09-13-2008 by Tons.

System Restore also been featured in Windows Vista, just like in Windows XP. However, unlike the user friendly and easy to use slider bar in Windows XP, there is no easy way and no longer an ability to change the limit of System Restore disk storage space usage in Windows Vista via graphical user interface. In order to limit the maximum hard disk space can be used by System Storage or change the limit of this value, Windows Vista offers a command line utility called Volume Shadow Copy Administrative Command-Line Tool, or vssadmin.exe. The utility is named Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) because it includes not only System Restore function, but has added several enlarged functions such as Previous Versions feature that backup copies of deleted or changed files, and the service is also been used by the built-in Vista backup tools.

By default, Windows Vista allocates 15% of the disk drive’s size or 30% of available free space on the drive, whichever is smaller as the maximum Shadow Copy store space. However, on some system, the maximum limit is unbounded, where Vista can use up all available precious free space on your hard disk. So it’s good to check and limit the maximum disk storage space allocated to VSS.

To use vssadmin.exe utility, users will need to launch Command Prompt with administrative rights. To do so, simply click on Start button, then type CMD in the Start Search box, and finally press Ctrl-Shift-Enter as a shortcut to open Command Prompt in elevated mode. Alternatively, you may also right click on CMD and select Run as Administrator. Answer Allow or Yes to User Access Control prompt. Then you can check, verify, or set the limit for VSS or System Restore using the following commands.

Display List of Commands Supported by VSSAdmin.exe

vssadmin /?

Check and View Existing Used, Allocated and Maximum Shadow Copy Storage Space

vssadmin List ShadowStorage

Output will be something like this. The amount of space used is total for Shadow Copy service, which include System Restore and Previous Versions.


vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{578b3fef-0d72-11dc-be49-806e6f6e6963}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{578b3fef-0d72-11dc-be49-806e6f6e6963}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 89.724 GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 89.951 GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: UNBOUNDED
Reduce, Increase or Change the Maximum Allocated Shadow Copy (System Restore) Space Size

Syntax:

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /On=[drive]: /For=[drive]: /Maxsize=[size]

For example, to limit the usage of VSS backup files which include System Restore files and Previous Versions file to 5 gigabytes on the C: drive, with the storage space for these files located on drive C: too, use the following command:

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /On=C: /For=C: /MaxSize=5GB

The value for MaxSize must be at least 300MB or greater and accepts the following suffixes: KB, MB, GB, TB, PB and EB (well, th last few sort of a joke as if you have such many space to spare you won’t worry about how much space VSS is using). If a suffix is not supplied, MaxSize will treat the value entered as bytes. If you intend to set no limit to the amount of space VSS System Restore and Shadow Copy can use, leave out MaxSize parameter, and the max will be set to unbounded.

But before you shrink or reduce the disk space limit for VSS, remember that VSS is used by both System Restore and the useful Previous Versions (Shadow Copy) feature, where you can retrieve and recover deleted files, or accidentally/wrongly modified files by restoring the saved copy or “previous version” of the file or document. So if you reduce the space it able to use, unavoidable the generation and number of the files that can be backed up are also reduced.

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09-10-2008 by Tons.

Although you can’t always prevent credit card fraud from happening, there are definitely things you can do to lessen that chance.

1. Make sure to sign your credit cards immediately after they come in the mail and cut up old credit cards right away.
2. Always shred the customer copy of any receipts, bills, etc.
3. Keep a close eye on your credit card, always! Watch when the clerk runs your card, watch your wallet when in a large crowd, never leave your card sitting out, never lend someone your card, and notify credit card companies in advance if you’re going to move..
4. Never give your account number over the phone (unless you are sure of the company) and never never never give your credit card number online, especially foreign companies, unless it is clear that the company has secure international payment methods in place to protect your information.
5. If you suspect credit card fraud or notice that your card is missing, contact your card issuer immediately. Once you notify them you are no longer held responsible for any fraudulent charges made from your account.

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09-10-2008 by Tons.

Credit card offers are a jumble of small print and percentages, and there are some key points that you should focus on when evaluating a card’s pros and cons. If you’re on the hunt for a new card, make sure you take the time to compare and contrast several different offers so you can select the best one for your lifestyle. CNN Money wants us to know how to spot a credit card ripoff, and here are the main areas that I focus on when I’m sorting through the fine print.

* APR: The annual percentage rate will appear in big bold print, but that number doesn’t tell you everything about how much you’ll be charged to borrow money. Pay attention to whether the APR is fixed or variable; I always seek out a fixed APR over a variable one so that I don’t have any interest rate surprises when the prime rate increases. Most rates are variable, so be sure to do your due diligence, and if there’s an introductory rate, take note of when it expires.

There are two more aspects of a credit card offer you should especially keep in mind, so just read more.

* Default rate: While none of us ever plan on making a late payment or going over our credit limit, mistakes do happen. Find the explanation next to an asterisk that describes what actions (or inaction) would trigger the default rate, which can be more than 30 percent!
* Finance charges: Issuers can calculate a finance charge in one of two ways: two-cycle average daily balance / two-cycle billing or average daily balance. Because two-cycle billing means you might pay interest on debt you’ve already paid off, ideally you want a card that uses your average daily balance to calculate the finance charge.

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09-09-2008 by Tons.

I get a
lot of questions and emails with people asking me how they can improve
their overall speed of their machine and make it run faster. This is a
guide on how you can do that.

Where to start.

      
First off, you may want to boot into safe mode (but not before you have
downloaded all anti-spyware/virus applications) as this allows only
necessary applications to run and prevents any unwanted programs from
running allowing the quick removal of them.

What to look for.

       
There are several things that can slow the overall performance of your
machine spyware being one of them, viruses, and too many applications
loading on reboot. The first one is spyware below there are two links
to the best anti-spyware applications. They are both free is it will
cost you nothing to download and use them, if your not aware of how to
use them the tutorial is there available for you. Scanning for viruses
you can use your current anti-virus software but if you dont have one.
You can go to http://www.bitdefender.com
and it will cleaned and/or remove viruses that maybe in your machine.
The last and not least is a tricky one and does involve a little
knowledge of your computer because you would need to know what your
machine can run or cant for more advanced users i would recommend
hijackthis and for novice/beginners, i would recommend msconfig.
MSConfig, or System Configuration Utility, is a boot configuration
utility bundled with all Microsoft Windows operating systems released
after 1995 except Windows 2000.

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