Before we go over methods of how to work with disc images, lets quickly describe what a disc image is, for those that don't know. A disc image can be considered to be the virtual relative of a physical disc; a disc image is the exact same thing as a physical disc... with being an actual physical disc. In other words, similar to how you can virtualize your computer, you can virtualize a disc. For example, lets say you have a Diablo II CD and a Diablo II disc image. The contents of the CD and the disc image are the exact same. The only difference is with the CD you can put it in your optical drive and run Diablo II; with the disc image you need to mount it - as opposed to putting it in your optical drive - before you can run Diablo II. (You may also decide to burn the disc image onto a physical disc, if you wish, but often mounting an image is more convenient.) Mounting a disc image makes it work just like if you had a physical disc and you put that physical disc into your disc drive.

So, now the question is: How do you mount a disc image? With an optical drive emulator, of course. Ever heard of Dameon Tools? Dameon Tools is probably one of the most popular drive emulators. For the longest time Dameon Tools was the go-to software if you needed an optical drive emulator. However, Dameon Tools has now become shareware and is rumored to be bundled with spyware, toolbar, and other crap you don't want on your computer. (I say "rumored" because I have read about this and not actually seen it myself since I have not used Dameon Tools for years.) Hence, today I introduce you to Virtual CloneDrive, a freeware drive emulator that is 100% clean and dead simple to use.

Virtual CloneDrive supports emulation of CD/DVD/HD-DVD/Blu-ray drives and allows users to mount/unmount .ISO, .IMG, .DVD, .CCD, .UDF, and .BIN images. Users can either set Virtual CloneDrive as the default manager for these disc images (during installation you have the option to "associate" these disc image formats with Virtual CloneDrive) in which case all you have to do is double click a disc image and Virtual CloneDrive will automatically mount/unmount it, or users can mount/mount disc images via various different right-click menus:

• Right-clicking on a virtual drive:

• Right-clicking on a disc image:

• Right-clicking on the Virtual CloneDrive system tray icon:

Virtual CloneDrive gives users the ability to have up to 15 virtual drives at a time; this option can be controlled via the "Settings..." you see in the above screenshot:

The more virtual drives you have, the more will show in My Computer and in the right-click menu of the system try icon. Of course, more virtual drives you have means you can mount multiple disc images at a time. If you would like to be able to differentiate a virtual drive from a physical drive, you can turn on the "Virtual Sheep" feature which changes the icon and name of virtual drives:

Virtual CloneDrive supports multiple different languages, for those non-English speakers:

All things considered, Virtual CloneDrive is probably the most clean and easy-to-use optical drive emulator you will find right now. You may grab Virtual CloneDrive from the following links:

Version reviewed: v5.4.4.0

Supported OS: Windows 98 and higher

Download size: 1.5 MB

Virtual CloneDrive homepage [direct download]

You'll notice that in the screenshot above, I'm running Firefox... on Ubuntu.... inside Windows!  It is simply a remote connection (from 3 feet away).

The install

On Windows, Teamviewer can either be installed or used as a portable application.  As I didn't want it to be too complicated I simply had him run it as a portable application.

As long as you agree to the terms and conditions, just click Next and accept said terms and conditions.  Then, the app will open.

Now you can use Teamviewer, as explained below (the section on installing it on Ubuntu)!

The install... on Ubuntu

The Ubuntu install is not one of those "it's really hard" things. In fact, I'd say it's about as easy as it is to install any application on Windows, if not anything.  You simply go to their site and click on the download button, just like you would on any Windows computer:

There are of course multiple downloads, but it's easy to spot the one we're looking for:  the one for Ubuntu, 32-bit. Just download the file and open it (it'll open in GDebi Package Installer):

The package will open as soon as it's done downloading:

You'll notice that Ubuntu has a universal installer--which is definitely a big step up from Windows, where it could be home-baked, it could be InstallShield, or who knows!  Plus, applications on Linux can be installed from the command line or from the GUI!

Simply click the Install button up in the top right corner--you'll need admin privileges, so enter your password when prompted.

If you're a Terminal fan, you can see exactly what it's doing in Terminal by expanding the Terminal button.

Once it's done installing, just close the installer.  Go to the Internet section of your menu--since I'm using Netbook Edition for its really cool interface, I'll just go to the tab about halfway down the screen; but it's in the Internet tab for most Ubuntu users.

If you're on Netbook Edition, you can add it to your favorites like I did.

You may be wondering why I said installing applications in Ubuntu was so easy if I had to give a hundred word explanation, but think about it-I just told you how to install most pieces of precompiled software!

The use

TeamViewer has four functions:  the first is to remotely control a computer (called remote support), the second to show other people your current screen (called presentation), the third file transfer, and the last VPN.  Unfortunately the Ubuntu beta only has the last three, and in my tests I couldn't get the file transfer to work.

Remote Control

The first, and probably most useful, function is remote control.  To use it, you'll need the ID number and the password from the other person whose screen you want to control. Just enter the ID from one box into the ID box in another....

and click the connect button. You'll be prompted for the password:

and you're connected! Now you can do things like control the other person's computer and even take videos and things using the built in tools! (I was going to take a video of me controlling the other computer, but my Acer laptop overheated--which goes to show it handles dropped connections gracefully.)

