How to Download Music to the Computer

Many people use their computer for entertainment and relaxation. It’s fun to watch movies and listen to different music in your computer, but what if you don’t have the desired music in your computer? It’s easy to build a collection of your favorite music. Below are some easy downloading techniques and guidelines. There are two legal ways of downloading music directly to your computer and plenty of illegal ways but this article focuses on the legal methods only.

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Installing software:

Software applications have become common now, for all those who are diehard fans of music you can download music by installing any one of many legitimate and reputed music downloading software. When you have done so it is very easy to search for your favorite music through them and download it. Just follow the on-screen instructions.

Through the Websites:

Nowadays shopping, funding, banking and entertainment all is done through the internet. In case of downloading your favorite songs instantly, you need to find out a good and legitimate music downloading website and after loading the site you will have to follow the registration process. Look for a site that requires paying a quarterly or yearly amount but doesn’t charge for individual songs or have a downloading cap.

After registration you become the member of the particular website and can download as many songs as you want. The amount needed for registration is very cheap. After visiting the website you will get a huge collection of songs and music. To do so follow the site’s directions for searching and selecting songs for download.

This is how you can easily get going and develop a huge music collection with all of your favorite songs and artists.

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Clearing Hard Drive Space on Windows XP

Windows XP was released way back in 2001, so what should you do when you’re running out of hard drive space for these 2009 programs? Clearing hard drive space is a quick and easy experience that can help having your computer run much more efficiently while clearing adequate space to install new programs. How do you go about clearing hard drive space though? This article will list a few different ways that you can clear space on your computer.

1. Uninstall Unused Programs- One of the biggest memory wasters on old computers are old programs that you installed and simply don’t use anymore. So what should you do if these programs are littering your computer? To manually uninstall unused programs: go to your start menu, go to control panel, add and remove programs, and remove any program that you don’t need any more. Alternatively you can remove windows components that you don’t use. To do this go to start, control panel, add or remove programs, add or remove Windows Components, select which components you don’t want, and hit okay.

2. Deleting Temporary Files- Temporary files are created during crashes and during installations; they can be where some of your disappearing hard disk is located. So how do you get rid of your temporary files? Temporary files will be left in \Document And Settings\your Username\Local Settings\Temp folder. All you need to do is simply go to this folder select files and delete them. Try not to delete any file with the current date as they may still be in use.

3. Deleting Temporary Internet Files- While temporary internet files often don’t accumulate to any significant amount of hard drive loss, they do exist, and you should get rid of them. To do this, you need to open your favorite browser, whether that is Mozilla Firefox or Internet explorer. Once there go to tools, settings/internet options, then find the delete temporary files option.

4. Disk Cleanup- One last method you can use to clean up your hard drive is the disk cleanup. To run a disk cleanup go to my computer, right click your C drive, properties and then disk cleanup. Disk cleanup is useful for detecting useless and unused files and will even help you to delete older installations of Windows. This means that if you upgraded to Vista from XP there may still be all your old XP files taking up hard drive space!

There are plenty of options available to you for cleaning up your hard drive, and none of them are very hard to utilize. It’s important to be careful to understand what it is that you’re deleting when you’re cleaning up your hard drive, but with a little research you will be fine.

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Top 5 Computer Security Tips

With Ads like Mac Vs PC floating around in full force arguing which OS is more safe against viruses like it’s a computers prime selling point, just how big of a deal are viruses now? Even the unreleased Windows 7 isn’t safe from being infected by viruses if it’s used improperly, so they’re a big deal. What can you do to protect yourself from an onslaught of viruses? This article will provide you with a few tips that will keep your computer running smooth and virus free.

1. Use Up to Date Anti-Virus Software-Perhaps the best way to keep your computer safe from the threat of viruses is anti-virus software. It’s very important to download a noteworthy company’s software such as: Ad-aware, Spybot or Avast. These companies all offer free anti-virus that’s constantly updated. It’s important when downloading anti-virus software that you’re not downloading a virus itself, because that’s one of their most common disguises. That’s why you should always stick with a trusted company.

2. Be Safe With Email- Email is one of the easiest ways to become a victim of a large scale virus infection, and the easiest way to avoid it is to not open any suspicious email or follow any odd links and attachments. If you know the sender and the attachment still seems fishy, simply ask them by phone or in person before you open the attachment.

3. Better Passwords- This has become something that companies are enforcing, but it’s still something that needs to be emphasized, use strong passwords. Don’t simply make your password your first name or your dog’s name. You need to add numbers and special characters such as a # sign to your password. This will make it much more difficult for any potential hacker/virus program to affect you. If you can’t remember long passwords, try using phrases as they usually make the best passwords.

