Another scenario is where you want to move your existing Windows from one hard drive to another. This cannot be done with “copy & paste” in Windows Explorer, some files can only be created in the installation process.

The solution here is to use a Disk Cloning Utilities to backup the existing system. This is useful when you want to restored your system back to the original state with all the drives, software & configuration intact. If anything goes wrong to your system, you can easily reinstall or move your Windows to any hard drive at anytime.

Using DriveImage XML for Disk Cloning

There are plenty of free Disk Cloning Utilities around the net, but I have only tried DriveImage XML. DriveImage XML is an easy to use utility for system & data backup. It can backup the whole hard drive & create bit-by-bit compressed mirror image of data in the drive. The image being created is smaller than the original, my 15GB system in a 60GB partition has been compressed into 8GB multiple files image.

DriveImage XML runs under Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Vista and Windows 7 only. The program will backup, image and restore drives formatted with FAT 12, 16, 32 and NTFS. The image can be restored back to the system without having to reboot.

If you do not have a image copy of your Window system, go ahead & give DriveImage XML a try. Backup your system & keep the backup image files in separate drive location.

(Note: DriveImage XML has successfully backup my Windows XP laptop system. Nevertheless, DriveImage XML is unable to detect my Window 7 notebook system hard drive. Alternatively, you can use the backup utility that comes with Windows 7, however I still prefer the whole hard drive to be cloned. Perhaps, the workaround is to boot DriveImage from a CD-ROM, I’m going to try WinPE later for the solution.)

Website: http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm

Nevertheless, the technique will only work with Window Operating System & Firefox Browser with Stumbleupon Toolbar installed (yet to be tested on IE).

Important Note: This technique does not encourage you simply to ignore or thumb up every shares, doing so will lose your credibility in Stumbleupon community. At the end of the day, you still need to view all shares you received & decide whether or not to exercise your thumb. The trick is to make this process more efficient.

1 Setting Up AutoMouseClicker & Toolbar Shortcut

If your system match the one as mentioned above (I believe you are), then the first step is to download & install AutoMouseClicker. Use this program to perform automatic mouse clicks on a specific position for a number of times.

Second, setup the Stumbleupon toolbar keyboard shortcut. Basically, we just need to setup one shortcut, which is the I like it! button. Click the Tools Menu of Stumbleupon toolbar & select Toolbar Options. Go to Shortcuts Tab & check the Enable Stumbling shortcuts checkbox. Change the shortcut key for Rate “I like it!” to Ctrl+Q, click the Change & then OK buttons.

I prefer Ctrl+Q because Q is located right beside W on our keyboard & we are going to use Ctrl+W to get our job done.

2 Use AutoMouseClicker to Automate the Clicking Process

Okay, now we are ready to go, double click the AutoMouseClicker icon to launch the program. Click the Locate button, point your mouse to Stumbleupon toolbar & click the Stumble button to capture the mouse position.

Next, key in the Click Interval, this is the waiting time between two clicks. Placing a 10000 to 20000 (10 to 20 seconds) should give your browser sufficient time to load a page. You may adjust the time according to your internet connection speed.

Fill in the number of times to click, this is the number of page you want it to be opened in new tabs, follow the number on your Stumbleupon toolbar.

Now, here is the trick … press the Shift key on your keyboard 5 times, and a MessageBox will appear. Click OK to turn on the Windows StickyKeys. Then press the Ctrl key 2 times to lock the Ctrl key.

A tiny icon will appear on the right side of the Windows Taskbar, showing the Ctrl key is lock. With the Ctrl key locked (similar to holding it), clicking on the Stumble button will open your shares from friends in new tabs. (You can turn the StickyKeys off by pressing the Shift+Ctrl keys)

Adjust your Windows Accessibility Option if this doesn’t work for you. Go Control Panel & select Accessibility Option, under the Keyboard tab click the Setting button under StickyKeys. Tick to turn the options on or off accordingly. (Windows 2000, XP, Vista & 7 are similar)

Click the START button on AutoMouseClicker to start the clicking process; your new share should be opened in new tabs automatically. In the meantime, leave your computer alone & have your free time. Do other things else & come back after the clicking process is completed.

