Latest Project news

1/10/2010     -Laptop repair videos back up, Messed up news page, and REMINDER

Some how I messed up this "news" page a few weeks ago and had to restore a backup. So I need to remind everyone of the awesome laptop repair videos I found a couple of months ago. I also want to take the time to remind everyone about this "news" page.

The author of those videos is a pretty smart guy and I honestly really like him. I found out about his Podnutz site at the beginning of 2008 when he requested a podcast interview with me. He owns a repair shop in PA and is quite successful. We talked on the phone several times for a few hours prior to the UBCD4Win interview/podcast and he is pretty smart and helpful. I have a copy of these videos and have watched most of them and highly recommend them to anyone that wants some good tips and suggestions on laptop repairs. If you are interested in the videos, please click on the banner ad below and check them out. If you purchase them, I am sure you will not be disappointed. The only thing that may bother you a little, is the time it takes to download over 18 gigabytes of video files!!
Click Here!">

Reminder about this "news" page. Almost a year ago I told you all I would be doing all news and update posts on my new blog site. I get an occasional email asking various questions and why news isn't being posted here anymore. Just a few paragraphs down it is explained that new news will be posted on http://www.bendburrows.com so please visit my blog. I post about a lot of different stuff there so please check it out often.

7/5/09     -Thanks to everyone!

Thank you all for your generous donations! We have hit our goal and our hosting is good for another year. For more on this, please visit my blog http://www.bendburrows.com

6/28/09     -UBCD4Win needs your help with funding, please -Donation rally!

A slight situation has occurred and we need your help. Last year my finances were pretty good and donations were at a level where I knew I would get my money back so I paid for a full year of hosting for the site. Now you guys/gals all know that when I make a mistake I have no problems being honest about it. We all make mistakes or mess up and I actually like to tell you all about them so you do not make that same mistake and to let you all know I am just a normal person like all of you.
So, I thought I had made the payment in July but after an email on Friday I found out it was this month! I called them quickly and checked to see how much time I had until everything went down. Our hosting company gave me until this Friday, the 3rd to make a payment. This year things are much more tight and I honestly don’t even have the $99 to pay for a month. However I would much rather have us save money and pay the $1020 for a full year. Sure it’s only a little over $100, but every little bit helps!

So this is forcing me to start a new “donation rally.” I am very happy with the fact that we haven’t had to hold one in very close to 2 years, donations and such have kept us a float. In the past you all have been very supportive and we have always reached our goal and I have always been very appreciative of that!

Please, if you can afford it….help us out with this donation rally and keep our UBCD4Win and UBDVD sites up. As always I will keep you all updated on the progress and will end the “rally” as soon as we reach our goal. Thank you very much for your past, present, and future support!! If you happen to have any questions or anything, feel free to email me anytime.

Please use this special donation button so I can track the hosting donations easier:

<7/5/09 update: Link removed because we reached our goal. If you would still like to donate, please feel free to do so on the "donations" page of this site. Thank you!

4/21/09     -Version 3.50 released!

I had stated that I won't be posting any news here anymore, well that wasn't entirely true. A new release deserves a news post! Also if you haven't been keeping up with my blog, you have missed the fact that we are mentioned in 2 magazines this month!! I will be posting more information about the 3.50 release on my blog later this afternoon when I have more time. I had planned a video but ran out of time. There are many changes and new additions to this release so you really need to read my summary of the changes on the blog. http://www.bendburrows.com

3/1/09     -Last news post????

Is this really the last "news" post here on www.UBCD4Win.com??
Simply, yes.

Over the past year things have just become too complicated. I've been focusing a lot of energy on work but have still been trying my hardest to keep up with everything else. UBCD4Win is doing well, however lately I've been bad with updates. For the past 2 months I've been wanting to release an updated version and have wasted a lot of my development team's time with promises I couldn't keep. Luckily they like me a little so they understand? Plus I am kind enough to bribe them with some of the little money we make with the site. I've also wanted to release an Ultimate Boot DVD, but for more than a year now.....everyone is still waiting! I also want to consolidate ordering onto a web site for Burrows Solutions, a little company I've created over the past year. I want to provide carts, etc. for people that want to order CD's from me and give them a break on shipping costs. I would also like to launch motherboard capacitor repair and laptop DC jack repair on the site. A few things that I am extremely comfortable with considering I've been doing these types of repairs with great success at work for the past 2 years.

Am I giving up on you and UBCD4Win?? HELL no!! I am just trying something new, a blog. I figure if I have ONE place to post news, ideas, deals, etc., then maybe I'll find the time to update that ONE thing on a regular basis?
So welcome in my blog at bendburrows.com!! There I plan to post news and updates on UBCD4Win and UBDVD. I also plan to make my "deals" posts (which are usually in our UBCD4Win forum) and other useful information posts there. I think and hope with this one central location for everything, I will be able to find the time to post more often.

So please visit http://www.bendburrows.com and keep up with all the latest (general, UBCD4Win, and UBDVD) news, deals, and information I find. I thank you all for your help in our success with UBCD4Win and hope you appreciate my time and help enough to regularly visit bendburrows.com!!

1/11/09     -Beta testing Win7

Have you started beta testing Windows 7? It is a lot more easy to get than you may think. Sure it is a huge download, I downloaded the 64bit version and it weighs in at 3.5GB! As for ease of access to product keys, you don't have to do anything illegal. I found last night that I was able to download it with my Tech Net account. So I thought I could get more. I don't know for sure if it's necessary to have a MS passport or not but I figured I could waste the time creating new ones. My wife and children all have GMail accounts, so I had to setup HotMail accounts for them. That is pretty easy to do and really takes little time. Then all you have to do is log in to that account at Tech Net, pick the "downloads" bar, pick the "betas" option, and select Win7. Since they were new accounts I did have to login to the Hotmail account to get the verification email and click a link that brought me to a page with the License Key. Easy to do!

Installing Win7. Since all the systems I've installed Win7 on already have Vista, I simply chose to "shrink" their current partitions in Disk Management. I gave them a 30GB partition and then booted the install DVD.
Installation time was pretty good. Even on those "crappy" laptops I bought the boys for Xmas it only took 30 minutes to install. I call them "crappy" because they have Celeron processors. Other than that they are decent laptops. I upgraded the memory from 2GB to 3GB and they have decent size hard drives.

Installation notes. I really like the new features in the installation. Most notable is the Wireless Network setup. I really like the fact that I was able to setup the wireless network setting before it even booted into Windows. There is one missing thing in this setup though, I don't use Key 1 and the "quick" setup doesn't allow you to change that. You can connect to a network that isn't broadcasting it's SSID and put your WEP or WAP key. However, once you get to the desktop and open the Network Center it's easy to change. That brings me to another thing I really liked, not having to reenter the long key!!!! Anytime I had to do this in Vista I always dreaded it because I would always have to reenter the long key but no more with Win7!

Driver support. I have installed on my boy's two laptops (same models) and was happy to find only 3 unknowns or missing drivers in Device Manager. On my "more fancy" laptop I had 5 missing. After applying updates the boy's have 2 missing drivers and I have 3. Oh well, I just need to find time to figure out what devices and if the Vista drivers will work.

New features and experiences. So far I have had little time to really test it. One thing that will slow me down from testing on my laptop is problems with my MS Blue Tooth mouse. I'll find time to figure this out though. I really like the additions to the install process. Now I just need to find the time to see what I really think of it. I'm a little bothered by the lack of Quick Launch buttons and don't know if I really like the new thing down there. I also really liked the SideBar, I don't think they completely removed it and hope they didn't because that will be one of the first things I turn on. I did notice some locking up with the first few runs of IE 8 on Ben's and my laptops. I'm not sure what is going on but it makes me want to not install FireFox because it appears that IE 8 needs to be tested.

Boot times. Early reports had stated that boot times were great, I haven't seen that yet. However most of my reboots involved updates so I am sure they are what caused the slow boot times. Like I've already mentioned before, I just need more time to test.

Conclusion. Install is pretty quick and I've seen no problems so far. The kids have been playing with it so maybe they will help me find a few problems with it? I'm pretty satisfied so far with the driver and device support. It looks really good and it makes me look forward to the day it is officially released. More discussion will continue on in our forum I'm sure, so please visit us there and keep up with Win7 news.

Finally. Let's go Steelers!!! I have my SB XL Steelers jersey on and I'm ready for the game in an hour!!! I haven't had the chance to take pictures of my office again but did manage to make a video of my office. I posted it on You Tube a few nights ago, if you wish to view it......look for user name UltimateBootDVD. I also have a few videos of my cats and dogs.

12/16/08     -What a playoff outlook, changing my son's name, and never watching again!!

Wow, is all I can say. The month from hell isn't quite over but close enough and there are now added benefits of the possibility of home field advantage through the playoffs and being the number 1 seed with a win next week.
I was honestly thinking that the Steelers could probably drop one of these 4 games. We are 3 into it with 3 wins and just need to see what happens next week. I was also content with a big win a few days ago just to secure a 2nd seed guarantee because at least one home playoff game would be nice, BUT a home AFC championship game would be extra nice. Thanks to Tennessee losing, we have that chance now!!
The Steelers ARE showing who they are, a championship team (AFC North champs right now). I honestly would have no problems with a lose this coming weekend because the playoff games are much more important. However a win would be so sweet because if we did have to possibly deal with the Titans again, it would be at Home in an AFC Championship game! I don't want to get ahead of myself too much here but they do have the talent and abilities to win a 6th Super Bowl!

Changing my youngest name?
I honestly do not want to do it and hope like hell I don't have to!! Most of you know or should know that I did name my youngest son (back in 99) William after Bill Cowher, head coach of the Steelers at the time. I was devastated a few years ago when he announced his retirement, I've posted about that too.
However now, there are some UGLY rumors going around right now and I am really upset! Upset enough to honestly CHANGE my son's name! People are talking of Bill Cowher possibly becoming the coach of the Cleveland Browns! What? NO! I swear if that happens, his name WILL be legally changed! We honestly started discussing it a few nights ago because these rumors will not go away. I don't wanna think about it anymore, I'm getting too upset.

Finally, the controversial TD call.
I really don't care what anyone thinks and I'm just glad to know that my interpretation of the NFL rules stands correct. A lot of people are complaining of Santonio Holmes touchdown catch from Ben. The call was correct on the field and there should be NO rule change or really any discussions of it! His feet were in and that is ALL that should matter! If it's an out of bounds catch, then what the hell......let's remove HALF of the touchdowns in the game then!!! It's really stupid and shouldn't be causing so much of a stir.
I do vow one thing....I will NEVER support the NFL ever!
By support I mean I will not spend $250 on DirecTv's Sunday Ticket. I will not purchase "official" NFL gear. Meaning basically I will ONLY purchase "sweat shop" "knockoffs" of all Steelers stuff. I've thought about this and I can't see myself NOT purchasing any Steelers stuff, so I will go to the "dark side" just because of this. Ok, now I probably sound crazy and I should just shut up now. I seriously doubt that a rule like this would get changed, at least I hope like hell it doesn't!!

11/28/08     -Month from hell, let's go STEELERS!!!

I've been "low key" for a few years now. However it's time to speak out a little again and talk some football!
Let's go Pittsburgh STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!
This year has really been hard and we are really at the worst point of it right now. There have been many injuries and many close games, several games we should have won. However NOW, we are at the point where we have to win these hard games. Have to win? We are 8-3! What are you talking about?! Well crap, think about it. If the Steelers drop these next 4 games they are 8-7 and out of the playoffs!!
While I of course do not think we can lose them all, I fear 1 or 2 loses. Right now is the point where the Steelers need to "gel" everything together! The defense is #1 and I don't see that going down unless we have more injuries. However the offense has been lacking. I really don't know what I want to see? Do I want a conservative offense where Ben has few chances to make mistakes (like their last SB run) or should Ben step up and play?! Well crap, it's not like he's had the chance to do that this season!! If only the offensive line could push it up a notch for the next 2 to 2 1/2 months!! I still do blame him for the lost games this year though, he did make too many mistakes and feel those mistakes cost us those games. Oh well, that is the past. NOW it's time for you ALL to prove that we are a championship team!!! These next 4 games are like and really ARE playoff games!

