Showing posts with label Computer Tips and Tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer Tips and Tricks. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Fix Windows Not Genuine (WGA Validation Error) on Genuine Windows XP Systems

Microsoft implemented WGA (Windows Not Genuine) program to distinguish illegal or pirated copies of Windows XP, discontinue free updates and display a notification in the right bottom area of the desktop to ask the user to buy a valid license copy of Windows XP OS. However, legitimate Windows XP may start to fail the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation process by the WGA ActiveX validator.
wga
This is caused by an incorrect or corrupted Data.dat file located in the %AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\Windows Genuine Advantage\data folder. It’s pretty easy to get vrid of this problem. All you have to do is delete the Data.dat file from the system and the Data.dat file will be updated correctly during the next validation.

WGA Validation Error on Genuine Windows XP Systems

  • Log on to the computer with administration privileges
  • Navigate to %AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\Windows Genuine Advantage\data folder and delete the Data.dat file
  • Navigate to this link to confirm that your system has passed the WGA validation process
  • Now click Start >> Run >> type wgatray.exe /b >> click OK
  • If nothing happens, skip to the following step
  • Reboot your system and you are done.
This should resolve the Windows Not Genuine (WGA Validation Error) on Genuine Windows XP systems. There are also many other ways to bypass WGA validation process.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Ever wondered how you can make Windows XP speak or talk the text that you type in? Its just an in-built function in Windows XP. You don't need Talk-It or other such softwares to make this happen. This is possible with notepad and some piece of VB script.

Make Your Windows Talk

Here are the steps that you need to follow to make XP Talk.

Step 1: Open a text file in notepad. (Go to Start->Run. Type in notepad and press OK)

Step 2: Copy the following code and paste it in your notepad file.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dim msg, sapi

msg=InputBox("Enter your text","Talk it")

Set sapi=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")

sapi.Speak msg

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Step 3: Save the file with a (*.vbs) extension, it will create a VBScript File.

Step 4: Now on opening the file, it will prompt you to enter text. So Enter the required text and Press OK Button
Now you have to wait for 2 seconds for the voice to be heard. So please be patient and enjoy the funny voice that pops up!!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

How to Remove Thumb.db Files Completely from your System

How to Remove Thumb.db Files Completely from your System

Thumb.db files are system files used by Windows to cache thumbnails. Windows automatically creates Thumb.db files in each and every folder to cache image thumbnail view. Since Windows takes some time to read image files and generate thumbnails, Thumb.db creates a cache and remembers the thumbnail and as the result whenever you open a folder, it loads faster. Many people end up treating this as a virus, but it’s a system file actually.
Generally Thumb.db stays hidden and can only be seen if you prefer to see hidden files inside the folder. If you don’t want to have Thumb.db files on your system anymore, you can simply remove or delete them from your system first and then configure Windows not to generate Thumb.db cache files anymore.
Remove or Delete Thumb.db files Completely
  • Open any folder in your system
  • Head to Tools >> Folder Options >> select the View tab
  • Check the box next to Do not cache thumbnails
  • Click OK >> Apply to save the changes you have made
  • You are done.
Thumbs.db files

Sunday, July 18, 2010

here is an another trick to download, manage, and play HD videos or audios in FLV, MP3, MP4, WMA, & WMV formats. It’s KeepTube. KeepTube can download HD videos from many video sharing websites such as Youtube, Megavideo, Dailymotion, Facebook, Myspace, Vimeo, Metacafe, Spike, Break, Current & more.
Using KeepTube, you can not only download multiple videos simultaneously but also create your favorite play list, loop play videos while downloading and more.


 

 

 
KeepTube Features

 
  • Download HD videos from many popular websites
  • Download videos in FLV, MP3, MP4, WMA, & WMV formats
  • Download multiple videos simultaneously
  • Ability to play or watch video while downloading
  • Create and edit your favorite play list
  • And more..

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Pin Applications & Folders in Windows 7 Taskbar

Windows 7 is the highly advanced and feature rich operating system from Microsoft till date, featuring many enhancements and new implementations. If you are a Windows 7 user and access certain applications or folders frequently, you can pin those apps or folders to Windows 7 taskbar area for quick navigation. This will eliminate the need of going to the start menu, search for the program and then launch it.
Pin apps to Windows 7 taskbar

Pin Applications & Folders in Windows 7 Taskbar

  • Drag any application and drop it in the taskbar
  • “Pin in the taskbar” (Pin to Taskbar) notification will appear
  • Now you have successfully pinned the application to the taskbar
  • You are done.
You can also simply right-click on the the shortcut of any application on the Start menu, and select the pin in the taskbar (Pin to Taskbar) option. Following the above steps you can pin files and folders to the taskbar area as well.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Validation Crack in Windows 7

WGA or Windows Genuine Advantage is the anti-piracy mechanism from Microsoft prevent XP, Vista and Windows 7 users from using illegal or pirated copies. Using the WGA Validation tool, users can find out if the copy they are using on their system is original or not. If not, WGA notifications appear as warning message to ask the user to purchase a legitimate copy.




Microsoft had released an updated version as Windows Genuine Advantage Validation 1.9.42.0 in February 2010. This update was meant to be automatically downloaded and installed on the user’s system when the user tries to run Windows Update manually. Now if your system is wrongly accused by WGA validation as non-genuine, and you have no way to fix this issue, you can simply use WGA Validation crack to hack the WGA validation so that it will report genuine status.



Before you proceed, note that the crack is not an activation crack for XP, Vista or Windows 7, nor the crack can make Windows genuine.



Download WGA Validation Crack for XP, Vista & Windows 7

Once downloaded, extract the RAR file and run the installer.bat in elevated command prompt window with administrator privileges. A backup copy of replaced files, namely LegitCheckControl.dll, WgaLogon.dll and WgaTray.exe will be created automatically.

Download WAT Removal Tool

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

See Password 2.05


When a password appears on screen as a series of asterisks or dots, you simply view it through SeePassword’s magnifying glass to reveal the actual password text. SeePassword has no problems with passwords stored by Internet Explorer —



all the sites will yield their secrets. SeePassword provides users with an easily applied retrieval tool for forgotten passwords.





http://hotfile.com/dl/22673577/e5b7843/SeePass.2.05.rar.html

Friday, March 26, 2010

Bypass Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (WGA) Update Installation

Microsoft has started implementing WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage Notification) or KB9050 update on all user systems that run on Windows OS to prevent illegal use of it’s operating system copies. Once it gets installed on your system, it will display a WGA notification in your system tray area as “You may be a victim of Software Counterfeiting. This copy of Windows did not pass genuine Windows validation”. This notification stays in Windows system tray area and pops up the above notification in regular interval of time.


KB9050 update requires user permission to get installed and hence you can choose not to install it on the first hand. If “Automatic Updates” is turned on, it will download KB9050 update automatically and will display a installation wizard to install WGA notification. You can simply bypass it’s installation from here as it will be very hard to remove it later using hacks, cracks or tweaks.







Bypass Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (WGA) Update Installation


After Windows downloads KB9050 update, it will start a installation wizard

Click Next to continue















Next to Privacy Statement click on I Do Not Agree radio button, click Next to continue















By declining the WGA license agreement you have terminated the installation and KB9050 update will not be installed on your system














You are done.

Do note that Microsoft allows those systems to download further updates that are properly verified and passed the genuine Windows validation. So, it’s necessary to use a legal copy of Windows OS and validate it through WGA KB9050 update.

Windows Media Player 11 Activation Hack

In order to control piracy and illegal usages, Microsoft has implemented a mandatory activation step during Windows Media Player 11 installation. You need to validate the copy of Windows (WGA validation) first in order to proceed to install WMP11. However, there is a workaround to bypass the WMP 11 activation and install it without activation or such hassles. Do note that this workaround won’t work in case your are trying to upgrade to WMP 11 from any earlier version, it works for fresh installation only.


First you need to download Windows Media Player 11 setup file. Once you are done with this, follow the below steps.










Windows Media Player 11 Activation Hack

Extract WMP 11 setup file by right clicking on “wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe” >> selecting “Extract to wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu” folder (Use Winzip for extraction)

All files will be extracted to a new folder called “wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu”

Search for a file called “wmfdist11.exe” inside the folder and run it (this will install WMP 11 runtime files)







Now double click on “wmp11.exe” file to run the setup process and complete the Windows Media Player 11 installation

You will see no WGA activation notification and WMP 11 will get installed on your system successfully

Reboot the system and you are done.

