5 best programs to hide windows and programs free

Hello Friends!!! Here is the 5 best program to hide windows while doing you are at work place doing something apart from office work and your boss comes near you. How many times have you been doing work on your computer and didn’t really want anyone to see what you were doing? Maybe it’s confidential financial data or far-out website that would freak other people out.
Whatever the case may be, it’s sometimes really useful to be able to quickly hide windows or running programs, which means making them vanish from the desktop or disappear from the taskbar.
In this blog, I will mention five of my fav. FREE desktop hiding, application disappearing programs.

1. ZHider 2.0

ZHider is a very good program for instantly hiding windows and programs with a single keystroke. It’s super tiny, so doesn’t eat up a lot of RAM and it removes the program from your desktop and from the taskbar.
The other cool thing about the program is that it loads up in super stealth mode, which means there is no pop up windows, sounds, and not even a system tray icon. No one will know it’s running and you can access all the options via keystrokes.
There is even a crazy option called Task Manager Stealth which will hide the hidden programs from showing up in Task Manager under Applications and Processes! Definitely very useful.

2. Hide Windows Hotkey
Another free program to hide Windows applications is Hide Windows Hotkey. You can setup to hide all windows instantly or just certain programs. What I like about this program is that you can setup using keyboard hotkeys or mouse hotkeys also!
Other nitfy features that make this program cool are password protecting the hidden windows and muting all sounds from windows that are hidden. The latter can be very useful if you have a window open that has sounds coming through and you want to hide it, but also mute the volume.
3. ClickyGone

Another new app on the market for hiding programs is ClickyGone. It’s a very simple to use and effective program for hiding programs from nosy bosses or pesky family members.
You can hide the active window or all windows using the keyboard and hide them completely or shrink them down to the system tray for easier access. It also does a very good job of hiding windows that may popup from an already hidden window, i.e. a task completes and a window pops up to display the message.

4. Window Hidie
Not as advanced as the other tools mentioned, Window Hidie is a simple and very tiny utility for hiding windows. Basically it displays a list of applications and lets you click a button to hide the window completely.
It does have a few keyboard shortcuts to hide all windows or just the active window, so that’s good. It doesn’t really have any other features.

5. Hide 3.3

Hide is another simple, yet useful window hiding application. You can create program groups which allows you to hide/show multiple windows with one keystroke. You can also password protect hidden windows.
So that’s about it! Five useful programs for maintaining your privacy wherever you are. If you don’t like all these programs, you can also check out my post on how to hide your desktop using built in Windows features. Enjoy!

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How to Block or Restrict Access to Windows Program with Empathy

There are times when you want people to access your Windows computer without having to bother about setting up a user account for them. Still, you need to restrict / block them from accessing some of the programs inside your computer . With Empathy, you can achieve this in just a few steps.Empathy allows you to prevent access to any applications of your own choosing. It does this by equipping any executable files that you choose with a password. Simple and effective.
How Empathy Works

1- Install and run Empathy.

2- Select any application’s executable files that you want to protect.

3- Enter and confirm your password (two times).
4- I suggest you choose the “Create a backup before processing” option to create a backup for the executable that you choose in (2). If the password-protecting process did not work as expected, you can rename the backup file to its original filename (e.g. file.bak to file.exe)5- Lastly, click the “Protect” button to complete the process.The next time anybody wants to run that application, Empathy will prompt a password form to be filled!!!

The only downside of Empathy is that it only allows you to key in a single character password. To get the full capability, you have to send a postcard to acknowledge the author for using his software thus the term “postcardware”.

Still, if you need to restrict / block access to any Windows program in a snap, Empathy is the one that you need!

You can download Empathy from the link below by clicking down

Download Empathy

Alternative download

http://www.download.com/Empathy/3000-2094_4-10724674.html

Thanks for reading.

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How to view the product keys for Microsoft Windows XP or Office XP/2003 for free

Need to recover your product key for Office or Windows XP? Well it may not seem like a big deal to keep your product keys safely, but here’s why you should. As a part-time computer consultant, it always bothers me to hear a client tell me that for whatever reason that they need to re-install their operating system and since they could not find the product keys, they went ahead and bought another copy of XP or Office! You should never have to do this!
So if the sticker on your computer is missing and you can’t find those CD cases or sleeves with the product key printed on the back, then how do you find your product keys? Well, you can install some third-party utilities that will find the keys for you in the Windows registry. However, before you stop reading and go purchase one off Google, read just a little more because you can recover your keys without having to pay anything either!
If you use NirSoft’s ProduKey software, you can get not only the product keys for Windows XP and Office products, but also SQL Server and Exchange Server, so also quite handy for those sloppy administrators who’ve misplaced their software. ProduKey is completely free and is the only software program that I found on the Internet to be free.

