Tech Blog

In the past i was using the Nero for burning cd’s etc.Before a year because of the fact that nero became something more than a buriming program(something i dont want) and a lot heavier(need more cpu etc) i decided to search for another program.I found Ashampoo Burning Studio.From the first time i used it, i loved it.Was exactly what i was needed.Burn cd’s,dvd’s,images etc.It does not miss anything.

Before some time was releashed a free version of this program on the net.

Here are the features:

Multi-disc file backup and restore on CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs; create compressed backup archives with powerful password protection; split archives automatically across multiple CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs; restore archive contents to their original locations; integrated Audio CD ripper store your audio tracks as WMA or WAV files; new option for setting the number of copies you want to burn (available for all disc formats); discs can now be verified immediately without being ejected first (if the drive supports this feature); numerous other small improvements that make the program easier to use and more effective; burn files and folders on data CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs; burn Audio CDs from WAV, MP3, FLAC, WMA and Ogg Vorbis files; burn MP3-CDs from your MP3 files; burn Video DVD, Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD (S-VCD); create and burn CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc images; burn speed and other options can all be set automatically.

Download link : http://www.download.com/Ashampoo-Burning-Studio-Free/3000-2646_4-10776287.html

For screens check here:

I highly recommend ashampoo.Is the best and FREE.Also “Nero” lovers or haters try it.You will  see yourself is the best

Windows 7 has released some days ago.Some cannot install it,either because is in beta,either they just want to stick with the good and “standard” xp/vista(me XP).So there is a transformation pack.Right now this has to be the most “clone” of windows 7.Personally i use the 1st and have no problems till now.

1. Vienna 2.5

Download Vienna 2.5 - Windows 7 Transformation Pack (Mirror)

2. HFN Windows Transformation Pack

Download HFN Windows 7 Transformation Pack

3. NSFormation Pack 1.0

Download Windows 7 Transformation pack - NSFormation (Mirror)

4. Vienna Transformation Pack v1

Download Vienna Transformation Pack v1

WARNING!
Use this pack at your OWN risk.It may affect your system and have problems.So then don’t complain on me.

PC Tools Registry Mechanic is known to be an awesome tool to clean up and maintain the Windows Registry system. This ensures that the system is free of errors and in turn speeds up the CPU and memory processing capabilities of the PC. Registry Mechanic uses a very efficient algorithm in finding and identifying the problems in the registry and it comes with a FREE and Premium versions.

Premium version of Registry Mechanic costs $29.95 for 1 year license. It offers a clean and clear design for simple navigation. For a complete set of Features, visit the PC Tools website
How to Get a Free License of PC Tools Registry Mechanic?

1. Go to the Promotion Site.
2. Fill out your name, email and country and submit. Make sure you give a valid email address.
3. License details will be Mailed to you within a short time.
4. Now you have to download the correct version of Registry Mechanic because this license is valid for only a specific version of Registry Mechanic.

I have been using it for 1 year,and is very trusted!
Highly recommend

Windows 7 is the next generation operating system by Microsoft.Windows 7 is now at beta stage and will be released at about year 2009-2010.
Now user can try the feeling using ‘Windows 7′ by changing the theme of Windows Vista.These are the steps.
Because Windows Vista doesn’t allow user to use third-party theme,so user need to patch system files in order to use the third-party theme.User need to patch 3 system files to use third-party theme in Windows Vista.The files are:

• shsvcs.dll
• themeui.dll
• uxtheme.dll

These are the website to download these system files:

For Windows Vista(32bit):http://www.withinwindows.com/uxthemes/Windows%20Vista/SP0/6.0.6000.16386_XX.rar

For Windows Vista(64bit):http://www.withinwindows.com/uxthemes/Windows%20Vista/SP0/6.0.6000.16386_XX_AMD64.rar

For Windows Vista(32bit) Service Pack 1:http://www.withinwindows.com/uxthemes/Windows%20Vista/SP1/6.0.6001.18000_XX.rar

For Windows Vista(64bit) Service Pack 1:http://www.withinwindows.com/uxthemes/Windows%20Vista/SP1/6.0.6001.18000_AMD64_XX.rar

After download the RAR file,extract it using WinRAR(download here) or 7-Zip(download here),you will get the three .dll file.
Highlight that 3 .dll file can right click “Take Ownership” it.

