How to customize the right click (context) menu in Firefox

After using Google chrome for a while, where drag and drop links were not yet available, I returned to Firefox and found myself using right click followed by “open in new tab” in the right click menu to open links in new tabs. However, unlike chrome, where that is the first option, I found myself unwittingly clicking on the first option in the right click menu of  Firefox which was to “open in new window”. Thats really annoying when you don’t want multiple windows open.

Furthermore, a lot of firefox plugins add unwanted selections to the menu and it becomes a pain in the  ~’@? to find what you actually need.

So , i decided to find something to customise my right click menu.

Thats how I found the Menu Editor plugin:

After install, you may access the options through the addon options from the addon menu, or simply press ctrl+shift+s to bring it up.

Simply choose the mu you want to edit and untick, those option you do not wish to appear. As you can see below, I`ve unticked “open link in new window”

…and hey presto, the link is gone from the context menu , and the first option is “open link in new tab”, just like I wanted it.

This is one reason I keep coming back to Firefox, Chrome just doesnt allow a similar degree of customisation just as yet.

Install multiple freeware applications with a single installer - Ninite

 

Ever had to install many applications one after the other on a PC? Maybe when you re-installed Windows or shifted to a new laptop. Then you would know how time and labour consuming it is.

Now there’s a solution – a website called Ninite. It lists some of the most commonly used freeware applications on a well designed page, including web browsers, Instant messaging applications, media players, image and document editors and viewers, runtime and antivirus software, file sharing and other utilities. All you have to do is select all the programs you wish to install and click on the “Get Installer”  button at the bottom.

You will then get a single installer, for all the applications you chose. Simple but oh so useful! Brilliant.

How to download and keep BBC iplayer video files DRM free

As you may be aware BBC iplayer is a fantastic way to catch up on programmes that have already been shown on any of the BBC channels. However, the video files will disappear from the player days after you first watch it. In short they are DRM files and it doesn’t allow you to save the files.

I may often like a program but be unable to watch it for a long time and by the time I get around to it, it may no longer be available to watch. I was thus looking for a solution to download the files and keep it for as long as I want and I came across this great solution. Its called as ipdl.exe and according to a video on youtube comes from Paul Battley from www.po-ru.com. So all credits to him.

All you got to do is download   and double click it to run. It presents you with an interface which asks you for the program ID. Now head over to the BBC iplayer and navigate to the program you wish to download.

Now copy the address as seen in the URL bar:

and paste it in the ipdl program ID box and click download. It then asks you where to save the video and gives it the default name of the programme. Once thats done, you are on..it downloads it..and its fast.

The file is saved as a quicktime (.MOV) file which you may then view with Quicktime or another media player such as VLC video player.

Fantastic, works like a dream !!Thanks Paul Battley .

How to choose a laptop – use Windows PC Scout

Thinking of buying a new laptop but confused by the amazing selection out there? Wish someone would just recommend the perfect laptop for you? Here`s just the tool you need – from Microsoft -  Windows PC scout

Once you get started, a screen pops up which takes you through a long and boring introduction about the whole process and what it will take you through.

You then have a choice depending on what level of user you are to go through more explanatory basics or go to the end, if you really are the confused lot, click “Start it”.

The wizard then asks you questions on how you intend to use your laptop etc. At each step, it offers an explanation of the component basics which you may choose to skip.

Finally it asks you to choose your screen size, which may be one of the most important user choices.

and finally it summarises what specification it recommends for your needs.

and based on the budget you choose and the above specification comes up with the top recommendations, which you can then compare.

Of course you could skip the wizard and use the sliders seen on the left in the above screen to choose your own specifications. If you`d rather do that straight away, just skip everything else and go Here.

All in all I`d say its a useful tool to get the topmost laptops recommended by Microsoft, it still doesn’t include the rest of the choices though.

Tonights gonna be a good night

I heard the song – I got a feeling that tonights gonna be a goodnight on X-factor and wondered who sang it. Of course I`m not up to date with the music scene. Anyway, it turns out that the Song is -

"I Gotta Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas. Here is an embedded video of the same:

Of course you can also listen to it by searching for it on Spotify. If you havent started using Spotify I suggest you try it out. Its amazing and free!.

Also available on iTunes.

Best Free Anti virus / Anti malware – Microsoft Security Essentials

Anti virus has always been a problem with me, Initially I depended upon the dependable AVG antivirus until it let me down on a couple of occasions. I then migrated to using 3 and 6 month trial versions of some very good anti virus and anti malware packages such as Kaspersky and Avira. However, it would always be a frantic search at the end of the trial period to unearth another trial offer to cover my computers security…The truth is I`m cheap and hate having to pay for an antivirus which I believe should be in built into the operating system.

I think Microsoft is coming around to the same idea and thats why it now ships with a sloppy Windows Defender antivirus. However, lately it has begun to take pride in what it is doing and as a result Microsoft Security Essentials emerged.

I must say that initially I had my apprehensions about this package. So as my former antivirus was expiring, I decided to try MSE out. As soon as you install it, the software intergrates with your computer and dowloads the latest definitions before it does a quick scan of your system. It wasnt ultra quick but it wasnt bad either…but was it good?

Oh yes this thing is good. It detected two trojans and the remnants of a hidden Keylogger that was on one of my PCs which didn not have any protection on it. The key logger I had installed myself and had believed I uninstalled !! MSE removed all of them effortlessly.

Once you finish the quick scan, you have the option of doing a full detailed scan which will be more thorough. You can also ask the program to do scheduled scans at selected times and dates. Updates though are automatic.

What impressed me most though was the small footprint it left. The memory consumption on my laptop never went above 6000K and when running in the background stays at around 2500k or lower.

Even while running a full scan, it remains unobtrusive, just how Microsoft intended it to be.

So far this is great and it remains as the only antivirus on both my laptop and my desktop. I`ll let you know if that changes. If you are looking for a the best free antivirus / antimalware package, get it from here.

Use Fences to Manage your Desktop

If you, like me have trouble managing the clutter of files and folders accumulating on your desktop, do yourself a favour and install Fences. Fences is free and comes from the makers of Objectdock. Fences allows you to  create fences on your desktop and organise files within. Well, it can also automatically sort the files for you. You can drag and drop files into the fences, create or modify the size or color of the  fences and scroll within fences. I  just installed it and I must say I`m very impressed. Here`s a video of its demo:

Best Completely Free Photo Sharing / Hosting Site - Zooomr

I`ve so far been hosting and sharing my pictures on Flickr. Without doubt, Flickr is the best site to host and share your photos if you are into photography. Some of the features that set it apart are the ability to share your photos in different sizes, the brilliant Flickr communities and groups, and its interoperability and outreach with a host of other sites and applications, ranging from mobile phones to social networking sites. If I had a choice, I`d stick with Flickr year after year, but there's a con. For unlimited capacity for uploading and sharing, one has to have a paid account, and it comes at $24 per year. That's only about £15 and well worth it, but I just taken the decision to return and settle in India and I have no Idea what awaits me there...and with a membership costing more than Rs 1100, i have to reconsider my options.

And so I began my search, I came across several sites which professed to be free, but they all had restrictions on upload capacity per month (picasa, smugmug, photobucket etc). However I soon found one that appeared to be truly free – Zooomr

..and whats more, Zooomr is a clone of flickr, intergrating most of flickr’s best features into it …albeit a bit clumsily. I would say Zooomr feels like the poor man’s Flickr!

Signing up for Zoomr is easy enough, but what I found most annoying was that there was no demo or FAQ section explaining what exactly Zoomr is about and what its restrictions are.

Once I signed up and logged in, I was presented with a clunky, cluttered interface which threw too many things at me. They call it a zipline, and it presents an update on all your contacts in Zooomr. I hated the dull blue colour of the header too.

 

The problem was the owners were automatically in my zipline, and I couldnt figure out how to get rid of them for a while. Finally I discovered that I could do so by placing my cursor on their name, which brings up an option to unfollow them. Coming from a very professional Flickr interface I initially found Zooomr unimpressive. Well, once you get the hang of it and you accept that it all comes free Zooomr starts to gain on you.

Once that was done, my next aim was to upload a few photos. This was simple enough as the “upload” link above the page took me to the web upload page. That was when I realised that Zooomr did not have its own desktop application for uploading multiple images at one go!

But there was a saving grace – a third party application that works with Zooomr called jUploadr which could be accessed from the Zooomr knowledge centre.

Interestingly jUploadr works without even an install and can also handle Flickr accounts. Only that you need to authorise it to your Zooomr account just as you would for flickr. Photos can be dragged and dropped into the uploadr. You can change the preferences to set your photos as public or private, and options to resize it to various sizes before upload.

Once the upload is complete, photos can be seen on your zipline and clicking on an individual image will take you to the photo with a number of options . See the video below for available options.

 

As seen above, the photo may be tagged, geo tagged, allotted a licence and copyright  etc. The Exif information available was indeed impressive, and better that of even Flickr. One noticeable feature is the ability to set a value for your image – right from within Zooomr. Brilliant!

Clicking on the magnifying lens sign above each photo gives you options to download various sizes of it and the code for embedding the photo.

Annoyingly, it doesn’t give the photo’s url, but thats not really a problem as the url can be accessed in other ways.

All in all, as I mentioned before, Zooomr reproduces most of Flickr’s features and even goes one up on it on a few areas. However, one thing I will greatly miss is the Flickr groups . The interface is not to my taste though and sometimes the way it loads is messy and flawed. What zooomr also lacks is the ability to organise photos in bulk as in the flickr organiser.I hope that as Zoomr becomes more popular, it will not only get better but will also have more third party clients and plugins available (eg: for windows live writer or importing photos from flickr etc). Meanwhile while Zooomr tries to figure out if its more of a scoial networking site or a photography site, I`ll stick with flickr until its time to leave.