RUN commands in windows

The following commands are very useful when you have to access various aspects of the computer. These run commands are very helpful in cleaning up of the system and managing the various services and properties of the computer.

The RUN commands below can be entered in the RUN option which will be available after pressing the Start button in all previous versions before Windows 8. 

1. cmd- Opens the command prompt.
2. nslookup- Opens command prompt asking to enter any website name for which it will look up IP address information in the Domain Name Service (DNS).
3. write- Open the wordpad.
4. regedit- Shows the Computer Registry Editor.
5. timedate.cpl- Shows date & time properties window to configure.
6. control- Opens control panel.
7. devmgmt.msc- Device manager to configure all devices (including mouse properties, sound card, external disks connected)
8. cleanmgr- It will show up how much disk space you can free on the particular drive.
9. iexplore- Opens new Internet Explorer window.
10. mailto- Opens the default email client.
11. mspaint- Opens Microsoft paint to create and design the pictures.
12. calc- Shows the basic calculator.
13. control mouse- Shows the mouse properties.
14. notepad- Notepad will be opened.
15. powercfg.cpl- All the power configuration options will be shown.
16. control printers- Shows the list of available printers and faxes connected to the computer.
17. realplay- Opens the real player, if it is already installed.
18. mstsc- Remote Desktop window will be opened.
19. msconfig- System Configuration Utility (To configure the windows start up and services).
20. sysdm.cpl- Pops up all the system properties (computer name, RAM size etc).

How to recall sent mail in Gmail

We all regularly use gmail to send and receive personal emails. It may happen many times like forgetting to attach an item or adding the wrong recipient before the Send button is clicked. Gmail comes with the work around for this. It comes with the "Undo" option for the sent message.

Gmail provides the option recall the email sent that is sent in mistake. To enable this useful feature, the following simple steps are need to be followed.

• After logging into the gmail account, click on the Settings symbol present at the right corner of the window and select the Settings option.
• Click on the Labs link and type "undo"  in the search box available.
• Now Enable the "Undo Send" option and click on the Save Changes button as in below figure.

• Now click on the General link on the settings menu.
• Check the "Enable Undo Send" check box.
• Choose the cancellation period up to 30 seconds. It is the time Undo link will appear after sending the message.
• Click on Save Changes.

Everything is set up for Undo the mail message. Now, compose a mail and click on the send option. The Undo link, on clicking which the sent message will be recalled.

Free download English dictionary for android

Whenever we are browsing the web or reading news, we might come across some difficult words. We can make a google search immediately to get the meaning, but it would be very helpful if the dictionary is available in the android mobile/tab. And it is very helpful, if it works without the Internet.

There are many English dictionaries available in the android market. Basically they are classified into two. One is "Online dictionary" - where Internet is needed to search for a meaning. Two is "Offline dictionary" - where it doesn't need Internet, instead it stores the dictionary in the mobile/tab itself.

The apps listed below are one of the best apps for Offline English dictionary in the android market and can be dowloaded for free.

Offline Dictionaries:

• Very popular dictionary that works without any network connection.
• Definitions can be read by the device using a text to speech option.
• There are more than 40 multi-lingual dictionaries available including English dictionary.
• Once completely downloaded, it can be moved to SD card.

Wordweb English Dictionary:

• A free app from Wordweb, covering more than 285,000 words and phrases.
• Provides the antonyms and examples for the word.
• Suggests possible correct spellings when typing the word and has many filters such as noun, verb to search a word.
• Audio pronunciations are also available with the separate Audio Edition app, in the paid version.

English Dictionary - Offline:

• It is a Free offline English dictionary with more than 170,000 English words.
• Enclosed with Bookmarks and history options.
• Provides Integration with Google Quick Search Box.
• Once completely downloaded, it can be moved to SD card.

Move apps to SD card through App2SD in Android

There are millions of applications available in Android market. And many of apps may catch your attention which are useful to you and you decide to install. But the problem comes when your android run out of the internal memory. And here comes the option of moving the apps to the SD card installed to the android device so that more applications can be installed.

