One of the reasons of slow Windows start up is list of programs that are scheduled to launch at boot time. Sometimes a resource hogging program delays the Windows start up eating up memory and precious time. The only solution is to either de-activate them or completely delete them from start up queue. Here is an excellent software to manage the same.
Quick Startup is a perfect piece of software to manage the start up programs of Windows OS. Quick startup let's you delete, de-activate or add new programs to be run at Windows start up. It also displays resource usage rating for each entry in start up list, that gives good indication of each program and their load on start up. We can easily short list the most resource intensive programs and can de-activate them.
If you are unsure whether a program in the start up list is important system program that must be run at start up, you can right click programs in the list and can watch their properties to get fair amount of idea about their usage and importance.
Quick Startup is a freeware, completely free from any spyware or adware.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Quick Startup: Manage Startup Programs The Easy Way
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tweak Your Windows Security Settings With Ease
There are plethora of Windows security settings and performance tweaks that an average Windows user do not know. Some of these settings are available to general users via regular Windows interface, but some tricky settings are hidden deep inside system directories. If you want to fine tune your Windows security settings, then grab this excellent free software.
Cerberus Security Guard is an ultimate Windows security settings tweaking software for Windows.
The software has 5 different tabs giving tweaks for following categories.
1. Security
2. Services
3. System
4. IE/Mozilla
5. Media Player
A novice user may get overwhelmed by the sheer number of tweaks and settings, and sometimes you may not be able to understand the effect of a given tweak. Advanced users will love this software, as they will get lots of tweaking options.
The security and IE/Mozilla tabs are my favorite giving me some very good security settings and performance tweaks. In case, inadvertently you get into trouble by altering some important settings, the systems default settings button is there to rescue. This button will bring the system back into previous state.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Mux: The Online Video Converter
Converting video files from one format to another becomes a necessity at times. Sometimes, we want to reduce the file size compromising on quality, and sometimes our video player doesn't support the format. Whatever be the reason, video format conversion software are very handy in crunching the video stream and giving them our desired shape.
Mux is an excellent online video file conversion service that can convert your video file into almost any format. After conversion, you can download it to your PC, share it privately over web with your friends or family, and you can even convert into format that is suitable for the mobile phone, and can send it directly to a mobile.
Advanced users can also use the Mux Developers API to add video sharing and conversion ability to their web sites and blogs.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
PhotoScape: An All-In-One Photo Editor
There are dozens of photo editing programs available on Internet. Normally, professionals use Adobe Photoshop for editing the digital pictures. If you do not want to spend on your photo editing software, here is an excellent alternative for Photoshop. People call it 'Poor Man's Photoshop'.
PhotoScape is an awesome free photo editing software that is light on system resources and has lots of features. PhotoScape is not just an image editor, it also has the following integrated modules.
1. Image Viewer
2. Image Editor
3. Batch Editor
4. Page
5. Image Combiner
6. Animated GIF
7. Advanced Image Printing
8. Image Splitter
9. Screen Capturing Module
10. Color Picker
11. Batch Renaming
12. Raw Image Converter
You can also create stunning banners and logos with the help of this amazing photo editing software. The integration of color picker and screen capturing module makes it an absolute essential part of your desktop.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Create Stunning Screen Presentations In No Time
There are many shareware programs for creating screen presentations, SnagIT and Camtasia Studio are popular among them. Screen presentations gives a professional touch to our demos and have the power to influence and convince the clients/readers effectively. Although there are many free screen recording programs, but most of them do not work efficiently and the presentation quality is not up to the mark. I found this excellent piece of free software that is free and create good quality screen presentations.
Screen2Exe is an excellent free software for recording screen for demos, presentations and tutorials. The free version creates a highly compressed .exe file for presenting the screen recording. 
Apart from screen capture, the audio feed from microphone is also supported. The software also lets you add text, images and annotations to the recorded stream in edit mode after the capture is complete. The edit mode also support zoom in, zoom out and fade effects, which is a very powerful feature in the free version. You can also introduce delay in between the clips and can also cut selective frames from the recording. This much of features are excellent for the free version.
