How to Improve your Windows Firewall by Adding ‘TinyWall’

After I reinstall Windows on any one of my computers, the first thing I do is disable the OS’s firewall. I have had a number of bad experiences with the native Windows firewall and I believe the feature has a lot of room for improvement. From accessibility to clearly controlling which apps and / or processes get access to the internet, a lot about Windows Firewall could be improved.

But recently I stumbled upon a gem of a freeware that builds upon the existing Windows firewall in such a way that you can get the most out of it without making it inconvenient for yourself. I am referring to the utility called TinyWall.

TinyWall is an excellent piece of freeware that acts as add-on to the Windows firewall. The application provides you with an intuitive interface that helps provide granular control over the firewall’s functions.

The first step in getting TinyWall up and running is to download its setup file; this file is sized at nearly 1 MB. Once you have installed the app and opened it, you will find its icon placed in the System Tray. To view what firewall control options are offered, you should right click this System Tray icon. This action will open up a menu of the app’s options.

There are a few predefined ‘modes’ which let you quickly enable or disable network connections. You can shift between these modes from the ‘Change mode’ option in the abovementioned System Tray icon menu.

The ‘Normal protection’ adhered to your specifications i.e. only applications you allow can access the internet; ‘Block All’ stops all internet activity; ‘Allow outgoing’ will enable uploads but disable incoming data; ‘Disable firewall’ is self explanatory; ‘Autolearn’ will let the app automatically learn your preferences.

You can allow applications to access the internet by either pointing to their EXE file, whitelisting them by their particular process, or simply by pointing to them when their application window is active. You can open TinyWall’s options to further control the whitelist of applications.

A ‘Connections’ section lists all port connections along with their states, address, protocol, and destination address. This information can be very helpful for computer networking troubleshooters.

By simply adding a new icon to the System Tray and providing you with a cleaner and more intuitive interface, TinyWall ensures that you do not have to install a third party firewall to manage connections within Windows.

You can get TinyWall from here.

Google Rolls Out Revamped New Tab Page

Ever since Google introduced its Chrome web browser, and got the world used to a rapid release cycle, we have become accustomed to ever-changing software â€" sometimes not always for the best, or at least not so in individual perception. One aspect of the browser that has changed little, though, is the New Tab page â€" a constant display of the eight most visited pages in your recent history, with options for apps and the Chrome Web Store.

Now Google is in the process of rolling out a new version of the New Tab page, which is slowly reaching all users and bringing with it a slightly different look and improved functionality.

Customers will be alerted to the change at some point upon visitation of the page, as a box will pop up showing the details of what is included in this revamped offering.

As you can see in the image above, there is quite a bit to soak in â€" search, apps, tabs…its all been changed, but not as drastically as that may sound.

The most prominent feature is the new Search bar that now appears on the page, allowing the user to access the option directly, though this is less a big deal than it sounds, as the omnibar provided this already.

However, there is more contained in this update than just a prominent search feature. For one, customers will now be able to see the Google Doodle (if there is one) on the page â€" a feature once reserved only for the home page and, more recently, Google Now mobile customers.

The new version of the menu has also arrived. Gone is the old black bar that displayed Google properties across the top of the screen, replaced by a nine block grid icon near the top right. Click it for access the most popular sites like Gmail, Maps and more.

The biggest addition is perhaps access to recently closed tabs â€" a process once difficult in Chrome without using a third-party extension such as Recycle Bin.

Now you can click Settings, head down to Recent Tabs, and you will not only find the tabs you have recently closed on your current device, but also those from other computers, as well as phones and tablets.

While Google has shrunk the size of your most visited sites, these are still present, and the additional access, including search and the Doodle is a welcome addition. Perhaps even more important is the new tab access that brings much needed functionality to the web browser.

Conveniently Organize Tasks, Notes, and Passwords with ‘In My Diary’ [Windows]

It would be extremely convenient to have a single application that keeps track of our tasks, contacts, notes, and even passwords. Fortunately, for Windows users such an application exists and it is called ‘In My Diary.’

