The Elements of a Windows Event Log

Windows event log provides information about hardware and software events occurring on a Windows operating system. It helps network administrators track potential threats and problems potentially degrading performance. Windows stores event logs in a standard format allowing a clear understanding of the information. Following are the main elements of an event log:

  • Log name: Name of the event log to which events from different logging components will be written. Events are commonly logged for system, security, and applications.
  • Event date/time: Includes the date and time when the event occurred.
  • Task category: Identifies the type of recorded event log. Application developers can also define task categories to serve as extra information about the event.
  • Event ID: This Windows identification number helps network administrators uniquely identify a specific logged event.
  • Source: Name of the program or software causing the event log.
  • Level: Event level represents the severity of the recorded event log. These include information, error, verbose, warning, and critical.
  • User: Name of the user who logged onto the Windows computer when the event occurred.
  • Computer: Name of the computer logging the event.
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How to check and view Windows Event logs

Windows event log location is C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\ folder. Event logs can be checked with the help of ‘Event Viewer’ to keep track of issues in the system:

  • Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard to open the run window
  • In the run dialog box, type in eventvwr and click OK
  • In the Event Viewer window, expand the Windows Logs menu
  • Under the Windows Logs menu, you’ll notice different categories of event logs—application, security, setup, system, and forwarded events
  • Click on one of the event logs to check and view the events recorded under it.
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Ce inseamna PCI Express

PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express) E slotul (sau sloturile) de pe placa de baza unde se conecteaza placile video.
  • PCI Express e mult, mult mai rapid decat vechiile PCI si AGP
  • Latimea de banda e mult mai larga decat la cele din urma
  • Are mai multe benzi de circulatie prin care trimite si primeste datrele, iar o singura banda PCI Express e mult mai rapida decat una AGP sau PCI
  • Se conecteaza direct la northbridge (PCI se conecta la southbridge ). Da, si AGP se conecta la northbridge, dar nu avea atatea lane-uri, “benzi de circulatie” a datelor ca si PCI Express, iar cele pe care le avea erau mult mai lente.
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Ce inseamna Hyper-Threading

Hyper-Threading

In primul rand Hyper-Threading (HT) e facut de Intel si se foloseste numai la procesoarele Intel. Cu tehnologia aceasta, daca ai un singur procesor, sistemul de operare vede ca si cum ai avea doua sau unul dual-core. Si astfel, mai multe procese pot sa ruleze deodata.

Procesorul single-core schimba atat de repede intre ele incat ai impresia ca merg deodata. De exemplu, daca asculti o melodie in Winamp in timp ce stai pe Facebook, acestea nu se intampla deodata, ci procesorul schimba extrem de repede intre ele, si in timp psihologic, uman, nu iti dai seama.

Hyper-Threading e o tehnologie care poate sa “imparta” procesorul in mai multe fire de executie (thread inseamna fir) incat sa ruleze pe bune deodata. De cand cu procesoarele dual-core, nu  mai e  nevoie de aceasta tehnologie, pentru ca, evident, chiar sunt doua cipuri reale intr-o capsula.

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Ce inseamna Northbridge

Northbrige (puntea de nord) este acel cip de pe placa de baza care face legatura intre procesor, RAM si southbridge. De aceea i se spune bridge, pentru ca-i o punte care face legatura intre aceste componente. E cel mai important cip de pe placa de baza, dupa procesor. E “directorul” placii de baza (procesorul fiind seful executiv).

Northbrige-ul controleaza:

  • memoria RAM
  • sloturile PCI Express
  • slotul M2
  • vechiul slot AGP (il controla)
  • cererile dinspre si inspre procesor
  • legatura cu southbridge
  • contine controler-ul video onboard (“placa video” onboard), daca e dotat cu asa ceva.

Sub acel radiator se afla cipul Northbridge.

Nortbridge-ul mai este denumit si MCH (Memory Controller Hub – hubul controllerului de memorie) pentru ca acesta controleaza memoria RAM. Cand procesorul apeleaza la RAM, Northbridge-ul ii spune cat RAM are instalat, la ce adresa din memorie se gaseste fisierul respectiv, cata memorie ocupa… etc. Acesta are un tabel virtual care contine adresele din memoria RAM si detalii despre capacitatea memoriei.

