Being An IT Technician Is Hard Enough

Installing Multiple IE Version In Windows, Possible or Not?

2009-10-02T02:39:00.001+08:00

The answer is YES my horse. Generally IE a.k.a Internet Explorer does not permit us to install multiple versions of it in a single computer. Once you've the up-to-date version of IE installed in your computer, the previous version of IE will be overwritten. It should not cause any problem to users who use it for browsing the internet.

Nevertheless, if you're a web developer, then you might run across with inconvenient as you need multiple variants of IE to test out your web application to guarantee it works very well without any misalignment problem. With Internet Explorer Collection 1.6.0.1, it's possible to run multiple versions of IE of your choice in the same computer.

You will be able to use any version of IE at the same time (among the selected variant during installation). Internet Explorer Collection 1.6.0.1 contains the following versions of IE (as seen on 02-Oct-2009):
    * Internet Explorer 1.0 (4.40.308)
    * Internet Explorer 1.5 (0.1.0.10)
    * Internet Explorer 2.01 (2.01.046)
    * Internet Explorer 3.0 (3.0.1152)
    * Internet Explorer 3.01 (3.01.2723)
    * Internet Explorer 3.03 (3.03.2925)
    * Internet Explorer 4.01 (4.72.3110.0)
    * Internet Explorer 5.01 (5.00.3314.2100)
    * Internet Explorer 5.5 (5.51.4807.2300)
    * Internet Explorer 6.0 (6.00.2800.1106)
    * Internet Explorer 6.0 (6.00.2900.2180)
    * Internet Explorer 7.0 (7.00.5730.13)
    * Internet Explorer 8.0 (8.00.6001.18702)

Personally, Mozilla Firefox are way much better, more secure, features, and addons-plug-ins that superior than Internet Explorer.Both of them have their plus and negatives. I used to use Internet Explorer until they had a huge teething problem with IE7. Then I moved over to Firefox and for the time being, I’m still in faith with it. Way to go Firefox :D

Protect Your Whoring USB Drives With Panda USB Vaccine

2009-10-01T15:33:00.001+08:00

Panda Security has released a new security software program that increases the security of USB flash drives. The portable software program called USB Vaccine offers the means to immunize both the computer system and USB flash drives.

Computer vaccination referring to disabling autorun completely from removable media like USB flash drives or optical drives like CDs or DVD drives. To enable the security of the computer system from programs that are auto-executed if USB flash drives or CDs or DVDs are plugged into the computer drives.

A click on Vaccinate computer button will straightaway disable autorun on the computer system. The USB drive vaccination choice on the other hand will disable autorun from selected USB flash drives. The drives have to be plugged to the computer system before the computer can be protected. Every connected USB flash drive will be enrolled in a pulldown menu. A click on Vaccinate USB button will forbid autorun.inf from being executed from that USB flash drive.

It should be noted that it is not possible to undo the autorun protection of a selected USB flash drive in the computer system using the protection software. Another restriction is that it will only work on USB flash drives that have been formatted with the FAT or FAT32 filing system.

Panda Research USB Vaccine increases the security of a computer system in regards to USB flash drives and other media with autorun capabilities. The security software has been tested under Windows Vista, Windows XP and even Windows 2000.

Top 5 Freeware For Hard Disk Drive Data Recovery Headaches

2009-10-01T14:56:00.001+08:00

Barely imagine this: you have been doing work about that important paper for the past 2 months, and you are near to finish it. The deadline is in a couple of days. You save your documents, go for a tea and when you get back, your screen is blank or else,perhaps BSOD. Your computer rebooted itself automatically and is now stuck in the boot process with a message similar to this: “No boot device, please insert a bootable media”. You try to restart your computer a couple of times, but it does not restore your job. At this point, it is important do stay calm down, DONT't PANIC!!! Try out these tools before crying out loud :D

Recuva V1.26

Recuva (pronounced "recover") helps recover files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer hard drive. This includes files emptied from the Recycle Bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players.

Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier V4.2

Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier allows you to copy files from hard disk drives and CDs with problems such as bad sectors, scratches or that just give errors when reading data. Roadkil's Unstoppable Copier will attempt to recover every readable piece of a file and put the pieces together. Using this method most types of files can be made usable even if some parts were not recoverable in the end.

Restoration V3.2.13

Restoration helps undelete files that were deleted accidentally from your hard disk drive by mistake. It even work with removable media such as CF or SF cards. You can scan for all files that could be recovered, or filter the results by entering a search term or extension. This program also has a secure wipe feature that makes it impossible to restore deleted files. As with most programs of this nature, Restoration requires administrative rights to function correctly.

Disk Digger V0.6.2

DiskDigger recovers files from any type of media that your computer can read. such as USB flash drives, memory cards and hard disk drives. The types of files supported include BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, DOC, PDF, MP3, AVI, WMV, OGG etc. DiskDigger is not a generic undelete utility. It works by scanning through each sector of the media and looking for "signatures" of the various file types. As such, it may be able to recover certain files that other generic undelete utilities are unable to.

PC Inspector File Recovery V4.0

PC Inspector File Recovery is a data recovery program that supports the FAT 12/16/32 and NTFS filesystems. It finds partitions automatically, even if the boot sector or FAT has been erased or damaged. It recovers files with the original time and date stamp, even when a header entry is no longer available. PC Inspector File Recovery also supports the saving of recovered files on network drives.

Secure And Encrypt Your Sensitive Data With TrueCrypt

2009-09-20T06:14:00.001+08:00

TrueCrypt is an open-source encryption software that encrypts data “on-the-fly”. Right now the latest and stable version released is version 6.2a. You will be able to create an encrypted disk drive, a separate partition or a directory with TrueCrypt. It doesn’t merely encrypt the content of files, but their names and the names of the directories they are in as well. Furthermore there is no method to assure the size of the encrypted directory/HDD/partition. TrueCrypt is ready for Windows and Linux.

Main Features and Advantages of TrueCrypt:

* creates encrypted disk drive and mounts it,
* encrypts whole drive, selected partition/directory & even USB drive,
* automated encryption, on-the-fly and transparent for user
* there is no method to check the sizing of the encrypted partition/directory,
* using encryption algorithmic program as: AES-256, Serpent, Twofish,
* enables the creation of a hidden volume,
* it is very simple to use,
* virtual drives produced with TrueCrypt are wholly independent from OS,
* authorization keys can be held on a USB stick.
* and much more…

There are 3 methods to secure the encrypted data:

* with a password,
* with a special key,
* with both a password and a key.

What is this key?

The key can be any file from your disk drive for example.: *.avi, *.mpg or *.txt and even a full directory containing a couple of files. Warning! Be careful using *.txt file as the key because if you modify it, the key will change and you won’t be able to decrypt your data. What happens when you lose your key? You will never retrieve your data! That’s why I propose using both, the key and the password as the best way. In this case if you lose your key you will be able to change it by entering the correct password, and the other way around. Naturally, there is no ideal solution because you will be able to forget your password and lose your key simultaneously.

How does TrueCrypt work?

The full encryption procedure is transparent to the user. When copying a file to the encrypted drive, its constituent fragments (if it is a big file such as a movie) are copied to random access memory (RAM) then encrypted and saved to the destination file. The decryption process is the same. First the file, by fragments, is decrypted to random access memory (RAM) and next is passed around to a user. TrueCrypt never saves unencrypted data to the drive, encrypted data is always stored in RAM. This is a very secure method that prevents unintended access to your files.

How about future release?

TrueCrypt Foundation planning the following features to be applied in future variations:
* Full support for Windows 7
* Full support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
* Command line alternatives for volume creation (already applied in Linux and Mac OS X versions)
* 'Raw' CD/DVD volumes

TrueCrypt Screenshots

TrueCrypt Main Window

TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard

TrueCrypt Encryption Options

Tweak Your Firefox 3 Times Faster With SpeedyFox

2009-09-19T21:12:00.001+08:00

Firefox is the second most favorite web browser around, so for many of you it's the web browser of alternative. But the main trouble with Firefox is, it becomes decelerated with the passage of time mainly because of the fragmentation of databases. This effects the startup time, browsing Histories loading time and thus the total speed up of your favourite web browser.

Therefore, if you would like to see Firefox running a bit smoother, then try out Portable SpeedyFox. SpeedyFox will repair this lag problem with only one-single click. You may not believe me but you will be stunned of with what SpeedyFox will do to your Firefox, this small utility will juggling your Mozilla Firefox to be equal to 3 times quicker startup speed, browsing history will become faster, and performing operations with cookies will be faster than before.

This add-on quickens browsing history and provides faster operation with cookies. Firefox's startup is improved also, by addressing profile fragmentation that hinders it from loading quicker.

Portable SpeedyFox is small jewel and after installation it automatically discovers the Firefox's default profile and other profiles you may have. Altogether you need to do is choose the profile you prefer to optimize from the profile drop-down menu and hit Speed Up My Firefox! button.The whole optimisation process time of your Firefox depends upon how big your databases are and it does not effect your history, bookmarks, passwords, etc.

It took me just few minutes to accomplished the optimization process of my default profile and now I can experience a speedier Firefox than ever before.

Download Portable SpeedyFox

Download Portable Windows Movie Maker 2.6 for Windows XP and Vista

2009-05-25T18:12:00.001+08:00

The new Windows Live pack includes "Movie Maker Beta" version which provides the new ribbon interface but many advanced users are not happy with this new version. Lots of essential features like timelines, adding text on videos, audio edits, etc have been removed from this new version to make the application simple and easy to use.

But Microsoft allows you to download the good old Movie Maker 2.6 for Windows Vista which also works in Windows 7.

But its still a stripped down version. Features removed from original movie maker include the video capturing ability from devices like a dv camera etc.

So what to do now? Simple, "Devrexster" @ WinMatrix has created a portable version of "Movie Maker 2.6" which works in Windows XP, Vista and all Windows 7 builds. Since its a portable version, you don't need to install it.

Download the ZIP file, extract it and run the "Runonce.bat" file as
Administrator. That's it. Now you can run the Movie Maker by
double-clicking on "moviemk.exe" file.

Download Portable Movie Maker 2.6

password : http://tech-shinobi.com

Device Remover - Powerful Windows Device Manager Alternatives

2009-05-22T15:54:00.000+08:00

Device Remover is a powerful device manager replacement for Windows. It displays information about all the installed devices, Drivers, Windows Services running on a Windows system. Even if the device is hidden, problematic, detached, its information is displayed.

Device Remover interface is divided into tabs and Windows which displays a lot of information about each device and its drivers. Just select a device on the left and all the information regarding that device and its drivers is displayed in the Windows. You can also view only the hidden and detached devices.

Right click on any device name and you will get a lot of options regarding that device. You can remove the device, start or stop the device, update the device driver for that device etc. You can also select multiple devices and remove them at once. It includes a search feature which lets you search for a particular device or driver. If any device on the system is behaving strangely, you can use this to solve the problem.

Device Remover comes with a lot of options and so should be used carefully. It is a freeware and runs on Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Windows 7. It requires .Net Framework 2.0 or 3.5 on Windows Vista and 7.

Download Device Remover Installer

Info About Video Card And GPU With GPU-Z

2009-05-20T12:30:00.001+08:00

You all must have heard about the utility called CPU-Z which gives you a lot of information about your Computer System like processor, motherboard, RAM etc. GPU-Z is a similar utility and it gives you information about your Graphics Card or GPU.

Just run this small utility and you will have loads of information about your graphics card at your disposal. It supports both nVidia and ATI cards. The information it displays includes the Card name, BIOS version, Shaders, DirectX support, Memory Type, Memory Size, Driver version, GPU clock and much more. You can also find out the the GPU temperature and core speed.

This information can also be refreshed as time progresses. It also includes a button which lets you save the screenshot to your desktop or upload to an image hosting service. It also displays the over clock and the default clock if available. No installation required and can be run directly. It is a very small utility which runs portable on Windows.

Download Here

Assign Windows XP Machine As NTP Server Within LAN

2009-05-20T12:06:00.000+08:00

Reason to do this
We have come across customer sites where a Windows Server is not present and yet the customer wants all workstations and devices to be time-synchronised to help when analysing log files and ensuring all workstations are running the same time reference. The main Windows XP machine (hereinafter referred to as the source machine) is either synchronised to a separate NTP time source, or is corrected manually by checking/adjusting once a week.

How do I configure the source machine?
Whilst it is easy to make the source machine an NTP server for standard devices to synchronise with it, this does not qualify it as being authoritative to other Windows XP machines and an additional set of flags need to be suitably configured.

To simplify the configuration of your source machine, copy this code and save it to your notepad as ntp-server.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\Config]
"AnnounceFlags"=dword:00000005

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\Parameters]
"Type"="NTP"
"WriteLog"="True"
"Log"=dword:00000064

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\w32time\TimeProviders\NtpServer]
"Enabled"=dword:00000001

This modifies the registry of the source machine to:

    * be an authoritative time source for Windows clients
    * to use NTP rather than an Active Directory domain source
    * to enable writing to the event log
    * to log NTP activity
    * to become an NTP server

Double-click on the registry file in order to allow regedit to update the machine's registry - you only do this to the source machine. You can now delete the registry file as it is no longer needed.

It only remains to cycle the Windows time service so that the source machine actually takes account of the changes. This will happen at the next reboot, or can be forced by dropping to a command prompt and typing:

net stop w32time&&net start w32time

That is all that is needed at the source machine. You should now have a fully functioning NTP server which is also authoritative for Windows clients.

How do I configure the clients machine?
Now, go to your Windows clients machine, replace default time server (time.windows.com) with your new configured WinXP NTP server IP . In this case, i'm using my NTP server IP, which is 10.52.3.150, and then, click Update Now. Happy tweaking =D

Free Photo Editing Tools With VirtualStudio

2009-05-20T11:38:00.001+08:00

Are you looking for a Free Photo Editing software that is more than a basic retouching tool and can infact be an useful photoshop alternative? There are several free desktop and online photo editors that can fix and optimize your digital pictures.But here is a good free photo editing software that can be used to easily enhance your digital photos, using the power of plug-ins, called VirtualStudio.

VirtualStudio does have a lot of interesting features and it can help you do more than the basic photo retouching. This picture editor has a decent collection of photo frames to enhance the digital photo appearance.This tool includes an 8-bit Photoshop Plug-in Filter called Virtual Photographer, that is Compatible with Photoshop CS3, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Photo-Paint and other popular imaging applications.

Virtual Photographer works like Photoshop and implements layers and can even blend these layers using various modes. VirtualPhotographer also implements a pixel-editing engine whereby it can modify the RGB values of each pixel and map these changes to curves related to the overall images so that no step effects are apparent.You can even add a title or watermark to the photo.

Features Of Free Photo Editing software - VirtualStudio:
    * Supports many popular Photoshop plug-ins
    * Support for 30 file formats including jpg, jpeg2000, png, bmp, gif, tiff, psd and some RAW files
    * Support for applying layered effects with “Blend” mode
    * It is also an Image Browser with support for full-screen Photo slideshow
    * Can easily Open multiple photos
    * Can add picture frames, watermarks and titles to Photos
    * Can adjust brightness/contrast, gamma, hue and color
    * And much more...

Free download VirtualStudio from here and start using it straight away. VirtualStudio works on Windows XP and Windows Vista. If you are looking for some help to get started check this tutorial here.

Download your Picasa Web Albums without Picasa Software

2009-05-20T11:21:00.002+08:00

If you are using Picasa Web Albums to store your photographs but don’t have the Picasa desktop software to download those images back to the hard drive, here’s a simple trick that will help you download original (full size) pictures from any of your Picasa Albums without requiring the Picasa application.

Step 1: Open Picasa Utility and sign-in with your Google Account* - use the same credentials that you use for logging into your Picasa account.

* Picasa Web Utility is a Google App Engine powered application so your Google password won’t be shared with the developer.

Step 2: Once you have authorized Picasa Web Utility to access your photos, it will show a list of all your existing Picasa Album. Select any album that you want to download locally.

Step 3: Under options, choose “Original Photo Size” and click Generate Codes. Picasa Web Utility will now create direct download links to all photos in that Picasa Web Album.

Step 4: Open notepad, copy-paste those Picasa links here and save the text file with a .html extension. Now open this HTML file into any web browser and choose Save As -> entire page. This will download all the Picasa images to your hard drive.

Picasa Web Utility has other applications as well. For instance, you may generate HTML codes for thumbnails and create an instant photo gallery for publishing on a blog.

Picasa Web Utility Link

Remove WGA Notification With RemoveWGA Toolkit

2009-04-18T01:59:00.001+08:00

RemoveWGA is a small tool that will check if the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool is installed on a computer system which is a tool created by Microsoft to check if a Windows operating system is genuine.

What many users do not understand is that the check if an operating system is genuine is executed at every system boot. One would think that a sporadic check or one initial check would be enough. Apparently not as the tool checks the operating system at every boot and connects to a Microsoft server to exchange data.

It should also be noted that the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool is different from the Windows Genuine Advantage Validation tool. The former is only used to exchange data with a Microsoft server while the latter will perform the validation itself.

RemoveWGA will only remove the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool if the tool is running on the computer system and only if the user selects so.

The RemoveWGA software program scans the computer system and report its findings back to the user. It will tell the user if the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications Tool is active on the computer system. To be precise it will check if wgalogon.dll is loaded into the winlogon.exe process.

RemoveWGA will provide the means to remove the Microsoft WGA Notification Tool from the system which will essentially remove wgatray.exe and wgalogon.dll. A click on yes will remove the wga notification tool.

Download RemoveWGA

Fix Common Windows Update Problems With WUfacility

2009-04-15T01:07:00.001+08:00

WUfacilty is a small easy to use application which allows you to run procedures in troubleshooting most common windows update problems.

This tiny tool normally fixes all the windows update related problems with simple clicks in WUfacility.

The single button which says Fix It Now performs the following operation to make windows update run properly by re registering DLL’S.

Following are the actions performed by WUfacility

It cleans windows temporary files
It stops Windows Update services
Clean Windows Update temporary files
Register Windows Update DLL
Start Windows Update services.
Did I say Finish? =D

Download WUfacility

How to Install Hamachi (with GUI) in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

2009-04-13T02:39:00.000+08:00

Hamachi is a freeware application that initiates a virtual private network (VPN) between peers. This is extremely useful for initiating applications such as games over the Local Area Network (LAN).

This tutorial is for setting up Hamachi with a gui based interface (optional) in Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.

1. Download Hamachi
2. Extract it somewhere.
3. Open up a terminal and CD into the directory.
4. Run 'make install' or 'sudo make install' to install hamachi.
5. Run hamachi-init to generate crypto identity.
6. Download and Run hamachi-gui - x86

*** More information about Hamachi, click here

Download Hamachi || Download Hamachi-GUI-x86

Fix Dissappeared Safely Remove Hardware Taskbar Icon

2009-04-05T18:30:00.001+08:00

I assume everyone of you will be having this kind of problems in Windows XP. Sometimes, your "Safely Remove Hardware" icon is missing and you don't know how to eject your USB flash drive. The safest step you might think of is shutting down the computer (sigh) & pull out the drive. Anyway, that is not your only option & should be the last resort. Today, I will show you simple tricks how to safely eject your USB based drive (flashdrive, external HDD & etc).

Firstly, check your "Hide Inactive Icons" settings for "Safely Remove Hardware" exactly as image below before continuing other methods.

If your taskbar icon still not available, please proceed with these methods.

1st Method

Try using the manual way by running a command. Go to Start >> Run >> copy/paste the command below and click OK.

rundll32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll

This will popup "Safely Remove Hardware" dialog box. Then, you can safely remove your USB flash drive.

