If you want to get the hot keys on an Acer laptop to work (after you have reinstalled Windows, for example) without installing all the crap, this is what you have to do:

1) Install Acer Empowering Framework;

2) Install Acer eSettings [Management];

The first one is an obligatory prerequisite, the second one enables the hot keys and the quick launch buttons to function properly.

After a virus infection or for some other reason, you may find that the icons on your desktop look jagged or with rough outlines. In 90% of the cases the following tweak will resolve that:

Find or create the followung registry entry: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]. You will have to create a new DWORD value called NoActiveDesktop, and set “NoActiveDesktop” to “1″ to disable Active Desktop (if you set NoActiveDesktop to “0″, this would keep Active Desktop active). To deactivate your Windows system’s Active Desktop for every user on the machine, you need to follow the same path but via HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Synthesized description bellow:

Switchless installer for this pretty good freeware burning software.

Link:

http://netload.in/datei5YzkMZdZSa/imgburn_2.4.4.0_silent.exe.htm

MD5: d0eef79f50ec02a3c9662d466ae6b4b0

A lot of troubleshooting-related activities require that one runs commands/applications from command line. So instead of typing your way to the very folder, you can do it with a simple right-click.

1. You can download this registry tweak here.

or

2. You can get cmdhere from the Microsoft website (scroll down to about the middle of the page, right-hand side):

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Considering that sometimes I work on up to five machines simultaneously I don’t have the time to unveil the anatomy of a problem. This one was no different.

Problem: When one launches Word, it allows you to type big characters only, even though the font size shows 12.

I had another problem a few months ago where the user could not highlight any text.

Instead of re-loading Word, I decided to try the fix that worked in the latter case – delete the “Data” key.

The “Data” key is responsible for the configuration changes a user makes and it stores the most frequently used options.

Now, don’t be click-happy and delete first and then think. Always back up before wiping something, especially when you are messing about with the registry.

If you encountered one of those or similar problems do the following:

1. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft Office\12.0\Word\Data;
2. Right click on “Data” and select “Export” (in this case backing it up is not that vital but it is a good practice);
3. Save the .reg file to a location of your liking;
4. Right-click on “Data” and delete it (Make sure Word is not running);

After you re-launch Word, it will rebuild the Data key.

Hopefully your problem is solved.

Here is a default switchless installer for K-lite. By default I mean it will install the codecs/programs that are ticked as if you were installing it the conventional way.

In my opinion, this is the best codec pack around.

Make sure you don’t have any other codec packs installed if you you are about to stick this one on your machine.

Link:

http://netload.in/dateiWcluEtmEUH/klite_standard_v4.9.0_silent.exe.htm

MD5: 1c6a4922880bfb265cbc253882d8a8c8

This is a switchless installer. Perfect for quick deployment.

Soon I will publish the nLite add-on for it.

What’s new in Avira AntiVir Personal – Free Antivirus 9.0.0.403:
· Quarantine manager: the number of columns has been reduced
· Quarantine manager: send files using HTTP
· System tray tool: display the status of modules on mouse-over
· Last system scan: individual configuration of the alert message
· Renaming “Win32 Heuristic” to “AHeAD” in the configuration panel
· Support for netbooks (screen resolution)
· Configuration panel: new button “Default Values”. This button allows you to restore the configuration to the predefined default values
· New installation folder and registry keys for all products: “C:Program FilesAviraAntiVir Desktop” and “HKLMSoftwareAviraAntiVir Desktop”.Now there are no differences between the products AntiVir Personal, AntiVir Premium and Premium Security Suite any longer
· Configuration wizard after setup
· Process protection for GUI processes
· File and folder protection for AntiVir files and folders
· Registry protection for AntiVir keys
· Scanning of locked files
· Scanner: combined display of malware detections and one-click removal after an on demand scan. This option can be set in the scanner configuration
· Scanner: improved system disinfection
· Scanner: optimized scan on multi-processor machines
· Guard: less overhead in memory
· Scheduler: scheduling on multiple days of the week
· Scheduler: manual starting and stopping of jobs
· Ad-/Spyware detection

Link:

http://netload.in/dateitCYnTKx1Nx/avira_v9.0.0.403_silent.exe.htm

MD5: 785ad9612dce4cbb69b0056c0314e63e

Some time ago I came across this nifty piece of software which has been of great help to me.

Since we sell laptops and obviously they come pre-installed, I try and patch them up with the latest updates. Now, to save time, and stick to my multi-tasking procedure, I had to find something that would save me time. There are quite are few tools out there for doing a similar job but Offline-update suited my needs beautifully. It is a collection of vbscripts, batch scripts and one AutoIt script that install all updates in one go.

It is free and extremely practical.

Get it here:

http://www.h-online.com/security/Offline-Update–/features/112953

Today seems to be a busy day. I have just got another PC – custom-built. The owner tried to overclock it and now all it does is shut down after 3 seconds.

I thought the motherboard was a gonner but decided to reset the BIOS by removing the battery. Gave it about 5 min, put the battery back in and guess what – it did the trick.

I got a Dell today which was pre-installed with Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition. It kept coming up with this annoying Windows Installer configuration wizard. I tried almost everything – Windows CleanUp Tool, registry mods, you name it. Nothing helped. Finally, as a last resort, before re-installing it, I decided to patch Office with SP1 and lo and behold it worked. It turns out that Vista SP1 somehow affected it. It is quite unusual for Microsoft to sort out their own mess.