4. Use Anti-Spyware Programs- Although many of these programs becoming pre-packaged with anti-virus programs, it’s still important to note that spyware is much more commonly affecting your computer than a virus. It may come in the form of ads popping up on your desktop, or even just a program running in your background eating your memory. They may not be viruses, but they’re deadly and it’s important you prepare for them.

5. Watch Where You Download from- Where you download files from plays one of the biggest roles in whether you’re likely to get a virus or not. Avoid using P2P networks as much as possible as they’re probably the most unsafe downloading environments there are. If you visit a website and a message box comes up asking you to install (yes or no) always ctl-alt-delete exit the website immediately. This is one of the easiest ways to allow your computer to be infected.

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How to Shutdown Faster

If you installed many programs in Windows XP, it takes much time to start. Again, if you want to shutdown Windows XP, it also takes much time. Sometimes, several messages also shown. The End Program is the most boring thing. You may notice the message like do you want to save your work or the current session............or The program is still running, are you sure want to quit...etc. But there is an alternate process to shutdown your computer very quickly. This page will tell you the techniques to shutdown your Windows quickly. This process works all of the windows operating system.

Steps to shutdown Windows quickly

The following method is applicable to any Windows operating system like Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 server, Windows XP etc. Follow the following steps to shut down your Windows quickly:

Step 1:

Right-click on the desktop with your mouse and choose New and then selectShortcut.

Select the "Shortcut"

Step 2:

Now, a Create Shortcut window will be opened and there there is a text box below the writings Type the location of the space. Now write shutdown -s -t 30 in that space. After writing this, click on Next button.

Note: The command shutdown -s -t 30 and the custiomization of that command will be discussed at the end of these steps.

Type "shutdown -s -t 30"

Step 3:

In this step you will be prompted Select a TItle for the Program dialog box. Write a name ot the shortcut in the Type a name for this shortcut text box. Say, you name it Shutdown.exe. At last, click on Finish button.

It's all about shutdown quickly in your windows. Now, when you want to shutdown your Windows quickly, just double click on that executable file which we saved asshutdown.exe. After double-clicking you will see that your Windows operating system is shutdown quickly.

Expanation of "shutdown -s -t 30"

shutdown : this command is used to stop the local client

-s: It's a attribute which is used to mean turn off the computer.

-t: This attribute is used to tell the Windows how many seconds it will wait till shutdown.

30 : This is a value to define the time to wait before your Windows operation system will be shutdown. If you want to change the time value, you just change it.

You can easily customize the command. For example, if you want to shutdown your Windows within 40 seconds then you have to write the command like the followings:

shutdown -s -t 40

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Change Your Desktop Wallpapers the Easy Way with DeskSlide

Looking to add some variety to your desktop instead of looking at the same wallpaper day in and day out? Have fun changing your wallpapers automatically with DeskSlide.

DeskSlide Setup

As soon as you finish installing DeskSlide and start it up, you will be presented with the Configuration Wizard. The Currently Displayed Photo Window will also automatically display at the same time. Click “Next” to get started.

This is where you will be able to add any photo folders that you want to DeskSlide’s photo library list. Click on the “Plus Sign” to add a folder and on the “Minus Sign” to remove one.

Here is an example of how the listing will look. Once you have finished, click “Apply” and then “Next”. You can also include subfolders if you desire (very nice!).

Choose the layout style that you would like to use with your photos and decide what DeskSlide will do with small photos. Notice that you can specify a specific size for what is classified as a small photo (nice!). Click “Next”.

Specify the amount of time that you would like in between changes to your wallpaper. Click “Next”.

That now has DeskSlide configured to suit your personal style. Click “Finish” to exit the Configuration Wizard.

DeskSlide Management

Once you have exited the Configuration Wizard, you will be able to view the Currently Displayed Photo and the Current Photo List Windows. You can easily access both windows at any time as shown here.

The Right Click Menu for the Current Photo List Window…

And the Right Click Menu for the System Tray Icon.

Conclusion

If you are looking for an easy way to add some variety to your desktop, then DeskSlide can provide a simple hassle-free way to change your wallpaper and brighten up your day. Have fun!

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Add keyboard languages to XP, Vista, and Windows 7

Do you regularly need to type in multiple languages in Windows? Here we’ll show you the easy way to add and change input languages to your keyboard in XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Windows Vista and 7 come preinstalled with support for viewing a wide variety of languages, so adding an input language is fairly simply. Adding an input language is slightly more difficult in XP, and requires installing additional files if you need an Asian or Complex script language. First we show how to add an input language in Windows Vista and 7; it’s basically the same in both versions. Then, we show how to add a language to XP, and also how to add Complex Script support.

