Waqas Ahmed

Windows and Mobile writer at AddictiveTips || A tech geek and an avid gamer || I've also written for other blogs, including GSMnation || Hold an MBA in Marketing || Founder of Tech Attend. You can Subscribe to me on Facebook // Follow me on Twitter // Add me on Google+

Batch-Upload Videos To YouTube & Dailymotion With AV Media Uploader

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Most of us remain hooked with YouTube all day – at work, home and even on the road. About 71% percent of internet users spend time on this acclaimed service according to a report released back in 2011, and I am sure this staggering percentage has only risen by now. Those who aren't streaming a video are busy uploading one of their own instead. YouTube junkies who often require the need to upload more than one file at the same time would be aware that the world’s most popular streaming service doesn't allow uploading videos in batch. What you can do is open multiple upload tabs in your browser and then drag and drop each file in those tabs. But then again, you will still need to upload each file individually. AV Media Uploader can turn out to be really handy if you want to upload multiple videos to a few of the world's most popular video sharing services in one go. While it doesn't exactly upload multiple videos at the same time, it lets you make a queue of videos to upload a batch one after the other. In addition toYouTube, the app also supports Dailymotion and Make4fun. Read More

Everything Search Engine Is The Fastest Way To Find Files On Windows

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Usually when we hear about the term ‘Search Engine’, names like Google or Bing instantly click the mind (sorry Yahoo! you don't cut it to the list for most anymore). Often, one wishes for something similar on our PC that can quickly index and display search results from local drive. While the default search feature in Windows works fine for the Start Menu or Start Screen entries as well as your installed programs, it's not as instant for the rest of your computer's files and folders because the feature indexes the content of files as well. Everything Search Engine makes things simpler and much, much faster. This tiny Windows application is designed to let you search for files and folders located anywhere on your computer and display search results in real-time at breakneck speed, leaving everything on your computer just a few keystrokes away. The application achieves its impressive speed by indexing file and folder names only, skipping file content. Read More

Le Dimmer Dims Everything On Desktop Except The Window In Focus

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Le Dimmer is a tiny application for Windows that’s designed for a single purpose only: it automatically dims everything on the desktop, including wallpaper, icons, folders, open windows, apps etc. leaving behind the foreground window and the task bar brightly lit. It has no GUI and no complex settings to confuse you. The application can come handy if you watch a lot of movies without going full screen and wanted a way to dim everything other than your media player window. It can also prove to be very useful if you have multiple windows opened and you want to focus only on one window at a time without maximizing it to take the whole of your screen real estate. Lets find out how it works. Read More

Easily Change File & Folder Created, Accessed & Modified Timestamps

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Whenever you store a file or folder on your computer, the saved item is marked with a timestamp in its metadata. This timestamp basically contains the date and time at which that item was created. This is done automatically by the operating system based on the exact time of creation as set in your computer. If you later modify or access the same item, the information regarding these actions is also listed as the last accessed and last modified time. To find out the creation or modified date of any of your files or folders, you can right-click the required item and head over to the Properties sheet to see the pertaining details. Timestamps cannot be easily modified or altered in this Properties screen but with applications like Smart Timestamp, the process becomes fairly easy for anyone. Read More

Save Notes & Login Credentials In An Encrypted Vault With Datum Locker

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In this digital age, safeguarding your sensitive information isn't something to be neglected, as any breaches can lead to leaking of your account details such as login information for web services, credit card information, bank account details, and so on. If you have documents or other information that you want to securely lock away from prying eyes, Datum Locker may have an answer for you. It’s a free Windows app designed for keeping a record of notes and login details in its integrated folders database called datum. The application is backed by Linearistic Distance Cryptographic (LDC) algorithm engineered by Nulluox – the developer behind Datum Locker – and aids in securely storing your data with a single lock key. This robust method can protect all your details with one password only. Read More

AkelPad Is A Multi-Panel, Less Cluttered Alternative To Notepad++

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If you prefer to stick around with Windows Notepad for your note-taking needs, you might be missing on a lot of things that third-party text editors provide. Yes, I’m talking about various feature-rich alternatives like Notepad++ and its truckload of plugins that we have covered so far. If you’re looking for an app that looks similar to Notepad while providing some of the flexibility and control of Notepad++, AkelPad is worth giving a shot. It’s an open-source text editor for Windows that surpasses the default Notepad in many ways. Its feature-laden design is quite simple yet provides plentiful options to tinker with your text files and write code in an effective manner. It also boasts  tabbed view that enables you to work with multiple text files in the same window, instead of opening each in its separate window. Read More

