by admin on June 27, 2009
We can enjoy a lot if we have our favorite colors on the desktop. Windows provides a lot of options with which we can customize to get great usage experience. “Windows Vista Media Center” also has many options to give it the look we like. TechFlag has 10 methods to give your “Windows Vista Media Center” a exciting look.
Method: 1
My Movies: It is a free add-on which adds new movies to “Windows Media Center library” automatically when you add them in your PC. It also downloads the latest information about your favorite movies from internet with the help of various web services about genre, actor, movie reviews and latest gossip. It is very simple to use just click here to download and install it. It can automatically get integrated with “Windows Vista Media Center”.
Method: 2
Vista Codec Packs: This is a simple Codec which can play almost all formats thus you need not depend on any other player for rare formats. The installation is also very simple. There are two versions of this codes 32 bit and 64 bit, you can choose with the OS you use.
Method: 3
Remove ‘Sample Music / Sample Videos / Sample Photos’ folders’: Many users feel that these folders are useless and if you try to remove they refuse. So you need some different idea to remove them.
All you have to do is to delete the following folders permanently
c:\users\public\public pictures\sample pictures
c:\users\public\public videos\sample videos
c:\users\public\public music\sample music
Method: 4
Extra Visualizations: The default “Media Center visualizations” are not good to look at, you can get attractive visualizations without adding software by just editing the registry which has to be done with care.
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First make sure “Windows Media Center” is not running.
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Go to “Start Menu”-> “Run” and type “regedit.exe” in RUN dialog box and then and press “Enter”. With this you can open “Registry Editor”.
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Navigate to following registry subkey: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings”.
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In the right pane right-click on “ShowGallery” and select “Modify”.
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Delete the contents that appear in the Value data box, type “Gallery” in the Value data box, and then click “OK”.
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Exit Registry Editor.
Method: 5
Download some cool “Visualizations” from “Microsoft Website”.
Method: 6
Yougle: Youtube is no doubt the ultimate source for all types of videos. With “Yougle” you can watch videos form “Youtube”, “Google Video”, “DivX Stage 6”, “Daily Motion” and “WWITV videos” with “Windows Vista Media Center”.
Method: 7
Full Screen Mode: You can open “Media Center” in full screen mode, if have a big screen it’s can impress you the best.
1. Right click on the shortcut of “Windows Vista Media Center” and select “Properties”.
2. In the target link you can find “……\ehome\ehshell.exe”.
3. Change this to “\ehome\ehshell.exe /mediamode”. Now “Windows Vista Media Center” will start in full screen mode.
Method: 8
Add Custom Strips: Media Center Menu Customizer lets you add your own custom icon strips to Media Center, or extra buttons to existing strips.
Method: 9
mceWeather: It may not be useful every time but still it look good to have it on your screen. This plug-in provides you with weather information all over the world; you can also see the satellite image of your country. Click here to grab MceWeather.
Method: 10
Netflix is a popular tool known for movies you can now have it on Media Center. Click here to download.
by admin on June 23, 2009
Firefox is a unique web browser with a lot of security features and it is the fastest browser when compared with its competitors. The speed of Firefox can be still increased by tweaking it’s default settings.
To start tweaking open Firefox and type “about:config” in the address bar and press “Enter”, you may sometimes get a warning message as shown below.
Click “I’ll be careful, I promise!” and proceed.
You can see the Filter box at the top as shown below.
In the Filter box type “network.http.pipelining” double click on it to change the value to true.
Again type “network.http.proxy.pipelining” and change the value to true.
Type “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” in the filter box and change the default value 4 to something higher value like 30.
Type “plugin.expose_full_path” and double click on it to change the value to true.
Now type “network.dns.disableIPv6” in the filter bar and change the value to true.
This part has to done carefully, type “network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help” in filter box and create a new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click and select New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type “0” (ZERO) and click OK.
In the Filter bar again type “network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help”. Now create another new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click and select New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type in “content.notify.backoffcount” and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type “5” and click OK.
In the Filter bar again type “network.protocol-handler.external.ms-help”. Now create another new Preference Name with an Integer Value. To do this, right-click New, then Integer. In the New Integer value box type in “ui.submenuDelay” and click OK. Then in the Enter Integer value box type “0” (ZERO) and click OK.
