HDD Expert – Check hard drive health & performance

A Hard Drive fails without giving any warning, but if you notice any of these symptoms, back up all your important data. Some program that can track the required parameters of hard drive can help you in avoiding data loss. HDDExpert is a freeware for Windows computer which can help you check your hard drive’s health and performance.

HDDExpert checks the S.MA.R.T data and monitors various parameters of your PC including Seek Error rates, read and write error rates, temperature, performance reports and much more. It is a portable program, and you can start accessing it right after downloading it on your computer system.

Fix: Windows explorer.exe does not start at startup

I have realized that corruption in the Windows registry can lead to all sorts of problems. Some of you may have faced this problem, that after you logged on to your computer, you might have seen just a blank screen. No desktop, no Taskbar! This may happen because explorer.exe which is supposed to start-up automatically, did not start at all. While some registry error might have caused this issue, it is certainly possible the problem could be due to some virus infection too, which blocks the explorer.exe from running.

In such situations where your Windows 7 | 8 or Windows Vista explorer.exe fails to start-up automatically on every boot, here are a few steps you can try out:

How To Disable the Automatic Restart on System Failure in Windows 7

Windows 7 is configured by default to restart immediately after a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) or other major system problem. This reboot usually happens too fast to see the error message on screen.
Follow these simple steps to disable the automatic restart feature for system failures in Windows 7.
Important: Unable to boot completely into Windows 7 due to the BSOD? See Tip #2 at the bottom of this page for help.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: Disabling the Automatic Restart option in Windows 7 usually takes less than 10 minutes

How To Turn Off iexplore.exe Process?

While working on you computer you noticed that it’s taking its time and slowly reacting on your commands, you figured it out something was wrong and you opened the Task Manager. And in it you found at least a dozen of iexplore.exe processes!

Maybe they are not the main reason for slowing down your computer but in either case you want to get rid if them as soon as possible…. But if there are too many of them to click “End Process” on every single one of them or some of them even come back by themselves, you can follow these steps.

Luckily, as always, there are ways to solve this problem and turning off iexplore.exe using the command line. And not only that, you can create a shortcut for this on your desktop.

TRICKS TO BOOT COMPUTER MORE FASTER.

Often people say that their computers take a lot of time to start. Many visitors asked me by email about this problems. There are many reasons of this problem. I am telling you a few tricks which will be helpful to solve this problem.

1. Click start --- run -----enter.
2. Type “msconfig” and press enter.
3. In the resultant window go to the “Startup” tab.
4. You will see a list of programs which also start when we start computer.
5. All program boxes will be checked. So you uncheck all unnecessary or unwanted programs except antivirus.  
6. Click on apply and restart your computer. You will feel that your computer is faster than before.

2^nd Trick to boot computer faster

      

    1.  Right click on “My computer” and select “Manage”

    2.  click on “Device Manager”. You will see a list of hardware.

    3.  If you are not using USB/COM ports, then disable them.

     4.  Restart your Computer. It will give you more better performance in booting. 

CloudShot: Capture and save screenshots directly to Dropbox

CloudShot is a free screen capturing utility that lets you capture your PC screen and directly save it on the cloud storage. CloudShot integrates with your Dropbox account to upload screenshots. It is a nice and useful tool. CloudShot runs from the system tray and has minimal configuration options making it easier to operate and use.

Save screenshots directly to Dropbox

Once you’ve successfully installed CloudShot on your Windows PC, pressing print screen button will open the CloudShot’s translucent capturing window, in this window you can select the area of the screen to be captured and it would automatically be saved at your desired location.

Quickly minimize & maximize all open windows, or inactive windows only

Keyboard shortcuts are quite useful and make you work faster and more efficiently. There are several hotkeys or keyboard shortcut combinations which carry out different functions.

Minimize all open windows

Most Windows users know that, if you wish to suddenly minimize all your open windows, you can simply click on Win+M keys. Once you do that, all your open windows will get minimized to the taskbar.

Close All Open Windows with a Single Click

This program lets you close all running applications with just a single click. It doesn’t use system resources because it only flashes a ‘close’ signal to all open applications on the desktop and then ceases. Just create a shortcut to the tool in the Start Menu, Quick Launch, Windows 7 Taskbar or elsewhere.

Close All on Windows XP Quick Launch

Close All on Windows 7 Taskbar/Superbar

You can always add a hotkey to this shortcut. It is really very handy if you are running ~20 applications and want them all to quit instantly. It works just as if you were pressing the close button for each application.

How To Install

Close All Windows is a very simple utility that doesn’t require installation. No settings are stored in the Windows Registry or file system. Just follow the steps below to set it up on your computer.

Zip and UnZip files easily with CAM UnZip

Cam UnZip is a free lightweight application for Windows, that is specially designed to perform all the operations, related to zip archives. You don’t need to take any extra effort in order to zip and unzip files. It is a compression tool that is very easy to understand and use.

Cam Unzip to zip and unzip files

There are two main tabs that are present on the upper side of the window. To open or create a zip file you need to make use of these tabs.

ParcelNet release (including Update-9 to Meghdoot 7.0) Released by CEPT Mysore

Implementation of ParcelNet update, electronic flow of data and end to end tracking will be available in respect of the following parcel products:

a) Registered Parcels

b) Express Parcels (new service to be launched on 02.12.2013)

c) Business Parcels (new service to be launched on 02.12.2013)

Visit for Download Post Office / RMS Parcel Net Software

Parcel Net Update 29112013

Sandra Lite: PC diagnostic, benchmark and analysis tool

Sandra Lite is a free utility that lets you diagnose, benchmark and analyze your Windows computer. It is an all-in-one utility, which comes with lots of features that can be helpful while analysing and diagnosing a system. It can even help you compute your PC’s overall performance rank. You can know the in-depth details about your PC’s hardware and software components. This software also comes with an amazing tool that analysis and advice you on how to improve your computer’s performance.

Sandra Lite review

All the features in Sandra Lite are nicely organized into tabs, each tab containing related features only. The ‘Tools’ tab gives you access to various helpful tools like report generator and the computer stability tester and the analysis and advice feature also lies under this category, additionally under this tab you can monitor your computers environment. The tools section also lets you update Sandra Lite and perform other program management functions.

The next tab is ‘Benchmark’ tab. Under this tab you can see various benchmarking options. You can compute the Overall Score directly without performing each and every test. You can even perform single tests for Processor, Virtual Machine, General Purpose Computing, Storage Devices, Memory Controller and Network.

MultCloud lets you manage multiple cloud accounts & drives

MultCloud is a free web service that lets you operate your different cloud services at one single place and enhances your cloud experience. To start using this free service, you will first need to create a MultCloud account, using which you can login into different cloud services.

MultCloud

MultCloud supports Skydrive, Google Drive, DropBox, Amazon S3, Box and SugarSync. You can add as many accounts you want, but they should be one of the mentioned above.

MultCloud is a secure platform with great security and GUI features. The GUI is greatly designed to give you the Explorer feel and the search box lets you find your files across your cloud networks. For Google Drive, DropBox, Skydrive and Box you need to authenticate using the authentication dialog created by MultCloud but for SugarSync and Amazon S3 you need to enter your credentials beforehand. For SugarSync you need your Email and Password that you use while logging into SugarSync and for Amazon S3 you need to enter your Bucket Name, Access Key ID and Secret Access Key.

Avoid Online Shopping Fraud & Holiday Season Scams

The holiday season is synonymous with festivities, cheer, and mirth. It is also that “much-awaited time of the year” when flashy discount signs lure shopaholics with their special festive promotions and offers: the beginning of the “Sale Period”.

Holiday Season Scams

Unfortunately, while excited shoppers get busy grabbing the hottest deals and bargains, holiday season shopping scams also become rampant. Beware of these ‘new age’ online and mobile shopping frauds to protect your assets and identity and to enjoy care-free holidays.

As more and more people now use Internet and mobile phones for faster and last minute purchases, our criminal heroes too wish to make some money when you shop online etc. These scams not only rob naive customers of their money but also pose a threat of identity theft.

Here are some of the most discreetly manipulative shopping season scams that you should beware of.

Configure Internet Explorer to download up to 10 files at a time

When you are downloading files from the Internet, using the Internet Explorer browser, it limits the files you can download simultaneously at the same time. By default, Internet Explorer 10 (and IE9 & IE8) will let you download only up to 6 files at one time. In fact in IE7 and earlier, the limit was just two files!

The settings were made keeping download speeds in mind. But if you have fast broadband speeds, you may if you wish increase the number to even up to 10!

Increase number of simultaneous downloads in Internet Explorer

There are 3 ways you can enable more simultaneous download of files in Internet Explorer:

1. Using Group Policy Setting
2. Editing Windows Registry
3. Using Microsoft Fix It.

Using Group Policy Setting

Open Group Policy Editor and navigate to the following setting:

Fix: PDF Files will not open in Internet Explorer 10 | 11

PDF Files will not open in Internet Explorer

1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type put Regedt32.exe in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main

MOBILE MONEY TRANSFER

Mobile Money Transfer Gallery

Mobile Money Transfer Launches only in Limited number of offices, and training also given only launched offices. Most of the Dept of Post Employees not seen MMT device and Application Software.

