Remove undesirable comments on YouTube

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Visual Controls Updated, Remove Third Party Control Panel Applets

The Windows control panel is one of the central hubs of the operating system. It links to administrative tools, lets you maintain your system or troubleshoot it. Third party applications can – and will – add their own icons to the control panel which in itself is not a big issue. Examples of programs that do that are Oracle’s Java, Adobe’s Flash Player, or Nvidia with its control panel.

When you uninstall those programs later, it can happen that their icons in the control panel stay behind. That’s only the icon then with no functionality attached to it anymore.

Visual Controls was created back in 2008 to give Windows users an option to remove third party control panel applets from the operating system again. You can use the software to remove leftover icons or to remove icons from existing programs that you do not want to appear in the control panel.

You can start the program right after you have unpacked it on your system. It requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 or higher to run, which is a given on the majority of operating systems it supports The new version is now fully compatible with Windows 7, and Vista, XP and even Windows 2000. The developer has improved compatibility with older versions of Windows as well in this release. Please note that Visual Controls requires administrative privileges to run.

The program lists all third party control panel applets in its interface once you have started the application.

Just uncheck the applets that you do not want to see anymore in the control panel, and click the apply button afterwards. Applets are listed in alphabetically order, another change in the new version. Once you hit the apply button you will notice that the selected items have been removed from the control panel. You can add them again at a later time by repeating the same steps.

The developer has added several command line arguments to the app which extend the functionality further. You can use the command –enable-global-mode to disable select control panel applets for all users of the system, and –disable-blacklist to display first party applets as well. Both options can be extremely useful for system administrators.

The developer has improved Visual Controls significantly. Better compatibility, and the command line options are especially noteworthy in this regards.

Manage Additional Control Panel Extensions
Display All Windows 7 Control Panel Tools At Once
Put Anything you want into the Control Panel
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Companel, Manage My Computer, Control Panel Items

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday March 26, 2012 -
Tags:control-panel, windows software

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How To Uninstall Firefox Add-ons With No Remove Option

You can uninstall most Firefox add-ons from the addons manager page in the web browser. All you need to do is type in about:addons in the address bar and tap on the enter key to open the page. A click on remove next to an add-on uninstalls it from the browser. You may need to restart the browser to complete the process. The add-on afterwards has been removed completely.

Some add-ons on the other hand do not show a remove option at all in the addons manager. Most of the add-ons that you cannot uninstall from within the browser are called global extensions. They are installed from third party sources, for instance when you install or update security software or another application on your system. The Babylon Toolbar is an example extension as it is often attached to software installations.

The majority of extensions are installed in the extensions directory of the Firefox profile folder. I’d suggest you start there to see if the extension that you want to remove from Firefox is listed there.

You may run into two issues here. First that extensions sometimes install with cryptic names so that it may be difficulty to identify them, and second that you may not find the extension that you want to uninstall listed here.

The easiest way to identify add-ons here is to load them into archiving software like 7-zip. Double-click on the install.rdf afterwards and look for name there.

Some extensions are already unpacked in a folder. Just open the folder of the extension in that case and double-click on the install.rdf file in there to identify its name.

It is however likely that you do not see the extension in the directory.

Global extensions

Global extensions can be installed into any directory. The most likely folder is the extensions folder in the Firefox installation folder. This is usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\extensions for 64-bit Windows operating systems, and C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\extensions for 32-bit systems. Keep in mind though that you can install Firefox into any directory. Portable Firefox users need to open the extensions folder under the portable path.

Repeat the steps outlined above to identify all extensions listed here.

The third and final option is the Windows Registry. You may find extension information under the following two Registry keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions\

Use the shortcut Windows-r to bring up the run box. Enter regedit in there and hit enter. Navigate to the keys in the Windows Registry and check if extensions are listed there.

Information that you will find there includes the extension path.

Backup the Registry key first by selecting File > Export. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the directory of the extension. Backup that directory as well, before you delete both the directory and the Registry key that links to it. Repeat the step for all extensions that you want to delete.

Please note that you need to close Firefox before you start deleting extensions on the system this way.

If you follow the method, you should be able to delete any extension that you cannot uninstall from within the browser interface.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Remove Locales To Make Firefox Start Faster
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Uninstall The Search Helper Extension In Firefox About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday February 4, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, firefox tips

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RogueKiller, Remove Rogue Security Software On Your PC

Rogueware, or rogue security software, is a class of malicious software that disguises itself as legit security software. These programs often have the look and feel of antivirus applications, but instead of protecting the computer from malicious software, they do the exact opposite. The majority of rogue applications fake infections of the system to scare users into paying for a necessary upgrade to remove the infection from their computer system.

It is sometimes difficulty to remove rogueware from a PC, as they may block legit antivirus software and important system tools from running on it while the rogue software is running.

RogueKiller is a free small program that analyzes the system for rogue software. It works in this regard similar to Fake Antivirus Remover, a program which we have reviewed in the past here on Ghacks. The program scans known rogueware locations, including running processes, the Windows Registry, drivers, the hosts file and the master boot record.

The following screen is displayed after you start the portable software.

The developer suggests to close all other programs running on the system before you start the program. First thing that you may want to do then is to scan the system. Just press 1 on the keyboard and hit enter afterwards to run the scan. This takes less than a minute, and a protocol is displayed as a text document afterwards.

This protocol lists relevant findings sorted by type.

The program detects dozens of rogue antivirus software including MicroVaccine, CheckSpeed, ProtectCop, SmartSafer or MicroPC. You may need to analyze the text file to see if the rogue software has modified core system settings and locations. The program ships with options to delete or repair some of them automatically. This includes options to delete Registry settings, fixing the host file and proxy setting, and fixing the domain namer server settings.

The software is fully portable and compatible with recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system. You can download the latest version of Rogue Killer from the French developer website.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Remove Fake Antivirus Software Programs
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Completely Remove Security Software With AppRemover About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Saturday January 14, 2012 -
Tags:rogue software

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Remove Old Chrome Versions To Save Disk Space

Back in the beginning of last year I ran a piece on how to free up disk space by removing older versions of the Chrome web browser. I started to investigate the issue after installing a Solid State Drive on my computer and noticing that it filled up rather quickly with auto-generated data. Turned out that Chrome was keeping old versions of the browser available in the Chrome directory. And while some users reported that only the last but one version was kept by Google Updater, multiple versions were kept by my Chrome installation.

This all in all turned out to waste more than 2 Gigabytes of space on my previous SSD which I could not use for other tasks instead.

Having to open the directory manually regularly is without doubt not the best way of handling the issue. Since Chrome is updating fairly regularly, you might have to check every month or so to delete unneeded versions of the browser from your hard drive.

Old Chrome Remover is a free program for the Windows operating system that can remove old versions of the Google Browser automatically from the system. It will automatically check for Chrome installations on the system when run and display all old version in a window afterwards.

The application supports not only Chrome Stable installations but also other Chrome installations including cutting edge Canary builds. Please note that it will display and offer to delete all old versions from the hard drive, with no option to manually select the versions you want deleted.

You need to press the Y key on the keyword to have the program delete all outdated Chrome installations on the system. If you do not want that you can press any other key to leave everything as is. You need to close all instances of the Chrome browser prior to deleting the old Chrome folders on the system. You will receive an access denied error message otherwise. The program needs to be run with elevated privileges under Vista and Windows 7.

Note that you should not run the tool if you have multiple Chrome channels installed on your system, as it will delete ALL old instances which means that you will end up with only one working version of Chrome (this happened on my system where I was running Dev and Canary builds of the browser. After running the tool, only the Canary build was still available, while the Dev build was not).

Old Chrome Remover is therefor only an option if you are running one version of Chrome on your system. Advanced users can use the /AUTO parameter to run the program silently.

Interested users can download Old Chrome Remover from Shane Gowlands website. Please note that the program requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 to work. (via JKWebTalks)

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday January 10, 2012 -
Tags:google chrome, windows software

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anti spyware software freeware - Why the Need to Remove Adware and Spyware

Why the Need to Remove Adware and Spyware

Spyware and adware removal nowadays is just a matter of choosing a well equipped anti-spyware program or utility. You install the software into your system and will scan and delete or quarantine spyware and adware programs that were secretly installed in your computer.

The proliferation of spyware and adware programs in the internet has lead an established and highly developed anti-spyware industry. As long as disgruntled internet users abound, the anti-spyware companies will continue to create utilities that will combat the onslaught of spyware and adware on your computers.

Basically a spyware program infects the computer through whatever files a user downloads from the internet. Adware and spyware attaches themselves on these files and can rapidly spread throughout the computer's operating system. The sypware will commonly records information like IP addresses, credit card numbers, lists websites you visit and so on.

But as the spyware infects and spreads your computer, it installs components which affect the overall performance of the computer. They can also cause a degradation of the system resulting to unwanted CPU activity, inappropriate disk usage, and problems with network traffic. All these will cause your computer to low down. It will eventually become unstable and will cause software crashes and will sometimes prevent you from connecting to your networks and to the internet.

Some spyware programs are quite obvious but others are more covert, operating undetected by the user. When problems occur in the computer's operating system, because these spywares are undetectable by ordinary means, users tend to believe that the problems were brought about by problems in the hardware or by a computer virus. But all the while, a spyware program is the one causing the ruckus.

More often not, a computer will be infected with more than one spyware program and have various components installed. Recent studies indicate that when one finds a spyware program installed in his computer, chances are dozens of the components of that spyware is installed all over the computer's system.

And as the number of spyware programs and its components increase, users will encounter problems like computer slowing its functions to a crawl. Other spyware programs are more notorious. Some spyware will disable the computer's firewall system or anti-virus software thus making the computer more vulnerable to spyware, adware and other infectious attacks.

Microsoft Windows platform users are more susceptible from these spyware and adware attacks. Probably because of the popularity of Windows which makes them an attractive and profitable target for spyware agents. Likewise, because of the tight knit Internet Explorer and Windows enjoy, IE users will most likely get an infection from spyware and adware than users of other internet browsers like FireFox.

Meanwhile other computer users are changing to Linux or Apple Macintosh platforms which appear to be less attractive to spyware and adware agents. These two platforms works on Unix underpinnings which restricts access to the operating system unlike with Windows.

It is quite unfortunate and rather irritating that spyware and adware programs grew and developed in the World Wide Web. But we cannot do anything about it now. What we can do is protect ourselves from their attacks by being cautious and by conducting regular spyware scanning and removals as well as performing regular updating of anti-virus and anti-spyware software to ensure that our computers are free from the annoying and damaging spyware.

The only way you can be sure if your computer system is infected with adware and spyware downloads is by installing an anti spyware program that will detect and flush out the unwanted programs. The proper anti spyware can also prevent future adware and spyware downloads. You need to choose an anti spyware program that does both.

Be wary of downloading anti spyware on the Net because some spyware are disguised and marketed as a free anti spyware.

One more thing you can do to protect yourself from unwittingly downloading adware and spyware programs is to read the fine print. When installing a new program into your computer, you are asked to tick off an option of whether you agree or disagree with the programs end user license agreement (EULA). Do yourself a favor and read what is written in the agreement before agreeing to proceed in the installation. Many shareware and freeware programs come bundled with spyware and adware programs and in some cases you can learn about them by reading the agreement carefully.

Because adware and spyware come bundled with your download, these programs will not run independently of the spyware it comes with. This means that if you have a good anti-spyware system installed in your computer, you won't be able to install the infected program.

Consequently, if an existing program infected with spyware is in your system, your anti spyware system will attempt to remove the infection. Since most spyware are closely bundled into certain programs, the removal of the spyware may cause the legitimate program it comes with to stop functioning as well.

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