Before You Get Started

Before you decide to download Chrome OS, there are probably a few things I should tell you about it. It is in the very early stages of development, so there is still a lot of stuff that doesn’t work. In fact, it may not work for you at all.

You should also be made aware that this operating system is very simplistic by design, as it is intended for use on netbook computers. By definition, a netbook is a small and inexpensive laptop intended for very casual use such as web browsing and simple office tasks. When you launch Chrome OS, pretty much all you get is a web browser. Don’t be surprised if you go through all this and say to yourself, “I did all that work just to log into a freakin’ browser?”

Requirements

First of all, you will of course need a USB drive you can use to try it out. The disk image is 2,988,442,112 bytes, so you’ll probably need a 4GB thumb drive to be able to use it. If you have any files on your USB drive that you need, be sure to back them up to a safe place because this will wipe all the data from your USB drive. Consider yourself warned.

You will also need a computer that allows booting from a USB drive. You’ll need to instruct your computer’s BIOS to boot from the USB drive instead of the hard drive like it normally does. When you boot up your computer, it should provide you with information as to how to bring up a boot menu. On some machines it is the F8 key and others the F12 key or some other key.

If it all scrolls by too fast, some computers will allow you to pause the boot sequence by pressing the Pause key. That should give you all the time you need to read all that stuff on the screen to see if you can find out what the boot menu key is (if there is one). If you don’t see anything about a boot menu, you could also try editing your BIOS settings to boot from the USB drive. You may wish to consult your computer (or motherboard) manual on how to do this.

You will also need a little bit of luck. Chromium OS may or may not work on your computer hardware. I did successfully run it on two home-built frankenstein computers (with ASUS motherboards), but it did not successfully recognize the network adapter on my Dell laptop. All of this work may be for nothing, if it ends up that Chromium OS does not like your network adapter. Ah yes, I forgot to mention that you do also need a computer with a network adapter.

Finally, you’ll need to download the necessary files to put Chromium OS (that’s what the open source version of Google Chrome OS is called) onto your USB drive. I’ve packaged it all together in a torrent for you:

Download the Chromium OS for USB Torrent (Right-click and Save As)

You’ll need a good BitTorrent client like µTorrent to download it. If you’re new to BitTorrent, be sure to check out our Big Book of BitTorrent. You’ll learn more than you’ll ever want to know about it.

The torrent has a zip file that includes the disk image, as well as a Windows tool for putting the image onto a USB drive. The program you’ll use to create the Chrome OS USB boot disk is called Image Writer for Windows. It’s a nifty little tool for writing disk images, it’s free, and it’s open source.

You don’t need to download it seperately because I’ve already included it in the torrent. I just wanted to mention the good folks that developed the great application and send them some link love as well.

Installing Chromium OS to your USB Drive

Unzip chrome_os_usb.zip, and launch Win32DiskImager.exe. If you need a program to unzip the archive, you can download IZArc. If you get the warning below when you launch Image Writer, don’t sweat it. It’s looking for a floppy disk that’s not there.

Once you’ve got Image Writer running, click the folder icon and select the chrome_os.img file (it should be located in the same place where you extracted the zip file and launched Win32DiskImager.exe).

Connect your USB drive to your PC. If you have autorun enabled, you may want to wait a few seconds for your computer to do its thing. Just close whatever window may pop up. Next, click on the Device dropdown and select the drive letter that corresponds to your USB drive. Then, click Write and the program will commence writing the disk image to your USB drive.

Boot Up Chromium OS

You’re now ready to boot up Chromium OS! You can just leave the USB drive in your machine and reboot it. When the machine boots, press the boot menu key on your keyboard. Select your USB drive from the menu. In about 10 seconds or so, you should see the Chromium OS login screen.

Login with chronos and password. This will log you in as a local user. Once you log in, you should see what looks almost just like the Google Chrome browser. If you click on the Chrome sphere in the upper left corner, you should see a Google Accounts login page telling you to log into Welcome. Log in with your Google Account.

If you do not see this page and you get a browser page that says it could not find the page requested, then unfortunately luck is not on your side. It means that Chromium OS doesn’t like your network adapter. You could still however try it out in a virtual machine if you so desire. If you were able to succesfully log in, you should then see the application page.

As you can see, it is all in the cloud. All the applications you see on the app page bring up different webpages, and everything you do takes place within the browser. In my experience, although it did boot up relatively fast, the browser tends to run a bit slow and is a bit jumpy. Although the calculator and notepad launch properly in little popover windows, the apps don’t work and nothing loads into the windows at all.

The To-do List application doesn’t work either, and you get a Google.com account login page. Note, this is not the same as a Google Accounts login so you won’t be able to log in with your Google Account. The Google.com login page is only for Google employees. The Contacts application brings up a Google Talk gadget that doesn’t appear to work.

As I said earlier, a lot of the stuff isn’t working right. You’ll also see right at the top of the application page a message that says UI under development. Designs are subject to change.

All the other applications are simply links to webpages. One thing that I found rather amusing is that when you click on the Hotmail icon, it takes you to Gmail. However, the Yahoo! Mail icon does indeed bring you to the Yahoo! Mail login page. I suppose Google likes Yahoo! better than they do Microsoft.

So what do you think of Chrome OS? Do you think it is the netbook operating system of the future?

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Usually such situations involve setting up a server or using virtualization. Both of these processes involve some technical know how and most of all – a considerable amount of time.

We previously covered how you can create a Virtual Machine from the operating system you are currently running, so that you can easily carry along the installed software and settings from your computer to any other computer or vice versa. Today let’s look at another alternative that spares you a lot of trouble of messing around with configuration files.

It is called TurnKey Linux.

TurnKey Linux is different from your regular Linux distributions. Unlike most distributions, Turnkey Linux offers a turnkey solution and lets you download TurnKey Linux appliances according to your needs that are ready to run. The components are called appliances.

There are tons of really good open source software and we have previously shown you plenty of them here on MakeUseOf.  However beyond regular day to day use, many open source software power the backbone of plenty of commercial establishments. Apache Web server is a great example, which is used on the majority of servers on the Internet today. Turnkey Linux gathers many such Open Source software and makes them available as turnkey appliances.

So what exactly is a Turnkey Linux appliance you might wonder? Well, let’s put it this way, an appliance is a combination of a base operating system and software, serving a specialized purpose. As an example, let’s say you want to start an online community site. phpBB is an excellent php application that you can use for the said purpose. You would start by getting the hardware, then install PHP, MySQL, set them up to work together and then finally install phpBB.

However, using Turnkey Linux’s phpBB appliance, all you need to worry about is getting some hard disk space that you can put on the World Wide Web! You can just as easily use your own computer, provided it would stay online.

In Turnkey Linux’s case, the appliances are created using Ubuntu 8.04 as the base system and bundling all the required software along with it. There are plenty of appliances to choose from. Almost all of the popular commercially used open source applications have been covered and are available as separate appliances. There are appliances for web development, issue tracking, content management systems (excellent for creating your sites), others for setting up a variety of servers and a whole lots of others.

The appliances are available as bootable ISO images as well as VMDK file to use with your Virtualization software. There is also a “Launch to Cloud” option which uses Amazon EC2 and lets you launch your server in a snap. You can also find a Amazon EC2 tutorial in Turnkey Linux’s documentation, if you would like some help with EC2. The details page also lists the various software that you will get with the appliance, so you can easily see if it is what you are looking for before downloading.

Using the turnkey Linux appliance is as simple as it can get. Depending upon the method you choose to download the appliance you can either burn the ISO image to a disk and then boot from it, or use the VMDK image with VMware or Virtualbox. The appliance and bundled software are preconfigured and ready to use, you wouldn’t have to do anything other than to boot the system and use it!

Take Turnkey Linux for a spin if you are thinking to setup a Linux server of any kind, or perhaps a dedicated development environment or site. Let us know what you think of it? Which appliance did you use?

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Uprooting yourself from a perfectly safe and familiar surrounding which you were enveloped in while using your PC and switching to a Mac may be uncomfortable and in fact, downright awkward. But trust me, once you understand the difference between the two and learn to adapt to the “Mac style”, the dust should inevitably settle and perhaps you’ll eventually enjoy using a Mac.

This switching to Mac guide or call it a crash course will be a stripped down version of most tutorials on how to use a Mac. I will only touch on the bare essentials and hopefully that will make your learning experience a less complicating one. If you need more information about using a Mac, be sure to check out MakeUseOf’s Mac Manual, written by yours truly.

Installing Apps

If you’re looking to install an application in Windows, most likely you’d have to double-click on the setup.exe file to run in the installer.

On a Mac, the majority of apps are packaged in a disk image called a DMG. The usual installation procedure is:

• Double-click the DMG to mount it
• Once mounted, its contents are automatically displayed
• Click and drag the app to the Applications folder
• Unmount the DMG

Sometimes, an app will come with an installer. Simply follow the instructions and you’re golden.

Uninstalling Apps

If you need to remove an application in Windows, you’ll have to head into Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs.

On a Mac, because most apps are self-contained, all you need to do is drag the app from your Applications folder to the Trash. Finito.

Tweak Settings

In Windows, Control Panel is the operations center. Everything you need in order to change any settings will be found there.

On a Mac, you’ll need System Preferences. It can be accessed from the Apple menu, located in the top-left hand corner or in the Utilities folder (Applications -> Utilities). Every customizable setting — from display font size and screen saver patterns to Bluetooth and Printer Sharing — will be found there. If you can’t seem to locate the setting you need, use the Spotlight search field within System Preferences to narrow down the possibilities.

Exploring For Files

If you need to explore the contents of say, the Program Files folder in Windows, you’ll definitely use Windows Explorer and would presumably start by double-clicking My Computer.

On a Mac, what you would use is the Finder. Click on the Finder icon (the smiley face) on the Dock and a new Finder Window will open, displaying the contents of your Home folder. From there, you are able to access your Applications, Documents, Downloads, Movies, Music and Pictures folders.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Most Windows keyboard shortcuts revolve around the Control button. To copy — Control + C, to paste — Control + V and so on.

On a Mac, the big kahuna is the Command button. It’s located next to the spacebar and has a clover icon on it. You’ll definitely need to reprogram your fingers (your thumb, actually) to hit this button instead of Control.

For a complete list of commonly-used Mac OS X shortcuts, refer to MakeUseOf’s Cheat Sheets page or the Mac Manual.

Launching Applications

The regular rigmarole to go through if you need to launch an app in Windows would be to click on Start, then go on from there depending on how you have your Start menu customized.

On a Mac, the Dock is where you’ll start. Drag all of your favourite apps — internet browser, instant messaging client, music player, movie player, etc — from the Applications folder onto the Dock for easy access.

Dealing With Unresponsive Apps

If something went wrong while using a Windows PC, most users will instinctively press the infamous Control+Alt+Del key sequence to invoke the Task Manager.

On a Mac, if an app isn’t responding, your safest bet is to force it to quit. You can do this by right-clicking the app’s icon on the Dock and click on Force Quit.

Alternatively, you can learn to use Mac’s task manager — Activity Monitor.

System Maintenance

If you get a whiff that your Windows PC is starting to clunker and slow down, the obvious easy-fix is to use Window’s Disk Defragmenter.

On a Mac, fragmentation is automatically dealt with by the operating system so you don’t need to worry about that. If you notice your Mac starting to slow down, take a look at some optimizers in this article and here for a couple of tips to keep your Mac running smoothly. Many (even seasoned) Mac users will advise you to run Disk Utility to repair file permissions as a cure-all for Mac slowdowns. I have to point out this is a myth. Repairing permissions deals with a very specific issue, read more about it here.

I hope that this crash course helps any recent Mac Switchers out there to comprehend the alien (albeit very pretty) operating system before them. I can’t emphasize the importance of user experience here. You’ll only learn to master a Mac after you’ve used it for some time and no tutorial can completely substitute your personal learning process.

Image credit: Daniel Morris

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Although many changes have occurred to the company over the years, and ultimately they’ve lost their crown, Mandriva Linux remains a solid choice in an alternative operating system.

Introduction

Mandriva is primarily a KDE distro, although they do give GNOME and others almost equal development time. This release features KDE 4.3.2 and GNOME 2.28.1 as well as several lighter choices. Linux 2.6.31.5, Xorg X Server 1.6.5, and GCC 4.4.1 form the foundation underneath. Traditionally, the outstanding features of Mandriva are its installer and system control panel – which are rivaled by few, but this release hopes to offer some amenities to appeal to users of newer trends in technology such as semantic desktop and netbook support.

The Mandriva Linux installer sets the standard in user-friendly Linux installers. They were the first to use a pretty framebuffered graphical interface but perhaps the most useful element was the partitioner. To this day it remains the easiest to use due to the manner of the visual representation of your hard disk layout. Many others have used Mandriva’s installer for inspiration in their designs, but Mandriva’s reigns supreme.

The Mandriva Control Center again was ground breaking at it the time of its unveiling and again, it has few equals to this day. From within the control center a user can perform the whole range of Linux configuration. From hardware to software to kernel to boot to users, it can be found in this handy compact system tool.

The Mandriva Software Management system is capable and easy to use as well. It will install software from a aptly stocked software repository, apply package and system updates, as well as removing unwanted software. Packages are categorized by function and can be sorted by their install status, package classification, or by search results. Information such as release data, changelog, and included files can be reviewed for each package. Checking the tick box and clicking apply is all that’s required to install a package or set of packages.

The software manager also includes a System Tray applet to check for updates and inform the user of any available. When available the applet icon will will alert the user and upon clicking a window will open listing the updates giving the user the choice of applying them or not. At first boot the user will be asked to configure a remote update and software source, which entails just a few mouse clicks.

Mandriva Linux is available in three basic formats: an installable live CD, a free install DVD, and an all-inclusive commercial PowerPack edition. The installable live CD comes in your choice of KDE or GNOME, your choice of languages, and ships with some convenient proprietary code such as Wi-Fi drivers, 3D graphic drivers, Flash, and some browser plugins. This is the recommended version for most users.

Advanced users may wish to use the free install DVD because it provides more desktop environments, several kernels, support for various hardware architectures, and developmental tools; but lacks proprietary drivers, codecs, and Flash. The commercial version has all sorts of extra goodies and is available at Mandriva Store.

All Mandriva Linux formats come with a nice set of applications. Web browsers, email clients, office programs, multimedia players, chat and messaging clients, photo and image management and manipulation apps, games, and utilities are found in the menu. The online software repositories contain thousands more waiting to be installed. Mandriva is one of the largest and most complete Linux distributions available.

2010 Improvements

For those familiar with Mandriva this release brings some great improvements. The best two so far have been the increased stability and performance. Mandriva may have had a reputation for being a bit crashy in the past, but it appears those days are gone. In the several days since a fresh install only one application crash has occurred here, and this application is known to be unstable across distributions. This new-found stability comes with even better speed as well. Not only does Mandriva boot quicker, but desktop performance has improved noticeably. Applications open and function faster, including the two heavyweights OpenOffice.org and Firefox. There is virtually no graphic artifacting and redraws are immediate. In addition, the 2010 graphics are just beautiful.

Some new features include a Live Upgrade for current users which allows them to update to 2010 without doing a fresh install. The installer now features a handy graphical initial partition layout screen before starting the actual partitioner, and the partitioner now has a file browser that lets you look at your current partitions’ data before making any decisions. Most of Mandriva’s original tools have seen lots of improvements in usability and efficiency and Ext4 is now the default filesystem. New guest user allows you to let others use your computer without risking your data.

Conclusion

This really is a banner release for Mandriva. It’s been a long time since I could recommend it too much, but it’s moved way up my list with 2010. For new users the complete experience with Mandriva One live CD will convince you better than my words and for loyal users, well, you already know. It might be too soon to say, but it feels like this release will go down as Mandriva’s best ever – and perhaps it just might be the best Linux release of the year.

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More often than not, all your Mac probably needs is some maintenance. Here are some tips to optimize your Mac and keep the system running healthily.

1. Quit Inactive Applications

Probably one of the most overlooked causes of a slowdown is running an app in the background without knowing. Sometimes, this happens to me as well — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve left Photoshop running by accident.

Apps running in the background use memory even if they’re inactive, depriving the operating system. Hence, forcing it to use the available hard disk space as virtual memory; leading to an excessive amount of pagings and slowdowns. This also puts unnecessary strain on your hard disk, especially so if you’re running low on free space.

So, keep an eye on the Dock for apps that shouldn’t be running. Be frugal with your memory usage and you’ll notice a different in the system’s performance.

2. Disable The Dashboard

If you hardly use widgets, then you should disable the Dashboard in order to prevent the widgets from loading. The less memory you have to spare, the more reason you should do it.

Disabling the Dashboard requires the use to Terminal. Before you get all frightened, relax. It’s not that difficult.

Launch Terminal from Applications > Utilities > Terminal.app. Copy and paste this line of code into Terminal and hit Enter:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

Don’t quit Terminal just yet. The Dock has to be restarted in order for this hack to work. So copy and paste this line of code to restart the Dock then hit Enter:

killall Dock

You can quit Terminal now by pressing Command+Q. With Dashboard disabled, nothing will happen when you press on the dedicated Dashboard button (F4), hit F12 or click on the Dashboard dock icon; preventing the widgets from launching and hogging precious memory.

To re-enable the Dashboard, copy and paste this code into Terminal and hit Enter:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

Then, restart the Dock by using the code above.

3. Look Into Preferences

There is a lot you can do within System Preference to make sure that your Mac is running as smoothly as possible. For starters, you could take a look through your list of apps which automatically launch on login. You can find it under Accounts setting then hitting the ‘Login Items’ tab. I’ve listed this tip in a previous article but I can’t emphasize how important it is. Apps that launch when your Mac powers on prolong start-up time and take up memory. Keep this list lean and mean.

Then spend some time examining other options and evaluate if they’re absolutely essential to be running. For example, if you’re don’t use Bluetooth, then make sure to turn it off. Enabling File Sharing shows that you’re generous and kind but is taxing to your hard disk — especially if you’re sharing the Movies folder. Having someone stream movies from your Mac while trying to run Photoshop is well, for lack of a better word, hazardous. My advice is to disable File Sharing and other unnecessary Sharing options, and revert to using a pendrive to share files.

One last tip regarding System Preferences. After using your Mac for a while, there must be a load of preference panes installed. They are listed under the ‘Other’ section. Take a look at what’s installed and whether or not they’re needed. Preference panes are loaded during start-up and take up memory as well. If you find something that you deem not essential, right-click on it and remove it.

4. Make Room To Breathe

Hard disk space isn’t only meant for storing files. I’ve seen some people fill their hard disks to the brim. Mac OS X requires at least 20% of the hard disk drive to be free in order to perform smoothly. It uses this space to swap memory with the RAM (paging), write system files and other temporary files. By leaving OS X very little free space, you are choking the system, metaphorically speaking.

How can you free up used disk space? Run an inventory and remove applications that you hardly ever use. Take iDVD and Garageband for example, it uses up free space in the gigabytes. If you don’t frequently use these apps, remove them — you can always reinstall them from the OS X Install Disc.

Buy an external hard disk and store your large movie files over there instead of occupying the space on the primary (system) hard drive.

You can also use applications like Filelight (direct download link, Snow Leopard compatible), GrandPerspective or OmniDiskSweeper to display your hard disk usage in an easily-digestible graphical interface and find the culprit that’s hogging your valuable disk space.

5. Update Frequently

Updating your system may feel troublesome to certain users, especially when it involves restarting. It should be made known that Apple releases updates to fix bugs and potential errors which may harm the system. Occasionally, performance updates are issued to address issues regarding improper hardware operation like this one, for instance, which was developed to fix hard drive stalls on Macs running Leopard and Snow Leopard.

To scan your Mac for available updates, run Software Update from the Apple menu in the menubar.

So there we have it, five (frequently overlooked) tips to keep your Mac optimized and running smoothly. I hope that this helps solve the dreadful spinning beachball of death syndrome.

How often do you run maintenance on your Mac? Do you have any other tips to keep OS X running lean and mean? Jot them down in the comments, I’d love to hear your ideas.

Image credit: maczydeco

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GoblinX began life as one of the strangest looking distros available. With its goblin logo, Halloween colors, gawdy window decorations, and strange wallpapers it surely gave its users a unique experience. Today, GoblinX tries to appear more mainstream, but they still refuse to bow to the tide.

The developers include little that’s not Open Source, which means no proprietary drivers, codecs, or plugins. What they do is provide a nice stable environment with handy applications. Most hardware is detected and auto-configured, but some wireless Ethernet cards may need manual configuration. Fortunately, unlike some distros, they have included Ndiswrapper for those who require Windows drivers to activate their wireless network interface controller in order to access the Internet.  GoblinX includes some graphical configuration tools as well for things like Wireless Protected Access and printer set up.

GoblinX offers several configurations. The most recent release was of their G:Standard. This standard version ships with KDE 4 and applications such as Abiword, Pidgin, KOffice, and MPlayer. Under the hood is Linux 2.6.27.6 and Xorg X Server 1.6.3.  GCC 4.4.3 is installable. Other versions are G:Noblin which features GNOME as the desktop environment, G:Mini which uses Xfce 4, and G:Micro that ships with Fluxbox. While these versions and their source code are free to download, GoblinX developers also produce a version for USB memory sticks with GNOME and a netbook interface similar to Ubuntu Mobile that can be obtained for a nominal fee.

GoblinX G:Mini with Xfce 4

The hard drive installer is relatively easy. The compact nature of the interface limits the options making it easier for the new user.  However, you may need to create a partition first using the included partition manager. The installer does have configurations for options such as user accounts, root password, filesystem, run level, and language.  Running from the live CD has the option to save users’ configuration to a partition or removable media.

The GoblinX partition manager and installer

Being based on Slackware, it inherits Slackware’s package manage system. However, the much more friendly slapt-get and Gslapt graphical front-end are set up with GoblinX repositories and contain many other popular applications such as Firefox and OpenOffice.org.  Gslapt resembles and functions very much like Synaptic.  Find the application, mark it for installation, and click Apply is all there is to it.

The GoblinX package management - Gslapt

With this being a point-0 release, there are a few bugs. For example, the Gslapt package manager has problems completing its tasks at times and OpenOffice.org has dependencies missing from repositories.  These will no doubt be fixed in updates. In the mean time, OpenOffice.org from www.openoffice.org is an easy install and slapt-get at the commandline functions just fine.

slapt-get operates almost like APT.  Whereas with APT one might apt-get install <package name>, with slapt-get one types slapt-get --install <package name>. The other functions are similar as well.  Type slapt-get --help for more.

For those wishing to use Ndiswrapper to extract and format their Windows drivers for their wireless Ethernet cards, the procedure is very simple. First mount your Windows partition, then point Ndiswrapper to the driver .inf file.  So, for example, one might:

1.  mkdir /mnt/sda1
2.  mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1
3.  ndiswrapper -i /mnt/sda1/SWSetup/WLAN/bcmwl5.inf

Then to use it simply:

1.  modprobe ndiswrapper

If you have still have difficulties with certain Broadcom chips found in many laptop brands, perhaps try:

1.  echo "blacklist b43" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
2.  echo "blacklist ssb" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
3.  Then reboot your machine.

Another thing many folks may miss is the Adobe Flash Player.  While GoblinX repositories have Gnash, a free Open Source flash player that sometimes doesn’t work real well, many users prefer Adobe.  It’s easy to install as well.

1.  Visit Flash Player download and download the tar.gz format.
2.  tar -zxvf install_flash_player_10_linux.tar.gz
3.  mv libflashplayer.so .mozilla/plugins/

Other than those previously mentioned, very few if any other problems emerged while using GoblinX so far.  In addition, KDE 4 on GoblinX performs rather well, even on a system with only 512 megabytes of RAM.   Whereas GoblinX may not be “install and go” to some standards, it gives the user the choice to use proprietary code other distros may take away. GoblinX is simply a nice distribution derived from a solid code base that offers the user even something better than choice – something different.  And these days, anything different is good.

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For a change, I will be talking about how to uninstall Linux Ubuntu (or other operating systems) from a dual boot windows pc, and still being able to boot into other OS without much work. So let’s get started right away.

Backup your Linux files

It pops up everytime, but backup really is very important. If you have been using your Linux system for some time, chances are you would have created files you wouldn’t want to loose. In such a case, you can boot into Linux, backup your files (check out your Home directory) on an external device or onto a Windows partition.

Alternatively if you somehow managed to mess up and can’t boot into Linux, you can use ext2 IFS which allows you access to your Linux paritions. It can only read ext2 and ext3 filesystems though. If you are using other filesystems, you would have to look around a bit for a similar application. In any case, you can always boot from a Linux live CD to backup files if everything else fails.

Delete Linux Partitions

Next step: delete every Linux partition. That would include everything – boot, swap, home, whatever way you set up your system, it is time to delete all Linux partitions. There are a couple of ways to achieve this, easiest being from within Windows’ Computer Management. You need to:

• Log in to an account with administrative privileges.
• Right click on My Computer, click ‘Manage’.
• Choose ‘Disk Management’ listed under ‘Storage’ and you will see all of your partitions listed there.

Next, you need to identify Linux partitions. The Linux partitions generally don’t have a file system listed with them if Windows doesn’t recognize it, so this can serve as a clue. Other ways can be identifying by size or partition number. You can use partition managers, these are generally better at identifying filesystems. Go ahead, delete the partitions, just make sure you delete the correct ones. Linux is gone and so is GRUB, which allowed you to choose operating system to use at boot time. So currently, you cannot boot into any other operating system, without some help. We are going to fix that soon.

Restore MBR

As we noted, GRUB is gone and so is the ability to boot into Windows. You would now need to boot from the Windows CD/DVD to restore the Master Boot Record. You can also use other Live CDs like one of my absolute favorites and highly recommended HBCD just in case you don’t have Windows installation media handy. Here are the steps:

• Boot from Windows CD/DVD and choose “Repair” when it shows up.

• Choose command prompt on the resulting screen and run the following two commands:
  • bootrec /fixmbr
  • bootrec /fixboot

XP users need to run the recovery console from Windows XP CD and then type fixmbr when at the command prompt.

Reclaim free space

Restart now, remove the CD and you should be able to boot into your Windows installation. Once there, you should go ahead and reclaim the unpartitioned free space which was previously occupied by Linux. Doing so is simple and straight forward:

• Fire up Disk Management as before.
• Right-click on the unparitioned space, choose new partition or new logical drive.
• Specify the size and other options according to your needs and you are done.

The free space should now be accessible from My Computer like any other partition. Alternatively, you can create multiple partitions from the free space or resize existing partitions to suit your needs.You can use utilities like GParted, Easues Partition Master or any one of the many partition managers on HBCD to perform such advanced tasks easily.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 3 Ways to Install Linux on Windows or Mac (25)
• How To Install Linux With Ease Using UNetbootin (17)
• GoblinX – An Alternative Linux OS With 4 Different Flavors (9)
• Tweak Ubuntu the Easy Way (16)
• The Ubuntu Upgrade Guide (8)

Step 1: The checks

First off, you would want to make sure your existing hardware can support Windows 7. Windows XP has been out for a long time and your hardware might not support the newer and comparatively more demanding versions of Windows like Windows 7. These are the official system requirements:

• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

You can use the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor to see if your computer will run Windows 7. Once you are sure that you are good to go, hop up to the next step.

Step 2: Backup and Migration

It is always a good idea to have backup of your important files and settings that you worked so hard to create. We have shown you various applications to backup your files and settings in the past. If you would rather not install any new software, a simple copy and paste would suffice for the time being. Just make sure to include everything you might need. While you might have set up your folders differently according to your taste, here are some key locations that you should check out and decide if you would like to back them up:

• My Documents
• My Music
• My Pictures
• (If you have more than one user account on your computer, make sure to back up their files as well)
• Your projects folders and files, if it is your work computer
• Browser bookmarks, saved passwords, etc.
• Other program data under %AppData% (This doesn’t always work. It is better if you use respective applications to export settings)

Another option you can use to quickly backup and transfer your settings is the Windows Easy Transfer tool that you can find on the Windows 7 DVD. Browse to the folder named support and then to migwiz on your Windows 7 DVD and launch migsetup.exe. This will launch the Windows Easy Transfer tool.

Choose how you would like to transfer the settings:

and then select what to transfer:

and Windows Easy Transfer will do the rest and give you a file you can store, on say a flash drive to transfer the settings to new installation later.

Step 3: Drivers

Next up are the drivers. It is always a good idea to search your computer manufacturer’s website to see if they have newer drivers for Windows 7. Older drivers may not always work, or may not work as intended. This is especially true for drivers made for Windows XP. I was able to use an XP display driver with Windows 7 beta but it didn’t work when Windows 7 RC came out. You might have more luck with Vista drivers on Windows 7, but nothing is guaranteed. So if you are trying to get older drivers to work, you better be prepared to play around after installation.

Step 4: Install

Finally, you are ready to install Windows 7. Pop in the DVD and restart your computer. Boot from the DVD and follow the prompts to install Windows 7.

Choose Custom (Advanced install) when given the choice:

Then choose the system drive (which was your C: on Windows XP) as the partition you would like to set up Windows 7.

Wait for the installation to complete, and boot into Windows 7 once you are done.

Installed, now what?

Already here? Way to go. Now that you have Windows installed there are few additional steps you should take before you are ready to go. First off, make sure you install an antivirus before you start browsing the web or transferring files using USB drives. MS Security Essentials, AVG, Avast and Antivir are good free choices. You might want to look into commercial ones if you want something better. ESET and Kaspersky are good choices over there (Oops! Did I start a flame war?).

Install your favorite applications now. This would be a good time to get the latest versions if you have been postponing pending software updates. Looking for some software recommendations? Check out the Mark pack.

Oh and don’t forget to restore the settings you backed up earlier. If you went the copy-paste route, its time to do some more copy-paste. If you used Windows Easy Transfer instead, click on Start button and type Windows Easy transfer, launch the application and let it know that this is your new computer, then browse to the location you stored those settings to and let it do the rest.

Hope this helps you plan your upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Once you are done, use the comments area and tell us know how it went and if Windows 7 is worth the price tag!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• Vista Switcher – Replace Windows’ Alt-Tab With Something Cooler (9)
• Tweak Windows XP/Vista/7 to Your Taste with XdN Tweaker (10)
• How To Get Aero Shake, Aero Peek & Aero Snap Features In Vista & XP (12)
• How To Choose Between 32-bit & 64-bit Windows 7 Operating Systems (20)

You can’t upgrade from 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit without doing a fresh “clean” install, which requires you to reinstall all applications from scratch. Therefore, you need to decide on either 32-bit or 64-bit before you install Windows 7.

While I recommend you go with 64-bit, read through this article to make an informed decision.

Background: What is 32-bit and 64-bit?

32-bit and 64-bit are computer architectures that specify the length of data types and addresses that are supported. What this means for the average user is how much memory can be used effectively and how powerful the number-crunching capacity of the CPU is.

Since Windows XP was originally only released as a 32-bit operating system, and because older hardware have 32-bit device drivers, application development on the Windows platform has been slow in moving to 64-bit. However, after both Windows XP and Vista were released in 64-bit, Microsoft is now pushing 64-bit strongly, and you can expect application developers to take advantage of 64-bit computing soon.

Should You Buy 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7?

Fortunately, you do not need to worry about all this when purchasing a computer or Windows 7. If you are buying a new PC from a vendor, it will ship with 64-bit Windows pre-installed if the configuration supports 64-bit. If you buy retail boxed versions of Windows 7, they will include both 32-bit and 64-bit editions, except for the Home Basic edition.

Advantages of 64-bit

There are several benefits of going to Windows 7 64-bit:

• With 32-bit Windows, you can use a maximum of 4GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 7 runs very fast with 4GB and you can upgrade your RAM to 8 or 16 GB later, making your system future-proof.
• A 32-bit OS can theoretically use up to 4 GB of RAM, but 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 see a maximum of 3.12 GB. With 64-bit Windows 7, you can use the full 4GB RAM.
• You get better security with 64-bit Windows. All 64-bit device drivers are digitally signed, which means you will not have random crashes. You also get more advanced security features like Kernel Patch Protection with 64-bit Windows 7.
• Since 64-bit systems process more information and support greater RAM, Windows 7 is more responsive when you are running complex applications or many applications simultaneously. If you use graphics applications like Photoshop, video editing, games, CAD, etc., you should go 64-bit.
• Not all applications have 64-bit versions that take advantage of the 64-bit architecture, but you can expect more of them after Windows 7 goes mainstream. Meanwhile, most 32-bit applications work fine under 64-bit Windows. If any of them don’t for some reason, you can reasonably expect the application developers to fix any issues, because a lot of people will be running 64-bit Windows.

Check If Your PC Supports 64-Bit Windows 7

If you have bought or upgraded your computer in the past couple of years, with an Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent/higher processor, your PC is already equipped to run 64-bit Windows 7. If you want to make sure, you can do any of the following:

• If you are running 32-bit Windows Vista, go to Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance Information and Tools. Click View and print details. In the System section, you can see whether your PC is 64-bit capable.
• You can use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to find out if your system can run 64-bit Windows 7.
• Check the Windows 7 Compatibility Center to see if your devices have 64-bit drivers.

When You Should Use 32-bit

There are some situations in which you are better off using 32-bit Windows 7:

• If you use only 2GB of RAM, and do not plan to upgrade anytime soon. To really take advantage of 64-bit Windows 7, you need minimum 4GB RAM.
• You have legacy devices like scanners and printers that do not have 64-bit device drivers. 32-bit drivers are not supported under 64-bit Windows 7, so you should make sure all the devices you need to use are compatible with 64-bit.
• You run old 16-bit applications that were developed for Windows 3.1 or DOS. These won’t run under 64-bit Windows.

Did this post clear your doubts about 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions? Is your system ready for 64-bit Windows 7? Feel free to share and ask any questions in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Upgrade From XP To Windows 7 In 4 Easy Steps (12)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)
• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• Windows 7 Libraries Explained – And Why You Want Them (51)
• Vista Switcher – Replace Windows’ Alt-Tab With Something Cooler (9)

You can download MobaLiveCD from here. A mere 1.6 MB download, MobaLiveCD presents an inviting prospect over virtualization solutions like Virtualbox, although it is not as feature rich. Under the hood, MobaLiveCD uses QEMU – the open source emulator. If you ever tried using QEMU, you would know that it requires a fair bit of configuration and know-how. MobaLiveCD does away with all that and provides you with a single executable file which launches the application, you don’t even need to install MobaLiveCD.

MobaLiveCD is a portable application, the interface is intuitive and straightforward. To run a Linux LiveCD:

• Just click on the ‘Run the LiveCD’ button.
• Browse to the iso image.
• Choose whether to create a virtual hard drive or not and the LiveCD boots up.

MobaLiveCD needs to copy files to the system32 directory, so you should run MobaLiveCD with elevated rights if you see an error like the one below. To do with elevated rights just click on the exe file and choose Run as Administrator.

Keep in mind that you are essentially running another operating system inside Windows thus the resources available to MobaLiveCD will be limited. So you should not expect the same performance levels you would get by restarting the computer and booting from the CD ROM. Nevertheless depending upon your computer’s configuration you can still get decent performance, enough to let you try out the Linux Live CD thoroughly.

You can toggle full screen mode using Ctrl + Alt + F and Ctrl + Alt would bring the cursor back to the host operating system. In addition you can use the Right-Click Menu button that would create a right click context menu entry for ISO files, allowing you to run an ISO file directly within MobaLiveCD from the context menu.

The latest version of MobaLiveCD can also be used to run a Live USB drive right inside Windows. Click on the Run Live USB button and follow the prompts. If you would like to save the state of your work MobaLiveCD also lets you create a virtual hard disk.

Oh and in case you are wondering which LiveCD you should download, check out the Unofficial(fake) Chrome OS. And now that we are on the topic, let me confess that it was out of an urge to try out the fake Chrome OS(and laziness to set up a virtual machine in Virtual Box) that I realized MobaLiveCD is a cool application we haven’t covered yet, so now you know about it.

MobaLiveCD is great for testing new Linux distributions with a Linux Live CD, downloading ISO’s before burning them or testing remastered Live CD’s that generally require some hit and miss to get things exactly the way you want. With MobaLiveCD you can test them without needing to set up a virtual machine or burning CD’s.

Have you used MobaLiveCD? Do you know of any other similar application? Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Tweak Your Windows OS With Portable Ultimate Windows Tweaker (18)
• Put your Linux Distro on a Live CD (25)
• Put your Life On a USB Stick [Linux] (8)
• How To Run Google Chrome OS From A USB Drive [Windows] (17)
• How To Install Linux With Ease Using UNetbootin (17)

One of the afterthoughts I have with another Mac user friend is about the installation process for Macbook Air which has no optical drive. It was a short discussion closed by a “using Remote Disc of course” statement and a few chuckles. But then I wondered whether it’s possible to install Snow Leopard (or any other version of Mac OS X) using a USB thumb drive (something like creating a portable Ubuntu installation USB that we’ve discussed here before). This would be useful for Mac users who have no access to a physical optical drive.

For the sake of curiosity, I did a little Googling followed by a little experiment.  Less than one and a half hours later, I knew the answer.

Utilizing the Disk Utility

Some readers have pointed out in the Ubuntu article that the whole process of creating a USB installation disk can be done the “GUI-way” using the Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app), so we’ll try that route in creating our USB installation drive for upgrading your Mac to Leopard.

As the installation DVD is almost 7 GB in size, we’ll need a USB thumb drive with at least that amount of space. I used an 8 GB thumb drive, but larger types or even a USB external drive with an empty partition above 7 GB could also be used.

The first thing to do is to format the drive. Select the drive from the left pane of Disk Utility then click the “Erase” tab. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” from the “Format” option, then give a name to the disk and click the “Erase” button.

After the formatting process is finished, go to the “Restore” tab to ‘restore’ the content of the installation disc into the USB drive. Select then drag and drop the source image (Snow Leopard) and the destination (the USB drive) from the left pane to the corresponding place. Note: you can choose a disk image from a physical disc, an image file – on the hard drive or web location – as the source.

Then click the “Restore” button to start the process, which will roughly take about half an hour.

After the restoring process is finished, we can see that the USB drive has been transformed into an installation disk.

However, we can’t do the installation by clicking the “Install Mac OS X” logo. You’ll just get the warning sign ‘The application “Install Mac OS X” cannot be used from this volume‘.

Now, let’s continue with the real deal.

The installation process

Eject the DVD but leave the USB plugged in. Restart the system and press the “Alt” key on the keyboard during restarting. You will have the option to boot from the hard disk or a USB disk; I guess you know which one to choose, right?

The whole installation – or upgrade, some would say – process took about 50 minutes. Then you’ll get the thank you window saying that everything’s done.

There are some applications that are still incompatible with Snow Leopard, which is to be expected at the early stage of every new OS. They are moved to the “Incompatible Software” folder in the start up disk. If you’d like to find out who they are, click the “More Info” button.

And I think now is the time to say hello to our new OS.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How to Upgrade to Snow Leopard & What You Should Know [Mac] (11)
• Use Quicktime X in Mac Snow Leopard for Easy Screencasting (4)
• Tweak Your Windows OS With Portable Ultimate Windows Tweaker (18)
• The Incredible Free Manual For Every Mac User [PDF] (24)
• How To Upgrade From XP To Windows 7 In 4 Easy Steps (12)

While I was in London, I visited the Apple Regent Street Store to grab a copy of the latest OS to upgrade my Mac. Is it actually as simple as that? Quick answer – no.

There happens to be some fine print that everyone should be aware of.

Firstly, the $25 price is only applicable if you are already using Leopard. I spoke to a Genius about this and it turns out that Snow Leopard is actually an upgrade from Leopard. This means that if you are currently running Tiger, you’ll have to purchase the Snow Leopard Mac Box Set which sells for $169. But then again, this is all just legal mumbo-jumbo — there is no black magic preventing you from using the $25 disk to upgrade from Tiger. If you do this, however, keep in mind that the “automated upgrade” process won’t work for you and Apple will not support your Mac if they find out that you upgraded to Snow Leopard from Tiger.

Secondly, as everyone should be aware of, Apple decided to drop support for all PowerPC machines. This means that if you have an older Mac, you won’t be enjoying the performance bump or any of the cool new features.

So, as I said before, I’m a proud legal owner of Apple’s latest operating system that I’m eager to try out. Let’s get on it, shall we?

Preparing to upgrade

Upgrading to Snow Leopard was undeniably the easiest upgrade I have ever performed. Before actually upgrading though, you should always have a backup of your files and documents. You could use Time Machine or Carbon Copy Cleaner to equip yourself with a copy of your hard disk for safekeeping. Or you could do it the old-fashioned way, like I did; manually backup these folders to an external hard disk:

• Documents
• Downloads
• Pictures
• Music
• Desktop
• Any other location where you keep important documents

Now that you have your precious files all backed up and secure, here’s another thing you need to know about Snow Leopard: you won’t need to restore them. You see, Snow Leopard automatically performs an Archive and Install procedure when installing itself. It will keep all of your files, folders, preferences and applications untouched while replacing essential system files. In a nutshell, your entire home folder will be backed up and restored after the installation process is over.

Upgrading

Initially, I was a little skeptical about the whole automated upgrade process. So after backing up my files, I decided to give it a try. Low and behold — after 40 minutes, I was greeted with the Snow Leopard intro movie and everything was still intact. Even my customized Geektool desktop still showed. Some applications have yet to support Snow Leopard and those were the only things that broke during the upgrade process.

When creating Snow Leopard, the techies over at Apple really had their wavelength synchronized with their user base. By making it as “noob-friendly” as possible, this will definitely encourage a lot of their current users to upgrade as well as reduce the number of unpleasant incidents while doing so.

To further streamline this process, I suggest getting hold of an uninstaller and start getting rid of applications that you no longer use and documents that you have no need of. In other words, do some spring cleaning! By doing so, you are minimizing the number of unwanted apps and their preference files from being transferred over to the new operating system. Less clunk and less time wasted.

Sure, some people will advice you to perform an Erase and Install — this method is a little bit more manual and shouldn’t be attempted by the faint-hearted. The benefits of this option are two fold:

• You end up with a much cleaner, leaner and meaner system — having gotten rid of anything that was slowing down your Mac.
• You have more free disk space.

However, this will also mean that you have to manually set up accounts and authorize plug-ins and re-download preference pane apps and re-installing applications and….you get the drift. If you do decide to head down this road, make sure to have everything backed up safely somewhere, remember your Keychain passwords and application serial keys.

Advantages?

The buzz on the InterWeb whispers something of Snow Leopard freeing up more disk space. Well, there is some truth to this.

Since Apple dropped support for PowerPC processors, the OS X installation in Snow Leopard excluded the PPC component — hence, saving a couple of gigabytes. Furthermore, Snow Leopard calculates disk space using base 10 measurement. This may be a little hard for the regular user to comprehend but I’ll try to word it as easily as possible. In OS X 10.5 Leopard, the amount of disk space was calculated using base 2 (binary) measurement — 1MB = 1,048,576 bytes. That’s why you can only “see” 465GB from a 500GB hard disk.

In Snow Leopard, disk space calculation is measured using base 10 (decimal) system — 1MB = 1,000,000 bytes. So, you will actually “see” 500GB from a 500GB hard disk. So there’s the mystery of the “additional recovered space” revealed. There is a discrepancy though: software and physical memory (RAM) are still calculated using base 2.

However, this is a good thing. Most users don’t really understand why their 4GB thumbdrive only shows 3.7GB of free space. The new calculation system will help clear the confusion and generally make things a little simpler.

Besides that, due to some unknown internal Apple voodoo, my system feels slightly (not dramatically) snappier and more responsive. Naturally, after I upgraded using the automated path, I couldn’t help but perform an Erase and Install. What I’m trying to say here is, your mileage might vary.

Other cool implementations are:

• Dock Exposé – clicking on an application in the Dock will reveal all of its windows in Exposé. Windows that were minimized are displayed but separated from the active ones
• Application stack – No further tweaking required. Apple has heard you and put a stack for your apps on the Dock
• Browsing within Stacks – clicking a folder in a Stack will now take you to the folder without opening a Finder window
• Supercharged Finder – previewing documents and videos is incredibly easy now. As you hover the cursor over a file, preview buttons pop up that will allow you to flip through a PDF or play a video — directly within its file icon
• Quicktime X – this is no ordinary Quicktime. Not only will it play videos in a new sleek, borderless player, it will also allow you to record screencasts, edit and trim them, then share it with the world. Perian is still required to play videos if they are not Quicktime movie files
• Location Services - Snow Leopard will determine your current location based on your IP address and if enabled, automatically set your date and time zone to your location. It was a pleasant surprise to see that the clock and weather widgets in my Dashboard already set to my location

  

• New Image Capture user interface – I use Image Capture a lot and the new interface makes it really easy to import individual images

  

Surely, there are more new features being bragged about Snow Leopard; these are just a few that I thought I’d share with you. It’s actually amazing to see that Apple can make an old machine work faster with a new operating system, unlike other vendors.

How many of you have taken the leap and bought Snow Leopard? Are you satisfied with your purchase? What is your favorite new feature? The comments are yours for the taking.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Upgrading Mac To Snow Leopard Using USB drive (13)
• Use Quicktime X in Mac Snow Leopard for Easy Screencasting (4)
• The Incredible Free Manual For Every Mac User [PDF] (24)
• How To Upgrade From XP To Windows 7 In 4 Easy Steps (12)
• 5 Cool Mac Optimization Tips to Get The Most From Your Mac (9)

Armed with my faithful MacBook, an internet connection, and a 2GB USB flash disk; I set out on an adventure to bring my daughter’s future netbook alive.

Deciding on the OS

It didn’t take long for me to decide to install Ubuntu on the netbook. Free would be the first reason and familiarity is the second. I’ve tried Ubuntu before and I have the installation CD with me.

As naive as it sounds, some people still think that you can just copy and paste the content of the CD to the USB drive and boot the machine with it. That’s why my first quest is to find out how to transfer the installation ability of the CD to USB as a portable Ubuntu installer - the Mac way of course.

The search ended up with an unexpectedly different result. I found something more interesting: there is a netbook version of Ubuntu called Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR for short) which is designed for the small screen and Intel Atom processor (as most netbooks are). The minimum requirement is 384MB of RAM.

So I choose the nearest download location for me and hit the "Begin Download" button.

Note: If you are wondering whether your netbook is compatible, you can check their list of tested and compatible models, but in general, it should work with most netbook models. Mine is not listed but I’ve discovered no problem so far.

Creating the Portable Ubuntu USB installer

The Ubuntu site has a page describing how to create the USB installer. Basically, you have to get an .IMG version of the Ubuntu installer (UNR is already in IMG format), and then convert it to the USB drive.

Windows users have the luxury of an easy GUI way of converting the IMG with the help of Disk Imager . Ubuntu users has their own Ubuntu ImageWriter. But Mac users and other Linux users have to bear with the geeky command lines method.

The first thing to do to create the portable Ubuntu USB installer using Mac’s Terminal command line is to make the process easier by moving the UNR installer file to the highest position of the folder structure and then changing the name to something shorter like "unr.img" (sans quote). Don’t forget to make sure that there’s no USB drive plugged.

Then follow these steps:

• Type : diskutil list in the Terminal and hit Enter
• Plug in your USB flash disk and repeat step 1
• Compare the result and you’ll have the device node assigned to your flash media. Usually something like "/dev/disk2" (sans quote)



• Type : diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN in the Terminal and hit Enter. You’ll have to replace the /dev/diskN with the device node that you got from step 3. From the picture above you can see that the device node assigned for my USB flash drive is "/dev/disk1" (sans quote)
• Type : sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1m in the Terminal and hit Enter. But there are several things that you have to change here before you hit Enter:
  - first the /path/to/downloaded.img is the location of the downloaded UNR installer file. As we’ve already taken care of this before, all you’ve got to do is to change the string into /unr.img
  - second, the /dev/diskN is the device node which is the same as step 4
  - and the last, if you see the error line: dd: Invalid number ‘1m’ then you need to change the bs=1m into bs=1M (notice the capital ‘M’)
• Write your password, hit enter, and wait until the process is finished. Please be warned that all the data in the USB drive will be lost.
• Type : diskutil eject /dev/diskN in the Terminal and hit Enter.
• Unplug your USB drive.

