Create a USB Stick Lion Installer

Follow these quick steps to create a GUID USB stick. Firstly - open Disk Utility from Applications/Utilities.

1. Select your desired disk or USB stick
2. Select the Partition tab
3. Select 1 Partition
4. Name your disk to "Installer"
5. Click Options
6. Select GUID Partition Table
7. Click OK
8. Click Apply

Click this bar to view the original image of 740x641px.

Transferring the Installer to the designated disk:

1. Show package contents on "Install Mac OS X Lion.app"

2. Navigate to "Contents/Shared Support"

Click this bar to view the original image of 770x438px.

3. Mount InstallESD.dmg

 
If you run into problems mounting this image, excute from terminal:
#sudo chmod -R 770
Leave a space after 770 and drag the image InstallESD.dmg to the terminal.

4. Copy and paste the following code into terminal to mount the hidden BaseSystem.dmg file:

Code:

open "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install ESD/BaseSystem.dmg"

5. Restore the Mac OS X Base System volume to your designated disk using Disk Utility by dragging the volumes into the designated boxes as shown below:

Click this bar to view the original image of 740x641px.

6. Unmount the DMG mounted Mac OS X Base System volume to avoid confusion between the two:

7. Navigate to your designated partition/disk/usb stick (that should be now named Mac OS X Base System) and go into the System folder, and then the Installation folder. Find the Packages alias and delete it:

8. Copy the Packages folder from the Mac OS X Install ESD volume to the Installation folder where you just deleted the Packages alias.

9. Copy mach_kernel from Mac OS X Install ESD to your partition/disk/usb stick by pasting the following into a terminal window:

Code:

sudo cp /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/mach_kernel /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System\ 1/

IF that line gives you a does not exist error, copy/paste this one:

Code:

sudo cp /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/mach_kernel /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/

10. (optional) Rename Mac OS X Base System volume to whatever you like ie Lion Installer

Direct Download Windows 7 All Versions Official ISO

You would need your serial number to use during the installation.

Windows 7 ISO Direct Download Links
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

32-bit Windows 7 Ultimate x86 ISO

Amazon.com: http://174.129.85.117/data/Windows7Ultimate32bit.iso

64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate x64 ISO

Amazon.com: http://174.129.85.117/data/Windows7Ultimate64bit.iso

32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium x86 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65732/X15-65732.iso

64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium x64 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65733/X15-65733.iso

32-bit Windows 7 Professional x86 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65804/X15-65804.iso

64-bit Windows 7 Professional x64 ISO

Digital River: http://msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net/msvista/pub/X15-65805/X15-65805.iso

Disable Saving Application State In Apple Mac OS

Apple saves your application states when they were closed. I don't like this behavior! When i close things, I want them closed for good and i don't need Apple to decide for me if i want to save the state of Safari, for example, when i closed it.
Open terminal and execute this:
chflags uchg ~/Library/"Saved Application State"

Get a full Lion install disc for a new MacBook Air or Pro

You'd need to download the image from Apple Store using the following:

Boot the hardware you need an image for from the Recovery HD by holding Command-R at power on time.

Plug in a JHFS+ formatted external disk.

Select the Re-install OS X Lion option and target the external disk.

Once the Installer finishes downloading, simply shutdown and unplug the disk.

Then, when you mount that external disk you will find a directory named Mac OS X Install Data on the root. Inside of this folder is the elusive, hardware-specific, InstallerESD.dmg image that you can feed to SIU or any other imaging tool of choice. Having this installer will now allow you to build out re-deployment images for all of your hardware until rollup installers are available

Control Apple/Mac Services, Lunch Damon's, and Startup Applications

What the hell is starting up (or running) on my Mac ?

---

The goal of this document is to help a NERD track down a
VIRUS or something silly running on an OS-X system.

This document will NOT try to explain the,
/System/Library/CoreServices/BootX
or the
/System/Library/CoreServices/boot.efi
or the
/etc/rc.xxxx
startup files.

---

Shortcuts:

• Items that start on power up.
• Items that start for all users on power up.
• Items that start at user login time.
• MANDATORY TOOLS you should have.

---

If you are running the SERVER version of the OS, serveradmin will be your number one tool.
i.e. sudo serveradmin fullstatus network

---

= > ATTENTION < =
This has bit me in the ass more then one time,
we often check the USER loginwindow.plist file and forget the SYSTEM .plist file!

more /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist

if it is a binary file, convert it to ASCII via,
/usr/bin/plutil -convert xml1 /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
then edit with your fav ascii editor,
nano /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
... and look for silly things starting up !

---

Do NOT forget to monitor your USER
~/Library/LaunchAgents/
folder for a plist file called, com.google.keystone.agent.plist

This application is SpyWare. And is installed by many gOOgle applications including but not limited to:
Picasa, Earth, Desktop and Voice (more too i suspect).

For more info see this guide.

---

- If you ever install a HP ScanJet or Retrospect (RetroRunSL), it MAY prevent you from shutting down or re-starting correctly.
- The HP ScanJet installer may install, THREE background programs which do NOT shutdown when HUP'ed. - HP Scanjet Manager.app - HP Scheduler.app Located in: /Library/Application Support/Hewlett-Packard/HP Scanjet Scanner/ - Director Docker.app Located in: /Applications/Hewlett-Packard/HP Photo and Imaging Software/HP Photo and Imaging Director/

---

SECRET TIP:

Prevent BOTH
/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
from running at user login, by doing a safe login.
- Hold down the SHIFT key AFTER you type your password and BEFORE you click the "login" button.

---

Items that start on power up:

1. The LaunchDaemons folders contain items that will run as root, generally background processes.
2. The LaunchAgents folders contain jobs, called agent applications, that will run as a user or in the context of userland.
3. If your job needs to run even when no users are logged in, put it in /Library/LaunchDaemons.
   - If it is only useful when users are logged in, put it in /Library/LaunchAgents,
   or in the personal LaunchAgents directories of specific users.
4. Do not put your job in /System/Library, which is reserved for system-provided daemons.
5. Startup files are found in various locations, some are provided in the following tables.

Provided by the user:
Location	Type
~/Library/LaunchAgents/	Per-user agents.
~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist	Per-user applications.

Optionally installed by MacPorts:

/opt/local/etc/LaunchDaemons/

SoftLinked to /Library/LaunchDaemons/

Provided by the administrator:
Location	Type
/Library/LaunchAgents/	Per-user agents.
/Library/LaunchDaemons/	System wide daemons.
/System/Library/LaunchAgents/	Per-user agents.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/	System wide daemons.
/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist	System wide applications.

Please be aware that many of the "old ways" of doing things are still supported, such as:

• /Library/StartupItems/
• /System/Library/StartupItems/
• /etc/rc.local
• /etc/mach_init.d/
• /etc/mach_init_per_login_session.d/
• /etc/mach_init_per_user.d/

---

1. See what NON-APPLE kernel extensions are being loaded in /System/Library/Extensions/,
   kextstat | grep -v apple
   Some examples of what you might find are listed below: com.subrosasoft.watcher = FileDefense from SubrosaSoft. at.obdev.KUC = Little Snitch, 1.x at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch = Little Snitch, 2.x com.vmware.kext.vmx86 = vmWare, 1 of 4 com.vmware.kext.vmci = vmWare, 2 of 4 com.vmware.kext.vmioplug = vmWare, 3 of 4 com.vmware.kext.vmnet = vmWare, 4 of 4 com.macally.driver.ICEKey = Macally ICEKey keyboard. com.cisco.nke.ipsec = VPN client from Cisco. net.pocketmac.driver.BlackberryUSBDev = Blackberry USB iSync hack. org.openafs.filesystems.afs = OpenAFS client. com.AmbrosiaSW.AudioSupport = AudioHijack or WireTap. com.symantec.kext.SymEvent2 = Symantec AntiVirus, 1 of 2. com.Symantec.kext.SAVAPComm = Symantec AntiVirus, 2 of 2. com.sophos.kext.sav = Sophos Anti-Virus. com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring = Assorted tools from Marcel Bresink. com.airgrab.driver.AirGrabFirewallModule = Hawking HWUG1A (RT73) USB WiFi NIC EXAMPLE:
   - To STOP the kernel extension "com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring" do,
   sudo kextunload -b com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring
   
   - To prevent it from starting again on re-boot, move it OUT of StartupItems to your desktop.
   sudo mv /Library/StartupItems/BRESINKx86Monitoring ~/Desktop/
   
   and or move it OUT of /System/Library/Extensions/ to your desktop.
   Diablotin and or Lingon (see below) will disable them to.
   
   - See also: ls -asl /System/Library/LaunchAgents/org.openbsd.ssh-agent.plist ~/DownLoads
   
   

   ---

2. If your Mac will ONLY work in safe mode,
   you may have a bad kernel extension or the permissions are set wrong.
   
   
   • Make sure they are all OWNED by root and the GROUP is set to wheel.
     
     - Especially items NOT made by Apple like the BUG in the
     Lexar JumpDrive Secure II Plus USB Flash Drive installation software!!!
     
     Example fix below:
     sudo chown -R root /System/Library/Extensions/LexarFilterScheme.kext
     sudo chgrp -R wheel /System/Library/Extensions/LexarFilterScheme.kext
     See Bubba too...
     

     ---

   • To rebuild the kernel extensions, do:

   sudo rm /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
   sudo kextcache -k /System/Library/Extensions
   sudo reboot
   

   
   or try sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions, which Snow LEOpard likes more.
   - All will be rebuilt on next boot.
   
   See also:
   kextfind .
   

   ---

3. Learn to use and understand launchctl,
   to manage your Agents and Daemons in locations below (and above)!
   

   ~/Library/LaunchAgents         Per-user agents provided by the user.
   
   /Library/LaunchAgents          Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
   /Library/LaunchDaemons         System wide daemons provided by the administrator.
   /System/Library/LaunchAgents   Mac OS X Per-user agents.
   /System/Library/LaunchDaemons  Mac OS X System wide daemons.
   

   sudo launchctl help
sudo launchctl list |more
   
   So to see just a active service, we would do,
   sudo launchctl bslist |grep "A "
   (you will see a lot of services, not to worry)
   
   The three states a service can be in, they are:
   - active "A"
   - inactive "I"
   - on-demand "D"
   
   EXAMPLE:
   com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncer.plist
   - Is in your ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ folder and used by Apple's MobileMe service to sync bookmarks between multiple computers, even if this feature is NOT used!!!
   
   * The *NEW* version of Lingon (see below) may help you get started.
   

   ---

4. Running system_profiler will show you the info much better then
   /etc/hostconfig (below).
   Running /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPHardwareDataType
   will give you a nice brief overview of the system.
   
   /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPStartupItemDataType, will list some startup items.
   /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType will list your OS version.
   /usr/sbin/system_profiler -listDataTypes for a complete list of what you can querry.
   
   The above is also avail via the GUI, open "/Applications/Utilities/System Profiler.app".
   
   NOTE: Good old Panther (10.3) /usr/sbin/AppleSystemProfiler -usage does it this way.
   

   ---

5. By default, you may be starting a few demons.
   PLEASE review your hostconfig file, more /etc/hostconfig .
6. To MANAGE a running service like AppleShare'ing (AFPSERVER=-YES-) do,
   sudo /sbin/SystemStarter stop AppleShare
7. You should know what services have the ABILTY to be started (apache etc.), via:
   sudo grep -r -e YES -e AUTOMATIC /System/Library/StartupItems
8. Now look for programs accessing the os via:
   sudo fs_usage -f filesys | grep -v iTerm | grep -v Finder | grep -v grep
   (add more to filter out known good services.)
   
   or to see just what iTunes is doing do:
   sudo fs_usage -f filesys | grep iTunes

---

Things common to all users:

1. Start by knowing what is in your:
   ls -asl /Library/StartupItems/
ls -asl /System/Library/StartupItems/
2. ls -asl /Library/LaunchDaemons/
   - Little Snitch etc are in here.
3. ls -asl /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
   - You will see a LOT of items here. Trust me, use Lingon to see if and when they are started.

---

Stuff that starts at user login:

1. loginwindow searches this file (if exists) each time a user logs in.
   more ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
2. - The below item is the SAME one located via the user accounts GUI preference pane.
   This is the MOST IMPORTANT LOCATION for USER stuff !!!!!:
   open ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
   
   if binary convert to ASCII by doing,
   /usr/bin/plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
   
   This is how the ClamXav  Sentry is started:
   /usr/bin/grep ClamXavSentry ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
   and again, if you can not read it, convert it to ASCII via,
   /usr/bin/plutil -convert xml1 ~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
3. The current "proper" way to start stuff is the:
   ls -asl ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
   folder.

---

Things you should do to help debug your system:

1. ALWAYS start your mac in VERBOSE MODE,
   so you can see what it is doing behind the splash screen.
   sudo /usr/sbin/nvram boot-args="-v"
2. REDUCE the amount of stuff you need to analyze by doing a SAFE BOOT.
   Hold down the SHIFT key after the boot tone, or mod your nvRAM by
   sudo /usr/sbin/nvram boot-args="-x"
   then reboot.
   Now login via the user name of >console trick.
   
   

   ---

3. When was the last time you investigated what was in your TMPDIR, /private/var/folders/ folders ?
   Especially the "-Caches-" directory ... Many things "hide" here you know...
   cd $TMPDIR/../../ to find out more.
   
   Or better yet, use lynx for poke around a lot faster !
   
   /opt/local/bin/lynx $TMPDIR

   ---

4. Is cron doing something you do not know about ?
   rOOt: sudo crontab -l -u root
   Yourself: sudo crontab -l -u $USER
   ... now do this for ALL your user accounts!

---

MANDATORY TOOLS:

- Ports Collection  How to install and use the Mac Ports Collection.

- Lynx    Via the Mac Ports Collection.  May be the MOST important tool of all !
- WaterRoof   http://www.hanynet.com/
- Little Snitch   http://www.obdev.at/
- Diablotin   http://s.sudre.free.fr/
- Leopard Cache Cleaner  http://www.northernsoftworks.com/ Has BOTH a Virus and rOOt Kit checker!
- Transmit   http://www.panic.com/   Best darn file transfer program out their !

---

All three below are from Peter Borg.     http://homepage.mac.com/pgw3/  Now avail at Source Forge.
- Lingon   http://sourceforge.net/projects/lingon/files/
- Smultron   http://sourceforge.net/projects/smultron/files/
- Hallon   http://sourceforge.net/projects/hallon/files/

---

RECOMENDED TOOLS:

- iTerm    http://iterm.sourceforge.net/
- RCDefaultApp   http://www.rubicode.com/Software/ Fix broken mime types.
- AppCleaner   http://www.freemacsoft.net/  Better then AppZapper, free too.
- AppZapper   http://www.appzapper.com/
- Preferential Treatment http://www.jonn8.com/   
- tcpFlow   Via the Mac Ports Collection.
- nMap    Via the Mac Ports Collection.
- TinkerTool System     http://www.bresink.de/   Kick ass NFS tools too !!!
- Geek Tool   http://projects.tynsoe.org/
- Mac Pilot   http://www.koingosw.com/  Nice WiFi AirRadar tool.
- Cocktail              http://www.maintain.se/   Cocktail, nice maintence tool like LCC.
- OnyX                  http://www.titanium.free.fr/  OnyX, nice maintence tool like LCC.
- Pacifist               http://www.charlessoft.com/  
- Visage                http://keakaj.com/
- Postfix Enabler       http://www.cutedgesystems.com/
- HenWen   http://seiryu.home.comcast.net/
- nTop    Via the Mac Ports Collection.
- Carbon Copy Cloner  http://www.bombich.com/
- AppleJack   http://applejack.sourceforge.net/
- Printer Setup Repair  http://www.fixamacsoftware.com/  Fix Cups and free up a few gigs of space too.
- MPEG Streamclip  http://www.squared5.com/  Will need MPEG-2 codec from Apple.
- minicom   Via the Mac Ports Collection.  Terminal supports /dev/cu.Bluetooth-Modem and the KeySpan USB Adapter.
- Monolingual   http://monolingual.sourceforge.net/ Delocalizer like Leopard Cache Cleaner above.
- Gutenprint   http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/
- Flip4Mac   http://www.telestream.net/  Play Windows .WMV Media files using QuickTime
- NTFS    http://www.paragon-software.com/ Read and Write NTFS partitions.
- OpenOffice   http://www.openoffice.org/  Better then MS Office, and FREE too !



- RipIt    http://ripitapp.com/   Need I say more ?
- Touch Copy   http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/ Best BackUp and RECOVER program for you iPhone or iPod.
- File Juicer   http://echoone.com/filejuicer/  Extract images from, PDF, PPT and flash cards.
- Better Zip   http://macitbetter.com/   Password protect zips, and a LOT more !

---

iPhone and iPod Touch APPlications and more.

---

• Check for pending files here too, ls /Library/Updates/
• For detailed information see, Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach, by Amit Singh.
• And to get even more confused, see the Apple developer website.

  ---

• The very nice FREE app called "iStat Server", has a hidden precess that "phones home" every time we boot.
  - And yes, is started via /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.bjango.istatserver.plist
  - So lets do, strings "/Library/Application Support/iStat Server/iStatServer" |grep Updater, and see what we find...
  

  sudo /usr/libexec/StartupItemContext /usr/bin/open -a /Library/Application\ Support/iStat\ Server/iStat\ Server\ Updater.app/Contents/Resources/UpdateChecker.app
  
  /usr/bin/open -a /Library/Application\ Support/iStat\ Server/iStat\ Server\ Updater.app/Contents/Resources/UpdateChecker.app
  

  - Some may call this "UpdateChecker.app" Spyware....
  
