There are various software available for creating and running virtual machine image. Microsoft’s Virtual PC, VMware, and Sun Microsystems’ VirtualBox to mention a few. Usually, there are several steps you would need to follow in order to create a virtual machine. These include creating a virtual hard disk and then installing the required operating system on the virtual hard disk.

Recently, Microsoft-owned Sysinternals released a utility that would be useful for easily creating a virtual machine image from your existing hard drive contents. This can be very useful if you have one of your computers at home or work set up for a particular task and you want to access all the same tools and software temporarily from your laptop.

The tool is aptly called Disk2vhd. Its a small download and doesn’t require installation. Just fire up the application with administrator rights and you are good to go. It will show you various hard disks and partitions on your computer. Select the one you would like turned into virtual hard disks, hit create and the applications goes about doing its thing.

In the ‘Space Required’ column, Disk2vhd shows you the amount of hard disk space you will need to have in order to create the virtual hard disk from your computer’s partitions. The process could take really long so you might as well go out grab something to eat/drink and come back — and if you are lucky, it would have created the virtual hard disk. The time it requires would depend on the size of the disk you are trying to turn into a virtual hard disk. Generally be prepared to wait for quite a while.

Once the VHD file is created, you can use one of the virtualization apps mentioned above to run a virtual machine off the hard disk image you’ve just created. All three support VHD files. Here are the details in case you want to look into them.

In addition, Vista (and now Windows 7) users can mount .vhd files as regular hard disks as well. Follow these steps:

• Right click on My Computer icon and choose ‘Manage’.
• Listed under Storage, choose ‘Disk Management’.

• From the Action menu, choose Attach VHD, browse to the location of the VHD file, check read-only if you want to safeguard the contents against modification and click OK.

• You will now be able to access it like a regular hard disk.

Disk2vhd is a great tool that lets you create a virtual machine image from your existing hard disk setup. The tool does all this from within the operating system without requiring you to boot from a CD. You can easily take your current computer and run it as a virtual machine on another computer. One thing you would require is free hard disk space.

What do you think of it? Do you know about similar tools? Share them with everyone 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/

• Test Drive Linux Operating Systems with VirtualBox (7)
• How To Install Windows 7 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox (79)
• Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 2] (18)
• Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 1] (11)
• SteadyState – Mess up, Reboot & Everything Is Fixed! (20)

Wait no more, my friend, wait no more.

Now we’ll install Win7RC on your virtual machine.

Step 1 – Download the Windows 7 Release Candidate ISO

Head on over to Microsoft and download the Win7RC ISO.  Once you initiate the download, Microsoft will issue you a product code. Either print that page or write the code down – you’ll need it later.

Remember where I said ‘wait no more’? Yeah, about that…the download is about 2.3 GB, so you’ll have to wait a bit more. I believe the download traffic is pretty heavy right now, since I had to restart the download several times. All told, it took me about a day to download it. Maybe you should give your mom a call while you wait. She misses you and wonders why you don’t call more often.

Step 2 – Mount the Windows 7 RC ISO

Open the Sun VirtualBox application and click on the Settings button, like in the picture.

When the settings windows appears, click on CD/DVD-ROM in the left side of the window. Then, check Mount CD/DVD Drive and check the ISO Image File button below it. Now click on the folder icon and navigate to where you downloaded the Win7RC ISO and select it. Click OK.

You’ll be returned to the main window of the VirtualBox application. Now just select your Win7RC virtual machine and click on Start. Once the new virtual machine session starts, Windows 7 RC will begin installing.

Step 3- Install Windows 7 RC

The first screen you will see will ask you for language and other preferences. I’ve often wondered why there is a US keyboard and not a Canadian keyboard. We could have an ‘A’ key and an ‘Eh’ key.

Then, just to make sure you really want to install Windows 7, they ask you.

Of course, there is the standard Microsoft Licensing Agreement. I scanned it for words like ’soul’, ‘damnation’, and ‘eternity’. Nothing came up, so it looks legit.

Here’s where you decide what type of installation you want. If this is your first time installing Win7RC, choose Custom (Advanced). Don’t fret, it’s not really advanced at all.

Now the installer asks you where you would like to install Win7RC. You should only be presented with one option, so that makes choosing pretty easy.<

Your computer will now continue to install Windows 7 RC. Time to install may vary, but it was only about 20 minutes or so on my laptop.

Step 4 – Complete the Windows 7 RC Install

Microsoft hasn’t really changed the set-up procedure any from XP or Vista. It’s really quite a simply process from here on in. First you’ll be asked to create a User Name and a Computer Name.

Then you’ll set a password for your account. I didn’t bother with setting a password since you need a password to get on my computer in the first place, before you can get to Windows 7.

The next step is where you enter your product key. Remember when you were given the product key when you downloaded the Win7RC? Now is the time for that. You can’t just copy and paste that from your host machine into the virtual machine though. You’ll need to go back and forth, or write it on a piece of paper and type in the code from that. That’s probably easiest.

Tip: Here’s a little tip I’ll give you. Look in the bottom-right hand corner of your VirtualBox screen. Do you see a small box with an arrow in it? Good. Right next to that is a phrase that probably says Right Control. What that means is that you need to hit the Control key that is on the right side of your keyboard in order for the VirtualBox to give up control of your cursor so you can use it on your host operating system. It’s called the Host Key.Think of it as being kind of like a keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switch between two physical computers.

