Category: software

Burn a CD or DVD when you don’t have the software

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

So you have a windows computer, and the computer has a cd burner or dvd burner on it. you’ve looked all around the software and can not find nero or power dvd/cyberlink or any other software known for burning discs.

There’s a good fix and it is free.

It is called CDburnerXP
The name clearly has been around since the windows , and yes the name reflects a time long gone. Clearly they didn’t think ahead when they started the project. doesn’t matter what the name, the software is lightweight, easy to use and does exactly what is expected. Burns your cd or dvd. Will burn either one and seems to work with any brand of typical burner. The burner software even comes with dvd intro selections.

How to burn a CD with CDBurner Xp
Install CDBurner Xp
Insert  a CD into your CD burner on your computer
You should get a menu asking you what you want to do with  the new blank disk. Select the CDBurnerXP option.
Next menu asks you what type of disc are you trying to create. If it’s just files to back up, select Data. I use this option for pictures.
If you want the disc to be  playable media select the  other options related.  but let’s do “Data” for this example.
cdburnermenu
The next window will be titled “data compilation” look near bottom left where you see the word “Disc” with a cd symbol to the left of it. Right click the word “Disc” and select “rename” from the menu. Now type the desired name of the disc your burning.
namedisk
Just drag and drop the files you want to burn in the area that says “Drag and Drop Files Here”
When ready just click the burn icon, fifth from the left at the top row.
burn-disc
Now you just click burn. Your cd should eject when done.
Free, fact and light weight.
Been using this software for years and I tell the creator thank you every time I download it. I won’t even use name brand anymore.

If you have any questions feel free to ask below.

 

Why Was Windows 10 Free?

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

whyiswindows10freeWhy was Windows 10 Free? Why did they give us a free Windows operating system?
Well if you are skeptical like any person who has been duped into a service for longer than they’d like, you’d compare it to a drug dealer at a school giving kids a free sample. because a return customer is always right around the corner.
Look at the free windows 10 as a migration towards reoccurring revenue. If you are just renting the operating system, and just renting the apps, and renting the storage space (cloud) you will have no option but to stay because you’d be kind of stuck.
Once you’ve made a few payments, you’re already invested in this thing that will never pay off. Kinda like reddit Karma. Or world of warcraft addiction. You paid to play, you play because you paid, your score went up you got cool additional stuff for being so invested. Now you have higher score may as well pay to keep your game going, oh look! … an expansion pack, but damn I have to upgrade my tiny little service because it isn’t compatible and people will think I’m cheap.

Meanwhile you will be hogging down bandwidth and your isp will force you to pay more for larger cap.

Now you’re really $%^&ing invested. but you’ll buy a windows phone because it lets you sync your nifty gif making apps with your phone now. Well, it is all apps and cloud based. So you have to up that bandwidth level too.
Now you are super $%^&ing invested.
Now Microsoft made their “scary announcement” today. “This is the last Window Ever” (here on forbes). Then tell you it isn’t over just going to be “different” meaning more like a pay-to-play operating system.

Software makers will get more out of their leases for rights to design items for Microsoft, but instead of paying up front, Microsoft will take it out of each payment from every windows user who uses the purchased APPS. that’s right, apps. Cloud based programs that you can’t use if your internet goes down.

Here’s something I posted up about 5 years ago on the topic telling people it would be like this soon. Yeah the responses I got were pretty hateful.

Microsoft Moving us to the Cloud

 

Sure some people could enjoy it, but not everyone. Let’s make it a choice please. Just have two brand new Microsoft operating systems at a time. The one made by Microsoft and sold to the public, and the open source one.

Snapchat Review

Posted onAuthorTruXterLeave a comment

Review of snapchat. A picture sharing application that seems to have a mild popularity amongst the newbies of tech.. People who don’t realize instagram, photobucket, imgur, facebook,twitter and the like already let you privately share images with specific people. but the software leaves the impression that you set a timer for your friend to be able to see the image, then poof, the photo is magically gone all of the sudden.
Snapchat is stupid.

No matter what a website says…. they always save the content you put on their servers. and we can download the images or screen shot them anyway.. so just send the damn thing to your friends… or use facebook or twitter.

The market is way to covered for this stupid app.

Parents, if you see a little ghost icon on your kid’s phone… Then you kid is sharing images they don’t want you to know about. and they think they have some catch 22 (remember when we thought every law’s kryptonite was us thinking we had this?) clause that makes them safer with this app. remove that app from their phone and threaten to give them a flip phone.. Or just give them a flip phone.

Snapchat  Review score
Usability of the snapchat: 7/10
need for snapchat  : 1/10
practiclity of the snapchat : 3/10

End score 3/10

What is Windows 8

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Windows 8 is an operating system that is the beginning and the open door to a future of apps based entertainment. The bandwidth using type of apps. Apps that half of the software is instal;ed on your computer while the rest of the “program” is served in the cloud (on multiple servers, functioning sort of like how Kazaa worked.  Sort of how a torrent worked. but not really.

Windows 8 is promoted sold as a revolutionary design that is about to change the way we use computers.

but that is far from the truth
The look of windows 8, screams the colors of windows XP. Very cartoonish. The look is a bit of a step back from Windows 7.
The missing taskbar, should have been the alternative option, since back when 3.1 moved to windows 95. Oddly enough, over the past three patches to windows xp, Microsoft has removed the program-manager (aka progman.exew has been stripped and neutralized), so you can’t even mimic Windows 8 on a computer that can actually  work the exact same tasks.
The squares instead of shortcuts on the desktop, a bit Brady Bunch .
Windows 8 is designed to mimic the failed operating system of a failed cell phone. My only true gut feeling is windows 8 is designed for the ignorant and not tech savvy, and for the promotion and sell of their windows phones and tablets.

Are you ready to jump to Windows 8 yet?

Posted onAuthorTruXter

[poll id=”26″]
What measures have you taken to prepare yourself for the best Windows 8 transition experience possible?
Have you purchased a touch screen capable monitor?
Have you bought the latest motherboard,processor,memory and Solid state hard drive?

Yeah, me either.
Maybe I will wait a couple years for the computers to start shipping with windows 8 already on them. Not the ones that say “Windows 8 ready” or “windows 8 upgrade for free”. The machines built for Windows 8.

Typically when the new operating systems come out, we find later that current hardware is less than able to run the operating systems and soon after come new and improved hardware. Most often is ram/memory. but the inevitable is processor. with a new CPU it’s usually a good idea to get a new motherboard also. or you will be left behind.

The part you have to prepare for is, what is available now, at it’s max is usually just barely above minimum requirements of what ever software or operating system that has just been released. Like say, ddr2 memory was the highest we had when Vista came out. That memory capped out in it’s time at 2 gigs per stick. many motherboards have only two slots. Wouldn’t you know it, 4 gigs memory is optimal for windows 7. That’s not how it was announced but that’s what we have come to learn on our own. This will be the same case with windows 8. Now with Windows 7 out we have DDR3. Which has a cap of what I think is 8 gigs per stick. Count on DDR5 becoming the common with in the next year, and the first bloat pack (service pack) coming out and everyone realizing that new optimal for windows 8 will be crazy high like 8 gigs. best performance 32 gigs.

So hold out on your upgrade to any new operating system for a few months. let the new hardware come out. Let the first few updates come out. Let the internet swell with complaints. Don’t buy parts until you see the crying stop. Prices should level out to a fair cost. If you buy any parts or computers now, you are basically buying off the junk that the stores are trying to get off their shelves. They too know how it works. Every single time.

Fear Monger
Basically, based on past experience, if you are running DDR2 or older, you will be left behind. That mouse of yours is antiquated, and that video card you have that is the top of the line, is now ….. just cute. That 250 gig spinning hard drive will be pointless. Of course because the numbers are higher on everything, we will bloat out our videos and music. Count on songs becoming 1 gig minimum. So that one TB hard drive you have in the external case, will be antiquated, 50 TB hard drives coming with in the next two years. Easily. (not easy task, but is a must). Well at this rate . What does this mean?  It means your 250 gigs a month cap from Comcast, will easily be reached. Your 2 gig cap from at&t is less than laughable now. Just wait until ALL of your software is apps based and you begin to agree that cloud storage is the only logical option. That 250 gigs a month will be less than a week to break.

This of course is one hundred percent plausible fiction.

but as always. Software should always excel hardware. That’s how we evolve. If not for something to push the hardware to be better, faster, stronger, we would be complacent. We would not innovate. When we have greater speeds and storage, we can then come up with ideas that seemed farfetched and impossible.

I admit that I am currently satisfied with Windows 7, fearful of what Windows 8 could mean, and skeptical of any positive claims we see in the next 5 months of Windows 8.

So no.. I am not ready.

Apps or Programs Poll

Posted onAuthorTruXter

app OR programs

app OR programs

Before we get to the poll at the bottom of the page, Let’s preface this.
What would you prefer more to have. An Application or a Program ?
would you prefer to have the full entire install of a program with it’s entire file package, or an Application that is set without customizations other than per-customized addons (Which could be sturdy) that cost a bit more?

This is the question that we should be asking. We are nearing the time where operating system vendors move more and more to the “cloud” idea of everything computer. How do we want our installations to be happening? Do we want full installations or applications?

this isn’t so much of whether you want a tablet or a Computer, but the software that could determine whether you should have a computer or a tablet.

Programs

Pros
With a program you get full file access to all of the files that come with a program. Files that can be customized manually to your suited needs and desires.
Your program will not change so drastically with an update, that you can not use it, if it does, then you just uninstall and reinstall and skip that specific update.

Cons
With Programs you could mess the whole thing up customizing and tweaking to your needs and have to uninstall and reinstall.
You have to do the same procedures as an app if you want to buy addons. Click the install button
Scratch your disk and you are looking at an expensive reinstall.

APPS

Pros
With apps there might be a million and one modifications readily for sale that you never expected to exist.
Always online and available
doesn’t cost near as much for initial install.
Really hard to damage the install.

Cons
Not customizable.
all tweaks cost money
All tweaks fit someone elses needs.
No personal back up for when you are without internet service
Bandwidth usage everytime you install.
Always gets upstaged by next version that you have to buy in full.

[poll id=”25″]

Please share so we get more votes.

GIMP 2.8 Angry Review

Posted onAuthorTech Review Man

Image Editing Software for freeGimp, the Gnu Image Manipulation Program.
The software I have considered the alternative to Photoshop, for many years.
I have Gimp and Photoshop on my home and my work computer. I have always considered gimp the superior, just because of how fast and simple it is to find what you are looking for, the huge list of file types you can save images as.
Gimp has released an update. 2.8
There have been many changes with 2.8. U have to say; I am not happy with any of the changes.

You will not catch me updating any more of my computers with it.
The clone tool, there is no slider anymore for adjusting brush size, It’s now about pressure. Why is pressure, not a new addition, instead of a replacement?
I now have to export my images, instead of saving them.
What happened to antialiasing ? why do my images look so grainy now?
Why is Gimp slaughtering my computer?
I need to find an install of 2.6 and I will just block the gimp website in my hosts file so I never forget and accidentally try and “upgrade” again. EVER!I have found on the “Old Apps” website they list Gimp 2.6.7

The look of Gimp 2.8 is plain by today’s standards. Not worth installing. and functionality is may as well be one button, with acid on it.

I know.. It’s free, but it’s also as useless as rock. and that’s free too.

This goes for 2.8 and 2.8.2

Internet Defender and WIndows PC Aid More Fake Virus Scanners

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Both virus fakes are bundled together in this bad batch of internet waste today.
Internet Defender was the one virus/Extortionist (Vextortirust?) that kept popping up the most in the beginning.

Internet Defender

Internet Defender

Internet Defender is made to look like windows defender
Another fake virus scanner that infects your computer and milks money from you in an extortion type fashion.

Virus Scanner Progress

Virus Scanner Progress

Windows PC Aid is made to look like a mix between Norton, and Microsoft Essential.
Aid
Steps to removal of Windows PC AID

 

This is a Virus

Windows PC AID

Rouge Killer Finding some of the virus remnants.

Rouge Killer

Rouge Killer

Simple fix:

MVP’s Hosts File
EMsi Soft Emergency Kit
Rogue Killer
Microsoft Essentials
unhide.exe

In this exact order is the way I did it. Just one scan with each and the fake virus scanners were all gone.

About Windows Patches and Service Packs

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Windows Update has always been a great offer from Microsoft. You can just click a shortcut and install teh latest drivers that have been accepted by Microsoft, for your computer. Along with driver updates, you also get software patches and security patches. Many of these updates could very well be needed. And with lots of Microsoft software, You can not use the software without having automatic updates turned on.

The issues I have, is that your computer is constantly checking for update, or on set specific dates you have automatic updates configured to always check. Usually found control panel, but labeled differently depending on what version of windows you are using. If you have an internet provider with a limited monthly bandwidth, automatic updates could cause some issues. I have been using windows since 3.11, and since updates came about, I found that my computers always run their best and their fastest when I do a fresh install, turn off automatic updates and personally go to all manufacturer sites and get the drivers myself. So far the only operating system service pack I have ever used that worked well, was xp service 3. The first two patches nearly left my computers (at the times) crawling and needing upgrades just to continue being useable.

I don’t believe that every security patch scare is for the reason they claim. Otherwise they would fully announce that windows genuine advantage, actually gave you a genuine advantage.

If I can’t use software I paid for, with updates turned off, then I will not buy any products form that provider again. Easier explained, I have wine installed to my Linux partition so I can run some tools along side of some of the Linux tools I have, and well, without some of what the software may be looking for, it will not run.

I claim that from here on out, I will never buy software that forces me to turn on automatic updates. I enjoy my computer running at full speed. You can do what ever you feel safe with.

netsession_win.exe Uninstall

Posted onAuthorTruXter11 Comments

netsession_win.exe
popped up on thousands of firewalls yesterday.
I am not sure but I assume it is all people who do not have a router with a built in fire wall.
found a post of how to uninstall netsession_win.exe

To remove it, this is the file path. Enter it into Search on the Start menu and there is an Uninstall.exe file in the folder.

C:usersUSERNAME HEREappdatalocalakamai

It prompts that the uninstall will possibly cause problems with downloads or streams and that you may be prompted to re-install at a later date.

Not sure what it will effect, but that is the method I found to uninstall netsession_win.exe.
So do it at your own risk

Many people saw that their firewall blocked it while playing video games. or doing something that is streaming. Could be part of Netflix so if your netflix goes down from this, Remember I said “at your own risk”. Some say it might be iTunes. Currently there is no confirmation as to where this comes from. As many people say they haven’t recently installed anything on their computer. Some suspect netsession_win.exe is an automatic update.

Others think that netsession_win.exe is a virus or malware. Some weirdo said something about a conspiracy.
I have uninstalled it and I am running fine. Haven’t found any programs unable to function just yet. but I am on a computer at the office. So…. Can’t really do much. I don’t have any media streaming software nor do I have any games installed.
Here is the site claiming responsibility of the netsession win.exe
Check with akamai site and see if the software is being used by someone who knows it’s exploits, and see if you have anything on their list, that might be installed on your computer. I suggest you read it carefully.

 

Here is a Quote from the akamai site:

 

The Akamai NetSession Interface DOES:

  • provide client networking technology to enable applications to enhance their video and file download capabilities.
  • enable secure, closed peer-to-peer networking so that websites can deliver files to their users economically and with faster downloads.
  • provide in-depth information about what the Akamai NetSession Interface does and how it works.
  • provide simple ways for the user to turn the netsession interface off
  • provide a simple uninstall process
  • provide an AdminTool for the user to see utilization system resources and client activity

It DOES NOT:

  • monitor your browsing or other Internet activity
  • pop-up ads
  • interrupt your web viewing experience with prompts or other annoying software tactics
  • interfere with other applications on your machine
  • hide itself on your system
  • take over your computer, nor monopolize your computer’s resources

Is there any way to see the Akamai NetSession Interface’s networking activity and other settings?
The Akamai NetSession Interface has an advanced settings interface. Most users can access the administrative tool in C:Program FilesCommon FilesAkamaiAdminTool.exe

  • Launch AdminTool from the command line
  • AdminTool supports information about cached files, network activity, and other applications utilizing the client library
  • AdminTool also provides ability to uninstall and turn the client off