There are very good apps that can move all the apps to SD card. App2SD is one of the best app which does the same thing. The following are the good set of features it brings on.

• It lists all SD card capable apps and move them seamlessly.
• Notifies if newly installed apps can be movable to SD.
• Comes with 1-tap to clear all app cache.
• Keeps track of total and available storage space of internal and external memory separately.
• Customisable notification sound, vibrate and light when movable app is installed.
• Provides very good option of exporting all installed apps to SD card. It is very useful when the apps are uninstalled accidentally or corrupted. In this case, "Install apps" option shows the app list from the back up and the apps can be installed on your choice.
• Sort option is also available while listing the installed apps.

Tips to set strong passwords

A password is a secret word or set of characters that is used for user authentication to prove identity. The password can be commonly found in an on line account password or ATM PIN number or file password.

Generally we need passwords to protect the confidential or personal information that has to be kept secret from others. So it is very important to set the password unique and hard to prevent it from being hacked.

The following are ten tips to choose the strong password.

1. "password1", "123456", "qwerty", "master", "1111111", "abc123" etc. According to a report, these passwords are some of the worst kept secrets globally. So, avoid using them.
2. Make sure that the password should contain at least 8 characters.
3. Do not use common dictionary words. It is vulnerable to Dictionary attacks.
4. Use the combination of Upper case and lower case letters and numbers. It is good to include some special characters also.
5. Try to avoid setting password with your details directly like using your spouse or children name or the city you live or mobile phone number.
6. Use symbols/special characters for replacement of normal characters.Apply Upper case to every alternate letter in the password. Like i as "!", a as "@", s as "$". On applying above criteria, wikipedia to be chosen as "W!K!PeD!@"
7. Use the letters of the word in the reverse order to make it stronger. i.e., wikipedia becomes"aidepikiw".
8. Intentionally leaves some spaces and wrong spellings in the passwords which makes your password least guessable.
9. While creating a new password, avoid using the combination of old password. eg. Password1, Password2, Password3..
10. Relate your password to a favourite hobby or sport. For example, I love to play cricket as !lOvEtOpL@yCr!CkeT.

After choosing a good password, check the password strength through the following websites:
          http://www.passwordmeter.com/
          http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/security/

Most useful Chrome plugins

Chrome is world's most popular web browser. It is a freeware browser developed by Google. It became very popular due to its higher performance on speed, stability, User Interface and safety over the other browsers. And availability of plenty of extensions has also made most of the users to be attracted to using Chrome.

Some of the most useful plug ins for Chrome are listed below.

• Google Dictionary by Google  This extension fetches the definition of the any selected word in the web page and displays in a pop-up screen. To get the meaning of any word, just double click (left mouse button) on the particular word as shown in below fig. This can be downloaded from here.

• Readability  This extension provides a better way to read online by turning any web page into a comfortable reading view in the web browser. It offers a nice reading experience with many options like "Read Now"- which will disable surrounding web page noise and "Send to Kindle" - to send any web page to your Kindle in a comfortable reading view and many more. It can be downloaded freely from here.
• Stay Focused  We spent most of the time in front of computer and thought of doing work. But we might end up with social networking sites, gaming sites or any other sites without doing any work. This extension  helps to stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time we can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day. It has configuration to block sub domain or part of specific page and many more. The below figure just displays the configuration window looks like. It is available for free here. 

• Awesome Screenshot  Unlike normal screen shot which captures only the image/text that is visible on screen, this extension will capture entire web page including content comes after the scrolling (which is not visible unless scrolled). It also provides annotation with rectangles, lines and circles. It is available here.
  

  

• Web of Trust  It helps to find trusty websites based on the experience and rating of millions of users. Third-party sources are also used to warn about malware and other technical threats. You will see a green, yellow or red icon next to search results when you search or referring any URL in any of the sites. We can make the best out of browsing and avoid untrustworthy links. It is available here. 

• Tabs Expose  It helps you manage your tabs by providing thumbnail previews of the tabs you have opened to help you quickly locate the tab you want to switch to or close tabs you don't want. It is very useful when you fed with many number of tabs. It can be downloaded for free from here.

