COMPUTER TIPS

একসাথে একাধিক ইয়াহু মেসেন্জারে লগ ইন করুন!!

2009-05-30T14:34:00.001-07:00

অনেকের অনেক সময় একসাথে একই পিসিতে একাধিক ইয়াহু মেসেন্জারে লগইন করার দরকার হয়। কিন্তু বাই ডিফল্ট এই সুবিধা না থাকায় আমরা অনেকেই একসাথে একাধিক ইয়াহু মেসেন্জারে লগইন করতে পারি না। তবে আপনি একটু কষ্ট করলেই এই সুবিধা পেতে পারেন। এজন্য আপনাকে যা করতে হবেঃ

Start > Run > regedit ( বক্সে টাইপ করুন) > Ok করুন।

নতুন একটা উইন্ডো ওপেন হবে। এরপরঃ-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > yahoo > pager > Test

এবার ডানসাইডের ফাকা জায়গায় Right ক্লিক করে New > String Value তে ক্লিক করুন।

নতুন স্ট্রিংটির নাম দিন plural

এবার plural লেখার উপর Right ক্লিক করে Modify তে ক্লিক করে Value data এর নিচের বক্সে 0 বসিয়ে দিন। তারপর Ok করে বেরিয়ে আসুন।

এবার একসাথে ইচ্ছামত একাধিক ইয়াহু মেসেন্জারে লগ ইন করুন।

স্ক্রিনশটঃ উইন্ডোজ এক্সপি

Optimize Your PC

2009-05-26T00:00:00.002-07:00

In today’s world, a reliable computer system is a necessity. Don’t allow your PC to be susceptible to failures from your operating system. If you want to keep your registry clean and running smoothy, the solution is RegCure.

This product will scan, optimize, and repair your PC, and best of all, it’s very easy to use. Just click the link below and try their free system scan. Your computer will thank you for it!

Bad Sector Dangers

2009-05-26T00:00:00.001-07:00

If system structures like the FAT are affected by bad sectors, it could cause your computer to freeze or even crash. That is where RegCure comes in.

RegCure’s software addresses sectors below the the file system, enabling it to detect the bad sectors that SCANDISK and CHKDSK cannot reach.

The advantage is that the disk management system can then go back to reallocating spare sectors where they are needed

Common Symptoms

2009-05-25T23:59:00.002-07:00

There are several common symptoms of bad sectors. One is the system blue screen. This is when your monitor screen suddenly turns blue duing the middle of an operation. Often, this is because your system is unable to read a sector.

Another symptom is constant system freezes. This occurs because the operating system is unable to access the sector information it needs to load a page or open a file. Other symptoms include: “drive not formatted” error, “drive or device not found”, or “operating system not found”

Fixing Bad Sectors

2009-05-25T23:59:00.001-07:00

Many PC users may come across bad sectors on their computers and not know how to fix them. Fortunately, a bad sector is not a lost sector – there is a way to save them. Once the bad sector is marked, the disk controller will remap the logical sector to a different area on the hard drive.

Since the drive has many spare sectors, the only reason the operating system would detect a bad sector would be if the surface of the disk drive was failing.

If this happens, it means the drive has run out of spare sectors and can no longer remap bad ones. This is very bad news for your operating system.

What Is a “Bad Sector”?

2009-05-25T23:58:00.001-07:00

A bad sector, also known as a “surface defect”, is simply a sector on a computer’s disk drive that is physically damaged and therefore unable to be read. Usually, it is detected by the SCANDISK or CHKDSK utilities software that your operating system is equipped with.

When SCANDISK or CHKDSK find the bad sectors on your drive, they mark them so that the operating system will skip them in the future. This is known as standard disk repair

How to convert a PDF file to Word, Excel or JPG format

2009-05-25T23:49:00.000-07:00

One common question I’ve run across a lot these days in the office is how to convert a PDF file to Microsoft Word format (doc), Excel format (xls), or JPG picture format. Usually, people want to know how to convert a file to PDF, but it’s also nice to be able to convert back the other way. Converting to Word is actually pretty simple and can be done directly using an online file conversion service called Zamzar. Going to Excel or JPG is a two step process, but nothing very difficult to follow.

Update: There’s a much easier way to convert a PDF to JPG image format than the method I have mentioned below. Here’s how you can do it using Zamzar.com.

Convert a PDF file to JPG - Easy Way

Go to ZamZar.com, browse for your file and choose PNG format for the format to conver to under Step 2. PNG is another newer picture format that is slowly replacing the JPG format. Most programs that can open JPG files can open PNG. Zamzar automatically converts each page in the PDF document into it’s own PNG picture file. Now you can simply open Microsoft Paint (yes, all you need it Paint!) and choose File - Save As from the menu and choose JPEG from the drop down list of formats.

That’s it! By the way, if youare interested in how to extract the text from a PDF document or how to convert Word files to PDF, etc, check out the links.

Convert PDF to JPG Format - Second Way

The first thing you’ll need to do is download a free software (the only one I could find) that converts PDF documents to JPEG image format automatically. Go to the Omniformat download page and download both Omniformat v8.3 and the PDF995 app. You will need to download and install PDF995 first before installing Omniformat. Once you have both programs installed, go to your Start Menu programs, find the program group Software995 and click on Omniformat.

The only annoying thing about this program is that it requires you to view some ads for about 30 seconds! However, it’s better than paying $20 or $40 for a program just to do a simple conversion! It does pop up another instance of your browser window for the web site of each of the sponsors, but it does not install any spyware onto your computer (no popup ads). Once the program is loaded, you’ll see it has a section called “Watch Folders” and then a button at the bottom titled “Start Monitoring” and “Single Pass“.

Basically the way it works is that you need to COPY the PDF files you want to convert to JPG format to the C:\omniformat\watch folder and then press Single Pass. The program will look in that directory and convert each page of each PDF into a separate JPG file. If you click Start Monitoring, you can keep dropping PDFs into that folder and the program will automatically convert them into JPGs as long as the program is open. Note that the program DELETES the original PDF document that it uses, so that’s why you need to COPY the PDF document to the watch folder, not move it! You should now see your converted files like below:

Convert your PDF to a Word document

Go to Zamzar.com and click the Browse button next to Step 1 and choose your file. By default, Step 2 will be set to DOC format, but you can choose to convert your PDF to other file types such as TXT, HMTL, RTF, etc. Type in your email address for Step 3 and click Convert.

You should receive an email within a few minutes with a download link to your converted file. I have tried out this service on some pretty complex PDF documents with text in multiple columns, multiple images, etc and have been very impressed with it’s conversion accuracy.

Convert a PDF file to Excel format

We will again follow the steps above using Zamzar, but this time choose TXT as the format you want to convert to. Unfortunately, you can’t convert straight to Excel format, so we’ll have to go through the intermediary TXT format. Once you have downloaded the TXT file and saved it on your computer, open Microsoft Excel and go to File - Open and change the Files of Type combo box to All Files.

Now you should see the converted text file in the list of files. Choose it and click Open. You’ll now be brought to the Text Import Wizard. You have to open the file in this manner because if you simply right-click and say Open With Excel, all of the text for each row will appear in the first column and not be separated.

For Step 1, choose Delimited from the two options listed.

Click Next and check off the Space checkbox as one of the delimiters. Each value should now be separated by a vertical line, indicating it’s going to be in a separate column.

Click Next and then click Finish. You can now save the file as an Excel file by going to File - Save As. There are a few drawbacks, however, as this conversion does not always work perfectly! For example, if the original Excel sheet had a column where there was text with spaces included, each word will be separated into it’s own column! Also, you won’t see any formulas or functions that may have been in the original Excel sheet, only the text.

It’s as easy as that! You can use many other image editing programs also such as Photoshop, Corel, etc, etc, but I chose Paint because that is universally available on just about every Windows computer.

How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software

2009-05-25T23:47:00.002-07:00

As an IT Pro, I routinely monitor employee’s computers and emails. It’s essential in a work environment for administrative purposes as well as for security. Monitoring email, for example, allows you to block attachments that could contain a virus or spyware. The only time I have to connect to a user’s computer and do work on directly their computer is to fix a problem.

However, if you feel that you are being monitored when you shouldn’t be, there are a few little tricks you can use to determine if you’re right. First off, to monitor someone’s computer means that they someone can watch everything that you are doing on your computer in real time. Blocking porn sites, removing attachments or blocking spam before it gets to your Inbox, etc is not really monitoring, it’s more like filtering.

Computer Monitoring

So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here’s what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP2 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you’re logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you’re reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected.

So why is that useful? It’s useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it’s a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows.

So now we’re looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won’t know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service.

That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.

Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you’ve not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It’s usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there.

However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you’re not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right?

So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start, Control Panel, and Windows Firewall.

Click on the Exceptions tab and you’ll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are “open” and the unchecked or unlisted ones are “closed”. Go through the list and see if there is a program you’re not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!

The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to the Processes tab, you’ll see a column titled User Name.

Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!

Email & Web Site Monitoring

To check whether your email is being monitored is quite simple. Always, when you send an email from Outlook or some email client on your computer, it has to connect to the email server. Now it can either connect directly or it can connect through what is called a proxy server, which takes a request, alters or checks it, and forwards it on to another server.

If you’re going through a proxy server for email or web browsing, than the web sites you access or the emails you write can be saved and viewed later on. You can check for both and here’s how. For IE, go to Tools, then Internet Options. Click on the Connections tab and choose LAN Settings.

If the Proxy Server box is checked and it has a local IP address with a port number, then that means you’re going through a local server first before it reaches the web server. This means that any web site you visit first goes through another server running some kind of software that either blocks the address or simply logs it.

For your email, you’re checking for the same thing, a local IP address for the POP and SMTP mail servers. To check in Outlook, go to Tools, Email Accounts, and click Change or Properties, and find the values for POP and SMTP server.

If you’re working in a big corporate environment, it’s more than likely that the Internet and email are being monitored. You should always be careful in writing emails or browsing web sites while at the office. Trying to break through the security also might get you in trouble if they find out you bypassed their systems! IT people don’t like that, I can tell you from experience!

How to create a secured and locked folder in Windows XP

2009-05-25T23:47:00.001-07:00

If you’ve come across this page looking for a way to create a password protected, secure, hidden or locked folder in Windows XP for free, you’ve come to the right place. Unfortunately, Windows XP does not have any user-friendly built-in tools to create secure folders on computers with multiple users. Of course, you can encrypt data on your hard disk, but this only helps if your computer is stolen.

In a previous post, I wrote about how you can hide a folder in Windows XP using a rudimentary built-in feature. This method is useful if you want to hide a folder or file and you’re pretty sure that anyone who is using the computer will have no idea how to un-hide the data. If you’re dealing with someone a little more computer savvy, there is another way to create a secure locked folder without having to buy any 3rd party software.

It basically involves using a script to morph the folder into something completely different so that it’s still visible, but nothing inside the folder is accessible. In order to view the data, you have to run another script to morph it back. Anyone who clicks on the folder will be brought to the Control Panel and simply think it is a shortcut.

Here are the steps to create the protected folder in Windows XP:

First create a folder that you will use to store your confidential data. For example, I have created a folder called Fonts at the root of my D drive. Since the hidden folder will bring you to the Control Panel, it’s best to name the folder as one of the programs inside there.

In the same location where you created the new folder, create a new file in Notepad, copy the following below into it, replace Fonts with the name of your folder and save it as loc.bat.

ren Fonts Fonts.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

To save the file as a .bat file in Notepad, just put the whole thing in quotes, like “loc.bat” and then click Save.

Now you should have a bat file named loc in the same directory as your Fonts folder, not inside the Fonts folder.

Create another NotePad file and type in the following listed below and save it as “key.bat”.

ren Fonts.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} Fonts

Now you’ll have loc.bat and key.bat along with your folder. Go ahead and double-click on loc.bat and your folder will turn into the Control Panel and nothing inside can be viewed. Clicking on it will simply bring you to the Control Panel. You’ll notice the icon should have changed also.

To view the data inside your folder again, click on key.bat and your folder will return to normal! Pretty simple!

Of course, keeping the key.bat file in the same folder will defeat the purpose of securing the folder, so it’s best to move the key.bat file somewhere else, or even better, put it on a USB stick or CD that only you can access.

Most people will be probably look at the folder and simply ignore it since it has the control panel icon and it links directly there. Of course, if someone knows this trick also, they can create their own key.bat file, etc and open it back up. However, if you’re dealing with someone who can do all of that, it’s best you check out more advanced 3rd party software to lock down a folder.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD:

If you’re having trouble with the above-mentioned method (from what I can see from the comments, a good number of people), then here’s another quick and free way to create a secure folder in Windows XP. There is a very nice program called Free Hide Folder from Cleanersoft that allows you to easily hide your private folders.

Your folders are completely hidden and you must supply a password to open the program to unhide the folders. The personal edition is free, just click the Skip Registration button unless you’re using it for commercial purposes.

I’ve tried this program myself and I cannot access the hidden folder via Windows Explorer nor the command prompt. So if the above method is not working, give this a shot!

ImagIcon - Convert multiple image formats (JPG, BMP, PNG) into Windows icons

2009-05-25T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here’s a nifty little utility that you can use to take any picture that is in BMP, JPG, or PNG format and convert it into BMP, JPG, PNG or ICO format. Using this program, you can take your favorite picture of your girlfriend, let’s say, and convert it into a Windows Icon. Then you can replace out your My Computer icon with her face rather than a boring computer! Hmmm or maybe you don’t want to see her that much…!!

Anyway, the program is called ImagIcon and it’s not only a tiny program, but it does it’s job very well. You can take an image and save it as an icon in all of the different sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 48×48, and 64×64. The 16×16 size can be used to give your web site a logo in the IE address bar. For example, in Blogger while writing a post, you can see the orange icon in the address bar:

The program also lets your transform the images if you like. You can scale the image to make it smaller or flip it horizontally or vertically. You can even save the icon with alpha transparency! And if you don’t care to save the image as an icon, you can convert between any of the three formats: PNG, JPG, or BMP.

Simply drag a picture into the colored area after configuring your settings and the picture is automatically converted! Here I took a picture of my wife & I and dropped it onto the program window. By default, it converts the picture into an icon of 32×32 and puts it in the same folder as the original picture:

You can change the settings by click on the Options menu item. Icon Settings allows you to pick the size of your final icon. Image Transform lets you pick the transformations you want if you are converting between picture formats (JPG to PNG). Remember, you can convert to the same format and simply transform the picture also. So if you have a bunch of JPEG images and you simply want to scale them quickly, then in Save Mode choose JPEG and choose the settings for image transform. And of course Save Mode is the format that you want to convert to. Save Directory is if you want to have the pictures stored somewhere else other than the directory where the originals are located.

And lastly, you can customize ImagIcon itself by choosing different colors or by loading in your own custom image for the background!

Very nice program and very handy, especially for converting images into Windows icons!

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-capture-save-record-or-download-streaming-audio-for-free/

2009-05-25T23:43:00.002-07:00

Ever wonder how you could possibly record or rip a song that’s being streamed across the Internet onto your computer for free? Trying to download streaming audio directly to your computer can be quite difficult because different sites have different security measures put in place, so one program might work for one site, but not another.

However, one surefire way of recording streaming audio from any web site is to simply capture it via the sound card on your computer. Basically, there are programs that can record whatever is being played by your computer’s speakers, so if you can hear it, it can be recorded. Of course, you’ll have to listen to the entire song since the recording is live, but it’s definitely much easier than trying to download the file from the web site directly.

There are two programs that I use to capture and save streaming audio: one installs as a toolbar into Internet Explorer or FireFox and the other one is a standalone program.

If you don’t mind having another toolbar installed in your browser window, FreeCorder is a very convenient program to use if you’re going to be recording music that’s mostly played via the web, such as Internet radio, etc. Also, it has many other features that make it quite useful, such as the ability to extract audio from videos and record from your PC’s microphone or line-in port. It also supports Windows Vista and has absolutely no spyware or adware, so you don’t have to worry about pop-ups, etc. You can save the recordings out as MP3 or as WAV files.

Once you have it installed, click on the Settings button to configure the source for the sounds or music.

By default, the “Record From Freecorder Audio Driver” is selected and this will record anything that is being played through your speakers. If you have a Windows input device, such as a microphone, you can select the second or third option. However, remember to de-select the other options and only have one checkbox checked at a time, otherwise it creates a separate file for each source.

You can also change the output format to WAV, prompt for a filename or automatically timestamp it, and choose the location for the destination files. Now start playing some music on your computer and press the red Record button. A little box will pop up and you should see the green line moving up and down. The nice thing about this program is that you can have your laptop sound on Mute or have your speakers turned off and it will still record whatever is being played.

Click Stop when you’re finished and then click Play to view your recordings. And that’s it! A pretty easy and cool way to record any sound or music off the Internet or from your computer.

If you don’t like the idea of cluttering up your browser toolbar, you can use a standalone program called MP3MyMP3 Recorder, which is also free. Like FreeCorder, this program also records whatever is being played by your computer’s speakers. However, unlike FreeCorder, this program requires that your sound NOT be muted. So if you want to record anything, it has to be playing and you have to be able to hear it yourself.

