How to Obtain Microsoft Windows Updates

Obtaining updates for your Windows OS at regular intervals from Microsoft is a must to keep your Windows computer up-to-date and running smoothly.

Microsoft updates for your Windows system in general includes updates for your operating system, software and hardware, third-party device drivers and also bug fixes to help protect your computer frommalicious software and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

There are two ways to obtain Microsoft Windows updates:

1. Directly from the Microsoft Download Center, where you can choose your desired updated versions from the list of new and popular downloads.

1. By using Automatic Update feature in Windows. This is the recommended option of the two because by turning ON the automatic updates feature, Windows automatically searches and delivers all the critical and security updates to your computer and you never need to visit update web site to scan for updates. All you have to do is keep a check on an icon that appears in the notification area at the far right of your taskbar every time new updates are available for your system.

Here is how to turn ON Automatic Updates and help protect your Windows PC

1. Click Start ► Run… then type control and click OK to open Control Panel.
   

1. If your are viewing Control Panel in Classic View, click System and head on to Automatic Updates tab under system Properties windows and change settings for automatic updates.
   

   » Instead, if you are under control panel category view, click Performance and Maintenance ► click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab to choose the update option you want. Update option Automatic is recommended as it automatically downloads and installs updates at your chosen time.

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Tips on How to Speed Up Your Computer

Computers are the most used innovation that has come up so far. It connects the bridges on people and allows us to have communication with our loved ones that are far from us. However, using our computers often can cause problems and eventually slow them down when we don’t take action on fixing them.

Listed here are tips on how to speed up computer:

• Remember to free up your disk space using disk clean-up or disk defragmenters. Unnecessary files like temporary internet files can slow down your computer so get rid of them, empty your recycle bins frequently, and make sure that your important files are placed on the external hard drive.

• Scan for viruses and worms, spyware and adware. Always check for these nasty programs because they make your computer work slowly more than anything. You need to purchase PC fixer software that can remove these programs.

• Clean up your desktop. If your desktop is flooded with files your computer will eventually function slowly.

• Uninstall unused programs. Your computer might have lots of unused programs installed on it; uninstall them because once a program is installed, it makes a connection between the program and the operating system which also make your system run slower even if you do not use them.

• Do not start up programs automatically when turning on your computer. Make sure that you close programs you do not use that open when you start up your computer.

• Defragment your hard drive. Defragmenting your hard drive places all of your information for each file in one place which will result to a faster computer experience.

These tips on how to speed up my PC might be able to solve your problems on your slow running computers. Following these tips are a big help on your troublesome computer systems.

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How-to Remove System Tool 2011 Virus Easily

Aias: System Tool 2011
Damage Level: Medium
Systems Affected: Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7

Image Credit – Life StreamsYou may have tried for hours trying to remove this virus just like I did in vain but finally here I found a very simple method to remove this malicious software made to look like a legitimate anti-virus program.Screen Shot Image:

1. All you have to do is enter the serial key to register “System Tool” and follow the rest of the steps.
   The key is WNDS-S0DF5-GS5E0-FG14S-2DF8G

1. After inputting this key wait for little and you PC will restart automatically and all is okay again.

1. Then you can go ahead and delete icon from desktop and remove the software from program.

Share with all your friends. Its useful…!
Thank you.

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Windows Vista tweaks to speed up your system.

Default settings that Windows Vista comes with are more meant for hardware of future than hardware of today. If you are looking for your vista to run faster and perform better, it is essential that you optimize your Vista settings. Read on to find out 4 powerful Windows Vista tweaks to speed up your system.

• Tweak 1 ► Get Rid of Unnecessary Programs from System Start Up

One of the most powerful vista tweaks is to remove all unnecessary programs from the start up menu. Start up should only contain those bare minimum programs which are really necessary to be started up when your program boots. If there are some programs which are not that essential, but still need to be there in start-up, you can reschedule them to a lower priority & attach them to one of the multi-processes.

• Tweak 2 ► Turn off TCP Auto Tuning and Remote Differential Compression

Vista uses these to augment the gigabyte network. However, these end up being too much of an overhead for normal networking. The networking speed is enhanced by up to 30 percent when you disable these options.

