Blue Screen of Death

 Blue Screen of Death

Blue Screen of Death (or Blue Screen of Doom) BSOD - is a worst type of computer error, when Microsoft Windows encounters a critical system error that causes the system shut down, to prevent damage. 

What causes BSOD: Blue Screens are, generally, caused by poorly written device drivers or malfunctioning hardware, such as faulty memory, power supply issues, overheating of components, or hardware running beyond its specification limits. 

By default, Windows will create a memory dump file when a blue screen error occurs. Depending on the OS version, there may be several formats could be saved in a range of 64kB "minidump" to a "complete dump", which is a copy of entire contents of physical RAM. 

The memory dump file may be debugged later, using a kernel debugger. A debugger is necessary to obtain a stack trace, to determine the true cause of the problem. The information on-screen will be limited and thus it may hide the true sources of the error. 

Windows restarts when a BSOD occurs: Without apparent reasons, if a system restarts, itself, then you may observe it is blue screening problem. By default, Windows automatically restarts the system, whenever it encounters a Blue Screen of Death. Whenever a blue screen appears, a detailed error message will be displayed, and you can disable the automatic reboots of BSOD by the following steps.

Disabling Automatic Reboots of BSOD: Right click on Computer icon and choose Properties. 

System's info window will open. Now click on Advanced system settings. 

Now System Properties window will open; from this window choose Advanced tab then click the Settings button of Startup and Recovery portion. 

 

Now Startup and Recovery window will open. Tick mark of the box Automatically restart should be removed from the portion of System failure. Click OK.

Next time when you get a BSOD, the screen will be stopped and you may read then be able to write the error message. 

How to view BSOD information: NirSoft BlueScreenView is a free application, which helps to scanning the minidump files during BSOD and displaying the crash report.

        
BSOD's report will also be displayed in the Action Center of Windows 7 and the newer versions of Windows, as well. If anyone experienced a blue screen, then check the solutions by opening Action Center.

Windows will analyzing BSOD and other errors that system has experienced; but before showing reports, Windows, itself, has about to fix the problems.  

Tips to tackle BSOD: BSOD may occurred by several ways and following tips will helpful to tackle the problems when you experienced with blue screens. 

1. System Restore: If the system has experienced a blue screening, recently, then use System Restore option to roll-back system's software to a previous state. If this works, then you will recognize that it's software problem. 

2. Malware: Scan the system for malware, which digs deep and hooks the Windows kernel that cause system instability. 

3. Drivers: Improperly installed drivers could also be lead the system to crash. Download the latest drivers from the hardware manufacturer websites and install them. 

4. Safe Mode: If the system runs a blue screen, every time, when switched on then try to booting in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows loads only the essential drivers; and other installed driver, which causes Windows to blue screen, is doesn't work in safe mode. And you may, also, fix the problem from the safe mode. 

5. Hardware: Faulty hardware and errors on system memory or overheating of system may also lead the system to blue screen. 

6. Reinstall Windows: Reinstalling Windows is the right option, which will erase the existing system software and replace with a fresh one. After reinstallation, if the system continues, again, to blue screen  then assume it's a hardware problem.

How To Set-Up Parental Controls On Your Home Network

How To Set-Up Parental Controls On Your Home Network

Web filtering is a way to restrict the web, especially, for young children preventing them from roaming into the bad corners of the Internet. Parental controls can help to filter the web by blocking inadvertent access to inappropriate websites. 

There were several ways to configuring parental controls through the router of your home network to built controls on Windows or third-party software. Remember, teenagers are adept in finding their ways to break the controls, if they wish. 

Your Router: Remember, many routers doesn't supporting parental control option, but configuring parental control through a router is the best way, because the router works as a choke center where all the internet traffics of your network flows through, and setting up parental controls will allow you to perform web filtering not only to the devices on your network but also laptops, smartphones, tablets and even game consoles with built-in browsers. 

If the router has this option then it will be indicated on the box and there will a catalogue, too. Go to the router's web-based configuration pages and set-up the parental controls for your network. 