Screen2Exe also runs on Vista, apart from Win 2000,XP and Win 2003.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
How To Keep Your System Running Fast
The more we use our computer and install additional software, gradually the speed of computer starts decreasing and we get a sluggish system. Our system requires monthly if not weekly service to keep it fast and smooth. Some of us ignore this fact and end up in either an extremely slow system or eventually a crashed system. By following some simple steps, we can keep our system clean and healthy.
Get Ample RAM
If you do not have enough RAM, no matter what other tricks you apply the system is not going to speed up. For non-vista systems, a minimum of 512 MB of RAM should be present, and for vista desktops a minimum of 1 GB RAM is required. If you are planning to install Vista Premium Edition, then make sure your system has at least 2 GB RAM.Avoid Frequent Reformatting
Do not partition and format your hard disk unnecessarily. It deteriorates the condition of secondary storage device which may result in increased seek time.Keep Your System Up-to-Date
Get the latest service packs installed, and apply all the patches required for application programs. You must keep the automatic update feature of Windows on. Do Not Install 'Resource Hogger AntiVirus'
Some AntiVirus are known to be very heavy on system resources. Take feedback from existing users, and choose the light AntiVirus that doesn't take too much resources of your system.Keep Windows Registry Clean
Install a good registry cleaner and use it regularly to keep your windows registry compact and free of any crap. Clean Up and Defrag The Disk Every Month
Use the Windows 'Disk Clean Up' and 'Disk Defragmenter' utility to keep it healthy and at top speed.Remove Unwanted Programs From System StartUp
Delete the unnecessary programs that starts automatically during system boot. You can download any free startup management software to do the same.Uninstall Unnecessary Software
Uninstalling unnecessary software makes the registry compact and clean, and aids in system speedup. Do not load every other software you find on Internet. Try to keep your registry size as small as possible.
By following these simple steps, you can keep your system healthy and speedy. Make sure you defrag your disk at least once in a month.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
How To Recover Damaged Microsoft Word Files
Sometimes our Word files are corrupted while transferring them from one system to another, or due to secondary storage device malfunction. Many people try to open it continuously and end up trashing them in frustration. There are many shareware and freeware Word file recovery software. Here is one completely free Word file recovery software that recovers almost every version of Microsoft Word files.
Repair MyWord is an excellent free damaged Word file recovery software. The software comes as a single .exe file with no installation required. Just download it and start with click. Repair MyWord is capable of recovering damaged files of Microsoft Word 6.0, Word 95, 97, 2000, XP and 2003. Remember, it is not a password recovery program. For that, you have to install separate software. Once the damaged file is recovered, you have the option to save it as fresh Word file or as a plain text file.
You can also download the following free Damaged File recovery software.
Repair MyExcel: Repair corrupt Microsoft Excel Files
Best Free VOIP Softphone Applications
Today, VOIP softphones are used by millions of users worldwide to make voice and video calls. Pre-configured softphones like Skype are very popular among users. However, there are certain free VOIP softphone applications, that can be easily configured to work with the service provider of your choice, provided you have the required subscription. These softphone are not only free, but have all the advanced features for call recording, call transfer, call conferencing and contact management.
X_Lite 3.0: It is one of the most popular free VOIP softphone. X-Lite 3.0 comes with stunning interface and use Session Initiation Protocol(SIP) for all media communications. X-Lite also uses Quality of Service(QoS) feature to auto enhance to voice or video call quality. It also maintains complete call history with feature packed address book. X-Lite is also able to record voice and video calls on demand.
Ninja Lite: This softphone also supports both voice and video calls. Ninja Lite supports all advanced features like call recording, recent calls (Dialed, received and missed), address book, NAT/firewall support, skins, call timer, caller id, mute and much more. It also has built-in conferencing feature for multi-party talk.
SJPhone: I have used SJPhone personally along with Asterisk VOIP based router, to test some IP based applications. Very handy and light on the system. SJPhone uses SIP protocol for all media communication. An ideal softphone client while building a large internal VOIP server within your organization.
Firefly: Extremely light and best interface I have ever experienced. Firefly integrates fully featured voice mail system. It also includes drag and drop contact management system, which makes it very user friendly. After installation you can create an online account for easy call record history in real time. You can initiate multiple calls from Firefly at a given time, and can later turn it into a conference. 
Express Talk: Another excellent VOIP softphone, which offers free voice and video calls between PC's. you can configure up to 6 calls on a single line, including conferencing feature. Express Talk can easily work behind NATs and Firewalls. Express Talk can be easily integrated with Microsoft address book for easy import and export of contacts. It also supports call transfer feature.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
NetSetMan: Manage Your Network Settings With Ease
If you are managing a local area network or have multiple Ethernet cards on a single machine, managing and updating the network settings is very hectic if done through windows default network settings interface. The following freeware makes network settings management extremely easy and quick. NetSetMan: Network Settings Manager Software
NetSetMan is a freeware capable of managing the complex network settings of your LAN or PC. The free version can manage settings of up to six NIC's, which is pretty good for most home or SOHO users.
Once installed, you can import the current settings of all NIC's installed on your box with a click of a button. Switching between the tabs, you can change the settings of an individual network interface. 
You can keep it active in system tray and can see the current status and network settings of all the installed and configured network interfaces. If you want to manage a large network, you have to purchase the Pro version of NetSetMan. You can even export the current settings in the form of .ini file, and can later import it on another system to clone the network settings. This feature saves a lot of time for large network.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
How To Send And Receive Encrypted E-Mail In GMail
Sometimes, we feel the necessity of encrypting mails while sending some sensitive data through regular web mail services. Almost all of the popular mailing services do not support mail encryption feature. However, with the help of some third party software and add-ons, we can avail this feature very easily for GMail. All we need is a key generation and distribution software, and a Firefox add-on to integrate the encryption feature in GMail interface. Let's see how to install and use this extremely useful and easy to use option for encrypting mails.Install Key Generation and Distribution Software
First of all, download Gpg4win, a free and open source key generation and distribution software. After installation, create a public/private key pair for encrypting/decrypting your mails.
The key generation process is extremely simple and is done through a wizard. All you have to provide is name, email address and passphrase (password of private key).
Next you have to store your public key in central repository, so that anyone who wants to send you encrypted mail can use it for encrypting the mails sent to you. In the same way, both parties create their key pair and export the public key on central server to allow people to encrypt mails using that key. The exporting process just requires right click on key pair in list and sending it to the selected server in the menu.Install FireGPG Plugin For Firefox
The next step is to install FireGPG plugin for Firefox. This plugin facilitates the use of PGP encryption technology from within the browser with ease. It also adds encryption support in GMail interface to make the process extremely simple.
While sending an encrypted mail, you have to select the public key of your friend from the list, which was imported by you from the central repository. You can optionally sign it with your private key, so that if the recipient wants to confirm the sender of the mail, he can verify it by your digital signature embedded in the mail.
This video demonstrates the whole process in easy steps. If you still remain confused, leave a comment below and I'll try my best to get it resolved for you.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Nintendo DSi: The Ultimate Handheld Gaming Console
Gaming market is expanding at unimaginable rate introducing new gaming consoles from major players almost every quarter. Nintendo is one of the major player in gaming industry. Since the launch of Nintendo DS dual screen, hand held gaming console, it has become the most selling console in it's segment. Loaded with stunning features, it gives the best gaming experience while on move.Nintendo DS: Power Packed Gaming Console
Nintendo DS is outselling 360, PS3 and Nintendo's own Wii Console. After the DS Lite redesigning, finally Nintendo has confirmed the latest model of DS series. The new model will be called DSi.
The very first thing you will notice in new model is bigger screen size. Earlier it was 3 inches, which has now increased to 3.25 inches. The resolution of TFT LCD is 260,000 pixels. DSi is power packed by two .3 megapixel cameras. One located on inner side between both TFT screens for capturing self snapshot and other one on the outer side. The new model is 2.6 mm thinner than DS Lite giving it a sleek look. DSi can also play MP3 tracks on SD cards. Comparatively, the battery life of DSi (3 hours to 14 hours) is less than Lite's (5 to 19 hours). On the brighter side, the charging time of DSi is about 30 minutes less than its predecessor.
The model will hit the market in 2009, although it will be available in Japan from November onwards with a price tag of $178. The DSi console will come in two colors, black and white.
Monday, October 6, 2008
How To Add Stunning Effects To Your Digital Pictures
We all love to take snaps of our loved ones, and to keep it as a memento to cherish those moments. Often we want to add some special effects to our digital photographs before sending them to friends and relatives. Although, some of us can do it easily in Adobe Photoshop, but most of us are not proficient in it. Let us check out this free online tool, that can add sparkling effects to the photographs with ease and can make them more attractive.
Big Huge Labs is one of the selective sites on web that uses flickr API to process images and provide some awesome effects for digital pictures. BHL offers an array of photo editing services that are extremely easy to use and are lightning fast.
Original Picture
This is the original picture on which we will apply some effects.Captioner Effect
As the name suggests, Captioner Effect makes it easy to include speech bubbles and various emotion effects in the picture.
Captioner EffectMagazine Effect
With Magazine Effect, you can embed your photograph in a stylish magazine cover and can customize it as per your requirements. A great tool to impress your friends.
Magazine EffectMatte Effect
This effect adds a museum style mat to your photograph. Gives a vintage look by adding a designer ceramic style mat. Great option to frame your digital pictures.
Matte EffectCalendar Effect
With simple mouse click you can create calendar from your picture of various sizes. Great tool to make your own personalized calendar.
Calendar EffectFramer Effect
Framer can make about 15 styles of frames for your pictures. Wooden frame, metallic frame, wire frame, cloud frame and much more.
Framer Effect
Apart from all these effects, there are many more stunning effects for pictures. Here is the complete list.
1. Pocket Album: Create and print a pocket-sized photo album
2. Jigsaw: Turn your favorite photograph into a customized photo jigsaw puzzle
3. Badge Maker: Create an ID badge using your digital photographs
4. Motivator: Create your own customized motivational poster
5. Poster: Create a movie poster from your digital photographs
6. Mosaic Maker: Create a photo mosaic from your digital photographs
7. Trading Card Maker: Create a trading card from your digital photos
8. Wallpaper: Turn any photo into cool desktop wallpaper with a calendar
9. Warholizer: Turn digital photos of you and your friends into pop art!
10. Picture Cube: Create an amazing, 3-D, art cube from your photos
11. Bead Art: Convert your digital photos into amazing bead art!
12. Hockneyizer: Create a simulated collage from a single photograph
13. Create a personalized CD/DVD cover
14. Billboard: Make a big statement with your digital photographs
15. Blog Header Generator: Spiff up your blog with a custom header
and much more...
NOTE: For all the above effects, you simply have to upload the file and with simple drag and drop and few mouse clicks you can get the desired effect.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Filseclab Firewall: Your Guard For Network Monitoring
There are many popular firewalls like ZoneAlarm and Comodo. I have tried both and they performed quite well. Although I faced some glitches and some of the applications got stuck with them, until one day I discovered one more free firewall software that works like a charm and out beats it's popular rivals. Filseclab Firewall
Filseclab firewall is a free and extremely advanced firewall. I have tested it on Windows XP and Windows 2000 Professional and it performed well on both systems. The interface is stunning and very easy to use. 
FilsecLab Features
1. Can block the most attacks from worms, viruses and trojans.
2. Can also block some main Adware and Spyware.
3. It supports live update.
3. Double filter system for double-layer protection.
4. Digital signature verification to trust the well-known program.
5. Built-in 7 operational modes.
6. Advanced real time network monitor.
7. Interactive rules creator to define new rules.
8. Password protection for rules and configurations.
9. It is very easy to backup and restore the rules.
10. Two log file types, ascii and binary, can be easily exported.
11. Supports live update for rule-definition, traffic graph, privacy protection, Windows Security Center, balloon message alert and much more.
You can turn off selective features to fine tune it according to your needs. It can co-exist with your existing anti-virus system and does not hinders its operation.
