AddictiveTips » Windows

DeEgger Embedder: Hide Private Files Within Images, Videos Or Audio (Media Steganography)

Waqas — Sat, 19 May 2012 12:15:30 +0000

If you are oblivious of the term Steganography, you might be missing on one of the most widely used methods of securing important data. It is a technique that allows you to embed one file into another. The purpose is to hide the original file, make it devious to an unintended recipient by concealing it within a fake one. Back in 2010, Aatif reviewed SilentEye, which uses the steganography technique to hide confidential data. Deegger embeddeR offers the same facility, but with support for additional media formats. The free steganography software is designed to merge two or more files together, supports a wide range of file extensions you can hide and lets you create the bogus file in AVI, JPEG, MP3, MP4, PDF, PNG and other formats.

The entire process of combining and extracting a file is quite simple. All you need is to select your host file and embed file via simple drag & drop. You may also use the browse button on the right side of the window to select your files. As stated earlier, you can embed as many files into a single file as you want. Once, you have added your source and embed files, simply click Combine button at the bottom to save your bogus file, making the woven file completely hidden to any third person.

Did I mention you can use the same tool to decrypt your file? All you have to do is click the Extract button to choose the steganographic file you just created and click Open, in the following window. It will then ask you to select the target folder for file extraction, simply choose your output directory and click Save to extract your original file.

You may click the Settings button at the bottom right of the window to open up a configuration console, where you can switch between singe, multi-host and parallel modes, enable/disable read-only and modify timestamp embedding options, and change view settings.

The utility works on both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions of Windows and supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download DeEgger Embedder

Batch-Convert PDF Files To PowerPoint Presentations via Hot Folders

Waqas — Sat, 19 May 2012 08:00:27 +0000

A while back, we reviewed 3DPageFlip PDF to Flash, a handy tool to easily convert your PDF files to SWF format, so you may embed your PDF documents (as flash) into HTML pages. Today, we came across a similar tool from the same developer that helps you convert most PDF files to PPT (MS PowerPoint) format. PageFlip Free PDF to PowerPoint is quite useful in situations where you want to present your important PDF files as a PowerPoint presentation, whether for a class project or to give a demonstration during a meeting with your boss. Like PDF to SWF tool, this utility also provides three different ways to convert your documents, i.e. Batch, Hot Directories and Command Line. Read past the jump for more details.

The main screen of the application houses all three aforementioned conversion options. The Batch Convert Mode is used for typical PDF to PPT conversion process, while Hot Directories Mode lets you choose specific directory from your system where the tool generates all the converted files. The Command Line on the other hand performs the conversion process using simple CMD commands, and all the commands can be viewed by clicking Using PDF to PPT in command line under Command Line Mode section.

To perform a simple PDF to PPT conversion, select Batch Convert Mode from the main screen and click next. In the next step, all you need is to drag your PDF files over the application to add them to conversion list. The tool is designed to convert multiple files in one go. You may also click Add Folder button on the toolbar, which in turn adds all the PDF files in the selected directory to the application. After you have finished adding you documents, click Convert button to begin the process.

Now let’s see how the Hot Directories Mode works. First off, you can select this mode either from the main screen or directly from Batch Convert Mode. Under this mode you need to choose your Input Directory (source folder) and Out Directory (target location), so that any file placed in the source directory is automatically converted and moved to the target directory. Furthermore you can mark Include Sub-Directory to include all the files from the input directory tree. Finally, select output directory for Log File Path and click the blue button to start the monitoring process. You may however, halt the it anytime by clicking the Stop button.

Let us know in the comments whether it worked for you or not. You can grab it absolutely for free and it works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download PageFlip Free PDF to PowerPoint

Converber: Convert Between 2000+ Units From 53 Different Categories

Fawad — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:30:17 +0000

Unit conversion can get a bit confusing, especially with the Standard System being used in the US and Metric System being used elsewhere. Whether the US should adopt the Metric System has been the topic of debate since a long time, but as long as the our friends there continue to use the Standard System, all the rest of the world will have to bear with it. Due to these different systems for unit conversion being used in the world, having a good unit converter is necessary at times. The default calculator included with Windows allows you to convert between some basic units, but if you want a tool to help you in converting a wide range of complex units, try Converber. It is an application for Windows that allows you to convert between 2072 units, divided into 53 different categories. More on Converber after the jump.

Due to the massive number of units available, you can find just about any unit in the database of the application. It allows you to convert between Length, Force, Flow, Temperature, Energy, Power, Distance, Speed Temperature, Volume and more. The application offers a minimalistic interface. The left pane contains the Unit list; when you select a unit in the left pane, the right pane displays the detailed list of related units. The text fields at the top of left and right unit lists allow you to enter the values for conversion. Whenever you enter a number in any one of the text fields, the result will be immediately displayed in the other one.

There is a wide range of unit types supported by the application including units for Temperature, Distance, Mass, Area, Bass, Currency, density, Volume, Pressure, Velocity, Acceleration, Force, Energy, Power, Fuel Consumption, Flow, Torque, Angles, Luminous Intensity, Illumination, Time, Quantity & Radioactivity. Using the Category menu at the top, you can view all the unit categories. You can also view the relevant units of each category separately by selecting it from the category list.

The Options window (accessible from the Tools menu) lets you configure Appearance, Numbers and Toolbars related settings and modify default application behavior.

The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Converber

How To Enable/Disable Fast User Switching In Windows 8 [Tip]

Fawad — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:31:22 +0000

Like previous versions of Windows, The Log Off and Lock functions in Windows 8 enable users to quickly switch between all the available user accounts without having to restart or shutdown the PC. When you lock the screen, it shows you a back navigation button on the logon screen to let you quickly switch to any user account without having to quit background processes. Often, when users switch to other accounts via Lock function, the background processes become unstable, and in some cases, Windows forcibly closes conflicting system processes. If you don’t want to allow switching between user accounts on your PC, you can use the Microsoft Management Console snap-in called Local Group Policy Editor to change the Fast User Switching policy setting. In what follows, we will guide you through the process of disabling Fast User Switching in Windows 8.

To begin, make sure that you have logged in as Administrator or have required administrative rights to change local group policies. First, go to Start Screen, type gpedit.msc, select Apps from right sidebar, and then click gpedit.msc in main window.

This will open Local Group Policy Editor. Now, go to the following location and look for Logon in the left pane.

Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/System/Logon

Just double-click Hide Entry Points for Fast User Switching to bring up a dialog box to change Fast User Switching policy setting.

At the top, there are Not Configured, Enabled and Disabled options available. Selecting each setting will let you read its affect in Help section. To disable Hide Entry Points for Fast User Switching, just select Enabled from the list and click OK.

Once done, you will have to enforce the change made to Fast User Switching policy setting. To do so, close the Local Group Policy Editor and open the Run dialog box. Enter the command “gpupdate /force“ and click OK. The policy will be updated and applied on all user accounts.

Fast User Switching will now be disabled in Windows 8. You will notice that User Tile menu (accessible from Start Screen) doesn’t show other user accounts.

To re-enable Fast User Switching, just choose Not Configured in its policy setting dialog and apply the changes via gpupdate /force command.

How To Enable Hidden Explorer UI Animations In Windows 7 & Windows 8 [Tip]

Fawad — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:30:08 +0000

The Windows 7 and Windows 8 Explorer have some hidden animations that cannot be enabled via Control Panel or Registry Editor. Why Microsoft has chosen not to include them in Windows settings is a mystery, but as curious as people are, things like these cannot stay hidden for a long time. Earlier, there was a method for enabling the hidden animations in Windows Explorer that required you to replace the Explorer Frame file, namely ExplorerFrame.dll, with a customized library file, but most users find replacing system files quite a tedious process, as it includes changing the ownership of the files. Today, we have found a miniscule application called AniExplorer, which lets you enable the hidden animations in Windows 7 and Windows 8 Explorer without having to manually remove or replace system files.

The download package of AniExplorer contains executable files for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. The tool offers a total of 4 different animation effects namely Vertical Rectangle, Horizontal Rectangle, Position and Alpha. Selecting each animation type displays the files and folder in a different way every time you open a folder in Windows Explorer. The Animation Speed allows you to choose the display speed of the selected animation using a slider. There are four speed settings; Very Slow, Slow, Fast and Very Fast. After selecting the required Animation Type and Animation Speed, click Apply to enable the animation. To restore back to the original Windows settings, choose Restore Defaults.

The video below demonstrates the available animations that can be enabled through this application.

AniExplorer works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download AniExplorer

Find Files Based On Size Using Windows Explorer Search Filters [Tip]

Fawad — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:45:58 +0000

Not a long time ago, a hard disk of a personal computer with 1 Terabyte of available storage space was unheard of. Nowadays, it is considered to be the standard hard drive space for a personal computer, and we can easily fill it up, since we’ve stopped deleting large files after their use is over. For instance, most of us do not bother to delete HD movies, even after watching them. To help our readers analyze disk space usage and manage data on the hard drive, we have covered a lot of useful disk space management applications in the past; OverDisk (reviewed here), Disk Space Fan (reviewed here) and RidNacs (reviewed here), just to name a few. Disk space analyzers allow you to view the files and folders stored on your hard drive with respect to their size and provides you with the option to delete them. There is no question about their usefulness, but what if you can view all the files bigger than a particular size without installing any third party application? In this post, we will explain how you can use the Windows Explorer Search to find files bigger than a defined size.

The following screenshot displays an example of a search filter. The filter used in this case will display all files in the current location that are greater than 1 GB.

To search for files larger than 1 GB using the Search bar of Windows Explorer, open Windows Explorer and enter the following command and hit Enter.

size:>1GB

After the search is complete, all the files with a size of more than 1GB will be listed in the Search Results. Now you can look through the list and delete any unneeded file. The file size can be anything, for instance, you can enter 500KB, 20MB, 500MB, 2GB, 10GB etc. By default, there is also a list of pre-configured file size filters, such as Empty (0 KB), Small (10 – 100 KB), Large (1 – 16 MB), Gigantic (>128 MB) etc. This way you can search for files according to file size and keep your hard drive free of huge, unwanted files.

[via Lifehacker]

WinSchedular: Automate Routine Windows Tasks By Recording Macros

Fawad — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:20:56 +0000

Macros provide an easy way to quickly perform routine tasks without having to manually follow the required steps involved. It’s basically a set of actions, steps or tasks to perform a particular operation, such as opening a form, printing a report, applying effects & formatting etc. WinScheduler is an application for Windows that enables you to automate repetitive tasks by letting you create macros. The macros can be initiated at a specific time or when a specific event occurs. The application contains both a macro recorder and a macro editor to let you easily record keyboard strokes, mouse clicks, and edit recorded commands, respectively.

The application is easy to use. It offers 3-paned interface; the left pane allows you to add different groups to manage the macros. The list of macros included in the selected group is displayed in the main window, while the selected Macro Properties can be viewed and edited from bottom pane.

The Macro Editor in the lower right pane contains 3 tabs, namely Macro Properties, macro Triggers and Macro Text. The Macro Properties tab lets you change the Macro Name and add a description for the macro. Click More to change the Macro Playback Speed and the number of times the selected macro should be repeated.

You can select the type of trigger for the selected macro from the Macro Triggers tab. The application lets you select Time Schedule, Window, File, Folder, Drive, Display Pixel, Idle, Windows Shutdown and None as the Trigger type.

In Macro Text, you can edit the macro script, run macro preview, and add predefined macro commands via cmd tools available on toolbar. Moreover, it provides some basic script editing tools to help you quickly write the macro. Using the debugger (available alongside play button), you can quickly check macro script for errors.

The Insert menu at the top lets you add types of macros using different methods, including adding a macro using Macro Wizard, manual Add Macro method, Add Clipboard Macro, Record Macro and Add Group (to manage macros).

The Settings window (accessible from Tools –> Options) lets you assign hotkeys for different actions including start/stop macro recording, show/hide main window, enable/disable scheduled triggers etc., and change default application behavior.

Apart from the free version, it also offers Standard and Profession versions, which cost $29.95 and $79.95 respectively. You can check out detailed feature comparison between Free, Standard and Professional versions on product page. The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download WinSchedular

Ares Catcher: Download Videos From YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe & More

Fawad — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:35:25 +0000

While going through some of the older posts at AddictiveTips, we found out that many of the previously covered online video downloaders do not work anymore. The reason being that the API of websites, such as YouTube, keeps changing, which causes the downloaders to stop working, as they fail to access the source path of the video streams. For this reason, developers keep coming up with new video downloaders that can detect the source path and grab the video stream for you. Today, we have another video downloader for you called Ares Catcher that lets you download videos from YouTube, Blip.tv, Vimeo, Metacafe, Daily Motion, Tu.tv and more. The application also allows you to convert the videos into MPEG format, letting you play them on those LCD TVs that only support MPG video format. More on Ares Catcher after the jump.

Please note that during installation, the setup program asks you to install Coupish, and Babylon, as well as to set Babylon website as your browser’s homepage. This however, can easily be avoided by selecting Custom Installation followed by unchecking Bablylon and Coupish installation options.

Ares Catcher is both a player and downloader. It works just as a browser, but instead of installing any extensions, you can download the videos directly from within the application interface. The main screen provides you with an address bar at the top. Just enter the URL of the video hosting website and browse for the video that you want to download. Once a video starts playing, the Add to Download List button lets you add the video to the download list available at the top. Once added, you can browse for any other video without worrying about the download process getting interrupted. The Download button lets you start the download process of all the video streams added to the list.

Clicking Options at the bottom lets you change the output location of the videos and adjust video conversion related options. The utility also makes it easier to sync converted videos with iOS devices. If you want to quickly add the video to iTunes, simply enable Import Converted File into iTunes option to send the video to iTunes library as soon as the conversion process finishes.

