Raymond.CC Blog

Author: raymond

  • Protecting yourself when downloading using BitTorrent

    Even when you just mention the word “Torrent” these days, it’s automatically associated with piracy and downloading music or movies. While this may be true to a large degree, bittorrent can still be used for completely legitimate downloading including Linux ISO images and game patches to name only a few.

    If we’re honest though, most people don’t consider watching something like an episode from a TV show which hasn’t been aired in your country yet, that bad. But unfortunately, there are anti P2P organizations that frown on downloads like this just as much as the latest movie or music album. And every torrent users favorite acronyms, the RIAA or MPAA will be doing what they can to try and stop you even for downloads most people would think are totally acceptable.
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  • Disable Write Access to USB Removable Storage Devices

    With everybody who owns a computer seemingly having at least 1 USB pen stick or portable hard drive to hand these days, it’s now easier than ever to quickly transfer data from one machine to another. While this makes it great for portability, it does also mean that it’s easier than ever to just plug the device in to a USB port and copy files over, whether you want to allow them to be copied to a removable storage device or not.

    Obviously you could go into Device Manager and disable all of your USB ports, or perhaps just the front ports on your desktop PC, but that’s not exactly the best way to go about it. While it does work, those USB ports are completely inaccessible until you go back into Device Manager and they are enabled again.

    We have previously written an article about how to disable removable storage devices such as USB drives while still allowing your USB scanner, keyboard, and mouse working. But what if you want to disable any data from being written to the removable storage device, but still want to allow it to be accessed and data read from it? It is possible for some USB flash drives with a write-protect switch making the drive read only but it’s very rare nowadays.
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  • Disable Removable Storage Devices such as USB Drives

    Once in a while I have a friend, or customer that needs to keep people from using the USB ports to copy data off of a system. With USB drives so common these days and people able to carry them around on keyring’s, it take’s only a matter of seconds to plug in a USB device and copy a few files to it.

    For experienced users, there are a few ways to turn certain devices off. One of the ways to lock down a machine is to disable devices such as a floppy or CD-ROM in the BIOS. You can also disable USB, but the problem there is it disables USB completely meaning none of your peripherals such as keyboards, mice and printers will work either.

    There is also another partial solution although again not the best idea. That is to turn off a certain USB hub or connection by disabling from Device Manager. Not ideal, but you can at least perhaps use it for something like the front USB ports on your PC if you don’t want anything at all plugged into them to be detected.
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  • Check Gmail through The Bat! Email Client

    I’ve used Microsoft Outlook because it was one of the most powerful email client today. However, it seems to be a bit too powerful and bulky when I simply want to use it as a normal email desktop program to download emails so that I can read and reply them offline. I decided to migrate from Microsoft Outlook to The Bat! Professional email client because there are a lot of positive reviews about it. Unlike Microsoft Outlook that are prone to virus infection through zero-day exploits, The Bat! has been consistently keeping its users safe. The Bat! is also well known for its built-in on-the-fly encryption on the email messages and address book that works in a transparent way without noticeable speed degradation.

    I’ve successfully imported all my emails and contacts from Microsoft Outlook to The Bat!. Everything worked fine and it is fast in the sense of receiving the email and also loads very quickly. The Bat! is capable of checking your Gmail email account and I will show you how to configure The Bat! to do that.
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  • 5 Ways to Remotely Access Apple Mac OS X from Windows

    There are many ways to remotely control a Windows computer software such as using third party software or the built-in Remote Desktop feature. However, the choices of remotely controlling another computer that is running a different operating system can be quite limited. Although Windows dominates the computer market, but you can still find a lot of people using Macs that runs on OS X.

    Apple has their own remote access software called Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) which is a shareware that cost $79.99. It comes with some powerful features such as software distribution and automation to perform repetitive tasks on remote computers, but unfortunately it is meant for Mac to Mac and not cross platform.

    In this article, we will be sharing a few methods on how you can remotely access Apple Mac computers from another computer running Windows for free.
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  • 5 Free ways to Tune, Optimize and Test your Monitor’s Display

    Computer monitors are pretty cheap these days and you can pick yourself up a quality branded 22 inch or even a 24 inch LCD display for less than a few hundred dollars. But once you get it unpacked and plugged in, on many occasions when you fire up a new monitor for the first time, something just doesn’t look quite right.

    The screen looks funny, the display is skewed at the side, there are waves in the view, it’s not a sharp picture, certain colors look too overpowering or even washed out. In my case, my current LCD display came with the brightness set at 100% and looked like it would burn my eyes if I used it for too long! In a large number of cases, the default out of the box settings for monitors are rather poor at best.

    Obviously the monitor will have an accompanying manual that tells you the basics on how to adjust your new screen but sometimes it’s confusing, and attempts to adjust your screen without having any idea about what the settings do can often make things worse. Thankfully there are a few tools around to help you get the best picture out of your monitor with the minimum of effort. Here’s a few for you to try…
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  • Run Windows Faster by Removing Unused and Temporary Files using CCleaner

    Although most PC users don’t realize it, your computer is constantly filling itself up with junk and useless files in the background. If you install a program, browse the internet or even just use a program, very often temporary files are being created to allow the applications to function normally.

    One of the common locations that gets used is the TEMP folder which becomes a bit of a junkyard where all programs that require a temporary area to do something, will put their files in there. Most of the time, these temporary files never get removed when they are no longer required, and just sit around accumulating over time. It’s not unheard of, and I have seen it myself where the TEMP folder alone is several Gigabytes in size and hasn’t been emptied for several years!

    Unfortunately, it’s not just this folder that gets filled with useless files. Web browsers have their own folders top store temporary files that make up web pages, and the majority of applications will have some sort of log or cached files which don’t really serve a useful purpose and can safely be removed. Windows is also quite good at storing lists, logs, cached files and folders and also things like old Windows update data that are all not missed if they are removed.
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  • HD Tune – A Free Utility to Benchmark and Test your Hard Drive

    Without doubt, the worst component in your PC to go wrong is the hard disc drive. After all, that’s where all your personal data and information is stored. Potentially you could lose days, months or even years worth of hard work if the hard drive or your files have not been adequately backed up to another location for safe keeping.

    Although it’s not an everyday occurrence, hard drives do fail from time to time and being prepared by backing up your files regularly is good practice in case the unexpected happens. Often they fail gradually and the drive slowly and randomly starts to fill with errors meaning you might be able get your essential data off in time, but it’s not recommended to take that chance.

    When I’m working with old machines, one of the first checks I perform is have a look at the hard drive for potential problems. Catching a failing hard drive at the earliest opportunity is important for the best chance of data recovery. Running a bootable CD from the drive manufacturer such as Maxtor Maxblast, Seagate Seatools or Hitachi Drive Fitness Test is a good idea as they can give you information such as error codes which can be given to the manufacturer in the event the drive needs returning for repair or replacement.
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  • How to Slipstream Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Create a Bootable CD

    Windows XP has now had 3 major update packages called Service Packs in the time since its release. The Packs contain most of the released hotfixes up to that point and also a few new features and enhancements. The most notable being Wifi support introduced to XP in Service Pack 2. The problem is, if you don’t have the latest version of Windows XP on your install CD, there will be literally hundreds of patches from Microsoft Update including the latest Service Pack which you have to install first and is over 300MB.

    If your Windows CD doesn’t include the latest Service Pack, there is a process to be able to seamlessly integrate it onto your CD (or USB stick) and with every new installation of the Operating System from then on, the latest Service Pack is installed at the same time. This method is called “Slipstreaming” and while it creates an updated install from you CD, it also produces a much quicker and cleaner Windows installation.

    Slipstreaming the latest Service Pack can actually save between 1 and 2 hours on a slow machine if you have to install it after your operating system has been installed. This makes it worthwhile for everybody with an older CD to do and is quite easy only taking a few minutes. All you need is a blank CD and the latest Service Pack 3 from Microsoft.
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  • Maximize New Internet Explorer Windows

    Microsoft Internet Explorer has always been a rather curious program in the way it works, not least because of the small fix I’m going to talk about here. It may not seem like such a big deal, but a lot of users prefer to have Internet Explorer when it opens, display in a full screen, or maximized window.

    This doesn’t sound too difficult to achieve on the face of it, simply click on the Internet Explorer icon in your Start Menu, Quick launch or on the Desktop. Then click the maximize button and close your browser. When it’s started up again, the window will be maximized. Or so you would think…
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  • nLite – The Windows XP Installation Customizer

    Even though Windows XP has not been generally available to the masses for several years now, it’s still a hugely popular operating system that’s installed on hundreds of millions of PC’s. Compared to Windows Vista, 7 and 8, XP is still a great performer on older desktops, laptops and netbooks.

    Because of it’s age, there are software components such as Microsoft .NET Framework, Internet Explorer 8 and many others that have never been integrated into a standard Windows XP install CD, and you have to spend hours after a new install updating just the Windows software and hotfixes alone. Also, these days the default drivers that come with XP are often not compatible with newer hardware. This is mainly true for mass storage drivers because you might have to press F6 during install and load the drivers from a floppy. Not good if you don’t own a floppy drive!

    Even though the XP SP 3 install CD is under 600MB, you would think that means there’s not much on the disc that you don’t need. In actual fact, there are a number of components that can be removed from the XP CD without losing functionality. While this makes the install quicker because there’s less data being moved around, it also makes the final size of your Windows folder smaller and less bloated with junk.
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