Don’t install IE7 before Windows XP SP3

The Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available again and many users have already made the switch to protect their system with the latest security updates. If you have installed Internet Explorer 7 before updating the system to the third Service Pack and decided to uninstall it again you might have noticed that the option to uninstall the browser is grayed out and therefor not possible.

The reason for this behavior is that the system would revert back to an older version of Internet Explorer 6 that would not contain the patches applied by the Service Pack. The Windows XP Service Pack 3 updates the version of Internet Explorer installed on the system during installation of the Service Pack.

The only possible way to uninstall Internet Explorer 7 that has been installed before installing Service Pack 3 is to uninstall the Service Pack first and then Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft suggests that users of IE6 should update their system with Service Pack 3 first and install IE7 afterwards. This would ensure that the browser could be uninstalled normally.

I’m sure that not many users will run into this problem but some surely will. An alternative would be to switch to another browser like Opera or Firefox if you do not feel like uninstalling the Service Pack to uninstall IE7 is worth it.

Another Rapidshare Timelimit Hack

Rapidshare.de, beloved for its content and hated for its timelimit. Hacks how to circumvent the time limit have been discovered and been put to rest by updates to its scripts. There is nevertheless a constant strife for additional hacks that remove the time limit and let you download without the waiting time.

A new trick was posted here today. Its fast and easy, all you need to do is follow this three steps:

1. Visit the page of the file that you want to download.
2. Click on free.
3. Enter the following line of code into your address bar and remove everything else

javascript:alert(c=1)

Hit enter. A popup showing 1 should appear. click ok, the window disappears and you have to enter some letters and click start download.

RAPIDSHARE HACKS, Downloads, Tools and Searches

Rapidshare hacks, downloaders for rapidshare, no timelimit, unlimited downloads, free premium accounts. Those are some of the keywords that users are looking for. I thought it would be nice to write a definite guide about rapidshare. Which rapidshare hacks, tools and tricks are working, which are not. Rapidshare imposes a download and timelimit on non premium users of their service. Downloading from Rapidshare is only possible with one connection at a time and rapidshare limits the size of the files that you download to 30 megabytes every hour.

Rapidshare Hacks:

Speaking of Rapidshare Hacks: There is one little rapidshare hack available which sets the timelimit you have to wait to 0. Clear your address bar and add the following line to it “javascript:alert(c=0)”. This sets the rapidshare timelimit to 0 but does not change the download limit. The only way to reset the rapidshare download limit is to make rapidshare.de believe you are a new user. This can be done by either reconnecting to your ISP or by using proxys.
Reconnecting to your ISP is only working if they give out dynamic (changing) IPs to their users, if you have a static IP you will have to use proxies. You can check your ip here. Rapidshare sets a cookie which you will have to delete as well. (In Firefox go to Tools, Options. Select Privacy, Cookies, View Cookies and delete all rapidshare cookies.)

You can try the following commands instead of reconnecting. Open the windows command line (Start, Run, enter cmd, hit enter). Type the following commands, hit enter after each line:

Windows	Mac	Linux
ipconfig /flushdns	let me know	restart nscd daemon
ipconfig /release	let me know	sudo ifconfig en0 down
ipconfig /renew	let me know	sudo ifconfig en0 down;sudo ifconfig en0 up

If your IP remains the same you probably have a static IP that does not change at all. Your only option to avoid the rapidshare download limit is to use proxies and still clear the cookies in the browser that you are using. Do a search on google for “proxy lists” and you will find heaps of websites that offer proxies. Not all of them are working and you will have to verify that the proxy is a) fast enough and b) does not spill your real IP.

To do that you can simply add the proxy to your connections menu and try it out. Lookup your ip and see if the page loads fast. If you recieve errors or you see your real IP you have to find another proxy.

Rapidshare Tools:

Tools provide some additional features like managing the downloads, changing proxies, simultanious downloads by using more than one proxy and much more. Let us take a look at some of the rapidshare tools:

Rapidshare Link Grab Helper, the password for the rar file is “webxposed.de”. A pretty basic rapidshare tool. Add a rapidshare link, add a proxy, click grab, enter the image verification code, sent the rapidhare direct link to flashget.

Rapget, supports not only rapidshare.de but many other file hosting services like megaupload.com for example. The program has more options, it allows you to select a proxy list that it uses automatically while downloading from rapidshare or the other services. It offers simultanious rapidshare downloads, you can set timeouts, schedule downloads and paste links from files or the clipboard.

Grabber, looks similar to the rapidshare link grab helper with some additional options such as proxy and link checking.

Rapidleecher, offers basic functionality. Copy links, use proxies, enter image verification, get real download link and download the file.

Rapidshare Searches:

You need links to download files from rapidshare. One common method is to use google to search rapidshare.de by using googles site search command.

site:rapidshare.de RAR

This would search rapidshare.de for every link / page that includes the word rar.

You can also search google for sites that index rapidshare downloads, I won´t get into detail about those sites because they mostly link to illegal downloads. Try the search string “rapidshare links” for example.

Rapidshare Free Premium Accounts:

Rapidshare sometimes promotes free premium accounts. Head over to this rapidshare link to check if they currently offer free premium accounts.

Ten Windows Keyboard Shortcuts I cannot live without

When I’m helping friends and family members who are not that tech savvy with their computers I always notice that they do not use keyboard shortcuts. Instead of doing the plain old CTRL C, CTRL V to copy and paste selected text they use the mouse to do that. Thinking about this for a while I thought it might be useful to list ten Windows keyboard shortcuts that I cannot live without.

It hopefully might help some users who are starting to work with Windows and probably even some users who rely on the mouse to do everything in Windows. But before I start I would like to explain the reason why I’m using keyboard shortcuts in certain situations and not the mouse.

The main advantage of a keyboard shortcut is speed. Take the copy and paste example. A user who is using the mouse marks the text that he wants to copy, presses the right mouse button, selects copy from the list, moves to the new document where he wants to paste it, right-clicks the mouse again and selects paste.

Using keyboard shortcuts instead makes the right-click part of the process obsolete. Lets start with the Ten Windows Keyboard Shortcuts I cannot live without.

• CTRL C / CTRL V: This one is obvious and probably the most used keyboard shortcut in the world. CTRL C copies whatever is currently marked and CTRL V pastes the contents again. (C for Copy, V for Verbose)
• CTRL A: The copy and paste shortcuts work well with this one. CTRL A selects all.
• ALT F4: Closes the active window
• F3: This one opens the Windows Search.
• ALT TAB: Switches between open applications.
• CTRL P: Opens the Print Screen dialog.
• F2: Rename the active item
• CTRL ESC: Displays the Windows Start Menu.
• SHIFT DEL: Deletes the item immediately without moving it into the trashbin
• TAB: Move to the next control, excellent for forms.
• Spacebar: Checks a checkbox, presses a button if on a button, selects an option if on an option
• Return, ESC: Those are single shortcuts. Return is used perform the active command while ESC cancels the current task.

Those are my ten. Remember it’s only for Windows and not specific applications like Firefox (I would definitely have mentioned F11 then for example). If you find different Windows shortcuts noteworthy let me know please.