tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70505668499099166792024-03-05T14:49:43.080-08:00IncidentallyA space where I put incidental reviews, comments, travel news and tips, and whatever else that may keep me in touch with youCharles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-83750896072687915402021-07-22T06:38:00.001-07:002021-07-22T06:38:17.625-07:00Free video editors...free and no watermarks<p> When I had to do a little project that involved some video editing I found two entirely programs useful. Entirely free means just that....no payment needed for its use and no conditions like limitation on size and watermarks if using the free version.</p><p>For simple cutting and or trimming video clips I used the <b>Windows Video Editor</b> that comes with Windows 10. If you did not know that this existed....well it does. You can add text to the video, trim the sections that you don't want and do lots of basic stuff. I found the video trimmer of this built in program very useful and easy to use. To find this program you scroll down the apps list which pops up when you right click the windows icon at the extreme left of the windows screen. You can also access this editor using the Photo app that comes with Windows. </p><p>I also needed to remove the audio track from one of my video clips and the Windows 10 Video Editor could not do this, but<b> Avidemux</b> could do it. All I had to do was the deselect the audio track and save the clip. </p><p>Both programs have their limitations but if your video editing requirements are simple like mine, these two completely free editing programs will do nicely.</p>Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-28416106948633644072021-07-01T19:14:00.000-07:002021-07-01T19:14:13.713-07:00Problem with Windows 10 Activation<p> I had a problem with activating Windows ). This cropped up some time after I purchased my China assembled PC box. It came with Windows 10 installed and it was activated automatically during the initial set up. About a year later, there was some notification saying that Windows was expiring and I needed to take some action, This I ignored because i believed that Windows did not expire. Then there appeared a permanent watermark on my screen that said that I needed to activate Windows. The watermark persisted and I looked for a solution. To cut a long story short -- I found the solution at KMSpico's official website here https://www.getkmspico.com/download. I took note of the zip file password and followed the first link to their mirror site which was at https://file.fan/3fdd2a62a046a120/getkmspico.com-KMSpico_setup.zip?pt=TVdOcGVEVkhaR3hSWVhaUlZYaEtTSE5KTWs1bVFUMDlPbWF4RWcxYlJYZHlvb0JQaExuN210UT0%3D</p><p>I downloaded the zip file and installed the activator. But I had to disable Windows Defender temporarily. When it was installed i ran it and pressed the red button for activation and it worked. Whether this is a permanent solution to activation I do not know. I hope it is.</p><p>What I read was that when there is an activation problem, the activation trouble shooter will try to link to the organisation that purchased the Windows license for for some kind of verification. I guess the Chinese company that installed this version of Windows is now not in business and their servers could not be contacted. I think that organisations that have bulk licenses have sets of keys for verification....but if the Windows troubleshooter cannot connect to these servers, then you might have a problem like mine.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-11038384773480131832017-02-18T05:19:00.001-08:002017-02-22T05:06:38.262-08:00Good uninstaller -- IObitI installed Youtube Download (not to be confused with youtube downloader which I mentioned in an earlier post and which is still serving me well) and after finding that it had limitations in its free version, I decided to uninstall it. But it would not uninstall -- even after several attempts.<br />
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Searched the net for a solution and came across<b> iobit uninstaller</b>. This worked like magic. It identified all files associated with the unwanted program and uninstalled it in no time. Worth a try if you have difficulty with a program that just will not uninstall.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-29507302221663395352016-01-28T04:46:00.002-08:002016-01-28T04:47:05.393-08:00Convert PDF to WordI did a comparison using three free online PDF to Word converters using a 60 page pdf file. The best of the three was the one at this site http://convertonlinefree.com/. It was fast and it could handle this very large file.<br />
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The other two took too long to upload the files and when they did the conversion it was incomplete because there was a limit to the amount of pages for their free version.<br />
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How accurate was the conversion? I would say 100%. None of the characters were lost. All the graphics and tables of the the original file was faithfully reproduced. Editing the Word file was a breeze.<br />
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So if you are having difficulty with your conversions, try this site.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-72271086380359735352015-11-20T21:12:00.004-08:002015-11-20T21:14:33.452-08:00Windows 10 Trouble Shooting Links<span style="background-color: #e9eccf; color: #697335; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #e9eccf; color: #697335; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: medium;">Safe Mode:</span><span style="background-color: #e9eccf; color: #697335; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 21.3333px;"> https://www.winhelp.us/safe-mode-in-windows.html</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Screen Resolution:</span> http://www.intowindows.com/how-to-change-screen-resolution-in-windows-10/</div>
