WARNING: ROOT REQUIRED – Dont bother commenting below that “It needs root!.. this article is crap.. blah blah

Disclaimer: Any damaged caused to your phone is your problem… If you lack confidence, buy a nokia This may work on any Samsung

• Buy/Download Root Explorer
• Go to the ROOT of the file system.. keep pressing back or up.. till you see /
• Scroll Down to SYSTEM
• Inside here copy the CSC Folder and the two files that follow ending in CSC to your SD CARD
• Flash your new ROM or Restore the New ROM from your Nandroid backup
• Open Root Explorer
• Navigate to are you saved you CSC files on the SD CARD
• Copy them and navigate back to the root / and then to /system
• Switch the system at the top so that it is in MOUNT R/W
• Paste Files

Image via Wikipedia

Computer software—be it your operating system, your word processor, or your favorite game—is prone to different types of problems, such as unwarranted crashes and confusing error messages. These error messages unnecessarily hamper your work and cause frustrations. Most of the time, when a software error occurs we panic and are tempted to seek the help of external technical support. But, this method is not only time-consuming, but can also be quite expensive.

Fortunately, there are a few simple steps that you can perform to resolve (or at least narrow down the causes of) software errors yourself. Some of these steps are listed below. So, the next time you encounter a software error, you may use these steps to troubleshoot your problem.

1. Close all open programs to free up RAM

   All programs running on your computer need to access Random Access Memory (RAM) to perform various functions. Now, as RAM is expensive, we have a limited amount of it on the system. So, if you are running a large number of software on your computer, your system may slow down and generate errors. If this happens, close all open programs to free up RAM space and then launch the application you want to work with.

   At times, there might be a problem with a software that might cause it to eat up a lot of memory. To identify this software, open Task Manager, and then on the Processes tab, check the Memory Usage column for the application that is consuming the maximum memory. You can ‘End Task’ this application and then repair it—usually by updating or reinstalling it—to resolve the issue.

   Many times, errors such as error code 1311 may generate during a program installation when you are trying to install a new software on your computer. Your antivirus software may be causing this problem. So, if this happens, you must turn off your antivirus software and then continue with the installation.

1. Restart your program

   In case you face problems even after closing all running applications, then you must close and restart your program. If your program is in conflict with some other running application then, restarting the program quite often resolves these issues.

   For instance, ActiveX problems may occur if there is a problem with your Internet Explorer. If this happens, you must try to restart the Web browser and then try to open your Website again. Here, you must also ensure that you allow the particular ActiveX control to run.

1. Reboot your PC

   If you are unable to resolve the error by restarting your program, try to reboot your computer and then relaunch your application. Many program conflicts are conditional and are resolved when you restart the system.

1. Uninstall any newly installed programs or hardware

   If you start encountering software errors soon after installing a new hardware or software, then this new hardware/software might be causing some conflict. If this happens, remove this new product then relaunch your application to see if it works.

1. Uninstall and reinstall your application

   Software errors may occur if there is some problem with the program files of your system. If this happens, you may try to uninstall the application and then reinstall it to repair the damaged files. You must uninstall the application using Add or Remove Programs or a third-party program uninstaller utility. If the application you are trying to remove is very large, you may check for and download its removal tool from the manufacturer’s website. For instance, to remove a Norton product you may download and use Norton uninstaller to completely cleanup all files related to the product you are trying to remove.

For a lot of people, using a Windows computer isn’t exactly a experience that can be “customized”.  Most people work hard just to figure out how the operating system works. The extent of “customizing” involves things like changing the Windows desktop background or configuring the default email system.

Given, there are plenty of readers that could alter some of the most obscure regions of the Windows OS, but for the rest of you who don’t walk on water when it comes to computers – I’d like to introduce an app that can help.

Here at MUO we’ve previously covered a number of free utilities developed by Fresh Devices. Kyle previously wrote about FreshDiagnose, a useful utility that lets you analyze and bookmark Windows. I also covered Freshview, an app that helps you organize all of your multimedia files. Recently, I discovered that Fresh Devices also offers another utility called FreshUI that will help you quickly and easily tweak your Windows Operating System just like a pro.

When you first install and launch FreshUI, you’ll see that the application is laid out in a way that makes it very easy to learn. All of the areas of Windows that you can customize are laid out clearly along the left pane, and organized in a simple tree view with only six major categories.

Using FreshUI, you can quickly customize all areas of Windows, including standard Windows apps, how hardware behaves and even specific privacy settings that matter most to you. The beauty of this application is that you don’t have to dig through the Windows OS to find them.

Apps that you can tweak include standard Windows programs like Hearts or Notepad, but also some of the deeper apps like the Registry Editor. Now, keep in mind that this app isn’t for changing the options in these applications or modifying typical app settings. It’s actually for customizing the apps by enabling or disabling certain features about them.

For example, within the Internet Explorer section you can tweak each of the available options in the menu of IE.

This allows you to customize the app for all users by doing things like disabling the ability to modify proxy settings or even disabling the ability to close IE itself. These are all settings that you’d have to dig through registry settings or the control panel in order to enable or disable. With FreshUI, some of the most advanced “hacks” are right there at your fingertips.

Beyond applications, you can also customize the behavior for your computer hardware. For example, optimizing your CPU cache, enabling or disabling your CD Player’s autoplay feature, tweaking some of your motherboard memory settings and much more. Obviously, you should only make these changes if you really know what you’re doing – otherwise you could actually do some damage. Side note – always click on File -> Save Windows Settings before you get started so you can always restore the default settings.

Beyond applications and software, you can also tweak some of Windows standard components, like Windows Explorer itself. For example, blocking access to specific drives, modifying the “free space” warning if it’s getting really annoying, or disabling the ability for users to map new network drives. All of these somewhat advanced Windows “hacks” are brought down to Earth when you use FreshUI.

If you’ve always wanted to tweak things like the display or behavior of your task bar or start menu, then you’ll be very pleased when you click on the “Windows Interface” category. There are lots of cool things you can customize here that you probably never even realized were configurable.

Of course, what most people would like to do is tweak the heart of the operating system itself – things like startup and shutdown features or security settings. If you click on the “Windows System” option in the left pane, you’ll see that FreshUI basically opens up the hood and hands you the wrench.

Another very useful area of FreshUI that I plan to recommend to all of my friends who constantly complain about their bogged down computer with a slow Internet connection, is the “Covering Your Track” section of this application.

Here, you can wipe out logs, histories and junk files associated with all of your Internet and Windows usage. You can set up the system so it doesn’t track recent documents or last user, and even the option to clear network history each time you log onto the network.

Whenever you’re finished setting up all of your Windows customizations to exactly what you want, don’t forget to click on File and “Save Windows settings“. The last thing you want to do is lose all of the customizing options you set. If things go wrong, you can just restore the settings that you saved before you made any customizations at all.