Rename that three .dll file so that user can easily copy the file.Example simply add a “backup” at last of each file name.Such as “shsvcs_backup.dll”

After that go to Windows Explorer type in “%windir%\System32″.

Copy and paste that three ‘Take Ownership-ed” .dll file in that folder.

Restart yout system.Now your system is ready to use third-party theme.

Download the third-party Windows 7 theme from:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cod0z1zykoj
or
http://www.megashare.com/523729

Extract the zipped folder.Copy the folder(containing a .theme file and a folder containing .msstyles file) to “%windir%\Resources\Themes\” folder.

Now user can go to Personalize(right click on the desktop),click on “theme” will find a new theme from the drop-down list.Apply it.

All information above are reference from askvg.com

For the last few days, Windows 7 is just about the only OS anyone has been talking about. I figured it was high time for us to share the love and take a look at some other interesting free, downloadable operating systems.

iTechnoBuzz.com brings you a collection of 20 that are worth checking out. There are plenty more, so if you’d like to add your favorites, share them in the comments!

Fedora 10 (pictured) - One of the few live distros that didn’t have any trouble with the hardware on my MSI Wind netbook. My acid test: can it properly suspend and wake? Yes - and it does it faster than Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7. OpenSUSE and Ubuntu both failed to resume properly.

Damn Small Linux - I wouldn’t feel right not listing Damn Small. It’s pretty amazing what you can do with a whole OS that’s not much bigger than most Windows antivirus applications. 50mb gets you Firefox, XMMS, VNCViewer, MS Office Viewer, and much more. It’s also easily extendable through the MyDSL service or by using the apt command.

Linux Mint - While it’s based on Ubuntu, Mint has some features that I think make it a bit more user-friendly. For starters, there are several easy ways to find and install new software including the dead simple Mint Software Portal. Find an app, click the install button, bada bing!

64 Studio - If you’re into digital content creation of any kind - audio, video, or graphics - 64 Studio is a distro worth downloading. It’s packed full of awesome multimedia apps and, contrary to the name, is available for 32-bit platforms as well.

live.linux-gamers.net - One of the big complaints about Linux is “Where are the games?” If you’d like to see some, why not download a live DVD that contains a truckload that you can run without even installing anything? FPS, racing, platformer, you name it - this disc has it covered.

Slax - This has always been one of my favorite light Linux distros. It’s about 200mb and includes plenty of great apps. It includes a really slick boot option as well: to act as a PXE server, allowing other machines on your LAN to boot Slax over the network.

NimbleX - If you’re looking for a lightweight base to run virtual PCs on, check out NimbleX. It’s the smallest distro I’ve seen that comes with Sun’s Virtual Box. You can even customize your ISO on the web site before you download it if you want. Awesome.

Haiku - Inspired by BeOS, Haiku strives to provide an environment that is simple enough for beginners to use, yet powerful enough for more experienced users to enjoy as well. As they say on their web site, Haiku wants to be “free of unnecessary complexities.” There’s also Zeven OS, a Linux distro with BeOS-inspired visuals.

ReactOS - Definitely an ambitious project, ReactOS is trying to produce a free, non-linux environment that is fully compatible with Windows applications and drivers. It’s got a long way to go, but it’s an interesting project to keep your eye on.

Mac-on-stick - Sure, OSX is pretty and functional, but can it fit on a 32mb flash drive? Mac-on-stick is a complete Mac OS 7.0.1 environment that runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and even Pocket PC. Use it to run old-school apps or classic games like Dark Castle. It’s also part of the Portableapps.Com suite.

OSX86 - No, there’s no link for this one, gang. I’ve included OSX86 (which you can probably find yourself on any major torrent tracker by searching for kalyway) because it’s an amazing example of what an enthusiastic computing community can accomplish. There’s even a customized version floating around that is tailored for the MSI Wind netbook..

NetBSD - If you’re not interested in trying the Hackintosh thing, why not play around with OS X’s foundations? One of the great things about NetBSD is the amazing number of hardware platforms it can run on, including the Playstation 2 and Sega Dreamcast. You may also want to try Jibbed, a lightweight NetBSD livecd spinoff that runs XFCE4.

