A virtual machine is a software, that lets you create and run a separate operating system in your existing computer system. You can boot the virtual machine from the parent operating system and run just like another software application.

For example: If you are using Windows xp, you can install popular virtualization software like Windows virtual PC, Vmware workstation to create a virtual machine within your current operating system. Now in that virtual machine, you can install any operating system e.g Windows xp, vista. You can run these operating systems in a new explorer window within Windows xp.

The problem with virtual machines is that you have to install an operating system from scratch. This includes loading the operating system from cd or dvd, installing all the drivers and system software etc. This can be very time consuming and is not a quick job.

[Windows only] As part of the WinX DVD range of product, Winx DVD Author is a cool tool that allows you to author and create your own DVD easily. For those who are looking for a professional, yet easy to use DVD authoring software, WinX DVD Author could be the one for you.

At MakeTechEasier, we don’t usually review paid software as we are great believers of free and open source software. However, the WinX DVD team decided to give away a free 1 year license (scroll down for the download link), which makes it compelling for us to give this DVD authoring software a second look. And yes, we are not disappointed. Read on for the full review.

Imagine a situation when you have a lot of applications and windows open and you have to constantly switch different windows. This takes away the focus from your work and kills your precious time. What if we could arrange all the windows folders and running applications in tabs just as we open multiple websites in Firefox?

A few months ago, Damien wrote a post about the need to keep windows open on top of others for better productivity. While Afloat for Mac does exactly that, Windowshade X does a little bit more.

WindowShade X is a small software (3.3MB) with plenty of great and useful features that allow you to manage your application windows more efficiently and quickly.

There are a number of reasons why certain files or folders may be hidden in Windows. Firstly, some system files and folders are hidden by default so users don’t accidentally delete them or change them. This setting comes in from Microsoft. Secondly, you or other users of your computer might have hidden some files and folders to protect their confidentiality or to make them more secure.

Here is a refresher again on how to hide a file or a folder. For this example I created a folder called secrets in my test folder. I can hide this folder by simply doing a right-click, choosing Properties from the menu and selecting Hidden under the Attributes section. This will hide the folder from all the users.

Having a reliable antivirus software is something that every Windows user should have on his/her own computer. However, these antivirus tools are usually very expensive and use up way too much computer memory.

Here are three open source free antivirus software for Windows. They have functionality that will give you the ability to protect your system and information the same way as paid antivirus software.
Note: Remember that it is very important to keep it up-to-date because there are different viruses popping up every day.

If statistics are anything to go by, Internet Explorer is the biggest and the most popular browser on the Internet. Of course, all of us geeks here know that statistics are not always correct … or fun.

But, well, the truth is that IE owns anywhere between 60-70 percent of the browser market and despite it’s flaws, it’s still going strong. While most of the geeks have long moved to Firefox, there are millions of Windows users who still swear by IE, not because they like it but because of the simple fact that it is bundled along with their OS – Windows.

Several of the most troublesome problems that Windows users face – viruses, trojans, bloated softwares – reside in the start up items. So it would be logical that we should watch all the citizen of StartUp Menu carefully.

Unfortunately, those annoying programs have an amazing initiative to add themselves to list of start up items. On the other side, selecting which items that can and can not load at Windows start up is not as easy as saying it.

We need a help from a start up manager to do that, and one of the best out there is Chameleon Start Up Manager.

Password protecting my USB drive is often the most important thing that I do when I went on travel. With all the confidential information in the USB drive, the last thing that I want to see is to lost it and have others to access all my precious data.

Although I have previously covered two useful software for encrypting USB drive: Windows 7 BitLocker and TrueCrypt, one thing that prevented me from using them on the move is that these two software require administrator privilege (or the ultimate version of Windows 7) to use, which in most Internet cafes, you don’t have access to.

There are also several others encryption software out there, but the one that worked well for me, and apparently free and does not require any administrator privileges is Rohos Mini Drive.

Here at MakeTechEasier, we’ve touched on Wubi here and there but have never really gone into detail on exactly what it can do and how it works. According to the website,

Wubi is an officially supported Ubuntu installer for Windows users that can bring you to the Linux world with a single click. Wubi allows you to install and uninstall Ubuntu as any other Windows application, in a simple and safe way…

That sums it up pretty well. You can use your Windows (98, 2000, XP, Vista) Control Panel to add/remove it as easily as any other Windows app.

The key thing about Wubi (Windows based Ubuntu Installer) is that you do not have to do any partitioning. It simply creates a file in Windows that both systems treat as if it’s a separate partition. You can choose the size of that file when you install.