Most Useful Tips and Tricks

Want more PC speed? 8 Ways to Speed up PC Performance!!

2011-02-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

Want more PC speed? 8 Ways to Speed up PC Performance!!

Slowing down computer day by day!! This is the most common problem all computer users facing. Even though no one can give the straight answer for solving this and run the computer smoother like days it bought.

Normally first few days after installing the operating system computer run fast and smoother. After 2, 3 weeks it’s slowing down again.

There are many expensive tools available that have guaranteed for speed up your pc, but as my experience some software are failed and some are successful. Tune-up utilities such a software that has good rate and one of my favorite tool for solving system errors. But you have to pay for it.

I thought to give you some info for speed up your pc without spending money. In this article I'll conduct you along the all available tools in your windows platform and freeware available in internet and use them for speed up computer. So you don't have to pay anyone or any software.

Using available windows tools in your system:

1) . In your system there are two useful tools "Disk Cleanup" and "Disk Defragmenter" that can use speedup process, Go to start > all programs > Accessories > system tools open Disk cleanup, this software can be use for deleting many unnecessary files and also system restore point.

2) . Disk Defragmenter is can be use for defragment, fragmented computer files that are in your hard drive. Fragmented files cause to slow down and reduce computer performance. You should at least defragment your hard drive partition that has installed operating system as a habit.

3) . Go to start > run and type "msconfig" without "" this will open system configuration utility in "start up" tab disable any software that you think cause to slow down you computer when the computer start up process. But you should not disable software like antivirus, firewall and your motherboard software. Otherwise those software will not functioning properly. Remove any software like messengers and any other software that are not system utilities.

4) . Check disk is another inbuilt process for checking errors of your hard drive and fix. I recommend you to check your disk at least once a week as a good habit. Right click on any hard drive partition select “Properties” and in Property window open tab “tools” and click check now. Make sure to check both options there before checking errors.

Using free 3rd party tools:

5) . Ccleaner is one my favorite and popular utility that has ability of cleaning hard drives and registry, advance uninstaller, and cookies deleting. Ccleaner has ability of deleting any unwanted start up software but some software can place start up key or object again its next start, in such a case you need to edit those software “options“ or “preferences“ and uncheck its startup mood for preventing it starting with the system.

6) . WiseRegistryCleaner is another advance registry cleaner which is more sophisticated than ccleaner and has ability of detecting more unnecessary registry keys that cause to slow down the computer.

Things you should consider:

7) . Using high resolution desktop wallpapers and screen savers can eat your system performance, also if you use high graphic themes then that can cause to system slowdown.

8) . Still you're system seriously getting slow and then maybe you need to use windows classic theme with the system settings for adjust for best performance. You can turn this feature ON by right click on your my computer icon, selecting "properties" this will open system properties window. Go to “advance” tab and under performance click “settings” button and select "Adjust for best performance" and click "Apply" again check "show shadows under menus" and "smooth edges of screen fonts" and click apply. Otherwise you'll get crazy with your system even it is faster than ever.

How to Speed Up Folder Access

2011-02-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

How to Speed Up Folder Access

How to speed up folder access on your computer. Why you need to speed up folder access? In my opinion, you need to do that if you have a lot of folders and sub directories on your computer. Because when you access a directory, your windows system will wastes a lot of time updating the stamp showing the last access time for that directory. So you need to disable access update to stop your computer from doing this. Follow these steps to speed up folder access by disable access update on your computer.

1. Click on RUN, type Regedit in the open box and then click "OK".

2. Find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > CurrentControlSet > Control > FileSystem

3. Create new DWORD Value called NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate by right-click in a blank area of the window on the right and then select DWORD Value.

4. Double click on "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate", change the value data to 1 and then click OK.

That's All

How to Rename the Recycle Bin

2011-02-28T19:50:00.000-08:00

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon

Go To Start --> Run or use Win+R keys and type

"Regedit"

and go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

How to Lock a Folder with a Password Without Any Software

2011-02-28T19:45:00.000-08:00

How to Lock a Folder with a Password Without Any Software

How to lock a folder without a software!

Steps:

1- make a new folder ( name it as you like )

2- inside this folder make a ( TXT ) file & copy inside it this (the entire thing)

Code:-

Quote:
Quote: cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Private
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Private goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure you want to lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Private "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%== password here goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Private
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Private
echo Private created successfully
goto End
:End

3- After u copy the Commanding go to line 23 (or try using shortcut- CTRL+F and type password to locate the line) u will find this word : password here (Change it with any password u like.) is :

eg: if NOT %pass%== narnia1234 goto FAIL
//so ur password here becomes narnia1234 .//

4- After that go to â?˜save asâ?™ & name this file as "locker.bat "

5- Now back to the folder & u will find a ( LOCKER ) commanding.
(locker.exe)

6- Double Click on it & u will find a new folder (Private )

7- Ok ,, now copy what u want in this "private Folder" & after that come out of the folder, and Double click on locker again. It will open and ask if you want to lock your folder? Y/N ?

8- Type Y. your private folder will dissapear.

9- If you want to UNLOCK your folder ,go to (locker) & type your pass and you will see your private folder.

it not only hides the folder, but incase, u unhide all files... and try opening it without entering password, it'l take u to the control panel...

Also, if u want to store files on your Pen-Drive, u can use this script. No Software Required

Incase u delete your Locker file (just in case), then u can make a new one (but with the same password) and open it from that.

Alternatively, u can keep this locker file somewhere else, and when u want to open ur folder, only then bring it back to that place ..

How to Block a Website

2011-02-27T21:47:00.000-08:00

How to Block a Website

There are many reason why you need to know how to block a website. Some of the most common reasons are you have been targeted by spammers who use adware and popups to attack your PC. Other reasons may be to prevent your children from having access to certain site content such as porn and gambling.

Depending on the level of security you wish, learning how to block a website may require a adjustments of your web browser, the use of internet filtering software or editing of your host file. At any rate you can try all methods to see which works best for you.

How to block a Website using Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer version 5 and later offer the ability for heighten security and privacy. You can block a site by following the directions below:

1. Load your Internet explorer

2. Click Tools

3. Click Internet Options

4. Click the Privacy tab

5. Under the Privacy window, Click Sites

6. Type in the site address that you want to Block and Click OK. Remember this technique only blocks on one site at a time. Parental control software will allow you to block multiple sites and categories.

Here are alternate instructions to block a website using Internet Explorer.

Tools ->Internet Options->Security->Restricted sites->Sites->Type in the site address and Click ADD then click OK

How to Block A Website in All Web Browsers

This action will require you to edit your Host file. Your host file is a computer file used to store information on where to find a node on a computer network.

In Windows XP

1. Click Start->All Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt.

2. Click Command Prompt This will open a DOS command window.

3. Type: notepad C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts

4. Locate the line 127.0.0.1 localhost

5. To block the website yahoo.com for example, just add this text under 127.0.0.1 localhost:
127.0.0.1 yahoo.com
127.0.0.1 yahoo.com
You can add as many sites any site, However you will need to prefix it with "127.0.0.1".

6. Save the file
Yahoo will now be blocked in all web browser. This is an advanced but easy method on how to blow a website.

Hide Any Drive on Microsoft Windows 7 or Windows Vista Easily without Any Software

2011-02-27T21:18:00.000-08:00

Hiding any drive in Windows 7 / Windows Vista machine is very easy and simple. Follow the following steps to hide any drive on Microsoft Windows 7 / Windows Vista without any software:

Step 1

Click on Start and then select Run to open the run window. Alternately, you can press Windows key and R key together.
Type diskpart in the Run window and hit Enter key of your keyboard.

Step 2

After step 2, you will in Diskpart program. Now type list volume and press Enter key of your keyboard.
Now, you will see all the partition lists of your hard disk.

Step 3

Select the drive that you want to hide. Just select that partition's volume number and type the command select volume [Volume_No] to select that partition and hit Enter key to execute that command.

Note: Volume_No is the number of that partition which you will want to hide.
For example, we want to hide volume 4, which drive letter is E. So, to select that partition, we have to write the following command and hit Enter key:
select volume 4

Step 4

Now, type the following command:
remove letter E
And then press Enter key of your keyboard.

By following the above steps, you can easily hide any partition from your computer. Sometimes, after hiding your partition you may need to restart your computer. If you don't see the effect, then restart your computer and after restart you will see the desired partition is no longer in public i.e. it's a hidden partition now.

Steps to Unlock the Hidden Drive in Windows 7 / Vista

In the previous steps, I tell you how to hide any drive on Windows 7 / Vista easily without using any software. Hope, you successfully hide your desired drive.
Now, I want to discuss the unlocking methods of those hidden drive when you wish to unlock that hidden drive.
To show your hidden drive again, at first follow the steps 1 and 2 and then type the following command:
assign letter = E
and hit Enter key of your keyboard.

Final Words

You need to hide any drive when you don't want to public your files, documents, photos, videos etc. This can be done easily without using any software in your Microsoft Windows 7 / Windows Vista computer. Hope, you are successful hiding any partition or drive from your computer in Windows 7 / Windows Vistaby following the methods of this hubpage. Moreover, you can unlock those hide drive when you require those. Really, it helps you enough security to protect your personal files, data, documents, photos, videos etc. everything and also saves your money not to buy any software to hide your desired documents and files.

Top 12 Websites To Download Free E-Books

2011-02-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

An E-Book so called as a digitally transformed book where simple text converted into e-text that built the digital media similar of our common printed book. An E-Book, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary of English, is “an electronic version of a printed book which can be read on a personal computer or hand-held device designed specifically for this purpose”.

We all know the importance of books in life to design our interest level and develop sharp knowledge. Hard copy of book are inconvenient in carrying all the time, anywhere for book lovers. So E-Books have revolutionized the print media, hence reducing deforestation and at the same time it has provided better option for securing the information for longer period of time.

After putting long hours and effort we succeed in covering up “Top 12 Websites To Download Free E-Books” for your use so that you are able to save your time rather than hanging around on plenty of website on internet.

1. Scribd

2. PlanetPDF

3. UFindBook

4. Bookyards

5. Free-Ebooks

6. FictionWise

7. FreeBookCentre

8. MemoWare

9. OnlineComputerBooks

10. E-BooksDirectory

11. FreeBookSpot

12. Ebookslab

Hiding your folder in a different way!

2011-02-26T22:58:00.000-08:00

Hiding your folder in a different way!

Hiding your folder in a different way!

No Need of any folder lock

All Damn Punk Softwares

Method:1

1) Right Click on the desktop and Make a new folder

2)Now rename the folder with a space(U have to hold ALT key and type 0160).

3)Now u have a folder without a name.

4)Right click on the folder>properties>customize. Click on change icon.

5)Scroll a bit, u should find some empty spaces, Click on any one of them.
click okThats it, now u can store ur personal data without any 3rd party tools.

Method:2

U can also hide ur folder by dis method:-open Start>Run>CMD now type attrib +a +s +h C:/name of d folder u want to hide(Path of the Directory)Now even in the folder option Show all Hide folders is slected still u will get dis folder hide...Reason:-BeCause the directory will get the attribute of a system file.
To unhide 1.Type same command juzz put "-" instead of "+" .2.Go to Tools>>Folder Options>>View and uncheck the Hide Protected operating system files.

Hide Your Partitions ( C , D , E , F) for any 5 th and 6 th also

2011-02-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

Hide Your Partitions ( C , D , E , F) for any 5 th and 6 th also

This trick is for all those guys whose wants to tons of data into their disks,We want to store some personal files or data which we don't to show anyone or access it This trick is for all those guys!!

Click start button>run type gpedit.msc,

now move to user configuration >administrative templates > windows components > windows explorer,
press
double click on "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" after following This steps properly You'll find another option "Prevent access to drives from My Computer" double click on dis option & change it accordingly.

To make it normal again click on "disable" by double clicking on "Hide
these specified drives in My Computer" option ..

Thats it ur done with it !!!!

Hide files using Winrar and an JPG image

2011-02-26T22:22:00.000-08:00

Hide files using Winrar and an JPG image

By using this trick, you can hide your files in a rar file, but it looks like a picture.

For this you need Winrar and a Picture to show instead the hidden file.

Steps:

1. Make a New Folder in any one drive, rename it to HIDDEN (you can put name of your wish).
Let it be in C drive, so that its address is C:\HIDDEN\

2. Copy all your secret files to that folder.
Select all the files.
Right click and select "Add to HIDDEN.rar" , here HIDDEN is the name that you gave to that folder created in first step.

3. Delete all files, except the created HIDDEN.rar file.

4. Copy an image to that folder. Let its name be taken as pic.jpg. This picture is used to hide the Winrar file that we made.

5. Now open Command Prompt. (Start > Run > cmd )

6. Change the prompt to C:\HIDDEN\ .
To do that, in cmd, first type cd c:\HIDDEN\ (works only if that folder is in windows (C:) drive).
If that folder is created in other drive like D:, then firts type D: ad press enter, then type cd D:\HIDDEN\.

7. Now type the following:
COPY /b pic.jpg + hidden.rar picture.jpg

8. That creates a picture that looks same as pic.jpg in HIDDEN folder.
This picture.jpg contains all your files.

Convert a Guest account into an Admin

2011-02-26T00:02:00.000-08:00

Convert a Guest account into an Admin

Convert a Guest account into an Admin?

All you need to do is copy the code below,

copy/paste it into Notepad and save it as Guest2admin.bat on your desktop.
echo off
title Please wait...
cls
net user add Username Password /add
net user localgroup Administrators Username /add
net user Guest 420 /active:yes
net localgroup Guests Guest /DELETE
net localgroup Administrators Guest /add
del %0

Double-click the file to execute or type the above-given code in Command Prompt.

Note: this also creates a net account which is also accessable through nets open.

Command Prompt Disabled

2011-02-25T23:56:00.000-08:00

Command Prompt Disabled

Use this method to enable the Command Prompt.

There are three methods:

Method 1: (Run method)

1. Select Run from Start menu.

2. Type the following: (better copy and paste)

REG add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System /v DisableCMD /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

and press Enter.(Click OK)

Method 2: (Registry Editor method)

1. Open Registry Editor.

2. Get to this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\System

3. In the right pane, double click on DisableCMD and set it's data to 0.

4. Close Registry Editor.

Method 3: (Group Policy method)

1. From Start menu, select Run. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter.

Group Policy editor opens.

2. Get to:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System

3. From the right pane, double click open Prevent access to the command prompt.

4. Set Disable and click OK.

5. Exit Group Policy editor.

CMD, The Basics And a Few Scripts

2011-02-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

CMD, The Basics And a Few Scripts

CMD is short for commander.
It is great for a lot of things and it's also very clean.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lets learn how to make the computer shut down everytime it's booted, shall we?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First open CMD,

Next open notepad.

If you write "start shutdown -r" in CMD and press enter, your computer will restart. Also if you write the same in "run".
(Change -r to -s to shutdown computer, or write -l to logg off.)

If you write
---------------------------------------
@echo off

cls
start shutdown -r

cls
goto :a
---------------------------------------
in notepad and save it as something.bat (bat is important) and then open it, your computer will restart in the same way.

So, lets get into autostart. Put that bat file in autostart (autostart can be found in start menu) and each time your
computer is booted it will start that file and your computer will restart.
If you write the next script your computer will try to shutdown several times at once. it will freak for about half a minute
and then turn off.

Lets get a better understanding how scripts works. The above script shuts down your computer, but a bat file normaly opens
CMD and does whatever you told it to do.

@echo off - This is where you put commands that shouldn't be shown as text. For example cls. You don't want that to be text,
it's a command.

cls - This one is pretty good, it clears the text in the CMD screen

CMD - This command gives you a new CMD session.

start - this triggers stuff, in this case it's shutdown.

color - changes the colour in the cmd window, I recommend writing "color 0a", which is a green color thats really cool
on a black window.

title - write "title something" to change title.

goto :a - This one is really, really, really, really cool. It's used for making loops and some more advanced stuff that I
wont go into. Lets say you write
--------------------------------------
@echo off
:a
cls
start shutdown -r

cls
goto :a
--------------------------------------

The goto :a tells you to go to :a higher up in the script. so it starts the script again, then it does the goto :a command
again and the script reloads. Basicaly a loop. You can change the "a" to whatever you want, for example "error". This is
only to make it easier for you to read your script.

The : infront of "a" must stay where it is.
Bad example:
goto: a

Good example:
goto :a

--------------------------------------

dir - This shows you the files in the directory you are in.

dir /s - This shows you all the files on your computer.

echo - write "echo something" and it will be as a text in cmd.

echo. This is a linebrake.

cd - Write cd followed up with a location, to go there in cmd. For example "cd c:\windows".

cd .. - This goes back one step in the directory. For example if your in c:\windows and write "cd .." you go back to c:\.

So now you know the basics, which we'll use to make you computer do stuff. In cmd you can write "help" to get a list of most
commands.

Moving away from learning commands now.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lets make a spamm script.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------
@echo off
cls
:a
start notepad.exe
goto :a

-----------------------------------------------
this script will continue to open notepad until you close cmd. Not recommended to run this on a slow computer.
As we said before, "start" triggers things, this script triggers notepad and then the loop (goto :a) is triggered.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lets just mess around.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------
@echo off
cls
:a
taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
goto :a
-----------------------------------------------

This will close the bar where start menu and tasks are shown, for example if you open internet you will see it at the bottom
of the screen on the explorer bar.
Closing this will leave people with little things to do.

A Way to Clear Prefetch On Shutdown

2011-02-25T08:44:00.000-08:00

A Way to Clear Prefetch On Shutdown

The Prefetch is a feature of Windows that actually speeds up the boot process. When Windows starts up, certain processes and programs must load. The files needed to start these are stored in the Prefetch folder. Windows automatically looks there for those files. If you clean out your Prefetch, it won’t hurt anything. But your next boot up will take longer, as those files are put back. My best advice is to just forget the Prefetch, and leave that folder alone.

1. create a new text file in the C:\ directory

2. type "del c:\windows\prefetch\*.* /q" (without he quotes)

3. save the file as "prefetch.bat"

4. From the Start menu, select "Run:

5. Type in "gpedit.msc"

6. In the window that appears, under the "computer configuration" heading, expand "windows settings"

7. under "windows settings", select "Scripts (Startup/Shutdown)"

8. double click "shutdown" from the right window

9. click "add"

10. click browse and locate your "prefetch.bat" file

11. click "open"

12. click "OK"

13. click apply or OK to finalize this process.

Now you are done. every time you shut down or restart your computer, it will run your shutdown script to delete the prefetch files.

156 Run Commands for window Software & Third Party APPs

2011-02-25T08:41:00.000-08:00

156 Run Commands for window Software & Third Party APPs

Accessibility Controls
access.cpl

Accessibility Wizard
accwiz

Add Hardware Wizard
hdwwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs
appwiz.cpl

Administrative Tools
control admintools

Adobe Acrobat (if installed)
acrobat

Adobe Designer (if installed)
acrodist

Adobe Distiller (if installed)
acrodist

Adobe ImageReady (if installed)
imageready

Adobe Photoshop (if installed)
photoshop

Automatic Updates
wuaucpl.cpl

Bluetooth Transfer Wizard
fsquirt

Calculator
calc

Certificate Manager
certmgr.msc

Character Map
charmap

Check Disk Utility
chkdsk

Clipboard Viewer
clipbrd

Command Prompt
cmd

Component Services
dcomcnfg

Computer Management
compmgmt.msc

Control Panel
control

Date and Time Properties
timedate.cpl

DDE Shares
ddeshare

Device Manager
devmgmt.msc

Direct X Control Panel (If Installed)*
directx.cpl

Direct X Troubleshooter
dxdiag

Disk Cleanup Utility
cleanmgr

Disk Defragment
dfrg.msc

Disk Management
diskmgmt.msc

Disk Partition Manager
diskpart

Display Properties
control desktop

Display Properties
desk.cpl

Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected)
control color

Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility
drwtsn32

Driver Verifier Utility
verifier

Event Viewer
eventvwr.msc

Files and Settings Transfer Tool
migwiz

File Signature Verification Tool
sigverif

Findfast
findfast.cpl

Firefox (if installed)
firefox

Folders Properties
control folders

Fonts
control fonts

Fonts Folder
fonts

Free Cell Card Game
freecell

Game Controllers
joy.cpl

Group Policy Editor (XP Prof)
gpedit.msc

Hearts Card Game
mshearts

Help and Support
helpctr

HyperTerminal
hypertrm

Iexpress Wizard
iexpress

Indexing Service
ciadv.msc

Internet Connection Wizard
icwconn1

Internet Explorer
iexplore

Internet Properties
inetcpl.cpl

Internet Setup Wizard
inetwiz

IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration) ipconfig /all

IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents) ipconfig /displaydns

IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents) ipconfig /flushdns

IP Configuration (Release All Connections) ipconfig /release

IP Configuration (Renew All Connections) ipconfig /renew

IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS) ipconfig /registerdns

IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID) ipconfig /showclassid

IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID) ipconfig /setclassid

Java Control Panel (If Installed)
jpicpl32.cpl

Java Control Panel (If Installed)
javaws

Keyboard Properties
control keyboard

Local Security Settings
secpol.msc

Local Users and Groups
lusrmgr.msc

Logs You Out Of Windows
logoff

Malicious Software Removal Tool
mrt

Microsoft Access (if installed)
access.cpl

Microsoft Chat
winchat

Microsoft Excel (if installed)
excel

Microsoft Frontpage (if installed)
frontpg

Microsoft Movie Maker
moviemk

Microsoft Paint
mspaint

Microsoft Powerpoint (if installed)
powerpnt

Microsoft Word (if installed)
winword

Microsoft Syncronization Tool
mobsync

Minesweeper Game
winmine

Mouse Properties
control mouse

Mouse Properties
main.cpl

Nero (if installed)
nero

Netmeeting
conf

Network Connections
control netconnections

Network Connections
ncpa.cpl

Network Setup Wizard
netsetup.cpl

Notepad
notepad

Nview Desktop Manager (If Installed)
nvtuicpl.cpl

Object Packager
packager

ODBC Data Source Administrator
odbccp32.cpl

On Screen Keyboard
osk

Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed)
ac3filter.cpl

Outlook Express
msimn

Paint
pbrush

Password Properties
password.cpl

Performance Monitor
perfmon.msc

Performance Monitor
perfmon

Phone and Modem Options
telephon.cpl

Phone Dialer
dialer

Pinball Game
pinball

Power Configuration
powercfg.cpl

Printers and Faxes
control printers

Printers Folder
printers

Private Character Editor
eudcedit

Quicktime (If Installed)
QuickTime.cpl

Quicktime Player (if installed)
quicktimeplayer

Real Player (if installed)
realplay

Regional Settings
intl.cpl

Registry Editor
regedit

Registry Editor
regedit32

Remote Access Phonebook
rasphone

Remote Desktop
mstsc

Removable Storage
ntmsmgr.msc

Removable Storage Operator Requests
ntmsoprq.msc

Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof)
rsop.msc

Scanners and Cameras
sticpl.cpl

Scheduled Tasks
control schedtasks

Security Center
wscui.cpl

Services
services.msc

Shared Folders
fsmgmt.msc

Shuts Down Windows
shutdown

Sounds and Audio
mmsys.cpl

Spider Solitare Card Game
spider

SQL Client Configuration
cliconfg

System Configuration Editor
sysedit

System Configuration Utility
msconfig

System File Checker Utility (Scan Immediately) sfc /scannow

System File Checker Utility (Scan Once At Next Boot) sfc /scanonce

System File Checker Utility (Scan On Every Boot) sfc /scanboot

System File Checker Utility (Return to Default Setting) sfc /revert

System File Checker Utility (Purge File Cache) sfc /purgecache

System File Checker Utility (Set Cache Size to size x)
sfc /cachesize=x

System Information
msinfo32

System Properties
sysdm.cpl

Task Manager
taskmgr

TCP Tester
tcptest

Telnet Client
telnet

Tweak UI (if installed)
tweakui

User Account Management
nusrmgr.cpl

Utility Manager
utilman

Windows Address Book
wab

Windows Address Book Import Utility
wabmig

Windows Backup Utility (if installed)
ntbackup

Windows Explorer
explorer

Windows Firewall
firewall.cpl

Windows Magnifier
magnify

Windows Management Infrastructure
wmimgmt.msc

Windows Media Player
wmplayer

Windows Messenger
msmsgs

Windows Picture Import Wizard (need camera connected)
wiaacmgr

Windows System Security Tool
syskey

Windows Update Launches
wupdmgr

Windows Version (to show which version of windows)
winver

Windows XP Tour Wizard
tourstart

Wordpad
write

Windows 7 in Pictures: 10 Cool Desktop Features

2011-02-25T08:37:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of Windows 7 being released into the wild on Oct. 22, here is an up-to-date pictorial guide to the most compelling navigation and networking features of the OS.

Since the general beta release, Windows 7 has been through the testing ringer and has come out with mostly high marks for its speed, flexibility, user interface (UI) and networking features.

The starting point of all this UI efficiency is the revamped taskbar, which allows faster and easier management of application windows, while also adding some visual flair.

Some Windows 7 features that will unclutter navigation are clickable thumbnails that appear when you mouse over a taskbar button, jump lists and Aero Peek, which makes all windows transparent except the one you want to look at. On the networking side, HomeGroups links Windows 7 computers on your home network to share photos, music and videos through Media Streaming.

Here's the photo collection of 10 key interface and networking features new to Windows 7.

Aero Peek

Aero Peek expands on Vista's Aero graphical interface. If you have many windows open, Peek brings the window you want to focus on to the front, while turning all other open windows into transparent "glass sheets." Peek also works on the desktop. If you mouse over the "Show Desktop" control at the far right of the taskbar all windows on the desktop turn to glass, allowing the entire desktop to be seen.

Sharing with HomeGroup

HomeGroups let you easily link Windows 7 computers on your home network to share pictures, music, videos, documents and devices such as a printer. In order to set up a HomeGroup, a user's Network Location needs to be set as "Home" in the Network and Sharing Center. When you create a HomeGroup, you specify which media files, folders and devices you want to share, and create a password so that only people with that password can join the HomeGroup.

Media Streaming Options

Media Streaming in Windows 7 has been simplified to share photos, video and music with other PCs on your home network using the new Homegroup feature. Remote Media Sharing, a new feature in the Windows 7 release candidate, allows users to stream information over the Internet to share media remotely. Media Streaming Options lets you restrict which specific PCs have access to your media by choosing "more streaming options..." from the Windows Media Player "Stream" menu.

Play To

Once Media Streaming is enabled on your Windows 7 PC, the "Play To" feature lets you to send media to other Windows 7 PCs or devices in your network and play it using a remote control window. From Libraries within Windows Media Player or Windows Explorer, you can right-click on your media and send it off to another device. For example, you can send video clips to a television, or music to another laptop that's connected to speakers.

Aero Snap

Maneuvering between windows is a pain, and comparing the content of two windows side by side requires awkward resizing that never quite works. Aero Snap is a feature that allows users to snap any two windows side by side. You grab a window and move your mouse to the edge of the screen and the window will fill half the screen. Repeat with the other window and they are locked next to each other.

Jump Lists

Jump Lists provide users with quick access to a mini-Start menu containing lists of pictures, music, word documents or links that they use most frequently. There are two manifestations of the jump list in Windows 7: As part of the Start Menu (pictured here), and as a popup menu from an application's taskbar button. For example, if you right-click on the Microsoft Word button in the taskbar a list of recently accessed documents would pop up.

