Whenever we connect a drive whether new or the earlier connected, Windows assign it a unique Drive Letter randomly. Managing these letters is possible in Windows through diskmgmt.msc but only for the connected drives.
Then what if your drive is not connected to the system? Also for those who want a specific drive letter to their specific drive always, this can be done using the tool called DriveLetterView.
DriveLetterView is a simple utility that allows you to view the list of all drive letter assignments in your system, including local drives, remote network drives, CD/DVD drives, and USB drives - even if they are not currently plugged. It also allows you to easily change a drive letter of USB devices and remote network shares, as well as to delete a drive letter of USB device that is not plugged.
The tool also allows you to save the list as a txt, csv, html or xml file. This utility works on every version of Windows, starting from Windows 2000 and up to Windows 7/2008. Both 32-bit and x64 systems are supported.
In order to change/remove drive letters on Windows 7/2008/Vista, you have to right-click on DriveLetterView.exe and choose ‘Run As Administrator‘. If you run it without admin rights, DriveLetterView can display the list of all drives, but you won’t be able to change/remove a drive letter.
Download DriveLetterView
Most of the new systems especially the laptops come with the dedicated button for ejecting or inserting the CD tray but in case you don’t have one, you can still make use the feature. One of our readers also wanted to have the CD drive eject utility as mentioned below.
We have written about the tool once which can be used somewhat for this purpose, but here is a free and simple tool that will enable you to both eject and insert the tray with just one click.
Emsa CD Tray Pal is a handy utility that acts as a CD-ROM Drive control menu. It runs in the system tray and makes opening/closing CD door easier than ever, even on multiple CD-ROM drives.
Features
- Autorun at system startup
- Runs as system tray icon
- Capable of handling multipe CD-ROM Drives
- OpenCD, CloseCD, GetCD, OpenAll, CloseAll functions
- Handy systray right-click menu
- Provides CD media informaion: Volume name, Size, Serial Number
- Configurable GetCD time interval
- Capable of showing either a single systray icon, or one icon per drive
- Action on system shutdown: Close All / Open All CD doors
- Assignable, system wide Hotkeys per each drive and function
- Tray icon(s) changing color based on whether valid media is inside the drive etc.
To assign a hotkey, first select the CD-ROM drive you want to edit from the left hand list on the Hotkeys tab. Then, click on the textbox on the right accordingly with the function you want to assign the hotkey to. Press a keyboard combination that you intend to use as hotkey (for example CTRL + ALT +F5 ). You can do the same for all three hotkeys assigned to the currently selected disk. Once you are satisfied, press the Save Hotkeys button to save them.
Download Emsa CD Tray Pal
If you are a Firefox fan and like working on it but are irritated as your Firefox is running slow then here is a simple utility that can improve your Firefox browser’s performance and reduce the reaction time.
The utility is called as Firefox Booster which is a small and simple app designed to accelerate and speed up the Firefox browser. What this utility does is, it configures your Firefox browser according to the internet speed you have. It changes the profile of the browser according to the internet type you have.
The tool displays the internet speed as image of cars, choose your type and this tool will automatically make your Firefox adapt to the internet speed you have. In short this is a nice way to optimize your browser.
Download Firefox Booster
Internet is not a very safe place anymore, you need to keep very alert and aware of the details behind the emails that you get. Two days back I got an email from “security@sbi.com” email id. It did looks like legitimate email from the State Bank Of India at the first looks, but it was a fake phishing email from some cyber criminal. In this post I will show you how I identified that it was a phishing email.
There are a few points which I share with you here to identify if an email is Phishing attack email or a genuine email:
1. Check the email id of the Sender :
Most of the times, phishing emails will be from some domain which is not a genuine bank or organization email id. For example, in the above email, the senders id is security@sbi.com, whereas the official domain name of State Bank of India (SBI) is “www.statebankofindia.com” and not “www.sbi.com” . If you find the sender’s email id suspicions, this email might be phishing email.
2. Check the recipient email id:
If recipient email id is not visible or the email id is not your id registered with bank or organization, there are high chances that the email is a phishing email.
3. Information Requested in the Email:
Banks never ask you to provide your personal account details via email. Especially information like your login id and password of security questions. If the email is asking for any of these things, there are very high chances that the email is a phishing email.
4. Presence Of A Form or Link In Email:
Most of the phishing emails have links to login pages which look just like the official page of the bank or have forms which look like the login forms on the official website. Never click these links to open enter your bank details. If anyhow you want to access your bank or other details, type the URL carefully yourself instead of clicking the link in the email.
In the email I received, there was an HTML page attached as shown below, the page contained a malicious link with a fake form. The page looked exactly the same like SBI login page.
Attachment file containing phishing link
Fake SBI Login Page
To identify if a page is fake or genuine, see its URL carefully and click on the URL information box. It will show you certificate information etc. Also the browser will identify the https page, the genuine login pages usually start with https URLs while the fake ones will start with http URL.
Below is the genuine SBI login page which I opened manually by typing the URL of onlinesbi.com to compare it with the fake website link I got via email. It looks exactly the same, but the browser shows it green and safe, URL starts with https, also the URL has a valid digital security certificate and identification.
Genuine SBI Login Page
5. Presence of an Attachment File:
Usually banks send out only PDF or Excel files as attachments to their customers for the information purpose only. Many of these files are password protected to avoid misuse of Information. If you receive an HTML file, or HTM file, or MHT File or any other file containing links, the file might contain phishing links, spywares, viruses etc.. Never open such files until they are from a legitimate sender and to be sure, first scan the file with your anti-virus tool and then only open the file.
When I analyzed the file sent to me in this fake phishing email, I opened the HTML file and check the source, it contained the phishing URL which is “http://www.jonathangosselin.
6. Warning Messages and Security Alerts
If you get a warning message or alert via email regarding any of your accounts or online profiles, its always recommended that you make a phone call to the bank or concerned organization and check with them if the alert is real or a phishing attack. If at all it is a real alert, then its recommended that you open the website by typing the URL and then performing the required action.
With all these cyber crimes and threats all around the Internet, we recommend you to stay safe and use some effective anti-virus tool. Also, be alert when you download any email attachment or click any link you got via instant messaging or email.
Thanks To TroubleFixers
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