We have blogged about Freeware Video Splitter solution earlier on this blog, But if you are looking for a fast and free video joiner with ability to convert video to different format's here is the perfect solution - "Free Video Joiner" is as simple as its name sounds, the single screen interface offers basic functionality but gets the job done fast and easy.

Free Video Joiner supports AVI, MOV, WMV, MOV and MPEG video formats for input and can output to AVI, WMV, MOV, MP4, DVD, VCD, iPod, iPhone, Zune and PSP compatible video formats covering all popular devices and video formats.

Annoyed by the Google Automatic Updater service - GoogleUpdate.exe, One of our blog reader contacted me asking for a solution to completely remove it from the computer, surprisingly the process is pretty simple and you just need to use Windows Add/Remove Programs control panel applet to get rid of it, However, if you are having problems using the above method you can manually uninstall it using the DOS-command prompt discussed below.

ZoneAlarm is one of the most popular and trusted free firewall software for Windows operating system, There exist two version of the software - ZoneAlarm Free and ZoneAlarm Pro, as the name suggests ZoneAlarm Free does not cost anything and provides basic firewall protection, the Pro version provides a complete internet security solution including advanced firewall, Identity Theft protection coupled with complete Anti-Spyware Protection but costs $40 to buy.

Now the good news is that under a special promotion the parent company ChekcPoint Software's is giving away free genuine license keys for ZoneAlarm Pro internet security suite on November 18, 2008.

Rapidshare free users have to face several annoying limitations including pre-download timer, no simultaneous downloading and variable download wait before successive downloads, because of these limitations downloading multiple-files one after another can be tedious for free users, today I will be sharing a free utility "Rapidshare Plus" to overcome this problem, the small portable utility lets users add and download a queue of Rapidshare links one after another in a fully automated way.

The user interface is very easy to use and intuitive, users simply add Rapidshare links to create the download queue, and Rapidshare Plus will do the rest automatically downloading file one after another saving them to the folder of your choice.

If you are looking for a Windows Vista like experience on XP then you can try "Windows Vista Transformation Pack" shared earlier, but like me if you just want to get the cool looking functional Windows Vista sidebar and gadgets working on Windows XP computer, you should get the original Windows Vista sidebar tweaked to work on Windows XP by joshoon at DevianArt.

This original Windows Vista sidebar works fine on Windows XP provding full support for all gadgets from the Live Gallery, the sidebar makes use of Alky's DirectX 10 for Windows XP (included in the download) to make this functional on Windows XP.

RapidShare Security Lock is a new feature introduced by Rapidshare.Com for its premium and collector account subscribers, concerned by the increasing number of Rapidshare account phishers and hackers stealing and then changing premium account credentials, the file-hoster has now came up with this new security feature, once activated the feature safeguards users files, password, email address, and RapidPoints from unauthorized changes, the new features works by locking crucial account functionality using a second password known only to the premium account holder.

If you have not activated your RapidShare Security Lock you will be prompted with the red-unlocked icon below when logged into your account.

Having the most up-to-date version of DirectX on your Windows computer is crucial for best multimedia and gaming experience on PC, If you have decided not to risk-upgrade your Windows XP to unofficial DirectX 10, you can now update to the latest November Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime v 9.25.1476 build, according to the official Microsoft download page the updated DirectX release includes security and performance updates, along with several new features accessible by applications using the DirectX APIs.

The full web-installer is 86.25 MB in size and require Windows Genuine Check (WGA) to download, However, if you are having problems downloading from the Microsoft site you can use the full direct-download link at the end of this post.

By default Windows XP allows a maximum of 10 half open connections at a time, this limit is implemented as a security feature to slow-down spreading of internet-worms in-case the user machine gets infected, if your network use is crossing this limit your computers event-log will show the following Event:

EventID 4226: TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts.

This limit can slow down your internet access specially Peer-2-Peer applications like BitTorrent which require connecting to several peers for optimal performance, to increase this limit for speedy torrent downloading you need to patch the Windows TCP/IP system driver file, If your have already patched your TCPIP.sys file and updated your computer to Windows XP Service Pack 3, you should re-patch it using the free TCP/IP patcher for Windows XP.

If you are using Windows XP or Vista and the network machine running Windows XP is refusing your attempt for access via network displaying "Access is denied" or "You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions." error as shown below, just follow the simple registry hack to fix it.