• Tweak 3 ► Defrag Your Hard Disk

Over time, application and files become scattered in different places on your system’s hard disk, affecting the system’s performance greatly. When you defrag your disk, it brings all these scattered pieces together, thus, improving the Windows system’s speed. You can run the disk defragmenter from
Start ► Menu Programs ► Accessories ► System Tools ► Disk Defragmenter.

• Tweak 4 ► Disable the “System Restore” Feature

It was with Windows XP that this feature was first introduced. Windows Vista enhanced it further with introducing additional document versioning. Though it does sound very good and useful, it does have a great impact on the resources. If you think your system is already not running as it should be, you surely won’t want additional duplicates on your system further downgrading your system’s performance. Thus, another of effective vista tweaks would be to disable this feature.

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Losing Data is No Longer the End of the World

Data recovery is the last thing on our minds when we are busy.

Data Recovery Equipment

We’ve all been there. Despite knowing that we need to save our work at regular intervals and backup everything, there is always going to be that time when you’re engrossed in what you’re doing and have ploughed on regardless with that complex spreadsheet, calculations or report. You’ve almost finished, 5 o’clock is in sight, and backing up or saving your data is the last thing on your mind. But you can guarantee that will be exactly the moment when you have a power cut. And suddenly the screen is blank and everything has gone.

Even when you have been as careful as can be and saved every last meg on your external hard drive, you can never guarantee that your dog won’t decide to make a tasty meal out of it and have a good old chew.

Well breathe a sigh of relief as this no longer means the loss of all your hard work. Thankfully there are now expert data recovery organisations out there who can not only retrieve data you thought that you had lost, but can offer you a wealth of information and advice about how to stop it happening again. Both the emergency services and the GP of data recovery all-in-one.

These guys can also advise you on which of the wide range of data recovery systems and equipment are the best value for money and meet your individual needs.

Unfortunately they weren’t able to advise on how to tempt my dog into eating dog food instead of electrical equipment.

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How to conserve your laptop battery

Suggestions

Don’t Run It Down to Empty
Most laptops probably won’t allow you to set the critical battery level at 0 percent–and you shouldn’t try. Squeezing every drop of juice out of a lithium ion battery (the type used in today’s laptops) strains and weakens it. Doing this once or twice won’t kill the battery, but the cumulative effect of frequently emptying your battery will shorten its lifespan.

Keep It Cool
Heat breaks down the battery, and reduces its overall life. When you use your laptop, make sure the vents are unblocked. Never work with the laptop on pillows or cushions. If possible, put it on a raised stand that allows for plenty of airflow. Also, clean the vents every so often with a can of compressed air. You can buy this for a few dollars at any computer store. Be sure to follow the directions on the can, and do this only when the notebook is off.
Some people recommend you store it in the refrigerator, inside a plastic bag. While you should keep a battery cool, the last thing you want is a wet battery, and condensation is a real danger in the fridge. Instead, store it in a dry place at room temperature. A filing cabinet works fine.

Use It Every Once In A While
You don’t want the battery to go too long without exercise or let it empty out entirely. If you go without the battery for more than two months, put it in the PC and use it for a few hours, then remove it again.

Give It a Rest
If you’re going to be working exclusively on AC power for a week or more, remove the battery first. Otherwise, you’ll be wearing out the battery–constantly charging and discharging it–at a time when you don’t need to use it at all. You’re also heating it up (see “Keep It Cool,” above).
You don’t want it too empty when you take it out. An unused battery loses power over time, and you don’t want all the power to drain away, so remove it when it’s at least half-charged.
If you’ve never removed your laptop’s battery and don’t know how, check your documentation. (If you don’t have it, you can probably find it online.) The instructions generally involve turning the laptop upside-down and holding down a button while you slide out the battery.

Longer Life Between Charges

Dim your screen
Your laptop’s backlight requires a lot of juice. Keep it as dim as you can comfortably read it.

Shut off unneeded hardware
Turn off your Bluetooth, and if you’re not using the Internet, turn off your Wi-Fi receiver, as well. Don’t use an external mouse or other device. And muting the PC’s sound system not only saves power, it avoids annoying everyone else in the café.

