Of those type of errors, BSODs (Blue Screen of Death) are the worst and are often caused by poorly written device drivers, kernel extensions or faulty RAM (Random Access Memory). You can’t recover to the normal software environment without either a soft or hard reset. Soft resets are usually the case, as the computer will try to automatically reboot or display the error code and require the user to initiate the restart sequence, the infamous “Ctrl-Alt-Delete” or “Press Any Key” prompts.

Many of you probably have encountered this type of error and know that any files that weren’t saved at the moment of crash have either lost changes or have been corrupted. Personally, as a writer, I consider this to be one of Windows’ greatest flaws. I have lost a lot of work due to this kind of issues and the problems seem to continue in Windows 7, although the frequency appears to be greatly reduced.

WhoCrashed, an application developed by Resplendence Software Projects, aims to demystify the error codes and present you with a likely culprit of the crash. Finding out what caused it can be the first step in eliminating the problem and creating a more stable computing environment. RAM memory, as well as faulty drivers, can be replaced  – but your time can’t be.

With the help of WhoCrashed, an error code like “0×0BJS00341110B12” can point you to a kernel module like “nvlddmkm.sys” which comes most of the time with vendor information. In this case, as the ‘NV’ prefix suggests, an nVidia Miniport driver caused the crash.

Unlike many applications these days, WhoCrashed is presents you with only two buttons and a simple text-oriented interface. The ‘simple is always better’ motto holds true in this case. All you have to do is press the ‘Analyze’ button and scroll down to the date of the computer crash you want to inspect. Most of the times WhoCrashed will identify the module that failed and allow you to fix the problem.

When a driver caused the crash, which happens 99% of the time, a simple and easy way to fix the problem is to identify it and download the latest version from the manufacturer’s website. When a Windows component frequently causes a crashes, the problem will most likely be fixed by running Windows Update.

Overheating can also be responsible for faults in data transfer or processing. If crashes happen while playing intensive 3D games, photo or video editing, check the ventilation system and revert to previous clock speeds if you’re overclocking any of the system’s parameters. Overheating can permanently damage the hardware, so fixing the problem as fast as possible is recommended.

Pressing and holding the F8 key while the systems boots will bring up a screen with various system recovery options including Safe Mode, which only loads the basic drivers and modules, and a RAM verification tool. Various Linux distributions including Ubuntu, have a similar memory check module (memtest) which is presented at boot-time when the live CD is inserted or by the bootloader in multi-boot environments.

You can download WhoCrashed for free. Installation is achieved via a simple and straightforward wizard. A Pro version aimed at tech support staff is also available for $35. The Pro license removes the ‘home-use-only’ restriction and provides more details about the crashes among other features.

At under 1MB, WhoCrashed is a must-have in any geek’s virtual toolbox. Check out more posts related to Windows or RadarSync, an application which automatically keeps your drivers and software up-to-date.

Are you annoyed by BSODs or Windows errors? What’s the most common one and what did you do to fix it? Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Remote PC Assistance with Crossloop (18)
• How To Use SpeedFan to Remotely Monitor Computer Health (6)
• How To Troubleshoot Your Windows With The MSconfig Utility (6)
• How To Solve Any Windows Problem with Event ID (10)
• How To Install The Recovery Console in Windows XP (6)

The problem is that apparently a room 404 never existed at CERN. I have never been there so I wouldn’t know. But there is a much more logical explanation for why a “Not Found” is a 404 error. The HTTP status code knows five different classes and there are up to 100 possible status messages in each class. Class 4xx reports client errors and two more digits specify the type of error. There are 18 different cases defined in class 4xx and error 404 represents a case in which the request (e.g. the requested file) was “Not Found”.

Why should I Make a 404 Page

Chances are your website visitors will see your 404 page. Hopefully not many of them, but certainly a few. Now if it’s a generic white page with big black lettering telling them “404 Page Not Found”, how happy do you think they are going to be?

The thing is that the default 404 error message is not very helpful when someone runs into a dead link. Instead, a 404 page should provide some resources, so the stood up surfer doesn’t simply leave the website, but tries another path. Below are what in my oinion the best practices for 404 page design.

1. Matching Design

That’s a no brainer. A 404 page should nicely blend in with the look and feel of the rest of the site.

2. An adequate error message

This one’s logical as well. Anyone encountering an error should notice this at once. Spare the details, but give the surfer some…

3. Options

Add some resources and links, so your guest can return to a specific area on your website quickly.

10 Great Examples

1. AboveTopSecret

What makes it good?

It provides some links back at the top, a search box for the site at the bottom, and some entertaining informational bits in the middle. It’s unique, creative and helpful.

2. Rainfall Daffinson

What makes it good?

It contains information about what may have gone wrong and how to fix or report it. It contains kind of a sitemap from which the visitor can pick a new target, which also includes outside links, e.g. search engines.

3. CssLeak

What makes it good?

It blends in perfectly with the rest of the site design, it contains a sidebar with links as well as the 6 last viewed sites on CssLeak. Apart from that it’s original in providing drink recipes.

4. Video Management Systems

What makes it good?

The subject of the main page is digital video surveillance solutions. The header of the 404 page is 198404 and the quote is, you guessed it, from George Orwell’s novel 1984. A very ironic 404 page for this type of company.

5. Inspiration Bit

What makes it good?

It blends in very well with the overall site design and provides a selection of alternative links and bits.

6. Web Design Greenville SC

What makes it good?

Apart from matching visually with the rest of the website, it’s very original in that it provides a chart that may find an explanation for the encountered error. Very good and funny approach.

7. acorn creative

What makes it good?

This one is simply hilarious.

8. GOG.com

What makes it good?

Very beautiful design, top and bottom menu bar with helpful links, resources and a search bar.

9. From the mind of Jamie Huskisson

What makes it good?

It’s funny, provides the necessary information, a search box and a link to the blog’s archive. Very valuable.

10. BlueDaniel

What makes it good?

It’s very basic, doesn’t provide a lot of resources other than a link back to the main site (Exit). But just from seeing this screenshot, don’t you already think it’s ingenious? And it’s even better than that because it’s interactive. There is a train coming in, stopping and leaving the station. It’s worth exploring the rest of the site because it’s just as good.

404 Research Lab

More information and resources regarding 404 pages can be found at the 404 Research Lab. The site features a 404 of the week, a collection of great 404 error pages and a lot more.

What is your advice for 404 pages? Have you found another awesome and/or terribly useful 404 error page that isn’t listed above? Any quick tips on how to make a 404 page with a minimal effort? Please share it with us!

Picture credits willem velthoven

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Plagiarism Checkers: 5 Free Websites To Catch The Copycats (22)
• How To Tell If You Have a Hacked Wordpress Blog + Fix (29)
• How To Start A Blog That Gets Instant Traffic (57)
• How To Promote Your Blog Using Facebook Pages (35)
• How to Make Your Blog Truly Interactive with Wibiya (Invites!) (19)

On the other hand it may be an issue on your side. Just think of a bumpy ISP or a bad wireless connection. In any case, it’s annoying when you cannot access a website, and constantly hitting the reload button doesn’t make it any better.
Here are three Firefox addons to ease your mind.

Resurrect Pages

When a page doesn’t load because the server is down, there are two options: wait until the server has recovered or load a cached version. Now viewing a cached version is rather easy. Yet this addon makes it even more comfortable by adding a menu with the most popular page caches right below the standard Firefox error page. All you need to do is pick a mirror from the list and wait for the cached clone to load.

In the latest version, the addon is also accessible via the context menu for the current page and all links, there is a toolbar button, and via the keyboard it opens when clicking Ctrl+Shift+U. Within the options for this extension you can select whether the page shall be resurrected in the current tab/window, a new tab or a new window.