Trippy Desktop Background Wallpaper

OK, this has nothing to do with navigation or networking, but this surreal acid-trippy desktop background artwork (and there are others like it available in Windows 7) is part of the user interface and shows that Microsoft actually has a personality. By including some experimental styles from international artists, Microsoft is embracing the weird and having some fun. Who knew?

Libraries

Instead of having all files and folders organized under the familiar Documents folder, Windows 7 features separate Libraries for specific content types such as contacts, documents, downloads, music, pictures and videos. Each Library is stylized to fit its content and can be shared with other people in your home network by using HomeGroup. Click here for more on how Libraries and HomeGroup work together.

Taskbar Peek

This feature applies the Aero Peek technology to taskbar thumbnails. If you mouse over an application button in the Windows 7 taskbar, thumbnails of open windows associated with that program pop up. If you then mouse over one of the thumbnails, the full corresponding window on the desktop (be it a Word doc, a browser, an IM session) will come to the forefront and all other windows will turn to glass and become transparent.

Windows Media Player Taskbar Controls

A Windows Media Player mini-viewer works with the new Windows 7 taskbar. You just need to hover over the Windows Media Player button on the taskbar after WMP is launched and a good-size thumbnail window shows up with options for controlling your WMP and playing songs. The controls provided in the thumbnail are basic — Previous Track, Play/Pause, Next Track — but the quick access to music from the taskbar is a nice time-saver.

Send Email From Any Email ID

2011-02-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

You can play a prank on your friends / girlfriends .

Heres a site which allows you to send email from the name of any email id .

Here it is – :

http://www.gta-parba.yc.cz/meil_****.php

****= f u c k

Just follow these simple steps

1 : Type the email id you want to send the email from .

2 : Type in the email you would like to send it to

3 : Type The message you want.

4 : Thats it

Enjoy

7 Most Useful Firefox Add-Ons

2011-02-24T01:13:00.000-08:00

7 Most Useful Firefox Add-Ons

These heavy-hitting browser add-ons act like applications that could easily replace their desktop counterparts.

1.) Animat 1.04

With Animat, you can create short animation clips saved in the APNG (animated portable network graphics) format. Although Animat installs as an add-on, it pops open and runs in its own Firefox browser window.

You can import images from several file formats (BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG) and sequence them in any order to create your animation. For what's supposed to be used for simple animation editing, Animat features a surprisingly deep toolset to crop, resize, rotate or reframe your source images. You can even reconfigure the work area (where the source and preview animation windows, and frame-by-frame timeline are positioned) to your liking.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9820/

2.) FireFTP 1.0.8

This add-on app works so easily you might decide to forgo a standalone FTP file manager program. FireFTP is compatible with versions of Firefox for Windows, OS X and Linux (which is worth noting because the same add-on recognizes the file structures of these different operating systems).

FireFTP opens up like a normal tabbed page. Your local computer's file directory is shown in a pane on the left side, and the file structure of the remote server on the right. Simply click on whichever files you want to move, and select a direction arrow between the two panes to initiate a transfer (for example clicking the right-pointing arrow will upload files to the server).

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/684/

3.) Online Music Player 1.5.8.7

It's debatable if Online Music Player counts as a "pure" add-on for Firefox, since it requires Flash to be installed on the browser. But it's hard to ignore that this is a very capable MP3 player matching the basic features and functionality of a standalone application: it has an easy-to-use interface, but also includes playlist management, and lyrics search.

Online Music Player resides along Firefox's status bar, where its player controls, and the title of the song playing are displayed. It can play your MP3 files stored locally on your computer, as well as, conveniently, MP3s you find on the Web (by you right-clicking on the link to the file and selecting "Play It").

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4617/

4.) Diagram Drawing Application : Pencil 1.0.6

Pencil was designed for users to create business diagrams, and for developers to quickly throw together GUI mock-ups. (It comes with a selection of graphics illustrating common user interface widgets.) But its toolset allows for more artistic purposes, as you can make clip art with it. You can export your completed artwork as PNG, PDF or HTML files, or even as Microsoft (MSFT) Word or OpenOffice.org documents.

Like Animat, Pencil opens a new window and runs within it, and, thus, can work as its own application when you close the first open instance of Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8487/

5.) Email client: Simple Mail 2.74

Most people use Webmail nowadays for their e-mailing needs. But if you require accessing your e-mail through a POP3 or IMAP server (or you would like to save your e-mails to your local computer) and you'd rather not fuss with a standalone program, this add-on transforms Firefox into a full-fledged e-mail client.

Simple Mail opens as a tabbed page within Firefox. It features the ability to handle multiple POP3 and IMAP accounts, e-mail composing with an editor that lets you use various fonts and colors, an address book, and inbox message filtering and other customizable functions. Like FireFTP, Simple Mail works well enough that you might choose to regularly use it in lieu of a standalone counterpart.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5593/

6.) Vector Graphics Editor : SVG-edit 2.4

Like Animat and Pencil, SVG-edit pops open its own window and can, thus, function like a typical desktop program. This add-on app features standard drawing tools: freehand, point-to-point line, and rectangle and circle/ellipse drawing. You can incorporate text into your design. As it's meant for creating vectorized images, SVG-edit's primary editing tools allow you to manipulate (such as move, resize) and extract the layered components of your art.

You can only save your work as an SVG file. (Currently, you cannot export it into other image formats.) Yet SVG-edit provides the essential tools you'll need for creating vector graphics, and it runs quite nimbly.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/14186/

7.) Instant Messenger : Yoono - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, AIM, MSN, GTalk... 7.1.6

There are other add-ons providing instant-messaging capability to Firefox, but Yoono gets the special mention here because it supports the most chat and social-networking services: AIM, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google (GOOG) Talk, Imeem, LinkedIn, MSN, MySpace, Twitter, and Yahoo (YHOO) Messenger.

Yoono also throws in widgets for Web note-taking (such as you can clip and save text or images you find on the Web); an RSS reader; e-mail alerting for your Yahoo Mail, Gmail and Hotmail accounts; and it can stream music from Imeem or Last.fm.

Yoono installs as a sidebar set to the left of the main Firefox window. When you click a button, it slides open as a wider control panel, but, otherwise, takes up minimal space.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1833/

28 Coolest Firefox About:Config Tricks

2011-02-24T01:00:00.000-08:00

You may have installed countless add-on in Firefox to enhance your using experience, but if you want to get the most out of Firefox, you really have to hack your way into the about:config.
The about:config page contains most (if not, all) of Firefox configuration options. It is so far the most effective, and the most powerful way to tweak and enhance your Firefox performance. Here are 28 of the popular tweaks.

Accessing your about:config page
In your Firefox, type about:config in the address bar.

You will be shown a warning page. Click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button to proceed.

On the main page, you will see a long list of configuration entries. Enter the name of the key you want to update in the “Filter” field. The list will narrow to only the entries that match your keyword as you type.
To modify the value, simply double click on the entry value field and update the entry. That’s all!
Isn’t that simple? Now, let’s get to the tweaking.

1) Adjust the Smart Location Bar’s Number of Suggestions
In Firefox 3, when you start typing in the location bar, a drop-down list of suggestion URLs will be shown. If you want it to show more than 12 suggestions (12 is the default), you can adjust the browser.urlbar.maxRichResults keys and get it to show the number you want.

Config name: browser.urlbar.maxRichResults
Default: 12
Modified value: Set to your desired number of suggestion. If you want to disable it all together, set it to -1

2) Disable the session restore function
Firefox 3 automatically saves your session every 10 secs so that whenever it crashes, it can restore all your tabs. While this is a useful feature, some of you might find it irritating. To disable this function, toggle the value of browser.sessionstore.enabled to False
Config name: browser.sessionstore.enabled
Default: True
Modified value: False if you want to disable the session restore function

3) Adjust the Session Restore Saving Frequency
Same as above, if you decided to keep the session restore feature on, but want to reduce the session saving frequency, change the value of browser.sessionstore.interval so that Firefox will save the session at a longer interval.
Config name: browser.sessionstore.interval
Default: 10000 (in msecs, equivalent to 10secs)
Modified value: Set it to your desired value. 1000 means 1 sec and 60000 means 1 minute.

4) Enable Advanced Color Profile Support
Firefox has this advanced color profile features that display higher image quality. It is not enabled by default as it has a negative effect on the performance of the browser. If you are concern with the image quality rather than the performance, you can activated it via the gfx.color_management.enabled setting
Config name: gfx.color_management.enabled
Default: False
Modified value: True (if you want to activate the color profile support feature)

5) Disable Antivirus Scanning
This is mainly for Windows users. By default, Firefox 3 automatically scan the downloaded file with the default anti-virus application to make sure it is free of virus. If you download a big file, it could take a long time for the whole scanning process to complete. To increase the performance of the browser, you might want to consider disabling the anti-virus scanning via the browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone key.
Config name: browser.download.manager.scanWhenDone
Default: True
Modified value: False (if you want to disable it)

6) Configuring The Scrolling Tabs
When you opened many tabs, Firefox will not keep on reducing the tab width. Instead, it shows a scrolling bar so that the min width (100px) is conserved and you can scroll to find your tabs. If you are those who don’t like the scrolling tab function and prefer Firefox to show all the tabs, regardless how small it is, you can set the value of browser.tabs.tabMinWidth to 0 to disable it. Similarly, if you want Firefox to display more tabs before showing the scrolling button, you can reduce the default value to a lower value, say 75 pixels.

