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Windows Tip: How to Disable Windows Update Restart Nag

Shivaranjan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:27:51 +0000

Microsoft releases Windows updates and security patches regularly and when ever the system gets updated Windows puts up a nag screen that keeps on prompting you to restart the computer. In Windows the updates come into effect or some get installed during shutdown or restart only and hence it is necessary to restart the computer but this can get annoying if you are doing something really important and Windows keeps nagging for restart.

Windows XP Updates Restart Nag Screen

Windows Vista Updates Restart Nag Screen

How to Disable Windows Update Restart Nag

1. When you get the Windows update nag either in Windows Vista or Windows XP, open the command prompt by using the path StartMenu>Run>cmd or windows key + r and type cmd and then press enter.

2. In the Windows command prompt now type the below mentioned code:

sc stop wuauserv

3. Once you have put the above mentioned code and press enter and the Windows update service would be stopped and the nag screen will disappear. Windows update service will get restarted once you restart your computer hence you need not worry as your computer will keep receiving updates.

That’s it so now you can disable the Windows update restart nag whenever you are into something important.

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Windows 7: Unlock All Known Protected Features using Blue Badge Tool

Shivaranjan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:25:50 +0000

If you happened to install the Windows 7 beta version 6801 there are many features like new taskbar, gestures, panning and Desktop slide show that are locked as they are unfinished features. But you if you would like to unlock them there is a tool called Blue Badge Tool which can unlock these features for you.

The following files are patched in Windows :

\Windows\Explorer.exe
\Windows\System32\wisptis.exe
\Windows\System32\ieframe.dll
\Windows\System32\shell32.dll
\Windows\System32\stobject.dll
\Windows\System32\TabletPC.cpl
\Windows\System32\themecpl.dll
\Windows\System32\themeui.dll
\Windows\System32\powercfg.cpl

The version 2 of this tool takes backup of above mentioned files with the extension .original and if you wish you can also backup these files by manually copying to a different location.

Download Blue Badge Tool (Direct Download) Home Page

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Copy, Rip or Backup Blu-Ray Movies and Remove Blu-Ray Disc Region Code using Blu-Ray Disc Ripper

Shivaranjan — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:57:53 +0000

Blu-Ray is the popular high definition video format that is currently being adopted by the video industry as all the new and old movie titles are now available in Blu-Ray format. The Blu-Ray titles are expensive when compared to their normal DVD counterparts. And it makes lot of sense to backup your precious Blu-Ray disc and this is no easy task as the contents in the Blu-Ray disc are encrypted.

Blu-Ray Disc Ripper is a free tool that allows you to copy, decrypt, backup and remove region code a Blu-ray Disc. Blu-Ray disc ripper uses CPS key to decrypt the movie titles.

The software can decrypt .m2ts files as well and option is also available where this can be excluded. This program does not require any installation and hence can be run from a portable USB flash drive. The file size of the program is just 36KB, to run this program you need .NET framework 2.0

Download Blu-Ray Disc Ripper (Direct Download) Home Page

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How to Join/Merge Multiple Powerpoint Files Quickly

Shivaranjan — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:58:43 +0000

There are many instances when we would like to join or merge a set of powerpoint presentations into a singe file, to do this you would have manually copy all the slides and create a new slide. Here is a quick and easy way to do this (Thanks Madhur) using a free software utility called Powerpoint Join.

To join or merge multiple presentations copy all the presentations to the folder where the program is present and then create a text file with the list of powerpoint file names. Now when you run this utility all the files would get joined.

The program requires no installation hence it can be run from portable drive, so if you happen to work with powerpoint files then carry this useful tool around.

Download Powerpoint Join (Direct Download) Home Page

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Microsoft Windows 7 Build 6936 Screenshots

Shivaranjan — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 12:21:47 +0000

We have already discussed the features of upcoming Windows 7 and also saw the screenshots of build 6933 and build 6780 now lets us look at the screenshots of Windows 7 Build 6936:

Via WinFuture

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Easily Manage, Map and Unmap Network Drives in Windows

Shivaranjan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:52:23 +0000

For people who work with lot of network drives, mapping and unmapping network drives in Windows can be a bit time consuming. Also there is no network drive manager present in Windows for managing the network drives. Network Drive Mapper is a free tool that allows you map, unmap and manage network drives quickly and easily.

Features of Network Drive Mapper:

Add multiple map drive entries and also the login credentials can be saved in the entries.
Map all the network drives, or just selected entries in the list.
Just double click a map entry to edit it.
Use the -c startup switch to connect to all entries then exit.
Use the -d startup switch to disconnect all map entries then exit.
DAT file is encrypted to help prevent your passwords from being compromised.
Does not need any installation hence can be run from portable USB flash drive.

We tested this software in Windows Vista and Windows XP.

Download Network Drive Mapper (Direct Download) Home Page

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How to Split CSV File into Multiple Parts Easily and Quickly

Shivaranjan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:10:18 +0000

At my work place I have to many times work with large CSV files. The problem is that Microsoft Excel 2003 cannot handle a file that contains data more than 65,536 rows in a column and most of the time I end up working with CSV file that has got data more than 65,536 rows.

In these cases, I open the CSV file in notepad and copy the data less than 65,536 rows and paste into another file and this way I used to split up the CSV file. The problem with this method is takes some time get this done and doing this when the number of rows are greater than 500,000 becomes a real pain.

On Googling around I found that there is free tool called CSV Splitter, that can do this quickly with out me having to do all the work.

The CSV Splitter can split the files based on two parameters, first is based on the number of lines specified and second is based on number of files that you intend to split of the original CSV file. I prefer to use the number of lines feature so that I can split the CSV file with less than 65,536 lines of data so that it can be opened in Microsoft Excel 2003 for further processing.

To split CSV file just point the location of the CSV file and enter the parameter that you intend to use for splitting up the file and hit the “Split Now” button, the tool will split the CSV files into multiple CSV files.

Another feature worth to note here is that this utility does not touch the original file rather it creates new set of CSV files based on the selections that was made. Also there is no need to install this as it can be run directly so makes lot of sense to carry it portable drive if you are working with CSV files frequently.

We tested this software in Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Download CSV Splitter (Direct Download) Home Page

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Ubuntu Linux Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Installation (Guide) Walk Through

Shivaranjan — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:22:11 +0000

In this post we shall discuss the installation of Ubuntu Linux 8.10 also known as Intrepid Ibex. Let us now get started.

Step 1:

First download the Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) ISO file from Ubuntu website. Now that you have the ISO burn it to a CD, using your favorite CD/DVD burning application. If you don’t wish waste a CD then you can create a Ubuntu bootable flash drive, more details on the instructions refer to our earlier post.

Step 2:

Now that you got the bootable CD or USB drive for the Ubuntu installation, now restart your computer. Make sure that the computer is configured to boot from CD or USB. When the computer boots up using the bootable media, you will be presented with a screen as shown below.

In this screen choose “English” as your preferred language, we are assuming here that English is your choice. You can go ahead and use any language of your choice.

Step 3:

Four options are presented now they are, choose the first option “Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer”. By choosing this option Ubuntu Linux would boot into Live CD mode and we can install the OS from there.

Step 4:

Click the install button that is shown in the Ubuntu 8.10 live desktop and you are ready to begin with the Ubuntu 8.10 installation. Choose the your language as English and click the forward button.

Step 5:

Select the time zone that you belong to and hit the forward the button

Step 6:

In this step choose the layout of the keyboard that you intend to use in Ubuntu. In the bottom screen if you wish you can test the layout before making the decision.

Step 7:

If you intend to use the entire hard disk drive with Ubuntu 8.10, then choose the first option “Guided - Use Entire Disk”. This option will automatically partition the hard disk drive and create the necessary swap partition also.

The second option is called manual option that allows you to partition the hard disk drive based on your requirement. The partition manager is pretty straight forward to use. Refer to the Screenshot below.

Step 8:

Once the partition manager has completed the partitioning the hard drive a screen will be presented in which the Name of the computer user, user name for login, password for login and computer name has to be chosen. Also auto login option is provided here using which the user can be automatically login to the computer when the computer is started.

Step 9:

Now Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is ready to start the installation and a summary of chosen option is displayed, which can reviewed to check if the correct choices have been made during all these steps.