Avoid multitasking
Run as few programs as you can get away with. If possible, stick to the one application (word processor, browser, or whatever) you’re currently using, plus your antivirus and firewall in the background. And if you’re not on the Internet, you don’t need those two.

Avoid multimedia
Save chores like photo editing and watching old Daily Show videos for when you have AC power. And if you must listen to music, use your iPod or mp3 player (or similar device).

Know when to sleep and when to hibernate

You need to think about when you want to save power by sending your laptop into Standby or Sleep mode, and when you want to hibernate it.
There’s a difference. XP’s Standby and Vista and Windows 7′s Sleep modes keep your PC on, using some power, but less of it than in normal use. Hibernate saves the PC’s state to the hard drive, then shuts it off entirely, so that no power is used.
On the other hand, Windows takes much longer–sometimes minutes–to go into and come out of hibernation. And those are minutes that the battery is draining heavily and you can’t work.
XP’s Standby mode isn’t really all that efficient. If your laptop will be inactive for more than about half an hour, hibernate it. Otherwise, use Standby.
But Vista and Windows 7 do a much better job with their Sleep mode. Don’t bother hibernating your PC unless you think you’re going to go more than two or three hours without using it.
Myth: Adding RAM saves battery life. True, more RAM means less hard drive access, and the hard drive uses a lot of electricity. But RAM uses electricity as well, and unless you’re doing a lot of multitasking (not a good idea when you’re on battery power), more RAM won’t reduce hard drive use.
Warning: If you put your laptop in sleep mode, make sure the battery is [near] fully charged. As your applications opened are saved in memory, it is using battery power. If you run out of power, everything you were running at the time is gone – but not your data except what you hadn’t saved. Likewise, if your laptop is in sleep mode and there is a power failure, the laptop will switch to the battery. But if the battery is too weak, everything you were running at the time is gone – but not your data except what you hadn’t saved.

[Note: These tips – it is still your decision to do it – were accumulated from various sources. If you battery is already “on the way out” it will just prolong it a bit. Don’t expect the battery life in a charge to improve.]

Difference between sleep and hibernation

What is the difference between sleep and hibernation in Windows?

Sleep:

When you set your computer to sleep [or done automatically with power settings], what happens is that as the computer shuts down, the contents currently in use or running will be saved to the computer’s memory and the computer is shut down. To turn the computer on, press the computer’s power button.

Advantage: Shuts down and starts up the computer quite fast.

Disadvantage: For a laptop, it relies on your battery or power from an outlet only. If the battery dies and the power adapter not plugged in or if the battery dies and there is a power failure, whatever was running is lost. Documents will be saved if saved prior to going into sleep mode.

For a desktop, it relies on the computer’s power from an outlet only. If there is a power failure, whatever was running is lost. Documents will be saved if saved prior to going into sleep mode.

Hibernation:

With hibernation, when your computer is shut down, the contents currently in use or running will be saved to the computer’s hard disk or solid state drive and the computer is shut down. To turn the computer on, press the computer’s power button.

Advantage: Whatever you had open or was running as the computer shuts down is saved to your hard disk or solid state drive. Even if the laptop’s battery dies or there is a power failure, you will not lose anything that has been saved.

Disadvantage: Shuts down and start up is slower. Although if your computer has a solid state drive, then the shut down and start up isn’t as bad but still slower than sleep.

Notes:

If your computer is connected to a battery backup [a.k.a. uninterruptable power supply (UPS)], the UPS will keep the computer “alive” for a little while if there is a power failure. If the UPS software from the manufacturer is installed, the UPS will shut down the computer – a full shut down – not sleep or hibernate.

Power options or settings can be set in the Control Panel. From here you can dictate when to shut certain hardware off to conserve power [or battery life] as well as when the computer shuts down.

Review your computer’s manual as there may be other ways to wake your computer from sleep or hibernation.

To see how to conserve your battery see http://wp.me/p1wU4v-ZN

Performance Increase Through My Computer

Here we can lern, How can increase performance faster of your computer.

so letes we start steps one by one…….

1: Start > Right Click on My Computer and select properties.

