Three Ways to Access the Windows 8 Boot Options Menu

The boot options have been consolidated in Windows 8 into a single menu, called the “boot options menu,” providing access to repair tools and options for changing Windows startup behavior, such as enabling debugging, booting into safe mode, and launching into a recovery environment.
The days of pressing a function key or Esc to interrupt the boot process and get into the BIOS configuration (in UEFI enabled systems) are gone. There are three ways of accessing the new boot options menu in Windows 8 and we’ll show you how.

Through PC Settings

The first and primary method is through the PC Settings. Press the Windows key + I (capital “i”) and click Change PC Settings.

Click the General option on the left and then click Restart now under Advanced Setup. This starts the normal restart process, which gets automatically interrupted as Windows is about to shut down.

Instead of fully rebooting, the blue boot options menu displays. To access the options for refreshing or resetting your PC or to use the advanced tools, click Troubleshoot.

You can choose to Refresh your PC, Reset your PC, or access Advanced options.

The options pictured below are available on the Advanced options menu. To change how Windows starts up, such as booting into safe mode, click Startup Settings.

A list displays, showing you the options available when Windows restarts next time. Click Restart to restart Windows and gain access to these options.

When your PC restarts, the Startup Settings menu displays. Select an option using the number keys or the function keys F1-F9. There is one additional option accessible by pressing F10.
If you decided you don’t want to use any of these options, you can boot normally by pressing Enter.

Launch recovery environment is the extra option accessed by pressing F10. To return to the other options, press F10 again.

Through the Power Options

Instead of going all the way into the Settings screens, there is a faster way to access the boot options menu. Press Windows key + I (capital “i”) to access the sidebar menu and press the Power button. Press Shift as you select the Restart option. The Continue, Troubleshoot, and Turn off your PC options display on the blue boot options menu, just as they do using the primary method.

This method also allows you to access the boot options menu without logging into Windows. On the login screen, press the Power button in the lower, right corner of the screen and press Shift as you select Restart.

Through the Command Prompt

The final method involves entering a command using the Command Prompt. To open the Command Prompt window, press Windows key + D to access the Desktop, if you are not already there. Move your mouse to the extreme, lower left corner of the Desktop until you see the Start screen button. Right-click to access the Win+X menu and select Command Prompt from the menu.
NOTE: You can also press Win + X to access this menu.

Type the following command at the prompt and press Enter.

shutdown.exe /r /o

NOTE: The /o switch will only work if used with the /r switch.

A message displays in the middle of the screen warning you that you are about to be signed off. Windows will reboot automatically.

Windows 8 now includes the “automatic restart after failure” feature, which detects whether the OS loaded successfully, If not, the system automatically reboots into the boot options menu, allowing you to access the troubleshooting options.


A-@-A

Publisher: Unknown - 08:38

Review: StepMeter Pro for iPhone

If you are looking for a pedometer app for your iPhone to use while you are out walking or running and want to be able to listen to music, keep walking past StepMeter Pro when you see it in the App Store.

StepMeter Pro from ivoxbytes provides a basic pedometer which gives you a timer, steps, distance and calculated energy burned as an iPhone app, along with the ability to share that information via FaceBook, however that’s where the usefulness ends. Unless you want to carry a separate iPod in order to listen to music while you are out walking or running, I have to give StepMeter Pro a pass.
After downloading StepMeter Pro and installing on my iPhone 4, I decided to give it a test on my usual 1.5 mile walk. Starting the app, the graphics and the controls are pretty straight-forward. Just prior to commencing the walk I exited the StepMeter Pro app and started the iPod to listen to a podcast, then as soon as I switched back to StepMeter Pro the iPod stopped playing.
Since there no instructions, I then attempted to start StepMeter Pro first and activating the pedometer and then starting up the iPod app and listening to my podcast. Considering the “multi-tasking” capabilities of iOS 4, I assumed that StepMeter Pro would be capable of running in the background. I then placed the iPhone in my pocket and commenced my walk.
Fast forward to my return home. I stopped the iPod and switched to StepMeter Pro and was promptly surprised with the results of my 1.5 mile walk.

