How to Update to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8

It has been quite a time since Microsoft rolled out Windows 8.1 and since it is a point release we shouldn't expect major changes within the OS.

Visit http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-8/meet to know more about the release and whats new in it. You can see that they have heavily updated the UI with improved searching, accessibility, switching and syncing options and with this release users get to completely customize their start screen. Another thing to note is that they have removed the Windows Experience Index feature which has been around since Windows Vista. You'll see no significant difference in the start up or boot time compared with Windows 8.
Certain menu items including the Settings menu has been completely redesigned and the unified Bing search gets you what you want.

It comes in two variant Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Pro and is available to buy as standalone OS or as an update to Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro users.
Now here is the official system requirements published by Microsoft for upgrading to Windows 8.1

System requirements

Windows 8.1

If you want to run Windows 8.1 on your PC, here's what it takes:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2 (more info)
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

Additional requirements to use certain features:

• To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch (more info)
• To access the Windows Store and to download, run, and snap apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768
• Microsoft account required for some features
• Internet access (ISP fees might apply)
• Secure boot requires firmware that supports UEFI v2.3.1 Errata B and has the Microsoft Windows Certification Authority in the UEFI signature database
• Some games and programs might require a graphics card compatible with DirectX 10 or higher for optimal performance
• Watching DVDs requires separate playback software (more info)
• Windows Media Center license sold separately (more info)
• BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive (Windows 8.1 Pro only)
• BitLocker requires either Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 or a USB flash drive (Windows 8.1 Pro only)
• Client Hyper-V requires a 64-bit system with second level address translation (SLAT) capabilities and additional 2 GB of RAM (Windows 8.1 Pro only)
• A TV tuner is required to play and record live TV in Windows Media Center (Windows 8.1 Pro Pack and Windows 8.1 Media Center Pack only)
• Miracast requires a display adapter which supports Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.3, and a Wi-Fi adapter that supports Wi-Fi Direct
• Wi-Fi Direct Printing requires a Wi-Fi adapter that supports Wi-Fi Direct and a device that supports Wi-Fi Direct Printing
• Free internet TV content varies by geography, some content might require additional fees (Windows 8.1 Pro Pack and Windows 8.1 Media Center Pack only)
• To install a 64-bit OS on a 64-bit PC, your processor needs to support CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF
• InstantGo works only with computers designed for Connected Standby

You can check to see if it meets the requirements by running the Upgrade Assistant.

Now it is believed that all the apps you used with Windows 8 should work with Windows 8.1 and it is also true for a handful of device drivers. Now if you are in a real hurry to try out the new Windows 8.1 and don't mind even if some of your system device stops working due to driver incompatibility then go ahead otherwise if you prefer a complete and stable system then I'd suggest that you wait till your system or devise manufacturer releases the appropriate drivers and software for Windows 8.1 for your device, now I'm saying this because I had to fall back to Windows 8 after an update to Windows 8.1 on my HP Pavilion G6 notebook as HP hasn't yet released all the drivers and i found it increasingly difficult to cope with WiFi, Bluetooth and touch-pad errors and have decided to update to 8.1 after all the drivers and software have been released by HP.


Here i will show you how to update your existing windows 8 to windows 8.1

• First thing first, you must be running an activated version of Windows 8 or Windows 8 Pro for the update process to work
• Check for the latest updates available for your system and install them via Windows Update, this is a very crucial step, without installing all the available updates the free update to windows 8.1 will not show up in Microsoft Store

•  Now that you have installed all the available updates to Windows 8/Windows 8 Pro and restarted your system, open Microsoft store and your free update to Windows 8.1 should be present there

• Click on it and start downloading the update, the update is quite huge in size and should take considerable amount of time as it doesn't use the full bandwidth, meanwhile you can continue to use your system without affecting the update process

If you were running an OEM install of Windows 8 then upon performing a system recovery or reset after this update to Windows 8.1 your system will be reverted back to factory installed Windows 8 along with the default software and drivers and you'll once again have to perform the above update to get Windows 8.1.

How to repair Bricked Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 by Flashing Stock Firmware via ODIN

This tutorial  is for Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 in specific, do not flash the firmware provided here in any other device.

 

It doesn't matter whether you bricked your phone experimenting with it or installing Custom ROMs, because this tutorial will help you get back to your Stock ROM or flash any firmware for your phone via ODIN Flash Tool.

Please note that flashing your phone with a firmware package can completely delete all user data, so make sure to backup your contacts and other data before continuing with the process. 

I will try to explain the process as simple as possible in a step by step manner below,  you can also check out the video tutorial that i have made on the same. Before continuing make sure you have the the following things with you:

1. Your Samsung Galaxy Y S5360

2. USB data cable to connect your phone with your computer

3. Internet to download the required files

        Watch the video tutorial here      

    

Before starting off make sure your phone is fully charged and switched off

• Download and install Samsung Kies form the link below, it contains the default driver for your device

• Switch off your phone and enter into Download Mode by pressing and holding VOLUME DOWN + HOME + POWER BUTTON

• Now connect your phone to your computer using the USB data cable

• Go to Control Panel > Device Manager and look under Universal Serial Bus Controllers and you should find your phone appear as Samsung Mobile USB Compopsite Device, and if it doesn't  then it means that the drivers haven't been correctly installed, in such a case you should disconnect the phone try removing all Samsung related software including Kies from your computer and reinstall Kies and check again, if that doesn't work then download the Unofficial Samsung USB Driver from the link below, install it and check again.

• If none of the above methods work for installing the drivers then you should use Windows Update to find and install the drivers (you must be connected to the internet) , here is how to do it -  Uninstall all Samsung related software, connect the  phone in the Download Mode, go to  Device Manager and in the Other Devices list you must find  your phone as two unrecognized devices CDC Abstract Control Model and CDC ACM Data, right click on CDC Abstract Control Model and select Update Driver Software > Search automatically for updated driver software, now windows will search for the appropriate driver and install it, once installed your device will appear as Samsung Mobile USB Compopsite Device under Universal Serial Bus Controllers and you are good to go.

• Once the drivers are installed and the phone connected in Download Mode, download ODIN and Firmware Package from the links given below

• Extract ODIN's zip file and put it in a folder, similarly extract the Firmare Package and put it in another folder. Upon extracting the Firmware Package you should get 3 main files whose names start with CSC, MODEM and PDA  

• Now go to ODIN's extracted folder and run ODIN, under ID:COM box in ODIN you should see something like 0:[COM#] where # is any number and if the box is blank it means that ODIN can't find your phone and something is wrong

• Leave all the selections to their default unless you know what you're doing

• Click on the PDA button and browse to the file starting with PDA in the extracted Firmware Package and click on Open

• Similarly click on PHONE button and browse to the file starting with MODEM in the extracted Firmware Package and click on Open 

• Similarly click on CSC button and browse to the file starting with CSC in the extracted Firmware Package and click on Open

• Now that all the files are selected click on the START button to begin flashing and wait for it to finish

• The process should take a few minutes or less to complete and if there are any errors they will be shown in the message box.

• Once it completes it will show something like this

    

• Now the phone will reboot on its own, you can close ODIN, disconnect your phone by removing the USB cable and wait for the phone to boot up, the phone should take quite a long time to boot up (less than 10 minutes) so don't panic. The first boot takes such a long time as certain system files are being extracted and created by the newly flashed firmware.

   

 

Links for downloading required files:

Samsung Kies (For official USB drivers that comes with it)

Unofficial Samsung USB Driver (Unofficial drivers probably extracted form Kies package, use only if  Kies installation doesn't fix driver issues)

ODIN Flash Tool (Software for flashing your phone with firmware packages)

Firmware Package (The one i used in this tutorial)
Link 1 (mediafire)
Link 2 (googledrive)

Other ODIN Flashable Firmware Packages (These packages have been made from official firmware releases and are similar to the one used in this tutorial, download according to your choice of region)

If the firmware you want is not listed in the above link try looking on http://www.sammobile.com/firmwares/ or http://samsung-updates.com/device/?id=GT-S5360 , once you have downloaded the firmware from here you can use SplitFus2 tool by Doky to convert it to an ODIN flashable package
Download SplitFUS2 tool from here- http://d-h.st/WR9
Full instructions can be found on the original thread located here- http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1611225

All Credits to Doky73 (for the original thread), marcussmith2626 and others (for remaking and re-uploading the packages) 

Comment for more help.

How to fix Dirt 3 not starting in Windows 8

Dirt 3 not starting or crashing after launch seems to be a common problem with Windows 7 and 8 x64 versions, here is how you can fix it

• First thing you'll need is a Microsoft Live Account, get it here (click the image below) :

• If possible do a reinstall of Dirt 3 (in case your installation was corrupt)
• Download and install OpenAL Installer (this copies OpenAL.dll file to your system)
• Get the DirectX fiiles needed for the game by running this web installer
• Get Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x64) OR Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86) depending on your OS
• Get Rapture 3D for Dirt 3 by clicking the image below (not essential)

• This is the most important step, uninstall all Games for Windows LIVE software present in your system, get a fresh copy of Games for Windows LIVE client by clicking the image below (a web-installer), after downloading it right-click on it and select "Run as administrator", let it download and install the files

 

• After installation completes run Games For Windows and sign in to your account, now you can either exit the app or leave it minimized
• Now to open the game, (important step) right-click on dirt3.exe in the game's installation folder or on your desktop shortcut and select "Run as administrator" and wait for it (you will have to run it  as administrator every time), these steps worked for me
• Now if it fails to open the game try opening dirt3.exe in compatibility mode for Windows 7 or Windows Xp and it should work with any one of them
• Enjoy playing Dirt 3! Comment for more Help.

                                        

Firefox Wallpaper

As a Mozilla Firefox fan i just couldn't resist posting this really cool wallpaper released with their new logo

 Nightly, Aurora and Firefox side-by-side in Cosmic Magnificence !

How to fix CryEA.dll missing error in CRYSIS 3, Download CryEA.dll

Cant start CRYSIS 3  because CryEA.dll is missing? Then this post might help you

Hoping your system is functioning normally and is not virus infected, CryEA.dll can go missing due to the following reasons:

• Corrupt installation media
• Incomplete download
• False detection by Antivirus / Internet Security programs

The most probable reason being false detection by antivirus programs such as NORTON which detects it as a potential TROJAN.GEN virus during its auto scans and removes the file or moves it to Quarantine as it was in my case. 

To confirm you can check the Activities Log/Security History of your antivirus, if there is a report of its detection then restore CryEA.dll from Quarantine and exclude it from future scans. If you cant find its report or restore it from Quarantine, don't worry, i have it right here CryEA.dll after downloading put it in the Bin32 folder of your CYRSIS 3 installation and make sure to exclude it from antivirus scans or add it as an exception. Enjoy the game!
Comment for more Help.

 

OR

How to fix Disk Cleanup stuck on Windows Update cleanup

  

Ever had that problem where you open disk cleanup utility hoping to cleanup your system files and it ends up being stuck at "cleaning windows update files" and the only option left is to restart the PC, then worry no more cause this could be your solution.

Watch The Video Tutorial

 

OR follow the steps below:

1. You must be logged into an administrator account

     2.  Open "Troubleshooting" by searching it up in the Control Panel

     3.  Click on "View all" in the top left panel

     4.  Scroll down to the bottom to find "Windows Update", click on it

     5.  Click on "Advanced"

     6.  Click on "Run as administrator", it will refresh

     7.  Now select "Next"

     8.  Windows will now troubleshoot for errors, errors if any, would be found and fixed

     9.  Run "Disk Cleanup" again to see if the problem persists

   10.  If the problem persists or if troubleshooter couldn't fix errors then repeat the steps
          from 1 to 6 and click on "Advanced" again and uncheck the
          "Apply repairs automatically" option and proceed

 Hope this solves your problem, for detailed info on Disk Cleanup errors  refer to Microsoft Forums

How to enable or disable Task Manager manually or programmatically

You may have came across situations where you wanted to disable your Windows Task Manager or may be a malware might have disabled your task manager and you want to re-enable it. In this tutorial you'll learn how to play with your task manager, enable or disable it either manually or using your own C++ program.