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http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1756964/windows-display-fit-monitor-screen.html</div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Flipped Screen:</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span style="line-height: 28.8px;">http://www.technipages.com/screen-flipped-upside-down</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Recovery: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 28.8px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://windows.microsoft.com/en-sg/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options</span></span></div>
Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-37591531805885944312015-08-11T20:24:00.000-07:002015-08-11T20:24:46.837-07:00Epson Photosmart 1660 Scanner for Windows 10 32 bitPhotosmart 1660 Scanner for 32 bit Windows is not supported and an alternative Epson driver has to be used.<br />
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To get this download drivers for Expression 1680 for Windows 10 32bit.<br />
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https://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/supDetail.jsp?oid=27543&infoType=Downloads&platform=OSF_M_8<br />
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Unzip the files in a directory where you can find it easily.<br />
Windows 10 will recognise your 1660 scanner when you plug it in but will not run it since it cannot find the driver for it.<br />
Got to Control Panel > Hardware and Sound>Devices and Printers and you should see the icon for the scanner there.<br />
Click on the scanner icon, select Properties>Hardware>Properties>Drivers.<br />
Select update driver or install driver.<br />
Then install the 1600 driver from the unzipped directory. (you can try the 1680 driver if you want but I used the 1600 driver and it worked,)<br />
When the driver is installed, the Epson 1660 Photosmart scanner should work.<br />
The software will not work as the original did but with a little experimentation you should be able to get the same results.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-72147635726302475112015-05-10T06:17:00.000-07:002015-05-10T20:44:22.299-07:00Two Routers comparedA comparison between the TP-link TL-WR40N<br />
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and the D-Link DIR 645 Smart Beam<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mjRyvzfqR5TCZg6zF0tm8gRang6TGsJmeGrXPxfgicQ5kVkKJRDyYt6tLivGLwfKBbY2XWQRbzyP6ukmkpsoqt-LYswNtBqs6yk4FS06ssgXja61lIEMIQdebh68bJyysOKXkI2NJVo/s1600/D-link.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9mjRyvzfqR5TCZg6zF0tm8gRang6TGsJmeGrXPxfgicQ5kVkKJRDyYt6tLivGLwfKBbY2XWQRbzyP6ukmkpsoqt-LYswNtBqs6yk4FS06ssgXja61lIEMIQdebh68bJyysOKXkI2NJVo/s320/D-link.jpg" width="168" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQjLo6ANhqwWvHHONzSr0LfUkTdzdYtkQiJrgEIbmgtz5rBqdmZJda6puiYIi7mnXjs4abmwz45uRWFnKehzaLxo6cLsTPk1DSF0qhH4TpgH4q-gN6BWPIrqrrNZs7M6qr9w_3X1AqLI/s1600/dlink1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaQjLo6ANhqwWvHHONzSr0LfUkTdzdYtkQiJrgEIbmgtz5rBqdmZJda6puiYIi7mnXjs4abmwz45uRWFnKehzaLxo6cLsTPk1DSF0qhH4TpgH4q-gN6BWPIrqrrNZs7M6qr9w_3X1AqLI/s1600/dlink1.png" /></a></div>
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Both routers are of about the same age (not brand new, but each about 2 years old.)</div>
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The wifi strength of both routers is equally weak in the furthest room in my apartment and the smart beam feature of the D-Link is not an advantage, perhaps because of the particular layout of the apartment with its many concrete walls. I use a repeater to get over this problem. </div>
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<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-11765501712012794932015-02-20T22:02:00.001-08:002015-02-20T22:52:33.291-08:00Whatsapp on the desktop for a Windows phone<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
1. Open the Whatsapp web page https://web.whatsapp.com/ in Chrome and you will see a QR code.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxE1Y3w3Bq5rv9GiyvqL318hyphenhyphen2LKGFytOSLvSmv_YIzhJljzdVLNjj6vHYGvdDsjUSnbCkQ6kadeUW8EMhinPW2jOlnK5TAKz_WWfGQ8br56q1zwX2X_k6sRg47wwgHOFPf_oF7s9xEo/s1600/wp_ss_20150221_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAdfMIHe0U3t9WTOO957_rQVPgFtaJJMh-zbHLgaJpS4aJ0YbhsZs1Nm9H5fHbABiDf2JiCrrtNqfHiQBuV7NSJFuMo30Rc83liLMgtiW_zxTBg86V2ZuTUHfeAUXi1hY2xbRH0qmc9MI/s1600/whatsapp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAdfMIHe0U3t9WTOO957_rQVPgFtaJJMh-zbHLgaJpS4aJ0YbhsZs1Nm9H5fHbABiDf2JiCrrtNqfHiQBuV7NSJFuMo30Rc83liLMgtiW_zxTBg86V2ZuTUHfeAUXi1hY2xbRH0qmc9MI/s1600/whatsapp.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
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2. Go to the application on your Windows phone and open up the menu. See picture<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxE1Y3w3Bq5rv9GiyvqL318hyphenhyphen2LKGFytOSLvSmv_YIzhJljzdVLNjj6vHYGvdDsjUSnbCkQ6kadeUW8EMhinPW2jOlnK5TAKz_WWfGQ8br56q1zwX2X_k6sRg47wwgHOFPf_oF7s9xEo/s1600/wp_ss_20150221_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisxE1Y3w3Bq5rv9GiyvqL318hyphenhyphen2LKGFytOSLvSmv_YIzhJljzdVLNjj6vHYGvdDsjUSnbCkQ6kadeUW8EMhinPW2jOlnK5TAKz_WWfGQ8br56q1zwX2X_k6sRg47wwgHOFPf_oF7s9xEo/s1600/wp_ss_20150221_0003.jpg" height="200" width="120" /></a></div>
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3. Select "whatsapp web" and a frame for capturing the QR scan code opens. If it does not, just select the + option and the frame will appear. See picture </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHvDoS-YZ5aoPrYPo-_OH2nntK04YAAFg5KTf8bdie4WSP9DGNJScI4gpeYYpVAl_sb9w9isPxrYoLoxbTKjPcVxxAVdNEPvsoSP3iRNkC3sL3kPz-oR6BV-LOkqGdMkChxJdsm1qbwA/s1600/wp_ss_20150221_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHvDoS-YZ5aoPrYPo-_OH2nntK04YAAFg5KTf8bdie4WSP9DGNJScI4gpeYYpVAl_sb9w9isPxrYoLoxbTKjPcVxxAVdNEPvsoSP3iRNkC3sL3kPz-oR6BV-LOkqGdMkChxJdsm1qbwA/s1600/wp_ss_20150221_0004.jpg" height="200" width="120" /></a></div>
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4. Place the frame for capturing the scan code over the scancode shown on the computer screen. You will see your whatsapp screen on your computer screen. It will be connected as long as your phone is powered on and there is a wifi connection. </div>
