I have a Dell Quad Core 2.4GHz running Windows Vista Ultimate that I didn’t bother to use for several years now.

The problem? Even with such CPU power, the system boots very slowly, about 3-5 minutes before I can use it.  And once the system finishes booting, the harddrive keeps hammering for hours making things very slow and the harddrive sound gives me headache

It really bothered me to the point I stopped using it completely. Yesterday, I pulled it out => had it factory restored and loaded it with scrapebox; a software to do backlinks for websites.

Things went great but I experienced the same slow booting up and harddrive hammering issues.  I made a trip to Google and after about an hour of reading, I decided to make a Windows Vista Tweak and that fixed the problem entirely. The system now boots very fast, like Windows XP again! and the harddrive no longer makes annoying sound.

What Windows Vista Tweak did I perform? I disabled SuperFetch. SuperFetch is a program designed to give Vista users better computing experience. It preload the programs that we use often into memory so that when we need to run the programs, the programs can be started quickly.

It sounds great but it didn’t work that way. I am very happy now with SuperFetch disabled and I finally feel to have a useful computer again.

Here is how to disable SuperFetch:

• Click “Start” (or the Windows logo on the bottom left) => in the search box, type “services.msc” without quote and hit Enter
• You will see a whole bunch of lines => scroll down to find SuperFetch
• Once found, double click on SuperFetch => this would open up the SuperFetch Properties
• On the line  that says “Startup Type” => select “Disabled”
• Click “Ok” and restart your computer
• Done

That is it. In the many years of owning this computer, I finally feel that I have a useful computer again.

]]> http://www.unixnewbie.org/fixing-vista-harddrive-hammering-problem/feed/ 0 http://www.unixnewbie.org/windows-xp-guest-os-inside-mac-os-x/ http://www.unixnewbie.org/windows-xp-guest-os-inside-mac-os-x/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:27:38 +0000 Stephen http://www.unixnewbie.org/?p=1300

As many of you already know, I have switched to use MAC fulltime. MAC is really good, the experience is awesome and I enjoy it a lot.

Still because I use many programs and some of them do not run on MAC so I need to power up my Windows PC from now and then.

Windows Emulators

It is a little bit inconvenience so I recently looked into running Windows Software inside my MAC. I have tried many Windows emulators including CrossOver, CrossOver works wonderfully but still, some programs do not fully work as expected.

Virtualization

I then looked into virtualization thinking… the only way to make these Windows software to fully work is to have them running inside Windows. It turned out that I am correct. The virtualization software I am using is called VirtualBox. This is a free virtualization program developed by Sun Microsystems, now Oracle. It is very simple to use and is very stable.

Steps by Steps

Installing VirtualBox:

• Simply download VirtualBox here
• Once downloaded, simply double click on it and follow instructions to begin the installation

How to install Windows XP OS Guess in VirtualBox:

• Start VirtualBox
• Hit “New” on the top left to start creating your virtual machine
• Click “Continue”
• Under Name, enter your virtual machine name, i.e. “Windows XP”
• Click “Continue” => then choose your memory size
• Click “Continue” several times => then choose your hard disk size
• Click “Create” to finish creating your virtual disk

Once your virtual disk is created, it will appear on the top left, inside the Virtual Box Manager => simply start it => virtual box will then prompt you to install the Guest OS => from here, enter your Windows XP CD into your CD drive and start the installation.  If you have Windows XP in your computer as .iso file, you can select it and begin.  Pretty easy.

One thing that I was struggling with was how to access the MAC OS X files from inside the Windows XP Guest. Here is the solution:

How to access MAC OS X files from inside Windows XP Guest OS:

• Once you have your Windows XP Guest OS fully installed => boot it up
• Click on “Devices” on the very top left menu => then click on “Install Guest Addition”
• Once complete, reboot your Guest OS
• Once Guest OS boots up => click on “Devices” => then click on “Shared Folder” => now choose the folders you want to access
• Here is how to access the files inside Windows XP:
  -  Click on Start => click on Run
  - Enter “explorer” without quote and click “Ok”
  - On the left menu => click on “My Network Places” => click on “Entire Network” => click on “VirtualBox Shared Folders”
• There you go, now you can open/edit/copy/paste the files/folders in your MAC OS X to your Windows XP Guest.

Hope this helps someone! Take care.

My Windows XP Guest OS inside MAC OS X

Here is my list of the best free and open source software for Mac OS X.

Reference:

For a lot more good, free programs/applications for Mac OS X, check out this Ubuntu list: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ListOfOpenSourcePrograms

I like the way Mac maximize browser windows to the website content but at times (i.e. while reading news), I prefer to maximize my browser windows to the maximum of my screen instead.

There are some apps available to achieve this but I do not like to install too many software on my macbook.

Here is a very easy way to maximize your browser windows on Mac.

1. Notice my Google Chrome browser’s position in the image below, it is a little far away from the Apple logo.
   
2. First, drag the browser window to the very top-left of your screen, like below.
   
3. Next, left-click on the bottom-right of your browser window (note where the red arrow is) => keep holding your mouse click and drag towards the bottom-right of your screen. Did it work for you?

Here are the keyboard shortcuts for Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys in Macbook laptops.

Sometimes, while browsing the Internet, you probably experience some pop-up advertisement windows.

Here is how to see all opened browser windows so you can close them:

fn + F10

This command displays all opened browser windows 

fn + F9

This command displays all opened windows and folders in your Mac

Did you just switch to Mac and searching for something similar to PuTTY?

In Mac, there is a similar, built-in application called Terminal.

To start Terminal, go to your Mac’s Applications folder => click on the Utilities folder => then click on Terminal.

How to access a web server using the Terminal?

# ssh username@server.address.com

example:
# ssh root@unixnewbie.org

- when prompted for the password, enter your web server password.
- to quit the session, type "exit".

Where are the Terminal settings/preferences?

On the top left of your screen, next to the Apple logo, click on Terminal => click on Preferences. From there, you can select various themes and settings.

If you are new to Mac, it can be confusing at first on how to properly install a program.

When you have the software downloaded, it is either:

1. Application ready: you just need to double click on the program to run it
    
2. Or Disk Image file, ending with .dmg: When you double click on a disk image file, you will be presented with either: an installer with instructions to guide you through steps OR a new window popping up asking you to drag the program to the Applications folder.
    

   - With the installer, simply follow the instruction steps to install the program
   - With the new window, simply drag the program to the Applications folder

   Post Installation: When you double click on the .dmg file, the program is mounted as a virtual disk on your desktop. After you finish installing the program, you should unmount it. To do this, simply right clicking on the icon and choose Eject. The .dmg file then can be discarded or stored somewhere in case you wish to reinstall the program in the future.

How to add a program in Ubuntu:

Ubuntu 9.10 comes with an add/remove software called: Ubuntu Software Center.

This software can be found in: Applications => Ubuntu Software Center. Once started, you will find a list of available categories and a search box; you can navigate the categories or use the search box to search for your software.

Once you locate a program you would like to install, click on it => then click on the Forward arrow button found on the right side of the software you just clicked on => now click on the Install button => then enter your password to begin.

 
How to remove a program in Ubuntu:

To remove a program in Ubuntu => start the Ubuntu Software Center => click on Installed Software (located on the top left) => click on the software you would like to remove => click on the Forward Arrow => then click on the Remove button.

Here is how to install Google Chrome in Ubuntu 9.10. This will install Google’s browser version, not chromium version.

1. First visit Google Chrome website
    
2. Scroll down to the Linux section and download the appropriate .deb file i.e. 32 bit systems or 64 bit systems.
    
3. Once the download is complete, double click on the .deb file to launch the Google Chrome installer => then click on Install Package
    
4. That is it Once installed, you can find Google Chrome in Applications => Internet => Google Chrome