Computer Info

It is my intent to provide useful information on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, and other general computer miscellany. It will never be complete, but I hope to be thorough. -d

A look at what I'm running.

[Building a system, OS-level]    [Software Recommendations]    [Reorganizing the Start Menu]
[Controlling Windows Startup]

Jimbo has some real useful info up. Check it out:
[Linux starting guide]    [Unix command cheat sheet]

Building a system, OS-level

Windows, Linux, FreeBSD

Step 1. Partioning / Installing Windows
Starting with a clean, low-level formatted hard drive.

Windows likes to be the first partition on the hard drive. Absolute minimum size in order for Windows to fit is in the hundreds of megabytes. You should have more free space than that if you want Windows to run semi-well.

To create the Windows partitions, I usually use Windows' fdisk. It is very straightforward a program. Unfortunately, it can only do FAT and FAT32 partitions, so NTFS is unavailable. I use FAT32 because I want to read and write to the Windows partitions from Linux, and NTFS write support from Linux is labelled as both experimental and dangerous.
PART is a solid partitioning program too. It has the added bonus of supporting Linux ext2, Linux swap, and others. I recommend ext3 or reiserfs over ext2 for Linux, and you can convert ext2 to ext3 very easily.

I find adding a second Windows partition (D:, or hda2) is generally a good idea. This partition provides many uses. For example, when re-installing windows later, a second windows partition can help save important data. Plus, if you are to install other OSs (linux, freebsd, ...) they can read and write data on a FAT32 paritition. At the time of this writing, linux cannot safely write to NTFS partitions, so there's greater reason to use FAT32 (hence fdisk) above.

For paritioning Linux and FreeBSD drives, I use the respective OS installers as partitioners. Since I prefer to install Windows before these OSs, I do that now, before partioning any more. This also avoids some boot-sector issues which arise when you want to multiboot a drive.

Step 2. Installing FreeBSD
I am still a BSD newbie, so this section will be left blank until I know anything useful.

Step 3. Installing Linux
There are a million and one Linux distros out there. Hard to know which to use. If you have time to reasearch it, I recommend looking at DistroWatch. For newbies, I recommend RedHat. If you ask "What is a newbie?" then the answer is you are. Its straightforward install makes it easy if you are new to Linux. For more advanced users (those who don't fear compiling sources, the kernel, or other hacking, any Debian-based distro is the way to go. I'm currently running Gentoo. I am also a fan of LFS. My LFS system was tighter, cleaner and faster than any other distro I've tried. However, upgrading it was a bitch. Hence my newfound love for Debian.

Software recommendations

Web browsing:   Mozilla FireFox is fast, lightweight, and sleak. Built-in popup detection is just one of its long list of features. Comes in Windows, Linux, MacOS and other OS varieties. If you are running FireFox, check out the Firefox Extensions page.

Text editing (Windows):   UltraEdit is a wonderfully feature-rich editor. All the goodies - UNIX/DOS/MAC file support/conversion, syntax highlighting, a great search feature, column mode. It offers way much more than I can cover here. (as an aside - it's what I'm using to write this). Only down side is that I haven't gotten Linux support for it yet. Wine bails hard upon any menu access.
Text editing (Linux):   I go with Emacs. Many people swear by vi but I have never gotten comfortable with it. I admit I need to spend more time learning the keyboard shortcuts. It is certainly a hacker's editor.

CD burning (Windows):   Nero is a solid program. Easily burns audio CDs from MP3s. Wizard- and Explorer-interfaces. Now with .ISO support, which is very nice.
CD burning (Linux):   cdrecord. Straight forward command line tool.

P2P:   FurthurNET is a legal music downloading program. The music available is live performances, which, IMHO, is far better than albums. It's a Java app, so it can run (in theory :-)) on any OS which supports Java.

Graphic editing:   I cannot stress enough that I am not a professional graphic designer, by any stretch of the imagination. As you can tell by my site, I am not a graphically-inclined person. That being said, I recommend The GIMP. It comes in a Windows version too, which is nice.

Power tools:   Microsoft Windows PowerToys (multiple URLS, so if you want, use Google to find the ones specific to your version of Windows.)

Check out Jimbo's recommendations, as well as OSNews' Applications You Can't Live Without, and Slashdot's discussion - the first 10 programs after a new install.

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Reorganizing the Start menu

Before I get to how to reorganize the Windows Start menu, I think it's wise to discuss how the Start menu is laid out, and some basic properties of it.

Each item in the start menu is its own file, so they have the same basic properties as all files on your computer. Just as you can rename, delete, or otherwise modify any file on your computer, you can do the same to any file in the start menu. However, it is important to note that the files in the Start menu are special. They are called shortcuts. If you rename, delete, or otherwise alter a Windows shortcut, it has no effect on the program it links to. For instance, if I have an item in the Start menu titled "Windows Explorer", I can rename the shortcut to "Explorer" without changing what happens when I click on this item. The underlying function of the shortcut file remains the same, but the shortcut file itself is different.

There are many ways to reorganize Windows' Start menu. I will cover what I feel are the most efficient here. Since the Start menu is made up of shortcuts, and shortcuts are files, the Start menu can be manipulated just as any file can. File operations (rename, delete, move, copy...) can be executed on the files in the Start menu two basic ways. Either directly as the Start menu is open, or by using Explorer to view the folder ("folder" is synonymous with "directory") on your hard drive which contains the Start menu shortcuts.
Where is the Start menu folder? The answer to this depends on many things. Primarily it depends on the version of Windows you are running. Whichever version, you can automatically go to that directory by right-clicking on the Start button and selecting "Open" or "Explore". Both start Explorer and open it directly to the folder containing the Start menu.

Renaming files / folders:   Locate the file or folder you wish to rename, and right-click on it, and select "Rename." You are then prompted for the new name. You can do this either in Windows Explorer (using the method mentioned above) or do it directly in the Start menu. The latter method is accomplished by opening the Start menu the way you would to start a program. Browse the menus until you see the item you wish to rename. Right-click on the menu item, and select Rename. Type in the new name when prompted.
Deleting files / folders:   Similar to renaming a file, locate the file in Windows Explorer or by browing the Start menu directly. Then right-click on the file and select "Delete."
Creating new folders:   This can only be done in Windows Explorer. When you're viewing the directory in which you want to create a new folder, go to the File menu, and select "New." In the submenu which appears, select "Folder." You can then rename the new folder to whatever you'd like.
Moving items:   If you have opened an Explorer window to the directory containing your Start menu, select any items you wish to move. Then press Control+X, or go to the Edit menu and select Cut. You will notice that the icon next to the file is faded. Now open the folder you wish to move the item to. Press Control+V, or go to the Edit menu and select Paste.
If you have not opened the Explorer window, there is a way to move files quickly within the Start menu itself. Open the Start menu as you would to start a program, and point the mouse to the file or folder you wish to move. Then click and drag the item throughout the Start menu. Drag the mouse cursor into the folder you wish to place the shortcut. Releasing the mouse button will finalize the move. If you are in the process of dragging a file, and you realize that you changed your mind, you can press the Escape key on the keyboard to cancel the drag. Note that once the drag is complete, the Escape key will not undo the move. A note about dragging files: Sometimes there is a delay when you are trying to view the contents of a folder in the Start menu. This is normal. Wait a second, and the folder will automatically open.

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Controlling Windows Startup

There are many places Windows stores information about which programs to start when your computer starts. The most obvious is the Startup menu group in the Start Menu. More and more frequently, applications are using the more hidden locations to tell Windows to start them automatically.

An old method (used back in Windows 3.x days) works on many (all?) later versions as well. In the Windows directory, there's a file called win.ini. In this file, look for lines beginning with "load" or "run". Windows starts apps listed in those lines.

However, the bulk of apps which are started automatically are listed in the Windows registry. Start the Registry Editor (enter regedit in the run box). If you are unfamiliar with regedit, using it to navigate the registry is very similar to using Windows Explorer. If in doubt, look at regedit's help. Look at the following keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

There also may be keys named RunServices (inside CurrentVersion) which will list other apps automatically started. These are usually hardware-based, or system-based. Not applications like QuickTime.
If you have mutliple usernames on your Windows setup, the HKEY_CURRENT_USER one is specific to the user currently logged in. Items listed in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE are loaded every time the computer starts, no matter who the user is.

In addition to this, if you are running Windows 2000 or later, I recommend taking control over which services start when you boot into Windows. For detailed information about Win2k services, check out this site. For Windows XP, check this out.

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