Free Windows utilities you should download right now

Orignal post by Mr Bill 

Detwiler

Takeaway: From defragmentation utilities to password reset tools, Bill Detwiler 
 lists free Windows utilities that you should download right now.

Everyone who works on a Windows computer has his or her favorite system utilities. But, there are a handful of must-have tools that no Windows user or IT support pro should be without. During this week’s episode of TR Dojo, I give you a list of free Windows utilities that you should download right now.

 

To keep things simple, I’ve divide the list into five separate categories. And while dozens of applications may fall into each category, the following tools are favorites of TechRepublic members and editors.

1. Cleaners: CCleaner

• Five tips for using Ccleaner to degunk your system
• How do I … remove unwanted files with Ccleaner in one click?
• Product Spotlight: CCleaner

2. Uninstallers: Revo Uninstaller

• Uninstall applications from Windows with Revo Uninstaller
• How do I uninstall applications from Windows with Revo Uninstaller?

3. Defragmenters: (UltraDefrag, MyDefrag, Smart Defrag, and Defraggler)

• Four free defragmentation tools for power users
• Review: UltraDefrag tool
• Review: MyDefrag 4.2.6
• Review: Smart Defrag
• Review: Defraggler defrag hard disk utility

4. Remote support tools: CrossLoop

• Take control of any Windows PC on the Internet with CrossLoop
• Quick and easy remote support with CrossLoop

5. Password recovery and reset utilities: Offline NT Password and Registry Editor

• Reset Windows passwords with the Offline NT Password and Registry Editor
• Reset lost Windows passwords with Offline Registry Editor

FOR THIS AMAZING INFORMATION THANKS TO

Dual Boot Your Pre-Installed Windows 7 Computer with XP

So you got your shiny new pre-installed Windows 7 computer over the holidays, 
but you want to have trusty XP standing by in a dual boot setup. Today we’ll walk through creating a new partition in Windows 7 then installing XP on it.

In this process we are going to shrink some free space on the Windows 7 hard 
drive to allocate toward a new partition. Make sure to take a moment and decide 
how much space to use for the XP partition. Make sure you have enough space 
on your hard drive for files you’ll be adding to each.

Create a New Partition

The first thing we need to do is create a new partition on the Windows 7 machine. Luckily we can do it without any 3rd party software. To begin, click on Start and 
type either partition ordisk management into the search box and at the top of 
the menu click on Create and format hard disk partitions.

The Disk Management window opens, and from here we need to free up space 
on the (C:) drive Windows 7 is installed on. Right-click on the drive and select  
Shrink Volume.  

A window pops up showing the drive is being queried for available space.

 

Now enter the amount of space you want to shrink the volume. You’re shown 
the total size of the disk and the amount of size that is available to shrink. 
In this example we’re freeing up 40GB of space.

After the process completes you’ll see the new Unallocated space. 
 Right-click that and selectNew Simple Volume.

The New Simple Volume Wizard launches which is a straight forward process. 
When you get to the Format Partition section, NTFS is selected by default as the
file system and you can leave that as is. You might want to rename the Volume
label something else like “XP Partition” so it’s easier to identify when installing XP. 
Also you’ll probably want to make sure to check Perform a Quick Format.

After the format is complete you will see the new volume as a healthy partition 
listed.

Now when you go into My Computer you’ll see the the new disk and notice that 
space has been taken away from the (C:) drive Windows 7 is installed on.

Install XP on the New Partition

Now that you know how to create a new partition on your Windows 7 machine,
it’s time to install XP on it. Here we’re installing XP Professional on the 
new partition. Boot from the XP installation disk and start the install process.

When it comes to choosing a partition, make sure you select the one you 
created using the steps above. In this example we made a 10GB partition 
for the XP install.

If the partition you created was already formatted as NTFS you can leave it, 
or you can choose the FAT file system if you want. 

Basically you continue through as if you were doing a clean install on any hard 

drive.

Create Boot Loader

Once installation of XP is successful you can now go through and install the latest Microsoft Updates and drivers. You will undoubtedly notice that the machine is 
booting directly into XP at this time. This is due to XP writing it’s bootloader 
over Windows 7’s. To get both XP and Windows 7 as an option at the boot 
screen you can use the free utility EasyBCD 1.72 or their new 2.0 Beta.

 

VistaBootPRO 3.3 (free version) will still work too which you can 
download here. VistaBootPRO is now called DualBootPRO and is no longer
free, it’s $9.95 for a single user license.

After getting the bootloader back you should see both XP and Windows 7 
as options in the Windows Boot Manager.

SEO Localization

SEO localization is optimizing the web pages based on the geographical location.
Our webpage can be localize worldwide or by countrywise. But if we localize our webpage globally,it takes more time than country level.


There are many ways we can apply seo localization to our website.


1. The first way is guiding the Google to optimize the pages in particular geographical location through Google Webmaster Tools.


You will find this option in the Webmaster Tools » Site Configuration » Settings 

Through we can apply the seo localization to our website. 


2. The other way is sometimes the users search by adding the country name or city name to the keyword.

Ex: Seo services india
     Seo USA


3. The third way of optimizing locally can be done at the time of registering the domain name. That is if you register a domain name with country level TLD. Then the website will be optimized locally in the country level search engine.

Incoming and Outgoing Mail Server Settings for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, GMail, MSN, AOL and more

*Update, 15th of March 2011: changes for the mail server settings of Gmail and MSN mail.

*Update, 23rd of August 2009: Hotmail can now be connected to Microsoft Outlook as any POP email account. To do so, you need to download the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector.

*Update, 29th of August 2006: the Google Gmail service offers a SMTP server (outgoing mail server) for Gmail accounts. To use the Google Gmail SMTP server, use the following information:

Google Gmail Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP): smtp.gmail.com

The Gmail SMTP server requires authentication (use the same settings as for the incoming mail server)

The Google Gmail SMTP Server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) on port 465.

 Why & when do I need these settings?

Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, GMail and other providers are basically email services designed to provide you with email mailbox accesss directly from the web. However, going online and logging on to their sites is not always the most convenient way for reading and sending emails.

On the other hand, you have the alternative to send and receive emails through such a mailbox by using a local email client software, such as Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, etc. In order to properly use it, you need to configure your email software with the incoming and outgoing mail servers of your email provider (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or else).

 Mail Server Settings

Hotmail Settings

As other web based email services, Hotmail is using the HTTP protocol for connecting you to your mailbox. If you want to send and receive Hotmail emails using an email client software, then your software must support Hotmail HTTP access for your email account. Some email clients, such as Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook, offer builtin support for Hotmail accounts, so you only have to select HTTP when you are asked to select your email account type and select Hotmail as the HTTP Mail Service Provider.

Mail Server Settings for Hotmail using the Microsoft Outlook Connector

If you are using Microsoft Outlook & the Outlook Connector, you can define your Hotmail account just like any regular POP3 email account:

Hotmail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop3.live.com (logon using Secure Password Authentification - SPA, mail server port: 995)

Hotmail Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - smtp.live.com (TLS enabled, port 587)

Yahoo! Mail Settings

Yahoo Mail offers standard POP3 access for receiving emails incoming through your Yahoo mailbox, by using your favorite email client software. To setup your email client for working with your Yahoo account, you need to select the POP3 protocol and use the following mail server settings:

Yahoo Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.mail.yahoo.com (SSL enabled, port 465)

Yahoo Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - smtp.mail.yahoo.com (SSL enabled, port 995)

POP Yahoo! Mail Plus email server settings

Yahoo Plus Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - plus.pop.mail.yahoo.com (SSL enabled, port 995)

Yahoo Plus Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) - plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com (SSL enabled, port 465, use authentication)

Google GMail Settings

The Google GMail service offers email client access for retrieving and sending emails through your Gmail account. However, for security reasons, GMail uses POP3 over an SSL connection, so make sure your email client supports encrypted SSL connections.

Google Gmail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.gmail.com (SSL enabled, port 995)

Outgoing Mail Server - use the SMTP mail server address provided by your local ISP or smtp.gmail.com (TLS enabled, port 587)

MSN Mail Settings

The MSN email service allows you to use the MSN POP3 and SMTP servers to access your MSN mailbox.

MSN Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop3.email.msn.com (port 110, using Secure Password Authentication - SPA)

MSN Outgoing Mail Server - smtp.email.msn.com (select "My outgoing server requires authentication")

Lycos Mail Settings

The Lycos Mail Plus service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Lycos mailbox.

Lycos Mail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.mail.lycos.com (port 110)

Outgoing Mail Server - smtp.mail.lycos.com or use your local ISP SMTP mail server

AOL Mail Settings

The AOL email service is a web based system, designed for managing your AOL mailbox via HTTP IMAP access. Unlike Hotmail, you can use any email client to access your AOL mailbox, as long as it supports the IMAP protocol.

AOL Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) - imap.aol.com (port 143)

AOL Outgoing Mail Server - smtp.aol.com or use your local ISP SMTP mail server

Mail.com Mail Settings

The Mail.com email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Mail.com mailbox.

Mail.com Mail Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop1.mail.com (port 110)

Outgoing Mail Server - use your local ISP SMTP mail server

Netscape Internet Service Mail Settings

The Netscape e-mail system is web-based, which means you can access their e-mail from any Internet connection. Netscape Internet Service also supports AOL® Communicator, Microsoft® Outlook, Microsoft® Outlook Express, and other POP3 e-mail software. The outgoing mail server needs SSL support, so make sure your email client software supports SSL connections over the SMTP protocol.

Netscape Internet Service Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.3.isp.netscape.com (port 110)

Netscape Internet Service Outgoing Mail Server - smtp.isp.netscape.com (port 25, using a secure SSL connection)

Tiscali Mail Settings

The Tiscali email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Tiscali mailbox.

Tiscali Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.tiscali.com (port 110)

Outgoing Mail Server - use your local ISP SMTP mail server

Freeserve Mail Settings

The Freeserve email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Freeserve mailbox.

Freeserve Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.freeserve.com (port 110)

Outgoing Mail Server - use your local ISP SMTP mail server

Supanet Mail Settings

The Supanet email service allows you to use POP3 and SMTP servers for accessing your Supanet mailbox.

Supanet Incoming Mail Server (POP3) - pop.supanet.com (port 110)

Outgoing Mail Server - use your local ISP SMTP mail server