How to Lock your PC – but not your screen – with KeyFreeze

If you’re leaving your PC unattended for a while then locking it (pressing Win+L) can be a sensible precaution, as it prevents others from viewing your files or interfering with running programs.
The Windows Lock function also hides the current contents of the screen, though, annoying if you want to leave a movie playing, or perhaps monitor the progress of some lengthy task you’re running. And that’s why might sometimes prefer KeyFreeze, which locks your PC but leaves the screen active, just as before.
The program is tiny – a single 341KB executable – and portable. There are no unwanted extras here, just unzip it and you’re ready to go.
When you need to lock your system, just launch it. You’ll see a five second countdown, just long enough to rearrange any application windows to suit your needs. Once the countdown hits zero then your mouse and keyboard will then effectively be disabled, with a single exception: pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del unlocks your system and you’ll be able to carry on as normal.

Just launch KeyFreeze and your PC will be automatically locked within seconds

If you’re thinking this doesn’t sound too secure, then you’re right. Leaving the screen visible in the first place means you’ll be giving away lots of information to anyone passing, and the Ctrl+Alt+Del is perhaps the first hotkey anyone will guess.
Then again, KeyFreeze isn’t pretending to be a security tool. It’s not about protecting your system from attack, rather just reducing the chance of small children, perhaps wandering pets from knocking the mouse or keyboard and causing problems. And it does this very well.
There are small improvements which could be made here. It’s good that the program has a countdown before locking, for instance, so that you can prepare the system for whatever you want it to do – but 5 seconds may not always be long enough. It would be better if user could choose an appropriate delay.
For the most part, though, KeyFreeze is very effective, and if you need to protect your PC from curious kids then we’d give it a try.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Tips

Quickly search and explore thousands of plain text files with Depeche View Lite

Searching one or two plain text files is easy. Windows Search and Notepad will probably be enough. But when you need to browse ten files, a hundred, maybe even thousands, then you’re likely to need a little specialist assistance. And that’s where the free-for-personal-use Depeche View Lite comes in.
Point this tiny portable program at a location and it will open every plain text file in that folder tree (up to a maximum of 10,000 in this build, anyway – the $40 commercial version is unrestricted). These are all displayed in a flat view, one above the other, and that alone can be useful as it’s easy to scroll down and browse them all.
When you do have a lot of files then you’ll soon want to start searching, of course, and this is extremely easy. There’s no need to open a dialog box, just start typing and the screen immediately updates, displaying only matching files and highlighting every occurrence of your keyword.
Should you need more searching power, your text can also include operators like AND, OR and NOT, as well as the * wildcard. And you’re able to define a path mask which restricts your searches to particular files (main*.html NOT .html.old , say).

Just start typing and your search text will be found and highlighted immediately

If you prefer to keep typing to a minimum, you’ll appreciate the program’s many mouse options. For example, just clicking a word highlights it, and displays floating icons with more options (search, copy to clipboard, highlight phrase, and so on). Or right-clicking a word leaves your current window alone, and instead opens a pane on the right hand side with the results of your search.
And if you need to keep track of the various items you’ve found, that’s not a problem. Locations within any file can be bookmarked for speedy recall later.
At some point you may want to edit a file, and life isn’t quite so convenient here: unlike its commercial big brother, Depeche View Lite doesn’t have an integrated text editor. Just pressing Ctrl+E at any point will open the current file in Notepad, though, and you can customise this to have the program use whatever editor you like (Settings > Options > Search, Edit).
There are some issues with the program, and most of them relate to the, well, quirky interface. Features don’t always work as you expect, and it takes a while to find your way around.
Once you’ve learned the basics, though, Depeche View Lite proves an interesting and very capable search tool. And if you regularly work with large numbers of plain text files then it could save you a lot of time and hassle.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Tips

How to Personalizing Windows 8

Windows presents a lot of different ways to personalize the look and feel of your system, and this chapter teaches you some of the ways you can do this.

In This Chapter

• Personalizing the Start Screen
• Personalizing the Lock Screen
• Changing Your Account Picture
• Configuring Other Windows Settings
• Using the Traditional Control Panel
• Setting Up Additional Accounts

When you first turn on your new computer system, you see the Windows Start screen as Microsoft (or your computer manufacturer) set it up for you. If you like the way it looks, great. If not, you can change it.
Windows presents a lot of different ways to personalize the look and feel of your system. In fact, one of the great things about Windows is how quickly you can make Windows look like your version of Windows, different from anybody else’s.

Personalizing the Start Screen

Let’s start by learning how to configure your own personal Start screen. As you know, the Start screen, shown in Figure 5.1, is your own personal home base in Windows 8; it consists of a number of tiles that you use to open apps and files. You can change the background color of the start screen, as well as determine which tiles are displayed—and how.

 The Windows 8 Start screen.

Changing the Background Color

When you configured Windows when you first turned on your new computer, you were asked to choose a color scheme. This color scheme is what you see when you display the Windows Start screen.
Fortunately, you’re not locked into your initial choice. You can change the color scheme for your Start screen (and various subsidiary screens) at any time. Just follow these steps:

1. Display the Charms Bar and click or tap Settings to display the Settings panel.
2. Click or tap Change PC Settings to display the PC Settings page,
   
   
   
   
   
   2. Personalizing the Start screen color scheme.
      
   3. Click or tap Personalize in the left column.
   4. Click or tap Start Screen in the right panel.
   5. Drag the background color slider to the color you want.
   6. Click or tap the desired background pattern.
   That’s it. The changes you make are immediate and interactive. You don’t have to “save” them; they’re applied automatically.
   

   Making a Tile Larger or Smaller

   The Start screen is composed of dozens of individual tiles, each representing an app, program, operation, or file. There are several ways to personalize the Start screen by changing how these tiles are displayed.
   For instance, tiles can be either one- or two-column width. To change the width of a given tile, follow these steps:
   1. Right-click the tile (or press and hold it on a touchscreen) you want to change. This adds a check mark to the tile and displays the pop-up bar at the bottom of the screen
   
   
   
   
   
   
   1. Changing the size of the Video tile.
      
   2. Click or tap Smaller to make a large tile smaller; click or tap Larger to make a small tile larger.

   Rearranging Tiles

   If you don’t like where a given tile appears on the Start screen, you can rearrange the order of your tiles. To move a tile, use your mouse (or, on a touchscreen display, your finger) to click and drag a given tile to a new position.
   

