One thing is for sure with any computer operating system, the older it becomes, the occurrence of broken or "things don't work like they used to"  become more frequent.

Take shortcuts for example. You know…the ones on your desktop or in the start menu.

You click on a shortcut that you have not used in a while, and chances are, it works as expected or you get the dreaded Problem with Shortcut error warning:

So to fix it, you re-point to the new location of the source or delete it. Now you wonder, how many more shortcuts do I have that are broken?

Well you could go one by one and click on each shortcut on your desktop or start menu and fix them. But that would take a be ridiculously long time (who wants to do that anyway).

Instead there is an easier way…

…and that way is to use a utility called ShortcutsMan from nirsoft.net.

ShortcutsMan is a standalone program,that does not require any installation or additional DLLs. To use it, just download it, copy the executable (shman.exe) to any folder you prefer (after it's unzipped) and run it.

A few seconds after running ShortcutsMan utility, a list of all your desktop and Start menu shortcuts will load in the main window.

Now. what's cool about ShortcutsMan, it wall automatically display broken shortcuts in pink. No need to hunt them down, one by one.

To try fixing a broken shortcut,  just check the box next to a broken shortcut (you can select more than one shortcuts at once), and either delete them, resolve them or save the shortcut's details to HTML/Text/XML file.

The first thing I usually do is have ShortcutsMan fix the shortcut by resolving it. This process searches your computer and points it to a valid file name (typically the orignal file name may have been changed or moved to another folder).

To resolve, select the check box next to the broken shortcut (pink color), then right click on it and select Resolve Selected Shortcuts.

If it can not resolve, then I usually delete the shortcut (otherwise if I really used it often…it wouldn't be broken in the first place). You can also edit and fix shortcuts yourself directly in ShortcutsMan by right clicking on a shortcut and select Edit.

ShortcutsMan is a great utility to have around to help clean up your system of dead shortcuts. If anything, having the capability to display all shortcuts on my desktop or under the Start menu in one interface is a big time saver. Either they get fixed or deleted. Real simple.

You can download ShortcutsMan from nirsift.com.

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.

Before you do anything else, close Outlook. You should also note that we’ll be modifying system generated files here, so proceed with caution or not at all.

Open up windows explorer window and then paste the following text into the address bar, which should bring you to a folder with a single folder inside with a really long name.

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect

What you’ll need to do is just rename that folder to something else (I suggest appending -old onto the end of it so that you could easily rename it back if things go wrong)

Now re-open Outlook, and then type in your password hopefully for the last time, making sure to check the box to remember it. You should now see that the original folder was re-created again.

At this point Outlook should remember your passwords, but you can close Outlook and reopen it to make sure. If you encounter problems with this, you can remove the new folder and then rename the -old folder back to the original name to put everything back the way it was.

The more faster the internet speed is, the more comfortable your web-browsing is. But sometimes there can be significant slowdown due to improperly configured browser, even if you have fast internet package. Supposing that Mozilla FireFox is used for browsing, certain changes can be made to improve the performance.

How to Speed Up Mozilla FireFox Browser:

1. Launch Mozilla FF. In the address bar type in: "about:config" without quotation marks and press Enter. Scroll down and look for the following entries.

network.http.pipelining

network.http.proxy.pipelining

network.http.pipelining.maxrequests

2. Normally the browser will make one request to a site at a time. When enebling pipelining it will make several at once, which really gives good results.

3. Alter the entries as follows:

Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"

Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining"  to "true"

Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like "40-60"  which indicates the number of requests.

4. The last thing to do is to right-click anywhere and select New > Integer. Name "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set it to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

MS Outlook 2007 allows users to speed up and simplify their working experience in many ways. One of such useful features in MS Outlook is the automatic Address completing for frequently used e-mail addresses. The cache for entered e-mail addresses is stored in the AutoComplete file with the extension .NK2 located in the user's profile, for example, in Windows Vista it would be: \users\<username>\AppData\Microsoft\Outlook\<profilename>.NK2

As the user types an address, the cache items matching the letters typed are displayed in a dropdown box. The user can choose the appropriate address by using arrows keys or by selecting an address with the cursor. The AutoComplete file handles up to 1000 entries and stores more than just addresses.

Not everyon emay need this feature, but those who will need will want to know how to enable it and those who will not , - will need to know how to disable it. AutoComplete is easily toggled on or off through Outlook. Navigate to Tools > Options > E-mail Options > Advanced E-mail Options. To disable AutoComplete, clear the checkbox beside the option to Automatic Name Checking and Suggest names while completing To, Cc and Bcc fields options.

If you’re wondering how to mount an ISO image in Mac OS X, it is very easy. For most ISO images you can mount them simply by double-clicking the ISO image file, and it will go through the auto-mounter app within OS X putting it on your desktop. If for whatever reason that doesn’t work there are other methods to mount ISO’s within Mac OS X. In the Terminal type the following command:

hdiutil mount sample.iso

with sample.iso being the path to the image you want to mount. After the checksum is completet, your ISO will appear mounted on your Mac OS X desktop – that’s it. You you can actually mount virtually any other disk image type with hdiutil as well, so give .dmg .img a try too.

Has the ISO file still not mounted on your Mac? Try using Disk Utility, located in the /Applications/Utilities/ directory. After you have launched Disk Utility, navigate from the Disk Utility menu down to “Open Image File” and select your ISO file. The ISO should now appear mounted on the Mac OS desktop.

1. Software Update checks for available updates. In the Software Update window, select the items you want to install, then click Install. Usually, you should install all available updates. (Mac OS X v10.3 only: Click the Check Now button.)
2. Enter an administrator account name and password.
3. After installation is complete, restart the computer if required.

You can repeat these steps to see if more updates are now available. Because some software updates are prerequisites for others, you may need to repeat these steps several times to complete the software update sequence.

Note: Mac OS X v10.5 and later can automatically run Software Update checks in the background and let you know when an update is available for your computer.

Getting updates immediately (Mac OS X v10.2.8 or earlier)

1. From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
2. From the View menu, choose Software Update.
3. Click Update Now.
4. In the Software Update window, select the items you want to install, then click Install.
5. Enter an administrator account name and password.
6. After the update is complete, restart the computer if a restart is required.

You can repeat these steps to see if more updates are now available. Because some software updates are prerequisites for others, you may need to repeat these steps several times to complete the software update sequence.

If Disk Utility reports any other issues that cannot be corrected, backup essential data, then perform an Erase and Install.