The default logon background looks fresh if you just starting to use Windows 7. But after a while, it doesn’t look that beautiful after all.

So, you might prefer to have your own favorite ice cool background as the login background. There are two workarounds – a painful way and an easy one. We start with the hard one first.

Method 1: Registry Edit, New Folders, Files and More (pain)!

This method is very messy. It involves editing your registry create new folders and transfer your background files manually. So, it is not worth it for me to explain it here. I highly recommended you guys to skip this and move to Method 2 below. But, if you guys are still interested to know how this is done, feel free to check out this post.

Note: This method is outdated. Might not work with RTM version.

Method 2: Login Background Changer Tools

Tools are developed to save our time. Basically there are two tools out there that I can find (there might be more). Download and run it (as Administrator) and the rest are self explanatory.

Windows 7 Logon Background Changer

More info & download

Tweaks.com logon Changer for Windows 7

More info & download

I personally prefer this one

OK, there is another one here.

One of the many features of the revolutionary Windows 7 Taskbar is Jump List. All the default programs like Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Media Player 12 that are bundled together with Windows 7 have this nifty feature support.

[Jump List feature for IE8]

Too bad for now, many third party applications do not support many of the new Taskbar features just yet. One of them happened to be my favorite browser, Firefox. As for now, Firefox 3.1 and 3.5 are not Windows 7 ready as far as the new taskbar features support are concerned.

But the good news is, there is Winfox – a tweak, well to be specific an add-on that adds Jump List support for Firefox in Windows 7.

[Winfox in action: Jump List support for Firefox 3.5]

So, while waiting for new version of Firefox (probably 3.7) that supports Windows 7 features like the Jump List, this is a good get around to try out.

The new Twitter Search has become a realtime search engine and a hit. The newly launched Twitter homepage now has its focus on search, realtime search to be exact.

So, it really useful to have the new Twitter Search integrated directly into your browser, let it be Internet Explorer or Firefox. You can just type in your keywords and hit Enter instead of loading Twitter.com to do a search.

OK, how to do that?

If you are using Firefox, it requires no more than two clicks thanks to this add-on – Twitter Search. Click Download Now and Add when a confirmation menu pops up. You are ready to go!

If you are using Internet Explorer (IE8/IE7), there is a little work to do. As of now, IE Add-ons for search providers does not have Twitter Search Add-on yet. But no worries, we can make one ourself and it is very easy!

Jump to Create your own Search Provider page. Fill in the textboxes as follow:

URL: http://twitter.com/search?q=TEST

Name: Twitter Search (could be anything)

Click Install Search Provider and Add it to your IE. As simple as that.

Finally, this is what you have:

[Twitter Search added to IE8 and Firefox 3.5]

Enjoy!

Usually, I post how-to stuff related to computer or the web. This is somehow a rare how-to but it is a good one – cracking or bypassing number or combination padlock.

Note: It might not works on all combination padlock but the idea is there. Do check other related videos!

There are few tricks to bypass waiting time on Rapidshare, Megaupload and other popular file sharing services. Most of those tricks involve executing javascript from the address bar. Yes, it works in a way but it is very troublesome and not to mention those ugly pop-ups… gosh!

This leads to SkipScreen (it clicks, so you don’t have to) an amazing add-on for Firefox that helps you bypass all those craps! It’s 100% free of charge but of course Firefox is required.

SkipScreen is a free Firefox add-on that skips the clicking and waiting on sites like RapidShare, Megaupload, Mediafire, zShare, and more!
Never download music without it.

So, how fantastic is SkipScreen? Watch this:

SkipScreen works great on these sites:

• Rapidshare (don’t click! it’s automatic!)
• Megaupload (captcha action coming soon!)
• Mediafire
• Uploaded.to
• zShare (now with a “listen-first” option!)
• Sharebee
• DepositFiles
• Sendspace
• Divshare
• Linkbucks
• Link-protector
• More on the way…

Oh BTW, give SkipScreen a test drive yourself. Check out this blog post on Testing SkipScreen.

Get it, love it and save your day!

There are couple of ways to do this, but this one in my opinion is the easiest and most direct method. But… there is a catch, you need to use Firefox.

So basically, these are what you need:

1. Firefox 3 or later. Get the latest 3.5.1 here but please see Note below.
2. Greasemonkey script manager. A Firefox add-on script manager.
3. Facebook Video script. This is the script that do all the magic!

