It’s always advisable to secure your PC if it has some important data or anything which you don’t want to disclose to others. So, locking your computer with a strong password is best and you shouldn’t forget to lock your PC, even when leaving for a short while.

Windows 7 provides a quick option to instantly ‘Lock the computer’ with just a simple shortcut key. You first need to Set a Password for your Windows user account in order to use the password locking functionality. To Lock Windows 7 desktop, just Press the Win+L keyboard shortcut. Now you will be asked to enter the password to login.

Other method -

We’ve tried this on Windows 7 only. Check the tip via HowToGeek to “Create an easy Shortcut for Locking your Computer Screen in Windows 7, Vista, and Win XP.”

Hope you found this tip useful.

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Offline updates comes in handy when updating many computer systems with the latest antivirus definitions. This also eliminates the need to download big updates again (after a format) and can be used to update PC’s without Internet access.

Kaspersky Updater is an official utility by kaspersky, which allows users to easily download and save, databases and program modules to their PC for offline use. The latest version supports all versions of Kaspersky Antivirus & Kaspersky Internet Security.

How to Use?

Download KLUpdater and extract it to a folder. Run the file KasperskyUpdater.exe inside the folder. Select the desired product version, click Apply and Start.

By default, the updater saves the application updates in its own folder. Though, users can define a custom path where to save the updates, by making changes under Settings and service. Don’t forget to click the Apply button.

Also See: How to update Kaspersky 2010 from a local folder?

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Here is a quick way to easily Enable or Disable Thumbnail previews from right click context menu in Windows explorer. This tip is basically for Windows 7 and Vista users who have opted to show icons only, in order to speed up browsing inside explorer.

To Disable Thumbnail Previews (Show Icons only) in Windows 7 or Vista, open Folder Options > View tab. Now check the first option saying ‘Always show icons, never thumbnails’. Click OK

Adding the Enable/Disable Thumbnails option to right-click menu -

1. Download togglethumbs.zip and save it.

2. Unzip the archive and extract the contents to a folder.

3. Move the file togglethumbs.vbs to the C:\Windows directory.

4. Then Double-click togglethumbs.reg to merge the contents to the registry. Click Yes on the confirmation dialog boxes.

The ‘Enable/Disable Thumbnails’ has now been added to the right click context menu. Click it to enable or disable thumbnail previews in 1-click

Thanks to Ramesh of Winhelponline for providing this great solution.

Note – You can also remove this feature using the Undo registry file provided in pack.

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IMEI number is assigned by manufacturers to their mobile phones. This IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number is used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network or finding a lost phone.

CheckIMEI is a simple tool which shows information about manufacturer, model type, and country of approval of a handset. Just enter your mobile’s IMEI and click Search.

To find IMEI no. just type *#06# from your keypad and see it displayed on your screen.

Download Check IMEI  (390KB)

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By default, Windows 7 and Vista opens any GIF (.gif) images in Internet Explorer. This becomes quite problematic when we want to view many gif images at one time.

How to open/view gif images with Windows Photo Viewer -

Just open properties of any gif image by right clicking on it. Under properties, click Change. In ‘Open with’ window, open Other Programs and select Windows Photo Viewer as default program to open with. Now click Ok and again Ok.

That’s it. Now all your gif images will open in Windows default photo viewer.

Update  -  Animated GIF Viewer for Windows 7 and VistaRelated Posts:

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While playing movies in Windows 7 Windows Media Player 12, I noticed that subtitles were not working in it though they were showing fine in VLC player.

I’ve found a simple way to fix this issue without modifying any Windows file. Just download and install DirectVobSub (VSFilter) to display subtitle. Using it, you can also set the text size, color and placement displayed while playing movies.

Download DirectVobSub (393 KB)

Note: A correct subtitle (SRT) file must be there in movie folder to show its subtitle. You can download subtitle for Internet movies @ subscene.comRelated Posts:

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Kaspersky is one of the top security software providing best protection to your data from latest Viruses, worms, phishing attacks, malware, etc. I’ve now found a 100% working trick, using which one can use Kaspersky Antivirus 2010 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 after end of its 30 days trail for Free.

Follow the steps below carefully to do it:

1. Open Kaspersky settings > Options and uncheck Enable Self-Defense. Click Ok.

2. Exit Kaspersky.

3. Go to Start, open Run, then type regedit and press enter.

4. Under Registry Editor, open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Kaspersky Lab > protected > AVP9 > environment.

5. Find the entry ProductStatus and change Release to Beta.

6. Press OK then open Kaspersky.

7. Under License, Activate beta license then press Next and Finish (Delete any trial keys first if any, as they wont work).

8. Re-enable Self-Defense from options.

9. Now you have 30 days of beta license activated. After every 30 days, simply click Activate Beta (delete the expired beta key first) and enjoy another 30 days Free

Kaspersky will now show as Beta Version though it is your final version only. Enjoy!

Update – How to delete the expired key & activate beta license ?

To delete beta key, open Kaspersky > License Manager and click on the red X (cross) next to the code. Then click on Yes button as shown in below image.

Now click ‘Activate New License’ option and then chose ‘Activate beta license’. Click Next to activate kaspersky.

Update (28 Jan) – As pointed out by most readers, I also got the same error saying ‘key is blocked’. I guess, Kaspersky has finally figured out this loophole and fixed it via updates

Update (29 Jan) – Finally another way is out! Our smart readers ‘Stalin & Mr. Fix it’ have provided a quick and simple solution via comments to use Kaspersky for FREE Check the new procedure below:

1. Delete any license keys first.

2. Disable Self-Defense and Exit kaspersky.

3. Following above steps, change the ProductStatus back to Release in registry.

4. Double click PCID and change the last 3 digits to what ever you want and click Ok.

5. Exit registry editor and restart kaspersky.

6. Select activate trial license and you should now have 30 or 31 days remaining. Repeat this method any time to reset to 30 days.

UPDATE – Kaspersky Trial Reset tool [Use Kaspersky for Free after 30 days]

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. We advice you to purchase genuine license to run your software.

Also See:

• How to activate Kaspersky 2010 license using a key file ?
• How to Remove Kaspersky Temporary files to Free up disk space [Featured]

Note – Comments asking for license codes & license keys will not be approved.Related Posts:

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• How to activate Kaspersky 2010 license using a key file ?

If you are using Windows 7 on an old PC with less graphics or want to make Windows 7 faster, then you must use the Basic theme. Windows 7 basic theme is without Aero and is certainly very light as compared to Aero theme.

Basic theme is non transparent, doesn’t show applications preview in taskbar and disables Aero Peek. To enable it, open Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization. Under ‘Basic and high contrast themes’ select Windows 7 Basic.

Now you’ll notice a huge improvement in your Windows 7 system speed. It is highly recommended for office users and people preferring simple look.

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