[MSIE Patch] Microsoft Releases Critical Internet Explorer Security Patch

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

Microsoft has released the Security Patch for a recently discovered critical security bug in Internet Explorer. The flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people’s computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

Microsoft in its description for the security update says

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

Microsoft has released a patch for the recently discovered Internet Explorer security flaw.

Image: Microsoft has released a patch for the recently discovered Internet Explorer security flaw.

Following this, many security advisors had asked users to stop using Internet Explorer till a patch is released. 

Microsoft has now released an out of turn patch for this Serious Security Flaw. You can grab this update if you have Automatic Updates turned on or by going to http://update.microsoft.com. I would suggest everyone using Windows to apply this patch immediately.

 

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

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Filed under: security, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

[How-To] Make your USB Disks Perform Faster

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

This simple hack is particularly useful if you leave your USB Hard Disk permanently connected to your laptop or PC. If you are sure that the USB drive will always be connected, it can be configured to perform faster. 

Follow the steps below to configure your USB Drive to perform faster. 

1.) In Control Panel, click on System. Under System dialog, click on Hardware and then Device Manager. 

2.) Under Device Manager, expand the Disk Drives section. 

Optimizing USB Disks for Performance

Optimizing USB Disks for Performance

3.) Select your Drive and right click to open Properties.

Performance Tuning your USB Drive

Performance Tuning your USB Drive

4.) Under Policies, select Optimize for Performance. Click OK.

That is it. You are done. For a USB drie, when you enable Optimize for Performance, it is enabled for write caching which in turn leads to beter speed and therefore better performance.

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Filed under: How-To, Tutorials, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

[How-To] Instantiate Multiple Download Sessions in Internet Explorer

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

Internet Explorer by default doesnt allow more than 2 download session. However, this limit can be removed by a simple registry hack. This limit is a part of the Internet Standards which prohibit multiple download simultaneously.

This post describes a simple registry hack using which you can remove the download session limit of 2 in Internet Explorer.

1.) Ensure that you bakcup your computer or registry before you attempt this hack.

Regedit allows you to edit the registry settings.

Regedit allows you to edit the registry settings.

2.) Click Start — Run. Enter regedit and press OK.

3.) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER | Software | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Internet Settings.

Create a New DWORD Value

Regedit: Create a New DWORD Value

4.) Click on Edit | New | DWORD Value . Name the DWORD as MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server

5.) Double click on the newly created value and enter the value data as 5. Set the base value as Decimal.

6.) Again, click Edit | New | DWORD Value to create another Value and name is as MaxConnectionsPerServer .

7.) Double click on the newly created value and enter the Value Data as 5 and base value as Decimal.

8.) Close the registry editor.

The above hack will allow you to increase the number of simultaneous downloads in Internet Explorer to 5. However, Microsoft doesn’t recommend this change as it conflicts certain standard procedures.

Also Read: Why does Windows have a registry?

You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

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Filed under: registry, registry hacks, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Skydrive gives 25GB of Online Storage for Free

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

SkyDrive the online storage service launched by Microsoft earlier this week is no doubt one of the best online storage services of the many online storage services. 
This post describes the process for using Skydrive and also illustrates some interesting features of Skydrive.

How do i use SkyDrive to upload all my Pictures and Documents?

1.) Point your browser to http://skydrive.live.com which is part of the Windows Live Suite.

2.) Once at it, you need to login to the SkyDrive, using your Windows Live ID. If you dont have a Live ID yet, its time to create one. 

3.) Once you login, you can create new folders and add files or photos to them or add files to the existing folders. 

Windows Skydrive gives you the option to upload your documents or photos and share them with people in your network.

Windows Skydrive gives you the option to upload your documents or photos and share them with people in your network.

4.) You can even add more people to your network and add files to share with them. 

5.) In order to add files, click on the folder where you wish to add files, once inside the folder,click on the link which says ” Add Files”. You will now be required to select the files. Once done, click on Upload and your files will be Uploaded to Skydrive.

Salient Features of Windows Skydrive

1.) Free 25 GB of online storage space.

2.) You have an option to Download your stored photos directly to your Windows Live Photo Gallery.

3.) You can even Download an entire folder in one compressed file 

4.) Support for bigger Thumbnails.

5.) You can even order prints of your photographs directly from SkyDrive.

Caveat: There is one caveat as of now with Windows SkyDrive; the file size size of 50 megabytes(MB) per file is the allowed file size. Any files greater than this size cannot be uploaded, until split.

Are there any new features expected for SkyDrive?

Yes,many. SkyDrive blog says

Hold tight, we’re updating your SkyDrive sooner than you know it with dozens more improvements. Things like:

  • Keep your Internet Explorer favorites in sync between computers, and access them anywhere from your SkyDrive.
  • Make comments work the way you want them to with HTML, new comment options, and spam control.
  • A complete overhaul of the look and feel to match the look and feel of Windows Live.
  • More countries and regions: Arabia, China, Hong Kong, Israel, South Africa, Vietnam and 13 new languages: Basque, Catalan, Guajarati, Hindi, Indonesian, Kannada, Malay, Malayalam, Marathi, Serbian-Cyrillic, Tamil, Telugu, and Vietnamese.