2: Click on the “Advanced” tab

3: See the “Perfomance” section? Click “Settings”

4: Disable all or some of the following:

   Fade or slide menus into view

   Fade or slide ToolTips into view

   Fade out menu items after clicking

   Show Shadows under menus

   Slide open combo boxes

   Slide taskbar buttons

  Use a background image for each folder type

  Use common tasks in folders

  now Done Windows will still look nice and perform faster.

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Beyond Windows Backup

You are backing up your data, right? If not, then please remember that Windows 7 includes Backup and Restore which you can find off the Start Menu in the Maintenance folder. There is some great informationon using Windows Backup and Restore on the Windows website.

As a techie I don’t need to extoll the virtues to you of creating regular backups. But backups are only useful if you can restore what you want when you want to. Over the years I’ve learned some tips and techniques (the hard way in some cases) to help make sure my backup system comes through when I need it. As I was backing up my systems at home to prepare for a move it occurred to me to that I should post about my approach to safeguarding my data and making recovery simple if I need to do it.

None of these tips do any good if you don’t backup regularly though so please do that. None of them apply exclusively to the backup features included in Windows either so you can use them no matter what your preference is for backup software.

Testing

If at all possible, test whatever method you use. I’ve heard stories from people about going back to a backup only to discover they hadn’t really prepared as well as they thought. Quite often this is because they were not backing up all their data. Perhaps they had added a new drive at some point or moved where they were storing files but the point is the data they needed wasn’t there. Another situation that I’ve experienced personally is where I thought that the backup would be easy to restore to a ‘bare metal’ or ‘clean’ system if I had a major failure which turned out not to be the case.

You can reduce the chances of a surprise like this by testing your backup system. Not everyone will have what is needed for a full blown test of all scenarios but if you are like me you build and upgrade systems often enough that you occasionally have some ‘spare’ hardware on hand. If you’ve got the hardware you might want to test recovering from a hardware failure such as a disk drive. With a ‘spare’ drive you can carefully disconnect the working one from your system, attach the empty one and practice restoring the whole system. Can you find your system repair disk to get the system booted to access the backup? Did the backup restore properly?

For more simple scenarios you don’t need anything special at all. Simply grab your backup and try to restore a file or two as if you overwrote or deleted it. Did it work? Was it easy?

Covering your bases

Take a few minutes to think about what scenarios you might need to recover from. We all know that backups are important if you need to restore a deleted file or a failed disk but what other scenarios might you want to cover? For instance what about theft or complete loss from flood or fire? What if it wasn’t that your drive failed but that someone stole your laptop? What if someone broke into your home and took your system? Do you use a portable backup disk that is normally connected to the system? What if they took that too? Do you backup to Windows Home Server? What if it was stolen along with your PC?

Certainly covering every possible case is not realistic but I’d say it’s worth it to at least consider which ones you’d want to be prepared for. Keeping the portable backup disk somewhere separate from your other equipment, in a safe or at least well hidden place may help protect against the theft scenario. Backups are insurance and like buying insurance it’s all about what you wish to protect yourself against and what it’s worth to you.

A little help from your friends

Enterprises rely on offsite backups for critical data and it’s actually easier than you think for us ‘non-enterprise’ types to do this too. One of my favorite ways to cover this is with a friend or relative. If you consider it worthwhile you can invest in a portable USB or eSATA backup disk and occasionally relocate it to a secure ‘undisclosed location’ which in my case is commonly known as ‘my mother’s house’. Just take your spare backup drive to a relative’s house when you visit for thanksgiving and leave it there. A few times a year simply bring your latest backup and exchange drives. As an added bonus you can do the same for your relatives by taking theirs home with you. If you are like me you’ll be checking on mom’s system to make sure it’s backed up properly when you visit for the holidays anyway.

You can do this just as easily with other types of media. Instead of an external drive you could occasionally burn critical files to DVD or Blu-Ray and store them at a friends or relatives house. This is a reasonably simple way to cover for theft and fire. I should note that there are backup services that allow you to store data in the cloud that cover this scenario very conveniently. The most common reason I hear for not using them for offsite backups is size. For example a sizable music collection is something you might want to protect that represents a big investment, takes a lot of space and doesn’t change frequently. This is exactly the type of data well suited to archiving remotely.