‘In My Diary’ is an excellent freeware application that, in many ways, acts a personal assist while you are using your computer. From helping you remember which tasks you should be working on to providing you with the details of a particular contact of yours, this application helps you do everything. Whether you want to use it to manage your passwords, store personal diary entries, or just take down notes, is entirely up to you.

You begin by installing the application. Once you have the app up and running, you will find it display a diary-like interface. You can click on a date in either one of the pages shown. In case you want to add an entry to a date not shown on the pages, you must first click on the Calendar button in the left pane. From the resultant interface you may click on any date which you want to add an entry for.

Note that there are various methods offered in the application to jump to a date that you want.

Once you click on a date, you are presented with a small window in which you can detail the entry you want to add. There are various details that can be added to the entry; these details include a starting time, an ending time, links to a note, the text of the entry, and optionally adding alarms as well as email alarms.

Similar to diary entries, you can easily use In My Diary to create and access notes. The notes interface lets you select a created note from the left pane; the corresponding text can be viewed, copied, and edited in the right pane.

Managing contacts is another feature that is provided by the application. For each contact that you add, detailed information can be attached such as full name, phone numbers, email address, mailing address, birthday, and optional birthday reminders; you can also add a note for each contact â€" extremely helpful when you are trying to recall where you know a certain business contact from.

When you have entered your data into the application, you can search the entirety of it via keywords through the app’s built-in search feature.

A password manager and generator comes built into the application. You can add password entries for online accounts, bank accounts, and anything else that requires a passphrase or password.

You can choose to secure the passwords section of In My Diary with an additional password; this ensure that somebody else using your computer is unable to access your passwords.

For every account, a secure password can be generated as well, using various preferences.

For anybody looking for an easy to use personal assistant on their computer, this app will serve excellently.

You can get ‘In My Diary’ by clicking over here.

The Best 5 Free Web Apps to Generate Complex Passwords

Whether you are trying to create a password for your email account or you are trying to test an app with a strong password, online password generators are great tools that can come in handy. If you are in search of a good online password generator, then today’s list will serve you well.

Go over the list of 5 best free password generators below and see which app suits your needs best.

1. Free Password Builder

Free Password Builder, like all convenient password generators, is a simple and uncomplicated tool which will help you generate passwords of varying complexity. The options provided to the user contain the inclusion of upper case characters, lower case characters, numbers, as well as punctuation marks. There are two further fields that let you specify sets of characters which should be included in the password and which should be excluded from the password. Supported passwords length range is 1 character to 128 characters. After marking your preferences, you can click on the ‘Generate Password’ button to keep on generating a new password as per your requirements. The generated password can simply be copied to the clipboard for use elsewhere.

You can use Free Password Builder over here.

2. Secure Password Generator

Secure Password Generator offers a bunch of password generation features which will be very useful for people who find themselves generating passwords on a regular basis. For instance, if you are software quality assurance engineer who often tests apps with complicated passwords, then you will definitely find this web app to be highly useful. In addition to letting you choose the length of the password (support range is 6 to 128 characters), the web app lets you include special characters, lower chase letters, upper case letters, and numbers. You can choose to include or exclude similar characters such as ‘o’ and zero. Further options let you generate the password in your browser rather than on the site’s servers. You can optionally save your preferences â€" a good decision if you are going to be revisiting the website on a regular basis. Lastly, the generated password is accompanied by a phonetic pronunciation guide that helps in communicating the password over audio to others.

You can use Secure Password Generator by clicking here.

3. GRC’s Ultra High Security Password Generator

Some users might not be interested in marking all those checkboxes before they can obtain their complex password. For people who want to simply get the most complicated and random password possible, there exists GRC’s Ultra High Security Password Generator. This website generates a completely random password based on various factors, including the time that you visit the website. So all you need to do is refresh the page and each time, a new set of passwords is displayed. This set of passwords shows 64 random hexadecimal characters, 63 random printable ASCII characters, and 63 random alpha-numeric characters.