  Lets investigate "UpdateChecker" some more...
  - Do a strings, and see what we can find...
  

  connectionWithRegisteredName:host
  http://bjango.com/istat/version.php
  /Library/Application Support/iStat Server/iStat Server Updater.app
  

  Bottom line ? Yup, its Spyware...

---

Re-Set Windows Folder Size And View To Its Default

• Open Notepad
• Copy and paste the below and save it in your desktop with the name: FolderDefaultSizeAndView.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Bags]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Wow6432Node\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\BagMRU]

• Save the file and double click it. Click “Yes” when prompted.

Prevent Certain Applications From Running

If your a system administrator or a regular user you may have problems with your users running programs or applications running automatically Adobe Acrotray (acrotray.exe), iTunes, FNPLicensingService.exe, If you want to stop such programs from running, here’s how to use Group Policy to prevent users from running certain programs.

• Click Start –> Run, type: gpedit.msc
• Find “Don’t run specified Windows applications”

• Double-Click it

• Enable it
• Click Show
• Add your applications

i-Tweak: Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaking Guide Part 4

I’m a tweak freak!!! I love my car clean, my desk organized, and my computer fast. I have a Lenovo W510 Core i7 1.73GHz, 128SSD, 16GB RAM. Why all that? Simply I don’t have time to waste! I’d rather spend the time eating my corn flakes than waiting for this PC to finish booting!!!

Control your CPU and Push It To Its Limit

Windows 7 comes with a lot of features, however it does not usually gives you the full capabilities of your CPU nor it does utilize it very well. You understand this is because Microsoft wants a generic deployment, configuration, that works for all types of PCs.
Some of the most annoying thing I came across is Core Parking, Weight Distribution or Load Balancing, etc. There are a lot of website out there that shows you how to turn off Core Parking and load balance work between your CPU cores, but if you use their way and check your “Performance Monitor”, you’ll see Parking Status still shows are ‘1’, i.e. cores are still parked. Not a good way.
There is a lot of configurations you have to go through, I’ve done all combination and testing and currently I have my CPU working to its Max and all cores are put to work, work is distributed among all of them.


It took me some time to get to this to work perfectly, If you are copying this post to another site, please put a reference/credit to this blog.
Steps:

1. Backing Up Your Registry:
• Click Start
• Run
• Type: regedit
• Hit Enter
• Select the key:
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00
• Click File->Export
• Create a name for it
2. Download and run the configurations below (eMail me for the password: i-tweak@hotmail.com):
• http://www.mediafire.com/?l4d0bl2zojfudaz
• Double click it and click “Yes” when you’re prompted
3. Activate the Power Setting
• Open your command prompt
• Execute: Powercfg –setactive 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c

Apple iOS 4.3.5 Official Direct Download

Direct Download Links for Apple iOS 4.3.5 (Official from Apple). Choose your device:

• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 4 (CDMA)
• iPad
• iPad 2 (WiFi)
• iPad 2,2 (GSM)
• iPad 2,3 (CDMA)
• iPod touch 3rd gen
• iPod touch 4th gen 

After you’ve downloaded your device’s respective firmware, you can install the software manually by launching iTunes, locating your device on the sidebar and pressing "Restore" while holding the Shift key on Windows and Alt on the Mac.

Microsoft Word 2010–Deleting Pages

You can delete a blank page in a Word document, including a blank page that occurs at the end of the document, by deleting page breaks. You can also combine two pages by deleting the page break between them.

Delete a blank page

Make sure that you're in Draft view (on the View menu in the status bar, click Draft). If nonprinting characters, such as paragraph markers (¶), are not visible, on Home, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide .

• To delete a blank page, select the page break at the end of the page, and then press DELETE.

 

Delete a single page of content

You can select and delete a single page of content anywhere in your document.

1. Place your cursor anywhere in the page of content that you want to delete.
2. On the Home tab, in the Find group, click the arrow next to Find, and then click Go To.

3. Type \page and then click Go To.

The content of the page is selected.

4. Click Close, and then press DELETE.

Delete a blank page at the end of a document

Make sure that you're in Draft view (on the View menu in the status bar, click Draft). If nonprinting characters, such as paragraph markers (¶), are not visible, on Home, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide .

• To delete a blank page at the end of the document, select the page break or any paragraph markers (¶) at the end of the document, and then press DELETE.

Windows Logon Screen Changer

You can use this small and simple software to change your logon screen. There is no installer, just click and apply.

Download.Com Logon Changer users

Here is my logon screen:

i-Tweak: Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaking Guide Part 3

I’m a tweak freak!!! I love my car clean, my desk organized, and my computer fast. I have a Lenovo W510 Core i7 1.73GHz, 128SSD, 16GB RAM. Why all that? Simply I don’t have time to waste! I’d rather spend the time eating my corn flakes than waiting for this PC to finish booting!!!

Access Hidden Tweaks

This is a great free program that allows you to access some hidden but powerful tweaks on Windows. You can also use the “Cleaner” button to clean your system and save some disk space.

Adobe PDF Printer–Disable Opening Converted Files

When a file is converted to PDF using Adobe PDF printer, the output file will be opened by default by the Adobe PDF printer. If you are converting one file this is fine, but when you’re doing batch conversion this would be very annoying. To disable this feature:

• Start
• Devices and Printers
• Right-Click on Adope PDF
• Printing Preferences
• Un-Check “View Adobe PDF results”

i-Tweak: Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaking Guide Part 2

I’m a tweak freak!!! I love my car clean, my desk organized, and my computer fast. I have a Lenovo W510 Core i7 1.73GHz, 128SSD, 16GB RAM. Why all that? Simply I don’t have time to waste! I’d rather spend the time eating my corn flakes than waiting for this PC to finish booting!!!

Turn Off Useless Scheduled Tasks

Windows 7 has many tasks that are scheduled to either run at boot time or triggered. Some of those tasks may not be relevant to you or you may not even need them. To view all the scheduled tasks:

• Click Start Button
• Click Run
• Type: %windir%\system32\taskschd.msc /s
• Hit enter

Some of the useless tasks for me which I have then turned off are:

• Application Experience
• Autochk
• Customer Experience Improvement Program
• Defrag (I have SSD and this is useless)
• Diagnosis
• DiskDiagnostic
• Maintenance (Eats my CPU)
• MemoryDiagnostic
• MobilePC
• Registry
• SideShow
• SystemRestore
• Windows Error Reporting
• WindowsBackup
  
  
  i-Tweak: Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaking Guide Part 3

Apple iOS 4.3.4 Official Direct Download

Direct Download Links for Apple iOS 4.3.4 (Official from Apple). Choose your device:

• iPhone 4 (GSM)
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad 2 WiFi
• iPad 2 GSM
• iPad 2 CDMA
• iPad 1
• iPod touch 3G
• iPod touch 4G

After you’ve downloaded your device’s respective firmware, you can install the software manually by launching iTunes, locating your device on the sidebar and pressing "Restore" while holding the Shift key on Windows and Alt on the Mac.

NOTE: a new iOS 4.3.5 has been released: http://i-tweak.blogspot.com/2011/07/apple-ios-435-official-direct-download.html

Apple iPad 2: Switching Applications, Multi-Tasking, Killing Process

If you own an iPad 2, well congratulations! It’s an amazing improvements over the old iPad.

Many of us would like to switch between running applications, multi-tasking, and killing a running process/application that is no longer needed. To do that:

1. Double-Click on the home button
2. To Switch to another application, just click on the application at the bottom
3. To close an application, hold down your finger on one of the running applications. When you see the minus (-) sign, symbol just touch it.

Happy iPad-ing!

A Very Small, Fast, Smart File Manager For Windows 7 x86/x64

I've been looking for something similar to FreeCommander, Total Commander, Norton Commander, but smaller and faster. No external dependencies or installers, no optional at install-time ad-ware or blotted software. The answer to all that is MyCo! MyCo Web Page

 Give it a try, you'll love it!

IBM/Lenovo Hotkey Brightness Issue/Setup

Issue:

• When pressing the Fn|(Home/End), the screen brightness increases or decreases by 2-4 points.
• I want the screen brightness to go up/down one point at a time

Solution:
Save the below in a file (screenbrightness.reg) then double-click on it to install it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\monitor\Parameters]
"MinimumStepPercentage"=dword:00000001

Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaking Guide Part 1

I’m a tweak freak!!! I love my car clean, my desk organized, and my computer fast. I have a Lenovo W510 Core i7 1.73GHz, 128SSD, 16GB RAM. Why all that? Simply I don’t have time to waste! I’d rather spend the time eating my corn flakes than waiting for this PC to finish booting!!!

SSD Tweaks

• Disable indexing
  Description: Indexing creates and maintains a database of file attributes. This can lead to multiple small writes when creating/deleting/modifying files. Searching for files will still work.
  Instructions: Start Menu –> Run –> services.msc –> Double-Click “Windows Search” -> Startup type set it to: Disabled –> OK
• Disable defragmentation
  Description: Defragmenting a hard disk's used space is only useful on mechanical disks with multi-millisecond latencies. Free-space defragmentation may be useful to SSDs, but this feature is not available in the default Windows Defragmenter.
  Instructions: Start Menu -> Run –> services.msc –> Double-Click “Disk Defragmenter” -> Startup type set it to: Disabled –> OK
• Enable Disk Write Caching
  Description: Some are saying there is no cache on the SSD, so there are no benefits to write caching. My experience and benchmarking shows there is benefits. You can easily test that using Windows Experience Index.
  Instructions: Start Menu –> Run –> devmgmt.msc -> Disk drives –> Double-Click your disk -> Policies Tab -> Check Enable write caching –> OK
• Disable Superfetch
  Description: SSDs don’t benefit from Superfetch, actually having that enabled may affect the performance.
  Instructions: Start Menu -> Run –> services.msc –> Double-Click “Superfetch” -> Startup type set it to: Disabled –> OK.
• Firefox - Use memory cache instead of disk cache
  Description: If you use Firefox, there's a way to write cached files to RAM instead of the hard disk. This is not only faster, but will significantly reduce writes to the SSD while using the browser. I have discussed FireFox tweaks in a previous post, look for it
  Instructions: Open Firefox -> Type about:config into the address bar -> Enter -> double-click browser.cache.disk.enable to set the value to False -> Right-Click anywhere -> New -> Integer -> Preference Name "disk.cache.memory.capacity" -> value memory size in KB. Enter 32768 for 32MB, 65536 for 64MB, 131072 for 128MB, etc. -> restart Firefox
• Disable the Page File
  Description: Eliminate writing memory to the SSD, free over 2GB of disk space and increase OS and application performance and response time. If you run out of memory, windows will be forced to use paging.
  Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Settings (Performance) -> Advanced Tab -> Change -> Uncheck Automatically manage -> No paging file -> Set -> OK -> Restart your computer.
• Disable System Restore
  Description: Don't write backup copies of files when installing new programs or making system changes. Can free up between a few hundred MB to a couple GB. Warning - Although unlikely, if a driver installation corrupts your system, there won't be an automatic way to recover.
  Instructions: Start Menu -> Right-Click Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> System Protection Tab -> Configure -> Turn off system protection -> Delete –> OK
• Disable Hibernate
  Description: You may free up to, in my case 16GB cause I have 16GB RAM!!! You will free up as much as your RAM. You will lose the hibernation feature which allows the equivalent of quick boots and shutdowns.
  Instructions: Start Menu -> Type cmd -> Right-Click the cmd Icon -> Run as Administrator -> Type powercfg -h off -> Type exit

Windows 7 Ultimate Tweaking Guide Part 2

Microsoft Windows 7 (x86/x64) Service Pack 1 (SP1) Direct/Offline Download

This is a Standalone / Direct / Offline download link for the newly released Microsoft Windows 7 Service Pack 1.
32-bit (x86): windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe (537.8MB)
64-bit (x64): windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe (903.2MB)

FireFox Ultimate Tweak

Here, I'm posting my FireFox tweaks. Just copy the below and add it to your prefs.js which should be located in:
C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\

user_pref("browser.cache.disk.capacity", 1048576);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.enable", false);
user_pref("browser.cache.memory.capacity", 131072);

user_pref("browser.chrome.favicons", false);
user_pref("browser.chrome.site_icons", false);
user_pref("browser.chrome.toolbar_tips", false);
user_pref("browser.download.manager.closeWhenDone", true);
user_pref("browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction", 0);
user_pref("browser.startup.homepage", "about:config");
user_pref("browser.startup.page", 0);
user_pref("browser.tabs.tabMinWidth", 30);
user_pref("browser.tabs.warnOnClose", false);
user_pref("browser.tabs.warnOnOpen", false);
user_pref("browser.warnOnRestart", false);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_move_resize", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.menubar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.titlebar", true);
user_pref("dom.disable_window_open_feature.toolbar", true);
user_pref("layout.spellcheckDefault", 2);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections", 40);
user_pref("network.http.max-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy", 16);
user_pref("network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server", 16);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.maxrequests", 8);
user_pref("network.http.pipelining.ssl", true);
user_pref("network.http.proxy.pipelining", true);
user_pref("network.prefetch-next", false);
user_pref("noscript.ABE.enabled", false);
user_pref("privacy.clearOnShutdown.formdata", false);
user_pref("privacy.clearOnShutdown.offlineApps", true);
user_pref("privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs", true);
user_pref("privacy.sanitize.sanitizeOnShutdown", true);
user_pref("privacy.sanitize.timeSpan", 0);
user_pref("security.dialog_enable_delay", 0);
user_pref("security.warn_entering_weak", false);
user_pref("security.warn_viewing_mixed", false);
user_pref("view_source.editor.external", true);
user_pref("view_source.editor.path", "%ProgramW6432%\\Notepad2\\Notepad2.exe");

Google Chrome Startup Arguments Tweak

Chrome can be started out of the box and will run great. However, there are a could of things I don't want to be running when I'm using Chrome to speed it up even further. My Chrome shortcut is modified to be:
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe -disable-dev-tools -disable-hang-monitor -disable-logging -disable-metrics -disable-metrics-reporting -disable-prompt-on-repost

Google Chrome Hidden Configurations

Here is list of Google Chrome Hidden Pages or Configuration Parameters. You have to input about:parameter in address bar to open this hidden treasure. (Replaceparameter with respective word) as listed.

about:network
about:ipc
about:histograms
about:histograms/Loop
about:objects
about:crash
about:hang
about:shorthangabout:dns
about:memory
about:cache
about:version
about:internets (Easter egg)

Google Chrome Offline / Standalone Installer

Grab it from here:

• http://dl.google.com/chrome/install/154.36/chrome_installer.exe

Firefox x64 (64-bit)

Mozilla started to build official x64 Firefox builds and it's available here:

• ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/

Disable ThinkVantage Passowrd Manager

• Click Start -> Run
• Type:
• C:\Program Files\Lenovo\Client Security Solution\css_pwmgr_toggle.exe
• Hit enter
• Agree to disable

Create Installer With WinRar

 I am going to create an installer for SharePod. Possibly the best iPod software there is. It consists of two files:

• SharePod.exe
• Readme.txt

1. Select all the two files above to include in your installer.
2. Right Click -> WinRar -> Add to archive ...
3. Check "Create SFX archive" and "Create solid archive".
4. In the "Archive name" field, change the suggested name given by WinRAR to SharePodInstaller.exe, then choose "Best" from the "compression method" combo box.
5. Go to "Advanced" tab. Press "SFX options". The "Advanced SFX options" dialog box appears with the "General" tab activated.
6. In the "Path to extract" field, type "SharePod" without quotes.
1. - This means that the package (SFX) will be extract, during installation, to: %ProgramFiles%\SharePod.
2. Make sure the "Create in "Program Files" radio button is selected.
3. Make sure the "Save and restore paths" check box is not checked.
7. Still in the "Advanced SFX options" dialog box, press the "Advanced" tab.
8. Press the "Add shortcut..." button. The "Add shortcut" dialog box appears.
9. Select "Start Menu/Programs". In the "Source file name" field, type "SharePod.exe" without quotes. This is the name of the file you create a shortcut to which is you selected to be in your installer.
10. In the "Destination folder" field, type "SharePod" without quotes.
1. This is the name of the shortcut folder that will be created under: %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs.
11. In the "Shortcut description" field, type: "Transfer music and video files from an iPod/iPod Touch/iPhone to a PC." without quotes.
12. In the "Shortcut name" field, type "SharePod" without quotes.
1. This is the link that will appear as: %UserProfile%\Start Menu\Programs\SharePod\SharePod.lnk 
13. Press "Ok" to return back to the "Advanced" tab. Repeat the same steps again to create more shortcuts if needed.
14. Still in the "Advanced SFX options" dialog box, press the "Modes" tab.
15. Under "Silent mode", select "Hide all". This tells the SFX not to show setup screens. In this case, I left it un-checked.
16. Under "Overwrite mode", select "Overwrite all files". This tells the SFX to overwrite any files pre-existing in the destination folder: %ProgramFiles%\SharePod, if there's any.
17. Press "Ok" on the "Advanced SFX options" dialog box to close.
18. Press "Ok" on the "Archive name and parameters" dialog box and wait for the compression process to finish. SharePodInstaller.exe is now created.