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When windows 7 booted up, the printer was not recognised -- it was not even listed as one of the devices. I tried installing the printer with the CD that came it but it stopped and suggested that the firewall was preventing installation.<br />
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I went to this website http://www.samsung.com/ae/support/model/ML-1660/XSG and downloaded the driver from here -- a universal driver and it seemed to recognise the printer but it still would not print. <br />
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Sometime along the way a message flashed informing me that one of the usb devises was not working properly. I gathered that this was the printer.<br />
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Only when I looked at the port it was supposed to be connected and changed it to a usb port/connection -- <span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18.0017986297607px;">USB001(Virtual Printer Port for USB)--</span> from LPT1 did the printer work.<br />
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So what I gather is that the computer could not recognise this printer because it was looking for a printer connected to LPT1 and not a usb printer.<br />
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Someone told me that I should not connect the usb device until the software from the CD had been installed. I am not sure if this was the problem, but you can try this if you have the same problem.<br />
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The other advice I received was this. With a new installation of Windows 7, boot it up first without usb devices attached to it, except perhaps the keyboard and mouse. When it is up an running, when you can surf the net with wireless or lan, then and only then connect the usb devices. Windows will automatically search for the drivers, and install these. This might be worth trying.<br />
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I am still puzzled as to why in the first place, the usb connection to the printer did not work automatically since all the other usb devices, the scanner, portable hard drives, etc all worked without any problem.<br />
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<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-36634077035288829542014-08-13T19:32:00.001-07:002014-08-13T19:32:23.360-07:00Passport Photos you can print at home.Here's a link http://www.idphoto4you.com/ to a site where you can make your own passport / identity card photos from any reasonably good photograph of yourself. The passport / id card photos will be organised on a normal 4" x 6" frame - 2 rows of 4 pictures - which you can then save and print using your color printer or a photo lab. The program is online so there is no downloading of software to do and, best of all, no cost. The quality will be good if your original is good. You can extract your face-shot from a group photo and use this if the original is of reasonably high resolution.<br />
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<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-64750239095191706132014-07-21T01:34:00.000-07:002014-07-21T01:43:19.147-07:00OCR for occasional and light users. The most accurate free OCR program I have used is the OnlineOCR found at <b><span style="color: red;">http://www.onlineocr.net/</span></b>. Some might find shortcomings such as its inability to use a scanner as a source for text as a reason not to consider using this program, but I can overlook this as the program has other neat features.<br />
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First of all, the program runs online and no download is required -- an excellent feature is you are short on memory or fear malware which comes with many of the freeware on offer nowadays.<br />
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One needs to scan text and save it as a jpg, then read the file into the program, which will read it and turn into a MS Word document which you can download and make further editing changes. The good feature of this program is that it reads the formatting of the original and the different fonts accurately, so you have an identical document as the original. The OCR reads with almost 100% accuracy. The free version has limitations such as the number of pages allowed per hour or per day. There is also a limit on the size of the jpg file to be uploaded.<br />
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If you want a program that sits in your computer then Free OCR to Word found <span style="color: red;"><b>http://www.ocrtoword.com/</b></span> may be just the thing for you.<br />
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The source could either be a file or the scanner and you have the option to save the file as a Word document or a text file. The OCR is good and reads with very high accuracy -- though not as well as the OnlineOCR mentioned above. The formatting of the original not captured nor the different fonts. So a little more work editing the text is required.<br />
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Both OCRs do not have a batch files facility but they are free so what is there to complain?<br />
<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-11871743194212145952014-01-23T18:28:00.000-08:002014-01-23T18:28:34.374-08:00Having Problems Removing Conduit Search from Chrome?<br />
At the Control Panel, go to Programs and uninstall Conduit. Also look for the item Protected Search and uninstall it.<br />
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If Condit is still around then do the following. Or if you cannot uninstall the Conduit from Programs in the first instance, then do the following first and then uninstall Conduit from Programs.<br />
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Go to the Chrome Settings option which you access from the three bar button on the extreme right of the Chrome ribbon.<br />
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Click on Extensions and remove all references to Conduit.<br />
