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Reason to do this
We have come across customer sites where a Windows Server is not present and yet the customer wants all workstations and devices to be time-synchronised to help when analysing log files and ensuring all workstations are running the same time reference.  The main Windows XP machine (hereinafter referred to as the source machine) is either synchronised to a separate NTP time source, or is corrected manually by checking/adjusting once a week.

How do I configure the source machine?
Whilst it is easy to make the source machine an NTP server for standard devices to synchronise with it, this does not qualify it as being authoritative to other Windows XP machines and an additional set of flags need to be suitably configured.

To simplify the configuration of your source machine, copy this code and save it to your notepad as ntp-server.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\Config]
“AnnounceFlags”=dword:00000005

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\Parameters]
“Type”=”NTP”
“WriteLog”=”True”
“Log”=dword:00000064

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\TimeProviders\NtpServer]
“Enabled”=dword:00000001

This modifies the registry of the source machine to:

* be an authoritative time source for Windows clients
* to use NTP rather than an Active Directory domain source
* to enable writing to the event log
* to log NTP activity
* to become an NTP server

Double-click on the registry file in order to allow regedit to update the machine’s registry - you only do this to the source machine. You can now delete the registry file as it is no longer needed.

It only remains to cycle the Windows time service so that the source machine actually takes account of the changes. This will happen at the next reboot, or can be forced by dropping to a command prompt and typing:

net stop w32time&&net start w32time

That is all that is needed at the source machine. You should now have a fully functioning NTP server which is also authoritative for Windows clients.

How do I configure the clients machine?
Now, go to your Windows clients machine, replace default time server (time.windows.com) with your new configured WinXP NTP server IP . In this case, i’m using my NTP server IP, which is 10.52.3.150, and then, click Update Now. Happy tweaking =D

You all must have heard about the utility called CPU-Z which gives you a lot of information about your Computer System like processor, motherboard, RAM etc. GPU-Z is a similar utility and it gives you information about your Graphics Card or GPU.

Just run this small utility and you will have loads of information about your graphics card at your disposal. It supports both nVidia and ATI cards. The information it displays includes the Card name, BIOS version, Shaders, DirectX support, Memory Type, Memory Size, Driver version, GPU clock and much more. You can also find out the the GPU temperature and core speed. This information can also be refreshed as time progresses. It also includes a button which lets you save the screenshot to your desktop or upload to an image hosting service. It also displays the over clock and the default clock if available. No installation required and can be run directly. It is a very small utility which runs portable on Windows.

Download Here

Are you looking for a Free Photo Editing software that is more than a basic retouching tool and can infact be an useful photoshop alternative? There are several free desktop and online photo editors that can fix and optimize your digital pictures.But here is a good free photo editing software that can be used to easily enhance your digital photos, using the power of plug-ins, called VirtualStudio.

VirtualStudio does have a lot of interesting features and it can help you do more than the basic photo retouching. This picture editor has a decent collection of photo frames to enhance the digital photo appearance.This tool includes an 8-bit Photoshop Plug-in Filter called Virtual Photographer, that is Compatible with Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint and other popular imaging applications.

Virtual Photographer works like Photoshop and implements layers and can even blend these layers using various modes. VirtualPhotographer also implements a pixel-editing engine whereby it can modify the RGB values of each pixel and map these changes to curves related to the overall images so that no step effects are apparent.You can even add a title or watermark to the photo.

Features Of Free Photo Editing software - VirtualStudio:
    * Supports many popular Photoshop plug-ins
    * Support for 30 file formats including jpg, jpeg2000, png, bmp, gif, tiff, psd and some RAW files
    * Support for applying layered effects with “Blend” mode
    * It is also an Image Browser with support for full-screen Photo slideshow
    * Can easily Open multiple photos
    * Can add picture frames, watermarks and titles to Photos
    * Can adjust brightness/contrast, gamma, hue and color
    * And much more…

Free download VirtualStudio from here and start using it straight away. VirtualStudio works on Windows XP and Windows Vista. If you are looking for some help to get started check this tutorial here.