Top 1 Reason NOT to Use Google Chrome

I guess I do not need to talk about the good things about Google Chrome as all of you can find the Google Chrome key features here. If you want to try it out, you can download Google Chrome

What I’m really looking about this new Google Chrome web browser is use less memory footprint and with all basic browser features. It seems like Google has fulfilled my requirements EXCEPT that Google Chrome does NOT support Google Toolbar or vice-versa.

Google, you must be kidding? Google toolbar is my “must” application when browsing and it is going to defeat the purpose if I open Firefox (for Google Toolbar) and Google Chrome at the same time. Please fix it Google, your product doesn’t support your own products. Don’t you think is funny?

P/S: If Google Chrome doesn't support extensions (the way how it was designed), then I think Google Toolbar features should be built into the Google Chrome. Perhaps not all the features but the key one (e.g. bookmarks and PageRank). I will wait until Google Toolbar is supported, then I will only give it a try.

Related Topics:

• Why Mozilla Firefox? See the reasons...
  

Check Download and Upload Speed

Sometimes we just want to make sure our Internet Service Provider (ISP) doesn't cheat our money. We pay for this speed and at least we can get the speed that we're paying for. This is the website I usually play around with - www.speedtest.net

You can:

• Test using recommend server (the place nearest to your ISP)
• Test the connection speed in any server location that you want in the World.
  

P/S: You can also play around with the "My Summary" and "Global Stats" tabs at the top. It provides quite some useful information.

Can’t Connect to Remote Computer but previously is okay

If you are able to connect to your remote windows machine but out of a sudden you fail to connect to the remote machine, this is post is the solution for you. However if it has never been working all the while, you should google it and it probably due to the firewall configurations.

Basically what you want to do is to remote restart your windows machine. That’s it. This is the fastest way to solve this problem assuming it did work previously. Somehow I have experienced this few times myself and I have no idea what causes the failure.

To Remotely Restart Your Windows Machine, you need to open your command prompt and perform the following commands:

shutdown /r /f /m \\my-remote-host

* /r is to shutdown and restart your PC. Without /r it is shutdown and you will never ever to wake him up again “remotely”.

* /f is to force to close any running applications. I’m not sure without this, it will be shutdown or restart probably. At first I tried without /f and it doesn’t work. So, I’m using to force to close any running application.

* /s m is to specify your windows host or you can put in the IP address (e.g. //123.123.12.34). Remember to put the “\\”.

* For more help just type “shutdown /?” in your command prompt.

Of course the drawback of this is you will lose any work in progress data in your remote windows machine. If you know exactly what causing remote desktop doesn’t work, you can try use “tasklist” and “taskkill” command to remote kill any process in the remote machine.

Example of the usage:

• tasklist /s my-remote-host
• taskkill /s my-remote-host /im outlook.exe

Perhaps outlook.exe causing this? I have no idea...

Using Google as World Time Clock

Accidentally find out that we can actually use Google search engine as World Time Clocks by using the following search query:

• Current Time "location"

For example to check time in Malaysia:

You can also check current time in more specific location. For example to check time in San Jose:

For example to check time in Maynooth, Dublin (This is where I’m right now :D):

The only thing it won’t work is I put in multiple locations. You don't see the displayed clock. For example:

So I guess this is fastest time to check world time clock assuming you have the internet access. :D

How to delete an undeletable file in Windows?

As you might have already faced this issue many times, somehow Windows (XP or Vista) always has a problem to delete files or folders occasionally. What is wrong with Windows? I have no idea… It shouldn’t happen if we have close all the programs but somehow it doesn’t work.

Here are the few versions of our friend:

• Cannot delete file: Access is denied
• Cannot delete folder: There has been a sharing violation
• Cannot delete file: It is being used by another person or program
• Cannot delete folder: Make sure the disk is not full or write-protected and that the file is not currently in use.

So what we normally do is to “restart” our PC and delete the file or folder after restart but it is not efficient. So you may want to try the following method to delete the locked files or folders by Windows:

(1) Close all open programs

(2) Open a Command Prompt window and leave it open.