Config name: browser.tabs.tabMinWidth
Default: 100
Modified value: 0 if you want to disable the scrolling functions, other values to set the min width value
7) Show/Disable Close button on Tabs
Some people love to see the Close (the red X) button on every tabs, but some hate it. Whatever is it, you can configure it to your preferences via the browser.tabs.closeButtons setting.

Config name: browser.tabs.closeButtons
Default: 1
Modified values:

0 – display a close button on the active tab only
1- display close buttons on all tabs
2- don’t display any close buttons
3- display a single close button at the end of the tab strip

8) Extend Scripts Execution Time
In Firefox 3, a script is only given 10 seconds to respond, after which it will issue a unresponsive script warning. If you are hooked on a slow network connection, you might want to increase the script execution time via dom.max_script_run_time to cut down on the frequency of the no script warning.
Config name: dom.max_script_run_time
Default:10 (in secs)
Modified value: 20, or any values greater than 10

9) Handling JavaScript Popups
When you come across a site that executes a javascript open new window function, and if the popup window is without all the usual window features, i.e. back/forward/reload buttons, status bar etc, Firefox will automatically treat it as a popup and will not open it as a new tab. However, if you find this to be a nuisance and wanted to open all new windows in a new tabs, you can specify it via the browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction setting.
Config name: browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction
Default: 2 – Open all JavaScript windows the same way as you have Firefox handle new windows unless the JavaScript call specifies how to display the window
Modified values:

0 – open all links as how you have Firefox handle new windows
1 – do not open any new windows
2- open all links as how you have Firefox handle new windows unless the Javascript specify how to display the window

10) Enable Spell Checking In All Text Fields
The default spell checking function only checks for multi-line text boxes. You can get it to spell-check for single line text box as well.
Config name: layout.spellcheckDefault
Default: 1 (spell checker for multi-lines text boxes only)
Modified values:

0 – disable the spell checker
2 – enable the spell checker for all text boxes

11) Open Search Box Results In New Tab
When you search using the search box at the top right hand corner of the browser, it will display the search results in the current tab. If you don’t want the search to interfere with your current tab, you can tweak the browser.search.openintab to make it open in a new tab.
Config Name: browser.search.openintab
Default: False
Modified value: True (open search box results in new tab)

12) Lower The Physical Memory Used When Minimized
This tweak is mainly for Windows users. When you minimize Firefox, it will send Firefox to your virtual memory and free up your physical memory for other programs to use. Firefox will reduce its physical memory usage, when minimized, to approximately 10MB (give or take some) and when you maximize Firefox it will take back the memory that it needs.
The preference name does not exist and needs to be created.
Right click on the background and select New->Boolean.
Enter the name when prompted: config.trim_on_minimize
Enter the values: True

13) Speed up your Firefox
Several tweaks required for this
Config name: network.http.pipelining
Default: False
Modified value: True
Config name: network.http.proxy.pipelining
Default: False
Modified value: True
Config name: network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Default: 4
Modified value: any value higher than 4, but not more than 8
Config name: network.http.max-connections
Default: 30
Modified value: 96
Config name: network.http.max-connections-per-server
Default: 15
Modified value: 32

14) Increase/Decrease the Amount of Disk Cache
When a page is loaded, Firefox will cache it into the hard disk so that it doesn’t need to be download again for redisplaying. The bigger the storage size you cater for Firefox, the more pages it can cache.
Before you increase the disk cache size, make sure that browser.cache.disk.enabled browser.cache.disk.enable is set to True.
Config name: browser.cache.disk.capacity
Default: 50000 (in KB)
Modified value:

0 – disable disk caching
any value lower than 50000 reduces the disk cache
any value higher than 50000 increases the disk cache.

15) Select all text when click on the URL bar
In Windows and Mac, Firefox highlights all text when you click on the URL bar. In Linux, it does not select all the text. Instead, it places the cursor at the insertion point. Regardless which platform you are using, you can now tweak it to either select all or place cursor at insertion point.

Config name: browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll
Modified value:

False – place cursor at insertion point
True – select all text on click

16) Autofill Address in URL Bar
Other than the smart location feature, you can also get your URL bar to autofill the address as you type the URL.

Config name: browser.urlbar.autofill
Default: False
Modified value: True (Have Firefox autofill the address as you type in the URL bar)

17) Same Zoom Level For Every Site
Firefox remembers your zoom preference for each site and set it to your preferences whenever you load the page. If you want the zoom level to be consistent from site to site, you can toggle the value of browser.zoom.siteSpecific from True to False.
Config name: browser.zoom.siteSpecific
Default: True
Modified value: False (enable same zoom preferences for every sites)

18) Setting your zoom limit
If you find that the max/min zoom level is still not sufficient for your viewing, you can change the zoom limit to suit your viewing habits.
Config name: zoom.maxPercent
Default: 300 (percent)
Modified value: any value higher than 300
Config name: zoom.minPercent
Default: 30 (percent)
value: any value

19) Configure Your Backspace Button
In Firefox, you can set your backspace to better use by getting it to either go back to the previous page or act as page up function.
Config name: browser.backspace_action
Default: 2 (does nothing)
Modified value:

0 – go back previous page
1- page up

20) Increase Offline Cache
If you do not have access to Internet most of the time, you might want to increase the offline cache so that you can continue to work offline. By default, Firefox 3 caches 500MB of data from supported offline Web apps. You can change that value to whatever amount of your choice.
Config name: browser.cache.offline.capacity
Default: 512000 (in KB)
Modified value: any value higher than 512000 will increase the cache value

21) Auto Export Firefox 3 bookmarks to bookmarks.html
Unlike the previous version, Firefox 3 backup the bookmarks file in places.sqlite rather than the usual bookmarks.html. Since bookmarks.html allows us to export and sync our bookmarks with other browser, it will be very useful if Firefox 3 can backup the bookmark to the bookmarks.html as well.
Config name: browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML
Default: False
Modified value: True (auto export bookmarks file to bookmarks.html)
22) Disable Extension Compatibility Checks
This is useful if you want to use an extension that is not supported by your version of Firefox badly. It is not recommended, but you can still do it at your own risk.
Right click and select New->Boolean. Enter extensions.checkCompatibility in the field. Enter False in the next field.
Right click again and select New->Boolean. Enter extensions.checkUpdateSecurity into the field and enter False into the next field.

23) Disable Delay Time When Installing Add-on
Everytime you wanted to install a Firefox add-on, you will have to wait for several secs before the actual installation starts. If you are tired of waiting, you can turn the function security.dialog_enable_delay off so that the installation will start immediately upon clicking.

Config name: security.dialog_enable_delay
Default: 2000 (in msec)
Modified value:

0 – start installation immediately
any other value (in msec)

24) View Source in Your Favorite Editor
This is very useful for developers who are always using the ‘view source‘ function. This tweak allows you to view the source code in an external editor.
There are two configuration need to be made:
Config name: view_source.editor.external
Default: False
Modified value: True ( enable view source using external text editor)
Config name: view_source.editor.path
Default: blank
Modified value: insert the file path to your editor here.

25) Increasing ‘Save Link As‘ timeout value
When you right click and select the ‘Save Link As…‘, the browser will request the content disposition header from the URL so as to determine the filename. If the URL did not deliver the header within 1 sec, Firefox will issue a timeout value. This could happen very frequently in a slow network connection environment. To prevent this issue from happening frequently, you can increase the timeout value so as to reduce the possibility of a timeout.
Config name: Browser.download.saveLinkAsFilenameTimeout
Default: 1000 (1 sec)
Modified value: any value higher than 1000 (value is in msec)

26) Animate Fullscreen Toolbar Collapse mode
In Firefox’s fullscreen mode, toolbars and the tab strip are hidden at the top of the screen and only shown on mouseover. To draw attention to this, there is an animation of the toolbar sliding upwards and off-screen when fullscreen mode is toggled on. For performance issue, the animation of the collapse of the toolbar only appear for the first time. For some reason that you may love/hate the animation, you can adjust Browser.fullscreen.animateUp to switch it on/off for every collapse.
Config name: Browser.fullscreen.animateUp
Default: 1 (animate the toolbar collapse only the first time)
Modified value:

0 -disable the animation
2- enable the animation for every collapse

27) Autohide Toolbar in Fullscreen mode
In fullscreen mode, the toolbar is set to autohide and appear upon mouseover. If you have a need to view the toolbar at all time, you can toggle the value of browser.fullscreen.autohide to False to always show the toolbar.
Config name: browser.fullscreen.autohide
Default: True (always autohide)
Modified value: False (always show the toolbar)

28) Increase Add-On search result
If you go to Tools->Add-ons->Get Add-ons and perform a search there, Firefox will only fetch and display 5 matching results. If you want Firefox to show more than 5 results (say 10), you can adjust extensions.getAddons.maxResults to get it to display more results.
Config name: extensions.getAddons.maxResults
Default: 5
Modified value: any value more than 5
This list of about:config is definitely not the complete list. If you have any tricks not listed here, please add it in the comment.

8 Free Plugins to Protect Your WordPress Blog from Being Hacked

2011-02-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

Security should always be a major concern when using the Internet or posting content online. If someone gets a hold of your personal information or breaks in to one of your online accounts, whether it is your email or a WordPress blog, then you are at risk of identity theft and hijacking of your accounts. Anyone who breaks in to your account could steal your private content, post spam, steal your WordPress account or use it to gather email addresses to send spam to.
Thankfully, there are ways of protecting yourself and your Internet accounts from malicious threats to your privacy and it is important that you take all of the necessary precautions to keep yourself safe online. You can secure your WordPress blog from unauthorized access by installing some of the plugins that are available for download at the WordPress plugin directory.
Most of these are easy to install and do not require any attention from you once they have been set up. They will prevent anyone who should not have access to your WordPress blog account from getting past the very basic password protection that is provided when you set up your account.

1. How to hide your login screen : Stealth Login

A simple, but effective way of preventing people from breaking in to your WordPress blog is to hide the login screen. You can do this by installing a plugin such as Stealth Login, which will create a specific URL or web
address that you will use when logging in to your blog, or performing admin on your account. This means that there will be no link to login from the public pages of the blog. When you want to login, you will simply go to the custom URL that you have chosen and sign in as normal.
This plugin also protects your login page by preventing anyone from going directly to wp-login.php, which is the default setting for WordPress. This plugin can prevent anyone from gaining unauthorized access to your site, even if they are able to guess your password, by hiding the login page from them. This can also prevent programs called bots from getting in to the blog through the wp-login.php file.The new login URL and options can be controlled through the settings panel.

2. How to ban selected users : User Locker

The User Locker plugin can help to prevent anyone from making multiple attempts to access your blog. This can prevent them from cracking your password by trying hundreds and thousands of different guesses. When you sign up for a WordPress account there is no limit on the number of attempts that can be made to login to your blog.
This is a major security flaw as it opens the way for unauthorized access through what are known as dictionary and brute force attacks. These simply try every possible password until they gain access. The user locker plugin places a limit on the number of attempts at logging in which can be made. If this is exceeded, then the account will be locked and it will be necessary to request a new password or contact the WordPress Admin in order to get back into the blog. This means that only you can get into the account.
This plugin also allows you to block specific user accounts from accessing the blog, even with the right password. This means that you can ban anyone who should not be accessing the blog from getting into it.

3. How to prevent brute force hacking : Limit Login Attempts

A similar plugin is the Limit User Attempts login. This has the same effect as the User Locker plugin, placing a limit on the number of tries to login that are allowed. The Limit User Attempts Login can limit login attempts through both the normal login process and the use of special cookies. It blocks any Internet address from making further login attempts after a certain number of failed tries to access the blog.

4. How to prevent unauthorized automated access : SpiderSquash

The SpiderSquash plugin is designed to prevent automated computer programs such as spiders and bots from gaining access to your WordPress blog. It works using complicated statistical methods in order to recognize bots and automated access attempts. The SpiderSquash plugin has access to a global database which is built up by all SpiderSquash plugins around the world, and to which yours will contribute if it detects any new bots.
Your account will be protected against any bot that is listed in the database. Whenever a new bot is discovered by SpiderSquash, it is added to the database and you will become protected against it. This plugin needs to be uploaded and activated on WordPress.

5. How to Encrypt Your Logins : Login Encrypt

The Login Encrypt plugin prevents anyone from stealing your access details by hiding or encrypting your password when you enter it and send it to the WordPress site in order to login.
This is a similar idea to the one that protects your credit card details when they are sent as you shop online. The information is sent in a way that can only be read by someone who knows the encryption code that was used by the sender. If it is intercepted by someone who is trying to find out what your password is, they will be unable to read it.

6. How to make your login process more secure: Chap Secure Login

Another option for encrypting your password and making the process of logging in to WordPress more secure is the Chap Secure Login plugin. This plugin also encrypts your password, but it uses a different method of encryption, known as the chap protocol. It is an alternative to the Login Encrypt plugin.

7. How to ensure stolen passwords only work with a single session: One-Type Password

As well as keeping transmission of your password secure, it is possible to protect your WordPress account by using the One-Time Password plugin to generate a new password every time you login. You may be familiar with this idea if you use a certain type of secure wireless network. Some people have a system that uses unique, automatically generated passwords to get access through their Wi-Fi network, rather than a set phrase.
The One-Time Password plugin prevents anyone from accessing your account if they manage to intercept or steal the password you are using since each password will only work for a single session. The minimum requirements for this plugin are WordPress 2.8 and PHP 5.0.0. IT should work with both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but there is no guarantee that it will be compatible with other browsers. This plugin is ideal for anyone who accesses their WordPress account through shared computers, particularly in insecure environments such as internet cafes, where there could be viruses that might record keystrokes and so be able to steal passwords. It conforms to the Internet Engineering Task Force RFC 2289, which means that it is reliable and well designed.

8. How to tell if your WordPress account has been hacked: WordPress Last Login

Protecting your WordPress account from unauthorized access is very important, but there is also a plugin that can tell you when your account has been compromised. The WordPress Last Login plugin will tell you who was the last person to sign in to your account and when they logged in. If the last log in was at a time when you do not remember logging in and if the IP address is different from the usual one, then it’s likely that someone else has been accessing your account. An IP address is like a phone number for your computer.
You can find out what your IP address is from various websites or by looking for it manually on your computer, but you can also just keep an eye on the IP addresses that have been used to access your WordPress account. You will soon begin to recognize the IP address or addresses that you use, and therefore you will be able to tell if there is any unusual activity. If there is unauthorized access, you should quickly change your password and add some new plugins to enhance your security. You should also check your computer for viruses.

HOW TO: Supercharge Upload Speed And Backup To USB Drives With Mozy 2.0

2011-02-23T19:35:00.001-08:00

External USB Drive are one of the best suited device for transferring the data. Anyone can move easily his/her document, video, pictures, files and other data to USB drive at faster speed.

Alongside backing up the web-based servers to flash drive is quite hard to handle. So Mozy 2.0, a easiest way to solve your backing up problem.

Mozy 2.0 allows both a local and an offsite copy of your data. As far as speed is concern Mozy 2.0 prepares files around 75 percent faster and also claims that up to 25 percent faster transferring speed .

If you want to check the current backup status, you are allowed to pause a backup action. It provides 2 GB free backup space for home users and if they are already using Mozy2.0 than you can upgrade your software with 2xProtect to external drive backup.

Definitely, it is a better option for quick backup to files for Windows users. Probably, it will takes few minutes to move onto Mozy’s servers. Well, making small adjustments to drive is not allowed and you can easily see that Mozy creates a MozyLocalBackup folder which accommodates all required data that is being to backup.

Some Features:

* Up to 25% faster upload speeds – It is the difficult of online backup that it takes time to move data online. So by following some significant changes to mozy users that makes that process a lot faster.
* New interface – The customizability and flexibility that power users have come to love and rely on to protect their data, Company made the Mozy client to be easier to configure, easier to understand, and easier to use for virtually everyone.

Windows users can download free Mozy 2.0 by following places

MozyPro Download
MozyHome Download

Source:

http://technologytosoftware.com/windows-mozy-2-0-backup-upload-speeds-usb-external-drives.html

Report: Facebook caught sharing secret data with advertisers

2011-02-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

The privacy issues that have been hounding Facebook may be coming to a head. A report in the Wall Street Journal indicates that the Facebook, along with MySpace, Digg, and a handful of other social-networking sites, have been sharing users' personal data with advertisers without users' knowledge or consent.

The data shared includes names, user IDs, and other information sufficient to enable ad companies such as the Google-owned DoubleClick to identify distinct user profiles. Some of the sites in question, including MySpace and Facebook, stopped sharing the data after the Journal asked them about it. The surreptitious data sharing was first noticed (PDF) by researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and AT&T Labs in August 2009, who brought it up with the sites in question. It wasn't until WSJ contacted them that changes were made.

Not surprisingly, Facebook appears to have gone farther than the other sites when it comes to sharing data. When Facebook's users clicked on ads appearing on a profile page, the site would at times provide data such as the username behind the click, as well as the user whose profile page from which the click came. "If you are looking at your profile page and you click on an ad, you are telling that advertiser who you are," Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman told the Journal. Advertisers contacted by the paper said that they were unaware of the additional data and did not make use of it.

Facebook has tweaked its privacy policy throughout its history, with the most recent moves to open up more user information to the public drawing heavy criticism and FTC complaints. Users have also had a tough time navigating the site's often-Byzantine privacy controls, which has led to a trickle of user defections. With these latest revelations about Facebook ignoring industry standards, not to mention its own privacy policies, that trickle may turn into a torrent.

Source:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/05/latest-facebook-blunder-secret-data-sharing-with-advertisers.ars

50 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets !

2011-02-23T19:29:00.000-08:00

50 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets !

50 Windows 7 tips, tricks and secrets. It's the mother lode of Windows 7 tweaks!

Read on for 50 ways in which Windows 7 will make a real difference to your PC.

1. Problem Steps Recorder

As the local PC guru you're probably very used to friends and family asking for help with their computer problems, yet having no idea how to clearly describe what's going on. It's frustrating, but Microsoft feels your pain, and Windows 7 will include an excellent new solution in the Problem Steps Recorder.
When any app starts misbehaving under Windows 7 then all your friends need do is click Start, type PSR and press Enter, then click Start Record. If they then work through whatever they're doing then the Problem Steps Recorder will record every click and keypress, take screen grabs, and package everything up into a single zipped MHTML file when they're finished, ready for emailing to you. It's quick, easy and effective, and will save you hours of troubleshooting time.

2. Burn images

Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had for years - the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn't be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.

