I'm surprised how many people's online asking the same question again & again on how to extract .rar file. It seems like a rather easy question for me and I always thought everyone should know how to do it. Maybe the software has already been sitting in my PC for quite a while, thus it turns into a normal process for me to install it whenever I reinstall my PC. There's always something new for you to learn and soon you'll turn into a geek like me. Just kidding.
Winrar is a very popular software for users to compress numerous files into one smaller size .rar file. Many peoples are using it to compress and upload their files to the internet for others to download. But some peoples don't know how to open the file as Windows doesn't comes with a software that can open .rar file, so you need a third-party free software called "Winrar" to open the file. You can download the free software at: www.rarlab.com/
What's the different between .zip & .rar? You can said that .rar is an improvement over the .zip format. Basically it's the same function, but rar does a better job in compressing file. And recently, there's another new format that became quite popular known as 7 zip. Yes, more or less they are all the same. 7 zip is another improvement over .rar. If you ever see a files that are in .7z format. You know what you should do. Do you? Download the free 7 zip software at:www.7-zip.org
We have already mentiond about various compressing format in our previous articles. To keep it short to open
.rar go to www.rarlab.com
.7z go to www.7-zip.org
If you have more question regarding software problems, you can leave us a meesage and let us know. We'll try to post a solution to your question asap. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
How to open .iso files
What's an .iso file? .iso is an image file of a CD or DVD without the physical CD/DVD of course. Many people's use it to backup their CD/DVD in case in spoil after some time. To create .iso file, you can use free software burner tools to create a duplicate image of your CD's. But how do you run the iso file? Easy, there's free software online that let you create virtual drive and run your iso image file. It's just like placing the actual CD's in your optical drive, instead you do everything on your PC by mounting the iso image into the virtual drive. The virtual you create will act just like the CD/DVD drive on your computer.
The two most popular virtual emulation software are "Daemon" & "Alcohol 120%". I preferred the former as it's easier to use. Daemon doesn't have any fancy interface or whole lots of options, after you installed the software, it'll display as a small icon on your taskbar. Then to use it, right click on the icon and create a virtual drive. You can create as many as 5 virtual drive and mount different iso image into each different drive. This will save you time un-mounting and mounting different iso file that's always in use. It's also something that your optical drive can't do, every time you want to change a cd's you have to take the cd out and place the second one in. Although such issues has been fixed considerably when DVD becomes the standard format of external storage. Daemon emulation software also comes with security bypass system, you can easily turn it on by selecting which security system you want to bypass. Why do you need this? A lot's of games today's have third party security software installed to prevent pirated copy's from running, some even install it in your PC without you knowing it and it can't be remove unless you reformat your hard drive. The biggest annoyance of these security software is that it could slow down your computer. Daemon let you bypass these software and install the game in your computer. But make sure you have the latest version of daemon.
The second emulation software is Alcohol 120%. I have used it before but that's quite some time back. From my faint experience, the whole software is too complicated to use. Daemon does a good job for me that's why I haven't thought of changing another software. Alcohol 120% has a free trial & paid version, maybe that's the reason why I don't like about Alcohol 120%. I'm a free software supporter, but I know the company are trying to make a living too. As long as the software is good, I'll definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with Alcohol 120%. I have been to a lot of forum and community, most feedback and recommendation are on the positive side, so I guess the software should be good. Alcohol 120% not only let you mount virtual image, but it also let you create backups of DVDs and CDs which daemon doesn't. Daemon software only let you mount an existing Iso or others virtual image file, it can't be used to create an image file. If you need a software that can let you create backup cds or dvds, then Alcohol 120% might be a better choice. But you might need to spend money on buying it, I'm sure there's some limitation on the trial version to an extent.
The two most popular virtual emulation software are "Daemon" & "Alcohol 120%". I preferred the former as it's easier to use. Daemon doesn't have any fancy interface or whole lots of options, after you installed the software, it'll display as a small icon on your taskbar. Then to use it, right click on the icon and create a virtual drive. You can create as many as 5 virtual drive and mount different iso image into each different drive. This will save you time un-mounting and mounting different iso file that's always in use. It's also something that your optical drive can't do, every time you want to change a cd's you have to take the cd out and place the second one in. Although such issues has been fixed considerably when DVD becomes the standard format of external storage. Daemon emulation software also comes with security bypass system, you can easily turn it on by selecting which security system you want to bypass. Why do you need this? A lot's of games today's have third party security software installed to prevent pirated copy's from running, some even install it in your PC without you knowing it and it can't be remove unless you reformat your hard drive. The biggest annoyance of these security software is that it could slow down your computer. Daemon let you bypass these software and install the game in your computer. But make sure you have the latest version of daemon.
The second emulation software is Alcohol 120%. I have used it before but that's quite some time back. From my faint experience, the whole software is too complicated to use. Daemon does a good job for me that's why I haven't thought of changing another software. Alcohol 120% has a free trial & paid version, maybe that's the reason why I don't like about Alcohol 120%. I'm a free software supporter, but I know the company are trying to make a living too. As long as the software is good, I'll definitely recommend it. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with Alcohol 120%. I have been to a lot of forum and community, most feedback and recommendation are on the positive side, so I guess the software should be good. Alcohol 120% not only let you mount virtual image, but it also let you create backups of DVDs and CDs which daemon doesn't. Daemon software only let you mount an existing Iso or others virtual image file, it can't be used to create an image file. If you need a software that can let you create backup cds or dvds, then Alcohol 120% might be a better choice. But you might need to spend money on buying it, I'm sure there's some limitation on the trial version to an extent.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
How to extract .001 .002 etc extension file
Since file hosting sites are getting more popular, we have seen some new type of uploading style. Most file hosting site have file upload size limit, some smaller some larger. I personally would prefer smaller file size as it reduces the chance of broken file or sudden file lost due to lost of connection, especially when your at 90 over percent. Since uploader can't upload a file that's larger than the limit, they have to split the original file into smaller separate file. In the past, most people's are using Winrar to do the job, but it has less choice in size and harder to use. So a free software called hjsplit comes to the rescue. Although the software doesn't compress the file, it can easily split a large file size into various smaller size file & join it together again with a few clicks of button.
So next time when you see extension such as .001 - .(whatever number), you need to download hjsplit freeware at: www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/ and join the file back together before you can use it. If you can't see the extension of the file, read my previous post and learn how you can activate it. The free software doesn't require any installation, download the .exe double click the software and you are ready to use. The software is only about 300 Kb in size, so it can be downloaded within seconds depends on your internet connection.
It's not only useful when using to upload file online, I also found it useful when transferring large file from my netbook to my PC. If you have a large pendrive then transferring large file would be easier, but if you are like me only have 2 1 GB pendrive then you'd have to split the file using hjsplit, so you can transfer those smaller file to your pendrive then to your PC. Once you have transferred all files to your PC, use the free software again to join all the bits together. There's various reason why people's need such software, I never thought of it before I need it and it's really useful. I found myself using it quite a lot to transfer file from my netbook to my PC or PC to netbook. Even if you don't need it now, remember this freeware hjsplit, some day it might becomes handy. Especially when you download a lot from file hosting site, you might come across such extension in future.
So next time when you see extension such as .001 - .(whatever number), you need to download hjsplit freeware at: www.freebyte.com/hjsplit/ and join the file back together before you can use it. If you can't see the extension of the file, read my previous post and learn how you can activate it. The free software doesn't require any installation, download the .exe double click the software and you are ready to use. The software is only about 300 Kb in size, so it can be downloaded within seconds depends on your internet connection.
It's not only useful when using to upload file online, I also found it useful when transferring large file from my netbook to my PC. If you have a large pendrive then transferring large file would be easier, but if you are like me only have 2 1 GB pendrive then you'd have to split the file using hjsplit, so you can transfer those smaller file to your pendrive then to your PC. Once you have transferred all files to your PC, use the free software again to join all the bits together. There's various reason why people's need such software, I never thought of it before I need it and it's really useful. I found myself using it quite a lot to transfer file from my netbook to my PC or PC to netbook. Even if you don't need it now, remember this freeware hjsplit, some day it might becomes handy. Especially when you download a lot from file hosting site, you might come across such extension in future.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
It's time to move from Windows xp to Windows 7
Before I start talking my experiences with the new Windows 7 RC version which will be released on 22nd October this year, I have never use Vista before. You might be wondering why I never want to try Vista but willing to test the RC released of Win 7? That's because I heard too much bad thing about Vista, on the other hand, Windows 7 has been getting positive review since the Beta released & my friend just happens to have the RC version on his pendrive, so out of conveniences I decided to install Windows 7 in my netbook along with Windows xp.
To tell the truth, my experience with Win 7 has been overwhelming, the first thing you would notice is the graphically impressive interface. I know it's weird but it gives you a classy and professional feel to it that makes using Win 7 a great pleasure. But still, the most important thing is the innovative features. I know some of the function such as Aero effects is in the vista, but it slows down even the most powerful computer as I heard, it's a badly optimized OS. Fortunately, Windows 7 is as fast as it can be with Aero effects even on a 1.66 Ghz, 1 GB of RAM netbook. Sometime it even feel faster than XP with all the very cool desktop effects, and the boot & shut down time is on par with Xp, maybe a little slower. Beside the old Aero effects, there's also some new and improved features in Windows 7. Let's talk about the improvement first, the gadgets which is one of the favorite features. In Vista there's a limited space on the right side that let you drop your favorite gadgets in it, but you can only use very limited of gadgets as there's very limited space. In Windows 7 you can drop it wherever you want on the desktop and design it on your own. There's a lot of useful gadgets already in Win 7 such as clock, calender, cpu meter..etc. Beside the one already in Win 7, users are allowed to develop their own gadgets and share it on Windows official site. Some cool gadgets I found including one button shut down, hibernate. I'm sure when Windows 7 is release, you'll be able to find more cool gadgets.
Now let's talk about what's new in Win7. There's quite a lot, I'm just going to briefly go through it such as jumplist & pin any program to taskbar which is also very cool & useful. Every time you point on the program for example your firefox browser, it'll show you a list of all browser. Point at it and it'll display the browser on the background, click on it and it'll stay. Pin any program to taskbar let you place your most use program on the taskbar for quick access.
I've been talking about how great Windows 7 is, but is it really flawless? Unfortunately no. I have some driver problems with my modem and the company hasn't update any new drivers since XP. So if I want to use Windows 7 and my internet connection, then I might have to buy a newer broadband modem. Although Windows 7 have a compatibility mode called xp mode which let all software that run on Windows xp also run under Windows 7. But to use the xp mode, you need some kind of intel virtualization support which my netbook doesn't support. It's a great addition for those who are still using old software, but the need of hardware support itself is a problem. Thank god I installed Windows 7 as an additional so I can dual boot both xp and 7.
Even though there's still some driver problem with my modem, I still seriously thinking of buying Windows 7 when it release later next month. It's a great OS, it looks great and run fast. I think it's time to move from a 10 years old os, you can really see the age of xp after you use windows 7. If you are buying a new PC or notebook, wait till the release of Windows 7, you won't regret it.
To tell the truth, my experience with Win 7 has been overwhelming, the first thing you would notice is the graphically impressive interface. I know it's weird but it gives you a classy and professional feel to it that makes using Win 7 a great pleasure. But still, the most important thing is the innovative features. I know some of the function such as Aero effects is in the vista, but it slows down even the most powerful computer as I heard, it's a badly optimized OS. Fortunately, Windows 7 is as fast as it can be with Aero effects even on a 1.66 Ghz, 1 GB of RAM netbook. Sometime it even feel faster than XP with all the very cool desktop effects, and the boot & shut down time is on par with Xp, maybe a little slower. Beside the old Aero effects, there's also some new and improved features in Windows 7. Let's talk about the improvement first, the gadgets which is one of the favorite features. In Vista there's a limited space on the right side that let you drop your favorite gadgets in it, but you can only use very limited of gadgets as there's very limited space. In Windows 7 you can drop it wherever you want on the desktop and design it on your own. There's a lot of useful gadgets already in Win 7 such as clock, calender, cpu meter..etc. Beside the one already in Win 7, users are allowed to develop their own gadgets and share it on Windows official site. Some cool gadgets I found including one button shut down, hibernate. I'm sure when Windows 7 is release, you'll be able to find more cool gadgets.
Now let's talk about what's new in Win7. There's quite a lot, I'm just going to briefly go through it such as jumplist & pin any program to taskbar which is also very cool & useful. Every time you point on the program for example your firefox browser, it'll show you a list of all browser. Point at it and it'll display the browser on the background, click on it and it'll stay. Pin any program to taskbar let you place your most use program on the taskbar for quick access.
I've been talking about how great Windows 7 is, but is it really flawless? Unfortunately no. I have some driver problems with my modem and the company hasn't update any new drivers since XP. So if I want to use Windows 7 and my internet connection, then I might have to buy a newer broadband modem. Although Windows 7 have a compatibility mode called xp mode which let all software that run on Windows xp also run under Windows 7. But to use the xp mode, you need some kind of intel virtualization support which my netbook doesn't support. It's a great addition for those who are still using old software, but the need of hardware support itself is a problem. Thank god I installed Windows 7 as an additional so I can dual boot both xp and 7.
Even though there's still some driver problem with my modem, I still seriously thinking of buying Windows 7 when it release later next month. It's a great OS, it looks great and run fast. I think it's time to move from a 10 years old os, you can really see the age of xp after you use windows 7. If you are buying a new PC or notebook, wait till the release of Windows 7, you won't regret it.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Free software to check your computer system information
Recently my friend has this problem, he reinstalled windows xp because malware are slowing down his PC. After the installation every thing when smoothly, in fact the PC start and work faster like never before. But the problem start here, he doesn't have the necessary software CD for his sound card driver. You might be thinking that what's the big deal, just search the internet for the driver. Unfortunately he doesn't know the manufacture of the sound card either. Thus, first he needs to find out what sound card he is using before he can search for the right driver.
There's a few way you can check your sound information directly on the Windows.
1) Go to "start" select run, then key in dxdiag & press enter. Wait for a while for the program to load, it takes some time. You'll see some of your hardware information on the first page such as processor, motherboard, ram...etc. Never mind that, click the tab "sound" & you should see your computer sound card information. This method doesn't work for my friend, it says no sound card detected.
2) Second method, go to control panel & open "system". Choose the tab "hardware" on top, then click on "device manager". Now select option sound and see what you can find.
If the above two method doesn't work for you either. Then you might need the help of third party software. There's a lot of free diagnostic software on the internet, and following two is my favourite.
1) The first one is called fresh diagnose. The software will show very detail of your computer system information unlike dxdiag on the windows which shows briefly information. Download free version of fresh diagnose at: www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html
2) If for any reason the above doesn't help at all. Try out this second software which I found through user recommendation on some website. The software is Belarc Advisor, as for the official download site, you'll to do the work yourself. Just search for Belarc Advisor and you should see the company website on the top result.
There's a few way you can check your sound information directly on the Windows.
1) Go to "start" select run, then key in dxdiag & press enter. Wait for a while for the program to load, it takes some time. You'll see some of your hardware information on the first page such as processor, motherboard, ram...etc. Never mind that, click the tab "sound" & you should see your computer sound card information. This method doesn't work for my friend, it says no sound card detected.
2) Second method, go to control panel & open "system". Choose the tab "hardware" on top, then click on "device manager". Now select option sound and see what you can find.
If the above two method doesn't work for you either. Then you might need the help of third party software. There's a lot of free diagnostic software on the internet, and following two is my favourite.
1) The first one is called fresh diagnose. The software will show very detail of your computer system information unlike dxdiag on the windows which shows briefly information. Download free version of fresh diagnose at: www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html
2) If for any reason the above doesn't help at all. Try out this second software which I found through user recommendation on some website. The software is Belarc Advisor, as for the official download site, you'll to do the work yourself. Just search for Belarc Advisor and you should see the company website on the top result.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Free ftp software
It seems like internet is getting more popular when video streaming & social networking is made available. We got a reason to stay on the internet a little bit longer & stay away from the television. Eventually, people's get more tech savvy, then we learned about using blog & create our own website. Blog is free to use & you can share whatever information you want just like this blog. But if you want your own domain, you'll have to spend some money on it including a ftp software that will allowed you to upload files to the server.
So is there any free ftp software out there. The answer is Yes! Note: Beside using a separate ftp software, Internet Explorer has a ftp built-in function that will let you access to your ftp server. To find free ftp software, do a search on google. Here's what I found:" filezilla-project.org, www.coreftp.com, www.smartftp.com". These are the top three result on google, I never use them before, so I'm not sure if they are good or not. Since they are free, download and try it yourself. Beside the three I posted above, there should be more free ftp software around. You can try searching through the pages or go to download.com for more free software. The good thing about download.com is that you can easily determine a decent software by the review. But still the best free ftp software might not be on the site, so you might still need to do more research if you want the best. Otherwise, the three I mentioned should do the job just right.
Personally, I preferred cuteftp and still using it. If you are willing to pay, I recommend you to try out cuteftp. There's a free version of cuteftp on its official site, you can try it first before buying it. Though, I'm not sure if cuteftp is the best ftp software out there.
So is there any free ftp software out there. The answer is Yes! Note: Beside using a separate ftp software, Internet Explorer has a ftp built-in function that will let you access to your ftp server. To find free ftp software, do a search on google. Here's what I found:" filezilla-project.org, www.coreftp.com, www.smartftp.com". These are the top three result on google, I never use them before, so I'm not sure if they are good or not. Since they are free, download and try it yourself. Beside the three I posted above, there should be more free ftp software around. You can try searching through the pages or go to download.com for more free software. The good thing about download.com is that you can easily determine a decent software by the review. But still the best free ftp software might not be on the site, so you might still need to do more research if you want the best. Otherwise, the three I mentioned should do the job just right.
Personally, I preferred cuteftp and still using it. If you are willing to pay, I recommend you to try out cuteftp. There's a free version of cuteftp on its official site, you can try it first before buying it. Though, I'm not sure if cuteftp is the best ftp software out there.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The best p2p software
Torrent & p2p? Are they the same? Basically yes, both share files among computers. But there's some differences in functionality, each with its advantages & disadvantages. To download a torrent, first you need a software, you can download it free on the internet, bitcomet & azureus are some of the most popular out there. Second, you need a torrent tracker, without it the software is useless. How do you find these tracker? You can find it on website or forum that let user's to share their tracker. The only website I can remember right now is mininova.org. Search for the file name and download the tracker of that file. If you can't find it that's mean there's no one sharing the file you are looking for.
P2p is quite different from torrent when searching for a file. You don't have to search for website or forum to find tracker, such function has built in the p2p software itself. Depends on the p2p software you are using, it'll search on some of the most famous network such as edonkey & gnutella server. Those who are connected to the p2p network server will be sharing files among their computer's.
Now, the question you have been waiting for, which is the best p2p software? In my own experiences, limewire & shareaza are among the best. Limewire are only good for downloading songs/music. Personally, I preferred shareaza as you will be able to find some rare video as well beside songs. Shareaza is more versatile, you can find lots of music, video, software across gnutella & edonkey server. There's a lot of file in the network, but also a lot of junk file containing viruses. So be extra careful when you are downloading files in .rar compressed format. It's very important for you to scan every files you downloaded from torrent or p2p before viewing the actual content. This is the disadvantages of using p2p software, you wouldn't know if the file you are downloading are fake or not. And you can't find any comments on that file like torrent. Since you'll be downloading tracker from a website or forum, usually you can find some user's discussing the file assumed that it's popular. That information can be used to verify the authority of that file. If the file is not working or contained viruses, someone will post it there to warned others.
P2p is quite different from torrent when searching for a file. You don't have to search for website or forum to find tracker, such function has built in the p2p software itself. Depends on the p2p software you are using, it'll search on some of the most famous network such as edonkey & gnutella server. Those who are connected to the p2p network server will be sharing files among their computer's.
Now, the question you have been waiting for, which is the best p2p software? In my own experiences, limewire & shareaza are among the best. Limewire are only good for downloading songs/music. Personally, I preferred shareaza as you will be able to find some rare video as well beside songs. Shareaza is more versatile, you can find lots of music, video, software across gnutella & edonkey server. There's a lot of file in the network, but also a lot of junk file containing viruses. So be extra careful when you are downloading files in .rar compressed format. It's very important for you to scan every files you downloaded from torrent or p2p before viewing the actual content. This is the disadvantages of using p2p software, you wouldn't know if the file you are downloading are fake or not. And you can't find any comments on that file like torrent. Since you'll be downloading tracker from a website or forum, usually you can find some user's discussing the file assumed that it's popular. That information can be used to verify the authority of that file. If the file is not working or contained viruses, someone will post it there to warned others.
Friday, September 11, 2009
How to remove software from pc
This is a guide for Windows beginner. Windows is an operating system, to run other third party software, first you need to go through the installation process. Now the important part, how do you remove these installed software from your PC? There is two way:
1) Go to "my computer" on the left hand side under "other places", click on "control panel". You should be able to find "add & remove programs", double click and open it. Now search through the list for the software you want to uninstall, then click on remove.
2) Go to the folder of the software where you have installed in. Check all the files within the folder and see if you can find an icon that's an uninstall word on it. If you find it, double click and follow the instruction to remove the software. Most popular software have this uninstall function built in.
Actually there's a third way but it's not recommended. Just delete the whole folder of the software, by doing this you'll leave the registered keys and other information on your pc, and eventually stored up useless information in your PC. But there's another way to fix this problem, download free registry cleaner and do a clean up.
Remember the two recommended way sometime just remove the major files of the software from your PC. It all depends on the software company. Some might let you delete everything associate with the software but some will leave some files & registry in your PC. To tell the truth we I hate it as it's not right for the company to do that. It's an invading of our privacy. So in the end you might still need to do the third way by removing every files and folder manually. But do this after you use the first two method. The download software such as registry cleaner and other files cleaning tools software to help you to remove all useless files from your PC.
1) Go to "my computer" on the left hand side under "other places", click on "control panel". You should be able to find "add & remove programs", double click and open it. Now search through the list for the software you want to uninstall, then click on remove.
2) Go to the folder of the software where you have installed in. Check all the files within the folder and see if you can find an icon that's an uninstall word on it. If you find it, double click and follow the instruction to remove the software. Most popular software have this uninstall function built in.
Actually there's a third way but it's not recommended. Just delete the whole folder of the software, by doing this you'll leave the registered keys and other information on your pc, and eventually stored up useless information in your PC. But there's another way to fix this problem, download free registry cleaner and do a clean up.
Remember the two recommended way sometime just remove the major files of the software from your PC. It all depends on the software company. Some might let you delete everything associate with the software but some will leave some files & registry in your PC. To tell the truth we I hate it as it's not right for the company to do that. It's an invading of our privacy. So in the end you might still need to do the third way by removing every files and folder manually. But do this after you use the first two method. The download software such as registry cleaner and other files cleaning tools software to help you to remove all useless files from your PC.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
How to get rid of spyware
Spyware and adware are starting to be a serious issues, companies are placing spyware in your computer when you visit their website to track your internet movement or collect personal information. We called this privacy and they are invading it. Spyware is nothing new on the internet, but it's getting out of control when they are everywhere. Most spyware would just collects data such as your internet surfing habits..etc. But some other would install additional software in your browser and interfere user control. Some even change your computer setting, reulting in slow computer & internet speed, pop up advertisement..etc.
Some spyware can be cleaned easily by clearing your internet cookies and temporarily folder. But some others are not so easy, they'll try to hide behind your eyes. Fortunately, there's some pretty good spyware removal software that would help you to get rid of spyware. Here's three that I recommend you to try out
1) Ad-aware
2) Spyware Doctor
3) Spybot
These are some of the most popular spyware and adware cleaner out there. They both come in free and paid version. Try it yourself and see which works best for you and you might want to consider buying the full version.
Some spyware can be cleaned easily by clearing your internet cookies and temporarily folder. But some others are not so easy, they'll try to hide behind your eyes. Fortunately, there's some pretty good spyware removal software that would help you to get rid of spyware. Here's three that I recommend you to try out
1) Ad-aware
2) Spyware Doctor
3) Spybot
These are some of the most popular spyware and adware cleaner out there. They both come in free and paid version. Try it yourself and see which works best for you and you might want to consider buying the full version.
Trojan horse removal software
Virus is a common word that will harm you or your computer, of course we are talking about harmful computer viruses here. But is there any computer viruses out there that could potential harm you physically? Well.. if there's one, it'd be trojan horse. Trojan horse are considered as one of the virus too, but instead of messing up your computer, it drops a backdoor script or keylogger in your PC and steal your personal information such as password and credit card information. Nowadays, more and more people's are doing their purchasing online using credit card, we use it to buy items or pay our bills. Some people's may also have internet banking account or Payal to do their daily transaction. And trojan horse is mainly targeting at such groups of user, placing keylogger into your PC to track your internet & keyboard movement without you knowing it. They might even steal your email addresses since it's usually linked to many other sensitive information.
There are software out there to help you to remove trojan horse from your computer, but still the best solution is to prevent it. If you have antivirus software in your pc which more people do, update your virus definition database from the company website or update directly through the software auto update function. If you don't habe one, you seriously need to get one, try avg or avast it's free to use and it's pretty good.
Although antivirus software are good in detecting viruses, they might still let one or two slip through. To make sure your computer is clean from trojan horses, I recommend you to use trojan hunter. This software focuses on detecting trojan horse, removal & prevent it from running on the background. You can find a trial use at: www.misec.net
Beside a good antivirus & trojan removal software, you also need a good firewall. I already mentioned this in my previous post, but I'll say it again in case some of you missed the article. Zonealarm is currently the best firewall out there, you can get it here: www.zonealarm.com
Combining with these three software, you are pretty much safe. The rest is up to you, try not to download from unauthorized site or install software from unknown sources. Use your antivirus software or trojan removal software to scan the file before opening it. And make your software are up to date.
There are software out there to help you to remove trojan horse from your computer, but still the best solution is to prevent it. If you have antivirus software in your pc which more people do, update your virus definition database from the company website or update directly through the software auto update function. If you don't habe one, you seriously need to get one, try avg or avast it's free to use and it's pretty good.
Although antivirus software are good in detecting viruses, they might still let one or two slip through. To make sure your computer is clean from trojan horses, I recommend you to use trojan hunter. This software focuses on detecting trojan horse, removal & prevent it from running on the background. You can find a trial use at: www.misec.net
Beside a good antivirus & trojan removal software, you also need a good firewall. I already mentioned this in my previous post, but I'll say it again in case some of you missed the article. Zonealarm is currently the best firewall out there, you can get it here: www.zonealarm.com
Combining with these three software, you are pretty much safe. The rest is up to you, try not to download from unauthorized site or install software from unknown sources. Use your antivirus software or trojan removal software to scan the file before opening it. And make your software are up to date.
How to edit File extensions
This might not be the biggest secret out there, but it might be new for some users. As you may already know, by default Windows XP doesn't show the extensions of a file. Some users don't know that and keep wondering how they could change the extensions when it's not even visible. In my last post, I talked about 7z extension, if you didn't turn on the extensions visibility, all you'd see is a winrar icon if you have it installed of course. It showed in Winrar because that's your default compress software and the file is compressed. But that doesn't mean that it's .rar file and you'd never know that if you can't see the extension of it. I'm not sure why Microsoft would want to hide the extensions by default, even though it says it was for security reason, but I think most users are clever enough to know what they are doing. Maybe Microsoft should disable the delete button so we couldn't accidentally delete any files? That's what happened with Windows Vista, Microsoft think they are only the clever one. Every action you do in Vista is pampered by the UAC, and keep asking you if you are sure what you want to do. That's why the most searches word for Vista are "how to disable UAC".
Anyway, I'm off topic again. So to enable the extensions, goto my computer, on the top menu select tools and folder option. A new windows will pop up, select view tab. On the second bracket, scroll down a little and you'll see "hide extensions for known file types". Untick the box and click apply. Now go back to your deskyop and you should be able to see the extensions. To change it, just click on the icon once, then you'll be able to change the file name or extension as you like.
Anyway, I'm off topic again. So to enable the extensions, goto my computer, on the top menu select tools and folder option. A new windows will pop up, select view tab. On the second bracket, scroll down a little and you'll see "hide extensions for known file types". Untick the box and click apply. Now go back to your deskyop and you should be able to see the extensions. To change it, just click on the icon once, then you'll be able to change the file name or extension as you like.
Monday, September 7, 2009
How to extract .7z file
It seems like .rar has dominate the market for a while until we start seeing quite a lot of .7z compressed file being uploaded to the net. Actually, .7z is just another file compress software just like .rar, so why do people start shifting to 7z? That's because .7z compress the file better than .rar, in another words, 7z software can compress file into much smaller size than winrar. Another advantage is 7 zip software support all kind of compress format including .zip, rar, 7z...etc. But Winrar doesn't support 7 zip format yet and it might never happen. 7-zip is another innovative free software that people love, it's easy to use and the features are much better. It's no surprise why people would want to change what they have been using for years. Well.. I was kind of forced to use but I'm glad I did. I have downloaded a 7z format but unfortunately winrar can't extract the file. So I start searching for some software that can open the file, it's not too difficult to find. As its format 7z, just type in 7z into google search and you'll see the site on top of the page. Here's the official site: www.7-zip.org
7 zip overall is a great freeware that do exactly what it says. Although the interface doesn't look as great as Winrar, the features is unbeatable. It's more practical than a pretty software that eats up your computer resources. Winrar is not bad either, and I'm still using it. But one thing I do notice that the new version is not compatible with the old version. That means that if the file is using newer version of winrar to extract, you may not be able to extract the file using an older version of the software.
7 zip overall is a great freeware that do exactly what it says. Although the interface doesn't look as great as Winrar, the features is unbeatable. It's more practical than a pretty software that eats up your computer resources. Winrar is not bad either, and I'm still using it. But one thing I do notice that the new version is not compatible with the old version. That means that if the file is using newer version of winrar to extract, you may not be able to extract the file using an older version of the software.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
MP3 Music Player software for your PC
There's a lot of free mp3 music player software on the internet, and winamp is probably the most popular one out there. I have used it before, but that's quite some time ago. I don't listen to a lot of music on my PC, at least not playing constantly on the background. Thus, other video player such as VLC, KMplayer and Windows Media Player are doing a fine job. But the best music player among these three I'd have to vouch for Windows Media Player which I hate it totally as a video player (You can read my previous post to know why). If you are a heavy music user's, you should have hundreds if not thousands of song on your list. It'll gets boring very soon if you keep listening to the same songs over and over again. Windows Media Player (WMP) have this function to save your music list in different album. You can choose what to play in each days, maybe you like some heavy music in the morning, and prefer softer songs in the night. WMP do just great by separating the album. You can always delete or add new songs to the album anytime. WMP save your list so you don't have to select and add your favorite songs again next time. As for vlc & kmplayer, it's good to play one or two song randomly in a day as it doesn't save your playlist like WMP and Winamp. It's fine with me as I preferred quite most of time, but listem to one or two of my favorite songs from time to time.
Wmp is a good music player and it's free bundled with the Windows. But if you perfer individual software other than WMP, I'd recommend you to try winamp. It's not famous without a good reason. As I mentioned, I haven't been using Winamp quite a while, so I'm not sure how far it evolved todays. From my experience, the music player is light on resources and very easy to use. Basically, you just click on the add button and select all songs from your PC you want to add to the list, then press ok. There you go, it'll start playing all the songs you have addded one by one after you click on the play button. There's also this repeat function that will continue playing the list of songs over again and again, you can choose to switch it on or off. It's the same as in Windows Media Player.
Ok, I just visited Winamp official site and it has three different version, pro, bundle & full. There's just one free version back then as I remembered. So of course, you'd want to download the free version first, it's around 10 MB in size. You can download it at http://www.winamp.com/player
It seems like there's a lot more features now, not sure if it's a good thing. Winamp also available in 16 different language version. Try it and let me know how it compares to WMP. Is it better or more of less the same.
Wmp is a good music player and it's free bundled with the Windows. But if you perfer individual software other than WMP, I'd recommend you to try winamp. It's not famous without a good reason. As I mentioned, I haven't been using Winamp quite a while, so I'm not sure how far it evolved todays. From my experience, the music player is light on resources and very easy to use. Basically, you just click on the add button and select all songs from your PC you want to add to the list, then press ok. There you go, it'll start playing all the songs you have addded one by one after you click on the play button. There's also this repeat function that will continue playing the list of songs over again and again, you can choose to switch it on or off. It's the same as in Windows Media Player.
Ok, I just visited Winamp official site and it has three different version, pro, bundle & full. There's just one free version back then as I remembered. So of course, you'd want to download the free version first, it's around 10 MB in size. You can download it at http://www.winamp.com/player
It seems like there's a lot more features now, not sure if it's a good thing. Winamp also available in 16 different language version. Try it and let me know how it compares to WMP. Is it better or more of less the same.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Clean up Adware, Spyware to speed up your PC even more
No matter how hard you try, there's always a hole for adware & spyware to slip in your PC. Some time it's not your firewall fault, but you yourself let them in without knowing it. There's no guarantee that trusted site wouldn't place some sneaky code to track your internet movement. Or some free software might install some other extra software in your PC without your conscience. Did you experience slow down on your PC? Did you always gets some weird advertisement pop-up when surfing the internet? This could be the act of adware and spyware. And these malicious software are everywhere on the internet, website, software & email. They may not be as harmful as a virus, but they can be anonying casuing major slow down or errors in your system. There's no way you can block them totally, unless you cut ties with the internet. But some company developed some nice adware & spyware removal tools to help you clean up your PC fast and easy.
The one I'm using right now is Ad-aware from Lavasoft. I've been using it since 5 years ago and it's also the best I've used so far. I haven't been trying a lot of different adware removal software since then, and I know there's some other good malicious removal software on the market including spybot. But personally, I haven't try it yet. Adaware is doing a good job cleaning up all useless junk from my PC, and it's still one of the most popular adware and spyware removal software on the market. The best thing is, most of them are free for the normal version of course. If you love what you use, you can buy the more advanced paid version of the software.
In our last post, we talked about how registry can slow down your PC. It does slow down your computer if you install & uninstall a lot of software and never clean it for a long time, but it's not significant, you might not even notice the difference. The real culpit that can really slow down your computer are adware & spyware. Many of them could be running on the background and eating up your system resources. If you notice your computer is not running as fast as before, you may want to do some clean up.
Many antivirus these days does find & clean adware & spyware, but they are still not in the league of standalone malicious cleaner. I'd still recommend you to download the free version of adaware and test it out, there is no harm trying it. You can find all these software at download.com
The one I'm using right now is Ad-aware from Lavasoft. I've been using it since 5 years ago and it's also the best I've used so far. I haven't been trying a lot of different adware removal software since then, and I know there's some other good malicious removal software on the market including spybot. But personally, I haven't try it yet. Adaware is doing a good job cleaning up all useless junk from my PC, and it's still one of the most popular adware and spyware removal software on the market. The best thing is, most of them are free for the normal version of course. If you love what you use, you can buy the more advanced paid version of the software.
In our last post, we talked about how registry can slow down your PC. It does slow down your computer if you install & uninstall a lot of software and never clean it for a long time, but it's not significant, you might not even notice the difference. The real culpit that can really slow down your computer are adware & spyware. Many of them could be running on the background and eating up your system resources. If you notice your computer is not running as fast as before, you may want to do some clean up.
Many antivirus these days does find & clean adware & spyware, but they are still not in the league of standalone malicious cleaner. I'd still recommend you to download the free version of adaware and test it out, there is no harm trying it. You can find all these software at download.com
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Clean up Registry & speed up your PC
Ok, some of you might already knew that every time we install a new software, whether it's Microsoft words, video player, antivirus or any other third-party software, it creates entry in the registry. But when you try to uninstall these software, the entry in registry doesn't remove along with the software. The registry list just keep building up every time you install a new software and eventually slow down your computer.
If you are an advanced user, you can do this manually by deleting the useless entry. To do that, click on start on your taskbar, select "run", type in "regedit" and click ok. Important: Do not randomly delete any entry in the registry, it might cause errors in your system or crash your Windows. But even the most advanced Windows user wouldn't want to do this themselves, it's a time consuming work and doesn't guarantee result. Therefore, software developer came out with all types of registry software that will clean, repair and fix your registry at the same time! It's an easier process with one mouse button click.
The problem now is which is the best that actually works? There are countless of such software either for free or paid. I normally won't use the paid version as there's a lot free version that actually works better. But if you try a trail version of a paid software and it does actually speed up and fix your registry problem, why not consider buying the software to support the developer. Still, most registry software I found cost around $29.99 which I found it quite expensive for the little speed improvement on the PC.
Here's the best free registry cleaner I found with the best users review, Auslogics Registry Cleaner. You can either type the name & search in Google or download directly through download.com, it's free and small in size, just a little over 2MB. Auslogics Registry Cleaner is light and fast, it'll clean up and speed up your PC in no time. It does what it supposed to and it's better than the defragger that comes with Windows XP & Vista. The software developer claims that after the cleaning, you will see a 2% increase in performance. It's not a lot and may not be noticeable, but hey every little bit helps and the software is free!
If you are an advanced user, you can do this manually by deleting the useless entry. To do that, click on start on your taskbar, select "run", type in "regedit" and click ok. Important: Do not randomly delete any entry in the registry, it might cause errors in your system or crash your Windows. But even the most advanced Windows user wouldn't want to do this themselves, it's a time consuming work and doesn't guarantee result. Therefore, software developer came out with all types of registry software that will clean, repair and fix your registry at the same time! It's an easier process with one mouse button click.
The problem now is which is the best that actually works? There are countless of such software either for free or paid. I normally won't use the paid version as there's a lot free version that actually works better. But if you try a trail version of a paid software and it does actually speed up and fix your registry problem, why not consider buying the software to support the developer. Still, most registry software I found cost around $29.99 which I found it quite expensive for the little speed improvement on the PC.
Here's the best free registry cleaner I found with the best users review, Auslogics Registry Cleaner. You can either type the name & search in Google or download directly through download.com, it's free and small in size, just a little over 2MB. Auslogics Registry Cleaner is light and fast, it'll clean up and speed up your PC in no time. It does what it supposed to and it's better than the defragger that comes with Windows XP & Vista. The software developer claims that after the cleaning, you will see a 2% increase in performance. It's not a lot and may not be noticeable, but hey every little bit helps and the software is free!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Best Download Accelerator Download
All browser we are using have built in download function such as IE & firefox, but they are only good for small size download. If you are downloading file that's over 20MB in size, I highly recommend you to use a download accelerator software as it is much more faster and most importantly it support resume download. Of course, such features must be supported by the site too, or else it'll be useless.
I'm using firefox as my main browser, I don't use IE too much. I love firefox because of its speedy browsing speed and addons, unfortunately firefox built in download function is not as good. I often had this problems where the download just stop in the middle and totally not moving. It frustrated me especially when it's over 90% complete and end up downloading it again from the site. As I mentioned, if you are downloading files that are large in size and the site support resume download, use a download accelerator software to avoid such problems. Most software & major website should allowed the use of download accelerator, but most file hosting site are not except for mediafire.
There's two download accelerator I used before, netants & flashget. I haven't been using netants for so long, so I don't really have any comment on it, but it was good at the time. Currently, I'm using flashget for my download, the download speed is a lot faster that the firefox. I'm not sure why, but it just download faster on flashget. Maybe it's because it can separate the download work. It's like 5 download going at once at a single download. Flashget is a freeware, you can download it from its official site for free.
Flashget is an individual software. If you're using firefox and preffered to have it built in your browser, you can download the download accelerator addon on mozilla site. This will definitely save you trouble to open up the software everytime you want to download. By using firefox download plugin, it'll pop up with the choice of using the firefox download plugin. The plugin from what I heard is much better than the current firefox.
There's also another very cool firefox plugin that let you download files from site such as rapidhsare hands free! How do you fo it? Basically, you just copy all the rapidshare file URL into the software and let it run by itself. The software will automatically check every URL and make sure there's no broken link. This happened a lot when the file is too old or has been removed by the admin or uploader. After done checking, it'll start to download all files added in the list one by one. Now you don't have to go throguh rapidshare clicking this and that, and you don't even have to wait for the timer. The software will automatically wait for the rapidshare timer and download it, how cool is that?
So if you want the best download accelerator software, try flashget. If you want the best download tools for file hosting site, try the firefox plugin!
I'm using firefox as my main browser, I don't use IE too much. I love firefox because of its speedy browsing speed and addons, unfortunately firefox built in download function is not as good. I often had this problems where the download just stop in the middle and totally not moving. It frustrated me especially when it's over 90% complete and end up downloading it again from the site. As I mentioned, if you are downloading files that are large in size and the site support resume download, use a download accelerator software to avoid such problems. Most software & major website should allowed the use of download accelerator, but most file hosting site are not except for mediafire.
There's two download accelerator I used before, netants & flashget. I haven't been using netants for so long, so I don't really have any comment on it, but it was good at the time. Currently, I'm using flashget for my download, the download speed is a lot faster that the firefox. I'm not sure why, but it just download faster on flashget. Maybe it's because it can separate the download work. It's like 5 download going at once at a single download. Flashget is a freeware, you can download it from its official site for free.
Flashget is an individual software. If you're using firefox and preffered to have it built in your browser, you can download the download accelerator addon on mozilla site. This will definitely save you trouble to open up the software everytime you want to download. By using firefox download plugin, it'll pop up with the choice of using the firefox download plugin. The plugin from what I heard is much better than the current firefox.
There's also another very cool firefox plugin that let you download files from site such as rapidhsare hands free! How do you fo it? Basically, you just copy all the rapidshare file URL into the software and let it run by itself. The software will automatically check every URL and make sure there's no broken link. This happened a lot when the file is too old or has been removed by the admin or uploader. After done checking, it'll start to download all files added in the list one by one. Now you don't have to go throguh rapidshare clicking this and that, and you don't even have to wait for the timer. The software will automatically wait for the rapidshare timer and download it, how cool is that?
So if you want the best download accelerator software, try flashget. If you want the best download tools for file hosting site, try the firefox plugin!
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