Raymond.CC Blog

Category: Computer

  • Unable to Launch Internet Explorer with Fault Module Name: msvcrt.dll Error

    Recently I am quite busy with my work. My timetable is full with meetings, discussion and some documentation work. As usual, the most headache part will be spending time on troubleshooting technical issues. Before you can come out a resolution, you will need to do a lot of research and testing, to ensure the root cause of the problem, and a solid solution which can really settle the issue.

    As a technical guy, people will always ask for your favor to help them troubleshoot their computer problems. Sometimes, it is not easy to reject them, especially a request from your boss. Few days ago, my friend told me that he is having problems with his Internet Explorer. When he tries to launch Internet Explorer, it will stop responding for a while and then shut off automatically. However there is no problem for his Firefox. When he simulated the problem to me and captured the event appeared on the screen, I noticed the error logged was “Fault Module Name: msvcrt.dll”. Thus, I tried few steps to resolve this issue.


    I tried to search and found out that “msvcrt.dll” is the Windows library file for Microsoft Visual C++ Run Time. This run time component is commonly installed on most of the Microsoft Windows system. I tried to download and re-install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 on my friend’s machine, unfortunately, there is no luck and the same problem still persist. The second thought that comes to my mind was replacing the particular dll file with the working dll from other computer. I immediately copied the dll from my own computer, and then transfer the file using thumb drive but I wasn’t able to replace or delete that file.

    After few tries, I noticed he recently installed a new program and it was Google Toolbar. At the end, I just uninstalled the Google Toolbar and surprisingly, the Internet Explorer was back to normal!

    I am not judging Google Toolbar is bad, but if you having performance or technical issues on Internet Explorer, remove and uninstall external toolbar or add-in is a good way to start. This is not the first time I face such similar problem as I cannot remember what was the error that I encountered before, but I do remember the solution was uninstalling one of the external toolbar for Internet Explorer. Anyway, I am using Firefox and it is really more stable than Internet Explorer.

  • Investigating How Kaspersky Key Finder Finds and Downloads Kaspersky Keys

    One of my reader informed me about Kaspersky Key Finder and told me that this tool is able to search for Kaspersky Key. His guess was it could somehow connect to Kaspersky’s server and download genuine keys. I didn’t really believe that Kaspersky Key Finder is capable of doing that because people would actually be selling this tool for a lot of money instead of putting it RapidShare mirrors for anyone to use.

    Kaspersky Key Finder

    I’ve managed to download a latest copy of Kaspersky Key Finder V1.5.0. It claims to find keys for Kaspersky Anti-Virus (KAV) Version 6, 7, and 8, and keys for Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) Version 6, 7, and 8. Requires .NET Framework 3.5 from Microsoft to run. I scanned it with 36 antivirus using VirusTotal and 8 antivirus found that KKF is a hacktool. I am sure it is a false positive because I’ve analyzed the file with ThreatExpert and it doesn’t contain any threat. This tool seems very easy to use. Clicking the list keys button would connect to a database somewhere to search for kaspersky keys. Currently a total of 799 keys is found. To download a key, i just need to place a mark on the checkbox and click Save Key button. There are 5 servers to download the keys from. I got an error “Unable to Download, Try Another Server” error on server 1 and 2. The rest of the servers worked fine and was able to download the key.

    I was curious to know where did Kaspersky Key Finder checks for a list of available keys to download and where are the servers located. Please note that you will not find download links for Kaspersky Key Finder here but I will show you how I manage to find out how it works.


    Whenever you have a tool that acts as a download manager and it connects somewhere to download a file, the ultimate tool to use to sniff the link is URL Snooper. It even helped me before in sniffing out the direct link so I can record radio streaming broadcast.

    I launched URL Snooper and start sniffing for URLs. I then ran Kaspersky Key Finder, clicked the List Keys button and URL Snooper immediately picked up a URL. It shows that Kaspersky Key Finder is downloading a KKP file from http://www.freewebs.com/kkfpage/KKF/TheList.KKP
    Kaspersky Key Finder

    Opening the freewebs URL in web browser displays a page with a list of uncomplete link with date and filename. Looks like TheList.KKP is the “database” of where Kaspersky Key Finder will load from when you hit the List Keys button.

    Next, when I place a mark on any of the checkbox and click Save Key button, again URL Snooper is able to tell me where did it came from. Server 1 and Server 2 didn’t work for me as I got the error “Unable to Download, Try Another Server”. When I selected server 3, 4, 5 and click Save Key, URL Snooper picked up the following URL. It will download .ffp file from the URL below and then rename the file extension to .key

    Server 3: http://k-k-f.0catch.com/KKF/2008/Oct_16/
    Server 4: http://www.k-k-f.we.bs/KKF/2008/Oct_16/
    Server 5: http://kkf.freehostia.com/KKF/2008/Oct_16/

    All the servers used to save the key files are from free webhosting. As you can see from the test above, Kaspersky Key Finder tool requires to be updated and maintained by the author of this tool or else it will stop working. Kaspersky Key Finder doesn’t really “find” or crawl from various websites for keys or exploit Kaspersky servers but simply retrieves from a list of database that is manually created.

