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Showing posts with label tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tricks. Show all posts
Friday, June 5, 2009
Use the Flashblock and save your time
Flashblock is an extension for the Mozilla, Firefox, and Netscape browsers that takes a pessimistic approach to dealing with Macromedia Flash content on a webpage and blocks ALL Flash content from loading. It then leaves placeholders on the webpage that allow you to click to download and then view the Flash content.
Flashblock currently blocks the following content types:
Flashblock currently blocks the following content types:
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Bing tricks and tips to get the most out of it
Here is the first tricks and tips for Bing which are surfacing from the Internet:
- If live outside the United States there are chances that you are using a kind of limited version of Bing. In fact what you are using it is not the “real Bing” but a localised edition. Visit the worldwide Bing page and, set English - US as your default region and use Bing full version.
- If you check company stocks a lot and, at the same time, you use Internet Explorer 8 as your default browser, you have to know that Bing automatically create Web Slices of the company you are checking. Just add the Web Slice to IE 8 and track whatever happen to the company directly from the favorites bar, without visiting any website.
- If you live outside the U.S you have to know that you can not watch some video avilable on Hulu. As a matter of fact, Hulu checks your IP. If it doesn’t belong to the United States, Hulu will limit the access to certain videos, forbidding you to watch other ones. Bing lets you watch small bites and previews of the such “forbidden” videos. Just search for a certain video on Bing Videos and watch whatever you want.
- Bing lets you save your search history to a local folder inside Bing itself or to your Windows Skydrive account. You can also send your search queries to a friend via email or publish them on your Facebook wall via Bing.
- After a search, just hover the pointer on the right side of each result. After a couple of seconds a new window will appear containing some useful information and links of the website you want to visit.
- If you want to restrict your searches to videos, images, maps etc, just click More link located at the top left-side of your screen. A new window will be loaded containing specific links which will help you refine your search.
- Bing search field is embedded inside a picture. Hover your pointer on the it. Mysterious buttons will appear! They contain links letting you know more about the picture itself.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Boost HDD Performance
Win9x sets DMA to OFF by default. You have to switch it on. In theory, enabling DMA increases UDMA Hard Disk access to 33.3 MB/sec. In practice, speed will increase substantially from the old standard of 16MB/sec. Furthermore, DMA uses only 25% of CPU resources compared to 40% normally. Nearly all 5400rpm/7200rpm, and some lower speed, drives, support DMA.
Now I'll tell you about it. Ready ?
Open control panel and Now search for "device manager" and click properties of your hard drive. It should have an option called "DMA". By enabling this, your hard drive should show an increase in performance. Also, this method can increase the transfer rate of your CD/DVD-ROM or CD/DVD-Writer, possibly eliminating those under buffer run errors.
Again, an easy tweak which could improve you hard drive's performance
Now I'll tell you about it. Ready ?
Open control panel and Now search for "device manager" and click properties of your hard drive. It should have an option called "DMA". By enabling this, your hard drive should show an increase in performance. Also, this method can increase the transfer rate of your CD/DVD-ROM or CD/DVD-Writer, possibly eliminating those under buffer run errors.
Again, an easy tweak which could improve you hard drive's performance
Increase the amount of Virtual Memory Used by XP
Virtual memory is a small portion of hard drive space converted to RAM. This is useful for computers which use more physical RAM than is available. Windows XP allow the user to change the amount of virual memory used. By default, the system determines the amount automatically. It is possible to change this to a set amount. It can be a good idea to do this for better performance. Here are the instructions setp by step, along with suggested settings:
1. Click 'Start'
2. Click 'My Computer'
3. Click 'View System Information' under 'System Tasks' (If you can not see this option then click 'System Tasks' to collapse the menu). This will open the System Properies window. Alternatively, you can go to Control Panel and open 'System'.
