TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is a free Open Source disk encryption utility that works with Windows, Mac, and Linux. It allows you to encrypt an entire drive, partition or flash drive and ensure no one can access the data without the right password. It provides on-the-fly encryption and after the drive is encrypted you can continue to use everything like you normally would. 

Installation is straight forward and it’s recommended to create a system restore point before installing.

Click on the Create Volume button to begin setting the disc up for encryption.

The entire process is wizard driven which makes it easy to use even for beginners. You can encrypt a virtual disk, removable drive, or an entire system drive. There are a lot more steps than what we show here, but the wizard makes all of your choices easy.

You can choose different levels of encryption. There are several types to choose from and each has its unique qualities…but for most users you will be fine with AES.

To complete the process you will need to restart the computer.

The amount of time it takes to encrypt a hard drive will vary depending on the size and speed of the system. In our test we encrypted an entire 320GB drive and it took about 4 hours.

To complete the process a restart is required.

Now anytime you start up your PC you will need to log in using the password you created in TrueCrypt.

If you’re worried about private or sensitive data being compromised, TrueCrypt is a simple and effective free option. If you have a version of Windows or other OS that doesn’t include BitLocker or another encryption feature, TrueCrypt has you covered. It’s a versatile utility as it can encrypt partitions, VHDs, Flash Drives, or entire hard drive like we showed.

Download TrueCrypt for Windows, Mac, and Linux

PC Decrapifier

PC Decrapifier requires no installation…just double-click the exe file to get things started.

The first screen introduces you to the program and gives you the opportunity to check for a new release. Click “Next” when ready…

The second screen has the EULA.

The third screen provides a warning to be careful regarding software that you may have purchased and installed yourself. You definitely do not want to accidentally remove the good stuff.

This screen asks which type of computer you are running. Choose the appropriate response…for our example we went ahead and checked “Yes”.

You will have the opportunity to create a “Restore Point” before going any further with the removal process. It is recommended that you do so before going to the next step.

You will be notified as soon as the “Restore Point” has been created…it may take a few moments depending on your individual setup. Now you are ready to check for “garbage software”. Click “Next”…

Our Windows 7 install came up clean but that is not the end of things yet. At this point you will have the opportunity to remove other software that is not in PC Decrapifier’s list yet or was added after you got your computer. Click “Next” to see what is found.

As you can see PC Decrapifier shows a list of the other software on your computer. Here you can see non-OEM installs of Google Toolbar and Musicmatch Jukebox have been selected. It is a good opportunity to remove unwanted software that is cluttering up your hard-drive. Select the particular items that you would like to have removed and click “Next”.

You will be provided with a final opportunity to cancel the removal if you are uncertain about any of your selections.

Then all that you have to do is enjoy watching that unwanted software being removed for you… You may be occasionally prompted to confirm removal of non-OEM software in uninstall windows…

All done…

In the final window you will have an opportunity to provide feedback to the software author if desired, otherwise click “Finish” to close PC Decrapifier.

What Does It Look For?

If you are curious about the list of items that PC Decrapifier looks for, there is a list (three pages) provided at the author’s website (link provided below). Here is a sample from the first page…

Conclusion

If you are looking for a good way to clean up your new (or old) computer, then PC Decrapifier can help make it as painless as possible.

Links

Download PC Decrapifier (version 2.1.0)

See the list of what PC Decrapifier removes

Using Desktop Slideshow 

To create your slideshow right-click on the desktop and click Properties.

Click on Desktop Background located at the bottom of the window.

Now hold down the Ctrl button on your keyboard and select each picture you would like to show on the desktop. Then choose the amount of time to to change the pictures, you can select from 10 seconds all the way up to a full day. Click the box next to Shuffle to vary them up even more.

After you’ve enabled this setting you’ll notice it says Slide Show under Desktop Background.

If you’d rather not muck around in the properties panel to add new wallpaper, you can simply head into the folder with all of your pictures, wallpapers, or photos, select the ones you want and use “Set as desktop background” from the right-click menu.

Once you’ve enabled the desktop slideshow, if you want to skip over to the next wallpaper you can simply right-click on the desktop and then use “Next desktop background” from the menu.

This is a great way to add variety to your desktop, show off some pictures you’ve taken, or just mess around with while you’re bored at work.

Advanced System Tools

There is a very handy collection of system utilities that are included in Windows 7 and Vista that can help you troubleshoot problems that may arise. For some reason Microsoft felt the need to bury them in the OS so they’re not immediately apparent to most users. Here we take a look at accessing the diagnostic tools and briefly cover some of what’s included. 

To get to the tools type Performance Info into the search box in the Start menu and hit Enter.

In the Performance Information and Tools windows click on Advanced Tools.

Alternately you could click through to Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Performance Information and Tools \ Advanced Tools…see what I mean by buried?

What’s Included

It opens up a list of different tools you can use to monitor different aspects of the system performance. From here you can do several things like defrag the hard drive, check Event Viewer, and even re-rate the Experience Index score. 

Notice there is a column for Performance issues you can click on to get additional details on how to correct the problem. In this example it shows a driver interfering with Sleep mode and that changing visual settings will improve performance.

In additional details it tells us turning off the Aero feature will improve performance. I find it odd that MS would alert you to turn off Aero as it’s a hyped feature to the interface since XP. At least they’re honest in telling you Aero can slow performance, especially with under powered video cards.

Even Viewer is a great tool used by administrators that records event errors that happen “behind the scenes” so to speak. The information in these logs are meant for admins and advanced users to help determine why certain errors are occurring. Most users won’t need to worry about this section, but you may need to access it while receiving tech support.

Resource Monitor is like the Task Manager on steroids…it’s a great tool to monitor what apps and services are using up your system’s memory, processor, disk usage, and network activity. If you find a service or program that is frozen or taking up too many resources you can close it out.

A very handy tool that is not well known about is the ability to generate a system health report.

Wait while an analysis takes place and the information is collected…

The report takes about a minute to create and then you can go through a very detailed analysis of virtually every aspect of your system.

You can also export the report to HTML format so you can share or save the report for future comparisons and troubleshooting.

If you’re experiencing problems with your Windows 7 machine, using the included advanced system tools can help a lot, without the need for installing 3rd party utilities. 

Add Videos to Start Menu (Windows 7)

There are links to several things on the Start Menu by default, but the Videos folder is not one of them. To add it right-click on the Start button and select Properties, and under the Start Menu tab click on Customize.

Now scroll down to Videos and select Display as a link and click Ok.

Videos now appears on your Start Menu.

Add Internet Search to Start Menu

A few weeks ago we showed you how to  search websites from your desktop using search connectors in Windows 7. Another neat trick is adding Internet search to the Start menu (this uses Local Group Policy Editor which is only available in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions of Windows 7).

Go to Start and type in gpedit.msc into the search box.

In Local Group Policy Editor go to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Start Menu and Taskbar.

Under Setting double click on Add Search Internet link to Start Menu.

Set it to Enabled and hit Apply and OK.

Now when you go to search from something from the Start Menu you will see the Search the Internet link.

Show More Recent Programs Without making the Start Menu huge

The program icons in the Start Menu are large by default and if you want to display more recent programs, it makes the menu much larger on the screen.

We can make the icons smaller and add more items by right-clicking on Start \ Properties and click the Customize button. Scroll down and uncheck the box next to Use large icons then click Ok. Under Start menu size increase the number of recent programs to display. 

The result is smaller icons with more being displayed in the menu without taking up extra screen real estate like in this example.

Even More Start Menu Tweaks

Here’s a list of more Start Menu tweaks that we’ve already covered,but are worth revisiting to help you take control of the menu. Most of these are for Windows 7 and Vista but a few are for XP too.

• Disable Highlighting New Programs in Windows 7, Vista, and XP
• Get the Classic Star Menu in Windows 7
• Enable Run Command on Windows 7 or Vista Start Menu
• Change the Number of Recent Items Shown on the Windows 7 and Vista Start Menu
• Change the Windows 7 or Vista Power Buttons to Shut Down/Sleep/Hibernate
• Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep/Shutdown Button
• Enable “Pin to Start Menu” for Folders in Windows Vista/XP
• Remove the Username from the Start Menu in XP

These should get you started for now, and we’ll undoubtedly have more in the future. How about you guys? Share some of your favorite Start Menu tweaks that help you manage Windows more effectively.

Windows Update

The Windows Update feature had come a long way since the days of XP and is much improved in Vista and Windows 7. To access Windows Updates type Windows Update into the search bar in the Start menu.

In the new Windows Update it’s easier to review, install, manage, and check updates. It also shows updates for MS Office products without having to check them separately.

It would be nice if it gave detailed info versus a generalized description to save time. But if you aren’t sure about an update or want to find out more information, click the link in the right column.

It brings you to the MS site where you can read up more on what you’re installing.

Some updates will require that you agree to a MS EULA.

Some updates will require a system reboot, but you’ll have the option to postpone the restart for a few hours or until you reboot manually.

It also allows changing the settings for how Windows installs updates from completely automatic to turning them off and settings in between. Important updates should be enabled by default on a pre-installed system but if you want to make sure you can select that option here.

It’s also easier to uninstall Windows Updates if one breaks another application or makes the system unstable. They’re listed in their own section and you can right click and select Uninstall.

To stop seeing unwanted updates, highlight them, right-click and select Hide updates. If you want to install them later you can always restore them.

Update Third Party Apps

Keeping Windows updated is very important, but it doesn’t end there. You also want to make sure your other applications are updated as well, and not just for the reasons of stability and new features. Security holes can pop up in common third party applications like Adobe, Flash, Java…etc. 

You can certainly go through each app individually and check for updates, but that can be tedious and you may not remember to update them all. To save time, use a utility like Secunia Personal Software Inspector which will check apps installed on your computer for updates. The really neat thing is that it also provides direct links to patches and updates for you to download and install. You can also set it to run in the background for continuous monitoring for updates.

Another popular and free solution is Belarc Advisor. It won’t actually update problems for you, but it gives a detailed report and points you to where updates can be found.

Hardware Driver Updates

Keeping your drivers up to date is important for system stability and performance. With newer hardware I have noticed Windows Update will sometimes include new driver versions, but not for everything. You can check out your computer manufacturers website to check for new updates for your hardware.

Some computer manufacturers include a utility to check for your system updates that you can run from time to time.

Or you can use a utility like DriverMax which will find updates for your drivers and will also backup and restore them.

Other Update Tips

If you have any Apple apps on your system such as iTunes, it includes its own software update utility. You might want to monitor these updates closely because they tend to add a bunch of unwanted apps during an update.

It should go without saying to update your Antivirus program, but it is surprising how often this can be overlooked.

By keeping Windows, drivers, and other software updated you will keep your system secure and running smooth.

Download Secunia PSI

Download Belarc Advisor

Download DriverMax

Note: VMware Player is available for Windows and Linux. Keep in mind that this is Beta Software and will occasionally be temperamental.

Installing VMware Player

The install process is not complicated, but relevant install windows are shown here. Also keep in mind that the entire process will take more than a few minutes to finish while everything is being installed.

Note: During the install process you will not see the EULA for VMware Player.

During the install process you will most likely be presented with the following message window asking confirmation to install driver software. Click “Install”.

Once the install process has finished you will be asked to restart your computer.

After you have restarted your computer and started VMware Player for the first time, then you will be presented with the EULA. You will need to accept in order to use the software.

This is the “Main Window”. Since it is still in beta it did display a little oddly on our system as shown in the following screenshot. But it functioned without any problems whatsoever for us.

These are the menus for VMware Player…easy access to everything that you need to get started. Notice the link for the Guest Operating System Installation Guide in the “Help Menu”.

These are the “Preferences”. If for some reason it is not selected, then make certain that “Suspend the virtual machine” is activated so that your virtual O.S. can be preserved when you are finished with it for the day (or night).

If there is a newer beta version available you will be presented with the following message window each time you start the program (unless you have update checks disabled in the “Preferences”). If you click on “Go to the Update Site” you will have to register for an account in order to download the newest version. At this point it is much simpler to wait for the latest release to become available on one of the software download websites such as Softpedia…

Installing a System in VMware Player

When you get ready to install an operating system, there are two ways to start the process: 1.) Go to the “File Menu” and select “Create a New Virtual Machine…” or 2.) Click on “Create a New Virtual” in the “Main Window Sidebar”.

This is the process that you will need to go through to set up your new system. In the first window you will need to select the install source (i.e. DVD or ISO file). Notice that you can also create a blank hard disk if desired… Click “Next” once you have chosen your source.

We chose to install directly from an ISO file. As you can see VMware Player automatically detected the type of install and provided the opportunity to enter the “Windows Product Key” now instead of having to do it later. Click “Next” once you have entered the necessary information.

Choose the name for your new virtual O.S. and the location for the new “hard disk”. Click “Next” to proceed.

Determine the disk size and what form you would like to have your new O.S. stored in. Click “Next”.

At this point you are nearly ready to begin installation…but first you should click on “Customize Hardware…” to make any desired changes to the settings.

There are eight areas to sort through in the “Settings Window” but none of it is complicated. In the first area determine if you would like to use the recommended Memory or change it to a higher/lower setting. We chose 1500 MB for our O.S. install…

Note: The only change from the defaults that we made was for the Memory size…everything else was already set up very well for our purposes.

Make any desired changes for the number of processor cores or the preferred mode for the virtualization engine.

Make changes for the CD/DVD access if needed.

You should not need to do anything regarding the Floppy settings…

Modify the Network settings (if desired) to best suit your needs.

