Need to combine pdf files into one document? Adolix Split and Merge PDF is a freeware that enables you not to only combine multiple pdf files into one pdf document, but also to split a pdf document into multiple pdf files easily. You can even use it to append an encrypted file into another file and can even process password protected files.



With its capability in combining multiple pdf files into one document, the management of your pdf documents should become easier. Instead of having 12 pdf files in a folder, why don't combine them into one document? Meanwhile, its ability to split a pdf document should give your harddisk more space. Instead of having a huge size of a pdf document, why don't you split the pages, keep the important ones to be merged, and remove the unnecessary parts?

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Vista Live Shell Pack for Windows XP is a free collection of three shell vista packs for Windows XP. These Vista shell pack allows you to change or customize your Windows XP appearances from the wizards, logon screen, and various other components to be like Windows Vista looking interface. There are three color versions: blue, grey, and pink. I don't know about you, but I prefer to choose the blue theme. The only thing that distinguish these Vista shell pack each other is only color, however.

Vista Live Shell Pack for Windows XP, since it isn't officially released by Microsoft, doesn't need file uxtheme.dll patching to be able to use. Its installer has included this pathcer so you will find it easy to be installed on your Windows XP. A great help for those who don't know yet about how to change Windows XP theme with unofficial themes or shell packs.

Vista Live Shell Pack for Windows XP changes a lot of things to make the appearances really look like Windows Vista. Whatever pack you choose (blue, pink, or grey), they will change your Windows XP's logon screen, boot logo, and add Windows Vista fonts, skins, plus some additional applications. Do you have to install all of these? If not, you can uncheck whichever you don't want to install.

What if Vista Live Shell Pack for Windows XP turns out to be a theme you don't like or what if there is a problem during the installation? Well, before everything is installed, the installer backs up the original files that will be affected by the changing so you can always go back to your original Windows XP to the same condition like before its files are replaced by any of the Vista Live Shell Pack.

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Renaming start button on Windows XP can be easy or a little bit complicated, depending on your choice. You can get it done using the manual way in which you have to deal with the registry, or by downloading Resource Hacker by which you have to view a line of codes to put the new name, or using this free program called as Start Button Caption to rename Windows XP start button in one click only. It's up to you, but if you are interested in using this program, then here you go.

To rename the start button, there is nothing to do but double-click the application to launch it, type the new name, then click "Change Start Button Name". That's it. If you want to get back to the original name, just click the other button "Change Start Button to Default". You will be able to see the change without restarting your Windows.

Start Button Caption is a free program for Windows XP. It doesn't require any installation. However, it is compressed in rar format, so download one of these free rar openers if you don't have one yet.

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Moving taskbar button position in Windows is easy. No need to mess with the registry, setting up another unfamiliar tweak to the system, nor write a line of weird codes. Simply download Taskix, and you can even use it without installing. Free, of course.

Activate or leave it inactive. These are the only options you have to deal with all the time. Click the "activate" option, and you can instantly move any button in your taskbar by drag and drop. If you open too many windows and you turn on the "Group similar taskbar buttons" option for your taskbar, this program enables you to move the buttons inside the group. If you want to move the group button, that's ok, too.



If you like how it works, there is another option that enables you to start the program automatically at Windows start. Taskix is a freeware supporting Windows Vista, XP, and Windows Server 2003. Download it, and start to move the buttons inside your Windows taskbar anytime.

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This freeware is useful if you open multiple windows or run multiple applications and you want to close all of these running programs at once with a click instead of hibernating your Windows. Close All Windows, that's the name, doesn't need to be installed. Just unzip and run it.



Put the .exe file at the quick launch so you can click it directly without having to open the directory where you unzip the program whenever you want to close all applications at once.

There are other ways to run it such as copying the program to the desktop and associate it with a shortcut key, utilizing a keyboard mapper software to associate the program with a more flexible shortcut key, or copying it to directory Windows to be able to run it from "Run" dialog box. However, I think the simplest one to do is to drag and drop the program to the quick launch bar.

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Offering a portable way to unrar your rar files, Peazip Portable could be the freeware you need when you are using somebody's else computer that doesn't have a rar opener. Install it into your USB flash drive, iPod, CD, or portable hard drive, and you can unrar rar files anywhere. This portable version has everything Peazip has.

In fact, it can open a lot more than just rar files alone like zip, rpm, iso, ace, cab, arj, lha, 7z, and other archives. It even lets you to split and join archives as well. Encryption, secure deletion, file comparison and checksum / hash (CRC, MD5, SHA...), create self-extracting archive... these are all yours with the program installed within your portable devices.



Peazip is a freeware created with Windows Vista compatibility in mind, while supporting other older versions like Windows 9x / ME / 2K / XP. So, who says you have to buy software to unrar your rar files?

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Can't open Word files? For some reason, sometimes you will get corrupted Word documents so you can't open these files normally. When Microsoft Word can't open these damaged files, you will be likely to get one of these error messages:

• The document name or path is not valid.
• Word cannot open the document.
• Word cannot open the document: user does not have access privileges

Or, if you attempt to open a Microsoft Word 97 document into Microsoft Word version 6.x or 7.x, the document contains garbage characters.

It is painful if you have to type everything from scratch again or if you can't open some important documents which are really needed for some kind of references or whatever.

Repair MyWord could save your life, then. It can fix corrupted Word documents. Though it is not a perfect program that can bring back the whole things inside a Word document such as the graphics, it will be helpful to get the text back.

Just open the broken Word files with the program, see how far you can recover a document in the preview window, and then save it as a new Word file in rtf format with no error.

This free program will fix corrupted files for Microsoft Word 6.0, Word 95, 97, 2000, XP, and 2003 for Windows. It doesn't need to be installed.

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Adding watermark to images background is easy. You don't even need huge-size software like Photoshop to put watermark on your created images. There are numerous free watermark programs, and Fast Watermark is one of these programs that I like. I like it because it is portable so I can carry it with me in my portable drive and embed watermark to my images even though I'm not using my computer, very easy to use, and because this program has fast real-time preview so I know exactly how the watermark will be displayed on my image before I save it.



What's more:

• You can specify the font used and how big the font size should be displayed.
• How much the watermark should be "invisible" is up to you. Just select the opacity or transparency level for the watermark.
• You can put color or image as the background or texture of your text watermark.
• You can move the position of your watermark anywhere on the images.
• Large or small images can be set to fit to the preview window.
• You can rotate the watermark.
• Your watermarked images can be saved as jpeg, jpg, bmp, png, or pdf.

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No, don't count on Windows itself if you want to create multiple folder faster. Windows doesn't provide you this convenience. It only allows you to create one folder at a time, and you can create another one just after you press the "Enter" keyboard button to apply the name for the folder. How many times you have to press the "Enter" button if you want to create 10 folders or more?

Creating multiple folders won't be that hard when you use this so-called MakeNewFolder. Have I told you that you can even create many folders at once with a click of a button using this free program?



What this program can do for you:

• create a single new folder or multiple folders at once using a shortcut key you can define yourself
• create multiple folders with their subfolders at once at any structure you like
• create many folders in Windows explorer or desktop simultaneously

I use F9 as the shortcut key. So, I press F9, and a mini dialog box comes up to the screen. To create one new folder, simply type the name into the box and press the "Enter" button on your keyboard. Optionally, you can set the program to stay open or automatically close after you create folders.

If you want to create multiple folders at once, here is what you should type into the box:

name1|name2|name3|name4

Press "Enter" and and the program will create 4 folders with different names at once in your Windows explorer. Name the folders whatever you like. There is no need to add numbers like in the example.

