Windows Vista: Change Your Computers Name

When you setup your computer you need to give it a name (such as: deathstar, homecomputer, etc.). If at a later time you want to change the name of your computer, follow the instructions below:

    * Log in to Vista with an account that has administrator privileges.
    * From the Start menu and right-click Computer and select Properties.
    * Under 'Computer Name, Domain, and Workgroup' section, click the 'Change settings' link.
    * On the Computer Name tab, press the Change... button.
    * Enter the new computer name in the field.

    * If necessary, press the More... button and enter the domain name provided by your company or ISP.

Miro goes 1.0

Miro (formerly called 'Democracy Player') is a free application that turns your computer into an internet video player. The player is available for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Miro lets you subscribe and download audio and video podcasts that are available on the net. It also supports full-screen mode, plays several popular video formats, and downloads files via BitTorrent.

The Windows system requirements for running the software are: Windows XP, 128MB of RAM.

What is the big deal about 802.11n?

TechRepublic.com reports: "802.11n is being touted as the networking standard that will unwire the network world. Most people are not convinced, yet curious to see how one defends such a claim. The 802.11n standard has two top-level mandates (unwiring the world not being one of them): Achieve higher data rates and retain backward compatibility with legacy 802.11a/b/g devices. The significance of requiring backward compatibility shouldn’t be taken lightly since it complicates the development process exponentially. Yet the 802.11n group has come up with a soon-to-be-ratified standard that meets both objectives."

This is probably the best article that I have read to date on the 802.11n standard. It appears to be most complex and featured pack of all the 802.11 specifications released so far.

How to Upgrade a Graphics Card

PC Magazine reports: "Windows Vista is the most graphically intensive operating system
ever, and DirectX 10, its multimedia and gaming component, has computer users all over
the world considering upgrading their PCs. With its 3D-driven Aero graphical user interface (GUI),
Vista requires more graphics-card muscle than XP does. And because
DirectX 10 isn't backward-compatible, gamers who are captivated by
its powerful specs are being forced to upgrade their hardware in order
to enjoy it."

This article explains how to buy a graphic card for your Windows Vista computer to take full advantage of the Areo interface.

Internet Explorer: Automatically Clearing the Cache

Internet Explorer (IE) automatically keeps a local copy of all the web pages, images, and other objects that you view in your browser. The reason for doing this is to speed up the browsing experience by keeping local copies of the content that has not changed when you revisit a web page.

There are two reasons some people don't like these file stored on their hard drive. First and foremost for privacy reasons, and second because it can consume a lot of space.

You can manually clear the cache from the Tools menu, by selecting Internet Options. Then on the General tab, pressing the Delete Files button. You can also configure IE to automatically clear the browser cache when you exit the program.

    * From the Internet Options dialog, select the Advanced tab.

    * In the Setting listbox, under the Security section, check 'Empty Temporary Internet
       Files folder when browser is closed'.
    * Press the OK button.

Alarm Raised for Critical Broadcom Wi-Fi Driver Flaw

eWeek reports: "Computer security analysts are raising the alarm for a critical vulnerability in the Broadcom wireless driver embedded in PCs from HP, Dell, Gateway and eMachines."

This seemed like the hot topic of the day. Basically there's a stack-based buffer overflow exploit in the Broadcom BCMWL5.SYS wireless device driver. Basically if you use your Wi-Fi card to hookup to the Internet in a public place, you could theoretically have your computer taken over by this exploit.

Broadcom has released a fixed driver to its partners, but the availability of fixes appears to be limited. Check with your Wi-Fi card manufacture to find out if you're affected.

Notepad Trick

Windows Notepad has a little known log function that will insert the date and time into the file every time a specially created document is re-opened. All you have to do is open a new instance of Notepad, and type .LOG as the first line of the file. Now save the document and close it, and re-open the document, the current date and time will be appended to the end of the file.

How to Removing Unused Device Drivers

When you install a new piece of hardware on your computer, you generally install a device driver that tells the OS how to access the new device. Later, if you remove the hardware from your system, the device drivers will still remain installed. These drivers will continue to be loaded even though they're not being used, and consume system resources.

To find and remove these unnecessary drivers follow the instructions below:

    * From the Start Menu, open the Control Panel folder.
    * Double-click the System control panel.
    * Click the Hardware tab, and press the 'Device Manager' button.
    * In the 'Device Manager' window, from the View menu, select 'Show Hidden Devices'.
  
* Expand the various nodes of the device tree and search for the grayed out icons, which indicate unused device drivers.
    * To remove an unused device driver, right-click the icon and select Uninstall.

Diagnostics: Get Back Your Lost Files: File Recovery Software (article)

ExtremeTech reports: "Of course, prevention (in this case read "backup") is the best medicine
when it comes to lost files, whether as a result of disk malfunctions or your mistakenly
deleting them. But for those of us with less foresight, there's utility software that can save
our skins when it comes disappeared files. Today, we investigate three leading software
products that claim to be able to find and recover files you've deleted or lost to a bad
disk drive or media: iolo technologies' Search and Recover 4, Executive Software's
Undelete 5, and Digital Photo Recovery 2.0.3 from Galaxy."

