If you have followed our previous example of creating a Show Desktop icon for Windows 7, I bet you are also wondering how to pin that icon to the taskbar just like any other application. Don’t worry, here’s the way to pin your favorite files/folders to the taskbar.

1. Open a notepad. Go to File -> Save As.

Save the file as ‘Show Desktop.exe’ in your desktop (you can give any name you want, but it must end with a .exe extension). Close the file.

2. Drag the Show Desktop.exe file to the taskbar. This will automatically pin it to the taskbar.

3. Right click on the pinned icon. Right click on its name and select Properties.

4. Change the target path to the file/folder that you want to pin. In this case, I am pointing it to the Show Desktop.scf file on my desktop.

5. Click Ok.

That’s it. As easy as that.

How To Pin Any Files/Folders To Windows 7 Taskbar originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

However, Microsoft came up with a different alternative in Windows 7, one that is not as user friendly as it was in Windows XP. We’ll see why it is so and how we can fix this up.

The Alternative Way in Windows 7

To the extreme right bottom corner of the Windows 7 taskbar, just after the time and date indicator, is a small rectangular sectioned area whose function is not indicated unless you bring your mouse pointer over it. This area acts similarly as the Show Desktop icon in Windows XP. Clicking on the above specified area, minimizes all active open windows and brings up the desktop for easy access to the user. Clicking on it again, restores the open windows as they were before. While this is a good implementation, it gets overlooked easily, as the small section remains unlabeled and unused.

If you are more familiar and find it more easy to have a Show Desktop icon as in XP, you can always create one and use it in Windows 7 for easier access to your desktop.

Creating a Show Desktop Icon in Windows 7

Start by clicking on the Start menu and go to All Programs. Click on Accessories and then select Notepad.

A Notepad file opens. Copy and paste the following code in the Notepad file :

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

Note: There should not be any space between the “comma” and “3″ in the 3rd line of the code.

Click on “File”  menu of the Notepad window and select “Save As…”. Save the Notepad file as “Show Desktop.scf” and select desktop as the location.

A file named “Show Desktop.scf” appears on the desktop. Creating the file in Windows 7 is complete.

Using this Show Desktop icon :

Now, leaving your created file on the desktop isn’t really going to help as you have to minimize every window to access it. For easy access you can either pin this file to the Start menu, or add it as a toolbar in the taskbar. To pin it to the Start menu just drag the file to the “Start” icon. Windows automatically pins it to the Start menu.

To add this file as a tool in the system tray

• Create a folder in any location of your computer. Name it as Show Desktop.
• Copy the file, you’ve created, “Show Desktop.scf”.
• Right click on the taskbar and select Toolbar>New toolbar.
• Select the created “Show Desktop.scf” file on the desktop to add it as a toolbar.

Now you can easily access your desktop while working in an open window by either opening the Start menu and selecting Show Desktop, or by simply clicking on the Show Desktop icon in the toolbar. Users familiar with Windows XP will find this very user-friendly as it is easy to access your desktop now in Windows7.

Note: The created file must be saved with a “.scf” extension and not the default “.txt” one.

Restore the Show Desktop Icon In Windows 7 originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Given the fact I was working from a clean slate, I thought I would try a new back up program. Don’t get me wrong, Easeus To-Do Backup did exactly what I needed it to do. I just like to see what else will work. Enter Paragon Backup and Recovery.

Backing Up Options

Differential Backup

What caught my eye was the differential back up. If you aren’t sure what this is, the easiest explanation is it backs up only the files that have changed. This is a must to schedule every couple days or every week. That way you will have minimal loss of information if something happens.

Full Backup

This is what you expect it to be. It makes a backup of the whole drive or area you ask it to. This is great for the initial back up and the occasional full back up. If you choose to, you can have it make an exact copy of your hard drive or partition, OS and all.

Add to Archive

The add to archive feature is pretty neat. It allows you to add a file to a backup archive even though it wasn’t part of your back up.

Cyclic Backup

The cyclic backup feature allows you to have a revolving back up. There are two settings, basic and differential. The basic backup will make multiple base images, where the differential backup will make one base image and the other(s) will save any compared to the info in the base image.

Restore

Restoring has equally as many options as backing up does. Having a multitude of ways to restore is helpful for those times you may not need a full restore.

Bootable Disc or Drive

Making a bootable drive feature built in is super handy. With a lot of the computers coming sans optical drive, having a USB drive with your OS on it is a huge timesaver if the need ever arises. I made a test backup in a couple minutes and was easier than the one I recently used.

Partial Restore

Being able to restore only a portion of your saved file is a feature you don’t think you will need until you accidently delete an important folder or have a corrupt file. You don’t need to replace everything, just the part that’s messed up.

Full Restore

A full restore would be used when disaster strikes and you need to revert back to a point where everything was working. It is good practice to have a full backup at least monthly if not more frequently.

Partitions

Paragon gives you the ability to create, hide, format and delete partitions. In many cases you would need an extra piece of software to do this.

Personally, I am impress with Paragon Backup software as it comes with plenty of useful features not found in other software. The basic version is free and should suffice for general usage, but if you are looking for more sophisticated features like copying the whole partitions/HDD, disk wipe etc, there is a premium version that you can purchase ($69.95)

What is your go-to free backup tool?

Paragon Backup: Another Great Backup Software For Windows originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

• Using a USB stick or an external hard drive.
• Using Internet and File sync services like Dropbox.
• Connecting both the computers in a home network.

The first two options have certain disadvantages. Using a USB drive is way too slow and you can not move large files or directories among multiple computers easily. In that case, you have to use external hard drives which unfortunately are costlier. Using the Internet and file sync services like Dropbox seems like a good idea, but what if the internet connection fails? You can’t afford to wait for all files to get uploaded and then download them to the other computer.

The best option is connecting the computers in a home network. This procedure is fast, efficient, reliable and you need just an ethernet crossover cable to do the job.

Create a home network using an Ethernet cable

Things you will need:

1. A network card installed in both computers.

2. Supported and installed network drivers.

3. A crossover ethernet cable as shown below

Following are the steps involved to configure both computers and connect them using a crossover ethernet cable:

1. Turn off both computers and connect one end of the ethernet cable to the network card slot of computer1. Then connect the other end of the ethernet cable to the network card slot of computer2. The network card slot is located at the back side of computer CPU and looks somewhat similar to the following screenshot:

image credit

2. After both the ends of the ethernet cable is connected, turn on both the computers one by one. It doesn’t matter which one you start with.

3. Now you have to assign a unique Workgroup to each computer. The following step is applicable for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

If your operating system is Windows XP: From the Start menu, right click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”.

Click the “Change” button and assign this computer to a unique Workgroup. As for example: my desktop computer runs on Windows XP and I have assigned it to a Workgroup called “Workgroup”.

If your operating system is Windows Vista / Windows 7: From the Start menu, right click on “Computer” and select “Properties”. This will open the system properties Control Panel window as shown below

Click “Change settings” and assign the same Workgroup which you assigned to the earlier computer.

