FREE Windows 7 Themes

Incorporated into Windows 7 is a very nice personalization feature that allows you to customize and apply themes. With themes you can easily change the visual and sound schemes on your PC.  In a nutshell, a theme includes a desktop background, a window color, sounds, and a screen saver.

Themes are a combination of pictures, colors, and sounds on your computer. It includes a desktop background, a screen saver, a window border color, and a sound scheme. Some themes might also include desktop icons and mouse pointers.

The neat thing about Windows 7 you can download new themes and then individually change a theme’s pictures, color, and sounds to meet your own personal tastes. To personalize your Windows 7,  right mouse click on your Windows 7 desktop and select personalize. You will then be presented with a window where you can manage; and “Change the visuals and sounds on your computer”.

Where is a good source for Windows 7 themes?

One of the best sources I have come across is directly from Microsoft’s own Personalization Gallery [ HERE ] where there are numerous theme packs available.

To use one the themes from the Personalization Gallery, simply select a theme, click download, and then open. The theme will then be applied to your desktop and added to the Personalization controls in the Control Panel.  Again, to get to those controls, follow the steps above.

Also, while you are at Microsoft’s Personalization Gallery, note that there are also tab options available to download desktop backgrounds (or wallpapers), desktop gadgets and sideshow gadgets.  All for FREE…

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WeatherBar for Windows 7

So many different ways to track the weather on the internet these days. I came across a simplistic app, called WeatherBar, that integrates with the Windows 7 taskbar to show the weather at a specific location. Just download, unzip to a folder of your choice, and run the WeatherBar executable. Windows 7 and an internet connection is required.

WeatherBar is an application that lets you use the Windows 7 taskbar to display the weather condiitons in the application icon.  instead of constantly switching to the desktop to take a peek at the pinned gadget, the user can simply take a look at the taskbar, or right-click on the application icon to read the forecast.

To change the settings in WeatherBar, click on the “gear” (see below) to change the update interval and whether you want the weather displayed in the metric or imperial formats. To set your location, click on the “pencil” (see below) and enter your zip code.

You can get WeatherBar [ Here ]

If you are looking for a full blown weather tracking app, check out WeatherPulse [ Here ] .

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Evernote Your FREE Online Notebook

If you are constantly piling notes on your desktop then it is time to use your computer, the internet, your mobile phone, and Evernote. Evernote is an online notebook that is designed to store notes, webclips, pictures, pdf files, etc… You can use the online interface to store your notes or you can download the computer version of Evernote that will synchronize with the online version.

Evernote gives you 40 mb of note usage a month which is equivalent to 20,000 typed notes, 10000 ink notes, 400 mobile snapshots, 270 webclips, and 40 audio notes. If you maxed out the your allowance every month that is 480 mb of data a year… WOW! The allowance is based on the amount of data you send (or upload), not the total amount stored… There is also a premium paid version available that gives you substantially more upload capacity (500 mb a month). There are also browser extensions available that will enable you to gather web clippings and even whole web pages. This is an excellent application; and, as a blogger and everyday computer user, I would not be without it.

Watch the video to learn more about Evernote…

You can subscribe and get Evernote [ HERE ]

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A FREE Web Based FTP Client

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a communication method used to access and exchange files on a remote computer. Typically, FTP software (called a client) is installed on your PC and is used to access a server to transfer files back and forth. FTP is commonly used by people who maintain websites to transfer files to/from a host web server.

Occasionally you may run into a situation where you have a need to use FTP (e.g. to transfer a large file).  Instead of installing client FTP software, an option that is available is a web-based (cloud app) solution called net2ftp.

You want to build a website, so you start creating web pages on your computer. Next, you need to publish them: you need to put those pages on a web server so that everyone would be able to view them. To transfer the files from your computer to that web server, a special protocol (transfer method) is used: FTP – the File Transfer Protocol. This protocol was designed to be able to handle big files; it can for example resume a transfer if it was interrupted in the middle.

net2ftp can either be run from your web browser (at net2ftp.com) or can be downloaded, installed and administered (run) directly from a web server.

The advantages of using net2ftp over the client based FTP model is that if you are behind a firewall that may block FTP communications (such as with the client based FTP model), net2ftp is able to break that barrier using a regular web browser.

Features:

• Navigate the FTP server
  Once you have logged in, you can browse from directory to directory and see all the subdirectories and files.
• Upload files
  There are 3 different ways to upload files: the standard upload form, the upload-and-unzip functionality, and the Java Applet.
• Download files
  Click on a filename to quickly download one file.
  Select multiple files and click on Download; the selected files will be downloaded in a zip archive.
• Zip files
  … and save the zip archive on the FTP server, or email it to someone.
• Unzip files
  Different formats are supported: .zip, .tar, .tgz and .gz.
• Install software
  Choose from a list of popular applications (PHP required on the target server).
• Copy, move and delete
  Directories are handled recursively, meaning that their content (subdirectories and files) will also be copied, moved or deleted.
• Copy or move to a 2nd FTP server
  Handy to import files to your FTP server, or to export files from your FTP server to another FTP server.
• Rename and chmod
  Chmod handles directories recursively.
• View code with syntax highlighting
  PHP functions are linked to the documentation on php.net.
• Plain text editor
  Edit text right from your browser; every time you save the changes the new file is transferred to the FTP server.
• HTML editors
  Edit HTML a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) form; there are 2 different editors to choose from (FCKEditor and TinyMCE).
• Code editor
  Edit HTML and PHP in an editor with syntax highlighting (CodePress).
• Search for words or phrases
  Filter out files based on the filename, last modification time and filesize.
• Calculate size
  Calculate the size of directories and files.

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Yet Another FREE Online Storage Solution

Just recently I posted an article [HERE] about online storage which featured the likes of LiveMesh (5 GB), SkyDrive (25 GB), Gmail account (7GB) with a software client called Backup To Email; AND others recommended Dropbox (2 GB) and ADrive (50 GB).  Total of all of this is: 89 GB

Following the posting of that article, my delayed thought process kicked in and I remembered yet another FREE online storage solution called GoAruna.

What is unique about GoAruna, and I don’t think it has totally caught on yet, is that they offer FREE “unlimited” online file storage.  Now, unlimited to me means infinity; however where the wall is with this, I do not know.

I did find in the terms under Abuse and excessive use.

Each GoAruna free account is meant for normal personal use by one person. Accounts abusing the privilege and our service by trying to distribute content, (especially illegal and copyright protected content) to the masses, will be terminated or blocked without notice.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, the one main feature that I liked about GoAruna is their desktop client that you download, install and manage your file transactions right from your computer.  The client file management software allows you to manage batch transfers, setup shares to files, send to a mail recipients, delete, rename, move, copy, and create new folders.

Overall, in my testing, the upload/download process, in terms of speed, was comparable to the other online file storage services and the desktop app is pretty easy to use and understand. You can also access your GoAruna account and files online, as well; which makes it easy to grab files you need when you are somewhere else.  So if you are looking for another online storage option, you may want to check out GoAruna.

Again, in closing, I want to emphasize, that when you store files online (in the cloud), you are putting your trust in the hands of the services which you are dealing with.  Encrypting your files is definitely a plus (and a must in my opinion).

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Geek Squeaks’ of the Week (#54)

Welcome to this weeks’ edition of Geek Squeaks’…  Each week, What’s On My PC features articles (posted within the past week) from the blogs that are associated with What’s On My PC blogroll community.  If you really want to learn more about information technology and computers, then you are at the right place.  I encourage you to visit (and bookmark) each of these sites.

Netbook Freeware – NEW
Explore++ : Free, Multi-Tab File Manager
for Windows Netbook

HD Doctor Blog – NEW
Blog about computer repair, computer recovery, computer data backup and so on.

404 Tech Support
Hidden Easter Eggs in Software and The Security Implications

Snakebytez
Send Free SMS Worldwide with FreeSMS 1.4

TTC Shelbyville
Optimize Your Windows 7 or Windows Vista Internet Connection

I Love Free Software
Speccy – Free Software to Get Hardware Info of your System

Worthy Tips
Transform your email into physical mail using MailWriter service

TuneUp Blog About Windows
Windows XP Gets a Facelift! (Part 1) – New Boot Screens

Canadian Tech Blogger
JooJoo And HP Slate Desperately Trying To Out Win Apple iPad

Internet Security Blog
Software to Hide Computer Files & Folders – Freeware

Free PC Security
Malicious Sites April 6

Tech-for Everyone
How To Uninstall Live Messenger

Rarst.net
Prepare to wrestle computer issues unprepared

Lifehacker
CloudApp Instantly Shares Any File, Is My New Favorite Timesaver

AKS-Feel The Change
Facebook Antivirus is FAKE!

Carol’s Vault
Inbox2 – One stream for all your accounts

411-Spyware.com
How to Remove Your Protection

Bill Mullins’ Weblog – Tech Thoughts
Download Free Microsoft Security Essentials – Kill Malware DEAD!

Right On Technology
iPad Launch Day is here!

Big Geek Daddy
How to Protect Kids Using the Internet

Blogging Fool
WordPress Version 3 To Incorporate Powerful Multi-User Functionality As Beta 1 Is Released

Plato Press
Is the iPad the End Of The Internet?

What’s On My PC
A Digital and Analog Clock Combo…

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Know How to Spot Badware (Malware)

I recently had a conversation with a friend, who was new to computers, and he commenced explaining to me how he was suddenly interrupted during a computer session by Microsoft Security Essentials 2010 and was requested to provide his credit card number to unlock the full version. He further explained that his computer was not functioning properly, so he proceeded to make the purchase for the unlocked version. Upon hearing this, I had to regrettably tell him that his computer was infected with malware (a virus) and that he had been robbed and to contact his credit card company immediately. His jaw dropped and said, “you are kidding me, right?”. First off, my friend was wrong in telling me that it was “Microsoft” Security Essentials 2010″, when in fact it was the rogue (fake) malware package called “Security Essentials 2010″.

Folks, know your (legitimate) software on your computer and how to spot the badware (malware). Yes, Microsoft does make a package called Microsoft Security Essentials (without the 2010 attached to the name) which is a very good security product designed to protect you from malware, viruses, spyware, etc… HOWEVER, it is totally free and they will never ask for your credit card number. As a matter of fact, any appearance of persistent unknown security alerts (or software) that suddenly appear on your computer (that looks real) and prompts you to make payment to fix a problem is the first clue that your PC is infected. These fake security programs will intentionally render your PC useless, cause data loss and oftentimes is very difficult to remove.

Today, what I would like you to do is learn how to spot the badware and one of the best places to do that is at 411-Spyware.com.

The author of 411-Spyware.com (Kristopher Dukes) has compiled quite a collection, with pictures and all, of FAKE security products that are engineered to instill fear, cause havoc and steal from you. Not only does she provide you with the visual experience, she also provides removal instructions and suggested software to assist with the removal process. The one thing I want you to look at with some of these, is the complexity of the removal process, which literally can take a computer tech hours to resolve; with the worse case scenario being a complete system restore.

Most likely, in the scenario that I provided that involved a friend, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say he was porn surfing… If you porn surf, pirate software, do peer2peer sharing and go click happy on any link that comes your way; then be forewarned, you will become a cybercrime victim, just like my friend.

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