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ViGlance & 3 Other Tweaks To Make XP Or Vista Look Like Windows 7

Justin Pot — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:31:01 +0000

Like what you’ve seen of Windows 7, but can’t afford the upgrade anytime soon? It’s been said that most of the features of Vista and Windows 7 can be replicated on XP using only freely available software. While that statement is certainly debatable, one thing is for sure: you can easily replicate some of the obvious interface changes.

Lee-soft offers a variety of free programs aiming to make Vista or XP look like windows 7, perhaps the most useful of which provides XP and Vista users with 7’s famous new taskbar. Let’s check them all out.

ViGlance: Windows-7 Style Toolbar

If you’re not familiar with with the Windows 7 toolbar, it’s actually pretty cool. Like the old Windows toolbar, it sits comfortably between the Start menu and the system tray, showing you which windows are currently open. Like the Dock in OSX, it allows you to “pin” programs, meaning the programs you use most will remain on the toolbar whether the program is open or not. Finally, hovering over any open program’s icon will show you a thumbnail of what’s happening in the program right now, as well as a list of all open windows or tabs. Some media players even allow you to control playback from this thumbnail.

Microsoft claims this new toolbar comes with a huge productivity bonus, and it’s not hard to see why: it combines the strengths of Mac’s dock with the familiarity of Window’s old taskbar. It’s also a greatly improved way to launch and switch between programs than the taskbar introduced 15 years ago with Windows 95.

Sadly, it only comes by default with Windows 7. Download ViGlance, however, and you can have it right now from within Windows Vista and XP. Well, basically, anyway.

As you can see, ViGlance gives you the most important part of the Windows 7 toolbar: one pinnable icon for each program. ViGlance willl also give thumbnails of any open window when you hover over its icon. What ViGlance will not do, so far as I can tell, is allow you to control media players.

Go ahead and download ViGlance here. You don’t need to install the program to use it – just run the program and you’ll be able to try out your new toolbar – it’s a great way to make Vista or XP look like Windows 7. If you like it you can set it to start when Windows boots automatically; otherwise you can just close it and forget it.

ViStart: Vista-style Start Menu

Of course, the Windows 7 Toolbar isn’t the only feature Windows XP users might want. The Windows Vista Start Menu is an improvement over XP’s in several ways, and is basically unaltered in Windows 7.

ViStart is Lee-soft’s answer to this.

While it doesn’t replicate the look of the Vista/7 start menu perfectly, it does replicate what for me is the most logical feature: instant search of your programs.

Let me explain a little. I’m a Windows user by necessity, but a Linux user whenever possible. One of the things I’ve always loved about using Linux is the ability to press “Alt” and “F2″ to bring up a “launch” window, where I can type the command of the program I want to run.

The Windows Vista start menu essentially gives me this in Windows. I press the Windows button, then I start typing the name of the program I want to run. As soon as I see it at the top of the list I can hit “enter” to launch it. This is a lot faster than fumbling with the mouse once you get used to it.

ViStart does this perfectly in Windows XP, and for this reason I’ve taken to using it in the last couple of days.

Check it out: download ViStart here. Like ViGlance, you don’t need to install anything to try it out, so there’s no reason not to.

ViSplore: Vista-style File Manager

This one’s the most gimmicky of all, in my opinion. You can replace the Windows Explorer file manager with one that resembles the Vista/7 file manager, complete with Aero effects. Since the rest of your system theme doesn’t match the Aero look, however, this mostly just looks out of place.

Still, it’s worth checking out if you like the look and the simplified interface. Download ViSplore here.

ViOrb: Vista-style Start Button

Finally, if the only feature from Windows Vista/7 you want in Windows XP is the slick, word-less Start-button-replacement known as the Vista Start Orb, give ViOrb a chance. While ViGlance and ViStart already replace the Start button with the Orb by default, ViOrb is perfect if you’re not interested in the Windows 7 toolbar or the Vista/7 start menu but do want to save some space on your taskbar.

Download ViOrb here.

Warning About Stacking

Though you wouldn’t expect it from such similar software all coming from one developer, these programs do not stack very well. On my computer trying to run ViStart, ViOrb and ViGlance all at once resulted in having 3 competing start buttons stacked on top of each other. My advice is to simply pick the features you find most compelling rather than run all three at once.

Conclusion

Lee-soft offers a few good programs that replicate some of the nicer features of Vista/7. While few would argue these tweaks are a wholesale replacement for an upgrade to Windows 7, they do bring some of 7’s nicer features to XP users today. If you can’t afford the expensive retail upgrade, and don’t plan on buying a new computer anytime soon, they are certainly worth checking out – if imperfect in some ways.

Looking for more ways to make XP look like Windows 7? Check out Tina’s article on that subject. Or, if you have some tips neither of these articles covered, tell us what’s what in the comments below.

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How To Make The Best Use Of God Mode In Windows Vista & 7

Tim Lenahan — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:31:21 +0000

God Mode is an interesting name for it and perhaps it should be dropped. I say this for several reasons. First of all, it’s not true to its name because it really doesn’t do anything above and beyond what Windows Vista and Windows 7 allow us to do already. Secondly, the term “God Mode”, contrary to popular thought, does not really need to be part of the process.

That being said, God Mode is a title that it has acquired and therefore it is pretty widely known as such. The God Mode hack for Windows Vista and Windows 7 is a quick and easy way to make a panel that offers quick and easy access to quite the exhaustive list of Windows settings.

In this article I would like to share how to do the god mode hack AND several ways to make better use of the shortcut once created.

Let me first mention that it has been purported that this hack can have adverse effects on a 64 bit Windows Vista system so please don’t attempt this if that is your operating system. If you are not sure if your Vista system is the 64 bit version, just check in the System Information Window which is found in the Control Panel and is called “System.”

This article will be depicting screenshots of a Windows Vista system only. Realize that this god mode hack will also work with Windows 7.

First of all, let me share with you how to do the hack creating the desired shortcut.

DISCLAIMER: Just so you know, this idea is not a new one. It has been shared with the general public already by many sources, one of which being cnet. The basic idea is to create a folder in any location on the hard drive. The trick is in the name. Most instructions you will come across will tell you to name the folder “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” without the quotes but it really doesn’t matter whether or not you use the word combination “GodMode.” The important part is the rest of it.

I named the folder on my system “Windows Settings.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” for several reasons. One, I think it describes it better and two, I think using the term “GodMode” is a somewhat flippant use for the title of God. Call it whatever you want.

Anyhow, this hack is really cool because it contains virtually all the settings for your Windows system in one place. If you’ve used Windows before, you’ll understand how incredibly helpful this is! No more hunting and trying to remember where that specific setting is located just so you can do that tiny tweak you once knew how to do. Even aside from that, the sheer amount of clicking that you are saved from makes it worth it all!

OK, now for a few tips on how to make better use of the “GodMode” hack.

1. Make It Easily Accessible At A Moment’s Notice!

You can always do the easy-peasy desktop shortcut. I, for one HATE having shortcuts all over my desktop which is why I typically keep them all hidden. My suggestion is to create a quick start link on your taskbar. I have all my important programs linked there so I hardly ever even need to visit the Start menu!

Then there’s always the infamous Rocket Dock, making Windows one more step closer to mimicking the Apple.

2. Sort Those Settings Links!

One of the first things I noticed about the list of settings was how disorganized they appeared. Well, if you look carefully, you’ll notice that you can click to sort them! You can put them in order alphabetically by name, application or keywords. To me it would seem that the application would be the most logical way to sort them, but to each his own, right?

3. Filter For The Settings You’re Looking For!

Although it is present in all file folders, the nifty little search box at the top of the window is a real time saver when you’re looking for specific settings within that exhaustive list. If you have the slightest idea of what you’re looking for, begin to type it and watch the unwanted settings drop off! Simple yet effective!

How about it? Is the God Mode hack what it’s cracked up to be? Do you have a better solution to quickly find the settings you’re looking for? Let us know!

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Speccy – An Advanced System Information Tool For Your PC

Karl L. Gechlik — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:31:44 +0000

I was just able to check out the latest beta of Speccy from the makers of CCleaner which we have covered here. Speccy gives you an awesome amount of advanced system information about your PC from a tiny portable application. I downloaded the application from here.

It is available in both a portable and an installable version. I choose the portable version as usual so I could through it on my memory stick. The 1.3MB download came in quickly and it was up and running on my machine rather quickly. I was amazed at the amount of advanced system information it showed me right on the first screen.

On the summary page for my machine which you see below, you see it shows your operating system, CPU type, model, speed and temperature along with the architecture type, your memory or RAM amount and type, your motherboard make and chipset, graphics card information, hard drives, optical drives and audio information. It will show you everything you ever needed to know about your system and then some!

You might think that you would never need this much information about your system as a casual everyday user.But you would be wrong. This information is gathered for you in an easy to get to place and could help you in repairing your machine or even creating a detailed auction advert to sell your machine. If you are still with me let’s see what it can really show us.

Click on the operating system tab for detailed information about your operating system’s build.

CPU will show you detailed, advanced system information about your CPU as you can see below:

The RAM section is very handy for seeing how many memory slots your machine has and has available. You can see each slot and what is in it as you can see below. From this information I know that I have only two slots and they are both filled with 2GB, or 2048MB as it shows here, sticks in them.

Next up is motherboard. This is a really easy to find out your motherboard’s BIOS version among other information as you can see here:

And if you ever need to know about your display driver or monitor driver you can click the display tab and see the following information:

The hard drive tab will show you everything you will ever need to know about your hard drives including SMART information about them. That can show you a drive that is heading for the graveyard months before it actually happens in some cases! You will also see partition information, manufacturer, size and interface among many other fields.

The optical drive tab shows you information about your CD and DVD drives:

And the final tab is audio which shows all audio devices on your system

This small portable application gathers all of this information into a single place and for me, who has to work on systems regularly, this is a huge help and plays a key role sometimes in diagnosing computer issues. It is part of my admin’s toolkit. Do you have a favorite portable tool that does the same thing? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

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Vista Switcher – Replace Windows’ Alt-Tab With Something Cooler

Karl L. Gechlik — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:01:33 +0000

Are you looking to spice up your system a little? Maybe you want a little something that your friends do not have? Maybe you want to impress that special someone (if they are as geeky as you are!)

Do you want to add a window switcher that will knock your socks off? Well despite it’s name, Vista Switcher makes your Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 machine switch screens, real slick-like.

The 270KB 32 bit download page is located here and wow, there is also a 64 bit download for you serious 64 bitters out there.