Fara acest cip procesorul sau BIOS-ul nu ar sti cum sa lucreze cu memoria. De asemenea, la fel se “intelege” si cu placa video (sloturile PCI Express).Northbridge-ul se leaga de procesor prin FSB (Front Side Bus – canalul principal frontal)
Inainte, prin ani 90, erau mai multe cipuri pe placa de baza care indeplineau functiile pe care le indeplineste acum northbridge-ul, insa cu timpul toate acestea au fost incluse in doar trei chip-uri: northbridge, southbridge si super I/O.

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Ce inseamna Southbridge

Southbridge (puntea sudica) este al doilea circuit cel mai important din chipset-ul placii de baza.

Acesta controleaza:

  • canalele IDE (hard disk, CD-ROM)
  • canalele SATA
  • porturile USB
  • sloturile PCI
  • portul paralel (ex. imprimantele vechi)
  • sunetul onboard
  • comunicarea cu BIOS-ul
  • CMOS-ul (pe care il contine)
  • comunicarea cu cipul super I/O

Southbridge nu comunica direct cu memoria sau procesorul, ci se conecteaza la northbridge, caruia-i trimite datele “obiectelor controlate”, apoi northbridge-ul le trimite memoriei/procesorului.

Southbridge, la randul lui, primeste alte informatii de la cipul super I/O.

Picture

Picture
Impreuna cu Northbridge si cu cipul Super I/O, acesta formeaza chipset-ul placii de baza.
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How to activate Office with product key

1. If you have installed Office

If you have successfully installed the Microsoft Office suite on your PC and you have purchased an Office product key, you can follow the guide below to activate your Office suite.

  • Open one of the Office apps like Word, Excel, etc. on your PC
  • In the pop-up Welcome window, click the Sign in button to enter your Microsoft account credentials to sign in to Office
  • Click File -> Account
  • Click Activate Product
  • Click Use a different account option
  • Click I have a product key link
  • Then you can enter your product key to activate your Microsoft Office product. After the activation, you can see a “Product Activated” message along with the Office edition on the Account page.

2. If you haven’t installed Office

If you purchase Microsoft 365 or Microsoft Office coming with a product key, you can follow the instructions below to activate Office and install Office products on your Windows 11/10 computer. For Microsoft 365 and Office 2021/2019/2016/2013, you can go to setup.office.com, click the Sign in button to sign in with your Microsoft account.

If you don’t have one, you can click Create a new account button to create a Microsoft account. Enter your product key in the pop-up window. Then you can download and install your Office product.

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iOS 17 new features

Set multiple timers

Yes, for the first time ever, you can set multiple timers to run at the same time on an iPhone. Just start a timer in the Clock app as before, and then tap the + sign at the top right to add a new one. You can label each timer so that you don’t get confused as to what they’re counting down to, just as you can with various alarms.

StandBy Mode transforms your iPhone

When you flip your phone horizontally while it’s charging, it enters the new StandBy Mode, which turns your iPhone into a clock, a calendar, a digital photo frame, or an information center with widget smart stacks. StandBy Mode includes several clock faces, and the display cleverly shifts to red at night to be less intrusive. iPhones now also associate your preferred StandBy Mode settings with specific MagSafe docks, so you can have a clock when you put your iPhone on a MagSafe charger in the bedroom, for example, and a digital photo frame in the den.

We think StandBy Mode is a clever way for your idle iPhone to be useful, but it’s easier to use when the phone is mounted on a MagSafe dock, and it works only if you have an iPhone with an always-on display (namely, the iPhone 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max, 15 Pro, or 15 Pro Max). We also noticed that notifications are quite large in StandBy Mode, so you’ll probably want to switch off notification previews if you don’t want anyone else in the room reading them.

