Create a secret partition in pen drive.

In this post, you will come to know about how to create a secret partition in pen drive. With the growth of computer and technology we are now almost alienated to the use of floppy disc as a mode of transferring data. It was replaced by CDs and DVDs a long time back. But it seems that even these are not handy enough to carry our important data. There comes the pen drive, a very small and portable device that can carry a huge amount of data in our pockets.

Pen drives come in different sizes and shapes and mostly weigh around 20 gms. The data storage capacity of a pen drive can vary from 2 GB to 32 GB. But the disadvantage of a pen drive is that it does not come with partition. There is even no option of partitioning a pen drive. Our laptops or computers recognize it only as a removable device. But there is a secret way of partitioning a pen drive. But before proceeding you are required to create a set of drivers of your own. This process will help you to create a number of partitions where you can keep your personal data away from your near and dear ones with whom you often share your pen drive to share data. Moreover, it will also protect your data from getting affected by viruses while plugging in on another PC. Following are the steps using which you can simply create a secret partition in your pen drive:

First you need to have a common USB pen drive driver. You can download it from http://www.mediafire.com/?oqlgdvcymzz. You need to download the archive and after uncompressing it, keep it saved into a folder on your desktop and start working. Remember to keep the contents in your pen drive as backup as it will help to format it.

1. Connect your pen drive which you want to part with your PC via USB port. Now right click on ‘My Computer’ and then ‘Manage’ on the Context menu. Next you need to click on the ‘Device Manager’ on the left of the screen. It will display the list of hardware devices which are connected to your PC at that time. Then scroll down to ‘Disk Drives’ at the right side of the window where you can see the pen drive is connected. Right click on the pen drive and select ‘Properties’.

2. Click on ‘Details’ tab in ‘Properties’. Choose ‘Device Instance Path’ from the scroll down menu. Here you can see a list of highlighted characters in the window named ‘Value’ below that should be like ‘USBSTORDISK&VEN_&PROD…’. Now right click on the value and select ‘Copy’ and close the window without changing the savings.

3. Now open the uncompressed folder that you saved on your desktop at the very beginning. Here you need to find and open the file named ‘cfadisk.inf’ in Notepad or other text editor like Notepad++ according to your choice.

4. Now you have to search for the words ‘device_instance_id_goes_here’ that can be available on the 26th line. Replace those words with the string copied by you from the Device Manager to the clip board. Finally save the file and close the editor.

5. Now repeat the first step i.e. going back to the ‘Device Manager’ but this time you have to click on ‘Driver’ tab and then the ‘Update Driver’ button.

6. Now select ‘Browse my computer to drive software’ in the next window once the system asks for the way you want to look for the driver software. Then select ‘Let me pick from a list of drivers…’ on the next window.

7. Uncheck the ‘Show compatible hardware’ box and click on the ‘Have disk’ button on the next window. Now click ‘Browse’ and select ‘cfadisk.inf’ file from the universal USB driver that was saved on the desktop earlier. Now click on ‘Open’, ‘OK’ and ‘next’ button respectively on the previous window.

8. Here you should get an update driver warning message saying that the driver you are trying to install is not compatible with the hardware. Click ‘Yes’ ignoring the message. The installation process of the driver will start at once. Another warning message will be displayed saying that the driver is not authentic or verified. Ignore the message again and click on ‘Install this driver software anyway’. System will update the driver and you should get a message of a successful installation of the driver.

Note: This modified drive can be used in this pen drive only. For another pen drive the entire process should be performed gain.

9. After completing the entire process once you come back to the ‘Computer Management’ window, you need to click on the ‘Disk Management’ on the left panel and start the partitioning process in your pen drive as you do the same in your regular hard disk. You may create multiple partitions and format them.