After downloading and running Vista Switcher, you will have a new icon in your system tray. It resembles an X in a box. The icon looks like the image to the left:

If you either hit that icon or you just push the control and tab keys together, it will launch its interface that allows you to not only select the screen you want to go to but it shows you an awesome preview of that screen. There are hot keys that we will get to a little further in if you want to leave your default alt tab functionality.

Check out the program’s interface below:

You can still see your desktop through the transparent window and it does not go away if you release the keys. You can mouse over each item and it will show you a preview. Click on it to switch to that active window.

The application smoothly switches between screens and has a bunch of options which we explore below.

On the general tab you can first off switch your default program language. If your language is not available you can click the Find more translations to do just that. You have the check boxes for Auto starting Vista Switcher, to show or not to show the icon in the system tray, do you want to replace the alt tab action with Vista Switcher and (or) replace the right mouse button plus the wheel to Vista Switcher, and you can set hot keys if you do not want to use the combinations they provide.

This screen above is all about looks, you can change themes, fade out animations, task numbers, items allowed to be shown and preview style.

Next up we have the behavior window that allows you to modify the position of the window if you hate for it to be shown dead center. You can have Vista Switcher disable when you release the mouse and you can also have it show only tasks that are active or not with the last check box.

The exclusion list allows you to exclude specific windows from the switcher. You will see what is actually running on your machine from here.

I love this application and I have installed it on my Windows XP desktop as well as my Vista laptop. Are you using an alt tab replacement? If so we would love to hear about it in the comments!

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How To Enable File Sharing On Vista Without Any Password

Jack Cola — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:01:37 +0000

If you use Windows Vista, you may notice that sharing files within your home network may be a little difficult. You get all these sorts of errors saying ‘Access Denied’ or ‘You don’t have the correct permission’ and your thinking why? How hard is it to share a simple folder?

So hopefully this tutorial will allow you to share files and folders to other computers on your network without a password. This tutorial is assuming that you do not have or use any type of user account password on your computer. Since we will not be using a password to share our files and folders, other network users will be able to access, read or modify the contents of the files you choose to share. Only do this if you trust all computers and users that have access to your network.

The first thing to do to enable this kind of file sharing on Vista is to head over to the Network and Sharing Center. To do this, go to ‘Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network and Sharing Center’ (you can simply paste this into a folder URL bar).

The first step is to customize the settings under ‘Sharing and Discover’. Under Network Discover, check ‘Turn on network discovery’ and click apply. Under File Sharing, click ‘Turn on file sharing. It is up to you if you want to have Public Folder Sharing active or deactivated.

This simply means that any files and folders in the Public account on your computer will be accessible. If you only want to share certain files with all networked users, this is simply your easiest option to choose. However, if you want to share certain folders on your computer, continue reading.

The next thing is to ensure you select ‘Turn off password protected sharing’. When I was testing this setting, when I had Password Protected Sharing on, I could not access my computer on another computer. When I had it set to Off, I could.

With the above settings set, you may already be able to access shared files on other computers. If you can’t, or you want to share individual folders, keep reading.

There is a folder on my hard drive that I want all users of my home network to be able to access. To share this folder, simply right click and choose Share.

If you do not see something similar to this, you must have ‘Use Sharing Wizard’ disabled. To enable it, type in ‘Folder Options’ in the Start Menu search bar, select view and tick Use Sharing Wizard.

Now to share files with every computer on the network without a password, you have to add Everyone to be allowed access to the folder. So what you have to do is type the word ‘Everyone’ in the text bar and click add. Click on the Permission Level and choose Co-owner, then click share. Everyone on the network should now be able to access and change files in that folder. If you only want to allow read access, simply choose ‘Reader’.

If Sharing Wizard is switched off, pretty much follow the same principles. Right click on folder you want to share, and choose Share. Then click on Advance Sharing, then click on Permission, Click on Add, type in Everyone and click OK. Then set the appropriate access controls, and click OK to all the open dialog boxes.

You should now be able to access the folders on network computers without using a password. But remember, not using a password enables all networked computers to access your files, so be careful about the files you share. If you are still having problems with file sharing on Vista, make sure you ask for help in the comments.

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How To Get Aero Shake, Aero Peek & Aero Snap Features In Vista & XP

Varun Kashyap — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:01:42 +0000

The release of Windows 7 is just a couple of days away. We have written our fair share about Windows 7 on MakeUseOf. Overall it is an upgrade/new purchase that you should definitely consider. Everything feels snappier and there are some added new features as well. Aero Peek, Aero Shake and Aero Snap for Windows 7, to mention a few of them.

If you are stuck with XP or Vista and would like to have a piece of Aero Peek and Aero Shake, no need to get disheartened. This is what I am talking about:

Users over at the WinMatrix forums (the source of many such innovations) has created an excellent software that brings such functionality to Windows XP and Vista. The application is called WinShake and is available for download here. Make sure you download the latest version (2.02 at the time of writing). Written using AutoHotKey, Winshake offers quite a functionality as you shall see:

An improved show desktop which can only hide minimizable windows, leaving the gadgets and sidebars intact, or hide everything to show the entire desktop. It also remembers the minimized programs and can restore them to their previous state even if you fire up more any more applications or windows.

A very good Aero Shak-ish feature: In Windows 7, holding a window’s title bar and shaking it a little, minimizes all other windows letting you concentrate fully on the window, that is under the mouse pointer. Winshake does something similar – hold the shift key and middle click on any window to shake it and minimize all other windows.

A Ctrl + Middle Click on the right end of the taskbar activates the peek functionality similar to Windows 7 peek functionality. While this one lacks the eye candy it certainly does let you peek at your desktop. Using Ctrl + Middle Click on the close button in the title bar of any window, makes it translucent and lets you peek through it at the window underneath.

There is a taskbar peek function as well that lets you peek at specific windows using the taskbar, but that is part of a nag and you can only use that for seven days after which you would need to buy a code to keep running this specific function. All other functions will however keep running even if you don’t shell out those bucks.

The application also offers shortcut keys for the above functions, which are easier to use as opposed to the mouse control, however you can easily disable them if you desire. Alt-Win-D shows the Desktop, Shift-Alt-Win-D restores the windows, Alt-Win-S activates Shake, Shift-Alt-Win-S restores the windows. Alt-Win-Space can be used to activate peek functionality.

If you don’t like the mouse activation commands, you can customize those too using the system tray icon. In addition to that the tray icon gives you access to other settings as well. You can customize animation speeds and transparency levels that will be used while performing various actions.

The application definitely lacks the eye candy you would get if you use similar functionality on Windows 7. That said, it does a pretty decent job of emulating the functionality and if a very good alternative if you are wanting such functionality on Windows XP or Vista.

Also check out Tina’s article on how to make Windows XP to look like Windows 7. She mentions AeroSnap among other things which brings the Windows Seven’s Aero Snap feature to Windows XP as well.

Give Winshake a spin and pour in your thoughts about it. Know some other applications that emulate Windows 7 features? We would love to hear about them as well.

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Top 5 Vista Tweaks to Increase Internet Speed

Ryan Dube — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:01:07 +0000

They say that life’s most difficult tribulations also result in the greatest insights and wisdom once you’re through it. Let’s just say that purchasing a brand new laptop with Vista installed on it was one of my greatest tribulations to date.

So I’m taking this opportunity to share the wisdom that I’ve gained from that experience so that, possibly, I can save the next poor soul the trouble and heartache that I had to suffer through.

Am I being over-dramatic? Maybe. But what you have to understand is that at the very center of my livelihood is the Internet. I earn income, learn and unwind all on the Internet. When I lose that connection to the virtual world – I’m not a happy camper.

Rewind several months to the day when I purchased a new, shiny Sony Vaio laptop. I brought it home, excitedly opened up the box and turned it on, expecting the brand new laptop with a build-in wireless ethernet card to instantly sense my home network and connect almost completely automatically. Unfortunately, it sensed nothing. Many hours later, after an unmentionable amount of coffee consumed, I finally had my new Vista laptop on the Internet and screaming.

To save MUO readers out there who find themselves in this situation countless hours of aggravation, I’d like to offer the most important lessons I learned about Vista during this ordeal. Earlier, Aseem offered applications you can install that will improve your PC performance. However, I’d like to present the top five ways you can tweak Vista itself to get your Internet connection working, and increase your overall Internet speed.

The Most Important Vista Internet Speed Tweaks – Once You Can Connect

New technology is fabulous when it works, but I was quite disgusted to learn that Microsoft implemented IPv6 on Vista and upon install it is set as the default. The silly part is that it simply doesn’t work well with devices that still utilize the IPv4 protocol – and to assume that most home networks are fully upgraded to the IPv6 protocol is a faulty approach to setting defaults.

Many people upgrade their PCs and laptops long before they consider replacing that old outdated router that’s been sitting in the basement for five years and still works perfectly. So, when they bring home that shiny new laptop with Vista installed, guess what – the laptop and the router simply refuse to talk.

So, if you’re unlucky enough to find yourself in this situation – the very first thing you should do before we can even get started speeding up the Internet, is to disable IPv6 so that you can at least get on the Internet in the first place. Here’s how it works.

First, go to Start -> Network -> Network and Sharing Center, and then click on “Manage Network Connections.”

In this screen, you’ll likely have a wireless connection displaying that it can’t connect to any network. Right-click on that icon and select “Properties.”

You’ll discover both IPv6 and IPv4 enabled. Go ahead and uncheck the box for IPv6 and click “OK.” You’ll need to reboot your computer, but afterwards if the protocol incompatibility was your problem (and it very likely was), you’ll find that your computer can now communicate fine with the router. Maybe. There is one other complication Microsoft introduced into Vista just to encourage you that much more to upgrade your router – it’s something called “autotuning,” and it’s also the next Vista tweak.

Vista Connection Tweak #2 – Autotuning

This is another case where the cutting edge technological advances being enabled on Microsoft’s operating system by default is a recipe for disaster for users who have older networks and older network devices (specifically older routers). Vista comes installed and enabled with something called “Receive Window Auto-Tuning.”

On advanced networks, it’s actually a pretty cool technology where the transfer of data is monitored and Vista automatically “tunes” the TCP window field to optimize packet transfer. Older routers simply do not “play nice” when it comes to that kind of window resizing. This spells trouble for home users who don’t know the difference between a packet of data and a packet of sugar. What was Microsoft thinking?

Luckily – there’s a way for you, the home user, to turn this default feature off as well. First, click on “Start” and type “cmd” and right-click on the command icon. You’ll see the following window.

Click on “Run as Administrator.” Then, in the command box, type “netsh interface tcp set global autotuning=disabled” which will disable autotuning.

