Windows 7 Control Panel

I left you off last with a brief overview of the Windows 7 desktop. Now lets get into some of the good stuff. Now if your anything like me (which if your reading this blog you probably are) you will agree that the ability to easily navigate the control panel in windows 7 is a big issue. It seems like ever since XP they have been trying harder and harder to make take you in this giant loop in order to accomplish anything with their category views. For the average Joe this can be useful but when we just want to get something done we don’t want to be taken through what seems like a support script. With Windows 7 this isn’t as big of a deal. I think they have finally come to terms with the fact that people who go into the control panel know the control panel. So they have cut down on the extra bull crap in exchange for a much more robust category view.

Now if your still just not feeling it which I can fully understand they have put a very easy to use drop down menu in the top right corner where you can choose to view as either large icons or my personal favorite small icons.

Now talk about robust these options are all available right out of the box and pretty much allow maximum customization as far as I’m concerned. Now aside from a few options you will most likely look at this and say “wow looks like vista’s options” but there’s a little more to it. See the trouble shooting control panel option? Yeah that’s a pretty new feature which has the potential to really save a lot of IT Geeks many annoying calls. This seems to be a pretty useful tool but alas we will dig into that a little later. You’ll also notice a couple other new options such as the Action Center, Location And Other Sensors, RemoteApp and Desktop Connections. Now while the rest of these options look the same I assure you Microsoft has completely revamped these tools to not only be more efficient but also to be in your face with all the options so you don’t have to dig to far to do what you want! That’s it for now be sure to subscribe for more updates.

Windows 7 Review

Now, I am not normally one to go bragging about anything Microsoft (come to think of it I have never wrote a single good review for them); but alas, they have finally made something worth talking about!  I’ve been keeping a close eye on Windows 7 since the beginning.  At first, I was mainly trying to put them down for releasing Windows Vista and Windows 7 so close together.  Let’s face it, people don’t like change and to me it felt like they were just changing too much too fast.  It seemed like a good opportunity for Linux to finally take a little more of a lead in the operating system market.

So, let’s start at the begining.  Obviously, I have been keeping a close eye on Microsoft Windows 7 for a while now and didn’t see anything that really sparked my interest.  I was invited to try, however did not attempt to test the beta.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, I found out that they have released their official Windows 7 RC.  To my surprise they were leaving the RC up until June of 2010.  So, with the nice time frame included I decided to give it a shot. Now, I read that it runs pretty decent on netbooks which if you keep up on my blog you would know I have a sleek HP Mini 1030NR.  Running anything other than Linux on this machine just slows it down to a crawl due to the Intel ATOM processor and small 16GB SSD.  But to my complete surprise, not only did Windows 7 install without any driver complications…but it was actually faster than any other OS installation I have ever loaded.  It took a total of about 20 minutes to completely install and let me tell you it runs better than any OS I have ever put on this little netbook of mine!

Onto the new stuff.  As far as functionality goes, if you’ve been using Windows Vista the user interface will seem pretty normal. The biggest noticeable change made to the desktop is the task bar.  There is no more fumbling with large rectangles with giant names.  You can now just hover over a specific icon and see all instances of this program in real time.  YES!!!  REAL TIME!!! Something found only in Linux!  Let’s see, the start menu is pretty much the same as Vista with a convenient search bar.  Something new you will find is a pretty cool new feature called the action center.  This is basically like the Windows security center, but is much more user friendly and to be quite honest, a lot less annoying.  I think Microsoft has finally realized that when people are not running anti-virus software they don’t want to be notified every 5 minutes about this.  So, they put the “Turn off messages about Anti-Virus” option right in the action center.  No more opening properties or anything like that, Windows 7 has been made to be right there in your face with everything, which is nice.  I can finally stop having to hunt to find out how to fix stupid little details about my system!

I will review more features as I dig into them and test more and more.  All in all though, right out of the box I am very happy with the ease of use and added features that take no time to set up and run very smoothly on a low end netbook.  Finally a version of Windows I would actually pay for!

The Windows 7 Desktop

Adobe AIR is like magic!

If I’m anything like the countless number of PC users you know how frustrating it can be to change operating systems. You have to make sure all your programs are cross compatible and if they aren’t you have to either spend countless hours figuring out how to port it or just give up all together. I understand this frustration. I’m a PC/Linux/MAC user and I always need a specific machine for something which gets very frustrating. Well not anymore. Drum roll please I would like to introduce you all to a great application called Adobe AIR. While it’s not an emulator or virtualization application it does offer cross compatibility across all OSs. So what is Adobe AIR you may ask. Well basically it’s like a mini OS. There are thousands of applications made for Adobe AIR and as long as it’s installed on your PC you can rest assured that it will work on your device. From twitter clients to micro management utilities it’s got a range of great applications that can be very use full. So what does Jeymz recommend? Well I think if your looking to switch OSs and a specific application is not available try looking up an Adobe AIR equivalent that you can use to replace your application. Plus have I mentioned it’s free? Free is good in this crappy economy which is a added bonus to this amazing application!

HP Mobile Internet Experience

As your well aware I recently received a new HP Mini 1030NR. I bought the netbook at Bestbuy and it came with windows XP Home edition preinstalled. Now you have to really make it easy for me to even use windows… let alone Home edition of anything. I just don’t like and stripped down versions because they always just end up causing problems later on down the road. In example I set up the laptop and oh wait Home can’t connect to a domain… Well crap I’m fucked when i set this up for work… Okay what about networking with vista ultimate… It’s total crap. So I plug in my external DVD drive and start installing XP pro. Well the drivers suck for one… The HDD is only 16GB and I have the old version of XP pro so every service pack I install I can see my music collection shrinking. Then it hit me,.. UBUNTU!!! HP makes a remix of Ubuntu called MIE. This specific remix is geared more towards use with a netbook. One major problem with netbooks running windows XP is their small display. People don’t want to have to operate an entire OS via a 8.9 inch screen. They went to be able to sit back without having to be 3 inches from the screen to read what they just typed. The MIE remix fixes this. It offers a very easy to use home screen with all the essentials right there at the start. You have your mail section your web section and your media section, for music and photos. It offers all the essential applications without the extra crap that just takes up hard drive space. While the OS itself is smaller than windows XP it’s still nice to get as much extra room as possible. The drivers are all loaded and setup great. To put it simply I have never had linux work so well with all my hardware like it works with this laptops built in devices. Webcam, Mic, Audio, Touchpad, Even video are all set up right after installation. It’s got a great user interface that has everything you need just one click away. They worked alot to hide the fact that you are actually using linux but it is very easy to open a terminal and start configing your system to what you want.

MIE Homescreen

MIE Homescreen

Hardware Monitor

Lala.com is the ipod of tomorrow

When it comes to music I’m your man. Wether it be listening to music in the car or in your bathroom I can set it up. Here’s the problem I always have with any type of MP3 player or IPO; Hell even with laptops, you have to select the music you want to transfer and half the time your like “what where is that one song I love” and guess what. You didn’t transfer it. Well Lala.com fixes this. It’s an online media player that can actually play whatever music you decide to add to it. Yes that’s right WHATEVER MUSIC YOU HAVE!!! One download of their music mover app to your main library desktop and bam all your music is now accessable via the internet wherever you go. Use it on your phone on your laptop on whatever. Even if your at work go to their website and listen to your music. Lala.com also sells their music but it’s very cost efficient and very secure. Using paypal they add your funds and you can either download the MP3 or just add it for 10 cents to your online library. Oh did I mention you can listen to the entire song once for free before you choose to buy it? Well you can. Lala.com is pushing the envelope with their new outlook on mobile media management.

I’ve gone netbook crazy!!!

So this actually may come to everybody as much of a suprise but I have never owned a new laptop. Once when I was in high school I received a hand me down gateway laptop with under 64MB of ram (which for the time still was not good) and the battery was dead which basically meant it had no laptop advantage anylonger. Anyways I’ve always wanted a laptop but could never wrap my head around carrying a giant laptop everywhere I go. The macbook air seemed like a pretty good one but lets face it I like my windows made machines and honestly the reviews on it weren’t all that great. So anyways the girlfriend and I went to best buy to look at T.Vs and of course I just have to go look at the computer section (it’s what I do). While looking around I saw that best buy now has an entire section dedicated to netbooks. For me a netbook it actually a pretty good idea for the most part all I want to do with my laptop would be surf the web stay in touch with work via emails and of course blog to my heart’s content. As far as gaming goes I’m not much of a gamer but I do enjoy playing spore sometimes. Anyways I finally decided I WANT ONE!!! Yesterday I researched my brains out looking for which ones were good vs. bad and features, upgradeability etc. Now I originally had my eye set on the HP 1030N mainly because of the nice keyboard this unit had. That to me is one of the biggest drawbacks with the netbooks out there today is you get a mini keyboard but your gonna need some type of a pointer to ensure accurate typing (especially with giant fingers such as mine). Turns out the system had some really good reviews. The website (and HP Tech Support) said that it was only upgradable to 1 GB which is what it came with so that was a drawback but alot of the reviews I read said they upgraded to 2 GB. So I decided to give this netbook a shot. I went and bought the unit at best buy total was about $370 after tax. Then I went to Microcenter and bought a 2GB stick of DDR2 RAM and an external DVD/RW drive. most netbooks do not come with any type of optical drive. Got home installed the memory and bam it worked great. The 16GB SSD drive is a decent amount for me but I have an external WD Passport also so that helps. The touch pad takes a little getting used to mainly because of the left and right click button positioning but overall it’s not to complicated. The unit (to my suprise) was able to run the spore game (on low quality of course). The unit gets a little warm when running for any extended period of time but the battery life on this little sucker is amazing. The webcam is a little lacking but if you change the settings around it’s managable. Overall I am very pleased with this unit and wont be getting anything new for a long time.

The ultimate keylogger!!!

Okay so what started out as a work project turned into something I actually kind of wanted then shortly after turned into something I no longer needed but all the same it was something that when researching I wish I could have found a easy to use straight and honest blog about. That’s right keyloggers. Sure keyloggers have a horrible rep in the business for being infested with trojans and other types of malaware but alas after several attempts (and failed OS installs later) I have finally found one that not only works… but works well. Let me start from the beginning.

My boss (I wont mention his name) asked me to research various key loggers for monitoring people in our office to ensure they were doing their jobs and not “slacking off”. I gladly agreed as I too was  somewhat interested in doing research on this topic. Now what happened was I googled “free keylogger download” and clicked on the first one that popped up…. BAD IDEA!!! I was soon getting messages from our internet provider telling me that my machine was infected with a virus and if I didn’t remove it immediately they were going to disconnect my service… How is a computer geek like myself to live without internet? So alas I redid my system and moved on with a little more education on the topic. I spent a couple days goole searching this and google searching that looking back and forth trying to make sure that any 2 descriptions of a certain product were the exact same. Then I found REFOG! Refog keylogger does cost monet (around 40 bucks for the personal edition). I would not recommend using the free version as this has been known to not only error out but it also does not offer complete privacy (put short you cannot hide it completly). So i forked out the US$40 and bought the software. It was easy to install but I did have a little bit of a tricky time finding out how to hide it… Turns out just entering the registration code at the installation is not enough you also have to click HELP>REGISTRATION and enter the key in again. Setting up logging is the fun part. It obviouslylogs the keystrokes (including non-printing keys) which is a good thing if people are using alot of delete keys and shortcuts. It also has some pretty sleek features like timed screenshots, application history, browsing history, and did I mention it’s nearly impossible to find? I’m not what people would call a l33t h4ck3r but I do know quite alot when it comes tthe windows platform. I looked for 4 days trying to find just the most subtle signs of this keylogger… My antivirus couldn’t catch it, my registry was completly clean, no additional processes… hell I could not even see a single service that it was using… The only way I found out it was even on my computer was it had some encrypted file deep in the system 32 folder that was named something crazy as hell… I had to actually install windows XP again then compare the files between each other. Opening the keylogger is easy enough you press the shortcut keys (by default it’s CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+K) enter a password into the dialog box and bam you in. Nowthe only problemI found was the settings that come by default are like if your monitoring a 70 year old lady who types a sentenace walks away and gets lost for an hour then comes back to her computer and repeats the cycle. So here’s how I configed it.

First I set the screenshots to 1 every 2 seconds (this way if the person is in a chat your getting the entire conversation not just what the user types)
Second I changed the max log size (it starts out at like some 128KB which lets face it is not going to give you much logging time when your taking a screenshot every 2 seconds)
Third I changed the shortcut key (Lets face it when your in an enviroment with a buch of computer geeks one of them is bount to know how to use google)
Fourth I set a password (this is important set a damn password or else everything can be cleared prior to your check)
Fifth Ionly enabled logging for users who needed to be logged (I don’t want to generate a huge log because i jumped on to check someone elses log that’s just redundant!)

And last but not least I asked myself the biggest and boldest question there is out there… If any of you are planning on using this to find out if your girlfriend or boyfriend is cheating on you or something that is clearly an invasion of privacy and not a protection of assets… Ask yourself is the relationship with this person worth it. I had a little power trip when I found out I could run this keylogger but to be honest it’s not fair to anyone. In the end all your going to have is a lot of information with no fact or truth behind it, just word after word of misunderstanding… Now that that’s out of the way if your running a small business or a private firm A+ for REFOG KEYLOGGER!!!!!

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I’m so freaking tired

so i am so freaking tired right now if i weren’t afraid of being caught i would totally just pass out right now… note to self be sure to get sleep prior to any given 12 hour shift

Finally A Much Overdue Upgrade

For as much time as I spend on a computer you would think my personal PC is some high performance beast of a machine… But in the assumption you would be incorrect. For the past 2 years I have been reduced to a scrap unit I made when I was 18. It consisted of a Pentium 4 3.2GHZ processor, MOBO from a SONY VAIO (It’s ASUS) Socket 478 =P , 764 MB SDRAM, GeForce FX4000 Series, A really crappy looking case that was falling apart, and a recently replaced PSU that is now 630W XION.

But I finally just went and built a new system.

Specs (they aren’t that great but they are a hell of alot better than what I had)
Biostar MCP6P M2+ mATX
Sempron 3400+
2GB (2×1GB) RAM
GeForce 8400 GS 256MB
Sleek XION Case
And I transferred my PSU over since it’s like brand new.
Also got a RAID card since I only had IDE drives (need to start investing in some SATA)

Currently this machine is running Ubuntu Linux on one drive and Windows XP on the other. The Ubuntu runs the most and I also have a Virtual BOX with Windows XP, and OPENSUSE set up. Overall I’ve been very happy with my new machine and considering it cost less than $250 I think it was well worth it. The motherboard can actually support the new XMP Phenon Quad Core Processor which is my next upgrade.