Backup and Restore Master Boot Record

Please note that this article was 'send-to' here from the following Google Reader article. 

All credit goes to the author, jk.

Backup and Restore Master Boot Record: "The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the very critical part of a computer system. If it is damaged due to a virus attack or by other means your data on your hard drive may lost forever. The MBR Backup tool helps you in such critical situation. The new version of MBR Backup tool (v.2) allows you to restore saved backups in the event that your MBR becomes corrupted. You can do this by connecting the drive to another computer.

Another very helpful feature of this new version is its ability to view the partition which is table contained in the MBR. Moreover, this new version will also show the MBR on any drive connected to the computer.
You can download MBR Backup tool from here [home page]

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Published by www.Jkwebtalks.com

Please note that this article was 'send-to' here from the following Google Reader article. 

All credit goes to the author, jk.

Quickly Make Windows 7 Bootable USB Device: 


"Making a USB bootable operating system is a good idea if you want to install an operating system in machines that has no optical drive, for example netbooks and ultra-portable laptops.
Moreover, one of the main advantages of a bootable USB disk is, as it is faster than the optical drive, installing your OS requires less time, but, of course, your motherboard should have USB boot support.
Here is a very simple solution to create a bootable USB drive for Windows 7 without any extra expense and DOS technique. The free application called Windows 7 SBB Tool lets you easily create USB bootable windows 7 setup in few steps.
It is very simple to use if you have Windows 7 iso file, just extract the files in any location of your local disk and specify it to SSB Tool. You can choose any removable device (USB drive, SD Card, etc), if your motherboard has support for that.
Download Windows 7 SBB Tool

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Published by www.Jkwebtalks.com

PDFill – Collection of 15 Useful Free PDF Tools, PDF Writer and Image Writer & PDF Editor

Please note that this article was 'send-to' here from the following Google Reader article. 

All credit goes to the author, Mayur.

PDFill package contains the complete PDFill applications including the FREE PDF Tools, the FREE PDF and Image Writer and evaluation copy of PDFill PDF Editor. Check below about these 3 programs:


1) PDFill PDF Tools -


PDFill PDF Tools is a free suite without any Watermarks, which provides the world’s most powerful and useful PDF tools for FREE. It offers many tools for PDFs like Split, Merge, Rotate, Encrypt PDF, Watermark PDF files, add or edit PDF information, etc. All the 15 tools are accessible from one program, making it definitely easy to use.






Following is the list of 15 Tools included in PDFill PDF Tools along with their function:

• 1. Merge - Merge two or more PDF files into a single PDF file.

• 2. Split or Reorder – Extract pages from a PDF file into a new file. Reorder the page sequence into a new file.

• 3. Encrypt and Decrypt with Security Options – Protect PDF files with passwords and prevent PDF files from being printed, copied, changed, filled, extracted, signed, assembled or merged. Supports Adobe Standard 40-bit Encryption and Adobe Advanced 128-bit Encryption.

• 4. Rotate and Crop – Rotate a PDF page by 0, 90, 180 and 270 degree. Crop a page to modify its layout of Print or View by specifying its margins.

• 5. Reformat – Put multiple pages into one page to save paper and inks when printing hard copies. Add note lines for handout.

• 6. Header and Footer – Add Headers and Footers to present information, such as date, time, page numbers, or the title of the document, in the top or bottom margins of a document.

• 7. Watermark by Stylized Text – Add Stylized Text Stamp.

• 8. Watermark by Image – Add Stamp using image file (bmp, jpg, gif, png, tiff, and wmf).

• 9. Convert Images to PDF – Convert images (bmp, jpg, gif, png, tiff, and wmf) into a PDF file with layout options.

• 10. Convert PDF into images – Save PDF pages into images (png, jpg, bmp, gif, wmf, and tiff) with DPI options.

• 11. PDF Form Fields: Delete, Flatten, List – Delete, Flatten or List the PDF Form Fields inside a PDF file.

