Last week we were interested in your tweeting habits, and asked you how often you share on Twitter. We wanted to get an idea of how frequently people tweet, and found out the surprising fact that more than %40 of you don’t tweet at all.

Out of the 145 readers who voted, 19% don’t even have a Twitter account, 23% have an account but never tweet, 23% tweet 1-5 times per week, 19% tweet 1-5 times per day, 7% tweet 6-10 times per day, 5.5% tweet 11-20 times per day, and 3.5% tweet more than 2- times daily.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

While not a whole lot of readers voted, it was still surprising to find out that so many of you are not big on tweeting, with a staggering 65% who tweet 5 times a week or less. In a world so consumed by Twitter and hashtags, it’s interesting to see such results.

This week’s poll question is: What Do You Think Of Windows 8′s Metro UI?

Microsoft Metro UI is not entirely new, with early glimpses of dating back to earlier versions of Windows Media Center and Zune, but with Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8, Microsoft made sure we all heard of and knew what Metro UI is. Metro is a design language which is based on certain principles such as specific fonts, use of tiles and text for navigation, and more, and by utilizing in in Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to go in a completely different direction. This UI has gotten mixed reviews (although more good than bad), with some people thinking it’s the best thing since Windows added a Start button, and others hating the thought of having that as their main operating system. Where do you stand?

What is it about Metro UI that you like or don’t like? Do you think it’s good on some products but not on others? If so, which? We’re waiting for your comments.

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You may be taking your Skype instant messaging and video calls or your iPhone FaceTime for granted, but way back before the standalone IM client was even an idea, there was one major solution: IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

I’m not even going to pretend. I was 5 or 6 years old back in 1995 so this is well before my time, too. In the age of social networking and Internet 2.0, web-based chat rooms are practically dead. They’re all but done with; on the endangered list. Still, IRC is the most popular server/client chat protocol in the world. Maybe the rooms aren’t as active as they were 10+ years ago, but we’ve still got a pulse!

Some boredom and curiosity mixed well together and I’ve rediscovered IRC just recently. Now, I’d like to show you how to use my favorite IRC client, HydraIRC. There are a lot of multi-IM clients (like Trillian) that support the IRC protocol, but nothing really beats the efficiency and oldschool feel of a standalone chat client. You’ve probably heard of mIRC, the most popular IRC client, but here’s a few reasons why I love Hydra:

• It is portable. Download the ZIP and extract it to wherever you like. Put it in your Dropbox or on a flash drive. Portable applications beat out self-installing packages every day of the week.
• It is lightweight. mIRC is a little bulky for me.
• It is free. Everyone loves things that are free.
• It supports everything that you need in an IRC client: multiple servers, DCC, event logs, channel monitoring, an extremely flexible GUI, and more.

You can check out some more, official screenshots at the official HydraIRC website.

Anyway, rusty IRC legend or complete newbie, let’s get you started. Get HydraIRC downloaded. Next step is to figure out where you want to chat and what about, right? You want to go into the File menu, then New Server. Hydra comes preloaded with loads of the most popular IRC servers.

Now it’s on you to pick the network (and associated server) that you want. You can either query up Google and learn a bit about each, or experience can guide you. FreeNode has tons of channels for coding, tech support, general hacking, networking, and things of that nature. EFNet is your oldschool “general” server. QuakeNet and GameSurge are for gamers, and so on.
For this example, let’s go ahead and go on GameSurge. Double click GameSurge, click the IRC server that expands beneath it, and then click OK to connect.

Every server consists of many channels (or rooms). Upon connecting, the Channel List window will pop up. If it doesn’t, you can click into the Channel menu and then Channel List. Click Populate List and after a second, you’ll have a list of every channel on the server. Click the Users header once and you’ll have sorted the channels by the most users. Scroll through, see if there are any you may be interested in, and then click Join.

This is how you join an IRC server and a channel (the easy way). There are hundreds and hundreds of servers out there and thousands of channels. There’s probably an active channel for just about any subject that comes to mind. It’s good to have it sitting in your taskbar for idle moments in between tasks.

If you need any help or want to dive deeper into the subject, let’s chat in the comments. If you really like IRC chatting, consider setting up your own IRC channel and read our post on that.

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Despite the many reasons why people preach the use of Linux, actually going through with the switch is a completely different story. I know this only too well as I went through the exact same process before everything came together and I fell in love with Linux. However, I have to admit that it took a while with numerous attempts at using Linux for more than a week.

It’s not that Linux is hard to use or understand, but it simply doesn’t fit the Windows mindset that most people have. Expecting to do everything in Linux exactly like in Windows is where problems start appearing, which can easily deter a good number of users. Thankfully, there is now a Linux distribution that could make the process a whole lot easier.

About Zorin OS

Zorin OS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, but besides identical packages and base system there are some major differences between the two. One of the major goals of Zorin OS is to offer a user interface that is similar to that of Windows, making Windows users feel more comfortable when they use Zorin OS. I must say that Zorin OS does a pretty good job with it.

Downloading

You can download the ISO for Zorin OS by going to this page and downloading their “Core” ISO. The developers also offer lite and educational variations for you to download, but in most cases you’ll have the better experience with just the core. This review will focus on the Core edition.

Additionally you’ll find a Premium page where they offer you Ultimate, Business, Multimedia, and Gaming editions, which is mostly just the Core software with many additional applications for that type of system. The effort it takes to put all those extra programs into the ISO is why they charge for those editions.

Once you have your downloaded ISO burned onto a CD, written to USB, or ready to go for VirtualBox, you can boot straight into the live environment. Loading shouldn’t take very long, and in no time you’ll be presented with the Zorin OS desktop.

Desktop

As you might recognize, the default look for Zorin OS mimics Windows 7 quite well. There are only a couple of shortcuts found on the desktop, and in the taskbar you’ll find the Start menu on the left (with Zorin OS branding, of course), the icon tray on the right, and then in the middle you’ll find the cool looking buttons that show which programs are currently open (do those even have a technical name?). Overall, it looks very much like Windows 7, which is very impressive.

Start Menu

If you actually click on the Start menu, you’ll see a lot more Windows 7-esque goodness. The Start menu, which appears to be GnoMenu with an appropriate theme, looks extremely similar to Windows 7′s Start menu. Keeping a small Linux touch, however, all programs in the left side of the menu are organized into the regular categories that regular Linux users are familiar with. There is also no “Recent Programs” list as is in Windows 7.

Look Changer

So all this stuff that looks a lot like Windows 7 is great for someone coming from Windows, right? Well what if they’re trying out Linux because Windows XP is starting to become very dated for an operating system? No need to worry there either. In the Control Center, there is a button called Look Changer, which will open a new window where you can choose between a Windows 7, Windows XP, and regular Linux Gnome desktop. With Windows XP available too, switching to Zorin OS is even easier for more people.

Default Applications

Zorin OS also comes with some pretty interesting default applications. Instead of Firefox as the default browser as is the case in all major distributions, Zorin OS chose Chrome in part due to its ever-increasing popularity. Many will enjoy this, while those that don’t will simply need to install their browser of choice. Not a hard thing to do. Zorin OS also includes Nautilus Elementary over Nautilus, which offers a tweaked user interface for a cleaner look. As for everything else, the usual applications that you would expect are included.

Conclusion

This interesting Linux distribution has some great incentives for Windows users to try out the Linux side of computing. Aside from all the differences between itself and Ubuntu, the rest is business as usual, letting you get work done like a pro.

What do you think about Zorin OS? Is it the best way for Windows users to try Linux? Let us know in the comments!

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All the codecs you need for Windows 7 to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

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Last night I inadvertently deleted 17GB of data with a mis-press of Shift+Del, causing a classic “oh sh*t!!” moment. I’d chosen to “permanently delete” the folder, skipping the Recycle Bin and instantly freeing up some space on my drive.

This is great when you’re playing file janitor for a day, cutting, copying and inevitably deleting files and folders you no longer need. Unfortunately getting the data back isn’t quite as easy as a trip to the Recycle Bin. You’ll need some recovery software, something like Pandora Recovery. Breathe. Relax. Let’s recover some data.

A Few Things To Remember

When a file is deleted, Windows usually sends the item to the Recycle Bin where it is marked for deletion but still very much on your drive. Once you’ve emptied the Recycle Bin the file is seemingly lost. Shift+Del is simply a handy shortcut to skip the Bin and zap a file.