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On Start Up select Set Pages and replace all reference to Conduit with google.com or your own start page.<br />
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Click on Appearance select Show Home Button and type google.com or your own home page.<br />
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Go to Search, Manage Search Engines, and delete all reference to Conduit.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-24615863009570799302014-01-22T22:25:00.001-08:002014-01-23T17:41:23.957-08:00Download Youtube VideosTried several, some online and some offline and concluded that one of the better ones is <b>Free Youtube Downloader Version 3.5.187.0.</b> It is very easy to use, fast and it doesnt seem to have problems with large files. It is not an extension of any of the browsers but a stand alone program. The interface is very simple and all you really need to do is to copy and paste the youtube video url in the space provided and press the download button. You can select the quality of the downloads -- I download my files as MP4 with the highest quality all the time without any problems. All files are saved in this default directory C:\Users\(user)\Documents\Downloads\Free YouTube Downloader, but this can be changed using the Settings option.<br />
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When installing the program just be alert and decline all the extras that the program wants to instal. Because it is free, it needs to get some revenue from these third party programs, but you can avoid these.<br />
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There are many youtube downloaders, and one or two with logos very similar to this one. To find the Free Youtube Downloader that I am referring to, use this link<span style="color: #ea9999;"> </span><span style="color: #990000;">http://youtubedownloader.com/</span><br />
<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-73322643418077443572014-01-05T01:00:00.001-08:002014-01-05T22:13:37.117-08:00Freemake Video Converter: Convert DVD files to MP4, AVI Found this new website <a href="http://www.freemake.com/">http://www.freemake.com</a> with a suite of 3 frequently searched for and used freeware. I was most interested in the Freemake Video converter as I wanted an alternative to WinX DVD Ripper, which while good and serviceable was limited in some areas. In particular, the subtitles in MP4 movie files which I created ie converted from original DVDs showed up when played using VLC and did not not when using Windows Media Player. Also, the substitles could be turned off and on with some MP4 files and not on others.<br />
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So I decided to see if Freemake Video converter was better or at least more consistent as far as subtitles were concerned.<br />
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The MKV file and MP4 files of the movie I converted worked fine. Subtitles showed when using VLC and Windows Media Player. The quality was as good as the file made by WinX.<br />
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Another useful feature of Freemake is that it easily combines the main movie with a downloaded subtitles file (.srt). I combined the movie Argo with the subtitles downloaded from Subscene ( <a href="http://subscene.com/subtitles/argo-2012/english/674657">http://subscene.com/subtitles/argo-2012/english/674657</a>) and it worked on the very first attempt.<br />
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But, the attempts using Freemake to convert the DVD file to AVI ended in failure -- the movie was truncated, by about 30 minutes.<br />
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Yes the software is very easy to use and the neat feature that allows one to combine a movie with its downloaded subtitles makes this very attractive software. The options are easy to access and easy to modify, so a beginner will not be lost with this programme. But while there are lots of options available to convert video files to but some conversions don't work. Also, the programme is not as fast as WinX.<br />
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Recommended because it is free and has some useful features.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-63973908342775426512013-03-29T01:49:00.000-07:002013-05-27T07:33:51.708-07:00Videos with subtitles I often require videos that have subtitles so that my grandchildren can connect text to words when watching videos. Of course this is a given when one is watching original DVDs as almost all of them come with subtitles. But like many, I value may original DVDs even the ones for children and I prefer convert DVD movies to formats that I can store on a hard drive and get the kids to watch from these rather than expose the DVDs to mishandling and total destruction. In addition, I also like the subtitles to be displayed as an option -- I want to be able to watch these movies without subtitles when I want to.<br />
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I know that DVD Shrink and DVDFab can do ripping to VOB files which will contain subtitles that can be either selected or not selected; but these are always about 4 gb in size. To save space I prefer to convert to other video formats and much smaller files.<br />
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I have had trouble with subtitles in the sense that some software that do conversions only allow subtitles to be "burned in", and not have the option of leaving them off. To qualify this, I must say that my main player is VLC and I am not particular about the converted file being a MP4, or mkv, or any other "format" since VLC is very versatile and can handle almost every kind of video file. As long as I am able to to select and display subtitles with VLC, I am happy. I have also found that Media Player Classic is a good alternative to VLC and when VLC meets a file that it cannot play for some reason or other -- and this is not that frequent -- MPC will happily play the file.<br />
