On my home desktop PC, I’m running Windows Media Player 11 under Windows XP. Last night, when attempting to sync some music with my phone, I realised that a couple of recent albums were missing from WMP. However, they were in the My Music folder, along with everything else. Clearing down the library and getting WMP to rebuild it didn’t work.

However, after a bit of searching I found that rebuilding the media library is the usual solution. Here’s what you do…

1. Close Windows Media Player
2. Ensure that service “Window Media Player Network Sharing Service” isn’t runnong
3. Find the directory %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player\ and rename or delete it.

At this point, WMP usually then works. But not in my case. Instead I found a lesser known solution – basically, the system flags have been set for these files. Unfortunately, Windows file dialogue doesn’t tell you this so you have to resort to the Command Window.

Navigate (in a command window) to your music folder and then run…

dir /ads /s

This will list any folders that have the system flag set. In my case my missing albums were listed. To reset the system flag run the following…
attrib -s *.* /d /s

Some errors will occur – these are related to the system files that are in each album folder. However, this command doesn’t affect them due to them being hidden.

When I then re-added my music folder to WMP the missing music appeared!

The BIOS on my Acer was horribly out of date and the change logs showed that a lot of useful fixes had been implemented since. As much as I hate doing BIOS updates, due to the possibility of catastrophic problems, I decided to give it a go.

I couldn’t find anything on the Acer site on how to do it, although they offer the BIOS updates, but I did find various forums and blogs¹ where it’s been discussed. In the end I found a combination of advice was the best solution.

In a nutshell, the BIOS has to be upgraded via DOS. And not the Command Prompt DOS-a-like that Windows offers. That means putting DOS on a USB stick and booting from it.

Bear in mind that I have a Windows XP A150 Aspire One. And that when I say USB memory, I also mean USB drive. And vice versa.² So, what you’ll need…

1. A USB memory stick. I read somewhere that recommended a 4GB one. No idea why as the files took up 3.2MB in total. Now, and this is where I went wrong initially, the USB memory has to be formatted as FAT32 and not NTFS.
2. A download of UNetbootin – this is a free program that will create a bootable USB device with one of a number of downloadable operating systems, including any your own. Simply click on the option to download the latest Windows version.
3. A download of the latest BIOS from Acer. Make sure you unzip it.

And here’s the process..

1. Ensure your memory stick is plugged in and run UNetbootin.
2. It will prompt for a “Distribution” – change this to “FreeDOS”.
3. At the bottom of the window ensure the “Type” is “USB Drive” and the “Drive” is the drive letter of your USB memory stick.
4. Click on “OK” and FreeDOS will be installed onto the USB drive.
5. Now copy the BIOS files onto the USB drive as well.
6. Reboot the Acer and press F2 at the “splash screen” to go into the BIOS settings.
7. Once in the BIOS select the Boot Menu and move the USB HDD to the top of the list (using F5 and F6 to move them up and down).
8. Press F10 to save and exit.
9. Your Acer should now boot from the USB stick.
10. The FreeDOS screen will appear with an option to select a default option. Do this.
11. You will now be presented with a list of boot options – select option 5 (FreeDOS Live CD).
12. I should have maybe said earlier that if you’re not literate with DOS, then you may struggle at this point FreeDOS will now have started and you’ll have a standard DOS screen. Go into C:\ (which is actually your USB memory stick) and find the BIOS files you saved earlier. In particular, find the .BAT file and run it.
13. The BIOS should now install and reboot your Acer. Make sure to change the BIOS back to boot from your hard drive in future (and, whilst you’re there, check the BIOS front screen to ensure the BIOS version number is correct!).

1. particularly this one [↩]
2. it’s confusing isn’t it? Different names for the same thing [↩]

Even after my recent problems trying to get a decent price out of Dell for one of these, I’m still interested in getting a Mini 9.

Their £20 off offer has official ended so I was keen to see how they’re selling now.

