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Some articles just need special attention simply because they give a lot of value to the reader. The articles that add a lot of value to the user are listed in this category.

USB vs eSATA vs Thunderbolt vs Ethernet

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Being able to transfer data day in and day out is a very routine process for all of us. We need to make sure that we have the right devices for data transfer to take place. Earlier when the computer technology was not much developed, we had to face a lot of issues in regards to data transfer. Many a times data transfer would take a lot of time before it could be properly transferred and many a times, there was some sort of loss and unwanted modification to the data. To ensure that there would be lesser problems, data transfer methods were improved for the better. As a result of which there were a variety of data transfer methods that came into existence. Today there is a variety of devices and data transfer technology that is being. It is also dependent on the person looking to transfer the data.

USB 2.0

The USB, in its starting period had low speeds of transfer. After USB 1.1, there was USB 2.0. USB 2.0 can transfer data at the rate of 480 Mbps. The cables and the connectors are all compatible for USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 but they tend to transfer at the lower average if not used in accordance with their versions.

USB 3.0

It is the latest version of the USB. It has also been nicknamed as Super Speed USB. The data transfer rate that is possible with the USB 3.0 is 5Gbps (5120 Mbps). There has been a latest release to it as well which is known as 3.1, it has a speed of 10 Gbps. If you want your USB 3.0 to transfer data at the theoretical rates as claimed, then use USB 3.0 connectors and cables so that the device can function properly, otherwise, if lower version’s cables and connectors are used then the speed would be at lower levels.

eSATA

The external storage that allowed movement of data from the computer to peripheral devices used SATA format. The conversion of data from the computer to the devices was slowed down due to the translation that happened between the transfers. eSATA has multiple ports and it allows fast transfer of data from the computer to other peripheral devices enabling a quick transfer. The data transfer speed of eSATA is 3 Gbps.

Firewire

Firewire is another connection type that allows data to be transferred. It is most commonly used to transfer digital files like pictures, and videos. The Firewire port is most commonly found in printers, scanners. The biggest advantage that can be enjoyed with Firewire is its ability to connect around 63 device at once through a daisy chain. The peripherals can then function at their own speeds, as the Firewire connection bus can alternate between varying speeds, hence no device’s speed is affected. The speed at which data transfer can happen at a speed of 800Mbps. Fire wire are expensive then USB and also they are not so commonly supported.

Thunderbolt

It is the newest technology that is being used for data transfer. The Thunderbolt cable allows the utilization of USB ports, Firewire port , Ethernet port through a single cable. It also allows multiple devices to be used through a single port. The Thunderbolt cable is not yet very common, and is being used by ultra thin laptops and other high end devices. It has a data transfer speed of 40 Gbps.

Ethernet

Ethernet cables are used to connect devices and form networks. They are very durable and carry signals effectively and efficiently. The speed of the data transfer is 100 Mbps and around 1000Mbps for the Gigabit Ethernet.

USB 2.0 vs. USB 3.0 vs. eSATA vs. Thunderbolt vs. Firewire vs. Ethernet

Below is the comparision table that can help you decide what you want. The criteria and the features are all summarized below:

USB 2.0

USB 3.0

eSATA

Thunderbolt

Firewire

Ethernet
Speed 480Mbps 5Gbps
(USB 3.1 speed is 10 Gbps)		 Varies between 3Gbps-6Gbps 20 Gbps

(Thunderbolt 3 speed is 40 Gbps)

 Varies between 3 Gbps- 6 Gbps 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps
Compatibility All devices All devices The eSATA port is fairly common, but can be connected through port extensions. Requires a cable adapter to connect. Found mostly in audio/video devices. It is less common as it requires a specific port. The port exists in laptops and computer devices.
Availability All laptops and computers. All laptops and computers. Present in a few Toshiba laptops. Limited to Apple manufactured devices. Present in Camcorders, printers, scanners and video cameras. All laptops and computers.
Price Reasonable Reasonable Higher than USB Expensive. Reasonable Reasonable

VERDICT

In terms of speed the winner would be Thunderbolt. In descending order:

  1. Thunderbolt (up to 40 Gbps)
  2. USB 3.1 (10 Gbps), then USB 3.0 (5 Gbps)
  3. eSATA (6 Gbps)
  4. Firewire (6 Gbps)
  5. Gigabit Ethernet (1 Gbps)
  6. USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)
  7. Ethernet (up to 1 Gbps)

If in terms of price, the priciest being the top of the list:

  1. Thunderbolt
  2. eSATA
  3. Firewire
  4. Ethernet
  5. USB 3.0
  6. USB 2.0
3 Ways To Find Unknown Device Drivers In Windows

3 Ways To Find Unknown Device Drivers In Windows

Featured, List, Tips/Troubleshooting, Windows , 11 Comments

Device driver installation has always been a headache for most of the people. Either one thing or the other is always missing. Once we want to clean install Windows, we have to make sure that we have got all the device drivers for our system. If we miss some of the drivers, nothing works fine. Here are some ways to find unknown device drivers in Windows.

