Here’s a scenario: let’s say you got a wireless network setup at your place and occasionally you need to allow some guests or friends access to the Internet, for that you need to give them or enter for them your primary wireless network’s password & settings. But I don’t really like doing that. So what do you do? Either enter the password or buy another WiFi router and setup a new network (which would be rather dumb). Windows 7 has a solution to this – Virtual WiFi.

Windows 7 by default comes with a feature that will let you turn your PC into WiFi Router, a virtual one at that. In simple terms allowing you to be connected to two wireless networks at the same time with your PC being the access point.Yesterday, Microsoft MVP and developer Chris Pietschmann released a tool on Codeplex that can help you overcome the scenario I mentioned by creating a virtual WiFi network quicly & easily, give them that password and you’ve isolated your primary WiFi network’s credentials. A bit of tinkering with your router settings and you can even set restrictions I guess. A couple of days ago Long Zheng found that Intel had updated it’s WLAN drivers to make use of this functionality and updating to these drivers would add a new adapter in your Network adapter list. Screen shot:

You’ll need to download the drivers for 32bit & 64bit for this tool to work. This tool harnesses this capability and makes it a simple GUI based process to setup & manage such Virtual WiFi networks. Needless to say the project is aptly titled – Virtual Router. From the project’s description that even explains all the mumbo-jumbo I just spoke:

Virtual Router turns any Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2 Computer into a WiFi Hot Spot using Windows 7′s Wireless Hosted Network (Virtual Wifi) technology

So once you download & install the tool, you’ll see this window:

Enter the details that you wish you to and click on “Start virtual router”

You should now see the entry in your Connection Manager, screen shot:

The rest is… well like any normal WiFi connection. Devices see the connection and can connect to it. You can run the command ipconfig /all to get the MAC address of the virtual adapter.

~Enjoy

PS: fyi, I’m aware about Connectify, I didn’t like it & I prefer Virtual Router to it.

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Codeplex Tool To Isolate Your WiFi Network & Use Windows 7 PC As A Virtual WiFi Router

At the heart of this operation is a software called Xpadder. God knows who wrote it, but boy if I were to meet him, beer’s on me. So, go get yourself Xpadder:

Once you have the magic begins.When you run it, click on the wrench that’s been highlighted to get the configuration ‘pink’ window:

NOTE: Windows 7 folks will need to setup Compatibility, right click ‘Troubleshoot compatibility’ … should take care of it.

The pink window is where we setup the layout of the Xbox 360 Controller for the PC. The tabs that we’ll be concentrating on are:

• Sticks
• DPad
• Buttons
• Triggers

Use the following Xbox 360 Controller image as reference for what should be Stick 1, Stick 2 & what’s the Dpad, Buttons & Triggers:

Back in the pink window:

1. Go to Sticks
2. ‘Enable’ Stick 1
3. Follow the onscreen instructions
4. Repeat the steps for Stick 2, Dpad & Triggers

Buttons is a bit tricky, so here’s what you do:

1. Go to the Buttons tab
2. Click ‘A’ on your Xbox Controller & reposition it on the screen like it is on your Controller.
3. Repeat this for rest of the buttons.

Once done, you pink screen should look something like this:

Finish –> Close

The main screen should be something like this:

Now, we configure what button does what. To do this:

Click on the wrench near the Stick 1 & select Mouse –> Normal

The wrench for the Dpad –> Arrow Keys

Wrench for Stick 2 –> Whatever you like

For the rest of buttons, click on the buttons & you’ll be greeted with the following screen (you can even make the controller rumble when keys are pressed):

Choose what button you want should do what. And you’re done. This is what my configuration is like:

All you’re left with is to save the setup, click on the highlighted part & save it. Also, set Xpadder to start with Windows from its settings.

Game on!

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Use The Xbox 360 Controller To Control Your PC

1. Use Two Search Engines:

Bing is good, Gooogle is nice … with IE you can use both at the same time. Here’s how to get it:

Set either Bing or Google as your default search engine. This would give you Search results for queries you type in the address bar & will also set the same search provider in the search box. The fun part is that you can choose another engine for your search box. So the way I’ve set it is:

• Google is default, hence address bar search results are provided by Google.
• Bing is the engine for the Search box, so queries I type there come from Bing.

Result, power of both engines from within the same browser window!

2. Login to multiple twitter/email accounts simultaneously

This one is actually pretty neat. So say you want to login to two twitter accounts or two gmail accounts at the same time, all you need to do is:

File -> New Session

A new window will open that’ll start a new session allowing you to login to multiple accounts simulatneously.

3. X-Marks

Formerly know as Foxmarks & was available only for Firefox it has now spanned to include IE, Chrome & Safari (only on OS X). I was relieved from all suffering caused by the bloatware once Xmarks started supporting IE. So, this add-on allows you to have your bookmarks stored on a server somewhere in the cloud so that they can be accessed:

• from anywhere
• and can be restored incase the need arises

Screenshot:

4. IE7Pro

Though some of you might’ve heard about it, it’s been around since the days of IE 7, it works quite well with IE8 as well. Here are some handy features that you’ll get & you can enable using IE7Pro are:

1. Spell Checker (don’t know why this isn’t there by default.)
2. Block Flash (option under Ad Block) – it will show you a place holder for the flash& you can enable it by clicking on the place holder.
3. Copy image URL in context menu. (This is something begged for!)
4. Download Manager (why this is not there, even Bill Gates won’t know.)
5. Deeper tab control (I don’t use it but the feature is pretty neat.)
6. GreaseMonkey alternative in the form of User Scripts.

Of course there are a lot more options available, so go through them. And don’t be surprised if tabs start opening for everything, you can turn that off. Some screenshots:

Base Modules:

User Scripts:

Download Manager:

Note: For using GreaseMonkey scripts the extension needs to be *.ieuser.js & all scripts don’t necessarily work.

5. Map Tab Processes

This is for g33ky ones.

Honestly, there should’ve been a better way of doing this but someone at Redmond didn’t want it. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. If you know (which I hope you do) IE8 has separate processes under Task Manager for each tab which is pretty darn awesome, however you can’t know what tab is which process. The work-around maps tab to process whereas I’d prefer a process to tab mapping. I’m safely assuming that this won’t work when all of IE is frozen because it’s a tab to process.

To do this, you’ll need to get Process Explorer from Sysinternals

Then do the following to know what tab is which process:

1. Start Process Explorer
2. Click on the icon highlighted in the screenshot and drag it onto the tab in IE.

   

The IE row highlighted in Process Explorer now is the process related to that particular tab. You’ll have to first open the tab to see which process it is. I hope now you understood what I meant by tab to process & why it won’t work if IE altogether comes to a standstill.

6. Increase IE’s performance

You must’ve noticed the ‘Connecting…’ that appears every time you create a new tab, this is because IE is creating a new process in the backgrond, to reduce this time drastically & if you’re running short on time & want to load a few pages quickly do the following:

Start -> Run -> “iexplore.exe” -extoff

Watch IE8 blaze through opening tabs. It works

To create a permanent shortcut to start IE in this mode, do the following:

• Right click on desktop
• New -> Shortcut
• “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” -extoff
• Next & Finish

7. Configuring InPrivate In IE8

8. Search in IE 8

Some external links:

IE’s add-on repository

IE8 Accelerator Gallery

IE8 Webslice Gallery

IE isn’t that bad after all, eh?

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8 Tips To Improve Your IE 8 Experience

To Enable Edition Selector

• The Automatic Method

Recommended. Tried. Tested. One-click (maybe two.)

1. Download eicfg Remover tool:

   

2. Extract it some where
3. Run the file eicfg_remover
4. Locate the Windows 7 ISO file & let the tool do the magic.
5. It will prompt you once done. Screenshot:

Doing this will show you the following screen when you use the disc for installation:

2. The Manual Method:

1. Extract the ISO in a directory
2. Navigate to Sources
3. Delete the file ei.cfg

• To Create SKU Specific Discs

Alternately, you can configure the ISO to act as installation disc for any one of the SKUs. To do this:

1. The Automatic Method:

1. Download the ISO patcher

   

2. Extract it some where.
3. Run the file bin_patcher
4. Navigate to 7600.16385-disc_switch_patches (within the directory you extracted the files)
5. Select the SKU edition you want.
6. Locate the Windows 7 ISO file & let the tool do the magic.
7. It will prompt you once done.

2. The Manual Method:

1. Extract the ISO in a directory
2. Navigate to Sources
3. Open the file ei.cfg in Notepad

   The contents of the file should be:

   [EditionID]
   Ultimate
   [Channel]
   Retail
   [VL]
   0

4. Edit Ultimate & choose any of the following depending on the SKU you want:
   Starter
   HomeBasic
   HomePremium
   Professional
   Ultimate

Also, incase you’re planning to upgrade from Windows 7 RC (which you shouldn’t) you can do the following to enable it:

1. Extract the ISO in a directory
2. Navigate to Sources
3. Open the file ei.cfg in Notepad

   The contents of the file should be:

   [HostBuild]
   MinClient=7233.0
   MinServer=7100.0

4. Edit 7233.0 to 7100
5. Save the file & burn the disc.

NOTE: I will strongly recommend that you do NOT upgrade from RC to RTM.

Both one-click tools are courtesy klio You can download a tool from Microsoft to burn the ISOs to disc or create bootable USBs.

~Enjoy

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Select Windows 7 SKU Version On Install & Create SKU Specific Install Discs

Been a really really long time since I customized my desktop. And when I say customize I mean not just change wallpaper & the theme (I’ve been doing that a lot). BTW, Sorry for the gay title but I spent more than an hour after finishing the whole guide to think but couldn’t find anything better. Windows 7 release is clogging my thinking. OK, enough of blabbering, so that is what I came up with & here is what I did:

Pre-requisites:

• Windows 7 (not necessarily, but Vista’s behavior with all this I don’t know & XP is too old. Win 7 FTW!)
• Some free time
• Good sense of aesthetics (this is a must.)
• Internet connection (duh!)

All of this started with #1 & hence it is #1 (I think I’m still sleepy). What is it? It’s a Vista gadget.

1. SysInfo (Vista Gadget)

This is a full fledged System Information gadget & probably the best looking out there when it comes to gadgets, why? Because it has NO background. A lot of options to show/hide. I chose the following:

• Gadget size: Small
• Gadget mode: Normal
• Only the uptime information section with continuous uptime checked.

You can definitely play around to add more properties.

2. Bing Gadget

Yes. I. Use. Bing. Anyway, here is the good looking & useful Bing gadget for your desktop.

Note: You might want to read how to add Bing to other parts of your OS.

3. Weather Gadget

This is the gadget that comes bundled with Windows 7, unlike the one in Vista, this one does work & shows my city’s weather. Enable it from your Gadgets directory.

NOTE: For the other three, you first need to download Rainmeter. Bloody brilliant piece of software, how it eluded me thus far baffles me. Once you have it, follow the rest of the steps.

Once download, simply run the program. In your task bar you’ll get new icon:

Right click* –> Configs –> Skins folder

*You can right click on the icon in the task bar or any open skin.

4. Music

The latest build I downloaded came with the Enigma skin. Hopefully yours will too, if it doesn’t get it here. Once you have Enigma:

Right click (you know where) –> Configs –> Enigma –> Sidebar –> Music

Note: If you’re using iTunes on Windows, Rainmeter will crash when you try to extend your desktop. Disable this skin & it won’t. I’ve contacted the developer about this.

5. System Performance

To get this simple set of System Performance monitors:

Right click (you know where) –> Configs –> Enigma –> Taskbar –> Combos –> Tray Systems –> TraySystems.ini

6. The Clock

This is probably the best. And hence kept for the last. The original script was found on lifehacker, but then this one had a lot of issues, properties kept overlapping & I didn’t like the color. So, I modded it & as you can see I’ve got different colors in both screenshots. Here are the 2 config files:

To install these:

• Download & extract the file on the desktop
• Right click (you know where) –> Configs –> Open Skins’ folder
• Paste the folder in the Skins’ folder
• Right click (you know where) –> Refresh All
• Right click (you know where) –> Configs –> minimal config files –> Choose the one you want

Now, editing this to suit your wallpaper is pretty darn easy and here is how you do it:

• Right click (you know where) –> Configs –> Open Skins’ folder –> minimal config files
• Open the file you want to edit in Notepad
• Find & edit the following properties to suit yourself:

To edit the positioning of a certain property like hour, minutes, date, month, title, parameter:

Find:

MeasureName=<whatever you want to edit>
Meter=<something>
X=-40
Y=0

Edit the X & Y values.

To edit the text color:

Find:

MeasureName=<whatever you want to edit>
Meter=<something>
X=110
Y=0
FontColor=255, 255, 255

Edit the FontColor values (255, 255, 255 = White; 0, 0, 0 = Black)

Note: To see the effects:

• Change the particular value
• Save
• Right click (you know where)
• Refresh

You can find some more Rainmeter skins here.

Oh and here is the beautiful Windows 7 Box Art wallpaper set:

Created by someone, if you read this article, let me know & I’ll give you a link back. (I’ve edited the Ultimate wallpaper to center the Win 7 logo.)

There you go, a rather good looking desktop & certainly a lot of customizability to be explored

~Enjoy

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Customize Your Windows Desktop To Elegance