TECH YARD

How To Have Windows 7 AeroShake and AeroSnap Features In Windows XP and Vista

Avinash — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:30:05 +0000

Every new Windows OS has a new user interface for Vista it was the Aero Effects and Transparent Window Borders,now in Windows 7 its Aero Shack and AeroSnap.If you think of having Windows 7 Aero Shack and AeroSnap features in either XP/Vista, you can try out TrueTransparancy.

TrueTransparency is a free application that allows you to replace your window’s borders by skins composed with transparent images bringing Vista transparency to your XP Desktop and it also include support for Windows 7 Aero Shack and AeroSnap features.

Check out this video to see Aero Shack and AeroSnap features using TrueTransparency :

Download TrueTransperancy

How To Turn Monitor Off Automatically and Save Power

Avinash — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 05:26:02 +0000

Monitors are mostly left switched on, being the main cause of unnecessary power bills, that because there’s no easy way to either get the monitor into Standby Mode (or) Start Screensaver (or) Lock The WorkStation in a single click.

You can do all these using Monitor OFF a portable application that can run off your USB flash drive, that can

Shut Off Monitor(s)
Start Screensaver
Lock Workstation

You can do all these more conveniently by configuring HotKey(s) to turn off your monitor(s) or to start your screensaver from the application settings window.

There’s also a onscreen countdown timer if activated is shown with the remaining seconds before which the monitor would be shutdown.

Password Protect Text Files Using Steganos Locknote

Avinash — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:30:18 +0000

Word Documents can be password protected, but the basic text files which is used cannot be password protected by default, you can create password protect text files using Steganos LockNote.LockNote is open source security application based on the CryptoPP program library for strong encryption.

Steganos LockNote Features :

AES 256bit encryption technology
Portable and can be used from usb drives
Drag and Drop to encrypt
Password protect text files
View text files in Stegnos Text Editor

Steps On How To Lock Text Files :

To encrypt a txt file, Double Click LockNote.exe
Drag and drop the txt file into LockNote interface. or open the LockNote.exe application and enter your data, save it with a password.

Your text file will be encrypted using AES 256bit encryption technology.

A new exe will be created that can be opened to view the contents of the text file, and you need to enter password you saved the file with to view its contents.

Download Stegnos LockNote

How To Encrypt Data Using Images – PixelCryptor

Avinash — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:30:10 +0000

Data security is of highest importance, encrypt data using images using PixelCryptor.It uses the pixel data of the images is used to encrypt your data. The combination’s are endless and hard to break making your very secure.

How to Encode Using PixelCryptor :

After installing, open the application.
Mouse over the 2nd Image to start the encoding process,
Select the file to be encoded and placed inside the encrypted package
Select the image you want to use for encrypting
select the destination, and find the encrypted package after the encryption.

How To Decode :

Open PixelCryptor, select decode
Browse and select the image to be used for decoding.
Select the PixelCryptor (.cgp) to be decrypted.
Choose the destination folder to extract the contents of the package.

NOTE : You need the same image to decode the package so remember the image used to encrypt.

System Requirements :

Windows 2000 or better
800 MHz processor
128 MB of system memory
.Net 2.0 Framework, Can be downloaded from here.

Both 32bit and 64bit systems are supported

Download PixelCryptor

Download Torrents Without A BitTorrent Client – Torrent2Exe

Avinash — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:30:17 +0000

BitTorrent is a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol.BitTorrent is a method of distributing large amounts of data widely.To download from torrent files one needs to install a BitTorrent client software which can be used to download the files.

A new web service called Torrent2Exe has eliminated the need to use a torrent client rather using the service we can convert the .torrent file into an .exe file which on executing downloads the data directly.

How To Use Torrent2Exe :

Download the .torrent file
Visit Torrent2exe and you can either upload the .torrent file from your system or enter the URL of the torrent file.
Download the small exe file
Run the exe file, which starts the download.

Note : Downloading through torrents is legal, but downloading copyrighted material using torrents is illegal.It is important that you make sure the files that you download are legal to download via bit torrent protocol before proceeding to download them.

Disable Copy Paste, Cut, Move, Delete, Rename, Move To, Send To, Copy To, and Task Manager In Windows.

Avinash — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:00:14 +0000

Cut, Copy, Paste, Move, Delete, Rename, Move To, Send To, Copy To are the most commonly used functions in Windows OS, these functions are the ones lead to data loss either through data transfer/data deletion.You can disable these functions in Windows OS, using a tool called Prevent.

How To Setup Prevent :

Double Click on Prevent and set your Hotkey to stop Prevent.The next time you leave your system start Prevent to disable the following functions.

Stops Cut
Stops Paste
Stops Copy
Stops Delete
Stops Copy To
Stops Move to
Stops Send To
Prevents renaming
Disables Task Manager-End Process button. Also it doesn’t allow right click on process name and click on end process.

To re-enable the functions press the Hotkey you setup (For Ex.Ctrl+P ).The default hotkeys are Win+F8 to kill Pre_1 and Win+F9 to kill Pre_2. But the single hotkey set by the user will kill both processes at the same time.

Tip : Create a Keyboard shortcut to start Prevent faster, instead of having a shortcut for the app on the desktop.

Download Prevent

How To Update Ubuntu Beta/Alpha/RC ISO Images To Latest Release Versions ISO Using ZSync

Avinash — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:02:03 +0000

Did you try out the Alpha/Beta/RC Versions of Ubuntu, then you don’t need to download the full ISO Image of the latest version(Karmic Koala- 9.10), because you can simply update your existing images to the latest version without the need to re-download the full image using the zsync files available on the ubuntu download server.

Steps to update the Ubuntu ISO Using ZSync :

To get started using zsync you’ll need to run the following command :

sudo aptitude install zsync

Once that is installed you’ll need to rename your existing image, whether it be the alpha, beta or RC image, to that of final image (the one that exists on the server). For example,

mv ubuntu-9.10-rc-desktop-i386.iso ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso

After you’ve renamed your image to match the final, you can run zsync using the following commands

zsync http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/mirror/ubuntu-cdimage/karmic/ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso.zsync

For the complete list of Mirrors click here.

ZSync compares the existing image files on system with the new files on the server images and download only the new files and recreates the full iso image to the latest version making it easy on the server and also makes it fast to get our hands on the latest version of ubuntu faster.

Incase you dont’t have a Beta/Alpha/RC ISO Image, Download the latest version of Ubuntu (.iso) image.

Via – [ Ubuntu Tutorials ]

Wordpress Visual Cheat Sheet

Avinash — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:15:31 +0000

Wordpress the most used blogging tool, all wordpress theme developers would find a visual cheat sheet useful while developing new theme, this wordpress visual cheat sheet has been put together by by Antonio Lupetti of WoorkUP.

The PDF is a 5 page document containing full reference guide to WP Template Tags with detailed descriptions and sample code.

Download Worpress visual Cheat Sheet

FCleaner – Portable Cleaning and Optimization Tool For Windows

Avinash — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:31:58 +0000

CCleaner is most commonly used Windows disk and registry cleaning and optimization tool but it has no portable version, ( Richard in our comments mentioned that CCleaner portable versions available here for download ) if you looking for a tool that has the same features that can get rid of all the junk file and optimize your system and be able to carry it on a portable usb drive then try out FCleaner that is portable and alternate to CCleaner with an extra feature like Software Updater.

FCleaner Features :

For Windows System – Clears Recycle Bin, Clipboard, Windows Memory Dumps, Chkdsk File Fragments, Windows Temporary Files, Windows Log Files, Recent Documents, Run Histories, Windows XP Search Assistant Autocomplete, Windows XP Old Prefetch Data, Other Explorer MRUs, Menu Order Cache, Tray Notifications Cache, Window Size/Location Cache, User Assist History, IIS Log Files.
Removes Browser Related Information like Internet Cache, Internet Cookies, Internet History, Auto Saved Form Information, Download Folder, Typed URLs, Index.dat from the following browsers IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari, Google Chrome and Sea Monkey.
Uninstall, repair and update software’s from within FCleaner.
Startup Manager – Enable, disable and remove the entry of the applications that run when Windows startup.

Download FCleaner Portable

Download FCleaner (Installer version)

Transcend India Launches USB Digital Music Player MP330.

