Category: Computer

  • Latest Hiren’s BootCD v8.7 – The KING of all BootCDs updated

    Here’s the latest best BootCD that an administrator, engineer or technician can have! Hiren’s BootCD v8.7! It contains a lot, I mean really A LOT of useful utilities to help you repair a computer. From hardware diagnosing to virus cleaning. It’s all in there…


    UPDATED (15 applications):
    1. Partition Saving 3.30
    A tool to backup/restore partitions. (SavePart.exe)

    2. F-Prot Antivirus 3.16f (3012)
    Very good virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu)

    3. McAfee Antivirus 4.40 (3012)
    a virus scanner (with ntfs support and easy to use menu)

    4. PCI and AGP info Tool (3012)
    The PCI System information & Exploration tool

    5. Astra 5.30
    Advanced System info Tool and Reporting Assistant

    6. Dos Navigator 6.4.0
    Dos File Manager, Norton Commander clone but has much more features

    7. Universal TCP/IP Network 5.9.3
    MSDOS Network Client to connect via TCP/IP to a Microsoft based network. The network can either be a peer-to-peer or a server based network, it contains 91 different network card drivers

    8. Autoruns 8.54
    Displays All the entries from startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys, Explorer shell extensions,toolbars, browser helper objects, Winlogon notifications, auto-start services, Scheduled Tasks, Winsock, LSA Providers, Remove Drivers and much more which helps to remove nasty spyware/adware and viruses.

    9. Unknown Devices 1.2 (3012)
    helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are

    10. PCI 32 Sniffer 1.1 (3012)
    device information tool (similar to unknown devices)

    11. CPU-Z 1.38
    It gathers information on some of the main devices of your system

    12. CCleaner 1.36.430
    Crap Cleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool

    13. Spybot – Search & Destroy 1.4 (3012)
    Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software

    14. SpywareBlaster 3.5.1 (3012)
    Prevent the installation of spyware and other potentially unwanted software

    15. Ad-Aware SE Personal 1.06 (3012)
    find and remove spyware, adware, dialers etc. (a must have tool)

    I’ve only listed what has been updated since v8.6. For full list of tools in Hiren’s BootCD, please visit the official site here. I’ve updated the link below to the latest Hiren’s BootCD v9.6.

    [ Download Hiren’s BootCD v9.6 ]

  • Boost Disk Drive Performance In Windows Vista

    Speed up hard disk performanceHere’s a quick tip for Windows Vista on how you can boost your hard disk drive performance. It is not enabled by default because there’s a risk of loosing your data if the disk loses power. Meaning do NOT enable this option if you don’t have a battery backup (UPS). If you’re using laptop, then enabling this option wouldn’t pose any risk since there’s a battery attached on every laptop.

    Simply follow the steps below on how to boost your disk drive performance.


    1. Go to Start, Control Panel -> Device Manager.

    2. Expand Disk Drives.

    3. Right-click on your hard disk drive and select Properties.
    Improve hard disk performance

    4. On the Policies tab, check Enable Advanced Performance.
    Enable Advanced Performance in Vista

    5. Click OK and close Device Manager.

    This option only available in Windows Vista. I’ve checked Windows XP and there’s no such option.

  • Step-By-Step on How To Download, Install and Activate Windows 7 Beta Without Messing Currently Installed OS and Dual-Boot

    I bet you’d have heard about Windows 7 by now, the next release of Windows operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers. Few days ago Microsoft released Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 to public and allowing everyone to download the ISO image and test it out. The word BETA means it is tested for bugs, crashes, errors, inconsistencies, and any other problems before releasing it out to the public as stable version. There are 3 situations that I’d never use a BETA and that is an operating system, patches/updates and security software (antivirus and firewall)
    Download Windows 7
    Until today I was never satisfied with Windows Vista, so I was curious to test out Windows 7 and see if it could be as good as Windows XP. I don’t want to mess around with the master boot records to create a dual boot and also re-partitioning my hard drive for extra space to install Windows 7. The best way is to test drive Windows 7 in a virtual environment. Today I will show you step by step on where to download Windows 7, how to get Windows 7 product key for activation and how to install it on VirtualBox so you can mess around with it. I chose VirtualBox because it’s free and also much easier to use compared to other virtualization software.


    Before you start, please make sure that your computer is faster than 1 GHz processor and has more than 1 GB of system memory to install and run Windows 7 Ultimate.

    Where To Download Windows 7 Beta Build 7000

  • Windows 7 Beta 32-bit ISO (English): 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso
  • Windows 7 Beta 64-bit ISO (English): 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULXFRE_EN_DVD.ISO
  • If you’re not sure which one to download, just get the first one Windows 7 32-bit ISO (English).

    Obtain genuine Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 Product Key
    1. Go to Microsoft TechNet website

    2. Click Sign In link which is located at the top right corner of the website.

    3. Sign in with your Windows Live ID. Login with your Hotmail account will do.

    4. Copy the URL below and paste it to the web browser that you used to login to Microsoft TechNet.

    https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/scripts/gcs.aspx?Product=tn-win7-64-ww&LCID=1033

    5. Windows 7 product key will be displayed.
    Windows 7 Product Key

    Download, Install and Configure VirtualBox for Windows 7 Installation
    1. Download and install VirtualBox.

    2. Run VirtualBox and click New button.
    Install Windows 7
    3. Click Next

    4. Enter the name as Windows7, select Operating System as Microsoft Windows and select Other Windows for Versions.

    5. Depending on how much RAM is on your computer. My computer has 2GB and I could only set 1018MB. The Next button will be inaccessible if I set more than that value. Try setting as high as possible so that running and installing Windows 7 would be faster.

    6. Click New button to create a virtual hard disk.
    Download Windows 7

    7. Click Next

    8. Select “Dynamically expanding storage” and click Next.

    9. Select the size of the virtual hard disk. I set is as 10GB but if you can set it higher if you have more to spare.
    Windows 7 hard disk space requirement

    10. Click Finish and you’ll be brought back to Virtual Hard Disk. Click Next.

    11. Click Finish.

    12. Make sure that Windows7 is selected at VirtualBox and click Settings button.
    Configure Windows 7 at VirtualBox

    13. Go to CD/DVD-ROM, check “Mount CD/DVD Drive” and select ISO Image File. Click the small folder icon.
    Mount Windows 7 ISO

    14. Virtual Media Manager window will appear. Click Add button and browse for the Windows7 ISO file that you downloaded and click Open. Click Select.
    Select Windows 7 ISO File

    15. Now you’re back to the Settings to configure the options for Windows7. Click Network.

    16. Make sure that “Enable Network Adapter” is checked. Click on Adapter Type drop down box and select Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM). Windows 7 doesn’t include drivers for PCnet-Fast III.
    Intel PRO 1000MT Desktop Network for Windows 7

    17. Click OK to close the VirtualBox Settings for Windows7.

    Install Windows 7 Beta Build 7000 on VirtualBox
    1. Make sure that Windows7 is selected at VirtualBox and click Start button. You will see a bar saying Windows is loading files.
    Install Windows 7

    2. When it has finished loading the required files, you can select the language to install, time and currency format and keyboard or input method. Click Next when done.
    Install Windows 7

    3. Click Install now

    4. Check “I accept the license terms” and click Next.

    5. Select Custom (advanced).
    Install Windows 7

    6. Select the drive that you created from VirtualBox and click Next. Windows 7 setup will start copying files, expanding files, installing features, installing updates and completing installation.
    Install Windows 7

    7. Enter your user name, computer name and click Next.

    8. Enter your password and hint.

    9. Enter the 25-digit Windows 7 Product Key that you got earlier and click Next.
    Install Windows 7

    10. Select “Ask me later

    11. Review the time and date settings. If it is correct, click Next.

    12. Windows 7 will now finalize your settings and voila! You have Windows 7 running in VirtualBox.
    Install Windows 7

    The Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) installs Ultimate Edition by default. When you activate the Windows 7 product key, it will allow you to continue using until August 1, 2009. Not sure what will happen next but most probably you’ll need to upgrade to a later beta version of Windows 7.

    The first thing I noticed about Windows 7 is the fish wallpaper. I wonder why… Then I tried looking for a way to change the Start Menu to classic but was unable to. Seems like Microsoft is not planning on having a Classic Mode that lets you switch back to the old interface. The bad thing about it is people like me will have to try to get use to the new interface, menus and etc, but at least they’re setting a standard so that it won’t be so confusing.

  • View Any Files with Universal Viewer (ATViewer)

    I always like to use program that can do everything rather than installing two or more separate programs that does the same thing just because they used different type of technology with the same function. For example, you can’t use WinZip v10 to open RAR files. They had to wait till version 11 to support reading RAR and BZ2 files. That’s why I chose PowerArchiver.

    Back to the story… Viewing files can be a pain since there are SO MANY types of extensions and softwares available. What if you can view all types of images, text, media, internet files and RTF files by using only ONE program?


    Universal Viewer (ATViewer) is an advanced file viewer with wide range of formats supported. Implemented view modes and corresponding file formats are:

      * Text/Binary/Hex/Unicode: all files, with unlimited file size (even 4Gb+ sizes are allowed);
      * RTF/UTF-8: RTF and UTF-8 encoded texts;
      * Image: all general graphics formats: BMP JPG GIF PNG TGA TIFF etc;
      * Multimedia: all formats supported by MS Window Media Player: AVI MPG WMV MP3 MIDI etc;
      * Internet: all formats supported by MS Internet Explorer: HTML XML DOC XLS etc;
      * Plugins: all formats supported by Total Commander Lister plugins.

    View any types of files for free
    The Viewer is fully Unicode compatible and can be integrated into Windows Explorer’s context menu, so there is no problem to call it from anywhere in Explorer: right-click on a file and select “Universal Viewer” item. It can also be integrated into file managers that can pass to Viewer filenames via the command-line: in this case filename should be passed as first command parameter.

