Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 16, 2011 by CyberNet.

Have you ever upgraded an app on your iPhone just to realize that there is a major bug who’s soul purpose is to annoy the hell out of you? The best case scenario is that you contact the developer and they let you know they’ve identified the problem and submitted an update to Apple. Now you have to wait for Apple to approve it. If you can’t even get in contact with the developer… well, you can see how the situation could go downhill fast.

The good news is that you may be able to roll back to the older stable version you were once in love with. It’s actually pretty easy to do, and I’ll walk you through the steps below. A fair warning though… this is a lot easier if you haven’t emptied your Trash/Recycle Bin since the last time you updated the app. This is because iTunes moves old version of the app to the Trash so that they aren’t unnecessarily eating up your hard drive space. We’ll move on so that you can see what I’m talking about.

IMPORTANT: Following these steps will mean that you will lose any app-specific data in order to revert to an older version. So if you’re doing this for a game you will lose any progress you’ve made thus far.

1. Backup your devices in iTunes because, well, it’s the right thing to do.
2. Delete the app that was upgraded from iTunes, your iPhone, and any other devices that are syncing with your iTunes profile.
3. Go to your Trash/Recycle Bin, and find the old version of the app. The file extension should be “.ipa” as seen in the screenshot below. If you don’t have the old version available there you may need to resort to Google to find an old (unmodified) download which can be extremely difficult and risky depending on the app. If you make backups of your iTunes directory (such as with Time Machine on the Mac) you may also be able to get the IPA from there.
   
4. Copy the IPA file to your desktop or somewhere that you know it will be safe.
5. Drag the file into iTunes.
   
6. Sync your devices with iTunes.

That’s all there is to it. There is just one annoying factor now, and it’s that iTunes and all your devices will constantly want you to update that particular application. If you do that, however, you’ll wind up in the same situation that brought you here in the first place. So I know the temptation may be tough, but steer clear of the “Update All” button.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on March 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Sometimes it is astounding the collection of DVD’s, CD’s, games, and books people have. For some individuals it gets to the point where they don’t even remember what they have anymore. In fact, I’ve known some people who would find themselves purchasing the same movies over again simply because their collection was so vast that they couldn’t remember if they owned it already.

To solve problems like that you need to turn to a full media organizer, and luckily there’s a free one available which we’ve received several emails about over the last few months. It’s called Libra, and is capable of managing books, CD’s, movies, games, and DVD’s on Windows.

–Managing Collections–

Libra is available for both Windows XP and Vista, but the interface for Vista does have a bit more eye candy. Beyond the beauty also lies a lot of functionality. The size of the thumbnails on the virtual bookshelves can be adjusted so that you can see more or less at any one given time. This is done by using the slider in the upper-right corner.

(Click to Enlarge)

It’s also possible to change how the media is sorted on the bookshelves. By default everything is grouped by type (books, games, movies, etc…), and are sorted by the title. Anything can be sorted in about a dozen different ways, which ultimately puts the control in your hands.

–Adding Media–

Obviously a program like this is only great if it makes adding media from your library a piece of cake. I would have to say that Libra is pretty simple from that standpoint because it uses Amazon’s vast database of information to grab details and box art for all of your media.

(Click to Enlarge)

Searching can be done according to the type of media that you’re looking for (books, games, movies, etc…), and then results can be shown from Amazon’s United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, France, or Canada sites.

Naturally you’ll probably start searching for your media according to the names, but that will probably take awhile in the end. What I recommend doing is searching according the ISBN/EAN number, or even by the UPC. Don’t feel like entering in the UPC? If you have a webcam hooked up to your computer that’s not a problem. Just hit the webcam button and focus in on the UPC. Libra will read the UPC and scour Amazon looking for a match:

I mean really, could you ask for any more?

–Loaning to Friends–

Anytime you’ve got a good collection of media going it likely means that you’ll have friends crawling to your doorstep looking to borrow items at no cost. No problem, right? You lend a movie to one friend, a game to another, and a couple more movies to a few more friends. You eventually get to the point where you are relying on them returning it at some point in the future, but as many of us have experienced your friends need a few reminders.

Libra to the rescue! There is a loan feature in Libra so that you can keep track of who has what. Just find the movie that you want to lend out, click the “Loan” tab, select who is borrowing it, and pick a date that you would like it returned by:

You’ll want to create a profile for each one of your friends and family that borrow movies from you, but after that it takes just a few clicks here and there to keep track of who has what:

(Click to Enlarge)

–Overview–

As you can tell this is an extremely powerful application for the media gurus out there. There’s a lot more that you can do with Libra, and we would love to hear from some of the people who have experience with the application. Shoot us your feedback in the comments below.

Download Libra for Windows

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Windows only
After a little while it can be nice to freshen up the appearance of the things we use each day. I’m sure that many of us start off the morning with a Windows login prompt on the screen, and with a quick DLL replacement you can make that Windows 7 login screen look completely different than what ships with the stock OS.

I’m going to focus on getting the login screen you see in the screenshot above, which is modeled after the Longhorn project. It’s actually very close to the Longhorn login screen, which you can see in this screencast I had made.

