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Remote Desktop 7 Download for XP & Vista

Ryan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:48:11 +0000

Windows only
One of the new features in Windows 7 is Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) 7, and Microsoft decided to also offer the most of the same functionality to Windows XP and Vista users. Many of you will probably shrug this off as a pointless update, but it has something that is really useful to me. What is it?

Sometimes I Remote Desktop into one machine, and from there I have to Remote Desktop into other machines. A good example of when this might happen is if you have multiple machines in your house… you may only open one of those machines up so that it can be accessed from outside of your network. If you want to connect to other machines you simply RD into the primary one, and then from there you can access any of the other computers on your network.

The problem? If you use one Remote Desktop session inside of another that yellow/tan connection bar along the top can become tedious to use when juggling your various sessions. The more machines you connect to the more those connection bars overlay each other, and can therefore make it extremely difficult to disconnect or minimize some of the connections. You’ll often find yourself sitting there playing with the pin/unpin until the correct connection bar appears.

In Remote Desktop 7 the connection bar is now an attractive transparent blue, but what’s important is that you can slide it back and forth along the top of the window. That basically means you can stagger the connection bars for multiple sessions so that they aren’t completely overlapping each other. I’m demonstrating this in the screenshot above where I connected to one machine using RD7, and then from there connected to another machine running an older version of Remote Desktop. I’ve cropped the screenshot, but the yellow connection bar is actually in the center of the screen. I then dragged the blue bar off to the side so that it could clearly be seen.

Unfortunately the bar can still only be placed along the top of the screen (you can’t move it to the side or to the bottom), but this is still a welcomed addition. There are also a bunch of other features I’m sure some of you will love in RD7:

Web Single Sign-On (SSO) and Web forms-based authentication
Access to personal virtual desktops by using RD Connection Broker
Access to virtual desktop pools by using RD Connection Broker
Status & disconnect system tray icon
RD Gateway-based device redirection enforcement
RD Gateway system and logon messages
RD Gateway background authorization & authentication
RD Gateway idle & session time-outs
NAP remediation with RD Gateway
Windows Media Player redirection
Bidirectional audio
Multiple monitor support
Enhanced video playback

New features available only to users connecting from a Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 machine:

Language Bar docking
Remote application task scheduler
Aero Glass support
Start applications and desktops from ‘RemoteApp and Desktop Connections’

Here are the download links for XP and Vista users:

Remote Desktop Connection 7 Homepage

A Quick Look At Vista’s Remote Desktop

XP/2003 Users Should Upgrade To Remote Desktop 6

Remote Desktop For Mac OS X

Helpful Tip: Create a Remote Desktop Shortcut

CyberSearch 2.0: Bing Support, Search Details, and More

Ryan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:48:08 +0000

I’ve been working on a new version of CyberSearch for a little while now, and I’ve been trying to come up with ways to add all of the most requested features. It wasn’t until about August 2009 that I started to get inspired to work on the extension again, which is when we all of a sudden saw a huge surge in downloads that has remained constant ever since. In the last 3 months we went from getting about 300 downloads a day and 10,000 active users to an astounding 3,000-7,000 downloads a day and almost 90,000 active users. I believe the rapid increase has been coming from the fact that we’re now a Mozilla “recommended” add-on, and as some users have pointed out to me our add-on sometimes shows up in the add-on management window within Firefox. So a big thanks to Mozilla for giving me the motivation to push out a new version, because without them the CyberSearch growth graph probably wouldn’t look like this:

CyberSearch 2.0 is almost a complete rewrite of the previous version, and I did that for performance concerns. Since I wanted to add more features I knew I had to squeeze every last ounce of juice out before I could move on, otherwise I could have ended up with something sluggish enough that people wouldn’t even want to use it. To put it in perspective… CyberSearch 2.0 actually does about half the number of computations that CyberSearch 1.0 did for each search that is performed.

As far as new features go we’ve got quite a few! The first thing is Bing support. You can now create keywords that use either Bing or Google, which is pretty cool if you think about it. That means you can make one keyword that searches Bing, and another that searches Google. If you don’t like the results that one search engine shows just try using the other… and all you have to do is change the keyword. The real reason I wanted to add Bing support, however, is because they have some API functionality that Google doesn’t offer. Thanks to Bing you can actually create keywords that will do conversions/calculations using their Instant Answer technology, or lookup the spelling of a word. You can do this all from the comfort of your address bar.