• 12. Convert PostScript (PS) File into PDF – Covert PS files into PDF files so Adobe Reader can read them.

• 13. Add Information – Add information (title, author, subject, keywords, created, creator, producer, version) to PDF documents.

• 14. Free Scanner – Scan your paper form or photo as an image file (PNG, JPG, BMP, TIF, GIF) or a PDF file.

• 15. Create Transparent Image – Create a transparent image with options to adjust transparency options

2) PDFill PDF Writer and Image Writer (FREE) -

PDF Writer allows you to create highest quality PDF from ANY printable windows application including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Cad, and more. A PDF Button can be added into Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel using the ‘Advanced’ button to save PDF in one click. It also offers numerous PDF saving options.





Image Writer is installed as a virtual printer driver which allows to Print your document as an image file (PNG, JPG, BMP, TIF, GIF) with options for resolution, alpha bits, rotation, flip, output, and registry control.


3) PDFill PDF Editor


The evaluation copy of PDFill PDF Editor is also included which offers rich and powerful tools to edit a PDF file without requiring Adobe Acrobat. The free evaluation version produces watermark edited PDF files.





Download PDFill Package [9.1 MB]

Requires: Free Adobe Reader, GhostScript 8.63 and Sun Java.
Supports: Windows 2000/XP/2003/2008/Vista/Windows 7 (32 & 64 Bit)

[Updated 24dec2013]
4) Online PDF filler http://www.pdffiller.com

How to turn non-resizeable windows into resizeable

DigiTallis has a neat utility, called REsizeEnable that allows you to convert any non-resizable window into a resizeable one.


Simply download the ZIP file, extract into a dir and run. An icon will appear in the taskbar to let you know the app is running.


Open any window and you will notice that you can now resize it!


ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

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• SecondShell Moves, Resizes, and Minimizes Windows With Ease [Downloads] (lifehacker.com)

Boot from USB drive using multiple ISO images

Detailed information on how to create a multi-boot USB drive can be found in this article. Excellent work guys!

In brief, you format a USB stick using FAT32, make sure the PC can boot from a USB device and that the boot order will pick the USB device before the main hard disk.

The article lists all the tools needed for the job and it also lists a large number of downloadable ISO files that can be used with it, which I have copied below. Please visit the site for the full article.

• NEW BackTrack 4 Final Site | Download (Extract contents of ISO to root of USB). We used 7Zip
• NEW Kaspersky Rescue Disk 10 Site | Download (rename the ISO to rescue.iso and copy it to rescue directory on your USB)
• NEW Mandriva Free 2010 Spring Site | Download (extract contents of ISO to the mandriva directory). We used 7Zip
  Mandriva is no longer around. Visit OpenMandriva instead or visit this for more info
• NEW Windows Vista/7 Install (Copy CD/DVD contents to root of USB)
• Redo Backup and Recovery Site | Download
• Peppermint Linux OS Site | Download
• DBAN 2.2.6 (Hard Drive Nuker) Site | Download
  