My Steelers page is still up and I promise to update within the next couple of weeks. Those pictures on the page are old and I have bought a lot more Steelers stuff since then! I'll get new pictures up soon! In the meantime though, you can still check out the "hot" picture of my wife in a Roethlisburger jersey. Maybe I'll do the next with her not wearing a bra? Either way, you can check out 1/4 of my wife's breasts on Ben's forum anyway's. She posted a picture of her latest tattoo which is a Steelers "care bear" there. I'll post the pic on my Steelers page soon.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/steel.htm

11/12/08     -Version 3.22!

After several weeks of testing, version 3.22 released! I am extremely busy at work, so I need to keep this short. Check the "downloads" page for the mirrors that have the newest version available and the "Version History" page to get a list of changes in this release. Enjoy the new release!!!

10/21/08     -USB Flash drive testing, UBDVD, Gizmo CD, and 3.21?

Wow, I think this is the longest streak where I haven't posted any news!! Not that it's a good thing or a bad thing. However I always seem to get the "have you died" or "is everything ok" emails from people when I do not post news to the site on a regular basis. I do appreciate those emails but I also do not want people to think we are not developing or working on things just because I haven't had the time to post news. Simply I've been busy testing new things. We currently have a kick ass tool called UBUSB that is available for download in our forum. I've been trying to do more testing with it and recently purchased a new Kingston HyperX USB flash drive to test with. Results have been pretty good so far, with boot times varying between 1-4 minutes depending on hardware. I hope to find more time to do more head to head comparisons between that 8GB HyperX drive, Cruzer 4GB, and a 4GB DataTraveler. I tried to pick up a 16GB Corsair Voyager today on NewEgg for $39.99 (then $20 MIR) but I didn't order quickly enough because they all sold out!!

Ultimate Boot DVD. That has been consuming some of my time also. I purchased the domain years ago with the intent on doing something with it to help people. The site went online earlier this year but development has been slow because we are all so busy all the time. Last month I purchased IPB forum software for it because I feel we may be moving on to that site and forum more in the future. If you wish, you can visit the site but currently it has little information because we are still in the development stages. You will also notice that the site still directs you to the UBCD4Win forum. That is because I haven't had time to finish up a few things in that forum. I will have that forum up soon and look forward to questions, comments, and suggestions from anyone and everyone. We of course want UBDVD to become an easy to use and kick ass tool like UBCD4Win!!

Tonight ordering for Gizmo's CD's cease. I thank everyone who has ordered it and hope it has helped you! Shortly after Gizmo gave us permission to send out his list on CD (and gaining permission to include tools on the CD) he changed the layout of his list and made the CD somewhat obsolete. I continued selling the CD because the original 46 list was good and the tools are still good. However I didn't think it was a good idea to keep trying to update an obsolete list. His new list is huge which would turn it into a DVD and I haven't been able to find the time to create that new DVD. I really hope that sometime soon I can find the time for that and that he will allow us to send out that DVD, but for now I must end it. Thanks again to everyone!!

3.21. Finally some really good news for you users! We have started beta testing 3.21 and hope that it can be released within the next few weeks. There are a few new tools but mostly this is an update version. FireFox, Opera, and many other tools have been updated. One really cool tool I feel I should mention is the addition of CrossLoop. CrossLoop is really easy and good software that will really help a lot of people out.
Remember that computer you built for Grandma? Oh crap, she just got infected with a bunch of spyware!! She lives 1000 miles away so how can you help her out? Well, you built it and know a legit XP license is installed so build her a UBCD4Win and send it to her. She can boot UBCD4Win and you can now remotely clean up her system!! In the mean time, check out CrossLoop here: http://www.crossloop.com/

7/10/08     -Chat, mention in blog, and RSS Feed

First I would like to announce the possible addition of Chat for UBCD4Win. Right now we are checking out a Chat add-on for our IPB forum software. There is a link for it at the top right of the screen when you visit our forum. It integrates very nicely, looks good, and is fun! I hope that this extra support medium will help us to continue helping people even more. The only possible negative is that you have to be a registered member of our forum. I was thinking of letting "guests" log in but if we do that then people could log in and pretend to be someone else. So far the response has been very positive for it and as long as that continues I plan to pay for the service. So just a little reminder that these extra things we add and do to support people cost us money and our monthly fees add up quickly. So please consider donating on occasion if we have helped you and if you can afford it. Your donations help keep us up and going.

Next I want to mention a cNet blog entry we were just mentioned in. The author was nice enough to take the time to email me about it. If you would like to check it out here is a link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13554_3-9988099-33.html
Thank you Michael!

Finally, a user emailed me today asking about the RSS feed. I deeply apologize for it not being updated and regretfully say that it probably won't be updated for about another 2 weeks. Simply because I can not find the license number for the RSS software I use so I have no way to install the software on my backup system. I'm still waiting for my RMA on the motherboard for my main system. It has been hell without my main system but I have work arounds for almost everything I do.

7/7/08     -Download problems, lightning!

Sorry to everyone who had problems downloading the new version. I had a problems uploading, the first two times the uploads were corrupt but I guess the third time was the charm! It all started with a lightning strike Wednesday night, I didn't really want to get into it because I wanted the release to be positive. The close strike ended up killing the motherboard in my good computer, the cable modem, and the router. I made the mistake of listening to the install guy stating that my Internet would be messed up if I looped it through a surge protector. I also learned another lesson about my network. I have always heard that you should keep your network as simple as possible, keep as few devices as possible. It is true because those first 2 uploads that were corrupt were going through a switch that was hooked up to my router. After I hooked up my backup (test) system straight to my new router the speed was back and the upload did not corrupt!

In conclusion, I learned a few lessons and hope my bad experience helps others. Again, I'm sorry for the downloading problems and they should all be taken care of. Prop's goes out to our excellent mirrors for being patient and for being so quick to help me fix my error. Other than that, I hope everyone enjoys the new release!!!

7/4/08     -Version 3.20 released!!

After several weeks of testing we are finally releasing a new 3.20 release of UBCD4Win. Big thanks goes out to our old and new beta testers. Hopefully they have found all of my mistakes so none of you run into problems. I do want to report to everyone that AVG 8.0 still has not made it into our release and FireFox 3.0 did not. AVG 8.0 still has some sporadic and random problems so that is the reason we are holding off on getting it into UBCD4Win. FireFox 3.0 was released during our beta testing so we did not want to delay the release of UBCD4Win by adding that late in the stages of beta testing. There is also a security issue with the new version of FireFox so I expect a 3.01 version soon.

So download and enjoy the new release! Visit the "Version History" page for a list of all changes and updates. If you happen to run into any problems or bugs please visit the forum and post your problem if it hasn't already been posted.

6/18/08     -Thanks everyone

Thanks to everyone that sent me an email and thank you also for wanting to help! We received a lot of responses and have about 10 new beta testers added to our team. With their help we will hopefully have 3.20 released within a few weeks and maybe some of them will be able to help us add more cool stuff to UBCD4Win. Thanks again everyone!!

Latest News

6/12/08     -Now accepting Applications!

Even with the possible "recession", high oil prices, and slipping US dollar we are hiring! Oh wait a minute, we don't pay anything though?? Ok seriously folks, we are basically looking for more beta testers. We are currently trying to beta test a new version but our current beta testers are busy with real life. I completely understand that because I haven't had the chance to even post news here for almost 2 months now!! I even received an email from a user asking me if I died or something!! Evidently he doesn't visit the forum on a regular basis or he would see posts from me there. I thought it was kinda funny anyways, just imagine if he would have received an email from my wife saying YES! He'd feel like a jerk then!

Anyways, beta testing. Testing comes and goes, life changes, etc. We generally try to release new versions every 2-4 months so there can be a long span between testing. 6 months ago someone could have had free time to test and did but now there is a new baby or added responsibilities at work or something else. So I have always accepted the fact that people come and go. I always greatly appreciate their help and hate to see them go but I at least know that they will probably be back to at least download UBCD4Win again in the future when they need it. So if you have some free time for at least the next several months and want to help, send me an email!! I generally like to talk to possible beta testers on the phone so I would prefer US testers so I can talk to them but am willing to discuss possibilities with the International community. Especially if they can provide some help with other language builds. We do currently have a few guys from Europe in our Moderating and Development teams so anything is possible.

For more news, check out the "archives" to the left.