Technology Blog

Hiding the Windows Live Messenger icon in Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Restore the Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:51:00.001-07:00

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\Internet 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

Recover screen space in Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Desktop slideshow in Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:45:00.001-07:00

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.

Right-click everything

2011-08-03T07:42:00.001-07:00

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.

Automatically switch your default printer in Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

Windows 7's location-aware printing allows the operating system to automatically switch your default printer as you move from one network to another.

To set this up, first click Start, type Devices, and click the Devices and Printers link.

Select a printer and click Manage Default Printers (this is only visible on a mobile device, like a laptop - you won't see it on a PC).

Choose the "Change my default printer when I change networks" option, select a network, the default printer you'd like to use, and click Add.

Repeat the process for other networks available, and pick a default printer for each one.

And now, as you connect to a new network, Windows 7 will check this list and set the default printer to the one that you've defined.

Adjusting Windows Task bar size In Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

In Windows 7, the usual size of the Windows Taskbar is a bit larger than usual. This takes some extra space at the bottom of the computer screen. This makes selecting the applications easier as the buttons are bigger. However for those who are using smaller screens this may be a bit annoying as it takes more space on the screen. If you want you can make the size of the taskbar smaller by following the steps below.

In a blank space in the taskbar right click and select properties.
You will see the ‘Taskbar and Start Menu Properties’ dialog box with many tabs.
Here click ‘Use small icons’ and select it.
Now click OK and close the dialog box.

Now the task bar will occupy smaller space. If you want you can also hide the task bar when not required. If you want to hide the task bar, in step 2 above, select the ‘Taskbar’tab, and in ‘Taskbar appearance’, select ‘Autohide the taskbar’. If you choose this, if you bring the mouse to the bottom of the screen the taskbar will appear and if you move away from the task bar, it will be hidden.

Set the time zone in Windows 7

2011-08-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Windows 7 Shortcut Keys

2011-08-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some useful shortcut keys for Windows 7 users.
Windows key + Up Arrow = Active window will be maximized
Windows key + Down Arrow = Active window will be minimized
Windows key + Left Arrow = Active window will be moved to the left
Windows key + Right Arrow = Active window will be moved to the right
Windows key + Home Key = All windows will be minimized. If already minimized they will be opened.
Windows key + T = The first application in task bar will be given focus. If you press T continuously the focus will be switched to other applications in that order.
Windows key + Space bar = If you keep pressed, Windows Startup will be shown.
Windows key + 1-9 any number key = The respective application in the task bar will be given focus.
Windows key + Plus key = Window will be zoomed in
Windows key + Minus key = Window will be zoomed out.

ViewPad 10 features Windows and Android

2011-07-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Viewsonic's new tablet has a unique solution for consumers who are still clinging to Microsoft's Windows, even as Google's Android operating system gains traction: It offers both.

The ViewPad 10 is a dual-boot unit. It can launch either Windows 7 or Android as you start the computer.

Out of the box, the specs are impressive. The ViewPad has a 10.1-inch display, which is larger than the iPad's 9.7 inches. It weighs less than two pounds, has built in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and is stuffed with a relatively fast Intel 1.66 GHz processor. It costs $599 for the 16-gigabyte version, and $679 for double the memory.

The ViewPad has a built-in camera. The resolution is just 1.3 megapixels, well short of what the iPhone and other smartphones offer. So, don't expect great images.

The device also features a mini VGA port, a standard audio jack, two USB ports and a MicroSD card slot. It's pretty full-featured for a tablet.

The computer comes with Windows 7 Home Premium installed, and I updated the test unit with version 2.2 of Android, also known as Froyo.

The ViewPad didn't present as rich an experience, primarily because the graphical interface that presents the shortcuts, widgets and navigation on the tablet isn't as advanced as those on smartphones.

Moreover, the apps shortcut on the tablet didn't present the full offering of apps available on Google's Android Market. Instead, it offers a much smaller selection at something called "AndAppStore." .

The better half of the ViewPad is Windows 7.

It runs fast and is pretty intuitive about responding to the right icons, scroll bars and objects on the display that I was trying to touch. It is a new experience to navigate the Web in Firefox by swiping across the screen.

Mozilla starts coding for mobiles and tablets

2011-07-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

The creators of the Firefox web browser have started developing an operating system for mobiles and tablets.

Although the project will draw on some parts of Google's Android mobile operating system much of the code will be freshly written.

Once finished, the operating system will compete with Android as it will run on the same devices.

The project team said all code development would be done in the open and shared as soon as it was written.

Called Boot To Gecko the code creation is being overseen by the Mozilla Project which created the Firefox browser. It was announced on the Mozilla discussion forum by researcher Andreas Gal.

Gecko is the rendering engine that powers the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email program. A rendering engine interprets the code on webpages and displays it in the right format on screen.

With B2G, the Mozilla developers aim to get applications running without the need for the browser, effectively creating a web-centred operating system.

It will draw on some core parts of Android but aims to add a wrapper around it that is much more open than the one created by Google. If successful, the project will face stiff competition from Google's Android and Chrome as well as Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.

The Mozilla team admitted that the project was in its "infancy" but said it already created some basic software from building blocks that are similar to those needed to get the OS running.

Download Free Antivirus Software for Windows

2011-07-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

	Avast! Free Antivirus Expect great all-around protection against viruses and trojans.Download		AntiVir Free Version Lightweight and solid. Good ratings. Worth looking into.Download		AVG Antivirus Free Edition Not as good as Avast or Avira but with considerably less bloat. The most popular free antivirus.Download
	Microsoft Security Essentials Simple, lightweight and competent protection suite.Download		Comodo Internet Security Free security suite, includes both a firewall and anti-virus protection.Download

6 essential software for your windows machine

2011-07-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of 6 essential software that are required on your windows PC or laptop.

Adobe Reader – Most of the documents related to travel, banking or professional are published and shared in the adobe pdf format, hence it is necessary to have this installed on your new PC.
7-zip – This is an open source unzip and archive utility that supports multitude of formats including XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP, WIM, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DEB, DMG, FAT, HFS, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, VHD, WIM, XAR, Z . This is a must have software on your new PC. This software is a good open source replacement to WinZip.
Firefox - Yes! there are websites that appear different and better on firefox and it is better to have an option of a browser other than IE on your PC just in case.
Adobe Flash plugin for your browser – This is required to watch flash video’s on the internet including websites like youtube.
ZapGrab - This is a free utility to grab screen shots of portions of your screen, although one could choose to use printscreen and MS paint to achieve the same result, this utility makes the task easier.
Freecorder browser plugin – This is a must have tool for recording streaming audio and video played on your computer from external websites like youtube etc. The audio can be recorded as you listen from the website, any youtube video’s that you watch can be automatically stored in the cache and saved for later viewing.

All the above software can alternatively downloaded from download.com. This site contains software that serve every need of yours. Best of all, the software available on this site is tested spyware-free by the editors and reviewed. Downloading software from other un-reliable sites can introduce sypware or malware into your machine.

How to you check the popularity of your website

2011-07-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Websites can also be categorized similarly based on popularity and reputation. Here are few methods for checking the popularity and reputation of any website.

Alexa Ranking

This is perhaps the most used and most controversial method of checking the popularity of a website. In this method, the traffic rank of a website as compared to other websites in the internet is measured. Traffic rank is an indication of the popularity of a website. For normal website, an alexa traffic rank of anything less than 500,000 is considered to be good enough. The top ten ranked sites in the world according to alexa are:

Google - Alexa Rank 1
Facebook - Alexa Rank 2
Youtube - Alexa Rank 3
Yahoo.com – Alexa Rank 4
Blogger.com – Alexa Rank 5
Baidu - Alexa Rank 6
Wikipedia - Alexa Rank 7
Windows Live – Alexa Rank 8
Twitter - Alexa Rank 9
QQ.com – Alexa Rank 10

Inbound Links

Inbound links are the links pointing to a website from other sites. More number of inbound links from different websites indicates the reputation of the website. Although Alexa lists the number of inbound links, not all links are actually listed. It is difficult to find all the inbound links of a particular website. Different tools for checking inbound links for a particular website are available on the internet, but results vary greatly. The Quality of inbound links also matters, an inbound link from a reputed website like bbc.com is worth more than 10 inbound links from lesser known sites.

Finally, there are websites or blogs that may be popular among a local community and frequently visited by their members. So, for some websites, the popularity and reputation may be irrelevant as long as it serves the purpose of a community.

