Dtrickster Garden

Ever wondered just what that enigmatic name means?

Gaming and multimedia applications are some of the most satisfying programs you can get for your PC, but getting them to run properly isn’t always as easy as it could be. First, the PC architecture was never designed as a gaming platform. Second, the wide-ranging nature of the PC means that one person’s machine can be different from another. While games consoles all contain the same hardware, PCs don’t: the massive range of difference can make gaming a headache.
To alleviate as much of the pain as possible, Microsoft needed to introduce a common standard which all games and multimedia applications could follow – a common interface between the OS and whatever hardware is installed in the PC, if you like. This common interface is DirectX, something which can be the source of much confusion.

DirectX is an interface designed to make certain programming tasks much easier, for both the game developer and the rest of us who just want to sit down and play the latest blockbuster. Before we can explain what DirectX is and how it works though, we need a little history lesson.

DirectX history

Any game needs to perform certain tasks again and again. It needs to watch for your input from mouse, joystick or keyboard, and it needs to be able to display screen images and play sounds or music. That’s pretty much any game at the most simplistic level.

Imagine how incredibly complex this was for programmers developing on the early pre-Windows PC architecture, then. Each programmer needed to develop their own way of reading the keyboard or detecting whether a joystick was even attached, let alone being used to play the game. Specific routines were needed even to display the simplest of images on the screen or play a simple sound.

Essentially, the game programmers were talking directly to your PC’s hardware at a fundamental level. When Microsoft introduced Windows, it was imperative for the stability and success of the PC platform that things were made easier for both the developer and the player. After all, who would bother writing games for a machine when they had to reinvent the wheel every time they began work on a new game? Microsoft’s idea was simple: stop programmers talking directly to the hardware, and build a common toolkit which they could use instead. DirectX was born.

How it works

At the most basic level, DirectX is an interface between the hardware in your PC and Windows itself, part of the Windows API or Application Programming Interface. Let’s look at a practical example. When a game developer wants to play a sound file, it’s simply a case of using the correct library function. When the game runs, this calls the DirectX API, which in turn plays the sound file. The developer doesn’t need to know what type of sound card he’s dealing with, what it’s capable of, or how to talk to it. Microsoft has provided DirectX, and the sound card manufacturer has provided a DirectX-capable driver. He asks for the sound to be played, and it is – whichever machine it runs on.

From our point of view as gamers, DirectX also makes things incredibly easy – at least in theory. You install a new sound card in place of your old one, and it comes with a DirectX driver. Next time you play your favourite game you can still hear sounds and music, and you haven’t had to make any complex configuration changes.

Originally, DirectX began life as a simple toolkit: early hardware was limited and only the most basic graphical functions were required. As hardware and software has evolved in complexity, so has DirectX. It’s now much more than a graphical toolkit, and the term has come to encompass a massive selection of routines which deal with all sorts of hardware communication. For example, the DirectInput routines can deal with all sorts of input devices, from simple two-button mice to complex flight joysticks. Other parts include DirectSound for audio devices and DirectPlay provides a toolkit for online or multiplayer gaming.

DirectX versions

The current version of DirectX at time of writing is DirectX 9.0. This runs on all versions of Windows from Windows 98 up to and including Windows Server 2003 along with every revision in between. It doesn’t run on Windows 95 though: if you have a machine with Windows 95 installed, you’re stuck with the older and less capable 8.0a. Windows NT 4 also requires a specific version – in this case, it’s DirectX 3.0a.

With so many versions of DirectX available over the years, it becomes difficult to keep track of which version you need. In all but the most rare cases, all versions of DirectX are backwardly compatible – games which say they require DirectX 7 will happily run with more recent versions, but not with older copies. Many current titles explicitly state that they require DirectX 9, and won’t run without the latest version installed. This is because they make use of new features introduced with this version, although it has been known for lazy developers to specify the very latest version as a requirement when the game in question doesn’t use any of the new enhancements. Generally speaking though, if a title is version locked like this, you will need to upgrade before you can play. Improvements to the core DirectX code mean you may even see improvements in many titles when you upgrade to the latest build of DirectX. Downloading and installing DirectX need not be complex, either.

