Nafis Iftekhar's World

Welcome to The World of Portable Softwares

2008-12-10T11:47:00.007+06:00

We all have our own choice when it comes to softwares. Different persons feel comfortable using different softwares for the same purpose. But we don't have our favorite softwares around us for using all the time. For example, if you are in a friend's house or on a PC of a other, most probably you wont get to use your favorite softwares on that PC because they have those installed. And it's very time consuming and tiresome to download and install them from the internet.

Or suppose, you have an older version of a software and want to test drive the latest version of it but don't want to ruin the old installation neither replace it. Now what do you do?

This is where portable software and application comes in. A portable version of a software is such that, you can use the software without installing it. It can be carried on any storage device or memory stick and can be used on any PC.

There are lots of portable version of popular softwares available on the internet for download. Just Google for "portable softwares" and you'll get to know. Here are some downloadable portable version of some popular softwares. Hope you like them -

1.Firefox 3.0.4 (Latest Stable Version) - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure.
2. Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 (Latest Beta) - the award-winning web browser that's safe and secure.
3. Notepad++ - A full-featured text editor with syntax highlighting.
4. Celestia - portable space simulator.
5. Stellarium - portable planetarium
6. GIMP - Photo and Image Editor
7. FileZilla - the full-featured FTP client
8. Miranda - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in a customizable interface
9. Mozilla Thunderbird - email client
10. Pidgin - chat with AOL, MSN and Yahoo users in an easy-to-use interface
11. WinWGet - portable downlaod manager
12. Audacity - A simple audio editor and recorder
13. CoolPlayer+ - Lightweight, fast, easy-to-use audio player
14. MPlayer - Full-featured movie player with support for most video formats
15. VirtualDub - video processing and capture utility
16. VLC Media Player - An easy to use media player that plays most audio and video formats
17. AbiWord - a lightweight word processor compatible with Microsoft Word files
18. 7-Zip - File archiver and compressor
19. ClamWin Antivirus - Free antivirus
20. Command Prompt - Simple link to a customizable command prompt
21. ConvertAll - convert units of measurement
22. PeaZip - Easy to use file archiver and compressor

For more softwares and games like these, please visit: http://portableapps.com/apps

Virus Effect Remover - A wonderful recovery tool

2008-12-06T18:26:00.004+06:00

Virus & Trojans screw up your PC - registry & task manager gets disabled, run command doesn't work, folder option gone, show hidden files doesn't work either. These effects exists even after a common removal of a virus or trojan from PC. "Virus Effect Remover" is the tool which help you to remove the effect of virus from windows registry and file system.

It detects the registry error caused by virus and enables the Blocked content like task manager , registry editor, folder option etc.

Download Virus Effect Remover: Link

* .NET Framework 2.0 or Higher is required for running this program.

Remove WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) Notification

2008-12-05T21:54:00.008+06:00

Many a times after completing a windows update you get this notification - "You may be a victim of software counterfeiting.
This copy of windows did not pass Windows validation."

There are many tutorials online for removing this nag or notification. But the best way to remove this is to use this small program called "Remove WGA".

Download "Remove WGA": Link

Solve "System Restore Incomplete" Problem on Windows XP

2008-12-01T09:23:00.007+06:00

Sometimes system restore doesn't work on Windows XP. After a restoration attempt windows says "Restoration Incomplete". This can happen for either low disk space or for a virus or trojan, or damage to hard disk or system restore files.

The solution to this problem though is very simple:

1. Right click on "My Computer". Go to properties.

2. Click on the "System Restore" tab and check mark on "Turn off System Restore on all drives"

3. Reboot windows

Doing this will make all your previous restore points on disk to be deleted.

4. Then after reboot again right click on "My Computer". Go to properties. Click on the
"System Restore" tab but this time uncheck the "Turn off System Restore on all
drives" box.

And that's it! System Restore is back in your PC with full functionality.
Enjoy!!!

Copying Files Has Never Been Easier

2008-11-29T23:41:00.007+06:00

How often this has happened to you? You need to copy files from 20 different folders to a single folder. It's very irritating to Open each folder, then select the required files, press Ctrl+C, then going to the target folder and having to press Ctrl+V. Well.....there's a more simple solution to it.

Suppose you have a folder on Desktop called "Test"

Here's What you need to do:

1. Click right button on the folder "Test" and select create shortcut.

2. Copy the shortcut to C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\SendTo folder (You can change the shortcut name to anything you like)

3. Now just go to the folder you need to copy files from.

4. Select required files, click right button.

5. Select Send To > Test

6. There you go. Files are copied to "Test" folder.

* Here user name refers to the user name used to login to Windows.

New Features Added to Gmail

2008-11-27T21:52:00.007+06:00

A new feature called "Theme" has been introduced to Gmail, the email service bu Google. With this feature you can change the look and feeling of your gmail account. You can acces this feature by going to Settings > Themes from your Gmail account.

