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Prevent Access To Hard Disk Partitions In Windows

Abhishek — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0000

Many a times our PC is used on shared basis, for example a computer at a College used by many students. Sometimes in a large family, a home computer is used by many family member.

If you are worried about your important data saved in your hard disk, and want to prevent users on your computer to access it from My Computer Window, then this is the right article for you.

In this article, I will tell you a simple and easy to follow policy settings in Windows that prevents access to hard disk partitions from My Computer / Computer in Windows Explorer.

This tutorial works with up to latest Windows 7 version as I have tested it on my Windows 7 Desktop computer.

Just follow these simple steps to Restrict Access To Hard Disk Partitions in Windows:

1. Press Windows + R key, in the Run Window, type “gpedit.msc” and press enter. This will lauch local group policy editor window.

2. On Local Group Policy Editor in Windows, navigate to the following path on the left hand side pane of the window.

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer

3. Now Double Click on the setting “Prevent access to drives from My Computer”. This will open a setting window. On this setting Window, click Enabled and select the drives for which you want to restrict the access. The simply Click OK to save the setting.

That is it, you will now see an error when you try to access a hard disk partition on a drive in My computer. The error message will tell you “The operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect from this computer. Please contact you system administrator”

So next time you see this Restriction Window, you know that Windows Explorer has been restricted. To remove this restriction, just follow the same steps again and in step 3, select the option “Not Configured” instead of “Enabled”.

Prevent Access To Hard Disk Partitions In Windows is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Add or Import Multiple Blogs Feed Updates In Facebook

Rohit — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:52:23 +0000

Recently we posted about how you can post blog posts on Facebook without any third party Facebook applications, a single blog feed can be imported in Facebook through defaults notes application.

However if you want to import more than one blog in Facebook you will need to install some third party application, this way you can send updates from multiple blogs when ever you post a new entry on these blogs added.

There are several applications on Facebook which can fetch updates from your different blogs and post new updates from these blogs on your Facebook wall.

NetworkedBlogs is one such popular Facebook application which allows you to add several blogs and then post updates from all of them to your Facebook profile. It is quite popular application on Facebook which being used by many bloggers, so you will see several blogs already using this application for networking and sharing.

Once you add this Facebook application to your profile you can add multiple blogs to send updates in your Facebook profile.

This application is sort of Facebook directory of blogs, as various blogs owners can connect to each other via this social app for blogs.

Another Facebook application which allows you post updates from multiple blogs to your profile is RSS Graffiti – is a fun little Facebook application that is meant to take the fuss out of keeping your Facebook friends and fans updated with the latest news from your other sites.

This application periodically checks the RSS/Atom feeds that you specify and posts any new entries it finds to the Facebook Walls that you specify. You can get any feed written on any wall. In fact, multiple feeds to multiple walls as per your preferences.

So if you are a blogger, a marketeer, a musician maybe, a twitter or friendfeed user, anybody that has more than one RSS/Atom feed and at least a Facebook Profile or better yet one or more Facebook Fan Pages, then RSS Graffiti is for you.

Add or Import Multiple Blogs Feed Updates In Facebook is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

How Do I Capture Screenshot Of My PC Screen ?

Rohit — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:59:55 +0000

We have talked about several screen shot capturing tool for windows like TeboScreen, Screenshoter, 7Capture and ScreenSnap – the best screenshot capturing tool for Symbian mobile devices. In Windows 7 and Vista even there is default screenshot capturing tool called Snipping Tool

Today we will tell you about another simple to use tool called PrtScr which lets you take the screenshot of your entire PC screen in one go. Once you install this small program and run it, it will display a tiny icon in system tray. Right clicking on the system tray icon you will see the option to take screen shot of the screen instantly or with delay .

Once you select the option to take the screenshot of the entire screen, then you can select from 3 specific type of screen shots based on your mouse button actions.

Once you took your screenshot it will start waving on your desktop screen, as now you need to select the second step of saving this screenshot, mailing it, printing it etc or discard. [ as shown in the image below ]

You will need to enter the title which is the name of the screenshot being saved and the comment which will added to the snapshot, but comment is optional.

Here is how the final image will look like as shown below.

You can further do lot more with this simple and easy to use free screenshot capturing program with its options.

Some Key Features

1. Accessible through Ptr Scr, Ctrl+Prt Scr, or custom hotkey

2. Captures full screen, rectangle selection, freehand selection, or active window

3. Can capture mouse cursor

4. Supports multiple monitors

5. Allows annotation over capture, with smooth, natural mouse drawing

6. Saves capture straight to desktop or to any file, sends it as email, edits, prints or sends to clipboard

7. Exports as JPG, BMP, or PNG (transparent or opaque)

8. Can re-scale capture before exporting

9. Can pre-fill capture title & comments with window title & browser URL

Below is the video of this program in Action which can tell you more.

Download PrtScr

How Do I Capture Screenshot Of My PC Screen ? is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Find Duplicate Files With Different Names But Same Content

Rohit — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 06:32:51 +0000

Duplicate files is one of the most important reason for low disk space on your computer, these duplicate files could be music files, images and other multimedia files, documents and other type of files.

We have previously written some tutorials on how to find duplicate music files, and fastest way to eliminate duplicate files. Today we will tell you about another free software which lets you remove duplicate files in a easy and faster way and it is very effective because irrespective of the same file name it performs a binary comparison of the files.

Fast Duplicate File Finder is a free software which help you find all duplicate files in a folder and its sub folders. It will compare the content of your files so it will find duplicates even if they are using different file names. It will analyze the content of the files in order to find similar files and not just file attributes like name and size as the standard duplicate file finders do.

The duplicate remover uses fast binary comparison algorithm and has internal preview supporting a lot of image, video, music and text file formats. You can also preview the files in binary mode. Auto mark algorithm has advanced settings to exclude from auto mark files with user specified extensions, file sizes, file dates and file names.

You can also set which folders you want to exclude from the auto mark. There is an option to protect system files and folders which is recommended to be turned on.

Some Key Features

Find DUPLICATE files or find SIMILAR files in user specified folders, hard drives, computers or entire networks
Fast binary comparison algorithm
Internal preview supporting images, videos, music, text and binary files
Older files can be automatically marked for deletion
Duplicate files can be moved to Recycle Bin, custom folder or deleted permanently
Support for all kinds of removable media – USB drives, diskettes etc.
Has intuitive interface and rich documentation
Process priority settings that will let the application scan in your computers IDLE time
Protection for system files and folders that will prevent damages to your system files
Automatically locate duplicate files in Windows Explorer
Open file with associated program
Powerful filter and exclude from auto-check options
Multi-language file system support

Requirements

Operating system: Windows 7/Vista/XP/NT/ME/2000/2003/98
CPU: Pentium-233 MHz or higher
128 MB RAM
5 MB free hard disk space

Download Fast Duplicate Finder

Find Duplicate Files With Different Names But Same Content is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Display Folder Size In Windows 7 and Vista [ Applies To All Windows ]

Rohit — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:21:43 +0000

When it comes to hard disk space we always want to know which folders on our hard drives are taking the larger space, but windows explorer by default does not display the folder size, however there has been a tool released some time back called Folder Size which adds an extra column in windows explorer which displays the folder size but it work with windows XP only

So, there is no tool which can integrate a folder size column in windows explorer in windows 7 and vista, but still there are some other alternatives to find out large sized folder on your computer hard drive. We had written some tutorial on how to Display Folder Size In Vista Windows Explorer, Find Large Size Folders and another interesting tip on 3 Ways To Free Up Space On PC

Today we will tell you about another free tool which can easily help to see the folders size in windows, read on further to know more.

This tool is also called Folder Size which will find and display all file and folder sizes, it will display folder name, folder size, size in percentage, files count, subfolders count, creation time and modification time. [ as shown in the snapshot ]

This application will show a very neat report which can be sorted in order to identify the largest folders and the largest files. You can easily figure out which files or folders have filled up your dive space as Folder Size will also scan the sizes of all the subfolders. The application can scan your entire hard drive in minutes due to its optimized scan algorithms.

Some Other Key Features

Sort option based on all the different criteria listed above – folder name, folder size etc.
Option to rearrange the columns in the list in order to suit your preferences.
Option to display the file and folder sizes in Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes or automatically determine the most appropriate size format.
Locate selected folder or file in Windows Explorer via a context menu
Show Windows folder or file properties dialog
Delete folders or files.
Open files with associated application using double click.
Remove folders or files from the list in order to check the folder size after deleting the item.
Support for all types of storage devices – hard drives, CDROM, USB Drives, Floppy disks
Progressive scan. If you have stopped a scan it will continue form the point of interruption saving processing time. If you have removed items from the list consequential scan will be very quick by only updating the missing items.
Easy Explorer-style navigation via Back, Forward and Folder Up tool buttons
Detailed drive size information list including – total drive size, drive used space and drive free space.
Intuitive Explorer-style user interface and rich documentation

Requirements

Operating system: Windows 7/Vista/XP/NT/ME/2000/2003/98
CPU: Pentium-233 MHz or higher
128 MB RAM
5 MB free hard disk space

Download Folder Size

Display Folder Size In Windows 7 and Vista [ Applies To All Windows ] is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Professional Level PC Information and Diagnostic Tool

Rohit — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:30:00 +0000

HWiNFO32™ are professional hardware information and diagnostic tool which supports latest components, industry technologies and standards. This tool is designed to collect and present the maximum amount of information possible about computer’s hardware which makes them suitable for users searching for driver updates, computer manufacturers, system integrators and technical experts as well.

Retrieved information is presented in a logical and easily understandable form and can be exported into various types of reports.

