Repair & Fix Windows 7 & Vista problems with FixWin Utility

We are pleased to release a first-of-its-kind  application for Windows 7 & Vista: FixWin. FixWin is a 529 KB freeware portable application to repair & fix common Windows annoyances & issues. FixWin detects whether you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed and accordingly offers you the relevant fixes only.

While there were several tutorials and how-to’s already available on the Internet to deal with such annoyances, FixWin  as a single utility was conceptualized, to fix some of the common annoyances which may be faced by a Windows user.

Does your Recycle Bin not refresh correctly? Or maybe you find that for some reason your right click context menu has been disabled in Internet Explorer! Or perhaps things are not fine with your Windows Media Center and you need to flush & rebuild Windows Media Center database! Maybe you opted to be not-warned while deleting Sticky Notes and you now want the warning dialog box back! Or then perhaps, post a malware attack you find that your task manage or cmd or your Registry Editor has been disabled! Fixes for these and many more such common Windows problems are being offered here.

The solutions to repair and fix 50 common Windows annoyances, issues & problems have been categorized under 5 tabs, viz : Windows Explorer, Internet & Connectivity, Windows Media, System Tools & Misc Additional Fixes.

50 problems … 1 solution … FixWin is the Windows Doctor all have been waiting for! 

How to use this application:

1. We first suggest that you run the System File Checker Utility. The button provided on the Welcome page, will ‘run sfc /scannow‘ and will check for and replace any corrupted Windows system files. It is expected to take anywhere from 5-10 minutes. If asked to, do reboot.

2. Next we insist that you create a System Restore Point. The provided button will create one, called Safe Point. We always recommend that you create one before making any changes to your system. Should you wish or need too, you can always go back to this Safe Point.

3. Having done that, apply at most one fix at a time and restart your computer. Please check if things are to your satisfaction; and if not, you have the option of restoring back immediately.

Read & watch what Fox8Live News has to say about The Windows Club & FixWin HERE.

FixWin Utility v 1.2 has been developed my MVP colleague Ramesh Kumar, for The Windows Club

Download

Source : http://www.thewindowsclub.com/

Get a PAN card when the child turns 18

Permanent Account Number (PAN) is issued by the Income Tax authorities and is a mandatory requirement for financial transactions. If investments are intended to be made in the name of minor children, the PAN card of the guardian is adequate. However, once the child attains the age of 18, he has to fulfil the PAN requirements. So an application for a PAN card should be made when the child turns 18 to ensure that minor accounts and folios are converted to regular, individual accounts. Before transactions are permitted in such accounts and folios, it is mandatory to provide proof of PAN.

Application

The application for a new PAN card can be filled online and can be downloaded at http://tinyurl.com-/8bkd4

Acknowledgement form

An acknowledgement form with a 15-digit code is generated on successful completion of online application. This should be printed and affixed with the photograph and signature of applicant.
Documents

The documentary proof of address and identification will be required in the name of the applicant. It should be sent along with the acknowledgement, supporting documents and demand draft, if used, to the NSDL office in Pune.

Payment and tracking

The charge for a new PAN is Rs 94. Payment can be made online or through demand draft.The status of the application can be tracked online by using the 15-digit acknowledgement code.

POINTS TO NOTE

Deadline: The documents should be sent to the processing unit within 15 days of the completion of the online process.

Subject matter: The 15-digit code with the words 'Application for PAN' should be written on the envelope while sending to the dispatch centre.

Tax: Acquiring a PAN does not mean that income tax has to be paid. A PAN holder can be a nonassessee, depending on his income or sources.

New Banking ATM usage Rules

Over the last couple of years, the way you carry out your banking transactions has changed a lot, particularly via the new-age, technology-enabled platforms. Be it making payments online, swiping your cards at shopping outlets or withdrawing cash from ATMs (automated teller machines) – all routine transactions have become more user-friendly and secure, if not foolproof. This is thanks largely to the Reserve Bank of India's regulations to strengthen the safety infrastructure for such transactions and the steps taken by banks to encourage the use of such alternative channels instead of bank branches.

Banks are keen that ATMs are seen as more than just cash-dispensing machines. A considerable number of regulatory interventions aimed at bolstering the new-age payment framework has pertained to ATMs. Consequently, the usage of ATMs is reported to have gone up. "Post the changes in the regulation on ATM usage, we have seen an approximate four-fold increase in non-Standard Chartered customers accessing our ATMs," says Rajashree Nambiar, general manager, distribution, Standard Chartered Bank. 

Concurs Shalini Mehta, executive vice-president, Kotak Mahindra Bank: "ATM usage has certainly gone up. The total transactions have increased by 106% since April 2009. Customers have adapted to ATMs as one of the most preferred channels for basic banking transactions." To make the most of this conducive environment, however, you need to be well-acquainted with all the regulations, especially the ones introduced in the recent months, governing ATM transactions. 

LIMITING FREE TRANSACTIONS 

First, the most recent stricture from the banking regulator – and the one that may not bring cheer to those who used their cards at ATMs of various banks indiscriminately even for nonfinancial transactions – concerns transactions at third-party ATMs. From October 2009 till June 30, card holders were allowed to carry out five free transactions per month, subject to certain limits, at third-party ATMs. However, there was no limit on non-financial transactions like balance enquiry and mini-statement. 

But, effective from July 1, the free transactions will be inclusive of even non-financial operations. Any user exceeding the cap of five free transactions will be charged even for balance enquiries, mini-statements, et al. HDFC Bank, for instance, charges Rs 20 per transaction for cash withdrawal and Rs 8.50 for non-financial transactions from accountholders exceeding the free usage limit at third-party ATMs. "For savings account holders maintaining an average balance of Rs 10,000 or more, all third-party ATM transactions are free. For others, we charge Rs 20 per incremental cash withdrawal and Rs 10 for non-financial transaction after they have used their five free services per month. 

But, for certain types of accounts (premium) the charges are waived off," says Sumant Kathpalia, head, consumer banking, IndusInd Bank. But, not all banks have such a differential charge structures and could levy the same charges for all kinds of transactions. 

ALERTS FOR ALL TRANSACTIONS 

Also effective from July 1 is another customer-friendly measure that could minimise the damage caused by misuse of lost or stolen cards. Now, banks have been asked to send SMS alerts to their customers for all transactions carried out using the card – be it online, at merchant establishments or at ATMs. Prior to this, banks sent alerts only if the value of transactions exceeded a certain limit, usually Rs 5,000. With this facility being extended to all transactions, you will be in a better position to take immediate remedial measure, that is block the lost/stolen card in case of a fraudulent transaction executed without your knowledge or consent. 

COMPENSATION STRUCTURE 

There have been many complaints of a card holder's account being debited despite the ATM not dispensing cash. Likewise, it is also not rare to see some banks drag-ging their feet over rectifying the erroneous debit. Therefore, the RBI has directed banks to resolve such issues in seven working days of a complaint being made, failing which the banks will have to pay a compensation of Rs 100 for each day of delay beyond the seven stipulated days. Before July 1, banks were given 12 days to correct wrong debits caused by ATM problems. However, do note that to be eligible for the compensation, you need to make the complaint within 30 days of the failed transaction. 

PIN FOR ALL ATM TRANSACTIONS 

From January 1, the RBI has mandated that users will have to enter their PIN for every transaction at ATMs. Earlier, you could carry out several transactions by entering the PIN just once. This effectively rules out the possibility of anyone withdrawing cash from your account in case you forgot your debit card at the ATM.

FREEING UP OF THIRD-PARTY ATMS

A regulatory change that played a key role in the explosion of ATM transactions in the country, it was implemented first in April 2009. The diktat permitted users to access all ATMs – even the ones not owned by the banks where they maintained accounts – at no cost. While very few are ignorant of this liberty they are allowed to exercise, not many have grasped the nitty-gritty.

In October 2009, however, this flexibility was curtailed to an extent when the RBIacceded to banks' requests to place restrictions on the extent of free usage. Since then, card holders have been allowed to withdraw cash up to Rs 10,000 per transaction at thirdparty ATMs free of charge. Also, free transactions at third-party ATMs have been limited to just five a month. Users carrying out more than five transactions a month will have to shell out a fee, usually about Rs 20 per transaction. As mentioned earlier, from July 1, non-financial transactions, too, will be included in this cap of five free transactions.

NOT JUST 'ANY TIME MONEY'

Banks, in an attempt to reduce the number of customers visiting branches, have enabled several services that can be availed of at ATM kiosks and, of course, bank websites. These services are not mandated by RBI regulations hence are not quick-impact ones. But such efforts by banks have also helped in shedding the perception that the sole function of ATMs is to dispense cash. Many banks allow users to perform functions like paying utility bills, fund transfers, donations to charities, etc through ATMs. "Our accountholders, for instance, can perform multiple transactions like pre-paid mobile top-up, fund transfer to any Stan-Chart account, request for cheque book or account statement, cash or cheque deposit (at select ATMs), online/mobile banking registration, etc," says Nambiar of StanChart.