You'll notice in the picture above (also at the top of the article) I'm controlling my Ubuntu box from my Windows box.  (The red text overlay is not from Teamviewer, it's from the screenshot app.)

Teamviewer supports transmitting Mic audio, recording screens remotely, and changing the remote screen quality for smaller bandwidths.

Presentation

For presenting, I presented my Ubuntu machine onto my Windows machine.  Just go to the main Teamviewer window and enter the ID number of the computer you're presenting to.  The ID numbers do not change from session to session, so I won't be sharing the ID # of my Windows machine.  Simply enter the password:

and click on the Log On button.  You'll notice that on the remote computer it tells you the status of the connection--for instance, it said Awaiting Authentication on the Windows box.

Now if I move the mouse or type something in or the screen otherwise changes on my Ubuntu box, the change is mirrored onto the Windows box.

If you click on something on the presented-to box (here, the Windows box), it'll make an odd cursor on the presented box (the Ubuntu box) that indicates someone is wondering about an area.  It's perfect for asking about something over the VOIP capabilities available under the Audio/Video menu.

Final Words

Even with the Linux version in beta, Teamviewer is still a great piece of software that will have a wide range of uses, from helping someone remotely to transferring files to a friend or relative.  It's great for helping friends with software problems as I mentioned earlier and I see no reason to not have this great piece of software installed.  The only reason I see to not have this is because once you have it, your less technology-savvy friends may be asking you for help more and more.  In fact, I like this software so much I featured it as #3 in my top 10 favorite pieces of software I've reviewed on Cogizio.

[Visit Teamviewer's homepage!]

This article was originally written by Locutus on his blog Cogizio.

I am not sure how many dotTechies are gamers, but for those that are I am sure most of you have heard of DotA (Defense of the Ancients). For those that don't know, let me explain. Blizzard Entertainment is a video game developer that is known for their famous RTS (real-time strategy) - and most recently - MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game) games. Starcraft, one of Blizzard's classics, is one such RTS that was released in 1998.

Blizzard, in their wisdom, built a "custom map maker" in Starcraft allowing users to create their own "custom maps" (or "scenarios" or "games" or whatever you want to call them) to play using the Starcraft engine. One such "custom map" built for Starcraft by users is "Aeon of Strife", a predecessor of DotA. Now, flash forward  to 2005 when Icefrog starts developing DotA for Warcraft III (Blizzard's most recent RTS game) and DotA, literally, becomes a one-hit wonder. Thousands of people from around the world play the game; so much so that international tournaments are held just for DotA. The only problem is, DotA is limited by the Warcraft III engine and mechanics since, essentially, it is just a "custom map" for Warcraft III. So being such a popular game, many other developers have popped up and starting creating DotA "remakes", or in other words, whole new standalone games that are based on DotA but not limited to the Warcraft III engine (you don't need to buy Warcraft III to play these "remakes"). League of Legends (LoL) is one such "remake" (although as I will explain later, I feel LoL is different enough from DotA to be called its own game and not a clone).

Like DotA, in LoL there are two teams (currently each team can be comprised of 5 people each but there are plans of making 3v3 maps also) that fight against each other - the blue and purple teams. The fundamental goal of each team is to try to destroy the other team's "nexus". Whoever destroys the other team's nexus first wins. Each team is comprised of "champions" (individual characters controlled by actual players), "creeps" (computer controlled monsters champions need to kill to get experience - to level up - and gold), and buildings (such as towers, "inhibitors", etc.). Before the game starts, players are allowed to select their champions, "spells" (two "extra" spells to use in game), "mastery" (a focus which helps make your champion stronger), and "runes" (special "boosters" that help you in game). Once the game starts, the two teams battle it out trying to destroy the other team (the higher level you are the stronger you are, and the better items you have - you use the gold to purchase items - the stronger you are). Here is a ~5 minute video showing some in-game action:

Currently there are 43 champions users can select from in LoL, with the newest champion - Poppy - arriving just this last Wednesday:

However, don't expect to be able to use all 43 champions right as you start playing. You see, LoL is a freeware game; anyone can download it for free, and play it for free. However, the developer (Riot Games) still needs to make money, right? So, Riot developed LoL on a micro-transaction model (MTS). What this means is LoL has an in-game "store":

From this store users can buy champions, skins, runes, and "boosts". To buy anything, users need to use LoL "currency". There are two types of LoL "currency":

• Influence Points (IP) - IP are points you get after you finish playing a game. If you win, you get more IPs. If you lose, you get less IPs. How many IP points you get depends on how long the game was that you just finished. For an average 35-40 minute game, except to get 150-200 IP if you win, and 70-100 IP if you lose. IP are completely free and how many you have totally depends on how actively you play LoL.
• Riot Points (RP) - RP are points you purchase with real money (USD).You can buy game cards at a local store, or you can purchase them online:

Champions can be bought with either IP or RP points...

