Windows | TECHRENA dot Net

Download Microsoft Touch Pack For Windows 7

April 25, 2010 by bharath

Windows 7 Logo

It was in the mid 2009 that Microsoft had first released The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 only for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer).So it was only available to the manufacturers of the Windows Touch capable devices and there was no way you could download add this Touch Pack, if your PC hadn’t already equipped wit it.

But in the last week, Microsoft has this major announcement saying that the new Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 would be publicly available for download making it easier for anyone having a PC with Windows Touch capable devices/ multitouch monitor.

The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 consists of collection of games and apps (6 free apps) that are exclusively made available to the computers with multi-touch enabled displays and running Windows 7 already.

The Touch Pack Includes:

Microsoft Blackboard,
Microsoft Garden Pond,

Microsoft Rebound,

Microsoft Surface Globe,

Microsoft Surface Collage,
Microsoft Surface Lagoon

Supported OS: Windows 7 Home Premium; Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; Windows 7 Home Premium E 64-bit; Windows 7 Home Premium N; Windows 7 Home Premium N 64-bit; Windows 7 Professional; Windows 7 Professional 64-bit; Windows 7 Professional E 64-bit; Windows 7 Professional N; Windows 7 Professional N 64-bit; Windows 7 Ultimate; Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit; Windows 7 Ultimate E 64-bit; Windows 7 Ultimate N; Windows 7 Ultimate N 64-bit

Direct Download Link (touch-pack-web.exe – 239.2 MB)

Display Windows 7 Build And Version Number On Desktop

April 24, 2010 by bharath

Windows logo

Users who have earlier used Windows 7 beta test versions, might have observed a watermark on the right extreme of their desktop showing the current Windows 7 version and build number.However this has been removed in the Windows 7 final releases that we have been using right now.

However, to display this sort of watermark on the desktop would actually help the network administrators in troubleshooting the windows errors.This is particularly true if the client is located at a farhter place from the administrator and the administrator wants to know the which version and build of the Windows that the client is using.

There’s a simple registry tweak that makes this display watermark to appear on the Windows 7 desktop right above the task tray.Just follow the simple steps briefed below to apply this trick.

This trick applies to Windows 7, Windows Vista & Windows XP based computers.

Note: Please be cautious that you are going to work on the registry editor, any errant changes to the registry editor would result in a complete mess.Do make a backup of registry editor before starting this.

Steps:

1. Open run dialog box by pressing Windows key + R and type “regedit”, click “OK”.

regedit run command

2. In the registry editor, navigate to the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

paintDesktopVersion regedit Windows 7

Point to "the key “PaintDesktopVersion” , right click on it and select “Modify” (or alternatively double click on it)

3. Change its DWORD (32-bit) value to “1” instead of “0” and click OK.

paintDesktopVersion regedit Windows 7 change value

4. You may need to restart your system to see the Windows 7 version & build number watermark on your desktop.

windows 7 build info

How to Remove Alureon rootkit To avoid BSOD Crashes in Windows

April 19, 2010 by dennis

This is a very important note for all the Windows users especially 32-bit, that before installing the security updates that Microsoft Windows had released last week, you check if the malware known as Alureon Rootkit is present or not and remove it using the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. If the malware is present in your system and if you happen to install the security update (KB977165) then there is a high possibility that Windows may crash and it may show only a blue screen during startup (Blue Screen Of Death BSOD).

Alureon Rootkit or Win32/Alureon.gen causes problems with the way Microsoft’s patches interact with the kernel, which has led the company to include a package detection logic that prevents the installation of the security update if the rootkit is present on 32-bit systems.

Windows Crash Reported after installing Security updates:

Windows systems crashed during the latest Microsoft security update last week. According to Microsoft this happened because the systems were infected with a rootkit program that made changes to the operating system kernel and it was not due to the update patches.

“The restarts are the result of modifications the Alureon rootkit makes to Windows Kernel binaries, which places these systems in an unstable state,” Mike Reavey, director of the Microsoft Security Response Center, wrote in a blog post. “In every investigated incident, we have not found quality issues with security update MS10-015.”

Download:

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

Remove Alureon rootkit To avoid BSOD Crashes in Windows

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 [Download Links & Price Details]

April 19, 2010 by bharath

Microsoft has launched the Visual Studio 2010 final RTM release last week (also .NET Framework 4 along with this).Visual Studio 2010 RTM is available in 3 editions : Ultimate, Professional and Premium.In addition to these editions, there are also i) a Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 which is a specialized toolset for Quality Assurance (QA) test execution ii)Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 iii) Visual Studio 2010 Express (available as free download).

“ Microsoft Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Microsoft, which can be used to develop console and GUI applications along with Windows Forms applications, websites, web applications, & web services in both native code together with managed code for all platforms that are supported by Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, .NET Framework, .NET compact Framework & Microsoft Silverlight. (From Wiki) “

Visual Studio 2010 RTM Screen shot

Visual Studio 2010 boasts of many feature enhancements over Visual Studio 2008 version.VS 2010 includes a new editor that makes use of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that supports multiple monitors, which enables a developer to have one monitor with code, another with the user interface designer, and yet another with database structure.

Pricing Details:

Visual Studio 2010 Professional

with MSDN Essentials (Upgrade or Renewal): $549
with MSDN Essentials (Full Version): $799
with MSDN (Upgrade or Renewal): $799
with MSDN (Full Version): $1,199

	Full Version	Upgrade or Renewal
Visual Studio 2010 Premium (include MSDN)	$5,469	$2,299
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate (include MSDN)	$11,899	$3,799
Visual Studio 2010 Test Professional	$2,169	$899

More details about pricing at this page

Download Visual Studio 2010:

Download Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate ISO

Direct download links (VS 2010 Ultimate) – Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4

Visual Studio 2010 Professional ISO – Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4

Visual Studio 2010 Premium ISO – Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4

via My Digital Life

Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0 Download

April 19, 2010 by bharath

Microsoft .Net logo

Microsoft has released .NET Framework 4 last week along with Visual Studio 2010.The latest version of the .NET Framework is now available both as a Web installer as well as a stand alone installer.If you have been following our blog off late, you must have read our post about how to find the version of the .NET Framework installed in your windows.The newer applications that require Microsoft .NET Framework 4 will automatically trigger a download of the component, if it’s not been already installed on the user’s computer.

.NET Framework consists of the core framework that goes behind all the modern windows based applications.The .NET Framework model’s downward compatibility lets it to work along side with older versions of the .NET Framework.The newer version introduces many features besides improving the performance.

.NET Framework 4 Features:

Net Framework 4 poster

.NET poster via Brad Abrams

Improvements in Common Language Runtime (CLR) and Base Class Library (BCL)
Innovations in the Visual Basic and C# languages
Improvements in Data Access and Modeling
Improvements in performance and scalability
significant enhancements to ASP.NET that provides more control over HTML, element IDs and custom CSS
Improvements in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
New added support for Windows 7 multi-touch, ribbon controls & taskbar extensibility features.
Improvements to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) (Ex: support for WCF Workflow Services)
Innovative new parallel-programming features (Ex:parallel loop support, Task Parallel Library (TPL), Parallel LINQ (PLINQ) etc.,)

Complete list of new features/changes is available at this page.

Download .NET Framework 4 :

Link 1: Standalone Installer

Link 2: Web Installer

Requirements : Windows XP SP3 /Windows Vista SP1 or later versions (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions)

How to Create a Password Reset USB Disk in Windows 7 And Vista

April 18, 2010 by dennis

Have you ever faced a problem of forgotten password in your Windows PC? If yes better have a backup plan now itself. Here we are going to tell you, how you can reset your Windows password using a reset password disk. This feature is available in Windows 7 and Vista only.

You can backup your user identity in a USB disk and use the disk for resetting your Windows user password in the future in case you have forgotten it. For this purpose you need not use a high capacity USB drive. You can either use your old USB which are considered obsolete or too small in size like 128MB or buy a small capacity one at lower cost. This is because the reset file if very small and you need to store the USB device in your locker or any other safer place.

Requirements:

A USB Flash Drive(Any size)

Windows 7 or Vista Operating System

Important: Once a password reset disk has been created, no matter how many times the password has been changed after that, you can reset the password using the Disk any number of times. In order to avoid misuse of the device, keep it in a safe place.

Password Forgotten Before Creating the Password Reset Disk?

Follow this link: Reset Windows XP, Vista, 7 Password Using USB Drive or CD

Follow the steps to create a Password Reset disk using Windows Forgotten Password Wizard:

Step 1: Connect the USB Flash Drive to your PC.

Step 2: Open Start Menu, click on Control Panel. In Control Panel go to:

Control Panel—>User Accounts and Family Safety—>User Accounts

Step 3: In the left pane of User Accounts, click on Create a password reset disk.

Step 4: Now in the Forgotten Password Wizard, read the Important notes and warnings and Click on next.

Step 5: It will ask you for the USB drive letter in which you want to store the password reset file. Select the correct drive and click on Next.

Step 6: Now it will ask for the current password. Enter the correct password and click next.

Step 7: Once it completes the creation process, click on finish.

What you have to do when you have forgotten your password?

Now if you have forgotten the password, you can use the Reset disk. When Windows asks you for the login password, plug in your Password Reset Disk and wait for a while. Try entering any wrong password. Now below the password field, a link as Reset Password… will come up. Click on it and enter a new password.

Note: If you do not have a Password Reset Disk, you can try: Reset Windows XP, Vista, 7 Password Using USB Drive or CD

Speed Up Your PC Using a USB flash Drive in Windows 7 and Vista With ReadyBoost

April 18, 2010 by dennis

If you have a low memory in your Windows 7 PC, your system may be slow and the performance may not be satisfactory. Microsoft Windows has introduces a new component known as ReadyBoost, to help when your PC’s memory is running low.

ReadyBoost is a component of Microsoft Windows, first introduced with Microsoft’s Windows Vista in 2006 and bundled with Windows 7 in 2009. It works by using flash memory, a USB flash drive, SD card, CompactFlash, external hard drive or any kind of portable flash mass storage system as a drive for disk cache.
ReadyBoost is also used to facilitate SuperFetch, which allows it to perform analysis of boot-time disk usage patterns and creates a cache which is used in subsequent system boots. SuperFetch is a technology that pre-loads commonly used applications into memory to reduce their load times, in a similar fashion to the preload in Linux.

Using ReadyBoost-capable flash memory (NAND memory devices) for caching allows Windows 7 and Vista to service random disk reads with performance that is typically 80-100 times faster than random reads from traditional hard drives.

Using ReadyBoost in Windows 7 and Vista:

First plug in your USB flash drive. Open My Computer. You can see the Removable Disk. Right Click on it and Select Properties.

Now in the Properties window, go to ReadyBoost Tab. You can either select Dedicate this device to ReadyBoost or Use this device and set the amount of space you want to use for the process.

Now Windows will use the free space available in your flash drive for speeding up your computer.

Note that this process will not delete any data from your flash drive. It will only use the available free space in the removable disk.

Moreover if you want to speed up your boot up and startup, you need to use MSConfig.

Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool KB890830

April 14, 2010 by bharath

microsoft logo

Microsoft updates its Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal tool (MWMSRT) and releases the update on the second Tuesday of every month.As usual, Microsoft released updated version of this tool for the month of April (2010) as KB890830.This tool checks your computer for any malicious software and helps to remove it, once it finds the infection.Please make note of the difference between an anti-virus program and thus Malicious Software Removal Tool.

This Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool is no replacement to an anti-virus program.An anti-virus program blocks malicious software from running on a computer, whereas this tool only removes malicious software from a computer which is already infected.As they say “Prevention is always better than the cure”, it applies here too ! It’s always desirable to block such malicious software from running on the computer first up,

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – April 2010 (KB890830)

Update Released on : April 13, 2010

Update type: Important

Download Size: 9.9 MB

Platforms: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, or Windows 2000

Download:

Download the 890830 package now

Download link for x74 version of the software

More information:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=39987

Previous updates : KB977206, KB980182, kb978601

Download Security Update for Windows 7 To Protect from Remote and Local Attacks

April 14, 2010 by dennis

windows 7 logo

A series of 5 Important Security Updates for Windows 7 has been released yesterday. According to Microsoft Windows a new security issue has been identified that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker or authenticated local attacker to compromise your system and gain control over it. This being a serious issue and of great concern we are giving the details to install the updates as soon as possible.

The list of Security Updates are:

Security Update for Windows 7 (KB978601)    204 KB
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB979309)    99 KB
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB979683)    1.8 MB
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB980232)    229 KB
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB981332)    222 KB

The description of KB978601, KB979309, KB980232 and KB981332 is: A security issue has been identified that could allow an unauthenticated remote attacker to compromise your system and gain control over it. You can help protect your system installing this update from Microsoft.

KB979683: A security issue has been identified that could allow an authenticated local attacker to compromise your system and gain control over it. You can help protect your system installing this update from Microsoft.

All the 5 security updates are required to face this issue.

Installing the Updates:

Automatic Download:

Go to the location:

Control Panel—> System and Security—> Windows Update

In the left Side Pane Click on Check for updates.

After Checking, Windows may find various updates. Select the updates you want to install and Update. See the image below.

You can check the updates you want and uncheck the ones you do not need.

Manual Download:

You can manually download the updates from the links given below from Official Microsoft site.

Security Update for Windows 7 (KB978601)
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB979309)
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB979683)
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB980232)
Security Update for Windows 7 (KB981332)

After Installing you need to restart the system to complete installation.

Find The Microsoft.NET Framework Version Installed In Your Windows PC

April 13, 2010April 13, 2010 by bharath

Microsoft .Net logo

Well, if you are using a computer running Windows operating system, you might be aware of the Microsoft .NET Framework that needs to be installed in your computer in order to let the most newer applications created for Windows run smoothly on your PC without much compatibility issues.

While it’s easier to install the .NET Framework SDK anytime by downloading the file from the Microsoft’s website, you may definitely want to know the version of the .NET Framework installed on your Windows based computer.

So here I’m trying to guide you through the various ways in which you can find the .NET version installed on your computer.

Method 1 : Using Registry Editor:

If you are familiar with Windows registry editor (by using regedit command), this should be the easier way to find the version of .NET installed.You just have to navigate to the following registry path and check the value present for the key entry “Version” (which is 3.5.30729… in my case) as shown below.

Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ MICROSOFT\ NET Framework Setup\ NDP\ v3.5

Method 2: Using IE User Agent String

Please note that this method works only with Internet explorer.

Here we are querying the user agent string of Internet Explorer.Copy the following JavaScript in to your Internet Explorer address bar and press enter, you will now see an alert something similar to the one shown below.

javascript:alert(navigator.userAgent)

User Agent String Javascript

As shown above, querying the IE User Agent String has resulted in a pop-up alert that shows all the .NET versions installed on my Windows 7 machine (.NET 2.0.50727, .NET 3.0.30729 & the latest one being .NET CLR 3.5.30729).

Even though other browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome & Opera also respond to the user Agent String query, they will not however show the actual versions of .NET Framework installed.

Method 3: Using Add or Remove Windows Programs/ Features

If you are using Windows XP and earlier operating systems, just go to control panel and click “Add or Remove Programs” find the version of .NET Framework in the programs installed.

If you are using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, go to Control Panel > Programs> Turn Windows features on or off, find “Microsoft .NET Framework” in the list and note down the version number.

Windows features .Net Framework

Method 4: Using Aaron Stebner .NET Framework Detector Code

If you are a programming geek and want to detect the version of .NET Framework installed on your PC with a simple C++ code, you may want to check Aaron Stebner’s .NET Framework checker code(cpp) which you can run using your Visual Studio/Visual C++ 2005 or 2007 versions.

Method 5 : Using Windows Explorer

To see which versions of the .NET Framework are installed on your PC, locate the %systemroot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework folder by typing the same in the Windows explorer address bar you sill something like this :

v3.5
v3.0
v2.0.50727
v1.1.4322
v1.0.3705

.NET Framework folder windows These represent the versions of the .NET Framework installed in your computer.