Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) Harddrive stolen, consequences?

I strongly recommend you a tweaker - FreshUI (there is a family of tweaking progs)

I have only few stable advices (I'll try to translate from russian), but first - all this may crash your system or make it unstable
All those are in the system properties
1. Disable memory damp (for it's only for a well-experienced programmers)
2. Set some real path for the temrorary folder (some progs are unable to find it)
3. Set you swap twice as big as RAM is - (256mb of Ram -> 512 swap)
Not sure that big swap is necessary (if you are not working with digital graphics, sound, etc. My choice 's 742mb swap with 496 physical RAM)
4. Disable all visual effects
5. Swith off automatic system recovery (this 'll free some disk space)

For regedit:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Change 'MenuShowDelay' from 400 ms to 0 (this 'll speed up main menu)
Change 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' to some value (an interval after which system 'll terminate program if it doesn't answer during shutown)
Others don't always give you any boostup. Try on your own

Also try switching off unnecessary services - (control panel->administrative tools->services)
This is very risky - this is brain of the system

Some general advice:
1. Flash you firmware to the latest version (I mean update programs inside your hardware) - this is dangerous becasue you can burn everything
2. Download latest drivers for every thing inside your PC, especially motherboard
3. Download or buy Service Pack 2 (althiught I haven't seen it myself my friend tells me it is great)
4. You can try to overclock you hardware (this means make something work on higher frequences) - you have more power but hardware is less stable and also can burn (if you 'll ask too much)
If you have nVidia video adapter than try Rivatuner (this 'll tweak your card just as you want)

I can't remember how, but tune Qos packet manager (this is a network protocol) for it has a fixed percent part which it cuts from traffic of every connection (this is made to provide more stability, but they better ask you first)
You can change this percentage somewhere.. ah, it just jumped out of my head

Also can't remember, but there's a way to delete some hidden windows components - they all are written in a file somewhere, but hidden are marked. The trick is to remove every mark and delete them from standart windows component uninstall service

These things provide you instant boostup (eeh.. almost), as for others - they are not so obvious. Explore on your own and good luck.

Another program to take care of your system is VoptXP - it's cool defragment tool (faster than standart). It also has other possibilities. It's only minus is that it is shareware.


The Ultimate advice - try any Linux distributive (the simpliest and the most intuitive is Red Hat Linux). This OS works fine on any PC and gives you much more opportunities to tweak (even recompile it's core).. but this topic is too long to discuss

A good link in russian - http://comprad.narod.ru/XP/main.html

I'll translate some most important parts if you want

thanx howver I have already done everything you say except the memory dump because I dont know where to find it and the overclocking because When i try to clock my card sometimes it will work but reset on restart even though I checked the box to not do that and some other times my screen starts to glow red lol

Sad to hear about the theft Kiya. The worst thing about theft isn't the loss of the goods - which doesn't usually really add up to all that much - it's all the worry, anger and fear and bad taste in the mouth that it leaves behind.

The fact that only a hard drive was taken, and not RAM etc might perhaps suggest that some kid had a hard drive failure on his own machine and decided to get a replacement from a public source? Just lock the cases and try not to let the worry and annoyance spoil your week.

It's astonishing what people will steal from government or public places. Where my wife used to work they had a car pool for the workers to use on government business. One worker drove a car home and swapped a brand new set of tyres for the worn out set on their own car. Because many people used the car before it was noticed the thief was never caught. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

I am sorry for an off-topic, but I can't stand posting other tweaks

1. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AeDebug
Remove the whole AeDebug folder. AeDebug is.. a debugger. Have you ever thought of using it?
2. I remembered how to tune Qos protocol: type gpedit.msc in the Run menu, Group Policy->Local Computer Policy->Administrative Templates->Network->QOS Packet Scheduler
Then enable 'Limit reservable bandwidth' set 'Bandwidth limit' from 20 to 0 %..
NOTE: If you switch off the QOS from the network properties it 'll still eat 20% of traffic. So check it's switched on in every connection
NOTE2: This works only with WinXP Professional
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom
Change the DWord 'AutoRun' from 1 to 0 - this 'll switch off autorun
4. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\MemoryManagement
Set 'ClearPageFileAtShitdown' to 0 if you don't want to clear the pagefile during shutdown (some time saved)
5. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SessionManager\SubSystem
Delete 'Optional' and 'Posix' keys if you are not going to run few Unix progs under windows (which is rather.. strange)

Now we shall look into system core:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/MemoryManagement
1. 'DisablePagingExecutive' to 1 shall free you ram a bit (turn on if you have more than 256 ram)
2. 'LargeSystemCache' to 1 can boos up the performance (especially if this pc is server) - requires more than 512 ram

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/ Control/PriorityControl
1. Create a DWORD 'IRQ#Priority' (where # is and IRQ number) and set it 1
This shall boost up performance of any hardware you want to (recommend you boosting CMOS)
NOTE: To find out any device IRQ you can use hardware manager->properties->resources

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
Create DWord keys 'NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate' and 'NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation' and set them to 1 - this shall boost up your file system

HKEY_CURRENT_ USER\Control Panel\Desktop
1. 'HungAppTimeout' - determines time after which app is considered hung (in ms)
2. 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' - determines time after which app is killed (also in ms)
3. 'AutoEndTasks' to 1 - this lets the system autoend all the hung apps
Be extremely careful with those

You can delete those dirs:
\Windows\Driver Cache\i386 - this is good if all you hardware is installed and working properly. If system finds any new it won't autodetect but ask you for the CD with distrib
\Windows\System32\Dllcache - 400mb of dll's. If all you care is diskspace but not stability than go on. But first type 'sfc: sfc /cachesize=N' where N is the size of the cache (set it to 0 and remove the folder or just tune it)

If you don't use the sleeping mode for PC than you probably should disable Hibernate. It damps all you ram into a hiberfil.sys - quite a large file, isn't it? In the Power Management panel switch off smth like 'allow sleeping mode'

Delete some hidden win components:
\Windows\Inf find sysoc.inf. Open it with notepad. Search for the word 'hide' at the end of every string and delete it (BUT LEAVE COMMAS!!!)
After this operation you are to be able uninstall some more win components

That's all I can tell for now. I won't even try to tell anything you about the services - too hard to translate and easy to find with google. There's a bloody bunch of web sites about winXP optimization - just type in any search engine 'windows xp optimization'

About the memory damp - it is in the System properties->Advanced->smth like Booting and Recovery - this is a small falling list

As for overclocking - it much depends on the hardware (cheap one is made with small clocking limit, so don't even try)

that sux, i am sorry for you...

@Razor:

This admin here is not even a Demi-God - our admin rights are in hierarchical order - and as the security department does not like the idea of our public PC being a security gap - we only have restricted admin rights.

No possibility to reinstall Win 2000 on our level, as we are integrated in a network


The PC has a physical log in authorisation, which we do at start up. This is automatised, as some members tend to shut off the PC after use. As we have security cases now, we are constantly jumping up and slouching with the key to the PC (quite a bother) - I'm not worried about access to our catalogue, I'm worried about hacker abilities on that drive to find out stuff we can't, cause we are no hackers. We have to rely on the security guy who restricted further access with his software.

PC is back now, with a new hard drive, locked in a case, so switching the stolen (infected) drive would be a prob for the thief (if this was his plan).

PC is at the far end of the library, so members don't have to walk stairs if they want to look up the media in that floor (mainly novels and sadly the favourite location of our mischief kids). We do patrol there a lot during school year, as they like to violate our books, but as it was holidays during that time of theft, we will never be able to find out if the thief was out of that group. It could have been an adult as well (except our staff, as no one of us knows a lot about PC).


Yes, this is done - by the department in charge of all servers. We have no access to it (guess, we're not even Demi-Gods, more PC peasants <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> )
Kiya

I thank all <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" /> , I will have to live with the nagging feeling of anxiety and patrol even more. I rest this case now. I only hope, this incident will not add fuel to the security department colporting our attempts to get our public catalogue on the internet, so members may do a lot from their home PC. Theft has weakened our position, shucks.



Nope, no possibility to send mails - no possibility to enter the internet. Kids try this constantly, results in a total lock-up (security software). Even start up does not help then - I know of a gap, where I can fix that then (took me hrs to find this out <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> ) I informed about the sec. department this gap countless times - but do they listen? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" /> No one of us was so stupid to enter with their own profile and leave traces. No possibility I know of to enter registry - restricted. Yes, I could, with my profile, but that's of no use.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" /> poor lady <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

i hope that will be the end of it; hope that thief only wanted the hardrive & not more than that from the library. unless he wants a beating & electric shocks.

the end product of it all is that the library has to spend extra $$$ for security. & if that security happens to backfire, public might complain. *sigh* that does sound a bit too much like cd protection.

edit: can anyone suggest how to 'lock down' as much as possible win XP except for certain 'allowed' programs to run. somebody told me to edit the policy but i can't tell heads nor tails of it all. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" /> i'm only a hardware techie. & how do u control accounts effectively? i'm speaking about standalone computers, of course.

Maybe these kids aren't so smart as they think, hhehehehehhe..... maybe a linux floppy could solve their internet problems and others problems of course. Man, i like of these things, not of the thievery but yes about the security.

About the registry - restricted - depending of the system you may be able to disable police security.

Hey jang i don't have time to explain to you exactly now the police account security, but i can give you a nice tip what can solve a bit your problems in relation of access to particular folders:
Do this:
WinXP Professional - Partition - NTFS
You have to go into: Folder Options(the same place where you can able the option: Show hidden files.) You'll look for an option with the name: Use simple share of folders(or something like that) and disable it, click on all ok's.
Now right click into the folder - will appear a new option - Security.
Now you go:
Security:
Advanced:
Disable an option what says "the folder has the same configuration of the "father folder""(something like that, i don't remember the correct name now.) what is the drive X: or if you are in a subfolder - is the folder what come before of what you are in. When you disable the option, the system will ask if you sure about it - you click yes, and go into Search - Here you'll just choose your user(the one who will have access to the folder) and give all permissions what you want - when other users what don't have your username and password try to access the folder - the system says - "you can't enter here" hehehehehe..... i like to use this at my secret folders <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" /> - and the nice thing you can't access using network or linux or other things(i know this just far i have tested - just simple tests) - just your user can access and manipulate these folders and their files. Is good to use in your own computer - when more than one person use it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ROFL.gif" alt="" />
This config you can use to give permission to other users to have total access to programs too - like when you install winamp - and when other user what isn't admin try to use it - error - you can give the permission to this user to use the program -winamp - with total access too.