Windows 8 Concept Video: Copenhagen

A user on vimeo released a concept for Windows 8, called Concept Copenhagen.
Although the creator is not affiliated with Microsoft, this concept looks very very promising. I really wish that Microsoft hires that person, because he definitely knows a lot about user behaviour and design.

The copenhagen concept is basically all about usability, portable objects, auto-expandable menus and 3D desktops. The 3D desktop could be compared withbumptop .

Bumptop technology:

It’s pretty difficult to describe it in words, you got to see this:

Copenhagen User Experience from Copenhagen Concept on Vimeo.

Windows 8 Themes

Windows 8 Theme for Windows XP Pro

One theme inspired by Windows 8 has been created by Studio48. You can find the theme preview on YouTube:

3 Windows 8 Themes for Windows Vista:

Windows 8 Pro

Another great Windows 8 theme has been created by mufflerexoz on DeviantArt. He has created a theme for Vista. This one really looks cool, Windows 8 could really look like that one. The theme will change your shell, logon screens,wallpapers,tray icons and some other things. Overall it’s a pretty big theme, big kudos to the theme creator!

You can download the Windows 8 theme for Vista here:
Download Windows 8 Professional Theme

Windows 8 7282 RC Theme

Muffler also created some more themes inspired by Windows 8 (for Windows Vista SP1 x86):

Download Windows 8 Ultimate Theme

Windows 8 Superbar Theme

The Superbar works only for the bottom taskbar. The taskbar also has twice the size and you can preview any windows.

Download Windows 8 Superbar Theme

RSS fans rejoice: FeedDemon 3 is out

FeedDemon 3 is ready for public use, after months spent in a beta version that saw a confusing migration from proprietary online syncing to Google Reader.

That rough patch sorted, FeedDemon remains one of the best desktop RSS and Atom feed catchers. This version contains a lengthy list of changes, including greatly enhanced Twitter connectivity, a tweaked interface that's a bit easier to use, and better tagging and sharing.

My Twitter stream in FeedDemon 3.

(Credit: Screenshot by Seth Rosenblatt/CNET)

FeedDemon has dumped its proprietary synchronization site, Newsgator.com, in favor of syncing with Google Reader. New users won't notice, but older users are likely to lose many unread feeds, since Google can't import feeds with more than 10 unread items. Once synced with Google Reader, unread feeds can again include more than 10 items.

There's also a new, persistent ad placed in the lower-left corner of the interface, and FeedDemon's performance could be a lot better--RAM usage was hefty, and 3GB of RAM didn't prevent occasional program hang-ups.

Twitter feed reading has been baked in because FeedDemon supports authenticated feeds. Hyperlinking and short-URL expansion are automatic, and if you use Twitter as a live news stream, FeedDemon's Twitter link sharing should appeal to you. To set that up, you need to subscribe in FeedDemon to your Twitter feed here.

Tagging, tag clouds, and item sharing get a massive overhaul in FeedDemon 3, with all three features added to the item view and a tag cloud added to the Subscriptions Home view. The interface will look similar to FeedDemon 2.8, but there are many little tweaks to improve its usability.

Flags have been renamed Stars for Google Reader consistency, for example, while the Home page features videos, pictures, and content from your feeds. One smart improvement over Google Reader is that you can view your starred feeds in the folders they came from, instead of in a single "starred items" folder.

We'd like to see performance addressed in future versions, but overall, FeedDemon remains a favorite option for desktop feed management. Let us know your thoughts on the new FeedDemon in the comments below.

Disable the log-on screen in Windows XP and Vista

My previous post described how to add information to and otherwise customize Windows' Welcome screen. But maybe you just want to get your PC going without having to log into an account. You can bypass Windows' log-on screen by changing settings in the Windows Registry, as described in a tutorial on the Computer Performance site, but I find it much simpler to use a free Windows-tweaking utility to do the same thing.

The program I used to customize the Windows Welcome screen—TweakNow PowerPack 2009—is the same tool I used to disable the log-on screen on my Vista laptop. Click Windows Secret in the utility's left pane and choose User Accounts. Click "Enable auto log-on," select the account you want to log into automatically, enter the account's password and domain name (if necessary), and click Save. The next time you start the PC, Windows will start and open that account automatically.

Set Windows to start logged into a specific account—without having to enter a password—via this setting in TweakNow PowerPack 2009.

(Credit: TweakNow)

TweakNow PowerPack 2009 works with XP, Vista, and Windows 7, but I tested it only with Vista. I didn't need to download the program to my XP test machine because that system already has Tweak UI, Microsoft's free XP-reconfiguration utility that lacks a Vista version.

To set XP to start a specific account without requiring a log-on, open Tweak UI and click Logon > Autologon in the left pane, check "Log on automatically at system startup" in the right window, enter the account's user name and domain (if necessary), and click the Set Password button.

The free Tweak UI utility makes it easy to start Windows without having to log into an account.

(Credit: Microsoft)

In the Set Autologon Password dialog box, enter the account's password in each of the two text boxes and click OK.

Add the account's password twice and click OK to start Windows without having to log in.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Why bypassing the Windows log-on is dangerous
Setting Windows to open an administrator account automatically is risky, period. Even starting a standard account without requiring a password is dangerous, though less so. There are many very good reasons why Windows accounts are password-protected, and far fewer good reasons for doing without passwords.

That's why I recommend against allowing automatic log-ons in general. But far be it from me to tell you how to use your PC, so if you want to save a few seconds each time you start your system—and you're not worried about somebody doing serious mischief after gaining easy access to your account—it's okay by me.

How to apply custom themes in Windows 7 x86

Hello friends!!
Today we will learn how to apply a custom unsigned custom themes and shell styles on Windows 7 x86!
So here we go:
You have to replace your default theme service files with these cracked files!
Here is the link:

Code:

http://rapidshare.com/files/284296824/UX_Theme_DLL_s_x86_CW.rar

1.After downloading the files,open the rar and extract the files!
2.Install the Take Ownership.reg in Windows registry!
3.After installing the registry,you will find the TakeOwnership option in context menu!

After that,

How to replace these windows theme service files files?

* Login as a user with Administrative privileges
* Navigate to %systemroot%\System32
* Right-click uxtheme.dll and click properties.
* Take ownership of the file and close dialogs.
* Repeat steps 3 and 4 for themeui.dll and themeservice.dll
* Right-click uxtheme.dll and click properties.
* Give yourself (or group) Full Control permissions and close dialogs.
* Repeat steps 6 and 7 for themeui.dll and themeservice.dll.
* Rename uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.old.
* Rename themeui.dll to themeui.old.
* Rename themeservice.dll to themeservice.old.
* Copy patched files into %systemroot%\System32
* Reboot (yes, this is really required)

After replacing files,simply copy theme files to Resources(default place) and apply the theme!!
Enjoy!!!

Blaze - Must Have Free Application Launcher With Intelligent Desktop Automation Features

Mother of all application launcher's indispensable freeWindows utility Blaze takes the honor of being not only an easy to use fast application launcher but a intelligent desktop automation utility - unlike its competitors Blaze not only indexes applications and recently accessedfiles/folders but also allows users to perform calculations, web searches, browse the file-system, on-the-fly emailing, inserts quick texts, adaptive Macros and above all help automate repetitive tasks with its context sensitive suggestions to help you finish the task at hand faster - the great thing is you don't need to teach Blaze what to do.

The intelligent software has ability to bear with typos, and posses the outstanding ability to automate recurrent tasks, for example Blaze will automatically detect and offer you to complete a bulk-rename job or editing of repetitive formatting task in currently active application.

Blaze Assistant Offering To Delete All Remaining Files With .lnk Extension After I Deleted Three Files With .lnk Extension

The application is still under active development and I wish more intelligent features gets added soon, I would suggest integration of social-networking features like twitter into the application - you can read and download about Blaze here, I would also strongly suggest users to read the Quick Start Guide for a smooth operation.

Download Blaze >>

Microsoft bashes Google's Chrome-in-IE plan

Microsoft on Thursday lashed out against Google Chrome Frame--an Internet Explorer plug-in that supplants IE's rendering engine with Google's.

The software maker, in a statement, said users are better off moving to a later version of Internet Explorer if they want the latest technology as opposed to using Chrome Frame.

Google plans to use Chrome Frame to, among other things, allow people to run Google Wave from within Internet Explorer.

(Credit: Google)

"With Internet Explorer 8, we made significant advancements and updates to make the browser safer for our customers," Microsoft said. "Given the security issues with plug-ins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plug-in has doubled the attach area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take."

However, some took Microsoft to task for criticizing plug-ins, noting that Redmond itself has more than a few.

"Microsoft scared of security of plug-ins. Uninstall Silverlight now," Mozilla's Dion Almaer wrote in a Twitter posting.

Google announced Chrome Frame on Tuesday, saying it can be used with Internet Explorer 6, IE7, or IE8 to use Chrome to render Web pages and execute their JavaScript programs. To work, users have to install the plug-in and Web developers must insert a line of code onto their Web sites that engages Chrome Frame when a person visits the site.

Update, 12:35 p.m. PT: I had a chance to chat with Amy Barzdukas, general manager for IE.

In addition to reiterating the security risks associated with running what she called "a browser within a browser," Barzdukas said that using Chrome Frame also interferes with the private-browsing and clear-browser-history features within Internet Explorer 8.

"That is not made clear," Barzdukas said. "That is a trade-off that customers would really want to make with eyes wide open."

Barzdukas also rejected the notion that it offers a good option for those still using Internet Explorer 6.

"If you are a user of IE6, you should get off IE6, not install another add-on," she said. "It just compounds your problem."

Update 3:20 p.m. PT: Google offered up a statement on its own, explaining its thinking behind Chrome Frame.

"Google Chrome Frame is an open source plug-in that is currently in an early developer release and was designed with security in mind from the beginning," Google said. "While we encourage users to use a more modern and standards compliant browser such as Firefox, Safari, Opera or Google Chrome rather than a plug-in, for those who don't, Google Chrome Frame is designed to provide better performance, strong security features, and more choice to both developers and users, across all versions of Internet Explorer."

Although it does increase the surface area, Google notes it brings some security features of its own, particularly for those running IE6. "Accessing sites using Google Chrome Frame brings Google Chrome's security features to Internet Explorer users, providing strong phishing and malware protection (absent in IE6), robust sandboxing technology, and defenses from emerging online threats that are available in days rather than months," Google said.