It is rather unfortunate that Windows Vista has problems to provide correct drivers for many “not so popular” devices. This could lead to the problem that a device will not be recognized correctly under Windows Vista reducing its functionality or that the device is not working at all. The usual search the web for drivers option was bad in Windows XP and is bad in Windows Vista as well. You could of course head out and search the internet for drivers to make them work in Windows Vista but this takes lots of time and knowledge.
Microsoft Windows Operating System
Free WMA to MP3 Converter
Several software music players and mp3 players do not support WMA files at all. Wma, Windows Media Audio, is a format that was developed by Microsoft and initially designed to compete with the popular mp3 format. WMA however never received the popularity of the mp3 format and many users don’t like WMA at all because of its DRM capabilities. Converting WMA to MP3 is one solution to get rid of WMA files and make them playable in your software and mp3 players. One way to convert wma audio files to mp3 is to use the software Free WMA to MP3 Converter.
Forget the Windows Start Menu Use Toolbox instead.
The Windows start menu is not really excellent when you want to find something fast. It always takes some clicks to reach the destination – be it a program, the control panel or a drive that is connected to your computer. Toolbox was designed as a application launcher that makes it easier to access drives, folders and applications in Windows. It uses an intuitive way to display toolboxes that contain links to everything that you can think off. You can link to drives and display their size, launch applications with one click and open folders with another. Access to those elements can’t be faster in Windows.
Create tiny cool looking wallpapers
Many users tend to use wallpapers to customize the look and feel of their operating system. Wallpapers come in all sizes and shapes but have one thing in common, they are normally image files that have a size of 100K and more. This is probably not a problem for most new computers but when you have a old machine you might want to fight for every byte that you can save somewhere. The alternative to those wallpapers are tiny wallpapers that have the exact same effect. Sure, they do not show objects or people but they are still nice to look at.
Recover accidentally deleted files
I disabled my trashbin by default which means that deleted items bypass the trashbin and are deleted immediately. This works fine most of the time but it happens that I occasionally delete a file that I need later on again. There is no obvious way to get those files back and you will face serious troubles if want to get them back but used something like defragmentation on that hard drive after the deletion.
The question that some might ask is why one could recover deleted files at all. This is actually a very good question. Windows does not delete the file at all when you press the delete button. It simply deleted the reference to that file and makes the space the file occupied writable again. This means that you can recover most files if you are just fast enough. One freeware that can do the job is Recuva which is supposed to be pronounced recover.
NZB Leecher
Newsgroup indexing sites such as binsearch.info and binaries.nl make it easier to search for files that have been posted to the Usenet by allowing searches in all groups. If you are familiar with the Usenet you might know that you can only search one group at a time which does not help much if you do not know if the file(s) that you are looking for have been posted in that group.
Orbit Downloader
I never suggested a download manager before at ghacks, so here it comes, a free fast download manager that is working with all major browsers and supporting major protocols such as http, https, ftp, mms and rtsp. I have been testing Orbit Downloader in Firefox and Internet Explorer and decided to use it as my main download manager. It monitors downloads automatically and starts the download immediately. If you like you can configure Orbit Downloader to monitor the clipboard as well and catch flash and streaming media files.
It adds a small icon to most video download portals in Firefox that lets you download the video that is currently played. Internet Explorer users have to hover over the video to see a menu that lets them download the video. This feature is site independent which means that it should work on new sites that offer flash and streaming media files. That is not the main purpose of the download manager of course.
Free Version Tracking with File Hamster
Version tracking is extremely useful if you work with files that change very often. This is mostly interesting for coders and website owners but also for users who write large text files and artists that work with graphics or music for instance. In short; File Hamster keeps backups of all old versions of files that you specify making it incredibly easy to revert back to a previous version or take a look at the changes between different versions.
The latest freeware updates
Some interesting freeware programs have been updated the last days and I would like to use the opportunity to write a short article about the ones that I have already mentioned here at ghacks. The first program worth mentioning is a new version of the Foxit PDF reader. It is much faster than the Adobe Reader and optimized for performance. The newly released version is Foxit PDF Reader 2.0 final.
Partypoker Windows Vista Fix
One of the first programs that I installed on my new notebook that is running Windows Vista is the Partypoker application. The first start of the Partypoker application went fine and I was able to login into Partypoker and play Poker games. The next time I tried to start the Partypoker application I witnessed something that left me puzzled for a while. The application would not start.
Superfast Shutdown for XP and Vista
It sometimes takes ages to shutdown Windows XP and Windows Vista, most of the time when you are in a hurry. This can be caused by processes that are still open or not reacting. Windows tries to close those processes which can take a long time. If you don’t have the time or patience to wait for the shutdown you might want to try the excellent freeware Superfast Shutdown which does exactly what the name suggests.
Print Covers using Undercover XP
Burning CDs or DVDs has a distinctive disadvantage over purchased media. The self created audio, video or data CDs and DVDs have no initial cover artwork. This makes them rather unattractive if you want to give them to someone else or put them into a rack. It probably does not matter if you just use them to backup files or burn one use audio or video CDs and DVDs but I think it does make a difference for media that you want to keep for a longer time. The key to create great front and back covers is a program that makes it as easy as possible to do so.
Video Wallpapers for all Vista versions
Vista Ultimate has a feature called Dreamscene that can be downloaded as a preview version including a Dreamscene content package which was released just a few days ago. Dreamscene makes it possible to use Videos as wallpapers in Windows Vista. The Dreamscene content package added four new videos that could be used as wallpapers in Windows Vista but you can also use other videos to use as a wallpaper.
Monitor your traffic
If you want to monitor your network traffic either because you have an account that gives you only a limited amount of bandwidth each month or because you simply want to analyze the traffic that is sent over your connection during a special period. Netmeter starts in a small window immediately starting to record outgoing and incoming traffic as well as other data such as peak upload and download speed. You can adjust the transparency level of that window or move Netmeter into the system tray. You can also adjust the colors of the graph if you like but the default values can be nicely distinguished.
Extend Vista Activation Period to 12 Months
It is getting better and better. I was describing a method to extend the activation period of Windows Vista by 90 days to a total activation period of 120 days. But this is actually not the maximum that you can extend the activation period of Windows Vista. Ryan from Cybernet wrote a nice article today that explains how every Windows Vista user can extend the activation period by the factor three raising the total time until Windows Vista has to be activated to
Copy all songs from an iPod
You can use iTunes to copy to your iPod but not to copy them back to your hard drive. I don’t know if this has been intentional to please the Music Industry but I doubt it was just an error that could not be corrected in later revisions of iTunes. You have to look elsewhere if you want to copy songs from the iPod to a hard drive again, lucky for us tools that can do this exist and are free to download and use.
Reduce Hard Drive Noise
Many modern hard drives support a function called AAM – Automatic Accustic Management. The feature is currently supported by most hard drives from Samsung, Maxtor and Hitachi. Most hard drives have the feature disabled by default which decreases access time but increases the noise level of the hard drive. If you prefer silence over performance you might want to enable AAM to decrease the noise level of your hard drive and slightly increase the access time.
How to bypass Vista activation
Imagine a race. A race between Microsoft and Crackers. Whenever Microsoft releases a new operating system that they say is absolutely secure and uncrackable some crackers find a way after days, weeks or even months. Vista was designed to be the first operating system that would not be copied en masse because of the way it had to be activated to function after a trial period. The first workarounds popped up pretty quickly buying time for the one real workaround to rule them all.
The weakness was first discovered by the famous (underground) group Paradox which discovered a way to emulate so called “Royality OEM2″ which require no activation at all. Those special OEM versions are only issued to major computer manufacturers such as Dell and Asus to take the hassle of activating the operating system away from their clients. These manufacturers embed license information into their hardware products which is equivalent to a online or phone registration.
Hijack This 2.0 beta
HiJack This is a very sophisticated security analyzer that generates an advanced report of various registry settings and files in your computer. The difference to many other security analyzers such as trojan scanners is that Hijack This makes not difference between “good” and “bad” settings but displays everything that it founds in its security log. It is then up to the user to find potentially harmful files and settings and remove them from his computer.
Capture image and convert it to text
I was not really sure how to name the title of this article. Jocr is a freeware that makes it possible to capture to capture a set region, a window or a full screen image in Windows and use character recognition to write the text of the image into a notepad file. The only prerequisite as far as I can tell is – unfortunately – a copy of Microsoft Office 2003 or newer with Microsoft Office Document Imaging installed which you can find under the Office Tools tab of the installation CD. The language that you are using has to be supported by Microsoft Office Document Imaging, about 20 are supported next to English of course.