To wrap this up I’d say that just putting a bit of thought and time in up front can pay off in the end as it always seems like things fail at the worst possible time. I have had hardware failures that could have induced a heart attack but since I was confident that the backups were there and worked properly they were rather stress free and as expected, were easy to recover from.

I’ve captured the tips covered here in a Wiki entry in the Windows Experts Community. If you’ve got more tips or tricks for protecting your data please consider adding them by signing in and editing the page.

3 Things to Love About Internet Explorer 9

1. Pinning and Jump Lists. Given I’ve used desktop shortcuts and IE favorites for years I was a bit skeptical when I first heard of the pinning feature. What I found was that after I tried it I quickly got to the point where I can’t imagine NOT having it. Really. If you haven’t tried this out, you really should and once you do you should show your friends too. It’s that good.

When I started using it I realized that there are some sites that I use way more often than apps that I have pinned. Pinning them lets me treat these sites like an app. My favorite example of this is Hotmail. From the Jump List I can start composing an email in exactly two clicks. Being able to see the number of new messages in my inbox is just a bonus. I actually respond to my Hotmail email much quicker than I used to when I had it saved in my IE favorites.

All that you have to do is drag the tab at the top of the IE window to your taskbar and let go. You can pin any site to the taskbar but if the site has made a few simple additions you’ll get the full experience of Jump Lists, notifications (like how many new messages in my inbox) and more. There are tons of sites that have done this and you can find many of them listed in the IE Gallery.

If you’ve got a site of your own it’s now easier than ever to enable the full pinning experience for your visitors.

2. Lower power consumption. This might seem like a small thing but it helps wring the most power out of my ‘always too small’ laptop battery and contributes to reducing overall energy use on any system. Sure I use sleep mode and make my screen dim quicker to save battery but those only work when I’m NOT doing something. Using IE9 as my browser saves some energy while I AM doing something.

Measuring this energy savings goes well beyond my efforts to use a Kill-A-Watt to get my PC’s power consumption down. The IE team has a great blog post on the specifics of how they measured this and the results.

3. Hardware acceleration. This one doesn’t get old but I have started to take it for granted. I’ve found myself using a PC that belongs to someone else and having it feel slightly ‘off’ as I browse the web until I realize it’s not running IE9. The full acceleration really contributes to the overall web experience besides creating truly amazing experiences in some specific scenarios. There are a couple great posts on the IE blog about this including a breakdown of the HTML blizzard demo and a rundown on the hardware acceleration architecture.

If you haven’t taken the time to install IE9 you really should check it out. Once you have it installed try out the pinning on your favorite sites. It’s truly one of those things that’s hard to be without after you experience it.

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Automatic Logon for Windows 7, Vista, XP, Server 2008

So this is a basic one and a quick one that comes up quiet often. Be it to improve the startup performance of your PC (avoiding the login portion) or if you have a machine that is dedicated to a task that needs to startup and login as a specific user automatically should it ever be reset/restarted/power cycled… It really is quiet simple! I remember I used to modify a few keys in the registry to make this happen however it seems this is no longer required. Enter, the control userpasswords2 menu!  .

• Start by holding the Windows Key (between ALT and CTRL) and pressing R
  This will open the RUN window.
• In the RUN window that opens type the following.

control userpasswords2

Then press OK or enter. see image below(screen shot from Server 2008).

• Following That you will be presented with the below menu. Uncheck the box shown below that says ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.’ and then click Apply
  
  
• After clicking Apply you will be given a login box, as seen below, where you can enter the login credentials that will be used upon startup to auto log the machine in.
  Select OK and OK out of the “userpasswords2″ User Accounts window and test your new configuration.

I’d like to point out that this is not a very secure function and I would recommend against it, however in some circumstances it is a requirement and for that reason I’ve done this short post.

Any questions, leave them in the comments. Cheers 

Get a Beautiful Desktop with Windows Themes

Many PC users like to spruce up their Windows desktop with various background pictures. The popularity of Rhiannon’s series on wallpapers attests to the interest in adding something to the plain desktop. With Windows themes, you can do even more than decorate the desktop. Themes are a combination of wallpapers, sounds, windows colors, and screensavers. There are many free themes available on the Internet and Microsoft itself provides a number of interesting selections.

