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• Compact and easy to use
• Windows automation software
• Record all mouse and keyboard events
• Convenient settings interface
• Using recorded files anytime, anywhere

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.

Here is a video of the new Photoshop CS5. Its something I look forward to because I really get lost too easily in Photoshop. Some of the features mentioned are really dumbing things down for the everyday users.

If you are low on time, skip to about 2.50 in the video.

The whole idea behind CS5 is content aware editing… check it!!!

and another:

Google has revealed that users can now transfer files via chat in iGoogle and Orkut.

This is good news for web users with a preference for software-free chatting, but the better news is that Google promises to bring the same functionality to Gmail, which already supports voice, video and group chat.

The iGoogle and Orkut file transfers will work for photos, documents and presumably small video files. In addition, web users can exchange files with users of Google Talk — the more robust desktop version of Google’s chat client — without any hiccups.

We certainly look forward to the day when file transfers will be supported via chat in Gmail, and we’ll update you when we know more. Until then, let us know what you think about the new iGoogle and Orkut functionality in the comments.

via Mashable

I found a great how to article over on gHacks.net. Its a problem we all run into. You install so many apps on your c: drive that you eventually run dry of space. When that happens… everything sloooowwwwss down and becomes painful. Here’s a guide to get you out of that situation.

The move process itself is easy enough. Just move the files in Windows Explorer, or any other file manager that you may be using, to another hard drive. You can move the folder by pressing shift during the drag and drop operation (if you do not press shift you copy the files).

Most games and applications will not start anymore after they have been moved around. The solution to this is to create symbolic hard links and Windows comes with the tool to do just that. Open a command prompt as an administrator. You find the Command Prompt under Accessories in the Windows Start Menu. Right-click the command prompt and select run as administrator.

The command that we are using to create a so called directory junction is mklink. A directory junction basically tells the operating system to create a mirror in another directory that provides access to all files of the selected directory in the mirror directory again. The files and folders of the mirror directory are however actually only redirected to the destination where they are actually hosted. This essentially means that you can make the game, application or Windows believe that the files and folders are still in their right place even if they are not.

mklink /J "new folder" "folder with the files"

That’s the basic command that we will be using. The /J parameter defines the type of symbolic link that we are creating, in this case a directory junction. The new folder is the mirror folder and the folder with files the folder containing the real files.

mklink /J "C:\program files (x86)\Dragon Age\" "e:\games\Dragon Age"

This creates a directory junction so that the files and folders of e:\games\Dragon Age are accessible by the program and Windows under C:\program files (x86)\Dragon Age\ as well (where they have been initially installed to).

C:\Windows\system32>mklink /J “c:\Program Files (x86)\Dragon Age\” “c:\games\Dragon Age\”
Junction created for c:\Program Files (x86)\Dragon Age\ <<===>> c:\games\DragonAge\

The same principle can be applied to other applications or games. It is for instance possible to move some Steam games or files to another hard drive to free up space on the one Steam is installed. Mklink is available in Windows Vista and Windows 7. I’m not sure about Windows XP right now, would be nice if anyone with XP could let me know in the comments. There are programs like Junction from Sysinternals that can create junctions as well in case that is needed.

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

I have a daughter, aged 1.5 years. I guess watching me play with my phone, on my desktop clicking and tapping, on my laptop doing the same, all resulting in beeps and screen flashes captures a child’s interests and imaginations. So what can you do when they are this young but insist they need to use the PC. Lots, actually. And none of the solutions damage your settings or files. After all you want to encourage them as much as possible.

First up, BabySmash!

This is a program that gives them instant gratification for all their random and wild clicks on the mouse and taps on the keyboard. It takes up the full screen and locks them out of any of the desktop items.

Features Smash on any keys Draws letters, shapes, numbers Keeps babies happy Won’t harm your computer New features added often

It offers a settings dialog so you can tune the “experience”. You may need to buy a new keyboard after a while though if your child is like mine. Or dig out an old one for them.

Its really good for hand-eye coordination. She is learning to control the mouse movement better and realize each key is different for a reason.

Soon she will be writing on the blog.

Its a free download and you can get it here – Baby Smash!

Secondly, Animal Sounds for Android

The desktop is only one part. So you need something for your phone too. I use Animal sounds to teach her the spellings, sounds and images of a particular animal. It doesn’t lock out the screen but has taught her what a touch screen is and how to use it with swipes.

Its an effective way of keeping her entertained and learning at the same time.

There is of course an options screen, again where you can fine tune things a little. Especially the sound control.

To get it, search for Animal Sounds on the market place and its free.

Here is their website – Linkedin Profile

Thirdly, Baby Go for Android and Blackberry

This one is good because it locks out your mobile screen so they can only learn and play. The creators website is fantastically designed. Below are the feature differences between the paid and free version. For me the free version is enough for now. I am sure she will grow out of it though and I will have to get the super version.

The site doesn’t indicate that its available for Android but a market search will show it up.

I hope these have been useful and if there are some better ones out there, let me know in the comments.

I have been beta testing an add in for my Windows Home Server for what feels like ever!!! It’s an essential tool in managing your disks in Windows Home Server. It has seamless integration with WHS. When it is installed, you wonder how could Microsoft possible have left these features out of a server… Oh well, we ask that question enough anyway…

Here are the details and press release:

Tentacle Software is proud to announce the release of Disk Management 1.1, the next version of our very popular Windows Home Server Add-In. It has, as they say, been a long time coming.

We’ve kept this release under the radar, for the most part. We’ve talked about it in hushed whispers (through various threads on We Got Served, and teaser posts here) for at least a year and a half. Why did it take so long? We really, really wanted to get it right.

New Features

We re-architected the entire Add-In to use a Windows Service to do all the back-end heavy lifting. That’s given us the flexibility to add a bunch of functionality that you’ve all been asking for.

Everyone loves bullet points, so here are our new shinies in no particular order:

• Significantly improved user interface (including a collapsible pane for the wireframe if you don’t use it)
• Significantly improved performance, especially on multi-core CPUs
• Charts for disk space statistics
• Charts for disk space utilisation over time
• Disk statistics logging to a file
• More disk details, including the NTFS mount point for each disk
• Real counting of the actual backup database size (for all you crazy kids with backup duplication enabled)
• A detailed help file

The new UI is something we’re really proud of. No more pop-up windows to see detailed information about your disks, it’s all there in one display.

New Price

The other major change is that we’re going professional. Disk Management will no longer be free.

There are a number of reasons for us to do this, but mostly we believe that Disk Management is worth paying for, and moving to a paid model will help ensure that Disk Management is supported and maintained in the future.

Disk Management is available as a free 30-day trial, with no feature or functionality limitations. You can try it out with no risk and see how awesome the new version is. If you love it as much as we do, a license for v1.x will cost you US$10 per server.

New Website

The Tentacle Software website has had a major facelift. We’ve got a whole new style, and a new store. Have a look and tell us what you think; we would love to hear your feedback.

The Future

We’re very excited about this release, as I’m sure you can tell. We believe that Disk Management 1.1 is the start of something special for us, and we’ve got plans for all sorts of goodies for Windows Home Server that I’m sure you’ll love.

We want to sincerely thank all our beta testers, and everyone who has given us feedback. Disk Management and Tentacle Software are two years old and we couldn’t have made it this far without you.

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

This isn’t one of the typical spams emails that you delete 100′s of. This is something that RichardX13 found during the week and told me about. It’s a site for students …. AND…. families of students!! The idea is to help students through college and to be able to afford all of the software they need for the courses. They are called software4students.ie from Dreamspeak Ireland.

You can get anything and everything on there. Is there a catch? No. But there are some very reasonable rules which we will come to in a minute.

First of all, here is a snapshot of what’s on there and available:

They cover all the main Microsoft Products and Operating Systems, Adobes range and some Kaspersky Security amongst other titles.

You can get MS Windows 7 Ultimate for only €117.. saving over €455. Or Office Professional for €83!!!

So the rules

Here is what the site says:

1. All School, College, University students and their family members are eligible!

2. No Student ID required: As an Official Microsoft Partner, our offers extend beyond academic email address holders so that any family member or guardian can buy on behalf of a pupil or student.

3. You receive Full Professional version software at an academic price for lifetime use at home only.

There are more rules, but those are the important ones…

So go!! Save yourself a fortune.. after all, we all have family in college/school somewhere, right?

Website: Software4Students

Backup of Apps

Backup of Data

Backup of Market Entry

Free and Paid Versions

Other Features

Important Information

I recently bought a new camera for my wife. We have a Sony H9 bridge camera, but it just doesn’t fit in her purse. She has a 5 megapixel Samsung camera phone that just doesn’t cut it. So I went on the hunt for something compact. Actually, ultra-compact in this case. I chose Pixmania as my start point because they offer a reasonable amount of information on each camera.

