It’s offers time for Airtel users in India.Few days back we have blogged about Airtel launching unlimited national & local SMS offer.Now Airtel is also offering unlimited internet via GPRS for its mobile users.

Launch of many of these unlimited plans can be attributed to the on-going Indian Premier League (IPL) 2010.Airtel thought this would be the big opportunity introduce some offers and get the attention of the users, for that matter targeting mainly youth section of the users.We need to recall that Airtel once used to offer unlimited (virtually) GPRS internet in the forms daily pack and monthly pack.And now as Aircel and Tata Docomo are offering similar plans which are attracting the younger generation, Airtel had no option left but to come out with such unlimited offers.

We can see Airtel promoting unlimited SMS offer, Unlimited GPRS internet offer and reduced night calling rates offer through Sharman Joshi of  “3 Idiots” Bollywood movie fame.

Unlimited Internet Plan Tariff:

Prepaid:

May vary depending on your circle.For most circles you have to do a recharge for MRP Rs. 98 /- (RC 98) in order to activate this offer which is valid for one month from the date of activation.You can also dail #567 from your Airtel mobile if you have balance more than Rs. 110+ and opt not to go for a separate recharge.

Postpaid:

Postpaid users can avail this offer for a monthly rental of Rs. 98.SMS “INTERNET” to 121 to activate this pack.

For more information, visit Airtel mobile internet offers page.

Note:

This unlimited plan is not truly ‘unlimited’, as it has a limit for data usage up to 2 GB, beyond this limit, the data usage will be charged 30paise/50KB.

The free usage includes data browsed only through Mobile Office (MO) settings.Be careful here, of you activate this pack but still use browsing using Airtel Live settings, you’ll be charged for that.

To get Mobile Office internet settings, SMS “MO” to 543210 (Toll Free)

You can use this pack even while roaming in India, however it doesn’t apply to international roaming.

Are you aware that there are a lot of hidden users in your computer which you do not see in Control Panel. Such kind of hidden users are created by the system for specific uses. For example if you install VMware player to run Windows XP Virtual PC in your Windows 7 PC, then VMware will create a new user in your system for the program to run.

Sometimes we find that after installing a program or virtual machine, even if you have a single User without a password, while startup it may stop in the welcome screen itself. It logs on only when you click on the user. The problem is that even if the users are hidden to you, the system sees it and asks you which user to logon upon each startup. This occurred to me after installing VMware.

Now you can solve any problem with the users in your computer. Read the details further.

Here we use an advanced User management netplwiz to Modify, Disable or Delete any User in your computer.

Using netplwiz you can do many things. Some of the main uses are:

1. Delete a User

2. Modify the user properties, change the level of access like Administrator or Guest etc.

3. Reset Passwords

4. Disable Users

5. Set Secure Ctrl+Alt+Del Logon

Opening netplwiz User Accounts.

Press Start + R, type netplwiz and Enter.

You can see the User Accounts. You can see all the active Users and their Group.

You can Add new users or Remove or Set the properties.

Removing (Deleting) a User.

Select a User and Click on Remove. It will ask for confirmation. Once confirmed all the user and its related files will be deleted permanently.

Warning: Make sure that you do not delete any system or program users like the VMware user as seen above. If you do not want any user, you can disable the user instead of deleting it. If you disable the VMware user, it will work fine, but if you delete it, it cannot start any Virtual Machine. See How to Disable a User in Advance User Management Below.

Setting the Properties of a User:

Select the user you want to set the properties. Click on Properties. In the General Tab you can see the Properties. If you want to grant or change the level of access, then go to Group Membership Tab. See the Screen Shot below.

Adding a new user.

You can click on add and type the user name and select level of access(Group)

Resetting A User’s password.

Select the user and Click on Reset Password. It will ask for New Password.

If you are not an administrator then you cannot reset the passwords. Click here to learn how to reset the Administrator password in any Windows PC.

Advanced Properties Tab

In the advanced properties tab you can find advanced user management and secure logon options.

If you want a secure logon feature, which will ask for Username and Password, you can chck the Option in Secure Logon setting.

Advanced User Management:

Click on Advanced Button. You can see Local Users and Groups window.

To see the Users Click on Users in the left pane. Now you can set the advanced properties of a user.

Right Click on a user,  Select Properties. Using this you can:

1. Set The user should Change the Password in next logon

2. Set The user cannot change the password

3. Set the Expiry of the password.

4. Disable a user.

5. Lock the user account

If you want to see the list of Groups(level of access) present in your system, then click on Groups in the left pane.

You can see the Group Name and the Description, describing the level of access. Here you can add new users to a specific Group or delete a user from a group. You can also delete a Group.

Now you should be able to manage all the users with ease. Any issues can be raised as a comment below.

PS: All the Above operations were performed as a system administrator. If you don’t have System Administrator privilege you may not be accessible to certain attributes and operations.

