Download FeedDemon 3.0.0.10 Beta 1b Free RSS reader

FeedDemon, the most popular Windows RSS reader / News Aggregator version 3.0 (in Beta) is available now for download.A lot of new features like built-in Twitter support and built-in short URL maker are included in it.Please note that as this is not the final release of FeedDemon 3, it is more likely to have bugs while running.FeedDemon 3 beta screenshot

Download FeedDemon 3.0 Beta 1b (Build 3.0.0.10)— (4.10MB)

Note:Before you may install FeedDemon 3 Beta 1B,you may want to back up your version 2 [as this 3 beta version has lot of bugs in it] feed data.You can do this by selecting File > Manage Cache > Backup, then choose your desired backup location.

Please visit Feed Demon Beta Developer site for more on it.

Driving Directions Now Available in Google Maps India

Planning a long journey to a place where you never had been in India? or just visited a big city like Mumbai and want to reach your relative’s house with minimum time of travel or with minimum fare that you can give to the cab. Now you no longer worry about this, as Google Maps India has just launched this new feature “Get Driving Directions” for Indian road routes.India Google maps Driving Directions

Apparently, Google Maps is not the first one to introduce Driving directions for maps in India ,it follows Yahoo India maps and Live Maps India to add this feature.

Google Maps directions for Google Maps India is much similar to Yahoo India Maps and Live Maps India.You just need to enter the starting point and the destination.

Comparing Google Maps, Yahoo India Maps and Live Search Maps India

Google Map Directions for Hyderabad to Bangalore

I wanted to just compare these three services (Google Maps, Yahoo India Maps and Live Maps India). In my case I tried to get driving directions for journey between Hyderabad to Bangalore (the two major IT cities of India, of course).

The results:All the three services showed a similar distance (Google-566 Km, Yahoo-572 Km, Live Maps-572 Km).All three were also similar in terms of number of turning points or intermediate stations –Google –38, Yahoo- 35, Live Maps-34 ).

But they varied considerably in terms of time of travel.Google showed about 9 hours 19 minutes , Yahoo -12 hrs 24 mins and Live Maps India-10 hr 51 min.

Enable Hide Inactive Icons Tray Using Registry in Windows

Many of the Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 users usually find that the Auto Hide Inactive Icons tray from the taskbar has stopped working or it is missing inspite of  enabling it from the control panel or the taskbar properties. This problem is very common. May be after reboot it may work again, but for some systems the tray may never come up. This tray will hide the inactive and unnecessary icons from the taskbar. So many people like this feature. Making it work again is what we are talking about here.

See the images below where one is not having hide inactive Icon tray and another one is having it:

missing hide Icon tray hide Icon tray On

Enabling the Inactive icon tray consists of changing only a single registry. Its an easy process. There are two methods given below. Both the methods needs registry editing to be enabled. If your Registry editing has been disabled by the administrator then visit: How to enable Registry Editor (REGEDIT) to enable it.

Method 1: Using Elevated Command Prompt

Step1: Copy the whole command from the table below:

REG ADD HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer /t REG_DWORD /v EnableAutoTray /d 1 /f

Step 2: Open a Command Prompt (Press Start + R, type cmd and Enter). Paste the command you had copied into the Command Prompt. In order to paste in Command Prompt right click and select paste.

View Enable Auto Tray using Command Prompt Image

Step 3: Press Enter to execute the command. It should execute successfully.

Step 4: Log Off your computer and Log On again. Now your Hidden Icon tray will be working.

Method 2: Using Registry Editor

Step 1: Open a Registry Editor(Press Start + R, type regedit and Enter)

Step 2: Go to the registry key path given below:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current\Version\Explorer

View Hide icon key ImageStep 3: In the Right Side of the registry editor see for the value EnableAutoTray. [If you are not able to find it, create a new value with the same name. To create a, value right click anywhere on the right pane and select New DWORD. Change the Name to EnableAutoTray(Press F2 for name change)]. Double click on EnableAutoTray and change the value to 1.

View new hide icon tray Value ImageView Enable AutoTray New Value Image View Enable Auto Tray Registry value Image Step 4: Now close the editor and log off your computer. Log On and you will find your tray is working.

Congratulations you have enabled your Auto Hide Inactive Icons.

Note:

1. Log Off means complete logging off the computer not Locking the computer like pressing Start+L.

2. Restarting the computer will also work after the performing the procedure.

3. If you change the Value as 0 the it will disable the Tray.

4. This method works for windows XP, Vista and 7.

Create Shutdown Shortcut for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 on Desktop

Learn How to add/create a desktop Shortcut to Shutdown / Turn off your Windows computer.

Shortcuts are meant for making life easier. We all know how to add shortcuts to our favorite programs on desktop.Now let’s see how to add a desktop shortcut for “Shutdown”,  which when double clicked will shutdown your system.

Important: For those who are using Windows 7 please refer the NOTE given below (Please Scroll Down)

Steps:

1.Right Click on your desktop select New>>Short cut

2.Now a “Create Shortcut” window pops out which will ask you to type the location of the item (in our case it is “shutdown.exe”).

create shortcut for shutdown -www.techrena.net

3.Type the following code :%windir%\System32\shutdown.exe –s in the textbox.

[As you can see we are trying to locate an .exe file called shutdown.exe which when executed will shutdown the computer].

After entering the above code, click Next

4.Now the window will ask you to select a title for the program give it a name whatever you like “Shutdown Shortcut” and click on the Finish button

give shutdown shortcut a name

5.The new shortcut will appear on your desktop.

shutdown shortcut without icon

You may change the icon of the shortcut so that it’s easier for you to identify the shortcut.[In the image, I’ve used a “Power Off” icon for the same ]

shutdown shortcut properties changin icon of the shutdown shortcut

You are done  now. You may also go for advanced options like adding –f or –t after –s in the textbox area.

If you use –f it’ll immedialtely closes all running applications and shutdown without any warning

if you use –t you can specify the time after which you want your system to be Turned off.

for example you may give like %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -t 100 which will trun off your system after 100 seconds.[a message will appear as shown].

Note:You may also use command prompt to shutdown your system.The same code as in the above can be typed as shutdown.exe -s -t 100 and you’ll still get the same turning off message.Once it has started the only way to stop it is using the command prompt again.Use shutdown.exe –a to stop your scheduled turn off.

The above process has been posted with the Windows XP as the base OS,  the same process can also be applied to Windows Vista based systems.

NOTE: For those who are using Windows 7 download the zip file below which contains the shortcut to Shutdown. Extract the file and place the shortcut where ever you want.

Download: Windows 7 Shutdown Shortcut.zip

Size: 850 Bytes

Contains 1 file: Shut Down Windows.lnk

Download Skype 4.0.0.224

Skype let’s you call people on other computers who also run Skype.You can even make calls to land  or mobile phones if you buy Skype credits.

features:Download Skype 4.0.0.224 www.techrena.netFree Skype-to-Skype calls;Free instant messaging.;Free video call.Along with these you can also send SMS or Voicemail and you can also divert your Skype calls to your personal phone when you are offline.

Download Now:Skype 4.0.0.224

Supported Operating Systems:Windows 2000, XP or Vista

You may also want to Download latest VLC Media Player 0.9.9

Download VLC Media Player 0.9.9

VLC Media Player Latest Version 0.9.9

The VideoLAN team has released the free and Open Source cross-platform media player VLC media player 0.9.9 latest version (Supports a large number of multimedia formats, without the need for additional codecs) on 2nd April 2009.

Download VLC Media Player 0.9.9 [for Windows-16MB]

Download VLC 0.9.9 [For Mac OS X-19.2MB]

View Screen Shot:

VLC Media Player 0.9.9 free software download - www.techrena.net

You may also want to download:Mozilla Firefox 3.0.8