Over the years I have tried a number of tweaks to speed up the Firefox browser, some of them work quite well, but this has to be the best one yet, and it is really easy. All you have to do is open Firefox’s hidden configuration menu, to do that go to the address bar and type about:config and the settings list opens. Scroll down until you come to Network prefetch-next, and if the entry in the Value column reads Read More»
If you want to use Vista icons without installing Vista Customization Pack, maybe you want to try this method.
1. Download and install IconTweaker. (Don’t worry. It is free. )
2. Then, download Vista icon pack.
3. Extract and double click the icon theme to install it. Read More»
XP automatically updates the date and time stamp with information about the last time you accessed a file. Not only does it mark the file, but it also updates the directory the file is located in as well as any directories above it. If you have a large hard drive with many subdirectories on it, this updating can slow down your system.
To disable the updating, start the Registry Editor by selecting Run from the Start menu, typing regedit in the Open text box, and clicking OK. When the Registry Editor window opens, navigate through the left pane until you get to Read More»
Some usb dsl/cable modems may get disconnected after a little while. A possible reason that could cause this problem is that in windows xp there is an option that allows the computer to turn off a usb device to save power. To disable this option: Read More»
As you know over time the Windows filing system can become disorganised and this will eventually lead to a slow down and a reduction in performance. Defragging the hard drive can restore order but most of us forget to do it regularly and leave it until the system has started to slow down. Here is a way to program Windows to automatically Defrag your drives once a month or every few weeks. Read More»
In Windows, you can create a shortcut to a folder (for example, by right-click and dragging the folder from the Windows Explorer onto the desktop and selecting “create shortcut here”). Then, when you double-click on the shortcut, Explorer opens back up and displays the contents of that folder. There are four default characteristics when this happens:
1. It will open a single pane window (no Explorer bar).
2. It will allow the user to navigate out of the folder (i.e. to the folder’s parent and beyond).
3. The default is for none of the items in a folder to yet be selected.
4. If there is already an open Explorer window displaying that folder, then the operating system will switch to that existing view, as opposed to opening a new one.
All of these behaviors can be customized.
The first step is to convert the shortcut target from implicitly invoking the Explorer to explicitly invoking it. If you examine the properties of a folder shortcut, as described above (right-click and select Properties), you’d see that the Target field is the name of the folder. Read More»
Files that have been protected using EFS are encrypted at the file-system level. The benefit of this is that the files can only be opened by the user with the appropriate private key and certificate. Even if you were to reinstall the operating system, the files would still be inaccessible.
You can encrypt a file using the steps listed below. An important point to remember is that a file can not be both encrypted and compressed. If compression is enabled, it will be disable when encryption is enabled.
1: Double-click on “My Computer”.
2: Select the disk/partition that you want to diagnose and repair.
3: Right click on the disk/partition you selected and click on “Properties”
4: Choose the “Tools” tab.
5: Click the “Check Now” button under “Error Checking Status”.
6: Depending on your type of Windows, choose “Thorough” or “Scan for and Attempt Recovery of Bad Sectors.”
7: Click Start.
Windows XP includes a feature that keeps track of all recent documents you have opened or used. The idea is that you can select Start/Recent Documents History and quickly reopen any document you have recently used. I use many documents each day and never
use the feature myself. In my opinion, I can keep up with what I want to use without Windows XP doing it for me.
The bad thing about Recent Documents History is that Windows XP has to calculate what should be put there each time you boot Windows, which can slow things down. So, if you never use the Recent Documents History, it’s a good idea to disable it. Here’s how: Read More»