...but runes can only be bought with IP and skins and "boosts" can be bought only with RP. The cool thing about this MTS system is everything that affects in-game play, you need not use real money to purchase it - you can use IP (which you get for free by playing the game) to get it. So even if you don't have deep pockets, you can still own hardcore in LoL - I do (sometimes =P).

Now don't worry. Even if you are new, you will still be able to play with champions. Every week Riot makes 10 champions available for free; anyone can use them regardless of if you bought them or not. So, one week 10 champions are available for free, and the next week a different 10 champions are available for free; the rotation continues on like that. You can, of course, at any time purchase a champion and use him/her whenever you want.

In terms of game play, I must say I am fairly impressed with how well balanced the game is. Sure some may disagree with me, but generally speaking no one champion with "overpowered"; how well you do in a game depends on your skill level and how well you play. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Twitch was grossly overpowered and got a well deserved nerf in the most recent patch (may still need a few more nerfs). Also, the newest hero, Poppy, is  fairly overpowered dishing out a ton of damage and taking hits like a truck (Poppy is already scheduled for a nerf because she does "more damage than intended").

What I also like about LoL is that it is a team game front to back, left and right. Sure there are "carries" on each team in each game, but without proper teamwork, no team will ever win. This mechanic of teamwork contrasts greatly with that of DotA. In DotA yes teamwork was required, but usually one person - who got farmed or fed - could run through the enemy team and win the game single-handedly. In LoL even if one of your teammates - or you yourself - are fed or farmed, it is critical to do ganks and fight as a team, or you may as well kiss that win goodbye and surrender when 25 minutes pass (in LoL teams have the option to surrender after 25 minutes of gameplay).

Other noteworthy/DotA-differentiating features of LoL:

• The game isn't over until the fat nexus explodes. Unlike DotA where if a game is one sided it will tend to stay one sided until the game ends, in LoL the pendulum swings both ways. In LoL even if your team is getting dominated the whole game, one single battle that you win - either by fluke, luck, or darn good strategy - can turn the tide and result in your team's victory. You see once a champion is level 15+, it takes a good 40-60 seconds for the champion to revive after he or she has died. If your once-losing team kills all enemy champions, you have 40-60 seconds to rip through your enemies base and kill their nexus. In DotA, a tide-turner like such is easily avoided by simply "buying back" your hero once he/she dies. However, LoL does not have any sort of "buy back" concept (although there are ways to resurrect instantly such as the "revive" summoner's spell but they are just specs compared to the "buy back' concept). So, if the whole team dies late game, it gives the opponents an opportunity to end by the game by rushing to the nexus.
• Epic ganks thanks to the brush. Throughout the maps in LoL, there are areas where users can "hide" their champions called "brush". If a champion is standing in the brush, no one from outside the brush can see the champion but the champion can see them. So, jumping the enemy with the element of surprise is often done. Have your whole team stand in the brush and wait for the enemy to pass by can be exhilarating. Of course, LoL newbies will find the brush annoying - I did - but once you get used to it, the brush is an integral and unique part of LoL gameplay.
• The ability for inhibitors to respawn. In DotA and LoL before you can kill the throne/nexus, you must kill the progressing towers and buildings. In DotA once you kill the buildings where creeps spawn ("barracks"), the buildings are gone for good. In LoL, the buildings (called inhibitors) respawn after a period of time. So don't fret if you lose an inhibitor and don't be overjoyed if you kill an inhibitor. An inhibitor gone will just come back sooner rather than later.
• The ability to reconnect to the game if you disconnect. In DotA if you disconnect from a game, you can no longer reconnect to the game and rejoin the battle. In LoL, however, if you disconnect from a game, you simply need to run LoL and login to reconnect to the same game. This, of course, has a downside. Once you start a game in LoL, you cannot play a different game (on the same account) until that first game is finished.

As I inferred to earlier and just explained, although they may seem like minor changes, all the differences between DotA and LoL really make them two different games. Yes, while they may look similar on paper, when you play both games, you will notice an inherent difference between the two; they just feel and play different. That doesn't mean LoL is a bad game; on the contrary it is a terrific game. However, that means, in my opinion, calling LoL a DotA "remake" is more of a marketing strategy than a reality.

Now there are two aspects of LoL which I feel that can be improved upon:

• The inability to "deny" your own buildings or creeps. A critical aspect of DotA - which often differentiated the noobs from the pros - is the ability to "deny" your own creep or building. When you "deny" a creep or building, you simply kill it yourself with it is low health. This way, you deny your opponent experience and/or gold. In LoL, Riot Games decided to not implement this denying feature. Their main reasoning for not including the ability to deny is "it increases the early game imbalance between ranged and melee champions" and it "leads to passive gameplay". Both reasons, in my opinion, are weak.
  • First of all, the "early game imbalance" between ranged and melee champions is an essential part of the decision you make when you pick a ranged or melee champions. Both types of champions - ranged or melee - have their own pros and cons and you pick the one you want. Anyone that has played DotA knows denying creep kills (and/or buildings) is not about having a ranged or melee hero but rather about timing and precision. Plus, assuming there is a large "imbalance" between ranged and melee champions when it comes to denying, wouldn't the same imbalance exist when it comes to killing enemy creeps?
  • Denying creeps and/or buildings does not lead to passive gameplay at all. It adds a whole new dimension to gameplay and actually results in more activity by users trying to not only get their own creep kills and champions kills, but also trying to deny the opponent creep kills so they have less experience and gold.