Article by MAKEUSEOF

The Windows operating system is a complex structure that hosts a lot of processes. As you add and remove hardware and software, problems or conflicts can occur, and in some cases it can become very tedious to pinpoint the source. However, Windows provides a basic tool that simplifies the search for the culprit.

Windows Safe Mode is a boot option to start your computer in a limited state. Only basic files and drivers absolutely necessary to run the operating system are loaded. Graphic drivers are among the dispensable ones and do not load, hence Safe Mode looks rather bleak. Generally, Safe Mode is a boot option used to troubleshoot issues in Windows.

This article explains how to start in safe mode with Windows and why you would want to. Note that you will need an Administrator account in order to log into Safe Mode.

How To Start Windows In Safe Mode

F8 key [Windows 95 Through Windows 7]

The standard method to start Windows in Safe Mode is by pressing the F8 key during Windows boot.

1. Restart or turn on the computer.
2. As the computer starts listing installed hardware, start to repeatedly (and gently) tab theF8 key.
3. If you missed the right time point, start over.
4. You will know that it worked when you are redirected to Advanced Boot Options.
5. Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to select Safe Mode from the options.
6. Press Enter on your keyboard to boot into Safe Mode.

System Configuration Utility [Windows 98 Through Windows 7]

If you seem to miss the right moment to hit the F8 key, you can use the System Configuration Utility to initiate a boot into Safe Mode before you restart your computer.

1. Go to > Start.
2. In Windows 98 through XP open the > Run dialogue. In Windows Vista and 7 type into the search field.
3. Type ‘msconfig‘ into the respective field and hit enter.
4. The System Configuration Utility will launch. Switch to the > Boot tab.
5. Under > Boot options, check the > /SAFEBOOT or > Safe boot option and select > Minimalor > Network.

Warning: Do not use the System Configuration Utility if you suspect your machine is infected with malware! The malware could corrupt registry keys required to boot into Safe Mode and this in turn could cause your computer to be stuck in a deadly circle. The /SAFEBOOT value added to the boot.ini would cause your computer to continuously boot into Safe Mode, but due to corrupted registry keys it would not be able to, leading to a reboot into Safe Mode and no way out.

A super thorough Windows Safe Mode Tutorial can be found at Bleeping Computer. It features detailed instructions and screenshots for different Windows versions, from Windows 95 through Windows 7. It also describes a fix for the above described ‘deadly boot circle’.

When & Why To Use Safe Mode

Safe Mode can be used to find out whether problems are caused by installed software or drivers, or whether essential components of your operating system are damaged.

If the problems you experienced previously disappear as soon as you boot into Safe Mode, it’s safe to assume that a piece of software or a driver installed on your computer is causing the issues. It could still be anything from a driver or software conflict to malware. But at least you know nothing essential is broken, for example your computer hardware.

Most malware can only be removed in Safe Mode. The reason is that the sneaky piece of software will thwart every attempt you make to remove it. In Safe Mode, however, malware typically is not loaded and hence cannot prevent you from getting rid of it.

When Windows won’t boot normally at all, you are forced to use Safe Mode. In this case, it’s your last resort to fixing your operating system.

How To Use Safe Mode

Do the problems occur while Windows is booting? Possibly a software or service launches at startup and causes trouble. Boot into Safe Mode with network support or download Autoruns for Windows utility on another computer, copy the .exe file to your computer, launch it in Safe Mode, and examine the list. Disable suspicious programs. Alternatively, you can use > Start > Run >MSCONFIG and examine the list of programs in the > Startup tab.

Do you experience crashes and BSOD? Did the issues occur after you installed hardware drivers? Go to > Control Panel > Device Manager and remove the recently installed hardware.

Reversing your most recent changes didn’t solve the problems? If available, try to use a system restore point. It automatically rolls back your system to a functional state. You can access the System Restore Utility from Safe Mode. This article on Windows 7 News & Tips explains how to use the Windows 7 System Restore. This Microsoft Support article covers the Windows XP System Restore.

Do you suspect malware? Consult with Remove-Malware.com for a list of tools to remove malware. Run these tools in Safe Mode or as instructed.

A very useful and detailed guide explaining the Windows XP Safe Mode and how to use it for troubleshooting can be found on PCStats.

Conclusion

Windows Safe Mode is a simple but effective troubleshooting tool that allows you to access a mildly or severely corrupted operating system in a very basic state. When booting into Safe Mode, you avoid hardware or software conflicts because most components are not loaded. You also circumvent issues caused by programs that have planted themselves into autorun, for example adware or malware.

Yet you have full access to the Control Panel, so you can remove drivers, uninstall software, and stop programs and services from launching at startup. Safe Mode should be your first stop when you suddenly run into typical Windows problems, like a slow or freezing system, random crashes, or dramatic boot issues.

What is your success rate in troubleshooting and fixing issues using Safe Mode? Has it ever helped you out of a bad mess?

Article – MakeUseOf

Relentless Appz Has released there 2nd Generation of Android ROM Kitchens and this time, its took a whole new approach. The 1st Generation was aimed at solely the beginners in its design but still allowing some great customisation to your phones look and feel. This however has gone that whole lot further. If you were one of the ones to purchase the original software this is the perfect move onto further developing your own ROM’s. The interesting thing about this Android ROM Kitchen, is that it allows you to practically customise everything you see virtually on any Android Device, it does this by creating tools which have been specifically designed for customising certain parts of your ROM and makes customising a whole lot easier and faster in development, so its perfect for designers, developers and even the curious beginner. The picture below is of the software’s new simplistic look.

To name its features we will need a list so, it will allow you to:

• Take any Android ROM and prepare it for Customisation
• Add and Remove any Applications installed on the ROM
• Change the Font to anyone of the 30 Funky pre-installed examples or to one of your choice

• Add Compatibility automatically between different ROM’s so that you can use for instance a G1 ROM on a HTC Magic
• Create or edit any of the scripts with the ROM
• Change the Boot Screen which loads when you turn on the device, you can choose one of the pre-installed or create your own
• Customise Any Applications you desire, edit the graphics,the layout, everything and this tool will unpack, edit, re-pack and sign the app all for you
• Customise the Framework-res, the heart of the device. This is done in a special method which allows you to edit it without breaking the unique security signature of the Framework, without this special method, its impossible to edit, but with it you can edit all the resources like the smiley faces in your sms

• Add extras like, unique features such as bluetooth fileshare, wifi tethering, file explorer, APN lists, Apps2SD and Super User Capabilities
• Customise the ROM information so that you can state you created it, you can also set up all the default structures like ringtones etc
• ZipAlign this is a great new function which will go through every single APK application and optimise it so that it uses less RAM on the Device so overall provides better performance. The great thing about this funtion is that its all done for you at a click of a button
• Last but not least the packaging up of all your customisations into a tidy archive and then signing it so that you can flash it to your Android device for use

The great thing is, once you have finished creating your custom ROM you can if you have it, then use there other application the Relentless Command Centre to get it flashed onto the device. Although this is not necessary you can obviously just boot into recovery and flash in the normal way and enjoy.