The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Ares Catcher

WirelessKeyView Updated; Now Lets You Import & Export Wireless Keys

Zeeshan — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:15:16 +0000

Back in 2009, we featured WirelessKeyView, an application with the purpose of recovering Wireless Network Keys from Windows or from the data left behind after Windows is uninstalled. Since our last review, WirelessKeyView had many of its minor bugs fixed. The method of displaying data has also been improved to incorporate grid view and to mark odd and even rows in order to make it easier to keep track of the fields. However the most important update added recently was the Import and Export of Wireless Keys. So now, you can backup and migrate your wireless keys anywhere you want.

Once WirelessKeyView is up and running, you will find Import and Export functions in FIle menu.

You can choose to export selected keys to a TXT file to any local location. Once transferred, simply transfer the file to another computer and then import the keys there by using the Import keys From Export File option, accessible from File menu.

Thus, if you have multiple computers that need to be configured, use this application to export the keys and then import them to all the PCs. By doing so, the amount of work needed to be done is extremely reduced. However, the application lacks the ability to automatically encrypt exported TXT file. This creates a vulnerability in the system which malicious people can take advantage of. Encryption of the exported file is a much needed improvement required in this application. It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows.

Download WirelessKeyView

Nirsoft DomainHostingView: View Detailed Information For Any Domain Name

Waqas — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:30:28 +0000

If you’ve been following us for a while, you might know that we have provided extensive coverage of various tools from the developer NirSoft. DomainHostingView is another useful utility by NirSoft that is designed to allow you to gather information about any domain name using various DNS and WHOIS (pronounced Who Is) queries. It sums up the information by showing numerous details regarding the domain, for instance, the company that has registered the domain name (registrar), registrant’s name, website hosting company and location, its creation and expiry date, domain owner, mail server, DNS and so on. As is NirSoft’s usual norm, the utility is portable and ultra-light, taking up a mere 230 kB of your precious storage space. More details coming after the jump.

One of the things we liked about this tool is its minimalistic UI design – giving it that easy-to-use feel and look. All you have to do is type in your domain name and hit the Go button (or simply press F9), and the utility will start to generate the domain report. The information contained is divided into different sections. Summary Information section holds the basic domain info that I mentioned earlier.

Scroll down the window and you will see DNS Records section, which includes fields like Record Type, Host Name, IP Address and More Data. DomainHostingView also tells you IP Address Information, Raw Domain Information, Web Server IP Address Information and Mail Server IP Address Information across-the-board. However, you must also note that as the report is based on information supplied by the WHOIS server, and any server downtime might result in some of the information being omitted from the report. Finally, you can save the report by clicking File > Save HTML Report on the menu bar.

The tool works flawlessly on all Windows Operating Systems, such as Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, including both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions.

Download DomainHostingView

RumShot: Take Screenshots & Create Awesome Themed Previews With Them

Waqas — Thu, 17 May 2012 13:15:49 +0000

We always emphasize the importance of screenshot capturing utilities and how they can help you explain system problems to your friends or an expert. Just last month, Fawad compiled a list of five of the best free screenshot tools available out there. Today, we will take a closer look into yet another awesome screenshot application labelled RumShot. Created by Andrew Powell from Shellscape Software, this unique software, unlike other screenshot capturing utilities, comes with a twist. Along with grabbing high-resolution shots of your desktop, it also generates beautiful-looking screen previews, snuggled in with a wide variety of user-created themes. It doesn’t contain a plethora of features like other famous tools, including our own favorites, Greenshot and Shotty, but rather depicts a fancy new idea of how we can share different parts of our screens. The intuitive interface takes just a little time to get used to, and comprises a very simple layout. Read on for details.

The setup file of the application and the themes pack both come separately, so you’d need to grab both the files from Shellscape Software website (the download link is provided at the end of this post) to get it working. After installing the utility, just place all the themes (in .rsthemes format) in the Rumshot Themes folder under My Documents. Now, upon launching the application, it will automatically scan all the available themes. You can select your desired theme under the Theme Selector to the right, and there are quite a lot of them to choose from. You may configure various parameters before taking a screenshot, such as Background Color, JPEG Quality and enable/disable settings like Update Preview in Real-Time, Save Screen and Preview as different formats and FTP Screenshot and Preview on Save, where the latter is used to save the captured screens directly to an FTP server by specifying its Username, Password, Port, Address and Target Directory.

When you’re done tweaking your preferred settings, click Take Screenshot and place the tool over the area that you want to capture, Afterwards, just hit the Save Screenshot button, which will let you save both the full screen and the generated preview in JPEG, BMP, PNG or GIF extension.

We quickly created a few different samples using this tool, and the output was gorgeous. Just for a reference, you can check a few of them out below.

The application is available absolutely free and works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions are supported.

Download RumShot

PySoft Automatically Sorts Files In A Folder Into Subfolders Based On Type

Waqas — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:55:34 +0000

It’s hard to look for a specific file within a cluttered folder, which is filled with random stuff (Downloads folder, anyone?). If you suffer from this habit of randomly placing your files in the same folder, for instance, videos, music, documents, pictures, shortcuts and whatnot, then now is a good time to step ahead and organize your things a little, using PySort. This open source tool is aimed towards lazy folk, who want things to be sorted out in no more than one or two clicks. It does so by automatically creating relevant folders for all files within a folder, and detects and throws in all known file types to their appropriate folders. An “Unknown” directory is created for all the unidentified file types. This nifty tool is quite effective in scenarios where you want to quickly sort out your files instead of manually performing this time consuming task. Moreover, you can work with practically any folder you want. More after the break.

Upon launching the tool, you are introduced to its simple UI, containing a set of only three buttons (Change Directory, SORT and Exit). Well, don’t be fooled by the utility’s primitive design, as it has a lot to offer. As I mentioned earlier, you can work with any folder you want – just click the Change Directory button and choose the source folder that you want to sort out.

Now, when you have done making your folder selection, simply click the SORT button to let the application start the process.

The natural question to ask is, how fast does it sort your files out? Well, the answer is, almost instantaneously, but it also depends on how much files you have inside the selected directory. When the sorting process is complete, your folder will be organized containing subfolders for each file category; for example Audio, Shorcuts, Text, Video, Unknown etc.

The utility is available for Windows operating system and works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Testing was carried out on Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit edition.

Download PySort

If you liked this application, you can click here to check out a few other similar utilities that we have covered in the past.

SynWrite Is A Portable Syntax Editor With Tree Structure View For Code

Zeeshan — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:00:14 +0000

Previously, we have gone over text editors the likes of Editra, a cross platform editor, and InType, an editor with a tabbed interface. Today we shall review and compare another advanced text and programming editor called SynWrite. It supports source code programming in over 70 languages (which include JAVA, C++, C, Cobol, Pascal, Perl, HTML, XML, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, etc.) and writing in over 80 file extensions (TXT and extensions allocated to the languages it supports). Like InType, it is a TDI-based interface and thus can open multiple files in new tabs. It supports a tree panel that keeps track of all code groups and provides links to them as well as a clipboard panel that stores all instances of copied text which can then be selected and used as you wish. It can also expand and collapse (i.e. show and hide) portions of the written code as you wish.

