Protect your USB Flash Drive from virus with ThumbScrew and M2CFG USB WriteBlock

In my earlier post we had discussed that how to secure your data in our USB Flash Drive using Truecrypt and Rohos Mini Drive software. But how to save your USB Flash Drive from getting infected from virus when the system you are working with is infected with malware or viruses. The commercial software available for this is quite expensive.

ThumbScrew  can help you to turn your USB Flash Drive in Read and Write mode with one click. Download  and install ThumbScrew in the system and make the USB Flash Drive read only before you insert your USB Flash Drive.

Be assured that it will remain read only until you change it to write mode and also save your USB Flash Drive from getting infected from viruses.

You can also opt for the another software M2CFG USB WriteBlock. This is also free software for Windows. The utility takes advantage of the Windows XP Service Pack 2 ability to toggle write protection on/off USB devices.

The write protection applies to ALL USB devices attached to the system. It is not possible with this application to select a single USB device. The software has little memory footprint and pretty small download size 1.99 MB only. Download it from here.

 

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Technorati Tags: USB Flash Drive,USB Flash Drive Security,Virus,Pen Drive,ThumbScrew,M2CFG USB Writeblock

With one login send and receive email, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter messages. Fuser - Your email aggregator

How many email accounts do you have? Add your Facebook and MySpace account to it. How much time do you spend checking your different mailboxes?

I must say over time we add multiple email accounts and increase our pain to manage it. I have clear division that my close ones write me to my Gmail account. All my software development related mails to my Hotmail account. And rest of the mails to my Yahoo account. But sometime I do get mails which lands in wrong category and I miss to check the mail. Now, I am able to aggregate all my mails at one place using Fuser.com. Believe me it is a big relief for me.

Fuser.com enables Internet users to consolidate their email and social networking accounts into a single online inbox. By providing a secure central location for their Internet communications -- including Yahoo!, Gmail, Microsoft Exchange, MySpace, Facebook accounts and many more (almost 94% of all email service including the major ones and Facebook, Myspace and Twitter). Fuser helps Internet users simplify their digital communications and make the most of their online time. Fuser.com is a free service and besides an Internet connection, requires only a PC running Windows, Linux, OS X or any OS and any web browser of your choice.

The fuser interface is close to Outlook express and very easy to master. The left pane you have your mail services listed there. You can choose to see mail from all of those accounts, or just one or two, in the main, or central, pane of the app. In the top left pane there is a tab of Twitter as well. This becomes visible as soon as you add your Twitter account to Fuser.

Fuser has also included the threaded email message feature in the app. When you are checking the mails in universal inbox and want to check the threaded message of Gmail in it. Fuser opens new tab and voila! the threaded messages in available in this tab. Check this screencast to see this in action.

Fuser is also getting intutive as Xobni. It can track when and with what type of client you are most likely to receive email from your contacts, and when and how you are most likely to respond.

We tested it for almost two months and found it very time saving. The unique feature we liked is able to filter the messages. We must say its ideal service for all those who want to have email service like a feed reader where they can consolidate all emails at one place. However, if you want to post message to all your social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, Linkedin, Plaxo etc. then I must say to give HelloTxt a try.

Technorati Tags: Aggregator,Email,Fuser,Social Network,Email Aggregator

Gladinet - Mount your Web Storage as Virtual Drive

“How you manage the cloud service you have subscribed to”? Pranav asked me. My answer was pretty obvious “through browser”. He was smiling and pointed his finger to his computer screen. His Windows Live Skydrive, Google Docs, Amazon S3 were mounted as a virtual drive in his computer using Gladinet.

He browsed the Google Docs folder and there were all the documents we have in Google Docs, and they can be opened with Microsoft Word or any web apps like Google Docs or Zoho Docs. It was like the files were lying in the computer. He dropped one file in Skydrive folder and it was uploaded to the Skydrive without any fuss.

Gladinet is free Windows software that runs in your computer and aggregates all your files scattered in cloud or remote computer available in mounted virtual drive. As more or more people or backing up their critical data in online storage in order to safeguard their data in case of catastrophe like Katrina.

Installation of Gladinet is fairly simple. And if everything goes well, then it mounts the virtual drives. Browse to the virtual drive and from there mount your Web Storage like Skydrive, Picasa, Amazon S3 or Google Docs. Gladinet will ask you to login to these services one and cache your password, so from the next time you need not to enter your user id and password.

This video from Gladinet will explain further.

This service is a must have if you own a netbook pc, where you do most of your work in cloud. I tried it for couple of week and I found it a bit slow to access any file stored in Google Docs. Maybe it was due to my 256 Kbps internet connection, otherwise the interface is good and accessing you files is easy. But I am so use to Google Docs interface that I returned back to the same ol’ browser interface. As the service is in beta so be ready for some hiccups. Otherwise, nice piece of software, you should give it a try. Pranav is so hooked to the service and he wish this software be available for his smart phone.

Download Here

Technorati Tags: Gladinet,Virtual Drive,Cloud,file sharing,online file sharing,web file storage,upload files,online drive,online backup,online storage

Secure your USB Flash Drive with Hidden and Encrypted Partition

In my earlier post I had written that how I secured my secret projects at office in encrypted hidden partition. I thought that now everything is OK now. Then one fine day I was copying some files to my USB Flash drive. I had installed Mojopac into it and I was assured that whenever I login to different computer “Mojopac” will maintain my privacy and it will leave no trace in the system. But I realized that what I will do if somebody gets hold of my USB Flash drive. It carries some private documents which I do not want to share with anyone.

I wanted to have the same solution as I have created “hidden encrypted partition” at my work place. I have found two solutions for this.

1. Rohos Mini Drive :

Rohos Mini Drive creates hidden and encrypted drive in your USB flash drive and you can work on the files you have put in the encrypted and hidden drive without using any program. And the encryption is on the fly. And what’s more interesting is that it does not require administrative privilege to open the encrypted USB drive partition. Setup is pretty simple and automatically detects your USB flash drive and setup encrypted partition.

If you need to open secured volume on a guest computer, you just click Rohos icon on the USB flash drive root folder and enter disk password. Rohos will start a volume and will sit near the system clock to close the disk when you’ll finish.

Some of the features are:

• Creates a virtual encrypted partition volume (disk) within a USB flash drive free space.
• Automatically detects your USB stick config and creates encrypted partition.
• Program does not require installation to work with encrypted partition on a guest computer. You can start it right from USB drive.
• Encrypted partition is protected by password.
• Encryption is automatic and on-the-fly.

Encryption algorithm: AES 256 bit key length. NIST approved.

Rohos Disk Browser to open encrypted partition without having Admin rights.

Virtual Keyboard - to protect your encrypted disk password from a key logger

Autorun Folder. Saved program’s/file’s shortcut will automatically start/open up upon disk connection

The limit of encrypted partition size is 1 GB

 

Rohos Mini Drive program does not create real partition on the USB flash drive. Thus when you insert your USB drive into USB port only one drive letter will appear in Windows.Second (secured) drive will appear only after you active it by entering a password.

Our verdict is simple and effective piece of software with simple and effective interface.

2. TrueCrypt:

Some of the unique features are listed below.

Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
2. Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
3. Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
4. Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
5. Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the     password:
6. Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.

Technorati Tags: Encryption Software,Windows XP Software,Data Encryption Software,Disk Encryption Software,Folder Encryption Software,Encryption,AES Encryption,Rohos,TrueCrypt

Multiple Yahoo messenger instances with different login for Chatoholic

My friend Inish is chatoholic and cannot live without Yahoo messenger. He has multiple ids for different sets of friends. Few days back I saw him he was logged into 3 instance of Yahoo Messenger. I was amazed that how is this possible and then he explained me a neat hack to achieve this. The steps are as follows

1. Close Yahoo Messenger.
2. Click on Start> Run> type "regedit" without quotes.> Press enter.
3. Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_ USER> Software>Yahoo>pager>Test
4. On the right pane , right-click and choose new Dword value. Rename it to Plural.
5. Double click on Plural and type 1 inside 'Select the Value data' and press enter.
6. Close the registery editor.

Now you can launch multiple instances of Yahoo Messenger. Enjoy Chatting..

Technorati Tags: Multiple Yahoo Messenger,Yahoo Messenger,Multiple login,Registery

Protect yourself and be productive with simple Outlook tweaks

Outlook is one of the best email productivity suite which works straight out of the box. And it is one of the highly targeted tools to spread viruses as well. I use few setting/tweaks to protect myself as well as to boost my productivity.

Default Mail Format: I swear fancy HTML formatted mails looks nice. However, at the same time there is a risk of malicious scripts which can be embedded in the mails and it can be executed through HTML or through Microsoft Outlook Rich Text Format (RTF). To turn on the Read all standard mail in plain text option in Outlook 2003, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook 2003.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. On the Preferences tab, in the E-mail area, click E-mail Options.
4. In the Message handling area, click to select the Read all standard mail in plain text drop down menu.

Note By default, the Read all standard mail in plain text option is turned off.

To turn on the Read all standard mail in plain text option in Outlook 2007, follow these steps:

1. Start Outlook 2007.
2. On the Tools menu, click Trust Center, and then click E-mail Security.
3. Under Read as Plain Text, click to select the Read all standard mail in plain text check box.
4. To include messages that are signed with a digital signature, click to select the Read All digitally signed mail in plain text check box.

When the Read all standard mail in plain text option is turned on, you receive the following notification on the InfoBar at the top of the e-mail message:
This message was converted to plain text.

Note if you decide to view the plain text message in its original format, click the InfoBar, and then select Display as HTML or Display as Rich Text.
(Courtesy: Microsoft)

Remind to Read Documents: I live by my inbox and if I have some important documents to read then I attach the document in an email, and the document is big in size then add hyperlink of the document in the mail body. Add task or something to remind me about the task in the subject line and the send it to myself. Once the mail in inbox I add reminder to it.

Turn off new mail pop up windows: Believe me new mail pop up window is big distraction. You are working on something important and you get a sudden new mail pop up. It is a simple forward mail from your friend or colleague. You open the mail and forward it to your other friends. And the result, you loose momentum of your work.

To disable the alert you can just click the Disable New Mail Message Alert option on the menu that appears when you click the down arrow in the top-right corner of the alert itself. Or else click Tools > Options > Preferences > E-mail Options > Advanced E-mail Options. Uncheck "Display a New Mail Message Alert (default Inbox only)" and click OK.

Push the automatic send & receive to 1 hour: I use to have set outlook to do automatic send and receive at one hour or more if you can afford. This will help you to stay focused on your work.

Take control of your emails with Xobni: Xobni is one of the best (freeware) and fast Outlook tool. Using this search your email faster, search attachment, Schedule appointment with a click of the button. Automatic extraction of phone number from mail etc.

Happy and safe emailing..

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office tips,E-mail tips,Microsoft Outlook 2003,Microsoft Outlook 2007,Plain text,Contacts,Customization,Xobni

Remove mysterious Skype Extra Contact

Are you perplexed that from where Skype has added some contacts in its contact list. It can be name or phone number you are aware of but never added that in Skype.

If you closely look you will find that these contacts have different icon ( ) then Skype default icon or . These contacts are pulled by Skype from Microsoft Office Outlook all version without your consent. To remove these Outlook contacts, simply click on View on menu bar, then untick "Show Outlook Contacts" option in the drop down menu.

And whoosh.... all mysterious vanish from the Skype contact list.

Technorati Tags: Skype,Mysterious Contacts,Unknown Contacts,Microsoft Outlook

Defy 2 GB PST limit when importing Outlook 2000 PST to Outlook 2007

My friend upgraded to Office 2007 from Office 2000. When he imported his old PST he was stuck to the 2 GB PST limit. He was thinking that this upgrade will help him to overcome the size limit. When he imported the PST he was stucked to the 2 Gig size limit. He was unable to add or delete anything from the PST. He said "Outlook 2007 should allow bigger file size than 2 gig, but I am unable to add anything".

It happens if you do not import it rather you are opening it through File>Open>Outlook Data File. The old format, now officially called "Outlook 97-2002 Personal Folders File" and commonly  known as ANSI PST, has a limitation of up to 65,000 items per folder and an overall PST size of 2 GB. (If the PST was created in the oldest versions of Outlook, the number of items per folder was as low as 16,000.) Outlook 2003 introduced a new file format for the message store. It supports Unicode formatting and has no limitation in the number of items per folder or in the size of the PST. This is commonly called a Unicode PST.

One method to beat this limit is my importing the mails to new PST. But their is one limitation of this method that the time stamp of the mail gets changed. The method which I prefer is bit slower but effective.

1. Make a new profile in Outlook. This will create Unicode PST. Make it default for your mails. Please do not check until you complete the import of mails to new Unicode PST.
2. Make a copy of your ANSI PST. This is to safeguard your mails.
3. Connect ANSI PST through File>Open>Outlook Data File.
4. Now move or copy your mails from ANSI PST to the newly created Unicode PST. I will suggest move as you can see the progress that how many mails have been moved. If you have lots of folders then move the top folder and the sub-folders will automatically moved.
5. Once you move all the mails to Unicode PST. Then right click on the ANSI PST and close this.

Enjoy your old emails in Outlook 2007.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office Outlook,PST,2 GB PST Limit,Outlook Backup,MS Outlook

Pure and Clear Music from your PC for audiophile

I listen to music most of the time and crave for the high quality audio. You must have felt it if you have read my post related to the best encoding for high quality audio "FLAC". What I used to experience that when I listen to any audio in my music system the quality is better compared to when I hear the same CD in my PC the sound is not comparable with the music system. I was not convinced as I used to think that I am using good sound card, I checked the sound again using headphone and .... again the same difference in quality.

The reason of this is the operating system Windows XP or Vista. The Operating System handles the audio through a software called Kernel Audio mixer which automatically resample audio files creating output which is different from the studio recording. You may not find any difference if you are using poorly encoded mp3 files. However it is more pronounced if you are using the original audio either in its native format or in FLAC.

If you are also fond of good audio and want to hear the way music was recorded in the studio the you can use ASIO4ALL to work with Kernel Audio Mixer and delivers the clean audio to the sound card. Musicians who use to record their music using PC have been using ASIO since long time.

To get the maximum out of ASIO you need compatible media player, either Foobar2008 or Winamp. Coupled with Foobar it allows hi-quality audiophile type reproduction of lossless music despite what ones soundcard. My personal favorite is Foobar2008 due to its clean interface with lots of option. And above all it is free and is Open Source.

First install Foobar2008, then download Foobar2000 ASIO DLL. Extract it to the component folder of Foobar. Now download the ASIO4ALL. Once installed you will see your audio device in it. If you have more than one device then select the one you intend to use.

Now configure the Foobar to use ASIO4ALL.

• Launch Foobar and go to file/ preferences to output.
• In dialog box select output (under playback) and then ASIO Virtual Devices before clicking add new button.
• In new box that appears audio device etc appears with mapping coordinates-just select one click OK save all then close.

Now fire your Foobar and add files to listen to. You will notice the huge difference. Now sit back and relax and enjoy your favorite songs.

Technorati Tags: ASIO,Audio Driver,Better Audio,Audio Stereo,Audio Software,Studio Audio

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Hidden Encrypted Partition in your Office Computer for your secret project

I was on vacation in October and received a call from by boss to share my password with him. He wanted to take some reports from my system at office. He shared my password with one of my colleague who is not very happy with me. While taking out the report he saw few personal secret project I was pursuing. I was doing it for the overall process improvement and then I will show this in my annual appraisal as my achievements and initiative taken.

He picked up my project files, modified it when I was away in vacation and published it as his work. This prompted me to look for some open source tool to encrypt my files. And fortunately I found one "TrueCrypt", which has delivered more than I was expecting. I use XP at office and Linux and XP at home and I do not have any problem as TrueCrypt supports Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux.

Here are some of the features of TrueCrypt.

1.Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
2. Encrypts an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive.
3. Encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication).
4. Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
5. Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
1) Hidden volume (steganography) and hidden operating system.
2) No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data).
6. Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: XTS.

The encryption technology AES used in this is also vouched by NSA (US National Security Agency and they have confirmed that this technology can be used to encrypt the classified information upto the Top Secret level. This is applicable to all U.S. Government Departments or Agencies that are considering the acquisition or use of products incorporating the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) to satisfy Information Assurance requirements associated with the protection of national security systems and/or national security information.
Well now at least I can enjoy my next vacation in March without any tension of the peeping toms at office.

Technorati Tags: Encryption Software,Windows XP Software,Data Encryption Software,Disk Encryption Software,Folder Encryption Software,Encryption,AES Encryption

Watch local TV, world TV, Live TV, satellite TV of all world on your PC.

