teewe.com » Software Usage

Clearing cookies in your browser doesn’t really clear all tracking items from your machine

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:48:52 +0000

Wired.com’s article mentioned another kind of tracking cookies used by many sites which we may have overlooked. Many sites (like Google and eBay) are storing their local tracking objects with Flash plug-in. When you clear the cookies in your browsers, these objects is not removed. You need to manually delete these items, or if you are using Firefox, there is an extension to help.

Wired article: You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again

Stopping Windows to install updates during shutdown

william — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:10:14 +0000

When I try to shut down windows of my netbook, it just try to install updates which stops me from closing it and put it into my bag. Therefore I did some googling and found the solution.

Start gpedit.msc (with run…)
Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Component > Windows Update
Change the setting of “Do not display ‘Install Updates and Shut Down’ option in Shut Down Windows dialog box” to “Enabled”
Done!

Source: http://www.tipsfor.us/2009/06/22/disable-the-install-updates-and-shut-down-option-in-windows/

Have your wallpaper filled with your friends’ photos!

william — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 07:51:33 +0000

You can keep up with your friends in facebook in no time with this wonderful piece of software, the John’s Background switcher. It helps you by refreshing your desktop’s background with photos of your friends’ albums, just like the screenshot my desktop.

This software supports a wide variety of online photo albums which you may have encountered: facebook, flickr, phanfare, SmugMug, Picasa, Yahoo images search, RSS photo feeds, or even your own folders!

You can make the desktop refresh for specified time intervals or every day at 0:00. You can make it a good use by linking this software with your facebook account and let it download photos from your friends’ albums and see what they have been doing recently.

You can download the software from the link below:
http://www.johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/

Wallpaper for Wide-screen LCDs

william — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:05:14 +0000

If you are like me – have bought a wide-screen monitor – and have difficulties finding suitable wallpaper, you’d better check out the following web site. InterfaceLIFT provides wallpapers for all resolutions.
You can find it at: http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/

Play Nintendo NES/Famicom in your browser!

william — Wed, 02 May 2007 07:49:10 +0000

Can you think of you can play the classic 8-bit games in your browser at any time you are online?

Try nintendo8.com! The games runs on any browser with Java Runtime Environment installed. You can even search for your favourite games!

CNET: Roll your own Adobe CS3 for free

william — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 01:26:15 +0000

The article really worth a look. It collects the open-source and free alternatives of the most wanted software, like Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, even After Effects!

Take a look!

http://blogs.download.com/Daily-Download/post.php?p=1402&tag=fea_txt

Download YouTube Video easy and fast!

william — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:18:43 +0000

I have found an easy-to-use tool for downloading videos from YouTube and Google Video.

Though its homepage mostly written in language other than English, there are still some simple explanation in English available. You should be able to find the download link of the VDownloader easily.

The rest of the article contains the download links.

Here’s the link:

http://comunidad.uem.es/epuertas/post/2006/06/01/como-descargar-videos-youtube-google-video-y-grinvi

For those who have difficulties using the 0.3 alfa (alpha) version, like me (cannot save files), download the 0.2 Chinese version from the following site:

http://www.c1739.com/wp/archives/126

Having incorrect date format for mail merge in Microsoft Word?

william — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:43:58 +0000

When you are like me have to do a lot of mail merge to create documents. You may find that you will get US format date merged to the documents even your date format of your system or in Excel file is set to UK format. Here’s the solution I have found on the web – Use DDE to merge Excel data.
For details, visit the following website:

http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/usingmailmerge/qt/exceldde.htm

OSD Clock 2.0

william — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:22:30 +0000

Added a big bunch of new functions:

24-hour/AM PM mode
An option to show today’s date
Procrastination Hack – (10 + 2) * 5
Customizable Timer alarm
Font Face/Font Size/Font Colour/Bold/Italics Selection
Changing Alignment (Left/Right/Centre)

Download OSD Clock 2.0.1

Do some programming to make your spreadsheets speak!

william — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 03:15:15 +0000

If you don’t have an English version of Microsoft Office (XP or 2003), you will find the Text-to-speech function is not working. I have just discovered the following website which provided a very simple way to make your Excel speak. But you need some programming work to make it really useful.

http://www.xcelfiles.com/TTS.html

P.S. You need to include the “Microsoft Speech Object Library” in your programm which is located in

your drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Speech\sapi.dll

Repair Internet Explorer 6

william — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 13:15:00 +0000

I recently found my Internet Explorer having a lot of problems while loading whatever pages! So I have done some research and found the following solution to repair my crappy Internet Explorer. It works and my IE is now back to normal!

http://www.theeldergeek.com/repair_ie6.htm

The Classics is back!

william — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 04:23:51 +0000

Do you remember the notable screensaver of the times of Windows 3.1 and Windows 95? Some techies online find ways to let you install them on your Windows XP. Will the toasters fly in your screens again?

