Windows 8.1 24IN1 AIO x64-Bit English

 

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Description
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Windows 8.1 24IN1 AIO x64-Bit English-US Pre-Activated [DaRT 8.1 Updated June-25-2014 v2]

*No Windows 8.1 Settings were harmed in the making of this ISO.
*No Programs are added to Windows.
*No Registry Settings were modified.
*No Unattended Settings were added to the ISO.

These RTM Sources are the final Build 9600

Installation Indexes:
Windows 8.1 (Core) / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 (Core) N / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 (Core) Single Language / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Pro / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Pro N / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Pro VL / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Pro N VL / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Pro WMC / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Enterprise / KMS-Activated
Windows 8.1 Enterprise N / KMS-Activated
Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro / KMS-Activated
Windows Embedded 8.1 Industry Enterprise / KMS-Activated


Language: en-US (English - United States)

SetupComplete.cmd phase (Pre-Activated indexes only):
Defender exclusion key for AutoKMS
Warning.vbs short 8s non-genuine notification
AutoKMS activation

Features:
-NetFx 4.5.2
-Windows 8.1 with Update MSDN/ESD download
-Highly compressed ESD format.
-DaRT 8.1 integrated into boot.wim recovery options.
-UEFI bootdata in addition to BIOS bootdata
-Diskpart/apply script with recovery image and multi-boot support v1.2.4*
*To access, press shift-f10 during boot-setup and type: MENU


Notes:
-EI.CFG is present. *You will need to extract the iso and delete this
file to upgrade from a previous version of Windows*. You will also want to
allow setup to download updates during upgrade process.

**NOTE**
-Please tell me if this version fixes your issues with installs on x64
platforms. I've tested all indexes personally without any problems, but
I have limited hardware to test on. This feedback is important.


Changes:
v2
-Re-examined winre optional dart stuff and I've restored the stock
Winre.wim from each index so that none of the file attributes or
ACL permissions are modified in any way. Perhaps this will help
solve the rare boot-install error.
-There is a weird connection with dism and file attributes and properties.
It's hard to explain, but during my early testing with winre stuff, I
noticed that improper file attributes would make a mount folder unable to
unmount. It could be as simple as not deleting files that were previously
differently attributed, or it could be indicative of a larger problem.

v1
-Removed sxs folder. Use the online script in the scripts folder to add
netfx 2-3.5.1 - The sxs folder only adds build 9600 base. The online
version adds the additional files to bring it up to 9600.17031. It should
also add any necessary language information for the feature.
-AutoCRC on the ISO to standardize to crc32: FFFFFFFF
-Added Embedded 8.1 Industry Pro and Enterprise*
*These Embedded versions are the same as their Pro VL or Enterprise
counterparts except that they do not have any APPX modern apps installed
and they have an iSKU feature package and gVLK installed by default.
-Added KB2969339 new servicing stack update to all boot/winre/install
images and upped the scratchspace to 256megs from the default 32megs.
The extra scratchspace just uses a little more ram for the ramdrive so
you can store things on the X: ram drive during winre or boot.

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Germany beats Argentina 1-0 in extra time to win World Cup

Call them World Cup champions.

Mario Goetze scored in the 113^th minute Sunday night, and the 1-0 victory gave Germany its fourth World Cup title – and second at the expense of Argentina. It’s the first time a European team has won the World Cup in either North or South America.

When the final whistle sounded, the bench players raced onto the field, joining their teammates in a dogpile. Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made her second trip to the World Cup to see the final, stood and applauded.

WATCH: Gotze’s stunning game-winner

As the German players partied, Goetze appeared to wipe a tear from his eyes.

Lionel Messi, meanwhile, could only stand and watch, hands on his hips and brushing off any attempts to console him. This was his time to win the one title that’s eluded him, and his performance Sunday will do nothing to quiet the critics – talking to you, Pele – who say he’ll never be in the conversation for best player of all time without a World Cup title.

