Definition of Malwares

Malware - Malware is programming or files that are developed for the purpose of doing harm. Thus, malware includes computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware, hijackers, and certain type of adware. This tutorial will focus on those malware that are considered viruses, trojans, worms, and viruses, though this information can be used to remove the other types of malware as well. We will not go into specific details about any one particular infection, but rather provide a broad overview of how these infections can be removed. For the most part these instructions should allow you to remove a good deal of infections, but there are some that need special steps to be removed and these won't be covered under this tutorial. Before we continue it is important to understand the generic malware terms that you will be reading about. Adware - A program that generates popups on your computer or displays advertisements. It is important to note that not all adware programs are necessarily considered malware. There are many legitimate programs that are given for free that display ads in their programs in order to generate revenue. As long as this information is provided up front then they are generally not considered malware. Backdoor - A program that allows a remote user to execute commands and tasks on your computer without your permission. These types of programs are typically used to launch attacks on other computers, distribute copyrighted software or media, or hack other computers. Dialler - A program that typically dials a premium rate number that has per minute charges over and above the typical call charge. These calls are with the intent of gaining access to pornographic material. Hijackers - A program that attempts to hijack certain Internet functions like redirecting your start page to the hijacker's own start page, redirecting search queries to a undesired search engine, or replace search results from popular search engines with their own information. Spyware - A program that monitors your activity or information on your computer and sends that information to a remote computer without your knowledge. Trojan - A program that has been designed to appear innocent but has been intentionally designed to cause some malicious activity or to provide a backdoor to your system. Virus - A program that when run, has the ability to self-replicate by infecting other programs and files on your computer. These programs can have many effects ranging from wiping your hard drive, displaying a joke in a small box, or doing nothing at all except to replicate itself. These types of infections tend to be localized to your computer and not have the ability to spread to another computer on their own. The word virus has incorrectly become a general term that encompasses trojans, worms, and viruses. Worm - A program that when run, has the ability to spread to other computers on its own using either mass-mailing techniques to email addresses found on your computer or by using the Internet to infect a remote computer using known security holes. How these infections start Just like any program, in order for the program to work, it must be started. Malware programs are no different in this respect and must be started in some fashion in order to do what they were designed to do. For the most part these infections run by creating a configuration entry in the Windows Registry in order to make these programs start when your computer starts. Unfortunately, though, in the Windows operating system there are many different ways to make a program start which can make it difficult for the average computer user to find manually. Luckily for us, though, there are programs that allow us to cut through this confusion and see the various programs that are automatically starting when windows boots. The program we recommend for this, because its free and detailed, is Autoruns from Sysinternals. When you run this program it will list all the various programs that start when your computer is booted into Windows. For the most part, the majority of these programs are safe and should be left alone unless you know what you are doing or know you do not need them to run at startup. At this point, you should download Autoruns and try it out. Just run the Autoruns.exe and look at all the programs that start automatically. Don't uncheck or delete anything at this point. Just examine the information to see an overview of the amount of programs that are starting automatically. When you feel comfortable with what you are seeing, move on to the next section.

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Make your IE works fast like Firefox

1. click start > run
2. type regedit > enter

3. browse folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\m*cro$oft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\InternetSettings
4. right click @ windows right > New > DWORD
5. type MaxConnectionsPerServer > u can set value (the more higher the no, the more good speed u get, eg : 99)
6. create another DWORD >type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server
7. then put a high value as mentioned above
8. then, restart IE ... ur finished.

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138 Commands of Command Prompt ( DOS ) with description

1 ANSI.SYS -- Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys. 2 APPEND -- Causes MS-DOS to look in other directories when editing a file or running a command. 3 ARP -- Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices 4 ASSIGN -- Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter 5 ASSOC -- View the file associations 6 AT -- Schedule a time to execute commands or programs. 7 ATMADM -- Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM call manager. 8 ATTRIB -- Display and change file attributes. 9 BATCH -- NRecovery console command that executes a series of commands in a file. 10 BOOTCFG -- Recovery console command that allows a user to view, modify, and rebuild the boot.ini 11 BREAK -- Enable / disable CTRL + C feature. 12 CACLS -- View and modify file ACL's. 13 CALL -- Calls a batch file from another batch file. 14 CD -- Changes directories. 15 CHCP -- Supplement the International keyboard and character set information. 16 CHDIR -- Changes directories. 17 CHKDSK -- Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors. 18 CHKNTFS -- Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors. 19 CHOICE -- Specify a listing of multiple options within a batch file. 20 CLS -- Clears the screen. 21 CMD -- Opens the command interpreter. 22 COLOR -- Easily change the foreground and background color of the MS-DOS window. 23 COMP -- Compares files. 24 COMPACT -- Compresses and uncompress files. 25 CONTROL -- Open control panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt. 26 CONVERT Convert FAT to NTFS. 27 COPY -- Copy one or more files to an alternate location. 28 CTTY -- Change the computers input/output devices. 29 DATE -- View or change the systems date. 30 DEBUG -- Debug utility to create assembly programs to modify hardware settings. 31 DEFRAG -- Re-arrange the hard disk drive to help with loading programs. 32 DEL -- Deletes one or more files. 33 DELETE -- Recovery console command that deletes a file. 34 DELTREE -- Deletes one or more files and/or directories. 35 DIR -- List the contents of one or more directory. 36 DISABLE -- Recovery console command that disables Windows system services or drivers. 37 DISKCOMP -- Compare a disk with another disk. 38 DISKCOPY -- Copy the contents of one disk and place them on another disk. 39 DOSKEY -- Command to view and execute commands that have been run in the past. 40 DOSSHELL -- A GUI to help with early MS-DOS users. 41 DRIVPARM -- Enables overwrite of original device drivers. 42 ECHO -- Displays messages and enables and disables echo. 43 EDIT -- View and edit files. 44 EDLIN -- View and edit files. 45 EMM386 -- Load extended Memory Manager. 46 ENABLE -- Recovery console command to enable a disable service or driver. 47 ENDLOCAL -- Stops the localization of the environment changes enabled by the setlocal command. 48 ERASE -- Erase files from computer. 49 EXPAND -- Expand a Microsoft Windows file back to it's original format. 50 EXIT -- Exit from the command interpreter. 51 EXTRACT -- Extract files from the Microsoft Windows cabinets. 52 FASTHELP -- Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them 53 FC -- Compare files. 54 FDISK -- Utility used to create partitions on the hard disk drive. 55 FIND -- Search for text within a file. 56 FINDSTR -- Searches for a string of text within a file. 57 FIXBOOT -- Writes a new boot sector. 59 FIXMBR -- Writes a new boot record to a disk drive. 60 FOR -- Boolean used in batch files. 61 FORMAT -- Command to erase and prepare a disk drive. 62 FTP -- Command to connect and operate on a FTP server. 63 FTYPE -- Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations. 64 GOTO -- Moves a batch file to a specific label or location. 65 GRAFTABL -- Show extended characters in graphics mode. 66 HELP -- Display a listing of commands and brief explanation. 67 IF -- Allows for batch files to perform conditional processing. 68 IFSHLP.SYS -- 32-bit file manager. 69 IPCONFIG -- Network command to view network adapter settings and assigned values. 