Usman Javaid

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All About Windows 8 FileName Collisions And Copy/Move Dialog Box

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Along with Desktop, Start Search and Start Menu, Windows 8 Copy/Move dialog box has also been revamped with more dynamic user interface elements. The new Copy/Move dialog box includes file copy/move progress graph which helps user visually check the copying/moving speed, along with pause/resume button to instantly pause the copy/move operation and then resume it back. The most notable improvement that you will see in Windows 8 is the new file copy/move conflict resolution, aka filename collision, dialog box. For those who are not familiar with this dialog, it appears when you copy or move files to location where either one or more than one similar files with same titles are already present. In this post, we will discuss some major improvements in both Windows copy/move dialog box and file copy/move conflict resolution window. Read More

The Complete Guide To Windows 8 File History Backup

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File History is a new file backup and restore feature of Windows 8, which will become the reason to ditch all third-party file backup applications that require configuring complex data backup settings in order to seamlessly save and maintain different versions of files. It works just like Windows Restore Point, allowing you to save the User Profile folders to any external storage devices, so they can be easily restored at any time. Unlike many 3rd-party file backup utilities, it keeps track of file versions to easily identify and restore the file version you want, to its original location. The File History backup replaces the old Previous Versions feature which didn't have any extra file backup support. It not only lets you better control the way of performing backup jobs, but also allows managing file versions from an overly simplified interface. In this post, we will explore different aspects of Windows 8 File History feature, look at how it works, and let you know how to use local drive to backup file versions. Read More

Where Is The Startup Folder & How To Edit Startup Items In Windows 8

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Unlike previous versions of Windows, including Windows 7 and Windows Vista, Windows 8 comes with a revamped Metro Start Menu called Start Screen, which holds all the native and installed Metro apps, shortcuts to system utilities, desktop applications, PC Settings, Audio and Video players and more. Although Windows 8 Start Screen acts as central dashboard for all the most frequently used apps and visited system locations, it makes a bit difficult to search and launch Windows system programs and folders. Amongst Windows 8 User Profile folders, Windows Startup Folder is one which can’t be opened using the Start Screen search, and therefore, you need to manually navigate to Windows Startup folder to add, edit and delete the Windows Startup items. Unlike Windows 7 where one can easily open Startup folder from All Programs link (accessible from Start Menu), Windows 8 users need to manually pin Startup folder either at taskbar or Start Screen in order to gain quick access to items that launch with Windows logon. In this post, we will help you find the Windows 8 Startup folder, so you can easily add and edit the Windows 8 startup items. Read More

The Complete Guide To Windows 8 Explorer; New Ribbon Tools And Options

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If you’ve been following news regarding improvements and additions in Windows 8, you must have heard about the revamped ribbon-based Windows Explorer. Windows 8 File Explorer clones the user interface of MS Office 2010 applications, bringing all the necessary options and tools right in the ribbon, so that you don't have to find options from menus in menu bar and from right-click context menu. Just like MS Office applications, it includes a dynamic ribbon at the top of file explorer window, which shows special tools and options for certain types of files. For instance, you will see a a separate Picture Tool Manage tab when you select image(s), similarly, you can access all the respective tools for a selected application from Application tab. Read More

The Complete Guide To Windows 8 Task Manager; New Features And Options

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Windows Task Manager is one Windows feature which hasn’t seen a lot of improvements and additions in a long time. Even though Windows 7 Task Manager does provide the facility to filter processes by User and System initiated processes, manage currently active and passive services, and view logged in users, network utilization, many users find themselves in the labyrinth of running system and user threads when a specific process of an application is to be dealt with. Despite being a complete rewrite of Windows 7 Task Manager, Windows 8 Task Manager classifies the Windows tasks related information into separate groups, which help users easily navigate through user and system initiated processes. For example, one of the feature of Windows 8 Taskbar is the auto-classification of processes into Applications, Background processes, and Windows processes categories; these categories reduce significant amount of time that users would have spent finding threads of certain applications. Read More

How To Refresh Or Reset Your Windows 8 PC [Complete Guide]

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Last year, we wrote a detailed guide on how to reset Windows 7 back to original factory settings; which involved a long list of procedures to be followed in defined sequence, such as, uninstalling application from third party developers, removing application cache, MRU lists, invalid Windows registry entries, and deleting all user profiles and data. We also discussed that Windows 8 will include an one-click option to reset PC without having to follow long and tiring system cleaning steps. Apart with Windows Reset option, Windows 8 also includes Refresh your PC option for situations where your PC frequently becomes unstable and starts behaving in an erratic manner. In this post, we will shed some light on both Windows 8 system repair options; Refresh your PC and Reset your PC. Read More

Windows 8 File Sharing: How To Share Users & System Folders On Network

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The Windows 8 ribbon-based Windows Explorer has certainly changed the way of organizing files and folders, as one can easily find all the basic and advance file management options without having to search through Organize and Windows Explorer right-click context menus. Apart from ribbon-based Explorer and extra tools to manage files and folders within a directory, Windows 8 comes with simple, yet more secure file sharing feature, allowing users to share files and folders with users on public network, as well as Homegroup and Work network groups. Just like previous Windows versions, including Windows 7 and Windows Vista, you can easily establish connection with PCs running Windows 8, and start transferring data without having to manually set IP addresses. Since Windows 8 File Sharing feature is an improved version of Window 7 Sharing, it includes some additional file sharing parameters to make shared files secure from external attacks. In this post, we will guide you through the process of sharing Users and System folders across the network, so that you can easily transfer files to network PCs, and share your system folders with Homegroup users. Read More

The Complete Guide To Windows 8 Startup Menu

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The Windows Advanced Boot Options menu, also known as Windows Startup Menu, includes various system repair and troubleshooting modes which help users fix system startup problems, access command line interpreter, and run Windows in safe mode, along with Windows boot debugging option to initiate step-by-step identification of Windows boot process issues. Like previous Windows versions, Windows 8 Startup Menu can be accessed by pressing F8 key before Windows starts loading. Along with the changes in Windows Desktop, Start Menu, Start Search, Control Panel, and Task Manager, the Windows 8 Startup Menu has also been revamped with new metro look. Read More

How To Enable Windows 8 Safe Mode

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Safe Mode is a diagnostic mode which loads a set of drives and processes sufficient to run Windows. It enables users to find the root cause of hardware and software related issues to apply the required fixes. Although Windows 8 includes relatively easy to use, automated system repair utilities like System Refresh and System Restore, along with Automatic System Repair to resolve a wide range of Windows boot issues, it doesn’t include Safe Mode option. Read More

What’s New In Windows 8 Desktop, Start Search, And Start Screen [Review]

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Windows 8 comes with a huge array of new features, Metro UI-based elements, Metro Full Screen Apps, and many other improvements. Amongst all the UI-related enhancements, native utilities and features, Windows 8 Desktop, Metro Start Screen and Windows 8 Search are the most significant. These Windows UI elements have been totally revamped with new metro look, accompanied by some new and interesting features. In this post, we will excavate deep into features that these major Windows 8 elements have to offer. Read More

What Is Windows 8 Storage Spaces & How To Create Virtual Storage Pool

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Apart from Metro UI, ribbon-based Windows Explorer, Start Screen, fullscreen metro apps, and many other small performance-related changes, Windows 8 comes with an efficient large storage media management feature called Storage Spaces. Supporting the new Resilient File System, casually known as, ReFS, the Storage Spaces allows small and midsize businesses, as well as, home users to easily manage their large (very large) storage pools without having to install expensive devices to organize their data saved across the disks. The Storage Spaces is basically an expandable space that creates a virtual space/ disk of defined data size, allowing users to add as many physical drives as they want until the defined virtual disk’s limit is reached. This makes it easy to include additional storage devices without having to set up and manage each attached physical storage drive. Read More

Quickly Find Hidden Or Disguised TrueCrypt Container Using TCHunt

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TrueCrypt is a super powerful disk encryption software to secure a set of files as well as entire disk to prevent data theft and like attacks. Apart from encrypting data, it allows users to disguise their encrypted containers, so that external sources can’t even check if the disk contains TrueCrypt containers or not.  However, if you created multiple Trucrypt containers on the disk, and have forgotten where they actually reside, TCHunt may help you find them without having to manually search each location on your disk. It’s a small CLI-based tool that checks the attributes of the files to locate TrueCrypt containers on the disk partitions. Read past the jump for more. Read More

File Governor: Unload DLL Files & Quit Process To Resolve File Lock

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Sometimes, it happens that when we attempt to rename, delete, or modify a file/folder, Windows shows an error message saying “access denied” or “file you’re trying to modify is being used by Windows or other application”. Such files, which are being used by Windows-initiated processes and services, are called locked files, and they can’t be renamed, moved or modified until Windows finishes performing locked file-related task(s). However, sometimes locked files get stuck in resource deadlocks and livelocks, leaving user with no other option than to reboot the system to perform the operation over the file. File Governor is a portable application to unlock locked files and folders, enabling users to carry out the required operations over them without having to reboot the system. Read More

Simple Data Backup: Powerful On-Demand Data Backup Software With Desktop Shortcut Feature

