Update 1/31/2012: As MegaUpload was taken down, I moved the font zip to mintywhite servers (and got by the 20 MB file limit.) Please only download if you want a ton of fonts. The file is quite large (79.3 MB) but hopefully it’s quite convenient (plus, all the applicable licenses and credit is included for the authors that worked so hard on these fonts.)

Many readers have asked me to compile all the fonts, from this website, into one megapack. Today, James, a reader of Windows Guides gave me the push I’ve needed and I put them all together.

Download the Megapack

Download Font Mega Pack

Extract the Megapack to Your Hard Drive

To extract this zip files either double click on it or, while you’re at it, start using a great zip tool like 7-Zip. Right click the file and click 7-Zip > Extract Here.

How to Install Fonts

If you are making a PowerPoint presentation, poster, graphic, or anything that requires typography, you may find some of these fonts useful. There many free fonts out there but it is often hard to find good ones as there is so much choice and so many fonts are not very high quality. In this collections, I’ve compiled the best free fonts out there and provided direct download links to them so you can start using them straight away. If you are unsure of how to install a font, learn here.

More Fonts

Check out more font collections on Mintywhite.com.

Preview Fonts

This is a small representation of the fonts available:

28 Days Later

Concielian

Enchanted Prairie Dog

Judas

Somes Style

Benny Blanco

Blind Melon

Crackdown

Degrassi

Eddie

Oil

Distorted and Scratchy

Docteur Atomic

Hollywood Hills

Hard Rock

Hotel Coral Essex

You Are Loved

Movie Fonts

Fontin Sans

Fertigo Pro

Brand Name Fonts

TV Shows

Video Game Fonts

Music Band Fonts

Bulldozer

Cheap Stealer

Manabu

Nofutur

Paperclip

Rugged Type

Rzrarti

Epoxy History

Jellyka Castles Queen

Karabine

Marcelle

Bleeding Cowboys

FFF Tusj

Green Pillow

alba

Base 02

Negotiate

Splinter 2

Core

Zerogene

Retro Rock Poster

My Turtle

Vandalism

WC Wunderbach Mix BTA

Detroit Ghetto

Octin Spraypaint

Chocolat Bleu

Download Font Mega Pack

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

Method 1 – Shortcut Key Combination

Method 2 – Windows Key + # Combinations

If you’re more of a visual person, you may want to use Taskbar shortcuts to your programs. Here are the progams pinned to my taskbar:

Learn how to pin programs to your Taskbar.

You can open pinned programs by pressing the Windows Key + #. Where # is a number between 1 (first item) and 0 (tenth item.) In my case, Winkey + 2 will open Internet Explorer. Once you’ve memorized the numbers, you’ll find your getting around your computer quicker than ever.

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

The lack of security may lay in an outdated browser version, but also in the plugins, add ons and what not installed. The over eager use of plugins (as done in MSIE and Firefox) is why I personally dread most browsers. Mostly because these plugins tend to clutter my “browsing space” but also due to the lack of security.

How do you know how safe your browser experience really is ?

The short answer is: BrowserCheck By Qualys

BrowserCheck by Qualys is a free tool that allow you to test your browser and plugins for known security issues, vulnerabilities  and outdated software.  But that’s not all. BrowserCheck also help you solve your discovered problems by offering links to the new and updated software you need to fix your Browser issues.

Clicking on each topic in the results page, will show you which driver, plugin and version BrowserCheck found on your system and what action they recommend you take.

All links is directed to the vendors / developers sites so you don’t risk downloading from an unknown or unsecure site. In other words, the BrowserCheck is not scamming you to use a certain software or paid subscription.

On my first run I found that not only was my browser outdated (by a couple of days), but so were my Flash-, Pdf-, Quicktime and Java plugin. I was able to download and solve these issues within 5 minutes, and now I’m browsing even more secure than before. Now it’s your turn…

https://browsercheck.qualys.com/

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

You can read more about it and download it here. [Via Windows Forums]

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

Windows Guides’ Rating	User Rating	Compatible with	System
5 out of 5	Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Many of you out there, reading this, use virtualization software (VM-Ware, Virtual PC, Virtual-Box etc.) now and then or on a regular basis (Proof Here). Most users emulate a different Windows version on their computer for testing purposes, or to be able to run old unsupported programs (like the Windows XP Feature in Windows 7).  Some also use a virtual system to run Windows programs on their MAC.