Upgrading DirectX

All available versions of Windows come with DirectX in one form or another as a core system component which cannot be removed, so you should always have at least a basic implementation of the system installed on your PC. However, many new games require the very latest version before they work properly, or even at all.

Generally, the best place to install the latest version of DirectX from is the dedicated section of the Microsoft Web site, which is found at www.microsoft.com/windows/directx. As we went to press, the most recent build available for general download was DirectX 9.0b. You can download either a simple installer which will in turn download the components your system requires as it installs, or download the complete distribution package in one go for later offline installation.

Another good source for DirectX is games themselves. If a game requires a specific version, it’ll be on the installation CD and may even be installed automatically by the game’s installer itself. You won’t find it on magazine cover discs though, thanks to Microsoft’s licensing terms.

Diagnosing problems

Diagnosing problems with a DirectX installation can be problematic, especially if you don’t know which one of the many components is causing your newly purchased game to fall over. Thankfully, Microsoft provides a useful utility called the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, although this isn’t made obvious. You won’t find this tool in the Start Menu with any version of Windows, and each tends to install it in a different place.

The easiest way to use it is to open the Start Menu’s Run dialog, type in dxdiag and then click OK. When the application first loads, it takes a few seconds to interrogate your DirectX installation and find any problems. First, the DirectX Files tab displays version information on each one of the files your installation uses. The Notes section at the bottom is worth checking, as missing or corrupted files will be flagged here.

The tabs marked Display, Sound, Music, Input and Network all relate to specific areas of DirectX, and all but the Input tab provide tools to test the correct functioning on your hardware. Finally, the More Help tab provides a useful way to start the DirectX Troubleshooter, Microsoft’s simple linear problem solving tool for many common DirectX issues.

I have also included a tutorial on boot methods. Follow any one of these instructions to fit your needs. You can tell what format the PS2 title is by looking at the written side of the disc, DVD's are Silver and CD's are Purple. The DVD backup methods here consist of reading the image to the hard drive then burning it to the media for an easier backup, this depends on your hardware and it?s setup. I say that because the proper setup would be to have the Reader and Writer on separate IDE cables. This allows no cross information when doing Disc to Disc/On the fly copying. But, since most people would not know how to check or fix this, I suggest reading the image to your Hard Drive and then burning from there. *A little useful trick*, If the DVD backup "image" is small enough in size you can fit it onto a CD-R (80 minute or larger if need be) instead of using a more expensive DVD-R. I have done this succesfully using Prassi and the first tutorial for it below. In addition a DVD Movie backup will play on a PS2/Xbox without a chip. As I get more info I will update. Dexter

PS1/PS2 CD backup tutorials

Using CloneCD (v4.x.xx) for PS1/PS2

1. Start CloneCD
2. Select "Copy CD"
3. Select your Reader, press Next
4. Select "Game CD", press Next
5. Select/Deselect your options here (on the fly, cue or delete) then press Next
6. Select your Writer, press Next
7. Select your burn speed and "Game CD"
8. Press "OK" to begin

Using Alcohol 120% for PS1/PS2

1. Start Alcohol 120%
2. Select ?Copy Wizard?
3. Select your Reader & Read Speed
4. Select or Deselect ?Copy current disc on the fly?
5. For Datatype select which console PS1 or PS2, press Next
6. Select your Image location and Name for it, press Next
7. Select you Writer, Write Speed and anything else you feel you might need
8. Make sure the Datatype selected is the same you chose above
9. Press Start to begin

PS2 DVD backup tutorials

Using Prassi

1. Start Primo
2. Select "go to full application"
3. Right Click the drive that has your original in it
4. Select "build global image" and choose a path for the image (preferably on an NTFS opsys)
5. After the image is extracted go to next step
6. Choose the 3rd disc icon from the left *or* click file, new job, Global/Other Image
7. Then just burn the .gi (global image) of the game
This next way has one less step which saves some time because once you press record it does everything by itself (if you have a DVD reader and DVD Writer)