MindMaple Is A Windows & iOS Mind Mapping Tool With Cross-PC Access

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Mind mapping is a useful technique that involves brainstorming new ideas associated with one central subject. The technique has been in practice for quite a long time, and there are various apps that can aid you in the process. We have covered a lot of such apps in the past like Blumind, TouchMind and Edraw Mind Map, just to name a few. MindMaple is another such app that we recently tried out, and were left fairly impressed. The feature-laden application is probably one of the best of its kind. It enables you to draw out your ideas via its intuitive interface, letting you put-in words, pictures, cliparts, and shapes etc. to link everything that is wandering in your mind. Alongside an impressive Windows version, the app also has a iOS variant, which works equally good on iPhone and iPad. Read More

Copy & ZIP File Structure Of Directories Without Including Actual Data

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DirStructureCopy is a small Windows application that allows you to copy the complete file structure of a directory including dummy files without the actual file data, and store it all as a ZIP archive. This feature can prove to be very useful if you need to store just a specific file structure on a small storage medium such as a compact disk, without storing the actual data in the files. Likewise, it can come handy if you require to diagnose an ongoing computer related issue, for example, to rectify a damaged file structure by seeking expert advice. You can do this via simply sending them the dummy file structure. Another use case is preserving the directory structure of your media collection in order to remember everything that you had in them, when you temporarily want to delete the actual files from there to free up space, with intentions on restoring them later. The application is able to store the complete directory structure, with an option to include sub-directories and ZIP archives as well, without storing the actual data in them. Read More

Fix Unwanted Blurring In Photos With A Click Using SmartDeblur

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SmartDeblur is a free Windows application by Vladimir Yuzhikov that lets you enhance blurred or out-of-focus images, and sports a host of additional features. The application is able to recover data from photos with three different types of blurring, namely Motion blur, Gaussian blur and lens blur (in photos that are simply out of focus). It also boasts a powerful ‘auto-detect blur’ option, which allows it to identify the type of blur effect on its own and take care of it without requiring much input from the user. In addition, you can choose to remove blur either from the whole image, or a specific region. Read More

Get Global Text Expansion & Autocorrect In Windows With WordExpander

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The AutoCorrect feature in Word is probably the most used overlooked part of MS Office, with many people taking it for granted. The time it saves by automatically correcting those typos that we make in a hurry is priceless, and the absence of such a great feature across other apps or Windows' own text editors is lamentable. I wish almost all text editors included such a feature out of the box. The good news is, software like WordExpander can bring this functionality to almost every app you can think of, and that too without costing you a dime. The application appears to have been developed with Medical Transcription in mind, but can work perfectly for general purpose word expansion and auto-correct as well. No matter if it's a note-taking utility or a more powerful text editor, WordExpander supports almost every app out there. Read More

UrlMonitor Is A Tiny, Portable Website & Page Content Monitoring Tool

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If you have used applications like Growl Site Monitor, Monitey or StatusCake, you must be aware of how handy they can be to monitor a website's activity or downtime. These apps are designed to automatically notify you if the specified URL returns an unusual response or hits a 404. UrlMonitor is a similar Windows app with a clean design and minimal interface. It’s quite simple to use and allows you to monitor any kind of website for content changes such as missing links, file unavailability or deleted content, and alerts you by flashing its system tray icon, as well as displaying a 404 error in its response log. It quietly sits in the system tray without disrupting your workflow. Read More

Quickly Switch, Backup & Restore Windows WiFi Network Profiles, IP & DNS Settings

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When reinstalling Windows or upgrading to a new PC, we usually have to set up everything from scratch. We reinstall apps, re-download important files, and reconfigure several settings here and there. This includes credentials for wireless network profiles and configuring your network settings, such as the static IP and DNS that you want to use. If you’re a network administrator who is required to configure network profiles on multiple PCs and on a regular basis, such a task could take a bulk of your day's time. Network Profiles Utility can really save the day in such situations. Designed as a portable application, Network Profiles Utility can easily import and export wireless connection profiles as well as IP and DNS settings among multiple Windows machines. Read More

Easily Share Images & Screenshots To Imgur Via Drag & Drop With MyImgur

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Imgur needs no introduction when it comes to sharing photos and pictures over the web. If you have ever used Reddit, you'd probably be as much familiar with this acclaimed service as you like viewing those cat pictures over at Reddit. MyImgur is a Windows application that lets you upload images or screenshots to Imgur right from your desktop. You don’t need to fire up your favorite browser, open Imgur’s website and then upload the images. MyImgur consolidates all these steps into one. You simply drag and drop your image over the application window and it will swiftly move to Imgur server. The application also lets you sign in to your Imgur account in order to upload images straight to your profile. Read More

