Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Old behaviour for Windows Live Messenger
Navigate to C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger\ and set the properties of msnmsgr.exe to Vista compatibility mode. This will place the Messenger icon back in your system tray and remove the 2 annoying tabs on the taskbar.
Windows 7 Explorer
Starting Windows Explorer from "My Computer "
To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it's in the Accessories folder). Then edit the properties and change the target to read:%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
To do this, navigate to Windows Explorer in the Start Menu (it's in the Accessories folder). Then edit the properties and change the target to read:%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe ::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
Monday, October 19, 2009
Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7
Get Quick Launch toolbar back
1. Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
2. In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
3. Turn off the "lock the taskbar" setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that "Show text" and "Show title" are disabled and the view is set to "small icons".
4. Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.
Windows Vista taskbar
1. Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
2. In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
3. Turn off the "lock the taskbar" setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that "Show text" and "Show title" are disabled and the view is set to "small icons".
4. Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.
Windows Vista taskbar
Right-click on the taskbar and choose the properties dialog. Select the "small icons" checkbox and under the "taskbar buttons" setting, choose "combine when taskbar is full".
Monday, October 5, 2009
Speed up web browsing with OpenDNS
When you type in a domain name such as wingeek.com in your browser the computer must resolve the friendly name into an IP address of the server to download the web page and supporting files. Windows uses a DNS (domain name system) server to lookup this information. By default, Windows uses your ISP’s DNS server. Depending on your provider, the performance of their DNS resolving server varies. Some large national providers are known to provide unreliable and slow DNS servers.
The performance of the DNS server you are using is one component that affects the speed of your internet browsing. Since each domain name you type in must be resolved into an IP address, the amount of time that takes will delay the loading of any web page. Some users with overloaded ISP DNS servers can see delays in multiple seconds before web pages start to load.
OpenDNS provides free alternative DNS servers that anyone can use with any internet provider. Unlike many national internet providers, OpenDNS’s DNS servers are very fast and reliable. Using OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP servers will help you speed up your internet browsing by cutting down on the delay between resolving a domain name and getting the IP address so your browser can start loading the web page.
Configuring your computer to use OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP’s is a simple change that works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista:
1. Click on the Start Button and type in ncpa.cpl and hit Enter. In Windows XP Click on the Start Button, click Run and then type in ncpa.cpl
2. Right click on your active network connection that you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties.
3. On the Networking / General tab, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) (version 4 on Windows Vista & 7) and hit Properties.
4. On the properties screen, select Use the following DNS server addresses and then type in 208.67.222.222 in the preferred and 208.67.220.220 in the alternate boxes.
The performance of the DNS server you are using is one component that affects the speed of your internet browsing. Since each domain name you type in must be resolved into an IP address, the amount of time that takes will delay the loading of any web page. Some users with overloaded ISP DNS servers can see delays in multiple seconds before web pages start to load.
OpenDNS provides free alternative DNS servers that anyone can use with any internet provider. Unlike many national internet providers, OpenDNS’s DNS servers are very fast and reliable. Using OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP servers will help you speed up your internet browsing by cutting down on the delay between resolving a domain name and getting the IP address so your browser can start loading the web page.
Configuring your computer to use OpenDNS servers instead of your ISP’s is a simple change that works in both Windows XP and Windows Vista:
1. Click on the Start Button and type in ncpa.cpl and hit Enter. In Windows XP Click on the Start Button, click Run and then type in ncpa.cpl
2. Right click on your active network connection that you use to connect to the Internet and select Properties.
3. On the Networking / General tab, select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) (version 4 on Windows Vista & 7) and hit Properties.
4. On the properties screen, select Use the following DNS server addresses and then type in 208.67.222.222 in the preferred and 208.67.220.220 in the alternate boxes.
5. Hit OK twice and you are finished.
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