So this is just what was needed in the grand scheme of the universe... yet one more Blog on the Net to further suck up bandwidth – LOL Hey... it's all in good fun right? And what good would the Net serve if it wasn't fun?

Random Segues is brought to you by Esoterik of Orphan Computers. Orphan Computers is a SOHO established to provide Computer Service, Repair, Support and Recycling to other SOHOs in and around Minneapolis, MN. However, that’s not quite ambitious enough for me. I would like to develop informational content on this site that will be of benefit to its readers. Open dialog is always a good thing and a free exchange of ideas is the best way to discover valuable information. Well… we will see just how well that works.

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In their native state, going back to Windows NT and moving forward, Windows operating systems include a "background service" called Messenger Service, which provides a method for network users to communicate with one another using "pop-up" messages. By design, the original intent of Messenger Service was for system administrators to notify users on their networks of system-wide events or other useful information. It was never widely employed by legitimate users. However, Messenger Service remains as a legacy feature of Windows which allows, if you are online, anyone on the Internet to actuate pop-up messages on your system. At best this includes unscrupulous spamming advertisers. At worst, malicious individuals distributing viri.

Let me make it clear that I am not talking about "Windows Messenger," "MSN Messenger," "Yahoo Messenger" or any other instant messaging program you may be using. Although it has a similar name, it is completely different from and not related to these other programs. (Although these programs also have their own security issues.) By default, Messenger Service runs quietly and unnecessarily in the background as an Internet Server, actively listening on open communication ports for incoming network packets. As it does not require being actively maintained by a system’s user, it automatically serves what ever communication is aimed at it. While it does so it is unnecessarily utilizing system recourses such as CPU cycles and Memory. So hopefully, you can see that leaving this unattended, unneeded, unwanted and almost never legitimately used "service" active on your system is not only a bad idea but as a practice, dangerous.

To sum up:
Messenger Service unnecessarily consumes systems resources which can be better used elsewhere – BAD.
Messenger Service unnecessarily provides a major security breach into your system when you are online - BAD.
And did I say that Messenger Service was unnecessary?

So at this point, most rational users will be asking themselves, "How do I get this thing off my system?" Well, the average user is not going to get it "off" their system, but they will disable it. And remember, this will have no ill effect on any other instant messaging applications you may be using.

In order to disable Messenger Service, we will explore and employ the "Computer Management" applet of Windows:
Click Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management
If you have never been in the Computer Management applet before, know that this applet can be the Tech’s best friend. It contains an arsenal of tools to battle various computer issues, but for now, we will just focus on the task at hand, disabling Messenger Service.
Click Services and Applications > Services.
You will now have the "Services Panel" open that lists all of the services included in Windows. You will notice at the bottom of the Services Panel two index tabs, "Extended" and "Standard." The extended tab will make readily available the entire description that Window’s provides for each service. The list is alphabetical, so scan down until you find the listing for Messenger. Click on it to highlight it. If you have the extended tab activated, you will find the description starting with: "Transmits net send and Alerter service messages between clients and servers…." to the left of the list. If this is what you see then you know that you have highlighted the correct service.
Right Click on Messenger. This will open a drop down menu.
Click on Properties, and open the Messenger Properties dialog box.
In this dialog box, which should be open to the General Tab by default, you will find a field labeled "Service Status." Click on the Stop button. Directly above Service Status you will find the "Startup Type" drop down box. Click on the arrow to drop down three choices: Automatic, Manual, and Disable.
We are here to disable this bad boy, so Click on Disable.
Click Apply > OK.
Now, when you look at the Messenger line of the Services Panel, note that in the Startup Type Column, the word Disable appears. Good job! You are finished. You can now close the Computer Management Window.

In this exercise, we took the long way around to achieve our purpose. As in just about any other thing you may want to do with Windows, there is more then one path available to take. I choose to take you through this particular route to expose you to the Computer Management applet under Administrative Tools. A more direct route to the Services Panel can be taken by utilizing the "Command Line Interface" or "Run Dialog Box."
Click Start > Run.
In the Open line, type in "services.msc" (no quotes)
The Service Panel opens directly up without being contained in the Computer Management Applet Window.
The procedure from this point will be as previously directed, with one minor modification. After scrolling to the messenger line, rather then Right Clicking it to open the drop down menu and Clicking on Properties, just double click the line. The same dialog box appears. Is it not great how Windows has a dozen ways to do just about everything? No wonder users can get somewhat confused.