• RIP Linux Site | Download (rename the ISO RIPLinuX.iso)
• TinyCore  Site | Download
• GParted Site | Download (extract zip to the gparted folder)
• EEEBuntu 3.0.1 Site | Download
• Added Shutdown/Restart/Boot from first Hard Disk (HDD)
• Memtest86+ Site | Download (Get ISO from Zip)
• Clonezilla Site | Download (extract zip to the clonezilla folder)
• Linux Mint 9 (Gnome i386)  Site | Download
• Linux Mint 8 Site | Download
• Ubuntu 10.04 Site | Download
• Xubuntu 10.04 Site | Download
• Kubuntu 10.04 Site | Download
• Ubuntu Server Edition 10.04  Site | Download
• Lubuntu 10.04 Site | Download
• Ubuntu 10.04 Netbook Remix Site | Download
• Ubuntu 9.10 Site | Download
• Xubuntu 9.10 Site | Download
• Kubuntu 9.10 Site | Download
• Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Remix Site | Download
• Ubuntu Server Edition Site | Download
• Parted Magic 4.11 Site | Download (get ISO from Zip)
• Partition Wizard 5 Site | Download
• Damn Small Linux Site | Download
• Ultimate Boot CD Site | Download
• SliTaz Linux 2.0  Site | Download
• SliTaz Linux 3.0  Site | Download
• Ophcrack XP Site | Download
• Ophcrack Vista Site | Download
• Offline NT Password + Reg Editor Site | Download (get ISO from Zip)
• Ylmf OS 3.0 Site | Download
• xPUD (Simple Netbook Distro) Site | Download
• FreeDOS Site | Download (put balder10.img on USB)
• BKO boot.kernel.org Site | Download (put gpxe.lkrn on USB)
• AVG Rescue CD Site | Download (rename the ISO avg.iso)
• Puppy Linux 4.3.1 Site | Download (Download initrd.gz, vmlinuz, and pup-431.sfs and put them in the puppy folder on your USB)
• OpenSUSE 11.2 DVD Site | Download (extract contents of ISO to the openSUSE directory). We used 7Zip
• Bitdefender Rescue CD – Site | Download (extract the contents of the ISO to the root of your USB). We used 7Zip!

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

Blistering fast filename search

Have a look at this web site. It contains a search utility that is the fastest I have ever seen.
It will scan all NTFS filesystems and return a list of all the matching files... very quickly!

Here is how the author describes it

"Everything" is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.

Unlike Windows search, "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name "Everything").

You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed.

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

Lots of free PDF tools

This article has a great list of free PDF tools, that include editors, converters and many other PDF goodies.

There is also PDFCreator, which installs itself as a printer driver, so that any application can have its output sent to a PDF.

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

Utility to resize browser window

When developing web apps, I always ensure that the pages fit in whatever screen size the customer has requested.

While html itself can manage the page layout, it is important that a page's visual impact does not get diminished by elements that get pushed below the page bottom etc.


I've just found another utility, called ResizeBrowser, that can resize the browser screen to any resolution.

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

Make a multi-boot CD/DVD

For a few days now, I've been trying to find out how to make a boot DVD that contains a number of ISO images.
I wanted to put a number of anti-virus rescue CDs onto one DVD and have some kind of boot menu on it, so that when it boots it gives me a list of ISO images I can boot from.

You'd think it was easy, wouldn't you!

There is a lot on the web about MagicISO; it supposedly does just that.

I have no doubt that it does, I just haven't been able to find any info on how to do it.
I have seen a few references that talk about how to put a bunch of different versions of Windoze on a DVD.

That'd be about as usefull as getting a bunch of diseases, all in one cup.

Convenient, I am sure, but most undesirable.

However, I did find something that goes quite some way there!

It is called Sardu, which stands for Shardana Antivirus Rescue Disk Utility.

It allows you to build an ISO that is made up of a number of other ISOs.

It also allows you to make a bootable USB out of it.

It doesn't quite do everything I want, i.e. use any number of any type of ISO images.

Instead, it caters for the following specific ISO images:

(note that the filename in parenthesis is the exact name of the ISO image corresponding to that menu item)

1. Antivirus
1. Avira (rescue_system-common*.iso)
   
2. Bit defender (BitDefenderRescueCD*.iso)
   
3. Dr. Web (minDrWebLiveCD*.iso)
   
4. F-Secure (f-secure-rescue-cd*.iso)
   
5. GData (Gdata_*.iso)
   
6. Kaspersky (kav_rescue_2008.iso)
   
7. Panda Security (*safecd*.iso)
   
8. VirusBlokAda (vbarescue-beta.iso)
   
2. Utilties
   
1. Floppy Win98SE (Windows98_SE.img)
   
2. CloneZilla (clonezilla-live-*.iso)
   
3. GParted (gparted-live-*.iso)
   
4. NT Pwd (cd080*.iso)
   
5. Parted Magic (pmagic-*.iso)
   
6. System Rescue CD (systemrescuecd-x86*.iso)
   
7. Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD*.iso)
   
3. Linux
1. Austrumi (austrumi*.iso)
   
2. Damn Small Linux (dsl-*.iso)
   
3. NimbleX (NimbleX-2008.iso)
   
4. Puppy Linux (pup*.iso)
   
5. Slax (slax-*.iso)
   
4. Windows PE
1. Live XP (LiveXP.iso)
   
2. MegaLabCD (MegaLabCD.iso)
   
3. Windows PE (pebuilder.iso)
   
4. UBCD4Win (U_B_C_D_4_WIN.iso)
   
5. VistaPE  (VistaPE*.iso)
   

Here is how it works.

1. Download SARDU
2. Extract it into a dir. For this example, the dir is E:\dooda
3. You will end up with the following directory tree
1. e:\dooda                       (contains sardu.exe among others)
2. e:\dooda\ISO                 (this is where you need to copy your ISO images)
3. e:\dooda\ISO created      (this is where it will store the ISO it makes)
   

You can either download the ISOs you need by visiting the sites shown in the table above or start SARDU and click on the name of the ISO you want to download.

If you download the ISO, make sure you put it into the ISO directory, as shown above (cyan-coloured entry).

Also make sure the ISO name is exactly as specified above.

Once everything is in place, start SARDU. It will detect all the ISOs that are in the ISO dir (but will ignore any that are not in the list of supported ISOs).

It will place a check-mark next to the name of the corresponding app in the GUI. You can un-check it, if you wish.

Go through all the tabs in the SARDU GUI and select/deselect the ISOs you want in your final image.

When you've done that, simply click on the MAKE ISO button, wait a minute and, voila, you are now the proud owner of a multi-boot ISO, with all the goodies you selected!

I have not had a chance to test the bootable USB option yet. I'll be buying a 2GB USB stick tomorrow and will try it then.

I believe the author is Davide Costa.

Bravo ragazzo e mille grazie!

This utility is great!

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

HashCalc - calculate MD5, CRC32 and other hashes

HashCalc is a neat tool that, given a file or text string, can calculate quite a number of different digital signatures for it.

Among others, it does: CRC32, MD4, MD5, SHA1, SHA256 etc.

It is a free tool and the author is: Slavasoft

Well done guys!

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

Make windows that are off-screen, visible

There are times when an app will memorise its screen position.
If you have more than one monitor and switch their placement around, you may find that when that app is started, it is shown outside the monitor's visible area.

There are 2 ways to make it come back to the visible area:

1. Using the 'move' option
   Use Alt-Tab to select the app
   press Alt-space, M and then use the left/right keys to bring it into view
2. Use this neat little utility, called borderline

ps: Comments and/or links to this article are most welcome!

FastCopy - a neat (fast!) copy utility

FasCopy is a smart copy utility that copies files very quickly. It also supports file moves and deletes.
It is clever enough to detect whether the copy is from and to the same HDD and uses a different copy strategy accordingly.

As stated on its web site,

Diff HDD	Reading and writing are processed respectively in parallel by another thread.
Same HDD	Reading are processed until the big buffer fills. When the big buffer filled, writing are started and processed in bulk.

Please visit the home site for more info.

FileMenu utility - handy Windows Explorer extension

This handy utility will add a number of useful functions to the Windows Explorer window, as shown in the image below.

Some of the functions I like are:

• Command line from here
• Copy to ...
• Move to ...
• Copy Path (very handy!)
• Change time
• Run with arguments
• and many more
  

Please visit the home site for more info.

Handy web-design plugin for Firefox and IE

It is always a bit of a problem trying to determine if a web page will look ok on a user's screen, given that there are so many different resolutions around.


This plugin makes it easy to resize your browser window (Firefox or IE) to one of the standard resolutions and see how your page would look like.


Simply, right-click on your browser window and select Resize Window.