If you want to create a folder with its sub-folders:

1) Suppose that you want to create a folder named "myfolder" with "new folder" as its sub-folders. Here is what you should type into the box:

myfolder<new folder>

2) Suppose that you want to create a folder named "my folder" with "new folder" and "this folder". Here is what you should type:

myfolder<new folder|this folder>

If you want to make multiple folders with their sub-folders like this one:



Then here is what you should type:

Some folder<Folder A|Folder B>|Another folder<Folder C|Folder D<Folder E|Folder F|Folder G>>|Yet another folder

One more thing. You don't have to type the syntax over and over again everytime you need to create new folders with the same names or structures. You can re-make these folders almost instantly. To make it possible, don't set the program to close automatically after making folders. Then, after each time you finish creating new folders, press the + button to save the syntax as a history.

Later on, when you need to create exactly the same folders, just press the arrow and select one from the displayed list. That's it.

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When a JPEG image needs to be sent online through email attachment or uploaded to a photo sharing site to be displayed on a blog, we are used to resize and compress it to be able to send or upload it faster or to display it on a blog more quickly. What if you have many images to be sent? Would you resize and compress the images one by one?



QuickSize is a free program for Windows that allows you to resize and compress multiple JPEG images at once. Open the folder containing JPEG images, specify the size, compress the images by decreasing the quality to the level you want to, and start the process in one button click. All of the JPEG images within the folder will be resized and the quality of each image will be reduced at once. Instead of changing the original images, the program will create the new ones.

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Windows, by default, won't allow you to copy files and folders to multiple drives at once. All you can do with the default copy and paste handler in Windows is copy files and folder to one location only. While this is enough for usual copy and paste task, it will be impossible for you to copy your files to several USB drives if you need to. The only way to do it is by copying the files one by one and that could take a long time to get finished.

It is RapidCopy that enables you to copy files from one drive or folder to multiple drives. It allows you to copy your files up to 8 different drives at once. So, the copy and paste files to multiple locations will run much faster than using the default Windows copy and paste handler.

RapidCopy is a free program for Windows, including Vista and XP. Use this program to copy files to multiple USB drives, Stick memories and other portable drives.

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The advantages of using this free program to clean your unwanted files is it has an automatic mode where you can take advantage of it to remove files automatically without you having to activate the cleaning procedure. The automatic deletion can be set hourly or every two hours, three hours, four, up to every 24 hours.

This free program can be configured to scramble and trim the files names before starting the deletion process. It also uses 3 secure deletion modes you can choose to make sure that the files can't be recovered using recovery software. The file type that can be selected to be removed are ranging from Firefox cache, Macromedia cache, Hotfixes, Windows log files, cookies, temporary files, recent files, DrWatson logs, and many others.



KCleaner is a free program supporting Windows, but there is no clear information of which version it actually supports. It doesn't require installation.

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Moo0 VoiceRecorder is a very easy to use sound recorder. Decide where you want to save the output, give the name for the file, specify the format of the sound, and start your recording. There is a pause button you can use to stop for a while in case something has to be done. It is a free program supporting Windows XP. Download Moo0 VoiceRecorder here and use it for free.

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If you think that your keyboard is too quiet and somehow it creates a problem, you should try Clickey. Like the developer says, it adds up to 26 different sounds to a keyboard. If you are a kind of a person who loves to hear the sound of the typewriter when typing, I have no doubt that you will love this simple application.

Basically, what you need to do to start is simply running the ClicKey.exe and set the volume. Since the volume is independent, adjusting the volume won't affect your Windows or MP3 player's volume. However, if you want it to act a bit like what you want to, you can run it by utilizing the start button's "Run..." dialog to access its advanced features that enable you to set your own keyboard sound and some more options. You can also make it automatically start with Windows start-up. For more on how take advantage of the features, read the detailed guide at the developer's site.



Clickey is a free program and doesn't require installation so you can put it in your USB drive and use it when you have to borrow your computer's friend.

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Explorer Background Changer enables you to change the background of a specific folder with any image you want in a very easy way. Basically, all you have to do is to select the target folder, select the image, save the settings, and then apply the change. Remember that you have to press the "Save Settings" button first and "Apply Background" button afterwards.



If you don't like the appearance resulted from the change, you can replace it as many as you like. Or, if you find no suitable background for the folder, you can remove the background completely to go back to the default state. It lets you to change the text color as well. Explorer Background Changer is a free program that doesn't need any installation. Just unzip it and run the program. Net Framework 2.0 is required.

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Looking for a free Ashampoo Burning Studio without feature limitation? Then download this Ashampoo Burning Studio v6.71. It is created with usability and simplicity in mind to make it easy to use for every user while equipped with lots of nice features such as the ability to create multi-disc file backup, integrated audio CD ripper, immediate disc verification, supports CD, DVD and Blu-Ray burning, and many others.

Some features of Ashampoo Burning Studio Free 6.71:

• Multi-disc file backup and restore on CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs
• Create compressed backup archives with powerful password protection
• Split archives automatically across multiple CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs
• Restore archive contents to their original locations
• Integrated Audio CD ripper store your audio tracks as MP3, WMA or WAV files
• New option for setting the number of copies you want to burn (available for all disc formats)
• Discs can now be verified immediately without being ejected first (if the drive supports this feature)
• Numerous other small improvements that make the program easier to use and more effective
• Burn files and folders on data CDs/DVDs/Blu-ray discs
• Burn Audio CDs from WAV, MP3, FLAC, WMA and Ogg Vorbis files
• Burn MP3-CDs from your MP3 files
  
• Burn Video DVD, Video CD (VCD) or Super Video CD (S-VCD)
  
• Create and burn CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc images
  
• Burn speed and other options can all be set automatically
  
• Make copies from audio, video or data discs easily
  
• Interactive troubleshooting assistant for solving hardware and media problems
  
• Save project files so that you can burn the same discs again later
  
• Erase CD-RWs / DVD+RWs / DVD-RWs/ DVD-RAM/ BD-REs
  
• Integrated support for over 1,700 CD, DVD and Blu-ray burners
  

Ashampoo Burning Studio Free 6.71 supports Windows 2000 / XP / Vista. Download it here.

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Email Link Encoder (via BearWare) enables you to hide your email link from those rogue internet spiders hunting for any email addresses. There are three available ways this freeware can help you:

• create a HTML link for your email address.
• create a Javascript code for the email address.
• create an image displaying your email adress with customizable font (size, type, and style can be changed) and background color.
  

For the HTML and Javascript codes, you need to specify the anchor text and the email address before you generate the codes. Interested? Then visit the developer's site to download it.

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With DriveLetterView, you can not only position the all drive letters before or after the labels in Windows explorer, but also doing other things to the letter such as to completely remove all from the display.

Another option lets you to show remote drive letters before the label and show local drive letters after the label. The preview window enables you to see how the change would look like. DriveLetterView is a freeware and works with Windows Vista only.

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Do you want to change the image thumbnail size in Windows explorer smaller or bigger than the default size? It's easy. Thumbnail Control lets you do that with a slide bar so you can change it without opening and tweaking the registry. Thumbnail Control also allows you to change the quality of the thumbnail with another slide bar as well.

After pressing the apply button, go to the folder containing images to see the results. The change is made without restarting your computer. However, if you use this portable program while being in a folder containing images, the change won't occur until you move to another folder or close your Windows explorer. Moreover, Thumbnail Control returns the size to the default every time you open it. So, don't run it again unless you need to make another change. Thumbnail Control is a freeware that doesn't require installation and supports Windows XP. It's packed in rar format so you'll need a rar opener.

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This is a list of the newest definitions update in September 2008 for Ad-aware, Trend Micro, F-Secure, Avira Antivir, Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Norton AntiVirus, Spybot Search and Destroy Detection.

Ad-aware 2007 Definitions File 00120.0000

Ad-Aware SE Personal Definition File 09-11-2008

F-Secure Virus Definitions 09-12-2008

Avira Antivir Virus Definition File Update | 09.12.2008

Trend Micro Spyware Pattern File 0.687.00

Trend Micro Pattern File for Windows 5.539.00

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Update 09-12-2008

Spybot Search and Destroy Detection Updates 09-10-2008

Norton Antivirus Definition Updates (Windows All) 09-09-2008

Norton Antivirus 2008 Definition Updates 09-09-2008

Norton Antivirus Definition Updates (Administrators) 09-09-2008

Norton Antivirus Definition Updates (64-bit OS) 09-09-2008

Norton Antivirus 2008 Definition Updates (64-bit OS) 09-09-2008

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Prevent Restore is a free program you would want to if you are a bit paranoid about someone else trying to recover your deleted files. Instead of allowing you to securely delete files every time you delete a file, it lets you to select which drives to be included in the anti-recovery process. You can, then, choose how you want to overwrite the free space on your drives whether it is by random characters, spaces, or random digits. Prevent Restore supports Windows XP and Vista. Visit the developer's homepage to download.

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What makes Minimem different from the rest memory optimizer is that instead of optimizing the total memory used by the running processes, it lets you to choose which of the active process or running programs to be optimized for the memory usage.

Minimem displays two columns separating all of the active processes and the ones that you have selected to be regularly optimized. By default it hides the active processes under certain Kb, so if you want to see all the running processes you should uncheck the option "Hide if memory <...".



Other features include the ability to optimize memory every certain period, optionally optimize the foreground process, optionally perform the optimization if the total RAM available drops under certain level, and you can also view how much memory that is still available and how much memory that has been used. Minimem supports all Windows versions including Vista and XP.

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The main reason I pick this free screen capture application, EASIS Screenshot, is because it allows the users to save their screenshots as PSD files. This way anyone can edit their screenshots in Photoshop if needed. About other features, I think they are pretty standard. You can screen capturing full-screen, active window, specific components, and take a screen capture in one of several adjustable frames like rectangle, ellipse, polygon, roundrectangle, triangle, and freehand. I know some top free screen capture programs that can do all these, except for saving the screenshots as PSD.







Easy to use though no keyboard shortcut can be applied in taking the screen capture. Automatically save your screen captures to clipboard so you can paste them directly to other applications such as word processors. I don't like its hand cursor remains active even after I close the program, but I think it will be fixed on the next upgraded version.



License: Freeware

Supports: Windows XP, ME, 2000, NT, 9x

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You don't have to buy software just to open RAR files. If someone tells you about a shareware (read:commercial) that can open these files and has many features, I can tell you several free software that can do the same thing and has even better features. Interested?

But what is RAR actually?

According to Wikipedia:

"In computing science, RAR is a archive file format that supports data compression, error recovery, and file spanning. It was developed by a Russian software engineer Eugene Roshal (hence the name RAR: Roshal ARchive) and currently licensed by Win.RAR GmbH."

Simply speaking, a RAR file is another compressed archive which consists of one or more file(s). It is like ZIP but has a slightly better compression method that results in a smaller file size. RAR compression method is actually developed from the ZIP's, which explains why it can produce smaller size than ZIP. However, the compression takes more time to get finished.

Archives can get corrupted or damaged. If you are concerned about this, then RAR should be your option in compressing files. RAR puts recovery records, known as redundancy, within the archive that makes it more resistant to corruption and enables the archive to be repaired should it gets damaged or corrupted.

Beside supporting strong password protection, RAR also has the ability to split archives into smaller volumes is very helpful for sending a huge size file. The volumes are named automatically in sequential order like part01.rar, part02.rar, part03.rar.

With all of the benefits, no wonder why there are still so many RAR archives found on the web. If you often download files from file sharing sites like Rapidshare or MegaUpload, you will find RAR files very often, especially for files with huge size.

How to open those RAR files without buying anything?

The reason why you can't open RAR files in Windows is simply because Windows doesn't have a built-in utility for the purpose. So, you need to find third-party software. Fortunately, there are many free software that can do much more than opening RAR files and they have been widely used all this time.

Here you are the top 4 freeware I recommend in random order:

7-zip
It works in Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP/Vista. This one has been well-respected by many users because of its awesome capabilities that some can't even be found in commercial compression software. The details about this freeware can be found on the homepage.
Tugzip
Tugzip enables automatic backup, virus scanning, create self-extracting archives, support external plugins, and much more.

Izarc
Izarc has been regarded as an excellent compression tool by many popular software download sites. Go to the homepage to see why.

ZipGenius
With supports over 20 compressed archive formats and lots of features, ZipGenius has also been rated as another excellent free compression tool. You should try this.

There are still many other freeware that can open RAR files and other numerous kind of compressed formats such as Peazip, SimplyZip, Universal Extractor, Quick Zip, ExtractNow, UnzipThemAll, FilZip, Optimal Archive, BigSpeed Zipper, and so on. You shouldn't spend your money on any software if your need is just to open RAR files.

Once you installed one of these programs, usually all of your rar files are automatically associated with the program so you can open these files by double-clicking on them. If they aren't automatically associated, usually the program will display a window offering you to associate your rar files with the program.

Open rar files online

There is the online option if you don't want to install more software into your computer just to open a compressed rar file. Openrar.com, just like the name suggests, is an online service that will extract your rar, zip, tar and tgz files for free. Or, you can also compress your files into any of the archive formats.

Extract multiple rar files at once

Yes, there are people out there developing free program to extract multiple archives simultaneously in one click only. One of the programs you will undoubtedly love is ExtractNow. It is designed in such a way that even a computer novice can do the extraction easily. You won't indeed find many features like the other programs mentioned above, but it makes ExtractNow a very straightforward and easy program to be used.



You can either drag and drop the rar archives into the main program window or simply right-click these archives in your Windows explorer. If the archives are located in separated locations, I suggest to use the first option. You can extract your rar files into any folder you want to. Beside extracting multiple rar at once, this free program is also able to extract multiple zip, iso, bin, img, ima, imz, 7z, ace, jar, gz, lzh, lha, tar, and sit.

Download ExtractNow from the homepage.

Note: There are two conditions where you have to buy Winrar. First, if you can't open certain RAR files such as those splitted ones. Second, if you want to create RAR files.

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Are you losing the product key of your Microsoft Office or Windows? Produkey is a tiny free software that will help you finding those keys. You can also use it to find the ProductID and CD-Key of Exchange Server and SQL server. There is no need to install this program to use it. This application works with Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.



Another free program you can use to retrieve your lost product key is Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder. It allows you to find the missing installation keys of Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, Server 2008, Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007. It even enables you to change the product key if you want to. Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder doesn't require any installation as well.



Win Keyfinder is another free software you are looking for if you want more than just viewing or changing your Windows key.
What it can do for you:

• View and change Windows XP CD Key
• View Windows Vista 32bit Edition CD Key
• View MS Office 2007 CD Key
  
• View Windows 98 key, Windows 2000 key, .Net, Windows 2003
  
• View or change XP and MS Office key
  
• Backup and Restore Windows XP Activation
• Change or copy Volume Serial Number
  
• Encrypt product key to protect it
  
• Using keycode combination to make unique password
  
• View and change MS office 2000 Key if MS office Service Pack 2 is installed
  
• While Restoring Activation You can Change your Volume Serial number to the one which is Backedup and Present as activated Volume Serial number!
  

RockXP is another free small-size program that can find lost Windows XP product keys with some different additional features like the ability to retrieve XP login and HASH password, MSN login and password, display system password (LSA), and more.



KeyFinder PRO 2007 is a portable freeware from Gear Box Computers that can help you finding your missing product keys for Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, and Microsoft Office 2007, 2003, XP. Beside allowing you to save them into a file, it lets you to print them as well. Download KeyFinder PRO 2007.

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