Also, while you were looking through the Services list to find Messenger service, it may have occurred to you to ask the question, "If Messenger is unnecessary, are there other services in this list that are unnecessary?" Absolutely! But whereas elimination of unnecessary services is a practical method of computer performance optimization, one doesn’t want to just go through the Services list disabling things left and right. We will leave further discussion of other services which can be safely disabled for the future.
Nuff Said!

Windows XP offers some very flexible methods of building custom desktops that are very orderly and functional for a particular user.   The problem with these methods is that they are not very well known and seldom see any use.  Which is why as a tech, I am constantly dealing with computers the desktops of which are so cluttered with icons of every variety that it physically pains the eyes.
So when I will ask a typical customer, "Do you use all these icons?"  What do you suppose their answer is?  "No, most of that stuff my kids put on there."  And then I’ll ask, "Well… of these 80 or so icons, how many of them do you use?"  Usually the answer will be: "Oh… I don’t know.... 5 or 6 maybe.  I wish I could find my Icons easier."  That is when I say, "How about we put the icons you use into a special tool bar?"  Looking stunned and bewildered they ask, "You can do that?"

Well… absolutely! And hear is how:
Right Click anywhere on the desktop.
On the Menu click on New.
Now click on Folder.
While the name "New Folder" is still active, (highlighted in blue) don’t click on anything else, and you can change the name to something catchy like "My Game Icons."  If you do inadvertently click something else before you have the opportunity to change the name just right click on the new folder and select "Rename."  Now that you have your "Newly Named Folder" created, drag from your desktop all of the icons you want it to contain and drop them into it.  In this particular case, that would be all of your Game icons.
For those that don’t know what I just said to do, left click on an icon that you want to move to this folder, keep the mouse button depressed (How do you keep a mouse button depressed?  Tell it she’s fat.),  and move or "drag" the icon directly on top of the folder and release the mouse button.   Viola, the icon is now inside the folder.

You now have a folder full of icons.  Now you need to decide where you want to make a tool bar.  The choices are to either side or the top of the desktop.  Simply drag the folder to the edge you want and drop it there.  Magically there will be created before your eyes a tool bar containing all of the icons you placed in the folder and that is where they will live until you decide otherwise.  Note that the folder you created is still on the desktop.  If you wish to ad additional icons to your toolbar just drag them to the folder and they will pop right up.

Now it won’t matter if the kids choke up the desktop with another 100 icons, your 5 or 6 will be located in your tool bar where you can easily find them.  One word of warning however, should the folder be deleted from the desktop, so will be the tool bar and all of its icons.
Neat, huh?

So you’re looking at your keyboard and you’re wondering to yourself, "Just what is that key between the Ctrl and Alt keys with the Windows Logo on it?" You may have even pressed it out of general curiosity and found that you can use it to toggle the Start Menu on and off, and thought to yourself, "Oh… so that’s what that does… cool!" Well it certainly is useful for that purpose, and it is easier then using the Ctrl+Esc combination which will also toggle the Start Menu on and off, but it can do so much more for you. The Windows Logo Key can be used for a variety of Windows Keyboard shortcuts. Let’s take a look at them. For this discussion we will call it the Logo Key.

One of the most used Logo Key combos is Logo+E. This combination opens a My Computer window with a Windows Explorer Side Bar.

Now let's say that you have your entire desktop covered because you have 6 or 7 windows opened up. There is just one more Application you want to get at but all the open windows are covering up your icons. This is where one of the next most useful Logo Key Combo comes in Handy. Logo+M will toggle all open windows minimized to the task bar. To reverse this process, combine Shift+Logo+M and all the widows you just minimized will be right back again. Now, you can do a simpler toggle to the same purpose by using Logo+D. This combination works as a direct toggle switch. So why would you use Logo+M and Shift+Logo+M instead. If you use the Logo+M combo, you can open another program window to your desktop and still toggle all minimize windows open again. If you open a new window after minimizing all windows on your desktop with the Logo+D command, the minimized windows will not toggle open.

Now that I have all of these windows on the desktop open. Where is the window I want? Logo+Tab will cycle through each of the windows' buttons on the Task Bar. Then pull the window you want to the front by pressing Enter.

