Access the Internet with Mini Windows XP

Search and download current version Hiren's BootCD 15.1 as at May 2012
Type_ Hiren's BootCD 15.1 download_ at Google Search top right corner here.

Hiren's BootCD 15.1 Homepage

Hiren's BootCD is a computer tool used to run, diagnose and repair computer problems. You can access the CD directly from a Boot menu or run other options to connect to networks and access the Internet. When you connect to a network, you can access extras such as cloud drives, additional antivirus software and other things you may need to get your computer properly running again. The process allows you to connect to both wired and wireless Internet.

Instructions 1 Insert the Hiren BootCD and restart your computer. 2 Press "Enter" when the "Boot from CD" text appears on the screen. In a few moments the main Hiren's BootCD menu will load. 3 Use the keyboard arrows to scroll down and select the "Mini Windows XP" option. This runs a temporary version of Windows directly from the CD. It will take five to 10 minutes for Windows XP to load, depending on how fast your computer is. 4 Click on "Start" and select "My Network Places." Find the connection that you want to use. If your connections are not listed, select "Add New Network Connection." (Copy your  wireless and ethernet card driver unzip to local hard disk or USB beforehand ) 5 Follow the on-screen process for the "Network Connection" wizard. Once complete, you will automatically be connected to the Internet. 6 Select "Tools" from the on-screen BootCD menu. Go down to "Browsers" and select the "Opera Web Browser." This will give you access to the internet.

"Network Connection"wizard has to be set up each and every new boot because settings are loaded onto the Ramdisk which is cleaned on every shutdown.

Source

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Make your 32-bit Windows support more than 4GB of memory

As we all know there are 2 editions of Windows starting from XP which is the 32-bit and 64-bit. Sometimes a Windows 32-bit is referred as x86 and 64-bit as x64. A 64-bit Windows can support more 4GB of ram. If your computer has 4GB of ram and you’re using a 32-bit of Windows, you’ll notice that only about 3.5GB is being recognized and the remaining 500MB of memory is gone. Why can't a 32 bit Windows address  the physical ram fully of more than 3 GB>? The answer is simply Microsoft doesn’t want that and it is all just a licensing matter.
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ARussian group called Staforce came up with crack/activator for Windows 7. This patch works on Windows 7 (x86) Build 7600 RTM. Download here
 If it doesn't work your Windows 7 (x86) version, check if there is an update in the activator option.
Yet not, refer to (Gavotte RAMDisk in Windows 7) below
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-Windows Vista x86 4Gb RAM Patch-
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Making Use Of Non-Addressable Physical Address Extension (PAE) in Eindows XP (32-bit) x86 processors  to full 4GB RAM or more................

For Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000, use the /nolowmem parameter. The /nolowmem parameter loads the operating system, device drivers, and all applications into addresses above the 4 GB boundary, and directs Windows to allocate all memory pools at addresses above the 4 GB boundary. This parameter is valid only on boot entries for 32-bit versions of Windows on computers with x86 or x64-based processors, and only when Physical Address Extension (PAE) is enabled. Example: (edit c:\boot.ini with notepad.) multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /nolowmem Read More

OR

32 bit versions of Windows XP and Vista cannot use the total 4 gb RAM as it has to manage the other devices of the PC. It is a limitation of the 32 bit OS. ou have to use Physical Address Extension mode. The system memory only uses 3GB in XP because its 32-bit. 

Step 1: Download RAMDisk Package-Gavotte_RAMDisk_1.0.4096 Free virtual hardisk

Step 2: Enable PAE mode in Windows XP- See Annex XP

Step 3: Reboot

Step 4: Configure PAE mode for RAMDisk-Gavotte_RAMDisk
In explorer locate the file "ram4g.reg" within the extracted set of files from the RAMDisk, double click the file to add the registry settings. The content of the REG file should look like this:Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\RRamdisk\Parameters]
"UsePAE"=dword:00000001

Step 5: Install RAMDisk  to use the stubbornly inaccessable memory between 3.2GB and 4GB. 

 

After reboot the RAMDisk should be displayed in Explorer 

Navigate to the folder where the RAMDisk files have been extracted and start "ramdisk.exe"
After you clicked the button there will be a warning displayed by Windows Security to validate of you really would like to install the RAMDisk, click on "Install this driver software anyway".
Now you can set the disk size in Bytes(Try on PC’s  4GB RAM, choose up 1 GB.)
, configure the drive letter for the Ramdisk. You can also specify which media type is the drive – RAM Drive, Fixed Media or Removable Media (for simulating a floppy drive). The default choice, Fixed Media indicates that the Ramdisk is simulating a hard disk drive should work in most case. Click on OK when done with configuration

Step 6: Reboot (again)

After reboot the RAMDisk as to selected drive letter should be displayed in Explorer 

 

Step 7: Enjoy

Now you can be sure to be able to use the RAMDisk.

 Annex XP:-TO enable PAE for systems w/ >3GB of RAM, edit c:\boot.ini with notepad. Change something like: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT To: 

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /PAE 

 Save and reboot. You should now see 4GB of ram because its now running in a fake 36-bit mode (which let's it address that extra 1GB of ram) You’ll be able to get 4GB (or even more – you can use up to 64 GB in x86) of usable memory ONLY if your motherboard supports memory remapping feature.
[XP Pro] Enable PAE - Microsoft Help | DSLReports Forums


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Another workaround for XP SP3 but cannot use any USB devices (you have to use PS2 mouse/keyboard): Unfortunately there will be problems with USB devices (pendrives and external usb hdd).Probably usbstor.sys from server 2003 or so (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873402/EN-US) as well as other files needed to proper work of hex fixed XP SP3.
1. Look for C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\NTKRNLPA.EXEOriginal : BB 00 00 10 00 33 FF 6A 07 8B F0

Modify To : BB 00 00 40 00 33 FF 6A 07 8B F0.

2. Save the modified kernel as mykernel.exe, put it under C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\

3. Open C:\BOOT.INI     Copy and paste your original boot option, but add

             /PAE/KERNEL=mykernel.exeexample:multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP SP3 OVER 4G”/fastdetect /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptOut /PAE /KERNEL=mykernel.exe4. 

            Reboot, choose “Microsoft Windows XP SP3 OVER 4G” from the boot menu
Tools:

Hex Editor: I will be using HxD in the example. You can download it here.
 
You will also need to have some tools that are provided with Visual Studio. Unfortunately, you have to install Visual Studio C++ Express edition in order to get them.  The 2008 version will work, so I would recommend downloading that. You can find it here. Select Visual Studio 2008 Express on the top bar, then Visual C++ 2008 Edition. Its a fairly large download (70MB ish I believe) but its definitely worth it if it means gaining the ability to use another GB of RAM or more. Source
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REMOVE Pagefile if you have over one Gigabyte of ram
How to remove Pagefile.sys from Windows 
N.B. We discovered setting Pagefile at 0 with 1 & 2 Gb physical ram CPU caused
"run out of memory"in Wins XP for program like Photoshop & Ashampoo Burning Studio.
Solution: maintain at least 1gb Pagefile and  the rest Gravotte virtual hardisk(See below).
This will give you a balance of less wear and tear on the HDD and with better access speed.

The one drawback to having more memory is, if hibernation if not turned off, you end up with a very huge hibernation sys file. (it always matches the amount of ram you have). So, if you have 4GB of "visible" ram, your .sys file for hibernation that is stored on your HD, will be a 4GB file. Also, the page file also increases the more ram you have. So, if you do not have much HD space to begin with, going 4GB could be a negative thing.

