How to Fix a Slow Windows 7 Computer

Most people love using Windows 7. That’s because it’s by far the nicest and the most productive Microsoft operating system to date. But there can still be glitches, errors, and lags. The good thing about Windows 7 is that it has lots of tools to troubleshoot and repair a slow computer. Here is a guide to where to find them and how to use them.

1. Problem Steps Recorder

Problem Steps Recorder is a great solution to get a detailed description of the problem, so that you can either review the report yourself or send it to a tech support team. Basically, this tool records everything happening on the computer that needs troubleshooting. It records all mouse clicks and everything that is pressed on the keyboard, takes screenshots, and then saves the report as a zipped MHTML file. This file can be easily emailed and analyzed. To enable Problem Steps Recorder, click on Start, type PSR and hit Enter. Then click on Start Record. To save a report, just stop recording your computer activity.

2. Troubleshoot problems

If something in Windows 7 starts behaving in a weird way and you have no idea why, go to the Control Panel, locate the “Find and fix problems” (Troubleshooting) option and you’ll be able to access the Windows 7 troubleshooting tools. They are easy-to-use wizards and can fix common problems, clean your system, check your settings, and lots more.

3. Discover bottlenecks

Under normal circumstances, Windows 7 easily outperforms Vista and XP. Nevertheless, your computer can still seem too slow from time to time. Most likely it’s an application or a process that’s slowing you down. Windows 7 makes it really easy to find bottlenecks with the help of Resource Monitor. Just click on Start, type RESMON and hit Enter to launch the tool. When it opens, click on the CPU, Memory, Disk and Network tabs to see which processes are hogging your system and using up your bandwidth. When you find the process that’s holding you back, you’ll be able to try to fix it right from the Resource Monitor. For example, if a process is locked up, right-click on it and select Analyze to see where the problem lies.

4. Repair your computer

If something goes seriously wrong and Windows 7 fails to start, it might be possible to repair your computer without the installation CD. Just boot your PC and press F8 during startup. You should see an option called Repair Your Computer. Select it and press Enter to see the recovery options Windows 7 has to offer.
These Windows 7 tools will help you troubleshoot and fix a slow computer in a quick and easy way. To prevent your computer from slowing down, use maintenance utilities like disk cleanup and defrag to keep your PC in top shape.

Author bio:

Guest post by Liz Cornwell. Liz Cornwell is an experienced writer who currently works for Auslogics Software. Auslogics makes software to speed up and clean up your slow computer.

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The Basics of Lead Management Software

Lead management software is any technology that helps businesses seek out, obtain and manage sales and marketing accounts. Lead management can range from a method used to create new business to the process companies use to direct their customer relationship strategies.

As a faction of the broader customer relationship management industry, the lead management software itself enables businesses to efficiently manage their leads by creating structures for customer inquiries, data organization, and sales processes. With the overall goal of increasing revenue, companies implement lead management software to streamline their sales tactics thereby targeting more likely potential customers.

Lead management goes hand-in-hand with brand development and marketing management as companies that implement software to organize leads have an end goal of targeting more focused customers and generating more sales overall. By monitoring customer relationships, lead management software helps to complete sales in a more efficient manner by establishing practices that provide connectivity between marketing and sales departments.

Lead management software can enhance an organization’s ability to get data from customer interactions. It is all about communication, lead management software can help organizations to better manage customer interactions, amass greater business deals, nurture leads, and more.

These are some of the basic advantages of lead management software:

1. Updates information directly. Lead management software enters data and keeps it up to date frequently so that it does not need to be done manually.


2. Lead management software tracks and analyzes avenues of advertising and marketing. It helps you to figure out what needs improvement and what avenues are being most effective.


3. The software can customize and distribute to sales reps automatically, which can help turn potential sales into actual sales.


4. The software can also be used to ensure uniformity. The software can use uniform methods to keep high standards with follow-ups that can lead to more sales.


5. The software can also track lead information to determine its quality and potential.


6. The software keeps track of history in order to keep up good relationships. It will also inform sales reps of the next step to take in the sales process.


7. The lead management software can save time because it is maintaining lead information. The time usually used for all the things the software does can be used to maximize selling time.


8. The software helps eliminate disorganization and the loss of leads. The oversights that usually allow those things to happen are decreased so it is easier to keep track of leads.

This is a guest post by Madison Hewerdine. Madison is an author who writes about lead management software and has a passion for singing.

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Enable Task Manager disabled by Administrator or Virus in Windows

Enable Task Manager disabled by Administrator or Virus in Windows
Windows Task Manager is used to view details about processes running on your computer. Since it can be used to terminate programs that are misbehaving or are viruses disguised in the form of harmless programs, most spyware and viruses disable it to prevent themselves from being closed through it. Some administrators also disable Task Manager to prevent users from closing important security programs like antiviruses and anti-malwares.


