Most of the countries in the world have specific unique local business needs and legal requirements. Oracle Applications is being used in more than 140 countries, and in order to attend some of those local business and legal requirements, Oracle has added to 11i a new set of functionality and parameters called Localizations.

Oracle Applications was designed to support the business and the legal requirements in United States. In some other countries, the Local Oracle Office has developed and supports Localization, therefore, Localization is applied to the country that was originally created for.

Brazil is one of the countries Oracle has support Localization. This country has a lot of different legal requirements, so Oracle has created the “Brazilian Localization” to support those. Additional configuration at some functional module is necessary (GL, FA, PO, OM, INV, CE, AP, AR Billing, PAC) and there is also a new module called RI (Integrated Receiving) which is just used in Brazilian implementations. To have an idea, there are close to 300 process variances required or affected by the Brazilian localization.

When planning any global roll out of Oracle functionality, in order to support the planning effort to install a particular Localization of Oracle Applications, it is recommended at least a high level assessment of the business operations. Localizations can never been forgotten in a Global implementation. There are a lot of ways to implement the Multi Organization structure where can be design to work with different currencies, have a look at our paper talking about the Multi-Org enhancement feature at this link.

If you need help, please give us a call: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918

Andrew Karasev is technical consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving clients in LATAM and Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Salvador, Manaus.

help@albaspectrum.com

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is written in Great Plains Software programming tool: Great Plains Dexterity. Dexterity in turn was built with conception of graphical cross-platform transferability (in time – 1992 – mostly Mac and MS Windows). Plus Dexterity had database abstraction level (through C programming language). The result of such a shrewd future-looking architecture – Great Plains ReportWriter has multiple restrictions and drawbacks.

Let’s first look at the advantages of using ReportWriter:

• Seamless integration with Great Plains forms – the most typical scenario – you modify SOP_Long_Invoice_Form or SOP_Blank_Invoice_From and then print your invoices with modified form – usually with your logo and changed formats and positions of the fields

• Parameters Entry Forms. Each existing report (Reports section) has associated parameters entry form. Restrictions:

• No Cross-Modules links. You can not associate report with the tables from non-related modules. For example you can not have Sales Order Processing (SOP) and Purchase Order Processing data on the same report (you actually can – but you need Dexterity programmer help)

• Custom Reports. You do not have parameters entry interface for your custom reports, but you could use restrictions to restrict the selection. Custom reports could be used to export data from Great Plains in text (and then Excel format)

Advanced ReportWriter programming

• Rw_ functions in Great Plains Dexterity. When you need cross-modules data on the same report (Bill of Lading, which you could produce on the base of Picking List) you need to move the report you want to customize into your custom DYNAMICS.DIC and fill the gaps with RW_ functions – these are allowed to be placed on the report with parameters

If ReportWriter doesn’t do the job:

• Crystal Reports. Current version 8.0 and 8.5 (July 2005) are MS SQL Server based, where Crystal Report could work at will and produce all the desired links – we recommend you to base Crystal Report on SQL Stored Procedure or SQL View. You call Crystal Report engine via Modifier/VBA – you need Customization Site Enabler license. If you are on Great Plains Standard version: 7.5, or Great Plains Dynamics/eEnterprise 7.0, 6.0, 5.5 or 5.0 Btrieve/Pervasive SQL/Ctree – you need to install Pervasive SQL driver (or Faircomm driver for Ctree)

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 866-528-0577 or 630-961-5918! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Great Plains, Navision, Microsoft CRM Partner, serving clients in California, Minnesota, Illinois, Washington, Florida, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Canada, UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Russia

We all know that pulling the power to your computer has to be the absoulute fastest but not the best way to shutdown your computer. In this 5 step tutorial we will show you how to make your shutdown as fast as possible.

Step 1: Stop as many services as possible.

The more that is running on your computer the more your computer has to close on shut down. Keeping a slimmer running computer will not only make your computer run faster but it will make Windows shutdown faster. Here is how its done:

Go to the Start menu and then select Run. Type ‘services.msc’ in the Run Dialog Box and click on OK. In the services window double click on the service you wish to disable. In the properties box for the selected service choose disabled in the Startup Type dropdown box. Click on OK.

Its best to restart your computer after disabling a couple of services at a time so if something undesired happens to your computer you know what disabled service needs to be re-enabled.

Step 2: Automatically kill tasks on shutdown.