1- Using Unknown Device Identifier

Unknown Device Identifier enables you to identify the yellow question mark labeled Unknown Devices in Device Manager. And reports you a detailed summary for the manufacturer name, OEM name, device type, device model and even the exact name of the unknown devices. With the collected information, you might contact your hardware manufacturer for support or search the Internet for the corresponding driver with a simple click. With this utility, you might immediately convert your unidentified unknown devices into identified known devices and find proper driver on the Internet and contact the hardware device manufacturer or vender. Known devices recognized by Microsoft Windows will also be analyzed independent of the operating system.

Unknown Device Identifier

Download Unknown Device Identifier from the following location:

[download id=”66″]

2- Using Unknown Devices

Unknown Devices helps you find what those unknown devices in Device Manager really are.

By checking Device Manager for unknown devices and extracting information from it, this program attempts to figure out what the device is. You might not have to open your case or look up random numbers off of PCI cards to figure out what they are.

Unknown Device Tool

However when I run this software on my Windows Vista machine, it doesn’t detect my operating system. I have updated the vendors database file and packed with this software. The software can be downloaded from the following location:

[download id=”67″]

3- Manually Identifying The Unknown Devices

To manually identify the devices we have to find out the device instance ID which has two parts, one is the vendor ID and the second is Device ID. Once we have got the vendor ID and identified the device ID, we can easily find the drivers for our device.

To find the device instance ID go to Device Manager –> Right click the unknown device –> Properties –> Details.

Now from the drop down menu select Device Instance Path (Windows Vista)/ Device Instance ID (Windows XP)

It will give you a string value which contains the vendor ID and the Device ID. The string is like this:

HDAUDIO\FUNC_02&VEN_14F1&DEV_5045&SUBSYS_103C30D5&REV_1001\4&2675E3A&0&0002

Where red is the Vendor ID and green is the Device ID. Note down both of them.

Once you have the Vendor ID and the device ID, you can go to the following websites and find out the vendor and device name and search for its drivers.

http://www.pcidatabase.com/

http://www.pcisig.com/membership/vid_search/

http://pciids.sourceforge.net/

You can also download PCI Utilities which displays the Vendors and devices in human readable format instead of the alphanumeric code characters.

How To Identify And Open Unknown File Types (With Or Without Extensions)

How To Identify And Open Unknown File Types (With Or Without Extensions)

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File format or file type is a specific way of storing a file in a computer. The file types determine the how the file can be opened. File type is usually determined by the characters after the last dot of the file name. For example, JPEG is a very popular file format which is used to store images. If a file has a name which ends in .jpeg, a picture viewer will be able to open the file.

Every file type has to be opened by a specific software which can read the encoding of that format. There are hundreds of thousands of file types. So naturally, everyone does not have a software for opening every type of file format. There are times when we come across unknown file types which are not identified by our computers.

identifying filetypes

This article will help you identify and open unknown file types.

Identifying unknown file types by their extensions

Most of the times, we will come across files which are identified as unknown by our computer but they have an extension at the end of the file name. This can greatly help us in identifying which program or software can be used to open those file types. Here are some site which will give you more information about the unknown file extension and will also suggest software which are used to open these types of files.

FileExt

FileExt is the ultimate go to website in case you want to know more about a particular file extension. FileExt is a free database of file extensions and the programs which are used to open those extensions. For example, if I search for .torrent extension, it will give me details about the extension including explanation about the extension, primary association, company, file classification and related links where you can further research about the file.

If you go further below, you will find the names of programs which are used to open this type of file under the heading “System Info for File Extension ..”

FileExt

OpenWith

OpenWith provides detailed information about a file type and the programs which are used to open the file. It will give the details like the name of the file type, category etc. The biggest advantage of OpenWith is that it will not only suggest free software, if available, to open the file type we are looking for but also give the download link of that software making it very easy for the user to quickly download the program and open the file he wants.

OpenWith

FileSuffix

FileSuffix is a regularly updated database of file types. The most interesting feature of FileSuffix is that it arranges the file types in categories making it easier for people to browse the file types database. The information provided on FileSuffix on a particular file type includes the file related errors which people usually encounter.

FileSuffix

FileInfo

In addition to the online file type database search facility, FileInfo has tools available for web browsers as well as Windows and Mac users. If you are a Windows user, you can download Extension Lookup gadget in order to search for a particular extension directly from your Desktop without opening the site.

FileInfo

File-Extensions.org

Apart from the database that every site provides, File-extension.org takes pride in showing the icons of each file to better get an idea about the file type. You can also download the Desktop based software of file-extensions.org which can be used to search for unknown file types right from within Windows without opening the browser.

