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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2004-03-15

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
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1) Isolate The Swapfile/Paging File?

Fred, I have read with enjoyment the arguments back and forth about whether to partition or not. I have a question about it.

Since I started working with Windows system in earnest (Win 3.1, that was) I have always set up a separate partition (usually the next one physically beyond the c: partition) as a swap partition, and one of the first things I do after installing Windows is to move the swap space from c: to d:, and set it up with a fixed file size just less than 90% of the size of the partition, which for XP has been about 2GB.  My reasoning is that the swap file no longer fragments the c: drive, and with a fixed size, doesn't go through the overhead of allocating additional space to itself when it needs it.  This, by the way, is the way that Linux and UNIX systems in general handle their swapping areas.

I would like you to comment on whether this is still a good idea in NTFS, and about the size such a partition should have.  I haven't been able to find any discussion about this on the web about this that mentions Windows NT, 2000 or XP.

Thanks for the great Plus newsletter; it's worth more than it costs me for sure. ---Lyle McElhaney

I think it's worthwhile, Lyle; I have my swap file on a separate partition, too. I actually have other folders on that partition as well, but the concept's the same: keeping the swap file off the main partition.

In all versions of Windows, it gets the swap file out of the backup/restore process. The swapfile contents are all transient anyway; nothing permanent is stored in the swap file. So, there's absolutely no reason to back it up, or later to restore it. Yet, if your swapfile is on C:, and you simply grab everything on C for your backup, you'll also be grabbing anywhere from hundreds to thousands of megabytes of needless baggage. Putting the swap file on, say, D: lets you back up C: without having to do anything special to avoid the swap file.

And in later versions of Windows, including XP, which allow the swap to be in non-contiguous blocks, getting the swapfile out of the way of routine file operations does indeed reduce the likelihood that it will itself become fragmented, or cause your other files to be fragmented. And in any case, having your swapfile out of the way means that your defrags of your main drive or partition will go faster.

XP even allows a limited form of parallel processing to take place if you split the swapfile/paging file across two or more physical drives. Despite the small extra overhead involved in accessing a secondary drive, overall responsiveness can actually improve.

More info: Search the XP help file for the phrase "Managing your computer's performance;" and also see "HOW TO: Set Performance Options in Windows XP" ( http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=308417 ) and "HOW TO: Move the Paging File in Windows XP" (
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;307886 ).

Win98 users, see http://www.google.com/search?q=swap+file+98

BTW: Microsoft still officially recommends the swapfile be no less than 1.5 times the amount of RAM in your system, and no more than 3x the RAM, although this seems excessive to me in systems with very large amounts of RAM. Still, it's what they say. And in any case, if you manually set the max and min sizes of your swap file to, say, the RAMx3 number, you'll generate a capacious, fixed-sized swapfile that Windows won't have to grow and shrink as it works, just as Lyle suggests. This also helps avoid fragmentation, and may allow Windows to spend more cpu time on your tasks, rather than internal housekeeping.

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2) XP's Powerful "Tskill" and "Taskkill" Commands

You probably know that in XP (all versions), Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't reboot the PC (as it does in Win98), but rather brings up the Task Manager, which shows you (among other things) all the top-level tasks (like "Word," "Excel," "Eudora" or what not) that are running; and the individual low-level processes created or controlled by the operating system and the top-level tasks.

You can use the Task Manager to terminate a hung or errant task or process. You simply select it from the list and click "End Task" or "End Process."

Of course, you also can use this to kill a task or process that isn't hung, although you must do so with caution: A forced exit may cause you to lose any unsaved data generated by a task, for example. But if there is no unsaved data in play, then usually no harm is done.

But you don't really need Task manager for that: The "Tskill" command (without the quotes) actually can do the same thing. If you're running a program called XYZ, you can kill it by typing

TSKILL XYZ /A

on the Start/Run line, or by entering that command in a Command window, or via script or batch file. As long as XYZ has no open files or unsaved data, it will close, and that's that.

You can see for yourself with a 15 second test: Open an empty Notepad, then click to Start/Run. Type TSKILL NOTEPAD /A and click OK. Presto: Notepad will close.

This can be a powerful automation tool. For example, I use it in a late-night batch file to make sure certain programs are not running when a long maintenance task is about to begin. It's a kind of selective shutdown that lets me close top-level programs; and, as long as they're not applications that contain unsaved data, there's no problem.

Both XP Home and Pro support Tskill, but XP Pro also has an even more powerful tool called TASKKILL. It's a little harder to use, but much more flexible in what it can shut down--- even if the software balks and doesn't want to "let go." For example,

taskkill /f /im XYZ.EXE

will almost surely cause XYZ to shut down, no matter what!

Both Tskill and Taskkill have additional switches, and there's plenty of documentation available, which I won't duplicate here. Just search for Tskill and Taskkill in Start/Help, and you'll get all the info you need, including usage notes, and important cautions.

Additional info:
Tskill: http://langa.com/u/3p.htm

Taskkill: http://langa.com/u/3o.htm

Win2k's Taskkill:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=243202

General:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Operating_Systems/Q_20810731.html

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3) Bad Explanation About NTFS

OK, I blew it. I was going too fast, and in editing a too-long rough draft for this newsletter, I deleted what were essential chunks of information. I ended up making a hash of the explanation of NTFS cluster sizes in the last issue. My sincere apologies.

The bottom line doesn't change: For many, many reasons, I think partitioning makes far more sense than the "one giant drive" approach, which suffers from numerous drawbacks: Giant, one-partition drives are harder to back up and restore; can take longer to index or search; take longer to scan and defrag; be harder to set up dual- or multi-boot systems; and so on.

