SoftAwareness

Create a Bootable Windows 7 Installation on a Flash Drive

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

In the old days, for you to set up a bootable thumb drive was a major pain. You had to use multiple tools and command lines to get the thumb drive into a bootable state. Well, not anymore. Microsoft was kind enough to provide a tool for you to do all this. It’s aptly named the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. The requirements are that you will need an ISO image of Windows 7 and of course a thumb drive. So just follow the steps below and you are on your way for a fast and easy Windows 7 installation.

Download and install the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. The Microsoft page is here.
Run the program.

Click Browse and choose your ISO

Click on USB device

Make sure the drop down is displaying your USB device then click Begin copying

If your USB device is not empty, it will ask if you are sure you want to format the device before proceeding.

When done, just close the tool and your USB Flash Drive should now be bootable for Windows 7 installation

Balsamiq Mockups Kicks Other Mockups Butt

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:14:00 +0000

I've been using Balsamiq Mockups Adobe Air application for several months now. And I can say that I am very impress. The other day, one of my colleges sent me an email asking what was meant in the requirement. Instead of having to go into a huge email write-up, I just fired up Mockups and drew out what was meant. Took me a just a minute. You know, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, Mockups made the picture part that much easier.

Head over to their site and take a look at how easy it is to use it.

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

The tabs across the top gets you into control groupings so you can find what you want easier. Then all you need to do is drag and drop them on to your workspace. And editing them is just as easy because each individual control is modifier as plain text. See below image.

So with the least amount of dragging, clicking, and typing, the user can create a “mockup”. Works great to get your idea across as well as requirement documents.

The only hang up I have is that it really does look like a crude mockup. I know, I know, it is supposed to be a mockup. But sometimes I wish it can look like a Web Form or a Win Form so that I can show how it will look exactly. But I guess that could really make the app more complicated which defeats the purpose.

So all in all I totally recommend this app to any Project Lead or Business Analyst that deals with getting your ideas across on a fairly regular basis. Even if it is just a simple send of an email, this app will help you.

Control Your Startup Apps with Startup Control Panel

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:03:00 +0000

If you haven't noticed, I go out of my way to find and use different applications and utilities that I hope to improve my productivity. But as things may have it, it also have the potential to slow down my computer. Now I find myself closing a few applications that insist on starting up when Windows start. Not really wanting to uninstall these apps but rather would like control over when to actually start the application. Wouldn't you know it, others have the same problems that I do. An individual by the name of Mike Lin create a utility called Startup Control Panel that helps you take back control of your startup programs. It doesn't look that good visually but it does its job well. You can find the application at the following location: http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

Ignore Whitespace When Comparing in VS2008

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:30:00 +0000

Normally when you compare two different versions of an object, a compare tool would show up and highlight the differences between the two versions. Unfortunately, it does not ignore the whitespace by default. It could be the difference in the indentation or an extra space somewhere. One such compare shows me that just about everything is different in the two versions but really it is just showing the extra space that was at the end of each line to be different.

Well, I found a little trick so that Whitespace is ignored when comparing two different versions of an object in TFS.

In Visual Studio 2008; Go to Tools –> Options
Go to Source Control –> Visual Studio Team Foundation
Click on “Configure User Tools…”
Click “Add…” Then type in the following:
Extension: .*
Operation: Make sure it is set to “Compare”
Command: diffmerge.exe
Arguments: /ignorespace %1 %2
Click on all the “OK” buttons after that. Now if you compare two different versions of a file, it will ignore the whitespace.

Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:32:00 +0000

So I have been reading a couple of computer magazines and it seems like their editors like the program alot. So I decided I should give it a try. I have to say, the program definitely does a fine and good job of auditing your PC. Frankly, I think it does too good of a job. So well in fact that I'm kinda scared to keep the report file the program generated anywhere on my computer in case it falls into the wrong hands. So why was I scared. Well, the report it generated had every software that I have ever installed on my PC. Not only that, it was also good enough to show you all the Keys and Serial numbers associated with the software. It also shows all the hardware that I have on my PC including model numbers and types. So, I would probably not use this program on a normal routine basis. What I would use Belarc Advisor for is to generate a report before I format and reinstall my operating system. I would print out the report and delete the HTML report file it generates so you will have a paper printout to keep handy when installing your OS back. And once the OS is back up, then you have the Serial Keys and the list of programs that you had installed on the previous OS. Now you can see all the programs you need to install to get the PC to where it was before. Of course, this doesn't mean you should install all the program again because some of those may have led you to the problems that you have and caused you to reinstall the OS in the first place.

Platform: Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95.
Price: Free
Website: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

PureText (Copy and Paste without Format)

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:32:00 +0000

As a web developer, I’m amazed I didn’t try to find this before now. Now that I have it, I sure I won’t be able to live without it during my working hours. There’s many times that I would copy text from a Word document and try to paste it into my HTML editor and getting a whole bunch of garbage asscociated with text formating. I would then open up NotePad, paste into it to clean the formating out, then copy it to paste it into the HTML editor. Let’s just say it’s a big hassle when you do this as many times a day as I do. PureText makes it much less complicated. PureText is a simple program that constantly runs and lives in the Window System Tray. It just sits there waiting for you to cut or copy text. Once you copy a set of text, you activate the text cleanup process by hitting the "WindowKey + V". It will then clean up the formating and paste your text into the current application you are using.

Check out Steve Miller’s website at the following URL: http://stevemiller.net/puretext/

Color Cop

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:24:00 +0000

There are many times that people would send me a mockup of a screenshot and telling me that they want the DataGrid to be highlighted in that particular color. Instead of having to pull it into Paint.NET, GIMP, or Photoshop, I fire up Color Cop. It allows me to take a sample of anything on my screen. Just grab the Pipette and drag it to where you want it to sample the screen and it will display the RGB of the color. If you right-click on the Pipette then you can also set the sampling size. I think it saves me a lot of time and wanted to share it with all of you.

http://download.cnet.com/Color-Cop/3000-2383_4-10047009.html

Finally Jailbreak and Unlocked my 2G iPhone 2.1

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 15:20:00 +0000

I followed the following instructions from http://www.iphone-hacks.com/2008/09/23/how-to-use-quickpwn-21-to-unlock-and-jailbreak-iphone-21-on-windows/ except I had to make sure I installed the SIM that I want to work with in the iPhone before doing anything. The following is all written by Alias420 found on the above link.

How To Use QuickPwn 2.1 To Unlock And Jailbreak iPhone 2.1 On Windows

Posted by Alias420

These are step by step instructions on how to use QuickPwn 2.1 for Microsoft Windows to unlock & jailbreak your first generation iPhone 2.1 2G/EDGE.

REQUIRED:

iTunes 8 installed (make sure to reboot). - Download iTunes

Note: If you have already upgraded your iPhone to firmware 2.1 skip step 2.

Step One
Create a folder on your desktop called Pwnage.

Download the following files and place them in this Pwnage folder you just created on your desktop:

QuickPwn 2.1

iPhone 2.1 ipsw Download

bl39.bin 3.9 BootLoader Download

bl46.bin 4.6 BootLoader Download

Unzip the QuickPwn21-1.zip file inside the Pwnage folder.

Step Two
Launch iTunes and connect your iPhone to the computer via USB cable.

Select your iPhone from the list of devices on the left side navigation bar. Now hold down shift while clicking the Restore button.

Navigate to the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop and select the 2.1 firmware ipsw file. Double click the ipsw file or select it and click the Open button to proceed.

Step Three
Once iTunes has finished upgrading your iPhone to the 2.1 firmware you may launch QuickPwn 2.1 from the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop.

Step Four
Make sure you iPhone is still connected to the computer via USB cable then click the blue arrow to proceed.

Step Five
Click the Browse button to locate your iPhone firmware.

Step Six
Select the 2.1 firmware ipsw file from the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop then double click the ipsw file or select it then click the Open button.

Step Seven
QuickPwn will check to verify that the ipsw file is valid. After completetion of the verification, click the blue arrow button to proceed.

Step Eight
You can now select whether to Add Cydia, Add Installer, or Replace Boot Logos. Select the ones you would like to perform then click the clue arrow button. Installing Cydia and Installer is highly recommended to enjoy the full jailbreak experience.

Step Nine
You will now be prompted to select your bootloader files. Click on the Browse button and select the 3.9 bootloader from the Pwnage folder you created on your desktop. Repeat this for the 4.6 bootloader file. Then click the blue arrow button to proceed.

Step Ten
QuickPwn will now ask you to confirm your iPhone is still connected via USB cable before it continues. Click the blue arrow button to proceed.

Step Eleven
QuickPwn will now automatically put your iPhone into recovery mode. Once its in recovery mode you will be prompted to: Hold the Home button for 5 seconds, Hold the Home and Power buttons for 10 seconds, then release the Power button and continuing holding the Home button until your iPhone is in DFU mode.

Note: Pay attention and do exactly as it says

Step Twelve
Once QuickPwn detects your iPhone in DFU mode it will begin the jailbreaking process.

Step Thirteen
Once jailbreaking is complete QuickPwn will inform you that it haz Pwned! Your iPhone will then reboot and run BootNeuter. Let BootNeuter do it’s thing, do not interupt it. This process will take about 5 minutes. Remember patience is a virtue. Your iPhone will reboot when it has completed.

Jing Project

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:22:00 +0000

After I found this nifty screen capture tool, I can hardly put it down. Not only does it capture the screen, it also takes video and record audio. If you do a lot of communication with other people and find yourself saying "go click here and check this and make sure that is set", then this is the tool for you. I can create a quick and easy video on the fly and send it to the other person to see exactly what they need to do.

A bright half sun sits on the top part of your desktop and gives you quick access to the capture tool. Once in the capture tool, you can set the area you want to capture by either clicking on the window or dragging the pointer on the area you want to capture. Once that is done, then you can choose either image or video. The tool will then act accordingly and allow you to save an image or begin a recording. When you are finished with the capture, the tool gives you the option of saving it to disk, copy it to clipboard, upload to FTP site, or upload to screencast.com.

If you do a lot of screen capture or screencast, then this is a tool for you.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Website: http://www.jingproject.com/

Microsoft Expression Web 2 - Multiple Styles

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:37:00 +0000

I just played with the new MS Expression Web 2 for about 5 minutes and already I am impress. It was able to apply multiple styles/class to a DIV tag with just a few clicks of a button. Click to see the video.

Free Small Web Icons

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:23:00 +0000

Found a site that offered free small web icons. Might come in handy for internal uses. It is offered by FamFamFam at http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

EasyCapture

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Yes, I know there's a lot of screen capture software out there but is it Easy to use and is it Free? Well, EasyCapture is just that, easy and free. Which happens to be very good combination for most things in life. :) The application have options to take a screen shot of a window, region, or all of the desktop. It also presents the screen shots into multiple tabs when dealing with more than one screen shot at a time.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Website: http://www.xydownload.com/easycapture/

Update: I ran into a minor problem with this free tool. If you try to print straight from EasyCapture, the image tend to be incredibly small on the Print Preview Page as seen below.

I was able to get around this by zooming in on the picture at 400% for it to print correctly.

Windows Sysinternals Is Like Scalpel For Your PC

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:26:00 +0000

If you have never gone to Microsoft’s Sysinternals page and you own a PC then you need to at least stop by. This site holds enough utility to keep a geek happy for a good couple of days. Really, if you want to virtually disect your PC, then this will be a good place to browse for the tools. Just under the File and Disk Utilities section, there are over 20 different utilities you can use. For example, there’s a utility called Movefile that will allow you to schedule a file rename or delete command the next time you boot your system. Then there’s a Pendmove program that shows you which files are scheduled to be renamed or deleted. Some are so low level that it probably won’t do you any good unless you are Neo. Diskmon gives me a lot of info, unfortunately I couldn’t decipher it. Other topics on this site is Networking Utilities, Process Utilities, Security Utilities, , System Information, and Miscellaneous Utilities. And of course, all this is free.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Website: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

