Tag: start menu

Speed Windows XP Menus

February 25, 2008 by Jason

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’ Read More»

A Head Start for XP

February 25, 2008 by Jason

If you have been following my Boot Camp series in The Daily Telegraph you may have see the recent three-parter on making XP look and behave like Vista (Poor Man’s Vista, archive on Bootlog and the DT Website) Here’s another utility to add to the mix, called Vista Start Menu Emulator. It does what it says, giving XP a Vista-like Start menu, complete with transparent borders and a Live Search facility. It’s looks and works well, though my only complaint is that I can’t seem to shift it from the default bottom right hand corner of the screen, which looks a bit odd if, like me you prefer to have your Taskbar down the right side of the screen. Read More»

Stick Ubuntu Linux Right in the Heart of Windows

February 21, 2008 by Jason

Microsoft has announced that it will start on a new path, one in which Windows Vista, Vista Service Pack 1, Windows 7 as well as Windows Server 2008, and in fact all current and future versions of the Windows client and server opperating systems will embrace open source solutions. The move comes as the company has geared both its high-volume products and business practices toward interoperability.

In this context, the Redmond company indicated that it would launch the “Open Source Interoperability Initiative to promote and enable more interoperability between commercial and community-based open source technologies and Microsoft products, this initiative will provide resources, facilities and events, including labs, plug fests, technical content and opportunities for ongoing cooperative development,” Microsoft said. Read More»

How to Get Your Computer to Boot Faster

February 14, 2008 by Jason

Step 1:
The biggest problem is that almost every time you install new software, it loads when you boot. I have applications that I rarely use like optical character recognition, and those I turn to several times a day like MS Outlook. By simply loading software only when you need it, you can cut your boot time significantly. To see what is loading now and to pick and choose in Windows XP click on your Start Menu. Go to Run. Type: msconfig. You’ll be presented with tabs. You’re probably operating under Normal Start Up which loads all device drivers and services. Choose Selective Startup instead. Under Selective Startup I’ve checked Process System.INI file, Process Win.INI.file, Load System Services, Load Startup Intems and Use Original Boot.INI. If you are an advanced user and you know what you are doing you can select or deselect these boxes as you choose. If you click everything except Services and then click disable all, followed by OK, you’ll end up booting in Safe Mode. Our goal here is to cut back on the Start Up programs. Click that tab. There you’ll find a long list of applications like ALCMTR and hpsysdrv. I took the time to enter each of them in Google to search for what they did. Sites like processlibrary.com proved useful in determining whether or not I should enable or disable the applications on booting. Right now I’ve only selected about a third of those listed. My machine boots faster and I’ve notice no lack of performance. Read More»

Speed up Aero by Disabling Minimize/Maximize

October 19, 2007 by Jason

Some performance increases have nothing to do with strain on hardware, or amount of processing. Sometimes, things are designed to take longer than they should, though only maybe 1/2 a second, but the end result to the user is a faster machine. This is one of those tweaks. Minimizing and maximizing does an animation. Watch closely. Pretty quick eh? Still, it does slow you down, and, really, what does it add to your experience? I am all about vanity and aesthetics, but this feature has got to go.

Relish in the fact you will be increasing your productivity by 0.2 seconds per minimize/maximize. Read More»

Make your Folders Private

February 01, 2007 by Jason

Open My Computer

Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).

If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.

Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.

Double-click your user folder.

Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.

On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.
Read More»

Windows Vista Finding Your Files

January 28, 2007 by Jason

vista1.Simple Search Use the Start menu Search box to type part of a file is name and see a list of the matching files. Use a similar Search box at the top right of every folder window to search down through subfolders.
2.Advanced Search From the Start menu, choose Search, type what you need to find and Windows Vista will show you all the files matching your criteria.
3.Advanced Search Filters Use + to add filters using keywords, author, title or just about any of the information available in properties.
4.Saved Search – A few clicks of the mouse and you can save a search to revisit later.