Free Useful Software Reviews

Best BitTorrent Client Software - uTorrent

2009-10-19T14:21:00.006+08:00

I have been trying both BitComet and BitTorren t and recently I tried the uTorrent. Giving me for about a month of experience, I would like to vote uTorrent as the best BitTorrent client software for the following reasons:

Installation files is very small – I just love it. It still serves exactly the same purpose as other BiTorrent client software with this tiny program.

Download speed is faster – It just beats both BitComet and BitTorrent by looking at the total downloading speed for the same torrent files. I don't really benchmark it by apple-to-apple comparison but this is my overall impression.

Very small memory footprint – It is a least still very responsive when I'm downloading a lot of huge files as compared to BitComet and BitTorrent which have a little bit of lagging. Big kudos to uTorrent, I really love it.

User friendly interface and ease to use – Most of user options and settings are self-explanatory. There are only 3 menus (i.e. File, Options and Help) which I found it very simple enough as compared to the rest.

No annoying advertisements – Some BitTorrent clients just have this annoying advertisement which I think that is really unnecessary. They're not spyware but I don't like them to be displayed at the bottom of the software.

Resuming is very fast - The resuming speed is really awesome every time I exit the uTorrent or restart my computer. It is somehow ways faster than the rest of the bitTorrent clients software and most importantly it doesn't hang.

Note: The only not so good about uTorrent is it only supports in Windows platform.

Downloading & Configuring uTorrent

(1) Download uTorrent from the official uTorrent website and run the installation and follow through the simple setup instructions.

(2) Uncheck the "Start uTorrent when Windows starts up" which I think is not necessary.

(3) Do Not Install Ask.Com Toolbar because it is completely useless. Uncheck all the check boxs at the last page of installation. Click "Install" to continue the installation.

(4) At the “Speed Guide” page, click on the “Current Settings” select the most appropriate download speed. It will then automatically decide the best settings for you (e.g. upload limit, connections per-torrent and etc.) You can also run the speed test at www.dslreports.com or check with your internet service provider for your maximum download speed. For simplicity, you can just.

Notes: 8kbps (bit per second) is equal to 1kBps (byte per second). 1 byte = 8 bits.

(6) Click on “Test if port is forwarded properly” to make sure the port has been forwarded properly. If that doesn't work try the following steps:

Make sure you enable "Add Windows Firewall Exception" in "Option -> Preference -> Connection" menu.
Restart your PC and perform the test again.
Click the browser refresh button until you get to the successful one.

Some Useful Tips to Use uTorrent

DO NOT patch TCPIP.sys to allow more concurrent half-open connections - it doesn't help much so you can just save your time to do that. Installing this patch may possibly screw up your system too, so don't take the risk.

Enable Protocol Encryption - As you may know some Internet Service Provided purposely block the BitTorrent protocol traffic and limit the downloading speed. This is the most funniest thing I've ever heard. So we need to hide from them and you can go to Options -> Preference and set the Outgoing Protocol Encryption to Enabled.

Using Force Start to Better Efficiency - The maximum number of connections is determined by "Options -> Preferences -> Bandwidth -> Number of Connections" but I usually use the Force Start feature (i.e. right click the downloading file) to kick start the download even though it exceeds the number of maximum connections. You need to play around with this to get the optimum performance that you wish. Every different torrent files download could be different.

There are a lot of tweaks but I explained here are those most common and useful one. Hope you find those tips useful. Have fun! :)

How to Format Storage Card in Windows Mobile?

2009-10-04T14:37:00.005+08:00

Of course the most convenient way to format your storage or flash memory card (i.e. micro-SD card) is to use SD card reader which can be plugged into your PC through USB for example. Your PC or laptop will then detect this storage card as one of the disk spaces so that you can perform the format as like how you normally format a normal hard disk.

However, I don't have this SD card reader. Therefore, I was searching around to find a way to format my storage card (i.e. Micro-SD card) in Windows Mobile. Unfortunately, many of those are not working except I found this one – StorageTools by SoftWinte r.

\
Note: For some reasons, the EXE doesn't work. It says I'm required to use the latest of active-sync software which is no longer necessary in Windows Vista. So, do NOT download the EXE from this website. Let's follow the following instructions:

Download & Install Instructions

Click on the "More Download Options".
Look for "Storage Tools for Windows Mobile"
Download the appropriate CAB file (e.g. st.ppc420.arm.cab)
Copy the CAB file (e.g. st.ppc420.arm.cab) to your mobile phone.
Run the CAB file (e.g. st.ppc420.arm.cab ) and install the application into your mobile.
In the StorageTools application, click on the "Format" tab and you will know what to do next. :)

Other Cool features of this StorageTools that you may also can try out is the “Scan” and “Defrag” features which I find it very useful.

Remove Empty Blank Space in Firefox

2009-09-27T16:03:00.006+08:00

If you have this mystery empty blank space appears on your top of your Firefox browser, it is the Bookmark Toolbar that comes together with Firefox! You see the empty spaces at the top of the Firefox is because I don't have any bookmarks yet. I think by default it has something that it will be shown there rather than the empty space.

I found that the bookmark toolbar in Firefox is pretty useless and it is completely waste of spaces especially if I don't have any bookmark. If you're like me who has never used this bookmark toolbar, you can just go ahead to remove it. Even if you use the bookmark feature from Firefox, I don't like the idea of using the extra spaces at the top of my browser. Isn't that easier for me just go to the Bookmarks Menu directly?

To remove this useless bookmark toolbar:

Right Click the "Refresh" or "Stop" or "Home" button at the top. The funny thing is you can't right click the bookmark toolbar. :)
Un-check or de-select the "Bookmarks Toolbar"
Now this empty blank space is gone! :)

Add Favorite Links in Windows Explorer - MS Vista

2009-09-22T13:56:00.004+08:00

You may wonder how to add favorite link in windows explorer in Microsoft Vista. At least I do not get used to it when I'm switching from XP to Vista. The favorite links used to appear at the top menu but now it appears at the top left corner of your windows explorer in Vista.

Drag & Drop Method

You can simply drag any folder that you want to put as favorite link and drop it to the upper left corner as shown below.

Copy & Paste Method

Right click to "Copy" the folder that you would like to add as favorite link.
Go to "\Desktop\Your User Name\Links"
Right click and click "Paste Shortcut" to paste the folder shortcut to the "Links" folder.

Note: You can NOT copy & paste to the Favorite Links directly.

To remove your favorite link, you can remove the link directly from the favorite link (i.e. upper left corner) or you can also delete the shortcut directly from the "Links" folder.

Best Media Player & Codec - VLC Review

2009-09-19T18:04:00.006+08:00

After using VideoLAN Client (i.e. VLC) media player for few weeks, I have to admit that VLC is so far the best video player and codec. I would recommend everyone to use this media player. It comes together with the video codec itself.

What so cool about VLC?

VLC can play RMVB format without installing real player.
VLC can play MKV format (i.e. full HD video source).

What not so good about VLC?

Moving the video progress bar is not very smooth and out of sync with the video playback. This is only for playing the real player video format file (i.e. RMVB). Playing other video format (e.g. mkv, mp4, wmv, avi and etc) files is fine.

This guy can play all my video format files unlike Storm Codec, some of the flash video (i.e. FLV) file cannot be played at all. Too bad the K-Lite Codec doesn't support MKV that leaves me no choice to vote VLC is the “Best Video Media Player and Codec”.

By the way, VLC is an open source software and it is completely free. Please give it a try and let me know your comments. I love it is simply I no longer need to install real player and also can play MKV files. :)

Download VLC media player here .

p/s: It looks like there are some other cool features (e.g. TV streaming?) in VLC but I don't have a chance to give it a try.

Storm Codec Review - Most Complete Video Codec?

2009-08-30T16:17:00.008+08:00

Recently, Storm codec was introduced by most of my friends and they told me that so far the Storm Codec is the most complete video codec. Let's see how true it is...

