Archive for the ‘How To’ Category

Those of you who run dual monitor setups know it’s a godsend for productivity with the freedom it gives for multitasking. Granted, some might find it hard to justify buying a secondary display for their day-to-day computing needs. But if you already have a laptop to complement your main rig, or perhaps you do have another monitor but want to keep it attached to a secondary desktop, then there’s another solution for you.

Synergy+ is a cross-platform, open-source application that enables you to share a single mouse and keyboard with multiple computers — somewhat similar to a KVM but without special hardware. Once installed on all systems, you’ll have to pick which keyboard and mouse you want to share (server) and configure the secondary screens (clients) — detailed instructions are available here. The initial setup can be a little confusing, but after you have everything up and running you’ll be able to simply move your mouse to the edge of one screen and watch it seamlessly jump to another.
Of course, it’s not the same as having a multiple monitor setup as you can’t move programs or windows from one PC to the other, but you’ll be able to multitask using two independent systems at once with the same mouse and keyboard combo. Another cool feature that Synergy+ offers is the ability to copy and paste data between your computers.
The program is based on and implements many bug fixes to the original Synergy project by Chris Schoeneman, which hasn’t been updated in a few years. It’s free and available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems.

Here is it installed on my Dell Mini 9 with Snow Leopard, PC with Windows 7, and my PPC G5 with Leopard. 

 

Download of the Week: Synergy+ – TechSpot News

Of all the great DIY projects at this year’s Maker Faire, the one project that really caught my eye involved converting a regular old $60 router into a powerful, highly configurable $600 router. The router has an interesting history, but all you really need to know is that the special sauce lies in embedding Linux in your router. I found this project especially attractive because: 1) It’s easy, and 2) it’s totally free.

After a relatively simple firmware upgrade, you can boost your wireless signal, prioritize what programs get your precious bandwidth, and do lots of other simple or potentially much more complicated things to improve your computing experience. Today I’m going to walk you through upgrading your router’s firmware to the powerful open source DD-WRT firmware.

For an alternative to DD-WRT with a simplified interface and fancy charts and graphs, check out another guide to turning your $60 router into a user-friendly super router with Tomato.

Hack Attack: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router

Windows/Mac/Linux: Video encoders are a dime a dozen but DamnVid not only encodes local video in a wide variety of formats, it converts online video in real-time as you download it.

You’ll find no shortage of video conversion tools if you take the time to look. The majority of them, like DamnVid, rely on the venerable FFmpeg library. Unlike the majority of video conversion tools, however, DamnVid makes it extremely easy to download and quickly convert online videos from dozens of video sites.

In the screenshot above we started filling the conversion queue simply by visiting a few video websites and copying the URL as we found videos we wanted to download and covert. You don’t even have to copy and then paste the URL into DamnVid, it grabs supported site URLs right from the clipboard. When you’re ready to convert the videos, DamnVid encodes the video in the new format as you’re downloading it significantly cutting down on the time it takes to empty the encode queue.

DamnVid Encodes Movies While Downloading for Speedy Conversion – Conversion – Lifehacker

Making a bootable USB flash drive for Windows Vista and Windows 7 isn’t all that tricky, but it’s always nice to find an app that simplifies things. Not only does WinToFlash make the process about as easy as it can get, but it can also create Windows XP, Server 2003, and Server 2008 installers.
The default options make it easy to roll a silent Windows install, or you can flip the custom switch and specify the exact setup parameters you want to use.
The handy app also has one more trick up its sleeve: moving Windows Preinstall environments. PE discs can be extremely handy for troubleshooting and repairs, and being able to painlessly zap them over to a USB flash drive means not having to burn a new copy every time someone’s haggard old optical drive decides to chew up your CD.
WinToFlash is a free download and is totally portable. It’s an excellent tool to add to your USB-related utilities.

Yes, it’s perfectly possible to watch Hulu from outside the United States if you know how to hide your location, but there are millions of people who don’t who would love to get access to the streaming service. For them, there’s now TVGorge, a recently launched Flash streaming site that’s still in ‘infant stages’ but has a lot to offer already.

Million dollar question is: is it legal?

