Install multiple programs at once with these convenient tools

If you ever had to set up a new Windows computer from scratch, you know how time consuming it can be to install all the programs you need on the machine.

While you could use specifically prepared Windows images to install all the required programs automatically during the installation of the operating system, it is not something that most users do as the process itself is rather technical.

Things are easy if you use portable software predominantly, as you can simply copy all the programs you require from one source (a DVD, Flash Drive, other storage devices) to the system and be done with that.

Some programs are not available as portable versions though, and not everyone wants to use them either. This would mean to run installers left and right on the system, carefully monitoring the installation process to make sure that adware does not slip by, until all programs are installed.

A better way, at least when it comes to popular applications and programs, is to use multi-installers.

Ninite

Ninite is a simple tool that you configure on the project website. Basically, all you need to do is select the programs that you want to install on your system on the homepage, and click on the get installer button afterwards to create a special installer for the selection.

The service supports over 100 different programs for Windows currently including Chrome, Firefox, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Eclipse, VLC Media Player, 7-Zip, TeamViewer, KeePass 2 Everything, or SumatraPDF.

Ninite promises that the installer will always include the latest version of the selected program, and that individual program installers won't include toolbars and other third-party offers. It downloads the programs from the official developer website, and will check digital signatures or hashes to verify the authenticity of the application.

All programs are downloaded and installed without user interaction, and the custom Ninite installer can be run again at a later point in time to install program updates if available.

Chocolatey

Chocolatey is a package manager similar to apt-get, but for Windows. It offers more packages and features than Ninite, but is more complicated to use as you run the commands from the command prompt.

This becomes obvious right from the get go as you need to run a command from an elevated command prompt to install Chocolatey on the system.

You can then browse the available packages on the official website and install those that you want added to your system.

The core command to install a package is "choco install" followed by the package name. Chocolatey supports additional commands or installer arguments that you can make use of, for instance to add parameters to the installer or install multiple programs at once by adding their names after the install command, e.g. choco install notepadplusplus googlechrome atom 7zip.

Chocolatey is powerful but at the same time not nearly as easy to use as Ninite. Good news is that it supports thousands of programs instead of just the hundred that Ninite supports, bad news that it will take longer to set it up and find the correct names for the programs to get them installed.

Silent Install Helper

Unlike the programs that we have reviewed so far, Silent Install Helper does not limit you in regards to the applications that you can install using it.

While that is a positive, it means more work for you initially as you need to download the program installers to your system first before you can create a new batch installer job using Silent Install Helper.

What you do is add all the installers you have accumulated to the application. The program attempts to detect unwanted offers and will display information about those to you in its interface when it recognizes those. While that is not a surefire way of making sure junk does not get installed on your system, it may help you automate the declining of said offers.

You can customize the program installer, for instance by running commands before or after installation, or setting the unwanted software flag.

We have reviewed Silent Install Helper back in 2015, and suggest you check out the review for additional information.

Silent Install Helper does not restrict you to a collection of programs. Instead, it lets you create batch installers for any program you may come across.

Silent Install Builder

This is a commercial program but a fully functional evaluation version is provided on the developer website.

Each package you create contains one or multiple installer files or scripts that you want executed on the system.

As the name suggests, packages will be installed silently in the background, and you can create unattended installations as well.

Silent Install Builder recognizes popular application installers, and provides you with options to automate the installation of software using scripting language which allows you to record an installation process (which is mostly handy for installations on multiple computer systems).

As is the case with Silent Install Helper, this program requires that you download all programs that you want to install in one operation before you can do so.

RuckZuck

RuckZuck is a portable program for the Windows operating system that you can use to install multiple software programs or to update them.

Simple mark the programs that you want to install on your system, and hit the "start installation" button afterwards.

RuckZuck will download the applications using PowerShell and install them on the system once downloaded.

Programs are sorted into groups like Imaging, Audio or Security, and you will find many popular programs listed by it. All in all, a couple hundred programs are supported currently by the application.

Just Install

Just Install works in many regards just like Chocolatey. It is command line program that you use to install one or multiple of the 120 packages it supports.

It supports many popular programs such as Firefox, Chrome, KeePass, Adobe Flash, Steam or VLC Media Player to name a few.

How to stop Windows 10 automatically rebooting after updates

I run one windows 10 machine as video and terminal server thats runs 24/7 and it really makes me mad when it just makes windows updates and then just restart without asking.

Windows 10, like previous versions of Microsoft’s operating system, often needs to reboot to action an update, and will occasionally do so at the least appropriate moment.

While Windows 10 updates are mandatory, you can control (to a degree) when they install, and more importantly if and when Windows 10 restarts afterwards.

The first thing to do is to make sure Active Hours are set -- this will stop Windows 10 rebooting at a time when you are likely to be using your computer.

To set this up, go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.

Click on Change active hours, and set the time when you start using your PC, and the time when you finish.

The maximum duration allowed is 12 hours. Click Save.

Another way to control when Windows 10 restarts following an update is through the Control Panel.

Right-click the Start button and select Control Panel. Click System and Security, and then select Schedule tasks under Administrative Tools. Expand Task Scheduler Library on the left, and go to Microsoft > Windows > UpdateOrchestrator.

Select Reboot in the middle pane, and then click Disable under Selected Item.

Hopefully that will stop Windows 10 from rebooting automatically, although the OS will probably re-enable the task at some point.

Shorten URLs and earn money

Shrink and Share

Signup for an account in just 2 minutes. Once you've completed your registration just start creating short URLs and sharing the links with your family and friends.

You'll be paid for any views outside of your account.

Save you time and effort

ouo.io have a simple and convenient user interface, and a variety of utilities.

We also provides full mobile supports, you can even shorten the URL and view the stats on a mobile device.

Restore .EXE File Association in Windows 7/Vista After Incorrectly Associating It With Another Program

Today i got phonecall from my coworker that she accidentally use Open With dialog to associate .exe file types with Internet Explorer, causing every program to open in that chosen application. Windows provides no option to reset the .exe file associations, and you’ll have to do this manually. I tried to open regedit or command prompt, but this caused Internet explorer to open every time when a program was launched.
So i googled and found help from sevenforums comments:

Here is a copy of the default registry entries to restore EXE files. After you download the REG file to your desktop, just double click on it to merge it to the registry. You may need to logoff and logon, or restart the computer to apply.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Attached Files

Default_exe.reg (4.7 KB, 4411 views)

Thanks to Brink/Shawn :)

How to remove power on / bios password Compaq NC6400 and Nc8230

Usually when you want to reset bios password you have to remove bios battery, but this Compaq NC series have hidden this battery under the keyboard. First you have to remove battery and 3 screws, open the keyboard, unplug battery wire, boot computer again (without battery and without bios battery), then turn computer off and replace batteries and keyboard.

Unbrick Samsung Galaxy S Plus/GT-I9001

Apparently there is one safe and working way to un-brick the GT-I9001. This procedure has been tested on a soft-bricked device with a stock unbranded ROM.

• Download the WORKED2.rar package (mirror 1, mirror 2);
• Download Odin Multi Downloader version 4.43;
• After expanding the WORKED2.rar archive, press the OPS button and select the AriesVE.ops file from the uncompressed archive;
• Mark the One Package option, press the One Package button on the bottom of the window and select the recovery-clockwork-6.0.1.0-ariesve.tar.md5 file;
• Put your device in Download Mode by pressing Volume Down + Home + Power and plug it to your PC;
• Make sure to have installed the correct drivers and the phone should be recognised by Odin (the top left rectangle becomes yellow) and press the Start button.

This process could take from 8 to 30 minutes to finish, with an average time of 15 minutes. After that you should have your device back with the same settings, applications and files you had before the brick. Moreover you should have installed a working version of the ClockworkMod Recovery.

Using an Odin ROM to fix your device:

If your device is still not working correctly after the steps described above. You should try to install a stock ROM and do a factory reset.

Problem re-installing Win7 on Samsung np530u3c

I was helping a friend re-installing Windows 7 on her Samsung np530u3c laptop, but run in to some problems.

Before you can start booting, in your BIOS (F2) check that UEFI is disabled and AHCI is set to Auto, Fastboot (bootprotection) must be disabled or it cant boot from usb.

After restart press F10 to get boot menu and boot from usb
Windows started to boot normally i deleted all old partitions and found out that there is two logical disks disk0 20Gb SSD and disk1 500Gb so i installed windows and after restart you have to move usb stick or enable fast boot again from bios (not to boot from usb again).

This is the point where windows should boot and continue setup, but nop just keep restarting and nothing happens. It took lot of googeling and messing with command prompts "#¤%&/ untill i figured out what is wrong.

First of all, make sure you remove the USB from which you installed Windows, when it is about to restart the first time (after copying files). If it still won't boot your new installation then yes, it's probably because Windows Setup sees the iSSD (ExpressCache) as the boot drive and places it's 100MB SYSTEM partition on it.

Here's the easiest fix if that happens:

1) Let it boot into Windows Setup again (ie leave that USB in). Once you get past the welcome screen, hit Shift-F10 to get a command prompt.

2) Use XCOPY /E /H /R <source> <destination> to copy everything (including hidden files) from that SYSTEM partition (on the iSSD) to the partition where you installed Windows. 

Before copying, use DIR /A <driveletter:> commands to determine what the drive letters are for those partitions: DIR /A C:and DIR /A D: and DIR /A E: etc. The SYSTEM partition (on the iSSD) should contain a BOOT folder and a bootmgr file. The partition where you installed Windows should contain, you guessed it, a Windows folder 

So if your SYSTEM partition (with the boot files) is drive C, and your Windows partition is drive D (for example) use the following XCOPY command: XCOPY /E /H /R C:\ D:\ Make sure you get the forward and backward slashes right, they're important.

3) Now that the Windows partition contains the necessary boot files, we have to make sure it's flagged Active (bootable). Enter the command DISKPART.

4) At the DISKPART> prompt, use LIST DISK to determine the disk number of your HDD (or SDD). Obviously, it's the big one (xxx GB) while the small one is the iSSD (xxx MB). Now use SELECT DISK <number> to select the big disk, say SELECT DISK 1.

5) Still at the DISKPART> prompt, use LIST PARTITION to determine the partition number of your Windows partition. If you installed Windows on a blank disk, it's probably the first partition. Now use SELECT PARTITION <number> to select the Windows partition, say SELECT PARTITION 1

6) Still at the DISKPART> prompt, use DETAIL PARTITION to verify you got the right partition.

7) Still at the DISKPART> prompt, use ACTIVE to flag your (now selected) Windows partition Active and bootable.

8) Use Exit to leave DISKPART. Exit again to leave the command prompt. Close down Windows setup. Remove the USB. Reboot.

(Sorry for the detail, I didn't know if you're familiar with DOS/Windows command syntax. And even if you are, it may help others).

I've done this several times, works like a charm and only takes a few mins extra. You won't have a separate SYSTEM partition -- which I prefer not to have anyway. But if you use BitLocker (Win7 Ultimate) I think it needs that.

It is a very common problem when installing Windows from USB onto Series 5 and Series 7 that Windows Setup mistakenly assumes the iSSD (ExpressCache) to be the boot drive, which causes it to fail booting. The above steps are (in my opinion) the simplest solution to this -- although there are others.

Thanks to Evar and huge thanks to Dannemand