I have created many ROM’s with this software and they all work very well indeed, its on sale at the Relentless Appz website for less than a fiver and the best of it is, if you have every purchased from the Relentless Appz website before, for one of there Automatic Rooting Solutions or the 1st Generation ROM Roaster then you are eligible for a whopping 50% discount, so you get all this software for just £2.49….Crazy

so if this takes your interest go along to there website now

http://www.relentlessappz.com

Would you like more features and flash in Windows on your netbook?  Here’s how you can easily upgrade your netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium the easy way.

Most new netbooks today ship with Windows 7 Starter, which is the cheapest edition of Windows 7.  It is fine for many computing tasks, and will run all your favorite programs great, but it lacks many customization, multimedia, and business features found in higher editions.  Here we’ll show you how you can quickly upgrade your netbook to more full-featured edition of Windows 7 using Windows Anytime Upgrade.  Also, if you want to upgrade your laptop or desktop to another edition of Windows 7, say Professional, you can follow these same steps to upgrade it, too.

Please note: This is only for computers already running Windows 7.  If your netbook is running XP or Vista, you will have to run a traditional upgrade to install Windows 7.

Upgrade Advisor

First, let’s make sure your netbook can support the extra features, such as Aero Glass, in Windows 7 Home Premium.  Most modern netbooks that ship with Windows 7 Starter can run the advanced features in Windows 7 Home Premium, but let’s check just in case.  Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (link below), and install as normal.

Once it’s installed, run it and click Start Check.

Make sure you’re connected to the internet before you run the check, or otherwise you may see this error message.  If you see it, click Ok and then connect to the internet and start the check again.

It will now scan all of your programs and hardware to make sure they’re compatible with Windows 7.  Since you’re already running Windows 7 Starter, it will also tell you if your computer will support the features in other editions of Windows 7.

After a few moments, the Upgrade Advisor will show you want it found.  Here we see that our netbook, a Samsung N150, can be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. We also see that we had one issue, but this was because a driver we had installed was not recognized.  Click “See all system requirements” to see what your netbook can do with the new edition.

This shows you which of the requirements, including support for Windows Aero, your netbook meets.  Here our netbook supports Aero, so we’re ready to go upgrade.

For more, check out our article on how to make sure your computer can run Windows 7 with Upgrade Advisor.

Upgrade with Anytime Upgrade

Now, we’re ready to upgrade our netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium.  Enter “Anytime Upgrade” in the Start menu search,and select Windows Anytime Upgrade.

Windows Anytime Upgrade lets you upgrade using product key you already have or one you purchase during the upgrade process.  And, it installs without any downloads or Windows disks, so it works great even for netbooks without DVD drives.

Anytime Upgrades are cheaper than a standard upgrade, and for a limited time, select retailers in the US are offering Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium for only $49.99 if purchased with a new netbook.  If you already have a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, you can either purchase an Anytime Upgrade package at a retail store or purchase a key online during the upgrade process for $79.95.  Or, if you have a standard Windows 7 product key (full or upgrade), you can use it in Anytime upgrade.  This is especially nice if you can purchase Windows 7 cheaper through your school, university, or office.

Purchase an upgrade online

To purchase an upgrade online, click “Go online to choose the edition of Windows 7 that’s best for you”.

Here you can see a comparison of the features of each edition of Windows 7.  Note that you can upgrade to either Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.  We chose home Premium because it has most of the features that home users want, including Media Center and Aero Glass effects.  Also note that the price of each upgrade is cheaper than the respective upgrade from Windows XP or Vista.  Click buy under the edition you want.

Enter your billing information, then your payment information.  Once you confirm your purchase, you will directly be taken to the Upgrade screen.  Make sure to save your receipt, as you will need the product key if you ever need to reinstall Windows on your computer.

Upgrade with an existing product key

If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit from a retailer, or already have a Full or Upgrade key for another edition of Windows 7, choose “Enter an upgrade key”.

Enter your product key, and click Next.  If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit, the product key will be located on the inside of the case on a yellow sticker.

The key will be verified as a valid key, and Anytime Upgrade will automatically choose the correct edition of Windows 7 based on your product key.  Click Next when this is finished.

Continuing the Upgrade process

Whether you entered a key or purchased a key online, the process is the same from here on.  Click “I accept” to accept the license agreement.

Now, you’re ready to install your upgrade.  Make sure to save all open files and close any programs, and then click Upgrade.

The upgrade only takes about 10 minutes in our experience but your mileage may vary.  Any available Microsoft updates, including ones for Office, Security Essentials, and other products, will be installed before the upgrade takes place.

After a couple minutes, your computer will automatically reboot and finish the installation.  It will then reboot once more, and your computer will be ready to use!  Welcome to your new edition of Windows 7!

Here’s a before and after shot of our desktop.  When you do an Anytime Upgrade, all of your programs, files, and settings will be just as they were before you upgraded.  The only change we noticed was that our pinned taskbar icons were slightly rearranged to the default order of Internet Explorer, Explorer, and Media Player.  Here’s a shot of our desktop before the upgrade.  Notice that all of our pinned programs and desktop icons are still there, as well as our taskbar customization (we are using small icons on the taskbar instead of the default large icons).

Before, with the Windows 7 Starter background and the Aero Basic theme:

And after, with Aero Glass and the more colorful default Windows 7 background.

All of the features of Windows 7 Home Premium are now ready to use.  The Aero theme was activate by default, but you can now customize your netbook theme, background, and more with the Personalization pane.  To open it, right-click on your desktop and select Personalize.

You can also now use Windows Media Center, and can play-back DVD movies using an external drive.

One of our favorite tools, the Snipping Tool, is also now available for easy screenshots and clips.

Activating you new edition of Windows 7

You will still need to activate your new edition of Windows 7.  To do this right away, open the start menu, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.

Scroll to the bottom, and click “Activate Windows Now”.

Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then select “Activate Windows online now”.

Activation may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection speed.

When it is done, the Activation wizard will let you know that Windows is activated and genuine.  Your upgrade is all finished!

Conclusion

Windows Anytime Upgrade makes it easy, and somewhat cheaper, to upgrade to another edition of Windows 7.  It’s useful for desktop and laptop owners who want to upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, but many more netbook owners will want to upgrade from Starter to Home Premium or another edition.

