With today’s Beta launch Boxee aims to enter newer territories with the launch of a dedicated Boxee Box in partnership with D-Link. What’s more important is a totally revamped and redesigned interface for Boxee, that makes using it even more fun. The UI changes aren’t the only changes though, Boxee beta brings about many major under the hood changes that will allow for less resource intensive playback of your media.

Boxee for Windows will shift from using the OpenGL graphics engine to DirectX runtime, along with support for Nvidia’s cheaper but faster Graphics chips. I believe these are major steps for Boxee, because for so long it has remained in the confines of Mac and AppleTV users, with Windows/Linux Adoption being almost negligible.

Before I tell you about the Dedicated Boxee box, lets have a sneak peak into the new Beta interface. And I have to say the new UI is a marked improvement over the old one, and I can’t wait for the nice people at Boxee HQ to give me access to the beta

This is the new Home screen. The most visible change is the shifting of the navigation from Left to top center. Along with it comes a new centralized hub for all your content. You can now see recommendations from friends on Boxee, Facebook or Twitter (via RSS feeds), recommendations from Boxee’s staff and partners (Featured) and the latest episodes from your favorite shows or things you’ve saved for later (Queue).

The new global menu, makes Navigation even more easier than it was before. This menu makes it easy to access helpful resources (TOP – Logout, Settings, Now Playing, Queue, Feed, History), the main menu (MIDDLE – Photos, Music, Movies, Home, TV Shows, Apps, Files) and shortcuts (BOTTOM) to your favorite Apps, TV Shows, Movies, or folders. This has to be my favorite new feature of the Boxee Beta. Makes me feel that the old navigation was boring and slow!

The screenshots above show the new TV Shows Library and Photos in action. The new sidebar on the left, makes searching/sorting etc. even more easier than it was before.

The New Boxee makes sharing even more fun and easier. After all the entire Boxee experience is a social experience. So now you’re gonna have an endless amount of media to consume thanks to your friends.

At the heart of the new Boxee is the Queue that runs thorough out the software. As you browse your library, you can continuously queue up items. So the next time you don’t have to remind yourself that you wanted to catch up with the latest episode of “How I Met Your Mother”!

There’s a lot more that’s changed in Boxee beta, which I can’t talk about, because I don’t have direct access to the Beta. But looking from the screenshots already posted on the internet, I’m already in love with the new Boxee.

Now coming to the Boxee Box from D-Link, here’s what Senior Marketing Executive Daniel Kelley at D-Link had to say :

“By pairing Boxee’s innovative social entertainment platform with D-Link’s technology we’re able to create a solution that introduces people to what TV should be. Additionally we’re bringing a new level of social interaction to the living room.”

The Boxee Box will have HDMI, SPDIF and RCA Audio connections, Plus two USB ports and it will work on both 802.11N. The price isn’t known yet, nor are the other technical details. What we all know is that Boxee will debut it during at the CES 2010. However rumors point to sub $200 price point which I believe will be very attractive to many home users.

Looks like 2010 will be the year when Digital Media finally makes the transition into our Living rooms. Thanks to Boxee, this is a space that we are all excited going into 2010.

Image Credit : Phil Campbell | Screenshots via Boxee Blog

But to fret no more, the built in Windows Media Center can also do the same, thanks to a third party app that lets you download Trailers from iTunes and other websites, Media Info, High Quality pictures etc.

To begin with download MediaBrowser, and install it on your PC. Once you are done, fire it up and you should be looking at a screen like the one shown below.

Add the required folders to your media collection, and Media Browser should then do all the dirty work for you. Alternatively you can also add/configure various plugins for Media Browsers. To do select the plug-ins tab.

There’s also advanced configuration options that lets you personalize your Media Center experience. For more of this, click the advanced option in Media Browser

All said and done, start Windows Media Center and select “Media Browser” from the home screen.

Windows Media Center should now be presenting you, your entire media library in its full glory. Click around to enjoy.

What do you think of Media Browser? Finally I believe that Boxee has a decent competitor but yes the Social features of Boxee will be hard to replicate. For those of you who enjoy Media Center already, Media Browser is a worthy extension to your Movie Watching experience.

Image Credit : lanuiop | Via : Addictive Tips & Announcement on Official Blog

Till date Firefox along with FEBE satisfied all my needs, but doing backups using FEBE wasn’t easy and had its own share of disadvantages. Also over the years Chrome, Safari also have started to contribute quite a lot to my browser share. So what do I do?