Note: You can access all the partitions created by you in your pen drive only from your PC. The other PCs can see only the first partition. You can copy the driver into the first partition of your pen drive and install it into the other PCs if you want to access it from other computers.
To delete the partitions and reset the pen drive just delete the partitions and completely uninstall the driver from the Device Manager for that pen drive

9 Alternative Ways To Access Blocked Sites

1. Using IP Instead of URL

   This depends on the software/application used. Sometimes blocked sites are stored as a list of URLs (eg. www.yahoo.com, www.donwload.com,etc) and typing the IP instead of the URL might sometimes work. In a local computer, doing a ping domain.com command in Command Prompt (Mac users use Terminal) will return you the IP address. You can also do it online via www.whatsmyip.org
   

2. Redirection with Short URL service

   Sometimes the URL you intend to browse might be ban, but converting them to another a shorter URL with short URL services might just help you to bypass the settings.
   Here’s 2 Short URL service we’ve previously mentioned – MooURL, SnipURL
   

3. Google Cache

   Search engines like Google and Yahoo cache webpages and these cached pages are stored in search engines themselves, which likely will be added to the blocked list. Click on the ‘cache’ will bring you to a cache version of the page, as updated as how Google caches it.
   
   

4. Internet Archive – Wayback Machine

   Wayback Machine is a internet service that periodically keeps a copy of almost all websites in the Internet way from the date they’re started. Clicking on the latest copy of what Wayback Machine have should be somewhat similar to the real site. Another way to access blocked sites via caches.
   
   

5. Anonymous Surfing

   Some site allows you to take advantage of their proxy or domain to surf other sites as anonymous. Here’s 90+ proxy websites we’ve previously mentioned.
   More anonymous surfing services: 90+ Proxy Websites To Access Blocked Websites
   

6. Use Proxy in Browsers

   There are tons of sites out there that distributes free proxies of almost any country. Here’s an example. Check out the following methods on how/where to insert proxies in your web browsers.
   Proxy Surfing – Firefox
   
   Under Advanced tab, select Network tab, then click inside Connection Settings. Select Manual proxy configuration, put proxy under HTTP proxy.
   Proxy Surfing – Internet Explorer
   
   Go to Tools -> Internet Options. Select Connections tab. Click into LAN Settings, check Proxy Server. Insert your proxy URL inside Address.
   

7. Bypass with Translations services

   Online translation services like AltaVista BabelFish, Google Translate allows you to translate a website from one language to another and display the translated results on their own page.The trick here is to enter the URL (website you’re blocked), retranslate it even if you don’t need to and let Google or AltaVista fetch you the content.
   

8. Subscribe to RSS Feed

This might not work for all sites, but if the site you intended to visit provides RSS feeds, you can subscribe and read it with a RSS reader, or have it regularly send the contents to your email


9. Retrieve web pages via Email

Web2Mail is a free service that sends websites you want to read right into your inbox. All you need to do is send an email to www@web2mail.com with the URL as subject title.

 

Top 10 Windows 8 tips and tricks

Customize your tiles

Make the most of your Windows Start screen tiles by adjusting the sizes, where they are located, and what is listed.

• Move any tile by clicking and dragging the tile. While moving a tile, if you need a larger view of the Start screen move the tile towards the top or bottom of the screen to zoom out.
• Use your mouse wheel to scroll left-to-right through your tiles.
• Any Desktop shortcut or program can be pinned to the Start screen by right-clicking the icon and choosing Pin to Start.
• In the bottom right-hand corner of the start screen is a magnifying glass with tiles, click this icon to get a zoomed out view of your Start screen. In this view, if you right-click on a group of tiles you'll be given the option to name group, which can be useful if you have a group of related tiles (e.g. games). In this view, you can also click and drag a group to organize your tile groups.
• Create a new speed bump between tile groups by moving a tile to a speed bump.
• Resize any User tile or Live tile by right-clicking the tile and choosing resize.
• If there is a tile you want on your Taskbar, right-click the tile and choose Pin to taskbar.
• Show admin applications on the Start screen by clicking Settings in Charms, click Settings, and change the Show administrative tools from No to Yes.
• In Internet Explorer 10, you can also pin any of your favorite web pages to your Start Screen.

Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts

Knowing at least some of the Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts will make your Windows 8 experience much more enjoyable. Try to memorize these top Windows 8 shortcut keys.

• Press the Windows key to open the Start screen or switch to the Desktop (if open).
• Press the Windows key + D will open the Windows Desktop.
• Press the Windows key + . to pin and unpin Windows apps on the side of the screen.
• Press the Windows key + X to open the power user menu, which gives you access to many of the features most power users would want (e.g. Device Manager and Command Prompt).
• Press the Windows key + C to open the Charms.
• Press the Windows key + I to open the Settings, which is the same Settings found in Charms.
• Press and hold the Windows key + Tab to show open apps.
• Press the Windows key + Print screen to create a screen shot, which is automatically saved into your My Pictures folder.