  • AOL Active Virus Shield is replaced with McAfee Virus Scan Plus

    I’ve seen many corporate and education facilities using AVG Anti-Virus free edition. Although it is said to be free, but it is only meant for Home users. It only gives basic protection and no technical support. The corporate company might get into trouble and being heavily fined if they use the AVG Anti-Virus free edition on the office computer. AVG website did state very clearly that:

  • AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is for private, non-commercial, single computer use only. The use of AVG Free within any organization or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited
  • Your use of AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition shall be in accordance with and is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition License Agreement that accompanies AVG Free

    • One of the REALLY free antivirus I found last year was AOL Active Virus Shield. It is powered by Kaspersky and I’ve recommended it to many many people. Unfortunately, it is no longer available and it has been replaced with McAfee VirusScan Plus.


    FREE McAfree Virus Scan Download
    I’ve searched everywhere on McAfee VirusScan Plus – Special edition from AOL website and can’t find anything that state you can’t use it on corporate and commercial computers. So, it will still be free IF you sign up for a free AOL email address. It takes only a few minutes to sign up for an AOL email address, and then you’ll be given the link to download the McAfee VirusScan Plus – Special edition.

    McAfee VirusScan Plus – Special edition from AOL gives you the most comprehensive free set of safety tools available. AOL have partnered with a leading name in Internet security to deliver the essential protection you need. Since it’s automatically on-guard and up-to-date, it helps protect you against today’s attacks and tomorrow’s threats, too.

    * Virus protection guards your whole PC
    * Spyware Protection blocks potentially unwanted programs
    * Firewall helps keep hackers out

    McAfee VirusScan Plus – Special Edition is better than Active Virus Shield because it has spyware protection and firewall. As for Active Virus Shield, it only provides protection against virus. I’ve never used McAfee products before and not sure how good it is in detecting virus compared to Kaspersky. But hey, it’s totally FREE to use it anywhere!

    [ Download McAfee VirusScan Plus – Special Edition ]

  • Monitor and Notify when Shared Folders being Accessed

    You can easily know who is accessing your Shared Folders from Computer Management. To open Computer Management, go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. After running Computer Management, expand System Tools by clicking the plus sign and you’ll see Shared Folders. Expand Shared Folders and from there you can see what folders are shared, who is connected to your computer and what files are currently open by the person who is accessing your computer.
    Computer Management to view Shared Folders
    Problem is, Computer Management doesn’t notify you when someone is accessing your shared folders. It also doesn’t auto refresh to see the sessions and open files. Good thing I found this free utility that is able to monitor your shared folders and notify you when someone access your shared folders.


    NetShareMonitor, a free and cool utility created by a Novell guy named Talekar Nagareshwar to watch your shared files from the intruders and thereby protecting your shares from unauthorized access. As soon as remote user connects to your machine, NetShareMonitor detects it and displays information about that session. The session information includes remote host address, remote user name, list of accessed files and time of connection. Entire details pertaining to each session will be logged to file for future analysis.

    Now you no longer have to worry about your shared files being accessed by unknown persons on the network. You can make NetShareMonitor to keep eye on your shares while you get down to work. It will alert you on any file access and you can always check the log files for past sessions in case you have missed the alert.

    As soon as the remote user connects to your machine, alert will be generated by playing the music and the NetShareMonitor icon in system tray starts blinking to draw your attention.
    Get notified when Shared Folder being accessed

    The settings are very straight forward. You can have NetShareMonitor automatic startup and minimized to tray when you boot your computer, play alert music when remote session is started and view logs.
    Illegal Access to Shared Folders Monitoring

    I love this tool! It doesn’t require installation, registration or any DLL files. Try it!

    [ Download NetShareMonitor ]

  • Shut down Unnecessary Services and Programs with AlacrityPC

    Do you still remember about SmartClose, the intelligent tool to safely close all running programs in Windows with ability to restart the closed programs which I posted on early October? It is very useful when you need to install a program that requires you to close all running programs and then automatically restoring all the running programs back after installation. If you are a hardcore gamer that wouldn’t want any other running process to disturb the performance of your computer, you can also use SmartClose to terminate all running programs, play your game and restore them back when you’re done playing. The only problem with SmartClose is it was last updated on March 2005 and is not fully Vista compatible.

    If you’re looking for something similar that works in Windows Vista, I’d suggest AlacrityPC which previously known as FSAutoStart. FSAutoStart used to only work on Flight Simulator but has evolved to a point where it can be used for any game or application, and the author wanted to have a name that reflects this.


    AlacrityPC is a utility designed to help you get the most performance out of your computer when running resource intensive applications, like modern games. It does this by shutting down unnecessary services and programs before starting your application. When you finish your application, those services and programs can be automatically restarted.

    AlacrityPC close all programs

    AlacrityPC also provides some additional optimizations, like memory defragmenting, removing your desktop background, shutting down the desktop shell and Vista Sidebar, and forcing background tasks to execute.

    AlacrityPC Options

    AlacrityPC uses the concept of profiles. A profile consists of the service and programs you have selected to be shutdown (and/or restarted), any additional optimizations you want to run, and the application(s) that you want to run after you have optimized your system. A profile can be of two types:

    Top level: A top level profile can run as is or be used as a parent profile to other profiles. It cannot inherit from other profiles. If it is a parent, any settings take precedence over the child profile. Top level profiles are useful when you have a number of applications you need to support and want to make changes that are global to all the applications. For example, you can turn on defrag memory in the parent profile, and all child profiles will inherit this setting.

    Inherited: An inherited profile inherits any settings from its parent profile. The user can then add more services or programs to shutdown, enable different optimizations, and specify different programs to launch. An inherited profile cannot be a parent to another profile.

    AlacrityPC is easy to use. You can right click on a profile to bring up a context menu. This menu allows you to edit, delete, rename, copy, or start the profile. To create a new profile, select the File menu option, then select New. You can create a shortcut to a profile by clicking on and dragging the profile to your desktop or other folder. Opening the shortcut will automatically run the profile.

    Looking at AlacrityPC’s changelog, I can see that it was actively being developed from March to April 2008 and then stopped. AlacrityPC is FREE and works on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 2003, 2008 and in both 32bit and 64bit. Requires .NET Framework 2.0 installed in order to run.

    UPDATE: I forgot to mention that some antivirus such as NOD32 might detect AlacrityPC as a threat. I can assure you that it is a false positives IF you’ve downloaded from the link below or from their official website.

    [ Download AlacrityPC 32-bit | 64-bit ]

  • Norton Antivirus 2009 Product Key Giveaway to 2 Lucky Subscribers

    Norton AntiVirus (NAV), a product of Symantec Corporation, is an award-winning antivirus program available for Windows XP and Vista. It is designed to protect consumers from viruses, worms, spyware, and other types of malware. Like most standard antivirus software, Norton AntiVirus provides real-time protection from viruses, spyware, worms, keyloggers, rootkits and many other forms of malware. The program also includes a real-time scanner. The latest Norton Antivirus 2009 v16 was released on September 8, 2008 but I only had the chance to test it 3 days ago.
    free Norton antivirus 2009 download
    From what I’ve noticed, Norton products are getting better in every major update. Symantec claims that Norton 2009 is faster than previous versions due to new architecture that reduces boot time, scan time, memory usage, overall system footprint and even install time under less than 1 minute!

    I’ve purchased a genuine license for Norton Antivirus 2009 which can be used on 3 PCs. Since I will only be using Norton Antivirus 2009 on 1 compuer, I figured that I should share the other remaining license with 2 lucky subscribers.


    Norton Antivirus 2009 new features include updated software architecture designed to enhance software speed. Security information aggregated from millions of customers suggests which files and processes might be safe and which are potentially dangerous. Other features include Silent Mode, Smart Idle Time Scheduler, Enhanced Browser Protection. Visual changes include curved edges, window transparency and option to modify user interface themes or colors.

    free Norton Antivirus 2009

    If you guys don’t mind the “activated” Norton Antivirus 2009 product key and would like to have a chance in winning it, just make sure that you’ve done the following:

  • 1. Subscribe to my daily newsletter
  • 2. Post a comment at the end of this article

    • Once you fulfill these two requirements, you’re automatically in the running to win the free Norton Antivirus 2009 product key valid for a year. The winners will be announced tomorrow (24 hours later).

    With the implementation of its new Norton Insight in the 2009 version, it is able to increase computer performance by identifying trusted files that do not require scanning. Repeated scanning of known files is eliminated allowing your computer to run faster.
    Norton Insight
    Other than that, Norton Antivirus 2009 delivers up-to-the-minute protection with rapid pulse updates every 5 to 15 minutes to make sure that you’re protected from all latest malwares.

    Here is what I noticed from Norton Antivirus 2009 memory usage. On starting up Norton Antivirus 2009, there will be two ccSvcHst.exe processes. The first ccSvcHst.exe takes up 23216K and the second ccSvcHst.exe takes up 22240K (total 45MB memory usage). After a few seconds, the memory usage automatically reduced to 3020K + 2980K (Only 6MB). The memory usage will slowly start to climb little by little and will again automatically reduced when it reaches 40-50MB total memory usage. During full scanning, Norton Antivirus 2009 takes up around 40% of CPU usage and 50MB memory usage.
    NAV 2009 cpu and memory usage

    On a clean Windows XP with SP3 and all latest hotfixes installed, Norton Antivirus 2009 took only 98 seconds to complete a full system scan (21,398 items). That’s an average of 220 items per second! I’ve tried infecting my test computer with a pretty old private version of undetectable trojan and Norton Antivirus 2009 fails to detect it even with Sonar Advanced Behavioral Protection turned on. The trojan injects itself to the default browser and I consider that as a malware behavior but I don’t know why Norton Antivirus 2009 wasn’t able to detect that. Well this is only one test and we cannot judge how good a security product is based on one test. A lot of antivirus testing companies rated the latest Norton Antivirus 2009 as one of the top antivirus today.

