This is a pretty common problem of those users who have Intel GMA Series graphics or their screen resolution is slightly wider that most of the games and applications support.

Solution:

There are two simple solutions to this problem.

Solution 1:

First is that there is an option provided by Intel Media Graphics Accelerator, using this option you can either fix the Screen aspect ratio or expand it.  Path to this option is given below along with figure.

Control Panel -> Intel GMA Driver for Mobile ->Display Settings->Aspect Ratio Options

Select Full Screen option and apply the changes.

However this solution doesn’t work in most of the cases as the Apply button is disabled and selected option doesn’t seem to work. So 2nd solution is applied for those 1st solution didn’t work.

Solution 2:

This solution surely works for most of the cases as I have applied this to many laptops.  There are few very simple steps.

1. Uninstall the Intel GMA drivers and program that you installed for Windows 7.
2. Go the your Systems Drivers page on the web and Download the latest drivers and application for Windows Vista. This is the core solution yet found by me that vista drivers seem to work well and provide the solution of aspect ratio problem.
3. Before installing the Vista compatible Drivers you have to add the compatibility to the drivers for Windows 7 before installing them.  Locate the downloaded setup file then got to its properties by right clicking and then find the “Compatibility” tab at the top and check the Option “Run this program in compatibility mode” and select Windows Vista from Drop down list.  Also check the option “Run as Administrator” and Apply the changes as shown in figure.

4.   A warning will appear telling you that you are going to install the old drivers as compared to the new installed one. proceed forward and install the drivers.  Restart your PC.

If you find some problem then quickly restore your windows back to the old state.

That is it you are done with the solution. I hope this solution will help alot of people out there like me.

I came across this Burner named BurnAware Free . I found it very simple yet very effective.

Description:

BurnAware Free is a free CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc burning software. It is ideal for users with basic disc burning needs as backup, creating data, audio, MP3 music, DVD-Video discs and burning disc images. Free, easy to set up, it enables you to save your files to disc quickly and provides clean, flexible interface to help you complete your burning tasks much faster.

Features:

1. Create data and multisession CD/DVD/Blu-ray Discs.
2. Create Audio CDs and jukebox CD/DVD/Blu-ray Discs.
3. Create DVDs-Video.
4. Create and burn disc images.
5. Supports all current hardware interfaces (IDE/SCSI/USB/1394/SATA).
6. Supports UDF/ISO9660/Joliet Bridged file systems (any combination).
7. On-the-fly writing for all image types (no staging to hard drive first).
8. Auto-verification of written files.
9. Supports CD-Text.
10. Clean, multilingual, easy to use interface.
11. Supports unicode for multi-byte languages.

Score:

I would give it  (8.5 out of 10 ).

So if you like Mac OS Leopard but you don’t have Mac,No worries.This theme will help you.

So enjoy Mac OS Leopard like UI on your Windows Xp.

Download Leopard Xp Theme

Thanks to Vishal Gupta over at Deviant Art for creating this nice theme for XP.

Download Windows 7 theme for XP

Features of FB Explorer

• Easy to use interference
• Set or Clear status messages from the sidebar
• Check how many incoming messages you have
• View friends activities

Download FB Explorer

This app is portable, so there is no need to install. All you need is a 4 GB flash drive and an ISO image of Windows OS. If you have a DVD, then you may use it instead of an ISO image.

1. Plugin your USB stick in your system.
2. Click on Format USB button.
3. Choose either DVD or ISO version.
4. Click Start ISO to create bootable USB stick.

Click here to download this small App.

Windows 7 Concept Ads:

Aero Shake:

You can navigate your desktop easily with windows 7. Just give the active window a little shake to quickly shake away the clutter.

Personalization:

You can easily personalize your desktop and user interface according to your mood and your usage.

Windows Live Movie Maker:

Movie making now as easy as never before using Windows live movie maker. Just publish your movie directly to internet like youtube.

Its Not About Icons, Its about Ideas:

Your PC, Your life:

Your PC becomes your entertainment zone. And when it’s time to get some work done, new features help you cruise through your PC like a professional.

For Kids, Kylie’s Conversations :

The happy words just keep on coming as Kylie creates another slideshow to share even more good news about Windows 7 with her friends.

Good News:

Get a Mac Ads, reply to Windows 7 Ads(3 in one):

Mac suggests Windows 7 is the same old thing as ever before like Vista and Windows XP and they try to convince the consumers that Mac is the ultimate solution to their pain and frustration.

7 secs to Windows 7:

This seven seconds demo series is what i like the most. A quick blast through Windows 7 features.

CheapyD & CampingKev vs. Windows 7 Whopper:

Celebrating the launch of Windows 7 in Japan, the Windows 7 Whopper is 791 grams or 1.74 pounds of Burger King beef.

