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One in all PC tips / 8 Ways To Improve Windows 8 With Win+X Menu Editor

« on: November 25, 2013, 12:07:01 PM »

On Windows 8, you can press Windows Key + X or right-click at the bottom-left corner of your screen to open a menu known as the “power user menu” or “quick access menu.” This menu contains quick access to system utilities like the Control Panel, Command Prompt, Task Manager, File Explorer, Device Manager, and more. Win+X Menu Editor allows you to edit the shortcuts that appear here, adding new shortcuts, removing existing ones, and even rearranging the list.

While Microsoft did remove the traditional desktop Start menu, they also added this very unappreciated feature. It’s useful without any customizations, but it can really shine after you add custom shortcuts.

Shut Down, Restart, Log Out, And More

Windows 8.1 will add Shut Down and Restart options to the Windows Key + X menu, giving you a faster way to shut down your computer with the mouse. Just move your mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen, right-click, and select Shut Down or Restart.

Win+X Menu Editor users have had this ability for quite a while, as this utility can add Shut Down and Restart options to the Win+X menu on Windows 8.

Better yet, you can do something similar on Windows 8.1 — add a Log Out or Switch User option to this menu if you use such options frequently. You’ll be able to quickly get back to the login screen from anywhere without stopping at the Start screen..

Add Your Frequently Used System Tools

The power user menu gives you quick access to a number of system utilities Microsoft chose, but what if you frequently use other system utilities that aren’t listed here? For example, maybe you frequently use the Registry Editor.

Win+X Menu Editor can add these system tools — and any other ones you like — to the menu. Anything you can create a standard Windows shortcut to can appear in the list. To add the Registry Editor or Group Policy editor, you’d select Add a program and browse to the C:\Windows\System32\regdt32.exe file on your computer.

Gain Quick Access To Your Favorite Programs

You aren’t just limited to system utilities. You could use the Windows Key + X menu to quickly access your favorite programs. Add one or more shortcuts to frequently used programs to this list and you’ll be able to launch them from the Windows Key + X menu. This would give you quick access to programs you use — it’s not the intended use, but it works!

Include Any Control Panel Shortcut

This tool makes it easy to browse a list of Control Panel applets — including hidden ones — and quickly add them to the list. You can also add programs from the Administrative Tools folder, such as the Disk Cleanup tool. Just click the Add a program menu and select Add a Control Panel item or Add an Administrative Tools item.

Rearrange The List

Once you start adding your own favorite shortcuts, you may find that the list gets a bit long and messy. You could use Win+X Menu Editor to reorganize the list, moving existing shortcuts around to create different categorized sections.

Remove Options You’ll Never Use

Rather than just rearranging the clutter, you may want to simplify the list instead of shuffling options around. Use Win+X Menu Editor to remove any shortcuts you don’t want — this will simplify the list and free up space for options you will want to access. You can always use the Restore Defaults option to restore your power user menu to the default state in the future.

Create Spacers

You can’t create submenus using Win+X Menu Editor, but you can arrange your shortcuts into groups. Each group will appear separately in the list, with a spacer in between each. You can create as many groups as you want or use a flat list of a single group. The default shortcuts can be rearranged into different groups, too.

Quickly Access Websites

The Win+X Menu Editor can add any shortcut, including shortcuts to files and websites. After adding a website shortcut, you could right-click in the bottom-left corner of your screen, and click a website’s name to access it. Sure, this isn’t the ideal place for web bookmarks, but you may get some use out of putting one or two website shortcuts here.

To do this in Win+X Menu Editor, you’ll need to create a shortcut to the website. For example, you can do this by dragging and dropping the website’s favicon from Firefox’s address bar to a folder on your computer.

Just select Add a program in Win+X Menu Editor and browse to the website shortcut file on your computer. You’ll get a shortcut that takes you to the website in your default web browser.

Most Windows 8 users will never notice the power user menu, let alone customize it — but if you want to customize this menu and bend it to your own purposes, you can easily and quickly do it with this simple utility.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-ways-to-improve-windows-8-with-winx-menu-editor/

One in all PC tips / Windows Update: Everything You Need To Know

« on: November 25, 2013, 11:43:07 AM »

Is Windows Update enabled on your PC? If you don’t know the answer to that, you should — Windows Update keeps Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Office up-to-date with the latest security patches and bug fixes, ensuring your computer is as secure as possible. However, Windows Update can also cause problems — particularly by nagging you to reboot when you’re trying to use your computer and automatically restarting your computer overnight.

While Windows Update can be obnoxious, it keeps your computer secure and is well worth using. It can also be made less obnoxious with a few quick settings changes.

Access Windows Update

To open the Windows Update Control Panel tool, press the Windows key on your computer, type “Update” without quotes, and click the Windows Update shortcut that appears. On Windows 8, you’ll have to click the Settings option before you see the Windows Update shortcut.

If you’ve set updates to not happen automatically, you can click the Check for updates link in the left pane to check for new updates and click the Install updates button to install any available updates.

Microsoft releases most Windows Update patches on “Patch Tuesday” — the second Tuesday of each month. This allows system administrators to schedule updates all at once. However, if a security flaw is being exploited in the wild, important security patches may be released immediately. Patches for Windows could show up at any point in the month.

Enable Automatic Updates

To enable automatic updates, click the Change settings link in the left pane of the Windows Update window. Select one of the following options:

-> Install updates automatically: Windows will automatically check for, download, and install updates at the time you choose. You’ll get your PC automatically update without requiring any of your attention, but Windows will start harassing you to reboot your computer after installing the updates. If you want to leave your computer running overnight, you may find that it was automatically rebooted while you were away.
-> Download updates but let me choose when to install them: Windows will check for new updates and download them in the background, displaying a notification in the system tray when new updates are found. When you’re ready to update, you can click the system tray icon, install the updates, and reboot your computer. Windows won’t install updates until you say so, so you can select this option and choose to only install the updates when you’re prepared to reboot.
-> Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them: Windows will only check for updates and display a notification in your system tray. This can be useful if you want to save bandwidth and only download updates when you’re on a specific connection — for example, this could prevent Windows from automatically downloading updates on a tethered Internet connection and consuming your mobile data.
-> Never check for updates: Windows won’t automatically check for updates, forcing you to manually check for updates or not update Windows at all. You shouldn’t use this option, as you’ll miss out on important security updates.

From here, you can also choose whether you want to receive recommended updates (updates that aren’t as critical for security), update other Microsoft products in addition to Windows itself, or see notifications about new Microsoft software, such as Bing Desktop.

Stop Windows Update From Nagging You and Rebooting Your Computer

On Windows 7 and previous versions of Windows, Windows will start to nag you after installing most updates. It will pop up and inform you that it’s restarting your computer in fifteen minutes unless you postpone the shutdown. Even more obnoxiously, you can only postpone the shutdown for up to four hours at a time. If you need to use your computer all day without rebooting, you’ll have to keep clicking the Postpone button. If you step away from your computer or leave it running overnight, Windows may automatically restart your computer, halting whatever it was doing.

To fix this, you can change the value of the NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers registry key, forcing Windows to not reboot if a user is logged in. We covered this when we looked at examples of useful registry hacks. You could also just set Windows to “Download updates but let me choose when to install them” and only install updates when you’re ready to reboot.

Windows 8 improves things by giving you a three-day grace period to restart your computer, although it no longer displays this information on the desktop. After installing updates, you’ll see a notification on your welcome screen asking you to reboot. If you want to see a Windows 7-style notification on your Windows 8 desktop, you could install the free Windows Update Notifier utility. If you don’t reboot in three days after installing updates, the nagging and automatic reboots will start.

You could also change the same registry key or set Windows 8 to only install updates when you choose to work around this, just on Windows 7.

Control What’s Updated

If you’re updating manually, you can click the “updates are available” text in the Windows Update window and see what updates will be applied. Click each update to view more information, if you like. Uncheck an update and it won’t be installed. To have Windows ignore an update in the future, just right-click that specific update and select Hide update.

Troubleshoot Windows Update

In most situations, Windows Update shouldn’t need any troubleshooting. If you’re having problems, ensure your computer is properly connected to the Internet and has some free disk space. If you do run into an odd issue and Windows refuses to install updates, you may want to reboot your computer and try again.

In some rare cases, Windows may install an update that causes an unusual, rare problem with your computer’s software or hardware. You may investigate the problem and find that a Windows update is to blame.

If you notice this, you can uninstall updates from the Windows Control Panel. Open the standard Uninstall or change a program window that lists all your installed applications. In the sidebar, click View installed updates. Locate the update you need to remove and uninstall it like you would any other program.

You can then open Windows Update again, check for updates, and hide the update to prevent Windows from installing it in the future.

If you’re a Windows user, you should probably have Windows automatically install or at least automatically download updates. The “automatically download updates” option gives you a good combination of automation and manual control, automatically downloading updates and letting you choose when to go through the reboot process.

Whatever you do, don’t disable Windows Update completely — it’s important to have the latest updates to stay secure online.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-update-everything-you-need-to-know/

One in all PC tips / 8 Super Windows 8.1 Tweaks For Power Users

« on: November 25, 2013, 11:17:27 AM »

Whether you’re using Windows 8.1 on a desktop, tablet, or something in between, there are a variety of useful tweaks you should know about. These options allow you to do everything from making Windows 8.1 work better on a desktop PC to tweaking the way it works on a tablet.

Many of these options are all-new in Windows 8.1 or have moved from where they were in Windows 8. Windows 8.1 is quite a large update compared to Microsoft’s old service packs for previous versions of Windows.

Tweak Desktop Integration

Windows 8.1 brings many useful options for desktop users. If Windows 8 was Microsoft’s declaration of war on desktop users, these options in Windows 8.1 are an attempted peace offering from Microsoft.

To access these options, right-click the desktop taskbar and select Properties. Click the Navigation tab and use the options here to configure Windows 8.1 to your liking. You can have Windows boot to the desktop, show your desktop background on the Start screen, show the Apps view automatically when you activate the Start button, and disable the app switcher and charms hot corners that appear when you move your mouse to the top-left and top-right corners of your screen.

Delete Old Windows Installation Files

When you upgrade from an old version of Windows, Windows keeps a C:\Windows.old folder with your old files in case there’s a problem. If your upgrade process went well and you have all your old files, you can delete this folder to free up gigabytes of disk space.

To do this, press Windows Key + S, search for Disk Cleanup, and click the Free up disk space shortcut. Click the Clean up system files button, enable the Previous Windows installation(s) option, and run a disk cleanup. If you don’t see this option, there’s nothing to clean up.

Remove Old Wireless Networks

Windows 8.1 no longer allows you to forget WiFi networks you’ve saved in the graphical interface. If you still want to do this, you can do so from the Command Prompt. Press Windows Key + X and click Command Prompt (Admin). Run the following command to view your saved wireless networks and their names:

_{netsh wlan show profiles}

Next, run the following command to delete a saved WiFi network:

_{netsh wlan delete profile name=”PROFILE”}

Restore Libraries

Microsoft hid libraries by default in Windows 8.1. You can re-enable them from the File Explorer window if you still want to use them.

To do this, open a File Explorer window, click the View tab on the ribbon, and click the Options button. Activate the Show libraries option at the bottom of the Folder Options window.

Disable SkyDrive Integration

Microsoft doesn’t provide an easy way to disable SkyDrive integration on Windows 8.1. On typical versions of Windows 8.1, you can only disable this via the registry editor, if you activated SkyDrive integration when you set up your Windows user account.

We don’t recommend disabling this as so many features in Windows 8.1 depend on SkyDrive, but you can disable it if you really want. The easiest way to do so is by downloading the Disable_SkyDrive_Integration.reg file from here and double-clicking it. This will save you from having to edit the registry by hand.

Disable Automatic Brightness

Windows now has integrated support for automatically adjusting your screen’s brightness level, which it will do on laptops and tablets with brightness sensors. Automatically adjusting your brightness can help your device save battery power.

If you’d rather control your screen’s brightness on your own, you can disable this from the Power Options window. Press Windows Key + S, type Power Options, and select the Power Options shortcut to open it.

Click Change plan settings next to the power plan you’re using and then select Change advanced power settings. Expand the Display section, expand Enable adaptive brightness, and set it to Off. You can disable it while plugged in and only use it on battery power, if you like.

Disable Bing Search

Windows 8.1 includes integrated Bing search, so you can search with Bing from the system-wide search charm. This also means that Windows sends your search terms to Bing, even if you’re just searching for apps, settings, and files on your local computer. You can disable this integration from the PC settings app if you’d rather not use it.

To do this, open the Change PC settings app — press Windows Key + C, click or tap the Settings icon, and select Change PC settings. Select Search and apps and disable the Use Bing to search online option.

Use Quiet Hours

Windows 8.1′s integrated notifications pop up and notify you about new emails, tweets, and other information. This can be a serious distraction if you’re using your computer for work and you’d rather focus on what you need to do.

If you never want to see notifications during work hours or another period of time, you can use the Quiet Hours feature. In the PC Settings app, navigate to Search and apps > Notifications and select the quiet hours you want to use.

Remember to use the power user menu, too — either press Windows Key + X or right-click on the taskbar’s Start button to open it. This menu allows you to quickly access important applications like the Control Panel and quickly shut down your computer. It helps make up for the lack of a pop-up Start menu on Windows 8.1′s desktop.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-super-windows-8-1-tweaks-for-power-users/

One in all PC tips / This Is How You Can Add External Subtitles On Windows Media Player

« on: November 25, 2013, 11:06:22 AM »

Preparation

First thing’s first: download and install Windows Media Player 12. Every machine running Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 should have WMP preloaded. Just search for the program and install it.

Next, get your movie file and your subtitles file. Many websites offer subtitles, but SubtitleHub, the search engine for subtitle websites, will help you quickly search through several of them. Just download the files and extract them if they come in a .zip format.

For this example, I have an episode of Friends and some subtitles that I’ve put in one folder called “Subtitled Friends”.

The Simple Way

Now, just put both of the files in the same folder and make sure they have the same name (aside from the extension). In this case, the video is “Friends” and the subtitle file is “Friends.srt”.

Right-click on the video and choose “Play with Windows Media Player”. Hopefully, your video now plays with subtitles. But if it still isn’t working, you have a few more options.

If You Run Into Trouble

The first step is to make sure WMP is set to display captions. From the default home screen you can right click on the bar near the top and select Play > Lyrics, captions, and subtitles > On if available. From the window in which the video is playing, this can be reached by right clicking at the top and selecting Lyrics, captions, and subtitles > On if available.

If they still aren’t displaying, you’ll need to download DirectVobSub (http://www.codecs.com/directvobsub_download.htm). The newest version is 2.41.7259 and it has x32 and x64 versions depending on if you have 64 bit or 32 bit Windows.

Simply run the installer, and DirectVobSub is ready to go. If you still can’t see any subtitles, however, there is one last thing you can try. Rename the subtitle file and change the “.srt” to a “.sub”. For me, the subtitles played regardless of whether it was called .srt or .sub, but some users report one working more often than the other.

Celebrate

Congratulations! You can now watch your TV shows and movies with subtitles on WMP. Be sure to use this power for good, and never for evil.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/this-is-how-you-can-add-external-subtitles-on-windows-media-player/

One in all PC tips / How To Make Windows 8 Boot Even Faster!

« on: November 23, 2013, 01:22:20 PM »

Windows 8 may have plenty of issues, but a slow boot time ain’t one. Windows 8 boots fast! Yet, there is room for improvement. We show you how to measure and optimize your Windows boot time.

The time it takes the system to start up is largely defined by internal processes. In Windows 8, a Faster Startup feature allows for record boot times. Over time, third-party applications can contribute to a significant decline. The occasional cleanup can restore initial boot times. Let’s see what your options are.

Find Your Boot Time

You can get a semi-accurate estimation of how long it takes to boot your computer by counting the seconds or using a stopwatch. I actually used the online stopwatch from timanddate.com to figure out which steps of the boot process took the longest and improved the most. If you just care for the overall boot time, however, you can draw exact numbers for your past couple of boots from the Windows Event Viewer.

Click [Windows] + [W] to jump directly to Search, type event, and select View event logs. In the Event Viewer, navigate to > Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > Diagnostics Performance. You can now view the log file that contains all events in that category. The Event ID you are looking for is 100.

As shown above, my computer had a critical boot duration of almost three minutes, due mostly to boot processes that occurred post the actual booting up. I should note that this is not normal; I run Windows 8 on old hardware. Open the Details tab to find out what slows down the boot time of your computer.

To quickly go through different boot times over a longer period, you can filter events by Event ID. Click Create Custom View via the respective menu option on the left side. Check the Events levels you wish to see, select Event logs, and enter the desired Event IDs.

On many Windows 8 machines, there is a quick way to check your most recent boot time via the Task Manager. Open the Task Manager via Search, click on More details in the bottom left, switch to the Start-up tab and check the upper right corner for Last Bios time. Unfortunately, this doesn’t show up for me.

Make Sure Fast Startup Is Enabled

Windows 8 comes with a built-in Fast Startup feature, which uses a hybrid shutdown to accelerate the following boot process. At shutdown, Windows partially hibernates, meaning it stores the kernel session and device drivers in the hiberfil.sys file on the system drive. On startup, the information in the file is loaded to resume the system.

To make sure Fast Startup is turned on (it should be by default), open Power Options via the Search, click Choose what the power buttons do on the left side, open Change settings that are currently unavailable on top, and then check the option Turn on fast start-up (recommended) under Shutdown settings at the bottom. If you made any changes, click the respective button to save and restart your computer.

EightForums warns that Fast Startup can cause a variety of restart and shutdown issues. If you experience any such issues, try to turn Fast Startup off.

By turning on Fast Startup, I could cut my boot time by over a minute. The post login boot processes remained time intensive, but the MainPathBootTime came down to around 30 seconds from over 100. My overall self-measured boot time was around that same number; ca. 32 seconds in the example shown below. Of course that’s still extremely slow, but the improvement is still massive. On a high-end machine with UEFI, Fast Startup should yield a boot time in the single digit region.

Time Saved: 70 seconds

Now that you appreciate how much faster Windows 8 boots due its default Fast Startup feature, let’s see whether we can get even speedier boot times.

Disable Startup Programs

Windows 8 has a much improved Task Manager, which provides quick access to key system information, including programs loading on startup. On the Windows 8 desktop, right-click the taskbar and select Task Manager. Click More details in the bottom left and open the Start-up tab.

Disabling any processes that have a high or medium Start-up impact will improve your boot time. Select a process and click Disable in the lower right or right-click and select Disable.

I’m running an almost virgin Windows 8.1 installation, so there wasn’t much potential to save time here. I tried it nevertheless and disabled Dropbox.

Time Saved: 3 seconds; less than 1 second for MainPathBootTime.

Keep in mind that every boot is different. You’ll always have an error margin of up to a few seconds, meaning three seconds is probably not significant. Naturally, you will see more impressive results if you can disable more startup programs.

Let’s dig a little deeper and see what else we can do with a virgin Windows 8.1 installation.

Disable Startup Services

Windows automatically launches several services on startup, some of which you may not need.

Press the keyboard shortcut [Windows] + [R] to launch the Run dialog. Type msconfig and click OK.

In the System Configuration window switch to the Services tab. Here you can disable any services you don’t need. Be careful with Microsoft services and services related to your hardware; it’s better to leave them alone.

For this test, I turned off the services Computer Browser and Windows Media Player Network Sharing. I restarted a couple of times and the slowest boot still resulted in the following…

Time saved: 53 seconds; over 4 seconds for MainPathBootTime.

Now that is significant!

The lowest boot time I achieved over the course of this test was 51 seconds total, and 22 seconds spent on MainPathBootTime.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-make-windows-8-boot-even-faster/

One in all PC tips / External Drive Not Recognized? This Is How To Fix It In Windows

« on: November 23, 2013, 01:09:42 PM »

External drives — either USB flash drives or external hard drives — should be easy to use. In some cases, you may connect your drive to a Windows PC or another device with a USB port and find that it’s not recognized. This problem can be caused by partition issues on your external drive, using the wrong file system, dead USB ports, driver issues in Windows, or other problems. In a worst case scenario, the drive itself may simply be dead.

The steps below will be the same for both USB flash drives and larger external hard drives, which work similarly.

Does the Drive Show Up in Disk Management?

First, let’s check whether Windows detects the drive when you plug it in. Plug your removable drive into your computer. If it’s an external hard drive, you may have to flip a power switch on the hard drive to activate it. Some heavy-duty removable hard drives may even have to be plugged in with a separate power cable before they’ll work.