File-Extensions.org

Although there are many other sites which provide information databases of file types and extensions, we end our discussion here as we have already discussed almost every kind of site.

Identifying unknown file types without extensions

If you encounter a file without an extension at the end of the file name, it becomes very difficult to identify and open the file. Here are some software which can be used to either identify an unknown file type or software which can be used to open majority of the file formats without needing other dedicated software.

TrIDNet

TrID is a software which can be used to identify file types from their binaries and actual code without the need to known the file extension. TrID uses a database of basic file type definitions which are used to encode the files into a particular file. TrIDNet is the GUI version of TrID. To use TrIDNet, you will need to download two files.

  • TrIDNet
  • TrID XML definitions

Extract both the files inside a single folder and run tridnet.exe. Please note that you will need to have .NET Framework installed in order to run TrIDNet.

TrIDNet scan and identify file type

Browse and select the file without any extension and press the Analyze button in order to proceed. TrIDNet will search the database and will tell you the file type. You can use the sites mentioned above to find a suitable software to open the file.

After you have identified the file type, don’t forget to add the appropriate extension to the file name for future.

Download TrIDNet

Universal Viewer

Universal Viewer is an advanced file viewer which can be used to open a wide range of file formats. The file formats include major graphics formats including RAW images from 400+ camera types, document files including Microsoft and non-MS document formats, all types of text file formats etc. It also comes in a portable form so you can keep it in your USB drive and use it to directly from the USB drive to open most of the files.

Universal Viewer

Free Opener

Free Opener is another free software which can be used to open 80+ file formats. It can open as well as edit and print files without any need to install additional software.

Free Opener

Open Freely

Open Freely is a universal file opener which supports over 100 file formats. It can also play audio and video file formats. The installer of Open Freely may install additional software by default. You will need to be careful while installing the software.

Open Freely

FreeFileViewer

FreeFileViewer is a very simple file viewer and music player which comes with a very minimalist GUI. This is an all in one file viewer. You will not need any other software for FreeFileViewer to work. It will start working the moment you install it.

FreeFileViewer

Fixing broken file associations

There are times when the file associations will get broken while you are installing and uninstalling software in Windows. If the main file associations get broken, chances are that Windows will start behaving abnormally. So you will need to get everything to default in order to get Windows to its normal state. Here are some guides which will help you fix broken file associations in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Fix broken file associations in Windows XP

Fix broken file associations in Windows Vista

Fix broken file associations in Windows 7

Fix broken file associations in Windows 8

I have tried my best to cover everything related to identifying, opening and fixing file types in Windows. If I have missed anything, kindly let me know through the comments below.

Creating Virtual Machines In VirtualBox [Complete Guide][Windows]

Creating Virtual Machines In VirtualBox [Complete Guide][Windows]

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A virtual machine can be understood as software implementation of the Operating System over your existing computer system (consisting of hardware and software). This means that you can make a virtual machine and install the latest version of Windows 8 on your PC running on Windows 7. These are known as the ‘Guest Operating Systems’ or ‘Guest Programs’. These guest software are unaware that they are running on any virtual machine and they operate in the same way as they would on a physical machine.

Defining Virtualization terms

Virtualization

Virtualization is a technique of creating an imaginary version of something. In our case, virtualization means creating a virtual running computer inside the physical computer.

Types of virtualization

  • Software virtualization
  • Network virtualization
  • Server virtualization
  • Storage virtualization

Virtual Machine

Virtual machine is the software implementation of the Operating System which runs inside another Operating System. For example, we can run Windows XP inside Windows 7.

Host Operating System

Host Operating System is the main OS installed on the physical computer.

Guest Operating System

Guest Operating System is the virtual OS which runs in a Virtual machine installed on a host Operating System.

virtual-machiine-created

Why is creating a virtual machine useful?

Here are some of the benefits of using a virtual machine instead of installing an Operating System on a physical computer.

  1. It saves dual booting time. You can run multiple Operating Systems simultaneously.
  2. It provides system independence. The virtual machine acts as a portable Operating System. You can always take the virtual machine anywhere with you and run it without actually installing the Operating System again and again.
  3. Technology writers and geeks install and try different software on the daily basis. Some of these software may not be reliable enough and they may corrupt the computer system. You can run them on the virtual machine so that they may not cause any harm to your physical system.
  4. You can do rigorous testing of your newly developed application or program on the virtual machine and roll back the machine when done.
  5. It is easier to move virtual machines between the physical machines. All you need to do is to move the virtual disk/image file and some configuration files.

Software to create virtual machines

The following software can be used to create virtual machines. The list contains free as well as commercial software.

  1. VirtualBox (This is what we love the most)
  2. VMWare Workstation (Another respected virtualization solution from VMWare.
  3. QEMU – a generic and open source machine emulator and virtualizer. Supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS.
  4. Virtual PC – a solution by Microsoft which is mostly compatible with Windows as guests. It has some limitations for running other Operating Systems as guests.
  5. VMLite VBoot – allows the user to boot a physical computer from a virtual hard drive.
  6. Microsoft Hyper-V – the latest virtualization solution from Microsoft.
  7. BitBox – specifically created for an isolated browsing experience. A virtual environment created just for secure and comfortable browsing.

Installing VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product developed by the Sun Microsystems. It is high performing , feature rich product which is freely available under GNU General Public License. The term ‘Virtualization’ sounds advanced and you may think that it will be very technical to set up a machine like this. But, you will be glad to know that installing virtual machines is easy and you have to go through a sequence of ‘Next’ buttons. You may customize the set up features, but going with the default settings is a recommended choice. You may get a warning that your internet connection will be disconnected during installation, so make sure that you are not performing any important task online or downloading any content. It will ask for your permission before installing device drivers or software, permit it.

virtual-device-driver

After successful installation of the virtual box, you will see the following window displaying that the installation is complete.

virtual-machine-installed

Create and Configure Your Virtual Machine

  • Go to Start -> Oracle VM Virtual Box set up and a window will be opened greeting you to the virtual box.
  • Click ‘New’ to set up a new virtual machine.
  • Give it a proper name and select the platform type i.e., Microsoft Windows, Linux, Macintosh or Solaris.

virtual-box-manager

Allocate Memory to Virtual Machine

Next comes the memory allocation to your virtual machine. Move the slider bar to increase or reduce the memory size. The recommended memory size is 1024 MB, but if you plan to run light weight software on your machine then you may reduce it to 512 MB.

virtual-hard-drive

Create a Virtual Disk Image

It will then ask you if you want to create a new virtual hard drive or use any existing virtual hard drive file. Since, you are installing the machine for the first time and any virtual hard drive file does not exist in your system :

Select ‘Create a Virtual Hard Drive Now’

Select an appropriate location for your virtual hard drive and label it with a reasonable name. This will help you locate your virtual hard drive, when you want to move a virtual machine from one system to another.

Choose Storage Type

Now you need to choose between dynamically expanding or fixed storage. Fixed is storage is efficient but dynamic storage is more flexible. Dynamic storage allocates little space at first and expands itself eventually if required by the operating system. So, the choice may vary with user requirements.

win8-virtual-drive

Assuming everything goes well, your virtual machine is now created. You can see the details of your machine in the Virtual Box Manager. Explore the ‘Settings’ tab and you will notice that you can change the configuration settings of your machine (including memory) in a very easy manner.

Empower your machine with the Operating System

  • Select the machine name “Windows 8” (in our case) and click ‘Start’ to start your virtual machine.
  • Select the disk drive that contains the operating system, you wish to install.
  • Rest of the procedure is same as the one you carry out while installing OS on to your physical hard disk drive.

virtual-machine-startup

We will be sharing more tips and tricks about using virtual machines efficiently However, till then you may like to experience Virtual Machine Servicing Tool.

Making VirtualBox portable

The best bit about VirtualBox is that it can be made portable to run the Operating System from a USB Flash drive. Portable VirtualBox is a software which lets you run any virtualized Operating System from any location without actually installing VirtualBox. Please note that there are quite a few drivers which need to be installed when running a virtual Operating System through VirtualBox. If you are using Portable VirtualBox and do not have those drivers installed, you will need to provide administrative permissions to Portable VirtualBox in order to run properly. It will still run without installing those drivers but with admin rights.

Download Portable VirtualBox

I hope all this stuff has been useful for you and I’d like to thank you for reading. If you like the article, please leave a helpful comment and share it with your friends and social circles.

Save Webpages And Create E-Books Online

Save Webpages And Create E-Books Online

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There are times when we are researching for something and come across several webpages that are related to each other. We want to compile our research such that the content comes into a sequential form like an e-book for all of our research.

In such scenarios, traditionally, either we bookmark the page or copy the entire content into a Word document or even use OneNote for this purpose. This method has its shortcomings. For example, if you ‘Save All -> Copy’ and ‘Paste’ into the Word file, it will copy the advertisements, text in the sidebars and footer etc which are irrelevant to the content. Another option is to copy paragraphs and images and paste them one by one which requires more effort and time.

We will look into some ways by which we can transform webpages into e-books. These includes some site specific methods too meaning that those methods will only be applicable to a particular site like Wikipedia.

Create an e-book from Wikipedia articles

Some websites are generous enough to include the ‘Save A Copy’ or ‘Print as PDF’ in the options. This helps the reader to save the content in the PDF format to their computer. Let’s take example of the most visited website for research purposes, Wikipedia. You can download Wiki articles free of charge and in a proper readable format without putting any extra effort.

  • Go to the left side panel
  • Print/Export -> Download as PDF
    createEbook-Wikipedia save as PDF

Wiki users feel more privileged when they can save multiple inter-related articles at one place and create an e book of their own.

Go to Left side panel -> Print/export -> Create a book

It will inform that you can create an e-book and export it in different formats. Click ‘Start Book Creator’.

Wiki book creator

After enabling book creator, you will notice a Book creator bar above every article opened in Wikipedia. If you find your desired content, click ‘Add this page to your book’ and the page will be added.

Suggest pages is another useful option that suggests most relevant articles with your search topic. You may like to take a suggestion and add more information to your book.

Wiki E-book creator bar

E-book creator bar will keep updating the number of pages in your book as soon as you add one.

  • Select ‘Show Book’ to manage your book.
  • Give it a suitable title and subtitle.
  • You may like to create chapters or sort it alphabetically.
  • Download your book in PDF, e-Pub, OpenZIM or Open document format. Select Open Document format if you want to edit your e-book using Microsoft Word features. After editing it properly, you can save it in PDF, XPS, DOC etc.

Wiki manage ebook

You may want to create a new e-book. But, you can not do so without disabling the previous book creator else new pages will be added to the same old e-book.

  • Click ‘Disable’ in the book creator bar.
  • Again, select ‘Create an e-book’ and it will ask if you want to continue with your previous book or create a new one.
  • Click ‘Cancel’ and a new book has been created.

Wiki javascript message for new ebook

Using Scribd and Google Docs to create e-books:

Scribd or Google Docs users can also find a similar options depending on the type of content license (if it is redistributable ). Usually the documents uploaded in Scribd are already in the PDF or e-PUB format. Whenever you open any document in Scribd, you will see a ‘Download’ tab above and in the sidebar.

Save PDF Scribd

Click on the download tab and select the format as PDF or TXT. You may now specify the file location to save the downloaded document.

Scribd Download PDF

Similarly, Google Users can also find a download option in the File menu. Sometimes, the shared document is very large in size and Google fails to scan the file for viruses. It will display a warning message in that case and provides option of ‘Download Anyway’. Select download anyway and save your file.

Google save document

Google download document

Online tools to create e-books from webpages

There are many online tools available which can serve the same purpose. We will discuss some of them.

Zinepal

Zinepal lets you create an entire e-Book containing several web pages and publish them in PDF or e-Pub format.

  • Enter a single URL and Zinepal will retrieve all the stories on that page.
  • Select and add multiple stories to your e-Book.
  • Give it a proper name and introduction (make use of keywords intelligently).
  • Your e-Book requires some editing, formatting and personalization.
  • Customize your e-Book appropriately and add your logo or any other advertisement for promotional purposes.
  • Select Preview your e-Book before you click ‘Finalize e-Book’ because it does not allow editing after the book is published.

A free version is always compromised by accepting the watermark of the vendor. Same is the case here; you have to tolerate PREVIEW watermark in your e-Book which does not look good. However, you may get a Pro Version of Zinepal to enjoy all the features and publish it on Zinepal and Scribd.

Zinepal create ebook

DotEPUB

dotEPUB

DotEPUB is a cloud based online service which lets you create an e-book from any webpage. You can make use of the bookmarklet feature which will let you create the e-book of from any page instantly. Just go to the webpage and click on the bookmarklet. It will be turned into an e-book. You can use this service along with Evernote Clearly which will be discussed later in this article.

DotEPUB

EverNote Clearly

All this discussion leads us to the easiest and most appropriate way of saving web pages and online content. This technique involves the use of the Evernote add-on for Firefox and Chrome. Evernote offers clipping tools that can help you make notes of online content and save them for later use. Evernote Clearly provides a distraction free reading environment as we discussed in our recent article. The basic purpose of Evernote Clearly is to remove advertisements and irrelevant content. Besides this, you can also print blog post or web page by pressing the CTRL+P (or click on the printer icon).

Select the name of a printer. We have chosen XPS Document Printer as it will print the document in XPS format. Microsoft XPS Viewer is the program that reads XPS documents. Now you can forward this document to anyone without making any changes in it as it is already well-formatted. You may also install Cute PDF Writer for printing files and webpages in PDF format.

Evernote XPS document

Evernote Web Clipper adds a pleasant online notebook flavor to your browsing experience. In a case, you are using someone else’s PC or using a public computer , you will not save your documents on that system. So, why not create a free Evernote account and clip your favorite notes, news and stuff to your online notebook? You can either install the web tool separately or use it through Evernote Clearly. You will find the clipping option in the panel. Select a text or clip the entire page and you will notice a ‘Tick’ on the clipping icon meaning that the content is successfully clipped.

Evernote web clip

This is how Evernote saves clipped content and your notes. Of course, you can access and edit them anytime.

Evernote web tool

Microsoft OneNote 2013

You can also send the online content to your One Note notebooks using Evernote Clearly. Follow the same procedure , as described above, but select ‘Send to Microsoft OneNote’ in the printer name tab. It will paste the blog post into one section of your Work Notebook.

  • Now, you can either move or copy this section to any other notebook.
  • Right click on the Project tab -> Move or Copy.
  • Select the notebook and the section where you want to move it.

OneNote move

You can save the pasted content as PDF, DOC or XPS format also.

  • Go to File -> Export.
  • Select format and click ‘Export’.

OneNote export file

While working and researching on the Internet we often wish to note down several points.You can now easily take notes while surfing on the web or reading any research paper using a smarter option—Dock to Desktop.

  • Go to View -> Dock to desktop.
  • OneNote compressed window will be appeared at the right of your desktop.
  • Select the text or image you want to copy and paste it into the notebook appearing next to your browser window.
  • You may observe that the formatting is preserved and the web address is also pasted into notebook.

 

OneNote Save

There are many add-ons and buttons available claiming that they will save the web page in PDF format. We have tried many of them but found these tricks most convenient. Which trick do you use?

5 Resources To Download PowerPoint Templates For Free

5 Resources To Download PowerPoint Templates For Free

Featured, Internet, List , , , , 5 Comments

Microsoft PowerPoint is, without doubt, the most widely used presentation tool. PowerPoint comes with a default template library so that we can start with a specific design rather than a blank presentation. We can use any template to start working on it. However the default template library is very limited and after giving one or two presentations you try to seek more new and energetic templates from online resources. While working on our project presentation, we just came across some resources from where you can download a variety of templates for free.

PowerPoint 2013 templates

PowerPoint 2013 comes with a search field on the Welcome screen. This search field will enable you to search for and download free PowerPoint templates of your choice. You can also browse through categories for templates of your choice. Just click on any template and download it.

Following are some resources which provide PowerPoint templates in addition to the built in templates.

1- Free PowerPoint Templates – FPPT

Fppt has a large collection of templates that cover almost all of the categories one may be looking for. These templates are compatible with Office 2007 and Office 2010. Just click on your selected template and a separate page will open. You can download it as a zip file. You will find a brief description about each template which will help you decide if it suits your need or not.

The collection includes more than one thousand PPT templates, themes, PowerPoint backgrounds, 3D PowerPoint templates, animations for PowerPoint.

Visit free PowerPoint templates for downloading free PowerPoint templates of your choice.

2- Indezine

A collection of over 5000 PowerPoint templates can be found at Indezine. They have divided their collection into small combos consisting of 200 designs each. You can either download the templates for free or buy the designs in one CD. The collection has totally different aesthetic taste. We must admit that the templates look more ‘abstract’ than ‘professional’.

Download PowerPoint design templates from indezine.

3- Smile Templates

Smile templates is another large collection of PowerPoint templates compatible with Office 2003, Office 2007 and Office 2010. You can download any template instantly. Just click the ‘Download’ button and the download process will start. Premium templates are also available which are made more attractive with animations and can be bought if desired.

Smile Templates

4-PowerPoint Styles

PowerPoint styles leads the list by providing high quality PowerPoint templates for free. What is unique about PowerPoint styles is that they not only allow you to download any template but also suggest the related templates so that you may have a wider choice of similar templates.

PowerPoint Styles

5- Graphics Land

Graphics Land provides you formal presentation templates. If you are looking for simple and elegant presentation templates then you must land at the graphics land. Although the free collection is not very large but you can get all the templates by downloading one zip file. Most of their templates and themes are premium ones.

The premium templates are known as PowerDesigns. PowerDESIGNS is a complete PowerPoint design package including PowerPoint templates, animated templates, 3D graphics, photo icons, and animated slide layouts that will make you look like a PRO.

Graphics Land

Presentation Magazine and Presentation Pro also provide free templates which include animated and flash templates as well. However you may need to subscribe to these websites to get free emails into your inbox.

Using the template files

You can directly open the template file and start customizing it according to your needs. You can also apply these themes and templates to your existing presentations. Just follow the steps below:

  1. Open the presentation in PowerPoint and go to Design tab.
  2. Click on the down arrow and select browse for theme.
    Applying a template to the current PowerPoint presentation
  3. Locate your downloaded template and apply it to your presentation.

We hope that you enjoyed browsing through these beautiful collection of templates which can be downloaded and used easily. Do you know any better resource of free PowerPoint templates? Do not forget to share with us.

Three Ways To Enable Windows 8 Hibernate Option

Three Ways To Enable Windows 8 Hibernate Option

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Hibernation is a great feature of Windows which was introduced in Windows XP. Hibernation enables Windows to save all the data in RAM to the hard drive so that the computer can be shutdown without losing the current state of the system. When the user wants to start the computer again, Windows will attempt to restore the the state of RAM that was saved when hibernating.

Windows 8 also comes with the hibernate option which comes in handy when a user wants to shutdown the system without losing the present state of his work. But the hibernate option in Windows 8 is not enabled by default. You will need to enable the option in order to make it visible in the Power options. We discuss three ways to enable Windows 8 hibernation option.

If you enable hibernate option in Windows 8, it will create a file called hyberfil.sys. This file’s size is equal to that of your RAM. You will need to make sure that there is free space in your system drive at least equal to the RAM memory size.

Using Command line

powercfg hibernate on in Windows 8

The easiest way to enable or disable hibernation option in Windows 8 is through command line. Follow the steps below to enable hibernation through command line:

Open command prompt with administrative privileges and issue the following command:

powercfg -h on

This should enable hibernate option instantly without restarting your computer. You can confirm this by expanding Windows 8 power button and see if the hibernate button is available.

Windows 8 power button expanded

Similarly, you can easily disable the hibernate option from the command line by using the following command.

powercfg -h off

Please make sure that you are issuing these commands in command prompt with administrative privileges. Otherwise the commands will not run.

Using Registry

You can also enable or disable Hibernate option in Windows 8 through registry. This can be useful especially if you are in a network and want to replicate this behavior in all the computers across the network.

enabling Hibernate option through registry editor

To enable hibernate using the registry, follow the steps below.

  1. Go to Run (WinKey + R) –> regedit
  2. Go to the following registry key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power
  3. In the right hand pane, double click “HibernateEnabled” and set its value to 1.
  4. You will need to restart your computer in order for the changes to take effect.

Please note that editing Windows registry is an advanced task. You should only do it if you are confident about using the registry editor. You should always backup Windows registry before performing any operations.

Using Power Options (Visual)

To enable the hibernate option visually, go to Control Panel –> Hardware and Sound –> Power Options.

If you are using a laptop, you can simply right click on the Power icon in system tray and select Power Options.

choose what the power buttons do

Check the Hibernate option on the next screen and save changes. This should enable the hibernate option immediately.

Power options system settings

Sometimes you will find that all or some of the shutdown settings are grayed out like the screenshot below:

Power options system settings greyed out

You can simply click on the link at the top that says “Change settings that are currently unavailable”.

Change settings that are currently unavailable

I hope this will be helpful for you. Which method will you prefer to enable or disable hibernation in Windows 8? If you know of any other way to do this trick, please let us know through comments.

Black Friday Deals: Software Discounts And Promotions

Black Friday Deals: Software Discounts And Promotions

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Black Friday is the busiest shopping day for the Americans. The black Friday marks the start of the shopping for Christmas holiday season. Many companies will give huge discounts for their customers on this day. We have collected some very good software deals. You can save a lot if you buy these discounted software during this promotion period. Let’s go through the list one by one:

IObit Advanced SystemCare 6 Pro

Advanced SystemCare 6 promotion

IObit is offering a huge 50% off from Advanced SystemCare 6 Pro. It usually costs around $29.99. Now you can get it for $14.77. Get Advanced SystemCare 6 Pro with 50% discount. This offer is valid until 7th of December 2012.

Bitdefender Total Security 2013

Bitdefender Total Security 2013 is one of the best All in One security suite for your computer. It also works on Windows 8. Bitdefender is offering 35% discount on their product. Get Bitdefender Total Security 2013 with 35% discount. The total cost will be $51.97 which means you will save $28 from this product. You can install Bitdefender Total Security 2013 on up to 3 computers using this license key.

iolo System Mechanic

iolo System Mechanic is one of my favorite all in one PC maintenance and security suite. iolo is offering 50% discount on all their products for the next 4 days only.

Buy System Mechanic with 50% discount

Buy System Shield Antivirus and Antispyware with 50% discount

Microsoft Store

Microsoft is also giving good discounts on all their products but just for one day. They will also have a Cyber Monday deal next Monday. You can shop Microsoft for great Black Friday deals. I couldn’t find Windows 8 in the promo deal. If anyone is able to grab a discounted copy, please let us know through comments.

Movavi Video Suite

Movavi Video Suite is an all in one multimedia suite for editing and creating video. Movavi is giving 30% discount on purchasing the suite. Buy Movavi Video Suite with 30% discount.

I hope this list will be useful for you. If you are looking for a specific tool or software, please let me know through comments and I will try to find the discount on purchasing the software.

5 Ways To Close Windows 8 Apps

5 Ways To Close Windows 8 Apps

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Windows 8 has introduced Windows 8 apps which are optimized to open on tablets and other mobile devices. If you are using a desktop PC or a laptop, it becomes difficult to close Windows 8 apps. This is because there is no close button or even a title bar in Windows 8 apps. The apps will run in full screen mode only.

We will discuss various ways to close Windows 8 apps. First of all let’s discuss what is a Windows 8 app. These apps are actually called Windows Store apps. Microsoft has introduced a store in Windows 8. This is just like stores in iPhone, iPad and Android. These apps are optimized for touch enabled devices. They will run in full screen mode and need to be switched in order to use another app.

One feature of Windows Store apps is that they will be closed automatically if you do not use them for a some time. They will actually become inactive and will not take any CPU or memory resources.

The default Windows 8 apps include People, Mail, Video, Photos, SkyDrive, Bing, News, Games, Music etc.

Close Windows 8 Apps

Using Drag n drop

Close Windows 8 app by drag and drop

If you are using a touch enabled device like a tablet PC, the easiest way to close a Windows 8 Metro app is to grab the screen from the top and drag it down to the bottom. This will close the opened app. If you are using a mouse, take your cursor on top of the screen, press the left button and drag it down to the bottom.

The app will shrink and disappear when you reach the bottom of the screen. This is an indication that the app has been closed.

Using the Switch List Bar

Switch list bar

Windows 8 uses the corners of the screen pretty efficiently. Every corner has a different function. If you move your cursor to the top left corner of the screen and then move the cursor downwards alongside the screen, it will show you the switch list bar. This bar is like the taskbar of Windows 8 Metro apps. All the open apps will be shown in this switch list bar.

Close app from switch list

You can switch between different Metro apps from here. If you want to close any app, just right click it in the switch list bar and select Close.

Using Alt – F4 Keyboard shortcut

Alt – F4 is the good old shortcut key which is used to close apps in Windows. This shortcut has existed since the very first days of Windows and is still being used. It can be used to close programs as well as Metro apps of Windows 8 Store. You can right click any app and select End task to close it.

Using the Task Manager

Task manager close Windows 8 apps

Task Manager can also be used to close Windows 8 apps. If you view the Task Manager with less details, it will list down all the open Metro apps. You can also use the Switch To option to switch to the app without going to the switch list bar.

Close app options in task manager

You can open the task manager in 3 ways:

  1. Right click the taskbar and select Task Manager.
  2. Use Ctrl + Alt + Delete shortcut keys and then select Task Manager.
  3. Use Ctrl + Shift + Esc shortcut keys to open the Task Manager directly.

Deleting the Switch List history

Windows 8 maintains a history of recently opened Windows Store Apps. You can safely delete that history which in turn closes all the open Windows 8 apps. To delete the switch list history, do the following:

  1. Open Windows 8 Charms bar (WinKey + C)
  2. Go to Settings and then select ‘Change PC Settings’
    Change PC Settings
  3. Go to General from the left hand menu.
  4. Click on Delete History button under App Switching.
    Delete switch list history

I hope these methods will make you more productive while working with Windows 8 apps. If you know of any other way to close Windows 8 apps, please let us know through comments. What is your favorite way to close Windows 8 apps?

Technize Is Hiring Tech Writers

Technize Is Hiring Tech Writers

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write for us

Technize.net is a technology blog which is growing at an exponential rate. We saw growth at a rate of 45% in the previous month alone. To keep up with the growth rate and the pace of technology news and reviews, we are looking for writers to cover Windows 8, Office 2013 and Software reviews, tips and tricks.

If you are confident that you will be able to satisfy the following requirements, please apply for this position.

  1. You must be good at explaining complicated and complex software concepts and guides with a uniform writing pattern which users can understand fairly easily.
  2. You must have a creative thought for generating ideas for your articles.
  3. You must be able to participate in our communities including commenting, forums, Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
  4. You must be able to write regularly. You must be able to produce a decent length (500 – 800 words) article at least twice a week.
  5. Since the position requires writing how-to guides, tips and tricks, reviews and hacks, it becomes necessary that you are familiar with taking screenshots of every step that you are explaining in your article.
  6. Since English is the primary language of our blog, you must be fluent in English writing without any grammatical mistakes.

To apply for this position, please send an email to jobs@technize.com with the following:

  • Your name, location and social contacts (including Facebook, Twitter, G+, LinkedIn)
  • Your explanation of why you are suitable for this position
  • Your experience with Windows 8 and Office 2013. Do you have these installed on your current systems?
  • The blogs or sites you have written for
  • List down at least 3 titles that you will write after being selected

Although it is not required at the time of application, if you are selected, you will be required to submit a sample article of your own writing. So be prepared.

Apply now by emailing us at jobs@technize.com.

Please note that this is a paid position. You will be paid a handsome amount for your writings.

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