TricksPedia

I just bought a new (well, refurbished) Sony Media Center PC, and while it’s working fine for the most part, there’s one annoying glitch: The Blu-ray drive’s Eject button doesn’t work.

Consequently, discs stay trapped in the drive unless I minimize Windows Media Center, open Computer, right-click the drive icon, and choose Eject. Talk about a hassle!

While I’m working to resolve this with Sony’s tech support, I need a faster, easier solution. And I found one: a tiny freeware app called, simply enough, EjectCD.
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Use hidden international wallpapers and themes

When you first install Windows 7, it asks for your language, time and currency. Based on your responses, it installs a set of wallpapers and themes. If you choose English (United States) for your time and currency format, for example, the available desktop backgrounds and themes will include a United States section with scenery from locations such as Maine, the Southwest and so on.

Hidden, though, are background scenery and themes from other English-speaking countries — Australia, Canada, Great Britain and South Africa. Normally, you can’t access those backgrounds or themes, but there is a simple way you can install and use them:

1. In the search box in the Start menu, type C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT and press Enter. (Note: If Windows 7 is installed in a drive other than C:, use that letter instead.)

2. Windows Explorer will launch and show you a list of subfolders under C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT: MCT-AU, MCT-CA, MCT-GB, MCT-US, and MCT-ZA. Each subfolder has wallpapers for a specific country: AU for Australia, CA for Canada, GB for Great Britain, US for the United States, and ZA for South Africa.

For any of the countries whose wallpaper and themes you want to use, go into its Theme folder, for example, C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT\MCT-ZA\Theme. Double-click the theme you see there (for example ZA).

3. That will install a shortcut to the theme and wallpapers in the Personalization section of Control Panel.

You can now use them as you would any other theme or background, by right-clicking the desktop, choosing Personalize, and choosing a background or theme. They will be listed in their own section.
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Microsoft today confirmed that users can apply a workaround trick to do a clean install of Windows 7 on a blank hard drive as long as they toe the licensing line.

In a blog post earlier this week, Eric Ligman, who works in Microsoft’s worldwide partner group, took exception to stories that showed people how to use the less-expensive Windows 7 upgrade editions to install the new operating system on blank drives. Computerworld covered the upgrade install trick — first reported by noted Windows blogger Paul Thurrott — last Friday.

“Over the past several days there have been various posts, etc. across a variety of social media engines stating that some ‘hack’ (be it a person or a procedure) shows that a Windows 7 Upgrade disc can perform a ‘clean’ installation of Windows 7 on a blank drive from a technical perspective,” said Ligman.

“They often forgot to mention a very basic, yet very important piece of information,” said Ligman about Thurrott’s blog post and the resulting reports by others. “‘Technically possible’ does not always mean legal,” Ligman said.

In order to use upgrade media to install Windows 7 on a blank hard drive, users must abide by the operating system’s EULA, or end-user licensing agreement (download PDF). “To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from,” the EULA states.

That, said Ligman, means users must either have a “full” retail license of Windows XP or Vista, or assuming the Windows 7 upgrade is applied to an existing PC, that the upgrade is done on that same machine, which has a so-called “OEM” license attached to it.

“There are many, many, many, many of you out there that already own Windows licenses that qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade, so this is a non-issue for you,” said Ligman. “For you, since you have the previous version FULL Windows license and qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade, you have the rights to do a ‘clean’ install.”

On PCs purchased with Windows XP or Vista preinstalled by the computer maker — which slap an “OEM” license of Windows on the machine — users can install a Windows 7 upgrade edition on that system’s blank hard drive, but on no other, Ligman added.

“An OEM license is a full license,” Ligman wrote in a comment to this blog post, answering a user’s question. “So an OEM + an upgrade gets you the upgraded version.”

A Microsoft spokeswoman today confirmed Ligman’s account of when it’s permissible to use upgrade media — which costs up to $100 less than the same version’s “full” edition — to install Windows 7 on a blank drive. “You can always do a clean install if you’re upgrading, so long as you’re upgrading a machine that’s already running genuine Windows XP or Windows Vista,” she said in an instant today.
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So, you’ve just installed Windows 7. What to do first? Follow our handy guide and we’ll show you all the whizzy new features worth showing off to your mates.

Shake that mouse!
Open a few windows then hold one of them as if dragging it around the screen. Give it a shake while still holding it, and you’ll see the rest disappear, letting you glance at the desktop and move files around. Give the window another shake and its buddies will whizz back onto the screen.

Snap to it!
Windows 7’s Aero Snap function lets you resize windows by moving them to the edges of your screen. It might sound simple, but it’s handy for comparing documents and webpages side by side on-screen, and perfect if you’ve got a widescreen browser.