I read earlier today about the imminent release of the Mini 10, so I’m thinking that Dell is likely to be wanting to shift their stock of Mini 9’s and this was maybe my chance. Why go for a Mini 9 when the superior Mini 10 will be out? Simple – the Mini 9 has an SSD drive. I can’t see the point in buying a small, robust, netbook that you can throw in a bag, etc, and stick a fragile HD in it. So, a Mini 9 it is.

And the current selling price for the XP version… £329 with a £10 off offer. Excuse me? It was £279 last week with £20 off. That, in my estimate, made the full price £299. Now it’s £339? What gives? Who the hell is going to buy it now – that’s more than the far, far superior Samsung NC10 is selling for.

Madness. Total madness.

Pick up any PC magazine these days and you’ll find it includes an article about speeding up Windows. And because of the popularity of netbooks, they are more often referring to XP in preference to Vista.

The only problem is that most of these articles get it wrong.

The solution to a slow Windows is not to start switching off functionality. Most people are referring to these articles because their existing system has got slower and slower over time. Why should you then have to switch off Windows functionality to restore the speed you once had?

But before I get started, I’ll share one tip with you. Every year I wipe my hard drive and rebuild Windows from scratch. No, that’s not technically right, as I only do this once. Here’s what to do..

1. Reinstall Windows. This is a good time to ensure your backup strategy works as it will accurately recreate the pain of, say, your hard drive crashing.
2. Install all the appropriate Service Packs and most important applications (those that are unlikely to change and don’t have regular updates – your office applications, for instance).
3. Make all the changes to Windows settings that you require (look and feel-style settings).
4. Don’t copy your documents or anything else personal that you’ve backed up.
5. Now, use image copying software to create a backup of the entire disk at is currently it.

So, every year you can rebuild your PC with the image you created – all you have to do is re-install the rest of your applications¹ and your documents.

Actually, I’ll share another tip with you. Ignore most of what you read about improving XP performance. Most of it involves changing system settings and even modifying the registry – the pagefile, cache settings, network all come in for a good recommendation. Sadly, the vast majority of the advice is rubbish. If it was true 3 service packs down the line, don’t you think Microsoft would have made the change itself? Indeed, researching for this post I came across a prolific Microsoft employee² who posts on sites debunking most of these myths.

So, what does work? Well, there are various ways for ensuring your PC remains at its peek of efficiency (or, at least, the best you’ll be able to). I do these once a month but the timing is up to you – if you’re getting a lot of problems fixed each time you run it, it may indicate that a more regular approach may be required.

1. Uninstall software. As well as using disk space many will be running components in the background that will be slowing your computer down. Sounds obvious, but go through the list of installed programs and remove any that you simply aren’t using. Use JavaRa to remove old copies of Java.
2. Make sure your software and drivers are up-to-date – these updates will often be more efficient and, even if not, are generally of an advantage to have. There is lots of software out there for checking whether software is up-to-date – FileHippo is my favourite – but I’d advice avoiding any that update drivers as I’ve only ever had problems from these³.
3. Run CCleaner – not just the main cleaner but the registry cleaner as well⁴. This will clear down any redundant files from your file system and registry. I’ve tried other similar programs but have often found them to have damaged the registry – CCleaner has never done this to me.
4. Use CCleaner to review and modify which programs are run during startup (click on Tools and then Startup). If you’re not sure what a program does, simply Google it.
5. Uninstalled programs often leave empty folders behind – use Remove Empty Directories to suggest and, alternatively, remove empty folders.
6. Now you’ve got your PC as clean and crap-free as possible, you will need to defragment it. File fragments are created as ever-expanding files are split into different parts so that they can be slotted onto your hard drive. Defragmenting will put all the files back together and make them quicker to access. Some defragmentation programs can even more the files around on your hard drive so that they are more efficiently accessed (e.g. some parts of the hard drive spin quicker than others, so putting regularly accessed files in these faster areas will improve performance).
7. Defragment your PC using JkDefrag. Its default settings will be just fine, but will only work on your main system drive. If you have others you’ll need to investigate the parameters that can be passed to the program. This is a superb program, not very easy on the eye and not overly user-friendly, but it does its job incredibly well. It even comes with a screensaver option that will defragment your drive when the computer is not in use.
8. Now run PageDefrag – this will defragment locked page files (these are files that are used as “virtual” memory)
9. Lastly, run RegDefrag. Like your file system your registry can do with the occasionally clean, especially if CCleaner has been busy with it!

