How To Search Google From Start Screen In Windows 8/8.1

Without a doubt, Start screen is one of the most talked about and criticized areas of Windows 8 operating system. Even though Microsoft tried to enhance the Start screen with more customization options and even an option to boot directly to the desktop by skipping the Start screen, majority of Windows 8/8.1 users aren’t really satisfied with the Start screen.
A handful number of programs have been released over the last two years to enhance and customize the Start screen. There are programs to show Start screen within the desktop environment, show taskbar at the bottom of the Start screen, pin apps and files to the Start screen, change Start screen background image, set animated wallpaper or video as Start screen background, show dock on the Start screen, and more. Even Microsoft is preparing an update to Windows 8.1 that will add Shutdown and search buttons to the Start screen.

Users who’re using Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 and can’t wait for the official release of Windows 8.1 Update 1 (also known as Windows 8.1 feature pack) can now add power menu and search box to the Start screen by installing a little program called Start Screen Unlimited.

Search Google right from Start screen:

The free version of Start Screen Unlimited adds a little bar to the Start screen that includes search box to search the web using Google search engine (search results will appear in your default web browser), a power button that lets you shut down, hibernate, sleep, or reboot, Control Panel, date and time to the Start screen. Best of all, the Start Screen Unlimited bar can be moved anywhere on the Start screen. In other words, you can place this bar anywhere on the Start screen.


Please note that a paid version of Start Screen Unlimited is also available with 3D menus and automatic update. The free version of Start Screen Unlimited doesn’t include any adware, malware or toolbars and is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 8/8.1 systems.
How to make Windows 8/8.1 look like Windows 7 guide might also interest you.
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EasyUEFI: Edit UEFI Boot Entries In Windows 8.1

When it comes to editing boot entries and managing multi-boot Windows entries, EasyBCD is definitely the best software out there. The EasyBCD software not only enables you easily create and edit boot entries but also lets you perform various other tasks such as backup or repair BCD, create bootable USB, and boot from USB even if your PC doesn’t support it.
If you have purchased a PC in the past two years pre-installed with Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 operating system, your PC likely supports UEFI (see how to check if your PC supports UEFI).

Create and edit boot entries

Even though, our favourite EasyBCD software supports UEFI as well, users who’re experiencing issues with EasyBCD or users who need a free program for commercial use as well now have another similar software to choose from. EasyUEFI, as the name suggest, is a free designed (developed by the maker of the excellent WinToUSB freeware) to help you edit EFI/UEFI entries in Windows operating system.

With EasyUEFI, you can create, edit, backup and restore EFI/UEFI boot entries, specify one-time boot entry for the next restart, and also, change the boot order without having to enter the BIOS setup.
In addition to above mentioned features, EasyUEFI also lets you create a bootable Windows PE image and use the same if your system fails to boot because of a missing or corrupt EFI/UEFI boot entry.

Please note that EasyUEFI must be installed on UEFI based computers only and it doesn’t support BIOS. When you try to install EasyUEFI on BIOS based PCs, you get “EasyUEFI can only install on UEFI-based Windows operating system” error.

Download EasyUEFI

Also note that I haven’t tested this software as I don’t own a UEFI PC. According to the developer, EasyUEFI supports Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 operating systems. We suggest you create a system backup image before altering boot entries, as a corrupt entry might stop your system from booting.
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Download Glary Utilities Free 5.0 To Optimize Windows 7/8

I am not a big fan of system optimization utilities. In fact, I haven’t used a system optimization tool ever since I purchased a new system about three years back. I feel that Windows 7 and Windows 8 don’t require these third-party tools, especially if you know how to keep your Windows optimized with the help of built-in tools.
Having said that, there are plenty of third-party tools out there with various options to clean up your Windows and speed up your PC. There are very few tools that can be trusted and Glary Utilities is one of them. Glary Utilities is one of the first free tools released to optimize Windows and free up disk space. This free tool has been helping Windows users since the days of Windows XP and still one of best free tools available to optimize Windows.

Glarysoft, the maker of Glary Utilities, recently released Glary Utilities Free 5.0 and is now available for download. Glary Utilities Free 5.0 sports a new, easy-to-use interface. As with the case of its previous versions, this version also includes over 20 tools to improve Windows performance by deleting unnecessary files, defragging drive, and optimizing Windows registry.

Glary Utilities Free 5.0

There are tools to repair, defrag, backup and restore Windows Registry, clean up, remove duplicate files, remove empty folders and remove broken shortcuts from your drives, anti-malware to remove malwares, context menu manager to remove unnecessary items from context menu, and also, tool to backup, restore and uninstall drivers. In addition to these tools, there are tools to split files, restore deleted files, check for program updates, shred and encrypt files, and analyse disk space.

The browser assistant is one of the most useful tools included in this software. It lets you remove/delete browser toolbars that have been installed without your knowledge while installing some third-party programs. The hijack restore tool enables you restore your home page, and search engine to their defaults. This browser assistant and hijack restore works with all popular web browsers.

The batch uninstaller in the Uninstall Manger comes in handy when you want to uninstall multiple programs at once. Select the batch uninstaller feature, select the programs that you would like to uninstall and then click uninstall button to begin uninstalling selected applications.

Create Glary Utilities portable

If you want to carry a portable version of Glary Utilities Free on your USB drive, simply click the Menu button and then click Portable Version to launch Glary Utilities Portable Version Maker. It creates a portable version of the software on your desktop and you don’t need to download the same.

Download Glary Utilities

Above all, unlike many other popular free tools, the setup of Glary Utilities Free 5.0 doesn’t offer you install toolbars and other crapware.
Overall, Glary Utilities Free 5.0 is a decent Windows optimization application and packs in tools and features that aren’t available in many paid software. If you’re looking for a free Windows optimization tool, this is the one you should try out first.
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Download Avast Free Antivirus For Windows 7

Antivirus software is one of the first things we all need to install on a new PC in order to secure our PC and data from viruses, trojons, hackers, and other threats. Even though, in a recently published interview, Symantec’s (Symantec is the maker of Norton and McAfee) senior vice president has said that antivirus software “is dead” and antivirus software now catches just about 45% of cyber-attacks, installing a good antivirus software is still a good idea.

When it comes to antivirus, there are free and paid software. And when it comes to free antivirus software, Avast is probably the most downloaded antivirus software out there when compared its competitors such as AVG, Avira and Panda Cloud.

Avast Free Antivirus features

One very impressive thing about Avast Free Antivirus is its simple user interface. Its user interface probably the easier UI among free antivirus software and very easy to navigate. Having said that, we all install antivirus software to secure our data, and the protection it offers is the core thing that we need to consider while choosing an antivirus software.
The new DeepScreen technology introduced with this version of Avast enables this free antivirus software to make more intelligent decisions, meaning that you’ll likely see less false positives.
Upon installing the antivirus software, it automatically starts a quick startup scan to check if there are any malicious programs loading with Windows.
The only thing that you might want to change after installing Avast is its annoying voiceover feature that you hear when a scan is completed, threat and suspicious items detected. You can disable voiceover sounds by following how to disable Avast voiceover sound guide.

Just like Kaspersky (see how to create Kaspersky rescue drive) and many other popular antiviruses, Avast also lets you create a bootable rescue USB/DVD that you can use to scan your PC offline, even if your PC is unbootable.

The other small but worth mentioning thing is that you can easily navigate this software using keyboard shortcuts. When Avast window is active, simply press the Alt key on your keyboard to view keyboard shortcuts to navigate all sections of the software.

Download Avast Free Antivirus

In addition to Windows 7, this version of Avast Free Antivirus is also compatible with Windows XP SP2, Vista, Windows 8 and 8.1 versions.

Clicking on the download button on the download page will download the web installer of Avast Antivirus, which is about 4.5 MB. You need to then run the downloaded web installer to download required files and begin installing the antivirus software. Instead, if you would like to get the offline installer (full setup file), you can click the get the offline installer from the link mentioned at the end of this article.

Also note that a single setup file is available for both 32-bit and 64-bit flavours. That is, you don’t need to worry about your system type while downloading the setup file.
As you can see in the above picture, the setup offers you install Google Chrome web browser (if it’s not installed on your PC already) and set it as the default browser. You can uncheck those options and continue installing the software if you want to install Avast without having to install Chrome.
Download Avast Free Antivirus
Download Avast Free Antivirus (offline installer)

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Quick Crypt: Encrypt Single File In Windows 7/8

Prior versions of Windows Vista operating system, including the now half “dead” Windows XP, didn’t include drive encryption system and users had to rely on third-party tools like TrueCrypt to get encryption feature in Windows. This changed with the inclusion of BitLocker Drive Encryption in Vista to encrypt data without the help of third-party tools and was simplified in Windows 7.
Even though BitLocker Drive Encryption is easy to use, the biggest catch is that it’s available only in certain editions such as Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Likewise the encryption feature is present only in the Pro edition of Windows 8/8.1. The other downsides are BitLocker lets you encrypt drives only, meaning that you can’t encrypt single files, and also, Windows 7 (not sure about Windows 8/8.1) chooses the 48 digit password for you and you have no freedom to enter a password of your choice here.

