How to use Subtitles files (.sub)?

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Do you ever feel the need of watching a video with subtitles? Well I often do, especially when I am watching a mystery movie :). (You can download the subtitles form http://subscene.com. ). The best player to play video with subtitles is VLC player. If you place the .sub file in the same folder as the video file, sometimes VLC player automatically plays it. But more often it doesn’t. The way to deal with it is to explicitly give the path of the .sub file. Something like this:

  • Play the video in VLC player
  • Right click on the video
  • Select option “video” and then “subtitle track”
  • Click on “open file”
  • Browse to the .sub file location
  • Here it is ….your video with subtitles :)

Best practices to get better Battery Life for your laptop

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With the time the performance of Laptop battery changes drastically. A new one gives a backup of around 3 Hrs easily but in a year only it comes down to 1.5 Hrs or may be low. That makes one think how to get better battery life for laptop. Its always good to use the best practices to get the best out of your Battery. These are some of tips to extend the battery life:

  • A laptop battery’s health deteriorates the more you charge and discharge it, running it from a power source will make your battery remain in a state of charge/recharge. Instead, when your battery gets to near 100% charged, unplug it from the power and plug it in again when it is low.
  • Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the Li-ion battery. While on the other hand for nickel-cadmium batteries, discharge the battery completely at least once in a month.
  • If you are using your laptop more as a desktop, I would suggest you to remove its battery and use directly from power supply.
  • Never use your laptop directly on bed. If you have to use it on bed put some hard stuff under it.  If you look closely on the back of your laptop, it stands on four miniature legs, which allow the heat to pass from it. When you put it on bed or some other surfaces like it, there will be no space for heat to pass and it can harm your computer and the battery in long run.
  • Try cleaning your laptop battery contacts at least once every few months. This can be done by using a cotton swab and alcohol.
  • It is also a good practice to charge the battery when your laptop is turned off.

How to play .bin and .cue files

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If you got .bin as movie file (many downloaded movie file has .bin extension) then you have obtained a CD Image. The BIN file is basically an entire CD in one file, and the CUE file stores information on the .BIN file that is needed when burning, or mounting to a virtual CD drive. A .cue/.bin image could be anything like a Data CD or  VCD .

One way to deal it with is to use a virtual drive software like PowerISO or Demon Tools. Demon tool lite version is a free to use software. Download it, install it and run it.

When Demon tool ask for the image file browse it to the bin file. Mount it. Now the cd image is in virtual drive. Play it Enjoy it.

P.S. I found a you tube video about the same. If you are not acquaint with Demon Tool, this video will be a great help.

How to synchronize two folders on different drive?

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Recently while trying to install Unix along side Windows, I messed up with Windows and lost all the data. I had a huge collection of Music and Pics which I lost in this unfortunate incident. Though I have a considerable amount of Music and Pics on my external hard disk, I still lost the songs and pics which I added lately and forgot to copy them in the hard disk. Moreover, it is a tedious task to choose the new songs and pics from your computer and then copy it in the hard disk. Windows built-in back up option backs up almost everything in your library which I simply don’t like. Because of this experience I felt the need to synchronize two folders on different drive (including external drive).

I happened to come across this powerful synchronization tool from which stands fully correct on all of my synchronization needs. Its a very easy to use tool and gives you different options for synchronizing. Here is how to do it:

Run SyncToy. And select the pair of folders you want to synchronize.

When you go next, you will have to choose one option out of the available three (this synchronizing option can be changed later as well).

  • Synchronized: Any change in the folder will be reflected in both the folders. Even if you delete file on one folder, will be deleted from the other as well
  • Echo: Changes (and delete) are reflected on the right folder
  • Contribute:This is my favorite and ideal for back-up. Changes are reflected in the right folder but deletion in left folder doesn’t affect files in right folder

Give a name to your folder pair for eg. Music BackUp, Pics BackUp etc. Your folders are ready for synchronization.

How to know whether your processor is x64(64 bit) or x86(32 bit)?

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Have you ever wondered whether your computer is 32 bit or 64 bit?

No…I am not talking about the Operating System. Its very easy to check the OS for 32 or 64 bit. Just go to the System properties and look for System Type. But this is not about Operating System. A 32 bit operating system can run on a 64 bit processor. What about the processor?

Try these methods to check your processor capability.

  • Go to Control PanelAll Control Panel ItemsPerformance Information and Tools (If you cannot locate All Control Panel Item, open control panel and simply copy this path and paste it in the top address bar)

Here locate “View and print the detailed performance and system information”.

Now click on it.  Another window pops up. Here you can easily the details of your system. Look for System Type.

  • Another method: Go to Start and type in the search bar msinfo32. Choose the application. And here look for System Type. If its x64 then it is 64bit and if it is x86 then 32 bit.

How to password protect a Word Document?

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Sometimes when you write a report, or your resume or may be (if you do so) write diary on Word document you do not want other people to read it other than you or people you authorize to. I happened to come across a need of password protecting my lab reports. I would like to share the method to password protect a word document in MS Word 2000, MS Word 2007 and Open Office. Its a pretty easy one (you might have known it before as well..but any ways). In simple steps:

MS Word 2000:

  • Open the document you want to password protect
  • On the File menu click on Save As
  • On the Tools menu in the Save As dialog box, click General Options
  • In the Password to open box, type a password, click OK
  • Confirm the password in the Reenter password
  • Save it

MS Word 2007:

  • Click the Menu button
  • Go to Prepare and click Encrypt Document
  • Enter the password of your choice
  • Save it

Open Office:

  • Open the document you want to password protect
  • On the File menu click on Save As
  • While saving notice the “Save with password” check box, select it
  • Save it

Sources: Help files of the corresponding softwares

How to speed up the Start Up process in Windows7?

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Do you think your computer takes quite a lot time while starting? Once started properly, it works fine but it takes a significant amount of time at the start. The reason  is pretty obvious and most of the people know how to deal with it. If you don’t, then read the complete article.

The reason for the PC start-up being slow relates to the number of applications it loads at the start. You can check how many applications are run at the start-up in the right bottom corner of your screen.   Here is a hint:

How many applications do you see? (There are 6 applications which are loaded everytime I start my PC and these are essentials for me). If you see a lot of unnecessary programs like Nokia Ovi, Java updater, Adobe updater, Google update etc, get rid of them. These are the applications for which you selected yes and ticked next while installing

To get rid of these type RUN in  the search bar of Start. If you don’t know what is that here is a hint again:

Now click on Run and type msconfig. Press enter. Here choose Startup tab.

Here you see the ticked program that loads at the start up. De-select the programs which you think are unnecessary for you. But PAY ATTENTION in doing this as you might disable some application which might turn into disaster . I would suggest following things for safety :

1. Do not disable any application which is in the Command like C:WindowsSystem32. Never touch the applications from Windows folder.

2. Do not disable Microsoft Windows Operating System. I don’t need to tell you why. :)

3. Do not disable your Anti-Virus

4. Better to disable programs that are in C:Program Files. And the programs you know are of no use to be loaded every time at the start up like Adobe updater, java updater, webcam central, Nokia Pc suite etc.

For better PC performance I’ll also suggest to keep your C drive as much free as possible. And apart from that delete your temporary files and clean your registry clean at regular intervals.

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How to recover Windows Administrator password??

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Sometimes when you are not a frequent user of a machine, it may happen that you forget the login details of a computer. If you forget the administrator password and don’t have a password reset disk or another administrator account, you won’t be able to reset the password. If there are no other user accounts on the computer, you won’t be able to log on to Windows and will need to re-install Windows.(Sources: ). This is what Microsoft says, but fortunately for us , that is not true. There are many password recovery tools available on internet that can help you recover the lost password in minutes. Out of that one free to download open source software is Ophcrack. Follow the steps:

1. Download the Ophcrack LiveCD image from http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/. If you are using Windows 7, download the “Vista” version.

2. Burn the image on a CD/DVD.

3. To recover the log-in password, place the CD in drive and reboot your system. While booting choose to boot from CD (In case you do not know how to boot from cd, as it starts booting start pressing F2 or F12 to go to boot options. There choose the option “boot from cd”).

4. The LiveCD will be booted and it will recover all the users and their corresponding passwords, in minutes.

This is the best software to recover passwords even if you don’t know the ABCD of the complex password recovery process. You can also use it to hack into the systems of your friends (or your lab’s administrator account ).

If you want more details, I would suggest you to visit: