Resurrect Your PC

I've covered how to speed up Windows by uninstalling most of your programs for these better, free apps. Well, if XP/Vista still just doesn't seem to run fast enough, I've got the solution. BUT BE WARNED: if you don't know what a hardware driver is, don't attempt this. Basically we're going to install a fresh version of XP or Vista that can run on ANY computer.


The bottom line is, over time with use, every computer will begin to slow as you mess it up with your crap.

The process I'm going to walk you through involves erasing your hard drive and installing a fresh copy of Windows XP or Vista. This task isn't as daunting as it sounds. I've done this to over 30 computers in the last year.

Here's the good news: Your computer will run faster than the day you took it out of the box.

There's an amazing group called eXPerience that has created modified, super-fast versions of XP and Vista. They are called TinyXP and TinyVista.

WARNINGS:

• You'll need a 2nd computer to read these directions during the install and possibly to download drivers.
• If your computer (especially laptop) is currently running Vista, don't use TinyXP.
  
• Make sure you really do backup all your crap before starting this, or you're going to cry really hard.
• Unplug all flash drives and external drives before proceeding (you don't want to erase these on accident)
• If you're running multiple OS's or partitions you want to keep, don't delete them in Step 2.
• I don't assume any liability if you have half a brain and mess something up

Step 1: Backup Data and Burn Disk

1. Backup anything you don't want deleted: songs, documents, videos, pictures, bookmarks, etc... If you aren't sure where all your files are, you can use WinDirStat. It lets you visually see what file types are where.
2. Download whichever operating system you want through torrents: TinyXP here or TinyVista here.
3. Burn the operating system image to a CD/DVD. ImgBurn can do that.

Step 2: Install Windows

1. Put your freshly burned disk in your CD drive and reboot your computer
2. Your computer will tell you "Press Enter to Boot from CD...". You only have about 5 seconds to press enter. If you don't get this screen, you need to change your settings so your computer boots from the CDROM before the hard drive. To do this, restart your computer and immediately start pressing F2, F10, the delete key, or TAB. This will take you into the BIOS. Look for the option to change the boot order. Save and Exit.
3. TinyXP users will see a red screen. Choose Option 1.
4. Once TinyXP/TinyVista setup loads, you need to delete your hard drive. If you have multiple hard drives on the list you know you're not keeping delete those too. The process is different depending on the version you're using:

TinyXP users: Press "D", then "Enter", then "L" to delete a hard drive/partition. Then on the Raw Unpartitioned hard drive, press "Enter" then format "NTFS (quick)."
TinyVista users: click "Drive Options (advanced)". Then choose "Delete" on all the hard drives. Once the screen shows you one big raw, unpartitioned hard drive, choose "Format". NTFS (quick) will get the job done nicely.

Step 3: Walk away for at least 30 minutes

No I'm not joking, the installation is "unattended". That means it will install everything automatically after a few reboots and will give you a clean desktop.



Step 4: Finish your installation
This next step requires a bit of patience if this is your first time.

1. Open the Start Menu and go to the Control Panel. Click "User Accounts" and add an account with your name.
2. Click the Start Menu and log out. Sign in under your name.
3. Right-click My Computer and choose "Manage". Click "Local Users and Groups". Open "Users" and right-click "Administrator" then choose "Properties". Check the box next to "Account is disabled"

Here are optional changes that I always make:

1. Right-click the desktop and choose "Properties". Under "Themes" tab, change theme to "RoyaleNoir". Under "Desktop" tab click "Customize Desktop..." and put a check next to "My Documents"
2. Right-click the taskbar (big black/blue bar next to start menu that goes across bottom of screen) and choose "Properties". Put a check next to "Lock the taskbar". Under "Start Menu" tab, choose "Classic Start menu" and then "Customize". Scroll down and uncheck "Show Small Icons in Start Menu"
3. Open Start Menu and delete "Microsoft Update" shortcut with a right-click
4. Open My Computer and click Tools > Folder Options. Choose "Show common tasks in folders" then click the "View" tab. Scroll down and put a check box next to "Show Control Panel in My Computer"
5. Once again, while looking at My Computer, click View > Toolbars > Customize... Click "Map Drive" and remove everything below it on the list except "Views". Under "Icon Options" change the dropdown box to "Large icons"
6. Go to interfacelift.com and download a sweet wallpaper

At a minimum, install these programs (found here): Firefox, SumatraPDF, VLC player, ImgBurn, and MS Office.