How to create an email signature for MSN

2011-07-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Most of the email providers allow you to make your own customized signature that will be automatically inserted at the end of each message that you send. An Email Signature represents you, your business and your profession. It is the best way to promote your company or your business with an E-Signature which will contain the essential contact information, website URL link of your business or company and with a brief tag line about your business. The Signature can be either personal or professional one. Keep in mind that your email signature should be simple and easy to read. General Thumb rule is that the E-sig should limit to 4-6 lines.

Your email signature is a clear indication to your recipient that the message is from you and provides the sender’s name, company position and contact information. Email Signatures are very powerful and high-end marketing tool for your business or organization. Few lines that you make as signature will let people to know who and what you are. The most useful benefit with the email signature is, it can be used as a business card or an ad that enables the recipients to have direct access to your website.

Windows Live Hot Mail1. Select “options” and “More Options” from the windows Live Hot mail Toolbar.
2. Select the Customize your mail and click on Personal e-mail signature.
3. Type the desired signature in the text field.
4. MSN Hotmail does not include the standard signature delimiter automatically, so you should do that manually when composing your signature.
5. Click OK.
6. Add Rich Formatting to Your MSN Hotmail Signature.

How to create an email signature for Yahoo Mail

2011-07-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

Yahoo Mail
1. Log on to your Yahoo! mail account and click “Options” in the top right corner of your mail page and click “More Options”.
2. From the list click on “Signature”.
3. Select “Show a signature on all outgoing messages” to enable the signature.
4. Select either plain text or Rich text at the right of the message window, above the text area. In Rich Text you can select the color, font, size and style options which will optimize your signature specifically.
5. Type the signature that you want it to appear in all your mails that you send.
6. Click on “Save Changes”.

How to Reapply for Adsense when Google banned your Adsense Account?

2011-07-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

It is important to understand how to reapply for Google Ansense when you need to do so for whatever the reason.

Some of the reasons why a publisher has to reapply for Google Adsense are:
To transfer the ownership of a website (like when you buy a website that already has Adsense in it, from someone else ).
When the account was suspended for click fraud, voilation of Google's terms of service, or for other illegal means.
When you were rejected at the initial application itself.
When the site has functionality problems.

Now let us see how to act to reapply in each of the cases:

Change of Ownership
You can reapply by sending an email to Adsense support team and amply demostrate the change of owner ship in your email. As long as the website was previously not banned and meets all the requirements to qualify for Adsense, your application will be accepted. It is important to make sure before buying, if the site is banned from Adsense for any reason. You can enquire this from Adsense team by sending them an email.

Account was Banned or Disabled
A publisher can get banned for click fraud or voilation of any Adsense program policies. Normally the publisher gets a notification email from Google explaining why the account was banned. When you receive such an email, you have to know how to react and defend (if you are not at fault, ofcourse). In some cases it will not be very hard to reactivate your account. But in some cases such as click fraud it is really hard to get the account back on the road. Here are some of the causes for disabling a, Adsense account:

Click Fraud:
Adsense registers what they consider as invalid, malicious or fradulant clicks on the Adsense Ads generated mainly for the purpose of personal gain in adsense revenue. More more information, see our article on Click Fraud.

What to do?
Email Google Adsense team with an apology and admitting the blame. However, if you consider you have not done anything wrong, they will see this situation triggered by one of your actions, even if not directly.
Be persistent. Send an email regularly, say once a week to show them that you are comitted and loyal to the program.
Keep a polite tone. Don't be confrontational. Being rude will never work.
Offer to make compensation on the malicious clicks to ensure them that you are truly sorry.

Incentives or Advising the Users for Clicks :
This occurs usually for publishers who are not well aware of Google Adsense program policies. Google prohibits using any other phrase except "Sponsered Links" or "Advertisements" around google Ads. Using phrease such as "Please click on the links" etc. or telling the visitors that it is madatory to click on Ads to use some other service on your site or to offer incentives for clicks etc., are some of the reasons that can potentially have your account banned.

What to do?
Just remove all content from your site that can be intrepreted as ' promoting clicks on your site' and resubmit your application. And never, never repeat such acts if you are lucky enough to have your account reactivated.

Rejection of the Initial Application
Usually Google rejects a site for Adsense, because the site does not meet all the Google Adsense program policies.

What to do?
Read the Google Terms of Service carefully and make sure you site meets all the requirements. In some case even if the site is perfect, they may reject because of their mistake. In such case resumit the application and have them take a second look at your site. They usually give the approval immediatly in such cases.

Banned because of functionality problems
When there is any problem on any page that causes it to automatically refresh.
When you have an automatic procedure serving Google ads to all pages including 404 error pages and search pages.
When there are some broken links or any other site disfunctionalities that come against Google stipulations.

What to do?
Solving the problems and resubmitting will usually be enough.

5 Websites Where To Download Ebooks for Free

2011-07-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Since I don’t have time to read real books lately, I started downloading ebooks to my G1 and iPod Touch. Here is list of 5 Websites for Free Ebooks I enjoyed I think you will too.
http://www.freebookspot.ws/
http://www.freetechbooks.com/ -tech books
http://www.zillr.org/ – great ebook site easy to download links as well
http://books.google.com/googlebooks/mobile/ – this is great website by google , lets you read books on your phone
http://www.asksam.com/ebooks/

Different Ad Colors in Google Adsense

2011-07-13T08:22:00.000-07:00

Google allows a high degree of customization when it comes to formating the appearence of Google Ads. This is reflected in Googles offering of different Ad Formats and Ad Color.
By properly chosing the colors you use with your ads to match the theam of the over all website, it is possible to make the ads appear as an integral part of the website and less like Ads. This improves the chance of a visitor clicking on those.
The five parts of the ad which you can change the color on are:

The border color of the ad
The background color of the ad
The link color of the ad
The url color of the ad
The text color of the ad

Understanding Adsense Channels

2011-07-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Adsense Channels allows us to understand:

What amount of revenue that each of our websites are generating

What amount of revenue particular pages or sections within one website are generating

You can setup channels inside your Adsense account which will enable you to track where your Adsense clicks are coming from.

There are two types of channels:

1. URL Channels
URL channels allow you track the Adsense performance under a specific URL. The URL could of an entire domain or subdomain or directory or even a specific page. The beauty of this is not you don't need to do any thing on the website side. Google automatically reports the Adsense performance with the URL. This is usful when you want to assess the overall performance of all pages under specific sections of your site.

For understanding this consider the following example provided by Google:

example.com track all pages across all subdomains
sports.example.com track only pages across the 'sports' subdomain
sports.example.com/widgets track all pages below a specific directory
sports.example.com/index.html track a specific page

2. Custom Channels
Custom Channels allows you to track the performance of a particular ad or group of Ads that you have generated, by placing a channel id all those Ads that you want to group and track.

With these channels the id for the particular channel you create is included in the actual Adsense ad code that you generate. Every ad that you include this code in, will report its performance under that particular channel even if they are different format sizes or appear on different pages or different websites.

Currently you are allowed to create upto 200 different channels.

Different Ad Formats in Google Adsense

2011-07-13T08:15:00.003-07:00

Adsense offer a variety of Adsense Ad formats to allow publisers the flexibility to place ads on any spot on their website. There are currently 10 standard Ad formats and 6 Adlink formats.
The Standard Adsense Ad Formats
Horizontal Ad Formats

1. 728 x 90: Leaderboard
2. 468 x 60: Banner
3. 234 x 60: Half Banner

Vertical Ad Formats

4. 120 x 600: Skyscraper
5. 120 x 140: Vertical Banner

Square Ad Formats

6. 125 x 125: Button
7. 300 x 250: Medium Rectangle
8. 250 x 250: Square
9. 336 x 280: Large Rectangle
10. 180 x 150: Small Rectangle

The Adsense Adlinks Formats
Horizontal Adlink Formats

1. 728 x 15
2. 468 x 15

Square Adlink Formats

3. 200 x 90
4. 180 x 90
5. 160 x 90
6. 120 x 90

Gmail gets drag-and-drop attachment

2011-07-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

Google put out a pair of small, but useful Gmail updates on Thursday that make it both easier to use and more integrated with the company's free Calendar service. Notably, both have skipped a trial through the service's "labs" section, and gone straight through to the final product.
The first is drag-and-drop attachments, a feature which lets you drag files from your desktop machine right into your e-mail message to have them begin uploading. It works the same as the system Google implemented in its Wave service for photos and other media types. It also has the same requirement of the user having to run Google Chrome or Firefox 3.6.
To use it within Gmail, users just drag any file from their hard drive (or from within an open application) into a new green box that appears within the compose menu. The service then uploads it in the background, which--just like uploading any other attachment--lets you do other things as the bits are being pushed.

