When I was having my usual haircut at a salon near our house, my hairstylist (well, he just cuts my hair and I guess he doesn’t want to be called a barber), asked me for help on a problem in his laptop. I momentarily glanced at his table and there I saw his newly purchased gadget. I was quite surprised that there was already a problem when it was obviously brand new. He told me he’s been trying to change the wallpaper of his laptop for days and he couldn’t change it.

Now right after my haircut, I checked his laptop and saw that it was in Windows 7. When I checked what version/edition – voila! It was Windows 7 Starter. 

Windows 7 Starter Default Wallpaper

I immediately told him that Windows 7 Starter doesn’t allow the user to change the wallpaper. When I saw the long look of his face when I told him that, I knew I had to help this guy.

Windows 7 Starter: How to Change the Wallpaper

I know of two ways to change the wallpaper in Windows 7. Both methods require that you at least install a program to do it. Make sure you only install one.

1. Stardock MyColors

Stardock MyColors is a program which allows you not only to change the wallpaper but also the overall look of Windows. Stardock MyColors primarily changes the standard Windows 7 Aero theme to another theme.

You need to download and install Stardock MyColors (download it from Stardock MyColors official website)

After successful installation, just launch the application and go to My Themes. By default, there would only be 2 kinds of themes – Windows 7 Aero and Think Green. Choose the Think Green theme.

Now you can download several other themes from the Stardock website itself but the Think Green theme is the only additional theme in the default installation. This step (of choosing a theme other than Windows 7 aero) is important because if you have the Windows 7 Aero theme selected, you won’t be able to change the wallpaper.

After this just go to the Wallpapers tab, and choose any wallpaper which is in your Pictures folder.

Note that Stardock MyColors does not allow you to choose how to layout your wallpaper. By default, it would stretch your picture to fit the screen. So be sure to choose high resolution pictures so that it would not look pixelized in your screen.

2. Starter Background Changer

There are already several programs out there made by helpful people, which can change the background or wallpaper of Windows 7 Starter. Out of these programs, I have a favorite which is the Starter Background Changer by Renaud Gerson which he made available for download in his website renaudgerson.fr. His website and the actual installer are in French so I’ll help you on how to make it work. Once you’ve installed it, it would be in English so don’t worry about it.

You can download it at his official website renaudgerson.fr (just scroll down and click on the image saying Download), or you can use the download link I’ve provided below:

StarterBackgroundChanger v0.8

What’s good about this program is that you don’t have to change the overall theme and you can just change the wallpaper. What’s better is you can choose from a set of different layouts like stretch, tile, center, etc. (unlike Stardock MyColors which has the stretch layout only).

To install, just follow the screenshots below. “Suivant” means “Next”, and “Demarrer” means “To Start”.

Just choose “Suivant” on the following prompts.  

Choose “Yes”.

Then choose “Demarrer”.

Now once you’ve installed the program, just right click on your desktop and select “Personalize”. Notice that it’s not in French. It actually defaults to your language.

A new window would pop-up where you can change the wallpaper. It would have banner ads or advertisements at the bottom but it’s not that bothersome.

Note: If you’re going to upgrade to another version of Windows (i.e. Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, etc.) be sure to uninstall these programs.

There you have it! I hope I’ve helped you change your Windows 7 Starter wallpaper.

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1. Web Folders / Web disk / WebDAV problems on Windows 7

Taking care of your notebook or laptop battery is as important as taking care of the laptop or notebook itself. It’s the very thing that makes it mobile in the first place. Properly taking care of your battery will prolong its life.

That’s why when I read an article by Chris Yano on a forum on notebookreview.com about notebook batteries, I can’t help but share the information here for all of you to know. I know several ways to take care of a laptop battery, but Chris’ article makes it crystal clear. The article may be 2 years old, but the information he provided is still applicable today. (Read on below to quickly know how to take care of your laptop or notebook battery or you can go directly to Chris Yano’s article using the link above)

Note: Since majority (if not all) of laptop or notebook batteries manufactured nowadays are Li-ion batteries, that is what we will be discussing here. If in doubt, check your battery if it’s Li-ion. There’s a very big chance that it is.

Lifespan of a Notebook or Laptop Battery

Let’s first talk about the general lifespan of a battery. Most people believe that laptop batteries last at about 1 – 3 years with normal use (what is normal use anyway?). What most people don’t know is that laptop or notebook batteries deteriorate over time regardless if you use it or not.

Discouraging isn’t it? So by the time your battery was made, it’s already slowly getting worn out even when it’s not being used. Your batteries “age” whether you use it or not.

Besides the natural aging of batteries, notebook batteries have a specific number of charge/recharge cycles. Chris Yano pointed out in his article that there are about 300 – 800 charge/recharge cycles in a battery. After this, it would gradually lose its charge capacity rather than just fail to power up the laptop. You’ll start noticing this when the usual 3 hour charge capacity of your notebook battery decreases. A really noticeable bad or worn out battery would only be able to hold charge for about 15 – 30 mins of power.

So now that we know that batteries deteriorate whether we use it or not, and that it has a specific number of charge cycles only, how do we take care of a laptop or notebook battery so as to prolong it’s life?

Tips and Techniques to Prolong your Notebook / Laptop Battery’s Life

Chris Yano has several tips to prolong your notebook battery’s life:

1. Avoid frequent full discharging of laptop batteries

Unlike older types of batteries, Li-Ion batteries do not need regular complete discharges before recharging. In fact regularly discharging batteries would damage Li-Ion batteries and result in loss of capacity. Partial recharging is actually better as less charge capacity per cycle is lost. It is recommended that we charge at a 10% to 20% level.

2. Calibrate Your Laptop/Notebook Battery

Sometimes you’ll notice your battery isn’t charging up to 100%. It may charge only up to 80% to 99% of its gauge and then stop charging. This is an indication that you need to calibrate your battery to maintain its gauge accuracy.

To calibrate your battery just consume the battery power until the computer cuts off the power or automatically shuts down or sleeps. After that you can then fully recharge it up to 100%.

It’s recommended that you calibrate your battery after every 30 partial charges.

3. Consider removing the battery from the Laptop/Notebook

When you’re on A/C power most of the time, you should consider removing your battery from the laptop or notebook. By removing the battery and just running it purely in A/C power, you get two benefits.

First, you preserve the charge cycles of your battery. If the battery isn’t inserted in your laptop, you are sure that it isn’t charging (or trickle charging) and consuming charging cycles from your laptop battery.

Second, the battery’s temperature is lower as it receives less heat (heat from the laptop, and heat from the charging). Lower temperatures slow down the abovementioned aging (or deterioration) of the battery making it good for the battery.

It’s recommended that the notebook battery is charged to 40% if you do plan to remove it from the laptop and store it for a long time.

This is my most used technique in trying to prolong my laptop battery’s life as I always connect my laptop in A/C power. I always carry my laptop’s power adaptor and the places I go always have a power socket. You should assess if removing the battery is really feasible for you.

You can also store the laptop battery in the refrigerator (not in the freezer!) if you do remove it from your notebook. This would really protect the laptop battery from heat. Always put it in a sealed plastic bag when you put it in the refrigerator to keep the moisture out. Remember to let it warm to room temperature before using or recharging it.

There you have it! I hope you learned how to take care of your battery so as to prolong its life. Thanks to Chris Yano who made the article at the forum of notebookreview.com! I suggest you also read his article. I’ve provided a link above.

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Kaspersky Internet Security is one of the highest rated security software in the market today. It boasts the same antivirus packaged in Kaspersky Antivirus and packs in other Internet security features as well – such as protection from Hacker attacks, Spam, Phishing, and Identity theft.

So if you’ve purchased Kaspersky Internet Security, how do you go about on activating it?

(If you’ve downloaded Kaspersky Internet Security and plan to immediately activate it, skip to number 3. Also, if you’ve purchased it through a store, skip to number 3 as well. If however, you’re activating Kaspersky from a trial version start from number 1.)

1. Click on “License” located at the bottom of Kaspersky

2. Choose Activate New License

3. Input the Activation Key or License Key

If you’ve purchased Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 online, the activation or license key would be the set of letters and numbers given to you. If you’ve purchased Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 through your local store, it’s also the set of letters and numbers but located inside the box.

Once you’ve located your activation or license key, just type it in. You may type it with or without the dashes.

4. Fill in additional information

Kaspersky will ask you for your email, location and city. Be sure to put a valid and working email address you can access as they would send your registration details to your email so you can access Kaspersky’s technical support.

Kaspersky would then proceed to activate your license so be sure you have an active internet connection.

Once activation is finished Kaspersky would show the type of license and the license’s expiration date.

5. Retrieve your Key File

The Key file is what you will use to reactivate your Kaspersky Internet Security in case you had to reformat your PC.

Just go to https://activation.kaspersky.com and input the activation or license key which you typed in earlier. You should then enter the ID and password you received through email from Kaspersky.

You should then choose if you want the key file to be sent to your email address or downloaded to your computer.

There you have it! Not only did we activate your Kaspersky Internet Security, we also ensured that you can reactivate it again if you happen to format your computer.

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A laptop/notebook cooler or cooling pad is a device which is supposed to help cool your laptop when you are using it. This would prevent damage done by excessive heat and thus prolong your laptop’s lifespan.

Most coolers have fans which are powered through the USB of the laptop. Some do not have fans and just elevate the laptop to allow air to circulate. There are also coolers which act as mats which absorb the heat away from the laptop.

If you just pick any cooling pad thinking they’re all the same, then it might not cool your laptop at all. You might even think that laptop coolers are just a waste of money and should not be bought at all.

It’s also wrong to assume that there’s an ultimate laptop cooler that can cool any laptop or notebook available in the market. Why? Because there are different types of laptop ventilation and you should at least know what type your laptop has before buying a cooler.

Check the Ventilation of your Laptop or Notebook

The position of the vents and their ventilation method is the most important information you will need in choosing a good laptop cooler. It’s because your laptop’s ventilation is its primary cooling system and the cooler you choose should be complimenting or helping it.

1. The most common ventilation method is that there are one or two air intakes in the bottom of the laptop (air is being sucked in), and there are one or two air exhaust vents at the back side of the laptop – as shown in the illustration below. 

Since we already know where the air intakes and exhaust are, the laptop cooler we should buy should complement the already existing ventilation of the laptop.

An effective laptop cooler would push air up to the intake vents of the laptop. If a mat like the ThermaPack or a laptop stand is to be used, it should at least allow air to the intake vents.

Taking a closer look at the vents…

Other laptops or notebooks have more vents (usually those with a graphics card).

Make sure the cooler you choose to buy takes advantage of the multiple air intakes of the laptop. The laptop cooler should push air to most if not all air intakes.

2. A less common ventilation method is the exact opposite of what I’ve recently shown. The air intakes are at the side or at the back, and the exhaust is at the bottom.

If this is the case, there should be enough space between the laptop and the surface from where it’s placed. A laptop cooler which pushes air up to the bottom of the laptop shouldn’t be used as this would conflict with the ventilation of the laptop (It might push the hot air back to the laptop). You could however, place a small USB powered fan at the air intakes located at the bottom or side of the laptop.

3. Another ventilation method is where there are no air intakes but there is an exhaust located at the back or the side. These are mostly seen in Mac notebooks.

Laptop coolers which suck or pull air at the bottom of the laptop and release it at the side or back of the cooler are appropriate for laptops with this kind of ventilation. Mats with some kind of special gel which act as heat absorbers and distributors (like ThermaPak) can be used as well. They work extremely well for these kinds of notebooks.

Check your Laptop’s Heat Spots

Heat spots are the areas at the bottom of your laptop (except the vents) which run hot when the laptop is turned on. Be sure to check for heat spots so that the laptop cooler you buy are able to reach them as well.

We already mentioned above that if your laptop has a ventilation method where the air intakes are at the bottom, and the air exhaust are at the side or back, a laptop cooler which push air up to the bottom of the laptop should be chosen. We also mentioned that air should be specifically pushed up to the air intake vents.

However, if heat spots at the bottom of the laptop are present, air should not just be pushed up to the air intakes but to the heat spots as well.

If your laptop however has no air intake vent and just an exhaust at the back or side (like Mac notebooks), the fans which suck air at the bottom should be at the position of the heat spots for greater effectiveness. That’s why cooling mats with special heat absorbing gels like the ThermaPak are most effective in laptops like these – it just absorbs the heat at the bottom of the laptop and doesn’t need to worry about air flow.

Design and Build

Lastly, the design and build of the laptop cooler should also be considered. Laptop coolers with fans are either made of plastic or metal. If you prefer a cheap solution then plastic laptop coolers can be for you. Plastic laptop coolers also have the advantage of being lighter and easier to carry around.

Although metal laptop coolers are heavier and pricier, they conduct heat better and are thus able to disperse it better. There are also plastic coolers with metal or aluminum fans. This is good as well as metal fans release cooler air than fans made of plastic.

Mats with special gels like the ThermaPak are the easiest to carry. Mats also do not require that you put it in a flat surface unlike laptop coolers with fans.

That’s it! Laptop coolers aren’t really complicated but it requires that you at least know the ventilation of your laptop, the heat spots (if any) of your laptop, and the design and build that you prefer. I hope I’ve helped you how to choose a good laptop or notebook cooler.

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1. How to Prolong your Notebook / Laptop Battery’s Life

The most obvious advantage of boosting the signal of your wireless router is that more places on your area can now connect to the wireless network or wireless internet you’ve set-up. This basically means your wireless internet or wireless network would have more coverage.

So if you want to boost your wireless router’s signal, there are several ways to do this:

1. Replace your Antenna

By simply replacing the stock antennas of your wireless router, you can already boost your signal and coverage. If your stock antenna is a 3db antenna and your replaced it with a 7db antenna, you can experience as much as an 80% boost of signal.

Remember though that Linksys and D-Link routers have different sockets for their antennas. Linksys wireless routers use R-TNC (except for a select few), while D-link routers use R-SMA. So don’t buy an R-SMA antenna if you have a Linksys router. Just ask on your local computer store and they should be able to give you the correct one. If you want to be extra sure, bring your router!

2. Use DD-WRT a Free Third Party Firmware

DD-WRT is a FREE third party firmware made for a broad range of wireless routers.

You can replace the previous firmware of your manufacturer by following their instructions at the installation guide or wiki of DD-WRT (http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Installation#Downloading_DD-WRT). It includes links on what routers are supported, what appropriate version to download and lots of other information.

Assuming you’ve successfully installed DD-WRT to your wireless router, just go to the web interface of your router and then go to Wireless -> Advanced Settings and raise the TX Power to a number higher than 70. You can raise it to a number as high as 251, which would definitely increase the signal of your wireless router, but would also lessen its lifespan as it would run hotter. 

I put my router to 100mW and my router’s temperature was still ok while increasing the signal of my wireless router. When I put it to 150, I noticed a significant increase in the temperature of my router so I quickly put it back to 100.

DD-WRT is free although it requires a little bit of technical skill and patience to install it to your router. It also has tons of other features. Be sure to try it out.

3. Use a Wireless Range Expander / Extender

Of the previous two methods mentioned, this is the most costly as you have to buy a wireless range expander / extender. Wireless Range Expanders, like the Linksys WRE54G, would boost the signal of your current wireless router.

If for example your router is in point A and its signal only reaches point B and you need the signal to reach point C. Just put the Wireless Range Expander to point B so it could boost the signal up to point C.

A wireless range expander is much cheaper than a wireless router so if you plan on just expanding the range or just boosting the signal of your router, it’s better to just get a wireless range expander instead of buying another router.

4. Use All Three Methods

Using only one of the methods above would already give you a significant boost on your wireless or Wi-Fi signal. Imagine if you used all three!

These are the three most effective and cost efficient ways that I know so you could boost the signal of your wireless router to give you an expanded or extended wireless range.

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I’ve always loved photo mosaics as they bring so much life to photos. Photos themselves are great but photo mosaics bring them to another level especially when photo mosaics are big.

My previous photo mosaics have all been done by other people mostly by photo or imaging shops. I usually give them the main photo and the photos which would compose the main photo (called the tiles).

With the free software AndreaMosaic, you can make your own photo mosaics easily. Just download it on the link I just provided and install it.

AndreaMosaic is completely free and DOES NOT require an active internet connection to be able to create photo mosaics. Other free photo mosaic services needs to be online and you must upload your picture to their server.

Steps to Create a Free Photo Mosaic:

1. Launch AndreaMosaic

After installing, you should be able to launch AndreaMosaic without any errors.

2. Indicate the Main Photo for the Photo Mosaic

Drag and Drop the photo file which you will use as the main photo for your mosaic. You can also use the + button located at the top.

Once you’ve successfully selected your main photo, it should be shown in the application.

3. Choose the Photos that will Compose the Main Photo

We should now select the pictures or photos that would compose the main photo. These small photos are usually called Tiles

i. Choose Select Tiles located at the bottom

A new window would then pop-up. 

ii. From there select Add Folder. Select the folder containing the pictures you want to put in your main photo. You can select multiple folders by using Add Folder multiple times if the pictures you have are located in different folders.

The folder should be listed at the middle pane if it is successfully selected.

iii. Once you’ve selected all the folders containing the pictures you want, choose Save Archive located at the top right. 

AndreaMosaic would now analyze and compile the images in the folders you’ve selected. The progress would be shown at the bottom.

iv. Once the analysis and compilation of the images are complete, a new window would pop-up asking you to save the archive. Just indicate any filename you want.

Once it is saved, the pictures and not just the folders should now be shown. 

Click Ok to go back to the main window.

3. Input your Desired Settings

You should now input your desired settings in making your photo mosaic. Things like the Size Parameters (size of the main mosaic and the small pictures), Tile Duplication (settings of the Tiles that would compose your main mosaic), Pattern, Color Change, Tile Variants can be set. If you can’t understand a particular setting, just hover your mouse over the setting you don’t understand and an explanation would appear.

The flexibility of the options depends on the number of Tiles or pictures you have selected. The more pictures the better. 

If the parameters you’ve set have not created any errors, the Status indicator should state that All parameters are correct. If it does, click Create Mosaic.

The bigger and the more pictures the mosaic has, the longer it will take.

Once the mosaic is finished, AndreaMosaic will ask you if you want to view the photo mosaic created. You can then view the result there.

Below is the result of the mosaic I did. It was reduced in size because I just want to show you how it generally looks like (the picture is just 10% of the original size)

There you have it! I hope I’ve helped you create or make your own free photo mosaic – Thanks to AndreaMosaic!

(If you want to be able to make a free photo mosaic in Mac OS use MacOSaiX)

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Using only one kind of antivirus isn’t usually enough to protect you from the different kinds of viruses that are present today. Especially with users of free antivirus software, the protection it offers is usually not enough – even when you are using one of the best free anti-virus softwares from Avira Antivir.

That’s why when you’re a user of free antivirus software, it’s recommended that you also use an On-Demand Scanner which acts to protect you from viruses that could have been missed by your main anti-virus software. Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool for many reasons is a recommended pick.

1. Complete Scan and Automatic Removal of Viruses

Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is an on-demand scanner because of this feature. You can choose to scan the System memory, Startup objects, Disk boot sectors, Documents, Mail databases, Hard Drives and even USB flash drives & DVD/CD drives. Being a Kaspersky product, it uses its detection algorithms from the prominent Kaspersky Antivirus and AVZ Antiviral Rootkit.

Its settings are even customizable so that nothing is missed when you scan your computer. Just click on Settings and then Customize to set the General Settings

and then the tab Heurestic Analyzer Settings for better Trojan and Rootkit detection.

2. Option for Manual Removal of Viruses

If ever your computer is infected with a virus which needs a special process for removal, you can do this via the Manual Cure feature. Together with experts and virus analysts from Kaspersky lab’s official forum in the Virus-related issues branch, you could execute scripts to remove the most dangerous and most annoying viruses.

3. Notification for Update

Another good thing about the Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool is that it notifies you if the program that you have is out of date.

It may need to be connected to be able to check if there is a new version of the program. Moreover, you would need to uninstall your old version, download and install it again for you to have the updated version.

All in all, having another anti-virus scanner would help increase the security of your computer – and Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool does a great job with it. Besides being an on-demand anti-virus scanner, it has a manual removal feature which is very useful for new and/or hard to remove viruses.

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I recently wrote about how you can play almost any video file using the K-Lite Codec Pack. By just installing this codec pack, you would already be able to play almost any kind of video file in the small Windows application Media Player Classic. However, the one thing it lacked is the capability to play QuickTime Videos/Movies.

I recently stumbled upon the QuickTime alternative, which also uses the lightweight Media Player Classic. By just installing QuickTime alternative, you could already play QuickTime Movies/Videos (.MOV) without the need for the QuickTime Player.

I like Media Player Classic better than Windows Media Player in most cases as it is very fast and light on resources, has tons of playing options, and can play almost any video file together with the K-Lite Codec Pack.

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USB flash disks and portable hard drives are already a part of our modern lives. Almost everyone has a USB flash disk and most people are thinking of buying a portable hard drive nowadays. With that, the question I often get about them is how do you password protect a USB flash disk or portable hard drive?

Why is It Important to Password Protect your USB Flash Disk or Portable Hard Disk?

You carry your USB flash drive or portable hard disk with you all the time. Most of us put sensitive information and files in there that can be used against us or that we simply don’t want others to see. If you lose the flash disk, you risk other people seeing or accessing your sensitive files.

How to Password Protect a USB Flash Disk or Portable Hard Disk?

The methods in password protection of flash disks or portable hard disks have long been an issue. There are many applications which can password protect flash disks. However, most of them require that the logged on user has administrator rights – or the capability to create, modify, delete, install, or run any file on the computer.

So what if a computer doesn’t have administration rights and the flash disk or portable hard drive has a password protection software/application in it? Some applications lock the files inside the USB – meaning it can’t be accessed. Some however, offer no protection at all. All the files are accessible.

I can recommend two applications which you can use.

1. Rohos Mini Drive

Rohos Mini Drive is an application which creates a hidden and encrypted partition in a USB flash disk. The good thing about Rohos Mini Drive is that you can access your files even without administrator rights/privileges. However, the size limit of the files that you can password protect is 2GB.

To setup your flash disk or portable hard drive just choose Setup USB Key

Then insert your USB flash disk and choose the flash disk’s drive letter, in our case its J:. Set the password as well.

Once it finishes making an encrypted partition in your hard drive, you can insert it in any computer (even without administrator rights) and you just need to run Rohos mini.exe and enter the password you have set.

A new drive letter would appear outside of the flash disk (like it was a different drive) and you can now access or put your files there.

Note: The download link of Rohos Mini Drive is already indicated above. If you want to protect more than 495 MB of data, I suggest that you purchase Rohos Disk Encryption which is also in their site.

2. TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt is also an application which can be used for protection of flash disks. To password protect flash disks or portable hard drives, just choose Extract.

You can then go to Tools -> Traveler Disk Setup

And from there you would be able to put TrueCrypt in your portable media and then protect your files.

Its main drawback however, is that the computer in which you would be inserting the flash disk or portable hard drive into should have administrator rights.

There you have it. I hope I have helped you in how to password protect a USB flash disk or portable hard drive.

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The WinZip program is pretty much a standard installation in all my computers including the one at work. When I got my computer replaced at work, our IT department installed WinZip in the computer before it was even delivered to me. When I bought a new computer last year, one of the installation CDs had WinZip in it for me to install.

WinZip can open the ZIP archive format but what about the other archive formats like .RAR, .CAB, .ACE, .7z, .TAR, .ARJ, .LZH, .GZ, . UUE, .BZ2, etc?

I can name two good programs which can compress and decompress many archive formats other than .ZIP.

1. WinRAR

WinRAR is a popular program which is used to decompress many archive formats. Its strongest point is that it has an easy to use and attractive interface. WinRAR however is not completely free. You can try it for free for a number of days but it would prompt you to buy the product after that.

You can download WinRAR through its official website Win-RAR.

2. 7-Zip

7-Zip is a software which can also decompress many archive formats. Unlike WinRAR, 7-Zip is completely free as it is an open source software. Although it may lack in the looks department, it’s still very reliable and very easy to use.

You can download 7-Zip at their official website 7-Zip.org.

If you have any questions regarding the unpacking or opening of archive files, don’t hesitate to use the comment section below so that everyone can benefit!

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