Norton 360 Version 4 – The best Anti-Virus solution till date

As most of you folks already know, I have become a fan of Norton products ever since I started using Norton Internet Security about 6 months back. The new Norton products and solutions have had a radical shift in terms of performance (which I deem very important), features and even the UI. This time round I got hold of a copy of Norton 360 Version 4 – the new kid(version) in the block!!

First things first – Norton 360, as the name truly suggests is a complete 360⁰ solutions that truly runs out of the box from the time you say go (err… install). Norton 360 takes care of all things related to security for your PC / Laptop / Netbook and also takes care of a few more mundane tasks. It is packed with a powerful Anti-Virus, a super smart Fire-Wall, a password safe storage solution and also a auto-backup feature.

Lets deep dive into each of these features separately and the significant improvements that you get with the new Version 4.

Norton 360’s Anti-Virus Solution: One of the most powerful and yet light weight anti-virus solution that I have seen for quite sometime now and it’s getting better. The most useful and exciting feature that I find is called “Live Scan” – this is switched ON by default and runs whenever it finds the computer usage to be idle or low. “Live Scan” automatically determines whether to run a ‘Quick Scan’ or a ‘Full System Scan’. The advantage that I get with this cool new feature is that it runs usually when I’ve left my comp and gone to grab a cup of coffee or catch up on dinner – so no more hassles of setting up a schedule and making sure your comp is up and running for the scheduled scan to run.

I for once have had issues running scheduled scans – missing most of the schedules all the time, setting up a schedule over the weekend or late times of the day means that your machine needs to run over that time to hit the schedule. Now all that looks passé with this very cool and intuitive option. The best part of all this is that the scan magically ends as soon as you once again start using your computer – so you never feel that any of the computer resources have been sacrificed for the scan.

Norton 360’s File Insight Feature: How often do we download .exe’s / setups and what not off the internet – but how do we know that whatever you’ve downloaded is really legitimate and free of any virus, Trojan or root-kit. The later part is taken care by the anti-virus solution but never the legitimacy of the file. You are always left to make the decision yourselves based on the site from which you have downloaded, the person/forum that recommended it, etc – but even for a seasoned internet person like me, it’s quite a daunting task to decide. That’s when you’ve got help in the form of ‘File Insight’ which checks the file against an online database and reveals some interesting facts, let alone whether the file is safe to use/install. It churns out some cool facts such as the number of users who have downloaded/installed the file, safety level of the file and from where you got it to the physical location on your hard-disk that the file resides on. That’s a lot of cool and interesting facts to consider before you make a choice.

Norton 360’s Firewall : This is a very simple and lucid fire-wall solution, nothing much to worry on and it’s so very simple that if you can use your computer for browsing you can configure the firewall too easily. But I guess the default setting that Norton 360 ships out with is more than enough and you don’t really need to tweak any of the configurations frankly speaking. Also Norton's new SONAR (Symantec Online Network for Advance Response) behavioral monitoring system does a good task in combating phishing attacks and real time surveillance of your PC from attacks of the outside work over the network.

Norton 360’s Identity Safe Storage: Quite a cool option to store your usernames and passwords for the sites that you often visit. All the information is safely encrypted and stored. You now need to only remember one master password to access the safe storage.

But, I am really not a very big fan of this solution since it’s not portable really. In the sense, if I happen to use a public computer at a kiosk or over at a friend’s place – I really can’t harness this solution easily. Also, since I’ve become lazy in not typing the password’s each time to login – over a period of time one tends to forget the actual credentials. There must be a better solution for this problem but I can’t think of one that would be truly safe in all scenarios for now.

Norton 360’s BackUp feature: Looks like Norton is slowly consolidating it’s portfolio and that’s really a boon for users like me and you. The backup feature is pretty tidy and easy to setup and use. A few clicks on configuring your backup drive/media and the locations to backup – you should be ready to go. Believe me it’s a very simple process and best of all it’s right out of the box for all practical purposes.

Norton 360’s backup and recovery tool also provides you a free 2GB of online storage space that you can easily backup your important documents and photos. This free Online Backup is simply too cool if you’re out of home/office on a remote country with only a PC connected to the internet (read an airport) - viola you get access to all your backup files right there online.

Also for an extra charge you can easily increase your online backup storage up to 25GB at $69.99 per year. This is a very cool feature that the other backup / anti-virus products like McAfee currently donot do not offer today.

Performance has really been a deciding feature for me to switch over to Norton (this statement looked very very unlikely about 10 months back – if you were to ask me). There is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t choose Norton 360 over the ample number of products that are out there in the market.

Norton 360 1 PC license costs INR 1795 - but the deal is with the 3 PC license at INR 3200, nowadays most of us have a desktop, laptop and netbook - so it does make sense to have a three license one - these also come with 2GB of online storage space. The premium edition includes 25GB of online storage space and a three PC license, the suggested retail price is INR 4025. Both - standard and premium editions of Norton 360 includes a one-year service subscription to use the product and receive Symantec’s protection updates. All Norton 360 users with a valid product subscription are eligible to receive the latest product updates via the subscription service model.

Norton 360 not only protects your computer but also tunes up your system for the best performance like doing a disk defragmentation or fixing driver issues and also backs up essential files – all in the background (now that’s the icing on the cake). The list of features and the great value for money that it provides is simply endless – as I started off this review, it’s truly an out-of-the-box solution where you deploy and completely let it take care of everything – all in the background.

Finally we have a Steam client for Mac for FREE from Valve

Valve has finally managed today to rather officially give us the Steam client for Mac. This is simply some superb news for Mac users since they get the 'free to play' Portal game and also a vast library of 63 games too for the Mac platform.

Valve says that in order to celebrate the Mac launch, it will be giving away free copies of Portal to anyone who downloads Steam between today and May 24, 2010. Here is the direct link to download your Steam for Mac. For all the existing steam users who don't still have a copy of the game yet they can simply click on the install button on the game's Store page to get it now!!.

Steam being pushed into the Mac platform will surely open loads of opportunities for Valve. Valve can now easily expand the current customer base for its games distribution service. This announcement is significant since most of the hardcore gamers on Mac used to play all the steam titles only by using Windows OS via Bootcamp, but that's not needed anymore.

Here's this week's titles which are available on Steam Play:

• And Yet It Moves
• Atlantis Sky Patrol
• Bejeweled 2 Deluxe
• Bob Came in Pieces
• Bookworm Deluxe
• Braid
• Brainpipe
• Chocolatier: Decadence by Design
• Chuzzle Deluxe
• City of Heroes: Architect Edition
• Civilization IV: The Complete Edition
• Cooking Dash
• Diaper Dash
• The Dig
• Diner Dash: Hometown Hero
• DinerTown Detective Agency
• DinerTown Tycoon
• Dream Chronicles: The Chosen Child
• Escape Rosecliff Island
• Fairway Solitaire
• Fitness Dash
• Football Manager 10
• Galcon Fusion
• Gemini Lost
• Guns of Icarus
• Hotel Dash Suite Success
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• KrissX
• Loom
• Luxor
• Luxor 3
• Luxor: Mahjong
• Machinarium
• Mahjong Roadshow
• Max and the Magic Marker
• My Tribe
• The Nightshift Code
• Nightshift Legacy: The Jaguar's Eye
• Parking Dash
• Peggle Deluxe
• Peggle Nights
• Portal
• Professor Fizzwizzle and the Molten Mystery
• Quantz
• Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse
• Tales of Monkey Island Season 1
• Toki Tori
• Torchlight
• Trijinx: A Kristine Kross Mystery
• Unwell Mel
• Valarie Porter and the Scarlett Scandal
• Wandering Willows
• Wedding Dash 2: Rings Around the World
• World of Goo
• Zenerchi
• Zuma Deluxe

Complete list of Best and Free Anti-Virus for your Windows 7 :: Updated on May 2010

Though you may have one of the best operating system's in your computer - a.k.a. Windows 7, you will still need a good anti-virus program to protect your PC from Viruses, Trojans, Root-Kits, etc. There are several paid Anti-Virus solutions from Norton (Symantec), Mc-Afee, etc but when you have a personal PC or laptop and can't really afford spending any more on softwares - well, look at the Free Anti-Virus solutions.

Free Anti-Virus softwares are actually second to none in terms of protection but they lack functionality and a few bells and whistles found exclusively on paid Anti-Virus softwares.

I have put together a list of the Best Free Anti-Virus Solutions that are available currently.

• Avira
• Panda
• AVG Free
• DriveSentry Desktop
• Spyware-doctor

As for the paid Anti-Virus, the Best detections rates are found in these:

• Symantec Norton
• Avira AntiVir
• Panda
• Avast
• Sophos

Go ahead and protect your data - choose a Anti-Virus solution wisely and don't forget to update it often!!

How to install Windows 7 from a .iso without burning onto a DVD

Windows 7 doesnot allow you to install off the same Hard Disk. But if you didn't want to burn the .iso image of Windows 7 that you downloaded to a new DVD - you can still install it off the .iso file by using the method below.

You will need a portable hard disk / pen drive though.

Incase, you have a portable hard disk or a pen drive - do the following :

1. Get WinRar (www.rarlabs.com) and install the software on your machine. WinRar is similar to winzip but supports many other formats including .iso.

2. Extract the .iso of Win7 to your pen drive / portable hard disk. Place the extracted files into the root of the drive - your other data can be put into folders.

3. Restart your laptop and hold F9 / F2 to enter into boot-menu which gives you a choice to load from. Here select your pen-drive / portable hard disk - usually a USB device.

Done - that's all it takes. You can now go ahead with the normal install process.

Norton Internet Security 2010 (NIS 2010) – Complete Review

Regular readers of my blog know that I am not a fan of Norton products since the are sluggish and consume a lot of resources. But wait a sec – that was my opinion from ages. Shouldn’t they have improved now? recently when I got my Acer Aspire D250 netbook it came with McAfee installed but that was no good for me. Getting back to Norton, I wanted to really check out their new offerings and see how they have improved when you have many free and fast anti-virus solutions in the market like AVG, AVAST, etc.

Norton has a slew of 3 products lined up – Norton 360 (a complete suite that has all the solutions), Norton Internet Security 2010 (more targeted for Internet Users) and the plain vanilla Norton Antivirus.

I got myself Norton Internet Security 2010 popularly known as NIS, since it boasts to offer complete protection and yet not compromise on performance. It is one of the lightest protection solutions available currently and that makes it much more interesting. Norton Internet Security currently supports Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 – all 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Now this is where it got me interested since my home PC was loaded a few weeks back with Windows 7 64-bit – I was really out there looking for a next gen Anti-Virus for it.

Something that got me interested in Norton Internet Security 2010 was that it uses a new security model. This new security model helps NIS to attain unmatched levels of detection of new malwares. What the new security models does really is that it uses cloud-based intelligence to identify malware in an entirely new which is simply ages ahead of the traditional way of using signatures and behavior-based detection. The new security model also features a real-time reputation system that tracks files and applications and dozens of their attributes such as their age, download source, digital signature, and prevalence(more about this feature in detail later).

First of all – installing NIS was a breeze, except for the 60MB update that it needed to download off the internet.But belive it or not - I had NIS working on PC in less than a minute flat!!! (excluding the 60MB download). This feat by Symantec is simply commendable.

The NIS 2010 interface is all re-vamped and so fresh to look at.

It has 3 very distinct partitions – Computer, Network and Web. Well, these are the only there layers for which we need protection.

• Computer : This has the anti-virus solution which has many new features like enabling of system scan when computer is idle. Also the idle time can be easily set by the user – now this is really a wow for a geek like me. Gone are the days when I had to schedule scans in my PC at mid-night and let my PC run through the night. Now, the scan happens even when I get off my comp to grab a cup of coffee (coz I have my idle time to be 3 mins – 3 mins is too much of an idle time for a geek like me if I am near the comp).
  It also features something called as SONAR 2 (Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response) which is a 2^nd generation system that harnesses all elements of NIS 2010 to make really sophisticated and clever decisions about what to trust and what to convict as a threat or risk. Again, to do this it leverages data from the cloud, network communications and file attributes such as location on the PC, origin information, etc.
• Network : NIS 2010 is not just an Anti-Virus but more of a complete security suit and this is further testimonial to it having a Smart Firewall which repels any possible attacks and also constantly monitors the traffic flow to determine any threat. Intrusion prevention is a key here and also has in-build e-mail protection that helps prevent your PC being used as a botnet by spammers.
• Web : Finally the web. Norton IdentitySafe provides one-click log-ins and automatic form filling to prevent key loggers from stealing your information. Norton Safe Web adds additional protection when you search, shop, and surf the web to stop Internet threats before they can infect your PC. Safe surfing is always the key and this is easily achieved by NIS 2010.

Here’s a small test that I subjected Norton Internet Security 2010 to and it came out with flying colors. I had a exe which was infected with a trojan on my PC. I unassumingly like a lay-man double clicked the exe. This is what came up.Went ahead and clicked on More Details and this popped up.

I was simply amazed at the kind of information that NIS 2010 threw back at me. It picks up information off the cloud and display some very vital statistics like how many people have used this exe and what kind of threat level it carries. This helps me to make a informative decision on whether to go ahead or not (Though it won’t allow me to execute the file – but even before that giving this kind of info is really handy).

Norton Internet Security also comes with a Task Manager – not the plain Windows kind of one, but this is a hybrid one which clearly lets you analyze your system performance over a period of time in time-slices. Important installations can be easily tracked and even tasks that have consumed more CPU or memory can be easily tracked down.

Some of the advantages of using NIS 2010:

• The fastest, lightest security suite you can buy for award-winning protection that won’t slow you down or get in your way.
• Installs faster than any other security suite.
• Boots faster than any other security suite.
• Scans faster than any other security suite.
• Uses less memory than any other security suite.
• Doesn’t impact your PC’s speed when you copy or edit files, install applications or download files.

What I would like NIS to improve upon is provide a full fledged Widget for Vista / Windows 7 users rather than the signal light widget that we have now this only lets us know how secure or vulnerable the PC is. But having an option for a full fledges widget would be a really nice add-on.

The pricing of Norton Internet Security 2010 in India is very competitive and also much below (or in-line) with other Anti-Virus vendors. The suggested retail price for Norton Internet Security 2010 is Rs 2,495 for a three PC license(great for a Home Network like mine), and Rs 1,450 for a single PC license. You can easily purchase it at the Symantec online store www.in.symantecstore.com

VMLite the best alternative for running Windows XP in your Windows 7

Well, when Windows 7 was released there was one very nice feature which was much talked about by the geeks and that was the Windows XP Mode. Well, Windows XP Mode is part of a seperate installation by which you can run Windows XP on your Windows 7.

But the catch was that in order to use Windows XP mode Microsoft made it mandatory that you must be running Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate - also your PC must have virtualization support by the hardware.

These mandatory requirements was a downer and many users weren't able to truly enjoy Windows XP Mode. But here some very good news - enter the VMLite which is a very nice alterative to Microsoft's Windows XP Mode.



VMLite XP Mode does offer very similar features like the Microsoft XP Mode but lo it doesn't need you to have Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate - so even Windows 7 Starter edition will work fine and also it doesn't require hardware virtualization.

VMLite allows you to easily run Windows XP from your desktop running on a different host operating system - not just Windows 7. You can download VMLite here.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta 2 Leaked (Build version 14.0.4514.1007 ) with the Keys

Yes, the much anticipated Microsoft Office 2010 suite has already been leaked on many peer-to-peer(torrent) file sharing websites/networks. This is the Beta 2 release featuring a Build version 14.0.4514.1007.

The build which has been leaked last week is said to install with the Office 2010 Technical Preview keys and no new keys are needed. So the keys are available here.

Here are some very exclusive screen shots running the Microsoft Office 2010 on my Win 7 RC 1 as you can very well see the UI has been polished and so also the program icons. The public beta is expected to be out by early next week.

Office 2010 runs on Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista and of course the brand new Windows 7.

Here are the exclusive Screenshots of Office 2010 Beta 2 (Build version 14.0.4514.1007)

How to easily stay secure online? Simple and easy tips!

