can take a rest while Thinstall capture your "fresh" VPC’s registry. When Capture process finished, you should install the program which will be made as portable apps. Don’t forget to insert the registration or anything key until your Installed Apps working correctly. And the last job is press the Post Install button in the Thinstall’s wizard. When you noticed that Setup capture is complete all you have to do is double-clicking the build.bat in the Thinstalled app's folder. The new-portable app's.exe is located it the folder bin. You can run the Thinstalled apps wherever you login and whatever your Account types.

See the pictures bellow and I think you can understand what I mean is. Click the pictures for detail view.

Ok, that's all Windows tips from thecybergal. I hope it will be useful for you. Give your feedback for a better next post.

Computer Tips; Repair Hang on Start UP (Windows Logo)

Hello, meet you again on the last Friday this month. Today, thecybergal shares you tips how to repair Windows hangs when Windows logo appears. This article was taken from my experience.

So my computer cannot get into Windows but stops when the Windows logo appears. To fix it, we can improve through the Repair Console. Booting the computer with the Windows XP CD and press R at the time of the first dialog appears.

Do these Windows trick bellow:

1. Type the Administrator password to get into Windows directory.
2. Make a temporary directory to save all configurations, "md thecybergal" (without quotes).
3. Copy all configuration files, actually there are five configuration files: software, system, sam, security, and default to the temporary directory we created. Type the syntax bellow followed by enter button.
• copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\windows\thecybergal\software
• copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\windows\thecybergal\system
• copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\windows\thecybergal\sam
• copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\windows\thecybergal\security
• copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\windows\thecybergal\default
4. Delete the old configuration files,
• delete c:\windows\system32\config\software
• delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
• delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
• delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
• delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
5. Copy the new configuration files which will replace the deleted files.
• copy c:\windows\repair\system c:\windows\system32\config\software
• copy c:\windows\repair\software c:\windows\system32\config\system
• copy c:\windows\repair\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
• copy c:\windows\repair\security c:\windows\system32\config\security
• copy c:\windows\repair\default c:\windows\system32\config\default

If you feel the Windows tips mentioned above quite confusing, you can use the LiveCD to fix it. This method may be more familiar because you just have to copy-paste like your Windows habitual. I usually use miniPE to do something with LiveCD

OK, that's all Windows tips today. I hope it will be useful for you.
Adopted from Microsoft Support

Computer Trick; Uninstall MagicDisc

Have you known MagicDisc? MagicDisc is a freeware program which allow you to mount your ISO files, so you can view the final result before you decide to burn your ISO. Generally this program is better if we combine it with the MagicIso (shareware program). MagicIso is a burning tool which has small in size. We can burn many ISO files like *.nrg, *.uif, *.iso, and the most today’s ISO format.

Although MagicDisc has a powerful function, but it has a bug instead. We had met some difficulties when we tried to uninstall it. In the initial uninstall progress, it seen like a normal process, but the progress bar suddenly stopped for unclear reason. I have tried to uninstall MagicDisc in many times, and the result is same, the uninstall progress bar stopped.

I looked for the answer to Google and found some answers. The most effective trick is as described bellow:

1. Boot into Safe Mode Windows by pressing F8 just when the black screen appears before Windows loaded.
2. Type in the Run box "%systemroot%\system32\drivers".
3. Delete mcdbus.sys (this is the MagicDisc SCSI Host Controller) which is what’s causing all these problems.
4. Reboot and start Windows normally then uninstall it.

That’s all our Windows Trick today, hope will be usefull for you. I got this trick from sevenforums.com. Say thanks to beatsme.

Windows Tips; How to Disable Autorun

Windows has a feature called Autorun. Autorun is a program like autoplay. Microsoft Windows has launched it since Windows 95 generation. Generally, autorun was found in a program to make easier in the installation step.

We often meet the autorun program on the hardware driver disk. Using autorun, we don’t need to look for the setup application to install the correct driver.

Autorun looked so friendly now, but sometimes autorun can make us have a bit of peevish. That happens when several viruses spread himself using autorun. So, I think is a good idea if we turn off the autorun feature. We still can run the hardware driver installation from the setup.exe file.

So, how to disable autorun programs, do these steps:

1. Press Win Key + R and type "gpedit.msc"
2. Under Computer Configuration double click Administrative Templates
3. Go to the System, and double click Turn off Autoplay
4. In the Turn Off Autoplay Properties window, select Enabled. From the dropdown next to Turn Off Autoplay on, select All drives and then click OK. Exit Group Policy by selecting File, then choosing Exit from the menu.

That’s all our windows tips today. If you have some questions, just give us your feedback and we will try to help you...

Various Ways to Make The Program Started Up Automatically

Hello, meet you again with some Windows Tips. Now, I'll share you some computer tips about making auto run a program. We decide it into two parts.
From the registry, we have four Windows tricks:

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. Values defined under this key cause tasks to run for every users that logs on to the systems.
2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RuValues defined under this key cause tasks to run for every user that logs on to the system.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce. Values defined under this key cause a task to run the next time any user logs on to the system (and not after that).
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce. Values defined under this key cause a task to run the next time the current user logs on to the system.

From the Startup Folders

1. Programs placed in the following folder are run after any user logs on to the system: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
2. Programs placed in this folder are run for a specific user: %USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

That's all our Windows tricks today, hope you get some useful thing from what I posted today.
Adopted from Windows Server Cookbook @Team LiB. Say thank to them.