Enable or disable USB capability.

Change the access to the host Sound Card and/or choose a specific one if you need to do so.

Make any necessary changes for the Display… Click “OK” when you have finished with the settings to return to the virtual O.S. creation wizard screen

At this point you are ready to click “Finish” and get things started.

As the setup is proceeding you may or may not see a message window letting you know how to access any external storage devices…it will depend on what is hooked up to your host computer.

You will also see the following window asking to download and install VMware Tools. Click “Download”.

This same window will display as the VMware Tools are downloading and installing/updating…

While the VMware Tools are downloading/installing, you will notice that your new O.S. will also be installing at the same time. Here you can see our Windows 7 system getting settled in. There will be the “traditional” restarts for your new system to complete the installation and a restart for new VMware Drivers that need to be added in to help your new O.S. run smoothly. Let all of the VMware Drivers install…there were four for our particular installation.

Note: If you are installing Windows 7, it will start up with the Basic theme and you will need to turn Aero on.

Windows 7 in VMware Player

Here is our new Windows 7 installation set at full screen with Aero enabled. Although it did not show up in our screenshot, there will be a short (approximately one-third screen width) and thin VMware Toolbar at the top of the screen.

Note: It is very easy to move between your virtual and actual operating systems…simply drop out of full-screen mode using the “Minimize/Maximize Button” in the upper right corner to gain access to your regular system. There are also hotkey combinations available…

A close-up look at the “Start Menu & Taskbar Area”…

Shut Down Process & Extra Settings

Here is our virtual O.S. “popped out” of full-screen mode. To save the current state of your O.S. when you shut down go to the “VM Menu”, then “Power”, and select “Suspend”.

Note: A “Snapshot Function” is not available at this time.

We enabled the closing messages in the “Preferences”, so the following message window appeared when we selected “Suspend”. Click “Yes” to start the shut down process…

Here you can see the “Save Process” in action…

Once your O.S has finished shutting down you will be returned to the “Main Window”. Notice that there is a small screenshot of the desktop along with some basic information about that particular system…

Once you have closed a freshly installed O.S. you will find access to a whole new set of “Options” for the system in the “Settings Window”.

There is not really a lot to change or modify in the first area outside of the virtual O.S. name and home directory. You can enable a virtual keyboard if desired…

Decide if you want to automatically enter full-screen mode or not when you power up your virtual systems.

Set up Folder Sharing if desired…

Select the update style for VMware Tools that best suits your needs.

Enable or disable window decorations and/or the “Applications Menu”.

Bonus

During our tests we found that we could easily copy and paste items such as links & images back and forth between the virtual and host systems with no problems.

Conclusion

VMware Player provides a very nice way to install and enjoy full-screen Aero goodness in a virtual operating system.

Links

*Download VMware Player without an account*

Download VMware Player (version 3.0.0.197124) – Softpedia

*VMware Player website requires an account*

Download VMware Player (version 3.0.203739) – VMware Player Homepage

The Problem

You’re finally figuring out Windows 7 and listening to your favorite songs on Windows Media Player and everything is great. You then decide to install iTunes because you just got an iPod as a gift. After installation, you realize the icons in your music folder look different and they’re opening with iTunes by default instead of WMP…what happened?

While you were installing iTunes you may not have noticed that it installs itself as the default player for all audio files unless you uncheck the option. This situation can happen a lot with all different programs and file types. Using the Set Default Programs feature in Windows 7 and Vista you can gain control over which applications are associated with each file type.

Set Default Programs 

To access the Set Default Programs feature, click on Start  and click Default Programs.

Click on Set your default programs.

Go through each program  and decide if you want to set it up for the default program to open all of the file types it’s capable of opening.

Or you can choose which file types to associate each program with. Like in this example we’re selecting Foobar2000 as the default programs for just certain types of audio files while VLC and WMP open others.

You can also go in and associate file types with different programs, like in this example VLC is opening WMV files and we want to change it to Windows Media Player. You can highlight the file type and click the Change program button or simply double click on it.

Select a program from the list under Recommended or Other Programs or you can browse to the location of a specific app if it’s not listed. Notice the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file box is checked and grayed out because we’re going through the Set Default Programs to get to the Open with screen. Windows assumes changes are permanent because of the route we took to get here and grays it out.

If you right-click on a file and go to Open with by way of the context menu…

The box is not grayed out and you can decide if it will always open that type of program or not.

In Set Default Programs you can also change AutoPlay settings for when you insert media or devices like a flash drive. For example you can set DVDs to always open in Media Player and music CDs to ask you every time. You can also turn it off by unchecking Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.