But what do you do when get down to two or three cameras and you just can’t decide? Well, like me, you could call my professional photographer brother and get him to decide. But, if you don’t have one of them then here is a solution to never ending question:

Which camera should I buy?

Well fortunately for you, I have just come across a website set up for this very purpose. Its called Snapsort and it’s simply brilliant. It provides with the information you need to have in order to make that final decision.

Have a look at the screen shots:

This is the homepage

Now, when I narrowed things down out of all the Nikons, Canons, Sonys, Panasonics, etc, etc.. I had two left. The Sony W230 or the W290. I liked both but it just wasn’t clear what was different. If I had used Snapsort, I would have had this at my disposal:

and that’s not all. The rest of the page gives you the clear winner in this case and much more detail then you even know what to do with.

The chosen winner

.....and the loser

It’s definitely worth the bookmark when you a buying your next camera.

Head over to Snapsort now

A while back I got very excited when Googlemonster decided to do Turn-By-Turn navigation free for Android phones. It is still only available to the USA, whilst all XDA and ROM genius modders keep trying to get it working outside there. In fact, the news was big, it really, really hurt Garmin and TomTom.

However, Nokia fans can delight. They have just announced OVI Maps 3.3 and it is free covering 70 countries. Ah, so, Googlemonster aint looking so dominant now, huh? Okay, I know, its a licencing issue for Google and they will get there but Nokia were very clever in getting in ahead of the game here.

Mobile navigation for everyone

Ovi Maps takes you where you want to be and shows you what you want see, with navigable maps for over 70 countries worldwide. All this with only one click. And it’s all free.

• Free Drive navigation
• Free Walk navigation
• Free maps and map updates
• Free Events guides
• Free Lonely Planet guides
• Free Michelin guides

Initially it is only available for certain handsets but in the coming weeks all handsets that are Maps and GPS enabled will hopefully grab the update.

Word is that N97 users may have to wait longest. The Maps app needs 20 megs of C: Drive space, which just isn’t possible with its current setup and partitioning. So the suggestion is a firmware update will fix this.

Here is some video:

Anyway, I am now searching for a way to get this on my Nokia N86. Any tips?

UPDATE

A LOT of phones have now been added to the list… Like my n86 – YAY!!!

The type of person who reads Tech N Life is the type person everyone goes to when there is a problem. That’s OK when they live in the same house, but you get Aunts and Uncles, even grandparents asking to fix the silly things. The easiest way to do this is with some free remote support software. Here are three I use daily:

LogMeIn

I use this mostly with established clients and ones I will regularly support remotely. Logmein provides a login area where you can save up all your clients connections. The free version is limited in how you can categorize these however it works fine as is.

One great feature is the ability to add notes to each PC. So you can put client specific details to help with your next remote session.

This works by going to the client computer and going to your LogMeIn account and choosing “Add this computer”. This will install some client software and just follow the prompts all the way to the end.

Now you can go to you PC and see it listed in your LogMeIn account. You can even initiate chat sessions with the user. One other benefit, is you can blank their screen while you work. Sometimes I do this because I don’t want to teach my clients how to do everything. That would be silly, no?

ShowMyPc

I use this when its either a new client or non regular client. Its a website where you both download a tiny piece of software and install it. The person you want to help clicks Show My Pc button and it generates a password. You click View A Remote PC and input the password.

Its important to understand what happens here because sometimes it doesn’t work. Especially the first time it is run, it needs to configure some ports on your firewall. This makes it appear as if nothing is happening. However the person you wish to support will get a windows security notice asking their approval.

Lets face it, if the person you were helping knew what they were doing, you wouldn’t be helping them. So don’t be surprise at how much the freak out at this security warning. It amazes me every time. I try to mention it to them before the install to minimize their shock. It’s actually quite funny. Anyway, go ahead and tell them to hit unblock on both pop ups.

Now you will get a connection. Immediately on their screen, you will see their ShowMyPc dialog box. Click on options and disable Vista Prompts. Otherwise you will get severed connections if you are doing any major support.

