Change Windows 7 Home Basic Theme Color

This article was written on May 19, 2011 by CyberNet.

Windows 7 home basic color

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Windows 7 Home Basic users are restricted from doing a lot of things… including changing the color of the primary theme. This is feature that Microsoft chose to leave out in hopes of getting people to upgrade to a more expensive version of Windows 7. Since most netbooks these days ship with Windows 7 Home Basic it should come as no surprise that developers came up with their own way to manage the color of the theme.

The application you’ll need is called AeroTuner, and it is a free download. Keep in mind that the screenshot above shows that AeroTuner is capable of adjusting the blur along with a few other things. That’s because this tool is designed to work on other versions of Windows 7 where Aero is enabled, which isn’t the case for Windows 7 Home Basic users. The good news is that you can still use it to adjust the Main Color, Color Balance, and Aero Stripes.

When using AeroTuner you should see the changes getting applied in realtime as you adjust the color settings, which makes it really easy to tweak the color to perfection.

Note: The file will likely fail to download if you are viewing a translation of the download page, which is in Russian. Just look for the red “Download” text and click the link next to it.

AeroTuner Homepage (Windows only; Freeware; Portable)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Ask Engadget: best desktop OS for kids?

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Ryan, who can’t wait to get his kid fixated on the wonderful world of computers. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“My son (five years old) has commandeered my wife’s laptop for his game-playing pleasure lately, and it’s been driving her batty. He basically only plays the games she does (Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma, etc.). So far he’s able to find the games he wants (by their icons) and open them without issues using Windows 7, but now that I’m looking into getting him his own basic computer I’m beginning to wonder if there isn’t something more kid-friendly out there. I’ve had cursory experience with OS X and Linux (Ubuntu), and I’ll be doing all the installing and setup myself. Any thoughts from parents? Thanks!”

Kids and computers. Now that’s a recipe for awesomeness. Any new(ish) parents out there have any experience on their kids loving / hating a certain OS? Feel free to drop your advice in comments below — let’s keep it intelligent, okay?

Ask Engadget: best desktop OS for kids? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 23:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft confirms Media Center will be in Windows 8

Windows Media Center fans can finally breathe again. After seemingly endless will they / won’t they speculation Steven Sinofsky, the President of the Windows Division has confirmed in a blog post that Media Center will return for yet another go ’round in Windows 8. There’s no word on any possible changes, only that the company has “work to do” concerning the quality and compatibility of add-ins. Wondering why it hasn’t been in some pre-release builds? Between the potential for multiple SKUs (no details until closer to release, but it seems like you’ll be looking for an Ultimate pack or something similar again to get everything) and simple engineering decisions as features are added and removed that’s just the way it is. Another factor is that WMC isn’t exactly mass market, as he cites stats indicating only 6 percent of Windows 7 users launched the app in July, with over half of those sessions lasting less than a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, IE apparently pops up on 88 percent of Windows 7 desktops. Check the blog post for his full statement, plus a bit of discussion about the new Metro style and ribbon mechanism.

[Thanks, Joe]

Microsoft confirms Media Center will be in Windows 8 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Parallels Desktop 7 plays nice with Lions and cameras and developers, oh my!

Today sees the release of Parallels 7, the newest version of its popular, competition beating virtualization software. This edition plays nicely with Lion, runs multiple virtual machines and has received several performance tweaks — for the number obsessed, you’ll enjoy knowing that it resumes Windows 60 percent faster than Parallels 6. Gamers will notice a 40 percent bump in 3D graphics rendering and video-chatters will find that Windows can now access your Mac while it’s being dictated by OS X. Low end users who don’t have Windows 7, fear not — you can use the “Windows on Demand” service to buy a license via an “easy-to-use wizard” like, erm — Clippy. Mobile fans will also see Parallels’ iOS app give you remote access to your home machine, but be quick — the price is leaping skyward from $4.99 to $19.99 soon. You can grab the standalone edition for $80, but folks already using versions 5 or 6 can level-up for $50.

Continue reading Parallels Desktop 7 plays nice with Lions and cameras and developers, oh my!

Parallels Desktop 7 plays nice with Lions and cameras and developers, oh my! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Extending XP Support Until 2014

This article was written on January 25, 2007 by CyberNet.

Just because Vista will be the latest Windows operating system doesn’t mean that everybody will run out and upgrade. For one, it’s expensive. Secondly, some people simply don’t like change. Upgrading to the latest operating system is last on their list, especially if they’re still getting used to XP. There are a variety of reasons that users won’t instantly make the upgrade Vista. This has  left some wondering how long Microsoft will provide support for XP.