Export Windows Search with SysExporter

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:26:00 +0000

It's a big freaking pain sometimes when I want to make a report of the result of my Windows XP Search. You know when you go and right click on a Drive or Folder and choose "Search...". It takes a while for the search result to come back and you can't even save it. Once you close it, it's gone. Now that I have SysExporter, I don't have to worry about that problem. For example, I want to find all the PDF files I have on my PC, I can just do a search for "*.pdf" on my local drives and wait for it to finish. Then I lauch SysExporter and choose the correct type in the list. SysExporter shows you more than just your search result. It shows you just about every window you have opened so you need to choose the "Search Results" with a type of "ListView". Once selected, it shows all the search result in the bottom pane of the application. Highlight all of it and right click and choose "Copy Selected Items (Tab Delimited)". Now you are able to paste into Excel to save the search result. Windows should have this built in.

Platform: Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP
Price: Free
Website: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/sysexp.html

Avast AntiVirus – Another Decent Free Software

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:27:00 +0000

Just found this one recently but have not given it a try yet. However, I heard some good things about it. It is pretty much on the same level as AntiVir and AVG Anti-Virus. Once I give it a try, I’ll give an update on my findings.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free (for the Home Edition)
Website: http://www.avast.com/

Zipper/Unzipper - Not For Your Pants But For Your Files

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 15:29:00 +0000

WinRAR is one of several software that I use on a constant basis that I would willingly pay for. It opens just about every zip files I need like zip, rar, tar, ace, ect. Not only that, it is also able to open ISO files. You have the normal right-mouse click menu that enables you to compress your file. While clicking on a compressed file, you are given an option of extracting to current folder or creating a folder with the name of the file and extracting there. Overall, it is very easy to use and is very worthy of the money you need to pay in order to get rid of the nagging splash page.

Platform: Windows
Price: $29
Website: http://www.rarlab.com/index.htm

Decent Free Anti-Adware

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 15:40:00 +0000

Since I blogged about two free anti-virus, I might as well show you two decent free anti-adware/anti-spyware. Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal and Spybot Search&Destroy are pretty good anti-spyware considering they are free. Both of these run pretty well on my computer. I noticed that it is actually pretty good to have both of these installed because what one misses the other may catch. When running this program, it will go through your computer and the registry looking for any suspicious program or entry very similar to that of a anti-virus program would do. Once suspicious entries are found, the program lists them out for you to decide if you want to remove them or not. The program also gives you the ability to backup the changes in case you want to roll back your removal. Overall, these are very decent software to use to help guard against spyware and adware.

Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE Personal
Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Ad-Aware SE Plus $26.95)
Website: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/products/ad-aware_se_personal.php

Spybot Search&Destroy
Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Donations)
Website: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html

Decent Free Anti-Virus

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 15:41:00 +0000

Avira AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition are two very decent free anti-virus software. It doesn’t work as well as McAfee or Norton Anti-Virus but that is as expected considering these goes for $39.99 each. Each of these runs in the background and detects virus. AVG Anti-Virus also detects virus from incoming email and outgoing email. However, I found some problems with this feature when trying to download my emails from GMail POP3 service. I had to disable it for the emails to be downloaded correctly.

Avira AntiVir® PersonalEdition Classic
Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Personal Premium about $25)
Website: http://www.free-av.com/

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition
Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Pro Edition $38.95)
Website: http://www.grisoft.com/doc/products-avg-anti-virus-free-edition/lng/us/tpl/tpl01

SoftAwareness – Ep. 03 – Image Resizer

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:35:00 +0000

Shows what Microsoft Image Resizer can do and how to use and install the utility.

Link: SoftAwareness Ep. 03 – MP4
Duration: 04:50

Codec Confusion

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:33:00 +0000

Have you ever got some weird error about missing codecs when trying to play a video file you downloaded? The video file may even work on one computer while not working on another. (Don’t know what a codec is? Click here to read about it.) Well, it looks like you didn’t install the correct codec for that particular video. So the next questions are; how can a codec be installed, what codec should be installed, and where the heck can I find the codec. To install individual codecs by themselves can be daunting. I go find an installation file in order to install them easier. As for what codec should be installed. My answer is simple, install it all. Ok, maybe not all, but the most popular ones. Now’s the where. Free-Codecs.com is a good place to start. The installation package I normally install on my PC is called the K-Lite Codec Pack. You may also opt for the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack which includes more applications like Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative. You can find out what those are in the upcoming episode of the SoftAwareness vidcast. It includes several tools as well as the most popular codecs available. Once this package is installed, you should be able to play just about any time of video file.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Website: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm
Website: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Mega_Codec_Pack.htm