The software is extremely easy to install because there is no install. Simply download the zip file from the web site, unzip the files, and double click ProduKey.exe into the folder. No software is installed on to your computer! You can also just copy the .exe file onto a USB stick and run it off any computer directly from the stick since there is no installation required.
Of course, this kind of program is only useful BEFORE something goes terribly wrong with your computer, so take five minutes out of your schedule, run the software, copy the product keys to notepad and print them out for your records. Note, you don’t have to manually write your product keys down, you can right click and choose Copy Selected Items or HTML Report - All Items and print out the web page.
Also, if you get a warning or message from your anti-virus software, just ignore it as this program does not contain any spyware or viruses.

SoftMaker - Free office suite software

It seems like some new office suite software that is competing against Microsoft Office. The list of online office suites that I’ve is long: Google Docs, ThinkFree Office Suite, Zoho online Office apps, Adobe Buzzword online word processor, and Live Documents.
But that’s not all! There are several free desktop office suite programs too including Lotus Symphony, OpenOffice, StarOffice. Today I found a new software and want to share with you guys. Its called SoftMaker Office 2006 .

SoftMaker Office 2006 is a MS Word-compatible word processor and MS Excel-compatible spreadsheet office suite that is small in size and has a good number of features. The unique thing about this program is that it can run off your USB stick, which makes it a portable office suite.
OpenOffice can also run off your USB stick, but it’s way bigger than SoftMaker Office suite, almost 4 to 5 times larger because of all the other programs it includes.
SoftMaker Office is made up of two programs, TextMaker and PlanMaker. TextMaker is a feature-rich word processor that is fast, stable, and powerful. It can also read and write Word documents from version 6.0 to Word 2007. So you can use it to view and edit Word 2007 documents using TextMaker instead of MS Office.

It also has other cool features that you would find in a commercial word processor like MailMerge, spelling correction, built-in database, and more.
PlanMaker can read and write MS Excel files from version 5 to Excel 2007. It’s a feature rich spreadsheet application with more than 320 calculation functions. You can create charts and graphs with drawings, auto-shapes, word art, etc.
You can even use PlanMaker to create Excel-compatible charts that will be viewable by MS Office users. Other features include conditional formatting, goal seeker, syntax highlighting, sheet and workbook protection and more. If you use word processing and spreadsheet programs casually, then SoftMaker might be the choice for you. It uses very little RAM as compared to Microsoft Office and OpenOffice and it takes very little space a USB flash drive, so you can use it on someone else’s computer.

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Free employee and appointment scheduling software

If you often find yourself overwhelmed and never able to find the time to get together with friends or work associates, then you’re probably looking for numerous ways to organize yourself. Juggling multiple calendars from Google, Yahoo, or Outlook are some of the most common ways of placing appointments in order.
However, you may not be able to access someone else’s calendar to see when they’re available for a meeting. Considering that the Internet is filled with useful organizational applications, within a matter of minutes you can finally recapture some lost moments.

TimeBridge is one of the simplest ways to find the perfect meeting time with others. Instead of playing constant phone tag, you can find time to conveniently discuss important things with others. Missed emails, forgotten phone calls, and uncompromising schedules will no longer hinder your productive work life. In just a few short steps, you can register for a free TimeBridge account. Enter some basic information about yourself to get started. You’ll be asked to input your name, email address, a new password, time zone, and your primary calendar system. After you’ve completed your initial registration, a verification link will be sent to your registered email address. Click the link to be logged into your new TimeBridge account.
Before you start browsing around, view the video tutorial to familiarize yourself with the way the service works. When you’ve finished doing this, there’s still another way to get used to the TimeBridge service. Select the meeting test drive option and you can quickly view what happens.
When prompted, enter the email addresses of the individuals you’d like to meet with. The next step requires you to add a topic so that they’ll know why you’re requesting a meeting with them. Select up to 5 different meeting times that you’re available for. Once you’ve done this, the chosen meeting times will be listed for you to review. Type a personal message in the empty box to accompany your invitation and then just send it.

