Today’s article will be about another freebie which I am sure it will end very quickly. So if you’re already reading this, make sure you don’t wait and continue reading on how to get your free one year license for Norman Security Suite v7 that normally cost $59.95. Norman Security Suite is a set of security programs to guard you against Internet threats such as viruses, worms, trojans, spyware and hackers. The different programs will protect you against inappropriate content, rootkits and other hostile activity against you and your computer, whether you are using online banking, chatting, emailing, playing or just surfing the Internet.

Norman has a well-known trademarked technology called SandBox™ which is used to check if a file is infected by an unknown virus or spyware. The method allows un-trusted, possible viral code to play around on the computer – not in the real computer, but in a simulated and restricted area within the computer. The virus is exposing itself in the sandbox, and because its actions have been recorded, the cure for this new perpetrator can be generated automatically. Sounds good? Continue reading on how to get your free 1 year license for Norton Security Suite version 7.10!


1. Go to this page http://www.norman.com/support/auth/de

2. Enter your name, email (make sure it’s a working one), OEM Code (Registriercode) as PRX812SS-DE PCMG8SS-DE and click the Bestätigen button.

3. Check your email and you should receive an email from Norman Web (info@mail.norman.no) with the subject Norman – Lizenz. Note down the authentication license key which is in 5×5 character format.

4. Download the latest version of Norman Security Suite. There are 32 and 64 bit of installer with many different languages.

5. During installation, you’ll be prompted to enter the 5×5 character license key. Paste the key and continue with the installation. Restart the computer when prompted to and make sure you run the update in Norman Security Suite to update all products to the latest versions.

Norman Security Suite comes with Antivirus & Spyware, Personal Firewall and Parental Control. If you don’t want any of the feature, you can choose not to install them during installation. Simply select Custom after the part where you enter the license key.

While I was taking screenshot of Norman Security Suite with HyperSnap, Norman detected one of HyperSnap’s DLL file HprRes6.dll as a trojan. That report is definitely a false positive. Norman boast of its sandbox technology but it couldn’t detect the private version of Trojan that injects itself to default browser on both scan and run time. However it managed to catch all 19 current virus that I planted on my test computer. There are a total of 15 processes that belongs to Norman Security Suite and taking up a total of 135MB of memory usage. The CPU usage during full scan is very low which never goes more than 30%. Get it quick before this offer expires!

Thanks to flippertje for sharing this latest OEM code with us in forum!

Virus writers/creators are getting smarter nowadays. Most of the time, I was able to clean virus / trojans / spywares in Windows Safe Mode since the normal Windows loads up virus during startup. So in Safe Mode, it doesn’t load and I get to check all the startup methods and remove whatever entries that’s suspicious. If you’ve been infected by a virus called Brontok, you’ll know how it can get on your nerves and want to look for the writer to bash him up! The author of Brontok virus always update its variant so that Brontok cleaners and antivirus wouldn’t be able to clean Brontok from the system.

Brontok virus disable Registry Editor (regedit.exe), System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) and also Task Manager. When you try to run any of the tool, your computer automatically restarts. Even in Safe Mode!!! That can be solve by using a Brontok cleaner which removes Brontok from memory and then enable back the Registry Editor and System Configuration Utility. Then you can use various types of antivirus or brontok cleaners which I found to scan and remove any Brontok infected files.

Yesterday I met a new case where Brontok virus doesn’t allow you to boot in Windows at all. Not even in Safe Mode! It automatically restarts when you log in to any user account. Here’s how you can make a Windows bootable again if it’s caused by virus, trojans or spywares.


There are so many startup methods and it’s very hard to check them when you can’t boot in to Windows. What you can do now is clean up as many virus files as possible. For example, Brontok virus place a file called Empty.pif on your Windows Startup. If the Empty.pif file is removed, it won’t be able to load Empty.pif when you boot up your computer. You’ll most probably be getting an error message saying that “file is not found” or something similar to that but now you can boot in to Windows. It can be that buggy Empty.pif causing your computer to automatically restart when you log in Windows. You get the whole picture?

This is what I suggest you to do if your Windows auto restarts itself whenever you log in to Windows and it’s caused by virus, trojan or spyware.

1. Download and burn the latest Hiren’s BootCD.
2. Put in the CD and boot up with it.
3. When you get the Hiren’s BootCD startup menu, select number 2 to Start BootCD.
4. Select option number 3 that says Antivirus Tools…

5. Select option number 1 that says F-Prot Antivirus 3.16f 26-04-2007 (Date and version might be different)
6. A blue colored screen will appear that says F-Prot Antivirus Scanning options.
7. Select option number 2 that says “Dumb” Scan of all files.
8. You will now have the option of what to do with the infected files. For me, I’d choose delete automatically.
9. Select the drive to scan and wait for the scanning to complete.

After using F-Prot Antivirus to scan, you can use McAfee Antivirus to scan again. Just select option number 2, then select option number 1 that says “Scan of all files“.

Most of the virus, trojan and spyware should be removed after scanning with F-Prot Antivirus and McAfee Antivirus. Eject Hiren’s BootCD and boot your computer as normal. Very likely you’re able to boot in Windows now but you’ll be getting a error message saying couldn’t find some certain file. That’s OK, you know that at least it doesn’t load the Virus during startup.

The next step after you can boot in to Windows is, run AIMFix. AIMFix is a very powerful tool that is able to remove suspicious files that’s running in memory.

If you’re infected by Brontok, use ALL of the tools listed here to scan and fix your system. It should bring back your regedit and msconfig.

To be on the safe side, install a good Antivirus such as Kaspersky on your system, update it to the latest version and definitions, and run a thorough scan.

You should be able to remove most virus, trojan or spyware using the method above. Make sure you always have Hiren’s BootCD with you because it’s the best of the best Boot CD. Also, a USB flash drive containing AIMFix, and all brontok cleaners would be very useful too.

Good luck and hope you’re able to boot in Windows after cleaning the nasty virus.

If you have just created a new Facebook account, by default the Facebook users that are not your friend would not be able to view your Facebook profile. They would see a message that says “Raymond only shares some of his profile information with everyone. If you know Raymond, send him a message or add him as a friend.” Since people couldn’t even see anything on your profile unless they are your friend, logically they can’t see your private photos or albums too right? Only half right…

There is one working javascript hack that has been discovered more than a month ago which allows anyone to view Facebook private photo and album without being in the friend list. All the user needs to do is login to their Facebook account first, then go to the main user profile page and paste the javascript below at the address bar and hit enter.

javascript:(function(){CSS.removeClass(document.body,%20'profile_two_columns'); tab_controller.changePage("photos");})()

When it works, it shows the Facebook album photos instantly and if not, you get the error message “There are no photos to display. Photos of Raymond may not have been tagged, or may not be visible due to privacy.” I have done more tests and found that this is caused by a privacy setting in Facebook allowing “EVERYONE” to view photos and videos of the user.

Fortunately there is a fix to protect your privacy and prevent anyone from viewing your private album photos in Facebook. Simply follow the steps below on how to configure a more strict privacy setting for your Facebook profile.

1. Login to your Facebook account
2. Click on Account at the top right and select Privacy Settings
3. Click on Profile Information
4. Select either Only Friends or Friends of Friends for Photos and Videos of Me.

To me, this does seemed like a bug and Facebook should definitely fix it. Even if the user did configure that everyone can view their album/photo, but if their profile is set to private, the same should happen for the album photos too. Found any friend that didn’t have their photo protected? Let them know about it while waiting for Facebook fix the bug.

Internet theft is very common nowadays. Many people got the wrong idea that whatever you find on the Internet is free. Well it may be free for you to read or view but definitely not free for you to use unless you have permission. It is same like the concept of finding an unprotected wifi. If there is no WEP or WPA password, it doesn’t mean you can use the wifi. It a door to a house is not locked, it doesn’t mean you can go in to watch their TV and grab a beer from their fridge!

