So, you're a member of Bleeping Computer and you've worked out how to post in the Discussions Forum to ask a question or help someone else who asked? But you've seen other posts which have animated pictures or clever quotations at the end and wanted to know how to do that?

Well the animated picture or "sig" will be covered elsewhere but I can tell you how to add something useful to your signature which will provide much of the information people need in order to help you if you do post about a computer problem.

You can still have the animated sig or the famous quotation, but what really helps is your system specifications! These are the fundamental things about your PC which help people to give you good advice.

What should you put in your specifications signature?
Put in as much of the following as you can, or as little as you want!

• Your PC Manufacturer and Model - Not all PC's have a single manufacturer but if yours is a 'Brand Name' PC the make and model will convey a lot of information. e.g. Dell Dimension 4550
  
• Your Processor type and speed - The Processor aka "CPU" really defines what a PC is capable of doing and also determines what kind of software can run on your system. The speed is measured in GigaHertz (GHz) or for older systems MegaHertz (MHz) e.g. Pentium 4, 2.4GHz.
  
• Your Memory size - this determines how many programs you can run simultaneously and how fast the PC will run them. Measured in Megabytes(MB) or, if your really packing heat, Gigabytes(GB) of RAM e.g. 256MB
  
• Your Motherboard make and model - The motherboard is the part which interconnects all other parts and consequently limits what can and cannot be changed or upgraded in a PC. Most people don't know what type of motherboard they have, its sometimes the hardest thing to find information about. e.g Gigabyte GA-8GE800 Pro.
  
• Your Hard Drive size - this limits the total amount of information you can store on your PC. Programs, emails, games, documents, photos, music and Windows itself all occupy space on the hard drive. (Note the hard drive is not the box where the CDROM and the On/Off switch are found, it is just one component inside that box.) The size is measured in Gigabytes. Specify the interface if you know it, IDE or SATA or something entirely different? e.g. Seagate 80GB IDE
  
• Your Video Card - this determines what quality of picture you will get on your screen. Its also important that the Video card is capable of supporting the software you run. The biggest difficulties are found with games (no, not Solitaire) which are described as "graphic intensive" - this means they need a video card which has a lot of memory, is very fast (and very expensive) to run them.
  
• Your Network - you may have a network of computers in your home or you may have just the one connected to the Internet. There are many ways of linking PCs together and to the outside world. Tell us how you do it. e.g. Linksys Cable Router, Dial-up modem.
  
• Your Operating system - The many versions of Windows have different characteristics and Linux is something entirely different again, that's why each operating system has its own discussion forum here at BC. Show what version you have if you know it. e.g. Windows XP SP2 or Windows 98SE.
  
• Your Web Browser and Email client - these change the way you see the internet and view your messages. Different browsers have different features and options. e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox; Outlook Express or Incredimail.
  
• Your Anti-Virus program - One of the most important pieces of software on your PC, it's vital you keep this up-to-date. e.g. AVG Free.
  
• Your Anti-Spyware program(s) - also very important. Listing your anti-spyware programs can show us if you have the tools available should you become infected with malware. e.g. AdAware SE.

How do you find the information?

You don't need to have all the information right away, your signature is easily edited (see below) and you can add to it later. Here's how to find the basics (this is mainly directed towards Windows users, not all options will be available in all versions of Windows):

1) If it's a new system check your catalogue or purchase docket! Everything you want may be spelled out there.

2) Use Device Manager - in the windows Control Panel double-click the 'System' icon to open a tabbed 'System Properties' window. On the 'General' tab you will see your version of Windows and some information about your processor and RAM.

3) Use the DirectX diagnostic - Click 'Start' then 'Run' and type 'dxdiag' (return). A tabbed window will open containing system information under a number of categories. The first page shows you what version of Windows you have, what type of processor you have with its speed, and how much RAM you have. The Display tab shows you what graphics card you have. The Sound tab shows you what sound card you have. There is also a great deal of other information that does not concern us here.

4) Use a diagnostic program - specially designed to find out as much information about your system as possible, free diagnostics such as "Everest" will give you a wealth of information about your system. Describing the use of Everest is beyond the scope of this guide. Everest download

5) Run the program you want to identify - in the Menu bar under 'Help' there is usually an 'About' section which will tell you exactly what the program is and what version you have.


How do you make your signature?

When you have gathered together the information you want to put in your sig and are logged on to the home page of Bleeping Computer, on the left of the page you will see a Welcome box, click on the 'My Control Panel' link.
Clicking that takes you to 'Your control panel' where you will find, in a menu on the left, all kinds of controls for messages, blogs, forum subscriptions and changing your personal profile and other options.
In the Menu under 'Personal Profile' click on 'Edit Signature'. The right hand frame will now be in two parts under 'Welcome to your control panel', the upper part shows 'Your current signature' and is probably blank, the lower part has a text entry window, similar to the one you use to post replies, under 'Edit your signature'.
Click there and type your system details. Add any font or colour changes you want (see below) and press the 'Update my Signature' button. Your signature will appear in the upper part of the window as it would look in the Forums. In fact as it is in the forums because signature and avatar changes are applied immediately to all your posts, past, present or future. So if there is something wrong there, or you have inadvertently typed "Rimmer is a complete fool" or something similar in there, edit it or delete it in the 'Edit your signature' window and press 'Update my Signature' again. (Thus saving everyone potential embarrassment )

Font
If there is nothing in your signature yet then you don't need to select a font because the default one is fine. If however the default has been changed the best font to use is 'Verdana'. Do not set a size. Font works in the same way as colour (see the Colours section) you use a 'switch' to turn on the font you want and then another 'switch' to turn it off again. You must use both switches for it to work. Not all fonts are available but there is a reasonable selection, for example you can choose 'Microsoft Sans Serif' by typing 'font=Microsoft Sans Serif' in square brackets before your text and then finish with '/font' in square brackets at the end. It would look like this:

Colours
Although you can choose any colour you like, this signature line is just a footnote to your post so it should be fairly discrete but still visible against the forum background. To change the colour of any text, a word, a phrase or the whole post, you surround it with "switches" - the first "switch" turns the colour on, the second turns the colour off again. You have to have both an 'on' and 'off' switch for it to work. The 'off' switch is always '/color' in square brackets.
You can spell out simple colours in the 'on' switch e.g. inside square brackets type 'color=blue' or 'color=red' etc or you can enter a numerical code from a chart, one of which is found here: True Color Chart
- choose a colour in the chart and enter the corresponding code in the 'on' switch. E.g. if you want your text to be a particularly virulent green you would type Note the '#' before the colour code.

See the BC tutorial on BB codes for more examples and also this excellent beginners tutorial BB Code Application.

If at the end of reading all this you just want to put something like "I love Elvis" in your signature that's fine too.

Thanks for reading this far and enjoy your stay at Bleeping Computer.

Very well done Rimmer!

Rigel

You did it!!

An excellent piece of work. Very informative post Rimmer Thanx:cool:

You are truely a GOD

Brilliant Rimmer just brilliant.

Good onya!

It's a ripper of a post.

Gee I hope these terms translate correctly.

Good job!

This is great!
But yeah there is a but, I simply couldn't find a free anything for Everest through that link, should I download a trial version?
Then uninstall the whole thing once I get the information.
I may sound thick, but hey I'm new to this.
TIA
Ursus

You can get the free edition here:
EVEREST Home Edition

Or all four free edition here (but version 1.51 has the most features).

Everest Home 1.51

Thank you so much, I installed the 1.51 version, which will give me what I need to make a proper signature.

If you don't mind me suggesting. Switch to SyGate 5.6 Free Firewall. It is far more effective than MS XPfirewall and still very light on resources.
Just a thought.

SyGate 5.6

Nice layout. I'm glad I stopped in here. I was unaware of the Everest program. I will have to go and check that out. Thanks!

Besure and try version Everest 1.51. It has features the other versions do not.

Hi Ackland,

I've downloaded and installed Everest 1.51 like you suggested, very nice program and useful too, in many ways Thanks for that program

As for firewall, I'm cleaning up the registry and win32 to remove all trace of ZA pro, and the other ZA free that was badly uninstalled, then I'm uninstalling Avast 4 home free, then reinstalling a new ZA free then reinstalling a new Avast 4 home free, and apparently I all ough to work, which I pray it will.

For some reason I tried sygate and kerio and both didn't work properly I simply couldn't connect to IE and I'm on hihg speed digital cable, which doesn't make sense since I've been using the same ISP for 6 yrs now.

But got the same problem with my sister's computer when I tried these too, and she runs XP Media Center 2005 so this is all a big for me, usually I'm pretty good when it comes to managing the computers, mine and the family ones.

It sounds like you have a plan. Sorry to here about SyGate. I have been using it for years with great success. I have installed it on close to 100 computers and never had a connection problem. Did you try the freeware version of SyGate or the subscription (Paid) version?

It was the free one, whatever I tried I couldn't get it to work properly, I was really disappointed.

Hi there,

another alternative suggested by one of our moderators here, is System Information for Windows (SIW). Unfortunately I cannot entirely recall which one of our great moderators mentioned it.

Pity, I was gonna suggest to put a systemprofile link into your signature to take up less space, but such a service only seems to be provided for german users... ( www.sysprofile.de ).

rgds,

Johannes

Is this what you was looking for.......
SIW download