4. Click the 'Advanced' tab
5. Click the 'Settings' button under 'Performance'. This opens the Performance Options window.
6. Click the 'Advanced' tab.
7. Click the 'Change' button under 'Virtual Memory'
8. Under 'Paging file size for selected drive' select the 'Custom size:' option.
9. In the box next to where it says 'Intial size (MB)' the best number to enter is 2X the amount of physical memory currently in your system. For example, if you have 512 MB of RAM you would enter 1024 in this box.
10. In the box next to where it says 'Maximum size (MB)' enter the same number.
11. Click 'OK'
12. Click 'Apply' on the previous window
13. Click 'OK'
14. Click 'OK' on the previous window.
1. Click 'Start'
2. Click 'My Computer'
3. Click 'View System Information' under 'System Tasks' (If you can not see this option then click 'System Tasks' to collapse the menu). This will open the System Properies window. Alternatively, you can go to Control Panel and open 'System'.
4. Click the 'Advanced' tab
5. Click the 'Settings' button under 'Performance'. This opens the Performance Options window.
6. Click the 'Advanced' tab.
7. Click the 'Change' button under 'Virtual Memory'
8. Under 'Paging file size for selected drive' select the 'Custom size:' option.
9. In the box next to where it says 'Intial size (MB)' the best number to enter is 2X the amount of physical memory currently in your system. For example, if you have 512 MB of RAM you would enter 1024 in this box.
10. In the box next to where it says 'Maximum size (MB)' enter the same number.
11. Click 'OK'
12. Click 'Apply' on the previous window
13. Click 'OK'
14. Click 'OK' on the previous window.
Disabling Automatic Startup Programs
If you don't want certain programs or applications to run automatically on startup, there's an easy way to disable them.
- Click Start and then Run
- Type msconfig in the Run box
- Click Continue in the User Account Control to continue(In Vista Only)
- Click on the Startup Tab
- Uncheck any boxes in the "Startup Items" that you wish to disable or click the Disable All button (not recommended)
- Click OK
MouseAway: Keep Your Mouse Cursor Out Of The Way
MouseAway is a small application that detects the location of your mouse pointer and keyboard cursor and move the mouse away them if they are too close.
In most situation, when you use the mouse to change the keyboard cursor location, the mouse pointer always end up in the same position as the keyboard cursor and blocks your view. Most of the time, we have to move the mouse away so as to get a better view of the keyboard cursor. What MouseAway does is to check the proximity between the mouse and the keyboard cursor and move the mouse away if it is too near to the cursor. Nothing great, but useful and efficient task.
MouseAway is very small in size (~39kb) and only take up little resources. It runs quietly in the background and does not disrupt you in your work. It has been tested to work fom Windows 95 onward.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Cleanup Files After Upgrading to SP2 in vista
1. Open a elevated command prompt.
2. In the elevated command prompt, type compcln.exe and then press Enter. (See screenshot below)
3. Type Y when you see Would you like to continue? and press Enter.
NOTE: Tying N will cancel running the Vista SP2 disk cleanup tool. You can also just close the command prompt window to cancel to.
4. It will take a little bit to finish. When it is finished, you will see the Windows Component Clean completed message. (See screenshot above)
NOTE: You will see the Windows Component Clean was already run on this install message instead if you already ran this or installes Vista with a Vista installation
disc that included SP2 with it.
5. When it's done, you can close the elevated command prompt.
WARNING
Running the Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Disk Clean-up tool permanently removes the ability to uninstall the Vista SP1 and SP2. Do not run this tool unless you have no plans of uninstalling the Vista SP1 or SP2 and just want to save or regain hard drive space. The only option to remove them after using this tool is to do a clean install of Vista.
2. In the elevated command prompt, type compcln.exe and then press Enter. (See screenshot below)
3. Type Y when you see Would you like to continue? and press Enter.
NOTE: Tying N will cancel running the Vista SP2 disk cleanup tool. You can also just close the command prompt window to cancel to.
4. It will take a little bit to finish. When it is finished, you will see the Windows Component Clean completed message. (See screenshot above)
NOTE: You will see the Windows Component Clean was already run on this install message instead if you already ran this or installes Vista with a Vista installation
disc that included SP2 with it.