Every now and then you or someone you know may lose a file or a whole drive and want to recover the lost data. ExtremeTech wrote a very good article on three different file recovery software packages that are currently available. If you have never used this type of software before, this article provides some background on the current generation of these utilities.

Windows XP: Disabling Devices

There are times that you may need to disable a device driver for diagnostic or performance reasons. For example, if you think a device driver is preventing your computer from working properly, you can disable it to see if it fixes the problem. Also, by disabling unused drivers you may help decrease boot time of your computer because it doesn't have to load them.

To disable a device driver, follow the instructions below:

    * From the Start menu, right-click My Computer and select Properties.
    * Click the Hardware tab and press the 'Device Manager' button.
    * Expand the category that contains the device that you want to disable.
    * Right-click on the device and select Disable.


The device should now be disabled and should remain that way until you re-enable it. To re-enable it use the same instructions above, except select Enable instead of Disable.

Windows XP: Adding Toolbars to your Taskbar

The taskbar by default will generally contain the Start button, the Quick Launch toolbar, and the Notification Area. You can customize the taskbar, with additional toolbars such as the: Address, Windows Media Player, Links, Language Bar, and Desktop.

To add a toolbars:

    * Right-click the Taskbar, and select Toolbars, then select the toolbar you want to add.

To remove a toolbars:


    * Right-click the Taskbar, and select Toolbars, then select the toolbar you want to close.

Free Internet Fax Sending Service

Faxes are almost a thing of the past for me, but every now and then I need to send one for personal reasons. Personally I hate the technology, but it still has its place in the business world for documents that you can't get or send via e-mail.

If you need to send a fax, and you don't have easy access to a fax machine then check out this site. Its called FaxZero which lets you send a fax to any fax machine in the United States (including Puerto Rico) or Canada for free. You don't need a fax machine yourself, but you do need a valid e-mail address.

Just fill out the fax form. Be sure to include your valid e-mail address and carefully type the Confirmation Code. Type the text of your fax or attach a file (a Microsoft Word document or PDF file), then click the Send Free Fax Now button.

Sending Large Email Attachments

Do you need to send someone a large file, and you're email provider won't allow you
to send it because the file is too large. Below are two web sites that can help you send
these large files. The only catch is that the file must be retrieved within seven days, or it
will be deleted off the server.

    * Dropload:Temporarily place a file up to a 100MB.
    * YouSendIt: Temporarily place a file up to a 1GB.

Windows XP PowerToys Wallpaper Changer

There is a little known Windows XP PowerToy called the 'Wallpaper Changer'.
This PowerToy changes the background wallpaper of your computer's desktop
automatically from images you select at predetermined intervals
(based on: minutes, hours, or days).

After the program is installed, it loads when you log into your computer, and sits in the
notification area. To change its settings, all you have to do is right-click the icon.

FolderShare for Windows

FolderShare is a free application/service that allows you to share your files from across two or more computers at different locations (such as home and work). The way this service works, it that it setups a private peer-2-peer network between to or more computers, and then synchronizes the files between all the computers in the network.

FolderShare consists of two components, 'My FolderShare' and 'FolderShare Satellite'. My FolderShare allows you to manage the file sharing between the two computers. FolderShare Satellite is the software that you run on your computer that allows you to synchronize and share files.

FolderShare Satellite runs in the background on your computer when you're online. Then as you update your files they will be automatically sync with the other devices.

Free Online Storage (Streamload)

Do you need a place to store your files online, so you can access them from another location (such as work)? Maybe you want to share large files (such as: personal photos, audio, or video) with your friends or family.

Streamload is offering 25GB of free online storage. If you need more storage, then you can pay for what you want. Then you can securely access the files through your browser.

You can also use a service like this to backup your personal files off your local computer just in case you lose your hard drive or another catastrophe.

Hard Drive Healers

I don't do this too often in this blog, but PC Magazine did a great article about a company called Ontrack that specializes in recovering data from damaged hard drives. When I say damaged hard drives, I mean ones that have been burned, shot, dropped in lakes, etc.

This is not a cheap service, but if you need to recover your data this is one solution. Although if you regularly backed up your data you would not have to use this service.

Restore the 'Show Desktop' icon

Has the 'Show Desktop' icon been removed from your Quick Launch bar? If you have never used this feature before, it was designed to allow you to quickly minimize all applications to the taskbar just by clicking a button.

Not to worry, you can quickly recreate this feature by performing the following steps below:

    * Open Notepad (from the Start Menu, select Run..., type "notepad.exe", then press Enter).
    * Copy and paste the following contents into Notepad:

      [Shell]
      Command=2
      IconFile=explorer.exe,3
      [Taskbar]
      Command=ToggleDesktop

    * Save the file as "showdesktop.scf" to your desktop.
    * Drag the file to the Quick Launch area of the taskbar.

Wiping Data From Old PCs

If you're selling or giving away an older computer or laptop, you want to make sure that you securely wipe all the data off its hard drive. Simply formatting the hard drive is not enough these days. To really protect yourself you need to use a special program that can securely erase all the data off the drive.

When you format any type of media, the OS will only erase the media's Master File Table (MFT). The MFT tells the OS where all the parts of a file are stored across the disk. Since the data is not erased, it's possible to recover it from the hard drive.

To really protect your personal and financial information you need to use a disk wiping program that can securely erase every bit of data off a drive by writing random information over it several times. There are a few free programs that can perform this type of operation for you.

Secure Disk Eraser: Darik's Boot and Nuke (Erases the whole hard drive)
Secure File Eraser: WipeFree (Erases individual files)

Hide Desktop Icons

Here is a neat trick, want to hide the icons on your desktop? Follow the instructions below:

    * Right-click an empty area on the desktop, and select 'Arrange Icons By.'
    * Uncheck the 'Show Desktop Icons' option.

This will hide the icons on your desktop. To unhide the icons just re-check the option.

Shared Computer Toolkit

Do you have shared computers in a public place (such as in a library, school, or other organization)? Since these computers are so accessible to the general public, they will need to handle the day-to-day abuse that they will receive. From the computer phobic who can crash any application without trying to Johnny 'want-to-be' hacker who thinks he crack into any computer.

Microsoft is now offering a free tool that can lock down these public computers, its called the 'Shared Computer Toolkit' (SCT). This application allows you to lock down the computer's configuration, including Internet and application access. The SCT works by locking down the system through group policy settings, then replaces the boot partition every time the computer is rebooted.

System Requirements:

    * Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.
    * Disk partition about 10% of size of the boot partition.

How to Testing Broadband Connection Speed

If you already have a broadband connection (such as Cable, DSL, etc.), or just signed up for one, your service provider will make all kinds of promises about how fast the connection will be. Then after you have it installed there is no way to truely tell if you're really getting the bandwidth you're paying for.

If you want to validate the speed of your Internet connection, you will need to use a web site that can measure its bandwidth. There are several of these sites available on the Internet that can measure how fast your Internet connection is, but some seem better then others.

One of these sites that I like is from a company called Speakeasy, they have an easy to use and easy to understand connection speed test. All you have to do is select a server that is close to where you live, and watch your computer's display.

Note: The results of these tests can be affected by several factors, such as other people sharing your connection or processing loads on the Speakeasy servers.

Re-register the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer

The Microsoft Windows Picture and Fax Viewer allows you to preview digital photos,
images, and faxes in the Windows Explorer or on the desktop. Sometimes, the file
associations (for .JPG, .GIF, .TIF, etc.) that is required to support this application
becomes damage or another application re-points it to itself.

If you want to restore the original functionality of the Windows Picture and Fax
Viewer then follow the steps below:

    * From the Start menu select Run...
    * In the Run box, type: "regsvr32 shimgvw.dll" (If that doesn't work, try typing: "regsvr32 /i shimgvw.dll"

Using the System File Checker (SFC)

Sometimes when installing third party software, it may overwrite important operating system files. This can cause Windows or its applications to become unstable or fail altogether.

Windows includes a utility that can scan for problems, and replace the operating system files that may have been overwritten. This tool is called the 'System File Checker' (SFC), to access this tool follow the instructions below:

    * From the Start menu, select the Run... command
    * In the Run dialog box, type: "sfc /scannow" and press the Enter key.

The SFC will start scanning all protected Windows files and verify that they're the correct version. If they're not, the incorrect or missing files will be replaced. You may be prompted to insert your Windows XP installation CD if a problem is detected.

Controlling Environment Variables

Back in the DOS days you created environment variables to maintain certain settings on your system. These variables were used by applications to find files, and store information about you and your preferences.

These environment variables are still used by all versions of Windows for different reasons. To manage your these variables:

    * Right-click on My Computer
    * Select Properties from the drop down menu.
    * Click on the Advanced tab.
    * Press the 'Environment Variables' button.

From here you can create, change, or delete user (only effects the current logged in user) and system (effects every user who logs into the computer) environmental variables.

Create a Shortcut to Suspend Your Computer

Most modern computers support a low power state called 'Suspend'. In this state your computer will turn off all unnecessary components (i.e.: monitor, hard drive, etc.) that are not require to keep the computer turned on. When you're ready to use the computer again, all you have to do is move the mouse or press a key on the keyboard and the computer will come back to life.

To create a shortcut to put your computer into a suspend mode:

    * Right-click on the Desktop, and select 'New>Shortcut'
    * Type, "rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState"
    * Give your shortcut a name, and press the Enter key

To suspend your computer all you have to do is double-click the new shortcut you created.

