Get to know how safe are the sites in your search result

What do you do when you Google for something, say Wallpapers? Click the links that appear on the top by making some guesses about the safety of the site. But since google doesn’t really filter the good and bad on the web[at least not extensively] you may end up at some malicious site that may infect yourPC with some virus or spyware. What if you could find out which sites were safe and which were not?

In my last post, I mentioned about open source, free antispyware Winpooch that integrates with ClamWin antivirus to provide real-time protection to your PC.

McAfee Site Advisor

All those lucky guys who use Mozilla Firefox web browser, you can make your PC more secure by getting real-time advice regarding the safety of the site and also the links that appear on webpages by installing McAfee Site Advisor plug-in for Firefox.

Real time virus, spyware protection using Winpooch-Clamwin

[Windows only] The web is a vast repository — both of good things and the malicious. As soon as you connect to the internet [or even without connecting] your computer is always vulnerable to attack from viruses that may damage your system or remain dormant without causing any apparent damage to the PC. There are also the dangers of spywares lurking on the web which are quick to capitalize on your slightest neglect or carelessness. a spyware infected computer does not only cause irritation but may also lead your to embarrassing situations. Imagine someone need to use your PC for sending a mail. You don’t want them to see the unwanted toolbar that was downloaded to your browser when you visited some malicious site.

Winpooch is a  free and open source anti spyware and anti trojan for Windows. It gives full protection against local or external spyware attacks by scanning the activity of programs in real time.

Get free graphic design tool to replace Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw

Are you among those who want to use illustration softwares like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw but can’t afford these expensive softwares? Creative Docs .NET is the answer for you.

Creative Docs .NET is an vector-based graphic design tool which can be used for creating posters, brochures, illustration, flow charts and the like. The application is free for non-commercial use. It supports Windows 2000, XP, Server and the latest Vista.

Want to save your Windows XP account from hackers? Delete password

However absurd it may sound, it’s a fact that deleting the password from your Windows XP user account will only make it more secure and save your from any unauthorised access to your computer from the internet or local network.

Most of the time we do not want to set a difficult password to our Windows account. And these passwords can be easily cracked by hackers. If the computer is connected to the internet or a local LAN network, it becomes easy target of hackers.

So, you may desire to secure your computer by adding a password to your computer and would also like to make it some what difficult to guess. [I actually did set a password that was too easy to crack to keep hackers at bay. Now I know I only made my computer more vulnerable to attacks/hacking.]

Windows XP disables the facility to access the computer from network for any user account which is not password protected. This simple trick can work the best for those who have just one computer , or whose computers are not networked and does not require access from other computers. But if the computer is not in a safe physical environment, it becomes easy prey to those who want to steal something from your computer. All they will have to do is turn on the computer and get easy access to your account.

So there you will have to secure your account with a strong password.

[Digital Inspiration, Image: LifeHacker]

Flip screen size with all desktop icons intact with DesktopOK

[Windows Only]

Do you keep changing your Windows desktop resolution (screen size)? And are you among those who arrange their desktop icons to suit their needs and preferences? [I like the Recycle Bin to stay in the bottom-right of the desktop. Makes things lot easier as I can delete temporary files/folders that re on my desktop after work easily by dragging-and-dropping.]

Whenever you change the screen resolution one undesired thing that happens is that the desktop icons get re-arranged in a way that many people would not like. So, you end up spending good time arranging icon to your desired locations.

Here are two small freewares for Windows that will save you from the hassles when you change screen resolution or want to have different setting for icons –Icon Restore and DesktopOK.

Convert your PC into a web server

When I was new to computers and the internet, I used to wonder how websites were available. And once I knew that sites are hosted by web servers, I wanted to have one of my own to host my own site. I thought it would be difficult to have a web server but now i know it’s not that difficult. It’s really easy to have a small web server on your own PC.

What do you need to convert your Windows PC into a web server ?

