Author: raymond

  • Backup Mozilla Firefox Profiles

    I use both Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer 7. Mainly Firefox and if that particular site couldn’t support Firefox, then Internet Explorer 7 will come in handy. What I really liked about Firefox is it is able to save cookies so that I don’t need to login the next time, username and passwords and even double protect it with Master Password, list of visited websites and also the bookmarks. I know Internet Explorer 7 can do the same but somehow I prefer how Firefox does everything.

    Loosing all bookmarks, histories/visited websites, cookies, saved username and passwords from my Firefox browser CAN be disastrous! It happened before, that’s why I always backup my Firefox profile.
    I found this tool long ago and have been using it to backup my Mozilla Firefox profiles. It’s very useful and I thought I should share this out to some of you that don’t know about this.


    MozBackup is freeware and works on Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/2003. MozBackup is a simple utility for creating backups of Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Mozilla Suite and Netscape profiles. It allows you to backup and restore bookmarks, mail, contacts, history, extensions, cache etc. It’s probably the easiest way to do Firefox backup!

    The zip file is less than 1MB. Simple interface and very easy to use. When you want to backup your Firefox profile, you need to make sure that Firefox is closed and not running. I’ll show you how easy it is to use MozBackup to backup your Firefox profile.

    1. You choose whether to backup or restore your profile.
    Backup Mozilla Firefox

    2. After choosing the profile to backup, it’ll prompt you whether you want to password protect your backup file. This is a simple security feature so that no one can steal your backup file and then restore it on their computer.
    Password Protect Backup File

    3. Finally, you select the details that you want to backup. This backup tool is smart enough to detect which details is available for you to backup. Those that is not available, the checkbox would be blurred out.
    Backup Firefox Details

    4. Upon clicking next button, it’ll start backing up all the details you selected. By default, the backup file will be saved on your desktop unless you specify a different location. The backup file extension is .PCV

    MozBackup supports backing up these Firefox (Thunderbird) extensions:
    * Adblock Plus
    * Bookmarks Synchronizer
    * Clippings
    * Colorzilla
    * Crash Recovery
    * Download Manager Tweak
    * File Title
    * ForecastFox
    * Google Toolbar
    * Greasemonkey
    * HTML Validator
    * Chatzilla
    * Lightning
    * Menu Editor
    * Mouse Gestures
    * Prefbar
    * Sage
    * ScrapBook
    * Signature
    * Slim Extension List
    * Stylish
    * Tab Mix Plus
    * Tabbrowser Extensions
    * Tabbrowser Preferences
    * View Source With
    * Web Developer

    MozBackup backups and restores others extensions too but if these extensions create new files in your user profile with setting, MozBackup doesn’t backups these files. I never backup my extensions. I only have 3 extensions installed that is FlashGot, Google Toolbar and IE Tab. I think that it’s more stable to reinstall the extensions every time I install a new Firefox.

    [ Download MozBackup v1.4.5 ]

  • Automatically Close Running Programs and Eject USB PenDrive

    When you want to eject a connected USB drive from a computer, you’ll have to close all the programs that are ran from USB flash drive, or else you’ll get the error message saying “The device ‘Generic volume’ cannot be stopped right now. Try stopping the device again later.” Sometimes even after closing every possible application that is ran from the USB flash drive, you still can’t successfully stop the device. If this happens on my own computer, I have no problems with this issue because I could use Unlocker to unlock processes in use to successfully remove the drive.
    Eject USB drive
    This would be a problem when this happens to my flash drive that are connected to other computer which doesn’t have Unlocker installed. If I simply unplug my USB flash drive without safely removing it first, there is a risk of data corruption on my flash drive. I recently found a small tool from Jkwebtalks called EjectUSB which seems to be pretty interesting. From the name of that tool, it seemed like a normal utility to eject a plugged in USB drive but it actually does more than that.


    EjectUSB is designed to be a simple utility to close all programs running from a specified drive or folder and then attempt ejection if a drive was specified. Extended functionality includes flushing the file cache, closing Explorer windows and removing registry entries and Recent Document shortcuts referencing the specified drive or folder.

    There is no interface for EjectUSB. All you need to do is extract the zip file to your USB flash drive, and then run EjectUSB.exe whenever you want to eject your USB flash drive.
    EjectUSB
    You might be thinking what is the difference between ejecting the USB drive using this tool and the built-in Safely Remove Hardware in Windows? The good thing about EjectUSB is it automatically closes all running programs running from the USB drive. This way it’s very unlikely you’ll get the error that your device cannot be stopped now.

