Archive for February, 2010
We have already shown how to recover Windows 7 product key using KeyFinder tool. Like KeyFinder, Windows Key Finder is another handy tool to quickly recover lost Windows 7, Vista or XP key in a jiffy.
Windows Key Finder program simply decodes the encoded product key stored at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion node of the registry in a value called DigitalProductId.
This is a standalone tool and simple-to-use as well. Download, extract and run the utility to view your Windows product key. Note that this tool only retrieves Windows product key and can’t be used to recover Microsoft Office product key.
The program also displays some valuable information like your Windows install date, system type, OS build number, total… Continue reading
In the past, we covered several free tools to edit context menu in Windows 7 and Vista. If you are not satisfied with those tools and still looking for a brilliant tool to do the same job, here is an awesome tool quickly customize context menu in Windows 7.
Context Menu Editor is a freeware tweaking utility to add/delete items to your desktop and folder context menu in Windows 7 and Vista (x86 & x64). With this tool, adding a new program or even our Software Blogging link to your desktop context menu (right-click menu) can be done with a few clicks.
Context Menu… Continue reading
A few months back we covered how to change Windows 7 logon background without using third-party software and also covered over 5 applications to easily change logon screen background.
If you have customized logon screen background and then you might also like to customize logon screen text size. To make it happen simply follow the simple procedure given below.
1. Open Windows Registry Editor by typing regedit in Start menu search field and then hitting enter.
2. In the Windows Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop
3. Here, in the right side, create a new DWORD value (32-bit)… Continue reading
Media Center 7 Sleep Timer is an awesome Media Center application (also works as add-in) to shutdown/hibernate your Windows 7 machine after a selected time interval.
Once you installed Sleep Timer, you can access it either from the Start menu or Extras Library in Media Center. The current version of Sleep Timer comes with five options: Shutdown in 60 minutes, Shutdown in 30 minutes, Custom timer, Shutdown at time, Monitor off, and Cancel timer.
The best thing about Sleep Timer is that you can customize almost everything from time settings and to the interface. You can change the default Shutdown in 30 minutes and 60 minutes options by editing the MC7 Sleep Timer Settings.cfg… Continue reading
Backing up Windows registry is always a good practice before making any changes to the Windows Registry as its health is crucial for the proper functioning of Windows. Although most of you know how to backup Windows Registry, still there are several Windows users who are unaware of the same.
To backup Windows Registry you need to have a third-party tool as well. It’s that simple!
How to backup Windows Registry:
Method 1:
1. Open Windows Registry Editor by typing regedit in Start menu search box and then hitting enter.
2. Click Yes if you are prompted with UAC (User Account Control) message.
3. Next, in the Registry Editor… Continue reading
PuraRa is a simple but effective tool to cleanup your Windows 7 operating system. The tool helps you clean files that are usually ignored by other popular system cleaning tools.
Download, extract and run the tool to start cleaning your Windows 7. Upon running the tool, you will be given options to select areas that you want to cleanup using PureRa. The current version (v1.5) allows you remove temporary files, recycle bin files, software distribution logs, Windows update installation files, WMI logs, .sqm file, config.msi, icon cache, thumbnail cache, and more.
This tool comes in handy when you want to repair icons in Windows 7 as the utility cleans icon and… Continue reading
Hide Media Center Strips is a tiny but handy utility for Windows 7 Media Center that allows you show/hide one or more menu strips quickly and easily.
This portable tool allows you hide a strip for the current user or guest user or for all users. Download, run this tool and then select the user for which you want to hide a menu strip.
With this you can hide/show almost all Media Center Menu strips including Movies, TV, Sports, Pictures, Videos, Tasks, Now Playing and more.
The download size is just 29 KB and is available to download from the link mentioned below… Continue reading
Unlike Windows XP and Vista, Windows 7 comes with a hidden but disabled feature that allows you search the Internet right from your Start menu search field.
Once this feature is enabled, you just need to type the search word (keyword) in the Start menu search field and then click Search the Internet option to see the search results in your default browser. First you need to enable this feature by following one of the methods given below.
Method 1: Using Local Group Policy Editor (for Professional, Enterprise & Ultimate editions)
1. Type gpedit.msc in the Start menu search box and hit enter to open Local Group Policy Editor… Continue reading
Once again, software download encyclopedia, Softpedia site in association with Crave Worldwide Software is giving away popular hard disk space usage analysis and management software Disk Analyzer Pro 3.4 worth $ 29.95 for a limited period of time.
Key features of Disk Analyzer Pro:
- Detailed disk space consumption reports
- Search for unwanted files with your own search criteria
- Find and delete junk and temporary files
- Locate biggest folders and oldest files
- Find out duplicate pictures, compressed files, videos and audio files
- Scheduling and command-line scanner
- All folders and subfolders report sorted by file size
- Integrate file explorer and viewer
- Supports Windows 7
- Export disk space reports to external
We all know how to create a playlist in Windows Media Player and Media Center. But the problem is that when you create a video playlist in Windows Media Player you can’t use the same playlist in other players like VLC or GOM.
The same thing applies to Windows Media Center as well. So if you want to create a universal playlist that can be opened with Windows Media Player, Media Center, GOM, VLC and other players here is a small application for you.
Windows 7 Media Playlist Creator is a standalone application specially developed for Windows 7 Media Center. This tool allows you quickly create playlists with .wvx… Continue reading