K-Lite Codec was used to my best option BUT there are some disadvantages as below:

Disadvantages of K-Lite Codec

Doesn't support Real Player's files (i.e. RMVB)
Doesn't support MKV files (Full HD video source).

I'm still okay with the RMVB as I can install the Real Player but definitely not the MKV video format.

Perhaps you may have already some ideas the advantages of Storm Codec which are of course support RMVB and MKV Files but it is NOT PERFECT. Let's see...

Storm Codec is Still Not Perfect

Not all Flash Players Files (i.e. *.flv) can be played - at least those still can be played with the K-Lite Codec but not with Storm Codec.

It still hangs occasionally - not really hangs but just nothing happen when you double click the video file. To solve this, I will just need to kill the Media Player Classic in the task manager (i.e. mplayerc.exe) and restart the player.

Contains useless start-up command - “stormset" c:\Program Files\Ringz Studio\Storm Codec\StormSet.exe /S /opt”. It was blocked by my Windows Defender every time it starts up. It is no harm but I hate the fact that it slows down my Windows start-up time – you can still disable it through “msconfig” command.

High possibility contains Virus and Spyware – somehow this fella is full of viruses and spywares. There are many versions out there and a lot of people complains about it. You will need to get it from the reliable site.

No preview thumbnail and Icon - Perhaps there are the ways to fix this and I don't have a time to figure that out. But still, I just don't like the way no icon is displayed for associated video files. It seems like the video files are not recognized.

The official website of Storm Codec is "www.baofeng.com" but it is always down and downloading the codec is unacceptable slow. It is a Chinese website and all words are written in Chinese. You can click on the following button to download (but it takes forever):

You can download the Storm Codec which I've already tested free with Virus, Trojan Horse and sSpyware from www.brothersoft.com.

Tips: Always uninstall the previous codec software before you try to install any new codec software to your system.

Summary

The most obvious advantages over K-Lite codec is very clear - support RMVB and MKV. Perhaps Storm Codec is the most complete video codec software, but honestly I'm still very concern on the source itself whether it is completely clean from Virus, Trojan Hourse and Spyware. I have heard a lot of complains either from my friend or online forum which makes me no confident on downloading this codec.

P/S: I'm currently reviewing the VLC (another famous open source codec) and will write about it in my next post. Hopefully it will be a better option. :)

Can’t Open Windows Media Player in Vista

2009-08-16T11:26:00.005+08:00

I'm not sure exactly what happen the Windows Media Player is no longer can be opened after I created a new user account in my Windows Vista system. When using the original user account of my Vista machine, it still works fine. It is just that it doesn't work for the new user account that I created.

When I double-click the Windows Media Player, nothing comes out. When I double-click the videos and movies, it usually plays automatically with Windows Media Player but it just nothing happens. At first, I was thinking to reformat my whole drive and reinstall the windows but WAIT... Luckily, I found a solution to that.

To fix that, you need to perform the following steps:

(1) Open “Command Prompt” in Administrator Mode.

(2) Run “regsvr32 jscript.dll”

After the command, you will see the “DllRegisterServer in jscript.dll succeed” dialogue box. Now, you can open your windows media player! :) Hope this helps and works for you too!

Missing Trash Folder in Gmail

2009-08-07T17:03:00.003+08:00

It is very funny that I have no idea why Google wants to hide the Trash folder in the Gmail. This is at least wasted me 10 minutes just to figure out where the heck the Trash has gone? I was really frustrated!

If you can’t find your trash folder or all of the sudden you realize that your trash folder is gone, what you need to do is to dig it out under the label “XX more” and just click on it.

For this example in my Gmail, what you need to do is click on the “72 more” beneath the labels. The Trash, Spam and All Mail and Chats folder will be shown.

What is Google mistake?

In my opinion, when you put “More” below the label which is a very common sense that it means “More Labels” because they’re now hiding the labels. The problem now is the “More” includes the Trash, Spam, All Mail, and Chats folders and as well as the labels.

I think this should be fixed. What do you think?

p/s: If you want to hide them, it is perfectly okay but please hide it correctly. :)

Best Way to Reduce Memory Usage for HTC Device

2009-07-21T01:21:00.007+08:00

A very funny about Windows Mobile or probably due to the HTC device itself is that memory usage is damn high after using the device for sometimes. Is this a memory leak issue? Why don't you just fix it?

If you use HTC device such HTC Touch Pro, HTC Touch Diamond 2 or whatever HTC models, the memory usage always shoot up to 70% or 80%. So, what you normally do is to reboot your device back to the original memory usage which is usually 50%.

CleanRAM is so far the best product that I have used so far to fix this without rebooting your device. I'm using this very often especially when my memory utilization goes crazy. Therefore, I would recomend this tool if you use HTC products (especially with TouchFLo feature). I do not sure if this generic to Windows Mobile which I'm kind of suspect no. Let me know if this doesn't work on your windows mobile.

Steps to Install and Use the CleanRAM

Install the application and use the default setting (i.e. Level 2 Purge).
After installation, you will see 2 programs (i.e. cleanRAM and cleanRAM Config)
Add clean RAM into your quick program lauch list.
Run the "cleanRAM" program and you will see something like below:

Click here to download cleanRAM and have fun!

Network Not Available – CorePlayer

2009-06-08T13:44:00.004+08:00

It used to automatically open up CorePlayer software and stream video when I try to watch video from YouTube. Until recently, it somehow errors out the message - “Network Not Available”.

At first, I thought it was due to the internet connection issue but it turns out is the setting in the CorePlayer software. The “Enable Network Access” option has been somehow disable without my notice.

Steps to Enable Network Access

Goto Menu->Tools->Perference
Select Select Page -> Network
Check or tick the “Enable Network Access”

Once the “Enable Network Access” has been turned one, it solves the problem. Hope it helps you too if you encounter a similar issue.

P/S: CorePlayer used to be a freeware which is called TCPMP but now it costs around USD 30. For free YouTube mobile application, you may want to just visit m.google.com/youtube with your phone. :)

Most Useful Feature in Google Chrome – New Incognito Window

2009-05-30T15:39:00.004+08:00

Althought I don't really like the idea that Google Chrome does not support Google Toolbar, the most useful feature in Google Chrome in my opinion is the New Incognito Window. At least this is true to me at this point in time. It is basically a “Private Browsing” mode. Basically you will see this guy when you’re in Incognito mode:

Steps to Turn Incognito Mode

If using short-cut key, you just need to press Ctrl+Shift+N or the following steps:

Click the Spanner Menu on your top right
Select the New Incognito Window

When you want to use “New Incognito Window”?

Protect Your Privacy. Especially if you’re not the only one use your PC or laptop and you would like to keep some privacy that you don’t want to allow others to track your browsing activities, this feature is the best for you.

Lazy to Clear Your Cache. As mentioned in the previous post that clearing browser’s cache is necessary to protect your confidential data for better security. If you’re using this “New Incognito Window”, you just need to close the window and everything is gone. You’re no longer need to manually clear browser’s cache.

To know about Incognito mode feature in Google Chrome, click here.

Use Clear Cache in Web Browser for Better Security

2009-05-17T15:29:00.004+08:00

If you visit any confidential website such as accessing your bank account, it is recommended to clear the cache of the web browser after using it. I realize not many people practise this therefore I’m sharing this with you.

The reasons why we want to clear the cache in web browser is because the cookies or whatever temporary information that stored in the web browser may becomes a loophole for hacker to retrieve your login information such as your user name and password.

So to be safe or to be conservative for better security, we should clear the cache every time AFTER we use our web browsers to access the confidential website.

Let’s see how we can perform those steps from different browsers below:

Steps to Clear Cache for ALL the Web Browsers

If the browsers have options for you to choose what I kind of data to be deleted, I usually select all of them. Let’s see the following example:

Firefox (Clear Private Data)

In Firefox, it is better to check the following (default is unchecked) if you don’t want to select all of them:

Cookies
Offline Website Data
Saved Passwords

Internet Explorer (Delete Browsing History)

In Internet Explorer, it is better to check the following (default is unchecked) if you don’t want to select all of them:

Form Data
Passwords
InPrivate Filtering Data

Google Chrome (Clear Browsing Data)

It looks like Google is doing a right thing which by default is to clear all the browsing data including the saved password, cookies and etc. I believe that is the right thing to do. Again, if I were you, I will clear all the browsing data especially the following items is a MUST in my opinion:

Empty the cache
Delete cookies
Clear Saved Password

Having said so Google Chrome has one very amazing feature called Incognito mode. In Incognito mode, you no longer need to “Clear Browsing Data” manually. What you need to do is to open a new window in “Incognito Mode” and once you close the windows, all browsing data (e.g. cache, cookies, password and etc.) will be gone. I really love this feature. Cool isn’t it?

Note: As you can see, different web browsers like to use different name (i.e. Clear Private Data, Delete Browsing History and Clear Browsing Dat) for clearing their browser’s cache data. The default items what data to be cleared are also different among all these browsers.

Should I Quick Format My Drive?

2009-05-11T10:26:00.003+08:00

Usually when you buy brand new hard disk from a computer shop, they will just perform a “Quick Format” for your hard disk.

The problem with the “Quick Format” it is completely useless. It takes less than 1 minute to format a 260G hard disk and if you perform “Normal Format’, it takes few hours to completely format the hard disk.

So next time if you buy a brand new hard disk, what should you do? You should REFORMAT the HARD DISK again. Check out what Microsoft says about Normal Format vs. Quick Format.

Note: Normal format is also known as Default Format, Regular Format, Full Format or whatever you would like to call as long as it is not Quick Format.

You only perform Quick Format for the following reasons:

You have performed full “Regular/Normal Format” before and now you would like to make clean hard disk.
You want to quick erase all the data in the hard disk

Best Performance Web Browser – Google Chrome

2009-05-01T23:13:00.005+08:00

Although I don’t like the idea the Google Chrome doesn’t support Google Toolbar, I can’t deny the fact that Google Chrome performance is really so far the best as compared to both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

At first, I don’t realize this until I pissed off with slowness while watching video in YouTube using Firefox. So, I just gave it a try with Google Chrome and surprisingly it loads way faster than Firefox. Perhaps I should change my mind? I really can't wait until the Google Chrome supports extension. When???

Let's see how Google Chrome rocks:

Source: news.cnet.com

You can also benchmark your browser by your own at futuremark.com (which I believe it should be more accurate). I have done mine and here are the results:

As you can see, Google Chrome is still the best among all these 3 browsers. Wait, look at the IE – can you see how it really sucks? Have fun to benchmark them by your own!

Best Tweaking Methods to Increase HTC Performance

2009-03-21T18:47:00.004+08:00

Although there are many ways available on the net to tweak the registry setting to improve performance of Windows Mobile for HTC Touch Cruise, I find that the most effective ways of doing this is to disable all the buttons of your HTC device.

To tweak the registy you need the register editor. You can use Total Commander or FdcSoft Task Manger to edit Windows Mobile's registry.

I find that a lot of these examples on the web such as the following are useless or do not really contribute a lot in term of the user experiences performance:

Don’t do This (No effect on performance):

(1) Tweaking TouchFlo setting (i.e. sensitivity and scrolling).
I have tested this and after disable the scrolling for example, it won’t save the memory consumption. Therefore no point disable the scrolling or change any sensitivity setting of TouchFlo

(2) Playing around with the font and file system cache.
I have tested and no effect.

(3) Disable HTC Task Manager.
This is a very useful feature therefore you shouldn’t consider to disable it at all.