Also, by default, MP3MyMP3 tries to record from your microphone and not your sound card, so click on the Source button and choose Stereo Mix as the sound source. The recording quality for both of the products was very good and sounded just like the originals from what I could tell. Personally, I like FreeCorder better, but MP3MyMP3 is also a fine alternative.

Any questions or problems, please post a comment

Watch TV shows, HBO, and sports online for free

2009-05-25T23:43:00.001-07:00

One of my most popular articles on this site over the last two years has been on how to watch DivX Hollywood/Bollywood movies online for free. People are always looking for ways to watch movies, TV shows, sporting events, etc for free.

Most people end up using Torrent sites to download movies, download TV shows, etc and then watch it on their computers or stream it to their TVs. However, it would save lots of time and bandwidth if you could just stream it to your computer.

StreamTorrent is a nifty little application for Windows that is designed to stream TV channels over the Internet, such as HBO, ESPN 360, BBC One/Two, Fox Sports 2, and lots more.

Basically, the application is kind of like a BitTorrent client like uTorrent, allowing you to watch a TV show or premium channel by streaming it to your computer from other users or “seeds”.

The more seeds that are available, the more likely you will get to watch a particular TV channel. There are several columns in the program that you can sort by to quickly be able to choose the highest quality and most available channels. The higher the bitrate, the better the image will look.

You can also use the search bar at the top to either browse through a list of pre-defined categories, such as sports, news, Top 100, and more. You can also enter a keyword into the search bar if you’re looking for an exact match.

When you click on a channel, a small viewer will pop up and your video will begin loading. It takes a bit of time for the TV channel to load, but most of them do eventually.

The program has a good range of sports channels also, including CCTV 5, ESPN, ESPN China, ESPN HK, ESPN TW, MLB TV, Eurosoccer, Zee Sports, Zenit TV, STS Sport, and more.

It’s not the greatest program in the world, but if you are really strapped for bandwidth or time or money, this might be a worthwhile way to watch some sports, TV shows, or movies for free! Enjoy!

How to use Autofill in Excel

2009-05-25T23:42:00.001-07:00

If you have a series of data that you want to enter into Excel, it is best to let AutoFill handle it. With AutoFill, your serial data gets automatically populated – you will only need to enter the first value on the list and the software will populate the rest for you.

To use this feature, start by entering the initial values of the row. In the example below, I entered a date for column A and a numeric value for column B. You can use Excel to autofill dates, numbers, and characters.

Select the initial values and drag the black corner at the lower right portion of the selected cells. This is called the Fill handle. Drag this to the 10th row of the sheet.

The output will be a progression of dates from 5/1/2009 to 5/10/2009 and numbers from 1 to 10.

On column A, the values are iterated by 1 day. Column B on the other hand is by 1. Columns 2 to 10 are automatically filled by serial values. This is much easier than typing manually isn’t it? Excel, by default, adds one unit to a series. This works for data types like dates and numbers.

Now what if you need to iterate it using another value? For example, what if we want to iterate by month and by number 2? The trick here is to “train” Excel by feeding it 2 initial rows so it could determine the amount of iteration used. See the example below:

Column A is iterated by 1 month while Column B is iterated by 2. If you select both rows and drag the Fill handle downwards you will see a series like below:

The 1 month and 2 series iterations are automatically detected and it was able to populate the other rows.

I hope this simple yet effective Excel AutoFill tip helps you get your tasks done quicker and easier.

How to display the Links toolbar as icons only in IE 8

2009-05-25T23:40:00.001-07:00

I’ve been using Internet Explorer 8 recently and I have to say it’s definitely better than all of the older versions of IE. It’s faster and it’s got some nice features like favorite websites when you open a new tab, private browsing, and more.

The Favorites toolbar (aka Links toolbar) in IE 8 is just like the toolbar in previous versions of IE. You can drag a website to the toolbar and have 1-click access to that website.

What I realized recently, however, is that all of the icons on my links bar usually have favicons from the website. This makes it really easy to figure out which website each icon represents.

The fact is, all those text labels are just eating up space and causing me to only be able to add 5 or 6 links to my Links toolbar. Annoying! So why not just get rid of them and display only icons. You can make your toolbar look clean and simple, like this:

Can you tell which sites those are by the icons? Easily! Here’s how to display only icons on the Favorites toolbar in IE 8:

Step 1: Open IE and right-click on any of the icons in the Links toolbar to pull up the context menu. Make sure you click on one of the links, not the toolbar itself.

Step 2: Now expand Customize Title Widths and choose Icons Only. You can also choose Short Titles if you want to retain the text labels, but make them smaller.

That’s it! Now you can add way more links to your Links toolbar and be more productive! Make sure to add Online Tech Tips

How to track the original location of an email via its IP address

2009-05-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

Here’s a quick how-to guide on how you can track email to it’s originating location by figuring out the email’s IP address and looking it up. I have found this to be quite useful on many occasions for verification purposes since I receive lots of emails daily due to my blog. Tracking the IP address of an email sender does require looking at some technical details, so be ready to dig your heels in!

There are basically two steps involved in the process of tracking an email: find the IP address in the email header section and then look up the location of the IP address.

Finding the IP address of an email sender in GMail, Yahoo Mail, and Outlook

Let’s go ahead and take a look at how you would do this for Google, Yahoo and Outlook since those are the most popular email clients.

Google’s Gmail

1. Log into your account and open the email in question.

2. Click on the down arrow that’s to the right of the Reply link. Choose Show Original from the list.

Now here’s the technical part that I was telling you about earlier! You need to look for the lines of text that start with “Received: from“. It might be easier to simply press Cntrl + F and perform a search for that phase. You’ll notice that there are several Received From’s in the message header. This is because the message header contains the IP addresses of all of servers involved in routing that email to you.

To find the first computer that originally sent the email, you’ll have to find the Received From that’s farthest DOWN. As you can see from the above image, the first one is from a computer called “aseem” with the IP address 72.204.154.191. Then it was routed to my ISP’s server at eastrmmtao104.cox.net and so on and so forth till it got to your email server.

The computer aseem is my personal home computer and that’s my public IP address for my house! I’ll go through Yahoo and Outlook before talking about tracking the location of that IP address.

Yahoo Mail Beta

1. Log into your account and open the email (if you’re using Yahoo Mail Beta with the new preview interface, make sure you double-click on the email so that it opens in a new tab)

2. At the top right, you’ll see there is a drop-down option where Standard Header is selected by default.

3. Click on it and choose Full Header.

Again, you’ll see the same information as before, just in a different window:

Microsoft Outlook

1. Open the email in Outlook by double-clicking on it

2. Go to View at the top menu (the menu options for the email, not the main Outlook window) and choose Options.

You’ll get a dialog box where you can set the message options and at the bottom you’ll see the Internet Headers box. For some silly reason, the box is very small and you have to scroll a lot, so it’s best to simply copy and paste the text into Notepad to view it more easily.

Tracking the location of an IP address

Now that we have our originating IP address of 72.204.154.191, let’s find out where that is! You can do this by perform a location lookup on the IP address. My favorites are IP2Location and GeoBytes IP Locator.

GeoBytes gave me a big map of New Orleans, LA along with a bunch of other information about the location itself.

IP2Location also gave me the same information pretty much, including the ISP (Cox Communications). Of course, this is correct since I live in New Orleans!

If you want more information, you can do a WHOIS database search also. My favorite one is the

ARIN WHOIS Database Search

. This will give you information on who hosts that IP address and their registration information. You can always contact them to try and find more information on that particular IP address.

Send and receive files from a Bluetooth device to your PC .

2009-05-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

If you have a phone with Bluetooth connectivity, it would be easier for you to sometimes use this wireless protocol to send and receive files to and from your computer. For cases when you are in a hurry and you don’t have time to install the software that came with your phone, use Bluetooth to transfer files.

First locate the Bluetooth system tray icon at the lower part of your Windows screen.

Right click this button and click “Enable Bluetooth Radio”

This is a preview of Send and receive files from a Bluetooth device to your PC. Read the full post (243 words, 5 images)

How to change the default media player in Windows

Posted on May 18, 2009 - Filed Under Computer Tips | Leave a Comment

So I have Windows XP and one thing that I don’t like is the fact that Windows Media Player is setup as the default media player for my music, videos, etc. I prefer to use other media players like GOM player or VLC media player to play my media.

VLC Media Player has many of the most popular codecs already built into the program, so you can watch practically any video file without having to download a codec pack. You can easily change the default media player in Windows XP by following these steps:

This is a preview of How to change the default media player in Windows

Send Ctrl-Alt-Delete in a remote desktop session

2009-05-21T12:40:00.001-07:00

Remote Desktop is a nifty little windows feature that allows you to remotely connect to another PC and manage it as if you were physically at the console. You can read my previous post on how to setup remote desktop in Windows XP.

When connecting to another machine, just about all keyboard actions are transmitted to the remote machine, i.e. pressing Enter, typing, pressing the Windows key, etc. However, that is not the case for some key combinations.

One that has bothered me for a very long time when using Remote Desktop in Windows is when I press Ctrl + Alt + Del while logged into the remote computer. Instead of sending the key combo to the remote computer, it would instead perform the action on my computer!

This was actually intended by Microsoft because there are many cases where you may not want that to be sent to the remote computer. So, by default, Ctrl + Alt + Del will only work for the local computer.

So how does one perform this same action on the remote computer? It’s pretty easy actually! In order to send Ctrl + Alt + Del to the remote PC, just press the following alternate key combination:

Ctrl + Alt + End

That’s it! Pretty easy eh? Unfortunately, I tend to use Remote Desktop rarely and therefore forget this key combo all the time! Also, note that there are a bunch of other keyboard shortcuts you can use in Remote Desktop:

Alt + Page Up – Switch between programs (Alt + Tab is the local command)

Ctrl + Alt + End – Display the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc is the local command)

Alt + Home – Brings up the Start menu on the remote computer

Ctrl + Alt + (+) Plus/ (-) Minus – Minus takes a snapshot of the active window and plus takes a snapshot of the entire remote desktop window.

Those are pretty much all of the remote desktop keyboard shortcuts you will ever need! If you know of anymore, post a comment! Enjoy!

How to turn off DEP (Data Execution Prevention) in Windows

2009-05-21T12:37:00.002-07:00

Data Execution Prevention, otherwise known as DEP, is a set of technologies incorporated into Windows XP SP2 and later that prevents code from being run in certain regions of memory that are for storage.

This helps to prevent all kinds of attacks and exploits that would normally be able to run freely on your system. Data Execution Prevention comes in two flavors, hardware-enforced DEP and software-enforced DEP.

Most users will never need to worry about DEP because it works in the background and normally only protects Windows system binaries or programs that “opt-in”. However, if DEP is turned on for all programs, it can cause issues with some certain programs.

DEP will sometimes shut down a program or process without any notification if it violates DEP. Normally, these are third-party or older programs not written properly for Windows.

You can turn off Data Execution Prevention for a particular program in Windows by following the steps below. Note that you can turn off DEP globally for the entire system, but it’s not recommended as it makes your computer less secure.

Step 1: Right-click on My Computer and choose Properties. Then click on the Advanced tab and then Settings under Performance.

Step 2: Now click on the Data Execution Prevention tab and you’ll see two radio buttons:

Step 3: Go ahead and click on Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.

Step 4: Click the Add button and browse to the location of the executable for the program you want to remove from DEP protection.

After you do this, you should reboot your machine once in order for the changes to take place.

How to add social bookmarking tags using Live Writer

2009-05-21T12:37:00.001-07:00

Social bookmarking is used for storing bookmarks of useful web pages on the Net. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web sites they want on their own social website account. For example, if you have a Yahoo! account, you can click the image below to add the online-tech-tips.com URL to your Yahoo! account:

It would then open your Yahoo! bookmarks page prompting you to save the link:

You could then see the bookmark on the bookmarks.yahoo.com site:

Now that you know how to use the bookmarks when you see them, let me show you how to create link icons for several bookmarking sites so you can put them on your own blogs or web sites. To do this on Live Writer, download the plugin from http://gallery.live.com/liveItemDetail.aspx?li=d2597790-f998-46be-bbe5-caa4a007e0f0&bt=9&pl=8

Click the download button as shown above and then run the file once it is completed downloading.

After running the file, open Windows Live Writer and then make a post where you want to put the icons. Click the Bookmarking Tags! plug-in under the insert panel:

Enter the URL of the site you want to bookmark, a descriptive title and “text to show” that will act as a label on the left side of the icons. You may choose from the available bookmarking sites but all are selected by default. Click done to create the icons:

If you look on the source code, the plug-in automated the generation of the code and the icons are preloaded also, so you don’t have to figure out the right URL syntax for each bookmarking service.

How to use Symantec AntiVirus Liveupdate

2009-05-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

I use Symantec Antivirus as my primary virus protection software. Like any other antivirus tool it depends on it’s virus definitions database to be able to recognize virus signatures that sneaks up on my computer.

In this post I will show you how to use the LiveUpdate window to update Symantec’s virus definition files.

To access live Update open the Symantec Antivirus window and look for the LiveUpdate button at the lower right portion of the screen.

Before clicking the button first notice the date of the version of the virus definitions file. This way you will see if your definitions file is old or recent. The older this date, the more urgent that you need to update.

Click the LiveUpdate button to open the LiveUpdate wizard. Click Next to begin downloading:

Wait for the download to finish. That’s it! In some cases you will need to download up to 40MB of files if your virus definition files is really old.

Be patient with it, your antivirus software is only as good as it’s virus definition updates. The download time could take a few minutes to an hour depending on your Internet bandwidth.

By default LiveUpdate automatically downloads the virus definitions from the Symantec server. In some cases, like when I didn’t connect my computer in the Internet for a very long time, I needed to trigger the LiveUpdate manually.

Tips for Increasing Computer Speed and Performance

2009-05-21T12:24:00.001-07:00

Keeping your hard drive clean is essential to the high performance that the latest computers can achieve. Fortunately, it's a simple process; one that can easily be performed on a regular basis and, with some organization, keep your computer running like a well-oiled machine

You can discover how much hard drive space is available on your computer by accessing the DriveSpace program in your System Tools. A pie graph will show you the amount of used and unused space for each of your drives. Check this often to keep an idea of how much space you are using..

There are six simple steps to clearing up your hard drive:

1. Uninstall unused programs.

Many times a new program will come along that looks fun to have or play with, but after a week or two you simply stop using it. These programs clutter up your drive and take up valuable space. You might be tempted to delete these programs from your drive, but doing so will cause problems. You must use the uninstall function of Windows for the program to be removed safely and completely.

2. Clean out temporary files.

When your computer is not shut down properly, it will pass information from memory into fragmented files. Also, while you are running programs, your computer will write information that it does not immediately need into temporary files. Installation files will also expand themselves into the temporary folder and will not always clean up after themselves. You can delete these temporary files safely by using the Disk Cleanup option in your System Tools.

3. Empty your Internet cache.

As you surf the Internet your computer stores web pages and images into a temporary Internet cache so that it can quickly recall and access information when you move back and forth between pages. This backup information can quickly add up and eat hard drive space.

Whether you use Internet Explorer, Netscape, or one of the many other browsers available, emptying out your cache is quick and easy. Simply follow the instructions in the Help files located within those programs. You may also wish to set a specific maximum file size for your cache folder, so that it is not allowed to run rampant.

4. Empty your mail programs of clutter.

It's easy to browse through your email and leave old messages there, promising yourself you'll sort them out later. One or two messages don't take up much space, but hundreds certainly do. Take the time to sort through these old emails now and delete what is not important. Create folders and organize what is left. Make it a habit that when new emails come in, they are either filed immediately or thrown away. Set your email program to empty your deleted items folder each time you close your mail program.

5. Empty your recycle bin.

Once you've emptied your drive of cluttering, unnecessary programs; empty your recycle bin to remove what has been placed there in the process.

6. Scandisk and Defrag.

When Windows installs programs, it will put the files it needs anywhere that it finds free space, and not directly after the last program installed. As a result, your hard drive has patches of empty space on it that are not big enough to fit a full program, and will result in a drive space error if you attempt to install something new. Scandisk your drive to check for lost file fragments and to fix any errors it finds, then Defrag to pack all of the program files together at the beginning of your drive. This will clear out those empty patches and move all of the free space you've just created to the end of your drive.

Now that you've got it clean, keep it that way. Perform this quick maintenance routine every week. For your work computer, Friday afternoon before you leave for the weekend is the perfect time. When you return to work on Monday, you'll have a computer that is clutter-free and as responsive as it should be.

Organize your surfing habits. Direct all of your downloads to the same folder, so that you can easily find them and delete them when necessary, or move them to zip disks for storage. Keep track of the programs that you install. For trial versions, note the date that they will expire on a calendar. This will remind you to uninstall the programs that you can no longer use rather than allowing them to clutter up your drive. Also, if you run into problems, keeping track of new downloaded and installed programs and the date they were installed can help you track down the cause of problems.

