Put Anything you want into the Control Panel

Sometimes applications add icons to the Windows control panel. Ever wondered how they do it ? Wonder no more because you can now do the same with Your CPL, a small utility compatible with Windows XP, 2000, ME and Windows 98. The package contains two files that have to be moved into the system directory of the Windows installation. In the case of Windows XP it would mean that both files, YourCPL.cpl and YourCPLconfig.txt need to be moved into the system32 directory.

The YourCPLconfig.txt contains the information of which applications are added to the Windows control panel. By default a link to the Registry is added. The format for adding new entries is always the same. It begins with the path to the executable, a name for the application, a description and possible command line options. Each application has be to added in a separate line.

The line for adding Regedit to the Control Panel looks like this: c:\windows\regedit.exe Regedit Registry editor. You also need to make sure that you press TAB after each parameter, if you do not do this you will receive a CPL error showing up in the Control Panel.

As you can see it is relatively easy to add new applications to the Control Panel. Possible applications that I think are useful to add are Autoruns, Process Explorer, True Crypt and another uninstaller (Revo Uninstaller for instance).

Stop the Annoying "There are unused icons on your desktop" Popup Balloon

One of the most irritating "features" in Windows XP is the popup balloon dialog that tells you to clean your desktop. I booted up an old virtual machine a few minutes ago and encountered it again, so I decided to write up how to turn it off.

Annoying…

Right-click on the desktop and choose Properties, and then the Desktop tab, and then the Customize Desktop icon.

Now just uncheck the box for "Run Annoying Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days"

Just one example of a balloon I don't want in my perfectly windy sky.

Copy Files Faster - Use TeraCopy

We buy more speedy drives just to speed up the data transfers and speed up the performance. While transferring huge amounts of data the main problem we face is of system slowdown, or wherein a system gets stuck. Now there is a software that can help in increasing the speed of data transfers just by simple tweaks. TeraCopy is a software that will do this task and do much more than that.

TeraCopy is a software that is not only used to copy and move files at a faster rate but it also allows you to Pause and Resume files, where any copy or moving process can be paused so as to start another program which uses Read or write operations on Hard Disk. Error Recovery is a feature where it will try to take the data out until it decides that the data cannot be retrieved. File list makes sure that all the files that are copied are listed and if any errors found during the process, it will be listed there.
This tool is available as a Freeware and Paid versions as well, but the freeware contains all the features that are required that and can satisfy ones need and wants.

Missing “Folder Options” in Windows Xp?

Recently, I came across with a virus, which simply makes you "Folder Options" invisible, and creating great troubles for me. Firstly I thought that it was some windows file that could have gone corrupt, and then i thought of running the setup once again. But when I saw what changes have been made to my registry, I saw a small change, a new DWORD value was created. Changing the value did the trick and i was successfully able to see the Folder Options and do the desired changes. If you are facing this problem too, Here is what I did.

1. Go to Start –> Run, type Regedit.
2. Go to HKEY CURRENT USER / SOFTWARE / MICROSOFT / WINDOWS /
   CURRENTVERSION / POLICIES / EXPLORER
3. You will find a DWORD value "NoFolderOptions" and its value as "1".
4. Change its value from " 1" to "0".

The folder options should now work properly. If in case you need to hide Folder Options then this is a cool trick as well.

Block USB Devices in XP

All students in our college received our laptops few weeks back, and the biggest problem we face that everybody seems to take everybody's data. As nobody is well versed of using laptops, and they are a bit careless about their data security. Pen drives becoming a handy tool to get data is the biggest problem we all face today. Not only in our college, it is part of everybody's life that. To this what can be done is that the USB can be blocked and then stopping the use of USB drives. Here is a simple registry hack to do so, try it with care.

1. Go to Start –> Run, type Regedit.
2. Go to Hkey_Local_Machine\System\CurrentControlset\Services\USBStor
3. In the right pane, look for value Start and have value as 0000000(3)
4. Double click on that and change that value to 4.

You might be required to restart the PC, and then you are done with it, USB is now blocked.
In case if you want to get the USB unblocked, just change the value again to 3.
See, its so easy. Isn't it

Get Rid Of Windows Update “Restart” Option

Everybody of us these days enjoy the automatic updates by Microsoft. That is one of the benefit of using Genuine copy of Windows. Now you do get the updates, keeping your system up-to date, and provides you with every bug fixes.
When you download these updates, sometimes it asks you for a reboot. Its sometimes irritating, specially when you are doing a important work. How can you avoid this option. Well Microsoft allows you edit these settings, but its not so easy that a basic user can find it. So here is that way, through which you can stop the automatic restart option.

1. Go to Start –> Run, type "gpedit.msc".
2. Go to Computer Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Update.
3. Look for option "No Auto Restart For Scheduled Automatic Update installation" and Enable that option.



4. This will make sure that your computer is not reboot automatically, instead it will just notify you for a reboot. It will be users choice as to when to reboot your computer
5. If in case you want it to notify you again and again, after a specific interval of time, then look for option "Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations". Enable that option and specify the time.

Everything above is all easy, its just editing some policies which you can perform easily.

What is svchost.exe And Why Is It Running?

You are no doubt reading this article because you are wondering why on earth there are nearly a dozen processes running with the name svchost.exe. You can't kill them, and you don't remember starting them… so what are they?

So What Is It?

According to Microsoft: "svchost.exe is a generic host process name for services that run from dynamic-link libraries". Could we have that in english please?

Some time ago, Microsoft started moving all of the functionality from internal Windows services into .dll files instead of .exe files. From a programming perspective this makes more sense for reusability… but the problem is that you can't launch a .dll file directly from Windows, it has to be loaded up from a running executable (.exe). Thus the svchost.exe process was born.

Why Are There So Many svchost.exes Running?

If you've ever taken a look at the Services section in control panel you might notice that there are a Lot of services required by Windows. If every single service ran under a single svchost.exe instance, a failure in one might bring down all of Windows… so they are separated out.

Those services are organized into logical groups, and then a single svchost.exe instance is created for each group. For instance, one svchost.exe instance runs the 3 services related to the firewall. Another svchost.exe instance might run all the services related to the user interface, and so on.

So What Can I Do About It?

You can trim down unneeded services by disabling or stopping the services that don't absolutely need to be running. Additionally, if you are noticing very heavy CPU usage on a single svchost.exe instance you can restart the services running under that instance.

The biggest problem is identifying what services are being run on a particular svchost.exe instance… we'll cover that below.

If you are curious what we're talking about, just open up Task Manager and check the "Show processes from all users" box:

Checking From the Command Line (Vista or XP)

If you want to see what services are being hosted by a particular svchost.exe instance, you can use the tasklist command from the command prompt in order to see the list of services.

tasklist /SVC

The problem with using the command line method is that you don't necessarily know what these cryptic names refer to.

Checking in Task Manager in Vista

You can right-click on a particular svchost.exe process, and then choose the "Go to Service" option.

This will flip over to the Services tab, where the services running under that svchost.exe process will be selected:

The great thing about doing it this way is that you can see the real name under the Description column, so you can choose to disable the service if you don't want it running.

Using Process Explorer in Vista or XP

You can use the excellent Process Explorer utility from Microsoft/Sysinternals to see what services are running as a part of a svchost.exe process.

Hovering your mouse over one of the processes will show you a popup list of all the services:

Or you can double-click on a svchost.exe instance and select the Services tab, where you can choose to stop one of the services if you choose.

Disabling Services

Open up Services from the administrative tools section of Control Panel, or type services.msc into the start menu search or run box.

Find the service in the list that you'd like to disable, and either double-click on it or right-click and choose Properties.

Change the Startup Type to Disabled, and then click the Stop button to immediately stop it.

 

You could also use the command prompt to disable the service if you choose. In this command "trkwks" is the Service name from the above dialog, but if you go back to the tasklist command at the beginning of this article you'll notice you can find it there as well.

sc config trkwks start= disabled

Hopefully this helps somebody!

Restoring Confidence

If the number of emails and letters I receive on accidental deletion of files is anything to go by we're in suffering an epidemic of 'butter fingers'… Picture files on memory cards are by far the most popular files to get zapped by mistake but it affects everything, from Word documents to album tracks, and I can't deny that I haven't done it myself, but when it happens the worst thing you can do is panic. If you do the chances are you make the situation even worse, so when you've erased a file, and you want it back the first thing to do is check the Recycle Bin. If it's not there then there is still a very good chance all or part of it is still on the drive, and this little freeware program, called Restoration could get it back for you. The program is small and runs from any file location, even a memory card, so it doesn't mess around with Windows. All you have to do it tell it which drive to scan and a few moments (or minutes) later depending on the size of the drive, it will report back on what it has found. You can then save the recovered file in a new location on your hard drive, and if you are lucky, it will still be readable. info and download here

BurnAware Free - A Free CD/DVD burning software with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD support

Have you spent few dollars on purchasing a CD/DVD burner like NERO, only to find out later how it fell short on your expectations? If you're someone who likes to own everything free, you might want to try BurnAware Free, an inexpensive (read, free) alternative to the CD/DVD burning utilities available in the market today.