Install your missing drivers:
Please don't search google for "driver download" or you're going to immediately trash your computer with things like Driver Detective, DriversKit, etc...

1. To find which one's TinyXP/Vista didn't install, right-click My Computer and choose "Device Manager"
2. Anything with a yellow exclamation mark needs attention. Most often these will be modems or video cards
   
3. Go to your computer manufacturer's website and look for a support/driver link (if your computer doesn't have internet access, you'll need to download ethernet/wi-fi drivers on a 2nd computer)
   
4. Search your computer's model number in their driver section (Dell and Gateway computers typically have a service tag # that makes searching a breeze. Use that.)
   
5. Only download drivers for the devices in the "Device Manager" with yellow exclamation marks

That's it! Your computer is ridiculously fast.

All Your Computer Will Ever Need

Attn Microsoft Users: Many of you have computers with a Start Menu that is as messy as Alex's shirt after dinner. Your computer already came with some retarded programs the manufacturer thought you needed, and then you installed everything else under the sun. Bottom line is, you only need a handful of free top-notch programs. I've been computering for quite some time, and I'd like to make some recommendations:

This is probably one of my biggest complaints about people who don't really know much more than how to check their email. They have 5 programs to burn a DVD, 12 others to watch a movie, and 15 different ones to print.

First, visit your 'Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs' (or 'Programs and Features' for you Vista people) to delete all non-essential programs.

For you Mac/Linux users, I believe the only programs that don't have versions for you are ImgBurn and the security section.

My Start Menu is only 12 objects tall. Sound impossible? Nope. Here's all the software you'll ever need:


CD/DVD Burning: ImgBurn
This amazing little program can burn anything you throw at it: music CD's, movies, CD/DVD images, Blu-ray, HD DVD, etc...


PDF Reader: Sumatra PDF
Are you tired of waiting for Adobe Acrobat Reader to start? This program is ridiculously small and you get you on your way. Just make sure to make it your default PDF reader on first run.


Internet Browser: Mozilla Firefox
This one's a no brainer. Microsoft Internet Explorer just can't do it like Firefox. Firefox browses faster and allows you to install an Add-on for almost anything (AdBlock Plus and Greasemonkey scripts come to mind.)

Video/Audio Playback: VLC
VLC media player will play literally ANY video or music file you can find. You don't have to install anything extra like codecs, ever. It just plain always works.
ps- you can also play DVD's with this thing.

Torrent Downloads: µTorrent
This install is VERY small. When you download torrents it is the simplest and most straight forward. Everything goes your download folder by default.


Archive File Management: 7-ZIP
If you've ever had a ZIP/RAR/ACE/etc... file that you needed opened, you know the headache. If you use 7-ZIP you'll never worry about Window's lack of support. Multi-file RAR packages, Mac-formatted archives, and even ISO images can all be opened.

Edit Pictures: GIMP
Stop trying to bootleg Adobe Photoshop (Blake). Not only is it a pain to circumvent activation technologies, you don't even know how to use Photoshop! Stick with GIMP. It does everything Photoshop does (and even looks like it) and you'll get less of a headache.

Organize Pictures: Picasa
Some of you may hate this program. But, it does its job well and its hard to beat. So, if you're the type than needs help organizing your thousands of photos that you'll never look at, use Picasa.


Word Processing/Presentation/Spreadsheets: Microsoft Office
*Thanks Nate for reminding me of this essential.
When installing PLEASE choose Custom Install and only check the boxes next to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. This is the only one on the list not free (unless your name is Spoon). If you want free, try OpenOffice.org. It does everything Office does.

