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We have heard horror stories that upgrading Vista to 7 went wrong and the user was often left with a faulty system. There is a proven method being circulated on the internet to perform a clean installation with the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD.

 

First if you are still able to do so, try running Windows 7 upgrade advisor to check if your PC has the hardware to run Windows 7. Next save and backup important data on the HDD as you would normally do when reinstalling Windows. This how-to shows how to save and restore your office settings (if any) using the Save My Settings Wizard.

Then boot from the Windows 7 DVD and do a clean install, i.e. at the hard drive section, you choose to delete and format the hard drive. Remember to choose the correct Windows edition. When you are asked to enter the product key, do not enter, as your product key won't allow a clean install. You will be given a 30-day trial because of that.

After the installation is done. Don't install anything yet. Do an upgrade install (on top of the new windows 7 itself!). This time you enter the product key and you will have a working and registered Windows. Restore your backup after that.

CintaNotes is a notes taking software with a clean, uncluttered design and sleek user interface. It has all the essential functions needed to take notes off any windows and organize them for future reference.

 

This is a free software (pro version available) that helps you to organize your schedules, to-dos, notes and contacts. I have installed individual programs to take care of each of them. Still, I am always searching for a unified solution because my work is project-based, there are schedules, to-dos, notes that should be grouped under a same subject.

 

Total Organizer offers a simple solution to my problem. It allows me to use folders to store the data. In addition, it is possible to set keywords or tags to each item. However I couldn't see any tag cloud, a section that displays all tags, highlighting the most often used tags. To show all items under a tag, I need to type in the tag in the search bar.

 

Nowadays, automation on computer operating system is still an inconvenient or expensive task. Fortunately, most software are designed such that redundant manipulations are reduced or taken care off by the interface, because most software developers have user-friendly designs in their mind. However in some cases, we do find ourselves the need to repeat certain task over and over again.

 

If the task could be achieved by using keystrokes alone, then we are lucky. For example, "saving the Google search results of the keyword 'sikuli' every minute" is something that can be automated easily using any automation software such as AutoHotKey. All you need to do is to send the keystrokes: "Win+R, firefox, Enter, http://www.google.com, Wait 2 secs, Enter, sikuli, Enter, Ctrl+S, Enter". The macro could be coded easily by anyone after checking the relevant section of the software documentation, usually not more than one page.

 

Computer desktops were conceived to work as a real desktop when they were created, and it has changed very little since the first versions of windows. The odd thing of looking like a real desktop is that it ends up as messy as a real desktop and having to clean it is quite a pain and time consuming.

 

Most of us have a lot of documents, folders and shortcuts placed on the desktop and in the end it is quite difficult to find what we are looking for and tidying it up is consuming time too so, it was a nice idea to create something that would help us to keep our desktop tidy and organized and this is where BumpTop comes into the picture.

 

 

There are tools to use to edit and create technical text, but sometimes extra help is needed and there are some tools out there which are not as known as the most famous ones, but are very useful and can be perfect complement to our text editor or any other authoring software we may use. Some examples are:

 

Snagit: This is a software for taking screenshots, which is really useful if we are to take them in order to add to our text writings. Taking screenshot is common, besides that, it has very good features and editing functions for the screenshots. Check it out and you will see.

 

BlitzType is a predictive text completion software for Windows, designed to reduce repetitive typing in text input. It can be used as a learning aid or typing aid for users who have difficulties typing normally, or to reduce keystrokes when working with a list of lengthy technical terms or commonly typed words and phrases. It is an on-going project currently under beta, the software will have features unique in its own way, compared to other commercial offerings in the market. It focuses on prediction and learning capabilities.

 

The software is now open to public for testing and feedback. Since it is still at beta version, it is advisable to backup your data before testing or only test it on a non-priority machine. The minimum requirement for running BlitzType is a Windows XP system or above on a machine with Pentium III 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM.

 

New release: 0.95

 

(If you have an older version, fresh install is required)

Features of BlitzType:

Auto-complete words and phrases in any window. Automatically learn from typing. On-demand or always show suggestion. Multiple suggestions in the tooltip. Different ways to auto-complete, including 'text expand'. AutoCorrect. Portable.

Coming features:

Support European languages with accents. Management of learned phrases. Better control of tip position.

DOWNLOAD BlitzType

 

If the program does not start,

you might need MS VC++ runtime or

from offcial website.

 

Defragmentation is an old and well-known PC maintenance method that helps to prolong harddisk lifespan. It achieves so by moving data bits that spread across the disk closer together and making the used space more compact. As a result the harddisk spindle moves less above the disk when seeking the data you want, therefore head scratch is less frequent - HDD lifespan increases. In some cases, it also helps to consolidate some free space, because if the disk is fragmented and getting full, it is difficult to save a large file on it.

 

Recently we came across reports saying that defrag could improve system performance as well. For example, MyDefrag claims to be a disk defragmenter as well as optimizer (a maintenance utility to make your harddisk faster). If it is true, it is amazing because we have a new way to speed up our computers. We are skeptical because work applications rarely use file I/O compared to other operations like memory and page file access. It is easy to understand this because you save your work or load another file only once in a while. Memory read is incredibly fast, and page file access is not improved by defragmentation because page file is usually fixed in size or does not get fragmented so easily.

 

It's good to have one lightweight text editor that runs faster and consumes less memory than a word processor or an IDE because very often we just want to jot down something or make some changes real quick. What we need is something that can do more than the default windows notepad.There are a few choices of notepad replacement out there, we fancy Notepad2 for a number of reasons. Not surprisingly, Notepad2 as with other notepad replacements has its features desgined to ease programming tasks because it was created by a programmer. But many functions are useful for general text editing as well.

 

 

TypingAid is a simple, compact and handy auto-completion utility for Windows. It is a free and open-source software licensed under GPL.

New release: 2.15

I'd like to share with you a program TypingAid, to demonstrate how auto-completion tool could help to improve typing speed and productivity, as well as to reduce the risk of RSI (Repetitive strain injury). With proper set up, TypingAid could also be used as a typing aid for language learners and computer users affected by conditions such as Dyslexia, learning / writing difficulty, hand disability, Repetitive strain injury, etc.

Features of TypingAid:

Auto-complete words and phrases in any window. Auto-learn words as you type. Support European languages with accents and Unicode characters. Show suggestion listbox, no toolbar used. Add words and phrases to word list with shortcut key. Fast and memory-efficient. Portable, no installation needed.

DOWNLOAD

TypingAid 2.15

 

from Softpedia

TypingAid is made with AutoHotKey but does not require AutoHotKey to run. If you have AutoHotKey installed, you may also try the newest development version (bleeding edge) at AHK Forum TypingAid v2.15 - Word AutoCompletion Utility.

 

New users please read Quick Guide and check Known issues below to get started.

 

 

 

If you are a professional you probably have a lot of different IMs to get in touch with your workers, providers, buyers etc… it is quite a pain to open all of them when you start the system and although you can set them all to open at startup they will slow down your computer and you will get a lot of icons in the system tray. It is also quite a mess to manage them all at the same time, you never know which person is talking to you on which one etc…

 

This is why there are programs like Pidgin which can use all of your IMs at the same time in a single program. Pidgin is open source for free and you won’t pay at all or see any ads to use it.

 

We made a tiny but nifty program originally intended for productive use, but then we discovered the other side of it. It can be used to simplify tasks as well as to escape from stagnant office policy :)

 

Requirements:

1. Windows XP, Vista, 7

2. No need installation.

3. Unzip to a folder and run.

 

For:

1. Productive use

2. "Unproductive use" :)

 

Use:

Instructions

DOWNLOAD Boss Key program

 

As shown in a previous article Computer is getting slow at opening programs and startup, we reduced the boot time of a computer by disabling unnecessary programs that load during startup. The computer performance improved as a result of less virtual memory being used. This method is very useful for computer performance tuning.

 

The command that enables us to do so is 'msconfig'.

Start -> Run or type in the searchbox -> 'msconfig' -> Enter -> Go to 'Startup' tab

 

With the retail version of Windows 7 to be on the shelves, we are once again faced with the question of "should we spend the money to upgrade or not? We have listed down seven reasons not to.

 

1. Windows 7 minimum requirements:

(from Microsoft Makes Windows 7 Minimum Requirements Official - OSNews)

Windows 7:

1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit) 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit) 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit) DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Folder context menu, the menu that appears when you right-click on a folder can be customized to include some of the actions we regularly perform on a folder. This tweak can be done on Windows XP, Vista and 7. To perform this tweak, we need to modify Windows registry.

 

You can get a full list of keyboard shortcuts in

Microsoft Help and Support site AutoHotkey Community's Comprehensive list of Windows hotkeys KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS @ AXCEL216 / MDGx Tricks of Past Weeks WINKEY SHORTCUTS @ AXCEL216 / MDGx Tricks of Past Weeks KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS @ AXCEL216 / MDGx Tricks of Past Weeks WINKEY SHORTCUTS @ AXCEL216 / MDGx Tricks of Past Weeks

You may ask, "which hotkeys should I memorize and learn first?" "which are more commonly used?"

 

We have divided the shortcut keys into three categories:

Basic - Must know. Failure to use them would result in loss of plenty of precious time. You probably have learnt all in this category. Intermediate - Learn to make yourself more productive, to get things done fast. Advanced - Optional. Awkward key combinations or rarely used keys.

Practise them at work, see how they can help you.

 

 

Windows 7 created a media frenzy with everyone waiting for so far (probably) the best designed Windows OS to ship. Most people see that it could deliver and save Microsoft some face from the Vista woe. Windows 7 carries a price tag, so we are here to help you judge whether the new features introduced in 7 are useful or not. If you look forward to upgrade to improve your work, check this article out to see if Windows 7 offers any productivity enhancement.