If the router doesn't supported the parental controls option, then you can use OpenDNS to set up parental controls on any router. To make activation on router, you should have to change the router's DNS server settings to use OpenDNS. 

OpenDNS is a service that allows you to set up an account and configure web filtering, which protect your children on computers, gaming consoles, mobile devices and more. Through this service you may choose different sites to be blocked and the sites you blocked were redirected a message 'The site is blocked', when trying to open from your network. For more information about changing your router’s settings, refer to its catalogue. 

Further, if you want a particular device on your network not to be filtered then change its DNS server settings manually; so, the device would not be engaged OpenDNS service.  

Windows 7 has built-in parental controls, which control timings to a user account can be logged into the system and what programs could be used. This is awesome and helpful for your kids, when they using separate user accounts on your system. But Windows 7 does not supporting web filter. However, Microsoft, still, offers a free program for Family Safety, which allows to set up web filtering on Windows 7. Installing Microsoft Family Safety program on your Windows 7 system then you could be able to manage its settings. This program is a part of Microsoft’s Windows Essentials package.
      
Windows 8 has integrated parental controls along with time limits of Windows 7 and program access controls with web filtering feature and more new options. So, you can manage the settings and view the reports from the same Microsoft Family Safety program. Make tick on the box of 'Is this a child account?', when setting up a new user account on Windows 8, then this account will be identified as a child account and managed by the Family Safety website.  

 
Third-Party Software: Most of the Internet Security Suites come with built-in parental controls and if a security suite is installed on your system then go and verify whether the security suite has built-in parental controls. 

Dedicated parental control solutions, with pay, are available on net. Many free solutions for web filtering, also, available on net. 

Norton Security offers a free Norton Family parental control application that seems to be widely recommended. Try doing a search online and you may found plenty of solutions that would be fit your needs.

Is Your PC Really Needs Defrag?

Is Your PC Really Needs Defrag?

If the PC went slow, everyone of us become uneasy and searching solutions to make the system faster! The solutions you may get from your friends or even from any PC technicians. They all may telling you to defrag the PC.

But the PC really needs a manual trigger of defrag in these days?

Before going into this article, you should know 'what is defragmentation?'. Defragmentation is a process of maintaining file systems, which reduces the amount of fragmentation that organized the mass storage device into smallest number of contiguous regions (fragments). This utility keeping the smaller files within a directory, as they're often accessed in sequence.

Vista or Windows 7: The system, running either Vista or Windows 7, is already scheduled to run defrag, on a regular basis - generally 1 AM every Wednesday. 

The configure schedule for Defrag will be shown in the Disk Defragmenter window, including the last run with fragmented progress.

Above picture shows the disks has been defragmented few days ago with 0% of fragmented, which means schedule of defrag is working fine.

The scheduled timing rule has an exception, when the PC is switched off every time, i.e., the PC is not in idle mode, then the defrag task will not get a chance to run; in this case defrag should be started by manually. 

Windows XP is around 10 year old version; so, by default, it doesn't supporting any automatic defragmentation, instead you may defrag the system by manually in a regular basis. 

If you're using the system heavier as for downloading, deleting, creating or writing and so on, then you need to defrag once in a week and for light use, it may be for once in a month. 

There were couple of steps to perform defrag in XP.  

Start > Run then type dfrg.msc click OK.

             

Alternately, open My Computer, right-click on Local Disk then select Properties.

 

From the Local Disk Properties window, open the Tools tab, then click  Defragment Now.

Disk Defragmenter will open and you may analyze the drive to view a report.

 

Above said is a manual process and if you wish to arrange by a scheduled process (like Vista or Windows 7), then create a task. Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks.
  

The Scheduled Task Wizard will open and select the required program to run, and our case is Accessibility Wizard. 
 

Type %systemroot%\system32\defrag.exe into File name field then click Open. 

 

Assign a name for the task and note, 'defrag' will be the default name, so you may fix any name as you wish. 

Choose the radio button of 'Weekly' as to perform this task then click Next.

 

Now select the time and day for the task you want to start. 

For 'Start time' enter - 1:00 AM, for 'Every ..... weeks' - choose 1, and 'Select the days(s)' - choose Wednesday.

Remember: the settings we made, here, is the default settings of Windows 7. 

 

The user name of default will automatically be entered, and you should enter the correct password and confirm it again then click Next.

Now a window will open with a message 'You have successfully scheduled the following task' - which means everything is done correctly, and tick the box 'Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish' then click Finish. 

When the Advanced Properties open, fill in the Run field with- C: -after the text- defrag.exe -included a space then click OK.

One more step have to do from Settings tab for the Idle Time has to be adjusted as your PC wake-up and run the task. 

Now you’ll be prompted to fill the log-in credentials again, then click OK.

Now an icon, named Disk Defrag, will be placed on your Scheduled Task.

When it runs, the Command Prompt screen will open and run an analysis to complete the defrag process.

The process will running in the background of the system and you may view the running process via Windows Task Manager.

Now your XP system is arranged for an automated scheduling defrag process as like Vista and Windows 7. 

Tips to Type Faster in Android's Keyboard

Tips to Type Faster in Android's Keyboard: 

Most of us missing a lot of great features in our Android phone or Tablet's Keyboard to tapping out the words! 

In fact, we just press the keys to make a word without paying attentions to any of these in-built excellent features!! Knowing these features will make you master then help you to type faster and save time while entering texts. 

Note: Android Keyboard is a piece of software utility with its own unique tricks. It can also be swapped-out or replaced by another keyboard that you might like better.

Swipe Typing: Android 4.2's default keyboard has the ability to type words simply by swiping your finger over them. To type a word (by swipe), simply touch the first letter then glide your finger over the letters. For instance, to type Porto, touch 'p' then glide your finger to 'o' further to 'r'. Android's software will guess the word and displaying it above the keyboard. Lift your finger, the word will be typed. You can follow the way to type many words as sequence quickly, and lifting your finger from the screen between each word(s).  

Prediction of Word and Auto Correction: When tapping a word, Android 4.2's keyboard will try to predict then guess the word you're about to type. For example, when you type messa then the word message will be displayed above the keyboard. Then tap the space bar to move for next word and Android will automatically fill the rest of the word that you're going to type.      

The keyboard will even be useful for the guessing context that you're wishing to type.  

Voice Typing: This feature can be used when your hands are not free, and just dictate the texts over the microphone. For voice typing, you should tap the microphone button to be on from the keyboard then enter the words by speaking them. This feature sends your voice input to Google's speech recognition service, where it is examined and converted as text then send back to your phone. 

An internet connection is required for this feature and you may feel the massive computing power of Google, which makes a wonderful accuracy of input. To entering the special marks such as punctuation - say PERIOD, for comma - COMMA, and for question mark or exclamation mark - QUESTION MARK or EXCLAMATION MARK then Android will enter the appropriate marks to the speaking words.  

Offline Speech Typing: To use this option you should have 4.2 or higher versions of Android and need to install the appropriate Offline Speech Recognition language dictionaries, too. This dictionary, by default, for English probably installed on your phone. Any how to install other language dictionaries, Settings > (tap) Language & input > (again tap) Settings Button, which is in the right of Google Voice Typing. The voice recognition will be less accuracy in this offline mode. 

Keyboard Settings: Customizing  keyboard  of Android supported phone is simple. Settings > (tap) Language & input > (again tap) Settings Button to the right of (e.g., Samsung) keyboard. After tap this, a screen shows many options like Portrait keyboard types, Input languages, Predictive text, Continuous input, Keyboard swipe and etc., From these options you can customize your phone's keyboard settings depending on your requirements.  

Replacement of Third Party Keyboards: Android supporting keyboards of third-party and they can be installed from Google Play to switching on your device.  

Is Windows 64-bit Version more secure than 32-bit?

Is Windows 64-bit Version more secure than 32-bit? 

Nowadays the new systems, Windows 7 and 8, are equipped with 64-bit of versions -  because they're not only providing an advantage of additional memory and also more secure than 32-bit versions. 

64-bit Operating Systems are immune to malware and they, definitely, have more security features, too. 

ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) is a computer security, which randomly arranging the data areas in memory. This feature ASLR prevents some types of security attacks and making more difficult for an attacker to predict target addresses to exploit a vulnerability in program. 

When the system obscures memory addresses from attacker then they've to be guessed and an incorrect guess may result in the program crashing; so, the attacker wouldn't be able to repeat. 

ASLR is also integrated in Windows 32-bit versions and other operating systems, but it's much more powerful on Windows 64-bit. A 64-bit system has a larger address space than a 32-bit and making ASLR much more effective.   

Driver Signing (or Code Signing) is a process of digitally signing executables and scripts with several valuable features such as digital signature mechanism to confirm the identity of author and guarantee that the code has not been altered or corrupted since it was signed by use of a cryptographic hash. 

The malware authors will have to bypass the signing process through a rootkit or try to signing the infected drivers with a stolen but valid certificate of a driver developer. This process makes more difficult to run the system by infected drivers. 

So, Windows 64-bit version enforces mandatory driver signing to prevent unsigned drivers provided by malware. The driver signing is even enforced on 32-bit version of Windows but they may not have compatibility to signed for the older 32-bit drivers.  

During development and test, 64-bit versions (of Windows Vista and later versions) will load kernel-mode, a default behavior, to verify the driver signature. This behavior can be disabled to facilitate driver development and non-automated testing. Developers can use either attach a Kernel Debugger or F8-Advanced Boot Option to temporarily disable load-time enforcement for a valid driver signature.  

Patching the kernel is an unsupported modification of  kernel, which never been supported by Microsoft because it may cause a number of negative effects such as reducing system security and reliability. 

But Kernel Patch Protection (K.P.P) is a patch guard of security feature found only on 64-bit versions of Windows, which protects against these negative effects and include as well for the Blue Screen of Death (results from serious errors in the kernel), Rootkits (modifying the Windows kernel to embed themselves in an operating system), and products that rely on kernel modifications then break the newer versions of Windows or updates, which change the way the kernel works. 

These protections could also be placed on Windows 32-bit versions but they may not have compatibility of software legacy.  

Data Execution Prevention (D.E.P) is also a security feature enhanced in modern OS such as Linux, Mac OS X, iOS, Microsoft Windows and Android to prevent application or service from a non-executable memory region. It helps to prevent certain exploits via buffer overflow, and runs in two modes viz., hardware enforced DEP and software enforced DEP.

If a system doesn't has DEP, an attacker can use the buffer overflow and write code into a region of memory application; then the code could be executed. 

If the system supports DEP, the attacker can do the things in the region of memory application; but the region would be marked as not-executable and could not be executed then attack will be blocked. 

64-bit systems has the hardware based DEP, and this feature is also supporting the modern CPU of 32-bit versions; but it's default settings are more restrictive for compatibility reason. To know more about DEP, visit: Microsoft’s documentation page. 

WoW64 (Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit) is a Windows subsystem, which capable to run 32-bit applications, and included on all 64-bit versions of Windows, such as Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, IA-64 and x64 versions of Windows Server 2003, as well the 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 and Windows 8.  

According to Microsoft, 32-bit software will run under WOW64, which has a similar performance when executing under 32-bit. WoW64 is also designed to get the differences between 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows. 

The subsystem of  WoW64  comprises a lightweight compatibility layer, which has similar interfaces over 64-bit versions of Windows, and creates a 32-bit environment to run unmodified 32-bit Windows applications on a 64-bit system. 

Above clarified security features are foolproof and 64-bit Windows versions are still vulnerable to malware; however, 64-bit versions are definitely more secure than 32-bit.