Music Collection:
iTunes: iPhone and iPod users should just stick to iTunes even though its a resource hog and installs more than you need. But... you can't beat its features and user friendliness.
Songbird: If you don't care about syncing to Apple devices, they you might want to check out Songbird. Its the Firefox of music organizers. You can install many types of Add-ons.

Security:
I personally don't run any Virus or Spyware protection. But, I don't trust the rest of you, so here's the best protection:
AVG Free: Its free and it works better than Norton or McAfee. If you have one of the latter two, delete them! Who wants to know every day they they need to upgrade/purchase a new version (not to mention how slow they make your computer)?

Spybot Search & Destroy: For all those trojans, key-loggers, pop-ups, homepage hijackers, etc... This thing is tried and true.

Ditch the Satellite/Cable

If you have a computer, I will show you how to get rid of your cable/satellite and not miss a thing. You can watch all the TV episodes and movies you want via your hard drive or the internet.
Hopefully you've heard of Boxee by now. Basically its the latest and greatest in multimedia entertainment. Boxee works on PC, Mac, Linux, and AppleTV.


Watch this video:



Here's a few highlights in case you missed it (and Boxee has new stuff since this video):

1. Automatically scans your hard drive and network to add videos
2. Automatically adds artwork, organizes media, and provides info/trailers
3. Streams videos straight from Hulu
4. CBS.com video (including MacGyver, Price is Right, Star Trek, Twilight Zone, etc...)
5. MTV
6. Youtube (which now has select full length movies and TV shows)
   
7. Control it with your remote (ATI Remote Wonder, Logitech, iPhone, etc...)
8. Plays ANY kind of video (AVI, divx, xvid, mkv, mp4, dvd ISO images, etc...)
   
9. *New* Pandora Radio
   
10. *New* Netflix

An much, much more!

If some of you are using Windows Media Center (Vista or XPMCE), the only advantage it has over Boxee is that it can act as a DVR. Other than that, Boxee is the most extensive media center.

I prefer having TV shows and movies downloaded to my hard drive because it loads faster and is organized in one place. In case you forgot, I reviewed how to download TV shows here, and movies here.

Here's how to get Boxee:

• You must first sign up for Boxee over here
• For Macs or Ubuntu Linux, go over to Boxee download and grab the appropriate version
• For appleTV, follow the directions found here. BTW, given the nature of the AppleTV box and cost, this is the easiest Boxee to run.
• Boxee is in closed testing mode for PC users. Fortunately for you, I Spoon have acquired the latest PC Boxee version for you at Rapidshare. You can sign in just fine to Boxee with your newly created Boxee account.

Notes:

• If you have TV episodes downloaded, make sure to format them correctly (Season 2 episode 13 is not good enough. The correct way is: S02E13). Otherwise, Boxee might label some TV shows as movies.
• **Boxee can play dvd's that you have ripped to your computer. I'll post about how to rip movies to your hard drive later.**
• If you have tons of movies/TV shows like I do, it may take a few hours to automatically recognize your library.
  
• Macs run version 0.9.11.5774 and Ubuntu Linux runs version 0.9.11.5777
• Boxee for the PC can sometimes crash unexpectedly more than the Mac/Linux version. That's because its developing slower (version 0.9.9.5324)

Download TV Shows, Pt. 2

I covered earlier how to download TV shows using torrents. If file sharing isn't your cup of tea, I found a blog that posts direct download links to TV shows. If you download shows the night of airing, this method may be faster as you don't have to wait for more people the share the file.

SeriesGringas.us is a blog that posts direct download links to most TV shows. The posts are available immediately after showing.

The files are typically hosted on 3 websites: MegaUpload, HotFile, or NetLoad. MegaUpload seems to be the fastest. For free users, these websites usually require some amount of wait time (45-200 seconds) and only allow 1 download at a time. I usually use MegaUpload and HotFile simulaneously if I'm downloading 2 shows at once (although, lately MegaUpload has not required a wait time and let me download multiple files at once.)

Stalk Your Friends

GoogleMaps 3.0 for mobile phones just came out with a new feature called Latitude. Basically it makes your phone location aware and lets your friends see where you are on a map. If you have never used GoogleMaps on your phone, you're seriously missing out:




GoogleMaps does require an internet connection on your phone. If you don't have internet on your phone plan, you're not a man.

