Playing video files in computer can be a headache to some people because it involves video codecs. A video codec is a device or software that enables video compression and/or decompression for digital video. When a video file is being compressed with DivX, you’ll need to have DivX codec installed in order to watch the video. Most of the time we don’t know what is the compression being used to compress the video file, so we install codec packs to support playing all video files. There are tons of video codec packs that you can find on the Internet such as K-Lite Codec Pack, Combined Community Codec Pack, Nimo Codec Pack, XP Codec Pack, Windows Essentials Codec Pack, and many more!

When codec pack works, then it works. But if it doesn’t, you are going to go through a lot of trouble trying to cleanup the old installed codec to reinstall a different codec pack or a newer version codec. If you need show video presentation to your client, don’t risk your business by trying to mess around with video codecs.

A better way would be to convert the video file into a independent self running executable file which don’t require installation of any codecs or media players to play the video.

WinPatrol is an all-purpose utility designed to increase the performance and usability of your computer. It allows you to get a better understanding of what programs are being added to your computer. It monitors important system areas that are commonly altered by many malicious programs. This includes the startup groups (registry and startup folder), cookies and active tasks. You can terminate processes and enable or disable startup programs. The cookie monitoring option allows you to automatically delete cookies based on a keyword found in the cookie name. Additional features include a WHOIS lookup tool and an option to alert you on changes. WinPatrol is easy to understand, yet quiet powerful. It’s FREE and has been assisting computer users for over ten years.

WinPatrol also has a stand-alone version of WinPatrol Explorer which can run from a USB flash drive or other portable device without leaving any left over files or registry entries on the computer being optimized. If you’re someone who frequently needs to help family and friends, this program is for you! Just download directly to your USB Flash or other portable device. Even if you don’t use WinPatrol, you’ll want this version in your utility toolbox.

Most Windows users discover it with time: right after Windows is installed, or when one gets a new PC, the machine is “clean”. Startup and shutdown are fast, the system directories are not crowded with files that contain God knows what, no useless program is wasting your CPU 24/24, etc. Then, things start deteriorating…

Windows does not provide an easy way to keep its system clean. For example, there are many different ways for a program to install itself so that it is run automatically, so it is not easy for you to track down which application decided “by itself” to use your system’s resources in the way it wants. Slowly, your machine becomes a mess. Your CPU is wasted by running processes that you don’t need. Applications create files in your system directories and leave them behind. You sometimes refrain to install and evaluate a new program because you are afraid that it will not uninstall everything afterward. Anyway, the time it takes you to start and stop Windows become longer and longer. You start thinking about reinstalling “just to get things clean again”…

Most of the time when a software has a major update, they will provide some kind of free license promotion for their older version and if you like the software, you can fork out a little money to upgrade it to the latest version. This is the same case as System Mechanic 6 which I’ve posted a tip on how to obtain a free license for v6 few months ago. Back then the latest version for System Mechanic was version 7 and they gave out free license for version 6. You won’t be able to use the version 6 key code on the latest version 7.

Surprisingly iolo technologies, the developer of System Mechanic is giving out free license for their latest version of System Mechanic 8! If you still don’t know what is System Mechanic, it is a very useful all-in-one software for computer beginners to maintain your computer in tip top condition. It automatically repairs errors and fragmentation, cleans out clutter, and tunes up your PC so that it runs smoothly, reliably, and up to 300% faster!

As usual, this news is first published in this blog as I still couldn’t any other blog sites that has written about this. Continue reading on how to get your free license registration code for the latest iolo System Mechanic 8.

My whole computing life, I can say that my computer has only been infected by virus 3 times. They are Brontok, JambanMu and another unknown virus. This 3 virus that infected my computer are very smart in infecting computers and also tough to remove. I was able to remove Brontok and JambanMu, hence you can find the articles on how to do that on this site. As for the third virus, it got into my computer few days ago and I believe it is a spyware because I get constant popups on my Internet Explorer browser even though I am not using it.

I have Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 installed but fully deactivated as I don’t want it to interfere the way I use my computer. So I enabled, updated it and ran a full scan. Found some threats, clean it but problem still there. So I tried Webroot SpySweeper, Ad-Aware, SpyBot, SuperAntiSpyware and SpywareTerminator but NONE, I say again, NONE was able to remove the spyware on my computer. Ran HijackThis but couldn’t find anything suspicious. Ran DeepMonitor and couldn’t find any hidden process. Ran AIMFix, wasn’t able to detect any generic virus. Ran a few rootkit removers but found nothing.

I didn’t want to give up and reinstall Windows because of this spyware, so had to continue trying. I found CaSIR on my laptop, ran a quick scan and amazingly the spyware is gone!

My mum loves The Beatles! I remembered few years ago she told me that and I, being the filial son, immediately went looking for The Beatles MP3s so I can burn her a copy for her to listen when she is working in her office or when she’s driving. Since both her office and car CD player is able to play MP3 files, I don’t need to convert them to audio format. Just download and burn. How easy…

After a week of listening to The Beatles MP3, mum called me and told me that some of the song’s volume is very high. Whenever it reaches that song, she’ll have to run the to player to lower down the volume and when that song is over, the next song volume is a little low and he again have to run to the player to turn up the volume.

My mistake was, I totally forgotten to adjust the volumes of the downloaded MP3. All MP3 has different volumes because it is being ripped by different people using different software and settings. So what I need is a tool that can help me easily adjust the volume on many MP3 files.

If you want the mixer that 9 out of 10 DJs use, you’ll want the Pioneer DJM-600 Pro DJ Mixer.

The Pioneer DJM 600 is an an advanced DJ mixer that’s surprisingly easy to use. The DJM 600 is loaded with features including a sampler, a BPM counter (Auto or Tap,) and digital effects. You can even sync the effects to the BPM of the song! Other features include fader start, for the Pioneer CDJ series, 3-band EQ per channel, microphone input, and very flexible headphone monitor split functions.

I have this mixer 2 years ago and that time I found a very useful video tutorial on how to use the Pioneer DJM 600 mixer. I thought I should share this video tutorial since it’s not very easy find a video tutorial for DJs.