Turn Windows XP Into Media Center With Media Portal

I always wanted to try out Windows XP Media Center, but never actually got a chance. Today, while surfing the Internet, I stumbled across a very cool application that could turn your PC, or your TV into an advanced Media Center. It’s similar to the original XP Media Center, as it lets us listen to your favourite music & radio, watch and store your videos and DVDs, view, schedule and record live TV as a digital video recorder including much more.

Media Portal, a HTPC (Home-Theatre PC) software, is a free open-source application that provides us with user-friendly and a very easy-to-use interface to play, record your movies, listen to music and radio, watch pictures etc. It’s functionality can be expanded by using third-party plugins, that are built for Media Portal. Some examples of such plugins include: WebBrowser, Outlook software , Skype and etc.

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Google Hacks – The Ultimate Google Exploit Tool

Google is everyone’s favourite, and the most popular search engine. People from all over the globe use it. Mainly because, it is fast, simple and always gives relevant results. But how about adding a little more in search results? Would you like if you could refine those results to match even more personal criteria?

Google Hacks is such application that allows you to filter search results by showing you exactly what you are looking for: applications, videos, books, song lyrics, torrents and other file types and applications. This is a complete tool to perform specific kinds of searches. The word “hack” is not what we really think. This word is usually taken as to cause harm to other computers and applications. According to Wikipedia:

“A Hack is a modification of a program or device to give the user access to features otherwise were unavailable to them.”

Who in the world has time to memorize all the search modifiers like “-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:”index of” +”last modified” +”parent directory” +description +size +(.mp3|.wma|.ogg)”? This is where this little magic applications comes in. You can use it to find exactly the kind of files you’re looking for on Google.

Simply select the desired format, type your search query and (pressing Enter does not work) click the Search button. The results will open in a new window.

OS Compatibilty

This application is compatible with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP, Linux and Mac.

Download

Download Google Hacks 1.6 for Windows

Download Google Hacks 1.6 for Windows (Portable)

Download Google Hacks 1.6 for Linux

Download Google Hacks 1.6 for Mac

More download links can be found here.

I’ll leave the rest for you to explore.

Remember, use this application wisely. Don’t go searching for copyrighted files and MP3s using this tool. This tool is not intended for any illegal use.

Download UXtheme.dll Patch For Windows XP SP3

In spite of all the problems that have come with Windows XP SP3, people are still using it. If you are also one of them, then you must have noticed that your 3rd party Windows XP themes have not be working after installing service pack 3. That’s because the uxtheme.dll has been changed.

To fix this, you will need the UXtheme Patcher in order to run any 3rd party themes on Windows XP. Download it from here [direct link] and run the EXE file. Press the Patch button, and wait for a few seconds for it to patch. Now restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

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How To View Hidden Files And Folders In Windows

A while ago, I gave a quick tip on how to hide files or folders in Windows without using any application. Now you do know, that if you hide something and don’t know how to get it back could really get frustrating. So I thought it would be better to do another quick tip and tell how to view the files when we need to.

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Fix For Restart Bug In Windows XP SP3

If you’re an AMD processor users, you must have been greeted by the Blue Screen of Death, after installing Windows XP SP3 on rebooting their computer. The error begins with something like this: STOP: 0×0000007E (0xC0000005 and contains the error text SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED. And after this, the computers reboots again and keeps repeating this.

Windows XP SP3 apparently copies an Intel power management driver to the computer that was not there before the installation of SP3 and that is said to be the cause for the restart bug. But thanks to HP, a fix has been given for this bug.

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Enable Thumbnails For PSD Files

Recently, I really got frustrated when I needed a quick preview of a PSD file, and the folder where it was saved was full of PSD files. I needed the file urgently. Then, I ended up opening each file manually to see what it was. Later, after I got through my work. I Googled some ways to overcome this problem in the future.

Adobe Bridge is good, and can be used to view what’s in the PSD file, but it eats half of my RAM, so I usually ignore it. After Googling for about an hour, I was finally able to have thumbnails instead of those blue feathers.

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How To Hide Files And Folders In Windows

Windows, by default, has a feature that lets you make files and folders hidden. This is not the best way by which you could hide files and folders, but can come in handy at times. This is a quick tip that I would like to share with you all, in case if you didn’t knew about it.

To hide a folder or file, simply follow the steps below.

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bLend – Add Transparency To Your Windows

Windows Vista has a built-in feature for adding transparency in it. But Windows XP does not. Now you can render transparency in all your applications using this cool small application called bLend, by the programmer, Lord Devrexster.

The best part about this application is that you can filter out applications in which you don’t want to have transparent windows. So this can also be used in Vista, because Vista does not give you the option to choose applications for transparent windows. Overall, I found this application good, but there is one little draw back. It’s a resource hog! It eats lots of RAM.

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How To Install LimeWire Skins

LimeWire is the leading P2p sharing application and is one of the most widely used. LimeWire is said to be used more for sharing music and movies. In this post, I’ll tell you how you can install and use new themes in your LimeWire client. For some reason, I don’t like the default theme, so to get rid of this, I found a way through which I can install new themes.

How To Install LimeWire Skins

Assuming, you have already downloaded the theme file (.lwtp file) and is saved somewhere in your PC, below is the location for various Operating Systems where you have to copy/paste the theme file.

In Windows XP, go to

C:Documents and SettingsUSERNAMEApplication Data Limewirethemes

and paste the theme file. USERNAME is your Windows user account name.

In Windows Vista, go to

C:UsersUSERNAMEAppDataRoamingLimeWirethemes

and paste the theme file. USERNAME is your Windows user account name.

In Mac OSX, go to

Macintosh HDUsers:USERNAMELibraryPreferences LimeWireThemes

and paste the theme file. USERNAME is your user account name.

In Mac Classic, go to

System FolderPreferences.limewirethemes

and paste the theme file.

How To Use LimeWire Skins

After you’ve followed all the above steps, you can now use the skin in your LimeWire. If you don’t know where to enable them, follow the steps below:

• Open LimeWire
• Go to View
• Then Apply Skins (choose your new skin from here, first)
• Now select Refresh Skins (from Apply Skins menu)
• Done!

That was pretty easy, eh? Keep a look out on this blog because I’ll soon share some LimeWire themes too. Subscribe to the RSS feed so that you don’t miss them.

Free RapidShare Premium Account Giveaway

Hey readers, I just got over with the free domain giveaway, and now I’ll soon be giving away a 1 month free RapidShare Premium account. Subscribe to my RSS feed so that you don’t miss out this chance!

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