In Windows, whenever you enter DVD/CD or USB drive you usually receive an Autoplay prompt. Before Windows 7, there is no single panel where you can change the Autoplay feature for each media. Fast forward to Windows 7, you can easily choose what happens when you insert each type of media or device. The action for each device and media can be configured individually. You have several options like "ask me every time", play media on specific program, or to "take no action".
To access AutoPlay in Windows 7, follow these steps. 1. From the Start Button choose the Control Panel option. 2. Select "Hardware and Sound" icon and then hit AutoPlay.
Or just simply type "Autoplay" on the "Search program files" from the Start Menu.
Devices will be listed in the Autoplay panel as well if they are connected to the computer. To configure all possible devices, it is recommended to connect all devices to the computer. You can also disable Autoplay globally by unchecking the "Use AutoPlay for all media and devices".
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Windows has a built-in defragmenter, a tool to increase disk access speed by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations. It also known for Windows XP and later version that Disk defragmenter can improve system startup times. If your not happy with the built-in tool or just want a portable version of it then you can try UltraDefrag. It is the first open source disk defragmenter for Windows which supports defragmentation of system locked files by running during the Windows boot process. Also one of the primary goals of the program is doing the job as fast as possible.
UltraDefrag is available as a portable application, GUI and as ultra lightweight command-line only version. The lightweight version is labeled as "micro" in the download list. You can defragment a entire disk or defragment based on the file and folder. You can set frequently edited and altered files and set it up to defragment during the boot process to access files Windows usually has locked. The program is almost similar to Windows Disk Defragmenter so getting familiar with the UltraDefrag is a breeze.
Windows 7, Vista and XP stores all save password in Credential Manager. Passwords for Network Authentication, Outlook, Live Messenger, GMAil Notifier are just few of the programs that utilize the Credential Manager. It is a well-known fact that checking the remember password option on programs put your password vulnerable to anyone so please avoid doing it. But if your a network admin and would like to recover all saved network password then you can try Network Password Decryptor. It is portable and free tool for instant recovery of passwords stored in the Credential Store of Windows. All you need to do is download the app, run it with administrator privileges and hit the "Start Recovery" button.
It will display 5 columns, the network name, type, username, password and last modified date. With Network Password Decryptor, you can also delete stored password or save it as text or html file.
Since I use Google Chrome for my daily browsing activities, I might as well use it for my websites optimization. One cool extension that I found that would be helpful for my SEO tasks is the PageRank extension. It is similar to the PageRank feature of the Internet Explorer's Google Toolbar which shows you the page rank of the current web page your browsing. This is a handy tool for SEO professional and bloggers who wants to monitor their site's page rank. It automatically shows the website's page rank value plus a green bar. PageRank add-ons like this has been available on Firefox and IE for quite some time.
This extension will work on both Chrome for Windows and Chromium for Mac.
Download Chrome PageRank via [Google Chrome Extensions]
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Photoshop is probably the most popular advanced image editor today. Although I myself don't use it often not because I don't like it but primarily due to unfamiliarity with the software. For people like me who wants to learn the basic and advance techniques in Photoshop, MakeUseOf.com published another e-book guide and this time its about An Idiot's Guide to Photoshop. This release is already a part 2 after their first publication last year (2009). This guide aims to bring Photoshop novices one step closer to image editing mastery. In Part II MakeUseOf worked with Azamat "Bohed" E. from TrueKolor.net.
The Guide will teach you to: Opening a Digital Image/Photo in Photoshop Changing/removing the Background Using the Magnetic Lasso tool How to Whiten Teeth? Using the Clone Tool Using the Gradient Tool Adding effects like Outer Glow, Inner Glow and Color Overlay Creating simple cloud effects on a background Using Hue/Saturation Adding a tattoo to your photo Using Custom Shapes How to make an image Black and White? How to make a Reflection? How to align an object to the ideal center? Using the Liquify tool
Ofcourse this manual is free for download so what are you waiting for? Start training to become a Photoshop Geek!
To a busy person like myself, it is normal and common to forget the file name of the document your looking for but more or less you have idea about its contents. DocFetcher is a free application that can help you search documents for words to find exactly what you are searching for. Before you can search for contents, the app will require you to build an index of files you want to be searchable. To create an index, just click the file types that you want to be included in the index, then right-click inside the search scope and select "Create Index" then choose the folder you want to index.
After the indexing process, you can now search for text inside your files. To start searching, type the term in the search box and hit Enter. The results section display the relevance percentage, file size and filename of each result. Clicking on a result item opens up a preview of the file with the search terms highlighted and Double clicking the result instead will launch the document for you.
If you change something on a indexed document, you don't have to reindex again because DocFetcher keeps track of additions and modifications to the folders you have configured it to monitor. For Advanced search, you can use a variety of parameters like including or excluding search terms using the +/- signs, search metadata, use wild cards, and specify file extensions.
DocFetcher works with Windows and Linux. For Windows users, you can choose between installer and portable versions of the software.
Saving a web page directly from your browser will automatically download the html and images on it. The local copy could contain several files instead of one. If you need to save a website and do not want the hassle of managing several files then you can save it as PDF file. Just Visit PDFMyURL website and enter the URL address of the website you want to save as PDF file. PDFMyURL can not only do a simple conversion but you can also modify the PDF with a wide variety of flags (click the Advanced Options link below the main textbox)
Here is a PDF version of one my sites which was generated from PDFMyURL. The only flaw that I can see so far is the imperfect rendering of my site's CSS styles.
In Windows, whenever you enter DVD/CD or USB drive you usually receive an Autoplay prompt. Before Windows 7, there is no single panel where you can change the Autoplay feature for each media. Fast forward to Windows 7, you can easily choose what happens when you insert each type of media or device. The action for each device and media can be configured individually. You have several options like "ask me every time", play media on specific program, or to "take no action".