3 Use the Keyboard Shortcut to Exercise Your Thumb

Now all your shares are opened in new tabs. To continue, first we need to press Shift+Ctrl to turn the StickyKeys off.

Remember, we have setup the keyboard shortcut for I like it!, which is Ctrl+Q. Besides, the shortcut for Close Tab in Firefox is Ctrl+W. This makes our life easier … place your left hand on the left side of your keyboard, press Ctrl+Q to thumb up a page & then Ctrl+W to close the tab, repeat the step for next tab. To ignore a spammy page, simply press Ctrl+W to close it. Meanwhile, you can use mouse wheel to scroll the page down & read the contents.

Happy Stumbling! This article is inspired by this post: How to Free Your StumbleUpon Inbox From “SPAM” Shared Messages

In this post I have selected some free Slideshow Creators available in the internet. These tools allow everyone with minimum technical knowledge to create their own slideshows.

Animoto

Animoto is an online slideshow creators, it automatically produces beautifully unique video from your photos, video clips and music. It turn your photos & videos into purely amazing slideshow.
Link: http://animoto.com/

Slide

Mainly for social networks such as Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, hi5, etc. It offer people the ability to communicate, engage and have fun with one another. Slide was founded in 2005 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and is backed by Mayfield Fund, Blue Run Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.
Link: http://www.slide.com/

Kizoa

With Kizoa you can simply Create beautiful slideshows with music and many effects, insert them into your blog or website, burn slideshows to DVD. You can also edit your pictures easily & store or organize all your photos online, share your creations with your loved ones.
Link: http://www.kizoa.com/

Imageloop

Imageloop offers preset theme for your slideshow. Imageloop is easy to use, it offer free image hosting, unlimited uploads of your image to their server. With Imageloop, you can create an online version of any pdf and ppt presentation.
Link: http://www.imageloop.com/

Moblyng

Moblyng Games is an innovative social gaming company. It slideshow creators is similar to Imageloop. You can simply make you slide show mobile, create an online version of your unique slideshow.
Link: http://www.moblyng.com/make-slideshow/

There are numbers of great encryption software around the net, many of them are free. I have personally tried TrueCrypt & found that this files encryption software comes with powerful features. Those who are concerned about protecting their data should definitely give it a try.

TrueCrypt is a free real-time on-the-fly files encryption software. This means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right from the disk or any portable storage device. Unlike the other encryption software which encrypts only on individual files, TrueCrypt can store many files in an encrypted file or even in entire storage device. This is useful when you want to prevent others from exploring your files.

Files are encrypted in a TrueCrypt volume, you can choose whether the volume to be resided in a volume file which acts just like any normal file or in a whole partition or drive. Files can be copied to and from a mounted TrueCrypt volume just like they are copied to or from any normal disk, permitting you to open, copy, modify or delete them easily. TrueCrypt does not store any decrypted file back on to the disk during the decryption process; files are actually decrypted in memory while they are being read. When you turn off your computer, the volume will be dismounted and files stored in memory will be inaccessible.

If you are concern about the speed of reading the encrypted files on-the-fly, TrueCrypt uses so-called pipelining technology to work this out. Playing an encrypted mpeg2 file on my Pentium 2GHz, 2GB RAM computer has produced excellence result & has no problem at all.

The installation package comes with extensive help manual and the encryption & decryption wizard helps user to understand the process. TrueCrypt is not for careless users, be sure read the manual & understand what you’re doing. My advice is to test this software out on a few sample files before do anything risky to your important data.

Website: http://www.truecrypt.org

1 Photoshop Extreme Makeover

This is just to prove that anyone can be a model and nobody should feel bad for not look perfect.

2 Makeup Tutorial

Learn how to apply makeup on a girl’s photo, using photoshop.

3 Fake miniature model, tilt & shift lens effect

Using Layer Mask to effectively create the amazingly real fake miniature effect photo. Simply blur out certain parts of the photo won’t do the trick.

4 Blending Modes

This video means for beginer to learn how to use the blending modes to create an aged look new photo.

5 Using the Extract Filter

Selecting complicated objects such as hair can be easixxxly done with the Extract Filter

6 Using layers for effects

Tutorial on how to cut out an image in Photoshop and stack layers to create image effects.

7 Color change without masking

Photoshop tutorial using ‘Hue and Saturation’ tool to target change colors.

8 Create a Web 2.0-Style Logo

Tutorial on how to create a Web 2.0-Style logo using Adobe Photoshop.

9 Aqua Sphere Effect

Watch this video to learn how to create an aqua sphere.

10 The Power of Curves!

Curves are powerfull if you know how to use it, learn the basics of Curves here

The trick is to quickly open up the new shares in new tabs. Here is what you can do with the StumbleUpon toolbar: Click the Queue button with mouse scroll button or hold down the Ctr key & click the Queue button. Click the button continuously, while waiting for the multiple pages to load, exercise your thumb as necessary.

(TIPS: Clicking a web page’s hyperlink in this way will also open up the link in new tab)

I really enjoy using StumbleUpon to discover new stuff. Hope this tip which have been useful to me would benefit you as well.

For those who are using PC for their day to day business, these are applications that may help to save money. Setup your PC with only the basic Windows & power it with the free applications available for download from the internet.

Gathered here are over 45 free applications for your PC. System utilities, office, audio, video, images and more … download & give it a try.

File System Utilities

1 CCleaner

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system make Windows run faster. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. As a today, CCleaner has over 350 million remarkable downloads!
Link: http://www.ccleaner.com/

2 Ultradefrag

Use ultradefrag to defrag your entire hard drive. It is a powerful Open Source Defragmentation tool for Windows Platform. Features include: boot time defragmentation when windows is fully running, computer shut down after defragmentation has completed, file and folder defragmentation, defragment scheduler, etc.
Link: http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

3 7-zip

7-Zip works in Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2008, 2003, 2000, NT, ME & 98. 7-Zip is open source file archiver software. It was the winner of the SourceForge.net 2007 community choice awards. 7-Zip supports for zip encryption, and be able to create self-extracting archives (*.exe files).
Link: http://www.7-zip.org/

4 Kruptos 2 (Kruptos is no longer free, see next item)

File security is important. Kruptos 2 is a powerfull 256 bit file encryption utility that allows you to secure any sensitive files stored on your PC or portable storage device. Kruptos can also produce self-extracting (*.exe file) encrypted files that contain encrypted files & the software necessary to decompress the contents.
Link: http://www.kruptos2.co.uk/

4 TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is a free real-time on-the-fly files encryption software. This means that data is automatically encrypted or decrypted right from the disk or any portable storage device. Unlike the other encryption software which encrypts only on individual files, TrueCrypt can store many files in an encrypted file or even in entire storage device. This is useful when you want to prevent others from exploring your files. Read more. (updated: 27 Jan 2010)
Link: http://www.truecrypt.org/

5 DirSyncPro

DirSync Pro (Directory Synchronize Pro) is a small, but powerful utility for file and folder synchronization. DirSync Pro can be used to synchronize the content of one or many folders recursively. It has many options, including the deletion of destination files if the file has been removed from source. DirSync Pro is programmed completely in platform independent Java, so you need to have Java Runtime installed.
Link: http://directorysync.sourceforge.net/

6 TeraCopy

TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. Copy files faster, it uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives.
Link: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php

7 PC INSPECTOR File Recovery 4

PC INSPECTOR File Recovery 4 is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS file systems. Use File Recovery 4 to undelete, recover deleted files or recover a lost file. Get your files back with no charges.
Link: http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?Language=1

8 Drive manager

If you have lots of drive letters of different types of drives, such as mapped network drives, USB thumb drive, CD-ROM and DVD then this utility is perfect to help you manage them.
Link: http://www.alexnolan.net/software/driveman.htm

9 Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

Day to day computer usage are sometime leads to accumulating of duplicate files on your hard disk. Auslogics Duplicate File Finder will find the and duplicate files for you, and it is totally up to you to delete the duplicated files.
Link: http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/duplicate-file-finder

System & Other Utilities

10 Startuplite

Many computers have the problem of slow startup. StartUpLite is a lightweight and simple to use application that allows you to speed up your system startup. Accordingly to the author it is safe and efficient. The program allows you to disable or remove unnecessary startup entries from your computer. You can then shorten your computer startup time.
Link: http://www.malwarebytes.org/startuplite.php

11 Process Explorer

Now you can find out which program has a particular file or directory open. Process Explorer shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.
Link: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

12 InfraRecorder

InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. Support for burning disc images, discs copying, audio, CDs, DVDs, and more. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration. InfraRecorder is your lightweight burning tools.
Link: http://infrarecorder.org/

13 CamStudio

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and turn those AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs). Use CamStudio to create a demonstration video for any software program.
Link: http://camstudio.org/

14 Greenshot

Greenshot is a revolutionary screenshot tool optimized for productivity. Save a screenshot or a part of the screen to a file within a second. Greenshot is open source software.
Link: http://greenshot.sourceforge.net/

15 Rainlendar

Rainlendar is a feature rich customizable desktop calendar application that is easy to use and doesn’t take much space on your desktop. The appearance can be customized with skins. Rainlendar uses the standard iCalendar format to store its events and tasks so you can easily transfer them between applications.
Link: http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php

16 RocketDock

RocketDock is an application launcher for Windows. It provides a dock similar to Mac OS X Aqua GUI. It is freely available under a Creative Commons license. It is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock. It is available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista & Windows 7.
Link: http://rocketdock.com/

17 360Desktop

360desktop is free software that extends Windows as a 360° workspace, plus an online environment for creating interative 360° wallpaper, with a gallery and a widget platform, for sharing your favorite 360’s with everybody. Currently, 360desktop operates on Windows XP and Vista, both 32bit and 64bit Windows versions.
Link: http://www.360desktop.com/

PC Security

18 Microsoft Security Essentials

Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. The PC must run genuine Windows to install Microsoft Security Essentials.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

19 AVG Anti-Virus

AVG are still offering basic antivirus and antispyware protection for Windows for free. Limited features, no support, for private and non-commercial use only.
Link: http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

20 PC Tools Firewall

PC Tools Firewall Plus is a powerful free personal firewall for Windows® that protects your computer by preventing unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network.
Link: http://www.pctools.com/firewall/

21 Comodo Firewall and AntiVirus

If you prefer a more complicated firewall, then Comodo firewall might be your choice. Comodo firewall is a free Award-Winning firewall & antiVirus application. Comodo firewall uses sophisticated tests to ensure your computer is saved from the attacks.
Link: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/

Office Applications

22 Open Office

OpenOffice is a open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.
Link: http://www.openoffice.org/

23 Excel Viewer

You can use Excel Viewer to open, view, and print Excel workbooks. Although if you have your Open Office installed, you may not be able to view some of the Excel files. Use this to copy data from Excel Viewer to another program. However, you cannot edit data, save a workbook, or create a new workbook. Similarly, Word Viewer & PowerPoint Viewer is also available.
Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1CD6ACF9-CE06-4E1C-8DCF-F33F669DBC3A&displaylang=en

24 Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License. Unlike the Window Notepad, this powerful text editing tools can open up very large text file within seconds.
Link: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

25 tinySpell

When you need to check spelling in an application that does not include a spelling checker, then tinySpell is the right choice for you. tinySpell is a small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check and correct the spelling in any Windows application, especially the notepad.
Link: http://tinyspell.m6.net/