According to its website, TVGorge using searching and indexing techniques to detect and gather content from third-party TV streaming websites around the world. The company says that its proprietary script is capable of detecting the best source for TV shows and automatically compile the information for its database. Each video is said to be manually screened to make sure it is of high quality and functioning properly.

TVGorge Lets You Stream 120+ Popular TV Shows, With No Geo-Restriction

bigBrains.com presents, the Alienware Aurora Desktop unboxing.  This is the first of 2 videos of this small but powerful desktop. 

 

YouTube – Alienware Aurora Desktop Unboxing

Picture this: It’s late at night, you’re sitting at your computer playing a game or working on a project when, suddenly, Windows freezes completely. All your work is gone, and you find a blue screen full of gibberish staring back at you. Windows is dead, Jim, at least until you reboot it. You have no choice but to sigh loudly, shake your fist at Bill Gates and angrily push the reset button. You’ve just been visited by the ghost of windows crashed: the Blue Screen of Death.

Also known as the BSoD, the Blue Screen of Death appears when Windows crashes or locks up. It’s actually a Windows “stop” screen, and is designed to do two things: tell you the reason for the error, and to calm your nerves, hence the use of the color blue (studies show it has a relaxing effect on people). Though Blue Screens are difficult to decipher, all the information you need to figure out what caused it is right there in front of you in blue and white—and that’s where we come in. We’re going to show you how to dissect the blue screen error details, so you can fix the problem that’s causing them.

BSoD 101: A Crash Course

Error Name

There are many parts to a BSOD, but the most important is right at the top. The actual name of the error is presented in all caps with an underscore between each word. In some cases this will be all that’s needed to get to the root of the problem (thanks to the handy guide you are about to read). Most of the time, however, more information will be required.

Troubleshooting Advice

Nearly every BSOD includes a portion of text with some basic troubleshooting advice, the first of which recommends restarting your computer. Gee, thanks for the tip Microsoft. Before you restart, copy the exact all-caps error code and hexadecimal values shown above and below this portion of generic text. The next paragraph provides sound advice, alerting the user to check to make sure their hardware is installed properly, or to undo any recent software or hardware upgrades.

Memory Dump

Every BSOD is accompanied by a memory dump. What this means is when Windows crashes, it dumps whatever it is holding in system memory to a file, and saves the file on your hard drive for debugging purposes. If you contact Microsoft for technical assistance, they’ll want to know the contents of this file.

Stop Code

The “technical information” section portion contains the actual Windows stop code, in oh-so-easy-to-read hexadecimal form. Despite appearing unintelligible at first glance, this combination of numbers and letters is instrumental in determining the cause of the crash. Pay particular attention to the first set of numbers and letters. It precedes the other four, which are enclosed in parenthesis. If a specific driver is associated with the crash, it will be listed on the very next line.

I Run Vista, so I’m Immune to BSODs, Right?

Unfortunately, no. A common misconception is that blue screens don’t even exist in Vista, but not only are they still there, but we’re here to tell you we’ve seen them first hand. The good news is Microsoft put a lot of work into how Vista handles critical errors and other glitches that in previous OSes would cause a system crash. Most of the time, if a problem occurs, Vista will attempt to fix the problem without any interruption. For example, if your videocard crashes, you may see a messge saying "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered." In XP and previous OSes, this almost always would have resulted in a system crash.

In some cases, Vista will be unable recover on its own, and the result is a blue screen. By default, Vista will reboot itself after briefly flashing the blue screen. It happens so fast you might miss it, but once Windows reloads, you’ll be greeted with an error message similar to the above. You can try clicking the ‘Check for solution’ button, just as you can try your hand playing the lotto. Neither one is likely to result in anything.

Instead, scroll down and take note of the blue screen codes. Armed with this information, you can perform your own detective work. Alternately, if you’d prefer to see the actual blue screen rather than automatically rebooting, right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop, select Properties, and click on Advanced System Settings. In the System Properties window that appears, select the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery, and uncheck the box that says ‘Automatically Restart.’ The same steps also apply to XP.