Download After Dark and install it on Windows XP
http://www.uneasysilence.com/archive/2005/11/4694/

The Flying Toaster are Back (for free)!
http://www.uneasysilence.com/archive/2005/10/4418/

Quick fix for annoying dialog box of Windows Update

william — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 04:16:13 +0000

Windows Update is great to ensure your computer is updated but it usually prompts you to restart Windows when update is finsihed which is very annoying. Want to get rid of the prompt? The following link is a quick fix. Enjoy!

http://www.lifehacker.com/software/windows/get-rid-of-windows-update-restart-nag-183976.php

AutoHotKey is great!

william — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 09:35:06 +0000

I have been using WinKey (freeware) for month without any problem to create shortcut keys to let meÂ quickly launch programs on my computer (e.g. Win + W to launch MS Word). However, the program functions are just very basic (can launch programs, folders, and file only) and is no longer under development. Recently I have been searching for free alternatives which has more function and I found AutoHotKey!

Though it requires you to edit the text-based configuration file (autohotkey.ini) in a text editor (like notepad), its functionality is much richer than WinKey. Not only you can launch files and folders, you can also write scripts to automate your tasks, control your mouse, and even write GUI(!) to receive input from users!

The fun doesn’t end here. The most amazing thing is that you can compile your script as a standalone application! I have written a clock which ticks every second and is always-on-top, draggable, and customizable. It alsoÂ has a transparent background. It is also a handy stopwatch and slient timer!!

Try AutoHotKey (freeware): http://www.autohotkey.com/

Download OSD Clock 1.0Â writtenÂ in AutoHotKey!

Free File Conversion Tool Right in Your Mailbox!

william — Mon, 22 May 2006 04:54:51 +0000

Recently, I haveÂ the need to extract some texts from aÂ PowerPoint file at work. And I got to find out a website which provided a nice tip. You can also try this if you have a gmail account. Just simple mail the file you want to convert to your gmail account, then you can click “View as HTML” link next the the attachment. Hola! You got the text version of your files! Gmail supports viewing Microsoft Office Documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), PDFs, and RTFs as texts.

You don’t have a gmail account? You may ask your friends to give you an invitation to sign up!

I find the tip here: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2005/12/convert-doc-xls-ppt-rtf-pdf-to-html.html

Useful Utility Makes Your Life Easier

william — Mon, 22 May 2006 04:46:24 +0000

NirCmd is a small but very useful command-line tool. You can do some actions without using clicking your mouse, open up external apps… just a little command will do the job. For example, you can createÂ a shortcut withÂ the command, “nircmd mutesysvolume 1″, to turn off the sound card (much more faster than moving your mouse to the tray, clicking on the wrong icon in the system tray, closing the the wrong window, then click the volume icon, finally click the mute checkbox). NirCmd hasÂ loads of functions, such as logging off your computer, changing settings of the opened windows, changing the volume of different sound sources, etc. Making a shortcut forÂ a command and setting a shortcut key for the shortcut keys, will turn your keyboard to a multimedia keyboard at no cost. Did I mention it? It is a freeware! Try it.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

Finally There Is an Open-source Photoshop clone!

william — Fri, 19 May 2006 10:10:07 +0000

Today, when I googling for a free Photoshop replacement for my office PC, I found GIMPshop, a mod of GIMP which aimed to provided a Photoshop’s look-and-feel for Photoshop users. It looks very promising and it is as powerful as the open-source GIMP (The GNU Image Manipulation Program) which is already very famous. It already has ports for Mac OS X, Windows, and Solaris. Worth a try!

Â (click to watch the screenshot)

A Online Translation Website

william — Wed, 17 May 2006 07:19:59 +0000

Seems not bad. SupportsÂ bi-directional EnglishÂ toÂ Chinese, JapaneseÂ to Chinese and KorÂ Translation. It also has some useful tools such as English name finder.

www.mytrans.com.tw

Need an alarm clock for Windows?

william — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 15:36:54 +0000

I have been looking for an alarm clock software for Windows to wake me up every morning recently. However, I can’t find a good one which: 1. is freeware; 2. can play songs randomly; 3. can repeat every weekday (Monday to Friday); 4. is reliable. Finally, I come up with a free solution by using the Windows XP built-in functions and a free utility…The recipe is as follow:

WinAmp
CLAmp
Scheduled Tasks (Windows built-in)
Notepad (Windows built-in)

First of all, you need WinAmp installed (don’t you have it installed already?). Then, you need CLAmp which can control WinAmp by command line.

After you have both of them installed (you can place the clamp.exe to anywhere you like), you can then start creating your own playlist (include the songs that will wake you up!). Save the playlist as a .m3u file (mp3 playlist). the write a batch file – a plain text file with a .bat extension. The content should be: (clamp.exe is being installed in c:\Program Files\Winamp\ in the following example, the playlist is “d:\alarm.m3u”)

@”c:Program Files\\Winamp\\clamp.exe” /start
@”c:Program Files\\Winamp\\clamp.exe” /plclear
@”c:Program Files\\Winamp\\clamp.exe” /pladd “d:alarm.m3u” /random on /play

Finally, add a scheduled task by draging the batch file to the scheduled task window. Then double click the task created (to view its properties). Finally, you can set the time of the alarm, make it repeat weekly, and check the weekdays you want the alarm sounds on. Click the OK button. Woo! You made it! You can test the alarm by selecting the “run” command after right-clicking the the task icon.

How to completely uninstall Symantec Products?

william — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 02:45:56 +0000

I encountered a lot of problem while helping a friend upgrading the Symantec Products. And I finally found this information from Symantec website…

Click here