Originally, XP Professional was going to have support through April, 2014. XP Home Edition however was originally said to have support until April, 2011. Just yesterday, Microsoft announced that support has been extended for XP Home Edition, as well as XP Media Center edition.

Now XP Home, Media Center, and Professional Editions will all be in-line with each other. Microsoft will offer five years of mainstream support (until April 2009), and an additional five years of extended support which will take it to April 2014. It’s hard to believe that people would still be using Windows XP ten years from now, but it’s very possible.

Also keep in mind that Microsoft is still planning on a service pack three for Windows XP, is expected for release in 2008. There have been rumored features including WinFS (Windows Future Storage), and a user interface updated with a more powerful sidebar.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Windows 8 Start Menu caught on camera, shows off high-contrast design

Most anyone who’s paid attention knows Windows 8 will feature some fancy tweaks, including a revamped Windows Explorer and new copy, move and rename functions. But now Redmond’s given us a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it preview of a new Start Menu, in a video about accessing ISO and VHD files in the new OS. We’ve included a screen capture above — hit the source link if you’d like to see the full (and admittedly quite dry) video. You’ll spot the wily Start Menu about 25 seconds in.

[Thanks, Chris]

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Windows 8 Start Menu caught on camera, shows off high-contrast design originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Weather Watcher 6 Beta – Best Weather App Available

This article was written on April 28, 2008 by CyberNet.

weather watcher beta.jpg

Weather is an important part of our daily lives, and can drastically affect any plans that we have. Lucky for us the Internet is making it easy to stay on top of weather developments as they happen, and the newest Beta of Weather Watcher for Windows lets you do it in style.

Personally I’ve always been a huge fan of this software, and the best part is that it’s completely free! It has a small System Tray icon that will always display the current temperature (as seen in the screenshot above), and the interface continues to get better and better. Weather Watcher 6.0 Beta has once again received a face lift, and it is now showing real-time weather conditions pulled from WeatherBug or NWS. If you’re located outside of the United States the weather reports will be pulled from CustomWeather.

And to help you appreciate the new interface we’ve decided to gather screenshots for a few of the different areas in Weather Watcher. The “new” links point to screenshots from version 6.0 Beta, while the “old” links are from version 5.6 which is the current stable version:

The general layout of the program is still the same, but I think it goes without saying that it’s now a lot easier on the eyes.

If you’ve never used Weather Watcher before I’ll be the first to warn you that it’s easy to get caught up in all of the customization options. There have got to be at least a hundred different options that you can change within this program. So don’t be surprised if you spend 15 or 20 minutes tinkering around with it. ;)

Download Weather Watcher 6.0 Beta

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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CyberNotes: Sticky Notes for your Windows Desktop

This article was written on June 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Tutorial Thursday

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Sticky notes are one of those things that many of us have grown accustomed to placing all over our physical workspace, and our children. They serve as a great way to remember important things, but eventually you have so many of them that it becomes difficult to find what you’re looking for. That pretty much defeats their purpose, doesn’t it?

That’s why we hunted down two different free Windows apps that not only let you create sticky notes, but they also let you customize their appearance. By using different colors for different types of notes you’ll be able to find the things you’re looking for much faster, plus both of the applications let you set reminders/alarms for notes. After all, most of the things you probably write down on a note are important dates to remember, right? That way you can have the note appear when you need it instead of always cluttering up your workspace.

Alright, here are the two fabulous apps that will initiate the de-cluttering of your physical world!

–Hott Notes (Homepage)–

Hott Notes is one of the best looking note taking applications that I have come across. The thing that really stood out to me was its incredible interface, and the fact that there’s a portable version available means you can take your notes wherever you go.

Once you have it running the first thing you’ll probably want to do is create a new note. This can be done in one of several ways. The default keyword shortcut is the Windows Key+N, or you can use the System Tray icon to do it. Double-clicking on the System Tray icon will create a blank sticky note on your desktop, or you can right-click on it and go to the New menu. There you’ll see the three different types of notes you can create: note, checklist note, and scribble note.

