I might have to check that out sometime. Videos look pretty good.

Thanks, LirvA.

What does this do? I assumed this would make it so I didn't get alerts related to certain applications, but it never seemed to work that way. Did I just do it wrong, or am I adding them for another reason?

Don't you end up dealing w/ a ton of alerts? Comodo is already really annoying and time-consuming. If I am extremely careful (nothing but poker stuff, etc.) about what I do on my computer, does it really make sense to spend time dealing w/ alerts?


Any chance you could upload your XP theme/post a safe link? (Assuming it's free/ok to share/not pirated/please no more infractions kerowo. ) I am pretty sure I know which one you are using, but I'm hesitant to download it off a site I find through a search.


Thanks.

Yes that's why you add them to my own safe files - to limit the number of alerts that are generated because of the programs. Also, once they're added to my own safe files, any future alerts that are produced because of them, it will say they are safe.


No it shouldn't make the alerts really excessive. Really you'll only get alerts when installing software, uninstalling software, or when software updates and creates new files, or of course if malware is attempting to infect your system.

I don't have an answer for that because that's something only you can determine. If you don't like it, don't use it! You don't have to. Do whatever works for you.


http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/09/roy...me-windows-xp/

Great job on the videos, funkyworms. I install XP almost exactly the same way.

One thing I will be changing is the use of Windows Defender over msconfig for startup trimming. I had forgotten how much info Defender gives about each process.

Also, kudos to LirvA for the useful COMODO info and especially for the awesome theme. I switched (the theme - I use a hw firewall fwiw).

funkyworms,

Setting up a new XP system now. This is very helpful. Thank you.

Would you recommend attempting to do some of the things you did in XP on our Windows 7 systems? I'm sure some (a lot?) of the advice applies, but I am also worried I'll break something.

I've used much of the advice for Vista and found it works great.

Much of the advice applies to XP and Windows 7. Some tasks will be achieved in slightly different ways. Nothing I did will break Vista or 7.

I don't have a remote registry service (XP).

XP Home doesn't have the remote registry service. Consider this a good thing.

Much thanks Funky. This is really damn cool of you.

LirvA,

I feel like you might have mentioned this before. Sorry if you have.

Should I be running Comodo on Safe Mode for Firewall and Defense+? I disabled to post DDS and I am not sure which to set it back to.

Thank you.

Yep, firewall and Defense + in safe mode.

I went to Sounds and Audio Devices and changed it to No Sounds, but I still get a beep when I try to close an unsaved file (and when I try to do some other things). Do I need to go somewhere else to turn off more sounds?

I should have included how to disable the system beep because it is annoying as ****. The system beep comes from an internal speaker so it's not disabled when you set your computer to "no sounds". You'll even hear it when your speakers are muted.

To disable the system beep follow these procedures...

Go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager. In the Device Manager, click the "Show hidden devices" option in the View menu. Go to the "Non-Plug and Play Drivers" section; right-click and disable the "Beep" device.

You may need to restart after doing this.

Hey funkyworms, thanks agin for the awesome thread.

I've just followed these steps to get the leanest XP installation I can under a VM in OSX, and I went one step further by disabling all the services on blackviper's safe list. One problem I seem to be having now is that for some reason the HEM HUd isn't auto-recognizing my tables, and I have to fall back on table finder for every new table added, which is a bit of a ballache. I know this might be a little OT, but do you have enough experience to be able to guess whether this might just be a result of running HEM within a virtual machine, or whether I may have disabled some service which HEM may have relied upon to screen-scrape or whatever it does to find the tables?

Cheers!

This depends on how you're running your database. Are you running it locally on your VM? If so, you'll need to keep the Secondary Logon service enabled for postgres to run properly.

Also, I had trouble with HEM 1.08.04 recognizing tables but it was fixed when I upgraded to the 1.09 Beta.

Thanks man - yeah I'm trying to do it all within the VM. I downloaded the 1.09 beta thinking it that would probably fix it, but it didn't. Weirdly, the hud shows when I open the stars hand replayer, but it doesn't recognise the tables otherwise. Secondary logon is set to automatic too. Ahh well, thanks for helping me to narrow down the problem, I'll raise an issue over on the HEM forums and give fozzy a headache.

Cheers!

Hey, just wondering about Pidgin, I have currently Trillian set as IM client, is the change to Pidgin worth it?

Only you can answer this question for yourself. My best advice would be to try out Pidgin and see if you like it better.

Pidgin supports more networks natively and even more when you consider 3rd party plug-ins. The OTR integration is also better in Pidgin. The selection of plug-ins is also much greater in Pidgin.

Trillian supports currently supports more video chat options but Pidgin is actively developing integrated video chat.

Thanks funkyworms for the vids, they were helpful.

Hope I didn't miss this somewhere in the videos, but what about partitions and backups / imaging? I think you mentioned imaging in passing (wrt the useless restore points), but a video on partitioning (OS, Data) and imaging / backup philosophies would be fantastic.

Also, with the larger amounts of RAM users generally have nowadays, is it pointless to use the trick of creating a pagefile partition on the edge of the drive? I went through a painful process to free space to create a new edge partition a few months ago, and after upgrading RAM (twice) I now feel it is generally a waste of time.

Final Q: IS Skype secure (for chat, then to a lesser degree, video / audio)? Seems like a much better choice than AIM / YM / MSM but I haven't had this actually verified.

Re: Backups - I didn't include any backup info in the videos because I use a backup solution that probably isn't applicable for 99% of users. It involves a central back-up server (linux) and some remote file storage (amazon S3). I haven't really tried out services like Mozy.

Re: Partitioning - I should probably have included partitioning in the install video but it slipped my mind because I rarely partition my main drive because my systems all use centralized file-servers for data. For example, all of my postgres stuff is run over the network so I have access to it on all of my computers. I also have access to it over a VPN if I'm away.

Re: Imaging - I do make images for quick installs, but I rarely create anything other than baseline images consisting of a small subset of programs I know I will want. I have used Acronis in the past for making more complete images and I liked it.

Yes. Considering you're barely ever touching the PF it could actually hurt performance (though probably not significantly) by wasting that good HD real estate.

I don't know what you mean by secure. If you mean is it secure from someone gaining unauthorized access to your account then I would say yes if you follow proper password policies and general safe habits. If you are asking if Skype is secure from network sniffing from (neighbors, crackers, gov't, etc) then the answer isn't as clear. I don't know anything about the encryption implementations in Skype. There is a Skype plugin for Pidgin that allows you to use OTR encryption for your Skype chats, but it is not very elegant right now because of the proprietary nature of the Skype protocol. Closed-source FTL.

Nice videos. After my computer had been running terribe for ages I decided to reinstall windows, followed your videos as I went and now its running much smoother. Previously having 80 prcesses running probally didn't help.

Quick question, I see that you don't eventually turn windows auto updates on. Should I have them turned on?

LOL that's a pretty big fail on my end. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do about Windows Updates so I guess I just forgot to include it. I usually set it to "inform me but don't install or download". I think setting it to automatic is the best option for most users.

I wish I could edit the OP.

Send me the updated version in a PM and I'll update it.