Source: Economic Times  &  www.investmentkit.com

Back Pain - Health Tips

What does pain tell you? Is all pain the same? Below you can find more information on what pain is. Understanding back pain is the first step towards taking control of back pain.

Pain as a warning signal or not?

If you, accidentally, cut your finger with a knife, you experience pain. This pain signal is triggered in the cells of the tissue in your finger that are being damaged by the sharp knife. Although unpleasant, the pain is actually a useful response from your body since it alerts you that your finger is damaged and you need to take action to prevent further damage and/or ensure recovery from the damage. This is called acute pain. Similarly, when you sprain a muscle in your back, you will feel a sudden jolt of pain. Again this pain signal warns you need to take action in order to recover or prevent further damage.

However, persistent back pain is very different from the above examples. Persistent pain no longer acts as a warning signal and it does not refer to any tissue damage. The warning system goes into overdrive and sends out repeated pain signals, which are not needed or are out of proportion. The pain signals in persistent pain, also called chronic pain, no longer serve a useful purpose. But nevertheless you experience pain and it is virtually impossible to distinguish the useful pain signals from the disruptive pain signals. However knowing that persistent pain is often not a warning signal, means that you can respond differently to the pain. While you may think that rest is best when experiencing pain, for persistent back pain it is actually much better to stay active. Knowing that your pain does not mean that any structures in your back have been seriously damaged can take away some of the concerns you may have about using your back while in pain.

Definition of pain

Pain is not only a physical response; your mind also plays an important role in how you perceive pain. One of the world's leading organisations in the area of pain research (the International Association for the Study of Pain, IASP) has defined pain as: ‘An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage’. In this definition you can see that pain is not only a signal that your body sends out in response to a certain trigger (a sensory experience) but also an emotional experience. In other words, how your mind responds to pain is an important aspect of how you perceive pain.

You may have heard of people overcoming great pain when their mind was focused on something else. This is a great example of how the mind or your emotions can influence your pain experience. Secondly the definition of the IASP also shows that pain could be, but is not necessarily associated with tissue damage. This refers to the difference, explained above, between acute pain and persistent or chronic pain.

Why self help?

The only person that lives with your back pain is yourself. Healthcare professionals and other practitioners can be very helpful in providing treatments and giving information and tips, but these people cannot be at your side 24 hours a day. This is where self-help techniques can play a big role. Many healthcare professionals, practitioners, or products, can help you with applying self help techniques. The list below contains some techniques that you may want to try.

Staying active

The best way of coping with back pain and preventing the pain from getting worse is to stay active. This may sound strange as staying active and moving around when you have back pain may be difficult. However, staying active or perhaps even increasing your levels of activity, prevents your body from de-conditioning. There is no need to start training for a marathon to achieve this, small changes in your daily activities will get you the benefits. Walk to the shops instead of taking the car, go for a swim in the local pool, take a nice long walk in the park, do some stretches when you wake up in the morning. All these simple measures can make a difference to your activity pattern and positively influence your back pain.

Pacing yourself

Back pain often comes and goes; you will have good and bad days. When you are having a good day (or a ‘least bad’ day) you may feel like doing a lot of things, from cleaning the house to doing the weekly shopping, from spending some more time at work to tidying up the garden. You may feel pressured to get all this work done before your pain increases. There is a chance you will over-do it and this may result in your having to take time off to recover from your increased back pain. 

To avoid this, you may better off trying to pace yourself. Try to spread your workload over a longer period of time. The chances are that by doing so you can lengthen the time that you can control your pain and have fewer flare-ups.

Prioritising and planning

Be clear about things that you have to do and try to plan them in advance. However, at the same time, allow for some flexibility because other things can get in the way. If you are clear about your priorities for the day, for the week or for the next time period, you will feel much more relaxed once you have achieved them. Planning also links in with pacing; plan your day carefully and try to avoid overdoing it and paying the price.

Set realistic goals

Be realistic about what you can achieve and set yourself a goal. You can set goals for the day, for the week or for a longer period of time. If you are not realistic about what you can achieve, you will get frustrated about not achieving your goals. You may find that when your back pain changes, you have to re-set your goals.

Relaxation techniques

Find ways of relaxing. This may be special relaxation exercises or just finding an activity that you enjoy and allows you to relax, such as reading a book, listening to music, meeting friends, meditation, walking, etc. Everyone needs to unwind once in a while and do not let back pain get in the way of your relaxing moments.

Exercise

Although some people with back pain may fear exercise, exercise is actually an important element of managing back pain. Regular exercise can decrease pain and discomfort, strengthen muscles and make you feel good. Find some exercises that you enjoy and that you feel are beneficial to you. Your health provider or exercise professional may be able to advise you on what exercise you can try. Remember that you may feel some discomfort after you have been exercising muscles that are unfit or under-used. This should disappear within a day or two and you should feel less discomfort once your body gets used to the exercises.

Pain diary

Back pain often comes and goes and you will have periods of fairly minimum pain and periods of flare-ups. If you maintain a pain diary in which you keep a record of when you experience pain and what you had been doing, you may start to see a pattern. This will allow you to identify activities or circumstances that result in increased pain and you can then find other ways of doing these activities to avoid the pain increases.

Other resources

In addition to the above tips and techniques, you may want to contact your local self-help group, consult with a healthcare professional, or try one of the many products and services available to people with back pain.


Courtesy : Backcare & http://tkbsen.blogspot.com/

Complete Windows Drivers Backup Before Re-installing or Formatting Windows

In computer systems, whatever may be the configuration of the system and whatever may be the version of Windows  operating system, we all know that drivers are one of the most important aspects for the system. Drivers are one of the major and key components in Windows systems that allow the operating system and some of the other programs to interact with the hardware. If you are assembling your own computer according to your needs and requirements then you will also need to install many drivers in your machine according to the hardware. Normally, all these hardware parts comes with their own drivers which must be installed. But, what if some day your OS gets corrupt and you need to reinstall it? Then, you will also need look again for all the drivers needed for them.

So, in order to provide a solution for this issue, we recommend you to take a complete backup for all the drivers installed in your system. For this, you can use one small and tiny tool named as Semper Driver Backup. It is basically a nice and it is available as a freeware tool for Windows. It allows you to take a complete backup for all the drivers in Windows and if in future there are any issues with the system then you can easily restore it back using the backup. By using this tool you can see all the installed drivers under Windows in your system.

This smart tool is very useful as it provides an easy-to-use driver backup and re-establishment utility to ensure that if there are any issues with your computer and if window crashes, then you’ll never have to find out these hardware drivers again. If we look into the working of this utility then we may observe that only with a single click it creates a folder on your system which contains every current driver installed on your system. Many systems also contain proprietary drivers that can be hard to track down and thus in that case this utility can prove to be even more useful. Now, once you have created a backup then you can simply reinstall those drivers whenever you need them in future and that with just a single click.

If you want to try out this smart utility then you can simply download it from the below given link. After installing it, you may see that it provides you an interface that allows to backup drivers to and from local systems. This tool starts working by first of all finding the list of all the windows drivers and after that simply backs up these drivers to a separate folder mentioned by the user.

Download Semper Driver Backup

Free Utility to Write Protect your USB Flash Drive

Viruses these days are tend to copy themselves to executable files. The common medium is USB  flash drives. It has now become the most common and seen everywhere that a virus is getting transferred from one computer to another.  Not all  antivirus software are able to detect whenever system detects a new device plugging in.

I still remember there were some old USB drives that used to come with write protect feature, a button that used to make a flash drive read only and nothing could be written or deleted from the drive after plugging in.  But unfortunately most of the new flash drives don’t come with such feature, maybe the manufacturers want to cut down the cost?

So, the only way to protect our USB flash drive is enable the write protect through our own PC. With USB Write Protector, you can turn on/off the write protect to a USB flash drive, which puts a drive in read-only mode when it’s connected to a computer.

You won’t be able to delete or create a new file inside the drive unless the write-protect is disabled using USB Write protector.

Download USB Write Protector

Find out Computer Battery Information with BatteryInfoView

BatteryInfoView is a small utility for laptops and netbook computers that displays the current status and information about your battery. The displayed battery information includes the battery name, manufacture name, serial number, manufacture date, power state (charging/discharging), current battery capacity, full charged capacity, voltage, charge/discharge rate, and more... 
BatteryInfoView also provides a log window, which adds a new log line containing the battery status every 30 seconds or any other time interval that you choose.

