Comparison of Free WMA Audio Hosting Sites

One friend asked about hosting .WMA (Windows Media Audio) audio files for free. There are lots of mp3 supported sites and you won’t find that many hosting sites who offer free WMA format. During my research I found few. I did a quick comparison of the sites and the features offered.

 

Buy great books at great prices

on Windows Media Audio, Media Center, Media Player and audio processing

only at http://store.faisalmasood.com

Once on that site, choose Microsoft on top right and use Windows Media Audio as search keywords.

 

Most of the  sites listed on first link above have free upload option without any registration. With registration you will have better control as to what files you would like to delete / rename. Few sites offer user statistics as well. In terms of end-user experience when playing WMA audio, each site is little different. Few sites download the WMA audio file and then play it, while others start playing the WMA audio in embedded media player on their webpage. There were few which play WMA audio after launching full media player version on your system.

 

Buy great books at great prices

on Windows Media Audio, Media Center, Media Player and audio processing

only at http://store.faisalmasood.com

Once on that site, choose Microsoft On top right and use Windows Media Audio as search keywords.

 

 

Below is the comparison of are some of the test WMA audios files I’ve uploaded to do a quick comparison of the working of each site.

 

1.       MySpaceFileHosting.com

MySpaceFileHosting.com plays WMA audio in HTML embedded Media Player. But you can download the WMA audio as well. They do have option to register and manage your uploaded files. MySpaceFileHosting.com gives you the option to download the code for each audio to be included into websites, blogs, Social media sites and forums.

http://myspacefilehosting.com/lmerl/WS111628.WMA.html

 

2.       TootFiles.com

TootFiles.com plays WMA audio in full Media Player on your system

http://www.toofiles.com/en/oip/audios/wma/uxpxz6-cpo7ez-797kig.html

 

3.       Plunder.com (FM Recommended)

Plunder.com plays WMA Audio in embedded media player, allows to download WMA Audio, copy to your account, email and Share to social Media like facebook and Twitter. Plunder offers up to 100MB max file size. For each file you can associate tags and create a description of it as well. One nice feature I liked about Plunder is that, they give you a personalized web address from where your visitors can download and view the audios. Another benefits is that you can host other files types as well.

http://www.plunder.com/WS111687-WMA-download-46cfd097e8.htm

 

4.       Supload.com

Supload.com downloads the WMA audio and then plays downloaded audio file in media player. It is more of a free upload space from where you can download and save / run the WMA audio.

http://www.supload.com/sound_confirm.php?get=1383613137.wma

 

 

Buy great books at great prices

on Windows Media Audio, Media Center, Media Player and audio processing

only at http://store.faisalmasood.com

Once on that site, choose Microsoft On top right and use Windows Media Audio as search keywords.

 

 

If you have need for a research, comparative and feasibility study for your projects contact Softvative. Click on contact us and then send you request.

The File is open in another program

Recently while working on a big file, somehow it got locked. I was not able to rename, move or delete it from Vista machine. It was giving me the error:

 

The action can’t be completed because the file is open in another program

Close the File and try again.

 

See error image

 

The popup window had two choices Try Again and Cancel. Clicking try again didn’t help. I looked into process and rebooted the system. But the problem stayed. Finally I found the free products Unlocker. It allows you to right click over a file and choose unlock and then delete, move or rename the locked file.

MS 70-113 Free Paper

Microsoft recently introduced performance based testing exam. I recently took the 70-113 exam & loved it. It is an innovative way of knowing how someone would perform in real scenarios as oppose to selecting an answer from MCQ (multiple choice questions) format. The exam was divided into two performance labs, which requires you to perform series of tasks on a virtual server environment. The tasks were selected from a range of different topics on Windows 2008 Server including Active Directory, GPO, FSMO roles, DNS, DHCP, Certificate Services and other general topics. At the end of the two labs there were 37 questions in old MCQ format. There was no scoring or result for the paper as it was a promotional paper, so there is no pass/fail criteria.

 

The first 3000 test takers will be given three free vouchers for other exams. Microsoft have extended the offer till December 17th for the free 70-113 Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Configuring exam. 70-113 covers the same topics as 70-640.