Links

Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Windows Team Blog:

Anytime Upgrade Special with new PC purchase

When Windows goes wrong, it can go really wrong. Worse: Often it’s extremely difficult to save your system from Windows itself. Here’s how to use a simple USB drive to free space, remove viruses, rescue passwords, and more from crunked Windows setups.

What You Can Fix with this Method

If you or your in-need friends or relatives can’t boot into your Windows desktop, or you can’t actually do anything once you’re into it, booting up a live Ubuntu system from a USB thumb drive, or off a burned CD, can save your system, recover files, and pull off other miracles. Here’s the short list of things we’ll cover here:

• Clean a virus with a Linux-based anti-virus app.
• Recover files and save them onto that same thumb drive, to a web storage spot like Dropbox, or to another USB drive.
• Change your login password if you’ve forgotten it, or someone’s changed it on you.
• Analyze your hard drive to figure out what’s filled it, and resize partitions if you’re dual booting and need to free up more space.

What you’ll need

• Empty USB drive: Sometimes called a “thumb” drive, a “flash” drive, or a USB “stick.” It’s a tiny little piece of plastic that usually holds at least 1 GB, and that’s the minimum size you’ll need. If you’re looking to recover files, you’ll need to use a separate USB drive, blank CDs or DVDs, or an online backup service. The drive you intend to install Ubuntu on should be empty, because it will get cleared out when we make it boot-able.

  Alternate: CD-R Using a USB drive gives you faster performance when booting a system like Ubuntu without installing it. If you don’t have a large enough drive to spare, or you’d like to save your USB drive space for backing up your much-needed files, you can still grab a recordable CD and create a “Live CD” to boot from. If that’s the case, skip the section about making a USB stick and head right to the “Boot Up and Get Started” section.

• A working Windows computer with a decent net connection Because you’ll need to download a 700 MB file to install onto your USB stick, and a 4.3 MB application to make it work. That application, though, doesn’t have to be installed, so you can easily clean up after yourself if you’re using a friend’s computer.

  Alternate: Mac options: You can create an Ubuntu USB stick from a Mac, but it requires both tricky, theoretically harmful Terminal commands and administrator access. If that’s not your thing, you can simply burn a live CD from a Mac.

Make Your Live CD or USB Stick

Turn on your working Windows computer, make sure it’s connected to the internet, and open up a browser. Head to UNetbootin’s home page. Click on the Windows icon at the top to download the latest version of UNetbootin—here’s a direct link for those following this guide on their monitor.

Once you’ve downloaded the file (unetbootin-windows-latest.exe), find it and double-click it. Windows will likely confirm that you want to do that, and you should say it’s “OK.” You’ll see this when UNetbootin opens:

What UNetbootin was made to do was automate the process of downloading an Ubuntu CD image, convert it for your USB thumb drive, find that drive, and install that image on there, without you having to do much of anything. It does this job well, and doesn’t make you worry about accidentally wiping out some other drive. Still, when you’re about to run UNetbootin, you should make sure no other USB drives are plugged in, except the one you want to turn into a system rescue stick. That said, make sure your USB stick is plugged in, and soldier on.

Click on the drop-down menu in the “Distribution” category at the top, which should also have a filled-in point to the left to indicate it’s selected. Scroll down in that menu and click on “Ubuntu.” To the right of that menu, there’s another where you can choose the version of Ubuntu you want to download. At the time of this post, 9.10 Desktop is the latest stable version of Ubuntu that’s released, just above “Daily Build” options for 10.04. In any case, you should select the “Desktop” version that’s highest in number, without choosing a “Daily Build” that will likely have missing features or unfamiliar aspects. With that distribution and version selected, UNetbootin will get to work downloading, right after we’ve confirmed the USB drive and hit OK.

Alternate option: BitTorrent: If you’re savvy in the ways of torrent downloading, you can likely get a faster download, and relieve Ubuntu’s servers, by grabbing a desktop ISO file over an official torrent, then setting UNetbootin to use that ISO file by selecting the radio button next to “Disk Image,” hitting the “…”/browse button to the right of that option, and pointing at the ISO file when it’s finished downloading.

Before you click OK and let UNetbootin set up your USB drive, triple-check that it knows which drive to transform. You’ll see which drive it wants to format to the right of “Drive:” at the bottom of UNetbootin’s window. Hit your Start menu, click Computer in the right-hand menu, and ensure that the letter your computer has given your temporary USB drive is the same letter that UNetbootin wants to use. If the two are matched up, you can head back to UNetbootin and click OK.

Alternate: Usbuntu Live Creator: Usbuntu is a similarly easy to grasp USB creator, made particularly for Ubuntu USB creation, and lets you create USB disks with persistent storage—meaning you can keep files on your system that stick around the next time you boot up, so you can use a very large USB drive as an actual backup location.

Nine times out of 10, UNetbootin won’t need any help or spit any errors. If it does, it’s likely because a download connection isn’t available, the file that did download became corrupted, or your USB drive has a quirky boot/format problem. I’ve covered at least one common fix for USB stick booting issues under the “Fix booting problems” header in a previous Linux-on-USB feature. If your error falls outside of that, try searching out the specific text in the error message on Google.

Once it’s done, UNetbootin will ask you to restart your system. You don’t really need to do that—you want to save your non-booting or crippled computer, not this one.

Boot Up and Set Up Ubuntu

Assuming all went well with UNetbootin’s USB formatting, you can pull out the USB stick (or CD-R) from the working computer, load it into the busted computer, and fire it up. If you’re lucky, the system was set up to automatically look for bootable USB devices and load them up, and you’ll see a screen that asks you, in old-school, lo-res computer graphics, if you want to boot “Default” or otherwise. Go ahead and hit Enter, and you’ll start booting into the Ubuntu desktop.

Nothing happening? Does your system just roll right into its busted Windows desktop? You’ll likely need to head into your BIOS settings and ensure that USB booting is enabled, and/or “ranked” above the hard drive as a boot option. When your computer boots up, there will likely be text on the screen stating that hitting F2, the Delete key, or another button will let you enter “system setup,” BIOS, or something similar. Hit that key when you first boot up, dig around in the menus, and change your setup so that your computer searches out USB drives before heading to the hard drive.

Your system should boot into an Ubuntu desktop, where you’ll see one or two icons, two toolbars, and not much else. The first thing you want to do is give Ubuntu an internet connection, so we can grab programs and files we need for our fixes. If you’re using a physical ethernet cable, or even most cellular 3G modems, ensure they are plugged into your laptop or desktop, and you should be good to go. If you’re using a wireless network, click on the tower/broadcast-looking icon in the upper-right corner.

