We have been shown you how to create a bootable USB (Universal Serial Bus) pen drive using the Windows command prompt or some free software. The only problem of booting your system from a pen drive is the motherboard support. These days all the new modern PC usually have added the option of boot from USB in their BIOS (Basic Input Output System) settings, but if you are using an older board that does not support this feature then what would be your alternative? Fortunately there is a solution for you using a free utility application which is called PLoP Boot Manager. It is a small application that allows you to boot from different operating systems including CD/DVD ROM and USB. PLoP Boot Manager can access your PC USB and CD/DVD ROM without the need of using the BIOS. If you do not know how to create a USB bootable drive then follow the link below:

6/13/2014 Read More

Some of the users may disable the Windows Update due to some reasons. But the problem with disabling the update is that the Windows Defender also no longer will update unless you enable the update again. The Windows Defender is a defense system against spyware and malware which is provided by Microsoft as a feature of the Windows 7/8 operating systems.

The Windows Defender functionality has the ability to scan the entire system and clean all suspicious software. Although it does not have the features and functionality of a paid antivirus but as a user, you must first take full advantage of all tools of any operating system then go for external tools and software that are available in the market. So keeping the Windows Defender up to date and using it time to time to have a clean system is a good idea. Let see how to update the Windows Defender automatically even if the update is disabled.

12/17/2013 Read More

Although the Microsoft Windows has provided some options for customizing the Windows Start menu but they have their own constraints and limitations. For example there is no configuration to add your favorite folder (not the default Favorite Folder) to the Start Menu. If you have a personal or any other folder that you use too often and want to add it to the Start Right Pane for faster and easier access, what would you do? Fortunately you have an alternative by modifying the Windows Registry and add any folder to the Start Menu. In this article we will show you step by step how to achieve this task. What we are going to do is change the value of the Favorites key containing in the Shell Folders path in the registry and add our own folder.

11/24/2013 Read More

In the Microsoft Windows operating system by using the Alt key and the NUMPAD, you can create a range of characters that usually a standard keyboard doesn’t have. This range starts from 0 to 255 decimal numbers which the last one is the invisible character (Alt + 255). If you want to create folders or files without a name to show off to your friends or just want to get rid of text under the desktop icons, you can use the invisible character to rename an existing or new folder, icon or shortcut and make the text under them disappeared. First of all we see how we can do this trick and then we will check all ALT + NUMPAD ASCII symbols together.

9/26/2013 Read More

The majority of the Windows users for viewing device drivers on their system use the Device Manger. As you may already know, you can access this utility tool from the Windows Control Panel. You can use the Device Manager to determine functionality of your system hardware components, change hardware configuration settings, update a device driver, enable, disable, and uninstall devices. It other words Device Manger helps you to check status of your hardware and updates drives on your local machine. 

9/24/2013 Read More

Microsoft Windows Operating System series are one of the most popular operating system among the users. The first Windows was released in 1985 (Windows 1.0) and since then till today the Microsoft OS has dominated the personal computer market. Windows has been written in Assembly, C and C++ languages and it is simply a graphical user interface (GUI) that manages and maintains the users’ computer resources and components. Computer software is categorized in Application software and System software. Application software can perform a specific task, a text or image editor such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop are some example of Application software. But system software refers to the software that enables a computer to function efficiently. These special sorts of software consist of programs, interpreter, and languages to control the operation of a computer system. In this post we will talk about the Windows Operating System evolution and its architecture as system software. So before we start, let see what an operating system is exactly.

9/01/2013 Read More

We all have some favorite movies and Video songs on our local system that in some situations you may want to extract the audio from a certain movie or clip. Let say you like the music of a particular video song clip or background music of your favorite movie and want to have it as a separate audio format. If you search the Internet you will find out various applications that would do this task for you. But if you are using the Windows operating system, then instead of installing any unknown application, you can simply use the Windows Movie Maker to do the trick. With the Windows Movie Maker, you are not only able to extract the whole audio but even you can pull out only a part of it according to your need. Just follow the steps below:

8/28/2013 Read More

On April 8, 2014, the Windows XP will retire and Microsoft no longer would offer service for this operating system. The Windows XP was released for personal computers on August 14, 2004 and till today it is the second most popular Windows operating system version. The XP stands for eXPerience and represents its performance for user experience. Microsoft announced that support for Windows XP and Office 2003 will end on April 8, 2014 and the users who use this OS should upgrade their operating system to a newer version. Microsoft also released an infographic for the Windows XP happy retirement and thanked for its great service of all these years. The infographic beside the appreciation, gives 8 reasons to the users why they should upgrade their system to the Windows 8. So Happy Retirement Windows XP for all your services!

8/04/2013 Read More

Checking your system total CPU usage and its performance is easy using the Windows Task Manager but it has its own limitation. Another way is to use the Windows Resource Monitor but if you want to view the CPU usage in real time then typeperf command will help you. This command writes performance data to the CMD or as log file. Even you can save the data as a text or an Excel file. Let see how to use typeperf command:

6/10/2013 Read More

If you belong to those groups of users who use the Windows Command Prompt so often, then probably sometimes you must bored with the default dull black background color of the CMD window. But you can use the MS-DOS color command and CMD Properties to change the color scheme (background and text) and give a colorful look to the Command Prompt window. First I’ll show you how to use the window Properties for changing default color and then the MS-DOS color command.