SynWrite carries a remarkable number of search functions, which include support for regular expressions (regex) as well as extracting text from files using regex. There is also a small quick search toolbar at the bottom-left corner of the application that can be used to quickly search for a term in the currently opened file.

It also supports a large variety of language encoding. You can even convert the current language encoding to the one you wish to.

You can also set bookmarks on specific lines in your file and create macros for the file by using the options in their relative menus. Furthermore, you can select the text you want and change its case to UPPER CASE, lower case, Title Case, Sentence case and iNVERT cASE by using the right most button on the second toolbar. It even has a built-in spellchecker.

SynWrite can also allow you to make changes in how it displays data by editing the settings via the Customize… button in the Options Menu. Clicking on this will open the Options window in which you can navigate to any of the relative tabs and change the options for the editor. For example, it allows you to change the way the text is highlighted, make the application portable, change the history settings and more.

Furthermore, if you were to compare SynWrite with its counterparts, Editra and InType, you would find that the main important differences are:

Unlike both InType and Editra, it currently boasts a stable release, thus occasions where the application crashes are almost non-existent.
Like InType and unlike Editra, SynWrite is a Microsoft Windows only application.
SynWrite has a portable option, which Editra doesn’t.
And unlike Editra, SynWrite has no additional plugins although it can connect with and use Total Commander file manager.

All in all, if you’re using Microsoft Windows, then SynWrite is a better choice than Editra and InType.

Download SynWrite

If you liked this application, you might want to take a look at our showcase of text editing applications.

EZ-CRM: Lightweight Contact Manager With Notes & VCF Export Support

Fawad — Thu, 17 May 2012 08:26:27 +0000

Keeping yourself connected to other people requires you to have their contact details always ready. Some fields of work, especially sales, have the most amount of importance for maintaining your contacts in order to succeed. Half of the work in sales in talking to the right person at the right time, and for that, you need to have the contact information of the required person at hand whenever needed. Previously, we have covered a lot of contact managers for mobile. Today, we have a contact manager for Windows called EZ-CRM, which allows you to save information about a contact, including Company, Name, Phone Numbers, Email Address, Website Address, Photo, Notes etc. The application allows you to save the information, edit it and export each contact as a vCard in VCF file format. Notes can be added for each contact, and each note entry is time-stamped, allowing you to add specific details about a contact. It has the capability to launch the email and website in your browser just with a single click. More on EZ-CRM after the jump.

The main interface of the application is divided into 2 panes. The left side contains a list of all the added contacts with the Company Name, First Name and Last Name of the contact, while the right side displays detailed information about the selected entry. By default, a picture of the contact, Company name, Quick Facts (Name, Phone Number, Email, Website) and Quick Notes are available at the top, while details, including Contact Information, Address Information, Notes, Phone, Email and Website, appear at the bottom. The vCard button exports the selected contact information as a vCard in VCF file format.

To add a new contact, click the new contact button available at the top left side (beside File). The New Contact window lets you quickly add Company Name, First Name, Last Name, attach an image, and enter Phone, Email, Website and Address Information. You can add up to 3 different Phone Numbers, Email Addresses, Websites etc, for each contact that you add.

Once added, the contact data can also be edited by choosing a contact and selecting Edit from the main interface.

During testing, the application displayed some stability issues, and we hope the developer fixes them in the next release. EZ-CRM works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, provided your have .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 or higher installed.

Download EZ-CRM

How To Switch To A New Desktop Background Using A Hotkey In Windows 7 & 8 [Tip]

Fawad — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:30:23 +0000

The themes in Windows 7 and Windows 8 usually contains a number of images in each theme. Other elements remain the same, but the image changes to a new one after a specified amount of time. This time interval can be changed by opening Personalization settings and selecting the Desktop Background option. The time interval can be set from 10 seconds to one day depending on the user’s preference. If you are fond of using a large collection of wallpapers, you can set a lower time interval. However, having a large collection means that sometimes, an image may appear on your background that might not be according to your mood at the time and you might want to change it. By default, the desktop context menu of Windows 7 and Windows 8 contains an option called Switch To next Desktop Background, which – as the name suggests – allows you to switch to the next desktop background available in the image list. In this post, we will show you how to switch to the next desktop background using a keyboard shortcut rather than accessing the right click context menu of Windows desktop. Read on to find out how.

First, open a blank Notepad document and paste the following code in it.

set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
	WshShell.SendKeys("^ ")
	WshShell.SendKeys("+{F10}")
	WshShell.SendKeys("n")

Next, save the file with any name of your choice, however, it must be saved with the VBS extension. For instance, you can name it NextDesktopBG.vbs. Double-clicking this file will change the desktop background to the next one in the image list.

Note: By default, Windows has extensions set to hidden for known file types, and that prevents users from changing them directly. To show extensions for all file types, just follow our quick guide.

Right-click the file and select Create Shortcut from the context menu to place a shortcut of the file on your desktop.

Now, right-click the shortcut and open its Properties. Under the Shortcut tab, select a custom shortcut key in front of the Short key field. Click OK to apply the new hotkey.

Now you can easily switch to the next desktop background using a hotkey!

[via Intowindows]

How To Unhide/Show File Extensions In Windows

Haroon Q. Raja — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:01:36 +0000

[For newbies/beginners] By default, Windows has extensions set to hidden for known file types, and that prevents users from changing them directly. In what follows, we will show you how to unhide file extensions for all file types.

To show extensions for all file types, follow these steps:

Open My Computer (or any folder).
If you are using Windows 7 or later, press the Alt key to show the menu bar.
Open the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Folder Options’.
Go to the ‘View’ tab and uncheck ‘Hide extensions for known file types’.
Click OK and you’re done.

FlashTray Pro: Launch Applications, Folders, URLs & More via System Tray Or Hotkeys

Fawad — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:50:35 +0000

Shortcut managers, application launchers and context menu editors all have one thing in common: they all simplify and enhance your Windows experience. In earlier posts, we have covered a lot of applications that allow you to easily access different programs and menus through hotkeys, right click context menus, or the system tray. Today, we have another application launcher and hotkey macro utility called FlashTray Pro, which allows you to instantly launch applications, files, folders, URLs and system options from the system tray menu. Moreover, the application has a collection of small utilities, including a Color Picker, Character Map, Screen Magnifier, Calendar Studio and Windows Sizer. The shortcuts can be accessed from both the system tray as well as through user-defined hotkeys.

After installation, the application sits in the system tray and can be accessed by using both right and left mouse clicks on the system tray icon. By default, the system tray menu is divided into 4 sections: Websites and Windows utilities (Color Picker, Screen Magnifier etc), Applications and windows (My Computer and Network Neighborhood), System Commands (Empty Recycle Bin, Minimize All Windows etc) and Configure menu.

The Configure menu allows you to setup Launcher (add items), Hotkeys (add user-defined hotkeys to access shortcuts), Highlighter (highlight parts of desktop) and Options (general application behavior).

The Configuration window has 4 tabs at the top namely Launcher, HotKeys, HighLighter and Options. In the Launcher tab you can add items to the system tray menu including Folders, URLs, Programs, System Options, Documents and Submenus. The HotKeys tab lets you specify custom hotkeys for each shortcut, HighLighter lets you choose the type, size and color of screen highlighter, and you can configure general application behavior from the Options tab.

FlashTray Pro works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download FlashTray Pro

Media Preview: Enable Thumbnail Previews For Unsupported Video Formats

Waqas — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:17:59 +0000

While it might just be a matter of aesthetics, thumbnails are simply an amazing way of browsing through files without even opening them. Windows displays thumbnail previews for video files, but for some file formats, this option isn’t natively supported. If you consider this a problem, worry no more, as Media Preview has a solution for you. This small tool supports a large number of formats and lets you force thumbnail previews over video file extensions of your choice. The supported formats library includes 3GP, 3G2, AVI, AMV, DIVX, FLV, F4V, MKV, WEBM, MPG, MPEG, M1V, M2V, OGM, OGV, MP4, M4V, MPV4, TS, TP, MTS, MOV, RM, VOB, EVO & WMV. Instead of extracting the first few frames of the preview, the application seeks out relevant frames, which is quite helpful in instances where you have placed different episodes of the same TV show in a single folder.

As mentioned earlier, the application supports a wide array of file extensions and you can either select all of them or choose just the specific ones under the File Association tab. You can also use the User Defined Formats field to add your own custom extensions. When you have finalized your selection, simply click the Apply button to implement your changes.

The Settings tab contains an adjustment slider under the Wizard section, which can be used to adjust previews between quality and speed, and you can even mark the Custom checkbox to specify your own settings. Under the Advanced section, you can control thumbnail luminance level by adjusting the upper and lower brightness limit. Additionally, you can adjust Entropy level between High and Low. Other settings include choosing the Scalling Method, and Position Seek, where the latter helps in deciding the extraction frames to be used for thumbnails.

You can also try the Testing tab to test your icons after applying any changes. Simply drag and drop your video file over the application window to update its thumbnail preview.

Media Preview is a wonderful application that is feature rich, light on system resouces and provides an easy solution to set up your thumbnails. It works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. Testing was carried out on Windows 7 64-bit OS edition.

Download Media Preview

TimeTask: Task Manager With Built-In Music Player, Shutdown Timer & File/Application Launcher

Fawad — Wed, 16 May 2012 12:02:27 +0000

With each passing day, the pace of life is increasing all over the world for most of us. Compared to our ancestors, we are required to perform a lot more in much less time. With so many things to do in a day, one sometimes forgets about the all the tasks one has to perform. Nowadays, it is almost a must to have a good task reminder to help you remember and manage yourself efficiently. We have covered some very good task managers for both Windows and Mobile platforms, such as Conqu (reviewed here) and Concenturio (reviewed here). Today, we have another task manager called TimeTask that combines the features of a task manager, music player, shutdown timer and timed application launcher. More on TimeTask after the jump.

The application is aimed at performing more than an average task manger. The definintion of “Task” is not limited to reminding you of doing something, but is extended to opening a file or starting a program at a certain time, playing music, or executing the computer’s power options, such as Shutdown, Restart, Log Off etc.

The main interface has two tabs at the top, namely Timers and Music to deal with the two main components of TimeTask. The Timers tab features options to add different types of timers. The left side contains Reminder editing options while the right side contains a list of added Tasks.

Under Task Name, you can find different types of timers all with their specific options. The List contains Reminder (simple reminder), Open File (open a selected file at a particular time), Run Program (run a program at specified time), Play Music (play added music), Standby, Shutdown, Restart, Log Off and Lock (execute power options at specified times).

The Music tab contains all the music you have added to the program. Music can be added from the More button available at the top-right corner. Some music categories are included by default and more can be created by right-clicking in the left pane.

A backup copy of the application settings, as well as all the reminders can be created by using the Backup and Restore option available in the main menu (accessible from the top-right corner of the interface).

The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download TimeTask

Listen, Record & Trim Audio From Online Radio Stations With ClickGaGa

Waqas — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:30:29 +0000

Last month we reviewed X-Screamer Radio, a portable version of Screamer Radio application, which allows music fans to record and listen to thousands of online radio stations. ClickGaGa is yet another such solution for Windows OS that enables its users to not only listen to various radio stations but also instantaneously grab their favorite tunes from the radio with an integrated sound record function. The application saves the audio output in MP3 format and suffice to say, the sound quality is on par with other popular radio clients with built-in recording option. What gives it the upper hand however, is its ability to record an audio track from the start, as according to the developers, it remembers the beginning of the track and automatically starts from there, for instance, even if you’ve missed a song. Along with this, there is also an included sound trimming tool to edit or trim the recorded broadcasts. More details after the jump.

I will be quite truthful here, there’s absolutely nothing to commend about the application’s primitive interface design, as it looks dull and boring. There are a total of four different tabs at the top to navigate within the application, named as Radio, Set Up, Add Station and Timers. Radio contains the main functions for listening and recording the stations, along with a volume adjuster. You can also set Pre Recording option in terms of seconds. There are not many radio stations to choose from, as opposed to other online radio clients. The included genres contain Classic, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Latin, Blues, New Age etc., where each genre includes a rather adequate number of radio stations. You can listen to any radio station by simply clicking the Play button under the Receive section. Likewise, you may also record any station that is currently being played, by using its respective Record button.

Set Up contains a few configuration options for the recorded output. You can tweak a few settings like Timing Faults, Desired Bitrate, DXOut Latency, Sample Rate, Indicator Interval, MP3 Bit Rate and so on.

If you want to add your own custom stations, you can do so under the Add Station tab, where you need to choose its Genre and input the URL link, along with a mini description.

Apart from manually recording or listening to a radio station, you can also schedule the procedure from the Timers section. You can set up to three timers by configuring various parameters such as start and stop date & time, category, output volume and so forth.

The aforementioned Trim tool can be launched either from within the application or by clicking its desktop shortcut, named ClipGaGa. The tool is quite straightforward and simply lets you trim or cut any part from an MP3 file.

All-in-all, ClickGaGa is a great application but with poor implementation of interface design. Moreover, it is ad-supported, which some people may find annoying. It is available for free and works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download ClickGaGa

FreeVimager: View, Edit & Convert Images, Audio & Video, All In One Place

Zeeshan — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:16:42 +0000

Not stylish but certainly usable to a good degree; these words just about sum up FreeVimager. FreeVimager is a 3-in-1 application that can display, edit and convert images, videos and audio files. It’s basically a viewer and editor geared towards camera related applications. It supports BMP, JPG, PNG, GIF (both still and animated), TIFF, PCX and EMF image extensions; for audio it supports AIF, WAV, MP3, WMA, AU, MID and CDA file extensions, and AVI files for video as well as ZIP files for archiving.