Avinash — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:47:42 +0000

Transcend’s new Digital Music Player MP330 looks exactly like a USB Pen Drive but has extra features added that makes it more efficient/feature rich music player than any other music player.It works as USB Storage Device, Music Player, FM Radio Receiver, Line-In Recorder and Voice Recorder.

MP330 Features :

Supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, and WMA-DRM10 (subscription music), WAV music files
All-white OLED screen displays clear text at any angle and in any light
Recordable FM Radio with 20 station presets
Built-in microphone and direct Line-In recording (for CD players, or other devices)
Playlist Builder
Karaoke-style synchronized lyrics display
VAD (Voice Activity Detection) for high quality gapless audio recordings
A-B repeat allows continuous replay of a designated section of a track
Variable track playback speeds
Supports 14 languages including menus, song/album title, artist name and lyrics
USB flash drive capabilities for data transfer and storage
Adjustable sleep timer
Power-saving screen savers and auto-shutoff function
7 Equalizer effects, including a customizable USER EQ setting
Internal Li-polymer battery provides upto 12 hours of continuous music playback
Built-in USB 2.0 connector for easy computer connectivity and fast file transfers
Time and date display

MP330 comes in 3 variants 2GB, 4GB and 8GB with a price tag of Rs. 2500, Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 4,000 respectively and it comes with a 2 year warranty and in 2 colors (Black or White) and comes with a sports clip that makes it easy to clip it on your dress while your on the move.

Note : Maximum playback time is achieved with screen saver set to “10-Sec/Blank” and “Lyrics Sync” disabled.

Compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7, Linux Kernel 2.4 or later, Mac OS 10.0 or later

Find Free Open WiFi HotSpots Across US Using OpenWiFiHotspots

Avinash — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:30:02 +0000

Free WiFi networks can be useful to get connected anywhere, but the problem is that there no easy way to find free open WiFi Hotspots, You can go WiFi hunting using WiFi Scanners like Outssider or before your leave you can check out the places around your point of interest where you can find Free Open WiFi Networks using OpenWiFiSpots.

OpenWiFiSpots is a directory of free wireless (WiFi) hotspots across the US that offer Free WiFi high speed wireless Internet access to their customers and guests and/or the general public that don’t require any login/signup.

All the hotspots can be seen as listing or as Google Map Overlays.You also refine you searches using ZipCodes, Places of interest.

While connecting to such free Hotspots, you can try out tools like HotSpotSheild – that can protect your system while using a public wifi network.

Note : This tool lets you find free public wifi networks available in the US only.

How To Optimize and Free Up/Clear RAM Using RAMRush

Avinash — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:10:06 +0000

RAM (Radom Access Memory) the important memory available for the processor to look for information, and the contents of the RAM keep changing time-to-time and having the correct and recent information in the RAM optimizes system performance, but sometimes RAM gets cogged up with data and requires clearing of its contents.

RAMRush is a free memory management and optimization tool that helps clearing of RAM in a single click or using a HotKey for background clearing of RAM.It helps prevent system crashes, memory leaks and keep your system running more efficiently.

RAMRush Features :

Increase system performance
Increase the amount of memory available
Defragment system physical memory
Recover memory from Windows applications
Remove memory leaks
Prevent system crashes caused by memory problems
Display the real-time usages data of CPU and RAM
Hotkey to do optimization
Quiet mode in Windows tray
AutoOptimize mode support

How To Use RamRush :

You could click ‘Start Optimize‘, or double-click RAMRush tray icon, or press the hotkey ‘Ctrl-Alt-O‘ to do optimize action now
You can also use it from the command prompt.For Ex. ‘X:/RAMRush.exe –AutoOptimize’ ( Replace X with your installation drive letter.)

RAMRush works with all versions of Windows OS.

There’s also a portable version of RAMRush that can be carried along on a pen drive, that can be downloaded from here.

Download RAMRush

Cool PDF Reader – Portable PDF Reader Thats Only 650 KB

Avinash — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:54:09 +0000

I’ve earlier shared MuPDF a portable PDF (Portable document Format) Reader and that supported multiple platforms but required installation of extra package for fonts, Today I share Cool PDF Reader, that portable and weighs only 650 KB in size and works with all versions of Windows OS including Windows 7.