You can check out GRC’s Ultra High Security Password Generator by clicking on this link.

4. Random Password Generator

There are many people who remember their passwords by their pronunciation. But if a password is too complicated and involves a lot of special characters, remembering it by its pronunciation can be a nearly impossible task. Here to help you get random pronounceable passwords is the excellent Random Password Generator. The site is like GRC’s Ultra High Security Password Generator in the sense that it does not ask you set any preferences before it can generate a password for you. All you need to do is visit the site’s page and two sets of passwords come loaded: a passwords that you can pronounce and a slightly more complicated and un-pronounceable password. To generate new passwords, you can either refresh the page or click on the ‘Generate new passwords’ button present on the site.

Visit Random Password Generator’s website over here.

5. Random.org Password Generator

This web application offers a blend of ease and customization. When you first visit the website, you can simply click on a button to get your random passwords. Alternatively, you can specify your preferences before the password set is generated; these preferences include the password length, password output format, and various randomization options. Each generation includes multiple passwords.

To get another set, simply click on the Again button; or click on the Back button to generate passwords with a different set of preferences.

You can use Random.org Password Generator over here.

Run Google Apps on a Kindle Fire Without Root

Amazon has been in the news this week, thanks to the release of the new Kindle Fire HDX tablets, which come in both 7-inch and 8.9-inch versions. The devices have proven popular, taking on Google’s Nexus line in head-to-head competition. One thing the Amazon competitor lacks, though, is something fundamental to the Android operating system â€" Google apps.

There is no Gmail, no Maps â€" not even a Play store from which to grab apps. The online retailer has customized its version of the mobile OS to the point of locking out the competition entirely. It is not a bad thing, as the Fire line offers much that can add value, including its tight integration with Prime, making videos readily available for your viewing.

There are ways around this â€" it is, under the skin, Android, which means it can be rooted. Obtaining this level of access is not terribly difficult, but nor is it something for a beginner. Fortunately you not need to take this step if all you wish is to obtain are a few Google apps for your tablet.

You will need to prep the device first â€" head into Settings by pulling down the top bar and clicking “More”. Now tap “Device” and make sure the “Allow Installation of Applications” option is set to “On” (you’ll need to choose ‘”OK” to get through the security warning).

Now you will need to install a couple bits of Google framework apps â€" specifically GoogleServicesFramework.apk and the GoogleLoginService.apk, both available at that link.

You are not quite there yet, though. You will also need to install ES File Explorer from the Amazon App Store on your Kindle to take care of file transfers and to launch the APK’s.

Now you are ready to go. All you are lack is the APK files, which is where you need to be careful. Look first at the official sites of the apps you want â€" both Dropbox and Firefox offer these for customers, but many do not. In that case you need to head to a reliable location such as Android Drawer to grab the need file.

The Kindle Fire family from Amazon is an amazing tablet and a solid competitor in the market, but it can do better with a few tweaks such as the one just covered.  To get more in-depth you will need to root access, but you can find tutorials on carrying that process out by a quick searchh online.

Get Gmail’s Old Compose Window Back using this Extension for Chrome

Gmail’s web interface and mobile applications were updated recently. The new Gmail interface will categorize the mails into Primary, Social and Promotions automatically. So whenever you open the inbox all the important mails will be in a single place. The mobile interface also have the same feature, where you will have the categories in a swipeable sidebar. Another important thing updated with the new interface is the new mail composing window. After Google acquired Sparrow (an email client for Mac), they introduced the same new compose feature in Gmail.

The new pop up compose box options are quite different, so Google initially gave option to temporarily switch back to the old compose window. After  sometime Google removed that feature, now you can use only the new compose window. People who still don’t feel comfortable with the new compose window, here is a solution for you. Old Compose, is a new Chrome extension, which lets you switch back to the classic Gmail compose window. Here’s  how to do it.

