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Work on the touch-oriented version of Firefox for 

Windows 8 has already started at Mozilla HQ, according to a Mozille developer published on his blog earlier this week.

Mozilla Firefox For Windows 8: It Has Begun

It has begun being developed that is. Mozilla has apparently started working the touch-oriented version of Firefox that would be deployed on Windows 8’s Metro UI. This piece of information comes form a software developer at Mozilla, who also gave some other details about the project in a post that was made earlier this week on his blog.

The developer’s name is Brian Brondy and he is a software developer who is working as a Platform Engineer for the Firefox project. According to what he had to say, there’s actually a Firefox app that is currently launching and running inside Windows 8 Metro. However, it is still an empty shell of an app that does not have web-browsing capabilities.

Mozilla is of course trying to make an app that will be right at home on the brand new Metro UI that is being introduced by Windows 8. The good thing about that is that you will only have to install Firefox once in your account and all Windows 8 devices using that account will be using the sane browser with the same settings, bookmarks, etc. The new Firefox will apparently be both for the Dektop and the Metro-style touch-first environments. So you have true cross-platform support.

There’s one catch though — due to the integrated way Metro works, it can have only one web browser active at any time. So the only way to use Firefox on Windows 8 Metro is to make it the default browser. You can use both IE10 and Firefox side by side on the desktop mode but that will not be possible on Metro.

The app is supposed to get a proof of concept some time around Summer when a very early version of the app will be available. Mozilla also has plans to release a beta version in the second half of 2012, which could be anytime from June to the end of the year.

There’s absolutely no getting away from the cloud on Windows 8, so you might as well learn how to put SkyDrive and associated cloud services to proper use on your Windows 8 system.

Tips For Using SkyDrive On Windows 8

As you install Windows 8, you will notice that there’s absolutely no way to avoid signing in to a cloud account. Cloud Windows 8 is mainly about SkyDrive. So let’s look at what it is and how to use it.

SkyDrive can be accessed to the SkyDrive app on Windows 8. It will give you access to all your folders and files that are stored in the cloud. You can click/tap on individual files directly and Windows 8 will automatically launch it in the associated application. All that is fine except for the fact that you cannot create, modify or delete folders on your SkyDrive at the moment. It is annoying but it will mostly likely get fixed with the next update and much before the commercial release.

You can used the cloud to keep all your data and settings backed up. Go to the Metro control panel and find User Account Synchronization — a very useful option that backs up your profile information to the cloud. This will come in handy later when you sign in to your account using another Windows 8 PC. If you have your profile stored on the cloud, most of your settings will be available to you instantly even if you have not used that particular machine ever before. This means colors, wallpapers, lock screen, profile photo and even accessibility options with contrast and font details.

Individual app settings, browser history and a large number of other things are also back up and linked to your account. So if you are in the habit of moving around a lot but are using the same set of apps, all you have to do is log in with your credentials and you will feel right at home. Also great for configuring different machines.

One cannot sync files between accounts right now but hopefully that too is coming up. Since every app can now access and use SkyDrive, you will have access to all your files on the cloud through any app that requires it.

Even Windows Explorer will have integrated SkyDrive access, which means it will be similar to DropBox but more integrated in to the system. Elitists might turn up their noses at it but then Microsoft is offering 25GB to everyone for free and paid upgrades up to 125GB. Now that’s hard to find on other cloud services. DropBox’s free account has a 2GB capacity.

After a lot of rumormongering by various sources about Nokia’s tablet plans, the Finnish phone maker’s design chief has finally confirmed its existence.

Nokia Is Making A Windows 8 Tablet With An Uncertain Launch date

Nokia’s Chief of Design has confirmed that his company is working on a tablet and they intend to make one that competes with the iPad. This news comes nipping at the heels of the Digitimes post that quoted an anonymous component supplier to say the same thing.

Marko Ahtisaari, the Chief of Design for Nokia, let this information slip to a Finnish magazine when he was quoted saying that he is spending about one-third of is working hours on a tablet. Of course, he stopped right there and di did not give out any more details about specifications, form factors or expected release schedule. He simply said that they were working on it.

He did not mention Windows 8 either but then the company is no foolish enough to work on a Symbian tablet when they have such a great OS right in front of them. Plus Microsoft’s presence at Intel HQ will ensure great support from the makers of the said OS and may be even a marketing combo. Google does similar things with its Nexus series of devices where it partners with a hardware manufacturer and provides marketing support in exchange of product development.

Nokia might have gone with Android as well but then that would only mean fragmenting their work force one more time to dedicate a team to the new OS. Windows Phone is already being worked on at Nokia and Windows Phone 8 will be deeply tied in with Windows 8 on ARM — which would be the logical choice for a tablet.

The one interesting thing that Ahtisaari said was that the tablet would be different from the current crop of Android Tablets and it will be designed to steal market share from the iPad. Whilst Nokia is certainly not the first to make claims about competing with the iPad, they would become the first to actually make good on it if they actually manage to put a dent on the iPad Juggernaut.

Do you need to know what TCP/IP ports are in use on your Windows 8 PC? Then read this tutorial!

Each and every applications need to occupy an available port or socket when the application wants to be connected to the internet. The application uses that occupied port to communicate and transfer data over internet until the application are terminated. Some applications have dedicated ports, like HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer protocol) uses port 80, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) uses port 21, Telnet has dedicated port 23, SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) uses port 25 etc. Some applications do not have any dedicated ports. When they want to connect to internet they occupy any random available port.

To know which application is using what port, follow these steps.

Use the command line and Task Manager to check the ports

1. Open the Task Manager.You can open Task Manger either by right clicking on the taskbar or by pressing Alt, Ctrl and Delete simultaneously. Now click on the File Tab and then select New Task (Run).

2. Then the Run window will appear. Check the box below to "Create this task with administrative privileges” . Write cmd into the input area and press Enter.

Now, the command prompt will appear having administrative privilege. You will see Administrator is written in the bar. It indicates you have the administrative privilege.

3. Now, simply type this command line

netstat -aon | more

and hit Enter.

4. Now you can see a table where the Local Address column will show you the port address and PID column will show the Process Identifier number of the process or application which is listening (using) the particular port. For an example from that table shown in the figure we can tell that Local Address 0.0.0.0:80 or port 80 is being used (Listening) by the process having the PID 1592.

This PID is unique for each and every process.

... Read more »

If you want to get a Metro style start menu with a start button in Windows 8 there are some really handy tools available for download. Give this a try if you need a Start menu.

Microsoft introduces a new user interface : the Metro User Interface Windows 8.
The Start menu brings the main difference between this and its predecessors.
Some people like the new attractive start menu of ,strong>Windows 8 , some people still prefer that old start menu type.
Which was most easy to access in Windows 7. You can search for files, apllications or open any of the installed
programs from that menu quite easily.

If you want to use both the attractive look of Windows 8 start menu and the easy to access start menu of
Windows 7, then there is a way to combine both the feature. You have to folow the instructions carefully to do this.

1. Download Start 8 from here.

2. After downloading Start8 , install it in your own machine.

Click finish the installation when you are asked.

3. After finishing the installation check the new start menu by double clicking on the Start Button
to see it.

Now, you can search the applications , Settings , Files from the search menu.
You can also browse the installed programs from this new start menu as you have doen it till  ... Read more »

Some applications always need to be run in an elevated mode, here’s a guide that will teach you how to to always run applications in administrator mode on Windows 8.

Windows 8 by default runs most of the utilities or applications with least privilege access, which is non-admin mode. Thus Windows 8 helps to protect the system from damaging caused by both malicious virus codes and inexperienced end users. In general cases this is a good thing but, sometimes a user may need an app to run as an Administrator for different reasons.

Many applications need to be run as administrator in order to function properly. As Windows 8 is very new to us, many applications especially the older applications (which were meant for XP or vista) have not been updated to support Windows 8 yet. Sometimes a user may need administration privilege to run these type of applications.

Though Running applications as an Administration can be accomplished by using a simple right click, and then choosing Run as administrator option. But you need to do this same step each and every time you want to launch the application. It is possible to set an app to always run as Administrator.

Simply follow these steps to do so.

Steps to always Start an Application in Administrator Mode on Windows 8

Step 1: Right-Click the Application Shortcut that you want to run as an administrator and then Click Properties from the context menu.

Step 2: Now, navigate to Shortcut tab at the top. Then Click on the Advanced.

Step 3: Check the Run as administrator option, then Click OK to finish.

You are done. Now if you click on the shortcut of the application the shortcut will automatically run the application in administrator mode without any extra steps.

If you want to create Shutdown / Restart / Lock shortcut icons on your Windows 8 desktop (that you can also pin to the Metro Start Screen) then read this guide.

If you want to create icons for Shutdown / Restart / Lock the machine, to do them directly by one mouse click, this tutorial is for you. If you do not like the shutdown menu in the metro user interface of Windows 8, then you can create icons for each of them in the desktop. Thus any of these can be done just by a single mouse click. If you want to create these icons, see the instructions below.

1. Switch to Desktop Mode by pressing Windows + M simultaneously.
2. Right-click on the desktop and click on New and then on Shortcut.

3. Now a new shortcut will be shown with a page like icon on the desktop and it will ask you the purpose of creating the shortcut.

Write the following lines for those corresponding purposes.

Shutdown Computer :

Shutdown.exe -s -t 00

Restart Computer :

Shutdown.exe -r -t 00

Hibernate Computer :

rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll,SetSuspendState

Sleep Computer :

rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState 0,1,0

Lock Workstation:

Rundll32.exe User32.dll,LockWorkStation

... Read more »

If you want to fully configure your startup apps, then read this simple how-to!

Start up applications uses RAM & CPU during start up process. If there are a lot of applications during startup it will make your PC slow. You may need to configure ( create new or disable some) these startup applications. This tutorial will tell you how you can configure start up applications in Windows 8.

There are mainly 2 ways to do it. Here they are:-

A. Using "msconfig” program

Press window+R to start "Run”prompt.

Type msconfig into it & press enter.

You will see the following window to appear.

Go to "Startup” tab. Uncheck unnecessary applications ( i.e these applications will no more start during startup).

Click "OK” to confirm. The following window appears. Select "Restart”.

B. Using Startup folder

There is another way to do it.

First of all enable "Hidden Items” option.

Now go to C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup. Paste the application or batch file here.

I have shown an example here.

... Read more »

If you are annoyed that your cursors jump while you type, you can easily disable the touchpad in Windows 8 and stop that annoying behaviour of the touchpad.

While you are typing in your laptop or notebook your hands sometimes touch the touchpad unknowingly, results erratic cursor movement. Then you may find that the lines of text mysteriously intertwined. It is very annoying while you are doing a fast-typing job. To overcome this type of problem you may need to disable the touchpad while typing.

Not only that. While connecting an external Mouse with a laptop, users often want to disable touchpad temporarily.

Disabling touchpad in Windows 8 is quite easy. There are several methods to disable touchpad in windows 8.
Go through these following methods to disable touchpad.

Methods to disable touchpad in Windows 8

Method 1: Disabling touchpad using Touchpad Button

In most of the laptops or notebooks there is a special "Touchpad Enable/Disable button” to enable or disable touchpad in a single click. This is the easiest method to disable touchpad. If your laptop does not have such buttons then try other methods.

Method 2: Disabling touchpad while typing

1. Download the file TouchFreeze from here

2. Now, install that program and run the .exe file.

4. After installing "TouchFreeze” you can see the TouchFreeze Icon in the system tray. The "Touch Freeze” will run in Automatic Mode.

TouchFreeze will now automatically disable touchpad while you are typing. Thus erratic cursor movement will not occur anymore.

Method 3: Disabling touchpad from Mouse Property

1. Click on ControlPanel tile.

2. Now click on More Settings option from left side menu.

3. Old Control Panel Window will open. In Old Control Panel Window search for  ... Read more »

If you want to quickly access (network) drives, you can simply map a network drive or hard drive in Windows 8 – This is very easy to do.

Quickly Accessing Network Folders via Explorer

1. Press Windows key + E on your keyboard to open the Windows Explorer

2. At the top you will already see the icon Map network drive. Select it. From the dropdown you can also optionally Disconnect network drives

3. Click on Browse and select Network.

4. Wait a few seconds until you get a list of all computers connected your network drive

5. The network folder will look similar to \\username\share

6. Click on Finish and you’re done, you can now successfully access this network drive from within the Windows 8 explorer

Wondering what is installed on your PC, but you’re having trouble getting used to the Windows 8 Metro UI? Here’s how to see all apps that are installed.

1. Open the Metro Start Screen

2. Do ONE right-click on the blue background and a new bar at the bottom will appear:

3. Click on it and you should get a list of all programs that are installed on Windows 8

4. The list is quite long.

Obviously you can also simply open up the Windows Explorer and go to C:\Program Files\, however this is a little bit more handy to start them quickly.

Still can’t see all of your installed programs? Maybe it was not correctly added to the Metro Start Screen

You are a desktop user and want to see all of your desktop shortcuts on the Windows 8 taskbar? Nothing easier than that.

1. Open the regular Windows 8 desktop by clicking on the Desktop user tile

2. Right-click on the taskbar and select Toolbars, Desktop

3. You can now access all desktop shortcuts using the Desktop toolbar:

You are a desktop user and want to use the regular, non-metro edition of the Internet Explorer? It’s still there, you just have to know where to look.

1. Open the Windows 8 explorer by hitting Windows key + E on your keyboard

2. Double-click on your C:/ or main drive and go to C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\

3. Right-click on iexplore and select Pin to taskbar

4. You can now open the real, non-metro Internet Explorer 10 right from your taskbar:

Optionally, you can pin it to "Start” and access the non-metro browser via the Metro Start Screen, but I will only use the Metro screen on mobile devices.

Don’t know what the pagefile.sys file is good for and you can’t delete it? Learn more about this system file in this tutorial and why you shouldn’t delete it.

What is pagefile.sys?

Pagefile.sys is a file (system file) created and used by system (XP,Windows7, Windows  as ‘virtual’ memory and it is saved on hard drive. When physical RAM is fully used and there is need for more physical RAM, any data loaded in RAM and not in immediate use, can be swapped to the page file and thus free physical RAM for immediate use. The swapped data can be transferred back into physical RAM if needed at any time. Windows doesn’t work well without a page file.

Virtual memory is usually at least as large as installed physical RAM. But recommended size for a Page File is 1.5 to 2 times the installed physical RAM. so,Pagefile.sys can be quite big in size. Again, an unnecessarily huge Page file will increase boot time of the system. So, making the Page File too large will not necessarily improve performance.

Deleting Page File is not recommended. But if the size of the Page File is so large, that it increases system boot time or you need some urgent disk space, you may need to delete the Page File.

Follow these steps carefully to delete pagefile.sys file.

Steps to get rid off pagefile.sys

1. First of all open Computer or My Computer. Here you can see all the hard Drives and Portable Media drives attached with your PC.

2. Now, click on "System properties”, near the top of the window to open the System control panel.

... Read more »

Do you know what DMA is? Here’s how to enable it for some of your hard drives

What is DMA ?

DMA stands for "Direct Memory Access”.

As the name refers DMA means tranfer of data between IO and disk without intervention of CPU.
The IO processor gets the control of IO buses along with control buses.

Suppose you have connected your peripheral device, e.g., pen drive to you computer. Now you are copying some data from hard disk to that pen drive.

Now to transfer data, the CPU must have to control that. But using CPU only for copying data is not efficient. Here comes DMA controller.
It takes the charge of data transfer betwen devices and frees CPU for other tasks.
But remember the hardwire should actually support DMA & It can only be enabled or disabled using the OS

Steps to enable it

The whole process can be divided in the following steps:-

1. Open Control Panel from the Metro UI.

2. Search for Device Manager.

3. Click on device manager & open Device Manager (Administrator password may be needed). After opening you will see a screen like the following:

4. Expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.

5. Right-click on any label where "Channel” is present & Click on properties (I have used ATA Channel 0)

... Read more »

According to a report from Bloomberg, Microsoft will be able to deliver the finished version of Windows 8 by the end of this year around October.

Windows 8 Coming In Time For Early Christmas

Bloomberg has reported that Microsoft is on track for a late 2012 launch for Windows 8. The tech giant will apparently release the OS to manufacturers by the end of this summer and will officially launch the OS in October so that it has the period leading up to Christmas to gain everybody’s attention.

The publication, just like most other predictions about the upcoming OS, cited unnamed sources who were close to the matter. The report also said that there will be less then five ARM devices at the time of the launch, which seems to tie up to Dell, Lenovo and others claims. One of them, we believe will be from Nokia, given how tightly they are working with Microsoft at the moment.

The lighter ARM-based tablets running Windows 8 are what Microsoft will be depending on to carve out market share from the huge numbers that rival Apple now commands thanks to their iPad. The iOS maker in fact disclosed sales figures for the iPad on Monday during the earnings call saying that over 3 million iPads had already been sold since the Friday on-sale date.

Microsoft has already promised to ship ARM devices at the same time as other devices, making it possible for everyone to choose which one they want at the very beginning. However, since WoA (Windows on ARM) will not see a public preview like the main Windows 8, there are rumors about the actual progress being made.

If there are only abut five ARM tablets on the market at launch, then they might not pose that much threat to the iPad. However, combined with the x86 tablets that most companies are working on, Windows 8 might create a visible dent on the iPad’s market.

It is possible to bring back the Windows 8 Start button and Orb using various tools and tricks

Want to bring back the Start and orb buttons? Here’s a guide

Want that old Windows look in the Windows 8 beta? Well it’s possible to bring the Windows Start button and Start orb can back, and here’s how.

1. Download ViStart, an app which remakes the Windows 7 Start menu
2. When you start and run ViStart, make sure to decline options for toolbars bundled with the app. Assuming you don’t want them, of course
3. Once installation is complete the Start button and orb should be back

We said "should.” Some users have been reporting problems with the orb and Taskbar overlapping, so for those of you who run into issues here’s a lengthier guide on sorting out the problem.

1. First, you’ll need to another blank toolbar. Create a folder, and put it anywhere. Right-click on the Toolbar, then New Toolbar. Find the folder you created and click Select Folder. The folder will be added to your Taskbar, in the bottom right corner
2. Right-click on the Taskbar and uncheck Lock the Taskbar. Now drag and drop the new folder toolbar to the start of the Taskbar.
3. There should now be an empty area between the folder toolbar and the program buttons. Uncheck both the Show Text and Show title options. Move the program buttons near the start orb.
4. Lock the Taskbar, and you should have a Start orb that isn’t overlapping anything.

Bring back classic Start menu

If you don’t want to bring back the Start menu button and Start orb however, then you can bring back the classic Start menu instead. While this guide is for Windows 7, the desktop side of Windows 8 is basically the same in its basic functions.

1. First, right-click on the Taskbar and select Toolbars, New Toolbar
2. It’ll open a dialog box, so paste in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
3. Next press Enter and click on the Select Folder button. Now Programs is added to the toolbar. Now uncheck Lock the Taskbar
4. Finally drag the Taskbar so the Programs toolbar is next to the Start orb, and you’re done!