Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ Category

How To Clean Windows Registry

Friday, July 17th, 2009

What is Windows Registry?

Windows Registry is a database which stores settings and options for Microsoft Windows operating systems. It contains information and settings for hardware, operating system software, most non-operating system software, and per-user settings. The registry also provides a window into the operation of the kernel, exposing runtime information such as performance counters and currently active hardware.registry cleaner

Why should we clean the Registry?

Almost each and every software we use leaves some traces in the registry even after we uninstall the software. If these traces left behind the software’s get clustered in the registry, it affects the performance of the PC in a major level. Thus it is important to clean the Registry.

How to clean the registry???

Cleaning the registry of windows based machine is not much difficult provided proper care is taken as any mistake costs you the proper functionality of the windows operating system. So at most care should be taken while cleaning the system registry and taking a proper backup of the existing registry is always suggested. Windows Registry can be easily cleaned by following the steps given below.

1. First of all we before we start all we need is a good registry cleaner, there were lots of registry cleaners available but be careful when you download one as your PC will be affected with spywares, viruses from the sites you visit as “Registry Cleaner” is one of the top keyword combination used by hackers.

2. Install the Registry cleaner which you download. This can be done by running the downloaded Registry cleaner installation file. Once you run it, there will be an installation wizard. Follow the instructions of the wizard and the Registry cleaner will get installed successfully (make and icon in the desktop for easy access).

3. Now run the Registry cleaner by double clicking on its icon. Once the program runs, scan the registry for issues. Once the scan is done, make a backup of the registry. After making the backup, click repair to clean the registry of errors and issue.

4. Running the Registry once in a year is not enough. A weekly maintenance should be done. Clean the registry every week using the Registry cleaner. Also make sure you clean the Registry after you uninstall software’s.

8 Tools to Share Music and Songs on Twitter

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Guest post by Srikanth AD

Twitter is becoming more and more popular day-by-day and many people agree that Twitter is the one of the best social networking sites. If you are a music lover and use Twitter then you can now share music that you are listening with your friends and followers on Twitter. twitter

Here in are tools that help you to search and share music on Twitter.

Song.ly – This cool Firefox extension allows you to share the links to mp3 files and playlists with your friends on Twitter. After installation, with a single click you can tweet the short URL of songs. Just right-click on the song link to tweet it onto your Twitter account.

TwittyTunes – This is another FireFox extension that allows you to tweet the titles of the songs that you are currently playing. Using this tool you can control how many and how often you want to tweet. It even allows you to tweet URLs of the websites that you are viewing, mp3 links and video links: all links are shortened before tweeting.

Twt.fm – This is a popular music channel on the web. In Twt.fm, you can search for music by entering an artist name or track name. You can directly listen to songs from your browser and you can tweet the song URLs with a single click.

BLIP.fm – Search for a song or an artist and select a song from the search results and play it to listen and click it to tweet it. Yes, blip.fm is that simple, searching and tweeting songs URLs is very easy on this site. Whenever you tweet, it will also blip on this site, sharing on this site is called ‘bliping’.

Twisten.fm – This site allows you to search, listen and tweet. Just login using your Twitter ID and search for music. If you love the music and want to share it, just click on the update button, a shortened URL of the song is generated and tweeted onto your Twitter account. When a user clicks on the URL, he can listen to the song directly from the web browser itself.

Songza.com – Allows you to search, listen and manage your own playlists. If you come across a song and want to share it with your friends on Twitter or Facebook, then click on it and select the network on which you want to share and enter the username and password. You can also add a message to the tweet along with the shortened URL of the song that you have selected. You can also tweet link of your playlist and share multiple songs at one click.

Dora.fm – Is a popular radio station on web. Using this free web service, you can listen to songs and search for available music. This web service uses the services of ‘Bit.ly’ for URL shortening and ‘Pandora’ for music streaming. Searching, listening and tweeting using Dora.fm is really simple.

Song.ly – This is a free web service where you can search for your favorite artist or title and listen to songs. This is one of the popular web service to share songs and music on Twitter. Just type the artist or title of the songs and Song.ly will search it for you on the web and returns back the search results. Click on a song to play it and with another click you can tweet short URL of that song to your friends. When your friends click on the URL they can directly listen to the song from the web browser without downloading it.

Guest blogger Srikanth writes on Tech Inspiration blog about tips, gadgets, and technology.

How To Enable Remote Desktop in Windows 7

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Remote Desktop is a multi-channel protocol that allows a user to connect to a networked computer. Remote Desktop, enables you to connect to your computer across the Internet from virtually any computer, Pocket PC, or Smartphone. Once connected, Remote Desktop gives you mouse and keyboard control over your computer while showing you everything that’s happening on the screen. With Remote Desktop, you can leave your computer at the office without losing access to your files, applications, and e-mail. To setup the remote desktop in a windows 7 machine just follow these simple steps.

1. Click on Start –> Right Click on My Computer –> Properties

2. In the left hand pane you can find Remote Settings, Just Click on that.my computer properties in windows 7

3. Select Allow connections from computer running any version of Remote Desktop (Even though it is less secure it is recommended to select this option as it allows the users from previous windows operating systems.. to access remote connections to the computer)remote desktop connection in windows 7

5. Click on Apply to activate the settings.

How To Change IP Configuration In Windows Vista/ Windows 7

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

The Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite, also referred to as TCP/IP.
IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering distinguished protocol datagram’s (packets) from the source host to the destination host solely based on their addresses.

Internet Protocol(IP) Address is the address of a computer which is unique such that a computer is identified in a network.

Static IP: This IP address is assigned to the computer manually and does not change every time the computer is connected to the network. This is to ensure same settings were applied across all the networks like Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Personal Area Network (PAN). These settings remain intact and thus ensure that the computer gets access to all the data it needs very fast.

Dynamic IP: This IP address is allocated by the network router/servers by using the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). This protocol dynamically allocates an IP address to the computer when it connects to the network, from a pool of IP addresses. Thus the IP address of the computer changes(Depends on the lease settings configured by DHCP Server) every time it connects to the host servers. (As Dynamic IP’s were automatically assigned we need not change the settings as it will get IP from the pool available from the server)

To change the IP address of a computer Which is Statically Assigned.

1. Click Start –> Control Panel –> Network & Internet –> View Network Status and Tasks

view network status and tasks 2. Click on Local Area Connection –> Properties –> Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPV4) –> Properties

3. Select Enter  Use the following address and enter IP configuration settings you have.

ip configuration4. After entering the IP configuration settings click on OK –> Close

5. The configuration was completed and your new IP address is assigned to your computer.local area connection

Save As XPS/PDF: Microsoft Office 2007 Addin

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Searching for Word to PDF converter, a simple plugin ” Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007″ from Microsoft allows you to export and save to the PDF and XPS formats in all 2007 Microsoft Office programs. It also allows you to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF and XPS formats in a subset of these programs.

To install this download just follow these simple instructions:

1. Download the file by clicking here.
2. Double-click the SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe program file on your hard disk to start the Setup program.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

install-save-as-xps-pdf-plug-in

Instructions for use:

After you install this download open the document you want to publish and then, depending on the program you are using, select Save or Publish to PDF or XPS from the Office or File menu.

save-documents-in-pdf-or-xps-format-with-microsofts-save-as-pdf-or-xps-office-add-in

How To remove save as XPS/PDF :

To remove the download file, delete the file SaveAsPDFandXPS.exe.

1. On the Start menu, point to Settings and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
3. In the list of currently installed programs, select Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS Add-in for 2007 Microsoft Office programs and then click Remove or Add/Remove. If a dialog box appears, follow the instructions to remove the program.
4. Click Yes or OK to confirm that you want to remove the program.