When facing a system crash or startup up problems on Windows Computers, troubleshooting the problem can be difficult to resolve. The first step with recovery is to use Windows Safe Mode option during startup. One Safe Mode option that will help troubleshoot boot problems is to enable Boot Logging which will create a log and help identify the device or driver that is causing the problem during startup.

When Boot Logging is enable, Windows boots normally, until the device or driver that is causing the problem either crashes the system or completes starting up but causes an error message in the Event Log. While booting, Windows creates a log file that lists every step processed that is attempted and completed.

You can then reboot in to Safe Mode and review the log file named ntbootlog.txt. The log is stored in the %SYSTEMROOT% directory (normally C:\Windows or C:\WINNT folder). Below is an example of ntbootlog.txt log file on Windows XP (Vista log is similar):

Service Pack 2 5  4 2007 10:45:44.500
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\ntkrnlpa.exe
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.DLL
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll
Loaded driver ACPI.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\WMILIB.SYS
Loaded driver pci.sys
Loaded driver isapnp.sys
Loaded driver compbatt.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\BATTC.SYS
Loaded driver intelide.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\PCIIDEX.SYS
Loaded driver MountMgr.sys
Loaded driver ftdisk.sys
Loaded driver dmload.sys
Loaded driver dmio.sys
Loaded driver PartMgr.sys
Loaded driver VolSnap.sys
Loaded driver atapi.sys
Loaded driver vmscsi.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\SCSIPORT.SYS
Loaded driver disk.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\CLASSPNP.SYS
Loaded driver fltmgr.sys
Loaded driver sr.sys

To enable Boot Logging on Windows XP and Vista, boot your Computer, and during startup continually press F8 until the menu screen appears:

NOTE: screen shot is from XP. Vista menu will look slightly different than XP.

Press F8 to display the Advanced Menu screen and select Enable Boot Logging

You will be returned to the menu screen and you should see Enable Boot Logging in blue displayed at the bottom of the screen (don't worry if this screen is not displayed and Windows starts to boot):

If the problem does not cause Windows to crash, and after startup has completed, you can review the ntbootlog.txt file. Look for any signs of problems loading device drivers. If you find problems, go into Device Manager and disable the device or uninstall the program, then reboot again. If the problem does not occur then you know it was that device and you should check the vendor website for new drivers or known issues.

If your problem does cause Windows to crash, reboot into Safe mode by selecting Safe Mode from the Advanced Menu screen. When reviewing ntbootlog.txt file, look for events that were attempted to load but not completed. More than likely the problem will be toward the end of the file (since that was the last item logged before crashing). When you identify the problem, either uninstall the application or go in to Device Manager and disable the device. Reboot your Computer and see if the problem still exist. If it boots without crashing, check the vendor website for new drivers or known issues.

If you are still having problems, enable Boot Logging again to see if new events are logged after you have disabled the device or uninstalled the program. If you are unable to fix the problem, you may need to have a Computer shop troubleshoot the problem for you.

Notes on Boot Logging:

• Boot Logging can only be enabled from Safe Mode. Once it is enabled, it only logs during the current boot. It will not log during the next reboot unless you enable it again from Safe Mode.
• If an existing ntbootlog.txt files exist, the next time Boot Logging is enabled, Windows will append to the existing log file.
• It is a good idea to have Windows create a new log when there are no problems or after you have added new devices. This will allow full logging to occur and will let you compare with a log when problems exists.

Summary

With Target Display mode, you can use your 27-inch iMac with Mac OS X as an external display. Connect any computer or other device with a Mini DisplayPort to your 27-inch iMac using a Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort cable or using a converter that converts other electrical, video, and audio protocols from another source device to Mini DisplayPort compliant signals.

Symptoms

 If you’re having trouble with your wireless mouse or keyboard, clicking the mouse may wake it or the keyboard up.

Wireless Connection issue

Make sure Bluetooth is turned on

If the "Show Bluetooth status in the menu bar" option is not enabled in the Bluetooth System Preferences, the Bluetooth icon will not display in the menu bar.  Enable this option in System Preferences, then check the status of the Bluetooth icon in the upper right menu bar. If the Bluetooth icon does not appear in the menu bar, restart your computer.

