How to remove solid background color from desktop icons?

Desktop icons with blue background color looks so bad and annoying. It makes desktop look tacky with lot of irritating blue color splashed on beautiful desktop wallpaper. You can easily remove this background color from desktop icons and make the background transparent.

Make desktop icons background transparent

1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel. Then double click on System Icon, system properties window will open.
2. Click on Advanced tab in System properties window.

3. Click Settings button next to performance option.
4. Under Visual effects tab, check (or tick) option “Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop”. Background color of desktop icons will be set to transparent instead of ugly looking solid blue color.

You only need to perform above in Windows XP powered computer. Desktop icon background is set to transparent by default in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

HopeDot VOS: Portable Virtual OS For Windows + Giveaway

Virtual machine is a good way to test out your applications without affecting the main host system. The disadvantage is that they are mostly desktop-bound and require you to allocate tens of gigabytes of space to it. If you are looking for a quick, small and portable virtual solution, Hopedot VOS could be the one you are looking for. And yes, we have free license keys to give away for this great software.

Hopedot VOS enables you to create a virtual environment similar to Windows OS. In this virtual environment, you can install and run applications, or browse and bookmark your favorite sites as you do on Windows OS. In short, you can do nearly everything on it as you do on your Windows OS. Most importantly, Hopedot VOS can be installed on any storage devices, including your USB drive (or any external hard drive) and you can use it on any PC (running Windows).

There are several editions of VOS. For this review and giveaway, we will be discussing the VOS Security Edition.
Note: Hopedot VOS is only available for 32-bit Windows.

Installation

Download the installer. Unzip the file and run the installer. While installing, it will prompt you to select the device to install VOS. If you want to install to your USB drive, make sure you insert the drive into your USB port before you start the installation. You need to have at least 115MB of free space to install VOS.

The next screen will prompt you to specify the amount of space you want to allocate for VOS. The minimum is 100MB. Next, create your login password. This is the password to run Hopedot VOS, not the password to login to your VOS account.

Usage

Once the installation is completed, you can start by launching the SUHopedot VOS. A window will pop up to ask you for the login password (the one you have created previously).

On the first run, you will have to create a VOS account (this is similar to the user account in Windows) and setup the data security management password. The data security management allows you to access the host system and import/export files from/to it.
After that, you can then login to the VOS with this newly created account.

After you have logged in, the desktop will show up and you can operate it like any other Windows OS. For most VOS related options, you will be able to access via the top toolbar.

From here, you will be able to download and install the applications you need or do whatever you want. When you exit VOS, the session will be destroyed and all your temporary files will be deleted. The installed applications will still remain though.
To access the files from the Host machine, you will have to click the “Import Files” button in the top toolbar. Once you enter your data security management password, you will be able to select and import files into the VOS.

To exit the VOS, click the “Exit” button in the top toolbar.

Wrapping up

As can be seen, VOS is a useful software that allows you to create a virtualize environment quickly and bring it everywhere you go. One thing that impresses me is its speed. I installed it in my Windows virtual machine (with only 2GB of RAM allocated to it) and it runs as fast as the native apps. In addition, it doesn’t slow down the whole system as well, which makes it a very useful and handy tool.

Giveaway

The developers of Hopedot VOS has gladly sponsored 10 license keys for the VOS (Security Edition) to be given away to Make Tech Easier’s readers. Here is how you can win your copy:
1. Go to our Facebook page and click the Giveaway code. You will need to “like” our Facebook page in order to access the code.
Alternatively, if you are not a Facebook user, you can also check out our Twitter stream and Google+ page for the code.
2. Enter the form below, together with the giveaway code. This form allows us to contact you if you are the lucky one to win the prize.

• Name*
• Email*
• Activation Code*
  You can find the activation code at our Facebook page

3. Share this post in either Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus.
That’s it.
Contest ends September 10th, 2012.
Thanks to the Hopedot Team for the kind sponsorship. If you would like to sponsor a giveaway, do contact us here.
VOS Security Edition is available for $69.

 

How to Add Safe Mode to The Windows 8 Boot Menu

 

 Safe mode is something present in every Windows version since Windows 95 came out. It has helped millions of geeks diagnose issues with their systems by loading only the bare essentials required for Windows to run. This mode, although 

 convenient on its own, is annoying to access and might really bum out those who don’t have the patience to try loading it with the “F8″ key on their keyboards. Early versions of the software don’t show a lot of promise to making this process any easier. It seems like you’re going to have to get around this. With Windows 8, you can actually add the option to start in safe mode to the boot menu when you turn on your computer. Let’s see how!

The Process

For this procedure, you’ll have to use the command line to try and figure out some environmental variables as well as use them within a command that can add the safe mode to your boot menu. All chit chat aside, let’s get to work:
1. Start by going into Metro and type “cmd“. The command line’s icon should show up on the left side.
 