Copy of an issue regarding Microsoft's Windows XP Memory Manager tfor the need to kill the page file.  In addition to this excellent reason, another reason would be that kliling the page file would increase WIndows XP's performance and reduce the wear and tear on your hard drive thus expanding its expecrted life span for you as well.  Here is the quote:

To all concerned, This is Brian Dowding writing to you regarding a Microsoft Windows product design flaw. SRZ041029003929 is my old case number regarding this issue. This email, I believe, is much more clear and concise. The Problem: ------------ The algorhythms designed to assist manage memory resources in Windows Environments based on NT code in 32-bit environments have essentially remained unchanged in the last 11 years and were not likely made with the realistic expectation that an average home user would have more than 1GB of physical RAM in its lifecycle of usage in Windows products. Here-in lies the current problem with memory management in Windows NT/2000 Pro & Advanced Server/XP Home, Pro, Tablet, and Media Center Editions/ as well as any other version of Windows that is 32-bit and based on NT code. In a 32-bit environment, memory addressing is limited to a 4GB space. This applies to the sum of Physical RAM installed PLUS the size of the page file in place. When Windows is set to manage the size of the page file automatically, then the page file is calculated by a simple algorhythm of "Installed RAM Size" multiplied by 1.5 equals the "page file minimum size"; "Installed RAM size" multiplied by 3 equals the "page file maximum size". As a security feature, if one has the page file set manually or turned off AND the settings are drastically different enough from what the automatic management would have set it to, Windows can pay lip service to the users desired settings while managing the page file on its own instead. This can be demonstrated by setting Windows to delete the page file on system shutdown, turning off the page file altogether, rebooting, and using a third party tool like "Space Monger" to analyze the contents of the C:\ or primary partition on which Windows is installed, one will sometimes find a page file has been recreated by Windows anyway, and their settings telling Windows not to use one intact. None of this is a problem IF the user has up to or less than 1GB of RAM. Once you install more than 1GB of RAM, this becomes a serious problem to system stability. The following are examples of the algorhythm at work in a 1GB, 2GB, 3GB, and 4GB installed RAM environments: A) A system with 1GB of RAM installed: installed RAM = 1GB page file minimum = 1.5GB total memory space used with a minimum sized page file = 2.5GB page file maximum = 3GB total memory space used with a maximum sized page file = 4GB does this exceed the 4GB limitation of 32-bit addressing? = No B) A system with 2GB of RAM installed: installed RAM = 2GB page file minimum = 3GB total memory space used with a minimum sized page file = 5GB page file maximum = 6GB total memory space used with a maximum sized page file = 8GB does this exceed the 4GB limitation of 32-bit addressing? = Yes C) A system with 3GB of RAM installed: installed RAM = 3GB page file minimum = 4.5GB total memory space used with a minimum sized page file = 7.5GB page file maximum = 9GB total memory space used with a maximum sized page file = 12GB does this exceed the 4GB limitation of 32-bit addressing? = Yes D) A system with 4GB of RAM installed: installed RAM = 4GB page file minimum = 6GB total memory space used with a minimum sized page file = 10GB page file maximum = 12GB total memory space used with a maximum sized page file = 16GB does this exceed the 4GB limitation of 32-bit addressing? = Yes Now, in theory, of course, turning off the page file should be a solution for those with 4GB of RAM. Also, in theory, manual settings adjusting for the page file size so that the sum of the installed RAM and page file sizes do not exceed 4GB should solve this. However, in practice this is not a reliable remedy as Windows can and has been known to pay lip service to the manual settings while ignoring them and managing a hidden page file under the hood, so to speak, which reintroduces system instability. This is because such manual adjustments would create a significant difference between what the end user sets as a page file versus what Windows automatic settings would have been. Additionally, the larger the installed base of RAM, the larger the gap becomes. The /3GB switch has been suggested in the past. This obviously does not address the issue as it simply extends single application resource allotment to RAM maximums from 2GB to 3GB. Despite this, 4GB remains the total addressable limit in a 32-bit environment. The problem remains the same whether or not one uses the /3GB switch. How Can This Problem Be Solved: ------------------------------- I propose a simple and elegant solution. The existing algorhythm is: --------------------------------------------- Minimum Page File Size = Installed RAM x 1.5 Maximum Page File Size = Installed RAM x 3 --------------------------------------------- It should be replaced by the following algorhythm: --------------------------------------------- Page File Size = 4GB minus Installed RAM Size --------------------------------------------- This would address all issues. I would like to reiterate that this problem only affects 32-bit Windows environments with an installed base of RAM over 1GB. Thus, for example, this affects nearly 95% of the worldwide server base - not just home users with over 1GB of RAM. How Can This Be Exploited: -------------------------- One example would be a someone that managed to distribute a simple single change in the registry that turns the page file on for Windows to manage. Most servers, for example again, have 4GB installed RAM with no page file - and is 32-bit. Having the page file on makes Windows try to manage 16GB of memory space when it can only manage 4GB. Just imagine the widespread system crashes - and who would check for a working page file? Technically this would not even be a virus as just telling Windows to work as designed is the culprit.

----------------------------------------------------- How to use full 4GB RAM in Windows 7 32 Bit (Gavotte RAMDisk in Windows 7) Updated 14:42 06/06/2012
Gavotte Ramdisk is a free software which can actually convert to a virtual hardisk so that it can be accessed faster than a “real”hardisk? Why i said this virtual hardisk is faster than your “real” hardisk? This is because RAM has a faster read/write speed than a hardisk. By converting part of your RAM to a virtual hardisk, you can boost up your system performance. Download here
Before installing Gravotte Ramdisk , utilize PatchPae by wj32 which will patch the kernel to enable
 a maximum of 128GB of RAM. Follow instructions as laid out in the included ReadMe text.
Carried out all the steps stated.

1)Click on the Ramdisk.exe to start your application. If you never install any Ramdisk before, all options will be disabled except the Install Ramdisk and Cancel button. Let’s click on the Install Ramdisk to start. 2)You can choose the Disk Size and Drive Letter. For the Disk Size, please choose properly and depends on your needs. For PC with 3GB ram or more, allocate the remaining ram above what the system recognize for the Ramdisk size. If your PC’s RAM is more than 1.5GB, you can choose up to 256MB. It is advisable to keep around 1GB for your system if you are using XP and around 1.5GB for Vista & Wins 7. You can choose any Drive Letter. 3)All is done and restart system. After that, you can find your Ramdisk on My Computer. Final words: You can remove the Ramdisk anytime by click the Remove Ramdisk. Ramdisk is very useful for BT users, as BT client always read and write from hardisk, which will shorten the hardisk lifetime. By using Ramdisk, it will prevent this to happen. But, remember to copy downloaded files from Ramdisk before you shutdown your PC, else you will lost everything!

Five reasons to use a RAM disk 1) Higher PC performance. Using a fast in-memory disk for temporary data boosts PC performance up, provided you have got a sufficient amount of RAM. 2) Reduced file system fragmentation. The file system on your disks will be far less fragmented as temporary files are never written to the disk. 3)Reduced wear-and-tear of the physical disk. As temporarily files are not written to the disk, there will be fewer read/write cycles, which is especially important for Solid State Drives (SSD) installed in some laptops. 4)Less junk on the hard disk. Often software applications create temporary files that remain undeleted although no longer needed. 5)Less noise and heat from the hard disk. The system will use the hard disk less intensively as it would storing temporary files on the disk.

Quote:   A hard drive tends to simply die from being turned on and off a lot.
Especially at short intervals.
Same goes for Fluorescent Tube Light Bulbs.

USEFUL LINKS:- Licensed Memory in 32-Bit Windows Vista
 Boot Options: nx
  Boot Options: pae
Gavotte Ramdisk extended

EXTRA:-

SuperSpeed RamDisk Plus / Server v11.6.795 RamDisk Plus® shares the same features and performance as RamDisk. Its patent-pending technology adds the ability to automatically save the RAM disk’s contents when the server is shutdown, and to load it when the server is started. This feature ensures that service and application data stored on the RAM disk is preserved between restarts. Data persistence: When enabled, RamDisk Plus automatically saves the entire image of the RAM disk to a special image file located on a user-specified disk partition or volume at system shutdown. During the subsequent system start-up, RamDisk Plus automatically loads the image into the RAM disk. Data on a “Plus” RAM disk is accessible very early in the boot process, and is immediately available to the operating system, services and other applications. Please note this "backup" and "restore" functionality is only performed during the operating system's shutdown and restart cycle. If the system crashes or loses power, any changed or new content will be lost. When the system is rebooted, the contents of the RamDisk will be the same as they were at the previous shutdown. An attached Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) can reduce the risk of loss but not eliminate it. For lowest-risk solutions see SuperVolume and SuperCache. SuperSpeed.RamDisk.Plus.Server.v11.6.795 Homepage RamDisk Plus additional points over Ramdisk Free Compressed image file for faster image loading Reserve image file space required for a "full" RAM disk option Save RAM disk image automatically at system shutdown option Load a RAM disk from an image file Move an existing RAM disk's image file from one volume to another Change an existing RAM disk's drive letter System page file support Dynamic backup and restore of RamDisks Support for Partitionable Ramdisks Support for Virtual and Removable RamDisks Memory above 4 GB RamDisk Support

External related links:-
Maximum PC | The Pros and Cons of 64-bit Windows 7
Why You Should Go 64-Bit With Windows 7

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Make your Windows Genuine in 2 Seconds

 Good For Windows XP Only


Download here

WGAOGA instructions

contains the latest anti-wga and activation tools for all windows versions.

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Disclaimer

This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites

Softwares listed here are for informational and testing purpose only. Free Software provided here is not about price. It is about Freedom. The freedom to test them without limitations. This is to reduce the risk that after paying for the program the features that were blocked on trial version will not live up to their expectations despite the fact that you were given a preview. The belief that everyone should have the option to backup their program/game and be able to run it without any problems. If you find them useful, then use them in accordance with their licensing agreements. That means that while you can get a feel for how the program works you must buy for the license if you like it. You should ALWAYS buy the software that you do use, or find suitable Open Source replacements (as there are loads).By using the softwares you automatically agree the responsibility regarding whatever you are affected by any EULAs is with YOU and YOU only.

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2009 Windows Utility Guide

2009 Windows Utility Guide
Check out the biggest collection of time-saving utilities for Windows XP, vista, and even Win 7 ever assembled. The best part? Most of them are free.