   Removing a Tile

   You might find that there are one or more tiles on your Start screen that you never use. You can remove unused tiles to get them out of your way and make room for additional tiles. Follow these steps:
   
3. Right-click the tile (or press and hold it on a touchscreen) you want to delete. This adds a check mark to the tile and displays the pop-up bar at the bottom of the screen.
4. Click or tap Unpin from Start.

Adding a New Tile

If you accidently remove a tile from the Start screen, or you want to add a tile for an app that isn’t already there, you can do so. To add a new tile, follow these steps:

1. Press the Windows key to display the Start screen.
2. Right-click anywhere on the Start screen (or press Windows+Z) to display the Options Bar at the bottom of the screen.
3. Click or tap All Apps.
4. When the Apps screen appears, right-click the item you want to add (or press and hold it on a touchscreen); this displays the Options Bar at the bottom of the screen
   
   
   
   
   
   4. Adding a new tile to the Start screen.
      
   5. Click or tap Pin to Start.
   The new tile appears at the end of your existing tiles on the Start screen. You can move it to a new position by clicking and dragging it with your mouse or finger.
   

   Turning On or Off a Live Tile

   Many tiles are “live,” meaning that they display the current information or a selected document for that app. For example, the Weather tile displays the current weather conditions; the Photos tile displays a slideshow of photographs stored on your computer.
   To turn off a live tile—that is, to display the default tile icon—follow these steps:
   Right-click the tile (or press and hold it on a touchscreen) you want to change; this adds a check mark to the tile and displays the pop-up bar at the bottom of the screen

1. Turning “off” the live Weather tile.
   
2. Click or tap Turn Live Tile Off.

To turn on a live tile, repeat these steps but select Turn Live Tile On.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

How to Switching to Windows 8: A Quick Guide for Current Windows Users

Here it comes — Windows 8 is on the way! Windows 8 is a lot different from older versions of Windows, however, so you may have a little reeducation to do. In this article author Michael Miller shows you what’s new in Windows 8, and helps you learn how to do all your old tasks the new Windows 8 way.

 

Windows 8 is the latest version of Microsoft's iconic operating system. And it's a lot — really, a lot — different from those previous versions you've learned to know and love. (Well, at least to know and tolerate.)
The entire Windows 8 experience is new, from first power-on to running your favorite apps. It's so different, in fact, that current Windows users may have a hard time figuring out exactly how to do what they want to do. Windows 8 doesn't look at all like Windows 7 (or Vista or XP), and doesn't work quite the same way.
Whether you're upgrading to Windows 8 or purchasing a new computer with it already installed, you're going to have to learn to live with Windows' new tiled interface and Metro-style (excuse me, Modern-style) apps. The challenge is to do so while minimizing the learning curve — which is what this article is all about.

Welcome to the Start Screen

The first thing you see after logging into Windows 8 is something called the Start screen. This ain't the old Windows desktop folks — far from it. The Start screen looks more than a little like the screen from a Windows phone, which isn't surprising because that's where Microsoft got the design.

 

The Windows 8 Start screen — this is where everything begins.

You see, Windows 8 is Microsoft's attempt to design an operating system for handheld touchscreen devices. Most of the basic operations, in fact, are optimized for touch, not for mouse or keyboard use. The strategy is to provide a version of Windows that works great on tablets (and thus let Microsoft compete with Apple's iPad) and is pretty much the same across all types of devices, from personal computers to tablets to smartphones.
The problem is, 99.9% of all current PC users do not have touchscreen devices. We have notebook and desktop computers with traditional keyboards and mice (or trackpads). So being forced to use on our computers an operating system that was designed for tablets and phones — well, one can certainly argue the wisdom of that decision. But that's exactly what Microsoft has given us, a touch-based tablet OS for your notebook or desktop. Lucky us.
Knowing this background helps a little when it comes to figuring out just how Windows 8 works. It certainly explains all those tiles you see on the Start screen; they're the Windows equivalent of the tappable icons you have on your iPhone or iPad.
In fact, Microsoft goes Apple one better by making many of these tiles “live,” in that they display real-time information right on the face of the tile. Take the Weather tile, for example, which displays your current weather conditions, or the Photos tile, which displays a slideshow of your favorite pictures.
The goal here is to make the Start screen as useful as possible, so you get a lot of information without having to open all those apps. Basic weather info without launching the Weather app? Yeah, that's pretty neat.
The main point of the Start screen, however, is to provide a gateway to all the apps you run on your computer. Every app appears as a tile on the Start screen; to launch an app, all you have to do is click the appropriate tile. This launches the app in full screen mode — which is the new default way to view apps. Microsoft is discouraging the tillable or stackable windows experience, in favor of viewing everything by itself on the big screen. So that's something else to get used to.
By the way, it's likely you'll have more tiles pinned to the Start screen than can be displayed at one time. No problem; the Start screen scrolls left and right (not up and down, like you're used to), using either the left/right arrow keys on your keyboard, or by displaying the scrollbar at the bottom of the screen and then using your mouse.
One more thing. Once you launch an app and it displays full screen, how do you get back to the Start screen? There are several ways to do so, but the easiest is to press the Windows key on your keyboard. This will always return you to the Start screen in Windows 8.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

How to Customizing the Windows 8 Start Screen, Colors, and Other Settings

This chapter walks you through some basic Windows 8 personalization features using lots of illustrated, step-by-step examples.

When you first turn on your new computer system, you see the Windows Lock screen, and then the Start screen, as Microsoft (or your computer manufacturer) set them up for you. If you like the way these screens look, great. If not, you can change them.
Windows presents a lot of different ways to personalize the look and feel of your system. In fact, one of the great things about Windows is how quickly you can make Windows look like your version of Windows, different from anybody else’s.

