BVM - New 17-inch fanless panel PC for PoS / PoI and general control applications

The latest addition to the range of low cost fanless panel PCs, from BVM, is the PT-170PF, a 17-inch touch screen unit, a larger version of the popular PT family of 12-inch and 15-inch units.

Designed for point of sale, point of information and general control applications, the stainless steel front bezel presents an attractive appearance and seals the unit to IP54. The integrated design with the PC housed behind the screen assembly reduces the number of interconnections required by many multi-box solutions, providing a tidy and reliable assembly.

POWERed by an ultra low voltage Celeron CPU with up to 1GB of RAM ensures adequate performance for the majority of applications whilst minimising power consumption; the fanless design ensures silent operation, improved reliability and reduced maintenance requirements. The slim design, less than 100mm in depth and VESA mounting enables easy installation in confined spaces.

Other features include a 1280 x 1024 LCD with 5-wire resistive touch screen; an external VGA port enables an additional monitor to be driven. Dual Ethernet ports, four USB and three serial ports ensure connectivity for peripherals and printers. Supplied as standard with a 40GB HDD there are a number of Operating System choices: Windows XP, XPEmbedded or WEPOS, says the company.

Kontron - Compact medical panel PC with 10.4-inch SVGA touch display

The highly-compact and cost-optimized 10.4-inch SVGA MediClient Panel PC, for medical equipment OEMs, has been introduced by Kontron.

The MediClient 104 is a fanless medical Panel PC with a durable, lightweight plastic housing that offers IP65 protection and can be tailor-made to suit OEMs' corporate designs. Despite its compact size, the MediClient 104 offers a comprehensive set of interconnects including dual Ethernet (10/100), dual USB 2.0, serial RS232 (opt. RS422/RS485) and an optional CAN bus interface. VESA arm mounting makes the fanless Kontron MediClient 104 the easy-to-integrate medical HMI for a wide spectrum of cost-sensitive OEM medical applications in operating theatres, emergency stations and other infection-sensitive areas that require sharp graphics and intuitive user interfaces in a space-saving, robust and hygienic design.

Scalable up to the Intel Celeron M processor with 1GHz, the cost-optimized MediClient 104 features up to 1024MB of RAM and a Compact Flash socket plus an optional 2.5-inch HDD for data storage. The 800x600, easy-to-read bright (230 cd/m_) TFT touch screen, which is usable with gloves and stylus pens, is resistant to disinfectants and detergents. The plastic housing (ABS UL94V0) is scratch-proof, corrosion resistant and chemical resistant for long life and easy cleaning.

Shock and vibration resistance, thermal stability and compatibility with EN60601-01 are standard features of the MediClient Panel PCs, as is long-term availability of at least 5 years. The fanless cooling concept not only reduces noise but also ensures very high reliability with a MTBF of more than 40,000 hours. The CE, FCC, cULus certified MediClient complies to US:FCC47 CFR PART15, Class A level, EN61000-6-2 and EN55022/A (CISPR22) regulations.

Windows CE.net, Windows XP Embedded and Embedded Linux are available as standard operating systems along with numerous protocols, including http, XML and RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol), says the company.

Here are some good tricks making your Xp running smooth

Here are some good tricks making your Xp running smooth:

Maximization of internet bandwidth

1. Log off first.
2. Login again as Administrator
3. Start > Run > gpedit.msc

4. Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network >
QoS Packet Scheduler
5. Limit Reservable Bandwidth > Enable > Value set to 0 > Apply




Maximization of internet surfing speed

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Mcft/Windows/
CurrentVersion/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Delete the below value key:
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}




Register your WinXP:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mcft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion]
Set the value of "RegDone" = 1




Shutdown XP Faster

When a user shuts down Windows XP, first the system has to kill all services
currently running. Every once in a while the service does not shut down
instantly and windows gives it a change to shut down on its own before it kills it.
This amount of time that windows waits is stored in the system registry.
If you modify this setting, then windows will kill the service earlier. To modify
the setting, follow the directions below:

Start Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it a value lower than 2000 (Mine is set to 200).