Following are some key features

1. Comprehensive hardware information

2. System health monitoring (Thermal, Voltage, Fan, Power)

3. Basic benchmarks

4. Text, CSV, XML, HTML, MHTML report formats

5. Periodical updates

6. OS: Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista/Server 2003/2008/Windows 7

7. Platform: 32-bit (IA-32), 64-bit (x64, IA-64)

We have also reviewed some similar tools which gets information about your computer like LookInMyPC, View Complete Information Of a PC and System Spec

Download HWiNFO32

Professional Level PC Information and Diagnostic Tool is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Increase Number Of Search Results Shown On First Page Of Google Web Search

Rohit — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:30:00 +0000

Google Search is great way to find anything anywhere on Internet, all of us has been so addicted to use Google for searching as it provides nice and useful search results. When you search on Google the default number of search results you see is 10 and then in order to see the next 10 search results you will need to scroll down and then click the number 2 or next in Google logo in yellow color to see the next 10 search results.

You can also increase the number of search results being shown on the first page, follow the procedure given below to do it.

1. Open Google.com

2. Click the Search Settings on the extreme right top of the Google page

It will look like as shown below when you are not logged in with your Google account.

It will look like as shown below when you are logged in with your Google account.

Scroll down to locate the section which tells number of search results, change number of search results shown on the first page by selecting a fixed number in the drop down here.

Now click the button Save Preferences button on the extreme right bottom of this page, it will prompt with a confirmation that your new preferences has been saved, now click OK button on the prompt message.

Once you click ok, it will take you to Google search home page automatically.

Increase Number Of Search Results Shown On First Page Of Google Web Search is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Move or Copy Firefox Profile Across Different Computers With PortProfile

Rohit — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:45:00 +0000

Many of us use Firefox as our primary browser but there could be one your realize that you need to upgrade your computer operating system, but you don’t want to lose any of your Firefox bookmarks, extensions, remembered password and other browser settings.

We had already posted about several tools which lets you backup settings and Firefox profile selectively, these tools are FavBackup, FEBE and MozBackup. Today we will tell you about another free tool which lets you take the backup of your entire profile with all settings and extensions.

PortProfile is a simple to use tool which lets you import and export entire profile in Firefox from one computer to another and vice versa. The selected profile is exported as .ppz file which can be imported using this tool again on any other computer.

Note: It requires Java 6 at least to run on any Windows or Linux computer, following are some key features of this application.

Compress and store profile

Choice to choose among existing profiles
Export to user’s home directory
Export to remote location (FTP/SFTP)⁺

Unzip and set profile

Import form a local file
Import from a remote file (FTP/SFTP)⁺

Download PortProfile [ For Linux or Windows ]

Move or Copy Firefox Profile Across Different Computers With PortProfile is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Disable Sound On Windows Locking With Mute On Lock

Rohit — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 05:30:00 +0000

If you have a habit of locking your windows computer while using when you are going away from your pc, you normally press Windows Key+L to lock your windows computer, but locking your computer may mute the sound of the music being played which might disturb other readers.

Mute On Lock is a small easy to use program which sits in the system tray and monitors your session – when you are locking your Windows workstation, it mutes the sound of your speakers and when you logged in back you can unmute the sound of speakers with a keyboard hotkey.

Key Features of the application are as follows

Supports all Windows NT operating systems with fast user switching, from Microsoft Windows XP up to Windows 7, including x64 editions.
An icon in the system tray area, which allows you to control various program settings.
You can set a hotkey for muting and unmuting the system sound.
You can mute/unmute sound by double-clicking the tray icon.
Automatically loading each time Windows starts.
The portable version of Mute on Lock is available.
The modest main memory and disk space usage.
The program is absolutely free!

Once it starts running, its icon will start showing in system tray – you can right click the program icon and configure its options and hotkey to mute or unmute sounds. Another program in this category about which we have posted before is Auto Mute – which mutes sound when you resume it from standby.

Download Mute On Lock | Keyboard Hotkey To Mute Sound

Disable Sound On Windows Locking With Mute On Lock is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles

Save Power When You Lock Your Computer

Rohit — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:26:11 +0000

Many of us lock our computers when we go away from the workstation or computer for some brief amounts of time, or sometimes for longer time. Its a good practice to lock the computer while you are away, however by default the Monitor/Display remains powered ON, Music / Media playing continues to play and your IM status does not change on its own.

Monitor ES is an innovative open source utility which helps you save considerable power which is used by the display or monitor, especially the CRT monitors which consume much more power.

Monitor ES is a light weight free tool to Automatically turn off the display every time you lock your Computer. This tool is available for both Windows / Linux. This us very light weight tool and works with all version of Windows Including Windows 7.

It will not only turn off the display to save power, but also it will pause any playing Video or Music or any media. It also sets your IM status to “AWAY” while the computer is locked.

The features of this small but useful utility include :

Automatically turnoff monitor
Automatically pause running media programs
Automatically IM away status message
Mute master sound (XP)
Turn on monitor for remote machines
Keyboard PAUSE key to pause/play running media programs(Gives single key control)
Custom away messages for IM
Support 16+ Media Players
Customizable options
Listen to your pause status
Very small executable file (44 KB)
No Installation Required / Portable Software

I find this utility a real tiny and useful one which makes a lot of difference to our planet by saving Power. We all need to go green with energy saving and reducing carbon emissions.

Visit Monitor ES Homepage | Download Monitor ES for Windows | Download Monitor ES for Ubuntu / Linux

Save Power When You Lock Your Computer is a post from TroubleFixers - All about fixing computer troubles