In my previous article, Ways and Means to Share Files – Part 1, I dealt with installing Windows Live Mesh and left it at that.

Using Windows Live Mesh

Now it’s time to put Windows Live Mesh through its paces sharing some folders/files with other computers in a network.

Starting Off

1.      Open Windows Live Mesh.

2.      The computer you are working on is identified.

3.      Your next task is to include any other computers on your network. To do this, select “Go to Windows Live Devices”. By the way, Sky Drive (Microsoft’s Cloud feature) is active once you log on and ready to go but more of this in my next article.

Go to Windows Live Devices

Note: To access other computers within your home network you must have installed and added Windows Live Mesh from Windows Live Essentials. This requires you to have either a Hotmail or a Live Mail account and to be signed in on the other computer(s) too. When you have done this Live Mesh will open showing your base computer, the one you are working on, and the target computer(s).

Computers for Live Sync

You are now ready to sync a selected file on your base computer which will appear on the target computer.

Syncing folders between Networked Computers

1.      Turn on your second computer. This will be the one you want to share folders with.

2.      Next, activate Windows Live Mesh on both computers.

3.      On your second computer you’ll be asked to log on, use Windows Live or a Hotmail account.

Note: If you haven’t got either you’ll need to create an account.

4.      Now back in the main computer, select Sync a folder.

5.      Windows Live Mesh displays all available locations on your computer.

6.      Double-click My Documents folder and select the sub-folder you want synced. 

8.      The Select Devices window opens.

9.      In the “Where do you want to sync . . . “window check the locations and click the Ok button.

10.   Windows Live Mesh reappears displaying the newly synced folder.

 11.   Now move to your second computer and check to see that Windows Live Mesh has done as you wish.

Note: When syncing a sub-folder within My Documents folder on your second computer, the newly synced folder will be added to My Documents folder.

You have successfully synced a folder on a computer network.

Un-syncing a folder

If you want to stop synchronizing a folder in any of the networked computers or SkyDrive do the following:

1.      Click the folder to be unsynced. This shows its details.

2.      In the expanded view, click Select Devices. 

3.      The Select Devices window opens. Uncheck SkyDrive and click the Ok button. 

4.      Back in the Windows Live Mesh window when you re-select the synced folder, you’ll see SkyDrive is no longer listed in Sync On. 

Now you know about Windows Live Mesh and its features sharing files and folders is a breeze. Happy synching!

In my final article, I’ll show you how use the web storage facility, SkyDrive, another location to sync folders. In addition you’ll learn how to personalize the synced computers in a network. 

Latest Ways and Means to Share Files – Part 2 – Windows Live Mesh is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

When you have two or more computers and you want to share important files between them there are several ways you can do this.

Method 1 & 2     Using your Wireless Connection

Providing you have a wireless connection you can use either HomeGroup or Network connections.

HomeGroup

Network

Method 3            Purchase a Belkin USB File Transfer Cable

Another way is to buy a Belkin USB Transfer Cables. This allows you to quickly transfer files from one computer to another.

The beauty of this cable setup is you can copy folders/ files from PC to PC without the need to install drivers for the operating systems. It is particularly useful for mobile users wishing to transfer files such as photos, music, videos, documents and many other files from their main computer to their laptop and vice versa. Once you make the connection it is a simple drag-and-drop operation.

Despite the high-speed transfers this equipment provides, it is a pain to have to do this if you have two or more computers as I do. So this takes me to the next option – Windows Live Mesh.

Belkin USB Transfer Cable

Method 4            Using Windows Live Mesh

This in my opinion is the most efficient way of keeping all your computers up-to-date. When you make changes to files in a Synched folder on the main computer the file is automatically updated in the target computer(s).

Windows Live Mesh in Action

A Brief History of Windows Live Mesh

Curious about its origins I checked it out in Wikipedia. This is a brief summary of the developmental history of Windows Live Mesh.

• November 3, 2005 – Microsoft bought FolderShare from ByteTaxi Inc. on, making it part of their new Windows Live feature.
• March 10, 2008 – Microsoft released its updated version renaming it Windows Live FolderShare.
•  April 23, 2008 – Microsoft released the Live Mesh technology preview. The data synchronization system allowed files, folders and other data to be shared and synchronized across PCs and up to 5 GB on the web.

Note: The Live Mesh software was made available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and other platforms. It included a cloud storage component, called Live Desktop, an online storage service, allowing synchronized folders to be accessible via a website.

• June 24, 2010 – Microsoft released a beta version Windows Live Sync “Wave 4″.
• August 17, 2010, – August 29, 2010, after some more updates, the service was officially re-branded, Windows Live Mesh. The cloud-based SkyDrive synced storage was increased to 5 GB.
• September 30, 2010 – The final version of Windows Live Mesh 2011 (Wave 4) was released on as part of Windows Live Essentials 2011.

 Installing Windows Live Mesh

1. As Windows Live Mesh is part of the Windows Live Essentials package you need to go to this Microsoft website: www.explorelive.com/windows-live-essentails
2. When the website opens look for the small box labelled “Get Windows Live Essentials and select “Download now”.
3. Select Run.
4. Your UAC will most likely intervene, select Ok.
5. In the “What do you want to install” window choose which components you want. Check Windows Live Mesh and select Install.
6. When the installation is complete in the “Done!” box, click Close.
7. In your All Programs menu you will find Windows Live listed. Select it. pic 7

 Note: If you are using Windows 8 Preview Windows, Windows Live Mesh will be featured on the Metro menu.

Note:  If you are running Windows 7 or earlier you will find it listed within Windows Live Essentials under All Programs.

Tip! Windows 8 Preview

In the Metro menu, right-click on Windows Live Mesh’s button and in the lower section of the Metro screen select Advanced button. When the pop-up menu appears, choose Pin to the Taskbar. In future when you want to use it click this icon on the Taskbar.

Tip! Windows 7

For easy access to Windows Live Mesh, open All Programs menu, select Windows Live Essentials and in the sub-menu right-click on Windows Live Mesh and in the pop-up menu choose, Pin to Taskbar. In future when you want to use it click this icon on the Taskbar.

In my next article I’ll deal with setting up Windows Live Mesh with my other networked computers and saving data on Microsoft’s SkyDrive.

Ways and Means to Share Files – Part 1 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

We all know how important it is to have an anti-virus program on our computer to catch viruses, malware, prevent identification theft and so on. Unauthorised access to your computer via the Internet is commonplace, just read the headlines about hackers accessing and corrupting files in government and military computer systems. Private individuals are also fair game!

It is unfortunate that some users still live in a fool’s paradise and fail to install an AV program and jeopardise their computer’s security. Often their answer is to say they never log onto the Internet and never let anybody access their computer. If this is true they’ll probably get away with it. Others say they’ve got an anti-virus program but when you ask if they update it regularly they’re not sure.

Besides having your computer compromised and the files corrupted, the worst thing that can happen is to have your personal information stolen. If you fail to take basic precautions by installing a reliable anti-virus software application you are indeed taking a serious risk.

Installing a reliable Anti-virus application is perhaps the most single and cost-effective action you can take for your computer’s health and safety. It is essential to have a reliable AV program and to update it regularly.

Initially, when I started using computers and knowing full well the dangers that lurked on the Internet, I purchased Norton anti-virus program. At first I was happy with its ability to detect and remove the “nasties”. As each subsequent version came out Norton became more and more complicated. It became too intrusive in my opinion. Removing it from your computer was a work of art indeed. Others may well disagree with my negative attitude towards Norton.

When you buy a new computer you will find a 30 day trial of Norton ready for you to install it. My advice is don’t! I’ve purchased several computers over the years and remembering my earlier experience with Norton never took up their offer. Some of my friends who have done so and later decided against using Norton, had the devil’s own job removing it from the computer.

If cost is a factor well there are several free AV programs available. Here is a list of good reliable ones.

• Avast! Free Antivirus
• Avira AntiVir Personal Edition
• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
• Microsoft Security Essentials
• Panda Cloud Antivirus

All of the above, with the exception of Microsoft Security Essentials, all of those listed come with an advanced version that you have to purchase.  The free versions, excluding Microsoft Security Essentials, are a cut-down version, just providing minimal support. For enhanced security you may need to purchase the full version. All these free AV applications encourage good computer security at no cost to users. So why spend good money on an expensive anti-virus program when there are a number of free versions available all of which are just as effective.

These days I use Microsoft’s free program, Microsoft Security Essentials. This runs nicely with Windows 7 and suits my needs completely with its regular automatic updates and its ability to scan my computer for viruses etc.

It is available from Microsoft’s website at the following location –

  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security_essentials/default.aspx

Once you install Microsoft Security Essentials, its icon is added to the Notification Area. Its easy to-use interface allows you to scan you computer for virus etc. Normally its icon is hidden on the Notifications Area but you can check it out by clicking the up arrow button.

Tip! Should you wish to see Microsoft Security Essentials on the taskbar, access the Notifications Area window by clicking the up arrow button. Scroll down  to find Microsoft Security Essentials and select “Show icons and notifications”. 

Microsoft Security Essentials

If you are in the market for a reliable cost-free AV program, give Microsoft Security Essentials serious consideration!

The Why and Wherefore of Anti-virus Programs is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Listening to Internet Radio Stations using Windows Media Player

In my previous article on listening to the Internet Radio on your computer, I extolled the virtues of MediaU Player Mercury.  It may seem curious to some that in my earlier search for a good radio player for listening to Internet Radio stations I, not only overlooked one of the features of the Windows Media Player, but also didn’t know it included an effective player too. This makes me wonder how many other users of Windows 7 know about and use Windows Media Player to listen to live audio streams from Internet Radio Stations?

With Windows Media Player you can:

• Browse stations by genre
• Search for specific stations

Well, here’s a quick guide about how to use it!

1.      Open Windows Media Player.

2.      Click the Media Guide button in the lower left corner of the Player Library.

Opening Media Guide

3.      Next, click Internet Radio at the top of the Windows Media Guide webpage.

Opening Media Player

4.      Now you have two choices. You can – Browse for a station by Genre or Search for Radio Stations.

Option 1       Browsing by Genre

There are 36 genres available.

1.      Select the Genre, for example select “Classical”.

2.      Next, a list of classical stations appears.

3.      Choose a station and click Listen.

Choosing a Genre

Option 2              Search for Radio Station

You can use Search to filter your search results by clicking drop-down menus in the Search box, and then select values for genre, language, and country or region.

1.      Click the button labeled “Search for radio stations”.

Searching for Radio Stations

2.      Next, the Search Box opens. There are three choices available. Choose the Genre, Language and Country/Region.

Search Options

3.      Depending on your choice you’ll get as result but this is not always the case. (See: Bad Result below)

Searches Results

Bad Result

I have found using more than selecting more than two options often results in a “no win” situation. In the next screen picture I chose these search options – English (United States), Jazz and Australia with no result. The result seems to imply we don’t speak English here! However, I’m sure this was only a minor glitch!

Inconclusive Search Result

Good Result

The criteria I used for this search was – English (United States), Jazz and United States. No complaints about that!

Successful Search

Listening to Your Chosen Station

Once you have made a successful search select the Station and click Listen.

Listening to selected Station

Now enjoy!

Stored Stations

One final point to keep in mind! As you seek and find stations you like, Windows Media Player keeps tabs on where you’ve been. This information is stored on the right-hand side of Windows Media Player’s window.

Stations previously visited

I’m sure most users will appreciate having a useful Internet Radio Player, as found in Windows Media Player, within their grasp and thus not have to search the web for a suitable player.

Hindsight View!

