Dll Fixer: Fix Dll Errors And Install Dll Files

Everyone gets frustrated when their system provides with an error saying that a DLL file is missing. This missing dll file is alien to most of the computer day-to-day users. If you know what exactly this dll file is and which package it belongs to, then you can solve this problem. Sometimes even due to improper shutdown or system crash, the DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file on your Windows Operating System gets corrupted. Now the only solution to these errors and problems can be fixed by installing/reinstalling that specific library package. Easier said than done, the task of finding the right package installer containing the dll files is tougher than fixing the dll error. If you want you can search for the dll files on Google. But sometimes the results are not very helpful. Just to simplify this process the folks at DllFiles have created a simple application called Fixer. Fixer scans your system for any dll errors and tries to install/reinstall them. It really tries to replace the dll files or installs the whole package if needed for the application to run.

I use to download dll files from their official site for running games, as they require some DirectX files. This method seems easier to me as I don’t have to update or download the whole package. You can also try this method if you really know where you have to copy the files.

How To Use Dll Fixer Trail Version To Fix Dll Errors

If you want dll fixer to automatically scan and fix dll errors on your system, then you have to buy the paid version of this application. Otherwise you have to manually run the scan, or you can search for the specific dll install dll tab. If you aren’t aware which file to search, then you can open the same application which is giving the error and search of the file ending with “.dll” extension. Dll fixer supports operating systems like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8

Download Fixer via(techyfuzz)

Freegate Proxy Lets Browse Securely And Access Blocked Websites

With the censorship bills such as PIPA and SOPA, aimed to take away freedom of users from internet by introducing censorship and anti-piracy laws. Even some websites are being blocked in certain regions including popular video hosting service YouTube. You may have encountered with the message that the selected video is not available in your region/country or the video is blocked in your country. Now to save yourself from piracy laws either choose free web proxy or you can use an anti-censorship application Freegate. Freegate proxy is an anti-censorship application for secure and fast internet connectivity. It works by tapping into an anti-censorship backbone, DynaWeb, DIT’s P2P-like proxy network system.

Features supported by Freegate Proxy

When Freegate is executed for the first time, it allows you to create a list of websites for connecting through Freegate. There are three modes to choose from. The first mode is: All websites go through Freegate proxy, which basically make all your internet traffic go through Freegate server. This allows you to securely browse through all websites. The second mode is: Direct connection List. Any website stated in this list will be connected directly to, without bypassing your traffic through Freegate servers.  There is also a second list which lets you add websites that will securely connect through Freegate proxy. The third mode is: Security White List. Add those sites to this list, which you want to access through Freegate. All the websites stated in Security White List can be accessed by you securely.

After pressing OK, the main interface opens up. There are four tabs: Server, Status, Tunnel, and Settings. The Server tab shows you connection stability with Freegate proxy servers. You can easily turn proxy mode on and off through Status tab. In the Tunnel tab, you can switch between A Tunnel and F Tunnel, & changes mode between Proxy mode and Classic mode. The settings tab allows you to configure different settings of this application. You can Delete IE (Internet Explorer) history, skip proxy settings, and other settings. You can click on More Settings to see additional configuration options supported by freegate. You can choose your local port, disable java function, disable p2p, disable ActiveX, etc.

Conclusion: Freegate is similar to proxy websites, except the fact it provides users with a client application which they can use. Compared to other proxy client application, Freegate provides with advanced features like Direct Connection List and Security White List.

Freegate supports Operating Systems like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.

Download Freegate via (techfuzz)

Block Websites Like Facebook And Porn Sites With Windows Hosts File

Internet has become a part of our day-to-day life. Even if we want to leave without it, we end up using it in some way or other. Internet was introduced to make your work life easier, not act as a distraction in your workflow. Nowadays people who work in offices and especially in homes end up wasting most of their time on social networks and some even on porn sites. Some parents are even afraid that their children are visiting porn sites behind their back and wasting their time, when they should be doing something like studying or working on their assignments. Most of these internet user ends up wasting a lot of bucks on some software which let them block websites.

I wouldn’t say that buying some software that gives you the ability to control and monitor which websites are being watched and which should be blocked is a good thing. But as a matter of fact you can actually block websites without any need for software. I think most of the Assassin Creed’s DRM people remember how to fake the DRM server (right?).

