Jelly crystals on hand

Raspberry & Apple
Juicy Pineapple
Orange Orbit
Lemon (Original) x 2
Port Wine (Original) x 2
Raspberry (Original)
Cool Lime
Wild Blackberry

Building an eeePC 900 to my specifications...

The nephew is heading off to the wide wild blue yonder - if you call England as wild, or even blue, but it is over yonder. So here we are building a computer specifically for his time in exile in the home country.

The specs:

Asus eeePC 900 with 30Gb hard disk
Western Digital 160Gb external hard disk
Various tools, applications and know-how - as described below
One obliging Uncle doing the hard yards
Another obliging Uncle providing localised support (although he doesn't know it yet!)

Programs required:

Office suite software to allow editing documents, speadsheets and presentation files, etc.
Email
Instant messaging
Internet telephony to allow calls be made over the internet
Photo album
Web browser

Step 1 - Initial XP installation

Install Windows XP from the provided Asus support DVD.

A couple of cups of coffee later we have a licensed version of Windows XP Home installed on the ePC. Now to make it better.

Some little things.:
Do not allow automated updates from Microsoft at this stage.
Don't bother regeristing with Microsoft - there is no reason to and you get nothing for giving up all your personal details

Right click on the Taskbar.
Deselect Hide inactive icons

Start menu tab
Choose Start Menu
Customise
Small icons

Choose Advanced tab
Delselect Highlight newly installed programs
In the Start menu items sub-window
Control Panel - Display as a menu
Deselect Set Program Access and Defaults
OK - OK

Right click on the Desktop.
Choose Desktop tab
Click Customize Desktop (sic) button
In the Desktop icons sub-window, select My Documents, My Computer

In the Desktop cleanup sub-window, deselect Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard
OK - OK

Control Panel - System - Advanced tab - Performance
Visual Effects tab - Adjust for best performance

He knows who he is — and so does the Windows XP system on the eeePC. But as the nephew will be the only person using the computer, it's easy to remove his name from the Start menu.

Caution: Editing the registry the wrong way can cause serious consequences. Make sure you back up the registry before editing. Click somewhere to learn to Backup the Windows registry.

Below are the steps to remove the name from the start menu.

1. Click Start >> Run
2. Type Regedit and press Enter to open the Registry editor.
3. Now, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
4. On the right pane of the Registry editor, right-click a blank space and select New >> Dword Value. Set the name to NoUserNameInStartMenu
Click Ok.
5. Right-click the newly created Dword and select Modify. Change the value from 0 to 1 and click Ok.

From now, the name will not be displayed in the Windows XP start menu.
To revert the changes, you can always delete the key mentioned in the steps above or change the value to zero.

Another more wimpy method is to change the Windows XP Start menu to classic style.

Step 2 - Remove extra & uneccessary programs and programs installed in wacky places

Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs
Remove:

Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system
Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer 2007
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition
Microsoft Works
Adobe Reader
InterVideo DVD player
Sun StarOffice
Skype

Run the Adobe Flash remover program

Delete the StarOffice 8 folder from the Desktop

Drive C: Total size 19.9Gb Free Space 17.9Gb
Drive D: Total size 7 Free Space 7

My Computer - Manage
Storage - Disk Management
Right click on D: drive; delete partition.

Because we now use disks of gigabyte sizes, there is no need to compress old files.
so let's remove this option from Disk CleanUP

Remove Compress Old Files setting

Start - Run - regedt32
Goto HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches
Highlight the Compress old files key
Right Click - Delete - confirm Yes

Disk Cleanup
More Options tab - System Restore section
Click Clean up button - confirm Yes
Click OK

Update to the latest version of Microsoft Update
Start - Windows Update
Install ActiveX Control from Microsoft
Agree to install Microsoft Windows Component Publisher
Update Windows to work with "this webiste" - click Update Windows button
When you get to the Welcome to Microsoft Update webpage, exit Internet Explorer

Install Microsoft updates:
Check what we need. Goto http://www.secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online
Click Start Scanner button
Deselect Always trust content from this publisher - Run
Check Status then click Start button
Oh, by the way, you are connected to the internet through a firewall aren't you??
Don't subscribe to newsletter

And while we are fooling around with Internet Explorer
Right click on the Toolbar.
Deselect Links
Deselect Windows Live Toolbar
On the toolbar, click on the pull-down for Skype and choose remove. Agree to remove.

Using Windows Update, sadly we had to allow the following to be downloaded and installed
Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool (KB892130)
Update for Windows XP (KB898461)

( Later on I found that I could download Update for Windows XP (KB898461) and install just it! Fwue! )
( Now I've got that crappy, intrusive, unecessary Tool of a Microsoft Tool installed - NEVER AGAIN! )

OK so now Secunia PSI online works and tells us that we are missing
And what's missing is....

Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

KB923789 MS06-069: Vulnerabilities in Macromedia Flash Player from Adobe could allow remote code execution

KB950762 MS08-036: Vulnerabilities in Pragmatic General Multicast (PGM) could allow denial of service
KB951376 MS08-030: Vulnerability in Bluetooth stack could allow remote code execution
KB952954 MS08-046: Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows Image Color Management could allow remote code execution
KB950974 MS08-049: Vulnerability in Event System could allow remote code execution
KB938464 MS08-052: Security update for GDI+
KB954211 MS08-061: Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege
KB956803 MS08-066: Vulnerability in the Microsoft Ancillary Function driver could allow elevation of privilege
KB956841 MS08-064: Vulnerability in Virtual Address Descriptor manipulation could allow elevation of privilege
KB957095 MS08-063: Vulnerability in SMB could allow remote code execution
KB958644 MS08-067: Vulnerability in Server service could allow remote code execution
KB957097 MS08-068: Vulnerability in SMB could allow remote code execution
KB955069 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 3.0
KB954459 MS08-069: Description of the security update for XML Core Services 6.0
KB956802 MS08-071: Vulnerabilities in GDI could allow remote code execution

For each of the above we use:
/nobackup /norestart
Ignoring KB923789
And I didn't do the following...

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x

KB951066 MS08-048: Security update for Outlook Express and Windows Mail
(KB938464 MS08-052: Description of the security update for GDI+ - done in XP updates above)
KB958215 Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 7

...because the XP patches seemed to cover the IE ones when I rescanned using Secunia PSI
Update programs
Start - Control Panel - Java
Select Update tab
Click on Update Now
When the Java Update window pops up, click on Install button
Follow the prompts, indicate your acceptance of the terms (not that you get much choice to object to them other than cutting your nose off to spite your face!)

Remove the old Java installation
Start - Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs
Find the latest version of Java. Remove all other versions.

Remove Macromedia Flash 6.0.88.0

Install programs:
From the Asus eeePC 900 DVD install

StarOffice 8
WinDVD

ASUS utilities
Firefox 3.0.5
on Navigation Toolbar and deselect Bookmarks Toolbar
Tools - Add-ons
In the Search All Add-ons text box type Compact
Select & install iFox Smooth


and there are other extensions that I have not installed for fear of confusing the boy



Remove that pesky IE icon from the Desktop
All is needed is to change (or add) the following registry value:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer] "NoInternetIcon"=dword:00000001


Thunderbird 2.0.0.18
Download and install Australian dictionary
Tools - Add-ons - Install

Skype 3.8

Remove the Skype add-on
Start Firefox
Tools - Add-ons - Extensions
Highlight the Skype extension and click Disable then Uninstall

VLC 0.9.8a
Full installation, delselect Desktop Shortcut

Adobe Flash Player 10 ActiveX
Adobe Flash Player 10 Plugin

Adobe Reader 8.1.3
Delete icon from Desktop

Picasa 3

Kaspersky Internet Security 2009
Maybe this should have been first, but you know how it goes...
Install, activate

And now for the fluff

Trim the Bloat from iTunes 8 on Windows
By Adam Pash, 9:00 AM on Fri Oct 3 2008, 23,873 views

Tech site ZDNet walks through how to trim the bloat from a fresh install of iTunes on a Windows PC.

The Windows version of iTunes 8 is a 64MB download. (For the sake of comparison, Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP is just over 24 MB.) The full iTunes 8 installation takes up nearly 200MB of space on a Windows PC. As it turns out, the iTunes installer has been bulking up for the past year or two. Don’t be fooled by the filename: iTunes8Setup.exe includes much more than the iTunes client.

The author explains that the iTunes 8 setup installs several drivers, system services, and at least one add-on that are completely unnecessary to the operation of iTunes on your computer. As a workaround, the article details how to extract individual installers from the iTunes setup client so you can install only what you need and want on your computer. iTunes may still take up more than its share of system resources compared to other popular media player alternatives, but at least you'll have more control over what programs it installs to your hard drive.

Having a Drink with Dessert

Last year while having an extended rest, I was only allowed clear liquids - which included red jelly. (Yes, I know it's not clear if it is red but hey, I didn't make up the rules!). Anyway, I figured that seeing that high proof alcohol was an antiseptic, I could have that - and as a bonus vodka, for example, is a clear liquid. But my erstwhile brother refused to bring me any alcohol, or food, or anything now that I think about it, apart from himself!

So during one of our conversations, he promised me that we would make Jelly shots together after my rest. This has not happened to date!

So I've started playing around with the formulae myself.

Jelly and vodka shots

Not recommended if there are children present as they look like a child's treat!

Ingredients

Aeroplane Jelly – any flavour perhaps (but more about this later)
Boiling Water
Cold water
Spirits - Vodka, Gin, Tequila
Plastic Shot Glasses (Hospital medicine cups actually)
Glass jug (with spout)

Method

Before you want to make this, put your Vodka or Gin in the freezer to get it cold, realy cold! We are talking days before here!
And another thing, Do Not be tempted to replace all the water with alcoholic spirit. The jelly will not set if you do.

** Prepare your shot glasses by lightly spraying with cooking oil, this will help the jelly shots slide out easily.
This is new. Test in next version. Oops, I mean cooking trial.

PICTURE

Makes 500ml - Simplle to Prepare
1. Empty contents of packet into a 500ml jug.
2. Add 200ml boiling water. Stir and dissolve well.
3. Add 100ml cold water and stir.
4. Place in fridge to cool for 20 minutes.
5. Remove from fridge and add 100ml of chilled spirits and stir.
6. Pour the liquid into the shot "glasses"
6. Refrigerate until firm (Minimum four [4] hours)

PICTURE

Serve cold!

Vodka can be substituted for other spirits, but try and choose something that will compliment the jelly.

Jelly flavours tried so far:

1^st. Lime with Vodka - seemed very sweet
2^nd. Ripe Cherry with Vodka - this is nicest so far
3^rd. TBD

Aeroplane Jelly Flavours

Berry Blast
Berry Blue
Blackberry
Lemon
Lime
Mango
Orange
Pineapple
Pink Lemonade
Port Wine
Raspberry
Raspberry & Apple
Ripe Cherry
Strawberry
Toffee Apple
Tropical

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