1. Start Primo
2. Use the "PrimoDVD Starter" (it's easier, and less confusing)
3. Choose "disc copy"
4. Select your Reader and Also your Writer
5. Select "make a temp image on HD..."
6. Select your burn speed and then record to begin

Using Nero
1. Start Nero, Use the Wizard (for easy use)
2. Select "DVD" then select Next
3. Select "Copy a DVD" then select Next
4. Select your source drive
5. Check OFF "copy on the fly" then select next
6. Select your write speed
7. Select either "Test", "Test and Burn" or "Burn"
8. Press "Burn" to begin

This next way is without the Wizard

1. Start Nero, and select "File" then "New..."
2. On upper left side of the window from the drop down menu select "DVD"
3. Select "DVD Copy" Icon
4. Select "Copy options" tab
5. Check OFF "copy on the fly"
6. Select source drive and read speed
7. If needed Select "Image" tab to choose image directory and select/deselect "delete image..."
8. Select "Burn" tab and choose your settings
9. Press "Copy" to begin

Using Alcohol 120%

1. Start Alcohol 120%
2. Select ?Copy Wizard?
3. Select your Reader
4. For ?Separate Image file every:? choose ?Never Separate?
5. Select or Deselect ?Copy current disc on the fly?, press Next
6. Select your Image location and Name for it, press Next
7. Select you Writer, Write Speed and anything else you feel you might need
8. Select or Deselect ?Delete image file after recording?
9. Press Start to begin

XBOX backup tutorials

Xbox original games are burned from the outside in. The only way to backup a title is to have a modchip like X-exuter (best), Enigma, or Xodus/Matrix. You also have to flash the bios and have a CD program inserted or installed into the X-Box named EVO-X (this allows you to assign the X-Box an IP address). The game has to be stored on the X-Box's HD, this allows you to file transfer the title to your PC using an ftp program like FlaxhFXP (best) or similar. From there you use a burning application to make the backup. Some applications allows you to "drag & drop" right from the Xbox or you can build an ISO of the image then burn to CD-R/W or DVD-R/W backup. (I will update this to show steps as soon as I have a minute)
Modded PS2 with or without Action Replay/GameShark CD & DVD backup booting methods

PS2 with NeoKey/Sbox & AR/GS, PS1 CD backup booting

1. Turn on PS2 and NeoKey/Sbox
2. Press Eject
3. Insert PS1 CD backup
4. Press reset
5. PS2 tray will close
6. PS1 CD backup will now boot

PS2 with NeoKey/Sbox & AR/GS, PS2 CD backup booting

1. Have AR/GS dongle in a memory card slot
2. Power on your PS2
3. Insert AR/GS disc
4. At the AR/GS menu, select Start Game, With/Without codes
5. Eject and swap to your PS2 CD backup and press X.
6. Screen will change and game will now boot

* Note - Neokey will not play DVD-R!
* Note - Old versions of AR2/GS2 you might need to press R1+O instead of X to boot games

PS2 with Neo 2.2, PS1 CD backup booting

1. Turn on PS2
2. Press Eject
3. Insert PS1 CD backup
4. Press reset
5. PS2 tray will close
6. PS1 CD backup will now boot

PS2 with Neo 2.2 & AR/GS, PS2 CD backup booting

1. Have AR/GS dongle in a memory card slot
2. Power on your PS2
3. Insert AR/GS disc
4. At the AR/GS menu, select Start Game, With/Without codes
5. Eject and swap to your PS2 CD backup and press X.
6. Screen will change and game will now boot

PS2 with Neo 2.2 & AR/GS, PS2 DVD backup booting

1. Have AR/GS dongle in a memory card slot
2. Power on your PS2
3. Insert AR/GS disc, close tray
4. Power off your PS2, wait a few seconds
5. Press and Hold Reset button to load AR/GS
6. At the AR2/GS2 menu, press EJECT while still holding Reset
7. Swap AR/GS disc for an Original-TOC-DVD* and wait 10 seconds
8. Select "AR/GS Codes"
9. Highlight "Add new code" and press X to get to the next screen
10. Press X three times. You will see "Updating code list please wait" each time)
11. Press "Start" on controller
12. Select "Without codes", press X
13. Then Press X again, and immediately release the Reset button, you will see "Updating code list please wait"
14. The PS2 tray will eject allowing you to swap Original-TOC-DVD* for DVD backup and then close on it?s own
15. Screen will change and game will now boot

* Note - "Original-TOC-DVD" is an original DVD that is a larger file size than the backup
* Note - For a shortcut make a few ?Add new codes? and after step 8 just highlight one of them and press square to delete it, then proceed on with step 11

PS2 with Messiah

1. PSX Backups will boot directly.
2. PS2 CD-R Backups will boot directly.
3. PS2 Unpatched EA backups will boot directly.
4. PS2 DVD-R Backups will boot directly.

PS2 with Magic 2, 3 or 3.5

1. PSX Backups will boot directly.
2. PS2 CD-R Backups will boot directly.
3. PS2 Unpatched EA backups will boot directly.
4. PS2 DVD-R Backups will boot directly.

Ps2 with Apple Mod

1. PSX Backups will boot directly.
2. PS2 CD-R Backups will boot directly.
3. PS2 Unpatched EA backups will boot directly.
4. PS2 DVD-R Backups will boot directly.

Hope you will like This post..Keep Commenting

BURNING X-BOX & GAMECUBE GAMES USEING CDRWIN
------------------------------------------------------

1) Insert your original in your CD-ROM.
2) Open CDRWin (or any other image extractor) to make an iso image of the game
on your hard disc. Click on 'Extract Disc/Tracks/Sectors'
3) Here are the settings which work for me (!):
Disc Image/Cue sheet
File-Format: Automatic
Reading-Options:


RAW, CD+G, CD-TEXT and MCN/USRC all Unchecked
Error Recovery: Ignore
Jitter Correction: Auto
Subcode Analyses: Fixed
Data-Speed: MAX
Read Retry Count: 10
Audio Speed: MAX
Subcode Threshold: 900

There are a lot of reports, that Raw reading also works, but I had problems with it enabled.
4) Click on 'Start'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECORDING TO A DISC
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) Install Fireburner
2) Double click on the Cue File For The Game
3) Right Click And select burn To CD
That?s all there is record DAO, and you can try to burn it fast at 2X
Using PNY Black Diamond CDR'

Do you want to build your own high performance gaming computers? Here is a website that gives you full information you need to build your custom gaming PC.
Whether you’re on a tight budget, or you want the very best system around, the information on this site will help you build your own gaming computer for less.

You will learn how to choose the best computer parts for your gaming needs, how to install and upgrade your system, and you can read product reviews of the best gaming pc components and accessories.

Visit and enjoy : www.build-gaming-computers.com
[OR]
www.myrightpc.com

"The Suffering" is a survival horror game from 2004. In it, you play as an inmate named Torque held at a maximum security prison. Turns out, there were some gruesome experiments and executions held there, fueling the dark forces that are taking over now. Did we also mention that you can transform into a giant, rampaging monster? This game has it all, and it's available now - complete and totally free to play.

Now you can download its Full version absolutely free(1.26gb)

This guide starts out with some very basic tips and then moves on to the more advanced ones. The advanced tips are not for the faint of heart as I recommend things like disabling various services for increased performance.

Note: The author assumes no responsibility for any damage or data loss that you might inflict on your PC as a result of following these tips.

Tip #1: Clean the adware and spyware off of your PC.

Some websites and many freeware programs will install a wide variety of programs onto your PC. None of these programs has any positive benefit and most will adversely affect your PC. Ridding your computer of this rubbish is the first logical step in improving the performance of your PC.

There are entire web sites devoted to helping people clean various spyware and adware programs off of their PCs. I feel it would be a tad redundant of me to try and include any meaningful tutorial on adware detection and removal in this guide.

What I will do it point you towards the program that most people use for detection and removal of these troublesome programs. The program that I recommend is Ad-Aware: http://www.lavasoft.com/

The Ad-Aware personal edition is free of charge. Most people run this on a regular basis and you should too.

Tip #2: Increase your physical RAM to epic proportions.

Most 3D games these days can benefit from the addition of more memory to your PC. A full 2 GB of RAM is not considered to be an unreasonable amount. Be sure to adjust your paging file if you do increase your RAM. (See Tip #5 below for details on paging file configuration.)

Whenever I suggest to peeps that they should get more RAM, they most often ask where they should buy it from and what type to get. I have a link for a website that answers both questions:
http://www.crucial.com/

I have purchased all of my RAM from these guys for the past seven years. The website has a "memory advisor" tool that will help you find the RAM you need. Their prices are competitive and the RAM is guaranteed to work in your system. It doesn't get much better than that.

Tip #3: Defragment your hard drive regularly.

As files are created and deleted on your hard drive they may be written to non-contiguous clusters. This is know as hard disk fragmentation and it can have a significantly detrimental effect on your computer's overall performance. Fortunately it is quite easy to correct this.

You can access the hard drive tools built into Windows XP by double clicking on the My Computer icon and then right clicking on the drive you wish to defragment and selecting it's Properties. On the hard drive properties page, select the Tools tab and then click on the Defragment Now button.
This will bring up the Disk Defragmenter window. Select the drive that you wish to defragment and click on the Defragment button. The disk defragmenter will analyze the drive and tell you that you don't need to defragment your hard drive. It's lying, tell it to defragement your hard drive anyway.

epending on your hard drive size and the level of fragmentation, defragmentation may take several hours to complete. For most people it is probably best to leave the PC deframenting overnight.

One other item worth mentioning: You will need at least 15% of your hard space free in order for disk defragmenter to do it's thing. Personally I find this to be a rather high figure. If you get really desperate to free up space you can turn of your paging file completely before defragmenting. Be sure to set it up again when you are done!


Tip #4: Turn off unnecessary programs that run at start up.

Some people seem to have an almost endless list of programs that run at startup on their PCs. With all that crap running in the background, it is a wonder they can get their games to run at all. Stopping these programs from running in the first place is a good place to start.

From the start menu, click on the "Run..." menu choice. Type in "msconfig" (without the quotes) and press enter.

This will bring up the System Configuration Utility. On the "General" tab, select the "Selective Startup" option.
Change the System Configuration Utility to the "Startup" tab. This will show you all the programs that are set to run as soon as Windows starts up. You should strive to keep this list as short as possible.

This is my current startup list:As you can see, I have just four items that run at startup. From top to bottom they are: mouse driver extensions, nVidia controll panel, Zone Alarm firewall and the Avast anti-virus service. Everything else has been turned off so it does not run at startup. (Note: My startup list used to be much longer. I went in and purged all the extraneous startup entries that were in the registry. The ones that you see in the image above are the ones that grew back in the last six months.)

To stop a program from running, clear the checkbox to the left of it's name. You can not harm anything by doing this. If you discover that you have turned off a program that you would rather have running, you can always change it back.

There may be programs in your startup list that are needed for various bits of hardware that you have connected (or occasionally connect) to your PC. (Digital cameras, scanners, etc.) These programs are only needed when you are actively using that hardware. I recommend shutting these off at startup and then running them manually as needed.

When you are done configuring the start up list, click OK to close the program and reboot your PC. After rebooting, Windows XP will display the following useless dialog:

Be sure to check the "Don't show this message..." option before clicking OK. Otherwise the System Configuration Utility will be launched and on the next reboot you get the same dialog again.

Tip #5: Change your paging file to be permanent and the correct size.

Even if you have a huge amount of physical RAM, Windows XP needs a place to temporarily store excess data. That place is called the paging file. Setting up this file to be non-dynamic and unfragmented is another good way to increase your PC's gaming performance.

Straight out of the box, Windows XP has a dynamic paging file. The size of this file is suppose to grow and shrink as needed. There are several problems with a growing and shrinking paging file. I will attempt to explain these briefly without being too technical.



