1. Facebook Disconnect for Google Chrome

If you hate the pesky Facebook Like buttons on blogs and websites, this addon for Google Chrome is all you need. Facebook Disconnect, made by an ex-Googler, prevents Like buttons from showing up anywhere on the web. It does not block the actual Facebook site, though.

2. Block Instant Personalization Forever

Your Facebook information is shared with certain exclusive sites like Pandora/Bing to customize your experience on those sites. This is an opt-out feature. You can turn this off if you go to Privacy Settings > Edit Settings and uncheck Enable instant personalisation on partner websites. Good to go.

3. Block Facebook Completely With Hosts File

The system hosts file is a way of telling your computer where a site is. You can use that to quickly block Facebook without having to install any additional browser extensions or software. All you need to do is hit Winkey + R, wait for the Run dialog to appear, and type: notepad C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts. Edit the file to append

127.0.0.1  facebook.com

127.0.0.1  www.facebook.com

4. Block Facebook If Used More Than Ten Minutes

If you don’t want to block the Facebook site completely using the Hosts file method mentioned above, you can instead choose to block Facebook for a specific time interval. Just download and install the StayFocusd extension for Google Chrome (or LeechBlock if you’re using Firefox). For instance, you can choose to block Facebook after an hour of usage. Come back and thank us if your productivity improved.

5. Block App Spam and Crap Messages on Facebook

If you actually want to use Facebook, but can’t stand the crappy apps, try the FB Purity Extension for Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera or Safari. FB Purity clears out updates from unwanted spammy applications and hides notifications that appear on your feed when your friends join groups or attend events. It strips all your Facebook pages down to what you may actually find worth reading. You can also choose to blacklist or whitelist additional apps.

If you’ve got a tip about blocking Facebook, tell us in the comments.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

The Only Facebook Blocking Guide You’ll Ever Need!

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3. How to make video calls on Facebook?

1) Open PDF Files With Google Chrome

Google Chrome’s Dev Channel sports an in-built PDF Reader. All you need to do is enable the Chrome PDF Viewer Plugin from chrome://plugins/. Once you’ve enabled it, you can drag and drop any PDF file from your hard disk into Google Chrome and it will open magically.

Google Chrome’s PDF Viewer lacks features but if all that you do is open and read PDFs, this surely cuts it. Advanced users needn’t worry though – they’re constantly working to improve the viewer plugin so expect more features built in soon. If you want to open PDF files that are hosted online, you can use the slightly-better Google Docs viewer.

2) Convert DOC to PDF Files With Addons/Inbuilt Tools/Google Docs

If you want to convert files from .DOC to PDF, don’t fret. It’s a piece of cake with Microsoft Word 2007′s ‘Save as PDF plugin‘. When you want to save your document as a PDF file, just click on the Microsoft Office button on top, click Save As and choose PDF or XPS.

If you don’t use Microsoft Office, you can always use OpenOffice to export your documents as PDF (see this guide). If you don’t have both these tools, just use Google Docs to convert files to PDF in a batch. It’s quite easy, take a look at this guide from Digital Inspiration.

3) Password Protect PDF Files Online In Seconds

If you ever need to encrypt a PDF file, you don’t need the help of huge PDF readers either. Don’t trade your bandwidth and hard disk space for software that slows down your computer. Just go to PDFProtect.net.

Upload the PDF file of your choice, set a password and choose the encryption type. While we recommend the higher encryption strength, the site warns you that such files won’t open in older PDF readers – your friends may still be stuck with them!

4) Unlock PDF Files Quickly

PDF files may often be locked – you may need to input a password just to open them. In some cases, PDF protection may prevent you from copying or printing the file. Just pass it through PDFUnlock.com

If a password prevents a PDF file from opening, you need to provide the password to download the unlocked file. If the file is just locked to prevent it from copying, you can just upload it and PDFUnlock.com will automatically break those restrictions.

5) Fill and Create PDF Forms Online

PDFEscape allows you to fill PDF forms in a breeze. What’s more – you can even create fillable PDF forms for others. It’s a powerhouse of PDF editing tools, and works from any internet browser that has Javascript enabled.

All kinds of form fields are supported – text, buttons, lists, etc. Annotations are also supported. If you’re still hanging on to your age-old PDF reader for just this purpose, it’s about time you switched.

–

We guess that helped. Download-able software are just plain boring and when it comes to PDF readers, it’s even more annoying. It’s high time you got rid of them.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

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If you got a warning from Avast’s Network Shield indicating that it has blocked a DCOM Exploit attack from an IP address, you’ve come to the right place. Continue reading to know more about the Network Shield DCOM Exploit warning and what to do about it.

What is DCOM?

DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) is a mechanism that allows software on your Windows computer to communicate over a network.

Does DCOM make my Windows computer vulnerable?

It does. It is enabled by default in every Windows installation, and very often, it is exploited by viruses and worms. The loophole could be used by any attacker to gain control over your system.

Is there a patch that solves this vulnerability?

Yes, there are two. First, download DCOMbobulator to see if you need to apply the patch. If yes, install this and then this.

Can DCOM be disabled on Windows?

Yes, it can be. You can use the aforementioned DCOMbobulator to disable DCOM on your Windows computer.

Otherwise, you’ll have to follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Go to Start > Run, type ‘regedit’ and hit Enter
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\OLE
3. Change the value of EnableDCOM from Y to N
4. Restart Windows

You can also disable DCOM in Windows by following these steps:

1. Go to Start > Run and type dcomcnfg.exe
2. Expand ‘Component Services’ which can be seen under ‘Console Root’
3. Open ‘Computer’
4. Right click on ‘My Computer’ and choose ‘Properties’
5. Click the ‘Default Properties’ tab
6. Uncheck the option ‘Enable Distributed COM on this Computer’
7. Restart Windows

That’s it. You’ve disabled DCOM on your computer.

What about Avast’s “Network Shield: Blocked DCOM Exploit attack” warning? How to get rid of it?

There’s probably a virus or worm that’s lurking around in your computer. Do a full scan. That should solve the issue.

Also, install a free firewall software which could prevent all such communications in the first place. That would do. If you’ve got any questions, please ask them in the comments section below.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Avast Network Shield: Blocked DCOM Exploit

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I was really annoyed and started hunting down what exactly caused the problem. I thought my computer was infected with spyware. I ran a scan using Spyware Doctor and thank God! There wasn’t any spyware in my computer.

Now, I badly wanted to fix this error and I found out the solution to “Error Loading: C:\Windows\System32\Shell32.dll” in a matter of minutes.

You’ve got Comodo Firewall and/or Antivirus installed on your computer? That is the application that’s causing this weird error to occur. All you need to do is right click on the Comodo Firewall icon in your system tray, go to Defense + Security Level and choose Disabled.

The error dialog should no longer appear because we’ve disabled the Firewall settings that was causing the dialog to pop up. Let me know in the comments if you need any help!

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Fix Error Loading: C:\Windows\System32\Shell32.dll Access Is Denied Problem

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1. “The Operation Could Not Be Completed” Error Message with Nokia Mobile Phones
2. How To Trace A Mobile Phone Number In India?
3. The Only Facebook Blocking Guide You’ll Ever Need!

Reverse lookup services weren’t very accurate when I tried to trace the location of a mobile phone number in India, but they could just help you in finding at least the state where these mobile phones are operating from.

You can use this page on Bharatiyamobile, or this international reverse lookup service from TP2 Location or this page by Hacktrix that could help you trace a mobile phone number in India. Let me know in the comments if you have had any success with any other service in tracing a mobile phone number in India.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

How To Trace A Mobile Phone Number In India?

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Here’s the procedure to disable the ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ warning popup notification in Windows:

• Right click on the taskbar and click ‘Properties’
• Under the ‘Taskbar’ tab, click the ‘Customize’ button that appears near the bottom of the window
• Locate ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ and choose ‘Always Hide’

You’ve now disabled the ‘safely remove hardware’ balloon notifications in Windows XP. In order to remove your external drive, you can go to My Computer, right click on the disk icon and click ‘Eject’/'Safely Remove’ and safely remove it. Thanks Download Blog!

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

Disable ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ Balloon Popup Notification in Windows

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1. How to restore missing USBscan.sys in Windows XP?

Finally, I found a few solutions to recover usbscan.sys and I wanted to write them down here for others who might be facing the same problem while installing drivers for devices like Printers, Digital Cameras, etc. when connected via USB.

Here’s what you should do first:

• Click ‘Browse’ in the dialog window that requests the CD Go to C:\Windows\system32 and point to the usbscan.sys file
• The installation should take place seamlessly now

In case you’re unable to find the usbscan.sys file, don’t worry. There are two other options.

Here’s what you should do in case you don’t have the Windows XP Service Pack 2 CD

• Download a copy of usbscan.sys from here (Right click and select ‘Save Target As’).
• Click ‘Browse’ in the dialog window of the installer and locate the usbscan.sys file you’ve just downloaded.
• Click ‘OK’.
• The installation should proceed.

If you’re lucky, and have the XP SP 2 or SP 1 CD with you, here’s what you can do:

• Insert the CD in the drive.
• Go to Start >> Run and type msconfig and press Enter.



• Click ‘Expand File’ in the Window that appears
• In the ‘File to Restore’ field, type in usbscan.sys
• In the next field, type X:\I386\DRIVER.CAB
• In the ‘Save File In’ field, click the ‘Browse To’ button and select a location for the usbscan.sys file to be stored, preferably the Desktop
• Click Expand and close the window. You should see the usbscan.sys file in your Desktop.
• Go back to the installer and locate the usbscan.sys file by using the Browse button, and click OK.
• The installation should now continue.

Those were just three easy and quick ways to restore your missing usbscan.sys driver file. The usbscan.sys is an important driver file that is required for installation of devices like the Printer, Camera, etc.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

How to restore missing USBscan.sys in Windows XP?

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If you frequently encounter situations like this, you can arm yourself with the following tools and make things easy for yourself and others when you’re working on a problematic computer system. Feel free to suggest your favourite softwares in the comments section below.

Anti Spyware

You gotta have one. Install Spybot Search and Destroy and/or Ad Aware. Both do a good job, but the former is a bit slow when compared to Ad Aware.

Anti Virus

Avast! Free – That does a lot for being free, I should say. The On Access Scanner is the best part and you’ll have to leave it installed on the PC – the next time any of your closest ones click on a ‘Congratulations, you’ve won $$$’ banner, their PCs are protected for sure thanks to Avast’s on access realtime web traffic scanning.

Another good antivirus is AVG, does a lot of stuff, but still Avast! wins. You can read a comparison of AVG and Avast! here.

Junk File Removers

You surely must have seen disks filled with nothing but junk. Sometimes they go up to a few GBs or more, and that’s the place where tools like these get handy.

CCleaner -That’s the best junk remover I’ve ever used. Has all that you might need in one place: a junk file cleaner, an uninstaller and also a registry cleaner. It’s more reliable than other such junk removers.

HijackThis – Scans the nook and corner and checks and reports to you. You can remove bad items from start up and take down other suspicious services. But beware – be sure of what you’re doing with this program.

PC Decrapifier

Rightly named, this tool removes the nuisances that come pre installed with your Windows PC. If anyone from your family has just got a new PC installed with Windows, you gotta run this program to cut the crap. Download it here.

Partition Manager – GParted Live CD

Sure you’ve tried many partition managers else before, but I can’t resist myself by putting this up here. GParted is open source and is very very light. It can do copying, resizing, moving operations in around a dozen filesystems.

Ultimate Boot CD – Recovery Tool

It’s the ultimate Swiss Army Knife that comes packed in with tools that do varied jobs like memory tests, hard disk diagnosis, partitioning, system benchmarking and lots more. Definitely a must have. Get it here.

UBCD for Windows

UBCD4Win is imilar to the above mentioned software, but runs directly on Windows.

DriverMax

DriverMax lets you copy your current hardware drivers and reinstall them later if you don’t have the setup files of each of your hardware drivers.

Quite useful, but the person on whose computer working on must already have a driver backup that’s been done using this software.

gOS

Ahh! You can ask why this is listed here, but what if you can’t get your PC’s OS to work? You want the internet to work and need something desperately done, but XP won’t start.

Not a problem if you have a Linux live CD in hand. Just pop the CD in, access the internet, send the email that you had to send or do whatever you wanted to get done. All without writing on to your hard disk and not damaging anything that’s already there.

I’m mentioning gOS here specifically because it has got quite good integration with Google services and pretty much works out of the box.

There are many other Live CDs available, you can check here for that. Make sure you download one and have it burnt on a disk for emergency uses.

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There are a lot of benefits of upgrading your phone’s firmware. You may get functional enhancements, bug fixes etc. Some issues that you might be having with your phone can be solved with a firmware upgrade.

Updating Nokia Mobile Phone Firmware

Here I’ll tell you the things you need to do in order to update the embedded firmware in your Nokia cell phone.

Things to do before a firmware update:

1. Install Nokia PC Suite, and back up all the stuff from your phone to your computer.
2. Charge your phone battery to its full level.
3. Beware that any hindrance (like power off, etc.) during the update process can damage your phone.

Let’s get started.

1. In your Nokia mobile phone, type in *#0000#
   Your Nokia mobile will now display the firmware version it’s running
2. Carefully open the back case of your mobile, and also take away the battery.
3. Note the product number down
4. Go here and type the product number. You’ll now know if a new version of firmware for your Nokia mobile phone is available
5. Download the Nokia Software Updater. Click here to download it
6. Install the Nokia Software Updater (I think it’s recommended to run it if you have more than 256 MB of RAM on your computer)
7. Connect your Nokia mobile phone via the USB port, and also make sure your computer is connected to the internet
8. Run the Nokia Software Updater by clicking on the icon on your desktop
9. The Nokia Software Updater connects to the internet, checks for updates, and then detects your phone to start installing firmware updates for your Nokia phone
10. You might see some fuzzy things going on in your Nokia phone, and that’s perfectly normal to happen during a firmware update
11. When all’s done, the updater gives a confirmation message and then the phone restarts
12. You can now disconnect the phone from the computer

That’s how you upgrade your Nokia mobile phone’s firmware. Let me know in the comments if you have any question.

Post from: Killer Tech Tips

How to update the firmware of your Nokia mobile phone?

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