Techno Life @ tothepc

Delay launch of applications at Windows 7 startup

Davinder — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 22:25:51 +0000

Do you want to delay launch or start of specific application programs at Windows startup? You can easily do this by configuring properties of application that you want to delay. Delaying launch of specific application allow other applications to load quicker, as they get more access to system resources to initiate.

Manualy delay launching specific applications

1. While on Windows 7 desktop, press Win + R keys to open ‘run’ dialog box.

2. Type services.msc and press OK button.

3. Select the service whose startup you want to delay. Right click on service and then click ‘properties’ option.

4. Select ‘Automatic (delayed start)’ from drop down box next to ‘startup type’.

5. Click ‘Apply’ and OK button.

Use ‘Startup Delayer’ on Windows Vista & XP

You can also set time to delay startup of specific programs on Windows startup using Startup Delayer program on Windows 98, XP and Vista computer.

Hide birthday date on Facebook profile

Davinder — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:59:28 +0000

Few users may not be comfortable displaying their ‘date of birth’ on Facebook profile. You can easily hide complete birthday date information from showing up on Facebook profile. Alternatively, you can only hide ‘year’ information and display ‘date’, ‘month’ information of your birthday (when you only want to hide the actual age).

Hide ‘date of birth’ on Facebook profile

1. Login into your Facebook account. Then click ‘Edit My Profile’ link under your Facebook avatar image at top right. Alternatively, you can directly access Edit profile page on Facebook after login.

2. Then select “Don’t show my birthday in my profile” option from drop down box next birthday field under ‘Basic Information’.

You can select “Show only day and month in my profile”, if you want to hide year of birth (actual age) and still allow you friend to see the day of birth.

Find meaning of chat slang words & acronyms

Davinder — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 00:57:32 +0000

We tend to shorten words while communicating online with friends via email, IM, chat, social networking and more. Such short acronym / abbreviated words are often called as chat slangs (online lingo). Like using w8 for ‘wait’, brb for ‘be right back’, abt for ‘about’ and so on. If you are confused on meaning of specific abrreviation or acronym used by your chat buddy while chatting, you can refer to following chat slangs database dictionary and translator for finding quick meaning for those slang words.

1. Teen Chat Decoder

Teen Chat Decoder is an online database of slangs and acronyms used by teens while chatting online. You can browse listing by alphabet or use search box to find meaning of specific internet slang word. It has easy to use interface to discover new chat slang words and surprise buddies while chatting.

2. No Slang

No Slang is a dedicated internet slang dictionary and translator online resource. You can easily find meaning of abbreviated words and acronyms that you may come across during chat, IM, email or SMS. You can also search for specific slangs or explore listing alphabetically.

3. AIM Acronym Dictionary

AIM Acronym Dictionary provide alphabetic listing of most common abbreviations that you may come across while IMing with your friends. Never get lost or confused on specific chat abbreviations while chatting, just refer to this online dictionary to learn and explore new chat slangs / abbreviations.

If exploring whole database of chat slangs is a big task, you can get started with 40 Must know IM Abbreviations for quick chatting online.

How to report abusive photos on Facebook

Davinder — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:35:06 +0000

Facebook users upload and share lot of photos, even more than a standalone photo sharing sites like photobucket. Did you notice an abusive, bad taste or mature photo posted by a Facebook user? You can easily keep report such abusive photos anonymously that violate Facebook’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” (facebook.com/terms) and help keep Facebook community clean.

Procedure to report photo on Facebook

1. Open page on Facebook showing specific photo in full.

2. Then click “Report This Photo” link located at bottom right of the displayed image.

Before you report a photo, make sure…

Do not report a photo just because you are not looking good in that photo. Also, you cannot report own user uploaded photos because you can always edit / delete them from Facebook (if you think they are abusive). Have safe photo sharing on Facebook!

How to use Facebook Questions to ask & answer

Davinder — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 22:25:30 +0000

Do you want an answer to a specific question? Why not use active Facebook community of friends to get quick answers to your questions? “Facebook Questions” is a new feature that allow you to ask and answer questions from your Facebook friends and other experts. Your questions will be seen by majority of Facebook users and hence allow quick answers from number of Facebook users.

Ask questions from Facebook friends

1. Goto facebook.com and login into your account.

2. Then open facebook.com/answers to check if this feature is active for your Facebook profile. This feature will be available to every profile very soon. If this feature is not active, keep checking after sometime for the same.

3. Click “Ask Question” under ‘Wall’ on your profile page.

4. Type your question and click ‘Ask Question’ button to post the question to Facebook users. [via FB blog]

Facebook Questions – Things to Note

1. You cannot ask questions anonymously using Facebook Questions.

2. By default, your questions can be viewed by everyone on Facebook. However, you can use privacy feature while posting question and making it only visible to specific friends or friends of friends.

3. You can ask question about anything with ability to ‘Vote up’ good answers and ‘Vote down’ bad answers.

4. Your question and answers will be viewable to others even when you log out.

5. As of now, question and answers are not indexed by search engines.

How to duplicate tabs in IE, Chrome & Firefox

Davinder — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:40:05 +0000

Do you want to quickly open currently opened website in a new tab? You can easily perform such tab duplication in your favorite web browser. In few simple clicks you can open new (duplicate) instance of any currently opened tab. Following is quick and easy procedure to duplicate tab in either Google Chrome, Mozila Firefox or Internet Explorer web browser.

Duplicate tab in Internet Explorer

1. Open and launch Internet Explorer browser.

2. Right click on any opened tab and click “Duplicate Tab” button. Alternatively press Ctrl + K keys to duplicate tab with shortcut key.

Duplicate tab in Google Chrome

1. Open Google Chrome browser.

2. Right click on opened tab and then click “Duplicate” option. A new tab will open with same website URL in the same window.

Duplicate tab in Firefox

1. Open Mozilla Firefox browser.

2. Right click on tab and click “Open in New Window” option. This will duplicate existing tab but will only open in new window.

3. To duplicate tab and make it open in same window, you can install ‘Duplicate this tab’ Firefox addon. After install, to duplicate tab in same window press Ctrl + Shift + U keys.

Rename desktop icons on Windows 7, Vista, XP

Davinder — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:47:48 +0000

Bored of usual names assigned to different icons on Windows desktop screen? You can easily spice up icon names / labels by renaming them to any desired name on Windows 7, Vista or XP computer. With renaming you can customize icon text as per requirement that allow easier and faster access to icons on the desktop screen.

Manual renaming of icons on Windows desktop

You can manually rename majority of icons on the desktop. This should work on all icons on Windows 7 desktop, while on majority of icons except few on Windows XP computer.

1. Right click on the icon on desktop screen.

2. Then click on ‘rename’ option.

3. Type new name for the icon.

Utility to rename desktop icons

Download Desktop Renamer tool to easily change name of desktop icons including: recycle bin, my computer, my documents and my network places. It is a portable tool that allow renaming of desktop icons, that cannot be renamed using manual renaming routine as explained above. For sure one quick and easy method to change desktop icon name without need to mess around with registry entries.

Protect PC from ‘Windows Shortcut link’ exploit

Davinder — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 22:44:51 +0000

‘Windows Shortcut Exploit’ (also called CPLINK) is a vulnerability in all Windows versions that causes shortcut link on Windows to run malicious DLL file causing further harm to the system. Microsoft is working on fix for this issue, in the meantime you can check on this exploit using Sophos Windows Shortcut Exploit protection tool.

What is ‘Windows Shortcut Exploit’

This exploit allows a Windows shortcut link, known as an .lnk file, to run a malicious DLL file. The dangerous shortcut links can be embedded on a website or hidden within documents. It can also be exploited and spread via a malicious USB drive or network shares and WebDAV (even when autoplay is disabled).

Sophos Windows Shortcut protection tool

You can download free tool Windows Shortcut Exploit protection from Sophos. This tool first scans your computer with your existing antivirus to check for and remove malware that may be present. It will monitor and block exploit from running as a result of Windows Shortcut vulnerability.

Video Demo of Sophos protection tool

So before the official Windows fix for this issue is released by Microsoft, you can use Sophos tool to stay protected from this Windows vulnerability.

Web browsers with HTML5 video support

Davinder — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:27:53 +0000

Majority of online videos are in Flash format, as a result you need flash plugin installed on computer to able to view such videos. Now you can watch videos without flash support using HTML5 technology with h.264 video codec or the WebM format (VP8 codec) support. Just install and use web browser with HTML5 support to watch online videos without flash using HTML5 technology.

HTML5 supporting web browsers

Since HTML5 is emerging technology platform, majority of web browser versions with HTML5 support are in development beta stage. You can download and use beta version of web browsers to checkout online videos in HTML5 format.

1. Google Chrome with h.264 and WebM support, early release.

2. Firefox browser with WebM support, download it.

3. Opera WebM enabled version is also available.

4. Apple Safari with version 4+ can be used.

5. Internet Explorer 9, platform preview 3.

After downloading and installing either of above web browser, you can always perform online test for extent of HTML5 support by specific web browser.

Convert IP address to Country location

Davinder — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 23:56:34 +0000

IP address form backbone of the internet by giving it much needed order and organization. Each connected computer on the internet has unique IP address for easy identification and communication. Do you want to know country or location associated with specific IP address? You can extract such information easily using free online tools and software utilities.

1. IP2location online service

IP2location is a free online tool to know country information for any IP address. Type or paste list of IP addresses (upto 20 per day) and click ‘Find Location’ button. It will display country, flag, region, ISP, city, map information for specific IP address.

2. Host2IP at hcidata

Host2IP online service allows you to convert any hostname into respective IP address. You also perform reverse conversion from IP address to specific country name or location. It displays respective country and exact host name for any IP address.

3. Software utility for IP to Country conversion

IP2C converter is a free portable tool to check country details of any IP address. To get started, enter hostname or IP address and click on ‘execute query’ button. Utility window will display: country name, country code, world region and org info for specific IP address. You also log and save information displayed by the utility, among other features like minimize program to system tray.

Alternatively, you can check IPinfo Offline portable utility from Nirsoft. It displays IP and country information in neat tabulated format. You can also checkout an online database listing of IP address blocks assigned to each country for quick reference.