Display Your IP Address Information

If you need to display your computer's IP address information, the easiest ways to do this is to use the Network Connections dialog:

    * Open the Control Panel folder.
    * Double-click the Network Connections folder.
    * Double-click the network icon that you want to display the IP address for. If the network
       connection icon is in the notification area all you have to is double-click it.

    * Click on the Support tab.
    * Press the Details button.

Running programs from your USB flash drive (Part 2)

One technique that I have used successfully to run utilities that come with their own installer from my USB flash drive. I run the installer application and install it on my local hard drive. I then copy the program's folder out of the C:\PROGRAM FILES folder to the USB drive. I then uninstall the original program from the computer.

To test the program, I try to run it from the USB flash drive. The uninstall technique will let you know if the program has any dependencies (such as DLLs, or registry entries) that will prevent it from running properly on another computer.

Finding Programs for your USB Drive
There are sites on the Internet that host programs that can be run from these devices, for example there is TinyApps.org and Roadkil.net. These sites contain several different types of useful utilities and other miscellaneous programs.

Running programs from your USB flash drive (Part 1)

Installing and running programs from your USB flash drive, can be a hit and miss proposition. You need to find programs that don't have dependencies on being fully installed on to a computer's hard drive in order to run.

For example, Microsoft Office can not run from a USB flash drive. When the application is installed, it installs its support files all over the computer's hard drive for various reasons (which I don't plan to discuss). Microsoft Office is not the only program that has this requirement, several other applications from several different vendors can't be run from a USB flash drive.

The real trick is finding programs that don't have installation dependencies in order to run. These programs are primarily written by small software vendors and can come in all shapes and sizes. I generally classify these programs in to two groups, ones that don't require a folder structure to run and ones that do.

There are some programs that all you have to do is copy one or two files to the USB drive and its ready to go. There are other programs that require their own folder structure to run. A lot of the time the only thing you can do is copy the program files to your USB drive, and try to run it.

Windows Security Tips (Part 1)

For your protection, its not a good idea to always run your computer using an account that is privileged (i.e: with administrator rights). By doing this, you can prevent malicious programs from being able to easily infect the OS because it doesn't have the rights.

When you have to perform an operation that requires privileged access, such as installing or configuring an application or OS. That is when you login with the administrator account.

To add or remove users, or change user account privileges open the User Accounts control panel. To use this control panel does require administrator access.

    * Open the Control Panels folder
    * Double-click the User Accounts control panel

Lock Your Windows Quickly

Computer security has been a hot topic for a few years, and a good security practice is to lock your computer when you walk away from it. One of the quickest ways to lock your computer's screen is press the WinKey+L key (if your computer keyboard doesn't have the WinKey, then you can press the Ctrl-Alt-Del keys, then Enter). When you lock your computer's screen, you will be required to enter your log-on password to access your computer again (or have an administrator password).

Windows Security Tips (Part 2)

In the previous tip, we talked about running your computer with a 'restrictive user account' that doesn't have administrator privileges. The only problem with running your computer this way, you will soon discover that there will be times that you need these rights to perform certain operations.

To do this, you can use the 'Run As' command, to perform administrator tasks even if you're logged in with a restrictive user account. To access this feature, right-click any program icon and select 'Run as...". A security dialog will display, click 'The following user' radio button, then enter the administrator usrename and password.

For more information see the following Microsoft Knowledge base article: 'How to enable and use the "Run As" command when running programs in Windows' (294676).

Activate the Language Bar

Do you need to switch between different languages for your keyboard? If so, you can do this quickly by activating the language bar. Just follow the instructions below to activate this feature:

    * From the Start menu, and select 'Control Panel'.
    * Double-click the 'Regional and Language Options' control panel.
    * Click on the Languages tab.
    * Click the Details button.
    * In the Preferences section (look at the bottom of the dialog, press the 'Language Bar...' button.
    * Check the 'Show the Language Bar on the desktop'.

Note: If the 'Language Bar...' button is grayed out, click the Advanced tab and make sure the checkbox "Turn off advanced text services" is unchecked. If this box is checked, it will turn off the language bar option.

Disabling the Clicking Sound in Internet Explorer

Some people get really irritated with the constant clicking noise that Internet Explorer makes when navigating through web pages by clicking links. If you want to turn this clicking noise off, it's pretty easy to do.

    * Go to 'Control Panel'
    * Double-click on the 'Sounds and Audio Devices' control panel
    * Click the Sounds tab.
    * Scroll down in the 'Program events' list until you find the 'Windows Explorer' section, 
       then highlight    'Start    Navigation.'

    * Change the 'Sounds' drop down menu at the bottom of the dialog to '(None).'
    * Press the OK button when done.

This will stop the clicking noise as you navigate different web pages.