Shutdown XP faster 2

Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows xp
when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. to solve this problem you must disable
this useless sound.

click start button then go to settings -> control panel -> Sound,
Speech and Audio devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Sounds,
then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows"
sub-menu and highlight it.
now from sounds you can select,choose "none" and then click apply and ok.
now you can see some improvements when shutting down your system.





Accelerate the response time of menu:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Set the value of MenuShowDelay to 0 (Default 400)


Get rid of windows messenger

Start->Run->"gpedit.msc""
-Computer Configuration
-Administrative Templates
-Windows Components
-Windows Messenger

Here you can enable
"Do not allow Windows Messenger to be run"
and
"Do not automatically start Windows Messenger initially"
Remove Shared Documents

Open Regedit(Start- Run- Regedit) and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Mcft Windows CurrentVersion Explorer My Computer NameSpace DelegateFolders

There will see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}.
By Deleting this you can remove the 'Other Files stored on This Computer' group.

Change the text in Internet Explorers title bar to anything you want

In regedit navigate to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain

change the value of the string "Window Title" to whatever you want on the title bar of Internet Explorer - to have no title except the title of the web pages you are browsing do not enter anything for a value.
Reduce Temporary Internet F ile Space

The temporary internet files clutter your hard drive with copies of each page visited. These can build up over time and take up disk space. Even more bothersome is that instead of getting new pages each time IE often takes the page out the temp internet files. This can be a problem if you are viewing a website that is updated all the time. If you are on a slow connection such as a 56K or lower then this can be good but if you are on a fast broadband connection, like me, then you can get away with decreasing the size of your temp internet files to just one meg without any performance decrease.

Launch Internet Explorer.
Select the Tools from the menu bar.
Then select Internet Options... from the drop down menu.
Once the internet options has loaded click on the general tab.
Under the temporary internet files section click the settings button.
A settings window will load. Slide the slider all the way to the left so the size indicated in the text box on the right is one.
Click OK
Click Ok
Turn Off System Recovery

Right click on My Computer and choose Properties. Click on the System Restore tab and check the box Turn off System Restore. (This will increase Windows performance & save disk space)
Enable / Disable Firewall

Open Control Panel and double click on Network Connections. In the new box that appears right click on the Connection and click on the Advanced tab. Check or uncheck the box according to your desire.
Win XP Won’t Completely Shutdown

- Goto Control Panel, then goto Power Options.
- Click on the APM Tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."
- Shut down your PC. It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process.
WinXP Clear Page file on shutdown

Go to Control panel Administrative tools, local security policy. then goto local policies ---> security options.
Then change the option for "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"
Turn off hibernation

Control Panel-Screen Saver Power-Hibernate Tab-uncheck hibernation box-reboot and hiberfil.sys is no more.
Adjust various visual effects

1. Open up the control panel
2. Go under system and click on the advanced tab
3. Click settings under Performance options
4. You can now change various graphical effects (mainly animations and shadows)

Disable error reporting

1. Open Control Panel
2. Click on Performance and Maintenance.
3. Click on System.
4. Then click on the Advanced tab
5. Click on the error-reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
6. Select Disable error reporting.
7. Click OK
8. Click OK

Remove shortcut arrow from desktop icons

Here's how you can remove those shortcut arrows from your desktop icons in Windows XP.

1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile
3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.

You may need to restart Windows XP.

Easy sendto menu modification

first open - X:Documents and SettingsusernameSendTo (it is hidden) where X is your drive letter and username is your username make and delete shortcuts to folders at will
Enable Clear Type

Easy way- Click on or cut and paste link below:

http://www.Mcft.com/typography/cleart...name=%20&fsize=

or

- Right click on a blank area of the Desktop and choose Properties
- Click on the Appearance Tab; Click effects
- Check the box: Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts
- In the drop down box select: Clear Type
Turn of CD Auto Play

- Open My Computer
- Right click on your CD ROM and choose Properties
- Click on the Auto Play tab
- In the drop down box you can choose the Action for each choice shown in the drop down box

Or

1. Go to Start->Run->gpedit.msc
2. Computer Config -> Administrative Template -> System
3. Double click Turn off Autoplay
4. Enable it.
Getting MP3 ripping to work in Windows Media Player 8 in XP

Enter the following in the registry :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftMediaPlayerSettingsMP3Encoding]
"LowRate"=dword:0000dac0
"MediumRate"=dword:0000fa00
"MediumHighRate"=dword:0001f400
"HighRate"=dword:0002ee00

This corresponds to 56, 64, 128 and 192 Kbps.