Please note that this is only for adding an input language, which will allow you to type in the language you select. This does not change your user interface language.

Change keyboard language in Windows 7 and Vista

It is fairly simple to add or change a keyboard language in Windows 7 or Vista. In Windows 7, enter “keyboard language” in the Start menu search box, and select “Change keyboards or other input methods”.

In Windows Vista, open Control Panel and enter “input language” in the search box and select “Change keyboards or other input methods”. This also works in Windows 7.

Now, click Change Keyboards to add another keyboard language or change your default one.

Our default input language is US English, and our default keyboard is the US keyboard layout. Click Add to insert another input language while still leaving your default input language installed.

Here we selected the standard Thai keyboard language (Thai Kedmanee), but you can select any language you want. Windows offers almost any language you can imagine, so just look for the language you want, select it, and click Ok.

Alternately, if you want, you can click Preview to see your layout choice before accepting it. This is only the default characters, not ones that will be activated with Shift or other keys (many Asian languages use many more characters than English, and require the use of Shift and other keys to access them all). Once your finished previewing, click close and then press Ok on the previous dialog.

Now you will see both of your keyboard languages in the Installed services box. You can click Add to go back and get more, or move your selected language up or down (to change its priority), or simply click Apply to add the new language.

Also, you can now change the default input language from the top menu. This is the language that your keyboard will start with when you boot your computer. So, if you mainly use English but also use another language, usually it is best to leave English as your default input language.

Once you’ve pressed Apply or Ok, you will see a new icon beside your system tray with the initials of your default input language.

If you click it, you can switch between input languages. Alternately you can switch input languages by pressing Alt+Shift on your keyboard.

Some complex languages, such as Chinese, may have extra buttons to change input modes to accommodate their large alphabet.

If you would like to change the keyboard shortcut for changing languages, go back to the Input Languages dialog, and select the “Advanced Key Settings” tab. Here you can change settings for Caps Lock and change or add key sequences to change between languages.

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Access and Launch Windows Utilities the Easy Way

Tired of having to dig through the Control Panel (or deeper parts of the Start Menu) just to access and use various Windows Utilities? Enjoy having super quick (and easy) access to those utilities with Windows Utilities Launcher.

Note: Requires .NET Framework 3.5+ (link provided at bottom of article).

Setup

Windows Utilities Launcher is wonderfully simple to set up…just unzip the exe file, place it in a “Program Files” folder, and create a shortcut. Get ready for instant access goodness!

This is what you will see as soon as you start Windows Utilities Launcher… In the “Utilities Tab Area” you can quickly access the utilities shown with a single click of the button beneath each listing. Notice that you can easily minimize Windows Utilities Launcher to the “System Tray” or exit the program using the two buttons in the lower right corner. Windows Utilities Launcher will also display the version of Windows that you are using in the “Status Bar”.

Note: Windows (Computer) Info works on Vista & 7 only.

The “Settings Tab Area” lets you decide if you would like to have Windows Utilities Launcher start up with Windows each time and if you would like to have the app start as minimized.

The “About Tab Area” provides basic app information and also a way to contact the developer.

The Right Click Menus

Time for a closer look at the “Right Click Menu” setup for Windows Utilities Launcher. Here you can see the main menu… Notice that there are two additional apps that you can access here (Notepad & Calculator).

Use the “Windows Utilities” sub-menu as an alternate way to quickly access individual Windows Utilities.

Windows Utilities Launcher in Action

For our example we decided to access the “Date and Time Utility”. With a single click the “Date and Time” window opened very quickly. We had the same great result on any of the other utilities that we chose…quick and easy access.

Conclusion

Windows Utilities Launcher is still in the earlier stages of development, but this little app is already demonstrating how easy it should and can be to access common Windows Utilities. This is definitely worth trying out…have fun!

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C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSCTF.dll - invalid Windows image?

Error sytems:

When I right-click on the Desktop to choose Properties, it appears a message box :
- The application or DLL C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSCTF.dll is not a valid Windows image. Please check this against your installation diskette.
And then, I've ever accessed the Properties anymore.

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Insert your windows CD. Search the cd for the file MSCTF.dll, once it shows up right click on it, click copy. Then open another window and go to C:\WINDOWS\system32 then right click an empty spot in there and click "Paste". Something will come up asking "This file already exists. Would you like to replace it?" Click "Yes" Or "Replace". Then restart your computer. That should fix all your problems and lead you to a wonderful and fufilled life.

Search:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSCTF.dll - invalid Windows image?

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