Metro Luna, a Xp Metro style for your Windows

It's a strange and beautiful theme that combine the old Xp theme (Luna) and the new "Modern UI" "Metro" style from Windows 8. Awesome.

http://giro54.deviantart.com/art/Metro-Luna-319865527

(Start orb here: http://fav.me/d5afaxw)

Customize your Windows 8 (borders and colors)

In Windows 8 you can't set a size for the windows borders.
Microsoft are you mad?
But... Ahh, finally!
You can set the windows borders in Windows 8 via registry key, but with this tool is so easy!

AeroTuner (for tuning your UI colors):
http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.95

Tiny Windows Borders (see picture above):
http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.96

PS: I'm using the RC version, but I think that these tools work fine in the RTM too. Try them.

The old Windows logo

About Window8: I have to try the RTM.... I've no time now.

FirefoxOS, test it on your Windows/macOs/linux

Firefox OS is the new mobile OS from Mozilla...

Firefox OS consists of 3 basic software layers: 

• Gonk (kernal, HAL, and low-level components
• Gecko (rendering engine, web APIs)
• and Gaia (HTML5 User interface layer).       

Would you try it in your pc?

Do you want the easy way? Go here http://cloud.github.com/downloads/sihorton/b2g-desktop-profile-installer/b2g-gaia-desktop.exe

or.... (let's try this):

Download the B2G packet from this page:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/b2g/nightly/latest-mozilla-central/

choose your build version (linux, mac, win...):

Download only the 14 MB file!

Borderless Windows theme...

Theme applied!

Do you remember 3rd party themes on Windows?
If you forgot about them follow this link (second part):
http://www.lollercoasterlab.com/2011/09/customize-your-windows.html

Do you remember? You need to patch with Universal Theme Patcher and then put these files in the themes directory:  C:\Windows\Resources\Themes 
and then Personalize > apply the theme.

Now we install this theme with no-border (apparently), download it:
http://www.everplexmedia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=16

and put it in the Themes directory. Apply and enjoy.

The borders are present, but there is no line, so it's only "blur". A bad thing in this theme (imho) is the black skin applied on the taskbar... it's a bit strange, but... try it!

LeoCAD, cad with Lego bricks!

LeoCAD is a CAD program that can be used to create virtual LEGO models. It has an easy to use interface and currently features over 4000 different pieces created by the  LDraw community.
Yep, it's oooooold, but it's funny.

Let's try it!

There're a bunch of elements, that is good, but there're no grids and assembling is a bit difficult.
There are multiple views and the possibility to animate your scene!

Download for Windows and Linux:
http://www.leocad.org/trac

WinSplit: a windows tiling manager for Windows

If you are looking for a good windows manager... try WinSplit!

Features:

• Automated window handling (resize, move, reorganize, close tasks)
• Shape - process association
• Global hotkeys and clickable virtual numpad
• Automatic startup
• Automatic update
• Moving a window with mouse (drag'n'go)
• Hotkey configure
• Layout configure
• Fusion between 2 windows
• Minimize/Restore by hotkey
• Mosaic mode

Download: http://winsplit-revolution.com/download

New Ms Office - Preview

Trying... it seems very fluid and the new graphic style is very beautiful.
The Ribbon menu can be hidden and there are new flat icons.

Try it now: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/en/try-office-preview

D-Fend Reloaded: play and organize old DOS games on Windows

If you have the newer Windows versions but you want to play old Dos games the only good way is to use DosBox to emulate a complete (old) computer.
D-Fend Reloaded is a graphical environment for DosBox and it helps you to organize your games.

Features?

• Games can be installed from zip files without any configuration..
• D-Fend Reloaded may be installed in a portable operation mode (for USB-Sticks etc.).
• Besides DOSBox you can also use ScummVM as emulator.
• Also Windows-based games can be managed in D-Fend Reloaded.
• With the integrated Bochs-FAT-Image-Creator you may create floppy and harddisk images to be used with DOSBox directly from the D-Fend Reloaded GUI.
• D-Fend Reloaded can create images from CDs and floppy disks which can be used as drives in DOSBox.
• Screenshots
• Update checker...

More: http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/Features.html

You can download it here:
http://dfendreloaded.sourceforge.net/index.html

PS: There are some packages like Adventure package, action games package etc...