3. Create and mount VHD files

Microsoft's Virtual PC creates its virtual machine hard drives in VHD files, and Windows 7 can now mount these directly so you can access them in the host system. Click Start, type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter, then click Action > Attach VHD and choose the file you'd like to mount. It will then appear as a virtual drive in Explorer and can be accessed, copied or written just like any other drive.
Click Action > Create VHD and you can now create a new virtual drive of your own (right-click it, select Initialise Disk, and after it's set up right-click the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume to set this up). Again, you'll be left with a virtual drive that behaves just like any other, where you can drag and drop files, install programs, test partitioning software or do whatever you like. But it's actually just this VHD file on your real hard drive which you can easily back up or share with others. Right-click the disk (that's the left-hand label that says "Disk 2" or whatever) and select Detach VHD to remove it.
The command line DISKPART utility has also been upgraded with tools to detach a VHD file, and an EXPAND command to increase a virtual disk's maximum size. Don't play around with this unless you know what you're doing, though - it's all too easy to trash your system.

4. Troubleshoot problems

If some part of Windows 7 is behaving strangely, and you don't know why, then click Control Panel > Find and fix problems (or 'Troubleshooting') to access the new troubleshooting packs. These are simple wizards that will resolve common problems, check your settings, clean up your system and more.

5. Startup repair

If you've downloaded Windows 7 (and even if you haven't) it's a good idea to create a system repair disc straight away in case you run into problems booting the OS later on. Click Start > Maintenance > Create a System Repair Disc, and let Windows 7 build a bootable emergency disc. If the worst does happen then it could be the only way to get your PC running again.

6. Take control

Tired of the kids installing dubious software or running applications you'd rather they left alone? AppLocker is a new Windows 7 feature that ensures users can only run the programs you specify. Don't worry, that's easier to set up than it sounds: you can create a rule to allow everything signed by a particular publisher, so choose Microsoft, say, and that one rule will let you run all signed Microsoft applications. Launch GPEDIT.MSC and go to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Application Control Policies > AppLocker to get a feel for how this works.

7. Calculate more

At first glance the Windows 7 calculator looks just like Vista's version, but explore the Mode menu and you'll see powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if you're clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more.
Don't take any Windows 7 applet at face value, then - there are some very powerful new features hidden in the background. Be sure to explore every option in all Windows applets to ensure you don't miss anything important.

8. Switch to a projector

Windows 7 now provides a standard way to switch your display from one monitor to another, or a projector - just press Win+P or run DisplaySwitch.exe and choose your preferred display. (This will have no effect if you've only one display connected.)

9. Get a power efficiency report

If you have a laptop, you can use the efficiency calculator to get Windows 7 to generate loads of useful information about its power consumption. Used in the right way, this can help you make huge gains in terms of battery life and performance. To do this you must open a command prompt as an administrator by typing 'cmd' in Start Search, and when the cmd icon appears, right-click it and choose Run as administrator.
Then at the command line, just type in 'powercfg -energy' (without quotes) and hit Return, and Windows 7 will scan your system looking for ways to improve power efficiency. It will then publish the results in an HTML file, usually in the System32 folder. Just follow the path it gives you to find your report.

10. Understanding System Restore

Using System Restore in previous versions of Windows has been something of a gamble. There's no way of telling which applications or drivers it might affect - you just have to try it and see.
Windows 7 is different. Right-click Computer, select Properties > System Protection > System Restore > Next, and choose the restore point you'd like to use. Click the new button to 'Scan for affected programs' and Windows will tell you which (if any) programs and drivers will be deleted or recovered by selecting this restore point.

11. Set the time zone

System administrators will appreciate the new command line tzutil.exe utility, which lets you set a PC's time zone from scripts. If you wanted to set a PC to Greenwich Mean Time, for instance, you'd use the command
tzutil /s "gmt standard time"
The command "tzutil /g" displays the current time zone, "tzutil /l" lists all possible time zones, and "tzutil /?" displays details on how the command works.

12. Calibrate your screen

The colours you see on your screen will vary depending on your monitor, graphics cards settings, lighting and more, yet most people use the same default Windows colour profile. And that means a digital photo you think looks perfect might appear very poor to everybody else. Fortunately Windows 7 now provides a Display Colour Calibration Wizard that helps you properly set up your brightness, contrast and colour settings, and a ClearType tuner to ensure text is crisp and sharp. Click Start, type DCCW and press Enter to give it a try.

13. Right-click everything

At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there's an easy way to begin spotting the differences - just right-click things.
Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you'll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more.
Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.
And if you don't plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won't want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon, select 'Unpin this program from the taskbar', then go install Firefox, instead.

14. Desktop slideshow

Windows 7 comes with some very attractive new wallpapers, and it's not always easy to decide which one you like the best. So why not let choose a few, and let Windows display them all in a desktop slideshow? Right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalise > Desktop Background, then hold down Ctrl as you click on the images you like. Choose how often you'd like the images to be changed (anything from daily to once every 10 seconds), select Shuffle if you'd like the backgrounds to appear in a random order, then click Save Changes and enjoy the show.

15. RSS-powered wallpaper

And if a slideshow based on your standard wallpaper isn't enough, then you can always create a theme that extracts images from an RSS feed. For example, Long Zheng has created a few sample themes to illustrate how it works. And Jamie Thompson takes this even further, with a theme that always displays the latest BBC news and weather on your desktop.

16. Recover screen space

The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that's fine, except it does consume a little more screen real estate than we'd like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons > OK.

17. Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar

If you're unhappy with the new taskbar, even after shrinking it, then it only takes a moment to restore the old Quick Launch Toolbar.
Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars > New Toolbar, type "%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Inter net Explorer\Quick Launch" (less the quotes) into the Folder box and click Select Folder.
Now right-click the taskbar, clear 'Lock the taskbar', and you should see the Quick Launch toolbar, probably to the right. Right-click its divider, clear Show Text and Show Title to minimise the space it takes up. Complete the job by right-clicking the bar and selecting View > Small Icons for the true retro look.

18. Custom power switch

By default, Windows 7 displays a plain text 'Shut down' button on the Start menu, but it only takes a moment to change this action to something else. If you reboot your PC a few times every day then that might make more sense as a default action: right-click the Start orb, select Properties and set the 'Power boot action' to 'Restart' to make it happen.

19. Auto arrange your desktop

If your Windows 7 desktop has icons scattered everywhere then you could right-click it and select View > Auto arrange, just as in Vista. But a simpler solution is just to press and hold down F5, and Windows will automatically arrange its icons for you.

20. Disable smart window arrangement

Windows 7 features interesting new ways to intelligently arrange your windows, so that (for example) if you drag a window to the top of the screen then it will maximise. We like the new system, but if you find it distracting then it's easily disabled. Run REGEDIT, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop, set WindowArrangementActive to 0, reboot, and your windows will behave just as they always did.

21. Browse your tasks

If you prefer the keyboard over the mouse, you will love browsing the taskbar using this nifty shortcut. Press Windows and T, and you move the focus to the left-most icon on the taskbar. Then use your arrow keys to change the focus to other icons, and you get a live preview of every window.

22. Display your drives

Click Computer in Windows 7 and you might see a strange lack of drives, but don't panic, it's just Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card readers are no longer displayed if they're empty. We think it's an improvement, but if you disagree then it's easy to get your empty drives back. Launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear 'Hide empty drives in the computer folder'.

23. See more detail

The new and improved Windows 7 magnifier offers a much easier way to zoom in on any area of the screen. Launch it and you can now define a scale factor and docking position, and once activated it can track your keyboard focus around the screen. Press Tab as you move around a dialog box, say, and it'll automatically zoom in on the currently active control.

24. Hiding the Windows Live Messenger icon

If you use Windows Live Messenger a lot, you'll have noticed that the icon now resides on the taskbar, where you can easily change status and quickly send an IM to someone. If you prefer to keep Windows Live Messenger in the system tray, where it's been for previous releases, just close Windows Live Messenger, edit the shortcut properties and set the application to run in Windows Vista compatibility mode.

25. Customise UAC

Windows Vista's User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off - it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).

26. Use Sticky Notes

The Sticky Notes app is both simpler and more useful in Windows 7. Launch StikyNot.exe and you can type notes at the keyboard; right-click a note to change its colour; click the + sign on the note title bar to add another note; and click a note and press Alt + 4 to close the note windows (your notes are automatically saved).

27. Open folder in new process

By default Windows 7 opens folders in the same process. This saves system resources, but means one folder crash can bring down the entire shell. If your system seems unstable, or you're doing something in Explorer that regularly seems to causes crashes, then open Computer, hold down Shift, right-click on your drive and select Open in New Process. The folder will now be launched in a separate process, and so a crash is less likely to affect anything else.

28. Watch more videos

Windows Media Player 12 is a powerful program, but it still won't play all the audio and video files you'll find online. Fortunately the first freeware Windows 7 codecs package [shark007.net/win7codecs.html] has been released, and installing it could get your troublesome multimedia files playing again.

29. Preview fonts

Open the Fonts window in Windows XP and Vista and you'll see the font names, probably with icons to tell you whether they're TrueType or OpenType, but that's about it. Windows 7 sees some useful font-related improvements.
Open the new fonts window and you'll find a little preview for every font, giving you a quick idea of how they're going to look.
The tedium of scrolling through multiple entries for each family, like Times New Roman, Times New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Bold Italic and so on, has finally ended. There's now just a single entry for each font (though you can still see all other members of the family).
And there's a new OpenType font, Gabriola, added to the mix. It's an attractive script font, well worth a try the next time you need a stylish document that stands out from the crowd.

30. Restore your gadgets

Windows 7 has tightened up its security by refusing to run gadgets if UAC has been turned off, so limiting the damage malicious unsigned gadgets can do to your system. If you've disabled UAC, miss your gadgets and are happy to accept the security risk, though, there's an easy Registry way to get everything back to normal. Run REGEDIT, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Sidebar\Settings, create a new DWORD value called AllowElevatedProcess and set it to 1. Your gadgets should start working again right away.

31. New WordPad formats

By default WordPad will save documents in Rich Text Format, just as before. But browse the Save As Format list and you'll see you can also save (or open, actually) files in the Office 2007 .docx or OpenDocument .odt formats.

32. Protect your data

USB flash drives are convenient, portable, and very easy to lose. Which is a problem, especially if they're carrying sensitive data. Fortunately Windows 7 has the solution: encrypt your documents with an extension of Microsoft's BitLocker technology, and only someone with the password will be able to access it. Right-click your USB flash drive, select Turn on BitLocker and follow the instructions to protect your private files.

33. Minimise quickly with shake

If you have multiple windows open on your desktop and things are getting too cluttered, it used to be a time-consuming process to close them all down. In Windows 7 you can use the Aero Shake feature to minimise everything in seconds, using a cool mouse gesture. Grab the title bar of the window you wish to keep open and give it a shake, and rejoice in a clear desktop area.

34. Configure your favourite music

The Windows 7 Media Centre now comes with an option to play your favourite music, which by default creates a changing list of songs based on your ratings, how often you play them, and when they were added (it's assumed you'll prefer songs you've added in the last 30 days). If this doesn't work then you can tweak how Media Centre decides what a "favourite" tune is- click Tasks > Settings > Music > Favourite Music and configure the program to suit your needs.

35. Customise System Restore

There was very little you could do to configure System Restore in Vista, but Windows 7 improves the situation with a couple of useful setup options.
Click the Start orb, right-click Computer and select Properties > System Protection > Configure, and set the Max Usage value to a size that suits your needs (larger to hold more restore points, smaller to save disk space).
And if you don't need System Restore to save Windows settings then choose the "Only restore previous versions of files" option. Windows 7 won't back up your Registry, which means you'll squeeze more restore points and file backups into the available disk space. System Restore is much less likely to get an unbootable PC working again, though, so use this trick at your own risk.

36. Run As

Hold down Shift, right-click any program shortcut, and you'll see an option to run the program as a different user, handy if you're logged in to the kids' limited account and need to run something with higher privileges. This isn't really a new feature - Windows XP had a Run As option that did the same thing - but Microsoft stripped it out of Vista, so it's good to see it's had a change of heart.

37. Search privacy

By default Windows 7 will remember your PC search queries, and display the most recent examples when searching in Windows Explorer. If you're sharing a PC and don't want everyone to see your searches, then launch GPEDIT.MSC, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer, double-click "Turn off display of recent search entries..." and click Enabled > OK.

38. Tweak PC volume

By default Windows 7 will now automatically reduce the volume of your PC's sounds whenever it detects you're making or receiving PC-based phone calls. If this proves annoying (or maybe you'd like it to turn off other sounds altogether) then you can easily change the settings accordingly. Just right-click the speaker icon in your taskbar, select Sounds > Communications, and tell Windows what you'd like it to do.

39. Find bottlenecks

From what we've seen so far Windows 7 is already performing better than Vista, but if your PC seems sluggish then it's now much easier to uncover the bottleneck. Click Start, type RESMON and press Enter to launch the Resource Monitor, then click the CPU, Memory, Disk or Network tabs. Windows 7 will immediately show which processes are hogging the most system resources.
The CPU view is particularly useful, and provides something like a more powerful version of Task Manager. If a program has locked up, for example, then right-click its name in the list and select Analyze Process. Windows will then try to tell you why it's hanging - the program might be waiting for another process, perhaps - which could give you the information you need to fix the problem.

40. Keyboard shortcuts

Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.
Alt+P
Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane
Windows Logo+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows
Windows Logo++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate
Windows Logo+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate
Windows Logo+Up
Maximise the current window
Windows Logo+Down
Minimise the current window
Windows Logo+Left
Snap to the left hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Right
Snap to the right hand side of the screen
Windows Logo+Home
Minimise/ restore everything except the current window

41. Faster program launches

If you've launched one instance of a program but want to start another, then don't work your way back through the Start menu. It's much quicker to just hold down Shift and click on the program's icon (or middle-click it), and Windows 7 will start a new instance for you.

42. Speedy video access

Want faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu > Customize, and set the Videos option to "Display as a link". If you've a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you'll appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.

43. Run web searches

The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To add Flickr support, say, visit I Started Something, click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it's downloaded (the file is tiny, it'll only take a moment). A "Flickr Search" option will be added to your Searches folder, and you'll be able to search images from your desktop.

44. Schedule Media Centre downloads

You can now tell Windows Media Centre to download data at a specific time, perhaps overnight, a useful way to prevent it sapping your bandwidth for the rest of the day. Launch Media Centre, go to Tasks > Settings > General > Automatic Download Options, and set the download start and stop times that you'd like it to use.

45. Multi-threaded Robocopies

Anyone who's ever used the excellent command-line robocopy tool will appreciate the new switches introduced with Windows 7. Our favourite, /MT, can improve speed by carrying out multi-threaded copies with the number of threads you specify (you can have up to 128, though that might be going a little too far). Enter robocopy /? at a command line for the full details.

46. Really remove the sidebar

At first glance you might think Windows 7 has got rid of the sidebar, but don't be fooled. Gadgets are still hosted by the Sidebar.exe process, it's just that this is now launched automatically when Windows boots. If you don't plan on ever using gadgets then you could delete the Sidebar Registry entry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Run, and recover a small amount of RAM. That might be a little risky, though, as we're not quite sure what else the sidebar process does in Windows 7. The safest approach is to disable it temporarily by launching MSCONFIG.EXE, clicking the Startup tab and clearing the box next to the Startup entry. Now reboot and test Windows 7 for a day or two to confirm everything is still working, before finally deleting the sidebar registry entry.

47. Load IE faster

Some Internet Explorer add-ons can take a while to start, dragging down the browser's performance, but at least IE8 can now point a finger at the worst resource hogs. Click Tools > Manage Add-ons, check the Load Time in the right-hand column, and you'll immediately see which browser extensions are slowing you down.

48. An Alt+Tab alternative

You want to access one of the five Explorer windows you have open, but there are so many other programs running that Alt+Tab makes it hard to pick out what you need. The solution? Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the Explorer icon. Windows 7 will then cycle through the Explorer windows only, a much quicker way to locate the right one. And of course this works with any application that has multiple windows open.

49. Block annoying alerts

Just like Vista, Windows 7 will display a suitably stern warning if it thinks your antivirus, firewall or other security settings are incorrect.
But unlike Vista, if you disagree then you can now turn off alerts on individual topics. If you no longer want to see warnings just because you've dared to turn off the Windows firewall, say, then click Control Panel > System and Security > Action Centre > Change Action Centre settings, clear the Network Firewall box and click OK.

50. Parallel defrags

The standard Windows 7 defragger offers a little more control than we saw in Vista, and the command line version also has some interesting new features. The /r switch will defrag multiple drives in parallel, for instance (they'll obviously need to be physically separate drives for this to be useful). The /h switch runs the defrag at a higher than normal priority, and the /u switch provides regular progress reports so you can see exactly what's going on. Enter the command
defrag /c /h /u /r
in a command window to speedily defrag a system with multiple drives, or enter defrag /? to view the new options for yourself.

Setup and Use PROXY with Firefox

2011-02-23T02:28:00.000-08:00

Setup and Use PROXY with Firefox

This is a simple guide on how to use proxy with Mozilla Firefox Browser:

If you use proxies, you can:

a) download as many time you like using Rapidshare.de

b) Use Megaupload if your country slot is limited.

c) Enhance your privacy (no one can whois you)

d) Avoid hacker

e) Download faster (some proxies containe internet cache)

To get free proxies, go here

http://www.proxy4free.com/

How to setup proxy:

Older Version: Go to tools>option>general>connection

Latest Version: Go to tools>options>advanced>network>settings

Enter setting like this screenshot: make sure that you change the proxy address

Enable Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.6.3

2011-02-23T02:13:00.000-08:00

Enable Private Browsing mode in Firefox 3.6.3

Private Browsing mode is now a days a standard feature in all of the state-of-the-art web browsers including IE8 and Google Chrome and now with Firefox 3.6.3, users can surf the web or do whatever they want without leaving any traces.
Here is how to enable Private Browsing mode in Firefox:

1. Make sure you have downloaded the latest version of Firefox 3.6.3

2. Open the Tools menu and click on 'Start Private Browsing' or use [Shift + Control + P]

3. A Popup will ask you to confirm your decision so click on 'Start Private Browsing' again.

4. Now to end the session, simply go to Tools menu and click on 'End Private Browsing'.

When Private Browsing mode in Firefox is activated, all your browsing history, cookies and data is stored temporarily and as soon as the session ends, everything is flushed so no trace is left behind.