How to Remove Passwords from PDF Files

You have a bunch of PDF files on your computer that are protected by a long and complex password. You know the passwords but it still feels inconvenient and boring typing them each time you have to open a PDF file.

Is there a tool available that can remove password protection from PDF files? Someone asked me this question on Twitter the other day and the answer is obviously yes.

Removing Password from a PDF File

There’s a free Windows utility called BeCyPDFMetaEdit that can help you remove passwords from PDF files* but without make any other change to the document. (I am not sure why the developers picked such a complex name for this useful utility).

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Launch the program and it will ask your for the location of the PDF file.

2. Before you select and open the PDF, change the mode to “Complete Rewrite.”

3. Switch to the Security tab and set the “Security System” to “No encryption.” Click the Save button and your PDF will no longer require a password to open.

For more tips, check this detailed guide on PDF tools.

Which Programs are Accessing the Internet from your Computer?

You only have a couple of websites open on your screen and yet the data activity light of the modem / router is constantly blinking indicating that one or more programs are actively uploading or downloading data from the Internet .

How can you easily find out which programs on your computer are accessing the Internet and what websites are they connecting to?



Find Which Programs are Connecting to the Internet

You have quite a few options. If you are on Windows 7 or Vista, you can use the built-in Performance monitor utility to see a list of all running processes that are currently accessing the Internet.

Tech-savvy users may also use the netstat command to get similar information. Alternatively, if you are on a different version of Windows or want something less complex, try TCPEye. This is a free network monitoring utility that creates a self-updating list of all processes that are currently using your network connection.

What makes TCPEye a bit different is that it also lists the websites / servers that the programs are communicating with and the location (country) where those servers are located. Most other network monitoring tools only mention IP addresses and thus it is up to the user to determine the underlying server name.

If you notice an unwanted connection or a suspicious entry in the TCPEye log, just right click to end the process.

The Best Tool to Backup all your Windows Drivers

When you buy a new PC, the vendor will almost always provide you with a “driver CD” that has the device drivers for all the hardware that’s inside your new machine. The CD comes handy when you are reinstalling Windows from scratch or are trying to recover your machine to its original state after, say, a system crash.

There are however two drawbacks with the driver CD.

First, you need to remember the physical location where you placed that CD months ago and second, it may have outdated device drivers. Hardware vendors continuously release new and improved versions of drivers but if you are restoring drivers from an old CD, you are bound to install the old and outdated versions which may be both slow and buggy.

An easy solution to this problem would be that you take a backup of all the device drivers that are currently installed on your system and put them on a CD or another drive. Double Driver is a free utility that can help you with this process.



Double Driver scans your Windows system and creates a listing of every since device driver that’s installed on the system. When you click the “backup” button, the tool will place all the drivers in separate folders – the modem drivers will be in one folder while the display related drivers will be in another one and so on.

Find if that Windows Process is Legitimate or a Virus?

Start the Windows Task Manager at any point of time and you’ll find that dozens of processes are running in your system. Some of these process names are obvious – if there’s iexplore.exe in the list, you have Internet Explorer open on your desktop – but other processes like csrss.exe or dwm.exe will often make no sense to most of us.

Is that Windows Process a Virus?

The first thing that will help you determine if any particular process is a legitimate Windows process or a virus, is the location of the executable itself. For instance, a process like explorer.exe should be running from your Windows folder and not anywhere else.

To confirm, open task manager, go to View – > Select Columns and select “Image Path Name” to add a location column to your task manager. If you spot any suspicious-looking directory here, it may be a good idea to investigate that process further.

NoVirusThanks, an online virus scanning service, offers a portable desktop uploader that will make it easy for you to check if any of the Windows processes are legitimate or a virus /worm in disguise.



When you run this tool, it will automatically generate a list of all your running processes just like Windows Task Manager. You can right-click on any process name and upload* the corresponding file online for virus analysis.

linkedtube

LinkedTube lets you create links from your YouTube^TM videos.

Auto-Forward SMS and Missed Calls to your Email [Android]

You may wonder why would anyone want to forward text messages or missed call notifications to their email account when the cell phone is with them all the time? Won’t these messages add more noise to an overflowing email Inbox?

Not so. For instance, some of my friends work in a company where, for security reasons, they aren’t allowed to carry personal mobile phones inside though they do have regular phones at their desk and are allowed email access. They would therefore leave the phone at home but with auto-forwarding enabled, they’ll get an email alert as soon as someone sends them an SMS or calls on their cell during office hours.

Such a feature may also be handy for people who have recently switched to a different phone number and would like to keep track of all incoming calls and messages received on their previous phone but without having to carry it all the time.

The Android Market has dozens of apps that can bring the auto-forwarding feature to your mobile phone but the one that I like most is SMS2Gmail. It says “SMS” but the app can forward both SMS text messages and missed calls to your email address. You will get the complete message text in your email and the sender’s name as well provided that that number already exists in your phonebook.

It takes just one step to get it up and running. Launch the app, provide the credentials of your Gmail account and done. It needs the Google credentials in order to send email notifications but if that doesn’t make you too happy, just create another Gmail account and set it to auto-forward messages to your primary email account.

One more thing. You turn on email notifications manually but in a situation where you have have forgotten the phone at home, or have misplaced it somewhere, you can remotely activate auto-forwarding by sending an SMS from any another phone to your phone.

The app lets you assign an Activation Keyword (see screenshot) and as soon as a text arrives with that keyword, the auto-forwards will be enabled automatically.

Gbridge

Gbridge is a free software that lets you remotely control PCs, sync folders, share files, and chat securely and easily. An extension of Google's gtalk service, Gbridge automatically forms a collaborative, encrypted VPN (Virtual Private Network) that connects your computers and your friends' computers directly and securely with patented technology. Gbridge has many unique features.

Tonido install on CentOS6.2(64bit)

http://menta.orz.hm/2012/03/26/1253/