If you have it set to ask you when you put in say a DVD…AutoPlay opens and you can choose what to open it with. You can also access the above setting by clicking View more AutoPlay options in Control Panel.

Another cool utility for controlling file associations is Default Programs Editor which we previously covered. This will give you all of the options we just took a look at and a lot more.

This should help you get started in deciding what programs you want to feature with different file types. In this tutorial we focused on music and movie files, but it works the same for any file type.

Here we look at an example of the annoyance, notice the tacky highlight over programs that were recently installed.

Disable in Vista & Windows 7

To disable it in Vista and Windows 7 right-click on the Start Menu and select Properties.

The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties screen open and you want to click on Customize.

In the Customize Start Menu screen scroll down and uncheck Highlight newly installed programs, then click Ok.

That’s it! Now you’re free of the annoying highlighting of new programs in the Start menu.

Disable in XP

You can do this in XP as well basically the same way. Right-click on Start \ Properties then make sure Start menu is selected and click Customize.

Then click on the Advanced tab and uncheck Highlight newly installed programs, click Ok and close out of the remaining screens.

If you are new to computers you may not want to disable this feature because it can help you easily distinguish between old and new programs. If you find it annoying, disable it and enjoy a cleaner Start menu.

Note: XP Mode is a separate download that only works in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions.

Can My Computer Run XP Mode?

If you have a new computer you might assume that it should be able to run XP Mode right? Not necessarily. Your system CPU will need to be able to support hardware virtualization. An Intel processor uses Intel Virtualization Technology and an AMD processor would be AMD-V with their Virtualization capability. One of the easiest tools I have found is SecurAble from the Gibson Research Company. It doesn’t require installation and quickly tells you if your CPU is capable of Hardware Virtualization.

If it’s not available or locked off, you might be able to go into the system BIOS and activate it. Look carefully in the BIOS because the setting is not always clearly labeled. If you still don’t see it, you might be able to update to the manufacturers latest version and get it to work. Make sure you know what you’re doing when updating your system BIOS and follow all the manufacturer’s steps, otherwise you can turn the PC into a giant paper weight.

If your system doesn’t support Hardware Virtualization, unfortunately you won’t be able to run XP Mode.

Install XP Mode for Windows 7

To get everything rolling you will need a couple of files (links below) and the first one to download and install is Windows XP Mode.

Secondly, download and install Windows Virtual PC. After installing this one a reboot will be required.

After you get back from the restart, go to the Start menu and click on Windows Virtual PC.

Enter in a password for the VM and click on Remember credentials if you don’t want to enter it every time it’s launched.

Agree to the EULA and choose if you want automatic updates or not.

Just wait a few minutes while it sets up.

Now you are ready to start using XP Mode.

Using XP Mode

If you’ve ever ran XP or another OS on a virtual machine before, running XP mode in Windows 7 should be familiar. XP operates like it would on a stand alone machine. You can navigate through the OS the same way as you normally would. There is no pointer capture like there is in other VM apps, just click on the screen to operate the XP operating system.

The version of Windows is XP Professional SP3.

You can easily send the Ctrl+Alt+Del command. To completely turn off the machine the first time you will need to shut it down from this screen.

You can use USB drives as well, just click USB on the toolbar and choose the drive you want XP Mode to recognize.

It will share drives that are connected to the Windows 7 machine to the XP VM.

While playing around in XP on your Windows 7 machine is cool, the main reason for XP Mode is to run applications that only work with XP on the new OS. You need to install the XP compatible program on the virtual machine first, just like you normally would. In this example I installed the old school MusicMatch Player version 7.5 on the XP VM.

To run the apps in XP Mode you need to close out of the VM first.

Then go to the Start menu and Windows Virtual PC \ XP Mode Applications and the app you want to run.

The virtual machine process starts up but you don’t see the whole OS, just the application you want to run. You can use it just like you would if it were installed on Window 7.

You can also go into the VM settings and change things like allocating more memory, hard drives, networking settings…etc.

Conclusion

This feature is mainly geared toward businesses who have proprietary apps that only work with XP, but a professional geek can definitely get some great use from this feature. I tested this on a Windows 7 32-bit machine with 3GB of RAM and everything ran very smoothly. I have read reports saying the performance is slower on notebooks and desktops with slower hardware but you’ll need to try it yourself to find that out. It will also work with Virtual Hard Drives created on the Windows 7 machine which is pretty cool for easily sharing files. If you’re a hard core geek and have hardware that will handle XP Mode this should get you started in finding cool ways to use it.  

Download XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC

Download SecurAble