AppeArAnce BumpTop www.Bumptop.com Make your Windows desk- top look like a regular three-dimensional desk, complete with piles (repre- senting fles) you can toss around or fip through and walls you can stick things to. Works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Free; Pro edition, $29 Minime www.saphua.com/blog/?page_id=18 Minime minimizes all windows to the System Tray with a single hotkey. Plus it hides them behind a single icon, which you can then click for a menu of what’s running. Free Nimi visuals www.mynimi.net This portable app (no installation required, just run the EXE fle) gives Windows visual effects similar to those found on Mac OS or Linux add-on Compiz, including better trans- parency, sparkles, blurred backgrounds, and more. Nimi Visuals is fun, albeit not useful, and best run on very fast systems. Free QTTabBar qttabbar.wikidot.com Did you fall in love with tabs in your Web browser? Add the feature to Windows Explorer and fall in love all over again. Free Taskbar Shuffe nerdcave.webs.com Portable and simple, Taskbar Shuffe does one thing: It lets you move around the but- tons for open applications usually found on the Windows taskbar. Free TrayIt! www.teamcti.com/trayit/trayit.htm This lightweight, portable app installs a Sys- tem Tray icon that lists the programs run- ning on your PC; that’s where you’ll access them when minimized, rather than on the taskbar, saving valuable real estate. Free ObjectDesktop www.stardock.com Give XP or Vista a whole new look. This col- lection includes WindowBlinds for new skins, DesktopX for building widgets, DeskScape animated wallpaper, and more; the Ultimate version adds ObjectBar for customizing your desktop and TweakVista, which does just what it says. $39.95; Ultimate, $69.95 UBitMenu www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages Do you love Microsoft Office 2007 but hate the ribbon interface that replaced the menus of yore? UBitMenu puts the drop- downs back in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, just as they appeared in Offce 2003. Switch back and forth from menus to ribbon when- ever you want. Free; $13.50 for businesses vista Start Menu www.vistastartmenu.com Vastly improve the look of the Start Menu in Windows and get faster access to just about all aspects of the OS with this replacement menu tool. It’s also accessible from the sys- tem tray. Free; Pro edition, $19.99 Winroll www.palma.com.au/winroll Right-click the title bar of any window and you can roll the window inside of it, and do the same to all open windows at the same time. Free BAckup/Sync BackUp Maker www. ascomp.de/index.php?php= prog&prog=backupmaker This simple interface might make all the difference for average users saving their data. It sends fles to another drive (including USB drives), a CD/DVD, or an FTP site. It also handles fle restoration if you lose something. Works with Windows 7. Free Carbonite Carbonite.com Carbonite monitors important files and backs them up online for future restoration, should you need it. It also provides remote fle access, so you can access your data from any computer. $54.95 per year for unlimited space Cucku Backup www.cucku.com Why back up to extra storage or online when you can stash fles with friends? This social-backup tool sends encrypted files to storage you share on your buddies’ PCs using Skype’s fle transfer abilities (without Skype, Cucku handles only local storage). You, of course, should share back. Free DriveImage XML www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm This utility will create a disk image even while the PC is in use (using Microsoft’s Vol- ume Shadow Services feature). Later you can restore a drive entirely, or browse that image to retrieve select fles. Free Dropbox www.getdropbox.com The darling of the world of online sync is Dropbox: Put all your fles in the My Drop- box folder and they’re immediately stored online; set up the software on other com- puters (even Macs and Linux PCs) and the fles synchronize whenever changed. Free for up to 2GB; Pro plan, $9.99 per month or $99 per year for 50GB Dimio's Tools hDhacker dimio.altervista.org/eng On start-up, your PC looks for the master boot record (MBR), typically the frst sec- tor in the frst partition of the disk. The MBR reads the partition table that tells your PC where the OS is—it’s essential to booting properly, in other words. Make sure your PC’s MBR is backed up so the PC is always bootable. HDHacker will back up and restore the MBR instantly when you’re in Windows. Free Mozyhome mozy.com/home Running completely in the background, MozyHome monitors folders you specify, and when all is idle on your PC, it backs up those fles into the cloud. Dead simple. Free for 2GB; $4.95 a month for unlimited space OffiSync - Enabling Collaboration If you’re a big user of Google Docs and Apps but can’t get away from Microsoft Offce (or vice versa), OffSync combines both worlds. Manage and open all your Google Docs fles from Office apps, and store all new Office documents online so you can access them anywhere with Google Docs. Free SyncToy 2.0 A Windows XP PowerToy that also works fne with Vista, SyncToy does a good job of making sure folders on your system are syn- chronized with their counterparts on exter- nal drives or network-attached storage. Free SyncBackSE www.2brightsparks.com A perennial fave, SyncBackSE is the mid- range uti l ity in 2BrightSparks’ l ine of backup tools, complete with fle versioning, smart two-way sync between folders, auto- start at log-in, and more. If you want even more features, like backup to single or mul- tiple CDs or DVDs, try the Pro version. $30; Pro version, $49.95 compreSSion 7-Zip 7-zip.org Compress fles in ZIP or 7z format (and get AES-256 encryption), and get support to compact or unpack formats from CAB to RAR. Free PortableApps.com AppCompactor If you like running apps from a USB flash drive but your drive doesn’t have lots of room, turn to the AppCompactor. This pro- gram will compress apps as much as pos- sible (how much varies depending on the app) to fit your drive and still function. Free SecureZIP Desktop www.pkware.com This PCMag.com Editors’ Choice is all about the ZIP format, because it’s from the cre- ators of the ZIP format. It does everything an archive manager should, such as inte- grating with MS Offce and Outlook. $39.95 DiSk utilitieS Defraggler www.defraggler.com Why defragment an entire drive? Defraggler is one of the few tools that allow drag-and- drop of individual fles or folders for defrag work. Free for home or business Easeus Partition Master home Edition www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm Resize, copy, or create new disk partitions from within Windows (2000 up to Vista, 32-bit only with Home Edition). It can con- vert existing partitions from FAT to NTFS on drives up to 1.5 terabytes in size. Free for home use FileAlyzer www.safer-networking.org/en/flealyzer Learn just about every property of fles on your system when FileAlyzer analyzes them. Seriously, it’s a lot of info. Free DiSplAyS Edgeless www.fxc.btinternet.co.uk/assistive.htm Why let the cursor stop at the edge of your display? Edgeless lets it wrap from one side to the other, even when using multiple mon- itors. Free Fences www.stardock.com/products/fences Easily unclutter your desktop shortcuts and icons with Fences. It groups the items on your desktop into transparent containers you can hide or unhide at will. Works with Windows 7, too. Free MaxTo www.maxto.net On a big monitor with a lot of screen real estate, it just doesn’t make sense to run every application full-screen. MaxTo seg- ments a display into regions so that you can easily tile windows as you see ft. It works with Windows 7. Free Maxivista www.maxivista.com Turn your laptop (or any second computer with a monitor) into a second monitor for your main system. What you’re really doing is controlling as many as four computers on your network using one keyboard and one mouse, to extend your primary computer’s desktop space. (Issues with Vista and Win- dows 7 are still being worked out.) Free 14- day trial, then $29.95 Powerresizer Dock windows to the edges of the screen, and when you resize them with Power- Resizer, they stay docked. If you put the windows side by side or atop each other, dragging one to resize will also resize the other so they never overlap. Free Switcher insentient.net Exposé on the Mac instantly shows you the desktop, or all your open windows in vari- ous views, when you invoke a keystroke. Switcher brings that same function to Win- dows, and it works with a multi-monitor setup. The utility runs only on Vista, how- ever. Free DisplayFusion www.binaryfortress.com Give each of your moni- tors its own Windows taskbar or wallpaper, span one long wallpaper across displays, move windows to new screens with a single click, and more. DisplayFusion is ready to work with Win- dows 7. Free UltraMon www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon UltraMon is all about multiple monitors: It adds icons to title bars to make moving win- dows from one screen to another faster (no dragging), creates shortcuts that open pro- grams on the monitor you prefer, and puts separate wallpaper images or screensavers on each display. And there are even more tools to handle all that real estate. $39.95 virtuaWin virtuawin.sourceforge.net Add up to nine virtual desktops to your sys- tem, on computers running Windows 98 all the way up to Vista. Access the other desk- tops via an icon in the system tray. Free WinSplit revolution winsplit-revolution.com Split your big screen into multiple smaller “monitors.” Drag program windows around with the mouse while holding Ctrl-Alt to bring up a shaded area—that’s the grid section that the window will snap to when released. If there are multiple targets, pick one with the mouse scroll wheel. Free encryption File & Folder Unlocker A locked file on Windows isn’t encrypted, but it can be a pain to work with. Unlocker will change files from locked to unlocked so you can manipulate them again without getting errors. Free See also Unlocker FreeOTFE www.freeotfe.org OTFE stands for “on-the-fly encryption,” and that’s just what FreeOTFE does, cre- ating a virtual disk where copied files are instantly encrypted and stored. It’s portable and works on thumb drives, and FreeOTFE has its own Explorer to access encrypted fles without installing software. Free TrueCrypt www.truecrypt.org A granddaddy in disk-encryption software TrueCrypt will encode an entire drive—even a thumb drive—for security in real-time Wizard software provides help with deci- sions like how big the virtual drive should be (just one fle or the whole hard disk). Free See also Maintain XP well until Windows 7 arrives My Lockbox www.fspro.net/my-lockbox This utility locks down or hides a special folder, not just from snoops on the same PC (even those with admin privileges) but also from any kind of remote access, all with a single password. Free erase and delete Autodelete Set time limits for folders on your drive and Autodelete will automatically delete files that are too old. It’s great for getting rid of older backup archives taking up space. Free Darik’s Boot And Nuke www.dban.org Download DBAN, write the software to a bootable CD, and then use the disc to com- pletely and utterly erase the contents of a hard drive. After that, those files will never come back. Free DeleteOnClick Rather than send an unwanted file to the recycle bin for “deletion”—where it can potentially be recovered—this utility securely deletes the space the fle took up, making it impossible for you to get it back. Free DoubleKiller www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller Remove duplicate files across your local and network drives, including pictures and music. DoubleKiller compares size, name, date, and content to see what fles may be a bit too similar. The Pro version supports multiple languages and can search on extra criteria. Free; Pro edition, $19.95 Download DoubleKiller Pro 2.1.0.104 Images IrfanView www.irfanview.com A compact classic dating back to 1996, Irfan- View can view any kind of image thrown at it (some video and audio too), plus convert and edit it. Free See Also Unable to open PSD files in Photoshop JPEGsnoop impulseadventure.com/photo/jpeg-snoop.html Wondering if that beautiful-looking JPG fle you’re viewing is an original right off the digital camera? JPEGsnoop looks at the metadata inside to see if the file has been modifed, and if so, how it’s changed. Free RIOT luci.criosweb.ro/riot Radical Image Optimization Tool (RIOT) reduces image size—not the dimensions, but the actual fle size. Smaller GIFs, JPGs, and PNGs on Web pages mean faster load times. RIOT will display old and new side by side for comparison. It’s also an IrfanView plug-in. Free Fotosizer www.fotosizer.com Three steps are all it takes: Pick a bunch of digital photos, select resize settings, and let it rip. All the images are reduced, replacing the original images or duplicating the source, as specifed. Free networking Comodo EasyvPN easy-vpn.comodo.com Secure the connection between you and other computers with this simple-to-install virtual private network. Free for personal use GoToMyPC www.gotomypc.com We all know this one: GoToMyPC makes connecting to a PC remotely almost as easy as using it live. Download the free trial to access one PC for 30 days. $19.95 per month to access one PC, $29.95 per month to access two PCs Leaf for Windows www.leafnetworks.net Get ready for peer-to-peer network shar- ing, to stay connected to your network on the road (even through