Rolling Back Device Drivers

One of the several system recovery features that Windows XP includes, is the ability to 'roll back' device drivers. Simply put, that means you can restore the previous device driver that you had installed on your system by pressing a button.

Now why would you want to do this? There are a few reasons. For example, if your system has been working properly for a long time, and then you decide to install a new device driver to take advantage of a new feature. If that device driver conflicts with something, or is just buggy then by pressing the roll back button, you can restore your previous driver.

Note: This feature can be accessed in Safe Mode.

To roll back a device driver to a previous version:


    * Right-click on 'My Computer' and select 'Manage.'
    * Click the Hardware tab.
    * Press the 'Device Manager' and double-click on the device whose drivers you want to roll back.
    * Click the Driver tab
    * Press the 'Roll Back Driver' button.

Windows will revert to the most recent saved driver after you restart your system.

Capture Screenshots

A screen-capture utility comes built into Windows that allows you to capture the current screen or window. All you have to do is press the 'PrtSc' button (aka 'Print Screen') to capture the current screen, or press the 'Alt+PrtSc' buttons to capture the current window to the clipboard.

Then load an image-editing program (such as: Windows Paint) to view, edit, or save the captured image. Press Ctrl+V to paste the image into it.

Quick Internet Explorer Tips

Here are some Internet Explorer shortcuts that can make your browsing easier:

    * Make the text larger and easier to read, hold down the CTRL key and move your mouse's 
       scroll wheel   up. To make the text smaller, hold down the CTRL key and move your mouse's
       scroll wheel down.
    * Hold down the Shift key and click on the link to open it in a new window.
    * Press CTRL-N to open a new I.E. window.
    * Press CTRL-B to organize your bookmarks.
    * Press CTRL-E to see the search sidebar.
    * Press CTRL-H to see the history sidebar.
    * Press CTRL-I to see the favorites sidebar.
    * Press F5 to refresh the current page.

    * Press F11 to activate full screen mode.
    * Press ALT-Left to arrow to go back a page.
    * Press ALT-Right arrow to go forward a page (if it is available in the cache).

Deleting System Restore Points

The Windows System Restore feature is designed to help you recover after a software installation failure or configuration changed that prevents your computer from booting. By default, new restore points are created after a system change, or every 24 hours. Also by default, the system restore points can consume up to 12% of the space on your hard drive.

To temporarily recover the used disk space, you can delete the system restore points from the Disk Cleanup utility.

    * Open the Disk Cleanup utility (from the Start menu | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup).
    * When the Disk Cleanup dialog box, select the 'More Options' tab.
    * Press the 'Clean Up...' button.
    * Press the Yes button to confirm the restore point deletion.
    * Press the OK button.

New Utility: Transparent Windows

AlphaXP is a free utility that allows you to control transparency effects in Windows XP. With this utility, you can modify the opaqueness levels for: windows, menus, tooltips and the taskbar.

Cascading/Tiling Windows

If you have several open windows from the same or different applications cluttering up your display, you might want to consider using the cascading windows feature. This feature will automatically reorganize the open windows on your desktop so the are more accessable.

To tile all windows:
- Right-click an empty space on the Windows taskbar and select 'Tile Windows Horizontally' or 'Tile Windows Vertically'.

To tile select windows:
- Hold the CTRL key, and click on application buttons in the taskbar that you want to cascade the windows.
- Right-click one of the application taskbar buttons you selected, and choose 'Cascade', 'Tile Windows Horizontally' or 'Tile Windows Vertically'.

How to Disable Windows Error Reporting

If an application error happens, a dialog box will display asking you if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. This can be really annoying, if you have the same problem over and over again.

If you don't want to use the error reporting utility, you can disable it altogether.

- Open the Control Panel.
- Open the System control panel.
- Select the Advanced tab.
- Press the 'Error Reporting' button.
- Select the 'Disable error reporting' radio button.
- Press the OK button (x2).

The Truth of RAM Optimizers

There are a lot of programs on the Internet are being sold or given away as RAM Optimizers. These programs promise to increase the speed and stability of your system. Although, the truth of the matter is something different.

RAM Optimizers will degrade system performance rather then improving it. They might appear to be working by making more memory appear as it is available, but this illusion comes at a cost. RAM Optimizers work by increasing the available-memory counter, while forcing other data and processes out of memory.

Normally a program will try to keep its code and data in memory for speed reasons. Although when you run a RAM Optimizer, it will try to force the programs and its data into virtual memory, in order to free up your physical RAM. This will in turn slow down your computer, because programs will have to read data back into RAM from your hard drive in order for the CPU to access them. Remember, your hard drive is much slower then your computer's RAM.

Ways to speed up your computer:
- Disable any start-up programs or services that you're not using.
- Install more RAM in your computer.

NTFS File Security

(For Windows XP Pro)

If you're hard drive is formatted with the NTFS file system, you can specify which users
and groups of users have the rights to access the different files and directories
on your computer.

To set access permissions on a file or directory:

- Open the Windows Explorer.
- Right-click on a file or directory, and select "Properties".
- Click the Security tab.

- Select a user or group to modify their permissions. You can also add more users or groups
- Use the checkbox to add, change, or remove permissions.
- Press the OK button to apply the new permissions.

Hide Your Computer in the Network Neighborhood

Do you want to prevent your computer from showing up in everyone's Network Neighborhood on your local private or company network. There is a very easy process to do this:

    * Open the Run... command (click Start button, and select Run...)
    * Type: "net config server /hidden:yes", press the Enter button.

This will only prevent the Network Neighborhood on other computers on the network
from displaying your computer name. This won't prevent other utilities from identifying
your computer that don't respect this flag.
You will need to install some type of firewall
(software or hardware) to really protect yourself.

Using Disk Cleanup Utility

Are you running out of disk space on your hard drive, you can help recover this space by removing unnecessary temporary files, emptying your Recycle Bin, and compressing old files. Microsoft includes a tool called 'Disk Cleanup' that can delete these files with a relative level of safety.

To launch the 'Disk Cleanup' utility, from the Start menu select Programs | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup. When you start the application, the first thing it will do is calculate the amount of space it will save you.


Then place a checkmark next to the types of information (such as deleting temporary files) that you want to delete. Finally press the OK button when you're done.

Changing the Size of the Recycle Bin

Did you know that by default, Windows allocates up to 10% percent of each
hard drive for files thrown into the Recycle Bin. If you have a large hard drive
that can be a lot of wasted space.
(ie: on a 100GB drive, that is 10GB of disk space).

With today's high capacity hard drive, you might want to consider setting this to
a lower value like 1% percent (on a 100GB drive, that is 1GB of disk space).
To change the size of the Recycle Bin:


    * Right-click the Recycle Bin, select Properties.
    * Move the slide bar until it read '1%' (or whatever else you like)
    * Press the OK button.

If you change this setting or not, you can always recover this disk space by emptying the trash can. Although, when your Recycle Bin is full, this can interfere with files be written to the disk if there is no space available. So by keeping it at a lower setting, this can help prevent this inconvenience from happening.

Netcraft Anti-Phishing Toolbar

The Netcraft has created an anti-phishing toolbar for Internet Explorer. The toolbar displays the operating system, web server software and country the web site is hosted in. This can help protect you against web sites are employing a form of URL spoofing.

URL spoofing is a technique commonly used in "phishing" attacks, in order to hide the real address of the web site your visiting. Phishing attack are fake web sites which are created to look like a real site that belong to of a legitimate company (such as a: bank or credit card company). These fake web sites that are designed in order to steal your personal and private data.

After you download and install the toolbar, to active it all you have to do:
- Launch Internet Explorer.
- Click on the View menu, and select Toolbars and check the Netcraft toolbar.

Prevent Startup Programs from Loading

Sometimes you may need to prevent your startup programs from loading when you log into your computer because they might be causing some type of problem. To do this, log into your computer like you normally do, the immediately hold down the Shift key before the Windows desktop can display. You have to be quick, or you could might miss your opportunity to do this.

Note: This operation will only prevent from programs in the Startup folder from loading, it will not prevent programs from loading that are specified in the registry.

SphereXP 3D desktop replacement

 The SphereXP is a 3D desktop replacement for Microsoft Windows XP. Taking the known
 concept of three-dimensional desktops to its own level. It offers a new way to organize
 objects on the desktop such a icons and applications.

  It is something that you have to see to believe.

Launch XP Utilities from the MS-DOS console

You can launch any Windows XP utilities from the command line or the Run... commnad by typing the file name of the utility, and pressing the Enter key. Below are the file names for some popular Windows utilities:

- compmgmt.msc: Computer Management
- devmgmt.msc: Device Manager
- dfrg.msc: Disk Defragmenter
- eventvwr.msc: Event Viewer
- lusrmgr.msc: Local users and groups
- secpol.msc: Local security settings

Google is Offering Free Photo Management Software (v2.0)

Google is giving away its Picasa software for free. Picasa is a photo editing, management
sharing application that allows you to edit, find, share your pictures.

The new released includes Gmail/Blogger integration, CD burning, a new collage-generating tool, and some more photographic editing features.

Free Encrypted Email

Do you want to easily communicate securely and privately over email. Ciphire Labs in Germany is offering software that makes it easy to encrypted e-mail communications. New Scientist wrote an article about the product.

Once the software is installed it performs all the complex tasks of encrypting your e-mails. The software works with most email clients, and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

Note: This service will only work if you and the recipient are running this software.

Modifying XP's Visual Effects

You can increase Windows XP's system performance by disabling different visual effects, such as: fade or slide menus, visual effects on buttons, slide open boxes, etc..

    * Right-click on My Computer, and select Properties.
    * Click the Advanced tab.
    * In the Performance section, press the Settings button.

From here you can adjust the performance by turning on and off individual visual effects, or by using pre-defined configurations by selecting one of the radio buttons.

Windows XP: Creating Your Own Toolbar

Have you wanted to create your own toolbar in the taskbar or on your desktop. Windows will allow you to turn almost any folder into a toolbar, even special folders like the Control Panel. It is pretty easy, follow the instructions below to convert the Control Panel folder into a toolbar. This same procedure should also work on just about any other folder:

    * Minimize all your windows so that the desktop is exposed. (Press the WinKey+D)
    * Right-click on the Taskbar.
    * Scroll to Toolbars > 'New Toolbar...'.
    * In the dialog, select a folder (open 'My Computer', then select 'Control Panel').
    * Press the OK button to continue.
    * Click on the new toolbar in the Taskbar and drag it on of the edges of your monitor. It should automatically lock into place.

You can make the toolbar auto-hide when it's not in use so it's not taking up valuable desktop space. Just right-click on its label where it says 'Control Panel', and select 'Auto-Hide'. To get rid of the toolbar altogether, right-click on label again and select 'Close Toolbar'.

Creating a Password Recovery Disk

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

In the previous versions of Windows if you accidently forget your password all you had to do was the press the ESC key. In Windows XP if you forget your password you can be locked out of your computer.

This is because Windows XP uses a more sophisticated method of managing each user's permissions. These premissions are also enforced by file system and operating system itself.

To help protect you from getting locked out your computer, you can create a password recovery disk. The password recovery disk can allow you back into your computer even if you forget your password.


Note: You will need some type removable media to create a password recover disk, such as a floppy disk. The Password Recovery wizard will want to erase disk that you will use.

- Open the Control Panel
- Open the User Account control panel
- Click on a user, to create a Password Recover Disk
- On the left hand side, click on 'Prevent a forgotten password'.

You will now be presented with a wizard which will walk you through creating password recover disk. You will also need to know the current password for the account you want to create the recover disk.

If you forget your password, all you have to do click on the green arrow next to the user account at the login screen. You will then be prompted to insert the password recover disk.

Choosing the Windows Explorer Start Folder

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

When the Windows Explorer is launched, it opens the My Documents folder by default. To make Windows Explorer start in another folder, you can create a shortcut that causes it opens in a new location.

- Right-click on the desktop and select New > Shortcut.
- In the Location field type "explorer.exe /e,C:\", then press the 'Next >' button.
- Give your shortcut a new name, or accept the default, then press the Finish button.

Whenever you launch the shortcut it will open the Windows Explorer to the C:\ drive. You change the location of folder which the Explorer opens, you need to modifying the path (i.e.: 'C:\') after the '/e'. If the path includes a space, then the whole path name needs to be enclosed in quotes.

Changing the Default Action With Removable Media

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

Whenever you insert some type of removable media (such as: CD/DVD disk, flash card, etc.) into your computer, Windows will pop-up a dialog questioning you on what you want to do with it (such as: play the audio, play the movie, display the pictures, etc.). You can also specify for Windows to never AutoPlay any type of content for this device.

If for some reason the AutoPlay dialog box stops appearing, or you want specify AutoPlay default actions for different types of content. Follow the instructions below:


- Inserting the media into its reader
- Open the Widows Explorer
- Expand 'My Computer', then right-click on the drive letter that represents your removable media, and select Properties
- Click on the Autoplay tab.
- In the dropdown menu, choose the type of content that the removable can contain, and click the "Select an action to perform" radio button.
- Select the default action for this media type.
- Repeat the last two steps for the different types of content, and the action for that content.
- Press the OK button when done.

Note: If the system doesn't remember your settings you may have repeat this task a few times to get it too work.

Using the "Show Updates" Option (Windows XP SP2')

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

Before Windows XP SP2, in the Add or Remove Programs control panel the Microsoft updates that were applied to your system would show in here. This is great if want to see what patches were applied to your system. Although it was annoying if you had to scroll through the list trying to find the program that you wanted to remove, and accidentally removed a system patch or service pack.

In SP2 a new feature prevent the system updates from being displayed in the list by default. So if you want to see the system date you have enable this feature.


- Open the Control Panel folder
- Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel
- At the top of the Add or Remove Programs window, check the "Show updates" checkbox.

You're now able to scroll down and see the system updates intermixed with the other programs.

Manually Opening Ports in Windows Firewall

Sometimes you need to manually open ports in the Windows Firewall to allow programs on your computer to talk to the Internet. Be forewarned that opening up ports in your firewall exposes your computer to the Internet which can make it vulnerable to attack.

    * From the Start menu, open 'My Network Places'.
    * Under Network Tasks, click 'View Network Connections'.
    * Right-click your Internet connection, and select Properties.
    * Click the Advanced tab, and then press the Settings button.

Note: If the Settings button is unavailable, the Windows Firewall is not enabled on this connection, and you do not have to open any ports.

    * Press the Add button to open a new port.
    * In the 'Description of service' field, type a friendly name for the port to help you remember why you open it. For example, type Remote Desktop : Port 3389.
    * In the 'Name or IP address' field, enter the address of the computer hosting this service on your network box. Generally this will be local computer, so type "127.0.0.1". Although, you can specify the IP address of another computer on your local network.
    * In the External port and Internal port boxes, type the port number that you want to open.
    * Select either TCP or UDP, and press the OK button.

Repeat the steps above for each port that you want to open.

Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP

Microsoft offers several PowerToys for Windows XP as a free set add-on to enhance the operating system. Some of these are add-ons are more useful then others, for example Tweak UI allows you to modify certain aspects of the OS. Other add-ons Alt-Tab Replacement, are a little less useful in my opinion.

Note: These tools are unsupported by Microsoft, so if you have any problems you're on your own.

    * ClearType Tuner (New): Allows you to tune the ClearType technology to make it easier to read text on your screen.
    * HTML Slide Show Wizard (Updated): Creates an HTML slide show of your digital pictures, ready for your Web site.
    * Open Command Window Here: Provides a quick way to open a command window.
    * Alt-Tab Replacement: Displays the icon of the application window you are switching to, you will also see a preview of the page. This helps particularly when multiple sessions of an application are open.
    * Tweak UI: Grants you access to system settings that are not available in the Windows XP default user interface....

    * Power Calculator: Graphing calculate that can evaluate functions, perform different types of conversions.
    * Image Resizer: Allows you to resize one or many image files with a right-click.
    * CD Slide Show Generator: View images burned to a CD as a slide show.
    * Virtual Desktop Manager: Manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar.
    * Taskbar Magnifier: Magnify part of the screen from the taskbar.
    * Webcam Timershot: Allows you take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.

Password Protect Your Compressed Folders

In previous versions of the Windows OS, if you needed to create or open a .ZIP file you needed a 3rd party utility such as WinZip. Windows XP has a native ability open or create ZIP files, now known as 'Compressed Folders'.

To create a Compressed Folders, all you have to do is right-click and existing folder, select Send To > Compressed (zipped) Folder. If you need to prevent other people from viewing the contents of the these files, you can password protect the files in the Compress Folder.

Note: Compress Folder and ZIP file, uses a simple data encryption method that will only stop the casual computer user from viewing the file. If you need more security use a more sophisticated application like PGP or GnuPG....


To assign a password to a compressed folder:

    * Open the Windows Explorer, and find the compressed folder you want to password protect.
    * Double-click the compressed folder to open it.
    * From the File menu, select 'Add a Password...'.
    * Type in your password twice and press the OK button.

To remove the password compressed folder, just open it up select 'Remove Password...' from the File menu. Enter your current password, and press the OK button.

How to send a large file to your friendzzz....

Do you ever have the need to send a large file (such as: audio or video) to a friend
or relative, but you can't send it via email because of the attachment size limitation
 imposed by your or receiver's mail service provider. There is an answer to this problem,
YouSendIt.com allows you to send large files (up to 1GB) to someone else. The great
thing about this service is there are no: passwords to share, software to install, accounts
to create, and no full mailboxes.

How it work:...

- Enter the Recipient's email address, to whom you want to sent the file to. You can specify multiple email addresses by separating them with commas.
- Select a file to send. Your file will be stored on YouSendIt's server, without filling up your recipient's mailbox.
- Click the Send button. YouSendIt will automatically email your recipient a link to the file stored on their server.

Note: The file you send will be automatically deleted off of YouSendIt's servers after seven days.

Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

Microsoft is currently offering their Windows AntiSpyware software for free, at least until July 31, 2011 for free. Microsoft acquired the technology from a company called GIANT Company Software, which they bought recently. This company made one of the better Anti-Spyware scanners on the market.

I personally use this software, and I am very impressed with it. It not only finds more spyware, adware, etc. It also has very extensive proactive features, to help prevent you from being infected in the first place.

This software is now part of the everyday arsenal to protect myself while on the Internet.

Surf the Web With Your Peers

Jybe is a free peer-to-peer browser plug-in for Internet Explorer and Firefox that allows you to
surf the Web with your friends, family and business partners in real-time. It allows you to show
off your favorite web sites, shop with your friends, assist your peers with how to use the Web.

This is not new technology, but hopefully will last longer then the other companies that have
offered the same technology in the past. Jybe claims that their software is spyware, and they
also don't collect information about surfing habits.


Check out their privacy policy and FAQ to understand what information they do collect form internet..

Access Your PC Anywhere In the World For Free

WebEx launched MyWebExPC, a free service that allows you to remotely and
securely access your PC from anywhere in the world. The MyWebExPC software
is easy to install and setup.

A Pro version is also available for $9.95 a month that offers more sophisticated features.
.Install the software and enjoy....