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CRegistry Comparison: See Changes To System Registry Over Certain Time

Farshad — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:59:00 +0000

CRegistry Comparison is an open source registry comparison application for keeping an eye on registry changes. You can use this tool to check for changes that may have been made by newly installed applications (to the system registry), and identify unwanted changes. This application creates a .CRE registry file and enables comparison of two files. Furthermore, you can also save changes to a text file. CRegistry Comparison can be used by both novice and advanced users to compare the precise difference that occurs to a registry as a result of any kind of alterations that are rendered over a period of time (to the system’s registry), including not just the changes which may have been made by a software, but also the changes that are made by malware or system hijacking programs. This way, you can determine if an application is trying to gain access to your system for malicious purposes.

When the application is run for the first time, it creates a registry compare file on your desktop for future reference. With this file, you can compare your registry changes at any time. Click OK to continue.

Once done, your system will be scanned and updates for registry changes will be detected.

To compare registry changes, click Start Compare. This will display a comparison for your old registry files with the new ones, and the updates made to your system registry. You can even save the result to a text file via File –> Save Result.

CRegistry Comparison works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.

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Replace-me: Replace Document Text String via Right-Click Menu In Ubuntu

Farshad — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:33:58 +0000

If you are a programmer or someone who regularly requires replacing text strings from multiple files, then Replace-me is just what you might need. It is a Nautilus extension to find and replace text strings from multiple files within numerous directories and sub-directories. It can identify and replace text strings from files via right-click context menu. Replace-me is a useful tool for those who may require finding and replacing text string from, e.g., code files or even batch files (to change the command parameters).

You can install Replace-me in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot using the following Terminal commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/nautilus-extensions

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install replace-me

After installation, either use the below command or log off and log in again to refresh Nautilus.

nautilus –q

With Replace-me, you can easily search and replace words and phrases by right-clicking a file and entering the search and replace string.

This will open a new window which will display the path of the selected file. Enter the text that you wish to replace, followed by the text string that is to be replaced. As you can see in the below screenshot, you can replace an entire text string with specified text easily within any document. this can help you replace hundreds of text strings in several files, easily. For example, if you have a code file which contains a line of code that is recurring in the file and needs to be replaced with a different line, then you can simply right-click the document, enter the text string that should be replaced (in the Replace section), and enter the text string that is to replace the text (in With section). This will replace the text string wherever it may be present in the respective document.

For more information, check out the developer’s website.

Replace-Me Nautilus Extension

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Norton Identity Safe: Cross-Platform Alternative To LastPass

Farshad — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:51:58 +0000

LastPass is a widely used password manager, which is available as a plugin for all famous browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. While LastPass works as a browser extension, there are also desktop applications that deliver similar functionality. Norton has recently created a comprehensive application, which brings the functionality of password management browser extensions like LastPass and desktop application like 1Password. Norton Identity Safe is a cross-platform password management application that integrates with your browser and allows you to you safeguard your login information. It quickly and securely logs users into online accounts from computers and mobile devices on the go, with a secure master password. Unlike most password managers, Norton Identity Safe also provides information regarding the safety of a website to protect you from phishing websites.

To get started, you will require logging in or signing up with a Norton account.

Once done, you can easily begin importing passwords saved in your browser and also disable the default password manager (of you browser).

You can use this application like LastPass to login to you multiple online accounts from a single master password, and to protect your passwords within a secure online vault, rather than an unsecure password manager of your browser, which can allows viewing passwords to anyone who has access to the computer. You can also edit and manage your saved passwords via your Norton account.

Norton identity Safe is available for a number of platforms, including Android and iOS devices. You can also use the mobile version to secure your login credentials and avoid remembering them, when browsing through the internet via a mobile device.

It is worth mentioning here that Norton Identity Safe is an ad-supported application, as it displays ads during the installation process, which are third-party components/services that are intended to generate income. Please make sure that you pay due attention to the installation process to skip ads. Norton Identity Safe has versions for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, iOS and Android.

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Pdf-No-Img: View PDF Documents Without Images

Farshad — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:54:54 +0000

Many PDF documents contain a lot of imagery, including snapshots of graphs, company logos, demonstrative images, etc. While reading a PDF document with images can be useful, it can also have an overwhelming effect on the eyes, as e-book reading can be more stressful than reading from the conventional paper. Furthermore, flashy PDF images can also be irritating as they can distract the reader from concentrating on the document. Pdf-No-Img is a handy tool that creates a an image-less version of PDF documents to allow users to read them without images. It is not a PDF viewer, but rather, it makes it possible to view PDF documents without images. When you open a PDF document with Pdf-No-Img, it replaces the imagery with gray boxes. This helps the reader to focus on the text and to avoid getting distracted by graphical content.

To open a document with Pdf-No-Img, you can either launch the application individually and drag/drop PDF files, or use the Windows Open With option via right-click context menu.

Once a document is specified, the document will open with your default PDF reader, with a new stripped down, imageless version.

If you would prefer reading all PDF documents without images, then it might be a good idea to associate your PDF documents with Pdf-No-Img, by specifying it as the default PDF reader. Obviously, the document will always open in your default PDF viewer, however, this method will allow you to view stripped down, imageless versions, each time you open a document. Pdf-No-Img wors on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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Quickly Shred Large Files In Windows via Drag And Drop With Zer0

Farshad — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:20:46 +0000

For many users, it becomes necessary to not just delete confidential files permanently, but to shred them to avoid file recovery. While there are a number of handy file shredding applications for Windows, Zer0 is perhaps the most minimalist of them all. It is a user friendly file shredder, which can delete files securely to make them unrecoverable. It provides a convenient drag and drop utility and allows instantly shredding files in a single click. Zer0′s high level security algorithm makes it impossible to recover deleted files by conventional recovery tools, and the deletion process itself is lightning fast. During testing, we spcified a 573MB file for deletion with Zer0, and it was deleted in a split second. The tool makes use of multiple system cores, and hence, provides maximum efficiency, without hanging the application.

To delete files, simply launch Zer0 and drag/drop them onto the main interface. Click Delete to shred the files. All specified files will be deleted in no time. It is worth mentioning here that while Zer0 is a very efficient, yet minimalist file shredder, we would not recommend shredding very heavy files to avoid straining your hard drive. Before shredding a file, you can determine the weight of the files that you are shredding from the Size column of Zer0. Once a file is deleted, it is marked as OK beneath the Message column.

If you want a file shredder with more advanced file shredding options, then check out Freeraser. Zer0 works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download Zer0

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Nanoshot: Capture & Upload Screenshots To Cloud In Ubuntu

Farshad — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:40:51 +0000

In a previous post, we showed you three different ways of capturing screenshots in Ubuntu and later reviewed, Lookit, which is a handy screenshot capturing utility for Ubuntu, which enables uploading captured screenshots to the cloud. Recently, we found another handy screenshot taking application for Ubuntu, known as Nanoshot. It provides users with the utility to capture screenshots to upload them to cloud services like Flickr, and to grab screens from specific elements such as a video frame or the Unity Launcher.

You can install Nanoshot by entering the following commands in Terminal. While its compatibility with the raw build of Precise Pangolin is unknown, we successfully tested it in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and the below PPA works with earlier Ubuntu versions, including Lucid, Karmic, Maverick (as specified by the developer) and probably Natty, as well. You can get a list of dependencies for older versions here. The reason I have labeled Natty as a probable supported version, is because we did not test Nanoshot on it, but it worked fine in Oneiric (during testing).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nanoshot/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nanoshot

Once installed, launch and select options from the app-indicator menu. You can capture the entire desktop, the current window, a selected desktop area, a webpage, a media player, add cursor in screenshot, select a time delay for capturing screenshots, enable auto-run for Nanshot and select a video file for capturing screenshots via the app-indicator menu.

If you wish to capture video frames, then you will have to specify a video file and select the number of frames that are to be captured, as well as the output directory. You can also pick videos from recently viewed video files.

When capturing a selected area, select an area and hit Enter to save the screenshot.

Captured screenshots can be uploaded to Flickr, ImgUR or ImageShack, or saved to a local directory.

You can download the package for Nanoshot from the links given below.

Download Nanoshot

Download Nanoshot [Fedora and Tarball Source Package]

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Encoding Decoding: Quickly Encrypt/Decrypt & Password Protect Files

Farshad — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:35:15 +0000

Encoding Decoding is an encryption software, which provides a dead simple mechanism for encoding files, i.e., by dragging them to the applications interface and entering a password for them. This easy to use application makes it possible to quickly secure your important files, to protect them from unauthorized access. Furthermore, it does not replace the input file, but rather, creates a more secure version of it. The only thing that you may have to be concerned with is to remember the password, in order to gain access to protected files. Encoding Decoding (application) can be used to encrypt any kind of file, including pictures, code files, Excel sheets and other MS Office documents, PDF files, etc.

Currently, Encoding Decoding is available as a stable and beta package (version 3.0.0). The testing that we performed was on the beta version, which worked quite well. To get started, drag and drop a file to encrypt it. This will provide you with a password prompt to password protect the file. While entering the password, you will be presented with the security level of your password. It I recommended that you use at least 8 characters in your password.

After you have entered the password, a new encrypted version of the file will be created, while the original file will be left unencrypted, (which means that securing that file is up to you). During testing, deleting the original source file after creating a new, more secure version of it, did not create any problems in terms of recovering the file. We first created a new encrypted version, then deleted the source file and finally recovered the content from the encrypted file by launching it (via double click) and entering the password. This means that you can backup or remove the unencrypted version of the file, and only keep secure versions, which can be extracted any time by executing the encrypted file and entering the respective password.

Encoding Decoding works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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Metro Cheat: Get Classic Start Menu Without Losing Metro UI In Windows 8

Farshad — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:51:10 +0000

Since the release of Windows 8 developer’s preview, there has been a debate among users regarding the utility of the Metro UI and its elements. For those users who did not like the Metro UI, tweaks such as the Windows 8 Start Menu Toggle were introduced shortly after the pre-beta release of Windows 8. However, it appears that it is not the Metro UI itself, but the start menu of the said interface, that has mostly annoyed users. Metro Cheat is a portable application, which allows you to acquire the Windows 7 style classic start menu, while keeping other Metro features intact (e.g., the new Task Manager, Explorer Ribbon and Metro Apps). Before using this tweak, please make sure that UAC (User Account Control) is disabled, as the application will not be able to auto start if UAC is even partially enabled.

Jut download Metro Cheat application from the link given at the end of this post, and run it as administrator. This will give you the classic start menu while retaining the Metro UI featues.

It is worth mentioning here that, during testing, we experienced some issues with Metro Cheat on a Windows 8 64-bit operating system (Developer’s Preview). Users seem to have mixed reactions regarding this application, while it seems to be working for some users, it is currently not working for others. The problem can perhaps be associated with compatibility issues related to Windows 8 64-bit versions.

Download Metro Cheat

[via intowindows]

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Picturenaut: Create HDR Images From Bracketed Exposures Using Filters

Farshad — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:40:56 +0000

High dynamic Range Imaging, aka HDRI, or simply HDR, is a technique that allows bringing out the range of intensity levels (in images), which are found in real scenes, such as direct sunlight or faint moonlight. HDR techniques are geared towards the representation of contrast between photos of a single imagery. Non-HDR cameras, for example, take pictures at a single exposure level, and hence, have a limited contrast range. This often results in the loss of bright and dark areas of a picture, which can be corrected by using similar images and using HDR techniques. Picturenaut is a HDR imaging application that enables users to create High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from bracketed exposures. All you have to do is to select the input images, and Picturenaut will adjust the exposures in a single HDR image, with automatic exposure correction, picture alignment and color balancing. Additionally, you can tweak the image by managing the tone mapping for creating a desired image effect. Picturenaut provides 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit modes, gamma adjustment, support for RAW images and real-time preview. Furthermore, this application is fully capable of making use of multi-core processors.

To get started, simply click Generate HDR image from brackets exposure option and add images. Once done, select required options, including Exposure correction, Ghost removal, Automatic image alignment and, optionally, color balancing. You can also select a weighting preference (Standard or Mid-Emphasis), and choose a Curve (Linear, Compute, Standard Curve or User Defined). Click OK to create the HDR image.

Afetr the HDR image is generated, you can save it in various image formats, including TIFF, PFM, EXR or HDR.

