Add a "Show Desktop" Shortcut on Windows XP

By default, you should have a shortcut icon on the "Quick Launch" toolbar (the toolbar that normally sits next to the Start button) to toggle your Windows desktop...

AMD FX 8150 - 8120 - 6100 and 4100 performance review

Yesterday AMD released the FX series Zambezi - Bulldozer based processor. Everybody has been focusing on that most high-end AMD FX 8150 processor. However there where three other processors released.


The processors added into the chart are the eight core AMD FX 8120, the six-core AMD FX 6100 and the four core AMD FX 4100.

These processors are all based on the same Bulldozer architecture yet have a different numbers of cores with accompanying cache's, let's recap the four processors that have been launched first:

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt)

When the Apple MacBook Air debuted, its incredibly thin profile made it stand out in a sea of ultraportables. Since then, it has been surpassed by Windows systems with more features and faster performance. All that's changing with the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,299 direct). In the latest iteration of the MacBook Air, Apple flushed out the dated Core 2 Duo CPU in favor of an Intel Core i5 processor (albeit a low-voltage model), brought back the backlit keyboard, and added a Thunderbolt bolt port. And to sweeten the pot, it comes with the recently introduced Mac OS X Lion. With these updates, the Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) is poised to make a big run in the ultraportable space.

Samsung NP700Z5B-W01UB

The Samsung NP700Z5B-W01UB ($1,019 list at Best Buy) has an attractive chassis that will appeal to designers and fans of the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) ($2,199 direct, 4 stars), but without the premium price tag. Its AMD Radeon GPU and Core i7 CPU have the chops to take on games, day-to-day productivity tasks, and Photoshop editing as well as video manipulation. Wireless features, like Wireless Display 2.0 (WiDi 2.0) and WiMAX 4G broadband, will appeal to entertainment aficionados and road warriors—further adding to its value. But if you place raw horsepower above added features, there are better options.

Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit ADSL+ Modem Router (DGND3700)

Netgear's N600 Wireless Dual Band Router ADSL2+ combines two functions in one unit: it acts as both a router and a DSL modem. While most Americans use cable modem services for broadband Internet connectivity, DSL is the second most widely-used connection service, particularly in rural part of the country. It is still the primary way to connect to the Internet in many parts of the world. The N600 lets users extend their DSL connectivity throughout a home network to wired devices connected via its Gigabit Ethernet ports. And it's fine wireless router, too.

Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 Free Edition

The swamp of malicious code bogging down the Internet would be greatly reduced if everybody—absolutely everybody—ran antivirus software. "But it's expensive," some may complain, or "It will slow down my computer." Panda Cloud Antivirus 1.5 Free Edition (free, direct) doesn't cost a penny, and it's designed for minimal impact on performance. Though not as effective as the very best products, it did a decent job in testing. It's vastly better than no protection at all. Be sure to check out our roundup of The Best Free Antivirus Software for other free antivirus solutions.

Grooveshark

Part streaming music service, part peer-to-peer network, Grooveshark is one of the most unique music sites on the Web. Grooveshark lets its users upload MP3 files and stream them to others, engage in social networking, and receive music recommendations. It has big aspirations, but in the end it feels like a mish-mash of good ideas that have yet to gel.

SUPERAntiSpyware Free 5

"Remove ALL the Spyware, NOT just the EASY ones!" That's the motto across the top of SUPERAntiSpyware Free 5 (free, direct), and it's an excellent goal. Too bad, then, that the product itself falls so far short of that goal.

Avira Free Antivirus 2012

When it comes to antivirus protection you want a company with experience. Avira has been around for 25 years, which is about as long as PC viruses have existed. The company's principals want everyone to be safe from malware, so they give away Avira Free Antivirus 2012 (free, direct) for non-commercial use.

Click.to

One of the more interesting consequences of the touchcreen revolution is the way that developments in smartphones and tablets are bleeding over into more traditional hardware and software. Click.to is a program designed to mimic in standard PCs (and Macs) the ease with which people can share content from a touch screen. In practically any app for smartphones and tablets, you can press a single button to share something on Facebook, or email a photo, or otherwise copy and paste content from one application to another. Why shouldn't we have this functionality on our plain old laptops and desktops?

A 1TB hard drive running at 7,200 rpm, the Western Digital Caviar Black ($79.99 list) comes with a 64MB cache and runs through a 6Gb/s SATA connection. The disk also packs features like dual actuator technology, NoTouch ramp loading and a dual processor among other technologies.

Transform Windows 7 into Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Using “Android Skin Pack 2.0″

We have shared many transformation packs for Windows 7 users like Mac OS X transformation pack, Windows 8 skin pack, Ubuntu skin pack, etc.
Today its turn of Android skin pack. If you want to make Windows 7 look-like Google Android OS, this transformation pack will definitely help you.
This skin pack completely transforms Windows 7 into Android OS. Following is a preview of this skin pack in action:



It supports both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
You can download it using following link:
Download Link (32-bit)
Download Link (64-bit)
NOTE: Please create a system restore point before installing this skin pack so that you can restore default Windows look in case you don't like the new look or face any problem.

Download Amazing “Alienware Skin Pack” for Windows 7

If you are a gamer, you must be knowing about "Alienware" which is a Desktop and laptop manufacturing company. Actually its a subsidary of Dell and mainly assembles hardware components in Desktops and laptops. The main aim behind these custom assembled computers is making high-end machines to provide high performance for gaming.

Getac V200

It's a fact that your computer data is only as safe that the device you keep it in. For those who work in harsher environments than, say, an office or classroom, a typical laptop isn't going to cut it. A ruggedized laptop is usually called upon in such situations as a construction site, beach, or military zone. The Getac V200 ($5,177 direct) is classified as a fully-rugged laptop, as opposed to a semi- or business-rugged one. It's practically indestructible, having been subjected to a comprehensive suite of military tests. Inside this fortress is a solid list of laptop components, including a low-voltage Core i7 processor, touch-screen, big battery, and the brightest screen money can buy. But given its price tag, whoever is forking out the money for this laptop had better have pockets as deep as those of the government.

Falcon Northwest Fragbook DRX

If you're shopping for a Falcon Northwest gaming laptop, there's no middle ground: Either go for broke or leave the website. Consider the Fragbook DRX ($6,449 direct, starting prices around $4,000); the money you'll have spent by the time you trick it out could avert several foreclosures. This 12-pound tank is one of only a handful of boutique laptops that have enough cooling fans to run a 3.33-GHz, Intel Core i7 975 processor—the top-of-the-line desktop processor, no less. Surround the CPU with an excellent supporting cast—an nVidia GeForce 280M GTX graphics card, 6GB of memory, and three internal hard drives (one of which is an 80GB SSD), and its competitors can only watch helplessly while they get pulverized in performance tests.

Given Nvidia's success capturing the $200 territory with its GeForce GTX 460 video card earlier this year, it wasn't surprising when the first two cards in AMD's new 6000 series, the Radeon HD 6870and 6850, hovered around that same price. With its newest 6000-series releases, in its high-end single-GPU "Cayman" family, AMD is notching things up next to the next roundest number. While nudging the 6970 to $369 to spar directly with Nvidia's new GTX 570, AMD is also inserting a card into a price range Nvidia doesn't exactly cover: $299. While there's no doubt the Radeon HD 6950 will find a home there among gamers who consider $300 the most a video card should cost, its performance otherwise marks it as a somewhat tough proposition.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 460

It's been three and a half months since Nvidia released its first GF100 "Fermi" DirectX 11 video card, the high-end GeForce GTX 480, and its lower-priced, lower-power siblings, the GTX 470 and the GTX 465. The cards have been the top performers of their price ranges ($500, $350, and $270), but only just—AMD's ATI Radeon HD 5000 series have offered similar performance for similar prices, and have been on the market since early last fall. Nvidia's had a lot of catching up to do, with one of its primary deficits being the lack of a sub-$200 card for its lineup. With Nvidia's release of the GeForce GTX 460, that hole is now filled.

Alienware Aurora

The Alienware Aurora ($2,598.99 direct) is definitely for gaming connoisseurs who want a desktop PC that doesn't look like they built it themselves. Only Alienware would have the audacity to build a tower system with four user-controllable lighting zones on the tower, with another two on the keyboard and one on the mouse. The internal components are no slouches either, with a Core i7-2600K processor and twin AMD Radeon HD 6950 video cards for 3D prowess. Other systems with factory-overclocked processors are ultimately faster, but the Aurora has the power to make it on the gaming grid.

"The Garage" is a Microsoft project which is a company wide program that encourages grass roots invention, tinkering, ideas and incubation of projects. In The Garage,employees get together after hours to build whatever they dream up and the results are often impressive.

99.9% of the Garage projects either ship as part of a Microsoft project or remain internal, but every once in a while there’s a project that doesn’t fit into any existing Microsoft product which will get a lot of request from employees who want to be able to share it with their friends and families.

Same thing goes with "Mouse Without Borders" tool which allows you to reach across your PC's as if they were part of one single desktop. Suppose you have two PCs connected to 3 LCD screens. Using "Mouse Without Borders" you can move your mouse between the 3 screens. What’s more, you can move files between the 2 computers simply by dragging them from one desktop to another.

FileMenu Tools: Free Utility to Customize Context Menu in Windows XP, Vista and 7

Many times when we install a software in Windows, it automatically adds its entry in context menu (right-click menu). Some software like WinRAR, 7-Zip, etc allow you to remove these entries using their Settings window but many other software don't allow it.

But if you are not familiar with registry but want to remove unwanted entries from context menu, here is an excellent freeware for you.

"FileMenu Tools" is a free software for Windows which allows you to remove unnecessary entries from context menu. It also allows you to configure "Send To" menu. You can add new commands or delete existing commands from Send to menu.

This free utility also adds its own menu in context menu which is actually a group of lots of useful system commands like Copy to, Move to, Copy Name, etc.

Windows 8 Will Come with Hyper-V, Microsoft Confirms

In another post at Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft has confirmed that Hyper-V will be a part of Windows 8.

Here is what the official post says:

In this post we talk about how we will support virtualization on the Windows "client" OS. Originally released for Windows Server where the technology has proven very popular and successful, we wanted to bring virtualization to a core set of scenarios for professionals using Windows.

Download Awesome Windows 8 Metro Theme for KMPlayer

"KMPlayer" is one of the best media player for Windows. Most of the times its used as an alternative to default Windows Media Player.

If you also use KMPlayer or want to give it a try, we are going to share a cool skin for this awesome media player.

If you love Metro UI and are using a Metro theme in your Windows, you should definitely use this theme.

Following is a preview of this theme in action:

You can download it using following link:

Download Windows 8 Metro Theme for KMPlayer

After downloading, extract the ZIP file and double-click on the .ksf file. It'll automatically install and apply the skin.

Windows 8 UX Pack description

The best way to get windows 8 user experience without modifying system files.

Windows 8 UX Pack will give you Windows 8 UI improvements such as theme and logon screen without touching system files at all so it won't have such risk to harm your system at all.