Install Firefox if you don’t have one. Next, install Greasemonkey by clicking the “Add to Firefox” button and restart Firefox. Finally, install Facebook Video script by clicking the “Install” button and you are ready to go!

• “Download Video” link gives you the direct download link for the particular video.
• “Convert Video” link will link the video to Zamzar, a free online video converter.
• “Embed this Video” link lets you embed the video to other websites
• “Customize Code” link gives you the flexibility to customize the embed video code.

Note: “Embed this Video” and “Customize Code” features (Facebook Video script 2.2.2) are not compatible with Firefox 3.5.x.

Enjoy!

Tweetbook is simple yet very useful. You can now read, share or backup all your Twitter updates (tweets) as a single PDF file called tweetbook.

You can generate your tweekbook out off your tweets, including replies as well as your favorites tweets if any. On top of that, you create a XML backup besides PDF.

You can share your tweetbook via Scribd and this is done automatically via the Tweetbook app. Here is my tweetbook: http://tweetbook.in/v/17521043

matthewphiong’s tweetbook

Get you tweetbook today!

I’ll just go straight to the point and I’m not going to sell Twitter or ask you to follow me on Twitter.

[Twitter SMS Cheatsheet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inju/422751668/]

So, often you update your Twitter via the Internet. How about you are in the middle of nowhere – no WiFi, 3G, EDGE, GPRS but you still have SMS… and you are desperate to reach out to the world.

Twitter has this feature that enables you to send and receive (only certain countries) tweets via text messaging. (Read the FAQ here)

How to do that… how?

Well, pretty easy and straight forward.

1. Login to tour Twitter account and go to Settings.
2. Under Devices, add your phone number.
3. Then you are required to verify your phone number. Send the captcha code to these short codes/phone numbers based on your country:
• In the US, use 40404.
• In Canada, use 21212.
• In the UK, Vodafone users can text to the new local UK Vodafone short code 86444; people on all other UK carriers should use +44 7624 801423
• In Sweden, use: +46 737 494222
• In Germany, use +49 17 6888 50505
• Anywhere else, use +44 7624 801423
4. I live in Malaysia, so I send to +44 7624 801423 (this is a UK number).
5. You are done.

Note: Twitter charge you nothing but your service provider might and it depends. I’m using DiGi network and DiGi charges me RM0.20/SMS (This is the rate for sending international SMS).

Please check Twitter’s FAQ page for more info, including how to send direct messages to someone.

The probability of your USB/pen drive gets infected by autorun viruses is very common, especially having it plugged into public computers.

There are many ways to get around this problem, from easy to not that easy. Of course, I’ll go for the easy one and by easy means using 3rd party free applications. If found these apps to be very useful and here they are…

USB Firewall

The name says it all! This app is your USB firewall. USB Firewall blocks all viruses and any malicious programs that try to execute when you plug in your USB drive into your computer. In addition, it can help you clean up your hard disk partition from autorun application. That being said, it protects not only USB drive but your hard drive.

More info | Download

Autorun Protector

This tiny little tool has a two-way functionality – it protects your computer and also any USB drive (that plugged into the computer) from being infected by autorun virus. It has other features as well like custom protect your autorun.inf file.

More info | Download

USB Cop

USB Cop is your very own police that look after you USB drive. It basically blocks all attempts to execute autorun.inf but you can see and browse the contents of the autorun.inf. This is very helpful to prevent any unwanted application to launch by itself.

More info | Download

So, I hope you guys find this post useful as much as I do. Enjoy!

I assume that most of you (if not all) are not very please with the advertisements running along with your favorite webmail, like it be Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc.

Get along this post and I’ll show you how easily it is to block or disable those ads. You might have read this post – How To Remove Ads (AdSense) From Gmail posted sometime back in April, that is a little hack and just for Gmail. Now I found this super brilliant Firefox add-on, WebMail Ad Blocker that can do more than that.

The basic requirement is the latest version of Firefox, that’s all! Go here, install WebMail Ad Blocker plugin and restart Firefox and you are good to go.

[WebMail Ad Blocker – Option Menu]

As you can see (screenshot above), this cool little plugin can do more than just disabling ads. You can now have a “clean” webmail just like my Gmail:

[Gmail no more ads]

WebMail Ad Blocker works with Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Happy using!