Remember that the cleaner your hard drive is, the better your machine will respond! In order for your computer to be user friendly, it must have a friendly user. Be your computer's best friend and clean out the cobwebs regularly

PC Hardware Glossary - PC Hardware Help

2009-05-21T12:23:00.000-07:00

AGP ( Accelerated Graphics Port ) - An interface that is designed for video cards to allow high speed transmission between the CPU, memory and the video card.

BIOS (Basic Input Output System) - A set of instructions stored on a ROM chip that provides an interface for a computer's hardware and software.

CD Burner - A type of CD-ROM device that can burn/write data and music onto writable CDs.

CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) - An optical data storage medium using disks similar to audio CDs. CD-ROMs have a maximum storage capacity of 700 MB (megabytes). Some types can be written to multiple times (CD-RW). CD-ROMs are used in CD-ROM players on computers.

CPU (central processing unit) - Also known as the processor. This microchip controls and performs the execution of computer instructions. They come in many different types and speeds. The speed is most commonly measured in gigahertz (GHz).

Firewire - A very fast external bus that supports data transfer rates of up to 400 Mbps. It is used to connect devices to computer that require a high data transfer rate such as video cameras.

Hard Drive - A device inside (sometimes outside) of a computer used to store data such as files, folder, documents and pictures etc. They come in many different capacities and are usually measured in gigabytes. They also come with different interfaces to the computer such as IDE, SATA and SCSI.

Heatsink - A cooling device which attaches to a CPU to conduct away and disperse the heat generated by the CPU.

Jumper - A small component that you place over pairs of pins to connect them electronically most commonly used on hard drives and CD-ROMS to determine which is master and which is the slave.

Motherboard - The main circuit board of a computer system. It contains the system bus. It has different connections for the CPU, memory, expansion cards, hard drives etc. All the system devices run though the motherboard.

Network Interface Card (NIC) - A hardware device that is used to connect a computer to other networked devices such as other computers and printers. NICs can support several different data transfer rates but the most common is 100 Mbps (mega bits per second).

PCI (peripheral computer interconnect) - an industry-standard bus used in computers that provides a high-speed connection with peripherals such as video and sound cards.
PCI Express - A high-speed peripheral interconnect introduced in 2002 that expands on and doubles the data transfer rates of original PCI. PCI Express is a 2 way serial connection compared to the single parallel data bus of traditional PCI. It was designed to eventually replace the PCI and AGP buses.

Power Supply - The component that supplies power to the computer and converts AC current to DC current. It has different power plugs that fit your hardware devices such as hard drives, CDROM, and motherboard.

RAID (redundant array of independent disks or redundant array of inexpensive disks ) - A system whereby multiple hard drives are connected together to form a single large drive for storage that offers increased performance and fault tolerance.

RAM (random access memory) - The very fast temporary memory of a computer into which application programs currently in use can be loaded and executed. Once the computer is turned off, all data in this memory is lost.

SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) - A type of interface between a computer and peripherals that allows faster communication than most other interface standards. SCSI provides a very fast data transfer rate and can connect up to 7 devices together.

Sound Card - An interface card that is used to transfer the audio signal between the computer and the speakers.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) - A bus type that is used to connect devices such as keyboards, mice, cameras, printers, scanners etc to a computer. Most newer computers have 4 or more USB ports installed. You can have up to 127 devices attached though these ports.

Video Card - An interface card that is used to transfer the video signal between the computer and the monitor.

Kaspersky Virus Removal Tools - Virus Information

2009-05-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Kaspersky Labs offers free downloadable virus tools for a wide variety of modern viruses. All you need to do is go to the site and find the virus you have and see if there is a tool to fix it.
http://www.kaspersky.com/removaltools

They also offer free trial versions of their antivirus and firewall software for home and business use. Plus they provide up to date information on current virus and spyware threats.

You can also scan your PC for free with their online virus scanner.
http://usa.kaspersky.com/services/free-virus-scanner.php

Free Antivirus Software and Online Scans - Virus Information

2009-05-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a quick, easy and free way to scan your computer for virues then check out this section on free anivirus tools and online scans. Some you will need to download and others you can run online. Check them out and see which works the best for you.

Panda ActiveScan
Free antivirus utility that works within your browser to scan your hard drive. Click here to go to run the scan.

Avast! Home Edition v4.5
Avast! Home Edition doesn't just scan your hard drive from time to time, it attacks viruses at their preferred points of invasion. This antivirus program uses resident protection for real time protection from the viruses that would board your pc. Click here to download.

AVScan
Scan for more than 8000 virus signatures. Click here to download.

Symantec Security Check
Scan for viruses with this free online tool. Scan for Viruses will detect known viruses and Trojan horses. It won't fix the infected files; to do that, you'll have to install Norton Anti-Virus.Click here to run the scan.

HouseCall
Scan and eliminate viruses with this free tool. It will show the name of the virus so you can find out more about it, clean the virus, or delete the infected file. Click here to run the scan.

ViruSafe Web
Scan your downloads and e-mail. Click here to download.

F-Macro
Search for and eliminate macro viruses in Word and Excel 6.x and 7.x documents. Click here to download.

Computer Networking Terminology

2009-05-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Bandwidth - the rated throughput capacity of a given network media or protocol. The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time.

Backbone - A high-speed link joining together several networks.

Bit – A unit of information having just two possible values, as either of the binary digits 0 or 1.

Byte - a series of consecutive binary digits that are operated upon as a unit. There are 8 bits in a byte.
Category 5 (cat 5) cable -A type of twisted pair network wiring in which there is a certain number of twists per foot. It is the most commonly used network cabling.

Coaxial Cable - A type of cable consisting of two insulating layers and two conductors most commonly used in older networks.

Collision - An attempt by two devices to transmit over the network at the same time usually resulting in the data being lost.
DNS (Domain Name System) – an internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. For example www.google.com translates to 66.102.7.99.
Dynamic DNS - A method of keeping a domain name linked to a changing IP address using a pool of available IP addresses so you can use applications that require a static IP address.

Domain - A group of computers and devices on a network that are administered as a unit.

DHCP ( Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol )– A TCP/IP protocol that dynamically assigns an IP address to a computer. Dynamic addressing simplifies network administration because the software keeps track of IP addresses rather than requiring a network administrator to do so.

Ethernet - Ethernet is the most widely installed local area network technology. It was developed during the late 1970s through a partnership of DEC, Intel, and Xerox.

Fiber Optic –A cable technology that uses glass (or plastic) threads (fibers) to transmit data. It is a very fast technology

Gateway - A device on a network that serves as an entrance to another network and routes traffic

Hardware (MAC) address – A unique address associated with a particular network device

Hub - A common connection point for computers and devices in a network that takes an incoming signal and repeats it on all other ports

Internet - Term used to refer to the world's largest internetwork, connecting thousands of networks worldwide. Also known as the world wide web (www)
IP address - a 32-bit address assigned to hosts using the TCP/IP protocol. Each computer/device on the public internet has a unique IP address. An example of an IP address is 192.168.1.

LAN (Local Area Network) – computer/data network which is confined in a limited geographical area.
MAC Address (Media Access Control) - A unique identifier attached to most forms of networking equipment. It is burned into the device and cannot be changed
Megabit - A measure of data transmission speed – 1 million bits per second or approximately 125,000 characters per second

Megabyte - A unit of measure for memory or hard disk storage capacity. 1024 megabytes = 1 gigabyte.

Network - A group of computers and devices that can communicate with each other and share resources.

Network Interface Card (NIC) – A hardware device inside a computer or other network device that enables communication with a network.

Packet - The unit of data sent across a network. Data is broken up into packets for sending over a packet switching network.

PING (Packet Internet Groper) – A command used to test connectivity to a device over a TCP/IP network.

Protocol – Rules determining the format and transmission of data over a network

RJ-45 - Standard connectors used for unshielded twisted-pair cable. Most commonly used with Cat5 network cabling.

Route – A path through an internetwork.

Router – A device that routes/forwards data across a networks.
Server - A computer that handles requests for data, email, files, and other network services from other computers (clients)

Subnet - A portion of a network that shares a common address component but is on a different segment than the rest of the network.

TI Line – A high speed dedicated data line that supports a transmission rate of 1.544 Mbps

TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. A suite of protocols used as the basis of the nation's internetwork (Internet). It can also be used on internal networks.
UNC (Universal Naming Convention) Path - A UNC provides a naming convention for identifying network resources. UNC names consist of three parts, a server name, a share name, and an optional file path.

WAN (wide area network) - A network linking together networks located in other geographic areas.

13 Tips to Speed Up Microsoft Outlook 2007

2009-05-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

While Outlook 2007 offers many new features that do indeed offer real benefits it can come at a price - performance.

On my Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM Outlook 2007 originally took a good 20 seconds to fire up from a fully booted PC and appeared to be constantly sluggish. So what can be done about it?

Tip 1: Delete attachments

A little-known feature in Outlook is the ability to keep an email but delete one or several attachment. Firstly, sort your inbox by file size (descending) and open a message (by double clicking so it opens in a new window) where you no longer wish to keep the attachment. Right click over the attachment and select Remove. Now save the email, repeat with all relevant emails in this mailbox and then repeat in any other mailboxes (including your sent items).

Tip 2: Split emails into Archives

Maybe you disabled the auto archive facility when you first saw it because you didn't understand it? Archiving old emails into a separate file still allows you to access less frequently used material when required but keeps your system running faster as it does not have to trawl through all of this rendundant content regularly. Click File | New | Outlook Data File. Enter a name for the file - a new folder will now appear in the folder list on the left. You can add sub-folders to this by right clicking, which is useful if you want to create a similar hierarchy to your current inbox. Once done simply select multiple files in your main inbox and drag/drop them to the same inbox in your new archive folder. Repeat for all other folders (e.g. Sent Items and any others that you may have created). Close the new data file by right clicking over the title and selecting Close [Folder Name]. Now when Outlook loads it only loads you nice lightweight folder! Outlook 2007 is known to be far less tolerant of large PST data files than Outlook 2003. Aim to keep your main PST file under 500MB - the smaller the better.

Tip 3: Disable unessential Add-ins in Outlook 2007

Click on Tools, Trust Center and Add-Ins. Now select one of the various options from the dropdown menu at the bottom and uncheck any add-ins that you don't use (which for me was an Adobe Acrobat one and Gotomeeting.com). Restart Outlook and see if this makes a difference.

Tip 4: No need for fax? Ditch it!

If you do not send or receive faxes on your PC then uninstall the facility as this has been known to cause issues with Outlook 2007.From Control Panel select Add/Remove Programs, select Add/remove windows components and uncheck Fax Service.

Tip 5: Enable Outlook 2007 logging to see if anything is going wrong

Outlook has an error logging capability, which could be useful if something is going wrong. Click Tools, Options, Other, Advanced Options and then tick Enable Logging. Logs will be stored in C:\Documents and Settings\[Username]\Local Settings\Temp\Outlook Logging\. Look for any errors, especially in OPMLog.log - perhaps relating to the checking of email on one or more of your POP3 accounts.

Tip 6: Compact your PST data files often

Use Outlook's compact facility to compress your folders, especially your main PST file. Click on top folder name (e.g. Personal Folders), right-click and select Properties. Now select Advanced and then click on Compact Now.

Tip 7: Optimise your Exchange settings

If you are connecting to an Exchange server then the synchronisation (cacheing) process will add a further overhead to your system. You can switch off cacheing so that your PC always looks to the server for its mail, however be warned - this can cause a number of issues, such as massively increased network traffic, problems with junk mail filtering and the inability to read mail when you are not connected to the server. Check the Microsoft knowledge base for Exchange optimisation techniques here, as this is a constantly evolving issue and there may be more solutions by the time you read this.

Tip 8: Stop Outlook 2007 storing RSS information from IE7

If you are using IE7 and RSS feeds Outlook will also store all feed threads by default. Click Tools, Options, other, Advanced Options and then uncheck Sync RSS feeds to common feed list, followed by Any RSS feed that is updated appears as a new item. Close these screens and then click Tools, Accounts, RSS Feeds and delete the feeds. Now you have to delete the RSS threads from the RSS threads folder in your mail folders.

Tip 9: Run the Outlook 2007 Diagnostics check

Outlook has its own self-repair mechanism. Click on Help and Office Diagnostics, and then let Outlook run its diagnostic tests, which can take 15 minutes or so.

Tip 10: Update your Rules and Alerts

Under Tools, Rules & Alerts, Options select Upgrade Rules (only if you don't use these PST files with an older version of Outlook). This updates the rules to Outlook 2007.

Tip 11: Scan and repair your PST file

Outlook ships with a scanning utility called SCANPST.EXE, located in drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE12. Run this, locate your PST file and let it scan and repair any errors for you. Full details can be found here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA100758311033.aspx?pid=CH100788841033

Tip 12: Run Outlook 2007 in safe mode

You can start Outlook in safe mode, which stops Add-ins and certain other files from loading. This often loads Outlook with a startling speed boost! If you experience a big difference then try the following:

Quit out of Outlook 2007 and locate each of these files in turn and rename as indicated.

1. extend.dat - you will find this file in the location :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat

//change it to extend.old

2. views.dat - may not find it most of the time

3. frmcache.dat - :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DAT

//change it to FRMCACHE.old

4. outcmd.dat - :\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.dat

//change it to OUTCMD.old

Tip 13: Download the latest patches from Microsoft

At the time of writing there is one major patch which suggests that it will resolve performance issues. You can download it here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932086

Note that there are known issues with Outlook taking a long time when checking POP3 accounts. According to several blogs it relates to the AUTH command and only affects certain mailservers. It is wise to check that your settings are correct - options such as setting authentication as on may not actually be necessary and could be the cause of many of your problems, so check your ISP's website for EXACT settings.

After performing the above my Outlook now fires up in around 10-15 seconds from a fully-booted PC and appears much more responsive during operation. Hopefully by now your system will too

Speed Up Your PC And Boost Performance By Cleaning It

2009-05-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ever notice your computer fan seems to run constantly? Maybe you also notice your laptop or desktop feels warmer than normal. And you probably also noticed that your PC performance has been running a lot slower lately trying to execute even the simplest tasks.

That's what I noticed about my laptop, which is only sixteen months old. It just was not running as snappy as it did a few months ago. So I did all the usual clean up tips that you can find anywhere on the Internet in hopes of speeding up my Windows PC.

Ran CCLeaner, removed unused programs, defrag the hard drive, cleaned up my user profiles and desktop, and so on.

Only to have the same problem. A slow computer.

I was about ready to give up by formatting the hard drive and reinstall Windows, when I decided that maybe I should look inside and check things out before I got started with the reinstall.

Well much to my surprise, I found the cause of the performance problem….a dirty computer.

I couldn't believe how much dust had accumulated over time. Now it made sense as to what was causing the poor performance problems.

Over time, your fans will pick up dust which naturally collects on the components inside your computer. Eventually this will cause cooling problems and make your computer run hot, while reducing efficiency. With the fan running constantly and unable to cool, more heat is being produced which requires more power to run your computer, thus reducing overall performance.

Worse, it can cause components to overheat which will shutdown your computer or cause some components to fail, leaving you with a big repair bill.

So it was time to give the inside a good cleaning. And after I was finished, my laptop was back to it's speedy self again. Without reinstalling Windows, or spending any money.

Now, before you go ahead and attempt tp clean your computer, here are some tips I came across on how to clean a computer without causing any damage to the components inside:

First the precautions…

- Shut Down Your Computer And Unplug It - failure to do so could cause harm to your computer and your self. Be safe by eliminating any electrical shock that can occur if the computer is still plugged in.

- Go Outside - once you get started with cleaning (keep reading for details), you will be surprised by how much of a dust mess is created. If you cannot go outside, try to find another area that you don't mind getting dusty.

- Put Away The Vacuum Cleaner - using a vacuum cleaner can cause static electricity and damage your mother board. Additional damage to fans can occur if you allow the suction of the vacuum to excessively spin the fan blades.

- Do Not Use Liquids - avoid getting any component inside the computer or any other circuit board damp or wet.

..and now it's time to get cleaning.

- Use A Can Of Compressed Air - this is the proper way to clean your computer. A can of compressed air can be found in any electronic or computer store.

- Make Sure You Are Grounded - static electricity is like kryptonite to electronic components. Do everything you can to prevent static electricity from occurring

NOTE: make sure you hold the fan blades to prevent them from spinning.

Start by removing the case lid. Hold your can of compressed air upright and start on the upper region of the computer, then work your way down. In this manner you can sweep out all the dust that settles on lower components at one time. Again try to not cause the fan blades (CPU fan, power supply fan, etc) to spin excessively.

Be through, but do not press on cords or components. Also keep your air source a moderate distance from the components you're working on.

To remove the gunk on the fan blades (that the compressed air cannot clean), use a dry Q-Tip and work each blade as best as you can.

Make sure you clean the power supply, and blow through the internal slits from inside the chassis, aiming so dust will exit the back.

Next, blow into the intake fan (if there is one) to push the dust out the back.

When finished, put the panel back on your computer and reconnect your mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc. Llug the power cord back into your computer and boot it up.

By following these simple guide lines and using common sense, you can significantly increase performance of your computer….with out spending a fortune.