In another nod towards streamlining the troubleshooting process, Vista’s Problem Reports and Solutions wizard can save you oodles of time in PC detective work, and may even alert you to potential conflicts you weren’t even aware existed. You can find this applet by name in your Control Panel, or just type Problem Reports and Solutions in Vista’s search box. Once loaded, click ‘Check for new solutions’ in the left-hand column. If Vista finds any conflicts, it will list them in the main window, along with any potential resolutions.

Read Detail Guild

Blue Screen of Death Survival Guide: Every Error Explained | Maximum PC

>Transporting your data is probably the most common use for a USB flash drive. But there’s a world of other things you can do with these handy pocket-size drives. Here are 10 ways you can use that USB flash drive to do more than just move data.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Run portable applications

In addition to storing your data, you can run portable applications from a USB flash drive. For example, OpenOffice, which is a complete office suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package, and database, is available as a portable application. Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird are also available as portable applications. When you combine the office suite with the ability to surf the Web and check email, you’ll be able to take your most vital computing applications with you wherever you go — right in your pocket.

If that’s not enough, you can choose other applications to install on your USB flash drive from PortableApps.com (Figure A). You can even install an entire prepackaged suite of applications that includes such things as an audio player, games, an antivirus utility, and a handy menu system.

Figure A

The PortableApps.com suite comes with a menu system to allow you to easily access your portable applications.

2: Boot an operating system

If you want to do more than just run your own applications, you might want to consider booting an entire operating system from your USB flash drive. You can boot either Windows or Linux from a USB flash drive; however, the process is not an exact science and you may be in for a technical adventure.

Fortunately, there are some guides you can follow. To learn how to boot Windows XP from a USB flash drive, see the article Creating a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP. To learn how to boot a version of Linux from a USB flash drive, see the article Puppy Linux teaches an old dog new tricks.

3: Connect to a wireless network

If you have a wireless network, you can use the Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP or the Windows Connect Now (WCN) feature built into Vista to save wireless network configuration information to a USB flash drive. You can then use your drive to quickly and easily connect another computer or a WCN-compatible device, such as a router or printer, to your wireless network. To learn more about using the Wireless Network Setup Wizard, see the Help And Support Center, which is accessible from Windows XP’s Start menu. To learn more about using the Windows Connect Now feature, see Windows Help And Support, which is accessible from Windows Vista’s Start menu.

4: Create a password reset disk

A password reset disk can really come in handy if you forget the password to your user account on a Windows system that is not a part of a domain. If you find yourself in that situation, you can use the password reset disk to reset your password and quickly get back into your user account. In Windows Vista, you can use USB flash drive rather than a floppy disk as a password reset disk (Figure B). For details on how to do so, see the article Create a Vista password reset disk using a USB flash drive.

Figure B

You can use your USB flash drive as a password reset disk.

5: Boost performance

If you’re running Windows Vista, you can use a USB flash drive to speed up your system with the ReadyBoost technology. ReadyBoost can use the storage space on a USB Flash drive as an additional memory cache to aid the memory cache on your hard disk. And because flash memory is more responsive than a hard disk, with its physical moving parts, the memory cache provided by ReadyBoost can significantly improve system responsiveness.

Using ReadyBoost is easy. You just insert your USB flash drive into your Vista system and follow the onscreen prompts to configure and use ReadyBoost. If you want more details, check out the article How SuperFetch and ReadyBoost work together.

6: Manage it

If all you really want to do with your USB flash drive is transport data, and you’re running Windows XP, you can do so more efficiently with the Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager (Figure C). Once you have installed this manager, you can easily copy files to and from your drive, back up and restore the entire flash drive to and from your hard disk, change the drive label, and even create an autorun.inf file to launch Drive Manager automatically when you plug in the drive. To learn more about and download the USB Flash Drive Manager visit the Microsoft TechNet Magazine site.

Figure C

The Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager provides you with a host of features, such as drive backup.

7: Use it as an MP3 player

Would you like to be listening to music when you’re using a computer at the office, but you don’t have an MP3 player? If so, you can use a USB flash drive as an MP3 player along with Windows Media Player and a set of headphones. Just copy your MP3 files to your USB flash drive, plug it into your computer, and direct Windows Media Player to build a library of the songs on your drive. You can use all of Windows Media Player’s playback features, such as playlists and favorites, to easily customize your music listening experience. And best of all, you won’t have to worry about running low on battery power.

8: Password-protect it

If you use a USB flash drive to transport sensitive data that you would prefer to protect from prying eyes, should you lose the drive, Rohos Mini Drive (Figure D) can safeguard that data. This security tool allows you to create a secret partition on the drive and then password-protect/encrypt that partition, thus protecting any documents you copy to that partition via the utility’s file manager. You can download (and read a review of) Rohos Mini Drive at Download.com.

Figure D

Using Rohos Mini Drive, you can secure sensitive files on your USB flash drive.

9: Run a Web site from it

If you are a Web developer, you may be interested to know that with Server2Go, you can easily run a Web server that supports Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl right from a USB flash drive. You can use Server2Go right out of the box without any installation. It runs on all versions of Windows, supports most common browsers, and is completely free. To a developer, the benefits of having a portable Web server on a USB drive are numerous. For example, imagine being able to carry a live Web site demo into a sales pitch meeting. For more information about this package, visit the Server2Go site.

10: Lock your PC

Have you ever seen a movie in which a person in some secret government installation simply inserts and remov
es a card to log in and log out of a PC? If you thought that idea was cool, you’ll definitely want to investigate Predator (Figure E). Once installed and configured, this little freeware utility will allow you to turn a USB flash drive into a key you can use to lock and unlock your computer.

Figure E

With Predator, you can use a USB flash drive as a key to lock and unlock your computer.

While the USB flash drive is connected to your computer, everything works as it normally would. Once you remove the USB flash drive, your computer is locked down — the keyboard and mouse are disabled and the screen darkens. To unlock your computer, you just plug in the USB flash drive and the computer will be unlocked and you can begin using it. To learn more about Predator, and/or to download it

10 cool things you can do with a USB flash drive | 10 Things | TechRepublic.com

here’s a list of free tools for converting from various proprietary disk image formats to the universally supported ISO format. Most of these converters are for Windows, though some also have versions for Linux.

Convert From…

BIN to ISO
IMG to ISO
DMG to ISO
UIF to ISO
NRG to ISO
DAA to ISO
MDF to ISO

Converting BIN to ISO

BIN is a very popular disk image format that stores the CD/DVD image in pure, raw form. Typically the .bin is accompanied by a .cue file – you will need both of them to convert the .bin to .iso. You can use one of these free converters :

• CDBurnerXP, a very good CD/DVD burning application with lots of additional features.
• BIN2ISO, a simple no-frills bin-to-iso converter.
• BIN to ISO Converter, an old – no, ancient – converter from the days of Win2K.
• If you’re on Linux here’s a how-to for you – How to convert .bin to .iso image.

Converting IMG to ISO

I’ve looked far and wide but couldn’t find any .img to .iso converters that would be truly freeware. So you’ll have to settle for using a shareware application to convert this format to ISO. Either of these will work : WinISO or UltraISO.

Converting DMG to ISO

DMG files are basically “ISO for Macs”, a different way to store disk images because OS X just Thinks Different™. How to convert DMG to ISO :

• dmg2iso, an old command-line utility (freeware). Here’s the command syntax :

  dmg2iso file.daa file.iso

• IsoBuster, shareware. You can open a DMG file using this program and then use the Extract command (right click) to get the contents as ISO.
• If you’re on a Mac, use Disk Utility or hdiutil:

  hdiutil convert /path/to/filename.dmg -format UDTO -o /path/to/savefile.iso

Converting UIF to ISO

UIF (a.k.a Universal Image Format) is a propiertary format used by MagicISO. I’ve already written about converting UIF to ISO before, so check out this post : UIF To ISO Converter.

Converting NRG to ISO

NRG files are another proprietary CD/DVD image format used by the Nero Burning ROM software. You can download a free trial of Nero and use that to convert NRG to ISO, or use one of the freeware utilities listed below :

• CDBurnerXP, a disk-burning app with a multitude of additional functions, .nrg to .iso conversion included.
• NRG2ISO – a popular tool, but doesn’t support all NRG files.
• nrg4iso – a more versatile and up-to-date NRG converter.

Converting DAA to ISO

DAA files by PowerISO DVD software. See one of my previous posts to find out how to convert DAA to ISO. Also, here’s a bit more info about the DAA file format.

Converting MDF to ISO

MDF is yet another proprietary format, used by the Alcohol 120% disc emulator/burner (shareware). Notable for the fact that most of the copy-protection info can be correctly saved when ripping a disc in this format. You can convert MDF files to ISO with mdf2iso (might be a bit tricky) or the Iso Analyzer Tool. Both tools have versions available for pretty much any popular operating system.

ø Convert Anything To ISO | W-Shadow.com ø

Defrag is a new series Nic Fillingham and I will be bringing you to look into murky subjects that need sorted out. We’ll put the bits in order and tell you exactly what the story is. In this episode we look at multitouch in Windows 7. What are all the multitouch gestures? Will there be more? What is Microsoft’s thinking behind multitouch? How/when will I see multitouch on my desktop? We’ll answer all these and more.
Please take a moment to tell us what other subjects you’d like to see ‘defragged’ in future episodes.

Defrag: Windows 7 Multitouch | Larry Larsen | Channel 10

I was finding it frustrating that Outlook does not have a Zoom features on their item view. Here is a simple work-a-round to change the zoom of an open item.

 

1. Create a new mail message
2. Select Format Text
3. Change The Zoom
4. Send the message to yourself.  This is not really necessary. 

Imagine being on the autobahn with the accelerator down and then you realize that you are driving a wrecked car. The plight is not so uncommon on the information superhighway too.

Torrent users would attest to the fact that half of our time is spent looking for ‘healthy’ torrents and the other half trying to download (and a bit of upload too) at the maximum speed. The former is mandatory; the latter thankfully is within the realm of tweaking.

If you are the one who thinks that your torrent download speeds could do with a boost then keep reading. Below, you’ll find a few tips on how to speed up torrent download speed.

1. Your ISP is where it starts

   Check the maximum download and upload speeds allowed by your ISP. Most ISP’s have specific bandwidths for both uploads and downloads. Obviously your torrent download speed won’t cross the cap set by the ISP. Go over to this article on Speed.io for broadband speed test and this one by Tina on ways to increase your connection speed. There are many other bandwidth testers like DSLReports which is included in the speed test within uTorrent.

2. Choosing the right BitTorrent client

   Use the better clients out there like uTorrent, Vuze or the BitTorrent client itself. Wikipedia lists about 51 of them supporting the BitTorrent protocol. The choice of client used should always be updated to the latest version. The screenshots here depict uTorrent. The settings should be similarly configurable for other clients too. Mac users shuld also check our Transmission vs. uTorrent post

3. Go for healthy seeds and peers

   A peer is any computer participating in the download and upload of a torrent file. A seed (or seeder) is anyone who has one complete copy of the file being shared across the torrent network. A leech (or a leecher) is the person who does not have the complete file yet but has joined the network to download it. A leecher becomes a seeder when he downloads the entire file and then shares it across the network.

   

   For high torrent speeds, the best bet is in numbers. The greater the number of seeders, the healthier the torrent and the better the chance of higher speeds. The rule of thumb says to choose the torrent files with a high number of seeders and preferably lesser number of leechers i.e. a higher seed-leecher ratio.

4. Get through the firewall

   Firewalls can block all incoming BitTorrent connections coming through. To ensure otherwise, a firewall should be manually configured to accept the connections and let it through the client. Windows XP has the Windows Firewall. Configure the firewall installed to accept the connections by checking the BitTorrent client on the allowed list i.e. Options – Preferences – Connection – check Add uTorrent to Windows Firewall. Also, check the Windows Firewall exception (if you keep it enabled) in your client too. Shutting down the firewall is not recommended as it leaves the computer open to attack.

   

   Note: If the home computer is behind a router, it also should be configured through the feature called Port Range Forwarding to enable torrent traffic. The router documentation should have specific information on this.

5. Limit your upload rate

   A peer to peer network is all about sharing alike, but an unlimited upload rate hits the download rate too. Using the speed tests, find out your maximum upload speed and then set your client’s upload rate (Global Upload Rate in uTorrent) to about 80% of your maximum upload speed. You can also try varying your upload speeds – keep it high initially and then gradually bring it down towards the middle of the download.

   Note: Mind the speed units – it may be given in kilobits per second (kb/sec) or kilobytes per second (kB/sec). 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobit

6. Go to a different port

   The default port for the BitTorrent protocol is any between port numbers 6881-6999. ISPs throttle traffic on these ports as BitTorrent sharing involves high bandwidth usage. It’s easy to configure a different port in your torrent client. Use some number above 10000 to get around ISPs and also avoid problems with other applications. By default, the uTorrent port is randomized each time it starts. Set a specific port by not enabling the Randomize Port setting.

7. Increase the number of Max Half Open TCP connections

   This figure specifies how many connections a torrent client should attempt to establish simultaneously at any given time. Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or newer, limits this to a default of 10 as a barrier against virus multiplication. But that’s a bummer for torrent speeds as torrents too need a large number of simultaneous connections.

   A patch has been available for a while from LvlLord which modifies the TCPIP.sys file in Windows to allow a higher number of TCP connections.

   

   After running the patch, you have to set the number of connections in your torrent client. For example, in uTorrent go to Options – Preferences – Advanced – net.max_halfopen. Set any number from 50 to 100. But see that net.max_halfopen is set lower than the value set in TCPIP.SYS. Always check if it is still patched because Windows updates sometimes overwrite it.

   

8. Experiment with Protocol Encryption

   Some ISPs love to act like Big Brothers and constrict bandwidth for P2P protocols. Protocol Encryption in most of the torrent clients helps to override this bandwidth shaping. Enable outgoing protocol encryption and put a checkmark on Allow Incoming Legacy Connections.

   

   With protocol encryption, ISPs find it difficult if not impossible to detect that the traffic is coming from BitTorrent. Experiment with enabled, disabled and forced options because you could be getting better speeds with encryption disabled. Non-encryption makes a torrent connection compatible with someone who is not using encryption but as a minus it makes the torrent detectable to an ISP with a bandwidth restricting policy.

9. Bandwidth and connections<
   /h4>

   Your BitTorrent client’s settings options will let you enter figures for –

   Global maximum number of connections gives the maximum number of connections that a BitTorrent client can make for any P2P exchange. Setting this too high does NOT mean higher speeds. Setting it too high would take up useless bandwidth and too low a figure would miss out on peers. For my 256kbps connection, I have a setting of 130.

   Maximum number of connected peers per torrent gives the maximum number of peers that a BitTorrent client can connect to for any P2P exchange. Experiment by setting this number close to the available peers for a particular torrent. For my 256kbps connection, I have a default setting of 70.

   Number of upload slots per torrent gives the maximum number of peers that a BitTorrent client will upload to for any P2P exchange. A low setting may affect downloads. For my 256kbps connection, I have a setting of 3.

   

   uTorrent has a Speed Guide which handily calculates the figures for a particular connection.

10. Some common sense

    Most BitTorrent clients allow us to view the individual files in a download. You can selectively disable the download of files you don’t think necessary.

    Familiarize yourself with the customization settings of your particular client available in the Help files or at the website FAQs.

Some useful resources:

BitTorrent User Guide
uTorrent FAQ
Vuze FAQ

10 Ways To Speed Up Torrent Downloads | MakeUseOf.com

In previous versions of Windows, some people dragged folders to their Quick Launch bar for easy access. Now that Quick Launch has been replaced by the Windows 7 taskbar, how can this be done? The answer is simple – use the “Links” toolbar instead. To pin multiple folders to the taskbar, you only need to right-click on the taskbar, open the Toolbars menu and check the “Links” entry. Then you can open a Windows Explorer window and drag the folder to the Links bar. Doing this adds a shortcut to that folder which you can easily access from the taskbar. Don’t forget, if you want to expand the Links toolbar and give it more room on the taskbar, you need to right-click and unlock the toolbar first in order to move it around. (By the way, this is an easy way to add the Recycle Bin to the Taskbar!)