Whether you’re on an edition of Windows without BitLocker or you want to encrypt a single file, there is a new free tool out there to help you. Quick Crypt is a free tool designed to encrypt individual files with a password of your choice.

Quick Crypt sports a dead simple user interface and very easy to use. Using this tool is as simple as using any other software out there to password protect folders. Simply launch Quick Crypt, drag and drop file(s) that you would like to encrypt (an option is available to browse to the file as well), and then encrypt it using a password. Quick Crypt offers 256-bit AES encryption and should be good enough for most users.

According to the developer, it stores password hint, file owner and comment in the encrypted file, and the encrypted file can’t be decrypted on another computer if you have encrypted the file using a system ID unique to the computer on which you have encrypted the file. Also, it lets you configure the encrypted file to expire after a certain number of days, a very useful feature indeed.


The current version of Quick Crypt also includes a File Eraser to permanently erase files from your drive. Above all, it’s portable software, meaning that it doesn’t require an installation and you can carry it on a USB drive as well.

All in all, it’s an excellent piece of software to encrypt individual files in Windows. The download size is less than 125 KB! Please note that it requires .NET 4.5. If you’re on Windows 7, make sure that .NET 4.5 is installed, and if you’re on Windows 8/8.1, you don’t need to worry as Windows 8/8.1 includes .NET 4.5.

If you find Quick Crypt useful, we have a small tip to make it even more useful. Launch Quick Crypt, click Tools and then click Create shortcut in Send To folder to add Quick Crypt shortcut to the Send To menu. Once the entry is in the Send To menu, you can right-click on a file, select Send To > Quick Crypt to launch the program and encrypt your file.
How to use BitLocker To Go to encrypt USB drive guide might also interest you.
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5 Useful Free Tools For Dual Boot Users

Installing a version of Windows in dual boot with another version of Windows is very straight-forward if you know how to partition a HDD/SDD and install Windows. Likewise, installing Windows on a Mac has become much easier, thanks to the Boot Camp Assistant.
In this article, we are going to talk about four very useful but lesser known tools to easily manage your dual boot machines.
EasyBCD: EasyBCD isn’t only useful for dual-boot users but helpful for all Windows users. It lets you add, edit, delete and manage boot entries. In addition to that, you can use this tool to create a bootable Windows USB, boot Windows from VHD, add various ISO files to the boot menu so that you can easily boot from ISO, backup and repair BCD.

The ability to boot from a USB drive even if your PC’s motherboard doesn’t support booting from USB is another very helpful feature of this program. EasyBCD is completely free for personal and non-commercial use.
Download EasyBCD
iReboot: Another excellent software from the developer of EasyBCD. iReboot lets you reboot from one version of Windows to another without having to go through the boring boot menu.

That is, if you have installed Windows 8.1 in dual boot with Windows 7 and switch between these two versions of Windows very often, you can simply right-click on the iReboot icon in the system tray and then select a version of Windows you want to reboot to in order to restart your PC and reboot to the selected version of Windows.
Download iReboot
MiniTool Partition Wizard: Not very useful if you already have partitioned your hard drive to create a dedicated partition to install Windows. Partition Wizard Home edition, which is free, not only lets you partition your drive but also lets you convert NTFS to FAT, convert MBR to GPT and vice versa, copy UEFI boot disk, extend system partition, restore deleted partition, rebuild MTR, hide partition, and more.

And if you want to manage your partitions without booting into Windows, you can download Partition Wizard Bootable CD. It’s free!
Download MiniTool Partition Wizard
BootChamp: This tool is for Mac users who have installed Windows on Mac using Boot Camp Assistant. BootChamp is pretty much similar to iReboot software and lets you quickly reboot into Windows from Mac OS X. In short, you don’t need to hold down the Option (Alt) key and then select the Windows partition if you install BootChamp on your Mac. Simply click on the BootChamp icon and then click Restart into Windows to restart your Mac and boot into Windows without having to press a single key.

Download BootChamp
NTFS-Free for Mac OS X: If you own a Windows PC and also a Mac, you probably know that Mac OS X can only read and write to FAT32, not the popular NTFS. If you want to access and write to a NTFS drive and copy some files to it, you need take the help of some third-party tools.

As you likely know, there are a couple of tools out there to write to NTFS from Mac, but none of them are free. For users who’re looking for a free tool to write to NTFS drive, NTFS-Free for Mac OS X is the ideal tool. The only catch is that, according to the developer of this tool, it lets you access NTFS formatted drives connected via USB port only.
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