    Normally Norton Antivirus 2009 offers only a stingy 15 days free for trial version but I managed to find a promotion that allows you to use Norton Antivirus 2009 for 90 days. This promotion is meant for Microsoft customers, well I guess most of us are “already” Microsoft customers by using Windows. Just download the Norton Antivirus 2009 installer below, install it and you should get 90 days of free usage instead of 15 days. There are Norton Trial Reset tool that claims to stop the countdown of subscription days. I have not tested it and there are a lots of reports saying that it doesn’t work. No sign of Norton Antivirus 2009 keygenerator from Team EDGE yet…

    Update: 2 lucky winners has been chosen. Congratulations chasingkans and rglassman!
    Norton Antivirus 2009 Winner
    I’ve already sent you an email, awaiting for you reply first before I will send you the product key. If you fail to send/reply my email, the Norton Antivirus 2009 license will automatically goes to user number 3 and so on.

    [ Download Norton Antivirus 2009 90 Days Trial ]

  • Fix Firefox 3 Crashing Problem Caused By Kaspersky 2009 Products

    I’d have never thought that Kaspersky 2009 product is the culprit that causes Firefox 3 to crash randomly mainly because some people reported that they experienced Firefox 3 crashing on a newly installed Windows with a new Firefox profile. I could only remember that Firefox 3 RC1 was running perfectly fine and the crashing problem only started when I was using RC2. At first I thought that the crashing problem is caused by Firefox RC2 but I was wrong. I totally forgotten that Kaspersky 2009 products was released on 8th of June, which is 4 days later after installing Firefox 3 RC2.

    Fix Firefox 3 Crash Solution

    The reason why I did not suspect that Kaspersky is the cause of the crashing problem is because I totally disabled Kaspersky from startup. Again, I was wrong. Even though I’ve disabled Kaspersky from startup, it will still load some DLL files belonging to Kaspersky such as mzvkbd.dll, kloehk.dll, adialhk.dll and etc which will not be visible in Windows Task Manager.

    After spending many hours in checking and testing, I am pretty sure that this time I’ve found the fix for Firefox 3 crashing problem.


    You can try replicating the problem yourself if you have Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 or Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 with Firefox 3. Simply login to web based Gmail and try closing the tab. Firefox 3 should crash. Another problem which mEtRiX, our forum moderator is experiencing is when he clicks the Bookmarks from the menu bar, it opens the add bookmark dialog window instead of the bookmark drop down list.
    Firefox 3 bookmarks menu bar problem

    All this Firefox 3 crashing problem is caused by Kaspersky Internet Security’s new feature called Virtual Keyboard which is used for safe entry of logins and passwords to prevent keystroke logging.
    Disable Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard
    Kaspersky has confirmed the bug and they are in the midst of testing the fixed version which will be released in the coming weeks. I certainly can’t wait any longer because it is affecting my web browsing experience and I don’t want to use Opera or Internet Explorer. I had no choice but to look for a solution. I found a solution which I’ve tested for a few days and not a single Firefox 3 crash ever since.

    1. Download Sysinternals AutoRuns for Windows.

    2. Extract and run autoruns.exe

    3. Click AppInit tab and uncheck C:\Progra~1\Kasper~1\Kasper~1\mzvkbd.dll
    Disabled Kaspersky mzvkbd.dll

    4. Restart your computer.

    Kaspersky Virtual Keyboard feature is only available for Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 but weirdly people who has Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2009 installed is also affected by this. Some people has reported that mzvkbd.dll file (the cause of Firefox 3 crash) is loaded onto the system even when they are using KAV 2009. One of the Kaspersky forum moderator admitted that they were included by mistake and will probably removed for good in the next build.

    It is absolutely safe in disabling mzvkbd.dll using Sysinternals Autoruns. When there is a new update for Kaspersky that fixes this problem, I’d advice you to enable back the DLL file.

    Thanks to bahamot for suggesting to me that Kaspersky might be the culprit which made me start investigating the problem from there.

  • Ask Raymond: What is the BEST AntiVirus?

    What is the BEST antivirus? Without a doubt that this question is being asked very frequently and it is a very debatable topic. This question has been asked a few times in forum and also I can’t even remember how many emails I got regarding this question. All this while I’ve been telling people that Kaspersky is the BEST, and I think I am wrong. I should be saying Kaspersky is one of the TOP antivirus, not best because many criteria needs to be evaluated and there is no single antivirus brand that performs the best in every area.

    According to Anti-Virus Software Review 2008, these criteria should be used to evaluate an Anti-Virus and determine which is the TOP antivirus.

  • Ease of Use – Exceptional anti-virus software is simple to use, regardless of a person’s computer experience or knowledge of viruses.
  • Effective at Identifying Viruses and Worms – The best anti-virus products identify infected files quickly through real-time scanning, searching for viruses in a multitude of sources, including email, instant message applications, web browsing and so on.
  • Effective at Cleaning or Isolating Infected Files – Truly capable anti-virus software thoroughly cleans, deletes or quarantines infected files—keeping them from spreading throughout the hard drive or network.
  • Activity Reporting – Anti-virus programs should give immediate notification of viruses found by real-time scanners and should provide an easy-to-read report of scan results, including what it found and what it did with infected files.
  • Feature Set – A well-rounded feature set allows anti-virus software to provide absolute protection. The best programs are those that offer a wide variety of tools, from basic real-time scanning to more advanced, heuristic scanning and script blocking—when it comes to virus protection, the more options the better.
  • Ease of Installation and Setup – Anti-virus programs should be a breeze to install, making it easy to go from installation to initial scan in just a couple clicks of the mouse.
  • Help Documentation – High-end anti-virus software come with plenty of help, including support via email, online chat or over the telephone. There should also be online resources, such as knowledge bases and FAQs available for quick and convenient help.

