Workaround to download Vista Beta SP1 directly from Microsoft

The Vista SP1 is thought to be launched in the first quarter of 2008.

However, Microsoft released beta versions of Vista SP1 to their chosen 12,000 beta testers. As always, even though it is possible to close the lid of the bottle, it is impossible to shut the mouth. That’s being said, the Beta Build 6001.16659 of the service pack has been leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks. You might be able to grab it from your favorite torrent site. But some of you might be afraid to download such an important pack from other sites than Microsoft.

Don’t worry! Now there’s a workaround available (Thanks to ghacks.net)

• Download This zip file and unpack it to your system.
• Run SP1Beta_Hack.cmd with administrator privileges and Windows Updates afterwards. You should see KB935509. Download it and restart your computer.
• Run Windows Updates again, you should see KB937287. Download and restart your computer again.
• Run Windows Updates again (Yeah! it’s quite a lot!). Download KB938371, restart your computer again (I know, I know, it’s a lot of restart).
• Finally, visit Windows Updates again and you should see the Service Pack 1 Beta for Microsoft Windows Vista available for download.

If evaluation message annoys you, follow the steps below:

• Run watermark_fix.reg first
• Rename user32.dll.mui to user32.dll.mui.old in C:WindowsSystem32en-US
• copy user32.dll.mui from the archive to that location
• Restart your computer

With no official reaction from Microsoft about this workarounds, a lot of debate is going on in the blogosphere whether this method is legal or not. Judge yourself whether it is legal or not. Remember this is beta version to limited 12,000 testers only. So that it is very high probability that it would be buggy. My advice to you is that wait for official release of Vista SP1.

How to create image trail with Paint

I love MS Paint for its simplicity. Even though it is such a small program, it could have done a lot of jobs. Of course, don’t compare it with Photoshop or any other premium photo editing standard software.

Most of my screenshots editing have been done with Paint. What’s more? You can create trailing effect with Paint too.

First you need to hold select the part of the image
And then hold down Shift key
Then drag the way you want to trail it.

Here is the sample trailing pic I have made.

How to zoom more in MS Paint

I’ve just told you guys about how to make image trail in MS Paint. Here is another tip again. Do you know that you can zoom more in MS Paint than default. MS Paint default zoom is 8x, but you can zoom more than that. I’ve got this tip from one of the metacafe video. But I can’t find it again now.

Anyway, here is how you should do it.

If you press the white line as in the above picture, you’ll get your pic zoom more than 8x as in the following picture.

Before you start to complain me about these feature is useless compare to your Photoshop or whatever program, remember paint is very small, simple program just for very simple task. I’m just telling you this tip as a fun. Enjoy it!

How to lock computer in Remote Desktop Connection?

I really love the Windows Remote Desktop Connection. No matter what critics are saying, Microsoft usually deliver the best in the software business.

When I remote to the server, sometimes I want to leave for a while and I want that computer to be locked. I’ve tried Windows+L, but it’s not working anymore.

So I googled about it. Now I’ve got the solution. It is quite easy to do that. Simply create shortcut as follow.

• Right click on the Desktop
• Choose New –>> Shortcuts
• And then in the dialog box type the following

rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation

After that give the shortcut whatever name you like. Next time, when you want to lock your computer, simply double click on that shortcut and it’s all set!!!

Reference : mydigitallife.info

How to fix Google Sitemap error for blogger feed redirects to feedburner

After I have used feedburner for my feeds, I have setup feed redirect in the Settings –>> Site feed as follow.

After two or three days, when I login to my Google Webmaster account, I have got the following warnings in my sitemap error.

When I click to view the warnings in details, I saw this:

Line: 2 Invalid XML: too many tags – Too many tags describing this tag.
Line: 2 Incorrect namespace – Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn’t properly declare the namespace.

It made me very frustrated. Feedburner isn’t compatible with Google’s Blogger services? After talking with my geek friends and emailing to Google, I have got the following solution.

• 1. I have to delete the old sitemap.
• 2. After that, I add new sitemap with ?redirect=false

That’s it! Since then, I can see my sitemap with errors or warnings free as below.

How to delete undeletable files

How many times have we been annoyed by that messages? Oh yeah, there are many alternatives of above such as :

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• There has been a sharing violation.
• The source or destination file may be in use.
• The file is in use by another program or user.
• Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

I’ve got two ways to solve this problem.

First way : If you’re not tech buddy, you should go to second way.

• Go to Start menu –>> Run –>> type cmd and press enter (this will open command prompt)
• After that press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up task manager
• Go to Process tab, find explorer.exe, then click End Process.
• Your Taskbar will disappear.

• Go back to the Command prompt you just left opened.
• Browse folder or file you want to delete.
• Delete file with del command and remove directory with rmdir command.
• After that, in the task manager, choose File –>> New Task (Run..)
• Then type explorer.exe.
• Your taskbar will appear again.

Second way : I recommend this. This is really easy. Just download and install Unlocker, which is very useful freeware especially for this purpose. After you installed the program, all you have to do is simply right click the folder or file and select Unlocker. You can do Delete, Rename, Move at your finger tips.

Frankly speaking, I really recommend you guys to follow Second way. I intend first method for those of you who just want to know workaround or who don’t wanna install any extra programs.

Hide your Windows from Network Neighborhood

Using computer in public places is unsafe anyway. If your Windows show up in Network Neighborhood or My Network Places, other users in your office LAN or public LAN can access your share files. So, how I can you share your files without showing up in Network Neighborhood?

It’s very simple. Just follow these steps.

Go to Start menu –>> Run
Type cmd, then press Enter
In command prompt, type net config server

If you see “Server hidden” is “No”, that means other users can see your share files in My Network Places. You can change it by typing the following command.

net config server /hidden:yes

So from now on, the only way the other users can access your share files is via your ip address. In DHCP environment, other users wouldn’t know it unless you gave them.

Small secrets for Windows

Do you that when you open volume control the default is large size, you can change it to small size by pressing Ctrl+S. Pressing again will change back to large size.

When you have multiple windows open, you can close many windows you want by pressing Ctrl and clicking windows at the taskbar, after that right click and close group.

If you want Notepad to automatically insert date and time for you, you can press F5. If you want Notepad to insert date and time every time you open the file, you can write .LOG at the first line and save.

Even though these tips aren’t that useful in my daily usage, I’m quite surprise to find these tips and happy to share with you all.

How to create and delete invisible folder

Before I’ll explain you this trick, I want to warn you that in my Vista, I’ve got sweat to find way to delete that’s invisible folder. So that, if you don’t want to mess with your computer, please don’t try this trick.

For all those daredevils, here is the procedure:

• 1. Create New folder.
• 2. Right-click on it, then choose rename.
• 3. After that delete the name New Folder and press Alt+0160
• 4. That’ll create invisible space in the folder name, press Enter.
• 5. Right-click that folder, choose properties, then go to Customize tab
• 6. Click Change Icon and then choose invisible icon as in below screenshot.

That’s it. It’s done.

BtoN’s Tips : The drama part is that if you want to delete that folder, it won’t work in some Windows. For my Vista, it doesn’t work. So I have to use DelinvFile to get rid of that stupid invisible folder. That’s why I warn you before I start.

Via : Metacafe

Add your favourite folder to Send To

Having your favourite folders in the Send To menu can be a real time saver. Whenever you want to copy/move, just right click on something and select Send To, then you can choose your folder just like the following screenshot.

To do this, go to C:Documents and SettingsYourUsernameSendTo and simply add your own shortcuts to what ever folders you want to appear.

Note : SendTo folder is hidden folder, so you need to make show all in folder options.