If you don’t have an extra machine or are an early adopter who wants to test out Vail, creating a VM is a good choice. To complete our series of installing WHS “Vail” Beta virtually, we look at installing it on Oracle’s VirtualBox.

Note: You will need to install VirtualBox on a 64-bit Windows System that supports hardware virtualization. We’ve read some articles that you can install it on a system without Hardware Virtualization, but haven’t been able to confirm that. For best results make sure the Host computer supports Hardware Virtualization.

To check if you’re system is capable of Hardware Virtualization you can use either SecurAble or the MS Virtualization Detection Tool…both are free and easy to use utilities.

Download and Install VirtualBox

If you don’t already have the latest version of VirtualBox installed on your PC, go to the VirtualBox site and download it (link below). Installation is straight-forward choosing the defaults. During the installation select Yes to the warning about Network Interfaces.

You’ll be prompted to approve the install of the device software, click Install. Continue Reading ->

Using Windows 7 Taskbar Color Changer

There’s really not very much to using the application—simply download it, extract it into a folder somewhere, and then launch it. You can choose a color or use the Random button, and then click the Apply button to change the taskbar color.

The color picker is a standard one, and you can choose any color you want.

Here’s a green taskbar! Continue Reading ->

Windows XP Commands

An A-Z Index of the Windows XP command line

ADDUSERS Add or list users to/from a CSV file
ARP Address Resolution Protocol
ASSOC Change file extension associations•
ASSOCIAT One step file association
ATTRIB Change file attributes
b
BOOTCFG Edit Windows boot settings
BROWSTAT Get domain, browser and PDC info
c
CACLS Change file permissions
CALL Call one batch program from another•
CD Change Directory – move to a specific Folder•
CHANGE Change Terminal Server Session properties
CHKDSK Check Disk – check and repair disk problems
CHKNTFS Check the NTFS file system
CHOICE Accept keyboard input to a batch file Continue Reading ->

VLC is quite a popular among the PC enthusiasts, especially among the open source community. It is pretty good when it comes to a media player. Plays almost any kind of format that exists out there and there is no such need for any kind of codec.

The VLC has one more trick up its sleeve. Using VLC you can now set up a video wall paper. Yes thats right, instead of a static wall paper, you can some thing more entertaining. Here is a guide on how to set up a video as a your wall paper.

Download the VLC here (I uploaded the file version 1.1.2. Sourceforge link is at the bottom of the page.)

Once downloaded. Go in Tools -> Preferences.

Click the Video Button on the left bar.

From the list select DirectX video output. Continue Reading ->

Wouldn’t be easier if you could control your PC from your bed. You do not need Infrared Receivers/USB Gadgets and remotes for this purpose. Instead all you need is your iPhone or iPod Touch and a wifi connection to your PC.

What You Need:

• PC (The Software is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. This tutorial covers Windows)
• PC HippoVNC server software. (Linux users can use the included VNC server software)
• HippoRemote Lite app. (Available from the Apple App Store)
• A WiFi router.

Installing the HippoVNC Server

Download the free HippoVNC Server file. (Link Included at the bottom). Choose a folder to extract the file.

And run the WinVNC.exe file.

You may get a Security Warning. Click Allow Access. Continue Reading ->

If you do not know what you do in the registry, you can damage your computer pretty good.Today we show you how to prevent users from accessing the registry and make changes to it.

Using Policy Editor Local Group

Note: This method uses Group Policy Editor which is not available in versions of Windows Home.

first type gpedit.msc in the Search box on the Start menu.

When Group Policy Editor opens, navigate to User Configuration \ Administrative Templates and select System. Under Setting in the right pane double-click Prevent access to registry editing tools. Continue Reading ->