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Have you by any chance added a second video output? On my Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2 system, when I configure my Nvidia control panel such that I activate a TV (I have an HDMI cable plugged into the back of the PC’s video card, and then on to the TV) as a second video output, the sound is canceled on my PC (but not on my TV).

Yes, I did try it, but it wasn’t complete enough for my needs, I’m afraid. Then Textreme came along, and I have been experimenting with it ever since, and the author. Jim Ollerhead, has very kindly created a Command Line version, initially for me! I think his latest version will soon be available.

Okay, just checking. I thought the option in my program in which you make a text file of multiple specific targets would fit your needs, but I guess not. Thanks for getting back to me.

Um, just curious… If you look at my earlier post in this thread, I noted that a decade or so ago I wrote a program that I believe does what you want to do (if I understand the requirements correctly). Have you downloaded that program and tried to use it?

I have a single log-type ASCII text file whose lines come in a significant number of possible line formats (perhaps 50?).
I want to test each line to see if it contains one of a number of unique strings, and write the line to an output file if any of these required strings is found.
If the line contains none of the required strings, or contains one of a number of NON-required strings, the line is to be ignored.

The strings would usually contain more than one word separated by blanks, and the line will usually contain at least one email address wrapped in angle brackets (e.g. )

The built-in commands FIND and FINDSTR really only handle a single string, without errors, so up to 50 runs against the same input file would be somewhat inefficient!

Does anyone know of a command-line utility which would do this? (If anyone has a UK IBM mainframe background, what I’m really asking for is a free version of the SELCOPY utility!)

BATcher, I have a program that I believe does what you are looking for. See the program titled String Search Counter (which is the very first program listed) on my page, http://www.billanddot.com/downloads.htm .

Cheers,

Bill P.

Very informative article. Fred: thanks for the time and effort you put into it. I have one related story – about security software and time – and one request for further study.

Related story: Ad-Watch Live

In August, 2010, I submitted this post – http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=29733 – about Ad-Watch to the Lavasoft forum. It describes how I wrote a program to time the effect Ad-Watch had on starting up one particular program. You can read the timing details there; the executive summary is that the impact was so onerous that I stopped using that product. (Ad-Watch has since moved on to another major release version, but no one from Lavasoft, or anyone else, ever responded to my comments.)

Request Related to Article:

In large measure as a result of Fred’s recommendation, I switched last year from Trend Micro’s security suite (when my subscription was winding down) to MSE and the free version of ZoneAlarm’s firewall. That was an acceptable combination, which I used for half a year or so. I switched from that combination a few months ago to the free version of Comodo’s AV and firewall (for no great reason – just wanted to try an integrated suite, and it seemed to have better protection-related reviews than my MSE/ZA combination).

That’s the background. But one problem I am having with Comodo AV is that the scan’s seem to take too long, to the point where I’ve changed their frequency from nightly to weekly. So, I wonder if you, Fred, could augment your report with some methodology that also takes into account scan time. (In my case, I’m running Vista Home Premium, Intel Quad Core Q6600, 3GB RAM, and about a half-full 300GB drive.)

Regards,

Bill P.

Here’s something I don’t understand, so could (as Denzel Washington said in Philadelphia) someone explain it to me like I’m a six-year-old? If Windows – any Windows, pick a Windows – says that it will allow virtual memory to go from some specified minimum size X to some specified maximum size Y, how is it less efficient if you just tell Windows, “Here, your size is exactly Y”? It seems to me that if you say that, Windows is freed up from any and all management tasks – and the CPU and disk accesses – associated with trying to resize virtual memory. I’m not saying Windows won’t have any virtual memory work to do, just that (it seems to me) the work associated with resizing virtual memory.

I have no idea what goes on inside this part of code; feel free to make fun of me for that, if anyone likes. It just seems that with my system (however old) you’re asking the O/S to do one less thing, and so I’m really curious why this wouldn’t be the case. Certainly I may be simplifying things, but I may not be; hey, pre-retirement I was a coder and database administrator for c. 30 years, so: A) I don’t think I’m complete idiot; B) my position seems reasonable to me, based on that general computer knowledge, and; C) I’m genuinely interested in learning what goes on inside, to invalidate this position.

Generally, this all looks good to me. But #7 and #8 are totally unnecessary in a modern PC, and should not be done, as these restrictions can interfere with Windows performance.

Bob,

First of all, thank you for your time and comments.