Next up: search descriptions. This is undoubtedly the most requested feature. You wanted some way to view the descriptions of all the search results just as if you were at the search engine page. I struggled with this for awhile because I didn’t want to try and cram the descriptions into the Address Bar menu which is already cramped, and could require a lot of scrolling to see all the results. That’s when I came up with the idea to use the area behind the menu for this! That way I have a large amount of space to work with, and am able to display way more details than I originally anticipated. For example, if you’re using a keyword with the Google Local service just press the arrows on your keyboard to highlight one of the results. You should see the background behind the menu dim down, and location details will appear… including a thumbnail of a map for where that place is located (as seen in the screenshot above)! All of the different types of searches provide you with customized details (video searches show the duration, book searches provide the ISBN number, blog searches show the publication date, etc…), and screenshots of them all can be found on the CyberSearch homepage.

Those are the two main highlights of the extension, but that doesn’t mean that’s all that changed. You’ll also find little things throughout CyberSearch 2.0 that should make your life a little easier. Things like a “snapback” button in the address for pulling up the last search phrase you used, or the ability to import/export your configuration and keywords so that setting up multiple machines with CyberSearch is a breeze! These were all your ideas, and hopefully they are exactly what you wanted.

When I describe my extension to people they often ask if it’s similar to Google Chrome’s “omnibar,” which is the name for their browser’s address bar. It eliminates the need for a search box just like CyberSearch does, but it isn’t nearly as powerful. Just watch this 3-minute video I put together and tell me if Chrome can do this:

The next thing I want to try and work on is localization so that CyberSearch supports other languages/countries, but it will probably be a little while before I can get to adding any big features like this again. If you find any bugs please report them so that I can try to get them fixed right away. Thanks again for all of your support and feedback!

CyberSearch Homepage

CyberSearch Passes 50,000 Downloads

Safari’s Inquisitor Comes to Firefox

CyberSearch 1.0.2: Pull Up Google Results Page Faster

CyberSearch 2.0.2 Released

Get the Windows 7 Taskbar for XP

Ryan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 14:58:59 +0000

Windows only
One of my favorite features in Windows 7 has to be the redesigned Taskbar. The entire user experience is so smooth, and I think they really went down the right path with it. At work I’m stuck on XP, and I went looking for a way that I could get a lot of the same functionality as what Windows 7 offers.

That’s when I came across the free ViGlance. It’s a rather lightweight app (uses about 10MB of memory when running) that simulates the Windows 7 Taskbar. What I like is that it doesn’t replace the entire Taskbar in XP. Instead it replaces just the portion where the Taskbar buttons normally reside, and leaves the System Tray, Quick Launch, and other native sections untouched.

Here are some of the features:

Pin your favorite applications so that they serve as a shortcut when they aren’t running.
Hovering or clicking on an icon with multiple instances running will show thumbnails of each window, and you can then select the one you want. If just one instance of the app is running when you click on the icon it will instead minimize/restore the window depending on the window’s current state.
Drag and drop the icons in the order you want them to appear.

I expected this app to be nice, but I figured after using it for a week that I would have kicked it to the curb because of annoyances I would find. Surprisingly the features that are implemented are done pretty well. For example, I was wondering what would happen when someone sent me an instant message… how would ViGlance alert me? In a case like that the icon lights up orange as you can see in the screenshot above.

If you do decide to use this there’s just one thing that I want to give you a heads up about. When I first started using it none of the icons would show up, and I was rather perplexed. After some searching around I was finally able to fix the problem by switching my computer from 16-bit color quality to 32-bit in my display properties. I’m not sure why this prevents the icons from displaying, but it does. Aside from that I’d say it’s becoming a solid app, and a great solution for anyone who’s stuck using XP.

ViGlance Homepage (Windows XP only; Freeware)

Free Program To Rearrange Your Taskbar Buttons

Helpful Tip: Middle-Click to Close Programs

Make the XP Taskbar Transparent

54 Screenshots Of Windows Vista 5466

How Good is Opera Turbo?