Now that you’ve got your new Vista finally communicating with your router (hopefully), you’re ready to tweak Vista even more in order to dramatically boost the Internet speed.

Vista Tweak #3 To Increase Internet Speed – Take Back Your Bandwidth

Another unnecessary default setting that Vista (and actually XP as well) comes with is a 20% “reserve” of your available bandwidth in order to accommodate certain applications like Windows Update. This tweak is a pretty common one most old-school users of XP already know – it’s not at all detrimental and you can immediately gain 20% of your bandwidth back, increasing Internet performance significantly.

This is called the QoS Reserve Bandwidth Limit, and to reduce this on any version of Vista you need to edit the registry.

Go to Start and type “regedit“. You may have to deal with the UAC, unless you’ve read Sharninder’s advice on how to speed up your Vista by turning it off! In Regedit, navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows”

Right-click on Windows and create a new key called “Psched“, then right click on the right and create a new “DWORD” entry. Name it “NonBestEffortLimit” and set the value to zero to disable reserve bandwidth.

Vista Tweak #4 – Modify Your Browser For Optimum Speed

Believe it or not, not only is your Vista operating system not configured by default to blaze the Internet as fast as possible, but neither is your Internet browser! These instructions include how to increase your browsing speed on Firefox and IE.

First, in Firefox type, “about:config” into the address bar (and ignore any warnings). In the filter field, type “network” and scroll down to “network.http.pipelining” and set it to TRUE, and set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” from 4 to anything from 8 to 12.

I use Firefox almost exclusively, and this one change increased my page-load time by what felt like a factor of 50%. Of course, there’s a similar tweak for Internet Explorer as well, but you have to edit the registry. As before, go to Start and type “regedit.”

Navigate to “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Internet Settings” and find “MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server” and “MaxConnectionsPerServer.” Set these to at least 10, or a little higher if you would like. You should also see an increase in performance for IE after making this change as well.

Vista Tweak #5 – Increase DNS Cache

This tweak is one that anyone should do anyway, as it can significantly save time while surfing the web, especially if you tend to visit the same sites often. What the DNS cache does is store information retrieved from the nameservers (IP information) so that the next time you visit the same site, your browser doesn’t have to waste time retrieving the same information from the DNS servers.

You can optimize this by increasing the size of your DNS cache. This is another registry edit – so go back in there (Start and type “regedit“) and navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters” and then right click on the white space at the right and add four DWORD values: CacheHashTableBucketSize, CacheHashTableSize, MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit and MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit.

After checking a list of sites for the optimum setting for these values, the consensus seems to be decimal settings of CacheHashTableBucketSize to 1, CacheHashTableSize to 384, MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit to 64000 and MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit to 301.Of course, instead of using those old DNS servers, why not use OpenDNS? When you’re done making all of the changes above, restart your computer and when it boots back up you’ll find yourself with a Vista PC that screams on the Internet.

Did these Vista tweaks increase your Internet speed? Do you know any other cool tweaks for Vista that work even better? Share your insight in the comments section below.

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2 Windows Vista Gadgets to Login to Facebook from a Sidebar

Ryan Dube — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:01:56 +0000

Less than a year ago, I started using Facebook out of pure curiosity. I logged in and added a few old friends from high school. As I’m sure many readers out there can relate, two or three friends turned into almost fifty practically overnight. I was fascinated by the fact that I could catch up with friends that I’d lost touch with for over fifteen years.

It became very clear to me that Facebook was not your high school teenage fad. I found folks from my old home town – some of them well into retirement age – happily posting status updates about their daily activities, struggles, joys and thoughts. This, I thought to myself (and still do), is something that’s going to have major social ramifications. I’m not really sure what they are going to be, but the proliferation of Facebook throughout the world and throughout most industries completely fascinates me.

However, there is this one little thing that absolutely annoyed me about Facebook. You have to go to the site, do the Facebook login, and keep it open in order to receive status updates, notices or alerts about what’s going on. Sure, you could configure your profile to send notifications to your email address, but then you have to constantly check your email – and who wants an email box completely spammed by Facebook notifications? So, after buying a new PC with Windows Vista installed – complete with neat desktop sidebar applications – I started looking for a way to do the Facebook login automatically and receive instant status updates directly to my desktop, without having to log into Facebook all the time.

During that search, I discovered two perfect free Facebook login tools – the Facebook Sidebar Gadget, and MyFacebook. Just to save you some time – I opted for MyFacebook because it offered more interactive features. If you’d rather go for that, scroll down to the MyFacebook section. However, I also wanted to review the Facebook Gadget as well – and since that’s the one I tried first, I’ve reviewed it first.

Automatic Facebook Login With The Sidebar Gadget

For widgets and applications that automatically connect to your Facebook account, you need to acquire and configure a special number that gives that application “permission” to check your Facebook account for you. When you download the gadget and click on the file to install it, it’ll place the gadget on your sidebar as shown here.

When you click on “Login” the app automatically opens to your Facebook page, where you’ll need to do the regular Facebook login if you haven’t already. There, you’ll see this window.

Just click “Get login code for” and on the next screen click “Generate” and you’ll finally receive the magical “one-time” code to provide your gadget so that it can automatically do your Facebook login for you automatically.

Copy the code, and then go back to your desktop sidebar and click on the little “wrench” icon to the right of it. When you do that, the window will pop-up for you to enter your super-secret Facebook code.

Enter in the code, and now you’ll never have to do another manual Facebook login in your life.

The gadget displays your profile picture as well as your current status, and small icons and associated values next to them for how many pokes, events, friend requests, inbox messages, notifications, invitations, and group requests! This is all fine and dandy, but I have one problem with the gadget. You don’t actually receive any realtime information from Facebook, it only provides you with the number of each item, and when you click on the little icon, it opens up a browser and takes you to that specific Facebook page. This is cool – but what if you just want to keep an eye on what your friends are up to without having to open up your browser?

In order to accomplish this task, I went back to Windows Live Gallery and downloaded the other Facebook sidebar gadget called MyFacebook.

Automatic Facebook Login With MyFacebook

When you download and install this sidebar gadget, the first thing you’ll see is the same request for the Facebook code. You’ll need to obtain the code the same way as described above.

Just click on the link and go through the same steps – click “Get Login Code” and then “Generate.” Copy the code and then go back to the gadget and click on the “wrench” icon. You’ll notice that in this case, the form looks just a bit different.

These additional fields are required because this particular gadget has more functionality than the one above. It will automatically provide you with your friends’ latest status updates and picture gallery photos (if you want). I’m not really interested in the albums, but I do want the friend updates. If you only want your “notifications,” but not specific content from your friends’ walls, you need to find the notification feed. Not sure where to find it? Just click on the link above where it says “you can get the feed url from here.” You’ll be taken to a notifications page. Scroll down and on the right you’ll see “Your Notifications” – click on it.

This will take you to the actual RSS feed page for all of your notifications. All you have to do is copy the URL and paste it into the form on your sidebar gadget.

Now, getting your friend feed is much easier. In the sidebar gadget, just click on “click this link to enable Friends feed,” and then click “Allow Access” on the Facebook page that comes up – it doesn’t get much simpler than that.

The setup is similar to the previous gadget, except now that you have a real-time scrolling update of your friends’ status, the app feels much more interactive and always connected. Now, you can instantly update your own status, or you can just glance to the right and read the status updates of the latest few friends – and you don’t have to set foot inside any browser to do it!

Again – the links to these two apps are MyFacebook (my favorite), or Facebook Sidebar Gadget if that’s what you prefer.

Did you find either of these sidebar gadgets useful? Do you know of any other great social networking Vista sidebar gadgets? Share your insight in the comments section below.

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The Ultimate ‘Upgrade To Windows 7′ Guide

Jim Henderson — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:00:48 +0000

You can install Windows 7 on a virtual machine like what Guy did (Parts 1 & 2) and that’s a very valid and safe option. However, the odds are that eventually, you’ll need to install it on an actual computer if you want to use it on a daily basis. I did. Take advantage of that to make your own installation simpler and faster. I’ll show you what and what not to do.

A word of warning: Windows 7 is not free. It’s not even close. But this is the Release Candidate we’re talking about. Windows 7 RC may be used for free until June 1, 2010. Just keep in mind that at some stage you’re likely to have to go through this again, either to install a final copy of Windows 7 (after you purchase it) or to downgrade back to Vista or XP.

Editor’s note: Windows 7 RC will operate normally until March 1, 2010 then it will shut down every 2 hours.

Once more, this is a Release Candidate. A piece of beta software. It’s good and seems stable. It’s not necessarily ready for your use. There may be things that don’t work for you. Don’t go doing this if you are unprepared to accept that fact.

Before we start

Varun has done the hard yards to determine if your machine can actually run Windows 7. Check that out first. This is not for you if your computer cannot support the latest and greatest from Microsoft.

Decide whether you plan to upgrade your existing system (if you are running Vista already) or will be starting from scratch. Microsoft’s recommendations used to be to always start again, but this time around they seem a little more mellow. Nonetheless, I chose to lose all my settings and installation, and start clean on an empty hard disk.

Backups, backups

Make sure that you have backups of all your important stuff. Okay, that’s hardly a new recommendation but definitely worth remembering. If you are blowing away an existing Windows installation, a number of things go with it. Most of your data is hopefully on another drive but I have a few hints for some apps you might be using. Think it through. Here are some examples.

Firefox bookmarks need to be exported, and the resulting file put somewhere safe. Any add-ins will need to be reinstalled. Take a note of the ones you have. Here’s how to backup your Firefox preferences.
Trillian. Copy Program filesTrillian and everything underneath it.
iTunes. Careful here. Use the Apple instructions or many of the other how-tos on the web to ensure you have a valid copy of your music and the database files. Remember to deauthorise your machine if necessary for iTunes Store purchases. Jackson wrote a short manual on how to migrate iTunes from Windows to Mac, but that article can also be used in terms of backing up your iTunes library.
Office configuration. This is easy for Office 2003 but the Office 2007 tool (Windows Easy Transfer) never seems to work for me. Take notes so you can reinstate files. Make sure any .pst files are somewhere safe.
Digsby. This one is easy. Nothing to do. Reinstall and set up. Log in, and everything reappears. Careful with the install though. Digsby has a habit of installing things you don’t want if you don’t watch closely.
Logins. It’s easy to forget your logins if you’ve set up applications or websites to remember them on your behalf. Make sure you have backed them up before you wave goodbye. We have had several great articles about password managers: KeePass, LockCrypt and MashedLife.

If you have multiple partitions or hard drives, make sure you take note of the drive mappings so that you can recreate them later. Some of those configs you saved will benefit. Don’t leave your notes on the computer, especially not in the C: drive. Yes, of course I’ve done that myself. But not lately. Write them down on good old paper.