RealTek High Definition (HD) Audio Codec R2.44 has been released a few days back by the Realtek semiconductors.

These are ALC882 series 7.1+2 Channel High Definition Audio codec coming with UAA – Universal  Audio Architecture that has five 24-bit stereo DACs (

Digital to Analog Converters), and three 20-bit stereo ADCs (Analog to Digital Converters) for delivering high performance for multimedia PCs.

Important Features:

• 7.1+2 channel multi-streaming enables concurrent gaming/VoIP
• Microphone Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC), Noise Suppression (NS), and Beam Forming (BF) technology for voice application
• Compatible with: Microsoft WindowsXP, Widnows2000, Windows Server 2003, Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows7 – x86/x64
• 3D direct sound compatible

Download Realtek 7.1 HD Audio Driver R2.44

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File Size: Windows 7/ Vista (32/64 bits) –Zip file- 53.65 MB

Windows XP/ 2003 (32/64 bits) – ZIP file – 29.90 MB

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File includes : Driver setup program, WDM driver, Realtek Soundman, Realtek Sound Effect Manager.

Instructions for Updating Driver

Updating Driver:

Windows 2000 , XP :

Step 1. Run the setup.exe program to start the installation.
Step 2. Click on [Next] to continue the procedure. If the Windows popup
"Digital Signature Not Found" message, press [Yes] to continue the
installation.
Step 3. Finally, select to restart the system and press [Finish] to complete
the installation.

Windows Vista, Windows7 :
Step 1. Run setup.exe, it will remove the original driver in your system.
Step 2. Click "Next" to remove the original audio driver in your system.
Step 3. Once after the original driver removed , reboot the computer.
Step 4. Please go back to the new driver package after computer restarted.
Step 5. Run setup.exe, it will install the new audio driver then.

Tikona Wireless Broadband Service (WI-BRO) :

Tikona, is the new entrant into the fastest growing broadband networks in India.But Tikona is completely different from other current broadband services because Tikona sets up access point on towers on each and every apartment / building where it’s services are required.Thus all the users in that locality (with in the wireless access point accessible range) can enjoy Wireless Broadband with the help of a modem supplied and installed by Tikona digital networks team.This means that if you have a laptop and if your building is Tikona access point enabled, you can have the freedom of surfing the internet sitting any where in your house.

Tariffs:

Limited usage plans (All offer speeds at 2 Mbps):

These are circuit breaker plans (with bill limit)

Unlimited Plans:

Unlimited plans are the plans that most users look for in any broadband service.Tikona is offering unlimited plans starting from Rs. 499 /- (150 Kbps) the maximum speed under UL plans is 1000 Kbps which you get if you take UL 1249 plan.

Fun Unlimited Plans:

These are special plans that provide internet surfing at 2 Mbps for first 400 MB of usage in FUL 799 plan, 200 MB in FUL 599 and 100 MB in FUL499 plan respectively every month.

Other Unlimited Plans:

These UL plans offer varying speeds at day and night.Night surfing speed gets almost doubled in each of these plans.

Premium UL plans:

[*]FMC 1499 and FMC 2499 have usage limits of 15 GB and 50 GB per month respectively, while other plans have unlimited usage limit.

Note: Modem installation charges for all the above plans would be Rs. 500 /-

Toll Free Number : 1800 20 94276

via Tkiona

Microsoft has announced a small but significant update to its own “Windows XP Mode” (or Windows Virtual PC), a feature that has been incorporated in Windows 7 to let the users of this new operating system take advantages of the older applications that still require Windows XP, by running them inside “Windows XP Mode”.Until now, this XP Mode has only been supported by processors having virtualization technology known has Hardware-Assisted Virtualization (HAV).

However, Windows XP Mode works only on Windows 7 Professional Enterprise, or Ultimate versions of Windows 7.

This update has been announced in Windows 7 blog, also they have made clear that Windows XP Mode will continue to make use of Intel VT and AMD-V like hardware virtualization technologies.

Windows XP Mode will no longer require hardware virtualization technology to run. This change makes it extremely easy for businesses to use Windows XP Mode to address any application incompatibility roadblocks they might have in migrating to Windows 7.

To install Windows XP mode in your PC with Windows 7 Professional or higher version, download the update from here (update KB977206 ).

Windows 7 Home users need not worry about the lack of support for their OS, as there are hacks available over the internet to install Windows XP mode in Windows 7 Home PCs (Home Basic and Home Premium) too.Hopefully we’ll cover one such hack in the upcoming posts.So stay tuned and subscribe to this blog’s RSS feeds.

Tip: You can use VMware player to install Windows XP Mode in any computer running Windows 7.

In windows 7, we can see recent items which you have opened using a specific program. This property in Windows 7 is a very good one. We can find our favorite files to be opened using a program in the start menu itself.

But, for some people it can be a trouble to their privacy. When we share a Windows 7 computer, others can easily see what files or even the programs which were opened recently by the previous user. In this case some of us may want to stop this feature from saving the recently open items or programs.

For example, I have opened some MP3 files using the Winamp player. So, if other people see then, they will come to know that these songs are some of my favorites . If I want to hide this then I need to disable this Recent items feature. This is just an example, it is more serious in case if you are handling sensitive data.

You can see the recently opened programs also. You can even hide the recently open programs if you want.

Just follow the two steps below.

Step 1: Open Start Menu. On the right pane of the menu, Right Click. Click on Properties. See the Screen Shot Below.

Step 2: In the Taskbar and Start menu Properties, Uncheck the features you want to disable. If you don’t want to show recently open items then Uncheck it and Click on Apply then OK.

Note that you may not want to disable recent programs feature as it is very useful.

So you can customize your settings according to your needs and privacy. If you need any help in any of such Windows 7 features, just leave your query in the comment.

In Windows system configuration is done using MSCONFIG. MSCONFIG is very useful to the Windows users to configure their system properties. We can configure all the system properties from boot up, startup till services to be run in your computer. A properly configured system will have optimal performance and proper memory usage.

This tutorial is about Speeding up your PC and increasing the performance level by removing unnecessary programs from startup and stopping unused services. By doing these things you can see the difference in startup time and the amount of physical memory used and even CPU usage.

This guide consists of two main parts:

1. Removing unnecessary programs from startup.

2. Stopping unused or rarely used services in your system.

Please note that this tutorial is just a guide. You need to analyze properly by yourself which programs or services to be stopped, which are required and which are not required.

We will start with the first one:

Removing unnecessary programs from startup

Step 1: Open System Configuration. Press Start + R, Type msconfig and click OK.

Step 2: You can see the General Tab in Systems Configuration. Go to Startup Tab.

You need to study the requirement of the programs, whether you need to start them during startup or not. You need to start your Virus Protection programs compulsorily. Remove any program which doesn’t have a proper description and which you do not know the functionality of the program. IF you know some programs which you rarely use, you can remove them as well. Do not forget to remove any suspicious program which may be a virus.

Step 3: After the analysis, uncheck the programs which you need not start during the startup of your computer.

Now you have successfully configured your startup programs according to your needs.

Stopping unused or rarely used services in your system.

Step 1: Go to the Services tab. There you can see the various services which can run in your system. Again you need to analyze which services are not used or which are rarely used and not required.

For example, I use the Oracle Database and VMware very rarely, but both of them are huge services which takes a lot of resources in the CPU and Memory. So, i choose not to start them. As I stopped these services then my Oracle Database and VMware will fail to run. So whenever I want to use any of these programs I will go to msconfig and check to start these services again. Then restart the computer and run the program. So keep in mind that you stop the services only which you rarely use.

Step 2: After detail study and analysis, you can stop the services by unchecking them in msconfig.

Finally you can Click Apply and OK, which will ask for restart. You need to restart if you want the changes you have made to be applied.

Important: Please note that removing a Program from startup and Stopping a service is very different. The Startup programs can be manually started, but services are not programs which can be run. Services are required to run the Programs installed in your computer. When a program which requires a services is started, only then the program’s service will be started For example, if VMware Player is started, then VMware services will also be started. But some essential services are always running in the system. Services which have been stopped by you cannot be started manually. Only by re including it in the starting services using msconfig, and upon restarting the system, the services can be started again by its programs.

You can definitely see the decrease in startup time and increase in performance of your system after applying the changes you have made using msconfig. If you have any doubt please leave a comment.

PS: The programs or services which I have removed from startup as shown above  need not be same as yours. It all depends upon your needs.

Program Compatibility Assistant is a service first introduced in Windows Vista and being continued in Windows 7.This service is intended to notify users when an installed program has some compatibility issues with the current operating system.Hence we see frequent Program Compatibility Assistant messages “This Program might not have installed correctly”.

If you install programs frequently (particularly when you install old versions of the programs) then you might be sick of these dialogue boxes and may want to disable these notifications.

There alerts are caused by a service called Program Compatibility Assistant (PCA) Service or PcaSVC in short.So stopping this windows service forever by changing the startup type to “Disabled” should serve the purpose.Follow these simple steps :

1. Press Windows + R button to start WIndows Run command.Type “services.msc” in the filed and click “ok”.

2. The Services window opens up.Find the service called “Program Compatibility Assistant Service” in the list.

Right click on the Program Compatibility Service and choose “properties” from the menu.

3. In the properties dialogue box, change the startup type to “Disabled” and click “Ok” to save the settings.

It is that simple !! Now you have disabled the PCA service and no more annoying Program compatibility alerts for you.