Do This (it does improve the performances):

(1) Disable Large Start Menu

Go to "Start -> Settings -> Personal -> Large Start Menu"
Uncheck “Enable large Start menu”

(2) Disable ClearType of screen fonts
I personally do not do this because the font sucks after I disable the ClearType but if you don't mind, here you go:

Go to "Start -> Settings -> System -> Screen"
Select the "ClearType" tab
Uncheck "Enable ClearType"

(3) Disable keyboard input method that you don’t use
(disable=0 , enable=1)

For example, I only use one type of input method and disable the rest. You can do the same the following list out all the registry key for all the keyboard input types:

E.g. disable Transcriber: KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{F0034DD0-2AD4-11D1-9CB0-E84BE8000000}\IsSIPInputMethod\(Default) = 0
E.g. disable Letter Recognizer: KEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{42429690-AE04-11D0-A4F8-00AA00A749B9}\IsSIPInputMethod\(Default) = 0
E.g. disable Chinese Star (CE-Star) HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{903D7A20-A2E9-11D2-9272-00A0C919143A}\IsSIPInputMethod\(default) =0

More registry keys as follow for your reference:

TOUCH KEYPAD {198D503A-EFFE-4AFD-BC54-EED333C80E6D}
TOUCH KEYBOARD {62B00599-25D2-4E09-8C48-03BF26DB8517}
Letter Recognizer {42429690-AE04-11D0-A4F8-00AA00A749B9}
Block Recognizer {42429691-AE04-11D0-A4F8-00AA00A749B9}

(4) Disable the Useless Cube
Honestly, the HTC cube is completely useless. You can disable it here by setting the EnableCube to 0 in the following registry:

HKLM\Software\OEM\TFLOSettings

This does not help much because the following application still remains in the memory:

APLauncher.exe
Biotouch.exe
MediaHubMini.exe
QuickDial.exe

You need to kill all these 4 application using the FdcSoft task manager and use the Total Commander Explorer go to the \windows\ directly and look for these 4 files. Delete these files or you can copy these 4 files to other folder for backup purpose.

Note: Default explorer does not allow you to make any changes in the \windows\ directory therefore, you need to use the third party explorer such as Total Commander.

You need to replace these 4 files with the empty files (i.e 0 bytes file size). Download biotouch.zip and unzip it.

Use Total Commander Explorer to copy these 4 files to the \windows\ folder and restart your PC.

Conclusion

By doing all the above that I suggested, now my HTC boots up only with 39% used memory. :D

Best Free Advanced Explorer for Windows Mobile – Total Commander

2009-03-15T13:55:00.004+08:00

For some reasons the original explorer in the windows mobile disallow you to modify or delete some of the system files in ROM especially in the windows folder, therefore I’m looking for an alternative solution.

The best explorer so far in the industry (in my opinion) is the “Resco Explorer” but it is not a freeware! So, what should you do? At last, I found the free one and it is called “Total Commander” and I have been using for quite some times. I’m satisfied with it but may not be as good as “Resco Explorer” but it is still better than nothing.

Some common advanced features of Total Commander:

Zip and unzip (File -> Pack with ZIP )
Properties dialog, change attributes (File -> Properties)
Useful to hide files or folder that you don’t want to let other to see
Search function including text content (File ->Find files)
FTP client (Access through \\Plugins\ftp)
Registry Editor (Access through \\Plugins\registry)
LAN access (Access through \\Plugins\LAN)

It is not as user friendly as Resco Explorer but it is the best free advanced explorer that I have ever used so far.

You can visit the official Total Commander page and download Total Commander here for pocket PC or Windows Mobile.

Should I Install Safari Web Browser?

2009-03-08T23:44:00.004+08:00

If you have installed “Quick Time Player”, most likely they will install the “Apple Software Update” tool as well which force you to download and install safari web browser. This is the thing I hate Apple, why keep popping up dialog box and force me to install your web browser? *sign*

Honestly, Safari is famous in screwing up its security and I would recommend you NOT to use it. In my opinion, there are only 3 options that you should only consider:

Firefox
Internet Explorer
Google Chrome.

That’s it. Don’t install safari web browser because it doesn't safe. If you find the notification annoying, you can disable it from Edit->Preference... menu and in the schedule tab, choose never.

Best Free Multiple Monitor Software Solution – Synergy

2009-02-08T14:15:00.007+08:00

If you have multiple computers and you would to share a single mouse and single keyboard, synergy is the best software that you can use. The amazing part of this software is, they can share a single mouse and keyboard from a different operating system because the sharing goes through the TCP/IP. I've personally used it between windows and Linux machine. Wow! I just love it!

You can download Synergy software from sourcefo rge.net. Click on the download link on that page and click the binaries package. In the binaries package page, the *.rpm is for Linux system and *.tar.gz is for the rest of the Unix system which doesn’t run on Intel’s x386 architecture. The *.exe is for windows platform.

Once you have installed Synergy, you need to configure your machine to act as a server. Usually the one in the center acts as an server and the machine besides it act as client. You will see this configuration screen and click on the “Configure…” to configure your machine on your left and right.

First, you need to add all the machines into the list and click on the "[New Link]" to configure how do we want to link all these machines together. Try to play around with the UI and you should be able to get it. The "+" is to add into the list and "-" is to remove from the list.

Once the server is configured, just click the “Start” button to start the server. Then the next thing to do is to install the synergy in your client’s machine (e.g. your machines on your left and right) and connects them to this server.

In Windows, you can enter the server’s name in the configuration screen:

“Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse (client)”

In Unix, you can run the following commands to connect to the server:

synergyc –f "server_host_name"

I love this software because I can have 3 monitors in front me (each monitor is from different machine or even different operating system) and I can control them using only one mouse and one keyboard. Cool, isn't it?

Games Explorer in Vista is Useless

2009-02-01T02:09:00.005+08:00

I don’t aware there is a "Games Explorer" in Vista until I read some article about Vista. Not really a big deal but surprisingly some people just love it. They must be kidding me? What so special about this feature? I just don’t get it. Is the big icon really that impressive? I even have a difficult time to find where this “Games Explorer” is located. In case you also have no idea where it is located, it is located at:

Start->Programs->Games->Games Explorers

Games explorer automatically adds a link to each game that you have installed. If some games those don’t appear in the Games Explorer, you can just drag and drop the game shortcut. Do you think that is useful or necessary?

Fastest Way to Speed up Windows Mobile – HTC Touch Cruise

2009-01-29T16:40:00.004+08:00

There are many ways to speed up windows mobile and particularly to HTC Touch Cruise (I’m not sure if this is generic to every other mobile devices, but you can give it a try), I found that to disable all the button contributes the biggest speedup. So this is what I do in the Start->Settings->Buttons:

I disable all the buttons and set all the buttons to "None". Once it is done, I found that the speedup is tremendous. The only most useful button in my opinion will be the Button 3 - Camera which you can still enable it for convenient purpose while you're taking photo. Hope this tip helps.

p/s: One of the things that I’m VERY NOT satisfy with PDA is the slowness in the software. Disable all the button seems really speedup for at least HTC Touch Cruise device and I hope it is applicable to your mobile device too.

Is TMC.exe a Trojan Horse in MapKing?

2009-01-29T15:11:00.010+08:00

If you have been using MapKing 2007 or the later version in Windows Mobile, most likely your anti-virus will detect a “TMC.exe” file as a Generic Downloader.x - Trojan Horse. It is located at:

“Program Files\MapAsia\MapKing2007\TMC.exe”

Apparently it is NOT a Trojan and it stands for Traffic Message Channel which is used to deliver traffic and travel information to drivers. However, if you do not use the traffic service or no such traffic services provider available, you can safely remove this TMC.exe. I personally do not use it, so I will just delete it.

p/s: MapKing is the very popular GPS mobile software in Asia (i.e. Singapore, Malaysia, China). It is not a freeware.