70 KEYB -- Change layout of keyboard. 71 LABEL -- Change the label of a disk drive. 72 LH -- Load a device driver in to high memory. 73 LISTSVC -- Recovery console command that displays the services and drivers. 74 LOADFIX -- Load a program above the first 64k. 75 LOADHIGH -- Load a device driver in to high memory. 76 LOCK -- Lock the hard disk drive. 77 LOGON -- Recovery console command to list installations and enable administrator login. 78 MAP -- Displays the device name of a drive. 79 MD -- Command to create a new directory. 80 MEM -- Display memory on system. 81 MKDIR -- Command to create a new directory. 82 MODE -- Modify the port or display settings. 83 MORE -- Display one page at a time. 84 MOVE -- Move one or more files from one directory to another DIRECTORY 85 MSAV -- Early Microsoft Virus scanner. 86 MSD -- Diagnostics utility. 87 MSCDEX -- Utility used to load and provide access to the CD-ROM. 88 NBTSTAT -- Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT 89 NET -- Update, fix, or view the network or network settings 90 NETSH -- Configure dynamic and static network information from MS-DOS. 91 NETSTAT -- Display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information. 92 NLSFUNC -- Load country specific information. 93 NSLOOKUP -- Look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network. 94 PATH -- View and modify the computers path location 95 PATHPING -- View and locate locations of network latency 96 PAUSE -- command used in batch files to stop the processing of a command. 97 PING -- Test / send information to another network computer or network device . 98 POPD -- Changes to the directory or network path stored by the pushd command. 99 POWER -- Conserve power with computer portables. 100 PRINT -- Prints data to a printer port. 101 PROMPT -- View and change the MS-DOS prompt. 102 PUSHD -- Stores a directory or network path in memory so it can be returned to at any time. 103 QBASIC -- Open the QBasic. 104 RD -- Removes an empty directory. 105 REN -- Renames a file or directory. 106 RENAME -- Renames a file or directory. 107 RMDIR -- Removes an empty directory. 108 ROUTE -- View and configure windows network route tables. 109 RUNAS -- Enables a user to execute a program on another computer. 110 SCANDISK -- Run the scandisk utility. 111 SCANREG -- Scan registry and recover registry from errors. 112 SET -- Change one variable or string to another. 113 SETLOCAL -- Enables local environments to be changed without affecting anything else. 114 SHARE -- Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities. 115 SETVER -- Change MS-DOS version to trick older MS-DOS programs. 116 SHIFT -- Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program. 117 SHUTDOWN -- Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt. 118 SMARTDRV -- Create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory. 119 SORT -- Sorts the input and displays the output to the screen. 120 START -- Start a separate window in Windows from the MS-DOS prompt. 121 SUBST -- Substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter. 122 SWITCHES -- Remove add functions from MS-DOS. 123 SYS -- Transfer system files to disk drive. 124 TELNET -- Telnet to another computer / device from the prompt. 125 TIME -- View or modify the system time. 126 TITLE -- Change the title of their MS-DOS window. 127 TRACERT -- Visually view a network packets route across a network. 128 TREE -- View a visual tree of the hard disk drive. 129 TYPE -- Display the contents of a file. 130 UNDELETE -- Undelete a file that has been deleted. 131 UNFORMAT -- Unformat a hard disk drive. 132 UNLOCK -- Unlock a disk drive. 133 VER -- Display the version information. 134 VERIFY -- Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been written properly. 135 VOL -- Displays the volume information about the designated drive. 136 XCOPY -- Copy multiple files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another. 137 TRUENAME -- When placed before a file, will display the whole directory in which it exists 138 TASKKILL -- It allows you to kill those unneeded or locked up applications