Open Solaris - The good folks at Sun play a big part in the development of a pretty mean free OS. Open Solaris is incredibly stable and is designed for reliability and network performance. It makes an excellent foundation for NAS devices and servers.

FreeNAS - Speaking of NAS, if you’ve got an old junker around that you’d like to turn into something useful, FreeNAS is a nice option. It’s a barebones distro based on FreeBSD and is designed to turn old hardware into simple network attached storage.

IE Application Compatibility VPC Images - More free stuff from Microsoft? The VPC images include .vhd files of XP and Vista machines that can be run inside Virtual PC to test applications in different Windows OSes with different versions of IE.

VICE - Again not technically an OS, but I’m not sure anyone is really looking to multiboot the Commodore 64 or VIC20 operating systems. The VICE emulator will also run C128, PLUS4, and PET programs.

GeeXboX - Another great use of an outdated machine is to turn it into a media server/HTPC and GeeXboX is an excellent operating system to power it. There’s even an ISO generator that runs on Mac and Windows that you can use to build a customized GeeXboX disc with different themes, languages, network settings, and more.

Untangle - Untangle is a free, open source gateway that is available as both a full-blown OS and a Windows application. The Windows “app” is a nice option if you don’t have the hardware to spare for a standalone gateway machine.

Ultimate Deployment Appliance - UDA is a slick VMWare appliance that allows you to easily serve ISO images via a PXE environment. I love it. No more griping about badly scratched Vista or XP install discs, I just boot via the LAN interface instead.

gParted - If you’re using a “questionably legal” solution like Hiren’s Boot CD to manage drive partitions, you should give gParted a try. The interface and functionality is very similar to Partition Magic, and gParted is totally free and open source.

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New rules will phase out energy-guzzling flatscreen televisions as the EU brings its climate campaign to the living room

Energy-guzzling flatscreen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change, ministers have told The Independent on Sunday.

“Minimum energy performance standards” for televisions are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring, they say, and this should lead to “phasing out the most inefficient TVs”. At the same time, a compulsory labelling system will be drawn up to identify the best and worst devices.

The moves, which follow last week’s withdrawal of the 100W incandescent lightbulb, are part of a drive to slow the rapid growth of electricity consumption in homes by phasing out wasteful devices and introducing more efficient ones. Giant plasma televisions – dubbed “the 4×4s of the living room” – can consume four times as much energy as traditional TVs that used cathode ray tubes (CRTs).

Over the past 30 years, the number of electric appliances and gadgets in a typical home has almost trebled – from 17 to 47 – as a host of devices from scanners to security systems, cappuccino makers to computer game consoles have joined the more traditional kettles, irons, vacuum cleaners and cookers. And the number of televisions in homes has also grown rapidly; there are now 60 million of them, one for every person in the country.

The amount of power needed to run this electronic explosion has more than doubled in the same period, and the official Energy Savings Trust estimates that it will grow by another 12 per cent over the next four years.

The boom in flatscreen TVs, partly spurred by the digital changeover, is helping to fuel the increase, as is the growing size of the screens. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said last week: “In the past five years we have seen the main television in a household change from typically being a 24in to 32in CRT television to being a much larger flatscreen television, with screen sizes of between 32 and 42 inches becoming more and more common. Not surprisingly, this has seen the energy used by the main television in the house increase.”

Different makes and models of television vary in their use of power, but a 42in plasma television may use some 822 kilowatt hours a year, compared to 350kWh by an LCD flat screen of the same size. A 32in CRT, the biggest available, would use 322kWh.

Power consumption goes up as the screens increase in size, so the trust says that a big plasma model could use four times as much electricity and be responsible for the emission of four times as much carbon dioxide as the biggest CRT; they now account for twice as much as a fridge-freezer.

Now European governments are finalising a mandatory EU regulation to set minimum standards for televisions. The worst performers will be phased out, and the rest will have to be labelled with energy ratings which, says Defra, “will make it easier for consumers to identify the most and least energy-efficient televisions available”. The scheme is modelled on an existing one for fridges and other white goods which has greatly increased their efficiency over the past decade.

The EU has already agreed minimum standards for the electricity consumed in standby mode. Defra says this should cause a fourfold drop by early next year in the energy used by a TV when it has been switched off by remote control instead of the main switch. Similar steps are being taken in Australia and the United States; in the US, 275 million televisions gobble up as much electricity as is produced by 10 coal-fired power stations.

Manufacturers are responding by making their products greener. The best new plasma televisions now use one-third less energy than the average, and new LED televisions, which are more efficient, are being developed.

Mozilla’s Firefox 3, giving you a chance to download the latest browser and dress up its totally clean slate with your choice of extensions, toolbars and themes.

One of Firefox’s most unique and powerful assets is its ability to install third-party add-ons. When Mozilla vice president of engineering Mike Schroepfer visited us in May, he addressed the critical balance between a fast and light browser and a slow but feature-rich one by claiming Firefox 3’s extension system enabled his team to take a hands-off approach. In other words, the company invites users to decide how to enhance the browser themselves, and by how much.

DIY functionality proves to be a boon for internet development, and it has caused many to race to keep up with the latest version of the popular browser before launch. Some trendsetting browser features have originated from Mozilla’s development community. Chances are, features available in other browsers, and many more that aren’t, are available by download.

But how many features do you add? Which ones are ready? Here are our picks, chosen by “coolness,” popularity and readiness for Firefox 3.

User Interface

AdBlock Plus
Firefox was the first browser to restrict those annoying advertising pop-ups. AdBlock Plus took the feature a step further by removing all ads from any web page. It effectively cleans up the web page, displaying only its bare content. You’ll be surprised at how pleasant surfing the internet can be without being bombarded by ads.

DownThemAll
DownThemAll saves you from trying to painstakingly download all files from a page of links or images. It will download all links or images in a single click. Better yet, it claims to speed up downloads by up to 400 percent.

Toolbars

Del.icio.us Toolbar
Del.icio.us’ toolbar adds buttons enabling you to search, browse, tag and add to your online bookmarks. Import your Firefox bookmarks to the site and access them anywhere through the Del.icio.us website.

StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon adapts quickly to the latest widgets, add-ons and toolbars. Its Firefox 3-enabled toolbar is no exception. The toolbar lets you randomly surf entertaining videos and web pages and rate them.

Google and Yahoo Toolbars
If you use Google products as much as we do, Google’s toolbar could prove pretty handy. The search bar is less useful for its search box (Google search is Awesome Bar’s default search engine) than for the ability to set file defaults to automatically open in Gmail and Google Docs. It also has some online bookmark functionality similar to, but not as “killer” as, Del.icio.us. Privacy pundits might wag a finger — if you don’t opt out of “usage statistics,” Google anonymously tracks your traffic and not so anonymously tracks your search behavior if you don’t opt out online. Yahoo! Toolbar is an obvious alternative if Yahoo is your favorite search engine and e-mail provider.

Themes

The Mozilla crew heard users saying that Firefox 2 didn’t look and feel like it was an application native to their operating systems. The team digested that feedback and made separate skins to match the distinct styles of Linux, Mac OS, Windows XP and Vista operating systems. The skins appear as the default user interfaces in their respective versions. If your OS style doesn’t fit your personality, there are a couple alternative themes for Firefox 3:

• Aero Fox 3.0.1 A popular jet-black theme with glossy buttons and menus
• NASA Night Launch is a black and silver theme set against the backdrop of space shuttle photos

Hackity-Hack

Chickenfoot and Greasemonkey
Chickenfoot and Greasemonkey are extremely easy tools for devastating site code with your own hacks. They’re both pretty useful, even if you don’t know how to code. Prewritten scripts can be downloaded and run for convenience. Lifehacker’s Better Gmail 2 and Better GReader are both good collections of popular Greasemonkey scripts.

Firebug
Firebug is a life saver for web developers. It allows you under-the-hood access to the browser’s DOM, XHTML, JavaScript and CSS using debugging tools straight from the browser’s sidebar.

Looks like the Microsoft have set up the new servers.So the Windows 7 beta download is available again.