Running Scandisk

2009-05-20T09:53:00.001-07:00

As you save, erase, and move files sometimes things do not go just right. This is not caused by anything you are doing wrong. A PC is a very complex, fast machine and despite the best efforts of all the designers, engineers and programmers who've toiled to make it flawless, sometimes programs collide and mess up each others files.

This unwanted interaction can result in invalid files, files with lost file fragments, and cross linked files. You don't always know right away when this happens. This is why you should run the Scandisk utility from time to time.

For Windows 9x and ME

1) Click the Start button.

2) Select Programs, Accessories, then System Tools. Click Scandisk.

3) Select and click the drive you want to scan, and then choose either the Standard or the Thorough test.

4) Click Start.

Scandisk runs in two modes

The Standard test checks the files and folders on the selected drive for errors.

The Thorough test performs the Standard test and then checks the entire surface of your hard drive for physical damage. You can even specify to scan areas of your disk containing only data files, or just the areas with system files, or both. This process takes a long time. Unless the Standard test fails you shouldn't need to run this test.

For Windows XP and 2000

In XP and 2000, the utility is called 'Error Checking' and doesn't offer the full physical surface check.

1) From 'Start' double click 'My Computer'.

2) Right-click the drive you want.

3) Click on 'Properties', then 'Tools'.

4) Under 'Error Checking' click 'Check Now' and then Start.

5) A small scandisk window appears and the process begins.

Emptying your Recycle Bin

2009-05-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Everytime you delete a file on a PC running a Windows Operating system it isn't really deleted. It is instead stored in a temporary holding area called the Recycle Bin. It stays there until you restore it or permanently delete it.

From time to time it is a good idea to go and delete the files you have no intention of restoring.

To delete all the files in the Recycle Bin do the following:

1) Locate the Recycle Bin icon on your desktop and double-click it.

2) When the Recycle Bin opens, click 'File' on the menu bar and a list of options appears.

3) Select 'Empty Recycle Bin' from this list and every item in the Recycle Bin is deleted.

Deleting Temporary Files

2009-05-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

Every time you access web sites on the Internet, temporary files are copied to your PC. These files contain information intended to make these web sites open faster on your next visit. They may also contain preferences you've entered on the site while visiting it.

All well and good so far. Over time, however, you can build up thousands of these files. Many of them may not be doing you much good, especially if they are from sites you've visited once never intending to go back.

Every once in a while, you should go in and clean these files out.

Here's how you do it:

1) In Internet Explorer click Tools, then click 'Internet Options'.

2) Select the 'General' tab and find the 'Temporary Files' section half way down the page.

3) Click the 'Delete Files' button and in the window that opens, check the box for 'Delete all offline content'.

4) Click OK and all the files are erased.

Change Icon spacing on your Desktop

2009-05-20T09:50:00.000-07:00

You can move icons on the desktop closer together or farther apart.

1) Right-click anywhere on the desktop. Select Properties and the display properties box opens.

2) Click the Appearance tab:

· For Windows 98 - Select 'Icon Spacing (Horizontal)' or ‘Icon Spacing (Vertical)’ in the Item box

· For Windows XP - Click the Advanced button, then select 'Icon Spacing (Horizontal)' or ‘Icon Spacing (Vertical)’ in the Item box

3) Adjust the number in the Size box and you’ll see the effect of changes, as you make them, in the small display near the top of the window.

4) When you have the spacing you want, Click OK to save the setting.

Shortcuts on your Desktop

2009-05-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

A shortcut is path to a program and is represented by an icon on the desktop that you can click to access the program. This saves you from having to navigate the path to the actual location of the program. It's easy to add a shortcut:

1) Right-click anywhere on the desktop. A pop-up menu appears.

2) Select New, then Shortcut and the ‘create shortcut’ window opens.

3) Use the Browse button to find the path to the application or program.

4) Select the program you want and the path to it appears in the 'location of item' box.

5) Click Next and the ‘select a title box’ appears where you are asked to enter a name for the shortcut.

6) Enter a name and then click Finish. The new shortcut appears on the desktop. Just drag it to where on the desktop you want it.

Change your Desktop Background

2009-05-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

1) Right-click anywhere on your open desktop and select Properties from the drop-down list that appears.

· 2a) For Windows 98 - Select the Background tab in the window that appears and find the section labeled Wallpaper that contains a list of files you can choose to use as Wallpaper.

· 2b) For Windows XP - Select the Desktop tab in the window that appears, and find the section labeled Background which contains a list of files you can choose to use as your Desktop background.

3) Click on one and it is shown in the small display in the window.

4) When you find one you like, click OK to keep as your desktop wallpaper!

Note: If the image does not cover your entire display and you want it to, go to the Display box and select the Stretch option.

Find Files in Windows 98

2009-05-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

A program called Find can help you locate Files and Folders on your PC.

1) Click Start, Find and then ‘Files or Folders’ and the ‘Find All Files’ window opens.

2) In the window that opens there are three boxes to fill in:

a) In the box labeled Named, type in the full or partial file name you want to locate.

b) You can optionally search for text within each file by entering the text you want to search for in the box labeled ‘Containing Text’.

Note: If you look for files by file name and text within the file, then only files matching both conditions will be found.

c) Click the arrow at the right side of the box labeled “Look In’ and in the drop-down list that opens, select the drive(s) you want to search in. If you want to search all folders in the drive you select, check the ‘Include subfolders’ check box.

3) Click the 'Find Now' button and all files and folders matching your search conditions appear in a list. The path of each folder and file is also displayed.

Search for Files in Windows XP

2009-05-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

A program called Search can help you locate Files and Folders on your PC.

1) Click Start, Search and the ‘Search Results’ window opens.

2) On the left side of the window, click the ‘All Files and Folders’ link and three fill-in boxes are displayed in the window:

a) In the box labeled ‘All or part of the file name’ type in the full or partial file name you want to locate.

b) You can optionally search for text within each file by entering the text you want to search for in the box labeled ‘A word or phrase in the file’.

Note: If you look for files by file name and text within the file, then only files matching both conditions will be found.

c) Click the arrow at the right side of the box labeled “Look In’ and in the drop-down list that opens, select the drive(s) you want to search in. If you want to search all folders in the drive you select, check the ‘Include subfolders’ check box.

3) Click the 'Search' button and all files and folders matching your search conditions appear in a list. The path of each folder and file is also displayed

Set Power Management on your PC

2009-05-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

When you leave your PC running but are not using it, you can set the length of time your hard drive(s) and monitor run before they go to an 'idle' state.

Slowing down the spin rate of a hard drive from a high to a low speed, reduces the wear on it bearings.

Turning off the monitor when not in use saves a significant amount of power. It is by far consumes more power than any other component in your PC.

To set these options, follow the instructions below:

On your PC click 'Start', then 'Settings' and then 'Control Panel',

Double click the Power Options icon in the control panel and a window appears with a number of tabs across the top labeled: Power Schemes, Alarms, Power Meter, Advanced and Hibernate. There may be variances in these options depending on which Windows operating system you have.

Double-click the 'Power Schemes' tab.

At the top of the window that opens you can select different modes to which you assign hard drive and monitor activity. There are usually three there with preassigned names: 'Desktop/Home', 'Laptop' and 'Always on'. Select Desktop/Home and let's set it up.

At the bottom of the window you can set the time to run before turning off your monitor and your hard drive(s). This time is measured from the last keystroke or mouse movement you make.

To set your hard drive running time, select the time you want from the drop down menu next to 'Turn off hard disks'. Select a time that you think you will not exceed in your typical routine.
I set mine at 45 minutes, which means the drive will slow down 45 minutes after tha last time it was accessed.
The hard drive(s) wake up when you access a file or when some other activity occurs that requires access to it.

The monitor running time is set similarly with the 'Turn off Monitor' drop down box. I set this at 20 minutes.
So if you don't press a key or move your mouse, the screen goes dark in 20 minutes.
It wakes up again when you move your mouse or press any key on your keyboard.

Click 'OK' or 'Apply' to save the settings.

To setup another mode, go back to step 4, select it and repeat steps 5-7.

To use another mode, select it in step 4 click 'OK' and your PC will run with it, until you change it.

Printing Selected Text

2009-05-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wanted to print just a tiny section of a large file? Sometimes I need to print just a few cells from an Excel spreadsheet. Using this tip I don't end up using a whole tree to print lots of pages I don't need.

Here is how you do it:

1) Select the text you want to print.

2) On the 'File' menu select 'Print'.

3) In the dialog box that opens look in the 'Print Range' section and check the 'Selection' option.

4. Click Print and the selected text is printed.

Adjusting your PC's Sound

2009-05-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the volume adjustment of a sound source on your PC gets out of whack for any number of reasons. If you are hearing very low sound or none at all first check:

Is your PC speaker cable properly plugged into the Speaker port on your PC sound card?

If the speakers are the powered type make sure they are ON and that the volume control is up.

If these checks are OK then proceed to check the Volume Control that is found in Programs.

Click Start, Programs, Accessories and then Entertainment.

When the Entertainment list opens you should see a Volume Control icon. Click it to open the control.

You will see a vertical slide control for each sound source on your PC and one for the main volume called Play Control.

Make sure each slide control is pushed up and that none of the controls have the Mute box checked. Then try to use your sound device again.

Start your PC in Safe Mode

2009-05-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

When there is problem starting your PC, sometimes Windows automatically enters ‘safe mode’. This causes Windows to use default settings: VGA monitor, no network, Microsoft mouse driver, and the minimum number device drivers required to start Windows.

Why would you want to start your PC in safe mode?

If you've ever tried to defragment your hard disk and it can’t complete, it is probably because another program keeps accessing the disk. When this happens, an error message is displayed that says 'Some other program has interrupted the defragment process and defragment is restarting'. This process continues in an endless loop and the defragment process never completes.

Using safe mode usually allows Defrag to complete.

1) Shut down your PC

2) Restart your PC and hold down the F5 key. Don’t release it until you get to the screen in step three.

3) Your display will show a screen where you have a number of choices. Choose safe mode, which should be selection #3.

4) Your PC will start and your desktop will appear very different. This is normal for safe mode.

5) Run defragment as you normally would. If you need details on defragmenting your drive go to http://www.computerhelpatoz.com/tips-defragment.html

6) When defragment has finished, restart your PC normally.

Setting your PC Clock

2009-05-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

The clock must be displayed on the taskbar to use this tip. If the clock is not visible, right-click anywhere on the taskbar and select Properties from the list that appears. Check the ‘Show Clock’ box in the window that appears and click OK.

1) Double click the clock that is displayed at the right hand end of the taskbar.

2) The Date/Time properties window opens. Select the ‘Date & Time’ tab.

3) Underneath the clock that is displayed you will see the time shown as digits.

4) Double click the hour and use the arrows provided to move it up or down until the hour is correct.

5) Repeat this process for the minutes, seconds and AM/PM selector.

6) Click OK to complete.

Change Display Colors

2009-05-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

The number of colors displayed significantly affects the appearance of both both text and pictures. If the color for your display is set too low, you are missing a more realistic look especially in the pictures you view.

1) Right-click anywhere on your open desktop. A pop up menu appears.

2) Select Properties and ‘display properties' window opens.

3) Select the Settings tab and in the 'Colors' (98) or ‘Color Quality’ (XP) section and choose the highest color setting available.

4) Click OK.

Note: You may have to try a different settings to get the one that provides the best viewing for your monitor and video driver.

Using Autofit in Excel

2009-05-20T09:35:00.002-07:00

Sometimes the text you enter in a cell is wider than the column width setting and it spills over into the column(s) next to it. Autofit adjusts the column width to match the width of the cell with the longest text.

1) Select the column you want to adjust by placing your cursor over the column heading and clicking your mouse. The entire column is selected.

2) Select Format from the menu bar and a drop-down list appears.

3) Select Column from this list and a menu opens.

4) Select ‘Autofit Selection' and the column width changes to match the width of the cell with the longest string of text.

Using Fill in Excel

2009-05-20T09:35:00.001-07:00

The Fill command enables you to copy the same text or formula in as many cells as you want with just a few simple steps.

For example, copy the number 10 in column A of the first 100 rows of a spreadsheet:

1) Begin by entering 10 in the cell at row 1, column A.

2) Put your mouse pointer over the cell, hold down the left mouse button and drag it down the column to row 100. Release the button and all 100 cells in column A are selected.

3) Click Edit on the menu bar and select Fill from the drop-down menu.

4) Select Down from the list that appears and 10 is copied into each selected row of column A.

Note: This works across columns too, except that you would select a row in step 2 and choose the Right instead of Down from the list in step four.

Add Programs to your PC from CD

2009-05-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

Installing new programs on your PC adds new functionality to it.

1) Insert the CD or floppy disk for the program you are installing.

2) Click Start, Settings (98 only) then 'Control Panel’.

3) Double click the ‘Add or Remove Programs’ icon and another window opens.

4) Click the ‘Add New Programs’ button on the left side of the window and a button labeled ‘CD or Floppy’ appears.

5) Click the button and the installation program will look for the setup files on the installation disk.

6) Follow the installation instructions. (These instructions can vary from program to program).

Make a numbered list

2009-05-20T09:33:00.004-07:00

When using Excel it may be necessary to create a series. A series is different than copying the same cell to many other cells. It is very handy when you want to make a numbered list or a list of dates. To make a numbered list:

1) Open Excel and enter ‘1’ or the starting number for your list in a cell.

2) Beginning with this cell, highlight all the cells that will be in the list.

3) Click Edit on the menu bar, select Fill from the drop-down list and select Series from the menu that appears. A dialog box opens.

4) In the 'Series In' section, select column or row depending on how your selected cells run.

5) In the Type section, choose Linear.

6) In the 'Step value', choose how you want the list to count:

· If you choose a step value of one, each member of the list is incremented by one and the list becomes 1,2,3, etc.

· If you choose two for a step value, the generated list becomes 1,3,5 etc.

7) Click OK to generate your list.

Change Fonts

2009-05-20T09:33:00.003-07:00

You can use this tip in any application that supports multiple fonts.

1) Select the text you want to change fonts for.

2) Select Format, then click Font from the menu and a list of font names appear.

3) Select the font you want to use and the font is applied to the selected text.

Add Tools to a Toolbar

2009-05-20T09:33:00.001-07:00

Tool icons are available that save and print files, open new documents, format text, etc. There are hundreds of tools and many are pre-assigned to various Toolbars. You can add tool icons to any toolbar you want to.

To find out what tools are available in an application:

1) Right-click on any toolbar.

2) Select Customize from the drop-down menu that appears and the customize window opens.

3) Click the Command tab and all tool Categories are shown. The File, Edit, View, Insert, and Format categories contain the bulk of tool icons that are commonly used.

4) Click one of these categories and all the tool icons for it are displayed under Commands.

5) Drag a tool icon to one of the toolbar you want to add the tool to and release your mouse button. The tool icon is now assigned to that toolbar and will be there .

6) Close the Customize window.

Using the Format Painter

2009-05-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Copy and apply text formatting using the Format Painter in Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Located in the Standard toolbar, the Format Painter tool icon (looks like a paint brush) is used to copy the format of a selected object or text to other objects or text.

In Word, for example, if you have text formatted in 10 pt, Arial, black, you can easily transfer this text formatting to any other text in the document with Format Painter.

1) Select the text that has the formatting that you want to copy and transfer.

2) Click the Format Painter icon. It becomes indented which verifies you've selected it.

3) With your cursor, which now has a paintbrush attached to it, select the target text you want to format.

4) The target text immediately changes to match the format of the original text. As soon as you select the target text, the Format Painter icon becomes inactive.

Note: To make the Format Painter icon remain active so that you can continue formatting text, repeat steps 1 - 3, except this time in step 2, double-click the icon. When you are done formatting you must click the icon again to deactivate it; otherwise you will continue reformatting any text you select.

Enable Pictures in Emails

2009-05-20T09:29:00.001-07:00

In order for a picture that’s been inserted into a message to be sent by Outlook Express, it must be set up to do it. With Outlook Express open:

1) Click the Tools on the menu bar, and then click Options.

2) Select the Send tab and in the properties window that opens, locate the ‘Mail Sending Format’ sections.

3) Select the HTML option, and then click the HTML Settings button and the window shown below opens.

4) Check the ‘Send Pictures with Messages’ checkbox and click OK to save the setting.

Note: In order to view pictures inserted into a message, the person receiving the message must have their Outlook Express set up to read messages in 'HTML'.

Do not append > character on reply/forward

2009-05-20T09:28:00.002-07:00

Every time a message is forwarded or replied to, the > character gets added to the head of each line by default. Some messages have 2, 3 or more of these characters in front of each line. To turn these off, open the Outlook Express main screen:

1) Click on Tools, then Options. This opens the options window.

2) Click on the Send tab, and go to the 'Mail Sending Format' section.

· If you have HTML selected as your Mail Sending Format, click on the HTML button. Uncheck the 'Indent message on reply' checkbox.

· If you have 'Plain Text' selected as your Mail Sending Format, click on the ‘Plain Text’ button. Uncheck the 'Indent the original text with' checkbox

Sort your Inbox by date

2009-05-20T09:28:00.001-07:00

With your Outlook Express inbox open:

1) Look on the right side of the screen where all the messages are listed.

2) There are heading names listed above the messages like: From, To, Subject etc.

3) Locate the column heading called 'Received' and click it.

4) This will sort your messages by date received.

5) If the oldest message is listed first, click Received again and the newest will be listed first.

Sign your Emails

2009-05-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

With Outlook open:

1) Click Tools, then Options and then select the 'Mail Format' tab in the options window that opens.

2) Click 'Signature Picker' and select New in the ‘signature picker’ window that appears.

3) The 'create new signature' window opens. Enter a name for the new signature you are creating.

4) Select the 'Start with blank Signature' button and click Next.

5) In the ‘edit signature’ window that opens, enter the text for your signature, as you want it to appear.

6) Click Finish to close this window, then click OK to close the ‘signature picker’ window.

7) You are now back at the options window. Click on the 'use this signature by default' drop-down box and select the name of the signature you just created in step three.

8) Click OK.

Every new e-mail message you write will have the signature text in it when you first open it.

Forwarding Emails

2009-05-20T09:26:00.002-07:00

1) Open Outlook Express, click Tools and select 'Message Rules' from the drop down menu.

2) Select Mail from the list that opens and the ‘message rules’ box opens.

3) Select the 'Mail Rules' tab and click New, which opens the ‘new mail rule’ box.

a) In the 'Select the Condition for your rule' section, select the 'For all messages' box.

b) In the 'Select the Actions for your rule' area select the 'Forward to people' box.

c) In the 'Rule Description' section, click 'people' and a box opens.

d) Enter the e-mail address where you want your e-mail forwarded, or click the Address book button and select an e-mail address from there.

e) In the last section of the ‘new mail rule’ box you can select a name for the rule, like 'Forward messages when away'.

4) Click OK and you're done.

Don’t forget to turn this rule off when you return. To turn off message forwarding:

1) Open Outlook Express, click Tools, and select 'Message Rules' from the list.

2) Select Mail from the list that appears and the ‘message rules’ box opens.

3) Locate and uncheck the ‘Forward messages when away’ checkbox.

4) Click OK to save your changes.

Delete Messages by Subject

2009-05-20T09:26:00.001-07:00

In Outlook Express you can delete, or save to a folder, all the messages that contain specific text in the Subject line. Let's assume these are emails you don't want and we’ll delete them.

1) Open Outlook Express and click Tools.

2) Select 'Message Rules' from the drop down menu.

3) Then click Mail and the 'Message Rules' Box opens.

4) Select the 'Mail Rules' tab and click New, which opens the ‘new mail rule’ box.

a) In the 'Select the Condition for your rule' section, select the 'Where Subject line contains specific words' box.

b) Go to 'Rule description' section and enter the word or phrase to look for in the subject line.

c) In the 'Select the Actions for your rule' area, select ‘Delete it’.

d) In the last section of the ‘new mail rule’ box you can select a name for the rule, like 'Delete emails about Jane Doe'.

5) Click OK and you're done.

Don't forget to turn this rule off when you no longer need it by repeating the first three steps. When the message rules box appears uncheck the rule 'Delete emails about Jane Doe'.

Auto Delete Messages

2009-05-20T09:25:00.001-07:00

In the Outlook Express main screen:

1) Click Tools, Options and then select the Maintenance tab.

2) In the 'Cleaning up Message' area, check the box next to 'Empty messages from the Deleted Items folder on exit', click OK and you're done.

3) The next time you close Outlook Express the Deleted Folder will be emptied.

Changing Your E-mail Text Format

2009-05-20T09:24:00.001-07:00

If you're e-mails are plain looking it could be that your e-mail text format is set to plain text. The text font, size, color etc. of plain text is - plain!

HTML or Rich Text (depending on the version of e-mail you are using) will allow you to greatly vary the appearance of your e-mail text. It will really spruce up the appearance of your e-mails.

Here's how you do it.

Go to your Outlook Express main screen:

1) Click on Tools, then Options. Select the 'Send' tab.

2) Scroll down to the 'Mail Sending Format' area.

3) There are two options, Plain Text and HTML. Select HTML.

4) Click OK to save the changes.

If you don't like the way it looks just select plain text in step 3.

Outlook and Outlook Express

2009-05-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

Outlook Express and Outlook are both email programs that allow you to compose, send and receive e-mails over the Internet.

Outlook Express is part of the Windows Operating System that is installed on your PC. It will handle the email needs of most PC users.

Outlook is a component of the Microsoft Office Suite of programs that includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Beside basic email functions Outlook has the following additional functions:

Calendar - where you can set up reminders that are sent to your inbox at a time and date you specify.

Task Manager - let’s you set up a to-do list of tasks.

Journal - allows activities to be automatically recorded such as: E-mail messages, Meeting requests, Meeting responses, Task requests and Task responses.

Auto Complete Usernames

2009-05-20T09:22:00.002-07:00

If you access sites that require your username and password you can set Internet Explorer to auto fill in the information for you after you've entered the first few characters of each field.

1) In Internet Explorer, click on Tools, then 'Internet Options'.

2) Click the Content tab.

3) In the 'Personal Information' area, click 'Auto complete'.

4) Check the 'User names and passwords on forms' box.

5) Click OK to finish up.

Is a Web Site Secure?

2009-05-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

What is the difference between a secure and an unsecure web site?

A secure web site uses encryption and authentication standards to protect the confidentiality of web transactions whereas an unsecured site does not. It does this by encrypting information like credit cards numbers and other private data so that no third party can read the original information.

When accessing a secure site, your browser pops up a message stating that it is entering a secure site. When leaving a secure site it pops up a message telling you that it is leaving a secure site. These messages can also appear within the secure areas of an otherwise unsecured site, where personal information is entered.

A secure web page has two important features that identify it as secure:

1) The web page address in the address bar of the browser will begin ‘https’ rather than 'http'.

2) At the bottom of the web page an icon is displayed that looks like a small pad lock.

Printing Web Pages

2009-05-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

Printing web pages can be tricky because often the lines of text are clipped off, leaving you to guess at what was removed.

If this happens, you can fix it by printing them in landscape orientation. This turns a standard 8 ½ x 11 page on its side so that the long side is on the bottom. When you print a web page in this orientation the lines of text usually do not get clipped.

1) Open Internet Explorer, click File on the menu bar and then select 'Page Setup’.

2) In the lower left hand corner of the page that opens you’ll see the Orientation area.

3) Select Landscape, click OK and then print the page as you normally would.

Show pictures in Internet Explorer

2009-05-20T09:20:00.002-07:00

Have you ever opened a web page in Internet Explorer only to find red x's in place of the pictures?

This can happen when the settings in your Internet Explorer are changed for whatever reason. The correct settings for showing pictures in Internet Explorer are:

1) Click Tools, 'Internet Options' and then the Advanced tab.

2) Scroll down to the Multimedia section of the list that is displayed and check the box next to 'Show Pictures'.

3) Click OK to complete

Display Browser Favorites

2009-05-20T09:20:00.001-07:00

1) To display your Favorites list in the left pane of Internet Explorer, click the Favorites button on the standard toolbar of Internet Explorer.

2) The Favorites list appears in the left pane of your browser and will each time you open Internet Explorer until it is deselected.

3) If the Favorites button is not visible for some reason, the following sequence will display your favorites list:
Click View, ‘Explorer Bar’, and then Favorites.

Changing your Browser's Homepage

2009-05-20T09:18:00.002-07:00

1) Open Internet Explorer, and click Tools on the menu bar.

2) Select 'Internet Options' from the menu that appears and the ‘Internet options’ window opens as shown here.

3) There are a number of tabs at the top. Select the General tab, if not already selected.

4) Near the top of the General page, you will see the Homepage area.

5) Click the 'Use Current', button and delete the address that appears in the Address box.

6) Type in or paste in the complete web address (URL) of the page you want as your new home page.

7) Click OK and your done!

What are HTML and HTTP?

2009-05-20T09:18:00.001-07:00

What is HTML?

HTML stands for Hyper Text Mark-up Language. It is the programming code that is used to write web pages that are stored on servers. Every web page that you view in a browser is written in HTML or XML (a newer language). Your browser is designed to interpret and display web pages coded in HTML.

What is HTTP?

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is the set of rules for transferring files (text, graphic images, sound, video, and other multimedia files) on the World Wide Web. As soon as a web user opens a web browser, they are making use of HTTP. The beginning of almost every web page address begins with HTTP, which indicates that that the session being requested will use the HTTP protocol.

HTTP concepts include the idea that files can contain references to other files (hyperlinks) whose selection will cause additional transfer requests.

Every web server contains an HTTP program that waits for and handles HTTP requests (from browsers) when they arrive. When a request come in, the web server sends back the requested file or files associated with the request. (Most web pages consist of more than one file.)

Every web browser is an HTTP client that sends requests to web servers. When a browser user enters a request by entering a web address (URL) in the browser address bar or by clicking on a hyperlink, the browser builds an HTTP request and sends it to the server at the Internet Protocol address (IP address) indicated by the URL.

What is Bluetooth?

2009-05-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

That's what your dentures get after eating blueberry pie, but you may hear about mobile phones and other devices having "Bluetooth Technology". Basically, it's a short-range wireless technology that simplifies communication between internet devices like mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and computers. Bluetooth's has a range of about 30 feet and allows you to do away with messy cables.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a cabal of over 3000 manufacturers, oversees the standards and security of the technology. It gets its unusual name in honor of Harald Bluetooth, king of Denmark in the mid-tenth century for no other reason than to recognize the contribution of Baltic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland) to the communications industry.

If you look around you'll find a ton of devices that use Bluetooth. Everything from wireless printers, wireless keyboards, even home appliances (I still don't know why my computer and washing machine need to communicate).

Bluetooth enabled mobile phones have recently been under attack by hackers who gain access to information being stored on the phone. This is often called bluesnarfing or bluebugging. In order to carry out a bluejacking, the sending and receiving devices must be within 10 meters of one another. If you use enabled devices, the Official Bluetooth website has a page explaining how to protect yourself—it's worth reading...
http://www.bluetooth.com/protect.asp

I hope this demystifies this new technology so when you are out shopping for a mobile phone, PDA, laptop, or other device you'll be aware of what Bluetooth can do.

How to Automate the Disk Cleanup Tool in Windows XP .

2009-05-20T08:55:00.000-07:00

Cleanmgr.exe is designed to clear unnecessary files from your computer's hard disk. You can use command-line options to specify that Cleanmgr.exe cleans up certain files. You can then schedule the task to run at a specific time by using the Scheduled Tasks tool.

To start the Disk Cleanup tool, either run the Cleanmgr.exe command, or click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.

Disk Cleanup supports the following command-line options:

/d driveletter: - This option specifies the drive that you want Disk Cleanup to clean.

Note: The /d option is not utilized with /sagerun: n.
/sageset: n - This option displays the Disk Cleanup Settings dialog box and also creates a registry key to store the settings that you select. The n value, which is stored in the registry, allows you to specify tasks for Disk Cleanup to run. The n value can be any integer value from 0 to 65535. To have all of the options available when you use the /sageset option, you might need to specify the drive where Windows is installed.
/sagerun: n - This option runs the specified tasks that are assigned to the n value if you use the \sageset option. All drives on the computer are enumerated and the selected profile runs against each drive.

For example, in Scheduled Tasks, you could run the following command after you run the cleanmgr /sageset:11 command:
cleanmgr /sagerun:11
This command runs Disk Cleanup and includes the options that you specified with the cleanmgr /sageset:11 command.

The options for the files that you can specify for Disk Cleanup by using /sageset and /sagerun include:

Temporary Setup Files - These are files that were created by a Setup program that is no longer running.
Downloaded Program Files - Downloaded program files are ActiveX controls and Java programs that are downloaded automatically from the Internet when you view certain pages. These files are temporarily stored in the Downloaded Program Files folder on the hard disk. This option includes a View Files button so that you can see the files before Disk Cleanup removes them. The button opens the C:\Winnt\Downloaded Program Files folder.
Temporary Internet Files - The Temporary Internet Files folder contains Web pages that are stored on your hard disk for quick viewing. Disk Cleanup removes these page but leaves your personalized settings for Web pages intact. This option also includes a View Files button, which opens the C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5 folder.
Old Chkdsk Files - When Chkdsk checks a disk for errors, Chkdsk might save lost file fragments as files in the root folder on the disk. These files are unnecessary.
Recycle Bin - The Recycle Bin contains files that you have deleted from the computer. These files are not permanently removed until you empty the Recycle Bin. This option includes a View Files button that opens the Recycle Bin.
Temporary Files - Programs sometimes store temporary information in a Temp folder. Before a program quits, the program usually deletes this information. You can safely delete temporary files that have not been modified within the last week.
Temporary Offline Files - Temporary offline files are local copies of recently used network files. These files are automatically cached so that you can use them after you disconnect from the network. A View Files button opens the Offline Files folder.
Offline Files - Offline files are local copies of network files that you specifically want to have available offline so that you can use them after you disconnect from the network. A View Files button opens the Offline Files folder.
Compress Old Files - Windows can compress files that you have not used recently. Compressing files saves disk space, but you can still use the files. No files are deleted. Because files are compressed at different rates, the displayed amount of disk space that you will gain is approximate. An Options button permits you to specify the number of days to wait before Disk Cleanup compresses an unused file.
Catalog Files for the Content Indexer - The Indexing service speeds up and improves file searches by maintaining an index of the files that are on the disk. These Catalog files remain from a previous indexing operation and can be deleted safely.

If you specify cleaning up the drive that contains the Windows installation, all of these options are available on the Disk Cleanup tab. If you specify any other drive, only the Recycle Bin and the Catalog files for content index options are available on the Disk Cleanup tab.

The More Options tab contains options for cleaning up Windows components or installed programs.

The Windows Components option creates free space by removing optional Windows components that you do not use. Clicking Clean Up starts the Windows Components Wizard.
The Installed Programs option frees more disk space by removing programs that you do not use. Clicking Clean Up starts the Change or Remove Programs option in the Add/Remove Programs tool.

List of F1-F9 Key Commands for the Command Prompt .

2009-05-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

F1 / right arrow: Repeats the letters of the last command line, one by one.
F2: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to copy up to" of the last command line
F3: Repeats the last command line
F4: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to delete up to" of the last command line
F5: Goes back one command line
F6: Enters the traditional CTRL+Z (^z)
F7: Displays a menu with the command line history
F8: Cycles back through previous command lines (beginning with most recent)
F9: Displays a dialog asking user to enter a command number, where 0 is for first command line entered.
Alt+Enter: toggle fullScreen mode.
up/down: scroll thru/repeat previous entries
Esc: delete line
Note: The buffer allows a maximum of 50 command lines. After this number is reached, the first line will be replaced in sequence.

GMail shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Note: Must have "keyboard shortcuts" on in settings.

C: Compose new message.
Shift + C: Open new window to compose new message.
Slash (/): Switch focus to search box.
K: Switch focus to the next most recent email. Enter or "O" opens focused email.
J: Switch focus to the next oldest email.
N: Switch focus to the next message in the "conversation." Enter or "O" expands/collapses messages.
P: Switch focus to the previous message.
U: Takes you back to the inbox and checks for new mail.
Y: Various actions depending on current view:
Has no effect in "Sent" and "All Mail" views.
- Inbox: Archive email or message.
- Starred: Unstar email or message.
- Spam: Unmark as spam and move back to "Inbox."
- Trash: Move back to "Inbox."
- Any label: Remove the label.
X: "Check" an email. Various actions can be performed against all checked emails.
S: "Star" an email. Identical to the more familiar term, "flagging."
R: Reply to the email.
A: Reply to all recipients of the email.
F: Forward an email.
Shift + R: Reply to the email in a new window.
Shift + A: Reply to all recipients of the email in a new window.
Shift + F: Forward an email in a new window.
Shift + 1 (!): Mark an email as spam and remove it from the inbox.
G then I: Switch to "Inbox" view.
G then S: Switch to "Starred" view.
G then A: Switch to "All Mail" view.
G then C: Switch to "Contacts" view.
G then S: Switch to "Drafts" view.

Mozilla Firefox Shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PageDown: Cycle through tabs.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PageUp: Cycle through tabs in reverse.
Ctrl + (1-9): Switch to tab corresponding to number.
Ctrl + N: New window.
Ctrl + T: New tab.
Ctrl + L or Alt + D or F6: Switch focus to location bar.
Ctrl + Enter: Open location in new tab.
Shift + Enter: Open location in new window.
Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E: Switch focus to search bar.
Ctrl + O: Open a local file.
Ctrl + W: Close tab, or window if there's only one tab open.
Ctrl + Shift + W: Close window.
Ctrl + S: Save page as a local file.
Ctrl + P: Print page.
Ctrl + F or F3: Open find toolbar.
Ctrl + G or F3: Find next...
Ctrl + Shift + G or Shift + F3: Find previous...
Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I: Open Bookmarks sidebar.
Ctrl + H: Open History sidebar.
Escape: Stop loading page.
Ctrl + R or F5: Reload current page.
Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5: Reload current page; bypass cache.
Ctrl + U: View page source.
Ctrl + D: Bookmark current page.
Ctrl + NumpadPlus or Ctrl + Equals (+/=): Increase text size.
Ctrl + NumpadMinus or Ctrl + Minus: Decrease text size.
Ctrl + Numpad0 or Ctrl + 0: Set text size to default.
Alt + Left or Backspace: Back.
Alt + Right or Shift + Backspace: Forward.
Alt + Home: Open home page.
Ctrl + M: Open new message in integrated mail client.
Ctrl + J: Open Downloads dialog.
F6: Switch to next frame. You must have selected something on the page already, e.g. by use of Tab.
Shift + F6: Switch to previous frame.
Apostrophe ('): Find link as you type.
Slash (/): Find text as you type.