Expanding and contracting the page file takes up some of your limited computing resources. Windows XP will make the file larger or smaller quite often. This requires a certain amount of hard drive access and CPU cycles to accomplish. In theory, Windows is supposed to do this when the PC is "idle". In reality, Windows does this any old time it wants, application performance be damned.

The second issue with dynamic paging has to do with paging file and hard disk fragmentation. As you use your PC, files are created, expanded and delete frequently. This can lead to hard disk fragmentation. With a dynamic paging file, the paging file itself can become heavily fragmented as it expands and contracts around the various file fragments on your hard disk. The more fragmented your paging file is, the worse the performance will be when it is used. Even if you defragment your hard drive regularly, some paging file fragmentation will inevitably occur with a dynamic paging file.

The first step to creating a permanent, unfragmented swap file is to delete your current swap file and then defragment your hard drive. When you create your new swap file, you want it to be one large contiguous piece on your hard drive. The only way to accomplish this is to clean up the current mess.

You can get at the virtual memory settings through the System applet on the control panel. On the System Properties dialog, switch to the Advanced tab. Under performance on the Advanced tab, click on the settings button.



On the Performance Options dialog, switch to the Advanced tab. Under Virtual Memory on the Advanced tab, click on the change button.
On the Virtual Memory dialog, turn off the paging file for each drive that may have one (normally you should only have one, but you can span your page file across multiple drives). For each drive with a paging file, select the No Paging File option button and then click on the Set button to the right.
When you click on the OK button, you will get a stern warning about letting Windows manage virtual memory. Tell the warning to buzz off and reboot your PC.

Note: Your PC might very well run like crap with no paging file, especially if you have less than 1 GB of RAM. Don't worry about that for the time being as we will be creating a new swap file soon enough.

At this point you need to defragment the hard drive that you are going to be creating the paging file on. See tip #3 above for details on defragmenting your hard drive. Once your hard drive is defragmented, work your way back to the Virtual Memory dialog in the system applet as described above. This time we are going to be creating a new permanent swap file.

Select the drive that you just defragmented in the previous step. Under "Paging file for the selected drive", select the Custom Size option. Enter an initial size and a maximum size that are IDENTICAL. This is the key to creating a non-dynamic paging file.
How big should big paging file be? That is dependent on how much RAM you have and how much hard space you are willing to give up. Microsoft generally recommends that you have a paging file that is 1.5 times as large as your RAM. Most experts tend to think this is a tad on the low side. My advice is to create paging file that at least twice as large as your system's RAM. At the other extreme, I do not recommend creating a swap file that is larger than four times your systems RAM. (My current paging file is currently set at 4 gig and I have 1 gig of RAM. When I upgrade my RAM to 2GB I will not be increasing my paging file size.)

The numbers entered into the custom size files are in megabytes (MB) of hard drive space. The following table will help you convert from gigabytes (GB) to megabytes:

1 GB...........1024 MB
1.5 GB.........1536 MB
2 GB............2048 MB
2.5 GB.........2560 MB
3 GB............3072 MB
3.5 GB.........3584 MB
4 GB............4096 MB

EXAMPLE: If you have 1 GB of RAM, the minimum value you should enter into both boxes is 2048. This will give you a 2 GB permanent paging file.

One other note: The sizes entered into the custom size fields are usually a multiple of four (i.e. a number that can be divided by four evenly). I would not recommend using any values that are not a multiple of four.

After you have entered the minimum and maximum paging file sizes, click on the Set button and then click OK. Once you have rebooted you should have a non-dynamic paging file that won't get fragmented over time.

Tip #6: Turn off unnecessary services to free up system resources.

This is by far the most extreme tip on my game optimization page. Windows XP ships with a large number of services enabled by default. Many of these services are of absolutely no use to the home computer user. All they do is take up space and CPU cycles that could be put to better use by other applications.

I am going to start with a word of caution. Don't start disabling services at random. You can totally mess up the operation of your computer and possibly make Windows XP unusable in the process. There are many services that are critical to proper operation of Windows XP.

