How to install a Microsoft Loopback Adapter in Windows 7

Some applications like SQL Server are dependent on network functionality. These usually require a network card to be present. If you don't have a network card installed on your PC, then you will need Microsoft Loopback adapter in order to setup and run these applications that depend on network functionality. The Microsoft Loopback adapter is a testing tool for a virtual network environment where network access is not available.

To install Microsoft Loopback adapter, follow steps below:

1. Go to START menu -> All Programs -> Accessaries -> Command Prompt. Run the Command Prompt as administrator (right-click the command prompt).


2. From the command prompt, run “hdwwiz.exe“. This should launch the “Add Hardware Wizard“. Click Next.


3. Select “Install the hardware that I manually select from a list (Advanced)” and click Next.


4. Now from the list select Network Adapters and click Next.


5. Under Manufacturers, select Microsoft and select “Microsoft Loopback Adapter” under Network Adapter and click Next. This should start the installation. Click Finish when the installation is completed.


To confirm the loopback adapter installed, right-click Computer, select properties. Click Device Manager and expand Network Adapters and you can see the Loopback adapter installed there.

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Posted in: howto,microsoft loopback adapter,Windows 7,windows tips

How To WampServer 2.0 on Your Windows Machine

If you would like to build your own website, you can do it on your own computer without putting it on internet. But, you will need a web server, database and supported scripting languague to run at your computer. WAMP is the soulution you need. WampServer is a free utility that allows you to run Apache, PHP, and MySQL on Microsoft Windows. This article demonstrates how to download, install, and configure WampServer on a Windows PC.

Instructions:

1. Go to http://www.wampserver.com/en/download.php to download the latest version of WampServer 2.

2. Run the WampServer.20i.exe file. The setup wizard is straightforward, you don't need to change any default settings unless you want to install your WampServer to a location other than the default C:\Wamp directory.

3. Once the installation completed, the WampServer icon will show up in the system tray when it is launced. You can use the pull-up menu from the WampServer icon in hte system tray to manage the services of WampServer. By default, WampServer is installed to http://localhost and port 80.

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Posted in: apache,mysql,php,wamp,wampserver,web server,windows,Windows 7

How To Boot and Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive

Usually, most people install or reinstall Windows operating system from DVD drive. But, since the USB become popular, we have an alternative to boot and install an operating system to a PC from USB flash drive.

Since most of windows installers come in DVD drive format, we have to copy it to a USB flash drive. Before that, I have to make the USB flash bootable. In this post, I will discuss the command prompt method. You can make the Windows 7 USB FLash installation Disk from any Windows computer. In this post, I use Windows 7 (the instruction is the same for Windows XP). Below are the steps:

Step 1: Format USB Flash Drive To NTFS format

In your Windows, go to Control panel -> system -> hardware -> Device manager. Under the disk drives section, right click on the USB storage drive and select Properties.

Step 2: Select USB Flash Drive To Be Bootable Disk

On Windows 7 Start Menu, navigate to command prompt entry (Start -> All Programs -> Accessaries) , right-click the Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

Type "diskpart" & press ENTER. Then type "list disk", ENTER to list all disks attached to this computer.

From the disk list, identify the USB Flash Drive. In my case, Disk 1 (red rectangle) is my USB flash drive. Type "select disk 1" to select the disk (the command is "select disk X" where X is the drive number).

After selecting the disk, list the partition in the selected list by typing "list partition". Select the partition you want to make a bootable Windows 7 installation by typing command "select partition Y", where Y is the partition number of USB flash drive. Then, type "active" to make the selected partition to become an active partition.

You are done in preparing the disk for bootable. Type "exit" and Enter.

Step 3: Creating bootable USB flash drive

Copy the content from the Windows 7 Installation content to your computer desktop into a folder, I named is as win-7 (you can name it according to your preference).

Go into the windows folder, in my case win-7 by typing command "cd Desktop/win-7" (Change the destination to the folder that you have extracted). Then, "cd boot" to go into boot directory.

Type: bootsect /nt60 X: (X is the drive latter of your USB drive)


Then, copy all the files from the Windows 7 folder to the USB flash drive. Now, you should be able to use the USB Flash drive to boot and install Windows 7.

Note: You need to change the first boot device to your USB drive in the BIOS.

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Posted in: bootable usb flash,disk partition,howto,installation,pen drive,usb flash drive,Windows 7,windows os,windows tips

How To Monitor Your PC Or Laptop Temperature

Is your computer shutting down frequently without any notice? Most often, it happens after your leave your computer running for a while, and it just shut down without any message. One of the root courses of this symptom is your PC or Lapter is experiencing high temperature until it hits the the max allowable temperature. The computer will be automatically shutdown to protect the PC from overheating.

So, if you PC is experiencing the symptom of shutting down suddenly and frequently, most probably it is caused by high temperature. One way to confirm the issue it is to measure the temperature of PC or Laptop.

You don't to install a thermometer at your PC or laptop. One of the best ways to monitor is to install temperature reading software that might help you actually know if the problem is causing by overheating. Coretemp is a tiny application which is low on resources and is surprisingly accurate in providing the PC or laptop temperature in real-time. It works by communicating with the built-in digital thermal sensor (DTS) on latest Intel and AMD processors.

It is a tiny but extremely powerful and accurate program which tells you the temperature of each core simultaneously and can be easily installed on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP. Coretemp can be download at http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/.

In the above example, CoreTemp reads the temperatue on Duo Core Intel PC. Tj Max is the maximum allowable temperature. If any of core temperature hit Tj Max, the computer will be shutdown automatically to pretect the PC from overheating. The above example, the Cores are measured at 69 deg. C to 70 deg. C, showing that this PC is experiencing an overheating issue.

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Posted in: computer tool,digital thermal sensor,howto,monitor pc temperature,windows,Windows 7,Windows Vista,Windows XP

How To Use Windows 7 Disk Management To Partition Hard Disk

I just bought a new USB 2.5" 500GB SATA external hard disk. Since disk size is big. I am thinking of partition it to 2 partitions so that I can use one partition to install Operation System and the other one to store data.

Since my current operation system is Windows 7, I will use the Disk Management Tool that comes with Windows 7 to do the job. The built-in disk manager of Windows 7 allows you to create partitions, allocate unallocated space, change the driver letter or start other related tasks.

Below are the steps to partition an external hard disk:

1. If it is a USB external hard disk, just plug it into one of the USB ports at the PC.

2. Click Start and enter diskmgmt.msc into the search field.


3. Once you hit "ENTER" after entering the diskmgmt.msc into the search field, the "Disk Management" window will be launched. The new external hard disk is one of the listed hard disks.


4. With mouse, right-click on the disk you want to partition, in my case, the DISK 1. Then select "Delete Volume" and confirm to delete the partion. The Disk 1 will become an Unallocated disk.


5. Similarly, with mouse, right-click on the unallocated disk (in my case disk 1)and select "New Simple Volume" from the pull up menu.


Follow the simple Wizard to assign the size of new partition, specify the file system to complete the new Volume creation. In my case, my new hard disk size is 500GB, I allocate 200GB for the first partition. Repeat step 5 for another partition that takes the rest of size as the 2nd partition.

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Posted in: disk management,disk partition,Windows 7

How To Backup & Restore Registry in Windows 7/Vista/XP

In proper modification of registry in Windows may cause system crash. So, it is important to backup the existing registry before you modify it. Just in case any problem arise due to the registry modification, you can always restore it from the backup copy.

Exporting - Backup Registry

There are slidely different in steps to backup the registry in different Windows versions. Below are simple steps to backup the registry for Windows 7/Vista/XP:

Windows XP and Vista : Open Start menu, type regedit in Start Search and click OK.

Windows XP: Open Start menu, click Run, type regedit and select OK.


Once the Registry Editor window launched, go to the File Menu and select Export.


Under the export range select All.


Put an appropriate file name and save as file type Registration Files(*.reg).

Importing - Restore Registry

If you want to restore the registry, select the import from the file menu of registry editor:

Now select the registry file(backup) that you made(using above procedure) and it will recover your settings that were before you made changes in the registry.

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Posted in: backup registry,trial software,Windows 7,Windows Vista,Windows XP