Best Free Video Conference Call Software – Windows Live Messenger

2009-01-10T21:40:00.003+08:00

Although I seldom give credits to Microsoft but this one I can’t deny it because I’m an independent honest reviewer. :D

Honestly, Microsoft really screws up in branding. At first, it is called “Windows Messenger” (now still available). Later, it is called MSN Messenger and now it is called “Windows Live Messenger”. What the heck? I think the MSN branding is the most successful branding name. Who the hell people want to call “Windows Live Messenger” instead of MSN? *Sign*

I have been testing Skype, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger and it turns out that Windows Live Messeger is the best. At first, I thought Skype is the best among these 3 as it used to be an industry leader in VOIP technology but it doesn’t seem so. I tried Yahoo Messenger too and surprisingly it is not as smooth as I expected. At last, Windows Live Messenger is the smoothest in both voice and video. Perhaps you have different experiences?

I recommended to use Windows Live Messenger for video or voice chat. In fact, I'm thinking if I should totally remove Yahoo Messenger since now we can link to Yahoo Messenger's friends from Windows Live Messenger. This probably saves up some of the resources.

You can download Windows Live Messenger here.

P/S: My testing was performed on December 2008 and I have been using Windows Live Messenger for Video Conference call since then and do not encounter any major issues until now.

Top 1 Reason NOT to Use Google Chrome

2008-12-30T00:20:00.002+08:00

I guess I do not need to talk about the good things about Google Chrome as all of you can find the Google Chrome key features here. If you want to try it out, you can download Google Chrome

What I’m really looking about this new Google Chrome web browser is use less memory footprint and with all basic browser features. It seems like Google has fulfilled my requirements EXCEPT that Google Chrome does NOT support Google Toolbar or vice-versa.

Google, you must be kidding? Google toolbar is my “must” application when browsing and it is going to defeat the purpose if I open Firefox (for Google Toolbar) and Google Chrome at the same time. Please fix it Google, your product doesn’t support your own products. Don’t you think is funny?

P/S: If Google Chrome doesn't support extensions (the way how it was designed), then I think Google Toolbar features should be built into the Google Chrome. Perhaps not all the features but the key one (e.g. bookmarks and PageRank). I will wait until Google Toolbar is supported, then I will only give it a try.

Related Topics:

Why Mozilla Firefox? See the reasons...

Check Download and Upload Speed

2008-12-26T00:51:00.003+08:00

Sometimes we just want to make sure our Internet Service Provider (ISP) doesn't cheat our money. We pay for this speed and at least we can get the speed that we're paying for. This is the website I usually play around with - www.speedtest.net

You can:

Test using recommend server (the place nearest to your ISP)
Test the connection speed in any server location that you want in the World.

P/S: You can also play around with the "My Summary" and "Global Stats" tabs at the top. It provides quite some useful information.

Can’t Connect to Remote Computer but previously is okay

2008-11-21T01:54:00.006+08:00

If you are able to connect to your remote windows machine but out of a sudden you fail to connect to the remote machine, this is post is the solution for you. However if it has never been working all the while, you should google it and it probably due to the firewall configurations.

Basically what you want to do is to remote restart your windows machine. That’s it. This is the fastest way to solve this problem assuming it did work previously. Somehow I have experienced this few times myself and I have no idea what causes the failure.

To Remotely Restart Your Windows Machine, you need to open your command prompt and perform the following commands:

shutdown /r /f /m \\my-remote-host

* /r is to shutdown and restart your PC. Without /r it is shutdown and you will never ever to wake him up again “remotely”.

* /f is to force to close any running applications. I’m not sure without this, it will be shutdown or restart probably. At first I tried without /f and it doesn’t work. So, I’m using to force to close any running application.

* /s m is to specify your windows host or you can put in the IP address (e.g. //123.123.12.34). Remember to put the “\\”.

* For more help just type “shutdown /?” in your command prompt.

Of course the drawback of this is you will lose any work in progress data in your remote windows machine. If you know exactly what causing remote desktop doesn’t work, you can try use “tasklist” and “taskkill” command to remote kill any process in the remote machine.

Example of the usage:

tasklist /s my-remote-host
taskkill /s my-remote-host /im outlook.exe

Perhaps outlook.exe causing this? I have no idea...