Note: The computer name field can be given anything as your choice, but please keep in mind that both computers should be under the same Workgroup name or else this tutorial won’t work at all.

4. Restart both the computers one by one. It doesn’t matter which one you start first as Windows will automatically detect and apply the network settings. Now you are ready to share files and folders between the two computers, which are connected in a network.

5. On computer 1 which runs Windows XP, click “Start menu” and go to “My Network Places”. You will see a new icon of your second computer in the “My Network Places” folder. Any document which you share in computer 2, can be found on this folder in computer 1.

6. On computer 2 which runs Windows Vista, click “Network” from the start menu and you will see a new icon of your first computer. Any file which is shared on computer 1, can be found from this folder in computer 2.

If you don’t see the networked shared folders in both computers, you might get a prompt to turn on “Network sharing”. Click the security pop-up in “Network and Sharing center” and select “Turn on Network Discovery and File sharing”. Then select “Make the network a private network” and restart both the computers again.

Now both of your computers are connected in a network and you can simply copy/paste files, folders and documents in those shared folders. Hence you can move the files or folders between your computers instantly.

Have you set up a small home network using an ethernet crossover cable? Let us know your ideas in the comments section.

Image credit: RegNatarajan

How to Connect Two Windows Computers On LAN Using an Ethernet Crossover Cable originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

In Windows 7, go to the search bar in the Start menu and type

gpedit.msc

Press Enter

This will open the Local Group Policy Editor window. On the left pane, navigate to Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update.

On the right pane, double click on the entry “No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automated updates installation”.

In the next window, select the box “Enabled” and click Apply. Click OK to close the window.

Other options that you can play with

Now, if you don’t want to disable the auto-restart function completely, there are also other ways that you can make it less disruptive.

Delay Restart

The default duration for the system to restart after an update is 15 minute. You can change the default timing to the one you prefer.

Double click on the entry “Delay Restart for scheduled installations”. Check the Enabled box. At the bottom left pane, change the timing to your own preferences.

Change the Restart Re-prompt timing

The Automatic Updates usually wait for a period of time before it prompts you again to restart your computer. The default timing is 10 minutes. You can change the setting so that it won’t bother you during the time that you are using your computer.

Double click on the “Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations”. Click the Enabled button and specify the time in the bottom left pane.

Improve Windows 7 startup time by preventing the Automatic update from running immediately after the startup

As you startup your Windows, it will load a lot of files and applications. In some occasion, you might have to wait for several minutes before the computer is fully functional. One such application that the system runs automatically is the Automatic Update. Its default setting is to wait for 1 minute after the system bootup before it runs in the background. To speed things up a little bit, you can increase the lag time such that the Automatic Update will only run itself after a specified amount of time (say 15 minutes).

Double click on the entry: “Reschedule Automatic Update scheduled installations”. Click Enabled and specify the time in the bottom left pane.

Conclusion

There are plenty of stuffs that you can play around in the Local Group Policy Editor window. Most of them don’t really hurt your computer unless you choose to turn off automatic update completely. Do play around and find the best match for your usage patterns.

How to Prevent Windows From Restarting After An Automatic Update originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

To fix this fragmentation problem, we need to run the disk defragmentation application where it locates the various parts of a file and arranges them in running order. By default, Windows comes with its own set of defragment tool that anyone can use, but it suffers from some drawbacks such as inability to defragment a single selected file and ignores files that are smaller than 64 MB.

On the other hand, there is this effective utility named Auslogics Disk Defrag which lets you overcome all of this drawbacks. This useful Auslogics product comes with features like:

• able to defragment all drives at once.
• able to defragment a single file or folder.
• auto defragmentation in the background.
• wipes out all the free space so that no data can be restored.
• able to change the algorithm of defragmentation.
• schedule regular defragmentation session.
• compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

It also contains several advanced features like optimizing your hard drives for maximum performance and keeping the MFT feature zone clear.

How to use Auslogics Disk Defrag

One good thing about Auslogics Disk Defrag is that it is easy to use.

If you want to defragment a single or multiple drives simultaneously, simply select the drives you want to defragment and click on “Defrag” button.

Clicking on the arrow beside the Defrag button allows you to change the algorithm of the defragmentation process. Here you can chose to just analyze the disks or to defragment the selected drives. You can also chose “Defrag & Optimize” option where it tweak the system for best performance. This process is slower but more effective than just the “Defrag” method.

If you just want to defragment some specific files or folders, go to Action->Defrag File or Action->Defrag folder. You can then select the file or folder to defrag.

Another interesting feature about this software is that you can set the algorithm of the defragment process. One option is to remove the users’ temporary file before defragmentation. This can significantly reduce the defragmentation time. You can also set option not to defrag files bigger than a certain size. Moving the system file to the beginning of the disk can also help to increase your system speed.

You can also schedule the defragmentation process from the “Schedule” tab.

Auslogics Disk Defrag is free to download and use. For those who wanted more powerful software, you can also try the premium version – Auslogics BoostSpeed.

Does this software make your defragmentation process a whole lot easier? Hopefully your PC performs faster too.

Defragment Your Disk With Auslogics Disk Defrag originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Note: Following are some workarounds to read the content of your documents that are of docx file format. You can also use the same method to read other Office files like xlsx, pptx etc

1. View .docx file in older Office version

Microsoft has released a compatibility package to run the newer documents file in older version of Office. Just download the Microsoft compatibility pack. After installing the compatibility pack you will be able to read the .docx files in your current installation of Microsoft Office.

2. Install OpenOffice

For those who are not using Windows as their main operating system Microsoft Office as their main office suite, they can install OpenOffice and get it to open .docx file.

If all you need is a lightweight solution, you can also install the OpenOffice.org Portable app onto your USB drive.

3. Using Google Docs

If you don’t want to install any software in your computer, then you can upload the .docx file to Google Docs. You can then use Google Docs to read, edit or print your documents. All the content of the document will be saved in your Google account.

4. Using ThinkFree

Other than Google Docs, ThinkFree is another online based word editor that allows you to view your .docx file. Open the the website and upload any office file. It will show you the document content. Generally Thinkfree does not require registration to view a document file, but if you want to edit that document or share in the internet, you will have to sign up for an account. One thing though, you can avoid the sign up process by logging into your Gmail account.

The first time you login with your Google account, you have to grant the permission to ThinkFree to access your Google account.

5. Convert the docx file to your preferred format

There is another hassle free method to view a .docx formatted document. You can use a converter to convert the .docx file. There are several online tools that you can use to convert a .docx file.

• Zamzar – It is a fast online tool and easy to use. Just sign in to Zamzar and start to convert your docx file in your preferred file format.
• Docx converter – With Docx converter, you can convert the docx file to many file formats such as doc, pdf etc. Docx converter also comes with a desktop widget to allow you to convert the files directly from your desktop. Download Desktop widget.

What other methods do you to use to view your .docx file?

How to Open .docx File Without Microsoft Office originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Now, if you have lost the CD case (high chances that you would), the product keys can be extracted from Windows registry. Wouldn’t it be wise to first extract all the product keys of software and keep them at a safe location? This ensures full installation of programs after a system format. This article shows you ways to extract the serial and product keys of application software in Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

1. Magical Jelly Keyfinder

Magical Jelly is the best product key finder for Windows. It’s free and portable, hence you can use it without installation or modifying the Windows registry. It can be used to extract the product keys of paid software like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visual Studio, Adobe Photoshop etc.

Using Magical Jelly is pretty simple as double-clicking the program extracts all the available product keys from your Windows registry. This key finder program works with all the major versions of Windows (Win 95 -Win 7).

2. WinKeyFinder

WinkeyFinder is another great program to find the CD keys of installed software as well as the operating system. You can use this program to

• Find product keys of Windows XP, Vista, Windows 2003, Windows 98 and Windows ME editions
• Find serial keys of Microsoft Office 2000, 2003 and Microsoft 2007.
• Change or copy the volume serial number.
• View .NET key.

Apart from viewing the product keys, this keyfinder program lets you save your software product keys in an encrypted format. You can use this program to generate unique passwords by entering the combination of any serial key code.

Some FAQ regarding Serial and Product Keys

Note that you need to run the key finder program before formatting the system. If you format the system and try to retrieve the keys, you would find nothing as the registry would be completely fresh with no data stored. Hence, use any of the above key finder programs and save the serial keys in your computer. A better option would be to print a hard copy of all the serial keys and keep it in your shelf.

Following are some common questions regarding serial and product keys of Windows:

1. The product key retrieved by the Keyfinder is different from the one I purchased.

Ans: Some computer manufacturers use generic product keys provided by Microsoft, so that they can manufacture products at a large amount. If the key extracted by the key finder program does not match with the one that came with the Windows CD, then be rest assured that your version of Windows is not completely “Premium”. Generic keys expires after re-installation Windows while premium keys don’t.

2. If I use different Keyfinder programs, will I get different keys?

Ans: The answer is NO, you won’t. As I earlier said, serial keys are stored in Windows registry and the Keyfinder program is just a way to recover that. Thus, using different key finder program would not alter the result in any case.

3. I uninstalled a program long ago and forgot the serial key. Can I recover the serial key using a Keyfinder software?

Ans: It depends on the software itself. During uninstallation, some application programs completely remove the registry entries while others do not. You should try with a Keyfinder program and see whether the serials are still available or not.

4. I cannot boot Windows because my Operating System has crashed. How do I recover the CD key?

Ans: The keyfinder program works only when Windows is running fine. If Windows crashes, you can not use any Keyfinder to extract the serial key.

Do you have any more questions regarding Windows serial keys? What technique do you use to recover CD keys of Windows or other applications? Please share your ideas with us in the comments section.

Find Product keys Of Microsoft Softwares and Serial Keys of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

All you want is a simple solution which will let you read your emails and RSS feeds at a central place. Microsoft Outlook 2007 has a solution for this.

Microsoft Outlook 2007 can be used to import Google reader subscriptions and read RSS feeds alongside your daily emails. You can also choose to open Google reader right inside Outlook to read blog updates.

Export Feed Subscriptions From Google Reader to Ms Outlook

Follow the steps below to add RSS feeds in Microsoft Outlook:

1. Log in to your Google Reader account and click the “Settings” link placed at the top right corner of the browser window.

2. Go to the “Import/Export” tab and click “Export your subscription as an OPML file”. This will export an OPML file containing the information for all the RSS feeds to which you have subscribed.

3. Open MS Outlook and right click the RSS feed link from the sidebar. Select “Import an OPML file” and browse to the file that you exported in step 2.

4. Select the RSS feeds which you want to export in Microsoft Outlook. You can select all the feeds by clicking the”Select All” button or you can import selected feeds by checking the box placed on the left of that feed.

5. Microsoft Outlook will import the selected subscriptions and then you can read blog updates right from your favorite email client.

When Microsoft Outlook runs in your system tray, it will auto fetch all the updates so you can carry out your official tasks as usual.

Open Google Reader inside Microsoft Outlook

You can also open Google reader right inside Microsoft Outlook. This will let you enjoy reading feeds in Google reader and without leaving outlook. Following are the steps involved to open Google Reader within the Outlook window:

1. Open outlook and click the RSS feed icon from the sidebar. Select “Properties” and navigate to the “Home page” tab.

2. Enter the URL as http://www.google.com/reader in the address box and select the checkbox “Show home page by default for this folder”. Click “Apply” and then “Ok” to save the changes.

3. Now whenever you click the RSS icon from the Outlook sidebar, Google Reader will open. Sign in to Google reader and you can read the RSS Feeds as you normally do.

Comparision – Manual Export vs Opening Google reader in Outlook

Below is a short comparision of the above two methods used to read RSS feeds in Microsoft Outlook:

Now its all upto you, whether you will prefer to read the RSS feeds by importing the OPML file or by opening Google Reader in Microsoft Outlook. Let us know your ideas in the comments section.

How to Read Your Google Reader Feeds In Microsoft Outlook originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

To solve this dilemma, a company called Gladinet came up with a way to back up and sync your Google Docs. If you want to compare it to other services, think of it like Dropbox or Mozy for your Google Docs.

Set up

Setting up Gladinet is pretty easy. Go to http://www.gladinet.com/p/download_starter_direct.htm and download the installer for your Windows computer. You can choose between 32 and 64 bit.

Gladinet is compatible with XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 2003.

1. When you have the setup file downloaded, double click on it and the follow the steps.

2. Once the basic install is done, you have a few more steps. The first is to register with Gladinet. By registering, you get free tech support and updates.

3. Next comes a little configuring. All you will need to do for this part is select what you would like to back up. In this case, we are going to use standard Google Docs. As you can see, there are many other options to choose from. If you use any of the other services now or plan to in the future, you can always add them in later.

4. Once you you have selected the web service and clicked next, you are brought to a screen with some settings. If you would like to change the proxy settings, drive label letter (default is Z) or the name of the drive, do that now. Simply click [edit] or [change] next to the item you want to modify. Click Finish.

5. You will see something like this for the next page. Click on the top icon that says [Click to mount].

6. You should be whisked away to a log in screen. Put in your Google account email and password here. Click next.

7. During the sign in authentication process, a pop up will ask for the okay to download a Google Docs plug-in; Click ok and continue the setup.

8. When it is finished setting up, you will be presented with the option to back up other folders on your computer. If you want to go forward with this, do so now. If not, you can always go back to it later.

Congratulations, you have just set everything up and now you have a virtual back up of all of your Google Docs.

How to Access

Accessing your documents can be done in a few ways. If you installed a desktop or Start menu shortcut, you can click there to open a window. If you did not choose to install these shortcuts, you can access the drive in {My Computer] under the [Network Drives].

Another way to access the folder containing your virtual docs is to click on the icon in the task bar (assuming Gladinet is running).

Virtual Drive

The window you see when you click on the virtual drive icon looks similar to the one from earlier. However, this time you can click on the [Google Docs] folder.