Data.rar = RAR file which contains the files you want to hide.
Oldimage.jpg = File in which data.rar will be hidden.
Newimage.jpg = New image file which contains data.rar hidden in it.

To retrieve hidden files back from Newimage.jpg, just change the extension of Newimage.jpg from JPG to RAR and then extract hidden files from it via WinRar.

Here is a video tutorial in which i am hiding Tutorial.txt in Techtoggle.jpg

Starting from the big news obviously. Two big releases expected are Windows 7 and later in 2010 , Google chrome OS.

Windows 7 :

Bill Gates earlier said that the next operating system of the company will be shipped as soon as 2009 and the current release dates of windows 7 seem to justify the owner’s statement. The current release date is october 22 2009.

Windows 7 is almost out of  development stages (codename BlackComb). It is expected by the customers that windows 7 will provide lighter and slimmer profile as compared to Vista.

All in all, Windows 7 is shaping up well. It’s a far more modest release than Vista was, but it’s no worse for that. The new OS introduces a compelling combination of welcome innovations and much-needed polish, and that’s exactly what Microsoft needs right now. Vista’s foundation was solid, and Windows 7 just makes it better.

said Peter Bright, ArsTechnica

Windows 7 free trial is now available for tech pros at no charge and is limited for 90 days of usage. You can download the free trial of enterprise edition from here as soon as it is available.

Download from Here

Google Chrome OS:

This july google officially announced that they are working on a project named Google chrome OS. Though it is intended to be installed on netbooks but still people are waiting to see when google will open source the code and release it for use.

The main features of Google Chrome OS are speed, security and simplicity and the fact that it will be very lightweight makes me more curious about it. The user interface is minimal and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And according to the Google guys, as they did for the Google Chrome browser, they are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.

Here is a nice little video preview of the google chrome OS framework.

Apple Multi-Touch Tablet:

The good news for all the fans of Apple inc is Apple tablet Pc that is going to be released in 2010 and Steve Jobs is quite satisfied with the device. This is a 10 inch , 3G enabled tablet. This device will be probably price between iPhone and an affordable mac notebook of apple and it will come with the OS version similar to current Mac OS X .

Further Reading from Here.

Nokia Maemo Based Tablet and N900 Phone:

The top leading mobile phone company has not given up its fate infront of giants like apple and google but it is working on its own platform called Maemo 5. It prepares for its annual conference and spotlight is on N900 Phone which is Maemo 5 based.

Main features of the phone are its large screen, QWERTY slide out keyboard and proportions bigger than a smartphone. These N series of Nokia will have mobile version of the linux called Maemo.

Further Reading from Here.

Intel’s Moorestown and New Moblin Linux:

Earlier this year intel gave details about the future launch of its Moorestown chip platform and told the release date as in mid 2010. This launch will also provide new version of moblin which is a linux based OS of intel specially designed for small devices. Interestingly it is 3G technology based and it consumes 10 times less power when idle as compared to other current devices running intel atom. this release might also provide capabilities of HSPA and WiMax technology.

Microsoft Office 2010(codenamed Office 14):

Microsoft office 2010 will be a big release because of its revolutionary features and online support. Office 2010 Web apps will be competing against google Docs which is the current leader in the online version of documentation. It will be interesting to see what features does Web apps provide ( See this article Office Vs Google Docs) . We are sure that the desktop version of the Office will be better and more rich.

Office 2010 will be as to Office 2007 as Windows 7 is to Windows Vista in my point of view.

Further Reading from Here.

Intel Xeon Nehalem-EX Processor:

No doubt Intel Xeon Nehalem-EX will be the heart of Intelligent and high end Intel Server Platforms. They will provide countless technical advancements and it will boost enterprise computing to great extent.

Nehalem will be having eight cores inside a single chip supporting 16 threads and 24MB cache.

Few of the features of Xeon Processor are as follows.

• Intel Nehalem Architecture built on Intel’s unique 45nm high-k metal gate technology process
• Up to 8 cores per processor
• Up to 16 threads per processor with Intel® Hyper-threading
• Scalability up to eight sockets via Quick Path Interconnects and greater with third-party node controllers
• QuickPath Architecture with four high-bandwidth links
• 24MB of shared cache
• Integrated memory controllers
• Intel Turbo Boost Technology
• Intel scalable memory buffer and scalable memory interconnects
• Up to 9x the memory bandwidth of previous generation
• Support for up to 16 memory slots per processor socket
• Advanced RAS capabilities including MCA Recovery
• 2.3 billion transistors

Video Preview:

Chvrolet Camaro Transformers Special Edition:

With the great success of the movie Transformers II , chvrolet pushed out the Transformers Special Edition for the fans of the movie. Car is expected to be released in 2010. This is the fifth generation of the chvrolet camaro.

It is powered by LS3 6.2L V8 producing 318 kW when it is combined with 6 speed manual. When it is combined with 6 speed automatic the L99 V8 producing 300 kW is installed. Its production began in March 2009 as a 2010 model.

Picture Preview:

click to enlarge

click to enlarge

I guess its enough of technology world now its time for some fun stuff expected to be released in 2010. Lets see them.

Resident Evil After:life :

Mill jovovich will reprise her signature role as Alice in this fourth release of the video game based movie which takes off from where Resident Evil Extension ended in Japan.

Its release date is 27 August 2010.

Tag line: She is back and She’s bringing a few of her friends.

Now lets turn towards the world of video gaming because i know the list is not complete without the inclusion of gaming industry news.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo Wii) :

Super mario galaxy 2 is upcoming video game in development stages for Nintendo Wii console. It is the next version of super mario galaxy. Its game play is similar to that of the previous version but the focus is on 3D planets of different sizes and landscapes. Bee suit power up will be available. Mario will be riding a bipedal dinosaur named Yoshi and there will be lot of fun playing such a nice and legandary game.

Grand Theft Auto (The ballad of Gay Tony) rumored(PS3):

Gamespy is claiming that Rockstar has confirmed that a new game of GTA series is under development stages. We all have played GTA vice city and San Andries which were quite good. So Rockstar knows that their most paying game is GTA and not any other game. It is expected that the game will be ready in the next year october or so.

StarCraft II:

Star Craft is no doubt one of the best games , so it is not a surprise that the real time strategy fans were not happy when Star Craft II was announced. Blizzard has improved the graphics and increased the units but left the huge all out battles unchanged . T0o often game developers try to rebuild video games but why do they rebuild perfection?

Star Craft 2 – Cinematic Preview – Click here for more home videos

Office Web Apps will be available on top of office Sharepoint or windows live spaces. It will work fine with Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. Notice that Google chrome is not mentioned in that list by the sources.

Features Comparison:

• Like most online applications, web apps are build to run from a cloud in a user web browser.
• As Google Docs is quite compatible with most of the web browsers,  Web Apps will be optimized to work best with Internet Explorer. but they need to insure that it works well with Firefox and Google Chrome as they are becoming the main stream web browsers.
• Office web apps will be the light weighted version of office suite containing Word, Powerpoint, Excel and OneNote. OneNote will help Microsoft in competing with EverNote, which  has been a revolution in online note taking.
• One huge benefit with Microsoft web apps is that it is quite compatible with the enterprise office suite so users can work on the web and then save their document to use it offline. This feature will be available to Google Docs users only when Google Chrome OS will be available.
• On the other hand Google is establishing itself fearlessly with regular updates to Google Docs and providing lot of powerful features to its users.

Google Docs Features:

Google Docs contains lot of rich features which gives Web apps team a great challenge. Some highlighted features are as follows.

DOCX Import:

The best and most important feature is that Docs are now supporting .DOCX extensions which is the used by most of the people. So users can import Word 2007 or later documents to their online Docs.  (Details Here)

New publish dialog for Spreadsheets:

This new improved dialog helps its users to publish their spread sheets in different formats. Using this users can get html snippets, pdfs or published links to share with their friends , colleagues or family. (Details Here)

Themes for forms:

Users can apply different available themes to their newly created forms and surveys. (Details Here)

XLSX Import:

This is another important feature which helps users to import supporting cell data, formattting, colors, names, formulas and lot more from Excel 2007 documents. (Details Here)

Sheet Protection:

Owner of the sheet can choose to protect the sheet so that only the collaborators can edit the sheet with the permission of the owner. (Details Here)

Other Features:

Docs also provide many other features which include google search integration,  treasures and dictionary support, auto save option, slide zooming, analytics tracking on spreadsheets, scientific notations, engineering functions, custom colors and lot more powerful features. (Details Here) .

Office Web Apps Features:

Web apps will be made to work seamlessly with the desktop  clients, and the online storage space will be managed through Sky Drive. It is a probability that microsoft might introduce advertising to the online free service of the web apps.

Real Time Collaboration:

Developers are doing their best to insure that users of web apps can collaborate on any document with many users connected to it simultaneously. This feature will be very interesting as this is not seen by many people anywhere before. A rich text editor in the form of word or powerpoint and multiple users working on single document.

Behind the Firewall:

Microsoft has special offerings for enterprise use of the product.  First is that web apps will be available as part of Microsoft online services. Second offer will allow companies to host the web app on their own server on top of microsoft sharepoint. These are very attractive offers for companies which think that cloud applications are not meant for them.

Conclusion:

Clearly Google Docs stand strong at now because of its non stop service for few years and its rich useful features. Unfortunately there is nothing to test Office web apps currently but time will tell if web apps will be dominating the online market of document world.

Word:

Powerpoint:

Excel:

Onenote: