If you are not able to remove or uninstall an application in Windows XP using either the Uninstall option or the Add/Remove Programs tool, you could try using the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility. As long as you installed the application using the Windows Installer, this utility will remove all the folders, files, registry keys, and entries from your system and allow you to start over with a clean slate. Just follow these steps:

1. Download the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility from the Microsoft Download Center.
2. Run the msicuu2.exe file you downloaded to install the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.
3. Locate and launch the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility on the Start menu.
4. From the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility window, locate the application in the list you want to remove and click the Remove button.
5. Once the application has been removed, click the Exit button to close the utility. The application should now be completely removed from your Windows XP system.

For instance: a common problem is caused by the Windows Live package installer. When you launch it (while having the Windows Live beta installed on your machine) you’ll get an error message right at the beginning of the installation process. In the following example you can replace the Windows Live Messenger 2009 beta with the stable version 8.5. Basically, you can do this with any other program in the suite: Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Toolbar, Windows Live Writer.

How to remove Windows Live Messenger 2009 beta and reinstall 8.5 Final:

• Go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs
• Select Windows Live Beta (all programs) and click on Change/Remove
• In the dialog window choose: “Install or uninstall” > Continue
• In the dialog window “Choose what you want to install or uninstall” uncheck the programs you want to uninstall (in this case I’ll choose only “Messenger Beta” to uncheck)
• Wait for the installation to finish (> Close) and shut down the Control Panel
• Install Windows Install Cleanup utility and run the program: (Start > All Programs > Windows Install Clean Up)
• Delete Windows Live beta installation data by choosing “Windows Live beta (all programs)” > Remove
• Exit Windows Install Cleanup
• Launch older WL package installer. Now it should launch with no errors!
• Check the programs you want to install (in this case Messenger)
• Close the package installer when it’s finished and you’re done!!!

Short explanation
Apparently, the version number of the stable installation package caused this fatal error “catastrophic failure” that interrupted the installation. Windows Installer does that because it compares the version numbers of the two packages and decides hence that the one installed is the most recent. The workaround uses the Windows Install Cleanup utility to clear all the information and data regarding a certain installation from the Windows Installer’ database. So, as we did this to Windows Live beta package installer, no comparison of versions could be carried out, and therefore, the installation was not interrupted.

I got an email from the fine folks at Slacker this morning informing me that their iPhone (and iPod touch) app is now live on iTunes. Like the Blackberry version, this app is completely free, and oh so awesome I might add.

Slacker Mobile for iPhone and iPod touch:
-Free music library featuring millions of songs
-High-quality stereo playback from any wireless connection
-Over 100 professionally programmed genre stations
-Create custom artist stations
-Fine tune stations to play more of the music you like
-View artist biographies and photos
-View album art and reviews
-"Peek Ahead" artist and album preview
-Pause and skip songs
-Rate songs as favorites
-Ban the songs and artists you don't like.

Slacker radio app at iTunes
Slacker is really going the extra mile. They've worked really hard on this app, so I'm surprised they're not charging for it. I'd gladly pay something for it if I owned an iPhone or Blackberry. Hopefully this strategy pays off for them and the service becomes a success.
Continue reading to see screens of the Slacker radio app on the Apple iPhone...
[ Read the rest ... ]

Miro is a free and open source internet TV platform and video player that can play virtually any video including, QuickTime, WMV, MPEG, AVI, and XVID. The real strength of this application however, is the ability you now have, with Miro installed, to subscribe to any video RSS feed, pod cast, or Video Site/Blog such as YouTube, Google Video, and Yahoo Video, through channels. When a channel is created in Miro, the program checks for updates periodically and will retrieve content for you through a HTTP download, or the included BitTorrent client. Given that your computer screen is, in reality, a high-definition display, you can watch these videos in HD full screen. To make it easier for you to find content for viewing, the included channel guide service is comprised of more than 1,800 channels which are searchable by category, keyword, popularity, or language.

Some of Miro’s great features include:
Built-in Channel Guide - explore hundreds of free Internet television channels, Bittorrent download, Manageable Hard Drive folders, Resume playback, Channel surfing, Organizing video feeds by topic, Video sharing and hosting, Creating videos.