Immediate Money Transfer

DOP Mobile Money Transfer is a service that enables instant money transfer from one place to another place using mobile, through Indian post offices.

Mobile Money Remittance Handset

Services was Managed by the trusted organizations i.e. India Post, BSNL.

New software can predict personality by analysing tweets

In some good news for employers, researchers are developing a software that can predict a job candidate’s personality and behaviour by analysing their postings on Twitter.

People who care for the welfare of others frequently use the words ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘friends’, ‘family’, ‘health’ and ‘home’ on the micro-blogging site, according to an analysis by IBM research in San Jose, California.

Those who do not have those qualities are more likely to use the words ‘work’, ‘school’, ‘job’, ‘music’ and ‘beer’

Perfectionists can be identified by their use of the words ‘perfect’ and ‘chauffeur’ People who settled for just good enough used the words ‘mix’, ‘half’ and ‘fix’

10 services Google killed in 2013

Google is widely considered to be one of the most innovative companies in the world today. But did you know that the company behind internet balloons and ultrafast web also killed off a large number of services this year? 

Here is a list of 10 services that Google shut down in 2013

iGoogle

iGoogle allowed users to create a personalized home page whenever they opened the website. The company says that the need of such a service has decreased due to the exponential growth of apps that run on Android and Chrome.

Google Reader

In March, Google announced that it is shutting down Reader, a popular RSS feed aggregator, citing declining usage. However, this move faced severe criticism from netizens and an online petition against killing Reader garnered over 1,00,000 signatures. Nevertheless, Google went ahead and killed the product in July this year.

WinGuard Pro: Password protect files, folders, Windows features & apps

With WinGuard Pro 2014 users can password protect Windows Programs and other Tasks.

In addition users can also Encrypt any file with 128 bit AES Encryption.

Key Features:

• Password protect any Windows Program
• 128 AES bit file encryption
• Block Internet Explorer
• Block Windows Explorer
• Block Software Installers
• 1 Free PC License

Build the ultimate Emergency USB Backup Drive with these Portable Apps for Windows

Emergency USB Backup Drive

Friend’s hard drive went kaput, and you are stranded without an internet connection? No worries, just pull out your USB drive and start Recuva. You can either use Portableapps.com or Liberkey to get your collection of portable apps. Both are robust systems that have stood the test of time.

Portable Apps for Windows 8.1

You should always keep these portable apps with you.

Instant File Opener: Open multiple files, folders, applications, URLs quickly

Instant File Opener for Windows

Instant File Opener is a simple tool designed to help you create a list with files, folders, applications and URLs that you want opened every time you start a Windows session.

The lightweight tool settles just for 2 MB of space. The installation too, is quick and requires no registration. Upon launch, you find a dedicated menu appearing on your computer screen allowing you to add and manage items on the list easily using the commands there. The application’s main window boasts a taskbar, toolbar, table list and a few drop down lists and buttons.

You can add files you want to be displayed during the startup or add list items by right clicking the mouse button on the table/dragging and dropping files and folders into the table.

My computer drives are not opening

Sometimes it happens in windows XP that you are not able to open drives on your hard disk. When you double click on the drives icons or right click on the drive>>explore in My computer ,the drive does not open. 

This problem is generally caused by most of the viruses which infect windows XP system. They block or restrict your access to any of the drives. 

But don't worry this is not a big trouble it can be fixed easily. 

Fix: 

Normally when a virus infects a windows system which causes a drive opening problem, it automatically creates a file named autorun.inf in the root directory of each drive. 

This autorun.inf file is a read only ,hidden and a system file and the folder option is also disabled by the virus. This is deliberately done by the virus in order to protect itself. autorun.inf initiates all the activities that the virus performs when you try to open any drive. 

You have to just delete this file and restart your system to correct this problem. 

Follow the set of commands below to show and delete the autorun.inf 

1. Open Start>>Run and type cmd and press enter. This will open a command prompt window. On this command prompt window type the following steps. 

2. type cd\ 

3. type attrib -r -h -s autorun.inf 

4. type del autorun.inf 

5. now type d: and press enter for d: drive partition. Now repeat steps 3 and 4. Similarly repeat step 5 for all your hard disk partition. 

Restart your system and your trouble will be fixed