However, just because the file or folder has been deleted does not mean your data has been destroyed. When a file is “deleted”, Windows simply marks that section of the hard drive as free, writable space. Provided you’ve not filled up the drive a few times, it’s very likely you’ll be able to recover those files.

This does of course mean that old hard drives, memory cards, flash drives and any other rewritable storage medium is subject to the same rules. If you format and sell an old SD card there’s every chance the buyer could attempt a recovery and enjoy your holiday snaps too. Regardless of how likely it is that someone would do this, it’s still very much possible.

Install Pandora Recovery

Assuming you’ve just lost a couple of vital documents, you’ll probably want to protect the medium they were stored on. Don’t write to the drive, don’t move or copy items and ensure you have at least enough free space on a separate drive for the files you want to recover.

Recovering files to the same drive that you are recovering from is possibly going to end in tears as your files have now been marked as free space, meaning it’s possible that you’ll overwrite the same files you’re trying to cover and lose your data. Don’t do it – recover to another drive and then put your files back where they belong.

If you’re recovering from your system drive then it’s probably a good idea to not install Pandora in this location, in case you overwrite the data. If you’re reading this without the need for an immediate recovery then ask yourself if you’re better off installing the software before you genuinely need it. Otherwise, choose another partition or better still prepare a portable USB install on another PC. It is also possible to buy a ready-to-rock USB version of Pandora for around $20.

You can grab Pandora here, choose Download.com as a mirror and click the Direct Download Now link below the CNET Installer link. CNET Installer will attempt to install crapware on your PC (you have to agree, but it’s quite a confusing dialogue) in addition to the Ask.com toolbar you should probably refuse in the main installer.

Once Pandora is installed or available as a portable app you’re ready to recover.

The Recovery Process

Recovering data with Pandora is fairly simple, and the first thing you’ll see is a wizard that attempts to guide you through the process. Follow the wizard and after choosing a drive you’ll be asked whether you want to browse for deleted files, search or conduct a deep surface scan.

Browse is great if you know where the data went missing from, and probably returns the quickest results. If you’re after a particular file then searching either for a matching name or simply by extension like *.avi or *.jpg will yield results. If your drive has been formatted, has corrupted file tables, is a removable/flash storage medium or everything else has failed then a deep surface scan is your best option.

You can easily skip between the functions in their respective tabs, and the recovery process is identical for all three methods. Once you have located a file or folder you would like to recover simply right click and choose Recover to… from the menu.

A dialogue box will pop-up requesting a location to store recovered data, remember: if you’re recovering from an external hard drive – copy to your main drive. If you’re recovering from system drive – recover to a USB or external drive. Do not write to your source drive.

Depending on how much data is being recovered you may have to wait a while. Recovering 17GB of video took me about 45 minutes, whereas a small file (documents or images) takes seconds. Once you’re done you’ll hopefully see something resembling the screen below.

Conclusion

Remember, if you can’t find your data with a search or browse then a deep surface scan is highly recommended. I deleted a few files to test the program and not only did it find the images I purposefully deleted but a lot of old music, video and image files from before my last format.

If you’ve tried Pandora Recovery and are still having problems then all is not lost. Maybe you’ll have some joy with another recommended recovery program. There is also a detailed FAQ regarding Pandora here.

If you have any thoughts on this or other data recovery tools then add your comments, below.

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All the codecs you need for Windows 7 to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

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Copy the Windows installation DVD to a bootable USB key, from within Linux. It only takes a few clicks and works with all Windows Vista and Windows 7 disks thanks to a program called WinUSB.

We’ve shown you how to install Windows 7 from a USB drive, but the process assumes you have access to a Windows computer to begin with. That’s not always the case, particularly if you’re the kind of person who regularly tries out different operating systems. Also, there are more than a few IT professionals who work on Windows computers but primarily use Linux themselves. This tool is perfect for them, and any Linux user who occasionally helps Windows users.

So whether your want to replace Linux on your netbook with Windows or just create a Windows boot disk from your Linux setup, WinUSB is useful to you.

Using WinUSB

Launch this program and you’ll see an interface not unlike UNetBootin, a similar tool for creating Linux bootable USB drives. You’ll need to pick your source and your destination.