In action with a good old classic... Alone in the dark:

How to schedule a shutdown on Windows

Sometimes could be useful shutdown Windows at certain time... there are many ways:

Command method:

Open a command prompt as administrator and write:

 shutdown -s -t SECONDS

where SECONDS are the time in seconds to the shutdown (remember 3600 seconds = 1 hour)

 shutdown -a 

to reset and delete the countdown.
When you set/delete the shutdown a pop-up notification notices you.
The -f option to force programs to close is useless in this case because if -t is set with a value >0 -f is implied.

Task scheduler:
Press Win and search for "schedule task" to start Task Scheduler. You can create a new task to shutdown the pc at a certain time. Use basic task wizard.

Other softwares:
There are tons of tools for this task... I suggest you Simple Shutdown Scheduler

http://sourceforge.net/projects/sshutdown/

Remember: with the Command method you can shutdown remote pcs too!

Keynote bloppers

From Apple and Microsoft keynotes a bunch of bloopers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qepPG8BjW4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZG1ewSO0X4

F.lux: manage your lighting

F.lux is a simply tool to automatically manage display lighting during the day depending to the hour.

You can set the color temperature (3400K to 6500K) for the daytime and for the night and how much time use for the transition.

Useful to save your eyes!


PS: if you need perfect colors (for graphic works) you can temporary switch off the program. ;-)


Download: http://stereopsis.com/flux/

HFSExplorer, reading Mac OSx file systems

This multiplatform software is very usefull and easy to use to read HFS (Mac OS Standard), HFS+ (Mac OS Extended), HFSX (Mac OS Extended with case sensitive file names) and open .dmg disk images.

It works on Xp too.

Download: http://catacombae.org/hfsx.html  (you need a Java RE installation)

Developing desktop software is dead? #VS11

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/05/no-cost-desktop-software-development-is-dead-on-windows-8/#

Short story:

Visual Studio 11 is only for Metro Apps and for desktop application developers need the 500$ pro licence... so if you want to develop desktop software you must use the old Visual Studio10.

A bunch of 3rd-party softwares is developed by young guys (16>25 years old) not companies., 3rd-party softwares that add features to Windows (that out-of-the-box has ... almost nothing)

Microsoft should encourage those who produce software for its operating system, Metro or Desktop.

GG M$!  You know how to attract developers!!!

How to use other file systems on Windows!

If you need to write or simply to read ext2/ext3/ext4 file systems on your Windows just try EXT2Fsd.

- Unzip
- Read Readme.txt
- Run Setup.bat for the auto setup


Download: http://www.ext2fsd.com/

Mac & Win GUI evolution

I found this picture, very interesting, about the GUI evolution of Windows and Mac OS:

How to - Tweak: bigger Alt+Tab for Windows

After enlarging Windows Aero preview thumbnails (see previous posts)... why not enlarge ALT+TAB previews?
This trick works on Windows Vista too.

You must create a new key in the system registry and insert several values... delete the created key if you mess something. :P

Let's start.

All about file types, how to change icons...

... and more.

Default Programs Editor (DPE) is a very good utility to change some things in Windows.
Blame on you Microsoft, because you don't include these basic things out of the box. Shame on you!

DPE includes:

• Customization of File Type settings (Context menu, icons, description...)
• Customization of the Autoplay settings
• Customization of the Default Programs settings

Autoplay and Default Programs settings can easily changed with Windows options, but we are interested in the File Type settings...

Context menu: you can edit voices of the contextual menu for every file type
Icon: finally I can select an icon (on WXp you can do this without 3d-party tools) for the file type
Description: ok, not so usefull, but you can change it.

Changing icons for file types... my choice:

Download DPE:  http://defaultprogramseditor.com/

How to convert images to Icons

You can use this tool to convert images to icons and using them in your OS.
The Windows icons max size is 256x256 (Windows Vista) but this tool converts your image in a icon that contains various size (for small icons, etc... like .ico format).

I suggest you to use PNG images that support transparency.

Run the software and a little box appears, right-click on it to show options...
Select the "Choose formats" and set the options to configure the max icon size.
Drag and drop your image in the box and the icon will be created (in the original image path)

Download:
http://www.pngfactory.net/customxp/logitheque-41-2-telecharger-ToYcon.html

What I have updated?

If you don't remember what you have updated with Windows Update follow these steps:

• Open Windows Update (WIN + write "windows update" + Enter, or go to Control Panel)
• Click "View update history"
• Click the "update pack" to see more details
• Click the links in the dialog box for more details (sometimes you will redirected in the Windows homepage)

I know, it's obvious, but not everyone knows it ...