Most applications today insert entries in the context menu of file and folders, making it display a little slow (specially on windows XP) and making useless entries sometimes.

What is really bad, is that many of them don’t provide options to enable or disable those entries.

Fast Explorer makes configuring your context menus really easy. It displays a huge list of entries organized by file types. When you select a file type, the program displays its actual entries in the right side of the window so you can uncheck the ones you don’t want to appear when you right-click on this kind of files.

This way, you can get rid of entries you don’t need and make your context menu display faster and make it smaller by displaying only the entries you want or need.

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Many sites list hashes, a unique file string based on different algorithms, for their file downloads so that every user can verify the integrity of those files, or even check if the file they got its the same that the one that is on the site.

HashTab makes this a snap by adding a tab called File Hashes to the properties window of every file. If you need to verify a file, right click on it, select Properties and click on File Hashes tab. It automatically hashes the file and shows the calculated string based on the algorithms you choose.

It supports the most used algorithms, including MD5 and CRC32. Another great use for this is to check pairs of files to see if they are identical, because this algorithms produce unique strings for every file, except when they are 100% identical..

I use this very often for patched files in unattended installations or if i want to check a file i got from somewhere else, comparing it with the hash provided in the official source.

HashTab does not support SFV (Simple File Verification) files. If you are looking for a program to check SFV files, i use SFVLite, which is great for checking this type of  files.

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Shark007, a fellow member of MSFN Forums makes this codec pack. It contains everything you need to playback audio and video files in Windows Media Player and Media Center.

All codecs are set to their default settings and it does not contain any extra media player, so you can use whatever you like to play media files. It supports Windows XP as well despite its name.

When dealing with codecs, more does not equal better.
Having the least amount on your system is the best configuration.
This is exactly what the Vista Codec Package does for you.

Windows Media Player and Vista Media Center will be able to play all your files.

Shark007 updates his pack very often to correct issues or include new versions of the codecs. There is an entire forum section devoted to this codec pack. You can get more information about the codecs included and get troubleshooting tips there.

Vista Codec Package does not include any QuickTime components ut Shark007 makes an addon that supports full browser playback and download of QuickTime files. This addon is called QuickTime Lite for VCP.

I have always preferred to use only the codecs i need and i recommend that you do this as well, but if you don’t have the time or knowledge, Vista Codec Package can fill this for you.

Website Download Vista Codec x64 Components

There is an application that allows you to add a thumbnail preview in open windows to Windows XP, just like Vista  does. By using Visual Task Tips, you can roll over your mouse over any open windows and you will see a thumbnail of its content.

This is useful when you have many windows open and you want to know what’s in everyone of them.

The program is free and requires no configuration to work. The current version is 3.3

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Windows Vista bootloader can only be modified using bcdedit.exe or for short, BCD (Boot Configuration Data) along with commands and parameters. Microsoft made this changes to allow more possibilities of configuration and to be prepared for future technologies.

This is challenging for average users that just want to add an entry for another operative system or to choose which of them to boot first.

EasyBCD is a great application that lets you manage the bootloader entries with easy to understand options. It has entries for Windows XP or earlier versions, Mac OS X and Linux.

It has a backup feature in case you want to restore the default values. Also, it can look for errors and enable debug mode, a feature that lets you see what is actually happening at boot time.

If you have more than one operative system (this is known as Dual-boot or Multi-boot), or want to install another one along with your current installation of Vista, EasyBCD can help you add or manage this entries with ease.

Here is a FAQ from Microsoft about BCD.

Website EasyBCD Documentation

I was thinking this afternoon that when i released ServiceTweaker i totally forgot to tell you about a site that has everything you need to know about Windows services, so you can tweak them using my program.

Charles M. Sparks, well known as Black Viper, took the time and made a list of all the services that were included with Windows, along with information about them, the default startup type, what they are for, their dependencies on other services and profiles named like Safe, Tweaked and Bare Bones.

He included the latest Vista SP1 and XP SP3 services a few weeks ago.

In his site you can take a look at the version of Windows you are running to learn about its services and the default state of each one for deciding which one you would like to disable or change to manual.

Configuring the services is a great way of getting reducing the amount of resources that your computer is using. Also, you can shorten the startup and shutdown times as well.

Take you time to look at each service before you disable it. I have always recommended to change the startup to Manual instead of Disabled so i can monitor a few days to see if one of those Manual services are getting started by some application. If they are not, i then proceed to disable them.

You can do the same.

Don’t forget to download the registry file that restores the default configuration of your version of Windows. This way, if you are not sure whay you just did to some service, you can restore the default values.

I hope that Black Viper’s information and ServiceTweaker help you to improve your computer’s performance.

Website

Windows XP SP3 Services Windows Vista SP1 Services

I just read this article in TorrentFreak. It is interesting because many people using eMule get to download server lists from suspicious sites.

Connecting to a bad ed2k server can have some nasty consequences. They monitor your activities and report to anti-p2p outfits. They direct you to non-existent files, corrupted fakes and hide files which others genuinely want to share. Learn how to protect yourself.

Read the article to learn how to avoid this and to get some addresses that are reliable for updating the server lists in eMule client.

Read the full article Source: TorrentFreak

If you ever encounter yourself stuck in a file operation that cannot be completed, like moving or deleting a file or folder this program can help you. It is called Unlocker and it adds an entry to the shell context menu.

When you try to delete or move a file or folder and windows says it cannot do it because another process or person is accessing it, you right-click the file or folder in question and choose Unlocker.

It opens a windows where you can see which process are locking the item. You can either kill the process or unlock it. The latter works great for 99% of the cases. If you still can’t do it, well, kill the process and you are ready to go.

Its freeware

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