Here are the links:

32 Bit

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso

64 Bit

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/3/3/633118BD-6C3D-45A4-B985-F0FDFFE1B021/EN/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO

Then to obtain your Product key visit this page and log in with your live id:

technet.microsoft.com

After that visit this page:

https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win7-32-ww&LCID=1033

That’s it.Now you should have your key

As reported yesterday the Microsoft servers to deliver the Windows 7 beta ISO images have been overloaded pretty much as soon as the download page went up. It got so bad that Microsoft stopped the Windows 7 beta download and posted this message:
“Thanks for your interest in the Windows 7 Beta. The volume has been phenomenal — we’re in the process of adding more servers to handle the demand. We’re sorry for the delay and we’ll re-post the Beta as soon as we can ensure a quality download experience.”
There is no new release date and time given when Microsoft will commence the Windows 7 beta download.
You can check if the Windows 7 beta is available again on this page. 

If you’re dying to try out Windows 7 but aren’t ready to give up your installation of XP or Vista, let’s take a look at how to dual boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista.

Step 0: Download the Windows 7 Beta and Burn It to a DVD

Assuming you’ve already downloaded a fresh copy of Windows 7, you’ll need to burn it to a DVD in order to do a fresh installation. To handle this task, grab a copy of the most popular CD and DVD burning tool ImgBurn, burn the ISO to a DVD, and move right along to step 1.

Step 1: Partition Your Hard Drive

Before you go installing Windows 7, the first thing you need to do is create a new partition on your hard drive to hold the new installation of Windows. Partitioning your hard drive will vary depending on whether you’re running XP or Vista—namely because Vista has a partition tool baked in, XP does not.

Partition Your Hard Drive in XP

To partition your hard drive in Windows XP, you’ll need to download some sort of third-party partitioning software. There are a lot of options available, but I prefer to stick with the previously mentioned GParted live CD, a free, open source boot CD that can handle all kinds of partitioning duties.

To use it, just download the GParted Live CD, burn it to a CD, then reboot your computer (booting from the disc). You’ll boot right into the partitioning tool. HowtoForge’s previous guide to modifying partitions with GParted is a great place to start, but it’s a fairly basic procedure:

1. Resize your current OS drive to free up enough space for a Windows 7 partition (the minimum system requirements ask for 16GB).
2. Create a new partition from the newly freed space.
3. Apply your changes.

Partition Your Hard Drive in Vista

The folks at Redmond were kind enough to include a disk partitioning tool in Vista if you know where to look. So go to Control Panel -> System and Maintainence (skip this one if you’re in Classic view) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Once you launch the Computer Management tool, click on Disk Management under the Storage heading in the sidebar. It’s partitioning time.

Luckily we’ve already gone down this road before in step-by-step detail, complete with pictures, so check out our previous guide to creating a new partition in Vista. In a nutshell, you’ll need to shrink your current OS partition to free up at least 16GB of disk space (per the Windows 7 minimum system requirements), then create a “New Simple Volume” from the free space.

Step 2: Install Windows 7

Now that you’ve done all the heavy lifting, it’s time for the easy part: Installing Windows 7 on your new partition. So insert your Windows 7 disc and reboot your computer (you’ll need to have enabled booting from your DVD drive in your system BIOS, but most PCs will have this enabled by default).

Once the DVD boots up it’s a simple matter of following along with the fairly simple installation wizard. When you’re choosing installation type, be sure to select Custom (advanced) and choose the partition you set up above. (Be careful here. Choosing the wrong partition could mean wiping your other Windows installation altogether, so make sure you pick the new partition you just created.)

After you select the partition, go grab yourself a drink and let the installer do its work. Windows will run through some installation bits, restart a few times in the process. Eventually you’ll be prompted to set up your account, enter your license key, and set up Windows. Keep your eyes open for fun new Windows 7 features, like your new homegroup (and the accompanying password). When it’s finished, you’re up and rolling with your new Windows 7 installation.

Congratulations! You should now have a new entry for Windows 7 on your boot screen when you first start up your computer. You’ve now got all the tools necessary to dual-boot Windows 7 and XP or Vista—or even to triple-boot Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

This isn’t the only way to set up a multi-boot system by any means, but it’s how I pulled it off. If you’ve got a method of your own that you prefer, let’s hear it in the comments.

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