After installing phpBB3 you’ll be able to deploy a forum across your network (or Internet, if publicly accessible) which can be used for a variety of purposes, including discussion, file uploading, etc.

Downloading phpBB3

At the time of this writing, phpBB 3.0.3 is the latest phpBB version. Head to the phpBB website and hit the green block that says Download Latest Release. You’ll be directed to another page, and under Full Package, download either file (they’re both the same). Save it to your xampp/htdocs folder.

Extracting phpBB3

Head over to the xampp/htdocs folder and right click phpBB-3.0.3.zip and select 7zip, Extract Here (or equivalent, if using a different archive utility). A folder called phpBB3 will be created, which you can rename (I renamed it to forum).

Setting up the MySQL Database

(This section will assume that you have setup a password for XAMPP’s MySQL Database)

In your XAMPP folder, open xampp-control.exe, and start Apache and MySQL (so that both of them are running, as per the screenshot above).

Direct your web browser to the phpMyAdmin page, and enter your username (root) and your password, which was setup when you went to the XAMPP security page.

Once you login, you should see a Create new database section. Type in a name (I chose forum) and hit Create.

Installing phpBB

Direct your browser to the phpBB forum directory (mine would be http://localhost/forum/) which should autodirect you to the installation page. Hit the Install tab at the top, then hit the Next Step button at the bottom of the following page. You shuold then come to a page called Installation Compatibility (pictured above). Scroll to the bottom, and hit Start Install.

You’ll reach a Database configuration page. Leave all but the last four fields alone.

• Database Name: This is the name of the database you chose when you created a new database in phpMyAdmin. Mine is forum
• Database Username: root
• Database Password: Either the password you setup with XAMPP security or no password.
• Prefix for database tables: Can be left alone, unless you’ve installed phpBB before in the same database.

Hit Proceed to Next Step, and again, if the test connection is successful.

phpBB will ask for some basic information. Fill the form in, and hit Proceed to Next Step (3 times, if everything goes well).

The key thing here to change is to disable all board-wide emails. Once that’s done, you can Proceed to Next Step (twice). Hit Login at the end.

Finishing Up

You’ll be greeted with this page, which looks eerily similar to the installation pages. As you can see from the big red box, you’ll need to delete the install folder (xampp/htdocs/forum/install/) (replace forum with whatever directory you chose). The blue message can be ignored.

Hit Board Index at the top right of the admin panel (or go to http://localhost/forum/) and see the results. You can add more forums and setup many other options via the admin panel (which you can always access with the link at the bottom).

Load up Fraps and hit the Movies tab. Make sure Record Sound is checked and Detect best sound input is selected. Next, head into Control Panel, Sounds and Audio Devices (in classic view).

Click the Audio tab, and under the Sound Recording section hit Volume…

Click Options, Properties at the top and you should see a window similar to the above. Check the box that says Stereo Mix and hit OK.

A new section should pop up in the main window called Stereo Mix. Unmute it if necessary, and you should be good to go to record sounds from your system.

Select Your Game

On the front page you’ll see a box asking you to select a product. It lists many of the newer generation games. Pick one and hit Can You Run It?

A loading bar will appear, and depending on whether you’ve used it before, it’ll ask you to install the applet. Let the applet install, and your results should appear shortly.

The Results

The first thing you’ll see is a quick glance at where your PC stands relative to the minimum and recommended requirements.

The second thing you’ll see below is a list of the required PC specifications, and then your PC specifications with a rating bar relative to the requires specifications. It’ll also list any “helpful” information, including links to free driver updates, and if your hardware does not meet the requirements, a link to their recommendations (which uses a page from the store TigerDirect).

Pidgin stores the buddy list, pounces, preferences, and other data as XML files in a “hidden” directory in Windows. This data can be useful for transferring data between Pidgin clients without reentering your data each time.

To copy/backup your data, head over to C:\Documents and Settings\[your username]\Application Data\.purple\ and copy the XML files.

To transfer them to a Pidgin Portable installation, paste the files in \PidginPortable\Data\settings\.purple\ overwriting any existing files.

Pidgin also stores cached buddy icons in the icons folder of the same directory and HTML logs (if enabled) in the logs folder (which can also be viewed through the main window with Buddies → View User Log.

Adding a New Buddy Pounce

Open the Buddy List, hit Tools, then Buddy Pounces.

In the window that appears, hit Add.

You’ll be greeted with a New Buddy Pounce dialog. We’ll explain some of the options available.

• Account: A dropdown menu listing all of your accounts appears. Select the one with the contact that you want a new buddy pounce to be added to.
• Buddy Name: Type your contact’s name/email.
• Pounce When Buddy: Should be self explanatory. Check all the options you want special notification for.
• Action: Also self explanatory. Open an IM Window opens a new window with the contact, Pop-up a notification pops up a new notification, Send a message sends a message to the contact in question, Execute a command runs a program, and Play a sound plays a sound of your choice. If you leave Play a sound blank, it will play a different Pidgin sound.
• Pounce only when my status is not available: The action only occurs if your status is Not Available.
• Recurring: Have this action occur every time. For the purpose of having a special notification every time the contact signs on, we checked the box.

That basically outlines the options available. For our purposes, we checked Sign in under Pounce When Buddy, Open an IM Window and Play a Sound under Action, and Recurring. Hit Save and you now have a new buddy pounce.

On another note, I apologize for the drop in posting frequency, as I am busy with school and cannot dedicate as much time.

Scroll to the bottom, make sure Windows Pidgin Options is checked, then click it and Configure Plugin.

Next to Keep Buddy List window on top, click the menu and select Always. Hit Close to both windows and Pidgin should now remain on top of your other windows.

Head over to about:config in the location bar, then type the following in Filter:

browser.search.openintab

Double click it so that the value becomes true, then restart Firefox.

Type about:config into the URL bar and in the Filter, type the following:

accessibility.typeaheadfind.enablesound

One entry should show up, and the value should by default be true. Double click it to change the value to false. Restart your browser, and changes have been applied.

Simply, Sandboxie forces applications to write to the layer instead of the hard disk, and is able to wipe everything clean afterwards, perfect for demoing software. In this post we’ll be explaining the very basic usage of Sandboxie so you can run and install programs into a layer (sandbox). Download and install from here.

Running Windows Explorer in a Sandbox

When it finishes installing, you’ll be greeted with this window. We want to run Windows Explorer (which will allow us to access all our programs), so hit Sandbox → DefaultBox → Run Sandboxed → Windows Explorer.

See the [#] around the window title? This designates that the program is sandboxed. If you want to double check, just take a look at the main window and which processes are running inside the sandbox.

I decided to run Firefox, so I browsed over to C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox and double clicked on firefox.exe. This will execute Firefox in a sandbox as you’re running it from a sandboxed Windows Explorer. Any attempts of Firefox to write to the cache, history, bookmarks, etc. will be erased on quit, allowing you to hide your tracks.

Firefox is now contained in a sandbox, as indicated by the [#] surrounding the title. Your browsing history and such will be erased upon exit, allowing for privacy.

Using Sandboxie, you can install programs onto a virtual layer, allowing you to erase them once you are finished using them as all registry and file changes are caught by the layer.

For this tutorial, we’ll be showing you how to setup XAMPP using the self extracting 7-Zip file.

Downloading XAMPP

Head over to this page to download XAMPP, and pick the EXE (7-zip) as it’s the smallest package size. Save it to your main drive (usually C:\).

Setting up XAMPP

Double click the archive, and just accept the default location. It’ll automatically create a folder called xampp.

Head into the newly created xampp folder and double click on setup_xampp.bat, where an install script will configure XAMPP. It’ll prompt you to press a key once you’re done.

Double click on xampp_control.exe, where a control panel will launch. For basic functionality, you’ll need to start Apache, and for most needs, you’ll need to launch MySQL. Closing the window will minimize it to the system tray.

That’s it! To access your new webserver, head to http://localhost/ to see the default XAMPP pages. To place pages on your website, place your HTML files in the htdocs folder.