Free Windows Tips & Guides: 2007

Friday, 21 December 2007

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Merry Christmas

Saturday, 24 November 2007

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Link Exchange With A Google Pagerank 4

Labels: Link Exchange With A Google Pagerank 4

Saturday, 10 November 2007

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The Top 5 Utils I Am Never Without

Most clients I support have broadband so I can download tools as I need them but for the very few sites that either have dial up or no internet at all these are the top tools I always make sure I keep on my memory stick.

1. CCleaner

CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)

http://www.ccleaner.com

2. Hijack This

A general homepage hijackers detector and remover. Initially based on the article Hijacked!, but expanded with a lot of other checks against hijacker tricks. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks. It does not target specific programs/URLs, just the methods used by hijackers to force you onto their sites.As a result, false positives are imminent, and unless you are sure what you're doing, you should always consult with knowledgeable folks before deleting anything.

http://www.merijn.org/programs.php#hijackthis

3. Superscan 3

SuperScan is a powerful connect-based TCP port scanner, pinger and hostname resolver. Multithreaded and asynchronous techniques make this program extremely fast and versatile.
Great for sites that have no DHCP server and you need to find a spare IP address, Also fantastic for scanning for open ports on your LAN

http://download.siebernet.de/archiv-11-2007/netz/superscan3.exe

4. Treesize Free V2.1

Every hard disk is too small if you just wait long enough. TreeSize Free tells you where precious space has gone to. TreeSize Free can be started from the context menu of a folder or drive and shows you the size of this folder, including its subfolders. You can expand this folder in Explorer-like style and you will see the size of every subfolder. Scanning is done in a thread, so you can already see results while TreeSize Free is working. The space, which is wasted by the file system, can be displayed and the results can be printed in a report. TreeSize Free is freeware for Windows 9x/2000/XP/Vista.

http://www.jam-software.com/freeware/index.shtml

5. Bootvis

BootVis is a performance trace visualization utility that you can use with Windows XP systems. Customer research shows a frequently requested feature that users want from their PCs is fast system startup, whether from cold boot or when resuming from standby or hibernation.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=664

Labels: top utils scanner port ccleaner bootvis

Tuesday, 18 September 2007

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Warning: Out Of Hard Disk Space, Use This Free Util And Guide

Labels: Free Util Treesize Guide

Saturday, 25 August 2007

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10 - 100% Free 100% Legal Music Sites

Friday, 17 August 2007

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5 Free To Download "Hot News" Flashy Pictures

Labels: Free Flashy Hot News Pics

Friday, 10 August 2007

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10 Superb Free Games You May Not Have Played Yet

Cave Story

Cave Story is a freeware sidescrolling action/adventure/platformer title with leanings towards Wonderboy and recent sidescrolling Castlevania titles. You control a little amnesiac who runs around helping out these rabbit-ish creatures called Mimigas while trying to find your way out of the giant cave inside the floating island which makes up the game´s setting.

Play Cave Story Here

Knytt

The Knytt was abducted by an alien! Traveling through space, the UFO flies into a meteor and crashes on a nearby planet. Luckily, the Knytt and the alien survive, but the UFO is a wreck. How can the Knytt possibly find its way back home again?
Knytt is a free platform game for Windows featuring exploration, atmosphere, and infinite cuteness.

Play Knytt Here

Flow

No matter who you are, what kind of games do you play or not play, Flow is a game designed for you to dive in the zone and lose track of time.

Play Flow Here

Orisinal

A collection of superb games you have got to try these

Play Orisinal Here

La-Mulana

La-Mulana is a freeware free-roaming platformer game designed to look, sound, and play like a classic MSX game. It´s heavily influenced by the classic Konami MSX game "The Maze of Galious" and anyone who has played that title will probably recognize the similarities very quickly. You play the whip-wielding Indiana Jones-esque archaeologist Lemeza Kosugi as he investigates the ancient ruins of La-Mulana in an attempt to find its treasure and one-up his father, who is trying to get the same treasure as well.

Play La-Mulana Here

A Tale In The Dessert

A Tale in the Desert is a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game set in ancient Egypt. You can get a taste of life in our tale by clicking around the site or downloading the game client for free.

Play Tale In The Dessert Here

Battle For Wesnoth

Build up a great army, gradually turning raw recruits into hardened veterans. In later games, recall your toughest warriors and form a deadly host against whom none can stand! Choose units from a large pool of specialists, and hand-pick a force with the right strengths to fight well on different terrains against all manner of opposition.

Play Wesnoth Here

Death Worm

Based on the Mongolian legend of Allghoi Khorkhoi, Death worm proves that a game doesn't have to be overly complicated and contain an involved storyline to be good. It is, at its basic level, a mini-game involving a worm that lives in a desert and, well, eats people. At its more advanced level there is a great deal of strategy involved in the game. Just mindlessly dive at every piece of meat that comes your way and you'll soon find yourself blasted into worm pâté.

Play Death Worm Here

Punishment

If you ever start considering playing video games a hobby, play this. A "punishingly" difficult platform game that is painful and nauseating to play. But you can't stop.

Play Punishment Here

Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress is a single-player fantasy game. You can control a dwarven outpost or an adventurer in a randomly generated, persistent world.

Play Dwarf Fortress Here

Labels: 10 Superb Free Games You May Not Have Played Yet

Sunday, 29 July 2007

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SEO Easy Guide For Newbie Bloggers

One thing I felt personally weak on was the fine art of search engine optimization (SEO) so I set about finding out more.

I used one of my friend’s websites which I had designed as a testing ground to see how high I could get it in Google for a start off.

We chose a phrase he wanting results for and in 2 weeks of using the guide below he is top in Google UK.

This is what I found out. (PS He is not a painter or Decorator)

Keywording.

Think of your main search phrase you would like results for i.e. "painter and decorator in Yorkshire" and try this phrase in Google to find out what competition you are up against if the competition is massive try "painter & decorator in Leeds" this narrows down your area (For non UK readers Leeds is a city in Yorkshire UK)

Once you are happy with a good phrase with little competition we need to look at how to get that keyword into your website/blog.
You can also check with sites like this
http://7search.com/scripts/searchterms/top_paying.asp?n=100
And you will see that certain keywords command lots of money i.e. soma online, carisoprodol etc (whatever these are ??) best to avoid these unless this is your sites purpose.
Using keywords like these when your site has nothing to do with them can have an adverse effect.
Anyway.

Lets base this guide on generating search hits for "painter & decorator in Leeds” and that our company is called Mr. Painter

Place keywords in 5 areas of your site.

1. Meta Tag Keywords
2. Meta Tag Description
3. Meta Tag Page Title
4. The Alt Tag in Images
5. The Body Of The Page

For this example the main keywords would be painter, decorator, leeds and you must try to keep these together in the 4 areas mentioned above so.

Meta Tag Keywords

Place meta-tags between the tags

Example:

You can add more keywords but make sure your main 3 keywords are first I wouldn’t do more than 15

Meta Tag Description

Place meta-tags between the tags

Example:

Again not too long and keep your 3 main keywords as close together as possible

Meta Tag Page Title

Place meta-tags between the tags

Example:

Again not too long and keep your 3 main keywords as close together as possible

Summary Of Meta Tag Section

We should have your 3 main keywords mentioned 3 time each by now and have kept them as close together as possible

Other meta tags can be used but these are the 3 main standard ones

A handy Meta Tag Generator can be found here

http://www.htmlbasix.com/meta.shtml

And once you have you meta tags in place you can check them here

http://www.widexl.com/remote/search-engines/metatag-analyzer.html

The Alt Tag In Images

Most web design packages like Frontpage etc will let you place an Alternative Tag (Alt Tag) when you insert pictures

So again place you keywords on any pictures you insert especially on your index page

So if you choose to insert a picture of yourself then use the Alt Tag “Mr. Painter – Leeds West Yorkshire”

This will get 2 of your 3 main keywords mentioned again with the addition of the word Yorkshire which would not hurt.

In Blogger pages you have to manually add the alt tag in your post by doing the following.

Insert picture into your post
Type your post but before posting flip to the HTML view and look for the following line.

src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpZAGanqH_4nWprxBEibzcTi-6TPkRGSijV-CpT2uf7ed27GVzGM1fglDyO74fy1ujyOfW7Z-eQWQZPLvCnNPLS56KowixKta6Of2_IUNIatVV6nKUnYujz46NnP3vcUPiNc2MFRczeE8/s320/mrpainter.jpg

It will not be exact but will be very similar
then add the following after it

alt="Painter and Decorator Services - Leeds" title=" Painter and Decorator Services - Leeds "

It should then look like this

src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpZAGanqH_4nWprxBEibzcTi-6TPkRGSijV-CpT2uf7ed27GVzGM1fglDyO74fy1ujyOfW7Z-eQWQZPLvCnNPLS56KowixKta6Of2_IUNIatVV6nKUnYujz46NnP3vcUPiNc2MFRczeE8/s320/mrpainter.jpg alt="Painter and Decorator Services - Leeds" title=" Painter and Decorator Services - Leeds "

6. Post it and try to hover over the picture to see if it works

Try to vary your tags for every picture, mentioning the keywords to many times can have an adverse effect as some search engines see this as keyword spamming and will not index your site.

The Body Of The Page or Post

Goes without saying really when you type your content for your web page that will no doubt go on about how long you have been a painter who your top clients are any awards certificates etc.

Try to include your top keywords again close together in sentences in variouse locations it would also pay to try and include you other keywords you mentioned in you keywords meta tag

Again try not to mention your top keywords to many times thorough out I found mentioning your top keywords 7 or 8 time in total did the job for me with my friends site

If you would like to see your results as to how many keywords you have and how many times they are mentioned try these 2 sites

http://www.widexl.com/remote/search-engines/metatag-analyzer.html

http://www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

Once your site is set and you are happy the get it submitted to some search engines i.e.

http://www.google.com/addurl/

http://www.submitexpress.com/submit.html

Give it a few weeks for your hard earned work to show itself after you have submitted your site

Backlinks

It would also be wise at this stage to mention another great way to increase traffic and that is by using Back Links.

Back links are basically links to your site from somebody else’s but it pays to get them right.

Don’t just tell you friend to put a link i.e.

http://www.nositeinparticular.cam

But to use an anchor in the link i.e.

Make the link say Painter & Decorator Leeds and have this phrase link to your site.

There are many sites on the web that offer back link services and usually require you to put a link to them on yours and visa versa. (try searching on Google)

I do hope you get the results you need and remember this guide is just the start of making sure your site gets some attention.

Labels: SEO Blogger Guide Newbies

Tuesday, 17 July 2007

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15 Places To Watch TV Online For Free

Within the IT support sector a lot of time is spent watching a progress bar, this can be either backing up/restoring data, running defrags, scandisks, disk doctors, virus scans, malware scans you get the idea.

Well thanks to all the websites listed below for easing that boredom.

Here Goes.

1. Freetube.

Welcome to FreeTube - a site that lets you watch TV online for free without the need for any special software, hardware or subscription service. We are a completely free alternative to cable television that lets you watch tv channels and tv shows online using just your browser. Simply select a genre from the menu, and a channel to begin watching.

http://freetube.110mb.com/

2. PeekVid

Watch videos online

http://peekvid.com/

3. TV-Video

TV-video.net is an online cost-free video service site for all fans around the world who are interested in TV shows.

http://tv-video.net/

4. Choose & Watch

Do you like videos? ChooseAndWatch is a free multimedia portal where you can watch hundreds of online TV channels, check out the newest videos on the internet... No special software, hardware or subscription service is needed. To watch a TV channel simply click on desired genre in a menu and select a desired channel.

http://www.chooseandwatch.com/

5. Channel King

Welcome to Channel King! We offer over 230 free Internet TV channels.

http://www.channelking.com/

6. Your TV Links

Links to your fav shows

http://www.yourtvlinks.com/

7. All U C

Links to you fav shows

http://www11.alluc.org/alluc/

8. Channel Chooser

Channelchooser is a free TV-portal. Watch here only the best online news, entertainment, sports and music TV-channels and videos.

http://www.channelchooser.com/

9. Smashing Telly

Smashing Telly is a hand edited collection of the best free, instantly available TV on the web. Not 30 second clips of a dog on a skateboard.

http://smashingtelly.com/

10. View My TV

Channels from all around the world

http://www.viewmy.tv/view-online-tv.aspx

11. My Easy TV

MyEasyTV.com is the easiest way to watch TV online for free. There are more than 320 television channels you can watch with a simple click of your mouse.

http://www.myeasytv.com/

12. Channel Surfing.net

Online sports, news & entertainment

http://www.channelsurfing.net/

13. Wojiu

Watch TV from around the world

http://www.wojiu.com/

14. Quicksilverscreen

TV Shows

http://quicksilverscreen.com/

15. VEOH

From home videos to premium shows

http://www.veoh.com/

Anymore please leave in comments

Labels: Free TV Online Streams PVR

Thursday, 12 July 2007

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My Top Guides

Labels: Free Top Guides XP Speedup Blogging Adsense

Wednesday, 4 July 2007

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Download Hundreds Of Free Java Games For Your Mobile

Labels: Free Java Games

Friday, 22 June 2007

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Add Post Relavant Pictures To Your Blog Using Sign Generators

Labels: Sign Generators

Friday, 15 June 2007

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Sat Picture

Thursday, 7 June 2007

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500 Fantastic Free Fonts

Labels: 500 Free Fonts Blog Design Header

Tuesday, 29 May 2007

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Speed Up Your Broadband For Free

I have recently been testing the free DNS servers at OpenDNS after they claim to provide a faster & safer browsing experience.

How is it faster and safer ?

It claims to be faster because you use DNS every time you use the Internet. The speed of your DNS service determines how quickly websites load for you. That's why you want your DNS service to be blazing. OpenDNS is so fast because we run some of the largest DNS caches around and do it on our own high-performance network.

And claims to be safer as it protects you from phishing — bad websites trying to steal your personal information. When you try to go to a phishing site, we let you know

So far I am very impressed and have noticed an increase in speed.

So I thought now might be the time to write a guide to using these free servers in Windows.

...........................................................................................................................................................

1. Click on the start button and select Run

2. Clear previous run command and type the following In the run box ncpa.cpl and click O.K. (the following screen should appear)

3. Right click the icon labeled Local Area Connection and select properties (the following screen should appear)

4. Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and select properties

5. MAKE A NOTE OF THE SETTINGS ON THIS PAGE BEFORE CONTINUING

6. If not already done place the dot in the circle labeled use the following DNS server

addresses and fill in the numbers as show below.

The Numbers are:

Preferred DNS server address for Open DNS is:
208.67.222.222
Alternate DNS server address for Open DNS is:
208.67.220.220

7. Once set click o.k. on all screen and reboot your machine.

8. You can test you settings are correct by going to the following website

http://welcome.opendns.com/

And test the Anti Phishing service here

http://www.internetbadguys.com/

9. I hope you find an increase in performance as I have but if you don't simply reverse your settings back to what they where.

Labels: Broadband , DNS , Faster , OpenDNS , Phishing , Speedup , Windows XP

Tuesday, 22 May 2007

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Free Retro Games Arcade

Labels: Retro Pacman Space Invaders Asteroids Tetris Donkey Kong

Sunday, 20 May 2007

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Free Vector Graphics (Superb For Blogs)

Labels: Blog Vectors Clips Art Design Jpeg PNG

Wednesday, 9 May 2007

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Newbies Guide To Creating, Enhancing & Promoting A New Blog

Introduction

Firstly I do not claim to be anything more than a novice at blogging but I thought I would share with you the Tips & Tricks I have found out in the last 2 months about Blogging.

This will include links to Free Templates, Royalty Free Pictures, Logo Creators, Keyword Checkers, Traffic Enhancers etc.

Being in the IT Support Sector for the last 15 years I have accumulated a great wealth of knowledge, One major thing I have learnt is that most problems you come across have been fixed by somebody else already and you just need to know how to search for the info, so i created a PDF to email to my friends and family with such tips.

There are a few steps listed below, take time with each one as it pays to get it right

The Idea

I had been thinking of trying to start a Blogg since xmas but had no idea what to base it on and what to put in my first post. Then it hit me, what about Blog aimed at helping beginners to fix there own Windows based problems and publish my PDF guide as my first post.

So this is how I started.

I needed to start at the very easy end of Blogging so I decided to create a Blog at Googles Blogger Pages this was very easy to follow and after pondering what to call my blog for 30 mins it was up and running. I started off with a basic template (one of the ones provided with the Blogger Blog) and within 20 mins had posted my PDF guide.

I first called my Blog "Swift IT Tips" with the idea of posting Computer related tips but later changed it to "Swift IT Tips & Treats" as I had the idea of posting links to Free Computer Related stuff i.e. wallpapers, Software etc.

The Design

The first major alteration was to do with the template, although the templates that come on the blogger control panel where great I fancied making mine a little bit different, so after going a little research into what I needed I found some other great sites with plenty of free blogger templates on such as:-

Finalsense
Gecko and Fly Classic
Gecko and Fly XML
Blogger Templates XML)
Blogger Templates (Classic)
Bloggertemplates.org
Blogspottemplates
Angiemckaig
Blogskins
Blogtemplates
Freetemplates
Isnaini.com

2 of my personal faves are Gecko and Fly & Finalsense.

I tinkered around trying different templates for a few days before finding the one that was going to fit my requirements (I found it at Geko & Fly), one of the first things I noticed was that certain templates disabled the adding of page elements on the Blogger Template Control Panel and found that the best templates to use where the XML ones as all you do is upload the XML file into your blog using the Edit HTML page on the Templates Control Panel (I would save your template first, this is also on the Edit HTML page and is labeled Download Full Template)

Once i had the Template I needed I went about adding bits and pieces using the Page Elements page i.e. link lists, about me etc.

In the process of deciding if I needed a Logo or Pictures I came across these free sites for design ideas:-

Public Image Archive
Royalty Free Photos
Corporate Logos (Not sure of copyright usage here)
3D Icons
Web 2.0 Logo Creator
Free Logo Templates
Color Charts
Cooltext Logo Creator

Traffic & Content

So there I was with a reasonable looking Blog to say I had only started it a week ago and was quite proud of myself.

But I soon realised that the hard work is finding good content to put on it and also how to get people to read it, also at the back of my mind was if I can get some constant traffic could I make a few pennies from advertising ?.

It is best to base your Blog on something you know a great deal about so the content is a plenty.

I soon came up with good ideas for content by searching Google Groups for IT related forums and getting a feel for what people had issues with so I could then write content to suit.

As far as getting traffic to your blog you have to be a little cheeky, search the web for forums on the subject your blog is about i.e. fishing and then join them. After a few posts and general chit chat you can drop in a link to your new Blog and also maybe put it in your signature.

You can also put a link to your Blog in your email signatures.

A few other fantastic ways to generate traffic is to use a site like Digg this is a site where people post links to interested news, tips, topics etc and then rate them. If you have written an interesting piece then join Digg and submit it to be rated, this can generate lots of instant traffic but be sure to follow it up with another good post on your Blogg to keep your new audience interested and stay about.

Other great sites to submit,sign up for to generate traffic are:-

Blogexplosion
MyBloglog
Blogcatalog
Technorati
Bloghub
Blogflux
Eatonweb
lsblogs
Globeofblogs
Blogit

Also using good keywords in your tags is important for when people search for your content a good keyword checker is listed below.

Digitalpoint

And submitting your site to search engines is recommended i.e.:-

Google Add URL
Yahoo Fast Add
submitexpress
add-url

Making your Blog easy to book mark and read is essential too I found these services to be a good at providing this:-

Feedburner
AddThis

But the next thing I needed to know was am I getting any traffic ?

These two sites where fantastic at providing the answer:-

Google Analytics
Clustrmaps

Show Me The Money

So at this point I had everything I needed, A Nice Looking Blog, Ideas For Content, And A Little Bit Of Constant Traffic so it was time to try and make a little bit of cash:-

The most popular ones are:-

Google Adsense (If you need to sign up there is a link button in the top right hand corner of my blog labeled "Generate revenue from your website Google Adsense")

also you could try the buttons below this for "Text Link Ads" & "Bidvertiser"

To Summ Up

Hope fully the above should get you started and progress you nicely.

The key is do not try to do all the above in one go, take it nice and slow so you understand the steps you have just take.

If when your Blogg is done you would like to post a link to it under comments it would be great to have a look and maybe you could link back to my Blog from yours.

Best Of Luck and Happy Blogging.

Labels: Free Templates Blogger Adsense Pictures Logos Guide Help