Some months ago Google announce about Make a date with data in Google Analytics. It means you can integrate your Adsense with your Analytics account.
Google Analytics is tools to analyze your site visitor. You can check how many visitor, where they come from, and what keyword visitor found your site. It's complete free analyze tool for you site. You can improve you site with data from analytic. You can learn why people prefer this page rather then homepage.
Intergrating adsense with analityc means you can see how much you can earn for each page on your site. You can learn why this page can give more earning then another page.
How to Integrate Adsense with Analytics
1. Log-in to Google AdSense and you should see a link "Integrate your AdSense account with Google Analytics". Click the link.
2. You will see a bunch of code snippets which you are asked to insert into your pages where you run AdSense and Analytics. You need to place this code above your AdSense and your Analytics code on the page. It is not necessary to insert this code onto your primary domain you defined for the linking. (You can access the code later on from Google Analytics, by clicking "Edit AdSense linking settings" on the overview page.)
3. Now google will check your site and wait until it actives.
4. If it has been actived, log-in to Google Analytics. Select your site, click Content -> AdSense. You should see the revenues for the last time period as well as the top pages when it comes to ad revenues. Click on "Add to Dashboard" for both the AdSense Overview page as well as the "Top AdSense Content" page.
5. You now have the info on your dashboard.
Why Click is Higher Then the Impression
When I check report on Adsense sometimes I found that Click is higher then Impression. In other word CTR is more then 100%. Is it normal and how it can be happened?
In my opinion there are 2 reasons why it can be happened.
1. User open link on adsense on new windows/tab.
2. Someone use program or script that will click every link on adsense code.
3. Google has a problem with their system.
Does it save?
What I’ve gotten is CTR about 200% with small click and impression. I never gotten higher click that will make CTR above 100%. Until now I still can earn money from adsense. I assume that it’s save. But if you found your click and impression is higher and make CTR above 100% please report this problem to Adsense.
It’s to keep your account from be banned by Google Adsense.
at 2:03 PM Posted by Hardhono 0 comments Links to this post
Thursday, July 23, 2009
How to Receive Payment Using Western Union
Labels: news, tips
I've received adsense payment using western union for several times. What I like to use western union is fast and free to receive money. I can get money only one day after google release my payment. It so fast then using check which usually take 3-4 weeks to receive money.
In order to receive money using western union you need to change payment option to western union. Here is step by step
1. Sign in at www.google.com/adsense.
2. Click My Account tab.
3. Click the 'edit' link adjacent to the 'Payment Details' header.
4. Select the Western Union Quick Cash radio button.
5. Click 'Continue'.
6. Click 'Save Changes' to save your payment type.
For your information western union is only available on some country. Make sure that your country is include on the list before you change payment option from check to western union.
You need to submit your name that same as your identify card. This name will be used to pick up money from western union agent
That's all. Just wait until next payment.
On next payment you will see link on payment issue. Click or open the link and you will get MTCN (Money Transfer Control Number) number for western union. Google Adsense also provide how to pick up money on that issued payment page. Use the number to pick up money from your local western union agent. It shuold free to pick up money at western union agent.
One Click for Big Dollar
Labels: news
I am surprise when I checked adsense report last day. I got $5.22 for one click. This is amazing for me because it don't happen to me before. I know this can be happened for every adsense publisher. Even maybe they can get higher commission for one click.
I don't optimize content for earning huge commission on every single click like that. I also don't have secret how to do that. There is no key or secret about this. It just comes from what we call high paying keyword. And maybe my site topic is also high paying keyword too.
But you can't just depend on creating site with high paying keyword only. For example you create blog with topic mesothelioma and posting that related with mesothelioma. You will not suddenly get high commission for every single click. You need update your blog regularly with your own good content and promote it.
It's lucky for me to get $5.22 for one click. But I hope I can get this again
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Google Buzz - Social Networking Website
The Click article for this week is brought to you by Hayley Underwood, my soon to be wife, so that she can tell you about Google Buzz; a new social networking application that she has been getting to grips with.
“
Google Buzz is an extension of the Google Mail service offered by Google which the Internet giants hope will lure users away from alternative services such as Facebook.
Google Mail initially created shockwaves when first introduced as they offered a huge 1GB of storage space for messages and attachments compared to most of its competitors who at the time offered a feeble 2 to 4MB. Today they offer a huge 7GB as standard however times have moved on and alternative providers such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail also now offer an almost unlimited amount of storage space free of charge.
Despite not having the advantage over the competition in this respect any longer, Google Gmail continues to be a popular service due to its ability to integrate well with other e-mail accounts and the way in which it allows you to manage your messages. As an example, Gmail groups together messages that are of the same subject, making them part of a conversation file. In this way you can manage large number of e-mails grouped into the same conversation quickly and easily so that deleting or achieving them doesn’t cause a headache.
Google Gmail is free to use and paid for by advertising however the adverts are very small, non-intrusive and are targeted so that they are more relevant to subject matter that you might find of interest. There are no large graphic adverts and no pop-up or pop-under adverts to clutter your browser.
“
Google Buzz is an extension of the Google Mail service offered by Google which the Internet giants hope will lure users away from alternative services such as Facebook.
Google Mail initially created shockwaves when first introduced as they offered a huge 1GB of storage space for messages and attachments compared to most of its competitors who at the time offered a feeble 2 to 4MB. Today they offer a huge 7GB as standard however times have moved on and alternative providers such as Yahoo Mail and Hotmail also now offer an almost unlimited amount of storage space free of charge.
Despite not having the advantage over the competition in this respect any longer, Google Gmail continues to be a popular service due to its ability to integrate well with other e-mail accounts and the way in which it allows you to manage your messages. As an example, Gmail groups together messages that are of the same subject, making them part of a conversation file. In this way you can manage large number of e-mails grouped into the same conversation quickly and easily so that deleting or achieving them doesn’t cause a headache.
Google Gmail is free to use and paid for by advertising however the adverts are very small, non-intrusive and are targeted so that they are more relevant to subject matter that you might find of interest. There are no large graphic adverts and no pop-up or pop-under adverts to clutter your browser.
WINDOWS XP Shutdown and Restart TroubleShooting
“With its rock-solid foundation and ground-breaking new features, Windows XP Professional won’t quit working, even when your workday is done.” — Microsoft
(Did they know what they were saying?)
Shutdown problems in Windows XP can be caused by many factors, just like earlier versions of Windows. These included: a damaged exit sound file; incorrectly configured, damaged, or incompatible hardware; conflicting programs, or an incompatible, damaged, or conflicting device driver.
For a step-by-step troubleshooting method that applies to all versions of Windows 9x, see the generic Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter. Some of its steps may be found to apply to Windows XP as well, though many will not.
Windows XP shutdown issues mostly center around a very few issues, especially legacy hardware and software compatibility issues.
Currently, the leading cause of Windows XP shutdown problems is hardware incompatibility, including driver issues. These are detailed below where known. However, it is impossible to list every possible hardware or driver issue individually. My best advice is: Check all drivers for all hardware devices to ensure that they are the current best for Windows XP.
REBOOT INSTEAD OF SHUTDOWN
Most Win XP shutdown problems reported thus far have been that it reboots when shutdown is attempted. This may be a global symptom emerging from several distinct causes, because, by default, XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot.
Disabling the “restart on system failure” feature may permit the exact cause to be isolated: Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab. Under “Startup & Recovery,” click Settings. Under “System Failure,” uncheck the box in front of “Automatically restart.”
Here are some things that have produced this reboot-instead-of-shutdown symptom:
By now, the Roxio/Adeptec Easy CD / Direct CD software is well documented as being the major cause of this undesirable shutdown behavior. SOLUTION: Roxio has released new drivers (here) to solve this problem in both the Platinum and Basic editions of Easy CD Creator 5. As expected, at least half of the Win XP shutdown problems went away with the release of these patches.
One warning about this patch comes from correspondent Bert Smith: Be sure to read the directions! “Roxio Easy CD Creator Platinum 5.0 can be a real hassle to get working under Win XP,” Bert wrote, “and there is the risk of your computer not booting if you blindly go ahead and install it without first consulting the Roxio Web site.” Bert also mentioned that Roxio’s “Take Two” backup program (normally part of Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum) is uninstalled when the Roxio patch is applied.
Direct CD. Many Easy CD users (but not all) found that installing Easy CD 5.0 does not cause the shutdown problem, provided they do not install the Direct CD component.
UDFRINST. Several people solved this reboot-on-shutdown problem by deleting the UDFRINST file. This file is part of the Roxio CD-RW software for systems not using Direct CD.
CDRALW2K.SYS. Correspondent Larry Blumette identified the CDRALW2K.SYS file (version 1.0.0.1048) as the Roxio file causing his shutdown problems and error conditions. When he deleted or renamed this one file, his problems went away. (Of course, you lose your CD functionality that way, too.)
Video Pack 5. Roxio’s Video Pack 5 causes the same problem because it contains includes the main parts of Easy CD 5. SOLUTION: Uninstall Video Pack 5 and also delete CDRALW2K.SYS (Tip from Christian Männchen). However, this solution may also have the side-effect of disabling access to your CD or DVD drive. SOLUTION TO THE SIDE-EFFECT: Apply one of the repair methods in MSKB Article 270008, Code 31 Messages Occur After Removing Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.02c in Windows 2000 (Tip from Peter Kingsley).
Whether or not APM is enabled makes a difference — but the effect could go two ways. Some users report that XP reboots on shutdown if APM is enabled, but shuts Windows down just fine if APM is disabled. Other users report exactly the opposite behavior. According to Jack Dunne, this is similar to a known Windows 2000 problem. The issue seems related to the computer’s specific hardware or BIOS — so, as with all NT operating systems, stick to the Hardware Compatibility List where possible.
USB Connections As can be seen from remarks in the Misc. Hardware Issues section below, several different USB-related issues can impact shutdown. One of the most concrete examples was a “reboot on shutdown” problem contributed by correspondent Rick Bross. If his several USB devices (PDA cradle, flash card reader, etc) were plugged into the motherboard’s USB ports, his computer would reboot on an attempted shutdown; but when, instead, he plugged them into an external USB 2.0 hub, shutdown went just fine. (This was with Win XP Professional SP1 on a Supermicro X5DAE dual Xeon motherboard. The same devices plugged into an Asus A7M-266D dual AMD 2000MP system on the same OS worked without problem.)
