About Vistalizator
Did you buy a Vista laptop from abroad and want it to talk to you in your mother language?
(You can use this on a desktop too, have in mind this is not a microsoft supported tool but one made by someone else)
Try Vistalizator - this tool allows you to change display language in Vista editions other than (officially supported) Ultimate:
Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium and Business.
Features
- Change Vista display language in less than 5 minutes!
- Uses official Microsoft language packs
- You can install all 35 languages and switch between them easily
- Works in 32-bit Vista
- Works in 64-bit Vista (new)
- Compatible with Vista Service Pack 1
- User Account Control (UAC) compliant - prompts for administrative privileges
- No file is overwritten/changed during language installation - except for language upgrade after Vista SP1 installation
Go here to download this software http://www.froggie.sk/ Vistalizator - change display language in Vista Home and Business
Written by computerboom on May 10th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Contributors and Updates and freeware and programs and vista.
Safari
Apple's web browser is now available for Windows XP and Vista. Safari had previously only been available on Macintosh operating systems. The browser is certainly quick and uses about as much memory as Mozilla Firefox; however, Safari takes up more hard drive space than Firefox: around 60Mb. Nevertheless, Safari is yet another alternative to Internet Explorer.
You can download Safari for Windows for free from
here.
Firefox
There is also a new version of Firefox in the offing. At present it is still in Beta, which means that it is being tested by users and should not be considered to be finished software. According to Mozilla, Firefox 3 uses less memory than the old version - a particular complaint of mine.
You can download the Firefox 3 Beta 5 for free from
here. (But be aware this is far from bug free software).
Written by Stepterix on April 3rd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Contributors and Firefox and freeware.
How would you like to completely protect your PC from viruses, malware and the myriad of nasties floating around the Internet? Of course you would, but even with the best security software available there’s always the chance something will get through, but maybe there is a solution…
What we have here is a freeware program called Returnil Virtual System that creates a sacrificial ‘mirror’ or clone of your system on a virtual partition on your hard drive. Your PC boots into the virtual system, so your original system remains isolated and protected. If something does make it through your defences no harm is done, you just reboot and any changes the malicious software has made are automatically erased and you reboot into a newly created system.
It’s a bit like The Matrix, a PC within a PC, spooky and quite tricky to get your head around at first but once you get used to it, it makes a lot of sense and your PC will become virtually bullet-proof.
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Written by Jason on April 2nd, 2008 with no comments.
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In my
previous article I showed how to
customize your Windows XP to look like Vista, if your looking for a different feel, perhaps Mac's new OS X Leopard is for you (without having to buy a Mac). Here is how you can do it for free.
The first and easiest part of customization is getting icons and wallpaper themes. I have found a free standalone package here that works with Windows Blinds.
Download package here.If you dont have windows blinds, you can still take the wallpaper and images included in the package and separately
download a leopard icon package from here.
So now that you have the wallpaper and the icons, next would be to get the leopard dock as your taskbar replacement.
(
click to enlarge)
My choice for this is the
RK Launcher. A free application that will allow you to have a visually pleasing Leopard bar at bottom of the screen. It has support for themes, PNG's and ICO's and is smooth.
Requirements are: OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista with at least 16 bits (65536 colors) of screen color depth or higher.
However , this 13meg installation tough small, does require some CPU processing. I do find that if you have a dual core PC your fine. CPU utilization increased to 50% on just one of the 2 Cores when I did a mouse over test on top of the shortcut icons on the doc. The mouse over is just like in OS X, you see the icons enlarge as you move over, and I was moving my mouse back and forth over them causing 1 CPU so increase to just over 50%. Once you stop moving the mouse over, CPU droped down to 5% or less which is fine. So if you only have 1 CPU there could be a performance hit here for you.
Task Manager resources used before and after the mouse over test on the dock (click the images to enlarge)
Download this Leopard Like Dock directly from hereLast but not least is
Flyakite OSX 3.5 . The latest conversion pack to make your Windows based operating system look and feel like Apple Mac OSX. This software is freeware and is not affiliated or endorsed by Apple or its affiliates. It has no spyware or adware. The installer automates the transformation of your Windows XP+ system files , it does the registry tweaks and installs the 3rd party software required (sounds, skins, cursors etc).
Recommended System requirements are a 32bit Windows OS (XP+), a 1Ghz CPU and 512Megs of Ram.
Download this package directly herePlease remember that installing these freeware packages are at your own risk, though I have had no issues with it, I cannot guarantee you wont. Good thing is you can use the uninstaller to undo the changes to its good that way.
Other Tips Users have watched
Written by PCWizKid on March 15th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 1340 and 1354 and 1426 and 1429 and 1673 and 169 and 2065 and 2157 and 401 and 544 and Contributors and Xp and desktop themes and desktop wallpaper and freeware and icons and osx leopard and windows customization.
How much do you know about your PC? Yes, I know Windows tells you about the hardware and you can see what programs you have on the All Programs list, but that’s just scratching the surface. What, for instance, is the make and version of your PC’s BIOS, what peripherals are attached, how much of your memory is in use, when was your PC first switched on and how many times have you booted it up, what is the make, model number and size of your hard drive, and just how many programs are still on your PC that you’ve forgotten about? (more…)
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Written by Jason on March 11th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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If you have used vista, you may have seen option to eject the cd drives on the right click menu on the cd drive.
This feature of automatically eject the cd drives is a part of windows vista but not provided with windows XP, but this option can be enabled in windows XP using a simple freeware software called Eject CD, Download it from here.
What is Eject CD?
Eject CD is a useful, free and easy to use software. It helps you easily eject and insert the cd/dvd-rom drivers just by using the keyboard shortcuts or your mouse. (more…)
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Written by Jason on March 5th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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If your looking for a change in your desktop appearance and behavior, you might want to try the freeware version of
Real Desktop. It gives your ordinary desktop new life and turns it into
a next generation 3D Interactive Desktop.
The recommended system requirements are as follows:
- Windows® XP / Vista
- Windows® DirectX 9.0c
- AMD ATHLON™ XP 2400+ or higher (alternatively Intel® Pentium® 4)
- 512 MB main memory
- DirectX able graphic card: 128 MB NVIDIA® Geforce™ 6 or better,
ATI® Radeon™ 9700 or better - Screen resolution 1280 x 1024 at True Color (16 million colours)
- Internet connection
My initial thoughts were the amount of resources it probably uses up, but I was surprised to see it didnt take that much memory compared to my Firefox browser.
Also I loved how you can configure it to look the way you want with wallpaper and backgrounds giving it your personal touch.
You can stack icons, drag them anywhere on the desktop and flip them around. The Recycle Bin becomes a three-dimensional trash can. This certainly looks like a feature that could be a part of the next release of Windows 7 perhaps.
Its a free license to use if you get the lite version.
Download it for free instantly from the developers website.
Other Tips Users have watched
Written by PCWizKid on March 4th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on 3d desktop and Contributors and Microsoft Windows Vista and desktop enhancements and desktop themes and desktop wallpaper and direct 3d and freeware and real desktop.
To celebrate six months of Bloody Computer! I have decided to list all the freeware software mentioned here blog so far (partly to prompt me to update the 'Quality Freeware' list in the left-hand column - now renamed 'Recommended Freeware') So, without further ado, here is the list...
Audacity: audio file editor.
AVG anti-virus free edition: anti-virus software.
Beneton Movie GIF: An application to create animated GIFs from a series of images, like a flickbook.
CamStudio: record what you see on your screen.
CCleaner: removes many non-essential files that Windows and other programs leave on your hard-drive.
dBpoweramp: convert audio files from one type to another.
dscaler: view television on your PC, if you have the appropriate hardware.
Foxit Reader: a fully featured PDF reader and a much slimmer alternative to
Adobe Acrobat.
FreeUndelete: a user-friendly program to recover deleted files.
The GIMP: a fully featured image editor developed for linux but available for Windows
IcoFX: an icon creator and editor.
IrfanView: an image viewer with few editing features, and including a batch process feature, with which you can change the format of many files in one go.
mp3gain: balance the volume levels of a selection of mp3 files.
Paint.net: a friendly and intuitive image manipulation tool with many of the features found in commercial image editing packages.
PC Inspector's File Recovery: a powerful application for resurrecting deleted or lost files, and faulty drives.
Picard: provides an interface to search the
MusicBrainz database and use the information to rename and set tag information on audio files.
Real Alternative: enables you to play
RealMedia files without installing
RealPlayer.
Spyware Terminator: protect your PC from spyware and other malware.
Startup Control Panel: provides a means to manage which
programs run automatically when Windows starts.
TreeSize: a program that provides a graphical representation of how much hard-drive space each folder is using.
VideoLAN VLC media player: multimedia player (plays most video types without need to install extra codecs).
Virtual Dub: video editing and conversion software.
Winamp: a popular mp3 player developing a large user community.
If you wish to see the posts associated with these applications including tutorials for some of them click
here.
Written by Stepterix on February 19th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Contributors and freeware.
If your computer is running slowly you may have been told to defragment your hard drive. This because as large files are saved to the hard-drive they are often broken up into file fragments and stored in the gaps between other file fragments. This increases the time that Windows takes to access your files.
To check whether your drive needs to be defragmented go to My Computer, right-click on the drive's icon, and select 'Properties' from the menu. Go to the 'Tools' tab on the dialog box that opens. Click the 'Defragment now' button to open the defrag program. Click the 'Analyse' button to get a report. Do not defrag yet, even if the software says that the drive needs defragmenting.
In order to get the most out of the defragmentation process it is best to do a little preparation beforehand. Firstly, close all the applications you are running and reboot your PC. When you are logged back in, go to your web browser and clear out the cache of files. Instructions are available on this site for doing this in
Internet Explorer and
Firefox. There is an excellent freeware application called
CCleaner that will remove many non-essential files that Windows and other programs - including IE and Firefox - have left all over your hard-drive, you may want to download it and use it to give your drive the once-over. Now is also a good time to remove any other programs and files that you don't need any more.
You can now go back to the defrag application by following the above instructions and run the 'Defragment' button, safe in the knowledge that you will be getting the most out of the process.
Note: it is best to not use the PC while it defragments the hard-drive. The process can take quite a while, so it may be worth closing any applications that are running, including those in the
systray to speed up the process. If you stop your anti-virus and other protective software it is best to disconnect the PC from the Internet.
Written by Stepterix on February 15th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Contributors and freeware.
There are many users who prefer not to enter their username and password at windows login, for the following reasons:
mainly because this would speed up the login process
decrease the hassle for them of entering username and password
But enabling autologon in windows vista is again a security risk, but may not be a problem if you are not worried about your documents and files being visible to someone else, This small tweak is basically for home users.
But don’t worry about registry editing this time as there is a small freeware called AutoLoggon that does this job like a charm for you (as shown in the image below). (more…)
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Written by Jason on February 11th, 2008 with comments disabled.
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