Also See: Top add ons for Internet Explorer

Disclaimer: All the extensions above mentioned are just reviewed and this blog won't be responsible for any damages caused due to use of these extensions.

Top add ons for Internet Explorer

About Internet Explorer:  Internet Explorer is one of the widely used browser across the world. It's a belief that it doesn't provide much add-ons as compared to its rivals Firefox and Chrome. Even IE has got some fine plug-ins which are very useful.

All the plugins for IE reside at the Internet Explorer Add-ons Gallery. Search option is also provided to look for the desired plugin from the available list. Most of these will be compatible with IE versions of 6, 7, 8 and 9. But for the best result of the plugin the latest version of Internet Explorer is required.

Here are some of the most useful plug ins.

• PasswordWiz This will really help when you  have forgotten user names and passwords to your online accounts. It remembers, stores the information and automatically logs you in all your web accounts, with just one-click directly from the IE toolbar. And it is secure too, by its complex military encryption algorithm. It is available here.
• Define with Wikipedia It will open the corresponding search result page from Wikipedia for the highlighted text in the page as shown in the below figure. And is available here.

• BugMeNot The very useful Add-on for all those websites where you really don't want to register. Login with BugMeNot, and it will give anonymous user name and password to sign you into any major site on the web. That means, it gives the sans registration account for accessing the websites. It simply bypasses the registration to the site by clicking on the Right click of mouse and selecting "Login using BugMeNot" as shown in below figure. It is available here.

• Share on Facebook It allows to share the link, web page or any selected item to the facebook. It can be done by the option Share on facebook provided in All Accelerators (which appears on Right mouse click) as shown below.  It is available here.
  
  
  

• Open Last Closed Tab  This add-on enable us to resurrect any tab that has been opened and closed during the current browsing session. This can be used even in the case of accidentally closing the tabs. It is available here.

Also See: Most useful Chrome plugins

Check the compatibility of the browser before installing the add-ons, as some may work only in the latest version of Internet Explorer.

Disclaimer: All the extensions above mentioned are just reviewed and this blog won't be responsible for any damages caused due to use of these extensions.

Top free Android applications for making Video calls

Android market is started booming because of its wide range of android smart phones released by Top mobile making companies. It contains over millions of applications (known as apps) which can be downloaded into the android devices.

About Video Calling:  It is similar to tele conference of conventional system. We can make video calls between android devices if both have front camera to capture the video of caller.

There are some apps that allow us to make video/audio calls including the messaging services.It is best alternative to phone calls over the mobile phones, which incurs high tariff rates. Here we can make free calls between the android phones being the same app is installed in both of the devices and with limited cost for making other calls.

Some of the best from those apps are being mentioned below covering the features they provide.

1.   Tango:

• This free app allows you to make video calls over Wi-Fi or 3G networks.
• It also lets you allow to send FREE Text Messages and send FREE Video Messages.
• The app is rated very good (4.3 out of 5) in the Google play and is simple to use.  
• Once installed, it automatically searches your address book and lets you know which friends use this service.
• Can be downloaded from here.

2.   Viber: 

• Viber is Free to to make video calls over Wi-Fi or 3G networks.
• It lets everyone in the world connect through over 90 million Viber users call, text, and send photos worldwide for free.
• Rated good in Google play with 4.3 out of 5.
• Viber is completely free with no advertising.
• It has best sound quality even in poor signal strength and you can send free messages to groups of friends, share photos and links.
• Can be downloaded from here.

3.   Skype:  

• Works on 3G and Wi-fi networks.
• Widely known for its popularity and been available in iOS too.
• It not only allows free audio, video calls, SMS and sending videos and files, but text messaging and regular phone calls too at low cost.
• Rated good in Google play with 4 out of 5.
• Can be downloaded from here.

WATCH OUT:  For using all the above apps, operator data charges may apply. And recommended to use an unlimited data plan or WiFi connection.



How to back up Outlook items by creating pst files

Outlook is an personal independent messenger, where you can view and send mails. The best option here is that it can still works offline. That means, unlike other email hosting sites (where you can view the mails only through internet access), you can view the synched mails when your internet is offline.

What is a pst file in outlook? - Microsoft's Outlook also provides a good feature of backing up the mails through which you can backup the old data of mails or calendar events you have sent or received. It can be done by creating a Personal Storage Table, which is nothing but another folder where the back up files are to be resided. And it is pouplarly known as .pst file.

The following is the procedure for the same.

For Outlook 2010

• Open the outlook and click on New Items button. 
• From the list it shows, click on More Items and then Select Outlook Data file.. option.



• Now it will pop up the Browse file option to select the back up file location and enter the name of the Backup file.

• Here you can choose the compatability of the pst file through Save as type dropdown, where Outlook 97-2002 Data file option is for outlook versions between 1997 to 2002. The other option is for the higher versions.
• Click on Ok. And it will open up a window prompting for password option, if you want to set the password for the backup file. It is not mandate to give the password, you can click on Ok.
• It will add the backup file location to add the left panel of the outlook where you can directly drag and drop the emails to this folder.

Note: For outlook versions 2003 and 2007, the backup option can be availed by clicking on File menu and selecting the New button followed by the Outlook Data File as marked in the below figure.

Preview Pane in Gmail

The Google is now providing the Preview Pane option for the email. It is similar to that of Outlook. It eases your readability and also improves the navigation through the emails.

There are simple steps to enable the preview pane, as followed below.

• Click on the Settings link in the top right corner of the page.
• Now click on the Labs link.
• Type Pane in the search box provided.
• Select the radio button next to Preview Pane text.

• Click on the Save Changes button. It will reload the page.
• Now, in the email list page you can find the link, which will provide the options of Vertical Pane and Horizontal Pane.

• Choose your own options of the preview pane based on your compatibility. And check which option displays the email in the most readable format by selecting either of Preview options.
• Select any of the preview option and click on the mail to be shown as preview. The vertical and horizontal previews look like the below figures.

 
















• At any time this preview can be disabled through No Split link available in the mail list page.

Also see, How to delegate your gmail account
               Know android buddies from your contact list

Know your Android buddies in Gmail

Now a days android devices became very popular because of their exiting features, games and various applications (known as apps). For each android device, before you start on using it, you must configure it with your gmail credentials. It is must to download any apps from Android market widely known as Google Play.

You can get to know whom of your friends are logged in to gmail or GTalk through the Anroid device. Steps are detailed below.

• Click on the Settings link present in the top right side of the gmail home page.
• Select Labs link from the options available.
• Type Green  in the Textbox next to the Label Enter Search For a lab.
• Enable the radio button next to Green Robot.

• Click on the Save Changes button present below the above section.
• Now it will show the Android Robo symbol in the status as rounded in the figure above.

how to delete Facebook account permanently?

Facebook is also one of the most popular Social Networking website. It provides many features like connecting to friends, sharing the photos, chat options & so on. But once you fed up with it and do not want to be continued, the account can be deleted / deactivated. It can be done in the following two ways.

1. Make Your account deactivated. (Deactivate facebook account)
2. Permanently deleting the account.

 Permanently deleting Facebook Account:

Unlike the Deactivation, this will delete your profile and all data related to you permanently from the facebook.

It can be done by following the below procedure.

• Log in to Facebook and open the Deletion page by clicking the below link.

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

• Now delete account page will appear. Click on Delete my account button.
• A new pop up window will appear asking to re-renter the password.

• Enter the text Captcha text displayed in the screen. Click on Ok button.
• Now you account is permanently deleted.

WATCH OUT:  If you want to roll back your deleted account, just log in back within 14 days of this procedure, which will re-activate the account.

You can also delete your account permanently by directly contacting facebook team at privacy@facebook.com.

how to deactivate facebook account?

We all use  social networking sites to express what's happening in our life and what our friends are up to. However, we sometimes think that we got struck in the spider web of social networking or might feel like its killing our personal and valuable time. Then we will decide to move out of the sites by completely removing your profile.

Facebook is also one of the most popular Social Networking website. It provides many features like connecting to friends, sharing the photos, chat options & so on..  But once you fed up with it, you can remove profile in two ways.

1. Make Your account deactivated.
2. Permanently deleting the account (Deleting Facebook Account permanently).

Making the Account Deactivated:

It allows you to hide all your Facebook information as if you had quit facebook, but still you will be able to turn your account reactivate back keeping all your contacts and messages restored.

It can be done by following the below steps.

• Log in to Facebook.
• Click on Account Settings present on the upper right corner on the page beside Home button.
• Select the Security Option on the left panel of the page.
• Deactivate Your Account link will be present as the last option in the page. Click on the link.

• It will open a new page, where you need to fill the reason for deactivating the account as marked in the next figure. And give the details explanation for the same( this is not mandatory).
• Check check box next to Email Opt out text, if you DO NOT want receive any emails from Facebook. If you UnCheck this, your friends can still invite you to events, tag you in photos or ask you to join group.

• Click on the Confirm button in the page. Now you are deactivated from your account.

IMPORTANT WATCH OUT:

• Though you deactivated your account, the third party applications can still able to activate your information. That means, they will retain the information of you. The only way to permanently remove the account is by permanently deleting your account.
• Though you deactivate, your posts on friends' walls remain. However, your name appears as unclickable text. Photos, status updates and other information related to your page are taken down and your user account is taken off Community pages.
• After deactivating,if you log in to the facebook at any time, you account will be re-activated and thus you will become an Active User.

Point Your Google Search to Country Specific

We all use google search engine for searching the queries. Often, we will just open up the Google website and enter our query, which end up with showing the result page(s).

We can restrict the google to search only in the country specific pages (For eg., the locale is www.google.co.in for INDIA). And if we want to make this option default for each time we open the google website, there is small and easy procedure to follow.

• First open the browser and open the Google website. Go to footer of the page (bottom left corner).

• Select the other domain extension available, as marked in red in above figure. Now the page will reload and open www.google.co.in , as option available here is the same.
• To make sure it is set as default, open a new window and type google.com in the address bar and press Enter key. Now, it will redirect to the default web page as configured in the above steps.

how to change password in gmail

Many of us are using the google's mail servie GMAIL for our day-to-day mails purpose. One must regularly change the gmail password in order to prevent accessing it by unauthenticated parties.

There is 3 step simple procedure to make your gmail secure.

• Login to your gmail account and go to the top right corner of the page, where it shows your information. Click on the Account link marked in red below.

• It will open a new page. Click on the Security on the left panel of page.Now, the Change Password button will appear in the page displayed.

• Change the password by entering the old password OR answering security question (in case of forgotten password). And now enter the new password twice in the boxes provided and click on Save button.

NOTE: For effectively managing the password non-vulnerable, make sure your password contains the combination of Alphanumeric words (Alphabet and numbers) and Alphabet should contain a mix of "UPPER CASE" and "lower case" letters.

Free SMS by Google is now launched in INDIA

Google launched its free text messaging service in India on this Oct 10, 2012. To send the free messages on line, one can open the gmail chat or GTalk. There we can find the "Send Text" option for the particular chat friend as shown below.

Note:  If you are using Gmail chat and Send SMS link is not showing for any contact, make sure that you are enabled the feature in Gmail.

Go set this option:

• Open the Settings option from Gmail page.
• Click on Labs link. And Enable radio button next to SMS in Chat option as shown in below figure.

 

Once you click on the option, it will show up the pop-up window. Here you need to select the country as India (it will be default for Indians) and the phone number of the Chat friend.

Now it will show up the Text Message window (similar to below figure), where you can write the message and send to your contact for free.

WATCH OUT: You can send only 50 messages for free per day. But if the receiver of the SMS replies back to the message to you, 5 more messages will be credited to your account. Otherwise the count will be restored back to 50 ONLY after 24 HOURS. That means again you can send more messages for free.

This service is now available for all the Mobile Operators. So friends, start making use of this free SMS service by Google and Have Fun.!!