BurnAware enables you to accomplish most common disc burning tasks, such as, burn data to almost any type of disc, including blu-ray (BD-R/ BD-RE); create audio CDs from WAV, MP3, or WMA files; create and burn disc images (.ISOs); write DVD-video files (like VOB files) to a DVD; or write multi-session discs to all supported media formats.

The interface is neat and simple to use. The best part is it does not contain any annoying spyware, adware, or banners. The landing screen contains different burning options. Once you select an option, the screen minimizes to your taskbar (similar to Nero and Roxio) and a new window appears, allowing you to customize whatever task you selected.

Using BurnAware, you can leverage full support for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats. The utility works on all the current hardware interfaces and contains auto-verification of written files.

Currently in beta, BurnAware Free operates on Windows 98/NT/2000/XP and Vista (32 and 64 bit), and supports unicode for multi-byte languages.

How to search for hardware device drivers download more effectively

It occurs a lot of time when you try to install a new hardware device on your system for which you may not have the driver cd so you start searching for getting some download links of the driver software for that device.

But even after a lot of searching you don't get the appropriate driver software for your hardware device.

But don't loose hope if you are encountered with such a situation as there as you could get the driver software for your hardware device.

Here is a smart way i read somewhere about how to find hardware device driver downloads easily.

1. Plug in your device first and ignore any windows message like unknown device detected.

2. Now open device manger control panel>>administrative tools >>computer management>>device manager.

3. Right Click on the Hardware device and go to properties in th context menu.

4. Now click the details tab and choose 'Hardware Id' ,select the last a entry copy it into the clip board and use this to search from any search engine you like to get all the information about that hardware device and download links for the hardware device.

Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download

If you're like most PC users, you probably got Windows Vista with a new PC or laptop. And if you're like 99% of the population, you get your new machines from one of the major manufacturers. Dell, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, they all have one thing in common: they don't give you a real Windows Vista installation disc with your purchase. Instead, they bundle what they call a "recovery disc" (that's if you're lucky - otherwise you'll have a recovery partition instead) with your machine and leave it at that.

It doesn't matter that you just paid a thousand dollars for a machine that comes with a valid Windows Vista license - your computer manufacturer just don't want to spend the money (or perhaps take on the responsibility) of giving you a Windows Vista installation DVD to accompany your expensive purchase.

The problem is, with Windows Vista, the installation media serves more than one purpose. It's not just a way to get Windows installed, it's also the only way of recovering a borked installation. The Windows Vista DVD has a "recovery center" that provides you with the option of recovering your system via automated recovery (searches for problems and attempts to fix them automatically), rolling-back to a system restore point, recovering a full PC backup, or accessing a command-line recovery console for advanced recovery purposes.

Microsoft seems to have realized this problem, and have thankfully made a recovery disc for this purpose. It contains the contents of the Windows Vista DVD's "recovery center," as we've come to refer to it. It cannot be used to install or reinstall Windows Vista, and just serves as a Windows PE interface to recovering your PC. Technically, one could re-create this installation media with freely-downloadable media from Microsoft (namely the Microsoft WAIK kit, a multi-gigabyte download); but it's damn-decent of Microsoft to make this available to Windows' users who might not be capable of creating such a thing on their own.

NeoSmart Technologies is hosting a copy of the Windows Vista Recovery Disc for your convenience. It is a 120 MiB download, and in the standard ISO format.

Download Windows Vista Recovery Disc (120 MiB)

Download Windows Vista Recovery Disc Torrent

Start Your Computer More Quickly by Delaying the Startup of a Service in Vista

If you are the type of person that restarts your computer all the time, you are probably really worried about speeding up your bootup time. Unless you get paid to watch the Windows boot screen. I wonder how well that would pay…

Windows Vista provides a simple method to delay the startup of a service so that you can boot more quickly. The service will still eventually be started, but in the background after you are already at the desktop.

Delaying Service Startup

Open up Services by typing services into the start menu search box, or you can look in the administrative tools section of control panel.

Here's the tricky part: finding the right services to delay. You shouldn't try and delay the services that deal with internal Windows functions or networking, but there are plenty of less important items like the Cisco VPN client required by my employer, or services installed by your printer.

Once you find the service you want to delay, right-click on it and choose Properties (or just double-click it)

 

Now change the "Startup type" drop-down to "Automatic (Delayed Start)", close the dialog and then go on to the next item.

 

In some cases this can significantly improve the initial bootup time. I'd recommend starting with additional services installed by applications. You'll have best luck if you only make one change at a time, and keep track of what you change in case you break something!

Update Windows with Offline Update

Autopatcher was the perfect solution to update your Windows operating system while it lasted. You could download all patches to your local computer and execute them there. This made it possible to download patches once and update several computers locally without download the patches several times from Microsoft servers.

Autopatcher has been closed down by Microsoft. There is an alternative, a great one that can be used instead. It is called c't Offline Updater . It supports Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, windows Server 2003, 64-bit editions of XP and Server 2003 as well as Windows Vista. Besides the operating systems it also supports Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. As you can see from the screenshot below lots of different languages are supported as well.

The user has the option to exclude service packs and to create iso images, either one CD iso for every operating system or Office edition or one DVD iso that contains all the patches. A click on start begins the download process which can take some time. When the download finishes you find the created iso(s) in the /iso subdirectory.

You can then burn the iso and start it directly in Windows. Several options are presented when you execute UpdateInstaller.exe. The script asks if you want to create backups, install Internet Explorer 7, automatically reboot and recall or show the log file.

A click on start begins the update process. The Offline Update is an excellent way to download all patches for your operating system in one go.

Top 10

Top 10 products

1.      AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition -AVG Free Edition is the well-known antivirus protection tool. AVG Free is available free of charge to home users .

2.      Ad-Aware 2007 Free -Ad-Aware is no ordinary anti-spyware, it is the original anti-spyware product

3.      LimeWire -the world's fastest P2P file-sharing application

4.      ICQ - ICQ 6 provides users with an innovative communication experience

5.      Avast Home Edition - Avast Home Edition is a complete ICSA & Checkmark certified antivirus

6.      VersionTracker Pro - VersionTracker Pro checks your installed drivers and software against an online database and offers upgrade details.

7.      BitComet - BitComet is a fast and easy-to-use BitTorrent/HTTP/FTP download client.

8.      WinZip - With WinZip you can quickly and easily compress and decompress files, folders, and entire folder trees to save storage space .

9.      mIRC - mIRC is a full featured Internet Relay Chat client for Windows

10.  WinRAR - WinRAR is a 32-bit Windows version of RAR Archiver,

Webware –Top 5

  1. JumpCut - Create, edit, and share your own movies online.

  2. Kaspersky Online Virus Scanner - Put your U.S. political knowledge to the test with this campaign-manager simulation.

  3. ADrive beta - Get 50GB of free storage online.

  4. RapidShare - Upload all your files online and share them with friends.

  5. FotoFlexer - Edit and enhance your digital photos online.

Updating Nokia Mobile Phone Firmware

Here I'll tell you the things you need to do in order to update the embedded firmware in your Nokia cell phone.

Things to do before a firmware update:

1. Install Nokia PC Suite, and back up all the stuff from your phone to your computer.
2. Charge your phone battery to its full level.
3. Beware that any hindrance (like power off, etc.) during the update process can damage your phone.

Let's get started.

1. In your Nokia mobile phone, type in *#0000#
   Your Nokia mobile will now display the firmware version it's running
2. Carefully open the back case of your mobile, and also take away the battery.
3. Note the product number down
4. Go here and type the product number. You'll now know if a new version of firmware for your Nokia mobile phone is available
5. Download the Nokia Software Updater. Click here to download it
6. Install the Nokia Software Updater (I think it's recommended to run it if you have more than 256 MB of RAM on your computer)
7. Connect your Nokia mobile phone via the USB port, and also make sure your computer is connected to the internet
8. Run the Nokia Software Updater by clicking on the icon on your desktop
9. The Nokia Software Updater connects to the internet, checks for updates, and then detects your phone to start installing firmware updates for your Nokia phone
10. You might see some fuzzy things going on in your Nokia phone, and that's perfectly normal to happen during a firmware update
11. When all's done, the updater gives a confirmation message and then the phone restarts
12. You can now disconnect the phone from the computer