Every single time you connect online did you know that you face dangerous Computer security hazards. Viruses, Trojans, Root-Kits, hackers, and junk e-mail await you at every turn. The truth is that these menaces are forever going to comprise a constituent of being connected and also doing business online.

There are a number of safeguards you will be able to take to make yourself and your computer systems safe.

I will now list out to you the best proven tactics to enhance your Internet security whenever you are online:

Virus Protection. Make certain you've the up-to-the-minute virus updates installed on your system and allow the software to exhaustively scan your entire computer every day to guarantee that no computer virus are successfully embedded themselves on your disk drive. Use a modern anti-virus like VIPRE Antivirus Software to scan both your computer and your email. AVG, McAfee and Norton likewise offer similar products.

VIPRE used to initially produce CounterSpy which was a leading spyware and malware protection software online from many years.

Spam Blocker. I've a junk e-mail blocking agent that I use with Microsoft Outlook called Cloudmark Desktop that fares a excellent task of assisting my Microsoft Outlook to distinguish junk e-mail.

Use a Alias E-mail address : For instance, whenever I'm signing up for a free technology mailing list / product news, I might use something like jasonblr+technology@gmail.com, which will then end up with a special label in my gmail Inbox. Therein, you do not have to divulge your "real" e-mail address, and you will be able to ascertain whenever the list holder trades or leases your e-mail address to another. Therefore, if you all of a sudden start to get emails to your jasonblr+technology@gmail.com e-mail address from a hard disk maker you have never heard of, you'll know that the technology mailing list folks traded or leased your e-mail address to others.

Firewalls: Always make certain that you are using a firewall protection. At a lower limit, to protect your computer from being hacked while you're online you can use Windows Firewall. Or, use a free firewall like COMODO. Whenever you use a wireless router, make sure to configure a password to secure it so that anyone going past your residence or office can't hijack your signal and possibly hack your computer network. I was readjusting the wireless connection on my laptop last night and came across several unsecured wireless connections in my vicinity. I reside in a residential area without any business organizations, thus I cognize that these represented insecure wireless routers in my neighbors' residences.

Be safe and enjoy the internet super highway.

Windows 7 Ultimate Crack Available for Free Download

Though we - the loyal customers need to wait a couple of months before we get the legal copies of Windows 7. The Windows 7 Activation crack is already available online for Free download. It has been barely a couple of weeks since Microsoft made available the RTM version of Windows 7 to the OEMs and lo we have the activation crack already available for Windows 7.

The Windows 7 Ultimate Activation crack is available on a Chinese Forum(Link cannot be revealed due to piracy concerns). The Windows 7 Ultimate activation crack has been built on the OEM version of Lenovo's Windows 7 Ultimate OEM DVD. The DVD ISO of Windows 7 Ultimate along with the newly available crack is already leaked at the forum. Anyone who uses the leaked .ISO, along with the OEM-SLP product key of Windows 7 Ultimate, coupled along with the activation certificates can be obtained through the boot.wim - helps you run Windows 7 Ultimate Final version.

The new activation crack uses a very simple technique of exploiting the "OEM Activation 2.1", which happens to be an updated volume license activation system by Microsoft that was earlier available from 2006 with Windows Vista and known infamously as "Activation 2.0". Looks like Microsoft hasn't learned from the mistakes coz, Activation 2.0 was previously the easy module break into Vista way back in 2006 when Vista hit the stores.

The new crack which has been successfully been built on a Windows 7 volume license means that anyone who uses this cracked version can install Windows 7 on numerous machines without any limitations as such.

How to easily set the Bing Wallpaper of the Day as your Desktop Wallpaper automatically?

Bing – The latest web search engine from the Microsoft Stable is liked by some and scorned by others who would bet that Google is the best anytime. But whatever side you take – whether you like it or hate it – you will always like the daily changing background image that Bing sports.

Now if you want to automatically set the Bing Wallpaper of the day as your desktop wallpaper, you have a small utility that has been developed by MugunthKumar called as Bing Downloader. It is a small exe that is just about 10KB in size and can be easily downloaded here. All this fantastic utility (BTW, the code is open source – so you can change the C# code to ur whims and fancies) does is that it picks up the latest wallpaper from Bing and automatically sets it as your Desktop Wallpaper.