Can i use a Third Party Tool to upload and download contents to SkyDrive?

Yes. Gladinet, an interesting tool which works perfect with SkyDrive and many other online storage services like Amazon S3, Google Docs etc. In short, Gladinet Delivers Web Applications and Online Files To Your Desktop.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Filed under: Storage, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Gladinet Delivers Web Applications and Online Files To Your Desktop

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

Gladinet is an interesting yet free Windows application that runs on your desktop and offers easy access to files stored online or across remote PCs.

If you have a some content stored in online services like  Google Docs, Amazon S3 and Windows Live Skydrive , Gladinet allows you to manage your content by making all of your files accessible from a virtual drive mapped into your Windows Operating Environment, thereby letting you update and modify files stored on the above mentioned services.

Once you have updated those files, Gladinet uploads the new version back to its original space in the cloud. This therefore elimiates the need for downloading the files onto your computer, editing them and again pushing them back onto the internet cloud for storage.

Other than letting you manage your online files locally, Gladinet also lets you do the following interesting stuff

  • Remote Access To Multiple PCs : Gladinet connects all your PCs together. You can access folders on multiple PCs from any one of them. You can also use remote access solutions such as RDP or VNC among them. Your PCs are always connected even when you are on the road.
  • On Demand Sharing: Sharing Files and Folders is as easy as sending an e-mail or an instant message. Your friends can view your shared files instantly and securely without any Gladinet software pre-installed. You can share both local and online files.
  • Use Web Applications Locally: Use online office to open local spread sheets. Use Paint Brush to open online images. Use online storages as if they were local folders. Gladinet software delivers web applications and online storages to your desktop.

So How Does It All Work?

Its easier to understand it like this, Browser’s are designed for delivering web contents to your desktop and 
on similar lines, Gladinet was designed for delivering web services to your desktop. It then goes a step further than the web browser by integrating web services into the Operating System. The below given figure explains the entire process.
Gladinet -- How it Works?
Gladinet — How it Works?

Feature List & Demo for the currently released version

  • Supported Online Storages

    • Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) 
    • Microsoft Windows Live™ SkyDrive 
    • Google Picasa™ Program 
    • Google Docs™ Program
    • Folders from Remote PCs – Standard Version only.

  • Supported Online Applications

    • Word & SpreadSheet

      • Google Docs™ Program
      • Zoho®
      • ThinkFree

    • Image & Editing

      • Google Picasa™ Program
      • Picnik Image Editing
      • SnipShot Image Editing
      • Image Author Image Editor

    • Support Single Sign-On

      • Google Mail™ webmail service
      • Google Talk™ instant messaging service
      • Google Calendar™ calendaring service

    • Support File Type Association

      • Google Docs™ Program
      • Zoho®
      • ThinkFree
      • Picnik
      • SnipShot

  • Connect All My Computers

    • Resource Drive For All Virtual Directories
    • Support Remote Desktop – Standard version only
    • Support VNC through Device Redirection – Standard version only
    • Merge All My Favorites – Standard version only

  • On Demand File/Folder Sharing – Standard version only 

As i write this, Gladinet, is still in its Beta release.

Also Read: AnyTV brings free TV to your PC

Canon Powershot A470: No frills, entry level digital camera

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Filed under: Software, Tools, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

[How-To] Add Flickr Photos to your Word Documents with Ease

Posted on November 27, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

What do you do when you have to embed an image from Flickr into your Word Documents? Download the image from Flickr onto your own computer and embed it using Insert Image feature of Word. If you are also the one who does the same thing and wastes a lot of time and bandwidth doing all this download and insert, their is good news for you.

 

Flickr4Word is a Plugin for Microsoft Word 2007 software that allows you to insert Flickr photos into your posts. All you need to do is install this software and get started.

 

Flickr4Word lets you embed Flickr Images into Word with Ease.

Flickr4Word lets you embed Flickr Images into Word with Ease.

The plug-in enables you to search all your content, photosets, or search by tags.  It is available for free and can be downloaded from Codeplex.  For developers, the code is also made available if you want to contribute fixes and features (that comply with Flickr API terms of use).

Also Read: [How To] Convert PDF to Word files for free

Kingsoft Office 2007: Microsoft Office comes free

How-To: Copy Excel cells into a Word document

 

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Filed under: Free, How-To, Software, Tutorials, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

[How-To] Setup Multiple Monitors on your Computer

Posted on November 25, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

If you are one of those who works with multiple windows and finds it tough to work on a single monitor, this post will help you configure multiple monitors for your computer.

In this post, we will integrate another monitor with your computer’s existing monitor.

A Multiple Monitor Setup

A Multiple Monitor Setup

In order to configure your computer with another extended monitor, follow the steps mentioned below

1.) First things first, get another monitor and connect the input cable of the monitor to your VGA card output of your computer. 

 

Insert your monitor input cable to the output of your VGA Card.

Insert your monitor input cable to the output of your VGA Card.

