Install Windows Programs In Linux

In previous posts I covered how to install and run Windows in a Virtual Machine using the VirtualBox software in Linux. This is one foolproof way of running your Windows Apps. Another option is to use Wine.

Wine lets you run Windows software on Linux operating systems. With Wine, you can install and run these applications just like you would in Windows. Wine is still under active development. Not every program works yet, but it's simple enough to install and run, so if setting up a virtual machine to run a Windows app seems daunting, give this a try.

First of all we need to install Wine. Lets do this by going to the Wine website. Click on the download link to go to the downloads page and you will find a link to the Ubuntu packages.

Follow the instructions on that page for installing Wine. I chose to install the Beta Release but if you want to be on the safe side you can install the Stable Release.

Now that Wine is installed you'll find the Wine entry under your Applications Menu.

OK, so now what? Well for starters when you install a Windows based program you will get the option to open with Wine...


Now you can install this program just like you would in Windows. Using CCleaner under Wine will allow you to clean up the Windows file structure thats included with Wine and not your Linux OS. But it's still a cool proof of concept.


Now for something useful. Installing a free game pack! I installed this one from http://www.free-windows-games.com/. Nice package of shareware titles.


Warning though, running games designed for Windows may cause your Linux OS to lockup just like Windows does! Also many of the games in this pack failed to work properly. I'm sure with some tweaking I could get them working, but alas, I have other projects to move on to. I still prefer using a Virtual Machine but I hear people have actually been able to play WOW in Linux using Wine.


All I can say is, experiment with the software and let me know what you think. Maybe that MS App will run flawlessly for you!

Win 7 in Ubuntu 10.10

Now I have it all XP to 7. But the Mac VM is proving to be difficult. I am also considering virtualizing Solaris and BeOS. Any other Operating Systems of note you can think of that I should try?

XP and Vista in VirtualBox on Ubuntu 10.10

Now, to get Win 7 and Mac OS X running in a VM on the same computer...

I'll Post the results.

Whats On My Computer? Part 2

For the first article I covered the software I have installed on my Linux Partition. It wound up being a how to of sorts for installing Windows in a Virtual Machine. Linux pretty much is secure and has all the software you need off the bat so I didn't go into a lot of detail on the software I use on it. However I have installed a few extra programs under Linux and share them with you. Many of these have versions for Windows as well and I'll give you that info too as well as links to the websites to you can do your own investigation. I'll also cover programs for Windows that make your life more secure and easy.

Dropbox (Wilndows, Linux Mac): DropBox is a lifesaver for your data. It creates a folder on your computer that you can drop files in. These files are backed up in the cloud automatically for you. You can also invite your friends to share a folder within your DropBox.

TeamViewer (Windows, Linux, Mac) Don't you wish you could log into your home computer from the office of vice-verse? Team viewer makes it easy.

ClamAV (Linux,Windows) For Linux users this is not a must, but we live in a Windows world full of maleware. It's highly unlikely your Linux system will be affected by it but there is always the possibility that you could pick up a Windows virus in your email and forward it on to your Windows friends. ClamAV will help you to avoid spreading infections to susceptible Windows computers.

CCleaner (Windows) after using windows for a while you will notices your system performance degrading. Windows keeps a lot of junk temporary files and CCleaner can find and eliminate them. Add to this CCleaners handy registry cleaning program and startup manager and you have a lot of useful cleaning utilities in one package. For Linux users this is not as big of an issue but you can use a similar program called BleachBit. It functions a lot like CCleaner in that it allows you to clean up temp files from multiple applications in one convenient interface.

Defraggler (Windows) Forget about using Windows built in defragmentation program. Defraggler zips though the process much quicker. It also allows you to defragment specific files or folders.

Revo Uninstaller (Windows) Ever notice how Windows uninstaller leaves all kinds of files and folders as well as registry entries in on your computer after supposedly uninstalling a program? Revo to the rescue here. Revo hunts down all the junk that gets left behind after an uninstall. Linux users need not apply as the Ubuntu Software Center does a pretty good job of removing programs you install with it. Ubuntu also includes a Program called Computer Janitor that can take care of the rest.

Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows) This was in the Top 10 Free Downloads For 10-10-10 post and it still stands as one of my favorite Microsoft programs. I used to swear by AVG Antivirus and it is still a great pick for free antivirus protection, but this free offering from Microsoft is slick, unobtrusive and outperforms most free antivirus programs as well as the free alternatives as far as detection and removal rates.

Malwarebytes Antimalware (Windows) OK so why would I have another antivirus program on this list? Because you can NEVER be too safe if you are running Windows. Windows XP is actually the most vulnerable OS according to ComputerWorld. Most of the computing community is still using XP. Now I would recommend upgrading to Linux but if you do not, you still need more than MSSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) to be safe. Use this free offering and run it weekly, if not nightly to make sure your system is not compromised.

Pidgen (Windows, Linux, Mac) If your like me you have accounts on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter as well as email accounts on Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, and other accounts. Pidgnen allows you to get your instant messenger from all these accounts in one place. If you were using Pidgen years ago you were an UberGeek. Now if your not, you are missing the boat. There are other messengers that pull it all together but Pidgen is the most versatile that I've used, and available on all platforms.

SyncToy (Windows) OK you have DropBox to sync your most important files online. But the 2 GB limitation may be a problem if have a ton of pictures movies or music you want to regularly backup to a second or an external HDD. The simple answer is to install SyncToy from Microsoft. Choose a directory on your HDD you want to sync to a directory on your backup drive and sync. Its that easy. All your selected files will be backed up. You can configure it in a few different ways to back up things in the way you like. Plus it is lightweight and simple. Another good offering for free from Microsoft.

Super (Windows) If you work with video files this program will interest you. Sometimes you need to convert from one video file format to another. Super does it all. From any format to any format. But be warned, you need a little knowledge of video file formats in order to use this. In other words this is not a simple program, but goodness, it gets the job done where others fail!

For now my brain is exhausted and there is a lot of other software I could cover in this article. Maybe with your feedback and some more thought I can come up with another post or two in this vein and cover software that specifically interest you. So please give me some feedback and I will expand this blog!

Whats On My Computer? Part 1

People often ask me for advice on what software they should purchase for this or that purpose. I'm probably the wrong person to ask this question because I'm the working poor and as such, I don't go out and buy the 'latest and greatest (AS SEEN ON TV)' software. That does not mean that I do without.

Through the years I've tested, played with and reviewed many different types of software. I've come to the conclusion that free software often is not only a cheaper alternative but in many cases a better alternative to paid software. I'm not talking shareware here, but free software. Sometimes you have to pay to enable extra features but in a lot of cases the features that are offered are more than enough to do the task at hand.

Just so you know I practice what I preach lets talk about my computer. My laptop came pre-installed with Windows Vista. Now I'm not a total Windows hater here but you all know Vista left a bad taste in many of our mouths. So was the answer to upgrade to Windows 7? Not a chance. Windows 7 is Vista fixed basically, so for Microsoft to ask me to shell out another $200 dollars for what should have been a free patch irked me. So I dealt with Vista for a season and eventually decided to go the Linux route.

Linux has a lot going for it but there were still a few Windows programs I wanted to run so I decided on a dual boot. Dual booting allows me to either boot into Linux or Windows. So I have use of both operating systems. Now this is not the idea configuration as this takes up a great deal of hard drive space and you have to reboot the computer to get to either OS. Another option would be running Windows in a Virtual Machine inside of Linux. I decided on VirtualBox for this and started out by installing Windows XP for testing purposes.

Downloading and installing VirtualBox was a snap as it is in the Ubuntu software repositories. So you go to Applications, Ubuntu Software Centre and search for VirtualBox. Then you just click the install button. This is how Windows Add Remove Programs was originally envisioned by Microsoft but there has never been anything to add in Windows. Now they have Windows Live to download some free stuff for Windows 7. It pales in comparison. The Ubuntu Software Centre is amazing and new applications are added every day. Over 3000 titles and counting. You can find everything you need there.



The creation of a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox was easy and installing Windows XP went exactly like installing on a real computer. The next step I took was installing Microsoft Security Essentials because even though I'm running XP inside of Linux, the Windows OS is prone to viruses. I also updated XP to service pack 3. Now if Virtual XP system gets a bug it wont affect my Linux OS. Its like having XP in jail where it can still live and work but it can't harm anything but itself. VirtualBox allows you to take a snapshot of the system at anytime and you can always easily restore to that state.



As you can see from the screen I have a fully functional XP installation running in a window on my Linux box. I can use it to watch Netflix, since this is one application that requires Microsoft Siverlight to run. This s is the best of both worlds because I can launch my windows apps without rebooting my computer to log into Windows. Next step will be to obliterate my Vista partition and install Vista in a VM just like I did XP. I don't have the hard drive space in my Linux partition to do this at the moment.



Linux is the idea way to run Virtual Machines. I have run them under Windows before and the problem is that Windows is a big resource hog. So your VM gets stuck with whatever Windows has left over for RAM and CPU cycles. Usually not much. Under Linux my XP installation ran perfectly with only the 512 MB of RAM I allocated to it.

If you are interested in trying Linux, we would be happy to help you with the install. We will even set up a dual boot or install the Virtual Machine for you if you have the Windows installation disk.

Part two of this series will cover the programs that I run under Windows...

Rebels With A Cause

Anyone who has known me knows I have a hard time accepting authority. My High School years were typified by clashes between myself and teachers, the principal, parents and eventually the law. I just could not accept that in a free country, there were so many things I was not to do. Now as an adult I realize many if my battles were misplaced. However, when it comes to certain things I still bring the same level of defiance, energy and intensity into the mix. At Computers for Charity we've manged to assemble a whole crew of life's rebels and miscreants together for a good cause.

When someone says "You can't do that", we have to disagree. We've found through trial and error that many things people say you can't are simply limitations of their own mind. That old PC may not be suitable for Windows 7 but our techs are not deterred by that. We prefer not to pollute the world with another Windows operating system destined for obsolescence. We prefer to install something less prone to viruses and more secure and stable anyhow. We prefer to use Linux.

This too is frowned upon by the world. Why not give people something that really works? For one Windows doses not always work. For instance on a Dell laptop that we had the installation disks for, we installed Windows XP. After the install the tech was attempting to install drivers for the computer form Dells website. The computer had no sound, no networking and only basic video drivers. At this point we could see why the user had discarded this computer. Instead of hassling with the drivers we booted to an Ubuntu Live USB to test the hardware. Under Ubuntu the computer worked flawlessly.

It's outside the box thinking to work with an alternative OS like Linux. If we only stuck with the status quo we would be out of luck in a lot of cases. That's why I have become a huge fan of Linux since we started this whole endeavor. It fits my personality. It breaks the rules by offering something for free (a great desktop operating system), that others are paying hundreds of dollars for. And they are not enjoying as good of an experience with the whole Windows 7 upgrade thing either. What kind of person does it take to work with an OS that has only about 1% of the desktop market? It takes a rebel.

The whole Idea of fixing computers that are slated for disposal makes no sense to a lot of people, and for obvious reasons. We acquire a lot of junk along the way. Sometimes computers are discarded for good reasons. It would be nice if every computer we received was the result of an upgrade. Unfortunately we see a lot of bad hardware that takes a lot of troubleshooting and perseverance to pinpoint exactly whats wrong with it. Once we identify a faulty component it can be replaced. In many cases its multiple components. Computer techs are well compensated for this reason. Who would take on this kind of work just to give it away for free? Only a rebel.

Thank God for the rebels. Thinking outside of the mainstream is not always easy or fun in our modern society either. People tend to question your motives and your methods. Our thinking, attitudes and appearance may be outside of the norm but that does not make us bad people.However, when your really in need of computer help do you really want to deal with the snooty guy from the computer store who will charge you $50.00 just to look at your computer? We do that for free. We can save your data, kill your malware, get you connected, fix your OS or install a new one. We are not hindered or easily deterred because we have suffered a lifetime of persecution for honing these very skills that are now a lifesaver to you. We love the challenge as well as the opportunity to teach you a few things along the way. I guess all I'm saying is give geeks a chance. We may not be James Dean rebels, but we are the kind of guys you can count on. If you need a computer or need yours fixed we can help.

Top 10 Free Downloads for 10-10-10

At Computers for Charity we see a lot of broken computers. Some simply have nasty virus and spyware infections, lost hard disk space do to program overloads, or even registry corruption that slows the system to a crawl. If you use Microsoft Windows you know its an ongoing battle to keep your system clean and running smooth. Here are some powerful and free utilities you can use to maintain your system. This list is by no means exhaustive but will give you some tools to cover the most common problems Windows users face.

SUPERAntiSpyware

This is a great program that can remove even the most serious pests. If you have tried other antivirus programs and they did not cut the mustard, try this one for on demand scans. Its free, fast and effective.

"It detects and Removes Spyware, Adware and Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers, Parasites, Rootkits, Rogue Security Products and many other types of threats"

CCleaner

For cleaning up all the junk files that Windows accumulates and fixing broken and missing registry entries this is the easiest and best tool we can recommend. Use it before and after removing virii and uninstalling junk programs form your computer to optimize your systems performance.

"CCleaner is the number-one tool for cleaning your Windows PC. It protects your privacy online and makes your computer faster and more secure. Easy to use and a small, fast download."

Revo Uninstaller

The freeware version of this program is a great addition to your arsenal. Use it to remove programs that you can't remove with Windows Add/Remove Programs. Actually use it every time you uninstall a program if you want to be rid of all the files and registry entries that get Left behind.

"The Uninstaller tool lists the installed programs and components for all and current user. With a choice of views, as well as a context menu, information on program components is available: program properties, their registry entries and links to manufacturer's web site, for a start.

The 'Search' option finds installed applications just by typing the first few letters of their name. Revo Uninstaller scans for leftovers with advanced algorithms that are so precise, fast and very effective in search for leftovers of Windows Services, Drivers, File associations, Shell Extensions, COM components, Windows Installer components, program settings and more!"

Malwarebytes Antimalware

Did your antivirus program miss something? Keep this program on hand to run on demand scans of your system for the baddies that get past your regular anti-virus program.

"Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware is considered to be the next step in the detection and removal of malware. In our product we have compiled a number of new technologies that are designed to quickly detect, destroy, and prevent malware. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware can detect and remove malware that even the most well known anti-virus and anti-malware applications fail to detect."

Microsoft Security Essentials

Running a Windows system and need a real time antivirus program to protect your computer? Sure you can pay and annual fee for Norton or McCafee but its expensiove and a lot of people simply let their AV expire, leaving thier computer vulnerable to Viruses and Trojans. Look no further than MSSE to protect your system from the most common threats. MSSE outperformed even the detection rates of both McCaffe and Norton in a lot of recent test. If you gotta have windows then you gotta have Microsoft Security Essentials!

"Microsoft Security Essentials provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a free* download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

Microsoft Security Essentials runs quietly and efficiently in the background so that you are free to use your Windows-based PC the way you want—without interruptions or long computer wait times."

HijackThis

When you get malware, it often will change a lot of your system settings such as your home page, search defaults and other settings. To fix these after you remove the pest use HijackThis. It will show you all your start up items and browser settings and allow you to return them to factory default

"Scan your computer with HijackThis version 2.0.4 to find settings changed by spyware, malware, or other unwanted programs. HijackThis version 2.0.4 is now Windows 7 compatible. It generates in-depth log reports for Windows-operated systems, including Windows 7."

Defraggler

Its a fact of life. Your hard drive gets fragmented over a time. Once you have a clean system your computer will still need a good defragmenting to make it run sweet again. Defraggler will simplify this process with the ability to defrag individual drives, files, folders etc.

"Use Defraggler to defrag your entire hard drive, or individual files - unique in the industry. This compact and portable Windows application supports NTFS and FAT32 file systems."

Dropbox

For quick data backup you cant beat Dropbox. Drobox creates a folder on your hardrive that you throw files into. It backs up these files online, allows you to have web baseds access to them from any computer as well as sync your dropbox folder with multiple computers. 2 Gig of storage for free. Not enough for your music or video collections but more than ample to back up and share important documents. We use it every day to share our charities files between our office staff.

"Put your files into your Dropbox on one computer, and they'll be instantly available on any of your other computers that also have Dropbox installed (Windows, Mac, and Linux too!). Because copies of your files are stored on Dropbox's secure servers, you can also access them from any computer or mobile device using the Dropbox website."

Malicious Software Removal Tool

If your Windows computer does not have this already, you know there is a problem and a possible virus that's preventing Windows Update from Downloading it. It comes with XP Service Pack 2 and updates monthly without you even knowing it. Use the the Malicious Software Removal Tool to clean serious infections and allow you to install important security patches form Windows Update.

"The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool checks computers running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows Server 2003 for infections by specific, prevalent malicious software—including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom—and helps remove any infection found.

When the detection and removal process is complete, the tool displays a report describing the outcome, including which, if any, malicious software was detected and removed."

Parted Magic

Windows wont boot at all or is so messed up you can't do anything? You need more than a windows utility. Linux to the rescue baby! Parted Magic allows you to bypass your windows installation and do recovery operations from the safety of a Linux GUI. Parted Magic is a bootable CD, a partition manager, a disk cloning utility, a file recovery center, and more. It is packed full of handy utilities that will allow you to save your data even if the hard drive has been formatted! Try it if all else fails. Its Linux. Its cool.

"This is a Linux based boot CD that is primarily a partitioning utility. More than that though it offers a host of other programs that canm be used to rescue a DOA system. The Parted Magic OS employs core programs of GParted and Parted to handle partitioning tasks with ease, while featuring other useful programs (e.g. Clonezilla, Partimage, TestDisk, Truecrypt, G4L, SuperGrubDisk, ddrescue, etc...) and an excellent set of documentation to benefit the user. An extensive collection of file system tools are also included, as Parted Magic supports the following: ext2, ext3, ext4, fat16, fat32, hfs, hfs+, jfs, linux-swap, ntfs, reiserfs, reiser4, and xfs."

And our favorite download site for finding these utilities and more in their latest incarnation is filehippo.com. If you've never heard of filehippo, check it out today! Free downloads of utilities to do just about anything you want to do on a Windows computer. At Computers for Charity, we are all about free!

Newer is not always better. Not even in computers.

Windows 7 is good for fast, newer computers, however, what about your business computers? The economy has forced business to stretch the life of their old machines or to purchase lower-grade new computers. Linux is a perfect candidate. Linux offers software compatibility support where believe it or not some companies have not upgraded their software to be compatible with Windows 7! Windows 7 also takes a great deal more amount of memory and CPU speed. With Linux you can run your favorite Windows app in a virtual machine anyhow and not loose any of your favorite programs from XP.

As for the home user, there will most likely be a split. With the current environment a large population will only upgrade computers as they need to due to component failure. The technology has not advanced enough to warrant considering 5+ year old XP machines obsolete to the point of a necessary replacement. Home users are growing wary of being forced to upgrade both software and had ware at the whim of Microsoft.

This does leave the techno crowd and those who love to have the newest and best and have the disposable income to spend but this population has been smaller as of late. This is also the population where Linux and Mac tends to be competitors. Before you pay a dime for Windows 7, try a Linux desktop distribution. If you don’t like it, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? You spent no money other than for a burnable CD or DVD, a little time, and you just have to wipe your disk again before installing Windows 7.

Windows and Mac OS are like a toy car that you buy off the shelf and play with. Linux is like the same toy car made out of Lego You can play with it as it comes or you can remove and modify components (or the whole thing) and tailor it to your liking. To illustrate the point, Linux comes with many different choices of window managers, desktop environments, file managers, package managers (packages are what Linux calls programs), etc. The idea is to be able to tailor a distribution to exactly what you need and like.

There's nothing in Windows 7 that Linux can't do, and in most cases, do it better. Linux machines are quicker and more efficient. Linux desktops are more innovative and less static. Linux apps are more powerful, cheaper and less partisan, and Linux security has never been better. But best of all, we have complete control over the future of Linux, as opposed to allowing Microsoft to run roughshod over us in forcing the upgrade to Windows 7.

Don't forget that for any operating system, no matter how similar to to a commercial OS it might be, there is a learning curve involved. This is especially true of the software available and how to download it Generally software is downloaded from repositories using a package manager included with your distro. By and large you will not find commercial software in repositories, but will find thousands of free open source equivalents. Most of these are as powerful as the popular commercial ones, but require that you familiarize yourself with them. Take some time to do this and you'll be a really happy Linux user.

So, you think you may want to dip you toe into the Linux waters at this point? Ok, I have a couple of suggestions.

Try a Linux "live CD" first. Most Linux distributions have live (aka bootable) CDs that let you actually use the Linux OS of your choice directly from the CD. It will run slower, due to running from the CD drive, but it will give you a real feel for the Linux OS you may be contemplating. In addition, it will let you know, before you actually install it to your hard drive, whether or not it can support all your hardware. That way, you know beforehand exactly what to expect!

Even if you never get further than a Linux live CD, you will want to keep it around. Linux live CDs make extremely good disaster/recovery tools. One of my favorite uses is to clone my Windows XP partition. Just boot the live CD and clone one partition on one drive to an identical partition on another drive. A good bootable Linux CD like Knoppix should be in everyone's tool box, even if they're a die-hard Windows user.

Here's another last bit of advice. I recommend dual booting only one absolutely safe way: buy a second hard drive and install Linux on it. You can even use a USB thumb drive for this! This is also the easiest way to get into Linux. No tricky hard disk-partitioning to worry about. No way to mess up your current Windows install. Absolutely the easiest and safest way.