But what is missing in this light weight app is that there is no “Advanced Options” which would allow us to say download yesterday’s or any previous background wallpaper. Also, the user will need to run the Bing Downloader once a day to download that day’s Bing background image to the computer’s Desktop wallpaper.

Also, another issue is that the Bing background wallpapers are usually 958×512 pixels in size and this maynot make them very suitable for use on many Desktop Computers with large screens and having a larger display. But such users can easily center the wallpaper to make it look more pleasing. As for general NetBook or Laptop users this must be great. But my Acer D250 has a native resolution of 1024x768 so this is smaller for it too.

Below are some cool Bing Wallpapers that I have seen over the days.

How to easily play divx, rm, mkv, vob files directly in Windows Media Player?

Many of you might have got movies from friends or family members in formats like .divx or the latest .mkv format and your Windows Media Player might have simply refused to play such a file - what do you do? Very simple, Windows Media player uses something called as a codec to convert a file from a given format (like .avi or .divx or .vob) to the native display format that is shown on screen.

All you need to do is download the best FREE codec pack that is available online - called the K-Lite Codec Pack and install it on your system. This installation is very small and free from any virus or trojans - so it's safe too. The beauty of this installation is that you can now play these files with extension .divx, .rm, .mkv, .vob, etc directly inside your Windows Media Player. This very safely eliminates the need to install any other player software.

Mostly folks install the Real Player to play .rm, .ram or .rmvb files - but with the above installation you don't have to have 2 players on your system. Also, .divx files are usually played on DIVX Player - but even that is eliminated.

I have also tested playing the iPod file types like .mp4 and .3gp files directly in Windows Media Player after installing the codec Pack.

Some of the formats that the codec pack supports for direct play from within Windows Media Player are:

DirectShow video decoding filters:
- XviD
- DivX
- On2 VP6
- On2 VP7
- MPEG-2 (Cyberlink)
- MPEG-2 (Gabest)

DirectShow audio decoding filters:
- AC3/DTS/LPCM (AC3Filter)
- Vorbis (CoreVorbis)
- AAC (MONOGRAM)

DirectShow audio parsers:
- FLAC (madFLAC)
- WavPack (CoreWavPack)
- MusePack (MONOGRAM)
- Monkey's Audio
- OptimFROG (RadLight)
- AMR (MONOGRAM)
- DC-Bass Source
- AC3/DTS Source (AC3File)

DirectShow source filters:
- AVI splitter (Gabest)
- AVI splitter (Haali Media Splitter)
- MP4 splitter (Haali Media Splitter)
- MP4 splitter (Gabest)
- Matroska splitter (Haali Media Splitter)
- Matroska splitter (Gabest)
- Ogg splitter (Haali Media Splitter)
- Ogg splitter (Gabest)
- MPEG PS/TS splitter (Gabest)
- MPEG PS/TS splitter (Haali Media Splitter)
- FLV splitter (Gabest)
- CDXA Reader (Gabest)

VFW video codecs:
- XviD
- DivX
- x264
- On2 VP6
- On2 VP7
- Intel Indeo 4
- Intel Indeo 5
- Intel I.263
- huffyuv
- YV12 (Helix)

ACM audio codecs:
- MP3 (Fraunhofer)
- MP3 (LAME)
- AC3ACM
- Vorbis
- DivX Audio

Real Alternative:
- RealMedia codecs
- RealMedia plugin for Internet Explorer
- RealMedia plugin for Firefox/Mozilla/Netscape/Opera/Chrome
- RealMedia DirectShow splitter

Opera 10 rolls out as Beta - Grab a copy

Opera has brought out the much anticipated inaugural Opera 10 Beta (codename Peregrine) and is a stone's throw nearer to Opera 10 final. Presto 2.2 Engine supported Opera 10 imparts on an user interface face lift on a few visual treats. For the first time beta of Opera 10 is available for download from Opera web site and the installer packs 6.6MB file size.

Opera had earlier declared Opera 10 Preview build way back in Dec that Opera 10 will bring in a good deal of fresh visual features like Tab Thumbnails that will reveal the website preview of the individual tab. To get Tab Thumbnails,just aim the computer mouse cursor at the bottom of any Tab until you get an up-down arrow. Then, mouse click and drag it to the maximum possible.

The most pleasing Speed Dial is at present configurable with up to 25 configurable web site Dials (thumbnails) one wants to have. The Configure speed dial push button is placed at the lower right of the Speed Dials. As well, any image can be set as screen background wallpaper.

Finally , it accompanies the Opera Turbo technology, that makes up web browsing commendably easy experience even on more sluggish Internet connections. Want to give it a spin, head over here and download it right away!!

How to save a document in PDF or XPS format easily in Office 2007 (Word or Excel or PowerPoint)

Did you know that you can easily save and edit your Word or Excel or PowerPoint files to PDF or XPS (the new pdf format used by Microsoft) format. All you need to do is download a small software patch from the Microsoft Website which allows you to easily save any Office 2007 document in PDF format.

Once you install the small patch, you will start getting a new option in the SAVE to save it in PDF or XPS format. This is particularly useful for officials who would like to circulate an important document or a circular among colleagues, but would not like the colleagues to edit or modify the contents.

I was using a few free PDF printer but that just had too many limitations, like the outputted PDF file was non searchable by any search engine (or desktop search) as the contents were encrypted and also, the PDF files generated cannot be edited later using Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Do, give this cool plug-in a try and it'll be useful for you sometime or the other.

Direct Download link for Internet Explorer 8 :: IE8

Internet Explorer 8 - the coolest and meanest Web Browser to have every been launched by Microsoft has been released recently. It adds enhanced features and also enhanced web security. Internet Explorer 8 claims to successfully block upto four times more malware and trojan attacks than the rest of the competition browsers like Firefox, Opera, Safari(Windows) and Chrome.

IE8 also comes with some cool tools to let you complete common tasks on the Web such as searching, mapping and sharing very easily and inside the comfort of the web browser - not opening separate web sites.

The complete list of new features can be found here. Here is a brief summary of the best features IE8 has to offer:

• Web Slices - All you folks who frequently visit the same websites again and again, looking for new updates - Here's a cool feature IE 8 introduces Web Slices, a feature that allows you to be notified via IE’s favorites bar when a site has been updated with new information.
• Instant search - The Instant Search Box enables you to do a real-time search from sites such as Wikipedia, as well as sites from your own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information.

Here are the direct links to download Internet Explorer 8 from the Microsoft website.

• Windows XP (32-bit)
• Windows XP (64-bit)
• Windows Vista (32-bit)
• Windows Vista (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

IE8 is also available in 25 different languages which you can download them from here.

P.S: Windows 7 comes pre-installed with IE8, so no need to download it seperately.

Is Microsoft Windows 7 really good?

Windows 7 Release Candidate had arrived a couple of weeks back to Technet and MSDN members. It will be publicly available from today (5th may) onwards. Windows 7 RC1 is sure going to take many users by storm.

Right now I'm using the old build of Windows 7 (I mean its Windows 7 RC 32-Bit), but can't wait to download Windows 7 RC1. Windows 7 is really an amazing OS - I can't say anything more about it!

I've had absolutely No problem with Drivers till date (remember when Vista was released and every other manufacturer had to release special Vista drivers), it will automatically install drivers from Windows Update. What it does brilliantly is that it automatically take drivers.

The new Windows Media Player 12 is so cool. WMP12 supports almost all media playback formats, without installing any codec Packs - now that's very cool!

Further more, the user interface is awesome and simply amazing. Moreover Windows 7 takes less space on your harddisk. I think you must take a online windows 2008 training to get used to it - Just Kidding. It's simply such a perfect OS for the Laptop users.

But you need atleast 1GB of RAM to install it and if you have 4GB+ RAM(like me) then install Windows 7 RC 64-bit - it's really cool.

What's new to watch out in Windows 7?

Windows 7 is the latest offering from Microsoft. Though the new kid on the block hasn't be released for full public consumption yet. We have had a fair amount of idea on what's coming from the Microsoft stable - I myself have been using Windows 7 in my box for the last 4-5 months and it's been a great experience.

