If you ever tried to work in Windows NT systems as a limited user you surely have encountered wondrous things like having no permission to change the Windows clock and especially when installing applications. Working as a limited user on the other hand increases system security because malicious code will run with the same privileges which as the name implies are rather limited.

An owner of a computer surely wants to install software on it even if he is running as a limited user. This is where the problem starts. The Run As command can be used to run applications as a different user. The major problem is that you have to provide the username and password for that user to be able to run the selected application. This data can be easily logged by a keylogger.

Surun uses its own Windows service that adds the user to the group of administrators during program start and removes him automatically from that group again. The user, not the administrator, will be asked on a secure desktop that only services may access if he wants to run the program and if he confirms that the application will be started. Programs are started with a right-click and the selection of Run as Administrator.

continue reading "Surun beats all Sudo like applications in Windows"

Watchcat is a tiny Windows application that can be run from any location on the hard drive. Its main purpose is to hide windows from the taskbar and alt+tab window switching display. It does not end the process of course, it simply hides the window to free up space in Windows. I think we all have the problem from time to time that we cannot close a window that we do not need right now or that is running a task in the background. It does not make much sense to display the window all the time if we do not interact with it and that’s where Watchcat comes into play.

Simply select the window from the Watchcat system tray icon and it will be automatically hidden in Windows. Now this only works with windows that are not minimized to the system tray. If they are located in the system tray maximize them first and select them afterwards in Watchcat. I made a quick test with Thunderbird which is minimized in the system tray most of the time. I maximized it and used Watchcat to hide the window.

The mail notifications would still appear in the system tray and I was able to view new mail as usual. I personally think that it does not make much sense to hide windows that are already minimized in the system tray. This works definitely best for windows that are in the taskbar.

continue reading "Hide Windows with Watchcat"

I have been using Nero Burning Rom for a long time. It used to be a free giveaway with every CD or DVD burner that I bought over the years and I’m currently using version 7 something of it on my computer. Nero is a good program, really. It is just a little bit slow and comes with lots of excess that I would never need nor touch in my whole life. I know that there are dozens of free burning applications available for Windows and I thought I ask you which you do prefer and which you think is the best free burning software currently on the market.

Let me explain the functions that I really need it to support. The software should be able to burn CDs and DVDs both in image formats like ISO or IMG but also folders and files for archiving purposes. It should be able to burn music CDs although I rarely use that feature nowadays. It would be nice if it would have one or two context menu entries that would allow me to burn images right from the context menu.

That’s really all I need. Everything else would be a bonus unless it would slow down the application. A perfect application would load as fast as possible, show no splash screen and let me pick what I want to do right away. Now it’s your turn, what is the best free burning software in your opinion ?

continue reading "Ask The Readers: Best Free Burning Software"

I do not use a software to tag my mp3 files regularly. I’m not that of a music buff who needs his files tagged properly all the time. One reason could be the small size of my mp3 collection, another that I do not transfer mp3s that often to my mp3 player or Nokia N73 mobile phone. Toe Tag is another nicely looking mp3 tagger with an immense amount of options and functions that is pretty astonishing if you consider that the version is currently 0.1.1.0.

The interface does look a bit overladen at first. It is driven by four tabs at the top that let you transfer filenames to tags, tags to filenames, multi tag files and query the online CDDDB database for tags. The tag to filename option is very handy if the files are already properly tagged but the filenames are not in the format that you want them to be. Five Replacement shortcuts exist that can be applied, not only in this menu though. The five entries are artist, album, number, title and year. It is therefor possible to create a filename that would contain the track number, artist and title.

Other mandatory options are to replace spaces with _ and to change the capitalization of the filenames in a number of ways. Multiple files can be selected at once but it normally does not make sense to select more than one album. Toe Tag is directory driven which means that only the files of one directory are displayed at a time. If you want to change tags or filenames of your music collection you are in for some manual labor.

continue reading "Toe Tag just another MP3 Tagger ?"

If you ever have used Winamp you might have noticed how the different windows of Winamp snap when you move them close to each other. The windows are independent of each other but if you move, lets say the playlist window, near the main window it will connect to it automatically. All Snap adds this feature to all windows in your Microsoft operating system. It works with every version of Windows starting with Windows 9x including Windows Vista. There is even an experimental 64-bit version available.

There is however one difference between the Winamp snap function and the one from All Snap. If windows are connected in Winamp you can move all at the same time no matter where you click. This feature is not available in All Snap. You can only snap windows next to each other but once you move one window the other stays in place.

Not all windows can be snapped to as well. Windows who use their own custom way of moving and resizing plus several system windows like Office 2007. You can still snap windows to those windows though.

continue reading "Snap Windows together"