Many a times it happens that we want to install any OS in our machine but the CD/DVD Drive doesn’t works. At that time we have to go for alternate ways of installing the OS. Here I will show the steps of installing Windows Vista or Windows 7 using a USB Drive.

    You will require a Flash Drive (Should be of minimum 4 GB), DVD / Image file (ISO) of Windows Vista or 7 and of course, a machine having Windows Xp, Vista or 7 installed. The steps are simple. First of all I will recommend that you take a backup of the data in the USB Drive because we will need to format it. Now in order to install the OS from this Flash Drive it should be made bootable. Follow the below steps to make it bootable and prepare it for the installation :
1. Plug the Flash Drive, open “My Computer” and note the drive letter of the Flash Drive.
2. Now, open Command Prompt. (Type cmd in Run and press Enter.).
3. Type the command FORMAT H: /FS:NTFS (Replace H: here with the drive letter of your Flash Drive.). This command will convert the file system of your Flash Drive to NTFS.
4. Now, insert the Windows Vista or 7 DVD, or if you have an Image file (ISO) then mount it using UltraIso or similar programs.
5. Open the Command Prompt, type G: and press Enter. (Here, G: is the drive letter of your DVD Drive or the Virtual Drive in which installation media is mounted.).
6. Type CD BOOT and press Enter.
7. Type the command BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H: (Replace H: here with the drive letter of your Flash Drive.).
8. After some processing, the Command Prompt will display this message : “Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.”. Once you see this message, copy the contents of the DVD or the ISO Image file to your Flash Drive.
Now your Flash Drive is ready for installation of the OS. Restart your machine and enter the BIOS. Assign highest Boot Priority to your Flash Drive. (This means that after restarting, your machine will first boot from your Flash Drive.). Now, exit the BIOS with the option of saving the settings. Make sure that your Flash Drive is plugged. After your machine restarts, it will boot from your Flash Drive and will start the process for installing the OS.

While surfing on the internet I came across a site www.trackmylaptop.net which provides the service of tracing a stolen laptop. Its a free of cost service offered by Quick Heal to all the laptop users in India (who may or may not be using Quick Heal).  You just have to provide the MAC address of your laptop and this service checks into its database, and if some record is found then it gives you the ip address and the city where the stolen laptop is being used ! Also if you are purchasing some second-hand laptop then you can check whether it is a stolen one or not. But this works only if you know the MAC address of your stolen laptop !!! Visit the site for more information.

There is a trick to hide the files inside an image file…
Some people may be knowing this but let me describe it for those who don’t know about this…
The trick is that you can hide your “so called” important files inside an image…..and when you open it(the image) with win Rar, you can find the files….. the trick goes like this…..
WinRar is needed for this…..
First of all, just  make a rar archive containing all thos files which you want to hide…..
Then select the image you want to hide the files into…
make sure both, the image and the rar archive are in the same folder
now open command prompt. Go to the folder where the files are kept. Then write the following command…(without double-quotes)
“copy /b <image file name> + <rar archive name> <new image file name>”
for example :
“copy /b abc.jpg + xyz.rar def.jpg”
after the command is executed successfully, you will find an image file with the name you gave as “new image file name”. In the previous example, you will find an image file named ‘def.jpg’
now right-click the image file and “open with win rar”…you will find the hidden files there
now you can delete the initial files..(the image file and the archive…..and not the new image file which was generated !!!)

Your grade point average (GPA) is the mean, or average, of your grades for a given term or semester. A cumulative GPA can be calculated for all terms taken at a secondary or post-secondary institution and is used to assess your performance and ability over time.

1. Grades and Grade Points

   • Most high schools and universities determine student achievement by assigning a letter grade for each course at the end of the term. Each letter is then associated with a grade point.
     A= Excellent, 4.0
     B= Good, 3.0
     C= Average, 2.0
     D= Poor, or below average, 1.0
     F= Failing, 0
     Depending on the institution, plus and minus grades are also assessed, and grade point values can vary.

   Calculating Term GPA

   • First, multiply a course's grade by the number of credits the course is worth. This will give you the total grade points for the course. Calculate this for each course taken during that term.
     To determine term GPA, add these results together and divide by the total credit hours attempted.
     For example:
     Music Literature, 1 hour, B (1 x 3 = 3)
     Art History, 3 hours, C (3 x 2 = 6)
     French, 5 hours, A (5 x 4 = 20)
     Organic Chemistry, 3 hours, F (3 x 0 = 0)
     To calculate the semester GPA, total the grade points, which in this case equals 29, and divide by 12, the number of credit hours attempted. For this example, the term GPA equals 2.42 (rounding up).

   Atypical Grades

   • Additional grades can factor into your GPA. Incomplete grades are given by a professor when a students fails to finish coursework for a class. Initially, a grade of an "I" is assigned with the understanding that the student is to complete the coursework within a set period of time after the course has ended. This "I" grade does not factor into a student's term or cumulative GPA. If a student does not finish his work within that period, his "I" grade is factored into GPA, holding the same weight as a failing grade.
     Some institutions give grades on a pass/fail option, and these typically do not factor into the GPA, though course credit is awarded upon passing.

   Calculating Cumulative GPA

   • To calculate a recent term GPA in an overall, or cumulative GPA, add the recent term grade points to the grade points earned for all semesters. Then add the number of hours attempted in the most recent semester to the overall number of hours attempted at the institution. Divide the total grade points by the total number of hours attempted.

   Is GPA an Accurate Measure?

   • Unlike a test score, GPA is a more wide-ranging measure of a student's ability during her time in school. But not all courses (or professors) are created equally, so comparing GPAs does not necessarily provide a complete picture.

There are many people like Me who still use Windows Xp even though Windows 7 is available. In this post I have tried to focus on the common installation errors encountered during the installation of Microsoft Office 2010. Even I myself was frustrated after trying to install it on my machine but the setup failed every time.
The most initial error (or a warning we can say) which is shown at the beginning of the installation is that it requires Windows Xp SP3 and it refuses to install on machines running Windows Xp SP2.
Well, the most common solution to this error is that you can update your copy of windows using Windows Update and it will convert it from SP2 to SP3. But, updating requires much time unless you have a high-speed internet connection ! There are many alternate ways of solving a single problem. You might be knowing that it is very easy to fool Windows OS ! (Hope anyone from Microsoft doesn’t read this post !). I just googled a little and found that there are very simple steps to convert your Windows Xp SP2 to SP3 so that MS Office 2010 can be installed. By saying this it doesn’t mean that it will update your system files and will convert it fully to SP3. What I mean to say is that, only some registry entries will be changed so that when the MS Office 2010 setup utility checks for the current Service Pack of the OS, it will find it to be SP3 even though it is SP2 in real !
The steps for doing this are as follows:
1. Go to the Registry Editor (open run and type ‘regedit’ ane press enter)
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows
3. Change CSDVersion string value from 200 to 300
4. Reboot.
And that’s all. Your SP2 is now converted to SP3 ! Repeat the first four steps to get 300 to 200 parameter again. (To get back SP2 from SP3).
Also in some cases, after the setup starts, it sticks in between and displays, “Setup failed : Windows Installer is unable to update one or more protected system files. Setup is rolling back.”. Mostly this error occurs during the installation of MS Office 2010. This error not only occurs in Xp but it also occurs in almost all the versions. (Vista and 7).
There is also a very simple solution for this:
1. Just insert your Xp SP2 CD and Browse to the folder named “i386″.
2. Copy the “FP40EXT.CAB” file to some place on your Local Drive and extract it. (You will need some utilities like WinRar to extract it.).
3. Then copy the extracted contents to the folder “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin”. (Replace ” C: ” here, with the drive letter of your drive in which Windows is installed.)
That’s all. Run MS Office setup again and it will complete without any errors. I haven’t tried on other versions of windows but I think the above solution will also work for them.
One more error / warning it shows is that the setup requires MSXML version 6.10.1129.0. Just google a little or browse Microsoft’s website and you will find the installer for this version of MSXML. After installing it the setup will proceed normally. This error rarely occurs, and also is solved easily.
These were the 3 major difficulties which users face while installing Microsoft office 2010 on their machines. Hope this information solves their problem.