“Wake on” power settings Power-management settings that have the computer “wake” on LAN, USB, modem, or (for that matter) probably anything else may also trigger a restart after shutdown. Correspondent Simon Wei provided this tip after a friend of his found an old old Logitech USB mouse would trigger “wake on USB” after every Windows shutdown. Their solution was to remove that particular mouse and all worked fine. The principle is much more far-reaching than this one example.
Hidden “wake on” power settings If you have an Ethernet card integrated into your motherboard, you may have hidden “wake on” settings that are harder to find. Site visitor Jim Porter found that his Asus P5GDC-V Deluxe motherboard had a “wake on” setting in Device Manager | Properties | Advanced rather than in the BIOS or Power Management settings. (The Asus P5AD2 and P5GD2 boards have this also.)
Y-SB3 Logitech Internet Keyboard can also cause this problem. If you use it as a simple generic keyboard, there’s no problem; but, if you install the Key Commander software that drives the special Internet functions, Win XP will restart instead of shut down. Unfortunately, Logitech has decided that they will not be updating this driver for this keyboard. (Tip from Jan K. Haak.)
Logitech MouseWare 8.6. Windows reboots when shutdown is attempted. The software caused a BSOD with KBDCLASS.SYS. Removing the software solved the BSOD the problem. (Tip from Pablo Cheng.) MouseWare 9.0 and 9.1 also have been linked to reboot-instead-of-shutdown in Win XP. Removing the software resolves the problem. (Tip from Aswin Kindts, Greg Williams, and others)
Webstar DPX USB cable modem. In the one case known to me, the problem was solved by switching the modem’s connector from the USB 1.1 port on the motherboard to the USB 2.0 PCI card. (The modem was provided by Telewest Broadband, manufactured by Scientific Atlanta.) (Tip from Ann L. Goonan.)
SHUTDOWN HANGS ON “SAVING YOUR SETTINGS”
During shutdown or reboot, Win XP may hang (stop responding) at the “saving your settings” screen. During such a hang, there is no response to Ctrl+Alt+Del; the mouse may or may not work. The problem may be intermittent.
This is a known bug in Windows XP, for which Microsoft has a supported fix. To learn how to get this patch, see MSKB 307274, “Windows XP Stops Responding (Hangs) During Windows Shutdown.” The necessary patch is included in Windows XP Service Pack 1, and also is now available on the Windows Update site under “Recommended Updates” for Win XP Professional, titled “Restarting Windows XP.” However, to find it, you may need to reconfigure how Windows Update appears for you, by enabling the Windows Update Catalog as follows: At the Windows Update page, click Personalize Windows Update at the left, and then Enable the Windows Update Catalog. Save your settings. This adds the Windows Update Catalog link in the left box. Click this link, then click Find updates for Microsoft Windows systems. Pick Windows XP in the drop-down list, click Search, take Recommended Updates, and find the “Restarting Windows XP” patch which references Q307274.
As a workaround, newsgroup correspondent “lou” resolved this problem by dismantling the Windows XP logon Welcome screen. In the Control Panel, click User Accounts, then click “Change the way users log on or off.” Uncheck the box that says “Use the Welcome screen.” This removes the initial logon screen with individual icons for each user and, instead, pops up the classic logon prompt that requires each user to type a user name and password.
SBLive: DEVLDR32.EXE PROBLEMS
In the early days of Win ME, one of the biggest culprits for shutdown issue was the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live. History repeated itself in the Beta phase of Win XP. SOLUTION: The SBLive drivers in the released version of Win XP solved the shutdown problem for most (but not all) SBLive users.
Here’s the commonly reported problem scenario people encountered: On attempting shutdown, nothing at all appears to happen for a prolonged period of time. Eventually, an “End Task” window appears, wanting to terminate DEVLDR32.EXE. No matter what one does, one ultimately is locked out of shutting down other than by a power switch shutoff. (NOTE: This problem exists with the SBLive in Windows 2000 also.)
You may have to do a couple of extra steps to get rid of old files so that the new drivers will install correctly (especially if you installed the final version of Win XP on top of one of the Beta versions), or to remove troublesome support software. Correspondent Sean Caldwell summarized his steps: Shutdown Windows. Remove the Creative card. Reboot in Safe Mode. In the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder, delete the DEVLDR file. Fully shutdown the computer before rebooting.
Some users report that the DEVLDR problem continues to plague them even with the new drivers. If installing the new drivers doesn’t solve your shutdown problem, try these solutions:
Correspondent Martin Sladek wrote: “I’ve run into the very same problem with SBLive Value drivers. The problem was so severe I ran without the software all together. Since then, SBLive 5.1 came out, and I had installed the 5.1 version of the software in Windows 2000 Pro. I’ve not had a single problem since.”
But updating your drivers in Win XP may not be as easy as one would hope. Some problems especially appear where multiple users are enabled on the system and one switches between users during a single Windows session. There may be numerous files with the same name (but different version numbers!) variously located in the I386, SYSTEM32, and SYSTEM32\REINSTALLBACKUPS\0000 folders. These may conflict with each other. If you rename DEVLDR32 (ver 1.0.0.22) in SYSTEM32, another one will replace it. (First, you need to press Ctrl+Alt+Del and end DEVLDR in Task Manager). But if you use DEVLDR32 (ver 1.0.0.17) from the I386 folder, this problem doesn’t occur. Reboot when finished to reinaugurate the disabled service. (Tip from Terence Shortt, aka tbone8200 on dellTalk.)
MISC. HARDWARE ISSUES
In addition to hardware issues mentioned under other specialized topics on this page, many users have written identifying specific hardware as at the root of the Windows XP shutdown issue. Here’s what they have reported:
CD-ROM DRIVE: Samsung 24x. Correspondent Y. Leroux has identified the culprit in his shutdown problem, but doesn’t yet have a permanent solution. If his Samsung CD-ROM drive is empty, Win XP hangs on shutdown. To work around the problem, he either leaves a CD-ROM in the drive, or leaves the drive door open. He wanted to share this tip with others (thanks, Y.). Does anyone have a permanent solution for this one?
DVD-RW DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-106 or DVR-108. Correspondent L. Frankenberg traced his shutdown problem to this hardware. Correspondent Bob Berberick found the same for the DVR-108, and reported that a firmware update for the DVR-108 now available from Pioneer resolved his problem. It would probably be worth trying the firmware update for the DVR-106 as well, though I have no reports from anyone as to whether this solves the shutdown problem.
MODEMS: Intel Ambient HaM Modem. Causes Win XP to hang at shutdown. Previously, this was only resolved by disabling the modem. SOLUTION: Intel subsequently issued updated drivers that resolve this issue. They can be downloaded here. (Tip from Mark Gillespie.) However, a new problem with the Ambient Ham was introduced in Windows XP SP1, detailed below.
NOTE: The same problem has been reported for the Creatix V.90 Ham PCI Modem. Correspondent Gert Verheyen wrote that Creatix has an updated driver and, more importantly, detailed instructions about manual removal of the old one and installation of the new one. Go to the Creatix support page and click on V.90 HAM (internal) at right. The removal of the old driver first seems to have been the critical detail.
MODEMS: Billion BIPAC PCI Passive ISDN-card. Reboot instead of shutdown issue conjoined with BSOD error message STOP 0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in file SERIAL.SYS. Previously, this was only resolved by disabling the Billion ISDN card. SOLUTION: Billion has now released a new driver 3.24 that solves this problem, available here. (Tip from Leo Foederer.)
MOTHERBOARDS: Asus P2B-F, P2B-VM, or P2L97. Causes a shutdown problem because Win XP Setup doesn’t enable ACPI by default. SOLUTION: Manually enable ACPI during a Win XP install or reinstall. Correspondent Bill Anderson (based on a solution by “Willy”) gave a lengthy description of how to do this, edited a little for space reasons. (Thanks also to correspondents Ward from Belgium & Tony Gray.)
Boot the computer from the Win XP CD-ROM.
Win XP Setup says it’s checking hardware. Soon after, at the bottom of the screen, it offers the opportunity to press F5. (If offered the chance to press F6, press F5 instead! – Tip from Mick Stone) Do this at once, and cross your fingers! [Various users report difficulty with this. Apparently, sometimes it works; sometimes not. It may be in the timing of exactly when you press the key. You may have to try repeatedly, or try pressing F5 and F6 repeatedly. – JAE] When successful, you’ll see a two-paragraph instruction that begins, “To specify additional SCSI or other mass storage devices.” Press to brings up a small window that appears to contain only two options, but, in fact, contains more (use the arrow keys to scroll up). If this windows doesn’t appear at this point, you need to start over and do more pressing of F5!
When the small window does appear, use the up-arrow to choose “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).” (It’s the third from the top of the list.)
Next, you may see that two-paragraph SCSI/mass storage instruction again. If so, press. Many drivers will load, then you should see the Win XP installation screen. If you are running this after Win XP is already installed, choose the Repair option.
MOUSE: Logitech. If you have a Logitech mouse, and an outdated version of the MouseWare software installed, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen at shutdown: STOP 0x000000D1, (0x0000002b, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xEEEE1b01) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Kbdclass.sys. SOLUTION: Update the Logitech MouseWare software. (Reference & more information: MSKB 810980.)
VIDEO CARDS: Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 and all other video cards based on the Kyro II video chip. Causes restart and shutdown issues (or, in some cases, only restart issues) until the video adapter is removed. SOLUTION: New XP-specific drivers are now available from Hercules. At present, they remain uncertified (PowerVR, who makes the Kyro II chip, is working on that), but they reportedly work just fine. Download the Kyro II drivers here. (Tip from MS-MVP Don Lebow.)
USB Devices. If you have one or more USB devices attached to your computer, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen at shutdown: Stop 0x000000D1 (0x00000040, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xfc96a9dc). SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest Win XP service pack. (Reference & more information: MSKB 317326.)
USB: Keyboard or Mouse + Selective Suspend. Some USB input devices (such as a USB keyboard or mouse) do not support the Selective Suspend power management feature. When these devices are used with Selective Suspend turned on, the computer may hang during shutdown, or otherwise not shutdown correctly. WORK-AROUND: Disable power management for your USB hub: Open Device Manager (click Start, click Run, type DEVMGMT.MSC, click OK). Double-click to expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Double-click USB Root Hub. Click Power Management. Uncheck the box “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” OK your way out. NOTE: Doing this may significantly reduce laptop battery life. (Reference & more information: MSKB 315664.)
USB: Lexar Media Combo Digital Film Reader (USB). There is a problem with the SAUSB.SYS file, apparently part of the Win98 SE driver set for this device, retained during an upgrade to Win XP. Deleting the file solved the problem. The newer version 4.3 SAUSB.SYS driver from Lexar’s Web site works perfectly, and does not cause a shutdown problem. (Tip from correspondent Eric Brown.) Though one correspondent reported that the even newer version 4.5 driver (SAUSBI.SYS) also can be used in Win XP , Lexar says this driver doesn’t work on XP. One correspondent has confirmed that this matches his experience in trying (unsuccessfully) to use 4.5 on both Widows 2000 and XP.
“STOP” ERROR MESSAGES AT SHUTDOWN
Some users, when attempting either to shutdown or restart Win XP, get an error message similar to the following: STOP 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Stop Messages literally means that Windows has stopped. (Which isn’t the same as saying it has shutdown!) See Knowledge Base Links: STOP MESSAGES for much more information that the brief remarks below. Most Stop Messages indicate hardware issues; some are caused by troublesome software or a system service problem. The links page just mentioned provides a 10-step approach to troubleshooting STOP Messages in general, then itemized analysis on the most common of these. (STOP messages are identified by an 8-digit hexadecimal number, but also commonly written in a shorthand notation; e.g., a STOP 0x0000000A may also be written Stop 0xA.)
Here are a few that may affect Win XP shutdown and restart. Stop 0x9F and Stop 0x8E are two of the most common of these at shutdown, and generally point to a bad driver. Stop 0x7B on restarting means Win XP lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process, due to a bad device driver, boot sector virus, resource conflict, boot volume corruption, or other problem listed here. Stop 0xC000021A can when on restart after a system administrator has modified permissions so that the SYSTEM account no longer has adequate permissions to access system files and folders.
MS-MVP Jim Pickering advises the following as one approach to these problems: Restart the computer. Press F8 during the restart and select “ Last Known Good Configuration.” If you catch the problem when it first occurs (meaning you likely have installed only one or two drivers or new service), this will return you to a previous working condition. System Restore provides an alternate approach, especially if you need to go back further than the last known good configuration, and Device Manager provides a tool for rolling back to an earlier driver.
SHUTDOWN WORKS, BUT IT’S REAL SLOW
If it appears that Win XP is not shutting down, give it some time. Some users report a minute or longer for shutdown to visibly start. Generally, this is a consequence of software that is running when shutdown is attempted. It also may have something to do with particular hardware. If you experience this problem, be sure to close all running programs before attempting shutdown and see if this solves your problem. If so, then you can determine, by trial and error, which program(s) are involved.
Newsgroup correspondent “Sarah” provided one specific solution for this. In Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services, stop the Nvidia Driver Helper service. (You can also get this by launching SERVICES.MSC from a Run box.) Many other newsgroup participants quickly confirmed that this solved this “extremely slow shutdown” problem for them (it’s the most successful solution for this problem to date). According to correspondent Gan Ming Teik, downloading and installing the new version 23.11 Nvidia driver also solves this problem.
Correspondent Ron Spruell found that disabling the Terminal Services service reduced his shutdown time from over 2 minutes (hanging at the “Windows is shutting down” screen) to about 10 seconds. To disable Terminal Services, follow the steps in the prior paragraph for launching SERVICES.MSC. Please note that Terminal Services is required in Windows XP for running Remote Assistance, Fast User Switching, and (in XP Pro) Remote Desktop.
Correspondent Graeme J.W. Smith reported a more obscure cause of slow shutdown: In Win XP Professional, the Group Policy Editor has a security option to clear the pagefile at system shutdown. The same setting also forces the hibernation file to be wiped at shutdown. These processes take long enough that users may think that shutdown has hung. To change the setting, click Start | Run, type GPEDIT.MSC, click OK. Drill down to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options. In the right pane, find “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile.” NOTE: Since someone actually has to have set this policy, the problem will be pretty rare, but is worth mentioning. However, Forum participant “roadrunner” reported that the personal security app Privacy Eraser automatically enables “Clear virtual memory pagefile,” and, therefore, may be the cause of a slow shutdown.
The Gear Software Security Service (GEARSEC.EXE), which enables iTunes for Windows to read and burn CDs, has been reported by many users to cause Windows XP to hang at the “Windows is shutting down” screen for as long as 20-30 seconds. WORK-AROUND: Stop the service prior to shutdown. One way to to this (suggested by “Thornburgh”) is to create a batch file with the one line net stop gearsecurity. You can either launch this batch file manually, or (in Win XP Professional) use GPEDIT.MSC) to specify this batch file as the shutdown script (under Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Scripts | Shutdown). Gear Software’s forum has a thread on this issue here. (Tip from correspondent “Andy”)
MS-MVP Gary Thorn discovered that the Event Log can slow down Win XP shutdown. Disabling event logging removed the slowdown. If this works for you, then the real troubleshooting begins: finding out, by trial and error, what item that is being logged is causing the actual slowdown. (In Gary’s case, the Telephony service was causing the problem.) To disable the Event Log, launch the Services console as detailed in No. 2 above, and disable Event Log (right-click on Event Log, click Properties, under Startup Type select “Disabled”).
In a domain environment, don’t forget to check any logoff scripts you are pushing. These can be a source of slow or hanging shutdown processes. Site visitor Tony Barkdull, for example, found that an enforced logoff script caused show shutdown for laptops that were off-site. He solved it be creating a logoff script on the local machines that deletes the Active Directory logoff group policy after it runs so that the logoff scripts are absent while a user is off-site, but are repopulated when they return. — A related cause of slow shutdowns is offline synchronization of data, which is increasingly common with mobile computing, but is usually much more obvious to the end-user.
POWERDOWN ISSUES
“Powerdown issues” are quite distinctive from “shutdown issues.” I define a shutdown problem as one wherein Windows doesn’t make it at least to the “OK to shut off your computer” screen. If Windows gets that far, or farther, then it has shut down correctly. However, the computer may not powerdown correctly after that. This is a different problem, and I encourage people reporting these issues to make a clear distinction in their labeling.
When Windows XP won’t powerdown automatically, the APM/NT Legacy Power Node may not be enabled. To enable this, right-click on the My Computer icon, click Properties | Hardware | Device Manager | View. Check the box labeled “Show Hidden Devices.” If it’s available on your computer, there will be a red X on the APM/NT Legacy Node. Try enabling it and see if this resolves the powerdown problem (Tip from Terri Stratton). Or, to check the other side of the APM/ACPI coin, open the Power Options applet in Control Panel. If there is an APM tab, make sure the “Enable Advanced Power Management Support” box is checked. (MSKB 313290)
This should resolve the powerdown issue in most cases. However, other factors can sometimes interfere with correct powerdown functioning. In that case, consider the following tips:
Try some of the solutions on my Shutdown & Restart Shortcuts page. If you really have a hardware inability to powerdown, these won’t solve it; but for some other underlying causes of powerdown failures, they just might.
If you change the default power settings in the BIOS, it can lead to a powerdown problem. Restoring all BIOS power settings to default will likely fix it. (Tip from Kelly Theriot)
Sometimes, not all appropriate Registry settings are made when you enable all the right power management settings in Windows. You can force the critical Registry setting with the “ShutNTdown” Registry patch. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (or run System Restore to create a restore point). After installing it, test Windows shutdown. If the fix doesn’t work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state. (For those who want more background information, the fix provided by this patch is based on information contained in MS Knowledge Base article 155117 for Windows NT 4.0.)
On some hardware, power management features simply don’t work right. This is exceedingly rare on Windows XP when compared to any earlier version of Windows but, on some machines, especially if no BIOS upgrade is available, there seems no conclusion to reach except, “Yes, you’re right, it doesn’t work, so don’t use that feature.” Accordingly, several correspondents have noted that their Win XP computers will not powerdown correctly unless they have Turn Off Monitor, Turn Off Hard Disks, and System Standby all set to “Never” in Control Panel | Power Options. (Tip from Dan Mitchell & others)
How old is your power supply? Correspondent Andrew Walsh had a computer that wouldn’t power down after a Win XP shutdown until he replaced the power supply that was a few years old. Presto! His problem was gone.
Correspondent “Snake” restored powerdown functioning by disabling his CD-ROM’s AutoRun feature. The fastest way to do this is with the “Disable AutoRun” Registry patch that you can download here.
If you have Office XP installed, the culprit may be CTFMON.EXE. This module provides the Alternate Language Bar and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies. When you close all Office programs, this module stays active. Removing it can cause serious problems with your Office XP products, but you can effectively disable it by setting the installation state to Not Available in Office XP Setup. This isn’t as easy as it sounds though — several steps are involved. For full instructions, plus more information on the file and its function, see What Is CTFMON and What Does It Do? (Tip from Jay Jones)
VIA Apollo Pro 133 motherboards have a “USB Keyboard support” BIOS setting that can interfere with proper power management function if it is enabled — especially with respect to preventing powerdown during attempted shutdown, and also preventing the computer from waking from Stand-by. SOLUTION: Disable it. This was originally reported on the Chaintech 6ATA2, and confirmed on other VIA Apollo Pro 133 boards. (Tips from “Zef,” The Netherlands, & Robert Lin)
Toshiba laptop (model not specified). Problems of Windows XP not powering off nor going into standyby were solved by uninstalling (then reinstalling) the Toshiba Power Saver software and Toshiba Hotkey for Display Devices. After doing this and a reboot, the problem was gone. (Tip from David Flitterman)
NEW PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY SERVICE PACK 1 (SP1)
Some new shutdown and powerdown issues have arisen in Windows XP SP1. Here are the ones I know about:
HIBERNATION/STANDY PROBLEM WITH NERO SOFTWARE. If you have Nero CD-burning software (versions 5.0-5.5) installed on your computer, and invoke Standby or Hibernation modes more than once in a Windows session, the computer will hang on the “Preparing to...” screen and not go into Standby or Hibernation. SOLUTION: Uninstall Nero completely, and keep your eyes open for a new version of the program down the road. (Reference: MSKB 331506.)
