PCTips Box

Whenever Windows stumbles across a file type it doesn’t recognise you are will see a message box that says Windows cannot open this file’ and gives you the option to ‘Use the Web Service’, to find the necessary program. I don’t know about you but I can’t recall a single instance where it has worked and it’s usually much quicker just to Google the file name or extension. Well, thanks to the clever folk at ‘howtogeek’ here’s a way to zap that dialogue box and go straight to the Programs list, that you would get if you chose the second option. It works in both XP and Vista and involves editing the Registry, so pay attention, and bear in mind the usual warnings and disclaimers about backing up the Registry first, and not messing with it if you don’t know what you are doing.

Begin by opening the Registry Editor (‘regedit’ in Run on the Start menu) and pop along to: (more…)

We have been receiving mails from several readers that they are not able to login to Windows. As soon as they login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your settings and logs off automatically without logging in. This situation is really very troublesome and gets onto the nerves of a person who needs his computer badly for some important work.

The main reasons behind this problem is a corruption in the registry key which holds the value of the files which are executed while login to windows. This registry key can get either replaced with some incorrect value or it might get corrupt due to some virus / trojan activity. Lets see how to fix this issue.

We need to remotely access the infected computer from another computer on same network. Then we need to correct the registry key for userinit under winlogon. (more…)

The problem of slow or delayed shutdown is very commonly faced by most of the windows XP users. If you are using windows XP for a long time, you are more likely to have such problem.

Why Slow shutdown?

In Windows XP certain registry keys are responsible for determining how long windows will wait before shutting down all the opened programs and services after the shutdown command has been given by the user.

Lets see how we can fix the slow shutdown in windows XP.

You need to optimise some registry keys values in order to speed up the shutdown process. (more…)

One of the things which are never too fast is the computer speed. Everybody complains, there are a lot of programs that promise us help, but in reality, they have a very small influence, if any.
Yet, there are two things you can do in order to get rid of have the sensation of the computer moving a bit faster (I am not sure it gains some speed, but I feel like saving time by not viewing those annoying messages all the time):

1. Deactivate the suggestions given by Windows in the shape of yellow balloons

You already know those messages. You have seen them a hundred times before. They tell you that “Your local area connection is now connected” or other useful, well-known bit of info. To get rid of them, just do the following: (more…)

This guide shows you how to increase Internet Explorer 7’s connection limit from 2 to 16 which increases the speed of many web pages.

What Are Connections?

When you connect to a website your computer establishes connections with the web server(s). One connection might be a graphics server, another connection may be an ad server and so on. Once the connection has received what it asked for it is disconnected and used for something else.

By default IE7 is set to only be able to open 2 or 4 connections at a time. If you have broadband and you use tabs in IE7 or you visit sites that use lots of connections this tweak will increase the speed of IE7 a little. (more…)

Sometimes making your PC ‘run’ faster is just about changing the way programs run e.g disabling splash screens. This tip will make your machine feel faster, by increasing the speed with which menus load, by removing the delay between clicking on a menu and that menu being displayed, which is enforced by XP.

To enable this tweak do the following:

1. Go to the Start Menu and then click on ‘Run’

2. Type in ‘Regedit’ then click on ‘Ok’ (more…)

After windows restart or even after windows explorer quick launch items got arranged in a alphabetically and also resizes to the default.

According to the default settings of windows it does not save the settings when you customize the quick launch items ,it does not save the quick launch items location and its size also.

This issue of quick launch items location changed and resize applies to both windows XP and windows Vista.

But this can be easily resolved by a registry fix.

Follow the procedure given below. (more…)

Are you annoyed by the restart prompt which appears every time you update windows.

In order to configure no auto reboot settings for windows XP Professional and Home your windows must have service pack2 installed.

But the to remove auto reboot for windows XP home and Professional are different.

For Windows XP Professional

1. Open Start >> Run and type gpedit.msc (group policy editor) and press Enter (more…)

Windows Vista’s User Account Control (UAC) is the new operating system’s most universally reviled feature. Sure, it helps protect you, but it also annoys you to no end.

If UAC drives you around the bend, you can turn it off. There are several ways to do it. One way is to choose Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > User Accounts, then click Turn User Account Control on or off.

Alternately, you can run the System Configuration Utility (a.k.a. msconfig) by typing msconfig at the command line or search box. When the tool runs, click the Tools tab and scroll down until you see Disable UAC. Highlight it and click the Launch button, then reboot. To turn it back on again, follow the same steps and choose Enable UAC. (more…)

When a users enters text in the search box on the start panel Windows automatically searches the file index as well. The file index includes all of the searchable files on your hard drive and can be quite large. One way to speed up searching through your start menu applications is to narrow the scope of the search so that it does not include hard drive files.

Prevent Start Menu Searches from searching the File index: (more…)