This free antivirus protection only needs you to have licensed Windows OS running on your computer for you to be able to install it. It supports Windows XP and later releases including Windows Vista and Windows 7. Regarding reliability, there’s not much to say as I’ve been only using it for a few weeks on Windows 7 platform without any other Antivirus program running but so far I’ve maintained my computer virus-free.

Microsoft Security Essentials can get automatic updates, performs real time detection, and other basic antivirus function. It has a comprehensive malware database and a simple graphical user interface. It runs very quitely in the background and does not compromise with computer performance since it’s light in resources.

Microsoft did get certifications by WestCoastLabs and other security company. Hence, I guess it’s no harm in giving this program a try, especially if you want to forget having to spend any money for antivirus subscription like me.

Just enough is more. Get Microsoft Security Essentials

Many files in the internet are compressed using WinRar. Some of them are splitted into different parts using the program. As a user, you might wonder how you can extract those WinRar archives without having to install WinRar since the program itself isn’t free. It’s a shareware which you can use until forever but to avoid getting annoying message after the trial is over, you might consider a switch.

Fortunately there are two free alternatives that are worth to be used in order to deal with Rar files. The first one is 7zip. 7zip is an open source Windows utility for manipulating archives and it works with 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2, and TAR. For the other formats like WinRar, this utility is able to unpack them. To learn more about 7zip, here’s the website.

The second one is IZArc. Like 7zip, it supports many format and has the ability to unpack WinRar files. Just make sure that you don’t install additional unneeded software that comes with the installation file. Visit Izarg.org to learn more about this utility.

These two software are similar but if you want a very friendly user interface IZArc seems to have the advantages.

A: This problem can be solved by using portable Firefox (since you don’t want or can’t install anything in the first place). The basic idea is we are going to embed Macromedia Flash Player into the Firefox using an unconventional method.

• Firstly, download portable Firefox from portableapps’ website. Run the file and follow instructions on screen. Check if you can run the portable Firefox before proceeding to the next step.
• Download Flash Player .xpi version from Macromedia => Link
• Change the file extension from .xpi to .zip by renaming it as flashplayer-win.zip
• Since you now have it as a .zip archive, extract the files in the archive to a folder.
• Copy the files flashplayer.xpt and NPSWF32.dll to the plugin folder inside your Portable Firefox folder:

FirefoxPortable\App\Firefox\plugins

Run the now flash-embedded Portable Firefox. You can view flash file anywhere you want on Windows-based PC without having to install anything as long as you have the portable Firefox with you.

The method of embedding flash player above can also be applied to the standard version of Firefox.

Now we can search Rapidshare for valid files in real time.

Crawlrapidshare.com is a service that help rapidshare users to search file that is still available for downloading, thus saving our time from attempting to download deleted/invalid files.

• Enter your search term in the search box provided. Tick the checkbox to check files for validity. You will get results like below.

Valid files:

Invalid files:

Simply click on the link of the file you want to download to go to its download page.

Basically, if you have problem to retrieve the TAC, you won’t be able to do your online transaction.

Tip 1:

Do online transaction at non-peak hours such as after office hours to avoid Maybank2u’s server traffic congestion. TAC request delay (which might get you into headache) usually occur during busy period such as from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Also, try not to do your transactions during the end of the month where lots of people use this online banking service to pay their bills and loans. This is busy period too.

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What if you encounter Maybank TAC request problem such as delay?

Tip 2:

Request the TAC once. Wait for the TAC while keeping you from getting logout from Maybank2u website automatically. If you don’t want to wait:

1. Call Maybank if you face the problem during their banking office hours (8 a.m. – 4 p.m.). They will help you.
2. Leave your house and get TAC via ATM. Note that TAC valid only for 2 hours upon request so you need to do your online transactions within the period of time.
3. Else, refer to Maybank2u website here on how to retrieve the TAC using Kawanku Phone Banking. Interestingly, you can retrieve it via voice response if you are subscribed to this specific service.

The good thing is there’s still a way to download songs or music from IMEEM despite the download function has been replaced with suspicious advertisement such as Love Calculator after being clicked. The concept is when the music file is streamed, parts of it are already downloaded in our computer in order for the internet browser to play. What we need is a software that will save the file for us before deletion.

Free Music Zilla is the first tool for social music downloading; enables us to download free music from IMEEM, Last.fm, Pandora, Myspace, eSnips, Mog, iJigg, Radio.blog.club, and almost all social music services.

Highlights:

1) Able to download social music from all social music library like Last.fm, IMEEEM, Pandora, etc with ease

2) Break the limitation of anti-leech technology and is able to integrated into all major internet browsers

3) Light (691kb), system resource friendly and contains no adware, virus or spyware.

At first, I had small expectation for this little program but later on I realized that it really walks its talk. Screenshot below is to prove that Free Music Zilla works at the time this post was written.

Interested? It’s advised that readers use this tool to download free music/song files only, not the illegal ones.

Free Music Zilla Homepage | Download Link

Important tip: Download the file as soon as it starting to load. Don’t wait until timeout.

Basically, you’ll need to hire a translator for those purposes. However, at Citcat.com you are provided with a facitility to convert any Malay language text into English or English text to Malay for free. The only disadvantage is it cannot provide 100% correct translation though.

How to use the service?

1. Go to Citcat.com and choose your desire language.
2. Choose your viewing mode (I prefer classic for simplicity)
3. Go to Translation tab.
4. Enter the text into the text field (max: 100 words), choose your option (English -> Malay / Malay -> English) and you will get the text translated.

Sample result:

Usually, you have to do several steps to get things done such as copying the video url, etc until you get the download window open. Save your time with free version of RealPlayer 11. The new version of the media player provides video downloading integration to your internet browsers, stable video downloading, and .flv format support for everyday video downloading convenience!

It takes only a few minutes to install, make to sure to enable Web Downloading and Recording first in your preferences later on. Change will take effect when you restart your internet browser and you will see download button on the top of the video you display.

To utilize the utility:

1) Click on the download button

2) A window will appear and your video will be downloaded right away. You can also rename the video to your liking and play the video from there. Manage the video by viewing My Library.

3) Default download folder

Most of the reason for this problem would likely because of scratched CD/DVD and there were also minor cases where it was due to copy protection being used on those media.

To solve the problem stated in the title of this blog post, you need to evaluate several software for Windows-based PC and see which one is able to solve your misery.

The first software I’d recommend is Isobuster. It supports CD / DVD/ BD / HD DVD formats and common file-systems. It is free (fully functional demo) and are able to copy files from discs with bad sectors.

Other software that has similar functions with Isobuster is Blindwrite6 which is capable of retrieving files from CD/DVD with bad sectors and also create an .iso (image file) in your hard disk to reproduce a working copy of your media to avoid the problem above. (Screenshot below). The major drawback of this software is it is limited by a time trial unless you buy yourself a copy of it.

If the two software above failed you, the last effort on my recommendation would be to use CloneCD. CloneCD is quite useful when you accidentally applied certain type of Copy Protection when writing your disc, which according to the way it works, might report bad sector at 99% during file transfer process although the file you wish to copy could be run perfectly from the disc.

In short, CloneCD backs up your music, data, or navigation CDs, regardless if they are copy protected or not.

The above are only general ideas on how you could work out the problem.

You could also, for example be creative by using Camtasia to record video file played on your computer screen if you cannot copy the video file directly from your disc for personal use.

Software links: IsoBuster | Blindwrite | CloneCD | Camtasia

I personally use MiniLyrics by Crinsoft for the purpose. The reasons why I’ve chosen (not endorsed) the software are:

1) Easy to install and use

2) Never ending trials (*the only drawback is the reminder that appear once early in the lyric window each time the song is started to be played, but considering the time it saved me from not going to lyric sites, 1:1)

3) Compatible with major media players (Realplayers, Winamp, WMP, etc)

4) Huge lyrics database that consists lyrics of both local and international (English) songs

5) Smooth synchronization between lyrics and songs

So what I did was equipping Itunes player installed on my Vista-based computer with the program. You just need to download it from the homepage, read the simple instruction provided, install the software, and get it running. (Should be done within few minutes).

*Don’t forget to allow the software to connect to the internet if you’re using a firewall program.

Screenshot: