Linux applications that run on Windows

I recently came to know that many people setup Linux on their PC just to run some basic applications. Many institutions now use Linux as a part of cost cutting. The employees and students don’t really like it. But they are forced to use it and they often get entangled in the mysterious loops inside Linux.

Actually UNIX is user friendly. It's just selective about who its friends are. :P

It is OK if you use it in your institution. But is there a need to setup Linux in your PC itself for doing work/learning at home? Thankfully, many of these apps are now available for Windows also. You can download and install them very easily on your Windows PC.

 

Some of the widely used general purpose apps in Linux are given below:

 

Gimp: It is an Image Manipulation Program. Used for retouching photos, creating logos etc. Widely used by students

 

OpenOffice: A Linux alternative for the MS Office Package. Many people find it very useful. Infact it is the most used.

 

Blender : Blender is a free open source 3D content creation suite. Very very famous.

 

Lyx: It is a document processor that encourages an approach to writing based on the structure of your documents (WYSIWYM) and not simply their appearance (WYSIWYG).

 

VLC Player: I think Windows users are more familiar with this software. Very famous video player. :-D

 

Tuxpaint: Used by kids/students. But it found a place in the widely used apps list.

 

Avidemux: A very famous video editing software. Not very user friendly. Just like the Linux OS itself.

 

Amarok : An audio player. There are better alternatives. But I added it because of its popularity.

 

All these applications(there are much more) can be downloaded separately for the Windows platform. Click on the app name and you will be taken away to the respective websites.

 

And there are people who use other KDE tools in Linux. KDE is now available for Windows. The latest stable version is 4.4.0. It is still in its early days but I tested it and it worked very smoothly. I only downloaded a few apps. But almost all KDE apps can be downloaded. Some screenshots are added in the album below.For more info regarding KDE for Windows and its installation, visit http://windows.kde.org

 

View Full Album

 

 

Of course advanced users may use Linux because there these apps will be more stable and there are many other Linux features that they can exploit. But for all day to day uses of an average user, this method is better. I strongly recommend all of you to try Linux (not as a replacement for Windows), but only after learning its strengths and weaknesses. As I said, using it for running a few apps is like using a super computer for basic calculations.

Change folder background in Windows XP

Here is an interesting and funny trick to change the background image of folders in Windows XP. It is an old trick but still many people don't know about it.

Note: this trick will not work in Windows 7.

First open notepad and copy the following code:

[ExtShellFolderViews]
BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC=BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC
[BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC]
IconArea_Image=Image Location

Now replace the Image Location to the path of the image. For eg F:\Images\Image1.jpg

Then save the file with name "Desktop.ini" and copy the file to the desired location.

Done! Now reopen the folder and you will see the background image .

Regards,
Prince

Improve The Performance Of Windows XP! [2]

Disable Recent Documents History

When you open a file, it is added to the 'recent documents' list. Stopping this process can improve the performance a little bit. And also you can maintain your privacy.

Here's how to do it.

• Go to Start -> Run -> type regedit and hit enter.
• Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer.
• Create a DWORD value (right click->new->DWORD value) with the key NoRecentDocsHistory and set the value to 1.
• Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.

Disable Prefetch

The 'prefetch' feature is the sixth sense of the operating system. It preloads programs that you use frequently. But it can reduce the amount of RAM available to you. So it is better to turn off this feature on low memory systems. Don't turn off this feature if you have more than 256 MB of RAM.

• Go to regedit
• Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\PrefetchParameters\EnablePrefetcher]
• Set the value to 0.
  
• Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.
  

Enjoy!
Prince

Increase the performance of Windows XP!

Deleting unwanted startup items.
Go to Start menu->Programs->Startup. Delete the unwanted startup items in this menu . For eg: MS Office. Now let’s do it in a more advanced way. From the start menu click on Run and type msconfig and cilck ok. This will launch the system configuration utility. Now click on the startup tab. A list of programs starting along with windows can be seen. Enable those ones which you want (for example antivirus software) and usually 95% of the startup items are useless. So disable all those useless ones. Remember that by doing this you are only preventing the software from starting along with windows. You can start them manually at any time.

Deleting Temporary files and cleaning up the registry.
Temporary files are residual files that remain after program installations, or that are created by programs when the programs shut down abnormally. These files will slow down your system and will occupy a lot of space too. These files can be deleted using several methods.

Registry is another very important part of the operating system. It stores very important information about the software, users, their settings etc. Sometimes unwanted keys pile up in the registry. Usually this occurs due to improper removal of software. Manually editing the registry is too dangerous.

It is better to use a software in this situation. It is easy and will take no time. CCleaner or Crap cleaner is probably the best option. You can download it from here.
Download and install it. To delete temporary files, run ccleaner, go to the cleaner tab and click on the analyze button and after the analysis click on run cleaner. Done!
Now to clean the registry, click on the Registry tab and after that click on the scan for issues button. When the scan gets complete, click on Fix selected issues button. You should always backup the changes you have made to the registry. Crap cleaner can be used for deleting startup items also. Some other functions of Ccleaner are not described here since they have nothing to do with the performance of a computer.

Note: Cleaning up registry will not increase the speed of your computer by much. There are 1000s of keys in the registry. So removing 50 or 60 of them will not make your system run faster. But your computer will become more stable. Thats for sure.

Changing the file system.

File system plays an important role in the performance of a computer. It is of two kind : FAT and NTFS. FAT is the older one and NTFS is relatively newer. NTFS has so many advantages over FAT. It is quick, safe… Still most of the people are using the FAT file system. To know which file system your computer has, right click on my computer icon on desktop->manage->Disk management (under storage tab). Now on the right side of the window the list of partitions and their details will appear.If you have FAT file system, you should convert it into NTFS. Here is how you do it without losing data (I mean without formatting the drive).
Start->Run->type cmd and hit enter. The command prompt will appear. Now type convert driveletter:/fs:ntfs Eg. convert c:/fs:ntfs. Done! This is a very useful tweak.


More tips will be posted in the next post...