[Windows 8] How to enter Safe Mode

Safe Mode is a necessary feature to rescue your computer when it doesn't work well, especially when it is affected by malware. The reason Safe Mode is so effective in fixing computer issues is, in Safe Mode, only the necessary system/Windows services and apps will start ensuring anything that causes conflict does not run and allows you the opportunity to remove.

Safe Mode is as important on Windows 8 as it is on previous versions of Windows. However, users are confused on how to start Safe Mode in Windows 8 because it isn't like the old way – pressing F8 when the computer is booting. Microsoft claims that Windows 8's startup process is too fast to be interrupted by the F8 key; plus there is the fact that tablets don't have physical keys to press during boot. Therefore, Microsoft provides you with other ways to get into Safe Mode. In this article, I will show you how to enter Safe Mode on Windows 8.

HOW TO START/GET INTO SAFE MODE ON WINDOWS 8

Note: The following method is for when your Windows 8 computer or tablet when your Windows can successfully startup in normal mode. If your Windows crashes and cannot start, you have to create a bootable USB or CD/DVD and use that to enter Safe Mode.

In Windows 8, to start Safe Mode you need to be in Windows normally and then press a button to boot into Safe Mode. After that, the computer or tablet restarts and takes you to a boot list, which contains a Safe Mode selection.

To do what I just mentioned, you should follow these steps:

• Press Windows + I hotkey (or swipe from the right edge of the screen then choose Settings) to bring up Settings panel. After that, you need to click "Change PC Settings" at the bottom to open PC Settings.

• Once PC Settings has opened, on the left side, select "General".
• After that, on the right side, you will find the "Advanced Startup" option at the bottom of the list. Click the "Restart Now" button from under "Advanced Startup".  Remember to save your works before clicking that button, because it restarts your machine.

• Now wait until your Windows restarts — it will boot into the "Advanced Startup" menu.
• Once you are at this menu, you need to choose "Troubleshoot" then select "Advanced Options."

 

• After that, choose "Windows Startup Settings" and click "Restart" button to restart your computer or tablet again.

• This restart will bring you to the traditional menu list that has options such as Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Once your machine restarts, choose Safe Mode (or Safe Mode with Networking or Safe Mode with Command Prompt) from the menu to enter Safe Mode.

 

Once you do all the above, you should successfully be in Safe Mode! The most important thing to remember is you have to do all of these steps every time you want to use Safe Mode. Annoying, but the price you pay for faster boot times.

SHORTCUT TO GET INTO SAFE MODE

In the above directions I described going into PC Settings to restart your computer or tablet into Advanced Startup. There is another way to get to this Advanced Startup menu. Instead of going to PC Settings, you can open the Charms bar (Windows + C hotkey to bring up Charms or swipe right edge of your screen), hold the SHIFT key, tap/click the power icon on Charms, and select "Restart" while still holding SHIFT key.

CONCLUSION

It's happy to see Windows 8 improves startup speed so much, but you may go mad finding where Safe Mode is, if you ever need it. once your computer has got trouble. Thanks to this guide, you now know how to enter Safe Mode in Windows 8.

[Some images via Windows8tipsandtricks]

Lightning Browser Is A Lightweight Android Web Browser With Flash Support

While the likes of Chrome, Firefox, Dolphin and Opera are generally amongst the top candidates to claim the best Android web browser title, these heavyweights are often considered as a secondary option by those who are just looking for a fast, simple and lightweight mobile browser that is void of any unwanted bells and whistles. If you're hunting for a barebones browser supporting just the basic features, XDA member anthonycr's Lightning Browser might well be up your alley. With a file size of just 200KB and a relatively small memory footprint, Lightning Browser is arguably one of the tiniest full-featured Android web browsers available in the Play Store. What's more, it also supports Adobe Flash!

In terms of aesthetics, the browser sports looks similar to Chrome for Android. For that matter, it also offers quite several features found in Chrome and other mainstream browsers including tabbed browsing, bookmarks management, webpage sharing, password  saving, pinch-to-zoom gestures and a lot more.

As mentioned above, Lightning Browser supports natively playing Flash content, provided you have Flash Player installed on your device. Furthermore, you can also set a custom User Agent (UA) string to view a device or OS-specific version of your favorite webpages. The engine used in the development of the browser is the same as the one utilized by the stock Android browser. This particular aspect combined with a minimal interface and only the features most people will need gives Lightning Browser a clear edge over most of its counterparts. In terms of compatibility, Lightning Browser's support spans from Android 2.2 Froyo to the latest iteration of Google's mobile OS, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

As of now, the browser lets you simultaneously work with a maximum of five different tabs, which might sound limiting to some but is usually sufficient for most of us on mobile devices. You can add a new tab in the same way as you would do on Chrome and several other browsers (by hitting the + button). However, to close a tab, you'll need to hold down on it for a couple of seconds. Since the app is void of any advanced features, you don't have much to do with a webpage besides adding it to bookmarks, interacting with the embedded URLs, extracting some piece of text to share it through a compatible app, or search the web for selected keywords. Though that's all most of us need from a mobile browser.

The app's settings screen can be used to specify a custom homepage, toggle Adobe Flash support, auto-clear app cache on exit, enable/disable the password saving feature for websites, and select a custom User Agent of your choice. Having tested the app on HTC Desire Z, Nexus 4 and Nexus 10, we found it to be snappier than most alternative browsers in terms of both loading and browsing.

As most of you would know, Flash is no longer supported on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and above. However, you may follow our detailed guide to install Adobe Flash on any device running Android 4.1 and higher  through an unofficial means. Even on devices with Flash support, Flash Player must be installed beforehand in order to load Flash content.

All in all, Lightning Browser seems to have made a good debut in the Play Store. The encouraging thing is that the developer is open to user suggestions and aims to improve the app with the passage of time.

Download Lightning Browser For Android

[via XDA-Developers]

WinDroid Lets You Run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Natively on Windows Without any Emulator

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We've shown you how to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on Windows in the past by emulating it as a virtual Operating System using VirtualBox. But there was one major problem with the virtual machine's performance — it was very slow even after allocating more than enough system resources to it. The reason behind this problem was a kernel level issue. We were trying to emulate an Operating System that ran on a Linux based kernel on a Windows machine and so, lag was ensued. Thankfully, an Android enthusiast who goes by the name Socketeq has successfully ported Android 4.0 ICS natively to Windows. The port, known as WindowsAndroid, uses the Windows kernel and leverages the machine's hardware for providing hardware acceleration for graphics and media codecs. As a result, the port runs way more smoother than emulators. WindowsAndroid: Download and Installation The port can be downloaded from the link given below. Please note that you will be asked to fill a form by entering your personal details such as your name and email address. If as paranoid as me about giving your real email address in public for the fear of spam, you can use a disposable email service such as 10MinuteMail or Mailinator. Download: WindowsAndroid | MediaFire mirror (64 MB) WindowsAndroid port uses your PC's internet connection so you can browse the internet on the port too. The port supports simple I/O devices such as keyboard, mouse, remote sensors and Ethernet, PPPOE as well. Currently supported keyboard keys are: Arrow keys: for navigating around Enter key: for selecting an item Esc. key: acts as the back key WindowsAndroid will start either in phone mode or tablet mode depending on your monitor's resolution. The tablet mode requires a resolution of at least 1280 x 800 pixels. Although WindowsAndroid is pretty stable for daily use, you might still encounter frequent app crashes. Don't try to open the Camera app, it will freeze WindowsAndroid. Installing Play Store and Other Google Apps WindowsAndroid does not come pre-installed with Play Store or other Google Apps such as Gmail, Youtube, Gtalk, etc. and you'll have to manually install it. To do so, download Google Apps zip file from the following link: Download: GApps (~50 MB) Next, extract the zipped file somewhere and making sure WindowsAndroid isn't running, copy all the contents of the system folder into: X:\\SocketeQ\\windowsandroid_root\\system Where X is the driver where WindowsAndroid is installed on your PC. Google Apps, including the Play Store app, will now be present in the app drawer. You'll have to first add a Google account to use them though. Directly downloading the APK of Play Store from the Android browser and installing it might also be a possible option, but it didn't work for me. Important: Unsupported Apps in Play Store? Android has a feature for developers that lets them restrict apps to certain devices only. Since WindowsAndroid isn't a real device, most of the apps won't be available for you on the Play Store. Fortunately, getting around this issue is a very easy task and only involves editing a file using Notepad: 1) Navigate to the system folder: X:\\SocketeQ\\windowsandroid_root\\system and open the build.prop file using any text editor. Notepad++ is my favorite, but the default Notepad app will do. 2. Look for these 4 lines: ro.product.model=full Android on Microsoft Windows, pad, pc, n*books ro.product.brand=WindowsAndroid ro.product.name=WindowsAndroid ro.product.device=windroid The above lines tell the Play Store that you're some unknown device named as WindowsAndroid. Change them to: ro.product.model=Nexus 4 ro.product.brand=Google ro.product.name=occam ro.product.device=mako Next, look for these 2 lines: ro.build.description=WindowsAndroid-eng 4.0.3 IML74K eng.jeffrey.20121218.132850 test-keys ro.build.fingerprint=WindowsAndroid/WindowsAndroid/windroid:4.0.3/IML74K/eng.jeffrey.20121218.132850:eng/test-keys Change them to: ro.build.description=occam-user 4.2 JOP40C 527662 release-keys ro.build.fingerprint=google/occam/mako:4.2/JOP40C/527662:user/release-keys And you're done! This will fool the Play Store into thinking that you're using a Nexus 4 \m/ You'll now be able to download all the apps that are supported on the Nexus 4. Side-loading Apps Side-loading of apps is possible in WindowsAndroid by copying the APKs to its sdcard folder, but it's mostly a hit or miss process. 8 out of 10 apps that I tried side-loading crashed without even startin. You may try it anyway by copying the APK files to: X:\\SocketeQ\\windowsandroid_root\\mnt\\sdcard However, you'll require a file explorer app to install them. You can either download it from the Play Store or side-load a file explorer app by copying its APK to the following location: X:\\SocketeQ\\windowsandroid_root\\system\\app Don't forget to restart WindowsAndroid after copying the APK. Talking about file explorer apps, I highly recommend Solid Explorer app for its excellent UI and functionalities. It's a paid app ($2), but includes a trial period of 2 weeks. If you own an Android phone/tablet then it's a must have app. Astro File Manager is also a very good app if you're looking for a completely free app. Final Words WindowsAndroid is an excellent tool which you can use simply for fun. If you're a developer then you can also use it for testing applications since it's a tad faster than the Android SDK emulator. The developer says that porting of newer versions of Android is currently under progress. Read the article on the Blog: WinDroid Lets You Run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Natively on Windows Without any Emulator More Tech Related Articles: TechSplurge - A blog on Android, iPhone, Windows and the Web.

Download Android App APKs From Google Play Store To Your Desktop

Back in February 2012, we reviewed a Google Chrome extension that lets you download APK files of Android apps from Google Play directly to your PC, to be able to manually sideload them to your device. This method helps you grab any app that you are otherwise having problems installing to your device due to regional restrictions. Though that extension required some tinkering after Chrome's latest updates, and stopped working for some altogether. Today, we're bringing you a Windows app called Real APK Leecher that provides a more convenient way to download Android applications to your PC by similarly using your Google account associated with your device.

To get started, you first need to find your Device ID. Simply enter *#*#8255#*#* into your phone dialer, you'll be shown your device ID (as 'aid') in GTalk Service Monitor. As another option, you can also use an Android app called Device ID that quickly reveals the ID to you without any extra jargon.

Real APK Leecher is a portable app that does not require installation. Simply extract it from the downloaded zip file and run it. It will bring up its Options window to get you started with the necessary configuration before you can use the app. Enter the email address of your Google account that is associated with your Android phone, as well as the device ID that you retrieved in the previous step. The Options console also allows changing your default language/country for faking the region. This way, you can download an app that is otherwise not available in your own country. In addition, you can fake your carrier via entering any custom SIM Operator Numberic (SON). This is optional however, and you may leave it empty if you don't require it. Finally, select the destination directory where you want to download the APKs, and optionally, an existing folder that already contains APKs so that the app can check against them before downloading one in case you already have the latest version. After specifying all these settings, click Save.

You will be then be taken to Real APK Leecher's main screen. If you want to make any changes to the previously defined settings, simply open the Edit menu and click Options. To download an app, type the app's name in the search field at the top right and press enter. Apps can be searched by vendor name, package name or both (custom). The tool displays both the free and paid applications, but the paid ones can only be downloaded if you've already purchased them from Google Play under the same account Google account you are using with the application. To download an app, right click on its name in the search results, and select 'Download this app'. In addition, you can download only the app's icon, scan your existing apps folder to see if you have the latest version available already, delete the app, copy its link location, search for related apps, and view the app's Google Play page.

Once you start downloading an app, its progress is shown in a separate window, from where you can cancel the download or hide that window itself.

Real APK Leecher is an open-source Java app and works on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Download Real APK Leecher

via addictivetips

Backup and Sync Apps across Multiple Android Devices with Carbon

Backup are one important aspect of the digital life and this applies to smartphones as well. Android being one of the most popular smartphone OS lacks the ability to backup apps and sync it across multiple phone using the same ID. For example if I'm using an Android smartphone with around 25+ apps installed and when tomorrow I'm getting a new Android phone, I have to install the apps manually on the new phone. Although there are many third party tools which allows apps backup, this solution is missing in core Android.

The developer behind the popular ClockworkMod Recovery for Android, Koushik Dutta is working on a new app, Carbon which is solution to this problem. Carbon is an Android backup app that can save your apps and its data to either the SD card, Google Drive, Box or Dropbox and sync them across other devices in real-time.

 

This means that you can take any app data to another device without having to do anything manually. This app will copy all apps and games data to new device. You can use either SD card or other cloud storage services to take a backup.

 

Related Reading: How to Take a Full Backup of Android without Rooting

If your phone is rooted, then you can do everything from the app itself. Now if you are using an Android phone which is not rooted, then you need to install a desktop app and then enable application backups on your phone by running the Carbon Desktop app. Once you have enabled it, you can disconnect from the desktop and everything will continue working. There is one caveat: if you reboot your phone, you will need to reconnect to Carbon Desktop to re-enable Carbon. Download Desktop Installer

Please note, you need to enable USB debugging mode for this app to configure properly when connected to desktop.

Download Carbon APK

More details available here. As of now the app is in beta, so expect bugs.

Backup Apps, Contacts, SMS, Call logs, Bookmarks & Calendars to the SD Card or Gmail on Android

Backup is one important aspect of your digital life, be it desktops or laptops or even mobile phone. When it comes to taking backup, there are many free apps in the Android play store. Super Backup is an excellent app to take a backup of your data on the phone. With Super Backup, you can take a backup of your apps, contacts, SMS, call logs, bookmarks and calendars to your SD card.

Apart from this, if you use a Gmail account, you can upload these backup files to Gmail and restore them on to your phone any time.

 

If your phone has inbuilt storage, the default backup location will probably be the internal storage card and not the external. If you intend to do a factory reset on the phone, please make sure default backup folder is in your external SD card before doing it. If not, please copy the entire backup folder ("SmsContactsBackup" by default)to your external SD card.

Related Reading: How to Take a Full Backup of Android without Rooting

 

From the settings, you can enable auto upload to Gmail account and schedule the backup.

Features of this app;

• Backup apps to SD card
• Backup & restore app's data(need root)
• Batch restore apps from SD card (need root)
• Backup contacts & SMS & Call logs & Bookmarks & Calendars to SD card
• Restore contacts & SMS & Call logs & Bookmarks & Calendars from SD card
• Delete the backup data on SD card
• Schedule automatic backups
• Auto upload scheduled backup files to your Gmail
• Show last backup count & time
• User can change backup folder path in Settings

While there are many ways to take a backup on Android phone, this app is pretty handy to selectively take backup and also comes free.

Download Super Backup

[via nirmaltv]

Integrate Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box and SugarSync in Windows 8

Windows 8 which was released last year is missing in many official apps like Google Drive, although Dropbox was released few days back. With cloud storage services now becoming extremely popular and offering sync on various devices, you might have accounts with different cloud storage services. It would always be great to have all the cloud storage integrated into one app and this is exactly what Cumulo does.

Cumulo is a new Windows 8 app with metro UI and integrates all the cloud storage services into one app. You can access Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box and SugarSync in the app.

Once you install the app, you can start connecting your favorite services. If you are using the free app, SugarSync and Box cannot be connected. Once connected, you can view the files and folders available in all the connected services.

There is also an integrated search available in the app from the Charms menu. You can view files in different modes including slideshow. If you have media files in the cloud services, you can stream them to your PC using this app.

Features

• Integrates DropBox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box and SugarSync into a unified view
• Uses the search charm to search acrross all your cloud storages
• Provides a transfer manager to download and upload files to all registered storages
• Uses descriptive icons to identify the cloud storage service for files or folders
• A folder that appears in more than one cloud storage service is unified into just one folder
• Allows to share files using the sharing charm
• Play video and audio files directly from the application
• Combine photos from different providers and view them in a slideshow
• Open a file using the browser
• Combine storages and see them as one big storage on the cloud
• Take photos and videos directly from the app and upload them to any provider

The free version of the app comes with ads and does not support Box and SugarSync. There are two paid version, one will remove ads and also enable all the cloud storage but file uploading is not supported. The second paid version is the full version with all the features.

Download Cumulo

[intowindows]