The Net Gate

Using Firefox 3.0.x to connect to the Netgear Wireless Accesspoint WPN802v2, may fail due to an invalid security certificate error (see picture below):

Alert: <ip address> uses an ivalid security certificate

When this error occurs, you won’t be able to connect to the admin interface of the Wireless Accesspoint. I managed to fix this by creating a security exception in the Firefox Certificate Manager:

Select in ‘Tools‘ from the Menu bar, ‘Options’:

Select in the ‘Advanced’ tab – the ‘Encryption’ tab. Next, select ‘View Certificates‘.

In the Certificates Manager, select the ‘Servers’ tab. Next, select ‘Add Exception‘

Enter the IP Address of the Wireless Access Point in the ‘Add Security Exception’ window and select the ‘Get Certificate‘ button.

The Certificate Status will be displayed.

Select ‘Confirm Security Exception‘ and exit the Certificate Manager.

You should now be able to logon the Admin interface.

Squeezebox iTunes integration

Squeezebox Server supports iTunes libraries and playlists. It can fully integrate the music library, without scanning the music folders.

To make this work correctly, enter the location of the iTunes library. You can do this by following these steps (make sure the Squeezebox Server is running):

1) Click on the Squeezebox Server icon in the system tray and choose ‘Open Web Control’

2) Click on the ‘Settings’ button (at the bottom right) of the Squeezebox Server Web Control page

This will open the Server Settings web page.

3) Click on the ‘iTunes’ tab and enter the iTunes library (library.xml) location

Then press the ‘Apply’ button to save the settings.

At the next scan the iTunes library and all playlists will become available on your Squeezebox. You can manually rescan the library under the ‘Basic Settings’ tab (Rescan Music Library).

Optimize Firefox (3.0.x)

Firefox can be manually tweaked by typing ‘ about:config’ in the address bar and then modifying the values of the respective fields of the Firefox control panel (i.e. the page that is displayed).

However, the easier way is to use FireTune, a freeware tool that helps to fine tune network related settings of Firefox.

If that is not enough, then you may consider the Configuration Mania extension to tweak many of the advanced (and hidden) settings.

Disable or remove any unused or unnecessary plug-ins, extensions and add-ons.

To minize page load time, I recommend to install these extensions:

Flashblock (to control Flash animation)

PDF Download (to control PDF files)

While Firefox can be instaledl without (Windows) administration rights, you may encounter problems to install plug-ins. Here is some good advice to install the Flash Player plugin.

How to cleanup orphan itunes library entries.

iTunes libraries will flag orphan entries with an exclamation mark!

These entries can be cleaned in two ways:

A) Create a new library:

Start iTunes by holding the shift key (keep the shift key pressed, while you select and start iTunes). iTunes will prompt you to create a new library (or choose an existing one).

B) Use a 3rd party tool:

iTunes Library Updater is a free utility to synchronize the iTunes database with your media collection. I run it with the ‘Clean orphaned entries’ option only:

note that .NET Framework must be installed to run this programme

iTunes 9 – settings

These settings I have applied on my iTunes 9 software to get the best performance on my Windows system. Some of these tasks (like 1 and 2) may need to be re-run after an iTunes upgrade. This environment work fine for all my iPods (shuffle, nano and classic).

1) Remove the help executables in the windows startup file:

Run ‘msconfig’ and disable (untag) the two lines in the startup file:

2) Disable the Apple Mobile Device (since I do not have such a device)

Run ‘services.msc’ – stop the service and disable this service (right-click on the item and choose modify)

3) Reboot and start iTunes

On the top menu, select Edit, Preferences and review the settings in each of the tabs:

Tuning the Windows environment – Windows XP re-install

Here is a guide to refurbish a Windows XP Laptop system; in other words, re-installing Windows from scratch. In this case, the Laptop was a Toshiba Satellite 1800-514 which has a Celeron 1 GHz processor and 384 Mb RAM (128MB + 256MB) installed and a 15Gb internal hard drive. It is a ‘legacy’ system with limited resources, indeed. However, with some tweaking, it will still perform well for common applications. After customization, the system was able to run iTunes 9, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Office 2003 suite.

1)      Backup all data.
Make sure you are logged on with administrator privileges. Change the folder options to include hidden files and system folders.
Search the system for data files. Not all files may reside under ‘My Documents’, in particular also scan the Shared folders on the system.
An easy way to perform the backup is to use the ‘Sysback’ tool.

2)      Backup user profile specific files.
Custom desktop wallpaper files are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Local Settings\Microsoft\
Custom account picture files are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\

3)      Backup user mailboxes.
In case of Microsoft Outlook Express, it wise to follow my Microsoft Outlook Express housekeeping steps.

4)      Backup or get a copy of specific drivers for video, sound, modem and network support. In particular, keep a copy of the video drivers; download the most up to date copy from the manufacturer’s site (e.g. NVIDIA or ATI), if necessary. Check if any other specific files or settings have to be saved. Check the equipment model and version in the Device Manager (Control Panel, System, Hardware). The auto detection of some of the devices may not work for older systems, so write them down.