The “note” option is your typical note, while the other two are somewhat special. A “checklist note” is something you would use for a list of things you want to check off, and the “scribble note” lets you draw freehand (great for Tablet PC’s). Here’s what the first two look like when they’re placed on your desktop:

hott notes desktop.png

Don’t they look nice? This is one of the few sticky note applications that I’ve seen which includes a built-in task manager format, which is really handy for the to-do lists. It does, of course, have some other features that I haven’t touched on yet:

  • Set an Alarm – You can attach an alarm to any note, and when the time/date you specify comes around it can either have it bring the note to the front of the screen, or have it play a sound. Unfortunately there’s no “reoccurrence” option.
  • Waste Basket – If you accidentally delete an important note that you needed there’s no need to panic. Hott Notes will place any notes that you crumple up (a.k.a. delete) into the waste basket in case you ever need to retrieve them.
  • Note Desktop – The Note Desktop is assigned the Windows Key+S shortcut by default, and whenever it is pressed all of your notes will be brought to the front of the screen. Plus it will gray out the background so that it’s easier to focus on the dozens of notes you have floating around. ;)
  • Adjustable Appearance – Each note can have it’s own set of colors applied, and the nice thing is that you can actually create your own gradients by specifying a starting and ending color. That’s what I did in the screenshot above for the silver note… it starts with the silver color at the top and gradually fades to white.

And last but not lest, the Notebook. This is a central location where you can manage all of your notes, including the ones you’ve sent to the trash. Here’s what it looks like:

hott notes manage.png

Overall Hott Notes is a nearly unbeatable application if you’re looking for a way to throw sticky notes all over your desktop, but we’ve got another application that might just tickle your fancy a little more…

–Stickies (Homepage)–

If you think Hott Notes has a little too much pizzaz then the more simplistic (in terms of appearance) Stickies application might be more of your taste. Once you get the app setup you can press the Windows Key+S to create a new note, or just double-click on the System Tray icon. You’ll instantly be able to start typing on your note, and formatting options can be applied by right-clicking:

stickies desktop.png

The arrow in the upper-left corner is a quick shortcut to force the note to stay on top of all the other windows. This is quite handy when you’re trying to grab information from a note while using another application.

Just like Hott Notes this also has a central interface for managing all of your open notes, except this isn’t quite as spiffy. I know that some of you will probably prefer this app simply because there is a minimal amount of eye candy. It does, however, have searching capabilities to efficiently sift through the dozens of notes you’ll have created in no time at all.

stickies manage.png

The best feature it has may very well be it’s ability to make a note go to “sleep.” When you use this option the note will hide itself for a specified period of time, and you can set it up to reoccur at a variety of different intervals. For example, let’s say you pay your phone bill on the 15th of every month. You can create a note reminding you to pay the bill, and have it sleep until the 15th of each month. Then when the 15th rolls around the note will show up, and it can optionally play a sound to notify you. Cool, huh?

If you have multiple computers you would like to share sticky notes between then you may find the sharing options to be convenient. You can send sticky notes from one computer to another through direct networking, or via email.

If you decide that you want to use Stickies, but want a little more eye candy you should checkout the 70+ skins that they have available. Personally I really like the default skin that it comes with, but there are a few others that look rather slick.

–Overview–

So there you have it! Those are two amazing ways for a Windows user to create and mange sticky notes on their computer, and since they are free you really don’t have much to lose. Just imagine all of the things you’ll never forget now. ;)

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Microsoft details Windows 8 Explorer tweaks, adds ribbon UI

Windows 8 Explorer

Lots of things are getting tweaked, if not completely overhauled, for Windows 8. That includes the ever-present Windows Explorer. Just like many other Microsoft apps, the file manager will be adopting the slightly more finger-friendly ribbon interface. But don’t freak out about your precious screen real estate, the next version of Explorer will actually display more files than Windows 7 could by moving the details pane to the right-hand side and tweaking the padding. The up button has also returned and a slew of new keyboard shortcuts are being introduced. Check out the source link for more detail and a demo video.

Microsoft details Windows 8 Explorer tweaks, adds ribbon UI originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Engadget: best (Windows) Home Server and universal remote solution?

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Tim, who’s looking to take his living room (and digital life, by the sound of it) into the future. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“A while back I was looking at getting the HP Media Smart Home Server, but some time has gone by and I’m wondering if that is still the best solution going around. I want something that is ideally priced at a max of $1000; it has to be something small, not noisy or too power-hungry, and it has to be something that I can hide away. I’ll use it for network storage, backup, streaming and remote access. I was also wondering if it’s worth getting a good universal remote to dim lights, turn on the TV, amp, PS3 and maybe even some home server control — or have the iPhone / Android apps become so good that they are now the best option? Thanks!”

Great Qs, Sir Tim. We’re of the belief that most everything from a home automation standpoint can be done on Android or iPhone, particularly if you’re starting from scratch (and aren’t looking for enterprise-class services). As for Windows Home Server? You’ve still got a few options, but has anything come along to trump up? If you’ve got a say in all this, sound off in comments below!

Ask Engadget: best (Windows) Home Server and universal remote solution? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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