Facebook), share data with friends, or even set up Xbox and Xbox360 consoles for head-to-head games. Leaf’s client is free for Windows, and coming soon to Linux. Free LogMeIn hamachi secure.logmein.com/products/hamachi/vpn.asp With LogMeIn Hamachi, you can put mul- tiple remote computers on a virtual private network (VPN) so that they all appear to be in the same building—perfect for remotely sharing fles. With the free version, one user can join 256 Hamachi networks, each of them able to handle 16 users; networks can handle 50 users if registered with the Pro version. Free; commercial license, $4.95 per month per PC orgAnizAtion Advanced renamer aren.hulubulu.net There are eight different ways to create batch-renaming jobs for your files with Advanced Renamer, including adding extra characters, changing the case of letters in the flenames, and changing the fles’ attri- butes and timestamps; it also supports ID3 functions to work with MP3 audio fles. Free everything you can imagine doing in Win- dows, using prearranged keystrokes and mouse clicks or just about any input button. Free Autohotkey www.autohotkey.com Set up macros to automate just about everything you can imagine doing in Win- dows, using prearranged keystrokes and mouse clicks or just about any input button. Free See also HotKicks ( Hotkey Utility ) CubicExplorer www.cubicreality.com/ce This file viewer and Windows Explorer replacement is portable and relatively uncomplicated, supporting tabs for multi- ple browsing sessions to take place at once. Free Free Commander www.Free commander.com Get dual panes of data (side by side or stacked) with this Windows Explorer replacement, plus features like FTP, tabs, fi le-renaming tools, and compressed archive support. Free Gladinet www.gladinet.com Get access to your online files—such as those in Google Docs or Windows Live Sky- drive—as if they’re stored locally. Gladinet mounts the services like network drives that are accessed from Windows Explorer. Free (for now) Portable Snowbird lmadhavan.com/software/snowbird Snowbird is built for speed as well as porta- bility (run it from a USB flash drive on any Windows system). The main window has the typical tree on the left, breadcrumbs at the top, and a list of recently visited files—but what it lacks in features it makes up for in performance. Free xplorer2 zabkat.com/x2lite.htm You want two panes of fle listings, a folder tree, tabs, and FTP access? That’s just the beginning with this longtime favorite Win- dows Explorer replacement. The free version also comes in a portable version. Pro adds individual folder settings, “hyperfilters,” scrap containers, duplicate cleanup, and more. Free; professional version, $29.95 recover AnD reStore AntiFreeze www.resplendence.com/antifreeze We all know the Ctrl-Alt-Delete salute to get out of a borked computer (or to get to the running processes list and kill an offending program). But AntiFreeze may offer a bet- ter way. It waits in the background for trou- ble, and when called, it displays all running processes, suspending most without killing them until necessary. Free GoneIn60s www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/index .html#GoneIn60s If you closed an application within the last minute, you can open it up again without los- ing anything by right-clicking the icon in the system tray—but only if your PC is already running GoneIn60s. Free (donationware) UndeletePlus www.undelete-plus.com No matter the volume type (FAT12 on up to NTFS5), UndeletePlus promises to restore fles you’ve junked but want back. Great fl- tering makes it easy to fnd one fle among the many you’ve deleted. Free trial, then $29.95 per year Download Portable_Undelete_Plus_2.96 recuva www.recuva.com Pronounced “recover” (what accent are they using?), Recuva has one goal: to bring back fles you accidentally trashed (or that were trashed by crashes and other errors) using a simple-to-grasp interface. Free (donation- ware) Screen cApture FastStone Capture www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm Capture and annotate whatever is on your screen with this little toolbar, then send it to a fle, printer, e-mail, Web site via FTP, or to another application (like Word or Power- Point). $19.95 SiteShoter www.nirsoft.net/utils/web_site_screenshot.html Good in any version of Windows from XP to 7, SiteShoter works with IE to take grabs of entire Web pages, even the areas you’d have to scroll because they aren’t visible on screen. Free SnagIt www.techsmith.com TechSmith (which is also behind Jing, next page) has upped the price of SnagIt by $10 this year, but this perennial PCMag favorite is worth the money. Version 9 is completely rewritten and includes new features like a live preview, a mini-toolbar (like the one for formatting selections in Word 2007), an software stamps you can slap into capture images. 30-day free trial, then $49.95 SeArch Copernic Desktop Search www.copernic.com An old hand at indexing and searching your fles, Copernic continues to look inside 150 different types of files so you can search their contents. Now you can search the Web via the same interface, and even make Copernic a default Web search engine. Free; Professional version, $49.99 Everything www.voidtools.com For NTFS drives only, this program promises to search, well, everything, and fast. Really fast. It’s for NTFS format only because it uses the drivers for the hard drive to create its index. It also comes in a portable version, and will work with Windows 7. Free Jing www.jingproject.com You can do more than take a picture of your screen and annotate it with Jing; it will also record video of actions you take on the computer. Using social networking to show people how to do stuff on the PC, it integrates quick ways to share your captures via IM, e-mail, or on a blog. Free Google Desktop desktop.google.com Integrate your Web searches with your hard- disk searches, throw in a gadget engine for the thousands of widgets available for iGoogle, and you’ve got a four-star product. Free ShutDown/Boot Edison www.verdiem.com/edison.aspx A truly green utility, Edison helps you adjust the power settings and schemes for XP SP2 and Vista, so your hard drive, monitors, and CPU all power down after a certain amount of inactivity. It will also calculate how much you’ll save, in money and energy. Free Marxio Timer www.marxio-tools.net/en/marxio-timer.htm Marxio Timer can perform any action (or actions) you preset for a select time, every- thing from shutting down to logging off to hibernating to displaying text to running a program. It can even simulate the press of a specifc key on the keyboard, or take a screen grab, or grabs, one after the other. Free WinPatrol 2009 winpatrol.com WinPatrol does a lot—it is a security monitor alerting you to changes you may not have made, and it even comes in a (slightly less powerful) portable version. Where it excels is in assisting your Windows system at start- up, delaying or deactivating processes as you see ft. Free; Plus edition, $29.95 SyStem cleAnerS CCleaner www.ccleaner.com It’s no secret that the first C in this program stands for “crap,” and that’s exactly what it goes after, in the browser, the Registry, and all the other spots in Windows where fotsam like temp fles and log fles accumulates. Its creator, Piriform, updates the app frequently and promises it is malware-free. Free Little registry Cleaner sourceforge.net/projects/littlecleaner Another portable tool for the USB fash drive arsenal, this app checks the Registry for unneeded items and cleans them—a must for tackling your family’s and friends’ com- puter issues. It also has options for speeding start-up and creating restore points. Free Norton removal Tool service1.symantec.com/support/tsgeninfo.nsf/docid/ 2005033108162039?Open&docid=2004030411260104 Symantec’s Norton products are super- popular but not always perfect. Getting rid of one to try a different security suite is so hard with the built-in Windows tools that even Symantec had to admit it and built this tool with only one job: Uninstall Nor- ton 2003 to 2009, and a few other titles like SystemWork and Norton 360. Free SyStem monitorS WinDirStat windirstat.info Need to know how much space on your disk is in use, and what’s using it? Win- dows Directory Statistics (WinDirStat) eliminates the guesswork, providing mul- tiple views—including some graphically beautiful color- coded views—that spell it out for you. Free Disk Usage Analyzer www.extensoft.com/?p=free_disk_analyzer This program does one thing: It creates a list of all the fles on your hard disks and tells you which are taking up the most room. Put it to use when running out of disk space, to quickly determine what should get tossed, or at least given permanent berth on a backup drive. Free FreeMeter www.tiler.com/freemeter When monitoring performance, your per- formance monitor should not impact per- formance. FreeMeter’s 888KB free version fills the bill, looking at drive space, CPU usage, memory usage, system up time and five more stats; the Pro version has 19 different monitors. Free; Pro version, $22.95 Process Explorer technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653 .aspx This extra from Microsoft is a major step up from the Windows built-in Task Manager, especially for power users. Rather than just show processes alone, it also displays han- dles or DLLs in use by that process. Use the search to fnd problem areas, or to skip out to Google and look up what a listed process does. Once you’ve downloaded it, it’s fully portable, or you can run it right from the Web. Free SpyMe Tools www.lcibrossolutions.com/spyme_tools.htm Sometimes things happen to the Windows Registry that shouldn’t—such as changes made by malware. SpyMe dumps a copy of the Registry from before and after a change, so you can restore the older version if you detect something amiss. It’ll also make Reg- stry backups. Free Xinorbis freshney.org/xinorbis You can analyze one folder, one drive, or multiples—even network drives—in a single eport. What you get is graphs galore, all of which can be saved for report comparison at a later date. Free tweAkerS Game Booster www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html Get more out of your game by making it the most important thing on your computer. Game Booster will do that by temporar- ily shutting down background processes, cleaning up leaky RAM, and giving the game processor priority. Works with Win 7. Free Ultimate Windows Tweaker www.winvistaclub.com/uwtf.html Ready to tweak Windows 7? So is Ultimate Windows Tweaker, building on the vast array of what it can do for Vista and the IE Web browser. Free XdN Tweaker xenomorph.net It doesn’t offer as many tweaks as the paid tweak tools, but XdN makes up for it with a price that can’t be beat. It requires Windows .NET to run on XP; .NET is a given with Vista and Windows 7, both of which XdN sup- ports. Free upDAterS Filehippo Update Checker www.flehippo.com/updatechecker Run this utility once in a while and it will compare installed apps against the vast collection at FileHippo.com, even against updates still in beta. The results come up in a Web page where you can download new versions to install. Free Update Notifier cleansofts.org/view/update-notifier.html Linux users know the joys of having not only their OS kept up to date, but also third-party software that never gets old. Windows users have to work at that. Update Notifer helps: When a new version of a third-party program you’re running becomes available, it makes it easy for you to download and install it. Free uninStAllerS PC Decrapifer www.pcdecrapifer.com If you got a new PC at retail, chances are it came preinstalled (read: bogged down) with extra unwanted and unneeded soft- ware. PC Decrapifier should be the first item you install, as it knows what to look for on those PCs and deletes them, en masse. Free remove Empty Directories www.jonasjohn.de/lab/red.htm Afraid you’ve got a bunch of empty folders on your Windows system? You won’t have them after this utility has its way. (Just don’t delete any temp directories needed by your other programs.) Free Revo Uninstaller Maybe the perfect replacement for Win- dows’ own uninstaller list, Revo chucks programs with the usual built-in uninstall routine, but follows up with a check of the hard drive and the Registry for anything left behind. It comes in a portable version for USB fash drives. Free Virtual PCs Portable Ubuntu portableubuntu.demonccc.com.ar Want to try Ubuntu? Install a full-blown ver- sion of the popular Linux distro as an applica- tion within Windows. It can even be installed on a USB fash drive, so it can be your porta- ble OS—any changes you make to Portable Ubuntu stick with it. Windows will just treat it like any other application. Free Returnil Virtual System 2008 Personal www.returnilvirtualsystem.com/returnil-virtual-sys- tem-personal If you have a system with XP, Vista, or 2003 server, you can mirror it completely on the same system, entirely in system mem- ory. Why do that? So your software runs entirely on the virtualized side. If some- thing goes wrong, your primary installation is still okay. It’s a great way to experiment with software you might otherwise be ner- vous about. Free for personal use VirtualBox www.virtualbox.org Install open-source VirtualBox on just about any OS that runs on x86 chips (even Mac, Linux, and OpenSolaris) and you can run a “guest” OS inside it—including those above plus Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. It’ll even load a 64-bit OS inside a 32-bit host OS. Free for personal use Source: PC Magazine, July 2009