Using BatteryInfoView

BatteryInfoView doesn't require any installation process or additional dll files. In order to start using it, simply run the executable file - BatteryInfoView.exe

The main window of BatteryInfoView provides 2 view modes:

• Battery Information: (Press F7 to switch into this mode)
  Displays general status and information about your battery. The information is updated every 10 seconds by default, and you change this update rate in the 'Advanced Options' window (F9). There are 4 calculated fields that are updated only every 30 seconds or more.

• Battery Log: (Press F8 to switch into this mode)
  In this window, a new log containing the status of the battery (Power State, % Capacity, and so on) is added every 30 seconds. You can change the log interval in the 'Advanced Options' window (F9). A new log line is also added when the computer is suspended (standby/hibernate) and resumed, so you can easily find out in      which rate the battery is discharged while the computer is on standby mode.
• 
  

In both view modes, you can export the battery information into csv/tab-delimited/html/xml file, by using the 'Save Selected Items' option (Ctrl+S). You can also copy the information into the clipboard, and then paste it into Excel or other spreadsheet application.

Columns Description

• Battery Name: The name of your battery.
• Manufacture Name: The name of the company that manufactured the battery.
• Serial Number: The serial number of your battery. This value is displayed only if the battery supports it.
• Manufacture Date: The date that the battery was manufactured. This value is displayed only if the battery supports it.
• Power State: The current power state of the battery: Charging, Discharging, AC Power, or Critical.
• Current Capacity (in %): The current % capacity, which is the same capacity value displayed by Windows.
• Current Capacity Value: The current absolute capacity, which is usually displayed in mWh units (milliwatt-hours).
• Full Charged Capacity: The capacity of the battery, when it's fully charged. This value is usually displayed in mWh units (milliwatt-hours).
• Designed Capacity: The full capacity of the battery, when it's completely new.
• Battery Wear Level: The wear level of the battery, in % 
  The wear level of a new battery should be around 100%, and it gradually decreases. This value is calculated according to the 'Designed Capacity' and 'Full Charged Capacity' values.
• Voltage: Current battery voltage across the battery terminals, in millivolts.
• Charge/Discharge Rate: The current charge or discharge rate, usually displayed in milliwatts.
• Chemistry: Battery's chemistry: Lithium Ion, Nickel Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, and so on.
• Low Battery Capacity: Manufacturers suggestion of a capacity, in mWh, at which a low battery alert should occur.
• Number of charge/discharge cycles: Number of charge/discharge cycles the battery has experienced. This value is displayed only if the battery supports it.
• Remaining battery time for the current activity (Estimated): The remaining battery time according to the current activity. This value is calculated according to the change of the 'Current Capacity Value' in the last 30 seconds.
• Full battery time for the current activity (Estimated): The time that the battery can hold when it's fully charged, according to the current activity. This value is calculated according to the change of the 'Current Capacity Value' in the last 30 seconds.
• Remaining time for charging the battery (Estimated): The remaining time for charging the battery. This value is calculated according to the change of the 'Current Capacity Value' in the last 30 seconds.
• Total time for charging the battery (Estimated): The total time that you need to wait in order to charge the battery. (Displayed only when the battery is in 'charging' status) 
  This value is calculated according to the change of the 'Current Capacity Value' in the last 30 seconds.

Translating BatteryInfoView to other languages

In order to translate BatteryInfoView to other language, follow the instructions below:

1. Run BatteryInfoView with /savelangfile parameter: 
   BatteryInfoView.exe /savelangfile 
   A file named BatteryInfoView_lng.ini will be created in the folder of BatteryInfoView utility.
2. Open the created language file in Notepad or in any other text editor.
3. Translate all string entries to the desired language. Optionally, you can also add your name and/or a link to your Web site. (TranslatorName and TranslatorURL values) If you add this information, it'll be used in the 'About' window.
4. After you finish the translation, Run BatteryInfoView, and all translated strings will be loaded from the language file. 
   If you want to run BatteryInfoView without the translation, simply rename the language file, or move it to another folder.

License

This utility is released as freeware. You are allowed to freely distribute this utility via floppy disk, CD-ROM, Internet, or in any other way, as long as you don't charge anything for this and you don't sell it or distribute it as a part of commercial product. If you distribute this utility, you must include all files in the distribution package, without any modification !

Download 

Courtesy : http://www.nirsoft.net/