I do hope Riot considers adding in the ability to deny creeps and buildings in the future.

• The ability to "rent" champions and runes. Lets face it: spending your IP and/or RP on a champion or rune is a grueling decision. Sometimes you may just want to play that champion or use that rune for a limited amount of time or games, or just to try them out. Allowing people to "rent" champions and runes would be helpful for people who don't want to keep the champion or rune permanently.

Also, although Riot Games is continually improving the games - fixing bugs, adding new features, etc. - currently League of Legends is a little bit buggy. Before the most recent patch often times the graphics rendering in game would be very laggy and "choppy" when I would in large battles. The problem was not at my end - my computer can handle LoL just fine and my internet connection is one of the best - but rather in the game engine. Other minor bugs include disappearing/messed up icons (especially when you relog), messed up matchmaking (I once played a game with a person who claimed to queue with his friends but ended up in my game), etc. However, as I said Riot is continually improving the game. Since the last patch, the performance improved considerably and the lag mostly disappeared and I am sure the other bugs will be quickly ironed out.

All in all, I highly recommend League of Legends to any gamer, or anyone that wants to give it a try. You can get started with LoL by visiting the following links:

System Requirements

• 2 GHz processor
• 1 GB RAM
• 750 MB available hard disk space
• Shader version 2.0 capable video card
• DirectX 9.0 capable video card
• Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1, or Windows 7 (Mac OS is currently not supported)

Version Reviewed

v1.03.11

Click here to get started with League of Legends

How Memory Fox works is simple. Whenever you switch from tab to tab or create/close a tab, Memory Fox flushes the memory used by Firefox, similar to how CleanMem flushes memory used by all programs every X minutes. Memory Fox also flushes the memory used by Firefox if Firefox is idle. However, while CleanMem is only "on" every X minutes (when it needs to do its job), Memory Fox is constantly running while you have Firefox running. The good thing is, though, Memory Fox itself does not use very much RAM/CPU (~1.5 MB RAM and 0-1% CPU) so its own process (called afom.exe) won't impede on your computer resources.

According to the developer of Memory Fox, Memory Fox "focuses on two (Working Set and Private Working Set) types of memory usage and with flushing for memory recovery. When resource requirements (Stack and Heap) have been reached, according to the user's preset option settings, the memory will be flushed and recovered from Fragmented Orphaned Ram memories." That is just a mouthful and geeky way of saying Memory Fox will help mitigate Firefox's famous memory leaking problem.

After you install Memory Fox, you need to manually enable Memory Fox...

...and manually set it to automatically start on Firefox boot:

Overall, while Memory Fox won't *fix* Firefox's memory woes - you can't ever fix the memory problems of a program with a third party program - it does a great job at keeping it in check. You can get Memory Fox from the following links:

Supported OS: Windows XP/Vista

It also works just fine for me on Windows 7.

Version reviewed: v1.01

Memory Fox homepage

[Download page]

***NOTE: Because Memory Fox is a new add-on, it is temporarily marked as an "experimental add-on" at Firefox add-on's website and you must check the "Let me install this experimental add-on" box to install it. As far as I am concerned, Memory Fox is fairly stable so there is no worries there.***

[via Ghacks Technology News]

WinSplit Revolution allows users to easily tile, resize, and position windows so they all fit together like blocks. Not only does this allow full use of all available screen space, but it also assists in multitasking.

The great thing about WinSplit Revolution is it does not literally "split" your screen which would involve creating and displaying different desktops for each "screen"; rather WinSplit allows you to resize windows and organize them in a fashion which is useful to you. Therefore, WinSplit is very light on computer resources.

WinSplit works in two ways - via the floating, semitransparent button panel...

...and via hotkeys:

Whenever you want to resize and tile a window, either click on the appropriate button the panel or press the appropriate hotkey while the window is active and the window will be resized and tiled accordingly. WinSplit gives users the ability to customize the default resizing and tiling settings:

Keep in mind all these options I just mentioned are accessible via the WinSplit Revolution system tray icon.

Here is a demo video showing exactly the kinds of things WinSplit Revolution can do:

Pretty handy, huh? To make it even better, WinSplit Revolution can be installed or be made portable (you select which one you want as one of the first steps after you run the EXE you download):

You can download WinSplit Revolution from the following links:

Version reviewed: v9.02

Supported OS: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Win7 32 & 64 bits

WinSplit Revolution homepage [direct download]

Table of Contents

Quick Pros and Cons

Rating (out of 10)

Quick Verdict

Full Review

Free Alternatives

Final Verdict

Table of Contents

Quick Pros and Cons

Rating (out of 10)

Quick Verdict

Full Review

Free Alternatives

Final Verdict

Testdisk

Testdisk is an open source, command line utility designed to help you either recover deleted partitions, or to boot non-bootable partitions. TestDisk can

• Fix partition table, recover deleted partition
• Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup
• Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector
• Fix FAT tables
• Rebuild NTFS boot sector
• Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup
• Fix MFT using MFT mirror
• Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock
• Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem
• Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions.

The great thing about Testdisk is it actually works; it finds undeleted partition at a much higher recovery rate than any other partition recovery software I used yet (note, however, you will need to do the "dig deeper" option to find more partitions; the normal scan is not the best). The downside, obviously, to Testdisk is it is a command line utility with no GUI (Graphical User Interface). Well, to say it is command line is a lie; you actually do not have to physically type in any commands to use Testdisk. Rather you just select the options from the menu it gives you...

...and so on, so forth. Testdisk is actually very easy, and well worth the effort put into learning how to use it, so don't let the lack of a GUI deter you.

Of course partition recovery and boot fixing is something better done outside of Windows rather than inside Windows, so there are ways to run Testdisk from a bootable CD; or you can always download a live CD which comes with Testdisk on it.

PhotoRec

PhotoRec is going to be of more interest to more people than Testdisk. PhotoRec is a software that specializes in data recovery, as opposed to partition recovery of Testdisk. PhotoRec works on hard drives, CDs, external media (memory cards, USB/flash drives, etc.). While PhotoRec also lacks a GUI, just like Testdisk, it is also fairly easy to use if you look past the big, bad, command prompt:

While PhotoRec is not the fastest data recovery program I have used (it is also not that slow; it took just over 12 minutes to recover data from a ~5GB partition), the recovery rate of PhotoRec is the best I have ever seen. It successfully recovered thousands of files for me  (yes, it is even more powerful than DiskDigger) - and it recovers many, many different types of files, including by not limited to images, movies, documents, and executables.

One of the big reasons why PhotoRec has such as great recovery rate is it ignores the file system of the partition you are scanning; on the other hand the problem with ignoring the file system is it does not recover file names for you. Another problem with PhotoRec is it is an all or nothing; it does not allow you to pick and chose which files you want to recover - it recovers them all (even malware files so be careful). You can, though, mitigate how many files PhotoRec recovers by designating PhotoRec to only look for files of a specific format:

Since PhotoRec recovers all files instead of allowing you to select only certain ones, PhotoRec is not for every day usage. Rather, it is for "doomsday" when you have a critical technical malfunction, lose everything, and need to recover extremely important data.

Take note Testdisk & PhotoRec come as one download and to run them you need to look in the "win" folder that you unzip the .ZIP you download.

Overall, I highly recommend Testdisk & PhotoRec to anyone that can make use of the services they provide. Both are definitely one of the best you will ever find in their class; and since they are both free, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving them a try [when you need them]. You can download Testdisk & PhotoRec from the following links:

Version reviewed: 6.11.3

Supported OS:

• DOS/Win9x
• Windows (NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista),***Work fine on Win7***
  
• Linux
• FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD
• SunOS
• MacOS

Testdisk & PhotoRec homepage [direct download (for Windows version)]

First to get a feel for Comfort Keys, read this brief list of the main features:

• Launch the necessary programs and open web pages by pressing a single hotkey.
• Insert user-defined preset texts (email templates, signatures, passwords, greetings, phone numbers, addresses, etc.) using hotkeys or the built-in template manager.
• Type with an on-screen keyboard.
• Use the clipboard manager to monitor Windows clipboard and paste back any entry at will.
• Change the language and case of the typed text.
• Control the sound volume in a quick and convenient manner.
• Record key press sequences (macros) and play them back as many times as you need.
• Block some keys or simulate the press of a specific key when another one is pressed.

So Comfort Keys is not only a software which allows you to assign hotkeys to literally any task, but it is a clipboard manager, text-snippet manager, has an on-screen keyboard, and a (hotkey) macro recorder? Wow! I don't say "wow" for many programs mind you.

Often times developers create featured filled software but then shoot themselves in the foot by making the software un-user friendly. This is not the case with Comfort Keys. Comfort Keys is extremely easy to use; it works right out of your system tray allowing you to easily float from feature to feature:

Initially you have to manually access each feature via the system tray icon but you can easily use the hotkeys feature ("Keyboard Shortcuts Settings") of Comfort Keys to create hotkeys for each of Comfort Keys' tools:

Of course the hotkeys feature is not just for creating hotkeys for Comfort Keys' tools. You can assign a hotkey to almost any action/task you can think of:

Each "action" is further broken down into "sub-actions" if applicable (i.e. for the "Change language, layout, or case" action you can select "Change all text to UPPER CASE", "Change all text to lower case", "Capitalize Each Word of the selected text", etc.). To make things even more interesting, for "Run program" and "Open URL" each hotkey can be set to launch multiple programs or URLs instead of just one program/URL per hotkey.

Whenever you want to assign a new hotkey, all you need to do is simply click on the text box for "Key combination" and press the hotkey on your keyboard. After you select your hotkey, select your action, set it up as you see fit, and hit "Save". Simple as that.

One thing to take note, however, is the "Paste text" action is different than if you use add a "template" to the "Template Manger". "Paste text" is an independent action set to one hotkey...

...while the "Template Manager" is, well, this:

NOTE: Just double click on a "template" title (the list column) to insert the content.

The main two differences between "Paste text" and the "Template Manager" is if you use "Paste text" you can only paste unformatted text but you can include special, and useful, tags...

...while if you use the "Template Manager" you can insert formatted text and images (you must use the "Rich Text Format"). When calling the "Template Manager" make sure you have your cursor on an area where you can insert text/content otherwise the "Template Manager" will not open.

Another nice feature, as I already mentioned, is the "Clipboard Manager":

The "Clipboard Manager" remembers the last 100 entries (text, images, formatted/rich text, etc.) made to Windows clipboard.

Using the "Clipboard Manager" is also simple: just double click on the clipboard entry you want to paste back. However take note of one nicetie: there is the ability to "search" all clipboard entries.

There are definitely more features I have not discussed yet but I believe you get the point: Comfort Keys is awesome.

Now as you can see, the freebie is of Comfort Keys Lite not Comfort Keys Pro. I know whenever a software has the world "Lite" in it most people are turned off (including me). However, while I agree Comfort Keys Pro is better, Comfort Keys Lite is excellent. Here are the differences between Comfort Keys Lite and Comfort Keys Pro if you want to shell out $30 to purchase the Pro version (which you may want to consider doing considering how great of a program this is):

So now that I have you  convinced (I hope), let me tell you how to get Comfort Keys Lite:

Version Reviewed: 3.6

Supported OS: Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. Win7 is not officially supported but it works fine for me.

• Visit the promotion page and click .
• After you download it, install it. There is no need to do anything for registration because the installer does that for you automatically =). You will know for sure if Comfort Keys (Lite) is registered for you or not depending on if you get this popup message:

If you get that message, Comfort Keys is not registered. If you don't get it, you are good to go.

• Enjoy!

P.S. As far as I know, Comfort Keys Lite is eligable for free updates; however you have to manually check for updates (Right click on system tray icon -> "About Comfort Keys Lite" -> "Check for updates" or check the ComputBild.de promotion page).

I have always dreaded using a T9 like app on my computer because most of them tend to be annoying and get in the way more than help. However PhraseExpress is designed with the end user experience in mind: you will rarely, if ever, find it slowing you down and it definitely increases productivity:

The main attraction of PhraseExpress revolve around making it easy for you reuse frequent phrases; when PhraseExpress detects you typing a phrase you use frequently, you can auto-complete it in one click/keypress (by default the keypress is set to be "Tab" but you can change it) instead of having to type the whole sentence. Other features include:

• Autotext - you can set PhraseExpress to automatically expand on abbreviations you use.
• Spell Checker - PhraseExpress has the ability to check your spelling.
• Clipboard Manager - PhraseExpress monitors your clipboard and allows you to paste words/phrases you copied recently instead of just the last ones. You can optionally make PhraseExpress purify the text also. Only text is monitored and stored by the Clipboard Manager.
• Text Snippets - you can store short text snippets, such as an e-mail signature, famous quotes, or form filling information, into PhraseExpress and paste them back easily whenever you want. The text in the snippets can be fully formatted.
• Program Launcher - PhraseExpress allows you to create text shortcuts which can launch programs/websites/open files/open folders when used.

The usage of PhraseExpress is not limited to what I just described; PhraseExpress can be used in many more clever ways.

You can assign hotkeys and/or text shortcuts to active/use any of the features mentioned:

To get a better understanding of the features I just mentioned watch this short demo video (by the developer):

To make it easy on new users, PhraseExpress has the ability to import phrases/relevant data from programs such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, AutoHotKey, and GhostTyper. PhraseExpress even has a standalone "PhraseExpress Importer" which can turn a list of text into PhraseExpress compatible entries.

The best part about PhraseExpress is it is not limited to working on a few programs on your computer; PhraseExpress is an independent program which works with most, if not all, programs which involve text and typing. However take note of one thing: PhraseExpress conflicts with KeyScrambler. This is not really PhraseExpress's fault because the job of KeyScrambler is to make sure keyloggers are unable to log keys; PhraseExpress just comes in just collateral damage. While your computer will not crash if you run KeyScrambler and PhraseExpress together, you will notice how PhraseExpress will never give you proper word/phrase suggestions or properly learn words/phrases for/from programs that use KeyScrambler (because KeyScrambler, literally, scrambles the keys so no other program can read it properly). You will, however, still be able to use the PhraseExpress features that work via hotkeys.

On that same note, there are two handy features of PhraseExpress which I feel are a little bit hidden from plain sight so users may not know they exist:

• If you Ctrl + Left mouse click on the PhraseExpress system tray icon, you can disable PhraseExpress. To enable it, simply Ctrl + Left mouse click again.
• PhraseExpress allows you to set PhraseExpress to not work with certain programs. This feature becomes handy when you have situations like the one I mentioned above with KeyScrambler (i.e. you could use this feature to disable PhraseExpress with all programs that you use KeyScrambler for).

To access this exclude-certain-programs-from-working-with-PhraseExpress-feature, you first need to right click on the PhraseExpress system tray icon -> "Settings" -> "Tools" -> "Settings" -> "Features" and enable (check the box) "Expert Mode". After you have enabled expert mode, go back to the main settings window, click on "PhraseExpress" at the very top, and enable (check the box) "Execute only in certain applications":

You will then be able to set PhraseExpress to either only work with specific programs or to not work with specific programs:

Now, not everyone speaks English or uses English letters. Therefore, to accommodate non-English speakers, PhraseExpress has full Unicode support and you have the ability to download auto-correct dictionaries for six different languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Portuguese.

Lastly, there is one non-feature related thing about PhraseExpress you should know. At the end of installing PhraseExpress, "install sample phrase library" will be checked by default:

Leaving that checked is just fine. In fact I suggest everyone leave that checked because then PhraseExpress creates handy auto-correct and other libraries for you to use (if you uncheck "install sample phrase library" you will have to create your own libraries and/or import from Microsoft Word and other sources). However, what you should know is part of the library which is created is a "websites" category. The "websites" category contains links to popular websites like Buy.com, Geeks.com, etc. Each of these links is an affiliate link:

In other words, if you visit these links (if you  and purchase something from the website, the developer of PhraseExpress will earn some revenue. Now affiliate links are of no harm to you or anyone that clicks on them; they serve as a way for publishers, developers, webmasters, etc. to earn some extra revenue - they do not affect your purchase price or purchase experience in any way, shape, form, or fashion. So don't let the fact that they are affiliate links scare you in any way. These affiliate links are a way for PhraseExpress' developer to make some extra revenue (remember they are providing a free software). I just figured I should give users the heads up so they exactly what is going on. If you want, you can always delete this "websites" category from your PhraseExpress database (simply right click it and select "delete").

Anyway, overall, while PhraseExpress will take some getting used to, it is one of those tools which you get addicted to; you will be unable to live without it after you use it. You may download PhraseExpress from the following link:

Version Reviewed: v6.0.156

Supported OS: Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista

Although not officially supported, it works fine on Win7.

Usage Limitations: Free for non-commercial/personal use only; $49.95 for a single license for commercial usage with volume discounts available.

PhraseExpress homepage

[PhaseExpress direct download]

[PhaseExpress for USB/flash drives]

[PhaseExpress Importer]

[PhraseExpress dictionaries and other templates]

Thanks Rob!

When you burn a movie DVD you are simply putting DVD compliant videos (i.e. .VOB) onto a DVD; if you burn non-DVD compliant videos onto the DVD, like AVI or MP4, the DVD just acts like a VCD instead of a proper DVD. When you author a movie DVD you take non-DVD compliant videos (i.e. AVI, WMV, MP4, etc.), convert them to DVD compliant format (i.e. .VOB), and burn them onto a DVD. In the process of authoring a DVD you may also be able to create custom DVD menus depending on which software you use.

Ashampoo Burning Studio 2009 Advanced is a prime example of a disk burning software that can burn a DVD (data or movie) but not author one. DVDFlick, on the other hand, is an example of a software that can author DVDs:

DVDFlick is an excellent open source DVD authoring utility. It is extremely easy to use, featured filled, and effective. With DVDFlick you can author a DVD with many different video formats (i.e. these all are supported input video formats):

In total, 45+ video formats, 60+ video codecs, and 40+ audio codecs are supported as per the developer.

You can select just one video to add or you can add multiple videos. All videos added into one project will be turned into the same DVD.

To your DVD you can add custom subtitles...

Screenshot by the developer.

...custom sound tracks...

Screenshot by the developer.

...and custom DVD title menus:

Screenshot by the developer.

Additionally you have the ability to change various settings including, but not limited to, DVD format (NTSC, PAL, etc.), aspect ratios, and when/if to create custom chapters. When all is set and done, you can burn your movie directly onto a DVD or save it as an .ISO for burning at a later time (or both):

If you are confused on how to use DVDFlick the developer has even written up an extremely useful how-to guide on DVDFlick explaining topics like how to create a simple DVD, add subtitles, add audio tracks, or add a DVD title menu.

I have been using DVDFlick for something like 2 years now and I absolutely love this program. It is my go-to program for authoring DVDs. For anyone that needs an excellent DVD authoring program, I highly recommend DVDFlick. There are, however, two things I would like to point out about the usage of this program:

• Take note these are two different "places" to edit "settings" within DVDFlick. One is "Project Settings" where there are settings concerning the whole DVD such as DVD format (NTSC, PAL, etc.). The other one is when you select one of the titles/videos you added and click on "Edit Title...". The settings under "Edit Title..." are specific to that title only. You will find things like adding subtitles, sound tracks, and aspect ratios there.
• The DVD title menus are kind of limited (there are only 6 template choices by default). However, thankfully, the DVDFlick community have created custom templates you can download from here. Once you download the template you want, just put it in its own subfolder in the "templates" folder in the "DVDFlick" folder under "Program Files". For most of us this will be C:\Program Files\DVD Flick\templates. If you are a talented artist, you may also create your own by following the directions here.
• In my experience DVDFlick can be a bit slow. In the past it has taken me 1-2 hours to create a DVD (from the start of adding titles to the finish of burning it onto a DVD). However considering the type of work DVDFlick does, it is sort of given that it will take a while.

You may download DVDFlick from the following link:

Version Reviewed: 1.3.0.7

Supported OS: Windows 2000 (Pro only)/XP/Vista/Win7

DVDFlick download page [direct download]

Table of Contents

Quick Pros and Cons

Rating (out of 10)

Quick Verdict

Full Review

Final Verdict

What makes TenClips so useful, and streamlined, is it works exclusively with hotkeys:

You can access these settings by right clicking on the system tray icon and selecting "Settings...".

You simply have to press Ctrl+1 to use the first clipboard, Ctrl+2 for the second, Ctrl+3 for the third, and so on and so forth (these hotkeys are completely customizable). Once you are using the clipboard you want, the usual cut/copy and paste procedures will get the job done (i.e. Ctrl + X/Ctrl + C and Ctrl+V or Right click -> Cut/Copy or Paste).

In addition to giving you 10 clipboards to use, TenClips gives you the ability to paste "purified" text (by default hotkey is Win+V to post "purified" text). "Purified" text is the text you copied with all the formatting removed. The effect of posting "purified" text with TenClips is just as if you were to copy heavily formatted text (for example green, bold, and underlined), paste it into Notepad to remove the formatting, and then copy it again. This feature is extremely useful for people who copy text often from websites.

Another handy bonus feature is, TenClips allows you to post your text in all uppercase or all lowercase letters.

Keep in mind when posting purified text (or uppercase/lowercase text), you will be posting from the clipboard you are using currently. In other words, if you are on clipboard 5, you will purify the text in clipboard 5 and paste it. If you want to post the text in clipboard 1 you need to change to clipboard 1 before trying to post purified text.

If at this point you are thinking "this is great and all, but how do I remember what clipboard I am on and what text it holds", don't worry. TenClips has a system tray icon that displays the number of the clipboard you are using currently and holding your mouse over the icon will tell you what text is in that clipboard:

Other useful features of the system tray icon are:

• Double clicking on the system tray icon will clear the contents of all 10 keyboards.
• In addition to using hotkeys, you can switch between clipboards by right clicking on the system tray icon:

While I must say I really like TenClips, I really wish there is one feature the developer adds. The ability to see what is in your current clipboard by holding the mouse over the system tray icon is nice, but I would rather the developer adds the ability to view the contents of all clipboards at once. This makes it easier to view the contents of your clipboards than having to rotate through each clipboard to try to remember which clipboard holds what.

Another (novelty) feature I would like to see in TenClips is the ability to share and sync clipboards across networks and/or the internet.

Overall, though, TenClips is a great program. So far it is one of my favorite clipboard utilities because I personally love the 10-clipboard-with-hotkeys approach much better than the typical clipboard monitoring approach. You may download TenClips from the following link:

Version reviewed: v1.1

TenClips officially works on Windows XP/Vista/Win7

Click here to download TenClips

While I have been recommending AnVir Task Manager, many dotTechies have been telling me "Ashraf, Ashraf, be cool like us and get CleanMem - it actually works!" Today I thought my self "Enough is enough... I want to be cool too!" So I decided to give CleanMem a go; and I must say the buzz around CleanMem is well deserved because it actually works.

You see CleanMem works a lot like AnVir Task Manager in terms of cleaning memory. For the more technical people the developer has a more technical explanation of how CleanMem works (calls API, blah, blah) on his website so read that if you are interested. I will rather explain it for us simple people this way: instead of the typical lets-overload-the-memory-to-force-memory-cleanup approach, CleanMem sort of "resets" the memory usage of a program just like AnVir Task Manager. To make the cake taste even better, CleanMem does not stay on in the background like other programs. Instead when you install CleanMem it sets itself (via Windows Task Scheduler) to run every 30 minutes (you may change this... just go to Windows Task Scheduler). So every 30 minutes CleanMem runs automatically and instantly "resets" the memory usage of all running processes. It does it very quickly (it comes and goes in literally half a second) and without putting any load on your computer (uses ~1 MB RAM and little to no CPU) so you may even forget it is running. Please note that there is no interface to CleanMem. It does its thing and goes away so you never see it. While CleanMem is set to automatically run, you may manually launch CleanMem at any time but you will still never see an interface to it.

To convince the skeptics, I did a real-life test of CleanMem. Here is my memory usage of some running processes before I run CleanMem:

Here is after I run CleanMem:

Amazing isnt it? Especially note the drop in RAM usage of the most notorious memory leaking program out there: Firefox. Keep in mind this memory cleaning was done instantly and without any load on my computer by CleanMem. As I already mentioned, CleanMem does this memory cleaning every 30 minutes automatically so even when the programs go back to leaking memory, they will be dealt with on a regular basis.

As I already mentioned, if you have a RAM shortage problem, the best way to solve that is to purchase more RAM. Memory cleaners are just supplement programs - they are not replacements for the actual hardware. In terms of supplement memory cleaners, CleanMem is one of the best ones out there. I highly recommend it.

You may download CleanMem from the following link:

Supported OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/ 2008/7

Version Reviewed: v1.4.2

CleanMem homepage

[Direct link download page - installer version]