5/28/2013 Read More

As a Windows user, knowing how to maintain the operating system’s problems is a big advantage. When your system crashes, unexpected shutdowns or an application stops responding, what would be your steps to find the source of the problem? Fortunately Microsoft provided some great tools for keeping track of your system performance and health in the Windows 7 and 8. I have written some articles about these tools before such as "How to use WindowsEvent viewer", "Windows Performance Monitor" and "Performance Monitor SystemHealth Report". Today I intend to introduce another tool in the Windows 7 or 8 that you can use to find information about your system resources (hardware and software) in real time. This system tool is called "Windows Resource Monitor". By using the Windows Resource Monitor, you are able to monitor specific service or process, troubleshoot a hung program, and even start, stop and resume a service. Let see how to work with Resource Monitor:

5/18/2013 Read More

It was a couple weeks ago that I published an article about how to dual boot Windows 8 and Windows 7 using VHD. At that time I showed you how doing this by using the Windows 8 evaluation for developers. As you know this free version of Windows 8 only works for 90 days and after that you have to install a fresh version of Windows 8 again. Today I decided to uninstall Windows 8 developer from my system and install a new licensed version. But to do this I need to remove the old version and its Virtual Hard Drive safely without losing any data from my current Windows 7. The first and most important step is to create a backup from your data in Windows 7 so in case of any problem, you don't lose your current system files, data and information. Follow these steps:

3/07/2013 Read More

If you want to open any Windows user account and you don’t know the user’s password, you can use the Command Prompt to create a new password and enter the account. You can do this before you enter the Windows login by bypassing Login Screen. As we are going to use CMD for this trick, you are even able to create new user accounts, modify existing user accounts or execute other programs all in the Windows Lock or Login page. The first thing we need to do is to open the Windows Command Prompt at the Login page. To do this, follow these steps:

2/21/2013 Read More

Did you know that you can display a message at the start up time in the Windows 7 or 8? There might be many reasons for you to show a message when the computer starts and before it enters the Windows environment. You can use the message as a reminder for yourself or other users who use the same system. If you work in an office then you can use this trick to show a legal notice or important messages to the employees when they log in to the Windows. In this post I'll show you how to show message during log on by using Windows Group Policy or Windows Registry. Follow these steps:

1/31/2013 Read More

One of the most important factors in a computer health is the system's Power. Any interrupts in the power can damage your computer’s hardware. Especially if you are using laptop keeping eye on your laptop power efficiency is very important. Fortunately in the Windows 7 or 8 you can use the system Command Prompts to get a detailed report about the Power management. The command is used for this purpose is powercfg. It checks and analysis the power performance for 60 seconds, then create a report. You would find the report very useful as it shows the number of errors and their causes and also suggestion to improve the power efficiency. let see how this command works:

1/23/2013 Read More

Do you have some MP3 music files and want to attach them together thus when you play the file, the first song will be played and right after that the second one and so on? Users usually use some third party applications to do this but did you know that you can do this task very easily with the help of the Windows command prompt? The process is simple and can be done in few seconds. At the end you have a single MP3 file that contains all your MP3s in a sequence that you want. Follow these steps:

1/17/2013 Read More

In the new Mirosoft Windows 8, the power buttons moved inside the Settings (Win + I) under the Charms Bar (Win + C). So whenever a user wants to shutdown or restart his/her system, he/she must open the Charms Bar, Settings then click on the Power button to access the power options. 

If you used to the old Windows Start button, you may want to access the Power buttons faster and easier and tile them to the Windows 8 Start Screen. There are various ways to do that like creating shortcuts for Shutdown, Restart etc. and add them to the Start Screen (I will tell you about this method in different article later). But in this post I'll show you how to achieve this by using Windows 8 PowerShell and some small pieces of script codes.

1/07/2013 Read More

Microsoft has released a fact sheet and tutorial for Windows 8 Accessibility. You may already familiar with the Windows 7 Ease of Access. This option is also included in the Windows 8 with more features to help you use your computer easier. What you can do with Ease of Access is to use the computer without a display, mouse or keyboard, make it easier to see, make the mouse and keyboard easier to use and etc. One of the main features of Windows 8 is the introduction of touch-only devices. If you have a touch screen gadget then you can interact with Windows without using the mouse or keyboard. The Windows 8 Accessibility Tutorials contains:

12/21/2012 Read More

If you are a Windows 7 or 8 users then you already know when you hover with the mouse on any running or opening application thumbnail on Desktop's Taskbar, the Widows will show you a small preview. You can see this preview in a little rectangle window. But what if you want to change the size of this preview? There is a solution for this problem with creating a new key in the Windows registry. After this tutorial you will able to modify the size of Taskbar Thumbnail preview in pixel and make it bigger for better view. Follow these steps:

12/19/2012 Read More

What you do when a program or programs hanged and not responding? Any application or software could hang or freeze due to some certain reasons like PC configuration, Malwares or Viruses, Power failure etc. Users usually open the Windows Task Manger then terminate the frozen program/s. But to speed the process you can simply create a .bat file with a single line of commands so whenever a program hangs and goes to the Not Responding state, by executing the .bat file the program will terminate. To do this:

12/11/2012 Read More