While I find it handy to have Window Media Player’s Internet Radio Play so convenient, I consider mediaU Player Mercury the better proposition for several reasons. Firstly, it has a wider selection of Radio Stations such  Swiss Opera and Radio Swiss Classic. These are two of my favourite stations free of the advertisements that pester you on American Internet Radio stations.  You can also access available non-internet stations such as FM Radio stations here in Australia. Secondly, I like the way you can pre-program it to listen to your favourite stations. As usual, everything comes down to personal preferences!

So what do you think!

Internet Radio on Your Computer – Part 2 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Is your computer becoming cluttered with duplicated files scattered here and there across your folders?

Well, here’s an answer to the problem!

There is a useful application available from Mind Gems website. It is called Fast Duplicate File Finder and it is FREEWARE. You can download it from this website: http://www.mindgems.com/products/products.htm

This product will help you find all duplicated files in folder and their sub folders on your hard drive. The application will compare the content of your files so it will find duplicates even if they are using different file names. There is a Professional version too which is more sophisticated but this will cost you!

The duplicate remover uses fast binary comparison algorithm and has internal preview supporting most images, videos, music and text file formats. You can also preview the files before giving them the “chop”.

As a safeguard, Fast Duplicate File Finder includes an option to protect system files and folders. This is ON by default.

Setting Fast Duplicate File Finder to Work

The first thing you need to do is to select the folders where you suspect the duplicated files reside.

1.       Start the program. The main window opens. Spend some time checking out its features.

Opening Screen

2.       Before selecting folders to scan, ensure the box labelled Scan Folders in the Scan Box is checked.

Make sure Scan Folders is checked!

3.       Click the button labelled Add Folder in the Scan Box or the same named button on the Taskbar at the top of the window.

4.       The Browse for Folders window opens. Select a folder or folders to scan.
Note: Make sure you check the small empty box alongside the selected folder.

Selected folders for scanning

5.       Click the Scan Now button either on the Taskbar or in the Scan Box.

           Note: This can be the button in the Scan box or on the Toolbar at the top of the window.

6.       The program then issues a warning informing you the System Files and Folders are protected. Click the OK button to continue.

7.       The Scan commences.  When it finishes another window opens indicating the results of the scan. Click the Ok button to continue.

Preliminary notice of Scan Results

8.       After the scan process finishes the program shows you all found duplicate files in groups and automatically marking checking the duplicated file thus marking them for deletion.

Scan completed showing duplicated files

You have completed your first task. You have found those “pesky” duplicates. In my next article, Introducing Fast Duplicate File Finder (Part 2)  you’ll find out what to do next to get rid of them.

Introducing Fast Duplicate File Finder (Part 1) is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

As most users work with their computer they create large documents, pictures, images, video files and audio files. The time will come when you will be hit by a sudden realisation that your system has slowed down due to the accumulation of duplicate files scattered throughout your hard disk.

The answer to this problem is to utilise duplicate file finder software to find duplicate files on your computer and eliminate them thus freeing up clogged hard disk space. This has an additional benefit of increasing the speed of your computer system.

To ensure you have a healthy operating system consider running duplicate file finder software.

After researching the Web, I have come across five free Duplicate File Finders that will find duplicate files on your hard drive. Some, in my opinion are better than others but nevertheless here is the list.

•  Duplicate Cleaner
• Fast Duplicate File Finder
• CloneSpy
• Duplicate File Finder
• DoubleKiller

Here is a brief summary of what each of these applications do.

Duplicate Cleaner

This application helps you painlessly remove duplicate files from your computer. It has a well laid out easy-to-use interface.

This application is available from the following website:

http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/20/windows/system-utils/duplicate-cleaner-find-duplicate-files-by-content.html

Fast Duplicate File Finder

This efficient and easy-to-use free application help you quickly remove duplicate files from your computer. It is well laid out easy-to-use interface is a good choice.

This application is available from the following website:

http://www.mindgems.com/products/Fast-Duplicate-File-Finder/Fast-Duplicate-File-Finder-About.htm

CloneSpy

If you indulge in a lot of Internet downloads the chances are you will duplicate files unwittingly. This application can be used to delete redundant files or move them to a specific folder or export them to another location.

This application is available from the following website:

http://www.clonespy.com/

Duplicate File Finder

This application has a friendly interface suitable for computer beginners. It searches for duplicate file contents irrespective of the file name. Once found duplicate files can be deleted or moved or copied.

This application is available from the following website:

http://www.ashisoft.com/

DoubleKiller

This application is fast, compact and easy to use. It removes people that files from your system. It finds files using the following criteria – name, size, modification date and content.

This application is available from the following website:

http://www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/

So there you have it, the choice is yours!

Having said that, my particular choice is Fast Duplicate File Finder. In my next blog, I will explain why I have chosen this one and will explain how it operates.

It will be interesting to hear other users’ opinions about finding and removing duplicate files from your computer system.

Duplicate File Clutter – How Do You Deal with It! is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Accessing the System Configuration window

With all the current hype about Windows 8, I wonder whether the average user fully comprehends and uses all of the features of Windows 7.  I have been using Windows operating systems, from Windows 3.1 right up to the present time.  As far as I am concerned Windows 7 is the ‘bee’s knees’ of operating systems. Windows 8 will have to go a long way to convince me to change.

While I am a confirmed Windows 7 fan, I still enjoy exploring its potential and regularly come across something new. 

This leads me to the topic of this article – Accessing the System Configuration window.  This feature is one of the most useful windows available in Windows 7.  I know it had its antecedents right back to Windows XP and beyond, but its current features are superior to those earlier versions. 

Access to the System Configuration window is easy.  The simplest and quickest way is to open the Start Menu and in the Search box, type “msconfig“.  Immediately the Search feature displays this command at the top of its box.  Pressing the Enter key opens the System Configuration window.  This window contains five tabs, all of which have useful functions but I want to draw your attention to the last one , the Tools tab.

When you access this tab, in its window you will see a list of available System tools together with a description of their function. Scroll down the list and you will see there are eighteen tools in all, each one allowing you to make system changes or access specific system tools. 

One Stop Shop Tools

With the Tools Tab on the System Configuration window open to activate one of the tools on the list, and click the Launch button.  The selected tool opens immediately allowing you to get on with the task.   The System Configuration window remains open in the background, so after you complete the task, you can return to the tools list and perform another one.  This saves you an awful lot of time.

Activating System Tools

With this set of System Tools now at your fingertips, you can get straight on to the task.  I’m wondering whether this feature will be retained in Windows 8? Maybe it can be made even better!!

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In my last article “Degunking Makes your Computer Run Faster, I made reference to a great book on the subject by Joli Ballew. Her book is called “Degunking Windows 7″. This provides useful information on how to get rid of accumulated gunk on your computer. To put some of her ideas into practice here are a few tips.

When you decide to take the plunge and set about turning your computer into a mean clean machine you need go further than Windows 7 itself. Here you will find two useful tools, Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter. Both reside in System Tools, a sub-folder of Accessories. These tools go a long way to cleaning up the mess on your computer.

Using Disk Cleanup

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the Search box type, Disk Cleanup.
3. Select the drive and click the OK button.

Note: If you have more than one hard drive, click the down arrow button and select the drive you wish to clean up.

4. Disk Cleanup calculates how much space it can save.

Note: By default, Disk Cleanup displays a list of checked locations where redundant files reside. These files are fair game so you can delete these files with impunity. However, there are also some non-checked locations. Treat these with caution.

5. To see what you may be in them, move the mouse pointer onto each listed item. In the lower section of the dialogue box you will see the following information – the amount of disk space you will save and a description of what you are deleting. The golden rule is “Always check before you delete“.

The illustration below shows you the sequence to follow.

Using Disk Cleanup

Why do you need to defragment your hard drive?

Your computer when running contains hundreds and hundreds of files. The more programs and more files you had the greater likelihood is that they will be scattered across your hard drive in fragments.

Fragmented files degrade the performance of your computer. As the clusters of files become fragmented they grow further apart and it takes longer for your computer to find and assemble all the pieces necessary to run the program or to access the file.

This is where the process of defragment it comes in. It rearranges the files on your hard drive putting them back in order last cutting down the time it takes to access them.

Now you know why you need to defragment your hard drive on a regular basis.

Using Disk Defragmenter

The other useful tool for tidying up your hard drive is Windows 7’s Disk Defragmenter. This is located in System Tools. The quickest way of accessing it is to open the Start Menu and in the Search box type, “defragmenter”. Windows search quickly find see operating command. Press the Enter  key. The Disk Defragmenter window opens.

There are two important options in Disk Defragmenter. The first is to analyse the disk you wish to defragment and the second option is to go straight into the defragmentation process.

Windows 7 Disk Defragmenter

Tip! Windows 7 is not the only provider of a good defragment program. Consider these two alternatives –

• Piriform’s Defraggler   http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
• Auslogics Disk Defrag  http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/

Both applications are freeware and are excellent applications.

You have made to positive moves in the process of cleaning up the gunk on your computer. In my next article you will learn how to continue the process.

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Recuva, a File Recovery Application

Everyone, from time to time, has accidentally deleted files from their computer thus loosing valuable information. Well your worries are over! Piriform has created a free application called Recuva that can recover most deleted files.

To help you on the path of recovery Recuva provides a Wizard to guide you through the recovery process.

Recuva's Opening Screen

Once the Wizard opens, click the Next button to move onto the next screen.

The second screen, File Type, is where you choose the sort of files you want to recover. Select the appropriate radio button and then click Next.

Choosing a File Type

The next screen is File location. Here you need to choose the location where the lost files may be.

After choosing the location the next screen offers you the choice of a “normal” scan or a “deep scan”. The latter takes a long time to complete.

Choosing the Scan

After scanning is complete the results window opens. Much in this recovery program depends on whether the file(s) are overwritten. If this is the case well it’s “too bad how sad!”.

Found Files window

In the example above, the files are colour codes – Green is recoverable, Orange a poor option for recovery and Red has been overwritten, thus unrecoverable.

Select the files you wish to recover by ticking the boxes. Then click the Recover button and Recuva opens the Browse to Folder window. Here you choose the location for the recovered files.

Placing the found files

Tip!  As I don’t like losing my recovered files again, I usually create a new folder on my Desktop for them.

Click the Ok button. Recuva deposits the recovered files in the appropriate folder.

Files recovered

Finally, click the Ok button to confirm. You have successfully recovered the deleted files.

Recuva for Advanced Users

Some users cannot be bothered with Wizards. If this is you, and you want to skip using Recuva’s Wizard, check the box in the opening screen and when Recuva re-opens taking you straight into file recovery.

Advanced User Screen 1

Recuva defaults to Drive C. So if you wish Recuva to search in another location click the down arrow button and choose the drive. You need to decide what sort of files you are searching for also.

The illustration below shows you what to do.

Advanced User Screen 2

 Once you have made these decisions, click the Search button and Recuva gets to work.

I’m sure you’ll find it a useful addition to your stable of enhancement applications for Windows 7.

Finding and Recovering Deleted Files is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Defraggler, a Useful Tool

A useful alternative to Windows 7′s Disk Defragmenter is Piriform’s Defraggler. This is a free application from Piriform (www.piriform.com). It provides an alternative to the inflexible Windows 7’s Disk Defragmenter which doesn’t go beyond defragmenting your entire hard drive at one go.

Defraggler allows you more flexibility. You can schedule it to operate late at night, early in the morning, or any time of day. In addition you can set it to defragment exactly what you want, an entire file, a folder, or a single file. This feature is available in the Settings menu.

Putting Defraggler to Work

If you are in a hurry, launch Defraggler, click the drive you want to defragment, and then click the big Defrag button.

Opening Screen

More Options

Other defragment options are found in the Action menu. These include the ability to perform a quick defrag, defrag individual folders or drives. To access this select Quick Defrag Drive from the Action menu.

Action Menu options

Defraggler provides a better choice. Think about giving it a go and I’m sure you’ll appreciate its useful features.