 

To perform well on this exam you should grasp ins & outs of windows 2008 Server, especially Active Directory. I see that the “..first 3000 takers getting three free vouchers..” statement has made lots of people to go for the paper even without knowing anything about Active Directory and finishing the paper in quick time – just to get 3 free vouchers. In my opinion this offer should have a catch like first 3000 free exam takers with certain % score rather than just the first 3000 takers. That way MS could have got the true value out of this free exam.

 

Check the links below for some more details about the exam

http://blogs.technet.com/betaexams/archive/2008/10/27/registration-for-pilot-70-113-extended-until-december-17th.aspx

http://mcpmag.com/reviews/exams/article.asp?editorialsid=122

 

Check the links below to prepare for the test or to see Win2008

TechNet Virtual Lab: Managing Active Directory – Directory Services

Windows Server 2008 – Learning Portal

 

Register for the paper at Prometric

Prometric Testing Site

 

Free Windows XP & Vista

Free, yes absolutely free VHD images of Windows XP with SP2, SP3 & IE6, IE7 & IE8 and also Win Vista with IE7 are available from Microsoft site as free downloads. It is a great way to test websites using different versions of IE.

 

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image

 

Check the link below for other free VHD images of Microsoft products including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, SharePoint Server 2007, ISA 2006 firewall, Exchange Server 2007, BizTalk Server 2006, Identity Lifecycle Manager 2006, forefront and system Center products.

 

Run IT on a Virtual Hard Disk

Free Updated AntiSpywares

LavaSoft Ad-Aware has released a new free version of their anti-spyware tool Ad-Aware 2007 Free.

 

The Ad-aware 2007 free detects and removes worms, Trojans, spywares, malicious items from your system. This new version removes the older version if you have it installed. The version is Microsoft Windows Vista compatible. This new version adds the program as a service for better protection from new threats.

 

Another good free anti-spyware tool is Spybot Search & Destroy. Their newer version sits in the system tray and actively monitors system for suspicious system behavior.

Technet Trial Software Center

Technet Trial Software Center offers a single place to use trial versions of MS software. Check the link for details.

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/bb736012.aspx

 

LUA Least Privilege to User Accounts

Few years back, I was working in development center. Every developer wanted to have full system rights to install everything they want. End result was lots of system failures, viruses, Trojans & what not on the network.

 

Giving users limited access to system by making sure all application functionality work was a difficult task. At that time I read few articles on the topic. (Read my comments & input on the topic at the bottom of these articles)

 

1.       Keys to the Kingdom

2.       Local Admin Rights, Right or Wrong

 

Since then Microsoft has done a lot of development in making sure applications work with limited-user access. Least-Privilege to User Accounts (LUA) has benefits of increased security, manageability, productivity, reduced cost & reduced privacy.

 

Check these articles for more details on the topic.

 

1.       Applying the Principle of Least Privilege to User Accounts on Windows XP (Downloadable white paper)

2.       Using a Least-Privileged User Account

3.       Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator

4.       Running with Special Privileges

5.       Aaron Margosis' Non-Admin Blog

6.       Elevating privileges for an administrator

 

VisualStudio2005 SP1

Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 has been released by Microsoft in mid of December. For details on improvements in VS SP1, check the link below.

 

Download VS2005 SP1

 

MS Office Accounting 2007

Redmond giant also released Office Accounting 2007, a tool to manage your business finances. The express version of the product is available as free download from their IdeaWins website for the product.

 

The salient features of the product are:

 

·         Off course free (Express version only)

·         Look & Feel of Microsoft Office

·         Customer & Financial Information in one place

·         Have tools to sell online through eBay and get paid faster

·         Startup Wizard helps you setup company quickly

·         Import from Intuit Quickbooks, MS Money, MS Excel

·         Customized Estimates, invoices & Pay orders

·         Manage payroll & taxes with ADP’s integrated payroll service

·         Use integrated PayPal to get paid faster

·         more

 

The product is targeted at small or home-business users.

MS OfficeLive

Microsoft has released OfficeLive in beta. Office Live offers a domain name, email accounts, business management applications like customer, project & document management tools. Office Live solutions are offered at three levels:

 

·         Office Live Basics

·         Office Live Collaboration

·         Office Live Essentials

 

In beta all three solutions are free. After beta only Office Live Basics will be offered as free.