Gmail's attachment handling now works with a drag and a drop from your computer. You'll need Chrome or Firefox 3.6 installed though.

(Credit: Screenshot by Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

The other new feature is a nice follow-up to the experimental rescheduling feature the company introduced to its Calendar product just last month. It adds a little "insert invitation" link just below the subject line of outgoing e-mails. When clicked, it pops up with a Google Calendar invitation-maker that includes a visual of when there are open times to meet based on those people's schedules. As soon as you send it, the event gets added to everyone's calendars (if they're on Gmail that is), or attached as an .ICS file.
Between the two, the drag-and-drop attachments is really the new, killer feature. For those users on Chrome or Firefox (with Mozilla's Prism installed) who are running Gmail as a standalone desktop Web app, this adds a whole new layer of functionality, and one that more closely resembles a real piece of software.

How to Making an animation photo

2011-07-11T09:32:00.001-07:00

Hi guys! did you want to making an animation photo but don't understand about animation software? don't worry about that, you can making an animation photo using online animation photo maker. That is very much site provides this service, one of them is http://www.slide.com. With this site you can make an animation photo very easy. First you must sign up at this site and then you can making much animation photos for free of charge. Still comfused how to make an animation photo at slide.com, please following the steps below :

Please check out http://www.slide.com.

First you must registered at slide.com.

Click at Sign up (this is free).

Insert your email address and password would you want.

Then click Sign up button, and then automatically sign in to your account.

Next step is making animation photo.

Click Style for choosing your animation style.

Click Skin for choosing your animation skin.

Click Size for choosing your animation size.

Click Select Image button, and then insert your photo or image file.

Click Upload button for uploading your photos or images.

If uploading is done, click Save button.

Copy the HTML Code that given, and then paste at notepad or another text editor.

Click Log Out to exit from slide.com. Close your browser page if you want.

Done. Next step is inserting your animation photo to your blog.

Now you can add your animation photo code to your blog, please following the steps :

At the dasboard page , click Layout.

Click at Page Element tab. See the picture below :

Click at Add a Page element.

After emerging pop up window , Klik add to blog button for the things HTML/JavaScript. See the picture following :

Open your animation photo code, copy and then paste into available column.

Click

Done. Please see the result.

Google Chrome is now ahead of Safari

2011-07-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Two weeks earlier Google launched the Google Chrome for the Mac and Linux platforms. After this the uptake of Google Chrome has increased quite extensively. Google Chrome has now taken the 3rd place in the Browser rankings overtaking Safari which was the third largest browser so far. IE and Firefox is still hold first and second place with 64% and 25% of the market share respectively.

For Chrome, this is an important milestone with 4.4% of the market share today. This is especially an accomplishment considering the fact that it is just one year since it was launched. It took five years for firefox to reach its 25%.

Two Ways To Upgrade From Windows XP To Windows 7

2011-07-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 is till now the best Windows operating system released till date, as per the user feedback, sales numbers and experience it has got some very positive comments.

All those user who are still using XP and may want to upgrade to windows 7 are out of luck, as Microsoft does not allow to upgrade from XP to windows 7 as both are vastly different OS in terms of feature and their structure.

However there are 2 ways with which you can partially upgrade from XP to windows 7, but both of these method will require some input from your side.

The first method is to install windows 7 in dual boot, after running the setup from Windows XP so it will get added to the boot loader. But it will result in wastage of disk space and it will require a different partition also to get installed this way.

Another method would be to backup all user data and settings with windows easy settings transfer and do a clean install after removing Windows XP completely, in this case you will be requiring to install the old software which you used to use again in the new Windows 7 OS.

We would suggest you to use Windows 7 upgrade advisor to check for issues and problems with devices and software that might occur after installing windows 7, so that you can come to know whether your system can run windows 7 smoothly or not.