WITH SP1, DON’T REMOVE SCSI ADAPTER WHILE IN STANDBY. Service Pack 1 for Windows XP introduced a new (but pleasingly rare) shutdown problem: If you remove certain kinds of SCSI adapter while the computer is in Standby, the computer may not shut down properly. There is a “hot fix” for this available from Microsoft. (Reference: MSKB 330172.)
SP1 + AMBIENT HAM MODEM + POSSIBLE IRQ ISSUE. Site visitor Mike Redman wrote that, after installing SP1, his computer would hang on the shutdown screen. Neither the mouse nor Ctrl+Alt+Del would respond. Either uninstalling SP1 or removing his Intel Ambient Ham 50.sys (unsigned driver) internal modem would solve the problem. FINAL SOLUTION: Moving the modem from PCI slot 4 to slot 5 and reinstalling the drivers. He wrote, ”This may be an IRQ problem which SP1 was supposed to fix.”
NEW PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY SERVICE PACK 2 (SP2)
Some new issues have arisen in Windows XP SP2. Here are the ones I know about:
AUTOMATIC WINDOWS UPDATE INSTALLATION. Windows XP SP2 checks at shutdown for any Windows Updates have been downloaded and not installed, then offers to install them as part of the shutdown process. Understandably, this can cause a very slow shutdown on that one occassion and, if something goes wrong, can even hang shutdown completely. To see if your shutdown problem is caused by this issue, look for error 0x80248011 in any of the Windows Update log files, particularly %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log. If present, this indicates a corrupt local metadata store for Windows Update. SOLUTION: Click Start, click Run, type SERVICES.MSC, click OK. Stop the Automatic Updates service. Rename the c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder to c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution.old. Restart the Automatic Updates service. (Tip from MS-MVP Bill Castner.)
REBOOT ON SHUTDOWN WITH HARDWARE-ENFORCE DATA EXECUTION PREVENTION. If your computer uses hardware-enforced DEP, as the 64-bit AMD processors do, and you installed hardware that requires the MPEGPORT.SYS driver, there is a conflict. At shutdown, the driver tries to run from the same memory space DEP monitors. A 0xFC Stop message occurs. If your computer is set to automatically reboot on a system failure, it will simply reboot instead. The solution is a new driver. Microsoft provides a work-around in MSKB 878474.
OTHER KNOWN ISSUES & HINTS...
BIOS UPGRADE. As with every new operating system that comes along — especially one that is as much of a “step up” as Windows XP is from Windows 9x — the recommendation is made to be sure your BIOS is updated. Many people have reported that this has solved their shutdown problems (and had other advantages) with Win XP, just as it has in earlier versions of Windows.
“ShutNTdown” REGISTRY PATCH. Download the “ShutNTdown” Registry patch mentioned above under powerdown issues. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (e.g, run System Restore to create a restore point). After installing, test Windows shutdown. If the fix doesn’t work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state. This is not the appropriate shutdown fix for most machines, but does help some users with Windows shutdown problems, and not just with powerdown issues as one might suspect.
UNSIGNED DEVICE DRIVERS. Some users have found that Windows XP won’t shutdown properly if unsigned device drivers are used. This is simply a variation of the broader device driver issue: Hardware manufactures have not yet released all necessary device drivers for Win XP. This will continue to be a problem for the next few months; it already has been reduced to a very minor cause of Win XP shutdown problems.
SIGNED DEVICE DRIVERS ON TOP OF UNSIGNED ONES. Good advice on a variation of the above comes from correspondent Attila Szabadkai. For his SBLive 1024 sound card he had originally installed non-XP drivers, then updated these with digitally signed XP drivers downloaded from Creative Labs. Result: He got a 0x0A Stop Message at shutdown. SOLUTION: He removed all drivers, and put back only the digitally signed one.
PROGRAMS HANG / BECOME UNRESPONSIVE. Sometimes programs don’t close down correctly, or hang for some other reason during the Windows shutdown process. This freezes up, or at least significantly delays, Windows shutdown. For example, a few people have reported an error message that EXPLORER.EXE has become unresponsive during shutdown when they have used Win XP’s native CD-burning capabilities during that Windows session. If Windows is hanging because it can’t force a program to terminate, one solution is to disable the automatic end task logic (AutoEndTask). Use this registry patch to force that setting change. (Be sure to back up the Registry first.)
PACE INTERLOK ANTI-PIRACY SOFTWARE. According to the MS Knowledge Base article Computer Hangs During Shutdown Because of Resource Conflict, PACE InterLok anti-piracy software installs a driver (TPKD.SYS) that uses the same IRQ as the Standard Floppy Disk Controller device. This can cause Win XP to hang at a blank screen (with mouse and keyboard nonresponsive) when you try to shutdown or restart. Additional symptoms may be that the floppy drive doesn’t show in My Computer; the Standard Floppy Disk Controller device in Device Manager may display the error status “This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)”; and/or when trying to shutdown from Safe Mode you get the error message, STOP 0x0000009F Driver_Power_State_Failure. The solution is to get the updated TPKD.SYS file from PACE.
QUICK-SWITCHING USER ACCOUNTS. One reported quirk affecting shutdown is the three-account shuffle. Windows XP gives the ability to rapidly bounce between user accounts, with Win+L. If at least three user accounts exist, and you quick-switch through all three, and then log off all three in reverse order — “backing out” in an orderly way — then the machine may hang on shutdown. There may be other variations of account shuffling that cause this, but this one, clear example was provided by newsgroup correspondent John Ward. Microsoft has now identified something similar as a bug, in MSKB 320008, “You May Not Be Able to Shut Down Your Windows XP Computer.” The situation they describe is that only one user is logged on, quick-switching is used, and “Windows is under heavy stress.” A supported patch is available; see the article for details.
USING SHUTDOWN SCRIPTS & 802.1x AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL. This combination can cause Win XP to take in excess of 10 minutes to shutdown normally. (IEEE 802.1x is an authentication standard for both wireless networks and wired Ethernet networks.) Here’s how the dominoes fall: The 802.1x authentication protocol stops after the user logs off. Shutdown scripts run after the user logs off. If the script is on a network share and the connection is no longer available (since authentication has terminated), the script can’t run. The default time-out for shutdown scripts is 10 minutes. So the computer sits there 10 minutes before continuing with its shutdown. (Reference: MSKB 311787.)
MISMATCHED RAM. Correspondent Morten Bech reported that a combination of PC-100 and PC-133 RAM was the source of his shutdown problem. When he resolved the mismatch (by removing the PC-100 RAM), he also resolved the shutdown problem. A general reminder of a great general tip: You will get the best results if all RAM in a particular computer matches in all respects!
CHANGE NTFS TO FAT32? MOVE THE PAGEFILE? Correspondent “Curiefleas” wrote that his reboot-on-shutdown problem was solved when he used a third party partitioning program to convert his NTFS partition to FAT32. It isn’t clear why this would be the case, but the tip was worth passing along. In a possibly related vein, other correspondents have reported a shutdown problem in XP either being caused by, or resolved by, relocating the pagefile! Is there some common issue involving substantial moving of the hard drive’s contents? These two hints intrigued me in light of a seemingly dissociated shutdown problem reportedly occurring in Win ME only immediately after a defrag. These all may be unrelated to each other — or not. I list them here as part of the ongoing data collection.
SHUTDOWN PROBLEMS IN WINDOWS NT/2000. In researching known causes of shutdown problems in earlier versions of NT-family operating systems, most of what I found referred to problems that were resolved in later versions. There is no reason to suspect their recurrence. For example, there were quite a few shutdown issues identified in NT 3.x that didn’t survive to NT 4.0. Very predictable causes were involved most often, especially difficulty with some 16-bit applications or specific hardware incompatibilities. Very few shutdown failure scenarios are documented for Windows 2000. All that I found were conflicts with specific software, specific hardware, or drivers. While these three frame a wide set of possibilities, they are sufficiently narrow to be very encouraging when joined with what we are seeing with Win XP. If approved compatible hardware and software are used, including XP-specific drivers, we see almost no shutdown problems at all. If other hardware or software is used... well, that gives us a starting place to focus our investigations.
SHUTDOWN PROBLEMS IN WINDOWS 9x. As stated at the beginning, I recommend that, if nothing above resolves your Win XP shutdown problem, try those troubleshooting steps that have worked for Windows 9x operating systems to help us establish a track record of exactly what does and does not apply, from that protocol, to the emergent scenarios in Windows XP.
(Did they know what they were saying?)
Shutdown problems in Windows XP can be caused by many factors, just like earlier versions of Windows. These included: a damaged exit sound file; incorrectly configured, damaged, or incompatible hardware; conflicting programs, or an incompatible, damaged, or conflicting device driver.
For a step-by-step troubleshooting method that applies to all versions of Windows 9x, see the generic Windows Shutdown Troubleshooter. Some of its steps may be found to apply to Windows XP as well, though many will not.
Windows XP shutdown issues mostly center around a very few issues, especially legacy hardware and software compatibility issues.
Currently, the leading cause of Windows XP shutdown problems is hardware incompatibility, including driver issues. These are detailed below where known. However, it is impossible to list every possible hardware or driver issue individually. My best advice is: Check all drivers for all hardware devices to ensure that they are the current best for Windows XP.
REBOOT INSTEAD OF SHUTDOWN
Most Win XP shutdown problems reported thus far have been that it reboots when shutdown is attempted. This may be a global symptom emerging from several distinct causes, because, by default, XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot.
Disabling the “restart on system failure” feature may permit the exact cause to be isolated: Right-click on My Computer, click Properties, click the Advanced tab. Under “Startup & Recovery,” click Settings. Under “System Failure,” uncheck the box in front of “Automatically restart.”
Here are some things that have produced this reboot-instead-of-shutdown symptom:
By now, the Roxio/Adeptec Easy CD / Direct CD software is well documented as being the major cause of this undesirable shutdown behavior. SOLUTION: Roxio has released new drivers (here) to solve this problem in both the Platinum and Basic editions of Easy CD Creator 5. As expected, at least half of the Win XP shutdown problems went away with the release of these patches.