Regarding my “8) Reduced Recycle Bin size (1GB),” I defer to Fred Langa’s “10 great ‘Do these first’ tweaks for Windows 7” article in the Dec. 16, 2010, Windows Secrets email, in which he wrote:

[INDENT]Resize the recycle bin downward: Windows 7 has finally reined in the formerly voracious appetites of the caches used by Internet Explorer and System Restore. But the recycle bin can still be ridiculously large when Windows is installed on a large hard drive. A needlessly large bin size creates unnecessary Windows housekeeping overhead and wastes disk space.

Right-click the recycle bin, select Properties, and set a more reasonable Custom size — typically 250MB to 500MB.
[/INDENT]
Regarding my “7) Changed virtual memory to a custom, fixed, size (8000MB – 8000MB),” in the Mar. 19, 2009, Windows Secrets newsletter, Fred had this to say:

[INDENT]But again, I haven’t noticed that pagefile tweaking makes any difference on my XP and Vista PCs. To me, tweaking the pagefile settings just isn’t worth the hassle anymore.
[/INDENT]
What I’ve been doing – since the days of ME or perhaps even before, I forget – on new machines (i.e., plenty of contiguous disk space) has been to: 1) increase the maximum size of virtual memory, and; 2) set the minimum size to the same thing. A decade or more ago, I used to read in various Windows “tips and techniques” sites to do this sort of thing; they would typically recommend a value two or three times the size of physical RAM.

The intent of this was to eliminate the processing and hard-drive effort involved in Windows’ trying to minimize the disk space used – which was precious in the old days – and then making the pagefile bigger whenever usage conditions spiked. Still seems like a good idea to me, and so I’ve continued doing this on my own machines, including my Vista desktop (which I’ve been running for years without incident, is my main PC, has 3GB RAM and virtual memory set at 6GB – 6GB) and my Win7 laptop (which I’ve had for a year now, again without incident, and with 4GB RAM and virtual memory set at 8GB – 8GB).

I realize that it seems a little silly of me to cite Fred in support of the recycle bin and contradict him in regard to memory. My view of the latter is that it doesn’t seem to hurt, and where he writes that “tweaking the pagefile settings just isn’t worth the hassle,” I counter that it certainly doesn’t seem like a hassle to me, particularly on a new machine; takes just a few seconds and a reboot, which you’ll be doing on a new machine after Windows Updates anyway.

Thoughts?

First of all, I enjoyed the article. BTW, I use LastPass, and highly recommend it, too. For the other freeware apps that I recommend, based on my having used and enjoyed them for as much as a decade, see this page of my web site: http://www.billanddot.com/downloads.htm .

Second, coincidentally, a relative bought a laptop for her daughter in early December, for a Christmas present for her daughter, and asked me to “get it ready” beforehand. Having done this sort of thing before but infrequently, I decided – this time – to take notes (in freeware NoteTab Light) while I was doing the prep work. Hopefully, this will make it a little easier for me next time. Here’s exactly what I wrote, FWIW, some of it matching up with Woody’s suggestions:

1) Answered initial Windows 7 setup questions (EST, English, user “Darcy,” etc.).

2) Ran Windows Update (three or four times, 40+ patch updates).

3) Uninstalled trialware:
– Microsoft Office
– Norton Security

4) Downloaded, installed, and ran MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials).

5) Downloaded, installed, and ran Secunia PSI (Personal Security Inspector).

6) Downloaded and installed patches noted by PSI:
– Adobe Reader
– Google Chrome
– Other Adobe programs

7) Changed virtual memory to a custom, fixed, size (8000MB – 8000MB).

8) Reduced Recycle Bin size (1GB).

9) Adjusted Power Off options (c. double all shutdown times).

10) Adjusted taskbar and Startup menu:
– All system tray items always visible
– All running-program tabs separately shown (unless space needed)
– Changed from large to small icons
– Adjusted for c. 20 items visible on Start menu
– Newly installed items not highlighted

11) Deleted some unneeded items from Programs menu (e.g., Adobe Reader).

12) Downloaded and installed Open Office.

13) Changed Windows Explorer options to show path and extensions.

14) Changed some options in Internet Explorer:
– Disabled accelerator add-ons
– Removed Bing toolbar (Google toolbar already installed)

15) Changed some touch-pad options:
– Faster speed
– Automatic focus on default buttons

16) Ran Adobe Reader, disabled Javascript in Preferences.

Regards,

Bill P.