These methods are not foolproof but since most users dont mess with a computers registry files, they will never figure it out.

How to Disable USB Port

If USB ports dont work, they cant copy anything to those devices. This is one method thats easy to implement.

Open the windows registry by typing regedit in the start menu. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

Change the value of the START DWORD and set it to 4. To enable USB devices you can change the value to 3.

How to prevent write access on USB disk

What if we dont want to block USB devices, maybe we need to allow files copied to the computer but not vice versa. Then we can disable write access for USB devices.

Open the windows registry by typing regedit in the start menu. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies

Create a new DWORD, name it as WriteProtect and set the value as 0 (zero). To enable write access set it to 1.

Other methods of blocking access to USB devices

We had written a post on how to use software and group policy to prevent computers in a network from using USB disks.

If you know any other methods for blocking USB that are useful to our readers, leave a comment below and share it with us.

I felt the old template was a too bright for a tech blog. The new one seems more professional and pleasing to the eye.

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it.

1. Emergency
   The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.
2.  Have you locked your keys in the car?
   Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other “remote” for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor’s Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!”
3.  Hidden Battery Power
   Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# your cell will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell next time.
4. How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?
   To check your Mobile phone’s serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: *#06# . A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won’t get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can’t use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

Musicovery lets you choose and explore music by mood, style, genre, decade and much more. Mix and match filters and customize your internet radio experience to suit your tastes, even if that happens to be dark energetic pop or jazz from the 80s.

Each time you change your preferences in the nav bar the music selector jumps across the screen and plays another song. Genres are color-coded and really add to the aesthetic appeal of the experience. There’s a large selection of music to listen to as well, from jazz to classical, hip hop, world, rock and so much more. You can even scroll around the map and choose songs manually. For users with a good internet connection there’s no lag or song loading time, so you can expect smooth listening from start to finish.

The downside about Musicovery is that songs play in a noticeable lo-fi format, reserving the better quality for paid users. Subscriptions are reasonably priced but the registration process is confusing and hints at a number of hidden sign-up fees. It’s much better to stick with the free version and enjoy the thrill of musical exploration. For a really interesting experience, try unchecking the “hit” box and select “discovery”. You’ll unearth a ton of obscure bands you just might learn to love.

Musicovery is a great way to find new songs and play with different styles of music. It isn’t really a game, but it’s got the same sense of exploration and fun as any web toy on the internet.

 Sorry for another post of online radio but I really loved this one. Its my friends birthday, time for me to run….

• Zamzar: Zamzar does all sorts of conversions, ranging from documents and images to music and video. In addition to its versatility, this tool boasts the ability to do all of your conversions without downloading software.

• SUPER: This aptly-named tool offers a simple and efficient way to convert any multimedia file to any format you need. You won’t need to download any additional codecs or deal with any time or function limitations.

• CZ Document Converter: CZ Document Converter is a powerful batch document converter. It supports every popular document file you may need, including PDF, HTML, DOC, XLS, and WPS.

• Media Convert: This tool is another great all-around converter. It can take files from your computer or a web-server and convert them into pretty much any format. The tool is web based and full of versatility.

• Image Converter Plus: Image Converter Plus can professionally convert graphic files, photos, drafts, finance documents, and any image format. It supports more than 120 graphics formats and more than 800 dialects of these formats. You can convert files in a batch while also altering and enhancing images.

ZamZaR also allows you to convert YouTube and Google videos directly from your browser. Click here for more info.

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 7 without the WGA validation (without the check for Genuine Windows). With this release Microsoft hopes to catch up with the popularity of FireFox.

IE 7 fixes many security issues, phishing filter, has a streamlined look and support tabbed browsing. The new release has a few minor changes like the menu bar is turned on by default.  

Genuine widows user need not worry as their automatic updates will keep them upto date.

If you are using a pirated version of windows then download IE here. Choose your operating system to start the download.

RupeeMail is a new service in India that offers to pay you some money if you read some marketing emails.

First you register with the service, choose your preferences and start receiving emails. You will have to click on the advertisers link inside the email for the service to recognise that the email has been read.

This service is almost like a mini Google Adsense but it remains to be seen if RupeeMail will find enough subscribers. Hmm I wonder how much they are willing to pay per email, cuase that wasnt mentioned on their website.

Go on boys, start subscribing

In their own words

Why RupeeMail?

RupeeMail is Paid-to-read email, sent by advertisers to registered RupeeMail users
You earn money by opening and reading the contents of RupeeMail
RupeeMail is safe because senders are known and verified
RupeeMail is anti spam compliant
Redeem your earnings by Cheque any time
Option to donate your earnings to charity of your choice
You will receive discount coupons and promotional offers of your choice

Just upload the picture from your computer, click on the desired effect and share it with the world. Its really that easy and flauntR provides thousands of one-click effects.

The options are absolutely endless and now your photos can be personal again.

Games like World of Warcraft have been using mobile authenticators to prevent account theft. Google also has a similar application for mobile phone users. The app can be downloaded from Android Market or iTunes store.

Once you install the application on your phone, its time to setup the Gmail account to use a 2 step verification process for login. Now when you need to login to your account you need to enter the username and password. Then your will reach a page which asks for the verification code as shown below. Since you need the mobile app to get the code, it makes it extremely hard for people to hijack your gmail account.

You need to setup the 2 step verification process before it will start asking you for the verification code. The video below has a good detailed guide on how to do this.

Enabling the 2 step verification increases your Gmail accounts security a lot. To make it even more secure, go to gmail settings and under the browser connection, enable the always use https option.

Read our other posts about Gmail to increase security and functionality of your Google account.

Microsoft in a bid to lure back indian users has bought more than 250 “cOol” domains like bangalorerocks.in, partyanimals.co.in, me@underpaid.co.in, etc

This means users signing up for hotmail from coolhotmail.com will have access to more personalised email id’s while still having the benefits of hotmail. You get all the features of Windows Live Mail, i.e. 5GB space, anti-spam protection etc.

So go on grab your fav username before its taken !!