Download the Microsoft XP Management Pack

Do you want to keep a close eye on Windows XP? Then download the Microsoft Windows Client 2000/XP Operating System Management Pack. According to the Redmond company, the pack designed to be deployed on Windows Server 2003 will offer users the possibility to enjoy an extensive collection of monitoring capabilities assessing process performance, Logical and Physical Disk performance and free space, memory and network usage. The tools will also provide an insight on the health of key Windows Operating System Services and will produce availability and event reports.

"The Microsoft Windows Client 2000/XP Operating System Management Pack provides monitoring of the basic health indicators of a Windows Client system, such as processor, memory, disk health, availability, and key performance metrics. Optional alerting on threshold monitoring is available," Microsoft informed.

In terms of the Windows client the Information, Worker Management Pack will enable you to watch closely the health, reliability, and performance of various applications including Internet Explorer, Media Player, MSN and Windows Messenger, Windows Explorer, Communicator, LiveMeeting, as well as a wide variety of Office programs. Monitoring is available for early versions of the applications such as IE5 as well as for the latest variants including Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7.

Microsoft explained that the Information Worker Management Pack also offers: "generic monitoring capabilities that work for all listed applications, and specific monitoring capabilities for individual applications. Generic monitoring: Crash detection, Hand detection, CPU utilization, Memory utilization. Individual application monitoring: Outlook mail access, Web access and Data source."

The management pack is available for download here.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 - FAQ

Microsoft resources focused almost exclusively on wrapping up the Windows Vista client, and then delayed yet again into 2008, with the deadline set by the summer of this year, Windows XP Service Pack 3 is long overdue, and at the same time in its final stages of development. At the end of December 2007, the Redmond company opened up the testing process of XP SP3 and made available for download a public Release Candidate. The Standalone Update Package for Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate weighs in at just 336.1 MB and was dropped via the Microsoft Download Center.

Not surprisingly, although it was mute for the most part of 2007 on both Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3, the Redmond company is favoring, in terms of information disclosure, its latest Windows client. Starting at the end of 2007, Microsoft managed to become extremely chatty about Vista SP1. Not so much about XP SP3. The reason is of course understandable. Vista, made available but a year ago, is pushed to the foreground, with XP left to eXPire in the background.

But although Microsoft is talking very little about XP SP3, there are quite a few details about the upcoming service pack. You will be able to find some of the most popular issues related to Windows XP SP3 in the FAQ below. If there are any additional matters you would like answered, related to XP SP3, please leave a comment and I'll get right on it.

1. What are the supported operating systems for XP SP3?

Windows XP; Windows XP Home Edition; Windows XP Home Edition N; Windows XP Media Center Edition; Windows XP Professional Edition; Windows XP Professional N; Windows XP Service Pack 1; Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. But only the 32-bit versions of the operating systems enumerated above. And also only XP SP1 and XP SP2. Microsoft no longer supports the RTM version of XP, and this rule is also valid for XP SP3.

2. Is Windows XP x64 supported by XP SP3?

No. XP SP3 is addressed exclusively at the x86 versions of Windows XP. In the first half of 2007, Microsoft serviced both Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition with the release of Windows Server 2003 SP2.

3. Is XP SP3 an equivalent of Windows Vista/Vista SP1?

No. In the company's own words: "Microsoft is not adding significant functionality from newer versions of Windows, such as Windows Vista, to Windows XP through XP SP3."

4. Is XP SP3 a repeat of XP SP2?

No. Service Pack 2 for XP was an unique release for Microsoft. In contrast, SP3 will be noting more than a standard service pack. "Other companies would have called this a major release and charged money for it", stated Jim Allchin, the former Co-President, Platforms & Services Division, just a week ahead of his retirement from Microsoft, referring to XP SP2.

5. Do I have to wait for the RTM version of XP SP3 or can I get a taste of the service pack ahead of the final version?

Microsoft is offering a standalone version of Windows XP SP3 RC for download. However, users have to understand that despite the Release Candidate label and the proximity to RTM, XP SP3 RC is still a beta and should only be deployed into testing environments.

Batch Rename Digital Camera Pictures

All digital cameras that I know are using a cryptic naming convention for images taken with them. When you copy the pictures from the digital camera to your computer you will have a bunch of files on your hard drive like CIMG0001.jpg, CIMG0002.jpg and so on and it's quite hard to find out where and when the image was taken and what is shown on it.

The CIMG files are created by my Casio Exilim EX-Z700 digital camera and other cameras uses other naming conventions. They all do have those cryptic names in common though. It takes a long time to rename the pictures manually and that is why programs like Nameexif will become increasingly popular.

Nameexif is a software to batch rename pictures taken with your digital camera. Several possible output names can be chosen. The new filenames always start with the date and time to preserve the chronological order of the pictures. Two optional parameters can be chosen, those are to add the original filename to the end or add a custom name to the new filenames.

Battle of the Software Updaters

Keeping the installed software on your computer up to date can be a time consuming task considering that users tend to have 100+ applications installed on their computers at the same time. To make matters worse there is no general way - like in Linux - to update your applications. Some offer build in update notifications but most do not have this feature.

The only way was until recently to visit the websites that host the applications manually and check for new versions. Some offered mailing lists or RSS feeds which could be used to stay informed without visiting the website right away.

So called Software Updaters could be the solution. There are actually quite a few programs out there that scan your computer for applications and display a list of outdated ones after the scan. But which one finds the most applications, which has the database that is updated most frequently and which actually works ?

That's what I'm going to find out today with the battle of the software updaters. The applications that I tried are:

AppGet
Appupdater
File Hippo Update Checker
Secunia Personal Software Inspector
Sumo
Update Star

AppGet:

AppGet was the only software that did not check for updates. I'm not sure if I missed a button somewhere but I was not able to check for updates manually nor find a button to do that automatically. It did find more applications than any other updater but since it did not find any updates it's pretty useless to me.

The software is Beta which could be the reason but this is the main function of a software updater next to scanning for software. What I liked is that software versions are reported to the central database which means that the database gets updated during a scan for applications.

Appupdater:

The scan found 79 applications of which 16 had to he updated. A button do download all updates and to install all updates was offered as well as options to uninstall the applications. Most applications did not have a (single) download button and false positives where reported. Firefox 2.0.0.11 was in the list although that was the installed version on the computer.

The option to download updates for every installed application independently is missing and the information panel is not showing the current version of the application that it asks you to download.

File Hippo Update Checker:

When you execute the File Hippo application it scans your computer and displays a list of updates on the File Hippo homepage. File Hippo is only scanning for applications that are available on their website which could explain why it did only find 18 applications while Sumo and Update Star found almost twice as much.

All updates have to be downloaded separately using the interface, a way to upload all at once would have been great. I like the way the information are presented, the name of the application the installed version, the latest version and the size of it are displayed.

File Hippo does not take into account licensed software. I have Nero 7 installed for instance and it displays that the latest version of Nero 8 was available. It is however not possible to update unless I would pay for the update.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector:

The Secunia Personal Software Inspector is more a security application than a software updater. It scans your computer for insecure applications and displays them in a list. What puzzles me a bit is that several applications have been listed up to three times in the list.

The newest Beta version of Opera was not recognized as well and I was told to update it. Several buttons are directly accessible in that list, a button to download the latest version, to display information, to open the folder and to rescan the application. It's a vulnerability scanner however and does not find many free and Open Source applications.

Sumo:

Sumo was one of the two applications that found twice as many updates as all the other tested applications. One reason however could be that it did split components of one application. It did find updates for Nero, Nero Backitup and Nero Home for instance which could all be updated with one update. It did have the same problem that File Hippo had, that it suggested to update to Nero 8 while I was still using Nero 7.

Updates cannot be downloaded directly. If you select a file from the list and click on Get Update a page on the Sumo homepage will be loaded showing statistics of the application, that is how many users are using which version of it. The website offers to search for updates at Major Geeks, File Forum and Google. Direct Download links would make this application way better and are really missing.

Update Star:

If I had to choose the visually most appealing application it would be Update Star. It did find the most updates either, the list can be sorted to only display older programs or include unknown versions or ignored programs as well. Most entries have a download link next to their name, current version and installed version.

Download links lead directly to the programs homepage. There is unfortunately no update all button available which means that you have to click on each download button, visit the homepage, download and install the application and repeat the process until you have updated all applications.

Update Star is as well suggesting to update Nero 7 to Nero 8 which is not possible without purchasing the new version.

Conclusion:

If I would have to choose only one application I would choose the Update Star. It delivers most updates, has a clean way of displaying them in a list and links directly to the authors homepage. A button to download all would have been nice though and a way to disable the scan of commercial applications.

AppGet did not work unfortunately and I will take a look at it when the author is updating the current version.

View Excel 2007 Files without Microsoft Office

You got an Excel 2007 spreadsheet in your Inbox but there's no Microsoft Office on you computer to open that file.

You could either buy Office 2007 or just grab the free Microsoft Excel 2007 viewer that was released this week. This program has been available since long but only the new version supports the xlsx format .

With this new Excel 2007 Viewer, you can view and even print spreadsheets created using any version of Microsoft Excel. You can also copy data from Excel Viewer to another program.

The other option for opening xlsx files is the Office Compatibility pack but that works only if you have a copy of Office 2003 or Office XP.

Excel Viewer [Microsoft Download Center]

Greasemonkey Hack to View Locked Orkut Album

Back in December, Google introduced some much needed privacy features to Orkut which allowed us to make our photos, videos and scrapbook viewable to just our friends. Some liked it, but others didn't. Luckily for those who didn't like this, there is a greasemonkey hack to view locked Orkut albums.

In order to use this script, you'll require Firefox along with Greasemonkey extension. Now, click here to install the script from Userscript.org. After installing the script, you can view just about any locked album without any hiccups.

Have fun spying on other's locked albums until Google fixes this loophole.

Windows Tip: Don’t replace any files while copying

If you ever copied hundreds or even thousands of files from one folder to the other with both folders containing files of the same name you might have realized that there is a button missing when transferring those files. Windows asks the user what he would like to do when a duplicate file is found in the folder where he is copying the files into.

The user has the option to say Yes, Yes to all, No or Cancel. There is one option missing and that is No to all. If you do not want to replace files in the destination folder you have to click on No for every duplicate file. If you copy thousands of files this could be a lot. Is there another option ? Yes there is.

I really like Windows because it has so many hidden features. That's sarcasm by the way. It would have been much easier if the button No to all would be available. To select the option you have to press the SHIFT key and then click on No. This has the effect that future duplicate files will not be copied to the destination folder and will not replace the files that are already in that folder.

Backup Firefox Preferences

You may not have realised this until now but Mozilla Firefox has its own version of the Windows Registry, where all your preferences are stored. In the browser, it can be accessed by typing in the address bar about:config

But what, in the future, if you have to re-install Firefox from scratch? You may have spent a long time tweaking Firefox to get it the way you want it and if you subsequently lose all your preferences, then you would have to start again from the beginning. This would throw me into a fit of rage but I discovered recently there is a way to make a backup of your "about:config" preferences in case anything goes wrong.

Just navigate to your Firefox profile folder in your Windows Explorer . For me, it's under

Documents and Settings -> Mozilla -> Firefox -> Profiles

However, it may be different for you, depending on how you installed Firefox on your system.

When you have located the profile, locate a file called prefs.js. This is the file containing all your settings and preferences. Just copy that file to somewhere safe such as a USB stick , a re-writable CD disk or even just another location on your PC. Remember to update this file on a regular basis with your latest settings.

If you subsequently lose your preferences on Firefox, just drag your copied prefs.js file back into the Firefox profile. Windows Explorer will tell you that a prefs.js file already exists and would you like to replace it with your copied file? Say yes and your preferences will be updated the way you want them again.

Scrolling the Windows Command Prompt With Only the Keyboard

The Windows command prompt (cmd.exe) has always been known for being underpowered compared to Linux, but have you ever noticed that to view the output of a long command you have to resort to the mouse to scroll?

You can easily scroll with just the keyboard, but to get into the "Scroll Mode" you'll have to use a 4-key combination that reminds me of cheat codes on old nintendo games… Up, Up, Down, Down…

Press Alt+Space together, and then E, then L

This will put the command prompt into "Scroll" mode, where you can use the Page Up/Down keys as well as the arrow keys.

To get out of this mode, you can hit the Esc or Enter keys.

One of the most annoying instances of this problem is when trying to view the output of the ipconfig command… it always stretches beyond the current page on my system… now I can finally use the keyboard.

Hide specific Control Panel items in Windows Vista

How many of the 45 different control-panel items do you actually use? Most likely less than half of them, at least for me. But what baffles me more is the fact that there's loading time; and the more icons you have, the more loading time there is before you actually get to access the Control Panel properly. Thankfully, each individual icon can be removed with the Group Policy Editor.

1) Access your Group Policy Editor: Start > type gpedit.msc in the Search Bar

2) Access the Control Panel options: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Hide Specified Control Panel Items / Show Specified Control Panel Items

3) Enable the feature

4) Add the name of the item you wish to hide or show: Click on Show, then Add the names of the icons you wish to hide or show. You must enter it exactly the way it is shown in the Control Panel (case-sensitive.)

5) Click Apply and OK. No reboot required.

I've always wondered why the control panel has load time. If anybody knows, please leave a comment.

Free Firewall For Windows PCs

Every broadband user needs a decent firewall. Going online without one is tantamount to suicide.

Windows XP and higher has a respectable firewall, but it can be improved upon. Luckily there's a good free one in PC Tools Firewall Plus from the makers of Spyware Doctor.

PC Tools Firewall Plus is much more than a simple firewall, and has an expert mode with more bells and whistles that can be configured. If you prefer the quiet life, PC Tools Firewall Plus can deal with most alerts for you automatically. It's compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista.

More: PC Tools Firewall Plus

Clear Recent Commands From the Run Dialog in Windows XP

Has it ever bothered you that there isn't an obvious way to remove the previous items in the Run box in Windows? It's often very useful, of course… but if you are just a little bit paranoid you might want to clean out that list on occasion.

Of course there are many cleaner applications that will do this for you, but we'll explain how to do it manually.

Clear Recent Run Dialog Entries

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu run box, and then navigate down to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

You'll see all your recent commands on the right, and you can delete any of the keys that contain your commands. You'll have to logoff and then back on, but the list should be clean.

Note that this will also work for Windows Vista's Run dialog, although most people have switched to using the search box instead.

Datafox - BSNL BB usage monitor Addon for Firefox

DataFox is a bandwidth usage monitor for BSNL DataOne and MTNL TriBand. It is a cross platform extension written for Firefox that shows data usage statistics on the Firefox status bar. It's an absolutely great add-on for BSNL BB users (Who use Firefox )

If you're using Firefox, click here to install the extension directly

Visit Homepage : Thegoan

Datafox - BSNL BB usage monitor Addon for Firefox

DataFox is a bandwidth usage monitor for BSNL DataOne and MTNL TriBand. It is a cross platform extension written for Firefox that shows data usage statistics on the Firefox status bar. It's an absolutely great add-on for BSNL BB users (Who use Firefox )

If you're using Firefox, click here to install the extension directly

Visit Homepage : Thegoan

You can right click the status bar icon to bring up the following options:

Update	Forces the usage data to update, has the same effect as clicking the icon.
Logout	Allows you to re-enter your account details the next time you update.
Show Records	Display your usage records in the browser, you may choose to see records of either the active month, or the selector for all months.
Month (BSNL Only)	Choose the month for which usage data is fetched. DataFox will allow you to choose one of six months as this is the extent of the records available online. In case data for a month does not exists (say, if you have only been using DataOne for three months) then DataFox will display an error message when trying to fetch the usage info.
Preferences	Brings up the DataFox preference dialog (see below). Can also be invoked from the Tools menu.
Login Dialog options: Override default domain (BSNL Only)	By default, DataFox first queries sancharnet.in for the appropriate address at which your usage can be checked. I assume it sends you to a server in your region for the quickest response. In case you wish to specify your own address or in case the redirect is not working for some reason, check the box and choose an address from the list or enter your own.

Speed up Torrent speeds

XP SP2 limits teh number of TCP Connections to maximum of 10. This is supposed to slow down virus multiplication as their (of many) strategy of viral growth is to connect to a high amount of IPs. This could also limit the max simultaneous connections needed for Torrent downloads..

First, download the Patch for changing max TCP connections from here [ EventID 4226 Patcher Version 2.23d-english]. Change the value to a value between 50-100..

Next, uTorrent: Options > Preferences > Advanced options > net.max_halfopen and increase it from 10 to a decent value like 80..