    Some files can’t be read if you don’t install the main program. For example, you’ll need to install Microsoft Word to read .doc files. I know it doesn’t make sense to have Microsoft Word installed but not using it to read .doc files. That’s why there is something called “Lister plugins” which you can use load it to Universal Viewer and it will then support reading the respective extensions.

    It’s free, open source and only 750KB in size. Might be useful to you if you’re like me who constantly need to handle many types of files.

    [ Download Universal Viewer (ATViewer) ]

  • Recover Deleted Files or Folders in Windows Vista

    The title of this article explains it all! DataRecovery is freeware and written by TOKIWA(a japanese) to undelete accidentally deleted files even from recycle bin. This might not be the BEST data recovery software but it’s one of the few that works on Windows Vista and it’s FREE. Only 3 steps is required to recover deleted files from Windows.


    1. Click on the drive that you want to scan for deleted files
    2. Click on Scan Files button and wait…
    3. You can wipe the file completely to prevent from recovery by using the Wipe button OR you can recover the deleted file by clicking the Recovery button.
    Recover Files in Windows Vista

    Features of DataRecovery:
    * FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS undeletion
    * undelete NTFS compressed files
    * undelete EFS encrypted files
    * wipe out deleted files never to be recovered again
    * Able to run from floppy disk
    * search by partial string in the file name
    * undelete whole files in a directory
    * undelete multiple files by selecting them with Shift/Ctrl key
    * sort items displayed by clicking column headers
    * neither installation nor DLLs is needed
    * Windows Vista supported (The wipe function won’t work on Windows Vista due to Windows Vista built-in file protection)

    What I like about this Data Recovery freeware is it’s an ongoing project. A lot of freewares gone outdated because the author doesn’t bother to update them since they are not making money out of it or they’re busy with their personal life or other projects. So an ongoing project is a good sign since the author will constantly fix bugs and implement new features to make it better.

    Important Note: Always install the data recovery program on another hard drive or USB flash drive and also when you’ve selected the file to recover, make sure you DON’T save it on the same drive because there is a chance that it’ll overwrite it before you can completely recover the file.

    [ Download DataRecovery 2.3.1.2 ]

  • Recover and copy files from scratched or damaged media

    This data recovery software is free and developed by a Russian named Ivan Komlev. It features a friendly user interface and only three steps required to copy files from damaged CD.

      1. Choose source drive
      2. Selecting destination drive and folder
      3. Copy files automatically.

    Dead Disk Doctor – allows copying files from scratched or damaged CD, DVD disks, unreadable Floppy and Hard Drives or other media. It replaces lost data with random bytes reading files by expandable blocks. (Click on image to enlarge)
    Data Recovery

    This software reads file by 4-16kb blocks and when hardware involves errors, the size of block decrease two times and so on until the moment when block of data will be read without any errors, or it reach minimum read size block, depending on file system, then program fills one block with random data and starts to read second one. After successfully reading data, block size increase two times again and again to reach maximum size.

    I believe the text above is being translated directly from Russian to English. Whole paragraph seems a little blur to me and I find it hard to understand. From what I understand, this software will try to read the damaged media block and copy it to the specified location. For the block that is unreadable, it will replace with random data. Usually when you try to play a scratched CD, your CD player will be jumping from one track to another or will hang if it’s badly damaged. This software lets you create a new CD out of the damaged CD, so you can still play it.

    The Dead Disk Doctor website says that this freeware “works excellent with Video or Audio files“. From logic, I think that’s true because you can skip a few seconds in video or audio files and you can still play it. As for data, if any part of the bytes are being replaced by random data, it will definitely corrupt the data.

    Another good news is Dead Disk Doctor works on Intel Pentium 133Mhz or equivalent supporting Windows 9x/NT/2000/XP or higher with only 32Mb RAM and 7Mb free disk space on hard drive for installation. Of course you’ll be needing more disk space to recover and copy your dead disc data to your hard drive.

    [ Download Dead Disk Doctor v1.23 ]

  • Prevent Your Full Name from Displaying on Windows Live Messenger 2011

    On the older versions of Windows Live Messenger, you get to see a lot of interesting fancy names on your contact list. However logging in to the latest Windows Live Messenger 2011 today shows a lot of “real” names on the contact list rather than nick names. If you haven’t noticed, you can no longer find an option to change your display name as you want others to see it on Windows Live Messenger 2011. That is because the developing team has decided to remove it and make it to show your first name and last name that is set on your Hotmail or Live ID profile. To me, Windows Live Messenger is used for chatting with friends or probably with people that you are not so familiar with and there is no reason for them to know both my first and last name so that they can “Google” me.

    I read somewhere on the Internet that it is possible to change your display name in online messengers. I spent hours testing the possibility of changing the display name with Meebo, eBuddy, ILoveIM and they are able to do that but somehow connecting back to Windows Live Messenger 2011 will revert the display name to show your first name and last name. I can only think of 4 options to prevent your real first name and last name from displaying on Windows Live Messenger 2011.


    The first method is if you would like to continue using Windows Live Messenger 2011. Sign in to Windows Live Messenger 2011, click on your display name, select “Edit your name” which will open the default web browser asking you to log in to your Windows Live ID and then you get to can change your first name and last name. Do note that changing that would make all outgoing emails to reflect the changed name.

    The second method is to downgrade and use Windows Live Messenger 2009. I have written a tutorial on how to do that.

    As for the third method, use only online messengers such as Meebo, eBuddy or ILoveIM.

    As for the final method, use a Windows Live Messenger clone called aMSN.

    I’ve also tested A-Patch, Messenger Plus! and MessengerDiscovery but none of them is able to change the Display Name at Windows Live Messenger 2011.

  • Parsing PHP in HTML or HTM Files

    I have a client with thousands of HTML files with contact form embedded to it. However it doesn’t have CAPTCHA function to prevent spam. A CAPTCHA (an acronym for “Completely Automatic Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart”) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human. An example of CAPTCHA is like the image below. The numbers and letters are random each time you refresh the page.
    Captcha on HTML

    Now my client’s inbox is exploded with hundreds of spam emails everyday. To fix this problem, I have to include a new CAPTCHA function into the HTML files. Problem is, can HTML files parse PHP? Usually if you want to parse PHP codes, it will have to be .php extension for the webserver to identify that it’s a PHP file. So after added the CAPTCHA function, I have to rename all thousands of HTML files to PHP extension.

    Thankfully I can save all the trouble of renaming thousands of HTML files to PHP by editing the .htaccess file. Here’s how I did it to parse PHP in HTML or HTM files.


    Go to your WWW root, usually it looks like this:
    path: /home/username/public_html

    Look for the file named .htaccess. If it’s not there, create a blank page using NotePad and save it as .htaccess

    Now edit this file by adding the following lines:

    RemoveHandler .html .htm
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .htm .html

    Save and close the .htaccess file. Upload it to your webserver (to your WWW root) and that’s it! Now your webserver will parse PHP codes even in HTML files!

  • Mess Patch for Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0787

    And here it is, the latest Mess Patch for Windows Live Messenger! This is probably our best release so far, with a couple of cool new *original!* features, improvements and comebacks. With a total of 76 messy options you will not be disappointed, and just look at that changelog for Mess Patch 8.0.0787 Generation 4:
    Mess Patch for Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0787

    – Added “Translucent Dashboard” option (Mess Patch Original, check out the screenshot below).
    – Added new “Add Personal Settings Button To Upper Panel” option (Mess Patch Original).
    – Re-added “Switch Tabs To Right Side” (Mess Patch Original).
    – Lots of you are gonna enjoy hearing this: Patching Messenger doesn’t stop you from sharing folders anymore.
    Enhanced auto-update feature: The downloading process is done through the patch itself.
    – Fixed multi-line nicknames feature, now fully compatible with the yet to be released Messenger Plus! Live (the “Formatting Codes” button appears properly).
    – Fixed “Remove Bottom Text Advertisement” option, now removes the advertising space as well (as requested by Pure_BY).
    – Detects if there are any backups and offers to restore them before patching.
    – Detects if Windows OneCare Live is installed and shows a warning to the user.


    Mess Patch for Windows Live Messenger 8.0.0787

    Although Windows Live Messenger is now final and it’ll take a while before we see another update, authors of Mess Patch will keep developing Mess Patch.

    [ Download Mess Patch 8.0.0787 – Generation 4 ]

  • Lightweight Universal Windows Live Messenger Patcher

    I found a very small and lightweight universal patcher for the new Windows Live Messenger called WLM Universal Patcher ++ v0.9.1. It’s specially useful for those people who doesn’t want to mess around with their Windows Live Messenger too much with those fully featured Mess Patch or A-Patch that contains hundreds of tweaks.
    Windows Live Messenger Patcher

    The graphical user interface is very simple and no installation needed. Its only 148KB in size and it enables you to patch 6 main Windows Live Messenger restrictions.
    They are:

      1. Multiple Login (You can run multiple Windows Live Messenger)
      2. Banner Ads (Remove bottom banner Ads)
      3. Tabs
      4. Ad Bar
      5. MSN Search
      6. Actions Pane

    This universal windows live messenger patcher is ONLY for Windows Live Messenger. Please do not use it if you’re still using the old MSN Messenger 7.5. The meaning of “universal” for this patcher is probably able to patch all versions of Windows Live Messenger.

    [ Download WLM Universal Patcher ++ v0.9.1 ]

  • Latest Windows Live Messenger v8.1.0178 + Mess Patch

    Windows Live Messenger v8.1.0178 final is out!
    Mess Patch for Windows Live Messenger
    A few beta testers from mess.be, Ryan “Trunten” Weber, anonymouse91 & Timothy were among the 3009 testers who received an e-mail announcing the conclusion of the Windows Live Messenger 8.1 Beta. 1010 bugs and 456 suggestions were submitted since the beta started on September 7th 2006. The integrated Windows Live Call feature has been updated from 1.1.154.0 to 1.1.161.0.


    You won’t see much changes on the interface, but make sure you install this latest version of Windows Live Messenger for better compatibility and stability.

    And of course, it didn’t take a lot of time for Mess.be to update their Mess Patch to use with the latest Windows Live Messenger. There are dozens and dozens of options in Mess Patch but I only use it to remove advertisements, “Disable Nudge Protection” (so I can nudge the hell outta my friends *grins*) and also disable “Nudge Window Shaking” so that I won’t feel a thing when I get nudge bomb!

    Another alternative to Mess Patch is A-Patch. I checked the official A-Patch website and the author haven’t update it to patch the latest Windows Live Messenger. I’ll keep you up to date on this. Once it’s out, I’ll post the download link for A-Patch.

    [ Download Windows Live Messenger v8.1 | Mess Patch ]

  • Hack to turn your Windows Home Edition CD into Professional Edition

    I found this hack from Technipages and I think it’s pretty cool. It enables the features found in Windows XP Professional on your Windows XP Home Edition installation with this hack. It will allow you to turn your Windows XP Home CD into a Windows XP Professional CD. Now Microsoft is going to be pissed about this! LOL!
    Hack Windows XP Home to Pro


    Follow the steps below on how to turn your Windows XP Home edition CD to professional!

    Note: If your Windows XP CD does not contain Service Pack 2, you might want to Slipstream Your Windows XP CD first as you will not be able to upgrade an installation after using the CD.

    1. Copy the root directory and the i386 directory of the WindowsXP CD to your hard drive.

    2. Extract the Bootsector of your Windows XP CD. You can use BBIE to do this.

    3. Click START–>RUN–>REGEDIT

    4. Highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE

    5. Click FILE–>LOAD HIVE and select the Setupreg.hiv file
    This file is located in the i386 folder. Use the one you extracted to your hard drive from your Windows XP CD.

    6. Locate the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd

    7. Edit the DEFAULT key and change the following values:

    01 to 00
    02 to 00

    8. Change the name to the value HOMEKEY to anything.

    9. Locate the following registry key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Homekey\ControlSet001\Services\setupdd

    Edit the DEFAULT key and change the following values:

    01 to 00
    02 to 00

    10. Highlight HOMEKEY and select FILE–>UNLOAD HIVE

    You can now burn the data on your hard drive to a CD to make a new Windows XP CD. Then use the CD to install Windows XP. Be sure to make the CD bootable. You can use the instructions here to help you do that.
    The weird thing is your Windows XP Home serial will still be valid.

  • Google, the KING of free and HIDDEN services?

    When someone says Google, I think at least 60%-70% of people reply that it’s a “Search Engine”. Do you know that Google has so much thing going on that we don’t even know it exist? Google has the ability to search for images, news, blogs, music, video, maps, products, answers, notebook, linux, apple, movies, definitions and the list goes on…

    One thing I don’t understand is why when we visit Google’s URL (www.google.com), we only see a very simple and clean search page instead of a full featured page like Yahoo? At least now it’s much better with a navigation bar where it shows Web, Images, Video, News, Maps, Gmail and more but it’s still NOT complete.
    Google free stuff
    Here’s a quote taken from Don Norman’s “The Truth About Google’s Simplicity“.

    Why are Yahoo! and MSN such complex-looking places? Because their systems are easier to use. Not because they are complex, but because they simplify the life of their users by letting them see their choices on the home page: news, alternative searches, other items of interest. Yahoo! even has an excellent personalization page, so you can choose what you wish to see on that first page.

    Take another careful look at Google’s front page. Want a map? You have to click once to be offered the choice, then a second additional time to get to the map page. Want to use Google Scholar to check references? Um, well, is that “Advanced Search” or “more.” What about their newly announced blog search? Why is Google maps separate from Google Earth? (Oh, those were purchased from different companies. Yes, but why should I, the user, care about the history of Google’s acquisitions?)

    Anyway, continue reading to check out the list of free and hidden services offered by google in ONE page.


    Simply Google has created a page that includes every Google hidden feature.
    List of google free services

    Chris McEvoy created the original Simply Google but the latest updated version is at the link below. It has more links compared to the original version.

    If your web browser’s start page is Google.com, you might want to change it to Simply Google because it’s more complete than the original and simple Google.com page.

    [ Visit Simply Google ]

  • Free USB Safely Remove 4.7.1 Lifetime License Giveaway

    Thanks to paf, I got to know about Crystal Rich Ltd, the company that develops USB Safely Remove has started another round giveaway which will be ending in just 24 more hours. They seem to organize giveaways quite frequently and the free license that they’re giving away to everyone that requests for it only works on the current version 4.7. The registration code will not work on any future versions nor older previous versions. I’ve tried entering the 4.7 registration code on USB Safely Remove 4.1 but was rejected with the error license information is not valid. I guess that is not a big issue since they do giveaways every year.

    USB Safely Remove 4.7.1

    The last time I reviewed USB Safely Remove was 2 years ago and back then it was version 4.1 with the famous “Return Device Back!” feature. If you go to the Releases category at their blog, you would notice that so many improvements has been made to the program which makes it so solid today. If you don’t know what is the USB Safely Remove software all about, it is basically a replacement for the “Safely Remove Hardware” in Windows with a lot of useful features.


    You can read more about what USB Safely Remove can do from the official Feature webpage but I suggest you to request for the free license first, then only read because the feature page contains more than a thousand words!

    To get your free USB Safely Remove 4.7.1 lifetime license:

    1. Visit http://safelyremove.com/giveawaygaotd11.htm

    2. Enter your full name (requires first and last name), email address and click the “I want the license” button.

    3. Check your email and note down the registration name and registration code.

    4. Download USB Safely Remove 4.7 and install.

    5. To register the program, go to Help > Enter License Key… and enter your registration name and registration code.

    This is a free lifetime license for USB Safely Remove 4.7. You can continue using it but won’t be entitled for update, downgrade and technical support.

    Other than the very useful Return Device Back feature that I like very much, another feature which I personally think that is useful is the ability to power off drives on stopping in Vista & Win 7. In Window Vista and Windows 7, the drive would continue spinning and the flash drive continue lighting even though it has been stopped. This does not happen in Windows XP. USB Safely Remove is able to change this behavior and make the system power down USB ports. Running USB Safely Remove for the first time would prompt you this option, or you can manually enable/disable this from Options > General > Power off the device after device stopping.

  • Fix or Restore Broken .EXE .LNK .COM Association Caused by Virus

    One of my friend called me the other day and told me that she has a problem with her laptop. When I asked her to try to explain the problem, she said she couldn’t run any programs from her desktop. Then I ask her to try running any shortcuts from start menu, and still the same problem. She said maybe virus deleted all her programs but I doubt that because if a virus is able to delete all her programs, it should delete Windows as well and made it unbootable. I find this problem interesting and I went to check on her laptop.

    First thing I see after Windows being booted up is a lot of popup windows with the error message “Windows cannot open this file: Adobe Acrobat Speed Launcher.lnk. To open this file, Windows needs to know what program created it. Windows can go online to look it up automatically, or you can manually select from a list of programs on your computer.
    Windows cannot open this file
    This error means that Windows couldn’t find the program where the shortcut is pointing to. Either the program has been deleted or there is something wrong with the association. I check Program Files and all programs are still there.

    Immediately I know that the LNK file association is broken and the place to confirm this problem is the Registry. I go to Start, Run and type regedit, again I got the error popup window saying Windows cannot open this file: regedit.exe. I even tried to run regedit.exe directly from C:\Windows and also got the same error message. Looks like .EXE association is broken too! Finally I found out that almost all file association can’t work. I can’t run anything from her laptop. So how do you fix a computer with broken association when you can’t run anything?


    In short, all EXE files including CMD, Regedit, MSCONFIG are inoperative. LNK shortcuts also doesn’t work, which means desktop icons, quick launch icons, start menus all don’t work. Those nice icon images are no longer being displayed as you only get the standard unrecognized file type icon that look like the image below.
    Unrecognized file type icon
    There are registry files that is able to fix .COM .LNK .EXE and other extension associations but the problem is if .REG association is also broken, you won’t be able to import the reg file to Windows registry.

    The most important extension to fix is of course the .EXE extension. Once you have the .EXE extension fixed, you are able to run registry editor and other tools to start fixing other broken extensions. Here’s how to fix .EXE extension.

    1. Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC simultaneously and it will bring up Windows Task Manager

    2. Click File menu and move the mouse cursor over to New Task (Run…)
    Run command prompt from task manager

    3. Press and hold the CTRL button and click at the New Task (Run…)

    4. Command prompt will appear.

    5. Type assoc.exe=exefile and hit enter.
    fix exe association assoc.exe=exefile

    That would fix the EXE extension. You can now run any executable file.

    Here is a list of other file extensions that you might want to restore. I recommend you to restore whatever you need and not all at once.

    assoc.323=h323file
    assoc.386=vxdfile
    assoc.aca=Agent.Character.2
    assoc.acf=Agent.Character.2
    assoc.acs=Agent.Character2.2
    assoc.acw=acwfile
    assoc.ai=
    assoc.aif=AIFFFile
    assoc.aifc=AIFFFile
    assoc.aiff=AIFFFile
    assoc.ani=anifile
    assoc.aps=
    assoc.asa=aspfile
    assoc.ascx=
    assoc.asf=ASFFile
    assoc.asm=
    assoc.asmx=
    assoc.asp=aspfile
    assoc.aspx=
    assoc.asx=ASXFile
    assoc.au=AUFile
    assoc.AudioCD=AudioCD
    assoc.avi=avifile
    assoc.bat=batfile
    assoc.bfc=Briefcase
    assoc.bin=
    assoc.bkf=msbackupfile
    assoc.blg=PerfFile
    assoc.bmp=Paint.Picture
    assoc.bsc=
    assoc.c=
    assoc.cab=CLSID\{0CD7A5C0-9F37-11CE-AE65-08002B2E1262}
    assoc.cat=CATFile
    assoc.cda=CDAFile
    assoc.cdf=ChannelFile
    assoc.cdx=aspfile
    assoc.cer=CERFile
    assoc.cgm=
    assoc.chk=chkfile
    assoc.chm=chm.file
    assoc.clp=clpfile
    assoc.cmd=cmdfile
    assoc.cnf=ConferenceLink
    assoc.com=comfile
    assoc.cpl=cplfile
    assoc.cpp=
    assoc.crl=CRLFile
    assoc.crt=CERFile
    assoc.css=CSSfile
    assoc.csv=
    assoc.CTT=MessengerContactList
    assoc.cur=curfile
    assoc.cxx=
    assoc.dat=
    assoc.db=dbfile
    assoc.dbg=
    assoc.dct=
    assoc.def=
    assoc.der=CERFile
    assoc.DeskLink=CLSID\{9E56BE61-C50F-11CF-9A2C-00A0C90A90CE}
    assoc.dib=Paint.Picture
    assoc.dic=
    assoc.diz=
    assoc.dll=dllfile
    assoc.dl_=
    assoc.doc=WordPad.Document.1
    assoc.dos=
    assoc.dot=
    assoc.drv=drvfile
    assoc.dsn=MSDASQL
    assoc.dun=dunfile
    assoc.DVD=DVD
    assoc.emf=emffile
    assoc.eml=Microsoft Internet Mail Message
    assoc.eps=
    assoc.exe=exefile
    assoc.exp=
    assoc.ex_=
    assoc.eyb=
    assoc.fif=
    assoc.fnd=fndfile
    assoc.fnt=
    assoc.Folder=Folder
    assoc.fon=fonfile
    assoc.ghi=
    assoc.gif=giffile
    assoc.grp=MSProgramGroup
    assoc.gz=
    assoc.h=
    assoc.hhc=
    assoc.hlp=hlpfile
    assoc.hpp=
    assoc.hqx=
    assoc.ht=htfile
    assoc.hta=htafile
    assoc.htc=
    assoc.htm=htmlfile
    assoc.html=htmlfile
    assoc.htt=HTTfile
    assoc.htw=
    assoc.htx=
    assoc.hxx=
    assoc.icc=icmfile
    assoc.icm=icmfile
    assoc.ico=icofile
    assoc.idb=
    assoc.idl=
    assoc.idq=
    assoc.iii=iiifile
    assoc.ilk=
    assoc.imc=
    assoc.inc=
    assoc.inf=inffile
    assoc.ini=inifile
    assoc.ins=x-internet-signup
    assoc.inv=
    assoc.inx=
    assoc.in_=
    assoc.isp=x-internet-signup
    assoc.its=ITS File
    assoc.IVF=IVFFile
    assoc.java=
    assoc.jbf=
    assoc.jfif=pjpegfile
    assoc.job=JobObject
    assoc.jod=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0
    assoc.jpe=jpegfile
    assoc.jpeg=jpegfile
    assoc.jpg=jpegfile
    assoc.JS=JSFile
    assoc.JSE=JSEFile
    assoc.latex=
    assoc.lib=
    assoc.lnk=lnkfile
    assoc.local=
    assoc.log=txtfile
    assoc.lwv=LWVFile
    assoc.m14=
    assoc.m1v=mpegfile
    assoc.m3u=m3ufile
    assoc.man=
    assoc.manifest=
    assoc.MAPIMail=CLSID\{9E56BE60-C50F-11CF-9A2C-00A0C90A90CE}
    assoc.mdb=
    assoc.mht=mhtmlfile
    assoc.mhtml=mhtmlfile
    assoc.mid=midfile
    assoc.midi=midfile
    assoc.mmf=
    assoc.mmm=MPlayer
    assoc.mov=
    assoc.movie=
    assoc.mp2=mpegfile
    assoc.mp2v=mpegfile
    assoc.mp3=mp3file
    assoc.mpa=mpegfile
    assoc.mpe=mpegfile
    assoc.mpeg=mpegfile
    assoc.mpg=mpegfile
    assoc.mpv2=mpegfile
    assoc.msc=MSCFile
    assoc.msg=
    assoc.msi=Msi.Package
    assoc.msp=Msi.Patch
    assoc.MsRcIncident=MsRcIncident
    assoc.msstyles=msstylesfile
    assoc.MSWMM=Windows.Movie.Maker
    assoc.mv=
    assoc.mydocs=CLSID\{ECF03A32-103D-11d2-854D-006008059367}
    assoc.ncb=
    assoc.nfo=MSInfo.Document
    assoc.nls=
    assoc.NMW=T126_Whiteboard
    assoc.nsc=
    assoc.nvr=
    assoc.nws=Microsoft Internet News Message
    assoc.obj=
    assoc.ocx=ocxfile
    assoc.oc_=
    assoc.odc=
    assoc.otf=otffile
    assoc.p10=P10File
    assoc.p12=PFXFile
    assoc.p7b=SPCFile
    assoc.p7c=certificate_wab_auto_file
    assoc.p7m=P7MFile
    assoc.p7r=SPCFile
    assoc.p7s=P7SFile
    assoc.pbk=pbkfile
    assoc.pch=
    assoc.pdb=
    assoc.pds=
    assoc.pfm=pfmfile
    assoc.pfx=PFXFile
    assoc.php3=
    assoc.pic=
    assoc.pif=piffile
    assoc.pko=PKOFile
    assoc.pl=
    assoc.plg=
    assoc.pma=PerfFile
    assoc.pmc=PerfFile
    assoc.pml=PerfFile
    assoc.pmr=PerfFile
    assoc.pmw=PerfFile
    assoc.pnf=pnffile
    assoc.png=pngfile
    assoc.pot=
    assoc.pps=
    assoc.ppt=
    assoc.prf=prffile
    assoc.ps=
    assoc.psd=
    assoc.psw=PSWFile
    assoc.qds=SavedDsQuery
    assoc.rat=ratfile
    assoc.rc=
    assoc.RDP=RDP.File
    assoc.reg=regfile
    assoc.res=
    assoc.rle=
    assoc.rmi=midfile
    assoc.rnk=rnkfile
    assoc.rpc=
    assoc.rsp=
    assoc.rtf=rtffile
    assoc.sam=
    assoc.sbr=
    assoc.sc2=
    assoc.scf=SHCmdFile
    assoc.scp=txtfile
    assoc.scr=scrfile
    assoc.sct=scriptletfile
    assoc.sdb=appfixfile
    assoc.sed=
    assoc.shb=DocShortcut
    assoc.shs=ShellScrap
    assoc.shtml=
    assoc.shw=
    assoc.sit=
    assoc.snd=AUFile
    assoc.spc=SPCFile
    assoc.spl=ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash
    assoc.sql=
    assoc.sr_=
    assoc.sst=CertificateStoreFile
    assoc.stl=STLFile
    assoc.stm=
    assoc.swf=ShockwaveFlash.ShockwaveFlash
    assoc.sym=
    assoc.sys=sysfile
    assoc.sy_=
    assoc.tar=
    assoc.text=
    assoc.tgz=
    assoc.theme=themefile
    assoc.tif=TIFImage.Document
    assoc.tiff=TIFImage.Document
    assoc.tlb=
    assoc.tsp=
    assoc.tsv=
    assoc.ttc=ttcfile
    assoc.ttf=ttffile
    assoc.txt=txtfile
    assoc.UDL=MSDASC
    assoc.uls=ulsfile
    assoc.URL=InternetShortcut
    assoc.VBE=VBEFile
    assoc.vbs=VBSFile
    assoc.vbx=
    assoc.vcf=vcard_wab_auto_file
    assoc.vxd=vxdfile
    assoc.wab=wab_auto_file
    assoc.wav=soundrec
    assoc.wax=WAXFile
    assoc.wb2=
    assoc.webpnp=webpnpFile
    assoc.WHT=Whiteboard
    assoc.wk4=
    assoc.wll=
    assoc.wlt=
    assoc.wm=ASFFile
    assoc.wma=WMAFile
    assoc.wmd=WMDFile
    assoc.wmf=wmffile
    assoc.wmp=WMPFile
    assoc.wms=WMSFile
    assoc.wmv=WMVFile
    assoc.wmx=ASXFile
    assoc.wmz=WMZFile
    assoc.wpd=
    assoc.wpg=
    assoc.wri=wrifile
    assoc.wsc=scriptletfile
    assoc.WSF=WSFFile
    assoc.WSH=WSHFile
    assoc.wsz=
    assoc.wtx=txtfile
    assoc.wvx=WVXFile
    assoc.x=
    assoc.xbm=
    assoc.xix=
    assoc.xlb=
    assoc.xlc=
    assoc.xls=
    assoc.xlt=
    assoc.xml=xmlfile
    assoc.xsl=xslfile
    assoc.z=
    assoc.z96=
    assoc.zap=zapfile
    assoc.ZFSendToTarget=CLSID\{888DCA60-FC0A-11CF-8F0F-00C04FD7D062}
    assoc.zip=CompressedFolder

    After fixing the broken file association, the next thing I did was installed the FREE version of AVG anti-virus to scan and remove any existing virus. One thing you should know is Anti-Virus programs only good at removing virus from computer but it can’t restore the damage done by Virus.

    Doug Knox’s Windows XP File Association Fixes page helped me a lot when I was trying to fix the broken association.