Cool PDF Reader Features :

View and Print PDF
Convert PDF to BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WMF, EMF, EPS
Extract PDF to TXT
Support PDF files of all versions
Work with 68+ different languages
Zoom in/out and Rotate page displays
Slide show PDF document with full screen

Keyboard Shortcuts :

Full Screen – F11
Zoom In/Out – Insert/Del
Actual Size – F1
Fit Page – F2
Page Width – F3
Next Page – Space
Previous Page – Backspace
SlideShow – F10

The tool is also available as installer, that can be installed as any other software.

Download Cool PDF Reader

How To Merge PDF Files Online

Avinash — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:54:38 +0000

Multiple PDF’s can be easy if put together as a single PDF, but this needs PDF editing tools, but this can be easily done online at mergepdf, that allows combining multiple PDF documents into a single one.As this is an online service there are a few restrictions :

Maximum number of input files is 10

Individual file size limit is 5 MB

How To Merge PDF files :

Select two (or more) PDF files to be joined together by pressing “Pick files…” in the Combine PDF documents Window.
Press the “Merge PDF” button to upload and combine the selected documents!

Play Any Media File In Windows 7 With Codec Pack For Windows 7

Avinash — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:44:09 +0000

Windows 7 natively supports in Windows Media Player 12 and Media Center, but with various audio/video formats like real audio, real video, mkv, xvid, divx etc.,

Windows 7 Codecs Pack on installation supports the playback of the following file formats in Windows 7.

amr | mpc | ofr | divx | mka | ape | flac | evo | flv | m4b | mkv | ogg | ogv | ogm | rmvb | xvid

The settings of Windows 7 Codec Pack lets configure the settigs for each codec individually, one can choose different splitters and decoders for specific file types.It has 10 different speaker configurations from ’same as input’ up to full 7.1 channel output.

Filetype Associations can also be made directly from the settings window under the HELP Tab, After doing this you can Enqueue newly associated files to the Windows Media Player Playlist.

Download Windows 7 Codec.

Note : Install this IMPORTANT update before installing app.

Save Google Maps as Images Using Google Map Saver

Avinash — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:22:37 +0000

Google Maps is a wonderful application that lets you find directions to places but saving images from Google Maps is not easy and requires onc to take a screenshot using any of the screen capture tools or browser addons.

Instead try Google Map Server the next time which is a portable app (~400 KB) that has a browser of its own that lets you browse Google Maps and save Google Maps as images in various resolutions and formats that can be carried on your USB Drive.

Supported Image Formats : JPEG, PNG-8, PNG-24, BMP or Targa files

Supported Resolutions : QVGA, VGA, iPhone, PAl, NTSC, SVGA, XGA, HD 720, HD 1080, Big – 5000 x 5000 & 8000 x 8000, Huge – 10000 x 10000 & 12000 x 12000 and custom resolution.

You can save images of custom size for e.g 1500×2200 in the Resolution Box and press the plus button.

All images saved through Google Map Server have a watermark, to remove the watermark click the “About” Link ( Top Right Corner ) and accept the Terms and Conditions.

Works on Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Google Map Server

Configure nVidia Graphic Cards Using nHancer – Advanced Control Panel and Profile Editor for nVidia Graphic Cards

Avinash — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:27:23 +0000

nVidia Graphic Cards are the most popular among gamers and avid try to squeeze the last bit of performance using the highest possible settings and tuning, but this is not everyone’s piece of work, and requires knowledge of all the settings and technical know how of what to adjust.

If you are a novice gamer, and what to have the full performance of your nVidia Graphic Card, without much worry then try out nHancer, a free tool that shows the whole range of settings to optimize for the display of games and also of professional applications for nVidia Graphic Cards.It can also improve the performance and to resolve rendering errors.

Features :

Support of Forceware/GeForce drivers version 60 and later (with nHancer 2.4.5), including the new 190+ versions
Support of all GeForce cards, including the new GeForce GTX 2×0 lines
Support for single card, SLI, Quad-SLI and DirectX 10 SLI systems
Create and manage fully automated profiles for all your games
Special options for nVidia’s SLI feature, allowing you to to use almost every game with SLI even if nVidia doesn’t support it
Offers additional Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering modes, that are not available through nVidia’s control panel
Allows the modification of fixed settings included in nVidia’s predefined profiles.
Flexible user interface: change the size of the window and all sub areas
Coexists perfectly with nVidia’s own control panel and other tools, like aTuner or RivaTuner.
Supports Windows Vista, Windows 7 and DirectX 10

Image Source : nHancer Website

System Requirements :

Any nVidia GeForce graphic card
Windows 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista (32 and 64bit) and is Fully compatible with Windows 7
Forceware driver version 60 or higher (nHancer 2.4.5)
Forceware driver version 182 or higher (nHancer 2.5.1 or later)
MS .NET Framework 3.5 or later

Check out the complete Manual, for understanding all settings.

Download nHancer

Configure Windows OS Prefetch/SuperPrefetch to Improve Boot Time and Faster Application Startup Using TweakPrefetch

Avinash — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:08:59 +0000

I’ve earlier shared a tutorial how you could make your Windows 7 OS Boot Faster, by enabling prefectch for boot only, but it needed to editing the registry for achieving the same if you are not interested in manually editing the registry you can try out TweakPretch.

Prefetch lets you easily customized the prefetch of Windows XP (or) Super PreFetch options of Windows Vista and Windows 7.You can choose from 4 Perfecting settings :

Disabled : completely disables fetching. “Superfetch” service is disabled.
Applications Only : fetching will only be applied to user started applications.
Boot Only : fetching will only be applied to boot files (system files, services and startup programs).
Applications & Boot : fetching will be applied to both applications and boot files (Windows default setting for Prefetch and Superfetch).

TweakPrefetch Features :

Supports Windows 7,Vista and XP
Supports Prefetch and SuperPrefetch
Detects wrong parameters for Prefetch and Superfetch
Clear prefetch in single click
Rebuilds Layout.in

“Clear Prefetch” will empty the Prefetch folder, forcing the operative system to rebuild fetch data.( This is not suggested as this could lead to temporary performance drop in applications startup time.)

You can also “Rebuild Layout.ini” from the “Options” menu” for updating the latest startup configuration.

The tool does not require any installation, just download unzip and use., that’s it.

Download TweakPrefetch

Get Mac OS Stacks Feature In Windows OS Using 7Stacks

Avinash — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:44:44 +0000

I’ve earlier shared a free app that lets you create shortcuts as Stacks similar to Mac OS In Windows, Similar to Stacks in Mac OS you can now have the Mac OS stacks features in Windows including Windows 7.

7stacks is a free app that gets Windows 7 (and Vista and XP) have “stacks” of icons in their Taskbar (in 7) or QuickLaunch Toolbar (in Vista and XP).7Stacks fills what Windows 7 misses out on and what Mac OSX has in the taskbar/dock.

7Stacks has 3 different styles of stacks: Normal, Grid, and Menu

Normal displays a stack of icons vertically.
Grid displays a “square” grid of icons only.
Menu displays a cascading menu of items, with a very small icon and a name next to it.

Features :

Group of related icons into a single icon
Browse and access documents and subfolders from the stacks
Implements MAC OS Stacks feature, in Superbar
Supports AERO in Windows Vista and Windows 7.
3 different styles of stacks: Normal, Grid, and Menu
Pin up to 10 different stacks on the Windows 7 taskbar

How To Use :

In Windows 7, create a new stack by right-clicking on any stack and selecting “Create New Stack” from the JumpList entry.7stacks will place an shortcut icon on your desktop to this new stack, which you can then pin to your Windows 7 taskbar, or Vista or XP QuickLaunch bar.

Download Stacks7

Transform Ubuntu Into Windows 7 UI With Transformation Pack Windows 7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu

Avinash — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:34:24 +0000

I’ve shared transformation packs for transforming Windows Into Mac OS, Linux, latest version of Windows OS etc., Today I share with my readers a transformation pack for Ubuntu Linux Distribution, for transforming it into Windows 7 UI.

Windows 7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu includes:

GDM theme
Icons Theme
GTK Theme
Wallpapers
Sounds
Gnomenu Theme
Panel Backgrounds
Cursor theme
DockBar

Image Source : DarkChapel

Check out the complete step by step guide for installing all the packs required for the full transformation at the author site.

Download Ubuntu Windows 7 Transformation Pack