One warning about this patch comes from correspondent Bert Smith: Be sure to read the directions! “Roxio Easy CD Creator Platinum 5.0 can be a real hassle to get working under Win XP,” Bert wrote, “and there is the risk of your computer not booting if you blindly go ahead and install it without first consulting the Roxio Web site.” Bert also mentioned that Roxio’s “Take Two” backup program (normally part of Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum) is uninstalled when the Roxio patch is applied.
Direct CD. Many Easy CD users (but not all) found that installing Easy CD 5.0 does not cause the shutdown problem, provided they do not install the Direct CD component.
UDFRINST. Several people solved this reboot-on-shutdown problem by deleting the UDFRINST file. This file is part of the Roxio CD-RW software for systems not using Direct CD.
CDRALW2K.SYS. Correspondent Larry Blumette identified the CDRALW2K.SYS file (version 1.0.0.1048) as the Roxio file causing his shutdown problems and error conditions. When he deleted or renamed this one file, his problems went away. (Of course, you lose your CD functionality that way, too.)
Video Pack 5. Roxio’s Video Pack 5 causes the same problem because it contains includes the main parts of Easy CD 5. SOLUTION: Uninstall Video Pack 5 and also delete CDRALW2K.SYS (Tip from Christian Männchen). However, this solution may also have the side-effect of disabling access to your CD or DVD drive. SOLUTION TO THE SIDE-EFFECT: Apply one of the repair methods in MSKB Article 270008, Code 31 Messages Occur After Removing Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.02c in Windows 2000 (Tip from Peter Kingsley).
Whether or not APM is enabled makes a difference — but the effect could go two ways. Some users report that XP reboots on shutdown if APM is enabled, but shuts Windows down just fine if APM is disabled. Other users report exactly the opposite behavior. According to Jack Dunne, this is similar to a known Windows 2000 problem. The issue seems related to the computer’s specific hardware or BIOS — so, as with all NT operating systems, stick to the Hardware Compatibility List where possible.
USB Connections As can be seen from remarks in the Misc. Hardware Issues section below, several different USB-related issues can impact shutdown. One of the most concrete examples was a “reboot on shutdown” problem contributed by correspondent Rick Bross. If his several USB devices (PDA cradle, flash card reader, etc) were plugged into the motherboard’s USB ports, his computer would reboot on an attempted shutdown; but when, instead, he plugged them into an external USB 2.0 hub, shutdown went just fine. (This was with Win XP Professional SP1 on a Supermicro X5DAE dual Xeon motherboard. The same devices plugged into an Asus A7M-266D dual AMD 2000MP system on the same OS worked without problem.)
“Wake on” power settings Power-management settings that have the computer “wake” on LAN, USB, modem, or (for that matter) probably anything else may also trigger a restart after shutdown. Correspondent Simon Wei provided this tip after a friend of his found an old old Logitech USB mouse would trigger “wake on USB” after every Windows shutdown. Their solution was to remove that particular mouse and all worked fine. The principle is much more far-reaching than this one example.
Hidden “wake on” power settings If you have an Ethernet card integrated into your motherboard, you may have hidden “wake on” settings that are harder to find. Site visitor Jim Porter found that his Asus P5GDC-V Deluxe motherboard had a “wake on” setting in Device Manager | Properties | Advanced rather than in the BIOS or Power Management settings. (The Asus P5AD2 and P5GD2 boards have this also.)
Y-SB3 Logitech Internet Keyboard can also cause this problem. If you use it as a simple generic keyboard, there’s no problem; but, if you install the Key Commander software that drives the special Internet functions, Win XP will restart instead of shut down. Unfortunately, Logitech has decided that they will not be updating this driver for this keyboard. (Tip from Jan K. Haak.)
Logitech MouseWare 8.6. Windows reboots when shutdown is attempted. The software caused a BSOD with KBDCLASS.SYS. Removing the software solved the BSOD the problem. (Tip from Pablo Cheng.) MouseWare 9.0 and 9.1 also have been linked to reboot-instead-of-shutdown in Win XP. Removing the software resolves the problem. (Tip from Aswin Kindts, Greg Williams, and others)
Webstar DPX USB cable modem. In the one case known to me, the problem was solved by switching the modem’s connector from the USB 1.1 port on the motherboard to the USB 2.0 PCI card. (The modem was provided by Telewest Broadband, manufactured by Scientific Atlanta.) (Tip from Ann L. Goonan.)
SHUTDOWN HANGS ON “SAVING YOUR SETTINGS”
During shutdown or reboot, Win XP may hang (stop responding) at the “saving your settings” screen. During such a hang, there is no response to Ctrl+Alt+Del; the mouse may or may not work. The problem may be intermittent.
This is a known bug in Windows XP, for which Microsoft has a supported fix. To learn how to get this patch, see MSKB 307274, “Windows XP Stops Responding (Hangs) During Windows Shutdown.” The necessary patch is included in Windows XP Service Pack 1, and also is now available on the Windows Update site under “Recommended Updates” for Win XP Professional, titled “Restarting Windows XP.” However, to find it, you may need to reconfigure how Windows Update appears for you, by enabling the Windows Update Catalog as follows: At the Windows Update page, click Personalize Windows Update at the left, and then Enable the Windows Update Catalog. Save your settings. This adds the Windows Update Catalog link in the left box. Click this link, then click Find updates for Microsoft Windows systems. Pick Windows XP in the drop-down list, click Search, take Recommended Updates, and find the “Restarting Windows XP” patch which references Q307274.
As a workaround, newsgroup correspondent “lou” resolved this problem by dismantling the Windows XP logon Welcome screen. In the Control Panel, click User Accounts, then click “Change the way users log on or off.” Uncheck the box that says “Use the Welcome screen.” This removes the initial logon screen with individual icons for each user and, instead, pops up the classic logon prompt that requires each user to type a user name and password.
SBLive: DEVLDR32.EXE PROBLEMS
In the early days of Win ME, one of the biggest culprits for shutdown issue was the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live. History repeated itself in the Beta phase of Win XP. SOLUTION: The SBLive drivers in the released version of Win XP solved the shutdown problem for most (but not all) SBLive users.
Here’s the commonly reported problem scenario people encountered: On attempting shutdown, nothing at all appears to happen for a prolonged period of time. Eventually, an “End Task” window appears, wanting to terminate DEVLDR32.EXE. No matter what one does, one ultimately is locked out of shutting down other than by a power switch shutoff. (NOTE: This problem exists with the SBLive in Windows 2000 also.)
You may have to do a couple of extra steps to get rid of old files so that the new drivers will install correctly (especially if you installed the final version of Win XP on top of one of the Beta versions), or to remove troublesome support software. Correspondent Sean Caldwell summarized his steps: Shutdown Windows. Remove the Creative card. Reboot in Safe Mode. In the \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder, delete the DEVLDR file. Fully shutdown the computer before rebooting.
Some users report that the DEVLDR problem continues to plague them even with the new drivers. If installing the new drivers doesn’t solve your shutdown problem, try these solutions:
Correspondent Martin Sladek wrote: “I’ve run into the very same problem with SBLive Value drivers. The problem was so severe I ran without the software all together. Since then, SBLive 5.1 came out, and I had installed the 5.1 version of the software in Windows 2000 Pro. I’ve not had a single problem since.”
But updating your drivers in Win XP may not be as easy as one would hope. Some problems especially appear where multiple users are enabled on the system and one switches between users during a single Windows session. There may be numerous files with the same name (but different version numbers!) variously located in the I386, SYSTEM32, and SYSTEM32\REINSTALLBACKUPS\0000 folders. These may conflict with each other. If you rename DEVLDR32 (ver 1.0.0.22) in SYSTEM32, another one will replace it. (First, you need to press Ctrl+Alt+Del and end DEVLDR in Task Manager). But if you use DEVLDR32 (ver 1.0.0.17) from the I386 folder, this problem doesn’t occur. Reboot when finished to reinaugurate the disabled service. (Tip from Terence Shortt, aka tbone8200 on dellTalk.)
MISC. HARDWARE ISSUES
In addition to hardware issues mentioned under other specialized topics on this page, many users have written identifying specific hardware as at the root of the Windows XP shutdown issue. Here’s what they have reported:
CD-ROM DRIVE: Samsung 24x. Correspondent Y. Leroux has identified the culprit in his shutdown problem, but doesn’t yet have a permanent solution. If his Samsung CD-ROM drive is empty, Win XP hangs on shutdown. To work around the problem, he either leaves a CD-ROM in the drive, or leaves the drive door open. He wanted to share this tip with others (thanks, Y.). Does anyone have a permanent solution for this one?
DVD-RW DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-106 or DVR-108. Correspondent L. Frankenberg traced his shutdown problem to this hardware. Correspondent Bob Berberick found the same for the DVR-108, and reported that a firmware update for the DVR-108 now available from Pioneer resolved his problem. It would probably be worth trying the firmware update for the DVR-106 as well, though I have no reports from anyone as to whether this solves the shutdown problem.
MODEMS: Intel Ambient HaM Modem. Causes Win XP to hang at shutdown. Previously, this was only resolved by disabling the modem. SOLUTION: Intel subsequently issued updated drivers that resolve this issue. They can be downloaded here. (Tip from Mark Gillespie.) However, a new problem with the Ambient Ham was introduced in Windows XP SP1, detailed below.
NOTE: The same problem has been reported for the Creatix V.90 Ham PCI Modem. Correspondent Gert Verheyen wrote that Creatix has an updated driver and, more importantly, detailed instructions about manual removal of the old one and installation of the new one. Go to the Creatix support page and click on V.90 HAM (internal) at right. The removal of the old driver first seems to have been the critical detail.
MODEMS: Billion BIPAC PCI Passive ISDN-card. Reboot instead of shutdown issue conjoined with BSOD error message STOP 0x000000D1: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in file SERIAL.SYS. Previously, this was only resolved by disabling the Billion ISDN card. SOLUTION: Billion has now released a new driver 3.24 that solves this problem, available here. (Tip from Leo Foederer.)
MOTHERBOARDS: Asus P2B-F, P2B-VM, or P2L97. Causes a shutdown problem because Win XP Setup doesn’t enable ACPI by default. SOLUTION: Manually enable ACPI during a Win XP install or reinstall. Correspondent Bill Anderson (based on a solution by “Willy”) gave a lengthy description of how to do this, edited a little for space reasons. (Thanks also to correspondents Ward from Belgium & Tony Gray.)
Boot the computer from the Win XP CD-ROM.
Win XP Setup says it’s checking hardware. Soon after, at the bottom of the screen, it offers the opportunity to press F5. (If offered the chance to press F6, press F5 instead! – Tip from Mick Stone) Do this at once, and cross your fingers! [Various users report difficulty with this. Apparently, sometimes it works; sometimes not. It may be in the timing of exactly when you press the key. You may have to try repeatedly, or try pressing F5 and F6 repeatedly. – JAE] When successful, you’ll see a two-paragraph instruction that begins, “To specify additional SCSI or other mass storage devices.” Press
When the small window does appear, use the up-arrow to choose “Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI).” (It’s the third from the top of the list.)
Next, you may see that two-paragraph SCSI/mass storage instruction again. If so, press
MOUSE: Logitech. If you have a Logitech mouse, and an outdated version of the MouseWare software installed, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen at shutdown: STOP 0x000000D1, (0x0000002b, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xEEEE1b01) IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Kbdclass.sys. SOLUTION: Update the Logitech MouseWare software. (Reference & more information: MSKB 810980.)
VIDEO CARDS: Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 and all other video cards based on the Kyro II video chip. Causes restart and shutdown issues (or, in some cases, only restart issues) until the video adapter is removed. SOLUTION: New XP-specific drivers are now available from Hercules. At present, they remain uncertified (PowerVR, who makes the Kyro II chip, is working on that), but they reportedly work just fine. Download the Kyro II drivers here. (Tip from MS-MVP Don Lebow.)
USB Devices. If you have one or more USB devices attached to your computer, you may receive the following error message on a blue screen at shutdown: Stop 0x000000D1 (0x00000040, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xfc96a9dc). SOLUTION: Upgrade to the latest Win XP service pack. (Reference & more information: MSKB 317326.)
USB: Keyboard or Mouse + Selective Suspend. Some USB input devices (such as a USB keyboard or mouse) do not support the Selective Suspend power management feature. When these devices are used with Selective Suspend turned on, the computer may hang during shutdown, or otherwise not shutdown correctly. WORK-AROUND: Disable power management for your USB hub: Open Device Manager (click Start, click Run, type DEVMGMT.MSC, click OK). Double-click to expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers. Double-click USB Root Hub. Click Power Management. Uncheck the box “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” OK your way out. NOTE: Doing this may significantly reduce laptop battery life. (Reference & more information: MSKB 315664.)
USB: Lexar Media Combo Digital Film Reader (USB). There is a problem with the SAUSB.SYS file, apparently part of the Win98 SE driver set for this device, retained during an upgrade to Win XP. Deleting the file solved the problem. The newer version 4.3 SAUSB.SYS driver from Lexar’s Web site works perfectly, and does not cause a shutdown problem. (Tip from correspondent Eric Brown.) Though one correspondent reported that the even newer version 4.5 driver (SAUSBI.SYS) also can be used in Win XP , Lexar says this driver doesn’t work on XP. One correspondent has confirmed that this matches his experience in trying (unsuccessfully) to use 4.5 on both Widows 2000 and XP.
“STOP” ERROR MESSAGES AT SHUTDOWN
Some users, when attempting either to shutdown or restart Win XP, get an error message similar to the following: STOP 0x0000009F: DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE
Stop Messages literally means that Windows has stopped. (Which isn’t the same as saying it has shutdown!) See Knowledge Base Links: STOP MESSAGES for much more information that the brief remarks below. Most Stop Messages indicate hardware issues; some are caused by troublesome software or a system service problem. The links page just mentioned provides a 10-step approach to troubleshooting STOP Messages in general, then itemized analysis on the most common of these. (STOP messages are identified by an 8-digit hexadecimal number, but also commonly written in a shorthand notation; e.g., a STOP 0x0000000A may also be written Stop 0xA.)
Here are a few that may affect Win XP shutdown and restart. Stop 0x9F and Stop 0x8E are two of the most common of these at shutdown, and generally point to a bad driver. Stop 0x7B on restarting means Win XP lost access to the system partition or boot volume during the startup process, due to a bad device driver, boot sector virus, resource conflict, boot volume corruption, or other problem listed here. Stop 0xC000021A can when on restart after a system administrator has modified permissions so that the SYSTEM account no longer has adequate permissions to access system files and folders.
MS-MVP Jim Pickering advises the following as one approach to these problems: Restart the computer. Press F8 during the restart and select “ Last Known Good Configuration.” If you catch the problem when it first occurs (meaning you likely have installed only one or two drivers or new service), this will return you to a previous working condition. System Restore provides an alternate approach, especially if you need to go back further than the last known good configuration, and Device Manager provides a tool for rolling back to an earlier driver.
SHUTDOWN WORKS, BUT IT’S REAL SLOW
If it appears that Win XP is not shutting down, give it some time. Some users report a minute or longer for shutdown to visibly start. Generally, this is a consequence of software that is running when shutdown is attempted. It also may have something to do with particular hardware. If you experience this problem, be sure to close all running programs before attempting shutdown and see if this solves your problem. If so, then you can determine, by trial and error, which program(s) are involved.
Newsgroup correspondent “Sarah” provided one specific solution for this. In Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services, stop the Nvidia Driver Helper service. (You can also get this by launching SERVICES.MSC from a Run box.) Many other newsgroup participants quickly confirmed that this solved this “extremely slow shutdown” problem for them (it’s the most successful solution for this problem to date). According to correspondent Gan Ming Teik, downloading and installing the new version 23.11 Nvidia driver also solves this problem.
Correspondent Ron Spruell found that disabling the Terminal Services service reduced his shutdown time from over 2 minutes (hanging at the “Windows is shutting down” screen) to about 10 seconds. To disable Terminal Services, follow the steps in the prior paragraph for launching SERVICES.MSC. Please note that Terminal Services is required in Windows XP for running Remote Assistance, Fast User Switching, and (in XP Pro) Remote Desktop.
Correspondent Graeme J.W. Smith reported a more obscure cause of slow shutdown: In Win XP Professional, the Group Policy Editor has a security option to clear the pagefile at system shutdown. The same setting also forces the hibernation file to be wiped at shutdown. These processes take long enough that users may think that shutdown has hung. To change the setting, click Start | Run, type GPEDIT.MSC, click OK. Drill down to Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Local Policies | Security Options. In the right pane, find “Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile.” NOTE: Since someone actually has to have set this policy, the problem will be pretty rare, but is worth mentioning. However, Forum participant “roadrunner” reported that the personal security app Privacy Eraser automatically enables “Clear virtual memory pagefile,” and, therefore, may be the cause of a slow shutdown.
The Gear Software Security Service (GEARSEC.EXE), which enables iTunes for Windows to read and burn CDs, has been reported by many users to cause Windows XP to hang at the “Windows is shutting down” screen for as long as 20-30 seconds. WORK-AROUND: Stop the service prior to shutdown. One way to to this (suggested by “Thornburgh”) is to create a batch file with the one line net stop gearsecurity. You can either launch this batch file manually, or (in Win XP Professional) use GPEDIT.MSC) to specify this batch file as the shutdown script (under Computer Configuration | Windows Settings | Scripts | Shutdown). Gear Software’s forum has a thread on this issue here. (Tip from correspondent “Andy”)
MS-MVP Gary Thorn discovered that the Event Log can slow down Win XP shutdown. Disabling event logging removed the slowdown. If this works for you, then the real troubleshooting begins: finding out, by trial and error, what item that is being logged is causing the actual slowdown. (In Gary’s case, the Telephony service was causing the problem.) To disable the Event Log, launch the Services console as detailed in No. 2 above, and disable Event Log (right-click on Event Log, click Properties, under Startup Type select “Disabled”).
In a domain environment, don’t forget to check any logoff scripts you are pushing. These can be a source of slow or hanging shutdown processes. Site visitor Tony Barkdull, for example, found that an enforced logoff script caused show shutdown for laptops that were off-site. He solved it be creating a logoff script on the local machines that deletes the Active Directory logoff group policy after it runs so that the logoff scripts are absent while a user is off-site, but are repopulated when they return. — A related cause of slow shutdowns is offline synchronization of data, which is increasingly common with mobile computing, but is usually much more obvious to the end-user.
POWERDOWN ISSUES
“Powerdown issues” are quite distinctive from “shutdown issues.” I define a shutdown problem as one wherein Windows doesn’t make it at least to the “OK to shut off your computer” screen. If Windows gets that far, or farther, then it has shut down correctly. However, the computer may not powerdown correctly after that. This is a different problem, and I encourage people reporting these issues to make a clear distinction in their labeling.
When Windows XP won’t powerdown automatically, the APM/NT Legacy Power Node may not be enabled. To enable this, right-click on the My Computer icon, click Properties | Hardware | Device Manager | View. Check the box labeled “Show Hidden Devices.” If it’s available on your computer, there will be a red X on the APM/NT Legacy Node. Try enabling it and see if this resolves the powerdown problem (Tip from Terri Stratton). Or, to check the other side of the APM/ACPI coin, open the Power Options applet in Control Panel. If there is an APM tab, make sure the “Enable Advanced Power Management Support” box is checked. (MSKB 313290)
This should resolve the powerdown issue in most cases. However, other factors can sometimes interfere with correct powerdown functioning. In that case, consider the following tips:
Try some of the solutions on my Shutdown & Restart Shortcuts page. If you really have a hardware inability to powerdown, these won’t solve it; but for some other underlying causes of powerdown failures, they just might.
If you change the default power settings in the BIOS, it can lead to a powerdown problem. Restoring all BIOS power settings to default will likely fix it. (Tip from Kelly Theriot)
Sometimes, not all appropriate Registry settings are made when you enable all the right power management settings in Windows. You can force the critical Registry setting with the “ShutNTdown” Registry patch. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (or run System Restore to create a restore point). After installing it, test Windows shutdown. If the fix doesn’t work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state. (For those who want more background information, the fix provided by this patch is based on information contained in MS Knowledge Base article 155117 for Windows NT 4.0.)
On some hardware, power management features simply don’t work right. This is exceedingly rare on Windows XP when compared to any earlier version of Windows but, on some machines, especially if no BIOS upgrade is available, there seems no conclusion to reach except, “Yes, you’re right, it doesn’t work, so don’t use that feature.” Accordingly, several correspondents have noted that their Win XP computers will not powerdown correctly unless they have Turn Off Monitor, Turn Off Hard Disks, and System Standby all set to “Never” in Control Panel | Power Options. (Tip from Dan Mitchell & others)
How old is your power supply? Correspondent Andrew Walsh had a computer that wouldn’t power down after a Win XP shutdown until he replaced the power supply that was a few years old. Presto! His problem was gone.
Correspondent “Snake” restored powerdown functioning by disabling his CD-ROM’s AutoRun feature. The fastest way to do this is with the “Disable AutoRun” Registry patch that you can download here.
If you have Office XP installed, the culprit may be CTFMON.EXE. This module provides the Alternate Language Bar and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies. When you close all Office programs, this module stays active. Removing it can cause serious problems with your Office XP products, but you can effectively disable it by setting the installation state to Not Available in Office XP Setup. This isn’t as easy as it sounds though — several steps are involved. For full instructions, plus more information on the file and its function, see What Is CTFMON and What Does It Do? (Tip from Jay Jones)
VIA Apollo Pro 133 motherboards have a “USB Keyboard support” BIOS setting that can interfere with proper power management function if it is enabled — especially with respect to preventing powerdown during attempted shutdown, and also preventing the computer from waking from Stand-by. SOLUTION: Disable it. This was originally reported on the Chaintech 6ATA2, and confirmed on other VIA Apollo Pro 133 boards. (Tips from “Zef,” The Netherlands, & Robert Lin)
Toshiba laptop (model not specified). Problems of Windows XP not powering off nor going into standyby were solved by uninstalling (then reinstalling) the Toshiba Power Saver software and Toshiba Hotkey for Display Devices. After doing this and a reboot, the problem was gone. (Tip from David Flitterman)
NEW PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY SERVICE PACK 1 (SP1)
Some new shutdown and powerdown issues have arisen in Windows XP SP1. Here are the ones I know about:
HIBERNATION/STANDY PROBLEM WITH NERO SOFTWARE. If you have Nero CD-burning software (versions 5.0-5.5) installed on your computer, and invoke Standby or Hibernation modes more than once in a Windows session, the computer will hang on the “Preparing to...” screen and not go into Standby or Hibernation. SOLUTION: Uninstall Nero completely, and keep your eyes open for a new version of the program down the road. (Reference: MSKB 331506.)
WITH SP1, DON’T REMOVE SCSI ADAPTER WHILE IN STANDBY. Service Pack 1 for Windows XP introduced a new (but pleasingly rare) shutdown problem: If you remove certain kinds of SCSI adapter while the computer is in Standby, the computer may not shut down properly. There is a “hot fix” for this available from Microsoft. (Reference: MSKB 330172.)
SP1 + AMBIENT HAM MODEM + POSSIBLE IRQ ISSUE. Site visitor Mike Redman wrote that, after installing SP1, his computer would hang on the shutdown screen. Neither the mouse nor Ctrl+Alt+Del would respond. Either uninstalling SP1 or removing his Intel Ambient Ham 50.sys (unsigned driver) internal modem would solve the problem. FINAL SOLUTION: Moving the modem from PCI slot 4 to slot 5 and reinstalling the drivers. He wrote, ”This may be an IRQ problem which SP1 was supposed to fix.”
NEW PROBLEMS INTRODUCED BY SERVICE PACK 2 (SP2)
Some new issues have arisen in Windows XP SP2. Here are the ones I know about:
AUTOMATIC WINDOWS UPDATE INSTALLATION. Windows XP SP2 checks at shutdown for any Windows Updates have been downloaded and not installed, then offers to install them as part of the shutdown process. Understandably, this can cause a very slow shutdown on that one occassion and, if something goes wrong, can even hang shutdown completely. To see if your shutdown problem is caused by this issue, look for error 0x80248011 in any of the Windows Update log files, particularly %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log. If present, this indicates a corrupt local metadata store for Windows Update. SOLUTION: Click Start, click Run, type SERVICES.MSC, click OK. Stop the Automatic Updates service. Rename the c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder to c:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution.old. Restart the Automatic Updates service. (Tip from MS-MVP Bill Castner.)
REBOOT ON SHUTDOWN WITH HARDWARE-ENFORCE DATA EXECUTION PREVENTION. If your computer uses hardware-enforced DEP, as the 64-bit AMD processors do, and you installed hardware that requires the MPEGPORT.SYS driver, there is a conflict. At shutdown, the driver tries to run from the same memory space DEP monitors. A 0xFC Stop message occurs. If your computer is set to automatically reboot on a system failure, it will simply reboot instead. The solution is a new driver. Microsoft provides a work-around in MSKB 878474.
OTHER KNOWN ISSUES & HINTS...
BIOS UPGRADE. As with every new operating system that comes along — especially one that is as much of a “step up” as Windows XP is from Windows 9x — the recommendation is made to be sure your BIOS is updated. Many people have reported that this has solved their shutdown problems (and had other advantages) with Win XP, just as it has in earlier versions of Windows.
“ShutNTdown” REGISTRY PATCH. Download the “ShutNTdown” Registry patch mentioned above under powerdown issues. Please follow sensible Registry editing protocol. Backup your Registry before the change (e.g, run System Restore to create a restore point). After installing, test Windows shutdown. If the fix doesn’t work for you, remove it by restoring the Registry to its prior state. This is not the appropriate shutdown fix for most machines, but does help some users with Windows shutdown problems, and not just with powerdown issues as one might suspect.
UNSIGNED DEVICE DRIVERS. Some users have found that Windows XP won’t shutdown properly if unsigned device drivers are used. This is simply a variation of the broader device driver issue: Hardware manufactures have not yet released all necessary device drivers for Win XP. This will continue to be a problem for the next few months; it already has been reduced to a very minor cause of Win XP shutdown problems.
SIGNED DEVICE DRIVERS ON TOP OF UNSIGNED ONES. Good advice on a variation of the above comes from correspondent Attila Szabadkai. For his SBLive 1024 sound card he had originally installed non-XP drivers, then updated these with digitally signed XP drivers downloaded from Creative Labs. Result: He got a 0x0A Stop Message at shutdown. SOLUTION: He removed all drivers, and put back only the digitally signed one.
PROGRAMS HANG / BECOME UNRESPONSIVE. Sometimes programs don’t close down correctly, or hang for some other reason during the Windows shutdown process. This freezes up, or at least significantly delays, Windows shutdown. For example, a few people have reported an error message that EXPLORER.EXE has become unresponsive during shutdown when they have used Win XP’s native CD-burning capabilities during that Windows session. If Windows is hanging because it can’t force a program to terminate, one solution is to disable the automatic end task logic (AutoEndTask). Use this registry patch to force that setting change. (Be sure to back up the Registry first.)
PACE INTERLOK ANTI-PIRACY SOFTWARE. According to the MS Knowledge Base article Computer Hangs During Shutdown Because of Resource Conflict, PACE InterLok anti-piracy software installs a driver (TPKD.SYS) that uses the same IRQ as the Standard Floppy Disk Controller device. This can cause Win XP to hang at a blank screen (with mouse and keyboard nonresponsive) when you try to shutdown or restart. Additional symptoms may be that the floppy drive doesn’t show in My Computer; the Standard Floppy Disk Controller device in Device Manager may display the error status “This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)”; and/or when trying to shutdown from Safe Mode you get the error message, STOP 0x0000009F Driver_Power_State_Failure. The solution is to get the updated TPKD.SYS file from PACE.
QUICK-SWITCHING USER ACCOUNTS. One reported quirk affecting shutdown is the three-account shuffle. Windows XP gives the ability to rapidly bounce between user accounts, with Win+L. If at least three user accounts exist, and you quick-switch through all three, and then log off all three in reverse order — “backing out” in an orderly way — then the machine may hang on shutdown. There may be other variations of account shuffling that cause this, but this one, clear example was provided by newsgroup correspondent John Ward. Microsoft has now identified something similar as a bug, in MSKB 320008, “You May Not Be Able to Shut Down Your Windows XP Computer.” The situation they describe is that only one user is logged on, quick-switching is used, and “Windows is under heavy stress.” A supported patch is available; see the article for details.
USING SHUTDOWN SCRIPTS & 802.1x AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL. This combination can cause Win XP to take in excess of 10 minutes to shutdown normally. (IEEE 802.1x is an authentication standard for both wireless networks and wired Ethernet networks.) Here’s how the dominoes fall: The 802.1x authentication protocol stops after the user logs off. Shutdown scripts run after the user logs off. If the script is on a network share and the connection is no longer available (since authentication has terminated), the script can’t run. The default time-out for shutdown scripts is 10 minutes. So the computer sits there 10 minutes before continuing with its shutdown. (Reference: MSKB 311787.)
MISMATCHED RAM. Correspondent Morten Bech reported that a combination of PC-100 and PC-133 RAM was the source of his shutdown problem. When he resolved the mismatch (by removing the PC-100 RAM), he also resolved the shutdown problem. A general reminder of a great general tip: You will get the best results if all RAM in a particular computer matches in all respects!
CHANGE NTFS TO FAT32? MOVE THE PAGEFILE? Correspondent “Curiefleas” wrote that his reboot-on-shutdown problem was solved when he used a third party partitioning program to convert his NTFS partition to FAT32. It isn’t clear why this would be the case, but the tip was worth passing along. In a possibly related vein, other correspondents have reported a shutdown problem in XP either being caused by, or resolved by, relocating the pagefile! Is there some common issue involving substantial moving of the hard drive’s contents? These two hints intrigued me in light of a seemingly dissociated shutdown problem reportedly occurring in Win ME only immediately after a defrag. These all may be unrelated to each other — or not. I list them here as part of the ongoing data collection.
SHUTDOWN PROBLEMS IN WINDOWS NT/2000. In researching known causes of shutdown problems in earlier versions of NT-family operating systems, most of what I found referred to problems that were resolved in later versions. There is no reason to suspect their recurrence. For example, there were quite a few shutdown issues identified in NT 3.x that didn’t survive to NT 4.0. Very predictable causes were involved most often, especially difficulty with some 16-bit applications or specific hardware incompatibilities. Very few shutdown failure scenarios are documented for Windows 2000. All that I found were conflicts with specific software, specific hardware, or drivers. While these three frame a wide set of possibilities, they are sufficiently narrow to be very encouraging when joined with what we are seeing with Win XP. If approved compatible hardware and software are used, including XP-specific drivers, we see almost no shutdown problems at all. If other hardware or software is used... well, that gives us a starting place to focus our investigations.
SHUTDOWN PROBLEMS IN WINDOWS 9x. As stated at the beginning, I recommend that, if nothing above resolves your Win XP shutdown problem, try those troubleshooting steps that have worked for Windows 9x operating systems to help us establish a track record of exactly what does and does not apply, from that protocol, to the emergent scenarios in Windows XP.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Pidgin - Multiple Instant Messenger Service
If like me, you find yourself juggling multiple messenger applications to keep your friends, family and colleagues happy you will be glad to hear about Pidgin. Formally known as Gaim, Pidgin is an open-source messaging program that allows the simultaneous use of multiple instant messenger services through one application.
Available as a free of charge download from www.pidgin.im, this small program supports 17 networks including favourites AOL, MSN and Yahoo as well some lesser known ones such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu. Additional chat clients such as Skype and the Facebook Chat tool can be added through the use of freely available third party plugins which are easily located on the Pidgin site.
Once installed, simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password. Any of your contacts from that account that are currently online will automatically appear in the buddies list and you can begin chatting straight away. Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don’t need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.
Along with being cross compatible with different networks, the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems; as well as the obvious Windows version, the developers have provided support for Solaris, SkyOS, Qtopia, UNIX, Linux and even the AmigaOS.
All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser, custom smileys, file transfers and group chats are present. The only slight criticism that I would have is that it doesn’t support video and voice chat however my assumption is that these protocols are difficult to integrate in to an application that has been designed to be compatible with dozens of networks and half a dozen different Operating Systems. Hopefully this lack of functionality will be addressed in future releases.
Pidgin is completely customisable; the preferences dialog box provides an area where you can define every conceivable option including the interface, sounds, network connection, chat logging and your default availability status. In terms of appearance you can also change the font type, size and colour, formatting along with installing new themes which change the appearance of smileys and status icons. An additional option to install themes in order to change the actual user interface would be welcome as the default interface may be a little dull and unintuitive for some users.
Available as a free of charge download from www.pidgin.im, this small program supports 17 networks including favourites AOL, MSN and Yahoo as well some lesser known ones such as Jabber and Gadu-Gadu. Additional chat clients such as Skype and the Facebook Chat tool can be added through the use of freely available third party plugins which are easily located on the Pidgin site.
Once installed, simply select the type of account you want to add (for example a Google Talk account) along with your user name and password. Any of your contacts from that account that are currently online will automatically appear in the buddies list and you can begin chatting straight away. Not only does this offer the distinct advantage that you don’t need to switch between several applications if you have contact with friends on multiple networks but it also cuts down on the resource requirements of having multiple chat services running on one machine.
Along with being cross compatible with different networks, the Pidgin application is also available for many different Operating Systems; as well as the obvious Windows version, the developers have provided support for Solaris, SkyOS, Qtopia, UNIX, Linux and even the AmigaOS.
All the standard features you would come to expect such as contact organiser, custom smileys, file transfers and group chats are present. The only slight criticism that I would have is that it doesn’t support video and voice chat however my assumption is that these protocols are difficult to integrate in to an application that has been designed to be compatible with dozens of networks and half a dozen different Operating Systems. Hopefully this lack of functionality will be addressed in future releases.
Pidgin is completely customisable; the preferences dialog box provides an area where you can define every conceivable option including the interface, sounds, network connection, chat logging and your default availability status. In terms of appearance you can also change the font type, size and colour, formatting along with installing new themes which change the appearance of smileys and status icons. An additional option to install themes in order to change the actual user interface would be welcome as the default interface may be a little dull and unintuitive for some users.
Removing Virus from the Computer.
If you have been on the Internet for any length of time, you've probably ran across the topic of spyware, adware, or malware. This is software that has installed on your computer, many times without your permission, or accidentally by clicking on a popup ad, etc. The problem with these programs is they will slow your computer down, make changes to your desktop, homepage, search page, load programs into your taskbar tray and otherwise get in the way. In the worst cases, they will even transmit information from your computer to servers on the Internet.
So the question becomes, if your computer is infected with these problematic programs, how do you get rid of them. In most cases, you can run a free removal program to remove these infections, in more serious cases, you may have to download a specialized removal program to free yourself of these problems.
Listed below you will find the best freeware programs available on the Internet for removing spyware, adware, and malware:
Adware and Spyware Removal
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008
Spybot Search and Destroy 1.6
MalwareBytes Anti-Malware highly recommended
Microsoft Windows Defender
SuperAntiSpyware A great program for removing those pesty Zlob trojan infections
Ewido Anti-Malware
a² (a-squared) Scanner
Preventing the Installation of Adware and Spyware
SpywareBlaster 3.5.1
SpywareGuard 2.2
Specialized Removal Programs
About:Buster - Removal of CWS HomeSearch Hijacker or res:// hijacker
Combofix - all in one removal tool for many issues
CWShredder 2.19 - CoolWebSearch Removal Tool from Trend Micro
Elite Toolbar Remover
I-Lookup Toolbar Uninstallers - Version 1 and Version 2
Incredifind and PerfectNav Uninstaller
Kill2Me - Removal of Look2Me infections
Lop.com Uninstaller
OmegaKiller for removing hijackers like
Omegasearch.com Prosearching.com. Search200.com. Mysearchnow.com. Searchexe.com
SDFix - another multitask removal tool
SmitRem for removing Spyaxe, SpySheriff, Winhound and others
VX2.BetterInternet for XP/2000 for Removing Look2Me
VX2.BetterInternet for Windows 9X for Removing Look2Me
WildTangent Remover
Programs to Delete Undeletable Files
Pocket Killbox
Remove on Reboot Shell Extension
Unlocker
Helpful Tools for Investigating Adware and Spyware Infections
HijackThis
SysInternals Process Explorer
Sysinterals RootkitRevealer
Online Virus Checkers
Trend Micro Housecall - will scan and remove threats
BitDefender Scan Online - will scan and remove threats
Ewido Online Scanner - (Now AVG) will scan and remove threats
F-Secure Online Scanner - will scan for rootkits as well
Jotti's Online Malware Scan
Kaspersky Online Scanner - appears to only scan for but not remove threats
Panda Activescan - appears to only scan for but not remove threats
McAfee FreeScan - appears to only scan for but not remove threats
eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner - will scan and remove threats
Symantec Security Check - will scan and remove threats
Dr.Web Online Check - user can upload and test for threats on particular files
Rootkit Removal Tools
Trojan Scanner
TrojanScan by WindowsSecurity.com
Free Antivirus Programs to Download
ANTI-VIR
AVAST
AVG
TCP/IP and Winsock Repair Utilities for Windows XP and 2000
LSPFix by Cexx.org
Winsock XP Fix
XP TCP/IP Repair utility
So the question becomes, if your computer is infected with these problematic programs, how do you get rid of them. In most cases, you can run a free removal program to remove these infections, in more serious cases, you may have to download a specialized removal program to free yourself of these problems.
Listed below you will find the best freeware programs available on the Internet for removing spyware, adware, and malware:
Adware and Spyware Removal
Lavasoft Ad-Aware 2008
Spybot Search and Destroy 1.6
MalwareBytes Anti-Malware highly recommended
Microsoft Windows Defender
SuperAntiSpyware A great program for removing those pesty Zlob trojan infections
Ewido Anti-Malware
a² (a-squared) Scanner
Preventing the Installation of Adware and Spyware
SpywareBlaster 3.5.1
SpywareGuard 2.2
Specialized Removal Programs
About:Buster - Removal of CWS HomeSearch Hijacker or res:// hijacker
Combofix - all in one removal tool for many issues
CWShredder 2.19 - CoolWebSearch Removal Tool from Trend Micro
Elite Toolbar Remover
I-Lookup Toolbar Uninstallers - Version 1 and Version 2
Incredifind and PerfectNav Uninstaller
Kill2Me - Removal of Look2Me infections
Lop.com Uninstaller
OmegaKiller for removing hijackers like
Omegasearch.com Prosearching.com. Search200.com. Mysearchnow.com. Searchexe.com
SDFix - another multitask removal tool
SmitRem for removing Spyaxe, SpySheriff, Winhound and others
VX2.BetterInternet for XP/2000 for Removing Look2Me
VX2.BetterInternet for Windows 9X for Removing Look2Me
WildTangent Remover
Programs to Delete Undeletable Files
Pocket Killbox
Remove on Reboot Shell Extension
Unlocker
Helpful Tools for Investigating Adware and Spyware Infections
HijackThis
SysInternals Process Explorer
Sysinterals RootkitRevealer
Online Virus Checkers
Trend Micro Housecall - will scan and remove threats
BitDefender Scan Online - will scan and remove threats
Ewido Online Scanner - (Now AVG) will scan and remove threats
F-Secure Online Scanner - will scan for rootkits as well
Jotti's Online Malware Scan
Kaspersky Online Scanner - appears to only scan for but not remove threats
Panda Activescan - appears to only scan for but not remove threats
McAfee FreeScan - appears to only scan for but not remove threats
eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner - will scan and remove threats
Symantec Security Check - will scan and remove threats
Dr.Web Online Check - user can upload and test for threats on particular files
Rootkit Removal Tools
Trojan Scanner
TrojanScan by WindowsSecurity.com
Free Antivirus Programs to Download
ANTI-VIR
AVAST
AVG
TCP/IP and Winsock Repair Utilities for Windows XP and 2000
LSPFix by Cexx.org
Winsock XP Fix
XP TCP/IP Repair utility
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