    There’s also a settings.bat file where you can access the configuration of EjectUSB. As you can see, it is also able to perform cleanup functions, remove related Subst entries and many more which the Safely Remove Hardware is NOT capable of doing.
    EjectUSB Settings
    Other than using this tool to eject a plugged in device, you can also use it to close running programs that are ran from the partition where EjectUSB is. Let’s say you run a game that is installed in D: drive. If you have EjectUSB in D: drive as well, double clicking it will close the game. However this won’t affect the programs that are ran from other partitions such as your C: drive. EjectUSB can definitely work like a boss-key function to quickly shut off programs that can get you fired 😉

    Your antivirus might warn you that EjectUSB is a trojan but it’s not. That is the side-effect of EjectUSB being an AutoIt3 script. You do not need to worry if you’ve downloaded it from the official EjectUSB website.

    [ Download EjectUSB ]

  • Reveal Passwords Hidden Under Asterisks

    It’s a good practice not to use the same password on everything. This is because if your ONLY password falls in the wrong hands, the next thing you know is you won’t be able to access anything at all. Imagine you loose access to your Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Internet Bank account and etc within a day! You’ll go crazy loosing all your contacts and you know someone is having a great time reading all your personal emails.

    For me, I use different password for softwares/websites and most of it is saved on my laptop for easy access. Problem is, if you use too many different passwords, sometimes we tend to forget the password that we set for the software or website. If the password is saved, you can easily use a tool to show the password hidden under the asterisk *******

    I am sure many of you remember “SnadBoy’s Revelation” but unfortunately it doesn’t support showing passwords hidden under asterisks in web pages. So I won’t be recommending this tool because I know a better one.


    Asterisk Key shows passwords hidden under asterisks. It is able to instantly uncover hidden passwords on password dialog boxes and web pages. The setup is less than 500KB and it works perfectly.

    Reveal hidden password in Google Talk (Software)
    Recover Lost Password

    Reveal hidden password in Internet Explorer (Web Page)
    Reveal Lost Password

    Both Google Talk and Internet Explorer is active. I then launch Asterisk Key and click the “Recover” button. Within a second, Asterisk Key shows the passwords hidden under asterisks.
    Show asterisk password

    Just a word of advice, please use this tool to recover your OWN password. If you get caught in using this tool to steal people’s password, you can get into serious trouble. Treat this tool as a useful recovery too instead of hacking tool.

    Note: Asterisk Key doesn’t reveal password hidden under asterisk in Firefox browser. I will be posting a method on how to recover saved passwords in Firefox browser tomorrow. Stay tuned!

    [ Download Asterisk Key ]

  • How To Sleep Less and Have More Energy Than You Ever Had Before

    Is it possible to sleep for 4-5 hours and feel more rested, more alert, and more energized than you did when you slept for 8 or 9 hours (or more)?

    Yes it is! While this e-book may be short, the information in it is extremely powerful, do not underestimate it.
    How to sleep better
    This is state of the art optimum life performance information, which may shatter some of your old beliefs about sleep, and give you many learnings and understandings that you will be able to use to revolutionize your life. If you follow the information in this short e-book you will be able to:


    1) Reduce your sleeping time.
    2) Increase the Quality of your Sleep
    3) Gain more energy than you ever had before.
    4) Eliminate all feelings of drowsiness / inability to concentrate during the day.
    5) Reduce your Daily Stress Levels

    Just imagine what radical changes you could create, and what things you could accomplish in your life if you were able to sleep just half as much as you do now? Time is the most precious commodity we have in our lives! Or what you could do if you slept the same amount of time you do right now, but the sleep you got was more energizing and fulfilling than ever before?

    To me personally, I need at least 8 hours of sleep to be alert throughout the whole day. That also depends on whether I am getting quality sleep or not. I found this ebook while surfing the Internet and thought that it might help some people like me.

    [ Download eBook ]

  • FREE Anti-Virus Protection: AOL Active Virus Shield for EVERYONE!