Remote Desktop Connection Navigation shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

Ctrl + Alt + End: Open the NT Security dialog.
Alt + PageUp: Switch between programs.
Alt + PageDown: Switch between programs in reverse.
Alt + Insert: Cycle through the programs in most recently used order.
Alt + Home: Display start menu.
Ctrl + Alt + Break: Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen.
Alt + Delete: Display the Windows menu.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadMinus: Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing Alt + PrintScreen on a local computer.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadPlus: Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PrintScreen on a local computer.

Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:43:00.000-07:00

Win + L: Log off Windows.
Win + P: Open Print Manager.
Win + C: Open control panel.
Win + V: Open clipboard.
Win + K: Open keyboard properties.
Win + I: Open mouse properties.
Win + A: Open Accessibility properties.
Win + Space: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys.
Win + S: Toggle CapsLock on and off.

Accessibility shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Right Shift for eight seconds: Toggle FilterKeys on and off. FilterKeys must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + PrintScreen: Toggle High Contrast on and off. High Contrast must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + NumLock: Toggle MouseKeys on and off. MouseKeys must be enabled.
NumLock for five seconds: Toggle ToggleKeys on and off. ToggleKeys must be enabled.
Shift five times: Toggle StickyKeys on and off. StickyKeys must be enabled.

Generic File Browser shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

Arrow Keys: Navigate.
Shift + Arrow Keys: Select multiple items.
Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Change focus without changing selection. "Focus" is the object that will run on Enter. Space toggles selection of the focused item.
(Letter): Select first found item that begins with (Letter).
BackSpace: Go up one level to the parent directory.
Alt + Left: Go back one folder.
Alt + Right: Go forward one folder.
Enter: Activate (Double-click) selected item(s).
Alt + Enter: View properties for selected item.
F2: Rename selected item(s).
Ctrl + NumpadPlus: In a Details view, resizes all columns to fit the longest item in each one.
Delete: Delete selected item(s).
Shift + Delete: Delete selected item(s); bypass Recycle Bin.
Ctrl while dragging item(s): Copy.
Ctrl + Shift while dragging item(s): Create shortcut(s).

In tree pane, if any:

Left: Collapse the current selection if expanded, or select the parent folder.
Right: Expand the current selection if collapsed, or select the first subfolder.
NumpadAsterisk: Expand currently selected directory and all subdirectories. No undo.
NumpadPlus: Expand currently selected directory.
NumpadMinus: Collapse currently selected directory.

Generic Navigation shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

Tab: Forward one item.
Shift + Tab: Backward one item.
Ctrl + Tab: Cycle through tabs/child windows.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Cycle backwards through tabs/child windows.
Enter: If a button's selected, click it, otherwise, click default button.
Space: Toggle items such as radio buttons or checkboxes.
Alt + (Letter): Activate item corresponding to (Letter). (Letter) is the underlined letter on the item's name.
Ctrl + Left: Move cursor to the beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Right: Move cursor to the beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Up: Move cursor to beginning of previous paragraph. This and all subsequent Up/Down hotkeys in this section have only been known to work in RichEdit controls.
Ctrl + Down: Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph.
Shift + Left: Highlight one character to the left.
Shift + Right: Highlight one character to the right.
Shift + Up: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line up.
Shift + Down: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line down.
Ctrl + Shift + Left: Highlight to beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Shift + Right: Highlight to beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Shift + Up: Highlight to beginning of previous paragraph.
Ctrl + Shift + Down: Highlight to beginning of next paragraph.
Home: Move cursor to top of a scrollable control.
End: Move cursor to bottom of a scrollable control.

Generic shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copy.
Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cut.
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Paste/Move.
Ctrl + N: New... File, Tab, Entry, etc.
Ctrl + S: Save.
Ctrl + O: Open...
Ctrl + P: Print.
Ctrl + Z: Undo.
Ctrl + A: Select all.
Ctrl + F: Find...
Ctrl+W : to close the current window
Ctrl + F4: Close tab or child window.
F1: Open help.
F11: Toggle full screen mode.
Alt or F10: Activate menu bar.
Alt + Space: Display system menu. Same as clicking the icon on the titlebar.
Escape: Remove focus from current control/menu, or close dialog box.

Windows Hotkeys shortcuts .

2009-05-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

Ctrl + Escape or Win: Display start menu.
Shift + F10 or AppsKey: Display context menu.
Win + E: Open Windows Explorer.
Win + R: Open Run dialog.
Win + M: Minimize all windows.
Win + Shift + M: Undo minimize all windows.
Win + D: Toggle minimize all windows. or toggle desktop view, using Show_Desktop.scf, while MinimizeAllWindows doesn't minimize dialog boxes (including Properties windows).'.
Windows Hotkeys: Activate system tray. Arrow keys select, Enter double-clicks, and AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + L (XP Only): Locks keyboard. Similar to Lock Workstation.
Win + F or F3: Open Find dialog. (All Files) F3 may not work in some applications which use F3 for their own find dialogs.
Win + Control + F: Open Find dialog. (Computers)
Win + U: Open Utility Manager.
Win + F1: Open Windows help.
Win + Pause: Open System Properties dialog.
Win + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons. Enter clicks, AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + Shift + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons in reverse.
Alt + Tab: Display CoolSwitch. More commonly known as the AltTab dialog.
Alt + Shift + Tab: Display CoolSwitch; go in reverse.
Alt + Escape: Send active window to the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + Shift + Escape: Activate the window at the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + F4: Close active window; or, if all windows are closed, open shutdown dialog.
Shift while a CD is loading: Bypass AutoPlay.
Shift while login: Bypass startup folder. Only those applications will be ignored which are in the startup folder, not those started from the registry (Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\)
Ctrl + Alt + Delete or Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDel (Both NumLock states): Invoke the Task Manager or NT Security dialog.
Ctrl + Shift + Escape (2000/XP ) or (Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDot) : Invoke the task manager. On earlier OSes, acts like Ctrl + Escape.
Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current screen to clipboard.
Alt + Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current active window to clipboard.
Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow: Invert screen. Untested on OSes other than XP.
Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow: Undo inversion.
Win + B : Move focus to systray icons.

Visual Basic or Visual Basic.NET Tools .

2009-05-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

CodeColorizer :
Convert your source code to colorized (syntax highlighted) HTML documents. Colorized source code is easier to read and can help to document, learn, understand, debug, print and publish source code.
VBDOX :
Simple tool for creating technical (API) documentation in HTML format from Visual Basic source code, VBScript or ASP pages comments. Itself written in visual basic and allowing external documentation generators and comment parsers.
VBShop :
Tools and tips for Visual Basic programmers.
Codevox :
Programming by voice for Visual Basic. Software to write code using speech recognition for programmers with repetitive strain injuries.
Entisoft Tools :
A function and data structure library for Microsoft Visual Basic and Office developers.
Advanced Imagery Library (AIL) :
A set of COM DLL's, Visual Basic modules, and Visual Basic classes give the ability to load, examine, manipulate, resize, and/or save pictures in different formats. [Commercial]
Visual Expert :
Explore, understand and maintain VB and PowerBuilder applications: Impact analysis, automatic technical documentation, code cleaning, exploration of the links between objects.
Active Maker :
Utility for building and managing cross-referenced Microsoft Visual Basic projects.
HALLoGRAM :
Shop of Visual Basic tools.
PrettyCode.Encoder :
This tool colors your Visual Basic and VB.NET code in HTML format. Advanced options enable you to add line numbers, change default auto-indenting options, your custom colors.
Visual Code Scan 6 :
Scan Visual Basic 6 projects for dead code, unused and undeclared variables, and functions with no return type. Plus other helpful tools.
Digital Lenz - Code Generators & VB Developer Tools :
Are providers of Microsoft Visual Basic developer tools and software to increase developer productivity including source code documentation, automatic code generators, documentors, and standards checking.
SoftWIRE :
A Graphical Extension to Visual Basic by SoftWIRE Technology, Inc. It combines both graphical and syntactical programming within Visual Basic. All SoftWIRE control blocks are COM/ActiveX compatible.
Visible Progress Technologies :
Offers a quality assurance tool for Microsoft Visual Basic source code, enabling automated code reviews and effective Visual Basic coding standards enforcement.
WIN32 API Type Library for VB Developers :
By Infotomic Software. [Commercial]
VBGuard :
An error detection and debugging tool for Visual Basic developers. Intercepts run time and programming errors before they crash your program, keeping your code clean and users happy.
beWise - Edelwise Basic Variables :
Component providing Task-To-Task communication for Visual Basic Programs simply via variables. Available as commercial product and, in a limit version, as Freeware.
Visual DLL :
The DLL Construction Kit for Visual Basic. By Simply Solutions Software Development Corporation.
VB-RefTrack :
A code analysis tool for VB development and maintenance. By Hypersoft Ptd. Ltd.
ActiveError Foundation :
Every function or procedure is treated like a transaction, just like in SQL Server or Access. Through this feature, Foundation can "reexecute" your code, restor-ing it in exactly the state it was in before the error occurred. Foundation lets you handle errors exactly to your specifications - skip error handling entirely, or get the full-blown Active Error Handling treatment.
ClassBuilder :
VB code generator that generates class files for all tables visible thru a DSN. [Freeware]
VB6ToVC6 :
Visual Basic 6 to Visual C++ 6 sources converter. [Open source, GPL]
Sabertooth :
A conversion tool for Gupta SQLWindows and Centura Team Developer applications to VB6 and VB.Net. By AppConverters. [Commercial]

Visual Basic Code .

2009-05-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

DevX :
Source code, tips and tricks. Most source is free.
FreeVBCode.com :
All code is tested before being posted.
OpenNap: Open Source Napster Server :
Includes source for Napster type servers. Napster protocols are also listed.
CodeGuru :
Code is categorized by name and type. Includes a section on Shell commands.
SearchVB :
One of the most complete VB resources on the net. Source code for almost every want or desire.
Microsoft VB Code :
The foremost authority on VB has a list of code samples for download.
CodeArchive.com :
Searchable. Allows posting of comments and submission of code.
VB Helper :
Examples, tips and tricks, free downloads, algorithms, and free ActiveX Controls. Also has some book reviews.
Visual Basic Resource :
Code sorted into categories. Includes multimedia, controls, games. Beginners section includes concept tutorials .
Visual Basic Internet Programming (vbip) :
Content and examples specifically relate to internet development.
A1VBCode :
Hundreds of snippets and downloads in all categories including games, databases, ActiveX, API, and ASP. Submit your own code and win prizes.
Code Beach :
Categorized code, mostly game examples.
Arcata Pet :
Collection of code samples coded by Don Bradner, including writing to and reading from the registry. (VB 3,4, and 5)
Visual Basic Explorer - Source Code :
A nice collection of useful source code.
Brad's VB-32 Programs and Samples :
A collection of 32 bit freeware programs and code samples for the intermediate and advanced developer familiar with the Win32 API.
Visual Basic Code :
Free code. Copy and paste code from your browser directly into Visual Basic.
IT Toolbox :
Listing of submitted code. Similar to Planet Source Code.
One-Stop Source Shop :
The collected works of Karl E. Peterson, author of numerous articles and samples.
AckyNet Visual Basic :
Game, winsock, and graphics examples. Categorized.
Edanmo's VB Page :
Source code for VB6 and VB.NET, including shell extensions, controls and type libraries.
Abstract VB :
Active X controls, tutorials, tips, projects and articles covering VB.NET and VB6. Includes some ASP and C#.
Programmers Heaven - Visual Basic Zone :
Source code categorized by file type and other resources.
VB RAD Home Page :
Advanced source code. There is a small number of beginner examples also.
Kather Source Code :
Free code and utilities. Includes a working with Access databases section.
Simple Version of Culture Model Source Code :
The University of Michigan Center for the Study of Complex Systems has provided a piece of code that contains multiple VB functions such as accessing Excel spreadsheets.
BlackBeltVB :
Code for the most experienced programmer. Contains a lot of code from DevX and VBPJ.
Veign - Resource Center :
Provide categorized collection code samples, sample projects.
Planet Source Code :
Thousands of lines of Visual Basic, vbscript, java, javascript and active server pages code.
ActiveLock :
Open source ActiveX control to protect programs from piracy and allow online registration.
vbCity :
Very interesting code. Including how to bind VB controls to Active X controls, a print spool monitor, and master/detail projects.
Dutch's Software :
Includes getting file names, long file names, parsing strings, getting Windows and system directories, and passing a control array.
Venky's World :
Includes samples on the MSN and Yahoo! IM formats. Complete code and code snips for many projects.
PAT or JK's VB Site :
Code examples, BAS files, custom controls, and freeware programs.
Shrinkwrap Visual Basic :
Examples of video capture techniques.
The Visual Basic Cell :
Offers source and step by step tutorials. Also has many descriptions of MS Knowledge base articles.
Visual Basic for All :
Some handy code tips for the person learning to program.
WolfeByte Solutions :
Visual Basic Source Code for making Calendar, Clock, Slider, Scheduler and Command Button controls by using only a Picturebox. The Button control is free and provides an example of how these controls are made. All of the VB Source Code for these components is compatible with VB3, VB4, VB5 and VB6. [Free and commercial]
The Visual Basic Index :
Categorized code site.
Extreme VB :
Files categorized into several sections including I/O, Web, winsock, databases, subclassing, and OCX.
The Visual Basic Users Code Library :
The VB and VBA users code library. Contains a VAST library of free source code. The code samples include API, SQL, ADO, ADOX, MAPI, ADO.NET, VB.NET, VB.NET Interop.
VB Games 6 :
Visual Basic games and projects.
Edneeis.com Visual Basic Code :
A collection of sample code and downloads for Visual Basic. Most of which cover varies topics and skill levels from COM/ActiveX, winsock, database.
Utility Programs :
Includes exiting windows, printing all the system fonts, loading DLLs, reading VISION files, and a screen saver.
Visual Basic Code Exchange :
Several projects. Most deal with graphics and images.
Advanced Web Forms - PHP development tools :
Allows the use of a PHP/HTML form to produce basic HTML invoices.
The Source Sanctuary :
Site by Christian Ernst Rysgaard. SourceSafe Directory Sync, Clipboard Ramifications, Labyrinth Generator, Frontpage 2000 webbot projects with sources.
Zeto's VB Resources :
Downloadable examples ,applications, add-ons, and tips and tricks.

Visual Basic Add-ins .

2009-05-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Software with Brains, Inc. :
Free and value-priced Visual Basic controls and components.
VB Documentation Generator :
Generates documentation from VB source files. It parses source code and automatically creates table of contents.
Applet Designer :
converts entire Visual Basic applications to 100% Pure Java. This VB add-in eliminates the need to rewrite VB applications in Java to deploy them on the Internet, intranet or on multiple platforms.
MzTools :
Add-In for VB5, VB6 and VBA with many useful functions. [Freeware]
Error Assist :
Error handling management system for VB and ASP applications is integrated with Visual Basic, but can be used with any development language supporting Microsoft COM/DCOM specification.
DevPower Development Tools :
Freely downloadable ActiveX Controls including modern Office97, Outlook98, and Office 2000 GUI components and controls for application and web site development.
ViewPro ActiveX :
Add Custom Report Designer to Your App.
Keith Dimmock's Home Page :
Error Handling addin for VB and a barcode font.
vbAdvance :
An add-in that enhances the VB build system and IDE. Export functions from DLLs, build console apps, integrate VB with a programmer's editor. [Shareware]
SevenStar Technologies :
Creator of add-in tools for Visual Basic. Starprint/VB Stardard is a free source code printing tool. StarPrint/VB Professional will print in color. Object Briefcase is a code and control library.
PrettyCode.Print :
Print vb source code in color easy and pretty. Wide set of features such as font/color customization, auto-indent, and line bracket connections for code blocks.
ABCFind :
Add-in replace the standard VB Find and Replace dialogs and provides a wealth of powerful search and replace features that significantly increase the day-to-day productivity of a Visual Basic developer. By Atlantic Blue Computing. [Shareware]
Code Viewer Add-In :
COM Add-in for Visual Basic 6.0 allows to view code in a manner similar to that provided by the Visual Studio .NET IDE, expand and contract sections of code to easily review the logic structure, and can also organise files into custom folders. By L-Space Design. [Shareware]
TurboVB :
Add-in suite for Microsoft Visual Basic 6 that provides forty add-ins plus other functions. Detailed product specifications, screenshots, and trial download. [Shareware]
Slice and Dice :
Freeware and Opensource Pattern Replication System hosted by Visual Basic as an add-in. Autmate coding tasks, build forms, modify controls.
vbCorner :
A corner of VB programming: add-in, ActiveX with free source code. Also, there is "italian" translations for many shareware/freeware programs like FlashGet, Wallpaper Sequencer, Microangelo Studio and Microangelo Creation.
DebugPackager Addin :
Addin for Visual Basic 5.0/6.0 to handle runtime errors in a compiled projects. Errors are sent to a central error handling location for easy logging or handling. [Shareware]
VBCodeHelper :
Multi-function add-in program for Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 designed to remove some of the more tedious and repetative tasks when building applications.
Visual Basic Code Storage :
A collection of three VB addins. One for backing up projects, one for calculating time spent on a project and the other for organising code snippets.
jsVB::vbAssistant :
A free multipurpose Visual Basic add-in desiged to assist in the coding process.
Lockdesign Diagnostic Tools :
A addin which provides advanced diagnostic tools to aid developers in fault finding and performance evaluation of their VB Projects.
Big Comments :
A development tool that allows to create large comments that can be pasted into Visual Basic code. It's a Visual Basic Add-In that integrates seamlessly into the development environment.
VBDOXAddin :
A little Visual Basic 6.0 tool, integrated in the visual Basic IDE to generate automatic documentation in VB with VBDOX. [Open source, GPL]

PHP Tools & Utilities .

