Wise Care 365 Pro System Cleaner Review and Giveaway

It is a norm for Windows to become “slow”, regardless the version of Windows that you are using, after some time of using it. This also explains why there are so many system cleaner apps out there to help you clean up and optimize the system so that it can run fast again. Wise Care 365 is another PC cleaner and speed up tool that aims to clean and speed up your computer in a single click. And yes, we have a giveaway for it.

We have reviewed several system cleaner apps, but what I like about Wise Care 365 is that it can scan your system really fast and clean it with a simple click. With the System Tuneup feature, I am able to get it to diagnose my hard disk for useless files, clean up and recover 1.1GB of storage space in less than 10 seconds (of course, the the diagnostic time is dependent on the size of your hard disk. The bigger your hard disk is, the longer it will take).

Usage

1. On the first run, you will be prompted to select a theme and the language.

2. There are several things that Wise Care 365 can do. It can checkup your PC for security problems and optimizable items, scan your registry and hard disk for useless (registry) entries and files and clean them up, optimize your system (including the ethernet card performance) and make it runs fast, and lastly, provides privacy and security tools for you to beef up your system security.

3. To get started, on the PC Checkup tab, click the “Check Now” button. This is what you will see.

And if you click the “Fix now” button, it will prompt you to first create a backup (create a system restore point or a full registry backup) before it proceeds to fix your PC.

After the backup, it will then clean up your PC. You can scroll down the list to view the stuff that it fixed.

System Cleaner

The System Cleaner allows you to clean up the bulky and useless stuff in your hard disk. In the left pane, you can select between “Registry Cleaner”, “Common Cleaner”, “Advanced Cleaner” and “System Slimming. The “Common Cleaner” option only cleans up junk file from a few folders, including the temporary folder, internet browsing history etc. The “Advanced Cleaner” option will scan the whole hard disk and find orphaned files that can be removed.

Using the System Slimming mode, I have managed to recover 1.1GB of storage space, which I think is pretty impressive.

System Tuneup

The System Tuneup mainly deals with disk defrag and registry defrag, it also allows you to view the items in the Startup Manager and Context menu and you can decide which item you want to remove from the list.

Privacy Protector

In the Privacy Protector section, there is the Privacy Eraser that you can use to erase your file and browsing history. It also comes with Disk Eraser that can scan your hard disk for recoverable files and give you the option to remove them permanently. The File Shredder is useful if you just want to shred a single file or folder. Lastly, the password generator allows you to generate secure passwords.

In the Settings, you can configure it to run the Bootup Booster when the computer starts. There is also a button where you can click to create a portable version of the app (this is very handy). There is also a scheduler where you can schedule it to run at regular interval to clean and optimize your system.

Rounding up

As a system cleaner, I think Wise Care 365 has done its jobs well. It even comes with various tool (such as File Shredder and Password Generator) that are not included in many other system cleaners.

Giveaway

Wise Care 365 comes wih a limited free version and a Pro version ($29.95) that can be used on up to 3 computers. Thanks to the kind sponsorship of WiseCleaner, we have 200 license keys to give away to all of you. With this license, you can enjoy all the features of the software, use it on up to 3 computers and receive 3 months of free upgrade service.

Here is how you can claim your copy:

1. Go to this link and fill up your name and email address.

2. Click the “Get License now” button.

3. Check your email for the licensey key.

That’s it. Enjoy your copy.

This giveaway event will end once all the 200 license keys are given away.

Spreading the words

This giveaway is completely free and there is no condition required to participate. However if you like this product, do help us to share this page and spread the words around.

For more useful tips and giveaway event, follow us on Facebook, Twitter or subscribe to our newsletter.

• Subscribe to our newsletter*

Thanks to WiseCleaner for the kind sponsorship. If you would like to sponsor a giveaway, do contact us here.

Wise Care 365

http://maketecheasier.com

Change the Background Image of Windows 8 Start Screen

Are you annoyed with the limitations of the Windows 8 start screen? I’m probably one of the few people who actually like the start screen, but it annoys me that there are only a handful of background images to choose from.

Personally, I’m not very fond of the Windows 8 start screen background images that are included. Although there are twenty backgrounds, in my opinion they’re all pretty unimaginative. I’d prefer either a custom background or at least an image that I like.

So today I’m going to share with you a free tool that will help you change the background image of the Windows 8 start screen. This tool is called Windows 8 Start Screen Customizer, and it will help to liven up your start screen in a matter of minutes.

1. The tool can be downloaded for free from deviantART.

2. Once installed and launched, the app will open and you can begin to immediately customize your start screen.

3. You can use one of the included backgrounds or click on “Load Picture” to upload an image from your computer.

4. Once you upload an image, you can select the area to be shown as the background picture; just use your mouse to select the area, which is represented by a thin blue outline.

5. Alternately, you can choose to use your desktop wallpaper for your start screen or select multiple pictures (from your computer) and display them as a slideshow on your start screen.

6. There’s a Gaussian Blur effect that you can add to your background. You can also change the opacity of the background image, which can create some really cool effects on your start screen (with a little tweaking).

7. Once you’re done, be sure to check the “Run at startup” option, so that you see your custom background whenever you start your computer.

8. Click on “Apply & Save” to save your background. Your start screen will pop up automatically and you should now see your background image along with the effects chosen.

Note: I had a few issues getting my custom background image to display. After clicking on “Apply & Save” about five to six times, it finally showed up. So if you have issues as well, don’t give up.

As you can see, Windows 8 Start Screen Customizer is really easy to use and can entirely change your start screen. It’s definitely a must-have for Windows 8 users.

http://maketecheasier.com

How to Change File Type Associations In Windows

You’ve probably had this happen more than once: You download an application, quickly open “setup.exe” or whatever installs it, click “Next” a ton of times, and skip over the screen where the program would ask you to customize file type associations to a long list of extensions. Once you skip over, the program automatically becomes the default for those files. You’re practically doomed if you don’t know how to navigate through Windows’ enormous bureaucracy of settings. Or, perhaps you’re not. Today, we’re going to discuss two great tools that help you get rid of file type associations or change them in Windows. We’ll start with the simplest one.

1. Unassoc

Unassoc is the easiest program you can use to remove file type associations. Your MP3s can be re-opened to associate with your favorite media player once more! This tool contains a relatively small and minimalistic interface:

All you have to do is browse to a file extension you want to remove the association for and then click “Delete file type.” There’s no extra voodoo required. You can download this tool here.

2. Types

Types is a more advanced program for people who want to do more than simply pop a pimple. People who use this application won’t be disappointed with its wide range of features. You not only can delete file type associations, but you can redefine them and even add to the context menus you get when right-clicking the files. Have a look at the interface:

All you have to do here to delete a file type association is to click on the extension and click the red “X” button on the top of the window. To add an association, click the green “plus” button at the top. The application also allows you to configure the icon for files associated with a particular program, the context menus, and a couple of other things particular to that extension and association.

There’s one thing I’d like to mention though. The installation of a shortcut to the “Start” menu doesn’t work. To get to Types, you must enter the control panel and reach into “Appearance and Personalization.” You’ll find Types on the bottom.

To make a context menu item, all you have to do is right-click the extension, click “Properties,” click the “Actions” tab in the new window, type up a name on the text box near the top, and click the green button next to the text box. At the bottom, you’ll find another text box. You can input the command you want that action to execute. It will do it as if though you would have typed the command in the command line. This is especially useful for power users who want to run programs diagnostically or with certain features enabled/disabled.

You can download Types here.

That’s A Wrap!

I certainly hope that you found these applications useful. If you find any other applications of this nature, please let our readers know in the comments section below! But it seems like these two applications will be all you need to seriously work on your extension associations!

http://maketecheasier.com

Delete Previous Windows Installation Files in Windows 8 And Recover Gigabytes of Storage Space

If you’ve ever had to upgrade your version of Windows on your PC, then you’re probably familiar with the Windows.old file that is left behind on your hard drive. Earlier, I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8. Right away, I noticed that my 1TB hard drive was almost filled up, and I didn’t understand why.

It is only later that I finally figured out that the Windows.old folder, along with many other files from the previous Windows installation, was taking up a huge chunk of my hard drive. After upgrading to the full version of Windows 8, I tried to delete the Windows.old folder manually, but Windows kept denying me access – even after changing ownership of the file to myself.

If you are having this issue as well, here’s how you can delete the previous Windows installations.

1. Head on over to the Windows Start page (press the Window key) and search for “disk cleaner” or “disk cleanup.”

2. Select Settings underneath the search box.

3. In the results, choose the option that says “Free up disk space by deleting unnecessary files.” This will bring up the Disk Cleanup utility.

4. Select the drive that you want to clean; this should be the drive where the Windows.old file is located.

5. Disk cleanup will do an initial scan, but it won’t find your previous Windows installation files. Once the scan is complete, select “Clean up system files” from the window.

6. Select the drive that you want to clean again – the same drive you selected the first time. This time, the scan will take a bit longer than it did the first time.

7. Now you should see “Previous Windows installation(s)” in the files to delete list. As you can see from the screenshot below, it was taking up 734GB on my hard drive – that’s a huge amount of space!

8. Select the “Previous Windows installation(s)” option along with other files that you want to delete. You can also safely remove the “Temporary Windows installation files” in the list. Click on the “OK” button.

9. You’ll need to verify that you do want to permanently delete these files. Click on the “Delete Files” button.

10. Now just wait for the Disk Cleanup utility to finish and you’ll be all set. Note that if you have a huge amount of files to delete, this could take some time, so plan your coffee session ahead.

Once the folder is deleted, you should have a lighter computer (in term of storage size, not the weight) – I know mine is!

http://maketecheasier.com

Print Just the Content You Need on a Web Page

How many times have you wasted printer ink and paper because you printed out pages of unneeded content? Many times you may not want or need to print out all of the content from a Web page. So what do you do if you want to select specific parts of a page and get rid of the rest?

Well, you use a free tool like CleanPrint to remove the parts of a Web page that you don’t want or need to print. CleanPrint lets you edit your printable content before printing or saving (to Dropbox, Google Drive, etc).

You can also use CleanPrint to add notes to your pages (before printing) and use it to save printer ink and paper by removing unnecessary elements.

Here’s how it works:

1. Install the appropriate browser extension. CleanPrint is available for Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. For this tutorial, I’ll be using Google Chrome.

2. Once you find a Web page that you want to print out, click on the browser icon.

3. The Web page will get optimized, and you’ll see the CleanPrint dialogue appear over the current Web page.

4. Now you can go through the content and remove sections that you don’t want. As you move your mouse over the text, you’ll notice that your mouse pointer is now a red “X.”

Also as you move over a paragraph or heading, that section of text gets selected – noticed the background behind it. This means that any section of text that you click on will be removed and won’t be printed out.

5. If you remove something by accident, you can click the “undo” button.

6. You may also want to remove all images in order to save ink or because you just don’t need them. You can do this by clicking on the “remove images” button.

7. There’s also a “less ink” button you can use to gray out font and images, in order to use less ink.

8. The “add a note” button will let you add a text note anywhere on the content.

9. Once you’ve removed all of the sections that you don’t want to print, you can choose your output type – print, Google Cloud print, view as PDF, view as text, email, Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box.

As you can see, with CleanPrint you can really cut your print jobs and half. Plus you’ll save money by using less ink and paper!

http://maketecheasier.com

Easily Backup and Restore Your Windows With Handy Backup

We all know the importance of backing up our data simply because we never know when our computers are going to crash or hit by virus. Regardless of the Operating System, it is always useful to have a handy backup software in hand so you can easily backup and restore your data. Handy Backup is a simple, yet useful backup application for Windows (and yes, we have a giveaway for it.)

My impression of using Handy Backup is that it is easy to use. After the installation and on the first run, I am able to get it to backup my files in just three clicks. That is, of course, for the basic configuration. And if you need more advanced configuration like backing up to remote server, external USB devices, it is available as well.

Other than the normal files and folders backup, Handy Backup is able to backup Outlook, Skype, Photoshop and many other applications. In fact, it is using a plugin system to manage the third-party application backup. That means, if you understand XML, you can code up your own plugin to backup the applications of your choice too.

Usage

Once installed and on the first run, Handy Backup will prompt you to select the destination to backup your files. The “Online Backup” is referring to the online storage provided by Novosoft (with a fee). You can also select another folder as the backup destination, backup to a FTP server, or remote server such as Amazon S3 or a WebDav connection.

The next step is to select the files and folders to backup. Once that is done, simply click the “Backup Now” button and it will do its job.

Configuration

It wouldn’t be handy if it doesn’t provide you with ways to configure the software. Under the “File -> Properties” section, there are plenty of configuration options to play with. In the Advanced tab, you can configure it to do a “Full backup”, “Incremental Backup” or “Differential Backup” everytime the backup action is executed.

There is also the “Schedule” tab where you can schedule the backup to run automatically on a scheduled time.

Synchronizing Folders

Other than the standard backup and restore, Handy Backup also comes with a Synchronization feature that allows you to synchronize files between two folders.

Go to “File -> New Task” and select “Synchronize task”.

Select the first and second folders. Next, decide the action to be taken, whether to synchronize the first folder with the second, or vice versa.

Set the scheduler and the name for the task and execute it. That’s it, both the folders are now synchronized.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g

How to Merge Two or More PDF Files or Images

Do you need to merge multiple PDF files or images into a single file? In Linux, you can easily do it with PDF Shuffler, but what about Windows? Look no further, today we’ll show you how to merge PDF files quickly and for free, using Kvisoft PDF Merger.

Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Download and install the free PDF Merger software. Launch the program when you’re done.

2. Next you’ll want to customize the File Name format for your merged files. You’ll see the option at the bottom of the program window.

You can keep the “File Name” as the default format or select a new option from the drop-down menu. You can even create your own custom format.

3. You can also change the output folder if you want to use something other than the default location.

Under the File Name option, click the “Browse” button to find and select a new location on your computer.

4. Now add the files that you want to merge by clicking the “Add Files” button at the top left corner of the window.

5. Once you select the files, they’ll be listed in the window. You can remove a file by clicking on the minus button at the top of the window. You can also rearrange files by using the arrows at the top or via drag-and-drop.

6. Clicking on the “Options” button at the top of the window will let you further customize the merged file’s title, subject, author, keywords, and security. You can even password protect the file if you’d like.

7. Once everything is the way that you want, click on the “Start” button at the bottom right corner of the window.

8. In a few seconds, you’ll have a merged PDF file and you can even choose to open it upon completion

That’s all there is to it.

http://www.blogger.com

How To Get Outlook.com To Manage Your Domain Email

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, metaphorically of-course, you must have read the news that Google doesn’t provide a free Google Apps plans anymore. Which means that if you want to host email for your domain with Google Apps, it is going to cost you $5/user/month. Millions of individual domain owners had been using Gmail for their email needs and will now need to either switch providers or lose access to their emails.

Thankfully, there are other options out there and one of them is Microsoft’s new and shiny Outlook.com service. Read on to find out how to use Outlook.com to host your email for your domain.

The first thing that you need to do is sign up for a live.com account.

Once that is done, head over to domains.live.com and click on the “Get Started” link under Custom Domains.

Enter your domain name in the text box, select the radio button that says “Set up Outlook.com for my domain” and hit Continue.

Click “Accept” and on the next screen and you will be presented with the DNS settings that you will need to enable Outlook manage emails for your domain.

DNS Settings? What’s that?

Let’s take a step back to understand how email is delivered. DNS is the domain name system that lets you browse over to any website on the Internet by just using it’s domain name. It comprises of a bunch of different entries (records) for each domain name on the Internet. The servers that maintain these records are called DNS servers.

Each domain has an associated MX record. The MX record points to the server that is supposed to accept emails for that particular domain. This record is the one that has to be changed if you want Outlook.com to manage your email instead of Google or any other provider that you were using earlier. If you don’t know how to edit the DNS settings for your domain, head over to your domain registrar’s website and their tech support guys will be happy to handle them for you.

The MX record is the most important and without that entry Outlook/hotmail cannot receive emails for your domain. To allow other mail servers to trust email originating from your domain, you are also recommended to add a TXT record. The settings are on the same page under the heading “Server trust”.

Once you’ve made the above changes, DNS systems around the world are notified of the change to your domain. This process happens automatically and your new settings can take a couple of hours to propagate throughout the Internet.

After a few hours, refresh the page and Outlook will detect the DNS changes you made and let you add users to your account. Add new users to your account from the “Member Accounts” link and start using your new Outlook.com email.