And that should be it. If you still have speed issues after all this then think about how much more software (and hardware) you’ve installed since it was a bit more speedy. It could be hardware to blame – running a regular benchmarking program might highlight problems. Otherwise, you may have got to the stage where you hardware simply can’t cope with your current build – memory is usually the quickest way to improve this situation (not just more memory, but quicker memory).

1. another tip here – keep a spreadsheet of the applications you have installed along with links to where they can be downloaded [↩]
2. assuming he wasn’t bogus [↩]
3. the type of problems that normally involve blue screens and system restores [↩]
4. make sure you back up your registry before running this [↩]

Ok, I’ll admit it – I don’t have many “commercial” programs on my PC. Not because I’m a software thief, but simply because there are so many good freeware equivalents available. Therefore this bunch is a bit eclectic. So, in alphabetic order…

ABBYY FineReader

A “lite” version of this came with my scanner and even this is excellent at reading and interpreting text into an electronic format. I often transfer old show programmes onto the BMTG site, and being able to scan them in and convert straight into text to paste onto the site is a god-send. Are there any freeware OCR packages?

Acronis TrueImage

A backup program, yes, but also a splendid program for making disk images. And the latest version can be found for a real bargain (often under £18).

ArcSoft Panorama Maker

Unless you have a product that already has easy-to-use panorama facilities built-in, then this comes highly recommended. It will stitch photos together to make panoramas but, most importantly, it’s incredibly easy to use.

Carbonite

You really can’t beat the satisfaction of knowing that any backup you make is safe and secure, no matter what happens. Those CD’s and hard disks you’ve backed all your precious photos onto – where are they stored? What if there’s a house fire? Sobering thought.

Carbonite sits in your system tray and silently backups all your files to a remote location. Space is unlimited.

DigiGuide

A TV guide application that does, well, pretty much anything you can think of (and if it can’t, there’s a raft of plugins available to help you out). And less than £10 a year.

I’ve used it for years and wouldn’t be without it. Use the link above for a 30 day free trial.

Microsoft Money

It hasn’t been updated for years in the UK (come on Microsoft!) but it’s a valuable tool for getting your personal finances under control. If you can find a copy (eBay?), go for it!

Microsoft Office 2007

For some, a controversial choice as this appears to be a bit of a Marmite product. But I love it. It takes a while to get used to – and I’m still annoyed at how hard it is to insert and delete rows and columns in Excel, compared to how I had the older versions of Office – but it’s improved ease of use and increased functionality makes up for this.

And, yes, yes, OpenOffice is free. But it’s not a patch on this.

Paint Shop Pro

Ah, yes, the original and best. It’s not half as expensive as its rivals but I wouldn’t be without it. Personally, I’m still using version 5.

So, yes, it’s a graphics editor. The current versions are so much more too, with expertise in photo editing and the like, and are way up there with Photoshop, but at a fraction of the price.

I tend to use Photoshop for actual image work, whereas I use Photoshop for photos.

Photoshop Elements

I’ve just bought this after reading rave reviews pretty much everywhere. And, without much of a manual, I’ve had to buy myself. When I get through it, I’ll let you know more fully, but it looks pretty damn good (and the panorama facility will probably make me throw away the aforementioned ArcSoft product).

However, as sods law would have it, I’ve just bought version 6 and, wouldn’t you know it, version 7 is now about to be released (there’s a link on to the side where you can pre-order it).

Windows XP

Yes, Windows XP. I wouldn’t want to touch Vista with a barge-pole. And as much a geek as I am, I don’t get on with Linux. XP is stable and easy-to-use.