Different Windows Lock Screens

 

 

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

How to Starting and Stopping Windows 8

This chapter walks you through the steps necessary to start your computer and then sign in to Windows in you're new to Windows 8. You'll also learn how to put your computer to sleep and shut it down completely.

In This Chapter

• How to Start Up Windows 8
• How to Sign In to Windows 8
• Handling Special Windows 8 Start-Up Situations
• Departing Windows
• Dual-Booting Concepts

If you have just brought home a new computer with Windows 8 preinstalled, or if your computer has just been upgraded to Windows 8, maybe you’re thinking, “Now what?” The obvious answer is to power up your computer and sign in to Windows 8. Like everything else in Windows 8, though, the power-up and sign-in phases are quite different than those in prior versions of Windows, especially Windows 7. And if you haven’t used Windows before, the start-up process appears unique. For these reasons, this chapter walks you through the steps necessary to start your computer and then sign in to Windows. You also learn how to put your computer to sleep if you won’t be using it for a while, plus you learn how to exit Windows 8. First to cover, though, is powering up your Windows 8 hardware and then signing in to Windows 8.

Starting Up Windows 8

Before you can start up Windows 8, there are a couple of steps to take first. After these few steps of preparation, you can read next in this section how to power-up Windows and how manage if more than one operating system is stored on your computer. Think about these issues first:

• If someone other than you installed Windows 8, check with him for the user ID and password you should use. Be sure to ask if he used a local account or a Windows account. You’ll learn more about these two different account types in Chapter 10, “Sharing Your Windows 8 Computer with Others” in the “Windows 8 Users and Account Basics” section.
• If you sign into Windows 8 for the first time at your place of business, check with a person from your IT or Support organization for your user ID and password, and, if required, your domain. The domain identifies what part of the corporate network you log into. If your computer has been upgraded to Windows 8, your user ID, password, and domain are probably the same as you used previously.
• If you couldn’t connect to the Internet for some reason when Windows 8 was installed, it would be helpful to be able to connect now. Try to address your connection issues before starting Windows 8.

Powering Up Your Computer

If your computer is off, or powered down, you need to power it up to start your Windows 8 experience. If you are turning the computer on for the first time after installing Windows 8, be sure the DVD has been removed from the DVD drive or else your system could restart the installation program.

NOTE

When a computer starts, a number of internal programs run to prepare the computer for operation. You will likely see a flurry of messages run up your screen in white text over a black background. These messages aren’t required, though, so don’t call the hotline if you don’t see anything happen initially. Depending on your type of your computer, this initial startup process might run for just a second or two or for a few minutes,
When the computer start-up process is complete, Windows takes over control of your computer, launching its own start-up process. You can tell Windows has started by the appearance of the Windows logo

The appearance of this Windows 8 logo indicates Windows has taken over control of your device

Shortly after Windows starts, the sign-in screen appears, enabling you to finally sign in. Before that sign-in screen appears, however, you may have one more step to take, as covered in the next section.

Choosing an Operating System

If another version of Windows were installed and running properly on your computer when Windows 8 was installed, whomever installed Windows 8 may have chosen to create a dual-boot setup. This setup enables you to choose the operating system to use when the computer is turned on—yes, this is possible. You may be wondering, “Why wouldn’t I want to use Windows 8 if it were installed?” Here are a few reasons:

• You have a number of older Windows programs, and you rely on these programs. As much as Microsoft expresses confidence that your programs will run in Windows 8, you might not want to commit to Windows 8 until you are sure your programs run properly.
• You are not sure you have time to learn Windows 8.

You can find more information about dual-booting in the “Understanding Dual-Booting” section. For now, learn how to respond if Windows prompts you to choose an operating system.

You can use Windows 8 or your old operating system (Windows 7 in this case).

  If a screen with one or more sign-in portraits appears, dual-booting has not been enabled.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

Hwo to working with Data in Your Windows 8 Application

Learn about the different types of data that are available to your Windows 8 application and techniques for manipulating, loading, storing, encrypting, signing, and querying data.

Data is central to most applications, and understanding how to manage data and transform it into information the user can interact with is critical. Windows 8 applications can interact with data in a variety of ways. You can save local data, retrieve syndicated content from the Web, and parse local resources that are stored in JSON format. You can query XML documents, use WinRT controls to direct the user to select files from the file system, and manipulate collections of data using a structured query language.
In this chapter, you learn about the different types of data that are available to your Windows 8 application and techniques for manipulating, loading, storing, encrypting, signing, and querying data. You’ll find that the WinRT provides several ready-to-use APIs that make working with data a breeze. This chapter explores these APIs and how to best integrate them into your application.

Application Settings

You were exposed to application settings in Chapter 5, Application Lifecycle. Common cases for using application settings include

• Simple settings that are accessed through the Settings charm and can be synchronized between machines (Roaming)
• Local data storage persisted between application sessions (Local)
• Local persistent cache to enable occasionally disconnected scenarios (Local)
• Temporary cached data used as a workspace or to improve performance of the application (Temporary)

The settings use a simple dictionary to store values and require the values you store to be basic WinRT types. It is possible to store more complex types. In Chapter 5, you learned how to manually serialize and de-serialize an item by writing to a file in local storage. You serialize complex types using a serialization helper. An example of this exists in the SuspensionManager class that is included in the project templates. You can search for the file SuspensionManager.cs on your system to browse the source code.
The SuspensionManager class uses the DataContractSerializer to serialize complex types in a dictionary:

DataContractSerializer serializer =
   new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Dictionary<string, object>),
      knownTypes_);
serializer.WriteObject(sessionData, sessionState_);

The serializer (in this case, the DataContractSerializer class) automatically inspects the properties on the target class and composes XML to represent the class. The XML is written to a file in the folder allocated for the current application. Similar to the various containers for application settings (local, roaming, and temporary), there is a local folder specific to the user and application that you can use to create directories and read and write files. Accessing the folder is as simple as

StorageFile file =
   await ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder.
CreateFileAsync(filename,
   CreationCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting);

You can access a roaming or temporary folder as well. The Create CompletionOption is a feature that allows you generate filenames that don’t conflict with existing data. The options (passed in as an enum to the file method) include:

• FailIfExists—The operation will throw an exception if a file with that name already exists.
• GenerateUniqueName—The operation will append a sequence to the end of the filename to ensure it is a unique, new file.
• OpenIfExists—If the file already exists, instead of creating a new file, the operation will simply open the existing file for writing.
• ReplaceExisting—Any existing file will be overwritten. The example will always overwrite the file with the XML for the dictionary.

After the dictionary has been written, the serialization helper is used to de-serialize the data when the application resumes after a termination:

DataContractSerializer serializer =
   new DataContractSerializer(typeof(Dictionary<string, object>),
      knownTypes_);
sessionState_ = (Dictionary<string, object>)serializer
   .ReadObject(inStream.AsStreamForRead());

The local storage can be used for more than just saving state. As demonstrated in Chapter 5, you may also use it to store data. It can also be used to store assets like text files and images. A common design is to use local storage to save cloud-based data that is unlikely to change as a local cache. This will allow your application to operate even when the user is not connected to the Internet and in some cases may improve the performance of the application when the network is experiencing high latency. In the next section, you learn more about how to access and save data using the Windows Runtime.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

Essential Windows 8 Shortcuts, Clicks, and Gestures

Windows 8 has a lot of cool features, but they’re hard to find - unless you know the secret keyboard shortcuts, mouse clicks, and touch gestures. In this article, author Michael Miller provides an invaluable reference to everything you need to know to use Windows 8 to the fullest.

 

Windows 8 is much like previous versions of Windows—except it’s not. That is, you can do almost everything you used to be able to do, and then some, if you know the secret handshakes. Well, not really secret handshakes, but it seems like that, sometimes.
That’s because a lot of what used to be out in the open in Windows 7 and Windows Vista (and even Windows XP) is now accessible only by a touch gesture or keyboard shortcut or mouse movement. There are fewer “visual cues” to what you need to do, and more stuff you need to memorize. You can’t rely on whatever you want to do being located somewhere on the Start menu, because the Start menu doesn’t exist anymore.
So to get the most out of Windows 8 —heck, just to use it on the most basic level—you have to learn a series of shortcuts, clicks, and gestures. These aren’t always intuitive, and are often difficult if not impossible to remember.

Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

Let’s start with how to operate Windows 8 with your computer keyboard. Yeah, you might have a fancy new touchscreen PC (although you probably don’t), and I’m sure you’re a wiz with the mouse or touchpad, but more often than not, the fastest way to do any specific operation is to tap a key or two on your keyboard.
I say a key or two, because much of what you need to in Windows 8 is accomplished by pressing two keys together—what we call keyboard shortcuts. When you see a key combination, such as Windows+C, you can press both keys simultaneously, or press one then press the other (while still keeping the first key pressed, of course).
The following table tells you all you need to know.

Operation	Shortcut Keys
Close currently running app or window	Alt+Q
Display Charms bar	Windows+C
Display context-sensitive options menu	Application (menu) key
Display Options bar	Windows+Z
Lock computer	Windows+L
Open a program or document	Move to item with arrow keys, then press Enter
Open All Apps Window	From Start screen, press Ctrl+Tab
Open Windows Help	Windows+F1
Return to Start screen	Windows key
Scroll down	PageDown or down arrow
Scroll left	PageUp or left arrow
Scroll right	PageDown or right arrow
Scroll up	PageUp or up arrow
Search	Windows+Q
Shut down Windows	Alt+F4
View or switch to other open apps	Alt+Tab

Most of these keyboard shortcuts are self-evident; you know what the Alt key is, and the Tab key, and even the various function keys (F1, F2, F3, and so forth). Two keys, however, are unique to Windows PCs.
The Windows key is the key, typically on the bottom row of the keyboard, to the left of the spacebar, that has a picture of the Windows logo on it. This key is particularly important in Windows 8, as you press this key to display the Start screen, which in the lieu of the old Start menu, you use to launch all your apps.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

How to Using Windows 8’s Xbox Music

Xbox Music is the new music app in Windows 8; it’s also accessible from Microsoft’s Xbox 360 game console and Windows 7/8 phones. In this article, author Michael Miller shows you how to use Xbox Music to manage your own music collection and to listen to and purchase new music online.

Every recent version of Windows has included some sort of music player application, such as Windows Media Player. Windows goes one step further, however, in including both a music player app and a music download/subscription service.
Windows 8’s music player/service is called Xbox Music. (Microsoft is obviously playing off their successful Xbox videogame brand.) Xbox Music is both a media player for music stored on your PC or network and an online service for purchasing, downloading, and even streaming music tracks. It’s a full-screen (Metro or Modern-style) app you can use if for pretty much all your music-related activities in Windows 8.

Understanding Xbox Music

Windows 8’s Xbox Music isn’t just one thing. It’s a music player, it’s a music store, it’s a streaming music service – in short, a central hub for all (or at least most) of your music-related activities. You use the Xbox Music app to play music stored on your PC or network, to purchase and download new music, and (if you choose to subscribe) to stream millions of tracks to your computer over the Internet.
On the PC platform, Xbox Music is available only if you’re running Windows 8; if you have a Windows 7 or Windows Vista computer, you’re out of luck. However, Xbox Music is also available to anyone using an Xbox 360 videogame console or Windows 7/8 smartphone. The service works similarly on all devices.
On a Windows 8 PC, you launch Xbox Music from the Start screen; just click or tap the Music tile. The main screen is divided into four sections that you can click to view additional content:

• My Music. This is your own personal music library, those files stored on your PC or shared over your network. This includes tracks you’ve ripped from your own CDs or downloaded from the web – not just from the Xbox Music Store. Your newest music is featured on the main screen; click or tap an album cover to play that album. To view your entire music collection, click or tap the My Music header. Or, if you want to listen randomly, click or tap the Play All Music tile.
• Now Playing. This is where you listen to music now. The currently selected track is shown in the main tile; tap or click to pause or resume playback. You can also opt to play music from a specific artist, play a playlist, or start a new Radio session– enter the name of an artist and the Xbox Music assembles a “station” of similar music.
• All Music. The tiles in this section are of artists that Xbox Music thinks you might be interested – or, more likely, those artists being promoted this week. Tap or click the All Music header to enter the Xbox Music store, where you can search for or browse for music by category.
• Top Music. This section hosts the most popular music on the Xbox Music service – sort of. You see the top albums and artist in the tiles on the main screen, but when you tap or click the Top Music header, you’re just taken (once again) to the Xbox Music store. 

