For Mozilla Firefox fans, Mozilla Restorer is a handy utility which can back up your Firefox profile and to restore in any system.

Consider a situation where you got a  new PC or your OS/Hard Disk is corrupted or firefox crashed.

Here is a solution

Now  with Mozilla Restorer, you can now back up your Firefox (including any addons installed, bookmarks, etc). You can use this utility for restoring your firefox

Disk de-fragmentation and optimization is very important to increase the speed and reliability of hard disk

Instead of the default defrag tool in windows,we can try freeware Auslogics Disk Defrag which is compatible with windows 7 and vista.

There are many freewares which perform de-fragmentation and optimization at higher level. The GUI of  Auslogics application is very simple and the disk map is represented with graphics (like Windows XP inbuilt tool).

Auslogics Disk Defrag a freeware  can defragment and optimize your hard disk with few clicks. The RAM requirement of this utility is very less. So it can work at greater speed based on the fragments on your hard disk. It is advisable to run this utility atleast once a month to optimize performance.

Select the drive / partition to defragment. In optimization, this utility place the frequently accessed files (say system files) in the outer tracks where the access speed is considerable high.

Related : MyDefragGUI

These days Orkut and other social networking sites are getting blocked in many countries.

People never see the other side of the coin. But still there are few other ways to by pass those filters.

One such way is to access via proxy sites. Personally, I feel  entering confidential information like password is not safe. There is a chance of your account getting hacked.

Alternate way to access social networking site is via Power.com.

Power.com is a social inter–connectivity site through which you can access Orkut, Hi5, Twitter, My Space, LinkedIn.

Alternate way is to make use of the client application ‘Scrapboy‘ which supports proxy connection, which enables the user to by pass access restrictions in work place and users from countries like U.A.E.

Related: OrkutCute

A search in Google home page search box or Googlebar extension results in  search terms  stored in web history.

On a subsequent search google suggests by showing a drop down list with previously keyed search terms that match what you are keying.

For example, if you have searched in the past for “hot pictures” and when another user, say your spouse, kids or boss starts to key in, “hot topics” or “hot pictures” will be in the drop down box as a suggestion. It’s sometimes embarassing.

Here are the tricks to disable typed keywords from being stored.

Step 1:
Clear stored data from google. To do this, go to Google Search History and login. Now you can see all keyed terms in that page. Even you can jump to a particular date by selecting it from the calender in the right top of the page.

To delete the keywords select “Remove Items” from left panel.

Step 2 : Clean Browser Data

For Internet Explorer user :

1. Go to the “Tools” menu
2. Select “Internet Options”
3. Select the “Content” tab
4. Within the “Personal Information” area, select “AutoComplete”
   • To clear the current history, click on “Clear Forms”
   • To disable this feature entirely, uncheck the “Forms” box

For Mozilla Firefox user :

1. Go to the “Tools” menu
2. Select “Options”
3. Select the “Privacy” tab
4. Within the “Saved Form Information” area:
   • To clear the current history, click on “Clear”
   • To disable this feature entirely, uncheck the “Save information I enter in web page forms and the search bar”

For Opera user :

1. Select “Options”
2. Select the “Delete Private Data” tab
3. Within the “Delete Private Data” area click “Detailed Option”:
   • Select required Option and select “Delete”

For Google Chrome user :

1. Select “Options”
2. Select the “Private Stuff” tab
3. Within the “Delete Private Data” area click “Detailed Option”:
   • Select “Never save from forms”
   • Select “Clear Browsing Data” and select “Close.

Apart from above procedure, remove all the traces in your system by using WinXP / Vista / 7 Manager ( “Privacy Protector” )

Many free and paid dictionary applications are available in web. Here is the list of best downloads based on availability, feature set, addons, etc

1) Wordweb

Small footprint, free version,Full Audio pronunciations, ease of use, online support, auto pop feature, portable version is available.

Download WordWeb 6 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Windows 7

2) Mobysaurus

It’s much more comprehensive than the thesaurus in WordWeb.