How to Put Folders on Your Windows 7 Taskbar | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Everyone wants to stand apart from the crowd, unfortunately Media Center doesn’t allow you to easily change the appearance of your setup. Windows 7 may have added better support for themes but Media Center has still ended up stuck with "boring blue.” There is hope though, it may not be easy but you can alter the look of your Media Center interface.

Step One: Backup Your Files!!
The first thing you should do is go to “C:\Windows\ehome\” and and make two copies of the file “ehres.dll”. Save one to a folder for editing and save the other somewhere safe just in case you want to undo your changes.

You also need to apply this registry file. Download the file to your machine and double-click to apply the fix to your machine. Once you’ve done that right-click the original file and select “Take Ownership”. This allows the file to be replaced later on.

Step Two: Get an Image
You need an image to use for the background. The default is 500 pixels wide by 300 pixels high (500×300) but you can use images of varying height. 

Step Three: Insert into the ”ehres.dll” file
To edit the ehres.dll file a resource editor is required. For this guide you should download Restorator. The program isn’t free but does have a 30 trial availalbe for download. This editor allows you to view png files inside the dll file and works on x86 and x64 machines.

Once inside Restorator open the ehres.dll file you have copied to be edited. Expand the “RCData” section and scroll down until you find “Common.Animated.Background.png”. Right-click the file and select “assign > assign to” from the menu. Then browse to and select the background file you want to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once that is complete save the file.

Step Four: Replace the original “ehres.dll”
Once you have your edited file (and your backup!) copy the edited file from where you have it saved and paste it into the “C:\Windows\ehome\” directory replacing the old one. Remember you must have the “Take Ownership” registry fix applied to this file to allow it to be replaced.

Step Five: Launch Media Center
Now you should be able to launch Media Center and see your new background in place. The animated portions of the background will not have been changed, however. To change these you must replace “common.background.layer1.png”, “common.background.layer2.png” and “common.background.layer3.png”. These are the files that are loaded onto the screen to make it appear animated.

Hacking Windows7 MediaCenter: Theme Media Center: Changing the Background

Several people have asked me about jailbraking.  It  has become very simple with the software called QuickPWN. 

Here are a few links and steps. 

Links:
Click here to download QuickPWN 2.2.5 version 2 for Windows http://blog.iphone-dev.org/
http://thepiratebay.org/user/iphonedev/ : It is not the official site, but if you don’t know about torrents, you can get it here.  
www.Sleepers.net

Jailbrake at your own risk.  This is not as complicated as it looks. The software walks you through much of this.

bigBrains steps

1. Create a folder called “QuickPwn” on your desktop. Download your appropriate iPhone firmare from here. Also download the QuickPwn  from here and place it. Place these files in the newly created QuickPwn folder on your desktop.
2. Sync your iphone and back it up.
3. Close iTunes
4. Extract QuickPwn zipped file.
5. Launch QuickPwn and select your iPhone version.
6. You will be asked to select your iPhone firmware. Select the firmware your downloaded in Step 1.
7. If the firmware you selected is valid, QuickPwn will show a green checkmark. Click Continue.
8. You will then have the opportunity to select Cydia, Installer and to choose a custom boot logo. You have to select Cydia. You may also choose to install Installer. Click Next.
9. You will now have a message saying that you are ready to launch the QuickPwn process in a new Window. Click Go.
10. You will then be asked to power off your iPhone and press Enter once it has been turned off.
11. QuickPwn 2.1 will now help you put your iPhone into DFU Mode (aka recovery mode). Read the instructions carefully then type in Y for YES and press Enter.
12. You will be asked to hold down the Power button for 5 seconds. Then you will have to also hold down the Home button for 10 seconds without letting go of the Power button. At the end of 10 seconds you will need to release only the Power button.
13. After a few seconds of holding down just the Home button QuickPwn will detect the your iPhone in DFU mode and start performing some “operations”. After 8 operations are performed QuickPwn will tell you to “Please wait while your iPhone is Jailbroken”. Press any key to continue.
14. Your iPhone will display a turning wheel and in a few minutes will be jailbroken! Sometimes this step can take a long time.  Be patient.