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I tried Handbrake, WinX DVD ripper and DVD Videosoft's Freevideo and of these three I like WinX the most, and Handbrake the least. With Handbrake converting DVD files to mkv, I could never get subtitles that I was able to switch off despite trying several of the options available. Also, with Handbrake, some MP4 conversions got me very huge sized movie files, well above 10 gigabytes. With Freevideo I get subtitles that I can switch on and off at will but sometimes the wide screen of the original gets converted into some other aspect ratio. Perhaps I am not selecting the correct options during conversion. WinX so far has not given me any trouble with aspect size or subtitles.<br />
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DVD VideoSoft, I found, is useful for converting already ripped dvds to mp4 or avi. The FREE DVD VIDEO CONVERTER converts files in a Video_TS folder containing subtitles to MP4/AVI. Subtitles can be retained, but the resultant file is best played with Media Player Classic. For some reason, it is not fully compatible with VLC.<br />
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<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-37226530148350474442013-02-27T21:14:00.001-08:002013-03-01T22:25:47.949-08:00What to do if you cannot get rid of that Read Only attribute in your folder.<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">If you get a folder in Windows XP which you either cannot access or rename or delete because of permissions or some other issue and you have tried everything, the solution is a program called Unlocker. It will take some time to delete the file but it does do it. You can also use Unlocker to rename files that cannot be renamed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I tried all the other solutions recommended by the forums but without success on one particular folder which I wanted to delete.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> Unlocker was my last resort. </span><br />
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Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-78766274331040917482012-08-23T19:44:00.000-07:002012-08-23T19:45:58.615-07:00Kindle software for PCThis is the place to get it.<br />
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<a class="gRsSlicetitle" href="http://download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html" style="color: #1111cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; padding-bottom: 2px;" target="_blank"><b>Kindle for PC</b> - CNET Download.com</a><br />
<span class="gRsSliceurl" style="color: #0e774a; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small; padding-bottom: 1.2em;"><span class="gRsSliceurl" dir="ltr" style="padding-bottom: 1.2em;">download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html</span> - 144k - </span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><span class="gRsSlicesimilar" style="color: #7777cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://search.babylon.com/?babsrc=SP_ss&rlz=0&q=related:http://download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html&oq=kindle+for+pc+software" style="color: #7777cc; text-decoration: none;">Similar pages</a></span><br />
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You cannot get this from Amazon unless you are within their authorised zones. This means if you are living in Asia or SE Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore) you cannot get this from the Amazon site.<br />
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I installed this from the cnet site it worked. Came with three free books.<br />
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<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-60295605484428660592012-08-16T07:23:00.000-07:002012-08-16T07:23:37.967-07:00Free Music for Personal Presentations slideshows etc<div>
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freeplaymusic.com</div>
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This is a great site for free music to accompany presentations and slideshows that you may have created. If you are in an educational institution or if you have a wedding and want to create a slideshow with accompanying music but you are fearful about contravening copyright laws by using copyright music, you can access this site and download free music for these slideshows. You need to acknowledge artists if freeplaymusic has this information and if not, just acknowledge the source live.freeplaymusic.com. To download the music you must first register and this will not cost you a cent. <br />
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You cannot publish or broadcast on the internet nor can you sell cds or dvds with this music because it is for non-commercial purposes -- you cannot profit monetarily from the free downloads. The site also contains music that you can pay for and use with less restrictions. Please read the conditions for use before proceeding. <br />
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Using the site is simple. The main site is<span style="color: #ff9966;"> </span><span style="color: #ff6600;">freeplaymusic.com</span> and you can read the terms and conditions here. The newer <span style="color: #ff6666;">live.freeplaymusic.com</span> is easier to use because it is better organised and you can start from here. </div>
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The best way to begin if you are interested in totally free music is to click on the "freeplay music" option in the left-hand column. This will give you a list free music organised by style - bossanova, jazz, classical, etc. There is no charge for the music listed here.</div>
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If you want to pay for music for less restrictive use, click on "styles" in the left-hand column and again a list will pop up. Select the style of music you want and you should get a list of free as well as music you have to pay for. </div>
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To download any tract, click on the "add to download" and select the tracks that you want. This step will not start the downloads but place all your selections in a download section. When your selection is completed, click the "download" option at the left-hand column and all the titles you selected earlier will be listed. You can now begin to download the titles you want.</div>