Your source can be an actual DVD or an ISO file ripped from your DVD; it doesn’t matter. Your destination should be a flash drive with, ideally, 4GB of space on it. You’re going to want to clear space on the drive before you go through with this, so back up anything on your drive and delete it all from the flash drive.

Once you’re ready, you can start the creation process.

This will take a while, so be patient. Once your disk is done being created you’ve got your installation disk, assuming no errors came up. Using this should be simple, but you will need to enter the boot menu of your device and pick the USB drive.

Once you get that going, you should see the Windows 7 installation tool:

Not bad, eh? You can now install Windows 7 on your optical-free computer. Enjoy!

If you’ve never installed Windows before, don’t panic. It’s much  easier than it used to be. Just follow the prompts and you’ll be fine, but know that deleting your existing partitions means you will lose your operating system entirely.

Get WinUSB

Ready to give this app a spin? You can download WinUSB for Linux here. Or, if you’re using Ubuntu, you can install it from a PPA using these commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:colingille/freshlight

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install winusb

The first command adds the PPA; the second command updates your repositories; the third command installs WinUSB.

Conclusion

Not everyone will need this application, of course, but it’s ready for you when you need it. Linux purists would believe that no one ever switches from Linux to Windows, but let’s face it, this happens. I’m glad there are tools out there for making this easy, because there are plenty of great tools for going the other way.

Even if you’re not switching from Linux to Windows, though, this tool is useful. You can use your Linux computer to reinstall Windows for friends, or generally become a better repair wizard.

What will you be using this software for? As always, I’m an extremely curious guy, so please share your ideas in the comments below. Thanks!

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New online threats emerge every day, attacking corporations and consumers alike. These potentials threats aren’t disguised just as links or emails anymore.  They could be coming for your personal information in all sorts of ways. And we’re making it easy for hackers when we post personal stuff on Facebook and Twitter.

There are a lot of things you can do to protect yourself. You can educate yourself on new potential threats, read on how to keep your computer secure, and what security software doesn’t protect, and obtain the best tools for the job, whether they are anti-virus programs or extensions.

Here, I’ll be taking a look at ClamWin, an open-source anti-virus program that’s been around for a while. Should you get it? Read on to find out.

Getting ClamWin

ClamWin is an anti-virus program based on the only open-source anti-virus solution in the market, Clam AV, which is a toolkit initially designed for UNIX.

As you can probably tell by the name, ClamWin is available as a download for Windows machines only. You can download the installer here, which is almost 40MB, or you can also try the portable app for anti-virus protection on the go.

If you’re wondering about which version to go with, I’m using the portable version 0.97.3 for this review. This latest release has improved bytecode signature matching, in addition to the reigning features that characterize this anti-virus – virus scanner, scanning scheduler, automatic virus database updates, and integration with Windows Explorer and Microsoft Outlook.

If you’re using the installer, be aware that the Ask toolbar might be offered during the installation. Make sure you read what the checkboxes are offering before you click Next. I didn’t see any such thing during the portable application “installation”.

Launching ClamWin

When you first launch ClamWin, you’ll likely need to download the built-in database of viruses.

Doing so will just take a few seconds if you’re connected to the Internet.

Once ClamWin has finished updating its Database, you can see the main window where you’ll have the options to set your preferences, update your virus definition database once again, scan programs currently running in memory and finally, scan specific files or directories.

Running Memory Scan

Selecting this option allows you to scan the programs that are currently running in memory. If you’re as paranoid as this author, t’s probably a good idea to update your virus definition database before running your scans.

Unless you’re running Photoshop, Mozilla Firefox, and many other resource hogs, this scan should be completed in a couple of minutes. Mine took just over 3 minutes and scanned 28 processes in memory.

Running File Or Directory Scan

In the main window, there will be a directory browser where you can select a whole drive (e.g. your C drive), specific folder or even a file to scan.

Depending on what you chose, this scan can obviously last a while. When I was running a scan for my D drive, ClamWin was also working really hard, using almost 109 MB of RAM. Not that it’s a bad sign, but it’s probably a good idea not to multi-task on your PC while you let a scan run through an entire disk drive. After a scan is finished, you can see the report right after, save it or access it in the main window menu.

If a virus is detected during the scan, there are three options you can choose from in the Preferences: Quarantine it, report it, or remove it.