Windows Error Reporting (WER), a technology (previously known as Dr. Watson),developed by Microsoft lets you report post-error debug information to the developer of the particular application that has just crashed or stopped responding.Windows Error Reporting has been introduced as a Windows service from Windows XP and is being continued in the later versions Windows Vista and Windows 7.By default, this Error Reporting service will be started automatically.

However for some reasons like you may get annoyed by frequent error reporting alerts or for privacy concerns etc., you may want to disable or stop Error Reporting in your Windows operating system (here it is Windows 7).If you are not sure how to stop Error Reporting in Windows 7, please do follow the steps outlined below:

Method-1: Using Action Center

1.Type “wer” in the Start menu search bar.Check the results obtained for this search in control panel (refer to the screen shots).

2.Click on the “Choose how to check for solutions” item in the search results.It will open up the “Problem Reporting Settings” under Windows Action Center.

3. By default the first or second option (“Automatically check for solutions”) will be selected by your Windows.If you want Error reporting to be disabled, select the last option “Never check for solutions” for completely disabling it or select the third option “Each time a problem occurs, ask me before checking for solutions” for moderating the error reporting alerts.Click “Ok” button down the window once you have selected your option.

Method-2: Disabling WER service

Windows Error Reporting Service function:

“Allows errors to be reported when programs stop working or responding and allows existing solutions to be delivered. Also allows logs to be generated for diagnostic and repair services. If this service is stopped, error reporting might not work correctly and results of diagnostic services and repairs might not be displayed.”

We’ll try to achieve the same previous settings result but this time via disabling the Windows Error Reporting(WER) service.To do this, follow..

1. Press Windows button + R to open the Windows Run command.Type “services.msc” in the run command bar and hit ‘OK’.

2. It will open up Services window, where you can see list of all the services that are currently available on your Windows.Find “Windows Error Reporting Service” in this list.

3. Right click on the Windows Error Reporting Service and choose “Properties’ that should open a new properties window.The startup type will be either in “Automatic” or “Manual” by default.To completely disable the service choose “Disabled” and press ok.

That’s it, now you have disabled the Windows Error Reporting Service successfully.

Method–3: Using Registry Editor

Warning: Changing registry values without much knowledge will dump your entire Windows Operating system.Change them at YOUR OWN RISK.

1. Type Windows + R as in the previous case to open Windows run command.Type “regedit” in the command bar.

2.It will open up the Registry Editor window which will look like this.It contains three folders like navigable sub keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT ,

HKEY_CURRENT_USER,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE,

HKEY_USERS,

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER is the one we want.Click on it to expand the sub registry key.

3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting sub key using the following screen shots carefully.

4. In the Dword list, find the registry entry by name “Disabled” (highlighted in the screen shot).By default the Date value of this dword will be “0” meaning that it is enabled.

Right click on the “Disabled” DWORD and choose “Modify”.In the value data filed, change its value to “1” instead of “0”.Click on to reflect the changes.

Now you have successfully disabled WER.

You may also want to read our previous guides on A-Z of Installing Windows 7, Installing Windows 7 on USB stick, Activating Windows 7, Resetting Windows 7 password (when you forget it and unable to retrieve it), Creating desktop shutdown shortcut in Windows 7,Enabling GOD mode in Windows 7, Partitioning hard disk in Windows 7 , Restoring previous versions of files in Windows 7, Install and Run Windows XP in Windows 7 Using VMware Player and much more..

Feel free to leave a comment here if you find problem somewhere in following these methods.

Amayeta SWF Encrypt is a popular Flash Actionscript Encryption tool to encrypt and protect Adobe Flash SWF files from various ActionScript decompilers and other hackers.The version of the software which we are talking about in this post is version 4.x (4.0 or later ).If you are interested in SEF Encrypt version 6.0, you may read the features listed below:

SWF Encrypt 6 features:

• Encrypt, Obfuscate 7 Protect your Flash 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 SWF Movies
• Updated for Flash 10/CS4, Flex 2/3 and ActionScript 1/2/3
• Dense Actionscript Obfuscation
• No Actionscript Line Limit
• Available for Windows & Mac OSX

Download SWF Encrypt 6.0 trial

Steps:

1.Visit Amayeta promotional offers page, enter your details in the registration form available in that page, select the platform as ‘Windows’  (See the screenshot below) and click ‘Generate Free 4.x License’ button.

2.Now you will see your free SWF Encrypt 4.x License Registration serial (see the screenshot).Note down or copy the serial number and store it in a safe place for future reference.Then click on the link “Click Here to Download SWF Encrypt 4.x” just below your serial number.

3.You’ll be now taken to download page, where you can see all variants of SWF Encrypt 4.0 version (SWF Encrypt 4.x in general).Download any version for example, you can download SWF Encrypt 4.0.06 from this direct link.

4.Install the downloaded file and enter the license key you have got.Enjoy the software !!