Here are some of the great new features to look out for in the upcoming Windows 7:

• Good Multimedia Experience
• Smart Gadgets that Can Save You Time
• It Organizes Files More Efficiently and makes searching very easy
• The much improved Windows Backup and Restore Center is great
• Snipping Tool Takes Great Screen Shots and is a must for business purposes
• Windows Calendar, Contacts and Mail all sync in well for a unified view
• It has a very Improved Help Section
• The Visual User Interface is simply Stunning
• Best of all, Take less memory compared to the memory hungry predecessor Vista
  

Currently the Release Candidate 1 has been released and should be available for public download in a few weeks from now. There are also a few windows 2008 training dvds that you can check to keep you abreast in the veer changing world of windows.

How to easily uninstall Internet Explorer 7 and restore back to Internet Explorer 6

Here is how you can easily uninstall Internet Explorer 7 and restore back to Internet Explorer 6 in Windows. But please note that the method given below is only applicable for Windows computers which were upgraded from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7. Windows Vista on the other hand comes pre-installed with Internet Explorer 7 and so cannot be un-installed (at the end of the post I have given details on how to remove Internet Explorer in Windows Vista Machines).

Here are the steps to uninstall Internet Explorer 7 and restore to the good old Internet Explorer:

• From the Start Menu goto the Control Panel.
• Click on the Add or Remove Programs.
• Scroll down to Windows Internet Explorer 7 and then click Change/Remove button.
• When prompted choose Next to start the uninstall process.
  

Once you have removed off Internet Explorer 7, your system should be automatically taken back to the Internet Explorer 6 without affecting any of your Internet Explorer settings.

If Internet Explorer 7 is not in Add or Remove Programs you can do the following:

From the Start Menu, select Run.
Type %windir%\ie7\spuninst\spuninst.exe
Press ENTER

Here's how to remove Internet Explorer in Windows Vista Machines.

• Go into Control panel.
  
• Click 'add & remove programs'.
  
• On the left hand side of the panel click on 'add/remove Windows/Vista components', then a little box appears and scroll down and you will find internet explorer.
  
• Just uncheck the box.

How to easily share a printer from a Windows Vista desktop to a Windows XP laptop :: Simple Steps

My friend has a Windows Vista desktop that is the base machine for the network and also has a Windows XP laptop that is connected to the network. Though the laptop was able to pick up the internet of the Vista desktop, but it was unable to pick up/share the printer connected to it. So, I had to do quite a bit of tweaking and here's how I helped him out in sharing a printer connected to the Vista machine easily.

Well, since the printer is installed on the Vista Machine - we will need to tweak the settings on it. Head over to the Printer folder inside of Control Panel in Windows Vista. Right click on the "All in one printer" and then Click Sharing. Click on Share this printer in the window that opens and then hit OK.

Next get the IP address of your Windows Vista box, go to Start > Run and type "cmd" enter. Then type "ipconfig" enter. Now note down where it says "Local Area Connection" IP address: "numbers with dots".

After this, move to the XP computer without a printer.

On the XP machine, go to Start > Run, type "\\ipaddress\" where ipaddress are the numbers of the Vista computer. When a windows opens asking for a user name and password input those credentials from your computer. If it doesn't ask it will be even better. Now with this command you will open a folder and the printer will be there. Double click the printer and now the XP computer will be able to use it.

Also, note that both computers have to be in the same WORKGROUP. To verify this: Right click My Computer icon on the desktop, go to properties, Computer name tab. There you can see the WORKGROUP name and even change it to match the same in both machines.

How to fix the issue of copy/paste from Print Screen - the image appears in Black and White

I had this unusual problem today in one of my office systems, whenever I do a PRINT SCREEN or ALT+PRINT SCREEN and Copy/Paste into MS Paint or Word - I was getting a Black and White Image. This was very weird, since always a colour image would appear.

I tried many ways to fix by pasting into other programs like wordpad, etc. But, using a screen capture program like SnagIt got a colour image of the screen. This left me puzzled.

Finally, I figured out that the system was running very very low on physical memory and also many Windows updates were installed but the machine was never re-started. So the trick was to re-start the machine and lo - it brought colour to the images!! How weird can computer problems be at times.