Your laptop may not have a Right Control key. I know mine doesn’t. Don’t panic. I did. You can set another key to work as the cursor release. Here’s how you do that. Go back to the VirtualBox window. Click on File, then click on Preferences.

Once the Settings window opens you can click on Input. Now you’ll see a grey box that says Right Control. Click in that box and then hit the key you would prefer to use. Click OK to make the setting stick.

Back to the install…..

Windows 7 RC will now ask you how you want to deal with updates. I chose Use Recommended Settings for no other reason than that was what was recommended.

And last but not least, set your regional time settings.

So now your install is done. You are not only rewarded with the honour of testing out the Windows 7 RC for free, but the visual pun of the Betta fish on the desktop. Get it? Betta? Beta? Yeah, programmers aren’t known for the best puns.

(Shout out to Rodolfo Arrigorriaga who emailed me directly. Yes, you can install VirtualBox on any physical partition and Win7RC will work on whatever virtual machine you then create.

Good question.)

Have you installed Windows 7RC? Used a different virtual machine application? Let us know what you think!

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 Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 1] (11)
• How To Install Windows 7 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox (79)
• Test Drive Linux Operating Systems with VirtualBox (7)
• Create A Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Hard Drive [Windows] (14)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)

In the past, beta’s and release candidates would normally be released to IT professionals who had an extra computer kicking around to test things like this on. Yet, what if you just have the one computer at home and really want to test Win7RC, what do you do?

Here’s the answer and it’s not as scary as you might think. Install a virtual machine (VM). What in blue blazes is a virtual machine you ask? Think of it as a computer within a computer. Then you can install whatever you want to test on it, without fear of losing your main operating system and the files on it.

I’m going to outline the installation of Sun’s VirtualBox. There are quite a few VM’s out there, I just chose Sun’s since it was recommended to me by a friend who is vastly more knowledgeable about computers than me. Yes, it’s true. Someone knows more than me. Okay, most people know more than me.

Step 1 – Download Sun VirtualBox

Head on over to Sun’s VirtualBox Download page where you can download the version that’s right for you. You can use VirtualBox on Windows x86, Mac OSX (Intel Based), Linux, and of course, Solaris.

I’m a PC, so I’ll go for the Windows version. It’s 63 MB, so if your connection is slow this is a good time to call your neighbour and say hi.

Step 2 – Start the Install

Find the VirtualBox install file on your desktop and double-click on it. The install will begin. During the install you’ll come across two or three Windows Logo Warnings. Go ahead and click continue if they make sense to you.

The next window you will see will as kyou what options you want. I’ve left it as it was and installed the options. I’d like my test of the Win7RC to be as full-functioning as possible.

At this point, you may receive a warning about VirtualBox disabling your network card for a bit. That’s okay. Just click Yes.

At the end of the install, you’ll be asked if you’d like to start the VirtualBox after the end of the install. Sure, why not?

Step 3 – Register

It seems there is no way around the registration. I don’t like to register software, just because I hate spam. They do give you the opt-out option, so go ahead and use that.

I found it peculiar that they felt the need to thank me for “finding the time to fill out the registration form”. I felt that the tone of that ‘thank you’ was a little snotty. Whatever. Maybe I’m just insecure. The software is good.

Step 4 – Start VirtualBox

Now VirtualBox is ready to get going! Once it’s fully installed you’ll be presented with the following window.

Just because VirtualBox is running, doesn’t mean you have a virtual machine just yet. To do that you need to create a new virtual machine. Which is a nice segue into Step 5.

Step 5 – Create a New Virtual Machine

Simply start by clicking on the blue sun-looking icon that reads New. This gets things started. From here on in you just have to follow the prompts. But I’ll give you a few pointers anyway.

This is what makes Sun VirtualBox perfect for testing out Windows 7. It already has provisions for that version. How cool is that? Okay, so it’s only moderately cool compared to monkey knife fights and ninjas.

So name your Virtual Machine and select the right Operating System and Version. Click Next.

The set-up suggests 512 MB yet Microsoft says Win7RC requires a minimum of 1 GB or 1024MB of RAM. So that’s what you should go for. If your computer has less than 2GB of RAM, you may want to reconsider installing Win7RC on a virtual machine. It just won’t work well enough to give it an honest evaluation.

The default configuration here is just fine. What you do on the next screen however, makes a big difference.

There are choices here and one may be better than the other. Microsoft suggests having a minimum of 20GB for an install of Win7RC. So you could select fixed-size storage and set it for 20GB. I’m playing it on the wild-side and using the Dynamically expanding storage option. This is likely to affect the performance of the virtual machine and Win7RC. I’m okay with that for my installation since I’ve only got about 20GB of free space on my computer and don’t want to use it all if possible.

On this screen you select the location for your Virtual Machine to run in on your computer. It’s best to name it something meaningful and relevant to your situation. Here, you also allocate how much disk space that the Guest OS will think it has for a hard drive. I chose 10 GB. You’re probably better to choose 20GB if you have the space.

There are just two screens that follow this one. Both of them tell you information about your new virtual disk. The information isn’t that important, but allows you to confirm if the set-up is the way that you want it. If the information makes sense, go ahead and click Next. If it doesn’t, click the Back button and change your choices where necessary.

Even if you finish the creation of the virtual machine, you can change the parameters later on. No worries! That’s part of what makes Sun’s VirtualBox such a good test bed for software and operating systems. It’s flexible. Semper Gumby for my Marine friends out there.