You are addicted to Internet and occasionally watch TV or listen to radio like me. But when you really want to watch some quick news item, want to catch some program in Discovery or just want to watch something to kill time but you don't want to get away from your computer. You should give AnyTV a try. The software is available in both free and paid version.

With AnyTV watch local TV, world TV, Live TV, satellite TV from countries of all world in different languages on your PC with AnyTV not just at home, but at the OFFICE , work or wireless. Watch 2630+ Online TV, 6910+ Video clips. Listen to 4750+ Online Radio.

Using AnyTV means you can watch numerous of international TVs without a television, TV Tuner Card or a satellite receiver. Watch anywhere you have your Internet Online. No additional equipments required. The software is light an free of Spyware and Adware.

I have tested it and found good with simple interface with list of channels by country. You can make your favorite channel list as well. However, some of the channels are not available in the Free version and that time I felt damn.. let's prepare the list of your favorite TV and radio channels and watch them through Windows Media Player or any other software. But it was a bit tedious to compile the list. What AnyTV provide is a central interface where you can access the channel which are available on Internet.

Technorati Tags: Tv on PC,satellite tv,internet tv,digital tv,AnyTV

Dailylit - Your Daily Dose of Books in email

Do you want to read books, but complain lack of time. However if you analyze that how much time you spend on reading emails then you will realize that a good part of a day is spent on reading emails. Bingo!!! what do you think of an idea of getting a small chunk of book delivered to your inbox or books delivered through RSS feed.

Dailylit lets you read entire books in short customized installments sent to you by email or RSS feeds. You can read this in your mail client, Blackberry, iPhone or even Java enabled phone (install Opera Mini).

This site has good collection of free books available on public domain and paid books as well. I started with the paid book "Train Your Brain" and set my preference to receive it daily at 9:30 PM on weekdays. I am now so addicted that I have subscribed another book and set my preference for all 7 days of week!! And one of the unique feature is that you can set the size of the installments.

 

The good feature is the emails are short and manageable (though you can set the size) and if you are stuck in traffic jam, doctor's clinic or anywhere, you can read the book. No... no no I am making grounds to purchase a smart phone.

Technorati Tags: Books,Non fiction books,Read books by email,ebooks,Fiction books

 

Outlook Appointments and Calendar in Windows Sidebar

I have seen that most of us do use Side bar in Windows Vista but none seems to utilize it to the fullest extent. Mostly decorate it with crisp gadgets directly linked to the Internet and other busy folks think that it is just a waste of memory and bandwidth. But hold on busy guys, Microsoft has developed two Outlook gadgets: Outlook Appointments and Outlook Tasks. These cool gadgets provide instant vital information without the need to bring up Outlook.

Outlook Appointments gadget works has enhanced calendar which shows 3 or 5 of your to-do list in different colors based on the assigned categories and shows the title, time and location. We can further see the details of the appointment by double clicking it.

Outlook Tasks gadget shows all the tasks from the task list. We can even scroll up and down through the list. It doesn't ends here but it even lets us to add new tasks defined by the priority depending upon date, time, or importance.

The gadgets can be directly downloaded from Microsoft's Site Windows Live Gadget Gallery.

Or by clicking the links below for independent gadget download :

• Outlook Appointments gadget
• Outlook Tasks gadget

Technorati Tags: sidebar,Outlook,general,to-do bar,time management,tasks,calendar,customize,appointments

Career Saver - MS Outlook tip

Have you ever come across the situation that you have sent a mail and within minutes you repent that why you sent that mail? I swear all of us have experienced it. There is a neat way to avoid this in Outlook by creating a simple rule to delay sending mail by few minutes. We call it “Career Saver” rule. And believe me it helps me to avoid unwanted/foolish mail quite often.

Let’s create a rule for a delay of two minutes.

1. Click > Tools >Rule and Alerts
2. Click New Rule
3. Select "Start from a blank rule"
4. Select “Check Message after Sending”
5. Click Next and the Next again
6. Then you will get an alert that says “This rule will fire all outgoing mail.”
7. Now click Yes and the Next
8. Set to defer delivery by 2 minutes
9. Then Finish

Now be assured that you can avoid such mistakes up to some extent.

 

Technorati Tags: Outlook,MS Outlook,Outlook Express,Tips,Career,Outlook Rules