Friday 25 April 2014

How to Customize the Lock Screen on Windows 8


Windows 8’s lock screen is very at home on a tablet, but it can also be used on laptops and desktops.  The lock screen is not just a background image – it contains widgets that display quick notifications.

These widgets, known as lock screen apps, allow you to view information – such as new emails, weather, calendar appointments, instant messages or social updates – without even unlocking your PC.

Note: Windows 8.1 works roughly the same way. The screenshots will look slightly different, but it’s nearly the same thing.

Disable the Lock Screen
If you do not like the lock screen, you do not have to use it.  Unfortunately, Microsoft has buried the “disable lock screen” option. Luckily, disabling it is simple:

How to Disable the Lock Screen Using the Registry – This process works on all editions of Windows 8.  We’ve even provided a .reg file you can easily download and double-click to make this change.
How to Disable the Lock Screen Using Group Policy –  If you have the Professional edition of Windows 8, you can use the group policy editor to disable the lock screen.
Once you’ve made this change, Windows will always display the password prompt, saving you a key-press during the login process.


Select a Lock Screen Background
Lock screen settings are located in the PC setting application on Windows 8.  To access it, open the Settings charm (press Windows Key + I to quickly open the Settings charm from anywhere in Windows) and select Change PC settings.

Select the Personalize category and select Lock screen.  Click (or tap) one of the provided background images or use the Browse button and select any image from your computer, Bing, SkyDrive, or even your camera.

If you want more features, try using the Chameleon app located in the Windows Store.  It can watch “photo of the day”-type services and automatically change your lock screen background on a schedule, a feature not included with Windows 8.


Configure Lock Screen Apps
Lock screen widgets – known as “lock screen apps” in Windows 8 – allow you to view information at a glance.  Apps added to the lock screen are allowed to run in the background when your PC is locked so they can fetch new, updated information and display it on the lock screen.

You can configure the list of lock screen apps from the Lock screen apps section below the lock screen background chooser.  Click (or tap) an icon and select the app you want in that location.  You can get more widgets by installing more Windows Store apps – apps can choose to include lock screen integration.  If you do not want any lock screen apps – or just want a few – you can select the Don’t show quick status here option.

You can also choose an app to show a more detailed status.  For example, when you choose to display a detailed weather status, you will see the weather displayed in text on your lock screen.

That’s it for customizing the lock screen – it’s all about background images and lock screen apps.  However, with custom backgrounds and apps, each person’s lock screen could look different.


How to Set a Custom Logon Screen Background on Windows 7

Windows 7 makes it possible to change the welcome screen that appears when you start your computer without any third-party software, but this setting is well hidden. You can set any image you like as your background.


If you are using Windows 8 and want to accomplish the same thing, we’ve got you covered with a tutorial on changing the lock screen in Windows 8.

This setting is intended for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to customize their systems, but there’s nothing stopping you from using it yourself. All you have to do is change a single registry value and put an image file in the correct location.


Enabling Custom Backgrounds
This feature is disabled by default, so you’ll have to enable it from the Registry Editor. You can also use the Group Policy Editor if you have a Professional version of Windows – scroll down a bit for the Group Policy Editor method.

Launch the Registry Editor by typing regedit into the search box in the Start menu and pressing Enter.

In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\LogonUI\Background


You’ll see an DWORD value named OEMBackground. If you don’t see it, right-click in the right pane, point to the New submenu and create a new DWORD value with this name.

Double-click the OEMBackground value and set its value to 1.

Note that selecting a new theme in the Appearance and Personalization window will “unset” this registry value. Selecting a theme will change the value of the key to the value stored in the theme’s .ini file, which is probably 0 – if you change your theme, you’ll have to perform this registry tweak again.


Changing the setting in group policy will allow it to persist even when you change your theme, but the Group Policy Editor is only available in Professional editions of Windows.

If you have access to the Group Policy Editor, launch gpedit.msc from the Start menu.

Navigate to the following section in the Group Policy Editor window:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Logon

You’ll find a setting named “Always use custom login background.” Double-click it and set it to Enabled.

Setting An Image
Your image file must be less than 256 KB in size. It’s also a good idea to use an image file that matches the resolution of your monitor, so it won’t look stretched.

Windows looks for the custom logon screen background image in the following directory:

C:\Windows\System32\oobe\info\backgrounds

By default, the info and backgrounds folders don’t exist. Navigate to the C:\Windows\System32\oobe folder and create them yourself by right-clicking inside the folder, pointing to New, and selecting New Folder.

Copy your desired background image to the backgrounds folder and name it backgroundDefault.jpg.

The change will take effect immediately – no system reboot required. The first time you log out or lock your screen (try the WinKey-L keyboard shortcut), you’ll see your new background.

Third-Party Tools
You don’t have to do this by hand. There are a variety of third-party tools that automate this process for you, like Windows Logon Background Changer, which we’ve covered in the past. Windows Logon Background Changer and other utilities just change this registry value and put the image file in the correct location for you.