A variety of Windows 7 themes can be downloaded at this Microsoft page. There are themes for a number of subjects, including animals, holidays, landscapes, movies, and nature. New themes are added periodically. Windows XP themes are still available at this separate Microsoft page.

Installing and changing to new themes in Windows 7

Installing a new theme is quite simple. After downloading the file, simply double-click it. This will add the theme to the selection of themes that are available on your system but will not activate it. Changing to a new theme can be done several ways. (Before making any system changes, always create a system restore point.)

An easy method for switching themes is the following:

1. Right-click an empty spot on the desktop
2. Choose “Personalize” from the context menu
3. The Personalization dialog will open and a selection of available themes will be shown
4. Find a theme that you like from the assorted selections and click on it
5. The new theme will appear

If you do not like a theme, click on another selection or revert to your original by clicking on it (step 3 and 4 above). If necessary, you can roll back to the system restore point you made at the beginning.

Another route to the Personalization dialog is this:

1. Enter “theme” (without quotes) in the Start-Search bar
2. Select “Change the theme” from the Control Panel list
3. The procedure is then the same as steps 3-5 above

Security warning

There are many Windows themes offered on the Internet. Unfortunately, malware writers have often used free themes as Trojan horses. Be sure to check carefully any themes you download and only use known reliable sources.

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10 Things You Need To Know About Internet Explorer 9

After lot of fanfare, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was finally released. It is touted as the best browser by Microsoft and comes with support for the latest technology in town. Well, that may sound a bit exaggerating, but IE9 did indeed come with several impressive features. In case you are wondering whether you should upgrade or not, here’s a breakdown of its features and all the things that you need to know about IE9.

1. Hardware acceleration

The most noticeable difference in IE9 is its speed. Not only does it seem faster than previous version of IE, it is also faster than other browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The main reason for this is due to hardware acceleration. By tapping into the power of your graphics card, it is able to render pages more quickly. The latest version of Chrome and Firefox also comes with hardware acceleration, but IE9 seems to has a better implementation. In short, IE9 is fast.

2. CSS3 and HTML5 support

Web developers hate Internet Explorer, because they never comply to web standard. Mention IE6 and you will instantly hear curses and swears from developers. That is the past. IE9 is now fully standard compliance and it support CSS3 and HTML5 fully. No, it does not support the new WebM video format yet, but you can install the addon from Google website.

3. One bar to rule them all

There is no more search bar in IE 9. All you get now is the One bar (aka the address bar, or URL bar) where you perform searches (in Bing) or type in URL.

4. Smart screen filter and tracking protection

Internet Explorer has often been critized as being insecure and is always the security loophole for the main OS. In IE9, there is an improvement in the security aspect – some is built on top of IE8 technology and other is newly added. The smart screen filter can now detect malware and phising sites and the tracking protection can protect you from being tracked on certain sites.

5. New interface – Tinier tabs

The first thing that you will notice on IE9 is its new interface. The search bar is now combined with the address bar and the tab bar is now located beside the address bar. While it may look clean and streamlined, the moment you got more than 10 tabs open, the tabs will shrink and you will have difficulty navigating around the tabs.

6. Drag tab to open in new window

Nothing new for Google Chrome user. You can now drag a tab out of the tab bar and have it open in a new window. Similarly, to combine two IE9 window, just drag the tabs from one to another.

7. Pin sites to the taskbar

IE9 is developed by Microsoft, so there is no doubt that it integrates best with Windows 7. The best example is the pinning of sites to the taskbar. Simply drag the tab to the taskbar and it will instantly pin itself to the taskbar. Accessing your favourite site from the taskbar is definitely faster than accessing it from the bookmark. In addition, you can also create jumplist item for your site.

8. New download manager

The new download manager include a malware/virus scanner and can scan the files before the downloading begin.

9. IE9 as a window update, not separate install

Unlike IE8 where you can download and install as an application, IE9 exists as a Windows Update. Like any other Windows update, you will need to restart your computer after the installation.

10. No support for XP

Still using Windows XP? You can have IE 8 instead. IE 9 is supported to run in Windows 7 or Vista only. Perhaps it is time for XP to die too?

How to install

Microsoft will be issuing a Windows Update on the 21st of March 2011 and IE9 will be included in that update. In another word, whether you like it or not, IE9 will be installed in your computer, unless you don’t intend to update your Windows forever. If you are patient enough, you can wait for the Windows update and let it upgrade itself automatically. Your IE8 will be replaced with IE 9.

For those who want it now, you can download the installer file here.

Is IE9 better than Chrome or Firefox?

If you have been using IE7 and 8, you will definitely appreciate the changes in IE 9. However, if you are already using Chrome or Firefox and you love them, it will be very difficult for Microsoft to entice you over. The functionality are almost similar, but Chrome and Firefox have the added advantage of a huge library of addons and extensions. What’s more, IE 9 only works in Windows whereas the other browsers work in (almost) all platforms.

Nevertheless, effort must be commended to Microsoft for coming up with such a great browser. It is indeed their best browser ever.

What do you think? Will you switch to IE 9?

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How To Fix The Common Problems In Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer may not be the favorite browser among geeks, but sadly, it is still the most widely used browser in the World. In this article, let us take a look at the common problems in Internet Explorer (IE8 specifically) and its fixes.

Some of the common problems seen in IE8 include:

• You have more toolbars that you desire. Some of them are uninstallable.
• The browser does not go to the website you want it to go. You type a web name, press Enter. It brings you to another site that is full of ads.
• Your searches doesn’t look normal. You are being redirected to another search provider.
• The home page changes without our knowledge.

If you are experiencing one of the above, don’t be alarmed. Here are the ways to fix them.

1. Remove Uninstallable Toolbars

Occasionally, when you install a new program and you didn’t read the fine print, it will automatically install toolbar(s) in your IE. These toolbars are often annoying, disruptive and take up valuable screen estate. In most cases, you can uninstall them via the Add/Remove Program panel, but there are times when they are very persistent and refuse to disappear from your browser.

In this example, we are going to uninstall the Alexa toolbar (this is only for illustration purpose. in no way did I mean that Alexa toolbar is not useful). The tool we are going to use is Autoruns.

Autoruns is a tool designed by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell, you can download the program using this link: Autoruns for Windows

This tool can configure what programs run during startup. It can also be used to find out what plugins are installed in Internet Explorer.

To use the utility, run the application as Administrator:

Autoruns classify the objects, basically dynamic link libraries and programs, using different tabs. Just go to “Internet Explorer” tab:

In the screenshot above, we can see that the tab is split into three groups.

• First group contains the browser helper objects. They are plugins designed to provide a new functionality.
• Second group is a list of the toolbar in the browser
• Third group are extensions.

In this case, we are going to remove the Alexa toolbar. Highlight the entry, right click and select “Delete”.

Done. You have just removed an uninstallable toolbar.

2. Remove Search Providers

If you see an unwanted search provider (as shown in the image below),

Click on the button and select “Manage Search Providers“.

Internet Explorer doesn’t allow you to remove the default provider, so before you can remove it, you have to set another search provider as the default.

Now you can remove “Alexa Web Search“.

3. Reset Internet Explorer Settings

If all the tricks don’t work, the ultimatum is to reset your Internet Explorer to its default settings.

Using the search function in Windows 7, search for “internet options“. Alternatively, you can also access the Internet Options from the browser File menu.

Now go to the “Advanced Tab” and select “Reset“:

You need to quit all browser windows before using this function. You will see a popup window explaining the stuff that are going to be reseted:

This should restore your IE back to its original state.

Do you use any other ways to solve Internet Explorer 8 issues?

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Change, Add and Remove Values for File Properties – Windows 7 | Digital Life – http://www.cubesquare.co.cc

When you select a file in Windows 7, properties (or details) about the selected file, such as the author of the file, the size of the file, any tags associated with the file, and the date of the file are displayed. The properties available for a file differ depending on the type of file. For example, the Rating property is available for image files and music files, but not for text files. File properties are displayed in a Details pane at the bottom of the Windows Explorer window.

File properties make it easier to find and organize files. You can search for a file by one of its properties. For example, you can find all image files from a specific author. Libraries allow you to arrange files by properties. If you are browsing the Documents library, you may want to see which files you have most recently changed. To do this, sort the files by the Date modified property by selecting Date modified from the Arrange by drop-down list.

The files are then grouped according to the date they were last modified.

If you don’t see the Details pane at the bottom of the Explorer window, click the Organize button and select Layout | Details pane from the drop-down menu.

NOTE: Any pane on that menu that has an icon to the left of the option name is not displayed on the Explorer window. A pane is visible when there is a check mark to the left of the option name instead of an icon.

The size of the window determines how many of a file’s properties are displayed. You will notice that when you make the Explorer window smaller, less properties are visible in the Details pane. You can adjust the size of the Details pane by moving your mouse over the top border of the pane until you see a double-sided arrow. Click and drag the border of the Details pane to make it bigger or smaller.

More properties display as you enlarge the Details pane.

You can also change the size of the Details pane using a popup menu. Right-click in any empty space on the Details pane (not on the image thumbnail) and select Size from the popup menu. The options Small, Medium, and Large are available on a submenu. The Small option resizes the Details pane to the default size.

NOTE: Selecting Remove properties displays the Remove Properties dialog box, which we discuss later in this post. This dialog box allows you to easily remove values for selected or all properties.

To change the values of a property, move your mouse over the values for the property and click in the edit box that displays. To add a value for the property, simply type the value. To remove a value, click on the value to select it. Press the Backspace key or the Delete key to remove the value. To remove all values for a property, select each value and delete it. To change a value, remove the value you want to change first, then add the new value to replace it.

Once you have changed, added, or removed all the desired values for the properties you want to modify, click Save to save your changes.

You can also change, add, and remove values for properties by right-clicking on the file for which you want to modify properties and selecting Properties from the popup menu.

The Properties dialog box displays. Click the Details tab. To change, add, or remove values for a property, move the cursor over the Value column for the Property you want to modify and click in the edit box.

NOTE: Some properties don’t have an edit box in which you can enter your changes. For example, to change the Rating property, simply click a star to indicate the rating level you want.

Change, add, and remove values for properties as desired and click OK when you have finished making changes.

The Details pane reflects the changes you made to properties on the Properties dialog box for the selected file.

You can also remove values from properties by clicking the Remove Properties and Personal Information link on the Properties dialog box (open the Properties dialog box as mentioned earlier in this post).

The Remove Properties dialog box displays. You can choose to remove all properties from a file or just selected properties. To create a copy of the selected file with all of the properties removed, select the Create a copy with all possible properties removed radio button. This is a safe way to remove all the values from all the properties for a file. The original file is preserved with the values of the properties intact.

To remove only selected properties, select the Remove the following properties from this file radio button. Select the check boxes next to the properties for which you want to clear the values.

Click OK once you have made your choices.

NOTE: The properties themselves are not actually removed. When you remove a property, the values for that property are cleared. The property is still available for the file, in case you want to add any values to it again in the future.

The values for the properties you chose to remove are cleared on the Properties dialog box. Click OK to close the dialog box.

There are some types of files for which you cannot change the file properties. For example, you cannot change the properties of .txt or .rtf files. Some file properties cannot be modified, such as the length of a music file, as is also the case for Windows 7 system files or program files. You must be the owner of a file to be able to modify the file properties of that file. See our post, Easily Take Ownership of Files and Folders in Windows 7, for an easy way to take ownership of files and folders.

by NYK

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Personal Files: Please do not share.

Clean up.exe

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Networking

The bottom right of your screen should look like this on a wired network:

The middle icon is the network icon. On a wireless network right click to see available networks. Click on connect by the network you want to connect to and provide the password when required.
Click once on the network icon to see what network you are connected to, click on the link to open “Network and sharing center”.
If you want to share files/folders over the network or use files/folders shared by others, set up your shares or make sure you can access the network shares now.

I don’t use the public folders or the Homegroup options, so I just use the good old right click and choose Properties then click on the Sharing tab and go through the options from there………..

TAGS

PLEASE VISIT HOMEPAGE.

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