ErrorZilla Mod

ErrorZilla is similar to Resurrect Pages, with the added bonus of a Ping, Trace and Whois button for the curious surfer. Unfortunately, the Retry This button is the same as the standard Try Again button and doesn’t allow for automatic page reloads.

Try Again

Resurrect Pages and ErrorZilla Mod are very good for when a site is dead, giving you a good selection of archives to choose from, and ways to find out where the connection has gone bad. However, when you’re fighting with a bad internet connection, even the page mirrors and pings will time out. This is where I recommend Try Again. Within the options for this extension, you can set a timeout timer and the amount of maximum times Try Again will attempt to automatically reload the page. You can hit the Try Again button to manually reload anytime thereafter, and you can access a cached version of the page via the links to Google Cache or the WayBack Archive.

Personally, I have used Resurrect Pages for a while, but Try Again now looks like the better and more flexible alternative. Which one do you prefer? Let’s hear!

(By) This post was written by one of our regular authors, Tina from Recommended.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• Control how Firefox Caches Websites with Better Cache (6)
• Welcome to My Firefox: Extensions, Themes, Setup (14)
• Watch Videos In The Firefox Sidebar With YouPlayer (16)
• Ubiquity – Extend Firefox and Improve your Browsing Experience (9)
• The Winners of ‘Extend Firefox’ – Best Firefox Addons (14)

Monitor Webpages for Changes

If you’re a Firefox user then you can try Update Scanner. It’s an extension that lets you monitor webpages for changes. You have an option to choose how often the website should be checked for changes, and whether it should ignore the minor ones, such as the changes to numbers.

When the page changes it shows a notification alert. If you monitor multiple webpages then you can get a quick overview of pages using the arrow button located at the right bottom corner of the screen. Web pages that have been updated will be shown in bold with an arrow next to them.

If you don’t use Firefox then you can try ChangeNotes or ChangeDetection. Both of these websites can monitor requested webpages and will send you an email when something changes.

Monitor Error Pages

Mr. Uptime is a bit different but serves a similar purpose. It’s another Firefox extension that comes in handy when you come across a website that’s experiencing down time. With Mr.Uptime you are able to add such a website to the watchlist and get notified as soon as the website is back online. The following image sums up the whole idea pretty well:

There is also an option to specify the interval at which the page should be monitored. Check out Mr. Uptime video screencast here.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• How to Turn Greasemonkey Scripts into Firefox Extensions (11)
• How to Save and Monitor Bandwidth when using Firefox (11)
• How To Rename Firefox Search Plug-ins (10)
• How To Be More Productive with Firefox Quick Searches (12)
• Feedly – A New Firefox Start Page Addon You Can’t Afford To Miss (12)

It is obvious that Firefox has much more functionality because of these addons. Add to it the fact that the primary reason for not switching from Firefox to alternate browsers is the addons and you will get an idea of how great the concept of addons is.

Internet Explorer has always been late to incorporate industry-standard stuff, whether it is plugin architecture or valid XHTML rendering (in fact they’ve still not fixed it). However, ‘better late than never’ as they say. From version 7, IE supports addons. Although the variety is not as large as that of Firefox, there are still a few good choices.

Below, we present to you six addons that are useful for everyday browsing activities:

(1) C No Evil Toolbar : Comparable to the Adblock Plus extension for Firefox, C No Evil lets you do that literally – see no evil ads. You can block ads and replace them with custom images that you choose (any .gif or .jpg file). So, you can save bandwidth, speed up loading times and also get rid of those ugly ads.

(2) Video Downloader : Video Downloader can be used to save web videos (FLV) to your hard drive with a click (a right-click and left-click each, actually). This can then be converted to mpeg file by using one of the converter tools, or viewed directly using free VLC player. When downloading videos make sure to save them as .flv files (some_video.flv).

(3) FindAsYouType : Firefox has a useful instant search function, where text is highlighted as you type. With this addon, you can add that functionality into Internet Explorer. To use it, press Ctrl+F and type your query – results will come up as you type. No more clicking OK/enter key.



(4) IE Autorefresher : AutoRefresher does in IE what ‘ReloadEvery‘ extension does in Firefox, and the built-in ‘Reload every > xx seconds’ function (from right click) does in Opera. You can set the interval between automatic reloads, and this can be set for each tab separately. AutoRefresher can be useful in several ways – to monitor the live cricket scores page, or to monitor the number of Diggs for your story once it becomes popular (I have used this for that particular purpose).

(5) QDictionary : Having a handy dictionary is useful, especially if you browse around a lot and come across unfamiliar words. There are no irritating popups or assistants (think MS Office) in it – just highlight the word you want, right-click it and select “Look up” or “Thesaurus”. One problem is that you need to be connected to the internet, and this addon connects to m-w.com. But since you’re browsing (which is usually online), there won’t be any problems.



(6) IE 7 Pro : Little overwhelming and takes some time to get used to, but totally worth it. In fact IE7 PRO already incorporates several of the above extensions. Includes powerful tab manager, AD and Flash blockier, Session crash recovery, Web accelerator, Webpage capturer, Greasemonkey scripts support, Firefox style inline search, spell checker and an excellent mouse gesture feature that lets you assign various functionalities to simple mouse gestures.

(By) Sumesh is a blogger and freelance writer. Visit his blog TechZilo for blogging, web and software tips.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• 11 Firefox 3 Extensions That I Can’t Live Without (40)
• Welcome to My Firefox: Extensions, Themes, Setup (14)
• Watch Videos In The Firefox Sidebar With YouPlayer (16)
• Ubiquity – Extend Firefox and Improve your Browsing Experience (9)
• Top 11 must-have Internet Explorer Addons (41)

(1) OpenDNS – A quick way to add to your web speed. In simple terms, OpenDNS allows you to speed-up domain detection process which is normally handled by your ISP. There is nothing to download or install, but a couple of changes to your connection settings. Among other things, also includes domain typo correction, phishing protection, and domain blocking. Demo video.

(2) KeyXL – One of the best ways to make the most from your favorite web apps is by utilizing available shortcuts. Almost all popular apps come with its own shortcut set. Whether it’s Firefox, Gmail, or Google Reader, they all have shortcuts. And KeyXL is the place to get them, it provides a huge database of keyboard shortcuts both for web and desktop applications.

(3) MrUptime (Firefox) – Simple Firefox extension that comes in really handy when you come across a website that’s experiencing down time. It allows you to add such websites to the watchlist and will alert you as soon as the website is back online. Demo video.

(4) Read It Later (Firefox) – I learned about this one from Mark. ‘Read It Later’ allows you to add webpages to a reading list so you can follow-up on them later. Far better alternative than keeping ‘to read’ pages in tabs. Once installed, it will add ‘Read This Link Later’ option to your right click menu. See how it works and some of its other features below

(5) Mintemail – So far the best disposable email service I have seen. No need to register or create any kind of account. When you need a quick one-timer email address just visit the mintemail.com and a random email address will be instantly generated and copied to your clipboard. Even better, it will confirm all ‘verify your account’ emails automatically.

(6) PassPack – Finally, there is a PassPack is, a feature-rich online password manager. PassPack can be accessed from any browser and from anywhere (work, school internet cafe, etc.). As long it stays open in one of your tabs you get a one-click access to any of you web accounts. See full feature list here.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too.

• It Takes only 7 SHORTCUTS to Become a Lightning Fast User (51)
• The most Essential Keyboard Shortcuts for Firefox (30)
• Speed up Firefox Browsing with Keyboard Shortcuts (14)
• MUO Polls: Top 5 Firefox Shortcuts You Can’t Live Without (34)
• How To Get the most out of OpenDNS (12)