That being said here's some highlights of GoogleMaps Mobile:

• You can use it instead of paper maps. Throw those away!
  
• GPS enabled phones (like some Blackberry's) pinpoint your exact location and provide real-time driving directions. Other phones can get a pretty good idea of where they are.
  
• GoogleLatitude. It connects you and friends to see in real-time where people are.
• Satellite view and StreetView are both included.
• Traffic routing. Avoid traffic jams.
  
• Business listings (like 411)

Before you start complaining about GoogleLatitude and privacy, you can disable it. But it could help you recover your cellphone (read this story). Its primarily meant to be a social networking tool. Either way its worth the test drive on your phone. Go and download it straight to your phone at GoogleMaps Mobile.


ps- for those of you who have Blackberry's without the official Blackberry internet services (like me) let me know and I can help you with an install over your USB cable and computer.

Blake Builds a Computer

As my first post, I'm going to go out on a limb and try to emulate the one and only Spoon. In an effort to honor his extreme and aw-inspiring computer/technology/tin-foil-covered-antennas-on-top-of-rain-tree-to-get-free-HD-season-5-of-24 intelligence, I've decided to build my own computer from the ground up. Here's why:

1. Because we don't have a desktop and my wife has to go to King County Library system to check her e-mail during the day (i take laptop for school)
   
2. Because it is an amazing learning experience
3. Because I'm sick of buying computers with generic components that last shorter than a rally in the stock market. Here's my specs: Gonna be sweet - eta 2 weeks:

Here's the breakdown:

Processor/Motherboard - $280.00 Free Shipping

Case - $70.00 Free Shipping

Memory - $55.00 Free Shipping

Video Card - $32.00 + $7.00 Shipping

Case Fan - 2 x $2.00 + Shipping



Most recent photo of me.....



Hard Drive - $60.00 Free Shipping

CD/DVD Burner - $26.00 Free Shipping

Keyboard & Mouse - $45.00 Free Shipping

Monitor - $175.00 - Free Shipping

Speakers - $90.00 - Free Shipping


TOTAL: $837.00!!! Not bad!

Become a Screener for the Acadamy

The last Hack-of-the-Week showed you how to download and watch your favorite TV shows at whim. Now, you're going to learn how to get movies before they're released on DVD, or possibly even the theater. This is actually amazingly simple.

Important: You need to have uTorrent or Transmission installed and know how to access files you've downloaded with torrents. (If the previous statement confuses you, read steps 1 and 4 on Simplify Your TV Obsession.)


Step One: Add Shortcut

Right-click the picture to your bottom right and choose "Bookmark This Link". Make sure you choose to add the bookmark to your "Bookmarks Toolbar" (its the folder option in the 2nd drop-down box.) If you don't, you'll never remember where you put this bookmark.

Step Two: Become Familiar with VCDQuality

You should be checking VCDQuality everyday to see the releases for the day. Every time you load the page, new posts you haven't seen show up highlighted in red.

You need to become familiar with how the site is setup:

1. The "Type" column shows you what kind of release it is. The only ones you want to download are: DVDRIP, DVDSCR, R5, or WORKPRINT. (If you want to know the difference between these and other types of releases read this.)
   
2. Click and you will be shown an example of how good the video quality is.
3. If you see , the audio and video will be slightly out of sync. If you are using VLC media player you can fix the problem (PC users: "J" and "K" or Mac users: "F" and "G" will adjust the audio forwards or backwards).
4. The symbol tells you how many 700mb CD's the video fits on. This will help you later when determining which torrent to download.
5. The "Rating" column is what users have rated the video's quality. It goes Video/Audio/Content.
6. Use the search box to see if a movie you're interested in has become available. If the only version that comes up is a CAM or TELECYNC, a good quality copy is not available and you just need to wait.
   
   

Step Three: Search Your Movie

Go to ThePirateBay and search 2 things: The name of your movie and the release group.

(For example: I want to search "Scream of the Butterfly" released by the group "EPiSODE". My piratebay search would look like this: "scream butterfly episode")

You will probably get a couple results. You want to download the torrent with the most "SE".

Once the progress bar hits 100% in your torrent program, don't forget to remove it from the list and shutdown the program.

Optional: Watch It on the Big Screen
If your computer doesn't have a 50" plasma hooked to it, you probably are wondering how to watch these movies on your TV. You have 2 options:

1. Use your Xbox 360. Transfer the movie to a flash drive or a blank CD/DVD.
2. Install a program called ConvertXtoDVD and burn the movie in DVD format. Download here or here.
   

Notes:
If you have playback problems, you need to be using VLC media player. All your problems will disappear.

Now I know you're going to ask if this is legal or not. The answer is no, it is not legal. If you're afraid, go ahead and stop. But before you run to your router and rip it out of the wall, consider this: the MPAA only cares about people selling movies or mass distributing them. You're a small fish and the worst they would ever do is send a letter to Comcast telling you to stop. Comcast would then kindly give you a copy of that letter (I've never received one). Better yet, use your neighbor's wireless connection.

Simplify Your TV Obsession

Many of us are watching all sorts of TV shows lately. Its so hard to keep track of what episode we've missed or find the time to watch it. Now you can just download them to watch whenever you want with no commercials.

TV shows are now easier to watch off the internet because its on-demand and there's zero commercials. Unfortunately this can be confusing, especially if your wife tries to download Friday Night Lights Season 3 Episode 6 and cripples your computer with a virus (ask Alex.)

I have perfected the process for you. You won't get any viruses if you stick to my guide (don't get creative.) This will work for Mac's and PC's.

You should be using Firefox no matter what your operating system (you Internet Explorer users, now is your time to repent.) This guide is written assuming you do.


Step One: Install This

• PC users: Click utorrent.com to download necessary software
• Mac users: Click transmissionbt.com to download the necessary software

Install/Run the program.


Step Two: Add Shortcut

Right-click the picture to your right and choose "Bookmark This Link".
Make sure you choose to add the bookmark to your "Bookmarks Toolbar" (its the folder option in the 2nd drop-down box.) If you don't, you'll never remember where you put this bookmark.


Step Three: Search Your Show

Click your freshly made link to eztv.it. Type the show you want see in the search bar.

This is important: The shows are coded in season and episode format. (Ex: Heroes S03E02 stands for season 3, episode 2). Typically there may be 2 listings of the same episode. You want the one that is smaller in size. There's a bunch of columns on the right-hand side of your screen. Look at the column labeled "Size" to figure this out.

Click the title of the episode you want to download.

Make sure you choose to open the file, not save it. After you push "OK," your computer will start downloading the episode with the program you installed earlier (either uTorrent or Transmission.)


Step Four: Watch Your Show

Depending on how new the episode is, your episode will download faster.

Once the progress bar hits 100%:

• PC users: Right-click the episode and click "Open Containing Folder"
• Mac users: Click the magnifying glass on the far right of the episode

You have successfully found your downloaded episode. Now watch it!

This is important: right-click the episode in uTorrent/Transmission and choose "Remove". This will stop you from sharing this file with others. If you skip this part, you will dramatically slow down your internet connection.
In fact, when you're not downloading any episodes, shut down uTorrent/Transmission completely:

• PC users: if the green U next to your clock is still there, uTorrent is still running. Right-click it and choose "Exit"
  
• Mac users: to quit, press Apple+Q
  

Notes:

1. If this doesn't work for you, repeat the steps and read them more carefully.
2. If you don't like this method, you can always visit Hulu or the actual broadcasting website (like ABC) and watch it there.
   
3. Shows typically show up on eztv.it within 2 hours of airing.
4. If you watch some dumb show that isn't on eztv.it, go to thepiratebay.org and type this in the search box: "Show Name S01E01" (obviously you need to edit the search terms appropriately). You want to download the episode that has the highest number of "SE" on the right-hand side of the page.
   
5. If you don't get video (just audio), you need to install this (PC users: XviD/Mac users: DivX)
6. If this still doesn't work for you, go buy a DVR!