Creating Bootable USB Installer for Windows 8

In this post, I will show how to create a bootable USB Installer for Windows 8 (and other OS as well).

STEP 1:
Prepare at least 4GB USB Drive. Format using NTFS filesystem.
Also, make sure the partition is active as shown below:

 

Recommended Software (updated)

It has been awhile since my last update on the Recommended Software page. I've added a couple of useful software in the list such as Waterfox, Notepad++ and Siren. Also, I've added some software based on truemax suggestion in the last post.

Visit Recommended Software Page

:: aerobrainTech ::

Windows 8: Interesting New Features

After get frustrated with the dual-boot, fortunately I have a machine to fully test Windows 8 Consumer Preview with clean install. I format the hard disk, delete all partitions and re-create using the Windows 8 Boot Installer.

Anyway, I'm not gonna talk about the installation experience (in short, it went very well except for the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1500M that is no longer supported by NVIDIA update). What I'm gonna talk about is the new interesting features in Windows 8.

Integrated Email Client and Calendar

Even without Microsoft Outlook (or similar software), Windows 8 comes with the built-in metro application. This application can be setup to access your work email (Exchange), gmail and definitely hotmail! The same goes to the Calendar!

Weather

Interesting part of this weather is that once you allow the application to use your location, it will pull the current and forecast weather for your location.

Windows Store

Although there are not that many applications (yet) in the store (comparing to the Android!), but the look and feel is nice. The games also optimized to the user interface and touch experience. You can try the game 'flow'! Quite a good game to kill time.

Start Page with All the Crucial Information you need!

Interestingly, I found out that the Metro Style Start Menu or Start Page is more that just a shortcut, but it also serves as center of information. Your latest email preview will be shown here, similarly the weather and also the event on your calendar.

New Shortcut Keys
There are new shortcut keys introduced in Windows 8. Below are a few (if not all) that I found:
Windows Key + X
Display setting menu near the old Start Menu

Windows Key + C
Open the Right Bar

Windows Key + F
Open Find Application

Windows Key + H
Open Share List

Windows Key + K
Open Devices List

Windows Key + Q
List All Applications Installed

Windows Key + W
Open Settings

Windows Key + . (period)
View Running Applications as Right Side Bar

Click here to download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (beta)
Happy Trying the Beta!

:: aerobrainTech ::

How to Crack RAR / ZIP?

Have you ever lost or forgotten the password for your RAR or ZIP archive? At first you don't want others to have access to your 'secret' files. But after sometimes (maybe few months or few years), you totally forgotten the password.

The good news is, RAR / ZIP archive are easily crackable. The bad news is, now you know that imposing password protection to a RAR / ZIP archive don't really secure your files! (haha!)

For a secure way to store your 'secret' files, please use TrueCrypt (free & open source)

Let us start. There are 2 free applications that you can try:

Waterfox is the 64-bit version of Firefox

If you are running a 64-bit machine with 64-bit Windows, you might want to try Waterfox. If you haven't notice, so far Mozilla only release the 32-bit version of Firefox.

Waterfox code is based on Firefox but has been recompiled to suit under 64-bit environment. This means, it should be able to support the multi-core processing and memory usage beyond 3GB. In short, it should be far better in terms of performance.

In addition to that, most of the plugins such as Flash Player, Java, etc also support 64-bit application. This shall produce a better performance browser. Why Mozilla is yet to release an official 64-bit of Firefox? I'm not sure, maybe they still want to make it better first.

If you are running 64-bit Windows, I fully recommend you to try this. It blends nicely with your Firefox current settings. So if you have addons installed, sync setup, you don't have to repeat the setting all over again. So good!

 

:: aerobrainTech ::

Firefox is Now 11!

The title maybe confusing .. but it's true!! Firefox 11 has been available for download at the link below:

:: aerobrainTech ::

Painful Experience: Windows 8 CP Dual-Boot

Today is the 3rd day I'm trying to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview as a dual-boot with my Windows 7. The dual-boot seems success but Windows 8 still cannot start properly today. Last night it was running properly and it was shut down properly. But today, it does not start properly again. After selecting Windows 8 on the boot menu, what does appear was just blue screen and a cursor. I think I've tried to install more than 10 times.

Before I continue to the list of issues I encountered during the installation, below are the specifications:

• Machine: DELL Latitude E6420
• Processor: Intel Core i7
• RAM: 4GB
• Current OS: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit
• Intent to Install: Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit

List of useful tools involved:
Windows Storage Management: Run > diskmgmt.msc
EASEUS Partition Master: Download here

Below are the list of issues:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is here!

Windows Consumer Preview is available for download now!! You may visit the below link to download the ISO image file. It is available for 32-bit as well as 64-bit machines. The size of the ISO files are 3.3GB for 64-bit and 2.5GB for 32-bit. It is also available in 5 different languages, English, Chinese, French, German and Japanese.

Download Windows Consumer Preview

The most exciting part is when Microsoft redefines the concept of mouse and keyboard and optimize the windows for touch. It is easier and friendlier to access commands and running apps instead of on the traditional taskbar (introduced since Windows 95). For me, it is really worth to try for normal users and for the application developers. This could be the next trend!

:: aerobrainTech ::