Windows only
You may not know this if you haven’t used Windows XP (or earlier) in a while, but all Windows versions have a killer feature that lets you launch applications quickly without having to install memory-eating launcher apps. Read on to see how you can start typing away in Microsoft Word faster than ever before, and more.

The principle
To launch applications quickly, we’re gonna use Windows’ Run feature. You can bring it up by pressing Windows key + R. Alternatively, you can hit the Start button and click Run (in Vista or Windows 7 you may need to enable this through the Start Menu properties) but I recommend using the hotkey to save time.

The commands
Here are a couple of frequently used commands to get to applications like Firefox, Paint, the Command Prompt and so on. It takes a while to learn these but believe me, it’s worth it.

Arguments
Most of the applications mentioned above take arguments so that you can pass along a file to open. This comes in very handy when I have a URL of a video I want to open in Media Player Classic. To do this, I can type mplayerc http://this/is/a/pasted/url to open the specified URL in my media player immediately.

Creating your own launchers
Of course, this list of commands is non-exhaustive. You can create as many launchers as you want for just about anything including files, folders and URLs. This can be done in two ways. The easiest way is to put shortcuts in C:\Windows\. Whatever the name of your shortcut is will be the command to launch it from the Run window. So if I create a shortcut named ‘prf’ in C:\Windows\ to the Program Files folder, typing the command ‘prf’ in the Run window will bring up that folder.

Now, I can imagine you not wanting to put truckloads of shortcuts in the Windows folder. There is an alternative method involving some Registry Editor witchcraft where you create new registry keys in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths, but doing that is a lot more complicated than creating plain old shortcuts.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Speed Tricks: Launching Programs Quickly With Windows’ Run Command

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Is your desktop the digital equivalent of a gigantic stack of unsorted stuff? Perhaps it’s time then to cut through the clutter once and for all and get everything cleaned up. In this article, we’ll help you make it look organized again step by step and advise you on how to keep it that way.

Click to Enlarge

Step 1: delete files you don’t need
Although this is an obvious step, it is essential to the process of cleaning up your desktop. If you’re a big software downloader, chances are that you’ve piled up quite a bit of installers. Go through all of your files and delete the ones you no longer need. Do the same with your shortcuts. A lot of applications drop a shortcut on your desktop you don’t use anyway. If you find yourself using the Start Menu or the Quick Launch bar instead of clicking shortcuts on your desktop, just get rid of them.

Click to Enlarge

Step 2: group files that belong together in folders
Try to put files that have something to do with each other in folders as much as you can. You may discover that some of the folders you’ve created can be grouped together in a folder of themselves. Using folders, you can drastically lower the amount of icons on your desktop.

Click to Enlarge

Step 3: move the folders you’ve just created to My Documents
Storing documents on your desktop is not a good idea if you want to keep the number of icons down. An exception to this rule are temporary documents. In some cases it’s better to leave them on your desktop to remind you that they have yet to be processed. As for the rest of your files: move your newly created folders off your desktop and into My Documents. If you need quick access to some folders, optionally create a shortcut to them but remember to keep the amount of shortcuts to a minimum.

Click to Enlarge

Step 4: download Fences to create groups of files
Back in February, Ryan wrote about a useful little tool from Stardock that allows you to group files on your desktop together. What’s even cooler about this nifty piece of freeware is that it will let you double-click your desktop (or press Escape) to hide all your icons. My advice is to always have this so-called quick-hide mode enabled, except for one or two essential groups that contain stuff like the Recycle Bin or shortcuts to folders you use often. To prevent Fences from hiding a group you’d like to be visible in quick-hide mode, right-click it, go to View and click ‘Exclude this Fence from quick-hide’.

Click to Enlarge

Done!
There you go, your desktop should look a lot cleaner now. In the future, remember to move or delete files on your desktop asap to keep it as clean as possible. Not only does it give you the chance to rediscover your wallpaper, but your files will be more organized too.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
How to Clean Up Your Desktop

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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:

• Windows XP SP3
• Vista SP1/SP2 32-bit
• Vista SP1/SP2 64-bit

Remote Desktop Connection 7 Homepage

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Remote Desktop 7 Download for XP & Vista

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Windows only
I received a tip from Mark over the weekend that NeoSmart had posted their Windows 7 recovery disc ISO images just like they did when Vista was released. These discs are extremely handy to have especially if you didn’t receive any installation media with your new computer, which is a common occurrence when purchasing from a majority of manufacturers including Dell and HP.

Why are these recovery discs useful? They include the most important part of what you can find on the Windows 7 installation disc if you purchase a retail copy of the OS. These recovery discs strip away everything except for the recovery portion, which brings the size down to about 5% of what the normal disc weighs in at. With it you’ll able to do things like restore your computer from a backup, repair the startup, roll back to a System Restore point, run diagnostics, open the command prompt, and more.

I’ve used the Vista Recovery Disc numerous times to fix my own machine when the startup has become corrupt (namely because of installing and uninstalling several different Linux distributions). All I have to do is throw in the CD/DVD, run the Startup Repair, and Windows always manages to diagnose and fix the problem within minutes (example). This is something Microsoft got right in Vista… it’s a recovery tool that shockingly works, and the same functionality has been carried over into Windows 7.

So what do you have to do? Well, you simply download the ISO image below, burn it to a disc, boot your computer with it, and begin the recovery process. Here’s the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions of the recovery tool that I’ve uploaded to MediaFire so that you don’t have to download them through a torrent:

• Windows 7 Recovery Disc 32-bit (x86) – 144MB
• Windows 7 Recovery Disc 64-bit (x64) – 166MB

If you want to download it through a torrent jump on over to NeoSmart where you’ll find the links you need. Thanks again to Mark for the tip!

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Windows 7 Recovery Disc

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Windows only
Coming across some free software is nice, but what’s even nicer is finding an app that you typically have to pay for that’s available at no cost for a limited time. Do you like the sound of that? If so you may want to check out the currently free (until the end of October) WinX DVD Ripper Platinum that is being given away compliments of Techweenies.

This software is perfect for anyone who’s looking to convert those DVD formats into a format that can pretty much be played on any device. It includes a lot of pre-configured profiles for things like the iPhone, Zune, and more to minimize the amount of tweaking you have to do.

• Rip DVD to popular video formats as AVI, FLV, WMV, MPEG, MP4, etc
• Rip DVD to popular portable devices including iPhone, iPod, PSP, PDA, Zune, Mobile phone, etc
• Support automatically detecting, connecting and transferring converted videos to portable devices
• Rip DVD audio into MP3 music file
• Support grabbing screenshot from DVD video
• Enable to remove or choose subtitles for output videos
• All video/audio parameters adjustable for users optimizing video quality
• Supper fast ripping speed, up to 300%-500% real time
• Best video/audio quality
• Easy to use and 100% stable

And here’s a more complete list of supported input/output formats:

• Input formats: Normal DVD, CSS protected DVD, region 1-6, Sony ArccOS, Commercial DVD
• Output formats: AVI, WMV, FLV, MP4, MPEG, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP, PDA, 3GP, Zune, Music, XviD, DivX, JPG, BMP

The software normally runs $25 (which appears to be an “on sale” price marked down from $50). What I love is that the version you download through the giveaway page doesn’t require a serial number or anything like that. Just install it and you’ll have the full version. And you can reinstall it on your computer whenever you want.

I’d say you should grab it before October 31st regardless of whether you plan on using it right away. That way the next time you have to rip a DVD you’re not stuck scrounging around for an app that can do it.

WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Giveaway (Windows only; Free until October 31st)

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Free WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

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A few weeks ago a lot of sites were writing about a web developer program from Microsoft that provided web-related software at no upfront cost. When you end your membership you will, however, have to pay a $100 fee. If you look at the overall value of the software you’ll see that it’s still worthwhile.

There’s another program that Microsoft offers which is an even better deal if you qualify… BizSpark. It’s targeted for small businesses that have been around for less than 3 years, make under $1 million a year, and are privately held. Once you get in you’ll have access to pretty much all the software Microsoft makes including all versions of Office 2007 (Ultimate, Professional, Enterprise, etc…), all versions of Windows 7 (Ultimate, Professional, Home Premium, etc…), all versions of Vista, and so on. You’ll basically get a full retail MSDN subscription.

Here’s a more detailed list of the requirements:

• An eligible startup must have the following characteristics at the time of joining:
  • Actively engaged in development of a software-based product or service that will form a core piece of its current or intended business
  • Privately held
  • In business for less than 3 years
  • Less than US $1 million in annual revenue
• To be eligible to use the software for production and deployment of hosted solutions, startups must also be developing a new “software–plus-services” solution (on any platform) to be delivered over the Internet. To meet this requirement your software must:
  • Add significant and primary functionality to the integrated Microsoft software
  • Be owned, not licensed, by you

After you apply it should take about one business day to get accepted (they’ll send a confirmation email to you). Once you’re in you’ll be able to enjoy 3-years of Microsoft software, and similar to the web developer program you’ll have to pay a $100 fee when you exit the program. That’s a heck of a deal for all of the software you get access to.

BizSpark Homepage
Thanks Chris for the details!

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BizSpark Provides a 3-Year MSDN Subscription for Small Businesses

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A few weeks ago we wrote about a free audio converter that was pretty nice, but when installing the app it tries to also put a bunch of third-party software on your machine. I made sure to point this out, but our readers stepped up and mentioned several other apps that are both free and clean. One of them, called winLAME, was recommended by Ian and really caught my attention. Not only is it free, but it’s also open source.

There were a few reasons why I really liked this app. First, it already has support for Windows 7. Second, it has presets for people looking for no-brainer audio conversion in addition to custom settings for people looking for more control. It’s basically a four-step process: Select your input file(s), select your output settings, choose from one of the quality presets or customize the advanced settings, and then let it go to town. And not only can it convert your audio files, but it can also rip CD’s.

Here’s a more complete list of features and supported formats:

• Encoding and decoding of many audio formats, including:
  • .mp3 via LAME mp3 encoder (encoding) and MAD (decoding)
  • .ogg Ogg Vorbis
  • .aac via libfaac/libfaad
  • .wav, .aiff, .au, .voc and many more, via libsndfile
  • .wma via Windows Media Audio codec
  • .flac via FLAC library
• Uses LAME features, including:
  • high quality and optimized mp3 encoding
  • nogap encoding of continuous-mix-cd’s
  • optimized 3DNow! and SSE routines
  • ID3 v1 and v2 tagging
• Easy-to-use wizard-like user interface style for easy encoding setup
• CD Audio extraction (aka. CD ripping), including freedb support
• Presets for fast settings setup
• User interface translations to english and german language
• Batch Processing
• Detailed HTML Help File
• Easy install- and uninstall process
• Small size

If you’ve got some audio files to convert this is one app that I highly recommend downloading.

winLAME Homepage
Thanks Ian!

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
winLAME: Another Free Audio Converter

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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)

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Get the Windows 7 Taskbar for XP

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Microsoft has always offered pretty good deals on their software for students as a way for them to encourage the use of their products, which the students will hopefully carry over into their jobs. That’s why a lot of universities have MSDN Academic Alliance (MSDNAA) subscriptions for students, and that provides access to hundreds of Microsoft products free of charge. That includes Windows 7.

One of my friends told me about a pretty cool trick if you’re a student that doesn’t already have access to MSDNAA. You can join the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for a mere $19, and as part of the membership you get access to the full MSDNAA catalog. In that catalog are both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 in English, French, Chinese, and Spanish. Each version and language is accompanied by a unique product key that works with any version and language of Windows 7 Professional (ex. a 32-bit French product key can be used on a 64-bit English install). In all that means you get a total of 8 product keys.

So who qualifies for the student membership? Any high-school or undergraduate student according to their form. The organization does focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields though. For high-school students especially it would be tough to prove which “field” your focus is on since the curriculum is mostly general studies, but they may want to see related classes on your schedule.

I wasn’t able to try out the deal since I’m not a student anymore, but I was curious as to what kind of verification they perform when applying for a membership. I did some searching around and found this post over at Overclock.net where a lot of people have apparently been getting in on the deal. I guess ACM is requesting information from people to prove that you are a student, and that the process can take a week or two before you actually have access to the software. Getting eight Windows 7 Professional license keys for a mere $19 might be worth the hassle though.

If you do decide to give this a whirl let us know what your experience is like.

Sign-up at the Association for Computing Machinery

UPDATE: As several commenters have pointed out… it looks like this is no longer available. If you sign-up now there’s a very good chance you’ll never get access to MSDNAA. So don’t spend the money if that’s your only reasoning.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Students: Get 8 Windows 7 Professional Keys for $19

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Windows only
I’m sure many of you remember the “Power Toys” from the Windows XP days, and you probably have at least one of them installed if you’re still running XP. My favorite was always the ability to quickly resize images with a simple right-click on the photo(s) from within Windows Explorer. It was fast, simple, and did exactly what you wanted it to.

If you’re a Windows 7 user you can get that same functionality from the Prish Image Resizer. It’s designed as a replacement to the Power Toy, and has all of the same functionality. When you right-click on an image you can choose from a set of default resizing options, or you can customize it further by choosing the general “Resize” option. Doing that will pop open the interface where you can manually set a size you want the image scaled to, and you can also specify the location for the resized image(s). That’s right, don’t forget that you can resize multiple images by simply selecting them all in Windows Explorer.

It’s definitely nothing fancy, but if you were expecting any more than this you’d probably want to switch to a photo management application like Picasa or Windows Live Photo Gallery. For those quick operations, however, this should be perfect.

Prish Image Resizer (Windows Vista/7/XP; Freeware; 32/64-bit)

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Image Resizer “Power Toy” for Windows 7

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