Choose your Wi-Fi network, enter your password, if there is one, and you should see your system connect. If you’ve got a hidden network that doesn’t broadcast its name, there’s an option for accessing that, too, below your neighbor’s Wi-Fi names.

One last thing you must do before venturing forth is tell Ubuntu that it’s okay to download applications that aren’t entirely “free” in the software/copyright sense. Annoying, yes, but that’s how a free-as-in-speech desktop works. Click on the System menu in the upper-left corner, mouse down to the Administration section, and then mouse over and down to the “Software Sources” option.

When it opens up, you’ll see that all the options in the first tab, Software Sources, aren’t checked. Go ahead and check them, then hit the Close button. You’ll be prompted to Reload your sources, so go ahead and hit the button to do so. Ubuntu now has access to a lot more software, including some applications we’ll want access to.

Now you’re ready to get started backing up, scanning, freeing up space, and resizing your Windows installation.

Make Your Fixes

Retrieve and back up files: We’ve hit on the idea of Ubuntu as a Windows file saver before, in a guide to fixing your relatives’ terrible computer, and the practice remains the same. With Ubuntu loaded as a “live” system, you should see your Windows partition listed under the “Places” menu—perhaps as “120 GB system,” but it’s still there. Click on it, and Ubuntu will load up access to that drive, and you should see a window with the usual Windows files—Program Files, Windows, Users, etc. Plug in a USB drive, or load in a blank CD or DVD, and it’s a simple drag-and-drop matter to get your files onto those backup mediums. Be sure to hit the “Burn to Disc” button when you’re done backing up to physical discs.

Want to use an online service like Dropbox? You can do that, but make sure you’ve got a broadband connection—uploading on most residential accounts can be a long wait, especially with big batches of files. You can upload files to Dropbox’s web interface using the Firefox browser built into Ubuntu, but without Flash installed, you can only do one file at a time. To get around that, you can click-and-hold to select multiple files on your Windows system with the mouse, or hold the Control key to click and select folders and files. When you’ve got them all picked out, right-click on any one of the selected files and select “Compress.” Click the file type selector to the right in the dialog box that pops up, and change the compression from a .tar.gz file to .zip, and save it to the Desktop. Now you can select the “Basic Uploader” in Dropbox, or most other online sites, and upload those files as one big, slightly smaller package, to be unpacked back into Windows later.

Scan and fix viruses: Ubuntu doesn’t have a built-in tool for scanning Windows drives for viruses—and why would it, really?—but they are available for installing. Since we’re running a live session of Ubuntu, “installing” just means downloading and saving to temporary space on our USB drive, leaving your Windows drive untouched, and preventing viruses from interfering with the scan-and-fix process.

Head to your System menu, mouse down to Administration, and select the Synaptic Package Manager. Hit the Search button on the far right, type in clamtk, and then check the box to the left of the result that comes up. This is the Linux version of Clam AntiVirus, or ClamAV, that’s a popular, free virus scanner, and clamtk puts a graphical face on ClamAV, rather than making you learn how to use it from the command line. Even if Clam can’t fix your particular Windows virus from Ubuntu, it will at least identify it, and give you the means to Google that specific bug and see if there’s a fix.

Hit the Apply button after confirming that you want to install clamtk and all its “dependencies.” Close down Synaptic when it’s done installing, then head to your Applications menu in the upper-right corner of your Ubuntu desktop. Mouse down to the System Tools menu, where Clam should appear as an option. When it first starts, it will ask you how you want to apply signature updates—ignore the complexity of all that text, hit “Single User,” then hit Quit to move on.

When Clam loads, you’ll see options for scanning a File or Directory. Check the box to the left of the “Recursive” option, so that Clam will dig into all the sub-folders of your Windows drive. Now hit the Directory button. In the file chooser that pops up, look for your Windows system in the left-hand sidebar and click it. If you see your familiar Windows folders in the right-hand pane, you’ve got the right one. Hit “Open,” and, honestly, expect your system to hang for a bit.

Your system will hang because, basically, an operating system running off a thumb drive is using all its might to scan your entire Windows hard drive space and figure out what needs to be scanned. The freeze-out and lag should only last a few minutes on a modern system—if you see error messages, or nothing’s happened for 20 minutes, you might have to give it another go, or try a different anti-virus app—the gHacks blog has a few recommendations, including Avira. Otherwise, you can make yourself a sandwich, and probably crack a beer/soda, as Clam runs through your Windows files and checks for viruses. As mentioned above, it might not always be able to fix or properly quarantine your files, but you’ll at least know exactly which virus you’re dealing with, and can Google steps on fixing it manually—right from Ubuntu, actually.

Change or wipe a Windows password: Just like you installed Clam to scan for viruses, you can install a little open-source utility, chntpw (as in Change NT Password) to clear out a Windows password you can’t remember, or change a password you feel is insecure. After searching and installing chntpw from Synaptic, open up the Places menu from your left-hand menus. Head into Windows, and navigate to Windows\System32\config—where the SAM file is kept. Hold down your Shift key and right-click somewhere inside that config folder, then select “Open Terminal Here.” From that terminal, you can type in this command to change the main administrator’s password:

sudo chntpw SAM

If you’re looking to change Samantha’s password instead, type something like:

sudo chntpw -u Samantha SAM

You’ll see some options you can type in, from 1-4, but you’ll generally want to stick with “clearing” the password, then changing it when you head back into Windows. It’s been reported to work with XP and Vista, and I tested it out on Windows 7 and had success clearing a standard user’s password.

Shrink or create new partitions: Gina’s already covered the ins and outs of GParted, which you can get to in your live Ubuntu system by hitting up the System menu, the Administration option, and then clicking “Partition Editor.” Adam’s also shown his GParted skills, using a similar live CD, in his guide to dual-booting Windows 7 with XP or Vista. Don’t commit anything you’re not sure of, but know that you can pull off most anything you need from GParted.

Visualize your hard drive and clean it out: Under the Accessories menu, beneath Applications, you’ll find Disk Usage Analyzer, an awesome program that you can use to see where all the space on your Windows drive is being taken up. I needed this tool recently when Windows 7 had become so stuffed (with a failed DVD rip) that it was almost inoperable. To use it on a Windows installation, click the “directory” button in the middle row, and in the file browser that pops up, click on your Windows drive/partition in the left-hand column and hit “Open.” Give it a few minutes, and you’ll get both a spiral chart and nested lists of what’s taking up space. Right-clicking any folder or files gives you the opportunity to open them up in a file browser, or delete them directly. As you might guess, you should be careful with Windows and Program Files stuff, but the rest is up to you.

All done? Simply shut down your system from the “ubuntu” user menu in the upper-right corner. Nothing was actually touched on your system, unless you specifically deleted or changed files, and when you reboot, you’ll have a chance to get reacquainted with your hopefully fixed system. Remember to remove your USB drive from its port before rebooting.

Another video for you from the Tinkernut site. If you ever wanted to make your email server and host it yourself at home, now is the time to grab a can of beer and sit back.

Tinkernut have done a video on Making Your Own Email Server. This can be a great feature to a geeky household. It will give you full control over all mail accounts and settings. You can learn a lot too on how email servers work.

Tinkernut is a great site for how to videos on everything in PC land. They make quality videos with simple language. Anyway, they recently got hacked and decided to share how to make things secure so it doesn’t happen again.

You need to spend time protecting you PC from hackers and other nasties. Believe me, its time well spent. It is always a matter of when, not if you get hacked.

Have a look at this video for some straight forward tips on defending your geek life.

Corruption of Windows operating system is a very common issue, which often puts you in the desert of empty disk that is data loss. One of the main reasons for the corruption of Windows operating system is the damage of file system. Once the file system is damaged, Windows cannot boot and you need to repair the operating system. If you do not repair the operating system then you face data loss. Most of the guys do not repair the corrupt operating system rather bear data loss. Reason behind that is lack of the knowledge about the process of repairing the damaged operating system. Today, you acknowledge the process of repairing the corrupt operating system using Windows built in Recovery Console. However, for that you first need to install the Recovery console.

Install Recovery Console
Execute following steps to install Windows XP recovery console:

• Insert the CD of Windows XP in the CD-ROM of your computer.
• Click Start > Run.
• Type d:\i386\winnt32.exe/cmdcons. Here, d is the letter of the CD – ROM drive.
• Click the Yes button to start the installation process.
• Restart your computer.

When you restart your computer system, Microsoft Windows Recovery console appears on Windows start up.
Use Recovery Console
Follow the below mentioned steps for using Windows Recovery console:

1. Switch on your computer system.
2. Press the ‘R’ key when you see the “Welcome to Setup” screen. The Windows Recovery Console starts.
3. In case, you have multi-boot computer then select the operating system for which you want to use the Recovery console.
4. Type the administrator’s password. If no password was assigned to the admin account then simple press the ENTER key.
5. Use required commands for repairing Windows XP and getting lost data. If you do not know that which command should be executed then type help at the command prompt and you will see a list of the commands that can be used for recovering data.
6. After using the Recovery console, type exit on the command prompt to close the Recovery console and restart your computer system.

This way, you can repair the damaged operating system and recover the data stored on computer’s hard disk. However, using the Recovery Console require advance knowledge about its commands. If you do not have good knowledge about the Windows Recovery console then do not use it. Rather use Kernel for NTFS – Recover NTFS Data software, which is self-explaining and simple-to-use software designed for repairing the damaged Windows operating systems. The Recover NTFS Data software can be used to recover data lost from any of the Windows operating system, such as Windows 95, 98, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

A new feature in Windows Media Player 12, which is included with Windows 7, is being able to stream media over the web to other Windows 7 computers.  Today we will take a look at how to set it up and what you need to begin.

Note: You will need to perform this process on each computer that you want to use.

What You’ll Need

• Two computers running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. The host, or home computer that you will be streaming the media from, cannot be on a public network or part of domain.
• Windows Live ID
• UPnP or Port Forwarding enabled on your home router
• Media files added to your Windows Media Player library

Windows Live ID

Sign up online for a Windows Live ID if you do not already have one. See the link below for a link to Windows Live.

Configuring the Windows 7 Computers

Open Windows Media Player and go to the library section. Click on Stream and then “Allow Internet access to home media.”

The Internet Home Media Access pop up window will prompt you to link your Windows Live ID to a user account. Click “Link an online ID.”

If you haven’t already installed the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant, you will be taken to Microsoft’s website and prompted to download it.

Once you have completed the Windows Live download assistant install, you will see Windows Live ID online provider appear in the “Link Online IDs” window. Click on “Link Online ID.”

Next, you’ll be prompted for a Windows Live ID and password. Enter your Windows Live ID and password and click “Sign In.”

A pop up window will notify you that you have successfully allowed Internet access to home media.

Now, you will have to repeat the exact same configuration on the 2nd Windows 7 computer. Once you have completed the same configuration on your 2nd computer, you might also need to configure your home router for port forwarding.

If your router supports UPnP, you may not need to manually forward any ports on your router. So, this would be a good time to test your connection. Go to a nearby hotspot, or perhaps a neighbor’s house, and test to see if you can stream your media. If not, you’ll need to manually forward the ports. You can always choose to forward the ports anyway, just in case.

Note: We tested on a Linksys WRT54GL router, which supports UPnP, and found we still needed to manually forward the ports.

Finding the ports to forward on the router

Open Windows Media Player and make sure you are in Library view. Click on “Stream” on the top menu, and select “Allow Internet access to home media.”

On the “Internet Home Media Access” window, click on “Diagnose connections.”

The “Internet Streaming Diagnostic Tool” will pop up. Click on “Port forwarding information” near the bottom.

On the “Port Forwarding Information” window you will find both the Internal and External Port numbers you will need to forward on your router. The Internal port number should always be 10245. The external number will be different depending on your computer. Microsoft also recommends forwarding port 443.

Configuring the Router

Next, you’ll need to configure Port Forwarding on your home router. We will show you the steps for a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router.

On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Administration Tab along the top, click the “Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the “Port Range Forward” tab below it.

Under “Application,” type in a name. It can be any name you choose. In both the “Start” and “End” boxes, type the port number. Enter the IP address of your home computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under “Enable.” Do this for both the internal and external port numbers and port 443. When finished, click the “Save Settings” button.

Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure your home computer with a static IP address

When you’re ready to play your media over the Internet, open up Windows Media Player and look for your host computer and username listed under “Other Libraries.” Click on it expand the list to see your media libraries. Choose a library and a file to play.

Now you can enjoy your streaming media over the Internet.

Conclusion

We found media streaming over the Internet to work fairly well. However, we did see a loss of quality with streaming video. Also, Recorded TV .wtv and dvr-ms files did not play at all.

via HowToGeek

I recently told you about RelentlessAppz and their fantastic software called Relentless Command Centre. Well shortly after that was released, Sean Marsh contacted me about his newest “invention”. I have been playing with it for a couple of weeks. Its called RelentlessAppz ROM Roaster. Cool name, huh?

The idea is really simple. If like me, you are constantly on the look out for a decent ROM for your Android handset. You will find that every ROM you try is almost right. Just not exactly how you like. For example, being in Ireland, it always annoys me that I have to re-enter my APNs to get my data connection going whilst most others have them preset. Or when I reflash, the most essential app for me is Titanium Backup. Some chefs add them, some don’t.

Well, if you relate to all that and feel like having a little fun, then this is for you.