Windows XP by default will ask you if you wish to end a process if an application is running during the shutdown process. This little registry change will tell Windows to automatically end the process without your confirmation.

Go to the Start menu and then select Run. In the Run box type in ‘regedit’ and click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop’ and double click on the ‘AutoEndTasks’. Change the value to 1 and click on OK.

Step 3: Reduce the wait time to kill open applications.

When you choose to shutdown your computer, Windows will automatically wait a little bit before it kills applications that are open. Here we will show you how to reduce the wait time.

Go to the Start menu and then select Run. In the Run box type in ‘regedit’ and click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop’ and double click on the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’. Change the value to 1000 and click on OK. Double click on ‘HungAppTimeout’ and change the value to 1000 then click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop’ nd double click on the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’. Change the value to 1000 and click on OK. Double click on ‘HungAppTimeout’ and change the value to 1000 then click on OK.

Step 4: Reduce the wait time for services to be shutdown.

Much like applications, Windows XP waits a bit for the services to shutdown before it starts killing them. Here is how to reduce the wait time.

Go to the Start menu and then select Run. In the Run box type in ‘regedit’ and click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControl’. Double click on ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’ and change the value to 1000 then click on OK.

Step 5: The ONE click shutdown

More mouse clicks equals more time. That’s right, why go to start then click on shutdown and select shutdown. It seems like too much work for me. Here is a tutorial on how to make a shutdown shortcut on your desktop.

Right click on your desktop and select new then shortcut. Now you will see the New Shortcut wizard. Under the location for this item type ‘SHUTDOWN -s -t 01’ then click on Next. Give the shortcut a name, I like Shutdown. Then click on Finish.

Just as a quick note you can do the same for a quick restart just enter in ‘SHUTDOWN -r -t 01’ as the location and then you are all set.

http://www.HowdidYa.com is an always growing how to portal for Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Hardware. Our how to articles will show you fix any problem, or modify your electronic stuff to make it your own. Visit our website to submit your own how to’s or learn for others.

Microsoft Office program is a programming tool called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that comes with Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook, Power Point, and Publisher. VBA can make your repeating jobs automatic. It also can customize Excel, Word and other Office procedures for your own needs. From Office version 2000, all the Office programs are equipped with VBA.

Hand-On experience is the key to be a good programmer. Programming tutorials are the easier way to learn any computer programs including VBA. For example, a tutorial can show people how to use VBA to automate (make automatic) an Excel routine like updating the fonts and sizes for a range of cells, or automatically pops up a calendar for selecting a date. VBA can also be used as a tool to automate Word mail-merge or create a text file from a Word document. VBA can even be used as a tool to automate email alert in the Outlook Inbox or scheduling task to do.

VBA can make one application like Excel work with another application like Word and Outlook, or any other combination. To make Excel work or control Word is called Excel automates Word. Likewise, Word works with or controls Outlook is called Word automates Outlook.

There can be many applications of automation that was introduced in the previous paragraph. For example, we can write a VBA application to make Word read an Excel address list that is saved in a spreadsheet, and then show the addresses in the Word document. Also, we can write an application to use Word to automate Outlook for reading the contact and any other data in the Contact or other folders. Or, we can use Outlook to read in Word or Excel scheduling list and use it to schedule tasks in Outlook.

Writing VBA programs is quite straightforward and can be learned in a short period, providing that there are tutorials that are well organized and illustrated with many pictures. After going through a few tutorials, the learner can explore on himself or herself the other possibilities with the programming. Learning programming is not as hard as people think. Rather it can be a fun experience to see the programs work.

There are a few free VBA learning tutorials at www.Viccompinc.com. If you would like to learn beyond the free tutorials, you can sponsor us with the other low cost tutorials. You can also request a tutorial for your own needs with the request entry of the Contact page.

See how Viccomp’s tutorials can show you how to write your first Office program ==> http://www.viccompinc.com.

Just download the free tutorials to try, or more tutorials for a small fee. Please use the Contact page for your request of a tutorial or programming.

Starting around August of last year I started tracking down SAP users who were early adopters of the NetWeaver platform, and I found an interesting dynamic happening that lead me to continue researching what was going on. What I found was the SAP was attracting entirely new customers based on the NetWeaver platform.

What makes this unique in the SAP world is that the vast majority of SAP applications get sold because there is an ERP instance somewhere in the organization to tie back to. Rarely if ever in the years of doing primary research on their customer base would I find a reference who had just come onboard for their channel management applications for example.

NetWeaver on the other hand is starting to show up as the architecture for future Web Services in some companies who were not multi-decade ERP customers for example. This finding contradicted many people’s perceptions (including my own) of just how SAP goes about selling their applications. I decided to go all out and complete a research study of SAP NetWeaver early adopters, mostly out of personal interest but also because I love doing primary research and wanted to see what could be learned from NetWeaver early adopters.

What I Found Out

It’s a good thing I started this project in August as a hobby of sorts because the effort to get people to respond to a survey on this topic takes a fair amount of work. Also I attended SAP user group meetings in my area and continued to work at getting the Zoomerang survey to people who were kind enough to provide their e-mail addresses. The big break in getting connected with NetWeaver users came from a friend at Disney who introduced me to several and the networking started working from there. From that point I was able to complete a decent sample size of 300 companies distributed globally, and visited many companies locally through user group meetings and buying lunches. The result is a report published in December titled Users Speak Out About SAP NetWeaver.

Here are some of the key take-aways from the research:

• The majority of manufacturing companies start out with the vision of unifying databases that had been siloed nearly out of existence in the past so channel strategies can be more aggressively pursued. This focus on creating competitive advantage through better integration pervaded the conversations with users.

• Integration to support growth strategies was by far the largest driver of investment. Companies are looking to turn their data warehouses into a competitive advantage outnumbered those looking to consolidate databases in general. There is a definite atmosphere of using NetWeaver as a platform to stimulate revenue growth over simply completing database consolidations.

• Consolidating portals onto a single platform is where Halliburton and others are both moving towards in their NetWeaver strategy. This is a common theme in many of the early adopters; they want to have a single portal for the majority, if not all, applications in specific business units.

• In manufacturing industries the challenge of handling Engineering Change Orders ECOs) and order change sequencing between Oracle and SAP systems is an area that causes shared customers much pain. Intermediating between both systems for their change order numbering sequence took custom development to resolve for example.

• One high tech manufacturer uses SAP NetWeaver as the integration hub for their order capture, order management and fulfilment systems, including integration to an Oracle supply chain system. The pay-off for this manufacturer is the elimination of manual product option updates that was previously done at the director level of the company as these senior managers are the only ones with the interrelationships of products in their heads. Instead of having to work one weekend a month to update the order capture systems, directors can have a Saturday off.

• One heavy equipment manufacturer did an ROI analysis for NetWeaver integration and built in assumptions of cost savings based on headcount reductions. As the NetWeaver integration project came online, it was apparent that more integration engineers were needed than budgeted, and the two engineers were re-assigned to those roles. This is a familiar situation in those companies that did do ROI on NetWeaver projects; they focused on headcount reductions and ended up re-assigning the engineers and staff they thought they would not need anymore.

• When those customers who came to SAP for NetWeaver were asked why they made that decision the two most common responses were integration experience and pricing or licensing. There were also an even mix of responses across industry expertise and ease of customization as well.

• When SAP customers with a median of 6 to 10 years of experience with SAP were asked what they would most like to change about the company, they asked for greater simplification and management of licenses. Specifically they asked for a portal view of all licenses so they could manage their entire SAP investment efficiently.

SAP Satisfaction Levels

The research shows that the majority of companies are either satisfied to somewhat satisfied with SAP and this is again a fascinating point. For the next survey the reasons why satisfaction is where it is need to be explored.

If you are any SAP customer, feel free to participate in the survey. I will provide a summary of the results next month.

Bottom Line

There’s not that much of a correlation between over-the-top enthusiasm on the one hand in the SAP base and NetWeaver adoption, or in other words the SAP zealots out there aren’t necessarily leading the charge to NetWeaver. What is leading the charge is the integration expertise that new customers are seeing and the ability to get clear licensing and pricing terms nailed down early in their relationships with SAP.

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains has Project Accounting module where you can budget the project, assign it to customer contract and then log expenses, timesheets, inventory spending, and finally bill the customer against the project or contract. Microsoft Great Plains Project Accounting does excellent job, but there are cases when you need developer or MS SQL DB Admin touches.

• The first script transfers salesperson and sales territory from Customer master file to Project master table

update PA01101 set SLPRSNID=b.SLPRSNID, SALSTERR=b.SALSTERR from PA01101 a join RM00101 b on a.CUSTNMBR=b.CUSTNMBR where a.SLPRSNIDb.SLPRSNID or a.SALSTERRb.SALSTERR

• The second scripts unlocks Project Accounting user, this rare and funny one – really hard to get it from Microsoft Business Solutions Tech Support site:

delete PA000001 where userid=’put user id here’

• The third script is really advanced one – it is for users trying to place billing address with contact info on the PA invoice form at the bottom section – address comes from Contract – not from the project

/*
Updates Primary Bill To Address Code for Billing invoice to be the one from Contract Master table, instead of Primary Billing Address Code from Customer
*/

update PA13100 set PRBTADCD=c.PRBTADCD from PA13100 a join PA13200 b on a.PADocnumber20=b.PADocnumber20 join PA01201 c on b.PAPROJNUMBER=c.PAPROJNUMBER

/* update PA13100 set PRBTADCD=c.PRBTADCD from PA13100 a join PA13200 b on a.PADocnumber20=b.PADocnumber20 join PA01101 c on b.PACONTNUMBER=c.PACONTNUMBER */ /* Fill user defined 1 on the Billing HDR to contact person from the appropriate customer master address rec. */ update PA13100 set PAUD1 = left(b.CNTCPRSN,20) from PA13100 a join RM00102 b on a.CUSTNMBR = b.CUSTNMBR and a.PRBTADCD = b.ADRSCODE

Good luck with customization and support, if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew is a Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Mexico-city, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, New Orleans, Toronto, Montreal and having locations in multiple states and internationally

With every new version of Microsoft Office it seems that in Microsoft’s wisdom they decide to change the way in which we do the humble mail merge. In earlier versions of Microsoft Word such as Microsoft Word 2000, the process for undertaking a mail merge was simple. The first step was to create your data source, which by default was a Microsoft Word document with a simple table in it. The next step was to create the main document, which could be a letter or pamphlet. Then the third step was to add your fields to the main document and then finally carry out the merge.

In Microsoft Word 2003, if you are starting a brand new mail merge then you should be aware that you no longer produce a Microsoft Word document as a datasource, in fact the datasource you produce is a Microsoft Access database. I, to a certain degree applaud this move because I am a fervent believer that all raw data should in fact be stored in a database of some sort, it doesn’t matter whether its a Microsoft Access Database, a MySQL Database or SQL Server. The reason for this, is that the database enables the user to use this information more than once and a database is far more stable than a Microsoft Word document, especially if you are working with large volumes of data. You will also find that the Microsoft Access database created by the Mail Merge Wizard is very simple and will only contain a single table with the fields you defined.

The cool thing Microsoft has done with this, is that by storing your raw data in a Microsoft Access database, it enables you in the future to easily share this data with other applications. In fact, it is much easier to move data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or even into a commercial database system like Microsoft SQL Server from Microsoft Access. The new mail merge functionality also enables you to filter and sort your data much easily. The other key benefit is that the Filter allows you to select what data you want to actually include in the mail merge proces.

The issue I have though with the new Microsoft Word 2003 Mail Merge process is the complexity of doing a merge. In particular the long winded way that you have to add the merge fields to your document. In earlier versions of the Microsoft Word application, such as Microsoft Word 2000, you could simply add each merge field to your main document in one go. In Microsoft Word 2003, you must first open the Merge Fields dialogue box each time you want to add a field. That’s right, you have to add each field by selecting the field and then inserting the merge field and then close the dialogue and then you must repeat this step for each individual field. I find this more annoying than anything else.

We could of course manually enter each field in using the shortcut Ctrl + F9 (used to insert a field) but that too I consider is a lot of work. I think in future versions this is something that Microsoft will change but I guess only time will tell.

All in all, I think the new Microsoft Word 2003 Mail Merge Wizard is a positive step forward but for the previous users of the mail merge process it can be a little daunting and confusing.

If you would like some help or step-by-step assistance, my team at One-on-One Personal Computer Training have put together a Microsoft Office Specialist Word 2003 Training kit to help you step through the process of doing a mail merge in Microsoft Word 2003 and its available by clicking here. We also provide a daily Microsoft Office hints and tips email which is 100% free that you can subscribe to by visiting http://www.1-on-1.biz

We also offer a Forum at http://help.1-on-1.biz where you can go and place questions or issues you may have and my team will review them and post answers usually within 24 to 48 hours or provide you with links to locations where you can get the information you are looking for.

