Operate Task Manager from Excel with Useful Suspend Process Command

TaskManager.xls is a simple taskmanager implemented in an Excel spreadsheet. It can show you the list of the running processes; and terminate, suspend or resume selected processes. In Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 easy way to command Task manager would by by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ESC.

When working on a PC that has been compromised by a virus or spyware you will find yourself with the Task Manager disabled. Malware creators like to disable Task Manager so it makes solving the problem and removing the issue difficult. When you are stuck with such problem, one easy way to ensure the processes running on your computer is to use a Task Manager that you can run from MICROSOFT EXCEL!

TaskManager.xls is a simple taskmanager implemented in Excel/VBA. You can use the command column (Column A) to execute commands on the processes. You can use the following commands:

r -> Resume process
s -> Suspend process

t -> Terminate process

Push  button “List processes” to list all processes:

TaskManager.xls can't be ran in Openoffice. You need to view this app in windows and in MS office. I've not tested this app on MAC as well, if anyone test it let me know.

Download Excel Task Manager

Choosing a Safe Password

Remember Rule #1...It's golden - Easy to remember is easy to steal, it is as simple as that. Human beings think that it is OK to use a simple and easy password, without thinking a way to choose a safe password. Having as easy password is risky especially when your password protects some sensitive information like emails, online banking, etc.

A huge number of security risks start with a stolen password. This makes it very important for a user to know how to set a safe password. From security point of view a secure password is a combination of random numbers, letters, upper & lower case characters. Passwords like these can be hard to remember so people write them down, which is a bad habit (as bad as a weak password). So, it is important to have a password that can be remembered and can be categorized as a safe password and this software will create safe password for you and teach you how to remmember them by using phonetic pronunciation.

The PC Tools Password Utilities includes useful features to make creating, checking and managing passwords much simpler.

Included in Password Utilities are my two favorite features:

Password Generator - is an offline version of the web-based Password Generator which allows you to securely and easily create passwords locally on your own PC.

Password Checker - a new feature that lets you check the quality and strength of a password. By entering your password in the checker it will run a series of tests on the password to indicate how strong it is, and therefore how easy it may be to guess or crack.

Download PC Tools Password Utilities here.

Block Unwanted/Suspicious Websites with HostMan

You can block any unwanted/Suspicious sites through a Windows file called hosts file. Yes your right, if you know how to edit then you don't need to shell out extra buck for a website blocker software. But unfortunately, editing it manually is quite difficult specially for ordinary windows user. To make this simple, I will present you to a free software called HostsMan. HostsMan is a free application that enables you to manage your Hosts file with just a few clicks.

The usage is simple, to add a website to block, from the main screen click Open Hosts icon. This will open the hosts editor, click Add to create new entry. From the host names field, enter the website address of the site you want to block. For example, you can put facebook.com  or any other social networking site. Click Add to save the new record. That's It! Block websites will be in effect on the next reboot.

Download HostsMan

Simple way of backing up and reloading your Windows XP Drivers

Some of you might be tired of installing drivers whenever you install fresh copy of Windows XP, I know  I am.. In this tutorial I will show you how you can back up your drivers and save them to your USB flash drive or CD/DVD disc. Here is a BAT script that will help you backup your drivers so you dont have to go through the drivers process again whenever you reinstall your Windows XP.
Copy and paste this script in Notepad  or your favorite text editor and save it as DriveCopy. Rename the TXT extension to BAT. Viola, now you have the batch file.

echo off
cls
pause
md \olddrivers
cd \olddrivers
xcopy c:\windows\help /h /y
xcopy c:\windows\inf /h /r /y
xcopy c:\windows\system /h /r /y
xcopy c:\windows\system32 /h /r /y
xcopy c:\windows\system32\drivers /h /r /y
pause

When you open this script it will start copying files into your C:/ drive hidden folder called olddrivers (you have to unhide them in folder options to see them). After you reformat, you go to device manager and reinstall the question mark drivers. When it ask for the cd, put it in.

Quick Tip - Change the conversation view in Gmail

Something interesting that caught my eye on the Gmail' settings tab while I was messing around with options. Google: Gmail Team implemented new option which allows you to have under 25 convos on a page size which is a great idea. Simply go to your Gmail's settings layout and pick 10,15 or 20 from the drop-down menu. Before only available options were 25, 50 and 100.

These new settings are handy if u don't recive too many messages or if you want to improve Gmail's performance. Gmail loads a lot faster if it only has to fetch 10 conversations instead of 25.

VirtuaWin Review – The Virtual Desktop Manager

It’s been couple of days now since I last reviewed a piece of software so I guess it’s time. This time I am going to review a tidy little application called VirtuaWin.

VirtuaWin is a virtual desktop manager for the Windows operating system that allows you to manage multiple applications over virtual desktops (or workspaces). Some of you might be familiar with this idea if you’ve used one of the many flavors of Linux.

Main thing I love about this app is the size. The binary is only 382kb and downloads in just a few seconds. It’s also very easy to configure. The only tuning I had to do was name the four virtual desktops I was going to use and assign them each a hot key. I’ve set VirtuaWin up to use the Windows Key plus the numbers 1 through 4 (respective to the virtual desktop I created).

There are many of options that can be set but really the name and hot keys were all I had to do to get it going . One option I would consider setting up is the mouse functions. You can set VirtuaWin to let the mouse direct which virtual desktop is selected. I did try it out and it was pretty awsome. When I would move the mouse off the right side of the screen it would move over one virtual desktop and when I moved the mouse off the bottom of the screen under the taskbar it would go down one virtual desktop. OK so my terminology is a little off but if you look at the screen shot that shows the little tray icon you will see what I mean. It’s separated into four quadrants.

On the VirtuaWin website you can find a bunch of add-ons (called modules) and icon sets. It’s a very configurable and customizable program.
The one and only thing that I was able to find that I didn’t like was the sheer amount of settings. You can get quite involved in tweaking. My personal preference is dead simple and I’m not a huge fan of tweaking. I prefer to run things more or less “out of the box”. Anyway, once I figured out which options I needed to change I was all set to go in just a matter of minutes. It took me a lot longer to write this post than it did to figure out how to use the program.

You can get VirtuaWin here.

Win7 Performance tweak

Hey everyone I've been tweaking with my machine lately testing a lot of different thing's/setting's and I thought I would share this with the my readers.
It tweaks your performance by turning off useless thing's like screen slowly coming up when you click on a tab. With my setting's it's immediately faster than "stock" if you have a low end computer.

You can find it by going to Control Panel >System >Performance Information and Tools >Adjust Visual Effect's. This may be one of the oldest thing's you could use but im simply posting this as a "noob" tutorial.
Once you get the the screen adjust the setting's so everything look's like mine.

Once these setting's are applied your computer will be much faster with page loading and will be a less hog on your processor. This will still be able to run Aero if your machine is applicable to do so. It's very handy and work's like normal with little to no difference. I know this isn't the best "tutorial" but I know it will help some people out at least.