If you’re particular about your scans, you can also filter files to be included or excluded from the scan in the Preferences. You can also limit a file size to scan or not, and also whether to extract files from zipped files in the Preferences window.

If you installed ClamWin instead of using the portable version, you’ll be able to schedule scans right in the Preferences window, increasing security for your PC.

If you’re using the portable version and wish to schedule scans, you could always use Windows Task Schedulerand clamscan.exe which should be under ClamWinPortable/App/clamwin/bin.

ClamWin shines for being an open-source anti-virus program with file and directory scanners, scanner scheduler, automatic downloads of virus databases and more. It does lack a real-time scanner, which could be a big con, but for basic protection and its price, it’s a great product to have on your PC security arsenal.

Have you used Clam AV or ClamWin? Share your experience in the comments section below!

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The Portable Document Format (PDF) is often the preferred medium for exchanging documents across the web. But sometimes, it creates more “problems” than it solves.

For instance, I am a voracious user of Slideshare, and sometimes I like to save a neat illustration or graphic for my personal use. Then there are some professional reports which come packaged as a PDF and you might come across the need to use a graphic from there in a presentation.

We had taken an earlier look at 6 Ways To Convert A PDF To A JPG Image. But over here, I am looking for something specific – extracting images only from PDF files. The solutions offered in the previous article are full-fledged converters. Here, the focus is more pinpointed.

Let’s check out a few ways to extract images from PDF files.

The Manual Way

Extracting images from PDF files is not a problem if you have the commercial Adobe Acrobat. It allows you to extract all the images (in multiple image formats) in a PDF file with a single click. Some free PDF readers like the earlier reviewed Nitro PDF Reader also have this feature. If you have the free Adobe Reader installed, then you have to slog it out by either using the Print Screen button on an individual image or using the Take a snapshot feature from the Edit menu. In both cases, you have to paste the copied image from the clipboard into a graphic editor.

The Photoshop Way

Okay, Adobe Photoshop isn’t a free product, but some of us do have it installed because it is the Big Daddy when it comes to image editors. Photoshop allows you to open a PDF document and start importing the text or the images in it. The Import PDF dialog appears as below:

You can select the images you want to extract. Click on OK and then save (or edit) the image as you would normally do. CorelDRAW also offers a similar functionality.

The Freeware Way

Well, you don’t need to get thumbprints on the Print Screen button or plonk down serious case on Photoshop if you regularly extract images from PDF files. Let’s bring up Some PDF Image Extract for the job at hand.

The 885 KB free software runs on Windows and is very handy for extracting image files from PDF documents. Plus, it comes with a few bells and whistles that give some control over what you are going to pull out from the PDF file. Installation is a breeze; just be careful to deselect the option which asks you to install the Blekko search engine as an option (i.e. if you want).

The interface of Some PDF Image Extract looks like this and using the image extractor doesn’t need you to consult any help file (though there is one).

Some PDF Image Extract allows you to extract images from PDF files by using any or all of the following features…

1. The free software can batch process PDF files and extract their images in individual folders in one go. If you have more than one PDF file to work on, this is a time saver.

2. Some PDF Image Extract comes with image format options (JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF, TGA, and PCX). In case of the JPG output option, you can also control the quality of the extracted image.

3. You can choose the page range as well as an individual page if you want to extract only specific images from the file.

4. Some PDF Images Extract can work with password protected PDF-files too. The conversion tool has a field where you can key in the password during conversion.

Some PDF Image Extract does its conversion bit quite rapidly and smoothly. It works with Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista, and probably Windows 7 too though I haven’t tested it out on that.

PDF image extraction has quite a few uses. What are yours? How do you extract images from PDF files? Tell us your choice of method.

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All the codecs you need for Windows 7 to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

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Windows 8 is fast approaching, expected to arrive sometime in 2012. Not everyone is going to want to download the developer preview version of Windows 8 currently being hawked by Microsoft. Or the Windows 8 beta due to be made available shortly. Thankfully you don’t have to do so in order to get a basic feel for how the latest – and if you believe the hype, greatest – OS from Microsoft will shape up.

Windows 8 Beta Simulator is a fun program available for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7 that is designed to give those who are interested a feel for the new Metro UI. True geeks definitely won’t be impressed, but mainstream Windows users will be. The rest of us can laugh at the humor included in Windows 8 Beta Simulator.

Start Menu

Open the Windows 8 Beta Simulator program and you will get a very typical Windows startup animation. You’re then invited to ‘Drag Up To Unlock‘. This simulates the touch capabilities Windows 8 will possess, but isn’t very realistic. The real Windows 8 will use an (optional) picture password system whereby you draw a pre-determined pattern on the screen.

On the next page, bypass the startup screen by clicking ‘Submit‘. There is no need to enter a password and I wouldn’t recommend it just in case there is nefarious reasoning behind the request. To be frank I wouldn’t enter any passwords or sensitive information into Windows 8 Beta Simulator, but then I could just be an over-cynical, untrusting type.

Apps

You’re then taken to the faux Metro UI page where you can explore in a not-very-realistic Windows 8 style.

It’s from here you can access apps in a similar way as you will with the real Windows 8. There is Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and The Weather Channel, essentially just mobile versions of the sites which open up in Google Chrome within the Windows 8 Beta Simulator.

There is also a Piano app (pictured above), a calculator, and other elements which are present in every version of Windows. To be honest none of them are particularly well implemented here, but that’s excusable as they are, after all, only for preview purposes.

Humor

One thing Windows 8 Beta Simulator has in spades is humor. And some of it is actually quite funny. Click on the wrong icon and you’ll get an error message full of typos.

Click through to the next screen and it’s suggested you download Linux, with Bill Gates happily recommending Ubuntu. Many people wouldn’t do so after the latest versions of the Linux distro failed to impress.

Click on ‘Pictures‘ and you’ll find that the images are all plays on Microsoft vs. Apple, with Linux clearly being touted as the best OS. What is an attempt at mimicking the Windows 8 Metro UI was clearly built by Linux advocates.

Lame?

Is Windows 8 Beta Simulator a little lame? In a word, yes. But it’s a small (9MB) unobtrusive download which can easily be uninstalled. It will offer five minutes of fun for anyone keen to get more of a feel for Windows 8 ahead of its release than they can by merely looking at pictures or watching videos.

Windows 8 Beta Simulator isn’t all that useful. It won’t give you a true sense of how it will be to use Windows 8. Anyone wanting to do that will have to download the real beta once Microsoft deems fit to release it. Only people confident and experienced need apply. Which leaves Windows 8 Beta Simulator as a viable though not-very-thrilling alternative for those who don’t fit into that category.

Conclusion

Windows 8 Beta Simulator is for those who don’t want to mess around installing a pre-beta or beta version of an operating system. And for Linux fans looking for a few easy laughs at the saps (of which I am one) who persevere with Windows.

If you have tried Windows 8 Beta Simulator, what did you think of it? Are you looking forward to the real Windows 8 beta and are willing to wait until Microsoft deems its new operating system as being ready for public scrutiny? Does anyone even care about Microsoft any more?

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All the codecs you need for Windows 7 to play AVIs, DVDs and more!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/foobar2000-300x300.png?323f2c" alt="foobar2000 review" />Foobar2000 is the desktop music player of choice for audiophiles, tinkerers and anyone looking for a lightweight, efficient program. We have it listed on our page of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-windows-software">the best Windows software for a reason, although it may not be obvious when you first install it. Foobar2000’s default interface is spartan and hides powerful features and nearly infinite customizability.

Cloud streaming services like href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/music-streaming-spotify-free/">Spotify and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/rdio-offers-free-limited-streaming-music-news/">Rdio are becoming more and more popular, but there’s still a place for desktop applications and local music collections. If you still play music stored on your computer, you owe it to yourself to check out Foobar2000.

Quick Layout Setup

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-13h29_17.png?323f2c" alt="foobar2000 review" width="580" height="420" />

After you install href="http://www.foobar2000.org/">Foobar2000 and start it up, you’ll see the Quick Appearance Setup window. Foobar2000 uses your system colors, a simple tabbed playlist pane and a traditional playlist layout by default. Here’s what it looks like:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-13h33_38.png?323f2c" alt="foobar 2000 review" width="580" height="420" />

Now here’s what it looks like after selecting Visualization + Cover Art + Tabs, Blue, and Group by Albums in the Quick Appearance Setup window:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-24-13h38_39.png?323f2c" alt="foobar 2000 review" width="580" height="415" />

We’re already getting an idea of how much we can customize Foobar2000. See how Foobar2000 now groups each album’s tracks in the playlist pane instead of repeating the same album name on every line? That’s the Group by Albums setting in action.

Feel free to play with the options here; you can reopen the Quick Appearance Setup window at any time by clicking the View menu, pointing to Layout and selecting Quick Setup.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-13h43_16.png?323f2c" alt="foobar 2000 review" width="530" height="342" />

Media Library

Like other media players, Foobar2000 can watch folders for new music and automatically update its media library. Foobar2000 automatically watches your user account’s music folder by default. If you store your music elsewhere, click the Library menu, select configure and use the Add button to add more music folders.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h15_28.png?323f2c" alt="fubar music player" width="580" height="425" />

Foobar2000 comes with two media library viewers — click the Library menu and select Album List to browse the albums in your library or select Search to search for specific music files.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-24-13h40_39.png?323f2c" alt="fubar music player" width="580" height="415" />

Any of these viewers can be added to your Foobar2000 layout, so you don’t always have to open them from the Library menu.

Advanced Layout Customization

Foobar2000’s layouts aren’t limited to the layouts provided in the Quick Appearance Setup window. You can use its layout-editing mode to assemble your own layout; just click the View menu, point to Layout and select Enable Layout Editing Mode to get started.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h26_11.png?323f2c" alt="fubar music player" width="532" height="342" />

Right-click an interface element in layout-editing mode and you’ll see a menu. Select Replace to replace the interface element with another one or select Cut to delete the interface element entirely.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h28_28.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="420" />

Perform a cut on every interface element, including the vertical and horizontal splitters, if you want to start from scratch.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h30_17.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="420" />

Just click an empty area and you’ll be prompted to add a new interface element. Add a splitter if you want to divide areas into sections and add multiple interface elements.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h39_35.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="420" />

Here we’ve added playlist tabs at the top, a vertical splitter down the middle and a horizontal splitter on the left, which gives us two empty spaces on the left and one on the right. We’ve filled them in with an album list at the top left corner, an album art viewer at the bottom left corner and a playlist view on the right.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-24-13h58_59.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="436" />

Click the Enable Layout Editing Mode option in the Layout menu again after you’re done to disable the layout editing mode.

ReplayGain

Different music albums and songs have different perceived volumes. If your music player is playing music from different albums, you might have to adjust the volume up and down as louder and quieter songs come on. ReplayGain does this for you — Foobar2000 can automatically scan your songs, determine their volume and change the volume in the background so everything plays at one appropriate volume.

You can choose between two ReplayGain modes from the Playback pane in Foobar2000’s preferences window. Album mode considers entire albums when setting the volume, preserving volume differences between songs on the same album. Track mode just considers a single track, so every song that plays will be about the same volume. Foobar2000 uses album mode by default, ensuring that volume differences between songs on a single album are preserved.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h52_09.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="425" />

ReplayGain is enabled by default, but it depends on ReplayGain tags embedded in your music files. Many of your songs may not have these tags, but Foobar2000 can scan your files and add them. Assuming your music files are tagged correctly, the easiest way to add the tags is to select all your music in a playlist, right-click the selected files, point to ReplayGain and select “Scan Selection as Albums (by Tags).”

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h57_16.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="420" />

Foobar2000’s excellent support for ReplayGain is one of the reasons audiophiles love it (another one is gapless playback; Foobar2000 automatically plays back music files with no pause in between them if the files support it).

Components

Components, available from href="http://www.foobar2000.org/components">Foobar2000′s components download page, are Foobar2000’s plug-ins. Components can extend Foobar2000 with support for new audio formats, add additional media library viewers or replace Foobar2000’s entire user interface.

Install components from the Components pane in Foobar2000’s preferences window after downloading them. Just click the Install button and browse for your downloaded components.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-23-14h45_18.png?323f2c" alt="" width="580" height="425" />

Components are also available on other websites. For example, you can download a component that adds support for Windows 7′s new taskbar features href="http://wintense.com/plugins/foo_w7shell">here.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2011-12-24-14h11_10.png?323f2c" alt="foobar2000 review" width="305" height="246" />

Do you have any favorite components or other tips and tricks for Foobar2000? Let us know in the comments.

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