What I found most appealing was it’s capability of displaying animated GIF files without any problems since most other image viewers and editors always have difficulty in this area. They either do not support animated GIFs, or if they do, the file is displayed with slower progress and bugs in regards to looping. FreeVimager has no problems whatsoever in these regards and seamlessly plays the animated file without breaking at the loop point.

For image viewing, it can directly open an image file or a folder with image files in it (in the latter case, it opens the first picture in the folder). Once opened, users can go through all the images in the current image’s folder by pressing the left and right keys both onscreen and on the keyboard. Its image editing capabilities include: Rotating, Flipping, Cropping (both lossy and lossless for JPG files), Grayscaling, Inverting Colors, Adjustment of Brightness and Contrast, Red Eye Removal, as well as Softening and Sharpening of the images and the capability of creating both soft and hard borders of any color around the picture.

It also supports image conversion to other file extensions along with compilation into TIFF, ZIP and PDF files. It can create slideshows and can even display as well as edit EXIF data on the images. While it does not provide editing tools like paint brush, users can create collages using the copy/paste features, as well as optimize images for sending over e-mail.

It cannot edit audio files but it can play and convert them to other supported formats, as well as add them to slideshows.

It can display videos, fix the audio video synchronization, change its bitrate and resize the borders of the video, and finally, save the edited video file. Unfortunately, it only supports video files with AVI extensions. The supported codecs are Integrated MPEG4 (DivX), MJPEG, Theora, Vorbis and ADPCM.

What really makes this application different from others are the user friendly tutorials that come with it. These easy to use and understand, visually stimulating tutorials easily explain how you can use the program to achieve your desired target.

You can set and revert file association for the program using the global settings option in the File menu. Selecting the desired file extensions will set FreeVimager as their default program and deselecting the ones you don’t want associated will revert them back to their original programs. The Global Settings dialogue also holds other options that may be of interest to advanced users.

And best of all, FreeVimager works for all versions of Windows, from Windows 95 to Windows 8. All in all, despite the lack of style, FreeVimager holds its own against other Image Viewers and Editors with sheer capability alone. If you’re looking for a freeware picture editor then this is a must.

Download FreeVimager

InternetOff Automatically Disables Internet On Your PC After A Defined Time

Fawad — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:15:06 +0000

Using the internet can be distracting sometimes. While doing offline work, you open the browser for one link, and the next thing you know, an hour has been wasted on YouTube videos. If you are writing a paper or trying to finish up a project for work, going to the internet for just one minute can cause you to lose concentration and waste a lot of time. Constant updates and feed alerts from social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter can add to the distraction, and make you miss the deadline for finishing your work. In such a case, some kind of external stimulus is required to remind us to stop wasting time on the internet and get back to work. Today, we have a utility for Windows that provides you with just that. InternetOff is an application that allows you to turn internet access on for a limited interval of time, after which it is automatically disabled. Read on to find out more about InternetOff.

The application provides you with intervals of 5 min, 15, min, 30 min and 1 hour to turn on the internet. After installation, it runs quietly in the system tray. Click its icon to turn off the internet, which will basically disable all the network adapaters available on your PC. Hence, it doesn’t matter if you are connected via Wireless or LAN, as the application will turn off the internet either way.

When the internet is turned off, click the icon again to access the Turn on the Internet button. Clicking it reveals further options to turn the internet on for a limited amount of time, ranging between intervals of 5 min, 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour or permanently.

InternetOff works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download InternetOff

AboutOne Organizes Your Family Info, Health & Other Personal Data [WP7]

Hamza — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:15:15 +0000

The People hub in Windows Phone 7 is a pretty good place to view all the updates from a particular contact, but as it is automated, you cannot add new information and details for each contact manually. That is exactly what AboutOne brings to WP7. The app can be regarded as a parallel contact book for your Mango phone, with the twist that it is designed exclusively for your relatives and family. The app ensures that you never forget your wedding anniversary, or any other important family date. AboutOne can also be used to keep track of the medical records of your family members and yourself and can be used as a scrapbook to accumulate your photos and memoirs as well.

In case you don’t have an AboutOne account already, create one from the app’s welcome page. Once that has been done, an instruction list shows up, telling you how to proceed. The first thing to do as soon as you have created an AboutOne ID is to import all your contacts to the app. This way, it gets easier to define family contacts, and to view updates from them. However, this step is not absolutely necessary, and you can manually add family members to the app at any time. To define a new familial contact, users have to enter a name, title, description and a photo. After all that has been done, you can go to the Health section and enter any important medical information there. AboutOne lets its users add important dates against each contact, and will remind you when an anniversary is approaching.

Apart from contacts, AboutOne can be used to preserve memories and important photos as well. There is a whole separate section for that, where you can also add a member’s educational record. The Stream section of the app displays all the important updates deduced from the information entered in a contact’s dedicated page. Probably the best feature of AboutOne is its Emergency menu, where you can mark any contact as an emergency one, and the app will always keep it within your reach in the dedicated Emergency hub.

AboutOne syncs all the entered data with the cloud, so there is no chance that you will lose important information. On the other hand, emergency data is also copied for offline viewing for the convenience of AboutOne users. The app is available for free, and you can give it a shot by heading to the following web Marketplace link.

Download AboutOne

Rules Player Provides GUI Front-End & Extensive Format Support For MPlayer

Waqas — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:01:49 +0000

Among the plethora of video players available for Windows (and other cross-platform applications), MPlayer has earned a name of its own, owing to its support for various media formats and open source nature. Although Mplayer relies on a command-line interface, you can easily obtain optional media players off the internet that provide its GUI front-end. Rules Player, for the Windows operating system, is one such solution that uses MPlayer binaries and provide a simple and easy-to-use media player. It supports a wide array of video formats including AVI, MKV, MOV, SGP, MP4, OGG, NUTT, OGM etc., as well as various audio formats such as MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, AC3, FLAC and so on. Additionally, the application lets you play videos while they are being downloaded, thus saving you the agony of having to wait for the download process to be completed first. Lets delve inside and see if it’s worth a shot.

The installation process automatically downloads and installs the latest version of MPlayer. However, if you already have it on your system, you can simply select MPlayer and its Codecs ZIP files from the setup window.

If you take a look at its main interface, it might remind you of the famous Media Player Classic skin, with the same navigation scheme and overall design. There is a big RP logo in the middle and the menu bar comprises of File, Playback, Video, Audio, Subtitles and Tools menus.

The application allows you to set a few parameters under its Video settings, where you can change OSD (on-screen display) mode, Framedrop, Postprocessing (may hog overall system performance), Aspect Ratio etc. You can also enable/disable video deinterlacing and switch to Fullscreen or Compact mode.

There isn’t much to tinker under the Audio menu, other than adjusting the volume and choosing the audio output device. However, the Tools menu contain some useful options such as enabling Playlist (that also opens the color control pane, where you can adjust video brightness, contrast, saturation and hue), Console and Titlebar, or configuring other post playback behaviors like Shutdown after playback etc.