Ryan — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:39:31 +0000

Windows; Mac; Linux
With Opera 10 one of the new features that was revealed was a “turbo” mode that sits in the bottom-left corner of the status bar, and is represented by a little speedometer. What is it? Opera Turbo promises fast browsing when you’re on a slow Internet connection by pushing your requests through Opera’s servers, and making them do the hard work so that the content you’re fetching is delivered in a highly compressed format:

Opera Turbo is a server-side optimization and compression technology that speeds up data transfer and reduces the amount of data that needs to be downloaded in order to view the page by up to 80%. Among other means, the compression is achieved by image down-sampling therefore some level of distortion in graphics may occur.

When I tell people about this feature the common thing I’m asked is “when will this be useful?” After all, these days we’re all surrounded by high-speed connections, and saving a few megabytes doesn’t matter too much. This kind of thing makes sense on a mobile device, and that’s why Opera Mini also makes use of it, but when would you use it on a desktop browser?

I’ve actually found Opera Turbo to be unbelievably handy… when I’m tethering with my phone. My Internet connection isn’t always as fast as I would like it to be, and I’m more than willing to compromise the quality of some images so that my pages will load faster. Plus, I can turn it on/off at the click of a button if I need to.

How much of a difference does it make? On average I’d say that I save about 1MB for each site that I load, but sometimes it’s even more than that. On sites like Yahoo.com and ESPN.com I’ll save upwards of 2MB since they are heavier on graphics. And, to be honest, the graphics are a bit pixelated, but it normally doesn’t detract from the experience I have on any one particular site. When being tethered on my phone saving that 2MB typically means the page loads five or even ten seconds quicker, and is a worthwhile tradeoff in my eyes.

I haven’t made Opera 10 my primary browser, but thanks to the Opera Turbo this is hands-down my browser of choice when I’m not hooked up to a reliably fast Internet connection. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation you may want to consider grabbing Opera 10 for your machine as well.

Opera 10 Homepage

Gmail IMAP Functionality Gets Turbo Charged!

Download The Newly Released Opera 9.01

Opera 9 Is Not Ready For Prime Time

Opera 9 Will Now Have Weekly Builds Offered To The Public

Turn-by-Turn Directions on the iPhone for $5.99

Ryan — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:48:26 +0000

There has been good number of turn-by-turn GPS applications released for the iPhone over the last few months including some from big names like Tom Tom and Navigon. Back when Apple announced that they were going to allow apps to offer turn-by-turn directions they said that there would be no limitations other than the fact that developers can’t use Google Maps for that functionality. The reason? Google doesn’t allow their maps to be used for the purpose of turn-by-turn directions (probably for liability).

I thought that was a bummer, and as a result many of the turn-by-turn apps on the iPhone consume 1GB+ of space in order to store all the maps on your device. And then there’s the price tag. At the low end these apps will run you around $35, and they go all the way up to $99. Most of them don’t even say whether the software includes any map updates, which probably means you’ll have to purchase updated maps next year if you don’t want things like your points of interest to become outdated.

I was stumbling through the App Store when I came across NaviCat (iTunes link) which was only $5.99. It boasted turn-by-turn directions at a fraction of the cost, and what’s even more interesting is that it said it used Google Maps for route planning. Curiosity got the best of me and so I decided to hand over the $6 to play around with it… and it was only 2MB in size.

So what was it like? Well, it’s interesting. They are able to use Google Maps because it’s really only used for looking up POI’s and mapping out your route. Once you switch to the turn-by-turn mode it jumps away from the Google Maps view. The bad part is that this view doesn’t show any side roads which can make it a bit difficult to tell when you need to turn, but it does have voice guidance to help out in that respect. The onscreen display also shows how far you have until your next turn which makes it a little easier to keep track of when a turn is coming up.

What I find funny is that it’s pretty obvious what this app is doing. You plan your route (complete with waypoints) using Google Maps, and then it essentially analyzes the map to recreate its own map. You’re essentially using Google Maps, but in an indirect way and with a kinda crummy interface.

Is it worth the money? I’ve got mixed feelings over it, but for $6 I’d have to say it’s not bad. If the developer throws in side streets for the turn-by-turn view I’d say this would be pretty darn good for the price. And the fact that it uses Google Maps means it won’t become outdated in a year (or even a month for that matter).

Here’s a bunch of screenshots I took so that you can be your own judge:

Turn Your Laptop Into A Digital Painting

Google Lets Users Customize Their Printed Maps

iPhone 3G FAQ’s

Google Walking Directions are Live

SUPER 2009 Video Converter Released

Ryan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:38:17 +0000

Windows only
It’s a new year, and with that comes all kinds of great new software releases and updates. SUPER Video converter is a favorite for many of our readers, and I wanted to make sure everyone knows that a new version was released with better media support and bug fixes. Here’s a more detailed list of what’s new:

Added support to encode, play and render WMV9 and WVC1 with the ASF, AVI, MKV, WMV and Zune containers
Added support to encode, play and render WMA3 with the ASF, AVI, MKV, WMV and Zune containers
Added Bframe support when using the WMV9/WVC1 video codecs
Added OGG (Audio Only) Output Container, rename the old OGG(Video, Audio) to OGM(Video, Audio)
Added support to encode, play and render vorbis (very high quality) with the OGG (Audio Only) container
Added support to encode, play and render FLAC (lossless) with the MKV, OGM, OGG containers
Added H.264 Profile/Level/Ref CheckBox to tweak 3GP/3G2, iPod, Zune, PSP, PS3, TS and M2TS containers
Fixed a long list of small bug fixes and coding enhancements

The new version still has the same interface, which for many computer users is a bit overwhelming:

Once you start actually using the program, however, it works great. And the fact that SUPER is free makes it pretty hard to beat. The one thing I wish they would fix is their unbelievably awful website that takes five minutes just to find the download link, and the download page changes frequently making it impossible to link directly to it. After a quick search on Google, however, I found this download mirror for you guys.

SUPER Video Converter Homepage

Related Posts:

Super Is the Ultimate Video Converter

Easily Convert Movies to iPhone or iPod MP4 Format

Daily Downloads: SUPER, Joomla, and More

CyberNet’s Year In Review: October 2006

Convert & Extract Audio from Videos

PhraseExpress 6: HTML Formatting & Performance Enhancements

Ryan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:04:36 +0000

(Click to Enlarge)

We’ve written about PhraseExpress before because of the fact that it’s a free application for personal use ($50 for commercial users). They are pretty smart giving away their software for home users, because they know once you start using it you’ll want to have it in front of you while you’re at work as well. So if you do happen to be a PhraseExpress user you’ll be pleased to know that version 6 was just released today, and includes some nice improvements:

Support for HTML formatting
PhraseExpress now supports Rich Text and HTML-formatted phrases which can include pictures and hyperlinks as well.
Up to 10x faster loading time
A new file format reduces the phrase file size by more than 10 times compared to previous versions.
Restrict Autotext and Hotkeys to certain applications
The scope of Autotexts and Hotkeys of any phrase can now be restricted to certain programs or excluded from a customizable list of applications.
Autocomplete for individual words
The unique text prediction feature which has been introduced in v5 has been significantly improved. Additionally, it also offers to auto-complete single words rather than full sentences only.
Multi-language support
PhraseExpress supports Unicode for multi-language phrases but now also offers to switch the keyboard language layout automatically.
Automated Email creation
PhraseExpress can now compose an email including html text/bitmaps (Outlook only), file attachement and definition of cc: and bcc:. The body text length is now only limited by Outlook and PhraseExpress can be configured to send the email immediately without need of confirmation.
Runs from a USB memory device
PhraseExpress can now be used on a USB memory stick. If running from an USB stick it stores all user and configuration data on the removable device only and leaves no traces on the host PC.

Another free text replacement utility is Texter, and while it isn’t as powerful as PhraseExpress it is definitely a fast and simple tool. Give them both a whirl and see which one works best for you. But remember, PhraseExpress is only free for personal use.

Get PhraseExpress for Windows [via Lifehacker]

PhraseExpress 5 Beta – Text Predictions

Cyberware: Download The Free PhraseExpress To Save Keystrokes

Texter – Create Macros and Text Snippets

Download OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 And Information About Future Releases

Foxit Reader 3.0 Released

Ryan — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:48:20 +0000

Windows only
Adobe has struggled with the performance of Acrobat Reader for quite some time, and that’s the main reason I’ve always found myself using the free Foxit Reader. Plus the fact that they’ve always offered the PDF reader as a standalone executable has meant that I can carry around the application on my USB drive. In the end, however, it all comes down to the fact that I can start Foxit in under 2 seconds.

