20 Windows 7 free apps to download today, Chapter 2.

Here are 20 free Windows 7 applications that stand out in terms of quality of results you get from them. 

Ninite is a quick and easy way to download most of these applications into a single customised installer.

11. Ditto

Since Windows 7 doesn't improve upon one of the most common used techniques used on a PC - copy-paste - the freebie Ditto enhances copy-pasting by placing a universal clipboard storing every single object that has been copied, to be pasted in whatever order that is required.

12. Defraggler

The creator of CC Cleaner has also created the Defraggler, a defragmentation tool for Windows. The stand-out feature is, however, the ability to defragment individual files or a specific portion of a drive. Defragmenting only what is needed saves a lot of time instead of defragmenting a whole drive that could take a few hours.

13. Recuva

Recuva is a freeware app that recovers files that have been accidentally deleted from the Recycle Bin, MP3 Players and memory cards, claiming to recover files that have also been corrupted by viruses or damaged disks. The slick Recuva Wizard at Startup appeals to both amateurs and professionals, and with no price tag, it can be priceless when you find those important photos or documents.

14. 7Stacks

Stacks is a fantastic addition to the Mac OS X Dock. Wouldn't it be great if you could do that on a Windows taskbar? 7Stacks does exactly that, providing an insight into your documents quickly with a few clicks, and with a matching aero theme effect, there is no reason not to have a great Mac feature on your PC.

15. Switcher

Another great Mac OSX feature is Exposé, the ability to view all running windows in various thumbnails in full screen. Switcher mimics this feature, allowing you to decide which mouse or keyboard shortcut you would like to activate the Switch. 

-->

16. 7-Zip

Compressing files has many advantages since they take up less space and are therefore quicker to download from the internet. Featuring a host of compression formats, 7-Zip lets you uncompress almost any compressed data, and with the unique 7z format, files can be compressed up to 40% smaller than Zip formats.

17. Supercopier

Apart from being a tad faster than the standard Windows Explorer, Supercopier also allows you to edit the copy-list while copying. It also includes an error log and allows you to decide the speed of the copying. 

 

18. Windows Live Essentials

Live applications such as Windows Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Live Messenger are not installed by default with Windows 7. Most of these applications could sell if they were given a price, and there is a lot of effort put into developing them, so it's worth downloading them.

19. Eraser

Most people store some sort of important personal information such as passwords or bank statements on their PC. Files deleted from the recycle bin are not necessarily lost forever, and it could be a disaster if someone managed to retrieve sensitive information. Eraser erases by overwriting the selected file several times in 'carefully selected patterns'. This means that the file is not just deleted, but its left-out counterpart is overwritten to make sure it's gone forever.

20. OpenOffice

OpenOffice, a popular open-source suite, is an immensely powerful set of applications considering the fact that you don't have to dish out a single penny. OpenOffice is very similar to MS Office, and advanced techniques like macros and built-in templates will please advanced users.

-->

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

20 Windows 7 free apps to download today, Chapter 1.

Here are 20 free Windows 7 applications that stand out in terms of quality of results you get from them.

Ninite is a quick and easy way to download most of these applications into a single customised installer.

1. GIMP

The Paint application got a much needed improvement in Windows 7, but it doesn't cater to the needs of professionals and by no stretch of imagination can it be considered a Photoshop replacement. 

GIMP, a diamond of freebies, is simply remarkable in terms of quality and quantity, with an array of options. From 3D perspective tools to eye-popping render effects, GIMP impresses throughout. (For a less professional based image editor, Paint.Net is a good alternative). 

2. VLC Media Player

VLC Media Player is not about the cool menu colours or the glow of the play button seen in its rivals. The developers of this fantastic piece of software have focused on the core aspects of a media player, and it succeeds by being able to play virtually any video and audio format with impressive quality. Great ease of use makes this media player a must-have.

3. Handbrake

Converting video from one format to another is child's play with Handbrake, which accepts practically any format as a source. Handbrake also includes chapter selection, basic subtitle support and audio embedding. With tree diagrams and tabs in the interface, Handbrake is a pleasure to use.