Next, open the Disk Management tool. To do so, press Windows Key + R, type diskmgmt.msc into the Run dialog, and press Enter.

You should see your external drive listed in the Disk Management window. Even if it doesn’t appear in your Computer window because it doesn’t contain any partitions, it should show up here.

If you do see the drive here, you can continue to the last section where we’ll format it properly so Windows or your other devices can access and recognize it.

If you don’t see the drive here, continue to the next section where we’ll try to determine why your drive isn’t recognized.

Making Windows Recognize the Drive

If Windows doesn’t see your drive at all, it’s possible there’s a hardware issue with your computer’s USB port, a driver problem with your Windwos computer, or you may just have a dead drive.

First, unplug the drive from your USB port and try plugging it into another USB port on your computer. If it works in one USB port but not another, you may have a dead USB port. If you’ve plugged the drive into a USB hub, try connecting it to the computer instead. Some USB hubs won’t provide enough power for your external drive to function.

If the drive doesn’t show up in Disk Management even after you skip the USB hub and connect it to another USB port on your computer, it’s tough to know for certain whether the drive itself is bad or the computer is having a problem. If you have another computer nearby, try plugging the drive in there to check whether it’s detected. If the drive doesn’t work on any computer you plug it into — be sure to check whether it appears in the computer’s Disk Management window — the drive itself is likely dead and will need to be replaced.

If the drive does work on other computers — or you don’t have another computer around to test this with — Windows may be having a driver problem with the drive. You can check for this using the Device Manager.

To open it, press Windows Key + R, type “devmgmt.msc” into the Run dialog, and press Enter.

http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/open-device-manager.png

Look under Disk drives and check for any devices with a yellow exclamation mark next to them. If you see a yellow exclamation mark, you have a driver problem. Right-click the device with a yellow exclamation mark, select Properties, and look at the error message. This error message can help you fix the problem — you may want to perform a Google search for the error message you find.

Such problems can be tricky to fix. If the problem started recently, you may want to run System Restore. You may want to use the Update Driver button to install an updated driver, use the Roll Back Driver button to revert any changes, or use the Uninstall button to uninstall the device from your system and hope that Windows will reinstall the driver and configure it correctly when you reconnect the drive.

Partitioning and Formatting the Drive

We can use the Windows Disk Management tool to fix partition and file system issues with the drive. If you see that the drive is unpartitioned and is full of “unallocated space,” you’ll want to create a new partition on it. This will allow Windows and other operating systems to use it.

To do so, right-click inside the unallocated space, select New Simple Volume, and go through the wizard to create a new partition.

If your drive is partitioned and you still can’t see it, ensure you’ve set a drive letter so you can access it in Windows. This should happen automatically, but if you’ve manually unset the drive letter, the drive may not show up and be accessible in Windows.

To do this, right-click the removable drive’s partition, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, and add a drive letter. For example, add the letter G: and the removable drive will be accessible at drive G:.

If the drive does appear to be partitioned, it may be partitioned with the wrong file system. For example, you may have formatted the drive with the ext4 file system from Linux or the HFS Plus file system from a Mac. Windows can’t read these file systems. Reformat the drive with the newer NTFS file system or older FAT32 file system so Windows will be able to recognize it.

To reformat a partition, right-click it, select Format, and select your desired file system.

Note that this will erase all the files on your drive, so you’ll want to copy any important files off of it first — for example, if you formatted the drive on a Linux or Mac computer, take it back to a computer running Linux or Mac and copy your important files off of it before continuing.

If you can’t access the drive from another device, such as a DVD player, smart TV, game console, or media center device, it may be formatted as NTFS. Many devices, even Microsoft’s own Xbox 360, can’t read the Windows NTFS file system. They can only access drives formatted with the older FAT32 file system. To fix this problem, simply reformat the NTFS partition as FAT32. The drive should then be recognized by other devices when you connect it to them.

Note that this process will erase the files on your external drive. Copy the files off the drive to back them up first, if necessary.

Following this process should solve most of the disk recognition issues you’ll encounter. If a drive isn’t recognized by any computer you connect it to and never shows up in the Disk Management window, it’s probably dead.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/external-drive-not-recognized-this-is-how-to-fix-it-in-windows/

One in all PC tips / How To Keep Your Files Synced With SkyDrive In Windows 8.1

« on: November 23, 2013, 11:41:34 AM »

Windows 8.1 includes deep SkyDrive integration, far beyond the simple SkyDrive Modern app included with Windows 8. SkyDrive isn’t just an app in the tiled interface; it’s also available from the desktop. Macs have iCloud, Chromebooks have Google Drive, and Windows 8.1 PCs have SkyDrive. Microsoft wants you to consider SkyDrive your new hard drive where you store all your personal files.

Microsoft didn’t just include a Dropbox-style syncing solution. SkyDrive on Windows 8.1 is smart, offering a new way of syncing files that saves on disk space. It’s great for devices with small amounts of local storage.

What Is SkyDrive?

If you haven’t been keeping track, SkyDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage service. Like the well-known Dropbox service, SkyDrive allows you to store your files online. They’re linked to your Microsoft account and can be synced across your PCs, downloaded via a web browser, and accessed with mobile apps on smartphones and tablets — yes, Microsoft offers SkyDrive apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android, too. New Microsoft accounts get 7GB of SkyDrive space, but you can pay Microsoft a subscription fee for more space.

