Raymond.CC Blog

Author: raymond

  • 4 Image Viewers for Better Photo Viewing and Protection Against JPG Exploit

    All newer version of Windows comes with a built-in image viewer. For example Windows XP came with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, Windows Vista with Windows Photo Gallery and finally Windows 7 with Windows Photo Viewer. They are very useful because it has very basic features such as zooming, rotate and even playing slide show which are probably enough for basic computer user. All default image viewers in Windows can also open most common image formats such as JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and PNG making most users don’t really need to install a third party image viewers.

    One of my personal philosophy for computers are “less is better”. If you don’t need it, don’t install it. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. However after many years in fixing computer problems, I noticed many times that when I try to improve something that is working fine without problems, I will end up discovering a bigger problem and it would be even harder to fix. Today my recommendation to every Windows user is to use a third party image viewer and STOP USING the default image viewer provided by Microsoft. Reason is I recently found out that there is a private JPG exploit (selling as much as $4000) that when you double click on the JPG file and you can instantly get infected by malware turning your computer into a bot. This is either done by binding the malware into the JPG file or the JPG file is able to secretly download and run the malware. This updated JPG exploit is similar to MS04-028 but still unknown by Microsoft.


    So now you know the danger of using the default image viewer provided by Microsoft. Using a third party image viewer and associating at least JPG extension lets you avoid being infected through this exploit. Another good thing about using a good third party image viewer is you get to do lossless rotation on JPEG photos. Here are a few reliable and popular image viewer that I recommend.

    1. XnView (2.97MB)
    XnView
    What I like most about XnView is the tab and the shortcut key to close and switch between tab is the same as Firefox. Double clicking on the image from the XnView browser tab opens the image in a new tab and doesn’t fill up the screen in full. However, I noticed that XnView takes up a lot of memory usage, as much as 65MB to open up 8 JPG images in different tabs. Support about 400 graphic file formats and has the ability to adjust brightness and contrast, apply filters and effects but lack of editing features. Freeware for private non-commercial, educational use and non-profit organization.

    2. IrfanView (1.32MB)
    IrfanView
    No tab support. Opened up 8 images at different window and took up a total of 55MB. The image viewer and the image browser (IrfanView Thumbnails) are 2 separate program. Can do JPG lossless rotation and support panorama creation. Has a paint dialog for basic image editing function. Has tons of features because of the plugin support. It’s fast, light, comes with a lot of features but I would personally prefer that the browser and viewer to be together with tab support. Free for non commercial usage.

    3. FastStone Image Viewer (4.54MB)
    FastStone
    No tab support and allows only one instances. Opening one image takes up 25MB. If you have dual monitor, you can display thumbnail browser on one and full screen preview on another monitor simultaneously. Comes with effects and filters, red eye removal, JPEG losless rotate, compare images and batch convert/rename. Free for home users.

    4. Photoscape (16.5MB)
    PhotoScape
    Doesn’t support tab. Each image is open at a new window. Felt a slow delay when opening an image. Opening 8 images on new editor window takes up 115MB. By default opening thumbnails in viewer tab shows full screen view but that can be disabled in options. Has basic image editing capabilities, batch editor, combine images, create animated GIF, image splitter and a very useful color picker.

    My personal favorite for image viewer would be XnView (although IrfanView claims that XnView has been stealing/cloning features from them) mainly because of the tab support, the shortcut key that is the same as Firefox and also opens fast. By using third party image viewers, you get more control over viewing images and also avoid being a target of the JPEG exploit. I am sure there are a lot more third party image editor and if you’re using one that is not mentioned above, do share with us.

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  • InstallPad Automatically Downloads and Installs Your Favorite Latest Software

    No, I am not talking about software such as Updatestar, FileHippo Update Checker, AppSnap, AppFresh, Appget, Update Notifier, Secunia PSI or RadarSync where it scans your computer for installed software, check the versions, then send this information to their server to see if there are any newer releases and download links are displayed in your browser for you to download.

    Downloading the latest versions of your favorite programs is a tiring task, especially on a fresh installation of Windows. Navigating through the mess of websites and download links is frustrating, waiting for the installers to download is boring, and running each one separately is annoying. A very popular unattended software installation program called MultiSet is able to do this too but has evolved into a more powerful unattended installation software that includes installing Windows. MultiSet is also a shareware that normally cost a whopping $99.95 per license. Here is an alternative for MultiSet called InstallPad which is FREE and can automatically download and install your favorite latest software so you can go and take care of your other more important things in life.


    InstallPad takes a list of your favorite programs and will download and install the ones you pick. It doesn’t need to ask any questions, so you can go do more important things. InstallPad can resume downloads you’ve canceled, and can even try and find the latest version of your program online.

    unattended software installation IntallPad

    If you administrate or develop for Windows, InstallPad can help you get a machine set up with service packs, applications or development tools without the need for CDs or running lots of scripts. With it you can quickly install a host of programs silently, pass arguments to the installers, and run post-installation scripts.

    InstallPad supports silent install which installs the program bypassing all those confirmation message boxes. By default, InstallPad uses the arguments “/S -s”, which work for the majority of installers (InstallShield and the Nullsoft Installer System). Some applications are special cased, like Firefox, which requires -ms for a silent install. If your application requires different arguments to install silently, the built-in Silent Install will not work out of the box. Instead, you should find out what arguments are required to make the install run silent, and provide them via Installer Arguments. Lucky you, I’ve already done the homework months ago on how to find hidden command line silent switches for setup files.

    Add unattended software installation

    Other than that, InstallPad also supports automatically downloading the latest version of the program that you specified. InstallPad parses the download URL, tries to infer what the program’s version is from the url, and then increments the version (both major and minor numbers), until the server returns file not found. This can only work with URLs that have some version information in them. InstallPad does not maintain a central online database, nor is it omniscient, and cannot therefore find the latest version of a program any other way. This method is not really perfect because there are some software developers may at times jump from version 5.0 to 5.5 to indicate that significant features have been added.

    If you’ve already downloaded all the setup files and don’t want InstallPad to redownload again, you can use the file:// command. InstallPad supports HTTP, FTP, and file:// URLs. Here are some examples:

  • To download from HTTP: http://winscp.net/download/winscp381setup.exe
  • To download from FTP: ftp://ftp.icq.com/pub/ICQ_5/icq5_1_setup.exe
  • To install from local setup file: file:///c:/myFolder/myFile.exe
  • To install from network setup file: file://///networkMachine/sharedFolder/file.exe

    • InstallPad requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 to run. It didn’t make a lot of sense for InstallPad to run with .NET Framework 2.0 installed because a fresh Windows XP SP2 doesn’t have .NET Framework 2.0 installed by default. So you’ll still need to manually install the .NET Framework 2.0 first before running InstallPad to run an unattended software installation. As for Vista, you don’t have to worry too much because it comes with .NET Framework 3.0. Let’s hope the developer of AkelPad will make it run without any dependencies.

    [ Download InstallPad 0.4 ]

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  • 6000 Sound Effects

    If you’re a programmer, website designer, disc jockey, remixer, this collection of sound effects can be very useful for professional and personal needs. It has a collection of .wav files that covers a wide range of genres, 6000 Sound Effects should have what your looking for, from a rain forest Pygmy Owl call to a Lear Jet taking off.
    Free Sound Effects
    Featuring a search program that searches by sound name or keywords in the sound description, 6000 Sound Effects has the sounds and the tools to find them.


    This 6000 sound effects is pretty old. Released in year 1998. I don’t think sound effects ever gets outdated.

    [ Download 6000 Sound Effects Part 1 | Part 2 ]

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  • FotoForensics Analyzes if Photo has been Modified or Photoshopped

    When you see a photo of a girl on the Internet that is perfectly beautiful with large round eyes, sharp oval face, pointed chin, sexy body and thin long slender legs, you may wonder if the photo is even real or actually modified with photoshop? While some trolls may just accuse or slander that the photo is fake because of manipulation without any proof, it would be even better to analyze the photos yourself to see if it is indeed modified or not.

    While it seems impossible for anyone to analyze photo manipulation, FotoForensics website offers a free service that uses Error Level Analysis (ELA) algorithm to determine if a picture is real or computer graphics, if it was modified, and even how it was modified.


    All you need to do is either upload the picture from your computer or provide a direct link to the image for FotoForensics to evaluate the error level potential. Once the picture has been analyzed, the result page shows both the original image and the ELA. You can even move the mouse cursor over to the original image which will turn into the ELA image for easier reference.