This process is to bypass the WGA validation procedure when installing Windows Medias Player 11 and this works on all non-activated XP systems.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Show Your Own Name in Internet Explorer Title Bar

internet explorerThis tweak will show your own name in Internet explorer title bar. Normally it shows the name of the page title of the opened page and then Internet Explorer next to it. But you can customize it to show the page title and then your name. It’s can be done by some easy tweaks in registry edit. You can show impress your friends with this cool trick as we all want to insert our identity in computers. Let’s know how to do this.
Changing Internet Explorer Title Bar With Own Name :
1. Navigate to Start >> Run
2. Type Regedit and press Enter.
3. You will get the Registry Editing window. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER >> Software >> Microsoft >> Internet Explorer >> Main
4. On the right hand side you can see some registry names with values. Check for a registry name Window Title.
5. Change Window Title value to your name. Save the edit and close the window.
6. Restart internet explorer and see the changes.
From now on internet explorer (IE) will show your name in it’s title bar. No matter whatever page you open, it will start showing your name next to that page title.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Free Online PC Health & Safety Check Tool

pc health safety check onlineDo you notice your PC running slower than before? Did you find any suspicious activities on your computer? Do you feel like having a virus on your system? Then get your system checked for any unwanted threats online. Microsoft’s OneCare Safety Scanner tool can check your system online for any virus, spyware, malware threats and gives you a complete test report. Even if you assume everything running fine on your computer, it’s advised to use this free tool for better safety measures.
You need to be on specific operating systems and web browsers to take advantage of this free online safety check tool. This free service supports the following operating systems and web browsers only.
  • Windows XP Home Edition
  • Windows XP Professional
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows 2000 Server
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Internet Explorer or Higher
  • MSN 9.0 or Higher
computer protection online
If you satisfy their requirements, you can try this out. This will not only scan your whole system, but it also checks the protection level of your computer, tunes up your computer settings and clean up all suspicious files from your system. I would like to recommended everyone to take the help of this free service and keep your system clean.
Free system health and safety check online.
Windows Vista users can try out the beta version of this free online scanner here. If you are a Firefox user and want to give this a try, read special instructions and do accordingly.

Download Windows 7 Desktop Theme for Windows XP

windows 7 themeYou can get Windows 7 look on your Windows XP installation by installing Windows 7 transformation pack. Since transformation packs use a bit more system resources and there is a chance of file corruption, people love to get the desired looks by using themes. Yes, there are themes available for Windows XP to get Windows 7 look. The theme will give you a whole new Windows 7 look and feel on your windows XP. You can change this theme from your desktop menu anytime, if you don’t find it appealing.
First things first. Have you patched your uxtheme.dll? Patching this file will allow you to run any third party graphic themes. If you have not patched it yet, download the patch from the following locations and patch it first. There are two different patches for XP service pack 2 and XP service pack 3. Choose your patches accordingly.
HELP : Right click on your My Computer icon and check properties to find out your XP version.
XP SP2 Users : Download Patch Here
XP SP3 Users : Download Patch Here
Now your windows XP installation will support all theme installations. Lets move ahead with our Windows 7 theme installation. Follow the below steps.
windows 7 theme with superbar

  1. Download WIndows 7 Refresh Theme for Windows XP.
  2. It’s a ZIP file. Extract it’s contents using WinZip.
  3. The folder is having three folders in it. Fonts, Styler Toolbar and Themes.
    1. Fonts : This folder contains all necessary fonts for Windows 7 theme. Install them by double clicking on Fonts.exe.
    2. Styler Toolbar : This will create the Windows 7 toolbar on your system.
    3. Themes : This folder is having the themes inside it. Run Theme.exe to install themes.
  4. Go to your desktop, right click there and choose the theme to activate Windows 7 theme.
  5. You are done.
Remember that this theme is having 4 sub styles. Aero 32, Aero 48, Bottom 32 and Bottom 48. Aero 32 and Bottom 32 provides small icons while Aero 48 and Bottom 48 displays larger icons. choose those options accroding to your display and monitor size.

Block Or Unblock Access To Any Website From Your PC

Have you ever thought of blocking or unblocking websites from your own computer? You might have used computers with some restrictions, like you are allowed to visit certain websites only and other sites can’t be accessed in any manner from that computer. This is actually done by blocking or unblocking websites from your computer. Yes, you can set your computer to open the sites directed by you only. Let’s know how to do this.
How To Block / Unblock Websites From Your Computer :
Now suppose you want to block www.masala18.com. Masala18 is a bollywood actress image gallery site. If you don’t want anyone to surf this site on your computer, follow the below mentioned steps.
  1. Open your C: folder. (Change the drive according to your OS installation)
  2. Navigate to Windows folder and search for Systems32 folder inside it.
  3. Find a folder  drivers and then another folder etc inside it.
  4. Now your full path should be C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
  5. Inside the etc folder, locate a file named as hosts.
  6. Open that hosts file with any text editor like Notepad, Wordpad, Crimson Editor etc.
  7. Scroll to the bottom and you can find a line there as 127.0.0.1       localhost.
  8. Just below that line add this >> 127.0.0.2    www.masala18.com
  9. Now Save the file and exit.
  10. You are done.
From now on, no one will be able to access www.masala18.com from your computer as you have just blocked this site on your computer. To unblock this site, simply go to hosts file and delete 127.0.02   www.masala18.com. Now you can access any website from on computer.

