Some Notes on the Machines

Try this:

REG.exe ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server" /v fDenyTSConnections /t REG_DWORD /d 0

If this is missing, try here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=5555

Create a shortcut, in the taskbar and on the desktop if desired, to this:

%windir%\explorer.exe shell:::{2559a1f8-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}

The resultant icon will bring up 8’s all-apps screen, which may be a sufficient replacement for the start button.

Try this:

reg add "HKLM/Section1/Section2/Section3" /f /v "ItemName" /t REG_SZ /d "ItemContents"

Check these two registry locations:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\InProgress

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations

Try this:

http://ss64.com

Try this:

http://threattrack.force.com/articles/SkyNet_Article/How-to-manually-remove-a-VIPRE-Business-agent/?q=remove&l=en_US&c=All_Products%3AVIPRE_Business&fs=Search&pn=1

• PCI Latency Timer

This is in cycles, not ms or anything else. It is a timer which sets a time-chunk for each PCI device to do something. If you want low-latency and have major horsepower, turn this one down. For more latency, and less multitaskability, but probably better big-block throughput, turn this one up. Default is usually 64.

• Spread Spectrum

Spread Spectrum is a method of reducing the effects of electromagnetic interference (EMI) between components of a single machine. All of the systems on a modern motherboard give off high frequencies of EMI, and the EMI from one system (say, the CPU) can drive frequencies of another system (e.g., the PCI Express chipset) through the air, to higher speeds which are potentially very bad. Spread Spectrum prevents this by varying the frequencies; some motherboards have separate spread spectrum capabililty for CPU, PCI/PCI Express, and other areas. It is unclear how often the issue shows up. Reportedly, overclockers need to turn this entirely off, at least on the CPU side.

Here is some interesting info about SQL:

http://www.sqlteam.com/article/benchmarking-disk-io-performance-size-matters

and a tool:

http://thesz.diecru.eu/content/parkdale.php

and another tool, non-free but very good:

http://www.passmark.com/download/pt_download.htm

Ever need to know what \Device\Harddisk2\DR5 is in Windows? Here’s a great tool to help:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896657.aspx