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Common Troubleshooting Techniques & Strategies

Here are five common-sense techniques and strategies to solve common computer hardware problems.

(1) Trial-and-error

Personal computers are highly modular by design. The most powerful trouble-shooting technique is to isolate the problem to a specific component by trial-and-error. Swap compatible components and see if the system still works. Try different peripherals on different machines and see if the same problem occurs. Make one change at a time.

(2) "It's the cable, s-----."

More than 70% of all computer problems are related to cabling and connections. Ensure all cables are connected firmly. IDE and floppy ribbon cables and power cables can often go loose. Ensure microprocessor, memory modules, and adapters such as video card and sound card are inserted correctly and didn't "pop-up" during transportation.

(3) Don't be frustrated!

Don't be afraid of computer problems. It is often the best opportunity to learn. Trouble-shooting is part of the fun of owning a computer. Imagine the satisfaction you could get by solving a problem yourself.

Of course the fun could ran out quickly once you are frustrated and have spent too much time on the same problem. If you feel frustrated, it's time to leave it for a while and go back with some new ideas or call someone who can help. Rule of thumb: You shouldn't spend more than three hours on the same problem at one time.

(4) Take notes!

Take notes of what you have done and all the error messages. You may need to use them later. For instance, when you see an unusual blue screen with an error message, copy the entire message onto a piece of paper. In many situations, that message may point to the right direction in getting the problem solved quickly.

(5) Take a look?

It's OK to open a computer case and take a look inside. There is only 5V and 12V DC voltage supplied to the components outside the power supply. Those who have never seen the inside of a computer are often amazed by how simple it looks. Of course, still always power down and unplug the power cord first.

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The Myth Of Refreshing The Desktop

Do you refresh your desktop?". Ask this to any Windows user and 99% of them will reply with a "yes". Of course, there are various needs for refreshing the desktop but the majority of people who does it doesn't even know why he is doing it. Refreshing the desktop is perhaps the biggest computer myth among all Windows users. Every single person I have met does this or at least used to do it. It's not known who first discovered this remarkably useless trick and what he achieved from it, but it just spread. Most new users learn this trick from other new users without caring to know what it does. Some do it devotedly just because others do it, while some others have various weird explanations for it. A few of them assumes that it refreshes the RAM, while some others believe that doing it will somehow keep their PCs running smooth and easy. I have seen some users obsessed with refreshing the desktop, doing it every 30 seconds or so. They have even learnt the keyboard shortcut - F5 (just to mention, these are the people who never use keyboard shortcuts). They would press the key and wouldn't release it for a long time, sending the desktop into a frenzy of refreshes. What does a desktop refresh actually do? Refreshing the desktop simply redraws the icons on the desktop. That's it! It doesn't refreshes the RAM. It doesn't clean your PC. It doesn't refreshes your computer the way it does to you when you wake up from a nap. Refreshing the desktop has absolutely no effect on the working or performance of the computer. So why is the tool there? As I said, refresh is used to re-display or redraw the icons on the desktop. Sometimes when you bring some changes to the desktop icons, the change doesn't get reflected instantly. In such cases, refreshing the desktop becomes necessary to bring the change to effect. Say, you have the desktop icons set to arrange themselves alphabetically on your desktop. When you add a new item to the desktop, this item wouldn't get arranged alphabetically, instead it would appear at the bottom of icon list on the desktop, irrespective of it's name. Now if you refresh the desktop, all the icons would be once more arranged alphabetically and the newly added item would go to it's appropriate position. This is what refresh is for. It is to re-display the desktop. Refresh has the same function when done in explorer. Also Refresh is basically the command used to refresh/reload the video buffer(VGA memory). Sometimes the changes made in the VGA memory are not reflected to the screen properly...Refresh just corrects the prob... So, if you are in the habit of refreshing the desktop, stop it. You are just wasting your time and effort. And the next time you see a person doing it, don't forget to explain to him the futility of this action Also, during the times of windows 3.1 - win 95 it was normal for PCs to hang, crash n be restarted every now n then ! It looks like even knowledgeable ppl used the desktop refresh just to get an assurence that the OS is working n not freezed from the resulting flicker of icons. Today PCs are very stable n crash only once in a blue moon but the habit still continues, and I think for same reason , even I do it sometimes

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The most worst computer viruses of all time

If you haven't experienced a computer virus yet, just wait -- you probably will.

Fortunately, you missed the real heyday of computer viruses when anti-virus software wasn't very widely used, and virus attacks caused millions of dollars in damages overnight. Today's viruses can still be nightmarish, but for the average user, cleanup is considerably easier than it was just a few years ago, when the only solution in many cases was reformatting your hard drive and starting from scratch (and even that didn't do the trick sometimes).

So join me on a trip down memory lane as we revisit some of the worst viruses of all time and count our blessings that our computers are still up and running despite it all. (Though, please note, "worst" is a matter of considerable debate in the security industry, as the number of infected machines and amount of financial loss is always estimated. If you think another virus was worse than these, please post it in the comments to remind us!)