Want to get to your Run Dialog Box? Use Logo+R. No need to root into you Start Menu with the mouse.
Want to search for a file? Logo+F opens the Windows search feature.
Want to find another Computer on your network? Ctrl+Logo+F opens the Find Computer feature.
Want your Systems Properties Box? Press Logo+Break and up she comes.
How about this? For some strange reason you want to get to Windows Help. Logo+F1 will get you to that wild goose chase.


Now the complicated one. Ctrl+Logo+Tab. This combination will cycle between the Start Menu, Quick Launch Toolbar, and System Tray. You have to pay very close attention to see this. Your mouse cursor will have to be on the desktop. If it is on an active window, this combination will not work. As you cycle through these items, if you look close, you will see a little dashed box appear in these areas. The first tap gives you the Start Menu. The second tap give you the Quick Launch Toolbar, you cycle through the Quick Launch Icons with your arrow keys. The third tap will cycle you to the System Tray, the little dashed box can be hard to pick out on the first Icon it attached to. Again, you cycle through these Icons using your arrow keys. The forth tap will kind of put you in neutral, and your ready to start a new cycle starting with a new first tap to the Start Menu. A little clunky, but if you ever have your mouse freeze up on you, it can be real handy.

There is a whole other series of Windows Logo Key Shortcuts available to you if you have the Microsoft Natural Keyboards companion IntelliType software installed. But that will be a subject for another time. If you would like to look at that as well as a whole bunch of other Keyboard Short Cut key combinations now, just click Keyboard Shortcuts.

In the interest of keeping a Desktop looking sharp and clean, there are those who would prefer not to see the little arrows that Windows by default ads to any Shortcut Icon. There is a very simple method to effect this tweak, but it involves editing the Windows Registry. So… first and foremost, I make the following disclaimer:
I am assuming the reader possesses "advanced user" skills. If you are not an "advanced user" you need to understand that anytime you make edits to the Windows Registry the potential for undesirable and possibly disastrous consequences is always present. If at anytime you do not understand completely what you are being told to do, then I would advise not to proceed. If something goes wrong, you can rant, rave and yell at me all you want, but I in no way assume any level of responsibility for your actions or consequences of such actions.
Now.... as that has been said, this is really a very easy process. If you pay attention and follow directions to the letter, you should have no problems.
In addition, there is a reason that Windows by default ads an arrow to desktop shortcuts. This arrow distinguishes a shortcut from an actual file. On occasion, or as a general practice with some users (don’t ask me why), files or documents are saved directly onto the desktop as opposed to some other location such as the "My Documents" folder. In other words, such files live on the desktop. An icon of a file located on the desktop will have no arrow because it is the file, not a shortcut to the file. If you remove the arrows from your desktop shortcut icons, the potential arises that you may at some point mistakenly delete a file or document thinking that you are only deleting a short cut. So… if it is your habit to save files or documents directly to your desktop, you may want to leave the shortcut arrows intact.
OK… after all of that, you have decided that you want to eliminate what you regard as those pesky little shortcut arrows. I know I hate them. So here we go….

Launch the Registry Editor. (If you don’t know or can’t figure out how to launch Registry Editor, chances are you don’t need to be tying to do this, but if you insist, Click on the Start button, click Run, in the box type Regedit and then click OK.)
Locate the registry "Hive," HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. Open this Hive by clicking on it or the plus sign next too it. You will now see a very long list of "Keys" which look just like file folders. They are all in alphanumeric order, so it is a simple matter now to scan down the list to find the following two keys: lnkfile and internetshortcut. Open each of these Keys by clicking on the folder, not the plus sign. You will find inside each of these Keys the "Value" of isshortcut.
Now… there are many on the internet that will tell you at this point to delete these Values. No, No, NO! Deletion of these Values will do the job, but it is both primitively brutish and unwise. Permit me to illustrate this point. If you had a finger nail that was getting a little too long, you wouldn’t pull out a pair of pruning shears and cut your finger off at the first knuckle. That would be just a tad excessive and unnecessarily painful. What you would do is carefully trim the nail with a nail trimmer, (or maybe like some people you would just chew it off, but you wouldn’t bite off your whole finger is the point.)
Right Click on the Value isshortcut and on the drop down menu select "Rename." A little box will form around isshortcut and it will be highlighted in blue. Place your curser at the end of this word and add these three letters: b,a,k. (You can type anything here really, but BAK is the standard file extension for a backup, so an "old school" practice is to mark changes you may wish at some point to reverse with a BAK . ) Make sure you save this edit by clicking anywhere on your desktop outside of the Registry Editor Window. After you have made this edit to the Value isshortcut in both lnkfile and internetshortcut Keys, close down the Registry Editor and reboot.
After the reboot, all of the little annoying arrows will be gone. If you should want to get the arrows back, it is simple to reverse this process and remove the BAK from the Values you edited. Had you deleted those Values the reversal process would be somewhat more complicated.

