Saturday 11 May 2013

Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Ones Using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0



The latest version of the VMware vCenter Converter Windows installer, which is free to use, can be downloaded from www.vmware.com. The download size download is about 126 MB and is simple to install. Once installed this wizard driven application can be used to perform multiple IP-based conversions from a central location leading to better management. Also this utility supports almost every known virtualization platform and is not limited to VMware. Using this application one can convert formats such as Microsoft Hyper-V, Virtual PC and Virtual Server, and backup images of physical machines such as Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery or Norton Ghost to VMware virtual machines. One can also convert Windows and Linux-based physical machines and third-party image formats to VMware virtual machines.




In our test setup we took one target computer with Windows XP (machine 1) running the relevant application, and then used a second computer (machine 2) as a central conversion server and installed VMware's converter application on it. We used a shared folder on machine 2 to store the VM of machine 1. To start conversion we need to start the converter application and click on 'Convert machine' tab on top. This would start the wizard prompting you to select which machine you want to convert---the host machine or any other machine on the network. In our test we took one of the machines in our network. Once credentials of the target machine are populated, the next step is to put the converter agent on the machine. The application should do it automatically, however, the internal firewall and administrative rights might prevent you from putting the agent application at a remote location. To overcome this issue, you can directly install the agent on a target machine. For this, go to 'C:\\Program Files\\VMware\\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone' and find the 'VMware-Converter-Agent' application. Copy and install it on the target machine.






Once a connection has been established between the agent and the central converter, you need to specify the storage path, destination type, and the type of VM you want to convert. In this setup we created VM for VMware player which was stored in a shared folder on the network. Before conversion begins, you can edit the configuration of the created VM by clicking on 'Edit' link under 'Options'.


The conversion process takes some time depending on the target machine. You get a step-by-step update under 'Log Highlight' window.


After completion of the conversion, we found two new files on the storage drive (.vmx and .vmdk). We used the VMware player to run the freshly converted machine.



Wednesday 8 May 2013

K9 Web Protection

K9 Web Protection is a comprehensive parental controls and web filtering package that will keep the whole family safe online.

The program is able to block access to many web sites, according to their category: pornography, drugs, hacking, gambling, hate sites and more. Some pre-defined profiles speed up this process. Selecting "High", for instance, blocks almost everything and is suitable for very young children, while the "Minimal" profile is more relaxed, a better option for teenagers.

You can also make your own custom selection of site types to block, or just choose the Monitor option, which lets people go to whatever sites they like, but logs them for review later.
A Time Restrictions option then lets you define exactly what your kids can go online. Choose the NightGuard option, for example, and internet access will automatically be blocked between 10pm and 7am (although you can then change these times to whatever you like).
K9 Web Protection isn't just about adding web restrictions, though. You also get access to data from the WebPulse cloud service, a growing community who provide more than 6 billion web content ratings per day. And as soon as just one other user rates a site for phishing, spyware or malware, K9 Web Protection will immediately block it for everyone else, so helping you avoid even the very latest scams and threats.



Monday 6 May 2013

SpeedFan 4.49

If you need a tool that can change your computer's fan speeds, read the temperatures of your motherboard and your hard disk, read voltages and fan speeds and check the status of your hard disk using S.M.A.R.T. or SCSI attributes, then you came to the right place. SpeedFan is the software to go. It is fully configurable and you can create custom events to handle every situation automatically. SpeedFan works under Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. SpeedFan works under Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2012 too. SpeedFan works fine on 64 bit too. The relevant driver is now signed with my digital certificate. And this all costs you absolutely nothing! 

What is Speed Fan

SpeedFan lets you take a deeper view at the status of your computer. Almost every computer includes support for hardware monitoring. Accessing digital temperature sensors is really useful. If you are trying to figure out why your PC hangs when under heavy load or after some hours of usage, SpeedFan might help you find the real cause. Very often it is a poor power supply, or an improperly installed heatsink that lead to behaviours that we tend to associate (incorrectly) with errors from the operating system. SpeedFan automatically searches your computer for informative chips: the hardware monitor chips.




SpeedFan can display voltages,fan speeds and temperatures. On rare occasions, the BIOS doesn't activate such features. SpeedFan tries to enable them as long as this is a safe thing to do. Not only the motherboard is searched, but also some video cards and almost every currently sold hard disk. SpeedFan can access status info from EIDE, SATA and even SCSI drives, consistently showing internal data that can be used to diagnose current and future hard disk failures. This is known as S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology). At the lowest level, the SpeedFan hardware monitor software can access digital temperature sensors, but its main feature is its ability to control fan speeds according to the temperatures inside your PC, thus reducing noise.



Sunday 5 May 2013

Auslogics BoostSpeed 5

Slow Computer? Speed It Up Now!

Your one-stop PC maintenance and optimization tool. The program will clean up, speed up and fix your slow computer to make it run as fast and stable as new. 

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1-Click Scan

Removes junk files, defragments disks and repairs registry errors with just a couple of mouse clicks.

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System Advisor

Analyzes your system health, giving you a detailed diagnosis and improvement advice to speed up your computer.

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Over 15 tools

Supplied with over fifteen power tools for complete computer maintenance and ultimate speedup of a slow computer.

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Disk Defrag 3

Includes the latest version of our award-winning defragmenter with its every feature and advantage.

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Internet Optimizer


Automatically tunes Internet connection settings to maximize your download and web surfing speed.

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File Recovery

Recovers accidentally deleted files or files damaged by spyware and computer viruses.

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Thunderbird

Want a great e-mail program, but don't want to pay a penny? Then you won't do any better than Thunderbird, e-mail software from Mozilla, the same folks who bring you Firefox. It combines ease of use with high-end features such as message encryption, digitally signing messages, filters for automated e-mail handling, and very good threaded messaging. This version adds interface improvements, such as tabs, that make it faster to navigate your inbox.

Thunderbird setup has always been easy, and in this version, it's easier still. Enter your e-mail address and password, and Thunderbird will try to get all the necessary information about server names and locations by checking a database of such information maintained by Thunderbird. It was able to automatically to set itself up for use with Gmail using IMAP, which is impressive, considering that doing it manually can be confusing. As with the previous version, if you already have e-mail software, it will import those settings.



There's a lot more to like in this new version of Thunderbird. Most obvious are the tabs, so that you can have different e-mails in separate tabs, and quickly jump back and forth among them. When you search e-mail, that also opens in a new tab.

Also notable is that actions you take such as replying to mail and forwarding mail are now right in Thunderbird's message header itself, rather than in the toolbar. This makes them easier to find--and also gives the toolbar more space for other things, such as message search and add-ons.

Thunderbird still isn't an all-around personal information manager like Outlook--there's no calendar, for example, and you can't create to-do lists. It also doesn't integrate with social networking sites such as Facebook, which the new Outlook Social Connector lets you do.


Friday 3 May 2013

TrustGo Antivirus and Mobile Security 1.3.3 (for Android)

What separates TrustGo from products like Kaspersky Mobile Security is that it focuses on apps. In the App Manager tab, you'll be presented with a list of popular apps that TrustGo has scanned and certified as safe to use. According to TrustGo, the company scans 400 app marketplaces around the world, and gathers information from users to stay abreast of new Android apps. For users this is a first line of defense against malicious applications.

The My Apps sub tab will give you information on what's installed on your device, but is irritatingly not open by default.

From here, you can uninstall an app in seconds, or report it to TrustGo for unusual behavior. The reporting feature is a bit odd since it requires users to do a bit of investigation on their own, but is certainly useful for TrustGo to keep informed about the app ecosystem.


From the Security screen, you can access Privacy Guard. This breaks down the permissions requested by apps into broad categories, giving you a bird's eye view of what kind of information your apps can access. If TrustGo has flagged an app as insecure or unsafe it will provide more information on the risks presented by the app. Unfortunately, Android does not provide granular permissions control, requiring users to either take the risk or uninstall the app. Tapping on an app in Privacy Guard list allows you to uninstall it, and also indicates whether the app has been certified by TrustGo.

Note that not all suspicious apps will be flagged in Privacy Guard, only apps which TrustGo believes could expose your personal information.

Scanning and Impact on the User
Even the scans carried out by TrustGo's Security Scanner are focused on apps, though it will run through every available file on your phone as soon as you tap the scan option from the homescreen. Kaspersky Mobile Security, on the other hand, gives you the option of a targeted folder, app-only, or full system scan as well as other options.

Like other security apps, TrustGo scans new apps as their installed for potential threats. According the app's developers, the app can identify potential threats even in apps the company has never seen before thanks to heuristic scans performed on the device.

It took TrustGo an average of 62.4 seconds to scan 238 apps and other assorted files while a dozen other apps were running. This was well behind the much faster Bitdefender, but still fast enough to where it wouldn't impact the user.

Version 1.3.2 of TrustGo introduced significant changes to the anti-malware engine, which caused the app to jump to the top of AV-Test's January 2013 results with a perfect score. This independent testing lab also praised the additional features of the app, giving it a perfect usability score.

With TrustGo installed, there's minimal impact on the user. The phone is still fast and responsive, even with a scan running. I didn't notice any stuttering or lag playing Minecraft on my Samsung Galaxy Note II $299.99 at AT&T while TrustGo was scanning (even with 11 other apps running). With the TrustGo installed, it takes an average of 25.3 seconds to boot up the phone, and only another five seconds after that before the TrustGo logo appears on the top bar.

TrustGo can do SD card scanning and schedules weekly scans by default. I'd like to see scheduled scans made optional by default, however, since performance is critical with mobile devices.

Identifying and Removing Suspicious Apps
To see how TrustGo handled potentially malicious apps, I installed a penetration testing app that is frequently flagged as malware. After I installed the test app, TrustGo popped up a warning which I was pleased to note categorized it as a low threat, and also included information about the app. Most security apps do not provide information about why they flag the apps that they do. However, enough time had elapsed that I could have easily opened the suspicious app before TrustGo's warning appeared.

From this warning you could uninstall the app or add it to my list of ignored apps. Once ignored, TrustGo will not include the app in its list of possible threats during a system scan. Tapping delete here, or in the scan results, opens the Android uninstaller and removes the app.

During  testing on the Samsung Galaxy Note II, It had a few instances where the Android uninstaller failed to launch after It tapped delete. It was not able to replicate this issue, but for any security app you should check to make sure the uninstall was successful if you don't see a confirmation screen.

Thursday 2 May 2013

The Best Tuneup Utilities

What is a PC tuneup utility, you ask? It's an application designed to fix the wear and tear that computers suffer over time by repairing hard drive fragmentation, fixing the problematic Windows registry, and deleting useless and duplicate files. While all of the tools listed below perform these basic actions, a few stand out from the pack by implementing unique features.

This tuneup utility collection doesn't represent the full scope of PC repair tools, but the ones included here are some of the best that you'll find. Some are paid apps, some are free apps, but you can rest easy knowing that even the lowest scoring of these PC tune up utilities will leave your PC in better condition than they found it.

360Amigo System Speedup Pro
Starting at $19.95 per year
360Amigo System Speedup Pro can help blow the cobwebs from a neglected OS, but it needs a more thorough cleaning ability and more flexible installation abilities to contend with its best rivals.

AVG PC Tuneup 2011
Starts at $29.99 for one license
AVG PC Tuneup 2011 offers excellent system-cleaning performance and can turn back the clock on a worn machine.




Comodo System Utilities
Free
Comodo System Utilities is a free and effective system-enhancing utility that is as potent, if not more so in certain cases, as paid apps. 




Diskeeper 2011 Professional
$59.95
Diskeeper 2011 may be pricey, and sports a busy interface, but it can repair the elements that negatively impact system performance and, thanks to some unique tools, slow the wear-down process. 




Iolo System Mechanic 10
$39.95
Iolo System Mechanic remains one of the best PC tune-up utilities around, as it digs deep, cleans up PCs well, and offers informative, easy-to-understand help about the problems that plague computers. 



Norton Utilities
$49.99 for three licenses
This PC tune-up utility can give an aged PC a new lease on life, but its lacks some of the features and performance found in competing software.




PC Tools Performance Toolkit 2011
$39.95
This PC clean-up tool will make your system boot faster and run smoother, but the limited installations may not be household-friendly.




SlimWare Utilities SlimCleaner
Free
Featuring free, effective, community-based problem solving, SlimCleaner is an excellent application for those who don't want to pony up money for a tune-up utility or deal with licenses.




Spamfighter Full-Diskfighter
Starting at $9.95 per month
Spamfighter Full-Diskfighter will improve your PC's performance, but there are other suites that do a better job at making your computer run like new.