Microsoft Patents Multi-OS Booting, Android “With” Windows Phone

What is the news?

Microsoft has recently bagged a very important patent that could change the shape of the future smartphone industry. Right now, Microsoft is busy investing millions into its Windows Phone venture and is unable to produce appreciable profits despite the fact that Windows Phone devices possess a solid build quality. Microsoft is now the owner of the multi-OS booting patent. Smart and futuristic!

Now, let’s talk a bit more about it and the real meaning of this multi-booting patent. The usual theoretical notion of the simple multi-OS booting is dual-booting Android and Windows Phone on the same device. Earlier, we have read about a new software from Microsoft that was being developed and an Android Phone Xiaomi Mi4 was seen running on Windows 10. But, this patent is a lot more than that.

What is the meaning of multi-OS booting?

According to the United States Patent number 9,003,173, Microsoft has developed a new way to combine multiple operating systems on a mobile device to provide different functionalities. This patent will allow the user to select the OS necessary to perform a particular task, i.e. different tasks will be performed by different operating systems.

What are its advantages?

This multi-OS booting patent will give your phones a functionality to switch between different operating systems depending on the user needs (time, date, user etc.). The parts of the operating systems that need not to be stored on the device, can be accessed via cloud or downloaded from the web.

Also, this will give the user a new limited functionality option: suppose your phone is switched off and instead of booting it completely, you want to dial some emergency number or load just the camera function. Thus, the device will boot just a part of an OS as per the user needs.

What could be Microsoft’s future plans?

Microsoft could use this multi-OS booting patent to run Android apps onWindows Phone devices. This could be developed into a tool that would enable the developers involved in Android app development to make Windows Phone supported apps easily.

This technology also features the part-cloud booting option that could be the thing of future given the market trend that 2015 is the year of cloud.

Currently, this idea of multi-OS booting is in the nascent phase and it’s a long way from the actual implementation. But, this surely is something impressive and futuristic from the Microsoft labs in Redmond.

Did this idea of dual-OS booting intrigue you? Tell us in comments!

Recommended: Windows Becoming Open Source? Microsoft Says it’s Definitely Possible

Linux Windows Dual Boot and More: Multi-booting Up to Five OS

Feels good to have lots of options to choose from, right?
Then why stick to just one Operating System for a lifetime, it’s time you go out and try out the other distributions. Majority of OS other than Windows belongs to the Linux base. Linux Distros are huge in number, beautiful in design, innovative in use and super fast in updates.

Well, a major reason as to why people avoid using more than 2 OS in their systems and stick to the company provided base is because they find it tough to dual-boot their systems. Not to worry people, this blog will not only teach you the HOW TO of Linux Windows dual boot but a lot more than that, i.e. you can have the option of using more than 2 OS in your system, at least up to 5 (because I had 5 in mine couple months ago, Crazy right?!), while using the files of the parent OS in all the others too. Of course, you can raise an argument if you know of Virtual Machines, but trust me, there are loads of disadvantages of a VM.

The very first step in the process of dual booting is to create a free space for the new OS to be installed in. As majority computers run some version of Windows OS, the steps given in this blog will be applicable to the same (although, other users can follow these will little or no modification).

Recommended: Our full guide on Getting Started With Linux

A. Creating a Bootable Removable Media for Linux Windows Dual Boot

Step 1

Create an free space in your system from the Disk Management window(can be accessed from the control panel or by right clicking in the lower left corner shows you various options, including this).

Step 2

Right click on a partition and choose the Shrink option, and create at least 20GB of free space(ideally 100 GB). This will take a couple of seconds.

Step 3

Now you need to download an ISO file of the Linux distribution you want to install. These are very easy to find from any search engine as they are free software(unlike Windows and MacOS). For help, click here.

Step 4

Once you have the ISO file, the free partition, you need a removable media – could be a Pen Drive, CD, etc. – and a software to make it bootable with the distro you downloaded. The best software for this is the UUI (Universal USB Installer) and can be downloaded from here.

Step 5

Run the .exe file of UUI. Select the distro you are installing, the name of the removable media you plugged in (carefully choose this).

Locate the .iso file you downloaded, check the Format checkbox and Create.

This will take a couple of minutes or more depending on the ISO you downloaded and your system hardware.

Shut down your system after this or better, restart.

Now you are all set to dual boot your system. Next process is a little tricky, so be careful.

B. Changing Boot Menu Settings for Linux Windows Dual Boot

Step 1

Interrupt the normal boot by pressing the appropriate key.

• DELL – F2 or F12
• VAIO – Assist Button
• ACER – F2
• LENOVO – F12
• SAMSUNG – F12
• HP – F9

The above keys are not bound to be correct for all systems, might differ in some cases.

Step 2

Once into the boot menu:

• I recommend you to change the boot option to legacy from UEFI. This is a protective measure taken to prevent your parent OS from being damaged in case anything goes wrong at the time of installation.
• To boot into your parent OS you will have to change back the legacy option to UEFI and then reboot. Be Careful!!
• Keep the removable media plugged in.

Step 3

Save the changes and Exit(read the instructions on the boot window, usually given in the right side or upper side). The system reboots. Interrupt the boot again and from the boot option, select Removable Media (or any other name being displayed), save the changes and exit. You can skip this step as the system automatically identifies the removable media (not always though).

The system now boots into the trial version of the distro you installed in your removable media.

C. Installing the new OS

Step 1

On start up, you will see a screen showing you 2 options, Try or Install (might vary a little, depending upon the distro you’ve chosen to download. There will also be an icon on the desktop – Install. You can choose to either try it or if you like it already (you will!), Install it.

Step 2

Choosing the Install option and Continue will then show you a list of Recommendations such as

• The amount of minimum space the OS requires (usually under 10 GB)
• Connection to the internet (to download the necessary plug-ins, not necessary though, can be done later)
• Charger to be connected (for laptops, again not necessary unless your system is about to DIE!)
• There are also 2 options, as to download the plug-ins and 3rd party software. You can choose them if you will(I wouldn’t).

And Continue.

Step 3

The next step is again a tricky one and an important one. It shows you theInstallation Type. Gives you 3 options

• Install <DISTRO> alongside Windows 8 (don’t choose this)
• Replace Windows 8 with Ubuntu (choose this if you hate your Windows and want to start learning quick. But then again, I wouldn’t recommend it)
• Something else (Yeah! This is the one!)

Install Now.

Step 4

This step, I bluntly state, is the most important step in this complete process. So do it carefully. What you are seeing is a list of all the drives made in your system with their Names/Size/Used/Type/System etc..

Scrolling through the list will show you a free space of the same size as the free space you created by shrinking a drive in Windows in Process A(might be a few bytes larger).

Double-click on this to change it i.e. make partitions in it. A Create Partitionsdialog box opens up, asking you for the size of the partition, the type, the location, the use as mount point. Now, the following are the partitions you will be making for smooth functioning of the distro.

1. Swap area (functions almost similar to RAM, for swapping in and swapping out pages)

• Size: Ideally 2048 MB will do, but increasing it beyond is upto you.
• Type: Logical
• Location: either are fine, but I would recommend end of this space. Will ensure easier space handling in Windows OS.
• Use as: swap area
• OK

2. Root Partition (this is where the applications you install are stored)

• Size: I would recommend at least 1/3rd of the free space you created, increasing it further is upto you.
• Type: Logical
• Location: either are fine, but I would recommend end of this space. Will ensure easier space handling in Windows OS.
• Use as: Ext4 journaling file system
• Mount Point: /
• OK

3. Boot Partition

• Size: 10MB will be a lot.
• Type: Logical
• Location: either are fine, but I would recommend end of this space. Will ensure easier space handling in Windows OS.
• Use as: Ext4 journaling file system
• Mount Point: /boot
• OK

4. Home Partition (this is where the user files are stored)

• Size: Spare 10 MB and allot the remaining.
• Type: Logical
• Location: either are fine, but I would recommend end of this space. Will ensure easier space handling in Windows OS.
• Use as: Ext4 journaling file system
• Mount Point: /home
• OK

5. Reserved BIOS boot area partition

• Size: The remaining 10MB.
• Type: Logical
• Location: either are fine, but I would recommend end of this space. Will ensure easier space handling in Windows OS.
• Use as: Reserved BIOS boot area
• OK

And that completes the process, almost! Some more formalities left. Install Now.

Step 5

The next steps will be the formalities you need to complete in order to set up your account on the system.

• Language option
• Time Zone
• Keyboard layout
• Who are you?

Continue through all these steps. The last continue will start the installation process. CONGRATULATIONS!! You have successfully dual booted your system with the help of this Linux Windows Dual Boot how-to, with complete access to all the files in your parent OS.

The installation finishes with 2 options – restart now or continue trying. Restart to finish the installation.

D. Installing other Operating Systems

• Repeating the above three processes will easily install the new OS alongside the ones already installed. But do remember to change the boot option to UEFI to boot into Windows.
• Allotting the Reserved BIOS boot area will show you the options of all the newly installed OS so as to let you choose which one to start up.
• The latest installed OS is the one whose Reserved BIOS boot area will be used to show the options.

A lot of my friends ask me if installing many OS slows down my system? Well, NO! I love my time and my system. Anything that misuses the 2 is trashed. The system runs normally in any of the OS you boot into. Don’t let others bother you.

Go on, try it!! Facing any problem with Linux Windows Dual Boot? Feel free to ask me in comments below!

Recommended: Our full guide on Getting Started With Linux

How to become a hacker

How to become a hacker

It has become very common that many computer users want to learn and become a hacker, thanks to the image of hacker that is presented in the mediawhich is a bit exaggerated, in reality ahacker ha

• s multiple definition depending on the culture that we approach him. Acomputer hacker is someone who exploits systems without having the privilege to access them, and there is two kinds of hackers depending on their activity; black hats the ones who hack for personal interest and the ethical ones white hats whom help the computer community to enforce security and stand against cybercrime.
• Some of you will ask “How much it will take to become a hacker? “, well it depends on your abilities to learn and computer skills that you already have also on which level of hacker if you want to become an elite hacker that takes a long time maybe years, some can lean to hack just in fews weeks and others can take them months ,so it all have to do on you abilities and your motives.
• So now you have an idea about what a hacker is about, and before beginning on how to become a hacker you have to know the abilities and skills that are needed, firstly you must assume that intelligence is the main factor in hacking practices the more intelligent hacker you are the more you achieve, additionally it is preferred if you have already a basic knowledge in networking and coding but if not it is not a problem you can learn that later as long as you are motivated to become a hacker.
• let start on how you become a hacker; i will demonstrate this leaning process in separated tasks that when you finish ;you are good to go.

1. learn and understand how computers works and communicate:it is important to know about how computer works and communicate because in this way you can see the weaknesses of computers and its networks, explaining how computer and it network work isn’t an easy task just give your self time to it. here is some helpful links (well chosen ones :D)  about this subject:
   How computer work YouTube videos series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtqjxyV9t1I&list=PL0253EC51AF4109D0
   How computer work article: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/howcomputerswork.html
   An article about Operating Systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system
   OSI model (the present model of INTERNET): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model
   Network Architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_architecture
2. Learn to code and reading codes:in order to learn to hack it’s recommended to understand programming languages, what i suggest is to begin with HTML and Python because you’ll need HTML to read source code from web pages and Python will be an easy introduction to programming language ,also Java and Javascript may be a nice step.
   here it some useful link to learn programming:
   http://www.w3schools.com/html/ (for learning HTML)
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWPMSSsVdPk (HTML video tutorial)
   http://www.learnpython.org/ (for learning Python)
3. learn to hack and exploit:here is the most important part in our subject, first of all you should know what kind of hacking you want to learn and what you want to hack, to answer this question i will give you different hacking practices and a tutorial related to it:
   Websites applications hacking: https://www.websecurify.com/vulnerabilities.html
   OS exploitation for windows: https://www.offensive-security.com/metasploit-unleashed/using-exploits/Password cracking: http://www.alphr.com/features/371158/top-ten-password-cracking-techniques
   Social engineering: http://www.hackersonlineclub.com/social-engineering
4. Solve hacking challenges:there is plenty of hacking challenges in the web and it’s a good place to improve you hacking skills to the top, and here is a best known ones:
   A list of challenge websites (including: programing, reversing, cracking…) by WeChall:http://www.wechall.net/active_sites
   Or you can just search for challenge by googling “hacking challenges”.
5. Expend you knowledge by using search engines:well everything you need is on the web, to get the information and tools you need you have to search in a large domain and always keeping the useful resources.
6. Get close to hacking communities:getting close into people in the field of hacking may help you to lean more and explore this dark world, you can do this by enjoying hacking forums like hackforums.net and reddit’s hacking subreddit. Also hacking conferences worth to watch, here is some of them:
   Defcon conferences: https://www.youtube.com/user/DEFCONConference/videos
   Blackhat conferences: https://www.youtube.com/user/BlackHatOfficialYT/videos
   Chaos Computer club: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCCdeVideos/videos

Some important books:
Hacking for dummies
Hacking – The Art of Exploitation_2nd Ed

And please don’t hesitate to ask questions and post suggestions in comments!