Relentless Appz ROM Roaster

This is a review of the software. Later I will write, not so much a how to as its pretty simple, but more of a tips and tricks of the software. Whilst Sean doesn’t get a gold star for his Photoshop skills  , he does get bonus stars for making something that is usually out of the reach of the everyday user in to a simple click click affair.

Features

• Add your own APN list
• Add a custom boot screen and Launcher
• Add your own fonts
• Enable APPS2SD
• Choose where apps get installed
• Install specific keyboards
• Add Social networks, Music apps and File sharing apps
• Fine tune control over what apps get added at the beginning
• Add superuser app
• GREAT FUN!!!
• 32b Compatibility Mode -E.g Use a Hero ROM on a Dream/Magic

This is your control centre.

You need a base ROM to work with and load that into the interface. Then as you move along you add and remove features that not completely your liking. When you are done, you hit the turkey and flash your device.

If you need reminding on flashing devices just use the search button on this site.

PRICE: £4.99

You are most likely reading this article because you’ve install Windows 7 RC way back when and now have one day left. If you’ve tried to install the full retail/oem version and failed with the message below, then this guide is for you.

The Problem

Windows 7 checks whether or not the current version you are running is a pre-release copy, and prevents you from upgrading further. For reference purposes, this is the error you’ll see when you try and upgrade.

The Solution

The solution is to edit a file inside the Windows 7 DVD—which you’ll have to extract to the hard drive to proceed.

• If you are using an ISO image for the installation progress, you can use the awesome 7-Zip utility to extract the ISO to a folder on the drive.
• If you are using an actual DVD, you can simply copy all of the files from the DVD to a folder on your hard drive.

Once you’ve extract the files, browse down into the “sources” folder to find the cversion.ini file.

Once you’ve opened up the cversion.ini file, you’ll notice that the MinClient line has a value of 7233.0, and since the Windows 7 RC release is build 7100, you can understand why it’s not working.

All you need to do is change the MinClient value to something less than the current build you are using. For the RC release, you can change it to 7000.

Now you can simply launch the setup.exe file from within the folder, and do the upgrade directly from the hard drive. Once you’ve started the setup, click Install now.

Once you get to the type of installation screen, choose to Upgrade the existing install.

Once you reach the Compatibility Report screen (if it doesn’t show up at all, be happy about it), you’ll see the list of applications that probably won’t work once you upgrade. Realistically most of these apps will work just fine, but the important thing is that you’ll be able to upgrade.

Note: You could always smooth the upgrade process by removing any apps that have compatibility problems, before you do the upgrade.

At this point, the upgrade should start working, and will take a rather long time.

Important Notes

There are a few important things to keep in mind when you are upgrading to the final version:

• The Windows 7 beta or RC releases were Ultimate edition, so you’ll only be able to upgrade to the RTM (final) if you are installing Ultimate Edition.
• Whenever possible, you should really backup your files and do a clean install. There are less headaches this way, and you get the benefit of a nice clean profile.

Happy upgrading!

VIA HowToGeek

….Or iPhone for that matter. Symbian S60 v4 will be here in the next six months with handsets being released in the Q3-Q4 of 2010. They have made the much needed changes to the interface and this is, in my opinion, Nokia’s last chance to wow us. Why? Well around the exact same time, Microsoft are releasing their flagship ground breaking OS. Or will it be?

That’s a lot of pressure for both companies, especially given the ground Apple and Android have gained so quickly. With that in mind, it will a regular feature to see both companies “leaking” videos of each stage of development to keep interest. Here are two videos.

1. Buy an app from the Android Market
2. Install it
3. Use Titanium Backup to back it up
4. Uninstall & Refund it through the market
5. Restore the app with Titanium Backups restore function

“while it indeed works perfectly, I do not encourage this practice – for obvious reasons. With great power comes great responsibility.”

 

Relentless Command Centre

What’s Wrong With It?

The Good Stuff

• Designed for every Avid Android user that has ROOT
• Most useful Fastboot & ADB commands in one centre.
• Backing up of all your apps,
• Restoring all of your apps,
• Push single apps to your device in one click,
• Format your EXT Partition,
• Flash a new custom ROM to your device,
• Fastboot a new ROM or Recovery Image to test it first- a bit of a try before you buy thing,
• Flash a new Recovery Image
• A host of rebooting options

Flash A Recovery Image To Your Android Handset

How To Flash A Custom ROM

One of the neatest new features in Windows 7 Professional and above is XP Mode, but not all machines are capable of running it. Today we show you how to use VMware to run XP Mode on machines without Hardware Virtualization.

How does this work?

Even if your computer doesn’t have hardware virtualization, you can still install XP Mode but just cannot run it as you can’t run Virtual PC.  Enter VMware Player.  This free program lets you create and run virtual machines, whether or not you have hardware virtualization.  And, it can directly import XP Mode so you can use that copy of XP for free.  A couple features are different, but it’s still a great replacement since you otherwise couldn’t use it at all.

Note: XP Mode does not work on Home Versions of Windows 7 and you’ll need VMware Player 3.0

Getting Started

First, download and install XP Mode (link below). There is no need to download Virtual PC if your computer cannot run it, so just download the XP Mode from the link on the left.

Install XP mode; just follow the default prompts as usual.

Now, download and install VMware player.  The download is free, but requires registration.

You may see some prompts about installing drivers; simply approve them.  We didn’t see them on our latest test, but have in the past.  When you are finished installing VMware Player, you will have to restart your computer.

Add XP Mode to VMware Player

Now that your computer is rebooted, run VMware Player.  We can import XP Mode by clicking File, then click “Import Windows XP Mode VM.”

VMware Player will simply start importing your XP Mode.  Converting XP mode to VMware format may take a couple minutes depending on your hardware, so just be patient.

When this is done, you should see a new virtual machine in VMware Player called XP Mode!  Click “Play Virtual Machine” to run XP Mode.

XP will run through it’s first-run setup process.

While it is loading, you may be prompted to install or update VMware Tools.  This is required to integrate XP Mode into your computer, so click Update Tools or Install Tools depending on you situation.

The tools will automatically download and install, though you may have to approve an UAC prompt.

Now you can proceed with your XP setup.  Accept the license agreement,

Choose your locale and keyboard settings

Enter a name for the virtual machine and an administrative password

And enter the correct date, time, and timezone.  It usually gets the correct time and date from your computer itself, but the time zone is often incorrect.

XP will now finalize your changes, and then reboot.

When XP Mode restarts, choose your settings for updates.

Windows may ask to search for drivers.  Simply press cancel, as VMware Tools will contain everything we need.

After a short delay, you should see your XP desktop in VMware Player!