Aero Peek
Windows 7 has X-ray vision! Tap the button in the bottom right of the taskbar and you’ll see all your windows turn transparent. They’ll keep their frames, so you can see what you have open, but you’ll be able to instantly find icons, or hidden windows. You’ll need the Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate edition of Windows 7 to enjoy Aero Peek.

Desktop slideshow
Bored of having a single desktop wallpaper? No problem, Windows 7 introduces moving slideshows to your desktop. Choose a selection of images, and Windows 7 will cycle through them, using gentle transitions to add variety to your everyday compute.

Scatter your gadgets
Windows Vista kept your gadgets stuffed in a sidebar. Windows 7 frees them to roam across the desktop. Scatter them around! Fling them to the four corners of your PC! Windows 7 lets you arrange them however you want, not how Microsoft thinks you should.
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(CBS) Microsoft is, if anything, tenacious. After nearly three years trying to get people to buy Vista, the company has decided to put that operating system in its rear-view mirror. On Thursday Microsoft and a slew of PC makers will introduce Windows 7 to the general public.

I’ve been using various test versions of Windows 7 for nearly a year and the final version since August. As I said in my review of the final version, I found Windows 7 to be a worthy upgrade. While the improvements over Vista and even Windows XP aren’t dramatic, they are significant. Having said that, I don’t think everyone should upgrade existing machines, but those who are willing to spend the time and money for an upgrade will notice improvements.

Before spending between $120 and $220 for a Windows 7 upgrade disc, think about instead waiting till you buy your next PC. With PC prices at near record lows, you may be better off replacing rather than upgrading. By getting Windows 7 on a new machine you not only avoid the hassle of upgrading but you’ll probably wind up with better hardware for less than you paid for your old system. For example, Dell’s $399 Inspiron 546 comes with Windows 7 Home Premium along with a pretty fast processor, 3 gigabytes of memory and a 320 GB hard drive. You’ll also find plenty of low-cost Windows 7 equipped laptops. If you bought your machine recently, check with your PC maker or Microsoft to see if you qualify for a free upgrade.
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Mozilla Firefox has been outperforming Internet Explorer for a number of years, and its latest version is even faster than ever. However, there is a new, lean, free web browser on the block which runs web pages at lightning speed. It goes by the name of Google Chrome. Google released the source code of Chrome, including its custom JavaScript engine as an open source project entitled Chromium.

Tweak the right settings and with some experimentation, Firefox can keep pace with Google Chrome. Unknown to many of its users, Firefox has a raft of options that can unleash the browser’s true potential. With just a few minutes of your time, you can make your daily web browsing more enjoyable. Even if your system has a state of the art Intel Core i7, AMD Opteron, or AMD Phenom processor, optimization is still worth exploring.

Many of the following tips are not Linux specific. So this article will hopefully be of interest to users of a wide variety of operating systems including Sun Microsystems’ Solaris, Microsoft’s XP, Vista and 7, as well as Apple’s Mac OS X, and other UNIX clones.

We would recommend you backup your Firefox settings (stored in the prefs.js file) before experimenting with the tips set out in this article.
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PowerPoint’s drawing tools can be cumbersome to use. Using the freehand or scribble tool in the AutoShapes to make a line, curve, or shape, requires you to go to the tool again to add another piece of the drawing. This instruction shows you an alternate and better way to do freehand drawings in Power Point.

1.
The first part of this instruction will show you how to save your drawings in PowerPoint 2000. The second part of this instruction will show you how to save your drawings in later versions of PowerPoint (PointPoint 2007 for example). Read the rest of this entry »

Security problems with Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer browser helped pave the way for Mozilla Firefox to emerge as an alternative for Web surfers.

However, Firefox users should be aware that hackers can exploit software flaws and design features to launch attacks.

The following configuration changes, recommended by CERT/CC, can disable various features and set up the browser to run in a secure state, limiting the damage from malware attacks.

To get started, select Tools, then Options.

Now check all the steps Here.

Today I’m going to review a site which helped me a lot through troubled times with my pc, when I just wanted to bang my head against the wall. This actually is not an ordinary website, but rather a massive library of file extensions that is an authority on the subject among the technical community. This site includes all you need to know about file types, what they are used for, programs they are associated with, while it also provides information on how to fix file extension related errors. Read the rest of this entry »

Learning how to add music to MySpace is as easy as pie. First, go to MySpace and log-in to your MySpace profile.

Once you’re in your profile, click on the Music link. You’ll be taken to the MySpace music area, where there is a small box of drop-down search menus you can use to find just the right MySpace background music that you’re looking for. All musical genres are represented here; you can search by artist, style, sounds like, etc.

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