Playing games is always a great way to relax yourself and have fun. Now, you can increase the level of fun and further enjoy playing 100′s of new free games without the trouble of searching for them. Game Downloader for Windows is a small open source portable game download client that lets you download open source, indie or freeware games.

Game Downloader basically has a large server-side library of free games. You can use the Windows client program of Game Downloader to browse and download the games easily. It makes your life easy by letting you download games without even visiting the official website. Other than making your life easy, using Game Downloader you can discover new games. It divides the games into several categories. And each category lists many free and open source games. Further, the program displays a description of the game, displays a screenshot of the game, allows you to view YouTube videos related to the game you want to play, lets you visit the official home page of the game, lets you know the estimated download size before downloading, and obviously lets you download the game of your choice.

Game Downloader’s main user interface is divided into six parts. At the top, you will find the Category drop down menu. Available categories include Action, Adventure, Arcade, Board games, Card Games, Fighting, First Person Shooter, Music, Platform, Puzzle, Racing, Real-Time Strategy, RPG, Simulators, and Turn based strategy. Below the drop down menu, you will find the Games list and Version information, Further you will find the About information of the game and a Screenshot of the game. At the bottom of the user interface, you will find four buttons: YouTube button lets you search the game on YouTube, Game Website button takes you to the home page of the game, Get File Size button gets the download file size of a game and the Download Game button lets you download the selected game. If you want to change the download folder and change other settings, right-click on the program’s tray icon and access Settings.

Update: Game Downloader 2.5 is released with a revamped user interface. You can now search for your favorite games. The file size is displayed along and now you don’t have to click on a button to get it. Also the settings menu has been added to the main interface. Using the right-click context menu, from the tray icon of the program, you can now check for new version of the program.

To download a game using Game Downloader, you have to follow a simple procedure. At first, you have to select a Game Category using the Category drop down menu. Upon choosing a category, the Games section is populated by a list of games available in that category. Select a game from the list to see a small description about the game in the About section, a small screenshot, latest version number. The Yes/No flags are used to show whether the game is single player or multiplayer. If you want to download the game, simply click on the Download Game button to start the download.

Game Downloader will run on any computer system that boots into Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating system. It requires .NET Framework 3.5 to run. You can download the program from SourceForge.

P.S. We are resuming normal daily updates, My Technology Guide will now be back to normal.

Joulemeter is a freeware software tool developed by Microsoft Research that estimates the power consumption of your computer and improves energy efficiency. It tracks computer resources, such as CPU utilization and screen brightness, and estimates power usage.

Joulemeter provides a modeling tool to measure the energy usage of virtual machines (VM), servers, desktops, laptops, and even individual software applications running on a computer. The application helps improve power provisioning costs for data centers, virtualized power budgeting, desktop energy optimizations, and mobile battery management.

The Joulemeter project focuses on the following aspects related to energy optimization:

• Modeling — Joulemeter provides a software tool to estimate the energy usage of a virtual machine (VM), a computer, server, or software application. It also allows modeling the impact of power management of various components such as the CPU, screen, memory, and storage on total power use. Many of these power measurements are not possible in hardware since software components such as VM do not have a single wire supplying their power where a hardware power meter may be installed.
• Optimization — We use the visibility provided by Joulemeter’s modeling techniques to improve power provisioning and consumption costs in various scenarios ranging from data centers, enterprise computing, and battery operated machines.

How to use Microsoft Joulemeter?

Download Joulemeter setup file (JoulementerSetup.msi) from the Microsoft Research website and install it. It is available only to Windows 7 users.

Laptops, notebooks or netbooks users do not need any extra hardware. Desktop computer users will need a WattsUp power meter (WattsUp Pro with USB connection) for learning an accurate power model. The software will also work without a power meter as well.

Run the application and select your setup for calibration. On the Calibration tab, select the option that best describes your setup:

• Running on batteries: For laptops; disconnect the power cord and make sure the battery charge level is above 50%.
• WattsUp PRO (Monitor(s) not on WattsUp): Desktop is plugged into a WattsUp PRO, but monitors are not plugged into the WattsUp.
• WattsUp PRO (Laptop OR Monitor(s) also on WattsUp): Desktop and monitor (one or more) are plugged into a power strip that is in turn plugged into a WattsUp PRO; Or if the computer and its monitor(s) are powered by a single power outlet (such as for laptops) from a WattsUp PRO.
• If none of these options apply, you have to do a manual calibration (see at the end of this article).