Images or pictures too can be easily found on the Internet and is widely being used anyone because very seldom people use any encryption to protect the images. Images should be conveniently allowed to be viewed immediately without installing any third part decryption software. That is why one of the most common way to protect an image is by watermarking the images. There will be some people who don’t care about the watermark and use your images. Here is how to find out if someone is using your images without permission.


TinEye is a reverse image search engine that is very easy to use. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. When you submit an image to be searched, TinEye creates a unique and compact digital signature or ‘fingerprint’ for it, then compares this fingerprint to every other image in TinEye’s index to retrieve matches. TinEye can even find a partial fingerprint match.

Images uploaded to TinEye are not added to the search index, nor are they made accessible by other users. Copyright for all images submitted to TinEye remains with the original owner/author. Search images submitted by unregistered users are automatically discarded after 72 hours. Links to these searches will stop working after 72 hours, unless a registered user happens to save the same image.

TinEye offers this service for free. If you find this service useful, there are plugins for Firefox and Internet Explorer which allows you to search an image on TinEye via right click.

[ Visit TinEye ]

If you’re a computer newbie, don’t get turned off by the word “Server”. There are many ways to share files but this is actually one of the easiest way to do it without uploading to file hosting websites. All you need to do is download a small 550KB executable file that requires no installation, run it and add files/folders that you want to share. If you are using a direct connection through modem without router, it works right out of the box without any configuration. And if you have a router, you’ll need to do port forwarding. There are also expert mode which gives you more configuration such as Dynamic DNS Updater and etc…

Actually I got to know about HTTP File server about 2 years ago and it has improved a lot along the years. Perhaps many of you already know about HFS, if not, I assure you won’t regret taking a few minutes to learn about this great file sharing server tool.


HFS (Http File Server) is file sharing software which allows you to send and receive files. You can limit this sharing to just a few friends, or be open to the whole world. HFS is different from classic file sharing because there is no network. HFS is a web server which uses web technology to be more compatible with today’s Internet. Since it is actually a web server, your friends can download files as if they were downloading from a website using a web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. Your users don’t have to install any new software.

Let’s go through a short step by step on how to get HTTP File Server working.

1. Download HTTP File Server from the link at the end of this article.

2. Run hfs.exe

3. Right click on the left pane, select Add files if you want to share files or select Add folder from disk. You can also drag and drop files/folders.

4. Once you’ve done adding files/folders that you want to share, you’ll need to give your friend your IP address. To find your IP address, go to Menu > IP address > Find external address. A small window will appear displaying your external IP address.

5. Ask your friend to enter the URL http://IPADDRESS at their web browser. The file/folder that you shared will appear for them to download.

Very useful when you frequently need to share files with your friends. It’s small, free and powerful. There are other similar software such as BadBlue, Easy File Sharing Web Server, WWW File Share Pro and Myweb but they are all shareware. Why pay when there is a free one that does the same?

[ Download HTTP File Server ]

Despite the fact that Windows 7 is the newest Windows operating system on the block, ever since Windows 95, it has never changed that much. You still have a button to access the start menu, the same toolbar at the bottom, the same taskbar, the same basic interface as the previous Windows operating system. It’s not as amazing as many people make it out to be. And compared to the choices that Linux has, Windows quite literally pales to compare, as under Linux, there is OpenBox/BlackBox, there is GNOME, there is KDE, there is XFCE, LXDE, FVWM’s Crystal Theme, and so much more. So why, as Windows users, are we stuck using the same old same old?

The truth of the matter, is the fact that we’ve never tried anything because most of us have never thought of using anything different and that most of us have never heard of any different way of working with Windows. And while I am a Linux user, I also do a lot of tech support to friends and family that have installed those “cursor” add-ons. I’m sure the majority of the readers will know the kind of which I refer, the ones with the malware built in. These are the people that would love to make their computers look different but just don’t have the knowledge how to do it safely.


If you’ve never used a theme pack, and if you’ve never tried to use an alternative shell, I’m sure hearing about both for the first time is rather daunting. While generally speaking, I never recommend a theme pack, here are two alternative shells you might want to considering trying out, as they cost nothing at all to try.

SharpEnviro
This is one alternative shell that I personally love. It’s lighter on the system then the default shell, being made up of several components. These are two instances of SharpBar, SharpCore, SharpDesk, and SharpShellService. Together, these use just slightly under 10 mb of ram (about 9.2 mbs) and flicker between one and three percent of the CPU being used (on a 1.66 Ghz laptop). It is considered a beta piece of software and has crashed for me once in a blue moon, but I have found it rather stable, truth be told. Once customized from the default, I find it a fully featured shell that I just can’t live without. For those looking at GNOME and wishing they could use it under Windows, perhaps SharpEnviro will be the next best thing for them.

– Screenshots of SharpEnviro –
– SharpEnviro download –

BBLean
This was one that one of my friends introduced me to, called BBLean. In it’s own right, it is a great shell alternative to the default Microsoft Windows interface, but it’s also very lightweight and clean. A right click anywhere on the desktop will launch the equivalent of the Start Menu, and is fully configurable though text files. It is extremely light, taking up only 1.5 mbs of ram and not even a blip on the CPU. It was originally designed for Windows 98, but works right up until Windows 7.

– Screenshots of BBLean – (warning, not all images are Safe for Work)
– BBLean Download –

So there you go. Two malware-free ways to change how your Windows operating system operates. Keep in mind, you alone take responsibly in using them. They shouldn’t crash your system, but they do modify how your system operates. One final note is if you don’t like them, then make sure that your computer is set to open Explorer as the default shell (both have a SetShell.exe/BSetShell.exe that you can change back to Explorer at any time), otherwise, you could face data corruption.

Normally computer optimization software such as TuneUp Utilities doesn’t allow free upgrade to the latest version when there is a major update. The latest version of TuneUp Utilities is now 2009 and for those that previously own a 2008 license, they’ll need to pay $29.95 to upgrade to the latest version. For new customers, when they purchase TuneUp Utilities, they will definitely get the latest version and not the old version. So what happens to the old version? The best way is to team up and work together with magazines or bloggers to give out free licenses for old version to get more exposure and hoping that they’d pay a small price to upgrade to the latest version.

I found two magazines which is Chip and PC User that is giving free TuneUp Utilities 2008 genuine license key. Now I normally stay away from older versions of software and always try my best to use the latest version. The fact is, previous version works well too and before they came up with version 2009, I am sure the software developers worked very hard to make sure that the version 2008 is one of the best in the market.


All important settings are hidden in the Windows boot files and the system registry. The registry is the central database for Windows, in which settings for all applications and hardware modules are stored. Using regedit or other similar tools, you can open this special database and change its settings. The problem is that only experienced users know how to change the right settings among the cryptic entries in the registry. Most users don’t understand a word of the information contained in an open registry file. Even if you know the registry entries inside and out, a small typo in the registry can still lead to serious consequences and even complete system failure.

That’s where TuneUp Utilities 2008 comes in. The software helps both beginners and experts to make Windows meet their needs in a way that is better, easier and safer. All important system options are explained in an easy way and can be turned on or off at the click of your mouse. TuneUp Utilities 2008 will then make the necessary changes in the registry or boot files automatically.

1. Download and install TuneUp Utilities 2008 v7.0.8007. If the download link can’t work, try this mirror.

2. When you see a window that tells you that this is a limited trial version of TuneUp Utilities, click the Enter product key button.

3. There are 2 product keys that can be used to register TuneUp Utilities 2008. Either one will work and you can enter anything for the registration name.

Product Key 1 by PC User: LLYLB-ASGHK-ANKTM-DBYKS-QXQMT-ESRYC
Product Key 2 by CHIP: RFEAH-CDXKX-UMFBW-GSCES-YFWCM-WUHWB

Make sure you run the TuneUp Update Wizard after installation to grab the latest updated files. Do take note that TuneUp Utilities 2008 supports and automatically adapts to Windows 2000, XP and Vista both 32 and 64 bit. Enjoy tweaking and optimizing your Windows computer!

About a week ago WordPress announced that attacker has gained access to 3 popular plugins (Add This, W3 Total Cache and WPtouch) and has made unauthorized changes to the plugin by adding malicious backdoor codes. This is indeed very dangerous because installing the backdoored plugins can cause the website to get compromised by the attacker. Adam Harley, a contributor to WordPress core development, shows what kind of malicious code is injected to the plugins on his website. mtekk’s Crib also pointed out what the evil code does. Surprising it takes only 1-2 lines to create a backdoor on a plugin…

During that time, I remembered I’ve just updated W3 Total Cache to the latest version and wasn’t sure if the installed version is clean or backdoored. Unfortunately WordPress doesn’t provide a way to easily re-install plugin and the only way I can reinstall is to download the plugin to my computer and upload it via FTP, overwriting the files on the server. I was more on the curious side to find out if the installed W3 Total Cache contains the backdoor code, so I downloaded the W3 Total Cache from my server to my computer, and then downloaded the real W3 Total Cache from the WordPress site for comparison.


There are a lot of folder comparison software with tons of settings but all I need is a simple tool that don’t require installation and is able to compare all the files through file size or binary. I found a pretty useful and light folder comparison software called TreeCompare.

All I need to do is specify two folders that I want to compare, click on the Options button to choose the compare criteria and finally click the Compare button. A result window will open showing you the number of files and folders it has compared together with the number of same/different files. Binary Compare option is the best way to check for changes between two folders or files but it takes more time.

TreeCompare is portable, small (only 50KB) and free. You will two versions of TreeCompare which is in the i386r (ANSI) and i386ur (unicode) folder. If you are using Windows NT/2000/XP and above, both unicode and ANSI will work but unicode is supposed to work better. However if you want to run TreeCompare on Windows 95/98/ME, you must use the ANSI version.

Fortunately this blog is safe from the backdoored plugin as I couldn’t find any difference using TreeCompare.

[ Download TreeCompare ]

Found a backdoor tip on how to register Live.com passport account. Get it quick while your easy-to-remember username might still be available! Just tested and registered my own @live.com account! Yea!


1. Go to http://get.live.com/getlive/overview

2. Press the sign-up button and you will be presented a form to sign up for a hotmail account.

3.Copy the following javascript injection code:

4. Paste the code in your address bar (where you usually type in the URL).

5. Hit enter, if all went well it should show a message box telling you “Success – additional domains added!“.

6.Now you can select a multitude of domains, fill out the form and you are ready to go!

Thanks to mess for this valuable tip!

Yesterday I talked about how to retrieve serial numbers or CD keys from your computer using KeyFinder Thing.
Today, I will show you on how to recover PASSWORD that’s saved in your computer.

Multi Password Recovery (MPR) – multifunctional password decryption solution for Win95/98/W2K/XP/2K3. MPR instantly finds and recovers passwords from more than 60 popular applications (FTP, E-mail clients, IM, Browsers and so on). It also shows passwords hidden under asterisks, copies SAM file, can generate new passwords. Under W2K/XP/2K3 MPR is able to process blocked for reading files.



Multi Password Recovery can recovery saved password from:

FTP clients
==========================================
Windows/Total Commander 4.x, 6.x
FAR Manager 1.6x, 1.7x
WS_FTP 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Home/Pro
CuteFTP v. 1.4, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 2.0, 2.5, 2.6, 2.8, 4.0, 4.2, 1.0 pro, 2.0 pro, 3.0 pro, 6.0, 7 home/pro
FlashFXP 1.x-3.x
FileZilla 2.x
FTP Commander Pro/Deluxe (mostly all versions)
FTP Navigator (mostly all versions)
BulletProof FTP Client 1.x, 2.x
SmartFTP 1.x, 2.x

E-mail clients
==========================================
Outlook Express 6.0
Outlook 2000 (MSO 2000), 2002 (MSO XP), 2003 (MSO .NET)
Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0
The Bat! v. 1.x, 2.x, 3.x
Becky 2.x
Eudora/Eudora Light (mostly all versions)
Gmail Notifier (mostly all versions)
Mail.Ru Agent 4.x
Opera Email Client
IncrediMail (mostly all versions)
Group Mail Free (mostly all versions)
Vypress Auvis 2.x
PocoMail 3.x, 4.x
Forte Agent 3.x

Browsers
==========================================
Opera 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x
Mozilla Browser 1.7.x
Internet Explorer 4, 5, 6, 7
Mozilla Firefox (mostly all versions)

Dialers
==========================================
Windows Remote Access Service (RAS), VPN and Dial-up passwords
EType Dialer 1.x
MuxaSoft Dialer 3.0, 4.0, 4.1
FlexibleSoft Dialer 2.x-4.x
Advanced Dialer 2.x
Dialer Queen 1.x
VDialer 3

Download managers
==========================================
Download Master 4, 5
GetRight 5
FlashGet (JetCar) 1.6, 1.71
Internet Download Accelerator 5

Instant messengers
==========================================
QIP 2005a
Miranda IM 0.2.x, 0.3.x, 0.4.x
ICQ 99b-2003b, Lite 4, Lite 5
MSN Messenger 1.x-7.x
Windows Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger 3.x-6.x
&RQ 0.9
R&Q 10xx
Trillian 0.x, 2, 3
AOL Instant Messenger (older versions)
GAIM 1.x
Odigo 4
IM2 (Messenger 2) 1.5.x
SIM 0.9
Google Talk (mostly all versions)
PSI (mostly all versions)
Faim 0.1
Windows Live Messenger

Other
==========================================
Registration key from Win2k & XP
ClubTimer 2.2-2.7
Punto Switcher 2.5-2.9
WinVNC 3.x
Screen Saver password in Win9x
ASP.NET Account
Remote Desktop Connection

This software is as useful as KeyFinder Thing as it is able to recover password from MULTIPLE software in just seconds. No bruteforce needed. Just simply decryption. Only 1 drawback about this software and that is it is NOT free to use.

Multi Password Recovery is a try-before-you-buy program, without registration key MPR will show you just the first character of the decrypted password. Registered users get access to the extended features of MPR (saving reports, copying SAM files, password generator, etc), a possibility to completely recover passwords and the right for the user support. Registration key price is USD 30.00 and it’s valid for a period of 18 months, the key is valid for all future versions.

I don’t understand why the registration key is only valid for 18 months. Anyway, cracking this piece of software is fairly easy. I will show you the offsets to patch to make this software registered.

THIS INFO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY and it’s being tested on previous version! Please BUY this software if you really need to use it.
1. Download Multi Password Recovery v0.2.6

2. Use any Hex Editor such as WinHex.

2. Locate the offset 000CE480
– It should display A0 30 86 53 00

– Change the offset to B0 01 90 90 90

3. Save it, run MPR. If you click on Help -> Registration, it will show you that it’s Registered.

The above cracking method is only for version 0.2.6. The latest version of MPR 0.2.7 is not vulnerable to the cracking method above. The author of this software has a 5 digit ICQ UIN. It’s impossible to register a 5 digit ICQ UIN as it started with 6 digit many years ago. I believe that the author named Demchenko Alex might be an elite hacker 🙂

[ Download Latest MPR 0.2.7 | MPR Official Website ]

Do you still use Speedbit Video Accelerator to help you stream youtube and many other video sites faster and smoother? I written that article two years ago and that time they only had one version which is free. Then they came up with a “Premium” paid version of their software which cost $49.90 for a year subscription that allows you to download movies and TV shows faster from iTunes. The free version still allows you to accelerates embedded videos from YouTube and over 150 supported video sites though.

Basically Speedbit Video Accelerator uses multiple connections to download the same video, hence it loads up faster than normal. Speedbit is also the developer of Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) which is known to install spyware during installation. If you don’t have confidence in Speedbit, here’s another alternative called Bywifi to stream online videos with multiple streams.


Bywifi (Video Streaming Downloader) is a free program for downloading, transcoding and accelerating video streaming. It supports downloading, transcoding and P2P accelerating videos from all video websites, such as Youtube, Dailymotion, Metacafe, MySpace, Yahoo, Justin.tv, etc. Lots of advanced network technologies like P2SP (peer-to-server-and-peer), multiple tasks, web sensitive, intelligence caching are used in the software. The bitrate of video streaming is 3-5 times faster with bywifi than without it. Moreover, it can transcode videos into mobile formats for mobile phones and PDA.

All you need to do is just install Bywifi, restart your web browser and it’ll automatically speed up the video streaming whenever you view an online video. If you want to download the video, just move your mouse cursor to the video and a small bywifi toolbar will appear on the screen.

The first button is speedup. You only need to use this button if you’ve turned off automatic speed up. Second button is download where you can manually download the video and save on your hard drive. The third button is for you to transcode. Meaning you can convert the FLV video format to 3GP, MP4, AVI, ASF, MP3 and etc.

I tried timing the amount of time required to fully load a video file from YouTube. When streaming without Bywifi, it took 85 seconds, but with bywifi, it only took 35 seconds! The amount of time required to fully download the video file has been cut down by half. So if you have a crappy ISP that is very unstable and cause you to wait because of buffering, bywifi is your solution. Tested working on my Firefox 3.1 beta 3, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome. Don’t work on Opera.

[ Download Bywifi ]

Windows Live Messenger is one of the most popular instant messenger today. Ever since the latest Windows Live Messenger 2009 is out, there has always been problems such as the webcam not working, unable to sign in and even small annoying problems such as the Remember me and Remember my password option not working. If you have personal laptop that is only used by you, surely you would like to have the convenience of just clicking a button to automatically sign in to Messenger instead of manually typing the password every time you want to sign in.

When you enter your Windows Live ID and password, then checked both Remember Me and Remember My Password option, it will continue working but once you restart your computer and launch Windows Live Messenger, you will see that your ID and password is not saved! Thanks to Jonathan Kay, he found out that Windows Live Messenger not able to remember a user’s Live ID is caused of Yahoo! Toolbar installer which messes up your Windows user profile registry. Unfortunately uninstalling the Yahoo! Toolbar will not fix the problem.


Again thanks to Jonathan, he created a simple tool called Make Messenger Remember to solve Messenger forgetting your username and password problem. All you need to do is download, run it and click the Fix button. Make Messenger Remember will automatically restart Windows after completing its work, so be sure to close and save any data prior to beginning the process. After restart, run Windows Live Messenger and see if your Live ID and hotmail is saved. If not, simply enter again and save it. The next time you restart your computer the login information should be there.

If you get the error “The application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135). Click OK to terminate the application.” when running Make Messenger Remember, that means you don’t have .NET Framework 2.0 installed on your computer. Go here to download and install .NET Framework.

[ Download Make Messenger Remember ]

Our Malaysian ISP is always having problems with international websites and they are good at blaming circuit faults. Why is only Malaysia affected? Why is only TM Net affected? Few weeks ago I can hardly even access my own blog site to do updates but now, at least I can access but downloading any files from server that is hosted out of Malaysia is terribly slow. Luckily I got a cheap hosting in Malaysia with a lot of bandwidth and I installed RapidLeech to download files for me.

Downloading email is another big headache. My wife has her own email account with own personal domain name and the email server is hosted in US. Whenever she sync or hit the Send and Receive button in Windows Live Mail or Outlook Express, she’ll definitely get the popup window that says “Your POP3 server has not responded in 60 seconds. Would you like to wait another 60 seconds for the server to respond?”

Usually I’ll just ask her to click the Wait button but she’ll end up clicking the wait button many times. If she’s lucky, the download of email starts but if not, she’ll continue clicking it. Unfortunately this happens ALL THE TIME and I had to figure out a solution for her.


This email timeout problem usually happens if you have a very unstable or slow internet connection and is trying to download an email attachment that is very large in size.

First, you can configure your email client such as Outlook Express or Windows Live Mail to have longer period of server timeouts instead of the default 1 minute.

1. Click Tools from the menu bar and select Accounts.
2. Select the email account that is having the timeout problems in the list and click Properties.
3. Go to Advanced tab and drag the slider for Serer Timeouts. The highest is 5 minutes.

4. Click OK and Close.

Now if your email client is still unable to start downloading after 5 minutes, you should check your email from webmail. You should consult your company administrator if they have a webmail access, if not, you can use Mail2Web. Before that, you will need to know your email account server’s information such as your login name, password and pop3 server. The easiest way to get all that information is by using Nirsoft’s Mail PassView. It is able to extract all email information that is saved in your email client that is installed on your computer. Do take note that an antivirus might flag Mail PassView as a threat. This is normal because this is a password recovery tool and I assure you that it is absolutely safe if you downloaded it from Nirsoft’s website.

After download, extract and run mailpv.exe. Note down the Server, Type, User and Password displayed in the list. Now go to http://www.mail2web.com and click Advanced Login once the page has finished loading. Enter the email information that you’ve noted just now and click Check Mail.

Now you should see all your emails. Go ahead and download the large attachments, then delete the email from mail2web so that it won’t timeout the next time when you sync your email using Windows Live Mail. To prevent this problem from happening in future, I’ve transferred my wife’s domain name to a Malaysia server.

Here’s another computer problem that abhiram was experiencing in his Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browser. When trying to view a video in YouTube, the video wouldn’t play properly. It’d either have no sound or completely stop after playing for a few seconds. It could only be 2 possibility and that is his unstable internet connection or flash player since YouTube uses flash player to stream videos. He confirmed that the problem on appears in Chrome and Firefox but worked perfectly in Internet Explorer browser.

Immediately this tells us that his flash player is either corrupted or he is using an outdated version of flash which doesn’t support YouTube or not compatible with Chrome/Firefox. The solution to fix this problem is to uninstall the currently installed flash player, download the latest version and then install it.


Instead of uninstalling flash player from Control Panel, I’d suggest you to use the official uninstaller provided by Adobe. There are four versions of Adobe Flash Player uninstaller, each designed for the appropriate operating system. Before running the uninstaller, make sure you’ve closed all your web browsers and also instant messengers such as Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger because the uninstaller cannot remove files currently in use. Click Yes when asked to confirm if you want to uninstall Adobe Flash Player and click Close.

Windows: uninstall_flash_player.exe

Mac OS X, version 10.3 and above: uninstall_flash_player_osx.dmg

Mac OS X, version 10.2 and below: uninstall_flash_player_osx_10.2.dmg

Mac OS 8.x, 9.x: uninstall_flash_player.hqx

Once you’ve finished uninstalling Adobe Flash Player, now download the latest version of Flash Player from the link below.
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
This page will automatically detect what operating system are you on and what browser are you trying to install the latest Flash Player. When the download has completed, again close any web browser and instant messenger that is running, then only run the installer.

Now you should have no problems in viewing videos that requires Flash Player. If it still didn’t work, just restart your computer after the flash update.

There are many programs that can provide you with some information about your CPU.
However, not all of them can identify a duly wide range of CPUs, discover all of their capabilities.
Meanwhile, such information could be extremely necessary and useful.
Today I decided to have a closer look at the program, which I consider one of the best in its class!


It called CPU-Z. And it will give you comprehensive information on your CPU, as well as chipset, memory, and AGP!
CPU-Z is a freeware that gathers information on some of the main devices of your system.

CPU
-Name and number.
-Core stepping and process.
-Package.
-Core voltage.
-Internal and external clocks, clock multiplier.
-Supported instructions sets.
-All cache levels (location, size, speed, technology).

Mainboard
-Vendor, model and revision.
-BIOS model and date.
-Chipset (northbridge and southbridge) and sensor.
-Graphic interface.

Memory
-Frequency and timings.
-Module(s) specification using SPD (Serial Presence Detect) : vendor, serial number, timings table.

System
-Windows and DirectX version.

3 Pros for this piece of software:
1. Broad range of information provided
2. Quite comfortable interface.
3. Small size.

[ Download CPU-Z ]