Take note of your hardware specifics, especially if you are running a machine with parts from multiple suppliers. Video cards, CPUs, network cards, monitors, printers, wireless mice and keyboards. You can also backup each driver (restoration might not work in Windows 7).

Commitment

So you have backups, details, configs and exports. It’s time to cross the line and make something happen.

You can get hold of a copy of Windows 7 RC here. Remember to get a key for the product. You’re going to need that to activate it.

Download Windows, and burn the .iso to a DVD.

Time for some more decisions. If you intend on performing an upgrade from Vista, then insert the DVD while Windows Vista is running. The rest of these instructions assume a fresh install instead. Therefore, shut down Windows XP or Vista, checking once more that you have everything you need.

Boot from the DVD. Most machines will display a message during boot up indicating which keys to press to change the boot device. The PC will display a ‘Press any key to boot from DVD…’ message. Best to follow that advice. Welcome aboard.

Choose an appropriate language and location.

Accept the terms. Choose the Custom install.

Carefully, choose the partition you wish to install to. Normally that’s the one that just had Vista or XP on it, and is marked System. To keep this as clean as possible, choose Advanced and delete the existing partition. Needless to say, you are now committed to the cause.

Create a new partition in the empty space. Note that Windows 7 may create an additional system partition as well.

Let the installer do what it’s paid for. Files will be copied, expanded and installed. Restarts will happen. Just go along for the ride.

Choose a user name and password.

Remember that product key I reminded you to pick up? Now, is its moment of fame. Best to choose Automatically Activate.

Choose your poison with regard to updates. I just left it on Recommended.

Set your Timezone, and your Location. I sincerely hope most of you are doing this at home, rather than in the office. Let everything finish and reboot some more if necessary.

Well done! Welcome to the newest game in town!

Have a wander around, and play with things. I’ll be back soon with a follow-up post.

So tell me, how did it go? Where did you get to? What did you forget? Tell me in the comments.

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Tweak Windows XP/Vista/7 to Your Taste with XdN Tweaker

Varun Kashyap — Sat, 02 May 2009 13:30:53 +0000

Windows 7 has been out there in the wild for some time now. Its been there and its better than Vista. However the geeks that we are, we always want more and can’t just get enough of tweaking! Making tweaking Windows 7 easier is “XdN Tweaker”.

XdN Tweaker has been around for some time and we have used it to tweak Windows XP, Vista and now it supports Windows 7. XdN Tweaker provides you with a number of tweaks to get the system working the way you want it to. It provides options to tweak UAC, file and folders views and settings, some user interface tweaks and much more.

You just need to download and install XdN Tweaker or if you prefer you can download the portable version and run it as it is without having to install. This is what you would see when you fire it up:

One of the XdN features that I loved with Vista was the ability to modify UAC prompts, this of course is not a problem with Windows 7 as there is a UAC control is built into Windows 7, so you can simply launch it and adjust the settings according to you needs.

Then there are tweaks for the right click menu. We have shown you various tools in the past that you can use to customize your right click context menu. If you are looking for something quick and simple you will find some pretty handy tweaks XdN Tweaker has to offer. You can quickly disable the Send To menu, add copy to and move to to right click menu.

Another great feature that XdN provides is the ability to remove program associations for a particular file extension. Let’s say you installed iTunes and set it to handle mp3 files but don’t want to launch it everytime you play one, change the association here. Although Windows has provided ways to do this from quite some time now but none of them are as intuitive and straightforward as using XdN Tweaker to get the job done.

There are some Windows 7 specific tweaks like changing the delay for aero peek and to disable the windows arrangement features new and unique to Windows 7 (although I must admit I like them).

There are other nifty options like adding a “Take Ownership” entry to right click menu for files and folders to manipulate files you dont have permission to perform operations on, make folder views persist, tweak the IE interface, enable disable hibernation with a single click, change Windows performance settings, getting info and so on.

No doubt all this can be achieved via registry editing but XdN Tweaker makes the task easier. Do you know some other tools for similar purposes? Do you like to use programs like these or do you prefer getting down and dirty with the registry?

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How To Move My Documents Folder To A Different Drive

Saikat Basu — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:00:17 +0000

Does ‘My Documents’ sound like a contradiction in terms? In Vista, we impersonally call it Documents but do we really pay attention to this folder which is one of the most important ones in our system? Of course, it is not the only folder we have. But it usually is the default one called by the system when it needs to save something. And here lies its value as a time saver or its Achilles Heel – it depends on the way we manage it.

My Documents is the common folder which by default stores all our personal data i.e. our document files, music, movies, downloads and photos. Within it has the My Music, My Videos and a My Pictures folder to stash a particular file type. So it pays to deal with it like an important filing cabinet and not as a junk drawer.

Over time this folder becomes the ‘Big Daddy’ of all folders. Our personal data storehouse thus needs to be handled well and safeguarded from a digital disaster. It can be done by simply moving it to a safer backup location. In this article we are going to show you how to move the My Documents to a different drive.

There are two serious reasons to do this with immediate effect.

Imagine that all your precious documents, photos and sundry other files are organized beautifully in this folder on the system partition (commonly the C Drive). Imagine a system crash. Imagine the loss of never able to recover that data. And now imagine a simple step which could have saved the day.
The usual good word is to partition your hard disk into multiples with a minimum size kept for the system drive. With time My Documents will fatten up as more data is stashed away in it. Moving the folder to a different drive saves space and more importantly safeguards it.

How To Move My Documents Folder in Windows XP

Right click on the My Documents icon on the desktop.

Click on Move and choose your chosen location for the folder. Move it to a different partition. For instance, I have it on my D Drive.

Click Apply and then Ok. A prompt will ask whether you want to move all of the current documents to the new location or not. Choose Yes. All your documents are switched to the new location and it’s all like before except now they are safer from a system crash.

These are the elementary steps which will save you a ton of bother at a future date.

How To Move My Documents Folder in Vista

There is a slight change in Vista as the My Documents has given way to a Documents folder. The default location for this folder is C:\Users\[username]\Documents where [username] is your Windows Vista username and C Drive is the default installation drive. Vista creates Documents folder for each User profile on the computer and stores it in the appropriate profile folder. The process to change the location is relatively same,

Click on the Start button.
Right-click on Document. For multiple users click your account name in the right-hand menu. Select Properties.

In the Properties dialog select the Location tab.

Next, click on Move. In the Destination dialog select the new location for your Documents folder. Click on Select Folder to return to the Properties dialog. The new location appears in the text box.

Click on Ok. Vista prompts you to confirm again and with a Yes click your task is done as the documents get shifted over to the new location.

The brief tutorial might be simplicity itself and experienced users might even scoff at it. But I have seen many neglect this fundamental step of data backup. And isn’t it true that the small things we take for granted are sometimes taken away from us. With few uncomplicated steps, at least it won’t be the documents in our My Documents folder.

Have there been times when you have found movinf My Document folder to a different drive a lifesaver? Or have overlooked it to your loss?

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How To Roll Back Windows Hot Fixes & Patches

Sharninder — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 22:01:11 +0000

Microsoft, like all other software companies, releases patches and hot fixes for its Windows operating system quite frequently.

Installing the latest patch or Hot fix is highly recommended if you want to keep your installation in tip-top shape.

These patches are mostly harmless but there are times when your current configuration, hardware or software might not be compatible with a particular patch and you find that out only when your system starts misbehaving after you’ve applied the patch.

The new patch might not be compatible with your current hardware. An ancient software that you still use and love might stop working with the new patch. In times like these, one really wishes that Microsoft had a built in patch rollback mechanism. Are you one of those wishing for such a feature ?

Well, the good news is that Microsoft already has mechanisms to roll back patches. The bad news is that the roll back procedure is just not that obvious.

Roll back a patch on Windows XP

If you’re using Windows XP, browse to the Windows install directory, typically c:\WINDOWS and enable the hidden files view using the Tools -> Folder Options menu option.

You should now be able to see a bunch of hidden folders under the main c:\WINDOWS folder. All the folders which have names of the form of $NTServicePackxxxx, $NTUninstallxxxx and $NTUninstallKBxxxx are folders corresponding to the different patches that you’ve installed.

The folders with KB in their name followed by a 5 or 6 digit number are hot fixes which Microsoft has released in response to a bug and the number denotes the corresponding Microsoft knowledge base article associated with that hot fix.

Now, to uninstall a particular patch, go inside the folder corresponding to that patch. You will see another folder named spuninst. Inside this folder will be a Windows setup executable of the same name.

This is the Uninstaller program for the particular patch that you’re browsing right now. Just run the program and the patch will be rolled back and your system will be as pristine as it was before you applied the patch.

Roll back a patch on Windows Vista

I am using Windows Vista on my primary work machine these days and on this machine, I couldn’t find the $NTUninstall folders but I found another way to roll back patches on Vista – System Restore.

Windows Vista, by default, takes a snapshot of a system before applying any patches using a feature called System Restore.

To roll back a patch using System Restore, click on the Start menu and start System Restore using the All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools menu item.

System Restore is a wizard based utility which lets you chose the restore point and brings the system back to the chosen state.

If you want to restore your system to a point earlier than the recommended restore point, then select the second radio button and you will be able to see a list of the restore points Vista has available for you to roll back to.

This is definitely the easiest method to roll back a wayward patch or hotfix.

Have you guys ever had to roll back a patch ? How did you do it ? Let us know in the comments.

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3 Ways To Remove The Windows Vista Taskbar

Cody — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:01:08 +0000

The Windows task bar is in itself a minimalist solution to the problem of a usable GUI OS. However it is not everyone’s favorite way, and it shouldn’t have to be. In Vista they have made it real tricky to remove the Windows taskbar all together.

So here I will cover three ways to get rid of the taskbar, allowing you to move on to what you please.

1. Auto hide the taskbar

If you are looking for maximum screen usability, then this is the way to go. The taskbar is still completely usable by moving your mouse to the bottom of the screen for a moment.

To do this right-click on an empty part of the taskbar and click on “properties”. A new window will appear and there will be a check list. Check off “Auto-hide the taskbar” (unchecked to remove this feature).

2. Object Dock

If you are looking for a replacement, the free version of this program can just simply hide the taskbar while also providing you with a shortcut system. The Pro version actually gives you the option to use it in replacement of the taskbar.

Download and install Object Dock. Right click on an empty spot in your new dock. Select dock settings and check “Hide the Windows Taskbar”. This eliminates it all together unlike the auto hide feature.