See our Windows shortcuts page for a full listing of all Windows shortcuts.

Know your hot corners

The corners on your screen are hot corners and give you access to different Windows features. Below, is a brief explanation of each of these corners.

Bottom Left-hand corner

The bottom left-hand hot corner of the screen will allow you to access the Start screen, if you're in the Start screen and have the Desktop open, this corner will open the Desktop from the Start screen.

Tip: Right-clicking in the left hand corner will open the power user menu.

Top-left corner of the screen

Moving the mouse to the top-left corner and then down will display all the apps running on the computer. Clicking and dragging any of these apps to the left or right-hand side of the screen will snap that app to that side of the screen. Each of these open app icons can also be right-clicked to close or snap.

Right-hand side of the screen

On the full right-hand side of the screen will be given access to the Windows Charms.

Taking advantage of search

The Search in Windows 8 has been significantly improved when compared to all previous versions of Windows. To search for a file or run a program in Windows 8 from the Start screen just start typing what you're trying to find or want to run.

As you begin typing, the results will start appearing on the left-hand side. In addition to being able to search for files and run programs, the Search also supports limiting the search to apps such as Finance, People, Maps, Photos, Mail, Music, Videos, Weather, and much more. If what you are searching for is not a file or program, click on the app you wish to use as the search. For example, if you were searching for "New York" and selected the Weather App you would be shown the weather in New York, NY.

By default, Search organizes the available Apps by how frequently they are used and then in alphabetical order. If you want to keep your favorite app at the top of the Search list, right-click the app and choose Pin. Pinning the app will lock it in place regardless of how often it is used. If there is an app you don't want (e.g. Finance) you can turn on and off any of the search apps through the PC settings, which is found under the Settings in the Charms.

Bonus tip: The Search is also found through Charms and can also be opened by pressing Windows key + F.

Running two apps side by side

Any app can be pinned to the left or right-hand side of the screen. For example, open the People app and then press the Windows Key + . (period) to move that app to the right-hand side of the screen, pressing the same keys again will move it to the left-hand side, and pressing the same keys again will make it full screen. While an app is pinned, any other app or program can be opened and loaded into the available space on the screen. For example, in the below picture, we've opened a browser window and have the People app running to monitor our social networks.

Any open app can also be pinned using your mouse by clicking at the top of the tile and dragging it to the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Bonus tip: The Desktop can also be pinned to the left or right-hand side of the screen.

Note: In order for snap to work properly your resolution must be at least 1,366 x 768.

Windows 8 Task Manager

The Windows 8 Task Manager has been significantly improved over previous versions of Windows. Some of the new changes include showing a total percent usage at the top of your Processes, which makes it easier to determine total memory and CPU usage, improved Performance graphs, a Startup tab to see startup processes and their impact to system performance, and the App history tab (as shown below) that gives you the total resources an app has used over a period of time. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to start exploring the new Task Manager.

Use a picture password to log into your computer

Windows 8 includes a new feature called Picture password, which allows you to authenticate with the computer using a series of gestures that include circles, straight lines, and taps. Enable this feature if you want a new way to access your computer or have a hard time with passwords.

1. Open the Windows Charms.
2. Click Settings and then More PC settings
3. In the PC settings window click Users and then select Create a picture password

Bonus tip: A four digit pin password can also be created and used to access your computer.

Take advantage of Windows 8 apps

Windows 8 comes included with several apps to help you get the most from your computer. Below are just a few of the included apps.

People

Microsoft touts the People feature in Windows 8 because they understand how many people are using social networks today. In the People feature you'll be able to connect your Windows computer to all the major social networks including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Once connected, you can pin the people app and monitor your social network (as shown below), use People in Search to find people, and get an overview of what is happening in all your social networks.

Reader

The Reader app will give you PDF support right out of the box.

SkyDrive

The SkyDrive app will give you access to the Microsoft cloud service SkyDrive, which allows you to store your photos, documents, and other files in the cloud and access or share those files with any computer with Internet access.

Store

Take advantage of the Windows Store and install one or more of the thousands of available apps designed for Windows 8. The Store is found in the Start screen, or use Search to search the Store app for any apps that you are trying to find.