Many of us love services like Skype to make free PC-to-PC phone calls (and cheap PC-to-landline and mobile/cell calls), it’s yet another program to install, and for some that process is a cumbersome one.Many of you would love a service which can be run from a web browser itself without any need to download and install the software.For many of us who use LINUX and MAC sometimes its difficult installing the software as many times its not available for that platform.And here comes a alternative.Enter GizmoCall, which offers Skype-like calling capabilities but requires no special software.
Windows
True Crypt – Free disk encryption software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux
Here is another great utility for day to day use without a price tag.Many of you would like to have some of your files private and hidden from other users with a strong encryption be it personal files or sensitive business or work related files.Here is the solution.TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted volume (data storage device).
Windows XP – keyboard shortcuts
Earlier this month i wrote about microsoft office shortcuts.Here some of the windows shortcuts are listed here.General keyboard shortcuts * CTRL+C (Copy) * CTRL+X (Cut) * CTRL+V (Paste) * CTRL+Z (Undo) * DELETE (Delete) * SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin) * CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item) * CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item) * F2 key (Rename the selected item) * CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word) * CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word) * CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph) * CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph) * CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text) * SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document) * CTRL+A (Select all) * F3 key (Search for a file or a folder) * ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item) * ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program) * ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object) * ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window) * CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously) * ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items) * ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened) * F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop) * F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer) * SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item) * ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window) * CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu) * ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu) * Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command) * F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program) * RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu) * LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu) * F5 key (Update the active window) * BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer) * ESC (Cancel the current task) * SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing) * CTRL+SHIFT+ESC (Open Task Manager)Dialog box keyboard shortcutsIf you press SHIFT+F8 in extended selection list boxes, you enable extended selection mode.
AVAST : FREE antivirus software for Windows with anti-spyware protection:Home Edition
certain URLs and file operations acn be blocked by you ,by configuring its advance optionsWith immediate real-time protection, clockwork updates, and much more, this free software is highly regarded .Though its graphical user interface isnt that much good as other paid antivirus.Some of you may get confused with its buttons which look like a media player buttons.But you will get familiar once you try playing with them.Even the virus protection isnt as much good as topers in antivirus category like Kaspersky or NOD 32 but for a decent antivirus software without any price tag this software is good enough for many home users who cant afford expensive antiviruses.Another feature is you can change its skin as you do with media players.You can get skin that suits your style.You can download Avast here.Free registrationAvast!
MPlayer – Play anything , almost all formats of Audio and video
Supported Input Formats (S)VCD (Super Video CD) CDRwin’s .bin image file DVD, including encrypted DVD MPEG-1/2 (ES/PS/PES/VOB) RIFF AVI file format ASF/WMV/WMA format QT/MOV/MP4 format RealAudio/RealVideo format Ogg/OGM files Matroska NUT NSV (Nullsoft Streaming Video) VIVO format FLI format NuppelVideo format yuv4mpeg format FILM (.cpk) format RoQ format PVA format streaming via HTTP/FTP, RTP/RTSP, MMS/MMST, MPST, SDP TV grabbing Supported Video and Audio Codecs most important video codecs: MPEG-1 (VCD) and MPEG-2 (SVCD/DVD/DVB) video MPEG-4 ASP in all variants including DivX ;-), OpenDivX (DivX4), DivX 5 (Pro), Xvid MPEG-4 AVC aka H.264 Windows Media Video 7/8 (WMV1/2) Windows Media Video 9 (WMV3) (using x86 DLL) RealVideo 1.0, 2.0 (G2) RealVideo 3.0 (RP8), 4.0 (RP9) (using Real libraries) Sorenson v1/v3 (SVQ1/SVQ3), Cinepak, RPZA and other QuickTime codecs DV video 3ivx Intel Indeo3 (3.1, 3.2) Intel Indeo 4.1 and 5.0 (using x86 DLL or XAnim codecs) VIVO 1.0, 2.0, I263 and other H.263(+) variants (using x86 DLL) MJPEG, AVID, VCR2, ASV2 and other hardware formats FLI/FLC HuffYUV various old simple RLE-like formats most important audio codecs: MPEG layer 1, 2, and 3 (MP3) audio AC3/A52 (Dolby Digital) audio (software or SP/DIF) AAC (MPEG-4 audio) WMA (DivX Audio) v1, v2 WMA 9 (WMAv3), Voxware audio, ACELP.net etc (using x86 DLLs) RealAudio: COOK, SIPRO, ATRAC3 (using Real libraries) RealAudio: DNET and older codecs QuickTime: Qclp, Q-Design QDMC/QDM2, MACE 3/6 (using QT libraries), ALAC Ogg Vorbis audio VIVO audio (g723, Vivo Siren) (using x86 DLL) alaw/ulaw, (ms)gsm, pcm, *adpcm and other simple old audio formats Earlier Mplayer was just a command line player but now its with full GUI (Graphical user interface) and hence much easier for many of you.As i said earlier, its open source and hence you need not worry much about licenses.You can download the GUI version for windows here which is SMPLAYER
Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta Direct Download Links
Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta is officially out now for public downloading, the latest release features major Hotfixes and security Updates for the operating system, Vista SP2 adds support for new hardware devices, improves certain administration tasks and addresses reliability and performance issues.The following download will work on only English, French, German, Japanese or Spanish language Windows Vista installations, the download is valid for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.Windows Vista SP2 BETA Direct Download Links : Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 32-Bit (X86) – 434 MB Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 64-Bit (x64) – 726 MB DVD ISO For Windows Vista &
TuneUp Utilities 2007 Download with Free License
Configuring Windows can be problem for many of you when the options / configuration isnt so obvious.For many of you its quite complicated even though windows is much more user friendly than Linux.Still some may require some special software to do this so that they neednot go deep into configurations/ registry settings and all.Finding the setting you need can be frustrating.
Floola – Excellent Itunes Replacement
Ever got frustrated by restrictions and less flexibility on your Itunes for managing ur Media library and doing so many other things.I m one of those guys who got fed up with Itunes and was searching for some good replacement of it.And then i found something called Floola.
MozBackup – Backup Firefox and thunderbird mail, favorites and contacts
Ever wondered how to save your bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache etc so that you can restore it next time when something happens to your system or u reinstall your operating system or upgrade.Many of you wold be already knowing about MozBackup which is used for backing all this up in a efficient manner.Its one of the programs i normally use as i keep on installing and uninstalling my operating system often.MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Sunbird, Flock, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite, Spicebird and Netscape profiles.It allows you to backup mail, favorites, all your personal settings and contacts.
TeamViewer – Free Desktop Sharing and Remote Control
I have talked abt another remote desktop application LogMeIn in my previous post.Today i will talk about Team Viewer which is free for personal and non-commercial use.TeamViewer is a solution for remote control, desktop sharing and file transfer that works behind firewalls and NAT proxy.To connect to another computer, TeamViewer needs to be installed on both machines .The installation of Team viewer is simple enough just like any other windows application setup.