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Almost every data backup and synchronization application allows you to create, run and also schedule the data backup/sync jobs to keep the target location updated with most recent files, but if you don’t schedule the backup operation, you have to open the data backup application to manually backup data to target location. If you’re looking for a simple, yet quick data backup utility that doesn’t force to open the main interface to backup the required data, check out Simple Data Backup. Apart from providing all conventional data backup options, it offers an on-demand backup option namely create backup job shortcut at desktop to quickly perform the backup operation. You can also schedule the backup tasks, and set post-backup job actions, such as log off, shutdown system, put computer to sleep, show errors and more. Read More

Monitor File Creation Activity Across Disk Volumes Using File Extension Monitor

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You may know that when you uninstall an application, it doesn’t remove all those files and folders which were created during the execution of the application. The applications’ left over data has to be manually removed to save precious disk space, but what if you can’t find the locations where files and folders created by uninstalled applications are residing? File Extension Monitor is a small application that lets you monitor files that are being created by both system and user applications’ processes. The utility may come useful in situations where one needs to monitor activity of any application’s thread. It also helps you identify thread(s) of uninstalled application, which is surreptitiously creating files on the disk. By default, the application monitors all types of files, but you can specify the file formats which are to be monitored. The application silently monitors file creation activity from system tray. You can choose to disable the monitoring process from system tray menu. Read More

Yankee Clipper Brings Quick & Easy Management Of Large Clipboard Data

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Most clipboard managers allow saving only text clippings and perform text-related operations over clipboard data like change letter case, remove characters etc. Although such tools don’t apply limit on number of text clippings that can be saved, users have to separately manage non-text clipboard data. Yankee Clipper is an all-in-one clipboard manager for Windows that can capture widely used clipboard data formats, including text, image, rich text, and web URL. Apart from supporting multiple clipboard data formats, it doesn’t apply size limit on clipboard item, allowing you to save large clipboard items and quickly use them in required applications. Moreover, it comes with a global hotkey support to quickly hide the application from the screen and reveal it to manage & paste the saved clippings. Read past the jump for more. Read More

WhatsUp PortScanner: Monitor All Opened & Closed TCP / UDP Ports Of Network PCs

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One of the very first step that most viruses/malwares take to infect a PC is surreptitiously open TCP/UDP ports to permit listening connections from harmful sources. Such malicious applications use ports to regulate their incoming and outgoing connections to download complementary scripts in order to exploit admin/root access, as well as steal confidential information from the system. If you’re a network administrator and looking for a tool that can remotely monitor TCP/UDP ports across the network, try out WhatsUP PortScanner. The application has been specifically designed for system administrators to scan all well known ports, all ports, or only specified ports of defined client PC in their network. Unlike previously covered CloseTheDoor, it provides additional tools to detect TCP and UDP ports, advance scanning parameters, and tab-based interface to monitor multiple clients’ IP addresses. Read past the break for more. Read More

Encrypt Data, Generate File Hash, Securely Delete Files & Encode Text Using WinAES

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Encrypting files to prevent unauthorized access and external data theft attacks can be achieved using a number of file encryption software, which allow users to choose an encryption algorithm and encrypt  key to secure the specified files. Like Mac OS X, Windows 7 also enables you to encrypt files across the disk partitions to ensure data safety, and also to restrict others from reading/writing the data. BitLocker and TrueCrypt are probably the best tools available for this very purpose. Although one can create encrypted containers for holding specified files and folders using Truecrypt, it requires following quite a lengthy wizard and configuring complex settings to encrypt a set of files. Simialrly, Windows 7 built-in BitLocker allows encrypting the entire disk, but if you’re encrypting a large disk volume, it may take hours to complete the encryption process. If you’re looking for a super powerful data encryption tool that can encrypt and decrypt specified files with a click, WinAES is a solid pick. Read past the jump for details. Read More

OutlookParameterGUI: 30 Switches To Run Outlook In Required Mode

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Since Outlook supports a variety of plugins, add-ons and other third-party tools’ connectors, it’s highly prone to PST/OST file corruption and other like attacks. Finding out problems with PST, OST and old email archive files isn’t easy, and takes a lot of time as well as effort to identify the root cause of the issue. Sometimes, Outlook stops responding due to the presence of incompatible add-ins, and this not only makes it difficult to find the add-ins, but also to permanently delete them. If you often encounter fatal errors, add in exceptions etc while using Outlook 2010, you probably need to install OutlookParameterGUI to easily identify the issues. The application is meant for launching Outlook with different switches. It supports a total of 30 widely used command line switches for Outlook.exe file, which are used to identify and troubleshoot Outlook-related problems. Instead of using a command line tool to invoke Outlook.exe with a certain switch, you could this application to select the required switch to launch Outlook in required mode. Read More