Go wild with stickers

In one of several improvements to the Messages app, iOS 17 now gives you quick access to all your stickers—including those from third-party apps. You can create new stickers from your own photos by tapping and holding on a person (or multiple people, or pets) in a photo and send them in texts as is or with added interactive effects for a bit of pizzazz. Stickers are also available outside of Messages, giving you more opportunities to add your personal flair. While using the iOS 17 beta, we noticed that stickers weren’t always appropriately sized in third-party apps, and the interactive elements of the custom sticker effects didn’t function, but we’ll test this feature more fully when the official version of iOS 17 rolls out.

Add video effects with gestures

iOS now includes eight effects, including rain, confetti, and hearts, as reactions in video calls. You can trigger them from a menu or via hand gestures in front of the iPhone’s front-facing camera; for example, if you hold up a double peace sign, confetti will rain down behind your face (much to the delight of the person on the other end of the line). These effects are available in FaceTime and third-party apps such as Zoom, but you need an iPhone 12 or newer to take advantage of the gesture controls.

The gestures work shockingly well, and the effects are delightful. Although our iPhone had no problem detecting our gestures, we did have to position ourselves so that both hands were visible on screen.

Voicemails get visual

Incoming voicemails are now transcribed in real time and appear as text on your iPhone lock screen, giving you the chance to decide whether to pick up a call. We weren’t able to test this feature in the iOS 17 beta, but we will soon.

If you FaceTime someone who doesn’t pick up, you can leave them a video message. FaceTime gives you a quick countdown to start recording and lets you do it over if you flub it. We were surprised to find that video reaction gestures work on video voicemails, as well.

Group chats get better in Messages

It’s easy to lose the thread in large and long-running group chats. Apple tackles that problem with inline replies for Messages, which allow you to reply to a specific message with a swipe. Improved search now allows for multiple filters, helping you find what you need among all the responses. Audio messages sent in Messages also come with transcriptions, making that feature more accessible and helpful when you can’t listen to a voice message.

NameDrop your contact info

You can now bring your iPhone close to another iPhone to instantly share your contact details with a new friend. You can also create a personalized contact poster to share, which is a little more visual than just your name and phone number. In our experience with the beta, sharing contact information—including the new contact posters—was seamless. After you place two iPhones together, the option to share your contact poster immediately pops up. (If you ever used the Bump app back in the day, you’ll find NameDrop to be a similar experience).

Safari gets more private
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How to enter BIOS on a Mac

As we mentioned earlier, users can’t enter UEFI on Mac. On PowerPC Macs, you used to be able to press a key combination at startup to enter Open Firmware and view a diagram of connected devices, RAM configurations, and CPU information. You can’t do that on Macs, however. The closest thing you can do is boot in single-user mode and use the command-line interface to interrogate your Mac using Unix commands. However, it is only available for Intel-based Macs, meaning that the following steps will not work for Macs with Apple silicon.

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Press the power button and hold down Command and Option keys and the letters O and F as your Mac starts up.
  3. Release the keys when you see a black screen with white text on it.

Instead of Macintosh BIOS, there is UEFI — unified extensible firmware interface — that carries out the same functions as those performed by the BIOS on older Windows PCs. These include initializing the hardware and loading the operating system. Sadly, you can’t boot into UEFI mode to take control of the process using a command line. However, a single-user mode allows you to do something similar for Intel-based Macs.

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How to update your apple watch

First, make sure that your Apple Watch works with the latest software. watchOS 9 is compatible with these Apple Watch models:

  • Apple Watch Series 4 and later
  • Apple Watch SE (1st generation) and later
  • Apple Watch Ultra

Updating to watchOS 9 also requires one of these iPhone models:

  • iPhone 8 or later with iOS 16
  • iPhone SE (2nd generation) or later with iOS 16

If your Apple Watch isn’t compatible with the latest version of watchOS, Software Update will show you the newest version that your watch can use. If your Apple Watch has watchOS 6 or later, you can install updates without your iPhone:

  1. Make sure that your watch is conected to Wi-fi
  2. On your watch, open the Settings app
  3. Tap General > Software Update
  4. Tap Install if a software update is available, then follow the onscreen instructions.
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