2nd Method

USBDeview - Freely available from NirSoft for ejecting your USB drive. Firstly, select your USB drive that you need to eject. Right click on your device and select "Disconnect Selected Devices" or press F9. Wait for a while and "Connected" tab status will turned from "Yes" to "No".

3rd Method

USB Disk Ejector - Its small & free. This is the easiest way to eject your USB drive. No installation needed for this tool and run in portable mode. Just double-click on selected drive and you're done.

Download USBDeview || Download USB Disk Ejector

Not Enough Server Storage Is Available To Process This Command

2009-04-03T16:27:00.001+08:00

Not enough server storage is available to process this command is a message that you can receive when you try to access a
shared resource on a network. The Event ID: 2011 may also be written referring to the configuration parameter IRPStackSize. If the IRPStackSize is not present in the Registry the default value which may not be large enough for the server service to administer shared folders on some of the physical drives.

To solve this problem open the Registry and navigate to this key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters

and check if the string IRPStackSize exists. If it does not exist create a new Dword with the name IRPStackSize.

The default value for this Dword is 18 and you should raise the value by adding 3 to it. The first value for IRPStackSize would be 21. Reboot your computer and see if that solved the problem. If you still get the error message add 3 again and reboot your computer again.The maximum size for IRPStackSize is 50.

Read More via Microsoft Link 1 Link 2

SurF - Tabbed File Manager For Windows

2009-04-02T09:49:00.001+08:00

SurF is a free Windows program that uses a pyramid tab style for opening Windows Explorer. You’ll get a better idea in the screenshot below, but essentially, it makes for MUCH easier browsing of Windows directories on your PC. Instead of manually browsing or entering the address of folder locations, you can simply click to where you are going in the pyramid.

Along with the pyramid style of browsing, for each different directory that you open, you begin seeing multiple tabs for each of these locations. The below screenshot has a couple of different locations, each with their separate pyramid for navigation.

It’s a very simple and free alternative to Windows Explorer. It may not be as advanced as other Explorer alternatives, but it gets the job done in a much easier and better fashion.

Download SurF

Speed Test and Error Checking Your USB Drive with Check Flash v1.08

2009-04-01T16:15:00.001+08:00

Check Flash is a lightweight Windows tool that allows you to test and format your USB drives. Using Check Flash, you are able to manage your USB flash drives by performing different maintenance tests on it.

Check Flash requires no installation. You just need to run the executable file. On the main window of Check Flash, you can find various maintenance tests under the Action Type section such as read stability test, write and read test, full erase, save image and load image.

This portable freeware can determines the read and write speed of your USB drive and also checks your USB drive for errors. Besides, Check Flash can be used to clean any evidence of activity on your USB drive by formatting it. Also, you can use Check Flash to save and load an image of the files on your USB drive for backup purposes.

Check Flash is a nice tool to check the health and performance of your USB drive.

Download Check Flash

Backup Your USB Drives With USB Image Tool

2009-04-01T16:00:00.001+08:00

Do you keep any important data and files in your USB flash drive? If your answer is yes, then it is advisable for you to occasionally back up the data in your USB flash drive.

USB Image Tool is a free and lightweight utility that allows you to create backup image files of any devices that you plug into your USB port including USB flash drives, card readers, digital cameras, mobile phones and even mp3 music players.

In the main window of USB Image Tool, there are three main buttons of Backup, Restore and Rescan functions. Click the “Backup” button to backup an image of your USB drive. All the data of your USB drive is saved in a single file under the .img format. You can burn the image to a disc or just keep the image in your hard disk. If you accidentally wipe out or lost the data in your USB drive, you can always restore the image to your USB drive by clicking the “Restore” button. So what is the “Rescan” button use for? The Rescan button comes in handy if an USB drive that you have plug in into the USB port is not automatically recognized or detected by USB Image Tool.

To use this portable utility, you need to run the USB Image Tool executable (.exe) file. But make sure that the usbit32.dll included in the archive is in the same directory as the executable file.USB Image Tool is designed to work on Microsoft Windows XP and Vista. It requires Microsoft .NET 2.0 Framework to work.

Download USB Image Tool

Download Full Setup .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 / 3.0 SP1 / 3.0

2009-04-01T15:45:00.001+08:00

.NET Framework is contains many new features as compared to .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0 although it has a minimal number of breaking changes, so all your existing application running on .NET Framework will keep running without any problem.

However some of the major upgrades .NET Framework 3.5 has added includes the following

* Deep Integration of Language Integrated Query and Data awareness
* Added ASP.Net Ajax for creating efficient and flexible controls
* Added new web protocol like AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM and several new WS-* standards
* Added Full tooling some new workflow enabled technologies like WF, WCF and WPF

The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (which is also known as WinFX), is the new managed code programming model for Windows.

It combines the power of the .NET Framework 2.0 with some new technologies for building applications which have visually compelling user experiences, seamless communication , and have the ability to support a wide range of business processes and tools.

