PCModer saw the need by our readers to take a DVD and publish it on the Web for their friends to see. The software to do this can be very expensive and the steps complicated to figure out so we put together a series of articles to first rip your DVD to a file, put that file to a format you can put on the Web, and finally place your video on your own web site. Our goal was to do this using only Free software (which you can download here). When we say free we do not mean free to download but Freeware that will cost you nothing to use. This article is the second in that series and focuses on conversion of your original file from format to Flash. This could be MPEG2FLV, AVI2FLV, MOV2FLV, etc. Flash is available to 98 percent of computer users on the internet and therefore of you want to put a video on the internet you want to use flash. You could use MPEG or AVI but that will seriously limit who can easily see your video.

There are a lot of programs out there that will take your  MPG, AVI, MOV etc. and convert it to Flash .flv format but many are very expensive and only offer limited functionality. After comparing various programs we found Free Video Converter from Koyotesoft.com fit the bill.

This software is totally free, has no spyware or unwanted adware and has many great features. Basically the program takes your file and converts it between various formats We used it to convert MPEG to FlV but it offers MPEG1, ASF, MP4, MOV, AVI, and etc. You can select various codecs, bitrates and scales to adjust the quality of your video to suit your needs.

We wanted to push the software hard so we decided to use it to create a full screen 16:9 video which we would then publish to the web with near DVD quality. If the software can do this it should be able to do anything you need. We took our MPEG file and converted it to Flash .flv and although it was a 1 gig file it was indeed near DVD quality.

If you also need a Flash viewer in order to see your file we have a free one we recommend. Wimpy is a simple straight forward Flash view which you can download for free here

Wimpy Free Flash Viewer

The  software is simple to use and self explanatory. If you want to create a high quality video from a DVD it will take some time to do and have plenty of storage on your hard drive as the file can get very big. Of course if you lower the quality the video the file will be smaller.

You can download the Free Video Converter from us by clicking the link below:

Free Video Converter Software Download

Our next article will explain how to publish the flash video on the web so everyone can see your hard work! Look for the next article right here on PCModer.com for great free software to do just that!

For those of you who have an illegal version of Windows 7 you may want to pay attention. Microsoft is set to send out an update that will detect your hacked version of Windows 7 and end your free ride. Windows Activation Technologies (WAT), formerly known as Windows Genuine Advantage, will get an update next week that will check license validation on Windows 7, aiming to remove known activation cracks and certify that copies are legit. Microsoft says that it’s for your own protection, we are sure all of you are happy to hear this.

Microsoft will release an update to WAT, on February 16, when it is available online, and push this to everyone later this month, that will validate Windows 7 licenses and “…detect more than 70 known and potentially dangerous activation exploits. Activation exploits are sometimes called ‘hacks’, and attempt to bypass or compromise Windows’ activation technologies. This new update is further evidence of Microsoft’s commitment to keeping customers and partners secure. The update will determine whether Windows 7 installed on a PC is genuine and will better protect customers’ PCs by making sure that the integrity of key licensing components remains intact,” says Joe Williams, general manager of Worldwide Genuine Windows at Microsoft.

This will be listed as an "Important" update. After you install your computer will call the great Microsoft mother ship every 90 days to make sure you are still legal. Sounds fun huh. “If Windows 7 is non-genuine, the notifications built into Windows 7 will inform the customer that Windows is not genuine by displaying informational dialog boxes with options for the customer to either get more information, or acquire genuine Windows. The desktop wallpaper will be switched to a plain desktop (all of the customer’s desktop icons, gadgets, or pinned applications stay in place). Periodic reminders and a persistent desktop watermark act as further alerts to the customer…When tampering, disabling, or missing licensing files are discovered, the WAT Update runs a check and repair weekly to ensure that the licensing files are properly repaired,” Williams explained.

This install is optional and you can continue to get updates and not install this one, but for those who don't know their PC will start to phone home this month. Surprisingly, there's no catch, at least not yet. If you don't install the patch, you will still be permitted to download other Windows updates. It's unclear whether the fixes will be present in Windows 7 Service Pack 1, in which case you won't have a choice.

Have you ever noticed you computer is running slow and could not figure out why. Sometimes you can bring up the task manager and see what process is taking all of your systems resources, sometimes you can not. It can be very frustrating at times and you have to hunt and poke to figure out what is wrong. To help with this there is a free program you can get from Microsoft called Process Explorer. This is basically a souped up version of the task manager that is much more configurable and offers many more options.

The unique capabilities of Process Explorer make it useful for tracking down DLL-version problems or handle leaks, and provide insight into the way Windows and applications work.

The Process Explorer display consists of two sub-windows. The top window always shows a list of the currently active processes, including the names of their owning accounts, whereas the information displayed in the bottom window depends on the mode that Process Explorer is in: if it is in handle mode you'll see the handles that the process selected in the top window has opened; if Process Explorer is in DLL mode you'll see the DLLs and memory-mapped files that the process has loaded. Process Explorer also has a powerful search capability that will quickly show you which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded.

Here is a link to get PROCESS EXPLORER from Microsoft. PCModer recommends this software if you are interested in seeing what is actually running on your system there is a ton of useful items you can see for each process. You can plot them, create custom displays, it is actually a very nice program. The price is right (free) so give it a try!

Wednesday  a live demonstration at the Black Hat DC conference immediately prompted a Microsoft Security Advisory. Jorge Luis Alvarez Medina, the Argentina-based security consultant with Core Security Technologies, showed attendees that it was possible to use an exploit found in Internet Explorer to remotely read files on a victim's local drive.

The security flaw effects across all versions of Internet Explorer, it cannot be fixed with a simple patch. Microsoft stated that consumers can work around the problem by running Internet Explorer in “protected mode.” That really does not help as many now aware of this problem have unwittingly turned there PC into an anonymous file server.

Medina offered other workarounds including an IE Network Protocol Lockdown. You can do this by cranking up the Internet and Intranet Zones to "high," and disabling Active Scripting for both zones. He also suggested that users switch to different browsers when navigating to untrusted Websites.

According to Microsoft, the FTP-style vulnerability affects consumers using Windows XP and those who have disabled Internet Explorer Protected Mode. "The vulnerability exists due to content being forced to render incorrectly from local files in such a way that information can be exposed to malicious websites," the company said.

Yet again PCModer followers who have headed our warnings and use Firefox or some other browser have nothing to worry about. Have you stopped using it yet??