When you do, you will see all of your folders and docs here. If you have an app like Word you will be able to view and edit the docs just like they were on your computer.

Backing Up

Making a back up is super easy. When you sign into your Google Docs account, you will notice a couple of new folders. These are your back up folders. To keep your documents backed up, drag them into the [Backup From] folder

To sync the virtual drive and Google Docs, right click on the icon in the task bar. Select [Backup My Files Online] then [Create Google Docs Backup Task]. Any files you have dragged into your back up folder in your Google Docs page will be backed up automatically.

Uploading

By dragging and dropping a document into the window, you will automatically upload it to your Google Docs account. What you will see is a FTP style window showing the progress of the upload.

To see if it worked, log into your Google Docs account and see the newest edition.

Overall this is a pretty great way to add an extra measure of security and convenience for those of us who use cloud based office suites and document storage.

How do you backup your cloud based documents?

Backup and Sync your Google Docs with Gladinet originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Download MaComfort

Once the installation is complete, you will see a tooltip icon in Windows system tray. Right click on it and you are ready to tweak MaComfort and enjoy some Mac features.

There are 4 panels in MaComfort namely – Keyboard, Quicklook, Active corners and Spaces where you can tweak the controls and bring the Mac environment into life on your PC.

The Keyboard

The keyboard hot keys are now mapped to match with Macomfort. Although, Windows hot keys would work as they normally should. You can toggle mute with F3, lower the volume using F4 while increase the volume with the F5 key. Mac specific application shortcuts are now accessible from the Windows key so if you want to quit a program, hit Windows key + Q. The key combination acts as a replacement of Apple + Q in Mac.

The Spaces

Spaces enable virtual desktops in Windows so that you can run different set of applications on different environments. You can have 4 virtual desktops enabled at maximum. Use Ctrl + Left arrow to show the previous desktop while Ctrl + Right arrow to show the next one. The impressive part of Spaces is that it lets you drag and drop application windows from one virtual desktop to another.

For example, let’s suppose you are working in a Word document in desktop 1 while an Excel spreadsheet is kept open in desktop 2. You want to bring the word document and the excel spreadsheet in the same virtual desktop. To do that, just drag the Word window and move it quickly towards the edge of the screen.

Bingo! The program window is moved to desktop 2 instantly. In the same way you can switch application windows to multiple virtual desktops.

Active Corners

Love this feature and never thought that the corners of my PC screen can be so productive to do so many tasks. The active corners panel lets you choose custom commands which gets activated once you move the cursor to that corner. Lots of functions are supported which includes the following:

• Start Screensaver.
• Show desktop.
• Show active window.
• Shutdown computer.
• Log off.
• Switch off monitor.
• Start Application.
• Stand by

So if you want to quickly see the desktop, just move the mouse to the top left corner. In the same way, if you want to hibernate windows – move the cursor to the top right corner of the screen. This feature is very useful as you can open custom application shortcuts of programs by just hovering the mouse to a corner of the screen.

Quicklook

You can quickly preview files by selecting them and hitting the space key. This works with images, audios and video files. You can also choose to animate the preview of Quicklook feature from the options in Macomfort settings panel.

Macomfort is free but with limited options, skins and plugins. If you want to try out all the features of Macomfort, you have to buy the paid version (starting $15). Do you know of any other program which brings Mac’s functionality to Windows? Let us know your ideas in the comments.

Get Mac OS X Features On Windows With Macomfort originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

In Windows 7, there is this feature that allows you to clone your system to an image file so you can restore from it in the event some disasters happened. In this article, we are going to show you how to clone your system drive in Windows 7 and restore your system from that.

Cloning your system

1. In the Start menu search box, type “backup and restore” and press “Enter”. It will open the Backup and Restore window in control panel. Now Click on “Create a system image” from left side of the window.

2. Once the “Create a System image” window appears, choose “On a hard disk” option and locate the drive where you want to save the backup. You can also choose DVDs option, but be forewarned that it will require more than one DVD to complete the backup. Using an external hard disk would be a better choice.

3. After confirming the backup location, you can click on the “Next” button to proceed in the next step. Here is where you choose the drive to backup. The system drive (C:) is checked by default. For other drives, simply check the box beside them to include them in your backup.

4. In this step, you have to confirm whether you have selected the right location of backup and the correct drives which you want to backup. Click the “Start backup” button once you have checked everything is correct.

5. The backup process will take some time to finish. You can go for your coffee break for now.

After the backup is completed, you can now remove your external hard drive and keep the backup image file in a safe place.

Restoring from the backup image

To restore your PC from the backup image, you can either boot it up from the startup screen (if your OS cannot be booted up anymore) or restore from the control panel (when you just want to revert back to an older setting).

Restore from Control Panel

1. Type “backup and restore” in the Start menu search box to open Backup and Restore window.

2. Click on “Recover system settings or your computer”.

3. Click on “Advanced recovery methods”.

4. Choose the option “Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer”.

5. Now you’ll get a option to back up the files like documents, pictures, music, located in the current system drive. You can skip this process by clicking the “Skip” button.

6. Hit the “Restart” button. When your computer starts again, just choose the location of the backup image file and proceed.

Restore from startup screen

1. Restart you computer, hold down the F8 key when booting to enter the advanced boot option menu.

2. Select your preferred keyboard layout. Click Next to proceed.

3. Put a user name and password, click OK.

4. Choose “System Image Recovery” from the System Recovery option menu and follow the instructions.

That’s all to create a backup system image and restore your system from it. Do let us know if you use any other ways to backup/restore your PC.

How to Create a Backup System Image in Windows 7 originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

It’s not the operating system of connoisseurs; rather, it is the masses who follow herd mentality and go with Windows, the OS that we all love to hate, but which we cannot live without nonetheless. Yes, the original software is expensive and there are numerous bugs in each version of the Windows operating system, but we still take to it like a duck to water for various reasons:

• Most OEM choose to install Windows on their PCs and notebooks, and a free pre-installed software is always welcome.
• It is easy enough to operate, even for someone who is new to computers.
• Most software and applications are built for Windows because it is the choice of (or thrust onto) the majority.

Yes, there may be times when you will complain about Windows, when the automatic updates and the various screen pop-ups annoy you and make you wish that this dratted OS would just leave you alone, but if you know how to maximize your Windows experience, there is just the chance that you might enjoy it more than you do right now.

Never use pirated software

It is expensive, but authentic is the best way to go when it comes to Windows. For one, if you run a pirated version of the OS, you must turn off your automatic updates in order to avoid being detected. And when you do this, you miss out on all the important patches and updates that are necessary to keep your system free of viruses and other complications. And for another, you need to do your part to kill piracy, no matter what you think about Microsoft being too rich for its own good.

Don’t clutter your system

When you download too many applications to your system, you risk cluttering your memory, especially when you have more than one running at the same time. The more programs you have open simultaneously, the slower your system becomes.

Remove programs and applications that you do not use often by going to your Control Panel and using the Add/Remove Programs option.