You can download “Old Compose” extension from Chrome web store using the link below. Also you can download from their official website, using your email address. Sometimes it may ask a couple of shares on Facebook and Twitter to download the extension. After installing it, normally it works after refreshing your Gmail account. If it didn’t work, just reboot the Chrome browser and log in to your Gmail account.

The extension will not show any icons or options in the front, it will be running in the background. So as soon as you complete the installation, it will start running in your browser. Log in to your Gmail account and hit the compose button, now you can see the classic compose window with the same options. If you have installed any other extensions for Gmail in your browser, it will work perfectly. For instance, I’ve installed banana tag extension to track emails, it works perfectly in the classic compose window.

So people who are tired of those tiny compose boxes in Gmail, can use this extension to get a full screen classic compose window in your browser. It works will all the Gmail accounts you open in Chrome. So you don’t need to worry about giving your email while you sign up and download. Thanks for reading, please share your experience after using the extension also, share this post with your friends to help them get the classic compose option in their Gmail account.

Download Old Compose for Chrome

Get a Better Plex Interface with Serenity

Plex distributes an amazing free media server platform that can work across multiple platforms, though for certain ones you will need to fork over a few dollars for the player app that resides on the far end of the system. However, the server itself is free, and setup is pretty straight forward â€" add in your media libraries and tweak settings to your likings and you will be off and running.

If I were pressed to name a downside to this setup, it would be the end-user player software. Do not get me wrong, it works just fine and is not hard to understand, but it also is less than…shall we say, attractive? Function is present, beauty is not.

There is an alternative though â€" Serenity (not the geek TV show) is an app that uses the Plex API to create a beautiful, XBMC-like interface that replaces the rather unattractive Plex app. Well, replaces is not the correct word â€" it actually coexists with Plex as an alternative to it. Here is what you get.

The app contains a horizontal menu, complete with background images and categories for each form of media. There are also colorful splash pages for each piece of content.

The difference here, between Serenity and Plex is night and day. Plex is functional, and you will have no problem using it, but it has the basic look of the Windows software I was replacing.

The menu glides across the screen with new images for each media type. While it still runs (pulls its data) off of the Plex media server you set up, it adds a new, and much improved interface to the whole thing. Everything is still there, you lose none of your media capability, you just get a much nicer view of all of those files.

When Serenity is first launched it may throw you just a bit â€" it did me. Despite the fact that you have a Plex server up and running, it will insist on telling you that no server was found â€" do not panic. Just hit the “OK” button and you will enter “Settings”. From here, you can click “discover servers”, though it may remain grayed out for a bit. If you are in a rush, then simply choose the option to enter the IP address of the server, which is the route I would choose.

Serenity for Google TV costs $1.99 â€" slightly more than Plex. The app is also available for tablets, though the developer warns that “on a tablet it is recommended to use an external player like MX Player to provide support for codecs that aren’t native to the device”.

Quick Office is Now Available for Android with Google Drive Storage

Following the release of MS Office for Android and iPhone, Google released its Quick office application for Android and iOS devices last week. The features of the app seems pretty interesting and it connects with the Google drive by default. So you can easily edit documents from Google drive,  backup the data and upload new documents quickly. It will be a document viewer and editor for android with cloud support. Instead of having separate applications for documents reading, editing and uploading it to a cloud service, Quick office will be a three-in-one application and access the documents anywhere on your mobile devices.

You can download Quick Office from Google Play Store for free. Once you install the application, it will show all the configured Gmail accounts in your device. Select the one you need to connect with and documents in that Google drive account will be synced with Quick Office by default. An advantage of this application is, you can instantly switch between different Google accounts from the application. So you can access documents from multiple Google drive accounts.

Once the sync is complete, in the homepage you can see the connect Gmail account, Google drive options, recent documents and files in your internal memory and SD Card. In the top menu you have search, new documents and other options will be there. Right now you can create and edit Word documents, Spreadsheets and PowerPoint Presentations using the application. Also there is a PDF viewer to view and edit the PDF documents on the application.

It is a great application to create simple documents. The options on the documents and spreadsheets helps users to create documents easily on the go. These options also lets you edit the documents from your email account. After editing the documents attach them and easily send the documents from your email accounts. One of the important advantages of linking your Gmail account to Quick Office is, you will get 10 GB extra space on Google drive for free. It is an excellent feature to backup and access all your important files and documents from Google drive.

Quick Office is also available for iPhone and iPad. This app will be very helpful for people who are using android tablets and iPad. So try this on your mobile devices and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Download Quick Office for Android

Download Quick Office for iPhone and iPad

Password protect your Android phone after it is lost or stolen

Not all that long ago Google introduced Android Device Manager, a handy online tool that can be used to locate or remotely wipe your lost or stolen Android phone. These were both useful options, but if you thought that you might be able to retrieve you phone, erasing all of its data might seem a little drastic.

A newly added feature now makes it possible to add a password to your phone remotely. Many people opt to PIN or password protect their phone ahead of time, but if you’re someone who just hasn’t got round to it, you’re now able to remotely protect your phone after it is lost or stolen.

We’ve already looked at how you can get Android Device Manager set up ready for use and you’ll need to do this first. Once you have carried out the preparatory steps of get the service up and running, you can take advantage of its features whenever the need arises.

Should your phone go missing, fire up your browser and pay a visit to the Android Device Manager website. If you have more than one Android device you will need to use the drop down menu to select the one you need to protect.

In addition to the previously available Ring and Erase options, you’ll now also see a link labelled Lock.

Hit the Lock button and you’ll be prompted to enter and confirm the password you’d like to use to secure your phone.

The password will be sent out immediately, but it can only be activated on your phone when it has signal. If you phone does not have signal when the password is sent out, it will be activated when it next has signal.

Your phone can now only be accessed by entering the newly created password. The lock screen will ask for a password as soon as the power button is pressed.

When you get your phone back, you may decide that you like to revert to using no password, or changing the one you put in place. Open up Settings and go to the Security section and tap Screen lock.

Enter your password and tap Next before choosing the type of protection you’d like to use.

That’ll all there is to it. It’s good to know that even if you don’t want to use a password most of the time, you can add one when you need to.

Album Reminder: Get Email Notifications When Your Favorite Bands Release New Music

I like to follow my favorite bands and their releases quite closely. Unfortunately with the hectic routine of every day, it is not easy to check out the official website of each of my favorite bands. Fortunately for me and others like me, there is a helpful web service out there that keeps me in touch with the new music releases of my favorite bands.

This web service is called ‘Album Reminder.’

Album Reminder is a wonderful web app that is heaven-sent for music fans. The purpose of the application is to send you email notifications whenever one of your favorite bands releases a new music album. On its way of providing this feature, the site ends up providing its users with a lot more. You should start by creating an account on the site and activating it through the link which is emailed to you.

With your account activated, you may begin typing in the names of your favorite bands.

In case you misspell a band’s name, suggestions are shown of bands whose names you might have intended to type originally.

You can keep on adding your favorite artists till your entire list is complete.

If you would prefer to not type out all those music artists’ names, you can alternatively import their names through your iTunes, Last.fm, and MediaMonkey.

With all your favorite artists added, you can click on the ‘My Releases’ option in the left pane to view the latest music releases from your favorite bands. The right pane is where the new releases are listed. For each release, the album art is displayed and the entries are all sorted according to their release dates.

When you click on an album’s cover art, its detailed page is opened that includes purchasing links to it. Links are included from various Amazon stores; these stores include Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, Amazon.de, and Amazon.co.uk. Relevant news and reviews for the band and album can also be found on the same page.

When new releases are detected after you have setup your account, you are emailed a notification regarding that particular release. You can choose which Amazon store to monitor when it comes to album availability.

If you would like to receive simplified, non-HTML plain text emails, you can do so by specifying the relevant option from your Album Reminder preferences page.

In this simple way, Album Reminder helps you ensure that you never skip the latest music releases from your favorite bands. One possible improvement I could recommend to the site’s developers is letting people import artist lists from their Facebook account or a custom playlist created from a media player like Windows Media Player.

The application is extremely useful nonetheless and it will definitely please all music fans.

You can check out ‘Album Reminder’ by clicking over here.

3 Tricks in Word 2013

Microsoft pushed out Office 2013, and its sibling Office 365 Home Premium, earlier this year. While there were no major, visible changes, aside from a new Start screen, the company did hide a few extras within the new suite. The problem is that software like Office and Windows have become so complex over the years that certain features are never discovered by the average user.

Attempting to run down a full set of the inclusions in Word 2013 would require a book, as opposed to a blog post â€" the books exist, if you are really interested. Instead, I picked three things that I think will be among the most useful to a majority of customers and will give you a brief overview of each.

Remove the New Start Screen

I personally find the new Start screen extremely useful â€" it puts recently opened documents and popular templates right in front of you. But, not everyone seems to feel the same way.

If you fall within that latter category then you can bypass this screen with a simple tweak. Head to File and choose Options then click the General tab. At the bottom of the list you will spot a checked box that says “Show the Start screen when this application starts”. Uncheck this and you are done. The option exists in each app included in the Office 2013 suite, so you can do the same for Excel, etc.

Reading Mode

Reading a document in Microsoft Word is not a difficult task, but in the latest version Microsoft attempts to improve on the tried and true interface with a brand new “Reading Mode” that transforms your document into what basically appears as a book, hiding all of the unnecessary features to provide a clearer view.

To access this feature head to the View menu click “Read mode” at the far left of the top menu. This will hide the menu bar and transform the document into what resembles an open book. To get get back, click “View” and then “Edit Document”.

Touch Mode

With Office 2013, Microsoft may have forgot the Metro version â€" something many expected give the new Windows 8 tablet-like interface. But not every feature for modern computing was left out. Given the growing number of tablets and touchscreen monitors and laptops, Microsoft did remember to add in a special interface.

Above the top menu you will find several small icons, the far right of which depicts a finger. This enables touch mode â€" This spreads the icons apart and enlarges the menu bar, making it easier to tap items with a finger, as opposed to the more precise mouse pointer.

Dumb Ways to Live Hits Android

A catchy song and video, titled “Dumb Ways to Die” from the Australian Metro, designed to raise safety awareness, has done a just a bit more than simply keep citizens safe around the railroad tracks. The music video has been viewed more than 58 million times, as of this writing, but beyond that, the phenomena has spawned a mobile game, first on iOS and now on Android.

September 11 Humby launched a slightly different version of the game to Android, bringing the fun to customers of the Google mobile operating system.

You can grab the new game, which is titled “Dumb Ways to Live”, in either a free or $0.99 version, with the latter coming ad-free. You will need to be using Android 2.0.1 or newer â€" which shouldn’t be an issue for any device still in use today. There is also a “Dumb Ways to Die” game in which you try to keep the little creatures alive, but if you wish to be rid of them this is the version for you.

When you launch the game you get a chance to practice first, or you can simply jump in feet first and take your best shot. Practice is recommended.

If you elect to go that route then you will get options for which horrible disaster you would like to try out â€" plane crash, shark attack, nuclear attack, falling off a cliff and many more ‘dumb ways to die’…ah, ‘live’.

You will learn early on that you need to be quick and that there are tricks to sending the little cartoon characters to their untimely demise.

Once you have taken your practice runs and are satisfied that your reflexes are ready, then head into the game. You will now be faced with all of the possible scenarios and little time to react to them. Some are easier than others, so the random nature simply makes the game more challenging.

Dumb Ways to Live is a fun little game, and the free version simply displays one small ad at the bottom of the screen. Some scenarios are easy, while others prove to be a real challenge, making it quite difficult to wipe out the characters. Like all games, its more a time-waster than anything else, but still a good way to pass the time when waiting in an airport or such.