 The Windows 8 Xbox Music app

That basic navigation out of the way, let’s look at how you can use Xbox Music to perform specific tasks.

Using Xbox Music to Play Your Own Music

All the music you’ve purchased and downloaded online, as well as music you’ve ripped from your own CDs, is stored in the Music library on your computer’s hard drive. To play any of these tracks, just launch the Xbox Music app and then click or tap the My Music heading.
You now see all the music stored on your computer. There are a number of ways to display and play your music.

Viewing your personal music library with the Xbox Music app

The default view displays all your music by the date you added I – that is, the newest albums or tracks are listed first. To display your music in a different order, tap or click the Arranged By control. You can then opt to display your music in alphabetical (A to Z) order, or by artist, release year, or genre. Click the appropriate link in the left column to display albums, artists, songs, playlists, or Radio stations. (Xbox Music’s Radio automatically creates online “stations” designed to appeal to fans of a particular artist, by assembling tracks based on the artist you select.)
To play an album, track, or list, just click or tap it. Xbox Music now displays a large tile for that item. You can now choose to play the album or track, add the item to your now playing list or to a new playlist, display more information about the artist, or create a Smart DJ station based on this artist.

 Playing a track in the Xbox Music app

Playback controls are displayed in the Options bar at the bottom of the screen. (If/when the Options bar disappears, just right-click screen to redisplay it.) From here you can pause or resume playback, go to the next or previous track, or even choose to “shuffle” the tracks in random order.

Downloading New Music from the Xbox Music Store

The Windows 8 Xbox Music app also enables you (actually, encourages you) to purchase more music online. You can purchase individual tracks or complete albums from Microsoft’s Xbox Music Store.
(One of my beefs with the Xbox Music app as it now exists is that it pretty much defaults to the store mode; you have to work at playing your own music.)
The Xbox Music Store is Microsoft’s competitor to Apple’s iTunes Store. Microsoft offers more than 18 million tracks, which is pretty good. All downloads are in 256kbps MP3 format.
Both the All Music and Top Music sections of the main Xbox Music screen link to purchasing opportunities. Click or tap an individual tile to purchase that item. Click or tap either the All Music or Top Music headers to view more items for purchase.
What you see next is a collection of featured albums. You can browse these featured albums by genre by clicking or tapping the appropriate genre along the side of the screen. Switch between Featured, New Releases, and Top (bestsellers) by clicking the down arrow under the New Music header. Or click the Search (magnifying glass) icon to search Xbox Music for specific items.

 Browsing music for sale in the Xbox Music Store

When you find an item you want to buy, click or tap it. You now see a tile for that item; you can then opt to view artist details, play a preview of selected tracks, or buy the album.
If you decide to make a purchase, you’re prompted for your password and then shown the Confirm Purchase screen. If you haven’t yet entered a credit card number, you’re prompted to do so. Once your credit card info is entered, confirm your purchase and wait for the tracks to download to the Music library on your PC.

Streaming Music from the Xbox Music Pass Service

Downloading music is old school these days; streaming music is where it’s at. To that end, Microsoft offers its own streaming music service tied into the Xbox Music app. The service is called Xbox Music Pass, and its available in both free and paid versions.
Xbox Music Pass streams its music using the Windows Media Audio (WMA) codec, encoded at 192kbps. That’s not bad, but it doesn’t sound quite as good as what you get from competing services. (Spotify Premium, in comparison, streams at 320kbps in the Ogg Vorbis format.)
One of the drawbacks of the free version of Xbox Music Pass is the ads. These aren’t your basic run-of-the-mill audio advertisements, but rather full-screen video ads. (Quite annoying, in my opinion.) The free service also limits you to 10 hours of music a month – after the first six months, anyway.
Xbox Music Pass Premium doesn’t have these restrictions. Pay your $9.99/month (or $99.90/year) and you get rid of the ads and get unlimited music streaming. One subscription applies across all your compatible devices – Windows 8 PC, Windows 8/RT tablet, Windows 7/8 phone, or Xbox 360 game console. (Actually, a single description is good for up to five devices – and if you want to use it with your Xbox 360, you need an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription first.)
Whether you’re using the free or paid versions, streaming music via the Xbox Music app is a snap. When you select an album or track, just tap or click Play or Play Album. This starts the streaming, in real time.
You also get real-time streaming when you select the Start Radio option at any point. An Xbox Music Radio station is constructed from tracks stored in Microsoft’s digital library and streamed live to your PC or other device.
Even better, you can download music from the Xbox Music Pass service to your PC for offline listening. Click or tap Add To > My Music and the track or album is downloaded to your computer for playback when you’re not connected to the Internet. It’s also “matched” in the cloud for playback from your other devices.
How does Xbox Music Pass compare to Spotify and similar streaming music services? The cross-device compatibility is nice, the selection is good, and the audio quality is okay. Pricing is comparable, and the option of downloading tracks for offline use is a plus. If you have a Windows 8 PC – or an Xbox 360 console or Windows 7 or 8 smartphone – it’s certainly worth considering.

What Xbox Music Doesn’t Do

So Xbox Music is good for playing digital music stored on your computer, downloading new music, and even streaming music from the Xbox Music Pass service. What’s it not good for?
Unfortunately, the Xbox Music app does not play physical CDs. Nor does it let you rip those CDs to digital files, or burn your digital files to CDs. For these tasks, you’ll need a different music player – such as Windows Media Player, which still exists in Windows 8 (albeit relegated to the virtual wasteland of the Windows Desktop).
For everything else, however, the Windows 8 Xbox Music app – and the accompanying Xbox Music Store and Xbox Music Pass service – offer a ton of options for both casual and serious music lovers. You should give it a try.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

How to Add the Start Menu Back to Windows 8

One of the biggest complaints about Windows 8 is Microsoft’s removal of the Start button and Start menu. In this article, author Michael Miller examines third-party applications that promise to put the Start menu back in Windows 8 – and tells you which are worth your while.

Windows 8 introduces a brand new user interface, alternately called the Metro, Modern, Windows 8, or Tiled interface. This new interface is typified by the new Start screen, where big, brightly colored tiles represent all the apps and utilities installed on your PC.
Windows 8 also takes away many things of which we’re familiar, most notably the Start button and Start menu. This move has annoyed and incensed millions of upgraders, and quite possibly been part of the reason for Windows 8’s poor reviews and even poorer sales.
Fortunately, you don’t have to live with Microsoft’s decision to remove the Start button and Start menu. There are several third-party solutions that return this basic functionality to Windows 8 – in an unofficial capacity, of course.

What Happened to the Start Menu?

If you’re one of the hundreds of millions of people who’ve used a previous version of Windows, Microsoft’s new Windows 8 represents somewhat of a conundrum. There’s all this new candy-colored window dressing, in the form of the tiled Start screen, but at the expense of the tried and true way of doing things. In particular, users are griping – loudly – about Microsoft’s removal of the Start button and Start menu from the Desktop environment.
And justly so, if you ask me. Those of us not using Windows 8 on a touchscreen tablet – which is pretty much everyone – are forced to relearn what used to be a simple way to launch programs and utilities. Instead of clicking the Start button and selecting an item from the Start menu, you know have to back out the Start screen (and how do you do that, exactly?), then find and click or tap a big ol’ tile for the item you want to open. This approach – the only way to do it in Windows 8 – rudely shifts you from one operating environment to another, which adds more time to a common task. It’s an unnecessary and inefficient change that was not requested by any user I’m aware of.
Why, then, did Microsoft remove the Start button and Start menu? To force everyone into the new Metro interface, of course. Deep within the bowels of Microsoft, the Windows Development Team got a bug up its collective butt that the very nature of personal computing was shifting, and that tablets with touchscreen capability were going to be stealing users away from the traditional PC environment – and Microsoft’s very profitable Windows operating system. Since Microsoft was not a player in the tablet market, this fear of tablets (specifically, a fear of Apple’s iPad) led the team to develop a version of Windows optimized for tablet use. Hence the big fingertip-friendly tiles of Windows 8’s Start screen.
That’s all well and good, and maybe even a decent product strategy, but then Microsoft took this point to its illogical conclusion and decided that the new touch-friendly operating environment (initially dubbed Metro) should be made universal across all types of devices – from tablets to smartphones to desktop and notebook PCs. And the Metro interface wouldn’t just be made available on these devices, but rather made mandatory. Metro was the way of the future, whether anybody wanted it or not, so Microsoft would force it upon its entire user base. It didn’t matter whether or not people like it, it was good for them. Or so sayeth Microsoft.
So that’s how we got Windows 8 and the tiled Start screen interface. And since the Microsofties were drunk on the Metro Kool-Aid, they decided to force this new way on everyone by making it impossible to do things the old way – that is, by removing the Start button and Start menu. In Windows 8, if you want to launch a new program, you have to use the Start screen. There’s no other option.
You don’t have to be a member of the Gallup family to realize that most existing Windows users would resist this change. Nobody asked for it, after all; people have been happy using the Start button and Start menu ever since Windows 95, almost two decades ago. Removing those old familiar tools not only confused existing users, it made them angry. Very angry.
We want our Start button back

Examining Start Menu Replacements

Fortunately, there are some options, in the form of Start menu replacement utilities. These are third-party tools that add back some semblance of a Start button and Start menu to the Windows 8 Desktop. These tools are not supplied or endorsed by Microsoft; that would be asking too much. Instead, these tools come from outside companies recognizing a true user need.
Let’s take a look at the most popular of these Start menu replacement tools. There are actually more available than I mention here, but I’ve found these to work the most smoothly and have the least compatibility problems of the bunch.

Classic Shell for Windows 8

Classic Shell is actually a collection of utilities for Windows 8. In addition to the Start button and Start menu for the Desktop, you also get a new toolbar and status bar for Windows Explorer, as well as a caption and status bar for the Internet Explorer web browser.

 Classic Shell for Windows 8 – with the Windows 7-style Start button selected

Start Menu 8's replacement Start menu

 

As noted, Start Menu 8 is completely free. Learn more at www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php.

Start8

Stardock’s Start8 adds a Windows 7-style Start menu back to Windows 8. It also addresses another issue faced by Windows 8 users by letting you boot directly to the Desktop, completely bypassing the new Metro Start screen. That’s a big plus, as it makes Windows 8 pretty much like Windows 7 – you never have to exit out to the Metro interface if you don’t want to.

 Start8 in action

To my mind, Start8 does the best job of all these tools at accurately reproducing the look and functionality of the Windows 7 Start menu. The only thing different is the flat “flag” button, which is less attractive than the Win7 Start “orb.” No matter; the Start8 menu itself is a pretty close representation of what you’re used to in Windows 7.
By the way, Start8 offers a slew of customization options, including the ability to display a Metro Start screen-style menu when you click the new Start button. This might be a way for some Desktop users to ease into the Metro interface, if you like.
Unlike some of the other Start menu replacements, however, Start8 isn’t free. You’ll pay $4.99 to download and install this tool, although there is a free trial available if you just want to check it out. Learn more at www.stardock.com/products/start8/.

Pokki

Pokki differs from the other Start menu replacements in that it doesn’t try to be an exact replacement. Instead of trying to replicate the Windows 7 Start menu, it lets you create your own customized Start menu experience.

 A custom Pokki start menu

In other words, Pokki is an appealing utility for inveterate tweakers. You can create a Windows 8 Start menu that looks pretty much any way you want it to look, with all manner of program and menu options. Forget Windows 7; Pokki lets you create a new custom Start menu, just for you.
Pokki is a free utility, which is also appealing. Learn more at www.pokki.com/windows-8-start-menu.

Other Start Menu Replacements

In the course of writing this article I checked out several other Start menu replacements, and found them lacking. Here are the utilities you might want to skip:

• Power8. This one works fine, but really isn’t a genuine Start menu replacement. First of all, it really doesn’t add a Start button, but rather a small Start bar at the far left of the Taskbar. Click this and you see the replacement Start menu, which looks kind of sort of like the traditional Start menu, but not quite. You don’t get the same menu options, and to view all your programs (as with the old All Programs option) you have to first click Start Menu and then click Programs. It’s better than not having any Start button or menu, but not near as appealing as the other options discussed previously.
• Start Is Back. I kind of liked this one at the start; it does an excellent job of mimicking the Windows 7 Start menu. (Start is Back ties into some legacy Win7 code that’s still in Win8, so it’s pretty much the real deal.) My problem was in uninstalling the program – which I couldn’t. For some reason, at least on my system, Windows’ Uninstall Program tool doesn’t uninstall this program. That may not be a big deal for you, if you really like Start Is Back and want to keep using it (it costs $3, by the way), but I don’t like programs that won’t let go; it’s an indication of questionable programming.
• ViStart 8. This utility really isn’t much of a utility. Instead, it’s a new toolbar that installs on the Desktop Taskbar that mimics the appearance and operation of the traditional Start menu. I found ViStart to be extremely kludgy, and a very old school, low tech approach to the problem. You’re better off going with one of the more modern and sophisticated Start button replacements.

Your mileage may vary, of course, which means you might like the options that I didn’t. Still, for most users I recommend one of the previous programs[md]Classic Shell, Start Menu 8, or Start8. (Or, for tweakers, Pokki.) These utilities provide the most Windows 7-like experiences, with the least amount of hassle.

What About Windows Blue/8.1?

As noted, any of these third-party tools will add Start button/menu functionality back to Windows 8. But why doesn’t Microsoft offer similar functionality itself? Isn’t the company listening to its (loud and numerous) user complaints?
The answer to that question may come in what was code-named Windows Blue and is now known as Windows 8.1. Windows 8.1 promises to be a necessary update to the Windows 8 operating system. It’s somewhere between a simple service pack and a more full-fledged upgrade, offering bug fixes and enhanced functionality.
One of the features included in Windows 8.1 is – wait for it – a Start button, as well as the ability to bypass the Start screen entirely by booting directly to the Desktop. Rumor has it that the Windows team has been resisting this addition, but that it’s being forced back in by upper management. (If this is true, bravo to upper management!)
Until the Fall of 2013, however, if you want your old functionality back, you need to go with one of these Start button replacements. It’s not quite the same as having it all built into the operating system, but it’s a far sight better than doing completely without.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Windows 8

How to hide your important data from other users?

 Normally when you need to secure your important data from other users, then your first choice is to burn it on CD or put it to removable drive instead of hard drive. But imagine if your data size is more than 100 GB then it is not easy to burn it on CD. No worry, you can save your full drive from other users access using this trick.

Perform the given steps to hide your system data partition:

    To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
    
    First click on Start button to open "Run" and type "CMD" (without the quotes) then press Ok button to open Command Prompt.

Now type diskpart on the blinking cursor and wait for 5 seconds to appear diskpart> utility.

To show the list of volume, type list volume command after the diskpart> prompt, this command will show you all system drives detail.

 Now first select the volume that you want to hide, for example,

if you need to hide F drive then first type select volume 2 (in this case) and press enter button

After loading volume, type remove letter F (in this case) to hide F drive

  Now exit from command prompt and open My Computer to verify drives.

But next time, when you want to unhide the D drive, just run assign drive F command after loading volume 2.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Tips

How to increase your system performance?

Window Disk Cleanup is very useful tool to increase the performance of your system. You can increase also the free space on the hard disk, because Disk Cleanup utility searches many unnecessary programs and files on your hard drive that you can delete. This tool perform many useful tasks to cleanup your hard disk. For example 


Delete the temporary internet files
Delete the old windows programs that you are not using.
Delete all temp Downloaded Program files
Delete Office Setup files
Delete Old Chkdsk file
Delete the Recycle Bin items
Delete all Setup log files
Delete the windows temporary files
Delete the Web Client or Publisher Temporary files.
Delete all Catalog file for the content indexer
You can remove the optional windows components that you are not using.

  
To run the Disk cleanup utility follows the given steps:

Click on Start button, Programs, go to Accessories, and go to System Tools and then click on Disk Cleanup.

Now a window popup will appear to select the hard disk partition with option "Select the drive you want to clean up" for example C, D drive, but you can choose partition one by one for scanning.

 

Now Disk Cleanup will takes some time to access your system then open a window to show "You can use Disk Cleanup to free up to 112,151 of disk space on drive C" (in this case) available after deleting temporary files. On this window a button "View files" is used to check the detail of the files that you are going to delete.

 If you scroll down with in that window, you will get many options to choose, select the all options to clean your system in detail, and then click OK to continue.

On the same window another tab is available with the name "More Options".

 Under the more options tab, there are three clean up buttons to clean "Window Components, Installed Programs and System Restore" , select any one of them and press OK to run it.

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Posted in: Computer repair,Computer Tricks,Tips

How to clear your sensitive information on system shutdown?

During data processing some operating systems use the hard disk as memory, called virtual memory. During processing, operating system transfers some data and programs from RAM to hard disk and reloads again when required. The data or programs are stored in hard disk in temporary file called the swap file. This technique of swapping data between memory and hard disk is called paging. Operating system spends a lot of time in paging process, instead of executing the application software. But the problem is that while working you use different software programs on computer and page file may contain your confidential information or stored in non encrypted format. To reduce this risk, you can set your computer to clear out page file automatically each time you shutdown your computer.

 

Perform the given steps to set your system clear page file automatically:

 

• To enable this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights.
• First click on start button to open control panel and then click here on "Administrative Tools" option.  

 

Now "Local Security Settings" panel will appear, on lift side of this panel click on "Local Policies". 

Here click on "Security Options" then double click on "Shutdown: Clear virtual memory pagefile" option

 

    Now small dialog box will appear with options, "Enabled or Disabled" the page file.

    Select the "Enabled" radio button to set clear page file each time you shutdown computer.

Press Apply button to save settings and then click on Ok button to finish.

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Posted in: Computer repair,Computer Tricks,Tips

How to disable/enable the usage of USB storage devices?

 

USB drives (also known as flash drive, mobile disk or pen drive) are becoming the most popular standard in these days to store and move data. USB support is available in PCs of both IBM-compatible and Apple computers. USB port support hot plugging and plug & play. The USB allows up to 127 devices to be connected to the bus via a single port. The driver name "usbstor.sys" is used to communicate any USB drives to the operating system.

 

USB drives are indeed very useful in these days but a user can easily use to transfer any confidential information from your computer to others and can also upload viruses affected files to your computer by accidentally or deliberately. But you can prevent the users to connect any USB drives in the computer by disabling the ability of "usbstor.sys" (USB driver) to load in system. It will block the USB storage devices only and your system USB keyboard, mouse and others USB devices will work properly. 

Perform the following steps to block the USB storage devices: 

To edit this feature, you will need to be logged into your computer with administrative rights. 

First click on Start button to open "Run" and type "regedit" then press Ok button to open the Registry Editor. 

In registry editor locate the given path: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\USBSTOR

Here select the "USBSTOR" folder and in right side of the registry editor panel find the value with name "Start".

Double click on "Start" and then set its value 4 under "Value data" section.

Close the Registry editor and restart your computer for changes to apply.

Now when you want to restore the default setting, open the Registry Editor and set its value back to 3. 

Now again close the Registry editor and restart your computer for changes to apply.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Tips

How to Block a Website Using a Firewall

A firewall is a program that can be used to manage incoming and outgoing connections from your computer to a network or the Internet. Though a firewall is mainly used to block (or allow) specific programs from connecting to the Internet, you can also use firewalls to block users from being able to access specific Internet pages. You just have to enter your firewall's "Settings" utility and manually add a rule disabling users from visiting a particular site

Instructions

1. Open your firewall's configuration utility. Steps to do this will vary depending on your specific firewall. For example, if you use the Windows Firewall (a permanent fixture of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7), you would enter the Windows Control Panel and open the "Windows Firewall" icon. 
2. Select the "Settings" option in your firewall configuration utility. Some firewalls may call this the "Options" or even "Configure" menu option. This will bring up a list of programs and sites that are currently blocked from access, as well as a list of programs and sites that are currently allowed access to your network connection.
3. Select the "Add" button and add the URL of the website you don't want users of your computer to be able to access.
4. Click "OK." The URL of the website will appear on the list on screen and that website will be blocked from access on your computer by the firewall.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Internet

How to Block Unwanted Site From Your Router

This tutorial takes you step by step on how to block unwanted websites from your family computers. Remember that to block a certain websites from your router, you must be the administrator of or have administrator access to that router.

1. Login to your router by using 192.168.1.1 in the URL address.
2. There are three areas on the homepage.
   • On the left panel there is content filtering.
   • Under the content filter there are, Log, Block sites, Block services, Schedule and Email. We are only interested on the block sites for now.
3. Click on the block site and you should see a list of choices.
4. Under Keyword Blocking, you can either chose: Never, Per schedule or Always, depends on how you want to block the websites.
5. In the type Keyword, Domain Name here: Enter any Web address, or keyword that you want to block. Then click the add button.
6. In Block Sites Containing these Keywords or Domain Names: You should see all the keyword and Websites names that you are blocking.
7. Click on "apply" once done blocking all the websites and keywords.

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Internet

How to Block Websites By Editing the HOSTS File in Windows

DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, can convert the elusive IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to meaningful names, and then translate the characters back to IP addresses. For example, when you want to visit a website, DNS will tell your web browser the real IP address of it, and then web browser will download the web page directly from that IP address.
As you may expect, the process of translating IP addresses to website names will consume some time, which could cause access delay. Particularly, if the DNS servers are down, you will not be able to visit most websites through their URL, which isn’t uncommon.
Hence, it is necessary to make a list for mapping hostnames to IP addresses. That is what Windows HOSTS file does. On most Windows systems, the HOSTS file content is used preferentially over other methods, such as the DNS.

With the proper use of Windows HOSTS file, you can accelerate the access speed of favorite websites, test a website locally and even selectively block certain websites
In fact, blocking websites through the HOSTS file is an effective way to do it because it blocks it across all the browsers (we’ve previously discussed methods to block sites in Internet explorer and Google Chrome).
This article has some tips to manage the HOSTS file and block websites with it. The two methods I’ll discuss here are:-

1. How to manually edit the HOSTS file.
2. How to use a tool called HostsMan editor to do it easily.

1. Edit HOSTS File Manually

Windows NT platform systems including Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 7 have their HOSTS file in the path %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\ (“%SystemRoot%” is relative path, which depends on the system-wide environment variable, it should be C:\Windows or C:\WINNT in most cases).
Basically, you just need to type the above mentioned path in Windows search bar (or run box) to get to the “etc” folder where you’ll find the HOSTS file.
You can use any text editor to open the file and edit it manually.

 Note: For Windows 7 users, there’s one more step. Type “Notepad” in Start Menu search bar, and then right click on the “Notepad” item, choose “Run as administrator”. Now you can open HOSTS file with “File -> Open” menu in notepad.

 The HOSTS file contains lines of text including an IP address and one or more hostnames. You can add the mapping relationship of each websites. The comment lines are indicated by a hash (#) character, which will be ignored by system.

To block a website, simply add a line like this:

127.0.0.1 example.com

127.0.0.1 (or Localhost) is the standard hostname given to the address of your computer. You mapped the website name to your PC, hence you can’t visit the site any more. So if you want to block Facebook, just add this line: 127.0.0.1 facebook.com

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Posted in: Computer Tricks,Internet,Tips