    • I can honestly tell you that there is no way for an individual to compare all antivirus simply because lack of resources. We’ll need thousands of virus samples in order to test the effectiveness in detecting and removing virus. The easiest way is to leave it to professionals to do the test and we’ll just have a look at their report to determine which we would choose to use.

    Anti-Malware Test Lab use the following methodologies to test an antivirus product.
    AntiMalware test lab
    # Polymorphic virus protection test
    # Proactive antivirus protection test
    # Antivirus product self-protection test
    # Active infections treatment test
    # Anti-rootkit test
    # Packers support test
    From their report, I can see that Kaspersky is the only brand that didn’t fail or get poor results in any of the test. I am surprised to see that BitDefender performs so badly in all tests.

    We can’t depend on single report to determine which is the top antivirus. Here’s another popular website (AV-Comparatives) that compare antivirus software.
    AV-comparatives
    Every year they will perform On-demand comparative and Retrospective/ProActive Test twice. Products that got the “standard”-level can be understood as products that based on AV-Comparatives tests have a good on-demand detection rate, “advanced” a very good on-demand detection rate and “advanced+” an excellent on-demand detection rate. From their tests report, NOD32 has won AV product of the year twice in a row for year 2006 and 2007. Kaspersky won AV product of the year twice in a row for year 2004 and 2005. Kaspersky did pretty well in year 2006 and 2007 although it did not win AV of the year.

    Next is antivirus comparison provided by LightSpeed Systems.
    Light Speed AntiVirus Comparison
    They’ve tested 12 antivirus products with 5861 sample viruses. LightSpeed Antivirus scored a 100% in detecting the 5861 virus. I don’t think it’s fair to include LightSpeed Antivirus in the test because they have the virus in hand, definitely they’ll make sure that their antivirus is able to detect the virus. Again, we see that Kaspersky has the second highest percent in detecting 5861 virus. NOD32 didn’t do that well…

    Another test site we can take a look at is AV-Test.org.
    AV-Test Antivirus testing and comparison
    Independent testing body AV-Test.org has released its latest set of results, with a large group of products tested against a number of criteria including proactive detection, spotting and removing active infections, and outbreak response times, as well as simple detection rates. Their latest test report shows that AntiVir, NOD32 and Norton scoring very well in all criteria. Kaspersky only did average in this test.

    Final website that compares the features in antivirus software is TopTenREVIEWS.
    TopTenREVIEWS antivirus comparison
    This time we see that BitDefender takes the first place, Kaspersky second and NOD32 third.

    Update: I found another website called virus.gr that collects virus and test them with antivirus. They currently have 246705 virus samples and tested them with 41 types of antivirus.
    Virus.GR antivirus test
    The latest report which released on June shows that G DATA has the best detection rate, followed by F-Secure, Trustport. Kaspersky 2009 is at number 4 and can detect 97.95% from the virus sample. Not bad for being at number 4 out of 41.

    If I had to make a decision for myself to use which antivirus, I’d choose Kaspersky because it is able to maintain its top position in all tests except only 1 test that it only performed averagely. I noticed that Avira AntiVir does pretty well in the tests… So, after checking out all 5 reports, which antivirus software do you think is the top antivirus?

  • Mirror your files by Uploading to Multiple File Hoster

    Found a very cool tool which enables you to upload files or folders to 32 free file hosting easily with one click! Sometimes uploading to the popular Rapidshare isn’t enough as you might need mirrors to host your files in case some people isn’t able to download from Rapidshare because they’ve used up their download limit. Imagine you have your files at 32 download locations, your customers wouldn’t have any problems in getting your file.
    Upload files to multiple file hoster


    FileUploader by ZeR0, other than able to upload files or folders to 32 file hoster, it supports Remote Upload. Remote Upload is a feature where you can upload the files to the file hoster from a website and not from your computer. Unfortunately, only 4 free file hoster supports this feature.

    After completed uploading your files to all file hoster, the link list can be saved according to location that is configured. By default it is saved at C:\ drive. This program can also support Proxy Server. If your working environment is using proxy server, then this program can work for you.

    Afraid that you might used up all your upload bandwidth? No problem as you’re able to set the upload bandwidth limit.
    Limit upload bandwidth

    Supported File Hoster
    11mbit.in
    archiv.to
    bigupload.com
    cocoshare.cc
    datenklo.net
    depositfiles.com
    easy-sharing.com
    egoshare.com (Supports Remote Upload)
    extremeshare.net
    filecache.de
    filecenter.org
    filefactory.de
    fileloads.com
    filepoint.de
    files.to
    hemenpaylas.com
    megaupload.com
    myupload.biz
    rapidshare.de
    raufladen.net (Supports Remote Upload)
    sceneupload.net
    sendspace.com
    share.am
    silo.ru
    simpleupload.de
    speedshare.org (Supports Remote Upload)
    spread-it.com
    turboupload.com
    ultrashare.de (Supports Remote Upload)
    uploaded.to
    yousendit.com
    zerowaitingtime.com

    [ Download FileUploader v2.2.4 ]

  • Download from Multiple File Hosting with One Multi-Host Downloader Account

    I have a couple of active premium accounts for file sharing websites such as FileSonic, FileServe, Hotfile and Uploading. I even used to have premium accounts for RapidShare, Megaupload and FileFactory as well but they are expired and I didn’t bother to renew them. The reason why I have or had so many different premium accounts is because of the type of files that I normally download kept changing host, thanks to the uploaders. The uploaders normally don’t stick to one file host forever due to their account being banned for copyright reasons and etc. So when they switch to a different file host, we just have to tag along unless we can tolerate the slow and restricted downloading features.

    FileSonic was very popular and big until they’ve recently decided to disable file sharing service when Megaupload got into trouble. This has caused many uploaders to upload files to different hosts and it can get quite costly if I were to subscribe to the premium accounts of current popular file host. The ultimate solution for this problem is to purchase one special multi-host downloader account which allows you to download from different file hosting websites without any restriction.


    No, I am not talking about premium link generators such as RapidLeech where the files will first be downloaded to the server and then provides you with a link to download the file from their server to your computer. This method is a waste of time and also bandwidth. These multi-host downloader service has perfected it by “streaming” the premium links allowing you to immediately download the files without any wait time or restriction. Pair the multi host downloading service together with JDownloader, it makes it even easier because everything is automated.

    Here are a few popular multi-host downloader that is supported by JDownloader nightly build. You need to check them out yourself to see which suits you better because some may not include the file host that you want to download from. They generally cost a few euros for a 30 days access which it is VERY cheap if compared to buying the premium accounts for every file host out there.

  • https://www.fast-debrid.com/ (49 hosts)
  • http://www.real-debrid.com/ (91 hosts)
  • http://www.linksnappy.com/ (20 hosts)
  • http://www.zevera.com/ (36 hosts)
  • http://rehost.to/ (16 hosts)
  • http://premium4.me/ (11 hosts)
  • http://alldebrid.com/ (88 hosts)
  • http://www.streammania.com/ (25 hosts)

    • Fast Debrid
    I am getting pretty decent download speed at over 500KBps on my 5Mbps internet connection

    The only possible problem that you may face when using these multi-host downloaders are inconsistent/slow downloading speed, or a file host that has been temporarily disabled probably due to the premium account that they used being disabled/banned. Actually having an individual premium account doesn’t necessarily mean you can achieve maximum full downloading speed all the time.

  • New Year with New Design at Raymond.CC

    You all might have noticed that the design for Raymond.CC and also forum has changed. I think it has a much cleaner and brighter look compared to the old dark design. The structure of this site is still the same. I didn’t want to make any drastic changes to the structure because it might confusing for some people. Do let me know what do you think of this new design by leaving your vote at the poll below.

    Finally, if you find any bug, please let me know through email or the comment box below. Thanks!

  • Latest ICQ Newest Invisibility Checker

    End of last year I posted a tool which is able to check ICQ invisibility status of a person. The author of this tool has updated the tool to work with the latest changes in ICQ and also improved the program by adding a few additional features.
    Check ICQ invisible status

    Changes in Newest Invisibility Checker version 2.0
    – Login with ICQ account
    – Able to register ICQ UIN
    – Two methods (OSCAR ICBM Packet) of checking for invisibility status
    – Able to specify time interval to perform check
    – Hotkey to put NIC in tray
    – Able to use NIC if you are using Proxy


    It’s best that you use a new ICQ UIN to check on your friend’s ICQ status because if you send an OSCAR ICBM Packet using Newest Invisibility Checker to your friend, your ICQ UIN will show up on your friend’s ICQ.
    Check ICQ Invisible status

    Yeah I know you definitely want to post a comment asking is there anyone else still using ICQ. I believe many of us still has an ICQ account but we’re just not using it. So for those we still uses ICQ, enjoy this latest version of Newest Invisibility Checker.

    [ Download Newest Invisibility Checker v2.0 ]

  • Modify computer’s MBR using command line

    MBRWiz is a command line tool designed to directly modify the MBR, with the capability to set partitions active for booting, delete or hide partitions, back up and restore copies of the MBR, as well as sort the partition entries.

    Included in the download is a 32 bit version (MBRWiz.exe) for Windows NT/2K/XP/PE/2003, a 16 bit executable (MBRWizD.exe) for DOS and Win9x, as well as a version for Linux.

    MBRWiz v1.53 has been released as Freeware software, by Roger Layton. He has designed and developed this software to directly modify the MBR which can (and possibly will) destroy partitions and data on the hard disk. Me and the author can take no responsibility for any loss of partition information or data loss by using this program.


    Available Command Line Options
    /List: Display the partitions listed in the MBR, their order in the MBR, partition type, size, and whether active or hidden. The Pos field indicates the order the partitions are laid out on disk, while MBRndx shows them as they’re listed in the MBR record.
    /Sort: It isn’t uncommon for the partition entries in the MBR to be unsorted, meaning that their order in the MBR doesn’t match the order on disk. This normally wasn’t a problem until Windows NT/2K/XP came along with its new boot loader, and the requirement for each partition entry in the boot.ini to point to the actual partition number. This option will sort the entries in the MBR to match their order on disk.
    /IsSorted: Returns an ErrorLevel code based on the status of the partition entries:
    0 = Sorted
    1 = Not Sorted
    /Disk=#: Selects the disk to use for all operations. This switch is always processed first, verifying that all operations specified on the command line will use the disk specified here. If not specified, Disk 0 will be used by default. All operations use the physical location of the partition on the disk (the first column in /list), while the MBRndx simply identifies the current position of the partition entry in the MBR.
    /Active=#: Sets the partition specified by # active for booting. If the partition is hidden it will unhide it before setting it active. No other partitions will be hidden, or otherwise changed by this command. DOS and Win9x do not properly recognize multiple visible primary partitions, so make certain you also hide remaining primary partitions if necessary.
    /InActive=#: Sets the partition specified by # in-active, therefore it will no longer be bootable. This option will not automatically set another partition active. An entry of * (asterisk) will cause all partitions to be set as inactive.
    /Hide=#: Hides the partition number specified by #. An entry of * (asterisk) will cause all partitions to be hidden
    /Unhide=#: Un-Hides the partition number specified by #. An entry of * (asterisk) will cause all partitions to be unhidden.
    /Del=#: Deletes the partition specified by #. /Del=* removes all partitions on selected disk, Del=** removes all partitions on all disks
    /Wipe=# Selecting an option of 1 will wipe the MBR clean, effectively removing all information from the first sector of the disk. An option of 2 will remove all information from the first (hidden) 63 sectors of the disk.
    /Save=filename: Saves the current MBR to filename, where filename is a drive:\path combination to store the file. Substituting the word SECTOR for filename will store the MBR in a hidden sector on the disk
    /Restore=filename: Reads an MBR file from filename, where filename is an existing path:\filename containing the backed up contents of the MBR. Substituting the word SECTOR for filename will restore the MBR from the hidden sector on the disk, if it has been previously backed up.
    /ShowFile=filename: Show the partition structure from a backed up MBR filename or sector.
    /BootMenu: This option will list the available, bootable partitions, and allow the user to select one of them to set active.
    /Shutdown=#: An entry of 1 will force Windows to shutdown. An entry of 2 will force Windows to shutdown and reboot. This option may cause data loss if open programs contain unsaved data. NT/2K/XP/2003 version only.
    /Ignore: Allows the program to complete the specified operation if an error occurs.
    /Result: Displays the return code for visual verification of success/failure.
    /HideErrors: Hides the display of any errors that may occur.
    CommandFile: If no switches are specified on the command line, and a file by the name of mbrwiz.opt exists in the same folder as the executable, then the mbrwiz.opt file will be parsed for possible switches. Switches can be located on the same line, or dispersed across multiple lines. This option can be used when it’s not possible to pass switches on the commandline. The following is an example option file to save the disk 1 mbr to hidden sector, then reboot the machine
    —————————-
    /disk=1 /save=sector
    /shutdown=2
    —————————-

    Version History
    Note: The author is currently working on version 2.0 with an added/modified feature set, including functionality to Repair the MBR, Write new disk signature, Change partition type, Copy sectors, and more. You can check out the new stuff here.

    v 1.53 August 3, 2004
    Added option to delete all partitions on single disk, or all partitions on all disks
    Added /Ignore option, to allow operation to continue if an error occurs

    v 1.52 Nov 13, 2003
    Minor release to resolve an issue sorting on disks other than disk 0 (zero). Fixed issue where DOS version would not properly read multiple disks Added a feature to Auto-backup the MBR if a command to sort, delete, or restore an MBR is specified. Windows version will write the file to the Temp folder specified by Windows, DOS version will write file to c:\, Linux stores file to /usr/tmp. The filename will be Disk-0.mbr, Disk-1.mbr, etc. for each physical disk in the system.

    v 1.5 Sep 16, 2003
    Added feature to read and display the partition table from a backed up mbr file. Added feature to read command options from a text file. Added ability to deactivate all partitions using *.

    v 1.4.1 Sep 5, 2003
    Minor release to fix display problem in DOS version

    v 1.4 Sep 2, 2003
    Added a version for Linux, including support for IDE, SCSI, and RAID devices.

    v 1.3 August 12, 2003
    Added support for multiple disks. Added Bootmenu option. Added ability to hide/unhide all partitions on a disk. Added functionality to save the MBR to a hidden sector on disk

    v 1.2 July 7, 2003
    Added Wipe functionality. Added Shutdown and Reboot functionality under 32 bit

    v 1.1 May 25, 2003
    Added support for a 32 bit version Windows version.

    v 1.0 March 2003
    Added functionality to activate, hide, delete, and sort partitions. Save and Read the MBR from a file was also included here.

    [ Download MBRWiz for Windows XP/PE/2003 version 1.53 ]
    [ Download MBRWiz for DOS/Win9x version 1.52 ]
    [ Download MBRWiz for Linux version 1.52 ]

    Note: This freeware is very useful to me as I just successfully tested to install Mac OSX 10.4.3 on my Intel computer. From Windows, I am unable to choose whether to boot to Mac OSX or Windows XP. So one of the way is to set my Mac OSX partition as active in order to boot to Mac OSX.
    I only need to create a batch (.bat) file with the command below.
    c:\mbrwiz /active=1
    exit

    I’ve copied the mbrwiz.exe to C:\ drive and the /active=1 is because my Mac OSX is at partition 1 and my Windows is partition 0. If I want to set my Windows partition active, the command would be c:\mbrwiz /active=0 (zero and not the letter O).

    I will soon start blogging about Mac OSX on Intel because these few days I have been very busy with work and when I had the time, I am on my Mac OSX installed on Intel 🙂 So stay tuned!

  • Defrag Individual Files With FREE Defraggler

    Defrag individual fileFrom the company that brought us CCleaner, (one of the best free system optimization and privacy tool for Windows) and Recuva (one of the best free file recovery tool that will unerase files that you have mistakenly deleted from your computer), here is Defraggler!

    Defraggler differs from other defrag tools on the market, by enabling you to quickly and simply defrag the files you want to, without having to process the whole drive. Simply run it, select the file and defragment in seconds. No more struggling with the Windows defragmentation tool! And remember like all Piriform products, Defraggler is completely free for both corporate and individual use.


    select files to defrag

    Defrag Individual Files
    Most defragmentation tools only let you defrag the whole drive. Defraggler gives you the power to select individual files and folders to defrag. So you can get the job done in seconds, rather than waiting for the whole drive to complete. Of course if you want to defrag the whole drive Defraggler will let you do that too.

    Compact and Portable
    Defraggler was written in the same compact architecture as other Piriform products (CCleaner and Recuva). This results in a compact single EXE application, which can be copied to a thumbdrive and then used whenever you need it, without a complex installation process. The EXE itself is less than 1MB!

    Vista Support
    Defraggler supports all OSs released since Windows 2000, this includes Windows 2000, 2003, XP and Vista. Although 64-bit support is not included in this version, we are working on compatibility, so it will be available soon! Additionally Defraggler supports both NTFS and FAT32 file systems.

    Locate Files on the Drive
    After analysis Defraggler lists all the fragmented files on the drive. Selecting one or many will highlight their location on the disk. Allowing you to visually see the location of files on the disk.

    Freeware
    Why pay hundreds of dollars for a commercial defragmentation tool, when you can use Defraggler for free! This includes corporate use as well!

    Defraggler is still BETA, so there “might” be bugs. So far I’ve tested it and didn’t find any problem. Since it’s still in BETA, I’d advice you not to use it on servers or computer that contains important data. I truly admire Pirisoft for creating useful, small, portable, free and easy to use tool. They also mention that they’re currently working on some even newer titles, which will be out later this year.

    [ Download Defraggler ]

  • Add Tab Support To Almost Any Running Program

    Remember 2 months ago I wrote how nice if Microsoft implemented “tabs” in Windows Explorer? What if I tell you that there’s a way to add tab support to almost any running window? For example, lets say you have 3 windows explorer, 1 internet explorer, 1 windows live messenger, 1 uTorrent, 1 Limewire, 1 WinAMP all running together at the same time… I am sure your taskbar will be messy and filled up! It’ll be a lot neater if you can put selected running programs or even all of them in a tabbed program.
    Neat Taskbar


    WinTabber is tabmanager that can add tab support to almost any window under windows 2000/XP. Working with tabbed windows works faster and efficiently.
    WinTabber - Tab Your Programs

    This software is free and is too easy to use. On WinTabber main menu, click on the load new tab button to select the running task you want to put in WinTabber. To release the running task from WinTabber, you can either release all tabs from WinTabber main menu or go to Active Tab menu and click release. WinTabber is still in beta and it still has a long list of wishlist to make this tool better.
    Release tabs from WinTabber

    The shortcut keys for WinTabber:
    Ctrl + Tab: Go to next tab
    Shift + Tab: Go back to previous tab
    Ctrl + 1..9: Activate numbered tab
    Mouse Right Click: On active tab to show the window menu

    Note: I think it’s better not to add Firefox browser to WinTabber because there’s a conflict in the Ctrl+Tab shortcut key. Firefox uses Ctrl+Tab to cycle between tabs and WinTabber also the same. So if you’re on Firefox browser and you press Ctrl+Tab, it commands WinTabber to cycle to the next tab instead of Firefox. Hopefully in future version of WinTabber will support custom shortcut key to fix this problem.

    Enjoy a neater and cleaner taskbar after using WinTabber!

    [ Download WinTabber ]