2009-05-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

Zend Performance Suite for PHP :
Performance accelerator for PHP, with content-caching, compression and compiled-code caching. [Commercial]
Zend SafeGuard Suite for PHP :
Protects and licenses PHP applications for secure deployment without exposing the source code or fear of piracy. [Commercial]
Zend Studio :
Integrated Development Environment for PHP. Versions for linux, Mac and Windows. [Commercial]
ionCube PHP Accelerator :
A PHP extension to the PHP Zend engine that accelerates compilation and execution of scripts. Works particularly well with the Smarty templating system.
Maguma Workbench :
A complete IDE for the development of PHP scripts.
PHP4HS (PHP Development Extensions for HomeSite) :
The spot for people using HomeSite for PHP or ASP development to find help and to exchange add-on extensions, resources, help, links, tips, requests and articles.
Turck MMCache :
A PHP accelerator, optimizer, encoder and dynamic content cache for PHP. [Open source, GPL]
PHPEdit :
A full featured PHP IDE for Windows. It has code insight, code completion, syntax-highlighting, integrated debugger, code browser, keyboard templates. [Open source, PHPEdit licence]
PhpED IDE :
An integrated development environment (IDE) for PHP for Windows and Linux. It supports PHP software development on all stages including coding, debugging, profiling and publishing. By NuSphere. [Commercial]
EasyPHP :
A software package for Windows includes an Apache server, a MySQL database, a fully PHP execution, as well as some PHP development tools.
WizzyWeb :
Web-based application development tool. Self-contained, ODBC compliant (tab delimited) database applications can be created completely online. Custom front-end HTML data entry forms, reports and supporting back-end code are automatically generated to be saved locally and FTP'd for instant deployment.
DzSoft PHP Editor :
A functional php editor with tiny web server build-in.
PHPEclipse :
A PHP IDE built as an Eclipse plugin. It takes advantage of a well-designed, robust and widely used application framework. [Open source, Common Public License]
PHP Debugger :
A tool that allows you to execute php script in step-by-step manner, and trace down errors.
TruStudio :
A cross-platform, multi-language Integrated Development Environment for PHP and Python built on top of Eclipse Platform.
Apache Friends XAMPP :
XAMPP is an easy to install Apache Distribution for Linux and Windows. The package includes the Apache web server, MySQL, SQLite, PHP, Perl, a FTP-Server and phpMyAdmin.
Simple Test for PHP :
PHP unit tester and mock objects framework. [Open source, Open Group Test Suite License]
FoxServ :
An Apache, mySQL, PHP installer package for Windows. It support user defined configuration during installation, PHP as a module, PEAR, and the Zend Optimizer.
Analog X - PHP Config :
Front end to the php.ini file. Includes graphical components for the standard PHP configuration options, plus the ability to add in 'other' configuration directives, such as for the zend optimizer. Windows only. Freeware.
PhpJet :
A PHP accelerator engine, supports php byte-code optimization, content-caching and compiled-code caching. [Commercial]
PHP Expert Editor :
An easy-to-use PHP IDE for Windows. Has an internal HTTP-server and Debugger to run, test and debug PHP scripts. [Shareware]
TemplateTamer :
A web application development tool for creating and maintaining a template based dynamic PHP web applications, with clearly separated code from the html design.
Keith's PHP Editors :
Fairly comprehensive directory of editors that support PHP. Includes name, platforms, licence, homepage and comments, including user comments, for each editor listed.
MySQL PHP Code Generator :
Generate all the PHP scripts need to manage in PHP data from MySQL database. By Web Database Software.
Dev-PHP :
A full-featured Integrated Development Environment for PHP on Windows. It's fast, powerful and has a user-friendly interfase. It has many cool features, like Function browsing and full integration with the PHP parser and the PHP-GTK library. [Open source, GPL]
SECreator for PHP :
A Windows tool help create a search engine for website. It crawl a web site, indexing all the pages that it finds. It will then create PHP script files and XML file database.[Commercial]
Top PHP Studio :
An editor which is designed for PHP programming language. Top PHP Studio has internal HTTP-server and internal browser to test PHP scripts. [Shareware]
phpCodeGenie Code Generator :
A code generator for database driven applications. PCG can generate entire working basic database driven applications from different databases.
QaDRAM :
a Delphi-like RAD tool for PHP.
e-novative - e-Business Software & Solutions :
Home of e-novative WAMP, an automated installer for Apache, PHP, MySql and phpMyAdmin on Windows. Free download.
WAMP5 :
WAMP5 installs Apache, PHP5 and MySQL on Windows plateform. It comes with a service manager as an icon tray and lots of options.
Gubed :
A PHP debugger for stepping through code, breakint at errors and breakpoints. [Open source, GPL]
VS.Php :
A PHP editor built on top of Visual Studio .Net 2003.
PHP Coder :
An Integrated Development Environment for PHP. A freeware tool for PHP programmers, more than just an editor. [Window9x/NT]
PHAkt :
An server model for Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, allowing PHP generation using the same techniques as when developing ASP/JSP/ColdFusion. [Open source, GPL]
Javuh :
An organized distribution of PHP classes, including the Psychoo site modeling system, Internet protocols, database abstraction.
PHPREP :
Project provides a php extension that allows to use lisp (as provided by librep) in PHP scripts. [Open source, GPL]
TurboPHP :
A Windows program which uses an extendable Delphi or VB-like component model for PHP-based web programming.
PSD :
A visual frontend for debugging PHP. It runs on Win98SE and newer and can be used remotely. [Freeware]
PhormGen :
Builds a completely functional PHP add/edit/delete script based on the MySQL table definition. [Shareware, also online demo]
Web-based PHP Class Generator :
A very basic PHP class builder to generate class templates useful for object-oriented programming in PHP.
Lucid PHP Script Installer :
A Windows program that acts as an Installer for the PHP scripts. The GUI is very like the standard windows installers. After uploading it can CHMOD any files and run MySql statements to complete the installation.
PHPTriad :
A Windows installer for an Apache/PHP/MySQL/Perl environment.
PHP Expert Editor :
A tool for writing, editing, and debugging PHP scripts and HTML pages. It has internal browser, Debugger, Code Explorer, File Explorer, a built-in FTP client, Project Explorer, customizable Code Templates. [Shareware]
Advanced Web Forms - PHP development tools :
Allows the use of a PHP/HTML form to produce basic HTML invoices.
UMA :
A PHP user management and authentication system. Utilizes a MySQL database, object-oriented design. Formerly known as Rampart. [Open source, LGPL]
Internet Development Kit for PHP :
Collection free PHP development tools from other companies. Homepage and download links for each product. Selling CD version of collection.

PHP Scripts .

2009-05-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

PHP-GTK :
PHP bindings for GTK+.
PHP Live Support :
Commercial support and CRM solution. Unlimited departments and operators. MySQL powered.
InterAKT :
Offering PHP tools for MySQL and Ultradev programers. This company also offers PHP components to assist rapid development of enterprise ready PHP web applications.
phpDoc :
A script for documentation PHP scripts in an intelligent manner. Similar to javaDoc.
stardevelop Live Help :
A PHP, mySQL based customer support solution that provides a real time chat service for online customers. [Commercial]
DeskPRO :
Customer support management software with both web and email access.
Stadtaus :
Provides PHP scripts including a form mail script, an image gallery and a guestbook script. [Commercial]
aeDating :
A PHP dating script and content management system. By AEwebworks Dating Software.
PHP/SWF Charts :
A PHP/Flash tool to create attractive web charts from dynamic data.
PhpWiki Project Page :
WikiWikiWeb clone written in the server-side scripting language PHP.
Ravens PHP Scripts :
KISGB (an advanced PHP guestbook), KISSQ (Keep It Simple Stock Quote), Nuke modules and patches, SQL tools.
Geek Code Decoder :
Generator and decoder. The defacto tagline for internet geeks.
Sendcard :
An e-card program. Includes screenshots, documentation and testimonials. [Open source, Artistic license]
phpOnline :
A live customer support system using PHP+MySQL+Flash to operate. [Open source, GPL]
phpReview :
Reviewing system to show online reviews of books, software in multiple languages.
Ashnews :
PHP and MySQL based News and blogging script. Features multi-tier security, smilies and automated installation system.
BBClone:
A PHP web counter that logs and show each IP address with reverse DNS, operating system, browser, referring URL, visit time and number of visits in a graphical interface. [Open source, GPL]
PHP Event Calendar :
A PHP script extending web site's functilality with event sheduler or news archive. [Free for non-commercial use]
AutoIndex PHP Directory Lister :
Creates a list of the files in a directory on a website, and lets you browse/download them in Windows Explorer-like way. [Open source, GPL]
WiredPHP :
Banner ad, newsletter and refer-a-friend available for download.
ScriptsToProfit :
Offering quality free and affordable PHP/MySQL website scripts, including STP Traffic Exchange, STP Reciprocal Manager, STP PHP Code Lock, STP ClickBank Search Engine.
Regular Expression Tester :
A PHP script to test regular expressions. Shows matching patterns in red. Source code available for download, includes regular expression cheat sheet. Online demo.
Vote! Pro :
A PHP voting solution for web site with skins support. [Commercial]
SkinTech - Free PHP Scripts :
A collection of free PHP scripts including phpNewsManager, phpWebMagazine, RateIt!, phpMyQuote, X-Changer, SkinMem, SkinBase.
teSpeed :
A PHP script will measure the speed of website where it installed and displays the results in 7 comprehensive graphs. [Freeware]
Hitech scripts :
Free comments manager, guestbook, sample counter, random password generator PHP script.
PHPJunkYard :
PHP scripts, such as hit counter, guestbook, message board, link manager. Also links to PHP resources.
RadScripts.com :
PHP scripts aimed at novice webmasters. "RadChat" and "RadLinks" are available for download.
EasyFormIt :
Facility for automatic creation of webforms. Features documentation and downloads.
Netjuke :
A Web-based audio streaming jukebox for digital music collection. Supports a wide variety of audio formats, has several language translations, randomization features, private and shared playlists, ID3 and Ogg tags and image management. [Open source, GPL]
Bombusbee.com :
Fusebox (a system for migrating from ColdFusion to PHP) and examples. Also some useful classes.
Dynamic PHP Menu Script :
Free PHP menu script that determines the current page and changes the menu to gray out and make an inactive grey link. All with PHP - no javascript.
MD Web :
MD contact application to use on website so that visitors can contact webmaster easily. MD News, a database driven PHP script that will allow to easily put news updates on site. [Free for non-commercial sites]
AzDG - Azerbaijan Development Group :
PHP and MySQL based scripts, including AzDGDating, AzDGVote, AzDGGuestbook. [Open source, GPL]
totallyPHP :
Provide free PHP scripts, such as guestbooks, hit counters, directory lister, as well as handy snippets of code for use in PHP programming.
Code Snippet Library :
A PHP script for storing code snippets. [Open source, GPL]
EP-Dev :
Offer free PHP scripts, including EP-Dev Counter, EP-Dev Whois, EP-Dev Forum News. Also provide Invision Board (IBF)mods.
PHPAccess :
A PHP script that allows non-technical users to configure web-site security via Apache webserver ".htaccess" files.
Holiday Calculations :
Free library of PHP tools for calculating holidays. It includes actual/observed days, Easter Sunday, day/week of month calculations, and the number of weeks in a month containing a specific day.
VDaemon - Web Form Validation :
A PHP library that check for errors and, if necessary, display messages to the user. [Freeware]
Presto Poll :
A PHP coded poll script for a website. It doesn't need any SQL database and it has an admin center for modify all the settings. [Open source, GPL]
kimono :
A network service monitor similar to sysmon for monitoring server environment and alerting upon failure. It stores all data (by default) in XML format making it very flexible in its use. [Open source, GPL]
Cgixp.tk :
Free PHP scripts including messsengers, chat scripts and shopping carts, counters.
FormHandler :
Basic functionality consists of checking some of the input fields, sending the data to a specified person and displaying a result page. But the basic functionality also includes a mechanism of dynamically loading and executing different modules in different runlevels. [Open Source, GPL]
PHPaint v1.0 :
A very effective graphical interface for creating, manipulationg, and previewing images made "on the fly" using PHP, the GD Library, and the FreeType module. [Open source, GPL]
phpObjectForms Library :
phpObjectForms is a fully object-oriented, highly customizable, easily extendable, library for creating and processing HTML forms without writing any HTML code.
HIOX Free Scripts :
Free php scripts including: Mail/Support Interface, Guest Book, Calendars, Rating System, Image Rotator, DB Query Tool, counters, Visitor Tracking, Calculator, Broken Link Analyser.
Five Star Review Script :
An Amazon-style review script allows users to rank a product or item on a scale of 1-5 stars and make comments related to the product for other users to read. [Commercial]
phpTimeSheet :
Timesheet/Timetracking organizer/scheduler using PHP and MySQL, can manage workers, projects, and companies, logging every-day come- and go-times, contracted hours, overtime, workspace and project-hours, attendance-time, holidays, create reports.
Zach White :
Free Uploading and Downloading Scrips for use on any website. Includes forums for script support and help.
phpComponents :
Enabling fast distributed access to PHP components. It extends PHP's already powerful URL wrapper functionality. By caching source files, the overhead of fetching remote files is eliminated.
PDF4PHP :
PHP class that provides support for creating PDF documents without any libraries.
Rampart :
User authentication for multiple sites and pages through a single datasource and code base.
Daniele Leone's PHP Scripts :
PHP scripts: PHPphotoAlbum, PHPyahooNews, PHPgoogleSearch.
PHP Addressbook :
A free PHP based address book that uses a mySQL database and allows to add, edit, view, or delete contacts. It can be integrated into a website, or used as a standalone application.
Freedville Central - Open Source Software :
PHP scripts, including a guestbook, poll/voting suite, and quote book. [Open source]
PHP Developers :
Includes mailing list, poll, and guestbook script. [Free and Commercial]

C++ Tools .