Make sure the wireless mouse and keyboard are turned on.

Mouse

1) Slide the On/Off switch on the bottom of your mouse to turn it on. Note: If the battery compartment cover is not installed properly the On/Off switch may not function correctly or may be difficult to operate. Remove the battery compartment cover and carefully reinstall it.

2) When your mouse is on and paired, and the batteries are charged, the indicator light glows steadily.

3) If your mouse isn’t paired with a Mac, the indicator light will blink, indicating your mouse is in discovery mode and ready to pair.

4) If the indicator light doesn't illuminate, check to make sure you have two good batteries and that they're installed correctly.

Keyboard

1) Push and release the On/Off switch to turn on the Apple Wireless Keyboard.

2) When your keyboard is on and paired, and the batteries are charged, the light will glow steadily for several seconds, then turn off.

3) If your wireless keyboard isn’t paired with your Mac, the indicator light will begin to blink. This indicates your keyboard is in discovery mode and ready to pair with your Mac.

4) If the LED doesn't light up, remove the batteries to make sure they're good and that they're installed correctly.

Check preferences

From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences, then choose Bluetooth from the View menu. The Bluetooth preferences pane will list the Bluetooth devices paired with the computer, the status of the devices (paired or connected), and whether Bluetooth power is on or not.

1) Click the gear icon and choose "Connect" to connect a device that is powered on.

2) To set up a new device, click the + icon and follow the Bluetooth setup assistant.

3) If the Mouse System Preferences pane is open and no wired or wireless mouse is connected, your Mac will immediately start looking for a wireless mouse (with Mac OS X v10.6.  For Mac OS X v10.5, the Setup Assistant should open).

Keyboard or mouse intermittently stops responding

Click the mouse

1) Click the mouse once to reconnect it with your Mac. It may take a moment for the mouse to respond.

2) Check the battery level of the mouse. Choose System Preferences from the Apple (), then choose Mouse from the View menu. The battery level indicator is in the lower-left corner. Replace the batteries if they are low. 

Note: Choose Keyboard & Mouse from the View menu with Mac OS X v10.5.

Press a key on the keyboard

1) Press a key on the keyboard to reconnect it with your Mac. It may take a moment for the keyboard to respond.

2) Check the battery level of the keyboard. Choose System Preferences from the Apple (),  then choose Keyboard from the View menu and select the Keyboard tab. The battery level indicator is in the lower-left corner. Replace the batteries if they are low.

Mouse does not track as expected (jittery, jumpy, slow, fast)/Mouse buttons do not work as expected.

The Apple Wireless Mouse can be used on most smooth surfaces, however if tracking issues occur try these options:

1) Choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu, then choose Mouse from the View menu. Set the Tracking slider to adjust how fast the pointer moves as you move the mouse.

2) Try using a different surface to see if the tracking improves.

3) Turn the mouse over and inspect the sensor window. Use compressed air to gently clean the sensor window if dust or debris is present.

4) If multiple Bluetooth wireless devices are in use nearby, try turning them off one at a time to see if the issue improves. Bandwidth intensive devices could affect tracking.

The problem is that when you insert any usb device: memory card, HDD, usb-stick, mouse or keyboard ,- the PC freezes. Nothing can be done to unfreeze it, except manually rebooting PC by pressing reset button on the case. The problem is very common and spread among Windows users, and it can be fixed in few approaches.

I. Enable/(Start) Universal Plug & Play Device Host service in Windows services.

II. The second approach is to remove and reinstall all USB controllers.

1.Go to Start > Run > type in: 'sysdm.cpl' without quotation marks and press Enter.

2. Navigate to Hardware tab and click on Device Manager button.

3. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.

4. Right click every device under Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove one at a time.

5. Restart the PC and then reinstall the USB controllers.

6. Plug in USB storage device into USB-port, make sure the issue is resolved.

III. The third approach relies on a registry fix (this fix will also work if the usb-device doesn't show up in My Computer):

1. Go to Start > Run > type in: 'regedit' without quotation marks. Press Enter.

2. In the opened window navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

2. On the right pane, find and locate the problem device letter, which corresponds to problem device, delete this registry entry:

Note: The registry key should have the name that resembles the format of \DosDevice\X: where X can be any alphabet letter which corresponding to your physical system drive letter. 

Imagine you have Airport Extreme Base Station which provides wireless access to the Web up to 50 computers whether they're PCs or Macs and you want to share a hard disk to the whole network.

What is necessary for sharing a HDD:

-external USB-HDD;

-Airport Extreme Base Station;

-PCs, Macs.

Necessary software for Windows and Mac:

-Airport utility.

For Mac: Download Airport Utility for Mac version 5.4.2 here.

For Windows: Download Airport Utility for Windows version 5.4.2 here.

Steps below describe how to share HDD using Airport Extreme on Mac computers:

1. Connect HDD to the USB-port on back side of the Airport Extreme Base Station:

2. Run Airport Utility from Applications: Utilities folder. Select your Base Station on the left pane and then press "Manual Setup" button.

3. Click "Disks" in the toolbar at the top of the Airport Utility. 

4. Switch to "File Sharing" tab and make sure that "Enable File Sharing" option is enabled: 

5. In "Secure Shared Disks" sub-menu from the drop-down list choose With A Disk Password or With Base Station Password in case you want to secure shared disk with a password,or choose With Accouts - if you want to secure disks with Accounts.

6. Choose Not Allowed, Read Only or Read and Write to assign guest access to the disk: 

7. There is a possibility to share the disk over the Internet by selecting "Share Disks over Ethernet WAN port" check-box if you want to provide remote access and if you do share disks over Ethernet you can also "Advertise disks globally using Bonjour".

8. Set the WORKGROUP and WINS-server for Windows File Sharing.

9. Press the Update button to apply changes. AirPort will require to reboot Base Station. Confirm Reboot. 

10. USB-HDD is now mounted as a sharepoint in OS X.

Windows 7 has some neat little enhancements, one of them being how it lets you handle dual monitors. If you’re adding a second monitor to your Windows 7 home or office PC, which is a very good idea, it’s a breeze to configure.

There are actually two ways you can currently setup multiple monitors in Windows 7, either by using a keyboard shortcut or via the traditional system properties.

I really like the first method since it’s new and is way easier than having to go into the Control Panel or anything else.

1.Simply press the Windows key and P (Windows + P) to bring up a quick menu of options.

You can pick to show only the computer, make the second monitor a duplicate of the first, extend the desktop to the second monitor or turn off the first monitor and activate the second.

2.The second way is to right-click on the desktop and choose Screen resolution.

Now you’ll see the familiar 1 and 2 to distinguish which monitor is which. There are several options and under Multiple Displays, you can choose from the same options as when you pressed Win + P.

That’s it! You can also change the orientation of the displays and change the resolution of each display. It’s pretty straight-forward in Windows 7 and a lot easier!

Xbox is a great device for making fun, playing games and playing media. But connecting Xbox to the internet can make all these even more fun. Also internet connection provides wide possibilities in surfing the net. Connecting Xbox to Windows network is as simple as connecting another computer to your home network. There are three different ways to do this. You can use a hub/switch, a router, or a crossover cable. This tutorial will show you how to configure the hardware. Remember though, You will not actually be able to login to your xbox until you have installed and configured the EvolutionX dashboard.
Xbox Network Connection using Hub

Step #1: Plug your network cable(RJ-45 cable) that comes from your cable/DSL modem into the uplink port of your hub. (Make sure that your uplink is switched to "on").
Step #2: Take an RJ-45 cable and run it from one of the ports of the hub, directly to the Network Interface Card (NIC) installed in your computer.
Step #3: Take another RJ-45 cable and run it from a different port of your hub directly to your xbox.

**NOTE** A switch may be used in place of a hub with the same basic setup.**

That's it! No other network changes should be needed for this configuration. Your Xbox is now on the same network as your PC.


Xbox Network Connection using Router
This is the most common network configuration and is also the easiest to setup.

Step #1: Plug your network cable(RJ-45 cable) that comes from your modem into the WAN port of your router.

Step #2: Take an RJ-45 cable and run it from one of the ports of the router, directly to the Network Interface Card (NIC) installed in your computer.

Step #3: Take another RJ-45 cable and run it from a different port of your router directly to your xbox.

