Whats New On Tech

Myfav.es : Free, Customizable start page

2012-04-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

Users generally use their browser's default start page, which shows thumbnails of most visited websites or Speed dial page in case of opera or any similiar add-on. Some others use Search engine such as Google or even blank page as Start page.

Myfav.es is a fine looking start page that lists your most favourite websites links with big icons. Its free, customizable and elegant. Setup is also pretty easy. It's not necessary to create an account though it's recommended. Just log in, select your favourites sites from the list which covers most of the popular websites and just set it your homepage. Done!

When you signup to service, you get a custom URL (such as myfav.es/username), so that you can acess your favourite sites from anywhere without signing in.

To get started, just create an account. You can signup using facebook, twitter or google account.

After logging in, go to Edit my Sites and select your favourite websites from the list.

If you want to add websites which are not listed, you can create a custom favourite. Go to Create a Fave and put the web adress and select Icon colour, then save.

Other preferences can be configured under the Customize tab. Here you can set number of rows, number of icons, background, icon style, assign keyboard short cuts and Search bar preferences.

Remember to set your URL as public, so that you can access it on other devices as well. Myfav.es is certainly one of the best start page, its free, customizable and elegant.

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CCleaner 3.17 Released With Wildcard Support for Cookie cleaning

2012-03-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

Piriform on Monday announced the release of CCleaner 3.17 with wildcard support for Cookie cleaning and improved cleaning support for Google Chrome beta versions. Several other improvements and minor bug fixes are also made in the new build.

Those who are new to application, CCleaner is a freeware tool that helps you to protects your Privacy by cleaning all browsing history, removes junk files, cleans registry and thus by improves system performance.With CCleaner you can uninstall programs, clean temporary files and can fix broken shortcuts also.

Here is the release note:

Added wildcard support for Cookie cleaning.
Improved Google Chrome Saved Form Information cleaning.
Improved Google Chrome History cleaning for Search Engines.
Added Hosts history cleaning in Aurora.
Added Shortcuts history cleaning in Google Chrome Canary.
Improved JumpList menu to avoid possible UI lock.
Improved option to close running browsers when cleaning.
Improved IE AutoComplete Form History and Saved Passwords cleaning.
Improved shortcut cleaning in Windows 8.
Added cleaning for CyberLink PhotoDirector 10, DivX player and Snagit 11.
Improved cleaning for Vuze, Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player, Corel VideoStudio Pro X4 and Game Explorer.
Improved BitTorrent detection.
Minor bug fixes and improvements.

CCenhancer is a small tool by singular labs for Tech savy users who want to increase the power of CCleaner. It adds support for over 500 new programs into the CCleaner. You can read about it in a previous post here.

Remove Watermark from Windows 8 Consumer Preview

2012-03-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

Users who have downloaded and installed Windows 8 CP must have noticed a small watermark in the bottom-right corner saying "Windows 8 Consumer Preview Evaluation Copy. Build 8250", though it doesn't take much space but some users might find it annoying.

If you’re one of those users who find it annoying and would like to remove it, then here's how you can remove it.

Head over to this link here and download My WCP Watermark Editor. Just run the tool and remove the watermark. Whole process would take around two minutes and upon completion would ask for restart.

Just reboot and change the background.

And your Desktop would be Clean. (via)

DNS Jumper: Configure DNS fast and easy

2012-03-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

Changing DNS on your computer requires manual configuration. While it's not difficult for most people to change the DNS servers in the operating system, many users will not attempt these changes for fear of causing problems with their PC.

DNS Jumper can help the users by providing a simple GUI for changing their DNS with just few clicks.

DNS Jumper makes DNS configuration fast and easy.

You can manually select the DNS server from the list which lists 50+ DNS services, or let DNS Jumper select the fastest DNS Service for you.

You can also add DNS Servers to list manually. Other features include-

Backup option so that you can revert to you previous configuration if anything goes wrong.
Flush the existing DNS cache on your PC.
Check/Test the response time of your current DNS.

You can download DNS Jumper from developer's website here.

Start8 : Metro style Start Menu for Windows 8

2012-03-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

Stardock's Start8 is a Start menu program for Windows 8, for all those users who were annoyed because of the removal of the Start Button from Windows 8.

The Mini metro-style start menu is quite nice and feels native.

You can get Star8 by visiting this page. Provide your email and click Download. Or you can download it directly here.

Start8

Bringing back the Windows^® “Start” menu

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is available and has taken the Windows interface to a whole new level. Unfortunately, the preview did not come with a desktop feature that the world makes use of billions times a day, the “Start” menu. Luckily, we have a solution!

Start8 brings the “Start” menu back to Windows 8. This product is free and is available now! Enter your email address below to receive a download link.

Features

- Adds a “Start” menu to the Windows 8 taskbar

- Enables quick access and searching of your installed applications

- Adds Run... option via right-click menu

- Adds Shutdown... option via right-click menu

- Choose a custom Start button image

System requirements

- Windows 8 Consumer Preview

After installation The Start orb gets automatically added in the right spot where we have all been accustomed to seeing. When you click on it, you will have an impressive new Metro Styled Start Menu. A right-click opens a context menu with options to run applications or shutdown the computer.

Users who like Windows 7 style Start Menu can try Vistart which was mentioned earlier in this post.

Make Windows 7 look like Windows 8 Consumer Preview

2012-03-05T14:52:00.002-08:00

If you want to try Windows 8 out, but don't want to wipe your current OS or don’t want to multi-boot, then here is a way you can get feel and look of Windows 8 On Windows 7 system. You can transform Windows 7 to Windows 8 Consumer Preview with the Skin Pack from developer Hamid.

Skin Pack installs 9 visual style, Wallpapers, Aura, Newgen, BetterExplorer, Taskbarusertile and Bootscreen. It works perfectly and installation is pretty easy too.

Just Download the Transformation pack from here and run it. The installer will patch and add all files.

Choose custom installation to prevent Babylon Toolbar from installing and click next.

Setup will now download files to install.

When download completes click Next to continue.

Then Accept Terms and Continue. Setup will now install and will show details of installation.

Upon Completion, it will prompt for reboot. Reboot and enjoy the look of Windows 8.

Windows 8 General Tips, Shotcuts and How to's

2012-03-01T14:59:00.001-08:00

Its been two days since the release of Windows 8 Consumer preview, and if you look at the the Windows 8 reviews so far you will notice that initial reactions of consumers have not been so good for Microsoft. Start Menu is gone and many controls are moved to the new start screen. It might take users some time to get used to it, and doing basic tasks such as shutting down your pc has become a little confusing.

While it was possible to disable Metro UI to only work on the desktop in Developer Preview, with recent changes, it is currently not possible. All the tools that worked in the Developer Preview are not working right now.

So when others are still complaining about Metro, here are some How to's, Tips, and features of Windows 8 that you may not know about.

Old Start Menu

Well this program Vistart was designed for Xp to make Xp start menu look like Vista, but it works well with Windows 8 and maps the Windows key to the opening of the start menu. It is available for download at developer's website here for free.

Shutting Down or Rebooting Your Windows 8 PC.

Move the mouse over the charms button in the lower right corner of the Metro UI. Click the settings button there on the Charms menu, and there the Power button. This displays a context menu with the three options Sleep, Shut Down and Restart.
Another way is to use keyboard shortcut Windows + i which display the Settings menu with a power button.

Close metro Apps.

Move you mouse to Top-Left corner of screen, you would see the apps which you have opened, if you want to close any app then just right click on it and click on close.

Alternatively you can select the app and then just drag the app to the bottom left of you screen, and your app would be closed.

Or just use Alt + F4 ;-)

Switching between Apps and Windows

You can switch between open apps and windows with Alt-Tab, which works exactly as it did under Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows. Windows 8′s Alt-Tab displays both desktop windows and Metro apps.

Double-click to zoom out

Move your mouse on the Charms icon in the lower right corner of the screen and double-click. This would zooms out of the start page. This makes it easier to navigate if you have lots of apps installed.

Storage Spaces

You need at least two hard drives for the Storage Spaces feature. You find it in the Control Panel, under System and Security > Storage Spaces.
You basically combine multiple drives to access them under one drive letter in Windows.

Storage Spaces add two core new features to the Windows 8 operating system. It first offers to pool drives together to form a single storage unit. This can be handy to make use of the storage space of multiple drives under one drive letter. Fault tolerance, the second feature ensures that data remains accessible even if one drive fails.

Refresh And Reset tools

The Refresh and Reset options are hidden in the Windows Control Panel. You can access it under Recovery in Control Panel by changing the display from category view to small icons view. Refresh basically restores Windows to its first run state while keeping user files, while reset will more or less re-install Windows on the system.ging the display from category view to small icons view.

SkyDrive integration

Skydrive enables automatic synchronization of preferences and customizations with a cloud server. This ensures that you can use the same settings on every PC that you log in with your Windows Live ID.
You can access the SkyDrive app in the Metro interface. Here you get access to files that you have already stored in SkyDrive. You can easily access your hosted files and add new files from your computer to be hosted on the SkyDrive servers.

File History

File History is a new file backup system integrated into Windows 8. It basically saves copies of files so that they can be recovered when they are damaged, corrupt or lost. Microsoft recommends to use an external drive for storage, and the system is turned off by default.

Some Useful Metro Shortcut Keys

Windows key – Takes you to the Metro start screen

Win + D – Brings up the old Windows desktop.

Win + Q – Opens the Metro App Search screen.

Win + C – Opens up the Charms menu,

Win + . (Period)-Snaps the current Metro application to one side of the screen.

Win + J – Switches focus between snapped Metro applications.

Win + Page Up / Down – Moves the current app to the other monitor.

Win + Tab – Opens the Metro application switcher menu, switches between applications.

Win + , (comma) – Aero Peek at the desktop.

Windows 8 Customer Preview available to Download(Update : Direct and Torrent Links included)

2012-02-29T08:26:00.000-08:00

The Waiting is finally over as Microsoft has now officially released the consumer preview.

Microsoft launched the Beta at theMobile World Congress event in Barcelona. This is the biggest annual trade show for companies displaying and showing off their latest mobile computing wares, which include tablets.

The download has gone live just some time ago, but please remember this is just a beta, so shouldn’t be considered finished and stable for everyday use.

Torrent Link

English - 32-bit (x86) Download

English - 64-bit (x64) Download

Here are the Direct download links to ISO files

English

64-bit (x64) Download (3.3 GB)

Sha 1 hash — 1288519C5035BCAC83CBFA23A33038CCF5522749

32-bit Download (2.5 GB)

Sha 1 hash — E91ED665B01A46F4344C36D9D88C8BF78E9A1B39