Turning off the pedometer, by sliding the slider off, the summary showed nothing. The only indicator that had changed was the timer, which displayed 17 seconds and was probably the time elapsed from when I started the pedometer and switched over to the iPad app and started listening to my podcast.

The app requirement states that iOS 4.1 or later is required, yet the app makes absolutely no use of the iPhone’s “multi-tasking” capabilities and does not make any mention of this limitation or the inability to use the iPod app while using StepMeter Pro.
I then tested StepMeter Pro around the house for a few minutes and it seemed to accurately record the steps taken, however, until the developer upgrades the application to allow you to use the app with the iPod function, I’m going to have to put StepMeter Pro on the shelf.

A-@-A

Publisher: Unknown - 19:18

First Look: iOS 4.2 for iPad

Well, it’s finally here. Apple has released iOS 4.2 for both the iPhone and iPad and there is much rejoicing in the streets.

Late this morning Apple released iOS 4.2 for the iPad and after spending some time with it on the iPad, I’m liking what I’m seeing. The size of the update is 551.4 MB and took about 6 minutes to download through iTunes. The installation process included doing a backup both before and after and went smooth with no problems.
Upon starting the iPad, everything looks the same until you hit that Home button twice, you are greeted with the familiar multi-tasking bar, that has been on the iPhone since June of this year. This bar will display previous apps that you have been running allowing you to quickly return to any app that was left in a particular
state.

A change that Apple also made reverts the Screen Rotation lock button on the side of the iPad to it’s originally intended Mute switch. So, you ask, “how do I lock the screen rotation?”; it’s now done in software. Double-tap the Home button to display the multitask bar and swipe to the right. This will display iPod controls, including a new button on the left that allows you to lock screen rotation.

Folders are now also available, allowing you to organize your apps by category or whatever way you desire.

Another new feature, not previously available on the iPhone is AirPlay. AirPlay allows you to stream your audio and video content to a set of remote speakers attached to an Airport Express or to the new AppleTV. AirPlay works exactly as advertised if you are on the same wi-fi network. Starting the iPod, YouTube or the Videos app gives you the immediate ability to stream either audio of video. Other apps, such as NetFlix will be adding this capability soon.
In you media app, you will see a new icon to the right of the volume control. Tapping this will display the iPad and any other devices that you can stream your audio or video to. I tested this by streaming music content on my iPad to a set of remote speakers attached to an Airport Express and it worked flawlessly.

There are many other new features in iOS 4.2, but at first glance at these primary ones, I’d have to say Apple is giving the Android-based and other tablet companies a real high measuring stick to come up to with their products.
What do you think of iOS 4.2? If you find any cool tips or trick, please post them below.

A-@-A

Publisher: Unknown - 19:17

PhotoPal for iPad APPLE Tricks [AMANAHAD]

Yes, I know the iPad doesn’t have a camera. So, why would you need a photo editing app? Well, if you like to carry all or a portion of your photo library on the iPad, like I do, you now have the ability to easily work with your photos using PhotoPal from MacPhun.

PhotoPal from MacPhun is a full featured photo editing app with an easy to navigate interface, powerful tools and great effects and filters making it the one photo editing app you should have on your iPad. Some of the tools include red eye removal, spot healing, cropping, resizing and too many to name here. Other nice features include framing, vignettes and the ability to share your photos on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.
Upon opening PhotoPal you are presented with a menu that allows you to select a photo from your iPad Photo Album, from the PhotoPal Docs folder, your last session or the Clipboard.

Once you are editing a photo, you have the choice of tools and effects from three different menus for the numerous tools, editing options or effects.



Using the tools is straightforward and easy using the controls and sliders included at the bottom of the editing page. Unlike many editing apps, this gives you ultimate control in how you want your photos to look.

The effects options give you the ability to alter your photos using different effects to give your photo that unique appearance. Again, using the sliders and controls, you can customize just the way you want.


Sharing options let you e-mail or share your photos on Flickr, Facebook and Twitter simply by clicking the Share button from the top menu.

Once you have finished your edits, besides sharing, you can either save your photo back to the iPad Photo Album, the PhotoPal Docs folder or the Clipboard, allowing you to easily paste it into any other app.

And if you get stuck anywhere in the app, just tap the Help button on the top menu and context-sensitive help will appear giving you a complete description of the effect or tool that you are trying to use.

We’ve looked at numerous iPad photo editing apps over the past several months and have reviewed several, however to date PhotoPal seems to be one of, if not the best that we have seen. With its full range of photo editing tools and photo effects, it should be in your photo editing toolbox on the iPad.
The app is available in the iTunes App Store and costs $3.99, well worth the price if you find yourself editing and enhancing your photos.

Publisher: Unknown - 19:15

Essentials: Are your Mac Malware Definitions Up To Date?

Well, it was bound to happen. Malware has discovered the Mac and OS X with the Mac Defender trojan. Apple has responded quickly and is now pushing updates. Do you know if you have the latest definitions file? Here’s an easy way to check.

Last week Apple released Security Update 2011-003 that successfully detected and deleted Mac Defender and several variants and added a daily check for new malware definitions. Within 24 hours there were new variants already on the “street” that the original Apple security update couldn’t detect. Apple has responded and now it looks like it will be a continuous cat and mouse game between Apple and the malware developers.
If you haven’t updated your Mac yet with the Apple Security Update yet, you should do it now. If you have already downloaded the Security Update, you can check the timestamp of the definition file on your system by launching Terminal and pasting the following command:
more /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.meta.plist
If your system is setup properly, you should see a date under Last Modification that is within 24-48 hours of the current time. Apple says the malware definitions will be updated on a regular basis.
Here is the type of information you should see when executing the command.

To force your Mac to update to the latest definitions, do the following:
1. Launch System Preferences
2. Goto the Security preference pane
3. Uncheck the “Automatically update safe downloads list” checkbox
4. Re-check the same box
This will force the make to get the latest definitions. If you re-run the command above in Terminal you should see a more current date, assuming that your Internet connection is good.
As long as you keep the “Automatically update safe downloads list” checkbox checked, your Mac will get the latest definitions every day and ensure that your system is up to date.

Publisher: Unknown - 19:12

Tips and Tricks: Hard Reset the iPad/iPad2

Have you ever gotten that “iTunes could not back up the iPad because a session could not be started with the iPad” or “iTunes could not sync information to the iPad because another sync session was already running” error message when attempting to sync your iPad? You are not alone and there is usually an easy fix to the problem.

This fix not only solves any sync problems, but will also help resolve other issues such as the iPad running slow or freezing or apps continually crashing.
1. Make sure your iPad is sufficiently charged and not running on battery “fumes”. I would suggest that the battery is charged at least 50%.
2. With the iPad powered ON, press and hold the Home and Wake/Sleep button simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. Ignore the red slide “To power off” when it appears and wait for the Apple logo. When the logo appears the iPad is performing a “hard reset”. Be patient, as this reset could take a few minutes. Also, doing a “hard reset: does not affect any of your applications or data.

Publisher: Unknown - 19:04

Tips & Tricks: How to Maximize Your MacBook’s Battery Life [AMANAHAD]

Today’s Mac laptops gives you the power of a desktop, allowing you to take that power on the road and work remotely. However as with any laptop you are often limited by the battery life of the laptop, especially if you are away from an AC power source, such as on a plane.
There are a few tips and tricks that you will allow you to maximize the battery life and allow you to get that last minute report done before your flight lands.

With many people getting a MacBook for Christmas, these simple tips will help extend the battery life when using the laptop on battery power.
Turn Off Keyboard Backlighting
While a handy feature, available on many MacBooks, keyboard backlighting can be a battery drain and often is not necessary unless working in a very dark room. You can disable Keyboard Backlighting by going to System Preferences and selecting Keyboard.
On the Keyboard Preference Pane, uncheck Illuminate keyboard option.

If needed, this option can be quickly turned on again, however having it off by default helps save some battery power.
Turn Off Wireless
If you are in an environment, such as on a plane, where you don’t need WiFi or Bluetooth, turning them off will help save some battery power.
To disable WiFi, simply click the WiFi icon on the menu bar and select Turn Wi-Fi Off. To re-activate, just select the icon again and select Turn Wi-Fi On.

 

To deactivate Bluetooth, open System Preferences and click on the Bluetooth icon, and uncheck the On checkbox. To re-activate later, just re-check the checkbox.

Dim the Display
You can extend battery life by simply dimming the display from full brightness to whatever works best for you and the lighting conditions of wherever you are using the laptop.
To dim the display, simply goto System Preferences and click on Display. Using the slider, adjust the brightness of the display to whatever works best for and is comfortable on your eyes.

Once you make these changes there should be an improvement to the battery life of your MacBook, although there are numerous other factors which affect battery life so a definitive measure cannot really be given.
If you want a better measurement of battery life and the condition of your battery, download coconutBattery. It is a simple utility that will show you the charge and capacity of your battery.

Publisher: Unknown - 19:01

How Install Mac OSX in VMware Windows – Featured Post By AmanAhad

Install Mac OS X in VMware Windows PC

This article explains step by step method to install Mac OSX in VMware on your Windows PC. If you are interested to learn something on Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard or do some testing on Mac OS, then you can continue read this article. This article is only for testing purpose. Whoever doesn’t have chance to buy apple hardware with Mac OS, can use this method to install and run Mac on VMware home Windows PC.
                                           Installation is not ‘Very’ Easy

Installation is not easy as inserting the CD and click ‘Next’ ‘Next’ or running some executable files. I wanted to install and learn Macintosh OSX on Windows in my PC, so I searched on internet for possibilities to have Macintosh on Windows computer. The results returned nothing very useful other than changing your XP, Vista themes to Mac OS themes.  Based on the other tips in several sites and after I did it practically, now I’m writing this method to install mac on VMware in Windows PC.
But still I like to share what I found when I searched,
This video shows nicely how to change the XP theme to Mac OS theme. It looked as good video.  But when I tried to install it…., guess what? Anti-virus popped up. I left it.
Step by step to change the Windows theme to Mac



But I’m talking about real Mac. As I said earlier installation is not very easy since both OS hardware platform requirements are different, Mac can be installed on Virtual PC on your PC. To make the installation easy, in other word “to avoid the Mac installation”, we will just import the Mac OS pre-installed hard disk to your PC using VMware.  Don’t be more confused, follow the below easy steps. Here are the requirements,

Software Requirements for Install Mac on VMware

  Virtual PC software.  Several virtual PC software available, but this method goes with VMware workstation since we will be using VMware hard disk image.

VMware workstation 6 or more
you can download the VMwareWork Station at VMware site here . Either you can try 30-day free evaluation version or buy the full version, but don’t ask crack.
Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard VMware image download
(Note – This is a torrent download)
Hardware Requirements:
Make sure after you installed VMware workstation, you have minimum below  hardware resources to allocate for Mac OS.
RAM – 1GB
Hard Disk 15GB
Processor – Automatic allocation.

Install Mac on VMware Step by Steps

1) Install VMware Workstation.
2) Download Mac OS 10.5.5 Leopard  VMware Hard disk image. ( Approx Size – 1.9GB)
3) Extract the Image to a folder (You need WinRAR for extraction and extracted size is Approx 9.4GB). Make sure extraction is successful and you get all VMware files as below

4) Start VMware workstation and open the Mac OS X Leopard.vmx. ( In VMware go to File – Open from extracted place)
5) Once you open the correct vmx files, you can see the configurations which already done on the image. The below screen is the default one when you open it, before you power on the virtual PC. ( this is what I’m getting in my PC)

6) Make sure Guest OS should be ‘FreeBSD’. Even if you have Dual processor and have option to select two processors in VMware option, DO NOT change to two. Leave the Processors 1 only. Do not worry about Hard disk allocation 30GB. You can increase the memory size if you have memory resource in your computer.
7) That’s it click ‘Power on this virtual machine’. Now you should be able to see Mac OS.
8) In case your Mac stuck with following welcome screen for long time,

You must disable ‘Intel Hardware Virtualization’ from your BIOS.  Note that any time you enable or disable the Hardware virtualization setting in the BIOS; one has to completely power off (cold restart) the CPU for 10 seconds before booting.
Read More about how to Disable or Enable Hardware Virtualization in BIOS
Now start the Mac on VMware again, this time it will work fine.

Network
Somewhere I read that Network will not working in Mac with VMware, but it works fine with this image. I tested ‘Bridged’ and ‘NAT’ networks in VMware. It worked fine.
Mac Admin Password
This OS image has Mac Admin password, the password is ‘password ‘.
Mac VMX File
Here is the correct VMX file for your reference
.encoding = “windows-1252″
config.version = “8″
virtualHW.version = “7″
scsi0.present = “TRUE”
scsi0.virtualDev = “lsilogic”
memsize = “1024″
scsi0:0.present = “TRUE”
scsi0:0.fileName = “Mac OS X Leopard-000001.vmdk”
ide1:0.present = “TRUE”
ide1:0.autodetect = “TRUE”
ide1:0.deviceType = “cdrom-raw”
floppy0.present = “FALSE”
ethernet0.present = “TRUE”
ethernet0.startConnected = “TRUE”
ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000″
ethernet0.wakeOnPcktRcv = “FALSE”
usb.present = “TRUE”
ehci.present = “TRUE”
sound.present = “TRUE”
sound.fileName = “-1″
sound.autodetect = “TRUE”
mks.enable3d = “TRUE”
pciBridge0.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge4.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge4.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge4.functions = “8″
pciBridge5.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge5.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge5.functions = “8″
pciBridge6.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge6.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge6.functions = “8″
pciBridge7.present = “TRUE”
pciBridge7.virtualDev = “pcieRootPort”
pciBridge7.functions = “8″
vmci0.present = “TRUE”
monitor.virtual_mmu = “automatic”
monitor.virtual_exec = “automatic”
roamingVM.exitBehavior = “go”
displayName = “Mac OS X Leopard”
guestOS = “freebsd”
nvram = “Mac OS X Leopard.nvram”
virtualHW.productCompatibility = “hosted”
ft.secondary0.enabled = “TRUE”
tools.upgrade.policy = “useGlobal”
extendedConfigFile = “Mac OS X Leopard.vmxf”
ide1:0.fileName = “auto detect”
ide1:0.startConnected = “FALSE”
ethernet0.addressType = “generated”
tools.syncTime = “FALSE”
uuid.location = “56 4d 4e 0f ea ce 5e 03-83 66 d3 86 b7 b4 42 e4″
uuid.bios = “56 4d 4e 0f ea ce 5e 03-83 66 d3 86 b7 b4 42 e4″
scsi0:0.redo = “”
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = “134217728″
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = “17″
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = “21″
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = “22″
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = “23″
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = “24″
scsi0.pciSlotNumber = “16″
usb.pciSlotNumber = “32″
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = “33″
sound.pciSlotNumber = “34″
ehci.pciSlotNumber = “35″
vmci0.pciSlotNumber = “36″
ethernet0.generatedAddress = “00:0c:29:b4:42:e4″
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = “0″
vmci0.id = “660874947″
tools.remindInstall = “TRUE”
checkpoint.vmState = “”
ethernet0.connectionType = “nat”
Mac OSX in VMware under Windows check the different method..

Publisher: Unknown - 08:49