As a side note, there are some articles on the internet which also mention deleting or editing issshorcut in the Key "piffile" as well. You can certainly do this, however, unless you are using an older Window 9x system, it is unlikely that you would encounter any desktop icons related to PIFs. These would be out of the ordinary on an XP desktop.

The merging of volatile and nonvolatile memory technology is apparently in the works. It’s called MRAM, the merciful acronym for Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory. So what? How is this important? Just another memory standard to come and go? Well… if this "hybrid" technology is perfected and ever comes to the market, it will potentially make the biggest splash seen in memory development in quite some time.

Imagine this in your dream PC, 4 GB of the fastest DDR RAM available and it is nonvolatile. OK… so you are not sure what that means? The DDR RAM currently in our PCs is volatile, which means that it only retains data while our PCs are powered up. Turn the system off and everything in memory disappears. We have available to us nonvolatile RAM in the form of USB Thumb drives and various other forms of flash memory (Compact Flash, Smart Media, MMC, SD, XD) and what ever is loaded into these little gems stays put, but in terms of speed relative to main system RAM, this stuff is all pitifully sluggish. MRAM will combine that which is virtuous of both these technologies.

Still don’t see what is to be exited about? OK…. you sit down to your system, turn it on, and get near instantaneous booting to the same state it was the last time you turned it off. So take the time it typically takes your system to boot; add the time it takes to launch Doom, Far Cry, what ever; add the additional time to load your last saved game, and compress that all into a matter of seconds. Get the picture now?

Of course this would not be without certain problems. Viral infestations which stay resident in memory would be a little bit more insidious. So there would need to be a means of clearing this RAM at will in order to obtain a clean new system boot from the HDD. Additionally, current Flash memory degrades over time and has a finite lifespan. So… in any case, while this will be an interesting technology development to anticipate, it’s not going to be on the shelves any time soon.

A question that I would get quite often at the service counter from customers still making the transition from Windows 98 to XP was, "Why can’t I see any of my files extensions? I can’t find them if I can’t tell what they are." Well, the answer to this of course is that by default XP hides extensions for known file types. Why? Who knows, but apparently Microsoft thought that it was a good idea.

This is a simple issue to solve, but it throws a lot of "basic users" because they are just not accustomed to having to think about making certain configuration adjustments. Nor really should they be. But here is what you need to do if you want to see all of the file extensions while looking through My Computer. With My Computer open, click on "Tools" in the menu bar. From the menu that drops down, click on "Folder Options." Now click on the "View" tab. In the View tab you will find "Advanced settings." Under the very first heading, "Files and Folders," count down to the eighth box which says "Hide extensions for known file types." Remove the green check mark from that box and presto, My Computer will now display your file extensions in the manner you are accustomed to.

Now… while you are here, another adjustment you may wish to make is to your "Hidden files and folders." Just above the "Hide extensions for known file types" box is a set of Radio Buttons that controls that. Click on the "Show hidden files and folders" button and they will now show up in My Computer. They will appear transparent, to indicate that they are hidden files. The only files and folders that still remain totally hidden now will be "Protected Operating Systems Files." I would recommend that you keep these files hidden. But you do need to know how to see even these files sometimes to perform certain repairs and quick fixes to your unit. In order to make that adjustment, simply uncheck the "Hide protected operating system files" box you will find directly below "Hide extensions for known file types."

This ad was brought to my mind by a friend of mine at Johreiki.net. We were talking one day, and I was making fun of him because of the age of some of his equipment and his reluctance to upgrade certain things. He shot back, "Yeah, I am somewhat of a Techro-Magnon." Or maybe what he said was Techno-anderthal? I can't remember exactly, but either works to paint the same picture. Then I saw the caveman image on PageTutor.com, and it just clicked. What do you think?

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