Software

[Download] Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool

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Microsoft Indic language input tool logo

If you are from India and want to use your own language in various application on your computer, you can select any of the various tools available online. We had earlier covered about Google Transliteration IME. You might have already tried tools like Baraha, Lekhini or Aksharamala etc. In this post we are going to tell you about the lesser known Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool.

Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool:

This tool works with any application in Microsoft Windows or on any webpage. Like Google’s transliteration IME, this too works  on transliteration mechanism with an additional virtual keyboard.

Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool is available in 2 versions:

1) Web Version

2) Desktop Version

The web version like Google IME bookmarklet works on bookmarklet and let you type text on any webpage. The desktop version can be used to input text in Indian languages in any Windows application.

This tool currently supports 10 languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

Microsoft Indic Language input tool

Find the download link for both the web and desktop versions below.

Download:

Microsoft Indic Language Input Tool

[Download] µTorrent 2.2 Beta

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utorrent logo

When it comes BitTorrent and P2P software, µTorrent has been a revelation as it is free, lightweight (less than 1 MB) and works faster and smoother than most other software.

The most recent version µTorrent 2.2 Beta sports a revamped new look as you can see in the following screenshot, drop-down menus have been added to the sidebar. You can also add labels to your torrents much like you do in your RSS feed readers. And oh, yeah! utorrent has a built-in RSS feed support so you can use it as a feed reader if you want.

utorrent 2.2 beta

utorrent 2.2 beta side

The new beta version includes an option to directly launch the files from the µTorrent. Clicking on the “play” button of a torrent will launch that particular file in the default application that had been associated with that file type that you have downloaded.
utorrent 2.2 beta play

µTorrent apps:

utorrent apps is the newest addition to the software, courtesy Project Griffin. You can install apps from the Apps section accessible from the “Apps” menu in the sidebar. If you are a developer, you can participate in the App Developers Challenge and test your luck to see if you could win the $1000 contest.

utorrent apps

Download:

µTorrent Direct download link (Windows- 383 KB – µTorrent 2.2 Beta build 20813)

[Download] Microsoft Security Essentials V2 Beta

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Microsoft connect

Microsoft has released a new beta version of Microsoft Security Versions 2.0. If you are running your PC on Windows OS and couldn’t afford to buy an anti-virus software, it is strongly recommended that you download and use this free security tool from the Microsoft folks.

According to a blog post by Brandon LeBlanc, the new version of MSE (build 2.0.0375.0) is coming with the following new features:

1. Windows Firewall Integration

Windows firewall in MSE

2. Protection for web-based threats

3. New protection engine

4. Network inspection and protection system for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Microsoft Security Essentials 2 Beta

Microsoft Security Essentials v2 beta is now available as free download via Microsoft Connect for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows. MSE will protect your Windows PC against viruses, spyware, root kits, and Trojans. Security Essentials was launched in September 2009 replacing Windows Live OneCare.

Download:

Register yourself for Microsoft Connect to proceed to the download. There are some download issues if you go for a direct download. It is recommended that you use Microsoft File Transfer Manager (FTM) to download the file mseinstall_en_usx86.exe(7.78 MB for 32-bit) or mseinstall-en-us-amd64.exe (9.82 MB for 64-bit). This beta version is currently available in English (U.S.), Israel, and Brazilian Portuguese .

Security Essentials download

[Download] Free “Operation guide for Microsoft Office 2010” Ebook From Microsoft

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Office 2010 guide

Microsoft Office 2010 RTM has been made available to public in June 2010. For the convenience of it’s Office 2010 customers, Microsoft is giving away a free e-book titled “Operation guide for Microsoft Office 2010”. Authored by the Microsoft Office System and Servers teams, the 28-page book offers all the basics that you need to know, starting from the installation to customization.

The “Operation guide for Microsoft Office 2010” digital e-book highlights:

# Maintaining and updating MS Office 2010 and available updates

# Office 2010 Administrative Template files and Office Customization Tool

# Group policy settings (GPS) and preventing conflicts with earlier versions of GPS; Installing the settings

# Managing Outlook 2010

# Add or remove languages after deploying Office 2010 (Modify an existing installation, deploy language packs, remove language packs, identify installed languages)

#  Manage users configurations for Office 2010

# Customizing an existing Office 2010 installation

Download Links:

PDF format

DOC format

XPS format

[How To] Block A Website Using Content Advisor In Internet Explorer

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site blocked

Blocking certain websites that may not suit the audience mainly in the case of children or workers has always been one such compulsory feature. In case you haven’t spotted yet, there’s one such option in Internet Explorer too. Here are the steps to block any website in Internet Explorer using IE’s content advisor.

Steps:

1. Go to Tools > Internet Options in the Internet Explorer.

2. Go to “Content” tab under the Internet Options. Find “Content Advisor” under this tab. By default it would be set default. Click “Enable” option opposite to it.

Content advisor in Internet Options

3. Go to “Approved sites” tab in the Content Advisor window. Type the URL of the website that you want to block in the text box and clock “Never” button. See the screenshot below:

Approved sites in Content advisor

4. Click “Apply” once you are done and then go to “General” tab. Here you can choose whether to password protect the blocked sites that you added. Once configured, click “OK’ to close the window.

Content advisor General options

You will now be asked to enter the supervisor password for the content advisor settings.

5. Create a supervisor password and add a hint (recommended) which is helpful in case you forget the password in future. Close the window once you have done that.

Supervisor password for content advisor

Content Advisor settings done

6. Now try to open any website that you have added in the block list. You will see the following prompt window, asking for you to enter the supervisor. User can view the website only if he knows the supervisor password.

Content advisor prompt window

7. You can disable the content advisor any time by clicking the “Disable” button under the “Content Advisor”. You will however need to authorized to do that by validating through the supervisor password.

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[How To] Disable Firefox Taskbar Tab Previews

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Multiple tasbar tab previews

Taskbar tab previews is a great feature introduced in Windows 7, with the help of which you can access any opened tab right from your taskbar without opening the browser. This feature was first meant for Internet Explorer only, but later it was adopted by almost all the browsers.

Even though this is a great feature, however it may sometimes annoy you particularly when you open a lot too may tabs in the browser. That’s why we posted a tutorial on how to disable the multiple taskbar tab previews in IE, Firefox and Google Chrome. Now that Firefox 4 is coming with this taskbar tab previews feature enabled, we thought we’d revisit and bring to your attention if you are looking for a way to get this feature disabled in your Firefox. Follow the steps carefully:

Steps:

1. Type about:config in the Firefox address bar.

2. Accept the warning message and proceed (Click “I’ll be careful, I promise) to the configuration page.

Firefox about:config warning

3. Type

browser.taskbar.previews.enable

in the filter and look for the entry with the same name as shown in the following screenshot.

Firefox 4 taskbar previews config
4. Change the value to “false” by double-clicking. That’s it. You will only see a preview of the one (active) tab preview instead of the multiple taskbar tab previews.

Firefox taskbar tab previews disabled

You might also want to read our tutorial on how to enable All Tabs Preview in Firefox.

Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 & Beta 2 Builds Available For Download

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Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 Screenshot:

Firefox 4 beta 1 screenshot

Mozilla has recently unveiled a new Beta version (yeah, it’s still buggy and under testing) of  upcoming Firefox version, Firefox 4. Users can get a rough idea about how the upcoming Firefox 4x versions would be by installing this beta version of Firefox. You can download Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 and Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 Pre Build from the Mozilla’s directory of nightly builds links for which are posted at the bottom of this post.

Changes in Firefox 4.0 Beta :

1. New User Interface simple in line with Windows Aero in Windows 7 and Windows Vista also supports the new Glass translucency effect. This version  supports multiple tab previews much like in Internet Explorer 8.

2. The menu bar has been repositioned at the top most left of the windows, which you might have seen in the latest Opera browser too.

Firefox 4 menu

3. Another change includes the change in the position of the tabs. Until Firefox 3.6, the tabs are used to be placed below the address bar, which is not the case in this new version. Tabs are neatly placed above the address bar like Google Chrome.

Firefox_4_address_bar

Download Firefox 4.0 Beta:

Update:Download from Firefox Beta page (available for public download)

[Tip] Install Two Different Versions Of Firefox On The Same Computer

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firefox logo

Today I wanted to install and test the latest Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 version on my laptop where I had already installed Firefox 3.6. I didn’t want to loose all my customised addons and other preferences that I have been using in Firefox 3.6, at the same time I should also test the latest Firefox 4 beta version. The option to use portable version of Firefox, is obsolete here. So in short, my PC should have both the Firefox builds installed and should be able to run both independently. I looked for a possible solution, and I think I was successful in  accomplishing the task, hence I’m sharing it here:

Steps:

1. First download and install the new Firefox version (Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 in this case). Don’t worry Firefox will keep your old installation as such and will install Firefox 4.0 Beta 1 in a separate folder.

2.  Now go to run (by pressing Windows button + R) command, and click “Browse”.

run windows browse

3. Locate the “firefox.exe” from the program files and click “Open”. It will show

"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" [If you are not able to see backslashes “\”, see the image below:

Firefox.exe shortcut path

in the run command filed.

4. Just append “-p -no-remote” to it and click OK.

run program path

It will open Profile Manager.

5. Under user profile manager, you will just find an entry called “default”. Rename it to something like Firefox3 or whatever version you are using.

Firefox User Profile Manager

6. Now create a new profile (something like “Firefox4”) through the “Create Profile" Wizard”.

7. So by now you will have two user profiles for Firefox.

choose user profile

8. Now create two separate shortcuts for both the versions on your desktop.

Firefox desktop shortcuts two different builds

Right-click on the shortcut for the older version and under shortcut target append the following line:

-p Firefox3 -no-remote

[ replace “Firefox3” with whatever your profile name that you had given].

So the shortcut will look like this after editing:

Firefox 3.6 shortcut profile name

Add the following line to the shortcut for the new version (Firefox 4.0 Beat 1 here):

-p Firefox4 -no-remote

[Replace “Firefox4” with whatever profile name that you have chosen]

The shortcut now appears as shown:

Firefox 4 Beta shortcut with profile name

Save the shortcuts and give them appropriate names so that you can distinguish them.

Now you can use these shortcuts to open either of the Firefox versions at ease. However, please be noted that you cannot run the two different versions/builds at the same time.

The trick involved here is all about using Firefox user profiles.Without using profiles, if you try to open the Firefox 3.6 version with Firefox 4.0 beta 1 also installed, then it’ll only going to launch Firefox 4 instead of the other.

Turn Off Your Laptop LCD Monitor Screen Manually With A Single Click

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Laptop LCD screen

As all of us are quite familiar with desktop computers, where we can turn-off the monitor just by pressing a button. But when it comes to a laptop, we know that you can always close the lid to turn off the LCD screen automatically. But wouldn’t life be simpler if we had a button to turn off the LCD screen of the laptop ?

Here is a simple program that can be used on windows based systems (including Windows 7 and Windows Vista) to manually turn off your laptop’s LCD screen.

This is pretty much useful when you want to just listen to the music on your laptop keeping its lid open. This also saves some energy, knowing which some manufactures do offer this kind of option on the laptop while most of the others don’t. (Sadly, my HP Pavilion notebook also lacks this feature).

A million thanks to Taimur Asad of Redmond Pie, who has developed this simple program called “Turn Off LCD” based on his experience with HP DV2799 Special Edition notebook that he owns. He wrote this application in C# with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008. It makes use of a DLL (User32.dll) file from Windows using System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace which then calls the required function.[ More tech info at Redmond Pie post]

Turn Off LCD shortcut

Just download the zip file from the following link and run the Turn Off LCD.exe (85 KB in size). That’s all you need to do, you can now observe your laptop’s LCD screen being turned off. Just hover the mouse or press any key to turn on the LCD screen again. If you have liked this, then you might want to add similar shutdown shortcut to your notebook also.

Download Turn Off LCD (v1.01, 68.5 KB)

Photo credit

Counter Strike: Source For Mac Released, On Sale For $6.80

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Counter Strike Source mac

Like we have posted earlier about the Counter-Strike: Source for Mac release, it’s now official. Counter Strike: Source for Mac is now on made available for sale today at a price of $6.80 (it’s two- thirds of the usual price) for the next two days. This is now available with an additional “major update” (both for Windows and Mac).

The new updates brings features like new game summary, start screens, and 140 additional achievements. The update also adds an end-round MVP and a death cam as well as updated Stream and standard game feature enhancements.

If you just buy a one copy of Counter Strike: Source, you will automatically given access to that particular Valve and Steam title (here Counter-Strike: Source) on both the operating systems Windows and Mac, and Mac users can play with Windows users and vice-versa (cross-platform play).

Download / Buy Counter-Strike: Source for Mac online