NirBlog

CustomExplorerToolbar is new utility for Windows 7 only, which allows you to easily customize the toolbar of Windows Explorer, and add buttons that were existed in previous versions of Windows, like Copy, Cut, Paste, Select All, and more.

CustomExplorerToolbar Window

In the following screenshot, you can see an example of Explorer window, after adding the Close, Copy, Cut, Paste, Properties, and Select All buttons with CustomExplorerToolbar utility:

Buttons added into the toolbar of Explorer

For more information about using this utility, click here.

Wireless Network Watcher is a new utility that scans your wireless network and displays the list of all computers and devices that are currently connected to your network.
For every computer or device that is connected to your network, the following information is displayed: IP address, MAC address, the company that manufactured the network card, and optionally the computer name.
You can also export the connected devices list into html/xml/csv/text file, or copy the list to the clipboard and then paste into Excel or other spreadsheet application.

Wireless Network Watcher

You can download this new utility from this Web page.

BatteryInfoView is a new utility for laptops and netbooks that displays the current status and information about your battery. The displayed battery information includes the battery name, manufacture name, serial number, manufacture date, power state (charging/discharging), current battery capacity, full charged capacity, Designed Capacity, voltage, charge/discharge rate, and more…

BatteryInfoView provides 2 different view modes:

1. Battery Information: Displays general status and information about your battery. The information is updated every 10 seconds by default, and you change this update rate in the ‘Advanced Options’ window.
   

   Battery Information View

2. Battery Log: In this window, a new log containing the status of the battery (Power State, % Capacity, and so on) is added every 30 seconds. You can change the log interval in the ‘Advanced Options’ window.
   

   Battery Log View

You can download this new utility from this page.

The new version of NirCmd provides 3 new commands to control the sound volume on Windows 7/Vista/2008:

1. setdefaultsounddevice – Allows you the set the default sound device on Windows 7/Vista/2008, exactly like you can do it from this window:
   

   Set Default Sound Device

   Example for using this command:
   NirCmd.exe setdefaultsounddevice “Line In”

2. setsubunitvolumedb – Allows you the set the sound volume level of subunits of a sound device, as you can do in the following device properties window:
   

   Speakers Properties Window

   As opposed to the above user interface of Windows, which allows you to set the volume level in percent scale, the command of NirCmd only allows you to set the volume level in decibel unit. So far, I couldn’t locate the exact formula that Microsoft uses to convert the decibel values into %.
   Examples for using the setsubunitvolumedb command:
   setsubunitvolumedb “Speakers” “Line In” -12
   setsubunitvolumedb “Speakers” “Microphone” -20

3. mutesubunitvolume – Allows you to mute/unmute the subunits of a sound device.
   Examples for using the mutesubunitvolume command:
   mutesubunitvolume “Speakers” “Line In” 0
   mutesubunitvolume “Speakers” “Microphone” 1

The third Beta of Volumouse 2 has a new feature that allows you to create a rule with any key/mouse click combination you like.
For example: if you want to change the volume when both Windows key and left control key are pressed, simply choose ‘Custom keys are pressed’ in the condition combo-box, and then in the ‘Advanced Rule Option’ window, check the ‘Windows Key’ and ‘Left Control’ options.
You can also use this feature with all other conditions. For example, you can choose the ‘Mouse cursor over the taskbar’ condition, and then in the Custom Key Combination, select the Shift key, so the rule will be used only when the mouse cursor is over the taskbar and the Shift key is pressed.

The new version IPNetInfo utility (v1.35)  allows you get information about IPv6 addresses. In order to use this feature, you have to check the ‘Detect IPv6 Addresses’ option in the ‘Choose IP addresses’ window. (This option is disabled by default)

After enabling this feature, you can type one or more IPv6 addresses in the addresses list text-box, and then the result looks like the following sample screenshot:

IPv6 Addresses on IPNetInfo

Be aware that for now, the ‘From IP’ and ‘To IP’ columns on the upper pane are not filled for IPv6 addresses, but this issue will be fixed in future versions.

The new version of BluetoothView utility (version 1.50) allows you to generate a log file  that specifies when a device appeared in your area and when a device left your area.
You can activate the log file feature in the Advanced Options window of BluetoothView, by checking the ‘Write the bluetooth activity into a log file’ option:

BluetoothView Advanced Options Window

After you activate the log file feature, the bluetooth activity will be written into the specified text file, as long as BluetoothView is running.
Here’s an example of Bluetooth activity log created by BluetoothView:

07/06/2011 21:28:11 Device Arrival: 00:07:61:12:2f:1f, NIR1
07/06/2011 21:29:11 Device Arrival: 78:2e:ef:13:44:99, Nokia C7-00
07/06/2011 21:32:18 Device Arrival: 00:1f:5d:ad:15:3d, DEVICE01
07/06/2011 21:35:18 Device Arrival: e8:e5:d6:a8:15:41, BLUE01
07/06/2011 21:37:29 Device Arrival: ec:9b:5b:cb:a1:99, Nokia 3120 classic
07/06/2011 21:38:28 Device Left: 00:07:61:12:2f:1f, NIR1
07/06/2011 21:45:25 Device Left: e8:e5:d6:a8:15:41, BLUE01

Be aware that a new log line is added only when a device is detected for at least 5 Bluetooth scans (Device Arrival) and when a device is not detected anymore, for 5 Bluetooth scans (‘Device Left’ lines).  This Bluetooth log feature is somewhat in a Beta state, and I’ll try to improve it in future versions according to your feedback.

If you can’t remember the login password of your Gmail account, there is still a chance that you can easily recover your lost password, as long as the password is stored in your computer by the email software or by the Web browser that you use.

There are 2 freeware utilities that can help you to recover your lost Gmail password: Mail PassView to recover the password from popular email clients, like Outlook and Windows Live Mail, and WebBrowserPassView, to recover the password from your Web Browser.

Here’s some information about how to use these 2 utilities to recover your lost Gmail password:

• Mail PassView: If you use a popular email software to receive and send messages on your Gmail account, like Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, or Thunderbird – You can use this utility to recover your Gmail password, assuming that you allowed your email software to save the password.
  In order to use this utility to recover your password, download Mail PassView from directly from this link.
  After you download it, open the zip file and run the mailpv.exe executable. Be aware that because this utility can extract password from your system, your Antivirus software may display an alert and even block you from running this .exe file.

  After running Mail PassView, the main window displays the details of all email accounts found in your system. In order to find the password of your Gmail account, you should locate the record where the value of the server column is pop.gmail.com or imap.gmail.com

  If you located the correct gmail record, you should see the Gmail password that you need under the Password column, as demonstrated in the following sample screenshot:

  

  Recover lost Gmail password with Mail PassView

• WebBrowserPassView: If you use a Web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, or Google Chrome) to login into your Gmail account, This utility can help you to recover your lost Gmail password, assuming that you chose to remember this password.
  In order to use this utility to recover your password, you can download it directly from this link.After you download it, open the zip file and run the  WebBrowserPassView.exe executable.  Be aware that because this utility can extract password from your system, your Antivirus software may display an alert and even block you from running this .exe file.After running WebBrowserPassView, the main window displays the list of all passwords stored by your Web browsers.
  In order to find the password of your Gmail account, you should locate the record where the URL column is https://www.google.com/accounts/servicelogin

  If you located the correct record, you should see the Gmail password that you need under the password column, as demonstrated in the following sample screenshot:

  

  Recover lost Gmail password with WebBrowserPassView

If you can’t remember the login password of your facebook account, there is still a chance that you can easily recover your lost password, as long as the password is stored in your computer by the Web browser you use.

You can try to recover your facebook password by using the WebBrowserPassView utility. This utility can recover the password from 4 different Web browsers – Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome. You can download this utility directly from this link.

After you download it, open the zip file and run the WebBrowserPassView.exe executable. Be aware that because this utility can extract password from your system, your Antivirus software may display an alert and even block you from running this .exe file.

After running WebBrowserPassView, the main window will display all the passwords stored by your Web browser. In order to find your facebook password, you have to locate the record line where the URL is http://www.facebook.com or http://www.facebook.com/login.php
If you located the correct facebook record, the password that you need will be found under the ‘Password’ column, as you can see the in the following sample screenshot:

Recover Facebook Password

If you can’t find any record with facebook link, your facebook password is probably not stored by your Web browser. Also, be aware that WebBrowserPassView cannot locate your password if it’s protected by a master password, or if it’s stored by a Web browser other than Firefox/IE/Opera/Chrome.

As I promised a few months ago, The first version of WhatIsHang is finally here.

WhatIsHang is a small tool that can detect applications that stopped responding (hang) and  displays some information that may help the user to understand what exactly may cause the hang problem. Currently, most  of the hang information displayed by WhatIsHang is designed for Windows experts and programmers, but I’ll gradually try to make it more friendly for all users, in the future versions.

For more information about WhatIsHang utility, click here.