Check out if your anti-virus works or not

How to be sure if your anti-virus program is working properly or not ? Using this simple method you can figure out if it's functioning correctly or not.

Copy the below line on a notepad. Then save it with the name of 'fakevirus.exe' or any other name you wish. Just make sure that you add .exe at the end of the file name. After you save it, give it a scan and you'll know it all.

Here's the line -

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

If your anti-virus is working, it will alert you. Otherwise you need to pay attention to your program.

Detect and Repair Disk Errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should try to run this utility weekly to help prevent data loss.

Important: Be sure to close all files before running the Error-Checking utility.

To run the Error Checking utility:

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
3. In the Properties dialog box, click the 'Tools' tab.
4. Click the 'Check Now' button.
5. The 'Check Disk dialog box will pop-up. In that dialog box, check the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" box, and then click on Start.
6. If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Tip: Only select the Automatically fix file system errors check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors

TeraCopy - Copy Files Faster

TeraCopy is a program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. It allows you to Pause and Resume file transfers. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times while Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives. In case of copy error, TeraCopy will try several times and in the worse case just skips the file, not terminating the entire transfer. File list makes sure that all the files that are copied are listed and if any errors found during the process, it will be listed there. Also, it's seamless integration with Windows Explorer allows you to keep working with files as usual.TeraCopy is available both as a Freeware and a Paid version, but the freeware contains all the features that are required by a Home user and can satisfy one's need.

Download TeraCopy ..

Identify Any Faulty Device Driver in Your Computer

If you are facing problems with your computer, especially the blue error screen coming up again and again, or your system is only booting in safe mode, then there is a strong possibility that your computer is having a faulty device driver.

Now how to identify a faulty driver, if you look at the list of drivers, you will find more than 100 drivers, and its not easy to find the faulty drivers from that list, neither it is possible to reinstall each one.

Microsoft provides you with the solution by providing a little tool called Verifier. This allows you to check which driver is faulty and a error message that will help you know which driver is faulty and you can then replace it or reinstall it. Here is a look at the use of it.

1. Go to Start –> Run and type “verifier“.
2. Select first option of “Create Standard Settings”, click Next, and then choose the option according to the problem you are facing. If you are technical enough, you can select “Select drivers name from a list”, and choose the driver which you think is responsible for the problem. If you are not sure then you can select “Automatically select all drivers installed on this computer”. and then Click Next, and Finish the process.
3. Now Reboot your computer, you will see the list of drivers to be verified at startup, and if you have a faulty driver, then you will get a blue screen, with the error message. You can get the faulty driver from that and thus can reinstall it or can be rectified.
4. After this when you have recognized the faulty driver, login back in your windows and you need to stop this service. To do this, Go to Start –> Run and type in “verifier /reset“. This will stop this service and you will not get the verifier window at startup again.