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Useful Utilities

This thread lists utilities that can be useful to enhance the experience running BOINC. Unless otherwise indicated they for Windows!

Motherboard Monitor: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/
Monitors CPU temperature. If the manufacturer does not supply a temperature monitoring program for your board, then see if this program works with your computer. If the temperature is too high, then read http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=2683
CPU Tester: http://7byte.com/index.php?page=download
General diagnostic program
Memory Tester: http://www.memtest86.com/
Memory diagnostic program
Fan Speed Control Utilities
- SpeedFan: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php - Latest v 4.40 Aug.09
  Another temperature monitor like Mother Board Monitor, but also capable of controlling fans in some systems and even checking some hard disk drive temperatures. Can even be set up to send an email to alert if the CPU or other system components runs too hot
- TPFanControl Is able to control fan speed on some brand laptops which SpeedFan was not enabled for.
More CPU Throttle Utilities are covered in this FAQ: Temperature Control
Throttle Watch: http://www.panopsys.com/Downloads.html
This can monitor some boards and tell you if onboard temperature control is throttling back on speed, which can otherwise lead to puzzling system performance drops. Consider upgrading fans or heatsink or checking for dust buildup and fan failure if it does show that your system is throttling back. Added: This link has already changed once. If it does not work, use Google to find a download site.
Firefox, Thunderbird, Mozilla Suite: http://www.mozilla.org/
6.1) Community Edition builds specialized for MMX, SSE and SSE2 CPUs for Mozilla Suite, Firefox & Thunderbird: http://www.moox.ws/tech/mozilla/
Anti-Virus
- AVG Anti-Virus: http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1
- Avast! Antivirus: http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html
- AntiVir Personal Antivirus: http://www.free-av.com/
Fire Wall
- Zone Alarm: use Google to find a download site since the Zone Labs website hides the free download. Also, configure it to trust local equipment such as router, broadband modem as explained in http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=7065
- Comodo free firewall: http://www.comodo.com/index.html
  sceenshot of Comodo by Sekerob on 12 Dec 2007:
  http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=17439#142157
Anti-Spyware
Anti-spyware programs sometimes have strange interactions with some people's systems. The first 2 listed (AdAware and Microsoft AntiSpyware) have a relatively innocuous reputation.
- Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
- Windows Defender (formerly Microsoft AntiSpyware): http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx (now a standard feature of Vista)
- Spybot Search&Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/
  HijackThis: http://www.merijn.org/
The June 2005 issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal ( http://www.ddj.com ) has a Chaos Manor article by Jerry Pournelle about his adventure with spyware when his browser said that a site he was reading was trying to download to his computer. He absent-mindedly granted permission. In no time, Microsoft AntiSpyware had half a dozen warnings backed up. Everytime he clicked to remove something, it was back in place by the time he could check. He ended up booting up into Safe Mode and using HijackThis to slowly clean up his system. It is very suspicious of anything that is not part of the default installation in the Registry, so you will probably have to reinstall some software if you have to use HijackThis. Not for the faint of heart. But very powerful. [Added 9 Jan 2007: There is a forum on ProcessLibrary.com at http://www.processlibrary.com/ where people post copies of HijackThis logs and ask for expert advice. This site also offers explanations for all the common processes running on Windows PCs. But it IS a commercial site, offering free advice and utilities while trying to sell software programs.]
Adobe Reader (for reading PDF files): http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
MD5 sum check: http://www.md5summer.org/download.html
This is a download checksum utility used to verify the integrity of downloaded files which is used by the WCG.
Tools for Setting Up and Diagnosing Wifi & ADSL
- DMT Modem Tool http://dmt.mhilfe.de/
  Excellent wifi performance monitor and analyzer to allow optimal tweaking. Make sure to get the right version for the right router. v 8.07 most widest applicable at time of writing (Aug.08)!
- Port Forward, http://www.portforward.com/
  "Fill in the blanks assistant" helping to set up many brands and types of modem routers to transmit specific internet traffic to specific computers and software on a WLAN or LAN.
- NetStumbler, http://stumbler.net
  Useful for those on the move, e.g. passing through airports or finding hotspots. NetStumbler is a tool for Windows that allows you to detect Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) using 802.11a/b/g/n. It has many uses Please respect to only connect with explicit permission!
Updating the router/modem BIOS often improves performance and adds setting options! Play it save and only do this when confident and have read the instructions carefully

edit: added a few utilities Sept.2009

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[Edit 17 times, last edit by Sekerob at Sep 19, 2009 6:38:26 AM]

[Apr 19, 2005 12:31:52 AM]

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System Diagnostics

Here are some useful System Diagnostic utilities:

Belarc Advisor at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html
This is a small download that creates a web page listing basic information about your windows system. You can use cut-and-paste into Wordpad to create a brief report on your system. It autoupdates and checks if all the latest patches have been applied to the OS and does a rating of the security level which a Windows XP systems have been set and gives advise how to better set a weak point.
SiSoft Sandra at http://www.sisoftware.net/?location=update
This download contains a number of free system diagnostic modules, including several standard benchmark routines.
Everest at http://www.lavalys.hu/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en
This download is a freeware hardware diagnostics and memory benchmarking program that marysduby posted about.
Handle from the SysInternals Suite - 3.41 Aug '08
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896655.aspx
If you ever wondered which program has a particular file or directory open, you can found out with this utility and see if any application including security software is causing access issues to files used by BOINC to run the sciences . It displays information about open handles for any process in the system. You can use it to see the programs that have a file open, or to see the object types and names of all the handles of a program. You can also get a GUI-based version of this program, Process Explorer , here at Sysinternals.

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[Edit 2 times, last edit by Sekerob at Aug 20, 2008 9:25:26 PM]

[Jul 11, 2005 3:38:25 AM]

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Built-in Windows Utility

Sukotto posted at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=3519 :
I don't see any mention of the windows tool "systeminfo".

Pretty simple to use, just open a command prompt, then type "systeminfo" (no quotes). It provides some device and configuration info about the computer. One good way to use it is

systeminfo > c:\sysinfo.txt

then you can open sysinfo.txt with notepad and see something like

Host Name: MyBox
OS Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Version: 5.1.2600 Service Pack 1 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation
OS Configuration: Standalone Workstation
OS Build Type: Multiprocessor Free
Registered Owner: Sukotto
Registered Organization: MyCo
Product ID: xxxxx-OEM-xxxxxxx-xxxxx
Original Install Date: 3/31/2005, 6:02:33 AM
System Up Time: 2 Days, 2 Hours, 55 Minutes, 28 Seconds
System Manufacturer: IBM
System Model: 8187T8U
System type: X86-based PC
Processor(s): 2 Processor(s) Installed.
[01]: x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2992 Mhz
[02]: x86 Family 15 Model 3 Stepping 4 GenuineIntel ~2992 Mhz
BIOS Version: PTLTD - 60400d0
Windows Directory: C:\WINDOWS
System Directory: C:\WINDOWS\System32
Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume1
System Locale: en-us;English (United States)
Input Locale: en-us;English (United States)
Time Zone: (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Total Physical Memory: 1,015 MB
Available Physical Memory: 403 MB
Virtual Memory: Max Size: 3,459 MB
Virtual Memory: Available: 2,159 MB
Virtual Memory: In Use: 1,300 MB
Page File Location(s): C:\pagefile.sys
Domain: MYDOMAIN
Logon Server: \\xxx-xxxxxxxxxxx
Hotfix(s): 180 Hotfix(s) Installed.
[01]: File 1

SNIP

[159]: Q8

NetWork Card(s): 1 NIC(s) Installed.
[01]: Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Desktop Connection
Connection Name: Local Area Connection
DHCP Enabled: Yes
DHCP Server: xx.xx.xx.xx
IP address(es)
[01]: xx.xx.xx.xx

[Aug 3, 2005 9:02:30 PM]

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Useful Utilities for Signature Lines

WCG members vaio and Graham have posted in threads about two utilities that have been frequently used by WCG members in their signature lines.

The first of these was introduced to us by WCG Member Börni and has been often called the "stat-box". It is most easily described by illustration (here I am using the most productive WCG member mkmeyers from team IBM Rochester -- don't we all wish we had the opportunity to crunch with so many devices):

To produce this graphic, go to Börni's Stats Image Generator and select the WCG and then enter your member name and team. It will generate a URL for the image which can be entered into your signature as:
{img]http://sero.cwsurf.de/dc.php/user/mkmeyers/team/IBM%20Rochester/project/wcg.png[/img]
Now, that's a lot of characters to deal with, especially since you are limited to 250 characters in the signature line.