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It is ages since I’ve written a blog about Windows 7. Well, after this hiatus I decided to draw Windows 7 News & Tips readers attention to four useful little tools available from a website called Piriform. Its web address is as follows: www.piriform.com

They are:

• CCleaner
• Defraggler
• Recuva
• Speccy

Note: I’ve already dealt with Speccy in a previous blog. See “Ever wanted to check your Computer’s Hardware Components” Published 01/07/2010.

When you access Piriform’s website check out the four applications as per the illustration below:

Piriform 1

After you do that a larger screen opens providing details about each application. For more information just click the button labelled More Info. On the other hand if you want to take a punt on the program click the button labelled Download. I am sure you will find these applications of value.

Piriform 2

Four Useful Products enhancing Windows 7 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Windows 7 Media Center is one of the hidden gems within Windows 7.  With a few tweaks this program can do everything you need and can replace every other piece of AV connected to your PC e.g. set-top boxes, DVDs, Blu-ray players etc.

Every bedroom in my apartment and my living room has a Windows 7 Media Center machine – here are 12 Essential Windows 7 Media Center Addons that get the most out of W7MC.

1 – DVBLogic TVSource & Network Pack

Allows you to share or ‘pool’ TV cards installed in one W7MC machine not only with other W7MC machines, so that you can watch live tv on every Windows 7 machine within your home.  As a bonus, live tv from your W7MC can also be streamed online via a browser and can be watched on iPhones and iPads.  Read a full review here.

More: DVBlogic

2 – My Movies

Probably one of the most advanced W7MC addons.  My Movies contains collection management tools for both movies and now also TV shows, that pulls in rich metadata about the films and tv shows in your collection.  This metadata is then presented within MediaCenter in a fantastic interface that allows the easy selection of content to watch.

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• Read our review of My Movies here
• Download My Movies 4 here

More: My Movies

3 – Recorded TV Manager 3

Manages your recorded TV collection through a convenient series-centric interface.  Powerful AutoMove tools that allows recordings to be moved to another location, such as another PC or to a network share so that it can be accessed by other PCs.

• Download Recorded TV Manager 3 here

More: Recorded TV Manager 3

4 – Shark007 Codecs

The only codec pack you will ever need.  Out of the box this codec pack will cover 90% of usage scenarios, and the easy config tool will allow users to easily accommodate the other 10%.  Windows X64 users need to install both the X86 AND X64 packages

• Download X86 Windows 7 codecs
• Downlaod X64 Windows 7 codecs

More: Shark007

5 – MediaControl

Media Control is a plugin for Microsoft Media Center that adds lacking features such as : fast forward/rewind for any video format, resume video, switch between audio/subtitles streams, sets brightness/contrast, improves picture quality

This plugin is essential if you watch mkv files within media center and need to switch audio streams.

• Download X86 version here
• Download X64 version here

More: MediaControl

6 – My Channel Logos

This great app now not only adds channel logos to Windows 7 Media Center’s TV guide, but the latest version can also increase the number of rows in the guide and mini-guide.

More: My Channel Logos

12 Essential Windows 7 Media Center Addons & Tweaks is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

There are many graphics programs available for sophisticated users, but what about for the novice? Is there anything that is easy to use? Well yes, and here are three such programs.

Vectorian Giotto

Most of you know that Flash is a program used to make images available to many websites. Learning flash can be tedious. But with Giotto, it is easier than you think. How? Well, Giotto comes with more than 50 animated effects that can be applied to both shapes and text, and you do not have to do  any coding at all.  Here’s this, create and play with the Flash effects through the effect editor, and see the animations immediately on the screen.  You only need to focus on expressing your creativity and making Flash animations, there’s no need for scripting and coding, and even no need to pay anything. Freeware

[Download Link]

Easy Image Modifier

As a writer, I frequently have to put images in my articles to make the articles more readable, and user friendly. Unfortunately, many good images are unusable because they are too small, or I can’t crop them in the right way, and I’m not a Photoshop expert; I’m more of a Paint kind of guy. But with the Easy Image Modifier, I am now able to manipulate the images in a way that suits me.

It can resize, rotate, flip, change format, add watermark texts, sort or rename the  images without having to use complicated editing techniques.  This is a  straightforward program that runs with no need for installation and even most advanced operations are set up with just a few mouse-clicks. You can change the dimension of your images using either a fixed value for width and height or by using a percent. Freeware

[Download Link]

Merge

So far, you’ve seen programs that will help you create Flash like images, or modify the dimensions of an image, now how about merging two images together?

MERGE is a graphic utility for overlaying two images in any relative position prior to saving the result to a file and printing.  You can merge the two images in many different ways as well as smooth blending in of just part of an image to the final result.  You can also add surreal effects to your final image.  There is any need to worry about image relative positioning, size or scaling differences; it is all handled easily. Freeware

[Download Link]

Summary

These three graphics programs do something different and each has a specific audience to attract. That said, you should try all three to see how your image work can improve.

3 Freeware Graphics Programs to Look At is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Video files are not easy to edit or modify. But there are programs that you can use to make this operation easy to perform. You can reverse videos, add subtitles, or download online videos.

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[Download Link]

DivXLand Media Subtitler

Here is another video tool that movie enthusiasts might look at. DivXLand Subtitler allows the user to manually subtitle movies and videos while viewing the applied captions on the fly. With features like automatic timing limit, easy caption edition, and 2 modes for applying of captions users can modify the films with their own subtexts. This is a good feature to have if you are recording home videos and people are speaking in different languages. Convenient and fun.  Here are some of the features you get. Instant-preview of the subtitled video without saving.  You can save partially edited files to resume subtitling process later. You have automatic caption timing set and correction and there are multiple subtitling modes available

[Download Link]

Freemake Video Downloader

Free Video Downloader from Freemake  lets you get videos from Youtube, Facebook, Vevo, ComedyCentral, Dailymotion, MTV, Vimeo, plus forty similar websites more. The program is free and comes without adware or sneakware.

Freemake Video Downloader is the fastest ever utility to grab online videos in any format available, extract original audio tracks without any quality loss, or convert videos to a certain video/audio format like AVI, MP3, MKV, or for portable devices, such as iPod, iPhone, iPad, PSP and Android. It also supports download of YouTube RTMP-based videos and private YouTube and Facebook videos.

[Download Link]

Summary

These are cool tools. If you are into videos, these will be good utilities to have on hand for your editing operations.

3 Video Tools to Look At is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Accessing a computer remotely is imperative if you do extensive support, software, hardware, or network wise.  That is why having the right kind od remote access software can help you do you job quickly. Here are some examples of programs that will do that.

LogMeIn

Allows remote control your computer, so you can access your desktop from anywhere.  You can start a sleeping computer on LAN. This program is PC or Mac Compatible, and you can have remote access anytime, anywhere.  There are two versions of LogMeIn, Basic and Pro. LogMeIn Free offers basic remote control which allows you to open files, check email, run programs, and run system diagnostics.  With LogMeIn Pro, on the other hand, you can do everything you can do with Basic but also do: Remote Printing, File Manager, Remote Sound, and Desktop Sharing.

[Download Link]

Instant House Call

Another free remote access software and remote support software. It provides unlimited free remote support for to up to 5 friends with the Instant HouseCall Free Edition. Other features: you have Attended & Unattended Access. No pre-installed software is necessary. In other words, you can provide support to customers and colleagues without pre-installing software. No configuration is necessary, so you have anywhere to anywhere connectivity and this means you can work from your home or office without configuring firewalls and routers. Novices can request support with ease .

[Download Link]

Synergy

It is available for both PC & Mac Remote Access View; with this program you can control & fix any computer from your own screen.  It has instant desktop sharing, and it is free to use, and easy  to set up with no need to register. It comes with remote desktop sharing software deployment, patch & asset mgmt and desktop sharing.

[Download Link]

Summary

Long distance PC support is vital to any tech operation. These three programs can provide you with easy access to the remote PC of a friend or relative, or business acquaintance.

Remote Access Software to Look At is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Every now and then you want to capture the contents on your screen to past them into a text editor, or to manipulate them with Paint or some such program.  Here are 3 screen capture programs that will give you more options than the standard Alt-print screen option provides.

DuckCapture

Go from 1 to 4. That is because DuckCapture comes with four capture modes that make screen capture easy. Now you can capture a window on your screen, region of your screen, or the contents of a tall web page that scrolls. You can easily edit, and share a screenshot. You won’t need to waste time cropping your captures. You also have annotation options. That means that once you finished basic capture, you can start editing right away: draw annotations with arrows,  or blocks.

[Download Link]

Screen Grab Pro 1.7

Screen Grab Pro is a freeware screen capture tool. With it you can use a one click grab of any screen for ease of use, timer operation, or current window selection list.  Here are some of its best featues:

• One click grab of any screen
• Hotkey Instant Screen or Region Capture
• Select any window from list.
• Copies bitmap to clipboard ready for pasting in your favorite Picture Editor.
• Bitmap, Jpeg, ICON & PDF Support
• 32bit Image Support
• Region Capture

Screen Grab Pro will copy a bitmap to clipboard ready for pasting in your favorite Picture Editor.

[Download Link]

Screeny

Like the previous freeware programs, Screeny will capture your screenshots quickly. Here are some of its features.

• Timed capture available (e.g. capture after 8 seconds)
• Supports .jpg and .png file formats
• Upload screenshot to the internet to share with others
• Capture a window or the whole desktop
• Create and crop screenshots quickly
• Adjust the compression or quality of the saved screenshots
• Quickly pixelate/hide areas of the screenshot you want to keep private
• Completely portable application, no install required

[Download Link]

Summary

The days of Alt-Print Screen are behind us. New programs make your screen capture actions more accessible and modifiable.  This means that you can do more when you capture images from your screen.

3 Top Screen Capture Tools to Look At is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Microsoft has released the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit yesterday. It can be used to block the deployment of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 for 12 months following general availability of the service packs.

The toolkit contains three components which all set or clear a Registry key that blocks or allows the installation of the service pack 1 via Windows Update. Why three and not one component? Because different computer infrastructures may required different means of blocking the service packs from being installed.

Included in the bundle are the following three components:

• A Microsoft-signed executable
• A script
• An ADM template

Note that the executable and script have been tested only as a command-line tool and not in conjunction with other systems management tools or remote execution mechanisms.

A Microsoft-signed executable

The executable creates a registry key on the computer on which it is run that blocks or unblocks (depending on the command-line option used) the delivery of a Service Pack to that computer through Windows Update. The key used is HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate.

When the ‘/B’ command line option is used, the key value name ‘DoNotAllowSP’ is created and its value set to 1. This value blocks delivery of a Service Pack to the computer through Automatic Update or Windows Update.

When the ‘/U’ command line option is used, the previously created registry value that temporarily blocked the delivery of a Service Pack to the computer through Automatic Update or Windows Update is removed. If the value does not exist on the computer on which it is run, no action is taken.

A script

The script does the same thing as the executable, but allows you to specify the remote machine name on which to block or unblock delivery of Service Packs.

An ADM template

The ADM template allows administrators to import group policy settings to block or unblock delivery of Service Packs into their Group Policy environment. Administrators can then use Group Policy to centrally execute the action across systems in their environment.

The Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit prevents only the installation of a service pack via Windows Update. It is still possible to update the system by downloading the service pack separately or by applying the patch from CD/DVD or other media.

The Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit can be downloaded from directly from Microsoft’s Download Center.

Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit Download Available is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I’ve just stumbled across this great little program called “Piles”. What it does is places recently created or altered files in a Windows 7 jump list on the Windows Taskbar so you can quickly access them.

How many times have you downloaded a program or just finished working on a document and then you need to open it up again. You then have to go and navigate through all the directories until you find that file, but with “Piles” it automatically adds the most recent files to a jump list on your taskbar so you can access them in seconds.

