Having Problems Removing Conduit Search from Chrome?

At the Control Panel, go to Programs and uninstall Conduit. Also look for the item Protected Search and uninstall it.

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.


Go to the Chrome Settings option which you access from the three bar button on the extreme right of the Chrome ribbon.

Click on Extensions and remove all references to Conduit.

On Start Up  select Set Pages and replace all reference to Conduit with google.com or your own start page.

Click on Appearance select Show Home Button and type google.com or your own home page.

Go to Search, Manage Search Engines, and delete all reference to Conduit.

Download Youtube Videos

Tried several, some online and some offline and concluded that one of the better ones is Free Youtube Downloader Version 3.5.187.0. 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.

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.

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 http://youtubedownloader.com/

Freemake Video Converter: Convert DVD files to MP4, AVI

Found this new website http://www.freemake.com 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.

So I decided to see if Freemake Video converter was better or at least more consistent as far as subtitles were concerned.

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.

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 ( http://subscene.com/subtitles/argo-2012/english/674657) and it worked on the very first attempt.

But, the attempts using Freemake to convert the DVD file to AVI ended in failure -- the movie was truncated, by about 30 minutes.

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.

Recommended because it is free and has some useful features.

Videos 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What to do if you cannot get rid of that Read Only attribute in your folder.

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.

I tried all the other solutions recommended by the forums but without success on one particular folder which I wanted to delete. Unlocker was my last resort. 

Kindle software for PC

This is the place to get it.

Kindle for PC - CNET Download.com
download.cnet.com/Kindle-for-PC/3000-20412_4-75185974.html - 144k - Similar pages

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.

I installed this from the cnet site it worked. Came with three free books.

Free Music for Personal Presentations slideshows etc

freeplaymusic.com

live.freeplaymusic.com

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.

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.

Using the site is simple. The main site is freeplaymusic.com and you can read the terms and conditions here. The newer live.freeplaymusic.com is easier to use because it is better organised and you can start from here.

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.

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.

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.

Have fun.