Dropbox - Your life's work, wherever you are

With Dropbox, you can access your files from almost anywhere!

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and even the Dropbox website.

Dropbox also makes it super easy to share with others, whether you're a student or professional, parent or grandparent. Even if you accidentally spill a latte on your laptop, have no fear! You can relax knowing that Dropbox always has you covered, and none of your stuff will ever be lost.

No more waiting and join Dropbox today at http://db.tt/TpHo0M2!

Download links:

Disable Java auto update in Windows 7

After you installed Java Runtime Environment (JRE) in Windows 7, it shows up in Control Panel > Programs. Clicking on it will open up the Java Control Panel. We are able to disable the auto update function in Java by un-check the "Check for Updates Automatically" in Updates tab. However, in Windows 7, there was a problem for disabling auto update. The settings will not be saved, meaning to say the next time you open up the Java Control Panel, the auto update is enabled again. It is due to lack of administrative right in Windows 7 environment.

Java Control Panel - Update tab

Mailinator - Your Temporary Email Solution

Have ever been asked for an email when trying to download something?
Have ever been required to sign up for something?

I did. And I hate to give out my email address to those unknown websites. Where you'll eventually ended up receiving tons of spam emails everyday!

Now with Mailinator, problem is solved!

Remove delay in LAN games under Windows 7

I find it weird when last time playing Warcraft III LAN game with my housemate, we both feel a bit of delay on the client side (joining one). After doing some search on web, we found that by modifying a bit of registry, the strange delay was removed. This only happens under Windows 7.

1. Open up Registry Editor, navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\
2. Look for a subkey name similar to this: {E3CF3EE3-AE61-4A50-8121-2A6CF502EF0F}
3. Inside the subkey, there is a value DhcpIPAddress, check if it is the IP Address given by your router. If so, add 2 new DWORD (32-bit) keys with value as follows:
     TcpAskFrequency    1
     TCPNoDelay    1
4. Restart your PC.

Repair Windows unable to show hidden files

In some cases, Windows will not be able to show hidden files upon request. In Windows Explorer > Tools > Folder Options... > View Tab > Advanced settings, check on Show hidden files and folders and hit Apply. But after these steps the hidden files are still not shown, and the next time you go in to the same setting, you'll see the setting is set to Do not show hidden files and folders. This is probably caused by your Windows registry being modified by certain virus.

 

Here are the way to manually fix this problem and re-enable the showing of hidden files in Windows system.

1. Go to Start > Run > type in regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL
3. Delete the key CheckedValue in the right hand window.
4. Create a new DWORD Value named CheckedValue.
5. Double click on it and set the value data to 1.

Now, restart your computer and everything should be working fine.


Alternatively, you can open up notepad, copy-paste following code and save as .reg file and run it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\Folder\Hidden\SHOWALL]
"CheckedValue"=dword:1

Download: Re-Enable Hidden Folder.zip

Autorun virus disinfection tool

I believe most of you heard or seen the name "jwgkvsq.vmx" before. It's one of the very famous/popular autorun virus infected in your windows, infect and copy itself into any flash drives/harddisk you plug into your computer. I had publish a tutorial on Disable autorun in Windows previously. In this post, I'm going to share a useful tool made by BitDefender for disinfection of this virus from your computer and flash drives.

There are two version of this tool; graphical version and console version. Both are working fine, and graphical version are recommended for most users. In fact, you may only need to use the console version in the case that graphical version does not work. Just double click on the executable to run the program, click on start and the program will perform its' tasks.

Notice that if the tool detects that your system is infected, it will prompt you to allow it perform disinfection steps. Your windows explorer will be terminated in the process, and the windows theme will became abnormal after the process. A normal reboot is recommended after the process.

Download link: BitDefender Autorun Virus Removal.rar

Disable autorun in Windows

"Autorun.inf" virus are commonly infected in flash drives nowadays. Especially when you plug your flash drives into public computers such as school computers or work computers, your flash drives are probably been infected by the virus.

After you back to your personal computer and plug the infected flash drive, your computer may also be infected (unless your antivirus program is able to detect and prevent it). This is due to the autorun function for flash drives plugged into computer USB port. The "Autorun.inf" file is actually a system file which uses to indicate which file or program to be run once an flash drive is plugged in. But this file now are commonly used by virus spreaders to spread virus. So, I would highly recommend any of you to turn the windows default autorun function off to avoid the infection (in case your antivirus is not able to detect).

For Windows 7:

1. Start -> Control Panel
2. Click on Hardware and Sound
3. Click on AutoPlay
4. Uncheck the option Use AutoPlay for all media and device
5. Click Save and exit. You're done.

For Windows Vista:

1. Click Start -> type in gpedit.msc in the search box, then hit Enter
   

   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Allow

2. Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, expand Windows Components, and then click Autoplay Policies.
3. In the Details pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay.
4. Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.
   
5. Restart the computer.

For Windows XP Professional:

1. Click Start, click Run, type "gpedit.msc" in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then click System.
3. In the Settings pane, right-click Turn off Autoplay, and then click Properties.
4. Click Enabled, and then select All drives in the Turn off Autoplay box to disable Autorun on all drives.
5. Click OK to close the Turn off Autoplay Properties dialog box and restart the computer.

For Windows XP Home Edition or other operating systems that do not include gpedit.msc:
Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs.

1. Click Start, click Run, type in "regedit" in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following entry in the registry:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer\NoDriveTypeAutorun

3. Right-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun, and then click Modify.
4. In the Value data box, type 0xFF to disable all types of drives.
5. Click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.
6. Restart the computer.

Change Warcraft III resolution to ANY resolution

I believe most of you know what Warcraft III is. The Warcraft game comes with a variety of screen resolutions, but too bad Warcraft did not support for widescreen resolution.


As time goes, widescreen monitors had became more and more common. The 4:3 ratio resolutions are looking terrible in the stretched "widescreen".

Here, I'm going to show you a method to change Warcraft III resolution to custom resolution which cannot be found in the game options.

Below are the steps:

1. Identify your screen resolution (Either is 1280x800 or 1440x900 or any other resolutions).
   
2. Start -> type "regedit" in the search box and hit Enter (Windows XP: Click on Run, then type in "regedit" and hit OK). Locate the following registry key:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment\Warcraft III\Video

3. In the right-handed pane, locate the key "reshight" and "reswidth".
4. Double click on this two keys and type in the appropriate value (according to your screen resolution) for each key (resheight: Height; reswidth: Width) as follows:
   
   
   Note: Remember to change the "Base" to "Decimal" instead of "Hexadecimal".
5. Click OK after the changes.
6. Exit the Registry Editor and restart Warcraft III.

Now you will see your Warcraft game in the resolution you wanted. The Warcraft game Option -> Video page now shows like this:


No worry, just leave it and enjoy your game in widescreen :)

One thing to note, after this change, you should not change any settings in the Warcraft game option page. If you do so, the resolution of the game will revert back to default at the next start and you are required to perform the above method once again (because the game will rewrite the registry). Hence, I'll recommend you to change all the other settings to your preferred values then only perform the above method. This will ensure you get all the options you want for your Warcraft III.

However, if you're not familiar with Registry Editor, I advise you not to use this method. Messing up registry key would really troubles you. There's a lot of programs out there allowing you to do the same thing with single click or what, just Google it. This method is mainly for those who does not want to use 3rd party software or who loves manual works. :)

Manually Identify Unknown Devices

Note. This post is written based on a post I saw in My Digital Life. I find this very helpful so I make a post here as a backup.

After I switch to Windows 7 from beta version, there seems to have some problem with my laptop's device driver. Certain device driver cannot be automatically installed like other of the devices. And there is no indication of what devices they actually are. So I am unable to manually search for the drivers for those "Unknown devices".

Later, I found a way to manually identify unknown devices. The method is as follows:

1. Start -> Type "msinfo32" in the search box and hit Enter (Windows XP: Click Run, type "msinfo32", and then OK).
2. Expand Components, and then go to Problem Devices branch.
3. A list of devices that having problem to be installed are displayed in the details pane.
4. The unique hardware identifier can be shown in PNP Device ID or in Error Code, and should look similar to the alphanumeric string below:

   PCI\VEN_1180&DEV_0832&SUBSYS_30CC103C&REV_05

5. From the device identification marker for the device above, VEN prefix is the Vendor ID, and DEV prefix is the Device ID, which means Device ID is 1180 and Device ID is 0832, as an example.
6. Visit the PCI Database website at PCI Database, an user-supported centralized database of PCI device IDs.
7. Search vendor name, chip number and chip description with either Vendor ID or Device ID.
   
8. With the vendor name or manufacturer name found, visit the support website to search and download latest version of device driver for the corresponding device driver. Or else just search in Google.
   

For unknown devices which does not listed in the Problem Devices of System Information tool, Device Manager can be used to idenfity the vendor ID and device ID.

Open Device Manager by:

1. Start -> type in "Device Manager" and hit Enter (Windows XP: Click "Run then type "devmgmt.msc and click OK
2. Locate the unknown device to identify its identity (typically grouped under Other devices category).
3. Right click on the unknown device and select Properties.
4. Go to Details tab.
5. Select Device Instance Id or Hardware Ids (for Windows 7) from the “Property” drop down menu.
6. Alphanumeric strings similar to below will be shown:

   PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0427&SUBSYS_30CC103C&REV_A1

   The string is the unique identifier for the hardware device. From the device identification marker for the device above, VEN prefix is the Vendor ID, and DEV prefix is the Device ID, which means Device ID is 10DE and Device ID is 0427, as an example.
7. Visit the PCI Database website at PCI Database, an user-supported centralized database of PCI device IDs.
8. The remaining steps are similar to previous method.