Also, to free up disk space from time to time, run the Disk Cleanup option from your Control Panel, select the hard drive that you want to clean, check the files that you want to delete, and click Ok.

Remove unwanted programs that run at startup

The more programs that load when your computer boots up, the slower the boot process is going to be. For quick boot times, remove unwanted programs that run when your computer starts. Usually, instant messenger applications and other trivial applications are set to open on startup by default.

To remove those applications you don’t want, open Windows Defender, and click the Tools and Software Explorer buttons. Choose Startup Programs from the Category box, select the programs you want to disable, and click Disable and then Ok to confirm.

Keep your system free of viruses

A virus can not only create havoc on your files, it can also wreck your hardware if you’re not careful. So use a good antivirus software that warns you of invasions and helps you get rid of any that have wormed their way in. Also ensure that your antivirus solution is set to update its virus definition database automatically so that new viruses are added to the list that your system must scan for. You don’t have to invest in an expensive antivirus solution because there are perfectly good, free antivirus applications around.

Create separate user accounts

If more than one person uses your Windows system, create different user accounts for each person so that the desktop and memory do not get cluttered. Encourage everyone who uses it to designate their own folders for storing files and programs so that there is sense of order and you can find what you need in a jiffy.

Go to your Control Panel and click User Accounts, use the Administrator option to set your own password, and then click Manage another Account. Choose Create a User Account, and follow the instructions provided. There is also a Guest option that people who don’t have User Accounts can use so that you limit their access to your files and applications.

Any OS is only as good as the way you use it, so when you learn how to maximize your Windows experience, you feel the difference in its usage.

How to Maximize Your Windows Experience originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Choosing a Linux Distro

There are a few criteria to look at when deciding exactly which to go with. We’ll want something fairly small, runs well from USB, auto-detects local hard drives, and able to work with a persistence file so we can save our new programs and updates directly to the USB stick.

I’d recommend Crunchbang Linux. It meets all of the above criteria, it’s Ubuntu-based, and it’s just a very slick distro that would work well for this purpose. Also, whichever distro you decide, choose the 32 bit option. Your computer may be 64-bit ready but Cousin Stan’s might not, and we need this software to be as portable as possible.

Installing Linux to USB

This is a topic we’ve covered before at MakeTechEasier, both for Windows with Lili USB Creator and Linux with UNetbootin.

Of the two, I’d actually recommend Lili, the Windows software, to create your USB stick. Lili makes it easy to create a persistence file so your changes can be saved on the USB stick so you won’t have to reinstall and update your AV every time you use it.

Linux Antivirus Software

A number of commercial and independent AV vendors make Linux versions, with various amounts of hassle and levels of functionality. A few of the more well known ones include…

We’ll be using Clam Antivirus because it’s the simplest install, requires no registration, and does an excellent job of detecting and removing infected files. It should be available for download for just about any Linux system from the Clam website or your distro’s online repositories. Ubuntu users can also install it by clicking here.

Running the Scan

For starters, you’ll want to run an update once Clam is installed so that our scan will have the newest virus definitions. To do this, open a command prompt and run

sudo freshclam

While there is a GUI called Clamtk available for download, we’ll be using the command line interface. This is because Clamtk lacks some of the configuration options that we’ll be passing to the antivirus.

To run the scan we’ll need to know a few things. First is the location that you intend to scan. If you’re scanning a Windows drive from a live Linux system as intended, you can find this by clicking that drive from the left pane of your file browser and looking at the path shown in the address bar.

Then we’ve got a few options we may want to pass to Clam regarding how to perform the scan. Some options worth considering are:

-r                   #perform recursive scan - good for a whole drive
--exclude=.mp3       #set exclusion pattern to skip things like music and videos
--scan-mail=yes/no   #include mail files in system scan
--remove=yes/no      #delete infected files, yes or no.  Careful with this.

So when you’re ready, your full command will look something like this:

clamscan -r --exclude=.avi --remove=yes /media/disk

When all’s said and done, you’ll get a fairly detailed report.

If all went well, you’re set until next time Stan clicks a popup.

How to Remove Windows Viruses with Linux originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

What we are going to do is to make use of the NTFS’s Alternate Data Streams to store our sensitive data. The Alternate Data Streams allow us to hide stream in some file name. This data stream is not visible or shown when accessing the main file. So if you want to hide data like password, email address or bank A/C number, you can add those as a simple text and hide them as a stream in some file name.

Let’s get down to the dirty work:

Open command prompt and type the following syntax:

notepad AnyFileName.txt:SecretData.txt

Here “AnyFileName” is the actual filename of the text file while “SecretData.txt” is the hidden stream contained within AnyFileName.

A window will popup asking for your confirmatoin. Click Yes.

A notepad editor will appear. You can now type the sensitive data that you want to hide.

Go to File -> Save to save the file.

You can add more than one hidden stream in the same file. Simply type the same command (but with different stream name) to add the new stream.

Notice that the main file name is “AnyFileName.txt” and there are no clues from the exterior that it contains a hidden file within it.

How do I access the hidden data?

To read the hidden stream from command prompt type the syntax below:

more < FileName.txt:StreamName.txt

For instance in our example the command should be

more < AnyFileName.txt:SecretData.txt

You will have to remember the file of your hidden stream in order to recover it from the text file.

How do I detect the hidden file if I’ve forgotten the file name?

Yes you can detect the hidden files using the application Stream.exe. This application will monitor all the files with the stream file name if they exist.

For instance the syntax of detecting the hidden stream is

streams.exe AnyFileName.txt

If you want to delete just the stream from the file then type this command:

streams.exe -d AnyFileName.txt

This command will delete all the streams from the file AnyFileName.txt.

The above process is very handy to store some private text data in your system. Unless the other users of your PC are tech savvy or hackers, the chances are they will never notice your little secrets.

If you are still not satisfied, you can further enhance the security of those files by making them inaccessible and undeletable.

How to Hide Confidential Data In Text Files originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Picture Stitching

Picture stitching allows you to take a screen capture of a full webpage or at least more page than can be viewed on a screen with out scrolling. The way it works is by pressing the default hot key combo of Ctrl + Shift + Print. A selection window appears; stretch it to fill the area you want to capture minus the side scroll bar. Once the area is selected, using the browser scroll bar, scroll down a little at a time, making sure to stop periodically. The screens need to overlap so the software knows where to stitch the pages together.

Editing

One of the features I was really happy to see was the built in editing window. It can do the basics like resize and crop. Some of the additional features that set Screepresso apart are things such as:

Annotation

Some applications have basic markup tools, this application is not all that different there. You can add shapes like circles, an ellipse, squares and arrows. What IS different, is the resizing of the shape. As simple as it sounds, this is a nice touch. Instead of clicking undo and repositioning the arrow, you can grab either end and move it. The same can be done with the other shapes as well.

Blur Tool

This feature caught me by surprise. Normally, I would use some sort of image editor to blur out personal information in a screen capture. By having this feature built into the screen capture program, it saves steps and therefore saves time.

Numbering

Numbering is not something I personally use a lot. However, there are times when there are needs to place numeric place markers on the captured screen. If you are making an owners manual or giving feedback on a website for example, this would be extremely useful.

Text

Adding text can be done in two ways; the standard text box or a text balloon (think comic book text bubble). Again, this is handy if you are adding comments and need the words to point at something specific. Sure you could use an arrow then add a text box to the tail of the arrow. This is just a cleaner looking way.

Resizing

Like many other apps, basic resizing is available. The coolness in this application is, you can set it to auto resize and are given a multitude of selections to do so. When you are in the edit window, click on the image tab. If you choose the maximum width setting for example, any screen capture will automatically be reduced to that width.

Sharing

Once you have everything marked up and ready for people to see, you are given the option to send to Twitter. If you would rather not tweet it and send it via email, you can simply drag it into your desktop email program. If you are using web based email such as Yahoo or Gmail, you can brag the file onto your desktop and attach it to your email like normal.

Pro Version

Right now, there is only a free version. It does however look as though a pro version is in the works. Right now it looks like the features they list on the comparison grid are all the same. In the settings window are grayed out tabs for audio and video capture. I did not see a specific mention about these features only accessible in the pro option, but I would venture to guess that will be what happens.

How much time will an all-in-one program like this save you?

Screenpresso: A Powerful All-in-one Screen Capture Tool originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

This time round, we are going to spend a bit more effort and compile 100 free software each for Windows, Mac and Linux. It took us a lot of hard work and time to source out the software, so if you like it, don’t forget to spread the word around.

This is the first part of our compilation focusing on free Windows application. Mac and Linux applications will come in the later series.

Office Suite/Word Processing/Text Editor

1. OpenOffice.org – The most complete free office suite and also the best alternative to Microsoft Office.
2. Go-OO – A variant of Open Office that has built in OpenXML import filters and will import your Microsoft Works files.
3. IBM Lotus Symphony – a richly-featured set of productivity tools that are intuitive and easy to use. There are three applications that make up Lotus Symphony: Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets and Lotus Symphony Presentations.
4. SSuite Office – Excalibur 2.0 – A visual pleasing set of office applications that contains more than a word processor and spreadsheet.
5. AbiWord – a lightweight and easy to use word processor
6. Jarte – a word processor that uses the Microsoft WordPad processing engine.
7. Notepad++ – a free source code editor and Notepad replacement software that supports several languages.
8. TED Notepad – TED Notepad is a chrome-less freeware text editor. It offers 197 text-processing functions, innovative features and other advanced tools. This light-weight portable notepad replacement fits on any USB flash disk and loads instantly with no installation required.
9. Notepad2 – a fast and light-weight Notepad-like text editor with syntax highlighting. This program can be run out of the box without installation, and does not touch your system’s registry.
10. PsPad – a simple yet powerful alternative to your regular Notepad

Security Suite/Antivirus/Firewall/Anti-malware

1. Avast! Home Edition – one of the most popular free antivirus software out in the market
2. AVG Anti-Virus – another top favorite among end users
3. Comodo Internet Security – a complete security suite of firewall and antivirus
4. Avira AntiVir Personal – good for detecting viruses and malware that other antivirus apps miss
5. Clamwin AV – the only free and open source antivirus in this section. Nevertheless, it does its job well.
6. SecureIT – Built on top of ClamWin AV, this software contains anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and malware blocker.
7. Microsoft Security Essential – a lightweight and fast antivirus software by Microsoft
8. SpyCatcher Express – a free and easy to use anti-spyware application
9. HijackThis – a free utility that generates an in depth report of registry and file settings from your computer.
10. Zone Alarm Free Firewall – the grand daddy of all free firewall software. Still as useful even though it has been around for a long time.

Image Editor

1. GIMP / GimpShop / GimPad – GIMP is touted as the best alternative to Photoshop. Gimpshop and Gimpad are two other alternatives that make GIMP interface more like Photoshop
2. Paint.net – This is a much better image editing tool than the default Paint in Windows.
3. IrfanView – a great image viewer that is simple to use for beginner and powerful enough for professional.
4. PhotoScape – Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos.
5. ImageMagick – a popular software to create, edit, and compose bitmap images. It can read, convert and write images in a variety of formats (over 100) including DPX, EXR, GIF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, PDF, PhotoCD, PNG, Postscript, SVG, and TIFF.
6. InkScape – An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format
7. Photo Pos Pro – a free photo editor offers users a wide variety of possibilities in the fields of Image Enhancing and Image Editing and in the field of Computer Graphics Design.
8. XnView – a utility for viewing and converting graphic files
9. Photobie – Photobie is image editing software that combines features amateurs can use with advanced tools professionals will appreciate.

Instant Messaging Client

1. Digsby – a mix between IM, social networking tool and email client
2. Pidgin – an easy to use and free chat client used by millions. Connect to AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and more chat networks all at once.
3. Trillian Astra – Chat on Windows Live™, Yahoo!, MySpaceIM, AIM, Google, ICQ, Jabber, Skype, IRC, and manage your Email, Facebook, and Twitter!
4. Skype – the grand daddy of VOIP software
5. MSN Messenger Polygamy – MSN Messenger (WLM) Polygamy 2009 will allow you to use multiple copies of MSN Messenger at the same time.
6. Nimbuzz – With one secure log-in you can access Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Google Talk, Facebook, MySpace, Gadu-Gadu, Hyves and many more.
7. Miranda IM – an open-source multi protocol instant messenger client for Microsoft Windows. It’s smaller, faster, easier!
8. VoxOx – With only one login, VoxOx gives you access to all your instant messaging accounts from one window. Facebook, MySpace and Skype IM are included now, so you can chat with any of your friends on your favorite network or instant messenger from VoxOx.
9. Palringo – Available for both computer and mobile phone. Now you can chat with all your buddies, no matter what IM they use, all from one universal Instant Messenger.

Social network Desktop Client

1. Fishbowl – personalize how you read your Facebook newsfeed, update status, comment, like, browse and upload photos.
2. TweetDeck – Receive update for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn simultaneously
3. Seesmic Desktop – supports multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts
4. Scrapboy – a downloadable client that will let you use Facebook chat, see updates to friends walls and browse new photos, set Facebook reminders, and more all without having to go to Facebook through your browser.
5. Nomee – 120+ social networking sites served up in one place. So you can easily find and follow the social networking of friends and celebrities, family and coworkers. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr and more than 100 more.
6. Yoono Desktop – Yoono is an easy to use application that allows you to connect to all your social networks and instant messaging services – in one place.
7. twhirl – connects to multiple Twitter, laconi.ca, Friendfeed and Seesmic Video accounts
8. jUploadr – a cross platform, cross-site Photo uploader
9. 8hands Desktop – 8hands is a service for the social networks users that want to always stay in the know but don’t want to waste too much time on checking their blogs and profiles. The 8hands Desktop application will organize all your social networks into one place and notify you upon new events.
10. Sobees Lite – Search the recent messages posted on Twitter and Friendfeed and be the first one informed if anything that matters to you happens.

Media Converter/Ripper

1. Xvid4PSP – Converting videos to various formats
2. Mobile media converter – a free video and audio converter for converting between popular desktop media formats like MP3, Windows Media Audio (wma), Ogg Vorbis Audio (ogg), Wave Audio (wav), MPEG video, AVI, Windows Media Video (wmv), Flash Video (flv), QuickTime Video (mov) and commonly used mobile devices/phones formats like AMR audio (amr) and 3GP video.
3. Handbrake – an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
4. Videora converter – a free iPod video converter that converts video files, YouTube videos, movies and DVD’s so you can play them on your iPod.
5. Avi2Dvd – an All In One tool to convert from Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd to Dvd/Svcd/Vcd format.
6. MediaCoder – touted as the swiss army knife for media transcoding in all time.
7. Any Video Converter – a free video converter for converting video files between various formats, with fast converting speed and excellent video quality.
8. VLC – VLC is a versatile media player that can play almost any video/audio you throw to it.
9. Free FLV Converter – Search and download videos from Youtube, Dailymotion, Google Video, Yahoo Videos, MetaCafe, Veoh, megavideo and convert them to AVI, iPod, PSO, iPhone, 3GP or FLV (flash) formats.
10. Free Video To iPhone Converter – Convert video files to Apple iPhone MP4 video format encoded with the high quality h.264 video codec.

Music management Software

1. iTunes – Apple most popular music management software. You need it to sync your iPod.
2. Winamp Media Player – a proprietary media player that is both skinnable and supports multi-format.
3. JetAudio Basic – a media player that supports all major file formats
4. Media Monkey – allows you to organize music and edit tags in your audio library with a powerful, intuitive interface.
5. Songbird – free, open source media player that allows you to browse the Web within the player
6. SharePod – manage your iPod without iTunes
7. Helium Music Manager – a full-fledged music manager that can rip, tag, play, burn and synchronize with your portable device
8. DoubleTwist – a great alternative to iTunes, able to sync your iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android Phone
9. Foobar 2000 – an advanced music player that took 10 years to release the version 1.0
10. TagScanner – a multifunction program for organizing and managing your music collection.

Email Client

1. Thunderbird – a free, open source and powerful email client.
2. Eudora – one of the oldest email client around
3. Zimbra desktop – the main email client behind Yahoo! mail, now also available for desktop
4. Opera Mail – an email client built within the Opera browser.
5. Sylpheed – a simple, lightweight but featureful, and easy-to-use e-mail client
6. IncrediMail – a visually pleasing email client that enables you to create nice email background and template.
7. Pegasus Mail – a email client with a long history
8. Windows Live Mail – Get multiple e-mail accounts in one program – Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo!* and more. And now Windows Live Mail has a calendar, too. Mail combines the ease of use of Outlook Express, with the speed of Windows Live.
9. Koma-mail – Koma-Mail is an email client which is comfortable and has very handy functions. It does not need an installation, so that you can run Koma-Mail from your flash drive but, of course, also on your desktop.
10. Mulberry Mail – another free and open source email client.

System Optimization and Diagnostic Tool

1. CCleaner – a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space.
2. Defraggler – Use Defraggler to defrag your entire hard drive, or individual files – unique in the industry. This compact and portable Windows application supports NTFS and FAT32 file systems.
3. Auslogics Disk Defrag – a compact and fast defragmentation tool that supports both FAT 16/32, and NTFS file systems. It’s supplied with advanced disk optimization techniques, which will remedy your system sluggishness and crashes caused by disk fragmentation.
4. Easeus Partition Master Home Edition – an useful tool to optimize the performance of server or non-server machines including latest Windows 7 by extending the system partition. To Create, Delete, Resize/Move, Copy, Merge, Split  or Format  partition is also easy to realize.
5. CPU-Z – CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.
6. Ultimate Windows Tweaker – a freeware Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista, 32-bit & 64-bit. It can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application to customize your Windows Vista to meet your requirements.
7. TweakNow PowerPack – a fully-integrated suite of utilities that let you fine-tune every aspect of your computer’s operating system and Web browser.
8. Security Process Explorer – an enhanced task manager that provides advanced information about programs and processes running on the computer. It displays all the standard information, including file name, directory path, description, CPU usage etc. as well as a unique security risk rating.
9. The Ultimate Troubleshooter – The Ultimate Troubleshooter (TUT) identifies for you the background task which is causing the crash.
10. Process Explorer – The Process Explorer shows a list of the currently active processes and the information regarding the processes.

Backup Program

1. Cobian Backup – a free, donation-supported backup software for Windows.
2. Easeus to do backup – enables you to clone the entire disk fast both in windows and bootable CD.
3. Comodo Time Machine – a powerful system rollback utility that allows users to quickly restore their computers to an earlier point in time.
4. Back4Win – Easy to use freeware Backup program with many features including backup span disk (spanning) to CDR(Back4winXP) and CDRW.
5. DriveImage XML – DriveImage XML is an easy to use and reliable program for imaging and backing up partitions and logical drives.
6. JaBackup – Backup software designed to automate all your backup, synchronization, and archiving tasks.
7. SyncBack Freeware – a premium suite of backup and synchronization software. The SyncBack Freeware is free to download and use.
8. FBackup – FBackup has a simple interface that guides you through the process of defining a backup job with a friendly wizard.
9. File Backup Watcher (Free Edition) – Program File Backup Watcher is intended for files and folders backup, both with their following archiving, and without it. Backup is possible on a local computer, via Network, E-mail, FTP, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R  and DVD-RW!
10. Synchredible Standard Edition – synchronizes your data/folders the easy way: several assistants support you on defining scheduled jobs for data synchronisation and data backup.

Image credit: TheTruthAbout…

100 Free Windows Software For Your Daily Use originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

BumpTop is a software that transforms your desktop into a fun and intuitive 3D desktop. It allows you to maximize your screen real estate by providing several walls that you can pin your stuffs onto and also keeps you organized and stay productive with several useful file/folder management tricks.

BumpTop is currently available for Windows and Mac. Linux users, I am sorry, you have no luck here.

After you have downloaded and installed BumpTop, it will set itself to autolaunch whenever you start up your computer. When it launches, it will take over your traditional desktop and transform it to a 3D interface with a desktop and 3 walls (imagine a room with 3 walls).

At the first run, BumpTop will run you through a tutorial on the usage (drag left, right, up and down) and various features (files piling, grid arrangement, social media stuffs etc) of the application.

Things that you can do with BumpTop

Piling up similar files

For those who have a messy desktop, you can now get it organize by grouping similar files in a pile. To create a pile, you just have to right click your mouse and select Pile By -> By Type.

To group different kind of files in a pile, you can first drag them together, then draw a circle around them and select Create Pile from the popup option.

To view your files in the pile, double click the pile and all your files will fan out in a grid manner.

Useful widgets

There are some interesting and useful widgets that you can place on your wall. The most useful ones are the Facebook, Email and Twitter widget. The Facebook widget allows you to view photos, upload your status and upload your photos. It doesn’t allow you to view the update from your friends though.

Similarly, the Twitter widget allows you to tweet from the desktop. One cool thing is that you can even drag your photos into the widget and get it updated to your Twitter. Same as the Facebook widget, you are not able to see the tweets from your friends.

Change Icon size

If you have plenty of files/folders/shortcuts on your desktop, most of the time, you might have to look through all the files just to locate that particular one you are looking for. One cool feature about BumpTop is that you can shrink/grow your file icon to be bigger than the rest and make it more prominent. This allows you to pinpoint the important files easily.

Themes

What is the use of BumpTop if it doesn’t allow you to dress up your desktop? Luckily, it comes with a theme feature where you can switch the skin to your favorite wallpaper. For those who are not into designing, you can download ready made themes and apply them to your desktop. Alternatively, you can create your custom theme and apply different design to each of the wall.

Multitouch support

This is really the best among all. The latest version of BumpTop comes with multi-touch support for both Windows 7 and Mac. If you have a computer that support the Windows 7 multi-touch feature, you can now use your finger to drag the icons around. For Mac, BumpTop works with the magic mouse multi-touch feature, which means you can pinch, swipe and zoom into your desktop with your fingers.

There are plenty of desktop enhancement software out there, but I think BumpTop is really a notch ahead of the rest. Its performance is great and with the multi-touch support, there is really no other software that comes close.

BumpTop comes in both Free and Pro version. The Pro version costs $29.

Reinvent Your Desktop With BumpTop originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Add Administrative tool

If you need to access the system Administrative tools frequently, it may be a chore for you to open them from the Control Panel (Control Panel > System and Security) all the time. A better option is to add the Administrative tool in your Start menu where you can access it easily.

1. Right click on the Start menu and choose “Properties”.

2. A Taskbar and Start Menu Properties screen will appear. Under Start menu tab, click the “Customize” button.

3. Now scroll down and look for “System administrative tools”. Here three options are available. Choose “Display on the All Programs menu and the Start menu”.

4. Click “OK” to save the changes and close out the remaining windows. Now the Administrative tool is available in your start menu. You can access all the Administrative tools from there.

You can also make a shortcut of the administrative tool in desktop by right clicking on the “Administrative tools” button that you have created recently in your start menu and drag it to the desktop.

Add the old Run command and the Recent Item

You might notice that the “Run” command and the “Recent Items” is not available in the Start menu in all the version of Windows 7. Many users like to have those in their start menu. The Recent Items arranges the shortcuts of your recently accessed documents, picture, videos, or other files so you can access those files again easily.

1. Right click the start menu button and choose “Properties“. Now in the Taskbar and start menu properties screen, click “Customize” button under the “Start menu tab“.

2. Scroll down until you see the “Run command” and  “Recent Items” options. Check the boxes beside them and click on “OK” to accept the changes.

3. Now click on “Apply” and “OK” to close all the windows. Now both the “Run” command and “Recent Items” are available in your start menu.

Delete all the Recent Items with a single double click

If you have recently accessed some files that you don’t want others to know, with this trick, you can easily and quickly delete all the entries from the Recent Items.

Note: This does not delete the original file. It just deletes the shortcuts that are stored in the “Recent” folder.

You can delete manually the shortcuts from the “Recent” folder by typing  “shell:recent” in the start menu search box, but there is a script which allows you to delete all the shortcuts from the Recent Items list by not more than one double click. It works like a magic. Let’s write the script code.

1. Open notepad.

2. Write down the following code in the notepad document file. Do not copy/paste from here. It will not work.

var fso = WScript.CreateObject(”Scripting.FileSystemObject”);
var WSH =  new ActiveXObject(”WScript.Shell”);
var folder =  WSH.SpecialFolders(”Recent”);
fso.DeleteFile(folder + “\\*.*”);

3. Save the file as DeleteRecentDoc.js

Note: While saving, change the “Save as type” to “All files”.

The file you have created looks like as below.

Whenever you’ll run this file, the record of all the recently used items will be deleted. Now store the file any where in your hard drive, for convenience of uses, right click on it and create a shortcut to desktop.You may change the icon of the aforesaid file if you wish to do so.

The abovementioned tricks are only a tip of the iceberg on what you can add in the Start menu. Do share with us if you have any tricks not are not covered above.

How to Customize Windows 7 Start Menu For Better Efficiency originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)

Super MP3 Download is one great software (for Windows) that allows you to do what you love best: download MP3 for free. And yes, you can find the Top 40 Hits here, and songs from many other genres and categories. In fact, there are more than 100 million songs available for you to search (and download), so there is a very high chance of you finding the songs you want.

MP3 search – by title, artists or albums

After you have installed the software, you can easily perform a search either by the song title, artists or its album name. Super MP3 Download is quick to fetch the result from its database, and I am happy to find that it brings back the songs I want at the first search for more than 95% of the time

Preview the songs before you download

There are many great many features in Super MP3 Download, but the one that I love best is the ability to preview and listen to a song before I download. After you have performed a search, from the search result, you can simply highlight an entry and get it streaming directly from the Web. If you are satisfied with the quality, you can then proceed to download the song. Now, for those who are afraid of the legal issue (by downloading the songs), or your hard disk is running out of space, you can also use this as an online radio where you get your favorite songs to play non-stop.

Advanced search

I have no use for the Advanced Search because the basic search function is already good enough for me. But if you are looking for more specific piece of music, perhaps the unplugged version of “Hotel California”, then the Advanced Search will be useful for you. Similiar to the basic search, you can query the database via the song title, artists, album name or all of them. In addition, there is an “Edition” field where you can choose the edition you want.

More ways to discover new songs

The Hot Songs and the Categories sections are two great place to discover new songs, or to zoom in on your searches. As its name implies, the Hot Songs section shows the Top 10 songs in USA. There is also a link for you to expand the list to Top 100 songs. The Categories section allows you to narrow down your search to the Genre of the songs. When you click on any of the category, it will show a list of the popular songs from that category.

Extra features that I hope to see

While this is already a great software that can save you time and effort to search and download MP3, we can definitely benefit with even more features. Here’s what I hope to see:

Search for songs by the music

There are times when I have heard a nice song in the bar, but I have completely no idea what’s the name of the song or the artists. All I can do is to record the music with my phone and get Shazam or Tunatics to identify the song. Now, if SuperMP3 allows us to perform a search with bits and pieces of the song itself, it will be great.

Support for multiple platforms

I am not shy to hide that I am using three different OS in my three computers at home. I have Windows, Mac as well as Linux. In my opinion, Super MP3 Download is not a complicated software and it should be easy to implement one for Mac and Linux.

Super MP3 Download comes in two version: Free and Pro. The free version allows you to download only 5 songs per day and you can only download 1 song at a time. The pro version comes in at $39.95 for a lifetime license or $1.66 per month if you just want to try it out. The Pro version removes all limits. You can download unlimited songs simultaneously at any moments.

Super MP3 Download

Download MP3 For Free, Right From Your Desktop originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)