**NOTE** In steps #2 and #3, you should not use a port that is directly beside the "uplink" port on your router, if your uplink port is being used to connect to another routing device.** If your router has a built in firewall, you will need to forward ports 8602 both incoming and outgoing to the internal ip address of your pc. Consult your device manaul for port forwarding.

That's it! Your Xbox is now on the same network as your PC

 
Xbox Network Connection using Crossover Cable

This is the last network configuration. For this setup you need at least one NIC card.
Step #1: Plug your USB cable that comes from your modem into your PC's USB port. This should already be done, if you have a usb modem for your current internet connection.
Step #2: Take an RJ-45 cable and run it from an installed NIC card on your PC, directly to the Xbox.

**NOTE** A crossover cable is only needed if you are connecting the Xbox directly to the second NIC card. If you have a device such as a switch, hub or router in between you should use a standard RJ-45 cable. This type of network setup also requires "Winroute©", a program downloadable from the world wide web. Consult the manual for specific instructions on how to set this up. Also if you have a USB ethernet adapter, you may use any of the setups described herein. USB ethernet adapter basically converts a USB cable into an RJ-45 cable.

That's it! Your Xbox is now on the same network as your PC.

Sometimes you may need to connect second monitor to your PC, or to connect monitor to the notebook  to make it's more convenient to work on a large screen.

First of all,  to be able to connect second monitor you need to have additional outputs on video adapter, or as a possible variant - second video adapter.

(Note: Sometimes you may need to install newer versions of video drivers for your adapter!)

Of course, you will need the second monitor, it can be either CRT or LCD.

To connect second monitor in Windows XP:

1. Connect second monitor to video adapter.

2. Right-click on the free space on the desktop, click [Properties]. (You can also find it in Control Panel and click on Display icon).

3. In the opened window, go to the [Display Properties] option and navigate to [Settings] tab.

4. Click on the grayed-out box with '2' to the right of the black box which represent the second monitor.

5. Enable the check box next to “Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor”.

6. Now set the screen resolution for the second monitor or leave it without changes.

7. If the second screen is physically attached to the left of your primary (first) screen,

   drag and drop the second monitor to the left of the first display

   on the Display Properties Settings window.

8. Click OK to apply the changes. Your second monitor should have activated itself by now.

In case if you have not enough space on system drive or you print dozens of documents very often, you may need to move the default folder with print jobs to another location. 

By default,  Windows XP  print jobs are saved to a directory C:\WINDOWS\System32\spool\PRINTERS. Besides, by spooling information to this directory, in case there is a printer error, you can reprint the file as soon as the printer error is fixed.

If you have more than one partition, you may wish to move this directory to another place. If you finally decide to do that, you need to follow next steps:

1. Click [Start], then [Printers and Faxes].

2. In the [Printers and Faxes] window, choose [File] in the Menu bar, then [Server Properties].

3. In the [Server Properties] dialog box, navigate to [Advanced] tab.

4. Next to [Spool Folder], choose the desired directory name where you want spooled print jobs to appear.

5. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

Windows Vista provie two ways to copy files to a writeable disc. This process is called burning a disc. By default, Windows Vista burns discs in the Live File System format, but you can also choose to burn discs in the Mastered format.

There are several differences between Live File System and Mastered formats:

Burning with Live File System format allows you to add and erase files (only for rewritable disks) on the disk like a USB flash drive. However disks burned with this format might not be readable for operating systems before Windows XP.

Instaed disks burned with Mastered format will be readable for all Windows systems. Data is written once and individual files cannot be erased after burning.

To write data to a disk follow these steps:

1. Insert a writeable CD or DVD into your computer's CD or DVD recorder.

2. In the dialog box that appears, click Burn files to data disc.

3. In the Burn a Disc dialog box, type a name for this disc, and then click Show formatting options.

4. Chose the writing format.

5. If you choose Live File System format It might take several minutes for the disc to be formatted in the default Live File System format. When the formatting is complete, an empty disc folder opens. Open the folder that contains the files you want to burn, and then drag the files into the empty disc folder.

6. If you choose Mastered format an empty disc folder opens. Open the folder that contains the files you want to burn, and then drag the files into the empty disc folder. On the toolbar, click Burn to disc.