In such situations, running the Task Manager will give the "Task Manager has been disabled by Administrator" error. However, there are some techniques you can use to re-enable task manager and close those harmful programs manually. This article contains few such simple techniques you can use to regain access to Task Managing privileges.

Enable Task Manager from Registry in Windows 7, XP or Vista

Registry Editor is an inbuilt Windows tool that is used to modify registry keys which tell Windows how it should work. A simple registry modification can be used to bypass the Task Manager block. To do so, just follow the steps:-

1. Click on Start. Go to Run. If you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista, go to Search.
2. Type regedit and press Enter. Registry Editor will start. If Registry Editor is also disabled, you will first need to enable registry editing.
3. Through the left hand navigation pane, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\ Current Version\Policies\System.
4. In the work area, double click on "Disable TaskMgr". A window will pop up.
5. Enter its value data as 0 and press OK.
6. Close Registry Editor. If Task Manager is still disabled, restart your computer.

Enable Task Manager from Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc)

Windows Task Manager in Windows 7

Group Policy Editor is a feature in Windows which is used to edit local policy settings. It can also be used to enable Task Manager. To do so, just follow the steps given below:-

1. Open Star Menu. Windows XP users click on Run. Windows 7 and Vista users, click on Search.
2. Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. Group Policy Editor Window will show up.
3. From the navigational pane at the left hand side, go to: User Configuration>Administrative Templates>System>Ctrl+Alt+Del Options.
4. In the work area, double click on "Remove Task Manager" and set its value to Disabled or Not Configured.
5. Restart your Computer or Log Off and Log back On to apply the changes.

Enable Task Manager by Running a CMD Command

Command Prompt can also be used to directly enable Task Manager.

1. Just open Run command by pressing Window Key+R or through clicking on Start Menu and opening Run.
2. Copy the code given below and paste it in the text form of the Run Command.

REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System  /v  DisableTaskMgr  /t REG_DWORD  /d /0 /f

3. Press Enter. A command prompt window will flash for a second and then disappear indicating successful execution. After running the command, you will be able to again use Task Manager. If Task Manager is still not available, restart your computer.

Create a Registry(.reg) file for enabling Task Manager

If you are unfamiliar with manually editing the Registry, you can create a Registry file which will automatically modify the Registry Key to re-enable Task Managing. To create one such file:-

1. Open Notepad or any other text editor.
2. Copy the code given below and paste it as it is in it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Policies\System] “DisableTaskMgr”  =dword:00000000

3. Save the file as Enable Task Manager.reg or *.reg.
4. Open the file by double clicking on it.
5. Registry Editor will ask you for confirmation. In the confirmation Window, click Yes.
6. Task Manager would immediately be accessible. If it is not, restart your computer.

The techniques mentioned in this article work on Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista

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Get Missing Album Art In iTunes Automatically

One of the disadvantages many of us who had MP3 collections before the trend of iTunes and Amazon MP3 is that many of the files lack album art. It’s annoying to browse through CoverFlow and see half your library with pretty pictures and the other half with a generic Icon. Here’s a step-by-step guide to make iTunes search for album art for you.

Find Missing Album Art Automatically in iTunes

1. If you haven’t already download and install iTunes from Apple’s site.

2. During the initial set up iTunes will encourage you to create an account. While you don’t have to make an account to use the application, you do need an account to search for album art. Creating an account is easy, free and only requires an active email address.

3. Wait for the initial set up to finish and import your music library. While this happens, ensure that you are logged in by clicking on the “Store” tab and seeing if it asks you to log in. If so, then you’ll need to enter your email and password. If not, you’re already logged in and can move on to the next step.

4. Once all of your music library has been entered into iTunes, click on the Music tab.

5. On the information directory, at the top of the application, click the tab that says “Advanced”

6. In the “Advanced” dialog box, click “Get Album Art Work”

7. The status bar will change to “Getting Album Artwork”. This may take a while depending on the size of your library.

8. After a little while, the status should change to “Downloading Album Artwork” . This again may take a while depending on your music library.

9. Change your view to “Cover Flow” and you will see all or most of the albums missing art work now have some.

This tutorial will work on devices running Windows and/ or Macintosh.

This is a guest post written by Maria Rainier. Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blogger for First in Education where she’s recently written on securities sales jobs along with a piece on physical therapy degree programs. In her spare time, she enjoys Yoga, traveling, and working with origami.

Also by Maria: Wirelessly Send files to and from your Android Device with Dropbox.