4. Firefox

The browser war is pretty fierce and everybody has their favourite browser. However, the star of open-source development is undoubtedly Mozilla Firefox. Does your browser look dull? Then download one of the many themes from the Mozilla website. Increase functionality and productivity with add-ons such as Sxipper and Firegestures.

5. Picasa

Created by Google, Picasa gathers and organises all your photos to make them easily accessible. Adjusting and fixing your photos, posting them online or viewing a timeline are just a few clicks away, and amateurs will appreciate the simple yet very effective layout in Picasa. Included with Picasa is the excellent Picasa Photo Viewer to preview pictures in Windows explorer folders.

 

 

6. Fences

Windows 7 might bring a brand new taskbar, but it doesn't do much to improve upon the main desktop itself. Fences is a great way to make your desktop organised, by arranging and sorting icons into various 'fences' or labelled shaded areas in a well-presented manner. Fences make life a lot easier.

7. CCleaner

Like its predecessors, Windows 7 will tend to run slowly on lower end computers. One way to speed up a slow computer is to clear up unnecessary junk files that pile up in your hard drive, and CCleaner does just that. And with an added uninstalling feature that removes annoying programs that refuse to leave your computer, CCleaner is strongly recommended.

8. Enhancemyse7en

From Cleaning up registry problem to detecting system clutter, Enhancemyse7en notifies you about improvements that could be made on your computer. However, the supreme aspect of this program lies in the insane amount of data and tools provided, including hard drive monitors that measure 'Work Time' and 'Temperature' and helpful options such as 'Time to wait when a program hangs'.

9. Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader might be an unnecessarily larger download than its rivals, but it manages to keep a constant footprint on resources (unlike Foxit PDF Reader that has a constantly increasing footprint) and with a browser plug-in included, it's a good idea to stick to the software provided by the creators of the PDF format themselves.

10. Notepad ++

Unlike Paint, Windows 7 makes absolutely no improvement to the Notepad application. Fortunately, the freebie, Notepad ++, expands on the functionality of the default notepad by including tabbed windows. It's a programmer's dream, with support for various programming languages. This program justly deserves the name 'Notepad++'.

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview FAQ..

Windows 8 had just arrived and lots of buzz is going around related to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, The Developer Preview was released by Windows Earlier for testing purposes which seemed to be a lot good and improved.

Some people also said that Windows 8 Developer Preview was better only for Tablet devices. But now Microsoft has now released the newer release of Windows 8, that is Windows 8 Consumer Preview. After the release, blogs are writing lots of tutorials about this new release.

Q: Where can I get information about how to download and install Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
A: Information about downloading and installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview can be found on the Springboard Series for Windows 8 on TechNet site. Here you will find links to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO image downloads for x86 and x64 and top resources such as a product guide, Windows To Go overview, and Windows Store FAQ.

Q: Where can I find information about exploring Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
A: Exploring Windows 8 Consumer Preview content can be found on the Explore Windows 8 on TechNet page. Here you will find technical feature overviews, such as BitLocker, Client Hyper-V, IPv6, and more. You’ll also find FAQs for BitLocker and managing the Windows Store and Windows 8 with Internet Explorer 10.

Q: Where can I find additional content about Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
A: All Windows 8 Consumer Preview content for IT Pros can be found on the Springboard Series for Windows 8 on TechNet site.

Q: Do you have a guide that helps businesses understand what is in Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
A: Yes. Please review the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Product Guide for Business.

Q: Where can I find get additional help if I run into a problem or have a question about Windows 8 Consumer Preview?
A: Please search the forums for an existing thread that discusses your issue. If you don’t find one, please create a new thread in one of the following forums:

• TechNet: For IT Pro issues and questions
• Dev Center (formerly known as MSDN): For Developer issues and questions
• Microsoft Answers: For Consumer issues and questions

Q: Where is Microsoft officially discussing Windows 8?
A: Official information about Windows 8 can be found on the Building Windows 8 Blog.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Wallpapers

But for now Microsoft has released the OS .iso file and it’s available for download on their official website, we’ve compiled some awesome new wallpapers of Windows 8 which have been created by the users and designers. Thanks to the community who keep on working and provide support to us for free. I’ve compiled some of the best looking wallpapers which can look amazing on the background of your Android Mobile Phone.

Windows 8 Metro-UI Wallpaper.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview Wallpaper.