• Start->Programs->Accessories->Command Prompt

(3) Kill the Windows Explorer (i.e. explorer.exe)

• Select “Shut Down..” from the Start menu.
• Hold CLTR+SHIFT+ALT and press the CANCEL button.
• Go back to the Command Prompt Window and CD to the directory where you want to delete your files or folders (i.e. del /f, rd /s)

(4) Run again the Windows Explorer (i.e. Explorer.exe)

• Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to run the Task Manager
• Click File->New Task(Run…)
• Type Explorer Open text box and click OK.
• Close the Task Manager

Does it work? I hope so…

Best Task Manager for Windows Mobile (FdcSoft TaskMgr)

I just bought a HTC Touch Cruise few weeks ago and played a lot with software to be installed in this guy. I have almost installed 20 applications (excluding the games), I found that one of the most useful software utility is the Task Manager from FdcSoft TaskMgr.

3 Reasons to use FdcSoft TaskMgr:

(1) Task Manager from HTC slows down your mobile performance since it is running at the background. Windows Mobile is already bloody slow, still want to load the background stuff? With FdcSoft TaskMgr, you do not need to run in background and run it when necessary.

To disable the HTC Task Manager, perform the following:

• Go to “Start -> Settings -> System -> Task Manager -> Button”
• Disable "Enable the "X" button to end running programs"
• Disable "Enable Quick Menu on Today screen"

(2) FdcSoft TaskMgr shows more details information (e.g. Applications, Processes, CPU Usage, Services, IP Config and a lot more). You can also close all running applications as what you can do in HTC Task Manager.

(3) Registry editor under “RegEdit” page is the most useful thing that I used often to tweak the performance of Windows Mobile in my HTC device. So far, I have been tried 2 registry editors software, this “RegEdit” from FdcSoft TaskMgr is still my preference.

Click here to download FdcSoft TaskMgr and to see other people’s review.

Undo "Clear Offline Items" in Outlook

Some tips to share or to avoid from accidentally delete all your emails in your inbox MS Outlook. When I’m cleaning up and organizing my emails in MS outlook, I accidentally click the “Clear Offline Items” in the inbox properties page causes all my important emails are gone.

However, it can be recovered if you are using a Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail account in Cached Exchange mode which I believe most companies setup their outlook in this way.

So what I do is to click “Send and Receive” button to synchronize all the emails in the server back to my Outlook. This is how you can undo the "Clear Offline Items" in Outlook in case one day you accidentally click the "Clear Offiline Itemes" in MS Outlook.

Use Google or MS Word as Dictionary

Sometimes when you don’t even know how to spell a word, Google and MS word come into play. This is what I usually do. Although the best dictionary WordWeb has a suggestion capability but usually it doesn’t do a very good job.

Let’s take a look at spelling a word “Gentlemen” and I don’t know how to spell it and I spell it as “Gentalment”. In MS Word I can right click the word and it shows me the suggested correct spelling. To check the meaning of the world I can just press “Shift + F7” but usually this MS Word dictionary sucks. To check the meaning, I would suggest to use WordWeb.

Another method is using the Google Search Engine (my preferable choice) but only if you have the access to the internet. It comes out something like below “Did you mean: gentlement’s”

When you click on it, it comes out the Wikipedia’s definition. However, I do not really like Wikipedia’s definition too. The explanation is just too long for me. So I would still prefer to use the WordWeb to check the meaning.

So this is what I did to check a word spelling and it's meaning:

With Internet

1. Google It
2. WordWeb It

Witout Internet

1. Winword it
2. WordWeb it

p/s: Too bad the OpenOffice does not have suggested word capability. I hope one day they will support it.

Btw, I don't think this is something new. I believe a lot of people have been doing this especially using the Google as dictionary.

Vista is Very Slow! Any Solutions?

I bet majority of people are facing the same issue – slowness when they migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista. You may ask, what are the solutions?

The simplest solution is to turn OFF all the windows visual effect. However you will lose all the Vista nice looking interfaces (GUI). No one is aware of you’re actually using Vista. So, how do you keep the Vista interface without scarify performance?

Instead of choosing “Adjust for best performance”, you can select the “custom” in the performance options windows.

Let’s look at the cool 3D feature in Vista (i.e. Windows Button +Tab), when do you actually use it other than just to show off? It is a completely a useless feature. To disable that, you basically just uncheck the “Enable desktop composition”.

To keep the vista GUI without scarify any performance, I disable all the windows visual effect except for the following:

1. Show preview and filters in folders
2. Show thumbnails instead of icon
3. Smooth edges of screen fonts
4. Use visual styles on windows and buttons

Well, I like the preview and showing thumbnails. Without that, it doesn’t seem like I’m using Vista. Smooth edges of screen fonts makes the fonts easy to read I suppose. The last visual styles on window and buttons are the most important thing which enables the whole Vista GUI.


At last, why I want to use Vista GUI?

Is it because I want to show off? Is it cool? Nope, it is because it makes my fonts easy to be read in my laptop with 14 inch screen. I have tried many options including changing the font size, turning on Vista GUI is still the best solution. It really makes everything easy to read. I don't feel any performance drop as compared to disable all visual effects.

Hope this can help boost your windows performance but still enjoying the Vista experience at the same time.

P/S: You can also run defragment to improve your system performance.

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• Vista Performance is 10% Slower
• 100 Reasons to Use Vista
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• Windows Vista - Is it the Right Choice?
  

Open a RAR File with Free Software Utility

I’m not really sure why the un-archive RAR utility is not come by default in windows since it can open various compress file format.

How to open a RAR file?

If you receive or download a *.rar file and unable to open it, you probably have heard of using the WinRAR to open it. However the problem is this WinRAR is evaluation copy! If you’re okay with evaluation copy - trial version, you can go ahead to download WinRAR software here.

To completely open the RAR with a free tool, you should try 7-Zip open source software.

Since 7-Zip this is the open source, don’t expect it is 100% free of bugs. I have been using it and I noticed there are few bugs here and there (e.g. browse button doesn't work). These bugs are usually minor and can be worked around pretty fast. Enjoy!

Download 7-Zip here.

Sound Recorder in Vista is Completely Useless

I’m sad to say that the sound recorder in MS Vista really sucks! A lot of useful features are gone after switching from XP to Vista. I really don’t understand why they want to do that. Did they do it in purpose? Some said it is for copy protection? Record it illegally? It doesn’t make sense because Windows Media Player has the recording capability.

From this:


To this:


Some of the cool features like increasing and decreasing the volume of recordings, adding echo, reversing, editing the file and etc have no longer there in MS Vista. The worst part is you CANNOT playback what you have recorded. You must save it and play it with Windows Media Player. What the heck?

With this new sound recorder, you can basically do 2 things only – record from microphone or line-in and save the file. That’s it. It is really inconvenient every time I’m trying to record a sound and playback.

Some workaround suggested steps are:

1. Copy the c:\windows \System32\sndrec32.exe file from a Windows XP to Vista and run as Administrator.
2. Right-Click the file and choose Run as Administrator.

Please don’t do that, it doesn’t work. I will suggest you to get any new recording software. I haven’t tried out any yet. If you have used any good one, please share.

Uninstall DOM Inspector in Firefox

At the first place, I don’t really know the reason why the DOM inspector is installed by default in Firefox. This is a highly advanced web developer feature. Normal users like you and me at application level do not require it at all. The only reason I can think of is majority of Fifefox’s users are web developers. Therefore, it is installed by default. But since Firefox has now become so popular, I think it should installed by default as most normal users do not use it.

I think I read it somewhere in the latest releases of firefox, the DOM Inspestor has no longer installed by default? I can’t be sure because I haven’t tried the new installation. I usually just do the auto update from the existing Firefox.

So if you do not use DOM inspector in the Firefox, I would recommend you to uninstall DOM Inspector in Firefox for better memory resources and performance. To uninstall, just go to Tools -> Add-ons and select the Add-ons that you would like to uninstall.

Btw, if you think this DOM inspector could be useful to normal users, please share with me. Then probably we (as a normal users) shouldn’t uninstall this cool stuff. :) I don't see how benefits this inspector and it is only meant for web developers.

Fastest Defragment Tool from Auslogics

Have you ever had problem to run the default defragment tools from MS Windows for few hours but still haven’t completed? Then the Auslogics Disk Defrag would probably the solution that you’re looking for.

I used to run Windows defragment for 2-3 hours. During the defragmentation, I can’t use my laptop or PC at all so it ends up I wasted my time doing nothing for few hours. So usually what I did is to run the defragmentation before I go to sleep.

Now with the Auslogics Disk Defrag I no longer need to do defragment before I go to sleep because it reduce the 2-3 hours defragmentation to less than 20 minutes. I usually just run the defragmentation before I take my shower. After my shower, everything is done then. :) It saves my time a lot.

To try out the tool, download Auslogics Disk Defrag here.

When the defragmentation is finished, you may see this warning “WARNING: Your PC is not optimized” and asking you to “Download Auslogics BoostSpeed” to improve the performance of your PC.

However I would NOT recommend Auslogic BoostSpeed for the following reasons:

1. It is not FREE. After the expiration date, you need to pay for it to get the full features.
2. It doesn’t improve my laptop’s performance. At least I can’t feel it.

Enjoy the fastest defragment tool from Auslogics! You will be surprised how fast this tool can go and save your precious time!

Office Spy Software by Microsoft

Microsoft is filing a software patent which able to spy or monitor employees. This reminds me a movie called “AntiTrust” which I watch in 2001. In the movie, the employer (the CEO in the movie really looks similar to Bill Gates) has software to spy on their employers. It can track every single detail what the employees do. At that point at time, I don’t think this kind of technology would come to reality because I thought it is somehow against human rights and privacy.

Now, this technology has been patented by Microsoft. According to the news, this technology can measure heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Wow! As long as you sit in front of your personal computer or workstation, your boss can track you down every single detail to review your performance.

Patent is just an idea. Whether it can be implemented and become useful in reality is still unknown. Few questions that I have are, will it be too much for office workers? What about freedom? Will the employee perform better or the other way round? Can I cheat and misuse the system? How accurate is this system? In my opinion, the idea is brilliant but not for office workers. It probably makes more sense for those critical job’s workers such as astronauts or operators in a factory.

Read the full article news here from TimesOnline.

Safe Browsing Feature in Google Desktop

I don’t aware of this feature in Google Desktop until one day it warns me about a potential harmful website. I thought all the way Google Desktop is doing indexing only. See the screen shot below:

At first, I thought this is something to do with the Google search engine. Eventually after a few times of this warning, I only realized it is something to do with the Google Desktop. It looks like the Google Desktop detects those sites based on the information from StopBadware.org. Badware could be some sorts of spyware, adware, viruses or Trojan horse programs

The website is http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums. You can try click it and see whether your browser can catch this or not. However, the website doesn't seems like have potential thread but to be safe, I didn't continue browsing in that website.

I think “Safe Browsing” is turned on by default. If not, you can perform the following instructions:

1. Go to preference page.
2. Click the “Other” tab at the top.
3. Tick the “Enable Safe Browsing” check box.
4. Click “Save Preferences” to apply the change.

Turn on the “Safe Browsing” feature in Google Desktop for better security. One thing good about this "Safe Browsing" it applies to any browsers (e.g. IE or Firefox).

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Save File to Specify Folder in Firefox

All the while I thought Firefox has a bug that doesn’t allow user to save file to a specify folder when we download a file from internet. It always forces us to save the file the default folder (e.g. My Download). So I ignored it at the first place and waited for the fix with the later releases but I was wrong. It is not a bug, it is the Firefox default setting. When you click “Save File” it automatically save it the default download folder.

This is the default behavior – save file to default folder (I’m not sure why this is default but I don’t think it is really convenient). So what I did is I manually move the file in the download folder (default folder) to the specify folder where I want to save the file to. This is really stupid for what I did. Anyway you don’t need to.

If you want Firefox to save your file in a folder that you want, perform the following instructions:

1. Click Tools menu -> Options. The Options dialog box appears.
2. Under the Download, select “Ask me where to save files”.
3. Click OK.

From now on, Firefox will ask you where you want to save your file every time you download a file. I no longer need to manually copy files to the folder I want to save to.