Last year, the Participatory Culture Foundation released a new version of the Miro client wich, among other things, features a completely overhauled Bittorrent implementation. From the Miro blog:

"With this update, Miro is truly a powerhouse for torrent feeds, if I do say so myself. Torrents are still a difficult and mysterious technology for many users, despite the huge bandwidth savings they provide to publishers. We aim to make your torrent experience seamless at worst and invisible at best."

One example: The mainline client doesn't support UPnP port forwarding. This has been especially problematic for a client like Miro that aims to have a more mainstream user base that doesn't know how to configure routers, resulting in many Miro users downloading torrents without opening the right ports in their firewalls and then complaining about slow downloads. The client's developers have switched over to the libtorrent library with this release. Holmes Wilson from the Participatory Culture Foundation explains:

"It's fast, it does port forwarding with UPnP, supports trackerless, and it supports encryption (a big deal for certain ISPs that throttle Bittorrent). It also let us give users more control over torrent behavior, like setting upstream and downstream caps."

This program continues to receive high praise from video geeks, and it’s worth adding to your entertainment applications.
Miro is amazing for torrent feeds, like the ones on tvrss.net. And there's a great site that uses that in a 1-click way: TvFreedom. You can add it as a 'channel guide'.

The build of the final version is 14.0.8050.1202, same as the RC. It was only revealed at the CES 2009, that the Live Wave 3 is out of Beta, and now bundled as Windows Live Essentials. Microsoft does not provide standalone individual setup installer for each application now, however, the setup file for them can be retrieved from sub-folders inside \Program Files\Common Files\Windows Live\.cache\ folder after installation completed successfully. The complete offline installer is available for download from Microsoft here: Windows Live Essentials offline installer(134 MB).

What’s new in Windows Live Messenger 2009?
-User interface has been updated, including the toasts
-Sign-in screen has been restyled
-New program/tray icon
-Updated e-mail icon showing number of new e-mails more clearly
-Updated Group window header
-SkyDrive officially replaces sharing folders feature
-What’s new per contact in conversation window
-Change scene option added to status dropdown list
-More default Scenes
-Updated and new static/animated display pictures featuring the Messenger buddy, Morty and Daisy
-Windows 7 Jumplists
-Save pictures presented through PhotoShare.

We compared this final version (14.0.8050.1202) with the previous (latest) beta version and there is no difference between the two, but Microsoft would have thought that the latest beta was worthy to become the final. So download the final version if you have not updated to the last Messenger version (beta), otherwise there's no need to update to the current final version. Link: Download Windows Live Messenger 9 (from the official website of Windows Live).

[Click Here] to download Windows Live Messenger 2009 Final web setup
[Click Here] to download Windows Live Messenger 2009 standalone offline installer + Other Windows Live apps
[Click Here] to download the Dutch version of Windows Live Installer 2009 standalone

Spotify is a lean, downloadable application that lets users stream music instantly from its library--a library built with the blessing of EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and some smaller record labels. That, of course, begs the question: how does it make money? Spotify offers two ways to use its service, a free service sponsored by ads, and a paid subscription service.

Once downloaded, the service allows users to search its music catalog by artist, genre, or title, and stream the tracks on-demand any number of times. One of the cooler features is the ability to create and share playlists (a la the now-defunct Muxtape). And the service recently added the ability to scrobble the songs you listen to through Spotify on Last.fm.

That's the good news. Now for the bad news: It isn't officially available in the U.S. yet (though a Digg commenter did provide a way for people to try it out Stateside, at least temporarily). Right now it can be accessed in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. And the company plans to roll out its service to new markets in 2009, according to its Web site.

Judging from comments on TorrentFreak, Digg, and TechCrunch, the service seems to have impressed people who have tried it with its speed, usability, and depth of songs (though it's taken dings for sound quality, frequency of commercials, and lack of portability). I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but as a music fan who got pretty fed up with the repetition of songs on Pandora's artist radio stations over the holiday break, I think this looks very promising.

Currently, potential users have three choices if they want to become a member of Spotify. Day passes, giving users 24-hour access, are available to buy from spotify.com for 99p, while a premium account costs £9.99 per month. Alternatively, current members can send invites to others allowing them to use the service for free.
Update: NME.COM has been given an exclusive link where readers can sign up and experience Spotify for free immediately - just go to Spotify.com/en/get-started to join up.

Microsoftie Brandon LeBlanc admits that the Windows 7 beta release scramble "was not ideal" and says the company will extend its availability beyond the 2.5M cap until January 24th. "We have clearly heard that many of you want to check out the Windows 7 Beta and, as a result, we have decided remove the initial 2.5 million limit on the public beta for the next two weeks (thru January 24th). During that time you will have access to the beta even if the download number exceeds the 2.5 million unit limit".

Though their initial underestimation of demand did smack of cluelessness, it's nice to see Microsoft making amends for a rocky couple of days. As of now you can get the download and the free product key to unlock it by visiting the Windows 7 Beta site straight on (no secret direct download links required). If that doesn't work, follow these instructions:

Step 1: Log onto [technet.microsoft.com] by clicking on "Sign in" in the upper right corner with your Microsoft Passport ID. (i.e.: Hotmail, etc.)
Step 2: Copy (don't CLICK!) one of the links below to the address bar and press Enter.
32-Bit key: [www.microsoft.com] (Copy and Paste!)
64-bit key: [www.microsoft.com] (Copy and Paste!)
Tip: You can use the 64-bit during a 32-bit installation and a 32-bit key during a 64-bit installation. (It seems that getting a 64-bit key is faster!)
Step 3: If you receive an error, just press CTRL+ F5 (non-cache reload) to refresh. (I had to refresh more than 10 times before I received the key), if you're being redirected then you didn't follow the steps 1 and 2 correctly!
If you followed the steps correct you should see your key (depending on your version it could also say Windows 7 Beta 32-bit Product Key).

Download the Windows 7 Beta 32-bit version
Download the Windows 7 Beta 64-bit version

A Webware 100 winner from 2007, Soonr is back with with a fresh new look and a killer iPhone application. Soonr's free service and accompanying iPhone app allow you to store up to 500MB of files, which you can access on the go, from the iPhone or a standard web browser.

New users create their account on their iPhone and then download a desktop application (available for PC or Mac) which handles the synchronization of files. In the same form of other desktop syncing applications, the user only has to choose the directories that they want to keep updated and any changes made will be automatically uploaded. All of these files are easily accessible from the iPhone app.

Not only does Soonr allow you to have very quick access to your documents from the iPhone, but it allows you to share the documents with other users. These users can view and comment on the file. Unfortunately Soonr does not currently have the capability for editing these documents. Soonr also includes a wireless printing feature, which allows for printing to networked printers if you are on WiFi.

My only real gripe with the iPhone app is the lack of full screen support within the document viewer. The iPhone's document viewer does a better job of actually displaying documents than Soonr's.

Soonr is a great solution for iPhone users looking to have constantly synchronized documents on the go. Soonr is very easy to use, fully featured, and best of all, free.

Via MG Siegler at VentureBeat.

(TMZ.com) - TMZ has learned more about the medical condition of John Travolta's son, Jett, and the medication that ultimately didn't work.

We're now told the grand mal seizures Jett suffered were "frequent and extremely serious." Travolta's lawyers, Michael Ossi and Michael McDermott, tell us "each seizure was like a death," with Jett losing consciousness and convulsing.

We now know Jett was taking a drug called Depakote, a strong anti-seizure medication. There have been reports Travolta refused to give his son anti-seizure meds because of Scientology but those stories are not true.

Jett had been having seizures on an average of every four days, until he started taking Depakote. Ossi and McDermott say the drug initially worked, reducing the frequency to approximately once every three weeks.

Jett took Depakote for "several years," but it eventually lost its effectiveness, according to Ossi and McDermott. They say the Travoltas were concerned about possible physical damage. And, Jett went back to having around one seizure a week. So Travolta and Preston, after consulting neurosurgeons, stopped administering the drug. No one is suggesting withdrawal of the medicine in any way caused the fatal episode.

(Newser.com) – An autopsy later today may answer the questions surrounding Jett Travolta's untimely death, but the seizures he suffered remain largely shrouded in mystery. Epilepsy is a catch-all diagnosis for those who suffer seizures—which can be caused by infections, autism, head trauma, even medications, a neurologist tells USA Today. Treatment can be painful, and is ineffective a third of the time.

Seizure medications carry serious side effects, including liver damage and dizzy spells. Children comprise 30% of the 180,000 epilepsy cases that develop annually, leaving parents like the Travoltas to make difficult decisions about treatment. They also have to keep a constant eye on the child, since falling and drowning are the leading causes of death by seizure.

Gladinet is a new Windows utility that aims to help bridge the divide between desktop and web-based applications and storage. Here's how it works. You install the free (at least while in Beta) Gladinet utility and select the web based services and applications that you want to access locally. For example, you can mount your Windows Live SkyDrive or Amazon S3 Storage as a local drive that you can access using Windows Explorer.

You can also mount your Google Picasa Web Albums and Google Docs folders as if they were local folders, allowing you to upload, download, and access documents and images stored on Google's servers as if they were on your desktop.

But the ability to mount remote storage as a local folder is just the tip of the iceberg. You can also use Gladinet to launch web based applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar, or ThinkFree Doc, XLS, or PPT viewers in a standalone window as if they were desktop apps.

Last, but certainly not least, you can use Gladinet to mount folders on remote computers as local folders. [via ReadWriteWeb]

It’s great to be able to carry all your personal information around at all time on your mobile phone. However, the problem with handheld devices has always been that accessing and working with this data is a very fiddly affair on the small screen. Thankfully, there are a number of services around that allow you to retrieve and manage your mobile phone data from a PC, making it much easier to use this information, as well as safeguarding private details.

One of the most popular mobile backup services is ZYB, which is free to use and works with a wide range of devices, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Motorola (Windows Mobile users will need to pay for a third party client to use it). ZYB allows you to store your phone’s contacts, SMS messages, pictures and calendar events online. By syncing your Internet-enabled phone over the air, each time you add or edit data on your handset or on ZYB, your ZYB account is copied onto your phone, and vice versa. One of ZYB’s strong points is it social networking approach. You can easily tag photos of people and share content with friends. ZYB also includes a Twitter-style feature ‘Shouts’. Shouts are short messages that you post to your profile. Your buddies can subscribe to your Shouts and everytime you post a new one they will get a text message on their phone.

If you’re using Windows Mobile I suggest you try the equally excellent, Dashwire. The service works in a similar way to ZYB, i.e. it utilises your phone’s wireless Internet connection to sync data over the air. The ‘My Dashwire’page on your PC allows you to view text messages, reply to, delete and forward them. A great idea for those times when you don’t have your mobile to hand and want to keep up an SMS conversation. Like ZYB, Dashwire offers a way to share your pictures in the form of a kind-of photo blog, known as a shared page. Anyone can view this page, or you can tweak the privacy settings to only grant access to people you want to see your snaps.

A third mobile backup service you may want to try if you get no joy with the two mentioned above, is MightyPhone. One of the longest-running services of its kind, MightyPhone is available for a number of BREW-enabled phones, including LG, Samsung and Motorola devices. It provides wireless syncing with Outlook, Outlook Express and Lotus Notes, as well as customisable alerts, so that when your schedule or contacts change on your PC, you’ll know about it on your phone.

Now that you've seen all the big names and launches of 2008, it's time to give a nod to the apps that didn't get the attention they should have this past year. If you're sick of hearing about Firefox and the iPhone and Gmail and Chrome, you're in the right place. Let's take a look at the least hyped software that launched or saw great improvements in 2008, and give 'em the love they deserve.

Songbird
The open-source, cross-platform music player Songbird was supposed to do for your tunes what Firefox did for your web browsing: free you from the claws of iTunes and offer extensibility and general awesomeness. Back in November, the first release candidate of Songbird didn't quite deliver, but the final 1.0 release this week absolutely did, now that the bird plays iTunes Store purchases and ironed out its major wrinkles. Songbird was the application most readers cried foul about for being excluded on our first list of best apps in 2008. Don't forget to check out an excellent review [OnSoftware] and my own post on The Vault.