In Part Deux of this article, I’ll be covering the install of Windows 7 RC on my newly created Sun VirtualBox virtual machine. Stay tuned and don’t touch that remote. Now for intermission…Let’s all go to the lobby, let’s all go to the lobby, let’s all go to the lobbeeeeeeeeee, and get ourselves a treat!

Continue Reading: Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 2]

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 Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 2] (18)
• How To Install Windows 7 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox (79)
• Test Drive Linux Operating Systems with VirtualBox (7)
• Create A Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Hard Drive [Windows] (14)
• Your Easy Guide to Windows 7 Themes (16)

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/

• How To Install Windows 7 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox (79)
• Create A Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Hard Drive [Windows] (14)
• 3 Ways to Install Linux on Windows or Mac (25)
• Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 2] (18)
• Test Windows 7 RC on a Virtual Machine [Part 1] (11)

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)

While the Live CDs are common place in the Linux world, it’s not often that you hear about a Windows Live CD.

Here today we are going to show you how to make custom Windows Live CD

Tools Required

• Bart PE
• Your Windows installation CD

Steps

1. Download and install the latest version of Bart PE. Fire up the PE Builder. This is the main screen that appears:



2. All additional functionality that you want to add is done by means of plug-ins. There are loads of them to choose from. Plug-ins are nothing but a way to add additional software to your Live CD. You can visit the Bart PE plug-in repository here.
3. For our purposes we require a special plug-in called Windows XPE, which gives us a way to boot into a GUI environment similar to Windows as opposed to the usual command line interface. You are free to choose any other plug-ins for additional functionality that you want to add. There are plug-ins for disc recovery, office work, backups, disk imaging and so on.
4. Now insert your Windows Installation disc and point PE Builder to the CD/DVD drive containing the Windows installation disc or the location of the copied files (great if you have a laptop and the i386 folder containing the files).
5. Click on the plug-ins button at the bottom. This allows you to add more software and tweak the existing software/plug-ins. If you get an error here, chances are that the path you provided in source is not correct.



6. Click ‘add’ and browse to the location where you stored the Windows XPE plug-in to add it. Since we are using the XPE plug-in you can safely disable the Nu2shell, PENETCFG and A43 plugins since these offer functionality that is already included with the XPE plug-in.
7. Click ‘close’. You can now directly burn a disc or save an ISO file for testing which you can burn later. Click ‘build’ and PE builder will get to work.



8. If the build process completes without any errors, you have made yourself a Live CD.

Mine completed in just under 2 minutes without any errors and amounted to 270 MB with Windows XPE plug-in and 154 MB without it. Here are the screen shots from my LiveCD which I tested in VirtualBox:

There are additional hacks that you can use to customize the text that appears when loading, the wallpaper and other things. However, that required editing some files and is a little cumbersome. In any case, with or without the visual customizations, you now have a fully functional Live CD with the tools you want according to your specific requirements. There are numerous other possibilities that you can explore with such a tool. For example you can create a Live DVD with all your favorite programs and documents.

Have you ever created a custom Live CD? What PE Builder plug-ins did you use or plan to use when you created one? Do you know of some other tool that can be used tp make Windows Live CD? Why not share it 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/

• Windows Live Mesh: Get your Data on any PC from any Device (16)
• The Cut Out and Keep Guide to Essential Software Programs (25)
• SteadyState – Mess up, Reboot & Everything Is Fixed! (20)
• Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) with WINE (15)
• How to Sync Files between PC and USB Thumb Drive? (27)

Now you are that insufferable know-it-all at family gatherings who descends from his Mac OS X Leopard nirvana only to lecture the rest of the brood on their miserable digital lives. In which case, brace yourself for what I am about to say: It’s true – you can make the user experience on your Mac even better!

Back in March, Jackson Chung reminded you of the 10 Essential Mac Apps to Install After a Reformat. Here, in this post, I will endeavour to purloin some of his ideas and add some of my own. If you are a Mac newbie, I hope that the suggested applications are new and useful to you. If you are an old hand, read ahead and correct me with your own better alternatives.

1. Quicksilver

This one’s so obvious that they should just ship the OS with it pre-installed. Instead, Mac OS comes with Spotlight, which is nice – for Grandma. For a slick cat like you, Quicksilver is the rare application that qualifies for that over-used metaphor: a Swiss army knife. With simple keystrokes (default invocation keystroke is Ctrl-Space) it lets you launch applications, look up contact info, navigate your directory tree, send email, and interface with other applications using plugins.

2. VirtualBox

Sure you may have taken the path to enlightenment, but the rest of the world is taking its time getting there, and you do have to communicate with them once in a while. I am speaking here of course of the Microsoft Windows world which imposes itself into your beatific world with that occasional annoying banking site that works only in Internet Explorer. For those cases, there is the free virtualisation tools VirtualBox, which lets you run Windows (a licensed copy of course) on your Mac.

(Image courtesy of virtualbox.org)

And while you are on the job (of making peace with the Windows world), you might as well grab Flip4Mac (Windows Media Components), a tool that will install plug-ins for the QuickTime media player on your Mac, in order to enable playback of Windows Media audio and video files.

3. The Goodies at iSlayer

Choose one or more of the free goodies (donationware) at iSlayer: iStatMenus, iStatPro, iStatNano. They are all applications that will display various useful bits of information about your system.

The first (iStatMenus) sits in your menu bar (see 5 Free Tools to Add to your Mac Menu Bar for this and other useful menu bar add ons) while the other two are Dashboard Widgets. They all display system information such as: the utilisation of your CPU, disk and memory, the top 5 processes that are using your CPU, the status of your laptop battery, and so on.

This is useful, especially for a new user, since such information gives you a clue to those unexpected OS behaviours that even a Mac user encounters, such as slow system response. In the screenshot , you can see that Firefox is using up 20% 15.5% of my CPU even though I am not actively using it (perhaps a misbehaving Firefox extension?). iStatMenu also provides a nice little date and time display in your menu bar and a pull down that brings up a calendar.

4. Jumpcut

A neat solution to a common problem of maintaining and accessing multiple entries in your clipboard i.e., copying multiple bits of text before pasting them. Jumpcut sits in the menu bar and harvests your copy buffer as you work away on the Command-C’s.

When you are ready to paste these bits into an email message or editor, they can be access by clicking on the menubar icon or, even better, using a hotkey (default: Alt-Space) that can be used to rotate through the clipboard.

5. Freeing your Music

Remember that music you bought from the iTunes Store with your hard-earned money that Apple now refuses to give up to you, locking it into their proprietary format or making it inaccessible from your iPod? Two applications that will set that right are FairGame, which will let you convert DRM’ed iTunes Store in your iTunes library to an unprotected format, and iPodDisk, which conversely, helps rescue music stored on your iPod. To this bundle, you can add SimplyBurns which completes the loop by enabling you to burn your media to CD or DVD.

There are other useful tools (here is one example: Open With Manager) for a Mac newbie that we can explore in a later post.

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/

• Liberate, Sync and Share Your Media With DoubleTwist (6)
• How To Free Your Music From The DRM Copy Protection (13)
• 11 Tiny and Useful Free Menubar Applications for Mac (33)
• Who Is Connected To My iTunes Library? (Windows) (12)
• Two Free Apps To Sync ANY MP3 Player with iTunes (19)

For your convenience, I’ve managed to gather a short list of the most frequently used Mac applications and provided a free counterpart for each of them. Hopefully, they’ll serve you as well as the paid versions.

This is MakeUseOf’s edition of Software for Starving Students.

Commercial app #1: AppZapper $12.95

AppZapper is an uninstaller. Mac applications are very simple to install: it’s a straightforward click-and-drag over to the ‘Applications’ folder. Uninstallation is supposedly just the same, dragging the application to Trash. But there are always remnants of the application in System and Preferences folders. An uninstaller finds these remnants and removes them as well. AppZapper is the best in the game.

Free counterpart: AppCleaner
There are hardly any noticable differences between these two applications, even if you put them side by side. AppCleaner works just as well as AppZapper.

Commercial app #2: Parallels Desktop for Mac $79.99

Parallels Desktop for Mac is a virtualization program which enables installation of multiple operating systems in a virtual environment. Use this to install Windows, Linux or any other OS while running Mac OS X at the same time.

Free counterpart: VirtualBox
Jason has covered this program in great detail. Check out his post to learn more about using VirtualBox and what it has to offer.

Commercial app #3: Xslimmer $12.95

Xslimmer is a program which removes unnecessary architecture from Universal Binaries. Because of Apple’s transition to Intel, developers had to make their programs cater for both PPC and Intel processors. It will also remove unwanted localization (language) files to drastically reduce the amount of space used by the application.

Free counterparts: TrimTheFat, Monolingual
TrimTheFat will only remove the PPC architecture from applications leaving the Intel side of it. Then use Monolingual to remove unwanted languages. Monolingual can also remove unneeded architecture but this feature is very unpolished and there are some reports that Monolingual causes severe damage to Intel Macs. Do not use Monolingual for that purpose, although removing languages works without a glitch. So, two free apps to replace Xslimmer’s functions. Using these two applications, you can very well free up several gigabytes.

Commercial app #4: CoverSutra 14.95€

CoverSutra is an iTunes controller and Last.fm scrobbler which provides a beautiful album art jewel case on the desktop. But 14.95€ is too much money to pay for something which will only help me control my music.

Free counterpart: GimmeSomeTune
Although GimmeSomeTune is free, in many ways it could possibly be better than CoverSutra. GimmeSomeTune can automatically fetch album artwork and lyrics, scrobble to Last.fm and has global hotkeys to control almost every aspect of iTunes.

Commercial app #5: TextExpander $29.95

TextExpander allows you to use customized abbreviations to “expand” frequently used phrases and text-strings. This application is valuable when you are always finding yourself typing the same line of text repeatedly such as in HTML editing.

Free counterpart: RapidoWrite
I honestly can’t tell the difference between TextExpander and RapidoWrite. To pay or not to pay?

Commercial app #6: Awaken $12.95

Awaken is an iTunes alarm, when it goes off, it will play a preset playlist. It can also be set to sleep your Mac after a certain time period is over, allowing you to listen to music while drifting off into slumber.

Free counterparts: iTunes Alarm, iTaf
I’ve covered this topic of alarms for iTunes before. iTunes Alarm and iTaf are very capable to perform the same tasks as Awaken, perhaps even more! Check out my older post to learn more about these little gems.

Commercial app #7: iWork $79, Office 2008 for Mac (Home and Student Edition) $149.95

I’m sure we all know what Office 2008 is. iWork is the Mac productivity suite which comprises of Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentation).

Free counterpart: NeoOffice
NeoOffice is a full set of office applications and is a port of OpenOffice created specifically for Mac OS X. Some may argue that the interface is not as polished as it could be but we’re looking for productivity here. NeoOffice has just been recently updated and performs quicker among other enhancements. If what you’re looking for is a capable word processor (which is the most often used application within a productivity suite), why bother paying so much when NeoOffice is free?

