PC Magazine has published a collection of 529 computing tips. Many of them are not all that useful but, if you look through the collection, you may find some that are worthwhile. The collection begins at this page.
The Registry is a key part of the Windows operating system. It is also where many interesting and useful system tweaks can be made. However, most average PC users know little about the Registry and regard it as forbidden territory. To a great degree this is because Microsoft has deliberately tried to keep the Registry mysterious and off-limits. Actually, properly informed PC users can benefit from Registry configuring and, in any case, all should know how to back up and restore this central database of system information.
In an effort to make the Registry accessible to average PC users, I have created a Web site that presents the basic facts about the Registry that everyone should know and how to make some useful system tweaks safely. The site is registryonwindows.com
As I have said before, one big advantage for the Firefox browser is all the free extensions that can be added. For example, there are excellent controls for configuring scripting and for blocking obnoxious ads. Internet Explorer has far fewer useful free add-ons but I have been trying one for a few weeks that I am going to keep. It is called IE7Pro and is for Internet Explorer 7. It describes itself this way:
IE7Pro includes Tabbed Browsing Management, Spell Check, Inline Search, Super Drag Drop, Crash Recovery, Proxy Switcher, Mouse Gesture, Tab History Browser, Web Accelerator, User Agent Switcher, Webpage Capturer, AD Blocker, Flash Block, Greasemonkey like User Scripts platform.
Maybe it’s because of my bad eyesight or the fact that I remember using PCs when everything was black and white but I am not generally that interested in changing the appearance of XP with a lot of different themes. In fact, I preferred the “classic” gray look for several years before I finally started using the standard “Luna” theme. All that said, my eye was caught by some new themes posted at the How-to-Geek. These themes are from Microsoft. They are not officially supported but what that means is that Microsoft does not want to be bothered by calls from people who mess up the installation or don’t like the results.
Windows XP comes with a useful utility called Disk Cleanup that helps to keep unnecessary temporary files from accumulating. (I discuss the details of using this utility at this link.) However, systems with NTFS disks often run into a problem with the utility being very slow or hanging for a long time. This is caused by the default setting in Disk Cleanup that checks to see if it should apply file compression to old files. It’s odd that Microsoft has not changed this setting; for one thing file compression is generally not needed on today’s large disks. Even more to the point, the procedure often just makes the system stop responding.
The solution is to edit the Registry as described in this Microsoft article. Open Regedit and delete this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Compress old files
If Registry editing is not your cup of tea, you can use a REG file that can be downloaded here. The file comes with the usual disclaimer that it is provided as is and the user is responsible for any results. Back up the Registry before doing any editing.
The very useful “Send to” feature in the right-click context menu goes back a long way. I have written about it at my beginner’s site and posted here about how to add things to the list of folders and programs accessible from it. “Send to” lives on in Vista but the method for adding to its functions is different. The SendTo folder (written as one word) where modifications are added is now much less accessible. However, it is easily opened by using the Shell command. In the Start Search line of the Start menu, enter “shell:sendto” without the quotation marks. Note that there are no spaces in the command and there is a colon after “shell”. When the SendTo folder opens, you can drop in shortcuts for any new folders or programs you wish to add. If you prefer to use the old Run line, the shell command works there also.
Incidentally, there are some postings on the Web that give incorrect information about how to open the SendTo menu in Vista. There are more security barriers in Vista and the folder is harder to find than it is in XP. The shortcuts for opening it that worked in XP are no longer necessarily applicable. (The “shell” command works in XP as well as Vista but is unnecessary.)
I know that many of you use Firefox or even Internet Explorer 6 but for those who use IE7 here is a site from Microsoft that has some tweaks for the newest version of IE. There are user interface tweaks and others. One that I like speeds up browsing by allowing for more Internet connections. Actually, this is an old tweak that was also used in previous versions of IE. This involves a Registry change so back up first. The REG file that is used is at this link. I also have put up a page with IE7 shortcuts and tips at my Computer Education site.
If you are still using IE6, there are numerous tips listed at this Microsoft MVP site.
Windows has a time synchronization function that is supposed to periodically check your system time with accurate Internet time servers. However, the default time servers don’t work very well, if at all. The default servers listed for Windows XP are time.windows.com and time.nist.gov. It is better to change the servers to something else. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) has a Web page listing the URLs for a number of servers. Pick one that is located in your area and use that instead of the defaults. I am in NJ and I find that time-a.nist.gov and time-b.nist.gov in Maryland work fine but that time.nist.gov in Boulder, Colorado does not work well. I have never had any luck with time.windows.com.
To change your time servers, open Control Panel - Date, Time, and Regional Options. Select “Change the date and time” and click the tab “Internet Time” at the top of the Date and Time Properties dialog box. You can then enter an address for a time server as shown in the figure below. Click “OK’ after entering the URL for a new server.
The procedure for Vista is very similar and is described by Ed Bott.
When you insert removable media, Windows has a function called “AutoPlay” that will automatically try to start some action, depending on the type of file that Windows detects on the disk. There is also an automatic action that is referred to as “AutoRun,” which is governed by a special file named “autorun.inf” that is placed in the root directory of the disk. Sometimes you want to insert a CD or DVD and look over the contents without having the disk play or open some file automatically. To prevent the automatic action, hold down the Shift key when you insert the disk.
If an optical disk is already inserted, double-clicking the disk icon in My Computer will invoke Autoplay or AutoRun instead of allowing you to read the contents. If you wish to check what’s on a disk, right-click the disk icon in My Computer and choose “Explore”.
If you want to permanently disable AutoPlay, the accessory TweakUI can be used. Open TweakUI, expand the entries under “My Computer”, click “AutoPlay”, and then select “Drives”. Uncheck each drive letter for which you want AutoPlay disabled.
If you are an experienced PC user, AutoRun can be permanently disabled by a Registry edit. Open Regedit and navigate to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom. Find the value “AutoRun” and set it to 0. Back up the Registry first before trying any editing. One side effect of this Registry edit is that you may have to refresh the view in My Computer when you insert a new optical disk before Windows recognizes it.
Do you have trouble reading the names of the icons on your desktop or the entries in Windows Explorer? The typeface of both is controlled by the same setting. The default is an 8-point Tahoma font but can be easily configured to suit your own preference. Here are the steps to change the font and/or the type size:
Personally, I like the Tahoma font and I leave that unchanged but bumping up the font size to 10 makes things more readable for my old eyes. However, note that a larger font takes more room and that may affect the arrangement of icon and Windows Explorer items.