The first thing you need to do is bring up the services control panel applet. Using the Run option on the Start Menu, type in "services.msc" (without the quotes) and press enter.

The services applet shows all of the services that are installed on your computer. We are going to be altering the Startup Type for some of the services in that list. This is most easily done by right clicking on a service and selecting the Properties menu choice. This will bring up the Service Proprties dialog.
To disable a service from this dialog, select Disabled in the Starup Type drop down box and click Apply and then OK. That is all there is to it. The next time you start up Windows that service will not be started.
The following is a list of services that I recommend disabling and the reasons why they aren't needed. All of these services are set to run automatically by default. I have had all of these disabled for over two years with no ill effects.


Clipbook

This service allows the Clipbook Viewer application to share information between computers. If you use Clipbook Viewer and like to cut and paste between computers, by all means leave it running. If you have no idea what Clipbook Viewer is and/or you have only one XP machine on your home network, this service is of absolutely no use to you.

Distributed Link Tracking Client

This service helps maintain distributed links to NTFS files across domains. Since I don't have a domain controller or any files with "distributed links", I could never find any use for this service. Disable it and you will never miss it.

Error Reporting Service

Pops up a dialog when a non-Microsoft application crashes, asking if you want to send a report to Microsoft. I can't see where there is any benefit in leaving this running. Note: Internet Explorer and other Microsoft applications have there own Error Report dialogs, so you will still see those even with this turned off.

IPSEC Services Service

Provides secure TCP/IP data transfer and encryption operations on a domain. Since I don't have a domain controller and I don't use secure/encrypted TCP/IP on my home network, I don't need this.

Messenger

This service allows messages to be sent to the user of a remote computer. It was responsible for much user annoyance when Windows XP first shipped. Spammers were using this to send popups messages to XP computers that were connected to the internet, even if they had no web browser running. I would hope that everyone has this disabled by now.

Note: This service is NOT related to the MSN messenger or Windows messenger chat programs. If you have windows XP professional with service pack 2 installed, the service should already be disabled.

Remote Registry Service (XP Pro)

Allows applications to access the registry on another computer. I have used this back when I was a Windows NT network administrator. I could make changes to the registries on other PCs in my domain remotely. I can't see any possible use for this at home however.

Themes

To be honest, I have no idea why themes required a service. I have this disabled because I consider themes to be fluff. If you use themes on your computer, then I guess you need this. If you aren't using themes then this isn't providing any benefit to you and it should be disabled.

Windows Time Service

Maintains date and time synchronization on all clients and servers in the network. The computers get this time from a network server, usually a domain controller. If you don't have a server on your network to get the time from, this service is of no use to you.

Wireless Zero Configuration Service

Provides automatic configuration for the 802.11wireless network adapters. If you don't have any wireless devices, this service isn't doing anything.

PCSX2 is World's first Playstation 2 emulator. PCSX2 is the first PS2 emulator to slowly shows us that commercial games might be fully playable soon!

As you might recognize from the name, it was developed by the team behind the PS One emulator PCSX.

It was developed by reverse engineering PS2 demos, which isn't an ideal source for developing an emulator. It simply is far from complete.

What's new..

. Huge rewrite, mainly from the new members of the Playground branch! Too many speedups, optimizations and other fixes to write here! Many famous games will now work.
· Dropped VM build replaced by the all new Vtlb, meaning no more 'Cannot allocate memory' errors at start up, more accurate emulation, slightly lower speeds but with many optimizations to come
· Full memcard support, working in all games
· Improved Frameskip/VU-skip
· Special Game Fixes Section
· Advanced Options Section for custom tweaking VU/FPU behavior.
· Rewritten Multithreaded GS (MTGS) mode, with as much as 15% speedup for HT machines (only 3-5% for Dual Core), and fixes many instabilities.
· Improved VU/FPU Flags and Clamping support (helps fix odd behaviors and SPS in some games)
· Improved EE/IOP synchronization (fixes many freeze-ups and vmhacks).
· Improved CDVD support.