After installing Piles for the first time you will get a new icon in your taskbar which is by default linked to your “MyDocuments” folder, so any changes that you make to files in the folder will automatically be added to the jump list.

You can make your own custom target directory by right clicking on the icon and point it to a new directory. Say for instance you point it to the “Download” directory, every time you download a new file it will automatically be added to that jump list for super quick access, saving you from rummaging around your computers hard drive until you find it.

It’s a great little program, and best of all it’s completely free! You can download it here

Add Recently Changed Files To Your Taskbar is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I’m sure you’ve all experienced it at some stage or another. You’re just quietly working away on your PC and all is well, suddenly you get the cringing error sound and then a window pops up with a great big red X. In the window is a whole bunch of numbers and letters, an error code.

Generally the only way to figure out what these mean is to head on over to Google and do a search for them, but there’s an easier way. The Windows Error Code Lookup Tool (also known as ErrMsg) is a handy little program developed just to help you with that problem.

You can download this portable program from here, then you just have to run it and you will be able to enter your error code. It should then translate all those 0×80070570 into English for you and let you know what it actually means to human beings.

It works on both 32bit and 64 bot versions of Windows 7 as well as previous versions of Windows.

That’s one option, but there’s another little program as well, a bit more advanced but does pretty much the same job. WELT (Windows Error Lookup Tool) will also allow you to lookup those error codes, but it also allows you to add notes so next time you get that error code you can keep track of what applications are causing it.

It offers 3 categories of error codes which are Win32/HRESULTS, NTSTATUS and STOP Errors. You have to enter the error code and then select the category and hit enter. This option is probably more for advanced users as most users wont know what the different categories are.

You can download WELT here

Find Out What Windows Error Codes Mean is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Now this isn’t a problem I encounter to often, but sometimes when you have several accounts on the one machine, trouble can occur with the various different profiles and they may become corrupt. It could be as a result of somebody deleting an important file, a virus or malware infection or a system crash, not to mention the mysterious “it was perfectly fine when I used it” answer that you can get from little brothers and sisters.

Anyway enough of the blame game, how can you actually fix a corrupt profile? Well thankfully you don’t have to go digging through the registry and trying to restore from back ups etc… there’s a handy little program floating around called Reprofiler, and they might just save the day for you.

If you’re experiencing errors such as Windows no longer recognizing the profile that belongs to a certain user (it creates a new empty profile when you log on and continues to use it instead of your old one) or if you simply can’t log on at all then you need to give this a go.

You need to log onto another user account and run Reprofiler. Simply select a user account and you will be able to see the user name, domain, SID and profile path. It will then notify you as to whether or not it’s logged on or not and gives you the option to log it off before you perform any actions on it.

Then you will be able to use detach to disconnect a profile from a data folder or assign to re-attach. If you’re getting a message when you log in that Windows was unable to load your profile due to some form of error, ReProfiler’s assign button could very well provide an automated fix for you, with very little input on your behalf.

Click here to download it

Credit:DownloadSquad

How To Fix Corrupt Or Unavailable User Profiles is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

One of the cool little features that arose from the ashes of the disaster known as Windows Vista was the Reliability Monitor. A little-known tool which is almost hidden within the action center, the Reliability tool is great for tracking your computers reliability.

I remember using it when I was running Vista and nearly forgot about it until I was reminded by a weekly podcast to which I subscribe. I did my best to see if we have ever covered the Reliability Monitor here on Windows7News and as far as I can tell, we haven’t.

“Reliability Monitor is an advanced tool that measures hardware and software problems and other changes to your computer. It provides a stability index that ranges from 1 (the least stable) to 10 (the most stable). You can use the index to help evaluate the reliability of your computer. Any change you make to your computer or problem that occurs on your computer affects the stability index.”

Per Microsoft, the Reliability Monitor is intended for advanced computer users, such as software developers and network administrators, but it is easy to use, so even moderate users will have no problem using the tool to track their system over time.

There are two ways to find your PC’s Reliability history:

You can use Windows Search and begin typing the word ‘Reliability’ until the option shows.

Or

Right-click on the white flag in your taskbar to open Action Center.

Click Maintenance. Then, under Check for solutions to problem reports, click View reliability history.

In Reliability Monitor, you can:

• Click any event on the graph to view its details.
• Click Days, or Weeks, to view the stability index over a specific period of time.
• Click items in the Action column to view more information about it.
• Click View all problem reports to view only the problems that have occurred on your computer. This view does not include the other computer events that show up in Reliability Monitor, such as events about software installation.

The layout of the program is pretty self-explanatory and very basic.

You can click on specific unreliable instances to view the details.

The Reliability Monitor is a very basic program with a very basic use. It’s one of the many useful tools provided natively in Windows 7 which can help you keep your PC on the right track.

Your Windows 7 Reliability Monitor is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Have you ever wanted to rip a DVD movie but eventually got tied up in knots when trying to choose a suitable video codec or understand what “VBV buffer rate” even meant? What about that day you were anxious to watch a video on your brand new iPhone, only just to find out that it doesn’t work because it’s of the wrong format?! You might have faced other hurdles when downloading YouTube videos, removing a file’s DRM protection or burning a video to a DVD.

Yes, you can install a program for each of these tasks and get the job done. Nonetheless, you can take a wiser decision and dodge a lot of pain and frustration by just buying one program that can do it all. This application would be Daniusoft Video Converter Ultimate, which has the following capabilities:

User Interface & Usability

The program has a simple user interface without any settings buried deep inside it or difficult to access. You can add video and audio files to a list and specify each item’s output format and quality, all from within the main window. Trimming, editing and transferring files to a device can all be done via the buttons at the top. Once you’ve set your list and are satisfied with the settings, click on the “Start” button to start conversion or the “Burn DVD” if you want to make a DVD. Unlike some other media converters, Daniusoft Video Converter Ultimate’s design integrates all features with one another and keeps everything in one place, making it very efficient to use.

I’ve found it easy to learn and became familiar with its interface quickly. In fact, after quickly skimming through the guide that appeared after installation, I was able to jump right into using it. There are, however, some features which I think are important that the program lacks. For instance, there is neither an option for minimizing it to the tray nor a “Clear” button to create a new list. Furthermore, while converting files, it only tells us the percentage completed and time remaining. There’s no mention of the time elapsed, conversion speed, etc.. These things aren’t major, though they are expected by users.

Daniusoft Video Converter Ultimate In-Depth Review is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Every so often you download a file, and when your finished with it, you go to delete it and then you get the famous error message. ” Windows was not able to remove the selected file because it is currently in use” this just drives me nuts when I see it. Ok, right so I just go and close whatever window I had open that caused the file to be in use and try again.

Nope still doesn’t work. Right then, I’ll close every single window and program, that should do the trick. Try to remove the file again, but nope still you keep getting that error message.

You’re getting worried at this stage, is this a virus or what? So you go and reboot your machine, then you go once more to delete the file, but still no luck, error message yet again.

So what do you do? Are you stuck with this file forever? Well not anymore, now there is a program called “Unlocker” which will solve all your problems.

It works with both Windows 7 32 bit and 64 bit (there is a different version for each so be sure to download the right one) and even better it’s free.

It works out which processes are running and causing the file to be in use, and kills them which then allows it to delete the file. What’s more, you don’t even have to reboot your machine unlike other file removal programs.

Just a word of note though, because of the nature of this program, several antivirus programs mark it as a false positive and think it’s malware. But rest assured, it’s not and there’s proof of that on the developers blog

You can download the

32 Bit version here

64 Bit version here

Remove Those Stubborn Files From Windows 7 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I recently built myself a new PC for my home / office and was immediately faced with a problem.  I would be working regularly on several machines at [pretty much] the same time and needed all of my files synchronised between them.

Fortunately, or so I thought, the answer lay in the new Windows Live Essentials Suite Beta that’s just been released by Microsoft so I installed it on my three PCs, the one in my office, my new one in the living room and the media centre under my TV and set up some sync partnerships.

The problems first began to appear though as sluggish performance on my new computer, which with a Core i7 and 6Gb of RAM immediately struck me as worrying but then got more serious as all of a sudden my media center announced there was no disk space left and it was completely unable to display live TV as a result.

Upon investigating the problem I traced it to a hidden “Live Mesh” folder that was filling up with gigabyte upon gigabyte of temporary files.  I’d not set Live Sync to synchronise my files with SkyDrive, just across the PCs.  This bypasses the 2GB maximum storage limit you have with the SkyDrive Live Sync storage, allowing you to synchronise any amount of files you want.

It transpired that Live Sync wasn’t just synchronising files but making copies of everything first, completely filling up the Windows drives on all my PCs and bringing Windows to a halt.

To try and rectify this I found the storage folder entries in the registries of all three computers and changed them to a spare or empty partition on each computer, these could easily be filled without causing problems.  Upon rebooting though I discovered that on each machine Live Sync had changed the default store folder back again.  Clearly this wasn’t going to work.

By default Live Sync offers you options for syncing your Documents and Pictures, and left with these options you should be fine.  Be warned though that if you have really large numbers of files, regardless of how up to date the copies are on each PC, Live Sync can very quickly bring your computers to a standstill.  In this case I was also trying to synchronise my music library (and this was pretty up to date on each of my computers).

I’ve now given up trying to use Live Sync for my music library and I’ll have to resort to using HomeGroup instead, which isn’t ideal but is the only option left available to me.  I can only hope that Microsoft change the options for Live Sync during its beta to prevent it using every last single byte of available space on your Windows drive.  It’s a lovely piece of software and incredibly useful, it just needs to remain that way regardless of what you want to use it for.

Windows Live Sync Beta: the good, the bad and the bug is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

A few days ago, we mentioned at Windows 7 News how to change the icon of a library in Windows 7 using a little nifty tool called “Library Icon Changer”. The program doesn’t require any installation to run and is straightforward. Although this is wonderful news for the majority of users, there are still some people who prefer to do things the hard way. That is, manually change the icon without the aid of a program.

But why take the longer? Well as Jason mentioned earlier in his the article, Windows 7 is very customizable. We can change various aspects of operating system such as themes, the start orb, resize thumbnail previews and even the task switcher. Now for someone like me who doesn’t like to pile up installed applications, having a whole program just to customize a small part of the OS is just wasteful. The only available choice is to either apply these tweaks manually or rely on a tweaking utility such as WinBubble. This might seem a bit advanced for some people, but can be interesting for those who want to glimpse at how libraries work under the hood. Enough with the introduction, let’s dive straight into the steps!

Step 1: Locate the libraries

Have you ever wondered where libraries are really stored? We are told that they are “virtual” or a “special” type of folders that can display files from different locations at the same time and in one place. Well a library is stored as an XML definition file having the file extension .library-ms and the same name as the filename of that file. Because each user has their own libraries, they are placed in the user’s storage space (C:Users{username}). The fastest way to access the directory where libraries are actually stored is to copy and paste the following in the start menu’s search bar or in Windows Explorer. Make sure to replace the {username} with the name of the user before pressing Enter.

C:Users{username}AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsLibraries

Step 2: Open Notepad

I don’t think this requires any explanation. If you like unnecessary complicated stuff or want to show off, try this in Windows Explorer or the Run command:

"%SYSTEMROOT%Notepad.exe"

Step 3: Open the library with Notepad

A simple way to do so is to just drag and drop the library to the open Notepad window. Another way would be to right-click on its icon, click on ”Open with…” and choose “Notepad” from the list of programs available. Once it’s opened in Notepad, you should see something like this:

As you’ve probably guessed, this represents information about the library. Look for the child element <iconReference> in the file. This element defines the icon resource that is used for the library. That is the icon of the library. If you still can’t find it, add it yourself! Type <iconReference></iconReference> under the <isLibraryPinned> element. The file should now be similar to the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<libraryDescription xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2009/library">
  <ownerSID>S-1-5-21-1425347975-2883833823-642864168-1001</ownerSID>
  <version>1</version>
  <isLibraryPinned>true</isLibraryPinned>
  <iconReference></iconReference>
</libraryDescription> 

The text that you should add is written in red and is in bold. Note that your file would likely look different to mine.

Step 4: Specify whichever icon you want

Although the subheading might make it sound like a piece of cake, it actually isn’t! We’re now going to type the path of the new icon. To make things simpler, we’re going to install a small program called IconViewer to view icons stored in dynamic link library (dll) and .exe files. You can download it for free from here. Once, you’ve installed it:

• Navigate to (or type in the start menu’s search bar): C:WindowsSystem32
• Highlight imageres.dll, right-click on it and choose “Properties”.
• Click on the “Icons” tab.
• Find a suitable icon for your library and note down its number/name.

Now that you know its number/name, type the following between the iconReference tags ”imageres.dll,-{#}“, replacing the text in red with the number/name of the icon you want to use. You should have something that looks like that:

  <iconReference>imageres.dll,-{#}</iconReference>

You might be wondering why we used imgeres.dll in particular. We’ve used it in this example because it’s the “Windows Image Resource” and contains a nice collection of icons. You might want to also check out shell32.dll for more icons or use your own ones – simply Bing ”free icons”, you should find a lot!

Step 5: Enjoy

Save the file and close it. You should see the change immediately happen after refreshing. Maybe it’s just me, but I find this way more enjoyable (yet length) than using a program. What do you think? I’ve spent a good deal of effort on this, so any feedback would be appreciated.

Sources: Wikipedia, The Windows Blog, MSDN Magazine and Windows 7 Forums.

Changing Library Icons without a Program is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the great wallpaper switcher built right into Windows 7. It automatically switches your wallpapers at certain time intervals, ie. every 10 mins or every hour.

I’ve been very impressed with this feature, and though it’s a simple little thing, I think it’s a nice touch to personalizing your desktop. In the past this feature wasn’t built into Windows, and you had to use third party programs to achieve the same result.

I can’t really imagine myself using an additional program for this feature, but that was until I stumbled across John’s Background Switcher.

Ultimate Wallpaper Switcher

Download

It adds a whole new dimension to the Windows 7 background switcher. It let’s you bring in photos from external sources to use in your backgrounds as well.

You can choose to display:

• Individual pictures on your computer.
• Folders containing pictures on your computer such as ‘My Pictures’.
• Flickr photo sharing – selecting pictures by person, tags, sets or just plain random. You never know what you’re going to get next!
• Facebook – your friends photos on your desktop!
• Vladstudio wallpapers – choose from the coolest wallpapers on the net!
• Any Media RSS feed – choose pictures from sites like DeviantArt, Photobucket,LOLCats and Zooomr amongst many others!
• Phanfare web albums– keep up to date with your friends and family.
• smugmug photo galleries – yours, your friends, anybody’s!
• Picasa Web Albums – choose from specific albums or any search text.
• Webshots – if you’re a Webshots user, you can choose from your online or downloaded photos and collections.
• Google Image Search – get pictures from anywhere across the internet.
• Bing Image Search – not a Google fanboy? Then Bing is for you!
• Yahoo! image search – the internet is your oyster!

So as you can see with JBS (John’s Background Switcher) you have a lot more options for displaying your pictures.

What’s more you can even choose to have different pictures displaying on different monitors and have special effects like a postcard piles, mosaics and tiles instead of just a single image. It’s quite impressive the range of customization.

It takes a while to set up, but once you’ve done it it’s worth it.

The Ultimate Wallpaper Switcher For Windows 7 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Sometimes Windows 7 seems to take on a mind of its own. It slows down and frustrates you. Well part of the problem may lie in the new applications you’ve just installed. If you are like me, you’re often looking for and finding new and useful applications on the Web.  For example, recently Robert reported on an add-in for Jump Lists called Jump List Extender. Check this out: Get Jumplists In Programs That Don’t Have Them    

These little applications crop up from time to time and they certainly have a place in the scheme of things. Sometimes when you install these programs, a problem arises with Windows Start Up slowing down.  You may wonder why?    

This is because many programs try to take control, positioning their start commands within the Start Up folder so that when you “boot-up”, they grab a piece of RAM slowing down things. To see if new applications may be the culprits, open the Start menu and in All Programs check out the Startup menu. In it, you’ll see a list of programs loaded into memory on Startup.  

StartUp Menu

Only two of the programs on my list (Dragon Naturally Speaking and Snagit 10) are useful for me the other Jump List Extender is not required. To smarten up the Startup time I want to remove it from the startup sequence.  On your computer, you may find other programs in this list too. Some of them may well be causing problems too This is where msconfig can be handy!  

 So how do I solve this? 

Well, there’s a simple little program available in Windows that goes back years into earlier versions of Windows, that’s still featured in Windows 7 and in Vista. It’s called “msconfig” or to give it its full name, Microsoft System Configuration Utility. You can use this program to remove any unwanted programs thus ensuring your computer boots faster and crashes less.    

Always keep this in mind. Your computer requires some “hidden” programs that are loaded in the background. While many of these “hidden” programs are necessary, for example Microsoft Security Essentials (my Anti Virus program), others are optional, for example Snagit and Dragon Naturally Speaking.  Many aren’t. So, if you turn off the unnecessary hidden programs your computer’s performance and reliability will improve.  

 Accessing MSCONFIG in Windows 7

1. Click the Start button.
2. In the Search box, type msconfig.
   

   Accessing MSCONFIG

3. When msconfig appears at the top of the Search box, press the Enter key.
4. Msconfig opens displaying a multi-tabbed window.
   

   Select Startup tab

5. Click the Startup tab. This is where you disable or enable your “startup” applications. Note:  Some on the list are essential for your computer’s well-being and others waste your computer’s memory, RAM.
6. Decide which ones to leave and uncheck those you don’t require.Note: In this screen picture I want to remove Adobe Gamma loader. If there is an extensive list, as there is in my case, scroll down unchecking the unwanted one as you go.
   

   Unchecking an Unwanted Program Start Up

7. Click the Apply button followed by the Ok button.
8. Windows then opens a cautionary dialog box asking you to reboot the computer. Click the Restart button.
9. Windows re-starts. 
10. When you re-check the Startup folder, only the applications you want are listed.

A Cautionary Note!

Unless you are logged on as an Administrator or as a member of Administrator’s group, you will not be able to access this procedure. Fortunately, most if not all essential programs, that keep Windows 7 running smoothly, are out of your reach. This means, you can safely disable (uncheck) nearly all the items listed in msconfig as they are optional. Before disabling any item in the list, remember, “If in doubt leave well alone!”   

So you’ve made a bad decision!

You’ve been into msconfig, disabled some listed items and now your computer is not running as well as before. 

Who’s in Charge here? is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

While Windows 7 is becoming more and more popular among consumers and businesses, the harsh reality is that Windows Vista and Windows XP are still installed on more machines. Of course Microsoft wants everyone to upgrade from its older OS’s to the latest and they have provided several guides and hints on how to do this, but for some reason people are still struggling with the upgrade process.

Upgrading can be a daunting task for users running Windows XP only programs as there is no guarantee that the older programs will work with Windows 7. Also Microsoft haven’t offered any official line of upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. This is where Parallels comes in.

Parallels have now announced that they are ready to offer their latest product for sale now to help with the migration from Windows XP and Windows Vista to Windows 7. They use virtualization to help make the update process from older operating systems to Windows 7 as pain free as possible.

The new software, dubbed “Parallels Desktop Upgrade to Windows 7″, will be available from Amazon and Parallels from May 31. It will sell for a suggested price of $49.99, including a high-speed USB transfer cable, or $39.99 without the cable.

Since there is no upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7, a clean install is generally required, which means you have to back up and transfer all your data and settings to external storage. Parallels however takes care of all this for you and carry out the whole process automatically. Once it’s done you should have all your old files, settings and even Windows XP programs will be adapted to run on Windows 7.

With Windows Vista the upgrade process isn’t as tricky but Parallels just makes it that bit easier by backing up and restoring all your data and settings for you.

According to Kim Johnston, Parallels’ vice president of consumer and small business marketing,

“Ninety percent of customers haven’t upgraded yet,” and “This is a perfect solution for them.”

So for all of you who refuse to upgrade to Windows 7 because it’s too difficult, you now have no excuse! If you can’t do it yourself, Parallels will.

Parallels

Parallels Windows 7 Upgrade Tool Makes Upgrading Easy is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Based on the level of built in diagnostic features in Windows 7, Microsoft are aiming to go one step further and produce their own application called the Microsoft Fix It Center. It was released in Beta on Thursday and is an online and PC based tool to help users solve any of their PC issues.

The idea is that the Fix It Center can resolve computer problems quickly with just a single click or two, it comes with automated troubleshooters that can find and fix issues immediately. The service works with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, although for XP it requires customers to be using at least Service Pack 3 (or Service Pack 2 of the 64-bit version of Windows XP Professional). It also works with Windows Server 2003 (with Service Pack 2) and Windows Server 2008.

You can download the Fix It Center from Here.

“Fix it Center finds and fixes many common PC and device problems automatically,It also helps prevent new problems by proactively checking for known issues and installing updates. Fix it Center helps to consolidate the many steps of diagnosing and repairing a problem into an automated tool that does the work for you.”

Not only does the Fix It Center fix problems for you, but it actually tries to prevent them from ever happening in the first place. It does this by proactively checking for known issues and installing updates.

While the service has around 300 fixes built-in, it can also be useful even if it can’t solve an issue on its own. Users can sign up to the Online Fix It Center where they can receive free additional help and support from Microsoft.

“If Fix it Center cannot solve a specific issue, customers can still access phone, email or chat support with a Microsoft Support professional who can access their Fix it Center account and get details about the hardware, the problem, and the solutions they have already tried, to ensure faster problem resolution,”

Microsoft is hoping Small Businesses in particular will be interested in this product and are allowing a single account to be used for multiple PC’s.

Source:

Fix It Center

Microsoft Fix It Center -Automated PC Troubleshooter is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I was spring cleaning through my music collection the other day and updating all of my current music and ripped CD’s with the appropriate album artwork when it occurred to me that the majority of my video media did not have its own artwork. I use a 32GB Zune HD and like many other PMP’s, it shows a thumbnail of the video clip about 30-45 seconds into the video by default. I was wondering if I would be able to do what I do with audio files to my video files for adding artwork both in Windows 7 and on the Zune HD.

I tried everything I could think to try and inevitably came to what everyone does when they need to do something and doesn’t know how, I googled exactly what I was trying to do, word-for-word. After sifting through the usual amount of articles and posts which offered little to no help, I stumbled on a program called AudioShell.

AudioShell is a great add-on because it doesn’t exactly add a program to your computer, but instead adds a few more tabs in the right-click properties menu of a file. These new tabs allow the user to add and change ID3 metadata tags without the use of a third party program like Mp3tag. Best of all, while it is essentially made for editing information on audio files, it will allow users to edit tag information on certain video formats.

Here’s How:

Download AudioShell here.

Once installed, simply find an accepted video file. In my case, this would be an .mp4 file that I ripped from a Blu-ray disc.

Note: The movies posters were already added to these files.

Right-click on the file and select Properties.

Click on the AudioShell Tag Editor menu tab and select Add Cover.

Navigate to the movie poster file which you saved in advance and click Apply.

Note: After clicking Ok or Apply, it takes a minute for the system to add the picture to the file and show as the thumbnail. The properties window even said “Not Responding”, but eventually worked fine.

These are the supported file types by AudioShell taken from the AudioShell website.

