Recovering permanently deleted files

Permanently deleted data includes data deleted from the Recycle Bin & formatted data.

Have you ever faced a situation where you have accidentally deleted an important file from the Recycle Bin? It is generally considered that once this happens, it is impossible to recover it. But actually, such deleted files can be recovered, though the chances of it decreases as time passes. You will need a Data Recovery software for this purpose.

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How to find Software help effectively

There are many instances when working with a software that one does not know how to perform a particular function or does not possess the required knowledge. In such cases, one needs help. Here is what you should do for effectively finding help :

1. Check the Help file : Most softwares come with a help file built in. This file tends to fully cover all aspects of the software. Thus, it is likely that all your help needs will be fulfilled by it. 

You can access this file by pressing the F1 key or going to Help --> Contents. After opening the file, you can either go through its different sections or search for a term from the search tab, to get the information you need.

2. Online help : Some companies offer online help for their products. Thus, you can visit the product's web site (You can find the web page address from Help --> About). Then, you can search for the required information in a way similar to how you find help from the help file.

3. Search : You can also seek the info by searching for it on the Net. There are many reliable info sources online which can guide & inform you.

You can use the syntax "how to *** using 'software'" or "what is *** in 'software'"  (without the quotes) where *** stands for the required info & 'software' stands for the name of the concerned software.

4. Ask : You can ask for the required info in sites like Yahoo! Answers, Wiki Answers, etc. or in blogs (like this one) By this way, you will most probably get your answer. And, there's also the traditional way of asking an expert PC friend for the information!

Thus, these are the ways by which you can get help for a software effectively.

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Optimize the PC using Advanced Windows Care

Why should I use Advanced Windows Care 2 to optimize my PC?
As I had written before in a previous article, the PC tends to gradually slow down & become less efficient. This is caused due to several factors like spywares, obsolete registry entries, junk files, etc. Now, fixing all these problems individually is a very cumbersome task. That's why you should use tools like AWC2, as it can repair the PC for multiple problems quickly.

It can search & repair your PC for :

• Spywares
• Un-immunized spywares
• Obsolete registry entries
• Unoptimized System Configurations
• Unneeded Startup items
• Surfing history/Internet Cache (Temporary Internet files)
• Junk files

How can I use the utility?

The user interface of AWC2 is very simple. Clicking on the Scan button starts the scanning process of AWC2, which shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Then, click on the Repair button to repair all the problems found.

Note :

1- Before repairing a particular item, AWC2 makes a back-up of the system, which facilitates easy recovery in case something goes wrong.
2- Also, you can view the un-optimized items separately before the repair if you wish to. You can also instruct the software to de-list certain items, if you want.

Thus, it is highly recommended to use this tool regularly due to its simplicity & powerful features. Use it every fortnight to ensure that your PC remains nice & clean.

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Revamp your Desktop with Object Dock

Object Dock is a powerful free software that fully revamps your desktop so that you do not need the traditional icons anymore. It adds an attractive docklet to your desktop, in which you can place icons easily.

Here are some of its Features :

You can directly drag files or icons from the desktop to Object dock. This technique is called Drag & Drop.

The docklet can be positioned at four positions of the desktop,ie., top, bottom, left & right.

The auto-hide feature of Object Dock hides the docklet when not in use. To show it, you have to move the mouse pointer over the position of the docklet. This will show the docklet again till the mouse cursor hovers over it.

Therefore, Object Dock is a feature-rich software. The docklet with its animation effects will make your desktop experience more easier.

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Refreshen your mouse cursor

Are you bored of the same old white cursor on your desktop? Then, it's time to change it into an interactive animated one. StarDocks CursorFX is a powerful free software that offers a wide range of cursors with delightful animations.. Changing the cursor is very easy from within the software interface. You can revert back to the original Windows cursor very easily too. Download it from here.

The software, being free, does have some minor limitations though. We are unable to add certain extra effects to it or change the cursor settings (size, colour, etc.). But, the free effects along with the cursors make CursorFX a must-have visual add-on for every modern desktop. So, get it now & enjoy the new cursors!

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Types of Software

As you know, there are numerous softwares available for various purposes. The softwares are classified by many ways like license, utility, etc. Today, I will explain the license aspect of classification of softwares.

Freeware - The softwares which are available to you completely free of charge with all its features enabled for unlimited use are called freewares.

Retail : The softwares which have to be bought for their usage are called Retail softwares.

Trailware - The softwares which are also available for free but can only be used for a limited amount of times or for a limited duration are called trialwares. Such softwares are created so that users can try out the features of the retail version to know whether the software is useful for them or not.

Demo -: The free software where only few features of the retail version of the same software are enabled is called a demo. It can be used unlimited number of times. These softwares are created to give a glimpse of the retail softwares.

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Using Fire Tune

1. After downloading & installing the tool, open it.

2. First of all, back up the default settings of Firefox by clicking on the 'Create backup of configuration' button. This will enable us to revert back to the previous settings if the results of optimization are not satisfactory.

3. Now, you will have to select the speed of your PC (CPU & RAM) & the Internet.

To find out the amount of RAM & CPU that you have, click on Start ---> Right click on My Computer ---> Click on Properties. (Or you can press Windows Logo key + Pause) Now, in the 'System' area, you can view the CPU speed in MHz/GHz & RAM in MB/GB.

To check your Internet speed, read this article.

4. Now, select the appropriate combination of the speed of your PC & of your Internet connection, using the table given below :

	Fast	Slower	Slow
CPU	1.5 GHz +	-	Less than 1.5 GHz
RAM	512 MB +	-	Less than 512 MB
Internet Connection	300 KB +	100-200 KB	10-25 KB

Note : Here, KB stands for kilobytes.

Now, close Mozilla Firefox if it is open & then click on 'Tune it'. And there you have it, you have just optimized Mozilla Firefox through Fire Tune. Enjoy the speedier performance of Mozilla Firefox!

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Manage your downloads efficiently

Do you download files from the Internet often? Do you use the basic download managers bundled with your browser? Then, what you need is a specialized download manager. The modern download managers provide you with powerful features like pausing/resuming downloads, resuming broken downloads, improving download speed, organizing your downloads & much more.

There are many download managers available on the Internet. I would recommend you to use Flashget. It is one of the most powerful & popular download managers on the Net. After installation, it gets directly associated with Internet Explorer. It means that whenever we click on a download, the download starts in Flashget instead of the default download manager of Internet Explorer. To associate it with Mozilla Firefox too, read this article.

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Analyze the EULA of softwares to make sure that the software is secure

Whenever we try to install a software, we are given an EULA (End user License Agreement) to read. We can only install the software if we agree to the agreement. Now, this agreement is usually very big. That is why, many PC users tend to skip this & directly install the software. Unscrupulous softwares mention their shady intents in the EULA. Therefore, it is important to take care if such intents are mentioned in the EULA or not. Since reading the EULA is a long & tedious task, it is advisable to use an EULA analyzing software to check the EULA.

EULAlyzer is an effective software which analyzes any EULA & gives us a list of suspect items, if any, in it. We can then decide whether or not to install the software. Its basic version is free. To analyze an EULA :

1) Whenever you come across an EULA, Select the complete EULA by dragging the pointer from the first letter of the EULA to the last, right-click on the selected text & click on Copy.
2) Open EULAlyzer.
3) Click on Analyze on the left hand side menu, or from the 'Scan new license agreement' link below the 'EULAlyzer scan' area.
4) Right click on the blank area below the License Agreement area & click on Paste.
5) Click on Analyze.
6) The EULA will then be analyzed & a list of suspect items will be given to you.

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Protect your PC from Spywares

Spywares are little tools which spy over the activities of the user on the PC & send this information to various third-party sites & companies. Through this, they can collect important confidential information like passwords & credit card information too. They can also disrupt the PC performance. Therefore, one has to maintain adequate security for the removal of spywares & shielding the PC from them.

In addition to maintaining the internet security, it is essential to have a powerful spyware removal tool too. Spybot Search & Destroy is a very good spyware removal tool. Download it from the given link. After installation, open the program. It has a very simple user interface. To scan the computer for spyware :

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

1) Click on the 'Check for Problems' button.

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

2) Spybot will then start scanning your computer for spyware.

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

3) After the scan finishes, click on 'Fix selected Problems' to remove all the problems.
Note : All the problems will be checked by default. If you don't wish to remove a particular problem, uncheck it. You can also click on any problem to see its details.

(Click on the image to enlarge it)

And, To immunize the computer from many bad products, click on the Immunize tab on the left hand side. Then, click on Immunize.

Alternatively, you can also use Ad-Aware to remove spyware from your computer.

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Browse the Internet safely

Use a Firewall : A firewall is a software that forbids unauthorized access to & from your computer through the Internet. It is one of the first security precautions that you should follow. I would recommend you to use ZoneAlarm which is a free, powerful yet simple tool (Download it from here) It is a very popular & effective firewall. It automatically blocks unauthorized access to your computer by outsiders. Also, whenever a software tries to access the Internet, ZoneAlarm asks us whether or to allow it to use the Internet or not.

Use Mozilla Firefox : One of the most important precaution while browsing the net is to use a secure internet browser. Mozilla Firefox is a quick, free & powerful internet browser. It is considered as one of the most secure browsers on the Internet.

Use the NoScript extension with Mozilla Firefox : Install the NoScript extension for Firefox from the link. Whenever a website is visited, it blocks all Flash & Java files (which can contain spyware) from running through Firefox & a 'Scripts currently disabled' message appears. We can also specify certain sites to be allowed Flash & Java content. For this, visit the particular site. Then, click on Options on the right hand side of the 'Scripts currently disabled' message, & then click on Allow 'Website name' .

Use McAfee Site Advisor : McAfee Site Advisor is a very good free software through which we can know whether the site that we are visiting is safe or not. Download it from the given link. Whenever a site is visited, the McAfee Site Advisor tab at the bottom of the screen shows either a red, yellow or green colour representing a dangerous, neutral or safe site respectively. On clicking on the tab, a webpage from the Site Advisor website loads showing the safety details of the site. Thus, it is a very useful tool.

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Need of Disk defragmentation

The PCs of the current age are very quick & flexible. They can perform various functions efficiently. But after using the PC for a long time, its performance gradually starts declining. One of the many reasons of it is fragmentation of data.

Fragments of data are pieces of data that are scattered in different areas of the hard drive. The processor takes a much longer time while dealing with fragmented data as compared to defragmented data. Fragmentation of data is caused due to the adding/deleting of files from your hard drive. It is thus, unavoidable.

So, defragmentation of data is essential to maintain the performance of your PC. There are many applications available on the Internet for this purpose. One of the most powerful & simple tools for disk defragmentation is >Auslogics Disk Defrag (which is free). To learn how to use it, visit the Using AusLogics Disk Defrag page.

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