Once you head on over to this DeviantArt page you’ll see three different sets of DLLs that you can grab. One doesn’t have the Windows flag, another one has it (this is the one in the screenshot above), and another one has an embedded version that is located inside the transparent glass. Grab which ever one you want, and make sure you get the correct version (32-bit or 64-bit) depending on what you have installed. You can even grab all three, and replace the DLL a few times to figure out which one you like the appearance of more.

The file you will be replacing is the authui.dll that is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. However, before you’ll be able to replace the DLL you’ll need to take ownership of the authui.dll file. To do so I highly recommend using the registry script here, which will add a “Take Ownership” option to the context menu. The download includes a second script that you can run to remove the option from the context menu after everything is done, or I’d say it is useful enough to keep around.

Now that you’ve taken ownership of the authui.dll file you can go ahead and replace it. You should then be able to logoff or lock your machine to immediately see the changes.

The DeviantArt page also references the background image they use in their screenshots as well as a free (no-install) application you can use to update the background image to anything you want. Personally I like the native Windows 7 background with this design, so I’ll be keeping it around for the time being.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on December 11, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

I’m sure many of you have seen the Last Known Good Configuration option at some point or another when starting Windows, but do you actually know what it does? It says that it will use “your most recent settings that worked,” but that could mean a variety of things.

Then there is the Windows System Restore, which by the name would almost make people assume it does something similar to the Last Known Good Configuration, but in reality they are pretty different. Lets see how the two of them differ, and when you would want to use each of them.

–Last Known Good Configuration–

Each time you successfully startup your computer, Windows saves any system-related settings to the Windows Registry. Some of the information that is written to the Registry is in regards to device drivers and services that are used by Windows.

When you choose to use the Last Known Good Configuration mode all of the settings contained within the HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet Registry key will be restored to the last state when you’re computer booted up successfully. This will not modify any files, but it will be able to point the system back to older drivers, assuming that they are still accessible on the machine.

Using the Last Known Good Configuration…

1. Start your computer.
2. When you see the “Please select the operating system to start” message, press the F8 key.
3. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.

Use Last Known Good Configuration if…

• The last time you started Windows you didn’t have any issues.
• You install a new device driver, restart Windows, and the computer will no longer boot. By reverting back to the Last Known Good Configuration you will restore the settings so that they point back to the old driver.
• You disable a driver that turns out to be more critical to the operation of Windows. By reverting back to the Last Known Good Configuration you will restore the settings back to when the driver was still enabled.

DON’T Use Last Known Good Configuration if…

• Windows won’t boot because you deleted some system files.
• You copy a new driver over top of an old one. Switching to the last known good control set will not undo anything since the configuration never changed.
• Windows boots up, a user logs in, and then Windows freezes. By this point it is too late because Windows has already written over the Last Known Good Configuration backup.

–System Restore–

System Restore was haphazardly introduced back in Windows Millennium Edition, but wasn’t actually found to be useful until Windows XP was released. It’s progressively gotten better as more versions of Windows have been released, and in Vista it includes some new features.

Restore points (a.k.a. checkpoints) are, by default, created every 24 hours or when the user manually creates them. Aside from that restore points are also automatically created when some applications are installed, Windows Updates are installed, or non-signed drivers are installed.

System Restore is very selective in what it backs up. It keeps track of changed system files (extensions: EXE, BAT, DLL, etc…), Windows Registry, drivers, and more. It never touches file formats related to things like documents, email, music, and a few others that aren’t critical to the system’s operability. It will also ignore things placed in “My Documents” giving you a little reassurance that you won’t wipe out your documents during a restoration.

CAUTION: It’s important to know that all programs installed after the selected restore point will be uninstalled when rolling back your system using System Restore.

Using System Restore…

1. Open System Restore by clicking the Start button, clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools, and then clicking System Restore.
2. Choose a restore point and proceed through the wizard.

One of the nice things about System Restore is that a checkpoint is also created before you proceed with the restoration. If using a restore point didn’t help you’ll always be able to jump back.

Use System Restore if…

• Problems started to occur after you installed an application, Windows Update, or a driver.
• You accidentally removed or modified an important system file that is causing the system not to function properly.

DON’T Use System Restore if…

• You have installed an application since the selected restore point, and you’re afraid of losing the application itself.
• You have important files placed throughout your computer, and you’re not sure if System Restore will ignore them. Place all of your personal files into the “My Documents” folder to ensure that they are protected.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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I can’t even count the number of times I’ve been asked whether there is some way that users can synchronize select bookmarks with their work computer. It’s often because they like having access to some of their bookmarks from both home and work, while some they want left exclusively for one of the locations.

Foxmarks is once again coming to the rescue! A new version of the Firefox extension was just uploaded yesterday, and it includes the ability to create custom profiles. That way you can have some bookmarks show up on your home computer, some on your work machine, and so on. From what I can tell you can create as many profiles as you would like.

To get started you’ll want to go to Tools -> Manage Sync Profiles on your my.foxmarks.com page. Add the profiles you want to use, and select which bookmarks each profile should have access to:

All that you have to do after that is tell the Foxmarks extension which profile it should use. To do this open up the Foxmarks settings in Firefox, and navigate to the Profiles tab. From here you can select which profile the computer should be synchronizing with.

Pretty cool, huh? This feature is sure to make a lot of people happy because it’s now possible to have a central location for managing all of your bookmarks that are spread across multiple computers. Talk about convenience!

Get the Foxmarks Extension for Firefox

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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