There are a few other optional things that you can add to the meeting invitation. They include a meeting location, free conference phone number, and several other features. Click the “Send” button and your invitation will be sent to each individual. Once they’ve confirmed the best times that fit their schedules and then you’ll be notified. You can also manage your meetings by going to your personal dashboard.
TimeBridge is a good tool when it comes to matching open slots of time for a much needed meeting. It doesn’t cost to use the service and getting started is extremely easy. Consider using TimeBridge the next time you need to connect with others, but don’t know their availability.
You can visit the link for more information about this software.
http://www.timebridge.com
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Load your computer with free multimedia software using Puredyne

Are you someone who has to do a lot of video editing, audio manipulation, vector and raster image editing, etc? If so, you may be interested in an open-source software package called Puredyne that is packed with free software to edit video, edit audio, edit images, and lots more
Puredyne is actually a full operating system of it’s own that was specially developed by multimedia artists with a slew of tools for real-time audio and video processing. What’s very cool about the software is that it does not even require you to install anything in order to use it.
Since it’s Linux based and a live CD, all you have to do is boot to the CD and you will be able to start using the software immediately. For Linux lovers, it’s based on the Debian flavor of Linux. You can even boot the entire set of programs off your USB stick.
So what kind of software is on this Linux live CD? Lots! There are lots of tools for video processing and video editing including Kino, VLC, Cinelerra, AVIDemux, DVDAuthor, Xjadeo, and more.

For audio editing and processing, you have Audacity, Pure Data, Jack, SupperCollider, Ladspa, DSSI, and Ecasound. For image editing, you have the GIMP and Inkscape.
There are also lots of other programs, such as Window Managers, BitTorrent clients, audio and video encoding tools, software synthesizers, etc. The list would make any hardcore multimedia artist go wild!
If you don’t know how to use these tools, don’t worry because they have a fair number of tutorials on their website to help you learn.
Overall, it’s a great set of multimedia tools for artists and media freaks. If you are working in a field that requires lots of video, audio and image editing, you will definitely want to learn how to use these tools because it can save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars!!Enjoy it free of cost. Download Puredyne
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Store anything online with Hordit

Are you tired of keeping track of various work or personal documents in multiple places? There are many websites that allow you to save your valuable information in just one location. Instead of logging in and out of several websites to retrieve your data, just simply visit one. This will save you time and aggravation when you need instant retrieval.
Hordit is a free website service that gives you the opportunity to save your information in an easily accessible area. Save your favorite photos, RSS feeds, PDF’s, and other documents to the website for later viewing. This comes in extremely handy when you’re traveling away from home or the office. Log into your Hordit account and never miss out on a chance to access something that’s needed.
In order to get started with Hordit, you’ll need to take a few short minutes to register for a brand new account. It won’t cost you a thing to register and use. Enter a few basic details about yourself to begin the registration process. You’ll be asked to submit your name, email address, and create a password for your newly created account.
Within a few minutes, a verification email will be sent to your registered email account. Log into your account to discover some of its useful features. Hordit also conveniently keeps track of all regularly visited websites in the “Daily Read” section.
While browsing the Internet, you’ll frequently come across plenty of great websites. However, it may be a problem remembering the direct links if you gather a large collection of them. That won’t be a problem because Hordit has a built in tracking feature.
If you’re constantly working from different computers, consider importing your bookmarks from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Hordit will store this personal information so that you can visit your bookmarks anywhere there’s an Internet connection. View the tutorials that will guide you through the process step by step.
Another great use for Hordit is its social networking capability. Not only can you store your own personal documents and favorite links on the website, but you can also view someone else’s. Once you’ve located someone that has a similar interest as you, connect with them and possibly gain a new friend. Hordit makes it extremely easy to track others that have something in common with you
Hordit also offers unlimited storage without a fee. You’ll have a huge potential to store the information that matters most to you. Instantly access your RSS feeds, documents, and favorite websites from virtually any location. You won’t have to worry about losing access to something when you need it the most. When you get a chance, visit Hordit and give it a try and store all your files at free of cost.

Automatically move files to another folder without scripts

Have you ever written a Windows script that would check a folder every so often and then move files from that folder to another location? For IT people, this is a common task, such as moving log files or copying data from an FTP folder on one server to another.
Even for normal computer users, this can be very useful. For example, wouldn’t it be cool if you could have all of your downloads from your Internet browser automatically moved into different locations depending on the file type? So if you download a PDF file, it can be moved to a folder where you store documents or if it’s a video, it can be moved to My Videos automatically!
Download Mover is a really cool app that does just that! It will check one or more folders on your hard drive at regular intervals and moves the files inside those folders to another location that you specify based on the file type.

There is a program called FileMove Lite that will also automatically move files at scheduled times between folders, but the only problem is that it had no option to filter. So it would move ALL files from one folder to another, regardless of file type.
Download Mover has the added benefit of being able to move different types of files to different target folders or to not move certain file types at all.

As you can see from the screen shot, the program has a decent number of features. The top combo box has a list of all the directories that are being watched. Choose one or create a new directory to watch and then you can configure the settings below.
Click new to add a file extension and the target folder to move the files too. You can add as many file extensions as you like for each watched directory. At the bottom you can set the interval for the file checking and whether or not you want to show a confirmation or error message every time a file is moved.

The program, unfortunately, is no longer supported by the developer, but works really well on XP. I have not tried it on Vista, but I think it will still work. Overall, it’s a great program that can be used by anyone without having to write any kind of Windows scripts.
If you use only Firefox, you can install the Download Sort add-on that does the same thing, but just with Firefox downloads. If you are on a Mac, check out a program called Hazel that allows you to create folder actions on a Mac.

Thanks for reading .

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Some Website Don't Open On Your Computer and What you have to do ?

Your computer is connected to the Internet and you can reach most websites just fine but there’s a problem when you try to open some particular website(s).Though that website is unreachable from your computer, it is definitely not down because you are able to access the same website from another computer at home.Facing a similar problem ? Here’s how to diagnose and fix the problem,Try these methods it should work Method 1:
Check your Windows HOSTS file - Make sure there’s no entry in the hosts file that maps the website’s address to localhost or an incorrect IP address like 127.0.0.1 - it is a possibility if you have imported some third-party hosts file.cmd /k notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Method 2:
Find Faults in the Pipeline - Paypal website may be up and running but it is possible that the real problem lies with a router that is between you and the computer hosting the Paypal website. Do a traceroute and check for messages like “Request Timed Out” - they will help you find the location of the breakdown.Type the following command in the Run Window:
cmd /k tracert http://www.paypal.com/ - remember to replace paypal with address of the website that is unreachable.
Method 3
Clear DNS Cache - The DNS cache keeps a record of sites that you have recently visited on your computer. If that gets corrupted, you may have issues opening sites that were previously accessible without problems.Type cmd /k ipconfig /displaydns in the Run window to see the cache entries. If that unreachable website is listed in the cache, type cmd /k ipconfig /flushdns to clear the cache.
Method 4
Website May Be Blocked - The chances are rare but it is possible that access to some particular website may be have been restricted by the Office firewall. To test this, send an email to www@web2mail.com with the problematic website URL in the subject field. If the website is up, you will get a text copy of the web page in an email message.
Method 5
Suspend/Deactive the AntiVirus and Firewall - If you are running an external software firewall or anti-virus program (like Norton, ZoneAlarm, etc), exit and restart the web browser. Is the problem solved now ?When nothing works, open 192.168.1.1 and reboot the modem/router. At times if you are using cable connection you may not have access to 192.168.1.1 then you have to call the provider or if it is changed you have to have the correct ip to reconfigure the modem.
If this fails, restart your computer and as a final step, call your ISP support for help.

ImagIcon - Convert multiple image formats (JPG, BMP, PNG) into Windows icons

Here’s a little utility that you can use to take any picture that is in BMP, JPG, or PNG format and convert it into BMP, JPG, PNG or ICO format. Using this program, you can take your favorite picture of your girlfriend, let’s say, and convert it into a Windows Icon. Then you can replace out your My Computer icon with her face rather than a boring computer! Hmmm or maybe you don’t want to see her that much…

Anyway, the program is called ImagIcon and it’s not only a tiny program, but it does it’s job very well. You can take an image and save it as an icon in all of the different sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 48×48, and 64×64. The 16×16 size can be used to give your web site a logo in the IE address bar. For example, in Blogger while writing a post, you can see the orange icon in the address bar:

The program also lets your transform the images if you like. You can scale the image to make it smaller or flip it horizontally or vertically. You can even save the icon with alpha transparency! And if you don’t care to save the image as an icon, you can convert between any of the three formats: PNG, JPG, or BMP.

Simply drag a picture into the colored area after configuring your settings and the picture is automatically converted! Here I took a picture of my wife & I and dropped it onto the program window. By default, it converts the picture into an icon of 32×32 and puts it in the same folder as the original picture:You can change the settings by click on the Options menu item. Icon Settings allows you to pick the size of your final icon. Image Transform lets you pick the transformations you want if you are converting between picture formats (JPG to PNG). Remember, you can convert to the same format and simply transform the picture also. So if you have a bunch of JPEG images and you simply want to scale them quickly, then in Save Mode choose JPEG and choose the settings for image transform. And of course Save Mode is the format that you want to convert to. Save Directory is if you want to have the pictures stored somewhere else other than the directory where the originals are located.

And lastly, you can customize ImageIcon itself by choosing different colors or by loading in your own custom image for the background!Very nice software and very handy, especially for converting images into Windows icons!

How to capture,save,record or download streaming audio for free

Everyone wants to save or record videos for free. Today I found a new freeware which we can use and capture,save,record or download streaming audio for free.

Ever wonder how you could possibly record or rip a song that’s being streamed across the Internet onto your computer for free? Trying to download streaming audio directly to your computer can be quite difficult because different sites have different security measures put in place, so one program might work for one site, but not another.

However, one surefire way of recording streaming audio from any web site is to simply capture it via the sound card on your computer. Basically, there are programs that can record whatever is being played by your computer’s speakers, so if you can hear it, it can be recorded. Of course, you’ll have to listen to the entire song since the recording is live, but it’s definitely much easier than trying to download the file from the web site directly.

There are two programs that I use to capture and save streaming audio: one installs as a toolbar into Internet Explorer or FireFox and the other one is a standalone program.

If you don’t mind having another toolbar installed in your browser window, FreeCorder is a very convenient program to use if you’re going to be recording music that’s mostly played via the web, such as Internet radio, etc. Also, it has many other features that make it quite useful, such as the ability to extract audio from videos and record from your PC’s microphone or line-in port. It also supports Windows Vista and has absolutely no spyware or adware, so you don’t have to worry about pop-ups, etc. You can save the recordings out as MP3 or as WAV files.

Once you have it installed, click on the Settings button to configure the source for the sounds or music.
By default, the “Record From Freecorder Audio Driver” is selected and this will record anything that is being played through your speakers. If you have a Windows input device, such as a microphone, you can select the second or third option. However, remember to de-select the other options and only have one checkbox checked at a time, otherwise it creates a separate file for each source.
You can also change the output format to WAV, prompt for a filename or automatically timestamp it, and choose the location for the destination files. Now start playing some music on your computer and press the red Record button. A little box will pop up and you should see the green line moving up and down. The nice thing about this program is that you can have your laptop sound on Mute or have your speakers turned off and it will still record whatever is being played.
Click Stop when you’re finished and then click Play to view your recordings. And that’s it! A pretty easy and cool way to record any sound or music off the Internet or from your computer.
If you don’t like the idea of cluttering up your browser toolbar, you can use a standalone program called MP3MyMP3 Recorder, which is also free. Like FreeCorder, this program also records whatever is being played by your computer’s speakers. However, unlike FreeCorder, this program requires that your sound NOT be muted. So if you want to record anything, it has to be playing and you have to be able to hear it yourself.
Also, by default, MP3MyMP3 tries to record from your microphone and not your sound card, so click on the Source button and choose Stereo Mix as the sound source. The recording quality for both of the products was very good and sounded just like the originals from what I could say.

Thanks for reading,
Hope You will try and leave your comments.

How to Delete Files with Long / Not Valid Filenames in Windows

Hello Everyone!!
Here is a new tool which i want to share with you all as most of the people experience in windows. I’ve experienced quite an annoying Windows problem . I tried to delete some files inside my Windows XP machine but this error kept popping out - “Cannot delete - The file name you specified is not valid or too long. Specify a different file name“. As you guess it, you can throw that suggestions into the dustbin cause it did not work. I’ve tried to rename the file, delete the file through command prompt and others but I ‘ve just wasted my precious time. Being curious as always, I Googled for solutions and was thankful that I find a software called Delinvfile.
Delinvfile (hope that in the future the author can think of a better, easier to remember name ) is short for “Delete invalid files and folders” and it really does what it says.
Here is how I solve the above problem with Delinvfile:
1- Install and run Delinvfile.

2- Choose the location of files / folders that you want to delete.
3- I want to delete some stubborn files inside a folder so I’ve chosen the “Delete Folder” tab. In case you just want to delete a file, choose “Delete File” instead.
4- Select the “Delete Folder via Short Name” option and confirm the folder deletion process.
5- File successfully deleted. Enjoy!
That is all that you need to do. Just in case you encounter any problem with file deletion (long, invalid file name etc.) in Windows in the future, this is the tool that you should look up for. Another Windows annoyance fixed, million thanks to Delinvfile!

You can download from the link below

Delinvfile

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