We’re flooded by tweaks every month. While gasping desperately for every last un-tuned breath, we’re drenched with. . . well . . . registry hacks mostly. As great as these are, we are still in search of the real hard-core stuff. If you’ve got some cutting-edge, überordne, secret tweak or mod that gives your system the ultimate performance boost, or makes your life in front of your computer just that much schweeter, then share it with us, dammit!
Lazy AVI
TWEAK: Ever spent hours downloading a movie file, only to have the connection lost as the last few bytes came down the wire? This can render some files inoperable, wasting all significant time and data download allowance.
I found that you can view incomplete or partially downloaded DivX (AVI) movies, by using a utility called DivFix.
Justin
REPLY: These days, with an ever-increasing number of broadband users, more people are soaking up their bandwidth downloading larger and larger files. Many of these, as it happens, are AVI files compressed using the DivX codec.
Unfortunately regardless of your download source, whether it's IRC, P2P or Web-based, you can't always be sure that the file you are downloading, at least in terms of video files, is the actual file you're after. It is becoming increasingly common for people to download what they hoped was a trailer for The Hulk, for example, only to find they have an episode of BangBus, carving precious megabytes off your download limit. Indeed, it would be more practical to download a small portion of the file and view it, to be sure it's what you're after.
As luck would have it there is a solution to this, and for your convenience we have made it available for download at the Atomic Website.
DivFix allows you to strip or rebuild the important index data from the end of most AVI files. It also has some error detection capabilities, to correct such problems as missing key frames or corrupt delta frames.
With this utility, you can have a look at partial/incomplete movies by using the 'Rebuild Index' function. If you want to resume the download, simply strip the index back out and rebuild it when the download is finished. This was tested this on a few AVI files which for unknown reason, refused to play. It worked for three out of four files tried.
This utility comes in both Windows and Linux flavours too. It does have a couple of known bugs, but no real show stoppers.
Although not a performance booster, as usually seen in Phr33x Tw33x, it certainly makes your downloading experiences less time wasting. Go freeware!
1337ness 6/10
MSN Remov0ring
TWEAK: MSN is crap, but Windows XP shoves it in my face every time I boot. I can get rid of it from the registry, but then my lame sister won't be able to use it when she jumps on the computer. I could her to piss off, but she will just have a cry. So, I found I can turn it off in the Group Policy Editor. I don't have to see it, and my sister can talk crap with her narky girlfriends.
LouPe
REPLY: Many people are not particularly fond of MSN as a messaging client – yourself a perfect example. Nor are they really happy about it loading up each time you launch Windows. However, stopping it from appearing is not really a straightforward task. When you installed XP Professional, you didn't ask for it, and it doesn't appear in Add/Remove Programs. It isn't in your Startup menu, and there is no option within the program itself to stop it from running. You can manage this problem, however, through the use of Windows XP system profiles.
Go to Start -> Run and type 'gpedit.msc' and then hit Enter. This launches the Microsoft Management Console extension called Group Policy. In the left pane you will see the local computer policy, with a familiar looking Windows Explorer-type menu. Changes made under 'Computer Configuration' will take place regardless of the user logged in. Changes under 'User Configuration' are specific to the particular user, and don't affect other user accounts.
To prevent MSN from launching each time Windows boots, double click on either Computer or User configuration, depending on your preference. Select Administrative Templates -> Windows Components --> Windows Messenger, and then in the right pane, right click on both 'Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run' and 'Do not automatically start Windows Messenger'. Finally, check 'Enable' and click 'OK'. Reboot and you shouldn't see MSN cramping your style.
Be aware however, that some Microsoft apps depend on the Windows Messenger API, such as Outlook 2002 and Outlook Express 6.0, and these applications may try and sign in to MSN when you launch them, preventing the program from starting properly. Make sure you go into the options for these applications and on the 'General' tab, clear the check box that says 'Enable Instant Messaging in Microsoft Outlook' and hopefully all will be right with the world.
1337ness 7/10
Issue: 133 | February, 2012