MetroSidebar : Windows Sidebar with Metro Style Live Tiles

              Microsoft first introduced desktop sidebar gadgets with Windows Vista and later Windows 7 continued to support that. Gadgets are mini-applications for the OS desktop that give access to frequently changing information, such as Time, CPU usage, news feeds and the like. But, Now Microsoft considers Gadgets a security risk. As Gadgets are actually just programs that runs on system like other desktop programs, have access to the entire system. 

      

              Therefore, In windows 8 Operating system Microsoft chosen to remove Gadgets from the OS entirely and introduced Live Tiles. Live tiles are also like Sidebar gadgets – can only be installed from the Windows Store. Live tiles can’t access your entire system like modern applications; just display information on your Start screen.

              Unfortunately, Live tiles can’t appear on the desktop and you’ll have to switch to the Start screen to view Live tile information. 

              But if you were a user of the sidebar and like this feature, you can now get it back on widows 8/8.1/7 withMetroSidebar app – to have information on desktop without switching Start screen.

             MetroSidebar is a free tool for windows which can be used in the sidebar in windows which adds lots of features and functions – Having metro interface with live tiles.You can customize these tiles in sidebar through settings. These tiles automatically update as per the Metro screen’s tiles update.
             There are many tiles currently available which are Local Ones and online support is coming soon. You can add features in sidebar like Alarm, Battery Info, Bing Search, Clock, etc [As shown in figure].

           Customization of this tool is quite cool. As you can change the tile’s color, move the gadget tiles and much more. You also can add Sidebar faces. The number and active tile’s face will be displayed as Dots present at bottom.
           Some of the Tiles such as Clock, Weather, Battery Info, etc do have their own setting as per the setting in Metro Start screen.
           And there is also setting to make this Auto-Hide, Always on Top, etc and Language options.

Download : MetroSidebar Tool

            This cool tool can be used on Windows 8, Windows 8.1 as well as on Windows 7. I used this tool on my Windows 7 PC and believe its really a cool and beautiful Gadget. And I hope you would like this cool Desktop Gadget.

Use Google to have fun using Google Tricks...

     Google Search is the most used search engine on world wide web, handling more than 3 billion searches each day. Google comes up with easter egg, which makes it a bit different from other search engines. Also it has a clan and simple homepage and is fast and user friendly.But probably the best thing about Google is that it also provides some simple funs to have relief due to your boring work.            

         Here are some of the best Google tricks, Easter eggs and secrets that makes searching more interesting.

1. Google gravity

Google also have the gravity effect. Google Gravity is an experiment that induces gravity in Google and every element falls down to the bottom of the page and breaks. You can still use the search engine though search results will fall down as well. 

LINK:Google Gravity

2. Destructor Google’s “OO”

Google’s “oo” became destructor of your search results. To check this search for “zerg rush” and wait. 

LINK:Destructor "OO"

3. Search Google Underwater

Google also float on the water surface. To have Google search underwater just type “Google underwater” in the search box and click I’m Feeling Lucky. It will redirect the page to another page makes Google Search Engine floating on water.

LINK:Google Underwater

4. Play Pac-man on Google

Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. On May 22, 2010, the 30^th anniversary of this game Google added an actually playable mini-version of Pac-man logo. Using this animated Logo you can play with Google.

LINK:Play Pac-man

5. Play Snake game on Google

Same as Pac-man Google also provide Snake game.

LINK:Play Snake

6. Mirror Google’s Search Page

This fun Google trick simply displays a mirror image of everything you might see when doing a search on Google.

LINK:Mirrored Google

More fun links:Play Google's Guitar 

7. Sphere of Google search

This trick turns Google’s homepage elements commonly display into swirling Sphere.

LINK:Spherical Google

8. Have Tilting effect on Goole’s Search Page

Askew means “not in a level position”. Searching “Askew” tilts the Google search page. Google represent this by tilting the page at right side.

LINK:Tilt Google search page

9. Have Logo as Google Have

Goglogo is a web service that allows you to make a logo with any name same as the Google logo. You can save the image by taking screen snapshot

LINK:Get LOGO

             There are many other tricks that I have left but still among them given above are most simple and interesting tricks.And if you know some other tricks do use the comment form below.

Hide specific Drives in Windows without using any software

              Windows is one of the most popular operating system now-a-days, introduced by Microsoft in November 1985. For the Windows OS users, sometime it’s become necessary to make Data private and confidential, if  PC is shared among others as family members, friends, etc. Selecting files or data one-by-one and hide them is a very irritating option. So hiding a specific drive containing important data is most convenient option to maintain privacy.

      Hiding a Drive from my computer is preventing that specific drive from displaying, but it doesn't means deleting any data or the drive 

     Here are the different guides to hide/Unhide the drives without losing your data in windows without using any software.

Method 1: Using Group Policy Editor

• Go to Run command [Or Press Win + R] to open RUN Dialog box. Type “gpedit.msc” to open Group Policy Editor.
• Now Go to User Configuration and next select Administrative Templates as shown in the images. 

 

• In Administrative Templates select Option Windows components and next Windows Explorer and double click on that.

• Now search the list for the Policy “Hide these specified drives in My Computer”. By default it would be not configured.

• Double click on that and Select the “Enable” option and then select the partitions that you want to hide under the options “Pick one of the following combinations” an click Apply button.

        That’s it. Go to My Computer and refresh. You have successfully Hide the Drive from My Computer.

[To Unhide the Drive]

• Open the Policy “Hide these specified drives in my computer” as guided above.
•  And then select “Not Configured” and click Apply button.

That’s it. Go to My computer and refresh. Now, the hidden drives are displayed in My Computer.

Method 2: Using Disk Management

• Right click on the My Computer and select Manage. Select “Disk Management” from the left pane under the Storage option. [Or Type “diskmgmt.msc” in Run Dialog box and press enter]

It will open Computer Management window.

• Select the drive you want to hide and right click on that and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths for ..”

• Now press “Remove” button. A warning message will be shown, accept it by clicking on yes.

Note: Don’t worry! This action removes the Drive letter only and telling you that programs installed on that drive wouldn't work.

         That’s all. Your selected drive is hidden now.

[To Unhide the Drive]

• Open “Disk Management” as guided above.
• Now right click on the Hidden drive. [ Note: The hidden drive doesn’t have any drive letter]
• In right click menu select “Change Drive Letter and Paths for ..” and press Add button.

• Now select “Assign the following drive letter” option in pop up  Dialog box.

• Press on Ok button.

That’s it. Now the hidden drive is visible in My Computer. [In case of failure of hiding Drive after application of above methods, Restart your PC to make the changes]

       These methods simply modifies the Windows registry to make the selected drives invisible. Though you may still access the Drive and files by typing the drive letters in address bar or in RUN command. 

       I hope you would like this post related to Windows. To make the drive hidden there are also many ways as using command prompt, By Registry editing and using third party software.

Notepad: Cool text editor's Tricks & hacks

      Notepad is a simple text editor that comes bundled in all Microsoft Windows since Windows 1.0.It is an excellent tool for text editing. The resulting files are typically saved with .txt extension. It also have different extensions that make it more useful and tricky. 

      Here are some of the best and cool tricks you can try using Notepad.

1. Make your personal diary [having Log details]

       Using Notepad you can create a personal log which automatically includes the current date and time before your note.

For ths open new Notepad file and type ".LOG" and save this file with name “Diary” [Or as per your choice].Now whenever you will open the file, it shows Time & Date according to your PC time.

2. Matrix Falling Code Effect on your PC

     The Matrix falling code is the most popular Notepad trick, which is inspired by the movie Matrix.

To have this effect on your PC copy the Following code in Notepad and save as “Matrix.bat”.

@echo off

color 2

:start

echo %random% %random% %random% %random% %random% %random%

%random% %random%%random%%random%%random%%random%

goto start

Note: You can also save it as other name, but extension should be “.bat”. You also can change the color of falling codes by changing color value 2 to other.

3. Make your computer speak the keys you typed

     Want to listen your PS speaking what you have typed? Using Notepad you can make your computer speak.

To do so open Notepad and paste the following codes in the     file and save this file with "Speak.vbs".You can change the name but extension should be ".vbs".

Dim msg, sapi

msg=InputBox("Enter your text for conversion : ","By Digital Looping")

Set sapi=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")

sapi.Speak msg

    That’s it. Your Text to audio converter is ready to use. Open the file and enter the lines that you want to listen.

4. Make a fake virus

      Get rid of your friends when you have some important work on your PC by making a fake virus alert and make them fool.

For this open Notepad and type the following codes to the notepad file and save it as "virus.bat" and you are done. You can change the file name but extension must be ".bat"

:s

start 0%
goto :s

Now opening the file will show your PC as infected. Don’t afraid it’s only a little code. And it would not affect your PC.

5. Constantly Repeated Pop-up Messages

       Annoy anyone using this Notepad trick and force them to log off or leave the PC. This trick creates an infinite cycle of message in the compute until system is log off or restarted.

  For this paste the following code in new Notepad file and  save it with any file name but with ".bat" file extension and  close it. 

@ECHO off

:Begin

msg * Hi

msg * Are you having fun?

msg * I am!

msg * Lets have fun together!

msg * Because you have been o-w-n-e-d

GOTO BEGIN

      Now open the file and see what happen. You also can add more message but before the type msg* and it must be before GOTO BEGIN.

6. Make Keyboard type any message continuously

      This trick make the keyboard type any message continuously. To annoy your friend send it them as E-mail attachment and have fun.

      For this copy the below codes and paste it to a new Notepad file and save it as "message.vbs". You can change file name but file extension must be ".vbs".

Set wshShell = wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")

do

wscript.sleep 100

wshshell.sendkeys "This is a Virus. You have been infected."

loop

Now open the file. You can change the message as per you like.

Note: Before open this file close all programs running on the system, because you will need to restart your computer to stop this.

7. After conveying a message shut down the PC forcefully

        This Notepad trick is a kind of annoying tricks that conveying a message before it forcefully shutdown the computer without any confirmation.

For this paste the below codes to a new Notepad file and save it as "Shutdown.bat". File name can be change but it must have ".bat" file extension.

@echo off

msg * Its time to get some rest.

shutdown -c “Error! You have to take rest! Byeeeeee” –s

Note: As it shut down the PC without confirmation I strongly suggest you to close all programs before opening this particular file. 

8. Continuously opening Notepad

    This Notepad trick make Notepad application opening again-n-again and annoys you.

For this copy the following code in a new Notepad file and save it as "NotepadBomb.bat". File extension must be ".bat", If you want to change the file name .

@ECHO off

:top

START %SystemRoot%system32notepad.exe

GOTO top

Note: Before opening this file close all programs running on your system. It would not harm your system, but possibly you have to restart you PC or else using task manager you can stop this.

9. Format Hard Disk using Notepad.

      This Notepad trick is really a dangerous one. This trick you should make an ethical use. And I strongly suggest you not to open this file if you down wanna loose your data on Hard Disk.

For this copy and paste the below code in a Notepad file and save it as "FormatHardDisk.exe". In case if you want to change name make sure that file extension is ".exe".

Code : 01001011000111110010010101010101010000011111100000

Note: This is really a dangerous .exe file. So don’t try to have fun with this coded file.

       I hope that you would like these tricks. There are more tricks related to Notepad I have left. If you know any other tricks, do use comment box below.