Boost Your PC Speed With PC Booster!

Is your computer taking much time to start a program? Are you getting .dll errors frequently? Is your computer getting hanged in regular intervals? PC Booster will keep you away from all above problems. It will increase the computer performance, minimize the booting time and will fix errors in your PC. It’s a freeware, yet pretty much effective. Simply install and configure PC Booster. It will start working as your system guard and will make your PC stable, fast and secure. Download PC Booster and give your computer a new life.
pc booster
boost pc performance
PC Booster is smartly loaded with a lots of tools. It will check your computer for any registry conflicts, unnecessary files on your system and will clear them all. It also checks several other things and will optimize your PC to make it faster. It will show you a graphic chart about your system’s performance before using PC Booster and after using PC Booster. It also optimize your RAM (Random Access Memory) to it’s best, resulting in faster access to any installed program.

Here is a graphic chart showing your system’s performance before and after using PC Booster.
before pc booster
Download PC Booster.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Know If A Photo or Video is Original Or Edited!

Can you identify if your image is original or edited? Perhaps the answer is NO. There are professionals who can edit pictures with tools like photoshop and make them look real. You certainly can’t recognize the originality of those images. Few times I get confused to know if the image I’m viewing is taken from a camera or a doctored image. Likewise there are video editors who edit and make the video look original. But finally there is a tool to tell us if the image or video is original or has been edited with any photo/video editing tools. It’s called JPEGsnoop.
JPEGsnoop is a powerful and witty tool that determines the actual origin of a photo or video. Do you know that every image or video contains some secret codes, called signature in it. JPEGsnoop is capable of reading those signatures. If the image or video has been captured with a camera, it will have some camera assigned signatures inside it. And now if the image or video has been doctored, it will have the signatures of those editing tools inside it.
JPEGsnoop analyze the signature code and try to match it with different photo/video editing tools. If the signature matches with any video or image editing tool’s compression signature, it will show that the image or video file has bee edited. If the source file contains the signature code found in the cameras only, it will label that file as original one. It’s a freeware, so download JPEGsnoop and be a image/video spy.
Look at the below screenshot.
image video edit
JPEGsnoop found some editing work in the above screenshot. This tool comes loaded with signatures from different editing softwares. You can also update it for any latest signature availability. JPEGsnoop supports few popular file types such as JPG, AVI, DNG, MOV, PDF. It can also be used to repair or fix your corrupt images.

Add Various Desktops On Your PC With DeskHedron

DeskHedron is the tool to add various 3D desktops on your PC. Now you don’t need to have the same one desktop on your computer. You can customize your desktop and  change from one to another with mouse clicks or arrow keys. This tool gives you the freedom to play with your computer desktop. Check the screenshot, you can switch your desktop like that.
All you need to have is a Windows 2000 version or later. Linux operating system supports 3D desktop by default while Windows OS does not. So, you need to use third party tools to enhance your desktop. Download DeskHedron and install on your computer. Configure various desktop settings in it. If you are playing solitaire and your boss rushes in, simply use the mouse wheel button and you will get another desktop with Google homepage. Isn’t this cool?
deskhedron
Install DeskHedron To Switch Various Desktops :
  1. Download and install DeskHedron from here.
  2. Press Ctrl+Shift+Z to get the 3D look on your computer desktop.
  3. Switch two various desktops using mouse wheel or arrow keys.
Read their installation manual for further instructions. This tool is a must for those who love to customize Windows operating system.

How To Enable POP3 Email Feature on Hotmail

Now you can enable POP3 access to your existing Hotmail account for free. This service was launched recently and Hotmail also announced about this on it’s blog. POP3 stands for Post Office Protocol Version 3. Enabling this feature will allow you to download and access all your emails on your PC or mobile from your Hotmail account. You can use various email programs like Mozilla Thunderbird, Outlook Express on PC or default email software on mobile to activate and use this feature.

Enable POP3 Access On Your Computer

As I said earlier, you need email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird or Outlook Express for this. You may want to use your default email client on your mobile device. Once you have either of above installed on your computer or mobile phone, you are ready to go.
Go to the settings option and fill out the below fields accordingly.
  1. POP Server : pop3.live.com (Port 995)
  2. POP SSL Required? : Yes
  3. User Name : Your Windows Live email address (Give full email address like MyEmailAddress@Live.com)
  4. password : Your Windows Live password
  5. SMTP Server : smtp.live.com (Port 25 or 587)
  6. Authentication Required : Yes (ID & password for POP3 access – You may set it to NO)
  7. TLS/SSL Required : Yes
That’s it and you are done now. Email service providers like Gmail and Yahoo! have been providing this feature since last couple of years. Hotmail was planing to start POP3 email service since last few time and finally it’s here.

How To Play Song Lyrics With Your Media Player?

Have you ever wondered about running song lyrics on your favourite media player? Yes, you can view the lyrics while listening to the songs. MiniLyrics can do this for you. MiniLyrics is compatible with most media players and comes for free. It will create a new window to display song lyrics and scrolls the song lyrics automatically as the song progresses. If you are a music lover and want to enjoy lyrics while listening to it, MiniLyrics is a must have tool for you.
Here are few reasons why I’m recommending MiniLyrics :
1. It’s a shareware. You can try this before purchasing. But the interesting thing is that it gives you unlimited free trails. So, why to buy?
2. Simple installation procedures. Gets installed quickly on your computer.
3. Works with lots of music players. You can run MiniLyrics with
  1. Windows Media Player (version 9.0 – 10.0)
  2. Winamp (version 2 – 5)
  3. Real player
  4. QCD Player
  5. Foobar 2000
  6. iTunes
  7. MUSICMATCH Jukebox
  8. J. river Media Jukebox media center
  9. MediaMonkey
  10. KMPlayer
  11. Jet Audio
  12. Yahoo! Music Jukebox
  13. BS Player
  14. XMPlay
  15. VLC Media Player
4. It’s supported by a huge song lyric database. you can not only run english song lyrics, but also local language lyrics.
song lyrics
Download MiniLyrics and install on your computer.

If you are not having above supported music players on your computer, get one now. MiniLyrics makes a connection with the internet in order to pull out song lyrics. So, set your firewall to allow MiniLyrics to connect to internet. Use both music player and MiniLyrics at the same time to enjoy music with lyrics on your computer.
Update : It works like a charm. It supports a lots of Hindi (bollywood) music lyrics. You can set it to display and write lyrics on your desktop also.
Download MiniLyrics.

Make Faster Computer Disk Defragmentation With SpeeDefrag

Computer disk defragmentation might take longer time if you are having a lots of files or folders in your computer. Windows disk defragmentation is not the tool that one should use to clear fragmented files. There are a lots of third party tools available today to do this faster and better. One of those free utility tool is speeDefrag. speedefrag can defragment your computer disk faster. Lets know about it.
speeDefrag is a freeware, which means it’s free to download. It does not use much system resources while defragmenting your disk drives. So, now you can do all your work on your computer even when disk defragmentation is going on. SpeedeFrag will make it sure that your computer will run normally without slowing down.
speedefrag

speeDefrag will reboot your computer in order to free RAM (random access memory) space and will get installed. You can schedule a time and speeDegrag will start it’s defragmention on that time. After the defragmention is complete, it will automatically restart or shutdown your computer. You can choose the options from the settings menu.
This speeDefrag is easy on your computer. It’s defragmentation process is faster and works perfect. Download speedDefrag and give it a try today. Don’t forget to post your reviews in the comments section.

Recover Your Deleted Files With Handy Recovery

It’s always a headache to recover and restore deleted files from formatted hard drives. Once we get files or folders deleted from our hard disk, there are chances that hard disk will start writing other files on that space. On the other hand, if we think of using any tool to recover our important data, we have to pay heavily for data recovery softwares. Yes, they come very expensive. But here I’m going to talk about a data recovery tool, Handy recovery, a freeware which will recover all your data and important files from your formatted hard drive on your computer.
In general data gets deleted or they don’t show up in our hard drives because of power failures, system errors, unsupported softwares etc. Remember that the deleted data does not get deleted from your hard disk. it’s still there, 100% safe. It’s just that it does not show up in the file or folders list as we have deleted them. And it’s always possible to recover deleted files on your computer.

handy recovery
Handy Recovery can restore and recover all your data. If you have sent data to recycle bin and later clean up recycle bin, use handy recovery to get them back. If you have formatted your hard drive and thought of recovering some important data from that formatted hard disk, you can also use this tool to restore important files. Handy Recovery does not cost anything, yet a powerful data recovery software.
Few times we also loose data when antivirus softwares detect something suspicious and delete those files immediately without our confirmation. Handy Recovery can restore those files also. You can use this tool to get back data on formatted hard disks, memory drives, pen drives etc. A must have tool for your daily computer usages.
Download Handy Recovery