Close other open programs and click on “Perform Calibration” button. Leave the machine unused for 15 or more minutes. Joulemeter will switch to “Power Usage” after calibration is over.

Note: During calibration, the monitor may turn off and change brightness. Do not use the mouse or keyboard during calibration.

After calibration is complete, measure the power use of the computer. In the “Power Usage” tab to see the power consumption. The WattsUp meter, if used, may now be disconnected.

All power values are in Watts. Base power is computer’s power consumption when powered on but sitting idle. CPU power is the extra power used when some program(s) or the OS use the CPU. Disk power is the extra power consumed by the disk due to IO activity (disk spinning power is included in the base power). Monitor power, if shown, is the additional power consumption of the monitor and may change with brightness.

To estimate power consumption by a particular application, in the Power Usage tab, under Application Power, enter the name of the program executable, such as “myProgram.exe” and click “Start.” If the “myProgram.exe” is not yet running, Joulemeter will wait for it to be started.

Power consumption data is saved in comma separated values (CSV) format that can be opened in Microsoft Excel for easy plotting, or viewed in any text editor.

How to perform Manual Calibration in Joulemeter?

If the computing device is not a laptop or runs on battery or WattsUp based setups is unavailable, the expected range of power values can be manually entered.

• On the Calibration tab, click the “Manual Entry” button. Select the Model type to be a laptop, desktop, or one of the values shown. Joulemeter will recommend typical values to be entered.
• Edit the “Base power” to be the value when the computer is simply turned on but not performing much work.
• In “Processor peak power (high frequency)” enter the power consumed at 100% CPU utilization with the processor using its highest frequency. This power value may be available in your processor’s data sheet as the Thermal Design Power (TDP) value.
• In “Processor peak power (low-frequency)” enter the power consumed at 100% CPU utilization with the processor using its lowest P-state frequency.
• In “Monitor power” enter the power consumption of your monitor (available from the monitor user manual). If using more than one monitor, add up the power consumption of all monitors.
• Please consult the User Manual of the respective devices for more details.

The impact of hardware components on the battery life of your laptop allows you to tweak the power management settings. Thus you can improve battery life of your laptop. Managing and tracking PC sleep, combined with remote wakeup, allows optimizing desktop power consumption. Measuring the VM power allows developing power budgeting techniques for virtualized data centers.

Windows operating system comes with a built-in firewall to protect the system. Windows Firewall like all other software firewalls available out there, protects your Windows system from unauthorized access while allowing legit network to pass through. Unfortunately, configuring the firewall settings is a daunting task for most users.

For all users who are looking for the ease of use in configuring Windows Firewall should check out Windows Firewall Notifier.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a freeware portable application for managing Windows Firewall rules in Windows 7 and Vista. Using this small portable application, configuring both inbound and outbound firewall rules is very easy.

After you have downloaded Windows Firewall Notifier and extracted it to your preferred location, launch it. It will enable the Windows Firewall, if not already enabled. It then blocks all inbound and outbound network connections for which no rules exist. Then it enables inbound connection notifications and outbound connections logging, if disabled. It will then show a notification balloon allowing or disabling incoming and outgoing connections, just like you see in many advanced commercial and freeware firewalls. From these prompts, you can choose to allow (temporarily or permanently) or block connections from being established by applications.

Upon clicking on the notification, you will see the following prompt on the screen with options to: temporarily allow the application, create a rule for the application, block the application once only, always block the application.

As you can see, the prompt also displays more information such as the application name, system path and target IP or hostname.

The application is intelligently built and creates a task in the Windows Task Scheduler. This task is basically linked to the firewall event log entries. Thus, whenever any network activity occurs for which no firewall rule exists, this task will automatically launch Windows Firewall Notifier. Thus this application will not even run in the background and hog any system resource.

If you ever felt that you do not need Windows Firewall Notifier anymore, you can be easily disable it by launching the executable file of the program again and selecting Yes. The program will also provided the option to disable the firewall and revert back the settings to default.

Windows Firewall Notifier is a must have application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 (compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit edition) users who rely on the built-in firewall. It is available as a free download from the developer’s website.

Windows Firewall is a built-in, host-based, stateful firewall that is included in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and later, and Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 and later. Windows Firewall drops incoming traffic that does not correspond to either traffic sent in response to a request of the computer (solicited traffic) or unsolicited traffic that has been specified as allowed (excepted traffic). Windows Firewall helps provide protection from malicious users and programs that rely on unsolicited incoming traffic to attack computers. In Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, Windows Firewall can also drop outgoing traffic and is configured using the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security snap-in, which integrates rules for both firewall behavior and traffic protection with Internet Protocol security (IPsec).
Microsoft Technet

Microsoft releases new themes for Windows 7 users occasionally. Up until now, Microsoft has already released 140+ themes in 9 different categories. The categories includes (in alphabetical order): Animals, Art, Automotive, Branded, Games, Holidays and Seasons, Movies, Nature, Places and Landscapes. Before downloading, you can preview themepacks for Windows 7 using Bing Visual Search. Windows 7 themes can only be used in Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions.

We are starting a new “Hive-Five Friday” series, where we will pick the best five of anything related to tech or everyday computing and write about it. For this week, we have selected the best 5 themepacks for Windows 7 which will keep your desktop lively.

Below you will find the themepacks, some overview of them, links including the preview of the theme pack, download, etc.

1. Angry Birds Windows 7 Themepack

They have no wings. Their eggs have been stolen by pigs. So, yeah, they’re pretty angry. Contemplate their mood at length with our free Angry Birds theme for Windows 7.

Angry Birds Theme for all fans of the most popular game available to almost all platforms!

Details | Preview | Download

2. Naruto Shippuden 5 Windows 7 Themepack

Naruto in prison? The manga and anime star finds himself incarcerated and at the mercy of the master criminal Mui in Naruto Shippūden 5: Blood Prison. This free theme for Windows 7 features a series of wallpapers from the movie. A must for the discerning Naruto superfan!

For all Naruto fans out there, official Naruto Shippuden 5 theme pack!

Details | Preview | Download

3. Transformers 3 Windows 7 Themepack

A mysterious event from the past erupting into the present. A war so big it threatens the entire Earth. This time, the Transformers alone won’t be able to save us. Celebrate the release of Michael Bay’s new Paramount Pictures release Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon in 3D—starring Shia LaBeouf as Sam Witwicky—with this free theme for Windows 7.

Transformers 3 official theme pack for Windows users!

Details | Preview | Download

4. Echoes of the Past Windows 7 Themepack

Time-travel back to the Age of Steam with a treasure-trove of antique images bathed in a golden Victorian light. A free theme for Windows 7.

One of the best theme pack and one of our favorites too!

Details | Preview | Download

5. GTGraphics Windows 7 Themepack

Send your desktop to the furthest reaches of the universe with these fantastic photorealistic images of distant planets and outer space events by GTGraphics in this free Windows 7 theme.

For satisfying your Sci-Fi thirst!

Details | Preview | Download

That’s all for this weeks Hive-Five Friday! We hope you will enjoy these themepacks as much as we do. Share your favorite themepacks with us below and tell us how much you like these.

P.S. What do you want to see in the next Hive-Five Friday? Share with us below and let us know. We will love to write about it.

Microsoft’s upcoming operating system Windows 8 is coming with a unique feature called “System Reset“. System Reset will let users restore Windows 8 to factory defaults. This feature will save a lot of time for system administrators and users alike, and will save you from having to reinstall Windows.

RefreshPC is a free program developed for Windows that offers similar system reset option to current Microsoft Windows operating systems. Though this freeware application will not restore the operating system like Windows 8′s “System Reset” feature, but it will restore only a few sections of the operating system.

RefreshPC will be handy for users, who love to experimenting with Windows Registry settings and system services. Another example would be users who have used Windows system optimizer and have caused more harm to the system than good. Malicious virus, spyware, trojan attack that changed critical system settings can also be restored back to default after cleaning it using your favorite antivirus.

After you have downloaded RefreshPC, you need to install the program and create a System Restore point (recommended). The program than detects your operating system and version, and displays the information. You will find only a single button that will let you restore the settings to their factory defaults when clicked on.

RefreshPC will do the following:

The freeware application is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system, from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Download RefreshPC for refreshing your Windows back to defaults.

Microsoft released Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) in February 2011. Now, Microsoft has made available Windows 7 ISO images integrated with SP1.

Earlier, we have provided official DigitalRiver direct download links of Windows 7. But, you had to download and run Service Pack 1 separately (or through Windows Updates) to update your Windows 7. If you want to slipstream SP1 into Windows 7 installation DVD, so that when you reinstall Windows 7, you don’t need to again download SP1 separately, you can now stop searching. You can now download Official Windows 7 SP1 integrated ISO images directly from Digital River Servers, who are the official partners of Microsoft for distributing Windows 7.

Downloading the files from Digital River is absolutely legal and free as Microsoft uses them as an official download channel. However, without obtaining a legally obtained product key, you will be able to run Windows 7 installation for 30 days. After 30 days, Windows 7 needs to be activated, or the evaluation grace period be reset. If you already own a key, you can activate the ISO you will download from Digital River.

You can very easily be convert the downloaded ISO image into universal Windows 7 editions installation media. FYI, the x86 is the 32-bit edition and the x64 is the 64-bit edition. All the links below are English (USA) language.

Download Windows 7 Integrated SP1 ISO Images

Windows 7 Home Premium x86 SP1 ISO

X17-24208.iso (bootable)

Windows 7 Home Premium x64 SP1 ISO

X17-24209.iso (bootable)

Windows 7 Professional x86 SP1 ISO

X17-24280.iso (bootable)

Windows 7 Professional x64 SP1 ISO

X17-24281.iso (bootable)

Windows 7 Ultimate x86 SP1 ISO

X17-24394.iso (bootable)

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 ISO

X17-24395.iso (bootable)

After you have downloaded the ISO, you can burn it to DVD using any DVD writing software that supports writing disc images or double-click on the image if you are running Windows 7 already. [via]

We hosted two of the most anticipated giveaway for our readers. The first one, Windows 7 Ultimate License: Be Genuine giveaway, with WinSpark Networks collaboration and the second one, Online Microsoft Office Training by Webucator giveaway. Today, we will announce the winner of both the giveaways through this post.

Let us first announce the lucky winner of Windows 7 Ultimate license. But before announcing the name of the lucky reader, we would like to first thank everyone who participated in this giveaway. Everyone did a great job by sharing about this giveaway through various channels to their friends and loved ones. We received 100+ entries and everyone participated with great enthusiasm.

Believe us, we really had tough job in collecting the shares, verifying the entries and awarding the points. But we loved the job and we do liked everyone’s answer to the question “Which Windows 7 feature you loved the most?”

We learned a lot through this event and we will make our future events much more easy for everyone to participate. Without taking much more time, we would like to tell everyone that the person whom we have chosen the winner got 1220 points in total, closely followed by one participant who have received 1200 points in total.

Below is the name of the winner of our Windows 7 Ultimate License: Be Genuine Giveaway.

• elda taluta

Congratulations to the lucky winner of the license. The winner has to respond to our email (which will be sent within 24 hours of this announcement) within two weeks, failing which the next person will be awarded the license. We would like to thank again our partner WinSpark Networks, for sponsoring this giveaway.

Now, coming to our next giveaway “Online Microsoft Office Training by Webucator.”

Participating in this giveaway was made very simple for everyone. Out of the entries, we randomly chosen the winner of this giveaway. The winner will receive a free seat in a Microsoft Office instructor-led online class by Webucator worth $390. The class will run from 10am-5pm Eastern Time.

Below is the name of the winner of our Online Microsoft Office Training by Webucator giveaway.

• Steven Dubbs

Congratulations to the lucky winner. We will send you further instructions through email soon.

Thank you all for making these two events a grant success. Some other exclusive giveaways are on its way, so if you are not a winner this time, hope for the best in our next giveaway.

My Technology Guide readers will love this giveaway as they have to do nothing to win this! Thanks to LotSoft, the developers of the application, we were able to get unlimited licenses for the BDlot DVD Clone Ultimate. The application is a DVD clone software which can also backup and rip DVD’s. We will talk about the giveaway at the end of this article, but first, lets see how good is BDlot DVD Clone Ultimate.

Now, coming to the user interface, when you start the application, you will notice big buttons to do a full DVD disc backup or a DVD title backup at the top. When you click on those buttons, the program automatically changes the options that are available for the task. After inserting a DVD, it fills up information about the DVD, including cover art, name, studio, director and performers automatically.

The program supports all known copy protections like CSS, CPRM, CPPM, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs, SONY ARccOS, Rip-Guard, Disney X-DRM protection etc. It comes with GPU acceleration which can greatly improve the decryption and copying speed. Most of the time you simply have to click on the big Run button and the program will take care of everything.

The unique Sector to Sector copying and GPU accelerating technologies helps speed up tasks such as DVD Cloning, Data backup, ISO burning etc. Though the program will work depends largely on the speed of the DVD drive, the processor, computer memory available and if the video card can be used for GPU acceleration or not.

Features of BDlot DVD Clone Ultimate :

1. Can create perfect DVD Backups of Raw Content.
2. Removes all known DVD copy protections, such as CSS, CPRM, CPPM, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs, SONY ARccOS, Rip-Guard, Disney X-DRM protection, etc.
3. Clone Entire DVD to Blank DVD: Lets you backup full content of DVD-5 or DVD-9 movies as a DVD folder or ISO image on your PC hard drive or USB drive.
4. Lets you backup the “Main Movie” in the DVD or only certain chapters from the DVD.
5. You can burn ISO file or DVD folder to a blank DVD or re-writable DVD.
6. Built-in virtual DVD drive allows you to load and unload any ISO image file for processing.
7. Compatible with Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit), Vista (32 & 64 bit) and Windows XP

BDlot DVD Clone Ultimate is very easy to use and requires very little user interventions. The options available for the tasks are easy to understand and the help file is very extensive. It covers all the functions of the program along with How-To’s.

Giveaway

We have an unlimited amount DVD Clone Ultimate licenses. To win this giveaway, you don’t have to do anything, you don’t need to subscribe us (even though we will like it if you do as you will receive our updates in your email!) or do any other stuffs.

Simply, download the program from the developer website, and enter the license code BU-TUUPTTZU-HBRSRO after installation to activate it. But do remember, you have to register using the license code on or before August 7.

Do you like the new Windows 8 Metro UI or the Windows 7 Phone Interface? If you like it and want to transform your Windows desktop to the new look, Omnimo UI. Using Omnimo UI you can now enjoy the tile based Windows 8 layout, Microsoft showed off at the D9 conference.

If you joined later, Windows 8 supports two types of applications; Classic desktop Windows apps and HTML5 web apps. Microsoft’s new start screen includes easy touch icons to allow users of touch based devices to easily navigate through the operating system. The user interface and new apps will work with or without a keyboard and mouse on a broad range of screen sizes and pixel densities, from small slates to laptops, desktops, all-in-ones, and even classroom-sized displays.

Omnimo v4, developed by fediaFedia, is a Rainmeter skin originally inspired by Windows Phone 7 inspired that brings the awesome Metro UI look to your Windows desktop. It will turn your desktop into a productive and attractive work area, delivering only the information you need. Rainmeter is a desktop customization platform. Through Rainmeter, you can enhance your Windows computer at home or work with skins: handy, compact applets which float freely on your desktop, much like Windows Sidebar gadgets, or dashboard widgets for the Mac.

How to install Omnimo 4?

• Before you can install Omnimo, you’ll first need to download and install the latest version of Rainmeter specific for your Windows platform. So, if you’re running 64-bit Windows, download Rainmeter 64-bit edition else download the 32-bit edition.
• After installing Rainmeter launch it once before proceeding to download and install the Omnimo 4.
• Now, download and extract the archive to find SETUP.rmskin file.
• Double-click on the SETUP.rmskin file to install Omnimo, you will be greeted by the Intro.

  

• After installation, select your settings and then the theme+resolution to apply the best layout. Don’t worry if your desktop resolution is not included, you can move things around to your liking anyway.

  

  

  

You can now play around the settings and customize Omnimo 4 to your heart’s consent. Do remember, if you press Windows + D to show desktop, Rainmeter along with all Omnimo widgets gets minimized.

Thanks to our reader Shook Are for the tip.

Two years back on June 14th, 2009, we posted our very first welcome message here. We officially started our journey as a technology website, with our commitment to bring the most benefits for our readers, subscribers, fans, followers, sponsors and everyone involved on July 1st, 2009.

Since, then almost two years have passed and we have enjoyed every single moment of being with you all. As we are getting ready to start another new term of My Technology Guide, we bring to you the most anticipated giveaway of all times in the history of My Technology Guide. And on this auspicious time, what more can we think of giving away except a genuine license of Windows 7 Ultimate to one of our most valued and loyal reader.

With WinSpark Networks collaboration, we bring to you all, Windows 7 Ultimate License and Be Genuine Giveaway. Through this giveaway, you can win yourself a genuine license of Windows 7 Ultimate edition.

Before we talk about the rules for entering this giveaway, let us give a brief description of WinSpark. The website is exclusively devoted to tech thoughts on various Microsoft technology products, software reviews, how to’s and troubleshooting tips. Do visit them, you will definitely like the website and its great content.

Overview of Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 Ultimate is designed for people who want it all. It gives you everything Home Premium and Professional offers, plus added security features and the flexibility to work in multiple languages. Create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch TV programs for free, whenever and wherever you want.

How to enter Windows 7 Ultimate Exclusive Giveaway?

The rules are simple. Gain as much points as you can by performing any of the steps below, fill up the giveaway form and comment here.

Required Step, will earn you 200 points:

Subscribe for our email updates and don’t forget to confirm the subscription (served via Google FeedBurner)

Gain Points and Maximize your chances of Winning by performing the following steps:

Plus One us on Google. (10 points)

If you are on Facebook, Like our official Facebook page. (10 points)

Share this giveaway with your Facebook buddies and gain extra 10 points.

If you are on Twitter, Follow us and Retweet the following snippet. (20 points)

Get yourself a free #Windows 7 Ultimate License and Be Genuine : http://goo.gl/uGMih via @manekari @mytechguide

Answer this simple question and get 100 points:

Which windows 7 feature you loved the most?

Additionally, you can share about this giveaway with your buddies using the Share buttons below to gain extra 10 points for each action.

Update (22 June, 2011): You can increase your points by sharing on a daily basis, with one condition that you can share to respective services only once in 24 hours time span. For example, you can tweet about the giveaway only once in 24 hours.

The more points that you accumulate, better are your chances for winning!

Did we mention that if you are not into social networking that much, you can still take part and try your luck by simply being our email subscriber? Simply fill up the entry form below and don’t forget to answer the question.

Update (11 July 2011): We have disabled the entry form. We are not accepting any new entries. We will now validate the entries and will count the points. If you have shared about this in different channels but you have not commented about the shares in the comment section below. You can do so now. The winner will be announced after a week or so. We need at least this much time for all the validation of the huge number of entries. Best of luck to all the participants.

General Giveaway Terms and Conditions

Updated

1. No purchase necessary.

2. This contest is open worldwide.
3. Kindly use your genuine email id (used to subscribe to our email subscription) and full name for participating in this giveaway.
4. All entries must be made using the form on the giveaway page.
5. No responsibility can be accepted for entries that are lost, or which are not received for any technical reason.

6. The closing date for the giveaway is 10^th July, 2011.
7. If you win, we will notify you by e-mail.
8. If we do not get a response to the email within two weeks, the prize will be offered to a runner-up.
9. 
The prize is not exchangeable for cash or any other prize.

10. If, for any reason, an advertised prize is not available, we reserve the right to offer an alternative prize of equal or greater value.

11. Incorrectly completed entries will be disqualified. An entry which doesn’t follow the terms and conditions and our comments policy will be disqualified.
12. All federal, state, local, and other taxes on items won are the sole responsibility of the applicable winner.
13. Void where prohibited by law.
14. By entering, entrants certify that they meet all eligibility requirements.
15. By entering, winners also agree to all Terms and Conditions of MyTechGuide.org.
16. My Technology Guide holds the complete rights to change the Terms and Conditions without prior notice.
17. Our decision will be final, and no correspondence will be entered.

Play Fair and Be Genuine! Good Luck!

Microsoft through Connect has released a beta version of Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper. It is basically a system recovery software disguised as a recovery CD or USB application that Windows users can use to remove malware from a system. It can start an infected PC and performing offline scan to help find and remove rootkits and other advanced malware.

The security application can effectively remove viruses, trojans, rootkits and other forms of malware. In addition, the security application can be used if you cannot install or start an antivirus solution on your PC, or if the installed solution can’t detect or remove malware on your PC.

System Sweeper is available as a free download for both Windows 32-bit or 64-bit version users. Users will need an active Internet connection and CD or DVD to burn all contents, or a USB stick with at least 250 MB of space.

Download and run the application, it will help you to create the bootable media required to run the software on your PC.

Select the media you want to use for creating the System Sweeper recovery bootable disk.

After the bootable media is ready, to use it, users need to boot from the CD/DVD disc or USB device. Ordinarily, the bootable media is created on a computer that is not infected.

After booting, the tool will load and will offer options to scan the PC and recover it. It will load the Windows Preinstall Environment to run the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper application for scanning and removing virus and malware from the infected system.

The security program requires Windows XP SP3 to Windows 7 32-bit or 64-bit editions to work properly. If you have a 32-bit operating system, which is infected, then you need to download and install the 32-bit version. If your system is a 64-bit operating system, that’s infected, you need to download the 64-bit version of the recovery software.

Interested users can download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper from the official project website.

Note: The standalone tool is not a replacement for an antivirus solution providing real-time protection; it’s meant to be used in situations where you cannot start your PC due to a virus or other malware infection. For free real-time antivirus protection against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software, download Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG or Avast.

Comodo Internet Security is a free, multi-layered computer security suite that keeps malware and hackers at bay while protecting your computer and private information. Comodo guarantees protection against viruses and malware by focusing on prevention not simply detection.

Comodo Internet Security Pro 2011 offers real-time protection against Viruses, Trojans, Adware, Spyware and other Malware threats. Other Antivirus products depend on signature updates alone but Auto Sandbox Technology means you’re protected from even unknown threats.

Features:

Firewall: Comodo’s Firewall consistently ranks among the highest in industry tests.

Defense+ Technology: Proactive protection to automatically isolate threats from suspicious files so they can’t cause harm actually preventing infections not just detecting them. Cloud based whitelisting of trusted publisher easily identifies a safe file and vendor.

Auto Sandbox Technology: To reduce interruption to the user, unknown files can only run in a secure virtual environment where they can’t damage Windows, its registry, or important user data.

Minimal Interruptions: Comodo Internet Security Pro 2011 relieves you of the responsibility of deciding whether to block or allow untrusted files – it makes the decisions for you. Game Mode suppresses operations that could interfere with a user’s gaming experience such as alerts, virus database updates or scheduled scans.

Spyware Scanning: Spyware Scanner detects and cleans malware infections in PC registry and disks.

Cloud based Antivirus: Cloud based antivirus scanning detects malicious file even if a user does not have up-to-date virus definitions.

Unlimited GeekBuddy Support: Expert support offering 24/7 live chat service to assist with everything from setup to virus removal and Windows issues at no additional charge.

Compatibility: Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP (32-bit and 64 bit versions available).

Normally, Comodo Internet Security Pro is priced at $49.99 for 1-year license. But now, Comodo is running a promotional giveaway program for all. Interested users can download a pre-activated full version of Comodo Internet Security Pro, valid for 1 year from the date of install, free of charge.

To grab 1-year FREE trial copy of the Comodo Internet Security Pro, simply click on the direct download link of the special setup installer:

cispro_1year_installer.exe (32/64 bit combined installer, 60 MB)

cispro_1year_installer_x86.exe (32-bit installer, 35 MB)

cispro_1year_installer_x64.exe (64-bit installer, 37 MB)

After downloading, install the security suite, you will find it to be valid for 365 days.

After Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 and found it well accepted among Windows users, the software giant has released the platform preview of the next version. Undoubtedly, Microsoft on 12th April, 2011 has released Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 available for download.

Internet Explorer 10 PP1 is an early look at IE web browser where you can test out some of the new features that are being developed for Microsoft though as the company admits, some features aren’t quite ready yet. You can view the release notes here.

Welcome to the Platform Preview

The Platform Preview is an early look at the Internet Explorer platform so some features are incomplete, some may change, and some may be added. To learn more about this preview of the Web Platform, please see the Internet Explorer 10 Developer Guide. These release notes list new features available in the latest Platform Preview and known issues with those features. To report issues, and provide feedback please click on Report Issue and click Send Feedback.

What’s New in Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1

Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1 is the first public preview of the IE10 web platform. In this release, we are showcasing support for CSS3 Flexbox, CSS3 Grid Alignment, CSS3 Multi-column, CSS3 Gradients on background-images and ECMAScript5 Strict Mode.

The Internet Explorer PP requires Windows 7 (x86 or x64) Operating System. Later version of IE 10, that is Platform Preview 4 and later require updates to be installed on Windows 7 systems, after which your computer will require a restart. The updates support graphics, media, and printing functionality. It is designed to install these prerequisites automatically. However, if this version of IE encounters an error while installing the prerequisites, you can install them manually prior to installing the Platform Preview. You can view the complete installation guide at this instruction page.

If you’re excited about Internet Explorer 10 and is going to give it a try, please do report any bugs you come across. This way, you will help Microsoft build the perfect Internet Explorer.

Download Internet Explorer 10

Ever faced a situation where after uninstalling a software, you find that it has left behind its service or driver references in the registry, and when Windows tries to load them at every boot, it fails displaying an error? This mostly happens with the security programs (though other applications also causes trouble) that fails to remove its installed services or drivers. Even though we posted an ultimate list of antivirus removal tools, but it is not enough.

We need something which will solve the problem in general for almost every Windows applications that causes trouble. In this article, we will show “how to easily remove an orphaned or unwanted service or driver from your Windows system.”

Basically there are three methods to deal with the problem. You can either use Windows in-built sc.exe command, or use the Registry Editor, or using Microsoft Sysinternals Autoruns for Windows utility.

Warning: Use this tutorial with caution, once you delete a service from Windows system, it’s gone, and it will be very difficult to install it back.

The first thing that you’ll need to do is identify the name of the service. To do so, open Services through the Start Menu or Control Panel or press Windows + R key and type services.msc then press Enter. Find the service in the list that you want to delete. Now, double-click on the service name to open up the Properties dialog-box. Now, highlight the “Service name” value and press Ctrl + C to copy it to the clipboard. You’ll need this name to remove it. For more information, see the article: How to find the short names of services.

Remove unwanted services from Windows using sc.exe command

The sc.exe is a command-line tool in Windows 7/Vista/XP. It can be used to create, edit or delete Services. From the TechNet documentation, sc.exe:

Communicates with the Service Controller and installed services. SC.exe retrieves and sets control information about services. You can use SC.exe for testing and debugging service programs. Service properties stored in the registry can be set to control how service applications are started at boot time and run as background processes. SC.exe parameters can configure a specific service, retrieve the current status of a service, as well as stop and start a service. You can create batch files that call various SC.exe commands to automate the startup or shutdown sequence of services. SC.exe provides capabilities similar to Services in the Administrative Tools item in Control Panel.

Windows 7 and Vista users are needed to open up an elevated command-prompt, that is, right-click the command prompt and choose Run as Administrator. Windows XP users can open a simple command prompt but the account should have administrative rights.

The sc.exe command syntax used to delete a service is:

sc delete ServiceName

Where the text in emphasis/italics represents the short name of a service (which you have already copied as shown earlier in this article), and not its display name. For example, the short name for Automatic Updates service is wuauserv, but its display name is Automatic Updates.

Now if you press the F5 key to refresh Windows Services list, you’ll see that the service is gone for good.

The second method involves using the Registry Editor

If your edition of Windows XP or Windows Vista does not ship with sc.exe console tool, then you may have to edit the registry manually. Simply use the underlined steps:

1. Start Regedit.exe and navigate to the following branch:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services
2. The Service and driver entries are present under the above registry key. Each sub-key represents a driver or a Service. You should be able to identify them easily by looking at the DisplayName and ImagePath values in the right-pane in the Registry Editor.
3. Once you spot the Service/driver entry, right-click on the key and choose Delete.

Warning: Before modifying or removing a Service, create a System Restore point and/or a complete Registry backup, just in case something happens.

The third method is easy compared to the earlier two and involves using Autoruns for Windows app

Autoruns is a must-have tool for Windows users which helps you manage Windows startup, services, drivers, Winsock providers, Internet Explorer add-ons, Shell extensions and much more.

1. Simply download Autoruns and run it. Windows 7 and Vista users are needed to run it as an administrator. To do so, simply right-click on the Autoruns.exe file and select Run as Administrator.
2. Click on Options, tick on Hide Microsoft Entries, so that you can filter out legitimate Microsoft Windows system Services and see only third-party entries. This make it easy for you to spot a third-party driver or Service.
3. Press F5 key to refresh the listing.
4. Now, click on the Services tab and you can easily remove unwanted drivers and Services from there.

Important: Before deleting any service think hard, search for it using any search engine like Google, Bing, etc to find out if that service is important or not, because it’s very difficult to get them back once they are gone. Deleting any important service needed by Windows may cause instability or may lead to loss of data. We will not be liable to you in any way for any kind of data loss that occurs due to mishandling of this information. Use with high caution!

In our earlier articles related to Windows 8, we have posted a number of leaked screenshots. In one of those earliest Windows 8 images, we saw Windows Live integration on the taskbar. In the far right corner, there’s a user tile displayed. Now, if you’d like to enjoy the same feature on Windows 7, simply download Taskbar User Tile from DeviantArt user AngelWZR.

Once you have installed Taskbar User Tile, your current picture will appear on the taskbar. Click on your profile picture, and a menu appears which allows you to log off, switch users, and access the control panel.

Note: This is an alpha release and it contains some bugs. Right now, the mod only works if your taskbar is displayed on the bottom of your Windows desktop.

Download Taskbar User Tile