To get the default logon screen back, just delete the backgroundDefault.jpg file. Windows will use the default background if no custom background image is available.





Wednesday 23 April 2014

Use Multiple WhatsApp Accounts on your Android Device


We know that WhatsApp is the most widely used messaging service between the mobiles. Moreover it also allows users to share images, videos, music files etc. Even the latest version of Android also supports audio messaging. Right now there are more than 200 million active users on WhatsApp which carries more than 20 billion messages across the globe. Despite having other messaging available chat, users prefer WhatsApp over the other one due to its simplicity and instant messaging service.

But you might have faced the problem that you cannot use more than one WhatsApp accounts on mobile. Dual SIM users always wish to use two different accounts on their mobile. Earlier it was very difficult but now it is possible with the help of SwitchMe multiple accounts App. Even single SIM users can use this app to use multiple accounts.


Disclaimer
Incorrect use of SwitchMe multiple user account application can potentially harm your device. It is recommended that you should take nandroid backup of device so that it can be restored if anything goes wrong. Follow this article to take a nandroid backup. Read the article completely before implementing it.


Pre-requisites
The most important thing is you must have rooted your device (mobile/tablet). Without root access you cannot use SwitchMe app.
Most of the devices are compatible as long as they have enough free internal memory. For low specification device it might work slowly than the others.
SwitchMe multiple account app.
Whatsapp for your device. (Of course)
Before moving to the procedure let’s know how SwitchMe multiple account works.

SwitchMe multiple user account


Just like we have multiple user accounts, we do have same thing for Android. For that we need SwitchMe multiple user account app. SwitchMe allows you to log in and out of multiple user spaces just as you would on a desktop computer, with each account having its own system settings, apps and data. But a root access is must for it.

By using this app you can create multiple accounts like one for battery saving which contains essential apps only or one for high performance. Each account will have its own settings, applications and data. The data from the other profile is not accessible to current profile.

The free version of SwitchMe allows only 2 accounts without any security feature. For multiple accounts, you need to spend few bucks to get SwtichMe multiple accounts key. Let’s see how to use multiple Whatsapp accounts on your mobile.

How to use multiple WhatsApp accounts on Android device


First download and install SwitchMe multiple account app from play store.
Click here to download.
Open this app. It will ask for Superuser request. Make it grant (You won’t get this message if you have default access grant).
Now create profile a user profile with your name. This profile is an administrator account which contains all the current apps and settings. If you are currently using WhatsApp, it will be present here in this profile.
Create another profile in SwitchMe with some other name. Select this account and choose Switch option written below.


Your device will be rebooted automatically (It will take few minutes for booting).
If you are booting for the first time, you’ll need to follow all the steps like select language etc. (the steps that you did for first time after the purchase of a phone).
Here you will not see any app that you have installed in primary account.
Now install Whatsapp again and register it for different SIM. (Remember only one WhatsApp account can be registered per number).
If SIM you are registering for WhatsApp is not present in your mobile, then message verification will fail at the time of registration.
Don’t worry. Select Call Me option. You will get a call on that number. Hear verification code on call and note it down. Now enter it in Whatsapp. With this you will successfully register WhatsApp.
That’s it! Now you can use multiple WhatsApp accounts on your Android device. Only thing you have to do is switch the user profile whenever you want you use other account. If you have any problems regarding procedure, do not hesitate to ask us. We are always there to help you.




Change bootanimation on any phone

Ever stumbled upon a cool boot animation on a friend’s Android device or a presentation on the Web? It isn’t hard to make your own. In fact, we are going to show you in this post, two ways to create a custom boot animation for your own device.


To use this method, you will need a file manager app with Root access. In this quicktip, we will be using the Root Browser app.

1. Download a custom boot animation you want to use by choosing the animation you want to use and downloading the associated bootanimation.zip file. (Here is another place to find custom animations to use.)

2. Open Root Browser (or your file manager) app and once inside, locate your original boot animation file (bootanimation.zip) in /system/media.

3. Long-press the file, choose Rename and name it to bootanimation.zip1.


4. Next, browse to the custom boot animation that you want to switch to, copy the zip file to /system/media. Long-press, choose Permission.

5. Tick the boxes as shown in the screenshot below, and press OK. After that, rename the file to bootanimation.zip, if the zip file name is different.

Note: You have to make sure that the file name is correct (bootanimation.zip) for the system to recognize your boot animation, and boot properly.


6. Now you should be able to see two zip files, one, bootanimation.zip (new file) and the other is bootanimation.zip1 (original).

Note: If you ever want to switch back to your original boot animation, delete the current bootanimation.zip and rename the original file back to bootanimation.zip (from bootanimation.zip1).

7. Reboot the device and you will be able to see your new custom boot animation!


 

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