That's where TinyURL.com comes into play. It will allow you to create a shorter URL from the one created by Stats Image Generator. To illustrate, using the one generated for mkmeyers above (http://sero.cwsurf.de/dc.php/user/mkmeyers/team/IBM%20Rochester/project/wcg.png) I entered the 79 character URL into TinyURL.com and get a 24 character URL of http://tinyurl.com/8dz47. Since the WCG software will automagically add the "http://" for you, this can be further reduced to 17 characters. Then, with the surrounding "{img] and {/img]" adding 11 characters to make a total of 28 characers, you will get (braces replaced with brackets in use):

from:
{img]tinyurl.com/8dz47{/img] (replace the "{"'s with "["'s)

[Aug 5, 2005 11:38:44 PM]

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Useful Utility for Automatic Logon

On 21 August 2005, Windflowers posted a note about a useful utility for signing into websites named Robo Form. Unfortunately, the free download is limited to only 10 logons. It works with Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Firefox in Windows.

You can use Robo Form to make login much easier. Install it and an icon will be set up in the tool bar/tray, just save your first login and select Login from the icon afterwards. Download a free version from http://www.roboform.com/ .

RoboForm stores logons using triple-DES encryption. Reading the reviews at download.com, it seems popular [2,952,535 downloads as of 21 August 2005]. Here is a selected user review:

Pros: Remembers every log-in without fail including banking accounts. So automatic, there is little left for you to do. Works with Firefox, as another poster stated.

Cons: Even though it is good at what it does, I think $30 is too much for such a program. The limit on the free version is 10 log-in entries.

I have no personal experience using it since I normally use Firefox with its built-in login completer.

mycrofth

[Aug 22, 2005 1:26:41 AM]

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Re: Useful Utility for Defragmenting the Virtual Memory Page File

Sekerob reminded me that Sysinternals includes a free utility that defragments the virtual memory page file for Windows XP and some other OS versions. Every time you add memory to your computer, the OS increases the size of the page file, using another block of disk space. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/fileanddiskutilities.mspx and download a copy of PageDefrag. Be sure to RUN chkdsk /f to ensure that your disk's file system is uncorrupted before you execute PageDefrag. I have tried it and it really seems to consolidate the page file into one contiguous block.

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[Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jan 3, 2007 3:01:56 PM]

[Sep 5, 2006 4:52:37 AM]

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Re: Updates and Diagnostics

Here is another useful find by Sekerob posted at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=9444 :

Here is a post by Ageless of the official BOINC developers forum. I think he's right..... your computers don't stay up to date by themselves and won't be able to crunch future work units with graphical features, if you don't keep your computer drivers up to date...verbatim:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=1261

Message 6181 - Posted 25 Oct 2006 1:50:53 UTC

With a little bit of work from your side, you can make things work that don't work at this moment. Therefore I'll give you some links to sites where you can update your motherboard chipset drivers, videocard or chip drivers and DirectX.

Motherboard:
AMD Updates and Support
Intel drivers and support
nVidia nForce
SIS
VIA

You can use CPU-Z to find out details about your motherboard. If you run dxdiag in Windows, you can check up on your DirectX version and videocard. (Start->Run, type dxdiag and hit Enter)

Video:
Intel Integrated drivers
ATI.
nVidia.
Matrox
SIS (for integrated videochips)
VIA (for integrated videochips)

At all times, if you have an integrated videochip on your system, check your motherboard maker's site first for updated drivers.

DirectX:
DirectX 9.0c October 2006 update

[Oct 27, 2006 10:34:11 AM]

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Re: Patching Windows XP SP2 for Dual Core Systems

Here is an article that warns that many preinstalled copies of Windows XP (from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.) have not been correctly configured to run at optimal speed on dual-core systems: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

Use a utility like Belarc Advisor at http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html to check to see if the mandatory Windows XP Hotfix Patch: KB896256 (NOT automatically downloaded with Windows Update) is installed. If not, then the article explains how to patch your OS to run on a dual core system.

[Mar 27, 2007 4:59:14 PM]

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