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PortableApps.com Platform

A PORTABLE or STANDALONE application is an application that stored on a USB flash drive and can run on a computer without leaving any trace of itself when the application is finished. A portable application broadly describes any software that has been adapted for use on a Flash drive, iPod or other mobile external hard drive.

Adding Apps to the PortableApps.com Menu

The PortableApps.com Menu can automatically add apps in PortableApps.com Format. Just download the file you'd like to add. Then, in PortableApps.com Menu, click Options - Add a New App - Install and then select the FileZilla Portable .paf.exe file you just downloaded. The PortableApps.com Menu will automatically install it to the proper location for you.

The PortableApps.com Menu will also work with other standalone and portable apps. You just need to place them in a directory "next to" the PortableAppsMenu directory. So, in a standard layout, you'd create a directory within the X:\PortableApps directory and place it within there. For example, if you have a portable program MyApp.exe, you could create a folder called X:\PortableApps\MyApp\ and place MyApp.exe and all its files within there. Then, just click Options - Refresh App Icons within the PortableApps.com Menu and your new app will show up.

Removing Apps from the PortableApps.com Menu

To uninstall a portable app, you can just delete it. From the PortableApps.com Menu, just click the Explore button and browse to the PortableApps directory. There you will see a list of the directories containing the installed apps. To uninstall Mines-Perfect Portable, for instance, you'd just delete the Mines-PerfectPortable directory from your device. You can then click Options - Refresh App Icons within PortableApps.com Menu and the it will detect that you uninstalled the app.

Download Platform
Version 1.5.2
Download Size 1MB
Free Space Needed 1.3MB installed
Recommended Device All devices
Supported Language Multilingual
PortableApps.com Menu included.
PortableApps.com Backup included.
Custom Folders, Icons & Autorun included.

An important thing to keep in mind when using portable applications is that they can be used to spread viruses between machines. It can be a very big issue when you use a portable app on an untrusted or unknown machine (school, internet cafe, etc). Whenever you plug your portable drive into an unknown computer, it's a good idea to assume that it could now be infected with a virus.

If the PC has a virus that is currently in memory, it may attempt to infect your portable applications as soon as you plug it in. When you then plug your portable drive into another computer (after an unknown) do the following:
1)Do not open portable drive on window prompt. Instead open Explorer by right-clicking My Computer\click Explore, right-clicking on your portable drive in Explorer to scan it for viruses before running any of your applications. Alternatively bring up Windows Explorer by following this path- Start\Programs\Accessories\Windows Explorer
See also Disabling Auto-Run in Windows

Always wait until the drive access light has stopped blinking and then click the icon in your system tray to 'Safely Remove' your device. Don't just remove it. Just because the application's window is closed doesn't mean the app has fully closed and finished writing to the disk. Also removing it without safely removal at system tray may result in data loss.

Setting Windows Explorer startup folder By default, Windows Explorer always opens with My Documents. You can customize it by changing the properties for the Windows Explorer icon and replace the Target field with: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e, c:\yourfolder * Right click on the icon you use to launch Explorer and select Properties. * In the Target box, type (or replace the existing default text %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe with) the following: %SystemRoot%\Explorer.exe /e, path Where in place of path above you should enter the actual path to the directory you want open by default. For example C:\Windows, or C:\Documents and Settings, etc. To have My Computer listed as the default selection, type explorer.exe /e, Starting Explorer with No Drives Expanded:- %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n, /e, /select, c:\

2) Avoid double clicking directly on any files and folders in your portable drive. Instead operate from right-clicking on your portable drive in Explorer.
you should first scan it for viruses before running any of your applications.

Always use a solid antivirus program on your primary PC and keep its virus definitions up to date and a solid antivirus program on your portable device,like ClamWin Portable, and keep its virus definitions up to date.
Refer:
1)NOD32 Antivirus with ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite
2)Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition Classic for Windows
3)Comodo Firewall, Comodo iVault, Comodo AntiVirus, Comodo Anti-Malware, Comodo AntiSpam,
4)Spyware Terminator with AntiVirus--it uses the antivirus application ClamAV freeware to prevent virus infection. (To include ClamAV antivirus, HIPS must be selected)
5)Portable Antivirus

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Maintain XP well until Windows 7 arrives

Important notice for users of Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (SP3): The support for this product ends April 8, 2014. To ensure that you will receive all important security updates for Windows you need to upgrade to a later version such as Windows 7. May2012 Update Microsoft may not have planned it this way, but XP could end up rivaling NT and 2000 as the version of Windows with the longest lifespan. According to recent news reports, Dell, Lenovo, and other computer manufacturers will continue to sell new PCs running Windows XP well past Microsoft's June 30 cutoff date.

Microsoft itself is going to fast-track Windows 7 to get customers to leapfrog over the unpopular Vista and go directly from XP to the next version.

Eight rules for extending XP's usefulness to 2010 and beyond.

Rule 1: The latest ain't always the greatest. As a rule, older operating systems were designed to work with older software. Unless you need some utterly indispensible feature found only in the latest Adobe Creative Suite or Microsoft Office 2007, stick to the preceding releases. Not only will the senior apps run faster, most of the kinks and bugs have already been worked out of them.

If your hardware and software work fine as is, don't bother upgrading any drivers, either. At the same time, driver upgrades often smooth out minor problems that you've just grown used to.

One way to check for out-of-date device drivers is to use the online scanner from Driver Updates. (Note that using this service requires running an ActiveX component in Internet Explorer.) or resort to Driver Utilities here notable Driver Magician.

Should you discover that one of your drivers is out of date, go to the manufacturer's site to find and download the latest version available (but skip any beta releases). Remember to back up your system before installing the new driver in case it causes problems.

