The Developer Preview build of Windows 8 was released was just yesterday and we’ve come across quite a few people who actually want to have some of Windows 7’s features on Windows 8.
Here is trick on how to get back Windows 7 style classic menu on Windows 8. Please keep in mind that this is pre-beta release and trick may or may not work on final release of Windows 8.

The registry hack

How to Enable Classic Start Menu on Windows 8

1.  Open Registry Editor and navigate to following registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

2. Now change value of RPEnabled from “1″ to “0″

Note that this key change does not only change the Start Menu but also the Windows Explorer and Task Manager as well.

Close regedit and you should see classic aero style start menu back. However above change will disable the Metro UI completely if you want to get back the Metro UI, change the value back to”1″.

Start Menu Switcher Tools are Available

Tool 1. Windows 8 Start Menu Switcher v1.01?

Find back your Windows 8′s classic Start Menu, now you just need one click to do it quickly.

Okay, click ’7′ when you want a classic start menu in Win8, or you can click ’8′ back to the default.

Download

Windows 8 Start Menu Switcher v1.01 is written by C++ WTL, and it is only 79kb, a portable utility. IT works for Windows 8 Developer Preview.

Tool 2. This app brings back the ‘Classic’  Windows 7 Start Menu with the click of a virtual button, by Solo-Dev of DeviantArt.

Allows you to toggle between the Metro Start screen and the Classic start menu in Windows 8 Developer Preview.

Download

WINDOWS 8 ONLY.

RUN AS ADMIN. (Win 8 may require you to download and install the .Net 3.5.1 runtimes)

Tool 3.

Metro UI Tweaker, developed by the Windows Club, is a powerful portable tool that not only toggles Start Menu with/without disabling the Explorer Ribbon but also allows you to add more options to the Power Options in Start Menu.

Metro UI Tweaker, developed by the Windows Club, is a powerful portable tool that not only toggles Start Menu with/without disabling the Explorer Ribbon but also allows you to add more options to the Power Options in Start Menu.

Tool 4. Windows 8 Developer Preview Tweaker –

[new tool added in on Sept. 25, 2011]

Download

If you are looking for a tool that can:

Enable/disable old Windows Start Menu;
Enable/disable Snap feature on low screen resolutions, and
Change Start Screen background pictures.

Number of free utilities available to find out and optimize Windows boot time, Soluto and MaaS360 Boot Analyzer utility to analyze your computer boot process, we are here to share another good free utility that lets you analyze View Programs & Files Loaded After Windows Boot.

After Boot File Viewer is a simple software that will display the programs that load after PC boot. After Boot File Viewer can be useful for detecting viruses or unexpected behavior at computer startup. The utility can be run any time once your Windows is booted.

This utility can also become handy in case when you are suspicious about virus or malware infection. The utility can be run any time once your Windows is booted.

Download After Boot File Viewer.

Brought to you by The Data Liberation Front, Google Takeout is an excellent service that allows you to backup and download data on your Google products effortlessly in just one click.

Here is how you can liberate your data stored within Google products using takeout:

•  Go to http://google.com/takeout sign-in with your email and password.

• Choose ‘All of your data’ option on the top and click Create Archive.

Alternatively, you can also select services of your choice from ‘Choose services’ option and then click Create Archive.

• Download your archived files. The archived data is made available to download within one week, so keep a check on ‘Available until:’ data and time for your archived files.

Disguise Folders is a nice freeware app for Windows which allows you to set your secret folders look like system folders. The app is portable and works with ease. You just need to select the folder to disguise and then select the system folder which you want to be disguised to.

There are two versions of this app, i.e. installer and portable which requires no installation. Just run the downloaded file and a window appears from where you will be asked to select the folder that you want to hide from others.

Once you do this, you can select what icon you want to use on the folder. When this is done, just click on the Disguise Now button and you will find that your folder icon is switched to the system icon of your choosing. What’s even better is that when an anonymous user clicks on the folder, the app will not open the folder but direct the user to the location to which you have set your icon.

Download Disguise folders.

1. To block websites we need to edit Host file which is usually inC:/Windows/System32/drivers /etc

2. To edit Hosts file open notepad click open and go to  C:/Windows/System32/drivers /etc

Alternate

Open “Run” from the start menu (or press WinKey + r). Just copy paste the following path and hit ENTER.

notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

3. Find the file named “HOSTS”, Open it using notepad.

When this hosts file is opened in Notepad, at the end of the file you will see something like “127.0.0.1 localhost”.

4. Under “127.0.0.1 localhost” just add another website URL that you want to block.

Example :
127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.0.2 www.orkut.com

- www.orkut.com will not be accessible anymore.

If you want to add more sites then just increment the IP address by one and add it to the list.

i.e. 127.0.0.3 www.yahoo.com
127.0.0.4 www.msn.com
127.0.0.5 www.google.com

5. Save the file and exit.

6. If you find it difficult to do it manually every time  you can make a batch file to block websites

Example :-
@echo off
echo 127.0.0.1    www.google.com >> C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.txt
echo 127.0.0.1    www.yahoo.com  >> C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.txt
exit

7. Copy the above code in a note pad and save it as something.bat .Now once you click
the the batch file google.com and yahoo.com are blocked you can modify the batch file
according to your needs.

Make sure every time you add another website, the last digit of the address 127.0.0.x should not be the same.

What Tools Can I Use to Manage My Hosts Files?

I recommend HostsMan. Apart from providing a simple interface to add entries to your Hosts files, it also allows you to import blocking lists from hpHosts via the > Update Hosts button.

You can either merge this data with your current Hosts file or overwrite it. I recommend merging, since this allows you to simply delete the added information later and not lose anything you have in there already.

You can also edit the Hosts file using a convenient user interface.

Unfortunately, HostsMan does not currently allow you to import your own text files and merge them with your Hosts files. This is something you need to do manually.

Where Can I Find Blocking Lists?

A great resource for a customized Hosts files to block ads, banners, and other parasites, can be found on WinHelp2002. The Hosts file on offer has been updated regularly, most recently in June 2011. You can download the file in plain text or as a ZIP file. The Zip file contains a batch file (mvps.bat) to automatically rename and replace your current Hosts file. However, you can also manually add the list via copy and paste from the text file to your Hosts file, following the instructions above.

You can also find Hosts files on hpHosts. You can either follow the installation instructions on the website, or manually copy and paste the list from their Hosts text file into your existing Hosts file.

How Does This Work

When you add www.facebook.com on the hosts file,This will tell
Windows that all domain name resolution requests for www.facebook.com should be
handled by the local machine instead of your configured DNS

In case you have already burnt the ISO images to a CD/DVD or if you happen to possess a bootable CD/DVD you can test it without restarting your computer.

It Provides with Three Options -

Right-Click Menu – This option adds “launch MobaLiveCD” to the right-click menu of ISO image files. Therefore after activating this feature, you’ll just need to right-click on any bootable ISO file and select the MobaLiveCD option to test boot it.

Run the LiveCD – This option allows you to choose an ISO image file to test boot by browsing your hard drive.

Run the LiveUSB – This option allows you to choose a bootable USB thumb drive and to start it.

MobaLiveCD features -

In case of an ISO file stored on your hard disk, you don’t even need to burn it on a disc. Directly select the iso file using “Run the LiveCD” option and MobaLiveCD will boot it instantly.
You can use the right-click menu for an easy and quick start.
MobaLiveCD does not require any installation, just click on its application icon and it starts up.
Its portable, copy it to usb drive and run it directly from there.
A clear and easy to use interface
Light application, packaged in a single executable of 1.6MB only

Download MobaLiveCD

Some popular Virtualization software are Virtual Box (Free and Open Source), VMWare, Virtual PC.

You will be able to easily open those corrupted files of RAR format with the help of this tool. RAR Fix is very easy to install and it is really a small and tiny utility with installation file of 1.79 MB in size and takes very less hard disk space. After installing it, you may start RAR Fix and on starting, firstly it will ask you to locate and select those damaged/corrupted RAR archives.

Once RAR Fix completes analytics process it will list all the files present inside rar archive and lets you to select the file which you want to recover wit hsimple check box you can select multiple files and click next to start recovery and uncompressing process.

Once it completes all its process it will provide you with a detailed list of all the files that are present there inside that rar archive and allows you to select the particular file which you want to recover. It provides you with the options with the help of a simple check box from where you may select multiple files and click next to start recovery and uncompressing process.

Download RAR Fix to Recover Corrupted & Damaged RAR Archives files

What it fixes

• Period of time before the computer goes to sleep is set too long

• Screen saver is used instead of setting the computer to enter sleep mode

• Display brightness is set too high

• Power plan is not set to the most efficient power plan

• Wireless adaptor in not optimized for power saving

• Minimum processor state is set too high

How to apply this fix:

Download the fix MicrosoftFixit.power.Run.exe from here or from Direct link

Note: It works well on XP / Vista / Windows 7 / Windows  powered laptops and netbooks

This tool primarily fixes the settings that consume more power to a more balanced state. It is not possible to dramatically increase the battery back up using any tool, however this is as good as it gets so I highly recommend this.

Download Microsoft Fix it to extend laptop battery life & fix power consumption issues.

• Open Notepad and copy the following code.

Dim message, sapi
message=InputBox(“What do you want me to say?”,”COOL TIPS and TRICKS”)
Set sapi=CreateObject(“sapi.spvoice”)
sapi.Speak message

• Save the file with any name with an extension.vbs

• Now, close the notepad and open it again and you are done.

Warnings

Do not edit the code, or it may result any other operation to execute. Doing so, the user is sole responsible for their own work.
Make sure that you save the file as .vbs file.
This is meant for educational purpose only.

Note:- In  my view this works only with windows XP. If it works on any other version of windows, do let me know:)

This uses default Windows Narrator functionalities. (Again in XP).You can activiate this from

“Accessories –> Accessibility –> Narrator”

If you want to change the voice, you can download it from microsoft site and then can change it from

“Control Pannel –> Switch to Classical View –> Speech”.

You can also set frequency from here. Also, you can use this control in your programming and get it read by your computer whatever you want.

A Simple Visual Basic Program Which Will Speak Whatever You Type

Here is what you have to do:

    1. Firstly open notepad.
   2. Now copy and paste the below code there:

do
‘create the voice object
Set VObj = CreateObject(“SAPI.SpVoice”)
‘get what the user wants to say, exit if cancel or return no msg

MSG = InputBox(“Type what you want the PC to say” & VBCRLF & VBCRLF & VBCRLF & “To End enter Nothing or push the Cancel button”, “Voice Box By EverythingInAll”, “”)

If MSG = “” Then WScript.quit: Else

‘use the VObj to speak msg

with VObj

.Volume = 100

.Speak MSG

end with

loop

    3. Now save the file as filename.vbs
    4. Now double click on the file to use it.

Enjoy

Are you wondering how to conserve a bit of your time by installing Windows XP a bit faster? If so then let me tell you that in this post I am going to teach you all how to save your 25 minutes in installing windows xp.

To teach you how to install Windows XP in less than 10 Minutes here is the tutorial –

Step 1:- Boot through Windows XP CD.

Step 2:- After all the files are completely loaded, you get the option to select the partition.

Step 3:- Now Format the partition, whether it is normal or quick with NTFS or FAT

Step 4:- Once the formatting is completed, All the setup files required for installation are copied. Restart your system by pressing Enter.

Now, here begins the Simple trick to save 10-15 minutes.

Step 5:- After rebooting, you get a screen where it takes 40 minutes to complete or finalize the OS installation.

Step 6:- While the Windows XP is setting up and you reach the screen which is shown in the picture Press “Shift + F10”

Step 7 :- As soon as you will press Shift + F10 you will see “command prompt” screen.

Step 8 :- In that screen type “taskmgr” and press enter.

Step 9 :- Now you will see the Task Manger getting opened.

Step 10 :- In the processes tab of task manager find the process named as “setup.exe”

Step 11 :- Now right click on it and select the priority to “Real time”.

Step 12 :- Now just wait and watch your windows XP getting set up in less than 10 Minutes.