RapidShare releases cloud sync tool RapidDrive

RapidShare is joining the likes of Dropbox and SugarSync in the cloud sync and storage business with the introduction of RapidDrive. The new service is said to work directly with a computer’s file system, allowing for automatic synching with remote servers.

RapidDrive works by creating a network drive that connects to the company’s servers, allowing users to easily manage offsite files via Windows Explorer. On the client side, the storage folder is essentially treated just like an additional hard drive on the system.

To send a file to the cloud, simply drag and drop or copy and paste the data into the RapidDrive folder and everything else happens automatically. Any computer that is linked to the same RapidDrive account can access the storage folder, much like any of the several other competing services.

“With RapidDrive, we are providing a tool that creates an even closer link between cloud storage and the PC environment, which makes it easier to manage files,” said RapidShare CEO Alexandra Zwingli. “RapidDrive is an essential means of simplifying work processes, especially for customers who are regular users of RapidShare at work.”

Since the service is simply a storage solution, it is not possible to install and run software from within RapidDrive.

RapidDrive is still in beta and is only available for Windows XP, Vista and 7 as of writing. Mac OS X support will come with the full build expected to drop in September. Those interested in checking out RapidDrive can download it by following this link.

Windows 7 surpasses 50 percent global OS market share

Recent data from analytics company StatCounter shows that Windows 7 has obtained more than half of the worldwide operating system market for the first time. The OS surpassed Windows XP as the most popular choice globally in October 2011 but it wasn’t until last month that it surpassed the 50 percent mark.

According to StatCounter, Windows Vista continues to hold the bronze medal for third place with 8.32 percent market share, although Mac OSX has been making a heavy push to capture this spot as of late, sitting at 7.05 percent at the end of June. If current trends continue, OSX will likely overtake Vista in the coming months.

Of course this is only one company’s interpretation of stats, as Net Applications claims that Windows XP still holds a 43.61 percent share of the market. Their data indicated that XP is still the top dog, just barely edging out Windows 7 at 41.59 percent. Furthermore, Vista still holds a sizeable lead of 3.6 percent market share over OSX.

CNET highlights that despite launching nearly three years ago, Windows 7 has had a slower time achieving the same popularity as Windows XP. The main reason for this is that many businesses are still holding on to XP for dear life after seeing how bad Vista was. XP is generally considered to be stable and custom business applications built for the platform would likely need to be recoded to work on 7.

Microsoft will ending support for Windows XP in April 2014 and is encouraging legacy users to upgrade to Windows 7 ASAP.

Source 

Windows XP is a popular home for rootkits

Free antivirus software provider Avast has released information from a six-month study which reveals that Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system is home to 74% of their customers’ rootkit infections.

Data gathered from over 600,000 Avast customers pointed to Windows XP as the most vulnerable desktop OS for rootkits. XP, which was released in 2001, is the most widely used operating system to access the Internet according to w3schools.

The dated OS was installed on 49 percent of tallied Avast customers. 38 percent of users in the study were running Windows 7 while 13 percent had Vista installed. In contrast, only 12 percent of rootkits were detected on Windows 7 machines and 17 percent were found on Vista installations.

The problem doesn’t necessarily stem from the use of Windows XP itself, but from how end users obtain and install the operating system.

“One issue with Windows XP is the high number of pirated versions, especially as users are often unable to properly update them because the software can’t be validated by the Microsoft update,” said Przemyslaw Gmerek, the Avast expert on rootkits and lead researcher.

Rootkits are malicious tools that are installed before the operating system and anti-virus software are loaded, making them very difficult to detect and remove. Attackers use rootkits to steal data and install other programs without the user even knowing anything is wrong. Other types of rootkits present bogus antivirus warnings in an attempt to swindle credit card information from the user.

Most antivirus programs are useless in detecting rootkit installations. Users who suspect they might be infected are encouraged to try rootkit-specific removal tools such as TDSSKiller or ComboFix.

Windows XP usage finally falls below 50% mark

At the end of July 2011, Microsoft can say that Windows XP finally fell below the 50 percent mark. In other words, Redmond's decade-old operating system is now used by less than half of all Internet users.

Windows XP's market share is eroding, and Windows in general is slowly slipping as well: between June and July, it fell 0.63 percentage points (from 88.29 percent to 88.76 percent). At the same time, Mac OS gained 0.22 percentage points (from 5.37 percent to 5.59 percent) and Linux gained 0.03 percentage points (from 0.95 percent to 0.98 percent). Unsurprisingly, mobile operating systems gained share.

In the same time period, Windows 7 gained 0.74 percentage points (from 27.13 percent to 27.87 percent). Windows Vista meanwhile slipped 0.28 percentage points (from 9.52 percent to 9.24 percent) and Windows XP fell 1.19 percentage points (from 51.13 percent to 49.94 percent). In about a year's time, we should see Windows 7 pass Windows XP altogether.

By the end of 2010, Windows 7 had grabbed 20 percent of the market and at the end of April 2011, Windows 7 passed the 25 percent mark. Last month, Microsoft announced that Windows 7 had sold more than 400 million licenses in the last 21 months. This means that Microsoft is selling just fewer than 20 million licenses per month. Back to school season is coming up, followed by the holiday shopping frenzy, so that number should remain stable till 2012 at least.

Although Windows 7 is growing its share very quickly, the ancient Windows XP is still dominating. Microsoft knows this and is making its own attempts to woo users off the platform. The software giant still supports those using XP, despite its hate for the ancient OS.

On April 14, 2009, Microsoft retired Mainstream Support for XP, and with it, support for IE6. The company is not planning to retire Extended Support for the operating system until April 8, 2014. If the company ends up releasing XP SP4 (highly unlikely), it will retire support for SP3 (released in April 2008) two years later, or in April 2014, whichever comes first. In short, Windows XP will continue to be officially supported by Microsoft for about three more years. Despite the support options, Redmond still wants XP and IE6 to die.

Three months ago, even the National Security Agency (NSA) began advising users to upgrade from Windows XP to either Windows Vista or Windows 7. Furthermore, the organization says that when possible, choosing a 64-bit version of Windows is recommended

Join Multiple Video files in Windows

There are times when you get multiple files in small chunks of the same video clip or movie.
What do you do? Offcourse you play the files in your media player.

So what is the problem?
The media player disturbs the flow of the movie after each file. Even if the files are properly arranged in the list of the player, there will always be a small pause.
What's more annoying is the number of files required for a single movie.

The following 3 tricks will help you to combine multiple video files (only mpg files, other formats may work with the second trick).

Update: There are comments that this works for joining flash video (flv) files as well. These are the type of files you can download from YouTube.
If you get timecode corruption after merging FLV files, check out this comment to avoid timecode problems when joining flv files.

This small compilation won't make you sweat. It's really easy to try. Give it a go if you are interested.

Trick 1

1. Open a blank text file.
2. Type copy /b *.mpg FullMovie.mpg
3. Save the file with a .Bat extension.
Let's say you saved the text file as Joiner.Bat.
4. Now Copy and Paste this Joiner.Bat file in a folder which contains more than one mpg files.
5. Double click the Joiner.Bat file.

A combined file named FullMovie.mpg is created from all the mpg files in the folder.
Based on the limited testing I did, this trick didn't work with avi and wmv file formats.
However, you can try and check if this works for other file formats.

Below is a small video demo (click to play) of this trick

Trick 2

This is an old trick I used a lot.
1. Here, you'll have to add all the small mpg files into a zip file. This can be done using Winzip.
2. A very important thing to remember here is the files must be zipped without any compression.
3. Arrange the order of the files in the zip.
4. Rename the zip file as an mpg file.
5. That's it! Click and enjoy the movie.

This works pretty well with mpg files. You can try this with other file formats. Please comment or reply back if this trick works for any of the other formats.


Trick 3

The third and final method is a superset of the first method.
Here, the command prompt is used to join files. An advantage over the first trick is you can specify the files you want to join.

1. Click Start >> Run.
2. Type cmd and press Enter. This will open the command prompt.
3. In the command prompt, type
copy /b "D:\FirstClip.mpg" + "D:\SecondClip.mpg" "D:\FullMovie.mpg"
where FirstClip.mpg and SecondClip.mpg are the video files to join and FullMovie.mpg is the resultant combined file.
You can specify any number of files to join.
Also notice I have typed the entire file path in the above command.
4. Press enter and the files will be joined.


Using Other Softwares
Check out the tools below that may just do the trick for you (Got them from reader comments) :
a. Movica
b. AviDemux
c. FLV Binder
d. Andy's FLV Joiner

How to unhide a drive or partition after installing Windows 7 Windows XP

When u install windows 7 or earlier version, sometimes, one or more of your hard disk partition doesn’t appear and is not accessible from my computer. Don’t think your partition is lost or the files on your partition is gone forever. TO get your drive partition back, just follow these steps :

Right click on my computer – select Manage – Chose disk Management – Now you’ll see all your partition and drives listed there in the right pane – Find and identify the drive which is hidden or not shown in my computer – Right click on the partition – chose add drive letter and path / change drive letter and path – assign a new drive letter from the drop down box – Ok

You are done. Now you’ll see the hidden drive or partition listed back in your computer window.

Tips: Use disk management tool as mentioned about above to extend and shrink hard disk partition size.