But the way I edited the piece, it seemed as though huge wastage was inevitable with NTFS on large drives, and it isn't. Given a clean hard drive, NTFS will set itself up with very small 4K clusters, which makes for efficient file storage.

Large NTFS drives *may* suffer from problems with "slack" or wasted space, depending on how you set them up. For example, if you override NTFS's defaults, or use a third-party tool that uses different cluster sizes (by default or by manual selection), or if you convert a FAT disk to NTFS in situ (without a full reformat), and so on, then you can run into various inefficiencies. But these inefficiencies aren't inevitable: Again, given a clean hard drive and left to its defaults, NTFS will set itself up with very small 4K clusters, which makes for efficient file storage.

There's an excellent article at
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_20795143.html that goes into detail on this; that article, in turn, references a thorough discussion of NTFS that spans half a dozen issues of Scot Finnie's excellent newsletter ( http://www.scotsnewsletter.com/default.htm ).

See also:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;140365
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q314878
http://langa.com/u/3n.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=partition+cluster+size

As you'll see from the above, it takes a *lot* of explanation to cover it all; and that's where I got myself into trouble; by trying to cram too much, too fast, into too little space. I apologize for any confusion I caused.

But the bottom line doesn't change: For many reasons, it makes sense to partition large drives into more-manageable pieces.

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4) Finding Embedded Sounds

Fred, Do you know how to download and install background music from an email some one sends. Or from a site that has beautiful back ground music?  I do not want the pictures or the text...just the sound of the music to save in my Midi File.. ---Betty in Florida

If the sound is in a file (and not streamed live from a website) you probably can find it in a temp file directory somewhere on your hard drive. When you hear something you like, try searching for the common sound file formats (*.wav, *.mid, *.aiff, *.au, *.snd, etc) in your temp folders, if you know them, or (simpler, but longer) across your entire drive: Be sure to search inside "hidden" and system folders; and restrict the search to files with today's date, or "created in the last 1 day" or some such. That way, you'll see all the sound files that were recently saved to your hard drive--- probably including the one you just heard!

(Note: If you're HTML-savvy, you can often do a "view/source" on a web page or HTML email and see the actual name of the sound file. Obviously, this makes searching for the file much easier!)

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5) Clever Printer Color Test

Hi, Fred, I was given an older large-page-size Epson printer, and I wanted to test it to see if I could justify buying new ink cartridges for it.  Then I got what I think is a good idea.  I printed out an image I downloaded from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory's site.  (I'm an astronomer/writer/designer/teacher, so I'm always downloading such esoterica.)  It's at:
 
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im0600.html
 
On this page, you can select an image of the spectrum of the Sun in many different resolutions.  As you might imagine, this image is very difficult for a printer to reproduce accurately.  Try it and see if you don't agree. If you do agree, you might include it in one of the next issues of the LangaList.
 
Best Regards, Rick Shaffer Sedona, AZ

Thanks Rick! Indeed, with its many subtle gradations, that would be a challenging image for almost any printer. If a printer can reproduce that image accurately, it should be able to handle just about anything!

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6) Don't Make Me Beg! :-)

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the LangaList---your friend may find a new source of useful information and you just may win one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the LangaList Plus! edition given each month. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

Check out the details at http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) Thunderbird Ate His File Associations

Fred, Nice newsletter... Firefox is ok (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-03-08.htm#4 )  but... I would like to tell you of an experience I had with the e-mail program "Thunderbird"!! From the same download site as Firefox It took complete control of Outlook that I use only for Newsgroups. It disabled Outlook as a newsreader COMPLETELY! It actually removed the news menu item from "View", "Go To>", News was no longer there! I do not like software to tell me what I can or can't do with my machine. I had to completely remove Thunderbird manually as it doesn't show up in the Control Panel "Add, Remove  Software" AND had to Repair MS Office. What a pain. Have you heard of anything happening like this to others, or did I do something wrong? Thanks for your time, Tom

You ran into an issue that crops up with almost all software that's designed to work with a whole range of task- and file-types. It's actually not a flaw: If you install a new browser with an embedded mail- and newsreader, for instance, the software assumes that you want it to handle your web, mail, and newsreader functions, and so takes over those tasks and file types. Same with office suites, graphics suites, etc: The new software assumes that, because you're installing it, you want it to work on all the tasks and files it's designed for.

That said, the better install routines give you an out: an option NOT to take over everything. But sometimes this isn't done, or is done poorly, in hard-to-find option boxes.

This is one of the reasons why we suggest that you backup (or better, image) your system before installing new software. then, if anything goes wrong, you can get things back the way they were in just minutes, instead of--- well, who knows how long? Absent a recent backup or image, it can be very hard to undo or roll back changes that have affected many file types.

But the information in "Software Testing" ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2002/2002-06-03.htm#4 ) may help. It tells you how you can safely test any software at all, no matter how complex, without risk to your system or data.

The article on "File Associations" (
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2003/2003-10-13.htm#3 ) although originally written about Open Office, addresses the same issue; the last few paragraphs there list additional resources you can use to help get your system back, or to reinstall an older version of some software.

Testing new software can be great--- as long as you're careful!

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Fred, It's only a book review, but one your Latin speaking reader(s) will surely enjoy: http://www.economist.com/books/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=2441549

Bill McMenamin

How odd! It's modern-day colloquialisms, translated into quasi-classical Latin, such as:

"Heia, amice, utrum illae sunt sarcinae tuae, an modo Carthaginem despoliasti?" (Hey, pal, is that carry-on luggage or did you just sack Carthage?)

Or: "certamen inter mammosas tunicis madefactis vestitas," which is a “wet T-shirt contest!”

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• Easy Way To Control Flash
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• New No-Install Linux Distro
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• Anti-Spam/Email-Management Tool
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The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose? Check out the details: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm

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