Now that Windows 7 is available for purchase, people might be doing an upgrade from previous version of Windows or performing a clean install. In case you are using Windows XP, you will need to do a clean install as there is no upgrade option available. You can follow this tutorial if you are upgrading from Windows XP. You can buy either the upgrade pack or the full version of Windows 7. In case you have got the upgrade key and tried to activate Windows 7, you might have got the Error Code 0xC004F061.

This happens because of the following reasons;

1. You have got a upgrade product key and you have tried to activate it from a clean install.
2. You tried to upgrade the OS from Vista, but ended up performing a clean install.

If you receive error “0xC004F061″ when trying to activate Windows 7, it means you’re using a product key for an upgrade version of Windows 7 and a previous version of Windows wasn’t on your computer when Windows 7 was installed. To install an upgrade version of Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP must be installed on your computer. If you formatted the drive before starting the installation process, you won’t be able to use the upgrade product key to activate Windows 7.

To fix this issue, you will need make sure that Windows Vista or Windows XP must is installed on your computer. If you formatted the drive before starting the installation process, you won’t be able to use the upgrade product key to activate Windows 7.

If have already performed a clean install by formatting the partition of previous OS, the you will need to install the previous version first and then upgrade to Windows 7.

You can also trying getting help from Microsoft Support available here.

Previously we have covered an Adobe Air based application for uploading photos to Facebook and now we have an free tool to download your images from Facebook. PhotoGrabber is a free tool which allows you to download your Facebook pictures with ease. The application is portable and does not require any installation and can be directly run using the exe file. The application is very easy to use and you can get the photos with 3 simple steps mentioned below.

In just 3 steps you can download all your tagged pictures.

1. Choose the download destination
2. Login to Facebook, authorize PhotoGrabber to access Facebook.
3. Download your photos!

The applications can only access information that is most public, so private or protected photos cannot be downloaded

Download PhotoGrabber

We have covered various Twitter clients for Windows, now here is another twitter client which is in fact a Windows 7 sidebar gadget. Although Tweetz is a sidebar gadget, it provides you with all the functionality of Twitter like retweet, reply, search etc. It also support for mentions, direct messages and has a built in URL shortener which make it breeze to use. It even does reverse looks up on links so you’ll know where they go before click on them.

To update your status, click anywhere in title area of the gadget near the top. Compose your message including any links. To shorten links, click the “Shorten” button and Tweetz will scan the message for links and shorten them in place. You can also add a sound notification when a new tweet arrives.

Each tweet available in the gadget has an option for replying, retweeting and also adding to favorites. Apart from this, you can also have a compact version of the gadget on the sidebar in case you feel the overall size is big (which is again customizable). Overall we were impressed by this twitter client and if you are already using sidebar gadgets, this is an useful add.

Download Tweetz

If you use a iPhone or iPod, then ALLConverter To iPhone is a useful application to that will merge external subtitles with video/ audio to make friendly multimedia files for the iPhone or iPod playback. This tool can be used to convert all known formats with subtitles. All you need is to pick a video file with the format like mkv/DivX/Xvid/flv and external subtitles with formats smi/srt/sub/txt/mpl2 to make quick conversion.

The converter comes with built in profiles for iPhone/iPod so no extra adjustments are required. The process can be terminated any time and the file with subtitles will be created.

The interface of application resembles the iPhone and the settings are integrated to the interface.

Download ALLConverter To iPhone

In case you are having issue with memory on your Windows 7, then you can have a check of the memory performance using the memory diagnostic tool of Windows 7. If Windows detects possible problems with your computer’s memory, it will prompt you to run the Memory Diagnostics Tool. You can either reboot the system and run the memory diagnostic tool or schedule it for the next reboot. To start the tool manually, click start menu, select run (Win Key + R) and type mdsched.exe and press enter.

When the system reboots, Windows 7 will run the memory diagnostic tool before starting up the OS.

Advanced options for running the Memory Diagnostics Tool

It is recommended that you let the Memory Diagnostics Tool run automatically. However, advanced users might want to adjust the tool’s settings. Here’s how:

1. When the Memory Diagnostics Tool starts, press F1.
2. You can adjust the following settings:
   • Test mix. Choose what type of test you want to run: Basic, Standard, or Extended. The choices are described in the tool.
   • Cache. Choose the cache setting you want for each test: Default, On, or Off.
   • Pass count. Type the number of times you want to repeat the test.
3. Press F10 to start the test.

Once the tool does the diagnostics, it boots the OS and informs you about any issues regarding the memory.

Xenu’s Link Sleuth is a handy freeware tool which helps you check any website for broken links. Link check is performed on links which appear in <a> tags, as well as images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and Java applets. It displays a continuously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. Another good feature of the application is that it also check SSL websites.

In the settings, you can enter the URL you want to check, you can also check local HTML files saved in your hard disk.

Features:

• Simple, no-frills user-interface
• Can re-check broken links (useful for temporary network errors)
• Simple report format, can also be e-mailed
• Executable file smaller than 1MB
• Supports SSL websites (”https:// “)
• Partial testing of ftp and gopher sites
• Detects and reports redirected URLs

Xenu’s Link Sleuth is a very useful application to find all the broken links in any webpage.

Download Xenu’s Link Sleuth

If you downloaded songs from Internet, but it lacks the effects to play on your PC, then AudioEffecter should be able to help you with basic effects. AudioEffecter is a freeware tool from Moo0 software which can add simple effects to your songs. Moo0 AudioEffecter lets you easily convert audio files into ones with simple effects. You can add effects to MP3 and WMV files. The interface is dead simple, all you need is to drag and drop the files, select the effect and it automatically starts the conversion.

If you select the advanced options, you can set the boost level for the option selected.

The effect includes volume adjustment and detailed adjustment of each tone range. Also, it includes enhancement of vocal and instrument sound, although it is still experimental.

Download Audio Effecter

Windows 7 has more than 50 new fonts added and available in 36 languages. With the expansion of fonts in Windows 7, the font control panel has also gone for a change. The font control panel will have large icon view. The font icons now convey much more information about the appearance of the font. You can preview, delete, hide or show from the easy to use fonts control panel. To hide or delete a font, open control panel and then select All control panel items and in click fonts.

Here you can see all the fonts are available as icon view. When you select a font, you get the options on the top panel to preview, delete or hide the fonts from the system. This task is also available in the right click menu of the fonts. When you double click a font, it opens the font viewer.

When you select a font in the font control panel, in the bottom portion, you can see the details on the font like category, style, designed by information etc.

If you are looking for a third party font viewer, sFont is a decent free application for it.

Previously we have covered various application launchers for Windows. Radian is another freeware tool which is a simple radial application launcher. The interface is triggered by a continuous right-click and is divided into four slices. Each slice can be configured differently for applications. The application are arranged in a circular format in four slices and you can select the programs to be added to the slices.

You can configure each slice separately and each one supports the following modes;

• Custom – the slice will contain shortcuts manually dragged from existing shortcuts or files (from the Quick-Launch, Desktop, Start-Menu, Folder, etc…)
• Quick Launch – shortcuts from Windows’ Quick-Launch
• Desktop – shortcut from Windows’ Desktop
• Recent Docs – recently opened documents

If you chose custom, you can add your own shortcuts for the applications to be launched.

The right-click trigger allows you to access the menu quickly without needing to scroll to a certain area on your screen. The menu can be loaded by right-clicking and holding anywhere on the screen.

You can also customize the colors of each of the slices from the settings menu. Another feature of Radian in Windows 7 is when you drag Radian to maximize, the radial slices split and separate out from the center.

Download Radian

Are you a Firefox user, finding it difficult to manage open tabs or accidently closed a tab, then Tabberwocky is definitely an useful add-on. Tabberwocky is a Firefox add-on for tab management which is a light, fast tab browsing extension with features, including duplicate, protect, and lock tab, open selected links, multi row tab bar, tab progress bars, new & close tab buttons, tab clicking, tab opening & closing, menu items, and many more features.

right click on any tab and it provides you with the option of locking and protecting tab which prevents from accidental close. You can also reload a tab or all the tabs. In case you accidentally close a tab, then you can undo the action. When opening any link, you can prefer to open in background or foreground tab.

Tabberwocky options allows you to customize and change all the settings of the add-on.

Tabberwocky is a very useful add-on for all Firefox users. Features and options include;

• Duplicate Tab, Protect Tab, Lock Tab (menu items and keyboard shortcuts)
• Tab Progress Bars
• Multiple-Row Tab Bar
• Open in new tabs from Bookmarks, History, URL Bar, and/or Search Bar
• Open Selected Links in New Tabs
• Retain tab history when opening links in new tabs
• Show/Hide New Tab button and Close Tab buttons
• Highlight unread tabs
• Set minimum/maximum tab width
• Close tabs by double-clicking on them
• Tab clicking options
• Open tabs to the right of current tab
• Open tabs from links to the right of current tabs (Firefox 3.6+)
• Switch to last selected tab or tab on the left when closing a tab
• Menu items for opening links in foreground/background tabs
• Open script-generated windows in tabs instead

Download Taberwocky