Parted Magic 5.1

Bron: Computer!Totaal


Wil u complexere wijzigingen aan uw partities uitvoeren dan Windows zelf ondersteunt, dan hebt u een extern partitioneringsprogramma nodig. Een krachtig en helemaal gratis alternatief is Parted Magic, dat niet alleen partitioneringstools bevat, maar ook programma's om bestandssystemen te herstellen.
Als u meerdere besturingssystemen naast elkaar wil draaien op dezelfde harde schijf, zoals Linux en Windows, of Windows XP en Windows 7, dan moet u uw harde schijf in meerdere partities opdelen. Maar ook als u uw gegevens van uw besturingssysteem wilt scheiden, zijn meerdere partities handig. Parted Magic is het ideale hulpmiddel om u bij dit soort situaties te helpen. U brandt deze Linux-distributie op cd of schrijft ze naar een usb-stick en start daarmee de computer op. Het bureaublad toont u daarna heel wat handige opensource-tools, waarvan de belangrijkste de Partition Editor is.
Met het partitioneringsprogramma kunt u partities en bestandssystemen creëren, verwijderen, vergroten of verkleinen. Dit is bijvoorbeeld ideaal als u slechts één partitie voor Windows op uw harde schijf hebt en ruimte vrij wil maken voor een dualboot-configuratie. Partition Editor ondersteunt zelfs de meest exotische bestandssystemen en kan ook met harde schijven in een RAID-configuratie overweg.

Met de Partition Editor verkleint u uw partities in een oogwenk.

Trukendoos

Parted Magic heeft echter ook allerlei programma’s in zijn trukendoos die u kunnen helpen bij hersteltaken. Met Partition Image kopieert u een partitie naar een image-bestand, dat u later kunt terugzetten. Dit image-bestand kunt u ook gebruiken om bijvoorbeeld een Linux-installatie te klonen en op meerdere computers te installeren. Ook Clonezilla is van de partij, waarmee u uitgebreidere mogelijkheden heeft om partities te klonen en naar andere computers te zenden via het netwerk. Het kopiëren en elders opslaan van een partitie is overigens sterk aan te raden vóór u partities vergroot of verkleint met Partition Editor, zodat uw bestanden veilig zijn als er iets fout loopt.
Ook in dramatischer omstandigheden kan Parted Magic u ter hulp snellen. Het programma TestDisk kan bijvoorbeeld een (per ongeluk?) verwijderde partitie terughalen en zelfs een beschadigde partitietabel herstellen. Een computer die weigert op te starten wegens deze problemen kan zo in veel gevallen toch nog terug tot leven gewekt worden. Parted Magic bevat bovendien ook TrueCrypt, waarmee u een versleutelde TrueCrypt-partitie kunt redden als u per ongeluk de bootsector overschreven hebt. Met het programma PhotoRec tot slot krijgt u foto’s en andere bestanden terug die u per ongeluk verwijderd hebt of die u niet meer kunt lezen door een fout op de harde schijf, cd-rom of het geheugenkaartje van uw digitale camera.

Met PhotoRec haalt u verloren gewaande bestanden terug.
De softwarecollectie is nog veel uitgebreider. Zo is er een programma om uw harde schijf zo te wissen dat alle gegevens erop overschreven worden, wat wel aan te raden is wanneer u een computer verkoopt en geen privé-informatie wil lekken. Er staan ook tools op de cd om hardwarefouten te detecteren en de harde schijf te testen. Bovendien kunt u met X-Chat hulp vragen op irc-kanalen en met Chromium op websites naar oplossingen voor uw problemen zoeken. Klik wel eerst op Start Network. Kortom, Parted Magic biedt een goede selectie van krachtige partitionerings- en hersteltools.

Parted Magic 5.1

Freeware (opensource)
Taal Engels
Medium 113 MB download
OS Niet van toepassing, platformonafhankelijk
Systeemeisen 128 MB RAM
Maker Patrick Verner
Oordeel 9/10
Pluspunten
Goede keuze van tools
Uitgebreide mogelijkheden
Lage systeemeisen
Minpunten
Niet in het Nederlands
Sommige tools zijn niet zo gebruiksvriendelijk

Flipboard for iPad gives Facebook, Twitter a magazine-style makeover

Source: Cnet

iPad app Flipboard calls itself a "social magazine," a way to browse Facebook and Twitter content with the same breezy effortlessness you'd browse the pages of a favorite periodical.
I call it cool.
Flipboard reminds me of Blogshelf, the awesome iPad appthat gives blogs and RSS feeds an iBooks-style makeover.
Here, however, the app pulls from your Facebook and Twitter accounts, turning friends' updates into nicely formatted, perusal-friendly pages. (Shades of Sobees, which works a similar kind of magic--though only for Facebook.)
Flipboard also delivers your choice of a couple dozen aggregated content sections (news, finance, music, tech, etc.) selected by Flipboard's creators. It's perhaps the best way I've found to read The Onion on my iPad.
You can tap any section to see headlines, story blurbs, and photos mashed up in an attractive, magazine-style format. Swipe to flip to the next page, or tap a story to read it--an abbreviated version of it, anyway. As with Blogshelf, you often have to "tap through" to the original Web page to access the full content.
I can live with that, but Flipboard needs to fix a few other areas. For starters, you're currently limited to just nine sections. Choosing a new one means deleting something else--and the Facebook and Twitter sections can't be removed, even if you're not a social-media maven.
There's no offline option, either, so if you're not currently connected via Wi-Fi or 3G, no soup for you.
The biggest wrinkle? Flipboard has quickly turned into a victim of its own success. For the past several hours I've been unable to link my Facebook and Twitter accounts; the app is suffering from "capacity overload."
That's a temporary glitch, no doubt, and even without that stuff, Flipboard is worth a look. For me it's already joined the likes of Blogshelf, Early Edition, and PressReader as one of my favorite ways to consume content on my iPad.
Want to know more? Check out this morning's post on the Digital Media blog: Meet Flipboard: Mike McCue's stealth "social magazine." You can also watch the company's promo video below--though see if you don't agree that the pitchman comes across as overly smug. Yeah, it's a cool app--we get it!

How to set up Media Center in Windows 7?

Source: How-To Geek

If you’re moving from XP to Windows 7, one of the new features you might be interested in is Media Center. In this tutorial we’ll walk through the process of configuring it for the first time and look at some of its default features.

Unless you happened to be using XP Media Center Edition or Vista and are new to Windows 7, Media Center is probably completely new to you. Let’s take a look at setting it up for the first time and getting important basic features working.
Note: Windows Media Center is only available in Windows Home Premium and above.
Windows 7 Media Center Setup
Click on the Start Menu and click on Windows Media Center.

Windows Media Center will launch…click on the Continue button.

On the Get Started screen you can select Learn More, Custom setup, or Express. The quickest way to get rolling is to click Express. You can start with Custom setup, but it will take longer, and you want to get started right away. Also, you can change customizations at any time after you have it up and running.

Now you have access to all of the default features in WMC…Pretty simple right? In this example we have a home network with Windows Home Server and we get a message asking if we want to use the Media Center Connector which we’ve previously covered.

Another message that will pop up is for adding a Desktop Gadget if you want.

The gadget will transition between different Internet TV programs that are available to watch. Click on the Wrench icon to change its settings. You don’t have to install the gadget at all, but if you do this is what you can expect.


Setup Internet TV
You’ll probably be interested in watching TV and videos right away so on the menu screen go to TV and click on Internet TV.

The Free streaming Internet TV window will come up, agree to the Terms of Service and click Install. After installation you can start watching the available streaming TV programs.
For more on this head over to our article on how to watch TV programs without a TV tuner card in Windows 7 Media Center.

Setup Live TV
If you do have a TV tuner card, another thing you’ll want to setup right away is live TV. Make sure you’re antenna, cable, or satellite cable is connected to the card.From the main menu under TV scroll over to Live TV Setup.

Verify the Region for your local TV service is correct.

Enter in your zip code to get the Program Guide for your area.

Agree to the Program Guide Terms of Service…

Then you’ll need to agree to the EULA for Microsoft PlayReady.

Wait while the Program Guide is downloaded and PlayReady is installed.


After everything is setup you’ll be able to navigate through the Guide to view you’re favorite shows. If you like to use WMC to mainly watch Live TV, a cool trick is automatically starting Media Center in Live TV mode.

If you’re hard of hearing, or just want to mute the volume on a show, Close Captioning is available as well.

Use Media Center as a DVR
Another cool feature you’ll want to get started with is using it as a DVR to record, pause, and rewind live TV. The process is simple, while watching Live TV simply click the Record button.

You’ll know it’s recording by a small message popping upon the left side of the screen with the red record button.

Click the Record button again to stop it and you’ll see the Record button is no longer there.

Then you can watch the recorded TV by going to the main menu and under TV select Recorded TV.

This will pull up a list of the different shows you’ve recorded.

Your recorded live TV files will be in the Recorded TV Library Folder as “.wtv” file format. Keep in mind the Recorded TV  files are lossless and will be quite large, so make sure you have the appropriate disk space. If you want to convert the files and remove commercials, check out our article on MCEBuddy.

You can also convert the files to “.dvr-ms” format by right-clicking the file and selecting that option from the Context Menu.

Watch Netflix
If you have a Netflix account, by default you can watch instant streams through WMC. In the main menu navigate to Movies and select Netflix.

Agree to the Terms of Service and click Install.

Now sign into your account or if you don’t have an account you can start a free trial.

After signing in you can go through your Queue and browse for movies and programs that are available to watch instantly.

You have the ability to manage your Netflix DVD and Instant Queue directly within WMC.

For best viewing results you can watch your videos in full screen.

This should get you started with Windows 7 Media Center. Setting it up and getting the basic features working is relatively easy following the wizard driven user interface. Once you get comfortable with Media Center you can start configuring more complex and interesting options such as:

• Adding Cover Art & Metadata to the Media Center Movie Library
• Add Zune Desktop Player to Windows 7 Media Center
• Configuring Startup Customizations in Media Center

If you’re new to Windows 7 and Media Center, you might want to dive in and start utilizing it. We’ve already covered several articles on WMC and will be showing more neat features and addins in the future so stay tuned. What about you? Have you tried Windows 7 Media Center? If so, let us know what your thoughts on it in the comments!


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Add Dropbox to the Send To Menu in Windows 7, XP, and Vista

Source: How-To Geek
Dropbox is one of the coolest utilities available today to backup and share files and folders online. If you want easier access to it, you might want to add it to the Send To Menu in the Context Menu.
Add Dropbox to Send To Menu in Vista & Windows 7
First navigate to the following path by copying the following into the Windows Explorer address bar or the Search box in the Start Menu.

%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

If you have Dropbox under Favorites right-click on the folder and drag it into the SendTo folder. If it’s not under your Favorites in Explorer, just drag it to the SendTo folder from whatever directory you have it in.

When you release the folder you’ll have the option to move, copy, or create a shortcut…you can certainly move it there if you want, but we’re going to create a shortcut.

Now when you right-click on a file or folder you’ll have the option to send it to your Dropbox folder.

If you have other shared folders in your Dropbox folder you can add them to the SendTo Menu as well using the same method. Like in this example we added a shared Dropbox folder we use for testing geek stuff.

Add Dropbox to Send To Menu in XP
In XP go to Control Panel and Folder Options then select Show hidden files and folders.

Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\SendTo (where User Name is the name of your computer) and create a shortcut to your Dropbox folder.

Now you have your Dropbox folder added to Send To in the Context Menu…

If you use Send To from the Context Menu in Windows, this is a good way to easily add files and folders to your Dropbox folders.
Make sure and check out our other tips and tricks for using Dropbox:

• Add “My Dropbox” to Your Windows 7 Start Menu
  
• User Guide to Dropbox Shared Folders
  
• How to Sync Specific Folders with Dropbox
  
• Quickly Access Dropbox in Google Chrome

Find Your Missing USB Drive in Windows 7 and Vista

Source: How-To Geek

Sometimes when you plug a USB drive into your machine you won’t see it in Computer or AutoPlay in Windows 7 or Vista. Today we take a look at how to change the drive letter so you can can access it.

The problem with not being able to see your USB drive happens quite often in XP. Our readers have pointed out, and we’re seen instances, where the same problem can occur in Windows 7 and Vista as well. If you’re still running XP and having this problem, make sure to check out our article on how to find your missing USB drive in Windows XP.
Locate and Access the USB Drive in Windows 7 & Vista
The problem is when you plug in a thumb drive or external USB hard drive…nothing happens. You hear the USB sound but AutoPlay doesn’t run, and when you look in Computer you don’t see the drive. More than likely Windows named the drive to a letter that is already in use.
To fix the problem right-click on Computer from the Start Menu or Desktop Icon, and select Manage.

In the Computer Management window, under Storage, click on Disk Management to see a list of drives connected to your machine.

You should be able to determine which one is the drive you’re trying to access by its size and format type. Here we’re trying to find a 4GB thumb drive. Right-click on the drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths.

Now click on the Change button…

You can select from a list of drive letters to rename it. Make sure it’s not one already in use or could be in use at some point. Pick a letter toward the end of the alphabet for best results.

You will be prompted with a warning dialog making sure you want to change the drive letter…click Yes.

Here you can see we changed the drive from the letter “J” to “U”…

If you have AutoPlay enabled, you’ll see the familiar screen asking what you want to do with the drive.

You will also see it in Computer now and be able to access the files and programs from it.

That’s all there is to it! It’s definitely annoying when you plug in an external USB drive and Windows doesn’t give you access to it right away, but following these steps solves the issue.
Again, this problem happens a lot more in XP and the process of fixing it is essentially the same.
Find Your Missing USB Drive in Windows XP
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This article was originally written on 07/16/10