    FotoForensics
    The resaved image was digitally modified: books were copied and a toy dinosaur was added

    Unfortunately analyzing the ELA requires training and practice, where ELA users can also learn to identify image scaling, quality, cropping, and resave transformations. You can visit the tutorial page created by FotoForensics to learn the basics on ELA analysis.

    To get a more accurate result, it is best to use the “original” picture instead of the ones that has been resaved. For example, in SmugMug, you get to select the view size (Small, Medium, Large, XLarge, X2Large, X3Large, Original) and you should use the one that is the largest if Original is not available. The same goes to Flickr where you should select Original at the All Sizes page. FotoForensics can only analyze JPEG and PNG image format. If the image size is too large, then it won’t be accepted as well. I’m not sure what is the actual limit but a 6MB picture was rejected.

    Visit FotoForensics

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  • Monitor Folders For EXE or DLL being Added, Renamed or Modified
  • Check for Recently Created or Modified Files and Installed Software
  • Paint.NET – Probably the BEST FREE Image and Photo Editor
  • 4 Image Viewers for Better Photo Viewing and Protection Against JPG Exploit
  • Rotating Photos or Pictures in Windows Photo Viewer Causes Quality Loss

  • The power of Google for all your TORRENT needs

    Who wouldn’t know what Google is? I bet EVERYONE knows! Google is the, in my opinion, the best and most powerful search engine. Google is so powerful in searching that you can search for backdoor passwords, live webcam and etc through Google Hacking. I’ve even posted a tip on how to search and download MP3 using Google.

    Believe it or not, there’s a website Toorgle, the web interface looks quite similar to Google, is able to search up to 200+ torrent websites and it now has over 5,000,000 torrents indexed. If you don’t want to use software to do searches such as Torrent Harvester, you can try Toorgle.


    Search torrents through Google
    Looks familiar eh?

    You can even add Toorgle to Firefox search bar. Meaning you can directly search for torrents by typing the keywords on the searchbar. Don’t need to type the whole URL and wait for the website finish loading in order to make a search.
    Toorgle Firefox searchbar

    [ Visit Toorgle ]

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  • Giving Away Commercial Game and Licensed Software EVERYDAY for FREE

    Shocked to read the title of this article? It’s something very new to me and I think this is a very good concept where both visitors and author of game/software will benefit. We, the visitors will get commercial game and licensed software everyday for free and the author of the game/software will gain more exposures.

    Basically, one software title will be nominated everyday. The software will be available for download for 24 hours (or more, if agreed by software publisher) and that software will be absolutely free. That means – not a trial, not a limited version – but a registered and legal version of the software will be free for the visitors. The software product will be presented in its full functionality, without any limitations save for those mentioned in Terms and Conditions.


    Giveaway of the day
    Giveaway of the Day will provide the download link on their web-site for the agreed period of time, together with the review of the software product and the information about other products from the software publisher presenting the giveaway title. Once the software or game has passed the 24 hours giveaway time, you won’t be able to active it for free anymore. This method really makes people to visit the Giveaway website everyday.

    To license the game or software, you have to download from the Giveaway website. Inside the archive file, there should be a file Activate.exe. You need to run activate.exe first and only install the software or game.
    Activate Shareware and Commercial Game
    I noticed that each activate.exe that comes together with the software or game is different because of the file size.

    One very good feature that’s included in the Giveaway website is the “Rating” system. It helps new visitors to have an idea if the game or software is worth downloading or not. The more thumbs up, the better the software/game is.
    Rate Software and Game

    Please note that the software you download and install during the Giveaway period comes with the following important limitations. You won’t be getting any free technical support from the author of the software, no free upgrades to future versions and you can’t use it for commercial purposes.

    Thanks to Matthew Votsikas for suggesting this website to me.

    [ Software Giveaway | Game Giveaway ]

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  • Fix for Updating Torrent Harvester Engines

    As you’ll know that the original Torrent Harvester website (http://TorrentHarvester.awardspace.com) is no longer accessible for many months already. Torrent Harvester engine updates wouldn’t work because the link is pointed to the dead link. When you click on the check for updates, you’ll only get an error message saying “The underlying connection was closed: Unable to connect to remote server.”
    Fix Torrent Harvester Engine Update
    Does that mean that in time to come, Torrent Harvester wouldn’t be useful anymore? No, I don’t think so. FidoFuz, the author of Torrent Harvester has contacted me and informed me about the new link.