Dropbox
Cross-platform, file-syncing-via-the-cloud web service and application Dropbox debuted this year, offering 2GB of free storage for non-paying users. If that's not enough space for all your documents, Dropbox at least is a fabulous tool for syncing your passwords across all your computers.

Ubiquity
The most impressive prototype that came out of Mozilla Labs this year, the Ubiquity Firefox extension is an ambitious attempt at offering smart and extensible keyboard access to data between applications, so you can, for example, include a Google map to an address inside a new Gmail message without ever switching tabs. Users have complained that the still-fetal Ubiquity prototype slows down Firefox, but the Quicksilver-like concept behind Ubiquity is way impressive. Hopefully we'll see a more fleshed-out and speedy implementation in the coming year.

Picasa 3
Our favorite free software for managing your photo library on your desktop, Picasa, got an upgrade to version 3 this year that added several new features and reduced the need for a separate photo editing tool even more. Picasa's the software you want to install on your parents' computer over the holidays so they can make a photo-mosaic of the grandkids.

VLC
A perennial reader favorite and number two on our list of free software packages we're most thankful for, the open-source, cross-platform VLC media player continues to just get better. VLC will play anything you throw at it; check out how to master your digital media.

Evernote
Note-taking tool Evernote is one of the best ways for a student or human with an overactive frontal lobe to capture ideas and randomata on any platform—from computer to iPhone to back of the napkin—wherever you are. See more on how to expand your brain.

Fedora
Always living in the shadow of the more popular Ubuntu distro must be hard for Fedora, yet the user-friendly Linux package soldiered on this year with two new releases (Fedora 9 and this week, Fedora 10). Fedora came in a distant fourth in our battle of the Linux distros, but it's user-friendly live USB creator and attractive desktop makes it a worthy contender for the Windows user interested in trying out a flavor of Linux.

OpenOffice.org 3
Often poo-pooed for its slowness and bloat, free, open-source office suite OpenOffice.org's 3.0 release this year did impress. While it's not Microsoft Office 2007, it IS the go-to solution for poor students and starving artists who just need to edit that Word document. An even better alternative is ThinkFree Office, read it on my blog.

Opera
While our current browser stats show usage numbers that trail behind newcomer Chrome, Opera users are almost religious about their love for the free browser. This past year we said Opera 9.5 was still in the browser race, and then the update to version 9.6 added more features. Opera 10's first alpha became available this week as well.

Optimizing a Bittorrent client, like Vuze, for speed is an easy process: Choose a proper port, clear that port through software firewall and router and adjust internal settings based upon upload capacity of the internet connection. Basically, the port forwarding allows incoming communications and the capping of upload allows room for outgoing communications. This guide hopes to clearly and concisely set forth these basic steps to getting the best download speed in Vuze. There are some programs that claim they can increase download speed in Vuze. Those programs should be avoided as they generally contain adware or spyware and can do no more than proper setup of the client as set forth herein. This guide is based upon entries at the Azureus-Wiki and the Vuze forums.

Note When viewing this guide in Internet Explorer the Mac command key symbol appears as a box. I do not know why yet. Also, in IE, this guide is now showing at the bottom of the page, with the top blank. This apparently is due to the recent change in layout here, but the reason has not been determined.
This guide will work for all versions of Azureus or Vuze (including the new 4.0) and BitTyrant.

• Forwarding the Port - This allows incoming connections. If your network indicator is not showing green, then you should follow these steps.
• Adjusting Internal Settings - Primarily this caps upload to allow room for outgoing communications. There are other adjustments to ensure that your upload is distributed properly. If you have a green network indicator, then you can go to this section.
• Good Torrents - This section links to the Good Torrents page at the Azureus-Wiki to give an idea of which torrents will most likely give the best download speed.
• Related Articles - If you are still having speed issues, there are some additional settings in the Additional Vuze Settings article that may help, as well as articles on torrent search siites, linked to here.