The worst viruses of all time

Brain, 1986
It all started here: Brain was the first "real" virus ever discovered, back in 1986. Brain didn't really hurt your PC, but it launched the malware industry with a bang and gave bad ideas to over 100,000 virus creators for the next 2 decades.

Michelangelo, 1991
The worst MS-DOS virus ever, Michelangelo attacked the boot sector of your hard drive and any floppy drive inserted into the computer, which caused the virus to spread rapidly. After spreading quietly for months, the virus "activated" on March 6, and promptly started destroying data on tens of thousands of computers.

Melissa, 1999
Technically a worm, Melissa (named after a stripper) collapsed entire email systems by causing computers to send mountains of messages to each other. The author of the virus was eventually caught and sentenced to 20 months in prison.

ILOVEYOU, 2000
This was notable for being one of the first viruses to trick users into opening a file, which in this case claimed to be a love letter sent to the recipient. In reality, the file was a VBS script that sent mountains of junk mail and deleted thousands of files. The results were terribly devastating- one estimate holds that 10 percent of all computers were affected, to a cost of $5.5 billion. It remains perhaps the worst worm of all time.

Code Red, 2001
An early "blended threat" attack, Code Red targeted Web servers instead of user machines, defacing websites and later launching denial-of-service attacks on a host of IP addresses, including those of the White House.

Nimda, 2001
Built on Code Red's attack system of finding multiple avenues into machines (email, websites, network connections, and others), Nimda infected both Web servers and user machines. It found paths into computers so effectively that, 22 minutes after it was released, it became the Internet's most widespread virus at the time.

Klez, 2001
An email virus, Klez pioneered spoofing the "From" field in email messages it sent, making it impossible to tell if Bill Gates did or did not really send you that information about getting free money.

Slammer, 2003
Another fast spreader, this worm infected about 75,000 systems in just 10 minutes, slowing the Internet to a crawl (much like Code Red) and shutting down thousands of websites.

MyDoom, 2004
Notable as the fastest-spreading email virus of all time, MyDoom infected computers so they would, in turn, send even more junk mail. In a strange twist, MyDoom was also used to attack the website of SCO Group, a very unpopular company that was suing other companies over its code being used in Linux distributions.

Storm, 2007
The worst recent virus, Storm spread via email spam with a fake attachment and ultimately infected up to 10 million computers, causing them to join its zombie botnet.

Thanks to Symantec for helping to compile this list.

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Top 20 Antivirus rankings. Tested using 174,770 virus sample

What is the the best Antivirus program ?

The latest test from virus.gr includes 52 different antivirus applications. They were rigorously tested using 174,770 virus samples, and the settings of each application were tweaked to ensure that they all caught maximum number of viruses (despite increasing the possibility that the the software would be more likely to return a false positive).

This is the list of the top 20 antivirus applications

1. Kaspersky version 7.0.0.43 beta - 99.23%
2. Kaspersky version 6.0.2.614 - 99.13%
3. Active Virus Shield by AOL version 6.0.0.308 - 99.13%
4. ZoneAlarm with KAV Antivirus version 7.0.337.000 - 99.13%
5. F-Secure 2007 version 7.01.128 - 98.56%
6. BitDefender Professional version 10 - 97.70%
7. BullGuard version 7.0.0.23 - 96.59%
8. Ashampoo version 1.30 - 95.80%
9. eScan version 8.0.671.1 - 94.43%
10. Nod32 version 2.70.32 - 94.00%
11. CyberScrub version 1.0 - 93.27%
12. Avast Professional version 4.7.986 - 92.82%
13. AVG Anti-Malware version 7.5.465 - 92.14%
14. F-Prot version 6.0.6.4 - 91.35%
15. McAfee Enterprise version 8.5.0i+AntiSpyware module - 90.65%
16. Panda 2007 version 2.01.00 - 90.06%
17. Norman version 5.90.37 - 88.47%
18. ArcaVir 2007 - 88.24%
19. McAfee version 11.0.213 - 86.13%
20. Norton Professional 2007 - 86.08%