Teamviewer

This is pretty nice software and simple to use. I am slowly shifting towards Teamviewer  because some people just don’t even understand how to download software. I find Teamviewer a little more intuitive for novices. So you set up an account which is free for personal use. You will install some software on you PC and get that all set up. Then, when you want to support someone, you send them to the Teamviewer site and tell them to click on Join A Session. This will guide them through the install process which is really quick and they will then give you the passwords needed to connect. Once connected, Teamviewer gives you lots of great features.

So that’s it. You will quickly become everyones hero. But remember, with that, comes a price. The price you pay is everyone calls you everyday, so learn to be in control and encourage people to work things out themselves first.

Why is when you hear of something for the first time ever, you hear about three times that week. It’s like an obscure word that you never heard and then its on the radio and TV that week. Anyway, it’s something I’ve never figured out.

When RichardX13 wrote the other about FLS Launcher, which is an application manager, one of our readers emailed me about Bumptop.

To be honest, I am not a fan of desktop “revampers”. Any I have tried in the past have been more annoying than useful. So with reluctance, I had a look a Bumptop. And its actually pretty good.

What s Bumptop?

It puts your desktop into 3D box. So you have walls top and side and behind you. It gets its name from the way movement of objects bump each other and cause it to shake. It has social network integration with Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. These a very basic but still give you quick access to updates. It also supports multiple monitor setups, which is cool.

It uses very little CPU/Ram resources, which is good because otherwise I would uninstalled it immediately. You can also apply themes to change its look.

When you start off, it walks you through the basics in about 5 steps. I suggest you watch these to get the most out of it.

There is a free version and a pro version. I am going to keep plaing with it and probably check out the pro features. Here is a table from their site with differences.

The differences from the Free version on the left and the Pro features on the right

Themes

You can configure it with themes to suit your style:

There is a decent community following that are developing the own themes. However the software allows lots of customization at the user level.

Social Networking

As I said, it has social networks covered, albeit at a basic level but good enough to keep your status updated easily and to quickly send an email. I haven’t figured out yet if I can configure the email widget to start a Gmail Compose Mail window instead of Outlook but I would love to see that feature.

Some video to whet your  appetite:

You can check it out over on their site: Bumptop

What desktop enhancement are you using? Is it better than this? Let us know in the comments

[UPDATE: Bumptop available for Mac and Mashables has 100 invites to give for the Pro version. Click here for a chance.  Mashables]

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Sticky Notes	Limit 2	Unlimited
Multitouch gestures (Crop, Shove, Scrunch, Fan out and more!)
Unlimited updates for 1.x version
Toss files onto USB keys
Most used files automatically grow
Flipping through Piles
Thumbnail Previews (Transparent PSDs, HDRs and more!)	Watermarked
Customer Support	Limited	Premium Support
G o o d S t u f f	Physics Engine
	Full Windows 7 Support (32 and 64 bit)
	3D Visualization
	Piles
	Intuitive Gestures
	Themes
	Widgets (Facebook, Twitter, email and printer)
	Zooming Photo Slideshows

Are you sick and tired of having a cluttered desktop? Are you waisting 2 or 3 minutes of valuable time just searching for a particular file or program?

Well, there are many solutions out there. However, the latest and most efficient I have come across is the ‘FSL Launcher’.

Why is this so efficient compared to other products you might ask. Well it was Lifehacker who first brought this application to my attention.

The main purpose of FLS Launcher is to aid in accessing files, folders and applications. However, FLS does this in a way that is both appealing to the user, and easy to use, with its simple yet impressive interface.

What I liked about this application is its ability to group shortcuts. You can have many different groups, such as Programs, Games, Internet, Misc, Music, Movies, Utilities. . .  the list goes on. Simply put you create whatever group names you want, then they appear as tabs which you can simply switch between. Once the groups have been made you can then add shortcuts for anything you want, any files, folders, and applications.

If you wish, you can then back up these groups and shortcuts to a portable drive and restore them if for some reason you need to re install your OS, or you un-install the program, and then wish to install it again.

FLS launcher can be launched by clicking on the system tray icon or by simply  moving your mouse to the upper left corner of the screen.

There is also a donation version available, but most of the features are in the free version. The donation version adds in keyboard shortcuts and some customization options, but most users will find the free version more than enough.

Don’ t write it off as just another app manager. This has some serious advantages over other app managers and is free. It’ s definitely something that is worth a try. If you don’t find it useful, you can simply un-install it. Nothing lost by just trying it.

You can download it from this link:

FLS Launcher



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