Commercial app #8: Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X $39.95

If you are in a community where you’ll get exposed to a Windows NTFS formatted hard disk (like student life), you’ll definitely need to have NTFS support on your Mac. One method to do this is to buy Paragon NTFS. The other way is completely free!

Free counterpart: NTFS-3G with MacFUSE
I’ve explained how to use NTFS-3G in my first Macnifying OS X post. The NTFS-3G project has come a long way since it first started. The driver is pretty stable now and there is even a ublio version for better performance.

Commercial app #9: Photoshop CS3 $649

Photoshop is an image editing tool which is incredibly successful because it is simply so capable.

Free counterpart: GIMP.app
Right, this is a very touchy topic. So, let’s get this straight: No free application will ever be good enough to completely replace Photoshop. There are always alternatives if you’re not looking to spend $650 to touch up your photos. This is one of them. GIMP.app is specifically ported to Mac OS X so don’t mistake it with GIMP. Before this, running GIMP.app requires X11 to be installed but there is now an experimental native version which doesn’t need X11 to run. I’ve tried it, takes a little long to launch but it works. I don’t mind waiting a bit and saving $650.

Commercial app #10: Cha-Ching $40, MoneyWell $39.99

These two applications are personal finance managers, and pretty good ones at that. But they cost a bomb. I don’t know about you but I’m hardly willing to spend $40 to manage my finances.

Free counterparts: Cashbox, Mini$
Simple, easy-to-use, straightforward, free. That’s all I need. Granted, Mini$ and Cashbox are not as fully-featured as Cha-Ching and MoneyWell, they don’t have the fancy frills of schedulers and buckets styles but they still manage to help me keep track of my finances.

So I hope that this list prevented the major hole in your pocket which could have been if you paid for these applications. Are there any other applications you use which I didn’t list? Maybe you would like to find out if the application you were thinking of buying has a free alternative? Shoot away in the comments!

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

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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

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• 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)

I’d love to hear from you. Send me your MP3 files containing comments about the show, reviews of your favourite websites or just general chitchat. I’ll choose a few to play on the show each week. Send them to podcast [at] makeuseof [dot] com.

If you look underneath the links from the show on this page, you will see a little media player where you can listen to the podcast right here on the site. Or if you prefer, you can right-click on the “audio MP3″ logo and save the MP3 file to your computer for listening on your MP3 player or iPod.

The podcast is available through iTunes so don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast if you have an iPod, or in another podcatcher if you have a different MP3 player.

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The big problem with those two programs is the cost. There’s a free trial of Parallels and a free VMware player, but that’s not what I was looking for. I wanted a full version piece of software that would cost very little or nothing. Well I’ve found it. Varun Kashyap wrote about VirtualBox back in May as part of an article on free open source counterparts to Windows software. In this article I will expand on that and show you just how easy it is to install on a Mac and how great it really is.

First off, what is virtualization? Well for our purposes it means creating a virtual computer on your physical computer. Let’s say you’re running OS X Leopard on your Mac, but you’d like to use Windows XP or Vista or some flavour of Linux as well. Without virtualization, you’d need to either dual boot or install your second OS on a second machine. Using virtualization you can have your guest OS running as a window on your host OS, or better yet, have them run side-by-side, almost as equals.

Installing the guest OS

The industry term for the operating system you’ll be running on a virtual computer is ‘Guest OS’. Your main OS is the ‘Host OS’. The virtualization software, in this case VirtualBox, provides the virtual computer. Fire it up and it’ll ask you some questions about the OS you’re installing. Things like:

The name you’d like to give it. Choose any friendly name here, like “Windows XP” or “Jason’s Virtual Computer.”

The OS type. There’s a long list here including DOS, all flavours of Windows going back to 3.1 and many flavours of Linux



The amount of your system memory you’d like to allocate to the virtual machine when it’s running.

For XP, I find 512M works great, for Vista you’ll need 1G. I have 2M of ram on my Mac so YMMV. (UPDATE : that’s 2G, not 2M of course!)



What type/size hard drive you’d like.

Your choices are Dynamically Expanding Image (default and the one I chose) or Fixed-Size Image.



As for size, I chose the OS default which is 10G for XP and 20G for Vista. That’s just the size VirtualBox reports to the guest OS as the hard drive size. If you chose Dynamically Expanding Image in the previous step VirtualBox will create a file representing your drive only as large as it currently needs to install the OS. Then as the name implies, as you add stuff to your virtual computer, the drive will expand as necessary.



You then power on your virtual machine and it will use the installation CD in your drive (or a disk image of your choice) to install the guest OS. It will run through the entire installation process, as if you were installing it on a physical machine, prompting you for your product key and your time zone etc.

A word about the guest OS. You must have your own copy of the OS you’re installing, and all the regular licensing rules apply. If you install Windows on a virtual machine, it’s the same as installing it on a real computer and as you know, each copy of Windows is only allowed to be run on one computer. Of course, there’s no problem if Linux is your guest operating system of choice. It’s free.

Running your virtual computer

Once the installation is complete, you’ll want to run your new (or old) OS. Just start it up and enjoy the surreal show of having one operating system boot up inside another. Once it’s up and running, you’ll notice the mouse is a little jittery and hard to control. Don’t worry, that’s what Guest Additions are for.

Guest additions do a few very important things.

• Make the mouse cursor less jittery
• Keep track of which OS you’re using so your mouse follows.. … a special mouse driver is installed in the guest that communicates with the “real” mouse driver on your host and moves the guest mouse pointer accordingly. You will only have one mouse pointer… (VirtualBox documentation)
• Dynamically change the screen resolution based on the size of the guest OS window.
• Shared folders
• Shared clipboard
• Seamless mode (see below)

You can run your guest OS in three modes.

As a window of your host OS



In full screen mode, where it appears you are running the guest OS only. Your host OS does not show through anywhere.

In Seamless mode. This is perhaps the most powerful of the three. In seamless mode, each Windows app appears to be running within OS X. You even get the Windows
taskbar on the screen along with Mac dock and menubar. (See image below)

When shutting down your guest OS, you have several options including saving the state of the virtual machine, so that when you start it up the next time, you’re right back where you left off. It’s like sleep or hibernate mode. Very convenient.

As I’ve said, I have used Parallels to run Windows inside OS X and, to be honest, I prefer the free, open source VirtualBox to the $80 Parallels. There’s not much Parallels can do that VirtualBox can’t. In fact, I haven’t yet found one thing that I miss from Parallels. Windows XP runs quite fast inside the virtual machine. Vista runs a little slower, but that is probably just a memory issue. If you have 3 or 4 gigs then you have enough to allocate 1.5 to 2 to Vista, which should make things run much more smoothly.

Some suggestions:

Back up your virtual harddrive. Once you’ve got your guest OS set up the way you like it with all your software installed and OS updates done, then back it up either somewhere else on your harddrive or on another harddrive or if it’s small enough, to a DVD. If you ever get some malware on your guest OS that you can’t get rid of, just delete it and use a copy of your backed up copy.

If you hope to keep the guest OS running smoothly for a long time, treat it as you would a regular computer. Install antivirus and anti-malware tools.

My recommendation: before shelling out for VMware or Parallels, give VirtualBox a try. You’ll probably love it and save yourself a wad of dough.

Do you use virtualization software? Which one? Why? How? Let us know in the comments.

(By) Jason Mayoff is a radio newscaster, tech geek and the Make Use Of Podcast Editor. If you’re ever in Montreal, Canada you can hear him on CJAD 800. You can also find Jason at Podcasters4Hire.com and pleasantnights.com, where he talks about keeping an organized and clutter-free home.

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• Run Windows Applications on Linux (or Mac) with WINE (15)
• Macnifying OS X: Introduction and working with NTFS Drives (13)
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But now let’s say you downloaded Microsoft’s new 6.3MB SteadyState program for XP or Vista. You can go ahead and fire it up and configure how you want it to interact with your Operating System. Think of it like free virtualization with some security features thrown in.

The features that stand out are:

Windows Disk Protection

This is the main feature that will help keep your machine spic and span. It does not allow changes to be made to your system – This includes your Operating System, Program Files and your Personal Files. Windows SteadyState gives you the option to remove all changes upon restart, to remove changes at a certain point in time, or to not remove changes at all. As you can see below the changes live in a cache and are not merged with the operating system (unless you want them to!)



User Restrictions and Settings

The options contained in here resemble group policy and allow you to lock down many facets of the Operating System including which programs are accessible and if and when changes are to be discarded.



User Account Manager

Create and delete SteadyState user accounts. They can be on external drives that can facilitate user’s data and settings being saved even when Windows Disk Protection is turned on. There are import and export features that allow you to move your SteadyState users around.



Computer Restrictions

This is also like group policy settings and very similar to the User Restrictions but based only on the machine.

Now how does all this help you?

I am glad you asked!

Let’s take our example of late night shenanigans again and this time before we start our adult oriented surfing we’ll start up SteadyState. No more worrying about harming your machine or having your personal data sold on the back corners of the net. Aren’t you sick of worrying about computer security? Don’t you have more important things to worry about?

We do and trust you me it’s not just porn!

After your surfing is concluded, reboot the machine and watch as all remnants of your web session are automagically gone. No toolbars, shortcuts, history or even installed applications are left behind to sell you out to your significant other (or parents) and best of all everything you were doing was in a secure place that had access to your personal data or your operating system! SWEET!

Let’s take a look at how it actually works:

You start by configuring what you want to lock down, creating a user and then protecting your hard drive. It creates a cache file. This cache file is where all your changes are made to. Then by selecting the correct option you can make everything return to the way it was simply by restarting!

There is a lot to SteadyState and it is an invaluable tool that I am testing out this week and possibly deploying for a handful of publicly accessible machines! If you have a need for this tool give it a shot and let us know what you think in the comments!

Maybe you use something similar or the old Microsoft® Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP – let us know! Come let’s get a heated discussion going on why or why you don’t need something like this!

(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at askTheAdmin.com today.

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Games are an important mention here because although the Linux games are catching up and going 3D and stuff, one would have to admit that there are a larger number of games for Windows that keep us going back to the Windows World.

Well if you wish for the same, your wish has been granted. There is a solution for all these situations and it has been around for sometime now. Its – WINE. Chances are that if you are into Linux you might have heard of it. WINE is another of those recursive acronyms which stands for WINE Is Not an Emulator (Amazing how they come up with recursive names, GNU and PHP are other examples)

So what is it? Do I drink it?

Nah, you won’t like to drink anything with such a name! Formally stated “WINE is an open source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix. Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs.”

In English this means that you can run Windows applications i.e. exe’s on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and yes Mac OS X too!
In fact the most popular use of WINE is to run Windows games on Linux!

Sweeeet! But do I require Windows as well?

Not at all, WINE is a completely free alternative of the Windows API and has “no Microsoft code” whatsoever.

How do I run my Windows programs?

This is the fun part! First and foremost you need to have WINE on your system. Get it here. Or else if you are using Ubuntu (or apt based distro) like me then fire up the terminal and type the following:

sudo apt-get install wine

This will set up WINE on your system. That’s pretty much it, as from now on, you just have to follow the steps you will take to install the application/game in Windows. Yes that’s it, Its that simple. No hassles, nothing. I had an old version (8) of Photoshop so let me show you some screens, so you believe me:

Step1: Install

Step 2: Run

Step 3: Work on a handsome guy’s pic!!

Can I run all Windows applications?

Well not really, there are thousand of applications (10,349 to be precise) whose status and compatibility to run with WINE can be viewed at the WINE AppDB. It categorizes applications into Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Garbage ratings, with the applications rated as Platinum being the most compatible and problem-free and applications rated Garbage being.. um.. well.. Garbage! (in regards to WINE compatibility of course).

However, there is no reason to be disheartened because many popular applications are featured in the Platinum, Gold and Silver lists. You may not want to go below this rating. If on the other hand an application you are looking for is not in the database then you can of course try it on your own, and let the world know how it went!

Here are some of the more popular applications that run smoothly with WINE:

• Photoshop CS2, other versions too but not CS3 – Platinum and Gold
• Half Life 2 – Platinum Counter Strike
• ACDSee – Platinum
• Command and Conquer – Gold
• Microsoft Office 2003 – Silver
• Call of Duty – Gold
• ….. many many more

What about performance?

WINE doesn’t slow down your computer, the application performance will be same as with Windows (no more, no less). In fact it’s actually better than using virtualization which has two operating systems running side by side and thus more resource hungry. Refer to “Debunking WINE myths” for more on these and similar questions.

All in all if you cannot give up running a Windows app or you want to play Windows games inside Linux then definately give WINE a try. It’s worth it.

(By) Varun Kashyap – A programmer, tech enthusiast, blogger and the handsome guy in the shot above! Visit his techcrazy blog here for latest on the web, tips and tricks, and step by step tutorials

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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BufferZone adds another layer of protection to your browser by setting up a sandbox (an isolated “virtual directory” on your hard drive). As Trustware puts it, the program “transparently redirects modifications in your PC to a virtual, isolated environment, so that unauthorized modifications cannot be applied to your actual PC.” Malicious apps can’t write changes to your actual system files or registry – only BufferZone’s virtualized versions. Anything you download – temp files, images, executables, you name it – gets sandboxed. Why is that a big deal?

Well, it only takes a split second for a malicious app to burrow its way into the deep, dark crevices of your operating system.

How does BufferZone help?

The sandbox keeps these nasties from going resident on your system and gives your malware defenses time to obliterate them before they can cause any harm. If I click on a link to a key generator, the hosting website redirects me to another page that spawns a browser hijacker installer. If that happens, BufferZone neatly puts it in the virtualized directory, and my anti-virus software kicks in and nukes the threat within two seconds.

To top it all off, there’s no appreciable difference in the rendering speed of your browser and no real impact on resources. On my system, the hit was 0% on the CPU and about 9MB of memory.

Slick. Very slick.

The program comes in both free and paid versions (which offers customization and protection of multiple browsers), but I’ll only talk about the free one here.

Download the 9MB .msi file and install it, and BufferZone sets up a protected, virtualized directory in c:\virtual\untrusted\. All activity from your selected browser will now be redirected here and isolated from your “real” operating system.

Before I go any further with this, I’ve got to tell you to NOT knowingly visit any sites that are likely to infect your computer. You’re asking for trouble. I was, too, but I had to find out whether this app was the real deal or not. I also tested BufferZone Free on IE7 from a bare Windows XP SP2 install with no other patches applied.

To put BufferZone through the paces, I decided to go on a little jaunt around some of the most nefarious sites I’m familiar with. I headed over to a keygen site, did a few searches, and watched BufferZone spring into action as it popped up several alerts for items that were landing in the sandbox. The beauty of it: my anti-virus software caught every single one of them and removed them with ease. I surfed around carelessly for a while longer and exited Internet Explorer at which point some other evildoers tried to invade my system, but BufferZone and Avast! once again tag-teamed them into submission.

After a reboot, I ran a full scan with Ad-Aware and HijackThis and couldn’t find any traces of anything remotely malicious. Wow. I’m impressed!

Here’s the kicker. Even in the free version, the app will protect not only your browser, but any process spawned by the browser. Download an attachment from your Gmail account and launch it with Word, and Word automatically inherits the BufferZone protection. This is huge; even if your webmail provider automatically scans attachments, no scan is perfect.

The program worked beautifully in my testing and it’s footprint wasn’t even noticable. For a free application with such terrific security potential, BufferZone Free is definitely worth a download. If you’re still not convinced, try out Trustware’s proof of concept.

If you’ve tried BufferZone, what do you think of it? Got something better that you’d recommend? Let’s hear about it!

(by) Lee Mathews is a blogger who writes to share downloads, links, and tech advice with other slightly frustrated people at Unsightful.com.

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

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(2) Another often overlooked aspect is that you can have full access to the source code of the software. This is a great blessing for someone who needs the ultimate customization.

(3) You can actually help in the development by fixing bugs, releasing your changes to the code (in accordance with the license of course).

(4) They may also offer more features then their commercial counterparts.

With that out of the way, lets get to the fun part and lets save some bucks. I will be giving information on my personal favorites (which would generally mean BETTER) open source replacements. There are however other choices as well, so drop a line or two if our choices differ!

Microsoft Office ==> OpenOffice
OpenOffice provides a great alternative to Microsoft Office. The complete suite comes with a word processor (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing and graphing tool (Draw), tool for creating equations and formulae (Math) and finally a database tool which also builds reports and forms (Base). All components are multi-platform and multilingual. Its available for Windows, Linux, Mac and Solaris.
Download here

Microsoft Outlook Express ==> Mozilla Thunderbird
Thunderbird is a full-featured open source email client which provides an excellent open source alternative to all commercial email clients. Thunderbird offers a large features set, some of which are: support for POP and IMAP, built-in RSS support and spell checking. Thunderbird also has an integrated usenet news reader. The user-interface is completely customizable. Did I mention the many add-ons you can have?
Download here

Microsoft Internet Explorer ==> Mozilla Firefox (Relax, I know you are using it)
Firefox needs no introduction, still I will try – Firefox is an advanced browser built with its roots in the old Netscape browser. Today Firefox offers tabbed browsing, live bookmarks, many search extensions and many other extensions and toolbars. The support for Firefox by commercial companies is growing – and this is clearly seen by the number of extensions/toolbars they develop. So how did I do?
Download here

Winzip or WinRAR ==> 7-Zip
7-Zip is an excellent file archiver that can easily replace Winzip and WinRAR on your machine. It has a high compression ratio. It supports the following formats for packing/unpacking: 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR – and the following for unpacking only: RAR, CAB, ARJ, LZH, CHM, Z, CPIO, RPM and DEB. It integrates well into the Windows shell( right click menu). Also 7-Zip is available in 60 languages.
Download here

Microsoft Visio ==> Dia
Dia can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flow charts, network diagrams, and simple circuits. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape. It can load and save diagrams to a variety of formats
Download here

JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA or Other Commercial IDE’s ==> Eclipse
Java based IDE which aims to be a universal development toolkit. Even though it has it’s roots in Java eclipse’s plug-in base allows it to edit files for almost any environment including but not limited web, c/c++ and of course Java.
Download here

Nero ==> InfraRecorder
InfraRecorder is an easy to use CD and DVD burner application. It supports virtually all different formats including rewritable disc, multi-session disc and dual-layer DVDs. Also audio CDs can be created with just a few simple drag drops in InfraRecorder. Other important features include disc copying, audio CD ripping and ISO generation and burning images. InfraRecorder is available in more than 20 languages.
Download here

VMware or Microsoft Virtual PC ==> VirtualBox
VirtualBox allows you to run a guest operating system on your PC, in this case either Windows or Linux based. The guest operating system support covers most Windows (including Vista) and Linux versions. VirtualBox is a very stable tool. I have run Ubuntu inside Windows without any problems. Networking, Clipboard, Disk Management are all seamless.
Download here

Microsoft Remote Desktop for Windows ==> TightVNC
TightVNC is an open source remote desktop application. It allows you to control a graphical user session on a machine remotely through the network. Both VNC server and client runs on multiple platforms. You just need to run the server on the machine you want to access and use the TightVNC viewer to access the system remotely. Some extra features like send special key strokes, file transfers and fullscreen view are also very handy.
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Microsoft Internet Information Services ==> Apache HTTP Server
Apache HTTP Server is the most deployed and used web server on the Internet. It is always up-to-date with the latest HTTP standards – and runs on any modern operating system. Apache is secure. There are plenty of extendable modules available that make it even more lucrative choice to the MS IIS. Not to mention the packages that bundle together Apache, perl, php, Mysql, Filezilla, Mercury mail. Definitely one of my personal favorites.
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Pheew.. that’s some information. But wait I am not finished yet, keep visiting often and check back because soon we will be replacing the complete Adobe Creative Suite with open source software!

(By) Varun Kashyap – “A Tech Enthusiast, Programmer and Blogger”. Check out “Varun Kashyap’s Tech Crazy Blog” here

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‘U:\Data\User Files\Shared\Clients\VIPClient\Pensky File\Project 232\’

Wouldn’t it be easier to refer to it as: R:\ ?

This is pretty common to do with network locations under Tools -> Map Network Drive. However I didn’t know of a way to do this with local folders until recently. You can either do it via command line or use a simple program known as Visual Subst.

(1) Using “subst” command

Under Windows, there is a legacy dos command named “subst”:

C:\>subst /?
Associates a path with a drive letter.

SUBST [drive1: [drive2:]path]
SUBST drive1: /D

drive1: Specifies a virtual drive to which you want to assign a path.
[drive2:]path Specifies a physical drive and path you want to assign to
a virtual drive.
/D Deletes a substituted (virtual) drive.

Type SUBST with no parameters to display a list of current virtual drives.

C:\>

(2) Visual Subst

Fortunately there is an easier way to utilize this command than having to remember the command line every time you want to use your files. The free windows program Visual Subst will manage these drives for you.

This program will not only allow you to create these ‘Virtual Drives’ but will also set them up on reboot.

From their site, download the installer if you plan on having it apply the virtual drives on startup. That way, it will install a start menu link for you and give you ready access to all virtual drives.

For anyone who works with a long folder name constantly, you will find that this really helps out when you are dealing with anything that needs to access these folders a lot!

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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