• Web server application like Apache and Windows Server
• Database server [optional]
• Mail server [optional]
• FTP server [optional]
• Broadband internet

Get a web server application

The web server that’s very popular is Apache. But handling it on your own can be a bit tricky. Instead, we would like to use pre-configured packages which will gives us Apache, My SQL (database server) , a mail server and a FTP server.

NetServer: It is the most easy-to-use server package that I have come across. It’s controls are very indicative and can be easily tweaked to create your own aliases [domain names]. It also has My SQL database server, FileZilla FTP server and a mail server. The only minus point– you won’t get the latest applications as the package has not been improved since years. But this will not be a problem for us.

It does not require installation. Just unzip the package and run the server by clicking the NetServer icon. This works with Windows NT/2000/XP. It should work with Vista as well. [Freeware]

XAMPP: It a more popular server package. But I found it difficult to configure and handle. It is also free and does not require installation. It is available forWindows, Linux and Solaris.

WAMP: It is also a Windows freeware but requires installation.

Now you need to configure the server. I will tell here just about NetServer which I feel is the easiest to handle for enthusiasts like us.

Calm down your DVD drive

[Windows Only] Do you ever get annoyed by the loud noise that your CD/DVD Drive makes? This is because the optical disc in the drive rotates at a very high speed, not at all necessary unless you are transferring data to or from your optical media. If you are working on a laptop, things get even worse because the optical drive is way too close to you and is attached to the entire body. You do not only have to tolerate the loud whirring noise, but also bear with the vibration.

Nero DriveSpeed is one of the solutions to the problem, which lets you control your DVD or CD drive’s read-speed so that you can keep excessive drive noise at bay. After you load a disc into the drive, you can run DriveSpeed in either Silent or Fast modes. If you are watching a movie or listening to some music, you can select the Silent mode for a quite entertainment. If you need to transfer data and files quickly to your hard drive, choose the Fast mode.

Nero DriveSpeed is a freeware for Windows. It works with Windows XP/ Vista/2000 and ME. After installation, DriveSpeed can prompt you whenever you insert a disk and you can choose whether to run in Fast or Silent mode. Nero DriveSpeed is freeware, Windows only, and less than 750KB in size.

Download Nero DriveSpeed

[Via LifeHacker]

Access files easily with My Documents Toolbar

My Documents in Windows is intended to be your default place to save your documents, music and videos. If you are among them who use it almost all the time for saving and accessing your documents, music and videos, you better get more control of it. By using simple tricks, you can customize My Documents folder to work the way you like. You can also get a toolbar to access you drives and folders more easily.

Get easy access to My Documents

If you use My Documents for filing documents and also storing music and videos, you must be accessing it frequently. By getting a My Documents Toolbar on you Desktop, you can save yourself of one double-click.

Get My Documents Toolbar on the Desktop

1. Drag the My Documents folder lying on your Desktop to the extreme left, right or top of the Desktop depending upon your choice.
2. Once you drag the My Documents folder to an extreme edge of your Desktop [when the mouse doesn't move any further], a toolbar will appear.
3. Just drop the folder there to get your My Documents Toolbar.

Six free disc burning applications

On its own, Windows is a good-for-nothing operating system which lacks all the essential applications that one requires on a system.
I had suggested to you in an earlier post some open-source alternatives for word processing, web browsing and editing photos. Taking it further, today I bring to you some free media burning softwares to burn CDs and DVDs with more control.

1. Deep Burner

I mention this burning software on the top because it’s there on my system. Apart from a free version, Deep Burner also comes in a paid version. But the free version is sufficient for a general user who needs to create data CD and DVDs, burn music CDs and also ISO (CD images). It lets you create multi-session discs , which means you can add some file or music to an existing CD. But this burning software does not write video CDs.

http://www.deepburner.com/ (Download Link)

Use DVD Rip to automatically backup any DVD

Do you wish to rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive? You can easily do this with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest.