April 20, 2008

New Microsoft Free Desktop Themes for Windows XP

You dont have to settle for the default Microsoft Desktop Themes that come with Windows XP. There are a few unofficial Microsoft released desktop themes that you can add to your collection for free. Here they are:

Microsoft Zune Theme description
A special Windows XP Theme from Microsoft designed to look like its new Zune portable media player

Microsoft Zune Theme is a special Windows XP Theme from Microsoft designed to look like its new Zune portable media player. This is an official skin for Windows XP that has a dark grey style and orange Start menu.Download it here directly.

Royale Theme for WinXP description
A new theme, potentially destined for Windows XP. Freeware

Royale Theme is a new theme, potentially destined for Windows XP, that has leaked out of Microsoft and onto the web. The theme appears to have come out of a beta version of Media Center 2005 that was in testing.

The theme is not a substantially different incarnation of the existing of Luna, the current default theme for Windows XP. You can see the main changes in the screenshots below; one could describe it as being a 'glass mod' of Luna. Download it here directly.

Royale Noir
Is a welcomed alternative to the extremely small collection of verified-by-Microsoft XP themes, similar to the Royale blue.

Download it form here directly.


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April 19, 2008

Customize your iTouch or iPhone with Themes

Tired of your iTouch default colours and icons? Pimp your iTouch for free with new themes, icons , wallpaper and colors to match.
Here are a nice set of themes for your iTouch or iPhone.

A Summerboard theme around the Gartoon icons found at art.gnome.org.

The Gartoon Summerboard Theme can be downloaded and used on your iPod Touch or iPhone.
Here is a another theme that has a medieval feel , kind of like a Leonardo Da Vinci look to it. Download it here.


Round Icons with a Web 2.0 glossy look.
Download it here.



A colourful theme of wet paint splashes
Download it here.

An alternate version to the Web paint theme
Download it here.


A nice black and white theme, very sharp.
Download it here.


A Classic Mac OSX Theme.
Download it here.










A modern clean nature theme
Download it here.



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April 18, 2008

Free Analog Clock for your Windows XP Desktop

ClocX is analog clock application for Microsoft Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista. It is programmed in C++ language, which ensures small executable binary, optimal speed and low memory usage.

If you want the features of Windows Vista's sidebar, get it now at no cost!

Download it from here directly

These are cool looking clocks with many features such as:

  • 256 levels of transparency with special mouse-over transparency function
  • changable and configurable styles (24 PNGs and 7 BMPs in standard installation, additional 98 PNGs and 69 BMPs available in full instalation or in PNG/BMP packs)
  • per-pixel alphablending for PNG backgrounds
  • advanced window options (unmovable, always on top, pin to desktop, click through, ...)
  • priority settings
  • configurable alarms with ability to show alarm window, play sound, execute application and shutdown computer

    • Apple Online Store
  • simple calendar
  • automatic start with Windows (for all users) or with user login (only for your user)
  • language support (Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and more)
  • absolutely free software - it contains no ads, no spyware, no adware and no toolbars
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April 16, 2008

Windows Hacks - Useful Shortcuts Save Time

Useful, quick shortcuts to common actions are not always available in a OS, specially Windows. luckily we can hack are way into the registry or tweak easily the default behavior and its functionality to suite our needs.

Below are three tutorials I put together recently for Windows XP (and Vista) users.

Windows Hack - Add Options to Right Click Menu
Add the option Copy To and Move To on the Windows Explorer Right Click Menu.

This hack can be applied to Windows XP and Vista.

Notes from video:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Copy To {C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Move To {C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Windows Hack -Add a Command Prompt Shortcut to the Right Click Menu
This Windows XP tip allows you to access hidden functionality by adding a right click option to select "Command Prompt Here" from the menu in windows explorer on a directory.

Windows Trick - Create a Special Shortcut to Lock Your PC
Create a Shortcut for Locking Your Computer Screen in Windows XP or Vista.

Notes from video:
Shortcut information to enter is:
rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

The icon can be changed to a system icon if you point to the file in c:\windows\system32\shell32.dll when browsing for a new icon to change it to.

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April 11, 2008

Windows Vista Boost with ReadyBoost

Do you have a USB flash drive laying around? Speed up your Windows Vista with the ReadyBoost feature. It allows you to use that spare space on a USB stick reduce wait time when using Vista.

Basically Windows ReadyBoost allows Vista to use a compatible USB flash drive as cache instead of the hard drive. Microsoft suggests that you provide enough space on a flash drive for ReadyBoost so that you are in at least a 1:1 ratio with your installed physical RAM. So if you have 1Gig of Ram installed, would be best ot have a 1Gig USB drive, or at minimum 512Meg free of space on it. ReadyBoost works best on systems that have little physical memory. This menas that if you are running a Windows Vista system with the minimum 512 Megs of rafm you would notice a difference by using Readyboost. The more physical Ram you have installed the least impact readyboost would have. So I do not recommend using ReadyBoost of system witl more than 2 Gigabytes of RAM installed.

Without getting too picky if you have a really old USB drive, see if you can find out the specs for it, it is recommended that the USB drive you have be at least:

  • 5 MB/sec throughput for random 4k reads across the entire device
  • 3 MB/sec throughput for random 512k writes across the entire device

    • PCWizKid tested the PNY 2GB Attache USB Flash Drive for enabling ReadyBoost in Windows Vista. Watch the video tutorial here on how to enable it step by step.

    Here are some suggestions on compatible Readyboost Flash drives



    Steps to enabling ReadyBoost
    1. Insert the USB drive into one of your computer's USB ports. The AutoPlay dialog box opens a few seconds after plugging the drive in asking you what you want to do. Click "Speed up my system".

    2. A new screen will appear showing the ReadyBoost properties. Select the "Use This Device" option. Then use the slider labeled "Space to reserve for system speed" to reserve the amount of space you would like to assign to ReadyBoost. Use 100% of the USB sticks space if you can.
    3. Click on the Apply and then the OK buttons to finalize the changes. The USB flash drive is now reserved as your ReadyBoost device and will be used as additional cache memory. Just remember to keep the USB stick plugged into the USB port on your PC when it boots up so Vista can detect and use it. You should notice a significant speed boost since accessing the flash drive is faster than accessing the hard drive.

    Note: You can verify that ReadBoost was setup on the USB Stick by opening the drive.     You will see a file called ReadyBoost and it will have a file type description of ReadyBoost Cache File. The size of the file will also be the same as what you allocated towards ReadyBoost.

    In conclusion
    A quick benchmark test with PCMark 05 showed that there is a slight improvement in performance by using ReadyBoost. The base system test performed in PCMark 05 was the defaults and it gave a score of 2105 without using ReadyBoost. When the USB flash drive with ReadyBoost was used the PCMark 05 score was 2205. A small improvement, but there is a slight difference which proves that to extent this may not be as noticable as it seems.

    Also     keep in mind that you can only have one active ReadyBoost usb drive per system.

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    April 5, 2008

    iPhone Pwnage Tool - Unlocker

    There is a new iPhone unlocker developed by a iPhone Development Team in Russia.

    Its called the Pwnage Tool and it can be downloaded from http://www.iphone-dev.org. Currently only available for the Mac OSX version. It allows users to modify their iPhone's bootloader to allow it to boot any software. In its native state, the iPhone bootloader is what prevents it from booting unauthorized (non Apple) firmware.

    Watch the tutorial on how to install and unlock your iPhone with it.


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    Macbook, Macbook Pro, iMac and iPod Sale!

    April 4, 2008

    Windows Vista PowerToy - TweakVI

    Tweak Vista with TweakVI for Vista

    There is a new tweaking Powertoy for Windows Vista users. Its called TweakVI. Best of all the basic version of this utility is completely free!

    It seems once again a 3rd party has beat Microsoft to the punch by creating a PowerToy utility for Windows Vista only. Works on all Vista versions and on both 32bit and 64bit flavours.

    The feature list of options and plug-ins to tweak is impressive such as IE and Firefox Tweaks, hacking the Start menu, putting an image on Internet Explorer's toolbar, changing how windows animate and optimizing your CPU's cache.
    • Activate hundreds of hidden Windows Vista settings
    • clean your registry
    • activate system and software restrictions
    • display detailed system information
    • create a 256 MB RAM drive
    • protect your privacy
    • clean your hard drive
    • manage TrueType fonts
    • improve your internet connection
    • optimize your CPU
    • optimize your RAM

    Watch the review (click on the player below)


    The tweaking utility allows you fine tune and optimize features to increase the speed of your Windows Vista system without going through a manual process like modifying the registry.
    Here are some example screen shoots of options.





    Click here and Download TweakVI - FREE
    It has the ultimate collection of tweaks for Windows Vista - TweakVI for Windows Vista includes them all. Get the free 'Basic' edition now!


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    April 2, 2008

    Ubuntu 8.04 - Hardy Heron New Features List

    There are many beta testers of the latest Ubuntu 8.04 out there trying out before the final release due this April 24th, but one thing you would want to know is what to expect before you install it.

    Here is a list of what you can expect as part of the new features of the Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.
    Easy Installation
    Ubuntu adoption on a dual boot is much easier by making it simple for Windows users to install Ubuntu onto their PCs without affecting their Windows installation, preview and try it out first before you commit to it. When run the installation CD within Windows the autoplay will launch the umenu and Wubi which will give you the option to install Ubuntu within windows or not. Wubi allows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application. The setup wizard will take you step by step in choosing drives, to install, and setting up the windows boot manager and so on.

    Uninstalling it all is easy, just click the uninstall option in windows to remove it all.

    Desktop GUI and Apps Upgrades
    At the time of this article it includes GNOME 2.22 which has an entire new set of features such as:
    - "Cheese" tool which lets you take photos and make videos using your computer's webcam.
    - "GVFS" a new network-transparent virtual filesystem layer for GTK+. GVFS is designed to overcome the shortcomings of the older GNOME-VFS system. Improvements over GNOME-VFS include remembering login credentials for the entire session and being more resilient to failures
    - Built in internationalization into its clock
    - Evolution mail improvements on spam filtering , perfrmance and integration with Google Calendars
    - "Remote Desktop Viewer" features the ability to discover machines on the local network and bookmark your favorites
    -"PolicyKit" is a new cross-desktop security framework. The purpose of PolicyKit is to provide a consistent way for user applications to gain extra privileges, e.g. for administrative applications.
    - FireFox 3 comes installed by default.
    - Bittorrent is replaced with "Transmission", a fast, easy, and free multi-platform BitTorrent client with a focus on being lightweight yet feature-filled.
    - "Vinagre" VNC client is installed by default in Beta, replacing xvnc4viewer
    - The "Brasero" CD/DVD burning application, which will complement the CD/DVD burning functions of Nautilus and replace the Serpentine audio CD burning utility, is installed by default
    - New System Monitor utility
    - Command line controlled firewall called ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) host-based.

    Energy Savings
    In todays age we are all about conserving energy right? Well if your not, then your probably at least concerned with reducing overheating of your dual core CPU's? Anyhow, as one would expect with a new release of Ubuntu comes updated kernel software which amongst many things will help the performance of dual core and 64bit processors. It has dynticks support for amd64, bringing the same power savings already available on 32-bit systems to 64-bit laptops and desktops. In other words better power management for 64-bit users and kernel-based virtualization.

    This is definitely the best Linux distro so far out there.

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    April 1, 2008

    Ubuntu - Enabling Desktop Effects

    By default in Ubuntu there is a subset of effects (Compiz Fusion) enabled, however there is more to just fade-in and out windows when it comes to desktop effects, Ubuntu has the most of any operating system out there.

    If you are thinking about installing Ubuntu, take a look at my previous article to help you how here.

    In this article I have various walkthroughs on enabling the advanced desktop effects which allow you to have the 3D cube, wobbly Windows, virtual desktop areas and many more which I show in my videos below.

    First thing is to ensure you have set up the Advanced Desktop Effects in Ubuntu Feisty (7.04) or Gutsy (7.10). Once you have this you can enable more advanced effects. I my case I have Ubuntu 7.10, and will show you first the 3d Cube option. Each of my video will go through different desktop effects.



    Ubuntu has a desktop effect for viewing multiple workspace areas at once (Expo) and manipulating your running programs between them. On the Mac's OS X Leopard this same feature is called "Expose" , however the Ubuntu "Expo" effect is fully configurable and supports multiple monitors and more. This is a walkthrough showing how to use it.


    Ubuntu has many animation effects that can be applied to all your actions, such as minimizing and maximizing windows. This walkthrough shows you how to select and modify them.

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