Download Full Setup Standalone Installer Of .NET Framework 3.5

Download Google Chrome 2.0 Beta Full Offline Installer

2009-04-01T15:39:00.001+08:00

Google recently announced the latest beta version of their browser google chrome the latest version of google chrome is in beta as Google Chrome 2.0.170.0 Beta. There are hell lot of new improvement this time in the beta version.

They have added some more options and made it more customizable and speedy as you will find it much more faster.Today, we will give you the link to download the latest version google chrome beta full setup offline installer.

Download Google Chrome Beta Full Setup Standalone Offline Installer

List Protected Windows Files Using SFCList aka SFC Files Lister

2009-03-31T23:41:00.001+08:00

Computer tech people should know about the utility called SFC (System File Checker) built-in to Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista. This tool can help you scan and restore corrupted Windows system files. Let’s take Event ID 4226 Patcher which patches TCPIP.sys file, which is a system protected file for an example. You can modify the system file with the patcher but after a few seconds you will get a Windows File Protection window telling you that “Files that are required for Windows to run properly have been replaced by unrecognized versions. To maintain system stability, Windows must restore the original versions of these files.”

Good news is we can enter the Windows installation disc and hit the Retry button to restore back the original system file. Bad news is we can hit the Cancel button to keep unrecognized system file. After some time, our Windows computer can have a lot of unrecognized system files causing Windows to be unstable. There are a lot of system files in Windows and it is impossible for us to know which file is modified or not. So the simple solution is to use System File Checker to validate the digital signatures of all of the Windows system files and restores any that it finds are incorrect.

Have you ever wonder which system files are protected by Windows File Protection?
Here’s a simple tool that is able to that.

SFCList is the utility to enumerate files protected by SFC mechanism. Windows has introduced SFC technology (System File Checker) to protect core system files from being accidently or intentionally modified by third party programs. Whenever any such protected file is modified, SFC comes into action and replaces it with original system file.

List Protected Files by SFC

SFCList tool helps to enumerate all those protected files. As there are thousands of such files, it has filter option which can be used to shorten down the search. Also one can verify if the particular file is protected by SFC or not.

You have to run this tool together with switches in command prompt.

Here’s a few example on how to use SFClist.

The command below will list all system file protected through SFC

sfclist -l

The command below will list all the protected dll files

sfclist -l .dll

If you want to verify if the file is protected by SFC:

sfclist -p C:\Windows\system32\drivers\tcpip.sys

When you use the -l switch to list all the protected system files, you should be getting a very long list (I got 3498 files) and you can’t scroll to the first line in command prompt. You can store the result to file by using the command

sfclist.exe -l > c:\output.txt

Download SFCList

How to View .XLSX Spreadsheet Files Without Excel 2007

2009-03-30T09:43:00.004+08:00

Files with extension xlsx is the default extension for spreadsheets written in Microsoft Office Excel 2007. I really thought the extension was made backward-compatible and you don't have to worry when you are about to open the files in previous version of Microsoft Excel like Microsoft Office Excel 2003. In fact, That's not really the in case.

One way to get around the problem is by converting the .xlsx spreadsheet to the traditional .xls format using the Microsoft Office compatibility Pack. The FileFormatConverters.exe (27.5 MB) will help you to open, edit, and save .xlsx files in Office 2000, Office XP, or even Office 2003.

To install this download:

Ensure your system is up to date by installing all High-Priority/Required updates on Microsoft Update (required for Microsoft Office XP and 2003 users).
After installing all High-Priority/Required updates with Microsoft Update, download the Compatibility Pack by clicking the Download button above and saving the file to your hard disk.
Double-click the FileFormatConverters.exe program file on your hard disk to start the setup program.
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

Download Microsoft Office compatibility Pack

What Changed aka Program Installation Monitor

2009-03-30T04:29:00.003+08:00

What Changed or is a portable utility that can be used to detect changes, track modified files and registry entries during the installation of software programs. To use the tool, simply take a system snapshot, then install your software and take another snapshot to compare with the previous snapshot. What Changed uses brute force to check for new files and registry entries. In addition, the new files can be added to WhatChanged COPY folder.

Program Installation Monitor - What Changed

License: Freeware

Download What Changed Here

Free And Easily Disable USB Port In Windows

2009-03-30T03:28:00.003+08:00

Free USB Drive Disabler is a FREE program lets you disable USB ports on your computer so that no one can steal your precious data through pen drives, removable pen drive, memory card and other portable drives.

USB Drive disabler protects USB ports on your computer when you are away, however your USB ports will not be disabled completely as your USB mouse and keyboard will keep working. It will disable the USB storage medium only which includes pendrive, Ipod, removable drives and other portable USB mass storage devices.

This is quite handy and portable program to use to block USB drives on your computer, you will need to run the tool to disable USB ports on the computer where you want to disable the USB Drive use.

If in any case you want to block the ports on a remote computer on your LAN network then you can use USB Blocker. But for a local computer this program is the best free utility which can stop people from stealing your data.Nice one ehh (sigh).

Using this small utility is quite simple.All you need to do by running the program and select the radio button option Disable USB Drives or Enable USB Drives and click Apply.It is so easy.

Also, this program is supported to run on Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista (still untested in Windows 7) and completely portable tool which can be run from a portable pen drive.

Download USB Drive Disabler

Faster Folder Access In Windows XP

2009-03-30T02:31:00.002+08:00

HDD sizes are getting bigger & bigger every month. Now, entry level sizes for computer manufacturer started with 120 GB or above. The bigger sizes it becomes, the more folders/directories created by user. Until then, navigating between these folder can be annoying sometimes.

Today, I'm gonna introduce you a time saver in navigating folders using Folder Guide. Folder Guide is a handy shell extension that allows you to quickly access a list of your favorite folders from the Explorer right-click menu. With this tools,you can access your favorite folders within Windows Explorer, the Open/Save dialogs of applications, or directly from your desktop or the Start button. Also, new folders can simply be added to the list via the right-click menu.

Click Image For Full Size

Pros :

» Freeware

» Small, under 1MB

» Built-in import/export features

Cons :

» Last updated until Jun 2006

» No cascading style for larger list

Download & more information

Howto Detect Invisible Yahoo! Messenger Users

2009-03-29T18:30:00.001+08:00

Nowdays, Yahoo Messengers (a.k.a YM) is one of favourite IM tools on the internet. Now, it has a built-in function called "Invisible to Everyone" means everyone will see you as Offline, in fact you're Online . Pretty good huh?

This function come in handy for everyone who doesn't to be bugged if they're really busy or some reason not to be disturbed. Unfortunately, every system got its own Bypasser and this function became useless after these BYPASSER tools hits our town.

Invisible.ir (Works like a charm)

Xeeber (Getting busy all the time )

Invisible Scanner (Again, server getting busy)

YMSPY (Simple & slick)

After testing it out, only Invisible.ir & YMSPY works for me at the time I updated this post. Try out these tools and share your comments.

Howto Setup Streamyx PPPoE Connection In WinXP

2009-03-29T18:28:00.001+08:00

2 days ago, my friend told me that his sister accidentally deleted Streamyx (broadband services in our town) dialer in his PC. He's not a tech savvy, so he doesn't know how to create another one. Suddenly, he called the Streamyx contractor who setup the connection to fix his problem. The contractor answered, "I will come to your house, but I have to charge you RM 88.00 to fix this (approx. USD25)". He said the pricing for this problem already stated in the "Service Acceptance Form" that he already signed 2 month ago. So, he declined the offer and called me instead. This is how I assist him to create the RM 88.00 connection for totally FREE !!!.

Step By Step Tutorial (click images for larger view)

Step 1 : Go to Start Menu » Network Connections

Step 2 : Click Create A New Connection

Step 3 : Select option 2 (Connect using a broadband...), then click "Next".

Step 4 : Select option 2 (Set up my connection manually), then click "Next".

Step 5 : Select option 2 (Connect using a broadband connection...), then click "Next".

Step 6 : Type in the name for this connection, type Streamyx for this case. Then click Next.

Step 7 : Key in your Streamyx username & password. If you don't remember, please refer your "Service Acceptance Form". Tick both checkbox & click "Next".

Step 8 : Tick this checkbox for create Streamyx shortcut on your desktop. Click "Finish" to proceed.

Step 9 : Now, you save RM 88.00 & should think buying me a box of KFC.

Disable USB Storage Using Regedit

2009-03-28T02:56:00.000+08:00

Once in a while I have a friend, or customer that needs to keep people from using the USB ports to copy data off his system. It is easier to lock a machine down, disable the floppy, and CDROM in the BIOS. Many times when you try to disable USB - it disables it entirely.This can be a real pain in the ass with newer laptops or systems that don't even have a PS2 interface for the mouse or keyboard.

There is a simple registry change that will keep the USB storage drivers from starting when the system boots. Keeps people from walking up to a PC and copying data off with a USB storage or pendrive, but allows you to keep your scanner, keyboard, and mouse in working state.

Remember, always back your system up before messing around with the registry.

Just open regedit and browse to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor

Notice the value 'Start'

Switch this value to 4, and USB storage devices are disabled.
Switch this value to 3, and USB storage devices are enabled

Already tried this tweak? Leave your comments here

10 Money Saver Alternatives For Paid Software

2009-03-25T21:12:00.001+08:00

Do you got a deep pocket? Why pay more for paid software while you can get those similar features by using these freely available tools on the net.Check these out

Antivirus

AVG - Most popular free solution available at no cost to home users. Provides the high level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. For more scheduling scans & updates option, AVG Professional 8.5 are FREELY available.

ClamWin - Based on Clam AntiVirus engine and uses GNU/GPL (General Public License) by the FSF (Free Software Foundation), and is free (as in freedom) software. ClamWin Free Antivirus uses ClamAV Scanning Engine. Available for Win98/ME/2000/XP/2003 and Vista .

VirusTotal - Web based service that provides on-demand scanning of your local files for worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines. Allows upload any local file up to 10 megs in size and will perform a scan across 30+ different virus scanning engines (which include all of the leading heavy-hitter virus killer engines on the market)

Productivity Tools

OpenOffice - Multi-platform office suite (Win, Linux & Mac) and compatible with other major office suites (i.e MS Office). The suite consists of OpenOffice Writer, OpenOffice Calc, OpenOffice Impress & much more.

StarOffice - From Sun Microsystems and recently been released under Google Pack as a free download. StarOffice runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris systems. For Mac user, you’ll have to download OpenOffice .

Image Editor

GIMP - Freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. Available for Win, Linux & Mac.

Paint.NET - Free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows . It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Video Processing Tools

AutoGK - Started out as a simple bitrate calculator for DivX encoding but has evolved to become an integrated package or tool for the entire process of DivX encoding. Very useful tool for backup your favorite DVD's into VCD's format & much more.

MediaCoder - Free universal batch media transcoder, which nicely integrates most popular audio/video codecs and tools into an all-in-one solution. With a flexible and extendable architecture, new codecs and tools are added in constantly as well as supports for new devices.

Audio Processing Tools

Audacity - Record and play sounds and import and export WAV, AIFF, MP3, and OGG files. Edit your sounds using cut, copy, and paste features (with unlimited undo functionality), mix tracks, or apply effects to your recordings. It is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other operating systems.

Do you got any favorite freeware but not listed here? Mail me or submit your comment for other viewers.

Prevent Autorun.inf Infection with Panda USB AutoRun Vaccine

2009-03-23T12:36:00.001+08:00

The AUTORUN.INF is a configuration file from removable drives that decides which actions to perform when a new external storage device, such as a DVD or USB drive is plugged in to the PC. Unfortunately, malwares like Heap41a take full advantage of this feature in order to spread themselves. This is achieved by copying a malicious executable onto the removable drives and infecting the autorun.inf file, instructing its own malicious file to run silently in the background.

Panda USB and AutoRun Vaccine is a freeware developed by Panda Security to stop the spreading of viruses via removable drives.

As the name suggests, USB Vaccine "vaccinates" PC by disabling Autorun.inf completely so that there is no program could run from any removable drives. In other word, disabling the autorun feature will effectively raise security level of your computer.

For the time being, Panda USB and Autorun Vaccine works only on FAT and FAT 32 USB drives.

Download Panda USB and Autorun Vaccine | More Info

Download Yahoo Messenger 9 Full Setup Offline Standalone Installer

2009-03-16T11:44:00.001+08:00

Yahoo messenger 9.0.0.2136 has been released but yet again yahoo have not provided yahoo messenger full setup offline standalone installer.

Rather if you go to download yahoo messenger from yahoo messenger official site you will get a web based installer for yahoo messenger which will download and install yahoo messenger from internet on run time.

With web installer for yahoo messenger you will not be able to install it on any other computer which is not connected to internet.

If you want to download yahoo messenger full setup standalone offline installer which is portable and make it easy to install on any computer irrespective of its internet connectivity.

These are some links to download yahoo messenger full setup standalone offline installer as per different languages.

English Full Setup Standalone Offline Installer Of Yahoo messenger

Howto:Prevent Windows XP Creating Thumbs.db Files

2009-03-14T03:27:00.001+08:00

Windows has an annoying habit of displaying thumbnails for folders that you may not want thumbnails for, like the My Pictures folder. For me, it's better to have the My Pictures folder viewed in List or Details view and all of the folders underneath My Pictures to be shown as thumbnails.

The really annoying thing is that even if you go to Tools, Options, View, and click on "Apply to All Folders", Windows may still revert back to thumbnail view! This happens because Windows will show a folder in thumbnail view if it finds a THUMBS.DB file in the folder.

THUMBS.DB is a cache file that basically is used by Windows in any folder it finds a picture or video so that the next time you view the folder, the thumbnails will be loaded faster so you don't have to wait. However, with the current speed of computers, it's pretty useless and only takes up more space on your computer.

Disabling Thumbnails

You can delete the file and the thumbnail view will go away, but only for some time before Windows re-creates it. You can prevent this from happening by disabling the thumbnail cache in Folder Options or via a registry hack.

In Explorer, go to Tools, then Folder Options and click on the View tab.

Check the box "Do not cache thumbnails" and click OK. Now Windows will not automatically create a THUMBS.DB file for a folder it deems needs thumbnails, which means you can set a folder view to list or detail and it will remain that way. Make sure to first delete the THUMBS.DB file if one existed already.

You can still set the display of a folder manually by right-clicking on the folder and choosing Properties. Click on the Customize tab and choose from the list (Documents, Pictures, Photo Album, Music, etc)

Disabling Thumbnails with a Registry Hack

Open the registry (regedit.exe) from the Run command and navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Advanced

Double click on the DisableThumbnailCache key in the right-hand pane and change the value to 1. If the key is not there, go to Edit, then New and choose DWORD Value to create one with the same name.

Close the Registry and reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.

If you have a lot of folders with lots of pictures, it would be best to disable the thumbnail cache because each picture in the cache is about 2KB, meaning a 1000 pictures in one folder would result in a cache of 2MBs!