PCTips Box

Apart from one or two minor hiccups the Firefox 3 rollout seems to have gone quite smoothly and the general consensus is so far so good. However, there’s always room for improvement and already several of the top tweakers have set about hacking into Firefox 3’s configuration menu, to pep it up, and modify or disable some of the more annoying features.

To open the Config menu go to the address bar and type about:Config.. Read and understand the warning message and click I’ll be careful…

To change a True/False value simply right click on it and select Toggle, for numerical values click Modify. Altered setting appear in bold type, so you can easily go back and reset them if something goes wrong. Here a few tried and tested performance mods to get you started: (more…)

If you’ve been following our site you’re probably already familiar with how the about:config works in Firefox, but since several of these tips utilize the about:config screen I figured it wouldn’t hurt to provide a crash course. So before we dive into the tweaks glance through to make sure you know how to make the adjustments, or just reference this section when you need it.

1. Start Firefox.

2. Type about:config into the address bar and press Enter. When you’re presented with the warning screen click the I’ll be careful, I promise button.

3.You should see a long list of hidden settings that look meaningless and confusingly complicated. (more…)

There are many users who prefer not to enter their username and password at windows login, for the following reasons:

But enabling autologon in windows vista is again a security risk, but may not be a problem if you are not worried about your documents and files being visible to someone else, This small tweak is basically for home users.

But don’t worry about registry editing this time as there is a small freeware called AutoLoggon that does this job like a charm for you (as shown in the image below). (more…)

This one is the best tweak for windows XP I ever found, and it works very well. With this tweak we will force windows to load kernel and drivers in memory.

Here is what you have to do :

1) Open the regedit tool (Start -> Run -> regedit.exe )

2) Use the navigation in the left and go to HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management (more…)

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 (more…)

Windows Vista is without a doubt the most user experience oriented operating system ever to come out of Redmond. Windows Aero, although not as revolutionary and innovative as Microsoft is applauding it to be, is a new design in terms of graphical user interface and a divergent visual perspective in comparison to Vista’s successor, Windows XP, for that matter. And in addition to the graphical UI, Microsoft has also revamped the logon process. Microsoft failed to deliver the same volume of eye candy to the logon visuals as it did to Windows Aero, but in terms of small details, it really hits the spot.

And speaking of small details, there are a couple of visual tweaks delivered by Andreas Verhoeven, that will really serve to pimp up your desktop. In the screenshots included at the bottom you will be able to observe the details added through the deployment of Glass Toasts, Thumbnail Sizer and 3D User Picture. Trust me, it’s the little things that count, and Verhoeven simply took a few basic elements of Vista and tweaked them. (more…)

FireFox when compared to IE has many features which can be turned on and off. Users can play with the tweaks for enhanced user experiences. Here is a short tutorial on how to speed up your internet connection with FireFox. Follow these steps:

1. In FireFox address bar (where you type the website address) type about:config and hit enter.
2. In filter box just below the address type in network.
3. Then scroll down half way untill you see network.http.pipeling. Click on the right column to change the value to True.
4. Now below this row change the value of network.http.pipeling.maxrequests to 10.
5. Then click ok and restart FireFox.
(more…)

It looks like the beta version of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista will be released in the next few weeks to obliging volunteers and manufacturers. It’s not going to be on the same scale as the infamous Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, which included some major security upgrades and replaced large chunks of the operating system, but it is still fairly large, at a little over 45Mb, it covers quite a lot of ground and we are assured, will fix a few niggling problems.

What we know so far is that it will include support for a new file format called ExFAT, which is designed for use with flash memory devices. There will also be support for SD Advanced DMA, for faster file transfer and reduced CPU workload. (more…)

I’ve been catching up on unread items on my feed reader and I probably have skipped this item from ComputerWorld (undoubtedly one of my favorite reads for tech stuff).

I am now a Vista user and I’m still contemplating hard on whether I’d upgrade to XP or just . I’m even using Home Basic and running it on a fairly okay machine. However, I just know that given my notebook’s specs, it’d blow my mind away if I run XP on it. A great many of my friends and acquaintances, however, have not made the jump to Vista at all. Likewise, I wouldn’t have made the jump if this lappie never came with it. (more…)

A fresh installation of Windows with all its updates and tweaks run’s fantastic for most people. Then, we start throwing gunk into the system, including antivirus programs, firewalls, etc. and all the garbage we collect from the slumasphere: the dreggs of the public internet.

It is possible to run a faster, cleaner PC. It’s also possible to keep it that way, even if you’re not a computer genius. Just a few commercial tools and a little planning will make it an easy process - and your PC much more useful for much longer. (more…)