3. Taskbar Magic

Of course if your ultimate goal is something totally different, then how do you just get rid of the darn thing? Well unfortunately I have not come across any registry hack or something of the like (maybe you know of a registry hack?).

So the best option I have found is Taskbar Magic. Much more useful than just hiding your taskbar, it allows you to allocate the space saved for the taskbar for something else if you want.

Download and unzip it to the directory of your choice (most likely out of the way). Follow the directions for option number one I wrote about. Open up “taskbar magic.exe” and boom it will be gone. If you wish to allocate space for your task bar replacement if you have one, press CTRL + ALT + ESC. That gives you the option to chose what side of the screen you want to allocate and you can change the amount by pixels

There you have it, the three best ways I have found to remove Vista taskbar. All of them but the built in one require a program running in the background. Do you know of any better ones? Perhaps a registry hack? Let us know in the comments.

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TaggedFrog – Cool File Tagging App for Windows

T.J. Mininday — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:01:03 +0000

The adoption of tags on the internet has almost become a prerequisite on any blog, website or social networking site. The ability to simply add a keyword to anything allows for much better organization and easier searching when something needs to be referenced in the future.

Most often they are used on blogs but they are also used in various ways on social networking sites such as Delicious, news sites like Newsvine or even online stores like Amazon. Any site that generates regular or changing content will usually have some sort of tag system in place. So why just the web? Why can’t we have it on our PCs as well?

TaggedFrog is a simple and free file tagging app for Windows XP or Vista that allows for the easy addition of files to be tagged with as many descriptive keywords (tags) as you can possibly think of. You can then visualize them in a cloud display which looks very similar to your everyday cloud display you see on many websites today.

You first begin tagging the files by adding and managing the keywords you’d like to create for your files.

An easy drag and drop interface allows for the easy addition of any type of file, document or web link from your computer. Once they are added, you can simply add any of your created tags to that file.

So now, instead of renaming and changing files as they are created, you can quickly and easily add tags to them. This allows for easy filtering and searching of your hundreds of thousands of files.

Along with the tag cloud, you can also set up “favorites” for locating some of the more popular files and tags. If you’d prefer not to go through and tag all of your files manually, you can also set up options to go through your entire hard drive with the nice “Auto Scan and Tag” feature.

The simple and clean interface, and fast search capability of tags, makes TaggedFrog a great alternative to the Windows Vista launch bar, and MUCH better search alternative than on Windows XP. Adding tags in Vista can be very tedious and having a separate application to keep them organized can become very handy when files begin to pile up on your PC.

There are plenty of other search alternatives (Windows Desktop Search, Google Desktop, etc…) than a tagging application like this. But if you simply want better organization of files, instead of creating hundreds of directories, and you don’t want to bog down your computer with search indexing, then TaggedFrog is likely the right application for you.

What do you think of tagging files instead of simply searching? Are there any other file tagging applications for Windows that you use?

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Create & Resize Windows Partitions with Free PartitionManager

Karl L. Gechlik — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:01:30 +0000

I am an old school network admin and when I first found out I could re-size active hard drive partitions without losing my data back in the late 90’s on a Windows NT machine – I was ecstatic.

Yes I am so old school I remember when it was called The Partition Magician and it was owned by PowerQuest and NOT Symantec who acquired them in 2003.

But any which way PartitionMagic does a great job at pretty much anything Partition related.

Long story short – PartitionMagic, even though it is not still being developed or improved, will cost you around $50 for a legitimate copy.

Yes people do pay for software when they have no other options – but, today I found a little known application (little known to me at least!) called EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 Home Edition. The free alternative to PartitionMagic will do all the good stuff PartitionMagic did for me, so what’s the catch? It is only free FOR HOME USERS and 32 Bit Operating Systems. Fair enough. Let’s take her for a test drive.

I have a NTFS IDE hard drive sitting on my desk with some old data on it. I believe it is a 80GB drive. Let’s see how hard it will be to split that into two drives without putting the kibosh on my data.

I started by downloading the installer file from Download.com here. It is a 7.9MB zip file. The zip file has one exe file in it that is slightly larger. I ran it, plugged my hard drive into an IDE-USB enclosure for the test and got down to business…

I chose the partition I want to resize and I right-clicked on it. It gave me this context menu.

I chose Resize and I got the screen below. I have not had issues with resizing or moving partitions back in the day but you SHOULD ALWAYS BACKUP before starting any operation that messes with your file structure. So if you haven’t backed up yet… Do it now!

On the next screen you tell the partition resizer how much space you want after you are complete. Then you simply click OK and let it rock and roll.

Now as you can see by the new notification in the lower left hand corner, it says there is one operation pending. Now you need to click ‘apply’ to start it off.

Then another confirmation box will pop up asking you if you are ready to do this now…

Then for most of the resizing/moving partition options Windows will need to reboot to finish its process. Make sure you don’t have any open files and you are ready to continue.

That is it and you are on your way to having another partition created without erasing your disk or dropping some serious duckets.

When your machine comes back up you are golden! Do you have another FREE partition magic-like program you use? If so share it with us….in the comments boys and girls!

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3 Amazing Windows Vista Themes for XP

Tim Watson — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:01:13 +0000

I’m going to be honest with you. I’ve only played around with Windows Vista a tiny bit, but we can all agree that it’s pretty. Until I can upgrade to a new PC, I’ll have to settle with the eye-candy of unofficial, third-party, Windows Vista themes for XP.

All of these Vista themes are free, and can be loaded onto your system once you have installed the Ux Theme Multi-Patcher. Please note that if you have upgraded XP to Service Pack 3, you must use the Patcher program linked here instead.

Installation instructions are included in each theme’s archive file. ZIP archives can be opened by Windows directly, RAR archives can be opened by 7-Zip which is also free. I’ve looked at lots of themes, and I’m sure that these are the best of the best.

Vista Live Pack

I’m a fan of blue themes, and the Vista Live Pack fits in well alongside any Windows Live software. It’s bright without being childish, and comes with a simple but elegant gradient wallpaper.

Razor Vista

I like blue, but I love dark themes. They’re hard to pull off well, but the latest version of Razor Vista looks very slick. I like how the corner buttons are just slightly separated.

Vista Inspirat 2

From the glossy black finish on the compact Taskbar, to the Explorer “Tasks” panel which has been turned horizontal, to the multiple Start Menu options, to the crystal-white glass finish on the windows, I am in love with this theme. It’s the best and most Vista-like I’ve seen yet.

Honorable Mentions: VistaVG Blue Refresh, Royale Vista Hybrid, Windows 7, DZVista and its variants.

Now that you’ve installed Windows Vista theme for XP, you may be intrigued by five more tools to make XP look and behave like Vista. If I’ve missed any gems, please let us know in the comments.

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How To Allow Multiple Remote Desktop Connections on Vista

Jorge Sierra — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:01:27 +0000

Vista’s Remote Desktop Connection feature allows you to connect to your computer remotely as if you were sitting right in front of it. By default, only one user can connect at a time. Remote Desktop connections are not allowed at all in the Home versions of Vista.

There is a hack available to allow allow multiple remote desktop connections on Vista machine, and it will also enable Remote Desktop Connections in Vista Home Premium.

Disclaimer: Use this hack at your own risk. Modifying Windows system files can cause unexpected results. You should only try this hack if you know what you are doing or if you are willing to break your configuration. If you mess up your Windows configuration, MakeUseOf will not accept any legal liability whatsoever. It is highly recommended that you backup your files before proceeding.

The hack involves replacing the default Remote Desktop Connection program (termsrv.dll) with a hacked one. First, you need to download the hacked file here. Extract the contents of the file somewhere on your PC. There are several batch files (.bat) that will install it, depending on which version of Vista you are running: Business.bat, premium.bat, or Ultimate.bat.

Run the correct batch file, according to what version of Vista you have. You can try using the premium.bat version on Home Basic, but I haven’t verified that it works on basic. Once again, use at your own risk! If you have any problems running the batch file, boot into safe mode to run it.

Firewall Configuration for Vista Home Premium

Although the batch file is supposed to configure the firewall if you are installing it on Home Premium, it does not work properly. Here is how to configure your firewall to allow Remote Desktop connections:

Open the Control Panel
If you are in the regular control panel view, click on Allow a program through Windows Firewall under the Security section

If you are in classic view, click on Windows Firewall and then click on Allow a program through Windows Firewall

Click the Add Port button

For the new port enter Remote Desktop Connection for the Name and 3389 for the Port number and click OK
Click OK again to save the firewall settings.

You should now be all set to run Remote Desktop with concurrent connections. If you are already using Remote Desktop Connections with Business or Ultimate, then you are probably familiar with using the Remote Desktop client.

Using the Remote Desktop Client

If you’re not familiar with Remote Desktop or you are on one of the Home editions and you’ve never used Remote Desktop before:

Start up Windows on another computer.
Navigate to Start > Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection

Enter the name of the Vista computer and then click Connect.
Enter your login credentials when prompted for the username and password of the Vista computer.
You should now be remotely logged into your computer!

If you have any problems getting this to work, there are instructions available on how to install remote desktop concurrent sessions manually. It is also possible to set up concurrent Remote Desktop connections on Windows XP. The process is very much the same for XP, in that you should download a patched termsrv.dll and install it to the system.

Although we do not endorse modification of Windows system files, if you come across any issues installing this hack, let us know and we will do what we can to help. Are you aware of any other ways to allow multiple remote desktop connections? Let us know in comments.

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3 Ways to Reset Forgotten Windows Administrator Password

T.J. Mininday — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:01:56 +0000

Passwords, passwords, passwords….something we are going to have deal with as one of our common annoyances for some time to come. Their necessary evil provides another layer of protection for your bank, your online shopping, your tax software and of course the entire operating system. We have so many passwords these days, that we have websites and password managers like LockCrypt and Clipperz, dedicated solely at helping you manage your passwords.

Even with the ability to store and retrieve your security, it does no good if the operating system is inaccessible. Ignoring your PC for a few years, removing a computer from a domain, or simply needing administrative rights on a PC are just a few reasons that the admin password may need to be reset. With Microsoft’s improved security over the last few years, it became more difficult to resent Windows administrator password. However, there are still several ways to get around it and I am bringing you three of the easiest ways to reset forgotten windows password for XP, Vista and Server 2003.

1. Reset Windows Admin Password with Ubuntu

Ubuntu has become, far and away, the most popular distribution of Linux in the world. Its ease of installation and use makes it the ‘go to’ operating system for an open source alternative. In this case you don’t even have to install the OS. You simply use the Live CD that is included with the burned ISO of Ubuntu.