3) Lingoes

Lingoes is one of the advance dictionaries available. It is available for free unlike WordWeb Pro. Multiple dictionaries, language support or translation that can be installed (the best feature of Lingoes).

Moreover Wikipedia dictionary can be added. Lot more feature to try. Best choice for professionals.

Portable version.

Hard disk crash and data loss is a common issue for PC users. It is very frustrating to re-install software and restore data (at least we should have a back up in worst case scenario).

For this reason, Technet – Microsoft has released a utility named Disk2vhd.

As the name suggests, this programs creates a Image of the selected hard disk(partition) (i.e.) into VHD (Virtual hard Disk – Microsoft’s Virtual Machine disk) format even when the system is online.

This VHD version can be used in Virtual PC. In short it creates a snapshot of the hard disk.

Download Disk2vhd.

KIS 2010 will not allow license key activation using key file.Here is a way to activate using key file

1) Download the key file from personal cabinet or zip file in email and save it to desktop.

2) Turn off Internet Connection.

3) Click “License”.

4) Click “Activate new license”.

5) Enter the Activation Code.

6) Click “ok “on the error message dialog box.

7) Browse your downloaded key file. (Step 1),turn on your internet connection and click activate.

Activating KIS 2010 during installation

*First time users of KIS 2010,please note that you will be prompted to activate KIS 2010 during installation.

* Click on radio button “Activate Trial License”

*Disconnect Internet connection.

* An error message pops up and you get an option to activate using key file “Browse”

*Click on Browse and select the key file location

*Turn on Internet connection and click on Activate

KIS 2010 license key renewal

You can use same method to renew your license.Just click on the red X mark in license manager and  delete the old key file

Follow steps 1-7 to renew your license key

At any point of activation if you get an error “KIS key not compatible with this application or license code exceeded the allowed limit” check this post  How to fix Kaspersky Internet security 2010 Activation Errors? for a fix

Synergy is open source application which lets you to use single keyboard and mouse along multiple computers running different OS ( Windows and Linux ).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen.Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own display.

Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems.

System Requirements

* Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me (the Windows 95 family)
* Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP (the Windows NT family)
* Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
* Unix

Download Synergy

Watch this Video :Synergy: 2 Computers, but 1 Mouse & Keyboard

Incase of  browsers, there are number of options to chose from. Here is a list of  few browsers based on my experience and considering certain features like freeware, speed, security, add-on support and OS compatibility.

1) Mozilla Firefox,

2) Opera,

3) Google Chrome,

4) Internet Explorer,

5) Safari, ..

There are other browsers namely Netscape Navigator, SeaMonkey, K-Meleon, Amaya, Maxthon, Flock, Midori, Dillo, Slim, KidRocket, PhaseOut, Crazy, Smart Bro, Avant, etc.

Remember to download or update your browser to the latest version

Mozilla Firefox is considered to be one of the widely used and popular browser in terms of add-on availability. Number of add-ons are available for free to download.

It may even be confusing for people new to Mozilla. Here is a list of must have add-ons for your Mozilla Firefox.

1) 1-Click YouTube Video Download : This add-on is used to download videos from YouTube with a click of a button. Further it allows the user to download videos in various format.

2) Adblock Plus : Blocks unwanted ads to be loaded in a web page, thereby reducing the bandwidth usages.

3) CoolPreviews : Preview links and images without leaving current page or tab.

4) DataFox : For BSNL & MTNL usage static.

5) Delicious Bookmark : One of my favorite add-on. With this add-on bookmarking is made simple and it allows to access saved bookmarks from Delicious.

6) FastestFox : Highly recommended add-on. Number of useful features are available. In short, it helps easy browsing and ‘Endless Page’ option automatically loads consecutive pages automatically.

7) MorningCoffee : Keeps track of daily routine websites (predefined list) and opens them in tabs with a click of a button.

8)OrkutManager : For better orkuting. Lot of must have features.

9) PDF Download : It helps to convert and save any web page into a ‘PDF’ file.

10) Xmarks : Now you can synchronize your bookmarks and passwords into a secure online webspace.

Other than this Add-ons there are number of add-ons related to e-mail notification, social networking, blogging, etc.