5)      Save your Wireless Network Connection settings, in particular, ensure you note the network name (SSID) and security key.

6)      Set the CD-ROM as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system with the Windows XP installation CD. Remove all external drives! If not, windows may install them as system drives.

7)      Before starting the windows installation process, check the available partitions. Ideally, you should create a partition to install windows on (with at least 30 Gb) and a partition for the user data files (any remaining space). If the drive is too small (50 Gb or less), just use one partition. More information about partitioning is available in my ‘dedicated data partition‘ post. In this case the system has only 15 Gb, which means that you should remain with only one partition.

8)      Once Windows has been installed, proceed with the custom driver installation. The first to update is the video driver. Then check the Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager: for any device with a (yellow) question mark, you will need to install or update the driver. Use the files from step 4, install from the manufacturer CD (if available) or download from the internet. This step is only successful if no question marks occur in the Device Manager list. You may need to reboot the system after installation of some device drivers.

9)      Start the customization of your windows environment:
Regional and Language Options (in the Control Panel) are a minimum to verify, in particular the keyboard settings (in the Languages tab, Details) need to match the attached keyboard lay-out.
Name and Company Information can be changed in the Registry. Follow the Microsoft instructions.
Apply the items of my ‘Windows XP optimization‘ post.
In this particular case, I applied additional tweaks to improve the performance:

1. Verification if some services can be disabled (refer to my ‘disable services’ post).
2. Prefetch setting was set to value 1-App launch (instead of 3-Both):
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher].
3. Last Access Timestamp was disabled
   [run: FSUTIL behavior set disablelastaccess 1]
4. DOS 8.3 filename creation was disabled
   [run: FSUTIL behavior set disable8dot3 1]
5. Performance counters were disabled
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Perflib]
   (run regedit and create DWORD ‘DisablePerformanceCounters’)
   Set the value of DisablePerformanceCounters to 1
6. Disable ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers’ in the Control Panel, Folder Options, View tab.
7. Process idle tasks in the background (this operation may be periodically repeated).
   (run ‘Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks’)

10)   Set the Hard Drive as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system. Make sure the system is connected to the internet (a wired connection, not Wi-Fi), to allow windows updates to occur. The system may need to be rebooted upon request. In this particular case, only a Wi-Fi adaptor was available.

11)   Install all applications (respect the copyrights) and printers. This may be a good opportunity to upgrade the system with the latest version of the applications. Check on the software developer’s site if any new versions are available. In this case, Firefox 3.5.5 was installed instead of Internet Explorer 8.  Firefox performed better when I checked the performance of the browser, using the Network Tools on my ADSL page.

12)   Create a system ‘restore point’ (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore).

13)   Restore the data from step 1, 2 and 3. Check the user privileges and access rights of the restored data (try to copy a file to an USB key, to check the file access rights).

14)   Perform the five essential steps in XP Maintenance.

Migrate Microsoft Outlook Express 6 to Windows Mail Live

Microsoft Outlook Express (OE) is end-of-life and replaced by Windows Mail Live (WML). Moreover, Outlook Express version 6 was bundled with Internet Explorer and could not be (re-)installed as a standalone application. Hence, the need to say goodbye to this Mail Client and welcome the new version, renamed to Windows Live Mail. This freeware Mail Client can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.

Migration of your messages, address book and mail accounts from OE to WML should work fine, if you upgrade on the same computer with the same Windows version installed. However, moving these data from one computer to another may be challenging. Here are some steps that you can follow to make the transition successful:

1 backup all your Outlook Express data

Follow the steps explained in my ‘Microsoft Outlook Express – Housekeeping’ post.

2 install Windows Live Mail on the source system

Indeed, install Windows Live Mail first on your ‘old’ system to migrate the messages. Once Windows Live Mail is installed, you can import the OE folders and export them into a WML format. The conversion of these data is worthwhile, since WML will create a single file for each message.

3 install Windows Live Mail on the target system

Install Windows Live Mail on your ‘new’ system.
Import the Outlook Express internet account files (‘.aif’ file) and address book (‘.wab’ file).
Import the WML formatted messages from your ‘old’ system. After the import process, you will find your folders and messages under ‘Storage Folders’, ‘Imported Folder’, ‘Local Folders’

Now you’re done and your new system uses the new Microsoft Mail Client, with your mail account(s) and access to your (old) messages and address book.

Tuning the Windows environment – Windows XP speed optimization

Here is a list of items that I apply to optimize a Windows XP system.

1)      Review the System Properties
Adjust the Performance Options in the Advanced Tab:

1. Visual Effects:
   Adjust for best performance.
   In case you want to keep the look and feel of XP, then tag:
   visual styles, common tasks in folders, show window contents while dragging, smooth edges of screen fonts, smooth-scroll list boxes.
   
   Additionally, you may disable the Start Menu delay in the registry:
   [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\]
   set MenuShowDelay to 0
2. Virtual Memory (Advanced Tab):
   Adjust the pagefile size used for Virtual Memory (a.k.a. swap file). The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of physical installed memory (RAM) on your system.
   In case you have a (fast) secondary or subsequent physical internal drive installed in your system (not an external drive), you may opt to move the paging file to one of these drives.
   