I download and run the portable app FavBackup on my machine. In short this is what FavBackup does:

FavBackup is a simple solution for you to backup and restore web browser settings and other data on Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000 systems. No installation required.

FavBackup supports IE 6-8, Firefox 2-3.5, Opera9 or 10, Safari 3 or 4, Google Chrome 1-4, Flock 2.0-2.5.

Here are some screenshots of FavBackup in action :

See how simple FavBackup makes the process of doing browser backups? So the next time you reinstall Windows, or accidently delete some data, FavBackup will always be there for you. In its current incarnation here are some of the known bugs in FavBackup.

• General: Restoring backups directly from DVD/CD drive can give error. Copy backup to your PC first.
• Windows XP: When using low screen resolution, scrollbars might appear.

Download FavBackup | Image Credit : John Loo | Via HowtoGeek

In short the Inspiron Zino HD is a small PC that packs quite a punch in an 8” by 8” square. And the best part is that it’ll make an awesome device to have in your living room. So what does the Zino HD come with?

Well for starters, it comes with tons of customization options on the Hardware configuration just as you’d expect otherwise from Dell. The base model starts at 299$ and here is what the PC comes with (or can be configured with)

• It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit or Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
• You can customize the PC with 7 solid colors.
• You can customize the PC with 3 designs.
• The Inspiron Zino HD uses AMD’s Athlon processor (single or dual core).
• The base configuration is 3GB of RAM, but can be configured with 4, 6, and 8GB of RAM with 8GB being the max.
• Storage shouldn’t be a problem with your choice of 500GB, 640GB, 750GB, or 1TB 7200rpm SATA hard drives.
• You can choose either a DVD +/- RW drive or Blu-ray drive.
• For graphics, you can choose either an integrated ATI Radeon HD3200 or discrete ATI Radeon HD 4330 with 512MB of dedicated memory.
• It has HDMI and VGA ports.
• A 4-in-1 media card reader and integrated gigabit Ethernet are both standard.
• It has integrated 2.1 High Definition audio with the choice of going with a Sound Blaster X-Fi High Definition audio from Creative.
• For your wireless needs, you can choose either a Dell 1397 802.11 b/g wireless card or Dell 1520 802.11 b/g/n wireless card.

What Makes the Inspiron Zino HD the best choice for a Home Media Center?

• Extremely good storage options.
• Connectivity through HDMI will allow you to connect to HDTV.
• Good expandable options, so you can easily connect a TV Tuner card, to record TV.

And with the upcoming Boxee for Windows which will be on the same level as Boxee for Mac/Linux in the coming few months. However the upcoming Boxee box is also something I’m looking forward to.

But the Inspiron Zino HD is just too irresistible for my tastes and would love to own one of these cute PC’s to have in my living room. Wish Dell just had a nice little remote to give like the Apple Remote!

For more of Dell Inspiron Zino HD, have a look at this picture stream on Flickr.

But the one thing that I didn’t like about Connectify is its interface. It just doesn’t blend with the interface of Windows7. Have a look at the screenshot below that shows Connectify in action :

What Connectify does is create a Virtual WiFi connection that anyone can connect to, just as it were a access point. Today I came across another app called Virtual Router that does the same job, but albeit in a much more intuitive way.

To start just install the app and fire it up. Enter the name for the network, a password and choose the connection you want to share and just hit start Virtual Router. And moments later you should have an active Wireless network you can share.

Virtual Router is Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 only, because only they have the new built in Wireless Hosted Network(a.k.a Virtual WiFi) technology. It uses WPA2 Encryption for ensuring security and this encryption cannot be turned off.

How is Virtual WiFi different from Ad-Hoc? Ad-Hoc is best suitable if you are connecting two computers and can be used to share files, while tools such as Connectify and Virtual Router allow you to share the internet connection with multiple number of computers.

Sidenote : Mac OS.X has had this feature built in for many years now.

Download Virtual Router [Microsoft CodePlex] | Image Credit : Roger Bits

XP Quick Fix Plus is a tiny portable application that provides fixes to 40 common Windows XP problems. Its Portable, small and fast, and is a must have on every computer.

The essential thing to be noted here is that the application is all about registry fixes since on Windows majority of the problems arise in the registry. However I suggest you create a system restore point before you proceed with any of the fixes.

What if there is no way for you to run XP Quick Fix Plus from Windows or if you need to run the fix from a batch file or script? There’s a small (~38KB) batch script that provides some of the most common fixes like :

• QFC /t – quick enable the Task Manager
• QFC /r – quick enable the Rgistry Editor
• QFC /f – quick enable the Folder Options
• QFC /e – quick restore the Run Dialog
• QFC /p – quick restore My Computer Properties
• QFC /x – Quick fix Windows can’t run exe files

So essentially XP Quick Fix Plus is a tiny and portable application that does its job perfectly well. A must have for any Windows XP user.

Download XP Quick Fix Plus | Via Download Squad | Image Credit : gui.tavares

There seem to be guides all over the internet, that allow you to create your own Bootable Windows7 Installation on a Pen Drive. Whilst not overly complicated, these methods have enough of nonsense to scare the beginners away.

So read on to find out how you can install Windows7 on your computer using a USB Pen Drive, without all the pain of burning DVD’s etc…

Lets get started then, here are the requirements before we proceed :

• A Windows7 ISO Image (Any Version will do)
• UltraISO (It isn’t free, but the trial version is sufficient for this guide)
• A 4+ GB Pen Drive

Let’s begin then..

1. Download and Install UltraISO (Free Trial)
2. Plug in the pen drive into your PC, and backup everything that you need from the Pen Drive, because all the existing data will be wiped off the pen drive.
3. Start UltraISO, navigate to File->Open and locate the ISO image of Windows 7 and open it.
4. In the local tab located at the bottom left, select your USB Drive. (Double check to make sure this is the drive you want to make bootable)
5. Now click Bootable->Write Disk Image from the Menu
6. In the dialog box that appears, click Write to write the image onto the USB pen drive. (Optionally you can also check Verify, this will check the data written for any errors)
7. Wait it for it to complete, and congratulations you’ve just created a bootable Windows7 Installation using USB Pen Drive.
8. Restart your computer and press F2/F9 while booting up, to boot from the Pen Drive and proceed to install Windows7 just like you’d do otherwise using a DVD.

[Bonus]

Want an even easier solution to install Windows7 using your USB Pen Drive. Go ahead and grab a copy of WinToFlash. Extract the contents of the Zip Archive and open WinToFlash.exe. You should now see a screen as shown..

Click the “Huge” Windows Setup Transfer Wizard and you should now see something like this. Enter the appropriate details and bang you can create the bootable disk in less than a couple of simple steps.

Yes it really was that simple to create your own Windows7 Installation Pen Drive! Drop in your comments and let us know if this Hack Attack worked for you

Photo Credit : Molotalk & bfishadow | Downloads :  WinToFlash & UltraISO

Via DotNetWizard & Raymond CC

Though it borrows some cues from OS X, am a big fan of the new taskbar, and feel that Microsoft finally has the best solution to managing multiple windows on a clutter free taskbar.

However there are people who wish to tweak this taskbar according to their own wish and desires.. If you are one of those, then 7 Taskbar Tweaker is worth a look.

7 Taskbar Tweaker, allows you to tweak the various aspects of the Windows7 Taskbar, in a simple and effective way. Some of the features of this small and useful tool is :

• Show standard window menu on right click instead of jump list.
• Close or focus a window on middle click instead of running a new instance.
• Disable grouping of windows by file path or application id.
• Cycle through windows of a grouped button on left click instead of showing a thumbnails preview.
• Open with while dropping a file on a taskbar button instead of pinning.
• Disable thumbnail previews.

Go ahead, and download 7 Taskbar Tweaker if you wish to tweak the tiny details of your Windows7 Taskbar.

Photo Credit : Steve Punter | Download 7 Taskbar Tweaker

As someone who cleans up a lot of new laptops, PC Decrapifier has been a trusted helper for a long time to me.

A couple of days back version 2.0 of PC Decrapifier was released. With the older versions it took some time for new crapware to be added into the PC Decrapifier database, since it was first polled in the forums and then manually added..

Here’s what the developer of PC Decrapifier, Jason had to say about the new version :

Short term, you’ve got a faster, more stable application, but release doesn’t bring you much in the way of removal updates. There are a couple more icons and startup entries though. However, with this re-write I’m able to put together updates much more quickly. So now that the major work is done, you will start to see this application updated more frequently.

So with the new versions you should be seeing updates more frequently, which is a good thing as far as removing crapware goes..

Here’s a screenshot of PC Decrapifier in action :

Currently Decrapifier can remove common bloatware like McAffee, Norton, and Office 2007 trials, several Roxio, Sonic, and Corel apps, and even AOL software. If you’re the "guy who is the comp geek," be sure to keep Decrapifier with you always for quick, automated removal tasks.

I am sure a lot of your friends will thank you for decrapifying there PC..

Photo Credit: Editor B