The best part is that they keep making the software better and better. The latest release, Foxit Reader 3.0, includes Firefox support, an improved selection tool, a thumbnail panel, and more. You can find a full list of what’s new here, but these are the ones I wanted to highlight:

Enticing Multimedia Design
Now users can not only play multimedia in Foxit Reader, but also are empowered to add, edit or delete multimedia files with the incredible Movie Tool and Sound Tool.
Thumbnail Panel
Shows thumbnail images for each PDF page and allows users to quickly view relevant portions of a PDF file. Now users can navigate through PDFs with page thumbnails.
Layout Panel
Lists PDF layers in the document, allows users to control the display of some certain content areas.
Awe-Inspiring Foxit OnDemand Content Management
This new add-on enables users to organize, share and collaborate on documents and forms online. Users can upload from Foxit Reader or send documents with ease. Advanced features include workflow driven document sharing, revisions of documents, CollabRoom for group collaboration.
Firefox Support
With Firefox Plugin, users can view and work with PDF files loaded in Foxit Reader with Firefox web browser.
Improved Select Text Tool
Not only used for selecting text, but also enables users to add most types of annotations, including highlight, strikeout, underline, squiggly, replacement, etc.
Better Annotation Control
Allows users to align and center multiple annotations on PDF pages, including Notes, Drawing Markups and Typewriter Comments.
Advanced Toolbar Control
Completely rearranges the toolbar layout and allows users to easily customize the tools that appear in Foxit Reader.
Transferrable preferences Settings
Foxit Reader creates an INI file to save user’s preferences settings so that it can be easily kept and transferred. Users can keep their own settings and don’t have to configure them when Foxit Reader is updated or moved.

Get Foxit Reader 3.0 for Windows

Foxit Reader 2.0 Beta Just Released

How to Remove the Ad in Foxit Reader

Foxit Reader 2.2 – Now the Best PDF Reader

Free PDF Reader: Foxit 2.1

gMote: Mouse Gestures for Windows

Ryan — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:44:00 +0000

(Click to Enlarge)

Windows only
In the past we’ve talked about some mouse gesture applications for Windows including ones that targeted specific applications like Firefox. For some people these gestures can save significant amounts of time day in and day out. If you’re one of those people you should probably know that there’s a new mouse gesture program in town, and it’s called gMote.

There are some things that really make gMote unique. For starters it doesn’t have a predefined set of motions that are used to initiate an action. Instead you record all of your actions so that it knows exactly how you draw them. Your only limitation is what you can draw with your mouse.

The next awesome thing is all of the different actions you have at your disposal ready to be assigned to a gesture. The list includes launching a program, opening a folder, executing a keyboard combination/shortcut, and other common actions like going back/forward in your browser. You can even do things like control your media player.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? To get started all you’ll have to do is download gMote, extract the files, and run it. There’s nothing to install. And for the sake of wetting your appetite even more I’ll leave you with a video that demonstrates some of the things gMote is capable of:

Get gMote for Windows

High Sign: Mouse Gesture Application

StrokeIt Updated After 4-Years; Works on Vista & Windows 7

Your Week In Review with Sunday’s Summary

Helpful Tip: Vista Flip3D Mouse Shortcut

CyberNotes: First Look at Cruz for Mac

Ryan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:00:20 +0000

Web Browser Wednesday

Mac only
Web browsers are becoming more and more important to our everyday lives because they help keep us connected, informed, and productive. So it’s no wonder that there are several different people competing to be successful in this area including Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Opera, and now even Google.

Today we wanted to take a look at an awesome new WebKit-based browser called Cruz. I wouldn’t have found out about it if it wasn’t for one of our readers, Yansky, who pointed it out. And I must say that it has some unique features that might be able to pull Mac users away from their current browser of choice.

(Click to Enlarge)

–The Awesome Features–

Here are some of the best features I’ve found in Cruz:

(more…)

A Reminder About CyberNotes…

Your Week in Review with Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes: Week In Review With Sunday’s Summary

CyberNotes Celebrates 2 Years and 700+ articles