There are also some features which are still in experimental stage. You can find them by going to Settings > Labs from your Gmail account.

* These features are only accessible from the "Standard View" of your Gmail account and not from the "Basic HTML View".

Google Chrome - The New "New" Thing

2008-11-26T13:42:00.007+06:00

As many of you will know by now, Google's latest invention, a browser called "Google Chrome" has started its journey as a public beta. I'm using it from the very first day, and I'll have to admit - it's a great product.The very first thing I noticed is its GUI. It's very clean and gibes you that feeling of calmness. It's also very fast for browsing. Specially the difference is visible on a page with lots of java scripts.

It has a very fast page rendering speed. After install it'll import your bookmarks, saved passwords from Mozilla Firefox, which is kinda' cool! When you'll open a new tab, a page is shown with thumbnails of the sites you've visited most. Moreover, the tabs are detachable. "Tabs" and "Windows" are interchangeable here. Detached tabs can be dragged and dropped into the browser, and tabs can be rearranged at any time. By isolating each tab's processes, when one site crashes, the browser does not. It also has a stealth mode feature, called "Incognito" which lets you to surf without the history recording cookies.

All in all it's a great browser with some minor flaws. But that's expected from a browser which is still in its first beta stage. I highly recommend you to use Google Chrome for regular browsing. If you don't, you won't know what you are missing out on.

Downlaod Google Chrome

Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, A Great Anti Malware Tool

2008-11-24T23:52:00.007+06:00

Few months ago my cousin's PC got infected with a rouge antivirus named Windows Antivirus 2009. If you are not familiar with the term "Rouge Antivirus", it's a type of antivirus that behaves like a virus. Once it reaches your PC, it gives false virus alerts, shows fake error messages telling you that your PC's security is in danger and constantly tells you to buy the full version of their software to remove the threats. Beware!!! Never ever buy any software of this kind.

I searched on the web to remove this rouge antivirus as it can't be uninstalled and neither can any antivirus software remove or even detect it. Finally I came up with this great free software called Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. It's a great anti malware tool, capable of removing almost any kind of malware or trojan threat. It also has a toll called "FileASSASIN" with which you can delete any file from hardisk even if it's being used by another program. The basic version of this software is available for free, you can use it forever. However the pro version allows you to get real time protection. But except for this there isn't any difference. I highly recommend you to use this tool along with a strong antivirus. Life will be much easier that's for sure.

Download Link

How to Enable "Show Hidden Files" Option

2008-11-24T11:03:00.009+06:00

Many Viruses and Trojans disables the "Show Hidden Files" option in Windows XP.

For re-enabling this feature:

1. Go to Start->Run and

2. Type in the following:

regedit

3. Hit enter or press "OK".

4. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersio\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL

5. Delete checkedValue and then again creat new DWORD VALUE with same name Checkedvalue with data value=1

Hope this helps!

How to determine whether your copy of Windows XP is activated or not

2008-11-23T20:19:00.010+06:00

Here's how to determine whether your copy of Windows XP is activated or not.

1. Go to Start->Run and

2. Enter the following

oobe/msoobe /a

A windows should open up showing your activation status.

If your copy of Windows XP is activated you should see something like this:

Get Folder Option Back in Windows XP

2008-11-22T20:16:00.006+06:00

Sometimes in Windows XP if you get attacked by any virus or trojan it removes the "Folder Option" from the "Tools" menu. Even if you get read of the virus somehow, sometimes it doesn't come back. Without the folder option you can't hide or show files. Here's how to get Folder Option back.

1st Method

1. Click on 'Start' and then 'Run'.
2. In the 'run' dialog box type gpedit.msc. The Group Policy window will open.
3. Navigate to the following location: User Configuration> Administrative Templates>
Window Components> Windows Explorer
4. In the right pane, find the 'Remove the folder options menu item'. Set its value
to 'Not Configured' by double clicking and setting the correct option.

2nd Method

If you are comfortable with modifying Windows Registry values, follow these steps:

1. Open registry editor by typing regedit in the run dialog box.

2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

3. Find the NoFolderOptions key in right pane. Change its value to 0. If you do not have this key just create it.

An important but not so used feature in Windows XP

2008-11-20T12:52:00.002+06:00

Windows XP has lots of features that many of us don't even know of. Such a feature is the "Tile Windows" feature. It allows a user to work with two separate windows at the same time. Here's how it works:

Many times you need to copy texts from one window to another. Suppose you have found an important article on Wikipedia and you want to use some parts of it for your class presentation. But you don't want to copy all of it. And switching windows in this case is also very frustrating.

All you need to do is:

1. Open two windows. One is the window to copy from and another to the window you're going to paste it.

2. Now hold the 'Ctrl' key and right click on the non active minimized window on the task bar.

3. Choose 'Tile Vertically'. And here you go!

* Alternatively you can also select 'Tile Vertically' depending on your need. This feature is also available on Windows Vista.