Rule 2: Make an exception for security. Set Rule 1 aside when it comes to your security software and services. Update your virus and spyware definitions frequently. Get the latest security updates for your browser and for QuickTime, Flash, and other media players as well.

Rule 3: Stay young and beautiful. The last exception to Rule 1 is to make a cautious investment in a handful of utilities that improve and modernize XP. You'll find a number of free and low-cost programs that approximate or even duplicate Vista's best new features without having to invest in a whole new operating system.

Free programs that approximate or even duplicate Vista's best new features • Shadow copy. Vista's Shadow Copy applet is a file versioning tool that automatically makes backups of older and newer versions of your files while you work. This makes it simple to go back to a previous version of a file. For a freeware equivalent, try FileHamster, which monitors files and folders you designate, automatically makes backups, and lets you annotate them. It's available from its makers at the Mogware Web site. • Image-based backup. Neither XP nor Vista Home Premium have Vista Ultimate's tools for making a complete backup image of a disk drive or partition. For those with no budget at all, the freeware program DriveImage XML rates a score of 4.5 out of 5.0 from SnapFiles, an independent download site. But the product does not yet support Vista, if that concerns you. Another option is Acronis True Image version 10 & above Home, which also supports Vista and was given an "A List" rating by PC Pro. • Faxing. Users of most versions of Windows have long taken faxing capabilities for granted. Unfortunately, this common feature was omitted from Vista Home Premium.Try RKS Fax send faxes from Windows Vista or XP... without a fax machine! (If you are using DSL or CABLE, please read this important information ) Dowload RKS MightyFax.v3.41_XP32bit.rar *Whole drive encryption. Vista Ultimate comes with BitLocker Drive Encryption to protect your data if your computer is hacked or stolen. For a totally free product that's comparable to PGP Desktop Home , check out TrueCrypt. This encryption software garnered the highest rating from SnapFiles, an independent software download site. TrueCrypt also has a "hidden volumes" feature, which lets you create an invisible drive letter within an encrypted volume for even more security. Note that TrueCrypt cannot encrypt the folder that contains Windows. *Virtual computing. Vista Enterprise and Ultimate include Virtual PC, which lets you run multiple PC-based operating systems within Windows. This can give you backward compatibility with older software, a second environment in which to surf the Web more safely, and more. XP users can download this feature for free directly from Microsoft. Users of other Vista editions other than Enterprise and Ultimate may want to try out the free VMware Player, *Vista Ultimate and Home Premium have some features that aren't found in Vista Business, Vista Enterprise, and other Windows versions. The most notable omission is multimedia playback, as is found in Windows Media Center. Vista Ultimate and Home Premium also have unique child-access and monitoring tools. If your computer has a TV tuner card, you can record programs to your hard disc using SageTV Media Center. You can download a 15-day free trial version from the SageTV Web site. Vista Home Premium and Ultimate come with built-in tools for controlling what Web sites your children can visit, what applications they can launch, and when they can use the computer. Microsoft's tools also provides monitoring, so you can get an activity report showing what your child has been doing with the computer. Advanced Parental Control & CyberPatrol provides the same tools. These products can restrict instant messaging, the amount of time spent online, the downloading of programs, access to applications, and more. Both products have trial versions that you can install and use for free. If you have ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite it has some parental filtering features built in. If you need to use a free product, your best bet may be the older (and therefore free) version 3.06 of iProtectYou. It lets you restrict Web sites, chat sessions, e-mails, and instant messaging as well as scheduling when children can use the Internet. iProtectYou Pro Web Filter 8.6.1 commercial version. Another freeware is Parental Filter -Dowbload link Finally, XP owners who want more of the slick Aero appearance — and other desktop features that are part of every Vista version — free and cheap substitutes abound. For example: • You can give XP a more modern look and feel by using "skinning" programs, such as StyleXP from TGTSoft or Stardock's WindowBlinds (US $20 each). • You can add transparency to Windows elements with the free products Transbar, PowerMenu, and TransApps. • To get Vista's "thumbnail preview" of a window when you hold your mouse pointer over a Taskbar button, check out the freeware product Visual Task Tips. • Last, but not least, for something approaching the Vista Sidebar in functonality, try Desktop Sidebar or Yahoo's desktop widgets.

Rule 4: Shop carefully for new hardware. If your XP system needs a processor, memory, or other hardware upgrade to keep it from bogging down on your applications, there is no reason why you can't swap out an aging component or add some RAM.

However, since some new components are designed with Vista in mind, make sure the products you buy work as advertised under XP. Check the manufacturers' site for XP driver downloads before you make your purchase, and look for online reviews that mention the products' XP compatibility.

Rule 5: Don't let startup stuff slow you down. It seems like every program you install these days wants to start along with Windows. These auto-start apps are usually represented by an icon in your system tray (the area near your clock). Even if your system has oodles of memory, these little doodads can slow you down without offering any real value.

An excellent tool for finding what gizmos are starting up each time you log into Windows is Autoruns, available from Microsoft (originally from Sysinternals). Simply uncheck the item to disable it from starting, or select an entry and delete it to effect a more permanent removal.

If you can't figure out what a particular startup app does, right-click its entry in the Autoruns window and choose Search Online. This performs a Google search (rather than a Live search, which you might expect). Scour the results to find out whether the program has a legitimate reason for needing to run all the time.

If the Web search isn't helpful in rooting out a program's purpose, check the list of common startup applications maintained by Paul Collins to figure out what's getting started with Windows.

Finally, the free version of WinPatrol can warn you whenever a program attempts to add an item to your startup list.

Rule 6: Save on disk space.

Rule 6: Save on disk space. A problem that plagues nearly all aging systems is the pack-rat syndrome. Just using a PC day to day causes an ever-increasing amount of data to be stored in ever-shrinking disk space. These tips will help you recover some of that precious drive capacity. * Eliminate hibernation files. XP's hibernation feature stores everything currently in RAM onto your hard disk, which allows you to return to your session more quickly after a period of inactivity. Unfortunately, hibernation needs about the same amount of disk space as your current amount of RAM (for example, 1GB of disk space if you have 1GB of RAM). If you don't use XP's hibernate feature very often, you can save the space occupied by the hiberfil.sys file: choose Start, Run; type powercfg.cpl; click the Hibernate tab; uncheck Enable hibernation; and click OK. * Don't let iTunes make you hear double. If you use Windows Media Player to rip CDs to your computer in the Windows Media Audio (.wma) format and then decide to give iTunes a try, beware! iTunes will convert those songs into its Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) format, resulting in duplicate files for every song iTunes manages. To avoid that, use a single music format (such as .mp3) that all media players can handle. * Store stuff online. Another way to save on disk space is to transfer files to an online storage service. You may already store your e-mail and photos online. Yahoo's Flickr service lets you store as many photos as you like, but unless you upgrade to a paid account, you'll never be able to see more than the last 100. Google's Picasa Web albums provide 1GB of free storage. And if you're willing to pay, you can get a whole lot more storage space than that. Of course, you don't need to limit yourself to mail and photos. A number of sites offer free or low-cost online storage. For example, Mozy gives you 2GB of free storage through its MozyHome service. MozyPro accounts start at U.S. $4.50 per gigabyte per month. Many sites, including ElephantDrive, and Box, provide only 1GB of free storage. Each service offers larger storage options at varying prices. Finally, IBackup has economy plans that charge only $1 per gigabyte per month (and less for annual rates). By comparison, the popular Data Deposit Box charges $2 monthly for each gigabyte you use. * Offload files to a new drive. Even if you've purchased a new hard drive to expand your storage space, you may still be running out of room on your Windows drive. Fortunately, you can move your virtual memory paging file, Internet Explorer cache files, My Documents, and other system files to another drive or partition.

*Offload files to a new drive. Even if you've purchased a new hard drive to expand your storage space, you may still be running out of room on your Windows drive. Fortunately, you can move your virtual memory paging file, Internet Explorer cache files, My Documents, and other system files to another drive or partition.

Rule 7: Keep it clean. It makes no sense to hang onto useless junk files that Windows uses for its own purposes. Fortunately, Windows' own Disk Cleanup tool can clear out this system clutter. Disk Cleanup also removes the outdated restore points created by System Restore that you no longer need. In the Disk Cleanup window, click the More Options tab. Under System Restore, click Clean up and confirm that you want to delete all but the current restore point.

Unfortunately, Disk Cleanup misses certain temp files. To make a little batch file that clears these folders, open Notepad and type the following:

del /s /q "C:\Documents and Settings\yourname\Local Settings\Temp\*.*"

Replace yourname with the name of the account you've logged into and adjust the drive letter or path as needed. Save the file with a .cmd or .bat extension (for example, killtemp.bat) and put the file or a shortcut to it in your Startup group (Start, All Programs, Startup). This way, it will run each time you log in to your Windows account. Alternatively use freeware CCleaner.

Rule 8. Do your chores
Get into the disk-maintenance habit: make backups, defrag your hard disks, and check them for errors. Fortunately, you can use XP's Scheduled Tasks utility (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks) to automate or partially automate these chores by setting the program to give you a gentle reminder. See Related Post: Tuning and Optimizing System utility

Use AutoPatcher to preserve the latest Microsoft XP updates in CD for offline updating & should XP updates is no longer available at Microsoft site. This is useful when you need to another clean XP installation. See also Creating a new hybrid installation CD -WinXP Bootable CD.

Included excerpts from Scott Dunn column "Keep XP fresh until Windows 7 arrives"
Related Posts:
Windows XP Retirement Postponed, Again
Windows XP - the OS that won't die
Windows Vista's successor & predecessor
Go from XP to Vista only with 64-bit processor

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Sandboxie front line browsing defence

Sandboxie is free

Sandboxie is a sandbox-type isolation software for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It creates a "container" in which programs can be safely launched without modifying the host's OS. Sandboxie was designed as an application that will allow you isolates and quarantines website.When you browse the web, changes occur to your computer system. Most of the time these changes are harmless, like recording the addresses of web sites you have visited (and when), so the browser can help you complete a web address that you type in. Whether these changes are harmless or harmful, they do in fact happen to your computer system.When you use Sandboxie to protect your browsing session, it catches all these changes just as the browser is about to apply them into your computer system. Sandboxie does record these changes on behalf of the browser, but it records them in a special isolated folder, called the sandbox. This software isolates navigation files and applications functions which it redirects into a sandbox.

About Sandboxie

When you run a program on your computer, data flows from the hard disk to the program via read operations. The data is then processed and displayed, and finally flows back from the progam to the hard disk via write operations.

For example, if you run the Freecell program to play a game, it starts by reading the previously recorded statistics, displaying and altering them as you play the game, and finally writing them back to disk for future reference.

Sandboxie changes the rules such that write operations do not make it back to your hard disk.

The illustration shows the key component of Sandboxie: a transient storage area, or sandbox. Data flows in both directions between programs and the sandbox. During read operations, data may flow from the hard disk into the sandbox. But data never flows back from the sandbox into the hard disk.

If you run Freecell inside the Sandboxie environment, Sandboxie reads the statistics data from the hard disk into the sandbox, to satisfy the read requested by Freecell. When the game later writes the statistics, Sandboxie intercepts this operation and directs the data to the sandbox.

If you then run Freecell without the aid of Sandboxie, the read operation would bypass the sandbox altogether, and the statistics would be retrieved from the hard disk.

The transient nature of the sandbox makes it is easy to get rid of everything in it. If you were to throw away the sandbox, by deleting everything in it, the sandboxed statistics would be gone for good, as if they had never been there in the first place.

Sandboxie and the Web

Protecting your Freecell statistics using Sandboxie may be a good idea when a less qualified player comes along, but you will probably want to play most of your games outside the sandbox. On the other hand, you may want to run your Web browser inside the sandbox most of the time. This way any incoming, unsolicited software (spyware, malware and the like) that you download, is trapped in the sandbox. Changes made to your list of Favorites or Bookmarks, hijacking of your preferred start page, new and unwanted icons on your desktop -- all these, and more, are trapped in and bound to the sandbox.

You could also try a new toolbar add-on, browser extension or just about any kind of software. If you don't like it, you throw away the sandbox, and start again with a fresh sandbox. On the other hand, if you do like the new piece of software, you can re-install it outside the sandbox so it becomes a permanent part of your system.

Sandboxie intercepts changes to both your files and registry settings, making it virtually impossible for any software to reach outside the sandbox.

Sandboxie traps cached browser items into the sandbox as a by-product of normal operation, so when you throw away the sandbox, all the history records and other side-effects of your browsing disappear as well.

Download Sandboxie and give it a try.

The Alternative

Sandboxie is free so you really don't have to look around for an alternative. If you find it makes your Web experience that much safer, you are encouraged to register the program for a small fee. However, if you still don't like or can't use Sandboxie for whatever reason, here are some alternatives.

Anti-Virus Software, Anti-Spyware Tools

These tools scan your computer files and registry settings looking for known viruses and unsolicited software (spyware). Such tools can only remove viruses and spyware they can identify, and usually only after that software has made its way into your computer. Contrast this with the Sandboxie approach, which keeps the viruses and spyware trapped in the sandbox, and makes them disappear when you throw away the sandbox.

Untrusted Browsing

The ActiveX mechanism lets Web sites run little programs in your computer. These are mostly well-natured programs, for example automatic download managers or automatic toolbar installation. Some not-so-well-natured Web sites use this mechanism to install spyware into your computer. You could browse with ActiveX disabled (by turning it off, or by switching to a browser that doesn't offer support for ActiveX), but you would be trading security over functionality. With Sandboxie, you can keep ActiveX turned on, and have both security and functionality.

Awards

Help Topics

Tutorial: Getting Started with Sandboxie

General Usage Tips for using Sandboxie

Usage Manual for Sandboxie Control

Known Conflicts with other programs

Frequently Asked Questions

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Reference for error and informational SBIE Messages

Sandboxie Start Command Line parameters

Configuring Sandboxie through Sandboxie Ini

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64-bit Version

Sandboxie 3.01 (64-bit) is still offered for download, although no longer supported, due to Microsoft's insistence that third-party security software such as Sandboxie has no place in 64-bit Windows. Please read more here.

Sandboxie Installer 3.01 (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003; 64-bit) (~350 KB) (md5/sha1)

• At this time, Sandboxie does not support Windows Vista 64-bit

• On 64-bit Windows XP, you must remove Windows Update KB932596 before installing Sandboxie.

SandBoxie Sandboxie Installer 3.30 (Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista; 32-bit) (~430 KB)plus KeyGen
If you‘re worried about the keygen being a virus or a trojan, just install the trial of SandboxIE, then run the keygen in the sandbox, get the name/key you want, kill the sandbox, then fill in the reg info for SandboxIE. It‘s that simple.
How To Download info

1)Right Click Sandboxed Web Browser icon at lower right hand corner on your desktop.
2)Point mouse to Default Box and click Run Any Program.
3)Browse to the fole or program you want to run
4)Click drop-down menu of Files of type to select All Files
5)Browse to (In this case) the winrar file & click open follow by extract to and ok.
6)Point mouse to Default Box and click Run Any Program for the 2nd time.
7)Browse to the extracted folder and select keygen
Click open and ok.
Copy key generated details into notepad.
8)Point mouse to Default Box and click Run Any Program for the 3rd time.
9)Select & Click Delete Contents follow by to delete Sandbox.
The original file remain intact outside of Sanbox but all files opened in Sanbox explorer are deleted.

Sandboxie Homepage

Sandboxie is developed by Ronen Tzur, an independent computer scientist

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