While won’t call RulesPlayer the best media application you can download, it offers a neat interface for MPlayer that’s quite easy to use. You can grab the application for free and it works on both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Rules Player

Easily Merge Or Convert Audiobooks & Podcasts With Audio Convert Merge Free

Waqas — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:30:44 +0000

In the past, we have covered various media converters that allow you to convert audio and music files between various formats, but Audio Convert Merge Free is one such solution that, along with audio conversion, also lets you join audio files and generate the output in most commonly used audio formats such as MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG. This utility is specifically designed by keeping audiobooks and podcasts in mind, as it can help merge various chapters of an audiobook into a single audio file. The minimalistic UI of the tool gives you a sufficient number of configuration options to set precise audio quality before starting the audio conversion or audio file joining process. According to the developers, the tool performs the convert or merge operation without compromising on the audio quality. Details to follow after the jump.

Please note that during installation, the setup program asks to download and install Free online radio player recorder toolbar, as well as set its website as your browser’s homepage. This however, can easily be avoided by clicking the Decline button.

Converting or joining files is quite easy. and both processes can be performed using same settings. First off, add your files into the application by clicking Add Files at the right side of the window and choose your source files (or simply drag & drop the files over the application window). Now, pick an audio output format from the drop down menu in front of Export Format section.

You can configure audio quality parameters of selected output format. For instance, if you select MP3, you can set the output quality by moving the slider left or right under Preset Quality section. However, you may define some custom parameters by selecting Specify Settings and hitting the Configure button.

Here, you can set audio Mode (e.g. Stereo, Joint Stereo, Dual Channels, Mono) and Constant Bit Rate, or may click the Variable Bit Rate and specify a few custom parameters such as Min and Max Bit Rate, Quality Level, Set Average Bit Rate etc. When you’re done click OK to save your settings.

Now, select Convert or Merge from Export Type section at the bottom, and click the respective button to start the audio convert or join process.

The tool is available absolutely for free and works on both 32-bit and 64-bit OS editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Audio Convert Merge Free

EraserDrop: File Shredder That Adds A Desktop Icon For Drag & Drop Shredding

Fawad — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:55:50 +0000

Erasing files and folders using the Delete function only sends them to the Recycle Bin. To permanently delete the data, you have to empty your Recycle Bin, but emptying the Reclye Bin only removes the pointer to files and folders, allowing users to overwrite data on the sectors where the deleted files were stored. For this reason, one can easily recover deleted files using a powerful data recovery application like previously featured Recuva. This is why it’s always advisable to use data shredding tools to securely remove data off the hard disk in order to prevent private information from being compromised. In the past, we have covered quite a few data shredders, such as xShredder (reviewed here) and TurboShredder (reviewed here). Today, we came across a portable data shredding software called EraserDrop, which places a shell icon on your desktop, and allows you to delete files and folders just by dragging them over it. It is, effectively, an alternative to the Recycle Bin for files that you plan to shred. Additionally, it supports a total of 5 file shredding techniques including Gutmann, DoD 8-306 E-C and E, Schneier’s Method, DoD 8-306 E and Pseudorandom. Each technique uses a different number of data deletion passes to ensure secure deletion of the selected files.

The application does not have an interface, and places an icon on the desktop. It can be set to Show/ Hide using a defined hotkey.

Right-click the icon to reveal options, such as Tasks, Options, Reload, Hide and Terminate All Jobs. The Tasks menu contains options to Wipe Recycle Bin and Wipe Free Space.

Settings related to Eraser Method, application behavior and GUI can be changed from the Options tab. You can also set a hotkey for enabling/ disabling the desktop icon, and choose between Gutmann, DoD 8-306 E, C and E, Schneier’s,DoD 8-306 E and Pseudorandom data shredding techniques.

Whenever you erase data from your system, it generates a erasing report with information including Total Items Wiped, Total Time, Dota Area Wiped, Total Errors, Total Failures etc.

The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download EraserDrop

Customize PC Auto Login & Auto Lock With Login Helper

Fawad — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:50:32 +0000

One problem that many users face with PCs having multiple user accounts is that whenever you turn on a PC, you need to select your account or enter user account password to log in to the Windows. Previously, we covered an application called IntelliAdmin (reviewed here), which allows you to enable automatic login for password-protected user accounts, as well as specify the number of times you want to log in to Windows without entering the password. Today we have another program called Login Helper that includes all the features offered by IntelliAdmin, along with an option to interrupt auto login by pressing Shift key and an Auto Lock feature. When the Auto Lock feature is enabled, the computer will automatically get locked following a specified time after Windows finishes loading startup items. Moreover, it lets you set Windows to automatically turn off the display and/or apply a specified screensaver after locking the system.

The interface has 2 tabs at the top namely, Auto Login and Auto Lock. The Auto Login tab has options to enter a Username and Password for automatic login, Disable auto login Shift key override (pressing Shift key will not interrupt login), Enable Force Auto login and Limit the Amount of Logins to a specified number. When all settings are done, click Apply followed by Exit.

The Auto Lock tab lets you configure settings for automatically locking the system after defined time. As stated earlier, it also include some energy saving options that allow you to turn off monitor during lock and enable the screensaver. You can apply the Auto Lock settings to All Users, Only to Auto Login User, or apply to specified Users. Click Apply to execute the settings.

The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7and windows 8.

Download Login Helper

Schirmfoto: Screenshot Taking, Editing & Sharing App With A Metro UI

Fawad — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:00:57 +0000

Screenshot taking tools come in many shapes and sizes. We have covered numerous types of screen capturing utilities, which provide you with different sets of features to take, edit and annotate captured images, and save them to local or remote locations. Today, we stumbled across an awesome screenshot taking tool with a Metro UI design, called Schirmfoto. It allows you to quickly take screenshots, edit them, add annotations and shapes such as Text, Arrows, Rectangles, Circles, Crop images and upload them to Facebook, Twitter or Schirmfoto cloud storage directly from within the application.

During installation, you need to enter your name and email address in order to unlock the software. Even though the dialog box says that you will get an email to unlock the software, we did not get one during testing. However, the software is free to use.

You can capture an image using 3 different image capturing methods. The application allows you to capture images using the system tray icon, the new icon in the title bar of app windows, or the PrintScreen key on your keyboard.

Whenever you take a screenshot, the image editor pops up, allowing you to perform different actions on the image. The left side holds the editing tools including Crop, Text, Arrow, Pencil, Marker (highlighter), Black Painter, Rectangle, Circle etc. The top left side includes Save, Print and Copy to Clipboard options, while the top right corner has an option to share image on Facebook, Twitter, send image via Email and Upload it to Schirmfoto server. The bottom bar has controls to select color for Pencil, Marker and Painter and change the image zoom level.

When you upload an image on the Schirmfoto servers, it shows you a link, enabling you to quickly share the image with others.

The application works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Schirmfoto

If you liked this app, you might want to take a look at our compilation of five awesome screenshot taking tools for Windows.