Usually, setting up a Virtual Server involves setting up a clean installation of Windows. That of course mean that you need to install every bit of software you plan to use onto that new Virtual Playground. But No More.

Now you can Clone your already working Windows (with all software, documents and settings) into a working Virtual Server. Which you then can copy onto a DVD or Flash-Drive to run everywhere. Using any Virtualization Software you prefer, for free.

Paragon Go Virtual

First off, Paragon Go Virtual is a commercial program, but is made available free for personal use. During the course of virtualizing your Windows, you will be asked to register your copy to retrieve a serial number. This is just a formality and as long as you don’t violate the “personal usage”-clause you’re good to go.

The Scenarios

1. Continue using your old PC’s applications – enjoy your favorite applications in a virtual environment on your new computer
2. Safely test new software
3. Put your PC in your pocket, use it anywhere and anytime
4. Combining Windows and Mac. Run Your own Windows Computer safely on your MAC OS X environment.

It’s so simple, my grandma (aged 90) could do it

No matter if the computer you love to use, run Windows 2000(!), XP, Vista or 7, you can clone it. Download, install, run it, follow the Wizard, and that is basically it.

1. After you have downloaded and installed the software, run it.
2. Click the P2V Copy item of the Wizards menu
3. Select objects you want to virtualize (select any combination of  disks and partitions, files and folders)
4. If you run a multiple boot environment with different Windows Installations you need to tell which OS to convert (guest OS)
5. We also need to decide which format to use (which VM software you will use to run it)
6. The next step is to set the system variables like VM-Software version, Amount of Memory needed, How many CPUs (if more than one available) etc. If unsure, go for the default suggestions, always.
7. Paragon Go Virtual will detect which Drive formating suits your OS (NTFS, FAT, ExFat), you are of course able to change that, but I’d put trust in Paragon Go Virtual on this one. You may also allocate more or less space available for the Virtualization environment if you so choose.
8. Then choose a name and location for your cloned OS.

Once the job is done, all you need to do is to copy your VHD-file (usually the format chosen by the system) onto a disk or Flash Drive, download the proper Virtualization Software and run it.

Want to know more?

You will find everything you need to know, from different OS dependent manuals to download links at the Paragon Website. Or use the download link below.

Good Luck!

Download Page

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

The New and improved

Where the 2.0 beta promised more gadgets and functionality, this version delivers. The weather gadget now comes bundled with 4 free weather providers, and several skin options (about 30 skins to choose from). But HTC Home does more.

One of the cool features added is the option to let the Weather Widget change your desktop- or widget background (or both) to suit the weather outside. But if you don’t like that sort of thing it’s not on by default.

The interface

The interface is about the same as before, only improved. The settings can now be accessed from any widget running, and it’s much more intuitive. Even if you’ve never used the HTC Home Gadget before it shouldn’t take your more than a few minutes to familiarize.

Only thing annoying me is the taskbar icon. The taskbar icon shows you the weather directly in your taskbar. To me it’s just a feature which luckily may be switched off entirely. I’m not that depended on knowing the weather outside all the time. If they could put it in the tray instead of the taskbar I might be more willing to keep it on.

More widgets

In addition to the Weather’n'Clock widget, you also get a standalone analogue Clock (which is perfect to put on that secondary monitor), a RSS News widget (which can be download most RSS-feeds), and my new favourite; Image Rotator.

The Image Rotator is an improved version of the original one, that comes with the Windows Desktop Gadgets. The improved part means you can set it up to suit your images.

Aero Transparency

As before, every widget support transparency which can be set to almost 100% when out of focus. Then, when you hover over a widget, it fades in, smoothly.

So what are you waiting for ? Go download it

Download

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

Background: the Warning Signs

Summers can get pretty hot here in Auckland. The average temperature for this time of year is 24 degrees Celsius (that’s 75 degrees Fahrenheit to North Americans) with 99% humidity so it’s no simple matter to keep a computer cool.

Your computers resources are not infinite and each time a new program is called, a portion of the total resource is used and as we chew through the systems resource we eventually reach a point where the resources are no longer sufficient for the proper functioning of the system.

At that point many things can happen starting with “nothing” happening to a full on “Blue Screen of Death” forced re-boot.

In most cases no error message is produced, or the message that is produced has nothing to do with the actual problem that may be discovered later. What we notice is that the system starts acting “weird”. Commands don’t get executed, we lose icons, a simple file copy takes 3 times as long as it should … and at some point we make the decision to shut everything down and start again fresh with a reboot.

Some time ago (more than a year) I found that I had to re-boot my systems far more often on hot days than on cool days.

Eventually it dawned on me that at least some these faults might be the result of overheating.

I asked my wife if we could turn her sewing room into an air-conditioned computer room with hardware racks and a raised floor – but she said “No”. Women – go figure.

My fallback plan “B” called for the installation of more internal fans into my boxes, and while this seemed to alleviate the faults, it also made the room a lot noisier.

In an effort to reduce the office noise levels I had a cabinet built to house the four computers I had at the time. I included several ventilation holes that I hoped would be sufficient.

The result was a large desk-shaped oven. The multiple 6-inch vent holes weren’t nearly enough to extract the trapped heat so it just got hotter and hotter. I had to take off the cabinet doors and even the PC covers and direct a large office fan directly into the cavity to bring the operating temperature down to a safe level. In the end, for a time, the office was hotter and noisier than ever. (more about this in our next article)

I mention my heat problems because for a long time I attributed all of my “un attributable” faults to it. In particular, the one that bugged me the most was the loss of my RAID array.

The first time I noticed it was a bit of a shock given that the drive holds all my data and my “backups” discipline is a bit loose, but after some investigation and a few reboots it became clear that the array hadn’t disappeared, it had only failed to mount.

I’ve configured this PC with 2 partitions – the boot drive (“C:\”) is a separate physical HDD so the system boots up fine, it just has no second partition which is a virtual drive made up of 4 physical drive and combined by RAID to a single “D:\” drive.

No error message was produced and in fact, the report from the HighPoint RAID management system told me that the array was “Normal” apart from the number 2 disk running a bit hot.

In order to recover the folders I had to power down the box and reboot at least once, and sometimes more, to get the virtual “D:\” drive back on line.

I sent off a note to the HighPoint group via their support web page and got an email back saying their support guy was on vacation and gave me an alternate address to contact. No reply came back from the alternate email.

I used the support page to request an update on the status of my fault report and shortly thereafter I got an email saying that my trouble ticket had been updated. I logged back in to the support site only to find that the “update” was my own query asking them for an update.

Around this time I’d been posting my problem off to my various forums and one kind reader wrote me to point out that if I really wanted to back up a 1.5Tb RAID array, I’d need a 1.5Tb backup disk to do it. He was right of course, but it was a depressing kind of right – there is a good measure of fault tolerance built into the RAID software, but it is fault “tolerance” not fault “proof”. If you lose a second disk before you can replace the first fail, you will lose the array.

The lack of progress on this issue and a growing frustration with the supplier drove me to consider an article on “the failure of raid technology and its suppliers”. Fortunately a lucky-un-lucky break intervened.

“We had to destroy the village in order to save it”

Have you ever had an intermittent fault on a system that you couldn’t pinpoint, but you knew it was in a particular subsystem, so you just whacked the subsystem with a hammer to get the whole thing replaced?

Fortunately for me, fate held the hammer this time.

As disk failures go, the “head crash” (see Wikipedia) has to be one of the most dramatic. It’s a catastrophic hardware fault that occurs when a read-write head (works like the needle on a turntable) comes into contact with the surface of the disks platter which is spinning around at 7200 Rpm.

On February 1st, a noise that sounded very much like a high-speed dentist drill came screaming from my PC. Checking the RAID Management page I could see the number 2 drive had indeed failed. (I’ve put a sound file on my web site if you want to hear it Barracuda Head Crash.wav)

Securing a replacement drive (a Western Digital) I had a go at getting it integrated into my system but the first attempt failed miserably (“no available drive found”). After figuring out that the drive had to be formatted first it only took only a minute to install, and then another 8 hours to mirror the drive back in the array restoring my system to peak performance.

Since February 1, and with additional system cooling modifications, both servers have run well although I still can’t close the cabinet doors. My confidence in RAID technology is solidified, and I’m very happy to re-recommend a RAID 5 solution for any situation that requires a large logical drive for optimum disk utilization and data protection with a lower cost of ownership profile than simply doubling the number of disks.

One down, One to go

Bolstered by the success with the disk failure I pushed ahead for a solution to the disappearing drive problem and sent another email off to HighPoint. I got a note back directing me to their Chinese web site to download the latest drivers, BIOS, and web management tools. It sounded like a fob to get me off their backs, but those basic steps – even if they never seem to work, must be undertaken in order to move on to the next step.

On March 1, I found the driver, bios, and application files on their web site and they were, indeed, different from the ones I’d obtained earlier from their US web site (why didn’t they just update the US files themselves?)

I installed the 4 new files and I guess it must have worked — 4 or 5 reboots since the install and not a missing drive in sight!

I won’t claim a final victory however. As with the currently accepted scientific theory: it’s only true until it’s not.

About Deck Hazen

A computer user since 1976, Deck enjoys testing new software and reconfiguring his equipment to squeeze the most out of it. "Computing has come a long way since those early days" Deck recalls "I get a real kick out of watching the industry grow - getting paid to write about it is just icing on the cake!"

Uninstalling applications is never as seamless a process as installing them. Although Windows PCs come with a built-in utility, the Add or Remove Programs utility, that allows users to easily uninstall various applications and software, it usually fails to do the required job when you need to uninstall certain applications, such as McAfee Antivirus suite or DirectX.

Incomplete uninstallation may cause errors and complications on the system. Leftover processes of a previously installed program may interfere with other running processes and cause application errors, as well as performance related issues, such as frequent software crashes and system slow downs. This is why it is absolutely essential that when you remove a program you ensure that all its associated processes, files, and registry entries are also permanently deleted.

With the help of two examples, McAfee antivirus suite and DirectX we discuss how to uninstall programs that may not get completely removed using the Add or Remove Programs utility.

Before we discuss this, let’s see how to use the Add or Remove Programs utility to uninstall applications, such as Microsoft Office 2007.

Uninstall Office 2007 using Add or Remove Programs

Uninstalling programs using the Add or Remove Programs utility is simple, as this example shows.

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel to open its corresponding window.
2. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
3. Locate and select Office 2007.
4. Click Uninstall.

In the following section, we discuss how to completely uninstall applications, such as McAfee Antivirus and DirectX that the Add or Remove Programs utility may fail to remove.

Uninstall McAfee

When it comes to removing antivirus suites, the Add or Remove Programs utility is often found to be wanting. This may be because of the fact that such programs place their files and entries deep into the system and the Add or Remove Programs utility fails to remove them completely.

Most Antivirus software manufacturers, therefore, release an uninstaller tool for their line of products. It is best to use such uninstaller tools – these tools are typically distributed from the software manufacturer’s website for free – to remove antivirus software. In case the software manufacturer does not provide an uninstaller tool, you may use a reliable professional uninstaller tool.

To remove McAfee, first remove the software using the Add or Remove Programs utility – the same way as you uninstall any other application. Next, visit McAfee’s official website and download MCPR.exe, which is the uninstaller tool for McAfee products. After you have downloaded the MCPR.exe file on to your desktop, double-click it to run the uninstaller tool.

Uninstall DirectX

DirectX is an application that is built-in to your Windows system. An attribute peculiar to DirectX is that it cannot be uninstalled using the Add or Remove Programs utility, as the application does not appear in your installed programs list.

If for some reason you need to remove the version of DirectX installed on your computer then simply remove the DirectX entry from the registry and Delete the DirectX folder.

Important: Before making any changes to the registry, always back up the registry first. You can make registry backups either manually or by using a reliable registry maintenance software.

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DirectX
3. Delete all the keys for DirectX.
4. Right-click the Directx folder in left-pane and click Delete.
5. Restart Windows.

Note: It is not possible to completely remove DirectX from the PC as it is an integral part of the operating system. The above steps uninstall the upgraded version of DirectX from the PC and reinstall the default DirectX version for your Windows operating system when the PC is restarted.

James Ricketts is a writer whose work can be seen at Instant-Registry-Fixes.org. To find out more about his work or to contact him, please visit Instant-Registry-Fixes.org.

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix the problems he creates.

A Live CD is an actual Windows Installation that you carry with you on a USB Flash Drive or CD/DVD. The Windows Installation is portable, meaning that you can have your own windows running on any PC you encounter. The Live CDs are most commonly used to repair computers that have crashed or to rescue data from a hard drive before doing a fresh installation. The great thing about a Live CD is that it does not alter anything on the computer you use (almost like a sandbox). You boot the computer as if it is your own (from the CD/DVD or USB). You can pre-install all the software you like, making it available no matter where you are. Sort of a Laptop, but without the hardware.

In the Linux World it has been around for years ( and as Windows XP). But Windows 7, well it’s been a longer road. You have of course been able to download illegal Windows Live Copies on the net for a while – but now at last I am able to show you have to create your own legal copy (for your personal use), provided you own a Windows Setup Disk and license.