Here are the instructions for resetting the Windows administrator password using Ubuntu Linux.

(Internet Connection Required)

1. Go to Ubuntu and download the latest ISO of the operating system.

2. Use one of the free ISO burning applications to create a bootable Ubuntu CD. Of course you’ll need another PC in order to do this.

3. Use the Live Ubuntu CD to boot into the live version of the OS.

4. Go to System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager.

5. Then Settings>Repositories

6. Once the ‘Software Sources’ window appears, make sure you select ‘Software restricted by copyright or legal issues’, then click close.

7. Click reload on synaptic package manager.

8. Click Search, and type in ‘chntpw’.

9. Once the ‘chntpw’ app is found, right-click on it and ‘mark for installation’.

10. Click “Apply on Summary Window” and also to confirm changes.

**Remember an internet connection is required for the above steps. If there is no availability for a connection, a USB flash drive will be required.**

12. Next, we must mount the Windows drive. In Ubuntu, go to Places> Select the appropriate drive.

13. The final step of the process is actually resetting the password via the Linux terminal.

14. In Ubuntu go to Applications>Accessories>Terminal.

15. Type ‘cd /media/disk/WINDOWS/system32/config/’ in the terminal window.

16. Type ’sudo chntpw SAM’

17. This by default will change the Administrator password. If you would prefer to change a particular user. Type ’sudo chntpw -u username SAM’.

18. Afterwards, you’ll see a long display of information, most of which can be ignored.

19. The next step is to actually reset the windows password. It is recommended to make the password blank with an asterisk * .

20. You’ll then have to confirm the change with a Y, and reboot.

2. With Barts PreInstalled Environment

Bart’s PreInstalled Environment has been a popular method on offline troubleshooting for Windows System Administrators for some time now whether it be for disk recovery, malware removal or in this instance, password removal. It’s a bootable operating system, just like the Ubuntu Live CD, but with more of a Windows-like feel.

Below are the instructions for using a small EXE file called Password Renew within the PE environment.

(XP CD Required – If your Windows drive is SATA, you may need to follow additional instructions on the PEBuilder site)

1. Go Bart’s website and download the ISO for the PreInstalled Environment.

2. Download Password Renew.

3. Open PEBuilder and for the Windows directory, select the location of the i386 directory on your XP disk. Under the custom directory, select the directory that holds the PasswordRenew.exe file. Select a title for your CD and finally create a name for your ISO file. I’d recommend creating an ISO over burning directly to the CD, because of problems that may arise.

4. Browse to the A43 File Management Utility.

5. Once there, you should browse your CD drive and find your custom directory created in step three.

6. Open Password Renew.

7. This program is very straight forward. Simply press ‘Select Target’ and browse to your Windows directory.

8. Once there, you can will see options to reset a password, create a new administrator or convert a current user to an administrator.

9. You will then have the option to install there after.

10. Reboot, and changes will be applied.

3. With Offline NT Password Disk (Google Cache)

Offline NT Password Disk is a very simple and very fast command line Linux tool to reset your forgotten Windows administrator password. At the time of this writing the site was down, hence the Google Cache link.

1. Download the bootable CD image.

2. Burn the ISO to a CD with one of the ISO burning applications, as we stated before.

3. Boot up your PC with the bootable CD.

4. Drivers for both SATA and IDE drivers typically load automatically.

5. Select the location of your Windows Operating System.

6. Select windows/system32/config as your directory.

7. Select “Password Reset” as your option.

8. I would recommend to reset as a ‘blank password’. This works best.

9. Once blanked, press ‘q’ to quit and write the values to the registry.

As you can see, the dread of forgetting your Windows administrator password can typically be put behind you. These are just a few of the options to reset that hard to remember nemesis, but they are a few of the simplest.

Give us some of your best options for resetting your Windows passwords.

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Restore Deleted Files Easily With Recuva

Mark O'Neill — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 22:48:19 +0000

We’ve talked about file recovery tools on MakeUseOf before, including one that I discussed last September in How To securely Retrieve and Delete PC files. But several friends have constantly urged me to try out Recuva, which is made and supported by the same people who created CCleaner (another favourite app of mine and MakeUseOf).

The interface of Recuva is similar to CCleaner, it is simple to use (even a computer moron could use it) and after testing it, it seems to be very effective in restoring deleted files. So I figured it deserved its own write-up on MakeUseOf.

So let’s get the short product description first of all from the Recuva homepage:

Recuva (pronounced “recover”) is a freeware Windows utility to restore files that have been accidentally deleted from your computer. This includes files emptied from the Recycle bin as well as images and other files that have been deleted by user error from digital camera memory cards or MP3 players. It will even bring back files that have been deleted by bugs, crashes and viruses!

But as with any deleted file that you want to bring back, the older it is, the harder it will be to bring back. Plus if you are able to bring it back, the older it is, the more corrupted the file will be. So if you want to bring a deleted file back, you need to do it as fast as possible. The more you delay, the less chance there is of recovering it.

After using Recuva for a couple of days, I have ended up being very impressed with it. It is very fast with finding recoverable files and when you click on what you want brought back, it restores the file and sends it back to your hard drive within seconds.

So here’s how the program works.

1. After opening the program, select the drive where the file was deleted then click the “scan” button.

2. Recuva then starts sweeping the specified hard drive looking for files that are able to be restored.

3. You then get a list of all the files that Recuva was able to find. As you can see, some of the files are unidentifiable with just scrambled file names but a lot of other files have their original names intact (more on that later). What I really liked about Recuva is that it has a colour-coded system where you can see right away the status of each file and whether or not it is in any condition to be downloaded successfully or not.

Red means the file is basically screwed and you can forget it. Yellow means the file is in very bad condition but you can still download it and take your chances with it – some of it might be salvageable. Green means that the file is in excellent condition and you can get it back no problem.

4. If there are too many files returned to manage or you are looking for a particular file, you can filter the files. Just specify a file type or a file name in the “filename or path” field or drop down the menu to specify a file type. So for example, by typing in “googleupdate”, I was able to find three particular files.

5. Now say I want to want to recover those 3 files? I just need to tick them and click the “recover” button. Recuva will ask me to specify where on the computer they should go and when I have told it, the files will start downloading. In fact, they are put back on the computer so fast that I didn’t even have time to make a screenshot!

That’s basically all there is to it. Just remember to untick those files in Recuva before you close the program because Recuva remembers those files next time and will keep on downloading them over and over again! So untick them once you have recovered them and you’ll be fine.

Do you use Recuva? If so, what have been your experiences with it? What percentage of files have you managed to recover using this app? Is there any particular file format in your opinion that recovers better than all the others?

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

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Enhance Vista’s Start Menu Search with Start++

MoiN — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:01:32 +0000

To those who want to give their Vista Start Menu a bit more power, there is a very useful add-on called “Start++“. It extends Vista’s start menu with customizable commands which gives you the ability to perform lots of actions in an instant. You can perform various kinds of searches (Google, Yahoo, Live, IMDB and Wikipedia), listen to music, view pictures and much more.

For example:

Type in “g makeuseof” and it will show the Google results in your startup Menu bar for “makeuseof”.

Or type “playartist Audioslave” and it will perform a search for music for the artist Audioslave, find it, compile the results into a .M3U file and automatically play it in Windows Media player. Right now it only supports WMP but they are planning to change that soon and you’ll be able to play it in your favorite media player.

Wikipedia look-up is also nice. You can look up any thing that you need on Wikipedia without opening your browser. For example: I wrote “w counterstrike” and it gave me an overview of what Counter-Strike is in my start menu. Here, I’ve reduced the screenshot size to give you an idea.

Basic Commands that you can run with Start++ are

Run a Wikipedia search by typing “w search term“
Launch an application by typing “sudo cmd“
Play music by a specific artist with “play artist name“
Check out the weather by “weather zip code“
Search Imdb “Imdb movie name“
Look for any picture in your hard disk by typing in “Pic name“

It doesn’t end there. You can add your own shortcuts by using its configuration UI and share them with your friends.

You can also extend the search functionality of Start++ by installing the plugins that are already available for download. (Link below)

Download Start ++
Download Plugins

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How To Make XP Look Like Windows 7

Tina — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:01:04 +0000

Just recently Laurence gave us a little preview of Windows 7 . It looks like it is going to bring major improvements, with the benefit of being just as pretty as Vista. Unless you decide to finally go OS or Linux (I put off Vista because I could not decide), Windows 7 will hopefully make the switch from XP much more interesting and rewarding.

In the meantime, here are a few possibilities how you can get the Windows 7 look and feel onto your desktop today. This is primarily targeted at those of you who are skipping Vista.

Wallpapers

This is the most simple way to get a refreshing look onto your desktop. Just get a wallpaper. The most beautiful ones can be found on deviantART, such as The Windows Se7en Pack 1 and Pack 2 .

Seven Calculator (XP, Vista)

This tool is not fully completed and it doesn’t have the same functionalities as the Windows 7 calculator. But it looks just like it and the standard mode (basic functions) works fine. It requires .Net framework and it’s open source, so if you know Visual Basic, you can go ahead and edit it.

Vista users are in luck, a much better calculator is available for them, look here.

AeroSnap (XP)

In Windows 7, windows are going to behave differently compared to what you are used to from XP. AeroSnap simulates this Windows 7 behavior. When you drag a window to the left or right border of your desktop, it will snap to that side and take over 50% of the screen width and 100% from bottom to top. When you drag the window to the top of the screen it will maximize. Dragging the window away from the respective edge will restore its previous size. Keep in mind that it only works when the mouse hits the screen border while dragging the window. Below is a video to better demonstrate how it looks like.

Vienna Transformation Pack (XP)

This is not as comfortable to install as some other transformation packs. Rather you install each module separately. The advantage is that you can select just the parts you like. Fortunately, the installation guide is very detailed, so even inexperienced users will not hit the wall.

The Vienna Transformation Pack comes with a selection of four bootskins, a logon screen, icons, a menu bar styler (seen in the top left), cursors, sounds, wallpapers, a visual style or theme, and either the Vienna navigator or the Vienna toolbar (pictured below), which essentially both have the same functions. With the navigator you can move around the items individually, while with the toolbar they are all locked down on their spot.

That concludes the selection. Let me mention that there are several more transformation packs and themes available that claim to look like Windows 7. In reality they all look terribly like Vista and the ones I tried seem a little buggy on top of that.

If you’re interested in the latest Windows 7 developments, check out the Windows 7 News blog.

What feature are you most looking forward to in Windows 7?

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The Top 5 Tips and Tricks To Unlock Vista’s Potential

Will Mueller — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 21:00:44 +0000

Windows Vista has a large amount of options when it comes to customization, as do nearly all Windows operating systems. Fortunately, Vista makes it even easier then you may believe to tweak your operating system.

Today, we will be looking at some of the top Vista tricks to increase productivity and unlock Vista’s potential. Here they are (in no particular order):

Access Vista’s Super User Mode

Vista is riddled with an extremely large amount of “security” measures that may, or may not, be helpful. Running Vista as an Administrator may help, but did you know there is an even higher Administrator? Well, there is! All you need to do to unlock it is the following:

Step One: Go to “Start” and type cmd.

Step Two: When the command prompt loads, type the following:

Net user Administrator /active:yes

Step Three: When you switch user, you should now be able to see an Administrator account.

(Note: If you would like to hide the Administrator account, you can, again, go to “Start” and type cmd, then type: Net user administrator /active:no)

Save Battery Life on Laptops

Vista is quite a resource hog. If you have a laptop, this could present a problem. To maximize battery life and still run Vista on a viable amount of memory, simply do the following:

Step One: Hit the Windows Key and X at the same time.

Step Two: When “Windows Mobility Center” loads, you should be able to adjust settings, such as Display Brightness, Power Consumption, etc.

Remove Personal Information from Files

Nearly every single file on your computer contains some type of personal information – either information about the user, information on setting e.g. time, date, etc. In any case, it may be good to remove some of this information before making it available to the public, such as uploading a video or image online.

To do this, all you need to do is:

Step One: Select one or multiple file(s)

Step Two: Right-Click and select “Properties”

Step Three: Click “Details” and then click “Remove Properties and Personal Information.”

You can now have Vista create copies of the selected file(s) before changing/removing any of the information.

Tweaking Windows Power Button

Unlike Windows XP, the Vista power off button simply puts your computer to sleep when you were actually intending to turn it off. Fortunately, this can be easily changed with a simple tweak.

Step One: Click “Start,” then click “Control Panel.”

Step Two: Select “Hardware and Sound,” then click “Power Options.”

Step Three: Click “Change Plan Settings” under your current power plan.

Step Four: Click “Change Advanced Settings,” and then navigate to:

Power Buttons and Lid / Start Menu Power Button

Step Five: Select “Shut Down”

Disable UAC Notification Messages

One of the most ridiculous features of Vista are the continuous “confirmation” messages. Messages that pop up nearly every time you attempt to run any unknown application. Almost all of which are completely unnecessary, and waste time. Here is how you can disable these annoying uac notifications, quickly and easily:

Step One: Go to “Start” and click “Control Panel.”

Step Two: Click “User Accounts and Family Safety,” then click “Turn User Account Control On and Off.”

Step Three: Un-Select the box labeled User User Account Control (UAC) to help protect my computer.

Step Four: Click “OK,” and you’re done!

Alternatively, you can check out Norton’s UAC Tool (previously covered by MakeUseOf author Karl Gechlik) that can hlp you deal with those warning in a more manageable way.

Hope this helps some of you get that much closer to a nearly perfectly tweaked computer.

Stay tuned for more WinHack!

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Vista Utilities Makes Configuring Windows Vista Easier

Sharninder — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 20:01:04 +0000

Windows Vista is easily one of the most hated products that Microsoft has ever released. It is also the most bloated which means that it has the most features (or so Microsoft likes to call them) which nobody ever gets to use.

Now, contrary to what most people think, I actually believe that Microsoft must have given at least some thought to building all these supposedly great features into Windows Vista. Then, why is it that no one is using them?

I don’t know about the others, but I’ll tell you my reason. I don’t use half of these features because Microsoft has made them too damn hard to find! I find easier to configure and use my favorite Linux distribution than use Windows Vista.

But even I have to use Vista at times. It doesn’t matter that I can never make it work the way I want to, that the most useful tools are almost always hidden away in a menu thirty clicks away.

And that is the biggest reason why I really like Vista Utilities. It collects main Windows Vista features in one place.

Windows Vista Utilities is a free tool which provides the user with direct and easy access to all Windows Vista utilities and tools. That is what the description says and the software doesn’t disappoint.

The sidebar neatly categorizes the type of tools available under each button. Click on any button in the sidebar and you can access all the tools available under that category in the window pane.

As you can see, there are a ton of options and possibly every utility bundled with Windows Vista has a place in one of the categories. Here is a screenshot of showing contents of ‘Security’ category

Vista Utilities not only saves you time but also makes the Control Panel redundant, which has always been a mess anyway. I’ve always found the Control Panel difficult to navigate and have stopped using it altogether now.

Vista Utilities can be launched at startup and told to sit in the sidebar until needed. Once in the sidebar, a simple right-click brings up a menu giving you easy access to all the great tools, and saves the user the burden of switching applications.

I agree this isn’t one of those tools that you’ll use everyday, but it really does a good job of presenting all the options that a user has and you’ll be thankful that it’s there, the day you need to use it.

Are there any other must-have tools that you guys use to spice up your Vista experience? Share with us your favourite time-savers in the comments.

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How To Speed Up The Shutdown Of Your Windows

Will Mueller — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:02:01 +0000

The Windows shutdown process may be as slow as the start up unfortunately. But, due to Windows amazing ability of user managed settings, you can change that! So, how can you speed up your Windows Shutdown process ?

(There have been previous articles – in the WinHack column – on how to Speed Up Windows twice, here and here.)

WARNING : BEFORE making any changes to the Windows registry, it is highly recommended to make a backup in case anything goes wrong. To backup your Windows registry, tap your Windows key on the keyboard and “R”. When the Run box comes up, type regedit. When the Registry box comes up, go to ‘File’ then ‘Export’. Save the resulting file to your hard drive.

Ready for some more tweaking? Let’s go!

Auto-Kill All Programs at Shutdown

This tweak can speed up the process a lot by killing tasks quickly and not requiring user input for closing them, e.g. the repetitive Firefox pop-up asking if you really want to quit. Here it is:

Step 1: Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.

Step 2: Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Step 3: Find the Registry Key called AutoEndTasks and right-click then select Modify. Change the value to 1.

Change Application Hang Time

There are a few Registry Keys that are, by default, set to a ridiculous setting. There are three of them that we are going to cover today called WaitToKillApp, HangAppTime, and WaitToKillServiceTimeout.

WaitToKillApp sets the time for Windows to wait before killing the application you are attempting to close, while HangAppTime sets the hang time for the app before closing, and WaitToKillServiceTimeout sets the time for Windows to wait before killing Microsoft Services.

By shortening these you will, obviously, have a faster application response.

Ready? Let’s do it!

Step 1: Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.

Step 2: Navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Step 3: Find the Registry Key labeled WaitToKillApp, HangAppTime, and WaitToKillServiceTimeout and right-click them, then select Modify. Change the value to 1000.

Disable Clearing of Paging File

We previously talked about the paging article in another article on speeding up Windows, but today we are talking about how to speed up the use of the Paging File even more.

On shutdown, Windows automatically removes the contents of the Paging File for security, because it may run as a temporary file, holding information such as unencrypted passwords, etc. (If you believe the security of your system will be too far out of control due to the absence of removal of such information, then it is not necessary that you use this hack.)

Let’s do it!

Step 1: Go to “Start,” “Run,” and type regedit.

Step 2: Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management.

Step 3: Find the Registry Key labeled ClearPageFileOnShutdown and right-click it, then select Modify. Change the value to 0.

Hope this helps you get into your tweaking mood! Have fun ~~hacking~~ tweaking! More next time on WinHack!

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Modify Vista’s Horrible Prompts With Norton’s UAC Tool

Karl L. Gechlik — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:01:04 +0000

I have been talking a lot about User Access Control (UAC) lately. I was quoted in the New York Times last week about some of Vista’s fumbles and it brought me back to how bad the UAC interface really is. I have had it disabled for some time now and you can find instructions on how to disable UAC here on MakeUseOf. BUT if you think about the UAC like a safety on a pistol, by disabling it you are “living on the edge” and with a bigger chance of an accident taking place.

So if you don’t want to risk shooting yourself in the foot (or somewhere a little more private) then you should check out Norton’s UAC Tool for free here.

If you are not familiar with Vista’s User Access Control ‘feature’ check out Wikipedia’s definition:

User Account Control (UAC) is a technology and security infrastructure introduced with Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. It aims to improve the security of Microsoft Windows by limiting application software to standard user privileges until an administrator authorizes an increase in privilege level. In this way, only applications that the user trusts receive higher privileges, and malware should be kept from receiving the privileges necessary to compromise the operating system. In other words, a user account may have administrator privileges assigned to it, but applications that the user runs do not also have those privileges unless they are approved beforehand or the user explicitly authorizes it to have higher privileges.

By disabling the UAC you also disable certain features that Norton makes use of. So Norton came out with a tool that makes you a little less likely to disable the UAC ‘feature’. Choose your location and start your download.

Next choose your version. x86 for 32 bit and the 64 for 64 bit. If you are unsure just grab the x86 file as seen below:

Next you will want to let it install and then enable it to replace the normal UAC pop-ups like seen below:

That’s all there is to it! Pretty simple huh? Check out what Norton has to say about their new Beta product:

The User Account Control tool has been designed to replace the Vista UAC, to simultaneously make your system more secure while significantly improving user-friendliness.

By default, any application launched by an administrator is running with a filtered, standard user access token. When the administrator attempts to perform a task, the UAC prompts the user to approve the action. This can lead to poor user experiences because the prompts can be slow to display, and appear frequently and without warning. What’s more, because the UAC may give a false sense of security since other processes can still access the desktop, it actually raises security concerns.

The net effect is that many users find the UAC security clearance and prompting process annoying, especially those who are a computer’s only user and have all the latest Norton Internet Security software installed and updated.

The User Account Control tool will collect user input as well as information on applications causing prompts. The data will be processed to improve the comprehensiveness and robustness of the white list, which will be updatable while running the tool online.

So in short by disabling the UAC you also disable certain features that Norton makes use of. So Norton came out with a tool that makes the UAC easier for you and computing safer for everyone. Wait a minute and it’s free….

Why is it free you might ask?

That is exactly what I was wondering so I decided to dive in a little deeper and check it out. It turns out Norton is willing to hook you up and remember your clicks, making that UAC prompt show up less in exchange for data.

They will collect information on how often and what causes your UAC to pop up. This time Norton sure showed Microsoft how it’s done! You can see from the pictures above and below HUGE improvements over the initial UAC interface.

(Above: New UAC From Norton Labs)

(Above: Old Microsoft UAC Interface.)

The best feature Straight from Norton’s Website:

Q: So… what does this replacement offer me?

A: Currently, the Norton Labs’ UAC replacement offers a “Do not ask me again” option on each prompt making it very easy for the user to squelch individual prompts without fully disabling UAC. Further, the Norton Labs’ UAC replacement displays the prompts in a slightly different way from how Microsoft chose to do it. We feel that our prompts provide a much clearer view of the ratings for the prompting application.

Wow this all looks almost too good to be true! So I went in and perused their privacy policy and everything seems to be on the up and up. This is a lot better than disabling UAC and safer than any of the registry hacks around. Way to go Norton!

How do you deal with the UAC? Are you disabling it, living with it or finding another way around it all together? Let us know in the comments!

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Tweak Your Windows Operating System With Xpy

Varun Kashyap — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:01:42 +0000

The current Windows operating systems are far from perfect, One is 7 years old and the other is.. well.. Vista. There are often situations where you would want to change a particular setting (or settings) on your system, you Google for a solution, find one and then you have to mess with the registry.

Enter Xpy, to take care of your tweaking needs!

Xpy allows you to tweak a number of Windows settings easily and improve the overall Windows performance. All you have to do is place a check mark next to the setting you wish to change and then hit “next” and Xpy will take care of the rest.

There are a number of other features (i.e. deleting pagefile on shutdown, removing windows messenger etc.) that make Xpy a tool worth having, however first le’ts have a look at some of the settings you can tweak with Xpy.

The tweaks are classified into several categories:

General
Services
Internet Explorer
Windows Media Player
Windows Messenger
Windows Desktop Search
Usability
Delete Files

And they range from “Enable delete pagefile at shutdown” to “disable selected services” to “Increase maximum connections in Internet Explorer” to “Disable DRM for imported music in WMP” to “Disable balloon popups, Autorun, Desktop Cleanup” to “Deleting Recycle Bin, My Documents, My Computer shortcuts” and much much more.

There are a couple of interesting features that I really like in Xpy.

It allows you to save all the tweaks that you made on the system in a file. Just use Xpy with /file switch and it creates a settings file on the desktop. Next time provide the file as an argument and boom all your settings are applied! This is especially useful if you have to re-install the system or you are responsible for maintaining a number of computers.

Secondly it allows you to restore any changes you made to the system using Xpy. When you run Xpy, after you have applied the tweaks, it gives you the option to restore previous settings or go ahead with further tweaking.

Thirdly it’s portable (doesn’t require an install) and always ready to use!

Some other features include:

- Disable Windows communicating with Microsoft
- Disable questionable services
- Tweak Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player
- Remove Windows Messenger
- Improve privacy and security
- Improve performance

A Mention: The Xpy icon looks scary. It looks as if double-clicking the icon will unleash a wrath of the Devil on your system. Some anti-virus programs may also show it as a suspicious file but as the Xpy page says: “Xpy is not evil, it’s a problem with all NSIS compiled software, but if you are the suspicious type you can always have a look at the source code (SourceForge and Google Code) and build a binary yourself!”

Do you use such software to tweak your system? Or do you prefer editing the registry manually instead? Know of other similar tools? Let us know in the comments!

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PCHelpware- Lightning Fast Tool for Remote Support (Win)

Ben — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:19:11 +0000

Let’s see here… WHAT!?!?!? $700 just for remote support software?! Ever feel like that? You need to give remote support but don’t want to shell out 700 to a couple thousand bucks, luckily, you don’t have to.

With PcHelpWare from uVNC, you get a portable, free, customizable, professional remote support program. But do you get what you pay for or is this one of the best things in life that are free?

The admin interface is just a bit more “techie” than some of the other remote support programs out there, but offers the same functionality. To create a server (that’s what client needs to download before you can offer him remote support) fill out the relevant information, and click on “Create Server”.

That will run a batch file that generators a small .exe file that who ever needs help can run. Then simply click on “Start” and wait for the user to run the program and click connect. As for the user, the interface couldn’t be simpler.

Here is a detailed list of instructions for the user after they have downloaded the program and run it:

1. Click “Connect”.
2. The End.

Yeah, that’s it. You can also require the user to enter the login and password.

So you’ve sent the file to the user, they’ve downloaded it and clicked connect. Now you have control of their computer, but what can you do?

In short, everything.

The image quality is spectacular, it feels like your actually sitting in front of the user’s computer. It is also lightning fast, the image coming across is almost real time. Need to get a file from point A to point B, with PcHelpware you can transfer files copy paste style, copy the file, click sync clipboard, paste.

You can also chat with the user if you need, go full-screen, and if necessary, lock server input (lock the keyboard and mouse at the user’s computer.)

For all of you security freaks, PcHelpware connects with two different encryption protocols, so everything you do is secure.

Yeah that’s great, but what about that customization you told me about! I’ll say this much, PcHelpware is the most customizable remote support software I’ve seen, but also the least user friendly to customize.

If all you do is edit the default “background.bmp” it is fairly easy, however, you can completely customize where the Login and Password fields are (or remove them completely), the size and shape, and just about anything you can think of. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a graphical way to do this, however uVNC does have a great section on how to customize the server here.

All and all PcHelpware is an absolutely great remote support app. It is 100% free and customizable. It includes many of the features of commercial products: repeaters, works behind firewalls, customization, etc. My one complaint if any is the slightly more complicated back end, but the front end is impossible to beat. Despite a few short comings, PcHelpware more than makes up for them with its price, customization, and speed.

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

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4 Tips to Speed Up Your Windows Vista PC

Sharninder — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 18:01:30 +0000

Windows Vista has often been criticized for being bloated and slow and everyone unanimously seems to agree that Vista is a beast that Microsoft needn’t have confronted us with. Beast or not though, Vista is here to stay. It is bundled with nearly every computer now sold and it looks like we’ll have to live with it for some time to come.

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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Recover Your Lost XP, Vista & Office Serial Numbers

Karl L. Gechlik — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:41:33 +0000

Hey, Hey, Hey!

AskTheAdmin here again with another free tool that I can’t live without. As TheAdmiN I have literally over 10,000 servers in production. Most of them are on the same corporate open license program and have the same serial number and need no activation. BUT there are more than a few machines that are not owned by my company and were installed, configured and shipped to us as-is.

When one of these machines crash or are about to fail there is little I can do other than call the respective company’s support staff. I hate relying on other people!

Now perhaps I need to build a quick replacement for one of these machines – say a label printing machine on loan from UPS or in your case maybe your home file server. Now if you don’t have the serial (aka product key) number for reinstalling – it is going to be a real… pardon my French… BITCH!

If the machine is still up and running and you have access to it you can install a tiny program that will give you the serial numbers for installed Microsoft Products including Vista, XP, 2000 and any office suite right up to our current 2007 offering.

It is free, totally safe and something that lives on my memory stick (it’s a portable app). Let’s take a look at how it works.

You can download it securely from SourceForge here. and the main site for it is over here.

No need to install it – just run the ‘exe’ from inside the zip file and it will return a screen that looks similar to this:

Your products will be displayed and there are the corresponding serial keys! Sweet! You will notice off the tools menu an option that looks like this:

It will let you change the registered user name for Windows or Office. Very handy.

When researching the newest version of this tool for my article (I was using a 2 year old version) I found this little chunk of information which made me smile:

It also has a community-updated configuration file that retrieves product keys for many other applications.

So it not only works for M$ applications but through a little forum magic you can make it work with almost anything that stores its password information in the registry! Double Sweet.

And then as if that wasn’t enough I continued reading and saw this:

Another feature is the ability to retrieve product keys from unbootable Windows installations.

Unbootable Windows Installations? This is a straight up life saver! Who knew I could like my little Magical JellyBean App any more! Just do yourself a favor and NOT tell people what it is called! Unless you are prepared for STRANGE and Dirty Looks!

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Klip The Web to Your Desktop With KlipFolio

Tina — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:22:18 +0000

KlipFolio is a desktop dashboard for news, blogs, photos, the local weather and a lot more.

It’s one of these addictive little tools that I just can’t stop playing around with, and I have been using it for over two years.

KlipFolio sits on your desktop. It can float freely or dock to either side and work as a sidebar. It can be as large or small, as flashy or unobtrusive as you want it to be. It’s fully customizable. That’s its beauty.

What can KlipFolio do for you?

It could be used as a tiny desktop feed reader, but that’s not really how it works and as such it may not be very convenient. As you may realize, KlipFolio is more sophisticated than a simple, text based feed reader, yet it can not really replace your feed reader. You can use KlipFolio to track eBay auctions, follow YouTube video additions, see what’s up on MUO, keep a To Do List, follow the news or always know what’s hot on Digg.

Reading Klips is simple, no matter how small it is. When you scroll over a Klip it will automatically expand, and when you scroll over the entries, a preview window with more details will appear. To get the full story however, you will still need to load it in a browser, and that’s the drawback compared to a dedicated feed reader. A great advantage of course is its versatility and style.

I want more!

You should start with adding some more Klips that interest you. Visit the KlipFolio website and browse what they have. Once you find something, click the Add Klip link and it will automatically attach to your collection. To add RSS Feeds you first need to get the Feed URL, then click on the Feed symbol in the KlipFolio toolbar, eventually paste the URL, click Add Feed and you’re done. You can add multiple feeds to a single Klip, for example add all MUO feeds to one Klip and some other blogs feeds to another. To remove a Klip, right-click on it or click the tool symbol and go to >Manage Klip >Delete.

How can I customize it?

It’s easy as pie! You can drag&drop your Klips around and resize them by holding down the bottom right corner. Through the tool symbol that sits in the title of each Klip, you can edit its display settings or further customize each Klip. If you’re in for some serious customization, right-click the KlipFolio toolbar or the tab symbol in the top left, and choose >Options. Here you can change the settings of single Klips, select a skin, change KlipFolio’s Transparency, edit its text font and size, and more.

It’s taking up too much space!

The number of Klips can easily get out of hand, even when you resize them to tiny buttons. Running it as a floating window may subsequently become inefficient. As mentioned above you can run KlipFolio as a sidebar. With Auto-Hide enabled it will not take up any screen space at all. Drag the bulk of Klips to the top, bottom or side of the screen and it will dock. Next go to >Layout and check >Auto-Hide to make it vanish.

If you like you can even run two sidebars or a floating window and a sidebar or two floating windows at the same time. Start with dragging out one Klip and see how it suddenly has its own toolbar (possibly minimized), then proceed to add Klips to it as you like. The cool part is that even when you re-arrange and re-size the Klips in a docked sidebar, it will jump right back to its previous order when you undock it. You see, the tool is very versatile indeed.

Have you tried KlipFolio? What do you think? What are your favorite Klips? Please share!

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