Category: Useful Applications & Tips

[How To] find out which program is using your webcam to spy on you
If you are worried that someone might be spying on you using your webcam, then MakeUseOf has a list of steps you can follow to find out which program you have on your system that carries a spyware or malware, capable of triggering your webcam to spy on you.

This is a little “Do it yourself” method, but it ensures the spot on result. You’ll have to find the compromised software on your own. To do this, you’ll need Process Explorer, the awesome Windows Sysinternals tool developed by Microsoft for IT work. You can download the installer here if you like, or you can just run the application from their server.

With Process Explorer running, follow these steps:
- Figure out what your camera’s object name is by finding it in Device Manager. For Windows 7: search “Device Manager” in the start menu. For Windows 8.1: search the same thing in the Charms bar.
- Once you locate it in the Device Manager, double-click and go to the “Details” tab. Open the property drop-down and select “Physical device object name”, then right-click to copy the name.
- Return to the Process Explorer, or get it started if you haven’t yet. Then hit Ctrl+F and paste the camera’s object name into the search field and click “Search.” You should see whatever processes are currently using your webcam.
If you recognize the program which are using your webcam, like skype, hangout, webcam snap tool etc. then there’s no need to worry! If you don’t recognize the program, right-click it in Process Explorer and select “Kill Process“, then uninstall it from your machine. After the program has been removed, run a full-system virus scan to ensure your machine is safe to use again.
May 30, 2014
[How To] disable sponsored ads on uTorrent
There’s no doubt that uTorrent is the best torrent client that gets the job done in the most precise manner but it’s been quite a mayhem when uTorrent decided to force the banner ads for all the non-premium users. Some people find it a good way to repay the developers for their hard work, but if you are like me you would do anything (except going for the premium version of the application, of course!) to get rid of those annoying banner advertisements.

Don’t worry, I got you covered here. You can turn off these advertisement on your client by following some simple steps. It might not be just a single click away, but uTorrent developers didn’t completely disabled the option to turn off the sponsored content according to the preferences of the user.

See Also: Remove uTorrent Sponsored ads with single click

Instructions:
- You’ll need to change some values in Advanced settings to achieve the results. To get to the advanced settings, Go to Options > Preferences > Advanced.
- Now Search for the following names by entering it in the filter box situated in the preferences window. Make sure to set the values to “false” for each of them.
-bt.enable_pulse
-gui.show_notorrents_node
-sponsored_torrent_offer_enabled
-gui.show_plus_upsell
-left_rail_offer
- Now Click “Apply” or “Ok” Button and Restart uTorrent.
If this method is little tricky for you, feel free to head over to this post which basically allows you to remove uTorrent ads with single click.
May 9, 2014
Install FireChat if you want to chat with people around without any internet!

Nowadays chatting with people is a common scenario but it all requires one thing without which nothing can be done. Its the Internet. But now a new app has been launched in the market which allows people to chat with others around in a particular range even when there is no internet connection.

Firechat is the name of the new app, which sounds quite fabulous. The creators of this app are known as ‘Open Garden’ and using the company;s mesh networking technology this app was made successful.

The app can be easily used wherever there are people around and then a user has the power to chat with them without any internet connection. The capability of this app shows us how limitless are the applications of peer to peer networking. The best places where this app can be used are Beach, subways, At a big game, trade show, camping in the wild or even a concert etc.

First the app was launched only for iPhones but now it has now been made available for Android devices also since it became really popular after it was launched two weeks ago. The app actually broke many records since it is now among the top 10 social networking apps and has already spread across 80 countries.

In the words of Open Garden’s CEO, ” I am proud to say that we are now able to deliver a best-in-class peer-to-peer chat experience to anyone with an Android device. And thanks to its multi-hop capabilities, FireChat may extend the range of peer-to-peer communications significantly.”

One can also consider the importance of this app since it doesn’t require any internet, it can be very helpful during the conditions of emergency, disasters or any other common place where you don’t know if you are going to get a reliable connection.

FireChat has many other features that makes it better than other messaging apps. The app also works as easily with internet as it does without it. One can talk to everybody at a time or only the people present nearby using the different modes. The app is really user friendly since it does not require any email logins, no passwords etc and all of that without any significant amount of Battery loss.

If you are wondering where the hell did this company suddenly pop up on the tech radar, then its important that we inform you that this was the company who won the Grand prize at the GMIC Startup competition in October 2013. Within this small time only, there are about 4 million users of apps made by this company around the world.

April 6, 2014
[How To] group icons of “This PC” as drives and removable storage in Windows 8.1 Update 1
Microsoft introduced the new update which brings back the start button, removed drag and drop windows to close app and added minimize and close button for such operation, shut down and restart button is finally at the right place and windows now boots directly to desktop by default — and there are many other bug fixes and features that has now the potential to makes the modern UI a success for Desktop environment.

Everything was perfect, but Microsoft managed to piss off their users once again by introducing a new File Manager — which is called “This PC” by default, instead of “My Computer” or “Computer” – if that wasn’t enough, they decided not to offer users to sort their hard disk drives and removable devices separately like they used to do it in previous Operating System.

Windows users are so much attached to the traditional way to interact with their PCs, but when Microsoft tries to move their couch, it tends to piss off some of them because not everyone likes someone else making changes to the way they interact with things in their life. But, fret not! You can have your old Explorer back by following some simple steps.

A developer designed a set of tweaks that can bring back the old File Manager back in the game, which has tweakable settings. Tihiy at msfn designed a software that uses Windows 8 and Windows 7 Shell Extension, that can undo “improvements” to file browsing made in newer Windows version.

Have a look at the before and after effect:

Before

After

Instructions:
- Download OldNewExplorer.
- Extract the files, and double click on OldNewExplorerCfg.exe.
- A new window will pop up with the following options. You can select the options as shown in the image below (recommended), or if you wish you can add some other features according to your preference.
- Click on Install and close the window.
- Restart the Explorer.exe or reboot computer to apply changes.
- Done.
April 5, 2014
VLC released the first beta app for Windows 8 users
The Windows RT users can have the best video player on their and benefit from their throw anything and play it all, reputation of the software, while still being soft on the resource usage.

Earlier the open-source media player raised $78,136 on Kickstarter, to help them fund the development of the software for Windows 8 (x86 and x64 bit) users . The app will play back a range of video and audio formats including MKV, Ogg, MOV, FLAC and MPC, in addition to all of the codecs supported in the regular desktop app, including MPEG-1, H.265, WMV3 and VC-1.

Here are some of the features listed on the kickstarter page:

This application:
- works on Windows 8.0 and 8.1: too many people are still on 8.0, so we had to use that. This decreases the stability of the application, though…
- is compiled for Intel x86 CPUs: Windows RT version will follow as soon as we are able to compile it. ARM version will also apply to Windows Phone.
- plays all video and audio formats of VLC, including MKV, Ogg and Mov files or FLAC and MPC;
- supports the same codecs as the VLC application for desktop, from MPEG-1 to H.265, through WMV3 and VC-1;
- supports multiple-audio tracks selection;
- supports embedded subtitles;
- supports Background Audio playback;
- features a easy-to-navigate but complete UI, notably for audio browsing;
- supports Live Tiles!
- supports removable storage and DLNA servers.
However, there are a few limitations:
- This app is currently slow, and is slower than VLC for desktop for video decoding and has no hardware acceleration;
- Subtitles support is not very good yet, and notably it only supports embedded subtitles; this is our major point of focus for now.
- Audio does not seem to work in all configurations;
- Playlists and streams are not supported in the UI (they are present in the core)
- It’s clearly not as stable as it should be.
March 13, 2014
NetLimiter lets you Limit internet speed of all the applications on your system

Have you ever faced a situation when you are streaming/downloading your favorite TV Episode or Movie from the internet at the maximum speed provided by your ISP, but you cannot enjoy your Facebook Streams, tweeter buzz or other website’s because your internet connection’s max ISP speed limit won’t let you or, you just found out that your limited internet bandwidth provided by your ISP has been exhausted by one of your application? Not anymore!

You can now simply limit the internet Download and upload speed/traffic of any application on your system with the help of a simple tool. NetLimiter is the ultimate bandwidth shaper, which can control your internet traffic and monitor the real-time bandwidth usage.

The interface is simple and effective, where you can monitor the internet usage by all the applications installed on your system. It helps you find out the software, which is responsible for hogging the bandwidth and leaving you with the exhausted data on your account.

You can limit the maximum upload and download speed, which can be used by the particular software or process on your computer and hence, makes it easier to manage the distribution of the bandwidth of your monthly data cap.

The “NetLimiter” can be a real relief for the limited data users, who wants to control the usage of internet bandwidth according to their preference. It can allow them to restrict the internet access only to the handful of apps.

The effective Bandwidth shaper, network monitor, connection blocker and filters, traffic charts and informative statistics can be used to control the every bit of internet bandwidth which can be used on your computer.

February 18, 2014