Access to advanced options are provided towards the bottom right corner, here the proxy details can be filled for Internet access and an option is provided to select the hard disk drive where you would like to install the Ubuntu boot loader. Please restraint caution here if you choose the wrong drive the boot loader will over right the existing boot loader and may damage your existing operation systems boot loader.

Step 10:

Now the installation begins and now you can sit back relax as it will take around couple of minutes to an hour depending on the computers speed.

Once the installation is complete, you can either continue to use the Live CD or restart to computer to boot into brand new shiny Ubuntu 8.10 desktop.

After the computer has been restarted, you can now use Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.

Now enjoy using Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex, in case of questions please post in the comments section.

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Microsoft Windows 7 M3 Build 6933 Screenshots

Shivaranjan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:36:51 +0000

In the earlier post you saw the various features of Windows 7 and already we have covered the Windows 7 build 6780 screenshots and Windows 7 build 6936. Find below the screenshots of Windows 7 M3 build 6933:

Windows 7 Desktop

Windows 7 Desktop with Gadgets

Windows 7 Start Menu

Windows 7 Calculator

Windows 7 Search

Windows 7 Explorer

Windows 7 Task Bar View

Windows 7 Device Stage

Internet Explorer 8 in Windows 7

Windows 7 Battery Indicator

Windows 7 Network Connect Manager

Windows 7 Light Media Player

Windows 7 Theme Gallery

Windows Live Mail under Windows 7

Windows Live Gallery under Windows 7

Do let us know what you feel about Windows 7?

Via

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Microsoft Windows 7 Features

Shivaranjan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:32:56 +0000

Microsoft demonstrated Windows 7 in PDC 2008 hence more details about upcoming Windows 7 was unveiled.

Some of the Features of Microsoft Windows 7:

1. Device Information Retrieval :

Device Information Retrieval downloads information from Microsoft for your hardware devices and displays it in the Windows 7 Devices and Printers control panel, and when you first install and use a device, in the Device Stage.

This may prove useful if you installing some unknown hardware, where the Windows will check the relevant information for the hardware or device that is being installed.

2. New Improved Device Manager:

Device Manager helps you install the latest drivers for your hardware devices. Using the Update Driver Software Wizard, you can update device drivers for hardware installed on your computer, modify hardware settings, and troubleshoot device and driver problems.

Though device manager feature is already present from Windows XP, it looks like Microsoft has tweaked the driver update wizard in Windows 7.

3. Spiced up Driver Protection:

Driver Protection helps prevent the operating system from starting drivers that are known to cause stability problems. These drivers are listed in a Driver Protection List database that is stored on your computer. The Driver Protection List is updated through Windows Update and Dynamic Update (below). Driver Protection checks this database while the operating system is running. These checks are performed to determine whether to start a driver.

This feature also was already present from Windows XP, looks like this has also been tweaked.

4. Dynamic Update:

Dynamic Update enables Windows 7 to perform a one-time check with the Windows Update website to get the latest updates for your computer while Windows is being installed. If updates are found, Dynamic Update automatically downloads and installs them so your computer is up to date the first time that you log on or use it.

Windows Vista had this feature built in already as it asks to download all the critical updates before the installation starts.

5. Improved Home Networking in Windows 7

A HomeGroup allows you to easily link Windows 7 computers on your home network so that you can share pictures, music, videos, documents and devices. It also makes them ready to stream media to devices on your home network such as a media extender. You can help protect your HomeGroup with a password, and you can choose what you want to share.

The home networking has been improved when compared to Windows Vista, I am not sure how easy would be if the home network contains computer running different flavours of Windows.

6. Windows 7 Installation Improvement Program:

If you choose to participate in the Installation Improvement Program, the feature sends a single report to Microsoft. The report contains basic information about your computer and how you installed Windows 7. We use this information to help improve the installation experience and to create solutions to common installation problems.

I appreciate this feature as using this may improve the installation process in future versions of Windows.

7. Internet Printing

Internet printing makes it possible for computers running Windows 7 to use printers located anywhere in the world by sending print jobs using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

There are already software available that allows you get this feature in your existing Windows but we should appreciate the fact the Microsoft thought about this being built in Windows 7.

The complete list of available features can be found from here.

There is nothing ground breaking features that have been added in Windows 7, it looks more like Windows Vista done right.

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