This article was written by Chris Le Roy Managing Director, One-on-One Personal Computer Training and all Copyrights 2005 must be observed.

Are you ready? SQL Server 2005, the next-generation data management and analysis software from Microsoft, will deliver increased scalability, availability, and security to enterprise data and analytical applications. SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services is a comprehensive, server-based reporting solution that can author, manage, and deliver both paper-oriented and interactive, Web–based reports.

Develop better understanding of Microsoft .NET Developer Tools

2.) ROI and Business Value of Microsoft SQL Server & SQL Reporting Services

In this session, we’ll take a look at technical and business scenarios where Microsoft SQL Server & SQL Reporting Services provide value. We’ll show you how to make basic value quantifications based upon those scenarios. David will also review the value proposition and selling points for Microsoft SQL Server & SQL Reporting Services. The key portion of this session will include introduction to and training on a value-based tool developed for the specific purpose of accelerating SQL Server implementations. This training will include guidance on how to position the results with your customers. In depth demonstration.

Speaker: David Kirkman, MCSE+I and Partner Technical Specialist responsible for partner technical sales readiness and business case development for Northern California Small-Midmarket Solutions & Partners. 9 years in technology as a technical project manager, and business case developer.

3.) Microsoft .NET Developer Tools

During this session you will learn how Partners can leverage developer tools and technologies to maximize customer impact with minimal investment. How the next generation of tools from Microsoft will increase efficiency in development projects; develop a better understanding and vision for Visual Studio .NET and Microsoft .NET.

Speaker: Marc Wolfson is a Developer Solution Specialist on the Developer and Platform Evangelism. Marc has been with Microsoft for four years focusing exclusively on Developer Tools and technologies. Marc is responsible for supporting a healthy developer eco-system in Northern California highlighting the productivity of Microsoft’s developer tools as well as the ease of integrating Microsoft Platforms Technology. Marc was one of the founders and Chief Technologist of Nextera, technology consulting firm acquired by Knowledge Universe in 1999. While at Nextera, Marc provided development and platform architecture guidance to many fortune 500 customers. While at Nextera, Marc served on the Microsoft Partner Advisory Committee for developer technologies including the inception of .NET and C#. Marc has over 20 years of experience in the industry and has guided customers through the client-server trend, Business Process Engineering, Workflow and Document Imaging, the introduction of the Web, Year 2000, Dot Com explosion and implosion, and the adoption of XML, .NET and Java technologies.

Jeff Steinmetz is a Senior Technology Specialist for Microsoft. Jeff has been working with SQL Server since version 4.2, and has co-authored books such as “Microsoft SQL Server Unleashed”, “Microsoft SQL Server Programming Unleashed”, and “Microsoft Office Unleashed”. He has been a speaker at notable events such as TechEd and Comdex.

Microsoft for every generation of their OS has strived to provide a faster startup for the masses. Windows 2000 might be the exception to the rule but every other OS a faster startup has been listed as a feature. In this tutorial we will show you how to speed up your already faster startup in Windows XP.

Step 1: Clear The Start-up folder.

The startup folder is the folder that will launch any programs or shortcuts when the computer starts up. The fewer programs that you have starting up when you power on the computer the faster the computer will boot. Keep in mind that some programs need to run when windows starts up so it may be best to backup this folder before you start.

The folder can be found by going to: C:Documents and SettingsusernameStart MenuProgramsStartup, where username is your Windows logon name. You can also clear out the start-up items by going to Start > Programs > Startup, then right-clicking items you want to remove.

Step 2: Clearing out the startup in the system configuration utility

The System Configuration Utility also known as MSConfig is a helpful tool that will help you troubleshoot your Windows system. This tool lets you modify a lot of your system preferences but it also allows you to disable programs that startup in the background of Windows. Note: Be careful with this tool as you can make Windows run improperly.

How to start msconfig
Click on the Start button.
Select Run from the menu.
In the run dialog box type “msconfig”.
Click OK.

Once in the msconfig utility select the startup tab. In the startup tab you will see several programs listed with a checkbox beside it. If there is a check mark beside the application listed, the application will startup when your computer starts up. To speed up your computer you want to remove as many check marks from this box without affecting the programs that you use. Once you have removed the checkmarks you wish to remove, click on OK and restart the computer when prompted. It is recommended to uncheck a couple at a time so you will know what is causing a problem if one occurs.

To get more information about a listing, expand the width of the Command column near the top of the Startup tab. Expand it enough and you’ll see the start-up command that the program issues, including its location, such as C:Program FilesAdobeAcrobat 5.0ReaderAcroRd32.exe. The directory location should be a hint to help you know the name of the program. In this case it is Adobe Acrobat.

Step 3: Speeding up your startup by sorting your drivers.

Once upon a time Microsoft used to offer a tool called bootvis to optimize the sequence that your computers drivers load when starting Windows. Although the file is not available through Microsoft, there is a link to the program found in the tools section of this book. There has been some controversy wether the tool actually does anything. Lots of magazines and users say yes. Microsoft says no. For this one you’ll have to be the judge.

How to use bootvis:

Download and install Bootvis. Do a search in Google for bootvis.exe, you will find it. Open Bootvis. (Location may vary depending where you installed it) You need to analyze your computer by going to File and clicking on New. In the New menu select Next Boot and Drivers Trace. Next a box will come up asking how many trace repetitions are needed. Just leave it at the default and click on OK. Another box will appear, select the Reboot Now button and wait for your computer to restart. Once your computer has restarted wait for a little bit and bootvis will start automatically. Go to the Trace menu and select Optimize System.(This may take a few minutes.) Once complete, you will be prompted to restart your system one more time. This reboot should be faster than the last.

Step 4: Stop as many services as possible.

The more that is running on your computer the more your computer has to open on startup. Keeping a slimmer running computer will not only make your computer run faster but it will make Windows startup faster. Here is how it’s done:

Go to the Start menu and then select Run. Type ‘services.msc’ in the Run Dialog Box and click on OK. In the services window double click on the service you wish to disable. In the properties box for the selected service choose disabled in the Startup Type dropdown box. Click on OK.

Its best to restart your computer after disabling a couple of services at a time so if something undesired happens to your computer you know what disabled service needs to be re-enabled.

Step 5: Remove unwanted fonts to increase boot speed

Windows checks and loads fonts during the startup process, therefore having a large amount of font files can cause performance to drag during startup. The simple solution for this (if you do not expect to use the certain fonts) is to move the unnecessary fonts to a new directory elsewhere on the hard disk, preserving them in case they are needed, but preventing them from loading upon startup.

This is how you do it:

In your C drive create a folder called Fonts Backup. You can do this by going to the C drive through My Computer. Go to the File menu and go to New. In the new menu select Folder. A new folder will pop-up and allow you to name it.

Once the folder is created go into it and leave it open. Go to the Start menu and select Run. In the Run command type Fonts. The Fonts folder will load and display the Font files. All you have to do is drag and drop the fonts you think you wont need to the Font Backup folder. Be sure to move the .bold and the.bold.italic files that correspond with the font you want to move.

Step 6: Disable auto detection for empty IDE slots

For a faster boot up is to disable the auto detection that Windows XP uses to determine if there are IDE devices present in any of the IDE slots on the motherboard. More specifically, disable this feature on any empty slots to prevent the operating system wasting time and resources checking them.

This is how you disable IDE Detection:

Right-click on My Computer and Select Properties. In the properties click on the Hardware tab and click on the Device Manager button. In the Device Manager expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Double-click on one of the Secondary IDE Channels and click on the Advanced Settings tab. In the dropdown box beside Device Type select None and click on OK. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to all of the Secondary IDE channels under the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.

Step 7: Reduce wait time after XP boots

A common problem when Windows XP boots is you will see the desktop and all of your icons but nothing responds when you click on it. During this time Windows application and networking processes are loading in the background. To reduce this wait time you need to cut down the amount of processes loading. The best way to do this is through Windows networking. Most computers do not share files or printers to other users on a network yet Windows turns File and Printer sharing on by default. Warning: If you are sharing any files or printers this step is not for you.

Here is how you disable file and print sharing.

Go to the Start menu and select Run. In the Run command enter control netconnections. In your Network Connections right-click on a Local area connection and select properties. In the properties remove the checkmark beside File and print sharing. Click OK

Repeat steps 3 through 5 if you have more than one network connection.

Step 8: Disable parts of the Group Policy Manager. (XP Pro only)

This will dramatically speed up the login process - If you don’t need to utilize Group Policies on the local machine, you can disable parts of it.