2.) Now, right click your mouse in an empty area on your desktop and select Properties. 

After selecting Settings tab, you should see two monitor icons.

After selecting Settings tab, you should see two monitor icons.

3.) Click on the tab which says “Settings”. Here you should see both the monitors as 1 and 2. If you dont see two monitor icon’s as listed in the image above.

Check the option for Extending your display to the second monitor.

Check the option for Extending your display to the second monitor.

4.) Select the monitor icon which says 2 i.e. the icon for the second monitor. Click on the checkbox which says “Extend my Windows desktop onto this computer”.

5.) Click on Apply and press OK. Now you are all set to work with your Two monitors. 

Follow the above process to setup any number of monitors your computer supports.

If you select the checkbox which says “ Use this device as primary” , your new monitor will be the primary monitor. This is useful if you work on a laptop but would always prefer working on a larger screen.

The only issue with default Multi Monitor setup is that Windows will not extend the TaskBar to the other monitors and all windows will be shown on the single windows taskbar on a primary monitor. In order to get rid of this problem, i would suggest you download and install MultiMon Taskbar.

Also Read: How-To: Disable and Re-enable USB Storage Devices

Interesting Keylogger Detection Algorithm

Some notes on Ethical Hacking

SVCHOST.exe and the mystery behind it.

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Filed under: How-To, Tutorials, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

DNSDataView: NSLookup with a GUI

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

DNSDataView is a GUI alternative to the NSLookup tool that comes with Windows operating system. It allows you to easily retrieve the DNS records (MX, NS, A, SOA) of the specified domains. You can use the default DNS server of your Internet connection, or use any other DNS server that you specify.

NSLookup with a GUI

DNSDataView: NSLookup with a GUI

After retrieving the DNS records for the desired domains, you can save them into text/xml/html/csv file.

For those of you who are not aware of NSLookup, it is the name of a program that lets an Internet server administrator or any computer user enter a host name (for example, “technofriends.in”) and find out the corresponding IP address. It will also do reverse name lookup and find the host name for an IP address you specify.

Download DNSDataView.

Also read: [How-To] Extract images and other resources from an application

[How-To] Recover lost Outlook PST Password

Recover lost wireless network key using WirelessKeyView

Top 10 Password Crackers .. REVEALED.

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Filed under: Software, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

[How-To] Convert your File System to NTFS from FAT

Posted on October 14, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

With the release of Windows VISTA, the older FAT and FAT32 drive formats have become obsolete. The new installations of Vista use the more secure and powerful NTFS format by default. 

If you wish to convert your existing FAT/FAT32 drives to NTFS, follow the steps mentioned below. 

1.) Backup all your important data. Backing up your applications is an important step and usually helps in case of an adversity. if you have an automated data backup setup, you are already good to go.

2.) Press the keys in the pattern mentioned below

               Start –> Run –> Type cmd –> press Enter

3.) At the command prompt, remember to replace <drive_name> with the name of the drive volume you wish to convert.

              CONVERT <drive_name>/FS:NTFS 

Convert to NTFS from FAT

Convert to NTFS from FAT

4.) To get more help on CONVERT, at the command prompt type 

              CONVERT/?

What is important to note here is, that, Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS, you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32. You will need to reformat the drive or partition which will erase all data, including programs and personal files, on the partition.

Also read: Turn off Windows Messenger and improve your PC Performance

[How-To] Copying data from a corrupted User Profile to a New Profile in Windows XP

Google C++ Testing Framework Launched

[How-To] Automating data backup in Windows

 

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav

Filed under: Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Turn off Windows Messenger and improve your PC Performance

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Vaibhav Pandey

There are many windows processes which usually run in the background and thereby tend to eat up system resources and slow down the computer. In my previous post, you learnt how to process idle tasks in Windows.

One of the process which usually starts on its own by default whenever Windows starts is Windows Messenger. If you happen to be one of those who doesn’t use Windows Messenger ( like me 🙂 ) then its in your PC’s best interest that you turn off the Auto mode of Windows messenger which by default loads it into the memory and keeps running it in the background, irrespective of whether you use it or not.

Follow the steps below to disable Windows Messenger on Windows Startup.

1.) Open Windows Messenger by typing ‘msmsgs.exe’ at the Run or double clicking on the program icon under Programs Files folder.

Windows Messenger

Windows Messenger

2.) Click on Tools –> Options.

Windows Messenger Options Tab display

Windows Messenger Options Tab display

3.) Click on the tab which says ” Preferences”.

Disable auto startup for Windows Messenger

Disable auto startup for Windows Messenger

4.) De-select the checkbox which says ” Run Windows Messenger when Windows Starts”.

5.) De-select the checkbox which says ” Allow Windows Messenger to run in Background”.

Also read: Canon Powershot A470: No frills, entry level digital camera

[How-To] Find out the location of person using your Wireless network

You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/vaibhav1981

Do stay tuned to Technofriends for more, one of the best ways of doing so is by subscribing to our feeds. You can subscribe to Technofriends feed by clicking here.

Cheers

Vaibhav Pandey

Filed under: Technology, Tutorials, Windows | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

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