October 19, 2009

Downloading With Rapidshare (Premium User Account)

Rapidshare is becoming one of the number one sources for downloading illegal materials damn near anything. Of course, downloading from Rapidshare can be a bit of a hassle. The problem is two fold.

  1. Rapidshare forces users to click a download link, even if they are premium users
  2. Often times downloads are split into multiple parts

This guide will set you up for downloading everything you want from Rapidshare through Firefox, with the use of some handy addons.

Set Up Direct Downloads
This is something that can be configured through your Rapidshare premium account. Log in to your account and look for the account settings link. You want to look for the configuration section and make sure that Direct Downloads is checked off. Then you can save your changes. This ensures that if you are logged into your Rapidshare account you will be able to bypass the button click to download files. Simply pointing your browser to a valid file will let you download it. We’re almost done here, but DON’T click log out. Because of how Rapidshare works, as long as you are logged in you can continue to download without clicking the link and logging into your account.

rs-config

Getting a Download Manager
Since at FHB we try to stay as cross platform as possible, I’m recommending one of the best addon’s you’ll find for Firefox, DownThemAll! DTA! lets you quickly download all the links or images present on a page. It also offers you a comprehensive download manager as well as a host of other options. I suggest you check out our post on DTA! for a full run-down. Regardless, even if you don’t use Rapidshare files, you’ll want to install this addon. There’s no point in using it just yet though as you’ll find that Rapidshare links are often posted as text instead of actual click-able links (referred to as Anchor tags). This is a problem since DTA! can only read actual links, so we’ll need some sort of mediator between the two.

dta

flashgotFlashGot (The Mediator)
FlashGot also allows us to highlight links and select download, but it also offers us the handy ability to highlight a selection of text links and select “FlashGot Selection” to download them. This is what allows us one-click access to downloading Rapidshare files. The Problem with FlashGot is, it doesn’t come with its own download manager. It just sets up everything so that another download manager can get use them. When you first start FlashGot it will ask you what download manager you want to use, make sure you slect DownThemAll!. And that’s it, with this addon in tow, we’ve now got an excellent way to download any illegal legal rapidshare files.

October 16, 2009

Feature Friday – Rarst.net – Delete locked files: Unlocker vs FileASSASSIN

Rarst.net is a website that I’ve been following since it first started on the net over a year ago. I can’t quite remember how I stumbled onto it, but it’s been a great source of information with me. In keeping with the overhaul at FHB, Feature Friday’s are when you guys get to see posts from other blogs that I find particularly interesting. This post on Rarst.net helped me when I was writing Disable WGA – KB905474 It covers the differences between two different file unlocker programs, namely Unlocker and FileASSASSIN.

Basically when Windows refuses (or unable) to delete file it means that some program is currently working with it and prevents that from happening. So Windows cries “I can’t!” and you have to go and get extra application for what OS is supposed to do on its’ own.

Both Unlocker and FileASSASSIN use same method – they attempt to “unlock” file by removing all related processes and then delete it.

Read the full post here: http://www.rarst.net/software/delete-locked-files-unlocker-vs-fileassassin/

October 15, 2009

Launch Your Apps With Launchy

Using the keyboard is much faster than using the mouse. It’s something that’s been proved again and again. You don’t need a fancy study to do it. Just open word hit CTRL+B and start typing some bold text, then CTRL+B to turn it off. Now try doing that again by clicking on the Bold button in the toolbar, typing, and then clicking again to turn it off. Since your fingers are already on the keyboard most times it’s easier to use it. Switching to the mouse means moving your hand and then finding where the mouse is positioned and then finally moving it to the location you need.

Graphical User Interfaces (Like Windows for example) provide nice ways of managing your open programs, but when it comes to opening them, a keyboard shortcut is much faster than hunting through menu’s or even double-clicking an icon on your desktop. Enter Launchy, a quick and easy way to launch pretty much anything right through a shortcut.

launchy1

Launchy is a lightweight application that indexes your files, folders and applications and then provides you the ability to open any of these with a quick keyboard shortcut. ALT+Space by default, Launchy opens a little window that allows you to enter the name of the application you are looking for and then quickly launch it by hitting enter. You don’t even need to enter the entire name of what you are looking for, just the first few letters is normally enough for Launchy to figure out what you mean.

Launchy also offers predictions based on what you normally launch. If you type FIR and launch Firefox, after a little while, typing FI will show you the Firefox icon, since Launchy knows you most likely want to launch that. It even provides a host of plugins for searching through search engines and numerous other things. It even offers skin support so that you can change the way Launchy looks to suit your desktop. If you’re looking for a way to quickly launch applications and not have to fiddle around with your mouse, Launchy is it!

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