Virtual Ask-It Basket

[Mike Ungerman]

For those of you in regular attendance at CFCS meetings, you know that we traditionally have an Ask-It Basket where you can place written questions to be answered by the "knowledgeable" members of our audience.

Given this digital age, it seems a good idea to me to duplicate this process on this site. So, here is the online version of the Ask-It Basket. Please use this to post any questions in regards to technology, and let's see if members of our online audience can answer your question for you. A couple have already been asked as seperate discussions, but by replying to this topic, we can be better organized and have all the information in one place.

I encourage our regular readers to respond to questions. We need more people posting as well.

[Mike Ungerman]

Can I associate specific Programs with one of the cores of my multiple core processor?

You can encourage XP or Vista to run a particular process on a particular CPU by setting its Processor Affinity. Launch the Task Manager, click the Applications tab, right-click the desired application, and choose Go To Process from the pop-up menu. Right-click the highlighted process and choose Set Affinity. Check only the box for the desired CPU and click OK.

Do notice, though, that this feature is called processor affinity, not processor lock. All things being equal, Windows will choose the specified CPU for your process. But if that CPU is busy and the other CPU is idle, Windows won't force your application onto the busy CPU. You may or may not see a performance benefit.

[Hewie Poplock]

Reset the Administrator Password - AppScout
From http://www.appscout.com/2009/05/reset_the_administrator_passwo.php

Q: We inherited a PC. We can reset the PC password, no problem. But how do we reset the password to access Safe Mode, etc? - Ted Searle.

A: If I understand correctly, you can log on as a user but you do not have the Administrator password. As long as you can log on with an account that has Administrator privilege you should be OK. In XP or Vista, click Start, click Run, enter "control userpasswords2" with no quotes, and don't forget the 2 at the end.

In the dialog that appears is a panel titled "Password for Administrator." Click the Reset Password button in this panel, and assign a new password that you'll remember but that a malefactor or a virus like Conficker won't guess.

If that button is disabled, check the box at the top that says, "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer." That will enable the button. After changing the Administrator password, close the main User Accounts dialog by clicking Cancel rather than OK. That way, your change to the "Users must enter..." checkbox won't actually change anything. - Neil J. Rubenking.