3. Disable Error Reporting (Advanced Tab)
   
4. Adjust Environment Variables (Advanced Tab)
   Match the location for the ‘Temp’ directory in the ‘User variables’ and in ‘System variables’
   
5. Adjust the Automatic Updates selection to Notify only.
   
6. Review the Device Manager IDE controllers (Hardware Tab)
    Enable DMA on primary IDE channel
   

2)      Disable indexing services
In Control Panel, choose Administrative Tools, Services, Indexing Service.
By default, indexing is disabled on my System Hard Disk partition. Other drive partitions should also be considered, if the Search function is not or seldom used.

3)      Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile
The Virtual Memory Pagefile (a.k.a. swap file) may become fragmented.
I use two options to keep this file ‘tidy’:
option 1: Regularly perform a pagefile defrag (see ‘Five essential steps in XP Maintenance‘).
option 2: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile at shutdown
This option is also used for security purposes. It ensures that no traces are left on the system and prevents other operating systems to ’sneak’ into this file.
The backdraw is a slower shut down.
Enable this policy in the registry to clear the system Pagefile upon shutdown.[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management]
Set ClearPageFileAtShutdown value to 0

4)      Move the Temporary Internet Files (TIF) folder from the default location.
In ‘Internet Options’, select the ‘General’ tab, Temporary Internet Files box, Settings button, Move Folder button. Move the folder to the root location of any of the permanent drive partitions (like D:\). Note that this is a hidden folder and therefore may not be visible by default.

Windows XP re-install

Here is a guide to refurbish a Windows XP desktop system; in other words, re-installing Windows from scratch. In this case, the desktop was a Dell Dimension 4550 on which three user profiles were defined.

1)      Backup all data for each user profile.
Make sure you are logged on with administrator privileges. Change the folder options to include hidden files and system folders.
Search the system for data files. Not all files may reside under ‘My Documents’, in particular also scan the Shared folders on the system.
An easy way to perform the backup is to use the ‘Syncback’ tool.

2)      Backup user profile specific files.
Custom desktop wallpaper files are stored in c:\Documents and Settings\<user profile>\Local Settings\Microsoft\
Custom account picture files are stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\User Account Pictures\

3)      Backup user mailboxes.
In case of Microsoft Outlook Express, it wise to follow my Microsoft Outlook Express housekeeping steps.

4)      Backup or get a copy of specific drivers for video, sound, modem and network support. In particular, keep a copy of the video drivers; download the most up to date copy from the manufacturer’s site (e.g. NVIDIA or ATI), if necessary. Check if any other specific files or settings have to be saved.

5)      Set the CD-ROM as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system with the Windows XP installation CD. Remove all external drives! If not, windows may install them as system drives.

6)      Before starting the windows installation process, check the available partitions. Ideally, you should create a partition to install windows on (with at least 30 Gb) and a partition for the user data files (any remaining space). If the drive is too small (50 Gb or less), just use one partition. More information about partitioning is available in my ‘dedicated data partition‘ post.

7)      Once Windows has been installed, proceed with the custom driver installation. The first to update is the video driver. Then check the Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager: for any device with a (yellow) question mark, you will need to install or update the driver. Use the files from step 4, install from the manufacturer CD (if available) or download from the internet. This step is only successful if no question marks occur in the Device Manager list. You may need to reboot the system after installation of some device drivers.

8)      Start the customization of your windows environment:
Regional and Language Options (in the Control Panel) are a minimum to verify, in particular the keyboard settings (in the Languages tab, Details) need to match the attached keyboard lay-out.
Name and Company Information can be changed in the Registry. Follow the Microsoft instructions.
Apply the items of my ‘Windows XP optimization‘ post.

9)      Set the Hard Drive as first bootable drive in the BIOS and reboot the system. Make sure the system is connected to the internet (wired connection, not Wi-Fi), to allow windows updates to occur. The system may need to be rebooted upon request.

10)   Install all applications (respect the copyrights) and printers. This may be a good opportunity to uprade the system with the latest version of the applications. Check on the software developer’s site if any new versions are available.

11)   Create a system ‘restore point’ (Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore).

12)   Create the user profiles and restore the data from step 1, 2 and 3. Check each user profile, in particular the user privileges and access rights of the restored data (try to copy a file to an external drive, to check the file access rights).
Visual Effects may need to be reviewed for each user profile.

13)   Perform the Five essential steps in XP Maintenance.

Name and Company Information (after installation of Windows XP) can be changed in the Registry.

Follow the Microsoft instructions:

Click Start, and then click Run.

In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.

Locate the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

To change the company name, do the following:

In the right pane, double-click RegisteredOrganization. Under Value data, type the name that you want, and then click OK.

To change the name of the registered owner, do the following:

In the right pane, double-click RegisteredOwner. Under Value data, type the name that you want, and then click OK.

Click Exit on the File menu to quit Registry Editor.

source: Microsoft Support Website