Go to Start and select Run. Type in gpedit.msc and click on OK. Right click on the Local Computer Policy entry and select Properties from the menu that appears. Add checkmarks to the two options within the Disable section. Close out. Reboot.

Step 9: Enable boot defrag.

A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot Defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option is enabled but on some builds it is not so below is how to turn it on.(Y is good)

Go to Start then Run. Enter regedit and click on OK Click on the + sign beside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE then software then Microsoft then dfrg then bootoptimizefunction Select Enable from the list on the right. Right on it and select Modify. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable. Reboot your computer

Step 10: Delete the prefetch files from time to time.

The prefetch files are the files that make Windows XP load applications load faster. Deleting the files will speedup your boot time. The trade-off is that Windows will take longer to load applications. The time difference for loading applications may not be that affected. Its best to experiment with this one.

How to enable the deletion of prefetch files.

Go into My Computer and go into your hard drive. Right-click anywhere that a file is not and select the ‘New’ submenu and click ‘Text Document’ Name it "deleteprefetch" Double-click on the text file you just created. Type "del C:WindowsPrefetch*.* /Q" (without the quotes). Go to the File menu and click on Save As… and choose "All Files" from the "Save as Type" box and save it as "deleteprefetch.bat"

You just created a batch file that will automatically delete all the files in your Prefetch folder. Just double-click on the file to make it run. I do this once a month to clean up the files

http://www.HowdidYa.com is an always growing how to portal for Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Hardware. Our how to articles will show you fix any problem, or modify your electronic stuff to make it your own. Visit our website to submit your own how to’s or learn for others.

People often ask me: What image file formats will Photoshop open or save in? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

Photoshop has the capability to open and save many different graphic files. Here are some of the most popular ones.

Note: When you open an image file other than a Photoshop one, that image will default to the background layer.

.psd, .pdd, .eps
Photoshop File. This format preserves the information in all the layers. If you’re going to continue working with a picture, this is the best format to use. File size can be quite large, however. Note: It is advisable to save your work in the most up to date Photoshop format available. For example: if you have Photoshop CS and are sent a Photoshop 7 file, you should save it as a Photoshop CS file to preserve any elements that may not be supported by Photoshop 7.

.jpg, .jpeg .jpe
This format compresses the images, so that information (details and colour subtleties) are lost. You can choose how much you want to compress the image. Good format for use on the web. Small file sizes. Millions of colours.

tif, .tiff
Common in use with early scanners. Will produce high quality images, but very large files. Not for use on the web.

.gif
Pronounced both "Gif" and "Jif", this file is one of the most popular for web graphics as it loads quickly. 8 bit format (256 colours max.). It has possibilities for transparent colour and animation.

.png
New format for use on the web that is intended to replace both gif and jpeg. Compressed, millions of colours, transparencies. It compress in a different way than jpeg, and has advanced possibilities, such as alpha channel (opaque or partly transparent colours). The only trouble is: Internet Explorer doesn’t support these! In 8 bit (256 colours) mode it compresses better than gif.

.bmp
Windows bitmapped image. Used by Microsoft Windows applications. Good quality, large file size. Not for use on the web.

.wmf
Windows MetaFile. Useful for clipart, and can be used to make large area, small sized background files.

.pcx
Older general purpose format. Practically obsolete now. Not for use on the web.

.psp
Internal format for Paint Shop Pro, useful if you want to swap files between these two applications.

.pcd
Kodak PhotoCD format, used with Photo Developing - although most photo processors will save your photos as jpegs if you ask them to.

.pdf
Portable Document File. Adobe’s file system that allows electronic cross platform sharing of documents.

So what’s the best format for web graphics: gif or jpeg?

The general rule of thumb is to use gifs for diagrams, line drawings, illustrations, and images that contain large areas of flat colour, and jpegs for photographs and images with continuous colour tones. The jpeg format has a very good compression rate, but compression reduces the quality of the image, so it’s best to experiment with the tools in Image Ready until you have the optimal quality/file size. The gif format, on the other hand, has a smaller file size - but a limited range of colours.

Shaun Pearce is a writer and video maker. His latest production, "Photoshop Master", is an interactive video tutorial series. It shows you how to get the most from Photoshop, and can be downloaded from http://www.learnphotoshopfast.com