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Notepad Tricks: Cool Notepad tricks for Windows

Notepad, the text editor that comes bundled in Windows is an excellent tool for text editing. But that is not the only thing for which notepad is famous. It is also famous for its tricks and hacks. Here is a roundup of some of the best and coolest tricks that you can try using Notepad.

Matrix Falling Code Effect - Notepad CMD (.BAT) Tricks

Inspired by the movie Matrix, this falling code trick is extremely popular on social networking websites. Copy and paste the code given below in Notepad and save the file as "Matrix.bat" or *.bat.

@echo off
color 02
:tricks
echo %random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%%random%
goto tricks

Matrix Falling Code Effect - Notepad Trick

Upon running the bat file, you will see the "Matrix falling code" effect.

Make Your Keyboard Type (Any) Message Continuously-VBS Trick

This VBS trick can make any of your friend's keyboard type any message continuously. Open Notepad, copy the code given below and save the file as Tricks.vbs or *.vbs.

Set wshShell = wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
do
wscript.sleep 100
wshshell.sendkeys "This is a Virus. You have been infected."
loop

Send this file to your friends as an email attachment to see the fun.

Create a Harmless Funny Virus with Notepad-Continuously eject CD/DVD drives

This VBS trick will create a code which will continuously eject all your connected Optical drives. If you put them back in, it will pop them out again. Copy this code and paste it in Notepad as Virus.vbs or *.vbs.

Set oWMP = CreateObject("WMPlayer.OCX.7")
Set colCDROMs = oWMP.cdromCollection
do
if colCDROMs.Count >= 1 then
For i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count - 1
colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
Next
For i = 0 to colCDROMs.Count - 1
colCDROMs.Item(i).Eject
Next
End If
wscript.sleep 5000
loop

Double click to open this file and you will be impressed by this awesome trick.

Make a Personal Diary(Log) with Notepad (Easter Eggs)

Notepad Diary

You can use this trick to create a personal log with Notepad which will automatically include the current date and time before your note. To do so, open Notepad and type .LOG in capital letters and press Enter. Save the file. Now, every time you open this file, notepad will automatically insert the current time and date before the note. Just enter your note and save the file each time after making an entry.

All these Notepad tricks are totally harmless and would not harm your PC in any way.  To close any of the VBS trick given, open task manager and close the wscript.exe process. These tricks work on Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.



More Cool Notepad Tricks

• Make Your Computer Talk 
• Keyboard Tricks (Windows) : Make a Disco  
• Make your Computer Welcome You
• 3 Cool Notepad Tricks

More about → Notepad Tricks: Cool Notepad tricks for Windows

Cool Keyboard Tricks (Windows) : Make a Disco

Keyboards usually have small LED's which indicate whether different types of locks are activated or not. Here is a trick to use the lights of your keyboard in a more creative manner in Windows.

This trick uses a simple Visual basic script which when activated makes your scroll lock, caps lock and num locks LED's flash in a cool rhythmic way which gives the perception of a live disco on your keyboard.

To make your own live disco, follow the steps given below:-

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy paste the exact code given below:-

Set wshShell =wscript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
do
wscript.sleep 100
wshshell.sendkeys "{CAPSLOCK}"
wshshell.sendkeys "{NUMLOCK}"
wshshell.sendkeys "{SCROLLLOCK}"
loop

3. Save the file as Disco.vbs or "*.vbs".

Double click on the Saved file to see the LED lights on your keyboard go crazy and make your own cool disco.

This trick has been tested on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and found to be working perfectly.

You can disable the keyboard disco by starting Task Manager and ending the wscript.exe process.

More about → Cool Keyboard Tricks (Windows) : Make a Disco

Change Processor Name Permanently

A while ago on Technology Inspired, I published an article on changing your processor name. But recently, Technology Inspired reader Anil Kumar pointed out that the trick only changed the name temporarily.

After a user restarts his computer, the name reverted back to original which is obvious as each time Windows boots, it checks the connected hardware and updates the registry value automatically. So, changing the processor name using the earlier article did not had permanent effect on the processor name.

Thus, the alien processor name you had earlier again reverted back to the boring old one.

Problem: To, make the name change permanent, it was required that the user updates the Processor Name String registry key each time when Windows starts.

Solution: It is very easy to change your processor name permanently by creating a registry key and placing a shortcut to it in the windows start up folder. To do so, just follow the steps given below:-


Steps :-
1.  Open Notepad.
2.  Copy and paste the exact code given below:-

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION\System\CentralProcessor\0]
"ProcessorNameString"="My Processor name 50000MHz"

To change the processor name, edit the part of the code given in blue. Also understand that \0 in the above code should only be present if Windows store your processor name at that location. Please open Registry Editor and navigate to the above mentioned keys to check whether or not to include the \0.

3.  Click on File Menu, click on Save As and select "All Types" in Save as Type option. Save the file as ProcessorNameChange.reg or *.reg.
4.  Create a new shortcut on your desktop. Enter regedit / S "Location of the .reg file" as the location of the item. For example, enter regedit /S "C:\Processor Name.reg" if your registry file is located in the root of C:\ drive.

5.   Copy the created Shortcut file.
6.  Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows XP) or to C:\Users\ User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows 7 and Windows Vista . Also remember that AppData is a hidden folder.)  if C: is your System drive.
7.  Paste the copied file.


This registry file would now execute each time when windows starts and the Processor Name String would be modified each time. So, even upon restarting your computer, you will see that the changed processor name is permanent.

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Epic Browser: The safest, intuitive way to browse the web

"Meet Epic. Your New Best Friend." says the opening lines of the webpage at EpicBrowser.com and I do not totally disagree. Epic Browser is the first browser with the made in India tag and which proudly says that it is made for Indians. Epic has left the top browsers like Google Chrome and the original Mozilla Firefox tasting the dust in terms of security.

Moreover Epic Browser is totally free. Although its focus is on Indian Consumers, users from other countries will also find it useful. Epic Browser is the first product of the Bangalore based software company HiddenReflex.

About HiddenReflex: From the browser's about us Page, " Hidden Reflex is a software product startup founded by Alok Bhardwaj in 2007 and based in Bangalore. Alok, who was raised in the U.S., was inspired by the success of open source software and web 2.0 innovations."

 Features: 

1. Based on rock solid foundation of Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6. What else do you need? A totally customizable version of Firefox and definitely more safe than it. All the features of Mozilla and more.
2. Tweaked for improved speeds. I have personally found the Epic Browser performing better in rendering pages than original Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6. Both browsing and downloading were found to be faster on the same internet connection than Mozilla Firefox.
3. Built In Anti-virus: Epic Browser is the world's first anti-virus browser with integrated Eset Nod32 anti-virus( considered to be among the safest security products) which you can use to scan your whole system after downloading virus definitions of about 25 Mb. Unlike trial versions of anti-viruses, you can use epic anti-virus to kill the viruses it finds.
4. Malicious Website Warnings: Epic warns you whenever you are going to visit a malicious website.
5. Anti Phishing Protection: Epic shows a big bolded domain name so you can never confuse google.com to a scammy googlescam.com.
6. You get latest film songs, live cricket scores, news from leading sources like rediff.com, regional and hindi news, live tv, stock quotes, events, videos and a daily joke in the Epic Sidebar.
7. Epic offers one click private data deletion, one click private browsing, flash cookie deletion and even no browsing records for those worried about Privacy( Mozilla and Opera store what you search on search engines.).
8. Sidebar: The epic sidebar is a gem in its own. It contains links to Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Gmail, Yahoo with live updates to your feeds directly in the browser. So, you can always stay updated to your friends.You can use the sidebar to find jobs, play games, make a to do list, backup your hard drive, start a timer and even download a customized app.
9. What's more? Epic has integrated World Of Trust Search and rating with which you can sort your results and remove less trusted sites.
10. Epic automatically display an option to view cached versions of not found pages from 3 sources. Google, Wayback and Coral.
11. If you don't like the included skin, you can always download a skin anytime. Note: When you start Epic for the first time, it downloads the default skin. So the lag in speed should in no way associated to the browser.
12. You can use Epic to type easily in Indian languages using Epic Indic Text.
13. Epic has an integrated Word Processor with which you can easily create documents. So forget other WordProcessors.

Download Epic Browser: You can download Epic browser from EpicBrowser.com.

Safest undoubtedly it is, Epic is not totally bug-less. The most common problem is that it re-downloads its theme after every few days. Overall , Epic is a feature rich browser with loads of potential. If HiddenReflex works on it well, Epic can easily become the best web browser in the market. 

For more such great freewares, visit our Freewares Section.

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Make your Computer Welcome You

Do you watch movies? Have you always loved the way how Computers in movies welcome their users by calling out their names? I bet that you too would want to know how you can achieve similar results on your PC and have a computer said welcome.

Also: Make your Computer Talk

Then you are at the right place, this article describes exactly how you can make your computer welcome you like this.

With this trick, you can make your Computer welcome you in its computerized voice instead of having a human said Welcome. You can make your Windows based computer say "Welcome to your PC, Username."

Make Windows Greet you with a Custom Voice Message at Startup

To use this trick, follow the instructions given below:-

1. Click on Start. Navigate to All Programs, Accessories and Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the exact code given below.
   