    Now everyone can get leading anti-virus protection – absolutely FREE!
    * Powered by Kaspersky, one of the largest anti-virus providers, worldwide
    * About 300 new viruses are created each month. Every computer needs to be protected
    * Real-time scanning and protection against virus threats
    * No cost, obligation, or AOL membership required
    * Advanced detection technology to help stop viruses and malware before they attack you
    FREE BEST Antivirus

    Active Virus Shield seamlessly integrates with the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems and is compatible with other PC protection programs (firewalls, anti-spyware, etc.). Like other anti-virus programs, using Active Virus Shield may require that you uninstall other anti-virus programs to avoid product incompatibilities.

    Main Advantages of Active Virus Shield


    Highly Effective Antivirus Protection. Active Virus Shield utilizes the latest technology to do both traditional signature-based detection, as well as in-depth scanning of executables. This helps protect against a broader range of known and new viruses, reducing the chances of a virus infection on the user’s computer.

    Real-Time File Protection. All individual files, catalogs and disks can be scanned for viruses or, to cut down on scan times, Active Virus Shield allows users to focus attention only on critical areas of the operating system. In either case, Active Virus Shield serves as a watch-dog, continuously monitoring and helping to protect files. Active Virus Shield can also scan faster by scanning only new and changed files.

    Email Protection. Active Virus Shield supports most e-mail clients (e.g POP3, IMAP or NNTP) to scan incoming email and SMTP protocol to scan outgoing mail. For popular mail programs, like Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express, plug-ins and routines for treatment of viruses in email databases are also available.

    Automatic Hourly Updates. Active Virus Shield checks for available updates every hour which helps to ensure the product is up to date with the latest features and virus signatures

    Simple And Easy To Use. Active Virus Shield can be installed and set up in a matter of minutes, and the context sensitive help enables users to understand the finer points of the application’s settings. Moreover, the program regularly notifies users of its current protection status and gives recommendations for dealing with difficult situations.

    Runs Without Slowing Down Computer. Active Virus Shield utilizes sophisticated technology to optimally share processing power with other applications, allowing users to continue other tasks while scanning for viruses with little impact on the speed of their computer. During times of increased user activity, Active Virus Shield gives more resources and computer processing power to the user to ensure that virus scans do not slow down other activities.

    Small Frequent Updates. Download updates are relatively small (usually 10 Kbs or less) and ensure that the software is quickly updated with the most current virus information. Active Virus Shield can check for available updates every hour which helps to ensure the product is up to date with the latest features and virus signatures

    Optimized For Laptops. Active Virus Shield offers a number of advantages for users of laptops based on Intel Centrino mobile technology. The program has also been optimized for use on computers with Intel processors that support HT technology.

    Active Virus Shield Feature Summary

      * New Threat Response Time of up to 2 hours*
      * Real-Time Protection
      * On-Demand and Scheduled Scanning
      * Disinfects Files in Archives (ZIP, ARJ, CAB, RAR, LHA)
      * Option to Scan Only New And Modified Files
      * Harmful Program Blocking And Removal
      * Disinfect SMTP, IMAP4 & POP3 Email
      * Variable Scan Speed
      * Help Prevent Slowdown During Increased Computer Usage Periods
      * Support Power Saving for Laptops
      * Support Microsoft Windows XP x64

    AOL Active Virus Shield doesn’t have proactive defence and some options are removed, but for a Kaspersky Antivirus 6 engine and updates is good enough to counter viruses! If you didn’t know, Kaspersky Antivirus is one of the best Antivirus of all time. Doesn’t take too much resources and it’s smarter.
    Another thing I don’t understand is, why is this setup file being hosted in NullSoft? If you didn’t know, NullSoft are the creator of the popular Winamp player.

    [ Download AOL Active Virus Shield ]

  • How to Dual Boot XP and Vista with XP Installed First

    Yesterday I’ve created a step-by-step tutorial on “How to Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista Installed First“. Today I am going to show you how to dual boot XP and Vista with XP installed first. It’s a different scenario than yesterday. This time is you already have Windows XP installed which takes up 100% of the hard drive and you want to install Windows Vista on the same hard drive.

    Configuring dual boot when you have XP installed first is way much easier than Vista installed first. Just follow the steps below on how to dual boot XP and Vista with XP installed first.


    First things first, you need to re-partition or shrink your current XP partition to have free space for Vista installation.

    1. Boot up your computer with Vista DVD. At the part where it ask you for product key, press SHIFT+F10 simultaneously. It will bring up command prompt.

    2. Type DISKPART

    3. Type LIST VOLUME

    4. Select the volume where XP is installed by typing SELECT VOLUME 0. If somehow the XP volume is other than 0, then just change the number at the end.

