Microsoft made the official announcement that Kinect for Windows is ready to go and will be released on February 1st. It will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, UK, and of course the US.

The additional features Microsoft is pushing as part of the kit include support for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows Embedded systems. There’s also a new dongle included in the kit to ensure Kinect works alongside other USB peripherals you may have attached to your machine.

Actually there are three version of Power2Go 8, essential version (free), deluxe version (US$ 36.95) and platinum version (US$ 51.95).

Power2Go 8 Essential is free edition of CyberLink disc burning software. This software has a very limited features. It only allow user  to burn data to any discs, create audio CDs and copy disc to disc. But this software has support Blu-ray disc. But if you install the essential version for the first time, you can enjoy full version of CyberLink Power2Go 8 Platinum version for 15 days.

CyberLink Power2Go 8 Essential Features:-

Supports Blu-ray, BDXL, CD & DVD
Copy datas, musics, videos, photos to CD, DVD, Blu-ray Discs
Create Audio Music CDs

This software support Windows 7, Vista and Windows XP. Interest to try this software, you can get more info and download the installer of Power2Go 8 Essential from the official website. Download CyberLink Power2Go.

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.

The new Apple’s iPhone 4S has greater processor, but the RAM is same as iPhone 4, the difference is iPhone 4S has an better camera with 1080p HD video recording and iPhone 4S has two antennas, including an assistant i.e Siri. But what do you think which one is faster? Definitely it’s iPhone 4S, It’s the newer iPhone (No Doubt about it). But still here we have brought an comparison video between iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 so that you can see the speed difference,

Here is an extensive video comparison between Apple iPhone 4S Vs iPhone 4 giving a good picture of the everyday performance improvements one should expect between the two devices.

check out the video below:

Apple iPhone 4S vs Apple iPhone 4 : Specs Comparison

They both have the same volumetric dimensions (115.2mm x 58.6mm x 9.3 mm) but the iPhone 4S is a few grams (three to be precise) heavier than the iPhone 4 at 140g. We attribute that slight increase to a marginal increase in the weight of the battery.

The screen used (3.5-inch IPS TFT with a 960×640 pixel display), the glass cover at the back and the proprietary connector are all still there.

As for the confirmed differences; they are as follows: The SoC has been swapped from an A4 (Cortex A8 clocked at 1GHz) to an A5 (Cortex A9 dual core). Either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB onboard storage (the first iPhone with this capacity), Bluetooth 4.0 instead of Bluetooth 2.1, the rear camera goes from a five megapixel to an eight megapixel shooter, with full HD ready video recording and real time temporal noise reduction plus AirPlay Mirroring, Video mirroring and video out support.

Thanks Steve Jobs, you were always the best.

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

Autorun feature was first introduced in the earliest Windows version, Windows 95. Its primary function is nothing more than to ensure average user has no difficulty to install a program when a CD is loaded onto a CD ROM. Even though this is handy, it is easily exploited by malicious malware to load themselves into our PCs and do unauthorized series of action. The widespread of this exploit has also been extending to USB or pen drive where we can see many PCs suffer from the infection of this method.

USB drive is surely one of the major source used for saving or transferring data from one computer to another. But sometimes, due to some issues like Autorun virus user finds it very difficult to access the data properly from the USB drive. Although, there are many methods and utilities available over the web which can help the user in removing this virus but still none of them is perfect in handling such issues.

USB Protector is a simple yet effective tool that can prevent your PCs from loading malicious script from infecting your PCs.

Download USB Protector to Remove Autorun Viruses.

USB Protector supports all latest Windows platform (i.e. Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7) and you are required to have .NET framework 3.0 installed for this little software to run properly.

Download hotfix KB2581464 and installed, (Enter your email address to request down­load link on email) then reboot PC.

After installing the hotfix, perform the following steps:

Click ‘Start’ and type ‘regedit’ in windows 7 search box,press enter.

Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\usbstor

Create a new sub-key VVVVPPPP under usbstor, where

• VVVV represents device descriptor idVendor in hexadecimal.

• PPPP represents device descriptor idProduct in hexadecimal.

In right side panel,right click select ‘New’ -> ‘DWORD Value’,give a name as ‘MaximumTransferLength‘.

Double click ‘MaximumTransferLength’,set Base to Decimal and key in Value data to 2097120.

Then restart PC again.That all.

Note - On most USB storage devices, performance can be improved if the maximum transfer size is increased from the default 64 KB

To get the VVVV and PPPP for your USB device, you can use tool likeUSB Flash Benchmark that can be obtained from http://usbflashspeed.com/.