5. When it's done, you can close the elevated command prompt.
WARNING
Running the Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Disk Clean-up tool permanently removes the ability to uninstall the Vista SP1 and SP2. Do not run this tool unless you have no plans of uninstalling the Vista SP1 or SP2 and just want to save or regain hard drive space. The only option to remove them after using this tool is to do a clean install of Vista.
Your own Shutdown Shortcut
Do you ever get tired of the repetitive process of shutting down your computer? You know, you have to go to your Start menu and then select Turn Off or Shut Down, whichever your computer has. Then you have to wait for it to actually shut down just to make sure it did it properly. Well, how would you like to bypass all of that and make the process a little easier?
You can do so by creating a shutdown shortcut for your computer. This shortcut will just be like another icon either on your desktop or in your quick launch area. To create one, right click anywhere on your desktop and go to New, Shortcut. A wizard will then pop up and walk you through the steps. In the "Type the location of the item:" box, enter this code: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s
Now, the s stands for shutdown. If you use this option, your computer will give you a brief waiting time before it actually shuts down. You can also choose to force running applications to stop (f) or choose to have no wait time before your PC turns completely off (t xx). So, if you would like to have both of those along with your command, enter this code instead: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00. Your computer will then shut down instantly.
Once you have the one you want, click Next. You can then pick a name for your shortcut. I just named mine "Shut Down," but you can use whatever you want. When done, click Finish and the new icon will appear on your desktop. You can add it to your quick launch area now as well if you want. When you're ready to shut down your computer, double click this new icon and your computer will turn off. Cool, huh?! And the best part is, it's all done with one quick step!
You can do so by creating a shutdown shortcut for your computer. This shortcut will just be like another icon either on your desktop or in your quick launch area. To create one, right click anywhere on your desktop and go to New, Shortcut. A wizard will then pop up and walk you through the steps. In the "Type the location of the item:" box, enter this code: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s
Now, the s stands for shutdown. If you use this option, your computer will give you a brief waiting time before it actually shuts down. You can also choose to force running applications to stop (f) or choose to have no wait time before your PC turns completely off (t xx). So, if you would like to have both of those along with your command, enter this code instead: %windir%\System32\shutdown.exe -s -f -t 00. Your computer will then shut down instantly.
Once you have the one you want, click Next. You can then pick a name for your shortcut. I just named mine "Shut Down," but you can use whatever you want. When done, click Finish and the new icon will appear on your desktop. You can add it to your quick launch area now as well if you want. When you're ready to shut down your computer, double click this new icon and your computer will turn off. Cool, huh?! And the best part is, it's all done with one quick step!
Windows Shortcuts
Windows system key combinations
| F1: Help | |
| • | CTRL+ESC: Open Start menu |
| • | ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs |
| • | ALT+F4: Quit program |
| • | SHIFT+DELETE: Delete item permanently |
Windows program key combinations
| • | CTRL+C: Copy |
| • | CTRL+X: Cut |
| • | CTRL+V: Paste |
| • | CTRL+Z: Undo |
| • | CTRL+B: Bold |
| • | CTRL+U: Underline |
| • | CTRL+I: Italic |
Mouse click/keyboard modifier combinations for shell objects
| • | SHIFT+right click: Displays a shortcut menu containing alternative commands |
| • | SHIFT+double click: Runs the alternate default command (the second item on the menu) |
| • | ALT+double click: Displays properties |
| • | SHIFT+DELETE: Deletes an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin |
General keyboard-only commands
| • | F1: Starts Windows Help |
| • | F10: Activates menu bar options |
| • | SHIFT+F10 Opens a shortcut menu for the selected item (this is the same as right-clicking an object |
| • | CTRL+ESC: Opens the Start menu (use the ARROW keys to select an item) |
| • | CTRL+ESC or ESC: Selects the Start button (press TAB to select the taskbar, or press SHIFT+F10 for a context menu) |
| • | ALT+DOWN ARROW: Opens a drop-down list box |
| • | ALT+TAB: Switch to another running program (hold down the ALT key and then press the TAB key to view the task-switching window) |
| • | SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature |
| • | ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window's System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window) |
| • | ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu (from the MDI child window's System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window) |
| • | CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program |
| • | ALT+underlined letter in menu: Opens the menu |
| • | ALT+F4: Closes the current window |
| • | CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window |
| • | ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window) |
Shell objects and general folder/Windows Explorer shortcuts
For a selected object:| • | F2: Rename object |
| • | F3: Find all files |
| • | CTRL+X: Cut |
| • | CTRL+C: Copy |
| • | CTRL+V: Paste |
| • | SHIFT+DELETE: Delete selection immediately, without moving the item to the Recycle Bin |
| • | ALT+ENTER: Open the properties for the selected object |
To copy a file
Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder.To create a shortcut
Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder.General folder/shortcut control
| • | F4: Selects the Go To A Different Folder box and moves down the entries in the box (if the toolbar is active in Windows Explorer) |
| • | F5: Refreshes the current window. |
| • | F6: Moves among panes in Windows Explorer |
| • | CTRL+G: Opens the Go To Folder tool (in Windows 95 Windows Explorer only) |
| • | CTRL+Z: Undo the last command |
| • | CTRL+A: Select all the items in the current window |
| • | BACKSPACE: Switch to the parent folder |
| • | SHIFT+click+Close button: For folders, close the current folder plus all parent folders |
Windows Explorer tree control
| • | Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection |
| • | Numeric Keypad +: Expands the current selection |
| • | Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection. |
| • | RIGHT ARROW: Expands the current selection if it is not expanded, otherwise goes to the first child |
| • | LEFT ARROW: Collapses the current selection if it is expanded, otherwise goes to the parent |
Properties control
| • | CTRL+TAB/CTRL+SHIFT+TAB: Move through the property tabs |
Accessibility shortcuts
| • | Press SHIFT five times: Toggles StickyKeys on and off |
| • | Press down and hold the right SHIFT key for eight seconds: Toggles FilterKeys on and off |
| • | Press down and hold the NUM LOCK key for five seconds: Toggles ToggleKeys on and off |
| • | Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK: Toggles MouseKeys on and off |
| • | Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN: Toggles high contrast on and off |
Microsoft Natural Keyboard keys
| • | Windows Logo: Start menu |
| • | Windows Logo+R: Run dialog box |
| • | Windows Logo+M: Minimize all |
| • | SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all |
| • | Windows Logo+F1: Help |
| • | Windows Logo+E: Windows Explorer |
| • | Windows Logo+F: Find files or folders |
| • | Windows Logo+D: Minimizes all open windows and displays the desktop |
| • | CTRL+Windows Logo+F: Find computer |
| • | CTRL+Windows Logo+TAB: Moves focus from Start, to the Quick Launch toolbar, to the system tray (use RIGHT ARROW or LEFT ARROW to move focus to items on the Quick Launch toolbar and the system tray) |
| • | Windows Logo+TAB: Cycle through taskbar buttons |
| • | Windows Logo+Break: System Properties dialog box |
| • | Application key: Displays a shortcut menu for the selected item |
Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType software installed
| • | Windows Logo+L: Log off Windows |
| • | Windows Logo+P: Starts Print Manager |
| • | Windows Logo+C: Opens Control Panel |
| • | Windows Logo+V: Starts Clipboard |
| • | Windows Logo+K: Opens Keyboard Properties dialog box |
| • | Windows Logo+I: Opens Mouse Properties dialog box |
| • | Windows Logo+A: Starts Accessibility Options (if installed) |
| • | Windows Logo+SPACEBAR: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys |
| • | Windows Logo+S: Toggles CAPS LOCK on and off |
Dialog box keyboard commands
| • | TAB: Move to the next control in the dialog box |
| • | SHIFT+TAB: Move to the previous control in the dialog box |
| • | SPACEBAR: If the current control is a button, this clicks the button. If the current control is a check box, this toggles the check box. If the current control is an option, this selects the option. |
| • | ENTER: Equivalent to clicking the selected button (the button with the outline) |
| • | ESC: Equivalent to clicking the Cancel button |
| • | ALT+underlined letter in dialog box item: Move to the corresponding item |
APPLIES TO
| • | Windows Server 2008 Datacenter |
| • | Windows Server 2008 Enterprise |
| • | Windows Server 2008 Standard |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86) |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86) |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition for Itanium-based Systems |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard x64 Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition (32-bit x86) |
| • | Microsoft Windows 2000 Server |
| • | Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows 98 Standard Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows 95 |
| • | Windows Vista Business |
| • | Windows Vista Enterprise |
| • | Windows Vista Home Basic |
| • | Windows Vista Home Premium |
| • | Windows Vista Starter |
| • | Windows Vista Ultimate |
| • | Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows XP Professional |
| • | Microsoft Windows XP Starter Edition |
| • | Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition |
Sunday, May 31, 2009
5 Speedy Tips For Faster Browsing In Firefox
If you’ve ever used Firefox you’ll appreciate the fact that it’s incredibly easy to use and intuitive right out of the box. This is perhaps one of the key reasons why it now owns 21.5% of the worldwide browser market share, and Internet Explorer is having its worst month yet.
Frankly speaking, as Internet speeds continue to increase, the loading times of webpages are becoming increasingly less of an issue. The time saved simply by having a better, more user friendly and clear interface outweighs most gains garnered from a browser which simply loads faster.
Here are 5 excellent tips to make browsing even smoother and faster on Firefox.
1. How to save time by automatically loading the next page
Autopager is a Firefox extension which automatically loads up the next page of a series of web pages and displays it at the bottom of the screen, when you scroll to the end of the page.
For example, if you were to load up a Google Search, and you were unhappy with the page one results, you previously had to click on a link to take you to page 2 of the results. With Autopager, all you do is scroll down - saving you the extra click. Google’s page 2 results would now be appended at the bottom of the page 1 results. Keep scrolling downwards and you’d see page 3, 4 and so on.
By default AutoPager works with a ton of sites, including the New York Times, Digg, and, of course, Google. If you want to add your own custom autopaging to unsupported sites, the site wizard feature makes it easy to so. This extension is a true time saver.
2. How to use keyboard shortcuts to get instant results
Firefox comes with a whole range of keyboard shortcuts so you can really speed things up if you’re a power user. Mozilla lots of different shortcuts on their support page, and here are 5 cool keyboard tricks which would come in handy for all Firefox keyboard newbies:
- Back/Forward Navigation: Alt Left Arrow / Alt Right Arrow
- Complete .com Address : Ctrl+Enter (When you’re in the URL bar)
- Zoom In / Out: Ctrl + / Ctrl -
- Bookmark all tabs: Ctrl Shift D
- Undo closed tab: Ctrl Shift T
MakeUseOf now gives away a printable Firefox chet sheet nicely summarizing the “need to know” shortcuts. Apart from Firefox, there are cheat sheets for Gmail, Windows, Mac OS X and several other.
3. How to NOT get bogged down by 404s
Your favorite website down? Rather than visiting it later, or hitting the refresh button incessantly, you can try installing ErrorZilla, a firefox extension which will add Try Again, Google Cache, Coralize, Wayback, Ping, Trace, and Whois buttons, when a website isn’t found or a web server is down.
Think of it as a much more useful 404 error page where rather than just telling you the page doesn’t exist - it allows you to search and visit cached versions of the page.
4. How to load up web pages faster
Fasterfox is an extension which dips under the hood to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
Previously, these were tweaks which you had to manually adjust - but now they work right out of the box once you use this handy extension.
5. How to download files faster
Originally skeptical when I first tried this out, I have been completely blown away by how effective this software is. DownloadThemAll is a free extension which acts as a download manager (meaning you can pause and resume downloads), and download files faster by having them simultaneously download. This is quite possibly my favorite extension out of all five.
So there you have it, 5 speedy tips which will helpfully make your browsing on Firefox an even faster, more powerful experience.
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