    5. Type SHRINK and it will automatically shrink your XP partition. Close command prompt and continue with Vista installation. You should install Vista on “Unallocated Space” when you get to the part where it ask you where do you want to install Windows.
    Install Vista on Unallocated Space

    Note: If you get an error message that says “Access is denied” when shrinking your partition with diskpart, boot up with Hiren’s BootCD and use either Partition Magic, Acronis Disk Director Suite, Paragon Partition Manager or any disk partition tools that you like to resize your XP partition. Minimum Vista hard disk requirement is 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space.

    Once Vista is installed and the system reboots, you’ll be presented with a boot menu with two options: “Microsoft Windows Vista” and “An Earlier Version of Windows”.
    Repair Vista boot manager
    Booting to an earlier version of windows will boot up Windows XP. If you want to change the name “An Earlier Version of Windows” to Windows XP,

    I found out that I can’t manually edit boot.ini file in Windows Vista. It gives me the error message “Access is denied“. I also tried going to Startup and Recovery from System Properties but there is no Edit button which allows me to edit boot.ini.
    Edit Vista Boot.ini

    There are 2 free utility I found which is able to edit Vista boot manager.
    1. EasyBCD
    – Click Change Settings button, select Earlier Version of Windows from Entry-Based Settings drop down menu. You can change the text that says “Earlier Version of Windows” at Name. Click Save Settings.
    EasyBCD Edit Vista Boot Manager
    [ Download EasyBCD ]

    2. VistaBootPRO
    – Click Manage OS Entries button, select “Earlier Version of Windows”, check Rename OS Entry and type the name that you want it to display and click Apply Updates.
    VistaBootPRO Edit Vista Boot Loader
    [ Download VistaBootPRO ]

    There you have it. Now you can have both XP and Vista in one hard disk.

    P/S: If you’re looking for dual booting Windows Vista and XP with Vista installer first, click here.

  • Clean expired Internet Explorer cookies

    A cookie is small data files written to a user’s hard drive by a web server. These files contain specific information that identifies users (eg, passwords and lists of pages visited). For example, you sign in to a forum and there’s a checkbox where it says “Remember Me” or something similar to that. Once you enter your log in information and check on that checkbox, a cookie file will be saved on your computer. So the next time you visit that forum again, you won’t need to enter your username and password. You wouldn’t want your username and password saved on a public computer, so it’s best to manually delete all caches and cookies after using a public computer.

    Well, fortunately cookies do expire. Once they expired, you need to enter your login information again. The expiration usually depends on the web server. The expired cookies are useless and will take up your disk space. It’s very small, but it’s always a good practice to delete unwanted files on your computer or else one day your computer will be filled with too much junk!
    Deleting cookies from Internet Explorer options like the picture below deletes ALL cookies.
    Delete Internet Explorer expired cookies

    So how do you delete only the expired Internet Explorer cookies?


    Expired Cookies Cleaner is a freeware program for removing expired cookies from you personal computer (PC).
    Expired Cookies Cleaner

    Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) stores cookies in different files on your hard disk drive. More you browse the web, more cookies are stored on your PC. Each cookie has its own lifetime – from several seconds to several years. However, IE does not remove expired cookies from your PC even they are expired and will be never used. Therefore, your hard drive can store several hundreds or even thousands unused and useless files.

    You can use Expired Cookies Cleaner software to remove expired cookie files and speed up your PC and free some disk space (especially on FAT and FAT32 file systems).

    You can also use Expired Cookies Cleaner from the command line without GUI. Just add parameter “a” character at the end of the command line. For example:

    C:\>ExpiredCookiesCleaner.exe a

    In this case program saves all output in the file Result.log.

    [ Download Expired Cookies Cleaner | Expired Cookies Cleaner Website ]

  • How to View Deleted or Removed YouTube Videos

    Today I was browsing the web like any other normal day. I stumbled on a website that has an interesting video title. Actually I seldom watch videos in YouTube unless people forward it to me. I had a little time so I thought what the heck, I’ll just play it and if it’s not interesting, I’ll stop the video and continue surfing the web. When I clicked the play button, I got the message “We’re sorry, this video is no longer available.
    Recover deleted youtube video

    I remembered that I once read an article that it is possible to view deleted YouTube videos. How is this possible? Well when a video has been removed from YouTube, it is not immediately deleted from their servers. Just like our hard drive. When we delete a file and empty the recycle bin, is it not really deleted. It is only marked as deleted and is ready to be overwritten. So if it is not being overwritten, we can still view the videos but of course not from youtube.com.

    Viewing removed YouTube videos is easy. Here’s how to do the impossible.


    Before you learn how to view deleted youtube videos, please be informed that MOST of the deleted videos are unsafe for children to watch. (You know what I mean)… If you don’t believe me, try loading a few random deleted videos and check them yourself.

    First of all, you need to know the Video ID which is at the end of the YouTube link. An example of a YouTube video link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzeV1Ux5YlI

    The video ID for the link above is UzeV1Ux5YlI

    Just copy and paste it in the ID text box and click view video. Here are a few sites that is able to play deleted YouTube videos. Surprisingly, they are all not the same. I’ve tested a deleted video ID on all 3 sites but one of it reported that it could not find deleted video. So if you desperately need to watch a deleted video, try on all of the sites and you might get to watch it.

    1. UndeleTube
    Watch video that has been deleted from youtube
    – A normal deleted youtube video viewer. Works well.

    2. DeletedYoutubeViewer
    Deleted YouTube Viewer
    – This is a bit special compared to the other two because you are able to search for deleted YouTube video through the VideoID or YouTube User. If you know the user that uploaded the deleted video, you can search the user name.

    3. Delutube
    View removed youtube video
    – This is quite famous because a lot of blogger promoted this site. I did not like this site so much because there are full of advertisements. Before get to watch a video, I need to wait 4 seconds. Not only that, this is the site that couldn’t find the deleted youtube video that I am looking for.

  • Hide or Remove “Safely Remove Hardware” Tray Icon

    Do you notice that whenever you plug in USB device such as USB flash drive or external hard disk, an icon will appear in your system tray? The purpose of the icon is for you to safely remove your hardware. Even though USB is hot-pluggable but it is advisable to safely remove your hardware using the “Safely Remove Hardware” feature in order to prevent data loss because you might still have a data that’s still in use and you plug it out.
    How to remove Safely Remove Hardware icon
    As for my case, I have an Acer laptop with built-in DVD-RW drive. It’s an internal DVD-RW and I never intend to remove it. In fact, I’ve own this laptop for 2 years and never once I took it out. Seems like there’s no purpose for the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon to be in my system tray and I really want to remove the icon from there.

    After much searching and trying, there are two ways. You can either “HIDE” or “REMOVE” the “Safely Remove Hardware” tray icon.


    Hiding “Safely Remove Hardware” tray icon is pretty simple if you’ve ventured far enough into Windows XP settings.

    1. Right click Taskbar and select Properties (The default location for the taskbar is at the bottom of the screen, and from left to right it contains by default the Start menu, Quick Launch bar, Taskbar buttons and Notification area)

    2. Click on the “Customize” button. If it is blurred out, you need to check “Hide inactive icons“.
    Safely Remove Hardware

    3. You’ll see a Customize Notification options. At the Current Items, select “Always Hide” for the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon.
    Customize Safely Remove Hardware

    4. The “Safely Remove Hardware” icon will no longer appear on your system tray as it’s hidden.

    Another method is to REMOVE the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon by using a third party program. Icon Remover is able to easily remove the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon by 1 click of a button.
    Icon Remover crack
    Unfortunately Icon Remover is NOT a free tool. I find it ridiculous to be charging $10 for personal license, $195 for educational license and $395 for commercial organizations to use this tool. I think the author will hardly get any sale for this tool because it’s not like there’s no other way to hide the tray icon other than using this tool… By the way, a person with the nickname “HUNKiLLER®” has already cracked Icon Remover 😛

  • FREE MultiNetwork Manager 9 License ID and Key

    A year ago I shared with you the best free network settings switcher software called Net Profiles. I am still using it because I very often connect my laptop to my clients’ networks. With this network switching tool, I can spend more time using the network and less time configuring it.

    I am going to start using a different network manager software called MultiNetwork Manager 9 which is much better than Net Profiles because it has more powerful features. Normally MultiNetwork Manager 9 cost $28.95 but I manage to find a way to get the License ID and Key to activate the program for free. If you are like me who uses laptop which involves in moving between different network environments, then MultiNetwork Manager 9 will help you to change your network configurations in a breeze.


    MultiNetwork Manager 9 allows you to connect to the internet and other networks independent of where you are by using auto-detection discovery functionality that automatically finds the correct settings for the network you are using or use the Profiles & Policies window to create or change your profile. The tool allows you to define and save network settings in configuration profiles for each location at which you may work, and to choose which profile you wish to use each time.

    FREE Multinetwork manager 9 license id and key

    With the “location sensing” functionality MultiNetwork Manager even suggests the appropriate profile to use when arriving at a known location. The profile is set up and suggested automatically and may be managed and changed in the current status window under settings/location sensing.

    MultiNetwork Manager includes many possibilities for advanced users or IT professionals to set up and manage security settings, WLAN settings and VPN connections. It includes various ways of pushing out or making profiles available for different locations, distribute scripts to be run, registry settings to be invoked or just simple but convenient things like the appropriate default printer at a certain location.

    MultiNetwork Manager 9 Features:

  • Auto detection and one click connect
  • Connection Wizards
  • Remote security policies
  • Network resource Wizards
  • Automatically enable/disable file sharing or PFW
  • Increase VPN success rate
  • Distribute WLan security for known connection points
  • Integrate dialer such as iPass
  • Location Sensing and automatic application of profiles
  • Push profiles
  • Import/Export profiles
  • Capture settings into profiles
  • Comprehensive help file
  • Profile management for location or situation adapted profiles
  • One common interface for all connectivity and security needs
  • Simply follow the few simple steps below to get the free promotional license id and key for MultiNetwork Manager 9.
    1. Go to http://www.globesoft.com/cgi-bin/mnm_promo.asp

    2. Enter the promotion code MNM9FORFREE, any name, a working email address and click the submit button.

    3. Now check the email address that you’ve entered earlier. You should get an email from [email protected] with the subject “GlobeSoft, MultiNetwork Manager 9 license”. If you didn’t get it, check your spam/junk folder. Note down the License number and Key.

    4. Download MultiNetwork Manager 9 mnm_9x.exe and install.

    5. When running MultiNetwork Manager 9 the first time, you’ll be prompted to activate the program or continue evaluation. Click Activate button, enter the License ID and Key (password) at the MultiNetwork Manager Activation window and click the Activate button.
    Activate MultiNetwork Manager
    Make sure your computer has internet connection because it needs to connect to the activation server to verify the license ID and key.

    Enjoy the fully license MultiNetwork Manager 9 for free!

  • Free and Easy Remote Access with VNC Reverse Connections

    Setting up remote access to help friends/family members/customers can be difficult, especially when firewalls and NAT routers are involved. Just yesterday I had to connect to my uncle’s computer via remote access and help him configure his emails, programs and etc… It’s not easy because I had to instruct my uncle to shut off his Windows built-in firewall, his anti-virus and ZoneAlarm firewall program in order for me to connect. Secondly, my uncle uses a router, meaning I won’t be able to connect to him “directly” if he didn’t forward his port. Port forwarding can be quite a task for a normal user because it involves configuring the router.

    The normal way of connecting to a computer via remote access is, the Client only requires the server’s IP address. As for Server, it will require forwarding the port that the remote access application is using to his own local IP address. The server will sit there listening to the port for incoming connections. Reverse Connection is the other way round. The Server only requires the Client IP address and as for the Client, it requires port forwarding and it will be the one listening for incoming connections. With “Reverse Connection” technology, I am able to skip the part where I had to ask my uncle to configure port forwarding from his router.

    The following tutorial explains how to use VNC’s reverse connection to remote access easier.


    Setup on your side
    1. If you have a router, make sure to forward port 5500 to your computer. If you’re unsure how, check here.
    2. Download tightvnc-1.2.9_x86_viewer.zip
    3. Unzip vncviewer.exe to your Desktop
    4. Go to Start -> Run, type cmd to open a command prompt. CD to your Desktop path.
    Reverse Connection Remote Access
    5. Type: vncviewer -listen and press Enter. You’ll see a small icon appear on your traybar.
    VNC Listening icon
    6. That’s it for your part. You are now ready to accept connections from your customer.

    Setup on customer side
    1. YOU download tightvnc-1.2.9_x86.zip. (Take note as this file is different from the above)
    2. Extract WinVNC.exe and VNCHooks.dll from tightvnc-1.2.9_x86.zip
    3. Send WinVNC.exe and VNCHooks.dll to customer. Optionally, you can combine the two into a single executable with PEBundle.
    4. Have customer double click WinVNC.exe, type anything into the “Password:” box, and press OK.
    Set VNC Password
    5. Have customer right click on WinVNC icon in system tray, choose “Add New Client“.
    Adding VNC New Client
    6. Give your IP address to your customer to type it in. Upon clicking OK button, you will be able to see and control your customer’s computer.
    Hack VNC password

    When finished, simply right click VNC tray icon on customer’s Desktop and choose “Close”. Customer may delete the VNC file(s) you sent.

    Source: TinyApps

  • Fix Windows Task Manager With Missing Tabs and Menu

    Many of you should be familiar with Windows Task Manager. Since Windows 98, the combination of Control+Alt+Delete key is the probably only thing to do when a program hung. You are presented with a “Close Program” window to terminate the application that is not responding or you can just hit the same combination again to soft reboot the computer. In NT based Windows, pressing the hotkey would directly invoke the Task Manager. The Task Manager is a program used to provide information about the processes and programs running on a computer, as well as the general status of the computer. It can also be used to terminate processes and programs, as well as change the processes’ priority.

    As useful as it is, there’s a very weird feature built-in to the Windows Task Manager and it makes some users thinks that their Task Manager has an error or corrupted. The normal Windows Task Manager comes with a few tabs such as Applications, Processes, Performance, Networking, Users and it also has a menu bar such as File menu, Options ,View, Windows Shut Down and Help. If you’re not careful, you could end up with a Task Manager WITHOUT the tabs and menu bar.
    Task Manager missing menubar and tabs
    So far I’ve seen this question being asked 3 times in forum by LunarWolf, yexist and gwa-53 reporting the same problem and I thought I should write an article to inform everyone that the Task Manager is not corrupted or caused by virus when you see such behavior.


    Normally when you press the Alt key it should highlight/select the File menu which shows the menu bar. An example is the latest Windows Live Messenger 2009 which by default the menu bar is not shown and you can make the menu bar appear by pressing the Alt key. However, this won’t work in Windows Task Manager when the menu bar and tabs are missing.

    To fix this problem, all you need to do is to double click at the edge of the Task Manager and the menubar with tabs will re-appear.
    fix task manager menubar and tab disappear

    Yeap this is a really weird feature of the Task manager and I bet many users don’t even know about this. Not sure why Microsoft implemented this because I could never find a chance or any reason to use the compact version of Task Manager.

  • Easier way to remote control Mac via Apple Remote Desktop

    Yesterday I blogged about remote controlling Mac OS X from Windows by installing VNC server on Mac OS X which is very troublesome due to the conflict with Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) on port 5900.
    Today I found a much easier way to access Mac OS X via Windows.


    It is also being done using VNC Viewer but this time without installing anything on Mac OS X.
    Just merely a single check and that enables you to remote control Mac OS X from Windows via VNC Viewer.
    Here’s the simple step to remote control Mac OS X via Windows with VNC Viewer…
    1. Go to System Preferences from your Mac OS X Dock.

    2. Click on Sharing
    Mac OS X System Sharing

    3. Check on the Apple Remote Desktop to enable service. After that click on Access Privileges…
    Mac OS X Apple Remote Desktop settings

    4. Make sure you check everything and finally the most important box to enable by checking is “VNC viewers may control screen with password:”
    VNC viewers may control screen with password

    Once you’ve done all that, you do NOT need to install any third-party VNC server such as OSXvnc or cotvnc on your Apple Mac OS X.
    You can now use any VNC Viewer from your Windows operating system to remote control your Apple Mac OS X.

    Isn’t that cool 😉

  • Changing or Spoofing Hard Disk Hardware Serial Number and Volume ID

    Many years ago I was in the e-book business and the usual problem that I went through during that time was copyright. Being in ebusiness is not easy because I had to deal with strict checkings to prevent against credit card chargebacks or fraud and also piracy. The most I can do to prevent credit card fraud is to make sure their IP address matches the country of the credit card and also they are not using a proxy.
    Change Hard Disk Serial Number
    As for piracy, I found one of the best PDF encryption from FileOpen and I was able to restrict the buyer to only open the PDF from a particular computer. The encryption is very good and so far uncrackable but there is weakness in the system. I found out that it identifies the computer by using the hard disk Volume Serial Number. A hard disk volume serial number randomly generates every time you format the hard drive, hence the chances of getting the exact same one very low. So whenever my customer reformat his hard drive to reinstall Windows, or changed a new hard drive, I’ll have to generate a new key for them.

    If you do a simple search in Google, you’ll find tons of information to change your hard disk volume serial number, BUT not the real hard disk serial number that is hardcoded to the hardware. Some people said that it is impossible to change it but I will show you how easy it is to change BOTH volume and hardcoded serial number for hard disk.


    To find your current hard disk volume serial number, open command prompt and type dir. The second line shows your volume serial number for that partition.
    change hard disk volume id
    There is a free tool called Hard Disk Serial Number Changer which I think is misleading because it can ONLY change the volume ID but not the hardcoded serial number.

    One of my all time favorite tool to change a hard disk volume serial number is VolumeID by Windows Sysinternals. It is a very small command line tool which is very straight forward. The command line to change a drive letter is as follow:

    volumeid [driveletter:] xxxx-xxxx

    You should shut down all your running applications before using this tool and if you’re changing a volume ID on a NTFS partition, a restart will be required for the changes to take effect. If you’re not familiar with command line, then go ahead and try Hard Disk Serial Number Changer which has a graphical user interface.

    Now for the fun part, changing a hardcoded serial number in hard disk. It’s not easy finding a tool to do that but it actually exist. Some multiplayer games that implements punkbuster gets cheaters off the server using hardware bans. It used to ban the hard disk serial number but no longer does that since there are ways to spoof and change the so-called hardcoded serial number. So now they’ve started to ban the CD-Key.

    There is a tool called PB DownForce which is able to temporarily spoof your hardcoded serial number in hard disk to a random or even your predefined serials.
    Change hard disk serial number
    The animation image below shows before and after using PB DownForce to change my hard disk serial number.

    spoof hard disk serial number

    Do take note that the change is temporary and will reset back to original after restarting your computer. Some antivirus will flag PB DownForce as a threat and this is normal since it hooks low-level (ring0) Windows functions, so that the end result (in ring3) is different.

  • Easily Send and Receive Emails from Multiple Email Accounts

    I believe many of us have Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and other email accounts. I have all 3 (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail) and I never use all of them. I just have it because I want all my login name to be the same. My uncle also has 3 webmails and 1 POP3 streamyx email. He finds it very troublesome to check all of his webmail because he had to manually key in the web address, his username and password every time he wants to check them. After done checking his webmail, he will need to check his pop3 streamyx email using Microsoft Outlook.
    Check multiple webmails and pop3 in one location
    So he asked me is there any solution to automatically check all his emails from one location? 2 years ago, I wrote about ePrompter, which is able to check multiple webmails including hotmail, yahoo, gmail and pop3 but ePrompter doesn’t have email sending capability. So it’s not a good solution for my uncle.

    After a little searching and testing, I’ve found a free email client that is able to send and receive emails from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and POP3. This is extremely useful for those who has multiple email accounts.


    Well, what I found is not really a fully featured email client. It’s more like an email notifier called POP Peeper.
    Download Webmail to email client
    POP Peeper runs in your Windows task bar and alerts you when you have new email on your POP3, IMAP (with IDLE support), Hotmail\MSN\LiveMail, Yahoo, Mail.com, MyWay, Excite, Lycos.com, RediffMail, Juno and NetZero accounts. IMAP supports allows you to access AOL, AIM, Netscape and other services. So don’t compare POP Peeper with email clients like Microsoft Outlook.

    What I like about POP Peeper is it can send mail directly from POP Peeper and use the address book to email your frequently used contacts. Many multiple email checker can’t do that…. POP Peeper allows you to view messages using HTML or you can choose to safely view all messages in rich or plain text. Several options are available that will decrease or eliminate the risks of reading your email (viruses, javascript, webbugs, etc). POP Peeper can be run from a portable device and can be password protected. Many notification options are available to indicate when new mail has arrived, such as sound alerts (configurable for each account), flashing scroll lock, skinnable popup notifier, customized screensaver and more.

    There are new features such as Junk Filters, Auto Complete and a lot more in development. Give POP Peeper some time and I am sure it can turn into a more powerful email notifier.

    The con about using email clients to support web based email is you have to depend a lot on the software’s update. If slight changes being made on webmail server, it’s going to give you problems. So when you encounter problems, make sure you visit POP Peeper known issues page first.

    [ Download POP Peeper ]