Followed by:
21. Rising AV version 19.19.42 - 85.46%
22. Dr. Web version 4.33.2 - 85.09%
23. PC-Cillin 2007 version 15.00.1450 - 84.96%
24. Iolo version 1.1.8 - 83.35%
25. Virus Chaser version 5.0a - 79.51%
26. VBA32 version 3.11.4 - 77.66%
27. Sophos Sweep version 6.5.1 - 69.79%
28. ViRobot Expert version 5.0 - 69.53%
29. Antiy Ghostbusters version 5.2.1 - 65.95%
30. Zondex Guard version 5.4.2 - 63.79%
31. Vexira 2006 version 5.002.62 - 60.07%
32. V3 Internet Security version 2007.04.21.00 - 55.09%
33. Comodo version 2.0.12.47 beta - 53.94%
34. Comodo version 1.1.0.3 - 53.39%
35. A-Squared Anti-Malware version 2.1 - 52.69%
36. Ikarus version 5.19 - 50.56%
37. Digital Patrol version 5.00.37 - 49.80%
38. ClamWin version 0.90.1 - 47.95%
39. Quick Heal version 9.00 - 38.64%
40. Solo version 5.1 build 5.7.3 - 34.52%
41. Protector Plus version 8.0.A02 - 33.13%
42. PcClear version 1.0.4.3 - 27.14%
43. AntiTrojan Shield version 2.1.0.14 - 20.25%
44. PC Door Guard version 4.2.0.35- 19.95%
45. Trojan Hunter version 4.6.930 - 19.20%
46. VirIT version 6.1.75 - 18.78%
47. E-Trust PestPatrol version 8.0.0.6 - 11.80%
48. Trojan Remover version 6.6.0 - 10.44%
49. The Cleaner version 4.2.4319 - 7.26%
50. True Sword version 4.2 - 2.20%
51. Hacker Eliminator version 1.2 - 1.43%
52. Abacre version 1.4 - 0.00%


*The test was made on 23 April-10 May 2008, using Windows XP Professional SP2 on a P4 3000 Mhz, 1024MB DDRAM.

* All programs tested had the latest versions, upgrades and updates and they were tested using their full scanning capabilities e.g. heuristics, full scan etc.

*The default settings of each program were not used, in order for each program to achieve its maximum detection rate. Because of this, there is a possibility for the tested programs to detect a few false positives.

*All programs were updated on 22 April 2008, between 10.00AM and 13.00PM GMT.

*The 174770 virus samples were chosen using VS2000 according to Kaspersky, F-Prot, Nod32, Dr.Web, BitDefender and McAfee antivirus programs. Each virus sample was unique by virus name, meaning that AT LEAST 1 antivirus program detected it as a new virus.

*ALL virus samples were unpacked and the only samples that were kept were the ones that were packed using external-dos-packers (that means not winzip, winrar, winace etc).

*The virus samples had the correct file extension using a special program (Renexts) and were unique, according to checksum32 filesize.

*Most "fake" virus samples were removed, as well as "garbage" files.

*The programs MKS_VIR , PER and IPArmor were not tested because there was no english demo version available.

*The programs Anti-Hacker Expert , Command , Extendia AVK , GDATA AVK , BOClean , UNA , VET and Freedom were not tested because there was no demo version available.

*Thorough mode was not used in VBA32 due to extremely slow scan process.

*A-Squared Anti-Malware and eTrust PestPatrol are anti-trojan/anti-spyware programs, not antivirus programs

*F-Prot was tested using its command line scanner (options /adware /applications /report /streams /maxdepth=4 /heurlevel=4) because its GUI kept crashing.

*Windows Live OneCare, BKAV, PC Tools kept crashing while scanning the samples.

*TheShield uses the exact same engine as VirobotExpert.

*Avira uses the exact same engine as AntiVir.

*Fire uses the exact same engine as Solo.

*MKS_VIR uses the exact same engine as ArcaVir.

*VirusBuster uses the exact same engine as Vexira.

*BullGuard uses the exact same engine as BitDefender free edition.

*Avast Professional uses the exact same engine as Avast free edition.

*AVG Anti-Malware uses the exact same engine as AVG Antivirus free edition plus the Ewido scan engine, so it has better detection than AVG Antivirus free edition.

*A-squared Anti-Malware Professional uses the exact same engine as A-squared free edition.

* InVircible did not include a "typical" scanner-function and could not be tested.

*V-Catch checks only mail accounts and could not be tested.

*DOS-Based scanners were not tested.

*The following file types were used: SH, ELF, COM, EXE, PL, BAT, PRC, DOC, XLS, BIN, MDB, IMG, PPT, VBS, MSG, VBA, OLE, HTM, INI, SMM, TD0, REG, CLASS, HTA, JS, VI_, URL, PHP, WMF, HLP, XML, SCR, PIF, SHS, WBT, CSC, MAC, DAT, CLS, STI, INF, HQX, XMI, SIT.

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Intel Core i7 Extreme

Intel Corporation has launched its most advanced desktop processor ever called the Intel Core i7 processor. The first member of a new family of Nehalem processor designs, it speeds video editing, immersive games and other popular Internet and computer activities by up to 40 percent without increasing power consumption.

Intel Turbo Boost Technology automatically adjusts the clock speed of one or more of the four individual processing cores for single- and multi-threaded applications to boost performance. The Core i7 processor more than doubles the memory bandwidth of previous Intel “Extreme” platforms, speeding the transfer of computer bits and bites in and out of the processor with Intel Quickpath Technology. Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology allows multiple computing threads to run simultaneously, effectively enabling it to do two things at once, so the Core i7 quad-core processor delivers 8-threaded performance.

Each Core i7 processor has an 8 MB level 3 cache and three channels of DDR3 1066 memory to deliver the best memory performance of any desktop platform. Intel’s top performance processor, the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition, also removes overspeed protection, allowing further increase in the chip’s speed.

While Intel Core i7- 920 starts at $284, the top of the line Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition will cost $999.

Intel pointed out that when comparing Core i7 965 to a QX9770, we can get 52% more 3D gaming performance, 38% more rendering performance and 41% more movie editing and conversion performance.

Though the 965 XE is a four core processor like the QX9770, with its new hyperthreading technology, each core is capable of processing two threads simultaneously which when relatively compared to the QX9770 makes the 965 XE capable of processing double the threads as the older processor was capable of. But even though it is capable of processing double the threads, it still has the 130w heat output and thanks to Intel's new "Turbo Mode" and Power Gate features in its new SkullTrail based motherboards, the motherboard and processor can essentially turn off unneeded processors to save power and reduce heat output when they are not needed and to also reduce power leakage.

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10 new OS !!!

This post is about the desktop operating systems that fly under the radar of most people.
We are definitely not talking about Windows, Mac OS X or Linux, or even BSD or Solaris.
There are much less mainstream options out there for the OS-curious.

These alternative operating systems are usually developed either by enthusiasts or small companies (or both), and there are more of them than you might expect.
There are even more than we have included in this article, though we think this is a good selection of the more interesting ones and we have focused specifically on desktop operating systems.

As you will see, many of them are very different from what you may be used to.
We will discuss the potential of this in the conclusion of this article.

Enough introduction, let’s get started! Here is a look at 10 alternative operating systems, starting with a familiar old name…

AmigaOS 4.1

This month (September 2008) AmigaOS 4.1 was released.
Although AmigaOS is a veteran in the field (many have fond memories of the original Amiga computer), its current version is a fully modern OS.

AmigaOS only runs on specific PowerPC-based hardware platforms.
The company ACube is currently marketing and distributing AmigaOS and is going to bundle the OS with their motherboards.



Source model: Closed source

License: Proprietary

Platform: PowerPC

State: Final

Read a review of AmigaOS 4.1 at Arstechnica


Haiku

Haiku is an open source project aimed at recreating and continuing the development of the BeOS operating system (which Palm Inc. bought and then discontinued).
Haiku was initially known as OpenBeOS but changed its name in 2004.