You can change this to your liking using the following dword hex values :

320 Kbps = dword:0004e200
256 Kbps = dword:0003e800
224 Kbps = dword:00036b00
192 Kbps = dword:0002ee00
160 Kbps = dword:00027100
128 Kbps = dword:0001f400
112 Kbps = dword:0001b580
64 Kbps = dword:0000fa00
56 Kbps = dword:0000dac0

Increase BROADBAND:

this ones simple:
this is for broad band connections. I didn’t try it on dial up but might work for dial up.
1.make sure your logged on as actually "Administrator". do not log on with any account that just has administrator privileges.
2. start - run - type gpedit.msc
3. expand the "local computer policy" branch
4. expand the "administrative templates" branch
5. expand the "network branch"
6. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window
7. in right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting
8. on setting tab check the "enabled" item
9. where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0
reboot if you want to but not necessary on some systems your all done. Effect is immediate on some systems. some need re-boot. I have one machine that needs to reboot first, the others didn't. Don't know why this is.

This is more of a "counter what XP does" thing. In other words, XP seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for its self. Even with QoS disabled, even when this item is disabled. So why not use it to your advantage. To demonstrate the problem with this on stand alone machines start up a big download from a server with an FTP client. Try to find a server that doesn't max out your bandwidth. In this case you want a slow to medium speed server to demonstrate this. Let it run for a couple of minutes to get stable. The start up another download from the same server with another instance of your FTP client. You will notice that the available bandwidth is now being fought over and one of the clients download will be very slow or both will slow down when they should both be using the available bandwidth. Using this "tweak" both clients will have a fair share of the bandwidth and will not fight over the bandwidth.

Tags: windows xp, Commands

Stealth Windows update prevents XP repair

By Scott Dunn  A silent update that Microsoft deployed widely in July and August is preventing the "repair" feature of Windows XP from completing successfully. Ever since the Redmond company's recent download of new support files for Windows Update, users of XP's repair function have been unable to install the latest 80 patches from Microsoft.

Repaired installations of XP can't be updated 

Accounts of conflicts with XP's repair option came to our attention after Microsoft's "silent install" of Windows Update (WU) executable files, known as version 7.0.600.381, was reported in the Sept. 13 and 20 issues of the Windows Secrets Newsletter.

The trouble occurs when users reinstall XP's system files using the repair capability found on genuine XP CD-ROMs. (The feature is not present on "Restore CDs.") The repair option, which is typically employed when XP for some reason becomes unbootable, rolls many aspects of XP back to a pristine state. It wipes out many updates and patches and sets Internet Explorer back to the version that originally shipped with the operating system.

Normally, users who repair XP can easily download and install the latest patches, using the Automatic Updates control panel or navigating directly to Microsoft's Windows Update site.

However, after using the repair option from an XP CD-ROM, Windows Update now downloads and installs the new 7.0.600.381 executable files. Some WU executables aren't registered with the operating system, preventing Windows Update from working as intended. This, in turn, prevents Microsoft's 80 latest patches from installing — even if the patches successfully downloaded to the PC.

I was able to reproduce and confirm the problem on a test machine. When WU tries to download the most recent patches to a "repaired" XP machine, Microsoft's Web site simply states: "A problem on your computer is preventing the updates from being downloaded or installed." (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. After a repair install of XP, which resets the operating system to its original state, Windows Update can't install the 80 most-recent patches from Microsoft.
__________

Most ordinary Windows users might never attempt a repair install, but the problem will affect many administrators who must repair Windows frequently. Anyone who runs XP's repair function will find that isolating the cause of the failed updates is not a simple matter.

Beginning in July, it is not possible for Windows users to install updates without first receiving the 7.0.6000.381 version of nine Windows Update support files. (See my Sept. 13 story for details.) If Automatic Updates is turned on, the .381 update will be installed automatically. If AU is not turned on, you'll be prompted to let Windows Update upgrade itself before you can installing any other updates. Consequently, users are forced to get the silent update before they can attempt to install Microsoft's latest security patches.

The problem apparently arises because seven of the DLLs (dynamic link library files) used by WU fail to be registered with Windows. If files of the same name had previously been registered — as happened when Windows Update upgraded itself in the past — the new DLL files are registered, too, and no problem occurs. On a "repaired" copy of XP, however, no such registration has occurred, and failing to register the new DLLs costs Windows Update the ability to install any patches.

Registering DLL files is normally the role of an installer program. Unlike previous upgrades to WU, however, Microsoft has published no link to an installer or a downloadable version of 7.0.6000.381. Strangely, there's no Knowledge Base article at all explaining the new version. The lack of a KB article (and the links that usually appear therein) makes it impossible for admins to run an installer to see if it would correct the registration problem.

One possible fix is to install an older version of the Windows Update files (downloadable from Step 2 of Microsoft Knowledge Base article 927891) over the newer version. This involves launching the installer from a command line using a switch known as /wuforce.

That corrects the registration problem, although even in this case you must still accept the .381 stealth update (again) before you can get any updates. The fact that the /wuforce procedure solves the problem suggests that the installer for .381 is the source of the bug.

Manually registering files solves the problem 

If you find that Windows Update refuses to install most patches, you can register its missing DLLs yourself. This can be accomplished by manually entering seven commands (shown in Step 2, below) at a command prompt. If you need to run the fix on multiple machines, it's easiest to use a batch file, as Steps 1 through 5 explain:

Step 1. Open Notepad (or any text editor).

Step 2. Copy and paste the following command lines into the Notepad window (the /s switch runs the commands silently, freeing you from having to press Enter after each line):

regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

Step 3. Save the file to your desktop, using a .bat or .cmd extension.

Step 4. Double-click the icon of the .bat or .cmd file.

Step 5. A command window will open, run the commands, and then close.

The next time you visit the Windows Update site, you should not have any problem installing the latest patches.

In my articles in the last two weeks on the silent installation of the Windows Update support files, I stated that the stealthy upgrade seemed harmless. Now that we know that version .381 prevents a repaired instance of XP from getting critical patches, "harmless" no longer describes the situation. The crippling of Windows Update illustrates why many computer professionals demand to review updates for software conflicts before widely installing upgrades.

"I understand the need to update the infrastructure for Windows Update," says Gordon Pegue, systems administrator for Chavez Grieves Engineers, a structural engineering firm in Albuquerque, N.M. "But I think Microsoft dropped the ball a little bit communicating how the system works. Administrators should know these sorts of things, in case problems arise."

A Microsoft spokeswoman offered to provide an official response about the situation, but I received no reply by press time.

If you ever need to run the repair option on XP, first see the detailed description provided by theMichael Stevens Tech Web site.

I'd like to thank Windows Secrets contributing editor Susan Bradley for her help in bringing reports of this problem to light.

Have a tip about Windows? Readers receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending tips we print. Send us your comments via the Windows Secrets contact page.

Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the magazine's Here's How section.

Make an XP Install CD with Every Patch Since SP2

Make an XP Install CD with Every Patch Since SP2


As anyone who's reinstalled Windows XP knows, there have been a lot, and I mean a lot, of updates issued for the operating system, and waiting for them to install (/restart/install/restart) can be laborious, to say the least. Luckily, one helpful soul has done the good work of compiling all the patches made to Windows XP since Service Pack 2 was released and creating a tool to make an XP install CD that contains all those changes. You download the roughly 50 MB file, point a utility at your install CD's i386 directory, then wait for it to make you a new folder you can burn to disc. We've pointed out other offline updaters in the wake of the dearly departed AutoPatcher, but this one seems to grab more than just security updates and could save some serious time.

RyanVM's Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack [via Digital Inspiration]