2. Right-click the command line icon. An “options” bar should show up at the bottom of your screen.

3. Click “Run as.” This runs the command line as administrator, at least in the Release Preview. We’re not sure whether Microsoft will include a menu that lets you pick “Administrator” from a list of options in the final build, so if that would show up in your Windows 8 version, pick “Administrator.” In the Developer Preview, you must click “Advanced” and then click “Run as Administrator.” Sorry about the confusion. Like with any pre-release builds, there are lots of quirks where the company developing the software attempts to make up its mind about features.
4. Confirm that you want to run “cmd” in the UAC prompt that comes up when the computer switches you to the desktop.
5. Type

bcdedit /enum /v

in the command line. A load of information will show up. You’ll have to learn how to copy and paste a piece of it in the command line, which is something slightly different to copying and pasting in a desktop application environment.
6. To copy the information you need, right-click somewhere in the text body and click “Mark.” Drag the mouse through the data next to “identifier” under “Windows Boot Loader.” Press “Enter” and it will copy the information to your clipboard. If you have no idea what information I’m asking you to copy, just look at the image below:

7. Now, type

bcdedit /copy

put a space after it, right-click anywhere on the command line, and click “Paste.” After the identifier, place another space and type

/d Windows 8 (Safe Mode)

You can call it whatever you want if you want to be original, but you might risk not remembering what it’s there for if you don’t use it often.
8. Close the command line, go into Metro again, type “msconfig,” and press “Enter.”
9. Go into the “boot” tab and select the safe mode item.
10. Select “Safe boot” under “Boot options.” If you want to be able to use the Internet during safe mode, select “Networking” instead of “Minimal” under “Safe boot.” Click “OK” after you’ve finished all that. You will have to restart your computer.
Speaking of Internet, you can choose to repeat this process to add a separate “safe mode” with networking capabilities and call it “Safe Mode With Networking.” It’s up to you! Here’s the result of our (sort of) little tutorial:

 

Use Windows Parental Controls To Limit And Monitor Online Activities

For many parents, the most distressing time is often the time when their kids are using the computer. They have no idea what their kids are doing online and whether they are picking up bad habits from the Web. Thankfully, Windows has a built-in parental control tool that allows the parents to control what their children can and cannot access.

Setup A Child Account

Assuming you are holding the Administrator account for your Windows computer, you can setup a restricted a user account for your kids and limit their access to only certain parts of the operating system.
To create an account for your children, click on the Windows Start button and type in “Add User”. From the list, select “Add Or Remove User Accounts”.

When the window opens, click “Add New User” and enter the child’s name. Keep the default of Standard User and finish by clicking “Create Account”. The accounts can be customized for each child or made to cover a broader spectrum for all of the children. If you want one account for each child, repeat the setup step for each child.

Setting up Parental Controls

When in the accounts page, you’ll see the “Set Up Parental Controls tab” below the user names. Click that to open the Windows Live Family Safety options. You’ll need to sign in to your Windows Live account to set permissions or create an account before moving on. Click on the username that you want to monitor and you’ll see that the account by default blocks adult sites and turns activity reporting on. To change settings for the user or to make user specific settings, click on the Familysafety.live.com link, then click on Edit Settings under the user.

Setting Limits

Maybe you don’t want to block certain sites altogether but you want to limit the time your children spend on them. That’s easy to do in the settings for each category and it’s linked across Bing, Google, Yahoo, as well as other popular search engines to ensure the settings remain standard across all platforms.

Web Filtering

If blocking adult sites is too generic and you want to be more specific about the sites your child visits, setting up web filtering may be more helpful. There are several options to choose from like blocking file downloads, allowing your child to visit only sites that you put on an allowed site list, allowing sites that are only designated for children, and allowing or blocking social networking, web chats, and web mail. I will be using that next time I ground my teens to make sure there’s no way of them sneaking online to social media sites when I’m not home!

Blocking Sites

If you want to block or allow only certain sites, in the Web Filtering tab, click on Web Filtering Lists. Here you can enter the URL of any site. Choose to block or allow it, and choose what user it’s set for. You can also use the lists you create for other users or import a list from another user to help save time.

Activity Reporting

The reporting needs to be active for a short time before it will start to display usage report, so get it setup before you plan to start monitoring the user. Some may find this setting to be invasive but as a parent, you can never be too careful about where your children are going online or how much time they spend there. Within the Activity tab, there are several sub-sections where you can break down how the data is displayed.

Web Activity

The Web Activity tab will display the web addresses of sites the user had visited along with any actions taken on the site, when they last visited the site, and how may visits within a certain date range. This is a handy tool to have so you can see if your child is having trouble getting homework done due to distractions. It’s also handy if your child is doing a research project and forgets the site they were on. You can use this list to track that site down to be bookmarked for future reference.

PC Activity

To see a list of PC activities for a specific user, click on that tab and you’ll see a summary of how long the user was online during a specific date range, how many apps they used, any file downloads, and any games played.

Time Limits

Some of the settings are geared toward younger children but it’s the teenagers who push the limits and find ways around your rules or punishments. Let the time limits section of the controls help you to enforce those rules. The setting is turned off by default, so navigate to the tab and set a curfew for using the computer to allow only the times you want them to have access. Be sure to set secure passwords to your other user accounts so they won’t be able to go around the curfew by using your account.

Game Restrictions

In the Game Restrictions tab, you can use a rating system to determine the type of games that are okay for the user. Everything from Early Childhood to Adults Only games are represented here. Highlight the ones you want to enforce for the user and then save your settings.

If you prefer a different rating system, click on the tab to “Choose A Different Game Rating System”. A lengthy list of rating systems will be available to choose from. Below is just a sample of the options.

As with the Web Activity section, you can choose to block or allow specific games instead of relying on a rating system to be the judge for you.

Apps

If you desire, you can block or allow any apps running on your computer from a user. I didn’t see the use for blocking apps from other users until I realized the hidden benefit – the ability to block all web browsers. If I have restricted permissions for my child to use the computer but they try to when I’m not around, I could look at the activity log and see that they were online but they have already had their fun. By blocking the web browsers, they can’t get online at all, reinforcing my rule to not be online.

Multiple PC’s

If your household has multiple PC’s you should set up the Family Safety on all of them. You don’t have to enter all of the information again for each computer. All you have to do is associate all of the PC’s a child uses and the Family Safety software will generate a single report showing all of the activity and which PC it came from.
In the Family Safety link, click on Family Summary. At the bottom of that page, you’ll see Your Devices. All devices you want to associate to your account need to have the Family Safety software downloaded to them but there’s a link within that section that allows you to do so. Then you can add and remove PC’s from the list as needed.

Conclusion

Digging into the settings of your computer isn’t as scary as you think. With just a few minutes of setup and configuring each user’s permissions, you’re ready for an indefinite benefit. Monitoring your children’s computer use isn’t always practical and can be daunting. Using and setting the parental controls will give you peace of mind that anything your kids are doing online is already approved and the time they spend is only as much as you have allowed.

How To Setup, Connect, and Accept Remote Desktop Connections In Windows 7

Microsoft Remote Desktop Manager for Windows 7 allows you to connect to any computers in your network. This allows access to files, documents and Network resources on each PC as though you were sitting directly in front of it, regardless of the location.
Begin by allowing access to the workstation. If your OS doesn’t have it already installed, the Standard Edition is free and can be downloaded quickly. It has all the main features most people would need to connect to a remote computer. If you need something more heavy-duty, there is a paid Enterprise version for connection needs such as VPN. Here is a walk through of how to setup the free Standard Edition of Remote Desktop.

Setup For Remote Desktop Connections

1. Go to the “Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts (If they are enabled) -> System & Security“.


 
2. Under System, select the Allow Remote Access Tab.

3. When you enable the Remote Desktop, you have two options:

• Select “Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop” and click Apply. This option is for having more than one version of Remote Desktop enabled.
• If you have a single version of Remote Desktop running, simply select the last option.  “Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication“

4. Click the “Select Users” button, followed by the Add button.

5. Next, we will select the users who will have access to the Remote Manager. Choose ”Advanced -> Find Now”. A drop down list will be displayed where you can select the users, computer or domain name that can be granted access. Click on the name who will be given access and click OK to save your changes.

6.  Click OK 3 times to exit all of the open windows and begin the Connection steps below.
Note: To revoke a users permissions to access Remote Desktop, select the account in the steps above, then select Remove.

Setup For Accepting Remote Desktop Connections

For an administrator to connect to your PC, they must have permission to access your computer. This is particularly helpful in a training situation and is often used for troubleshooting by a technician.
1. Set up access by going to the “Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings”.
2. Select the Remote tab, then select the Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer. At the bottom of the screen, select “Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop“. Lastly, select Advanced which will open a new screen. Select ”Allow this computer to be controlled remotely” and press OK.

Note: Before you can connect to a Remote Desktop you will need to configure your Router and Firewall

• Connect behind a Router with a single computer – Configure your Router’s port forwarding to allow port connections on 3389 then type in your IP address supplied by your ISP.
• Connect behind a Router with multiple computers – For each computer you want to remotely connect to, you will need to configure each computer to listen to different ports to avoid port conflicts.
• If you have a Firewall running, you will also need to configure that to allow communication to the port you opened in your Router.

Connect To Your Remote Desktop

Now that you have done all the work to set up the Remote Desktop, you will only have to start at this step each time you want to access the computers in your network.
1. Go to the “Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Remote Desktop Connection”.
2. A box like the one below will open where you will enter the address of your remote computer. Click Connect to enter your credentials.

3. Entering your credentials at sign in, will connect you to the Remote Desktop where you can access the PC in your network.