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Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 169 • 2008-10-02 • Circulation: over 400,000
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Table of contents INTRODUCTION: Subscribers in London debate discussion forums TOP STORY: Does Vista already have Windows 7's new kernel? INSIDER TRICKS: DVD rippers let you watch movies anywhere KNOWN ISSUES: Just how much RAM does 32-bit Windows support? WACKY WEB WEEK: A parody that's as American as apple pie BEST SOFTWARE: Locate the important files hidden on your PC PC TUNE-UP: Improve security by running apps in isolation PATCH WATCH: Tips for taking the 64-bit Vista plunge PERMALINKS: Send these links to your friends and co-workers YOUR SUBSCRIPTION: How to change your address or unsubscribe |
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INTRODUCTION Subscribers in London debate discussion forums By Brian Livingston Several dozen Windows Secrets subscribers in London, England, skipped a sunny Saturday morning on Sept. 27 to give me their tuppence on the idea of launching a new discussion forum for Windows sufferers. The consensus seems to be that it's a great idea, so long as we don't wreck the quality of content that we now send out from our experienced columnists. 
Figure 1. Early arrivers chat before the start of the London meeting. From left: Charles Moore, Pat Shirreff-Thomas, Fursey McHugh, and yours truly.I announced last week that I'd hold a meeting in the London area to get feedback from subscribers (see Figure 1). This is the second in a series of free seminars I'm holding in the few hours between changing planes in various airports of the world. The first seminar was held on June 15 in Hong Kong (see my June 19 report). It's always been a dream of mine for readers to have a structured, online way to help each other and get help in return. We may be able to realize this goal as early as next year. I asked readers to let me know about high-tech user forums that they already visit, and what they like and dislike about them. Here's a list of some of the forums that were submitted, in case you haven't heard of them all: • AutoPatcher • Experts Exchange (specifically, the forum on Microsoft products) • Dell Support • DigitalSpy • Donation Coder • Google Groups • Infoworld • Microsoft Software Forum Network (independent, not affiliated with Microsoft) • Neowin Forum • PC Pro • The Register (comments on articles) • Techworld (described by one reader as "now moribund") • Yahoo Groups • Zone Labs User Forum As to what readers dislike about these forums, Ray Burnley sums up many people's experiences when he reports:
I wholeheartedly agree. Watch this space in the months to come as we explore these ideas further. Would you like a free seminar to come to your area? Make sure your locale is entered correctly on your preferences page. We use this information to decide where enough Windows Secrets readers live to make a meeting possible. Visit your preferences page Thanks for your support! Brian Livingston is editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com and co-author of Windows Vista Secrets and 10 other books. |
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INSIDER TRICKS DVD rippers let you watch movies anywhere 
By
Scott Dunn
In case the urge to watch Superbad strikes while you're waiting for the bus, you can rip the DVD to your hard drive, copy the file to your phone or other handheld device, and press Play — no DVD drive required. Of course, there's another very good reason to rip your DVDs: the discs are prone to scratches, which could render your videos unwatchable and your data inaccessible. DVD rippers let you copy the data from a DVD to your hard disk to serve as a backup or for watching on a computer. You can then burn the data to a DVD-RW disk or, depending on the product, copy it to an iPod, iPhone, or other device. Most of the DVD rippers I looked at are easy to use, which is good, since few — if any — have what I consider to be an adequate help system. Although most of these products can output in a variety of formats (CloneDVD being the exception), all of them require that the source files be a DVD or a DVD ISO or IFO file. If you need a product that can convert between various video file formats, see my review of video converters from Sept. 25. For each of these products, I tried copying a single episode of a TV show from a commercial DVD to a format that could be played on my phone. #1: XILISOFT DVD RIPPER ULTIMATE
Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate is the best-looking of this bunch of apps. The program's attractive interface is coupled with helpful quick-start instructions in the main screen to get you off on the right foot. Select your source (DVD input) and output (file format and location), and away you go. If you're not ripping an entire DVD, Xilisoft shows you a detailed list of the DVD's contents, complete with checkboxes you can use to select the sections you want to copy. Unfortunately, the list doesn't tell you anything about the content, though you can use the product's preview pane to check out a selected title before you rip it. While most of the DVD rippers I tested let you split a DVD into multiple files, DVD Ripper Ultimate includes easy-to-use features for merging multiple source files into one, cropping and trimming, customizing subtitles, adding watermarks, and even applying special effects. I'm not sure why you would want your video to look like an oil painting, but at least this option is available to you in this product. The program supports a variety of output formats (or "profiles") and even lets you tweak the settings of each.  Figure 1. DVD Ripper Ultimate's interface simplifies the recording process. Bottom line: DVD Ripper Ultimate combines features you won't find elsewhere without sacrificing attractiveness or ease of use. #2: CUCUSOFT ULTIMATE DVD CONVERTER
Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter is easier to use than any other DVD ripper I looked at, but the program lacks some of its competitors' more-sophisticated features. Like Xilisoft DVD Ripper Ultimate, Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter lists some quick-start instructions in bold type when you first launch it. But unlike the Xilisoft ripper, Ultimate DVD Converter lets you select the chapter or program you want via a preview screen, which you can navigate to from the DVD menu just as if you were watching it on your TV. Too bad none of the other products I tested had this capability. If you prefer to work with a checklist of your disc's contents (as in Xilisoft's tool), you can go that route simply by clicking the "batch mode" button. The Cucusoft site promises a "1-Click Mode" to help "dummies" (their word) open and operate the program in one fell swoop. However, I was unable to locate this new feature; perhaps it hasn't made it to the trial version yet. Ultimate DVD Converter provides a variety of output format options. The program even lets you rename items directly in the menu of format choices. Some limited cropping and resizing tools are available to help you work with widescreen vs. traditional television aspect ratios. Although not as sophisticated as the Xilisoft product, Ultimate DVD Converter has most of the features the average PC user will need for backing up and copying DVDs, and for preparing the discs' content for playback on another device. #3: MAGIC DVD RIPPER
Magic DVD Ripper did as good a job as any of the tools I tested in converting a TV episode on DVD into a QuickTime-compatible movie. Like the other DVD rippers, the program was able to deal with region restrictions and overcome commercial copy protections. Magic DVD Ripper is easy to use and supports a handful of file-format options. Like most of the rippers I tried, Magic DVD Ripper lets you tweak the settings of output profiles. You can manually preview a title before you output it, but you can't use the DVD's own menus to find your desired episode the way Cucusoft's Ultimate DVD Converter lets you do. One handy feature in Magic DVD Ripper is the Backup tab in the main interface. The choices here make it one-click easy to back up an entire disk or the main movie only. You can also split a DVD-9 into two DVD-5 discs, and you're given the option to compress the output to fit on a single-layer disc. Magic DVD Ripper lacks any cropping or resizing features but does a good job of ripping DVDs just the same. #4: REALNETWORKS REALDVD
Real Networks recently jumped into this category with RealDVD; I tested a pre-release beta version of the program. Although RealDVD is capable of ripping copy-protected DVDs to your hard drive, it attempts to avoid legal entanglements by transferring the copy protection along with the video data. In addition, a message on the main screen warns you to use the product only for DVDs you own. RealDVD sports a simple but attractive interface that shows the box cover of the DVDs you've ripped and links to sites where you can read reviews and rate the discs yourself. Unlike other rippers, RealDVD gives you very little control over the process. You can copy only the entire DVD to your hard drive (not individual episodes for a disc with a TV series, for example). Nor does the program offer controls for cropping, resizing, changing the file format, and other operations. The app's three main controls are Play, Save, and Play & Save. When it comes to parental controls, however, RealDVD provides a feature the other rippers lack. The program lets you choose a content level (based on the moving rating system of G, PG, PG-13, and so on) for playback of saved DVDs. Only someone with the parental-control password can change the show's rating. RealDVD debuted on Sept. 30 with an introductory price of $30, but $50 is expected to be the standard price going forward. If you want to view videos on more than one PC, you can use RealDVD on up to four more computers for an additional $20. #5: SLYSOFT CLONEDVD 2
This program is in some ways the easiest to use of all the rippers I tested. CloneDVD's wizards step you through the process of opening a DVD and selecting a title. The tool's preview pane is fast and responsive, and you can output the content you rip as DVD files, an ISO image, or a writable DVD disk. In addition, the program's help system is far better than the equivalents in the other rippers I tested. However, CloneDVD's interface is sometimes too friendly to actually be helpful. For example, the program's Web page promises a chapter on splitting and trimming videos, but I couldn't figure out how to do this. Moreover, CloneDVD supports only DVD and ISO formats, so forget about using this tool to play your videos on a portable device (unless they can accommodate DVD files). In addition, CloneDVD cannot get past common copy protection schemes such as the Content Scrambling System (CSS). Unless you have another program that can do this, don't expect to use this product with many commercial DVDs. For 30 euros (U.S. $42), you can find a product that is just as easy to use but does a lot more. Is all this legal? At least one of these products, Cucusoft Ultimate DVD Converter, addresses that issue head-on in its license agreement. Customers are asked to agree that they are the owner of the DVDs they rip and that they will not distribute the output files in any way. Such disclaimers by themselves, however, are not likely to satisfy the Hollywood studios, which on Sept. 30 filed suit against Real Networks over its RealDVD product. According to a New York Times story by Brad Stone, Real has also filed its own suit, asking for a judgment that users are entitled to rip their own lawfully owned DVDs to their computers. It may take a court decision to settle the issue. Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here's How section of that magazine. |
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KNOWN ISSUES Just how much RAM does 32-bit Windows support? 
By
Dennis O'Reilly
In his Sept. 25 lead story, associate editor Stuart Johnston reported that the 32-bit version of Windows Vista provides users with "only 3GB of memory, a limitation that the 64-bit edition doesn't have." Other 32-bit operating systems have similar memory constraints, but Stuart pointed out that 64-bit versions of Vista can address 8GB to 128GB of RAM, depending on the edition (Home Basic, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate). Several subscribers commented that the total amount of addressable RAM on 32-bit systems is 4GB, not 3GB. Reader K. Boriskin explains it this way:
Password-cracking utility sets off false alarms Contributing editor Ryan Russell's Sept. 25 column in our paid content reviewed the free Cain & Abel utility. This program is designed to find and reveal all the passwords that are stored on a PC's hard disk, which can be useful to legitimate admins as well as nefarious intruders. It's understandable that such a program would trigger alerts from your antivirus application. Unfortunately, several readers begged off downloading the program as a result of such antivirus alerts. Brett Shand writes:
In a future Perimeter Scan column, Ryan will examine in greater detail the issue of antivirus false positives. Stay tuned!
The Known Issues column brings you readers' comments on our recent articles. Dennis O'Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com. |
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EDITOR'S BOOKSHELF
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WACKY WEB WEEK A parody that's as American as apple pie
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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Windows Secrets resulted from the merger of several publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch (2004), the LangaList (2006), and the Support Alert Newsletter (2008). Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com LLC, Attn: #120 Editor, 1700 7th Ave., Suite 116, Seattle, WA 98101-1323 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine). Editorial Director: Brian Livingston. Senior Editor: Ian Richards. Technical Editor: Dennis O'Reilly. Associate Editors: Scott Dunn, Stuart J. Johnston. Program Director: Tony Johnston. Web Developer: Damian Wadley. Editorial Assistant: Katy Abby. Copyeditor: Roberta Scholz. Chief Marketing Officer: Jake Ludington. Contributing Editors: Susan Bradley, Mark Joseph Edwards, Woody Leonhard, Ryan Russell, Scott Spanbauer, Becky Waring. Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets & Support Alert Newsletter, the Windows Secrets Newsletter, Support Alert, WindowsSecrets.com, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com LLC. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page. WE GUARANTEE YOUR PRIVACY: 1. We will never sell, rent, or give away your address to any outside party, ever. 2. We will never send you any unrequested e-mail, besides newsletter updates. 3. All unsubscribe requests are honored immediately, period. Privacy policy HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
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By
Stuart J. Johnston