Windows Task Manager can be disabled in many ways. We'll discuss each in detail.

1. USING GROUP POLICY EDITOR

            This is probably the easiest and safe way to disable or enable your task manger. You require an administrator account to use group policy editor. If you are looking for a way to disable task manager from a limited account, skip this and go for another method.

STEPS:

• On your keyboard, press WIN + R keys or go to Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Run.
• In the run window type gpedit.msc to launch your Group Policy Editor.
• In Group Policy window, using the left pane, navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Ctrl + Alt + Del Options.
• In the right pane, open Remove Task Manager.
• To disable Task Manager, select enable. To enable Task Manager, select disable.
• Press Ok or Apply to complete. Now try accessing your Task Manager

2. USING WINDOWS REGISTRY

      Windows task manager can be disabled by editing Windows Registry. This is not safe because editing your Windows Registry incorrectly can cause harm to your computer.

Here's how to do it manually:

• On your keyboard, press WIN + R keys or go to Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Run.
• In the run window type regedit.exe to launch your registry editor.
• In Registry Editor Window, using the left pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System.
• If System key doesn't exist, then create one by right clicking on Policies > New > Key and type System.
• In the right pane right click and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
• Now Replace New Value #1 with DisableTaskmgr.
• Double click on it. Change the value to 1 to disable Task Manager and 0 to enable Task Manager.
• Now close the Registry Editor.

If you want to do it in C++, here is the code to do it :

#include<windows.h>

void disableTaskmgr()

{

   HKEY regHandle;

   DWORD dwValue = 1;

   BYTE* data = (BYTE*)&dwValue;

   RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER ,"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System", 0, NULL, NULL, KEY_WRITE | KEY_WOW64_32KEY,NULL , &regHandle ,NULL );

   RegSetValueEx(regHandle,"DisableTaskmgr",0, REG_DWORD,data ,sizeof(DWORD));

   RegCloseKey(regHandle);

}

void enableTaskmgr()

{

   HKEY regHandle;

   DWORD dwValue = 0;

   BYTE* data = (BYTE*)&dwValue;

   RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER ,"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\System", 0, NULL, NULL, KEY_WRITE | KEY_WOW64_32KEY,NULL , &regHandle ,NULL );

   RegSetValueEx(regHandle,"DisableTaskmgr",0, REG_DWORD,data ,sizeof(DWORD));

   RegCloseKey(regHandle);

}

3. CHANGING THE DEBUGGER VALUE (REPLACING TASKMGR)

      This method is not recommended because the Debugger property is not meant for it, but still it works well. Here's how to do it manually:

• On your keyboard, press WIN + R keys or go to Start Menu > All Programs > Accessories > Run.
• In the run window type regedit.exe to launch your registry editor.
• In Registry Editor Window, using the left pane, navigate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options.
• Create a key taskmgr.exe inside it (If it doesn't exist), by right clicking on Image File Execution Options > New > Key and type taskmgr.exe.
• In the right pane right click and choose New > String Value.
• Replace New Value #1 with Debugger.
• Double click on it. Change the value to calc.exe.
• Now try opening your Task Manager. The Calculator window will be opened. Similarly you can change the value calc.exe to any other executable file name, so that it will be opened.
• Delete the value of Debugger or delete the whole String Value to enable you Task Manager again.
• Now close the Registry Editor.

