Thursday, March 29, 2007

20 Things the Average Person Doesn’t Know About Windows XP

By Unknown Writer
Via Digg
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type ’systeminfo’. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type ’systeminfo > info.txt’. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type ‘gpedit.msc’; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care — some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can make it show everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word ‘hide’ and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be the software and you can now uninstall it.

How to: Hack Gmail?

useful article.

clipped from www.maximumpc.com

How To: Hack Gmail

By Robert Strohmeyer
Tired of stingy ISPs imposing arbitrary email restrictions on you? Yeah, so are we. 1MB attachment limits, 25MB storage limits, and restricted SMTP servers are sooo 1997. For a 21st-Century mail experience, step up to Gmail.

1. Use Gmail as an Online Storage Vault

2. Filter Your Mail with Positive Thinking

3. Take Notice with a Notifier

4. Import Your Old Mail into Gmail

5. Turn Gmail into an MP3 Player

6. Email Impersonator

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Firefox CAN be faster - 4 easy tricks

clipped from www.our-picks.com

Firefox CAN be faster - 4 easy tricks

Now that we all know the hidden pages in Firefox, it’s time to go a bit deeper into tweaking your browser for optimal use. All of the operations will be made in the about:config page, so save your important stuff, open up a new tab, write about:config in the address bar and be prepared. I have gathered four tricks that will improve your Firefox experience, and here they are.

1. Fetch only pages that you click

2. Limit the RAM usage

3. Reducing the RAM usage even more when Firefox gets minimized

4. Make pages load faster

This is just about it, and if you guys have any other tricks for improving the Firefox experience, we’ll be glad to hear them.

Friday, March 9, 2007

Top 10 Firefox Extensions to Improve your Productivity

clipped from www.lifehack.org

Top 10 Firefox Extensions to Improve your Productivity

Firefox is the browser of dreams for many people (myself included). One of the great perks of Firefox is that there are tons of extensions that enhance the functionality of the browser. With over 1500 extensions in existence, there are many that can be used to improve your productivity. The following is my take on the top 10 extensions that will keep you focused, reduce distractions, streamline your daily work flow, and improve your productivity.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Speed up Firefox with these tweaks

clipped from: www.tonyspencer.com

Speed up Firefox with these tweaks

Does Firefox seem way slower than Internet Explorer to you? Well it certainly is out of the box. I’m not sure why they don’t make the following settings default but check these out. They may change your opinion of the browser.

Type “about:config” in your firefox address bar.

Search for the following settings:

1. network.http.pipelining
Set to true
2. network.http.pipelining.firstrequest
Set to true
3. network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Set to 32
4. network.http.proxy.pipelining
Set to true
5. nglayout.initialpaint.delay
Set to 0

Its very likely that you won’t have an entry for network.http.pipelining.firstrequest. Thats ok. Just add one.

Right-click on the preferences list, select ‘New’ then select ‘Boolean’

On the first prompt, type:
network.http.pipelining.firstrequest

On the second prompt, set it to ‘true’

Its also likely that you won’t have an entry for nglayout.initialpaint.delay

Right-click on the preferences list, select ‘New’ then select ‘Integer’

On the first prompt, type:
nglayout.initialpaint.delay

On the second prompt, set it to ‘0′

Enabling the pipelining features allows the browser to make multiple requests to the server at the same time. The “maxrequests” is the maximum number of requests it will send at once. I’ve heard that 8 is the most it will send at once, but setting it higher won’t hurt, just in case. The initialpaint.delay is the length of time (in milliseconds) after the server response before the browser begins to paint the page.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Speed Up Your Windows PC: The basics

clipped from: speed-up-windows-pc.workshops.help.com

To start off, the single most important thing you can do to increase your computer’s speed is to add RAM--random access memory. It’s also the one thing in this course that will cost you money (but it’s worth it).

The challenge, however, is getting the correct memory module for your PC. Just about every computer is different. Some are already equipped with plenty of memory, while others have very little. And there are a lot of different types of memory, so you need to be sure to get the exact right module for your system.

A good reference on this topic can be found at CNET Labs’ guide to buying RAM. This guide explains what RAM is and how to install it. There’s also an online tool called a

Configurator" target="_blank">memory configurator that tells you exactly what kind of memory your computer make and model uses.

Cut the graphics

Here’s how:

Go to Control Panel and choose Display (you may have to click Appearance and Themes first).

On the Themes tab, change your current theme to Windows Classic, which uses fewer resources than the new look does. You can then click the Appearance tab and change that look to suit yourself.

Go into Control Panel and choose System (you may have to click Performance and Maintenance first).

Click the Advanced tab.

In the Performance box, click Settings.

You can now select Adjust for best performance, or you can choose Custom and play around with the settings. The more you uncheck, the less work your computer will have to do.

Browse files faster

So let’s tell Windows not to search for them unless you ask it to. Here’s how:

Open My Computer.

Click the Tools menu.

Choose Folder Options.

Click the View tab.

Uncheck “Automatically search for network folders and printers.”

Click OK.

Howto Create your own Windows Installation CD with all updates & software included

clipped from: www.nliteos.com

nLite

Deployment Tool for Unattended Windows
(Remove components, integrate hotfixes, drivers and themes. Tweaks, patches...)

clipped from: addons.wordpress.com

PC Tips