HonkBlog|TechNotes » Operating systems

Best free disk defragmenter for windows

admin — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:17:51 +0000

Anyone who’s had a PC for more than a few months knows that it will begin to slow down over time, they probably also know about disk de-fragmentation which basically reorders your disk drive to perform more quickly. The free one that comes with Windows is better than nothing, but the other day I came across MyDefrag which is easily the best free disk defragmenter for Windows I’ve found.

As a defragmenter it looks great, but one of the things it also does is segment your drive (not partition just organise in segments) based on the file type to ensure the most commonly used files are near the beginning of the drive which in itself can see a major improvement in performance.

If you’re looking for the best free disk defragmenter for Windows, check it out.

NB: not sure if “defragmenter” is actually a word!

.htaccess redirecting a Wordpress site to a new domain

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:45:04 +0000

.htaccess problems and can be a real pain, especially if like me you only do things with the .htaccess file every now and then so aren’t completely comfortable with the syntax. Last night when helping a friend and author of the excellent ExchangeWire (about tracking the nascent ad exchange and ad trading networks) switch a domain, I configured the .htaccess file using a standard format:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldomain.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www. oldomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ “http\:\/\/www\.newdomain\.com\/$1″ [R=301,L]

I say “a” standard format because as anyone who has used .htaccess before knows, there are a few variations on this syntax that do the same thing. Not thinking about it much I put this in the root .htaccess of the Wordpress install, I tested the top domain, worked fine, but the pages themselves just kept redirecting to the the root, not the actual page. My complete .htaccess file that was not redirecting properly:

# BEGIN WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

# END WordPress

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^oldomain.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www. oldomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ “http\:\/\/www\.newdomain\.com\/$1″ [R=301,L]

Ok so the clued up amongst you will realise the problem was caused because of the ordering of the commands I had put in the file, this is important. In terms of importance, the domain redirection had to happen first, so I needed to put it above the Wordpress command otherwise the Wordpress command hijacked the process and confused the primary redirect. So, the lesson is be careful of the order you put things in and the potential conflicts that can occur as a result. Keep the major redirects/rules at the top of the page (e.g. when you want to change domains) and the more detailed one(s) below for more consistency (such as Wordpress redirects).

How to restore the explorer process in windows XP

admin — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:18:03 +0000

Being the impatient person I am I have a horrible habit of closing down the windows explorer process in the Windows task manager, when actually I mean to close down the iexplorer process just above it that has hung for the thousandth time.

I’ve never bothered to look up a quick fix to this, and so have always restarted my system when this has happened, but I discovered today there is in fact a solution that doesn’t require a restart.

To restore the explorer process in windows XP:

Click the trusty old CTRL+ALT+DEL
Select Task Manager
Then File
Then New Task Run
Type “explorer” into the input box and hit enter

And lo and behold the start menu and your active programs should reappear on your screen.