Put Live Desktops on Windows/MAC desktop

Internet Explorer has a feature called Web Slices that lets you track changes on certain pages from the favorites bar itself. Such a thing is not available in Firefox but you can use FireClip or Ubiquity and track portions of any web page in the browser – these portions could be from a Google results page, a customized view of your email inbox or even a live score card that you may have pulled from the ESPN site.

Now imagine if we could move out of the web browser and save these snippets of web pages on the desktop itself just like any other widget.

Add Snippets of Live Web Pages to your Desktop

What you see above aren’t static screenshots of websites but snippets of live web pages that will even refresh automatically after a set interval. They are created using Snippage, a free Adobe AIR utility available for both Mac and Windows.

Snippage, in simple English, lets you instantly turn any web page (or just a portion) into a desktop gadget (or widget depending on whether you are using a Windows PC or a Mac).

Snippage works like this – you open any web page using the built-in browser, select a rectangular portion on that page desktop by dragging around the handles and then click the scissor icon to crop that area and place it on the desktop.

If you are adding a stock chart or time-critical search results (say from twitter), you may want to change the refresh interval so that the clips reload automatically and you always have access to the latest information from your desktop.

Watch the video below to get a better idea on how you can create web clips for the desktop with snippage.

Screencast Video: How to turn web pages into desktop widgets

http://www.labnol.org/software/put-web-pages-on-desktop/10041/

http://www.labnol.org/internet/perform-ocr-with-google-docs/10059/

http://www.labnol.org/software/free-antivirus-software-from-microsoft/10070/

http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/how-to-secure-your-pc-from-hackers-virus-and-other-online-threats/833/

"Don't Panic!" Hides Windows From Onlookers

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Windows: Have some windows you might need to stash in a hurry? Don't want your boss to catch you goofing off? Everyone needs a break now and then and Don't Panic! will help you keep your breaks discreet.

While most "boss-key" applications limit themselves to simply hiding specified applications at a keystroke, Don't Panic! strives to avoid being a one-trick pony by offering a wide variety of options for you to toggle.

You can activate Don't Panic! by either keyboard shortcut or, as seen in the screenshot here, by hitting the Don't Panic! button in the lower right corner of your monitor. You can adjust the transparency of the button or disable all together and stick to the keyboard shortcut.

Don't Panic! can simply hide the windows you have specified, even hiding the application from the Task Manager, or it can close the application either by terminating the process or closing it properly. You can also have Don't Panic! delete all the shortcuts in the recent files folder, dump your Internet Explorer history and temporary files, and purge the Recycle Bin.

One thing to keep in mind when using an application like Don't Panic! is that all of its powers are limited to changing things at the workstation you are sitting at. If your company, for example, enforces internet usage policies by monitoring the traffic coming from your terminal, Don't Panic! won't do anything to stop The Man from putting the brakes on your cubicle party.

Don't Panic! is open source, Windows only.

Don't Panic!

Get A Read Receipt When Friends Open Your Email Message

If you are using Microsoft Outlook with Exchange Server, you can easily request read receipts and get notified when your email is opened by the recipient(s).

As such a tracking feature in not available in web email like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail or the new Windows Live Hotmail, here’s an extremely effective and free solution that works with every email program.

The service is called SpyPig and it will instantly send you a notification when your email is read by the recipient. The read receipt will also have other details like the IP address of the recipient and the exactly number of times he or she read your email.

Using SpyPig is simple – type your email address (where you wish to receive the notification) and they’ll give you a small tracking graphic that you have to embed in your outgoing Gmail message via a simple drag-n-drop (just like the Gmail Smileys). That’s it.

Now if you are worried about sharing your email address , read our previous email read receipt hack that shows you how to construct your own SpyPig kind of solution using Google Analytics or Statcounter.

The SpyPig trick however works only with Rich Text or HTML email, not plain text.

WinToFlash Turns Your Windows Installation DVD into a USB-Based Installer

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Windows: Want to turn your Windows installation DVD into an installation flash drive? WinToFlash can do that and more.

WinToFlash can transfer Windows XP, Vista, and 7 onto a flash drive as well as Server 2003 and 2008. WinToFlash can also transfer Windows Preinstallation Environments to flash drive.

The process is simple and mostly obvious. You tell WinToFlash where the installation files you want to transfer are located and either let the transfer wizard take care of things, or specify settings like what kind of format the flash drive will undergo. In our test using a USB 2.0 generic flash drive it took about 12 minutes to turn a Windows 7 installation DVD into a USB-based installer.

WinToFlash is freeware, Windows only.

WinToFlash [via Download Squad]

Source : Life Hacker

How to Transfer Mails from one Email Account to another for Free

There can be several reasons why you may want to switch email service providers.

Reason #1. Your existing email address gets too much spam so you plan to dump the old account and switch to a new email address (a form of email bankruptcy).

Reason #2. You are leaving your existing job for higher studies and need to transfer all personal emails from the Microsoft Exchange server to your new university email account.

Reason #3. Your ISP’s email service isn’t reliable and you therefore plan to move to a free web based email service like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, etc.

Reason #4. You think the new email service from XYZ Inc. offers more features than your existing mail provider and hence want to make the move.

Moving Emails from One Account to Another

This illustration will help you visualize how to transfer email messages across the three most popular web email services. The transfer will happen online and you just need to specify the credentials (user name & password) of your old email account (from where you want to move message out) and your new email address (where you want to move messages in).

Moving to Windows Live Hotmail

Windows Live Hotmail is integrated with TrueSwitch so you can easily transfer emails from Yahoo Mail, AOL, Gmail, Live.com, .Mac, etc. to your shiny new Hotmail address. The same service may also be used for copying old email from an existing Hotmail account to a new Hotmail address.

Moving to Yahoo Mail

Like Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail too provides integration with TrueSwitch so you can easy copy mails from Gmail, Hotmail, AOL, Juno, Rocket Mail, etc. into your Yahoo! account. With TrueSwitch, you can also copy mails from one Yahoo! inbox to another without upgrading to Yahoo! Mail Plus.

Moving to Gmail / Google Apps

Gmail (or Google Apps for Email) has a built-in Mail Fetcher feature that lets you download email messages from 5 different email accounts that support POP access. You may therefore use this feature to move your old Hotmail or AOL messages into Gmail as both these service provide free POP3 access.

The migration from Yahoo! Mail to Gmail is slightly tricky but possible. Keep reading.

Trick: Move emails from Yahoo Mail to Gmail or Outlook without POP

The free account of Yahoo Mail doesn’t provide IMAP or POP3 access so you can’t move these emails into Gmail or a desktop client like Microsoft Outlook.

The Yahoo! Mail Plus upgrade will add POP3 access to you account at $20 per year but if you want to save some money, here’s an alternate but simple trick:

1. Create a new account at Windows Live Hotmail and fetch all your Yahoo! mails into this account using the free TrueSwitch Service.

2. Now that your mails are inside Hotmail, you can setup POP3 configuration to fetch those Yahoo messages into Gmail via Hotmail.

Migrating Emails Away from your ISP Account

TrueSwitch mentioned above supports all popular ISPs including Comcast, Verizon, CableVision, AT&T, etc. but if your ISP is not in the list and you don’t have the time to configure your email client for POP3 or IMAP access, check out Yippie Move.

It’s a online email transfer service similar to TrueSwitch but supports an even larger number of email service providers including the .edu addresses of certain colleges and universities in US. With YippieMove, you can choose folders (or labels in Gmail) that you want to copy to the new location without having to move the entire mailbox. The service is quick and easy but costs around $15 per email account.

Copying emails from Microsoft Exchange / Outlook

Every organization has a different policy with respect to corporate email so check with the administration if your Exchange service offers POP3 or IMAP access – if yes, you can easily transfer messages into any of the free web mail accounts directly as listed above. Also see these guides:

• Export Outlook email to your Gmail Account
• Copy Outlook Mail to Google Apps
• Transfer Mail to Hotmail via Outlook Connector

Email Transfer Complete? The Next Step

Now that all your message have moved to your new email address, you can set up a vacation responder in your old email account to auto-inform contacts about your new email address. Also check this guide on how to manage multiple email addresses.

Source: Digital Inspiration Blog

Running a Windows Operating System on Browser

Windows OS – Made of Silverlight

The site is windows4all.com and it feels like you are running an online copy of the Windows operating system in the browser. (Hit F11 to experience in full screen mode)

Windows4all not only replicates the look and feel of a freshly installed Windows Vista desktop environment inside your browser but comes with a variety of applications that are similar to the default applications included with Windows. These include Notepad, Windows File Explorer, Media Player, Calculator, Sidebar gadgets and even games like Solitaire and Spider.

Double click the IE icon on the desktop (or use the Vista start menu button) to fire up Internet Explorer and you’ll be able to browse the internet live inside this impressive Silverlight application.

It also includes a Notepad and when you save text files using this application, you can open the files again the next time you visit Windows4all on the same computer. You can install additional Silverlight applications into the Windows4all interface; you can pick the installers directly from from the internet or upload the files from your own computer into the Web OS.

If you are a Windows geek who is curious to know how this app was made, go to Codeplex and download the full source code. It would be neat if Microsoft offers some of these features, especially the ability to import Silverlight apps, to Live Mesh in the future!

Source : digital inspiration blog