1. Click on bluetooth icon on taskbar.

2. Once the bluetooth manager window is open click on add a device.

3. When the bluetooth manager (on Windows 7) searches for a device, press the button beneath MSI BM500 mouse, you’ll need a pen to press the button.

4. After pressing the button underneath the mouse, your system should be able to “see” the mouse.

5. The operating system will then search a suitable driver and install it automatically. Once you see the following dialogue window, your mouse should be ready to use.

And oh, here’s an updated review as well of the MSI BM500 mouse on Windows 7. Seems like with Windows 7 the mouse has been behaving a lot better compared to Windows XP. Hope this helps ^_^

Here’s how I went about the installation:

1. Boot with the Windows 7 Ultimate CD and (clean) installed the 32 bit version since the Acer 4730z has only 2GB of memory.
2. Waited for the installation to complete (yep MS just made their installation easier).
3. Installed the following drivers:

chipset (Intel)
vga (Intel)
wireless lan (atheros)
card reader (jmicron)

The drivers enumerated above were installed for stability. With the default vga driver, the laptop display blacks out when I play DirectX games. The wireless connection disconnects randomly with the default WiFi driver and MS can’t find a driver for the card reader.

A couple of things to note:

1. Didn’t need to slipstream a SATA driver since the installer detected the SATA hard disk fine.
2. Detected and installed default drivers for all devices except the card reader. Some drivers had issues though, but driver updates fixed it.
3. Boot, reboot and shutdown are noticeably faster (hibernate remains about the same on the off stage but is faster on waking up).

For a complete list of the Acer 4730z Windows 7 drivers you can download it from here. Choose notebook from the menu and then the corresponding model.

Just in case you are looking for the Windows XP drivers for the Acer Aspire 4730z you can find it here. Hope this helps ^_^

This software reads PC systems main health sensors for voltage, temperature and fan speed. The program handles the most common sensor chips, like ITE (r) IT87 series, most Winbond (r) ICs, and others.

In addition, it can read modern CPUs on-die core thermal sensors, as well as hard drives temperature via S.M.A.R.T, and video card GPU temperature. You can download CPUID Hardware Monitor here. More info on the software at the CPUID website.

Enter SurfSecret Keypad. Before you decide if this software is right for your needs, let’s skim through a couple of features of SurfSecret KeyPad:

1. Password manager and automatic form filler
2. Access all passwords and user names from one master pass phrase.
3. Visit password protected sites by simply clicking on the site name.
4. Automatically enter credit card information.
5. Automatically enter billing and shipping address.
6. A USB portable option allows use of KeyPad on any PC.
7. All data are secure and encrypted.
8. Has keylogging and phishing protection.
9. User friendly interface.
10. Has a backup feature.
11. Can be setup to allow multiple users.

Now a couple of things that can be defined as bad:

1. Can only be used with IE currently. For the best protection make sure you are using the latest IE update.
2. Once you forget your master password, say goodbye to all your encrypted information. So make sure you NEVER forget your master password.

Initially after you install the program, you’ll be required to enter your information which it will use for its auto-fill form feature. You only have to do it once and after that SurfSecret KeyPad does the mundane task of filling up forms for you.

Bottom line, if you want to use a password management software that’s secure, user friendly and easy to use, this is definitely for you. To get your trial copy of SurfSecret KeyPad please click here. Hope this helps. ^_^

I used nLite to slipstream the SATA driver and the process is just the same as slipstreaming a SATA driver to the Acer 4730z. Before we begin you’ll need the following:

Blank CD or DVD
CD/DVD Writer
Windows XP SP2
nLite
ASUS F8SG SATA Driver

Let’s get down to business.

1. Make sure that your licensed Windows XP CD is in your ROM drive.

2. Start nLite and when it asks for the location of your installer, click the ROM drive where your Windows XP CD is. Then when asked where to locate the writable install just put in C:\WXPSATA.

3. On the next prompt, make sure you enable Drivers integration and creation of a Bootable ISO.

4. Before you proceed make sure you have unzipped the the compressed SATA driver for ASUS F8SG and look for the following file: iaAHCI.inf.

5. On the next prompt, choose Textmode driver integration and the Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI Controller.

6. When you are prompted if you want to process the installer directory, click Yes and wait for the integration to finish.

7. On the next window make sure you click on the Burn button and wait for the process to finish.

8. After burning you should see a Customization finished! message and therefore have created a Windows XP SP2 installer slipstreamed with the SATA driver for ASUS F8SG.

You can now use the installer to “clean” install Windows XP SP2 on your ASUS F8SG laptop. Hope this helps. ^_^

To do this you need to click on Start, then Run and on the field type “msconfig” without the quotes then press Enter. You’ll immediately see this window.

The tabs that you see are the different Windows startup files for your system. SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI, BOOT.INI are text system files which you are better off leaving.

Services are loaded from the registry and best left as well if you have no idea what you are doing. The tab in which you have more freedom to edit is the one labeled Startup which contains the programs that are loaded after your system has initiated all the drivers and services.