    So here’s how to fix your Torrent Harvester to allow engine updates.


    1. Run Torrent Harvester.

    2. Go to Help -> Check for Updates from the menu bar. You will see a dialog box like the image below.
    Torrent Harvester Engine Update

    3. Change the “Update from website” link from http://TorrentHarvester.awardspace.com to http://www.torrent-harvester.com

    4. Click the Check button and it should be able to check for Torrent Harvester engine updates.

    If you didn’t know about Torrent Harvester, it is a program where you can automatically search for torrents on hundreds of bittorrent tracker website. You can download Torrent Harvester from the link below.

    [ Download Torrent Harvester v0.7b ]

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  • Install Google Chrome in Program Files Folder instead of AppData

    Most people install Google Chrome from the official website which is http://www.google.com/chrome. Clicking the big blue Download Google Chrome button will first download the Google Chrome installer (ChromeSetup.exe) which is only 716KB in size. The installer will then download the latest Google Chrome to install it on your computer. Since Windows 95 until the current Windows 7, most if not all third party software is recommended to install in Program Files folder so that we can easily keep track of what software that has been installed on the Windows computer.

    If you haven’t noticed, Google Chrome by default installs to AppData folder instead of Program Files. The good thing about installing Chrome in AppData folder is it doesn’t require UAC elevation so any user including Guest account will be able to successfully install without problems.

    However, for advanced users that prefers to keep all installed software in a standard location which is the Program Files, here is how to do it.
    (more…)

  • NEW Winner of 1 Year RapidShare Premium Account

    It’s been more than a month ago since I ran a contest on “Subscribe and Get 1 Year FREE RapidShare Premium Account“. I’ve reached my goal long ago and I’ve chosen the winner three times but none of them replied my email to claim the prize.

    This will be my FOURTH time randomly selecting the winner from the email list I have. I will email the winner and also announce the winner here. Fingers crossed and hope that this winner will claim his prize otherwise there’ll be a fifth pick. This is no BS and I honestly want to give out this 1 year rapidshare premium account.

    Let’s not waste anymore time. The lucky WINNER is…


    RapidShare Premium Winner

    Miccas has been Raymond.CC Blog’s subscriber since 21 January 2007. Below is the screenshot I taken when I searched for Miccas’ record.
    RSS Subscribed date

    Miccas, I will be sending you an email in a few minutes time. If you see this post but did not get my email, PLEASE contact me. This 1 year rapidshare premium account prize has to go and I hope you’ll claim it!

    If for “some” reason you don’t want the FREE 1 year RapidShare Premium account, you can have anything you want that cost 54.99 EUR or less. I’ll just pay for it and have it shipped to your address. Since I think most of my readers including the winner are computer people, you’ll benefit a lot from the free 1 year RapidShare Premium account.

    Congrats to Miccas!

    P/S: Once the 1 year rapidshare premium account prize is claimed, I might announce a new contest which is to hit 10,000 subscribers. Of course I will be offering a much more BIGGER prize. So if you haven’t subscribe, please do subscribe in order for you to stand a chance to be the lucky winner!

    [ Subscribe to Raymond.CC Articles ]

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  • FREE Multi Virus Cleaner That Detects Over 5,500 Common Viruses

