10 Awesome Improvements For Desktop Users in Windows 8

It’s easy to focus on how Windows 8’s new interface doesn’t feel at home on a traditional desktop PC or laptop. But that’s only one part of Windows 8 – the Windows 8 desktop includes a variety of useful improvements.

If you’re a desktop user, you owe it to yourself to look over the improvements and consider upgrading. If Microsoft hadn’t removed the traditional Start menu and added a new interface, we’d all be considering Windows 8’s desktop an upgrade.

Boot Speed

Windows 8 uses some tricks to dramatically improve its boot speed. Some people have seen boot times drop from 30 to 15-20 seconds on existing hardware. Instead of shutting down normally, Windows 8 employs a clever trick – it saves the state of low-level software such as the kernel and hardware drivers to the disk and restores them when you boot it up. Essentially, Windows 8 “hibernates” low-level system software instead of shutting it down, resulting in greatly increased boot speeds.

New Windows 8 PCs using UEFI will also boot faster than systems using the old-style BIOS.

File Copying

File copying in Windows 8 is dramatically improved. The new file copy dialog allows you to pause file-copying operations, view multiple file-copying operations in the same window, and more easily manage file conflicts. The interface is simple by default, but you can also expand the dialog to view more information, including a graph of the file transfer’s speed over time.

Improved Multiple Monitor Support

For power uses with multiple monitors, windows 8 allows you to place separate taskbars and wallpapers on each monitor. Previously, this required third-party software.

Task Manager

The new Task Manager is a huge improvement over the old one. It features a Startup software manager that allows users to easily control the software that loads at startup. It’s also easier to understand at a glance, with color-coded resource usage columns and more human-readable program names. You can also quickly research a mysterious process online by right-clicking it and using the Search online option.

File Explorer Improvements

Windows Explorer has seen quite a few changes. For one, it’s now named File Explorer. While some users may dislike the new ribbon interface, it makes it easier to access powerful options like viewing hidden files without digging through menus and dialog boxes. You can also easily collapse the ribbon if you never want to see it.

There are also quite a few straight-up improvements, including the ability to mount ISO and VHD files by double-clicking them – no need to install any additional software. The Up button on the toolbar that was removed in Windows 7 is now back.

Storage Spaces

Storage Spaces is a power-user feature that allows you to combine multiple physical volumes into one logical volume. In other words, you can create a pool of storage from several physical hard disks. The storage pool will behave as if it were one hard disk.

Hyper V

Windows 8’s included Hyper-V feature allows you to create virtual machines out-of-the-box. Hyper-V was previously used on Windows Server and replaces the Windows Virtual PC virtualization solution used for Windows XP Mode on Windows 7. For example, you can use Hyper-V to install Ubuntu on a virtual machine without installing any third-party software.

Refresh and Reset

The ability to refresh your device to its factory state may seem like a tablet feature, but it isn’t. You can actually create your own system image and refresh Windows to it, quickly resetting Windows 8 to a fresh-installed state whenever you like. This can save you time when reinstalling Windows.

Battery Life

Low-level system changes, including optimizations to squeeze more battery life out of tablets and other portable computers, should result in a more power-efficient operating system and longer battery life. The removal of Aero should also result in longer battery life for laptops.

Security

Security has seen a lot of attention in Windows 8. Microsoft has finally included an integrated antivirus in Windows 8. It’s named Windows Defender, but it’s actually a renamed Microsoft Security Essentials. This will ensure that even less-experienced Windows users have an antivirus, but you can easily disable it and install any other antivirus product you prefer.

Secure Boot provides protection from rootkits that hijack the startup process, assuming you’re using a new PC with UEFI instead of the traditional BIOS. (On Intel x86 PCs, you can disable Secure Boot or add your own keys to Secure Boot in the UEFI firmware, so Secure Boot won’t prevent you from installing Linux. However, Secure Boot is used to lock-down ARM-based Windows RT computers.)

The integration of Microsoft’s SmartScreen filter at a lower level helps prevent less experienced uses from downloading and installing malware by warning them when they install software that is known-bad, or software that hasn’t been seen before.

There are also low-level changes to memory allocation and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) that make security vulnerabilities harder to exploit, even if security holes are found.

---

If these were the only changes that were made in Windows 8, desktop users would see it as a worthy upgrade over Windows 7 – especially for $40.

Even if you dislike Windows 8’s new interface, the availability of third-party Start menus and software that hides a lot (but not all) of the new interface on the desktop should make you seriously consider upgrading to Windows 8 if these improvements seem significant to you.

10 Best and free remote desktop sharing software's

If you are someone who often need access to your home computer from your office or you provide technical support to your customers or sometimes dear ones. The remote desktop sharing software helps you solve the queries remotely and save your day from travelling and frustration.

Here I have listed some of the best and free remote desktop sharing software's which can help youconnect remote computer anywhere around the globe using Internet connection. If you use this utility regularly, then you can also bookmark this page for your reference.

Logmein Free Provides access and control of remotely located workstations with complete liberty. Logmein Free helps you to access any computer seamlessly and gives facility to control your peripherals like Keyboard and Mouse. Logmein is very popular, fast and secure remote control utility for your computers. Using free version of Logmein you can only access the computer and work on it, and can be upgraded to pro version with many more facilities.

Team Viewer Easy to work solution for desktop sharing, remote control and file transfer. Team Viewer also works with iPhone/Android app that you can use to access remotely located computers from your phone Device. it is free to user for non-commercial use. To make it work you have to install the Team Viewer software on both machines.

Real VNC It is a desktop sharing and remote control software which allows you to see and interact with the remote computersusing a trouble-free application anywhere on the Internet. You can also use Real VNC to view and control a Linux machine on your Windows PC. Real VNC is of no charge and free to download. You have to use the server version software on the computer to be controlled, provide a Secure Password initially and use the viewer version software on the controlling computer.

Tight VNC An enhanced version of VNC, optimized to work on slow bandwidth networks like a low-speed modem connections. Using TightVNC you can access your workstations remotely using client application and even with a web browser (Java based). It works well with both windows and Unix systems.

Ultra VNC Also known as UVNC is an open source software for the Windows OS. You can use it toconnect remotely situated computers over the Internet or internal network. It enables you to control your remote workstations using mouse and keyboard. Recommended for computer support providers to quickly connect and resolve your customer's issues remotely.    
         

Ammyy Admin Ammyy Admin is a dependable, quick, secure and friendly application for remote desktop control and sharing. Itconnects remotely located computers in seconds with no extra installation and configuration. You can look into or control applications running on the remote workstations and transmit Files and Folders

Anyplace Control Secure and easy to use remote desktop utility which allows you to view the desktop of remote computer and manage that computer from anywhere, using your own mouse and keyboard in real-time. The remote workstations can be connected over LAN, WiFi and Internet. Comes with Host Module and Admin Module. If you want to access a PC of the person who is not a computer savvy, just forward them a web-link and desktop becomes available on a single click

CrossLoop It provides secure, fast, user-friendly interface and free of charge facility to access your home or office computers. Once you install the application and whenever you initiate the application, your workstation will be provisioned with a 12-digit access code, you can then forward that access code to other user who is sharing his/her desktop.

SkyFex A free web based remote desktop assistance, you can access remote workstations directly using a web browsers and it requires no extra software installation and configuration. Some of the features are; SkyFex can be integrated to your website, Supports dual monitors, give presentations, Allows Remote reboot, file transfer, Integrated text chat and many more.

DesktopNow Provides access to your workstations and laptops using Internet connection by sharing special folders you can download or upload files to. Using DesktopNow, you will experience fast and easy access to all your essential files from anywhere. It uses a secure SSL connection and require no additional router configuration

How to Create a New Virtual Machine in VMware Workstation 9

I’ve been a longtime fan of VirtualBox, but recently I decided to give VMware a shot. As it turns out, I really like it.  The downside is that at the retail price of $249 — the program is pretty darn expensive. That aside, I spent the last couple days setting up virtual environments with VMware Workstation 9. VMware has really streamlined the process of creating new Virtual Machines (VMs) and below I’ve written out a quick walkthrough that details the experience.

RequirementsThere’s a few things that you should ideally have before trying to setup a Virtual Machine:

• Operating System .ISO file or install disk (Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X)
• A CPU that supports Virtualization. If you’re not sure, check out this article. 
• (Recommended) A 2nd hard drive to store the VM on to prevent I/O constraints

When you first open VMware Workstation, the button to set up a New Virtual Machine couldn’t be any easier to find. It’s on the top-left of the main window. Pressing this button is what you need to do to get started.

The installation wizard will open up and prompt you to choose between one of two different installation configurations. For most intents and purposes, the Typical installation will do just fine.

Advanced will add a little more customization to the install, such as compatibility, memory, CPU limits, but most of the Advanced settings can be adjusted later on anyway.

Now it’s already time to select the installation .ISO file or disk from the DVD drive. Note that most recent versions of Windows and other operating systems support VMware’s Easy Install. All this means it that the VM setup wizard will ask some basic questions about the OS is loaded before it starts, and then make the OS install completely unattended.

This next step is part of the Easy Install. The information entered here will be used to make the install of the operating system automated. If you’re setting up a Windows VM it may be necessary the product key or else unattended installation may not be completely automated.

Next up is an important step. VMware will ask for a name to give the virtual machine, and then it will ask where to store the virtual machine’s data files and VHD (virtual hard drive).

Now choose how big the maximum size of the virtual hard drive, and what type of file system the drive will use. Keep in mind that even if you leave the maximum size at the default of 60GB, the virtual disk won’t actually be that size until the VM literally contains that much data.

Choosing between single files and split can be a little bit more complicated. If you aren’t sure which to do, choose split. I’ll talk a little about the differences here:

• Split
  • A split virtual disk is designed with maximum compatibility in mind. It will work on external and internal drives from all formatting types, including FAT. This is the primary reason that Split is selected by default in the VM creation wizard.
• Single File
  • A single file drive will perform better with large virtual disks (200GB+). However, it will run into compatibility with some physical hard drives (usually external). A Single File virtual disk should only be used on physical drives using the NTFS or exFAT filesystem.

Next up is the VM summary and the Finish button. Once Finish is clicked the installation will start. There is a Customize Hardware… button here as well, but that can be changed later if necessary. Time to get the show on the road!

At this point you’re brought back to the Workstation window. In the main screen it will show the OS being installed. In my case I was installing Windows 8, and I just minimized it and did something else while I waited for it to finish.

Once the install is done the OS on the virtual machine should be loaded and VMware Tools should automatically have been installed.  Everything works!

Shutdown, sleep, and other commands can be directly sent o the VM via the Workstation interface. Just right-click on the VM name to issue whatever you need it to do.

In the Settings window for the particular VM you can adjust what hardware the VM is allowed to use and set different RAM, CPU, and drive allocation.

That’s all there is to setting up a VM in VMware Workstation 9. If you have any questions or comments, drop them below!

A.L.A.R.M. is a Basic Anti-Theft Utility for Your Laptop

This utility is helpful when leaving your laptop unattended for a bit while in a public place or even at the office. What it does is quite simple — it plays a loud sound, should someone unplug the notebook. It’s a simple idea, but can be quite effective.

Using A.L.A.R.M.

First download A.L.A.R.M. It’s a small utility — less than 1MB — and installation is easy. I recommend keeping all components checked during the install.

After running it, you’ll have to find it in the system tray and left click it to open properties. Don’t right click, as that will close it.

The interface is as simple as it can be. You can choose your own sound or leave the default one (which is pretty annoying on its own). It supports MP3 and WAV files and I recommend leaving the volume all the way up if you leave the computer.

There’s also the option for it to work only when the laptop is locked, so it shouldn’t bother you in case you’re working and want to unplug your laptop.

It’s a simple idea, and if someone were to unplug your laptop and try to make a getaway, a lot of attention would be drawn to them.

Use Share Your Pass for Quick Access to Sites

How many times have you had to register on a site, confirm an email address, and maybe even get subscribed to an annoying newsletter, just to read a single article? It’s very annoying and I’ve discovered a good service that allows you to avoid the complications.

Bugmenot used to be a pretty useful solution, as it provides usernames and passwords to a lot of websites. But it hasn’t seemed to be working for me lately. So, looking for an alternative, I discovered Share Your Pass. It has categories of sites you can find logins for.

All you have to do is to search for the site you want to get a log in for. Once you’ve found it, click to see the username. Then, just use that for your single login. The good thing about the site is that you can Report a Login that doesn’t work, and it will get checked by the administrators.

You can add your own free logins, too, for others to use. The form can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

The site also has a Firefox add-on, which you can get here. 

Once it’s installed, an icon for the add-on will appear on your Firefox add-on bar. When you’re on a site you need a login for, just click its icon, and a window showing all available logins will pop up.

What to Do When Your HDD Fails

If your hard disk drive is going bad, data loss is either imminent or already happening. If you don’t have a solid backup plan in place, now is the last opportunity for some disaster recovery. Of course, what all you can do really depends on what kind of failure is occurring. Assuming you’ve already ordered your replacement drive, lets take a look at how to handle data still on the old (and failing) one.

What causes a HDD to die?

There are three major causes of hard disk drive failure.

• The most common culprit of this is known as a head crash. Under normal operating circumstances, there’s a small arm with an optical head on it that sits just nanometers above the surface of the actual hard disk platter.  A head crash is the result of the small optical head rubbing against the disk itself. One major cause are dust particles sitting on the surface of the drive, which drags across the surface when the optical head passes over. This is why it’s important to regularly dust your computer case out and keep the internal environment as clean as possible. Another cause is when a drive is bumped or mechanically jolted by physical trauma. Portable (i.e. laptop) hard drives have a built-in unloading technology that detects such movement and distances the head from the platter in such an event, but most desktop hard disks do not. Chronic head crashes can lead to the magnetic surface of the disc completely wearing away and the head unit itself becoming inoperable. If this type of failure becomes prominent a loud clicking sound may be heard from the drive whenever it is powered on.

• Bad Sectors. A sector on a disk is essentially a set amount of space in the shape of a full or partial ring on the physical platter. If you’ve ever drawn on the top of a spinning disk with a marker, the sectors look similar. There are two different causes for bad sectors. This can happen during from physical trauma to the disk, such as the magnetic surface being worn out. It can also happen because of logical errors and problems with the cache or formatting. All disks come out of the factory with bad sectors, however due to SMART technology most drives automatically recognize these sectors and put them on an “ignore list” so that they are not used. Bad sectors usually aren’t a problem, but if they become rampant it is a good sign the hard-drive is near the end of its lifetime or may have a worse underlying problem. Failure to defragment your hard drive on at least a quarterly (3 month) basis can lead to an increase rate of bad sector accrual.

• Other physical failure. Keep in mind that aside from cooling fans, the hard drive is one of the only physically moving parts in your entire computer. Bearings may wear out. Circuits may short fuse. The spindle may wear out. The hard drive may makestrange pinging noises in this case. However, as long as the disk platters are undamaged there shouldn’t be any loss of data — you just might not be able to read it.

Solutions

If you already back up your drive using CrashPlan or another cloud service, then this may not be necessary. But if not, the first thing to do is set up where you will migrate any sensitive data from your drive to. This is where a large thumb drive or external drive comes in handy. Depending on how far gone your failing drive is, you might have a few options.

Note: If Windows or another operating system is installed on the drive, stop booting from it immediately. Data recovery is much more likely if the drive isn’t being constantly spun up to read and write a complicated system. Avoid writing (saving) anything new onto the drive.

• Acronis, Macrium, and Clonezilla are all disk cloning solutions. If your HDD isn’t too far gone you may be able create a direct copy of it onto a new drive. Mac Computers have a built-in application called Time Machine that handles this natively.
• If the drive is still in decent shape, you may be able to manually pull the files from one drive to another. This can be done  with Windows File Explorer but requires hooking the drive up to a working computer.
  
• Professional recovery software such as Prosoft’s Data Rescue, Kroll Ontrack, andGetData RecoverMyFiles may be able to pull data out, but for a steep price. Most of these apps run anywhere from $99 to $200 or more.
• The freezer. That’s right, the conventional freezer attached to your refrigerator. When all else fails, freezing a drive may bring it back long enough to pull some data off of it. Here’s what you do: Place the drive in an air-tight Ziploc bag and then put it in the freezer for at least two hours. You may want to use two bags, the key is to keep moisture out of the drive as that will only cause more damage. After the drive is completely frozen, just hook it up like normal to the PC and attempt to pull data.

Physical Repair of the Drive

If the drive is completely unreadable on a software level, or is making a pinging noise, that might mean further damage is happening just because the drive is spinning, the only way to pull data off the drive may be physical repair. Unfortunately, physical repair of an individual drive is both complicated and costly. Drives are extremely fragile, and while do-it-yourself home repairs are possible — it’s more likely to end in disaster.

When a drive is completely unrecoverable at home, you may have to turn to a professional. There are dozens of companies that specialize in data recovery. Popular Mechanics ran an article in 2008 where one such company was able to recover 99 to 100 percent of data on damaged and water-soaked drives. But if you have to such a route, get ready to empty out your pocket book. Professional drive recovery can cost anywhere from $500 to $1200 per hard drive depending on the size and extent of damage.

Conclusion

Recovering data from a dead drive is possible, but it can be a pain and there is no guarantee you’ll get all if it back. Create backups of your sensitive (irreplaceable) data as often as you update it. For the busy or lazy a cloud solution might be the way to go. Or if you’re a fan of keeping everything local, system image and cloning software is another easy backup plan.

The bottom line to avoid data loss, it to back up your data to one or more locations. We recommend using an off-site solution like Crashplan, as well as backing up to an external drive, NAS, or Home Server too.

Display a Custom Message and Logo with OpenDNS and Change Network Admin Email

OpenDNS is a customizable DNS service that protects you from phishing, speeds up your web browsing and allows you to filter content and block websites.  By default, OpenDNS comes with OpenDNS branding and generic text explaining why sites are blocked. But if you are running OpenDNS on a corporate or school network, you might want to add your own logo and messages.

Before beginning, you might want to learn a bit about how OpenDNS works and how toset up OpenDNS on your home network (custom messages are fun at home, too). If you’ve got that covered, you can move on:

• How to Add a Custom Logo to Your OpenDNS Pages
• How to Add a Custom Message to Your OpenDNS Pages
• How to Change Your Network Administrator Contact Email in OpenDNS for Network Feedback

Add a Custom Logo to Your OpenDNS Pages

Visit your OpenDNS Dashboard, click on Settings and choose your network from the drop-down menu.

Click Customization.

Click Choose File. Browse to your custom logo’s image file and select it.

Your filename will be shown to the right of the Choose file button. Click Upload.

The image will need some editing before adding it to your OpenDNS setup. Click Click here to edit it.

Crop your image to fit and click Save Changes. (Tip: To save yourself the trouble, start with a JPEG that is 125 x 70 pixels.)

Back on the Customization tab, select your custom logo and click Apply.

Add a Custom Message to your OpenDNS Block Pages

There are three kinds of pages that OpenDNS shows:

• The Guide page is shown when a website doesn’t exist, isn’t working or a link is broken.
• The Block page is shown when a website is blocked according to the content and web filtering rules you set up.
• The Phishing block page is shown when a site known for malicious activity (according to OpenDNS) is blocked.

For each one of these pages, you can display a different message. By default, it’ll show the OpenDNS boilerplate information and a brief explanation of why the page couldn’t be shown. But if you want to snazz it up a bit, you can.

From the Customization tab, scroll down to one of the three page settings panes.

Select the second option for the page you want to customize. For example, Guide with your message or Block page with your message or Phishing block page message.

Type in your custom message and then click APPLY. Now, your custom message will be displayed when a site is blocked.

If you are filling out a custom block page message, you have two boxes: one that’s shown when a site is blocked because it’s part of a filtered category (e.g. pornography, social networking, gambling) and one that’s shown when an individual domain name is blocked.

For the first example, let’s say you’ve blocked all news and blog sites at work. It’ll say something like the following:

Notice that the category of the site is also listed.

In the second example, I’ve specifically blocked facebook.com, so you’ll see this:

Change Your Network Administrator Contact Email in OpenDNS for Network Feedback

On any of the block pages, the user will have an opportunity to Contact your network administrator (you) via email.

This might elicit some anonymous harassment (users can punch in whatever name and email they want), but it might also reveal sites that need to be whitelisted for legitimate reasons.

You can change the email address where you receive these messages by clicking My Account  and Email Settings. You have two addresses. The second one (Network feedback email address) is the one that receives emails from the form on the blocked page notice.

Conclusion

These are minor tweaks to the already full-featured OpenDNS service. But they might help inexperienced users feel more comfortable on your network, or at least give them clearer direction on what they should do to unblock a website.

There’s one other customization you might want on OpenDNS: removing the advertisements on the block and guide pages. The fix for that is simple, but not free: sign up for a paid Premium DNS account from OpenDNS and the sponsored content and ad banners will be disabled by default. for free account click here to create a free account.