You’ll notice when you click on the Startup tab, you’ll see the name of the files that are loaded, its path and other identifying details. By querying the web what the file actually is for, you can tick off each file that can be skipped during startup.

When you uncheck a row, you can always enable it later if its really needed by your system. Which means you’ll have to do a couple of reboots after you uncheck a couple of files and see if your system has improved or not.

Sometimes you’ll uncover that a malicious file is being loaded at startup. This file can be deleted manually which I’ll show in some future posts. Meanwhile, be familiar with your startup files, it will help you in the future when you need to troubleshoot your operating system. ^_^

To enable the hibernate function in Windows XP. Click Start and open the Control Panel.

Then look for the Power Options icon and open it.

If Hibernate is supported by your hardware you should be able to see a hibernate tab. Open the tab and tick the Enable hibernation option.

Once you’ve clicked OK, the hibernate option should now be available on your power saving options. You can set hibernate as the default action when you press the power button off or when your laptop battery is low. Hope this helps. ^_^

Let’s start with the pros:

• Good resolution (has a 1200 dpi mode).
• Good range (good reception even at about 6 meters).
• Has a USB cable as secondary power in case the battery drains.
• Doesn’t use a USB port since its bluetooth.
• Can be charged without docking.

Cons:

• Short battery life (a week at the most).
• Annoying sleep mode. If unused for more than 5 minutes goes to a “deep” sleep mode that takes about 3 seconds to wake.
• Best way to wake the mouse fast is to use the scroll button and not shaking it.

Verdict, the cons are a definite bummer. Not unless you only have 1 USB port and your laptop has bluetooth then this mouse isn’t really worth buying. If you really need one though you can find the MSI BM500 bluetooth mouse at dealextreme.com. ^_^

UPDATE: January 5, 2010

I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my ASUS F8SG and I’ve seen a lot of improvement in the way the MSI BM500 bluetooth mouse behaves. Since the bluetooth manager no longer reboots in Windows 7 ultimate I no longer experience the lags I usually do in Windows XP.

The OS really made a difference! So if you are using Windows 7 and you really need that “extra” USB port go ahead and get this mouse. Hope this helps ^_^

I’ve always had a knack for fast and useful software and rainlendar was just too nifty to ignore. Its customizable, it doesn’t take much space on your desktop and its platform independent so it runs on basically all the major operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).

Just a couple of features I’d like to mention about rainlendar:

• Localized – You can have the user interface in your OWN language yay! Japanese anyone?
• Standards Compatible – Uses standard iCalendar format for compatibility with other applications.
• Skins – No kidding, yes you can change the appearance of this calendar with skins.
• Imports/Export – Events and tasks can be transferred to and from other applications.
• To do list – On top of normal events, rainlendar includes a separate to do list.
• Alarms – Get notified in advance before the event is due so that you won’t forget important events.
• Backups – An integrated backup ensure that you don’t lose your 79 calendar events and 13 to do items!

And did I mention that this is free? Yep, a full featured light weight desktop calendar and its absolutely free. There’s a pro (paid) version actually but for the average user, the free calendar should be more than enough. You can download it here or head to rainlendar.net in case you are interested with the pro version. Hope this helps ^_^

Bookmark Duplicate Detector. Helps you find, move and remove duplicate bookmarks. It also gives you a notice when you add a bookmark that’s already bookmarked.

DownloadHelper. Download videos and images from many sites. Useful for downloading videos from youtube.

Evernote Web Clipper. One of my best note keeping tools. Provides a button and context menus to easily add a selection or an entire page to Evernote.

Favicon Picker. Allows you to replace bookmark icons using the properties dialog.

FireGestures. Executes various commands on your browser (like closing your current window) with mouse
gestures. Very cool when you are a mouse person.

FoxClocks. Displays local times around the world in the statusbar/toolbar. Supports virtually all time zones. Very helpful when you work with different people in different time zones.

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer. Synchronizes your bookmarks across machines. Very nifty if you switch between two or more computers and use a browser extensively.

LogMeIn Remote Access Plugin. If you haven’t tried this service yet and you keep using the windows Remote Desktop, I suggest you try it and see the difference.

ScribeFire. A full feature blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog. Matter of fact, all of the posts here are courtesy of ScribeFire.

SearchStatus. Display the Google PageRank and Alexa ranking with search-related tools. Pretty accurate most of the time.

SeoQuake. Quick view of site parameters in the search engine result page. Very helpful for SEO and wannabes like me.

Smart Bookmarks Bar. Hides bookmark’s names in the bookmarks bar. Keeps your bookmark toolbar neat and clean.

Tamper Data. View and modify HTTP/HTTPS headers etc. Track and time http requests, very handy for debugging web sites.

Web Developer. Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools. Extremely helpful for web developers and designers.

I know there are plenty more great add-ons out there that I should have in my arsenal, but I’m a minimalist and I only install what I need and use. This is just my personal preference working as a project manager and developer. I’m using the latest Firefox version 3 and so far with these add-ons, I never had any crashes or freezes yet. Or then again, I guess I’m just lucky. ^_^