Having the whole operating system on disc isn’t necessary if you just need to repair your Windows installation. Recovering or repairing your current installation of Windows is favorable because most recovery software that comes with brand name PCs will wipe your PC back to factory settings.You should have a repair disc on hand to deal with the following situations:

• You’ve made a change to your PC and it now won’t boot into Windows
• You get a message such as NTLDR is missing but your hard drive has not failed
• You get a virus on your PC and need command line access to fix the issue
• Windows starts to boot and then your PC power cycles

In this guide:

• How to make a Windows 7 repair disc yourself
• How to make a Windows 7 repair USB drive
• How to boot from a disc/USB drive and use it to repair your PC

Note: A repair disc cannot be used to install Windows and provides no functionality beyond that of a Windows installation disc. If you already have an installation disc, you can use that for system recovery.

Burn a Windows Vista/7 Repair Disc

To burn your own Windows repair disc you’ll need to be using Windows 7 or Windows Vista SP1 or later release:

1. Click Start, type create and click Create a System Repair Disc (Windows 7) or Create a Recovery Disc (Windows Vista)

2. Insert a CD/DVD, choose the DVD drive in which the disc resides and click Create Disc

Once the disc is finished, I recommend booting from the disc to test it—before you really need it.

Make a Windows Vista/7 Repair USB drive

If you own a netbook, don’t have an optical (CD/DVD/Bluray) drive etc., you should create a bootable USB repair drive.

To make a bootable Windows repair USB drive you’ll need to:

1. Download the Windows recovery disc
2. Make your thumb drive bootable
3. Copy the recovery files to your thumb drive

1. Download the Windows Recovery Disc

Do a web search for and download one of the following recovery discs

• Windows 7 32-bit Recovery Disc torrent
• Windows 7 64-bit Recovery Disc torrent
• Windows Vista 32-bit Recovery Disc  torrent
• Windows Vista 64-bit Recovery Disc  torrent

How to use torrents.

2. Make your Thumb Drive Bootable

To prepare your USB thumb drive, you will need to delete all the drive’s files, create a FAT32 active partition, and copy over the Windows recovery files. To do this:

2.1. Press Windows Key+R to open the Run dialog

2.2. Type diskpart and press Enter (If you don’t have diskpart, get it here)

2.3. Type list disk and press Enter

2.4.  Type select disk 3 where the “3″ is the corresponding number of your USB drive

2.5. Type clean and press Enter

2.6. Type create partition primary  and press Enter

2.7. Type active  and press Enter

2.8. Type format fs=fat32 quick  and press Enter

2.9. Type assign and press Enter to assign the USB drive a letter in Computer

3. Copy the Recovery Files to Your Thumb Drive.

To copy the files to your thumb drive:

3.1. Open the file you downloaded in step 1 with a utility capable of browsing ISO images (7 zip works well)

1. Download 7zip and install it
2. Right click the ISO file and select 7-Zip > Open Archive

3.2. Extract the contents of the ISO to the USB drive you formatted in step 2

Boot from a Disc/USB Drive and Use it to Repair Your PC

So now you’ve either downloaded a burned the Windows Vista/7 recovery disc, created your own Windows 7 recovery disc, or made a bootable Windows Vista/7 recovery thumb drive.

To boot from your disc/USB:

1. Insert your bootable repair disc/USB drive

2. Reboot your PC

3. When your BIOS is loading (if you have a brand-name PC, this is usually when you can see the brand’s logo), press the key that loads the boot options menu (this is usually displayed as an option on the screen and is typically the ESC/F8 key)

4. Arrow down to “CD-ROM Drive” / “DVD-ROM Drive” / “Removable Media” / “USB Media” and press Enter

The recovery software will take some time to load:

5. Now select your default keyboard layout:

6. After the software detects your installation of Windows, click Next:

What Can You Do with a Repair Disc?

A repair disc cannot be used to reinstall Windows but can perform many repair tasks. Here is just a small list of what you can do with a repair disc:

1. Startup Repair
2. System Restore
3. System Image Recovery
4. Windows Memory Diagnostic
5. Command Prompt

The most commonly used function (for me at least) is the Startup Repair. I use this when I get an error message like “NTLDR Missing”, “Unable to boot” etc. The startup repair checks the MBR, GPT etc for common errors and repairs them.

If you cannot boot into Windows because of corrupted settings, a virus etc, then you may find using a previously-created System Restore point will help you get back to Windows.

If you created a system image using Backup and Restore, you can use it to completely restore your computer to a previous state.

The memory diagnostic is used to check for bad memory sectors (more about the memory diagnostic tool.)

Finally, the command prompt can do (almost) anything the full command prompt can do while using Windows. This can be very useful to run tools like chkdsk to find out why your hard drive is suddenly not working.

For what functions have you used a system repair disc?

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/

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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

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.

Featuring: WIM-images and Diskpart

When I first bought my netbook from Acer it came with the  Windows 7 Starter Edition. Luckily for me I had an extra Home Premium license I could use. Problem was that the graphics driver needed was not available for download, and was not available through Windows. A fact I only discovered once I had re-installed windows. Another irritating thing I discovered was that the bundled software that was pre-installed with my windows starter edition, did not run anymore.

The solution? The hidden recovery partition.

Most new computers today comes with pre-installed Windows and bundled software. These licenses or programs does not come with an installation disk, package or user-manuals. Instead the setup files (or recovery disk) is stored in a hidden partition on your hard-drive, together with various extra drivers and tweak files. At the end of this article I will show you where to look for the files and how to retrieve them, but first lets unhide the partition. To unlock or get access to this hidden partition we need to unhide it. This can be achieved using the built-in DiskPart Tool. You can choose to get access to the disk on a one-time basis or permanently assigning a drive letter for it. In most cases you are able to assign a drive letter using the Windows Disk management tool. The Recovery Partition is normally set to have no drive letter by default. We can override this feature by using Diskpart.

Diskpart

Diskpart is a Command Line Utility which allows us to control every disk and partition on our system. We have shown you different uses for this tool on occasion, and this time we will use it to get access to the hidden partition. To make a hidden partition available we need to assign a drive letter, and this is how:

1. Click Start-button and type DISKPART and press Enter.
2. Click OK when the UAC prompt you
3. In the Diskpart Dialogue Window, type: list disk This will show you a list of the disks  installed on your computer.
4. Type Select Disk 0 (where zero is the disk we want to use, if you have more that one disk you might want to try accessing one by one until you find the right one)
5. Type List Partition. You will see a list of all partitions on the drive, in my case there are two. One large and one small. The small one is the one we want to change. You can also identify the hidden partition by the fact that there are no drive letter assigned to it.
6. Type Select Partition 1 (Where 1 represent your partition)
7. Type Assign If successful you should get an Auto-run dialogue.
8. Type Exit to close the Diskpart Tool.

Hidden on reboot…

On some computers the partition will be hidden again on the next boot. This is due to a setting called “nodefaultdriveletter”, which tells windows that the partition is to be hidden by default. If you would like to keep the partition visible,  you will have to change the setting.

1. Open the Diskpart tool
2. Type Select Disk 0
3. Type List Partition
4. Type Select Partition 1 (Replace 1 with the corresponding letter)
5. Type Detail Partition This will display the settings for your partition. If the Type is set to 27 the partition is set as hidden.
6. Try one of the following commands: Set ID=07 OVERRIDE attributes volume clear hidden
7. Type Assign to assign a drive letter.
8. Type Exit to close the Diskpart Tool.

The next time you boot your computer the partition will still be visible.

Looking through the Recovery Partition Folder

Now it’s time to do a bit of digging inside the Folders. The location of drivers and software will vary depending on your brand or computer type. In my case, everything I need is  hidden inside the ACER-HQ1 folder. You will see many different folders containing everything from Windows Recovery or setup-files, drivers and the licensed software that came bundled with your computer. The content of these folders will most likely be WIM-files or images. The Windows Imaging Format (WIM) is a file-based disk image format (like ISO, RAR and ZIP). It was developed by Microsoft to deploy its latest Windows operating system releases, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, which use it as part of their standard installation procedure. It works equally well with older versions of Windows.

Windows Setup Files Found in the Recovery Partition

Accessing WIM-Images

To access the contents the WIM-files you need a WIM capable reader. I suggest you use WinMount which works similar to WinRAR, but allow you to mount WIM-images temporarily.

Inside a WIM-image you will usually find 2 folders and a xml-file (it may vary). Usually the content you seek is within the folder named 1 (one). After mounting you might need to copy the contents to a new folder before installing the program or driver. Once you have done that, you can install the software as you please.

Bundled software licenses

In order to make sure you don’t install the bundled software onto other computers most setup files have a CMD-file attached to it. This is a scriptfile that will check the identity of your computer before allowing the setup to start. Delete this file to avoid it from running.

The serial is usually found inside an INI-file or a XML-file. And that should be all you need to know. Good Luck

Download WinMount

Download WinMount

And I swear – the following story is all true.

… My friend, the carpenter …

I have this friend (which is going to stay anonymous) who’s a carpenter by trade. A truly gifted carpenter. Whatever you need made – he is the go to guy. But when it comes to computers…

This Friend of mine, hates computers. And when I say Hate, I mean an utterly, sincere deep down fire-in-your-gut-hate towards anything technical that cannot be used to build something with (like a hammer, saw etc.). He was recently told by his accountant that he needed to get a computer so that he could better be served by them. After much ado, he finally bought one.

The boxes stayed unopened in the hallway for three months. And each day when he passed by these devils-things he cursed out loud – building up a rage towards this home invading technical junk that was collecting dust.

Finally the day came, when the computer was unpacked. A week later I got the call to come by and “make the darn thing work” as he put it. So I did. When I got there everything was in a big pile on his desk. Manuals torn up, shred to pieces, cables all over. He had given up even before he unpacked it. When I left, the computer was up and running, every piece of software was installed, and I had even made sure he could get access to his bank account, email account etc. Then I made the mistake of turning it off. oh well….

The next morning, the following conversation took place:

Him: I can’t get this %&()&# computer working. #¤%&!!!!.

Me: What’s wrong ?

Him: It won’t let me log on! #¤%&!! Piece of #¤%&§* !!! (hammering-on-keyboard-noice in the background)

Me: Have you typed in your password as I showed you ?

Him: Yes, a hundred times, at least !

Me: Ok, let me guide you one more time. Type in your password: “ABCD”

Him: A……. #¤%&… B…… c,c,c,c,…. “There” C …. Now where is that  ’D’ ?? *#¤*%&*#!!

Me: You got it done :-) ?

Him: Yes, ABCD

Me: Good, Now Press ENTER

Him: Ok… E….N….T….E….R    …..  No, it’s not working… #¤%/(%

The moral of the story

If you do know that pressing ENTER, means that big square button with the word ENTER on it – then you just might know a whole lot about computers after all. And if you don’t – there will always be someone out there that know a whole lot less !

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

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.

Thanks to freewaregenius for pointing these out to us.

And the newcomers are…

WinX DVD Author

Our good old friends over at Digiarity has since last decided to release their DVD authoring software as Freeware. This suite does not only convert any movie to DVD, but also allow you to author or re-pack a DVD with themes, chapters and everything you’d expect from a payware program.

As always, Digiarity promises high-quality and High-Speed – and in my opinion, they do deliver.

With step-by-step wizard built-in, even novice can easily convert and burn MKV, M2TS, M4V, MP4, FLV, MPEG, MOV, RM, RMVB, H.264, AVI to DVD, etc. Equipped with fast and powerful decode encoder engine, this free DVD burner software takes less than one hour to create a full 4.3 G high quality DVD, while delivering 100% excellent audio and video effects.

Download WinX DVD Author

Chasys Draw IES

This program is soon to be one of my favourite programs. On a daily basis, when working with high-quality graphics, I turn to the master of all; Photoshop. The problem is that Photoshop is much too heavy for my netbook, which I carry with me all over. Chasys Draw IES is a suite of image editing tools featuring a powerful bitmap editor that supports Photoshop style layers and plugins, giving me a lightweight program with the powerful functionality of which I have come to expect and need.

The whole suite is UAC aware and is designed to take advantage of multi-core processors, touch-screens and pen-input devices.

Expect to see a full review on this later

Download Chasys Draw IES

BufferZone PRO

I’ve earlier told you about Sandbox programs like Sandboxie and TimeFreeze. The BufferZone Pro is the ’PRO’ version of Trustware’s virtualization/sandboxing program. As with any Sandboxing program, it works by isolating running processes from the rest of the system, making it virtually impossible for the running programs to make changes to your system.

BufferZone Pro does NOT support 64-bit architecture, but they claim to introduce this feature sometime in 2011.

Download BufferZone Pro

Download BufferZone Pro

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PROS: Easy installation, in-browser, free, open-source, cross-platform, detailed history reports, built-in RSS feed, transfer calculator, plug-ins. CONS: None VERDICT:  BitMeter OS from Codebox Software is an exceptional way to keep tabs on your bandwidth consumption. Its built in tools which allow you to query the data it collects, send alerts if you reach a certain amount of data, calculate a transfer and build an hourly or daily RSS report (and more) coupled with a sophisticated web interface are a god-send to anyone who requires to keep an eye on their bandwidth. PRICE: Free VERSION REVIEWED: v0.7.2

Screenshots:

Download:

BitMeter OS