SkyDrive gives you a place to store all your files so you can access them from multiple devices. You won’t have to worry about moving files around with USB drives. When you get a new PC or move to a different device, all your files will be right there and available to you. You can also share files with other people, making them available from your SkyDrive account.

Using SkyDrive in Windows 8.1

When you sign into Windows with a Microsoft account for the first time, you’ll be prompted to enable SkyDrive integration. This only works if you sign in with a Microsoft account, not a local user account — SkyDrive is linked to the Microsoft account you log in with. If you have a local user account and want SkyDrive integration, you’ll have to convert it to a Microsoft account.

With SkyDrive integration enabled, you’ll see a SkyDrive option in the File Explorer app’s sidebar. To save files to SkyDrive and store them in the cloud, just move them to — or save them to — the SkyDrive folder.

SkyDrive attempts to sync files intelligently. Let’s say you already have 5GB of files in your SkyDrive account and you get a new Windows 8.1 PC. After signing into your new PC, SkyDrive won’t automatically download all your files. You’ll be able to browse all your files in the SkyDrive folder, but SkyDrive will download them when you try to open them. Microsoft calls these “smart files” — SkyDrive downloads information about the files, but not the contents of the files themselves.

Windows also monitors the files you use and automatically syncs files it thinks you will open.

Luckily, you don’t have to rely on Windows’ instincts. You can also just tell SkyDrive to sync certain files or folders. To do this, right-click a file or folder in the SkyDrive folder and select Make available offline. SkyDrive will download the selected files — or all files contained in the selected folder — and keep them synced. They’ll be available when you need them without any on-demand downloading.

Using SkyDrive on the desktop should be that simple. If you want to move the SkyDrive folder to another drive — for example, from a small solid-state drive to a larger mechanical hard drive — just right-click the SkyDrive folder in File Explorer, select Properties, and use the options on the Location tab to move it.

The Modern Interface

SkyDrive is now also fully integrated into the other side of Windows 8.1. While Windows 8′s settings sync features were separate from SkyDrive, all of Windows 8.1′s sync features are now powered by SkyDrive. You’ll even find all the old Sync options under the “SkyDrive” category in Windows 8.1′s PC Settings app.

The SkyDrive options in PC Settings allow you to view the space you’re using on SkyDrive, control whether photos from your “camera roll” folder are automatically uploaded to SkyDrive, and configure settings for metered connections such as tethered connections with a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The Modern SkyDrive app also allows you to browse, manage, and search your SkyDrive files. It’s integrated with the desktop SkyDrive experience, so you can also long-press or right-click a file or folder from this app and select Make available offline. Files you make available offline will be available both on the desktop and in the Windows 8-style UI.

SkyDrive now allows you to browse your local files with a touch-optimized interface, too. Just tap or click the SkyDrive heading and select This PC to browse your local files. You no longer need to install third-party Modern File Explorer apps.

In Windows 8.1, SkyDrive also offers OCR capabilities. If you upload a picture containing recognizable words, Microsoft’s servers will convert it to searchable text. When you search for files using Windows 8.1′s new Bing-powered system-wide search feature, SkyDrive will return images that contain those words.

Fetching Files

If you previously used SkyDrive’s unique “Fetch” feature, which allowed you to fetch unsynced files from anywhere on another PC’s file system, you’ll be disappointed to hear that Fetch is no longer available on Windows 8.1. Even if you reinstall the standalone SkyDrive desktop sync program, Fetch does not function on Windows 8.1. It’s unfortunate that Microsoft is eliminating a unique feature that separated SkyDrive from Dropbox and the rest of the pack.

SkyDrive: A Well-Rounded Experience

SkyDrive in Windows 8.1 is a compelling experience, offering built-in, free cloud storage to Windows users. It’s well-integrated into every corner of the system — the desktop, Windows 8-style interface, and Bing-powered search experience. You don’t have to install anything extra to sync your files with the cloud on Windows 8.1.

Reference: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-keep-your-files-synced-with-skydrive-in-windows-8-1/

One in all PC tips / Microsoft Launches Remote Desktop For iOS & Android

« on: November 23, 2013, 11:11:59 AM »

As you will all know, Microsoft recently released Windows 8.1, but they have also released an app which has managed to kind of fly under the radar a bit, due to all of the 8.1 coverage – a Remote Desktop app for iOS https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id714464092 and Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.microsoft.rdc.android. This neat little app brings the world of Windows to your tablets and phones, regardless of platform.

If you are a reader of this site, you don’t need me to explain to you what a Remote Desktop app does. However, it is not only busy business people on the go who can benefit from this app. Personal users away from home can also log in and view their desktop from their phone or tablet – absolutely free of charge. Remote access is not something new by any stretch of the imagination, but this is the first time Microsoft has released such an app to run on operating systems which are not their own.

This is what Remote Desktop looks like on an Android tablet to give you some idea of how good it looks.

How do I set up a PC for Remote Desktop Connection?

On the PC you plan to connect to remotely, do the following:

Open System by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering System in the search box, tapping or clicking Settings, and then tapping or clicking System.
Tap or click Remote settings. You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.
In the System Properties dialog box, under Remote Desktop, select one of the two options. For more info about these options, see What types of Remote Desktop connections should I allow?
Tap or click Select Users, and in the Remote Desktop Users dialog box, tap or click Add.
Tap or click Remote settings. You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.

To select the search location, tap or click Locations, and then select the location you want to search.
In Enter the object names to select, enter the name of the person that you want to add, and then tap or click OK. The name will be added to the list of people who can connect to this PC.

When you want to connect to a remote PC, you'll need to know the full name of that PC.

Open System by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering System in the search box, tapping or clicking Settings, and then tapping or clicking System.
The full PC name is listed under Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings.

For more information:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/microsoft-launches-remote-desktop-for-ios-android/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn473007.aspx

Free Software Link / PDF to Word Converter (Solid Converter PDF 7.0.830)

« on: October 31, 2013, 09:39:03 AM »

What's New in This Release:

· Scan to Word. Scan directly from paper to well formatted, editable Word documents.(Requires Office 2003 or Office 2007)
· Selective Extraction.
· Select the content you wish to convert to Word directly from the PDF page. Formatting, styles, layout preserved.
· Scanned PDF Recovery. Convert legacy scanned PDF files into well formatted, editable Word documents. (Requires Office 2003 or Office 2007).

Here is the link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38459603/DIU%20Forum/Solid.Converter.PDF.7.0.830%20incl%20crack.rar

Free Software Link / Audio Video Converter (OJOsoft All-in-One Media Toolkit 2.7.6.0419)

« on: October 31, 2013, 09:37:01 AM »

OJOsoft All-in-One Media Toolkit is a flexible audio-video conversion. It includes OJOsoft DVD Ripper,OJOsoft DVD Audio Ripper, OJOsoft Total Video Converter and OJOsoft Audio Converter.OJOsoft HD Video Converter, OJOsoft DVD Ripper is professional DVD rip software which can rip DVD movies and convert to all popular video and audio formats, including AVI, MP4, 3GP, MPEG, WMV, MOV, FLV, MP3, M4A, WMA, WAV etc.

OJOsoft Total Video Converter can convert video files between any video formats like converting AVI to MPEG, WMV to AVI, WMV to MPEG, MKV to AVI, MKV to MP4, etc. OJOsoft Audio Converter can convert audio files between almost any formats, including MP3, WMA, M4A, AAC, AC3, MP2, WAV, OGG. OJOsoft All-in-One Media Toolkit supports all the popularvideo and audio foramt. It allows you to select bit rate, audio CODEC, sample rate, etc when ripping and converting files.OJOsoft All-in-One Media Toolkit gives you the best output quality, and conversion speed is also fast.

You can use OJOsoft DVD Ripper to rip DVD to almost all popular video formats, including AVI, 3GP, MP4, MPG, MPEG, WMV, VOB, FLV, TS, MKV, SWF, MOV, etc. OJOsoftDVD Audio Ripper allows you to rip DVD to audio formats, like MP3, WMA, AAC, AC3, M4A, MP4 audio, OGG, WAV, etc. You can also use OJOsoft Total Video Converter to convert video files between almost all popular video formats. Besides, it can be used like iPod/iPhone/PSP/3GP/PSP/Zune Video Converter that convert video to your portable devices. OJOsoft Audio Converter gives you the best way for converting audio files, such as converting WMA to MP3, MP3 to WMA, WMA to AC3, AC3 to MP3, WMA to MP3, etc. OJOsoft HD Video Converter allows you to convert among HD video files, convert video to HD, convert HD videos to SD (Standard-Definition) videos with fast speed and great output quality. It supports 1280*720, 1440*1080, 1920*1080 frame size to fit your 16:9 or 4:3 movie.

Here is the link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/38459603/DIU%20Forum/OJOsoft%20All-in-One%20Media%20Toolkit_Master%20Of%20Puppets.rar

One in all PC tips / 50 Shortcut Commands for Windows Run Option

« on: October 30, 2013, 12:49:13 PM »

Add/Remove Programs – appwiz.cpl
Adobe Photoshop (if installed)- photoshop
Bluetooth Transfer Wizard – fsquirt
Calculator – calc
Control Panel – control
Date and Time Properties – timedate.cpl
Firefox (if installed)- firefox
Free Cell Card Game- freecell
Game Controllers- joy.cpl
Help and Support- helpctr
Internet Explorer- iexplore
Pinball Game – pinball
Power Configuration – powercfg.cpl
Printers and Faxes – control printers
Printers Folder – printers
Real Player (if installed)- realplay
Registry Editor – regedit
Remote Access Phonebook – rasphone
Remote Desktop – mstsc
Scanners and Cameras – sticpl.cpl
Scheduled Tasks – control schedtasks
Shuts Down Windows – shutdown
Microsoft Chat – winchat
Microsoft Excel (if installed) – excel
Microsoft Movie Maker – moviemk
Microsoft Paint – mspaint
Microsoft Powerpoint (if installed)- powerpnt
Mouse Properties – control mouse
Mouse Properties – main.cpl
Network Setup Wizard – netsetup.cpl
Notepad – notepad
On Screen Keyboard – osk
Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed) – ac3filter.cpl
Outlook Express – msimn
Paint – pbrush
Keyboard Properties – control keyboard
System Configuration Editor – sysedit
System Configuration Utility – msconfig
System Information – msinfo32.
Task Manager – taskmgr
System Properties – sysdm.cpl
Task Manager – taskmgr
Windows Explorer – explorer
Windows Firewall- firewall.cpl
Windows Magnifier- magnify
Windows Media Player – wmplayer
Windows Messenger – msmsgs
Windows XP Tour Wizard – tourstart
Wordpad – write

Use of PC / How to Recover Accidently Deleted Files on your Windows PC

« on: October 23, 2013, 03:59:49 PM »

You can recover deleted files on your Windows PC’s internal/external hard drive, SD card or any other external drive using UndeleteMyFiles Pro software. It is not freeware, but you can download a free trial from any reliable download site.