Panorama Perfect: Panoramic Photo Creator With A Handy ‘Transition Editor’ For Fine-Tuning

Waqas — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:00:27 +0000

Taking panoramic photos is more of a hobby of photography enthusiasts. It has become so popular now that even smartphones include a feature to take panoramic photos. However, you can also use various photo stitching software solutions to create your own panorama, such as the renowned AutoStitch and previously covered Hugin. Panorama Perfect, another such program that we recently stumbled upon, is primarily built to stitch multiple photos taken without using a tripod. It lets you stitch multiple photos together to create beautiful looking panoramas, which can be saved in JPEG, BMP and TIFF formats. In addition, it contains a handy transition editor, as well as a set of tools for adjusting Brightness and Dark Edges of the resulting image. Read past the jump for further details.

The tool includes a toolbar at the top of the window, with an Opacity and Transition editor, housed in the middle of the window. The lower part contains your images’ thumbnail previews and transition bookmarks. The Transitions bookmarks tab helps you identify which group of photos you’re currently working with e.g. photos 1-> 2 or 2 –> 3 or 3 –> 4 and so on.

To begin, simply drag photos over the application window to add them to your workplace, but before that you can also set rotate an image to a certain angle or simply click None to maintain its default state.

The next step is to set Picture Order to either its Normal or Reverse state, which would change the image placement by ascending or descending order, respectively.

In the Transition editor you can align the images by dragging the primary image left and right or up and down. You can set various image parameters from the Toolbar according to your preferences such as deform height and width, use compression level up to 100, composition Reduction and so forth. You may also click Transitions on the menu bar to configure a few image-related settings.

After you set up your desired settings, simply click File > Create Panorama to start the stitching process.

If the image needs any Horizontal Line Correction, you can do so by marking the image pixels that need to be deformed. In case your image is already perfect, click Close at the bottom right of the window to save the panoramic photo in any of the aforementioned formats.

Panorama Perfect is available for free with limited functionality such as limited panoramic photo size and a watermark at the bottom right of your images. However there is also a Paid variant available which doesn’t have such limitations and also contains a few extra features. The tool works on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Download Panorama Perfect

Disable Display Of Recent Search Entries In Windows 8 Explorer [Tip]

Usman — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:29:52 +0000

Just like Windows Vista and Windows 7, Windows 8 File Explorer includes real-time search feature to let you instantly find the required files and folders from any location. It shows you search results for files, folders, apps and other items as soon you start typing in search keywords. Although it provides users with quick search feature, it also displays search suggestions while you enter the search keywords in Explorer search bar. The search suggestions belong to MRU list that is stored and managed in Windows Registry, and if you want to remove the recent search suggestions, then you need to find and remove registry keys where all search suggestions are maintained. Windows 8 Local Policy Editor offers a simple policy setting for Windows Explorer search entries. Instead of manually removing the search entries from Windows Registry, you can use Local Group Policy Editor to permanently turn off display of recent search entries in Windows Explorer. In this post, we will guide you through the process of disabling search suggestions in Windows 8 Explorer.

Before you begin, make sure that you’ve logged in as administrator or have required administrative privileges to make changes to Windows 8 local policies. First off, go to Start Screen, type gpedit.msc select Apps from right sidebar and then select gpedit from main window.

This will open Local Policy Editor. Now, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer, and from main window, double click Turn off display of recent search entries in the Windows Explorer search box policy setting.

By default, the policy setting is set to Not Configured, which means that it saves all the search keywords you use to find files and folders in Windows Explorer. Switching to Enabled option will immediately disable search suggestion in Windows Explorer. It must be noted that it’s a system-wide level change, and all the user account holders including Administrators, Users, and Guests will not be able to view their search history while using search bar in Windows Explorer.

Once policy setting is changed, close the window. Now, open Windows Run console using Win+R hotkey combination. Enter gpupdate /force to update the changes made to Local Group Policy.

It must be noted that it doesn’t disable or remove all MRU lists from Windows Registry, and you may view search suggestions in other Windows 8 applications. The above method can only disable search suggestions in Windows Explorer.

Want to clear history of recently opened documents in Windows 8? Check out our guide here.

AddictiveTips » Windows

DeEgger Embedder: Hide Private Files Within Images, Videos Or Audio (Media Steganography)

Related Articles:

Batch-Convert PDF Files To PowerPoint Presentations via Hot Folders

Related Articles:

Converber: Convert Between 2000+ Units From 53 Different Categories

Related Articles:

How To Enable/Disable Fast User Switching In Windows 8 [Tip]

Related Articles:

How To Enable Hidden Explorer UI Animations In Windows 7 & Windows 8 [Tip]

Related Articles:

Find Files Based On Size Using Windows Explorer Search Filters [Tip]

[via Lifehacker]

Related Articles:

WinSchedular: Automate Routine Windows Tasks By Recording Macros

Related Articles:

Ares Catcher: Download Videos From YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe & More

Related Articles:

WirelessKeyView Updated; Now Lets You Import & Export Wireless Keys

Related Articles:

Nirsoft DomainHostingView: View Detailed Information For Any Domain Name

Related Articles:

RumShot: Take Screenshots & Create Awesome Themed Previews With Them

Related Articles:

PySoft Automatically Sorts Files In A Folder Into Subfolders Based On Type

Related Articles:

SynWrite Is A Portable Syntax Editor With Tree Structure View For Code

Related Articles:

EZ-CRM: Lightweight Contact Manager With Notes & VCF Export Support

Related Articles:

How To Switch To A New Desktop Background Using A Hotkey In Windows 7 & 8 [Tip]

[via Intowindows]

Related Articles:

How To Unhide/Show File Extensions In Windows

Related Articles:

FlashTray Pro: Launch Applications, Folders, URLs & More via System Tray Or Hotkeys

Related Articles:

Media Preview: Enable Thumbnail Previews For Unsupported Video Formats

Related Articles:

TimeTask: Task Manager With Built-In Music Player, Shutdown Timer & File/Application Launcher

Related Articles:

Listen, Record & Trim Audio From Online Radio Stations With ClickGaGa

Related Articles:

FreeVimager: View, Edit & Convert Images, Audio & Video, All In One Place

Related Articles:

InternetOff Automatically Disables Internet On Your PC After A Defined Time

Related Articles:

AboutOne Organizes Your Family Info, Health & Other Personal Data [WP7]

Related Articles:

Rules Player Provides GUI Front-End & Extensive Format Support For MPlayer

Related Articles:

Easily Merge Or Convert Audiobooks & Podcasts With Audio Convert Merge Free

Related Articles:

EraserDrop: File Shredder That Adds A Desktop Icon For Drag & Drop Shredding

Related Articles:

Customize PC Auto Login & Auto Lock With Login Helper

Related Articles:

Schirmfoto: Screenshot Taking, Editing & Sharing App With A Metro UI

Related Articles:

Panorama Perfect: Panoramic Photo Creator With A Handy ‘Transition Editor’ For Fine-Tuning

Related Articles:

Disable Display Of Recent Search Entries In Windows 8 Explorer [Tip]

Related Articles: