It has been 7 years since Windows XP was launched. During its lifetime it got many upgrades including 3 Service Pack releases (Service Pack 3 being the latest). The Service Pack added many new and useful features so as to increase the life shell of Windows XP.

After the release of Windows Vista many Windows Users wanted to shift to Windows Vista but could not because of the high system requirements of Vista. Soon after the release of Windows Vista many transformation packs were launched, which transformed the looks of Windows XP to Windows Vista giving the users of XP the feel that they were using Windows Vista.

Even though these Transformation packs were not able to provide the performance of Vista but they managed to copy the looks of Vista pretty well. These transformation packs were able to copy all the eye candies of Vista except one – the Start menu of Vista. There were many themes which copied the look of the taskbar of Windows Vista, but failed to provide the same functionality. Being a Vista user myself, I can easily say that I really miss the Vista Start bar in Windows XP.

So today Techunknown.com presents to you Windows Vista start menu for Windows XP!

Download it: http://vistastartmenu.com

As you can see from the above image, Vistastart menu provides functionality similar or better than Windows Vista start menu can provide.
The search box is similar to Vista’s start menu and it even saves your last search. When you search for any file/application via the search box given, the search begins instantly but it is little slow compared to Windows Vista Start Menu but not that slow to irritate you. When you search for a file/application via the search bar and you type the full name of the application for example “paint”, the application also shows applications or files with similar name like Printers etc.

As you can see from the image, it even shows system files and folder. Also unlike Start menu in Vista and XP where you have to click on “Programs” to show you all the installed programs which you have in your PC, VistaStart Menu opens the “Program” group or slide by default thus saving you one mouse click when you open an application from the “Programs” menu.
There is also a quick start group where you can put in all the applications which you access frequently. All the applications present in the start menu have a shortcut, if you would have seen the previous images properly you would notice that there is a small straight line passing through the applications menu after certain intervals. These straight lines divide the “Program” menu into certain groups. The first group has “A” assigned as its shortcut so if you will press “A” you will be automatically taken to the first group and then all the applications in the first group will have a number assigned to them, pressing that number either launches that application or takes you to the sub group of the application. These shortcuts work only when you use the “Windows” key to access the start menu and not when you used the mouse to access the start menu.

You can also move the Start Menu to another location! Yes you read it right to another location! You can even resize the start menu. Amazing isn’t it. To move the Start Menu all you got to do is hover your mouse near the “Get Pro Version” and then just drag the start menu to the location you want it to.

Now from the next time whenever you open Start Menu it will open from the same position where you had placed it earlier.

The Bad Side-

After the good side comes the bad side. Sometimes whenever I used to click on the start menu, VistaStartMenu just did not pop-up. I had to click multiple times before it used to pop out. Also as I said earlier, searching via the Search Box is a bit slow compared to Windows Vista Start Menu. Also just for the information of its users or the user who are going to download it, it eats up 11Mb RAM usually with the max going to 20Mb.

Conclusion-

In the end I would like to conclude that Windows XP users who can’t shift to Vista because of its high system requirements should download VistaStartMenu immediately but for Vista users I would say if you can cope up with the slow searching time and the extra “11Mb RAM” I will say it’s worth it.

TechUnknown Rating – Very Good

Pro’s – Finally an alternative to Vista Start Menu, and for XP users finally a Vista style Start Menu

Con’s – Slow in searching via search box, Sometimes the Menu just does not pop-up even after clicking the Start Button multiple times

Netshare from Nullriver is is a boon for many who are mobile whether they want to or not. If you people have already downloaded Netshare for $10 from the Apple Stores and are frustrated that you couldn’t figure out what the app was all about, well then seriously you need this tutorial.

Please note that this tutorial will not work on Mozilla Firefox 3. For better results, better use safari (obviously Apple friendly). Head over here for the tutorial.

Download Netshare

UPDATE: It seems some users cant see the download page for this app on the Apple Store. I do not know whats the problem, but will come out with a solution soon.

One really interesting, simple project any geek-next-door can carry out, that looks really cool. I found this How-To on instructables.

All you need for it is:

5 3.5″ floppy disks (which are of no use to you now), drill, 5 4mm drill bits, zip ties to tie the floppy disks together and scissors.

Simply you have to drill the holes in the floppy drives and tag them with zip ties.

The advantage of this floppy pen holder is it is has very large capacity, is much more stable so it doesn’t flip over even if you place heavy stationary in it.

The full instructables is here

I need a fresh cup of coffee or lemon tea, to woke up and keep myself awake in the morning. But how about and idea for a software Caffeine to keep your PC awake all the time?

Computers also go to sleep, as we all know, when they fire up a screensaver or simply turn off the display.
But Caffeine can help it keep awake by simulating a keystroke every 59 seconds.

Well that’s the default value (59 secs), which can be changed to any x-secs from the program. To prevent problems with running applications, the software simulates a shift-up, shift-down keystroke in Windows 98 and shift-down keystroke in Win XP and 2000.

The program resides as a cup of coffee in your system tray, is very helpful and small in size, just 11 kb.

Ever wondered what that particular processes like ‘jusched.exe’ in the Windows Task Manager does? Or want to find more details about the particular process? Look no more, ProcessQuickLink is here to help you. ProcessQuickLink is an application which searches the vast library about Windows’ processes and lets you know about it in simple language.

Install the software and goto the Windows Task Manager, just click any process and it lets you know about the task by searching Processlibrary. It recommends you whether to remove the process or not. When your computer runs like a turtle, ProcessQuickLink tells you which processes are unnecessary and you can remove it.

The freeware is available for Windows only. Head over here to download.

Via LifeHacker

Well you can’t expect people of the Windows community to sit and stare like asses at Mac people. No wars, just plain stories. So here we are, will the real WinPwn please stand up?

The new WinPwn 2.0 supports both the firwares 1.1.4 and 2.0, so that your iPhone 3G can be jailbroken to handle third party applications. As always, the risk of destroying your iPhone lies in your hands. But what can I say? Curiosity always takes the better of everybody.

2.0 How to:

- 1) First create a custom IPSW using the IPSW Builder.

- 2) Click “Ipwner” and browse for the custom IPSW that you just created. This will pwn itunes and allow you to flash
Custom IPSW files via DFU mode

- 3) Once you have pwned Itunes, put your phone into DFU mode. If you don’t know how to do this click Here.

- 4) Once you are in DFU mode Itunes will pop up and then you can hold shift and click restore and browse to your custom IPSW file.

Check out the official (or not) site here.

UPDATE: Server down at Winpwn. Click here for download.

Despite huge pleadings by users all over the world, for not discontinuing Windows XP, Microsoft officially announced:

“Monday, June 30 will be the last day Microsoft sells XP to the masses.”

Nokia on Tuesday announced it is going to buy the rest of Symbian (a company which develops operating system for mobiles).

Nokia currently owns 48% share of the company, and will pay $410 million for the rest.

This deal does not come as a surprise if we look at these figures:
Nokia paid $250 million in licensing fee to Symbian last year, so it makes business sense to acquire the whole of it in $410 million.

But it is not the sole reason for takeover. Nokia was more worried that Symbian’s structure will erode its competitive position.
Currently Symbian is being challenged by number of new contender like Google’s Android platform.

To compete with Google’s Android, Symbian will also become an open source based platform.

Nokia expects the acquisition to be completed during the fourth quarter of 2008.

The real time download stats for Firefox 3 is going on and on.

Link: http://downloadcounter.sj.mozilla.com/

Download Firefox 3: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

If you have downloaded Firefox 3, show the world, get a personalised certificate

Link: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/certificate_form

Egg 1: Credit to the developers

Type “about:credits” (without quotes) in the address bar of Firefox 3 and press enter, and here is what you get:

click on the image to zoom

Egg 2: Robots

Type “about:robots” (without quotes) in the address bar of Firefox 3 and press enter, and here is what you get:

click on the image to zoom