Note: Before making any changes to your hosts file try making a backup of it, in case if you mess things up.

How to block websites using Windows hosts file

In order to make changes to hosts file in Windows 7 and Windows Vista, you have to add extra privileges to yourself (as a Windows user). To do that you have view the properties of the etc folder mentioned below.

Now go to the Security Tab. Now in security tab choose the user to which you want to add privileges. Now click on Edit.

A new window will open, choose all the permissions for that specific user and click Apply.

Now you can easily make changes to hosts file.

In order to block websites without the need for software, you need to follow these simple steps.

• First open the hosts file.
• For Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 –C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
• For Windows 2000 – C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
• To view the contents of the hosts file try opening it with Notepad or any other text editor.
• Just below the line containing 127.0.0.1 localhost, add the site which you want to block like: 127.0.0.1 facebook.com

• Save and close the hosts file.
• Reboot your computer to apply the changes that you’ve made to hosts file.
• Now try opening www.facebook.com in your browser.

Closing Words: Blocking websites using hosts file may not be the simplest way, but it’s definitely the best and the most prominent way to block websites. If you’re using some kind of software you may had noticed that all the software which lets you block websites uses hosts file to block them.[via techyfuzz]

Delete Erase Wipe Files, Folders And Drive With Hard Wipe

When you delete a file or folder from your hard drive, the file and folder isn’t actually deleted. It can be still recovered with file recovery tools like Recuva and Easeus Data Recovery. Now if you deleted these files and folders mistakenly, then these applications can be helpful. But if this isn’t the case, then it can be a real problem.

Why you should erase or delete your personal files and folders from your hard drive

Consider the fact that you deleted some of your private files and folders from your drive or copied it to another drive, before giving or selling it to some other person. If that person runs data recovery software on your old hard drive, then you may end up losing all your personal information to some unknown person and can be a real problem for you. I’ve seen many people lending or selling their personal computers without actually deleting your personal information files from the drive. Some of them end up losing their personal files and folders to others.

If you think formatting your hard drive deletes all files and folders, then I would like to correct you. Formatting just cleans the allocation table for moving new files to the same sector. You can still recover formatted files and folders with the above mentioned file recovery tools.

Delete or erase your file, folders and drive with Hard Wipe

Hard Wipe is free file wiper and drive cleaner for Windows. It can be used to permanently delete or erase or hard wipe data from your hard drive or portable drive. This helps in preventing your personal or sensitive information which can be personal. Also the files erased or wiped using hard wipe cannot be recovered.

In the hard wipe window, you’ll see mainly four tabs on the left hand side of the window. These are: Wipe Files, Wipe Drive, Clean Space, and Options.

Wipe Files lets you completely wipe or erase specific files from your hard drive. If you just want to erase or delete some of your personal files.

Wipe Drive is the icon with an exclamation mark. The reason behind it is, that it will completely erase, delete and wipe all the files and folder data from your hard drive. This option should only be performed on Removal Drives or USB Drives or External Hard Drives.

Clean Space or Clean Free Space is something you should run on your every drive. It erases all the data, file and folder that still resides on that space and can be recover with file recovery tools.

Options lets you change the interface, choose overwrite options, which you can change from the hard wipe main window also.

Hard Wipe works with Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. I tested this application on Windows 7 x64, and it also works on the 32-bit operating systems.

Closing Words: Hard Wipe is a must application to be used for erasing or deleting USB or removable drives. It also cleans up the free space, so no old data, files or folders can be retrieved from that particular drive. via[techyfuzz]

Download Hard Wipe

Dll Fixer: Fix Dll Errors And Install Dll Files

Everyone gets frustrated when their system provides with an error saying that a DLL file is missing. This missing dll file is alien to most of the computer day-to-day users. If you know what exactly this dll file is and which package it belongs to, then you can solve this problem. Sometimes even due to improper shutdown or system crash, the DLL (Dynamic Link Library) file on your Windows Operating System gets corrupted. Now the only solution to these errors and problems can be fixed by installing/reinstalling that specific library package. Easier said than done, the task of finding the right package installer containing the dll files is tougher than fixing the dll error. If you want you can search for the dll files on Google. But sometimes the results are not very helpful. Just to simplify this process the folks at DllFiles have created a simple application called Fixer. Fixer scans your system for any dll errors and tries to install/reinstall them. It really tries to replace the dll files or installs the whole package if needed for the application to run.

I use to download dll files from their official site for running games, as they require some DirectX files. This method seems easier to me as I don’t have to update or download the whole package. You can also try this method if you really know where you have to copy the files.

How To Use Dll Fixer Trail Version To Fix Dll Errors

If you want dll fixer to automatically scan and fix dll errors on your system, then you have to buy the paid version of this application. Otherwise you have to manually run the scan, or you can search for the specific dll install dll tab. If you aren’t aware which file to search, then you can open the same application which is giving the error and search of the file ending with “.dll” extension. Dll fixer supports operating systems like Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. via[techyfuzz]

Download Fixer

Defrag Your Hard Drive For Maximum Performance With Smart Defrag

With the increase in the size of hard drives, the task of maintaining the hard drive performance has become more and more boring. People often tend to forget the most basic thing which helps in improving hard diskperformance by many folds, defragmentation. For those who aren’t aware of the term defragmentation, defragmentation is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation, that is it reduces the seek time of your hard drive. It basically arranges the data accordingly to your needs, as most used applications are kept at the beginning, barely used at the end, and so on. You must be well aware of the default Windows Disk Defragmenter. Just to tell you Windows Disk Defragmenter does the task of defragmentation like any other defragging tool. The only thing which Windows Disk Defragmenter lacks is the features that other defragging software supports. Smart Defrag is a free defragging tool worthy of appraisal. Smart Defrag is very fast and efficient in defragmenting hard drives for faster file loading and higher disk performance.

Smart Defrag defragmentation may be fast, but it still does the same task as Windows Disk Defragmenter. The difference comes in speed and support for features like Automatic Defrag, Boot Defrag, and Report regarding analysis and defragmentation. Automatic Defrag is a great help for people who always forget to defragment their hard drives. Automatic Defrag runs in your background defragging you specified hard drives without using a fraction of your resources. No defragging tool supports defragmentation of MFT (Master File Table). Smart Defrag supports defragmentation of MFT, page and hibernation files, and system files, thus defragging your hard disk for maximum performance. In the report you will see a map describing your hard drives allocation of files.

after defragmentation

The map shows different colors like grey (free space), dark blue (Rarely used files), green (Frequently used files), magenta (Directories), yellow (MFT), black (Unmovable), red (Fragmented files), and cyan (moving files). If you’re among the group of people who believe in scheduling tasks, then this defragging tool offers you scheduled disk defragmentation. You can configure schedule defragmentation from the settings tab on the top-right corner of the Window. You can even select your desired number of partitions for defragmentation.

I personally liked Smart Defrag tool for support for features like Automatic and Boot Defrag, making your system hard disk totally defragmented. It makes the task of defragmenting larger hard drives child’s play.via[techyfuzz]

Download Smart Defrag

How to find out when your version of Windows expires

Microsoft missed to mention the expiration date of the Windows 8 Release Preview that the company made available yesterday to developers and tech enthusiasts. This may not be an issue to some, for instance if the operating system is installed in a virtual machine or installed in a dual-boot environment as the second operating system. If you have however upgraded your current version of Windows to the Windows 8 Release Preview, you may want to know when the copy expires.

The why should be really obvious, as you need to find an alternative to switch to. This can be the final version of Windows 8 since it comes out later this year, another version of Windows, or even another operating system that is not Windows.

It is thankfully easy to check the expiration date of an operating system. Keep in mind that an expiration date will only be shown if there is one. If you run the command on a registered version of Windows 7 for instance, you will notice that no expiration date is shown. That’s because there is none.

Using winver to check the expiration date

If you are currently using an evaluation copy of Windows 8 do the following:

• Tap on the Windows key to be taken to the Metro interface.
• Enter winver there and hit return.
• The screen that you see above should appear, highlighting that the installed copy is for evaluation purposes, and that it will expire on 16.01.2013

If you are using a previous version of Windows, use the Windows-r shortcut to open the runbox, enter winver, and tap on the enter key. You should see a similar looking screen.via[ghacks]

How to move installed programs in Windows

Moving an installed program from one partition or hard drive to another in Windows is actually a straightforward process if you have the right tools for the job. You may have different reasons for this, from running out of disk space on the partition the software is installed on, to moving the folder into a folder that is synchronized with the cloud, to pure cosmetic reasons for moving a program folder.

The application I’m going to demonstrate the process with is SymMover, an easy to use program for the Windows operating system – Vista and up only – that you can use for that purpose. You can even use it to move a set of folders to another hard drive if you prefer that over moving folders individually.

Take note that it will move the files to the new folder before it creates symbolic links from the old to the new.

1. Download and install SymMover

First thing that you need to do is download and install the SymMover application on your system. The developer website links to a download on download.com, so make sure you click on the direct download link option on the page to avoid the download wrapper. Installation should not pose any troubles. You can start the program afterwards from the start menu, which will trigger an UAC prompt.

2. Moving installed programs

Before you start moving folders around, you need to make sure that you have everything planned out correctly. I suggest you check the size of the program folder by right-clicking on the folder and selecting properties in Windows Explorer, and the available size on the partition you want to move the folder to.  Once you have verified that click on the plus icon to start the process. It may take a few seconds before the window that you see on the screenshot below opens.

Sne of the great features of SymMover is that it taps right into the listing of installed programs on the system, making it super easy to move any of those applications to a new drive. If the software that you want to move is listed here, select it, and then change the destination folder to the folder you want to move the program to. If it is not in that list, click on the Folders on your computer tab instead, and select a folder here. Usually though, you should find all programs listed here that are installed on the computer.

SymMover will display the selected program or folder in its main interface. Since you can only select one application or folder at a time, you may need to repeat the process until you have added all folders and programs to the queue.

The program displays the storage space needed in the interface as well, which you can use for verification purposes to make sure you have got enough free disk space available on the target drive. A click on the green right pointing arrow in the program window moves the selected folders and programs to the new destination. You will see a prompt that you need to confirm before the folders and files are moved. You can at any time move select folders or programs back to their original location, for instance when you encounter errors using them after the move.  The programs should however work just like before after you have moved them.

Closing Words

SymMover is pretty handy for the purpose of moving programs to another drive or partition which can mainly be attributed to it displaying all installed programs in a list for easy selection. If you do not need that, you can also make use of previously reviewed programs like Application Mover, Steammover or Dopboxifier, with the latter two primarily designed for very specific purposes.via[ghacks]

Remote Support for Google Chrome

Remote Support for Google Chrome: Chrome Remote Desktop with new features

Google introduced with  Chrome Remote Desktop  already last year, a free remote control software available for you only, and requires only Google Chrome. Chrome Chrome is in the Remote Desktop Web Store as a free version available to everyone.

In the meantime, updates incorporated (most recently yesterday), so I had looked at the fun again. In addition to remote maintenance also have the opportunity has come to authorize their own devices by default, to secure it with a pin or on the road to access the data.

Not only that you can access their own files, logically, can the Chrome Remote Desktop also use to help others. Do you want to access the computer of a friend, he must notify you in advance and the pin is already going on an encrypted remote session. The meetings are always on the internet, the quality is so, but enough - at least if you want to run remotely.via[Caschy]

Check Your Hard Drive Health With CrystalDiskInfo

Whenever we talk about PC’s health or temperature we often forget to take hard drive health and temperature into consideration. Hard drives normally have MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure). CrystalDiskInfo is very good utility that gives you information about your hard drive using S.M.A.R.T (Self-Monitoring Interface).

As you can see, my hard drive is running at 45°C (Which is good as normally hard drives operational temperature is between 0-60°C), you can change the temperature reading from Celsius to Fahrenheit from CrystalDiskInfo settings. Also it gives information like how long your hard drive is running, as for me it is 14952 hrs or 623 days and the number of times your system has been rebooted, my count is 1933. You can also check the rotation speed of your hard drive, its interface, and transfer modes along with the features supported by your hard drive. There are a lot of functions provided by crystaldiskinfo, which you can go through, but for normal users the all the facts on the default window is more than enough for almost everyone.via[techyfuzz]

Download CrystalDiskInfo

How To Kill Processes With PowerShell

If you ever come across an Application Not Responding error in Windows and couldn’t kill the process with Task Manager, then you can give a try to PowerShell. You can actually kill a process or many processes with Command Prompt (Which I have already explained a long time ago).

Now to the task at hand, to kill a process using PowerShell follow below mentioned steps:

• Open PowerShell from your Applications or open run “Win+R” and type powershell
• To kill a single process type: kill –processname

Google Chrome Will Be Terminated

• To kill multiple processes at once type: kill –processname process1, process2, process3

Google Chrome And Calculator Will Be Terminated

Note: The processname should be exactly the same as shown in your task manager

via[Techyfuzz]

HD Analyze Reveals Hard Drive Space Distribution and Disk Information

HD Analyzer on first glance looks like another program that analyzes a hard drive’s space distribution. Programs like Disk Detective, Overdisk or JDiskReport scan a selected folder or partition, and visualize the results afterwards using various types of charts and other visualizations.

When you start HD Analyzer, you will immediately notice that it has more to offer than that. While it lists the connected hard drives in the interface, it also lists detailed information about the selected hard drive on the right.

The program lists general information like the file system, serial number and free space at the top, and below that a detailed listing of the file system features. Here you see if specific features like compression or hard links are supported, and active on the system. The information change when you click on another connected drive.

A click on Options displays the file type listing that are recognized by the program during the scan process. You can add or remove file extensions as you see fit. It may be a good idea to look at the file listing first, before you start the scan to make sure that all relevant extensions are covered by the application.

This is not important for the general space distribution that is displayed either way in the program window, but the file type listing in the lower half of the screen that is listing file extension groups like documents, images or audio files and their space distribution.

You can click on a folder or file group to display a list of subfolders and files sorted by size.  It is furthermore possible to display the selected folder directly in Windows Explorer with a click on the button.

Closing Words

The program did not work on two Windows 64-bit systems, where it failed to scan the drives and froze completely after a while. The file system information and general information may be useful to some users. If you are looking for a program to visualize the space distribution by file groups, then HD Analyzer may be worth a closer look. If you just want a quick rundown on the space distribution, you may be better off with faster programs, especially if you are working with 64-bit systems.via[ghacks]

How Secure is Your Password?

As part of writing my forthcoming “Windows 8 Power Users Guide” from Apress and “Troubleshoot and Optimize Windows 8 Inside Out” from Microsoft Press, there are inevitably chapters where I have to talk about security and, as a part of this, passwords.

In Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside OutI included a table showing how long it would take an average PC of the day to crack passwords of varying lengths and complexities.  Obviously for the new books this table would need updating and it’s a good indicator of just how quickly processing power has moved on.

As an example of this in the last book, written in 2010, an 8 character password made up of both upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols would have taken 2.25 years to crack.  The same password now would take just 57 days.  I have included the data in a table for you here, heat mapped with what I consider to be safe and unsafe password combinations.  Where does your password fit in the table and how secure is it?

Key:

k – Thousand (1,000 or 10^-3)

m – Million (1,000,000 or 10^-6)

bn – Billion (1,000,000,000 or 10^-9)

tn – Trillion (1,000,000,000,000 or 10^-12)

qd – Quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000 or 10^-15)

qt – Quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000 or 10^-18)

Moore’s law has a lot to do with the shorter times it takes to crack passwords today when compared to just a couple of years ago.  This theoretical rule states that the number of transistors that can be fitted into an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years.  When you also consider new programming methods to allow any PC to use the GPU on some graphics cards and the popularity of quad core (and even higher core count) processors we can see where a password that we previously considered safe now simply isn’t.  Indeed a very secure password that I used fifteen years ago has now been in the “cracked instantly” category for some years now.

My advice is to make sure that your password contains both upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols and that it is at least 10 to 14 characters long.  You can use numbers and symbols instead of some letters, for example the number 0 can be used instead of an o or O, a £ can be used instead of an e and a 1 can be used instead of an i or an L.  You should also always avoid dictionary words (the first things password crackers look for) and easily guessable numbers such as the year of your birth.

My own password falls comfortably in the safe zone on the chart, much as this came as a relief to me, but another password that I use less often and that I considered safe is now in th red danger zone so I’ll be changing that straight away.

You’ll be able to read more about in the fall when the books are released, and there will be much more on security, safety and passwords included in each.  This subject is, after all, extremely important to all of us as malware increasingly tries to guess the passwords to our email and other accounts, and that the use of Internet banking means there really is something to gain from being a criminal.

So where does your password fit in the table?  You can check your own password at www.howsecureismypassword.net where this data comes from or at www.grc.com/haystack.htm. Source from ghacks