Windows 8 Beta Preview Release Wallpaper.

Windows 8 Wallpaper.

Black Windows 8 Wallpaper.

This post will be constantly updates with all the coming wallpapers that seem to be good. All the images are grabbed using the Google Image search. You can use all of these wallpapers on your Android mobile phone to make it’s background look purely beautiful, try them and out and do subscribe to us to recieve these updates directly to your Inbox.

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Maximize windows on the desktop using Snap.

Windows 7 has introduced many new window arrangement features such as Aero Snap and Aero Peek. It includes docking windows to the edges of the screen, vertical expand, easy maximize and other enhancements that make it easier to manage multiple windows.

Can’t switch to Windows 7 right now? WindowSpace brings the most outstanding Windows 7 features straight to your Vista or XP desktop. Importantly, WindowSpace not only transfers the new window management functionality to Windows 2000/XP/Vista, but also improves and extends it to provide exceptional productivity on a multi-monitor or big-screen system.

You can use Snap to maximize a window, which makes it easier to focus on that window because of less distraction from other open windows.

Watch this video to learn how to maximize windows on the desktop using Snap (0:49)

To maximize a window

1. Drag the title bar of the window to the top of the screen. The window's outline expands to fill the screen.
   
2. Release the window to expand it to fill the entire desktop.
   

To return the window to its original size, drag the title bar of the window away from the top of the screen.

Tip

If you use multiple monitors, you can drag a maximized window from one monitor to the other.

Other ways to maximize an open window:

• Double-click the top of an open window just below the top edge. To restore a maximized window to its original size, double-click the top of the window again.
  
• On the taskbar, press Shift and right-click a taskbar button or a preview of an open window, and then click Maximize.
  

Notes

• If you minimize a window by pressing Windows logo key +Down Arrow, you can restore it by clicking its preview on the taskbar, or by pressing Shift and right-clicking the program’s button on the taskbar, and then clicking Restore.
  
• Snap might not work on some programs that have custom window behaviors.
  

Examples:

The snapping feature is enabled when you move or resize a window with the mouse.

1. Drag the titlebar to move a window
2. Snap window to the screen edges

Once this feature is enabled, windows will snap to each other or to the screen borders neatly, edge to edge, rather than block or cover one another completely. You’ll be able to align windows properly without having to reposition them constantly on the desktop, or hunt for the application you need behind other windows.
 

When you resize a window with the mouse, snapping allows you to quickly make two or more windows the same width or height.

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog:

Top 10 changes to security in Windows 7.

1: Action Center

In Vista, security configurations are accessed from the Security Center in Control Panel. In Windows 7, you won’t see a Security Center. That’s because it’s been absorbed into a new Action Center. The Action Center has security configurations as well as options for other administrative tasks, like Backup, Troubleshooting And Diagnostics, and Windows Update. Figure A shows the Action Center.

Figure A: The Action Center absorbed the functions of the Security Center.

2: Changes to UAC

User Account Control (UAC) was new in Vista, designed to provide better protection from malware. It makes all user accounts run as standard users, even administrator accounts. If you need to do something that requires admin privileges, it asks for permission. And asks. And asks. This in-your-face aspect of UAC has caused numerous complaints and has led some users to turn it off completely, thus exposing themselves to threats.

In Windows 7, UAC is still there, but now you can configure how “vocal” it will be. There are four settings you configure from the UAC settings in the Action Center. You can set UAC to:

• Always notify you when you install software or make any changes to Windows settings (as Vista does now).
• Notify you when programs make changes but not if you make changes to Windows settings (this is now the default).
• Notify you only when programs make changes but turn off Secure Desktop, which dims the desktop while the UAC prompt is displayed. (This is my preferred setting.)
• Never notify you. (This is not recommended.)

You configure these settings with a slider, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B: You can set when and how UAC notifies you with the slider. 

 

3: Better BitLocker

I didn’t use BitLocker much in Vista. At first, it would encrypt only the operating system drive. That’s nice for laptops, but I didn’t need it for my desktop because that machine is physically secure. Then Service Pack 1 added the ability to encrypt other drives, and that was nice, but it applied only to fixed hard disks. What I really needed to encrypt were my thumb drives and flash cards and USB drives, since they’re removable and portable and more likely to get lost or stolen.

Windows 7 comes through and lets you encrypt removable drives. And it’s easy to do. Just open the BitLocker applet in Control Panel, pick the drive you want to encrypt, and click Turn On BitLocker. The removable drives appear in the section called BitLocker To Go (Figure C).

Figure C: You can now encrypt removable drives, like the Lexar USB flash drive, with BitLocker.

For more details about the BitLocker improvements and step by step screenshots of how to encrypt a drive with BitLocker in Windows 7, see this article.

Also note that, as with Vista, BitLocker probably won’t be included in the Home editions of Windows 7.

4: DirectAccess

A brand new feature in Windows 7 is DirectAccess, which allows remote users to connect securely to their corporate networks over the Internet without using a VPN. Administrators can apply Group Policy settings and otherwise manage the mobile computers and even update them whenever the mobile machines are connected to the Internet, regardless of whether the user is logged on to the corporate network.

DirectAccess also supports multifactor authentication with smart cards and uses IPv6 over IPsec for encrypting the traffic.

5: Biometric security

Arguably the most secure method of authentication is biometrics, or the use of a fingerprint, retinal scan, DNA, or other unique physiological feature to identify the user. Windows isn’t quite at the point of having built-in support for DNA sampling, but it does include built in support for fingerprint readers. Windows has supported the use a fingerprint sensor to log on, and many Vista laptops come with fingerprint sensors. But a third-party program is required to use it. With Windows 7, it’s part of the OS.

The Biometric Devices applet in Control Panel (Figure D) lets you configure fingerprint readers (which are the only kind of biometric devices supported).

Figure D: Now support for fingerprint readers is built into Windows.

6: AppLocker

Software Restriction Policies are included in XP and Vista and they seemed like a great idea. Administrators can use Group Policy to keep users from running particular programs that might present a security threat. But they’ve never been used that much because they aren’t easy to use.

Windows 7 has improved on the concept with a new feature called AppLocker. AppLocker is also included in Windows Server 2008 R2. It’s easier to use and gives administrators more flexibility and control. You can use AppLocker with domain Group Policies or on the local machine with the Local Security Policy snap-in. As you can see in Figure E, AppLocker falls under the Application Control Policies node in the left pane of the snap-in.

Figure E: AppLocker does the same thing as Software Restriction Policies, but does it better.

Win7 still supports the old Software Restriction Policies, too. Also note that AppLocker may not be available in some editions of Windows 7.

7: Windows Filtering Platform (WFP)

Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) is a set of APIs introduced in Vista. In Windows 7, developers can use it to integrate some parts of the Windows Firewall into their own applications. This will allow a third-party program to turn off certain parts of the Windows Firewall selectively if need be.

8: PowerShell v2

Windows 7 comes with PowerShell v2, the command-line interface by which administrators can use cmdlets (small “one liners” that allow you to perform single functions) to manage various settings, including Group Policy security settings. You can put multiple cmdlets together to create scripts. The cmdlet method generally requires fewer steps than using the graphic interface to perform the same task.

Windows 7 also includes the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) (Figure F), a graphical tool for using PowerShell.

Figure F: Windows 7 includes both PowerShell v.2 and the PowerShell ISE.

9: DNSSec

Windows 7 includes support for DNSSec (Domain Name System Security), which is a group of extensions to the DNS platform that enhance security. With DNSSec, a DNS zone can take advantage of digital signature technology so that you can validate the authenticity of data that’s received.

According to the Port 53 Blog on TechNet, the DNS client doesn’t perform the DNS validation on its own but is security-aware, so it expects the server to return the results of validation. You can read more about this here.

10: Internet Explorer 8

Windows 7 comes with IE 8, which provides such security enhancements to the Web browser as:

• The SmartScreen filter– Replaces/expands upon the Phishing Filter in IE 7
• The XSS Filter — Protects against cross-scripting attacks
• Domain highlighting — Puts emphasis on the relevant part of the URL so you can more easily determine the real location of the site you’re on
• Better security for ActiveX and the ability to install controls on a per-site basis
• Data Execution Prevention (DEP) enabled by default

If you liked this article, subscribe to the feed by clicking the image below to keep informed about new contents of the blog: