Convert Physical Machines to Virtual with Disk2vhd

The Windows Sysinternals group at Microsoft has released Disk2vhd that is a free physical to virtual converter. Disk2vhd allows you to create VHD (virtual hard dive) files from physical drives on your computer while your system is online. The VHD files generated can be used in Microsoft Virtual PC or on Hyper-V server and you will have an instant clone of your machine running virtually. This is perfect for duplicating a production server for a development virtual machine that you can use on a different computer.

Below is a Microsoft screenshot of a copy of Window Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V system running in a virtual machine on top of the system it was created from.

After you have it downloaded, extract the zip file and run disk2vhd.exe.

ow just specify the VHD file name and location and check the drives you want to convert to a VHD. Each physical partition will be saved in a separate VHD file.

Click Create and the process will begin. On my computer it took about 45 minutes to copy the drive into a VHD file because of a large amount of data.

Once completed copy the VHD files to any computer with Microsoft Virtual PC, Hyper-V or any virtualization app that supports VHD files. Then just setup a new virtual machine to point to the existing VHD files.

Windows 7 Manager Tweaks The OS To Your Liking

Just got a copy of Windows 7 and you're looking to bend it to your will? Then you'll want a copy of Windows 7 Manager ($40, 15-day free trial), which lets you tweak, customize, master and improve just about every aspect of Windows 7. Whether you're looking to tweak security, improve optimization, clean your system, master your network or more--and whether you want the 32-bit or the 64-bit version--you'll find something here.

Yamicsoft's Windows 7 Manager lets you tweak just about every aspect of Windows 7.

Though it covers a lot of territory, everything is laid out cleanly in Windows 7 Manager. Click what you want to improve, such as Security, Network, Optimizer, and so on, and you'll come to a screen full of options. In some cases you won't need to know anything about the innards of Windows 7, because sets of wizards guide you through the task. In other instances, you'll need to have some technical background, because you have to make choices among check boxes--for example, if you want to accelerate your network connection, you'll need to understand terms and technologies such as Maximum Transmission Unit (TMU) size, TCP/IP Timeout Life (TTL), and "Enable SackOpts."
The amount of control Windows 7 Manager gives you is extraordinary. Want to change the mouse hover time before a pop-up displays? You can do that. Want to manage what programs run at startup? You can do that as well. You can also repair hardware and software problems, optimize your broadband connection and more.

The same developer makes a similar program for Windows Vista, called Windows Vista Manager, which looks and works very much like Windows 7 Manager. Anyone who used Windows Vista Manager will very easily make the switch to Windows 7 Manager; the interface and functions are very similar.

The program doesn't come cheap, though. You'll most likely only want to pay for Windows 7 Manager if you want to do a great deal of customization.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

WISHING ALL THE READERS OF THE BLOG
A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010
THANK YOU!

101 Tech Tips and Tweaks for Windows

Hello Guys, so here we are...the last day of the year

so Im ending this year by giving all u tech ppl some tips and tweaks...

Performance Tech Tips (1-12)

1. Turn off or reduce system restore to save hard drive space
2. Altering page files
3. Clean out prefetch folder
4. Set priority for individual programs
5. Cleaning up unwanted startup programs
6. Defrag your hard drive
7. Disable unnecessary services
8. Disable the Disk performance counter(s)
9. Turn Off Windows Indexing service
10. Increasing desktop Graphics Performance
11. Check and set the DMA mode on your drives
12. Smooth out your mouse movement      

Useful Tech Tips for Windows (13-30)

13. Resize screen fonts on the fly in Internet Explorer
14. Mouse Sonar
15. Quick back and forward commands in Internet explorer
16. Mount a new hard drive as a folder in your C: drive
17. Enable clear type
18. Create a keyboard shortcut to a folder or program
19. Use remote desktop to connect to your PC from anywhere (XP Pro only)
20. XP Powertoys
21. Backing up or transferring your email manually with outlook express
22. Running legacy software in Windows XP
23. Compressing files and folders to save space
24. Open explorer window from current command prompt directory
25. Using Quick Edit in the Command Prompt
26. Select 'No to all' when copying files in XP
27. Bypass the recycle bin when deleting a file
28. Create a link to shutdown your PC
29. Hosting online games through the Windows XP firewall
30. Rename multiple files simultaneously

Security, privacy and recovery tips (31-44)

31. Use the Windows 2000-style secure logon screen
32. Hiding shared folders with $
33. Using advanced file security settings in Windows XP Home
34. Create a password reset disk
35. Applying a password to the 'administrator' account in XP Home
36. 'Rolling back' a faulty device driver
37. Disable simple file sharing (XP Professional only)
38. Using the Windows XP firewall
39. Turn autocomplete off in IE
40. Using the Windows XP repair installation process
41. Add, Clear or remove the 'my recent documents' menu
42. Creating a desktop shortcut for locking your computer
43. Giving a password to the 'Guest' user account
44. Use system restore when you cannot boot your system normally

Customizing Windows XP (45-58)

45. Stop Windows messenger from running
46. Run command prompt utilities successfully from shortcuts
47. Remove the XP desktop theme
48. Change start menu style
49. Add my computer and other missing icons to your desktop
50. Change the picture in the welcome screen
51. Add items to the 'Send To' right click option
52. Automatically run programs when starting Windows XP
53. Create a screensaver from your pictures
54. Modify autoplay for different types of CD
55. Different folder types with XP
56. Using 'my computer' as a toolbar
57. Enlarge and resize the quicklaunch bar
58. Disable desktop cleanup wizard

Essential advice for Beginners (59-80)

59. Stopping desktop ad popups
60. Displaying hidden files and folders
61. Convert Your drives to the NTFS file system
62. Formatting a hard drive partition larger than 32 Gigs with FAT32
63. Finding your IP address and other information with IPCONFIG
64. Update your machine automatically
65. Logging in as the 'Administrator' account
66. Update your drivers
67. Check your PC for spyware and other nasties
68. Show the quicklaunch bar
69. Locking the desktop
70. Using the Windows Scientific calculator feature
71. Accessibility tools
72. Set a new home page in explorer
73. Remove the annoying dog from the search screen
74. Change the look of your mouse pointer.
75. Email attachments are the most common vector for viruses.
76. Keyboard shortcuts
77. Set monitor refresh rate
78. Set power options
79. Creating shortcuts
80. Create passwords for all your user accounts!

Registry tweaks For performance (81-93)

81. Backing up and restoring the windows registry
82. How to edit the windows registry (before other reg tips)
83. Keep Windows operating data in main memory
84. Disable the DOS 8.3 naming convention to save system resources
85. Stop the 'last access update' from taking up system resources
86. Clear the Page File (virtual memory) when shutting down XP
87. Get Rid of XP's annoying balloon tips
88. Adding additional Icons to 'my computer'
89. Speed up the Start Menu
90. Display message on startup
91. Set the default download directory for Internet Explorer
92. Change the size of thumbnail pictures
93. Opening a Command Prompt to a Particular Directory from Explorer

Miscellaneous registry tweaks (94-101)

94. Disable error reporting on program crash
95. Automatically close non-responsive programs
96. Permanently bypass the recycle bin when deleting files
97. Show administrator account on welcome screen
98. Enable/Disable Active Window Tracking to Mouse Movements
99. Launch Programs at Login Without Using the Startup Folder
100. Force windows XP to reboot upon crashing
101. Disable admin shares

Google Announces Android Event for January 5th

Looks like the rumors, photos, and leaks have been proven right. Google has announced an Android-focused press event for Jan. 5, and the smart money's on the release, or at least announcement, of the search giant's own phone, the "Nexus One," which the Boy Genius Report hears will indeed be sold directly by Google. It's looking to be an interesting second year for the Android.

Gmail, Google Reader, Wave And Voice Notifier For Google Chrome

The extension development for Google’s web browser Google Chrome seems to be in full swing with new extension being uploaded daily to the official extension repository. Extension support is still limited to Google Chrome 4 which is currently only available as developer releases. Many experts assume that the development of extensions will get another boost once version 4 of the web browser is released officially by Google so that the general public can download and install the browser.

One Number is an interesting extension for the Google Chrome browser that acts as a notifier for the four Google services Gmail, Google Reader, Google Wave and Google Voice. It places a single icon in the web browser’s toolbar that displays the number of unread messages as one number.

The main benefit of this approach is that it saves up space in the Chrome toolbar if several Google services are used regularly (the extreme would be a reduction to one icon from four).

All four Google services are monitored by default. The options can be used to disable checks for specific services.

The first step after installation is to log into a Google account by left-clicking the icon in the toolbar and selecting the Log In link there.

The login redirects to the Google account login on the Google website.


The same menu contains a link to the options which can be used to disable and customize specific services (changing the color code or excluding their unread count from appearing in the number that is displayed in the toolbar) as well as server query intervals, timeouts and misc toolbar colors to indicate if multiple services have unread messages.

One Number is a Google service monitor that can be helpful for Googleholics who use at least two of the services that are currently supported by the Chrome extension (it’s also good for monitoring only one service but that would defeat much of its purpose).

The extension is compatible with Google Chrome 4 and can be downloaded from the official Google Chrome extensions website.

Google tells media to tap into YouTube

Media groups would be better off handing their online video activities to Google's YouTube video-sharing site than pursuing home-grown efforts such as Hulu.com and the US cable industry's TV Everywhere

initiative, according to Google executives.

"At some point in time it becomes an economic choice by the content owners. It's a matter of core competencies," Nikesh Arora , Google's president of global sales operations and business development, told the Financial Times.

Mr Arora said media industry efforts to replicate cable television's business model online through TV Everywhere were "clever". The initiative, which is undergoing trials, aims to offer a full channel line-up to proved cable subscribers.

However, Mr Arora questioned traditional content owners' ability to be successful content aggregators online.

"When all that happens, they will still have to figure out how to sell advertising," he said, arguing that specialist online advertising networks such as Google AdSense could do a better job than broadcasters' traditional sales teams.

Four elements were required to deliver online video advertising revenues: content creation, technology, advertising production and advertising sales.

Mr Arora said that after last year's acquisition of DoubleClick, the online display advertising group, "we are playing in three of the four".

David Eun , Google's vice-president for strategic partnerships, said Hulu , which generates "a lot of traffic" from its YouTube channel, and TV Everywhere were at early stages.

Google was talking to members of the cable industry about TV Everywhere, he said, and "we'd love to figure out a way of being part of it".