Finished!!! Restart your browser to allow the changes to take place.
by admin on June 15, 2009
Many people like privacy, do you know if you are surfing your identity information like IP address, MAC address are traced by some of the websites. If don’t want this to happen you can use Freedur. Freedur is the best solution for windows and MAC users. It helps in bypassing internet firewalls and restrictions, thus allows the users to surf the web anonymously. This is a paid service but still there is a 30 days free trail.
Download Freedur for windows
by admin on June 14, 2009
LINUX is a unique operating System which does not need to be rebooted very often, but if at all a Reboot is required it takes much time to get it done. You can tweak your Linux to speed up the boot process. Don’t get panic as all these tweaks are simple and a common user can get them done.
10 tips to speed up your Linux Boot process :
1) Disable unnecessary services
Linux has many built-in services which are completely useless for a normal user. If you are using Linux for a desktop computer you may not require sendmail, httpd, and many other services. If it is a web server you can still disable many services, just go to the Administration menu and take a look of the services available and just deselect the services you don’t need.
2) Disable unnecessary kernel modules
If your Linux machine is connected to Ethernet through wire i.e., if you are connecting Ethernet with the help of a wire you may not require a wireless kernel loaded. You can also find what the other features you are not currently using are and you can disable them by kernel recompilation.
The easy way to find the kernel modules currently installed on your computer is to install a Bootchart. By installing a Bootchart you can get a good list of modules and you can get familiar with what is happening during your system booting process. Use the command “chkconfig –list | grep 3:on” to find out what services are currently running. Once you were able to judge what the modules you don’t require are, you can pluck them off during kernel recompilation.
3) Use a lightweight window manager instead of GNOME or KDE
You can save graphical boot time by selecting a light weight window manager, graphical applications like GNOME or KDE take 60 to 80 seconds extra to boot up. Instead you can opt Enlightenment or XFCE which require 8 to 12 seconds on a decently powered computer. These save your a boot time and memory.
4) Use a text-based login instead of a graphical login
There are two problems with graphical logins, they increase load times and create headaches trying to recover from an X windows fubar. Instead select a text-based login which reduces boot time.
5) Use a lighter-weight distribution
TechFlag has found out light weight distributions like Gentoo, Arch, and Puppy Linux have a very short boot times and distributions like Fedora, Ubuntu have a very long boot time. So go for a light weight distribution.
6) Use an Open source BIOS
It is advised to upgrade your PC’s firmware, you can migrate to an open source BIOS, because many open source BIOS can be easily configured to meet your computer’s specific needs. If you are not interested in this you can at least configure your existing BIOS to boot directly from hard disk instead of searching for a floppy drive or a CD drive that is does not exist.
7) Avoid DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
If you are in such a situation that address lease is not a problem, then go with static IP address. By doing this your machine will save time from calling to a dhcp server and getting an IP address. It is better if you configure your /etc/resolve.conf to reflect your DNS server address.
Get rid of HOTPLUG
Linux has a system that allows plugging in new devices and using them immediately and this is called Hotplug. If you are confident that your computer does not require this you can disable this. You can save much boot time as Hotplugging consumes much of the boot time in many distributions. Removing hotplug will depend on the distribution you use.
9) You can give initng a try
The initng system acts as a replacement for sysvinit system, it helps in drastically decreasing the boot times in UNIX-like operating systems. If you would like to see the initng system in action, you can give the Pingwinek livecd a try.
10) Debian has a exclusive tweak
If you are a Debian user, you can use to switch to startup scripts and run in parallel. If you look at the /etc/init.d/rc script, you will see: CONCURRENCY=none around line 24. Change this line to CONCURRENCY=shell and you should see a reduction in boot times.
by admin on June 13, 2009
Your XP machine has many services running which are completely useless to a normal user. Stopping these services you can make your XP machine fast without loosing the stability of your computer.
1) Go to “Start Menu”-> “Control Panel”.
2) Click on “Performance and Maintenance” as shown below.
3) Now Select “Administrative Tools” as shown below.
4) Double click on “Services” Icon as shown below.
5) Now you can disable the following items.
[Right click and select “Stop” to disable.]
1) Alerter
2) Clipbook
3) Computer Browser
4) Fast User Switching
5) Human Interface Access Devices
6) Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
7) Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
9) Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
10) Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
11) Remote Procedure Call Locator
12) Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
13) Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
15) Server
16) SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless “Universal P’n'P”, &
leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
17) TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
18) Telnet (disabled for extra security)
19) Universal Plug and Play Device Host
20) Upload Manager
21) Windows Time
22) Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
23) Workstation
by admin on June 12, 2009
Do you know Windows XP has many styles in-built in it, for example you can make your Desktop Icons Transparent? A small change in the control panel settings can make you to achieve this making your desktop more attractive.
1) Go to “Start Menu”-> “Control Panel”.
2) Click on “Performance and Maintenance”.
3) Click on “System”.
4) A window as shown below will be opened. Select “Advanced” Tab.
5) In the “Performance” section click “Settings” button as shown below.
6) A window as shown below will be opened. Under the “Visual Effects” tab, select “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop” as shown below.
7) Click on “OK”.
Done…!!! Restart the computer if necessary.
by admin on June 12, 2009
This tip is for network administrator who wants to restrict their users to shutdown computers at common areas. With this you can disable “Turn off Computer” button in the “Start Menu”.
A small registry hack can help you to do this, it works in all versions of Windows XP.
1) Launch Registry Editor.
You need to have administrative privileges for this.
Go to “Start Menu”-> “Run”-> type “regedit.exe” in Run dialog box and press “Enter”.
2) Navigate to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
3) Right click on the right hand side panel and create a new DWORD value with the name “NoClose”.
4) Assign the value “1” in value data box
Close the registry editor and restart the computer for changes to take effect.
NOTE:
You can always enable “Turn Off Computer” button on start menu by changing the value of data box to “0” or simply delete “NoClose” DWORD item.
by admin on June 11, 2009
This tip may be handy to conserve time; Microsoft Word helps you to preview the document without opening the actual document. All versions of Word support this feature, if you are not sure which file contains the exact information you need you can first to preview the document and then open it.
Follow these simple steps to get familiar How to preview the Word documents without opening?
1) Go to “Start Menu” and open Microsoft Word.
2) Go to “File” click on “Open” option to open any word file. A small dialog will appear with title “Open”.
3) On the right hand side of the toolbar click the down arrow on Views and choose Preview.
4) Preview pane will opened on the right hand side. Select any file on the left hand side and preview the file.
Now you can easily search the file you need, click Open to open the required file.
by admin on June 10, 2009
Internet Explorer 8 may not impress all the users who are addicted to earlier
versions of Internet Explorer. If you are using Windows VISTA you can uninstall Internet Explorer with a few clicks as explained below
1) Go to “Start Menu”-> “Control Panel”
2) Click “Uninstall Programs” or “Programs and Features”.
3) Select “View installed updates” on the left panel.
Select “Windows Internet Explorer 8” from the list
4) After selecting “Windows Internet Explorer 8”
Click “Uninstall” button.
Click “Yes” when it asks for conformation.
5) Restart your computer for any other changes to take place.
Done…!!! Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) has been uninstalled.
by admin on June 10, 2009
Multiple operating systems are common on today’s computer, if all the operating systems are from windows family it is not a problem to access or edit the files of one operating system to other. The problem arises when one operating system is LINUX which has EXT2 file system and other windows which has NTFS/FAT file system.
TechFlag has a free utility which can help you to access EXT2 Linux File System in Windows. It helps to gain full access to Linux Ext2 volumes from Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista.
Features of “Ext2 Installable File System”:
(As claimed by its developers)
1) Supports Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista.
2) Supports both the 32 bit x86 and the 64 bit x64 platform.
3) Includes drivers with a digital signature for Windows Vista x64.
4) All operations you would expect: Reading and writing files, listing directories, creating, renaming, moving and deleting files or directories, querying and modifying the volume’s label.
5) UTF-8 encoding.
6) Files larger than 2 GBytes. (Please read the FAQ section, too.)
7) Supports hash indexed (htree) directories (utilizes the so-called dir_index feature of Ext3).
Full plug-n-play functionality. When a drive is removed, the corresponding drive letter is deleted.
9) Supports use of the Windows mountvol utility to create or delete drive letters for Ext2 volumes (except on Windows NT 4.0). This is useful for scripts. (Please read the FAQ section, too.)
10) A global read-only option is provided.
11) File names that start with a dot “.” character is treated as hidden.
12) Supports GPT disks if the Windows version used also does.
13) Paging files are supported. (A paging file is a file “pagefile.sys”, which Windows swaps virtual memory to.) Users may create paging files at NT’s control panel at Ext2 volumes.
14) Specific functions of the I/O subsystem of NT: Byte range locks, notification of changes of directories, oplocks (which are required by the NT LAN manager for sharing files via SMB).
Click here to download “Ext2 Installable File System”.