You can use the program to search for deleted files quickly and easily and restore them to a specific location. It is very easy to recover deleted files using this software. Here is how:

--> Download and Install UndeleteMyFiles Pro. Here’s the link: http://www.top4download.com/undeletemyfiles-pro/movxvkpq.html
--> Run UndeleteMyFiles Pro and click on the File Rescue icon on the main screen.
--> On the File Rescue screen, select the drive that contains the file(s) you’ve deleted accidentally and wish to recover.
--> Click the Scan button at the bottom of the screen.
--> After the scan is complete, a list of deleted files appears. Click on the checkboxes next to the file(s) you want to restore and click the Recover button.
--> A Browse For Folder dialog box appears. Browse for the folder which you want to restore deleted files to and click OK.

A warning message appears if you’ve selected a folder to restore deleted files to in the same drive from which the files were deleted. It is recommended to restore the files to a different drive location.

Again a dialog box appears asking if you want to recover the file(s)to a specific location directly or to recover it/them with their previous directory path. Click Yes to recover the file(s] to a specific location or click No to recover it/them OR] orig/them with their original directory path.

After completion of the recovery process, a dialog box appears to display the statistics about the process. Click OK.

IT Forum / 7 Simple Steps To Diagnose A Network Problem

« on: October 06, 2013, 12:42:37 PM »

It is no secret that I deal with network and user issues every day within multiple corporate networks. I need to have a easy to use toolkit ready to go when I need to act fast. So my first line of defense (or troubleshooting) are built-in Windows tools.

There are a couple of basic commands to diagnose a network problem that every network admin needs to know. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

You have an issue with a computer on your network. It cannot connect to the internet and doesn’t have any network resources. The first thing you need to do is check the condition of the physical connection i.e. the network cable. After that is secured, I jump to a command prompt and do a IPCONFIG /all like so:

I check that the IP address, default gateway and subnet mask are all correct. If they are not, I make my modifications and we are back online. Too bad the problems don’t usually go away that easily. Next up, I attempt to ping the servers by IP address using the ping command, like so:

Now I check for DNS issues by pinging the server’s name. If this fails, it is our internal DNS issue and I know where to move on to.

If I get a correct response, I try to ping a website like www.google.com. That tests external DNS resolution. If that works as well, the trouble runs deeper. I would then run a Netstat ““a and see who is connected to my machine and determine if maybe a Trojan or virus has gained control of it.

Everything looks clean. Now I would try pathping or tracert between the machine and the internet to diagnose any remaining network problems. This one I will not show you as all the output would reveal my network settings and what not. I am not looking to create more problems!

During your tests you might conclude that another machine is using the same IP address or host name as your desktop and causing issues. For this, I would recommend using Angry Ipscanner.exe (found here http://www.angryip.org/w/Home) to query for that IP address or the entire network to find the host name”¦

I have been using this application for more than a decade to diagnose network problems! If you cannot figure out what is going on and why you cannot get to the resource you are trying to, then the issue might be network-related and has nothing to do with your machine. First, check if you can get to the resource from a different machine.

Free Software Link / Opensource সফটওয়্যার সমূহের ডাউনলোড লিংক

« on: September 10, 2013, 03:30:06 PM »

Free Software Link / Folder Lock 7.2.2 (Full Version)

« on: September 10, 2013, 03:21:18 PM »

The latest release, Folder Lock 7, adds enhanced drag-and-drop capability, easier unlocking, and automatic backups of encrypted data to your online storage share.

Folder Lock installed smoothly in both our 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 systems. On first run, you're prompted to create a master password and enter it twice, consecutively: it's important to get it right. Folder Lock's colorful, wizard like interface resembles a lot of premium tools, especially backup utilities. The left sidebar accesses its main features -- Lock Files, Encrypt Files, Secure Backup, Protect USB/CD, and Make Wallets -- which are all pretty much self-explanatory, except Make Wallets (which are nothing like you made at summer camp). All these features are easy to set up, and Folder Lock's interface walked us through each step. Clicking Learn More opened the User Guide, an excellent Help file that explains everything about using Folder Lock.

Folder Lock 7's security tools make it worth paying for over a collection of similar freeware tools, if it's possible to assemble one. But the online storage and sync makes the crucial difference. It not only stores and syncs data but also creates fully portable, secure, encrypted Lockers. You can even convert Lockers into encrypted executable files you can distribute to clients with help from the Protect USB/CD feature.

Download Link:

https://app.box.com/s/9zibxo1cffi5wf9cza6w