26 Adobe Reader (Acrobat Reader)

Acrobat Reader are now namedx Adobe Reader, it is available as free from Adobe’s web site. It allows the viewing and printing of PDF files. The Reader are widely used as a way to present information similar to a document printed on a paper.
Link: http://get.adobe.com/reader/

27 PDFCreator

With the PDFCreator installed on your computer, creating a PDF file is as easy as printing a document. It helps users convert any printable documents into PDF files. It is FREE for use & even commercial purpose.
Link: http://en.pdfforge.org/

Internet & Email

28 Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free & popular web browser. I believe you are already using it right now.
Link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

29 Free Download Manager

Free Download Manager is a powerful, easy-to-use and absolutely free download accelerator and manager. This download tool can accelerates downloads by splitting files into sections and then downloading them simultaneously. Beware of a fake versions of Free Download Manager.
Link: http://www.freedownloadmanager.org/

30 µTorrent

µTorrent is the world’s most popular BitTorrent client. Most of the features present in other BitTorrent clients are present in µTorrent, including bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet).
Link: http://www.utorrent.com/

31 Google Earth

I just can’t leave out Google Earth to be installed in my PC. Google Earth lets you fly anywhere on Earth to view satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D buildings, from galaxies in outer space to the canyons of the ocean.
Link: http://earth.google.com/

32 Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla’s Thunderbird in now on version 2. It is an powerful email application. Thunderbird 2 includes many new features to help you manage your inbox. You can now tag your email and find content within your email faster.
Link: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

33 Affixa

Affixa makes your webmail account as Windows application. Today, people use more than one mail system in their day-to-day life. Someone may use Microsoft Outlook for business matters and Gmail for personal stuff. You can use Affixa to handle that multiple email functionality for you.
Link: http://www.affixa.com/

Social Tools

34 Skype

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet. Free calls, video calls and instant messaging over the internet. Plus great value calls to phones anywhere in the world.
Link: http://www.skype.com/

35 digsby

digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It is a chat client with many stuff to offer. It is a social networking tool that be able to alert you when new messages arrive.
Link: http://www.digsby.com/

36 TweetDeck

TweetDeck brings your Twitter, Facebook and MySpace into your desktop. It is a personal browser for your contacts across Twitter, Facebook and more. It is a popular Twitter application. It is compatible with several operating systems like Windows, Mac, Linux & iPhone.
Link: http://www.tweetdeck.com/

Image Manipulation

37 GIMP

GIMP is an free & popular image manipulation application. It can be used as a simple paint program or an expert quality photo retouching program. I use it for images I have created for my blogs.
Link: http://www.gimp.org/

38 Paint.NET

Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
Link: http://www.getpaint.net/

39 PhotoPerfect Express

PhotoPerfect Express maximize the potential of your photos without spending hours in front of a computer. PhotoPerfect Express create image enhancement with just 3 simple steps. It create stunning results without any technical knowledge.
Link: http://www.arcadiasoftware.com/photoperfect-express.html

Video & Audio

40 VLC media player

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player and multimedia framework capable of reading most audio and video formats as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs.
Link: http://www.videolan.org/

41 DVD Flick

DVD Flick aims to be a simple but at the same time powerful DVD Authoring tool. It can take a number of video files stored on your computer and turn them into a DVD that will play back on your DVD player, Media Center or Home Cinema Set.
Link: http://www.dvdflick.net/

42 Winamp

Besides MP3, Winamp supports variety of music file formats, including MIDI, MOD, MPEG-1 audio, etc. The Winamp allows software developers to extend Winamp’s functionality through the use of plug-ins, those are stunning.
Link: http://www.winamp.com/

43 Songbird

Songbird is an open-source customizable music player that’s under active development. Songbird promises to be the Firefox of media players.
Link: http://www.getsongbird.com/

44 Foobar2000

foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats.
Link: http://www.foobar2000.org/

45 Audacity

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use and multilingual audio editor and recorder. You can use Audacity to Record live audio, Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs, Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files, Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together, Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
Link: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/