If you want you can also add a CNAME record to your domain’s DNS entry that will let you access your Outlook.com email by accessing a sub-domain of your domain, for example: email.domain.com. If you’re not sure how to handle this, I’d suggest that you talk to your domain registrar’s support guys.

Wasn’t that easy ? Now, enjoy your free email service without all the hassles of managing an email server.

http://maketecheasier.com

Create Your Own Music Video Playlist With Jiggyape

Are you a YouTube fan and spend hours on it everyday listening (and watching) to music? I do it too, but I don’t like having to search and manually change  the songs every now and then.

Jiggyape is an online music player that provides a much better user interface than YouTube. Not only does it allows you to search for your favorite songs/artists, you can also create and save your playlist without having to login to your Youtube account or create a new user account. The best thing is, it is completely free, and there are no ads as well.

Creating your playlist

When you arrive at Jiggyape, you will see a big fat search bar right at the top of the site. All you have to do is enter the artist/song name and Jiggyape will list all the titles in the panel below. You can then add the videos to your playlist by clicking the + button before the video name.

Import your music library:

What makes Jiggyape stand out is the Library feature. Jiggyape has a desktop application (Windows only) which syncs your music library with their site. Jiggyape does not upload your music files to their server. Instead your song titles are cross-referenced with YouTube’s database and the best match is stored in your Jiggyape library. The imported music library data is associated to your email address. Once the importing is done, you just have to enter your email address in Jiggyape’s Library tab and the matching music are displayed.

Instead of having to spend countless hours on YouTube finding the music video for your entire music library – it’s just a matter of minutes with Jiggyape.

Discover new music and find similar songs

The Genie is an exciting feature in Jiggyape which will scan your playlist and your library and suggest similar songs. It also sports a feature where you can right-click on any song from your playlist, select “Get Similar Songs” option and discover new music that you’re probably going to like!

Video Player:

Last but not the least, Jiggyape comes with a dedicated (large) video player which lets you view your favorite music videos when you’re in the mood.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

• Free to use and contains no ads!
• Great library import feature.
• Discover new music and find similar songs from YouTube.
• Supports multiple languages.
• Great Google Chrome app. Download it from the Chrome Web Store!

Cons:

• Does not have an account  feature for saving preferences. Instead, it uses the browser’s cookies for storing data.
• Does not have provisions for connecting social medial accounts such as Facebook and Twitter.
• Does not have an option for reducing video quality in the mini video player.

Give Jiggyape a try and let us know if you prefer it over YouTube

http://maketecheasier.com

Texting can improve your kid's writing skills: Study

LONDON: Parents might be puzzled by the modern day text lingo, however, using abbreviations like 'lol', 'gr8' and 'b4' can improve your child's writing skills, a new study has found. 
According to a UK government research, there is a positive relationship between so-called "textisms" and pupils' ability to draft essays. 

The study, commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), found that mobile phone userequired a "certain degree of phonological awareness" that could drive up standards of written work, 'The Telegraph' reported. 

They also found that pupils who regularly wrote blogs and used social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter were "significantly better writers" than those who shunned the technology altogether. 

Pupils often perform worse in writing than in reading, maths and science at all ages. Last year, a quarter of pupils in UK failed to hit national targets in writing at the age of 11, with boys lagging far behind girls, according to figures. 

Critics have suggested that the influence of technology - particularly mobile phones and social networking websites - is fuelling a decline in pupils' written skills by blurring the boundaries between colloquialisms and standard English. 

The DfE study, which was based on an analysis of existing international evidence on children's writing, admitted that technology was starting to have an impact on student's school work. 

It quoted one that found "technology-influenced features" regularly appeared in essays and other written projects. 

"For example, 50 per cent of teenagers said that they sometimes use informal writing styles instead of proper capitalisation and punctuation in their school assignments, and 38 per cent have used text shortcuts such as 'lol' (laugh out loud)," the study said. 

The report said that text messaging was the most common form of writing used by school age children, employed at least once a month by 69 per cent of pupils. 

As many as 52 per cent used social networking sites, 47 per cent used emails and 45 per cent used instant messaging. 

However, the report found no evidence that "children's written language development is being disrupted by the use of text abbreviations".

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com