Haiku is compatible with software written for BeOS.



Source model: Free and open source

License: MIT License

Platform: x86 and PowerPC

State: Pre-Alpha

Read more at the Haiku website


ReactOS

ReactOS is an operating system designed to be compatible with Microsoft Windows software.
The project started in 1998 and today it can run many Windows programs well.
The ReactOS kernel has been written from scratch but the OS makes use of Wine to be able to run Windows applications.



Source model: Free and open source

License: Various free software licenses

Platform: x86 (more under development)

State: Alpha

Read more at the ReactOS website.


Syllable Desktop

Syllable is a free and open source operating system that was forked in 2002 from AtheOS, an AmigaOS clone.
It’s intended as a lightweight and fast OS suitable for home and small office users.



Source model: Free and open source

License: GNU General Public License

Platform: x86

State: Alpha

Read more at the Syllable website.


SkyOS

SkyOS is a closed source project written by Robert Szeleney and volunteers.
It originally started as an experiment in OS design.
It’s intended to be an easy-to-use desktop OS for average computer users.
Well-known applications such as Firefox have been ported to run on SkyOS.



Source model: Closed source

License: Proprietary

Platform: x86

State: Beta

Read more at the SkyOS website.



MorphOS

MorphOS is a lightweight, media-centric OS build to run on PowerPC processors.
It is inspired by AmigaOS and also includes emulation to be able to run Amiga applications.



Source model: Closed source

License: Mixed proprietary and open source

Platform: Pegasos, some Amiga models, EFIKA

Read more at the MorphOS website.



AROS Research Operating System

AROS is a lightweight open source OS designed to be compatible with AmigaOS 3.1 but also improve on it.
The project was started in 1995 and can today be run on both PowerPC and IBM PC compatible hardware.
It also includes an emulator that makes it possible to run old Amiga applications.



Source model: Open source

License: AROS Public License

Platform: x86 and PowerPC

Read more at the AROS website.



MenuetOS

MenuetOS, also known as MeOS, is an operating system written entirely in assembly language which makes it very small and fast.
Even though it includes a graphical desktop, networking and many other features it still fits on a single 1.44 MB floppy disk (for our younger readers, that was the USB stick of the 80s and early 90s ).



Source model: Open source (32-bit version), freeware (64-bit version)

License: Menuet License

Platform: x86

State: Beta

Read more at the MenuetOS website.



DexOS

DexOS is an open source operating system designed to work like the minimalistic ones on gaming consoles, but for PCs.
Its user interface is inspired by video game consoles and the system itself is very small
(supposedly this one also fits on a floppy disk, like MenuetOS) and the OS can be booted from several different devices.
Its creators have tried to make it as fast as possible.



Source model: Free and open source

Platform: x86

Read more at the DexOS website.



Visopsys

Visopsys is a one-man hobby project by programmer Andy McLaughlin.
The development began in 1997 and the OS is both open source and free.
Visopsys stands for VISual Operating SYStem.



Source model: Open source

License: GPL

Platform: x86

State: Final

Read more at the Visopsys website.



The OS future

Even if none of these operating systems ever were to “make it” and become mainstream
(and admittedly, some of them simply are not intended to be mainstream),
the passion behind them is real, and many have the potential to introduce new and fresh ideas.

All this independent development can act as a kind of think tank,
if you choose to look at it that way. It’s quite possible that concepts introduced by a niche OS will later be adopted by a larger player on the OS market.

There are lots of interesting things happening today with the rise of virtualization
and the “always online” nature of today’s computers that opens up incredibly interesting possibilities.
For example, what we have read about Microsoft’s internal research OS Midori (the one that will retire Windows) sounds highly interesting.

Wherever the future operating systems may come from, be it from the already established players
or some kind of newcomer, we are looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for us.
We suspect that there is a significant “jump” in the evolution coming up just around the corner.

Who knows, a couple of years from now maybe all the computers will be running the UltraMagicalSuperVirtualOS version 1.2?

What are your predictions for the future of operating systems?

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