Messi disappeared for large stretches of the game, and whiffed on what is normally a gimme for him. With the ball on his left foot and German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer frozen, Messi took a shot from about 9 yards. But he mis-hit it just a tad, and it missed by inches at the far post.

He also skied a free kick in the final stoppage time, and had a shot cleared off the line in the first half.

But he isn’t the only Argentina player to blame for this loss.

MESSI: Wins Golden Ball, but that’s not what he wanted

Though Germany came in seeming to be the better team, Argentina had more chances. Gonzalo Higuain missed a golden opportunity in the 21st after Toni Kroos’ dismal backheader, shanking a shot from 18 yards.

It was so bad Higuain didn’t even need to watch it go wide, bending over and putting his hands on his knees as Javier Mascherano clutched his head.

And Rodrigo Palacio botched what looked like an easy chip shot in the 97^th.

As much as Messi has been criticized for his World Cup futility, so had Germany. Though it had made the semifinals in both 2006 and 2010, this team – perhaps its best since 1990 – had yet to win a major title.

In fact, it had only made the final at one major tournament, losing to Spain at the 2008 European championship.

But the Germans were brimming with confidence ahead of this game, saying they fully expected to win it. Even if they needed extra time to do it.

That 90 minutes weren’t enough to settle this final, the third between Germany and Argentina, was only fitting. This was the mother of all grudge matches even before it began, with Argentina beating Germany for its second title in 1986 and Germany – led by a guy named Jurgen Klinsmann — getting payback four years later.

As if that wasn’t enough, Germany had eliminated the Albiceleste at the last two World Cups. It beat them in a penalty shootout in 2006, then routed them 4-0 in South Africa to bring an embarrassing close to Diego Maradona’s coaching career.

GOLDEN BOOT: Colombia’s James Rodriguez wins award

Argentina fans were thrilled to see their team back in the finals for the first time since 1990 – and only too happy to rub a little salt in Brazil’s deep wound. Though FIFA said Germany and Argentina each received 13,000 tickets for fans, the stadium looked – and sounded – more like a game in Buenos Aires.

Wearing Argentina’s trademark blue-and-white striped shirt, they sang and cheered and bounced up and down, waving jerseys and flags and scarves.

But despite Brazil losing its last two games by an AYSO-like combined score of 10-1, the home fans got the last laugh – sort of – with the German victory.

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4 things you should never share on social media

Some info should never be shared on places like Facebook, Twitter or even Foursquare, and despite privacy settings that you can generally alter, there are still things you should avoid sharing altogether.

On Facebook, although many users leave their profiles open, you can control everything you publish throughout its privacy settings. On Foursquare, it's up to you whether you prefer to share your check-ins only with friends or with the whole community, and on Twitter, everything is public unless you choose private settings (typically uncommon for the platform), or unless you send a private message to someone you mutually follow.

So, what are 4 things you should never share on any of these social networks?

1. 'A two-month holiday in Indonesia, awesome!'

When you go on vacation for weeks, choose what you want to share and how. A public tweet is perhaps not the best way to share this information with your friends. By checking the geotags of your tweets or by simply going on your Foursquare account, burglars could decide to make an impromptu visit to your home during your absence.

In the past, some sites like PleaseRobMe.com have tried to alert the public about this issue.

In the same way that someone can check if you really are sick when you take time off work, it's also smart to avoid the beach selfie; it may not be quite as dangerous, but it could get you in trouble, or even worse, make your colleagues super jealous.

2. Beware of misleading content

If you see a video like 'OMG Miley Cyrus out of control' or 'Britney Spears as you've never seen her before' on someone's wall that would otherwise never post something like this, you know there's trouble.

These scams were discovered a long time ago but still cause problems for people. When clicked, these 'video clips' actually make you 'Like' the content (which is sometimes questionable) and then adds the 'Like' to your own wall or news feed. Avoid clicking weird or suspicious things you don't think your friends would actually 'Like'.