Add Global Hotkeys Support To Windows Media Player With WMP Keys

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Microsoft has been struggling for a while now, to get more people to use its Windows Media Player application. The application isn't used by many people anymore due to lack of features that are usually found in other third-party apps like KMPlayer and VLC, both of which handle audio as well as video files much better than Microsoft's offering. Yet, many casual users still rely on WMP because it comes with Windows and requires no further installation. Those of you who use it as their default app to play media files would be aware that it doesn't support global hotkeys by default. Global hotkeys aid in quickly navigating the app via keyboard shortcuts without having to bring up the player's window and use the mouse; for instance, you wouldn't have to bring the app into focus in order to change a song or turn down the volume, with the appropriate hotkeys. WMP Keys is a Windows Media Player plugin that enables this feature. It  doesn't boasts a truckload of options, but it still gets the job done and does it fairly well. Read More

PC Hunter Consolidates Every Bit Of System Information Under One Hood

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System information tools come in all shapes and size, and we've covered plenty of them in the past such as SIW, i-Nex, Speccy and countless others. If you’re a power user who wants to view detailed PC information for various purposes, try PC Hunter. It’s a portable program that puts a whole lot of useful system related information at your disposal. The application is designed to aid advanced users in detecting and removing malwares from their system, as well as access deep-level information related to the registry, hardware and software components, kernel modules, network, startup programs and much more. Read More

Nokia Music Comes To Windows 8 & RT; Impresses On Every Front [Review]

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Nokia’s foray into the world of music started quite a while back, when the company used to sell its XpressMusic line of mobile phones that focused on music playback. Even though the series had its moments when it shined, it was quickly overshadowed with the demise of Symbian phones. Fortunately, the concept still lived on as Nokia Music and translated over to Windows Phone back in September as a music streaming service and online store. So far, this offering by the Finnish phone maker has been enjoying its success on mobile platforms only, but that changes today, as Nokia has released the Nokia Music app for Windows 8 / RT. From what we have seen so far, it seems to be an awesome addition to the Windows Store. Read More

Convert MS Word Documents To Audio Files With AudioDocs

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With the pace at which technology in advancing, it wouldn't be more than a decade or two before we will have robots educating our children and telling them bedtime stories. Although we still have to wait for a while for that, we do have various text-to-speech software available today that can turn our literature into audiobooks, and a little Windows app called AudioDocs performs flawlessly well in this regard. This open-source program available at SourceForge is designed to convert documents in DOC/DOCX format into WAV audio files. It can prove to be quite useful if you want to convert stories, novels, essays, reports etc. into playable audio files. Details after the jump. Read More

Quickly Open Windows Command Prompt As Administrator In Current Path

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You may have noticed that when executing the Command Prompt Utility – usually shortened to cmd – from Start Screen or Start Menu, it opens up in your user folder when run it as normal, and in the System32 folder when launched as Administrator. This can be fairly annoying if you simply want to open another CMD window in your current path, the reason being you then have to enter a few 'cd' commands to navigate to your desired directory. ELE from WinAero is a fantastic application that can save you from this hassle. This lightweight portable application lets you launch a new elevated Command Prompt window i.e. with Administrator privileges right in your current selected folder path. Lets find out how it works. Read More

Record Your PC’s Screeen In GIF Format Using GifCam For Windows

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Previously, we have covered some really awesome screencast programs for Windows such as Screenbird, Rylstim Screen Recorder, Acala Screen Recorder and Screencast-O-Matic, each offering its own unique features and functionality. However, most of these screencast tools allow saving output files in video formats like WMV, MP4, MPEG etc. If you’re on the hunt for a Windows app that can save screencasts as GIF files, try GifCam. The application makes it easy for anyone to capture on-screen activity directly to GIF  format instead of having to record the video in another format first and then converting it into GIF via third-party converters. What’s more, it’s a portable application, which allows using it on the move and saves you from any installation hassle. Read More

ModernNote Is A Multi-Format Modern UI Text Editor For Windows 8 & RT

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Windows 8 comes with tons of useful features and apps, and while Microsoft's latest OS includes Modern UI versions of many of them including Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer and Calculator among others, Notepad has unfortunately been neglected in this regard, and still looks like its antecedents. Even though most of you might not be seeking a metro version of Notepad, those with Windows RT devices must be missing it to jot down their notes without entering the desktop mode. ModernNote is a Windows Store app that - as the name suggests - aims to get rid of this nuisance by providing users with a feature-rich text editor with a touch-friendly Modern UI. Read More