Nirsoft released an utility to search for files  in Windows. The tools is very powerful as it offers many options as shown on the screenshot below: 

Alternative to Windows Search For Files   Duplicates Search via kwout

Here is an extract from the description: 

SearchMyFiles is an alternative to the standard “Search For Files And Folders” module of Windows. It allows you to easily search files in your system by wildcard, by last modified/created/last accessed time, by file attributes, by file content (text or binary search), and by the file size. SearchMyFiles allows you to make a very accurate search that cannot be done with Windows search. For Example: You can search all files created in the last 10 minutes with size between 500 and 700 bytes. 
After you made a search, you can select one or more files, and save the list into text/html/csv/xml file, or copy the list to the clipboard.

Found via ghacks.

The full comic is available after the jump.

How to fix any computer – The Oatmeal via kwout

I came accross this review of Windows Se7en File Replacer on Tech Republic:

Review: Windows Se7en File Replacer 1.5.4 | TechRepublic via kwout

This tool make something very difficult (Replace system files) very simple (Using a drag and drop). System files replacement is difficult because Windows has a built in mecanism that protect them and block any copy attempt. A sample usage of this tool is for instance the collection of WinInet logs. This requires to replace the default WININET.DLL by a debug version.

For no reason, one of my PC started to suffer performance issue. It was slow, the mouse movement was jerky. I monitored the PC with Process Monitor and noticed that the Hardware interupts level was very high. I carried out a Google search ( Or maybe blekko) and finally found a solution for this problem in a Microsoft Technote. The symptom is described by:

"After you suspending and resume your computer several times, hard disk performance may be reduced. If you use Device Manager to view the properties of the IDE channel towhich the drive is connected, the Advanced Settings tab may show that the current transfer mode for the drive is "PIO Mode.""

According the Technote, the problem was not supposed to occur on Windows XP SP2 and later versions. But it was still present on my XP-SP3 version. Therefore I applied the workaround proposed below and it worked:

To re-enable the typical, or faster, transfer mode for an affected device:

1. Double-click Administrative Tools, and then click Computer Management.
2. Click System Tools, and then click Device Manager.
3. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers node.
4. Double-click the controller for which you want to restore the typical DMA transfer mode.
5. Click the Driver tab.
6. Click Uninstall.
7. When the process completes, restart your computer. When Windows restarts, the hard disk controller is re-enumerated and the transfer mode is reset to the default value for each device that is connected to the controller.

After the reboot, my primary IDE controller was like that:

Ars Technica published some interesting statistics. There is more users with Windows 7 than Vista (respectively 20.87 % and 12.11 of total Windows users).

20% of users now on Windows 7 via kwout

One other surprising statistic, is the fact that there are more users with IE8 than IE 7 (Respectively 33.02% and 8.76%)

20% of users now on Windows 7 via kwout

Digital inspiration published a useful tip to check if your computer is connecting to the INTERNET without your knowledge.  Of course in most case a firewall properly configured should notify any unexpected connection to the INTERNET. But in some special case, the method proposed by Digital inspiration is useful to track what’s going on in the background. The method is reproduced below:

1. Type cmd in your Windows Run box.

2. Type "netstat -b 5 > activity.txt" and press enter. After say 2 minutes, press Ctrl+C.

3. Type "activity.txt" on the command line to open the log file in notepad (or your default text editor)

Then you just have to analyze the log file activity.txt for any unexpected program and/or website.

APC published a very good article that compares Ubuntu to Windows when executing various tasks (mp3 encoding, Web browsing, Media playback, etc). Ubuntu is very good for most of the task sbut remains behing windows for some of them like mp3 encoding and Webcam management. The complete Ubuntu rating is list below:

• First impressions: Pass — No problems. The task can be completed exactly as under Windows.
• Getting Updates: Optimal — Passes with flying colours. The task could not only be completed, but better or easier than under Windows.
• Web browsing: Pass
• Media playback: Iffy — When a task could only be partially completed, or completed but not without issue.
• File management: Pass
• Network shares: Pass
• Uploading to sites: Optimal 
• CD and DVD burning: Optimal 
• MP3 Encoding: Iffy 
• Talking to the iPod: Optimal 
• Taking the upgrade plunge: Optimal 
• Evolutionary email: Optimal 
• Open Office: Optimal 
• Web StarCam: Iffy 
• Plug in Cameras: Flop — Not possible to complete at all. Probably not a good thing.
• USB drives: Optimal 
• Image management: Optimal 
• Image editing: Optimal 
• Printing: Pass 
• Managing disk space: Flop 
• Video production: Optimal 
• Native games: Flop Pass
• Transgaming: Iffy 
• Free games: Optimal 

Today, I wanted to deactivate Dr Watson on my PC (Windows XP-SP2) and it tooks me some time to find the relevant information to do that. The interesting thing is that, I found some very useful information about the debugger:

• Description of the Dr. Watson for Windows (Drwtsn32.exe) Tool: This article describes the Dr. Watson for Windows program error debugger tool included in Windows XP.
• Microsoft Windows XP – Dr. Watson overview: Dr. Watson for Windows is a program error debugger The information obtained and logged by Dr. Watson is the information needed by technical support groups …
• How to disable Dr. Watson for Windows: This article describes how to disable and re-enable the Dr. Watson program.
• Microsoft Windows XP – Setting up Dr. Watson: Dr. Watson (Drwtsn32.exe) is installed in your system folder when you set up Windows. The default options are set the first time Dr. Watson runs.
• Microsoft Windows XP – Using the Dr. Watson log file: When a program error occurs, Dr. Watson gener ates a log file (Drwtsn32.log). The log file will always start with the following line: Application exception …
• Microsoft Windows XP – Using Dr. Watson: Dr. Watson detects information about system and program failures and records the information in a log file In the event of a program error, Dr. Watson …
• Microsoft Windows XP – Working with Dr. Watson: You can use the Dr. Watson for Windows dialog box to change the behavior of Dr. Watson. The data that you specify is stored in Registry Editor under the key …

On windows XP, the process SVCHOST.EXE is a mystery for most people. If you check your task manager, you may have several instances of this process running. On my XP home edition I have actually 7 of this processes. Microsoft describes SVCHOST.EXE on this document by the following sentences:

“At startup, Svchost.exe checks the services part of the registry to construct a list of services that it must load. Multiple instances of Svchost.exe can run at the same time. Each Svchost.exe session can contain a grouping of services. Therefore, separate services can run, depending on how and where Svchost.exe is started. This grouping of services permits better control and easier debugging. ”

In the document referenced above Microsoft show how to use the command TASKLIST /SVC in a command box to print information regarding the running SVCHOST.EXE. Fortunately, there are some other way to get information regarding SVCHOST.EXE. Langa Blog shows in this article, that we can use Windows Defender or process Explorer from sysinternals to displays information about SVCHOST.EXE. But the most complete software to display SVCHOST information is SVCHOST Informations. This freeware may be downloaded here. The author is called Pierre Torris. Actually only a French version is available. This application display each svchost process running then with a tree all the services attached to the process. You also have all the informations regarding the services: Library, account, start mode, etc. A screenshot is shown below:

• How to use ADPlus to troubleshoot “hangs” and “crashes” : Microsoft Technet document describing how to use ADPlus

• Application debugging in a production environment : Pdf book downloadable from Microsoft

• Production Debugging for .NET Framework Applications:  Pdf book  more dedicated to .Net  debuggging