#include<windows.h>

void disableTaskmgr()

{

      HKEY regHandle;

      char fpath[]= "calculator.exe";

      RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ,"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Image File Execution Options\\taskmgr.exe", 0, NULL, NULL, KEY_WRITE | KEY_WOW64_32KEY,NULL , &regHandle ,NULL );

      RegSetValueEx(regHandle,"Debugger",0, REG_SZ,(BYTE*)fpath,sizeof(fpath));

      RegCloseKey(regHandle);

}

void enableTaskmgr()

{

      HKEY regHandle;

      RegCreateKeyEx(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ,"Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\Image File Execution Options\\taskmgr.exe", 0, NULL, NULL, KEY_WRITE | KEY_WOW64_32KEY,NULL , &regHandle ,NULL );

      RegSetValueEx(regHandle,"Debugger",0, REG_SZ,NULL,NULL);

      RegCloseKey(regHandle);

}

4. CLOSE TASKMGR AS SOON AS IT OPENS

      This method cannot be done manually. In this method we use the FindWindow Windows api to find the Windows Task Manager as soon as it opens and send the close message to it. The advantage of this method is, you may NOT need admin privileges to do this. I've used an infinite loop to do the task, and have left its termination and implementation to you.

HWND hwnd;

while(1)

{

      hwnd = FindWindow(NULL,"Windows Task Manager");

      SendMessage(hwnd, WM_CLOSE, (LPARAM) 0, (WPARAM) 0);

}

5. MODIFY TASKMGR.EXE

      Personally i don't recommend this method. You can modify a few bytes of taskmgr.exe (C:\Windows\System32\taskmgr.exe) in reversible way. DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Warning: All source codes in this article are tested in Visual C++. Author is not responsible for any harm caused to your computer by following these steps. Method 2 to 5 should be done only if you know what you are doing. 

Group Of Enthusiastic Hackers On The Roll - The Replicant Project

Heard of the Replicant project?
Replicant is a completely free distribution of Android already up and running on several devices.

The Replicant project was founded by Bradley M. Kuhn, Aaron Williamson, Graziano Sorbaioli, Denis Carikl. They are no private organization or company but instead a group of highly skilled developers/hackers who have given Android a new face. They intend to make the platform completely open source through their distribution.

They have their own SDK with which you can write apps for different versions of Replicant, the SDK is similar to Android SDK except that it is totally free and even comes with an emulator for those without a phone to test on. They have created an app similar to Play Store which comes default on all Android phones called FDroid which will only contain apps listed under free software license.

They have released several images of Replicant for various devices and continues to develop for more. Visit their Wiki for a detailed list of supported devices.
List of the bare minimum requirements for a device to be ported to Replicant:

• The device must be supported by CyanogenMod officially (better) or via 3rd party repos
• There must be a way to flash images (via bootloader or recovery) using a free program
• The kernel must not be signed: the bootloader must not check the kernel signature
• The kernel sources must have been released
• The network type must be GSM, no CDMA phone can be supported for now

Anyone interested in porting Replicant to their devices are welcome to do so and can use their help. For more info on targets for Replicant refer this link. The project is not backed by any corporate and is a  purely  community based one and hence requires maximum support.

Is Android Not Open Source?

Well most of us are familiar with Android as being an open source mobile platform, but i think its time to measure the extend of its openness.

 According to an article in PCWorld by Katherine Noyes a study conducted by research firm Vision Mobile using an Open Governance Index created by them revealed that Android is the most closed (only 23% open) of the eight different open source projects which include : Android, MeeGo, Linux, Qt, WebKit, Mozilla, Eclipse, and Symbian

Now we know what open source is, a popular example of an open source OS can be considered as Linux and Android is built on the same Linux kernel. Upon having a closer look at how Android ticks we find that AOSPs (Android Open Source Projects) can be made for a variety of devices from readily available source codes, but it impossible to get complete functionality from a device without its own OEM specific codes. Which means unlike Ubuntu on your PC, your Android phone even though being open source requires some manufacturer specific codes to run at its full potential. It has also been observed that certain core android apps are closed source in nature. While all these so said limitations can be overcome with time and effort an average user wouldn't feel the difference, but still according to Conan Troutman at xda-developers the guys at Free Software Foundation (FOSS) are set to create an Android distribution that is free of proprietary code in all form and they have named the project as Replicant.

Stay tuned ...

 Cause we're coming real soon with loads of stuffs to let you know The How Of Things ...

Meanwhile an interesting thought from CISCO