Installing UNR in the Netbook

We now come to the climax of the story. I plug the USB drive into the Netbook’s USB port and start the machine. During the booting process, I press the F10 button to go into the booting option, choose to boot from the USB drive, and….the prince and princess live happily ever after.

Every manufacturer might have different settings for this booting menu, so please refer to your machine’s documentation. Another option is to look carefully at the bottom left part of the screen during the beginning of the booting process because usually the booting instructions are written there.

Now the netbook is alive and well, running UNR while my daughter has to continuously ‘compete’ with his father – yours truly – to use the tiny machine. As for me, I am now addicted to the concept of a USB Drive as the OS installation method and will surely try to find out more about it.

Have you tried UNR? Do you know any other method to create an installation USB drive for other OS’s? Share using the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Install Linux With Ease Using UNetbootin (17)
• 4 Ways To Use a USB or External Drive Like Your Own Mobile Computer (22)
• USB Office Showdown: Tiny USB Office vs. Portable Apps (16)
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• Toss Broken Keyboard to side with Portable On-Screen Keyboard (14)

As busy as we all are, and as much as we are always on the move, it ends up being a real pain trying to carry our laptops around with us. With our laptops, we need to make sure to bring our peripherals, including our power supplies, mouses, and possibly even our printers and such.

Today I want to share 4 methods of using a USB drive or an external hard drive to make your computing portable so that you can leave your laptop at home for once. This way, you can use any local computer you want, taking advantage of the convenience of just carrying your portable hard drive with you.

For each one of these methods, there have been previous posts written (both by myself and here on MakeUseOf) so I will link to them as I go.

(1)  File Syncing:

The first option is possibly the easiest option and is done with the least effort. The basic idea is to have a copy of your most needed files saved on a portable external hard drive. This is handy because any computer you end up using these days will have USB ports so you can gain access to your files.

You also want to make sure that all of the most recent changes to those files are with you. You can do this by “syncing” (or synchronizing) them.  Here on MakeUseOf, Shankar has written an article showing how easy the process can be. Just make sure that when you return to your computer, you sync the USB files and the originals on the computer. With all of your files a portable hard drive away, your important functions will be as portable as your portable drive is.

BUT, what about those programs you leave behind on your own PC?

(2) Portable Applications:

Portable applications (aka portable apps) are programs that you can install on an external hard drive to be run on almost any computer with a USB port. All parts of the program are typically located in one folder and therefore it is portable. This is very handy because you can find many useful programs (Aibek lists 100 Portable Apps in this post) that you can carry with you, feeling confident that all of your settings are staying the same. Now, any computer you come in contact with will have your favorite programs right there for your use.

Portable applications, along with your personal files synced, will make your computing experience virtually portable.  Check out a review of a cool suite containing many portable applications, including a standalone programs menu, called PortableApps Suite.

BUT, what if you enjoy having a consistent Operating System experience?

(3) Virtual Operating System:

Mojopac offers a solution you may like. It’s almost like Windows XP installed on your external hard drive.  This means that you can have your OS settings, programs, and files just the way you like running on any computer that has an external hard drive (and that runs XP but most if not many still do so it shouldn’t be much of an issue).

The programs installed in the Mojopac installation are all located on your portable hard drive so it enables true portability. I did a review but if you want cool screen shots and a video, check out the 4 Ways to Carry your PC on iPod or USB Thumbdrive that was published earlier on MakeUseOf.

What if a “virtual” OS isn’t good enough?  What if you want the safety and flexibility of actually booting from your portable hard drive?

(4) Operating Systems Which Are Boot-able From An External Hard Drive:

Another solution for making your computing portable is to install an operating system that can be booted straight from your thumb drive. There are several operating systems that you can use in such a case, one of which being Windows XP!

Basically if you can get a bootable live CD version, you can use an external portable hard drive instead of a CD!  Check out some of these links showing how: How to make your own Windows Live CD (check out this added help from Lifehacker), UNetbootin Creates USB-Bootable Linux the Easy Way.

There you have it, four methods for making your computing portable! Which of these do you typically use? Can you think of another method that doesn’t fit in these four categories? Let us know!

Image credit: Wheels00

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The Recovery Console is a special command-line interface for Windows XP which allows an administrator to identify and locate drivers and files which are problematic, as well as troubleshoot system settings. It’s recommended by Microsoft only for advanced users (in other words, that nerdy kid down the block), and only when Safe Mode (pressing the F8 key at boot-up) is not working.

To install the Recovery Console, you will need your Windows XP CD. The version of Windows XP on the CD must match or surpass the version installed on your PC, thus a Service Pack 3 disk is recommended. If you don’t have one, try to borrow one from a friend or co-worker. If you can’t find one, you can download setup disks or disk images from Microsoft.

For demonstrative purposes, we’ll assume that you have a Windows SP3 CD loaded into your CD drive at drive-letter D:

To install the Recovery Console, follow these steps (lifted from this Knowledge Base article):

1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive.
2. Click Start, and then click Run.
3. In the Open box, type d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons  where d is the drive letter for the CD-ROM drive.

   

4. A Windows Setup Dialog Box appears. The Windows Setup Dialog Box describes the Recovery Console option. To confirm the installation, click Yes.

   

5. Restart the computer. The next time that you start your computer, “Microsoft Windows Recovery Console” appears on the startup menu.

The black screen with white text can be intimidating, but if you’ve ever played with the command line, you should feel right at home here. If you need help, just type “help”, and optionally, the name of the command you’re curious about, like “help fixmbr”.

I’ll run down the highlights of what commands you’ll most likely use:

“Bootcfg” recovers the Boot.ini file.

“Chkdsk /r” looks for bad disk sectors and attempts to recover any information which can be read from them.

“Copy” copies a file to a target location.

“Delete” deletes one file.

“Disable” disables a Windows system service or driver.

“Enable” restarts a disabled service or driver.

“Diskpart” manages hard disk partitions. Be very careful using this!

“Expand” decompresses a compressed file. This is good for getting files off the installation CD if needed.

“Fixmbr” repairs the boot code on a hard-disk. If your operating system “cannot be found” you’ll likely use this command, along with little brother “Fixboot”.

The Recovery Console is scary but helpful, and you’ll be glad that you’ve installed it on your hard disk before Windows gives you any trouble. If you have any system recovery tips, please leave comments below.

Image credit: Paul Boxley

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Hardinfo is a Linux application. To install Hardinfo, look inside your distribution’s package manager. Ubuntu users can install Hardinfo via the terminal using:

sudo apt-get install hardinfo

Once installed, go ahead and run it. You will be greeted by various parameters towards the left and you can get more information by clicking on them.

The information is broadly classified into 3 categories: The computer, devices and benchmarks. You can get a information summary about your computer or detailed information about the Operating System, Kernel Modules, Filesystems, shared directories, network interfaces, monitors, languages installed and a log of system boots. In addition, you can also get detailed information about the processor, memory, PCI device, USB devices, battery, printers and storage etc.

All this information is neatly organised and you can copy any one of them to the clipboard with the click of a button or generate a report to post on forums for help. You can pick and choose what information is to be included in the report by un-checking the modules you want to exclude.

Hardinfo also provides you with benchmarking that allows you run certain tests and see how well your computer does! Hardinfo benchmarks your CPU with zlib, fibonacci, md5, sha1, blowfish and FPU raytracing tests. It displays the result as well as how other common CPUs performed on the same test.

If you are unsure about how to interpret the results, Hardinfo displays a line towards the bottom – giving you some additional information about the test results. You can also synchronize the benchmark tests with the Hardinfo server to receive updated results for other CPUs and submit your own results if you so please.

Do you know of similar profiling and benchmarking tools? Please recommend them in the comments!

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When I first started out, I was using a very slow beta that was horrible. But now, my WM 6.5 beta is very stable and all my friends are getting jealous.

So, how do you know if WM 6.5 is right for you? Until now, you relied on word of mouth and reviews but now Microsoft has released their newest Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows Mobile 6.5. Included in this package is a Windows Mobile emulator that allows you to run Windows Mobile 6.5 on your PC.

It is meant for development of software applications but don’t let that stop you from downloading and trying out the newest mobile operating system.

Here is a screen shot of my Windows Mobile 6.5 desktop:

That is the Titanium interface that is very slick, loaded up with Titanium Weather and a custom picture of my reason for living. That’s it, the rest of it is right out of the box! So now, if I have sparked some interest you can mosey on over here and grab the WM 6.5 Professional SDK package.

After installing it, you will have an emulator on your start menu like this:

Clicking on the Standalone Emulator Images will show you several emulators like this:

Choose any one of them and you are off to explore the wonderful world of Windows Mobile 6.5.

It takes a moment to boot up but when it is done you will see the above home screen. Go ahead and try Windows Mobile on your PC – it ain’t like you are going to break something! Hit the Start menu in the upper right hand corner to check out the honeycomb interface like so:

Everything is useable, except for the phone and internet but you can customize it, mess around with the settings and get a feel for it. I could never see myself going back to 6.1! Take it for a test drive and let us know your feelings in the comments.

And please, keep your “It’s no iPhone” jokes to a minimum!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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It’s way cheaper, faster, safer, and has a far bigger active community than Windows, so why aren’t you on it?

Don’t worry, we understand. Like many things, venturing of into a completely unknown world can seem rather scary, and also be pretty difficult in the beginning. It’s while adapting to the unknown, that one needs a guiding, and caring hand.

MakeUseOf is proud to present to you A Newbie’s Initiation to Linux! In this free ebook you’ll be introduced to the basics of the Linux operating systems. Get to know what it is all about, and familiarize yourself with the practical side. Basically, if you’re a complete Linux newbie and looking for a quick and easy guide to get you started this is it.

Let Stefan Neagu from TuxGeek explain to you how to get Linux running on your computer, introduce you to Ubuntu desktop and get you familiar with Linux alternatives to popular Windows programs. This guide will tell you all you need to know in 20 illustrated pages, helping you to take your first steps.

Let your curiosity take you hostage and start discovering Linux today, with this manual as your guide!

Don’t let us keep you any longer, and download the Newbie’s Initiation to Linux here in PDF.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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Before we begin, let us set something straight: Mac is actually a PC because PC stands for “Personal Computer”. However, to avoid confusion, within this article I’d follow the terms that everybody else uses: the Apple-manufactured personal computers with Mac OS are Macs, while the other personal computers (with Windows) are PCs.

Hi, I’m a Mac and also a PC. I live in both worlds and try my best not to take sides. But boy, that’s really hard!

While trying not to exaggerate, I have to say that from the personal computer user’s point of view who uses both, one is clearly more superior than the other. Maybe The Big M – who, along with its PC hardware vendors, dominate the majority of world’s personal computer market – also realized the fact and felt necessary to release the series of “kinda desperate” ads about “cheap PCs” (pun intended). I saw few of the ads in the series including the latest installment and was ’slightly offended’ by the way the company think of its consumers’ intelligence.

Personal feeling aside, there are real factors that set Mac and PCs apart. And here are the undeniable reasons that I can sort out which make Mac better than PCs. In no particular order.

1. Apple is one of the almost-unrivalled worldwide trend makers

Personal computers used to be boxy and dark grey until the candy colored iMacs and iBooks came along. Then everybody tried their luck with minimalistic white after the white iBook appearance. Everybody started their own music store after iTunes Music Store and everybody produced portable MP3 players trying to take down iPod. Every cellphone manufacturer creates their own iPhone-ish model with large touch screen and the round-edge-rectangle icons. Even the “i” in front of the product names are followed by everybody.

The list goes on and might not stop with more trends coming in the future. Shall we continue?

2. Macs produce better advertisements

From Ridley Scott’s 1984 “Big Brother” to the “Envelope-thin Macbook Air” to the “Mac vs PC“; either in print or in multimedia; all Mac advertisements that I’m aware of are artistically designed and professionally produced. Many has become classic and iconic. You can see the proof by looking at some of the many parodies out there.

How many PC advertisements can you remember?

3. Mac can run Windows natively

After the transition to Intel processor, all Mac machines can run Windows natively with BootCamp. And some even says it’s faster. Here’s a quote from PC World’s 2007 article about the most notable Notebooks:

The fastest Windows Vista notebook we’ve tested this year is a Mac.

No PCs to date can run Mac natively. Even if you count the Hackintosh community in.

4. Mac OS X can survive for weeks without the need of rebooting

I have to admit that I can’t find references on how long is the range between reboots on Mac OS X, so I just put my own experience here. I never really turn off my white MacBook. I just close the lid whenever I need to move between office and home. The last reboot that I can remember is about two or three weeks ago when I upgrade Glims for Safari.

How long can a PC survive without the need of rebooting?

5. Mac OS X has no virus headache problems

Please note that I’m not saying there’s no virus for Mac. Maybe there is, but ever since I use Mac – back to my iBook clamshell days – I haven’t had to deal with one yet. Lucky me.

The office PC that we use on the other hand, always had an antivirus program installed and still got infected, crashed, and the Windows had to be reinstalled several times. And I can’t remember a time when the PC isn’t downloading the latest antivirus definition updates.

6. Mac has multi-touch technology

Pinch, rotate, swipe, scroll; even Windows users have to admit that this technology is cool.

7. Apple gives the customer the best support – survey said

Instead of explaining, I will just give you the direct links of articles:

• Apple Tops PC Customer Service Rankings – NYTimes
• Apple tops Consumer Reports tech support ratings – MacWorld

And this also includes the mobile phone world:

• Apple Ranks Highest among Smartphone Consumers.

8. Mac makes better phone platform

I have to include iPhone in the discussion as the OS is based on Mac OS X. While I myself do not use either iPhone or Windows Mobile-based phone and can’t give fair comparison, I think point number 7 above on the smartphone will give you a picture.

9. Apple creates really fanatic users

But instead of debating over this fanboys matter, maybe what we really should do is just accept the fact that Mac users are fanatic users and try to find out how Apple can pull it off. Eventhough this is rather self explanatory after looking at point number 7.

But allow me to give my humble opinion: most PC users use PCs because they have to, while Mac users use Mac because they want to. I know many PC users who willingly switch (or half-switch) to Mac, but I don’t know any Mac users who switch to PC because they want to. But then again, maybe I just don’t have too many friends?

10. Macs are cheaper than PCs

I know the statement will enrage many Mac haters out there, but allow me to explain. Many Mac users challenge PC users to compare both product using the same exact configuration, differs only in the OS; but that is not what I mean here.

Let us examine the whole user’s experience of using Mac versus using PC. If you include the whole headaches and time wasted of trying to make the best out of both products, I think using Mac would turn out cheaper.

Also consider this fact: the G4 800 iBook that I bought back in 2002 is still up and running using the latest version of Mac OS X. Slower, but still usable. Can a 2002 PC do the same with the latest version of Windows? So, if you also calculate the hardware upgrades needed to always keep up with the latest OS, PCs can’t beat Mac.

11. Mac is a nicer paperweight

This one is a bonus point. I don’t really get the paperweight joke thing, but it always comes out in every flame war between Mac and PC fanboys. But even if PC users called Mac “a very expensive paperweight”, Mac is still a nicer paperweight considering the product design.

Closing: One reason why PCs are better than Mac

And to keep my judgement within the objective side, I’d like to close with the only reason I could find why PCs are better than Mac: wider options.

Only one company makes Macs while who knows how many are producing PCs (the hardware). So I think it would be logical that people could find (or build) PCs (the hardware) in any configuration and budget imaginable. That side of the PC world could not be competed by Mac.

At the end, the users will choose whatever product to use based on whatever reasons they have. Not everybody can or want to be a Mac user. So, if you want a good personal computer with an affordable buying price you can buy a PC and install Linux on it.

I tried to keep my list from growing way too long, so I’d stop here. Feel free to add more in the comment below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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It could be a failed device driver, or an application which refused to start up or it could be one of the many background processes which decided to conk out. Thankfully, there’s a bit of self diagnosis we can do before we decide to pick up the phone and dial for the emergency services.

This first aid lies in a Windows System utility called the System Configuration Utility (MSconfig.exe). Advanced users are familiar with this vital application but for the basic users this system tool deserves a look.

The System Configuration Utility (or MSconfig.exe) is used to manage the processes that happen when the Windows operating system boots up.  With its GUI it simplifies control over the various startup processes and the configuration files used. It is also the first tool we turn to if we want to speed up our boot process as it allows us to switch startup programs on and off. It is this property again we will turn to for diagnosing a system crash.

The technique we use is called a clean boot. In a clean boot the operating system loads without launching the background startup processes which might be causing a conflict.

How to clean boot your computer?

Windows XP

1. Click on Run (or WinKey+R) – In the Open field of the Run dialogue box enter msconfig. This launches the System Configuration Utility.



2. On the General tab of the System Configuration Utility, click on the button marked Selective Startup. Uncheck the boxes corresponding to Process SYSTEM.INI File, Process WIN.INI File and Load Startup Items. Keep the Load System Services box checked because this launches essential Microsoft services. The bullet against the Use Original Boot.ini is enabled by default.



Caution: Unchecking Load System Services will temporarily disable Microsoft services (for e.g. Plug and Play, Networking and Error Reporting) as well as permanently deleting all restore points for the System Restore utility. System services are also critical to pinpoint the conflict. So keep it checked.

3. The Services tab is where we should go next. On the Services tab, select the Hide All Microsoft Services check box and click on Disable All. Then hit OK. A message box pops up warning that you have used the System Configuration Utility to change the way in which Windows starts. Click on OK to reboot the computer.

Windows Vista

The process is almost a mirror to the previous one.

1. Click Start – enter msconfig in the Start Search box, and then press enter to launch the System Configuration Utility in Vista.
2. On the General tab, click Selective Startup – uncheck Load startup items.



3. Next stop is the Services tab. Check Hide All Microsoft Services and press the Disable All button. Click OK to reboot at the prompt. (The screen is similar to that shown for Windows XP)

After the computer has restarted, run the previously conflicting application again. If the problem persists then the cause lies elsewhere. Return the computer to the previous state by selecting Normal Startup from the General tab and rebooting.

If the problem has disappeared then the culprit is one of the startup programs on the Services tab.

Pinpointing the problem program

I have about 25 services which run in the background. So how do I narrow down on that one which is causing the problem? The simple solution lies in selective activation (leaving the rest deactivated) of some of the services and rebooting the computer.

1. Start with a wider field, for instance leave half of the services activated and half deactivated. Reboot the computer. Run the error prone application to check for the problem.



2. If the problem persists, then the conflict is with the services enabled. If it vanishes, then it is in the other half. Either way the field is narrowed down by half.
3. Repeat the process of selective enabling and disabling of services in the suspect half of the services. Through two or three trial and error reboots the one single cause can thus be pinpointed.
4. It is so far only half the battle won as we now have to deal with the culprit service. Three solutions present themselves –
   • Disable the service from the Services tab or from the Startup tab. If it’s a non-essential service then this shouldn’t be a problem.
   • Search the net for a possible answer and apply it.
   • If all fails call in the experts.

The above techniques are very basic in nature. It is something which can be done in a relatively safe way. A self cooked solution without yelling out for help is after all a high in itself. Do you think learning about the Msconfig tool is a good way to start off?

Photo Credit : Ben Lawson

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• Tweak Your Windows OS With Portable Ultimate Windows Tweaker (18)
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If you’ve been a regular Make Use Of reader, I’m sure you have your Windows system configured exactly to your liking.

But what happens when you reinstall the operating system because you needed to ?

The answer is you lose all those custom settings. Sure, you can browse through our archives and enable those tweaks again or you can get used to Windows looking the way Microsoft intended it to.

Not anymore !

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a Tweak UI application that does exactly what it’s name says it should. It is a collection of hundreds of esoteric Windows tweaks available in one application so that you don’t have to hunt for them when you really need them.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker classifies the tweaks under different categories like Personalization, System Performance, Network tweaks, User accounts, UAC and so on and presents them to the user in the simplest way possible, hiding all the gory registry editing that goes on behind the scenes.

So, suppose I’m really irritated with the time it takes Windows to kill a non-responding application and I’d like a way to make Windows kill such applications faster.

I have two ways to go about changing the default Windows behaviour. Google my heart out and find a solution by hit and miss. OR launch Ultimate Windows Tweaker (UWT).

I open up UWT, click on the System Performance category in the left sidebar and I get a number of options that I can change to improve the operating system’s performance including, lo and behold, a slider that lets me reduce the time Windows waits before killing a non-responding application.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker also includes a number of other useful and popular tweaks like changing the appearance of the start menu by adding or removing entries from it (Personalization category), turning on RSS feed discovery in IE (Internet Explorer category), disabling remote desktop sharing within the domain and network (Network Tweaks category), and so on.

The best part about this application is that it’s portable. Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a self contained executable so you can carry it with you on a thumb drive and use it as and when you want to without installing it.

I’ve found the tweaks included in UWT very useful for customizing my Windows setup and I am sure you all will also find them useful.

Do you use something different to tweak your Windows system?   If so, tell us about it.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Downloading virtual disk images is probably the quickest and easiest way to test out a new operating system on VirtualBox.  Downloading and using a virtual disk image is the equivalent of installing a new physical hard drive into a computer, with the hard drive already having the operating system on it.

If you have two computers with identical underlying hardware, it should theoretically be possible to move the hard drive from one to the other.  That is exactly what you are doing when you download and use a virtual disk image on VirtualBox.  This is because a VirtualBox system on one computer is essentially identical to a VirtualBox system on another.

There is a website called VirtualBoxImages that has a number of free virtual disk images for free operating systems available to download.  You can simply download the virtual disk images, set up your virtual machine to use them, power up the virtual machine, and you’re all set!

There are more detailed instructions on VirtualBoxImages for using the VDIs.  The instructions on that page describe how to install their Puppy Linux VDI, but the steps are the same for other operating systems as well.  You will just use a different VDI file, rather than the one for Puppy Linux.  VirtualBoxImages has a number of free virtual disk images available, including:

• Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4
• Xubuntu 9.04 Alpha 4
• Debian 5.0 RC2
• ReactOS 0.3.8
• OzOs 0.9 Desktop
• PC/OS Open32 Desktop 2009

They also have some disk images that are labeled as “premium downloads” where you pay a nominal fee to download them.  I’m not sure why they’ve decided to make some VDIs available for free and they require you to pay for others.  Some of the premium VDIs available are:

• OpenSolaris 2008.11 VDI
• openSUSE 11.1 Gnome VDI (Release)
• openSUSE 11.1 KDE (Release)
• Fedora 10
• CentOS 4.7 Server

Regardless of whether VirtualBoxImages has them labeled as premium or not, all of the VDIs they have for download are for free operating systems.  You may not be able to find the VDIs you want for free, but you can still download the installation media and install the operating systems yourself.

Although doing so involves more work on your part since you need to run the full installation, it allows you to avoid the cost of paying for one of the premium VDIs.  Here are some links for the installation disks:

• OpenSolaris 2008.11
• openSUSE 11.1
• Fedora Core 10
• CentOS 5

Once you download the installation disk images, the installation process is very much the same as installing Windows 7 onto VirtualBox.  You’ll just be using different file names for the installation disk images, and the process for installing the VirtualBox guest additions will be slightly different.

Have you installed any of these operating systems on VirtualBox?  Have you found .torrent links for any of VirtualBoxImage’s premium VDIs?  If so, please do share them with us!  Do not share .torrent files for operating systems that are not free.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Well let’s take a look at one of my favorite Linux system monitor apps on my system, a system monitor unmatched and unsurpassed by any other when it comes to customization and features. It’s called Conky.

Conky can display the stats and information on your desktop or within another window, but trust me, you would want to display it on your desktop!

Here are some screenshots of Conky displaying information to give you an idea of what can be achieved with this app.

Installing Conky

Look in your distributions package manager to install Conky. Most likely it is in there, if not head over to the Conky download page.

Once installed you can run Conky via the terminal and it will give you a default look containing a bunch of stats. While it is plenty of information, this is not what we are looking for. Let’s begin customizing the looks, shall we?

Customizing Conky

Customizing Conky comes down to the contents of a configuration file contained in your home directory – “.conkyrc”. Open it up in your preferred text editor. Things get a little geeky here, so you might want to read this part again if you fail to get a point. While I will try my best to explain what to include in conkyrc, it is not possible to list every option that Conky offers, just because there are a hell of a lot of them!

The .conkyrc has two major sections: The first would control what Conky looks like and the second tells it what to display.

Add the following text to the file to create a basic configuration:

update_interval 30

own_window yes
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent yes

use_xft yes
xftfont Sans:size=12

alignment bottom_right

TEXT
${time %H:%M}

The part of the file before “TEXT” specifies the appearance of the monitor and any thing after “TEXT” is displayed on your monitor either as it is or interpreted as a command or a special conky name which expands to something useful.

The various options used so far are self explanatory. “own_window_type desktop” is what makes Conky draw on your desktop and “own_window_transparent yes” makes the background transparent. Try removing any of these and restart Conky to see what effect it has.

“time” is a built in Conky object that gives you the current system time. Refer to the manual for more of such objects. Running Conky at this point will display the time in the lower right corner of the screen (you might have to minimize all windows).

So far so good, but hardly the awesomeness factor we were looking for. If you are new to Conky I would suggest fetching some example configuration files, try them and see which ones are closest to what you are going for. Then you can begin editing it and customize it to death!

Conky supports many built in objects that you can add to your conkyrc file. These include the so-called variables, like time which we used above, built in graphs and some widgets. You can use these built in objects to display usage statistics such as text or graphs, display the current track and a variety of other things.

You also get full control over the font and colors used to display the text so you can match them with your wallpaper. If you find something missing, well you can run an external command and have its output displayed in the monitor. Coupled with the power of shell scripts, grep, awk and sort, you can pretty much get your system monitor to display anything you can imagine.

While this may seem a lot of work at first, trust me the amount of customization that you can achieve with Conky is well worth the effort. Moreover, there are plenty of examples out there on the Internet, and people generally wouldn’t mind and often freely encourage you to copy their conkyrc file. My conkyrc is a mixture of such examples with some custom settings here and there.

For the lazy geeks

Pick up some conkyrc’s or get inspired here:

• Ubuntu Forums
• Dotfiles
• Conky Project Page
• There is also a sample conkyrc included with the default install, you would have to extract it from /usr/share/doc/conky/example/conkyrc.sample.gz

Jealous Windows or Mac users?

No need to frown, have a look at Samurize, Rainmeter or Geektool to obtain similar results.

Just play around, and hack some conkyrc’s of your own. Then share them here with us and let’s see what you have been up to!

Do you know of anything similar that you have been using and think is better?  Share with us in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• Upgrading Mac To Snow Leopard Using USB drive (13)
• Tweak Your Windows OS With Portable Ultimate Windows Tweaker (18)
• Try Linux Live CDs from Windows Without Using any CDs (10)
• Track Your Short URL Links With tr.im (10)

VirtualBox is a free and open source virtualization program. Essentially, it is like having a complete and separate computer within your computer. You can install any operating system on it, including Windows 7. The latest version of VirtualBox (2.1.2) has support for Windows 7, which makes it very easy and convenient to install.

First, you’ll want to download VirtualBox and install it. VirtualBox is available for multiple platforms: Windows, OS X, Linux, and Solaris. During the installation on a Windows system, you may receive a warning that untested software is being installed. Be sure to click continue when those boxes appear, as essential components for VirtualBox to function properly are being installed.

You’ll also need to download the Windows 7 beta. It is a large file, so it may take quite a while to download depending on your connection. The file you will download is a CD disk image. Fortunately, since you’re going to use it on a virtual machine, you won’t have to actually burn it to a CD to use it.

Once you have VirtualBox installed and you have the Windows 7 beta CD image, you’re ready to create your virtual machine amd install Windows 7 beta. Launch VirtualBox and create a new machine. Be sure to select Windows 7 as your operating system.

Click Next. On the following screen you will select how much memory you would like the virtual machine to have. I believe the minimum requirement for Windows 7 is 1GB of RAM, so be sure to set it to at least 1024MB.

Click Next. On the following screen you will create a new virtual drive for the system. I would recommend using the default option of a Dynamically expanding storage. This way you won’t use any more disk space (on your main system) than necessary. Since you’re using a dynamically expanding drive, the size of the disk is somewhat arbitrary. You just want to be sure not to make it too small, so set it to 100GB to be safe.

Once you’re done creating the virtual machine, you’ll need to configure it to use the Windows 7 disk image you downloaded. Select your virtual machine, click Settings, and navigate to the CD/DVD-ROM section. Check the Mount CD/DVD Drive checkbox and click the ISO Image File radio button. Then click the folder icon and then browse to where you saved your ISO image and select it.

If you have a multi-core processor, there’s an option you’ll want to enable to speed things up on the virtual machine.  Go to the General section and on the Advanced tab enable the Enable VT-x/AMD-V checkbox. This allows VirtualBox to take advantage of machine virtualization capabilities of your processor, and improves the performance of the virtual machine.

You may also want to add sound to the virtual machine as well. Go to the Audio tab, and click the Enable Audio checkbox and select Windows DirectSound for the Host Audio Driver. Once you have the machine configured, click the Start button to turn on the virtual machine.

You should see the Windows 7 installation begin. Just follow all the prompts and install Windows. If you need to get back to your main computer at any time, the hotkey to release control of the virtual machine is the Ctrl key on the right side of your keyboard.

Once you’ve installed Windows 7, you can install the guest additions. The guest additions will provide better video and audio support to the virtual machine. The guest additions also allow you to better integrate the virtual machine with your main system.

To install the guest additions, press the right Ctrl key on your keyboard, go to the Devices menu and select Install Guest Additions…

During the guest additions installation, when prompted if you would like to install drivers, click the Install button. Once you’ve installed the guest additions, reboot the virtual machine. Upon rebooting, all of the virtual devices should be working.

Now that you have the guest additions installed, you will be able to share the clipboard, access to files on the main system, and move the cursor seamlessly in and out of the virtual machine. You can press the Right Ctrl-F and see the virtual machine full screen. What a pretty fish!

Have you tried Windows 7 with other free virtualization programs? Did you try to install Windows 7 as a virtual machine with Virtualbox? If so, let us know which ones and what sort of hacks were required to get it to work.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Test Drive Linux Operating Systems with VirtualBox (7)
• Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 2] (18)
• Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 1] (11)
• Create A Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Hard Drive [Windows] (14)
• How To Upgrade From XP To Windows 7 In 4 Easy Steps (12)

During the installation you will be prompted if you wish to use the recovery console to repair a Windows installation. The recovery console is rather limited in its use, so just press the Enter key to proceed with the installation as you would normally.

Press F8 to continue past the Licensing Agreement.

The next screen should display a prompt asking you if you wish to repair an existing installation.  Select your Windows installation (most likely it is the only one) and press R.

This will begin the repair and reinstallation of Windows. The installation will copy files to the hard drive, reboot the system, and then proceed just like a normal installation. Follow the prompts just as you normally would any normal Windows installation.

When the installation completes, you should still be able to access all of your documents and installed programs.

Full Windows Reinstall Without Loosing Data and Programs

I personally prefer to perform a full clean reinstallation of Windows. With the clean install, the hard drive is formatted and programs are reinstalled. If you want to use this method, you can use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (AKA FAST).

To use FAST, you first have to run it from the old Windows installation. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Tell FAST that you are on the Old Computer, then click Next.

Finally, select the location where you would wish to save the files.  Portable USB drives were born for stuff like this.  Be warned though, the drive may not be big enough.  Another option would be to save the settings somewhere on your hard drive first, and then move them over to multiple USB drives or burn them to CDs/DVDs.

Click Next, and wait for the files to be copied. If you have a lot of data, it may take quite a while for the process to complete.  Once it has completed, your settings are ready for the new installation.

Once you’ve reinstalled Windows, launch FAST just as you did initially to save your settings:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.  Click Next. This time when prompted which computer you are using, select New computer. Click Next.

The following screen will ask you if you have a Windows XP installation CD for creating a wizard disk.  A wizard disk can be used for loading settings from another computer. In this case, a wizard disk is not necessary since the files have been saved to another location.

Select I don’t need the Wizard Disk. I already have collected my files and settings from my old computer. Click Next to proceed.

Finally, you will be prompted for the location of the files and settings. Select the Other radio button and browse to the location where you saved the files and click Next.

The files and settings will then be copied to the new computer. You may want to install all of the same programs you had on the old computer that you intend to use, before you run FAST. This will help to ensure that your settings will work properly with them.

What tools do you use to reinstall Windows without losing data?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Install The Recovery Console in Windows XP (6)
• How To Create An Unattended Windows XP Disk (43)
• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• How To Upgrade From XP To Windows 7 In 4 Easy Steps (12)
• How to Prepare Yourself for System Restore From Scratch (13)

What is SmartClose?

SmartClose is a software application designed by BM Productions for Windows machines (currently excluding Vista) that will automate the process of closing of all running programs, disabling of your screen saver and also stopping selected processes from interrupting your tasks.

Say you have finished the task that required you to stop the running programs, you might need to resume what you were doing and reopen these programs or re-enable the stopped services. Part of SmartClose’s arsenal is that before it closes or disables anything, it will take a snapshot of your system, allowing you to return your computer to the state it was before you undertook your resource intensive task. Think of it as a Windows XP Restore Point but for system processes or any open applications.

Using SmartClose

After downloading and installing SmartClose, running the application will present you with a number of options, pertaining to the task you wish to undertake. Selecting “Create a system snapshot and close all programs” will take you into the Close Programs Wizard, listing the tasks which you can select to be performed by SmartClose.

Navigating to the next screen in the wizard, you will be able to select which programs you wish to be protected from SmartClose (therefore not being closed). Notable entries in this list would be applications such as your Firewall or your Anti-Virus, although these may be already protected as a design feature of the software itself.

The next stage will ask you to select where you wish the settings to be saved. It is recommended that you use the default location so that you do not need to change any other settings, although if you wish to, you are able to save settings to a custom file or under a custom name. The final screen will give you a summary of what SmartClose is about to process, allowing you to edit your settings before you close your selected applications and processes.

SmartClose will attempt to process all of your selected options, leaving you with a system free of any potential resource hogs. You will be able to, for example, run your defragmentation software or install a particularly big file. As soon as you have finished what you need to, simply re-open or select SmartClose from your taskbar, click on the option to “Restore a previously taken system snapshot”, and return your system back to the state it once was, it’s that easy.

BM Productions have an useful FAQ page, detailling any problems you may encounter using this software. Future versions of the software will look to incorporate the ability to automatically protect certain programs like Anti-Virus or Firewall software, taking the hassle out of deciding what applications you will need to add to the Protected lists.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• The Cut Out and Keep Guide to Essential Software Programs (25)
• How To Upgrade From XP To Windows 7 In 4 Easy Steps (12)
• How to Sync Files between PC and USB Thumb Drive? (27)

But today, I will show you how to speed up that computer of yours and make it like new! So here are just a few methods:

Disable Unnecessary Windows Services

Windows comes with a bunch of services, or processes, in the background that help the operating system run and do the daily functions a computer does – except some of these are unnecessary. You really do not need to have all of the Microsoft services running in the background at one time – many of which don’t ever need to run at all.

Of course, many windows services are necessary so you need to be very careful what you disable. But if you disable the correct ones you may just be that much closer to a much faster computer.

To disable Windows services:

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type services.msc
2. You may now disable any of the following services based on your use – or non-use – of them:

(1) Task Scheduler – Used to schedule unattended tasks. If you do not need this you can turn it off.

(2) Automatic Updates – Automatically checks for updates from Microsoft. You can just do so manually by going here.

(3) Smart Card – If you do not use Smart Cards, you can stop it.

(4) Error Reporting Service – This is the thing that pops up everytime a program crashes asking if you want to report what happened to Microsoft. If you always decide not to, then you can disable this one.

(5) Telnet – Used to allow users to connect to your desktop remotely. If you do not need to access your computer remotely, you can disable this.

(6) Remote Registry Service – You really do not need this one. It allows you to remotely edit your registry. Most people definitely do not need this.

(7) Clipbook – Allows you to remotely copy/paste on a private network. It is unlikely many people will use this.

(8) Alerter – This one is completely useless. SP2 automatically disables it for you.

(9) Wireless Zero Configuration – This is necessary if you use Wi-Fi. If not, you can disable this.

(10) Uninterruptible Power Supply – This is unnecessary if, of course, you do not have an uninterruptible power supply.

(11) Windows Messenger – This service can be falsely used for spam. I highly recommend removing it. (Note: It is not related to the IM client.)

Stop Programs From Running in Startup

Part of downloading all of that freeware and even just installing work-related applications, a likely part of the installation process, is the unfortunate automatic setting of starting the application on startup. Gradually, your computer takes forever to startup and eventually it becomes ridiculously slow. You could use an application like StartupDelayer to delay programs from starting up (also check out AutoRuns by Karl and WinPatrol by Mark), but many of those applications do not even need to be running at all.

So here is one way to stop those unnecessary applications from running:

1. Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type msconfig.
2. Click on the “Startup” tab.

You should now see a list of all of the programs that automatically start up. Many of these applications are nicely labeled with the correct names, but some are not. If they are not clearly labeled you can just check the path of the file and hopefully find the name of the program, but if not it is probably better to just not remove it.

When you are disabling services make sure not to disable any of the Microsoft Services. Many of the ones that you see on the startup are necessary. Once you have selected the services you do not need, simply click “Apply.”

Hope this helps some of you to get started on speeding up that computer of yours. Stay tuned for the next installment of WinHack!

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows Computer (Part 2) (14)
• Three Quick Registry Tweaks to Customize Windows Like a Pro (13)
• How To Speed Up The Shutdown Of Your Windows (14)
• Get Your Computer Startup Under Control With Autoruns (11)
• Freeware to Speed up your Computer (Part 2) (8)

I’ve been using Vista since it came with my notebook and actually find it to be better than Windows XP. Although I have the benefit of using a fairly recent machine and, even then, I have had to customize Vista quite a bit to save on some memory and speed up daily tasks.

In this post, I’ll share 4 tips to help you speed up Vista PC and live with that bloated beast.

1. Disable Aero

Aero is the fancy marketing term for the not-so-fancy graphics that you see in Windows Vista. Sure, some of those effects look pretty and might even impress your girlfriend (or boyfriend) but Aero is a resource hog. If you are running Vista on an older computer, there is no reason to torture the poor machine and stress yourself in the process.

To disable the Windows Aero look, right click anywhere on the desktop and click Personalize -> Window Color and Appearance. This will open a window like the one shown here.

Now chose one of the color schemes in the list. Windows Aero will enable all effects, Windows Vista Basic will disable the snazzy effects you see while switching between Windows using alt-tab, or the window preview that you see if you hover your mouse over the taskbar. The Basic setting is a nice compromise between speed and usability, though. You can try the Windows Standard and Windows Classic settings too if you want to.

You can get some more juice out of Vista by disabling some window effects. Right click on ‘My Computer’ and then click on >Advanced System Settings -> Settings (under the Advanced tab and performance section) and then choosing whether you want Windows to adjust itself for best performance or best appearance.

2. Disable the Vista Sidebar

The Windows Vista Sidebar is a nice looking but mostly useless piece of bloat that most Vista installations can live without. Whatever stroke of genius led Microsoft to let the sidebar be switched on by default, you can actually get rid of it, and save some precious memory in the process.

To remove the Sidebar, right click on the Sidebar and select ‘Close Sidebar’. In the dialogue box that you get, uncheck “Start Sidebar when Windows starts”, and click OK.

3. ReadyBoost

ReadyBoost was one big hyped up feature of Windows Vista. The feature supposedly lets Windows use a flash drive connected to the PC as a memory cache and since most flash drives are faster than regular hard drives, this apparently helped Windows perform faster. The reality is that most people don’t use this feature and for them, it is only slowing down the system. To disable this service, go to ControlPanel -> Administrative Tools -> Services. Double-click on the ReadyBoost service and select ‘disable’ from the drop down box.

4. Disable User Account Control

This tip will not really speed up the computer as such, but will definitely let you use the computer faster. User Account Control (UAC) is one of the most talked about features of Windows. Talked not by Microsoft, but by people who like to hate Vista, for whatever reason. If you’ve Vista used for any amount of time, I’m sure you’ve come across this feature. This is the feature with which Vista prompts you with dire consequences if you chose to ignore its warning. The screen goes dark and a pop-up….well….pops up and asks for permission to perform the said task. It is not only annoying, but it essentially serves no purpose, since most people become immune to the warning in just a couple of days.

For those people, it is best to disable this feature altogether. Here’s how :

Click on Start – > Control Panel -> User Account. In the User account window, click on the link named “Turn User Account Control on or off”. In the dialogue box that follows you can disable UAC altogether. Click OK, reboot and move on.

If you guys have any more tips to help speed up Vista, please share them with us in the comments. Have you tried the tips I have mentioned here? Do they work for you?

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• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)
• Speed up file Copy’n Paste with Piky Basket (9)
• Some non-Registry Windows tweaks (7)
• Registry Tweaks to give your Windows an ooomph! (2)
• Last Minute Spring Cleaning of your Windows XP System (9)

Using Time Machine would normally ease the pain since everything goes back to the way it was after the operation is performed. But if you were reinstalling your Mac to deal with an issue with the system, using Time Machine would defeat the purpose because then you would technically re-introduce the issue back to the freshly-installed system. Instead, performing a clean install of the operating system and its applications is a much better choice.

I have a checklist of things to do before I head off to reinstall my Mac and I’d like to share it with you. Hopefully, it would make your next reinstall a smoother and less theatrical occasion.

1. Back up your Documents folder

Location: User Home Folder

Commonly known as “~” (The user home folder is the one with the logo of a house and labelled with your username.

If you’re like me, all your important documents will be in the aforementioned folder. It brings peace to mind when all I have to do is back up that folder and all of my documents will be safely transferred.

2. Back up your Music

Location: ~/Music/

One good thing about being an iTunes user is that it automatically arranges my music library neatly within the iTunes folder in the location above (provided that the option to let iTunes manage your music is checked). Backing up the iTunes folder will retain your music ratings, playlists, tags and album art for your entire music library.

3. Back up your iCal, Address Book & Safari bookmarks

These are pretty simple to do but often overlooked. That’s because these are neither applications nor documents, they’re just databases.

• To backup your Safari bookmarks, click on the File menu in Safari and choose ‘Export Bookmarks’ and select a destination for it.
• To backup your iCal, do the same in iCal as what you did for Safari.
• To backup your Address Book, select ‘Export’ from the File menu and click on ‘Address Book Archive’.

4. Back up your Mail

Location: ~/Library/

If you’ve set Mail to retrieve your mail and cache it on your hard disk, reinstalling your Mac means that Mail would need to download it again. That takes a very long time if you have a mailbox with thousands of correspondences. Simply backing up your Mail folder makes it easier to get started again.

Location ~/Library/Preferences

Also, you wouldn’t want to forget your rules, signatures, mail account preferences and smartboxes. Backing up “com.apple.mail.plist” from your Preferences folder maintains the Mail structure.

In order to restore these files after reinstalling your Mac, simply drop the Mail folder back in ~/Library and the .plist file back into the Preferences folder before you launch Mail.

5. Back up your licenses

If you’ve paid for certain applications and received license keys for them, you ought to remember to back them up. I use RapidoSerial to keep all my license keys safely. All I have to do is backup the RapidoSerial application and my license keys will be backed up together with it.

6. Backup your website login and passwords

After spending a lot of time online, I’ve accumulated a multitude of different logins for individual sites. I’ve heard some people refer to passwords as underwear: You should have different ones and remember to change them frequently.

Instead of relying on Keychain to maintain a copy of your passwords, I’d suggest the use of a PIM manager. They’re easier to use and lot easier to manage and backup compared to Keychain. Keychain is ridiculously difficult to backup and restore and I would advice against it if you’re not technologically inclined/talented.

There were 2 online password managers covered here on MakeUseOf i.e. PassPack and Clipperz. Check them out if you haven’t already. Also, Lastpass is cross-platform Firefox extension and IE plugin password manager worth looking into.

A particular password manager which comes very highly recommended is 1Password. It can run on both the iPhone (and iPod Touch) and Mac. Unfortunately, the Mac version goes for $34.95 but there is a free demo available. The one which runs on the iPhone is currently free for a limited time so grab it while you can! A free alternative is KeePassX.

After reinstalling your Mac, you might want to read up on the applications which I deemed essential to have, it may help you get a push start on your fresh Mac.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Reinstall Windows Without Losing Your Data (19)
• How To Install The Recovery Console in Windows XP (6)
• A Windows User’s Quick Switching To Mac Guide (25)
• 3 Ways to Install Linux on Windows or Mac (25)
• WinHack – Speed Up Your Windows XP Computer (Part 1) (21)

Not exactly, in fact that kind of image is starting to fade away somewhat as Linux distros such as Ubuntu gain traction and mind share with each new release.

OK so Linux still has a market share closer to 1.5%. However things are beginning to change. Linux has never before been so easy to try. Here’s three ways you can install Linux on your computer.

1. Linux on a ‘Live Disk’

Each distribution can now be downloaded as a ‘Live Disk‘, a disk which will run Linux straight from the CD as if it were an installed operating system.

This is perhaps the best way you can try Linux for the first time as it allows you to play around with the OS without having to worry about your data, or partitioning or screwing something up.

The disadvantage is that the OS will run fairly slowly and you will not get much idea of the performance or flexibility of Linux.

Live disks are included with every Linux distribution, and are also provided on the cover of just about any computing and PC magazine. Looking over at my shelf I can see Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, gOS Rocket and Linux Mint on the cover disks of several magazines.

2. Run Linux using Virtual PC

Again, this is just another way to have a bit of a look and play around with Linux in a contained area with no danger of destroying your computer or anything. Microsoft provides Virtual PC 2007 as a free download and can run most distros, although you will perhaps need to find some fairly simple workaround’s for a few.

Again, the disadvantage is performance, both for the Virtual Machine and the host machine which has to lend system resources. The advantage I guess is that you will not have to burn an actual disk in order to try Linux out – the virtual machine can simply mount an ISO file.

3. Install Ubuntu using the Wubi installer

Lastly you can try Linux, Ubuntu specifically, using a special installer called ‘Wubi’. Mackenzie covered Wubi in detail here. Blake also briefly mentioned it in his article here.

Wubi installs Ubuntu as a file on your Windows System. It can be uninstalled like any other program and runs as if you were using a separate system partition. The only disadvantage is that hibernation mode does not work.

The set-up is laughably simple; all you have to do is get Wubi from here and start it up. Wubi is actually included in Ubuntu as of version 8.04 and is an installation option when using a Live disk.

Here are the options you will be presented with:

Pretty simple huh?

You can either download the Ubuntu file, or use a existing ISO image you have previously downloaded. To use a existing file simply place it in the same folder as the Wubi program.

After installing you will have to reset your computer. It’s crucial you reset ‘cleanly’, that means no turning the computer off impatiently, pulling the plug out the all etc. If you do, booting into Ubuntu may fail.

If all is successful you’ll be given a new option upon startup to choose either your previous OS, or Ubuntu:

Booting into Ubuntu will complete the installation and prepare your hard drive for the OS. A final reboot and everything should be working fine, choosing Ubuntu from the boot screen should now load up the OS and you can play around to your heart’s content.

It’s totally risk free, the worst that can happen is that for some other reason the installation fails. I’m sorry but I can’t help you there, simply boot back into Windows and uninstall Wubi through the Add/Remove programs panel.

If this occurs try installing a couple of times. There is a chance it will succeed the second time.

Hopefully this will give you the incentive to try out Linux for yourself!

(By) Wez is a student studying computers, also does programming and video tutorials and writes about technology, software and websites, check out his blog @ www.TheTutorialBlog.com

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) with WINE (15)
• How To Safely Uninstall Ubuntu From A Windows Dual-Boot PC (16)
• Test Drive Linux Operating Systems with VirtualBox (7)
• How To Install Linux With Ease Using UNetbootin (17)
• GoblinX – An Alternative Linux OS With 4 Different Flavors (9)