Picturenaut is ideal for users who wish to acquire low-level control to get the maximum desired output from an image. It can help photographers, image processing professionals and graphic designers to get an HDR image result that looks exactly like the image should look like, i.e., with more natural outlook. Picturenaut works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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View Detailed System Information In Ubuntu With i-Nex

Farshad — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:00:34 +0000

When trying to determine the hardware specifications for your computer, it is not desirable to open the hardware casing, which, in some cases, can lead to loosing your warranty claim (e.g., in the case of laptops). In such a scenario, one can use some handy tools for determining the installed hardware specifications. i-Nex is one such tool that provides detailed hardware information within a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Ubuntu.

i-Nex is written in Gambas, which is, “A Graphical Development Environment based on a basic Interpreter, with object extensions.” The program works pretty much like CPU-Z. i-Nex comes separated in numerous tabs, with each tab providing information regarding a specific system component. As visible from the screenshot below, you can get detailed information about the CPU, Motherboard/BIOS, Sound and Graphics card, as well as other components such as the Kernel, Memory, Network etc, by clicking the respective tabs. To move across tabs, use the left/right arrow buttons. i-Nex is capable of displaying precise information about a system, including the manufacturer’s name, model number, processors cache information, hard drive sectors, RAM information (total, used, free, shared, buffers, cached and swapped), host name of the system, operating system version, time zone (being used), and more.

You can also check out similar Ubuntu tools for listing hardware information, including HardInfo and dmidecode. You may install i-Nex for your Ubuntu version, from the packages available at Launchpad. The packages are available for all latest Ubuntu versions, including Oneiric Ocelot and Precise Pangolin.

Download i-Nex

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Mounty: Mount Disc Images via App-Indicator Menu Applet In Ubuntu Linux

Farshad — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:54:59 +0000

We previously covered an Ubuntu disc mounting tool known as Furius ISO Mount, which mounts virtual discs and provides options for performing checksums to check the integrity of disc images. While Furius ISO Mount is quite an advanced disc mounting tool, one can always benefit from a minimalist disc mounting utility that works from the app-indicator menu. Mounty is one such disc mounting utility, which enables sharing virtual disc images. After installation, Mounty sits in the system tray and provides easy disc mounting options via the app-indicator menu.

Ubuntu users can install Mounty by entering the following command in Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kokoto-java/omgubuntu-stuff
  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install mounty

When launched, you can mount a disc image via the app-indicator menu applet. To mount a virtual disc image, click Open disk image option and select your virtual disc. You can also enable the Remember mounted images option to make sure that recently opened virtual disc images are auto mounted for quick viewing. You can also load Mounty at system start up by selecting Load at startup option.

When a disc is mounted, a bubble message alerts you that the image has been added to Mounty. You can open the content of the mounted disc image to explore the files inside it. Mounted discs can be ejected anytime and reloaded when required.

What makes Mounty quite handy is the fact that it does not consume a lot of the desktop space and provides a minimalist menu for quickly mounting/auto mounting and ejecting disc images. Furthermore, its ability to remember recently opened disc images makes it even more useful, as compared to other applications of its kind. It is also worth mentioning here that Mounty additionally supports the ability to load (disc) image files from your file manager. You can grab the source code and submit bug reports of this application at Launchpad.

Mounty at Launchpad

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InstagramDownloader: Grab All Images From Any Instagram User In Windows

Farshad — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:27:56 +0000

Instagram is a famous photo sharing application, exclusive to the iOS, which enables users to share and explore pictures, apply filters, and share them via a number of social networking services, such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc. Instagram is famous among iOS users and has supported web service that allow viewing Instagram images. Previously, we reviewed Extragram web service that acts as a web interface for Instagram. This time, we have InstagramDownloader, which is a portable application for quickly downloading Instagrams. You can simply download images by entering an Instagram username.

To get started, download and extract the compressed RAR archive of InstagramDownloader, enter a username and click Download. This creates a text file, containing a log of the URL for each image source extracted for the specified user.

Now, head over to the directory where InstagramDownloader is located, open the log file, copy/paste the given image URL in the textbox to grab the Instagram image via your browser. It must be noted that you will have to save the image by using the default Save As option in your browser. The below image demonstrates how you can grab an instagram image by copy/pasting a URL from the text file that will be generated (after specifying an Instagram username). Since InstagramDownloader does not allow browsing Instagram images, you can always use services like Extragram to explore Instagram images or view and input usernames by using your iOS device, such as an iPhone or iPad.

InstagramDownloader is an open source application that works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Download InstagramDownloader

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