GIMP Image Editor

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:32:00 +0000

Since I am on the track of freeware, I shouldn’t leave GIMP out of my list even though most of you probably have already heard of it. But for those that haven’t then read on. GIMP is a great free image editor. It stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and it is of course under the GNU General Public License. The program is much much better than Paint. I think it is slightly better than Paint.Net. GIMP can do the usual things that a good paint program can do like having multiple layers, color manupilation, cropping, and resizing. So if you don’t want to spend $50 or more on a graphic editor, GIMP may be your answer.

Platform: Windows, MacOS X, Unix, Linux
Price: Free
Website: http://www.gimp.org/

Taskbar Shuffle (no, it has nothing to do with the iPod Shuffle)

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 15:37:00 +0000

Ok, sometimes I get a bit obsessive compulsive. I have a good amount of windows opened up while I work or surf the web. And I generally do not like to group my stupid taskbar items because it is very hard to find the right window with just 5 or 6 characters of description. Grouping taskbar sucks. Ok, I feel a little better now. Taskbar Shuffle helps me be the windows organization geek I always wanted to be by letting me move the items in the Taskbar in any order that I want them to be. Now I can have all my Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer, and other applications in the order I want them to be and not the order that I start up the application. It’s a dream come true.

Platform: Windows (Macs don’t have this problem)
Price: Free
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm

Net Snippets - Virtual Scissors for Web Pages

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 15:39:00 +0000

Imagine if you will, a newspaper. You want to be able to cut snippets of the newspaper out for later reading or keeping a record of some information you are interested in. Now fast forward to today and you are on the Internet wanting to do the same thing you did back in the old days. To serve those of us who wants a snippet of the web is Net Snippets. It does what it sounds like. It helps you document and take snippets of websites and store them on your hard drive. It's a great researching tool that I use on a constant basis when doing a paper. The program retain the snippet of information you wanted. Some information even gets populated automatically. For example, you browse to a site and decide to take a snippet of a particular page. Net Snippets will pull down all the text, the URL that you were at, and the date that the page was last updated.

[UPDATE 2007-04-16] As of March 2007, Net Snippets have been discontinued. I had a comment that said Kee<p>oint is a much better product than Net Snippets. Unfortunately I can't argue with that considering Net Snippets is no longer around. I will try to download the free version and try it out in the near future. Look for a new post on the review of Kee<p>oint. If you are curious and want to try it out. You can check it out here: http://www.keepoint.com/

Platform: Windows
Price: Free for Free Edition (go figure)
Website: http://www.netsnippets.com/

Firefox Portable

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:41:00 +0000

Police Officers carry they badge whereever they go, shopaholics carry their credit cards, well, I carry my thumbdrive. I guess it's like a badge for techies. With the sizes of thumbdrive shrinking while the disk space enlarging, it is possible to carry incredible amount of information and data with you where ever you may go. Sometimes, I just wish I have all my bookmarks and Firefox settings whatever PC I happen to be on. Firefox Portable helps me do just that. It's all the program in a self contain folder that runs as long as you have access to a USB port on the PC that you are currently on. Plug in the thumbdrive and run the startup program and Firefox fires up with all your settings just like when you were at home.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free
Website: http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable

Kirby Alarm

noreply@blogger.com (inVINCEble) — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:43:00 +0000

Windows comes with a program for scheduling tasks called Tasks Scheduler or Scheduled Tasks. At least they named it right but the usefulness of the program is somewhat lacking. Kirby Alarm takes the job of scheduling tasks a step further by allowing you to set up reminders and more. So if you wanted to remind yourself or run a specific program, then you can use Kirby Alarm to set up when you want the program to run.

Platform: Windows
Price: Free (Donations)
Website: http://www.kirbyfooty.com/