• mp3 (all ID3 tag versions)
• wma, asf and wmv (including DRM protected files)
• Apple iTunes and iPod aac (m4a, m4b, m4v and m4p) and mp4 files
• ogg, flac (vorbis comment tags)
• mpc, mp+ (APE/APEv2 tags)
• monkey’s audio (APE/APEv2 tags)
• wav pack (APE/APEv2 tags)
• optim frog (APE/APEv2 tags)
• wav (ID3v2 tag in ‘tag ‘ RIFF chunk)

As you can see, this is a great way to organize your videos and make them look very nice when viewing through an explorer window. The down side is that the accepted formats do not include .avi and some other prominent file types. Let me know what you think of AudioShell and if anyone has found a similar program to add artwork to .avi files, please let me know in the comments.

Windows 7 Utilities: AudioShell is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

7Plus allows users to perform normal tasks faster such as, upload files to FTP server directly from explorer with a single hotkey. You can navigate to your favorite folders with numpad keys. You can keep windows on top, and so on.

Here are a series of features that are available

Explorer Tab

Windows 7/Vista specific

• Paste text or image from clipboard as file
• Show favorite folders in the explorer folder band bar like Web Browser favorite bars
• Make Backspace go upwards again
• Set windows to be “Always on top” by right clicking the title bar
• Activate blinking windows and toggle between current and previous window with Capslock
• Close windows by middle clicking task buttons
• Paste previous clipboard text entries by pressing WIN+V
• Use a Joypad/Gamepad to remote control the mouse, keyboard and zoom

Explorer 2

Window Handling, Taskbar

Set windows to be “Always on top” by right clicking the title bar

Close windows by middle clicking task buttons

Execute a program by double clicking the taskbar

Windows Tab

Windows 7/Vista specific

Activate Aero Flip 3D by moving the mouse to the top left corner of the screen

Change the desktop wallpaper by middle clicking on the desktop (Win7 only)

Cycle through windows by clicking on a task group button (Win7 only)

FTP

Misc

Paste previous clipboard text entries by pressing WIN+V

Use a Joypad/Gamepad to remote control the mouse, keyboard and zoom

Misc

You can also watch videos to see how the features work.

This is a good tool set that you can use to make working with Windows7 easier. The features listed here are only a part of the complete set.

Download 7Plus here.

Windows7 Plus – A Windows7 Enhancement Freeware is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

I don’t know how I haven’t stumbled across this before, but now that I have I feel I must share it with you. Rainmeter is unlike anything I’ve come across before. It’s a desktop customization platform which allows you to enhance your Windows PC with handy, compact applets which float freely on your desktop, much like Windows Sidebar gadgets, or dashboard widgets for the Mac.

There is a whole array of various different skins and themes available to download and install to customize Rainmeter to your liking.

You can download Rainmeter here and it’s available for 32bit and 64bit machines for Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Then once you downloaded the installer, go ahead and install it and it should run automatically when your finished. The default theme is Enigma which is shown above and has several widgets, taskbars and various other components. It also displays many system resource widgets, such as RAM and CPU usage, so you know what’s going on with your computer all the time. All of these are easily customizable and there is virtually no code involved.

The great thing about Rainmeter is that you enter all your settings via the GUI interface which can be accessed by double clicking on the sidebar and then going to configuration, then once you entered them all, they’re saved for any theme you apply. This means you don’t have to go re-entering your settings each time you change theme.

Speaking of themes, there is a whole rake of them available that you can use with Rainmeter to customize it to your liking. You can find them easily on Google and there easy enough to install. Once there installed you can switch between them easily enough by just entering the GUI by double clicking on the sidebar once again.

So that’s a quick look at Rainmeter, why not install it and play around with it for a bit and see if it’s to your liking and try out different themes and stuff. It really livens up your desktop

Download Rainmeter Here

Customize Your Desktop With Rainmeter is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Remember when you first layed eyes on the beta of Windows 7? Well one of the things that I was most impressed with was the concept of Device Stage and actually having my devices recognized and displayed as specific devices. For those unfamiliar with Device Stage, since it’s an easily forgotten aspect of Windows 7, Device Stage is sort of like the autorun window that appears when you plug in a USB drive or memory card, except it is very specific to the device and allows you to interact and do many things that the basic autorun window does not. In Microsoft’s words, “Think of Device Stage as a home page for your hardware: When you plug something into your PC, you’ll see a menu of popular tasks for that type of device. A multifunction printer, for example, will show options for printing and scanning. In previous versions of Windows, these were often located in separate menus.”

This is an excellent idea and could be a great help in managing devices, one problem, none of my devices have specific information. All of my devices do appear in the Device Stage window, but nothing has a specific icon nor information about the device, just a bunch of generic properties information.

Of course, this is partly because third party manufacturers haven’t jumped on board and created the device stage information for their products, but what about Microsoft? As we speak, Windows 7 still does not identify any of the Zunes as anything but a generic portable device. Even my Microsoft mouse seems to be generically recognized, but not technically supported by Device Stage. The question is: If Microsoft created and promoted this as a feature, why haven’t they, at least, created Device Stage support for their own products? I wish I knew the answer, but until they do, there are ways to manually create these device-specific pages for your hardware. Keep in mind that this is not exactly for beginners and may take some “tweaking” to get things just right.

I’ve found a few different posts on setting up a Device Stage page and here is a link to one of them.

I had almost completely forgotten about Device Stage until I read an article on the Windows Blog about Sierra Wireless announcing it’s own support for the feature. What about you? Are you disappointed that manufacturers, including Microsoft, haven’t adopted the Device Stage concept or do you view it as a useless feature which was inevitable to fade?

What Ever Happened to Device Stage? is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

In my ever-going quest to find the best programs for my machine (and yours), I figured I’d touch on the uninstaller. Anyone who has used Windows for any length of time will tell you that to uninstall a program via the Control Panel is not always the best way to rid your system of the said program. Revo Uninstaller has been around the tech world for quite a while, but it’s such a useful and easy-to-use program, so I thought I would go over its high points quickly for those unfamiliar. 

Simply put, Revo uninstaller does just what its name says, uninstalls programs. The difference in Windows 7’s built-in uninstaller is that Revo really gets rid of the program and all of its files and registry entries. Revo Uninstaller scans before and after you uninstall an application, so it’s sure to pick up any pieces left over from the uninstall. It’s also a very quick program with a considerably small footprint. You can choose from different views and a context menu option. And of course, it’s Windows 7 compatible. 

Revo is available in both a free and pro version which costs $39.25 and becomes cheaper the more computers you add. Here is the chart where Revo’s site lists the differences between the standard and Pro versions: 

Chart from Revo's website

You can download the free version or pay for the Pro version of Revo from their website, here. 

My personal experience with Revo has been very good. I’m not one to have a lot of small programs installed on my PC that duplicate the efforts of programs already built into Windows, but this is one of those programs that becomes invaluable as you begin to install and uninstall many programs. The benefits definitely outweigh the hassle of having one more program to monitor.

Windows 7 Utilities: Revo to the Rescue is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

So, I’m not the biggest fan of netbooks, but I do see their place among PC’s. I actually tried to pull my brother away from purchasing a netbook because I thought he would want something with a bit more functionality. I was wrong. He seldom ever uses his netbook for anything other than sitting on the couch and monitoring his fantasy basketball and football accounts. He also uses it to VPN into his work PC for work-at-home type stuff.

He is very happy with his netbook, even though it houses an 11 inch screen, an Intel Atom processor and low performance parts, he is perfectly happy with what it does do well. This goes to show me (and Steve Jobs) that it doesn’t matter what’s inside as long as it does what you intend your machine to do.

That being said, one of his complaints after bringing his netbook home and booting it up the first time, was the lack of a customizable wallpaper. I know, it seems like something so trivial, but I’d bet that almost anyone reading this right now has a non-default windows wallpaper being displayed on their desktop. Now, those with Windows 7 Starter need not worry any longer. StarterBackgroundChanger, is a small program made specifically to allow Windows 7 Starter users to set and customize their Windows 7 backgrounds. The drawback is that the installer is in French, so good luck.

Courtesy of downloadsquad.com

I originally read about this program on downloadsquad.com, so you can look at their screenshots to help you chose the correct installation options if you do not know French. You can download the program here.

Hopefully this helps anyone who is running Windows 7 Starter. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Don’t blame me, but let us know in the comments what you think of this program.

Source: downloadsquad.com

Change Your Windows 7 Starter Wallpaper is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

If you are like me, you prefer to use one browser over the others. For me, that browser is Google Chrome. I use it for my daily work, but on occasion I will use Internet Explorer, especially if I have to enter a secure Microsoft Site. Other browsers just will not work well.

But I have found that when I use other browsers, I start to look at my bookmarks to access different sites, only to find that they are not there. Moreover, the import operations that I’ve used when I’ve installed a new browser have not gone as well as I would like. But now there is a third-party program, Transmute, that will do the importing and exporting for you. Here I will show you how to import and export bookmarks with Transmute.

Start the download, and when complete run the msi program to begin the installation.

License

Next select the destination folder to put the program.

Destination Folder

The third step in the installation process is the Ready notification.

Ready To Install

Now begin the installation

Installing

Complete notification

Installation is Complete

Go to the Start Menu to launch Transmute.

Access the Start Menu

The Transmute Program on the screen.

The Transmute Program ready to import/export bookmarks

Notice the Source and Target buttons.  They are saying the source bookmards are coming from Chrome, and the destination browser is Firefox.

The warning indicates that you could lose the bookmarks on the destination browser.

Warning

a

Preview

The preview shows what the source and target paths look like.

Other Possible Sources

After the import/export operation is complete, you can see what other possible browsers can be used for the source and destination.

To access Transmute download the program here.

How to Import and Export Bookmarks With Transmute is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Microsoft Security Essentials  is a free download available from Microsoft; it installs easily, it can be used without training, and it is kept up to date with the latest definitions available. Once you installed it and run your scan the software will tell you if you are secure or not.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs in the background while you are using your Windows PC without interruptions or long computer wait times. Here are the steps necessary to bring it on line.

Once you have downloaded the program, run the setup program.

The Welcome Screen

[2]

View and Accept the License Agreement

[3]

An Important Step: Validate Your Windows Copy

[4]

The Passed Validation Screen Notice

[5]

The Software is Now Ready To Install

[6]

Installation Status

[7]

Completing The Installation Process

[8]

A Status Review is Performed to Identify the Security Status of the PC

[9]

When the Scan is Complete the Security Status is Upgraded to Secure

[10]

Settings Can Be Modified

ScareWare

Microsoft has identified a rogue piece of scareware that claims to be the Official Security Essentials suite. The rogue anti-malware client that sits on your screen lists a collection of infections. To remove them, it asks the user to pay a small fee to obtain the “fullly functioing” non-trial version of Security Essentials. Remember Security Essentials is FREE

Here is what the “Security Essentials” screen looks like. Remember this is malware!

Rogue Security Essentials

1

Trial Version

What does Security Essentials 2010 do?

The Malware program, Security Essentials 2010, is the Trojan:Win32/Fakeinit, that infects Windows PCs, and, on the contrary it does not remove malware. In fact it truly is scareware because it not only installs the fake scanner component, then it also monitors other running processes and it attempts to terminate the ones it doesn’t like. So your malware prevention programs could be turned off.

• It changes the registry by lowering a number of security settings.
• It displays an disturbing message and changes the desktop background.
• It attempts to lock in this desktop background by modifing the registry.
• It also downloads and installs a Win32/Alureon component, (Win32/Alureon is a family of data-stealing trojans. They intercept incoming and outgoing Web traffic in order to steal personal data such as user names, passwords, and credit card data.)
• It downloads a Layered Service Provider (LSP) element, also part of the Trojan:Win32/Fakeinit trojan. This LSP monitors the Internet traffic used by various Web browsers that might have installed, and blocks traffic to certain domains. It also blocks access to a number of popular video websites, which includes Facebook, eBay, and YouTube, amont others.

This program is ingenious because it pretends to be a legitimate Microsoft product. It does several things; it warns you of infections, it installs trojans, it collects personal information, it blocks Internet access to certain websites, and it asks for money to remove the infections. If you run the scan, or launch the program in any way, it infects your PC. In fact, the infection comes at the instigation of the user. So even if you do pay the fee for the “full-version” to keep the infection from occurring it will infect your computer anyway, and it will not remove the infections that you have on your computer. For that, you will have to get a malware removal program.

Source: MicroSoft Security Essentials

Source: Microsoft Malware Protection Center

Windows7 – How to Install MS Security Essentials – and Warning: Watch for ScareWare is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

With the new evolution of the home PC being the convergence to 64-bit, many, including myself, have been waiting for the positive side to the switch, aside from the ability to use more memory within the OS. As we draw closer to a 64-bit-only OS world we should see the advantages and software grow as well, but for those who would like to take advantage of their 64-bit architecture right now, there are some titles out there and a few free ones. While there are even more free 64-bit applications than I will list, pretty much anyone with knowledge of Google should have no problem finding them.

Internet Explorer 8 64: Already included in the Windows 7 OS, the 64 bit flavor is available for users. The drawback to using a 64-bit browser is mainly support. Adobe Flash is not yet supporting 64-bit, so you may run into issues while browsing.

Firefox 64: The ever-famous Firefox has been testing a 64-bit browser for a little while and is available for download. Of course the disadvantages are: no flash support, some sites may not allow access and some add-ons may not work.

Download link for Firefox 64: http://wiki.mozilla-x86-64.com/Download

Windows Mail: is set to run natively in Windows 7 64. The advantages to running a mail program in 64 are not really noticeable, but if you are looking to get a jump on upgrading your 32-bit software, Windows Mail is a very good basic mail program and it’s free through Windows Live.

Thunderbird 64: Thunderbird is an exceptional alternative to other mail programs and has many features that the basics ones lack. A 64-bit, more powerful version is available for download.

Download link for Thunderbird 64: http://wiki.mozilla-x86-64.com/Thunderbird:Download

Myfrag: Defragmenter’s are usually pretty basic programs with few options, but great utility. Myfrag is no different and is freeware with no time limit and no advertisements. Myfrag is fast with a small footprint and is optimized to work on your 64-bit system.

Download link for Myfrag: http://www.mydefrag.com/

7Zip: There is not much to say about 7Zip other than it is a useful utility and is made for the 64-bit system. It is open source software, so it’s free and can be used in the home and commercial.

Download link for 7Zip: http://www.7-zip.org/

Paint.Net: Paint.Net’s website provides the best description of their software, “Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials and plugins.”

Download link for Paint.Net: http://www.getpaint.net/download.html

Daemon Tools: Daemon Tools is basically a virtual DVD drive. It allows a user to mount a maximum of four image files into the system. Supported image formats include: cue, bin, iso, ccd, bwt, mds, cdi, nrg.

Download Link: http://disk-tools.com/download/daemon+sptd+md5sum

Of course, the amount of software is consistently growing for the 64-bit system, both free and for a cost. For a site with an extensive collection of 64-bit software, visit here: http://www.64xsoft.com/

Looking for Free 64-bit Windows 7 Apps? is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

There are many different options for remote desktop connection with PC’s. Windows 7 even comes with a utility to achieve remote access (for Andrews articles on Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Connection). Some utilities for remote connection are complex and some are simple, some offer many options and some offer few, some are free and some are expensive. I was doing my normal reading on the web when I ran across a user that was going on and on about how much they liked the remote connection software from LogMeIn. 

I decided to give it a download and use it. I figured if it was worth mentioning, I would review it and let others know about it as well. Like other users, I’m always looking for programs that I can share with my less-technical friends and family to make their lives easier as well as my own, since I do most of their troubleshooting. 

For a little background information on LogMeIn, it is simply a piece of software that uses the web to allow users remote access and control over a PC that is located elsewhere. There are many different options for both home and business users, including a free version, with limited features. There is also an iPhone version for those who would like to control their PC from their phone. 

Personally I haven’t used a lot of different remote utilities, but of the ones I have used, LogMeIn was the easiest to understand and setup, which would come in handy for those less technologically inclined. Setup was straightforward, just download the software to the computer you would like to connect to, register a username and password, leave the computer running , log into LogMeIn.com and click on the computer you would like to connect. One particularly nice feature I found allows the computer to be started remotely even if it is powered off (This requires the BIOS to have the Wake On LAN feature enabled). 

Here are a few screenshots of the software in action: 

Here is the main control panel.

This is what you see when connected and not in fullscreen mode.

Notice that the theme changes to improve performance. You can adjust the settings from performance to best picture.

Looking for a program similar to this? You can give it a try by visiting their website, here. Let me know if you have used LogMeIn and what your thoughts were. The free version is limited, as I noted, but if you are just looking for basic access, this might be for you.

Windows 7 Utilities: LogMeIn is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

If you have wanted to add network folders or non-indexed folders to the Libraries in Windows7, you’ld see that it can not be done. This is bad because the Libraries feature allows you to store documents, pictures, music, and other items that are scattered in different locations around your hard drives. This library configuration tool makes it easy to overcome that limitation.

The Program named, Win7 Library Tool, freeware version will do the task for you. Here are the download and installation steps.

[Start slideshow]

Go to the website and download the program. Then install it.

Next open the program.

The Win 7 Library Tool ... A blank screen to start with

Next look for network folders to add.

Start with Create A New Library

It is into this library that you will put your folders.

as

Library-Folder

The new folder Printjobs is in the P drive, a network drive. In this case, I have 20 folders, but I want to have access to all of them in the Library, I will use the P drive.

Note that the other folders that already existed were added.

Library Folder: Adding the Existing Libraries

Another Feature Edit Properties Of Folder

Edit the Properties – you can additional content to the library.

Proceed

This warning should be carefully monitored. If you don’t add your existing libraries, they will be removed from the Windows 7 Library folder. The contents will still be available but not showing in the Library.

Libraries Created Successfully

Your new library folder will now appear in the Libraries folder.

Library-Folder

General Features

1. Besides network drives, mapped or UNC you can also add un-indexed folders.
2. You can perform Backup Library Configurations.
3. You can create a mirror of all libraries with symbolic links in the SystemDrive:libraries. A shorter path can be used to make the reference.
4. You can also change the library’s icon.

I have found this program to be useful, and easy to work with. Remember my warning about adding your existing library folders before you proceed to add new ones.

Other Notes

If you are one of those programmers that likes to do things through the command line you can use the slutil.exe program.

Although this program was written by Zorn Software, another programmer, Josh Smith of the Treeview CodeProject came up with the initial model.

You can download the Win7 Library tool here.

How To Add Network Folders to Libraries in Windows7 is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Do you miss the old start button classic-menu style? Me neither, but for those who do…CSMenu.

One of the things that I often like to post about are simple, small programs and utilities that I or friends of mine have found and have shared that have made my life easier. Some of these programs are useful for me and some are useful for others that I know. A particular program that falls into the latter category is CSMenu.

Simply put, CSMenu is a very small program which gives the Windows 7 user an option to use a classic menu, which is not an option in the new OS. This particular program is not useful for me, but I found it because my grandfather wanted a substitute start menu to replace the style of the menu he had in Windows XP. This was not because he couldn’t figure out Window 7’s menus, but rather that he just preferred the classic menu from previous versions of Windows.

Oddly enough, Windows 7 does not include a classic option that previous versions of their OS have. If you are one of those people who would like the classic-style menu back then CSMenu might be for you.

To give CSMenu a try:

Download the program here.

After installing, CSMenu will automatically create your program icons and ask you if you would like to run the program.

If you decide that you do not want to use the classic menu, you can exit the program by closing it in the system tray.

Pretty straight-forward stuff. If you are not a fan of the new superbar and menu style, then you may want to check out this nifty little program for Windows 7. Let me know below if you or anyone you know would find this program useful.

Windows 7 Utilities: CSMenu (if you want the classic-style menu back) is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

About two months ago, I began booting my home PC running Windows 7 and not only did it take excessively long to start, but I also had an unusual window on the desktop at startup. I consider myself a decent troubleshooter and have experience in many different versions of Windows, but this particular problem alluded me. Obviously, I initially checked msconfig and went through my startup programs, but found nothing out of the ordinary. I googled the problem and found a few others with the same issue, but nobody had an answer. I didn’t want to reformat because I would have to backup everything, which at the time, would have been a daunting task. I actually lived with the annoyance for quite a while, which is very uncharacteristic of myself, until I started noticing a longer boot time. Sometimes it was very minimal and sometimes it would stick on a black screen with a lone mouse cursor. I would also find myself stalling on the Starting Windows screen just before the desktop loads. Nothing made sense and it was maddening not knowing what was causing it. After waiting too long and doing nothing about it, I decided to do a little more research. What I found is that the people with a similar issue used the Autoruns tool from Microsoft Technet. I had used the tool in the past, but it had never occurred to me to try it out again for this issue.

For those who are unfamiliar with Autoruns, it’s a utility which has a “most comprehensive knowledge” of your computers startup activity. Like using the startup option in msconfig, Autoruns will list your programs and activity on startup, but in a much more detailed fashion.

There are so many options and features while using Autoruns that I don’t have time to list and go over all, maybe in the future. However, with my recent computer issue I was reminded of this very useful tool provided free by technet and wanted to share with the readers. You can download it here.

The end of my story is somewhat bittersweet. While Autoruns didn’t help me find my specific problem, which I am still researching, I did find some other very useful reasons to keep Autoruns installed on my PC. If you or a user you know doesn’t really notice what they install and how it affects their startup and performance, they might benefit from using Autoruns and digging a little into the processes which can cause performance drops. Autoruns also provides a more-secure way of accessing this information, than burrowing through your registry.

UPDATE: I wanted to add the link for George Garza’s article on this site for a walkthrough of the features in Autoruns. Visit here for his in-depth look at Autoruns.

Important: As with any program or utility, be sure to read and understand how it works, so as to avoid making any unessecary or damaging changes to your PC.

Windows 7 Utilities: Autoruns is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Windows 7 has included a lot of different features to help the user organize, rearrange and adjust their windows and Icons. Some users like things scattered and want many icons on their desktop and some users would rather pin their most frequently used programs to the new taskbar. I’m typically the former, preferring to keep my desktop clear of any and all icons except for the recycle bin and the occasional file that I am currently using. The reason is because I can’t stand to have icons scattered all over and there is no built in feature other than ‘sort by’ to keep everything organized. That is, until Fences.

I am always looking for the next greatest utility to further enhance my Windows 7 experience and Stardock has specialized in enhancing the UI and features on PC’s for longer than I can remember. The same holds true with Fences. Simply put, Fences is a program that will help users group and hide icons so the desktop can stay organized. It basically captures icons in groups, surrounded by shaded “fences” which allow the user to organize and keep their icons separate.

You can hold right-click and highlight the group of icons to create a fence.

Fences also allows the user to resize and situate their fences however they would like.

When you double-click the desktop, the fences will disappear leaving you with a clean desktop. When you want them back, just double-click again.

To be fair, I can’t say that I use fences for every task and all of my icons, but I have found a particularly useful way of using fences. I am constantly converting video and various episodes to play on my PMP and phone, but I used to drive myself crazy creating numerous folders on my desktop to keep the original file and converted files separate. The solution that I found was to use fences to separate all of the different files so that I could work easily and never get the converted ones confused with the originals. There are many other uses for a program like fences, but I have found a few different uses which enable me to keep my head on straight.

Fences comes in a free download for a limited feature version and a pro version for $19.95. If you are interested in giving Fences a try you can download it here.

Windows 7 Utilities: Stardock Fences is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

The Power Plan Assistant for Windows 7 is a small application designed to help the user switch between any power plans available on the PC, including custom plans and all three built-in plans (including “High Performance” which is hidden on the standard system icon) while also adding entirely new capabilities, such as instantly turning off the display upon request.

The icon also easily shows which power plan is currently in use by changing the icon in accordance to the active power plan, as seen in the screenshots above. The icon will automatically update itself regardless of where the plan was changed, whether it be in the default system icon, control panel, or via the power plan assistant.

Switch the power plans automatically: to ‘Power Saver’ (to preventively save the energy if the battery level goes low), to ‘High Performance’ (on plugging in) and to ‘Balanced’ (on plugging out). As shown on the screenshot above, every Power Plan Assistant’s setting is user-configurable, i.e. user can enable or disable it,
either permanently or for a current session only. Even the balloon messages and the notification icon appearance/behavior can be customized.

The Power Plan Assistant is donationware, meaning that the author asks the users to make a voluntary donation to help support future development of the application and to receive a serial number which allows the application to be registered. Unfortunately, without registration, builds will expire every week, meaning that the user will have to reinstall the application on a weekly basis unless they “donate” to the author. However, if you’re willing to settle for the inconvenience of reinstalling it every week, the application is completely free.

The donation page can be found here.

Windows 7 Power Plan Assistant is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Windows 7 is unusual as a Windows version as, out of the box, it needs less tweaking than any previous version.  However there’s still an awful lot you can tweak and finding the right place to do it can be annoying because the settings panels for the OS are scattered all over the place.

Enter Windows 7 in a Box, a small utility that doesn’t even need to be installed.  Just run it and it does only one job.  It aggregates all the different configuration options into one place with handy menus and shortcuts for them.

As a tool this is one of the best I’ve seen, especially for novice users or people who might be wary of installing third party software on their PC.  There’s no installer as I said, but also no UAC box to check through.

The menus themselves are simply and logically laid out and make it simple to find whatever you need so you can change settings, modify options or even change a password or hibernate your machine.

One of the biggest advantages of this software is that because it doesn’t need to be installed, there’s no additional start-up entry, no more bloat in your registry and no more pointless files scattered across your hard drive.  All these things can slow down your PC, especially if you have a few of these utilities installed along-side your regular software.

For me Windows 7 in a Box is a winner, and I’d suggest you try it out.  You can download it here.

Windows 7 in a box is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Staring at the same desktop screen, day after day can become quite tedious over time. Sometimes your just looking for that little something, just to make your day that little bit more exciting, well I think I’ve found it – Desktop Icon Toy.

Desktop Icon Toy is a great little program, it’s free and fully functional for 14 days, after that some of the features are reduced but it’s still perfectly usable. And if you decide you really want those extra features, it’s a reasonable $19.95.

Desktop Icon Toy spices up your desktop and adds a bit of life to it, it automatically arranges your icons for you, and gives them a nice “Bouncy” animation when you hover over them. However it does more than just arranging them left and right, I’ll get to that in a minute, but first it has a handy way of arranging icons to the top, bottom, left and right of your screen.

All you have to do is,

1. Click on a blank area of your desktop
2. Drag either up,down, left or right , depending on where you want the icons arranged,
3. Release the mouse

And you will see all your icons slide gracefully into their positions. But it’s not just these cool mouse gestures that make this program great.

What I really like about it is the fact that it can arrange all your icons in some very interesting shapes, quickly and easily.

Only a couple of clicks are required to re-arrange your desktop icons in more than 25 different shapes. Once you’ve installed the program,

1.Right click on the Desktop Icon Toy icon in your taskbar

2.Select layout
3.Select your desired shape

And watch as your icons fly into their new layout.

Bring Your Desktop To Life With Desktop Icon Toy is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Microsoft has provided a new PowerToy application SyncToy 2.1. It is a free application that will synchronize your files and folders among several locations. What kind of synchronization? Typically this will include sharing operations, such as photos or documents, with other computers and creating backup copies of files and folders.

The engine that runs the synchronization operations is available from the Microsoft Sync Framework 2.0.

What is synchronization? Simply put, if you have stored files in one folder, say in you local hard drive, and you have also stored files in a folder on a remote server, you may want to keep the files in those folders the same, especially the same version. You can do it by hand with copy and replace or you can let the synchronization software do it for you.

SyncToy is a highly customizable program that helps users to avoid the heavy lifting involved with the copying, moving, and synchronization of different directories.

Features:

• SyncToy can manage multiple sets of folders at the same time
• it can combine files from two folders in one case
• it can mimic renames and deletes in another case
• it can keeps track of renames to files and will make sure those changes get carried over to the synchronized folder
• It can run on 32 bit and 64 bit systems.

After you download the program, begin the installation process

Begin the Installation Process



The Setup Screen - License Agreement Features - Core Components



Accept and Run the Setup Wizard



Agree to the License Terms



Select the Destination - Installation Folder



Confirm the Installation and click Next to begin the installation process



The SyncToy Installation in Process



The Installation Process is Complete



The SyncToy Icon in the StartMenu



Depending on how you view this, you may or may not want to participate in the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. The Default is No.



On Launce you will see the Welcome To SyncToy screen. Note the two folders on left and right.



Select the left folder to Synchronize with the right folder



Browsing to select the folder that I want to synchronize



The two folders are selected that will be synchronized.



Now select an operation to perform...The default is Synchronize



Provide a folder pair name



All conditions are now ready. both folders have been identified, the pairing has a name, now you can run the operation



The Synchronization process ... in operation ... as it is being performed.



The operation is now complete



Both folders on different drives are now in sync.

Synchronize Your Windows7 Files and Folders Using SyncToy is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

Microsoft, in an effort to reduce software piracy and increase computer literacy will make computer PC inroads with a commitment to add 10 African languages to its Windows7 repertoir. The 10 African languages are:

• Sesotho sa Leboa (North Sotho), which is spoken in the North-Eastern parts of South Africa.
  
• Setswana which is one of the official languages of South Africa, and it is a national language in Botswana.
• isiXhosa is one of the official languages of South Africa.
• isiZulu is the language of the Zulu people with the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa.
• Afrikaans is an Indo-European language  and it is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia.
• Hausa is spoken mainly in Nigeria and Niger.
• Igbo is a language spoken mainly by the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria.
• Yoruba one of the largest ethno-linguistic or ethnic groups in west Africa, in the southwestern corner of Nigeria.
• KiSwahili is a major Bantu language spoken in East Africa.
• Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in North Central Ethiopia by the Amhara people.

Because of the historical colonial influence, in many regions of Africa the main spoken languages are English and French, and literacy unfairly or not is assumed to belong to those that read, write, and speak those main languages. But as a way down to break the barriers and provide technology to other groups, the Microsoft effort will bring millions of users into the technology by making software available to users in their respective languages. Literacy then will not be restricted to just the main legacy languages, English and French.

Another part of this endeavor is that Microsoft is interested in reducing software piracy by making the software available in their respective languages and hence offering additional value by getting updates and discounts. They recognize that this may not be enough to thwart the piracy problem, since in many third world countries it is a cultural problem and in many African governments it is not even recognized as a crime. In 2008 software piracy cost the software industry 53 billion dollars.

The roll out is expected by 2011.

Additional Sources:

http://www.africanews.com/site/list_message/23525

Windows7 Makes African Language In-Roads is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

If you have wondered what programs are automatically configured and loaded when you startup, Autoruns, by Microsoft will give you that information. Autoruns is an MS download program that will show you locations, and startup order of many programs. It will provide you with information about Explorer shell extensions, and toolbars, as well as helper objects, auto-start services and Winlogon.

AutoRuns Winlogon

What does Autorun provide?

• It shows you the currently configured auto-start applications
• The full list of the Registry settings used.
• File system locations used for auto-start configuration.
• There are 18 tabs that can focus your attention to individual performance or configuration options.

AutoRuns - The Everything Tab: Places information about all settings

It is a configuration tool that can be used by administrators to monitor and tweak the performance of the system. There are multiple tabs to work with.  Here is the Logon tab which contains information about what programs load at logon.

AutoRuns-Logon: Files that Load Upon Logon

Another important component is that it allows you to see third party auto-starting programs. Through Autoruns’ Hide Signed Microsoft Entries option you can see third-party programs that have been added to your system.

AutoRuns - Other Options Available

If you prefer the command-line equivalent you can run Autorunsc from the command prompt which is automatically included in the download package. The output result is in CSV format.

AutoRunSC - The command line executable

There are a number of command switches that can be used with AutorunSC:

autorunsc [-a] | [-c] [-b] [-d] [-e] [-g] [-h] [-i] [-l] [-m] [-n] [-p] [-r] [-s] [-v] [-w] [-x] [user]

You can download the Autoruns executable from the following locations, and there is a forum available as well:

http://live.sysinternals.com/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

The Autoruns forum can be found at http://forum.sysinternals.com/forum_topics.asp?FID=16

Autoruns – What is Running on Your Windows 7 PC is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.

What is ReadyBoost?

A feature first introduced in Windows Vista, ReadyBoost is a way to use most kinds of flash memory (USB drive, SD Card, Compact Flash) to help speed up your system by using it in addition to your physical memory as disk cache. Basically, it is almost like adding more RAM on-the-go without having to crack open your PC case and install it. The feature uses a technology called Superfetch which basically pre-loads information for applications enabling them to start-up more quickly than usual. This is capable because it frees up physical memory and because flash memory can read-write faster than a hard drive.

Can I use ReadyBoost?

The requirements for ReadyBoost are fairly basic and should apply to almost any PC made within the last 10 years:

• The computer must have USB 2.0 compatibility
• The USB drive or flash must be USB 2.0 capable
• The removable media’s capacity must be at least 256 MB—250 MB after formatting.
• Vista only allowed less than 4GB of memory for ReadyBoost, but Windows 7 allows up to eight devices for a maximum of 256 GB of additional memory.

How do I use ReadyBoost?

1. Plug in your USB flash drive or flash memory card into your computer.

2. The computer should detect the device and AutoPlay should pop-up, click on Speed up my system.

3. If AutoPlay is not enabled, click on Computer, then right-click on the USB flash drive or flash memory card, and click on Properties then the ReadyBoost tab. Click the Use this device option and choose how much space you would like to associate with this device by moving the slider. You can allocate all of the memory on the device by checking the Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost, then Click OK.

Note: Any space that is allocated for use with ReadyBoost will not be usable space for saving files with this device.

4. If at any time you would like to revert the device back for normal use, right-click on the Properties option, then the ReadyBoost tab and check Do not use this device.

Does it actually Work?

Early test I have read about this and from what I’ve seen, mostly conclude that ReadyBoost seems to speed things up in Windows 7, unlike many reports from Windows Vista. You can check out a success story from Joseph Plazo who wrote an article over at Connected Internet.

I have not used ReadyBoost yet because I don’t have a need for it right now, so I figured that my results wouldn’t be conclusive enough, but my brothers PC has only a gig and a half of RAM, so I gave him a 4GB USB drive and helped him enable it on his computer. He has been telling me that he does notice a difference when using ReadyBoost compared to when he has it disabled. He did tell me that he notices the biggest increase while playing graphics intensive games on his PC.

How about it, anybody like Joseph or my brother who has tried ReadyBoost and experienced a boost in performance? I was skeptical, so let me know in the comments below.

Windows 7 ReadyBoost: What is it, How to use it and Does it work? is a post from Windows 7 News & Tips - Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides. Visit Windows 7 News & Tips for the Latest Microsoft Windows 7 News, Tips, Themes, Wallpapers & Guides.