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Filed under: Utilities, Windows

Make a bootable USB installer for Windows XP, Vista, 7 with WinToFlash

Windowsby Lee Mathews Aug 27th 2009

Making a bootable USB flash drive for Windows Vista and Windows 7 isn't all that tricky, but it's always nice to find an app that simplifies things. Not only does WinToFlash make the process about as easy as it can get, but it can also create Windows XP, Server 2003, and Server 2008 installers.

The default options make it easy to roll a silent Windows install, or you can flip the custom switch and specify the exact setup parameters you want to use.

The handy app also has one more trick up its sleeve: moving Windows Preinstall environments. PE discs can be extremely handy for troubleshooting and repairs, and being able to painlessly zap them over to a USB flash drive means not having to burn a new copy every time someone's haggard old optical drive decides to chew up your CD.

WinToFlash is a free download and is totally portable. It's an excellent tool to add to your USB-related utilities.

Tags: bootable usb, BootableUsb, installation, setup, windows install, WindowsInstall, wintoflash

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft, Commercial

How to make a clean Vista install from an upgrade DVD

Windowsby Jordan Running Feb 1st 2007

Windows VistaOoh. Here's a bit of an "oops" for Microsoft: It turns out it's possible, with no hacking or advanced skills required, to make a full-blown clean install of Windows Vista from a Vista upgrade DVD. Seeing as the upgrade disc costs about two thirds what the full version does, that seems like a pretty big oversight. DailyTech has the scoop. The process is very easy, but takes a bit of legwork. Here's the basics:
  1. Boot from your Vista upgrade DVD.
  2. Don't enter your product key when prompted; click "Next" instead, which will install a 30-day trial version of Vista.
  3. Once your new trial boots up, launch setup from the DVD again, from within Vista.
  4. Enter your product key when prompted, and then choose Custom (advanced) to do a clean install (yes, you're installing Vista a second time).
  5. Congratulations, you've got Vista!
According to Paul Thurrott, all of this info is actually contained within internal Microsoft docs, so it's kind of amazing to me that Microsoft shipped Vista update discs with this capability. Regardless, doing this is almost certainly in violation of your license agreement, so don't try it at home (but if you do, let us know if it works).

Tags: clean install, CleanInstall, install, microsoft, setup, upgrade, vista, windows, windows visita, WindowsVisita

Filed under: Blogging, Productivity, How-Tos, Social Software

WordPress: The Complete Post-Install Checklist

by Ross McKillop Jan 15th 2007

WordPress logo One of the great things about WordPress is how easily you can have it up and running, completely customized to your liking, in such a short period of time. After setting up WordPress for several of my friends, I found that having a 'checklist' makes things go even faster - so I decided to write it all up and share with you.

Please don't hesitate to use the comments to suggest additions etc, I'll update the checklist accordingly.

Depending on how you've installed WordPress (manually or by a "one-click-install" that many hosting providers offer) - one of the very last installation steps is to choose a blog name and provide an email address. That's where this checklist begins. Click on a heading below to get started!

  1. Create blog title, add email address
  2. Change your password
  3. Disable visual rich editor
  4. Add users
  5. Change the tagline
  6. Edit Membership permissions
  7. Set a date and time format
  8. Modify Reading and Writing settings
  9. Edit Discussion settings
  10. Modify Permalinks structure
  11. Pick a theme
  12. Customize your theme
  13. Write down CSS info
  14. Change title format
  15. Edit blogroll
  16. Edit the About page
  17. Add some categories
  18. Edit the example post for testing
  19. Install plugins
  20. Check blog and test plugins
  21. Create a favicon.ico
  22. Create a shortcut to the Dashboard / setup WordPress client
  23. Start posting

Read more →

Tags: blog, install, setup, tutorial, walkthrough, wordpress, wp

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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