    I found a free tool, which claims to detect and remove major viruses. It is able detect and remove the following virus: Sober, MyDoom, Bagle, Sasser, Zafi, Netsky, Nimda, Klez, Mytob, Kelvir, Mabutu, Somefool, Korgo, Openstream, Serflog, Sumon, Crog, Bropia, Conycspa, Assiral, Inforyou, Wallz, Samll, Zar, Phel, Golten, Bofra, Renepo, Funner, Nyxem, Brador, Duts, Scob, Toofer, Cabir, Rile, Puce, Muce, Agent, Bobax, Wallon, Beagle, Gaobot, Agobot, Mimail, Simcss, Magicon, Wintrim, Persis, Francette, Thumbi, Ghosts, Delude, Hatoy, Torvil, Torvel, Swen, Gibe, Sobig, Dumaru, Welchia, Nachi, Msblaster, Blaster, Lovsan, Mylife, Randex, Slanper, Sluter, Sbbot, Bug Bear, Fortnight, Palyh, Fizzer, Lovgate, Rolark, Spybot, Ganda, Codered, Deloder, Slammer, Lirva, Naith, Avril, Gpcode, Wurmark, Eyeveg, Lanieca, Cipie, Adan, Vundo, Virtumonde, Nopir, VB-9, puper, popilos, banwarum, Bifrose, Padodor, SdBot, Sality, Dropper, Lineage, Pakes, Banker, Goldun, LdPinch, Hupigon, Dadobra, Centim, RDevil, Haxdoor, Hotmatom, Mokul, Antinny, Antilam, Banbra, BattlePong, ChodeBot, Mosucker, Okanpi, Winshell, Blackmal (Nyxem), Yamanner, Mocbot, Opanki, Stration, Warezov, Abox, Peacomm/Downloader, Common dialers and Common trojans.

    Did you get blinded by the list of virus that it’s able to detect and remove? The above list is NOT even the comprehensive list of virus that can be detected and removed. Best part is, it’s free and I can confirm that it’s portable so you can carry it in your USB flash drive.


    Multi Virus Cleaner is a free, stand-alone utility used to detect and remove major viruses.
    Free Antivirus Cleaner
    It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but rather a tool to assist administrators and users when cleaning infected systems. Multi Virus Cleaner is regularly updated and can detect over 5,500 common viruses, worms, trojans and dialers (including all variants of the Sober, MyDoom and Bagle viruses). The program boasts a fast, user-friendly scanner that requires minimal processing power and is an excellent choice for repairing a compromised system.

    Even though Multi Virus Cleaner is able to detect over 5,500 common viruses, worms, trojans and dialers, but I don’t think it is able to detect and remove Brontok virus. Nevertheless, it’s still a very good and useful tool for a computer guy to carry with.

    If you want to carry this tool in your USB flash drive, locate the following location “C:\Program Files\AxBx\Multi Virus Cleaner 2007″ and copy the whole Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 folder to your USB flash drive. You only need to run MVC.exe to start Multi Virus Cleaner 2007.

    For the time being, you’ll need to download the setup package whenever a new or updated version of Multi Virus Cleaner is out. I hope that the author of Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 would include a liveupdate feature to this tool for easy updates rather than downloading the whole setup package and installing it every time when the latest version is out.

    [ Download Multi Virus Cleaner 2007 ]

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  • Run Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 from USB Flash Drive

    It is a well known fact that Emsisoft Anti-Malware 5 and Avira has been taking the first two spots in virus detection tests. It’s not too bad for Kaspersky as well because they are able to maintain at top position. One of my favorite tool that Kaspersky offers for free to everyone is Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10. Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 is designed to scan and disinfect x86 and x64-compatible computers that have been infected. The application should be used when the infection is so severe that it is impossible to disinfect the computer using anti-virus applications or malware removal utilities running under the operating system. In this case, disinfection is more efficient because malware programs do not gain control when the operating system is being loaded. In the emergency repair mode, you can only start objects scan tasks, update databases roll back updates and view statistics.

    The Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 is in ISO format which you can burn it to an empty disc and boot up the computer with it. With USB flash drive becoming so common nowadays and newer generation motherboards can support booting from USB, Kaspersky development team has came up with a tool to install Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 to USB flash drive.


    Here are the steps to download and install Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 to your USB flash drive.

    1. Download Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10

    2. Download Kaspersky USB Rescue Disk (RD2USB)

    3. Insert your USB flash drive to your computer.

    4. Run rescue2usb_1.0.0.4.exe and click Install. Kaspersky USB Rescue Disk will automatically run and selected your USB flash drive letter.

    Kaspersky USB Rescue Disk 10

    5. Click the Durchsuchen button and browse for the Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 which you’ve downloaded in step 1.

    6. Click the Start button and this tool will first prompt you to format your USB flash drive if it is not empty followed by installing Grub loader and copying the Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 ISO file. When the process has been completed, you can boot up your computer with this USB flash drive.

    This tool is very useful because it can write Rescue Disk (ISO) to USB without KAV/KIS 2011. All you need is a computer with an internet access to download the files and a USB flash drive to have Kaspersky scanning a computer. The current Kaspersky Rescue Disk v10.0.23.14 database release date is on July 22 2010 which is 2 and a half weeks old. You can update the Kaspersky Rescue Disk databases by going to My Update Center tab and click the Start update button. The download speed averaged at 30KB/sec and took about 7 minutes to finish downloading the update.

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  • Automatically Change Default Sound Device in Windows 7 via Shortcut

    Some of you especially gamers may have more than one sound device such as an external speaker and a headset. You may want to use the headset when it is late at night and don’t want to wake up your family members or if you want to talk to your friends so that it doesn’t transmit the sound from speaker to the microphone. To select which devices to use, you will have to manually choose which device for playback from Control Panel > Sound or alternatively you can right click on the speaker icon at the notification area and select “Playback devices”. The same goes to selection of Microphone to use but at the Recording tab. If you’re looking for an automated way to switch the default playback devices by clicking on a shortcut, here are 2 free tools that can help you achieve that.

    Set default playback device


    The first tool that is easier to use is called Set Sound Device or SSD in short. All you need to do is run SetSoundDevice tool, select which sound device that you want to set as default from the drop down menu and click the Change Default Sound Device button. A shortcut will be created and saved at the same location to where the SSD is. Whenever you want to switch to that particular sound device, simply run the shortcut and the default sound device will be automatically switched. You may want to create another shortcut so that you can also easily switch it back by running the shortcut.

    Set Sound Device

    Download SSD SetSoundDevice

    The second software is NirCmd which is a more advanced tool created by Nir Sofer. NirCmd is a Windows command line tool that allows you to do some useful tasks without displaying any user interface and one of it is setting the default sound device on Windows 7/Vista/2008. The command line to use is as follow:

    nircmd.exe setdefaultsounddevice [Device Name] {Role}

    The [Device Name] is the name of the device, as appeared in the sound devices list of windows, for example: Speakers, Line In, Microphone, and so on… The {Role} parameter is optional and may countain one of the following values: 0 for Console (the default value), 1 for Multimedia, and 2 for Communications. To automate switching of sound devices with NirCmd, you will need to manually create a shortcut with appropriate command line switches.

    Download NirCmd

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  • How to Automatically Start Downloading During RapidShare Happy Hours

    On 17 April 2008, RapidShare has again updated their CAPTCHA system and brought back the happy hours. The new CAPTCHA code now contains more than 4 characters and it ask you to enter all letters having a cat. It says “No premium user. Please enter all letters having a CAT below.” If you look carefully, you will find all the animals are not Cats. Some are Dogs which is very similar looking and confuses people. Sometimes even I have problems identifying which is cat and which is dog and can only get it right after a few tries.

    Rapidshare CATS letters

    Next, I want to talk about the RapidShare Happy Hours. You will get a message that says “The RapidShare Happy Hours are active right now. Have fun!” Their happy hours means that the download ticket waiting time and CAPTCHA will be totally disabled. However, after you’ve finished downloading a file, you will still need to wait for X amount of minutes before you can download the next file from RapidShare. I do not see a point in their happy hours… I don’t think they have a specific time when the happy hours will start or end. RapidShare only mentioned that when their servers have enough spare bandwidth, they will make it easier for free users to download from RapidShare.

    These updates are meant to break all those third party tools (Cryptload, (E)lephant, RSD, USDownloader) that can download from RapidShare as a free user as if they were a premium user.


    I’ve spoken to Apokalypser, the creator of Cryptload, he mentioned that it is tough to crack this current CAPTCHA code with CATS and he is unaware of any method that can automatically recognize cats inside rapidshare CAPTCHA image. However, there is a method I know called CaptchaExchangeServer which can help to automate inputting rapidshare captcha code with cats.

    recognize cats inside rapidshare captcha image

    CaptchaExchangeServer is not a software, but a service. When you are downloading something from RapidShare and you are not in front of the PC, another user (who is somewhere on the net) is writing the CAPTCHA for you. The user will help you because every time he writes a correct CAPTCHA for another user, he gets 1 point. So when he wants to download something, some other user, by the same idea is writing the captcha for him. He will then loose a point. Currently there is a bonus in this system. If you have less of 1 points, and waited for more then 5 minutes in queue, and there is no captchas for recognition, you’ll get 1 point automatically. This system currently only works on USDownloader. From what I experienced in CaptchaExchangeServer system, there are not many people spending their points but many trying to earn points. I had to wait more than 30 minutes for my CAPTCHA recognition turn.

    I also heard of people saying that it is possible to recognize CAPTCHA code with ABBYY FineReader. I’ve tried it but did not work. If you know how, perhaps you can share it with me.

    Good news is during RapidShare Happy Hours, we can use Cryptload, RSDownloader and USDownloader to automate the downloading. The author of those tools has updated their program to support RapidShare Happy Hours. As for (E)lephant, it hasn’t been updated since 16th March 2008 and it doesn’t work with Happy Hours. There’s only one small problem that is we have to wait till RapidShare Happy Hours is active, then we can proceed downloading from RapidShare without limitations using those third party tools.

    Instead of manually checking for RapidShare Happy Hours, I found a small tool which automatically checks for RapidShare Happy Hours. If the tool detected that the RapidShare Happy Hours is active, it will notify you via popup and you can configure it to run Cryptload, RSDownloader or USDownloader and start downloading. Very useful so you can go to sleep and let everything run by itself.

    The tool is called RapidShare Happy-Hour Checker.
    RapidShare Happy Hour Checker

    I couldn’t find any information about this tool. I don’t know who created it nor where is the official website. I scanned it with 31 types of antivirus in VirusTotal and it detected nothing at all.
    [ Download RapidShare Happy-Hour Checker ]

    Another tool I found is called HappyCat by Perrin and 20lives.
    HappyCat rapidshare happy hours detector
    I couldn’t find the official website for this tool as well. Tried it but it doesn’t work as it reports “Not a Happy Hour” during Happy Hours. Another thing I don’t like about this tool is it requires Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. I’ve included the download link in case you’d like to try it yourself.
    [ Download HappyCat ]

    Cryptload can automatically start downloading when it is launched provided if you set it to start Immediately when adding the links.
    CryptLoad immediately start downloading
    In short, it means you add the links and set it to start Immediately and then close Cryptload. Then open up RapidShare Happy-Hour Checker and set it to run CryptLoad.exe when it detects rapidshare happy hours. There’s a small bug in CryptLoad which is there must be more than 1 files in queue. If you only have 1 file queued in Cryptload, it won’t automatically start downloading when it is launched.

    RS Downloader too can start downloading immediately when launched but it is not configured as default. You’ll need to go to Einstellungen tab > Sonstiges, CHECK Downloads beim RSD start starten and click Speichern button to save the setting.
    RS Downloader automatically start downloading

    As for USDownloader, it will automatically start downloading the links when it is launched. No configuration needed. I will update you all again if there are new methods to recognize cats inside RapidShare CAPTCHA images.

  • Fix AVG Incompatible Software Problem During Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 Installation

    Yesterday I’ve posted a trick on how to obtain Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 license key for free and I believe many has successfully got the key. From the comments on the article and forum, I found out that many people is unable to install Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 due to an incompatible software that is installed on the computer, specifically AVG 8. The error windows shows a message “Attention! Some incompatible software is installed on your computer. These applications cannot be used together with Kaspersky Internet Security 2009. In order to proceed with the installation, remove these applications.”

    Fix AVG Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 Incompatible Software

    Selecting the incompatible software from the list and clicking the Remove button will launch Add or Remove Programs. Then another error “In order to proceed with the installation, please remove incompatible software (it is recommended to reboot your computer after uninstallation). Then run the installation again” The weird part was, AVG 8 has already been uninstalled on my test system!

    After investigating the Windows registry, I found cause of the problem (registry keys) that is causing AVG incompatible software problem during Kaspersky installation.


    I noticed that the Next button is blurred or grayed out. So I thought maybe I can use TurnItOn or DM2 to enable and access the restricted Next button. Tried but it doesn’t work.

    The method that Kaspersky suggested on how to skip scan for incompatible Software when installing Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 or Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 is at this link. This way of fixing the problem can be somehow confusing for computer beginners because it involves folder options setting, going to a hidden All Users application data folder, open up command prompt and launch the setup.exe via command line switch.

    I think the fix that I found myself would be much easier. Just launch Windows registry and navigate to the keys involved, back it up and then delete it. Here it goes.

    1. Go to Start > Run.

    2. Type regedit and click OK.

    3. Navigate to this following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\

    Delete AVG registry Kaspersky Incompatible software
    right click the key, select Export and save it on your computer. Then delete AVG key. Try installing Kaspersky (kis8.0.0.357.exe) again. If it still doesn’t work, then run regedit again, navigate to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\

    Kaspersky Incompatible Software
    right click the key, select Export and save it on your computer. Then delete AVG8Uninstall key. You should be able to install Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 now without getting the incompatible software prompt. This is fix is only if AVG is listed in the incompatible software window. If you have Norton, you can look for Norton/Symantec registry key at the same location above and delete it.

    This option is recommended ONLY if you are absolutely sure that the third-party software was deleted but is still detected by the Setup Wizard of Kaspersky Internet Security version 2009. Otherwise after the program installation the operating system may malfunction and even crash.

    For a list of incompatible software with Kaspersky Internet Security 2009, you can visit this page.

    I actually had this problem when I was installing KIS 2009 on my test system but was somehow able to install KIS 2009 over it even if I got the incompatible software message. I can’t really remember how but I got through it. But if you’re unable to, you can use the solution above. Enjoy Kaspersky Internet Security 2009!

  • Microsoft Offers Free Hard Drive Virtualization for Windows

    Hard drive virtualization is very important when you’re managing hundreds of computers at a library, cybercafe or a school institute. One of the place where I am working at has more than 500 workstations and is used by students. Even though the students are on restricted limited account, some smart virus still manage to infect the whole computer. I’ve spent countless of hours just by scanning and removing virus. Some virus even made it impossible to clean that I had to reinstall the whole system.

    Antivirus don’t really help much because new undetected virus can still infect the computer. So the best is to use a virtualization software. Previously I’ve mentioned about Returnil Virtual System which is able to restore everything to its original state by a reboot. They have a free version but it is only for personal use, not commercial use. The finance people checked the price and told me that they couldn’t afford it. So I had to use another solution…


    Windows SteadyState is a tool developed by Microsoft that gives administrators enhanced options for configuring shared computers, such as hard drive protection and advanced user management. It is primarily designed for use on computers shared by multiple people, such as internet cafes, schools, libraries etc. SteadyState is the successor to the Shared Computer Toolkit. SteadyState is available free of charge from Microsoft for computers running genuine copies of Windows XP and Vista.

    Download Windows SteadyState

    There are Global Computer Settings and User Settings. For global computer settings, you can set computer restrictions, schedule software updates and protect the hard disk using Windows Disk Protection. When Windows Disk Protection is turned on, it has the ability to revert a computer to a previously stored state every time it reboots, or when an administrator sets it to. The good thing about it is the user’s My Document would not be affected by the virtualization, which allows the user to save their work there.

    As for User Settings, you can find 4 tabs which is General, Windows Restrictions, Feature Restrictions and Block Programs. In General, you’re able to configure session timers to define the duration of a logon session or of the idle time before a session terminates. On the Windows Restrictions tab, you can set restriction levels that define the content of menus and the Windows XP or Windows Vista tools and features that a user has access to. As for the Feature Restriction tab, you can select restrictions that will prevent users from accessing a program attributes that could damage or clutter the computer. Finally on the Block Programs tab, you can select the software you want to prevent the user from accessing.

    Actually I got to know about Windows SteadyState early this year. Tried it and it made my computer really slow. Other than that, my computer takes more time to boot in Windows. Well, I was using Windows SteadyState 2.5 Beta back then which is unstable. Few days ago Microsoft released stable final version of Windows SteadyState 2.5, which adds support for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3. I believe they’ve fixed the “hang” problem as well.

    I’ve tested the latest SteadyState 2.5, it is much better than the BETA version and I noticed it increased my computer’s boot up time by a few seconds. I am willing to give up the few seconds rather than spending hours in scanning and cleaning up virus. Here’s how a high restrictions limited account desktop looks like.

    SteadyState Desktop

    One important note, any administrator is able to run Windows SteadyState because it doesn’t have the ability to password protect itself. So make sure you create a limited user account and let them log in as limited user, not administrator.

    [ Download Windows SteadyState 2.5 ]