Dim speaks, speech
speaks="Welcome to your PC, Username"
Set speech=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

     3.  Replace Username with your own name.
     4.  Click on File Menu, Save As, select All Types in Save as Type option, and save the file as Welcome.vbs or "*.vbs".
     5.  Copy the saved file.
     6.  Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows XP) or to C:\Users\ User-Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup (in Windows 7 and Windows Vista) if C: is your System drive.
     7.  Paste the file.

 

Now when the next time you start your computer, Windows will welcome you in its own computerized voice.

Note: For best results, it is recommended to change sound scheme to No Sounds.
You can change the sound scheme to No Sounds by following the steps given below:-

1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Then click on Switch to Classic View.
3. Then Click on Sounds and Audio Devices.
4. Then Click on the Sounds Tab.
5. Select No Sounds from the Sound Scheme option.
6. If you wish to save your Previous Sound Scheme, you can save it by clicking Yes in the popup menu.
7. Click on OK.

Try it yourself to see how it works. In my personal opinion, this is an excellent trick. Whenever I start my PC in front of anybody and the PC welcomes me, the fellow is left wondering how brilliant a computer do I have.

More about → Make your Computer Welcome You

A fast way to open PDF files

If you are like most of the computer users who consider that Adobe Reader takes ages to open PDF files, then this article is for you. But before that, let's know a bit about PDF format. Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange.

Adobe offer their own reader, Adobe Reader to access PDF files.

But, it is sad to see that Adobe's own offering Adobe Reader is cluttered with all sorts of plugins which an average user does not even use once. These plugins are the main cause that Adobe Reader has slow loading times and hangs frequently.

So, most users need a quick an easy way to open PDF files and Foxit Reader does the job appropriately. According to the company's website, "Foxit PDF Reader 4.0 is a small, fast, and feature rich PDF viewer for Microsoft Windows, which allows you to open, view, and print any PDF file." In my personal opinion, Foxit PDF Reader is the best free alternative available for Windows which offers a hassle free way to open PDF files.


Download Foxit PDF Reader: You can download the latest version of Foxit PDF Reader from Foxit Software Official Website.

Official Website: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

To download some more great freewares, visit  5 Essential Free Software for Windows PC.

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Notepad Tricks and Tips

With these tricks, you will be able to find out the tricking ability of Microsoft Notepad. But before that, do you know:-

1. The number of the flight that attacked World Trade Centre? 
2. How much control the President of United States has over Microsoft?
3. How worried Microsoft is about their reputation?

Well if you don't, you will know the answers to all these questions after trying these tricks.

Trick/Answer 1

The number of flight that attacked the World Trade Centre was Q33N. You might ask what is the trick in that. We could have searched it on the net in an instant. But this is not the trick. The trick starts now:-

1. Open Notepad.
2. Type in Q33N.
3. Change the font size to 72 by clicking on Format and selecting Font in the Menu Bar.
4. Also select Wingdings as your Font.
5. Click on OK to see the trick.

 Note: Change back to your default font.

Trick/Answer 2

Well the President of United States is undoubtedly one of the most powerful man. No one dares to test it. But now that Bush is no longer the President, .........we would. To test his authority over Microsoft, follow the steps given below:-

1. Open Notepad.
2. Type in "bush hid the facts" without quotes.
3. Save the notepad file as test.txt or *.txt.
4. Reopen the file to know the results.

Trick/Answer 3

Well, most people think reputation is everything and the top brains at Microsoft are no different. To test their reputation building scheme, try the steps given below:-

1. Open Notepad.
2. Type in "this app can break" without quotes.
3. Save the notepad file as test.txt or *.txt.
4. Reopen the saved file to know the results.

Try these notepad tricks yourself to know the results.

On a serious note, none of the flight that attacked World Trade Center had the flight number Q33N. It is just a rumor which became popular due to its peculiar nature. Moreover, did you notice some similarity in trick 2 and 3? Yes, you figured it out correctly, both of the statements have the word length pattern of 4,3,3,5 which seems to cause the bug. It is not that Microsoft is that much 'worried' about their reputation or the U.S. President have absolute control over Microsoft.

Note: The last two tricks work on all versions of Windows but these tricks are computer specific and might or might not work on some systems running later versions of Windows after XP. 

More about → Notepad Tricks and Tips

A different way to browse the web

Web Browsers allow us to browse the web in an easy manner. But, personally I am bored trying to browse the web with the same type of address bar and stuff. If you too are bored with browsing the web in the orthodox manner and wish to browse the web in a new and unique way, then this is a must read article for you.

With this trick, you will be able to browse the web in a totally different way using your own Windows Calculator or MS Paint or Notepad for that matter. To use this trick, follow the steps given below:-

1.  Open any Application in Windows.
2. When the application starts, press F1 key. This will load the Help file for that particular application.
3. Click on the ? sign before the application name. A drop down menu will appear. From the drop down menu, click on Jump to URL.
   
4. A pop up box will appear like one in the second image. In the Jump to this URL field, enter the URL you wish to visit. Be sure to write your URL in the format "http://www.yoururl.com" without the quotes.
5. Now you will see your website being loaded in the Right Hand Side Pane.

 
Try it and show it to other people to impress them with your tech skills. I personally love browsing the web in this manner, It is a bit complicated but still, gives the tech wizard feel.

Note: The Help files use Internet Explorer's core to browse the web. Moreover, sites that you visit will also be visible in Internet Explorer's History.

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Have a Personalized Logon Wallpaper in Windows XP

Have you always wanted to have your image displayed as a log on banner whenever you start your PC? This article explains the exact procedure required to have your own photo or your pet's photo being displayed as one such banner. With this trick, you can have a personalized wallpaper which would appear before your log in screen each time you start your computer.

To use this trick, you need to have a bmp file. If your image is of any other format, you can save it in bmp format using MS Paint or Irfan View(To download Irfan View, visit 5 Essential Freewares for your PC).

Now that you have the bmp file, follow the steps given below.

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type "regedit" in the dialog box without quotes.
4. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop.
5. In the right hand pane, double click on the value Wallpaper.
6. In the Value Data option, enter the full path to your bmp file you created to be your wallpaper. Example: For a file named image.bmp placed in Windows folder, type "C:\WINDOWS\image.bmp" without the quotes.
7. Double click on Wallpaper Style, and change its value to 2 to get a stretched image.
   
   

Close the Registry Editor and Restart the PC to apply the changes.

Once the changes are applied, each time you start your PC , you will see the log on wallpaper. To undo the trick, simply delete the address to your image in Step 5.

P.S: I have my photo as the log on wallpaper.  What is yours?

More about → Have a Personalized Logon Wallpaper in Windows XP

5 Essential free Software for Windows PC

Imagine, you have a new high end PC with Windows installed. You switch on the PC in excitement only to ask yourself the question, what should I do now? Even the most high end hardware is useless without the right software. This article deals with such five essential software for your PC that do not put any dent on your pocket. For convenience purposes, each software is provided according to the category of its usage. So lets begin.

All of the freeware software mentioned support all versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

1.  Browsers: It is fair to say that for majority of PC users, surfing the internet is the only major use for their PC. So, it would have been unfair to begin this list with any other category. Although, windows comes with Internet Explorer, it would not be totally wrong to say that IE 8, the latest addition no more than an average web browser. So an alternative web browser is an absolute necessity. Coming to the point, there are two major contenders for inclusion in this category. So, I was unsure which one to choose. So I decided to include them both. (I have intentionally not numbered the browsers)                             

a.  Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla is not totally wrong to say that the Firefox Web browser is the faster, more secure, and fully customizable way to browse the web. Firefox is one of the most complete browsers available. It is considered to be the first browser to shake the Internet Explorer's dominance.One of the good things about Firefox is that it keeps up with the needs of time. Another cool thing about Firefox is that it has an almost perfect score in Acid 3 test. Firefox wins the race with other browsers in terms of available themes, plugins, and security. Overall, Firefox is a must have browser on your PC.

b.  Google Chrome: When Google does something, it is huge and the same is true for Google Chrome. Everything was looking settled in the browser market when Google all of a sudden came up with their new browser with the unique thought of building it almost from scratch. Google's Chrome is currently the fastest browser on the planet with tremendous java script rendering capabilities. Unlike Firefox, Chrome has a perfect score in Acid 3. Themes and plugins also make Chrome a totally customizable browser. Overall, Chrome is fast, safe and customizable. If you have no problem with Google's products, Chrome is a must have browser on your PC.

2.  Media Player: If we check our hard drives, one thing which most of us will find on them is media. To play that media, we need a media player. So a media player is an absolute necessity for most of the PC users. One can say that Windows comes with Windows Media Player, so why is a another media player needed. To them, I say that though Windows has media player but it does not have the ability to play all the media unless you install the necessary codecs. So there is an essential need for another media player which comes with almost all codecs installed. There is one such media player available. It is VideoLAN's free offering, VLC Media Player.

 VLC  Media Player: VLC Media Player is an open source, multi-platform media player that comes with almost all of the codecs required to play all different types of media on your PC. So you do not have to worry about installing codecs to play your files. Moreover, the best part about VLC media player is that being open source, you can install on almost any operating system. Moreover, VLC media player is portable so you can carry it in your flash drive. All this combined with stability, performance and the ability to change skins and take snapshots from videos make VLC Media Player an absolute essential software.

3.  Image Viewer: Well most of us like to take images, and most of us like to edit them as well. This leads to a large amount of images in different formats. The inbuilt image viewer in Windows is not all that bad but the problem arises when we try to open files of different formats. Imagine this situation, you have a great collection of images which are of different formats. Now you invite your friends to show those images. But you have one problem, Windows Image Viewer is not opening the images as they are of unsupported formats. What do you do? Well you install Irfan View with plugins.

Irfan View: Irfan View is developed by Irfan Skiljan, a student at the University of Vienna in 1996. Irfan View is one of the most popular image viewer worldwide. Irfan View gets downloaded over 1 million times each month. One of the major advantages of Irfan View is that it has a light interface, is fast in opening images and can open virtually every type of image image file possible. It can even open Flash files and also serves as a small media player as it can play movie files and mp3 files as well! And that is not all, Irfan View can be used to do minor image editing as well.
Some of its features are:
Slide show, batch conversion , Acquiring from a TWAIN source, Batch acquire or scan,add text to photos, convert to greyscale, enhance colours and even capture screen shots. Honestly, that is not even 5 % of what Irfan View is capable of. All this at a tremendously small size make Irfan View a must have essential.

Irfan View Plugins can add further functionality to this already great software.

4.  Security: This could well be the most important category of this article. Security of a PC is the most important thing in the cyber world now. There was a time when this was not essential but those were the good old days. Now one cannot even think of browsing the web without having an anti virus or anti spyware installed. Big organizations and corporate companies spend millions for securing their network but you don't have to. There are some free tools which do the job equally well without costing you a penny. (To read a full article on securing your PC, visit How to increase your Cyber Security.)

There were many alternatives to include in this category. So I decided to include the most popular one which is presumably AVG Free Edition.

AVG Free Edition: AVG is a popular antivirus with a slick interface having the ability to detect viruses and spywares. It receives updates frequently and is light on resources. Some of its key features are Automatic Update Functionality, Resident Shield, Email Scanner, free lifetime database updates for home users, Anti Spyware, Anti Virus, AVG toolbar and Search Scan. All these premium features are available free of cost in AVG free for home users making AVG a must have free anti virus/spyware for your PC.

 
5.  Office Suite: An office suite has become an absolute necessity these days. We use it to create text documents,create presentations, making tables, graphs recording data, managing schedules,creating spreadsheets and workbooks. A full fledged Office Suite like Microsoft Office will cost you no less than 500 USD (Rs. 25000). That is too high for any user. So what should one do. Well use the Open Office Suite instead.

Open Office Suite: Open Office Suite is an open source, multi lingual, multi platform project developed by Sun Micro systems. Among all the Office Suites available, Open Office is considered to be the only worthy competitor to Microsoft Office. It is fast, available in many languages, works on all computers, stores all data in an international open standard format, read and write files from other common office packages and the best of all, is free of charge for any purpose(commercial or private).

These freeware will definitely help you to make your PC more usable. Although there are many more free software for Windows that are worthwhile, these 5 are an absolute must for a freeware dominated Windows PC.

More about → 5 Essential free Software for Windows PC

Create a Shortcut to lock your System

Have you ever left your PC in a hurry? Have you ever felt that it is a pain to lock your system and the simple way is too long for you? I would imagine that you have and then, this trick is for you.This trick enables you to create a shortcut to lock your system instead of doing CTRL+ALT+DEL. Thus, providing you a quick and easy way to lock your system whenever you have to leave your PC in a hurry.

To use this trick, follow the instructions given below:-

Steps

1. Right Click on an empty slot on desktop, point to New, click on Shortcut.
2. In the dialog box that pops up, type the following code without quotes in the Type the location of the item.

rundll32 user32.dll,LockWorkStation

     3.  Click on Next and type a name for the shortcut in the Type a name for this 
          Shortcut textbox.
     4.  Click on Finish.

Now you will be able to lock your Computer by double clicking on the created Shortcut. You can also add this shortcut to Quick Launch toolbar to lock your system with one click.

More about → Create a Shortcut to lock your System

Make your Computer Talk

Have you ever wondered how can you make your computer speak whatever you input to it like in the movies. Would it not be fun? If only it was possible! Rejoice, because now it is possible. Well, if you wish to know how to do this, then you have come to the right place. With this trick, you can create a script in Windows which will make your computer speak whatever you input to it.

Also Recommended Reading : Make your Computer Welcome You!

To create one such talk script, follow the steps given below:-

Steps

1. Open Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the exact code given below.

          Dim Message, Speak
          Message=InputBox("Enter text","Speak")
          Set Speak=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
          Speak.Speak Message

    3. Click on File Menu, Save As, select All Types in Save as Type option, and save the file as Speak.vbs or "*.vbs".

    4.  Double click on the saved file, a window will open like the one in the image. Enter some text in enter text column and click OK.

Now your Computer will speak / talk what you typed in Step 4. Try it yourself.

Windows Compatibility: This VBS file can be executed on all versions of Windows including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Personal Experience: I personally showed this trick to many of my friends and they were literally left awestruck. You too can impress your friends by making your PC talk and be the Computer Wiz.

More about → Make your Computer Talk

Change your Processor's Name

Are you bored with your old processor? Do you want a new processor with a breath-stopping name but are not going to upgrade any time soon? No need to worry. You can still have that new processor's name in your computer. Well not only that, you can also have a better one than the one you are supposing to buy. Just follow this trick.

With this trick, you can change the name of your processor to a personalized one like My Processor or something alien like Decacore Processor 50 GHz .  These are just a few examples. It is up to your creativity to change the name of your Processor to anything you like.

To have one such cool processor, just follow this step by step tutorial.

1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type "regedit" without quotes.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HARDWARE/
   
5. From HARDWARE, navigate to DESCRIPTION/System/CentralProcessor/.
6. In the work area, double click on ProcessorNameString, and change its value according to your choice.
7. Click OK

Right Click on Computer icon and select properties.The final outcome would be something like one in the image.


Try it on your PC and show it to your friends to see the fun.

P.S.: Personally, I have recently changed the name of my processor to "iLife Processor 7, Alien Technologies".  Tell me what you changed yours to.

Note: This article changes the processor name temporarily. To permanently change processor name, visit Change Processor Name Permanently.

More about → Change your Processor's Name

Use Keyboard as Mouse [How To]

How to use keyboard as Mouse? Use Laptop Keyboard as Mouse using the Numpad keys of your keyboard to control the mouse pointer if your mouse or touchpad in laptops stops working. Get out of such uneasy situations using a simple trick.

If your mouse is not working and you don't wish to wait till you get a new mouse, you would definitely like to know how you can use your keyboard as your mouse. It is easy to use your mouse as keyboard in Windows using the On Screen Keyboard utility, but it is also possible to do the reverse.

All you need to do is:

Windows XP Users:-

1. Go to Control Panel.
2. Then click on Switch to Classic View.
3. Then Click on Accessibility Options.
4. Then Click on the Mouse Tab.
5. Select Use MouseKeys.
6. Click on OK.
7. Then activate NumberLock (by pressing the NumLk key).
8. You should hear a beep sound.
9. Now you can control the mouse pointer using the arrow keys on the numeric keypad.
   

Windows 7 and Vista Users:

1. Open Ease of Access Center by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Ease of Access, and then clicking Ease of Access Center.
   
2. Click Make the mouse easier to use.
   
3. Under Control the mouse with the keyboard, select the Turn on Mouse Keys check box.
   

You can also increase the acceleration and speed of your mouse movements according to your needs.

You can alternately press the Alt+Shift+Num Lock combination to instantly activate the mouse keys.

For laptops, this will only work if your laptop keyboard has a numeric keypad or alternative keys which you can use with the Number Lock Key or the Function key.

On my laptop, number 6 key of the numeric keypad moves the mouse pointer left, number 4 key moves the mouse pointer right while number 2 key moves it down. Number 8 key moves the mouse pointer up. Number 5 or + keys serve as right click while the number 0 key works as left click.

More about → Use Keyboard as Mouse [How To]

Watch Hidden Star Wars in Windows XP, Vista and 7

Everyone of us has watched Star Wars either on television, computers or in theaters. It is the same movie with aliens fighting each other for galaxies and such stuff. There is nothing new in it. But wait, have you watched an ASCII( American Standard Code for Information Interchange) version of Star Wars and that too in Windows using telnet. A word mostly linked with computer wizards. Well if you have not, then you must do it now!

There is a complete copy of Star Wars done entirely in ASCII characters in the Windows operating system. The only thing required to watch it is an internet connection; speed does not matter.

To watch it on Windows XP,

1. Go to Start, Run.
2. Now type "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes and press Enter.
   

On Windows 7 and Windows Vista

Telenet is turned off by default in latest versions of Windows. So, in order to watch star wars, you must first enable telnet by going to Control Panel › Programs › Turn Windows Feature On or Off and then tick both telnet check boxes. After doing that, follow the steps given below:-

1. Go to Start, Search.
2. Type telnet and press Enter.
3. In the following command prompt window, type "o" without quotes and press enter.
4. Now type "towel.blinkenlights.nl" without the quotes and press Enter.

If you do not need telent anymore, you can turn it off.

A command prompt window like one in the image will open with the movie being played in it. See the movie yourself. Did you enjoy watching this new version of Star Wars. Well, I did and know it for sure that you would have too.

More about → Watch Hidden Star Wars in Windows XP, Vista and 7