There’s one last thing that needs to be installed – VMware Tools.  This should automatically open in XP Mode; if not, click Start, then My Computer, and finally double-click on the CD drive which should say VMware Tools.

Now, simply run the Tools installer with the Typical setup type, and reboot the XP Mode when it’s finished.

Now VMWare is setup and we’re ready to start integrating it with Windows 7.

Integrate XP Mode in VMware Player with Windows 7

The real advantage of the default XP Mode in Windows 7 is that the XP programs are fully integrated with their Windows 7 counterparts.  You can run them seamlessly with other programs, copy between them, and even open and save files to the same folders.

Let’s set this up in VMware.  Copy and paste from Windows 7 to XP Mode in VMware is activated by default.  To use your XP programs seamlessly with Windows 7, click VM on the top of the VMware window, and click “Enter Unity.”

You can easily access any program or file in XP mode through a dedicated XP Mode Start Menu.  When you hover over your Windows 7 Start button, a new button called “Windows XP Mode” will above it.  Click there to access a full start menu from XP Mode right in Windows 7.

Here is an IE 6 window from XP running side-by-side with IE 8 in Windows 7, thanks to VMware Player!

By default, the virtualized windows will have a border and the VMware logo on their edge.

To remove this logo, click VM in the VMware player window, then settings.  Click on the Options tab, and choose Unity on the left.  Now uncheck the boxes that say “Show borders” and “Show badges.”

Without having the VMWare borders and badges give everything a more authentic XP Mode look and feel.

You can even use removable devices, such as flash drives, in XP Mode in VMware Player.  Whenever you connect a new device to your computer, VMware will remind you that you can add it to XP Mode.

Simply click VM, then Removable Devices.  Select your device name, and click Connect.

Save Files in XP Mode to My Documents in Windows 7

By default, files created in XP Mode in VMware Player will be saved inside the virtual machine.  It’s more convenient if they’re saved directly to the My Documents folder in Windows 7, so let’s change this.  Click VM, then Settings.  Click the Options tab, and then choose Shared Folders on the left.  Now click the bullet for “Always enabled” and check the box for “Map as a network drive in Windows guests.”

Now click Add at the bottom of that window.  This will let us add a shared folder.

Let’s add the My Documents folder from Windows 7.  Click Browse, and then select your My Documents folder.  Click Ok, and then click Next.

Make sure the box is checked that says “Enable this share” and then click Finish.  You can now close the settings window as well.

Back in XP Mode, click Start, then right click on My Documents, and select Properties.

Click Move to find the new My Documents folder.

Find the folder we just shared from Windows 7 by clicking My Computer, then the drive that says “Shared Folders on ‘vmware-host’” or something similar.  Now select the folder we shared, Documents, and click Ok.

Click Ok in the main properties window.  It may offer to copy the files from your old My Documents folder to the new one; choose Yes to make sure you have all of your documents in Windows 7.

Now, whenever you go to save a file in XP Mode, it will automatically save in your My Documents folder on Windows 7.  You can repeat the same process for any folder you wish, such as your My Pictures and My Music folders.

Conclusion

That’s all … now you have your full XP Mode running on your computer without hardware virtualization.  Almost all the same features are there; the only thing you’re missing is the Start Menu integration, but VMware’s menu is the next best thing. In our tests using VMware worked as good or better as actual XP Mode on a machine that supports hardware virtualization. If you’re frustrated that the Windows 7 machine(s) you have don’t support XP Mode, using our VMware method works, and allows you to use it on whatever machine you want.

You might also want to check out our look at XP Mode in Windows 7 if your machine is capable of running it. To find out if your machine can run XP Mode the best tool we have used is Securable which is linked below.

Links And Article Details

Download Windows XP Mode

Download VMware Player 3

Download Securable to Test if your Machine Can Run XP Mode.

This article came from HowToGeek

It’s a sad sad fact, that there are still many places that do not have a decent broadband connection. Of course, places like Finland, with their 1MB line minimum law, this doesn’t apply to. But for the rest of us – it’s fact!

Many times, when on the road fixing peoples computers, invariably, I have to update a fresh install of Anti-virus software. As you know , this takes forever the first time. To get around this I had been downloading Microsoft’s Security Essentials offline update file. Of course, you have to grab a latest copy before you head, it still saves a lot of time.

Well, it would be great to be able to do this for all the software I install. And now you can.

WSUS Offline

WSUS means Windows Software Update Service. Its an app/software server that allows admins to download one copy of the latest Windows updates, approve it and send it to clients.

WSUS offline.. does this in a similar way but offline of course!!! It’s now at version 6.3 and its a small enough download. Open the ZIP file and extract the contents to a folder on your desktop. Double click your Application file and this is what you get:

Click for larger image

You have many options from here. You can download the files to ISO’s ready for DVD burning or to your USB key.

When you are then on-site, you can load up your offline files and you will something like this:

Head over and grab it so you can continue your conquest for the family hero title!!

Website: WSUSOffline

I have always maintained my stance on Apple, that I am not an Apple man… Recently, the launch of the iPad got me excited and made me feel, for about 2 hours, that this is the future. But then the comments were made and reality set in and I remembered that this is the iPod and the iPhone all over again.

iPod

See, if there is one this thing Apple do well.. it’s marketing!!! I always disliked the iPod. Yet they sold billions of them. I own three different types. But I hated Apple for it because they claimed enormous battery life and it didn’t exist and then forced all to use their iTunes… not buts!!! Other manufacturers understated battery life and let you do whatever you wanted.. cause it’s yours!!!

iPhone

This is when I dug my heels in. I said this phone would never sell. I was working in Carphone Warehouse at the time. I meant, it would never sell in Europe. It was made for Americans. Why?

They released a phone that did not do MMS, did not have 3g, had a crap 2.0 mp camera, did not have copy/cut and paste and it was big! And yet the damn thing sold like hot cakes with melted Dairygold butter!!! In Europe, the year prior to the iPhone launch, we had all those missing features in advanced stage.

iPad

And here we are again – they release something with so much fanfare that people will go out and buy it and then ask: What The H…?? Where is multitask?? I thought there was a camera on this thing..?!  What do you mean I have to close this app to open another!!???!!

And it will still sell like crazy.. and that’s why you will buy one.. cause everyone else is… Am I wrong?

I am now looking back to Android and the Dell tablet. We’ll see…..

Google OS

Google Phone

While that means that anyone looking to pick up a Google branded phone will be missing out on the usual subsidies that carriers drop in alongside hardware, it also means that networks won’t have their hands in your phone, which means that Google can essentially do whatever it wants with the innards of the device. For those who haven’t already twigged, that could mean something as simple as sending pretty much every communication the phone needs via a data connection; that would make all calls VOIP calls… a delectable prospect indeed, a and one that many networks have been actively dodging for the past few years.