HTML Signatures for your Google Email
Author: Ravi
•1:54 PM

Gmail does support email signatures but the problem is that it limits you to plain text – you can’t add graphics (like your company’s logo) to the signature and there’s absolutely no support for HTML so you can’t use different font styles or colors for the signature text.

There are workarounds. For instance, you can create an email signature in Outlook or some HTML editor and then copy-paste the whole thing to your Gmail message. Or you can get one of these browser add-ons to create rich HTML signatures directly on the Gmail /Google Apps website.
There’s a third-option as well – it’s easy, it’s fun and doesn’t require extensions. Best of all, you can create multiple signatures for the same Gmail account and use them depending on who you are corresponding with.

Gmail Signatures Step-by-Step
Step 1: Go to Gmail Settings –> Labs and enable “Canned Responses” as well as “Inserting Images.”
Step 2: Compose a new message in Gmail and create a signature just like you would compose any other email message. Be creative!
You can either upload logos and icons from the computer or use ones that are already on the web. I suggest the former style as that will permanently embed the image into your email signature.
Step 3: Once your happy with the formatting and layout of your new “HTML signature,” go to the Canned Response menu and Save – give some logical name like “Personal” for a signature that you want to attach to your personal emails.
Now whenever you are composing a new message in Gmail or replying to an existing message, just select the relevant signature from the Canned Responses drop-down and it will be inserted inline as in above screenshot.
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How to Paint a Design on Glass
Author: Ravi
•3:29 AM

Some days back one of my friend asked me "How to paint on glass surface." Glass or Plastic can be a difficult surface to paint because it does not allow conventional paint to adhere to its surface, causing a smudgy appearance and cracking. The best way to create a painted design on glass/plastic cups, bowls or furniture is by purchasing a craft paint made specially for plastic surfaces. Many spraypaint brands carry paints for plastic surfaces. Permanent oil-based paint markers can also be used when creating a painted design on a glass/plastic surface.

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • Sketch pad
  • Pencil
  • Craft paint or oil-based paint markers
  • Small brush
  • Paint sealer

  1. 1. Sketch out a design using the dimensions of the glass/ plastic item before beginning to paint. This is an important step in creating a cohesive design. It will give you an idea of spacing, as well as what the design will look like on rounded objects such as cups. The finished sketch can be wrapped around a rounded object to view the appearance of the design.
    2. Begin painting the design you sketched onto the glass/plastic object. Work at a slow pace. If you are creating a complex design such as a floral pattern, begin with the oil-based paint markers to create thin lines such as stems.
    3. Let the first layer of paint dry. Do not apply multiple coats of wet paint on top of each other. This will cause the design to smear.

  2. 4. Apply the second layer of paint over the dry paint to add more detail to the design. For example, if you are painting animals onto a glass/plastic surface, you may want to add spots, eye color or texture in the fur. Let dry.
    5. Add shadows and highlights to the design over the second layer of paint. This will give the design depth and create more realism, especially if you are painting traditional landscapes, portraits or a still life. Let dry.
    6. Brush a layer of paint sealer made specially for painting on glass/plastic over the design. you can use varnish paint available at all paint stores.This will protect the dried paint against scratches, as well waterproof the design. Paint sealer will dry clear
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Monitor the Weather from Your Windows 7 Taskbar
Author: Ravi
•11:26 PM

Keeping up with the weather forecast can be hard when you are extra busy with work. If you need a simple but nice looking way to integrate weather monitoring into your Taskbar then join us as we look at WeatherBar. Its a simple portable application. (Works with Windows7 Only)

Setting Up & Using WeatherBar
Simply unzip the following files from link (Download WeatherBar). Click Weatherbar2.exe
Adjust two settings (using the “Pencil & Gear Buttons”) to get WeatherBar set up for your location. 
Clicking on the “Pencil Button” will open up this small window…enter the name of your location and click “OK”.
Next click on the “Gear Button” where you can choose the “Update Interval” and “Measurement Format” that best suits your needs. Click “OK” when finished and WeatherBar will be ready to go.
That definitely looks nice. When you are finished viewing this window minimize it to the “Taskbar Icon” instead of clicking on the “Close Button”…otherwise the entire app will close. Left click on the “Taskbar Icon” to bring the window back up…
Hovering the mouse over the “Taskbar Icon” provides a nice thumbnail of the weather forecast.
Right clicking on the “Taskbar Icon” will display a nice mini forecast.
Links
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Another useful application to Encrypt and Protect Data in USB Drives
Author: Ravi
•10:06 PM

If you have the habit of carrying sensitive data in USB drives, then it is always advisable that you encrypt and protect the data stored in USB drives. Encrypting the data with a password ensures that in any case you lose your pen drive, data will not be accessible for people who get the USB drive. USB Safeguard is a simple utility that password protects your USB pen drive. Simply drag and drop files and folders to quickly protect your sensitive documents, and then enter an password to encrypt and decrypt the files that you want to protect.

USB Safeguard
First time you use the application, you need to specify the password. It also provide an option to use on screen keypad. There is a provision to provide your phone number, so that in case your drive is lost, people can call you to get it back.
Phone number in case lost
Once you have set the password, you can drag and drop the files you need to protect and then click the encrypt button.
Encrypt
It also has a built in file shredder to delete files securely.
Features;
  • Runs with any USB pen drive
  • No installation required
  • Easy drag & drop file adding
  • Built in file shredder
  • Secure your data if drive is lost
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How to Encrypt Your USB Flash Drive
Author: Ravi
•1:01 AM

Encrypt Your Flash Drive Using TrueCrypt


Introduction
Hello again, Today I will tell you how to encrypt your Portable USB flash drives so that if it lost, stolen, or misplaced all your data remains safe. By encrypting your flash drive, the files contained within it become password protected and can only be accessed by you or someone who knows your password. There are many different applications that help you encrypt your flash drive. Some drive manufacturers include encryption applications on the flash drive. In this tutorial, I will show you how to encrypt your portable USB flash drive using my favorite freeware application, TrueCrypt.

What Is TrueCrypt?
Using TrueCrypt, you create a password protected encrypted file that is stored on the flash drive. This encrypted file acts as a “container”, within which all the files you want encrypted are stored. When you connect your flash drive into a PC, this “container” gets mounted as a separate hard drive (provided you enter the correct password). And now, everything you save into this separate hard drive is encrypted automatically. This is where TrueCrypt really shines, providing transparent, real-time encryption. Plus, you don’t need TrueCrypt to be installed on the local computer [unless you don't have admin rights on your computer - see note above].

How To Encrypt Your Flash Drive Using TrueCrypt
  1. Download the latest stable version of TrueCrypt here: http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
  2. Install the software on your local computer (accepting all the default options)
    3. install
  3. Connect your USB flash drive to your computer. For this tutorial, let’s assume that it is assigned drive letterG:\
  4. Start the TrueCrypt application
  5. Click on the Create Volume button to start the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard. This is where you create the “container”.
    6. create-volume1
  6. Select Create a file container (default option) and click on Next.
    7. Create the \
  7. This brings you to the Volume Type window. Here you can specify if you want your “container” to be a standard, visible file or if you want to create a hidden “container” (essentially a “container” within a “container”). For this tutorial, we’ll select the default option, Standard TrueCrypt Volume, and click onNext.
  8. This brings you to the Volume Location window. Here you specify the filename and location of the “container”. For this tutorial, let’s call the container MyCrypt. And since your flash drive is mounted as theG:\ drive, specify your location and filename as G:\MyCrypt, placing the container in the root of the flash drive. Click Next.
    9. \
  9. Next you need to select the Encryption Algorithm and Hash Algorithm. I won’t go into the details of the differences between the different options, their pros and cons. That would turn this tutorial into a book. For this tutorial, we’ll leave the defaults, as they should be sufficient. Click Next.
    10. encryption and hash algorithms


  10. Next, you need to choose the size of the “container”. This depends on the size of your flash drive and how much info you want to encrypt. Personally, I would suggest leaving anywhere between 10% to 20% of the drive unencrypted so that you have room for the TrueCrypt application files (about 6MB) as well as unimportant files that you might want to share or just don’t need encrypted. For this tutorial, using a 1GB flash drive, we’ll set the “container” to be 850MB. Click Next.


  11. Next, specify the password you want to use to access and mount this “container”. Select a strong password, that would be easy for you to remember and hard for anyone else to figure out. A strong password usually consists of at least 20 characters, and uses a combination of letters (both lower and upper case), and numbers. But at a minimum, it should consist of 8 characters. Click Next after you enter your password.


  12. Next, you are ready to format the container. You can select the type of File System and Cluster. For this tutorial, leave the default values. Move your mouse randomly within the Volume Format window to generate the encryption keys. Don’t worry; you are not going to have to remember these keys. When ready, click onFormat to start. Depending on the size of the “container” (chosen in step 8), this may take up to 5 minutes.
  13. Once the format successfully completes, you will get a pop up indicating that the “container” has been created. Click OK then Exit.


  14. From the main TrueCrypt window, select Tools -> Traveler Disk Setup to start the Traveler Disk Setup Wizard.
    15. traveler-disk-setup2
  15. In the Traveler Disk Setup Wizard, we need to set several things. First, specify the root directory of the removable drive, in our case G:\. Uncheck the “Include TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard” (we’ve already created the “container” called MyCrypt so we don’t need the wizard). Next, select the “Auto-mount TrueCrypt Volume” button. This will allow you to be automatically prompted to mount the encrypted “container” when you insert your removable drive. Next, specify the name of the encrypted “container”, in our case it’s MyCrypt. Finally, click on Create.
    16. autorun-creation
  16. Once the Traveler Disk Setup is complete, you will get a confirmation popup:
    17. autorun-created1


  17. Click OK, Close out of the Traveler Disk Setup Wizard and Exit the TrueCrypt application. That’s it! Now, every time you connect your flash drive, you will be asked if you want to mount your encrypted “container”. Select Mount TrueCrypt volume and click OK.
    18. mount


  18. Next, you will be prompted to enter in the password you created for your encrypted “container”. Enter your password and click OK.


  19. Your encrypted “container” will be mounted as a drive using the next available drive letter. In this case, it is the H:\ drive.


  20. Now, every time you put a file into the H:\ drive, it will be encrypted automatically. To “disconnect” the drive, right-click on the TrueCrypt icon in your taskbar and select Dismount:
That's it! Now, every time you connect your flash drive, you will be asked if you want to mount your encrypted "container". Select Mount TrueCrypt volume and click OK.

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    All about Registry in Windows
    Author: Ravi
    •4:58 AM

    What's the Registry, Should I Clean It, and What's the Point?


    There's nothing more mysterious on a Windows PC than the Registry, and today I'll explain exactly what it is, how it works, and whether you should bother cleaning it. We'll also go about debunking a few widespread registry myths along the way.
    As I said, the registry has always been a mysterious—if not entirely misunderstood—component of the Windows operating system. Today I've set out to explain in detail what the registry is all about. If you already have a working understanding of the registry, skip down to the mythbusting section for a little clarity regarding the usefulness of the many registry cleaners out there.

    What Is the Registry?


    The Windows Registry is a hierarchical database that stores settings for virtually everything on a Windows PC—from application settings, user passwords, device driver info, Windows settings, and pretty much everything else.
    Application settings used to be stored in text-based configuration files (and with some applications, still are), with a separate file for every application. The Windows Registry is meant to solve that problem by providing a single place for all settings across all applications.
    In addition to consolidating system settings, storing all of these settings in a single place and in a database format means that accessing values in the registry is much faster than parsing a text configuration file—so the registry can be used for more than just settings. In fact, most or all of the registry is read into memory each time the system boots, so accessing the registry is nearly instant.

    Editing the Registry


    There are a number of methods for editing the registry, but most of the time you'll just use the regedit.exe utility to make changes, which you can launch from the start menu search or run boxes. (Hit Win+R, paste regedit.exe, then hit Enter and you're there.) Once you've opened up the editor, you'll be presented with a tree view of keys on the left-hand side, and the values on the right. The most important thing you'll want to do when editing the registry is to export the entire key before you make any changes—don't ever assume that you can just change the value back.
    You can use regedit to connect to another PC and edit the registry there, provided you have the proper network access and the remote registry service is running. You can also edit from the command line using the reg.exe utility, which can be very helpful if you need to make a registry change from a machine that won't boot anymore—if you can make it to the recovery console, you can manually make the registry change from the command line.

    What Are These .reg Files?


    If you spend any amount of time browsing Windows-tweaking web sites, you've undoubtedly come across a downloadable .reg file that somebody provides as a way to quickly add a setting to the registry. These files are nothing more than simple text files that contain instructions for the regedit utility to add, change, or remove keys in the registry without any accidental typos that cause your system to crash.
    My recommendation is that before you apply any of these files, you first open them up in a text editor to see what they really contain, but in general, applying a .reg file is a lot safer and easier than manually making registry edits, provided you trust the source.

    How Is the Registry Stored, and How Do I Back it Up?


    Even though the registry is supposed to be one consolidated place to store everything on your system, it's not stored in a single file—all of the system hives other than HKEY_CURRENT_USER are stored under %SystemRoot%\System32\Config, and the rest are stored in the %SystemRoot%\Profiles\Username folder, and there are a lot of files to deal with.
    Your best bet for backing up your registry is simply creating a System Restore point , but most of the popular backup software packages should be able to backup and restore the registry.
    If you only need to backup a portion of the registry, you can open up regedit, find the key in the left-hand panel that you'd like to backup, and use the Export feature from the right-click menu to save the entire section to a text file format. You probably won't want to use this to backup the entire registry, but it can be useful if you want to keep a copy of HKEY_CURRENT_USER around in case you need to restore some settings—and you're ready to do some seriously geeky registry hacking. For the average user, System Restore is not just the preferred option, but it's also the one that Microsoft recommends.

    Do You Really Need to Clean the Registry?


    The internets are chock full of advertisements and testimonials for registry cleaning products that claim to fix every problem on your PC by giving your registry a good scrubbing; readers may even remember an unofficial Microsoft-supplied utility called regclean from years back, which gives even more validity to the idea that registry cleaning is a very useful pursuit. But do they really work?
    The sad answer,  is that most of these products are not worth running, and while the better ones won't necessarily kill your PC, they're rarely going to help you a lot either. If you stop and think about it, you'll realize that since the registry contains many hundreds of thousands of keys (or more), removing 50 or even 100 of them isn't going to yield any performance gains.
    Windows expert Ed Bott has some stronger words on the subject:
    I'd go a step further: Don't run registry cleaner programs, period. I won't go so far as to call them snake oil, but what possible performance benefits can you get from "cleaning up" unneeded registry entries and eliminating a few stray DLL files?
    That said, there are a few edge cases where cleaning the registry might yield some performance gains, if you've installed something that plugs into Windows somehow, doesn't work very well, and also doesn't uninstall itself properly. Most of these problems can be prevented in the first place by simply being more careful about what you install on your PC—after all, you shouldn't have to reinstall Windows regularly.
    What About Defragging the Registry?
    Another claim you'll often read about the registry is that you need to defrag it regularly to keep your PC from being extremely slow—in fact, Microsoft provides the PageDefrag utility for Windows XP to defragment your pagefile and registry. Windows 7 or Vista users will have to turn to a freeware utility like Auslogics Registry Defrag to keep their registry defragmented.
    What most people don't realize, however, is that your registry is fully loaded into RAM when your system boots, meaning all reads and writes to the registry are done directly to memory, and then loaded to the disk later. So while you're going to gain some slight performance gain by making sure your registry isn't too fragmented, the reality is that your system isn't going to suddenly be blazing fast because you defragged your registry.
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