Enough chit chat, let’s get on with it…

The overview

In order to create a Live CD from Windows 7, we need to download a utility called WinBuilder (download link at the end of this article). We also need a whole bunch of scripts to program our Live CD. Luckily there are hundreds of ready scripts available for us to download, so you don’t have to be a geek to get it working.  I have a set of working scripts available to you, but first, let’s look for those custom ones. Go ahead and download the WinBuilder application.

NOTE!
Do NOT place Winbuilder on your Desktop or other “User Related” folders.

1. Upon first launch, WinBuilder will open the Download Script Page, which allows you to browse through lots of available projects. The first thing we do is updating the servers list and choose the “winPE 7″ project. This is a beginners project, with most common scripts you need to get started. More scripts and functions may be added later on.
   
2. Choose “Complete Set” from the dialogue, and click Download.
3. Once a project has been downloaded, close the Download page or reboot WinBuilder (you can always go back and download other scripts and add ons by clicking on the Download Button in the main window). Should you come across a script you would like to use, it can also be added manually by copying it into the WebBuilder Project folder.
4. If you are a curious geek, who like to tweak everything, go ahead and look through the downloaded scripts, tweak everything from windows theme, wallpaper, sounds etc.

Running the scripts

1. Once a project has been chosen and tweaked, you need your Windows Setup Disk, as the scripts will copy everything they need from it.
2. Click The Source Button, and choose the path for the Setup Disk.
   
3. Next, Expand the Finalize Folder in the script overview window and choose the apropriate settings (Create ISO, copy to USB-drive etc.).
4. Then, click the PLAY button and wait while WinBuilder does the rest.
   
   
   Once Winbuilder is done you will find a folder in the Script folder called ISO which contain the finished Windows Live CD.
   
   Then burn it to a DVD or a Flash Drive, and you should be good to go.

NOTE!
If you are tweaking the script files, you will sometimes get unforeseen errors. Should you experience this, post a question in the WinBuilder Forums.

Making it easy

If you want a Live CD that works “out of the box”, try the one below. Unpack the files into your WinBuilder Projects Folder and restart the application. Tweak whatever you feel like, then follow the instructions in the “Running the scripts“-section above.

Downloads

NOTE!
The Megashare link requires a password: mintywhite (all lowercase)

WinBuilder Project (link 1) Password: mintywhite WinBuilder Project (link 2)

Download WinBuilder

Useful Links

• Script Add ons
• Win7PE Projects

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

We have spoken before about removing Windows virus:

Test to See if Your Antivirus Software Works (Safe)

Remove Viruses And Malware in Safe Mode [How To]

Thomas has written a post about a program that restores several windows features:

Re-Enable 2.0 – Restore Windows functionality after virus and Trojan attack [Freeware]

In this post  we are going to use another approach with SuperAntiSpyware portable to do this:

Download the program

The advantages of using a portable program are many. For example we can keep that program on a USB drive. To download SuperAntiSpyware portable go to the following link:

SuperAntiSpyware Portable

and select download as you can see in the image:

Execute the program

Once you have download the program, you will see a “.com” file on your system. The name changes with every download so a virus cannot remove the program. Imagine what can happen if a resident virus detects you have inserted a USB with a file it knows is an antivirus. It can easily delete the file; due to this, the utility changes its name every time.

Double click the .com file and you will see a program like this:

Update the AntiSpyware utility

First of all you need to update the program so it will look if there is something new available. We all know how fast new malware appears so never forget this step.

Apply the  Fixes

Superantispyware hides this utility, full of repairs, into the preferences section so we have to go there:

Go to the repairs tab:

Here are some of the repairs you can select:

Enable start menu run, enable system tray, enable task manager, enable windows control panel, enable windows explorer folder options, home page reset, internet zone security reset, local page reset, remove desktop screen saver, remove explorer policy restrictions, remove internet explorer policy restrictions, and many more.

As you can see SuperAntiSpyware has some useful hidden features that will help you get your computer up and running as normal again.

About Angel Luis

I am an Engineer of Telecommunications that love computers. My first computer was a Commodore 16kb, about 25 years ago and since then I am always fighting computers problems. Please visit my entries and ask me about whatever problem you have, I will be pleased to help you. My email is discoveryourpc [at] gmail [dot] com. You can follow me on twitter @agenlu or read my blog www.discoveryourpc.net