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Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-26395329446110746512012-08-16T07:15:00.000-07:002012-08-16T07:20:15.750-07:00Installing PC-BSD USB bootIf you want an alternative to Windows operating system, you can try PC-BSD. It is a unix-like OS and is compatible with some linux software.<br />
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Why would you want to try this? Well, if you have an old computer that does not have the RAM to run the newer versions of Windows or if you have assembled a computer and don't want to pay for Windows 7 or Windows 8, this is an OS you can try. It is easy to install and it is free. I am not sure how useful it will be if you have printers and scanners that are Windows compatible but I am told that if you want to surf the web, email, listen to and organise music and store and edit photographs, this OS can do it.<br />
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While I haven't tried this OS extensively, I did manage it install it into my computer that had Vista originally but which became corrupted after time. A reinstall of Vista did not work and I decided to try this OS. I share my experience with you here.<br />
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Since Vista was not working on the old computer, I worked on my netbook to get the installation and other necessary files.<br />
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You begin by downloading the software from <a href="http://www.pcbsd.org/en/download.html">http://www.pcbsd.org/en/download.html</a>.The page confused me at first because the download button at the top right of the screen led nowhere. Scroll down and on the left hand side will be a list of software to select from.<br />
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I selected the USB version as the DVD drive on the old computer was not working. This meant that I would be installing the OS from a thumbdrive plugged into a usb port. The file I downloaded was <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span style="color: red;">PCBSD9.0-x86-USBFULL.img.bz2 </span></span>This is a zipped file. I unzipped it using Peazip (<a href="http://peazip.sourceforge.net/">http://peazip.sourceforge.net/</a>). The extracted file was a .img file a little over 3 GB.<br />
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I copied the extracted .img file to a newly reformatted 4 GB thumbdrive and tried an installation but it did not work.<br />
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I consulted the pc-bsd wiki <a href="http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/PC-BSD_Users_Handbook">http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/PC-BSD_Users_Handbook</a> and realised that the .img file had to be written to the usb thumbdrive using a program like Win32DiskImager. This I downloaded from <a href="http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/Data-CD-DVD-Burning/Win32-Disk-Imager.shtml">http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/Data-CD-DVD-Burning/Win32-Disk-Imager.shtml</a><br />
The download was a zipped file and had to be unzipped. Using Win32DiskImager to write to the thumbdrive was easy. However to check if the file was written was difficult because I kept getting a zero byte reading. It seemed as if nothing had been written to the thumbdrive. Despite being unable to see what was on the thumbdrive, I was certain that the file had been written since Win32DiskImager did not report any errors.<br />
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I then changed the computer setup to make the usb drive the boot drive, put the thumbdrive in the usb port and restarted the computer. After lots file checks and status reports, the installation page finally came up.<br />
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The interface was graphic so there was no commands to enter.<br />
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So now I have PC-BSD installed.<br />
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<br />Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-31799580744026127212012-01-01T18:35:00.000-08:002012-05-14T01:34:15.252-07:00Mygic TV U718 USB stick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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You can turn your Windows based computer into a TV/PVR -- you can watch and record TV programs -- with this handy inexpensive stick (the package calls it a "box" but it is not.) The supplied software worked fine with Windows XP on my LG laptop.<br />
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But with with Windows 7 Home Premium on my Acer desktop there was a conflict that Windows could not resolve. I uninstalled the supplied software and activated the stick and the TV function using Windows Media Centre TV feature. This method got the stick working. The picture quality of TV broadcasts and the recordings are not that great -- comparable to VCR quality or slightly better. But this was adequate for my purpose. </div>
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This stick seems to work just as well with analogue and digital signals. For USD $16.00 this is a bargain.<br />
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<br /></div>Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-61399531878886376862011-11-03T23:14:00.000-07:002011-11-03T23:23:57.769-07:00Free Video DubIf you are looking for a set of free video and dvd utilities then you should take a look at this site. http://dvdvideosoft.com<br /><br />I tried its Free Video Dub and found it a very efficient and little program for quick cuts of video files. It is so simple to use that you cannot go wrong. It is not a feature filled utility but it does what it does very well. <br />It cannot be compared to Avidemux in terms of features and sophistication. There is no way to convert one video format to another, nor is there a way to add transitions to make cuts and joins subtle. But if you want to shorten a video by taking out parts of it, whether it is at the beginning, or the end or somewhere in the middle, then this is the program to look at first.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-39039184048937456842011-09-15T19:04:00.000-07:002011-09-15T19:25:11.027-07:00EnGenius 3G Router NET-3G-ESR-6650. A problem solved.I found it easy to set up this wireless router because the instructions were simple and easy to follow, although I must confess I have had some experience setting up and trouble shooting routers (compex, dlink, netgear, linksys). All went well until I tried connecting to the internet via my netbook. The connection was made, the signal was strong, but internet access was not possible. I relooked at all the settings, redid them but still could not solve the problem. <br /><br />Then I recalled the advice of some great troubleshooter. If all else fails, switch off every thing, unplug from the mains all devices, wait for 5 or ten minutes and restart. The other bit of advice came from the user manual an earlier router that I had. It instructions stated that the sequence of starting up the devices was important. First switch on the modem and when it is stable (usually 3 to 5 minutes), then plug in the and power on the router, and then the computer. Of course, connections from modem to router and router to computer should be correctly done before hand. <br /><br />I tried this and it worked. Sometimes, it is not the settings that it the problem, just some residual memory that needs to be cleared.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-7957818413712692982011-08-01T19:48:00.000-07:002011-09-15T18:56:03.212-07:00Media JukeboxMJ is the best of the entertainment centers that I found. It is free, easy to use and has a reasonably good player -- playback of MP3s are clear and pleasing to my ear and so far none of the files has stopped while playing nor has there been pops and and crackles.<br /><br />Like many others, I have hundreds of albums, many bought during phases of interest in particular artists or music type which I now do not listen to. All these are on 2 portable drives, one a duplicate of the other serving as a backup, and what I have done is to copy 50 or so albums into the folder My Music which I use as my database for MJ. This folder is the first place that MJ goes to when building a library of digital music. If your albums are well tagged and with cover art included in the album folders, these will be read by MJ and cover art displayed without problems. If you have compilation albums, depending on the tagging, you might have to so some work recombining albums because MJ like other software will break these up into artist and original album, which may not be the way you want them displayed.<br /><br />You might want to get MJ to organise your entire music library because you can tag and edit tags within this program. But I found the tagging facility a little limited for my liking, preferring to use a dedicated tagging program.<br /><br />Some tips:<br /><br />1. Your choice of library views are many, play around with the library views available and select those that you like using the option "view/add view/add library view" in the left pane. You can always go back to the default, which is for me the best. <br /><br />2. Merging or Combining Albums<br /><br />If you have 2 albums of one title but designated Disk 1 and Disk 2, you can combine them in the MJ library by a simple drag and drop using the left hand pane in the standard view. This works well if the tags of the two albums are identical except, of course, the label "Disk 1" or "Disk 2" etc.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oCQ3hLxT9jY/Tjd0bwHcSjI/AAAAAAAACFI/YZbtdJ-VSKk/s1600/mj1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 202px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oCQ3hLxT9jY/Tjd0bwHcSjI/AAAAAAAACFI/YZbtdJ-VSKk/s320/mj1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636101478798871090" /></a><br /><br />A more difficult merging of albums can be done in the same way even if the albums are markedly different. Be aware that this will change the tags in the original database, and so if you still want access to the original, make a copy of the album and store it somewhere else. To combine the Freddy Fender in the example above with Country Oldies drag the Freddy Fender title in the left pane and drop it into Country Oldies. The album title Freddy Fender will become Country Oldies and the tags in the Freddy Fender album will change - the artist name will become Various Artists to follow the Country Oldies compilation. If in the center pane the albums appear as two separate albums with the same name you will have to change the cover art of the Freddy Fender by pointing it to the art in the Countries Oldies folder. Refresh the screen and if the two albums still appear as separate albums with the same name and same cover art check the tags and make them identical (except for song title, of course.) Sometimes even a comma difference will prevent a successful merge.<br /><br />Exporting and importing Library Files <br />You can do this if you are getting a new computer and want the exactly same media center library. The file will be exported as a albums.mpl. This will contain all your albums, but not the database containing your media files. You need to duplicate the database in the same directory of your new computer. The advantage of this is that if you have combined albums, these will remain combined in the new setup. To export all your album information Select(highlight) Albums then use the Files / Export Playlist /export as mpl / options and send the .mpl file to a thumb drive or sd card. On the new computer use File/import playlist/ option. To export only some of the albums you need the select the name of the albums and then export it as a playlist.<br /><br />To export just a playlist, select that play list and use the same File/Export playlist/ option. Note that only the playlist will be exported and not the actual media files. To copy the actual media files in the playlist you need to use the copy and paste function under Edit (left panel second option.)Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-47788321820243522072011-07-25T00:26:00.000-07:002012-05-14T01:36:05.920-07:00Movies, Video streams: Working with Funshion.comThis is a Chinese website that streams and allows downloads of movies, TV series, and other videos. You should be careful because using this site and downloading materials from it can leave your computer open to attacks. My advice is not to use a computer which you use for important stuff but use an inexpensive netbook which if attacked you can easily reformat and re-install programs on.<br />
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Funshion works best with Google Chrome. If you have IE installed, this browser will often kick in (even if it not the default browser) and interfere with your downloads from Funshion.com. What you can do is to uninstall or disable IE. From my experience, Firefox does not cause problems and you can leave this as an alternative browser. <br />
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To use funshion.com you must download and install its popular software (it is actually referred to as popular software). Do not download anything else if only movies and TV series are your interests. I say this because the site is also a shopping site and will encourage you to download programs related to this as well. It will be hard to remove the other software because the uninstallation instructions are in Chinese, and difficult to manage.<br />
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Download and install the main program. Once you run it, you will be at the Funshion.com main page. All information will be in Chinese but Google can translate this into English -- not perfectly, but sufficiently for you to use the site.<br />
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All downloads go into a folder labelled "Media" in the Funshion subdirectory but it will be in Chinese. The best thing to do is to download, identify the program and carefully rename it. This can be tricky but as long as the extension is not renamed, the files will be useable. Downloading many programs at once will give you a headache when it comes to identifying the various files. Once you have renamed the files and you have confirmed that they work delete any accompanying files. Again take care that these accompanying files are not attached files which are essential for the main files to work. If the main files will not work without the accompanying files, restore those that you have deleted and place all related files in a folder.<br />
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Scan your hard drives for malicious files regularly when visiting the Funshion.com website.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7050566849909916679.post-23860415045903865002011-05-02T18:34:00.000-07:002011-09-15T20:17:46.378-07:00New OSAfter a virus attack on my computer on 1st May 2011, I had a computer that on booting up gave me a blank blue screen. It had a Vista OS that was attacked when I used a programme that shielded my identity and my ISP. AVG the anti-virus shield that I was using was temporally disabled by this programme and thus the attack by malware and other viruses. One of the malware was an anti-virus programme that asked for US$50 for virus and malware removal. Rather than pay this amount (which I felt had no guarantees, I decided to reformat reinstall the OS.)<br /><br />Reformating and reinstalling Vista could not be done because I had no installation disks. I also did not make a recovery disk. <br /><br />Since this was a six-year-old computer, I decided to use XP as the replacement OS. I had several several XP installation disks and thought at least one would work. <br /><br />However all the XP installation disks I had would not copy into the computer several essential XP files during installation. I gathered that there were some hidden Vista OS files on the hard drive that was preventing it from being overwritten. The only way to get rid of these Vista files was to reformat the hard drive, but I did not utility disks to do this.<br /><br />Doggedly I tried more than one XP installation disk but all behaved similarly, they refused to copy the several essential files during installation.<br /><br />Then I decided to use a Windows 7 pre release disk which was given free with PC Users Magazine from Australia. This disk was a full version, given before the official release of Windows 7, for users to try out the then new OS, but it had a limited life and would not work beyond a certain date after the official release for sale of Windows 7. Well, the disk did install a workable OS; there was none of the problem of not being able to copy into the hard drive essential files as the XP installation disks had. <br /><br />I changed the date of my computer to a date when this trial version of Windows 7 was valid and did the installation. When the installation asked for a product key, I gave none. I was surprised that I was required to give a product key, since originally, this version of Windows 7 was meant for a trial period and I thought it would be disabled after the period had lapsed and so no product key was required. Apparently, this was not the case and this disk actually contained a genuine, complete installation of Windows 7. What luck. <br /><br />Although I did not have a product key, and the legitimate copy was not activated, the non-activated copy still worked. After this I changed the date to the present, and ignored all the messages that proclaimed that the copy of the OS I was using was not genuine. (This message appears just after startup). <br /><br />So now I have a working Windows 7, which is "not genuine."<br /><br />I remember vaguely, that once I tried "upgrading" my Vista computer using this same disk but unsuccessfully. The upgrading attempt took place while Vista was the OS. I think I was successful this time because the Vista OS had been completely wiped out by the virus and booting had to be done via CD/DVD.Charles Remedioshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17297861087899627533noreply@blogger.com0