Also, don’t forget that recruiters don’t hesitate to examine your Facebook and Twitter profiles before even considering you for an interview. It’s not about having a completely clean Facebook –this social network is, at the end of the day, a space for expression– but it might be a good idea to filter what you 'Like'.

3. Never talk about confidential information

To mention a contract or agreement on the internet might seem innocent enough, but if said agreement contains confidentiality clauses, it's probably not a good idea to talk about them on social networks.

One father learned this lesson the hard way after losing $80,000 in a settlement case in which a confidentiality clause stipulated that no one other than his wife and attorneys could discuss the settlement. Unfortunately, his daughter didn't get the memo and posted the info all over Facebook, losing the family the settlement.

4. Don't complain about colleagues

If your line manager or your clients drive you crazy, don’t release your frustration on social networks. There are countless cases of people who were politely excused from their duties after making outrageous remarks on Facebook. It’s estimated that a significant proportion of layoffs are caused by social network misuse.

Known your privacy settings

To avoid unpleasant surprises, the simplest –and most effective– thing to do is to understand the privacy settings of these services. The goal is not to use your Facebook page or an impersonal Twitter account less, but rather to present yourself in a more favorable light.

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WinRar 5.0 - is it really better than 7-zip?

What are the benefits: RAR4 vs RAR5?

There are millions of RAR files in the world and most of them have been compressed with the algorithm RAR4, which can open almost all decompressors and almost all versions of WinRAR. WinRAR Version 5 introduces a higher standard, RAR5.

For starters, RAR5 increases the compression dictionary size to 1GB (in the 64-bit version). The larger the dictionary, which stores the repeatable parts of a file, the better the compression, but only for huge files.

The default size of the RAR compression dictionary is 32MB, a much lower figure. So when would you need to use large dictionary sizes? When you have huge files that you aren’t going to share, such as when you make a back up.

Another important change is the new recovery log. RAR5 format is much more resistant to damage than RAR4, but only with a log size equal or greater than 5% of the file, even if it’s corrupted.

Finally, with RAR5 you can encrypt your data with a 256-bit AES algorithm. It’s certainly not the strongest encryption on the market, but it is very, very robust. The U.S. government uses it to protect its Top Secret content.

Mini-comparison: RAR5 vs. 7-Zip vs. RAR4

In several tests, RAR5 has outperformed 7-Zip in terms of speed and compression ratio. For example, in a test published in Hyperspin, WinRAR 5 decompressed a 5GB image in two minutes compared to almost six minutes for 7-Zip.

We did a quick test comparing RAR5, RAR4 and 7-Zip (LZMA and LZMA2). The machine used was a Dell Precision Workstation 490 with CPU Intel Xeon 5130 (dual-processor quad-core), 16GB of RAM and Windows 8 Pro 64bit.

The file contained 104 different file types (documents, videos, images and uncompressed music) in ten folders, occupying a total area of 528.031.744 bytes in the NTFS partition. Source and destination were the same ATA hard drive.

Three default options were used: fastest, most powerful and normal. The only thing that changed was the size of the dictionaries to match, as far as possible, those used by RAR5 (apart from RAR4, which was limited to 4mb).

Starting with the obvious: RAR algorithm speed is impressive both in RAR4 andRAR5. Bear in mind that the normal RAR5 level uses 32MB dictionaries, which increased compression times considerably.

7-Zip results weren’t great. In the case of LZMA, which is the algorithm 7-Zip uses by default, the CPU is hardly used, whereas LZMA2 doesn’t have this limitation. But even using eight multithreaded cores couldn’t beat RAR4.

The results of compression, which can be tentatively drawn from the sample used, show some advantage to using RAR over 7-Zip, but they’re not very significant.

Can RAR5 be used now?

Absolutely. To do this you have to choose the option RAR5 to compress a new file from WinRAR 5.0. The default dictionary size is 32 megabytes.

Why can’t I unzip RAR5?

Files compressed with the algorithm RAR5 are still very new and, can only be opened by WinRAR 5. We tested several of the most popular decompressors, such as 7-Zip and IZArc, and we haven’t managed to open RAR5 files.

Although RAR isn’t an open source format, WinRAR distributes the source code of the UnRAR utility, which is free and only for command lines. On the same page the RAR5 format specifications are available.

Whether other decompressors will open RAR5 files depends on how fast they adopt the new standard. In the case of 7-Zip, Igor Pavlov, the lead developer, has said that adding support for RAR5 “isn’t a priority”.

What version of RAR should you use?

Right now, for compatibility reasons, our recommendation is to use RAR4, which WinRAR offers by default. To share RAR5 files it’s best to wait until the format gets a bit more popular, or create a self-extracting file.

Which compression format are you going to use?

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Call of Duty: Ghosts Review

A bleak scenario

In a context of global economic crisis, several oil-producing South American countries combine to form the Federation, a new superpower that will benefit from its hegemonic position to turn against, as I’m sure you’ve already guessed, the United States. The single player campaign of Call of Duty: Ghosts begins the moment the Federation takes control of an American space station and launches a large-scale orbital attack on the United States.

Call of Duty: Ghosts awkwardly attempts to tug on your heart strings by telling the story of two brothers and their German Shepherd who, almost through no fault of their own, take part in reconquering their native land. No, this year, it will no longer be the single player campaign that will inspire people to buy Call of Duty: Ghosts.

One for thrill seekers... on rails

The heroes can count on Riley, their German Shepherd.

Like its illustrious predecessors, the single player campaign of Call of Duty: Ghosts takes it cues from blockbuster movies, throwing us straight into the action from the first minutes of play. It explodes in all directions where bullets abound and blood spurts, creating genuine entertainment for thrill seekers. The only problem, is that it's mounted on its rails.

There's no time to improvise. The single player campaign leaves very little room for interaction, which is the last thing you want in a video game. The player basically has to follow, more or less quickly, the orders that appear on screen, which have been given by the other characters.

I was surprised to find that level gameplay was a vague system of checkpoints and objectives that weren't always very clear. Small flaws were compensated for by the linear aspect of the traditional corridor levels that we expect from this series.

But not everything has been thrown into the single player campaign in Call of Duty: Ghosts. Our two brothers in arms will always be able to count on Riley, their dog, in brief phases of gameplay that showcase stealth. Unfortunately, you’re not actually able to control their four legged friend at any point, what surely seems like a missed opportunity.

Multiplayer: (almost) all quiet on the Western Front...

The new customization system offers nearly 20,000 different possibilities.

Trigger-happy junkies can rest assured, Call of Duty: Ghosts hasn't changed - or at least has barely changed - its celebrated multiplayer mode! The new features include 14 new maps, the ability to slide along the ground, a new customization system offering nearly 20,000 different possibilities, female avatars, 7 new game modes, and 20 new Killstreaks (bonuses that reward a certain number of enemies killed in succession), including the dogs of war!

As is common in the series, Call of Duty: Ghosts doesn't really leave room for tactics, and it’s the reflexes, memorization, and attitude of the players that will reap the rewards.

The new Squad Points system allows all players, in theory, to customize their characters and adapt their equipment to their type of game play. Unfortunately, you need to play lots of matches online before you can raise the amount of points required to purchase better weapons and accessories.

The system isn't particularly easy and could put off less patient players or newcomers to the game. Fortunately, beginners will have Squad mode to become familiar with the mechanics of the multi-player game and the chance to win Squad Points before coming up against hordes of bloodthirsty players.

These are subtle changes that hopefully won't turn fans away from the genre.

Extinction: the diamond in the rough

In Extinction, you have to try and repel an alien invasion.

The real surprise of Call of Duty: Ghosts comes in the form of Extinction, a fabulous multiplayer co-op mode that’s fun, refreshing and full of great ideas. In Horde moderevisited, you attempt to repel an alien invasion along with 3 other players. Your main objective is to fight successive waves of enemies and destroy the hives of the invader with limited resources.

There's also no more mindless shooting found in the single player campaign. In Extinctionmode, you'll need to buy your weapons and ammunition with money earned by completing the game objectives and shooting down aliens; it's a crucial detail which adds a dimension of both strategy and invigorating survival to the mode.

There's also the new system of exciting challenges, the terrible environmental traps (gas cylinders, electrified areas, and controlled fires) and the techniques involved in mastering aerobatics. In truth, Extinction is single-handidly good enough to justify purchasing Call of Duty: Ghosts, a real demonstration of the creative potential of Infinity Ward studio.

Visible strings

Call of Duty: Ghosts doesn't shown its full potential on the current generation of consoles.

I tested Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Playstation 3 and I have to admit that I wasn’t particularly impressed with the graphics of the game. Between low-resolution texturesand frozen facial animations, Call of Duty: Ghosts doesn't show its full potential on current generation consoles. Fortunately, great particle effects, deformation of the maps, and the animations of Riley come together to improve a package that isn't particularly showy.

Verdict: spectral pallor

With Call of Duty: Ghosts, Infinity Ward delivers a collection of disjointed experiences with mixed quality. The multiplayer mode, the major asset of the series, has been enhanced with subtle improvements that perfect an already proven game mechanic without taking enough risks to permanently draw attention to them. But if Call of Duty: Ghosts remains, despite everything, a good action game, it'll be interesting to see how the Activision title will fare against a new generation of first-person shooters like the ambitious Titanfall andDestiny.

Despite a mixed critical reception, Moonraker remains one of the most successful movies in the James Bond franchise. With a billion dollar revenue on its first day of release, it's likely that Call of Duty: Ghosts will share a similar fate.

Score: 7.5/10

Call of Duty: Ghosts is available on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

Download Call of Duty: Ghosts for PC

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Set up your Windows PC as a wireless hotspot

1. Check if your network driver supports hosted networks

On individual computers, Virtual Router Plus can't access the local network. The driver for your network card must support hosted networks. You check if this is the case in two simple steps.

Press the Windows key and R. Type CMD in the character field Open and click OK.

A window appears with the Windows command line. Enter the command netsh wlan show drivers and press Enter or Return. Windows then lists details of your network drivers. If at Supported Hosted Networks the entry is Yes, then you can set up a wifi hotspot.

2. If your PC has no wireless adapter: Buy a USB wireless adapter and connect it:

You can buy a USB Wireless LAN adapter online for less than five dollars. Insert the adapter into an available USB port and you're ready to go. Drivers are unnecessary in most cases - Windows automatically detects the device.

3. Install Virtual Router Plus

Download Virtual Router Plus and install the program.

4. Starting and adjusting Virtual Router Plus

The freeware requires only three simple pieces of information: Under Network Name (SSID), enter a name. Then enter a secure password (as secure as possible) and choose your internet connection for Shared Connection. Click on Start Virtual Router to activate your personal Wi-Fi hotspot.

5. Connect the mobile device

Your Windows Wi-Fi hotspot now shows as an available network on your mobile device. After entering the password, you can use the internet connection from your PC on your tablet, laptop, or smartphone.

Image: Private screenshot via Placeit

Troubleshooting: Hotspot cannot be found

If your mobile device can't find the Wi-Fi hotspot, click on Stop Virtual Router in Virtual Router Manager, and then on Start Virtual Router again. Use this method to solve any connection problems, but we're fairly confident you won't have any.

Have you tried this method of creating a Wi-Fi hotspot? Did it work?

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How to resize disk space in VirtualBox

 

VirtualBox is an excellent free solution if you need to run Windows on your Mac. However, one common problem is that over time, you run out of disk space. If you receive the "Low Disk Space" warning in Windows, your only option is to either delete files and applications or resize the amount of hard drive space you allow Windows to use on your Mac.

Fortunately, you can resize the disk space in VirtualBox, although it is a bit tricky. Here's how to resize a Windows hard drive in VirtualBox on your Mac.

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Firefox 17 released

  

Firefox 17 is out now, and you can download it for Windows and Mac.

In line with recent updates, this is not a radical update, but there are some changes. The most notable is the introduction of Facebook integration. Click here to enable this feature once Firefox has been updated. This adds four Facebook buttons to Firefox, as you can see below, allowing you to check notifications, messages, friend requests, and open your profile.

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Internet Explorer 10 preview for Windows 7 released. Find out what's changed.

Internet Explorer 10 has been a Windows 8 exclusive so far, but Windows 7 users can get their hands on the preview today. What's changed from IE 9? For many Windows 7 users, there will be no apparent change other than the updated interface. Windows 8 users running Internet Explorer 10 will notice the biggest changes as Microsoft designed IE from the ground up to work with touch. Windows 7 users won't get the simplified touch interface nor will they get handy features like sharing from the Windows Charms Bar.

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Angry Birds movie tie-ins we'd like to see

Yet another Angry Birds spinoff has been released today in the form of Angry Birds Star Wars. The new game sees the Angry Birds go head-to-head with some of the characters from George Lucas’ sci-fi masterpiece. However, here at Softonic, we thought we could do better than that so we put our heads together to discuss what kind of Angry Bird film spin-offs we’d like to see in the future. We tried to cover a range of genres and here’s what we came up with.

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How to use the hidden emoticons in Yahoo! Messenger

 

Like most instant messenger apps, you can use emoticons in Yahoo! Messenger. Clicking the smiley face in the messenger window opens up a big selection of emoticons you can use to spice up your conversations.

Did you know there are a range of hidden emoticons not accessible from the emoticons menu? If you know the right combination of keys, you can say anything from 'Bring it On' to 'Shame on You' or 'Not Worthy.'

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Google Chrome 23 released with controversial Do Not Track support

 

Google released its latest stable version of the Chrome browser, version 23. In this version, Windows users will gain support for GPU-accelerated video decoding for better performance and battery life (up to 25% better). Users will also get the controversial "Do Not Track" feature, which opts users out of targeted advertising.

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How to use photo filters in Facebook 5.1 for iOS

 

Facebook already released standalone apps messenger and the camera, but Facebook's latest update to the iOS app adds more than just improved chat or multiple photo sharing. You can now take photos and apply different filters to them before you upload them to your wall.

Even though Facebook purchased Instagram, these filters are different. The update adds a new menu you select to bring up the filters option. It's simple to use, but the included filters are a lot more difficult to see changes because of the smaller screen.

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How to download and combine multiple videos with aTube Catcher

 

aTube Catcher is a super handy and powerful application for downloading videos from all across the web. Chris has already shown you how to download videos using aTube Catcher but did you know you could combine multiple videos into one file? aTube Catcher has this functionality built-in so you don't need another program to do this.

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Customize the Windows 7 start button

Customize the Windows 7 start button

Windows 7's start button is something you'll use all the time, but what if you get bored of it? Windows 7 Start Button Changer, unsurprisingly, lets you change it!

You can download the application here, and it comes with 10 sets of sample 'orbs' to get you started. If you don't like them, there are lots more to be found on DeviantArt.com. Alternatively, you can create a BMP image (54 x 162 pixels) made up of three 54 x 54 pixel images.

To use Windows 7 Start Button Changer, extract the RAR file - IZArc is a great app for this - and move the folder (it will be called W7SBC) to Program Files.

Next, run the program as an administrator by right clicking the .EXE file in the W7SBC folder, and choosing Run as. Windows 7 Start Button Changer will automatically back up your current start button, and by clicking on the Select and Change Start Button icon, you can pick the BMP image of your choice.

The results are not always perfect, but it's pretty good overall. If you're not happy, just click Restore Original Explorer Backup and everything will be put back to normal.

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