2009-05-19T14:10:00.000-07:00

Doxygen :
A documentation system for C++, C, Java and IDL. It generates Latex, HTML, RTF, Postscript and Unix man page outputs from a set of documented source files. [Open Source, GPL]
ccache :
Acts as a caching pre-processor to C/C++ compilers, which often results in a 5 to 10 times speedup in common compilations. [Open Source, GPL]
Doc-O-Matic :
Creates fully cross linked documentation systems and manuals in PDF, HTML, HTML Help, Windows Help and RTF from C/C++ or Delphi/Pascal source code.
Compilercache :
Caches compiled object files to dramaticly speed up compiles. More convenient than make, and speeds up builds (like RPM builds) that make doesn't. Obsoleted by ccache.
CodeColorizer :
Can convert source code in a number of languages to colorized HTML.
Code Crusader :
Designed to smoothly integrate the tasks of working with source files, compiling, and debugging, in short everything involved in developing code. (New Planet Software) .
C and C++ Validation Test Suites :
Suite++ includes both positive and negative tests for comparing compiler behavior to the ANSI/ISO C++ Standard. LibSuite++ tests the conformance of the C++ library. (Plum Hall, Inc.)
Imagix Corporation :
Provides software to aid in reverse engineering, program understanding, and code comprehension as well as documentation tools for legacy and complex C and C++ software systems.
UML2COM :
A Rational Rose add-in that generates code for Visual C++ or generic C++. By Arion Software.
XMDS: eXtensible Multi-Dimensional Simulator :
A code generator that integrates equations based at human readable form in an XML file, it goes away and writes and compiles a C++ program that integrates those equations as fast as it can possibly be done in selected hardware architecture. [Open source, GPL]
Open C++ :
C++ version with Metaobject Protocol; tool of source (code) to source translation for C++. Allows easily implementing varied kinds of translation, to define new: syntax, annotation, object behaviors; extensions, optimizations, runtime protocols. [Open Source]
VxDWriter :
A tool for developing Windows 95/98 Virtual Device Driver (VxD) quickly and efficiently in C/C++. (Techsoft)
GlowCode :
Complete diagnostic toolset for Win32 programmers. Helps programmers find performance bottlenecks, trace program execution, find unexecuted code, and detect memory and resource leaks.
SourceStyler C++ :
A tool for C/C++ developers that provides complete control over the formatting and layout of C/C++ source code. Provides over 75 individual formatting options and full ANSI C++ support. [Shareware]
Understand :
Analyzes any sized C or C++ project to help you document and understand it better.
Cantata++ :
Allows developers to efficiently perform unit and integration testing of C/C++ software. It has facilities for dynamic testing, coverage analysis and static analysis.
CodeWizard :
Helps developers prevent errors by automatically enforcing over 170 industry-accepted C++ coding standards. (ParaSoft)
DocVizor :
Lets see the class hierarchy of C++ projects. It quickly generates a complete printable hierarchy of classes, including classes from third party libraries. It can also generates html files from the class information. By UCanCode.Net Software. [Shareware]
Visual Code Browser for C/C++ :
Integrating code editor, analyzer and documentation generator with code flowcharting and visualization. [Shareware]
Computer Science Lab :
CPPIDE is a Windows program that wraps the Gnu C++ compiler and Gnu GDB debugger into an integrated development environment for the C and C++ languages.
Stack Spy :
It catch stack corruption, stack over run, stack overflow, get instant email notification of crash with line numbers and function names of last 100 calls that led to the crash. buffer overflow, memory overwrite, program crash.
SNIP from Cleanscape Software International :
An easy-to-use C++ development tool that bridges the gap between design and coding and saves hours of editing/debugging. It also allows developers to specify design patterns as object models, and automatically generates C++ classes from the object models.
C++2HTML :
Online/offline JavaScript program to convert C++ code to syntax highlighted HTML output. Free to use and easy to change.
CC-Rider :
A detailed analysis of your C or C++ program, allows easy navigation with Call Trees, Hierarchy Trees, generates Web Documentation.
Lazy C++ :
Lzz (Lazy C++) is a rapid development tool. Given a sequence of declarations Lzz will generate header and source files.
BVRDE :
A fully integrated development environment (IDE) designed for compiling and debugging on remote Linux/Unix servers using a Windows client. [Open source, GPL]
C/C++ Program Perfometer :
Enables to get performance of C/C++ program and separated pieces of code for any metrics (for instance : uclocks, rusage-metrics, metrics defined by user). The measurement results are represented in detailed/summary reports. [Common Public License]
CodeInspect :
A C++ code inspector that analyses source code and finds nonstandard, suspicious or simply plain wrong code. (Yokasoft)
s-mail project - Java to C++DOL :
A command line tool that translates Java sources into corresponding C++ sources. [Freeware]
SourcePublisher C++ :
Generates detailed HTML reports that offer quick, intuitive browsing of the source and information about the code. Class Inheritance Hierarchies, Call and CallBy Trees, Include and Include By Trees,HTML source browser. Windows 95/98/NT/2000, Linux, Solaris, and other Unix platforms.
Integrated Dynamic Design Models (IDDM) :
Tools for support Agile methodology software development for C++. Support Visual C++, C++ Builder compilers.
CppRefactory :
Tool to automate refactoring process for C++ projects. Description, links. [Open Source]
ClassModeler :
A freeware tool that help C++ developer to create, manipulate and generate documentation for classes in a logical way.
C to C++ converter :
A python program that convert all files of a C project to C++, by automatically creating classes, and replacing variables and function by attributes and methods. [Open Source]
WinA&D :
A UML modeling tool that generates C++, Java or Delphi code. WinTranslator reengineers C++, Java or Delphi code into WinA&D models.

C++ Compilers .

2009-05-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

Free Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ :
Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ allows you to develop for Windows CE. It includes an IDE, which includes an integrated debugger.
Free Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 :
The Microsoft Visual C++ Toolkit 2003 includes the command line versions of the optimizing C++ compiler, linker, and static libraries (including the Standard C++ Library and STL) that ships with the commercial Visual Studio .NET Professional.
Free Microsoft .NET Framework Software Development Kit / Free Microsoft Visual C++ Compiler
Unbelievably, the Microsoft Visual C/C++ command line compiler, along with C#, VB.NET and JScript.NET, appears to be available from Microsoft for download for free. The command line compiler is the same one that comes with the commercial Visual C++ Standard, which means that it does not have an optimizer
Open Source Watcom / OpenWatcom C/C++ Compiler
The Watcom C/C++ compiler (now OpenWatcom C/C++ compiler) is now open source and free. This compiler, which generates code for Win32, Windows 3.1 (Win16), OS/2, Netware NLM, MSDOS (16 bit and 32 bit protected mode), etc, was a highly coveted compiler some years back (until Sybase terminated it). T
Mingw32 C & C++ Compilers
This system comes with the GNU C/C++ compiler, which you can use to generate Win32 executables. It has its own which is in the public domain. Applications generated using this system are supposed to be faster than those generated by the Cygwin32 system (see elsewhere on this page), and they are free from the encumberances of the GNU license.
Digital Mars C/C++ Compiler (Symantec C++ Replacement) :
Digital Mars C/C++ is a drop-in replacement for the Symantec C++ compiler, with support for compiling programs for Win32, Windows 3.1, MSDOS, and 32-bit extended MSDOS.
Intel C++ Compiler for Linux Non-Commercial Version
The Intel C++ compiler has a non-commercial version for Linux which you may use to develop your programs for non-commercial purposes. The optimizing ANSI C/C++ compiler supports all Intel 32 bit processors and the 64 bit Itanium processor.
Borland C++ Compiler
Borland has released their C++ Compiler (version 5.5 at the date of this writing) FREE! You get the command line compiler, incremental linker, resource compiler and binder, C++ Win32 preprocessor, import library utility, librarian, obj/lib/exe dump utility, etc. Included is also the C/C++ runtime library and ANSI/ISO Standard Template Library (STL).
Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (C and C++ compilers) :
Yep, you're right. This is Apple's own Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. The C/C++ compilers, debuggers, tools, etc, in this workshop are all downloadable from their web site, free!
Cyclone C
Cyclone C is not strictly an ANSI C compiler but a compiler of a "safe dialect" of C. It enforces type safety, has a variety of checks to protect against buffer overflows, array-bound violations, etc.
Leonardo IDE :
Leonardo IDE is a Macintosh-based IDE, compiler and debugger for C programs. The Windows and Linux ports are said to be under development. The IDE is useful for checking and debugging your source code, search for memory leaks, etc.
Bloodshed Dev-C++ C++ Compiler :
This is a Win32 integrated development environment that includes the egcs C++ compiler and GNU debugger from the Mingw32 environment together with an editor and other facilities to make program development using the Mingw32 gcc compiler easier on a Windows platform. It also includes an installer for your applications.
GNU C/C++ Compiler and EGCS :
This is the GNU C compiler page, from which you can get links to binaries and source code for the GNU C Compiler.
Compaq C Compiler :
Linux/Alpha users can now download and use Compaq's optimising C compiler freely by simply filling a form and agreeing to their license agreement.
Ch Embeddable C/C++ Interpreter (Standard Edition)
Ch is a C/C++ interpreter that supports the ISO 1990 C Standard (C90), major features in C99 (complex numbers, variable length arrays or VLAs, type generic functions, long long data type, etc), classes in C++, and extensions to the C language like nested functions, string type, etc.
DJGPP C and C++ Compilers :
This is a development system based on the well-known GNU C/C++ compiler. It generates 32 bit MSDOS executables that is Windows 95 long-filename-aware. The compiler, utilities and libraries come with source code.
Cygwin Project (C & C++ Compilers) :
This "project" includes a commercial quality compiler (GNU C/C++) that generates Win32 GUI and console applications.

C++ libraries .

2009-05-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

Boost - Provides a repository for free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries. The emphasis is on libraries which work well with the C++ standard library.
STLport (STL Library) :
This version of STL (Standard Template Library for C++) is available free of charge from their website. It is apparently also shipped with the current versions of the Borland C++ compilers.
ACDK - Artefaktur Component Development Kit - Platform independent C++ component framework similar to Java or .NET (reflection, threading, Unicode, garbage collection, io, net, util, xml, etc.) with integration of Java, Perl, Python, Tcl, Lisp, COM and CORBA. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes]
Libcwd - A well-documented, thread-safe library to support C++ developers with debugging their applications. It includes support for ostream-based debug output to custom debug channels, memory allocation debugging and run-time support like printing source file locations and demangled names of template parameters. [ Free c ++ Library Classes]
Common C++ - A framework offering portable support for threading, sockets, file access, deamons, persistance, and system for clarity, services. [Open Source Free c ++ Library Classes]
Database Template Library - Provides ODBC recordsets just like STL containers, including writing the contents back to the database.
Common Text Transformation Library - Library of C++ classes and functions to parse and modify STL strings. CTTL substring classes may be compared, inserted, replaced, and parsed with EBNF grammars. Compiled program implements recursive descent LL(INF) parser. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes]
SGI Standard Template Library (STL) :
If your compiler does not have a recent Standard Template Library implementation, you might want to consider this version available free from SGI.
AccessLog - A C++ wrapper to give an XBase fashion to the Berkeley DB library.
Audio/Video 3D C++ Programming Library - AV3D for C++ is a multi-platform, high-performance programming library. Major features: 3D Graphics, Sound support (SB, and S3M), Controller interface (keyboard, mouse, and joystick), XMS.
Babylon Library - A collection of simple routines and classes that could be used as building blocks of larger projects. Many of the methods are portable and adjusted for use in embedded systems. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes]
Open EzBasic - A C++ based library, that can be used to make programs using functions as in VB. The library has 25 classes ranging from GUI, Threads, String, Active-X. Simple way to convert VB code to C++. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes]
dlib C++ library - A collection of various classes. Sockets, threading, GUI, and directory browsing API. Also many container classes and other miscellaneous items such as a big integer. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes]
BitMagic - A C++ classes library implementing bitvectors with several types of on-the-fly, adaptive compression. Can be used in databases and search systems. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes]
freeodbc++ - A C++ library for accessing SQL databases. Designed with standards in mind, so it provides a subset of the well-known JDBC 2.0 and runs on top of ODBC. [Open Source, LGPL]
Crypto++ - Free C++ library of cryptographic schemes: includes ciphers, message authentication codes, one-way hash functions, public-key cryptosystems, and key agreement schemes.
EasyWin32 - Makes easier Windows Programming when using Windows API. [Open source Free c ++ Library Classes].
Simple XML Persistence Library - A lightweight C++ library for object serialization in XML.
SOL++2000 - a free C++ class library for Microsoft Windows. All source files of the library and a lot of sample programs are available.
Standard J2K Library - A completely portable C++ library, to provide a standard set of classes similar to Java Common API. [Open Source, LGPL]
GNU Nana - Library of many tested, proven methods to raise reliability of C & C++ code. Includes: extended logging, assertion checking, Design by Contract: DbC. Supports realtime measurements, making performance statistics for code fragments, and tracing program execution without modifying code.
libunicows :
libunicows allows you to write programs that use Unicode on Windows 9x/ME with a compiler other than Microsoft Visual C++ (the Microsoft unicows library requires Visual C++). This library supports (at the time I write this) MinGW, Visual C++ 6, Borland C++, and Watcom (and OpenWatcom) C/C++.
OSLib :
OSLib is a C library for programmers writing system software (whether it be embedded software or even entire operating system kernels). It comprises 4 libraries (the extender library, the standard C library, the math library and the kernel library).
MIT Exokernel Operating System :
The MIT Exokernel Operating System attempts to provide a level of abstraction of hardware so that you can concentrate on the other aspects of implementing an operating system. It may be useful to those of you planning to write an operating system.
The OSKit Project (Flux) :
The OSKit Project is a C framework of 34 components providing a wide variety of facilities that is useful for people planning to write operating system kernels, servers, boot loaders, embedded applications and the like.
regex :
regex is a regular expression parser that is released into the public domain (or so the site says). It is useful if you want to write a program using regular expressions but don't want to use the GPL ones that come from the Free Software Foundation. (The package is somewhere in the middle of the page linked to; just scroll down to find it.)
txObject ATK - A collection of platform-independent C++ class libraries that provides a five-layer framework containing an Object Library, IO and Timers, Threads, Inter-Process Communication, and Distributed Object Communication.
libsigc++ Callback Framework for C++ :
libsigc++ has C++ classes that provide you a typesafe callback system. You can define signals and assign callback functions to those signals.
The Standard Function Library :
The Standard Function Library, or SFL, contains routines for compression, encryption, encoding, data type conversion, data output formatting, process control, dates, times, calendars, symbol tables, linked lists, configuration files, error message files, string manipulation.
The Virtual X Class Library (VXCL) - A collection of powerful C++ classes. [Open source, LGPL]
Views - C++ Standard Template Library Extension :
Views extends STL to include domain views, which allows you to simplify your code when you work with containers.
VXL (the Vision-something-Libraries) - A collection of C++ libraries designed for computer vision research. Includes imaging, geometry, numerics, streaming I/O, basic templates, posix. VXL is written in ANSI/ISO C++ and is designed to be portable over many platforms.
GNU Lightning :
GNU Lightning is a library of routines that allows programs to generate assembly language code at runtime. It abstracts the target CPU, exposing your program to a standardized RISC instruction set.
GetPot :
GetPot, an anagram of the ubiquitous getopt, allows programs to parse command lines and simple input files by simply including the header file for the library (the entire library is apparently in the header file).
ZThreads - An advanced object-oriented, cross-platform C++ threading and synchronization library. [GPL]
The CImg Library - The C++ Templated Image Processing Library, provides simple classes and functions to process and display images. For Unix/X11 and Windows. [Open source, GPL]
MyLibC :
MyLibC is a clone of glibc for Windows. The author wrote this to reduce the size of executables that resulted when glib was used on Windows. Sources are provided.
IO95: Win95 LFN API Wrapper Library :
This library has functions which you can call from your MSDOS programs to access the long filenames (LFN) API found in Windows 95 and above.
U2NT Library: Unix/NT Cross-Platform Library :
This is a library that eases the work needed to port Unix programs to NT. There aren't many details on the website about the libraries' capabilities, but you can simply download it from their site and check it out yourself.
ClibPDF PDF Library :
ClibPDF is a C library that allows you to create PDF files from your application or even CGI scripts.
CxImage - A C++ class for Win32 platforms to load, save, display, transform BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, MNG, and ICO images.
Ensemble :
Ensemble is a toolkit for building reliable distributed applications. Included in this toolkit is a library of protocols which you can use to build your distributed applications. The library primarily uses UDP/IP sockets.
GLT - C++ library for programming interactive 3D graphics with OpenGL. Aims to augment the OpenGL API with convenient mechanisms for manipulating the OpenGL state machine.
Dislin :
This is a plotting library for displaying data as curves, bar graphs, pie charts, 3D-colour plots, surfaces, contours and maps.
OpenSteer - A C++ library to help construct steering behaviors for autonomous characters in games and animation
LibSMI :
This C library "allows network management applications to access SMI MIB module information through a well defined API that hides the nasty details of locating and parsing SMIv1/v2 MIB modules."
TIFF Tools - A set of C++ binds to libtiff and some utilities for working with multi-page TIFF files created from scanning documents. [Open source, GPL]
The Visualization ToolKit (VTK) - A C++ libraries for 3D computer graphics, image processing, and visualization. Also Tcl, Python and Java implementations based on the class library.
GNET Network Library :
This is a simple network library built on top of glib. It works on Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Solaris, HP and Windows.
Whisper C++ Application Framework :
Whisper is a general purpose C++ application framework, which takes advantage of templates, multiple inheritance, STL and exceptions. It is portable to both Macintosh and Win32. It contains numerous debugging tools.
GNU Common C++ :
GNU Common C++ is a C++ framework for developing portable threaded applications. It is released under the GNU GPL license.
OPP C++ Class Library :
A C++ class library that has a number of features, including classes for retrieving files via HTTP, sending and receiving email, database classes, thread support, string class, html parser, etc. It supports Unix platforms.
MySQL++ - A C++ API for MySQL. Tries to make working with queries as easy as working with other STL containers.
Boehm-Demers-Weiser Garbage Collector :
A garbage collector for C/C++ that can also function as a memory leak detector. You can simply replace your calls to malloc() with GC_malloc(). Win32, Win32s, OS/2, MacOS, AmigaDOS and Unix systems are supported.
s-mail project - DObject Library C++ Database Connectivity - A C++ database interface similar to the JDBC technology. Currently available drivers support: MySQL database, mdb files via the ADO component (win32 platform only). [Open source, GPL]

What is computer .

2009-05-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.

Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first resembling a modern computer were developed in the mid-20th century (1940–1945). The first electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PC).^[1] Modern computers based on tiny integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction of the space.^[2] Simple computers are small enough to fit into a wristwatch, and can be powered by a watch battery. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age, what most people think of as a "computer", but the embedded computers found in devices ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and toys are the most numerous.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore computers ranging from a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storage capacity.